#active vs passive attraction

[shamanflavio]

Creation, Manifestation and the Essentials

To achieve optimal manifestation, it’s crucial to understand and harness the power of two interacting forces: the active and the passive. This concept, akin to the dynamic between a husband and wife leading to the birth of a baby, is fundamental in bringing any desire from the realm of thought into physical reality. Manifestation relies on the synergy of these forces—where the passive element…

[helslastangel]

Can we please get a Aries Juno one please

😘🔥 ofc!

ARIES JUNO OBSERVATIONS

People with Aries Juno value their alone time, and while this might seem to contradict the whole concept of a relationship, it also doesn't-at least not for them.

Aries Juno people just want a partner who understands that taking "me time" doesn't mean "I don't love you anymore."

They value relationships where each person remains an individual and very much enjoy the idea of being with someone who has a full thriving social life of their own.

Having separate projects and activities are important to an Aries Juno because they do not usually like relationships where they and their partner are under each other's armpits or in each other's hair 24/7

Aries Juno people might enjoy a bit of mental sparring with a partner, so they tend to be attracted to vocal people or people who are energetically on the dominant side.

An overly passive partner or clingy partner is probably not going to be the best match for these people, unless other placements in their charts overpowered this one.

For an Aries Juno person, the idea of living separate lives together, walking the path of life side by side, wandering off at times but ultimately walking together again, is probably most appealing.

As parents, Aries Juno people could struggle with the united front concept, especially if they have different belief systems or ideals from their partner.

Aries Juno people enjoy taking the lead. Which may or may not backfire, depending on who they are with and whether their moon or other planet needs strongly contradict this desire.

Aries Juno people could attract very dominant people who seem exciting and like a great match at first until the egos and forces of wills clash.

Some realize that they are better off in the long-term with a partner who will be more submissive or at least less interested in being the visibly "dominant" one in the relationship.

Zendaya has Aries Juno and if I'm not mistaken, people have commented about how she seems to be the more dominant energy between her and Tom Holland, though he is by no means timid or overly passive, from what any of us can tell. I think she is at the age where most people start to figure out the differences between lust, like, and love, and also between what one might need vs. "fall hard for" in a partner and knows Tom is the kind of man she needs.

Rihanna also has Aries Juno and people have strong opinions about her choice to settle down with ASAP Rocky, but I think she too is a very smart woman who gained wisdom throughout her relationship history and realized that someone laid-back who doesn't mind letting her shine is the best choice for her personality and relationship values.

Juno in Aries can indicate someone who approaches relationships with much enthusiasm, passion, and even some aggression. This can come off as a Type A to some people or incredibly inspirational, dynamic and attractive to others.

Adventure and excitement are very important to these people and they will not enjoy a relationship that is too serious, comfortable or prone to doing the same types of things over and over again for very long.

For an Aries Juno, the ideal partner will be confident, self-assured, ambitious, yet not fixated on taking center stage. Someone who is comfortable with themselves, not shy, but not overly outspoken. A person who can hold their own in a conversation, but is also perfectly comfortable sitting back, relaxing and observing what's going on around them.

In sum, an Aries Juno needs someone they can rely on and have a wonderful life with, without feeling boxed in or like they're losing themselves in the other person.

[evidence-based-activism]

Feminism is for equality, it's not necessarily against the male gaze. There's nothing wrong with giving men what they want, as long as women can get what they want as well.

Also rape is not about emotional intelligence, it’s just that men feel attraction more than women, so it’s harder to resist, so they are more likely to rape.

You could argue that for rape potentially, but what about porn? Clearly people don’t watch porn for power, since it’s virtual, so how would you explain that men watch porn a lot more than women, if not because they feel more attraction?

"Feminism is for equality"

Feminism is for the liberation of women from men and the patriarchy. (See this post for a preliminary description of the modern day patriarchy.) The ultimate result of this would be equality between male and female people, but the lens is different (i.e., an active fight against an oppressor vs an passive attainment of an ambiguous goal).

"it's not necessarily against the male gaze"

The male gaze is "usually refers to the sexually objectifying attitude that a representation takes toward its feminine subject matter, presenting her as a primarily passive object for heterosexual-male erotic gratification" [1, emphasis mine]. Therefore, the male gaze – by definition – objectifies ("to treat somebody/something as an object, without rights or feelings of their own" [2]) women and is, therefore, incompatible with feminism.

"There's nothing wrong with giving men what they want"

There is if what they want is power, control, and domination over women. There is what they want is incompatible with basic human rights and dignity. There is if what they want prevents women from getting what they need.

"as long as women can get what they want as well."

Moreover, it really isn't about want. It's about need. Women need physical and emotional safety from men. Women need freedom from oppression and discrimination. Women need a world without the patriarchy.

"Also rape is not about emotional intelligence"

You're right. Rape is about choice. Men choose to rape.

"it’s just that men feel attraction more than women"

No, they don't. [3-6]

The first two source [3-4] describe how in actual research samples, approximately equal numbers of heterosexual women and men report a higher level of sexual desire than their partner (and many couples report no discrepancy). The next source [5] goes even further and discusses how "sex differences in self‐reported sexual behavior were negligible ... [when] participants believed lying could be detected, moderate in an anonymous condition, and greatest [when not anonymous]" indicating "sex differences in self‐reported sexual behavior reflect responses influenced by normative expectations for men and women". The final source [6] reviews the literature and concludes "many gender differences in sexuality are smaller than researchers once thought, ... that within-gender variation is larger than between-gender variation in reported sexual behaviors and attitudes" and that "societal power differentials and social pressures" play a role in any remaining differences.

"so it’s harder to resist, so they are more likely to rape."

Men make the choice to rape.

The idea that men are a mindless slave to their desires is ridiculous. And I honestly cannot think of anything more insulting than the suggestion that you (the male sex) are incapable of not being terrible, self-centered, out-of-control rapists.

Is this really what you want to argue? Would this somehow be better than a (large) portion of men making the active, entitled, choice to harm women?

"You could argue that for rape potentially, but what about porn?"

... argue what??

"Clearly people don’t watch porn for power,"

No, this isn't clear to me. Tell me, what else could be a greater expression of power than the ability to search for, find, and masturbate to videos of women and children being raped and degraded? What does this tell men about their place in society? (To have their every sexual desire fulfilled instantly, over-and-over, by a limitless supply of women? To see women as objects? To demand this availability from the women around them, from the women in power over them, from their wives and girlfriends?) What does this tell women about their place in society? (To be a receptacle for men's desires? To see themselves in a position of inferiority, of humiliation, of degradation? To have the men around them, their family and partners and bosses and subordinates, send them these images, "jokingly" suggest their participation, demand they imitate the acts?)

What is this? If not power, then what?

"since it’s virtual"

Lots of things are virtual. A rape threat emailed to a congresswomen is virtual. A tweet calling for the rape and murder of classes of women is virtual. A man's manifesto cataloging every perceived slight from women and his desired – violent, graphic, sexual – punishment for them is virtual.

And it's still power. It's still a man saying: "See this, you know what we can do to you, what we want to do to you, what we are doing to you. I know and you know but right now I want to make you remember, because you rejected me, because I disagree with you, because I can."

And that's power.

"so how would you explain that men watch porn a lot more than women, if not because they feel more attraction?"

