Goneau2xr - GoneAU2xR

Is it Tsubarov or Tubarov?

So, this one is funny. As you can see above, the wiki has adopted the latter spelling, which originates from the translation of Glory of Losers and Frozen Teardrop by Zeonic Scanslations. It's also where "Bilmon" first popped up as a last name for the guy, by the by. If you look at the katakana, it spells tsu-ba-ro-fu, but as anyone who has learned the Japanese alphabet knows, there is no tu, so tsu is usually used in its place. Just like there is no si, only a shi, which leads to all the "city boy" humor. Meaning, a translator might find themselves pondering if they should go with tu or tsu in a name, especially if it's a made up one. And in this case, the translator decided to go with tu because he probably felt "Tubarov" sounded more correct. This is Gundam Wing though.

From the Gundam Wing Perfect Archive Series, p. 189. Tsubarov's name is supposed to be derived from the German word for 12, zwölf. The z in German is always a "ts" sound, so "Tsubarov" is actually the correct spelling. And before anyone thinks to themselves "well, why didn't they just go with the number then?" That's because the very first translators wanted to be phonetically close and anyone trying to pronounce zwölf who doesn't speak flawless German would probably end up saying some form of "ze-wolf" which doesn't even come close. The American dub had troubles pronouncing Hilde, for crying out loud. Like that's a hard name. So Tsubarov it is, just like it is Noin and not Neun. But. And here comes the funny part, which is just a euphemism for me having had to take linguistics, so now you all get to suffer through it with me. "Two" in German is "zwei". Depending on the region or if you watch Star Wars, you'll hear it pronounced "zwo", too, though. R2D2 is the most famous example. It also used to happen a lot on the telephone when people spelled telephone numbers or the number of a bank account etc. so that it doesn't get mixed up with 3, "drei". "Two" and "zwo" have the same root, the Proto-Germanic "twō". The difference is that English stopped pronouncing the w and German had a sound shift known as the High German consonant shift, where a lot of Proto-Germanic "t" sounds changed into "ts" which is how the letter z is pronounced in German. So, tomato, tomahto, or in this case, Tubarov, Tsubarov. It's amusing how a language on the other side of the globe lacking a tu ended up reverse sound shifting a name derived from a German word because a fan thought it'd sound better that way. What are the odds.

[on an undercover mission]

Quatre, about OZ soldiers: They’re looking at us, act natural.

Heero, motioning to the folder in Quatre’s hand: Spreadsheet, spreadsheet.

Wufei, nodding: War, war.

Quatre: Mobile suits, mobile suits.

Duo and Trowa: [staring at them]

Duo: …should we-

Trowa, turning away: Just leave them.

Duo: Do you guys blow your food when it’s too hot or do you just hasafashafsas till you can chew it?

Heero: Oh hasafashafsas for sure. I’m no coward.

Sometimes I can almost bring myself to acknowledge Frozen Teardrop, then I see Quatre’s sister clone and instantly lose all feeling.

[aboard Peacemillion]

Wufei: What the hell are you doing?!

Duo, not looking up: I’m building a bomb.

Wufei: On the ship?!

Duo: I was gonna put it in a box.

Wufei: What’s a box gonna do?!

For those of you who write military fics

If you have never been in, or aren’t around people who’ve been in, I would dearly love to give you a few pointers.

Let me preface this: I love it when people write military fics (be they AU or canon-fic). I love the characterizations, the story arcs you create, and the love with which you create the stories.

But I’d like to help you make the actions of military personnel as accurate as possible, so someone who’s actually in doesn’t start to read your fic and roll their eyes at some of the things you unknowingly write.

-First off, you do not salute in civilian clothes. It’s actually unauthorized. There are only two exceptions to this rule: the President is allowed to salute in civvies, and if the national anthem is playing outdoors, combat veterans are now allowed to salute. (That came about in 2010, for accurate reference.)

-Do not salute indoors, unless during a formation (but I doubt people who don’t have intimate knowledge of drill and ceremony would bother writing about a formation, so that point is mostly just thrown in for shits and giggles). 

