#I should try to give some of them some newer art

[lostlegacyuniverse]

Art Fight got me thinking about my older characters

[alpaca-clouds]

The Punk-Factor of Punkpunk Genre

So, when I posted my history of Solarpunk, someone (probably not in good faith) asked: “So, what about the punk in all the other punk genres?!” towards my request to put the punk back into Solarpunk. And given that my autistic brain obviously cannot just let that stand… You know what? Let me talk about the other punk genre and in how far they are “punk”. I tried to be as exhaustive as possible, though there is a good chance, that I might have missed some of the punkpunk genre. So feel free to add.

Trying to judge the punkiness I do not assume punk as simple counter culture, but a specific ideology. Quote from Wikipedia:

[Punk ideology] is primarily concerned with concepts such as mutual aid, against selling out, hierarchy, white supremacy, authoritarianism, anti-consumerism, anti-corporatism, anti-war, imperialism, conservatism, anti-globalization, gentrification, anti-racism, anti-sexism, class and classism, gender equality, racial equality, eugenics, animal rights, free-thought and non-conformity

Most of the artwork here has been taken from concept art of either of the examples listed.

Sorted from most futuristic to pre(historic). Yes, the list is long.

Cyberpunk

We start with the OG punk genre, the one after which all other punk genre were named. Yes, you could argue that in fact the two genre following are more futuristic – but Cyberpunk kinda just had to start the list.

As a genre: Given that Cyberpunk had its start completely in literature it is the best defined in this regard. Taking place in a late stage capitalist dystopian world in which most is owned by megacorps who don’t follow anyone’s laws but their own, the protagonists usually are social outcasts fighting against their own oppression, trying to keep themselves alive in a world hostile to them. With cybernetics always being a core of the genre, it also tends to deal with the question of humanity in a “ship of Theseus” sort of way. How much can the human body be altered, before the human vanishes?

As an aesthetic: Cyberpunk is the most punk in terms of aesthetics, really. There is a lot of punk and grunge going on in terms of character design. Neon hair colors, fishnets and thorn up jeans jackets can be found here. As well as of course cybernetics on the characters. The world usually is a megacity with a stark divide between rich and poor, tons of neon signs, a slight Japanese influence, flying cars and somehow a constant downpour of rain.

Punk-Factor: Cyberpunk is the one punk genre, where the “punk” was chosen very knowingly as a name. Usually the protagonists are “punks” fighting for their place in the world against a suppressive capitalist system. (Also, they usually fit the punk aesthetic, if they don’t wear leather dusters.) It should be noted however, that especially in newer western Cyberpunk often the punkiness vanishes more and more – for the same reason we have so little Solarpunk: media that outright confronts the problems of capitalism is just less supported.

Examples: Neuromancer (1984), Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology (1986), Snow Crash (1992), The Matrix (1999), Dredd (2012)

Biopunk

As a genre: As a genre biopunk is still fairly ill defined, as it mostly shows up as a subsection of Cyberpunk. Rather than the characters having cybernetic implants (or additionally to it) they are augmented on a genetic level. This can be all sorts of augmentations, changing anything from appearance to giving characters higher strength and agility, giving them claws or night vision, or in some cases even “magic” powers. Usually the genre tends to be set in worlds similar to Cyberpunk. In fact it might well be set in a cyberpunk world, only that characters with bioaugmentations exist parallel to those with cybernetics. Additionally, though, there is a subsection of this genre, that concerns reproductive rights.

As an aesthetic: Ironically biopunk is even less defined as an aesthetic. There is not a lot of biopunk art out there and most that exists can go in different directions. As such it often mixes elements from other punk aesthetics – like Cyberpunk, Steampunk or Dieselpunk – with an assortment of bodyhorror elements.

Punk-Factor: It is hard to define the “punkiness” of a genre, that barely exists for the most part. Usually, when it is set against a Cyberpunk backdrop, it might be very punky, but in other settings those punk elements vanish.

Examples: Ribofunk (1995), Altered Carbon (2002), Bioshock (2007), The Windup Girl (2009)

Nanopunk

As a genre: Like Biopunk Nanopunk mostly exists as a subsubgenre to Cyberpunk, often being set in a mostly Cyberpunk world, only that instead of or additionally to Cybernetics, the technology used to alter the human body is nanites. These serve the same function as the genetic manipulation in Biopunk, giving the human in question more strength and agility and at times more or less magical abilities. There is one common plot that comes up again and again, with an AI or megacorp turning the nanites against the people they inhabit or trying to control them.

As an aesthetic: Aesthetically Nanopunk does not have much in terms of its own identity. Most artworks relating to Nanopunk feature a similar aesthetic to Cyberpunk, with megacities and lots of neon.

Punk-Factor: This genre is so small, that it is kinda hard to judge the exact punkiness.

Examples: The Diamond Age (1995), Prey (2002)

Solarpunk

As a genre: Being another genre, that started as such, Solarpunk is a bit better defined. Solarpunk usually takes place in a world post-strive. It is post-capitalist and decolonial in its settings, usually featuring a world that has either formed against the backdrop of preventing climate collapse or in the aftermath of it. A lot of it features people rebuilding – or alternatively building communities. It always features elements about living in harmony with nature or trying to do so. So far, the genre is mostly defined by short stories, partly because there is still disagreements within the movement, how far a conflict can be taken to still qualify as Solarpunk.

As an aesthetic: Solarpunk has a very strong aesthetic definition, mostly featuring all sorts of cities and urban areas, that incorporate natural elements into the urbanity, with greenery growing on roofs and concrete car-centric streets being replaced with more natural, walkable areas. The character design aesthetic is not quite as clearly defined, but usually features natural materials and patterns usually seen within indigenous art.

Punk-Factor: Contrary to what many say, Solarpunk is fairly punk, as it very much embraces the entire anti-hierarchical, anti-capitalist mentality. With the big difference, that the punk mentality is no longer counter culture, but the mainstream culture.

Examples: The Dispossessed (1974), Nausicaä (1984), Laputa – Castle in the Sky (1986), Princess Mononoke (1997), The Summer Prince (2013)

Lunarpunk

As a genre: Lunarpunk is pretty much a subsubgenre of Solarpunk, just as Nanopunk and Biopunk are sprung off from Cyberpunk. It is so far ill-defined as a genre, but the general consensus is, that it is set in solarpunk-esque worlds, but with a heavier focus on mysticism or spiritualism, at times outright including magic. It also tends to feature a lot darker places, being set in underwater or underground settings – or alternatively at night.

As an aesthetic: Lunarpunk is far more of an aesthetic than a genre so far. It features dark places, often with bioluminescent elements in it. Often featuring a mixture of black and dark blue with lighter blue, violet or light green elements shining in the middle of it. Mushrooms – especially glowing mushrooms – feature repeatedly in artwork.

Punk-Factor: Given that Lunarpunk is barely defined as a genre it is hard to estimate the punkiness in it. If it gets more stories, will those still feature the anti-capitalist and anti-hierarchical messaging we see in Solarpunk? This should be the defining factor. Some of the artworks use little aesthetics from the punk scene, but nothing much more.

Examples: Bioluminescent: A Lunarpunk Anthology (2023)

Hopepunk

Honestly, I had no idea where to put this one, given that it might technically be set at any time and place.

As a genre: Hopepunk is very much a genre, not an aesthetic. It has been defined as the opposite of grimdark by its “inventor/name-giver” Alexandra Rowland. The basic idea is to create fiction that instead of taking a dystopian, defeatist and violent approach, takes one defined by hope and to some degree pacifism. As such the genre can be set in any setting, real or fantastic. It mostly is defined by the protagonists taking opposition to cruelty and violence, fighting for a better world and, crucially, also partly archiving it. Other than in usual Cyberpunk, where the best possible ending, tends to be, that the protagonists get to live a somewhat better life themselves, Hopepunk aims to better the life at least for groups of people.

As an aesthetic: Being fully a genre, Hopepunk has no aesthetic associated with it.

Punk-Factor: Hopepunk is punk less in the sense of the protagonists or things happening within the story, which might or might not be punk, but was named such rather because it is considered counter cultural towards the gross of media at the moment, that often strives for a “realistic, gritty, grimdark” outlook on the world. Basically it is saying: “Hope is punk.” I will not make any judgement on whether or not this is true.

Examples: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Good Place (2016)

Mythpunk

As a genre: Another one, that does not really fit into a temporal sorting system, because once again it can be set anywhere between the stone age and the far future. The basic idea is, that the story interweaves postmodern storytelling with elements from mythology or folklore. This can mean mythological, genre-traversing retellings, but it can also mean, that mythology seeps into any given story bit by bit. As such the genre with probably the most media in the subgenre is Urban Fantasy, which often borrows from mythology and incorporates these elements.

As an aesthetic: Mythpunk as an aesthetic is a bit strange. There is definitely a mythpunk aesthetic that exists, often mixing familiar elements with elements from mythology and folklore (at times also including quasi-folkloric works of literature, such as Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz). Often just a bit dark and twisted.

Punk-Factor: To be perfectly frank, for the most part, there is not a lot of punk to be found in this genre. While there have been definitely punky stories told within the genre, this is more a story decision than something inherent to the genre.

Examples: Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Over the Garden Wall (2014), Inscryption (2016)

Dustpunk / Rustpunk / Desertpunk

As a genre: Kinda grouping those above all together, because people argue about what they might entail and in some interpretations they kinda are similar: Post-apocalyptic stories set in a world of sand and rust. Often featuring a loner character, having to go up against everyone to ensure his own survival – and at times being forced to learn, that the lonerness might not win him (and most often it is a him) anything.

As an aesthetic: Aesthetically this tends to be very much post-apocalyptic, maybe in some cases with some more classical punk elements added to characters and surroundings.

Punk-Factor: Given that there is neither a system to rage against – nor a new, less hierarchical system – usually there is not that much punk outside of some aesthetic choices. Neither tend those stories go into constructing worlds of mutual aid or working against oppression.

Examples: Anything Mad Max should count for this.

Atompunk

As a genre: Atompunk usually deals with themes connected to the cold war – in some cases directly, in some indirectly. Often it overplays the American ideals that were pushed for during the cold war era and portrays scenarios in which American Exceptionalism slowly reveals itself as the dystopia most punks already know it to be. Outside of this vague idea for the setting, the genre is less described, as there is less of a clear script an Atompunk story might follow. So, little description of who might be the protagonist and what their role is.

As an aesthetic: The aesthetic of Atompunk borrows heavily from the Raygun Gothic aesthetic. So, futurism, as it was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, with heavy influences from late pulp age science fiction art.

Punk-Factor: The aesthetic in this is definitely not punk. The stories often have some vague punk ideas of recognizing how fucked up the world has become, but given the genre is fairly wide in terms of stories, it is hard to give a definite answer to how “punk” it is. One can definitely tell punk stories within this genre, though.

Examples: Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (1978), Fallout (1997), Futurama (1999)

Dieselpunk

As a genre: Dieselpunk is once again an example of “strong aesthetic, but no clear genre identity”. Generally, Dieselpunk is concerned with the interwar period, but might cover either of the world wars. In some cases the genre features alternate timelines, in which one war happened and not the other, or in which another faction won, with the technological development being influenced by this as well. But as a genre it is not much defined. A lot of stories building on Lovecraft’s legacy feature Dieselpunk in some regards. And there is definitely a subsection of Dieselpunk stories centered around “what if Nazis won” or “what if Nazis somehow went underground and did their own technological development after the war”. Also, there are a lot of stories about pilots of war planes in this genre.

