#Amorphous Androgynous

[trashpandaqc]

good read for anyone interested in 90s rave history

and worth asking where the ideals of this scene, which still feel very relevant, went off to in the past couple decades - illegalized, pushed further underground, shamed into seriousness by post-9/11 warmongering and commercial composure, distracted, diffused, and displaced by increasingly tech-mediated life?

some tunes mentioned in the book + a couple others from the era...

[emdotcom]

If you press the button there is no questions from anyone, nobody refers to your previous self, & no issue is caused beyond learning to be comfortable in your body & choice.

[whereserpentswalk]

Choose a transformation to permanently alter your body and remove your humanity.

1: get infected with lycanthrope (being bitten is the easiest way, but the curse can also be passed on through blood transfusions, or other bodily fluids). You'll be able to turn into a wolf any night when the moon shines, and you'll be compelled to when the moon is full. The other werewolves are likely to accept you into their community under most circumstances.

2: enter a local ufo to be turned into a cyborg. The visitors are dying to find a human who'll let you do this to them, and you might just be the one. Parts of your body will be replaced with strange and unknowable technology, thousands of years more advanced than what your backwater planet has. Who knows what you'll become, but it certainly won't be human.

3: allow a demon to possess you. While this sounds bad at first, most demons aren't actually sentient beings, but just semi sentient balls emotions. When they possess you it'll still be your mind and personality, just enhanced with the demon's emotions and desires, given its abilities. You'll also probably start looking more like what people consider a demon to look like after awhile, weather that be a body with horns and scales like the classic devil look, or something more animalistic, or even something more eldrich.

4: let the faeries play with you. This is a risky one but they're looking to be entertained by a cute little human to do things to. Who knows what they'll do to you, but we can be quite certain it'll be something very very interesting.

5: permanently psychically bond to a wyvern through the dreaming. For generations humans have done this to become wyvern riders, though rider is an odd term as your minds will be linked, you'll be able to know what it's feeling as well as it's sensations, and possibly even be able to control it directly with enough time, as easily as you'd control your own body. Though the wyvern and dreaming may effect you to, you'll likely become more creative and have more vivid dreams, at the cost of your ability to fit in with much of human society. Your body will also likely become more youthful, slender and androgynous, and may even take on wyvern like traits like slit pupils or sharp teeth.

6: permanently hybridize yourself with an animal of your choice. It's useally done with mammals for compatibility reasons, but it might work with anything. This is a slow process, involving weekly injections of Phlebotinum, and you'll get more and more like the animal you choose over the course of many months. There's no actual end limit to how long you can inject the Phlebotinum for, only a few weeks for some animal features, about a year for a 50/50 split, and if you never stop taking it ever you'll end up just becoming an animal of your choice. Be warned, it's a one way trip, so while you can always become less human, you can never reverse the changes.

7: be melted into a slime. Not much more to say about it. It'll probably be the most alien your physical form can become, as you'll have no solid body parts anymore, just an amorphous mass to move around. Natrual born slimes may be suspicious of you.

8: get bitten by a vampire and become a vampire yourself. You'll get most of the powers, from strength, to healing, to not needing sleep or food, along with the requirements to drink blood, and the weakness to silver and sunlight (you still can go out in the sun, but it won't be a pleasant experience). Your body will also change a lot, losing any sex characteristics, gaining red eyes and completely desaturated skin, and becoming extremely emaciated looking. Your mouth will also be able to shift at will between a humanoid shape, and a massive horrifying maw with huge fangs and strange mouth parts for drinking blood. There's likely a vampiric community around who'll accept you.

9: become a digital only being. You won't just be transforming your body, you'll be getting rid of it. Your entire vision will display what you'd usually see on a computer monitor, and you'll be able to type and move the mouse as easily as you can move your body now. You'll be entirely online without anything human to worry about.

10: become a spiritual being. Like a less online version of the last option. You'll become a spirit, without a body to worry about. You can't touch things, but you can move them psychically. You can also choose who can or can't see you, and how you appear to people.

11: have your entire body replaced by the cloth witches. They're always looking for humans to do this to. Every part of you will be replaced with artificial materials, usually you'll get a metal skeleton, stuffing for filling, and either cloth or plastic for your skin, like a doll of some sort but big and alive. You won't have to worry about a lot of the body things like dying or being tired or in pain, but be warned, you'll have to repair yourself with new material if damaged.

(Hey, I had to delete the first version of this poll and reupload it because of something on the old post setting off my silly little trauma. I feel like such an awful person for this, I'm sorry. But yeah, please reblog and interact with this version instead.)

[fairlylocalcryptid]

actually not ftm or mtf but a secret third thing (transitioning from "an amorphous amalgamation of half-formed faces to make a hot androgyne with wings and a third eye" to "hot androgyne with wings in a sick anachronistic suit holding my own dead severed head trailing spinal cord and fetus")

[amaryllis-sagitta]

I might be reading way too much into this, but after the first look at the new Chaos design I think there might be some kind of a dialectic going on within themself.

The original design is more amorphous and neutral in its presentation, sure. It emphasizes two things to me:

that Chaos is constantly churning on the inside, and

that they birthed the chtonic entities (or at least Nyx and Erebus, which is interesting since in Hades games, Nyx is personified and Erebus is a whole ass biome) and they constantly spawn new potential entities or incarnations of themself, as represented by fetuses and faces protruding from the different parts of their gnarly body.

