Box Speak

[Jo KIM]

Over time, we at CI have developed our own little culture in the chat box, which may be confusing to newcomers (and even some veterans!). So I'm creating this guide to help make communication easier. If you still have questions after reading it, or find I've forgotten something, feel free to bring it up. This thread will be open to comments.

Probably the first thing you need to know about the box is that actions are usually denoted by asterisks, i.e. *eats chocolate*, *wanders off for a bit*, *posted*, etc. That's probably also the easiest part to figure out! Some of our other stuff gets pretty odd and/or obscure.

Also, nicknames are given to most people/characters at some time or another. They are usually shorter versions, such as "El" for "Eleazar" or "V" for "Virote" (though Vardia now seems to have taken his nick over) or silly name corruptions, such as "Tito" for "Titus" or "Gabbeh" for "Gabby". Regno probably wins(?) at nicknames, being "Red", "Reggy", "Reggykins", "Regnoodle", and "Little Apple" (did I forget any?). They are mostly given out of love rather than malice, so please don't be upset if you get one.

1) Baby Talk

The first category of box slang is baby talk. I'm not entirely sure how it got started, but it's now in frequent use by many, if not most, CIers. Even if you don't like to speak it, it helps to learn.

• Bes (pronounced "bees") is a baby talk form of "is". It can be used pretty much anywhere you would use "is". The past tense is be'd, which is a form of "was" and may be used as such. Be may occasionally be used as a substitute for "are".
  
• Haves and gots are both forms of "has", and may pretty much be used interchangeably. The past tense form is usually haved or getted, which leads into our next entry. . .
  
• -ed is frequently used in the box to create past tense forms of words where it wouldn't normally, such as "runned" or "eated". It may also be added to words that already end in "-ed" to make them cuter, such as "scareded" or "posteded". (Other repeated syllables may be used similarly.)
  
• Wif (pronounced with a short "i") is the baby talk form of "with".
  
• Widdle Is the baby-talk form of "little".
  
• Da is a frequent substitute for the word "the".
  
• Nouns and adjectives as verbs In the box, most anything can be used as a verb, including nouns and adjectives. Thus it is perfectly acceptable to "cereal your yogurt" (stir cereal into your yogurt), for example. Proper nouns can be used as verbs, as well, in which case it means you are acting like the person or thing mentioned. Note the difference between *bes a Pacho* and simply *Pachos*; in the former you state that you are a goofy, flightless Argenian bird, while in the latter you're just acting like one.
  
• -ie is added to the end of a word, frequently an animal, to make it cuter, such as "fishie" or "owlie".
  
• -le is frequently added to actions, such as "huggle" for "hug" or "pettle" for "pet" to make them cuter.
  

2) Animals and Creatures

There are a number of sentient animals and creatures that make appearances in the box. Most of them do not speak, but communicate through thoughts and actions expressed between asterisks.

• HoD is the little dancing puffball which represents our former co-admin. Variants adopted by others have included mini and fabulous, sparkly pink puffballs.
  
• Peesh is a type of green alien sheep created by HoD. They've been used to parade around the box en masse, or as part of a popular pseudo-sexual symbolism. They were also featured in the background of the infamous "Pants Sandwich" skin.
  
• Rei Yeti is a yeti in a long black wig and pink pumps, who has her origins in a very old CI in-joke, based on an old Rei application that was sorely lacking in detail. She's been known to storm around the box speaking broken English, and was also featured on the "Pants Sandwich" skin.
  
• Jaki is a black and gold halfmoon betta fish NQS gave Galaxia while she was guest-starring in the first CI holiday special. He has a toy rocket ship in his tank, with which he thinks he can fly into space. He is also the official mascot of CI's sister site, Asgaardian Senshi.
  
• Carbucketty is a blue and yellow halfmoon betta fish who has become Jaki's rival. Though he claims to live in a frozen alley puddle, he actually has a tank with a toy pirate ship and skeleton, and believes himself to be a space pirate.
  
• noodle (always lower case) is an apparently sentient ramen noodle Jaki keeps as a pet. Because of him, Jaki frequently campaigns for noodle rights. His name appears more often as a verb, where it's believed "noodling" involves wriggling in a limp, noodly way. . . we think. . .
  
