#and probably only 30 of them aren't story related

[lizardlover-skylarglamrock]

Life of a writer that does their stories on their phone.

*Ahem* me.🖐

[soaps-mohawk]

Okay so in case you were wondering why I turned anon off, and won't be turning it on probably for a while, I'm here to deliver receipts.

This is a long post so I'm putting it under a cut

There's been a few cases over the last week or so of people purposefully using other anon's emojis to send asks (not all of these were questionable or malicious. If you accidentally used one already claimed, this post is NOT about you.)

It was brought to my attention by a few anons that asks were sent that were not them. A lot of these asks weren't malicious or harassing which makes it hard to tell. As is the nature of anonymous asks, I cannot tell who sends them without some kind of sign-off or emoji, hence the use of emojis. While I believe not all of these were on purpose (see above), some of them absolutely were.

This started before the debacle about a week or so ago with ♾️ anon (which it has been confirmed that the person who asked to use that emoji was not behind the anonymous asks using that emoji) harassing me about not answering their ask. I took a screenshot of said ask, and this was what they were harassing me about

When I had anon on, I'd get a lot of asks. Sometimes as many as 20 or 30 a day. I am one person running this blog, and it takes me a while to get through asks sometimes. Most people who have ever sent asks to popular blogs (which still pains me to call this one popular) knows it can take sometimes days to get an answer because we get a lot of asks constantly.

Honestly, I wasn't going to answer this one anyway because...it's odd. Especially the timing because this was sent after chapter 29 was posted, right before chapter 30, in which neither chapter had smut in it. I know some people really love angst though so I didn't want to yuck anyone's yum, it was just very odd.

So, as I do, I start with the bottom of the inbox where the oldest asks are and I work my way up to the most recent (there are exceptions in the case of asks related to a post I just made, or asks that are easy to answer with just a few words or a gif versus a long thought out answer).

Anyway about a day after that ask was sent, I got others from that anon asking if I got their ask.

Then I made a post mid-breakdown about life sucking and the horrible position I was in (See here)

They then sent in THIS ask and got publicly shamed as they should.

A day or so goes by and I start to get a flood of asks in my inbox. Some are normal-ish, kind of odd but I'm used to kind of odd questions.

Then I start to get these

Obviously those aren't those anons. Figured that out pretty fast after a few hours of them sitting in my inbox.

Soon after I get this ask as I was getting ready for a job interview and went off because I was already stressed as fuck about the interview.

And then of course after I posted that I get this in response which I took a screenshot of and answered before blocking that anon.

And as I kind of had an inkling about, those asks above as well as several other strange ones in my inbox disappeared after blocking that anon. So it had been one perpetrator behind those at least (which was not the person who claimed that emoji that was a big misunderstanding on my part and that has since been solved and resolved.)

BUT that is not the end of this story.

As the weekend happens and the chapter is posted, I continue to get asks sent in by anons with emojis and continue to get messages from either anons saying they are that emoji anon and they didn't send that in, or those anons privately messaging me and saying they didn't send those in.

So we were having several cases of emoji stealing.

I also continue to get questionable, downright harassing asks, including these two.

That last one is what broke the camel's back and what made me turn anon off. I don't know if I'm the only one getting anons like this or if this is some new fart anon trend or what, but...look. I'm all for getting horny in my inbox. But things like this?? These kinds of things border on sexual harassment and honestly, they made me feel gross. I literally felt gross after reading those.

I don't mind being told a change of panties was necessary after smut chapters but after an angst chapter?? The timing of it was what made me suspicious. If they had sent that about three chapters ago I might not have looked twice at it.

You wanna tell me you had to pull out the willy stick for a chapter, cool. Just don't tell me what hole it was in and how long. I don't need to know that much detail. You wanna send that about fictional characters?? That's what we're here for. But I don't need to know that about YOU. I have boundaries and I'm going to add this to my rules list.

These asks definitely felt like someone very immature (and likely underage) sent them which makes me feel more disgusted about it.

I blocked that anon and the ones above. I just got pushed over the edge by people not being respectful and KNOWINGLY using others emojis making me not able to trust that an anon is who they claimed to be. Between that and the harassing asks above (which were just a select few) I decided to turn anon off indefinitely. Sorry to all my anons who aren't comfortable coming off anon but I just can't do it anymore. If you previously were an anon and are comfortable sending asks, you can still use your emoji. I don't mind that at all.

So yeah, that's the long story of why I turned anon off, and the receipts of the disgusting harassing asks I was getting. Hopefully having anon off indefinitely will make those sickos grow bored of waiting and force them to reevaluate their lives or mature enough to realize they were being stupid (cautiously hopeful but probably not.) If the internet has taught us anything, it's that trolls are gonna troll into adulthood and they will never reach the point of maturity to realize they're just being stupid. That's why they live in their parents' basement alone with no friends.

[demonslayerunhinged]

SaneGiyuu Argument 2 - 'But they have descendants!'

This is another point antis love to make against the SaneGiyuu ship and it's true after all, it's in the last chapter of the manga so yeah it's canon, they have biological descendants....or do they?

I'd like to thank the lovely angel who added this little tidbit of info in the Demon Slayer Tv tropes page. Whoever you are I love you! 😘

So I did a little research and it turns out the concept of descendants in Japanese culture are vastly different from that of ours in the west.

There's this thing called Adult Adoption.

It's a practice where an adult is 'adopted' into the family as their offspring legally and socially. It's a way of preserving the family name and artifacts and stuff.

It's still being practiced today even by family owners of mega corporations.

It's a really common practice:

So it's very possible that Giyuu and Sanemi's descendants aren't biologically related to them. They probably passed on their name and stuff to one of the junior slayers who admired them lots.

Plus, they only have four years left and they aren't the kind of guys to just speedrun their marriage only to then abandon their families when they die, especially Sanemi.

'But Giyuu had a wife-'

There's nowhere in the canon material that a wife is mentioned. It's probably some AO3 story that some asshole passed off as canon like Obanai wanting to propose to Mitsuri with a ring. There is no wife!

But okay, even if their descendants are biologically related to them for some reason, people be acting like queer men can't have kids too 🙄.

In Conclusion, this argument can kiss my ass!

[wrotelovelytears]

Pluto might be in Aquarius

But that's only half the story.

Now I'm not one to believe only the planets inspire change in people but the environment they live in, their disposition and their current state of being impacts them just as much. Astrology without the consideration of culture and context is just astronomy. It has the body but not the soul.

I start with that because of all the current global happenings. I understand the importance of spiritual and religious practices, and they don't exist in a bubble of their own. It is highly related to the cultural movements and ethnic practices of a region. If we are going to be honest religions/spirituality would not exist with out those cultural foundations. Literally there would be nothing if ethnic and cultural differences didn't play a role.

Hoodoo wouldn't exist if African Americans didn't. The Greek Pantheon wouldn't be a thing if the ancient Greeks didn't interact with the Egyptians, Nubians and Macedonians. And it should be very well known the Romans stole their whole flow and rebranded. The same Romans who took Christianity and set the foundation for the many versions we see today.

I say all that because I've noticed a lack of connecting between the social/political climate, traditions and belief systems. We can't pretend that Vedic astrology isn't an actual part of Hinduism because it wouldn't exist if Hinduism wasn't here. And Hinduism is the result of two very different populations interacting with one getting colonized and pushed south and the other needing a system/ belief to justify it. We can't pretend that tropical astrology isn't a more Eurocentric method because the signs, planets and their meanings are not the same outside of Western/Eurocentric ideology. In fact it's heavily based off of Roman and Greek interpretations, the base of Western Society as a whole.

