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Just One Drop
CH 77 – The Man in Who these Marvels Can Do
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It was the day before Shel, and lunch was becoming a more crowded affair.
Since Melondi’s secret had come out, the girls had taken to favoring a mid-sized table that seated twelve – a sensible number. A small affair no more than twenty feet long, the table was well situated, away from the center of the floor and off to one side. That had been useful, as the layout of the cafeteria put the table near the kitchen freezer. There was an awkward chill in that corner of the room which made it unpopular, and without other students about, the table offered relative privacy.
Of course, twelve was ideal, as it conformed to the needs of their class. The girls of the Practical Humanity class had faced more than their share of scrutiny since the term began, and privacy had become a cherished commodity. Whether it was from curious girls wanting to know what the Human was like, to its current, more immediate needs, the isolation of the spot had made the table a welcome retreat.
That said, today it was getting a bit crowded, and with everyone there, an additional three seats had been needed, with girls shoving in from the sides.
Khe’lark’s attachment to Gun’brei… or more accurately, Brei’s attachment to Lark… had started things, of course. There was usually room for one more, certainly if one of the girls was off somewhere else and missing lunch. Since Melondi’s secret had become a shared one, the table had become a place where Mel could, on occasion, talk less circumspectly. While she’d never slipped up otherwise, she could relax and enjoy her friends without being quite so guarded.
Things had been different before, when Brei hadn’t been cleared by Agent Duvari.
Melondi had never resented Brei as an intrusion, but it was a fact of life that she hadn’t noticed before. The ability to talk with her friends, even in the most circumspect way, had replaced her utter secrecy – or worse, the crafted lies about her history. When Brei joined them for lunch, Melondi had to go back into hiding… and Brei’s presence brought with her a visceral feeling of the loss.
When Kzintshki arrived, the twelve and sometimes thirteen turned to thirteen and sometimes fourteen.
The Pesrin girl’s presence was unmistakable. Kzintshkil was… different. It wasn’t only the matter of her being alien – another species entirely, with her own loyalties and agenda. It was more that Kzintshki kept her own counsel, and while Melondi knew how to read people - even people from other races - the Pesrin girl was largely a closed book. It wasn't something she was used to. She was good with reading people, no matter the species. Generally.
…That carrion incident with the Rakiri delegate could have happened to anybody!...
Of course, while it wasn’t always a full table, fourteen was manageable. Today there were fifteen people crowding in for lunch, which was pushing it.
Not that Prindi Ama’dis was unwelcome. The IOTC girl was another friend of Lark’s by way of the campus vblog; thankfully the question of who knew her secret had largely been settled – both by her request, and the actions of her handler, Agent Duvari. Now her friends knew, which was a greater relief than she’d imagined it could be. Professor Warrick knew, and he’d be allowed to tell Professor Pel’avon. He was holding off until they were back from the ‘honeymoon’. It was an odd term for the usual getaway after a wedding, and he’d explained it as something to do with newly wed couples slipping away for a month and drinking a lot of something called mead. Melondi figured she should have a word of quiet thanks to Professor Pel’avon for taking up so much of Professor Warrick’s time… but it would wait until they were back.
Gun’brei had been oddly muted after finding out. While Brei was a baroness’ daughter, Agent Duvari had opted to lay things out to her in private, as ‘she had an abiding interest in the news’. That probably meant several threats behind closed doors, a reading of general order 24, and signing waivers that didn’t mention words like ‘frozen tundra’. They didn’t need to - Duvari tended to make herself clear enough. It was hard to believe the same bubbly music professor could be so frigid as an Agent, but Duvari had no problems with being convincing.
Melondi looked over at Lark and pursed her lips thoughtfully.
…I still need to make things up to her. I don’t know if clearing Brei counts…
That left the IOTC girls, and as she looked up the table at Prindi, it was hard to believe the world she’d crafted here at the Academy had changed so dramatically. As Lark’s friend, Prindi made an easy liaison with the IOTC girls. Even so, it was tight with her here, and if more of them showed up, something would have to give.
She’d planned to tell her friends, someday… After graduation, when she was off on her own, she’d hoped that some of them might still be in reach… and understanding. They’d all be off starting their own lives, working in their House companies, starting careers, or managing the family holdings. Everyone would go their different ways. But her sister Khelandri’s death had changed everything. She could enjoy her friends now, instead of later, wondering if they would still be hers when she revealed herself as a princess.
It was a bright note in a dark situation, and she cherished it for what it was. She had friends. Real friends that had come to know her outside of the Palace, without any agendas… and she had the time – over two more years – before adult life sent them off on their own paths.
…At least, if I live that long…
That was a gloomy thought, and it was hard to hold onto it. She’d only just hung up on a call from Vedeem. Whenever she talked to him, the future didn’t seem so dark. He’d accepted her for who and what she was as a person… and then he’d done it all over again for who and what she was as a Princess.
…Screw Kamaud’re! I want to live!...
“That was Vedeem. He says they’re putting up a sign and closing the restaurant for a week to ‘celebrate the birth of a boy in the family.'Everything’s ready to start the training tomorrow at 9.” She raised her voice over the animated conversations going on. It was lunch, after all, and with all the jockeying of plates and trays and dishes and whatnot, it was a scramble. If any more girls showed up from the IOTC, they’d have to do something… or at least get a round table. No one could reach anything. “Prindi, can you let your cadre know?”
It was bad timing, since the girl just took a bite, but she nodded quickly, chewing frantically.
“Just take it easy…” Mel looked around past the table with an exaggerated glance. “The nod’s all I need, and you’ll like Vedeem… Hands off, though!”
As a young girl, she’d never expected that she’d need to warn anyone away from her boyfriend… when she finally got one, no one would dare. Just now? If all of this felt new to her, it must be like a bucket of icy surf landing on the IOTC girls… and Vedeem was hers!
Prindi finally cleared her throat and nodded again. “Yes, ummm…”
“Melondi,” she offered helpfully. While the IOTC girl had been giving her curious looks now and then, she’d tried her best to hide them. She still looked like she was struggling. “Remember, it’s just Melondi.”
“Yes…” The idea of calling a Princess something informal looked like it was sticking in the girl’s throat, and she took a way out. “I’ll let them know after lunch.”
“Thank you!” Mel called back. It was something Mother had always insisted on and Lady Wicama had taught her well. Good manners were for everyone. It had even seen her through that carrion incident, though she hadn’t even been five at the time…
…Come to think of it, it was Kamaud’re who ‘helped me out’… and was laughing the loudest…
She felt an ugly blush start to rise, but it faded just as quickly. She’d never known her elder sister except as a distant figure, not a part of her life, really. Even without the attempt on her life, It had grown a lot easier in the last few months not to care for Kamaud’re at all.
The table didn’t take much notice. Jax was in an animated conversation with Nestha about business, while the twins were actually giggling about something. Most of the talk had been about class, though Belda was getting a lot of ribbing and good natured pokes from the others. Tonight was the big night, after all. Even Kzintshki was quietly talking to Desi about the weekend. As the outsider, Prindi seemed to be struggling to fit in, though she hid it well.
“I’m glad you could join us, Prindi,” Melondi offered brightly, trying to keep the girl from feeling too isolated. “I know we sort of keep to ourselves; there was a lot of attention after we got into Professor Warrick’s class. It was a little rough after registration, and you wouldn’t believe some of the questions we got after he did the Marriage Fundamentals seminar.”
“That was rough.” Sephir nodded. “I had one girl ask me if he had any boys in his family, and when they’d be coming. That was pretty embarrassing.”
“Embarrassing?” Prindi blinked doubtfully as she reoriented on Sephir. At 6’11, it seemed impossible to miss the girl. Sephir was a star of the Academy diving team with muscles like titanium cables, but she was so polite and unassuming that it often came as a surprise when she spoke up in conversation. She’d been a lot happier since her future in her House had been sorted, though, and at the moment she was grinning cheerfully at the bewildered look on Prindi’s face.
Prindi cocked her head uncertainly. “How was it embarrassing?”
“Oh… It's just… his wife and his daughter were killed when the Imperium arrived on Earth.”
Belda winced, but still looked relieved at no longer being the center of attention; at least she’d finally stopped blushing.
“Professor Pel’avon asked us not to talk about it at first,” said Sephir with a nod. Even if she looked like a recruiting poster for the Marines, she was a caregiver at heart, and had always shied away from talking about what Warrick called ‘the landings.' “Professor Warrick… Well, you can tell it still hurts him.”
“Yeah,” Nestha chipped in. “He’s smart… and a lot tougher than you’d expect. You just can't think of him as a male.”
“Human male.” Desi broke off her conversation with Kzintshki. “There’s a whole lot going on with him that even the rest of you don’t see. He and I talk a lot at the museum.”
“Is it true he adopted both of you?” Prindi asked, looking from Desi to Kzintshki and back, Melondi forgotten for the first time. “We all heard things and there were a lot of questions after the wedding… I mean, like the dancers! Where did they even come fr-“
“Yes, it's true! Both of us!” Desi broke in abruptly, interrupting Prindi’s train of thought, and Mel started breathing again. If word got out about the Tide Pool, it would probably need more than a General Order and a very angry Interior Agent to keep quiet. Desi was nodding frantically as she enthusiastically changed the subject. “We don’t talk about the wedding, but it's true! It became official when Professor Pel’avon married him. They’re my mothers and father, now.”
“Wow, that’s…” Prindi’s brows knitted a bit as she struggled with the whole wedding. Sure, the whole school had seen it, but the response had been more of a collective silence from around the table. Prindi took the hint and offered a smile. “So… What do you talk about, then? I mean, if not the wedding? What about this war sim? The rest of the cadre couldn’t believe it! I hope we weren’t whispering too loud. Most of us were glued to our omni-pads, gossiping on our Discuss channel. Everybody wants to know more… I can't wait to go through these files!”
“We don’t talk about the war sim. We have team meetings, but aside from those, we don’t. There’s a lot of extra credit on the line,” Dihsala said firmly, giving her a solid nod. “None of us know what’s on those files, though we had an exchange professor that… well, I don’t think she understood the material.”
“Careful, Dihsala, you’re in danger of being kind,” Pris muttered, though there wasn’t any heat in it.
Dihsala sniffed, but said nothing.
Pris pressed on, waving her fork-full of pickled jawaa like a baton. “She’s right, though. None of us know what's in the files, and we probably shouldn’t. Professor Warrick uses this method of teaching… It’s sort of like discovering the material a bit at a time and figuring it out as we go.”
“That sounds… really odd.” Prindi was canting her head fully now, and Mel could just imagine what the girl was thinking. It had been an adjustment. The IOTC girl looked back at Desi, “Sorry. It just does.”
“You don’t have to convince me.” Desi nodded sympathetically, wearing an easy smile. “Once you get used to muppets and furbys-”
“Oh! And ALF!” Jax’mi, broke in, laughing.
“And his music, though that’s really good,” offered one of the twins, as the other nodded. “And we get free movies - things that haven't made it here from Earth yet!”
“It’s a lot, but after a while nothing phases you.” Desi grinned infectiously. “Oh! Mel! Do we know if Aku is going to make it to… you know… the event?”
“I’ll have to ask.” Melondi shook herself out of the reverie of listening. “I know the invitation is getting sent. We can find out tomorrow.”
“Oh…Right.” Desi nodded, but looked back at her plate, subdued. No one knew they were going to the Palace tomorrow except Agent Duvari, who was going to escort them, and Desi was still looking pretty shy about the prospect. Still, everybody else had practice at Human Food…
“There was something we’re all kind of curious about, from the sim… I mean, it's not to do with the sim.” Prindi bit her lip, looking around as the table went suddenly quiet. “We all knew about Earth - I mean, he’s Human. Not about his family, but… things. Anyway, some of us were wondering, and now I guess I really am… umm… why doesn’t he hate us like we're some sort of enemy? There are stories, you know?”
“Desi?” One of the twins looked over at her seriously, setting aside whatever they’d been laughing about. Her sister sniffed, a beat behind. “You know him best.”
“Well, obviously he doesn’t. Hate us, I mean. I think he really means it about the Imperium making Humans citizens. Something he said once kind of stuck with me.” Desi grimaced in thought. “He said he didn’t think of the Imperium as his enemy, because the enemy is someone that tells you to hate that which is different from you, because sooner or later that hate comes back to you… and he said the Imperium hasn't done that.”
“We have kind of messed up there,” Jax’mi sighed unhappily. “I mean, all the news I get back from my family on Earth is great! I had the best letter from my Uncle… but my mothers told me stories. Some of the Houses first gifted with business grants on Earth abused them pretty badly. Not a lot, but the ones that did… Well, it wasn’t just one mess. A couple of the Houses got really carried away, and it took a while to sort out.”
“That sounds like a job for the Interior! The Imperium doesn’t tolerate… umm… that is…” Prindi sat a little taller, and her eyes shone with conviction before she stuttered to a halt, blushing as she glanced back to Melondi. “We’re supposed to stop that sort of thing.”
Mel watched as an awkward silence fell around the table, broken only by Kzintshki slicing away bits of her turox with another of her occasional mutters of “Ick”. It wasn't like she could entirely blame them.
The Empire needed the Interior. There were the boisterous and splashy ones, like House Reshay. There were the quietly dutiful ones, like Belda’s House So’sona and the pharmacological company run by Sephir’s House. There were the quietly powerful ones in the background like House Chel’xa… All of them working at what they did best… but sometimes there were incidents. Bad matrons who lost control of their ambitions. The Empire was vast, and when the Houses couldn't police themselves, it was time for the Empress to do it. That's where the Interior came in.
Mother had been working to rein the Interior in, over time… to bring it back to its core mission. She didn’t talk about it very much, but growing up she’d seen it happen. She could still remember the rumblings in court when she named Opimea Potac - an Edixi - to run the Ministry of Justice. People had said things around a six-year-old they didn’t think would be understood - or remembered - even by a six-year-old Princess. As for her cousin Yn’dara and Prince Adam… It had taken time, but Mother had gotten things under control.
…If only she were here now… but she isn't. I have to handle this myself…
That meant she needed the Interior… someday. Right now, she needed these cadets. Glancing down the table, Desi caught her eye and suddenly snorted. “Seriously, Kzintshki!? What is it with ‘ick’ all the time? You were ready to eat my father alive only a month ago. Now you turn your nose up at anything sweet or fatty? When did you turn into a picky eater, for goddess’ sake!”
“You do not understand. Food is plentiful here. That is understood…” The dusky Pesrin set aside her cutlery and eyed Desi coolly. “You have never seen a fat Pesrin.”
“No…” Desi rocked her head to one side, in exasperation. Kzintshki had a way of making statements out of questions. “But I’d never seen a Pesrin at all, until we met you. What's that got to do with it?”
“Shil and its worlds live without scarcity. Pesh does not. You will never will see a fat Pesrin.” Kzintshki replied cooly, blinking at Desi once. Melindi couldn't decide if the Pesrin girl was exasperated or amused without seeing her tail… her asiak. It was hidden under the table, but it seemed like it conveyed a lot of Pesrin body language - or maybe it was just Kzintshki. “Wasting food when it is plentiful is as much of a sin as wasting food when it is scarce.”
“I suppose…” Desi chewed over the idea while the rest of the girls thought it over.
“Besides, I have my figure to consider.”
“Hey, that’s true. I’ve been worried about everything for tonight!” Belda grinned suddenly. “So, are there any cute Pesrin guys around?”
“Perhaps... though I would not impress him if I were slow and fat.”
Mel thought over the reply. The pause was longer than the Pesrin girl usually took to answer, and she wasn't blinking. Sooner or later she’d figure her out. For the moment she watched as Kzintshki picked up her knife and fork, and cut away another bit of turox with particular deliberation. “Ick…”
“So… you girls get free movies, too?” Prindi asked the twins, looking between the pair tentatively, “Stuff that hasn't come out yet? What’s that like?”