• Workies are impostor wormies, and look identical other than being a sickly grey-green, while real wormies are a bright reddish-brown. They came about because of a typo, and have taken on a life of their own since. While the bettas enjoy eating wormies very much, they hate workies, which they claim taste like feet.
  
• Pachos have become the most popular and ubiquitous of the invented Argenian animals. They're described as goofy-looking birds a bit smaller than chickens, which sport rainbow plumes of feathers, and sound like car horns when they honk.
  
• Ocubus (plural Ocubi) is a dangerous Argenian animal that lures its prey in with the illusion of an attractive man or woman and lays its eggs inside a person's body. The host feels the inexplicable urge to return to the ocean. When the eggs hatch, the babies tear their way out of the body, thereby killing the host.
  
• Francisco is Titus' pet rooster. If you haven't seen him in a while, he's probably off visiting relatives in Spain.
  
• Bubo is an owl (originally drawn by Hikaru as a contest prize) who likes to sit on people's heads, and has been known to sing The Who's "Who Are You?" despite not normally being able to speak English.
  
• Pilosus is Regno's pet tarantula. (An Argenian tarantula and childhood pet, I think, so how he's alive in the box is another of our many mysteries!) Despite his attempts to be tough and scary, he's really kind of goofy and adorable.
  
• The Freaky Thing is just what it sounds like. It occasionally pops in to wreak havoc and spew incomprehensible jumbles of letters.
  
• Rapture is Chinika's kitten, whom she named after the first Argenian she met and the one who touched her the most despite their short acquaintance. She's mischievous, spunky, and spoiled rotten, as Chinika treats her more like a human child than a pet.
  
• The Singing Cactus is a cactus. . . that sings. . . and seems to have a fan club. Yes, it takes requests!
  
• The Llama in a Wig is pretty self-explanatory. It changes its wig every day, usually to resemble a CI character, though there have been exceptions. It refuses to answer us about where it gets or stores its vast collection of wigs. When visiting us in the box, it enjoys hooraying (despite not being able to speak any language), eating kawaii grass (whatever that is), and contributing to the conversation with a very. . . unique understanding of things. Curiously, it doesn't seem to know what its own gender is.
  
• Cre-Cre is an impostor CereCere, invented by a former member who consistently misspelt her name as such and blamed it on her keyboard.
  
• Emotaru is a really emo impostor Hotaru, who usually bes alone.
  

3) Box Food

Yes, we have a lot of food smileys in our box, but they're important, damn it! Er, most of them. . .

• The dancing pickle is not a unique concept, but we do use ours in creative ways, such as Shintickle and the peesh-pickle-peesh smiley combo.
  
• Sammiches are a Jo staple, frequently eaten "@ her desk".
  
• Ebil cookies are delicious cookies made with raven eggs and the finest dark chocolate chips, frequently given out to welcome newbies and/or entice someone to the dark side (because everyone knows the dark side has cookies!). Occasionally a special batch is made with Grand Marnier in the batter, for very special occasions or to try extra-hard at tempting someone to the dark side.
  
• Ebil tacos came about when Mirek claimed to have only joined the dark side for the free tacos, only to be told there were no free tacos. Much, much later an ebil taco smiley was finally added to the box, just to make good on the taco promise.
  
• Hypnotic cake (which flashes the subliminal message, "kill the queen") is the traditional birthday offering on CI. Like birthday cake, it is said to have the power to make wishes come true. . . if you happen to be one of the more violent Arcana. . . The cake came about when Keiki was trying to figure out how she could help the Argenian cause, and decided to open a bakery where she created brainwashing cakes.
  
• The shot glass was created for Kou, our resident alcoholic Zodiac. At the height of its popularity, this smiley was involved in drinking contests that would've killed any real, living being anywhere but in our box. Try to use it responsibly!
  
• The pineapple is a Quartet reference, and has been used in games of bait and switch, or randomly thrown as a weapon.
  
• The tea cup was made as part of the tea parties once held in the box by Zoisite. The tea parties were best known for civil, intellectual conversation held between characters of all alliances.
  
• The pie erm. . . appears to be cherry. . . and it spins. . . Honestly, I'm not sure what the deal with that is.
  