I'm not going to pretend that Pluto moving into Aquarius is the only reason why we suddenly "see" more social changes, more standoffish behavior, more coldness to our fellow human. All Aquarius is doing is putting it on the internet. It sent a tweet out and we all saw it. These issues aren't a magical happening, they are the result of centuries of bs pilling up. Of cultures merging in ways that weren't possible before modern technology. Of colonization. Imperialism. Chattel Slavery. The Arab Slave trade. Ethnic cleansings.

People weren't passive before the shift into Aquarius, people were ignoring it. It's really easy to do when you have no personal reason to care, in fact it's probably something all humans can relate to on one topic or another. Trust me I was heavily into activism spaces a decade ago, everything being talked about in media now was talking about then. It was talkes about when my parents were growing up in the 60s. My grandparents in the 20s/30s and so on. Aquarius just put it in our faces (again, and will continue to do so) and said "now what? ".

I want people to not just lean in to spiritual/religious practices because they are popular but to look into the actual meanings they have. I want people to understand that yes you can be spiritual/religious and your ethnic background does impact how you practice. I want people to understand these changes we see in France (they lost their standing in Africa, literally all their former colonies told it to cope, and that's leading to their collapse), South Korea (this is not the first, and sadly won't be the last time, power has been abused under the name of "anti communism", in fact ask South East Asians how they treated there and you'll see this was going to happen), the United States (a country founded on genocide and racism isn't going to magically be less of those because a Black woman got to run for office) etc aren't solely a shift in the Star positions.

I see people point out the French Revolution happened the last time Pluto was in Aquarius (but they also had lost all the land in the US and Haiti told them to fuck off, so it wasn't just not eating cake, it was the lack of slave labor to fund their empire). Or America getting it's freedom (Britain was getting close to abolishing chattel slavery (again free labor, people hate to lose their free labor), the Irish and Scottish were also giving the English a hard time, they had to pick between the people next door or the ones over the Ocean). At that time it was the lack of free labor that pushed those movements, yeah everyone didn't have slaves but they all benefited from that system.

So many astrologers say don't let the stars determine your life but literally turn around and do that. Astrology is a tool at the end of the day. That's it, because if someone doesn't believe in it that doesn't change what happens. Conformation bias would have us believe differently but that's just part of our nature to lean towards that which supports us, not questions us. It's a practice that spans the globe and millennia because we can all look up and see the same stars at night. Maybe not as bright because light pollution, not the same positions because stars go supernova and the solar system moves, but it's still up for everyone on the planet. It's something that regardless of where you go, there's some meaning to it, maybe not always spiritual but a reason nonetheless. And it's never the same, obviously or else this would be a very boring plane of existence, and there's overlap because humans gonna human no matter where we are.

I implore you to think on your upbringing. Think on your ethnic group(s). Think on your current country of residence. Think on what you were taught in school. Think on your family. Because that's what's impacting you. That's what makes you make the decisions you do. Not just Mars moving through your third house (this is just an example, if that's happening for you good for you or I hope it gets better idk) .

Pluto in Aquarius isn't bring change. It's humans and our individual motives that are and always have.

Aquarius is a sign that puts the spot light on things already in motion. It makes you think because if you don't you can't understand. It makes you detached because if you feel it too much you might get hurt. It makes you remember because this isn't the first, nor the last time it will happen. Aquarius is the personal motive made public part of human nature. The selfish desires that push for survival. The seeking of like mindedness. The drive for community, but only if it's the same as you. Aquarius is the when of the story.

[bosskie]

Tense Dinner

Man, I feel like it's finally time to fart this out, after 3 weeks of working on this. I know that there are still some stuff I could improve, but I don't feel like it, and my current skills aren't enough... But at least I could produce something more proper after a long time... I don't know but this took like 20+ hours, or even 30+ hours... This was a good practice work too since I rarely draw/paint this complex stuff, and I'm still learning how to understand lights and shadows... But I guess that this looks okay.

But what the odd is this thing? Welp, I have said earlier that I have felt like trying out drawing some Oddworld characters I have never drawn before, but I only feel like drawing Molluck stuff, so... I just had to figure out in what kind of situation those characters could be with Molluck. I have never drawn Alf or Toby before, and I felt like drawing them but had no idea how. Then I did remember one comment on OWI's Instagram post where they asked with whom you would like to have a dinner or something. That one commenter said that they would like to have a dinner with Abe, Alf, Toby, and Molluck because they would like to have a tense dinner. So, that comment was my inspiration.

I thought with the sitting order that Molluck wants to keep his eyes on Abe, but he also sits so that he can see all the Muds. Abe wouldn't have wanted to sit next to Molluck, none of them really, but it suited Alf the best. Though, it's probably not better to sit in front of Molluck's vicious gaze either... The story is that they are trying to work together, and well, they are trying their best to make it as comfortable as possible, especially when Molluck has lost his certain power... Molluck doesn't really trust Abe, though he is paranoid anyway, so he has that chant suppressor to secure himself. The Chauffeur is bringing them some food, and it's up to your imagination what's that. But I assure that Molluck is trying his best to be nice! There are also some other thoughts and details, but I let you figure out the rest.

I don't know if I should write more or not, but well, this is my blog. While doing this thing, I just felt like I should quit art after this piece is done. I'm just so tired of seeing only flaws in my works, having inferiority complex moments... But quitting wouldn't fix the root issue. I still haven't felt like thinking about what to draw next like I normally do. I just feel like I don't feel like drawing... So, I probably need to have a break since I cannot force art. But I also have other stuff to do, and I also wanna get back to 3D stuff... So yeah, I just don't know about drawing/painting right now... I'm feeling alright, but also depressed right now...

But I do actively follow what's going on with Oddworld stuff, even quite stealthily. And I feel like I gotta say that it has been amusing for me to see Molluck x Abe stuff since I literally said some months ago that I'm surprised at how little there is that stuff, when one anon requested me to draw them kissing... "Be careful what you wish for --, or your wish will come true." (Y) (This is a quotation from one game...) Frankly, I gotta admit that this is my fave Oddworld ship; I like it more than Molluck x Chauffeur Slig thing. Though, I would depict it in a different way, but I love Molluck being nasty. (Y) I have no personal interest in doing ship content myself but rarely since I'm busy with shipping myself with Molluck... But ain't that ship content then too? Well, you got my point still.

I'm always into seeing how Molluck is seen since I see that my way to see him is different from the usual depiction, but this mainly relates to certain depth and sides I see him having. But I also gotta say that for me, Glukkons are asexual. Though, I tend to forget whole sexual side whenever I think about people in general, since I personally prefer asexual world. Sexual desires only feel like some primitive needs/necessities I would prefer not to have, but since Molluck is still the only one I desire that way, I wanna it really be about making love since I wanna give some love to his beautiful body. And yeah, since Glukkon have no reproduction organs, for me it means that he doesn't have anything down there (but some hole to urinate) since it's what makes sense the most for me. But frankly, it's also how I prefer him, since of course, you can imagine that stuff however you like but I prefer none, and it doesn't prevent having sex with him, or him enjoying it... I can confess that I do have created (and keep creating) plenty of "that material" for myself, thanks to my 3D Molluck sculpt... It was my main reason to even create it, but I gotta create a 3D model out of it to create even better stuff! I will also create general Molluck stuff with that, so I can share something too... I have just no desire to share sexual content since it's like letting people come to my bedroom which is private. But it's probably easy to understand what's Molluck's role if he got none... It's all you need to know if you wanna know answer to this usual gay pair question. I have never seen Molluck in this role in other people's stuff, but it's just how I prefer him, his "joy holes"... (I also think that this depends on the relationship dynamics, since I feel quite equal with him.) Man, that Gluk just makes me go crazy... I want that Gluk so badly every single day... But yeah, I only would feel like posting some suggestive naked Mollucks, but nothing more, at least it's what I think now. I draw that stuff quite rarely actually, but I bet that my 3D stuff affects that... Would still love to draw more stuff to appreciate Molluck's beauty...