As an aesthetic: As an aesthetic Dieselpunk is more clearly defined. A lot of bare metal and the sorts of technology you would expect from this era, often with retro-futurist and art noveau elements in between. A lot of the fashion within the genre is defined by pilot and military clothing of the times, but at times also dipping into “roaring 20s” fashion styles.

Punk-Factor: In this genre I would generally say: “If the story involves punching Nazis, you might get a couple punk points – but otherwise this is not really punk.”

Examples: The Iron Dream (1972), Brazil (1985), Dark City (1998), Iron Sky (2012), Bitter Seeds (2010)

Teslapunk

As a genre: Yet another one of these, that exists mostly as a vague idea, with no clear definition. The basic idea is a world, that works on Tesla’s inventions. And as those of you, who watched Doctor Who, might know, Tesla sorta, kinda already invented the internet or had an idea of what it could be and how it could work. So a Teslapunk world is based in an alternate timeline, but might in fact go into light futurism. There is not much in this genre though with a unique thematic identity, as stories that use Teslapunk as a backdrop rarely have coherent themes.

As an aesthetic: The aesthetic of Teslapunk is basically “Steampunk, but with Tesla-coils and electricity”. Which is not a big surprise given that Tesla came from the same era that would also be the inspiration for Steampunk. So, we have a lot of Victorian fashion, maybe some light augmentation, airships, and – again – all the tesla coils you can muster.

Punk-Factor: As, again, I think punk is more about themes than aesthetic, this is once more not really possible to judge, because there do not seem coherent themes within the genre so far.

Examples: The Prestige (2006), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), Bioshock Infinite (2013)

Arcanepunk

Another one of those that do not neatly fit into the timeline…

As a genre: Arcanepunk takes place in a world, where both magic and technology have developed. In some cases both developed side by side, in others, we might have a technological world, that suddenly discovers magic by some happenstance. The fact is, though, that both exist parallel to each other or might at times be intertwined, with technology being powered by magic. This can exist at different technological stages, usually featuring settings inspired by the late 19th or early 20th century. But usually futuristic stuff that includes magic might be considered Arcanepunk, just as might stories that mix 18th century technology with magic. While also a vague genre, there is a repeating theme of magic being hoarded by those in powers and the poor and downtrodden finding ways to still use it in their own advantage.

As an aesthetic: Given that Arcanepunk’s setting is defined by the co-existence of magic and technology, rather than a specific technology, Arcanepunk has less of a defined aesthetic. Never the less, we have a part of punk aesthetics that often come up, as a surprising amount of Arcanepunk features characters with neon colored hair.

Punk-Factor: Another genre that is rather thin, yet, there is a surprising amount of stories featuring some punk ideas of fighting against an oppressive system and being counter culture to a main culture build around suppression.

Examples: Too Many Magicians (1966), Shadowrun (1989), Bartimaeus (2003), Arcane (2021) duh

Steampunk

Steampunk was the second genre to pick up the “punk” suffix and hence is as much responsible for the punk-punk as Cyberpunk as the originator.

As a genre: Being named as early as it has been, Steampunk kinda suffers the same issue as Cyberpunk itself. There is a lot of ideas there, but some are only vaguely defined. In general, though Steampunk always takes place in a world where the steam engine became the defining technology and was never replaced with the combustion engine. As such cultural aspects from the steam era, especially Victorian England and the Belle Epoche, still carry over for longer, than they did. So often we will see noble households based around similar values as the puritan Victorian English families, while the very poor are made to work in workhouses. At times we might also see themes of colonialism here. In some cases magic might exist in these worlds, as might electricity for some aspects. There is often a heavy inspiration from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Though it is still hard to define the “stereotypical steampunk story”, given that Steampunk offers a wide variety of stories, from adventure stories and romances, over to stories where people rise up against the Victorian-esque society.

As an aesthetic: Steampunk as an aesthetic is very much influenced by Victorian aesthetics and the time period of the late 19th century, mostly in the USA, Great Britain and France. But as all other punk genres it knows very well: “If it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing,” so steam-related elements are added to everything. Could

Punk-Factor: In the original idea for Steampunk was a lot of punk. “What if we took Cyberpunks ‘rage against the unjust system’ and made it 19th century” they asked. But given that the genre branched out so much, it is not necessarily there in all the stories. There is a ton of stories where people rage against that steam powered Victorian machine – but also a ton in which the Victorian world gets idealized and romanticized.

Examples: Thief (1998), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999), Wild Wild West (1999), Clockwork Century (2008) – also half of all Sherlock Holmes adaption made after 2000 in any medium usually use Steampunk elements

Silkpunk

As a genre: Silkpunk is hard to define, despite there being a clear definition. The reason for this is, that the person who coined the term – Ken Liu – had a very specific idea in mind. He explains that the idea is of a world that has technology as language. In which form is as important as function, is made to speak a language all of its own. Inspired by ideas from W. Brian Arthur and Chinese philosophy. However, what the wider Science Fiction and Fantasy community made from it was “Steampunk but East Asian!” But given he coined the term (and also the alternative feels vaguely racist) I am going to go with Ken Liu for this. While Silkpunk will usually be set in an East Asian inspired world, the central idea is about the duality of technology, which will also be addressed within the stories.

As an aesthetic: As said above, the idea Liu had for it was a world that features some technology, but technology that is as much about form and communication through it, as it is about function. So the technology here has strong visual ideas. At least that was, how Liu intended it. Once again, the wider community made “Steampunk, but East Asian” out of it.

Punk-Factor: There is not a lot of stuff in this genre for now – however so far I do not manage to see a lot of punk ideas in it, even though some of Liu’s stories definitely feature the concept of challenging a higher power.

Examples: Dandelion Dynasty (2015), The Black Tides of Heaven (2018), The Tea Master and the Detective (2019)

Clockpunk

As a genre: Once again storytelling in this genre is not really defined, but the worlds diverge a bit before the wide adaption of steam, instead featuring mechanical devices powered by coils and springs and somehow kept alive, often at least implied through some form of arcane magic that gives “live” to these mechanical inventions. Most examples of Clockpunk, however, tend to show up as settings for parts of fantasy stories. Any fantasy world might have this “Clockpunk” area, where protagonists might travel. Especially games tend to feature this. While there is definitely a trope of the “mad inventor” often going along with this, few other tropes stand out.

As an aesthetic: The aesthetic of Clockpunk tends to take some inspiration from the early 19th century, but tends to add a lot of gears to everything, with even city wide gear constructions keeping things working. We often will find mechatronic characters, such as wind up soldiers or wind up dancers.

Punk-Factor: Once more, there are so few stories told, that it is kinda hard to speak about how punk this is. Most stories told so far, however, do not feature punk elements.

Examples: The Great Mouse Detective (1986), Hugo (2011), Clockwork Planet (2017)

Whalepunk

Please note: This is one of those genre, I would love to see more in, though so far it is barely explored.

As a genre: And you might ask: “Why do you even name those genre, that exist mostly in theory?”, to which I might answer: “Because I am a nerd.” As all these retrofuturists genre, Whalepunk imagines mostly an alternate historical timeline, where the technology that became defining was based around whale oil. This means that in Whalepunk often whalers or harbors play a big role, though as the genre is again very thinly spread, it is hard to say what “THE whalepunk” formular is. It seems there is a tendency, to mix some mysticism or magic into the genre, though, as the idea of hunting sea monsters often plays into it as well. Good chance that it could at some point merge with Cthulupunk (which I did not name separately, because most of it is either covered in Whalepunk or Dieselpunk).

As an aesthetic: The aesthetic of Whalepunk is basically “Steampunk, but with more sailors, ships and sea monsters”. There is definitely a bit of Oceanpunk mixed into it as well, with some aesthetics being somewhere between Steampunk and Dieselpunk. (Which is kinda ironic, because whale oil was mostly used in the early 19th century.)

Punk-Factor: And again. There so far is not a lot of connective thematic tissue within that genre, so exploring themes is kinda hard.

Examples: Dishonored (2012), Dredge (2023)

Oceanpunk / Piratepunk

As a genre: It really is hard to divide the Piratepunk out of the Oceanpunk, though some might call it different. The idea here is that this genre features stories mostly set on the ocean and often more heavily leaning into fantasy, than science fiction. While the worlds might feature technological elements, they will almost certainly feature magical elements of some sort. The characters will usually be seafaring one way or another and stories might involve any sort of adventure. There might be a storyline, though, about one company or nation trying to control the seas – often times through magical means – with the characters often unwillingly being made to oppose them. This genre might also take place in a post-apocalyptic setting with a flooded planet.

As an aesthetic: While the aesthetic is not clearly defined, there is a good chance that it borrows heavily from the late 17th and early 18th century and the golden age of piracy, when it comes to both ships and fashion sensibilities.

Punk-Factor: Pirates, at least as far as modern media imagines them, tend to be very punk, as they tend to inherently oppose any sort of government and what not. While the punk is not there in all of the stories, a lot of the most popular stories from the genre will feature at least lightly punky elements.

Examples: One Piece (1997), Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013)

Dungeonpunk

As a genre: So, the idea of the genre is basically “What if Cyberpunk, but Dungeons & Dragons?” Usually set in a vaguely medieval world, this world still shows the same corporate corruption as your usual Cyberpunk world. Adventurers are just another resource to be exploited by the system, their day job involving going on yet another dungeon crawl. For this there might be some technology entirely powered by magic, with those magic items taking over the same functions technology might have in a Cyberpunk world. And yes, indeed some brave dwarf, elf or halfling might rise up and challenge the corporate dungeon syndicate. (As you might sense: Yes, this genre tends to be at least partly a bit of a parody of the punkpunk idea. Though it also can be played straight as “Cyberpunk conflicts, just that all technology is somehow magic.”)

As an aesthetic: This is once again one of the examples, where there is a clear idea behind it – but absolutely no clear aesthetic, as this genre might cover anything from medieval settings to a lot more modern stuff.

Punk-Factor: The base idea, being heavily inspired by the base idea of Cyberpunk, just from a very different perspective. But too many people read the genre as “Magic Technology, yay”, in which case, no, it is not punk.

Examples: Dungeons & Dragons can be played this way, also Final Fantasy VI – XIII definitely counts.

Sandalpunk

As a genre: I mostly include this for the sake of it, because this genre tends to boil down to “fantasy set in ancient Greece or Rome, but with vaguely anachronistic elements”. It might also include alternate history stories (even going so far as Science Fiction) based on the idea “What if Ancient Rome/Ancient Greece never fell?” There is no real overarching themes, even though I could imagine some interesting way one could build those up. So far, though, it is mostly a vague gesture towards: “SciFi Fantasy, but with more ancient civilizations.”

As an aesthetic: The aesthetic is usually just Ancient Rome or Ancient Greece, but with more magic or anachronistic elements.