“A lot, yes. The Ministry of Relations closed down on a lot of entertainment from Earth. It’s opening back up, but Professor Warrick has a lot of things no one has seen,” offered one of the K’herbhal sisters. Her twin nodded in sync. “Even with things opening up, they’re still screening for, you know…”
“Treason?” Prindi nodded understandingly.
“Porn!” The twins said in unison, giggling. “Not that we mind, though you could ask Belda for all the details. She’s seen Liam with his shirt off!”
“Goddess damn-it!” Belda started turning blue all over again. “It was only almost off! Almost!”
“You know, we could put off movie night until tomorrow. We can bring food back after training in the morning. Take over the room, have a movie marathon and celebrate,” Pris spoke up. “That way Belda can watch, too!”
“Hey, could you?” Belda grinned. “That would be great!”
“Sure… aaaaand that way we get to drag all the juicy details out of you, too!” Pris smiled back serenely. Melondi watched as Belda started blushing again, and muttered as the others laughed. Goddess love her, Bel was such a farmgirl.
“Ummm… what kind of movies?” Prindi asked, brushing her hair back. “Could I come?”
_ _ _
“You know, this is going to sound odd, but I kind of miss driving," Tom said, leaning back in his seat between Miv and Lea.
It was a comfortable way to ride, and the company was the best. Even with an alien landscape speeding by, it was the oddest feeling. Until he’d come to Shil, he’d always been the one doing the driving. Autocabs were quick and efficient, and other than his regular trip out to Human Food, it wasn't like he knew where things were on Shil… but it felt odd.
“You don't have a license.” Miv tousled his hair, looking at him indulgently while Lea curled in tight on the other side. She was happy as a clam they were all together, but she cocked her head, looking at Miv. “It's only a few weeks of study, if you want to get one.”
“Nah. It was just a stray thought. I’m good with being able to pay attention to you two, and it’s nice actually seeing the world go by.” He pulled them both closer, which Miv enjoyed, and made Lea squeak in pleasure. Lea had been a real princess about the lack of attention and she loved sharing with Miv, but with her work out in Creantauri, what could you do? He smiled and leaned in, kissing her lightly on the neck. This weekend would be all about making it up to them both.
Speaking of which, they were just about there…
The drive had given him ample time to cuddle up with Miv and Lea, which had been a lot of fun - but also just the distraction he’d needed. He’d tossed a jacket over the seatback showing the map display, but as the autocab turned into their destination, there was nothing for it…
“Miv, what’s this?” Lea was the first to notice, and she stared out the window as the cab turned in. Jets of brightly lit water began fountaining up on either side of the cab as it made its way up the long drive, the highway quickly out of sight.
Miv’eire pulled his coat off the seat to peer at the map and frowned in consternation as she looked at the display, “This is all wrong.”
“Actually, no, it isn't.” Tom grinned, pulling her back. “We’re exactly where we need to be.”
“But Tom, this isn’t our hotel!” Miv stared at him blankly, “Oh, love, you must have put the directions in wrong.”
“I canceled us there. Ladies, remember when you were going to take me on a holiday for a weekend? The one we missed thanks to my unscheduled trip to the hospital?” He grinned, enjoying their confusion. Lea was still looking out the window as the view turned from ‘impressive’ to ‘luxurious’ and was quickly heading for ‘‘opulent’. “When I was in recovery, I asked Prince Adam for three favors. Pushing through Desi’s adoption was one… looking into Olea was another… and a weekend somewhere nice to make it up to you both was number three.”
Tom drew Miv back into the seat beside him and slipped his arm back around Lea as she pressed to the window, the drive opening out on the broad vista and the hotel beyond. “Ladies, welcome to the Imperial Ocean Reserve.”
_ _ _
Following at a covert distance, and it had still been an easy drive. With an hour or two left to go, Sgt. Jel’ke had done the driving, leaving Captain Ce’lani to do the sensible thing and get some sleep. Honestly, it was kind of a relief. The Captain had been keyed up over Warrick, and after finally getting out of the bunker it was nice not to make small talk.
Thank the goddess the woman was sensible, but even so, she still had it bad…
…At least I haven’t had to make small talk along the… waitaminute…
Jel’ke frowned as the autocab turned in off the highway and pulled slowly on to the median. There was no doubt about it, the cab had diverted off the drive and was heading out of sight into…
…Well, fuck me…
Being a Deathshead Commando meant being down in the blood and the mud, deployed to some of the worst situations known to woman… but, every so often, it also put you in the way of protecting the great and the powerful.
Jel’ke knew Big Money when she saw it.
“Captain? You need to wake up.” Jel’ke pulled to a stop on the shoulder of the road, “I think we have a problem.”
_ _ _
It was early afternoon when Aku closed the file on his omni-pad.
The end of his tour had passed. He’d survived… at least on the outside. It wouldn't do to look anything less than your best, after all.
On the inside was another matter. His mistress, the Cliffsinger Tranja, had torn apart his every performance from the time he stepped on stage until the final note. Nothing was right. Nothing was good enough. While she hadn’t said he was an embarrassment as an initiate, she hadn’t needed to. The words had hung in the air - tangible, if unspoken.
This was his life.
Sitting in the dark of the enclave’s library, he thought about the tour. It had been an abject misery. If not for Kas’lin and Ka’mara, he’d probably have lost his mind under the pressure.
…If only things were different. I could be a regular guy. Maybe I could have met them instead, or someone like them! Started a family and lived a normal life…
His eyes crept back to his omni-pad. As miserable as he was at that moment, he knew he was telling himself a lie. Even if it had all been different, there was still the music. It burned inside, begging to be let out, and he yearned to make it happen. Even though his mistress seemed determined to sink his hopes into the Deeps, there was still the music. It could not be denied.
He’d kept away from the other initiates after returning to the enclave. They were his competition. He couldn’t see them as anything else, now… but inside it felt like a losing battle. Only one of them would inherit their mistress’ position and title, and it didn't seem likely that it would be him.
In desperation, he’d turned to the archives.
Cliffsinging was old. It was respected. Revered. Generations upon generations of Singers had practiced their art, handing down their names. Over time, the art had become codified… the Singers had become living treasures… but the original works survived. Every generation had added something of their own.
He’d delved deep into the stacks, diving through the recordings, searching the early works. There were files and archives and even printed records… He’d torn through all of them, not knowing what he was looking for until he’d found it.
The song was old - ancient, even - and written by one of the Singers whose name had not become selected as the final Twelve of Shil. The music was haunting, and it burned with a vibrancy that he didn't see in the more modern works - the kind of thing so often in demand now. There was almost no music - the singer's voice rang out alone, echoing off the cliffs accompanied only by a single steel arecha… but the song spoke to him.
The language was stilted with age, but as he’d translated it into more modern terms, it felt comfortable… it had the yearning that he felt inside, and which almost seemed Human in its power as he transcribed and updated it for his presentation.
It was traditional. It was very traditional. If he was going to reclaim his Mistress’ approval, this was what he needed.
He’d give his performance tonight, in front of his Mistress and the others. Show them he was good enough. Show her that he was better than the rest.
The music called and he had to answer.
Aku sighed again, wondering what the twins were doing at school right now. It had to be better than here.
_ _ _
“You are being such a bitch!” Kas’lin said hotly, scowling over the table at Dihsala. Ka’mara scowled over at the girl before joining in. “She’s right. There’s no call for this kind of behavior!”
“You two brought it on yourselves!” Dihsala crossed her arms defiantly, while Desi slumped the chair, resting her head on one fist, and steadfastly refused to join in.
“What are you talking about!? You’re twisting our arms… and… AND! you’re sucking up to Jax’mi!” Kas’lin was on her feet now, pointing at Dihsala, and Kas’lin rose in defense. There wasn't much more she could add to that.
“I don’t suck up to anyone!” Dihsala snapped coldly, though Jaxmi sat back, preening. It was the first happy look on the Chel’xa girl's face, as she’d been left desperately trying to keep the Japanese out of some city called Mecca. “You two brought it on yourselves, sucking up to England with that marriage proposal. You didn't want to join in, so this is what you get for coming late!”
“There’s nothing to get.” Kas’lin swept a hand up at the map on the screen. “They’ve completely swept everything out of Africa!”
“Well, that’s what you get for joining late. Anything you want to take, you can take out of France,” Dihsala said with finality. “Isn't that right, Lark?”
Khe’lark was looking at her omni-pad unhappily, saying nothing. Dihsala turned to look at her this time. “Lark?”
“It’s fine… Really…” Lark said unhappily.
“What?” Dihsala started to frown, and Desi sat up taking notice. “What’s ‘fine’?”
“Well, I didn't want to tell you this… but I think the Czechs are going to declare independence and revolt…”
Kas’lin closed her eyes and settled back in her chair.
The casualties for everyone along the French front lines had been catastrophic, the Spanish were useless, and now things were going to the Deeps with Austria…
…The things I do for extra credit…
_ _ _
“Well, I think the points we spent working on the Czechs and the Slovenes are paying off handsomely,” Let’zi said confidently, though the look around the table wasn’t encouraging.
“At least something is.” Pris grimaced, gesturing up at the map. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think France can last much longer.”
“She’s right. Rotating units up from the South kept the Germans out of Paris,” Sephir sighed gloomily. “But morale was shot with the units we rotated back South. We hoped they’d recover, but with Spain and Italy attacking? Unless we catch a break, I think our whole army will mutiny soon.”
“They can’t keep it up. They’ve lost all their colonies, now they have to fight in every direction at once.” Let’zi shook her head and tried sounding confident, though it was dimmed. “They can't do it. No one could!”
“She’s right, and England is mobilized now.” Melondi studied the map carefully, “Japan is all over the Ottomans in the South. Russia is… well… holding their own…”
“I’m doing the best I can…” Nestha huffed, crossing her arms. “Though yeah, the Ottomans are turning around and sending troops back South.”
“That’s right,” Melondi said brightly. “Besides, now we have Belda on our side!”
The girls looked over at Belda… who was staring off into space in a world of her own.
“Look, let’s call it a day. Bel has to go get dressed.” Mel grinned as Belda looked up, utterly lost. “She’s got a big evening.”
_ _ _
“Lieutenant, you aren't going to believe this…”
Lt. Peheli Tala looked over from the control board warily to where Sgt Diani was sitting in the right seat at observation. The bunker pods were all jumbled up with Captain Ton’is and Sgt. Jel’ke out on their trip, leaving Tala to fill in. It was a nice change of pace from running checks in the service corridors and updating the gear in the bunker.
Diani had been running the boards while telling long war stories to Sgt Vaeko, who was busily running the odds on that morning’s ‘wargame’ while monitoring the girls’ strategy sessions.
Words like that out of nowhere were not what she’d wanted to hear.
Diani and Vaeko had been keeping up a constant stream of conversation, both talking and only mostly listening to the other. It was enough to make her miss the quiet of the tunnels, and she’d started to tune out the idle chatter. Diani’s words snapped her back to reality in an instant, her heart pounding.
“Report Sgt!” Tala snapped the words out, but she was already pulling up the campus map on the main board, checking frantically for any sitreps from the ground team. No alarms had gone off yet, but it was probably only seconds away.
…Where's the alarm? Why hasn't anyone punched the alarm!? I’ll have to call Agent Duvari, and…
“It’s Captain Ton’is and Jel’ke.” Diani had a cheesy grin plastered over her wide features. “They need us to make some calls and get em a hotel room… You aren’t gonna believe where.”
Tala could feel her heart thudding in her chest. No alarms had gone off. There was no intrusion along the perimeter…
“A… a what?”
_ _ _
The Imperial Ocean Reserve was everything that Tom could have hoped for. It was old by Shil’vati standards, but that didn't mean tired. It meant historic, and walking into the lobby conjured up images only found in history books. The Reserve was a place where parasols graced the lawns in Summer and moonlight walks on the open beach were the norm. On Earth, it was the sort of place you could envision steamer trunks and top hats.
There were three restaurants along the veranda, and a bar, shops, and sumptuous indoor pool that served guests all year long. The hotel was vast. Not in the sense of catering to all comers, but spacious. It occupied its grounds like a crowning jewel.
As for their room?
It had a luxurious bed he could get lost in, more than capable of sleeping six Shil’vati. While he usually wasn’t big on the details, even he noticed the richly embroidered linens, what seemed like down pillows, the plush towels in the marble bathroom, well-stocked bar, and an in-room omni-pad to call for room service and requests.
That the whole suite lay beneath the ocean, with a glass roof and walls looking out from their bedroom at the surrounding coral reef, didn’t hurt either.
It was quite a place, but as the girls got started with the unpacking, he slipped out. It had always been his habit to poke around, and finding the best place for dinner reservations seemed like a good idea. A few minutes scouting out the restaurants would save time later…
At least, that had been the idea. The verandah surrounding the hotel proper had a lovely view directly off the beach, and as anyone would expect, it drew admiring guests… One of which happened to be Lady Vonde, the Duchess of House Jo’lare.
Tom hadn't seen the woman since Pre-term, when she’d attached herself to him in the tour, insistently tried to get him to ‘come for a visit,' and pinched his ass while showing her daughter around the campus. She’d been noteworthy in managing to do it more discreetly than most, but still…
Just at the moment Lady Vonde was in a shouting match against someone named Duchess Pyanfar, who’d swarmed down on him only a minute before Vonde. Pyanfar had started in on him with her retinue, breathlessly cooing about how charmed she was to meet him and wanting to hear all the details about Human marriages, and of course, she’d seen the captivating video on the news. It was just sooo rustic, positively enthralling, going native like that!
But Vonde spotted him and wasn’t having any of it, loudly insisting that he’d agreed to visit, and did Pyanfar know who she was!? Then her retinue started pushing Vonde’s retinue, while a crowd started to gather around the scene…
Tom was the only non-Shil in the room, and being 6’2 and pink, it wasn't easy to make himself invisible. He still did his best, though it was more a testament to the crowd of angry retainers around Vonde and Pyanfar that he got as far as the door of the bar. He kept his eyes behind him on the crowd as he made a break for it, barging first into a glass followed by a massive pair of breasts…
“Oh! Geeze…” Tom stepped back, “I’m terribly sorry Miss…”
A meaty hand clamped down on his arm painfully, and Tom looked up into the ruddy face of Tirola Reshay, Nestha’s kho-mother.
Disheveled and stinking of alcohol,Tirola wasn't in good shape. She’d emerged from the bar with her own crowd of hangers-on, including a Shil’vati guy hanging on her arm, and while she’d somehow managed to hang on to her glass, the collision had drenched her top in Blue Grail. Her eyes widened as she looked down at him and she growled, “You!!!”
…Alright, she isn’t in a good mood, though the last time I saw her she’d been unconscious in a pool of her own vomit…
Tirola made the mistake of clamping down harder, and Tom cried out in pained surprise. “Hey, get your damn hand off me!”
“Oh, you’re coming with me." Tirola tugged him closer…
Tom’s fingers spread and he jabbed. The strike was clumsy and he was off balance, but as eye-pokes went, it did the job.
Tirola let go of him and bellowed, her hand flying to one eye. The skinny guy thrown off her arm shrieked in bantam fury as he was thrown to the ground.
Then things got a little crazy.
_ _ _
Sgt. Jel’ke knew Big Money. She also knew when Big Money was fobbing her off. Thus far, they’d made it to the lobby and the reservation staff.
The ‘request’ had come down through official channels, but the Manager wasn't happy about it. Despite some ever-so-polite words, it seemed another call eventually came through and did the trick. The Manager accepted their story, and started offering over a room key with only a trace of disdain…
Out in the lobby, there was a scream.
It was followed a minute later by the sight of Tom Warrick pelting up the hall at a dead run and ducking into one of the gift shops, pursued by several mobs of women caught up in fighting each other as much as chasing after him.
“Captain, I-”
It was no use. Ce’lani Ton’is had already charged, and was racing across the lobby in hot pursuit. Glancing down at their meager baggage, she had the presence of mind to snatch the key from the Manager’s hand before she could take it back.
Somewhere up the hall Ce’lani bellowed.
Moments later a thunderous crash rumbled from somewhere up the hall. It was followed by the sound of delicate things breaking, considerably more shouting, and a soft cloud of plaster dust that gently wafted around the corner.
Jel’ke turned to the wide-eyed receptionist behind the counter and gave him a rakish smile. “So, what time is dinner?”

