#𝄞⠀⠀tertiary tier

[priestthing]

" LIVE IN THE SHADOWS . "

hoard blog for @nerdiette / @francicide labels i cannot reblog are here psd by buni-cheri , roughhousing

pt: "live in the shadows." hoard blog for nerdiette / francicide labels i cannot reblog are here (link not added). psd by buni-cheri, roughhousing

[janmisali]

[NOT APRIL FOOL’S RELATED]

As the only supermariologist I follow, I wanted to know your opinion on a shower thought I had regarding the Mario franchise, specifically, what might be considered the “Main Cast” of the super Mario franchise.

I’m mostly curious about:

A) is there an official or semi-official set of characters defined in this way?

B) if not, what is your personal opinion (if any) on who that might be and what criteria that would require

Considering Mario, Peach and Bowser are almost certainly part of that cast (though Bowser is an antagonist…) I would say characters that appear or are playable in most if not all of the games who’s plot revolves around Bowser kidnapping Peach should be counted. That leaves me with Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad (but is he a single character?), Yoshi, and Bowser.

I imagine that this is one of those things like “what is a mainline super Mario game” that has multiple ambiguous answers, but simply interested to know your way of approaching it!

this is a great question!

so there actually is a semi-official list of "main characters" for Mario in the same way there's an official list of mainline Super Mario games. over on mario dot nintendo dot com slash characters we can see that the main characters are:

Mario

Luigi

Princess Peach

Toad

Bowser

Yoshi

Daisy

Wario

Waluigi

Rosalina

Bowser Jr.

Boo

Donkey Kong

Diddy Kong

whether or not this list is an actual satisfactory answer to "who are the main characters in Mario" is another question altogether of course. besides the obvious questionable things here, I'd like to point out the odd inconsistency of referring to "Princess Peach" by her full title while being on a first-name-only basis with Bowser, Daisy, and Rosalina. fun!

personally, I'd say there are a few different "tiers" of main character status in the Mario games. the main main characters are Mario, Luigi, Bowser, and Peach. like, literally only those four. those are the four characters where it is always remarkable when a Mario game doesn't include one of them in a major role.

tertiary main characters would include all the recurring playable characters in ensemble multiplayer games, like Waluigi and Diddy Kong. (Diddy Kong would count as a main character if we were talking about Donkey Kong characters, but the question is about Mario characters, and Diddy Kong is definitely a tertiary main character in Mario games specifically) the real interesting question is who counts as being a "main character" at the layer between these two tiers.

I think Yoshi, Toad, Wario, and Donkey Kong are all a given for secondary main characters, but beyond that I'm really not sure! should Toadette count? what about Nabbit? Daisy? Kamek? Bowser Jr.? the Koopalings? Toadsworth? who knows! it's all very debatable, and there's no definitive answer here. nintendo's official list certainly isn't helping!

[sgiandubh]

It's all fake, anyway

Oh, my. The last two or three video snippets in Marina del Rey. The revolt. The pearl-clutching. The hate.

Again, you know nothing, Jon Snow. It's all about the medium being the message, again: carefully calibrated snippets of information, destined to a captive, deeply divided and (how can I put that without sounding offending, I wonder) unexperimented (yes, that's decent enough) audience.

During the last 24 hours, we've got the Marina del Rey gin promo & MPC teambuilding (hardly an orgy, btw) and C's MUA (or is it hairdresser? irrelevant) hinting on Instagram about a photoshoot at a gin distillery in a #beautifullocation, somewhere on Earth, presumably in Scotland - given her last IG follow. No further details, of course. Very probably a (late-) latergram, too, when she finally got the green light to publish it. Implying nothing, but leaving a boulevard bandwidth for people to infer whatever suits their own narrative. Expect FMN news soon? I highly doubt that and stand corrected: the last photoshoot (with McSideburns, in London) was on May 3rd, when she needed to somehow show the world the Two of Them were continents apart. Identical modus operandi. And always, always via tertiary players.

As for the Marina del Rey teambuilding, if you think that is 'S living his life' you are: a) living in a remote mountain/island area or under a rock; b) an impenitent Mordorian with an agenda to boot or c) incredibly incompetent with the way of the world (or at least, that world). Allow me to translate?

It is alcohol promo, duckies, disguised as teambuilding. The intended message is aimed at a younger, non-OL related audience (as I already warned you) and it roughly goes like this:

'we are a fun loving, no nonsense, start-up business in the spirits industry. Because we don't have a huge advertising budget, we're testing the waters with a cheap, reality-TV snippet to better evaluate the number of social media clicks and new followers and help gauge & calibrate the next step'.

Was it poorly executed? Yeah, you could say that, but then what to do, in a very restrictive, highly regulated tobacco & spirits advertising market, hum? Is it my cup of tea? I don't drink, therefore this type of message touches one ball without really moving the other.