Because porn is designed for men. Because it's produced by men, using women, for men.

Because men are socialized to express more sexual desire, and women are socialized to suppress and hide their own [6]. Because women don't want to watch themselves being humiliated and brutalized [7, 11]. Because women do not divorce their morals from their sexuality but men do [8-9].

And, notably, despite the stereotypes, "the neuronal response to visual sexual stimuli, contrary to the widely accepted view, is independent of biological sex" [10]. Despite this, far fewer women than men report any pornography use, and when women do use porn they use it far less frequently and primarily in the presence (at the request?) of their male partner [11].

Clearly, it is something inherent to pornography, not to men and women, that makes men want to watch it and women want to avoid it.

References:

Eaton, A. W. (2008). Feminist Philosophy of Art. Philosophy Compass, 3(5), 873–893. doi:10.1111/j.1747-9991.2008.00154.x 

Oxford University Press. (2024). Objectify. In Oxford Learner's Dictionaries from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/objectify

Davies, S., Katz, J., & Jackson, J. L. (1999). Sexual desire discrepancies: Effects on sexual and relationship satisfaction in heterosexual dating couples. Archives of sexual behavior, 28, 553-567.

Mark, K. P., & Murray, S. H. (2012). Gender differences in desire discrepancy as a predictor of sexual and relationship satisfaction in a college sample of heterosexual romantic relationships. Journal of sex & marital therapy, 38(2), 198-215.

Alexander, M. G., & Fisher, T. D. (2003). Truth and consequences: Using the bogus pipeline to examine sex differences in self‐reported sexuality. Journal of sex research, 40(1), 27-35.

Petersen, J. L., & Hyde, J. S. (2011). Gender Differences in Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors: A Review of Meta-Analytic Results and Large Datasets. Journal of Sex Research, 48(2-3), 149–165. doi:10.1080/00224499.2011.5518

Fritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A descriptive analysis of the types, targets, and relative frequency of aggression in mainstream pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1-13.

González‐Álvarez, J. (2017). Men dissociate sexual attraction from moral judgement more than women. International journal of psychology, 52(5), 381-388.

González-Álvarez, J., & Cervera-Crespo, T. (2019). Gender differences in sexual attraction and moral judgment: research with artificial face models. Psychological reports, 122(2), 525-535.

Mitricheva, E., Kimura, R., Logothetis, N. K., & Noori, H. R. (2019). Neural substrates of sexual arousal are not sex dependent. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(31), 15671–15676. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1904975116

Carroll, J. S., Busby, D. M., Willoughby, B. J., & Brown, C. C. (2016). The Porn Gap: Differences in Men’s and Women’s Pornography Patterns in Couple Relationships. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 16(2), 146–163. doi:10.1080/15332691.2016.1238796 

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

I think one of the reasons that kaladin can deal with actively killing as a soldier but not with accidentally (passively) letting someone die as a surgeon is the sense of failure (plus of course the obvious protection aspect and the whole me-vs-them mentality he only really starts to question when Shin joins bridge four, and he starts interacting fairly regularly with a light-eyes he can genuinely respect). dalinar himself said that he "love(s) taking responsibility for things", which is especially clear in the way he still can't quite blame amaram for tien's demise (because he feels like this is his failure, too).

like we can see in the first book that the deaths of the people he swore to protect weigh on him not only because of the dying people per se, but also (and I would argue: especially) because of his FAILURE to keep them alive. he always makes this connection to himself, thinks of their demise in relation to HIS own person and HIS role and HIS failure (cue the whole "stormfather cursed me specifically" thing). like, besides tien and the bridgemen (who we know because they are active current characters), can we truly say much of anything about the people he failed to protect in the past? the only thing we really know is how HE feels about it and how it messed HIM up. but the people themselves??

kaladin just has insane main character syndrome, and everything happening to him (first dark-eyed to have the rank of a light-eyed, one of the only surgebinders, guy able to survive multiple fights with actual shardbearers, etc etc) do the opposite of helping him dissuade the notion. I feel like I lost the plot of my own post. Kal is honorable and a good guy and everything but he is also pretty self-centered? which I actually find really cool because many times people who do objectively good actions are still kind of demonized if they don't do it for the "right" reasons (aka purely 1000% selflessness), but Kal explicitly starts helping the bridgemen not because he actually cares about them but because he needs a reason to not commit suicide. and when he loses bridgemen (especially in the beginning where he barely knows them) he always immediately thinks back to the other people he FAILED to save. he isn't devastated because that person in particular died, he is upset because he is very bad at dealing with his own failures and also terrified that the wretch will use this to lure him back onto the ledge. i mean, he loathes failure so much he was resigned to never see his parents again (who he clearly loves a lot and who he knows would welcome him back with open arms; it's his own shame that he can't confront)

he helps people primarily to try to make up for the failures of the past, an attempt to dissuade the guilt and shame eating him alive 24/7 (which of course never works because guilt is a very unreasonable emotion and as long as he doesn't change his mindset and confronts his own beliefs about himself and the world it will never go away.)

"do the fire sprin create the flames or are they attracted by them?" of course syl was compelled to follow kaladin around. dude keeps actively (even if semi-unconsciously) putting himself into the same role and situation over and over again in the hopes that if he can only succeed one time it will somehow redeem him for his past failures. literally every single thing Kal does and thinks and believes is rooted in the fact that he blames himself for tien's demise. he needs to somehow redeem himself in order to be able to live with himself but at the same time he can never be redeemed because letting tien die is an unforgivable crime and yet he needs to make it up somehow because the wretch is always in the back of his mind and he's actually terrified of it but he is equally scared of actually somehow managing to get over this sense of guilt and failure because wouldn't forgiving himself mean he thinks tien is less important than his own stupid (and, in his mind, deserved) feelings?

that guy is so not over his brother's death it actually isn't funny anymore 💀 please get that dude some fucking therapy 😭😭

[ryin-silverfish]

On Yin-Yang, Chaos/Order, and the Harbringer

-As with many of my LMK-related posts, this is just grouchy old Ryin nitpicking. If it entertains you or gives you ideas, wonderful. If it doesn't, feel free to ignore me.

-I don't understand why LMK fan theories try to fit the square peg of Yin-Yang into the round hole of Chaos/Order divide so often. Is it because Yang is associated with Creation/Life, and Yin is associated with Destruction/Death, and if something is destructive, it has to be chaotic?

-Except mythos-wise, the Underworld is as Yin-aligned as you can get, yet they are a judicial bureaucracy and the enforcer of karmic laws.

-They are subordinate to Heaven, feared by mortals, and a grim bunch overall, but also as "lawful" as their living and divine counterparts. Like, one of the things Yin is associated with traditionally is Punishment & Executions, usually happening in the context of laws.

-Instead of Chaos/Order, Yin-Yang is more like two sets of parallel yet inseparable orders, the boundary between them is quite thin and easily crossed, and when one peaks, it soon declines and transforms into the other.

-Basically, shadow and light without the "Good vs. Evil" connotations.

-But alright, if we have to fit the square peg into the round hole for funsies: won't Yang fit Chaos more? Specifically, the chaos that accompany active creation and unprecedented change and spontaneous life, as opposed to Yin's passive maintainence, decline and orderly march towards an inevitable end?

