#avoidant subtypes

[avpdpossum]

i might try to do a deep dive into the conflicted avoidant subtype at some point, and maybe the self-deserting subtype after that. every time i read the descriptions of them, i’m struck by how accurately they describe me, and i wish there was more info about the subtypes out there

[briarpatch-kids]

Though in case anyone is wondering I DO have a personality disorder it's just a Cluster C and those are treated as "annoying scaredy cat disease" instead of "shitty asshole disease"

[60inchyugiohheadcanons]

On Jōnouchi's ADHD (1.39k words)

This headcanon is probably the longest on this blog; it's some compiled thoughts on how growing up with (undiagnosed) ADHD has affected Jōnouchi. It's halfway between headcanon and fanfiction piece, and was requested by @bloodyscott, whom I kept waiting for too long for a response. I apologise sincerely for the delay.

This headcanon begins below the cut, as it's obscenely long. You may find it more comfortable to read this from the blog page, or on Archive of Our Own (NOTE: tumblr is acting strange. To access the page, copy the link and manually remove the href.li portion and the second https), rather than on your dashboard/search, in terms of formatting and such.

From infancy, Jōnouchi wailed his way out of his crib, out of his room, out of his house—as a baby, he thrashed towards whatever freedom he could find. He loathed the four walls of the crib; he'd scarce room to move. A skin infection brought him, aged 4, to hospital, and the very sight of overrun grey plastic seats and skinny cubicles exhausted him more than his illness had ever threatened to.

In primary school, others’ desks would blend together in a whir. Here he was, stuck, dizzyingly sedentary—the longer he sat, the foggier the world seemed to grow. When he kicked and whined at other children throughout electric lunch breaks, and they shrank from his vitality, he learned to eat alone. As his peers trudged from class in packs, watching the pavement, he sat, sullen, as his father drove him home. Somehow, Katsuhiro had never trusted him not to lose himself in chasing his surrounds. The fabric of the car seat would bite into his shorts, and he’d squirm for the window, squealing towards the noise outside: Birds that cawed; scraps of paper that fluttered and choked on smog. That was a fragile era, when his mother still waited, with dry hands and chipped nails, at home. When his father already stank of beer, but still spoke loudly, deeply, boisterously. Again and again, Jōnouchi��s mother would sit her son down, and write his name, stroke by agonising stroke. She’d recite each mora in time with each character. Yet sound would cluster through his head, and his own name would dissolve amid his mother’s instructions, amid the blaze of sunlight trapped on the windowsill behind her. He would write, and the strokes would come out rushed, mis-ordered, lopsided. 

Iro wa nioedo 

chirinuru wo.

At 10, his father grew quiet, and his mother yet quieter. Silence took up like a plague in Jōnouchi’s head, and swarmed in shapeless formation throughout parched mathematics lessons. Times tables hurled themselves headlong into a skull full of fog, and burst on contact. Are you listening? a teacher asked. How could he listen with a head full of noise, of unspoken words billowing back and forth? He gripped his seat, and glared back. Why should I care, anyway?

When his mother left, his father stopped caring to chaperone him. It had taken Jōnouchi a decade to earn the right to shed his infancy. He resented that it had been this long, so tried to join the huddle of middle schoolers. He told odd stories, and took off, queasy, in front of them. They withdrew their smiles when he approached on the second day. He growled his plaint, and resentment drove him to take the opposite route. He explored back alleys, wallflower convenience stores and dilapidated cinemas; the faster he walked, the more clearly he could see each brick, and the brighter each fleck in the pavement glinted. At speed, he delayed the journey home, and set his eyes on a gorgeous early winter sunset. The colours bellowed, too bold for winter, ungainly and vain. They were glorious.

Jōnouchi came home late. His father glared; fog crashed back down on his shoulders. 

Wa ga yo tare zo 

tsune naran?

A week before she cleared out too few of Katsuhiro’s belongings and packed too few suitcases, Jōnouchi’s mother drove both children two miles to the optometrist. My son, she explained, reads slowly, yet resents reading; it seems he can’t see very well. My daughter’s sight seems clearer, yet she complains of pain. The optometrist forced Jōnouchi to read down a chart of letters; he fidgeted, and, consumed in memories of a lonely lunch break the day prior, passed with flying colours. When the optometrist flashed a light to photograph his eyes, whatever hideous miracle that was, Jōnouchi screamed.

Katsuya Jōnouchi, the optometrist surmised, had perfect acuity of sight. He sought attention, stimulation. Meanwhile, Shizuka Jōnouchi, who had sat entirely still throughout her examination, had more ragged, derelict peripheral vision than her family had anticipated. Untreated, both your children will get much worse.