Punk-Factor: Given the super vague nature of the genre and the fact that it seems more like a genre of hindsight (with most media being declared this having been released even before 2000)… Nobody wrote those stories to be punk. The one punk thing I can see about several of these stories is people challenging Gods, but… That’s about it.Examples: Hercules: Legendary Journeys (1995), Xena: Warrior Princess (1995), God of War (2005)

Stonepunk

As a genre: The basic idea of Stonepunk is, that it is set in a stone age world, but with the technology being pressed towards a very anachronistic end, which is often played for laughs. Basically it gives stone age people a modern seeming world, though not really. Often enough this is used to make a point about the modern world and parody it in some regard. An argument can be made for stories, that feature stone age technology people being somehow subjected to modern technology (for example through time travel or space travel) also possibly falling into this genre.

As an aesthetic: Usually the aesthetic of Stonepunk is one of an overplayed stone age setting. The clothing characters might wear are not what we know is historically more accurate but really just “everyone wears a pelt around their shoulders”. Meanwhile stone age tools get spun to be used as all sorts of modern technologies.

Punk-Factor: The genre does usually not feature punk themes. However, the nature of parodying and challenging the modern world tends to be punk in its own merit, I assume?

Examples: The Flintstones (1960), The Croods (2013), Horizon: Zero Dawn (2017)

That's it. That's the list.

Feel free to add to it.

[serenityhime1]

I feel like smut comes in several different tiers.

First you've got your bottom-tier smut. This smut is lower-effort. Maybe it's a newer writer's first attempts at smut. Maybe it's someone young or inexperienced dipping their toes into things that intrigue them. Maybe it's someone learning what writing style works best for them. Maybe it's a writer who just wants to write some damn porn and couldn't care about the quality of what they put out.

There is nothing wrong with bottom-tier smut. Everyone starts somewhere, and it's easy to do a little hand-waving for anatomical improbabilities because even though every woman has the perkiest size Gs and the every man has the thickest 12 inches ever seen, it's still hot and people like reading it (and writing it!)

Next you've for your middle-tier smut. There's a couple of categories here, too, of course. You've got your low-story PWP that's just nicely-written sex mixed in with your stories that are a little more plot-driven but not quite written with the highest level of finesse. Middle-tier smut is where a lot of writers (myself included) fall. Good stories, good sex scenes, maybe not the kind of story you think about too much later.

And then there's the top tier. Cream of the crop, silver spoon, gilded in gold smutty fics that are so much like epic stories that leave you curled into a ball sobbing with how beautiful they are. Maybe you don't actually cry, but maybe after you finish it you stare vacantly at the wall for a little while, pondering the depth of the information you've managed to cram through your brain cells via your retinas. Stories you think about at random times, sometimes years later.

My point is that each of these tiers is beautiful and precious and I love them. I love stories that I would consider not the highest of art (although I can't always stick with it if some of the smut gets too wildly implausible sometimes), I love stories that make me contemplate the meaning of life, and I love everything in between.

It all comes down to the idea that art is wonderful. I'm talking about smut in particular here, but I'd love to encourage anyone who wants to write to give it a try. Even if you struggle, you can put your ideas to the page and come up with something new, or even something old that's being told in your own way.

I want to read your epics, and I want to read the stories you think are trash, and I want to read your low-brow entertainment, and I want to read your well-outlined plot. Sometimes I crave a challenge, and sometimes I want something simple, and neither of those is "good" or "bad".

Everything has its place, and they should all be celebrated. Write. Make art. Add to the collective creativity of the human race. Do it wildly with passion, do it carefully with a precise hand, but do it.

[mollyringle]

I am perhaps extreme on this, but I don’t think there’s a good excuse to stay in HP fandom, unless one does agree with Rowling's infamous tweets of recent years. Separating art from artist is debatably all right when the artist is dead and no longer collecting royalties, but when the artist is still on Twitter bragging about her royalties, and there’s so much queer-friendly fantasy that could be talked up instead…yep, nope, trans/genderqueer/NB allies should jump ship.

I admit I look askance now at HP cosplayers and anyone still putting their Hogwarts house in their social media bio. I know, I know, a fandom that meant so much to a person for a phase of their life is going to claim a special place in their memories. But you wouldn’t (I hope) continue celebrating the birthday of a toxic ex-friend because you liked them two decades ago, so why stay with the fandom, when by so doing you’re keeping Rowling culturally relevant? We can support the innocent actors from the HP movies by supporting the work they’ve done since the series—I’m sure they’d rather have more focus on those newer projects anyway.

I practice what I preach: I could be continuing to lure in potential readers with my HP parodies, but instead I have taken them all down, all the places I can still reach, because I don’t want to give her any airtime, even obliquely like that.

I think if y'all knew how very, very little the vast majority of us writers make, and how hard we try to reach readers, and how much we'd appreciate a smidgen of success, and how hard some of us are trying to help and protect our fellow queer folks...you would better understand why this is a big deal, to someone who is also a writer of urban fantasy. I’ll stop there. Apparently I could go on and on about this.

[paradoxlemonade]

Like a Flower in Bloom; chapter 1/3

Summary: Doc Monster is a many things: he's a tinkerer, a college graduate, a creeper hybrid, and a husband to his wonderful spouse, Ren. Most importantly, he is a father. And he would do anything to make his trans daughter Scarlet happy. Even if it means becoming a Buttercup Scout troop leader and herding a trio of middle school girls.

This is my @mcytblraufest fic, made in collaboration with my artist @watchmewhirl and beta-read my @raivaughn. You can find the masterpost for the art here.

Warnings: minor transphobia

Ao3: Here!

Next ; Last

---

Violence does not solve very many problems. It usually just creates newer, more complicated problems. As a rational person, Doc understands this. 

As an animal, however, he wants the Buttercup Scout troop leader in front of him to be eaten by hyenas.

The meeting wrapped up a few minutes ago and most of the girls and parents already filtered out the door. Doc told Scarlet, his daughter, to hang behind and talk with the other girls. She's more than happy to do so, chatting away with the Symmetry twins. 

He has a few concerns about how she was repeatedly sidelined during the badge event and wanted to ask about that. She hadn't yet joined the troop and was only there for a preliminary meeting, yes, but the adults could have stood to be a bit more welcoming to new members. 

Which led to him hunting down the troop leader, tapping her on the shoulder, and asking about her meeting policies. Which led to her trying not to sneer and just dismissing him out of hand.

Ms. Reflecta Symmetry doesn't bother to face him as she gathers up tubes of decorating frosting and glitter sprinkles and returns them to their original packaging. “I'm busy. Could you please wait a moment?”

Doc shakes his head. “I just have a question about how meetings tend to go, and then I'll be out of your hair. Nothing big; it’ll be quick.” 

Reflecta drops the decorating supplies back onto the camp table with unnecessary force and finally turns to face him. She gives him a plastic, simpering smile. “I think I can help you! Were you here to check out our troop and think about joining?”

“...Yes, that's correct.” Something about the way she carries herself sets Doc's nerves on edge. “Scarlet wanted to be a part of the group that was piping frosting onto the sugar cookies. But every time she asked you if she could switch groups, she got ignored or told to wait her turn, but she never got to be a part of the piping group. It seemed like she was… forgotten during the group changes.”

How does he phrase this diplomatically? 

“I was wondering if this was how most of your meetings run, or if you were just distracted. There were a lot of girls to keep from making messes, after all.” He's had long days before. It would be nice if that were the case here; this was the only close option for a troop in the area.

“Uh-huh.” Reflecta’s arms cross, fingers tapping away. She switches her expression to an equally-fake one of hyperbolic sympathy. “You see, I'm just not certain that your… child is a good fit for our troop. I’m concerned that they won’t have very much fun; we have a specific culture here. I'm sure you understand?” With that, she spins on her heel and continues packing up the materials from the meeting into an oversized patchwork tote bag.

Doc stands there for a moment, frozen stiff. “Excuse me?” What exactly did she mean by that? He steps to her side, working himself back into her line of sight even as she works and attempts to ignore him. “I think I misunderstand you. Could you explain what you mean?”

 She glances over to give him another apologetic look, but her lip is curled back just enough to show teeth. “It just takes so many resources for a Buttercup Scout troop to make sure all girls involved have an enriching experience. We've just had a few new girls join, so I'll need our treasurer to reassess the budget. Perhaps you should look into some other organizations in the area? I'm sure there's plenty that they would like elsewhere.”

Doc grits his teeth and wills himself to silence. Budget problems and personality are two different issues. That leaves one conclusion: Ms. Symmetry is full of shit. She just doesn't want Scarlet to join the troop. He'd hoped her earlier curt attitude was just her being busy with other kids—even gave her an out to claim that—but that doesn't seem to be the case.

He clears his throat. “Sure, yeah, I understand.” Before she can get another word in to affirm his agreement, Doc barrels on: “It's just a little surprising to hear, considering how well Scarlet seemed to get along with the other girls. The advertisement your troop posted on Facebook the other week also seemed so welcoming; was that scheduled in advance before your means were clear?”

Reflecta's smile remains, though the bottom of her eye twitches ever so slightly. “Something like that.” It's her turn not to give Doc a chance to respond as she jerks to face the remaining girls in the room. “False! True! Get your things. We're leaving.”

The two blonde girls that Scarlet is talking to perk up at the same time, like prairie dogs out of a burrow. Aside from the longer hair and extremely thick glasses that nearly resemble goggles they both wore, they were spitting images of Reflecta. One just nods without emoting much, while the other brightens and responds, “Yes, ma’am!”

The smiley one clambers to her feet, buttercup guide book clutched to her chest. She waves farewell and says something else before bounding over to her mother's side. The stoic one bumps a silent shoulder against Scarlet’s and follows a moment later.

“Ah, Scarlet,” Doc calls out. “You come on as well. We finished speaking, so it's time to go home.”

She nods and scoops up her cat plushie backpack.“Okie-dokie, dad!” Once it’s on her back and she gets her crutches situated, she’s by his side as he guides her out the door.

“Did you have a nice conversation with the twins?” Doc asks, a bit louder than necessary in the hopes that Scarlet won’t hear Reflecta hissing ‘I don’t want to hear about you two talking to that one again’ to her daughters. He directs Scarlet along a little bit faster.

“Yeah, they were really nice to me!” There’s a bounce in her step as she chatters away. “True didn’t talk very much, but that’s okay since False talked enough for both of them. I think she talks when she’s nervous and when she’s comfortable. And then she asked about my Jellie backpack, and—”

Doc ushers her out the doors of the community center, but his eyes can’t help but fall to the trans flag button on the strap of her bag. 

Truth was, a gnawing sense of dread hollowed out his chest when she insisted at age ten that she was a girl.

It’s an ugly thing to think, but it’s not because Doc doesn’t want her to be herself. The world can be mean, and the people in it even meaner; Scarlet suffering unnecessarily because she’s different from her peers became a regular staple of his stress dreams.

He hugged her worried, helped her pick out a name worried, went shopping for new girl clothes worried, met with her school teachers and the principal worried—

Today he drove her to a Buttercup Scout troop meeting worried.

Beyond the obvious of names and clothes and telling family members, the one thing Scarlet wanted was to become a Buttercup Scout.

Doc pulls his keys from his jacket pocket and unlocks the truck while they walk. Scarlet takes that as a cue to rush ahead and climb inside without assistance—door open, crutches against door, Jellie bag tossed into the seat next to hers, hands on the seat for stability, one foot on the running board, push off and lean forward, wiggle into a seated position, pull the crutches in and close the door. She has it down to a science at this point, though Doc will occasionally still offer her help if she’s having a bad pain day. He doesn’t have to worry much about Scarlet hurting herself.

