#*obviously this whole post doesn't apply to some stuff.

[frownyalfred]

Ok! Ok! Ok! I know your in dragon!Batfam land right now (which by the by is one of my fav niches so thanks for contributing to it) but!!!

One of the posts about kryptonian microbiome got me thinking about the Kon of it all. What’s his microbiome look like??? Did he have to figure out some supplements??? Did Cadmus give him some alien bacteria (maybe close but not quite right). Does him getting different gut bacteria translate to how his powers are so different from Clark’s??? We know Bruce getting Clark’s bacteria makes him more kryptonian- certainly the reverse must also apply!! How changed ARE Clark/Kon/Jon in ways they don’t even realize cause there is no one else to compare to???

And Bruce having to test Cass and maybe Tim on THEIR microbiome to see if it’s affected since they dated him. And adding “surprise alien microbiome changes” into his safe sex ed chats with his kids/ in the HR protocols for the titans/JL.

Also. Clark having to make like. Kryptonite kombucha. Kryptonite fibre supplements. What if this finally gets him to figure out his kryptonite IBS. Cause his gut biome will absolutely NOT be standard after his whole life on earth. Idk I just found that funny. Suddenly realizing he has health issues after thinking it was just a normal kryptonian thing his whole life. SURPRISE!!!! You’re lactose intolerant actually!!! But in an alien way!!!

Okay I know this was about funny microbiome sharing but what if we made this a little more angsty? I love your mention of Cadmus. What if Kon is a perfect Kryptonian/Human clone/blend, except Lex couldn't obviously synthesize the microbiome Clark brought with him from Krypton. That has probably changed a lot since landing on Earth, but still has stuff that he can't create from scratch for Kon.

So, Kon is Clark's clone with all of his powers etc like normal, except he's slowly growing weaker over time as his body reacts to an incomplete gut microbiome. He's having a hard time processing the sun eventually, and starts losing his powers. And after that, he starts being unable to process human flora too, because his body isn't set up to work that way either. So he starts wasting away, no matter how often he sits in the sun or if he's given IV nutrients, etc.

He needs Clark's help, some sort of fecal transplant etc. Or maybe Kryptonians share that kind of stuff pretty easily via touch? Maybe he just needs close contact -- hand to bare skin, hugs, etc. He's dying without close proximity to another Kryptonian because his body isn't set up right. Bonus points if Lex didn't know this and has to watch Kon fade away, realizing his perfect creation will fail without Clark being on board.

If Clark pushes away Kon like some comics have him do, Kon will probably start to die. Clark is the last Kryptonian, so he's Kon's only hope. But Clark doesn't know about this issue with Kon, and Lex might not tell him right away as he tries to fix it.

[pinkbeanii]

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚𝓓𝔂𝓮𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓗𝓲𝓼 𝓗𝓪𝓲𝓻˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

-an unconventional date night w/ jongseob-

A/N: inspired by @soulseobie and their Soul one shot, also @kisseobie made the og prompt. This is my first time posting my writing to tumblr so please be nice!! Constructive criticism is welcomed!

Warnings: mentions of wandering hands but entirely sfw, pet names (baby, babe, beautiful, sweetheart), like two-ish kisses but no details, shirtless jongseob but no description

It doesn't matter if you have experience or not with hair, Jongseob trusts you implicitly.

He has so much confidence that even if you have no clue what you're doing it'll turn out okay, and if not then-

“it's just hair baby, it'll grow out eventually!”

Seobie is pretty laid back about the color, obviously he has opinions but yours are more important to him.

Definitely wants to go with you to get supplies, and he's attached to your hip the whole time. It's fun honestly, how involved he wants to be.

"what about this one babe? think I could pull off neon green?"

"oooo, they have rainbow bowls! we have to get some!"

"do you think we'll need a hair treatment for after?"

Very insistent on paying, saying that it's his hair you're doing and it's the least he can do. Tbh, hair stuff can be pretty expensive so you really aren't complaining.

Once you have all the supplies and your space is set up (covered in paper and plastic wrap as to not stain anything) Jongseob is practically bouncing in excitement.

He's gotten his hair done before, obviously, but it's his baby who's doing it this time, ofc he's excited!

Jongseob is dressed in some random old band tee of his, and forced you to wear one as well. It doesn't matter if you were wearing stuff you didn't mind getting dye on, he insists on his shirt.

"no, this is not just bc I like how you look in my clothes, I just don't want you to get dye on your pretty outfit!"

[It definitely is, and he is absolutely pouting when you accuse him of it]

Assuming his hair is already blonde (it is at the time of writing this) you guys start with color right away. He wants to be surprised, so he doesn't even look while you're mixing the color or applying it.

He's very chatty the whole time, still feeling excited and energetic. Which was cute and sweet at first, but he kept moving his head, causing you to mess up in certain areas and get dye places it really shouldn't be.

"babe, you gotta stop moving, I got dye on your neck again!"

"I'm sorry! I'll try not to."

He tries his best not to move too much, but as you finish up the back and move to the front, the moving becomes touching.

Seobie is normally pretty touchy with you, but as nice as his hands feel running up and down your thigh, it's also really distracting.

His hands don't wander too much, he really doesn't want to disturb you! But it's an unconscious thing, his hands just gravitate to your skin whenever they have a chance.

If you point it out he'll get kinda sheepish-

"oh, I didn't realize. your skin is just so soft and warm!"

When you're applying near the roots of his hair, towards his scalp, he gets shivers from the cool temperature. No matter how many times you get your hair dyed, it's always a weird feeling to have goopy dye on your scalp

As you get to his bangs and move in front of him, he gets an idea.

It's pretty obvious, at least to you, when Jongseob has a plan to do something, but being so immersed in applying the dye you didn't notice.

Just as you finish painting a stripe of dye, he pulls you fully onto his lap. Hands gripping your hips making sure you can't squirm out of his reach.

"JONGSEOB!"

"what? I want you here with me, isn't it easier than trying to stand?"

"you could have given me some warning, and what if I'd gotten dye on you? and I don't think that-"

*kiss*

"I want you here, please."

Not being able to say no to his pleas, and feeling quite comfortable in his lap, you stay seated.

Finishing up the front was easy. Using your gloved hand you massage any left over dye into his hair, making sure every strand is coated.

With your hands in his hair Jongseob relaxes even more, leaning into your touch and letting out a whine when you stop-

"felt good, keep going?"

Ofc you indulge him for a while longer, he's so sweet when he asks so it's only natural.

After finally pulling your hands out of his hair and removing your gloves, you hand him the neon orange shower cap he'd insisted on at the beauty store.

Seobie smiles when you turn around, the neon shower cap stretched over his head. He reaches for you again, grabbing you by the waist and pulling you between his legs.

"wanna play switch while this sets?"

After about 30 minutes the timer you'd set rings, signalling that it was time to wash out the hair dye.

You both got settled in the bathroom. Jongseob on the floor, upper body resting against the bathtub, neck stretched so his head was over the tub.

You tucked a rolled towel under his neck, hoping it would help lessen the uncomfortable feeling. Seobie gave you a thumbs up-

"thanks beautiful, feels fine don't worry."

You both thanked the universe that the shower head was detachable, and began the rinsing process.

Jongseob relaxed as your hands entered his hair again. He'd always had a soft spot for you playing with his hair, something you used to your advantage whenever you could.

As you worked to rinse his hair water splashed around, landing everywhere. No matter how hard you tried to minimize it, the water had a mind of its own.

By the time you were halfway done the floor outside the bathtub was damp and so was Jongseob, mostly his shirt. Which he promptly took off as soon as you gave him a break to sit up.

Seobie balled up the tshirt and tossed it up to the counter, turning to you shamelessly.

Ofc you'd seen him like this before, but it still left your face hot and needing to look away.

"what's got you so shy sweetheart, nothing you haven't seen before."

This boy... He's just... Cocky isn't the right word, but it was more than confidence. Maybe comfortable is a good word for it. He knew he was safe with you, so being shirtless didn't leave him feeling "exposed"

Once you got ahold of yourself it was time to continue rinsing.

It took quite a bit before the water ran clear, during which you took advantage of your position to occasionally glance at the shirtless boy under you. No matter how many times you'd seen him, it was still a very pretty sight.

When the dye had been fully rinsed out you pulled Seobie to sit up, plopping a dry towel over his head and drying his hair gently.

Neither of you felt like using a hair dryer, so once his hair was mostly dry, tho still slightly damp, you helped him stand.

"ready to show me babe?"

Covering his eyes you walked him in front of the mirror-

"3,2,1!"

Jongseob looked at his new hair with a wide smile, turning his head side to side, admiring it.

After a thorough appreciation of your hard work, he turned to you and gently held your face-

"it looks absolutely perfect baby, knew you could do it!"

His words left your face hot again, making him giggle at your sudden shyness. In turn, he peppered your face with kisses, light pecks scattered everywhere, ending with a sweet kiss to your lips.

An overall enjoyable experience, with a fun outcome. Seobie would definitely ask you to do it again next time he wanted a change.

Thanks for reading!! I hope this was enjoyable, the plot and idea kinda got away from me at times, but I had fun writing it!

Also, in my head the colour would be like a pinky orange, bc I love Seob's orange hair (let's be real, I love all his hair colors) and my favorite hair color on me is pink, so therefore: pinky orange lol

[cuntnikida]

Okay but Ueda Akinari is SO old. Like they're last visitor came one thousand five hundred years ago. Most bsd characters (excluding Atsushi who's 18, Sigma who's 3 even though physically he's a young adult and Fyodor and Bram who're both like a thousand years old, which btw alot of this math will probably apply to fyodor if he's the visitor from 1500 years ago which im 90% was canon confirmed but idk 100%) are in their early 20s unless they are visibly younger or older. Ueda obviously stopped aging when they were placed into the dimension of the divide being's core, if they didn't they'd be dead by now.

The minimum amount of time they've spent in the weapon's core is 1500 years. Since we don't know the upper limit of time they could've been in there, i'm gonna assume that they got a visitor in the same year they got trapped. Wether it was a few days or a few months is irrelevant.

So Ueda is like most likely physically 20-24 years old and technically 1520-1524 years old. Ranpo and Kouyou who are both 26 are considered pretty old (like how kouyou is portrayed as extremely mature and elegant and it's mentioned multiple times that Ranpo acts wayyy to immature for his age when he's only 26) by the other characters which means characters 25 and above are considered noticeably old which is why it's kind of unlikely for Ueda to be 1525 or more years old but if we're being lenient he could maybe be 1525 years old. If we're being lenient with the younger side of the spectrum maybe he could be 1518 years old.