-Like, the Thunder trigram, Zhen, is Yang-aligned despite being made of one Yang and two Yin, because it symbolizes the bottom Yang forcefully breaking through the Yin and creating a huge thunderclap.

-Here, Yang is creation via violent destruction of its opposites. Same for Fire/Li——another Yang-aligned thing that is nonetheless capable of as much destruction (burning) as creation (heat and light).

-Instead of Pure Yang being Pure Creation, and Pure Yin being Pure Destruction: I'd prefer it more if both polarities, at their highest concentration and strength, is equally creative and destructive.

-Pure Yang is a supernova explosion, an intense spike of scorching light and heat that burns itself out quickly and transforms into its opposite in the ensuing decline.

-Pure Yin is the complete decomposition of a cadaver into its respective chemicals——a gross and grim process, yet it also attracts and sustains countless other lives that feed on the products of death, and is a vital part of the cycle of life.

-It'll be more interesting to me if the Harbringer of Chaos is not a force of Yin——which is all about passivity and "keep on keeping on" and, at its extreme, stagnation, but wild, unrestrainted Yang.

-Really just, disentangle all that boring moral assumptions from Yin-Yang, and show that they are more akin to two different chemical reactions, that either extremes are rare and usually not the most effective or desirable, and whatever good or bad you can do with them, it's on you and not the powers' alignment with Yin or Yang, y'know?

[mikuchan]

Hi!

I hope this isn't taken in a passive aggressive way bc i am genuinely interested when I ask this question: do you have stats on male vs female vs nb Tavs? Bc so many of the bg3 fics/tags are OC/Canon character, and from my own reading experience I know a lot of well written women are typically... the Tav 😅

this is still queer erasure, as there's a focus on m/f over f/f etc. but I was just interested in knowing how if the gender of the Tav skews your findings at all! Or if some characters (Gortash is probably an obvious call) feature more heavily with female OCs than male?

It's OK if you've not done this, I was just being nosy!

Hi!

So I actually was going to have a slide with Tav stats because that is something so interesting to consider, right? BG3 is an OC-forward game, most people make a Tav versus playing an Origin role.

And shipping does play such a heavy role in fanfic. In my Raphael deep dive,the majority of his pairings were with women OCs. (The same goes for Minthara, I believe, though I don't think I did a formal count on that one.)

That said, for this count I ended up not including Tav (or Dark Urge, etc) stats for two reasons.

First, because it was tricky to wrestle the tags. The canon characters have nice neat tags like Astarion or Shadowheart lol while original characters are often multi-tagged (Tav, Original Character, Original Female Character, Reader, etc) so going in and tallying those would be a much bigger project than I wanted rn.

Second, because while I think it is worth noting, I also truly don't believe that's entirely the reason.

As an experiment I went in just now and excluded the OC tags from the filters and here is what I got:

that definitely changes some of those ratios, but that's still 7 men and 3 women in the top 10 , with totals of 6,474 tags for the men and 3,326 for the women -- about double the rates in both presence and works.

So there is nuance. Is it sexism for straight (/bi/pan) women to focus on male characters they're attracted to? Not really, no.

But when it turns into actively calling female characters less interesting, reducing their roles while elevating male characters', ignoring canon in favor of male counterparts? When the men still have double the fic presence sans any OCs or OC ships?

That is sexism.

[possamble]

do you think falin went on dates/potentially even hooked up with people periodically during those 4 years she and marcille were separated? i know you ascribe to has-been-pining-since-childhood falin (and tbh so do i), but i find it interesting that there were at least Two people interested in falin if we are to believe chilchuck's party relations chart. at the very least, she considered toshiro's proposal -- even if her intentions for doing so were rooted less in mutual interest and more in her fear of being alone -- and it makes me wonder if anyone else were to like... show interest in falin, what would the circumstances have to be for her to be an active participant/if she would've reciprocated if it was casual enough (because i can't see her getting into a serious relationship with anyone while she's still in love with marcille -- unless?)

i could see it going either way. girl who can't believe people could actually LIKE her that way because she struggles with liking herself (despite probably being the most beloved character in canon, though her ostracization in her hometown and the magic academy could explain why...... wait hold on i'M GETTING SIDETRACKED!!) vs. girl's first time being freed from an authority's expectations going a little wild at, well, a taste of freedom (plus a dose of delayed sexual awakening due to prior ostracization + "don't think of marcille like that don't think of marcille like that doN'T. DO NOT." double whammy)

idk idk idk! i find it SO interesting that she's so beloved in canon but is simultaneously very passive about it? i really love how a little creature explores what a more proactive falin could look like, and i'm super curious about your thoughts on what falin's love life would look like/if a love life would even exist decoupled from her newfound dragon instincts and marcille

honestly this is the one aspect im never sure about bc... i've seen other people establish that falin's gone and kissed or gotten involved with some of the other girls at the academy, or other adventurers. and i respect that! mostly bc it's a way of painting falin as more independent and mature than the canon material, and i can't knock that.

but i guess? idk. she was as clueless about shuro's feelings as laios was until he actually proposed to her. she also believed that she wouldn't get another proposal, so there's an element of her not realizing that she's particularly attractive. that, or she's... still somehow working by her hometown logic, which im assuming is the old "if you're not married by your teenage years you're considered a really bad marriage candidate for men" type thing, considering how much of a small town it was/the fact that she and laios already had marriages arranged from a young age.

an intensely auDHD woman, who has spent all of her independent life focusing on at least one person she was inseparably close to, not having had any romantic experience at the age of 23? that's very likely. personally i'd consider it more likely than the alternatives, but that's just my opinion lol

[radfemsiren]

tbh i think on top of trying to avoid confronting women’s situation by fetishizing it, a lot of women have rape fantasies/read a lot of stories which sexualize rape, because of how desire is viewed in women vs men. we’re taught to value being desired, but we’re also told not to desire, ourselves. so a lot of women think “okay, then i’ll desire being desired, but i won’t desire the act” except of course that if the man desires and the woman doesn’t, that’s rape. it’s in a weird limbo (with the stories/fantasies, to be clear, not with porn) in which you, the reader, have consented, but the character you project yourself onto doesn’t have to. the character denies feeling desire, and is solely desired, meanwhile the real human woman obviously is feeling desire. i think a lot of women don’t really grasp that you’re training your mind and body to find rape and violence arousing, because you don’t really notice you’re doing it, as you (the only real person involved) obviously also have the most agency. which will not be true when it plays out in real life

True! I noticed a lot of the women that love the non consent, “dark romance” genre on TikTok tend to come from conservative backgrounds… I think it’s a way to avoid shame and guilt. If you don’t really “want it” then you arnt a “slut”. It’s a way to protect yourself from shame, even in your own fantasy.

I think the passivity too is a great thing you touched on. Women are taught that we should never play the active role in any sexual situation, and it makes a lot of us feel lost and unable to understand what we actively like. What are we attracted to? What do we like doing to the other person? It gets very boring being expected to just lay there and take it… but then you have to confront your own sexuality and think about what you’ve liked in the past, or want to consider trying and exploring in the future. It’s an unknown that is hard to figure out and experiment with… so just retreating back into more extreme layers of passivity is the option a lot of women go for instead… which is how we get to the non consenting scenarios.

[birchbow]

How exactly do moirails work? I keep getting confused between what constitutes a matespiritship and moirailegence. I know that moirails are able to help sooth and calm but I feel that there is way more to moirails than just that and I’m having a hard time understanding.