• Happy Onigiri is an anthropomorphic onigiri from the "Bento Box" skin. In the days of frequent "Box Wars" between this site and Feng Shui, an "Avatar" RPG, the onigiri was once partially eaten, and spent some time instead as a sad-faced onigiri with a bite out of his head.
  
• Minion Treats are given out when someone has done a good job and deserves a reward. Invented by Regno when she wanted to reward Kylar for being such a good little minion. . . though she actually wanted them shaped like skulls rather than hearts. For some reason, I imagined them being meaty, like dog treats, but Regno says they are cinnamon.
  

4) In-Jokes

Though it could be argued some of the aforementioned sentient animals fall under this category (the bettas, especially), we've got more than enough in-jokes to have their own category without them!

• The boot came about from this video which NQS and HoD were obsessed with at the time. It works best if you put it between "scroll" tags so you can really fling it at people!
  
• The Trebuchet is used to fling random items at affiliates. At one time such "Box Wars" were frequent, but they've died down considerably. The Trebuchet has only been used a couple of times in recent memory.
  
• *cries and cries and cries* I didn't think this was a CI-ism, but but may just be, as I'm having trouble finding it elsewhere. May have been coined by Ava's original mun, who cried three times after Kakeru refused to kiss her in the box.
  
• Pseudo-sexual symbolism is the use of innocent smileys in a dirty context. Most popular have been Cancer's symbol, Vesta's symbol, and the dancing pickle surrounded by two peeshes. If you don't know what can be dirty about those, you're probably too young to know, so please don't ask!
  
• Going off to Starbucks in the middle of a battle actually happened in an infamous post by a former character, Aisling. The action was so ludicrous it's been frequently lampooned ever since.
  
• Shintickle is the romantic pairing of Shinta, a former character, and a pickle. Former co-admin HoD made a rather disturbing animated gif about that one.
  
• There are no Italians on Argenia was an assertion made by HoD because a former character, Lucius, used to say Regno's name sounded like pasta sauce. Subsequently, someone really did try to create an Argenian born in Italy, but was set straight on the matter. Later, Regno's "Human In Name Only" post went on a tirade against all sorts of human Argenians. Oddly enough, an Argenian with attacks named in Italian (but not actually from Italy) was eventually accepted.
  
• Stealth Puu/Stealth El/Stealth Pallas refers to characters whose box smilies are now or were in the past nearly invisible against the box background.
  
• Fingering El's Sheath was actually done (in a non-sexual way) by Kou in a thread. I believe every in-box usage since has been meant sexually (though only in fun, because El's mun is notoriously uptight about these things).
  
• The father of Kamekichi's babies is Avery. How or why, we're not meant to ask. Just know that the child support case will soon be appearing on "The Turtles' Court".
  
• Penguin has become box slang for a certain part of the male anatomy, after it was subbed in as a censor when posting a certain exchange in the quotes thread. This usage has spawned the very ecchi phrase "*slips in like a penguin*".
  
• Suck cracks has caught on as a substitute for saying something sucks. Its origin was as a typo made by Regno. Despite her attempts to hide the evidence, the typo made it into the quotes thread and into the vernacular.
  
• *bes a moustache* came about when Jaki tried to disguise himself as a stranger with a moustache. On closer inspection, the moustache was actually noodle, who uttered the line.
  
• Fake rules: Rule #1 is "No shooting da Jo!", after Dev did so during the palace attack. Rule #6573 is "There shall be no more striking Titus with phallus shaped objects or crushing him with blue balls," after he had a bad experience with Pallas during the same attack. Rule #371 is "No kicking Titus' roosta." Ahem.
  
• Regno's TiVo Regno's habit of spying on others culminated in saying she has security cameras wired to feed into a big-screen TV, and TiVos the actions of other Arcana when she's not able to watch them live. Her misunderstanding of how the service works has been a running gag ever since.
  
• Happy widdle fishie dances started with the bettas, of course, as an expression of joy. There are many variations, some not even involving fish. Probably the most notable is the "happy widdle owlie dance" started by Bubo.
  
• Costumes are sometimes worn in the box, by borrowing someone's sprite but using a name that makes it clear you are not that person, such as "Jaki in a Jo Costume". If you do this, make sure it's obvious you're just playing with costumes, because pretending to be someone else in the box for real violates box rules.
  