So Ueda's probably 1520-1524 years old but possibly 1518-1525 years old.

And bungou stray dogs is obviously set in the modern world where the UN has been formed, cell phones and security cameras exist and most people in japan wear western clothes instead of traditional japanese ones on a day to day basis.

The issue is that the exact year isn't specified. I would say somewhere in the 2010s or in the 2020s but after the pandemic. But that's still not specific enough. So in order to assume what year in the modern world it takes place, we can either choose when the manga started being published (2012, although since it started december 2012 the whole year sorta already happened and it's closer to 2013 but 2012 nonetheless). Or the present year the manga's being published in which is 2025, however I'd find the last option rather unlikely for multiple reasons but will still include just in case it is set rn.

That means the earliest time Ueda Akinari has been born (aka when he was born) is 2012 - 1525 years which is 487. And the latest possible time they could've been born is 2025 - 1518 years where is 507. The most probable years they were born would be from 488 (2012 - 1524) to 492 (2012 - 1520).

Disclaimer- I'm not a history geek so if i get any of these events wrong please let me know and I'll change this post and thank you in advance for correcting my dumbass.

This bitch was born almost 500 years after jesus. This motherfucker isn't even a boomer they're the boomers' ancestors. The early middle ages/the dark ages/the early medieval period started in the late 5th century. More specifically around the start of the western roman empire's fall, which was like 476 AD. Which means Ueda Akinari was born during the fuckin dark ages. Although the dark ages was what was happening in europe and stuff, in japan the kofun period was happening.

Also him being alive during that time an event took place doesn't mean he was aware when major historical events occurred. Like He was stuck in another dimension during the fall of Constantinople

He was most likely in our dimension and on our earth from 488 to 512 AD (subtract a few years if you believe hes like 20/21/22/23 instead of 24) or 492 to 516 AD (also subtract a few years if you believe he's 20/21/22/23 instead of 24).

Dude's going on about how politicians sealed them away bro you existed before politicians as we know them existed. Ueda was most likely sealed away by a king or emperor or some shit.

Surprised atsushi can even talk to Ueda considering the japanese language probably changes alot since they've had no new visitors since they got trapped.

On the topic of language Ueda's place has a bunch of japanese writing and yet the oldest records of written japanese date back to the 8th century which is like two hundred years after they were sealed away. Which means that in the bsd universe there's been written japanese before that. Maybe it's been discovered maybe it hasn't idk man.

Also the tales of genji which is sometimes called the first novel were written (and while i wouldn't call it the first it was definitely one of the first) was written in the early 11th century. Ueda was trapped in this dimension when that happened. Which btw this only fuels my theory that they were really high in the class system when they were on earth bcz obviously reading and writing was something that usually only well off people did back then.

Maybe they were a warrior of sorts and that's why they made swords. Or maybe they were a famous swordsmith or royalty.

Like y'all know how surprised bram was when he was Aya play music on like her phone or something. Ueda would have that reaction to so many things. Like most foods tbh. Like alot of sauces and stuff had to be made from absolute scratch and fermented for months before use. Ueda has probably never tasted chocolate before. They'd walk into a convience store and have a heart attack lmao.

On the more angsty side their favourite flower might be extinct now. All their comforting childhood meals might have been so thoroughly altered that they only vaguely resemble what they used to be. Or maybe those childhood meals don't even exist anymore before bcz they were never written down or require now non existent ingredients. The fruits they once ate as a child now taste so sweet but make their heart feel so bitter. They see little children talk about stories like "cinderella" and realise all the folktales they knew as a child have died out and been long forgotten. Just like all their loved ones. If Ueda doesn't die and is freed, they'll never get to experience the joys of nostalgia ever again, only sorrow that everything they once knew is gone. Only an aching wish for what once was. Authors sometimes forget how long ago a millennium really is.

[blurmf]

i've slept, had breakfast, showered, and now i feel ready to give my two cents on this debacle in the jrwiener community.

I'm going to go through some of the arguments i've seen but this is NOT a callout post or anything like that, i just need to give my opinion so it's not bouncing around in my brain like a child on coffee.

First off, just about the oneshot being paywalled. I feel like this is not only unsurprising, but expected? Like, this is basically a what if (non-canon oneshot) which is 5$ tier. And i get that they did just sell a bunch of merch, but keep in mind that the production value is going up, with them commissioning a ton of art, music, having sound design, having an entire site now and all that. Plus, with all that aside, unless you're paying to be a member, they don't owe you anything! They already have almost 150 FREE episodes! Which is a lot that you don't even have to pay for.

Next the argument that they aren't doing anything. So this is just straight up not true. They have been releasing Wonderlust and Judgement, they did TMK, they just released a ton of merch and got a whole site running. And it takes a lot of work to run campaigns, even small ones, and especially when it's for a show. Not only that but each member has their own lives and stuff outside of JRWI.

People being upset over them taking winter break??? Like, this has not only been a consistent thing, but, again, they have lives! They don't just live in your screen to produce content, they have families and friends that they likely go see for the holidays! And so do all the other people working on the show! It's just a couple weeks as well!

Also, just a me thing, but i really don't like when people's first reaction is aggression. If i see a post that's just shitting on someone or attacking someone, i instinctively don't take their side. (This obviously doesn't apply to situations where someone did something diabolical, more just to situations with more nuance)

tl;dr: It makes sense that it's paywalled, the show has higher production value, they already have a bunch of free stuff, they have been doing plenty, breaks are good.

[ecairnsart]

do u think noir!peter ever let his curiosity get the best of him to see felicia unmasked??

I can definitely imagine a scenario that would work for him seeing Felicia without her mask, but I don't think that curiosity about her appearance with her scars is a factor in that bringing that situation about.

For Felicia's part in this situation, the major conflict is obviously between her guardedness (something that she's had from the first time we encounter her in Noir, which is a big contrast to early 616!Felicia, a total romantic) and her vulnerability. The mask is a literal barrier between them, and she's going to use it to shut him out until she's ready for anything else. I think that they'd have to re-establish some form of a close relationship before she'd be willing to be that vulnerable with him again, which is what I was exploring in some of my art from a few years ago. There's also the factor of her own personal relationship to her appearance, feelings of desirability, which ties to both by their early relationship and her own individual backstory & previous relationships/work. Crucially though, I think that she also wouldn't take her mask off if she expected his reaction to be pity - that's never been something that she wants from him.

(Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without A Face #1, 2010)

From Peter's side of things, I think that a major emotion he'd bring isn't curiosity, but guilt. Noir!Peter's relationship to guilt is pretty different from 616, where the whole story really kicks off when he holds himself responsible for failing to prevent his uncle's death - meanwhile Noir!Ben Parker's been killed before the series starts, long before Peter gets any powers, and Urich's the one who's carrying shame for his role in it. (The other great detail here of course is that, because Noir!Ben's death had nothing to do with gun violence, Peter is comfortable carrying and using a gun - thanks @traincat for pointing this out). So his general relationship towards guilt, and his feelings of responsibility towards others, stem from universe-specific sources and events. In this case, he obviously blames himself for Felicia being attacked by the Crime Master, and the scars on her face are the most visceral reminder of that.

(Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without A Face #4, 2010. The second image is most directly about Robbie, but applies to Felicia as well)

As a sidenote, a 616 story that's got some similarities to this situation is when Felicia was injured/nearly killed by Doctor Octopus in Spectacular #75-76. It's interesting to read these side by side and contrast their relationship dynamics in each story - they're pretty dramatically different.

(Spectacular Spider-Man #76, 1983)

So those are the reasons that each of them would struggle to get to a point where Felicia would remove her mask in front of him. The reasons that she would do that are, I think, relatively straightforward; desire, intimacy. Those are much easier things for him to express than her, because she's much more cynical and emotionally guarded than he is in this universe. The ideas I was working with in this sketch are mostly about how they might negotiate that before she's fully willing to be seen by him - the blindfold means that he can't see her of course, but also that she doesn't have to feel the vulnerability of eye contact, and gives her a lot of control over the situation. On the other hand, like this he can still feel her scars - arguably far more intimate than seeing them.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that Felicia taking off her mask to show anyone her face should, for the sake of the story and the drama of it all, be very unusual and only in highly specific circumstances (and even then, we as the readers don't necessarily need to see! But this is is more a matter of how a scene is framed and how much is left to imagination.) (I'm not really into the direction the Noir story has gone post-Eyes Without A Face since the Spider-verse stuff started happening, and I for one did not enjoy that we ended up first seeing Felicia's face unmasked in a Spider-Gwen comic of all places. That's a character she has literally no connection to! Ugh.) Any moment when she first decides to take her mask off is going to be really fraught and vulnerable for both of them, but I think it's clear that it's also a necessary step if they're going to be able to have the truly close relationship that they want with each other.

[electronickingdomfox]

Star Trek TOS ships (but I mean starships, not that kind of "ships")

In a similar vein as this post here about the crew biographies, I made this list about the ships seen or mentioned in TOS (including TAS and the movies too), but just as they appear there. That is, this doesn't take into account info that later series or reference materials expanded upon or retconned. However, I've considered info from Michael Okuda (in charge of the remastered version), but only as it applies to such remaster stuff. The intention is, again, to offer a bare minimum of what the TOS canon actually says about this issue.

Credit to the Ex Astris Scientia site, for info about the more obscure ships. Also to Trekcore for some of the images (in particular, those of the non-remastered version).

As this post became waaaay too long, I left the TOS alien vessels, plus TAS ships, for a second post. Ships from the TOS movies are in a third post.

USS Enterprise NCC-1701

If this one doesn't ring a bell, well... I don't know what to tell you... One of the few ships with a visible registry number on-screen. The "USS" stands for "United Spaceship" (Elaan of Troyius) or "United Starship" (The Squire of Gothos). TAS episode The Counter Clock Incident specifies that the Enterprise was built at the San Francisco Navy Yards. It's a Starship Class vessel, as described in the Writers Guide, and seen (barely) on its plaque:

In TNG, however, Picard refers to it as a Constitution Class vessel, which is the name that stuck afterwards. Kirk says that there are only 12 starships like the Enterprise in the fleet (Tomorrow is Yesterday). More on this below.