Ahhh, well, this is one of those things that's really only defined in-comic in a fairly skeletal way, and the form it takes in fics is always going to be like 50% headcanon, minimum. And in my case probably more because I've been fascinated by the concept of non-sexual romance/intimacy for a long time and so I've written a LOT of pale content lol. SO here's some rambling about moiraillegiance, which I'm pre-emptively putting under a cut because I know myself.

First, a brief review. Pale-related things we get in the canon, at a quick top-of-my-head scan, are basically:

some trolls are a more emotionally unstable/violent and will find somebody who complements their personality and helps keep them from murderously flying off the handle.*

of the four quadrants of relationships trolls are expected to have, this is not a concupiscient (sexual) one** but it is a (positive emotions toward your partner) one, which Karkat and the narration frame as "pity" (see "****")

At one point, a scene that appears to be setting up for a death-match is defused by one party shh-ing the other one and patting their face until they calm down, from which fandom took 'shooshing" and 'papping' as terms, from the sound effects in those panels.***

talking about your thoughts and emotions is mentioned several times in the context of pale relationships****, and I believe at one point called a feelings jam although I don't have it in me to dig back and see if that one is canon

that is the canon stuff that occurs off the top of my head

*how much of the part where the narrative explains quadrants is biased (because of what a shitshow Alternia is) is up for debate **fandom interpretation varies on this from "having sex with your moirail is a huge taboo" to "it's totally fine, it's just not one of the quadrants the drones demand contributions for". ***And also where I (and quite a few other people I would guess) started thinking about trolls having separate, alien instincts and responses to stimuli that humans would find relatively unremarkable, like having their face patted or having somebody shush them ****Alternia aggressively punishes perceived weakness to the point that seeing another troll being vulnerable and not killing them for it is narrated as "pity" which is the closest we seem to get to an Alternian-culture concept of "love". ANYWAY that probably has a finger on the needle RE: how exclusive it is to ONLY talk to your moirail about your feelings, because they're in a relationship with you and therefore hopefully won't cull you for it.

Things that are NOT canon include: most of it lmao. If you wanted an itemized list of things in my Troll Society writing that were made up almost entirely whole cloth, we would be here all day. Moving on!

When it comes to writing pale vs flushed, I mostly go by vibes, tbh lol. I suppose if I had to organize my criteria a little bit,,, I am going to spitball. Bear with me.

Pale looks at its partner and goes "I see the things wrong with you, and instead of culling you for them, we are going to fix them" and also "the place where we both are is a place we're both steady and safe" (passive/steadying/protective),

and flush is more like. "I see the things wrong with you, and instead of culling you for them I'm suffering them with you" and also "the place where we both are is a place where we Want More" (active/passionate/aggressive I guess??? Can't find the word).

or to rephrase

pale->unpicking feelings, controlling violent impulse, steadying emotional state, physical touch to invite a sort of subspace-adjacent hazy alien-arousal-that's-not-arousal.

flush->passionate, intense, active attraction, sometimes kind of violent! sometimes too passionate for its own good! Physical touch to work each other up and drive each other higher in a positive way (hopefully) (mostly) (trolls are violent assholes tbh)

I DON'T KNOW DUDE there's no guide for this stuff lol. As evidenced above, canon basically has just like a skeleton framework, so we are all out here putting these lines down ourselves.

Making this more complicated: regardless of what the author of any given fic headcanons as the social norm, it also makes sense to me that there are variations in trolls just like in humans. I usually don't write my pale pairings fucking, but it seems reasonable and inevitable to me that some trolls would be into that! Or trolls who were attracted to concupiscient quads but didn't want to bone down, although that's dangerous and untenable for reasons mentioned in previous asks.

fig 1: Meenah and Kurloz's swinging back and forth² from the (hate+fucking) quadrant to the (love/pity+no fucking³) quadrant in PoF felt like it came naturally as I was writing, because what else are two of the oldest, most powerful trolls in the universe going to do, when each of them is the only person around who comes close to actually knowing the other enough to hate/pity?

²Switching back and forth between quadrants is actually called "vacillating" and seems to be a fairly common event in troll society and media--the blurring/combining pale and pitch that they're doing is the more scandalous part, according to general fanon ³I have always preferred to write pale relationships with a lot of the traits my culture associates with sexual relationships (nudity, intimacy, an industrial porn complex lol) but to cut the sex and leave the rest and play with that contrast. How much of that is because I'm personally not sexually attracted to people, and I'm deeply Emotions about a society recognizing that kind of relationship as crucial and desirable??? I mean idk boss y'all don't pay me for introspection lol.

ANYWAY that also means the boundaries of what any given troll defines as "too much intimacy not to be pale" or "the feelings you're talking to me about are too personal for this not to be pale" or "you're touching me in a way that seems pale (or flushed)" are going to be different, which makes this extra hard to answer. Example!!

When I write Kurloz, I write him with an old-fashioned and strict view of what quadrants entail, but also being too old and above too many laws and social norms to give much of a shit about whether he blurs those lines or not most of the time. The little nods to things like it being slutty In His Time to wear your hair short and show off the roots of your horns hopefully bring across some of the cranky old man vibes lmao.

VERSUS when I write Karkat, I'm writing a much younger guy who spends a ton of time thinking about relationships and watching romcoms, synthesizing his own very in-depth thesis of What Feelings Are--and also just coming from a much younger generation. He's not nearly as comfortable blurring the lines, but he also places those lines in very different spots than Kurloz does.

TBH follow your heart haha it's just an alien sandbox and we're all just slapping sand around.

[hamliet]

Hi! I just want to say I love your alchemy meta posts related to asoiaf! So many things clicked after reading them. Wanted to ask, you mentioned that Dany/Jon have an active/passive motif in their respective arcs, can you elaborate on that? Does it refer to their future arc in TWOW? (Dany going all out on slavery/conquest, Jon adopting a more apathetic attitude to the impeding doom of the Long Night...)

Hi!! So, you're here to nag me about the meta I said I would write and never did despite outlining it, yes, fair enough. (I'm kidding with you! Thanks actually for this kick in the pants.)

It's actually a motif for both Jon and Dany's arcs throughout the entire story. So let's start by redefining again what the point of passive/active is. In alchemy, the main goal is the "union of opposites," usually embodied in two characters in literature. The classic opposites tend to have the following motifs/symbols associated with them:

Male: Sun, sulphur, fire and air, hot and dry, red, gold, heart, active.

Female: Moon, mercury (or quicksilver), earth and water, cool and moist, white, silver, mind, passive.

ASOIAF switches the genders, which is very interesting. Jon is marked as white, water (snow), has qualities of mercury (mercury can shift states very easily; Jon goes undercover), is cunning, is of course associated with the cold north. Dany...

Well, Dany actually starts A Game of Thrones as passive (not wanting to marry Drogo and begging Viserys not to make her), but by the end of the first book she is fully active. This actually fits her other "alchemical" motifs because she starts off as white, the "moon of [Drogo's] life,", silver, etc. but by the end of the first book is reborn out of fire, and is therefore marked as sun, sulfur, gold, fire and air (flying on fire-breathing dragons), hot and dry (the territory of Essos), etc.

And of course, Dany is active, while Jon is passive. Let's go through the books, shall we? The active/passive motif exists in relationships as well as their internal motivations/personal goals.