And yet, now he has to drive her home, worried about disappointing and hurting her.

The air inside the truck hits him like a wall of heat when he opens the door, though he pays it little mind as he slides into the driver’s seat and puts the keys into the ignition. Until the air conditioning fully kicks in, he cracks the back windows just a touch.

A glance in the rear view mirror shows Scarlet looking out the window with a slowly slipping happy mask.

He’s pulling out of the parking lot before he can bring himself to say anything. “Did… you have fun at the meeting?” 

“Oh! Yeah, I did! False and True and me were talking, and they—”

“No, not near the end of the meeting, or after it.” His grip on the steering wheel tightens minutely. He makes sure to take the next turn carefully in spite of that. “I meant all of it—the badge work, the other girls, the adults—how do you feel?”

Another stolen look, and this time she’s pulling her knees to her chest.

“I mean… the girls were nice to me.”

He’s always been worried about her peers ostracizing her. Their parents hadn’t even come up on his radar.

Doc presses down on a sigh. “I’m sorry that troop wasn’t what you were expecting.”

“It’s fine!” she blurts out. “They’re fine! I want to be a Buttercup Scout!”

His heart twists. “I know you do, and we’re trying. It’s just… maybe we should keep our options open, sweetie.” The gentle comfort in his voice sounds fake, even to himself.

“What? No, no!” She leans forward in her seat to grip the passenger headrest. “I’ll make it work! It'll be fine!”

“Scarlet.” He's firm, but so tired, tired, tired. There's no way he's letting his daughter put herself in a situation where she regularly has to interact with transphobes. “I know you want to be a Buttercup Scout, but tonight wasn't fun for you, and it wasn't fun for me to watch you be upset. We'll keep looking, okay?”

Despite herself, she sniffles and hiccups. “But, but, there aren't any other troops in the area that work for us. You said that! I heard you and Papa talking about it!”

Fuck. He didn't think she overheard that conversation. She was supposed to be asleep on the couch after a movie, he and Ren sequestered in the kitchen to discuss in hushed voices.

 “All the others are too far, or they meet when I have physical therapy, or they aren't accepting new members, or, or—” The words seem to flood out of her before abruptly stopping with a sharp inhale of breath and another wet hiccup. “I just want to do what all the other girls get to do. I don't understand why I can't.”

With a grimace, Doc changes lanes and turns into the parking lot of a fast food joint. This isn't a driving conversation. 

Once stopped, he gets out of the driver's seat and opens the back. He slides in next to Scarlet and puts an arm around her shoulders. “Oh, mein Schatzi…”

She sniffles and presses her side into the hug. “S’ not even that bad. I dunno why I'm crying.” 

Doc picks up the Jellie plush from where it fell into the floorboards. Sure, it may have a few notebooks in it, but it's still a plushie and Scarlet sure seems to need one. He sets it on her lap and she has it squeezed to her chest in a blink. 

“This is something you really wanted for a long time. It's normal to be upset when stuff doesn't work out.”

“I wanted it to work out.”

“I know, I know.” He runs a hand through her hair. “Your papa and I will see what we can do, okay?”

“But—” She sniffles again. “I thought that—”

“I know what we said,” Doc murmurs. “We’re going to look into other options so you can be a Buttercup Scout. I cannot make any promises, but I can promise to try.”

She looks up at him with wounded eyes, shining with unshed glass tears. It seems that this cry was a long time coming. “O-oh.” Another sniffle.

She twists to the side and he's suddenly engulfed in a hug. “Thanks, Dad.”

He holds her close.

“Always.”

[crazy-lazy-elder-sims]

coming from a WCIF friendly simblr ( me) leave the ppl that don't want to do wcifs alone like seriously leave them alone some people are not here to be at your service 24/7 they just wanna log in and post their art/gamepaly talk to friends and that's it. NO ONE is under obligation to help you even if you ask nicely. boundaries are boundaries and yall need to respect them. doesn't fucking matter what you think should be done if a person said no it means no.

alternatives to bothering non wcif people and harassing them through their inbox:

-see if they have a cc finds blog and look through that

-see if they have a pinterest board for sims 4

-see if they have their likes public they probably liked the cc they used

-see if other people have used this cc and if they are wcif friendly

-see if their friends have ccfinds they also probably get cc from there

- go on google and search “sims 4 theme of cc mm/alpha” so for example “sims 4 y2k top MM” “sims 4 layered hair alpha” and check newer pinterest pins

- go to @/public-ccfinds @/lightsleepertrait @/alwaysfreecc and look through the latest reblogged posts

- ask your simblr friends

- most discords have a “wcif” channel utilize that

-try to recognize the creator even if you got it wrong looking up “sims 4 leahlillith layered hair” when you are looking for Anto hair believe it or not will get you there faster cause google connects most cc creators with the same style together (based on people clicking on similar creators when cc shopping its algorithmic work)

all of these methods are tried by yours truly and i usually only end up doing 1 or 2 of these and i find the piece quickly everything will take max 15 mins of your time which is more efficient than sending anon and waiting 1-4 businesses days to begin harassing the simblr into giving up the link of the cc.

hope this helps ^-^ 

[blueskittlesart]

hi, correct me if i'm wrong but i seem to remember you saying that you're majoring in illustration! i'm currently in the process of applying to colleges and i plan on majoring in illustration as well, so i was wondering if you had any advice for portfolios. I could really use some tips on the presentation aspect specifically, bc I'm a little lost when it comes to stuff like the arrangement/organization of pieces, how I should crop my pictures, etc. any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated!!

hi yes i can totally help you out with this! i like to think my college portfolio was pretty good bc i got accepted to every school i sent it to lol :) the main pieces of advice that i was given when building it were this:

studies and pieces that show off your technical skill are great, but limit them to around a third of your portfolio at most. art schools DO want to see that you're technically skilled and can like, draw a charcoal still life or a self-portrait, because those ARE important skills to have, but ESPECIALLY if you're applying to a school that's more known for contemporary fields like animation or illustration, it's much more likely that they want to see your creative mind at work. the single best thing you can put in your portfolio is a BODY OF WORK, and specifically a body of work that shows off your own ideas and your own take on whatever you're producing. this means 3+ pieces that are interconnected or related to the same central theme. my portfoilo, for example, consisted of 2 or 3ish traditional, technical pieces which showed that I had a certain level of technical skill, and the ENTIRE rest of it was devoted to a series of original interconnected narrative comics I'd written and drawn. Every reviewer I met with told me that this was what made my portfolio stand out to them--it showed that I was not only technically skilled, but that i had something i wanted to DO with that skill, that I had direction and drive with my art and was able to produce work that reflected that. If you're maybe (definitely) not quite as ambitious as me, something like a series of 3-5 interconnected illustrations or a short comic if you're into that might do the same thing.

as a side note, if you DO have a body of work as the central focus of your portfolio, a lot of colleges will be interested in your process as well! for example with my comic portfolio, i used one slot to demonstrate my process, because I penciled every page traditionally before digitalizing it and i had extensive character and worldbuilding sketches. I wouldn't devote more than one slot to it, but if you have a body of work where the process is important to you it could be worth throwing in!

arrangement is tricky, but the advice I generally heard was "put your best stuff first." whatever you're most excited about, whatever is going to grab someone's attention the fastest, that's what you want to have in your first slot. (I actually don't think I followed this advice on my applications LOL but it's what i was TOLD to do and i think it's solid advice.)

in terms of editing, assuming we're talking about traditional pieces being photographed, you want to make sure your pieces are 1. well-lit, (DO NOT TAKE YOUR PHOTOS WITH OVERHEAD LIGHTING. wait for an overcast day and take them outside trust me) 2. legible, (no weird shadows obscuring parts of the piece, high-quality enough that no details are lost due to digital pixelation, etc) and 3. as color-accurate to real life as you can make them. most of this is just about getting a decent-quality camera (a newer iphone should be fine) and a good location. (outside and overcast, as previously mentioned) you may want to throw your pics into photoshop and play with the balance slightly, but I wouldn't do anything too drastic, try to get the most accurate photo possible without any editing. (if your pieces are small and flat, scanning them in may work better. most public and school libraries have scanners you can use for free.)

finally, cropping. the general rule that I was taught is to crop the piece, not the photograph. if you've got a piece on paper and you're not sure you like how the actual drawing is oriented on the paper, crop the PAPER down to size, and THEN photograph it. your photos should aim to show the ENTIRE piece from edge to edge (unless it's a detail shot obv) and I even like to include a little bit of extra "breathing room" around the piece so that it's clear exactly where the dimensions of it end. here's a piece I used for my college portfolios for reference:

i lowkey do not like this piece now but that's not the point. this is what i mean by breathing room--a few extra inches of space around the actual canvas so it's clear that this isn't a closeup and you can see where the canvas actually ends. the same is true for digital pieces. if it's a full bleed illustration (something with full color all the way to the edges of the canvas) just make sure you like the composition cropped the way it is and submit the full piece as-is. if it's a floating spot or something similar without hard edges, leave a bit of white or transparent breathing room around the edge of your image.

hope this helps! if you have any more specific questions lmk :)

[theraddestfemalive]

Y’know what? Fuck it. I’m going to say this

I don’t think any non-gc or tra lib gives a fuck about what im about to say, even considering that im going to tag the cr fandom.

I’m only adding one radfem tag because this post is centered around another topic.

i feel like ever since the trans population has tripled, it hasn’t been the same. Before any of you cucks think im talking about the idea of being trans, im also talking about the community behind it. Their ideas within the concept of it.

the concept of being ‘transgender’ was built on the foundation of sexist stereotypes; although the origins had a different purpose in ancient societies (varying ofcourse), it was ultimately used as a weapon to oppress women in the modern times, the goal was to make a person ‘feel’ like a male or female and now trillions of micro labels and gender identities are used to describe people who feel slightly above the normal and they’re treated as if they’re some kind of clothes that you put on instead of an identity.

Because of this, most people don’t even know what a woman or a lesbian is. They try to replace the definition of something that was exclusive to one sex to cater to the whims of men.

Ever since last year, most my friends that weren’t into that shit now identify as trans and I saw a dramatic shift in their personality. Most if not all of them were autistic women that did not conform of societal standards of what a ‘woman’ is. Some people may argue it’s because of how lightly a transgender identity is perceived. But on my end, I think it also has to do with the lack of representation of quirky female characters in media.

likely I would’ve fit into one of those micro labels or some shit like that but I was lucky enough to discover characters and things that I aligned with so I didn’t have to deal with shitty gender dysphoria (alongside with my very obvious mental issues and me being neurodivergent myself)

When I look at the older cookie run art (2016-2021), or even from eastern countries (eastern countries aren’t really politically correct) I could truly see the characters in the scene. There is passion behind it. The artists are either older or they know what they’re doing. And it doesn’t seem like an overload

when I see newer cookie run ‘fanart’ esp when there’s a lot of people within the western community, I don’t see a lot of what the characters truly are. All I see is their interpretation of what their character would look like if it was an unoriginal copy of a 14 year old gendie’s oc. Alongside with that, they add a thousand headcanons and sexualities, making the character unrecognizable. And if that wasn’t the cherry on top, they’re so obsessed with lgbtq and race stuff (no im not a bigot, don’t even try to fucking label me as one im a bisexual woc ) that’s all what they talk about besides stupid discourse topics. Oh, and also changing a dough color is ‘racist’ (they’re fucking COOKIES. Their dough color was based off of their ingredients and complimentary colors, even the devs had to explain and yet the western community still bitches about it like whiny 5 year olds. They come in all colors, not just fucking skintones.)