Galileo NCC-1701/7

The Enterprise shuttlecraft destroyed in The Galileo Seven. It kept appearing in the series, however. This continuity error was somewhat fixed in The Way to Eden, which shows there's actually a Galileo II.

Columbus

The shuttlecraft used in The Galileo Seven to search for the survivors. Originally the same model used for the Galileo, the remastered version gives it a new registry: NCC-1701/2, and inserts it in Journey to Babel too.

Other shuttles

Several shuttles appear throughout the series, always using the Galileo model for obvious budgetary reasons, even if they don't belong to the Enterprise. The shuttle that Decker pilots into the planet killer of The Doomsday Machine was given a new name and registry in the remaster: Einstein NCC-1701/6.

The Class F shuttle in which Kirk and Commodore Mendez pursue Spock (The Menagerie. Part I), shows also a new name and registry in the remaster: Picasso SB11-1201/1, and was inserted in Court Martial as well. The SB-11 obviously refers to Starbase Eleven, which appears in both episodes.

Similarly, the Starbase Four shuttle stolen by Lokai in Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, was remastered as the Da Vinci SB4-0314/2.

USS Constellation NCC-1017

The registry number is visible in the original. Commodore Decker's crippled ship, in The Doomsday Machine.

USS Defiant

The ship trapped in the inter-dimensional space of The Tholian Web. The registry (NCC-1764) is only visible in the remastered version.

USS Exeter

Captain Ronald Tracey's ship in The Omega Glory. The registry was only included in the remastered version: NCC-1672.

USS Intrepid

The all-Vulcan ship destroyed by the space amoeba in The Immunity Syndrome. It was never seen on-screen until the remastered version, which inserted it orbiting the starbase of Court Martial (apparently with the registry NCC-1631, though I couldn't tell by my screenshots).

USS Lexington, USS Excalibur, USS Hood and USS Potemkin

The four starships participating in war games against the M-5 in The Ultimate Computer. The Lexington is commanded by Commodore Bob Wesley, and it's the only one where I could see the registry along the name in the remaster: NCC-1709. The Excalibur was commanded by Captain Harris and (supposedly) has the number NCC-1664. Its whole crew was killed in the battle against the M-5. The Hood would be the NCC-1703 (the number can be seen in the third picture). And the Potemkin, the NCC-1657. Though all of this comes from production info about the remaster, and it's not really visible.

USS Farragut

The ship, commanded by Captain Garrovick, where Kirk served as a Lieutenant, eleven years before Obsession. The crew was attacked by the cloud creature from the episode, with many casualties. This ship is never seen in the series.

USS Yorktown

A ship scheduled to rendezvous with the Enterprise, in Obsession. Never seen. There's also a Yorktown attacked by the probe in The Voyage Home. Possibly the same ship?

USS Republic NCC-1371

Kirk mentions the whole name in Court Martial. It's the ship where he served as an Ensign and reported Ben Finney for negligency.

USS Valiant

A ship destroyed while visiting Eminiar Seven, fifty years before A Taste of Armageddon

Other ships seen in a chart from "Court Martial"

Some of these registries were applied to already discussed ships (mostly in the remaster). The new ones would be: NCC-1697, NCC-1718, NCC-1685 and NCC-1700.

So, which are those twelve ships like the Enterprise that Kirk mentioned? In TOS we only see eight ships that definitely look like it (nine if we count the Intrepid from the remaster). Those would be: Enterprise, Constellation, Defiant, Exeter, Intrepid, Lexington, Excalibur, Hood and Potemkin. To further complicate matters, there's a production memo from 1967 (by Justman and Fontana) that lists the Starship Class vessels thus: Enterprise, Constellation, Exeter, Intrepid, Lexington, Excalibur, Hood, Potemkin, Yorktown, Farragut, Republic, Valiant, Constitution and Kongo. Add to the list the Defiant (not yet created) and that's a total of 15 ships! The Valiant was certainly destroyed by this time. Maybe the Farragut and the Republic (Kirk's earlier ships) had been decomissioned too?

USS Carolina

A ship near Capella IV, which supposedly sends a distress call in Friday's Child. Never seen.

SS Dierdre

A freighter attacked by Klingons, also from the previous episode. The distress call was actually fake, but the ship should exist.

SS Columbia

Eighteen years before The Cage, this old ship crashed on Talos IV. Vina was the only survivor.

SS Beagle

A ship commanded by Captain Merik, which was destroyed near the fourth planet of System 892 (six years before Bread and Circuses). It's described as a "small Class 4 stardrive vessel".

Horizon

A ship lost near Sigma Iotia, a hundred years before A Piece of the Action. It's said that the Horizon was of the same "outfit" as the Enterprise. Considering its age, this might mean that it was from the Federation, rather than being of the same class.

Antares

The ship where Charlie Evans was travelling, before being transferred to the Enterprise (Charlie X). Commanded by Captain Ramart. It was never seen in the original, but the remaster introduced a model based on a TAS ship, along with the number NCC-501.

Woden

The automated ore freighter that the M-5 destroys in The Ultimate Computer. In the original, it just looked like Khan's "Botany Bay". But the remaster replaced it with a model very similar to the Antares. Behind-the-scenes info tells us that this new Woden had the NCC-325 number, but that's not seen on-screen.

Archon

A ship that disappeared around Beta Three, a hundred years before The Return of the Archons. Its crew became known by the locals as the legendary Archons.

Aurora

A space cruiser stolen by the "hippies" from The Way to Eden. In the original, it looked similar to a Tholian ship. The remaster introduced a new model, apparently with the registry NC-17740 (not really legible).

Class J ships

The small cargo ship, piloted by Mudd without a license in Mudd's Women, is said to belong to this class. There's also a cadet vessel, an old Class J starship, mentioned in The Menagerie. Part I. Mudd's ship was merely a blob of light in the original. The remaster introduced a model similar to the new Aurora.

Astral Queen

The ship, commanded by Captain Jon Daily, that was scheduled to pick up the Karidian Company of Players, in The Conscience of the King.

SS Botany Bay

An old DY-100 model from the 1990's, that transports Khan and his followers in hybernation. It's said to be even older than the DY-500 class.

SS Valiant

Not to be confused with the USS Valiant above. This far older ship encountered a magnetic storm that threw it to the galactic barrier, 200 years before Where No Man Has Gone Before. This ship would be about as old as the Botany Bay, and it seems it only had impulse engines.

[themadmorrigan]

AI art and how I spot it

So occasionally, folks, something will cross my dash and my spidey senses will go off because something about it doesn't seem... right, and I can't put my finger on it.

(Note, this is by no means a comprehensive guide nor is it meant to be one, just a handful of things I look for when the question comes up.)

(1) Look at the hands and face. Generative "AI" (the quotes are deliberate because there's nothing "intelligent" about it) has gotten better at rendering them, way more so than even a year or two ago. But often, the hands give away that something is wrong: the fingers are twisted improbably, or fused... some are different sizes or drawn entirely incorrectly or even rendered different in terms of detail.

If you're looking at potential AI art of people, look at the face. AI has specific issues in a few key arenas:

The Eyes - the pupils often won't match or will bleed out into the iris. And obviously, check their color if you spot art of a beloved character. AI can be terrible at giving them a detail as small as this correctly.

Same Face Syndrome - no really, I've found this to be a thing. I'm not sure what Firefly, DALL-E and Midjourney are trained on (this is so not my field) but hilariously, the faces all sort of blend together (especially in less photorealistic art). Male or more masculine-presenting characters seem to get the same square jawed Henry Cavill look; female or more feminine-presenting ones get doll-like faces with pouty lips and bedroom eyes.

Weirdly perfect skin - this is more for photoreal art but do you see pores or is their skin perfectly, doll-like smooth? Do items - the person, their clothes, stuff in the background - seem very glossy or rendered to the point of uncanny valley? Then that's a good sign you should question what you're seeing.

(2) Look at character specific details. Are they there? And if they are, are they correct???

For example, you may be looking at a picture of elves. Do they have pointed ears? If these are specific characters, are their hair and eye colors right? Do they have scars, if they're supposed to? Minor details like these often get lost in prompts or misinterpreted and, in scenes where there are multiple people, applied to the wrong characters.

(3) Follow the lines: outlines, clothing, hair, the background. The biggest thing I've used to tell whether something is AI or not is what the lines do. That is: do they flow into another, or stop abruptly? Do the lines make sense for the material or object you're supposed to look at? Do they blend in with the other colors around it?

For example: if a character isn't wearing a shirt, but there are lines suggesting they are, you should be suspicious. The same goes for random, nonsensical flourishes or tattoos on someone, or hair that isn't connected to the rest of the scalp or the hair around it.

(4) Lastly, text. This is another area in which the technology has advanced significantly, but text still looks wrong in the majority of AI art. Also, look for text where you shouldn't expect it. I've seen whole-ass artist signatures poorly folded in. Anyway, here's an example, below:

Why is that skateboard that way? What the heck is on that trash can? (Image taken from goldpenguin.org - it's one of their examples of how to spot AI images.)

Again, this isn't meant to be a comprehensive list, but once you get used to examining art with a more critical eye, these things become difficult to unsee. I may make a longer, more formal post on this but for now, hopefully this helps folks!

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

i was thinking earlier about how a lot of folks love to praise mangahood/broho for its "feminism" and having "strong female characters" but as i was re-reading the manga last year, a lot of the girlboss characters that the fans love are...kinda mid?? like, you have olivier and izumi and their entire thing is "i'm so much stronger than you isn't that hilarious?!" (and i love izumi so she gets a pass but still.) and then you've got lan fan who is supposed to be this badass fighter, but immediately gets taken out in a fight against bradley and then cuts off her arm, and all of that is used to further ling's character arc (and i love both of them but like...alright. that's a choice.) then you have riza, who's whole backstory is mostly to prop up mustang, and then you have the moment where she finds out he "died" ala lust and she just... gives up?? like lmao what?? and then winry, who's (despite what fans say) entire role in the story is to be ed's love interest and when she's not needed for automail stuff, she just waits around for him, even at the end. like.... ok. which, sidenote, aside from how racist scar killing winry's parents is (and the way it's used to further the romance of edwin) i always hated how ed tells winry her hands were meant to "give life". like... wow, a male character telling a women she's meant to not fight and heal instead?? never heard THAT before! /s and yet edwin fans/mangahood fans will praise this as if it's the epitome of feminism and it's like... i mean i guess it's better than some other shonen out there but it's not what i'd call perfect lol. and anytime you try to point this out everyone is so quick to say "fma's written by a woman!!" and it's like... yes lol obviously but that doesn't mean some of her writing choices can't be side-eyed (see: how the ishvalans are treated).