The new design shows us a well put together androgynous figure in a sparkly suit (though leaning a little more towards femme presentation), holding a skull with a piece of a spine still attached.

As a matter of fact, I believe that the skull is one of the Hades 1 Chaos themself. It has the familiar Chaos sigil on its forehead, and there's a fetus coming out of its mouth. Which to me hints that between the events of Hades 1 and Hades 2, the Primordial Originator's avatar reached some breaking point and had to be reborn. Perhaps Kronos/ Chronos (???) breaking out sowed so much turmoil in the world that Primordial Chaos has inadvertently spread themself thin, and their own realm had to be reformed. In that condition, it would make sense for them to hold themself tighter whenever they need to speak to someone.

The new look feels so very... corporate and luminous, aside from being more anthropomorphic. The look reminds us of the Furies from the first game. To me, it represents form over substance, which would add an interesting dialectical beat to Chaos: even within themself, they can fluctuate between having more or less Form; the Form, too, is already anticipated to come out of Chaos. This new design is controversial because it brings Chaos closer to Form and Light, something that feels paradoxical. They have what looks like a pocket watch in their lapel - they are related to Time!

Which would push the understanding of Chaos towards the Aristotelian concept of change, making them something like Prime Potentiality - the domain where things "wait" for the right timing or the right circumstances to become. This interpretation seems to go well with how H1 Chaos could never be fully present in the world, could never visit their children; the world is where possibilities get actualized into, and Chaos is the conceptualized "point" where everything actualizes from.

And isn't this paradoxical feel about Chaos's new design consistent with their previous presentation as a force in flux that holds multiple internal voices and pairs of logical contradictions, and loves all that's unpredictable?

(Disclaimer: I'm not a classicist, I'm a philosopher, so I appreciate extra on insight on that. I love Chaos's design from H1 and I want to understand the new one.)

[quinnhills]

I don’t know what happened to the original question post, but some kind soul told me that I generate gender envy and asked that I provide advice on how to achieve the 6 other deadly gender sins. Hope this finds its way back to that envious stranger:

GENDER WRATH…Scroll through my blog and look at all the photos of me. If your envy’s already in gear, this should royally piss you off!!

GENDER SLOTH…I’m in sweatpants in a t-shirt right now. No bra. No wig. Most of the day, I don’t wear makeup. My base form is amorphous and androgynous. Be like me.

GENDER LUST…Repeat the instructions from “Gender Wrath”

GENDER GLUTTONY…I left my old gender in a dumpster somewhere near Charleston, South Carolina. Anyone’s welcome to grab it. ALSO, if you’re looking for some E, I read this morning that the Burger King Impossible Burger has a whopping amount of estrogen in it. Have it your way (call me, BK)

GENDER GREED…This one’s easy. Grab a dictionary. Every word in there is now your name and your pronouns. You’re welcome.

GENDER PRIDE…Get a Blåhaj. Wave the flag. Support your trans and non-binary siblings in any way you can. Especially financially (call me, BK)

[thesilliestrovingalive]

Updated: November 13, 2024

Reworked Species #3: Invaders

Overview

Their scientific name is Deinocarnifex (meaning “terrible butcher”). Despite being referred to as the Venusians due to their origin on Venus, many people call them Invaders because of their aggressive thirst for conquest. An extremely hostile insectoid alien species, led by their asexually reproducing king, the Invader King, possesses shapeshifting abilities and omnilinguistic skills. They possess exceptional expertise in terraforming, warfare, territorial invasions, xenology, anatomy, and mechanics. They’re notorious for being the most ferocious alien species in the entire universe and are the arch-nemesis of the Martians.

Hierarchy

Their society is entirely hive-based with ranks determined by skin colour, durability, and intellectual capacity. Most Invaders are born from cocoons in hive-like structures within their meteorite-like mothership, having their abilities and roles predetermined at birth.

Heaven Globules (Deinocarnifex thauma) are the knowledgeable and dangerous hybrid offspring of Invader Drones and another life form. Surprisingly, they possess superior mental and physical strength compared to their brethren and exhibit exceptional abilities, including vocal communication, strategic thinking, psychological manipulation, a mystical connection to the cosmos, and an understanding of arcane, forbidden knowledge. Due to their fearsome reputation as heralds and guardians of the Invader King and his offspring, they operate independently from the rest of the Invaders.

Morph Changers (Deinocarnifex grallator) are tactical geniuses, skilled mechanics, and masters of stealth and terraforming technology. Despite being fully mute, they communicate effectively through a combination of gurgling sounds, raspy breathing, and expressive body language. Serving as loyal fighting servants of the Heaven Globules, they possess small fragments of forbidden knowledge graciously shared by their masters. As commanders of the Parasites and Invader Drones, they typically employ cunning tactical strategies that exploit the weaknesses of their enemies. They only resort to brute force and half-baked strategy plans when situations become truly dire or all else fails.

Elite Invaders (Deinocarnifex volans) are comprised of Invader Drones that serve as the elite troops of the Invader forces, commanders of the Parasites, and supporters of the Morph Changers in identifying enemy positions and coordinating attacks.

Ravenous Invaders (Deinocarnifex venator) are comprised of Invader Drones that serve multiple purposes: food foragers, protectors of their own kind, and operators of their war machines.

Grub Invaders (Deinocarnifex ambulus) are comprised of Invader Drones that serve as the foot soldiers of the Invader forces and the progenitors of the Heaven Globules. Despite exhibiting bestial and cannibalistic behaviour, they possess a surprising capacity for operating heavy machinery and interacting socially with more advanced species. Like all Invader Drones, they emit a diverse range of vocalisations, including chirps, purrs, chatters, hisses, growls, screeches, and howls.