Yes. Start-up business: if we take into account the COVID logistic delay, I believe we're still in that three-years frame. And this detail is essential in order to put context around a very forgettable snippet. Selling a brand-new, more democratic product. Selling it clumsily, in an effort to build relevance, because even bad advertising is, ultimately, good advertising. But make no mistake: it's nothing more than that and it is all they can do, in the current context.

This brings to mind another aspect of the charade, namely the fact that after the Remarkable Week-end (and with the exception of some carefully scripted 'slips'), released and available information progressively became (at least) two-tiered.

First tier: information carefully calibrated for immediate release and general consumption, primarily but not exclusively by the fandom. This includes: spirits shilling, innuendos galore, look-here-not-there latergrams. It also entails less direct interaction with the fans on socials and delegating the media management to secondary players (often called to the rescue, too).

Second tier: public information with a limited availability (you have to take the plunge and pay), for sleuths able and willing to go the extra mile. They paint a very different landscape. And draw two copycat timelines of people who are investing, buying and selling property and overall branching out of their primary source of income with a plan.

I am not a photo sleuth. But with a little bit of time on my hands, I am a decent paperwork analyst. Accounting is not my forte, but legal and business is. I saw what I needed to see and it holds.

So before you start screeching (bad idea, right?), remember this (credit given to @dillon7fan, thanks):

Not really: it is doctored make believe. Bless your heart, honest guy.

Next stop, Tehran. Yes, you read that correctly.

This evening or tomorrow, at the latest. Because context is everything and this fandom severely fails at this.

[mariacallous]

CUT DEEP into the innards of the southern front, Ukraine’s first underground hospital feels like something out of a James Bond movie. State-of-the-art gadgetry begins with admissions. Wounded soldiers arrive directly from the battlefield: in cars, ambulances, quad bikes, or whatever else can carry them. They are assessed and colour-coded into modules by urgency: “red zone” cases for immediate operations, “yellow zone” for other treatment. Alongside an operating theatre, enclosed in steel barrels several metres below ground level, is an intensive care unit. There is a ventilator, and even a laboratory for blood tests. The centre is set up for sophisticated operations: bone repair, soft tissue reconstruction, and even arterial bypass surgery.

In military jargon, this is a “role 2” facility, the second of four treatment tiers from frontline triage to tertiary hospital care. Doctors move people on if they can. Those stable enough are whisked off to “role 3” facilities, approximately 30km away. The rest are treated and stabilised here, a little over 10km from the contact line. The hospital’s immaculately joined wooden beams—chosen over concrete to soften shrapnel in the event of a Russian strike—project a deceptive warmth, like being in a Scandinavian sauna. The drones and glide-bombs that terrorise the skies outside make clear that this is not a place to relax. Ukraine’s medics are here, underground, not by choice. Like the soldiers they treat, they are among the hunted.

Evhen, the underground hospital’s chief medical officer, grunts at any suggestion that Russia might follow the Geneva conventions, which forbid targeting medical units. “They don’t even know what it means,” he says. To the Russian military, doctors are “force multipliers”—they patch up soldiers and send them back to fight, take a long time to train and are hard to replace. Ukraine now tells its medics to remove any markings that might set them apart. “If you put a red cross on a car, you’ll be fired on within 15 minutes.” The goal is still to get wounded soldiers from the frontline to a role 2 treatment unit within an hour, but drones drag out the process, often for hours. The delays often mean life or death; limb or no limb. Leave a tourniquet on for more than a few hours, and tissue damage is irreversible.

Ukraine believes survival on the battlefield is the key to regaining the edge in a war that has become largely attritional. The underground hospitals are a key part of the puzzle, says Roman Kuziv, the 35-year-old doctor who helped design them. A technocratic planner with experience of working as a surgeon in Europe, Dr Kuziv has quickly risen through the Ukrainian ranks: from local hospital chief to medical commander of the entire eastern and southern front. He lets data guide him to new standards and protocols. War pulses through the monitors in front of him. He claims the medical data give him “80% of the picture” about what is happening on the battlefront. Where units are well organised and where they are not. Where morale is good and where it is not. He makes a call to commanders whenever he spots a problem.

Swiping through images on his smartphone—a surreal blend of family photos and flesh wounds—Dr Kuziv reveals the brutal injuries and hard choices his teams face daily. He pulls up a photo of a man with a gaping hole in his upper body, alongside a kidney sliced in two, and a 30cm slab of missile metal that had been lodged deep in his midriff. “Did the man make it?” Remarkably, yes, he did. Another soldier, this time with a deep gash across his back, part of his spine missing, internal organs spilling out. That soldier survived initial surgery in the underground hospital, but died two days later. A third clip shows a soldier in his 30s, convulsing violently as he tries to drink a cup of water. What was up here? “Hydrophobia,” the commander says. “An extreme aversion to water.” In short, the soldier had rabies, caused by a single bite from a cat, and it was too late to save him. The army saw a handful of such cases before culling wild animals in the area.