-The army and air force do not say, “sir, yes sir”. That’s a marine thing (I’m not sure about the navy, since I’m not in the navy, but I’m sure someone else could help out if there’s a question about it).

-Saying “black ops” isn’t really something we do. For the army, you’ve got SF (which is how we refer to special forces–the guys you’re probably thinking about (”green beret” is an old term for them that’s not really used anymore)) and Rangers for the two big special operations forces. SEALS are the navy force, and I apologize, but I don’t know the other branches’ special forces. Again, ask someone who’s served in that branch.

-People don’t usually refer to themselves (or others) by their ranks. Exceptions are usually made if hanging out with people from your unit speaking about a superior, such as “Yeah, LT and I were talking the other day and …”. 

-Sergeants are not referred to as “sarge”. You have no idea how many people got the shit smoked out of them in basic for that error.

-Army goes through Basic Training (or Basic Combat Training now; BCT for short), and marines go through Boot Camp. Yes, there is definitely a difference in terms. Army people tend to refer to their initial training as simply “basic”. I don’t know about marines or other branches.

-Calling someone “Soldier” is really something only done on TV/film. It’s usually mocked by people who are in.

-In the army, it is against regulation to just stick your hands in your pockets. We mockingly call them “Air Force gloves”, though I don’t know if they typically put their hands in their pockets. There is also a big stigma against wearing “snivel gear”: the poly pro cold-weather protection gear worn underneath your uniform.

-The everyday Army uniforms are called ACUs (Army Combat Uniform). They are never called anything else, but especially not fatigues. If you’re going back to 2003 or earlier, the uniform was BDUs, or the Battle Dress Uniform. The tan uniforms worn during the Gulf War and first few years of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF; Afghanistan) were called first chocolate chips (gulf war-era) and then DCUs (Desert Combat Uniform). 

-The dress uniform is called something different depending on what time period you’re going for. Saying “dress uniform” is usually a good bet, because you’ve also got Class A’s, Class B’s, ASUs, Dress Blues, Khakis, etc. 

-Typically when meeting someone else who’s in, the first things you ask are, “What’s your MOS (military occupational specialty–your job)? Where were you stationed?” Giving out rank and deployment backgrounds out of the blue don’t usually happen. 

-Time spent in the military is usually referred to as simply being “in”. “How long were you in for?” is heard way more often than “how long did you serve for?” That question is usually asked by civilians. 

-There are enlisted, and there are officers. Enlisted are those who start out as privates, work their way up through the NCO, or non-commissioned officer ranks: sergeant (called “buck sergeant” in a derogatory term for someone who has been freshly promoted), staff sergeant, sergeant first class, and eventually get to first sergeants and sergeants major after fifteen to thirty years in. Officers also usually start out as privates and specialists, then graduate from college and commission as second lieutenants (the derogatory term is “butter bar” and is usually used in reference to said officer’s lack of experience and knowledge) before working up to first lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel (”light colonel”), and colonel (”full bird”). The general timeline is making captain (”getting your railroad tracks”) after about 5-8 years for competent officers, and spending 5-10 years as a captain. 

-We do not stand at parade rest unless forced. Ever.

-Or at attention.

-When talking to an NCO, a lower enlisted will stand at parade rest. When talking to an officer, an enlisted will stand at attention.

-The highest ranking NCO is lower ranking than the lowest ranking officer. 

-If you want to throw in some humor, if there is a lower enlisted (E-4 (specialist) or below) joking with an NCO, and the lower enlisted says something, the NCO can snark back with, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you because you weren’t standing at the position of parade rest.” It’s a dick move usually to call people out for that, but it happens often enough that if you put that in a fic, someone who’s in will likely laugh at that for a few minutes.

-There is a term for a slacker in the army called POG (pronounced “pohg” with a long o). It stands for Personnel Other than Grunt, meaning everyone who’s not infantry. The term has transformed to mean anyone who shirks their duty or is kind of a shitbag and should be kicked out. 