Parasites (Deinocarnifex mimos) are responsible for assuming control over other life forms to aid in intergalactic conquests and harvesting the internal organs of their hosts, which are then utilised as sustenance for newborn Invaders. They emit a cacophony of unsettling sounds, including screeching shrieks, guttural growls, and ear-piercing, high-pitched hisses.

Appearance

Each Invader breed has gooey dark violet blood, which strangely tastes like grape soda laced with a metallic, iron-like taste.

Heaven Globules are androgynous Invaders that initially appear as gelatinous, amorphous purplish-black blobs, roughly the size of a newborn giraffe, shrouded in dusty clouds that pulsate with a faint greenish-yellow glow. Upon reaching adolescence, they typically evolve into either heralds or guardians. The heralds are 26 ft (792.48 cm) warty, liquidy spheres of sparkling, pearlescent purple, featuring a vertical slit mouth adorned with writhing, glossy black tendrils that resemble teeth. The guardians resemble 23 ft (701.04 cm) greyish-pink slugs, their scaly bodies flecked with black and gold, and covered in bulbous, acid-filled sores that secrete black and yellow bile. They have pus-filled eyes, a mouth like a sea lamprey's, maroon hook-like teeth, and flexible, rubbery appendages.

Morph Changers are bipedal, skeletal beings with translucent, gloomy flesh and jutting purplish veins. They have a towering stature with females reaching 13’ 1” (947.42 cm) and males standing at an impressive 13’ 7” (962.66 cm). Females sport four sagging, pallid breasts and sylph-like bodies, while males are born with muscular physiques and no visible bosom. Males have a penis-like organ resembling a frilly slug that folds upward against their abdomen, while females have feminine genitalia but are unable to reproduce. Their greyish-green forearms and lower legs are covered in spikes, and their hands and feet end in sharp iron claws and talons. Their humanoid heads are sickly pale and hairless with two orbits that house deep-set myrtle green eyes with glowing amaranth red pupils and yellowish sclera. Both sexes have long, forked tongues covered in corrosive saliva and pharyngeal jaws with carnivorous teeth.

Males boast a gold-speckled, emerald-hued proboscis, resembling a tongue, which serves dual purposes: enticing potential mates and defending against threats. It can become rigid, enabling it to pierce through skin and bone with ease, and is adorned with microscopic spikes and snapping teeth. Their segmented tails feature a silver-grey blade and a coppery sheen, stretching twice their height, and are used for impaling victims with deadly precision.

Invader Drones are 8' 10" (269.24 cm) anthropomorphic, toad-like aliens characterised by four rows of canine teeth, a prehensile tail that extends down to their ankles, and a rock-hard exoskeleton. They possess a chameleon-like tongue covered in translucent greyish-green mucus and microscopic, hook-like spikes. Their glowing eyes are sensory compound organs, comprising fifty individual lenses and a prominent circular lens with a slit white pupil. Their bulbous, oversized heads and backs are covered in gnarled warts, and their fingers and toes tipped with razor-sharp iron claws and talons. They have elongated limbs with three slender fingers and frog-like feet that both have translucent webbing.

They have malachite-hued bones coated in a protective layer of Tyrian purple slime, and their spine is partially jutting from the skin of their back. In place of traditional organs, their torso harbours a diverse array of grotesque, mutated locusts, beetles, slugs, worms, centipedes, and caterpillars, intricately integrated to perform essential functions: energy replenishment, digestion and nutrition, and waste management. Their muscle fibres and jade-coloured brain exhibit a rippling, scaly texture and glow with a soft, xanthous luminescence.

The predominant males have a flexible, white translucent phallus with pale blue veins, concealed within a purplish-black duct containing two circular testes. The uncommon females possess a large pink lavender organ resembling a plant bulb, complete with pale blue veins and up to one hundred small, unfertilised tangerine-hued eggs lining the womb.

Elite Invaders (Deinocarnifex volans): They have tan-peach skin, mossy green warts, metallic pink eyes, and iridescent dragonfly wings with jade ribbing. Their hands, toes, tongues, and three forearm stripes are rosy brown, while their webbing is tinted jade.

Ravenous Invaders (Deinocarnifex venator): They have pink-hued skin, lavender warts, and metallic purple eyes. Ravenous Invaders who are born with natural flight possess iridescent dragonfly wings with turquoise ribbing. Their hands, toes, tongues, and two forearm stripes are blue-green, while their webbing is tinted lavender.

Grub Invaders (Deinocarnifex ambulus): They have grey-hued skin, silvery warts, and bronze-hued eyes with metallic red flecks. Grub Invaders who are born with natural flight possess iridescent dragonfly wings with maroon ribbing. Their hands, toes, tongues, and forearm stripes are crimson, while their webbing is tinted silver-grey. A rare, all-female subset of Grub Invaders exist with the warts, webbing, and wings characteristic of males, pearlescent white skin, coppery eyes with metallic blue flecks, and Byzantine purple hands, toes, tongues, and forearm stripes. However, they're considered to be birth defects and are often exploited as mere commodities for sexual reproduction or cannon fodder.