Almost three years of war have brought Ukraine’s army doctors a mountain of unexpected challenges. Drones have largely rewritten the rulebook on battlefield wounds: the numbers are rocketing, and the attacks are more persistent, more targeted. The “golden hour”—NATO doctrine for evacuating a soldier to proper care within 60 minutes—has become something closer to fiction. Chemical weapons have returned to the field, too, with the re-appearance of agents like chloropicrin, a poison gas first seen in the trenches of the first world war. The gas, used to flush out Ukrainians from their trenches and foxholes, attacks the soft tissues of the respiratory system. At higher doses, it kills.

The demands have seen Ukrainian military medicine develop in quick time. Today’s setup is unrecognisable from seven years ago, when Dr Kuziv first began working with the army. The commander regularly tracks Russian social media to gauge how well he is doing. He’s usually happy with the comparison with Russian front-line medicine. “It’s the second world war over there.” But the demands and need to stay ahead are relentless. The ministry of defence has just approved another 20 of his “role 2” underground hospitals, which are being co-financed by an industrial sponsor. The commander is also working on an overhaul of “role 1” facilities, front-line triage units. According to his futuristic vision, these will be accessible underground by a system of mechanical elevators.

There have been mistakes, thousands who could have been saved. But Russia’s war without limits would test the resources of any military medical service, Dr Kuziv insists. “All-out war gives you one or two months to study and adapt.” NATO countries should be thinking about how they would cope, he says. “Honestly, they are not prepared. They wouldn’t know what’s hit them.”

[ballgame]

These two (along with Father Alvin) feel like they're in this tertiary tier of importance to the game's overall plot; I wouldn't be surprised if one or both of them gets some sort of mostly off-screen arc.

[steveharrington]

hater moment but what is the point of making a character tier list if you put every main character in the top two “LOVE!” categories, every tertiary character in the middle “neutral :)” category and every villain in the bottom “DIE 😡” category like. yeah man

[prototypesteve]

The aromantic tendency to think about relationships in the same, “Ugh, was I supposed to go get one of those, by now?” semi-minded ways you think about secondary and tertiary tiers of furniture.

You don’t owe anyone the backyard or the plus-one they think you ought to have by now.

[tacoma-narrows]

Tac's OC Ref Masterposts 2: Primary OCs

See my other ref posts here: Sonas, Secondaries, Tertiaries

I wanted to have a series of posts where people can find all of my characters in one place! Since I have too many to fit them all into one post, I decided to split them up based on how much I use them/how developed they are, the same way they're split up on my Toyhouse.

I wanted to have their refs here so people can find them relatively easily and not have to go digging through their Toyhouse galleries to find them lol. If anyone ever wants to draw them, you are very much encouraged to do so!! Same goes for asks about my characters! Those are always welcome as well!!

These will have some general information about each of my characters, but if you want to see more about them in depth, each character's Toyhouse page will also be linked! If/when I update any particular characters' ref in the future, that will be updated here as well ^^

Will also include each character's theme song because I like showing those off too :3

See my primary OCs here below the cut!

PRIMARY OCS

These guys are also the ones I generally use the most often and have a fair amount of development, but aren't as much a direct reflection of me as my sonas are. That being said, a lot of them do still hold different facets of my personality here and there!

They're split into two categories: Upper Tier Primaries, and Lower Tier Primaries. This is mainly to differentiate between how much I use some of these characters, as I will admit that there are definitely some I use much more than others lol. Basically the Lower Tier ones are the characters that I don't use as much, but feel too connected to, or have enough development to not be demoted completely to secondary OCs lol

Between the two tiers, everyone listed here is listen in alphabetical order ^^

Upper Tier Primaries

Astro [Toyhouse Link]

Space cat who lives in space and does Space Things

Can visit the earth and interact with any of my other OCs

Can fly through space, leaves a streak/trail as he flies (like this)

Friends with Tarmac, as they both can hang out in space :3

Theme Song: Alligator Sky by Owl City

Eejanaika [Toyhouse Link]

SkyWing/RainWing hybrid

Name pronounced Edge-a-NYE-ka

Goes by Eej as a nickname

Has issues with anxiety and self-confidence

Demisexual, girlfriend of ThunderSnow

Has a short right horn, RainWing frill spines with no membrane, a double-pointed nose spike and is missing every other spine along her back as a result of being a hybrid

Name and design based on the old color scheme for the Eejanaika roller coaster at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan

Theme Song: Trip the Light by Garry Schyman and Alicia Lemke

Kickflip [Toyhouse Link]

Cool skateboarder guy

Competitive rivals with Seabreeze

Friends with Rye

Boyfriend of Floatie (owned by @/macaronichewtoyz)

Fun fact: his hat is based on a hat that I (used to :[ ) own!

