#165 words

[dodgerkedavra]

get yourself a partner

for the @drarrymicrofic prompt ball

Harry can’t dance with Parvati.

He’s blinded by the lights, sweating in his dress robes, about to be sick. The Great Hall swims and sparkles. Maybe he’ll faint.

Someone with bright hair and black robes sweeps in and seizes Harry’s hand.

“Sorry, Patil,” says Malfoy, sounding sincere. “Needs must.” Then he hauls Harry onto the dance floor. “Bow.” Malfoy demonstrates, so Harry copies him. Then Malfoy takes his waist. “Your left foot—” Malfoy presses the toe of his shoe gently against Harry’s. “—goes back first. I’m leading, can’t be helped. Don’t cry, Potter. It’s only a waltz. Ready? One two three—”

“You’re good at dancing,” says Harry, seven years later. To nobody’s surprise, Draco’s leading again.

“It’s easier, this time around,” Draco answers, and spins him. “You look significantly less ill.”

“I really liked your black dress robes—”

Draco pulls a face. 

“But I love the white ones best.”

“Yours aren’t bad, either,” says Draco, and kisses Harry to thunderous applause from their wedding guests.

[paperclips37]

Day 15: Bonfire. Gen rating. 165 words EXACTLY.

AO3 Link:

An actual fire was rare in the Pitt. Fights, screaming even the occasional knife being threatened. Frank had seen that. However a patient setting fire to an ambulance? That was new.

Halloween always brought out the weird.

‘Hmmmm I heard it was a pissed ex wife.’ Shen watched the fire fighters attempt to put out the flames.

Frank hm’d lightly. ‘I heard one of the paramedics owned money to a loan shark.’ They both laughed. Then Shen’s attention shifted.

‘Looks like King might have an admirer.’ He jerked his headed over to the left. Mel standing in the glow of the arson themed bonfire. Looking a little confused with flushed cheeks. A tall firefighter all up in her business. He was far too close. ‘Another admirer perhaps?’

Frank ignored the comment. Trying to ignore the burn of jealousy. Especially as she turned her head and smiled brightly at him.

Admirer?

Didn’t seem like a strong enough word.

Could he get marshmallows? Mel loved toasted marshmallows.

[mourningliliesmorningglories]

microfic may day 10: scene

drarry. 165 words.

read the rest here!

It's strange to think about running on bided time. Stranger still to know it.

When Harry saw Draco again, the first time in god knows how many years, he understood. No epiphany, no cinematic swell. Just the awful clarity of timing.

His great delay had ended.

This was the opportunity he had been patiently waiting for. And maybe, it was a slightly tough pill to swallow.

They fit together, not like puzzle pieces but something else. Two shards of pottery, welded not by tenderness but by tension. Friction.

Hands in hair, bruises on hips. Afternoon walks. Matching mugs, slippers, pajamas.

It was a deceptively simple scene.

So what if Harry could already see the headlights? Hear the humming of the engine? What if he could see his limbs contort into something otherworldly, folded outwards like wings with the impact?

He may not have known much. But this — this was certainty.

He would not survive it.

But maybe, just maybe, he’d be remembered for how he fell.

[jasonmyluv]

Project: Talking Cat. Excerpt B.

Cloudwatch is the first proper town a traveler would encounter in the Land of Changing Seasons after crossing the border from the Kingdom of Lands and Skies. Cloudwatch mostly hosted travelers who were journeying to Wildeminster or the City of Seasons. It was along the safest path to those towns as well: the fae had a hard time flying over the Crystal Bay, the Black Lake, and the Lover's Sea on account of the humidity prunes their wings. A ferry over the Black Lake was a good alternative, but ticket prices surged; flying over the Wandering Woods was out of the question, only the Flaiths did that because they were much more in tune with the lands.

This was all according to the fairy I encountered at the first inn I deemed half-decent enough to stay the night. I had been stuck listening to the tipsy fairy as he chugged his wine while the innkeeper was in the back looking for linens for my room.

[introspections-of-a-sunchil-blog]

Motherhood

Character(s): Adult!Li-Ling Madore (OC) and Baby!Carter Madore (OC) Universe/Setting: Sucree (Gaia online)  Word Count: 165

Babies were hardly in Li-Ling’s plans. Earning her Master’s and running her underground empire with her wife was her main priority. She was Mistress Red Lotus of Hong Kong and wife of the sensual sadist, Malice, with territory in the Americas. She never saw herself in the motherly role raising a child of her own. However, one day, a queen needed an heir to inherit her kingdom.

"Carter, do you want bananas and strawberries for dinner?" Li-Ling cooed lying on the floor beside her rolling child.

Carter’s curly hair bounced in its puffy pigtails as she rolled. Her juvenile attention stolen by the plush book upside in her hands.

Li-Ling tried again, sweetly, “Carter-baby, you need to have dinner soon.”

"No!" Carter snapped, displaying her mothers’ defiance.

Not knowing how to get through to her child, the Asian woman sighed in exasperation.

One day, she’ll be stricter to Carter. She was still new to this mother thing.

[funniest-facts]

The average dog can learn 165 words, count up to 5, and even have a basic understanding of arithmetic.

MORE OF FUNNIEST-FACTS are coming here

funny, interesting and weird facts only

[twowug]

Vocaloid, Singing Synthesizer Technology

I've never come across any linguistic analyses of Vocaloid singing synthesizer technology, so I decided to create one. Here is a brief explanation of what Vocaloid software is:

But before I begin my analysis, I have a question: why are singing synthesizers (like Vocaloid) made independently from speech synthesizers (like Microsoft Sam)? Wouldn't it be faster to just program the ability to sing in speech synthesizers?

After doing some research, I learned it's actually a lot more complicated than that. Sometimes people blend sounds together or pronounce things differently when singing (which is part of the reason some singers' singing voices sound like they have different accents).

A spoken rhotic accent pronounces the 'r' sound at the end of words like the 'r' in 'rack.' As MentalFloss.com puts it, "If most Americans sang those words the same way they said them, they'd sound like pirates. Instead, many songs force American singers to push the 'r' more towards a vowel 'ah' sound, the same way many Brits might pronounce it."

Noted. There are other fundamental differences between singing and speech synthesizers as well, but this is probably the most important one from a linguistic standpoint.

UTAU

UTAU gives users the freedom to create voice banks that suit specific music styles and languages. Each UTAU's voice bank is unique. I experimented with UTAU voices as I worked on this analysis.

[I was going to share specific sound file examples throughout the Vocaloid entries to exemplify ways vocaloids can be improved, but the files were taking too long to convert. My apologies.

Regardless, I used UTAU a lot to come up with the meat of my analysis and form suggestions for specific ways Vocaloid can be improved. So here's a sample of what UTAU sometimes sound like, for the sake of comparison with Vocaloid:]