 -There’s also a bit of a stereotype that infantry are made up of dumb guys, because you don’t need a high GT score to get that MOS. Their nomenclature for their MOS is 11B (eleven bravo), which is often referred to as an “eleven bang-bang” when trying to insult them. 

-If someone is making someone else do push-ups, they do not say “drop and give me x number”. They’ll tell them either to push, or tell them to get in the front-leaning rest. The front-leaning rest position is the starting position for the push-up. 

-Usually referring to basic training and AIT (advanced individual training, where you learn your military occupational specialty), you get “smoked” on a regular basis. This refers to PT (physical training), usually in the form of push-ups, flutter kicks, and sprints. It’s not fun. One of the least favorite phrases to hear in basic is, “Platoon, attention! Half-left face! Front leaning rest position, move. In cadence! Exercise!” Because that is the full command for getting people to do push-ups. There is literally no other reason for the half-left face movement. It honestly exists only for push-ups.

-It is awkward as fuck to be told “thank you for your service”. It’s wonderful that people want to show their support, but it is very difficult to respond to that without sounding like a douche.

I know I said a lot about basic training in there, but that’s because I tend to read a lot of fics that are either about basic or about deployments. I can give some pretty firm answers on basic, but everyone’s deployment is different, and I also could be violating a shit-ton of OPSEC (operation security) by telling you guys specific details about deployments. Everything I’ve told you is information you can look up on your own on the internet, but this is a bit more insider’s culture for you to help make your stuff more accurate.

And if you ever find yourself writing a military fic and have questions, by all means, inbox me. I’ve been in for almost nine years and I do have one deployment under my belt, so I can give you accurate army info. I’ve never served in any other branch, though, but I can probably give you a little bit more accurate info than what the movies do if you’ve got general questions.

Also, if you’ve got questions about PTSD, I can help with that. It’s not the cake walk that a good deal of fics portray it as, and it doesn’t always involve nightmares and aversion to touch. It can present as depression, intense anger issues, pulling away from loved ones, driving in the middle of the road, freaking out over pops, bangs, crashes and other unexpected noises, being easily startled by things other than noises, hypervigilance, the inability to sit with one’s back to the room, sudden bouts of anger, depression, tears, silence, or mood swings, among many others.

-Also, please, please, if you’re going to write about someone with a disability, or something that gave them a medical discharge, talk to me about the VA first, unless you’ve got a lot of knowledge about them. Not only am I in, but I’ve also worked professionally for the VA, some of that time in enrollment and eligibility, so I know a lot about disability pensions, who would qualify, what type of benefits they would qualify for, etc. I also know the ways that people can accidentally get screwed over from the VA. (It’s actually one of my long-term professional goals to change some of those things, so I am very passionate and very knowledgeable about it.)

TL;DR: I know shit about the military and the VA. Ask me if you have accuracy questions.

operation meteor show me the hidden 3x4 lore

Writing Traumatic Injuries References

So, pretty frequently writers screw up when they write about injuries. People are clonked over the head, pass out for hours, and wake up with just a headache… Eragon breaks his wrist and it’s just fine within days… Wounds heal with nary a scar, ever…

I’m aiming to fix that.

Here are over 100 links covering just about every facet of traumatic injuries (physical, psychological, long-term), focusing mainly on burns, concussions, fractures, and lacerations. Now you can beat up your characters properly!

General resources

WebMD

Mayo Clinic first aid

Mayo Clinic diseases

First Aid

PubMed: The source for biomedical literature

Diagrams: Veins (towards heart), arteries (away from heart) bones, nervous system, brain

  Burns

General overview: Includes degrees

Burn severity: Including how to estimate body area affected

Burn treatment: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degrees

Smoke inhalation

Smoke inhalation treatment

Chemical burns

Hot tar burns

Sunburns

  Incisions and Lacerations

Essentials of skin laceration repair (including stitching techniques)

When to stitch (Journal article—Doctors apparently usually go by experience on this)

More about when to stitch (Simple guide for moms)

Basic wound treatment

Incision vs. laceration: Most of the time (including in medical literature) they’re used synonymously, but eh.