Theme song: Hollywood by Flickerstick

Luau [Toyhouse Link]

Major comfort OC

Very chill, laid back attitude

Good friends with PB and Shep

Occasionally guest vocalist for Let's Get Back! and often runs the lights/effects for their shows

Always has a flower in her hair, but can be any flower!

Girlfriend of Seabreeze

Theme Song: Otter Pop by Shawn Wasabi and Hollis

Moxie [Toyhouse Link]

Celestdog - Siberian Husky

Another major comfort OC

Loves to have fun, can play a little rough sometimes but always means well

A bit bigger and more stocky than Isaac

Sister to Isaac and the rest of the Celestdog family

Theme Song: Fly By The Wayside by Skye Sweetnam

Pumpernickel [Toyhouse Link]

Twin brother to Rye

Drummer and backup vocalist for Let's Get Back!

Easygoing and relaxed

Enjoys being outside at night

Theme Song: Sleepwalker by Owl City and Derek Fuhrmann

Rhazz [Toyhouse Link]

Huge comfort OC

Design and personality based around the Roaring Twenties

Super energetic and affectionate

Lesbian, girlfriends with Agouti

Stage performance partners with Foxtrot

Has a necklace, two hoop earrings on her left ear, a ring on her left horn and a feathered headdress (all are not optional when drawing her! I have a separate ref for them here)

Theme Song: The Golden Age by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

Rye [Toyhouse Link]

Twin to Pumpernickel

A bit more rambunctious than his twin

Likes to strut around thinking he's cool stuff when he's really just kind of a dork

Keyboardist, backup guitarist and backup vocalist for Let's Get Back!

Theme Song: Deer in the Headlights by Owl CIty

Seabreeze [Toyhouse Link]

Lively surfer girl

Girlfriends with Luau

Good friends with Starburst as well, as both are pretty adventurous

Has an ongoing rivalry with Kickflip over surfing vs skateboarding

Always has her lucky seashell necklace

Theme Song: Learn How to Surf by Owl City

Soda [Toyhouse Link]

Pooltoy Fox

Best friends with Tarmac

Also good friends with Luau and Seabreeze, sharing their love of water/the beach

Has a giant tail that can be bopped around

Can scale up and down in size for more people to float on/with him

Theme Song: T-Shirt Weather by Circa Waves

Tarmac [Toyhouse Link]

Aeromorph dog

Mix between the Concorde and the Space Shuttle

Can fly both supersonically and in space

Best friends with Soda

Also good friends with Astro

Tallest/biggest of my anthro OCs (I haven't decided exactly how big, but like he's a big guy lol)

Theme Song: Defying Gravity by Matt Copley and Noise Machine

Wilkołak [Toyhouse Link]

Big scary (or at least he tries to be scary) transgender wolf guy

Name can be pronounced either Veel-koak or Will-ko-Lack (His name means Werewolf in Polish)

Second tallest of my anthro OCs after Tarmac (about 6'5 or so)

Has hydrokinetic powers and his blue markings glow when he uses them

Used to be a WoF Fantribe OC named Galeforce before I redesigned him lol

Theme Song: Armed To The Teeth by Abandoned Pools

Lower Tier Primaries

Agouti [Toyhouse Link]

RainWing

Relatively quiet and shy until you get to know her

Lesbian, girlfriends with Rhazz

Can feel the emotions of others very strongly (for better or worse)

Theme Song: Sunburn by Owl City

Doppler [Toyhouse Link]

SeaWing/RainWing hybrid (75% Sea/25% Rain)

Weather forecaster with his wings and scales that show weather radar

Makes up a weather watching/storm chasing team with Sundial and ThunderSnow

Boyfriend of Sundial

Radar can show any kind of weather (rain/thunderstorms, hurricanes, snow storms, tornadoes, etc.)

Theme Song: Safe and Sound by Capital Cities

Firecracker [Toyhouse Link]

Jack Russell Terrier

Small but full of energy!

Loves 4th of July themed snacks and baked goods (his personal fav are Star Spangled Ding Dongs haha)

Friends with Starburst over their shared energetic lifestyle and red white and blue color solidarity :]

Theme Song: All My Friends by Owl City

Isaac [Toyhouse Link]

Celestdog - Australian Shepherd

Nonbinary Asexual

Quiet and reserved, generally prefers to do their own thing

Very smart, loves trivia facts

Sibling to Moxie and the rest of the Celestdog family

Theme Song: Into the Ocean by Blue October

Kwaro [Toyhouse Link]

SilkWing

Gay, boyfriends with Rutabaga (owned by @/macaronichewtoyz)

Likes to sing, but is self-conscious about singing in front of others

Generally softspoken

Kinda velvety soft rather than full scales

Theme Song: Butterfly Wings by Owl City

Pebble [Toyhouse Link]

Small and fluffy with long, silky fur

Husky/Samoyed mix

Hates getting his fur dirty

Smallest of my feral dog OCs

Theme Song: Count On Me by The Meadows

[littleeyesofpallas]

okay but food for thought...