I think the characters and ships of the community would be much more likable for me if it wasn’t infiltrated by the discourse gang.

I think instead of giving drugs and cosmetic surgery to children, we should get deeper into the psychology of why there’s a lot of trans people on the rise. Don’t you think it’s weird that it has to be an ‘urgency’ to get surgery or children will kts? Maybe instead of thinking it as a life or death situation, think of how most of these people are mentally ill compared to the other lgbtq demographics.

I probably sound like a fucking dick here and im going to get a lot of hateful notes and messages, but honestly.. idgaf

Before you water this down to ‘trans people bad’ im just highlighting the problems of their community and its immense effect on teens my age (13-15 age range im not telling you) before dickriding the movement, I think *again* we should get deeper into the psychology of these people, thank you for reading.

maybe one or two people know who i am because of the image i will show below, who cares lol

i will block if I receive any threats :)))

[defining-skyology]

Defining Ancestors.

This was also going to be another complex topic to dissect, but fortunately, complication and technicalities are not supposed to be the point of these posts.

Unfortunately, that's still something I have a hard time understanding.

The point of these posts are to categorize specific themes into notable groupings, and give said grouping a Name. This course of action will create a Terminology, and one that we can continue to use for the foreseeable lifetime of this blog.

Ancestors.

I give myself so so much runaround with the term.

We are trying to answer quite a lot of questions surrounding these characters, such as:

Who are they?

What are they?

How are they?

When are they?

And why are they?

And though I could spend an entire article on each of those, the goal here is to condense it down into a single sentence broadly and tactfully answering only as much of them as deemed necessary.

So first let's talk about Who they are.

There has been more and more dispute over the concept of Beings during the kingdom's history, notably/generally over firstly the Elders, and then more recently with the presence of the Embers on the horizon. The Elders and Embers both have a decent amount of evidence or rationalizations behind them being special Beings; functionally a different 'species' from the Ancestors.

But I think that we, and by we I mean me, need to stop getting distracted by the fact that all of these Beings are 'different' from each other. What matters, is that they all lived in the same kingdom at one point, one way or another. All of their eyes, all of their hands, have worked and toiled and led this kingdom to the point where it had once mightily stood. This belonging to a community is important, and needs to be contrasted with one notable thing;

They are not creatures.

At this point in the kingdom's history (as well as within the mid-phase concept art of the game) there was a clear categorical divide between Ancestors and creatures of Light, and I think that we can retain this divide to be used for the blog today. If creatures are pure Beings and Ancestors are not, then it is because Ancestors are not properly Connected to the Light.

We will go into this in further detail on another vocab post, but if we note Creatures as the 'natural' life flowing throughout the world, then we can counter that with the idea that:

Ancestors are the 'unnatural' presence in the world, due to their separation from the Light.

We've got the first part of our Definition locked in with who and what they are, and the next question I want to ask is the last question I think we'll need, which I personally believe will be the most important:

When?

The term Ancestor should be a no brainer, and when we first hear the term in relation to a character it gives a pretty clear image in our mind almost immediately. Allow me to demonstrate the most perfect example that any kid who grew up on Disney movies will immediately understand:

[[[Scenes from Mulan, showing a man praying to his Ancestors to watch over and guide his family, and the Ancestors deciding how to help their descendant.]]]

Ancestor noun : "A person, typically one more remote than a grandparent, from whom one is descended."

It is still very up in the air whether ANY Beings physically/directly reproduce. They don't; I don't believe they do.

Due to this, we will assume for now that the term Ancestry in Sky refers not to a direct heritage of blood, but generational heritage. Even if Beings just materialize, fallen from the Sky, they are still found and raised by those who came before them, as we can see in Stargazer's memory. This heritage of raising the next Beings that appear is functionally "generational", and therefore once enough generations occur, at some point older generations can be considered a newer generation's ancestor.

But where do we draw the line? Where is the exact moment when our nearest/youngest Ancestors existed? Or more specifically, when?

Fortunately, the answer we need is pretty simple, even though it's about to help us all tie it together.

We know Ancestors possibly survived "the Event" at Eden, but we can't know if any were 'born' into the world after the apocalyptic fallout at the end of the war.

We don't know how soon the 'first' Descendants started appearing down in the world. While I'd argue the very first players at the beginning of Launch were the first Descendants, some theorists argue that this is not provable, and perhaps Descendants were canonically born even before the first players started playing.

The complications and the discourse is chaotic and uncoordinated as ever; what else is new? But I have an easy way to nip this in the bud and make a clear cut decision for everyone, that I believe TGC would clearly prefer us to have implied is the most direct "truth" to our "when".

Any Ancestors, Elders, or Embers that existed BEFORE the 'Explosion' occurred during the Eden Event, are definitively Ancestors.

And from here let's make it just that much simpler with that study we did earlier up there on what is Nature and what is not.

Unnatural Beings that existed before the 'Explosion' occurred during the Eden Event, are definitively Ancestors.

And there we have it! This is the Definition I think we can confidently leave this at for now. Of course it can get deeper then this, but I need to sleep, and the loyal one or two people who read this deserve a break. Thank you so much for reading, and have a good day/night, y'all!

I really hope I get on the next one (or two or three) soon and not get stuck again.

[henrikvanderhussy]

Clue Crew Zine Done Cheap

The current trend in fandom zines (fandoms in general, not Clue Crew in specific) are these very fancy, professionally-printed collections of fanfic and art. Typically it's competitive to be selected as a contributor, and expensive to purchase. I'm sure they satisfy a project management itch or an "owning a nice thing" desire, but they don't satisfy my personal feelings about fandom. I want to make something for the sake of making and sharing, and the joy of creating without the pressure to make it perfect. I want to touch it with my hands and feel like I'm connecting.

I was feeling a little sad that the zines I want aren't really a thing in fandom anymore. Then I remembered that I'm the bizarre Millennial Who Owns A Printer and also I accidentally just bought way, way too many stamps* 

So fuck it. Let's make a zine.

I'll print them at home and mail them out for free to anyone who wants one. If they're too large for a regular sized envelope, I'll still mail them out for free but also ask people to chip in a little money for postage if they can.

We need two things to make a Nancy Drew games zine: 1. People who want to make things for it, and 2. People who want it mailed to them.

1. Fill out this form if you want to make something for the zine. This is not a binding commitment, this is just a way for me to get in contact with you. I'll also poke people in a couple months to see if they're still interested in contributing. 

2. Fill out this form if you want to be notified when it's time for me to collect mailing addresses. To be clear, this isn't an 'interest check' or whatever. As long as one person wants it, I'm going to make it. I'll also put up another tumblr post when I'm ready for addresses, but if you fill out the form, you'll get a message and won't have to worry about watching for that post. 

"What can I make for the zine?" Honestly anything, as long as it centers around the Nancy Drew games and hasn't been posted publicly yet. Fanfic, meta, speculation about KEY, a puzzle, comparisons of Bess Marvin's character across different Nancy Drew media. Limit it to maybe…2500 words? I'm trying to keep this in a range that won't kill my printer.

Art doesn't really work, because again, home printer. BUT an option would be to put in a link or a QR code that goes to an art piece. And hell, if we're going to make this multimedia, it can be anything: a music composition, a podfic, a video acting out your favorite game scene with puppets. (I can help with image or audio hosting for anyone who needs it)

This is open to everyone to contribute, no restrictions or auditions. I'm setting a tentative submission deadline of February 29th (it's a leap year!), but that can be pushed back if needed.

I know it's uncomfortable to give your address to some stranger on the internet, especially since I'm newer to the Clue Crew! I've had my main blog (@theshmaylor) for ages though, and I have some mutuals there who I've met in person at various conventions who can vouch for me. I'll also make sure to collect addresses in a way that doesn't connect to your username or internet presence.

I really want to make this zine happen, so please share around Clue Crew tumblr, and let me know if you have any feedback or ideas!

*I thought I was buying 4 sheets of 6 stamps, but it turns out the sheet was folded and actually they're sets of 18 stamps, and sure I should have asked more questions about why it was so expensive but there was a big line behind me, so what was I supposed to do? Hold up the line at the post office? Of course not

[saturday-byte]

Hope this doesn’t bother you a lot, but can we get some headcanons of the teachers? I was curios about ur vision for them

Dw it doesn't bother me !! I love getting asks ^^

Anyway it's going under read more bc this feels like a long one

Sketch

• she/they enby, omnisexual (<- me when I'm projecting)

• mentor figure for the newer teachers

• gives drawings and crafts as gifts, might or might not have various voodoo dolls

• uses Colin as a monitor for digital art

Tony

• he/him, bisexual

• you CANNOT tell me he doesn't drink tea 24/7. Most British mf I have ever seen

• weird hearing, very sensitive to loud sounds but can barely hear normal talking tones. Applies to his own voice too so that's why he screams a lot

• kind of an inferiority complex for the decaying use of clocks over technology lol

Shrignold

• gay and homophobic idgaf

• aware of the harm he's doing but genuinely loves his cult- "family" a lot

• likes telenovelas, granny type of beat

Colin

• he/it Libramasc, pansexual (here I am, projecting once again)

• has haphephobia but is working on it (this one might as well be canon idk)

• everyone has a computer day, so even if you see him every day you only get screentime once a year

• autism 🫵

• his tail is retractable

• has SO MANY viruses, that's why he glitches and talks slow

Healthy band

• doing them all together bc how can you think of them alone :[ don't separate them

• common fanon of them being a family ykn the drill

• their "birthday" (or date of release lol) is actually fridge and steaks anniversary

• depending on the day they either make the most rancid bizarre food or a 5 stars, Gordon Ramsay approved meal

• running on the same luck, fridge can either be filled with normal groceries, nothing (you have to buy groceries) or gore. Like those are his guts leave him alone

• everyone hiding inside fridge is apparently a normal bonding experience

• bread boy is transfem !! (Should we start calling her something different?)

• spinach is also a she/they enby, nobody in here isn't lgbtq

Lamp

• he/him but doesn't really care, pansexual

• has been trying to be sober but he's already very fucked up, that's why he's like That™ in the TV show

• the other teachers we see in his episode are his party friends

• absolutely watches the others dreams, likes to bother them about what they mean

★ ok now the TV show ones

Briefcase

• has an absurd amount of skills, barbie kind of ridiculous

• lives with his brother and sustains them both

• workaholic

• was mr.petersons before red guy

• actually not that bad he's just really fast paced, genuinely just lost the trio on the fabric

Coffin

• he/him goth gf <3

• doesn't like music AT ALL. And is very mean about it

• besties with the tissue box !!

