(no subject)

[sythyry]

Ilottat vs Yylhauntra, round 1 [12 Lage 4261]

We were eating at Tamvaus, because Yylhauntra wanted spicy food, and I was fairly confident that Ghirbis Vlaan wouldn't be singing its praises in my ear, literally or metaphorically. Mainly because she wasn't there -- it was just Yylhauntra, Ilottat, and me.

Yylhauntra:"Good to meet you! Sythyry seems quite pleased with you for the moment, and speaks well of you."

On second thought, I don't feel like trying to reconstruct the conversations. They spent a while throwing nice sayings at each other and at me, and I did my best to riposte suitably. I know for a fact I got flustered and mentioned an issue of personal dimensions that I'd really rather not talk about to a cissy or a relative.

I turned out to be wrong about what I told Ilottat, though. Yylhauntra did pretty much eat him alive, next, and me too. I made the mistake of sort of encouraging zir to explain how zie wasn't that worried about my relationship with him, or wasn't going to oppose it at least. Yylhauntra dissected the structure and concerns with traff relationships in great detail, with many examples, and many dire predictions, and many wholly correct points, and a very nice concerned benevolent smile. Oh, and an aura of incomprehensibility spell, so that the people at the next table couldn't make out a single word we said.

Finally, after Ilottat and I had said "It's not like we have any real choice in the matter, and, besides, we love each other" about six hundred and eighty million times each, Yylhauntra let us change the subject. (Well, Ilottat didn't say the last half exactly. He has enough trouble saying it to me when we're alone.)

I am so stupid to even bring it up.

So I tried talking about languages. That worked pretty well, until we got to one of the obscure ones, Telhano-Thirgic I think it is. Which is the one Ilottat picked his name in.

Me:"What does it mean?"

Yylhauntra:"Joyful. A very sweet name for an obviously sweet boy."

Ilottat:"No. That would be Iloneni, with the comitative case. I am using the abessive case, which means the opposite."

Me:"You should change it!"

Ilottat:"No, I shouldn't."

[OOC to my 0-2 readers who care: (1) you weren't around at the time I needed the name to ask questions and check it, and (2) the real komitatiivi ending didn't look sufficiently masculine, and (3) you're still not around to check 'Iloneni'. So I gotta use a random web page. -bb]

Comments

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

So your love's name means... sorrowful? joyless? How... dreary! Why did he choose such a name?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I'd think that was self-explanatory.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Hello Sythyry!

I've been thinking about a few things on your journal, and have a few more comments and a few questions. I think I know why many of the offworlders who replied to you in the past called you male. It seems to be because, (and others may not agree with me in this way), that we see your personality as masculine -- as in, representating many qualities that we find more often in the males of our species. What exactly do you know about how the gender roles and personalities are 'supposed' to be among the prime species? You mentioned some of these for Herethroy, but I'm curious about these for other Primes. How culturally ingrained are these behaviors? Do you think other primes might end up calling, say, zi ri, who only have one sex, masculine or femenine, based on how they act? What about using magic to permanantly change one's gender? I think you might've talked about this before, but has this successfully been done? Has there been a specific spell or ritual developed for it?

Also, based on the grammatical rules for the language you speak, what would more specific sexual orientations be called, if you had to make up an appropriate word for them in your language? For example, how about these:

"One who prefers all prime species as romantic partners equally"

"One for whom which species of prime a romantic partner is holds no particular importance at all"

"One who prefers romantic partners inside their own species, but is open relationships with those inside their own species"

"One who prefers romantic partners with those outside their own species, but not exclusively, and is open to relationships with those inside their own species"

"One who prefers not to have romantic partners at all"

"One who prefers romantic partners outside of prime species (!!)" ---- Would that one be a type of crime? How major of a crime would that be?

"One who prefers romantic partners based on their minds, be they same species, other primes, or other non-prime sentients"

"One who prefers monsters as romantic partners"

Are there words in other major prime languages for these varieties of sexual orientation that you know of? Maybe you could look them up? Perhaps another prime language would be better suited to coming up with words for these options? Do you know of one?

Also, back to the "my world, your world" thing we were talking about earlier, we have figured out certain ways of manipulating air to make our versions of skyships go very fast. If you plan on being an enchanter sometime, and doing Big Enchantments, you might want to hear about this. I'm also saying this because I have heard that certain properties of air that exist on our world do not exist on your world, and I was curious more about what you know on the subject, "how air tends to act, if left to its own, and how moving mechanical objects can interact with air" Now, if you are interested in this, or can direct me to some scholar on your world (who I maybe could speak to with your journal??) who studies these sorts of things? Where could I find the type of scholar who studies how objects interact with each other when non-magical forces are applied to them (like pushing something, or gravity and things like that)? Figuring out which of the 'laws' of physics that we have correspond with those on your world would be fascinating to me, and is something that I would like to pursue. Alas, I can't go to your world and test things myself. *sigh*

Oh, one last thing. I was looking at your recent conversations with Ilottat, and, I was wondering, is there a city-state or area of prime territory that you know of where trans relationships are not culturally frowned-upon? Maybe a place where they are encouraged? In my world, people of similar cultural viewpoints often gather in cities that begin to serve as cultural centers for people with those viewpoints. Surely if you and Ilottat could go to a place that is... liberal about transaffectionate relationships, a place where he could be openly traff with you, it might help lower some of his fears of being known as traff, and some of his insecurities about the subject?

With respect and goodwill,

Gavin

[collie13.livejournal.com]

It seems to be because, (and others may not agree with me in this way), that we see your personality as masculine -- as in, representating [sic] many qualities that we find more often in the males of our species.

Umm... I have to disagree with you on this, sorry. The one trait I see most strongly in Sythyry's personality is age-based, not gender-based -- and frankly, is just my opinion, as I've never actually met Sythyry. Would be cool, though. ;)

If anything I'd guess a lot of folks have referred to Sythyry as male due to mental laziness, i.e. they believe Bard is sexed male so Sythyry must be too; or they incorrectly assume the male is normative for the human/monster species, and therefore must be for Sythyry's world or species too.

Furthermore, I'm not sure I even agree there are qualities in humans/monsters which are more masculine or feminine. They may be moreso according to a particular culture, but I do not believe they are for the species in general.

That being said, I'd like to find out a word for those who choose lovers based on their sparkling personalities and intelligence! ;)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

That being said, I'd like to find out a word for those who choose lovers based on their sparkling personalities and intelligence! ;)

OOC: I've heard "sapiosexual"

[collie13.livejournal.com]

That works! So is sapiosexuality contagious? What a great way to get rid of stupid advertising memes! ;)

[justicezero.livejournal.com]

I do not think of Sythery as male when zie is courting Illotat, as zie is behaving then in a way I associate with young females when doing so; the nagging and fretting is distinctively stereotypically feminine. When zie was courting Seeks-what Strenata, zie's behavior was very much like a male, with a stereotypically masculine absence of nagging and inspection. I am curious how zie would act if zir object of interest were another Zi Ri, and neither male or female.