Yeah, I cannot help that I love Molluck so much... Even when Molluck is being his nasty self, I'm like "I love Molluck! 💓"... I love my little big butcher, professional bastard... It's probably because I do enjoy stuff like that, like dark humour, and my imagination likes to give Molluck some "good" ideas... I believe that Molluck and me could get along well and have such a loving relationship, since I do believe in that Molluck is able to genuinely love and care, but it's hidden unless he finds "the right one" who loves him just as he is. So, I see that Molluck's personality ain't all about being an angry nasty bastard, who just likes to use others, but he can also be caring and loving. It's just how Soulstorm made me see him; he feels like a friendly Gluk to me. But yeah, like I have said, I did start to love Molluck because I saw myself in him, so I bet that I also give parts of my personality to make his personality more complete. I cannot help it but I feel like saying that he is so adorable... Yeah, try to see Molluck as scary, intimidating, and sinister when it's more like hot to me... But I trust that Molluck do not wanna hurt me, like I do not wanna hurt him either.

Yeah, I didn't really have much to say... I can just keep talking about Molluck, how much I love him, and so on... I send him hugs 'n' kisses every day! It's really Molluck who keeps me creating stuff since it feels like my depression is getting worse in a way that I keep losing my interest in stuff... I just cannot get enough of that Gluk... He feels so right... He is like me as a Glukkon... I mean, I even see myself in some Molluck memes people do... It came to my mind to wonder like over a week ago if Molluck bites his cheeks or lips by accident since it's what happens to me, thanks to my own "loose" cheeks... I love Molluck's loose cheeks and his whole head's physics. (Y) Though yeah, I could list so many thing I love about Molluck...

Molluck! 💞 I really don't know what else to say... This Gluk is just so important to me. But I also don't know about drawing for a while... I just have no inspiration... But yeah, I always feel like appreciating Molluck's beauty, so if nothing else can bring it back, then it's probably what could end this art block.

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! Sorry this is going to be a long ask.

I'm writing a cast of four characters, all of whom have some form of disability and I'd like your input, especially since a few of them fall into tropes I've seen talked about on the blog.

I have autism, ADHD, and chronic joint pain that is undiagnosed but probably related to hypermobility. All of them have ADHD and autism but I'm not going to talk about that at length for any of them because I'm pretty comfortable with writing them.

Dispite the amount of disabled characters I have and the questions I have about how to portray them, this is not a story about disability or the disabled experience, but I do want to showcase my disabled characters in a nuanced way that highlights that their disability is not separable from them.

This is also for a fanfiction, and the source has some trouble with how it portrays disability (evil character with an eye patch, bionics that completely negate the disability) and I'm trying to figure out what I can modify and what I need to just throw out.

I'll go in alphabetical order and talk about them and the tropes I'm worried about falling into/what I want advice on.

Autumn (he/they)

He has ADHD, autism, classical EDS, is mildly HoH (about 20-30 decibels less than normal range), and has three fingers on his right hand due to an injury. They use a variety of mobility aids throughout the story, starting with only occasionally using a cane and ending with using forearm crutches on good days and a wheelchair on bad days.

The tropes/things I'm concerned about with them are the “good” wheelchair user, the noble dead disabled character, and finger prosthetics

The "pure/good" wheelchair user trope I'm partially concerned about because he becomes the moral core of the cast as time goes on and he gets more disabled. He doesn't become a better person, really, but everyone else gets Worse. He's still snarky and can be selfish and jaded at times, but I feel like it's harder to demonstrate that at the end.

Being the most honest and least willing to capitulate to doing terrible things leads to his execution, which is a turning point and a point of no return. I feel like this ties into a trope of the disabled character dying first, especially since he's the one who's using disability aids/is most explicitly disabled.

I've seen the posts about why finger prosthetics aren't useful/common, but I was thinking that he'd start off with canon-typical bionic fingers before eventually realizing that he doesn't need them and it's more hassle to put them on and off than it is to just not have them. Is this an okay use of finger prosthetics since it's kind of grappling with the trope itself? Or would it be better for him not to have them in the first place?

Right now I have it so Autumn’s sister Summer died and he named himself in her honor when he transitioned. That's pretty immutable at this point. However, right now I have her as d/Deaf, with much more profound hearing loss than Autumn. (Which is also why he knows ASL) Does this fall into a disabled dead character issue?

Chauncey (he/him)

Chauncey has ADHD, autism, burn scars, chronic pain (unspecified, based on my own experiences) and dyscalculia.

Chauncey's the one I'm frankly least concerned about any specific tropes. There are only one or two concerns I have with him:

As an author, it's important to know what disability a character has even if they don't know. I know in your FAQ you say “I'm disabled is it okay to x” is generally okay, but do you think I should have a more specific disability in mind that matches my symptoms or can I keep it no specificity?

He's a clone who was rapidly aged and I wasn't sure how to figure out if/how that might affect his dyscalculia since it's not exactly a situation that happens in real life but that's about it.

Morticia (she/her)

She's my protagonist. She has autism, ADHD, a visual impairment in the form of a missing eye, and visible scarring on her face.

She's heavily based on the canon character who was an “evil eyepatch” guy. I changed it so she actually has issues with said eye and made her less evil during the period of time she uses it but I'm not sure if I should just ditch the eyepatch all together.

She starts with a bionic eye (it's not perfect, but she can see out of it to some extent). Then she gets into some sci-fi bullshit and starts piloting around a robot telepathically, but her signals get crossed with her bionic eye, so she covers it with an eyepatch while she's piloting the robot. She does use this scheme to commit 28 murders, but the murders are kind of justified by the plot? She's really written as doing some ehh things for what she believes is right. I definitely wouldn't write the eyepatch that way if it wasn't in the source, but it was like the way to identify her character in the source, so it feels weird to not have it at all.

After that, she gets arrested, gets her bionic taken, and gets a prosthetic to keep appearances and hold the shape. Stuff happens, and she gets another bionic with some more visual info that is sometimes too much for her. She gets a lot worse than when she had the eye patch, but she does still have a noticeable eye difference. Her later bionic is totally customizable and she normally keeps it a glowing gold.

I have questions about her facial scarring because she uses it to play on people's perceptions. When she's campaigning and trying to look innocent and kind, she covers it as much as she can. However, when she feels like she is in control and can do whatever she wants without consequences, she doesn't bother or even chooses to try to cover her freckles but avoid her scars because she thinks they make her more intimidating. This results in her having her scarring visible during scenes where she's being "evil" but not when she's being "good." Is that okay? It feels like it's playing into the "villain with scars" but since she as a character is doing that, it feels less like the story itself is doing it (especially since Chauncey has similar or slightly more prominent scarring and doesn't do similar things), but I'm unsure.

She is evil, and disabled, but I don't want her to be an evil disabled character. I try to associate her covering up her scarring more with masking/trying to fit in than with her being “good” but I'm not sure if it comes off that way.

Mortimer (he/him)

ADHD, autism, and limb difference (upper arm amputee)

Mortimer is probably the character I'm most worried about with my disability rep (shocking considering the five huge paragraphs I just wrote about Morticia). He's the trope of “amputee that fixes his own prosthetics/tinkers on himself.” He also makes Autumn and Morti’s aids (at least until the arrest). He also kind of falls into an autistic savant but I'm less worried about how to navigate that since I'm very familiar with the autistic community, am autistic, and have other autistic characters.

I'm worried that if I make the prosthetics he makes not “cybernetic fix-all” it'll defeat some of what I'm trying to do with making him just as good as inventors who have done that in canon. I don't know how to retcon that canon without using an author's note, which feels disjointed and I want to avoid it.

To try to work with this and not ignore the fact he's disabled, I show the prosthetics needing maintenance and try to show them sometimes being uncomfortable or heavy.

However, this leads into my second problem with how I'm handling his disability. His character arc causes him to go from being the nicest one in the cast who is very meticulous but can sometimes have a temper, to becoming reckless, rude, and seemingly uncaring.