Types of lacerations: Page has links to some particularly graphic images—beware!

How to stop bleeding: 1, 2, 3

Puncture wounds: Including a bit about what sort of wounds are most likely to become infected

More about puncture wounds

Wound assessment: A huge amount of information, including what the color of the flesh indicates, different kinds of things that ooze from a wound, and so much more.

Home treatment of gunshot wound, also basics More about gunshot wounds, including medical procedures

Tourniquet use: Controversy around it, latest research

Location pain chart: Originally intended for tattoo pain, but pretty accurate for cuts

General note: Deeper=more serious. Elevate wounded limb so that gravity draws blood towards heart. Scalp wounds also bleed a lot but tend to be superficial. If it’s dirty, risk infection. If it hits the digestive system and you don’t die immediately, infection’ll probably kill you. Don’t forget the possibility of tetanus! If a wound is positioned such that movement would cause the wound to gape open (i.e. horizontally across the knee) it’s harder to keep it closed and may take longer for it to heal.

  Broken bones

Types of fractures

Setting a broken bone when no doctor is available

Healing time of common fractures

Broken wrists

Broken ankles/feet

Fractured vertebrae: Neck (1, 2), back

Types of casts

Splints

Fracture complications

Broken noses

Broken digits: Fingers and toes

General notes: If it’s a compound fracture (bone poking through) good luck fixing it on your own. If the bone is in multiple pieces, surgery is necessary to fix it—probably can’t reduce (“set”) it from the outside. Older people heal more slowly. It’s possible for bones to “heal” crooked and cause long-term problems and joint pain. Consider damage to nearby nerves, muscle, and blood vessels.

  Concussions

General overview

Types of concussions 1, 2

Concussion complications

Mild Brain Injuries: The next step up from most severe type of concussion, Grade 3

Post-concussion syndrome

Second impact syndrome: When a second blow delivered before recovering from the initial concussion has catastrophic effects. Apparently rare.

Recovering from a concussion

Symptoms: Scroll about halfway down the page for the most severe symptoms

Whiplash

General notes: If you pass out, even for a few seconds, it’s serious. If you have multiple concussions over a lifetime, they will be progressively more serious. Symptoms can linger for a long time.

Character reaction:

Shock (general)

Physical shock: 1, 2

Fight-or-flight response: 1, 2

Long-term emotional trauma: 1 (Includes symptoms), 2

First aid for emotional trauma

  Treatment (drugs)

WebMD painkiller guide

  Treatment (herbs)

1, 2, 3, 4

  Miscellany

Snake bites: No, you don’t suck the venom out or apply tourniquettes

Frostbite

Frostbite treatment

Severe frostbite treatment

When frostbite sets in: A handy chart for how long your characters have outside at various temperatures and wind speeds before they get frostbitten

First aid myths: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Includes the ones about buttering burns and putting snow on frostbite.

Poisons: Why inducing vomiting is a bad idea

Poisonous plants

Dislocations: Symptoms 1, 2; treatment. General notes: Repeated dislocations of same joint may lead to permanent tissue damage and may cause or be symptomatic of weakened ligaments. Docs recommend against trying to reduce (put back) dislocated joint on your own, though information about how to do it is easily found online.

Muscular strains

Joint sprain

Resuscitation after near-drowning: 1, 2

Current CPR practices: We don’t do mouth-to-mouth anymore.

The DSM IV, for all your mental illness needs.

  Electrical shock

Human response to electrical shock: Includes handy-dandy voltage chart

Length of contact needed at different voltages to cause injury

Evaluation protocol for electric shock injury

Neurological complications

Electrical and lightning injury

Cardiac complications

Delayed effects and a good general summary

Acquired savant syndrome: Brain injuries (including a lightning strike) triggering development of amazing artistic and other abilities

Please don’t repost! You can find the original document (also created by me) here.

Duo: Who has four toothbrushes, royalty or something?