• originally only used his hush tone for work but it slowly morphed into his normal voice

• pretty bad PTSD

• very kind with kids and people in general tbh, it might be something useful for his job but it's just how he is really

Lily and Todney

• I don't think about them a lot sorry

• they know what they are doing and that their whole family dynamic is pretty fucked but they genuinely just really want a mom tho ,,,

Warren the wo-Eagle

• genuinely just hate him so I don't think about him a lot either lol

• had no power over the trio because he was fired and not technically a teacher anymore

• his whole Thing (ykn) comes from bullying and a feeling of inferiority. He still sucks tho

Mr.Transport

• well. I guess I just don't think a lot about the newer teachers

• was actually a really nice teacher before still going to work at 120 years old

• nobody really liked him but he was the other's only way of going outside the house so they endured him

• there was a fight over his will. People died

Electracey

• she/they enby n°3, lesbian

• really scared to touch her batteries now, has caused her to get cranky but still refuse to change them until forced

• puts up light shows for her friends

• huge sci-fi and videogames in general fan

• Colin's cousin. Actually all electronics are related

• wanted to be a music teacher but her biology said no

★ this is more of a general one but all of them are somewhere in the aroace spectrum !! I think it comes with the object nature. I have not defined where all of them fall tho

That's it I think. This is so long I am so sorry I just enjoy them a lot so I have a lot of thoughts

[genericpuff]

What is your advice on handling criticism?

I saw your response to a critic on Lore Rekindled in the sub and it's very good and you could say, professional.

I have a big problem of people-pleasing, so if I get critcism (eventhough it's very polite), I get very sad at the fact there's fault with my work (I also suffer from perfectionism). It will drastically change how I see my work, and in the end I give it up 😭

fam i got teased tf out of for making it so wordy LOL

I totally get that struggle though, I know it probably doesn't seem it at times, but I do have the 'ole RSD (Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria) due to being ADHD/autistic, so I totally relate to the whole people pleasing thing. It's hard to feel like something you made isn't making everyone happy! But that's also ultimately not what it's for. You can't make everyone happy, and your art doesn't deserve to exist any less just because some people don't find it their cup of tea.

I've definitely had to like, disconnect my work from myself over the years to get better at taking criticism. Not to the point that I get apathetic, obviously I should be invested in whatever I'm working on, but enough that when people criticize my work, it's not necessarily an attack on my own self.

And if they are clearly just out to attack me, then I dismiss the criticism, it's of no value to me.

Unless it's something that's specifically a result of my own values or biases bleeding into the work, most of the time it's people literally just saying, "I like this work, but I feel like it wasn't as strong as it could have been here and here" and that has nothing to do with me as a person, I'm just still polishing my skills and those outside opinions help to target specifically what needs improving. I think we as artists pour a lot of ourselves into our work, especially when we're just starting out, so it can be hard not to take criticism as an attack or rejection of yourself, but we have to ultimately remember that we are not 100% of our work. Even with works like LO, while some of the criticism I give of it is indicative of Rachel's values and personal preferences as a person, a lot of it is also just about the work itself and how far it's fallen beyond what I assume Rachel intended from the beginning.

I've also learned to separate helpful from unhelpful criticism. I'll use Time Gate as an example because I've gotten way more input on that series than Rekindled (just because I've actually like, intentionally sought out criticism for it). A common criticism in the past was that there weren't enough backgrounds and the story's pacing wasn't concise. It sucked to hear at the time, especially the backgrounds one, because I'd heard that one time and time again... but it was literally because I wasn't doing anything to improve them. You know what stopped those criticisms? Drawing backgrounds more LOL And I still suck at backgrounds tbh but I feel like I've definitely improved compared to the first few volumes when I was just drawing characters on top of white constantly LOL

old and busted:

new hotness:

(i think there's like a 4-5 year difference between these two pages. and the backgrounds STILL aren't perfect in those newer volumes but they still feel more finished than the older panels did)

So that was helpful criticism! My art wasn't as strong as it could be in a few specific places that people were clearly able to pinpoint, so I did what I could to improve those places and I'm still working on it.

Unhelpful criticism has just been either personal attacks (not valuable) or statements that are basically asking the comic to not be what it is, criticizing things that are features, not bugs. Things like "well I think the story is too anime-like", "it's a lot to try and read", "why don't you draw eyelashes on the girl character", etc. which are criticisms of things that I know are intentional. The story's anime-like because that's the story I want to write. It's a lot to try and read because it's intended to be a longform series for people who like reading longform series (people like me!). I don't draw eyelashes on Uzuki because she would look terrible with them LMAO (we even made a joke about that later on):

(the hilarious part is that that comment was definitely made with the idea that all women should have that makeup look, meanwhile mitsuhiro's pulling off the look so much better and he knows it LMAO

And actually, the example you're referring to where I responded to crit in the ULO subreddit, is also an example of unhelpful criticism, though the person who posted it definitely didn't mean any harm by it, but the crit was literally "why aren't Persephone's boobs big enough" which I thought was pretty funny. She still has boobs! I just don't draw them popping out of her top like Rachel does LOL I also don't give her the exaggerated pinched waist or broken spine that Rachel often gives her because that's all just to, again, emphasize her boobs, and it's often unnecessary, especially in a comic that's being marketed as a feminist piece of work, yet is often drawn completely through the male gaze. So yeah, that was definitely crit that wasn't really beneficial because it was literally just about Persephone's cup size lol

I know it's easier said than done, but when you feel that sadness coming on in response to criticism, remember that that criticism exists to help you, not hinder you. Considering you've been getting polite criticism, that means the people giving it likely have your best interests in mind and want to see your work improve. The only way to do that is to learn how to critically analyze your own work, and the only way to do that is to surround yourself with works whose quality you want to achieve, and get outside opinions. And if that criticism isn't in good spirit, then toss it aside. If it's not going to help you, then it's not of any value to you. And yes, it will take practice, there are still times I find myself getting overwhelmed, but ultimately I can't control what anyone else says or does, only what I do. So I funnel that into my work and I always keep moving forward.

Be at peace with the process of learning and improving, because you never stop having to learn, there's always something new to improve, and that shouldn't be taken all doom and gloom "I'll never be perfect", that's literally just the process and beauty of being an artist, there's always something new to learn and that's something that should be exciting!

Think about whenever you give criticism or have personal critiques of other comics. I'm willing to bet most of the time, you have those opinions with good intentions, you're not trying to attack anyone. So why not give yourself the same grace?

...holy shit, I forgot Uzuki's lipstick in the bottom right panel- （；´д｀）ゞ

[quillpokebiology]

Hi! do you know any interesting facts about Lurantis?

I do! I really like them, and while it's not a lurantis, my friend has a fomantis named Snapdragon who I absolutely love.

Lurantis Facts

-The scientific name for Lurantis is "Montoludia sicula" which translates to "Sickle soothsayer-actress"

-When lurantis were first discovered, there was a lot of controversy on why they should be classified as a bug type. But further research shows that it isn’t bugs pretending to be plants; it’s plants pretending to be bugs

-Scientists theorize that the reason lurantis became predators was because they weren’t getting enough sunlight at some point in history

-As ambush predators, lurantis are able to sit in an area for days without the need of sunlight or food; waiting for their next prey

-The Alolan saying, “A plant in bug’s silk,” which refers to someone who is pretending to be nice only to betray you, came from lurantis

-Male lurantis are slightly smaller than female luranits

-Newer studies show that ancient lurantis were shown to be grass/poison types. There is still a large debate among that between researchers, though

-Because of the the protectors on its eyes, everything it sees has a red tint

(Art by Kantarou on Zerochan.net)

-A common misconception is that the lurantis line is related to the leavanny line. This isn't true at all. Its similarities to leavanny is just convergant evolution

-Lurantis have a "flower mode," which is a state they go into when sleeping or going into camaflouge

(From concept art)

-Female lurantis are more aggressive than male lurantis. It's also one of the few species where the female will fight and compete for males

-They developed the "goggles" on their eyes to protect them from pollen and dust

-They care a lot about their appearance and will spend a lot of time editing it and preening themselves

-Lurantis are good pest controls for unwanted bug types

-Lurantis in Alola tend to be more colorful than the lurantis in any other region because of the amount of sun (the ones in Galar tend to be the dullest)

Care Tips

(For the Anon that asked but I couldn't awnser)

Lurantis can be a big change from fomantis. They become bigger, require more work, and are more aggressive. But once you get the hang of it and get used to daily routines, it won't be difficult at all!

Lurantis require a lot of sunlight and become wilted and irritable if they don't get enough. Giving them a lot of time outside where they have open sunlight is highly recommended. A good space for them would be an open field with a small pond or fountain to play in and bathe themselves.

If your lurantis is female, it can be harder to train them since they're more stubborn and aggressive. Trying to bond with them in activities they like or trying to understand why they won't listen (like why they use Solar beam instead of sword dance as an example). They're smart, and will find a way to communicate these issues with you.

They enjoy more aggressive playtime. Toys like the feather toys in Galar or tug of war would be games and toys they really enjoy.

A thing to look out for would be their sharp toe tips and the sharp tips at the end of their leaves. They can be as dangerous as knives, and you can get hurt if you touch them. Plus, they can scratch your walls and furniture

[the-meat-machine]

Im confused about Cherub anatomy

I thought it was kind of odd that they have gender? Like you could assume that they just choose one because they're trying to project an identity on the same body which sorta gives an indication that the body lacks male or female traits for this reasoning to make sense. BUT, if we look at Caliborns/Calliopes mother and father theres some clear sexual dimorphism. It makes me wonder how their bodies even get that way? I ended up theorizing that they may metamorphosize to achieve these differences. My theory 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 hold some weight, ex: in Caliborns Masterpiece we can hear that his voice is deep and snarly. Now, we haven't heard Calliopes voice to make a fair comparison after all, she could also possibly sound just like that. So maybe this isn't the strongest example but when Cherubs sleep and when the other personality takes over, the body does change. From the eyecolor, tongue color, cheek color, and blood color, as for body figure it's unclear if that changes when waking up. If we want to count how Caliborn and Calliope are drawn in Act 7, in the opening you can see Calliope has a curved figure and breasts while Caliborn has a wider shoulders, and a flat chest . But then again, Calliope is drawn differently multiple times throughout the act 7 flash so maybe not much weight either. The strongest basis i have for this is probably just how their mom and dad look. In conclusion: either their body fully transitions into the other gender when one of the personalities wakes up then swaps into the other gender when sleeping for the other personality to take over the body with their traits included OR the body has both male and female traits at all times and are stuck there until the one the personalities wins the body and the loser personality bodily traits disappear from the body so the winners traits take over. But this could also not hold weight since Caliborn apparently didn't know what boobs were when talking with Jane. But yet again Calliopes drawings featured boobs so idk. Feel free too tell me everything i got wrong not even i know what the fuck im talking about I've been listening to karkalicious for like 6 hours today (newer version)

So I came into this ask fully intending for my answer to be "cherub sexes make no sense, just throw them out". But then as I was writing out why they make no sense, I accidentally came up with an explanation that makes them (sort of) make sense. Whoops. I'm going to post that as its own separate thing, 'cause it got long, and I probably should edit it to include a clearer explanation of isogamy, ha ha… ha.

But anyway, that aside, some of the details you brought up still don't really make sense - especially alt!Calliope's appearance in Act 7. Because the thing is, alt!Calliope shouldn't look like an adult cherub at all. Even if she predominated "correctly", she still died young, before she could fully mature. If she was truly fully grown, she would have wings, but she doesn't. And during the conversation where she and alpha Calliope meet, the two of them appear to have the same height and build.