What, didn't you hear? The presence of women is maximal feminism and peering any deeper than that is misogynist. The same kind of thinking that leads people to proclaim mangahood to be an anti-racist, anti-military screed when it fumbles the former and is absolutely the opposite of the latter.

Never let a shallow reading get in the way of heaping endless praise on your fave shonen fare. Feminism is when there's women and it's written by a woman, not a broad ideological/philosophical framework that needs to be intentionally understood and applied to a story.

Whatever feminist cred we can give mangahood is pretty shallow. And what sticks out to me is how overtly the Brotherhood anime upholds typical patriarchal gender roles. Girl/women characters berate the boys/men for being wimpy/failing their duty for utmost machismo. Various characters prod at Olivier for being an unwed older woman without kids, and although this is met with consternation on Olivier's part, it ties back into larger patterns of women as 'innately' maternal. Obviously the presence of sexism doesn't necessarily mean a support for it, but Winry getting moulded into the perfect idyllic white pastoral wifey does subtly tip the text's hat.

Ed is shocked that Lan Fan is a woman, despite his alchemy and combat teacher being a woman too. And as you said, we are constantly meant to gawk at Izumi and Olivier for being adept fighters, combat-savvy, and brutal when need be. The 2003 anime is not obsessed with Izumi's prowess; you're meant to take her seriously and respect her as a formidable fighter and alchemist.

Lan Fan does get to shine a bit as a fighter when up against Ed, and later when taking down Gluttony post-arm loss, but she doesn't get fleshed out beyond her dedication to protecting Ling. It does read a bit odd when, after witnessing Lan Fan's sacrifice of her arm for her and Ling to escape Wrath, Ling then kicks Gluttony's ass while hauling her around on his shoulder. Like. He's a stronger fighter than his own bodyguard. (Arguably Gluttony is a less adept fighter than Wrath, but he does have sheer mass on his side and that should not be manageable for someone encumbered by a fallen comrade.) I wouldn't expect him to be incompetent, but the disparity in quick succession of scenes is odd.

Of course feminism also isn't reducible to "when female shonen characters are good/bad at battle". More than everything mentioned, Lan Fan doesn't exist outside of Ling and her clan's duty. She has too few scenes as well, given Brotherhood's juggling of 300 characters beat by beat.

Riza truly is just a mess when looking at her place in the story. The codependence between her and Mustang is intentional, and I wouldn't knock that against the writing for that choice. Women having flaws, being wholly human in variety is not antithetical to a feminist reading. But it's when she's constantly put in situations where she's barely holding herself together, where she's a damsel for Mustang to rescue, where her distress is classically Woman™, and that scene with Lust is meant to reveal just how deep that dependence runs. It renders her null the moment she thinks Roy is out of the picture. Riza's backbone is Mustang, our Idealized Male Deuteragonist. That's when its hard to just prop Riza up as Feminist (girlboss genocider addition which, y'know. Nothing more Imperial Feminist than ethnic cleansing, because women of colour don't count in the grand calculus for pop media feminism).

(Also Ishvalan women basically don't exist beyond the one elderly woman who rats out Scar.)

Yes, it's a character trait of Riza: she can keep her cool so long as Roy is alive. Barring if she thinks its time to kill him herself, any other major threat to him is excruciatingly existential to herself. She revolves around him, whereas I'm not convinced Roy would be as instantly and emotionally destitute in a reverse situation. We got a taste of his Righteous Man Anger with Lust (the symbolism of this faux womanizer scorching a seductress to death who threatened him and his monogamous situationship, as well as leading on his buddy, reifying the Good Loyal Non-Sexual Woman and condemning the Vindictive Harlot is 😬). His self-destruction would likely be codified Male, the way Riza's is codified Female. It's gender roles at a fairly essentialist level.

Everything you mentioned about Winry is spot-on. Her passion for automail engineering is slowly stripped away to keep her more as ship fodder and as the continual spectre for mangahood's Scar Was Wrong thesis. She's gonna bake Ed a pie when he returns home from the war front, she'll bare their children, she'll be a wife first and anything else second. Meh. How disappointing. I'll take the staunch automail freak that is 03 Winry, whose destiny is not wrapped up in the nuclear family, anyday.

Which is the other big, glaring character of Brotherhood: the power of the cisheterosexual institution of the nuclear family and marriage. It has its own healing powers, eeking the humanity out of Pride and Wrath, being the driving force for Hughes to survive genociding people long enough to establish his own family, the will-they won't-they vice grip of Roy and Riza, Ed's big reward for ending Father once and for all, Hohenheim's salvation was in part his family (becoming the true father that his homunculus doppleganger never could be); families at least exist outside of the Western nuclear model from what we see of the Xingese characters, and what little we get to see of the Ishvalans, but that's hardly expounded upon.

We weep at the purity of Madame Fuhrer's love and concern for her Fascist Supreme Leader husband and her star son, pulling on the heartstrings of the nation. (The Ishvalans don't matter.) We're stirred to righteous horror at what befalls the Rockbells, a loving family ripped apart by Amestris by Scar. Gracia is the picture perfect widowed wife, proud of her patriotic husband, and dutifully rearing the country's future. Envy, a gender freak making a mockery of her and Hughes meets brutal retribution by our idealized Man, who struck down the other aberrant gender of Lascivious Evil Woman. Winry's future shines golden, as her hands deliver a baby, channelling her parents and, (barely) subtextually, some sort of Woman's Intuition. Lust isn't even a character beyond the archetype of femme fatale (she's more interesting to analyze as the Female Sexualization of desire from an inhuman being masquerading as a cis man than as a character herself).

It's a lot of failed potential on top of being very normative.

To actually give a solid, deeper critique on the ways Brotherhood is and isn't feminist would be a greater undertaking if you want to delve beyond what's been mentioned here, and I just don't have the time to really get to the meat of it all.

Still, I don't think it isn't without some positives. At least I find Madame Christmas a solid example of an older woman not couched in maintaining a standard of feminine youth or thinness, yet carries herself with an air of confidence that the narrative and characters never balk at. The sex workers she leads are also spared sanctimonious bullshit or anxiety over their existence.

So that's something. (These are not major characters in the slightest.)

I'm not shocked by how shallow the series actually is regarding its female cast and its overall gender politics, but fan insistence that it's a prime example of a feminist story is laughable. Yeah, shonen stories, especially battle shonen, are ABYSMAL in these regards, so compared to total shit mangahood stands above its contemporaries. But if your standards are higher than total shit, than mangahood really won't knock you off your feet.

Despite what some may think, you can acknowledge the flaws of Brotherhood while still enjoying the story and characters. It isn't actually a personal attack to like imperfect media (which is pretty much all media lbr). But try bringing any of this up without people flying into a conniption, as if you killed their dog right before their very eyes. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

[beemers-hell]

holds out cup

a bit of your thoughts on character designing? your characters are all so distinct and unique, I've been wanting to ask for awhile how you went about your sillies!

You fool. You idiot. You absolute buffoon. You have no idea what you've done. You have no idea what I am about to unleash unto you all.

Hi i am extremely autistic about character design so obligatory [read more] because I am gonna fucking TALK your EAR OFF about this shit, prepare for a fuckass LOOOOOOOOONG post

So the first rule of character design is to fuck around and have fun :)

Anyway onto the real shit:

P1: Foundational Shit

For starters, I'll link you to a post I made like 3 years ago on this topic, just to get some foundational shit out of the way!

Me personally, I have a very rigid structure I stick to whenever I design characters, which is:

I must know what their personality is like

I must know what their fashion tastes are

I must know what their role in the story is (this one only applies if the character is even apart of a bigger narrative in the first place, obviously. I just am strict and don't make new characters unless I have a purpose for them to serve in my stories so it's hard baked into how I operate as a character designer lol)

By having these in mind when I design characters, shit becomes a WHOLE lot easier/more natural for me. This is because:

The personality of a character can usually be reflected in their design, whether it be a bubbly loud energetic guy who's dolled up in bright colors and playful clothing accessories, a commanding bossy stoic guy who's dolled up in subtle and professional clothing pieces, or even subverting this idea by having a character who acts one way but dresses in a way you'd expect from the opposite.

Knowing what kinds of fashion this character would be into in the first place makes it a whole lot easier to get ideas and look for resources on ways you can style them- Knowing the character would be interested in like, for example, scene fashion makes it far easier to look for the type of clothing they'd wear and find pieces that stand out to you so you can start experimenting with what works or what doesn't for that character.

Knowing the role they play can also help a lot when designing them, much like knowing their fashion tastes can. However, where knowing their fashion tastes helps in looking for visual inspiration, knowing their role in a story can help with their design in a thematic sense; If the character is supposed to be some kind of trouble maker rebellious kid, then you're probably going to wanna make them visually fit the bill (or, again, you might want to subvert the idea of what a rebellious little shithead looks like so you go for the opposite of what people imagine!) Ykwim?

Now with that out of the way, let's get some VISUAL EXAMPLES, using my guys obviously lmao

For an example of the personality thing, here's a page I made where I talk about my thought process behind the designs of some of my goons in regards to taking into account their personality (and aesthetic taste):

For an example of the story role thing, here's a page I made where I talk about my thought process behind the designs of Eb and Ben (+Neco and Alli) in regards to the role they play in their story:

I hope this gets the point across!

P2: Additional Stuff to Consider

In addition to the above section, there's also some other things you can utilize to try and make your designs stand out!

One such thing is brainstorming ideas for stand out design elements! Like, something that' makes them stand out from the crowd, or an element of their design that is so specific to them that they just can't be the same character without it. This thing in general is kind of vague by nature so here's some examples using my guys that I think get the point across:

You can also go the extra mile and give them little design details that just add that little extra bit of "oomf" to the character overall. Again, this is kind of vague by nature, but here are some examples I can give with my characters. Some of these doodles are OLD AS HELL so that's why the art style is outdated, but the point still stands!