The millionaire playboy persona as Bruce's cover is old hat, modern era update: Bruce Wayne as an internet manosphere pickupartist.

We all love Bruce but we've flown too close to the sun with continually trying to make him Gotham's golden boy and responsible with his fortune and the last good man trying to save Gotham. It's too suspicious when Bruce and Batman are literally the only things anyone in Gotham trusts. Bruce has to go back to being a distraction and not a hero in his own right.

And while being a flippant rich manwhore may explain why you never got married when it's like the 1940s-80s, it still requires you to be constantly dating random women when you'd rather be out fighting crime. Idiot andrew tate types notoriously never actually get any, in spite of never shutting up about how they've conquered the hookup/dating scene. Bruce Wayne, billionaire trustfund baby who's never been seen actually dating anyone, and is suspiciously in shape for a guy who supposedly doesn't do jack shit with his life, would absolutely dodge all suspicions of being The Batman if was just very obviously a toxic, delusional "inspirational" social media influencer.

which brings me to my next point: new tertiary batfam member (you know the tier that like, Bluebird, and Batwoman, and Batwing are sort of stuck in -not title characters, but also not anyone's main partner/sidekick, just kinda there... in the background.) who starts out as the intern managing Bruce's social media accounts

[andalorii]

When I initially hatched this dragon I observed the prim/sec combination without knowing the tert and thought to myself, "this is gonna have obsidian tertiary just to make it extra difficult for me" and then it had obsidian tertiary.

A double obsidian is a double obsidian but I'm not stoked at all about the secondary, I'm not a fan of crocodile so the question is, would anyone even wanna buy it or am I out of luck with this one... I've no idea what price to start with because this is the elusive double obsidian but also it's an XYX with crocodile so it's kinda like a low tier double obsidian...... well I'm sure I'll figure it out

[theculturedmarxist]

The Chinese healthcare system has a long way to go before it can adequately satisfy the needs of the country's huge population. However, I take great pride in the high quality of China's healthcare at such low costs for the average Chinese person.

Yesterday, a little winged insect flew into my right eye, leaving a red spot on my eyeball. I opened my medical app at 12 a.m., scheduled an appointment at 2 p.m., waited for half an hour, and had a medical examination. Most of the bill was paid for by my national health insurance.

I also tried making an appointment with a neurosurgeon through the Peking University People's Hospital mobile app. When I checked the app at 21:44, I saw that the earliest available appointment with a chief physician (professor) would be 16 hours later and would cost 300 RMB ($41, most of which would be reimbursed by my medical care). [Picture 1]

The earliest appointment I can get with an attending physician is a day later, and it will cost me 50 RMB ($6.8). With my healthcare, I only pay 10 RMB ($1.4). [Picture 2]

For people in immediate need, the system is incredibly affordable and effective (I don't want to have a red eye for days).

Here are some statistics on China's healthcare system.

🏥 When the PRC was founded in 1949, the average life expectancy in China was 35 years; in 2022, it was 77.93 years, mostly due to the country's improving medical care system.

🏥 Its basic medical insurance covers approximately 1.3 billion people.

🏥 China has a three-tier system to grade hospitals, with tertiary hospitals -- which have the largest number of beds and provide comprehensive medical services -- at the top of the system.

🏥 Basic public health services provided at the primary level have been bolstered. In the first half of 2023, nearly 90 million people aged 65 and above enjoyed health management through such services, increasing by 40 percent compared with the same period last year.

🏥 Health authorities and medical institutions have made proactive efforts to ensure the accessibility and equitability of health services. Currently, 82.7 percent of all medical institutions at or above the secondary level in the country have established a system that enables patients to schedule appointments for diagnosis and treatment.

🏥 Internet-powered health services are playing an increasingly important role in China's health system. By 2020, over 1,600 internet hospitals were opened in China, and almost 49 million people had used the service to receive a diagnosis and treatment.

🏥 By the end of 2021, the number of doctors in China had reached 4.2 million, and the number of doctors per 1,000 people had reached 3.04, close to the level of developed countries.

🏥 The Chinese government announced in 2022 a strategy to increase the number of health professionals as part of the country's 14th Five-Year Plan. It aims to increase the number of physicians to 3.2 per 1,000 people by 2025.