Let's compare their (romantic/sexual) relationships first. Jon is reluctant to get involved with Ygritte and only does when there is little choice; he is attracted to her, so I wouldn't say it's nonconsensual, but there's also certainly an element of "do it or die." Dany also had little choice with Drogo, but by the middle of AGOT she's the one initiating public sex with him without any shame.

Jon's other quasi-romantic relationship so far is with Val, which thus far is (and likely will forever remain) unconsummated, with Jon fully committing to never violating his vows again. He also refuses to marry Val even though doing so would be politically expedient for Stannis. In contrast, Daenerys initiates with Daario, and she is the one who decides to marry Hizdahr even though she doesn't want to, for reasons of political expedience. She's actively making these choices.

It's even present in how they treat subordinates in regards to sex. Dany has sex with Irri and feels guilty for it, because even if Irri is happy to do so, she's still Dany's servant, and Dany knows there's an uncomfortable power dynamic there and expressly feels guilt over it. Jon is instead defined by what he doesn't do: his brothers of the Night's Watch spread rumors about him and Satin, but the reality is that nothing is going on and there probably isn't any attraction there either. Dany takes action; Jon does nothing and thinks that it'll all blow over and people will come to accept Satin, when that is very naive. (I'm not saying Jon is doing anything wrong; he's not. It's just an interesting parallel I noticed.)

Then let's talk their purposes and internal motivations. Jon defines himself as illegitimate, as Ned Stark's bastard. Daenerys defines herself as the rightful heir to the Targaryen dynasty. How does this translate into active vs passive?

Daenerys is active in regards to protecting slaves and freeing them. She just doesn't always do it wisely. But she intervenes and stops several assaults and frees people, crowning herself queen in Meereen to stay queen.

Jon, on the other hand, is a lot more passive. He refuses to help Gilly when she asks for help at the visit to Craster's because it's just not done and would violate his vows. Jon is forced by Qhorin Halfhand to go undercover with the Wildings; literally, he's pushed into it. Even when he is elected as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, he did not campaign for himself nor seek it out. It's passivity, and a sharp contrast to Daenerys's deliberate seeking of power.

However, what they both do with power is very similar. Daenerys wants to free people and save them. Jon, too, wants to save the Wildlings. They can't help but empathize with people mistreated around them. Daenerys definitely sees herself in slaves (sold to Drogo), in sexual assault victims (again, Drogo), and in people forcibly taken to strange lands (being raised in Essos, always on the run). Jon sees himself in the Wildlings, always defined as an "other" despite being very human (Wildlings and bastards are treated differently for no legitimate reason). Both struggle with duty vs passion, with Dany choosing duty (Hizdahr) over passion (Daario), and Jon of course as well (choosing the Night's Watch over Ygritte and over Val).

As for the future, well. Every character tends to become "the monster you think I am," to quote Tyrion. What is the monster everyone thinks Daenerys is? What is the monster everyone thinks Jon is?

The Mad King's Daughter.

Bastards are craven.

Both quotes occur multiple times in every single book. Both Jon and Dany try to define themselves as different from this. Jon refuses to be craven. Dany is in denial about who her father was, but there's also a level wherein she worries about her own sanity, so she suspects something.

Both Jon and Dany also make an opposite decision in A Dance With Dragons. Jon finally chooses to be active and march south; the problem is that this completely destroys duty and is foolish. Dany chooses to be passive and robes herself in white and pearls again in her marriage to Hizdahr. It just... doesn't work out for either of them.

Both have tried so hard, and gotten nothing. They're going to sink into their flaws, their tendencies towards activity and passivity, and also become the monsters people think they are. HOWEVER. Their arcs are not going to end with them as monsters. They need to see what they are capable of becoming to truly face their demons and overcome them.

Daenerys is going to go on the warpath in The Winds of Winter. I think that's very clear from her final chapter in A Dance With Dragons. She tried to temper herself. She chained her dragons. She married a Meereenese man. She let the fighting pits reopen. It hasn't brought the peace she's been seeking. I think she'll use fire and blood to subdue her enemies and take Westeros.

Jon, on the other hand, has just been killed. Melisandre is clearly going to resurrect him. He wanted to march south and ditch duty before he died, and I don't doubt he'll ditch duty. Why hang around the Night's Watch when they just killed you? He's probably going to sink into apathy, especially once he finds out that Arya is not the girl in need of rescue. His family is nowhere around him. He was just killed by his new "brothers." Why bother? Why keep caring? Why keep trying? I definitely see him ditching the Watch but not coming to Stannis's aid either.

Also, both will get a reveal about their parents. Dany will learn that the Mad King was truly evil when King's Landing blows up in her face in a green blur of her dad's wildfyre. Jon will learn he's actually not Ned Stark's bastard... not even his son, in fact. Dany's reveal will be a result of her action, Jon's will almost certainly be a reveal from someone else to him, not his own searching. Dany will be horrified because of what her father wanted to do and what she committed (even if she didn't mean to go so far), while Jon will be horrified by what was omitted by the man he thought was his father.

But the answers to their problems can be found through each other. Jon will find his family again--his siblings Arya, Bran, maybe Rickon, and Sansa--and meet Sam again, too. He'll find love with Daenerys, someone who has messed up atrociously and still wants to do good. And he'll find out that being a Targaryen is not a taint through her; even when you'e messed up, you can still be a hero. Daenerys will be wondering why on earth she even has her dragons and how she can possibly rule after leaving the city in ashes, and along come the Others. She's the only one who can defeat them. She'll just have killed f!Aegon (likely unintentionally) and knew he was a fraud, but here's an actual family member. She's not the last Targaryen; instead of seeing that as a threat, I think she'll see it as a comfort eventually. Dany will help Jon remember his duty again, and Jon will help Dany love and be loved again, and together they'll save the world.

[just-mushroom-thoughts]

I'm working on something and need to solve something.

What separates lust-focused normal devils and the cubi? vs what traits they share.

right now I generally have the idea that devils exist physically, if basically just walking mounds of magic forming a puppet-body of meat, in the world at all times. They are a race. Haven't fully figured out their biology yet past that they don't really have one and they're made of like. SPAM. on the inside.

Cubi go into peoples dreams when they're sleeping and have sexy fun times that results in them eating their soul. Devil's don't do that, they don't eat souls, and they can't enter dreams. I don't know what they eat, but it's not souls.

so like... are cubi less "real" than devils" and are mostly a metaphysical dream entity? if a cubus manifests in the physical world could you tell by looking at it that that's what it was? can they just appear as anything?

Ah, these are interesting thoughts,

The big difference between cubi and other fiends, is, as you've correctly identified, consumption. Cubi FEED on lust, using your lust to feed themself, as well as to access your soul,

Other fiends feed less directly on your corruption, as for identification, cubi are ultimatly fluid in their looks. They are always attractive, but as attractive is subjective, so is their appearance, when thwy take Phisical form, its realistically more like 75-90% Real, causing their form to be based on the Desire of the observer, other fiends will be based on what they are, as cubi are just one subspecie of devil, but generally, cubi tails tend to be slimmer, and more agile, their wings tend towards being more whispy, almost ethereal, cubi often dont have horns, and their skin can be any natural humanoid hue,

The easiest way to Identify a cubis, is by their victem, see, with other lust based fiends, the end goal is corruption, desolation, lust is only Part of the equation, yes they use lust mainly but they dont exlusivly use it,

Cubi, on the other hand, lust is the end goal, victims of cubi arnt likely to have died in any way other than exhaustion, other feinds after a Soul is corrupted, need to get it out. Most often, violently, cubi are able to extract the soul slowly through lustful acts, leading to victims being more exhausted, drained, and sickly,

Rarely, a cubi victim will have enough stamina to survive the soul extraction process, leaving a souless husk behind, living but without a Soul, without purpose other than that the cubis demands, creating a thrall, cubi thralls can, Rarely develop into stronger creatures, but most are barley living bodies cubi use to act covertly.