You can also go the extra mile to try and diversify your designs by doing some structural tests with your characters. What I mean by this is by literally dumbing them down to their most basic attributes, or as I like to call it, "Run the Silhouette & Recognition Test" What I mean by this:

The Silhouette Test: Making a lineup of your characters and blacking them out so they show up as silhouettes, which allows you to check the readability and/or recognizability of your character's design, and if it's unique from your other characters!

Recognition Test: Make a lineup of all of your character's heads and/or bodies, and only draw their facial features/head shape and/or body shape/structure, nothing else. I do this mainly to help myself try to avoid face/body syndrome and I think it works pretty well for me!

Now, for my last extra thing; Remember my point about knowing a character's taste in fashion? This is applies here. Knowing your character's fashion tastes can make designing their main outfit, or any other alternate outfits you make for them, like SUPER fuckin easy. Here's a couple examples with some of my gals:

Raina likes real casual clothes, simple shit like crop tops/tank tops n' jeans, just styled to her liking. She's a simple chick with simple tastes! But there are noticeable touches, like how she has a habit of changing her earrings to match the occasion she's celebrating!

Eb likes grungy clothes, and adds flair to her outfits by dipping into a decora kei inspired style of accessorizing, which compliments her nicely since she loves customizing things to make them her own. She's not fully there with the extravagance of it yet but she's getting there!

Yume likes pastel colors and form fitting clothes, sometimes with loose jackets/robes to keep her cozy, with minimal accessories. She's also simple, but unlike Raina, she doesn't tend to try and go the extra mile with jewelry and/or makeup, not often.

Bank's a baby punk and is still finding her style, but it's clear she likes a lot of leather, spikes, chains, all that kind of shit. Dark colors, with minimal touches of her favorite color (pink lol), and some accessories like earrings, pins, and/or straps are enough to complete a look for her. And of course, any clothing article to obscure her face works for her!

I hope I don't sound fucking nuts I genuinely put way too much time into thinking about all of this stupid bullshit lmao

P3: Actual Examples of Me Working Through the Character Design Process

I figure if I show off examples where I was working on concept shit, that'd help put this into something digestible for y'all lol.

For starters, here's a doodle page I made back in 2021 when I was making small tweaks to a couple of my guys designs, which is why my art style looks old and some characters have their outdated looks lol:

Now, here's a MUCH more recent example of my concept process, where I was figuring out the idea for Namgi's new design (which is still being worked on atm lol):

Here's the concept pages I made when I was figuring out Majin's recent redesign:

And here's some concept pages I made when I I was figuring out the Possessed Form designs for my hosts!

I hope this is all actually helpful and not just like. stupid nothing shit lmao

And like, yanno, you don't HAVE to do/listen to any of this, this is just the kind of shit I've learned over the years that personally helps me with coming up with designs that feel fresh and distinct, at least for my personal tastes! Something I do might just not work for you, the design process is unique for everyone obviously. It's the same thing as your art style, everyone does shit differently lol

This concludes my Autism Ramble!!

[notshuttingup]

i've been thinking about the vessel creation from chapter 1 recently. like, how is it significant? i don't believe its just some throwaway gag. toby fox does a really good job of making call backs. i do, personally, think that we WILL see the vessel we created later on in the game (or i just hope it will happen...)

but. i was also thinking about the personality choices...and i wonder if they're connected to certain characters? mostly kris, susie, ralsei, and noelle, since they seem to be the most important characters so far.

the favorite color question lets us pick red, blue, green, and cyan. i first thought of susie for red, but she's more purple/pink, so maybe red is the soul? and with blue/cyan i thought of kris, and ralsei is obviously green. it's possible that cyan is meant to apply to noelle for the whole ice thing.

the favorite foods are sweet, soft, sour, salty, pain, and cold. cold sticks out to me as possibly referring to noelle, and pain kind of fits into that with the ThornRing - user takes damage from pain (i saw some reddit post bringing this up.) soft reminds me of as ralsei (fluffy boy). sour or salty could easily apply to susie. sweet is another one that could apply to both ralsei and noelle. pain could apply to kris, as their whole ripping-the-soul-out thing seems pretty painful for them.

the feelings for the creation (love, hope, disgust, fear) could also be connected?

love = ralsei. he seems to be aware of the player's presence and wants to please us. (also just. FYI. i'm not really meaning anything romantic).

hope = susie. she kind of talks about her loneliness in chapter 3 and 4, and how the adventure's have given her a sense of hope (not sure if she uses this exact wording)

digust = kris. pretty obvious. kris hates that we are basically possessing them and throws us away whenever they get the chance.

fear = noelle. this is more evident in weird route. noelle becomes afraid of our voice. she calls it terrifying. it's less evident in normal route, but she still calls out how kris is acting different and she seems a little put off by it.

the gift you choose for your vessel (kindness, mind, ambition, integrity, voice) could also have some kind of wider connection to characters, but these feel more like a stretch...

integrity COULD be susie; she seems to be the only one to truly stick to who she is. she doesn't let herself get bossed around and won't do stuff that she doesn't want to. she also just does her own thing, which could be described as integrity to herself. kindness pretty obviously fits with ralsei, it's his whole thing. you could argue kris as voice - we as the players are sort of denying kris their own voice by controlling them and we speak for them often. mind and ambition are the ones that are difficult to figure out. mind for noelle because she's smart????

anywho, this is all conjecture. it's an interesting thing to consider but i don't think it has much merit than that lol.

[ratinacoat]

Throwing my 2 cents into the radqueer discourse because I haven't seen this mentioned. For context, I've been aware of it prior to anti radqueer blogs popping up due to a server I was in had a blocklist channel for them. A lot of minors I notice are in the community and it feels similar in terms of the MOGAI community (i.e coining terms for stuff they experience, the communities themselves are two different vibes). From my pov, it feels like traumacore blogs meeting MOGAI coining in terms of the posts. Some posts are connected to "wanting" xyz disorder, "cis" terms relating to those who bodily have it, etc.

It feels like a majority of the community may deal with denial, internalized ableism, isolation, and/or trauma symptoms. For example, transplural may NOT be tied to the situation of faking having a disorder. They maybe a system but are in denial due to "not fitting" the criteria (their symptoms maybe unrealized/suppressed). There's also transseverity which is when you "want a disorder to be worse" which again could be tied to trauma symptoms (i.e wanting worse trauma to be valid). Obviously, it doesn't excuse the whole harmful terms but considering most I see are minors, they may not realize what they're doing plus the aspect of them being groomed or undergoing CSA.

This is something I've observed partially in radqueer communities too. The reason is going to vary person to person, there is no reason that will apply to 100% of the radqueer community but I think this is a big one for quite a few people. I'm gunna go in depth on my own observations/theory as well because I love rambling about this stuff.

This is going to be a long rant, TW for neglect mentions.

Many transID people I've seen or talked to do it for other reasons too. Another big one is desperately wanting the attention, the sympathy, pity, and assistance that certain people get, such as those with visible physical disabilities (amputees, wheelchair users, etc). They don't see the discrimination those people get, they don't understand first hand that ableism is such a big problem. They don't understand that the person is actually struggling. Instead they see how much attention they get and feel like they want that. This is common in people who have experienced neglect and those with some kind of disorder.

As a personal example, I have BPD and NPD. As a young child (throughout elementary school, so around the ages of 6-12) there were times I envied people who got injured. Every year there was always that one kid who fell off the playgrounds and broke their arm. When I was a kid I wanted that to happen. I wanted the sympathy, the attention, and the pity that the other kid was getting because I didn't get that attention from the people who should have given it to me. Part of me knew it was wrong but another part didn't care. I didn't understand how much pain the other person would have been in, all I saw was how people adored them, felt bad for them, cared for them, etc. As I got older I realized this was wrong, I got help in middle school-high school and now I don't have this problem, or at least it's not as intense as it used to be. Obviously there's still the little voice going "Don't you wish that were you?" but therapy was able to help lessen the severity of that.

I was lucky to get therapy for it so young and get diagnosed with these disorders as a teen. Not everyone has that ability, and when the internet is in your ear telling you it's normal and it's okay to feel like you should be the victim of something, it doesn't help. People going through neglect or any abuse likely don't have a good connection with their parents and spend more time searching for communities online. Finally finding one where they feel they belong, such as transID communities, feels relieving. At the same time though, the feeling of finally being understood and the radical acceptance is discouraging them from seeking help and telling them that anyone who thinks it's not okay to envy survivors/disabled people is just a horrible person.

Uhh tldr; The constant feeling of wanting attention/sympathy that survivors/disabled folk get isn't normal and radqueer/transID communities encouraging it are why these kids aren't getting help for something that is probably a disorder.

(Don't use this to self diagnose BPD or NPD. Anytime I tell this story someone asks if it means they have BPD or NPD. No, it doesn't. There are other things that cause it too.)

[tboyquackity]

if those text post about the sa stuff is about cq i am baffled with how blind someone has to be to be that bad at media literacy and racist hello

no like. lmao it's super abt cq and yeah. it's horrible.✌️ i like don't even know where to begin w what an awful take it is. can we be people.

it's just uhh. well. imo not good to take v v lighthearted joke/outta context bits that aren't given narrative weight and then spin them into something they Never Were for some like. idk. leeway? is that what it is? leveling the playing field? i see this talk abt cquackity frm a lot of ppl (v consistently in cdr*blr, just to paint a picture lmao.) but the one that makes me the saddest is frm ppl who rlly like cschlatt and wnna fight back at his unjust bigoted fanon treatment by being unjust and bigoted to. another character?  like. ok? 😭

the worst thing is, for the second group, (first group don't matter i'm not wasting my time arguing w ppl like that), is that it's coming from ppl who are like. all things considered completely right abt cschlatt! it's absolutely correct to get upset abt an addict being demonized, having all his actions taken in the worst faith imaginable. having joke bits that don't have narrative weight treated as hard canon when that's not the case at all, just to paint some stupid picture that woobifies and dilutes other characters at his textually supposed to be sympathetic expense. it's ridiculous! that's all true!! cschlatt sweep forever that's my special princess like i agree!!!