As he becomes more reckless and less willing to care for himself, he stops doing some of the necessary maintenance on his prosthetic, causing it to break more often and rust. I'm worried this looks like I'm tying his disability getting “worse” with his morality, since he also stops caring for others as much when he stops caring for himself.

I'm also not sure if it is okay for him to paint his bionic arm to try to look like a flesh arm, since he was a criminal and he was trying to make himself look less identifiable at a glance. And if it is, when he stops doing his maintenance on it, it makes sense for the paint to chip, but that would strengthen the association of him being more visibly disabled as he becomes meaner and harsher. I'm not sure if having Autumn bring the only one who's personality remains more or less the same while becoming more visibly disabled balences this out a little bit or if it's a point of having two tropes at the same time doesn't make either better. (If Autumn is a “good wheelchair user”)

Questions involving more than one character:

Autumn knows some ASL. Mortimer is an unrealistic character that knows far more than any one person can know, and he knows basically any language as far as the story is concerned. Autumn teaches Morti a little ASL, as well. Since Autumn can understand most conversation, they generally use it instead of whispering rather than in normal conversation. Is that an acceptable use of ASL?

Currently all of my visible facial and limb differences are due to injury. I have extremely few other characters with any prominence or description at all, certainly to the extent where it would be reasonable to know if someone has a difference due to injury or birth. Do I change/add something to these four so it's less All Injuries?

I mentioned before Mortimer and Morticia trying to hide their differences for different reasons. I don't really want to go into any sense of shame they have over it, just them hiding for practical purposes. If it's not appropriate to hide them for practical purposes, do I have people react as if they had hidden them or is that erasure? (e.g. Mortimer doesn't paint his arm and it's visibly mechanical. Is that something the police are looking to identify him by or do I ignore it? It feels weird to ignore it, but if it's causing problems for the characters it feels like a reasonable reaction would be to try to blend in, but is trying to blend in/hiding their disability just heightening the sense that disabled people need to hide?)

I'm so sorry I wrote an Entire Essay I promise I tried to be concise but I have a lot of questions about the tropes I fear I'm hitting and whether I'm missing anything trying to portray the disabilities I don't have

Hey!

I will answer only some of your questions because I don't have enough experience with a lot of the subject matter here. I'd recommend looking at this post some time after it's published to see if maybe a follower had an answer/suggestion for you.

Now for the questions I'm able to answer:

For Chauncey;

It's 100% okay to base it on your own experience. At times disabilities are mysterious and unspecific, that's just how it sometimes is. The problem with this that appears from abled authors is that the symptoms or treatments just often don't make sense, because they have no clue what they're doing; confusing basic terms, making weird conclusions...

But you are a person with lived experience. You understand how your symptoms work and how you manage it from the best - first person - point of view. If someone is well-equipped to write a character with your disability, it's you.

For Morticia (cool name BTW);

As of the bionic eye; as far as I'm aware they don't really exist yet, but this is a sci-fi scenario so it's a bit different. (If you want to hear about the currently real options, here's a post that could interest you).

I'm slightly puzzled by her eyepatch fixing the signal issues; I would've assumed that it would transmit things either way (?) because with an eyepatch she would still see, just the inside of the patch and not the usual stuff. But my cluelessness here might be my fault by the fact that I'm not familiar with the source material. But if it's meant for a general (non-fandom) audience, I think it would be great if you could elaborate on the science here.

With the later eyes she gets, I advise you to keep her visually impaired even if her vision improves somewhat. It shouldn't be a cure. You potentially could think of it like hearing aids, where they can be more or less helpful, but are often more annoying than anything else and aren't fully "restoring" the sense by any means. Maybe her bionic eye has static, or weird spots, or causes double vision.

Now for the "hmm" part...

"When she's campaigning and trying to look innocent and kind, she covers it as much as she can. However, when she feels like she is in control and can do whatever she wants without consequences, she doesn't bother or even chooses to try to cover her freckles but avoid her scars because she thinks they make her more intimidating."

Please, please, please don't do this. To answer your question; not okay.

I have written a post somewhat about this kind of thing. I really dislike playing with ableism in this way. Portraying scars as "intimidating" on an already dicey character... just no.

To pull this off in a way that's not offensive, you would have to research disfiguremisia in and out. It would need active commentary and a lot of teaching-the-reader-why-this-is-bad, and if you have to ask if it's okay, then you just aren't ready for it. And that's fine. You don't have to write a scenario based on heavy disfiguremisia, so don't. Remember, it's not her acting a certain way, it's you writing her to act a certain way.

I don't want you to take this personally, but please just don't write this. Not like this, at least.

For the "fitting in" part, I addressed it in the post linked above; I don't think that I have anything to add that wasn't included there.

For Mortimer, the best I can do right now is give you a bunch of links that will hopefully be helpful to you. This is just way beyond my answering capabilities and we don't have any mods who are amputees at the moment, so you're at the mercy of follower input for the most part. But;

Post of posts about arm prosthetics

Our general amputee tag

@cy-cyborg 's account, xe posts great writing advice, often regarding prosthetics. I believe that ze accepts asks as well.

For the rest of the questions;

"Currently all of my visible facial and limb differences are due to injury [...] Do I change/add something to these four so it's less All Injuries?

I would say yes. Some of the tropes that you're working if are not great, so adding a few additional characters that don't fall into them will help a lot. Try having some characters with similar disabilities that don't tick the issue-causing boxes. Throw someone with a facial difference that doesn't commit any kind of mass murder in there.

"I mentioned before Mortimer and Morticia trying to hide their differences for different reasons. [...] If it's not appropriate to hide them for practical purposes, do I have people react as if they had hidden them or is that erasure?"

In real life they would probably be recognized by it, though I need to say that there is absolutely a part of the population who just doesn't notice. People can absolutely be oblivious, especially if the lack of limb is hidden by clothes. Particularly if there are a lot of things going on.

That said, if whoever seen them has noticed, then they would look for that. That's just the logical outcome. But I don't think an eyepatch helps much to hide the actual disability, they would still assume that the person with a bionic eye and the eyepatch-wearing person are probably the same.

You can potentially avoid it by making a large chunk of the population disabled. "Girl without an eye" isn't very helpful information to hunt someone by when there's dozens of people with that description in the city.

For the end, I'm sorry that some parts of it might have come off as not the most encouraging (the Morticia part...), please remember that I'm just criticizing the tropes and implications. I can kind of tell that whatever the source material is, it is way worse about its treatment of disability/facial difference, so I would consider it an improvement nonetheless. Still, it could be better. I hope that the above links and answers will help you with your project.

If any followers are familiar with the topics discussed here, you can leave a reply or reblog with your suggestions. Remember to be constructive.

I hope this helps!

Mod Sasza

Hey! Mod Patch hopping in here to talk a bit about Autumn. I think that you’re aware of the tropes this could fall into is a good first step. 

First of all, you mention Autumn is missing some fingers and has classical EDS. Both of these could make using a manual wheelchair more difficult. Is the wheelchair in question manual? If it is perhaps consider adding a power assist (perhaps like a fantasy version of a smart drive. 

I’m not too concerned about him being “pure” because you mention that they are 1) working with other “immoral” folks. My suggestion would be to try and lean into the selfish and jaded parts of the character. Show his motivations aren't exclusively disability-related. I am a bit concerned about his execution. I understand that you might not be able to change that plot point but can you have other characters who use mobility aids and survive longer? They don’t have to be as major in the story.

mod Patch

[sentienttoastah]

Not all of these are directly vocaloid related and this mostly reflects my own tastes but.

Ryōshū probably listens to the DMCV and Metal Gear Rising: Revengence songs just loud enough that others can hear it if they sit next to her. Agree on the ADO but would also add Butchers Vanity (chef), symaG, Kan Kan and MARETU.

