Intro Post

Rafal: [skeptically/pointedly] It's not a mogrif that plans to kill me in my sleep, is it?

Rhian: [uncertainly] It's cute, but what do you expect me to do with it? Aren’t rabbits high-maintenance creatures?

Rafal: [brusquely] No different from you then.

Marialena: [as a fairy, interrupting] We could sautée it with wine.

Rhian: [looks horrified.]

Rafal: For once I agree with her.

Rhian: [peeks in the doorway disappointedly] Oh. You didn’t fall for the prank I authorized your Nevers to play on you.

Rafal: [stares unimpressed at the clearly visible trip wire he deliberately stepped over] And? There’s still time for someone to fall victim to a prank today. Besides, you're a fool every day of the year.

I don't know if these are perfectly representative (some might be extreme/hyperbolic) but it's worth a try to articulate some:

Boop 🐾

Announcement*

I’m leaving. That is all. Farewell and thank you to all I've interacted with!

Details as to why below the cut:

Some unspecified British one. We have canonical evidence due to the Briticisms he uses (and, I think, the audiobook if we take that as canonical? I've never listened to the audiobook in full though). He seems like the type to use received pronunciation, I suppose? Not "street-argot?"

Depending on the dialogue, I don't always imagine him with a British accent. At least not too often.

I think his voice tends towards something "default" (standard Northeast?) American in my mind, but with some other musing lilt or another, unidentifiable foreign quality to it. Perhaps, the odd word here and there would be uttered differently since there is no "American" or widely viewed as "neutral" accent in his world.

He tends to default to "sounding" like however my internal monologue makes him sound (more like in terms of a certain intonation or cadence, usually deadpan, than an incredibly specific accent in my mind).

Here's a headcanon I don't really believe in, but that I find interesting and/or plausible:

What if Rafal's native language were German?

The majority of Western fairy tales referenced in SGE were once oral, collected by German Brothers Grimm who emphasized the violent elements of the tales (which were later translated) and so, for this reason, I think he could be German as he is both old and associated with all (Western) fairy tales in general.

Also, I associate him with the sorcerer Rothbart and his dark arts from the "Swan Lake" fairy tale or whichever tales (yes, plural) the ballet derives from. Rothbart has an unconfirmed nationality, but his tale has German and Slavic origins.

Plus, Rafal with a German accent combined with the stereotypical efficiency-personified(!)/optimizing-every-last-thing persona would just be hilarious.

Here's a depiction of he could be like, having an overbearing or sometimes taken-as-harsh presence:

This video basically approximates how I'd imagine some of his mannerisms.

Thoughts? Does anyone see my vision or disagree? I would be curious to hear other headcanons if anyone has them.

Despite sleeping well, I suspect Rafal wakes up on the wrong side of the bed every day, and that Rhian is sure to point that (his sour demeanor) out to him every morning without fail, even if it's just an act of restating the obvious. Rhian would probably be prone to lording his better nature over Rafal's anyway. Both twins are petty enough to do so.

And, as for why he sleeps so deeply, I suspect that even if Rafal awakened and found himself in a compromised situation of any kind, he'd be able to get himself out of it and besides, he is immortal, so being a light sleeper due to possible threats around wouldn't need to be a top priority as he's not as mortally vulnerable as others are.

Yes, he's paranoid, but he could be non-paranoid enough to reason that deep sleep would not be a liability for him and that it would result in his being better-rested and sharper. Essentially, anyone he encounters when waking could be a potential victim or "friend"-yet-to-be-manipulated candidate.

Never skip any readings and never use AI.

Think about it in this way if the temptation ever arises: most likely, you (not necessarily you, Anon—the general, collective "you" applies throughout) will be paying for your tuition and you don't want a machine to rob you blind of the chance to do the intellectual labor yourself. After all, would you give your education to someone else? No, right? So, an unthinking machine that produces hackneyed clichés of all things has absolutely no right to it either.

If that is not convincing enough, think of this instead:

Past generations never relied on AI or the "easy" way out (which results in less learning), so do you want to be worse off than them? Do you want to be "inferior" and less accomplished? No!

(If you "must" cheat, at least try to learn your lesson or something from the experience. Better yet, do not cheat at all! If you have, you've shortchanged yourself and have dented your integrity/self-image.)

Or, to put it even more extremely: do you want to represent the (probable) decline in academic performance as time goes on? Become a statistic? No. Right?

No one should want to be viewed as part of "those kids" whose literacy and writing skills have dropped, to the point that professors complain they have to teach/reinforce the basics before they even get to the target-level material you've paid for or earned your way to. Wouldn't you feel guilty if your professors complained about that, a problem which never before existed in their time? If you're not a part of the problem, you can at the very least separate yourself and feel like you're in a better position than those classmates who do use AI or who pad their papers with meaningless fluff.

Thus, the pressure isn't on, per se, but you don't want to become representative of the stupid side of humanity—and I imagine no one would want to if they could prevent it and have to sense to think for themselves.

Please, do yourself a favor by just trying, revising, and asking questions. It's not that hard.

And now, argument the third:

Would you trust a professional who only graduated because they relied on AI and are, in reality, incompetent? There's no telling what could go wrong and God forbid they were a medical student who should have failed who's operating on you.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Tw: Implied mentions of content and acts that happen below the belt. Non-graphic.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. (There might be other options—*cough*The Sorrows of Young Werther*cough*—but this is the first one that springs to mind.)

The intentional point of the book is to be pointless. It's probably considered experimental and it does admittedly have artistic merit for making such a bold move—it's just that the reading experience was unspeakably unpleasant. [Hyperbole, but still, it took me way too long and I had to force myself to finish it.]

I'm not lying about there being practically zero overarching conflict. Just take a moment to process and realize the gravity of such a situation. Literally, the storyline is about the futility of recovering a passably "normal" internal and external existence (I can't even say "life"—it's filled with hedonism that veers into stupidity and the distractions are the main events) as a war veteran. The protagonist also has sexual disfunction as what's holding him back from confessing feelings/lust. In a word, it's his battle wound in an... emasculating place.

So, almost the entire book is plotless/insignificant because the protagonist just keeps avoiding "romantic" confrontation and his excuse is... well, you can guess.

And people say Hemingway is representative of Spain just because he depicts some cultural practices accurately. Ok, well, I'm team-Cervantes! So hah! (And besides, I have more firsthand knowledge of northern Spain/Roman involvement, I guess, but of course, southern Spain/tourists' stereotypes are the most popular imagery out there.)

And, there's little discernible conflict that's ever addressed head on—and all that lack is compounded by the fact that Hemingway's voice is so unappealing and underwhelming to me. It's incredibly dry and plain—insofar as I could say: it's a fair assessment to think that a primary-schooler could have written it! Yes, the subject matter is above that, but on a sentence-level, why not? Probably anyone can write like Hemingway. Not as well on a structural/design level, but imitating his sentences? Yeah, it couldn't be that hard. Maybe I just don't appreciate his master strokes.

So, for all the clichéd comparisons people make, about how, "Oh, that John Doe so-and-so could be the next Hemingway!"—I believe in the sentiment behind the statement but not in the worth of the comparison. I just really do not like Hemingway's style and yet, that could very well be the single most defining feature of his writing.

And to think he and F. Scott Fitzgerald were expats together! I'm always probably going to be on Fitzgerald's side, even if some people might think the opposite problem is present in his work. Being superfluous. (Fitzgerald has much more lavish prose.)

No, unfortunately, I’m small, haha… Did you think I was tall for some reason? I’m about 153 cm or 5 ft tall. Though, I think I might be able to trick people into thinking I’m tall via my proportions, visually.