Infant Invader Drones closely resemble miniature versions of their adult counterparts, retaining the same coloration, but the skin is tinged with either a yellowish-green or red-violet hue. They have quadrupedal locomotion, stubby tails, insectoid larvae organs in the torso, fewer warts, glossy skin, and closed, large, bulging eyes. They’re roughly the size of three adult female American bullfrogs and only develop the first two rows of teeth. Upon opening their eyes and transitioning to bipedalism, infant Invader Drones rapidly mature into adults.

Among the Invader race, there exist two specialised subsets of Parasites: the Flying Parasites and the Controllers. The Flying Parasites are pill bug-like octopuses with rusty orange skin and the size of two baby human heads. They have eight stretchy tendrils tipped with sharp points and three beady compound eyes of sparking sky blue, encircled by crimson. They also have elvish ears, a light purple sheen, an oval-shaped mouth filled with thick anglerfish teeth, pointed tongues, and tentacle-like mandibles.

Controllers resemble the Flying Parasites in appearance but are significantly larger, measuring around the size of four adult human heads. They have an umbilical cord, a dark purple sheen, pincer-like mandibles, and three thin eyestalks supporting cardinal red eyes outlined with ultramarine.

Abilities

They can assimilate the powers and traits of creatures by consuming their blood, brains, and hearts, which enhances the collective strength and fertility of their swarm-like army. Except for the Morph Changers, all Invaders can utilise echolocation to track targets, perceive electromagnetic fields surrounding living beings, and see in complete darkness using a non-visual sense that detects air pressure vibrations. They can hear the unique resonant frequency of living beings and tune into electromagnetic frequencies, eavesdropping on radio transmissions and sensing energy fields. Their smell allows them to identify the chemical composition of substances and emotions of those around them. They’re able to taste biological fluids of others and environmental conditions, sensing pollution, toxins, and other hazards.

The Heaven Globule heralds can vomit forth intestinal maggots, which are orangish-white in colour, and spew inflamed blood and noxious gases that cause illusions. The Heaven Globule guardians can produce a disease-causing slime that resembles boiling lava, which flows from their bodies naturally.

Morph Changers can transform into humans and animals they can visually remember by manipulating their DNA structure and organic mass. They can dodge projectiles with ease and navigate tight spaces with uncanny agility and extreme hypermobility. They perceive their surroundings through a unique electroreceptive system, where electrical impulses generated by their brain and hypersensitive neurons serve as a substitute for traditional vision. This bio-electric interface also enables them to connect with technology, granting the ability to hack into computer systems and remotely control mechanical devices. They can spit corrosive acid and unleash heat rivalling that of the sun, causing worldwide temperatures to soar.

The limbs of Invader Drones can extend up to 8 ft (243.84 cm) to capture prey or aid in delivering crushing blows to enemies with a spinning headbutt. They can spin their bodies at hypersonic speeds, then ricochet off hard surfaces to smash foes, while deflecting bullets and blades. Additionally, they can spawn greyish-green maggots that approach enemies, expand, and change their skin into a bright red-orange hue before detonating in a lethal blast of acid. Winged Invader Drones can launch unguided purplish-white plasma balls and regurgitate centipede-like larvae that infect hosts, manipulating their brain functions. This infection zombifies hosts, causing their bodily fluids to transform into a gooey, scorching reddish liquid, and granting them the ability to burrow underground.

Parasites can float endlessly and extract the internal organs and life force of living creatures through small, hidden suction orifices on the underside of their flexible tendrils, leaving their victims a desiccated husk. To exert mind control, they attach themselves to their hosts' brains, sealing their vacuum holes and revealing a secondary set of orifices. Through these openings, their veins infiltrate the hosts' brains, circulating a neon purple fluid that gently constricts the skin, causing it to discolour to a bluish-purple hue.

The umbilical cord of a Controller features this unique orifice at its tip, enabling control over victims within a range of 10-13 ft (304.8-396.24 cm). Besides causing bluish-purple skin discoloration, this control mechanism induces a distinctive visual effect: the host's eyes become glazed over with a foggy, opaque white film.

Technology

Like the Martians, their technology is extremely advanced, but it’s primarily organic in nature with little to no mechanical components. They’re based entirely on expertise in the manipulation of plasma and gravitational fields, terraforming, and mechanics. Their technology features a unique blend of elements, including mesmerising line patterns, lasers, cannons, glowing crystals, fiery meteorites, flexible adamant, and grotesque cocoons. Their technology incorporates bioweapons, neon pink goo, fleshy orifices, and stolen technology from other invaded planets. It also features tubular, fleshy prisons encased in a glassy film, filled with a pain-numbing, sleep-inducing slimy green fluid.

Their meteorite-like mothership, Rlyathok, resembles the artistic depiction of Utsuro-bune by Nagahashi Matajirou, and it's made from adamant given to them by the Monoeyes, fleshy tissue, gold bones, unbreakable crystal, a reddish binding substance akin to tree resin, and tungsten. It’s capable of terraforming itself into a subterranean nest upon impact with a planet's surface, allowing it to anchor itself and establish a stronghold.

The Ecylatroch, also known as the Hunter Walkers, are fish-like anti-personnel creatures with sparkling Cambridge blue scales, a bluish-white belly, an oval-shaped body, and four spidery legs. They have a single cyclopean blue-grey eye in the centre of their body, just below their large mouth, which is infested with crooked, carnivorous teeth. When on the ground, they spit out slimy purple bubbles containing extreme toxins that cause severe burns upon impact. When on the ceiling, they drop their eye down towards their enemies, which then explodes into a blast of corrosive acid once it has landed, and their eye regenerates at an unnatural rate after this attack.