so if you can understand that taking bits where he's like slapping cqs ass, or making boy prostitute jokes at cfundy, or batting people around jokingly/w no narrative weight are clearly meant to be at most shitty jests w no added pressure to them, and painting it as smthing else is disingenuous and transparent. why the hell are you taking like this abt cquackity then 😭 why the hell are HIS actions suddenly being scrutinized w the same rightfully critiqued incorrect lense! it's just sowugrrugrbrfnjfk

and on top of that, you cannot divorce the way ppl look at things and the way they filter them. like uhh for example. there's a stream where ckarl just like drugs cquackity. he puts heroin in his shit and it causes him a psychotic break and q chases the guy like an animal abt it for quite a while until he sobers up. ckarl also called him like ugly and stupid and unlikable and at one point hunted him down with an axe across the map bcs he left him at a joke altar. and i have never once in my life seen ppl freak out at ckarl abt it and go ohhh he must be a secret abuser oooh. BECAUSE THAT'S NOT TRUE AND SHOULD NEVER BE A TALKING POINT IN THE FIRST PLACE 😭 OBVIOUSLY!!! it's not supposed to be taken that way in the narrative at all. ckarl is explicitly a good guy, who means well and likes playing pranks on his friends who he loves dearly enough to sacrifice himself for them over and over. there's no awful weight to these actions he's playing his damn touys. when shit is meant to be held to a standard it literally just is held to it the dsmp isn't subtle there's no way around it. and if smone tried to tell you anything different abt it the ridicule they'd deserve would be astronomical.

ctubbo tried to drown ctommy and spent the whole time giggling abt it. that doesn't mean ctubs is some kinda freak abt it because it's treated in the narrative as a bit. ctommy hits and lashes out at cjack a lot. it's never treated or supposed to be taken as ctommy fucking abusing him. 😭 cschlatt and cq make jokes at eachother and it just point blank is never coded in any other way than them doing bits and speaking in freak tongues and having gay ghost sex infront of cq's fucking dad and being light hearted assholes to eachother until we get to the scenes where weight IS being applied. and even then it's not abusive it's human conflict between equals. like fuck's sake.

and idk. like i said, it rlly is interesting that it's applied to those character specifically. and the hypocritical gross ass double standard of it all is suddenly like. so ignorable huh how weird. so you see specifically the addict character who's at most an asshole as some uniquely scary demon evil abuser despite him not being that at all. you see this mentally ill deeply psychotic dude who's at most an asshole and think he's a violent freak who beats his brother even though he clearly isn't. you see this brown character, one of the ONLY ones, and suddenly yr stumbling over yrself abt how he's a violent assaulter and also fantasy racist to white characters despite all the. wow yr rlly cool and normal and not transparent at all hahaha. wow. hah. what a world.

anyways yeah like. i'm not gnna engage w this fuckass topic no more gensrs. it's bad for my blood sugars it's bad for my liver i've said my piece i'm done i'm sick of it. 👍 i'm just gnna start blocking even more ppl and focusing on the good of the fanbase instead. sucks that it's so common and unchecked but whatttt can you do except keep sending ghouls and devils to their addresses. if you have this wack ass "interpretation" do us both a favor and fucking block me. sword slash through the chest and you're on fire.

[pumpkinhcad]

GET TO KNOW ABC'S: MUN EDITION.

A. AGE: Turning 27-years-old next month!

B. BIRTHPLACE: Somewhere in north Spain.

C. CURRENT TIME: 6:13Pm

D. DRINK YOU HAD LAST: Water, it's what I usually have during my break.

E. EASIEST PERSON(S) TO TALK TO: Probably my mom, and some of my non-RP friends and mutuals. Lately I've barely spoken to anyone tho' lol, I haven't been doing too how socially lately, sorry I'm lame like that.

F. FAVORITE CURRENT SONG(S): Found Footage by ■37. I can't stop putting it on repeat when I'm doing anything that doesn't involve writing.

G. GOALS: Keep this blog alive until SM7 releases is my main priority.

H. HORROR YES OR HORROR NO: Oh, the irony... I think I've said this before but I'm not a horror person. Like I'll watch a horror movie with friends on VC, or watch a playthrough of a horror game, but it has to be on my own terms. I don't like playing or watching stuff by myself, and that especially applies to horror (because I'm skittish, whoops).

I. IN LOVE?: Nope. It has never crossed my mind. Tho', sometimes I will ponder whether I'd hypothetically date X or Y person or not. I do have (1) fictional husband, but it took me like 20+ years to actually get one lmao.

J. JEALOUS OF PEOPLE: Yeah, it's definitely one of the reasons I feel insecure sometimes. I feel bad when I cannot post consistently enough, or play games well enough (because I'm painfully mid at everything), very general stuff.

K. KILLED SOMEONE: In videogames, yeah. Maybe I've killed a person or two through my writing, but it's been a while.

L. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT OR SHOULD I WALK BY AGAIN?: I've never fallen in love, so I can't say I believe in love at first sight IRL. In fiction, tho', I think the trope can be cute (one of my older muses' main ship, which is also canon, was the product of love at first sight).

M. MIDDLE NAME: I don't have a middle name because Spaniards have two (2) ✌️ last names. My first last name (lol) is very unique, tho', so I won't reveal it.

N. NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: None (in my mom's words, "one was enough"). But, as a fun fact I guess, I'm the youngest out of my cousins on my father's side and a middle child out of my mother's.

O. ONE WISH: "God, I hope tomorrow is better" - me literally every day only to go to sleep the same way the next day.

Q. QUESTIONS YOU'RE ALWAYS ASKED: My RP mutuals keep asking me "you're angel, you know that, right?" or "does Pump know he's the most important boy in the world?" and I'm always like HHHHH YA'LL ARE TOO NICE!! And, I guess, amongst my non-RP friends, "um, the stream is down??" is a running gag (because sometimes I need to restart Discord if I wanna continue streaming a game or talk without it cutting off).

S. SONG YOU LAST SANG: No Wind Resistance by Kinneret. I'm surprised I remember still, but some lyrics just stick to me.

T. TOP 3 FICTIONAL CHARACTERS: Oh boy, this is why I have a Favorite Character Bingo, I can't just choose three! Though, obviously, Pump is up there somewhere. Like he's MY adopted son, has been for years, and will likely never NOT be my son, so he's practically one of my staple favorite characters. If I had to choose two other staples, in no particular order?? Doraemon and Pip from South Park, no questions asked.

U. UNEXPERIENCED OR EXPERIENCED WRITER: I'm inclining more towards experienced?? After all, I have a master's degree in English literature and writing, and academically-speaking I have always been more proud of my written work than whatever results I've ever gotten in tests. Not to mention, I've technically been RPing for over a decade at this point.

V. VACTION: I haven't gone on vacation in the last couple of years because of money, tbh. More often than not, I go on single-day trips with my mom and, last time, we went to Burgos to see the Sad Hill Cemetery of movie fame! This year, tho', I'm going to visit one of my college buddies for a whole week, and I'll be staying at his house and meet his friends and stuff.

W. WHEN'S YOUR BIRTHDAY: August 4th! Less than a month left!

X. X-RAYS: Oh yeah, I've had them before for dental work (three of my wisdom teeth have been extracted for various reasons). I believe I've also had them when I had a tendinitis on my left wrist (which is ironic because, well, I'm right-handed, whoops!).

Y. YOUR FAVORITE FOOD: Oh man, that's a difficult one. It's either bread (any bread, I just can't have enough of it) or Spanish omelet (or eggs in general, egg days are the best days). Though... definitely inclining towards bread more because it's something I buy and eat every day.

Z. ZODIAC SIGN: Leo (and I think it shows lmao).

tagged by: Nobody! I actually stole this one hehe. tagging: YOU should do it if you haven't already.

[femnoah]

TD danganronpa au

The ultimate talents part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

I can't believe I forgot to post this!! It was just sitting there in my drafts... oops

So uh, maybe mild spoilers for the Danganronpa games/series as I will be discussing some characters and comparisons and maybe plot points?

This is the list of the ultimate talents I decided on for each contestant, why I did so and some background information. As always, I'm always up for a discussion.

Once again, bear with me on the vague outfit descriptions!

Lindsay Mitchells- the Ultimate Fashionista

There was no question for this. Personally, I love the headcannon that she threw the tiebreaker just so she could go shopping.

It started out when she was featured on a special for her school's newspaper. Not long after, she had a looooooot of new friends asking for advice! Soon, even Mrs Spooner from down the street was begging for help for her 79th birthday party outfit! Then, Lindsay upgraded from the school's newspaper to her city's newspaper!

She applied to total drama because she felt like it. That's it. She doesn't really need a reason now does she?

Her bubbly personality really helps keep everyone's spirits high when everything starts hitting the fan.

Outfit- as mentioned in the previous one, she's wearing matching with Tyler. Even her hair accessory matched Tyler's sweatband. Truly couple goals!

Bridgette Ferguson- The Ultimate Surfer

It was a toss up on the ultimate surfer and the ultimate animal handler. But I just decided to keep with her surfer thing as a primary and her animal loving nature as a result of it.

Graceful on the water, Bridgette really is the ultimate surfer. She's competed globally with her team who she grew up with. She's been in love with the water ever since she first learned how to swim and it didn't take long for her to take her passion on the board, gliding and riding on the waves.

She applied to total drama to spread her message of love and well, they needed a calmer person to really highlight the craziness of the show. Of course, her message of love took a turn thanks to Alejandro. She won't forgive him for making her cheat and leaving her on a pole.

Outfit- she gets those convertible trousers/shorts and her hair is kept in a low bun.

Harold Norbert Cheever Doris McGrady V- The Ultimate Otaku

Obviously he has his whole obsession with knights and ninjas but I thought it'd be pretty in character for Chris to narrow down on one small aspect just to get back at him because of all the times he annoyed him. So technically speaking, he'd be the ultimate historical reenactor but Chris convinced the network to change it. I also debated having him be the ultimate conspiracy theorist but I think it kind of ties in a bit with the talent.

He's picked up a lot of skills from his previous camps, all of which help him with his reenactments with his historical reenactment group. A close knit group of fellow history appreciators with a special bond- they are each others family. They even toured parts of Canada together! It's because of this group that Harold has never had to be anything other than himself. With his love of performance, was it really that surprising that he agreed to join the drama brothers?

He joined total drama to prove his skills and well, the money would really help with his costume collection.

Outfit- pretty similar to his competition appearance just with a different graphic tee.