I've taken a two year gap and I'm planning to attend law school this fall. Since then, I've been working at a pretty notable non-profit organization and my resume overall is quite strong. I took the LSAT four times since Summer 2020. (I'm a god awful test taker.) I've applied to variety of schools so far and no positive results yet. (The schools I have heard back from were definitely reaches, but did it to at least say I tried.) I'm really starting to worry about my prospects. I haven't financially been able to dedicate as much time/resources as I've needed before a test to get the score I think I deserve. I'm so tired of taking this test, it's not even funny.
My thoughts are, considering I wouldn't be able to move out of state by this Fall like I want to, to go to a lower ranked school at home and transfer after my first year.
​
This entire process has been frustrating and stressful to say the least, but I do really want to become a lawyer and I would appreciate actual advice that is something other than 'give up and find another career'. I could care less about big corporate law and I have a primary interest in humanitarian law (domestic and international).

It is inevitable to ask ourselves daily if we are in the right place. Although I am one of those who thinks that I am where I should be and I am fine; surely the universe has me here for a reason. Nothing is coincidence, everything happens because I expected it from my thoughts, with my actions and I ratified it with my words; Although you may not believe it at first glance.
Everything starts in my thoughts, with strength, with fear, with emotion, with sadness, with anger; but there it starts. Nobody puts thoughts in my head, I am responsible for it. I have had to start with this dialogue between me and myself, to feel more comfortable answering a question that apparently we should be clear about. But when you look around you, when you fix your being on those plans, you say, I must think carefully and reflect to respond to @damarysvibra she presents us in the initiative of this week, what she has called:
The question that moves
✨🚀✨ Find out more about my story on my Hive Blog 👇
https://peakd.com/hive-131951/@graciadegenios/iniciativa-donde-estoy-y-donde-quiero-estar-un-dialogo-a-tiempo-where-am-i-and-where-do-i-want-to-be-a-dialogue-in-time