The Pnidlathrov, also known as the Mutated Hunter Walkers, are larger versions of their smaller counterparts, possessing thick skin that renders them impervious to any weapon, except for their weak point: their cyclopean bluish-purple eye. Their Cambridge blue scales have a silver-grey sheen, and they possess two new abilities: rapidly spitting out flying greenish-white meteorite bombs and summoning Invader troops as backup for support.

The Wyovanis, also known as the Smashers, are crab-like creatures with a brick red exoskeleton, a single daffodil-hued eye, four coppery legs covered in prickly burgundy hairs at the joints, and a chubby orangish-white belly with light grey spots. They fly by spinning their legs like helicopter rotors and attack by inflating their body, hardening their skin, and crushing their target with immense force, capable of breaking bone.

The Ghaprylomi, also known as the Space Mole Crickets, are earth-burrowing, anthropoid-like creatures that once belonged to an unknown alien race that inhabited Mercury. Having been integrated into Invader technology, they now play a vital role in facilitating planetary terraforming. They have a shiny, centipede-like dark grey shell that's semi-soft, a cyclopean ruby crystal eye for illumination and enemy detection, and gilded, spoon-shaped pincers for digging. When an enemy is spotted, they charge their body, glowing yellowish-white, and then rush at the enemy, exploding into a blast of fire and poisonous gas. Despite their limited armour, they are incredibly mobile and agile.

The Crynkhogu, also known as the Crab Tanks, are organic, crab-like duck teal weapon tanks with purplish-white bellies, silvery two industrial tubes protruding from their sides, eight spider-like legs that terminate in bony, three-fingered hands, and a glowing sky blue crystal eye. They're capable of firing sea purple bolts of electricity from the tubular nodules on their head. When opening their turquoise-flecked carapace, they can release shiny, bouncing balls of boiling azure blue blood that separate into three smaller bubbles. Additionally, they can jump to dodge enemy attacks and release a yellowish-green poisonous gas from their two silvery nodules when their electricity is charging for a couple of minutes.

The Vadiphoz, also known as the Vanguards, are modified sage green Crab Tanks, featuring a flexible, thick dark blue spinal cord connecting the head to the body, two gilded industrial tubes on their sides, a glowing violet crystal eye, and yellowish-white bellies and tentacles. These two tentacles are positioned atop their carapace, each ending in a built-in laser gun tipped with a violet crystal. They can fire circular greenish-white lasers from these guns and huge, spinning oval-shaped blasts from their cyclopean eye.

The Zodematikhus, also known as the Invader UFOs, are uniquely shaped aircraft composed of silver-coated flesh, crewed by Invader Drones, and offer minimal armour protection. Grub Invaders pilot UFOs that feature a single encircling rusty orange stripe above a glowing crimson half-sphere, capable of shooting slow-moving reddish-white plasma balls. Ravenous Invaders pilot UFOs that display two encircling light cyan stripes above a glowing lavender half-sphere, firing medium-speed purplish-white plasma balls. Elite Invader pilot UFOs that boast three encircling emerald-hued stripes above a glowing hot pink half-sphere, shooting fast-moving pinkish-white plasma balls.

The Faloxurvi, also known as the Flying Cores, are gravitational cores that unleash a rapid barrage of green plasma bullets with swift precision. They also possess telekinetic abilities, allowing them to lift and hurl surrounding large objects at their enemies. When enraged, the lime green glow of the crystals transforms to a red-orange, and the Flying Core begins to discharge intense blasts of electric fire.

The Telunohka, also known as the Flying Shelts, are colossal, brain-like flying entities adorned with jade-hued crystals that pulsate with a vibrant lime green glow. They’re capable of launching fiery meteors from four eye-like hatches and executing suicide dives on enemy targets. The hatches are composed of steel-coated fleshy tissues, while the main body is constructed from virtually indestructible adamant.

The Kydathriom, also known as the Brain Robot, is a mechanical entity formerly belonging to the Martians, who referred to it as Peparhuvi. Now, it experiences sorrow due to its isolation from other Invaders. It deeply misses the Martians, who treated it with genuine respect. Its creators hold it in high esteem for being a successful commander of the Ring Laser Mechas. Although it could easily disobey the Invaders, it actively chooses not to, fearing it would be reduced to scrap and have its programming completely rewritten to serve future invasions. When enraged, it exhibits a characteristic behaviour of stomping the ground and wildly flailing its arms.

This robot is controlled by an artificial greyish-green brain, meticulously stored within a crystalline glass dome filled with an orangish liquid for protection and preservation. The brain features metallic blue eyes grotesquely fused to its underside via branching white nerves. Utilising its brainpower, the robot can launch homing electric balls and, upon crouching, release a wave of electricity. Additionally, its mechanical claws enable it to crush, lift, and toss objects with precision.

Goals and beliefs

Their main goal is to assimilate all life forms throughout the universe into their empire, enhancing their prospects for survival, military prowess, technological advancement, and collective intellectual expertise until their eventual extinction. The Invaders are resolute in their determination to exterminate the Martians, assimilating their advanced technology and documentation of their expertise into their own culture. They also desire to exploit their corpses for sustenance and transformation into super soldiers, rendering their army nearly indestructible.

They’re staunch colonisers, believing it’s their divine duty to subjugate other races through conquest, cultural assimilation, and physical absorption. As a militaristic society, they place a heavy emphasis on developing strong militant capabilities through technological advancements and rigorous training, pushing the boundaries of both mind and physical body. Furthermore, they believe in utilising their military prowess aggressively to expand their empire and satiate their insatiable need for conquest.