Ezekiel Cooper-Walsh- The Ultimate Farmhand

He was the final person I considered as the ultimate lucky student. I even debated having him as the protagonist but, narratively speaking, Alejandro fit better. I also considered having him as the ultimate mechanic- from fixing stuff up on his farm. But that would only give him a minor role in one or maybe two trials and I wanted him to have more importance due to how canon TD treats his character. Having him as the ultimate farmhand meant I could still use him with my original intentions as well as giving him a key role in a trial or two. Then I also considered having him as the ultimate linguist but I just went back to the farmhand thing.

So Ezekiel has spent his entire life on the farm with the only pastimes being either studying or working at the farm. He was originally forced to help out to make sure he spent time outside but eventually fell in love with the work. Caring for the animals, fixing up the machines, helping with the crops- it became a solace from his loneliness.

Then, he was given the opportunity to apply for total drama. It was an opportunity to interact with his fellow peers and apply the skills he learned from the farm!

Outfit- underneath his hoodie are overalls and a maroon top. As the game progresses, he loses his hoodie and hat as he makes more friends!

So, what do yous want to know next? More on the motives? Who the victims are? Who the blackened are? Who the mastermind/traitor is? Or would you prefer to find out chronologically?

Master list

[jade-of-mourning]

You don't know how glad I am you like my fem!Mako asks! Thank you for encouraging me. Fem!Mako renaissnse 2025 must begin!! Real! Also I totally agree about larger TLOK fandom being exhausting, it's still better than ATLA fandom somehow...

Now for my "Mako's storyline would work better if he was a girl" take. I'll try my best to explain. I don't disagree that it works fine as is, and looking at some story points through female lens could be enough, but in practice there are some issues. Applying female character's tropes to male ones allows to look at a character from a different perspective at least. This practice also usually makes such characters get better writing and they're better recieved by the audience compared to female characters using the same tropes (yay for misoginy?). But for Mako this doesn't work. Because a lot of b1-2 revolves around the infamous love triangle, Mako's protective tendencies can easily be seen not as something left from his backstory (the correct interpretation, but you need to think about it for more than 5 minutes), but as him fulfilling a patriarchal role. All this despite him taking a pretty passive role in the romantic plotline. A lot of TLOK's romances fall back into generic m/f tropes. idk it's pretty weird.

Take this with a grain of salt, but it also seems like the writers started to humiliate Mako as a man (? not sure how to explain it better) from b2 onward. I understand his coworkers making fun of him and stuff, but it's hard to believe that Lin Beifong, who almost definitely got Mako this job, wouldn't take him seriously. Then the whole bodyguard thing in b4, it kind of feels "no real job for you. go ahead and babysit a dude your age, as a patience test". And don't get me started on Remembrances ep with our first 100% mischaracterisation and entire Mako's story revolving around romance for some reason. It's just so unfulfilling narratively for Mako's character, they literally got him to resolve the mystery of his parents' murder in comic form almost 12 years later. There's also writer's commentary on Mako's taking the mech down near the finale that said something similar to "hope him saving Republic city as he almost dies makes up for the love triangle" which is ???

Of course, a lot of these problems could be resolved by removing the love triangle or actually writing it properly. But seeing the fandom's divided reaction to him just makes me think that him being male simply distracts from his backstory, personality traits and issues (especially parentification) and dynamics with other characters (like how Masami would be 1000 times more interesting if Mako was a woman).

Hope this was coherent! I'll gladly elaborate on anything here if needed. I don't mean to sound so self-deprecating, I just spent too long writing this and now my words don't seem real...

Hello again, and thank you for your very thoughtful ask! Don’t worry; you’re very cohesive. I've decided to adopt the Serious Person Capitalization And Grammar™ for this lengthy response, because this is a very interesting subject that I've wanted to write about for a long time but haven't really had the proper motivation to do so until now. Again, thank you for this opportunity to dissect What The Fuck is going on with Mako in LOK. I admit I’m going to go on some mild tangents in this post because I not only want to interact with reading Mako through a female lens, but also have a lot of things to say about Mako all the time. However, I will make sure to touch on all the points that you did cover in this ask! It's over 2.3k so I'm going to just stick it under a cut.

Let’s start with the first half of your ask: female tropes being applied to Mako, a male character, and how effectively they’re conveyed/actively detrimentally they are written. I know since you sent this ask you’ve obviously already thought about much of this, but I just want to lay some points down because I think about it a lot.

Consider the love triangle. While I’ve seen people argue that having two girls interested in one guy is less conventional in teen media, I don’t really consider that to be sufficient enough for relevance. What interests me in regards to gender is specifically Mako and Asami’s relationship (— which, tangentially, I could talk about extensively in the context of Book 1 for their potential that was never meaningfully interacted with by the narrative, something that is an extremely common theme through LOK’s surface level skimming with class and political ideologies that never actually evolves into any kind of social commentary. You guys were so close, Bryke). The fact that Mako is financially dependent on Asami is very striking to me; both in real life and in fiction, it’s not uncommon for women to remain in unfulfilling/bad relationships due to financial dependence, and particularly in fiction, I feel like I’ve never actually seen that position relegated to a male character. (I don’t mean to imply that Masami was an inherently unfulfilling relationship, but rather that regardless of Mako’s comparative affections for Korra, in order to stay in the running for the tournament they needed the Satos’ financial support, and that tournament was both his and Bolin’s livelihoods. Asami, who is ridiculously nice, is probably the only person ever who would continue to support her ex, but Mako has no reason to hold conviction about that during their three-ish week relationship.) As Mako himself says rather callously in The Spirit of Competition, he likes Korra, but “it makes more sense to be with Asami”.

I suppose this is also the first point where you can argue he’d garner more sympathy as a female character, or more accurately, less backlash. As you said, if one thinks about it for all of two seconds, it makes sense from a backstory standpoint as to why he’s viewing Korra and Asami in such an uncomfortably pragmatic way, but it easily comes off as a very objectifying statement, even in context. Similarly, as you say, due to him being a guy, his protective nature can be read very much as him trying to fulfill obligatory Strong Boyfriend duties when, again as you say, it’s because of his and Bolin’s backstory from the streets (— which I’m still shaking my fist at Bryke about the lack thereof, but I’ll talk about that a little bit later on). I would argue that these writing choices under the context of Mako being a male character are thus framed to be more actively misleading than if Mako were a female character. These two instances are both inherently positioned in a way that can easily be attributed to his male-ness, and the narrative doesn’t go out of its way to suggest otherwise (read: expand on backstory). These two instances are also immediately far more forgiveable to the viewer’s eye if Mako were a female character. Having to choose between a fulfilling relationship and financial stability — that’s not an uncommon female experience! Being a protective girl — that’s just how she is, and there’s no possibility that it could have to do with toxic masculinity!

I think I understand where you’re coming from and I don’t think you’re wrong that there are issues in this execution, because the writers fails to explore this sort of gender reversal in a meaningful capacity and instead cultivates an inherent dislike towards Mako. Bryke failed in an almost insulting way when it comes to engaging with Mako’s flaws, because hey, I almost thought he was supposed to be the deuteragonist? (Note that I think the problems with Mako’s writing runs deeper than being resolved by a gender switch, because there’s still no direct engagement with the intersectionality of backstory, class, and race in a story that is so oversaturated with high-status, rich and familiar names while trying to address the validity of various radical political ideologies, but I’ll can it for another day.) (I also think Bryke failed Bolin, though less egregiously in some aspects and more in others. The Bending Bros really can’t afford anything, not even a satisfying narrative. Alas, being poor.)

(Speedrun for more surface-level femininity of Mako that may make me look like all I do in my spare time is stereotype women — he gets kissed by the pursuing protagonist despite expressing uncertainty; he sits and stands like a girl frankly; Eldest Daughter Syndrome; the Goddamned Crop Top and the long coat guys have you seen all those 2012 LOK memeposts about Mako’s fashion?)

I hope I correctly interpreted what you were saying, and addressed it within my rambling! I'm not sure I got everything, so let me know if there’s anything you want me to elaborate on further. Let’s move onto the second half of your ask about Mako’s regression in the plot.

I vehemently agree with you that the writers definitely backpedaled and heavily reduced Mako as a character and, I guess, his dignity and importance after Season 2. I also struggle to articulate that exactly. The writers shifted the focus away from the Krew and towards the expanded cast of characters, a choice that I feel makes almost everyone but Korra fall flat. I actually think there’s at least some intersectionality of this with the idea of Mako as a female character, because I’m a dumbass who latched onto the fact that he “dated the main character then faded into obscurity and never lived up to his potential” [x], but I don’t really have anything meaningful to say about it so I won’t go on. I’m very tempted to do a speedrun on how the fandom treats Mako and how closely it resembles how many fandoms treat many female characters, because it’s so fascinating.

Admittedly, I’ll overlook Book 2. It’s a mess for everyone and the police have to be insultingly incompetent in order for the plot they tried to pull with Mako to work in any capacity, and that includes Lin Beifong. I think the writers were still trying to write Mako seriously, even if Book 2 was not very successful. (One day I’ll talk about Book 2, after one day I talk about Book 1, because there’s something there if you squint sideways and hang blue curtains I swear.) I’m about to get to Book 4 in my rewatch, having actually just finished Book 3 last night. But I do know that Book 4 disappoints me as a Mako fan, even if I enjoy most of it as a Korra fan. In all honesty, I don’t really like Wu and feel like there’s some degradation in Mako being a bodyguard, but I also have to admit that this dislike translating into the job being an indignity isn’t the most rational, therefore I won’t talk about it too much. I suppose there are in-universe reasons that enables this plotline to happen that I actually am more convinced by than narrative reasons. (There are many valid readings on how his interactions with Wu do actually contribute to show his character growth and I respect them, but unfortunately I’m not a blog that talks about those readings.) It’s whatever. I agree with you that Book 4 is just a slog when it comes to what they did with Mako and that for the vast majority of his already limited screentime, it wasn’t relative to any kind of narrative growth. I enjoyed Mako’s role in both Beyond the Wilds and The Last Stand and felt that both did contribute to his storyline, but his involvement in the book as a whole was so minimal and removed.

