I’m making this post for my own dang reference later on because I like making all my characters multilingual and dang if I can keep track of which languages they know (it’s useful for dramatic and comedic purposes for them to be able to leave each other out of certain conversations)
Asher: first language is (Canadian) English, he knows conversational German from studying there for university and like 5-10 sentences in a bunch of other languages so can (at least kind of) talk to as many people as possible (his dad was 1/2 Chinese and spoke Mandarin but died when Asher was 2 and his mom was actually half Inuk but grew up in Toronto and didn’t know the language)(this is where the “2/4 white” joke Asher makes in-story comes from as well).
Ziya: first language is actually... Sakha/Yakutian! And then Russian. He doesn’t remember Sakha at all because he was (forcibly) removed from that environment when he was young and then only spoke Russian until he was about 18. Learned English from a very formal and well-educated English-speaker so his English seems very good aside from the occasional slip up. Knows basic Japanese from living there for a while. His accent through all languages is Russian.
(I always end up skipping the TMU cast that’s not Asher/Ziya but they’re just not in as much of the story???? Hmm...)(most of them speak English and Japanese in at least some capacity, which makes sense because the story takes place in Tokyo)(I’ll include Kanti tho)
Kanti/Rajani/etc: is a demigod(dess) who has been around for the entire history of the earth and unlike her siblings, awake and relevant through it all. She knows every language, possibly partially due to deity powers. Most of her aliases are Indian (although specifics vary) and one of them, “Shivali” is the one who taught Ziya very formal English. She’s able to put on accents for affect as she chooses.
Jimmy: knows Korean and English fluently. His mom is Korean and still hesitant about speaking English sometimes, and he lived in Seoul in his early childhood and middle school years. (His dad is American but the child of two Southeast Asian immigrants--he only knows (American) English and knows less Korean than Jimmy & Jimmy’s mom do.) In elementary school, Jimmy lived in San Fransisco and in high school & university Vancouver. His accent in English is still pretty Californian.
Freyja: knows way more languages than is normal from watching TV & the internet. She’s actually very intelligent and able to pick up languages quickly, but since she communicates primarily in memes and movie quotes, it’s hard for most offline people to understand her lol... her native language is German, but she speaks fluent (American) English from TV. Also fluent in Czech (lived in Prague for a while), Japanese (too much anime), and Russian (her dad is 1/2 Belarusian). Started learning more Korean after befriending Jimmy.
Yan: born and raised in Hong Kong, knows English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Mostly speaks English (the private school she went to used English).
Xiao: also born and raised in Hong Kong, also knows English, Cantonese, and Mandarin fluently, but smatterings of other languages as well. He was in a gang for a while (like organized crime type) that did business with foreigners. Like Asher, he picked up other languages conversationally; he’s a pretty outgoing person by nature.
Miyali: been around for thousands of years and her nature as “Desire” includes desiring knowledge. so if she doesn’t know a language, she’ll learn it almost immediately. She’s a demon, she can get away with it. Mostly speaks English in-story because that’s the shared language of all her teammates. Might put on an accent for kicks.
Nova: demigod(dess), been around thousands of years etc etc... she has been off and on asleep and not quite lucid for the past four thousand or so years, but she still picks up languages easily like her siblings (and Miyali). Speaks English with a Valley/Cali girl accent? Always sounds like she’s like, asking a question? And that carries over into other languages, too.
Memento: accidentally got stuck in the deep sea for the past few thousand years, came out knowing like, Sumerian and Akkadian or whatever, had to learn other languages ASAP. It’s unknown if they know as many languages as their sisters. In their hesitance to talk to people, they unfortunately picked up most of their recent language skills from media like Freyja, so ironically, this makes them one of the people best able to converse with Freyja aside from Jimmy.
Gil: last one that’s been around for thousands of years! His first language was (check my research on this) Sumerian. Gradually learned other languages living and traveling around the world. Some of his language skills might be rusty or dated depending on how recently he’s used them. Speaks very informally because he thinks he’s the boss around... everywhere... and doesn’t have to show respect to anyone (specifically puts himself on the same level as the demi-deity trio).