Faust probably is into game OSTs, like the ones for Neir:Automata and the SMT series. Plus blackY, a lil bit of Team Grimoire, and Touhou. As well as general classical sometimes - I feel like she'd prefer instrumentals. Rhythm game ahh music taste when she isn't trying to focus on something (because she is good at them)

Heath would absolutely like vocaloid, but specifically a real sucker for the catchy ones like Mesmerizer and Luka Luka ☆ Night Fever. Listens to jubyphonic for EN covers. Oft falls prey to the 'bopping song/depressing lyrics' phenomenon (just like Sinclair)

Yi Sang likes peaceful sounding songs, like (gestures at Mili) and video game OSTs ,but I I see him liking upbeat ones like La Primavera and I Got It!. He listens to more songs with lyrics after canto 4.

Sinclair likes Tokyo Teddy Bear. Neru, PinoccioP, MARETU, DECO * 27, syudou and generally the most popular Vocaloid artists like a decade ago. Also likes the occasional classical and stuff like Take Me to Church, Partners in Crime and TLT's Discord remix. Listens to Nightcore when he thinks nobody else can hear it (they can). Eminem.

Gregor likes the songs that shops play bc they were popular 5-30 years ago.

Donqui is also a rhythm game fiend but esp likes the ones like Sswwiinnddlleerr or The Big Black where you aren't 100% sure throwing kitchenware down the stairs or putting an orchestra in a centrifuge wasnt at least a part of the process. Loves Fixer anthems/themes (they probably sound like indie horror game fansongs) and anime songs like A Cruel Angel's Thesis, Lifetime Girl Declaration and Lucky Star's Opening. Eurobeat.

Charon does not yet know what Eurobeat is. This is the reason the bus only hits things sometimes.

Wall of text jumpscare 🫵🐟 /pos

oh my gosh limbus headcanons in my inbox let’s go?? I’ll try responding to these erm hold on.

Ryōshū one I absolutely agree with, can’t believe I never considered Butchers Vanity and the MGR:R soundtrack. She would totally listen to loud blaring songs and metal, songs with raw emotions. But maybe also songs with deeper meanings because uh. Art or something.

Faust being a rhythm gamer is just yes.

You worded the Heathcliff vocaloid bit way better than I did. Imagining Heathcliff listening to mesmerizer or Young girl A completely oblivious, yeah. Jubyphonic as a go-to for english covers is very valid. I also think he might like Laufey for the love songs and such, a bit of mitski or joji in there too perhaps.

I’ve personally always imagined Yi Sang liking any song with some kind of deep meaning behind it(trademark) or some story because erm, typical poet behavior. But he definitely would feel intimidated by loud blaring music so he sticks to mellow, slow-paced songs. At times I imagine him liking the Hawaii Part ii album because of the lore(trademark), other times I imagine him listening to funkytown unironically.

Sinclair, he probably even shares a playlist with Heathcliff. Generally agree on this and I think he would be even more secretive about his music taste than Heathcliff. Sinclair being Sinclair. Probably also shares a playlist with Ryōshū due to them hanging out a lot. Take me to church fits really well considering his source material. Also Eminem oh my god…???

Gregor being a Dad oh god… Sounds accurate honestly. I think he would like Army Dreamers by Kate Bush though.

Don checks out. She’s probably really good at certain songs in rhythm games and absolutely terrible in others, no in between. I like to imagine she comes up with her own fixer songs, almost like a disney channel musical movie protagonist. Just randomly starts singing on the spot. Considering that one Don Quixote musical, if it existed somehow in the Project Moon universe she would love it.

Charon….

Yeah that sounds about right for Ishy. For me she listens to sea shanties very often, mostly for the nostalgia. But those really sad sea shanties like Bones in the Ocean, and other stuff by The Longest Johns or other shanty bands. There’s one I found that’s directly telling the story of Moby Dick (as well as the Moby Dick musical) I know it won’t mix very well considering the lore and timeline just like with the Don Quixote one but still.

No worries :D

I have never heard such a specific name for song. I searched it up just now and thank you anon for introducing me to nanahira lol.

But with Hong Lu mentioned I honestly think he wouldn’t know much about pop songs prior to joining Limbus Company, probably from his relatives keeping him sheltered from the outside world. He probably only knew about traditional songs or classical pieces. But being in Limbus Company now he definitely would share similar tastes to Don Quixote, or is probably really open to any kind of music because he’s never heard a lot of it. I think he’d like Bitter Choco Decoration.

Phew that was a lot. Thank you anon for the fun headcanons to read and think about!!

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 30 of Nona the Ninth

The tower has returned as the image for the chapter

I'm not exactly sure what Paul was trying to do by putting the truck in a bubble, or why Nona and Pyrrha don't think it will work. I guess maybe he thought the bubble would protect them from the ghosts, but Nona and Pyrrha want to be able to see where they're going and don't think Paul can navigate well enough from inside the bubble?

In my first draft of that paragraph I wrote "Palamedes" instead of "Paul". FFS

Back at the beginning of Harrow the Ninth, it wasn't just the ghosts that were the problem with going physically through the River, John also claimed that non-Lyctors would have their souls leave their bodies if they tried that, but Kiriona and Corona seem fine here. Paul probably qualifies as some kind of Lyctor at this point, and Pyrrha might have some special dispensation due to once being part of a Lyctor and Nona is fucking Elder God and it's not clear whether Judith is actually ok or not. There's also a lot of other people in the truck who aren't Lyctors in any way

The ghosts abandoned the River earlier because Number Seven was nearby, and it does speak through Judith again later in the scene, is it protecting them from the ghosts as a favor to Nona? Or is there something else going on with the River as hinted at by Ianthe?

This sounds like maybe the truck is being treated specially here because there is one, maybe two, resurrection beasts on board

Did this telling actually happen on screen at some point, or was it during one of the periods where Nona was unconscious? Presumably Kiriona does know about the tower in the River, since she traveled through the River to New Rho not too terribly long ago, but I don't think she's mentioned it on screen yet

Lmao, of course there's a reference to losing the game in this book

Oddly, that is actually an effective way of communicating what's going on with her, that there are things she doesn't want to remember and she doesn't want to think about how she doesn't want to remember them because then she risks remembering them. She recognizes this tower, so I guess it might be Canaan House, or it might be something related to the Ninth, since that's where they're trying to get to? Harrow did wind up in part of the River that seemed to look like the Tomb the last time we saw her. But Pyrrha must have traveled to the Ninth via the River when she went there to kill Wake, and she doesn't recognize this

I guess Harrow technically did build a version of Canaan House inside a River bubble during the last book, but at the end of that book it was coming apart at the seams. But this might be something else that Harrow built in the River in a more permanent capacity, and maybe it resembles some real place that Alecto remembers

So on the second readthrough, it's definitely sounding like their safe passage through here is because of Number Seven. I don't know what it's talking about, though

Ok, but earlier, Pyrrha said that it was people with "necromantic bodies" that had this reaction to the resurrection beasts' speech, and Paul doesn't have a necromantic body. Also, Palamedes using Camilla's body didn't have any reaction to Number Seven speaking through Judith the first time that happened. This seems kind of inconsistent

That's like kind of weirdly sweet, she doesn't care about dying, and she doesn't care enough about the people she's with to save them, but she cares enough about saving Noodle that she'll save everyone else so that Noodle doesn't have to die. Just your average eldritch monster that only cares about its favorite dog

It's interesting to contrast the Nona parts of this story where Nona is talking about not being afraid of death and wishing she could just die because she is tired of trying to stay in her body and Harrow saying in the last John chapter that Alecto was afraid of dying

That's also an interesting use of the word "home", does Nona consider the Ninth House to be "home" in some way? Because Alecto's body is locked in the Tomb? Because she has residual memories of being Harrow?