🏥 From January to September, medical institutions in China saw a total of 5.11 billion medical visits.

[bestfurryhusband]

Ajani propaganda part 3!

(Art by Wulfer-Shepherd)

The more you know about a character, the better you can tell if they'd be a good husband. In that regard we have gotten to know Ajani Goldmane exceptionally well. Over close to seventeen (Seventeen!) years of storytelling, Ajani has loved, lost, and grown as a person such that his values and affectations have evolved and matured like red wine. His history is deep and interesting. An outcast from his people on Naya because of his white fur, the grief from his brother's murder caused his spark to ignite and started his journies. He has defeated elder dragons on his own and slain gods with the help of his allies. These and other acts of heroism are just in the card game's lore - there are novels and comics that delve into him as a sapient being. He's laid out before us, we know his history, and from that history we can glean that he is as loving and brave a husband as anyone could want. He's who we deserve.

Now, what do we know about Hubert Ellis?

Well uh... he's a mayor, for one! Pleasant sounding voice, has a kid that he loves and supports. He's married presumably. Uhhh.... hmmmm...

Honestly i don't know what characterization i was expecting from a man who has appeared in a single mid-tier PS2 game, in which he was a tertiary character at most. We have barely anything to go off of in terms of his general vibe. Every Neopets wiki entry i found for this dude is basically empty, which means even fans of the franchise have only fan fiction and headcanon to base an opinion on.

Who do you want as your furry husband? A lion with histories and stories to tell you about himself, or a yellow dog who couldn't tell you where he bought his flannel shirt? Three times over in this series Ajani has overwhelmingly been the better choice, and that has yet to change now. Vote Ajani Goldmane!

He's such a good kitty

[tssdresses]

The poll dress continues! Color Scheme Time! 1/3

For primary, secondary, and tertiary colors of the dress, I'll have three polls active at once (link to 2) (link to 3) for each tier.

The winner of the poll asking what side to take the most inspiration from was the Orange Side (link to poll), so feel free to keep that in mind or ignore that for this poll!

All color polls have the same polling options.

If you're new here, I'm going to design a dress based on your poll responses. We'll have options like sleeve/skirt type, color schemes, etc. I'll add pictures of what the design elements look like when needed.

Link here to the poll dress master post!

Reblog for more visibility?

Feel free to throw requests for design elements into the notes!

[faeriekit]

Apiary Plaintext below:

Apiary!Gender:

A study in imaginary alien gender roles. Brought to you from the Dicks to Watch Out For gc (discord)

02 Nature of the Genders 01 Table of contents Consequences 03 Gender Roles 04 Examples 05 Application 06 Conclusions “What the fuck is an Apiary Gender?”

01 Overview

Nature of the Apiary

There are three overarching traits to Apiary Gender:

It is contagious It is tertiary-leveled Is it non-biological Overview:

Contagion:

Apiary Gender can be spread. …But not easily.

It replicates itself in an effort to increase its presence throughout the known universe. Whether it is a conscious infection is unknown, but it is able to be spread from organism to organism in the source of further transitionary members. It is not exclusive to any particular species; if there ever was an original Apiary Species, it is currently unknown. The gender manifests itself in multiple different sexes and reproductive paths in multiple species with minimal issue.

It has a low “viral load”, however, and can only be spread when in close contact with a community of Apiary individuals, or in very, very, very close contact with an Apiary individual. (Like. tongue down someone’s throat for two hours a day for a year.) Risk of contraction with an individual is minimal. It would be like trying to transition via someone else’s t-gel application.

Tertiary Levels: There are several different tiers to “fem”* and “masc”* Apiary Genders. They are ordered in convenience, not ranked internally. There is no hierarchy inherent to the majority of Apiary Genders.

Primary tier is reproductive. These refer to the role in the community as to childcare and support thereof. This consists of Nurses and Drones (“Godiva” and “Libertine”).

Secondary tier is external. Roles that often have the individual leaving the community belong here. This consists of Workers and Warriors (“Arcadia” and “Quixote”)

Tertiary tier is internal. Roles that remain inside the community proper belong here. This consists of Workers and Warriors (“Kloka” and “Ivanhoe”).

*The distinction between these two are for our sakes and are human specific. This distinction isn’t present for them Apiary Gender is multiply-tiered.

Non-Biological: Despite being “fem” and “masc”, no one gender has any reproductive role inherently assigned to it. It crosses multiple species and reproductive paths, so there’s no general reproductive role that maps directly onto an Apiary Gender. If there are no other Apiary!Gendered members of the community, affirming behaviors map onto their closest social group. Gender-affirming transtionary actions can include: Sterilization surgery Cloning technology Taking up new affirming hobbies or skills Adoption Facilitating someone else’s role in the community Apiary gender prioritizes behavior over biology. It can (and may) overwrite any preexisting biological drives an individual or species previously exhibited.