They view themselves as the superior species, believing they should be the only ones to exist in the universe. They regard other life forms as unworthy of existence and utterly pathetic, needing to be assimilated to serve the Invaders’ perceived greatness. Surprisingly, the only life forms they hold in immense respect are the Monoeyes, whom they view as divine heralds of the deities and the lost Tuatha Dé Danann race. In contrast, they deeply despise the Martians, resenting their frequent successes against their conquests as well as their relatively peaceful nature and sustainable approach to resource management.

They believe in the necessity of constant expansion and conquest to ensure their basic survival and dominance. They glorify violence and sexual intercourse, viewing them as interconnected with their subjugation of other species and the exploitation of resources to expand their empire. Invaders think that bloodshed is necessary for psychological satisfaction and the improvement of predatory instincts and physical strength. They hold the Invader King as the ultimate source of life and unity for their society, performing violent blood sports and sacrifices in his name.

They believe themselves to be part of a vast, cosmic network in which all deities, including the Invader King, guide their fates and destinies through the principles they represent. Additionally, they believe these deities facilitate the advent of a new era, marked by a technological and biological singularity. Furthermore, they believe in the eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth where chaos and devastation pave the way for new life and evolution. Invaders see their conquests and wars as necessary catalysts for this cycle, bringing about transformative renewal from the ashes of what they have deliberately destroyed.

[thecoolerliauditore]

I've only skimmed a lot of the posts so sorry if this point has been made but I wonder how peoples' perception of Masculinity vs Femininity as a spectrum affects their perception of characters and designs. Do some people view Masculinity and Feminity as complete opposites, with androgyny as the middle ground? Can you be masculine and feminine simultaneously, while not really being androgynous? Does the 'threshold' of androgyny change depending on how the cc/character is depicted in 'canon'? to be clear I don't necessarily think any of these viewpoints are 100% correct or whatever but I think it's interesting how people will have different perspectives, because most people's view of gender are skewed different and what might read as a fem design could read masculine to another or just entirely androgynous. sorry for the ramble this stuff fascinates me deeply

No yeah it is fascinating!! It's a. very complicated topic since of course the concepts of "masculinity" and "femininity" are very frivolous and amorphous, hence why I kept feeling the need to clarify how it gets. Weird with anime-inspired styles what with the culture shock and whatnot.

This song was really popular in fandoms awhile back and I think it's like. a great example of how one culture's completely neutral (or even masculine!) traits can be seen as feminine (or in this case, "gay") when viewed by another. It's also just really funny and I'm kinda sad no on has done a life series animatic to it yet.

masculinity and femininity as a scale with androgynous in the middle is also something I'm glad you bring up, because the concepts of masculinity and femininity are so arbitrary and as such there are so many ways to deviate from the norm -- some more socially acceptable than others! Thinking about, for example, the young MAGA hat'd women you see on sites like twitter with the most racist takes of all time and who are very proud of their ability to keep up with the boys in terms of 'murican masculinity (chugging beers, changing tires, so on and so forth) but at the same time cake their faces with makeup, support that Hashtag tradwife lifestyle and Would Not Ever Consider wearing clothes from the mens section because that is the Bad type of gender non-conformity for commies and lesbians or whatever.

Compare that to like. sorry incoming irl lore. the way I've had people in both more liberal and less woke areas get nervous when they try to address me, with the only big difference being that more younger, liberal people will typically either ask for my pronouns or they/them me by default.

I'm lucky enough that most people here are polite but as someone who has presented both masc/fem the way people treat me is so distinctly different based on my perceived gender as well as my level of androgyny it was kind of shocking to me. Eitherway there's a distinct attitude it's like. Rude to not be able to tell whether someone's a man or woman I've noticed and nowadays I have a lot of fun stressing people out. Sadism in me or whatever.

ANYWAY this was about minecraft youtubers. Analysing how people gender their designs, unconsciously or not, is fascinating because of how interpretative these designs are. There's also probably something you could say about how gaming youtuber is a very male-dominated space and how female gaming youtubers tend to overperform femininity, but in very different ways dependent on their intended audience (compare say. Lizzie and Pokimane for example.)

I think it's also worth noting that like. masculinity and femininity in behaviour is very different from physical presentation. which is how you get images like this

in addition to, again, these concepts already being abstract.

and of course, all said with me biting my tongue on the queer side of things still, because that's a whole other sub-sector of stereotypes and in-group signalling and history that runs convergent with mainstream views on gender.

I think it might be an interesting exercise to put your own designs up against others and consider what points they differ and what that might mean for how the other artist interprets the character vs how you do it. And then if you can look up what the artist actually has to say about the character and see just how right/wrong you were and how your own biases come into play. Two different people can have very similar views on a character, for example, but communicate that through opposite design tropes because they have different associations with said tropes. Not just for gender things btw and I've found peoples more nuanced opinions are harder to read than you'd think! I don't think anyone would look at my Bdubs design and guess that I thought he was fairly feminine in personality, for example.

I love doing that and challenging my own pre-conceptions of what i think peoples takes are judging by their designs (as well as what I think certain traits indicate in personality!). It's amazing for example how many pearl designs I've seen as too feminine and rolled my eyes at turn out to be drawn by artists who very much consider her to be tomboyish.