If asked i will gladly talk more about thralls, both cubi and others

As a final peice for this topic here,

The difference between incubi and sucubi

The difference, contrary to popular belief, is Not sex, but hunting stratigy, (as an aside, cubi can and often do swap between the two over their life cycle)

The incubus hunting strategy is more, active, more domineering. Their chosen prey tends towards being submissive and open, and incubi often have a vaneer of taking what they want, though all cubi, like most demons, cant do anything without permission

The succubus strategy opposes the incubus, being more submissive, not necessarily more passive,

[cabeswaterdrowned]

ask game: for TRC what's a pairing u are Not a fan of? 👀

I’ll just answer all the fandom asks for trc since that’s one of those questions

Favorite character: Adam and Blue could fight it out depending on my mood since they’re all time favs for different reasons, but these days have had clinical levels of Adam brain rot so Adam <3 love that demented freak so bad

Least Favorite character: both Niall and Artemus for different reasons Niall I hate more as a person but he at least brings some interesting things to the narrative (even if I think the narrative also is kinder to him than he deserves) whereas Artemus is just boring + takes time away from more interesting Blue plots + dynamics so I resent him more ultimately. So Artemus. But of the mains + fandom favs there’s no one I strongly dislike I would have said Kavinsky a few years ago but that was only because I hated his fandom passionately, his char in a vacuum I’m quite centrist about.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

Adam x Gansey, Blue x Gansey, then if we’re including td3 Jordan x Hennessy is in third place and Jordan x Declan in fourth, and fifth Blue x Noah. not counting td3 fourth is Pynch (I’m mean about them sometimes but when trc Pynch is good they are really good.) and 5th hmmm. will go with Gansey x Henry but it could be one of a few ships depending on my mood, this is the everyone loves everyone series after all.

Character I find most attractive: middle school Sana was in love with Helen lol to the point where I mentally wrote some self insert-y Blue x Helen fanfiction. Now I would probably say Gwenllian (which is helped by the fact when I went to work on her section of my trcverse minor women Pinterest board I saw a lot of Katie McGrath/ Morgana images and I’m watching bbc Merlin rn so! relevant to my interests).

Character I would marry: Jordan <3.

Character I would be best friends with: I don’t badly want to be friends with anyone from the verse of protags..Jordan and Blue are the only candidates out of them everyone else is just automatically nope. Oh and I could hang with ghost Noah but probably not Noah back when he was alive. In general honestly I’d love to spend time with Persephone as her research assistant in her phd writing or being trained by her like Adam was or having her as an Aunt/maternal figure like Blue did.

A random thought: very normal about this series as you can tell

An unpopular opinion: well I just said this in the tags of that poll but even though I love TDT a lot it’s not my unequivocal favorite like it is for a lot of people / I prefer BLLB and TRB as overall books. Part of this is def character biases related since TRB is the Adam book but also has quite a bit of Blue/300 fox way and then BLLB is the Blue book but also has quite a lot of Adam focus (although ironically TDT is probably my favorite book of them all for Adam content specifically. I love when my favs get messy <3) and I love Ronan but gravitate towards him least out of the core four.

My canon OTP: Blue x Gansey

Non-canon OTP: Adam x Gansey

Most badass character: honestly not a lot of chars in this verse I think of as badass… I mean Adam’s ruthlessness and cleverness are impressive as hell but I also think of him as more pathetic than he gets credit for being in certain ways so hesitate to call him that. Calla or the Gray Man

Pairing I am not a fan of: I really don’t have a ship I hate or even strongly dislike overall in this verse, it’s more about active vs passive interest in various pairings or that existing on a scale, or it’s about how I feel about fandom’s take on a dynamic. I used to say Rovinsky but again that was for fandom reasons not canon ones and certainly not for morality discourse reasons. These days if I’m being negative about a ship it’s usually Pynch and that’s for a combination of late canon reasons + fandom issues. BLLB Pynch will always have been a slay though, and they get to take that to their graves some ships never achieve that level of slay even for a limited time. Least interesting relationship across the board…. Sorry to say it but honestly Carliana. I enjoyed some td3 yuri in that I was obsessed with the Jordanessy clonefucking vibes and intrigued by what little Carmenessy there was but Carliana… I can’t say I found it terribly compelling. But not to the extent of hate just like a flatline.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): trc wise Blue but Not for the reasons I’ve seen fandom go for in the past as some of the things fandom slotted as bad writing / screw ups I would defend as good character writing specifically the types of criticisms that were just like. “It’s bad writing that she has dimensionality and flaws such as being judgmental or insecure or hypocritical and having imperfect views of feminism or being occasionally classist or displaying internalized misogyny but when the boys do this sometimes to worse extents (especially on the misogyny front) I think it’s a realistic flaw boys will be boys” DIE! And then as a response to this criticisms ik Blue stans in old school fandom (I might even have been a bit guilty of this when I was like. 13) would write a million headcanons about Actual Blue who is a perfect feminist unlike canon Blue and like… ultimately that’s not Blue / not the char I love. Not that this is specific to Blue it happens all the time with similar molds of character or female chars in other archetypes with adjacent discourse surrounding them Piper McLean is another example that comes to mind, so many others count especially in male-lead media where there’s then pressure on the fewer female chars to represent ideals rather than being three dimensional people the way the male chars are. So I think Those criticisms of Blue’s writing are ultimately not relevant in my mind / aren’t real criticisms. And in general I think she’s a well written character in the first three books which is not to say that misogyny doesn’t impact how she’s written in those books I could certainly be analytical about that if I wanted to be but nothing that detracts from her overall character. HOWEVER, the writing still Does ultimately fail Blue / do her dirty / is misogynistic towards her not because she has these flaws but because the narrative ultimately *resolves* these flaws by having her only learn to not be so judgemental of rich white boys and one rich Asian boy instead of anyone else or spending an equal amount of time breaking down their assumptions about her, TRK doesn’t give her personal struggles almost any page time and she has the sloppiest resolution in that book with her whole fundamental nature being boiled down to her being a tree before she has to Plot. So yeah I do think she’s done dirty by the writing but I’m generally hesitant to agree with people who say that she deserves better writing before I hear qualifying statements about what exactly they mean / how they mean it, for these reasons.

Favourite friendship: despite also shipping them my gut instinct was Blue and Noah, otherwise it’s Adam and Persephone

[shoheiakagi]

I wondered how Sakuno and Shouhei are with each other, but then I also got thinking and wondered how Sakuno handled the boys who are really the opposite of Shouhei, like really quiet Fujishima or caustic Eric? Having someone cute and sweet like Sakuno and having her interact with Eric, I wondered a little how that goes.