Apiary Gender is not based in reproductive role.

02 Consequences

Nature of the Apiary

As a result, Apiary Gender fulfillment requires the individual’s species to be capable of higher order rational thought to:

Satisfy higher order gender needs Assist in community expansion as necessary (ex. adoption, medical intervention) Consequences:

Your dog cannot be Apiary!Gendered Humans “Humanesque” Aliens (ex. Kryptonians, Martians, etc.) Fantasy Races (Elves, Dwarves, etc.) Any sapient being with a biological form Rocket Raccoon probably Anything that passes the Harkness Test

Things that can be Apiary!Gendered: Non-sapient animals Seahorses Your cat Plants Real life bees Viruses Robots Anything that flunks the Harkness test Things that cannot be Apiary!Gendered:

03 Gender Roles

Roles of the Apiary

“Femme” Apiary Genders Every community decides their internal ranking on their own based on their personal lives, family structure, age, species, professional role outside the apiary, etc. Godiva Nurse. Caretaker, especially for small children. Arcadia Hunter/Gatherer. Responsible for new resources. Kloka Worker. Responsible for resource management. There is no inherent hierarchy or ranking Reproductive External Internal

“Masc” Apiary Genders Libertine Drone. Usually externally introduced. Has sex & dies. (or just hangs out.) Quixote Warrior. Travels to competition to steal resources/kill enemies Ivanhoe Warrior/Worker. Defends the community from competition. Every community decides their internal ranking on their own based on their personal lives, family structure, age, species, professional role outside the apiary, etc. There is no inherent hierarchy or ranking Reproductive External Internal

Queen Only one per Apiary. Further queens that manifest over time usually secede to form outside Apiaries (or self-assigned social group substitutes.) Queens decide the direction of the community, provide a leadership role, and are responsible for bringing new members into the Apiary as necessary.

Adoption and child theft are both valid forms of gender affirmation. If they choose to reproduce, they may form a bond with a compatible Libertine/Libertine social substitute. Head of the Community

04 Examples

Roles of the Apiary

This was written in a DPxDC gc so there’s a lot of Batman references Roy Harper manifested Libertine gender. As he’d already fathered a child by the time he manifested, he barely noticed that his gender had altered. His behavior remained the same, he was happy with his life as it was, and required no further action. Jason Todd manifested Ivanhoe gender. He already considered himself a protector of Crime Alley, but underwent sterilization as a gender affirming procedure. He is happy in a support role when it comes to their personal lives and provides defense against perceived threats. Bruce Wayne did not manifest Apiary gender, but has the social role of a Queen. Anyone else Apiary!Gendered would consider him a rival queen if they are outside of his social sphere, making reconciliation with Jason tense and slow-going. Lian Harper did not manifest Apiary gender, but has an Apiary parent and caretaker. There is a slim chance she could grow into an Apiary!Gender as an adult based on proximity, but generally has the social role of a child of her species and among her caregivers. Kori Anders did not manifest Apiary gender, but has an Apiary social group. She supports her group by letting Jason take on more support roles in her personal life and helping raise Lian. Apiary Gender roles can combine with or work without reproductive roles attached. For instance;

05 Application

The Apiary’s Role

Apiary!Gender is most interesting as a sci-fi concept With an emphasis on multiple possible forms of reproduction, complicated gender roles, and behavioral niches, Apiary Gender is at its most interesting at the intersection of exploring human nature and studying the possibilities outside of it. Gender is almost purely cultural, with hints to reproductive niches, but not exclusive to them.

Could Apiary Gender be interesting as a fantasy concept? …Probably? If considered in an alternate species as its main form of community organizing, sure. That being said, if it becomes more normalized than it is strange and offputting and transgressive, at some point it just becomes worldbuilding and not plot-driving. That being said, live your life. Maybe you’ll surprise us all.

In Practice: Ultimately, as a force that acts upon a person with pre-existing gender presentation and cultural gender nuances, a rapid, externally driven, transformative gender experience invites new questions.

What gender markers do they maintain? Do they change their style of dress? Hair? Are those the only ways to maintain gender? How else might it manifest? Are there spaces they can no longer join, or people they can no longer relate to?

06 Conclusion

The Apiary’s Role

Social Liberation and narrative gender theory Transgressive gender fantasies, from the Omegaverse to body swaps to shapeshifting to the Borg, all have their place in exploration of the nature of gender. There is more soul-searching required when gender becomes its own manifestation decoupled from physical sex: what is it? Why do we obey it? What social role does it serve? Does it make reproduction easier? Does it complicate it? What medical interventions might it invite?

Decoupling sex from gender.