[2346khith]

List of canon changes in my au.

So I did a post something similar to this one about how my au is different from the canon but this time it going to less structure and more rant like. I am not trying to compare my au to the neatherrealm timeline or trying to be a better writer than NRS just making an au for fun.

.Kind of a change to my au (I kind of forgot what I did previously with the timeline.) This follows the event similarly to the original timeline but only the arcade era and after that it sort of stagnates a little bit into being a fusion of mkx and deception but that not set in stone. Different factors from different timelines will be implemented depending on how much I like them.

.Kung lao is similar to his mk1 counterpart but more humble

. Raiden is more based on the 95 movie raiden and dotr raiden

.Kenshi joined the special forces much earlier and did so out personal reasons with his mother side of the family being held captive by the black dragon through the yakuza

.Kenshi has his Eurasian background from the og timeline

.Johnny and Sonya are married permanently. The did just get married because Sonya was pregnant but the did fall in love while having Cassie. It was messy trying to raise her as either had any experience dealing with kids but they learned along the way

. Frost real name here is Holly (yes I know that not her canon name this is canon changes to an au and yes I know the name is stupid and lazy but I busy with homework and job hunting so cut me some slack)

.Frost does compete in underground fighting but there not hosted by the black dragon and there no to the death fights

.Johnny , Sonya and Liu Kang are all closed friends (there still the first fighters for earthrealm) who hang out a lot of the time. Johnny enjoys dragging Sonya and Liu around Hollywood, Sonya acts like the one in charge and makes sure the boys aren't in any trouble and Liu is the peacekeeper and makes sure neither Johnny nor Sonya are overly stressed out

.Syzoth currently in the story appears reptilian up until the outworld's invasion where he gets stranded in earthrealm and has to take a human disguise

.Mileena is a clone but unlike her original counterparts, after multiple arcs that I have not even begun to write out yet, they Kitana accepts her as her sister

.Jerrod is inside of Ermac but he never takes control of the collective and is more like Ermac conscience guiding him into specific decisions like protecting Kitana

.Wraiths appear more human the more time the spend out of the neatherrealm but wraith like appearances will show up if there distress or with highten emotions

. Just like in mkx Erron Black is an immortal cowboy who travels all over the realm and is currently the only person besides raiden to hop onto different realms though he not will the share that information with anybody.

. Instead of Suarians originating from earthrealm and moving to zaterria, it the opposite way around with them being originally from zaterria but after outworld invade fleed to earthrealm and hid refugee underground. As the stayed in earthrealm, the evolved to become more versitile in shapeshifting to a point where they can mimic powers which leads to the creation of Khameleon

. Sektor is female while Cyrax is male. Sektor did have some romantic relation with Bi Han for a short while but it end very quickly

. Jax is a little bit older than the rest of the earthrealm fighters(something along the lines of early 30s to most earthrealm fighters early to mid 20s)

.Quan chi is more powerful. What I mean by that is that he could probably take an army on by himself with little to no resistance and he be a lot more powerful than scorpion and noob saibot combine

. Before finding Bi han or Kuai Liang, Sareena found Cyrax first and managed to bring the humanity out of him from... I don't know attacking his lingering soul which caused it to take control on his mechanical body and now have a sort of alliance with each other

. Vaterrians aren't extinct or endangered but are used a slaves until Nitara started a revolution

. Saibot has free will and acts as his own entity

.In the future events when the kombat kids form Cassie is more along the lines of a wrestler while Jacaqui fights with tech. Inspired by @zxid art of them and concept art of Cassie.

. Skarlet is raised with Kitana and Mileena and while she doesn't exactly turn to the side of good with Kitana and Mileena, she does remain neutral and has a okay sisterly relationship with them

.The only difference between a a demons true form and human disguise is that of appearance. Physically and power wise there the exact same no matter which form their at

.Shao is a god just like raiden

.D'vorah doesn't exist here. Kytinn exist here and are minor race but D'vorah isn't here

.Kotal does exist and was a general for Shao but he doesn't try to take the thrown of kahn instead was more interested in finding and regrouping his people

. Shujinko doesn't become an old man

.currently Ashrah had the kris but has not made her way out of the netherrealm yet

.Tomas is cybernized but his programing is a bit unstable due to his possesion on enenra and in the future when Tomas is brought back, it into a human body while his cybernized body in possed by enenra

.Hanzo is attractive. Thats it. Why does he have to be attractive? Just cause

And that all that I have current apart of mykung au although more stuff might be added later down the line. What do you guys thing. Please put your feedback, criticism, helping ideas and prompt down in the comments(seriously please put them down. I need ideas and I have no idea what I'm doing. every now and then I get these waves of ideas and then my minds completely blank for weeks) Also I promise I'll try to post more about this au as often as I can with all this school work along with other ideas for other series an fandoms I have. Currently I'm thinking of two over aus , one being my own transformers fan continuity and one being an alternate universe in marvel.

[xiaq]

Why do feelings have to be so confusing???

I’ve never been super into labels, but if I had to choose I probably would have gone with aroace. I kind of figured I wouldn’t ever find someone I wanted to be in a relationship with and that was fine.

But now I’m 30 and somehow in a relationship for the very first time with this person that I love so much. And it’s wonderful and amazing in so many ways, but I also feel so crazy with it??

I feel like a teenager with their first crush but also too old for that and it’s like I don’t know how to trust myself in this because I’ve never felt anything close to this before.

Feeling romantic and sexual attraction for the first time there’s a part of me that’s like how has everyone been living like this the whole time??? It still doesn’t feel like it should be real somehow, even though I’m now experiencing it firsthand.

Anyway I don’t know exactly where I’m going with this, but if you either advice or even just stories to make me feel a little less ridiculous, I’d love to hear them!

I think it's really REALLY important to remember that socially reinforced ideas of normalcy when it comes to exploring sexuality are not, actually, normal. A. Because people are people and what works for one person doesn't work for others. While there's obviously going to be a bell curve on the graph of "when do people typically sort out who they want to kiss (or not kiss) and start doing that" there is going to be a steady, not insignificant, number of folks that are on the upward and downward swing of that bell curve before you even get to the far outliers, and that's to be expected. B. Traditionally accepted timelines for building a sense of sexual identity don't apply anymore. The average age for (first) marriage is creeping back each year. In the US in 1900 it was 26 for men and 22 for women. Now it's 29 and 27 respectively. Women, especially, don't have nearly the pressure placed upon them that they used to to quickly find someone who will take care of them seeing as we can now open bank accounts and own property and work for (mostly) equal pay and all that jazz. So there's that to consider.

But also. Humans, human bodies, are never stagnant. You might have heard the fun factoid that all our cells are replaced every 7 years. That's not entirely accurate, but it's true that the body does regenerate skin and bone and liver and stomach, and so on, cells at a kind of mind-boggling rate. There are things that we're born with that don't change like some of the neurons in our cerebral cortex, I think, but as a species we are generally made to adapt to new experiences and environments so much so that our bodies are in a constant state of change themselves. You're just...doing what you're built to do. Something new has happened and you're adapting to it.

And yes, it can be scary and make you feel very vulnerable when you don't have historical relationship or sex-related context like other people your age might have, but that's when you get to lean on friends and/or talk to your therapist to make sure you're approaching things in a healthy way, there aren't red flags you're missing, etc. Because humans are also pack animals and we thrive in communities in which we can share each others burdens and wisdom.

As someone who also had built what I thought was a pretty clear assessment of my romantic and sexual identity over 29 years, only to have it challenged and rebuilt at 30, I fully empathize with the way you feel. But I leaned into the feelings of confusion (and frankly, giddiness, at times). Who says teenagers are the only ones that get to experience first crushes? Who says 30 is too old for self-discovery? You get to decide how you interact with the world. Who cares what other people are doing if what you're doing makes you happy and hurts no one.