Hilde: No, that’s for a family.

Duo, starting to choke up: Family? Like, a whole family and their toothbrushes all together? Two slots for the parent toothbrushes and two slots for their kids?

Hilde: Yes.

Duo, close to tears: So the parent toothbrushes can be close to the kid toothbrushes and watch over them and they can all talk about their toothbrush feelings and they can hold their little toothbrush hands when they’re sad and make sure no harm ever comes to their little bristles?

Hilde: …Sure.

In Defence of Relena Peacecraft (Gundam Wing)

There is so much hate for this character it borders on insane. Especially when most of the reasons are dug up just so fans of slash pairings can sound less stupid. 

I’ll just get right to it.

Likes Pink and is Girly

Do I even need to defend her for this? Come on, so what if she likes pink? If a male character liked pink and is a little feminine we’d all say he’s adorable, but suddenly a female character does and it something to hate her for? What really gets me is that Relena doesn’t let her favourite colour and her feminism DEFINE her.

Weak, Stupid, Naive, Whiny, Useless

As I said above, she doesn’t let her personal preferences of colour and lifestyle define her. Sure she is probably one of the girly girls who love make up and teddy bears, but throughout the series she’s an INCREDIBLY strong female character who has to figure out her own way through a life that ends up turning into a cluster-fuck halfway through the beginning. 

Think about it. Is she weak? She grew up in a very privileged environment and then one day her life is turned upside-down when a bomb kills her dad and her goddamn school is being torn apart by mobile suits. She has stood stronger and more resilient than anyone of her age. So much so that she surprised even Heero. She continues to wade through bullcrap as she’s tried to find out the truth about what is going on in the world and how she could fix it all while her brother is working for the bad guys, some gundam pilot keeps telling her he’ll kill her and the politicians who are trying to use her as a tool for political power.

Oh yeah, and she then turns the tables on them and becomes Queen of the World.

Weak? I don’t think so. And she did all of this without ever having to call on a Knight in Shining Armor for help.

Maybe she was naive, but a stupid person could not have done what she managed to do and still continues to do after the war was done (becoming a prominent politician in the ESUN). 

All the while never complaining to anyone about her own problems and her own seemingly unrequited feelings for a boy. The only time she ever lets her personal feelings get in the way of the greater good was when she ran to Antarctica to stop Heero and Milliardo from killing each other. And as naive as she might have been thinking it could work…it did work. 

It was because of her that the Earth was finally united under one banner and finally close to peace until Milliardo declared war.

Heero’s Stalker and Nosy

She has never stalked him. Stalking refers to obsessive and unwanted attention towards the subject. She may have followed him once or twice, but she hardly stalked him.

As the anime went on, Heero was the on constantly seeing her instead and gaining her support in the process. I don’t know how people can overlook this and yet make such a big effing deal out of Antarctica and what have you.

I’ll just say this. Heero exhibits more annoyance with Duo than he ever did with Relena.

Relena in general is too complex of a character to just analyse in one sitting. She is complicated and she had to deal with a lot of confusion at the beginning with dealing with the death of her dad and off to find out her heritage AND finding out her brother is a villain. The only person who gave her an OUT from her sheltered and privileged life was Heero and it was natural for her to try and know more about him and why he was there. 

Being a pacifist stemmed from her finding out who she was and that her real family was destroyed trying to bring peace - a very noble mission. Like any teenager, she probably wanted to make a difference in the world (that she finally realizes is in bigger crisis than she had thought). The difference is, she actually follows through and gets her hands dirty. 

All without sacrificing her girliness. You don’t HAVE to be some badass femme fatale to save the world. You don’t HAVE to shoot guns and bash skulls to save the world. She knew that the world has gone through enough of that and people want peace. 

And that is exactly how she won the hearts of the Romerfeller Foundation and overthrew Duke Dermail completely (when he originally only planned to have her be a symbol he could use to control the population). 

She may think about Heero a lot and say his name once or twice, but that’s just how things are when someone loves another and she never let it get in the way of what she needed to do for the world.