[brucequeensteen]

gonna log out and be boring but one final post. goodbye cruel world. it has been lovely becoming ethan kafkaguy just one further step towards us being inside each other and melding into one androgynous amorphous being. goodnight

[chaoselph]

Thessalien Stoa Paradosi from eL-Hortobāgyi Hortator

The golden pigeon has landed: László Hortobãgyi’s screwed psy-trance and expansive new age dubs are collated by contemporary enigma Nikolas Rafael Hadjilaskaris in a masterwork of playful, fantasy tekgnosis for new label Ελχελέλ (ElHellEl) - think Amorphous Androgynous playing a secret ECM stage at Boomtown, or Mark Snow jamming with Rex Ilusivii and Suns of Arqa in Goa. It’s fucking beyond! -Boomkat

[spacelazarwolf]

How do you know what’s right for your transition/how were you able to determine what is or was right for your transition? Because as a bit of background im non-binary, but in like the broadest and vaguest sense. I most days feel a lot of nothing inside tho sometimes I feel more femme or masc or androgynous or some combination therein. I feel kinda like an amorphous gender blob most days and it’s hard for me to really get a read on myself. I really love the idea of being butch as I get older, but I’m not sure how to achieve that especially when I have outlier days when I don’t want that. And I’ve considered surgery and testosterone because I wanna have a more androgynous or masculine-ish body(I’m afab) but I’m afraid I will regret it because sometimes I like how I look but those days kind of feel like outlier days and especially with hormones some of the side effects I’m not sure if I want. Tldr; My gender is something really vague and ever changing and I want to transition but I don’t know what I want or how to figure that out

so i was in a fairly similar situation to you, and honestly what helped me was to just get rid of the gender factor. i was hung up on 'well what's my actual gender? because if i can figure out my gender then i can figure out what i want to look like and do with my body and i can figure this out' and that just did not work. what worked was thinking 'ok what do i want to look like? completely separate from any sort of gender feelings and aesthetic preferences, what do i want my body to look and sound like?' and i determined that i did want a lower voice and body hair and facial hair. when i thought about how i liked to dress feminine, it made me really happy to think about dressing feminine while being in a body that had body hair and facial hair and a deep voice. it made me happy to think about playing around with aesthetics and mannerisms while in that kind of body. so my advice is to like. basically pretend you're building a sim and pay attention to what kind of physical attributes you would give your sim before you get into the aesthetics and stuff. then once you've figured that out, you can determine what kind of intervention you would need to achieve that.

[ginkgo-a-go-go]

Alright, ranking Peter Hammill albums (until 1981 & really based on my personal schizo taste)

1. Over

2. Nadir's Big Chance

3. A Black Box

4. The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage

5. PH7

6. Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night

7. Sitting Targets

8. The Future Now

9. Fool's Mate

10. In Camera

Sending that bc it's nice to have conversations & discussions with you -I began with Hammill's solo albums in June. Well I also listened to Skin & Fireships as a whole but that little list is enough for now- sorry if it was too random

i agree with your ranking, but in camera at tenth place? ouch😅

what exactly makes it worse than, let's say, the silent corner and the empty stage (which is probably my favorite ph album)?

[aww thank you, likewise :) btw have you listened to the relatively recent collab album with amorphous androgynous? i think it's pretty neat but unfortunataly it isn't on spotify anymore :( ]

[softichill]

I am one gender but that gender is made of a bunch of other genders swirling together and making this sort of amorphous blob that I know is me. But like I can't put any label on it other than 'me' bc trying to stick specific labels on it other than very very general ones seems like trying to fit it into a shape that it just isn't

And even then the general ones don't rlly fit because they still feel like trying to sort it into neat little boxes. Technically I'm androgynous bc I'm not leaning towards boy or girl, but that doesn't rlly work bc I don't want to be one specific thing? Especially presentation-wise. I just want to be me and play my silly little gender games. It feels like some sort of specific goal or aim that I don't want

Yeah I still have labels, mainly catgender and bitgender, but those are less "THESE are my genders" and more like "these are the most prevalent/common traits in my gender blob that affect everything else somehow"

[pinkfestivalpeanuttree]

omg i finally remembered to ask this X_X, anyways i remembered you left some interesting tags on one of my posts and i wanted to ask, how do you view yjh's gender identity?

i personally went with the masc-presenting trans lesbian angle since that felt the most "in character" and also had a lot of comedic potential in my au but im very curious about how you've characterized her since it seems like you see her as more feminine so to speak (feel free to make your answer as long as you want jdhfshfdsj i love talking about gender)

omg it's betawooper from transfem yoo joo au 😳 hiii!

Firstly I want to say that I ADORE your au!!! It's definitely influenced some of my headcanons on yjh's gender identity. I did see her as more feminine before but now I see her as comfortable with being masc-presenting and more androgenous. Secondly, I am biologically female and been comfortable with she/her pronouns and presenting femininely my entire life. However, after learning more about the lgbtqia+ community and doing some self-reflection, I realized that I may be under on the non-binary umbrella. I haven't really experimented with my gender identity much. Unlike my romantic and sexual orientation (aroace spectrum), which I felt a connection to as soon as i learned what it was, and felt the urge to do more research on it, my gender was more ambiguous to me. I didn't really feel a strong connection to it, or rather, I felt a strong disconnect to it. I feel like I should insert a cool metaphor here. It's like a cloud? I can see different shapes from it, but I can't get closer or touch it. It's amorphous and not solid, and I can't get a good grip on it. I like being feminine, but I like being referred to with they/them pronouns, and also get gender envy (?) from more androgenous male characters. I'm comfortable with having no labels as of now, but I'd like to experiment with my appearance and pronouns more irl if I get the chance.