There are many reasons one might be motivated to explore fantasy genders– either for horny reasons, the author’s self-exploration, desire for fic baby, or for pure fantasy escapism– but either way, playing around with gender invites further speculation as to the true nature of the beast. We are more than our social role, and yet the role is the part that we play. It is how we interact with others. It is how we relate to them. It drives where we are and where we go. It may even drive how we pray and to who.

Play around with us for a while.

RIP three queers and five hours of worldbuilding and its not even all that horny 💀⚰ Like you CAN work for it but you REALLY have to work for it.

Platonic omegaverse fans eat your heart out

Thanks! With love, the Dicks to Watch Out For groupchat.

For any (polite!) questions, comments, concerns, please address them to the council in one way or another. We’ll try to hop on it. Or maybe we’ll just argue all night idk

[inkdragonworks]

Not as much updates for this month, due to taking a small break to work on Tiera stuff for a bit. You should check that out if you haven't yet.

As for Pocket Adventure, I finished editing the chapter 2 script to shorten things, and working on the very last cutscene for it. That led to working more on the cutscene editor, which had it's updates carried over from Fragaria Park. A lot of fixes have been made on the editor so that I can inch closer to being able to fully edit in it, the major change being able to add/remove images that show up in the dialogue scenes.

A more interesting change is that I went back to the first tier of alternate attacks to the boxing glove, and tweaked them all to feel better. More balanced while remaining unique, I hope. The second gif here, the cuckoo bird, is able to pierce through and hit multiple enemies. Jupa's charge will create a wavey projectile that stuns any enemies it hits, and Poppin's charge causes a cacophony that hurts anything near it.

Speaking of the "tier 1 glove alts", the chest for picking one of them is moved to the start of chapter 2. Originally I put it in an optional area in the middle of chapter 2, but I think having something new to attack with after Chapter 1 is a little better paced.

I'm starting to pick at the surrounding optional areas in Chapter 2, stuff that doesn't necessarily have content to it but is meant to tease at future areas/tasks you'd do in later chapters. One of them involves the third bandit type, the Cinmin bandit, and I wanted to update his base sprite shown here (on the left), to his new one (on the right). Little changesl ike this I feel like reads better and is more pleasing.

And finally some cutscene assets. Nab, the green guy, had a bit of a big head, so I went through all of his dialogue sprites and narrowed it more, making him fit alongside PnJ more.

At the top are some other NPCs... one of which is the farmer you talk to at the end of the chapter 1 demo. I debated on it and decided to just make dialogue sprites for all unique NPCs. I think that will help differentiate whether or not you get exp for talking to them.

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October is a month I usually spend playing spooky games and drawing, so I don't expect to get a lot of game dev done. Another part of why things are sparse is my job has been picking up and it is asking a bunch right now... I expect it to calm down in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty lucky though, budget cuts halved our entire team and somehow I didn't get let go. And thankfully that government shutdown didn't happen cause then I wouldn't be getting paid at all for who-knows-how-long.

My game dev plans right now are finishing up this next batch of Cutscene Editor fixes, use it to animate the last cutscene, and then continue picking at the tertiary rooms connected between chapter 2 and future areas.

But what you can expect for sure are more pics this halloween time! Hope you enjoy them.

[agentrouka-blog]

Cannot believe people seriously Gendrya or J/B or J/C is the main romance of the series. Gendry does not even have a pov. He is a tertiary character. Jaime, Cersei and Brienne are secondary characters. There is NO way they would ever constitute any central pairing. Why do people like to act so dense istg? It would absolutely be Jon and one of his three female relatives, the three main female characters. This is basic common sense.

Don't you understand that part of the shocking revelations GRRM has in store for us is the subtly hidden and controversial message that incest is bad?

He would NEVER dabble in exploring the greyness of a relationship that has a taboo attached that is inherently justified but not inherently based on abuse of power. GRRM hates when things are grey. He talks about it all the time. It's also not a theme in the literature of the Romantic Period, or the Arthuriana he's so fond of. Byronic heroes and incest? LOL, never!

And he would certainly never even contemplate creating a scenario where the incest issue has a "technically, it's legal" escape clause based on the revelation of someone's true parentage. The fact that this exact scenario is in the discarded "original outline" as an explicit plotline for Jon Snow is proof that GRRM would never do that. It would never cross his mind to do that.

The only incest GRRM approves of, anyway, would be Targaryen incest between actual aunt and nephew, because they are the chosen elves of ASOIAF.

Get with it, anon. ASOIAF has no romance, and if it does, it's definitely going to involve a Lannister, a third-tier non-POV, or a symbolically charged physical union in a magically transcendent bioluminiscently veiled location between at least two people the fandom likes to associate with triple-headed flamethrower-riding.

Or the unspeakable verbal violence and controversial erotic charge of ship metaphors for the participants' intimate physicality.