Wellness #Question #Ecency #Hive

Version en Español
Es inevitable preguntarnos diariamente si estamos en el lugar indicado. Aunque yo soy de las que piensa, que estoy donde debo estar y estoy bien; seguramente el universo me tiene aquí por algún motivo. Nada es casualidad, todo ocurre porque así lo esperaba desde mis pensamientos, con mis acciones y lo ratifiqué con mis palabras; aunque no lo crea a primera vista.
Todo empieza en mis pensamientos, con fuerza, con miedo, con emoción, con tristeza, con rabia; pero allí empieza. Nadie introduce pensamientos en mi cabeza, soy responsable de ello. He tenido que partir con este diálogo entre mi ser y yo, para sentirme más cómoda respondiendo una pregunta que aparentemente deberíamos tener clara. Pero cuando miras a tu alrededor, cuando fijas tu ser en esos planes, dices, debo pensar bien y reflexionar para responderle a @damarysvibra ella nos presenta en la iniciativa de esta semana, lo que ha llamado:
La pregunta que mueve
✨🚀✨ Descubre más de mi historia en mi Blog de Hive 👇
https://peakd.com/hive-131951/@graciadegenios/iniciativa-donde-estoy-y-donde-quiero-estar-un-dialogo-a-tiempo-where-am-i-and-where-do-i-want-to-be-a-dialogue-in-time

Throwaway account, but I don't care if people I know find out it's me.
I live in Western Europe, was born to Western European mother and Middle Eastern father (I won't reveal specific countries), but I am "white passing" according to most people.
For both sides of the family, I was the first mixed race child, and as a result I never felt like I fit in with either side. I even feel like an imposter even calling myself mixed race. By my dads side, I would always be picked on for my light hair, light brown eyes, fair skin, being called a ghost and blondie etc. and also not being able to speak the language, they would always talk about me and make fun of me in the language without me being able to understand. For my moms side they were racist and islamophobic and would talk to me, a child, about these things freely, also being racist about my dads side of the family and if I called myself my Middle Eastern ethnicity, they would say I'm not Middle Eastern, I'm just Western European with a Middle Eastern dad. So now my whole life I feel wrong for calling myself Middle Eastern.
I grew up in a predominantly white town. In primary school, kids would make islamophobic remarks to me about our (brown) Muslim classmates without knowing I'm a Muslim. I would always stick up for them but they would never do the same for me. In high school it's like I was Western European when people wanted to minimise my struggles, and Middle Eastern if they want to be racist about me behind my back.
Now in University there are a lot more international students, including from my dads country, and honestly I just feel more isolated. For example I went to a food stand organised by people from my dads country and asked if they still had a certain dish, because I saw it on one of the flyers, and one of the people responded "Wow! How do you know what that is?" I haven't felt so humiliated and sad in a long time. This is also something that has happened multiple times at different places. Every time, I respond "Because I'm [ethnicity/nationality]."
I hate it when I tell people where I'm from and they respond either "Wow really??" or "Ohh I can see it now!". I hate when people ask me where I'm from and I have to ask "Here in [country where I live] or in general?", because I have had people ask me "But where are you really from??/But where are your parents from??" and I don't want to accidentally give the wrong answer. I do have an "ethnic" name but people don't really ask about it or just assume it's Eastern European. I don't even want to get into the stereotypes of having a WE mother and ME dad, coming from both sides.
The only "relief", for lack of a better word, I've ever had was a Northern African girl tell me she forgets I'm mixed sometimes, because she just sees me as Middle Eastern. I honestly feel like I'll never fit in anywhere. I hate being like this and I actually feel like my life would be better if I wasn't mixed.

2023 Kickoff Countdown – Chicago Red Stars
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Head Coach: Chirs Petrucelli (2nd year)
Hired midway through preseason, he coached fairly conservatively…maintaining tactics through the season no matter the opponent or player availability. He’s shouty from the sidelines, but more in a positive soccer dork way than a “I will ruin your life” way like with Dames.
General Manager: Michelle Lomnicki (1st year)
Captain: Alyssa Naeher
NO TOUCHING.
Stadium: SeatGeek Stadium, Bridgetown, IL
Capacity of 20,000. Though sits roughly 12 miles from downtown Chicago, it might as well be 40 million miles away. In an odd piece of trivia, SeatGeek Stadium does not use SeatGeek as it’s ticket provider.
Ownership: Arnim Whistler
Despite being probably the single most important figure keeping domestic women’s soccer alive through the late WPS/early NWSL era, the league is desperately looking for a window to shove him out of. You might remember him from such reports as the Yates Report, and the Joint NWSL/NWSLPA Investigation.
Mascot: Supernova
The original bassist for Soundgarden, Supernova was introduced as the Red Stars mascot in 2014. According to Instagram, Supernova and Chicago Fire mascot Sparky are best friends.
Kits:
Primary Kit: Foundation
Secondary Kit: Skyscraper
Supporters Groups: Chicago Local 134
Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/redstars/
News and Commentary: Chicago Sun Times
Red Stars Report
Key Twitter Follows for Team Insights:
Annie Costabile https://twitter.com/AnnieCostabile
Sandra Herrera https://twitter.com/SandHerrera_
Claire Watkins https://twitter.com/ScoutRiply
SCHEDULE
2023 Season Opener: Saturday, March 25 vs. San Diego – 10:00PM ET
2023 Home Opener: Sunday, April 1 vs. Houston – 2:00PM ET
HISTORY

• NWSL Championship: 0 (Runners up: 2019, 2021)
• NWSL Shield: Supporters’ Shield: 0 (Runners up: 2015, 2019)
• NWSL Challenge Cup: 0 (Runner up: 2020)

2022 Season Review
Last year, they had a mini-exodus with 6 players moving westward, including ironwomen and defender of the year candidate Sarah Gorden. Picked somewhere in the middle of the pack of the league, they stayed in the middle of pack of the league all year, only spending 2 weeks out of a playoff spot, but never really threatening the iron of the NWSL. They lost Tierna Davidson and Kayla Sharples early to ACL tears, and Casey Krueger, Kealia Watt, and Sarah Woldmoe to pregnancies.
Chicago started the season quickly, not being defeated a 2nd time until mid-July, including a win over the eventual Shield winning Reign. Once that second loss locked in though, they went 4-1-6 down the stretch outlasting the Courage for that last playoff spot before bowing out in extra time to the Wave.
As stated by pretty much everyone, the driving force behind the successes of the team was Mallory Swanson. She scored 11 goals, assisted on 6 more, and was generally brilliant in what was essentially her come-back year into international prominence. But the midfield engine was driven in the middle by the now-departed pairing of Vanessa Dibernardo and Danielle Colaprico. In 2021, they both struggled with injury and staying on the field…something that wasn’t a problem in 2022. Dibernardo especially was impressive, as she went from a more attacking role to dropping back to help shield the backline with Colaprico, who is a more traditional defensive mid.
The outside backs kind of rotated a bit, with normal started Arin Wright trying to stay healthy. Rachel Hill dropped from the front line to cover on the left, and Bianca St George started on the right in a role that was as much attacking as defending. St George continued her affinity for drawing red cards with a frankly derivative performance of double birds, that was the game week after Amber Brooks performance.
Zoe Morse played well in a central defensive role before leaving for England this offseason. Milazzo came out of no where to become one of the most technically sound defenders in the league. I don’t know. I don’t like this team very much, and they can on occasion play attractive football. I guess. Who cares. They finished 6th.
Player Movement

Date	Player Out	Pos	New Club	Notes
October 31, 2022	Chelsea Dawber	F	Adelaide United	Loan
November 15, 2022	Channing Foster	M	SK Slavia Praha	Option declined
November 15, 2022	Mikenna McManus	D	Throttur	Option declined
November 15, 2022	Danielle Colaprico	M	San Diego Wave	Out of contract
November 15, 2022	Vanessa DiBernardo	M	Kansas City Current	Out of contract
November 15, 2022	Morgan Gautrat	M	Kansas City Current	Out of contract
November 15, 2022	Rachel Hill	F	San Diego Wave	Out of contract
November 15, 2022	Kealia Watt	F	Unattached	Out of contract
December 6, 2022	Sarah Woldmoe	M	Unattached	Retired
December 14, 2022	Sarah Luebbert	M	Club America	Transfer
January 8, 2023	Zoe Morse	D	Brighton Hove & Albion	Out of contract
March 2, 2023	Chelsea Dauber	F	IFK Norrköping	Recalled, and Loaned

Date	Player In	Pos	Previous Club	Notes
January 9, 2023	Addie McCain	M	Kansas City Current	Free agent
January 9, 2023	Jenna Bike	F	NJ/NY Gotham FC	Free agent
January 12, 2023	Penelope Hocking	F	Penn St Nittany Lions	Draft
January 12, 2023	Ally Schlegel	F	Penn St Nittany Lions	Draft
January 12, 2023	Sophie Jones	M	Duke Blue Devils	Draft
January 25, 2023	Julia Bianchi	M	Palmeiras	Transfer
January 12, 2023	Cari Roccaro	M	Angel City	Trade
March 20, 2023	Taylor Malham	M	Racing Louisville	Waivers

ROSTER

Number	First	Last	POS	Contract status
21	Emily	Boyd	GK	Option exercised
1	Alyssa	Naeher	GK	Signed through 2023+
12	Tierna	Davidson	D	Signed through 2023
31	Amanda	Kowalski	D	Signed through 2024+
6	Casey	Krueger	D	Signed through 2023
23	Tatumn	Milazzo	D	Signed through 2024+
28	Kayla	Sharples	D	Option exercised
22	Bianca	St. Georges	D	Option exercised
3	Arin	Wright	D	Signed through 2024
14	Jill	Aquilera	M	Signed through 2023
5	Julia	Bianchi	M	Signed through 2024
29	Sami	Feller	M	NRI
2	Sammi	Fisher	M	Signed through 2023
16	Sophie	Jones	M	Signed through 2024
32	Taylor	Malham	M	Signed through 2023
13	Addie	McCain	M	Signed through 2024+
4	Cari	Roccaro	M	Signed through 2023
24	Jenna	Bike	F	Signed through 2024+
25	Ava	Cook	F	Signed through 2023
27	Chelsie	Dawber	F	Signed through 2023+
15	Sarah	Griffith	F	Signed through 2023
55	Penelope	Hocking	F	Signed through 2025+
26	Brenna	Lovera	F	NRI
20	Cheyna	Matthews	F	NRI
7	Yuki	Nagasato	F	Signed through 2023+
34	Ally	Schlegal	F	Signed through 2025+
8	Ella	Stevens	F	Option exercised
9	Mallory	Swanson	F	Signed through 2023

Predicted Preferred Gameday XI – With the personnel Chicago have, I can’t imagine they are going to deviate much from the 3-4-3 they used last year.
Formation: 3-4-3
If you squint, you can see a 5-2-1-2. Or a 3-4-1-2. Or anything you want. Formations are fake. But last year before the injury bug tore through the ACLs of seemingly the entirety of Woso, Petrucelli’s stated plan was to put Tierna Davidson in the middle, with Milazzo on the left and Sharples on the left. Sharples is still on the SEI list, but Davidson is probably ready. Milazzo is coming off an all-2nd XI in the league in her 2nd year. Krueger comes back from pregnancy to fill out the backline, simply because she’s a way better defender than going forward, especially compared to St Georges.
When Sarah Woldmoe announced her retirement, Sammi Fisher and Jill Aguilera were the only two midfielders under contract…they’ve played a combined 939 minutes in their careers (for comparison’s sake, that’s less than fellow rookie Ava Cook played on her own by 4 minutes). To cover that, they made two defend-and-distribute moves, acquiring Julia Bianchi from Palmeiras, and picking up Sophie Jones in the draft. Those two should be able to hold it down while Roccaro plays in a freer role in the middle like she did last year for Angel City. The other mids on the roster can mix and match based on skills…you don’t want Addie McCain trying to lock down the middle, but she could replace Roccaro for a spell and not be hurt.
Chicago’s success this season is going to depend on the forwards, and even to that end, on Mallory Swanson. Though her impact on Red Stars last year was overblown (inasmuch as she didn’t bring a terrible roster kicking and screaming to the playoffs…she was a legit MVP candidate that had a lot of help from very good performances, especially from the backline and Dibernardo/Colaprico), she is their most important player, and one of the best players in the league. Even with the world cup year, she should already be penciled in as a top-5 MVP candidate. Yuki Nagasato can provide the service Swanson needs…since she can’t pass to herself, though last year she lost effectiveness as the year went on. Ella Stevens is the likely starter until Hocking is ready, providing the awkward finishing that teams of this calibre need to be successful. Last year during the Challenge Cup, Stevens tried to take a shot on goal, slipped, fell and twisted a bit, swinging her hand up striking the ball into the goal. Called off, but an impressive level of “baby dear learning how to walk” for a pro.
Likely Top Bench/Subs:

First	Last	Pos
Amanda	Kowalski	D
Sophie	Jones	M
Addie	McCain	M
Jenna	Bike	F
Penelope	Hocking	F
Ava	Cook	F

This is a thin roster. Very very thin.
Something to Prove
Cari Roccaro – Last year was her 7th year in the league, and she scored her first goal…and then 3 more. She just has to show that given some playing time and freedom, she is going to be able to help Chicago all year.
Julia Bianchi – This project in Chicago isn’t going to work if they don’t have a ball winner in the middle of the pitch, so she has to step in immediately and make an impact.
Ella Stevens – She’s one of those classic “could be out of the league just as easily as being a regular starter” players at this point. Though she seems effective when she plays, she doesn’t get as much playing time as expected.
Out for the season
Sharples is on the SEI list, but about 10 months out from her ACL tear, so she will likely be back.
2023 PREVIEW
Realistic Best Case Scenario – 5th-6th place
Pretty much everything has to go right. The ACL’s heal, the pregnancies bounce back, players that are healthy stay healthy…as well as the ones that are injury prone. The rookies integrate well. The Milazzo continues to develop, Yuki pushes back against father time a little bit. Love wins.
Realistic Worst Case Scenario – 12th
This is roster on the edge. However, Chicago currently has the longest playoff streak in the league, and in some years, that’s been confounding.
Realistic Most Probable Scenario – 9th-11th.
I just don’t have much confidence in a roster that is basically built as Mall Swanson, defense, and pray. I have a feeling I might be discounting Chicago prematurely, but I just don’t see how they can compete with this roster against teams that have more concentrated talent on it.

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Final Thoughts

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sa-mi usuc chilotii pe crucea ma-tii. sa-mi luati cacatul la polizor pâna va sare pana în ochi. bagami-as pula în capul vostru de imbecili avortati. nu valorezi nici cat microbii de anthrax dintre celulele de sperma coclita infestata - cu sifilis din pizdele curvelor de mame ce avetzi. bagami-ati limba-n gaura curului sa-mi gadilati hemoroizii. spune-i mã-tii sã-mi dea bani înapoi. esti mereu la fel de idiot sau azi este o ocazie specialã? de ziua muncii mã-ta defileazã pe autostradã. dacã as avea un dinte în cur te-as musca de nas. dacã as avea un ochi in pulã m-as uita toatã ziua n gura mã-tii. daca te lasa parintzii sa intri pe mirc in cursul saptamanii sa aduci maine buletinul sa trec pula pe numele tau daca slobozul ar eroda ma-ta ar fi la a 10-a prote sa va ard pa cruce pa voi si pa neamurile voastre, mainile voastre sub tramvaiu 19 sa fie, ultimele 2 boli aparute de voi si da familiile voastre sa se lege, mancami-ati pula de jepati rastigniv-as cu capu-n jos ca sa-mi dau drumu mai usor pa voi si pa fata voastra, in timp ce-mi mancati pula cu sos uncle bens. pizda ma-tii e prea mica a intrat la apa de cata sperma fierbinte a ingitit nu vezi ca esti un retardat must shi jegos spalate ca in seara asta merg cu pula in inspectzie la tine in gura shi nu vreau sa'mi lasi urme pe domnul '" kapul pulii"!!!!!!! am auzit ca pe ma-ta o fut dracii in talpa iadului. lu ma-ta i s-o virusat pizda cand tea facut si a trebuit sa de reset de acea tu functionezi numai cu ctrlaltdel spune-i lu ma-ta sa se mai spele pa dinti ca-i fermenteaza sperma aia care -am plasat-o ieri in gat in numele poporului te ro‹ ( nu mai sugi pula ca mata e pofticiasa a ramas gravida cu un babuin shi tot vine la mine sub monitor shi ma gadila senzual pa coaie. in dictionar in dreptul cuvintului muie vezi poza lu' mata am auzit ca ma-ta fute ingerii doar ca sa puna o vorba buna pentru viata de apoi tu esti o gramada de slobozi imprastiati in atmosfera si redirectionati in gura lu ma-ta cu scopul de ai cracana gaura curului care a fost intepata de toti turci care au cotropit romania de-alungul anilor. v-am stiut io de tarani fara cultura, dar nu non stop cu pula-n gura am auzit ca sugi pula ca eminescu fara sa-ti bata luceafara in geam. du-te si imbogateste-ti repertoriul si pe urma vin-o la mine sa te smecheresc putin. auzi ma pula bleaga o mai dor pe mata genunchii? cand ma uita la fatz imi aduc aminte de cea mai nespalata poola pe care a supt-o ma-ta recunoaste ca tie nutzi mai sta pula dreapta doar daca stai capra trage aer in cur ca nu o sa mai poti respira de atata pula cata o sa primesti, sugea-mi-ai nectaru din pula. du-te dracu ca daca te scutur odata iti pica pulele din cur precum merele din pom. auzi ba retardatu dracu ia-o pe japita aia de ma-ta si mergeti si vindeti foamea ce o avetzi in voi la piatza ca sigur devenitzi miliardari caca-m-as pa mormatu tau sa aiba ma-ta in ce sa infiga lumanarea. sugea-m-ai de pula pana intra un coi in coma tu si coarda penala de ma-ta sa-mi suflatzi in pula pan sa fac aburi sa spunetzi ca vam futut an stil trenuletz de epoca vezi ca e un anunt in ziar: se cauta belitor de pula profesionist pentru china sa-i dau lu ma-ta la muie de la unu ca daca stau la parter o sa zica lumea ca pula mea e furtun de pompieri a-ti terminat poponarilor si limbistelor? sa v-o trag cu tot neamul meu si so sugeti cu tot neamul vostru sa-ti dau mie din vole ca din plonion mata nu ma lasa sa dau si la alti e egoista nu ma necaji ma cotoflete, puta de sobolan infipta intr-un borcan de alifie esteb de fapt o stafie magalie rupta in jaurtul ma-tii ma carnat cacat de ma-ta in trei siroaie cacacioase umplute cu umplutura minca-mi-ai pola de mamaligar asternut pe pizda ma-tii baaaa muie cocosata si stalcita de bunica-ta in pat cu sor-ta de sparcaiala ce steriofoneaza pe f. ta de furcar ce esti in coasta ma-tii de schisofrit infipt in doua paie ruginite am auzit ca ai tot timpu la tine caramizi ca esti cu fata in lucrari. bai putoiule sa te vad la gherla sa-ti dea detinutii pe la curisorul tau strimt sa te vad cum umblii in patru labe dupa aia, avorton turat la maxim ce esti sa te ridic pe pula sa te arunc pe luna si sa te dau cu capu de bordura drequ da lighioana caca-ti-as fruntea limbric gaozar mai driblezi rahatzi pe terenu de fotbal dupa meci? sau te-ai sucit acu freci bara? hai ca te las sa mi-o sugi putin , tare mult m-ai rugat in private, treci la aparat, dar spala-te pe dintii aia de girafa inainte cA mirosi a carbit vai mamaaaaaa c dinti de cotoroanta calcata cu tractor ai, gata ! nu te mai las nici sa ma sugi la pula ca mi-e frica, sa mor io, cu dintii aia de girafa mi-e si sila , zau asa mai cumetre aia nu-i gura ce ai tu, scarnavie, aia e taietura in cap, facuta de un mester nebun ba pisoar ambulant, nu vezi ca se pise toti in tine shi nici nu trag apa? toata viata am fugit de prostie si fudulie, da tu le ai pe amandoua, sa moara ma-ta calcata cu tractor de michael schumacher hai ia-o pa ma-ta de mana aia ei ciunga si duce-ti-va in padure sa sugeti pula la urs ca va plateste tata biletu de autobuz numa sa nu va mai vad ca mi se face greata si iar vomit pe voi uscatilor, ruginitilor. nu-nteleg nimic bai prostovane, nu mai vorbi pe gura aia de curcan spanzurat cu lasoul ca n-ai dictie da ai frectie pe care sa i-o faci lu ma-ta cu pula-n cur. am auzit ca ai fost ieri la camp, la cules de pula shi cand sa aduci acasa ceva pentru ma-ta, tu supsesei tot. mai lingi mult pizda de la mortaciuni, ma necrofilule ?, singuru tau mod in care ai contact sexual cu o fata. cand iti cumperi fatza sa imi dai curul inapoi ca m-am saturat sa ma cac pe unde mananci tu ducea-te-ai cu fata lu ma-ta la arat. tu n-ai coaie, bai homosexual imputit , tu ai o urma de pulicica si doua cosuri de le tu, mincinos mic , "coaie" . dac vrei coaie , hai la tata sa ti le dea pe la buzisoare de n-ai sa mai poti zice nici cum te cheama, bai rahat cu girofar ce esti baga-ti-ai pula-n priza sa faci putin ca pomu de iarna si sa ne pisam cu totii pe tine de castravete ce esti, nimfoman imputiti shi sugar desavarsit tactu am auzit ca era ortacu care ajunsese sa suga pula pentru un strop de tuica nu ti-a ajuns cata pula ti-ai luat aseara la gingile alea ca niste ciuperci stricate? ti-a mai zis cineva ca puti a kkt cu miere, cu un strop de sperma si unul de untura de peste? vezi ca am trecut ieri pe la mine shi ma-ta mi-a cert niste laptic pentru bebelusu de tine shi io i-am dat, team investit shi pe tine asha ca fii recunoscator am auzit ca vinde ma-ta un kil de cartofi, ba futuva in cur de poponari ce santeti de ce nu va dati la muie unu altuia sau sa va duceti pe centura sa va corditi in bostan asa mai cistigati si voi un ban pentu ca sa mai stati pe net curistilor tot bou esti de cand a regulat-o bunica-tu pe ma-ta shi a spurcat toata familia ta de maimutze sugatoare de sperma imi pare rau pentru ma-ta aia care te-a basit asa prost, akum tre' sa suga pula sa iti dea de mankare pentru papagali cand i-o dadeam lu ma-ta pe la spate ca masina de cust ileana (adica cu trei viteze) nu prea mi-am day seama ca o sa iasa un papagal raios ca tine, de stiam mai bine n-o futeam pe ma-ta aia grasa esti o putulica de sconcs pansat ti-am spus de mii de ori ca daca nu te speli pe dintii aia de raton paralizat nu te mai las sa ma sugi de slobz sa-i bag eu lu' tarfa aia de ma-ta o grenada in pizda sa o fac bucatzi dati-ar trenul matzele alea pline fasole afara mah saracie sa ma pa burta ma-tii si pa istoria ta de rapadulă, de stiam mai bine n-o futeam pe ma-ta aia grasa esti o putulica de sconcs pansat ti-am spus de mi de ori ca daca nu te speli pe dintii aia de raton paralizat nu te mai las sa ma sugi de sloboz sa-i bag eu lu' tarfa aia de ma-ta o grenada in pizda sa o fac bucatzi dati-ar trenul matzele alea pline cu fasole afara mah saracie sa ma cac pa burta ma-tii si pa istoria ta de rapandula si finta beata, refulatule slobozi-m-as pa mamica vostra aia alba ca zapada si pa cei sapte pitici nefricosi si sifilitici, baga-v-as pa gat coiu sa mor io dac ' o pish pe ma-ta'n ochii o sa ma vezi in valuri prostule imi dai voie sa 'mi bag shi yo pula 'n ma-ta sub burta unde are pielea rupta? spargea-v-as amigdalele cu sarea din curu meu lingailor baga-ti-as paru-n inima perversa ciudata si sidoasa, tarfa de colt smolita ce esti sa faceti sex oral cu soacra'ta, profana-v-as mormintele, bora-mi-as deiarea pe fata vostra hido fututi dumnecatii si dumnezaii si altarii matii sa ti fut si tot neamul tău de orangutan.

