Blood Meridian By Violet_persephone

In which, at some point between his brother’s death and the first book, kaz actually had somehow become a demon or something not-quite-human

Blood Meridian by violet_persephone

Chapter 5: Interlude I: Across America, Seasons Change

A jerk of movement pulls her into consciousness. She’s no longer on the ground; she’s in someone’s arms, Inej realizes with a start. Her fingers twitch, seeking out one of her knives, but so much pain is radiating from her arm that she can’t move.

Whoever is carrying her isn’t doing so gently. With each staggering step, Inej is wrenched against the person’s chest.

“Inej? Are you awake?” says a rasping voice.

Kaz. Kaz is carrying her.

“Kaz?” Inej says. Her voice is hoarse from the vomiting and the drinking.

“Yes. It’s me. We’re almost there.”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56463739/chapters/163618366

Blood Meridian by violet_persephone

Chapter 4: July Heatwaves in Nebraska

“I told you. I told you it was part of the job. What did you think was going to happen, Inej? I didn’t take you from the Menagerie so we could all be one happy fucking family, did I? I wanted you to be dangerous. You were, and now you’re whining about it.”

“And I told you that I didn’t want to kill innocent people!”

“Then why did you?”

“He was about to kill you!” Inej cries, and springs to her feet. Her face is flushed, from crying or from anger, Kaz isn’t sure.

“Inej, don’t listen to him,” Nina spits over Jesper’s unconscious body. “Kaz is just a bastard. Don’t listen to him. Kaz, leave her alone.”

“Would you rather have been killed?” Inej asks, her palms outstretched, as if Kaz can package up the answer and place it in her hands. “Would you rather have been killed than have me cry?”

WE HAVE A TANK!!!

Thank you so much for answering! I had no idea what Wiktionary (though i probably should since i took german for 5 years and took linguistics as one of my college courses) and it looks so much better than google translate! Don’t worry, i didn’t think you were representing these languages in that way, i’m just amazed how you combine sorta real words to make your dialogue so interesting. i too would like to bastardize some languages for my own works, but wasn’t sure how to get the ball rolling on said bastardization! this has helped a lot! you’re the best, linny! :)

hello! quick question: how do you conduct your research regarding languages? Like which sources do you use to find accurate translations of different words in different languages? i so admire the way you use languages in your fics; it’s so impressive! please share your wisdom, linny, i would greatly appreciate it! :)

(aka a struggling writer that has found that googling just doesn’t cut it)

I am flattered by this ask but feel the need to emphasize that much of the language stuff in my fics is totally made up! Like, I do often use real words, and try to mimic the sounds of some real words sometimes but especially in the case of Suli I am imposing a pretty much entirely fictitious grammar. I also take real words and declare them to have alternate meanings. I am neither doing pure conlang nor representing authentic languages.

All that said! Wiktionary is my best friend. I often use an online dictionary (Cambridge has a good selection of languages and will often save you from, for example, wanting a translation of “give up” and unwittingly getting words that mean “[hand over] [opposite of down]” instead of “surrender” or “leave off”) to get either a word I want or a close relative. Then I take the word the dictionary gave me to Wiktionary to see things like its grammatical construction, its etymological root, or its cousin words, and then I fuck around until I get a sound I like.

(For example, the Dutch word “to fuck” is “neuken.” I didn’t like the sound of that, so I took it to Wiktionary and found the slang synonym “batsen,” which also means to bounce or slap. I wanted to mimic the hard sound of the English “fuck,” so I switched the s and the t, and so when Kaz is talking dirty in the Ballads fics, he uses a lot of words with the root “bast-” including “verbast” to mean “fucking” in the sense of a gerundive intensifier, though literally meaning something like “befucked.” (Actual Dutch doesn’t use profanities as English-speakers think of them as intensifiers.) The ver- prefix as a gerund is parallel to when Kaz asks Inej not to leave him— “jet kennet me verzaken,” with the last word breaking down literally to ver-zak-en, something like “do leaving to, make left.” But also cognate to the English “forsaken,” which is really why I did it.)

I hope this confession of my tangled and honestly somewhat whim-and-aesthetics-driven methodology doesn’t diminish me too much in your eyes! I am so, so serious about my apologies to languages.

I have now edited this twice for clarity; I am so bad at this; I’m sorry.

house of the dragon & religious imagery 🤝

Sophie Isabella FW25