The simplest explanation for her Act 7 appearance is that it's just art weirdness. But if we wanted to come up with an in-universe explanation, two possible ones come to mind:

She's a ghost. Ghosts are shown to be able to change their appearances, either consciously or subconsciously. So she's given herself a more adult body that matches her adult mind.

She lived long enough after predomination for her body to partially, but not completely, mature. Thus, she has a somewhat adult-like body, but doesn't have wings and doesn't look as large as the adult female cherub we see depicted elsewhere (because even the females are pretty darn ripped). In this case, it's during the conversation with alpha Calliope that she's altering her appearance, perhaps choosing to make herself look younger to put Calliope and/or Jade at ease.

As for Caliborn seeming to have broader shoulders in Act 7 than Calliope does, we could say that maybe it's just that Caliborn has more muscle mass there by virtue of being more physically active.

I do like to imagine (when I accept that cherubs have biological "sexes" at all) that young cherubs have undifferentiated bodies, and they only develop into "male" or "female" forms after predomination. This fits in with what Aranea says about how the only way to tell the two young cherubs apart is by the color of their cheeks (though as you note, there are a few other differences too).

But that's still kind of complicated, because what makes one of the personalities definitively "male" and the other definitively "female" when their bodies are identical? My best theory is that there's some sort of hormone or something in their blood that differs between juvenile males and females, since the blood seems to be the main thing that physically changes when they swap bodies.

As for Caliborn not understanding what boobs are while Calliope does... that's probably just because Calliope actually pays attention to humans, whereas Caliborn is willfully ignorant about them.

(p.s. I didn't notice until this ask that alt!Calliope appears to have boobs in Act 7. I always assumed cherubs didn't have them, since during Aranea's explanation, the art is ambiguous enough that you could interpret the female as being flat-chested. But no: act 7 says cherub boobs. Argh. Why. I am rejecting this from my personal headcanon and assuming that it was just some weird folds in alt!Calliope's robes that made her look like she had boobs.)

[pokemon-dungeon-masters]

Charsheet Sunday...6!

Show off any of your characters below!

Question of the day:

In this week's newletter: a sneak peek at the Character Customization update! Featuring official learnset and Universal Movepool integration!

The Universal Movepool is a curated selection of moves designed to ensure that all pokemon have options for decent attacks of their typing. Rejoice, Magikarp fans!

You gain a new move of one of your types at level 1, as well as each 10th level. More powerful options become available as you level up, to their maximum at level 50 - by then you should have all the options you need.

Physical, special, and even status moves are available in the Universal Movepool - though discerning viewers will note that many of these moves had to be created for this system, as most types simply lack options for one or both attack types.

It's a simple system, but definitely helps give some love to pokemon that Game Freak seemingly... underappreciated.

The Character Sheet's also sporting a new look. The customization and the character page have been separated, allowing for greater granularity and actual guidance for customization while keeping all the compactness of the previous character sheet.

Here's Mawilyn, one of the many (many) blorbos that are bouncing around in my head. Borne to rich parents, she resisted any sort of training in manners and culture, and quickly was shipped off to the guild to teach her a lesson or two. The lessons she ended up learning were mostly about how to bite people.

Mechanically, getting STAB options enhances her gameplay greatly, letting her actually have offensive presence in addition to the defensive merits of steel/fairy typing and natural access to Stockpile+Swallow for durability and healing. Sure, she could do that without fancy new moves, but when your best offensive option is Bite enemies might as well just walk right past you. This way, she can be both a defensive and offensive threat, punishing enemies that try to stay out of reach with Bullet Punch, and laying waste to anyone foolish enough to get close with Fairy Fang.

As an aside, I love the old Dream World art, and it's pretty easy to give them small adjustments in paint.net - a lot easier than modifying the TCG art, at any rate! Too bad the newer generations usually don't have such clean art.

[pugsofwriting]

Demon HRT

Been reading some of the art people are posting about animal HRT and it inspired this, particularly from @ayviedoesthings @welldrawnfish @kaylasartwork and @nyxisart. Apologies if that @'s you or something, we don't use Tumblr a ton.

This is completely unedited cause if I don't post it now, I don't think I ever will. We wrote the first part with one headmate fronting, the middle part with a second headmate, and the final part with a third headmate.

I quite like how it turned out though. Hope people enjoy it.

The door to the exam rooms opened and a nurse stepped out, checking her clipboard.

“Berith?” she called.

Berith’s pulse picks up and she gets that anxious feeling in her chest, like someone’s squeezing her heart. She stands up and offers what she hopes is a friendly smile to the nurse.

“Hi there, how’s everything going today?” The nurse asks.

“Oh not bad. Just excited for this appointment.” She grins again at her best facsimile of excitement.

“Wonderful! Let’s get your vitals before you head on back.”

Berith sits down in the plastic chair that the nurse (Martha) gestures to, and shifts a few times trying to find a comfortable spot to sit.

Martha shakes her head while she works. “I keep telling them to get better chairs back here but no one listens,” she says half to herself.

Berith rolls back the sleeves of her jean shirt and presents an arm to Martha, who velcros the blood pressure cuff on and clips a pulse reader on her finger. She pushes a button on her machine and the cuff tightens.

Berith tries not to move as the pressure increases. She’s never liked blood pressure cuffs. They squeeze too tightly.

The cuff deflates and Martha checks Berith’s vitals with a small frown.

“Heart rate’s a little high. Any health conditions or medications we should know about?” Martha asks.

“No, I’m just a little nervous,” says Berith with a nervous laugh.

“I see,” says Martha.

She gestures for Berith to get up and points down the long hallway.

“Exam room 8. Walk down this hallway and take a left. Should be the first door on the right.”

She gives Berith a wink before heading towards the entrance to call in the next patient.

Berith pauses for a moment and looks down the hallway before walking steadily down and to the left. She finds exam room 8, coldly lit, windowless, and beige. She sits down on the bed, crinkling the paper lining and waits, kicking her feet over the edge and drumming her fingers against the crisp, white paper.

She looks around the room, though there’s not much to look at. The usual medical posters, vein, muscle, and skeletal anatomy, infographics on flu prevention, diagrams of respiratory systems and inner ears and sinuses. And one newer looking poster on the door, an advertisement for Theriozine.

Berith stares at the poster and swallows nervously.

After waiting a life-age of the earth (10 minutes), there’s a small knock on the door and the handle turns. The door creaks open, revealing a young woman in a lab coat.

“Berith?” she asks.

“That’s me!” says Berith with another excited smile. Or at least she hopes that’s how it looks.

“Nice name,” says the doctor.

“Thanks, I chose it myself.”

The doctor looks Berith up and down quickly. “Right. I’m Dr. Farren.” She reaches out a hand that Berith shakes.

“So what brings you in today?”

“Well, I’d um. I’d like to start HRT,” Berith says.

“Yes, well…” Dr. Farren flips through your char quickly. “It seems you’re already on HRT.”

“No, I want to start that.” Berith points to the poster on the wall and Dr. Farren turns her head to look. She spends a few longs seconds looking before releasing a sigh.

“Right. Theriozine.” She takes off her glasses, pulls a cloth out of her pocket, and begins idly cleaning them.

“To be honest, you’re the first person who’s ever asked. I’ve never had managed Theriozine for a patient before, though I’m aware of the basics. I’ll be sure to read up on it tonight.”

 “So, what do you want to be.” She puts the cloth away and moves checks the glasses against the light before putting them back on.

Berith takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. “A demon.”

Dr. Farren stops with her glasses midway on her nose and lowers them to look at Berith.

“A demon? A demon with horns? Like, a biblical demon?”

“Yes.”

Dr. Farren pushes her glasses up her nose and turns to look at the poster again, lost in thought.

“…Dr. Farren?” Berith asks.

Dr. Farren starts and turns around, regarding Berith again with renewed interest.

“Sorry, I was considering the medication. I believe there’s a variant that will achieve the desired effect, but this is beyond my understanding. I don’t feel comfortable prescribing something about which I know little. I’m sorry,” she says, stretching out a hand.

Berith deflates. She takes the hand in front of her, which squeezes a little encouragement back in.

“I understand,” Berith says, “However, I know quite a bit about the demonic variant of Theriozine. I can tell you my ideal dose. I can tell you my target hormone levels. I can tell you the effects from 1 week to 3 years. I know exactly what I want and this is what I need to do it. Please, please prescribe the medication. You can research it all you want after and you’ll see that I’m right. Please, I just need to start.”

Berith notices a tear run down her cheek and takes her hand back from Dr. Farren to wipe it away. She sniffles.

“I’m sorry, I just. I’ve been looking forward to this appointment for almost a year. It’s really hard to find a clinic that’s taking new patients right now and I don’t want to wait another year just to start HRT. Please just trust me on this.”

Dr. Farren regards Berith again and taps a pen against the clipboard. She purses her lips and scrunches her brows.

“Okay. But-“

Berith jumps up to her feet and hugs the doctor abruptly . “Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!”

“But!” Dr Farren says, louder this time. She detaches Berith from around her.

“But, I will see you back here in two weeks for a check up. In that time, I’ll be researching Theriozine for demons and if you’re wrong about dosing, I will adjust your dose as needed.”

Berith nods with pure excitement. “I can do that, I’ll make the time”

“And,” Dr Farren continues, “I would like you to begin a journal to track your transition. Take special note of new cravings or moods, of new sensations, and of any possible complications.”

Dr Farren puts a hand on Berith’s shoulder and gently pushes her to a seating position on the bed. She looks seriously at Berith.

“I’m putting a lot of trust in you here. And with that said, I want you to put some trust in me. That being said, please report any concerning symptoms to me immediately. It seems like you’ve wanted to start HRT for a long time, and I’m sure you don’t want anything to get in the way of your goals. So trust me, and let me know if you experience anything distressing. I promise you I will do my utmost to keep you on HRT. So please, trust me. Deal?”

Dr Farren sticks out her hand to Berith. Berith stares at it for a second, then reaches out and shakes it.

“Deal.”

Berith’s Demon Diary – Day 1

Holy shit I fucking did it. I thought for sure she wouldn’t give me the pills but she did! Dr. Farren seems like a nice lady. Doc, if you’re reading this, thanks.

Anyway, I knew from pictures online, but demonic Theriozine looks downright… demonic. A picture can’t really do service to the glistening obsidian black of the pills. It feels like they should be oozing or something. They’re not, they’re pretty dry just… maybe a little creepy.

BLEGH holy fuck that tastes like shit. If hell has a flavor, I bet it’s this, Jesus. Or should I say Lucifer? Eh, who cares. This shit tastes nasty but hey, as long as it does the job right?

To Berith of the future, it all starts day. I’m sure we’ll remember this day forever.

Day 5

Ugh, I thought the hot flashes on E were bad but this? This is a whole ‘nother level. I feel like I’m burning up. Maybe I am! I’m turning in a demon after all. Demoness? Demon? Hmm, I like both. We’ll workshop that.

Anyway, aside from that, I’ve been feeling kind itchy too. I did email Dr Farren about the new symptoms and she asked me to take my temperature. Currently, I’m hovering around 101F, which is pretty typical from what I’ve read of demon HRT. Dr Farren sounded concerned, but I told her that I trust her, so please trust me. That seems to have settled her down. I’m sure this is going to kickstart her research if it hasn’t already.

I’ll be back whenever the next major development happens. This is Berith signing off.