I am currently seeking psychological help so please consider that while reading.
I am a 23 yr old full time single mother to a 7 month old. I have been a single mom since she was born. I’m really going through it right now.
My daughter is tough. I was told I was a great baby. A unicorn, if you will. I am getting labs done through my primary care physician because I feel as if I don’t have enough energy to stimulate my daughter. She is just beginning to crawl and she wears me out. I’m currently not working but I can’t imagine trying to work while not sleeping which brings me to my next point. Sleep.
It’s 3am and I’ve spent that last few hours crying. I must also mention that I have no physical support system. I was in an abusive relationship for 2 years, while family lives out of state. I am currently going through a custody case and cannot legally leave the state with my daughter. The ultimate goal is to move back in my family which I feel at this point, I need.
Baby is exclusively breastfed besides the hours she sees her father during the week. We are Co-sleeping and it has been the only option for me. My daughter slept great up until 4-5 months in which, I was not going to get up every hour even for 1 night. I understand if you have a partner there to help, things would be easier and different. I cannot imagine being this exhausted during the day while also not sleeping at night. Like I said, even for 1 night let alone 3, let alone a whole week as a full time single mom.
Not only that but I live in a 1 bedroom. Most methods of sleep training recommend to place baby in their own room or use a room divided which I’m just not comfortable with in my cramped space.
My daughter is now teething severally. And I just need to vent this out. I’m so tired. I’m also terrified because currently her father only sees her, supervised, once a week for 6 hours, and living in his car having visits at a family friend’s home. He signed a 1 year lease to an apartment the day before our last hearing, when I asked for relocation to go back and live with family. I assumed if he was living in his car, he could also move (as father needs to have increased time of seeing the child. I live in a 50/50 state. Rather than a state that considers best interest of the child if there’s been a history of abuse). It will then go up to 6 hours unsupervised on both of his days off, then 8, then overnights, capping at 48hrs alone with her.
Take in to account all of what I mentioned previously about baby sleeping and me not wanting to sleep-train (or feel like I even have the physical or mental strength to), and ya, I’m pretty terrified.
I also have audio recordings of him yelling and cussing at our daughter the first week she was born bc he was so sleep deprived. Within days of her being born he became physical and I obtained a restraining order same-day. He’s had supervised visits and because of that has “showed change” there’s no longer evidence to support his abuse, there’s nothing I can do about being terrified how we will act with her alone when she’s difficult and can’t sleep in a pack n play because she’s so used to breastfeeding and co-sleeping with me.
My attorney suggested that I wait until right before his lease is up in a literal 12 months to try and settle on an agreement for relocation. Which means I cannot leave and I must stay in a city that I do not like being in. But that’s what happens when you don’t leave while your pregnant or before. My daughter was born here and now she belongs to the state.
I already know he does not want me to relocate and would like to continue harassing, torturing, controlling me and using our daughter as a pawn. The judge said and I quote “he is absolutely using this child to control and micromanage the mother, to date”. And that is something I don’t want to get into right now, as I’m just trying to accept the fact that my soul chose to go through one of the hardest human experiences in this life.
One kind of Pro is that I will have more time alone and time to clean and time to myself while she is with her father. If I can not worry for the time she’s with him. I thought I should start on my degree, since it’s something I’ve been wanting to do and need to get started on, in my opinion.
In order to be considered for financial aid, I need to take 6 credits a semester. That’s normally 2 classes. I just don’t know if I can do that while still having full custody of my daughter without putting her in child care. My father is providing for us currently, while getting a minimal amount of child support that doesn’t cover a quarter of my expenses. So I’m not sure about putting my daughter in child care now, if that’s even financially or emotionally feasible. I don’t know if adding on the stress of school right now would even be a good idea but I’m going to speak with an academic advisor on my next day off parenting. I just can’t help but feeling like I don’t do anything but be exhausted and emotionally drained so working on something for my future like a degree would be cool but is it really possible right now? I just don’t know yet.
Thank you for reading.

Should the Chakavian language be included in school education? “ The Croatian standard language becomes speechless as soon as it approaches the sea”

I see the recognition of the Croatian Chakavian language by the ISO organization and its getting an international code (CKM) as a living language ​​of our world as an opportunity to raise awareness at the national level about the problem of the dying of local idioms that are still alive in Croatia. It is necessary to start the production of native reading and learning books focused on the Chakavian, Kajkavian and Štokavian vernacular languages, representative texts of the written and oral literature. Of all Croatian languages.
Professor Emeritus Joško Božanić from the University of Split, director of the only scientific journal dedicated to the Chakavian language and a foremost authority in Croatian linguistics, in a big interview for Dalmacija Danas, tells why a wing of the Croatian academia reacted by expressing negative emotions to the news that the Chakavian speech was recently recognized as a separate language from the Croatian standard language by the International Organization for Standardization ISO, the international scientific journal Ethnologue and the international organization SIL International (responsible for cataloging all the languages of humanity), basically all the most relevant linguistic institutions in the world.
Among other things, he explains how the Croatian standard language could have gone in a completely different direction if some centuries ago the Pope had not heeded the Zagreb bishop’s recommendation and ordered on June 23, 1633, to postpone the printing of the first Bible in “Illyrian” (this was how Croatian was known back then) and Latin. Božanić also answers the question of who is promoting the introduction of the Split dialect of the Chakavian language in all Split elementary and high schools as part of the local culture course.
He emphasizes that young people need to be taught that speaking their native “BESIDA / BESEDA” is not a mistake but a fundamental intangible cultural asset of our world and a great source of cultural richness for them and the country of Croatia.

Denying the significance of an important historical event

The International Organization for Standardization ISO from Geneva included the Chakavian language in its list of living languages ​​of the world in 2020. How did this resonate with Croatian linguists?
– The first reaction I saw in the newspaper was in Slobodna Dalmacija, which published an interview by Damir Šarac (February 2, 2023) with a local scholar, Professor Dunja Jutronić . She expressed the following controversial statement in regard to the news about the assignment of a standardization code to the Chakavian language by the ISO: “This choice is not relevant for either international or national linguistic science. Linguistic scientists consider both Chakavian and Kaikavian dialects to be “supra-dialects” (a word made up by Yugoslav linguists to describe a uniquely balkan concept that doesn’t exist in other languages of the world, Ed.) with their own many sub-dialects, and they advocate for this through their scientific work but the status of an official – standardized – language is not a scientific, but a political category.“
I cannot agree with some of these statements. First – because I simply do not see how the international codification of a Croatian idiom on the most prestigious international list of world languages ​​could be irrelevant, unimportant.
Was the codification of the Croatian standard language by the same international institution in Geneva (International Standardization Organization – ISO) which happened on September 1, 2008 and which codified the Croatian official (standard) language under the code name ISO 693-3 [hrv] irrelevant? Back then the event was met with national jubilee.
Second – this is not about declaring an “official language” but a language. That’s an important difference. Languages ​​can be official when they are standardized, such as the Croatian standard language, and Chakavian is a vernacular language, such as the Shtokavian vernacular language, which is based on the so-called Jekavian / Ijekavian southern Neoshtokavian dialect, which Croatian linguists have started to call Eastern Herzegovinian-Krajiški dialect only in the last twenty years, and that was standardized as the Croatian standard (official) language only at the end of the 19th century. Third – the term supra-dialect/narječje, which according to Akademijin Rječnik (33, 586) was introduced by Vuk S. Karadžić and his followers, the so-called vukovci, as a translation of the Russian word [нарѣчие] in Croatian linguistic terminology as a dialect, can in Russian mean a local speech and dialect and a group of related dialects, but also a vernacular (non-standardized) language.
The term Chakavian language in fact means exactly the later – a vernacular language because in Croatia the standard Croatian Shtokavian language is the official language. And fourth – I agree with the position that the status of an official language is not a scientific but a political category, since the official language is the result of an agreement, convention, political decision. So it was also for the Croatian standard language.
All standard languages ​​are artificial and not spontaneous like vernacular ones, because they are standardized by political decision and stylized by linguists and maintained through institutions. But it is a scientific fact at the same time that there is a Croatian Shtokavian vernacular language as well as the Chakavian and Kajkavian Croatian languages ​​which are not standardized even though they were literary languages ​​for centuries long before Shtokavian. The word vernacular comes from Latin. Vernaculus means native, according to Latin verne – native slave, one who was born in the master’s house. According to the definition in Webster’s dictionary, vernacular is a language that is native to the people, as opposed to a literary one.
According to the article by Željko Rogošić in the weekly magazine Nacional (7/2/2023, 53-55) titled “A Croatian paradox: Chakavian was declared an independent language of the world“, three prominent Croatian linguists, academics, dispute the significance of the international codification of the Croatian Chakavian language. Academician Josip Bratulić says: “I am not sure that declaring Chakavian an independent language will achieve anything“, professor Silvana Vranić believes that “the Chakavian dialect cannot be isolated and viewed as a separate language“, and professor Mira Menac-Mihalić believes that the decision on the codification of the Chakavian language “means nothing, because on that basis no one will give Croatia money to preserve the language” and concludes: “… we are not talking about the Chakavian language, but Chakavian is part of the Croatian language system.” Therefore, according to this the Chakavian dialect is not a language (which is defined as a system), but it is a language system within a language system that represents the Croatian standard language.
This idea of ​​the Chakavian dialect as a system within a system is incorporated in the concept of the “three-narječje formula” by prof. emerit. Iva Lukežić from the University of Rijeka, according to whom the Croatian language is “unique in the world”. She says: “…the Croatian language should be used to define every idiom by which Croats communicated with each other through history and by which they communicate. This is the starting point and at the level of organic idioms, in dialectology, the Croatian language is defined as a sui generis complex language structure with three components of the abstract rank of supra-dialects, each made up of a certain number of components of a lower abstract rank of sub-dialects, and according to this three-supra-dialec formula, the Croatian language is unique in the world of languages” (Appendix to the discussion on the genesis of Croatian supra-dialects, Fluminensia no. 1-2. 1996, p. 223).
Questioning this “three-supra-dialects formula” and the “uniqueness” of the Croatian standard language compared to all other languages of our world can get a person in trouble and to be labeled negatively, and is a direct result of the current very foggy scientific situation in the Croatian dialectology field.
Thus, recently we were able to read in a text of M.M. Letica titled “How to explain to dilettantes that Chakavian is not a language, but a dialect of the Croatian language” the following words: “We should arm with facts, i.e. the one truth. And armed with it, resolutely attack the enemies of the Croatian language” (Hrvatski tjednik, 9.2. 2023). Judge for yourself the weight and meaningfulness of such a statement about “dilettantes” and “enemies of the Croatian language” as written according to the author of that article.