Remembrances, though — that makes me mad. The episode pulled some absolute bullshit in regards to Mako. You see, I’m almost willing to forgive Bryke for not explicitly going into depth regarding Mako and Bolin’s backstory, because I think you can extrapolate a lot about it if you overanalyze how they act in the present, coins of details, and in other hints throughout the narrative. (For the latter, I would like to argue that you can understand something about their childhood through Amon and Tarrlok’s childhood, but I digress because I still haven’t thought that one through. That’s for another day.) (And also, you can pull a lot just knowing how Industrial Age poverty and homelessness treated child orphans, and knowing that Bryke explicitly pulled Dickensian influences when conceiving the pair of them, and also knowing that only the Triple Threats gang would’ve taken them in as mixed kids. I digress once again.) Backstories don’t need to be spoonfed as flashbacks to the audience to understand that they’ve influence how characters make decisions and participate in their interpersonal relationships… not that Bryke made much of an effort to facilitate an understanding of Mako and Bolin without, which is a critical error and means that my statements about backstory somewhat irrelevant. But clearly with Remembrances, either Bryke doesn’t actually understand their own character, or they bent so far over backwards to try to appease the netizens who were still fuming at the mouth over this mildly socially inept streetrat orphan boy that their attempt to salvage the widespread fan perception of him involved inventing a genuinely baffling “motivation” of “money and fame” — which not only failed to make him more sympathetic, but actually contrived to make him out to look like far more of a jerk that he never was if you considered the actual reasoning behind his actions in the love triangle, and further undercut his character growth (that DOES exist [x] oh my god guys Mako subtly but meaningfully did grow as a person but whatever he’s not the Avatar and he’s not rich so why look below the surface sorry I’m not salty). Also, I’ve never listened to the writer’s commentary, but suggesting that Mako needed to almost die in order to “redeem” himself for the love triangle is actually batshit insane. I wouldn’t put it completely off the table to say that Mako himself may believe that he still needs to redeem himself because he’s probably prone to take on moral culpability for things that aren’t his fault (eg. this is how I personally read his position in the police force), but for the writers to say that from a meta standpoint is so maddeningly out of the left field.

Having addressed the majority of the ask, let’s go back to the main point about Mako’s gender. I think you’re right that him being male does distract subtle dynamics that exist to his character, but I do stand by saying it lands more definitively on LOK’s writing of the character as a whole rather than his masculinity. I appreciate you opening my eyes to this argument — I definitely had to recalibrate some of my own thoughts! Ultimately, I would personally still argue that the problems with Mako's storyline in LOK lies more in Bryke’s failure to follow through on meaningful exploration of his flaws and backstory guiding the viewer’s poor perception of him, and how Bryke attempted to overcorrect, rather than him not being female. I believe that the narrative written for him ends up being very similar to a lot of female characters’, and that as a result he received a curious “reverse-misogyny” from the fandom that I don’t necessarily think would be remedied by him being a girl (— though I do think there would be a greater number of female Mako sympathizers in the year of 2025). I absolutely think your take is a very valid and interesting one that I now have a better understanding of, though. And I think it's clear that my perspective regarding Mako's gender in the context of canon and the show isn't actually influencing my interest in fem!Mako, because I like her very much, and also I’m gay.

Again — I hope that I’ve answered your ask, and if not, feel free to send more and ask further! In fact, I want you to send more because I’m lonely in my LOK kick and I really like talking about Mako instead of going insane in the recesses of my empty Discord server that I keep to organize my thoughts in. I apologize for my extreme and copious tangents because I can’t think straight; I just got out of school for the year. I kind of want to write a semi-cohesive essay now. Also, I’m intrigued by you suggesting Masami would be more interesting with fem!Mako. Do tell?

(The LOK fandom scares me and even so, I can’t get off of Reddit despite its godawful takes. I think I need an echo chamber Discord server with like three other people because that would finally make me stop scrolling, but also, I like to believe that my extensive and continuous exposure to dubious takes I find to be extremely terrible alongside my general conviction about Mako Has Mostly Never Done Anything Wrong and Korra Is The Greatest And Has Also Mostly Never Done Anything Wrong allows me a perspective that’s not too flat. I’m coping and should probably just write more fanfiction to sate my grievances and stay off the rest of the internet.)

[cutecowthing]

here's the whole hypno ask meme under the cut because everyone seemed interested and tumblr mobile is annoying to format posts with. questions that don't apply or have already been will be struck out!

1. How long have you been into hypnosis?

2. Describe your first experience with hypnosis

3. Are there any TV shows/movies/books you liked when you were younger that you think got you into hypnosis?

I've talked about the one Courage the Cowardly Dog episode that started my fixation on it but I remember watching this interesting documentary on it when I was a kid-- I don't remember what it was called but I do remember a part where they tested it out on some people by hypnotizing them in a theater and telling them that they had just watched the best movie they've ever seen, and the people who went under gushed about it but couldn't come up with any details. Idk it was neat

4. Are you primarily a hypnotist or a subject?

6. What do you love about being hypnotised?

5. Are you primarily a dom/me or a sub?

Answering both of these at the same time because the answer is the same. If you couldn't tell I'm a submissive subject HOWEVER I think I might be able to fill a hypnotist role as a service dom type of thing

7. What do you love about hypnotising people?

8. How do you feel when hypnotised?

9. How do you feel when you hypnotise someone else?

11. What’s your ‘signature move’ as a hypnotist?

10. Are you a difficult subject?

I've been doing this for so long that I think I'm gonna say no, but I won't go under if I don't already have a bit of trust in you

12. What’s your favourite kind of hypnotic induction?

13. Do you like visual fixation (on spirals, eyes, swinging objects etc.) for hypnosis?

YES but that's only if I can manage to keep my eyes open </3

15. What other kinks do you like to incorporate into your hypno play?

14. What are your favourite kinds of hypnosis play?

I like dumbification and petplay obviously but I'd like to eventually do some light amnesia stuff and mmmmmaybe a bit of identity play? Nothing huge and I might back down once I try it but it sounds hot for someone to change my name while I'm hypnotized

16. For you, is the appeal of hypnosis primarily sexual or not?

It's definitely a sex thing for me but I think anyone can enjoy it without the erotic aspect :]

17. What are some post-hypnotic suggestions you particularly enjoy (for others or yourself)?

I like being made to automatically respond to certain cues (like mooing when I hear someone else do it)

18. Describe your best experience involving hypnosis

best ever experience I ever had was when I was doing it over text with someone and all they did was say a trigger phrase of mine and I immediately felt a deep rush of relaxation fall over my body... omg it was so hot and that's never happened before when just listening to audio files, it was awesome. funnily enough i can't remember anything after that LMAO

19. Describe a bad experience you had involving hypnosis? Why was it bad? Why did it go wrong?

99% of the time I just listen to audio files so I can just wake up and be done whenever I need (same goes for with actual other people; if my subconscious doesn't want to do something I'll snap out of trance immediately) but there was one file I was enjoying up until it started doing something I didn't like (which I can't recall what it was but it didn't sit right with me) and it ruined the moment so I just went to bed

20. What’s one tip you have for other hypnotists/subjects?

Going into trance can be really hard if you have some kind of neurodivergency that makes it difficult to relax completely so don't sweat it if you don't immediately go under or triggers don't work! Just relax and listen and take deep breaths and know that practice makes perfect :)

22. Do you like your hypnosis to involve power exchange, or not?

21. Do you have any tips for how to negotiate hypnosis play?

No sorry, I haven't done any negotiating before since like I've said previously I just do audio only shsjsnjjdhd

23. For you, how does hypnosis fit into a relationship? Just in the bedroom, or as part of BDSM relationship?

24. Are you interested in a 24/7 hypnotic enslavement relationship?

25. Have you ever experienced strong, sudden feelings for a hypnotist/subject? How did you deal with that?

like romantic feelings?? Can't say I have

27. What’s your favourite work of hypnosis erotica?

26. Are you interested in hypnotising/being hypnotised by people of a gender you are not attracted to?

No </3

28. What’s your favourite spiral?

29. What’s your favourite hypno-themed image/caption/piece of art?

30. What’s your favourite audio file/audio file producer?

31. What’s your favourite book/movie/TV show that includes hypnosis?

32. Describe your biggest fantasy involving hypnosis?

um . Laying my head in someone's lap while they trance me and praise me for how well I'm doing and they fractionate me and they snap their fingers a bunch and maybe they let me edge for them 🥺💕

33. Do you have any fantasies about non-consensual hypnosis? Describe them

No, unless you count "oh nooooo I'm in this sexy vampire's castle and my brain is soooooo vulnerable, it would be just awful if he came and used his mind control powers on me hahaaaaaa" as non consensual

A lot of hypno stories involves some level of dubcon which is par for the course but for me it's only part of the game so to speak-- pretending to resist is part of the fun

34. What’s one fictional character you’ve fantasised about hypnotising/being hypnotised by?

My lawyer has advised me not to answer this question because my response would be very very cringe

35. Do you like intelligence loss/bimbofication hypnosis? Why?

YES ‼️‼️i want to be simple and just be able to exist and not think about smart people things

36. Do you like amnesia play? Why?

YES ‼️‼️make me forget what happened in the trance but make sure my body remembers by making me cum my brains out

37. Do you like freeze triggers? Why?

NOT REALLY ‼️

38. Do you like pleasure triggers? Why?

YES‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️i take zoloft and its hard to feel pleasure so force my body to feel it without even thinking

39. Do you like alternate personalities created through hypnosis? Why?

MAYBE ‼️‼️ I don't have any experience with this yet

40. Do you like feminization hypnosis? Why?

NO ‼️‼️i am not and will never be a woman

41. Have you ever experienced a “hands-free” orgasm as a result of hypnosis?

no, but not for lack of trying. I just love touching too much lmao

42. Which famous person do you think has the most hypnotic voice?

I don't really have an answer for this one, soz

44. Have you ever used hypnotic conditioning to help you or someone else with a part of your/their life?

43. If you make hypnosis content, what’s your favourite piece of content you’ve made?

I don't make any audio files or anything but I'm quite proud of my short story Dairy Aisle :')

45. Have you ever been to a hypnosis convention? Did you enjoy it, or not? Why?

No and I would be too flustered to go to one in the first place 😔

46. How has being involved with hypnosis/the hypno community improved your life?

idk it's just nice to chill out for a bit and make myself feel good in the process

47. What is one thing about the hypnosis community you think could change for the better?

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP MAKING FLASHING HYPNO GIFS 😭 im trying to jerk off not have a seizure

48. Who is one person in the hypno community you really admire?

I'm not involved in the wider community enough to say </3

49. What is your favourite hypnosis-themed blog on tumblr?

Once again I have to say @/voxhypno, his files are nice :)

50. Tag someone you’d like to see do some of these asks

If you want to do these yourself just say I tagged you in this post :D