P.S. to future Berith. You’re gay.

Day 14

Fucking hell, I’m itchy, I’m hot, and I’m kinda pissed off. I feel like I’m back on the island in the middle of August. Sweat dripping down my back, I’m panting like a dog (kinda hot though tbh. Not like that I mean like hot hot. Like, sexy hot. Fuck ignore me), and I’m using every fucking OUNCE of willpower not to scratch.

All the forums say not to scratch during this period or you’ll make it worse, but fuck is that hard. My… everything itches. Between the itchiness. I can barely sleep for all the sweat. I smell like shit and I have to wash my sheets nightly and air out my mattress cause it gets too wet. And that’s if I even sleep at all.

I’m finding it more difficult to sleep these days. I assume it’s from all the sweating, I’ve never had luck sleeping when I’m too hot.

Went in for my checkup today. Dr. Farrne seems more confident in her knowledge of demonic Theriozine. Seems she’s been doing her research after all.

Day 24

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck hurts so much. can barely write. pretty sure horns are coming in. no one told me would hurt so fucking much. worst migraine of my life. fuck I wanna die fuck me

emailed dr farren two words: pain, horns. can’t look at screen for too long, makes things worse.

supposed to work today,  texted Kevin I’m sick

hope it’s over soon

Day 25

Pain

Day 26

Pain

Day 27

Pain

Day 28

Pain

Day 29

Less pain

Day 30

Pain      

Day 31

Less pain, maybe better soon

Day 32

It’s Wednesday apparently. Today’s the first day I’m, idk, lucid? I have no memory of the past… 8 days? Jesus fucking christ it’s been 8 days.

Fuck, Kevin has been blowing up my phone all week. I turned it off because I couldn’t stand the fucking noise.

Shit, Dr. Farren has been calling too. She’s concerned about horn development. Apparently the last thing I sent her was “pain, horns.”

Oh fuck, Horns!!!!!!

Okay they’re just nubs, but they’re there! Yes!!!!!!! Fuck I’m excited, this is a huge fucking milestone, I guess. I should email Dr Farren with an update and I guess let her know I’m alive or something.

Still itchy and sweaty as shit, but at least the pain is done. Fuck I smell like shit, I need a shower.

P.S. I looked in the mirror after the shower and my fucking pupils are changing! It was kind of jarring looking into my own eyes and seeing them being to elongate. I swear I see flecks of black starting to invade my sclera, but it might just be my imagination. Horn nubs are kind awkward for now. Goddammit, what about I gonna do about hats!?!?!?!

That’s a problem for future Berith. Future Berith, take it from here.

Day 49 (should I just use months now? Maybe weeks? I’ll figure it out)

Well, my tail is coming in. And fucking hell (hehe) does it hurt. Not nearly as bad as the horns though. The horns felt like someone was drilling a hole in my skull. Which I guess might not be that far from the truth, huh. Still fucking hurts though, I can’t sit down and I can only sleep on my stomach, which is pretty fucking shitty.

Still sweating a bunch and I’ve gotten used to the itchiness to an extent. I can see a few scales pop up around my hands, and my sclera are definitely turning black now. I’m in a weird kinda half-way point between white and black eyes and it’s offputting to be honest.

Uhh, not much else going on. Body temperature still seems to be getting hotter, which is cool. Well, it’s hot. Like hot hot. Fuck, I need to stop doing this.

Month 6

It’s been a while since last update, I know. Life just got… busy. Work started picking up and next thing I knew, I was 6 months on HRT and hadn’t even had the time or the spoons to make a journal entry in 4 months.

Right, the update. So the horns are coming in nicely. They’re around 4-5 inches tall at the moment and don’t seem to be curling, which is good. The sweating has abated, that’s for sure. That being said, I’m really fucking hot. Like, hot hot. Temperature hot. I tried to take my temperature today and the thermometer broke. I bought one of those nice temperature probes for meat and stuff and used that instead. Apparently, I’m hovering around 132F. That’s just… fuck.

As for the scales, they’re starting to spread finally. Still itchy as all hell (get it? Cause I’m a demon now. Future Berith, I will continue making this joke. I’m not sorry). Seems the scales are mostly around my appendages and a little around my face. My hands are fairly well-scaled.

Oh, my hands! My fignernails are sharping and my the scales are turning my hands the same oozing black as the pills, which is kinda weird but alright.

Tail is starting to come in nicely too, though it still hurts. I think it has a few more weeks of growth left based on the current length, we’ll see.

I’ve been keeping in touch with Dr. Farren and she seems fine with the progress. Just had the second follow up and things are going well. My hormone levels “look perfect” according to the good doctor. They’re right about where I expected them to be so take THAT American medical system. I know what the fuck I’m talking about.

Oh right, my feet. They’ve grown, interestingly enough, and none of my shoes fit me. In fact, I don’t shoes would fit me at all. The bottoms are pretty scaly and hard, so I’m not worried about getting a cut or something. But they’re kinda slippery. Makes walking on certain surfaces difficult, so I’ve taken to wearing the fucking psych ward grippy socks when I can. They don’t exactly last long, but it’s all I’ve got for now.

Most notably tho, my feat have… changed. I believe I am now what they call “digitigrade.” My ankle has kinda moved upwards, kind of like some of the canids that are on Theriozine. I haven’t found anyone reference this before, so I’m not really sure what to make of it.

I’ve been researching and I found someone who makes special shoes for those taking Theriozine, so I think I’ll reach out once the shape and size has stabilized.

That’s it for month 6. Good progress so far, can’t wait to see what’s ahead.

This is Berith of the past, signing off.

Month 7

Tail is still growing, not sure when it’s gonna stop anymore. It’s a LOT longer than I read it would be. Might have something to do with genetics… however those play into my demonification.

Month 8

I think my tail finally stopped growing? It hasn’t gotten any longer in a couple weeks so here’s hoping. I’m already finding myself wrapping it around my torso just to keep it out of the way, especially on the train.

Ah, right. The public. The people. I get a good number of strange looks from the general populace, but I’m starting to see more and more otherkin walking around, living their lives. It makes me feel… at home, somehow. It’s like when I would see other queer people when I was human. There’s an intangible sense of belonging. A sense that, even if they don’t know everything I’ve been through, they know enough.

That being said, I do still get the occasional protesting throwing holy water in my face. Lots of the more evangelical Christians are very unhappy with Theriozine and protests have been going on for a good while. I pass by one on the way to work and sometimes I go “RAH” just to spook them a little bit. One of them actually fainted, which I do feel a bit bad about… well, not that bad.

My arms appendages are fully scaled now, and my feet I think are almost done growing. The black scale extends up to my mid-forearm and slowly fades to scale the color of my original flesh. The only areas without scales are my stomach and mid-back. I expect those will grow in pretty soon and I can finally be done with this damnable (get it?) itching.

My temperature seems to have settled around 140F, which is extremely hot. Despite my scales, I still appear to be warm-blooded? No idea how that works, I’m not a fucking doctor.

Oh right, Dr Farren. Sent her an update a few days ago and she thinks things are going every well. No need for further checkups until my next scheduled one at the one year mark. Soon enough, it will have been a whole fucking year. I have no regrets. This is perhaps one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

See you next time, future Berith.

Month 10

Scales are all in! Feet finally stopped growing! Sclera are fully black and my irises have become a deeper shade of green for whatever reason. My pupils are now slits and the black scales encroach out of my hairline just a bit, for that demonic look. Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Theriozine.

Okay that one was pretty funny right? Right? Yeesh, tough crowd.

I did finally talk to that cobbler that makes the custom shoes. Maple is it’s name. It and I had a nice conversation and I sent it a plethora of feet pics (for free, I know), as well as some measurements. Lots of measurements. I had Juniper take them for me, cause it’s kind hard to get the right angle.

The shoes will run me quite a bit, but it’s definitely worth it. I’m starting with a softer, but gripper rubber sole and I may order another pair in Danite for more durability. That’ll come later though.

Oh the design of the shoes is fascinating. They’re like… shorter shoes. My feet…. I kinda wanna call them paws…. Fuck it, yeah. My paws go into the leather upper and rest on the soles. My paws are covered against the elements, and I use straps to fasten them to my ankles. They look incredibly comfortable and I can’t wait to get my hands on them.

All in all, things are going pretty great.

Year 1

ONE FUCKING YEAR LETS GOOOOOOOOO.

God, I can’t believe it’s been a full year. I still shudder when I think about my horns coming in…

Speaking of which, I believe they’re nearing the end of development. My guess is that I need another year to completely finish, but they’re approaching their suspected height and look rather intimidating. They are the same glistening obsidian as my darkest scales and they just… feel right.

Everything feels right. It’s like when I started seeing breast growth and fat redistribution with E, but infinitely amplified. I feel at home in my body, truly at home.

I did see Dr Farren yesterday and showed her the development of my paws. She didn’t seem concerned and she mentioned something I’d seen maybe twice in my research: Theriozine, it seems, responds in some way to desire. I’d always assumed that each dose was tailored to the otherkin receiving it, but it seems that’s not the case.

It’s true that there are different varieties of Theriozine to achieve different effects, but things like horn shape and length, scale color, and even the effects I saw with my paws are variable to the user.

It makes sense in hindsight, but I have no fucking idea how they do that. Who fucking cares tbh, it’s giving me and so many others the chance to become who they truly are.

I’ll probably check in again in a while. My changes have mostly stabilized and the rest of what I’ll see will be relatively small and less noticeable in the short-term.

To future Berith. Look how far we’ve come, and look how far we can go.

Year 2

I was thinking I might do an update around 1.5 years but things turned out like this.

My horns are fully developed. They seemed to stop a few months back and now I’m certain that they’re done.

In fact, everything seems to be done. I’m still seeing small changes in my scales (I think the scales themselves are growing larger?) as well as some shifts in coloring, but all the major stuff is out of the way.

Oh, my teeth are kinda pointy now. It took me until I stabbed myself in the lip to actually notice them.

The biggest change that I see (quite literally) is in my vision. I see things differently. I think, my vision has expanded beyond what is typically visible light, and I believe I’ve dropped down into infrared light as well. I can tell the temperature of things by how they look now. It’s odd, and makes everything look kinda of red-tinted. Fitting for a demon, don’t you think.

I think my hearing might’ve also gotten sharper, but that’s about it. Nothing as drastic for my other sense as seeing infrared.

I saw Dr. Farren recently and per her studies, the change in vision is a bit of a milestone. She expects I’ll need to continue HRT for another year or so before I can stop it.

I’m looking forward to the next year.

Year 3

Just like Dr. Farren said, I am officially off of Theriozine! My demonic traits are now stable enough that my body will just maintain them like normal. Because they are normal. Holy shit, they’re normal. This my normal body. This is who I am now, what I am. Fuck, I think I might cry. This is… everything I’ve ever wanted. Everything.

I think this is where the journal ends. My body may continue shifting with time, but not so much as in the first 3 years.

Thank you Dr. Farren for trusting me all those years ago. I believe she’s become one of the more well-known endocrinologists who specializes in otherkin HRT and she seems to enjoy it.

I know no one will likely ever read this journal, but for all my demons out there, for all my otherkin and alterhumans and nonhumans: Take the step. Start Theriozine. I promise you, you will not regret. Just trust yourself to do what’s right for you.

This is past Berith, signing off for the last time.