[davekat-sucks]

Oh my goodness! That anon talking about hazbin hotel merch made me realize that Hussie could have made bank if he just made a different Homestuck merch and make almost all the merch line ups limited edition pins. With my own personal experience I can say I’ve seen pins sell well, at times they can sell slow but people are willing to pay premium for them if they’re told “I only have 300 of these and I’m never making them again. When they are gone they are gone.”

Homestuck fans are still obsessed enough with Homestuck to want to buy plushies and pins. This is a self own but if you put some Jade merch in front of me that’s GOOD I’m going to snatch it up like a fish eatting a worm on a fishing line.

This honestly shows me Hussie is really incapable of looking at others successes and taking advice. Homestuck is a BRAND focused on CHARACTERS and it is niche but a content creator can take advantage of that.

They used to have enamel pins and other unique items once upon a time on their old WhatPumpkin Store. However, they stopped producing it because the price for these pins as a set were overpriced and didn't sell enough. $15 fucking dollars for a pin set, even for the simpler smaller ones. Some were able to be reduced to $8 under ForFansByFans, but by then, Homestuck was near the end of its run and nobody cared enough to buy the merch. The Beta Kids one in the first pics were 8 dollars each and $30 if you buy all four. But even then, compared to ones like Helluva Boss or The Amazing Digital Circus, they are at least more reasonable with some having gimmicks (like the Lenticular or locket flip) or special shape designs that need better time to mold and painting. And Glitch Productions is even nice that some aren't that limited time only. But I have no idea if the sales would have been better if it was a limited time offer.

Even for recent times, Hussie or James Roach could use something like this Makeship Campaign plush to sell either Homestuck or Hiveswap related characters, but they aren't doing that either. Not even for YouTooz and their quality for making stuff is cheap as shit. What doesn't help that in one of the ForFansByFans livestreams that used to be streamed on Twitch, they or WhatPumpkin, admitted they lost some of the data files for the merch. So things like outlines about how a plushie should look like or made, the 3D model shape and mold for the Homestuck figures, the images for the shirts/bags/calendars/etc, etc. Most of them had been fan-made, so it will be hard to try and contact the original artists for it. And ones for official like the Homestuck figures, they probably have moved on to greener pastures than to stick around with WhatPumpkin and/or lost file data too. Finally, there's also MOTIVATION that is needed to buy the merch. Homestuck at its state was in Gigapause or near end of its run by the time these merch stuff dropped even after the Kickstarter was funded. Maybe some got tired of waiting for the series to update. Maybe some are unhappy with how the story turned out by the end and didn't think they could support Homestuck because of that. Besides just being able to support small indie creators, does the series make people happy or special that it would give people the energy and effort to go out and buy the merch? Even if you love or hate something too, there should at least have some drive to get people to think about a series. For Homestuck, it's nothing but emptiness.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Long story short, my apartment was visited once by a person i have no relations to, and out of convenience he came with his 8-10(?) yo daughter. He had some business with my brother, and my bro, being a people pleaser he is, decided to entertain the kid by showing her my doll collection. I didn't see any harm in this and she was very respectful about not playing with the dolls, but this little girl got obsessed with my custom unoa. She stared at her for 30 minutes straight, and whined to her father about wanting her. I allowed her to take photos, told her father a bit about how these dolls are customized by me and aren't available in toy stores. He managed to pacify the child with "we will look for a doll like this when we get home", and then they left.

Next day a terrifying thought hit me- what if they find unoa recasts on aliexpress, send recasters photos of my doll and ask them to copy her custom stylization? Not only would that result in another recast being purchased, but also i feel like crap because i put so much work into her, everything from top to bottom besides the doll and her shoes is made by me. It makes me so anxious now.I'm too socially awkward to seek contact with this man to explain to him about how recasts are bad. He probably wouldn't even care, because I'm sure he wouldn't buy a full price bjd for a child. I just hope he will think it's too much hustle and that the recast is already too expensive for a toy or something... Still, i feel terrible now.

~Anonymous

[townsenddecades]

All You Want To Know And More

Why, hello there! Glad you made it to my corner of the internet.

This blog is meant to chronicle my most recent playthrough of Morbid Gamer’s Ultimate Decades Challenge, following a family of sims for many generations from the 1300s onwards. I started my first playthrough sometime in the first half of 2023 and had got to the end of the 15th century before the urge struck me to start another one in a more medieval world.

This is the challenge you’ll be seeing on this blog. More infos under the cut.

A note on my posting habits: I have a queue that puts out one post per day. Initially, I wanted to refill that queue after every five years played, but I'll probably switch that to after every year played so it isn't so much work at once.

I am also currently playing a supernatural 1800s UDC over at my side blog @moonlightfallsdiaries

Current Households (spoilers if you aren't caught up, obviously)

Family Tree (spoilers up to 1331)

Navigation:

Introducing the Challenge

Gen 0: Benedict & Anne Townsend | 1300 | 1305 | Recap 1300 - 1309

Gen 1: Benjamin & Malika Townsend | 1312 | Recap 1310 - 1319 | 1325 | Recap 1320 - 1329

Gen 2: Malcolm & Hawise Townsend | 1330

Links:

Morbid Gamer’s Ultimate Decades Challenge

Plumbob’s and the Past’s UDC

My Mods and CC

If anyone is interested, I could upload my spread sheet as well, but I currently don't have it online.

Some technical details

I’ll be playing this challenge in The Sims 3, which means no Ye Olde Cookbook, Royalty Mod, Simple Living Lot Trait or the like, but I’ve heavily modded my game to achieve a more immersive gameplay.  This challenge will start – but likely not remain in -  the gorgeous custom world of Praaven, which is both medieval and completely roadless.

A link to a post with the mods I use can be found above.

This challenge will be more historically inspired than historically authentic, both because the game has its limitations and because my scant historical expertise lies more in the early 20th century.

For the most part, I’ll be following the rules defined by Morbid Gamer, with some deviations:

I’ll take some inspiration from Plumbobs and the Past’s ideas to make the challenge a bit more interesting. For example, when my sims go fishing, I’ll have them pay a fee, I’ll deduct 10% of the proceeds for whatever they harvest or sell from household funds, I will use PATP's dowry rules, and probably more.

Instead of starting with three teenagers, I decided to start with two young adults that have already been married for a bit and have two children and a toddler. I had a bit of a story in mind involving the proverbial lady of the house and the local Earl, so I wanted to jump right into the action.

As Sims 3 has no option to plead with the Grim Reaper (although you can play a match of chess with him or be saved by your pet, but you would have to have a pet that likes you for that to work, or both a chess table and enough skill points) I substitute that action with rolling a d4 when a Sim I’d like to live rolls to die. If it’s a 4, they survive.

Since I think it’s boring if most sims (barring historical events) die at exactly 6/13/20/30, I’ll sometimes roll a die to see how many years of life a sim has left. Those years can never be more than the sim would have to live until the next life stage. If, for example, a sim fails their young adult roll, I’ll roll a d10. 10 means the sim dies immediately, 5 means they live to be 25, etc. A teenager or a child, accordingly, can only roll a d7.

Illegitimate children are not automatically out of the running, they just rank after all their legitimate siblings in the succession. So it's legitimate sons, then legitimate daughters, then illegitimate sons, then illegitimate daughters, and after that the nearest-related side household. Rule may be taken liberty with as is dramatically convenient.

For the most part, no re-marriages for side households. The heir, however, can and will remarry as necessary.

I’ll be starting with a family of farmers, the Townsends, but just for the fun of it, I’ll also be rolling for the two resident noble families, that of the Earl of Petersmarch, who resides in the city of Praaven, and that of Baron Elbenhawke, whose family seat is in the hills just above the Townsend’s village. As they are not even proper side households, I’ll only mention the nobles’ fates on the side, mostly as a little info text at the end or mentioned in the story as relevant.