If you don’t mind, I’m just gonna copy and paste what I sent in our DMs since i wrote a lot in response to your questions!

Im gonna be biased as hell here, but shouhei/sakuno are my fave out of the couples. To me, theyre somewhat of an opposites attract, but not too much of an extreme to the point their relationship starts struggling or dies out. Shouhei has always been extroverted and confident from the get go, while sakuno is introverted and developed more confidence as she grew older since she was more on the shy side as a kid.

Shouhei is carefree, while sakuno overthinks a lot. Shouhei is straightforward, while sakuno is passive aggressive unless youre kaoru (she’s trying, okay?) Shouhei was a violent delinquent, while sakuno grew up sheltered.

But thats pretty much where their (major) differences end tbh. They both know how to use their looks and appeal to get what they want, in a more innocent and subtle way. Their members also like to dunk on them for being the more naive and clueless ones of the group, but theyre both more perceptive than they let on. Theyre also known as the romanticists of their groups, both preferring a serious relationship. However, shouhei is a bit more laidback, taking a “if it happens, it will happen” approach whereas sakuno tries to actively date and gets disheartened when things dont work out.

They also share genuine interests in music, both have the most popular fashion within their groups, being active (sakuno ends up teaching shouhei how to play tennis since thats the only sport she plays if shes not at the gym), and share some mutual friends (they end up meeting each other through a mutual friend who is shouhei’s friend from the manga, just gotta make up a name for her). And sakuno grew up with extroverts around her, most of them being her close girl friends who played a huge role in developing her confidence as she grew, so she will mesh with shouhei pretty well (also stealing your headcanon about shouhei preferring to be closer to introverts vs extroverts like him). I think his boyish charms will complement her girlish charms.

As for their general dynamic, they both knew of each other, but didnt think much of each other besides “i know theyre technically the enemy, but he/she is pretty cute.” But they officially got introduced to each other through a mutual friend in a small party at her apartment, and thats when they really start to pay attention. They both try to keep their distance from each other at first, but the more they drank, the more closer they got. It originally started off with them cuddling and lowkey flirting, to having a full blown make out session once shouhei moves a strand of hair from her face and mumbles something about her face being too pretty to hide.

They were both lost in their own world until someone drunkenly bumps into them and sakuno realizes that she shouldnt be getting too close with him while shouhei can’t stop thinking about how her lips felt against his, how soft she felt in his arms, and how good she smelt. They’re both smitten, but sakuno is more cautious cause of the dating ban put on her group and the reputation of shouhei’s group, while shouhei starts to actively pursue her, wanting to spend more time together.

Once they get together, theyre playful and flirty with each other. When they start to get closer and really open up with each other, shouhei lets sakuno trace her finger against the scars littered across his chest and back from fights he indulged in when he was younger. How he was so wild and reckless and at one point he got into a huge fight with his old man and how he will never forget the look on his mom’s face when he punched his dad. Sakuno confides him in how during her lowest moments as a teen where she momentarily hung out with the wrong influences and let an older man groom her. and how she didn’t think of stopping the affair despite knowing he has a wife and kids because she was so stupid and desperate and just wanted to feel love.

When sakuno first meets the other guys through shouhei, she found fuji intimidating at first due to his stoic/blank expression, spiked hair, and piercings. But she soon learns that he’s actually the kindest out of all the guys, and like your au, she bonds with him over animals. Sakuno mentions of getting a pet cat, and fuji immediately recommends her to adopt a cat from some of the shelters he knows.

Ngl with eric, i can see sakuno having a minor crush on or thinking that she would like him the best, before she met shouhei. Eric is similar to some of the guys she had a thing for in the past, all quiet but quick with a rude or witty retort. But in general, she is kinda intimidated by him and is a little more quiet than usual around him cause she’s scared of him being mean to her, while eric doesn’t really care too much about her. But if i didnt pair her with shouhei, i would definitely pair her off with eric lmao

[banapsha]

Unleash the Power of Storytelling: Crafting the Ultimate Character Profile 101

Welcome, fellow storytellers and aspiring novelists! So, what's up? You have made a decision to grace the world of literature with your masterpiece, and now you're faced with that super challenging task of creating characters.

Fear not, my friend! I've got you covered with the ultimate guide to help you try to somehow navigate through the crazy labyrinth of character development. Buckle up, grab your much-needed favorite coffee(s) or energy drink(s), and let's dive into the truly intricate world of character creation!!

Basic Stats: Because It's Not Just Name, Rank, and Serial Number

Let's kick off with the basics, shall we? Name, role, sex, gender, age (because apparently, age is super crucial), race, ethnicity, culture – basically, the whole shebang. Don't forget to throw in some physical appearance details like height, body type, and whether they've got a face that could launch a thousand ships! Oh, and where are they from? No, not just their current residence, but the place they call home sweet home. Are they living large, scraping by, or just coasting through life? You, the creator, must have all deets!

Relationships: It's Not Just Complicated Facebook

Now, let's spill the tea on relationships. Family dynamics? Check ✓. Friends? Double check ✓. What's the deal with their family? Are they besties or mortal enemies? And don't skimp out on the juicy details – you (don't we all?) want to know about the love life, dating disasters, and whether they've ever had their heart broken. What's their love language? Because, you know, sometimes words of affirmation are all the jazz! Mainly focus on the MC's Relationship Drama because this is what drives your story forward. Dive deeply into the MC's relationships with others. Describe them in a few words, spill the tea on complicated conflicts, reveal their secrets, and dish out the juicy details on how they met. How will their relationships evolve as the story unfolds? And why? It's like a soap opera, but with even more character development.

Sexy Stuff: Attraction, Baby!

Let's talk sexy stuff – because it's more important than you think. Orientation, specific attractions (we're talking eyes, abs, feet…? 🤨🫥 and everything in between), and the nitty-gritty of their romantic escapades. Get those butterflies fluttering for sure!

Skills: Move Over, Jack of All Trades

Skills time! What are they good at? Did they master the art of ninja kicks through schooling or on the mean streets? Occupation, hobbies – spill it all out. You want to know what makes them a pro, or at least a decently good amateur.

Personality and Character: More Than Just Introvert vs. Extrovert

Time to psychoanalyze your character. Introvert, extrovert, ambivert – you need to know where they fall on the social spectrum. What are their strengths, weaknesses, fatal flaws, and personality types? Any internal conflicts brewing? Goals, dreams, fears, insecurities – lay it all out. And what's their go-to attire? Are they rocking the latest fashion or stuck in a time warp? And why?

Keys to Good Characters: Makes 'em Active, Not Couch Potatoes

Remember, we're crafting active characters who actually participate in the making of the story, rather than passive observers who just let the story happen to them. They should be the ones driving the story, not just tag along for the ride. Remember to give them fatal flaws, internal conflicts, and clear goals – the holy trinity of compelling characters!

Don't Stop Here: Keep the Creative Juices Flowing. Have fun with it. There is a lot more. Write useless facts about your characters, because the more you know them the better. Get into their heads and just rip 'em apart!

And there you have it – a roadmap to crafting characters that like kind of jump off the page,… sort of. Bonus tips: Write in the first person, spill the all-important details in detail, and be very intentional with your (aka your character's) choices. Don't be very afraid to tweak this template to fit your kind of story, and organize it efficiently based on all your narrative needs.