Heretical thoughts about the Croatian language in a popular university textbook

Recently, the Faculty of Philosophy in Split, together with the Literary Circle from Split, published your book “Vernacular Stylistics“, which was recognized the status of a university textbook. Therefore, it is intended to be used by students of Croatian studies. I assume that your book also deals with some issues of the relationship between the Croatian standard language and the vernacular languages, as you call them, Chakavian and Kaikavian, so I would like you to present to us the positions you represent in it, which concern this conversation.
– Yes, in 2019 I published the book “Vernacular Stylistics” as a university textbook for students and teachers of Croatian studies. My specialization is stylistics, and as I am also a dialectologist, I connected these two disciplines in an effort to analyze and interpret the stylistic wealth of various texts written in vernacular idioms, not only Chakavian, and not only literary ones.
This wealth of expressions is completely neglected because in our country dialectologists rarely deal with the stylistic level of expressions, and stylists ignore texts in non-standard idioms of the Chakavian, Kajkavian and Shtokavian vernaculars. But when we talk about this book of mine, it is interesting to say that in it I expressed some “heretical” views that have not caused, until today, any reaction from other professors.
This position of mine is opposite to the above mentioned reactions of other professors of linguistics, because I claim that the Croatian language is one system that cannot logically consist of three systems (Chakavian, Kajkavian and Shtokavian) and that all three Croatian language systems are actually three separate vernacular languages/systems.
In doing so, I follow the teachings of the most prominent Croatian linguist Josip Silić, who distinguishes between language as a system and language as a standard. As I said before, language as a standard is the result of the standardization process and as such the result of conventions, agreements, and the work of institutions, because it does not arise spontaneously in the speech practice of a narrow or wide local community.
Josip Silić says the following about this topic: “In conclusion, we can say that Shtokavian, Chakavian and Kajkavian nariječja are different (language) systems (…). They are therefore separate Croatian idioms, not dialects of one Croatian language. (this does not mean in any way that one narječje is less Croatian than the other). Therefore, it is wrong to speak of Chakavian and Kajkavian phenomena in the Croatian standard language as a dialectal phenomena, i.e. dialecticisms. Dialectisms are not phenomena in the Croatian standard language that come from the Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects, but phenomena that they come from the Štokavian dialect.“
Thus, Chakavian and Kajkavian are separate linguistic systems, not varieties of the Croatian standard language. Dialectal phenomena in standard Croatian can come only from the Shtokavian vernacular, which is the basis on which Croatian was standardized as an official language.

The Croatian father of the nation idea about the “bleating-speech”

You were a member of the Council for the Normalization of the Croatian Standard Language. What is your experience of participating in the work of that Council?
– I participated in the second convocation of the Council for the Normalization of the Croatian Language, which was created at the invitation of the Minister of Science, Dragan Primorac in 2005, and lasted until 2012, when it was abolished by Minister Željko Jovanović. The president of the council was academician Radoslav Katičić. The topics discussed were mostly about spelling. Some conclusions about orthographic solutions have taken root in orthographic practice, and some suggestions have fallen away. I well remember the discussion about the accent norm, which caused a polemical tone considering the big divergence of accentuation speech practice between the Chakavian and Kajkavian speaking areas, and the Neoshtokavian accent norm, which got erroneously marked as purely rural pronunciation, despite being native to the 3 biggest cities in Croatia.
This split with the normative Neoshtokavian accentuation appeared mainly due to the realization of descending stresses on internal syllables or due to the omission of the transition of stress from the tonic word to the proclitic, which is the result of the influence of the Chakavian and Kaikavian accent systems.
Today, this practice of diverging is even more pronounced on radio and television, so that two accentual norms have come to life, one could almost say: the one that is prescribed, the Neoshtokavian one, and the one that is increasingly present in public communication in the media, and is the result of accent influence by Chakavian and the dominant Zagreb Kajkavian vernaculars into the standard Croatian language.
I remember well also other discussions, especially the one about the issue of the orthographic norm of writing neću / ne ću or the question of the Ekavian realization of the so-called covered [ r] like in greška / grješka, vremena / vrjemena, strelica / strjelica. I considered particularly absurd that the norm chosen deviated from linguistical rules, and only pursued to increase a (perceived) distance from the Serbian Ekavian standard.
Isn’t it ironic that in our time this hyper-Jekavianism is associated with the defense of the Croatian distinctiveness from the Serbian language, while Ante Starčević , the “father of the Croatian nation”, in the 19th century defended his Ekavian language from the Serbian Ijekavian language of Vuk Karadzic, calling it derogatorily “bleating-speech”, and describing Jekavian / Ijekavian pronunciation as “bleating” (I. Marković : Notes on the language of Ante Starčević, Filologija 71, Zagreb 2018).

On purism according to the Croatian maritime lexicon

What is your attitude towards purism in Croatian linguistics?
– I dedicated a chapter to that topic in my book, because it also touches on the issue of linguistic identity on the lexical level. I will tell you right away that I am not a purist, although today we are all witnesses of the unstoppable penetration of English into all world languages, except for the languages ​​of civilizations that have not yet reached the Internet. You mentioned my participation in the Council for the Normalization of the Croatian Language. I well remember the lively controversy surrounding the idea of ​​croatizing English IT terminology. I then compared that effort with the hypothetical idea of ​​building a dam on the Amazon River. Namely, I am convinced that the influx of English into all world languages ​​is inevitable and unstoppable. On that occasion, I mentioned my own experience in working on the dictionary of a small island dialect, my Komiža dialect, whose dictionary I have been systematically working on for thirty years.
I said on that occasion that in my Komiža dictionary, which contains twenty thousand glosses, about seventy percent of all nouns are of alloglottic (foreign) origin. But all those words that arrived on the island by sea were adapted – accentually, creatively, and morphologically adapted to Komižan speech. Words adapted in this way became our own words, and not foreign words or loanwords, as many Croatian linguists call them. We did not borrow them with the intention of returning them one day when we invent our own words for the concepts they describe.
No, these words have become ours and lived in our speech for many centuries. This vocabulary is now our intangible heritage, a part of the Croatian national identity created on our shores of the Adriatic sea, in our life shared with that sea. But unfortunately they are ideologically uninteresting to our normative lexicographers.
Some of our linguists consider purism to be synonymous with culture. I wonder in what kind of linguistic non-culture I was born and spoke, being that my language was full of words that came to us by sea lines for centuries, and without which we Croats would not know how to talk about the sea at all.
There are two types of purism: exogenous (rejection of words originating from other ethnos) and endogenous (rejection of words from non-standard idioms of the same ethnos). I would like to ask those linguists who talk about the three-supra-dialectal Croatian language and the interweaving of three dialects within the Cha-Kaj-Shtokavian formula, how come that the language of the Croatian Vukovci, who reject almost completely the Kajkavian and Chakavian lexicons in order to prevent the “contamination” of the Shtokavian lexical standard, is still at work to this day.
How come it was only at the end of the twentieth century (in 1990) with the appearance of Anić’s Dictionary of the Croatian language, the first ever purely Croatian dictionary, many names of some commonly known sea fish enter the Croatian dictionaries for the first time? How is it that an entire segment of the national culture, the maritime, coastal and island one, is deleted from the whole of the national culture in our lexicography so that when the Croatian standard (Shtokavian) language approaches the sea – it becomes completely speechless and wordless?
At the same time, it should be underlined that the Croatian nation inhabits a coast almost 6,000 kilometers long, a water area that covers two-thirds of the Adriatic sea and has a maritime culture that is more than a thousand years old. It is the only Slavic nation in the world, which is the guardian of the Mediterranean cultural and linguistic universe.
Branka Tafra, a full-time professor at Croatian Studies in Zagreb, says the following: “The rule of correctness for Croatian was chosen to be the Neoshtokavian Ijekavian dialect, and all words were drawn out of that mold. Back in the day the Croatian vukovci received the authority and power to determine what was to be classified as correct and what was not, and all in accordance with theNeoshtokavian canon (…) Although the vukovci are not usually spoken of as purists, they also practiced a form of purism by persecuting Kajkavisms, Chakavisms, and all non-Neoshtokavian words.” This kind of purism against Chakavisms and Kajkavisms was also brought forward by the language policy of the NDH, which, with its idea of ​​a single Croatian Shtokavian language, had a negative relationship not only toward the non-Neoshtokavian lexicon, but also toward all non-Neoshtokavian literature.
I would like to hear your opinion on this attitude towards dialectal literature since you are also known as a dialect poet?
– Dialectal poetry has nowadays no place in Croatian poetry anthologies. This attitude towards literature written in the vernacular Croatian languages, Chakavian and Kajkavian, has been maintained to this very day.
Just as the standardization of the Neoshtokavian idiom at the end of the 19th century brought the Chakavian and Kajkavian vernacular languages from an equal position to a s subordinate one toward the Shtokavian standard, so literature based on these vernacular languages received the depreciatory attribute of epichoric, regional, indigenous literature. As something filled with sentiment of attachment to some past states, provincial speeches, memories. As such, it is almost completely excluded from the corpus of the national Croatian literature, and its authors have no place in the national literary pantheon unless they legitimized themselves with other literary works in the standard language.
In most anthologies of Croatian poetry, the poems of even our best and most genius dialectal poets are completely omitted. The recent anthology by Tonka Maroević “Svjetlaci – Croatian poetry of the third post-war (1996 – 2019)” presents in the introduction the author’s explanation for his omission of poets who write poetry in dialects. He says: “I believe that songs in the dialect belong to their own language systems, within which they can be measured and categorized, and that it is inappropriate and violent to anthologize them within a whole composed in the standard Croatian language.” With Maroević’s explicit removal of dialectal poetry from an anthology named “Croatian poetry” in its title, his words above could have two meanings: First, that dialectal poetry that is created in Croatia in non-standard idioms is not Croatian, because only poetry that is Croatian is anthologized, and if it is Croatian, yes, since it is dialectal, it does not meet the value criteria (of the author of the anthology) for inclusion in the corpus of representative Croatian poetry.
Or second: phrase “Croatian poetry” in the title is not limited in terms of meaning by anything except the time reference in the title of the anthology – the year 1996 as the starting year and the year 2019 as the final year and, of course, the anthologist’s value judgment – his selection criteria.
According to this interpretation, the term “Croatian poetry” does not include dialectal poetry precisely because those are written in non-standard idioms, which means that the criterion for belonging to the corpus of Croatian poetry is that it is written in the standard Croatian language of Neoshtokavian. Therefore, even if it met the artistic criteria for inclusion in the national anthology, it could not be included because it was not written in the standard national language.
Maroević’s position on the status of dialectal poetry is not very different from Antun Šoljan’s one from year 1965. Šoljan claimed that: “…in one so little literature, the scattering of talents on several linguistic paths (meaning: on several versifications, on several traditions and several tendencies) can be tragic. It seems to me that today the only way forward for a dialectal writer is not to stick to an inanimate or underdeveloped language, but to merge his native idiom with a literary one and thus fertilize and enrich the linguistic matrix” (Three-year chronicle of Croatian and Serbian poetry 1960-1962, Naprijed, Zagreb 1965: 41). This idea about endangering the “linguistic matrix” by writing in vernacular Croatian languages indicates the same kind of understanding of the national cultural monolith, which is threatened by “dispersion”, disunity, endangerment. I, on the other hand, see in these diversity the unique richness of Croatian culture, its diversity, and as a writer I perceive language as a space of freedom, games and linguistic wealth that includes living oral idioms, all vernacular organic speeches that preserve the collective memory of the Croatian people and the millennial work of language and speech.