All this to say that I started projecting onto Yoo Joonghyuk lol. Kinda funny because usually i project my aroace-ness and neurodivergence onto my blorbos, not my gender identity, but between Breaking the Sky Swordsmanship and the Punisher it was just too perfect. (actually I've noticed i've been projecting my gender onto more characters since I've fleshed out my headcanons for yjh. It's not a conscious decision, but if someone were to ask me what I thought of [character's] gender, I'd have to pause and go, 'Well, I'm not sure, but they're definitely not cis.' It's actually the same way I come up with my aspec headcanons: 'not sure where exactly you are on the spectrum but I like you way too much to make you allo.')

Another fic that inspired my interpretation of yjh's gender is this fic, https://archiveofourown.org/works/42593688/chapters/106989912, which I love dearly with my entire heart but might not be up your alley. It has a more feminine yjh and romantic yoohankim (if i may dump some more lgbtqia+ headcanons here I hc both yjh and kdj as aspec and yoohankim as a queerplatonic relationship but I am okay with romantic yoohankim mostly because there is so little qpr/aro representation in general. I am also a multishipper and I love your sapphic seolhyuk so much!) and it's a post-epilogue fic with yjh figuring out her gender identity with the support of Kimcom.

So to me, Joonghyuk's gender is similarly ambiguous in nature, the Amorphous Untouchable Cloud of Gender™️, Definitely Not cis, and she's androgynous-presenting. I think she would keep her hair short throughout the scenarios for efficiency, but post-epilogue she'd grow it out. Not a lot, but she would absolutely use her androgyny to fuck with strangers. I think Secretive Plotter with long hair would be great because she'd give me more gender envy than I already have. I don't think she'd have labels for herself. I think she wouldn't like makeup the one time she lets Seolhwa put some on her but everyone agrees that she looks amazing with eyeliner. I think she should be allowed to use Breaking the Sky Swordsmanship on transphobes. I think she uses any pronouns but prefers she/her. I think, had it been canon, her being trans would have added a whole new layer to her character arc and the meta-ness of ORV and its themes of breaking free from predetermined roles, to her role as "protagonist" and the way she breaks free from being a "character" and just... it would have been super cool and I can't write an entire essay on how trans yjh would have improved ORV but I want to.

Thanks for the opportunity for me to infodump about my headcanons lol! Just curious, what tags/post was it that made you ask?

[sylvandalism]

random musings from my drafts on style:

I take a certain amount of joy in arranging my outfits and cross referencing and matching shades so that they all comes together in one lovely visage. one of my favorite parts of planning for any event has always been deciding the outfit- how to select and style it appropriately. at one point I got really into the YouTube/fashion blogs/reddit side of it all which I still find somewhat interesting but I realized it’s not so much trends that I care about but the process behind what we wear. style can both complement and extend your sense of self. I still thinks trends can be fascinating to observe over time and what they transmit about the State of Things (hemlines relating to impending recessions, the popularity of androgynous styles speaking to a more nuanced understanding of gender, the commodification of the working man’s tools a la carhartt, etc.), but I’m not rushing to change my wardrobe every couple of months because some influencer said Chelsea boots aren’t in anymore. that’s the lovely aspect of fashion and what you come to realize as you get older: you dress best when you dress for yourself. it can seem like a silly little adage but it is a nice one to have in your pocket. for example, I’ve learned that I really value structure in my outfits, so no matter how hard I try to pull off the oversized and amorphous shearling coat look, it just doesn’t do it for me. and that’s fine because I can use the principle of the trend and apply it elsewhere in a way that does make me feel comfortable and good.

there are of course valuable rules of thumb which I find helpful when it comes to looking more deliberately polished. people ask me what I use and where I get things from to which I usually want to respond that it’s not the source that matters (barring of course the ethical fashion debate which is a whole other can of worms) but what it is. you’re looking for excellent construction and attention to details (reinforced seams, no loose threads, padding, etc), coordination with the rest of your color palette and closet, and complementing the setting (seasonally appropriate, formal vs informal etc). for example if you’d like a wide leg trouser silhouette, in the summer you’d opt for a light colored lined linen pant with brighter colors and in the winter you’d go for a wool blend with appropriate footwear and outerwear. perhaps that’s where the more conservative side of style comes into play but I do think some of the rules have stuck around because there’s some merit to it. at the very least I derive a measure of comfort from looking more polished and deliberate in a society that’s endlessly critical of appearances.

and then there’s the issue of branding and quality which is a slippery slope because the whole concept of quality is now mired in conversations about over consumption, terrible labor practices, ethically dubious marketing policies, greenwashing and so on. it got really overwhelming at some point so I withdrew from it for a while and now I find myself returning to the methodology behind our clothes: why we love certain colors during the seasons, the elegance of the way raw silk drapes, the cut of a coat and how it rests on your shoulders. i am privileged to be able to deliberate over my clothes- I can choose them and arrange them as needed.

growing up my aunt loved to make our formal clothes: she would take our measurements, source the proper fabric, find matching accessories, and take them to the tailor to get sewn. and then we would have fitting sessions in the living room and she would walk around scrutinizing the dress, pinching and pulling on the fabric and hem. If the sleeves were too itchy or the length too long, it would go back to the tailor or she might whip out her sewing machine and adjust it right there. it could take weeks to months for an outfit to materialize to her perfection, but it usually ended up being the nicest dress I’d ever worn.