Go forth, my fellow wordsmiths, and create characters that will live rent-free in your readers' heads. Happy writing!

[severeaesthetic]

Headcanon prompts pt 2

Yandere headcanons

mega punch — has your muse ever punched something/someone? did they break anything (ie a wall, a nose) or just hurt their hand?

razor wind — are there any types of weather that your muse is afraid of/dislikes?

swords dance — has your muse ever practiced any kind of swordsmanship? are they any good at it?

whirlwind — what’s one thing that makes your muse really confused?

mega kick — is your muse a good dancer? what kind of dances are they particularly good at or enjoy?

toxic — does your muse have any unhealthy coping mechanisms? what are they? do they know that they’re unhealthy or not?

horn drill — are there any personality traits that would stop your muse from pursuing a relationship with someone?

body slam — is your muse prone to getting into physical fights? what are the usual outcomes of these fights?

take down — is your muse competitive? is this competitive nature specific to one activity (ie sports) or to everything they do?

double-edge — does your muse have any personality traits that are a double-edged sword?

bubble beam — what’s a fond memory your muse has from their childhood?

water gun — does your muse know how to swim? are they good at it?

ice beam — is your muse usually cold to others? if so, what does it take for them to warm up? if not, what could make them turn cold?

blizzard — does your muse enjoy cold or warm weather?

hyper beam — does your muse have any paralyzing fears?

pay day — if your muse had unlimited funds, what’s the first thing that they would buy?

submission — are there situations where your muse is more passive than others (ie talking to strangers, with their boss, etc)?

counter — is your muse capable of coming up with quick comebacks in an argument?

seismic toss — has your muse ever learned something that turned their world upside down?

rage — what’s one thing that makes your muse inconsolably angry?

mega drain — what wears your muse out the most (ie work, socialization, etc)?

solar beam — does your muse have any plants that they care for? do they have a green thumb or are they prone to killing plants?

dragon rage — does your muse believe in any myths?

thunderbolt — are there things that your muse would find shocking (ie a random factoid, that someone liked them, etc)?

thunder — describe your muse’s voice: is it soft, loud, grating, soothing, etc?

earthquake — does your muse know any secrets that could ruin someone’s life?

fissure — does your muse have any relationships that they’d like to fix?

dig — when your muse makes a mistake, are they quick to own up to it or will they ignore that they’ve done any wrong?

psychic — does your muse have any intrusive thoughts? if so, what are they?

teleport — if your muse could go to one place right now, where would it be?

mimic — what are some mannerisms that your muse has picked up from others? do they recognize that this is the case or not?

double team — does your muse act differently when they’re around people vs when they’re around others? is this intentional or subconscious?

reflect — is your muse able to self-reflect? do they use this reflection to improve or not?

bide — is your muse more patient with some things than others?

metronome — what kind of music does your muse listen to? does it change depending on their mood or what they’re doing?

self-destruct — what does your muse look like when they’re angry? do they explode, are they quiet, do they bottle it up, etc?

egg bomb — what kind of foods would your muse never be caught dead eating?

fire blast — is your muse a good cook? what would they consider their “specialty”?

swift — is there something your muse will never miss (ie an ex friend, a place, etc)?

skull bash — what does your muse do to focus?

soft-boiled — does your muse have a soft spot for anything? if so, is there a reason?

dream eater — does your muse have any recurring dreams/nightmares?

sky attack — is there something your muse finds attractive about themselves? does this extend to other people?

rest — how much sleep does your muse get?

thunder wave — does your muse like to take things slowly, or do they tend to rush?

psywave — is there an important memory your muse has that they wouldn’t like to forget?

explosion — has your muse ever been in an accident? were they injured?

rock slide —  does your muse prefer outdoor or indoor activities?

tri attack — does your muse work well in groups, or do they prefer to work alone? does this change depending on who they’re working with?

substitute — if your muse could be someone else, who would they be?

sleep schedule headcanons

listening to music headcanons

cooking headcanons

sleeping position headcanons

love language headcanons

sad headcanons

habit headcanons

date headcanons

sexuality headcanons

offering advice headcanons

receiving advice headcanons

swearing headcanons

body language headcanons

guilty pleasure headcanons

lazy day headcanons

waking up next to them headcanons

irrational fears/dislikes headcanons

cuddling headcanons

game night headcanons

movie night headcanons

pda headcanons

roadtrip headcanons

jealousy headcanons

seasonal headcanons

holiday headcanons

when they see you wearing their clothes

what they value most in a partner

how clingy they are

when they get jealous

them realizing they like you

how they confess

when you say you love them

how they flirt with you

how they comfort you

where they take you on a first date

how they cuddle

what nicknames they have for you

how they feel about pda

how they show they love you

Caught In The Act

Confessing Their Feelings

Cuddling

Dancing

Domestic

Falling Asleep With Them

First Date

First I Love You

First Kiss

First Meeting

Gifts

[eggsinvest]

EggsInvest vs Zoopla: Your Top Property Portal Comparison

Real estate investment is a powerful tool for growing your wealth, offering opportunities to generate passive income and build long-term equity. EggsInvest vs Zoopla – Discover the perfect property portal for your UK real estate investment needs.

But while the real estate market offers immense potential for financial growth, navigating the landscape can be daunting, especially with the abundance of property portals vying for your attention.

EggsInvest: Your Gateway to Property Investment Success

Understanding Your Investment Needs

Investing in real estate requires a clear understanding of your objectives and preferences. Whether you’re looking for London sale apartments, suburban homes, or commercial properties, EggsInvest provides a comprehensive platform tailored to your needs.

Navigating the Property Portal Maze: EggsInvest vs Zoopla

When it comes to property investment portals in the UK, two names stand out: EggsInvest and Zoopla. Let’s delve into a comparative analysis to help you make an informed decision.

EggsInvest: Your Personalized Investment Portal

EggsInvest distinguishes itself by offering a personalized approach to property investment. Unlike larger portals like Zoopla, EggsInvest prioritizes quality over quantity, ensuring that your listings receive the attention they deserve.

Investment Focus: Quality Over Quantity

While Zoopla boasts a vast database of properties, EggsInvest takes a different approach. By curating listings and focusing on quality, EggsInvest ensures that every property showcased on its platform meets high standards, attracting serious investors and potential buyers.

Targeted Exposure for Maximum Impact

In the competitive landscape of real estate, exposure is key. EggsInvest understands the importance of targeted exposure, leveraging strategic marketing tactics to showcase your property to the right audience.

Local Expertise, Global Reach

EggsInvest combines local expertise with a global reach, offering unparalleled insights into the UK property market. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or a first-time buyer, EggsInvest provides the guidance and support you need to make informed decisions.

Your Property, Your Platform: EggsInvest Advantage

Exposing Your Property to a Larger Audience with EggsInvest

By choosing EggsInvest as your property listing portal, you gain access to a targeted audience of investors and buyers who are actively seeking properties like yours. With strategic marketing initiatives and personalized support, EggsInvest ensures that your property stands out in a competitive market.

Conclusion: EggsInvest – Your Partner in Property Investment

In the journey of real estate investment, the choice of property portal can make all the difference. With EggsInvest, you’re not just gaining access to a platform – you’re gaining a partner committed to your success. Experience the EggsInvest advantage and unlock the full potential of your property investments today.