• Loki's top hat contains a large stash of hentai, amongst other (seemingly limitless) random items which may be pulled out at will. People have even been known to hide inside, at times. How they get in there, we're not meant to ask.
  
• Speak Argenian, man! is said when you have no idea what someone just said. Obviously, it works better if you're an Argenian, but it could be funny to see humans try to use it.
  
• *bes sugoi* is a blatant declaration of one's own awesomeness. Oddly, the ones who use it most often seem to have the least self-esteem for real. Variants include "*bes kawaii*", "*bes adorable*", and the ultimate "*bes OMGWTF SO SUGOI!*".
  
• Eating (insert random food here) @ one's desk is popular because let's face it, we all do it. . . some more than others. Frequently the desk food is a sammich, but anything that can be eaten @ a desk (whether it should be or not!) is fair game.
  
• Canadian Squiddies A former member who happens to live in Canada bought a betta fish, and tried to show off pictures of it. Her low-quality camera made him look like a vaguely squid-shaped blob, thus the fish has been called a squiddie ever since. The joke eventually morphed into saying that Canada is full of squiddies, or that "they're all squiddies there". (Nothing against Canadians! It's all in fun!)
  
• Pulling a Dev means faking one's own death, because he did so during our first story.
  
• With a "U" Carbucketty thinks using British spellings makes him seem classy, thus resulting in his (ever-mutating) title as "The Most Honourable, Sparkly, and Sugoi Space Pirate Captain King Carbucketty, Esquire". "U"s may be randomly added to statements in the box, pointed out to draw attention to them, such as, "That's my favourite-with-a-u kind of ice-cream!" Though Jaki has suggested that if one "U" is classy, two (or more) must be better, I suggest you stick to one.
  
• The box baby is Ross-Pierre Bartholomew Einar Monarch (yes, really -_- ), and he is the product of Regno and Titus' long-standing (in box only) affair. Like his mother, he is telekinetic, though he seems much more interested in hearts and flowers than conquest and destruction. Regno has been trying to teach him otherwise.
  
• Having a sad like Malik is just a play on the fact the museum head administrator's last name is Asad. Still more nonsense brought to you by Manami!
  
• Gabandying around is when you just hang around the site and chat without posting. This is named for Gabby, a former member who did this all the time. . . and whose other usual character name on RPGs was Andy (the names mutated into one as a convenience).
  
• The memes we don't have technically don't exist 'cause Kanbei said it's not a meme if it's only on one site. Being cheeky, we now refer to in-jokes as "memes we don't have", which in itself has become one of those memes we don't have.
  
• *but bes alone* came about because our member Hotaru lives in a vastly different time zone from most other members on the site, and for a while after she first joined, she seemed to rarely get online at the same time as anyone else. She would make that line when it became obvious that nobody else was going to reply to her in the box. Nowadays, members make and modify the line willy-nilly, no matter what the context. Gotta love our ever-changing lingo!
  
• Needs moar Padma is said when feeling uninspired, as Padma is Divya of Knowledge and inspiration.
  
  
  

5) CI Procedure

Some of the terms we use to describe day-to-day procedure around here are CI-specific, so just in case you needed to know. . .

• Stamping and Sorting is the procedure of approving a character app (moving it to the "Accepted Profiles" board, sorting into the appropriate usergroup, and updating the character's entry on the appropriate Canon List, if needed).
  
• Nastygrams are those notes staff members put on threads that are in danger of being closed for inactivity. If someone remembers why they're called that, do tell; I think the term's been in use longer than I've been on CI (which is a long time!).
  
• Close enough for government work means that while there still may be issues with a profile, the reviewer is stamping and sorting anyway. Usually this means the issues were too minor to warrant a re-review.
  

6) Local Terms

It's great that we have CIers from all over! But sometimes differences in local terminology can leave you wondering, "What did she say?" We'll try to keep track of some of the more frequently questioned terms here.

• Sweet Tea is a beverage unique to the American south. It's iced tea made with insane amounts of sugar. If you get it in a restaurant, it's often made with syrup instead of real brewed tea. I have it on authority from friends raised on the stuff that sweet tea sold outside the south is not the real thing.
  
• Teaspoon Position is a term brought to us from Israel, for that state you are in when you're so tired you start acting silly, saying silly things, and find everything hilarious.