The Pope against printing the Bible in Latin and Shtokavian

On several occasions, you have mentioned Croatian vukovci, their influence on the process of standardization of the Croatian language.
– Their influence is present to this day, because even today the door towards the Chakavian and Kajkavian languages is closed, as I already mentioned. The influence of Vuk S. Karadžić was decisive in the choice of the vernacular Neoshtokavian basis for the standardization of the Croatian language. The dialect of the Shtokavian vernacular known colloquially as the “southern dialect” of eastern Hrecegovina was not chosen by chance.
This chosen dialect, which was a common dialect also to the Serbian language, became the basis for the standardization of the Croatian language. The founder of the Phonetics Department of the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, Professor Ivo Škarić says the following: “Thus, all epithets for the standard language began to be attributed to that chosen Neoshtokavian dialect, with the consequence that all non-Neoshtokavian idioms began to be considered less valuable despite the natural equality among all organic speeches (as well as among peoples) and the fact that some speeches rejected during the selection, especially Kajkavian and Chakavian, had an extremely rich cultural and literary tradition. As an immanent property of every standard, Neoshtokavian moved psycho-sociologically from a horizontal relationship with other speeches to a vertical, hierarchical one, where it was adorned with all the then valid epithets of a literary language: superiority, class , cultural elitism. The contemporary speakers of Neoshtokavian as an organic idiom, boasted then of self-satisfaction that they are already well-spoken by birth and that others speak “objectively” in an ugly and funny way” (I. Škarić – Hrvatski govori, Školska knjiga 2006: 19-20).
The process of standardization of the Croatian language toward a Neoshtokavian vernacular base began in the first half of the 17th century with the translation of the Bible by the Roman Jesuit Bartolo Kašić, originally from the island of Pag, author of the first grammar of the Croatian language (Institutionum linguae Illyricae libri duo, Rome, 1604). For his translation, he chose Latin and the folk Shtokavian language of the Dubrovnik region, relying on the language of the Dubrovnik literary tradition. But his attempt was stopped by a letter from then Zagreb bishop Franjo Ergelski to Pope Urban VIII.
The bishop recommended that the printing of Kašić’s Bible be postponed. The Pope accepted the bishop’s recommendation and ordered on June 23, 1633, to postpone the printing of the Bible in the Illyrian language. That delay meant de facto a ban, and the main reason for that ban was that it was translated into the Dubrovnik dialect (“Ragusina vulgari lingua“), which will not be understandable to all Croats, and in Latin script, not Glagolitic or Cyrillic, which were used by Croats at that time. And so the printing was “postponed” for 367 years, when the conditions for the printing of this capital work of the Croatian written word were finally met, but not in Croatia, in Germany.
So the resistance to printing came from Zagreb, out of the suspicion that Kašić’s Bible translated into Shtokavian speech of the Dubrovnik region would not be understandable to Croats in other regions and because of the choice of the wrong script – Latin. If Pope Urban VIII did not accept the recommendation of Zagreb bishop Franjo Ergelski, but the advice of the Sacra Congregatio de propaganda fide that suggested Kašić’s Bible be printed, probably the process of standardizing the Croatian language would have followed a different path and the Croatian language would, I believe, be quite different from the one with which I am now answering the questions posed to you.

The Croatian terminological and linguistic fogginess

Do you expect resistance from politicians inclined to unification and centralization of everything, disinclined to any diversity, regionalization and the like? What kind of argument do they use to defend their positions?
– Croatian linguistics is strongly influenced by politics, to such an extent that even some of the greatest Croatian linguists in their scientific works and public speeches changed their initially declared positions on the Croatian language in order to harmonize them with the dominant political narrative. It is a huge defeat for science. I remember a great national celebration when, on September 1, 2008, in Geneva, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigned the code to Croatian Shtokavian and accepted it as a standard language on the list of world languages. It was a national feast. When this same institution assigned the code to the Chakavian language in 2020, the event was first hushed up in the Croatian media, and then two years later, negative evaluations of that act appeared. Language is the most important symbol of ethnicity in our country, and the romantic idea of ethnicity popular in the 19th century, which is still alive today, needs a community of one “blood, soil and language”. At the same time, Croatian politics and Croatian linguistics are burdened even today by the common Neoshtokavian vernacular basis of the Croatian and Serbian languages, which is an indisputable scientific fact. The declaration of Croatian as the only triune (that is tri-dialectic) language, “unique in this respect in the whole world”, as Prof. emerita Iva Lukežić claims, is a politically useful, but totally unscientific attitude favored by the Croatian terminological and linguistic fog.

Chakavian at the top of UNESCO’s intangible heritage list

Did this recognition open the door to saving the Chakavian language from extinction through the Croatian education system or is this an illusion in itself? What should be done to teach and nurture the Chakavian language outside of the optional subject in elementary and high schools?
– The world’s linguistic diversity is today more threatened than its biological diversity, but it is just as important as biological diversity for human survival. “Language is what is most human in a person,” says the French linguist Claude Hagège, author of the book “Stop the extinction of languages” (Disput, Zagreb 2005). The death of any language, no matter how small, is also the death of a whole world that existed in it and through it.
UNESCO’s Paris Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage (Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage) from 2003 defined the list of intangible heritage of the world, and at the top of that list is language (oral tradition and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage. It is about language as a carrier of intangible cultural heritage. By the end of this century, half of the 5,000 languages ​​alive today will disappear from planet Earth if current trends continue, says Hagège.
I see the recognition of the Chakavian language and its receiving of an international code as a living language ​​of the world as an opportunity to raise awareness at the national level of the problem of autochthonous dying languages that are still alive in Croatia today. It is necessary to start the production of native reading books with Chakavian, Kajkavian and Shtokavian vernacular languages, that is, with representative texts of written and oral literature. I made such a digital book for the children and young people of the island of Vis as part of the national cultural asset preservation program “Cokavski govori otoka Visa”. This type of digital readings should be made for Split as well, based on the very rich literature available in the Split dialect of Chakavian.

Introducing the Split dialect of Chakavian in all Split schools

The association “Marko Uvodić Splićanin for the research and preservation of the Split Chakavian language” fought, on the initiative of its president Jadranka Mardešić Komac, for the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia to issue a decision in 2013 declaring the “Split speech (Split Chakavian language)” a national intangible cultural asset. The same association, together with the Split local section of the Čakavski Sabor, has been trying to fight for the introduction of Split speech in all Split primary schools as part of the cultural program for several years.
The councilor Damir Barbir even asked the following parliamentary question during a session of the City Council held on February 16, 2023: “Does the City of Split want to support the initiative that the Split speech, as a most important and most endangered cultural property according to the UNESCO Paris Convention from 2003, and as a national cultural heritage according to the decision of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, to introduce it as a subject in the curricula of primary and secondary school education, and to provide funds for the financing of that program, which should also include the creation of a ‘Reading book of the Split Chakavian language’ According to the information of representative Damir Barbir, the mayor of Split, Prof. Ivica Puljak, Ph.D., responded positively to the question, and the official decision of the Split City Council is awaited.

A virtual living museum of the Chakavian language from Pelješac to the west coast of Istria

How do you plan to take advantage of the newly acquired status as an internationally recognized language with its own language code?
– The Čakavski Sabor, an organization which today has 25 sections all over Croatia and was founded in 1969 in Žminj, and the journal of the Literary Circle in Split “Čakavska rič“, which has been published for fifty years as the only scientific journal in Croatia and in the world dedicated to the research of the Čakavian speech, gave so far the greatest contribution to the preservation of the Chakavian region from Pelješac to the west coast of Istria.
On the occasion of this international recognition of the Croatian Chakavian language, I intend to send an initiative letter to the Čakavski Sabor in Žminj to initiate the procedure for the registration the Croatian Chakavian language in the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages ​​for Europe and in the UNESCO Atlas of the world’s Languages ​​in danger which contains 2,460 languages ​​from around the world, through the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, its Directorate for International Cultural Cooperation, the Service for UNESCO.
The red book already contains five registered languages from Croatia ​​(with code characters) from Croatia (Istriot, Istro-Romanian, Venetian, Ladin and Romani).
This is the first step that must be taken in order for us to be able to fight and to get the possibility of launching projects under the EU funds for research, valorization, education and preservation of the Chakavian language, with an emphasis on the possibility of its digitization, which is imperative at this moment.
This means networking between many Chakavian speeches, creating a common database of all written texts, books, audio records and videos, networking all glossaries and dictionaries between them.
In other words: we are launching an initiative to create a Virtual Living Museum of the Chakavian language from Pelješac to the west coast of Istria. Such an idea requires the energy of young people, who have yet to learn that their native BESIDA / BESEDA is not a mistake but an intangible cultural asset of the world.
Anecdotes about the life and death of the Komiža speech
On February the 10th of this year, you held a lecture at the Marko Marulić Library in Split entitled “The Future of the Croatian Chakavian Language”. I would like to conclude our conversation with your answer to the question of what is the future of the Chakavian language.
– I will start my answer with two anecdotes. The first is the one I heard from our famous director Hrvoj Hribar, who some ten years ago in Komiža sat at a cafe on the Komiža waterfront with his then ten-year-old son. It was winter time when only Komiža people sit on the terrace, because there are no tourists at that time. When they finished their drinks, the father called the waitress to pay, and then the son whispered to him: “Dad, you should pay in euros here, don’t you hear how they speak?”.
The second one is the one I told during the public lecture “The Future of the Chakavian Language” in Split. It happened recently, when I boarded a bus from Komiža to Vis. The bus was full of primary school children from Komiža who were going to Vis, where they have organized some free school activities – football and music. When I took my place in the bus, I carefully listened for a while to the children’s to see if I could recognize any part of the Komiža speech, but I didn’t manage to hear a single one. I then stood up like a teacher and asked loudly, to silence the roar and attract their attention, if any of them speaks Komiški… A single boy quietly told me that he speaks Komiški. When I asked him “how come you don’t speak Komiški here on the bus?“, he replied that he only speaks komiški at home, and that he doesn’t speak komiški among his peers “because they would laugh at him“.
This is the reality of the state of the Komiža Cokavian speech, probably the best-preserved Chakavian speech in Dalmatia. This is also the answer about the future of the Chakavian language.
In those past ten years, a dramatic change took place. I, who have been researching the Komiža dialect for more than fifty years, can competently say that I am a witness to the rapid death of one of the most well-preserved Chakavian dialects, the research of which I devoted my life. Today, the organic idiom of the Chakavian language cannot be expected to maintain its basic communicative function. Such an expectation is unrealistic.

How to save the Chakavian language

However, it is imperative that through the education system, starting from kindergarten to high school, we raise, encourage and nurture awareness of the native language as an intangible cultural heritage by which we recognize our own selves.
That we understand it as a most important element of our identity, because language is what is most human in a person. Education is the only tool left to us. The task of raising awareness of organic speech, dialect as a fundamental cultural value, and not a sign of provinciality, rigidity, grammatical mistakes, is the most difficult task of the educational system.
When it comes to the Chakavian speaking region, it is especially important to highlight the vast area of ​​national culture that remained on the margins of the interests of Croatian standardologists in the 19th and 20th centuries, namely the maritime culture imbued with millennial experience of the sea and encounters with other Mediterranean cultures and languages.
This thousand-year-old linguistic heritage is not someone else’s, but an authentic and indigenous Croatian heritage, without which the Croatian language is poor for one very important function in the area of ​​its linguistic superstructure.
It is time for the Croatian standard language to open up to its vernacular languages and accept them as equal. It is one of the most important ways to ensure their survival.

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