itd. (etc.)

I thus vratimo se disconnectedom smorgasbordu.
(And thus we return to a disconnected smorgasbord.)

2023/05/14

Basil wakes up in the hospital, with Kel, Hero, and Aubrey standing nearby. Hero: “Hey, Basil. How’re you feeling?” He holds up a card that reads “How much does it hurt?”, below which is a pain scale from 1 (Not at all!) to 3 (OK) to 5 (Horrid Agony). / Basil’s response: “P… Pet….”. Kel: “‘Pet’? You want Hector? /Here??/” Aubrey translates: “Five. He means five….”

Needs no translation. The language of pain is universal.

2023/06/03

Pingpong jezika (of languages) strikes opet (again), but this time it’s mostly self-explanatory.

Green-tinted living room. Aubrey looks over Basil’s shoulder as he attempts to match various Croatian words like puzzle pieces. The correct answers are written. Basil’s version, however, as read aloud by Aubrey: “‘You care about your flowers’… ‘You worry about your friends’… ‘You take care of photography’… and you’re interested in spiders.” Basil is affirmative. Aubrey… less so.
🇭🇷

Da!
…Pretpostalvjam…

🇺🇸

Yes!
I… suppose....

I’m not actually 100% sure if the word is fotografija (photograph) or fotografiranje (photography) because Wikipedia implies the former??

Again, then. This time Aubrey kneels on the ground next to Basil, and hands him a paper and pencil. He misses the Croatian words, but in reply to “Fill in the blank,” Basl is eager. / He proceeds to stare, increasingly perturbed, because he can’t think of any examples. —unless: / (I care about): Sunny! (I worry about): Sunny! (I take care of): Sunny! The last one is also filled ‘Sunny’ but Aubrey interrupts: “No.” “H-huh?” “No. Stop it.” “B-But,” Basil protests, in Croatian even— Aubrey swipes the pencil anyway. “/No./”
🇭🇷

Pokušaj Dva.

Aubrey: Završavaj ostatak.
Basil: Oh! Hoću!

Basil: Ali, jest istina…

🇺🇸

Attempt 2.

Aubrey: Finish the rest.
Basil: Oh! I will!

Basil: But, it is true…

This time Aubrey just yells at him; a mildly panicked Basil is loud right back. A: “What do you do for a hobby?” B: “I. I used to garden…?” A: “Good. [Translation, roughly.] / What or who would you take care of. /Other than Sunny/.” B: “Uhhh [attempted translation]” A: “[single word]. What concerns or worries you.” Basil answers something; clarification seems to be alright; A: “Well not—whatever”
🇭🇷

Pokušaj Tri… (će biti charm…?)

Aubrey: Zanima te vrtlarstvo.

Basil: Uhhh brinem se za baka—baku?
Aubrey: Odlično.

Basil: N-Nešto.
Aubrey: To znači…?
Basil: Ah— B. Brinem— Brinem za… sve.
Aubrey: U redu.

🇺🇸

Attempt 3… (will be the charm…?)

Aubrey: You’re interested in gardening.

Basil: Uhhh I take care of grandma
Aubrey: Excellent.

Basil: S-Something.
Aubrey: That means…?
Basil: Ah— I. I worry— I worry about… everything.
Aubrey: Okay.

A: “Last one: Who else do you care about?!” Basil answers quickly, pointing at her. He even makes a full sentence out of it. In response Aubrey calls him a kiss-ass; Basil: “Yeah, but—” (she shoves him in the face, he continues anyway) “—uh, how’d I do?” Aubrey: “[One-word assessment]. Go home.” (Basil: “This… /is/ my house…”)
🇭🇷

Basil: Tebe!

Basil: Stalo mi je do… tebe!

Aubrey: Gotovi smo.
[…]
„Dobro. Go home.

🇺🇸

Basil: You!

Basil: I care about… you!

Aubrey: We’re done.
[…]
Good. Go home.

Essentially this plays on various ways to express care/concern. Which I think the sequence covers as-is, but for extra clarity (all examples in first-person singular):

  • Stalo mi je do [nešto], as you may have gathered from last round, ≈ “I care about [something],” specifically like one might care about a friend. Stalo mi je do mojih prijatelja ≈ “I care about my friends.”
  • Brinem za [nešto] is about worry, but the connotations aren’t positive; think “I worry about you (because you’re in trouble, I’m afraid for you).”
    • In retrospect “I’m worried for spiders” is a little weird, but Basil being Basil I guess it kiiinda works anyway?
  • Brinem se za [nešto], meanwhile, expresses that the speaker cares for something in the taking-care-of way.
  • Last but not least, zanima me [nešto] is a hobby-type care/interest. Basil being interested in spiders isn’t… technically wrong....

2023/06/14

> uči hrvatski (teach/learn Croatian)
> koristi (use) 👁️‍🗨️, which on Discord renders as a black speech bubble with an eye in it, to indicate riječi “Crnog Prostora” (words of “Black Space”)
> at some point, make Cursed Emoji Face “👁️👄👁️” but with the Other eye
> unrelatedly, uči Slavenski Nešto
>

Cursed Emoji Face, but with a different shape for the eyes. Basil, in the foreground, mutters the following:

“Koji… actual kurac…” ≈ “What… the actual fuck…”

Basil really didn’t have to be here but I thought it was funnier that way. Cue this:

“Hi, Basil!” says bloody spirit-Mari, leaning out a funky-shaped “window” (same shape as above) and waving to Basil. Basil is not facing her.
🇭🇷

Prozor Duhu.

🇺🇸

Window to the Soul.

(Also no, I do not quite know what this so-called “Slavic Something” is yet....)

2023/06/26

A follow-up.

Basil, back in Black Space, opens a door; the caption contains a word with close resemblance to something that came up before. Second panel, the word is emphasized, and Basil is very melodramatically distressed about it.
🇭🇷

Taj osjećaj kad bojao si se ničemu.

Svih ovih godina bojao si se ničemu

🇺🇸

That feeling when you were afraid of nothing.

All these years you were afraid of nothing

“Ni o čemu” is not the big deal I drew it as: it means “about nothing.” As for why the word ničemu (“nothing,” on its own) gets split? Grammatical shenanigans. Which are not actually that complicated now that I have context but, once more in the name of art, Exaggerated Reaction Funney....