Honestly, I’m just curious about how long their lines will last.

I've taken some heavy inspiration for the layout of this info page from @lilabella12, whose wonderful Decades Challenge you should really go check out.

Trigger Warnings:

Death (even of children, toddlers and infants) due to a plethora of causes

War

Epi- and pandemics,

Maternal death

Stillbirths

Likely at least mentions of miscarriages

Mentions or depictions of various substance abuses

References to sexual assault/coercion

Religion

Adultery

The sims featured in this likely often just won’t have a good time

[lost-technology]

Since I saw some supplemental materials posted on a reblog browsing a blog and it's from a name that's blocked me... I'm again wondering "Why has this person blocked me???" Okay, there is someone in this fandom (not putting a name up here because I don't want to put them on the spot) who seems to know an awful lot about what Studio Orange is doing, they post a lot of concept-art. I don't know where they get it from - if they go to cons and snap photos of panels or if they do deep-dive searches or if the show bible is available in their country (they appear to be Russian or Russian-speaking while also English-speaking?) and it's stuff we don't get in the U.S.A. wherever it is gotten from, or where they are getting it from, but I do see their stuff reblogged from time to time on other people's blogs. It's the only way I can see it. I can't see this stuff even going to the Trigun tag because they have me blocked - and not just my Trigun-related sideblogs, but my main blog as well. (I do not know if this is because I listed my main blog somewhere or if I've mentioned my Trigun blogs on my main blog and have put stuff in the Trigun tag there before). Anyway, the fact that they have my main blocked and both of my Trigun blogs (I've found out when I've tried to reblog from them in the past and gotten a red-code and I can easily see who has blocked me if I go to replies and go to the drop-down on replies if they have an open reply-box) makes me think "Wow, this person must really hate me." - I haven't the foggiest idea why, either. I don't know what I said on any of my blogs to offend. I have to wonder if they were an OG fan back in "the day" who remembers me before I got medication and therapy / whacked over the head by life and was an objectively much shittier person (at least I hope I'm a much less shitty person today). Maybe there was a misunderstanding? Maybe I annoyed one of their friends? Gheez, I wonder if there's a callout post about me somewhere... (if so, if anyone has seen such, I'd like a chance to clear things up. Maybe a lot of untruth has been said about me. Maybe some things that were true but aren't anymore. Maybe some things stand, but if so, I'd like to be able to know, acknowledge and address). Then again, maybe I'm just banhammered because I am openly an older fan and some people think everyone over 30 should not be in fandom of any kind. Who knows? (My hyper-paranoia makes me worry "Are they on the Orange production crew to bring out all this info that they do every now and again? Did I somehow offend someone who works on the project? Am I even ALLOWED to be a fan? But then I take another look at what posts on reblogs I do see that has them theorizing and guessing as much as everyone else does, which means that they probably aren't and are just...somehow getting some concept-art). Bottom line: I want to know where to access this concept-art and translations of story-theory independent of tumblr and the occasional coming across it on tumblr. I don't want to be kept in the dark until I'm curiosity-browsing someone's art-blog and I see a reblog from "Oh, person whose blog is a Ghost Blog to me for reasons unknown." (Anyway, um, fuck you, too, buddy?)

[will80sbyers]

Hi! Sorry if this is a weird ask. I only got into ST fairly recently and ship byler, but I haven’t really interacted with the fandom other than reblogs/likes. I would probably be considered an older fan (early 30’s) and I noticed a lot of the fans for this ship are younger, which makes sense ig. But I think probably a lot of older lgbtq+ fans can relate to byler bc we can relate to the struggle of to coming of age in an era where lgbtq+ relationships weren’t as accepted. But from what I’ve seen a lot of the younger fans think it’s weird that older fans would ship byler. I guess I’m wondering if you’ve noticed this too? Also if you had any suggestions for byler tumblrs that are cool with older people in the fandom?

Hello!

I haven't had problems on the byler tumblr community for my age, I'm not much on the other platforms so I don't know what's the vibe there but I don't really care if they think it's weird, you don't stop liking fictional characters and shipping the romance between them when you grow older, of course the boundaries change but that's literally a thing in every interaction you have online with people that are younger even if it's not in a fandom... and it's not difficult to just be normal and don't be weird with young people, I see them as kiddos but also as people first of all and just treat them with respect and that's it lol

and if you are normal and respectful about the ship and don't sexualize the characters that are minors I don't see why we shouldn't enjoy being in the fandom and wanting them to fall in love!

Byler is really important for me as a ship because I relate to their experiences as characters as I was in love with my best friend in high school too... and I want to see them happy, what's weird about that? should adults stop reading children's books because there are children in it? aren't adults the ones writing this story in the first place?

as I said, I think that if the adult in the fandom is respectful, knows about boundaries and doesn't do weird stuff like sexualize the characters or the actors or make young people feel unsafe... I don't see the problem!

anyway for the bylers cool with older people in the fandom I can't say specific people but I think almost all the bylers on tumblr are, you just post what you want to post and see who interacts! :)

[oh-my-damn]

Do you mean that he's not talking about it, or what do you mean by vetting??/

Sorry lol; i mean it seems questions about personal life are more forbidden now than ever before; if his thing with Alba was related to ghosted to sell him as a romantic lead, how it makes sense none of the questions are romantic?

Okay, so

I definitely think things are locked down rn because of the backlash. I do believe they intended something different, probably more, than what's happening. The backlash has not only been on Chris and the trolls, but also on Ana and Dexter and it has tarnished the entire movie. I have a feeling Ana and Dexter, if anyone, do not want anything to ruin the release. They were absolutely counting on Chris' fandom to pull in numbers and I'm sure they're worried about what will happen with everything going on. I also think they know that even anything mentioning or hinting at AB will make the fandom angry and not want to support (even less than they already do)

However, I also think the PR thing, while connected to Ghosted, is not connected to Ghosted. It's connected to Chris and the image he needed to sell in a movie where he was the lead. They thought it would be a good idea and work well, both with the GP and his fandom. It worked with neither. A lot of the GP already dislike the pairing due to the age-gap and the visuals of it, they don't even know about the racism etc.

So I think strategy has changed from what they intended. He lost a lot of fans and followers after posting those stories, too. People didn't even know about it until they saw it on his insta and a lot of people think of him as a cliché now. He does not have the cute, loving, husband-material vibe anymore; now he's an old creep dating someone much younger who looks even younger than she is.

Considering a lot of his fans are women (and that many of them are in their 30's and up) that's a really bad look. Just go on tiktok or twitter and you will see people who aren't even that deep in the fandom cringing about the optics all over the place.

I'm not sure why they thought it would be a good idea to begin with, tbh. I don't want to jinx anything but I also feel like there might be hints coming at us right now. The silence, the weird articles about his ex's, the solo sightings and articles with no mention of the pairing.

He didn't necessarily need the image for or during Ghosted. He needed it back in the day because he had simply been single (in the public eye) for too long. That can be ratified by having him seemingly settled down/wanting to settle down and keeping that partner around for the press etc, but it can also be ratified a lot easier (for him in many ways since it does not tie him as permanently and he doesn't have to actually be tied to it physically for as long, like Seb and Ale); by selling a narrative that they have been in hiding for over a year and are happy but that it fell apart before the premiere. It's perfect for them to also blame it on the backlash from his fandom especially, and once again make the fans the bad guys, like they did with Jenny (and ignore the fact that he definitely isn't as he seems, as we could learn from the few hints in her book)

That way, there will be no mention of her anywhere during press, and eventually she fades away until he drops a hint or comment somewhere that he's single.

I also believe we won't get a BUA. I simply believe it'll fade, like it usually does with him, and then months later we'll get some confirmation (like with Jenny, where the confirmation of the break up actually came out months after it had happened, as was mentioned in her Vulture interview after the first round)