And in the months after Shizuka Jōnouchi became Shizuka Kawai and Mrs. Jōnouchi became That Bitch Who Never Cared, Katsuya Jōnouchi became horribly aware of how little time he had to be lethargic. He had to survive this schism; yet as he was, he barely felt capable of thinking. He walked, fidgeted, paced to prove to himself that he was a moving, breathing organism. Yet his father’s frustration would brook no exuberance. Long before Katsuhiro fully committed to flinging glass and spurning his son’s misery, Jōnouchi began learning to move silently, slowly, around his father. He memorised which mats snapped and snagged, which bits of fabric hissed when stepped on. He noted which windows opened most quietly. And yet he never managed a perfect, quiet exit. He couldn’t help but be conspicuous; he could only hope to get out too quickly for his father to react. And, to lift the torpor that followed escape, he would run to school, and, after, run back. Never did the sun shine brighter than when he was moving.

Uwi no okuyama

kyou koete.

When he met Hirutani, did he become more violent? No; every punch he threw during his delinquency had waited, kinetic and desperate, for days, months, years. In classrooms, his sole responses to being ordered around had been sullen deference, with sullenness being his sole demonstration of rebellion. Now, threatened with the obsolescence of his ego, of his perceived freedom, he chained himself to violence, over and over. The first time he punched a man in the gut, he found himself shaking. And rather than sink into sallow, domestic remorse, he slathered himself in white rage. And he went back and he went back and he went back, helpless to his own instincts, trying to dredge the noise in his skull out through his fists. No matter how many punches he threw, and no matter how many he received, he could not stop his head from blazing anew the moment he walked away.

Did Duel Monsters afford him any peace? He would be no man’s losing dog; nor would he be confined to dull celebrity. To play as a strategist consigned him to sitting still, committing himself to gambits he could never entirely trust, to moves that demanded a clear head. To play too whimsically would doom him to inferiority. Thus, he gave half his heart to diligence, and half to sheer fortune. Nobody could idolise his kind of folly, nor devalue his kind of skill. This was Jōnouchi’s will—to eschew having to wait in the mire of expectation; to escape the fog of obligation to anyone’s morals but his own. Honour suited him, so long as it was on his meticulous terms. In games of Duel Monsters, he became a knight-errant of sorts: predictably unpredictable, unexpectedly canny, blindly faithful. With this relationship to his own fate laid out so, he could finally draw cards without fearing those next to come. And thus, hyperkinetic, he found a peace in the game. So he played and played until he forgot how long he’d been playing, and Duel Monsters became as second nature.

Asaki yume miji

ei mo suzu.

Two weeks before Jōnouchi’s graduation, Shizuka invited him to her place to dine. Their father was not to join them. Jōnouchi protested, and his desperation died in a pinprick throat. Wisteria spilled itself over the footpath. Each step threatened to plunge, vertiginous, to the ground. 

When Jōnouchi saw his mother, his throat turned to sandpaper. She looked so old.

You cried so much as a baby, she told him. Kicked and screamed to see the world. You weren’t comfortable waiting in your crib—I’d end up coming to you at 4AM, walking you around the perimeter of the house till my heels burned. And you seemed so afraid of all the noises of the night—groaning engines, singing birds. Now, look at you—you’ve grown up so terribly fast.

Could he afford to tell her how even now, he bit down the urge to kick and scream, to launch himself, all fists and sparks, onto his tormentors? No; so, all night, he gripped his glass as tight as he could. The cold lingered and itched on his palms for days. Holding onto things, it seemed, was not so difficult as he’d once believed.

[sunderwight]

Thinking about SV demon culture as one struggling under the weight of imperialism, a violent ruling class with a might-makes-right mindset, and a lot of warfare.

I really don't like fics that imply that Luo Binghe's conquest of the demon realms just automatically improved living conditions there. I think both versions believed that they could conquer things, establish a new regime, and fix a lot of political issues in the process, I just don't think that would actually be the result of a violent takeover on the part of a cultural outsider with a patchy understanding of the actual multitude of demon cultures involved, whose only asset was an extreme capacity for physical violence and resilience against death.

Like, no wonder Bingge was always putting down uprisings and "rivals" for power -- a lot of his empire was probably actually being run by the demon wives or families of the demon wives he favored most, like Sha Hualing, or by preferred subordinates like Mobei Jun, who very probably pursued their own interests just as doggedly as they had prior to his rule. Only, this time they'd have been doing so with the added leverage of Luo Binghe's violence answering anyone who "rebelled" against "his" authority.

Demons in SV have myriad subtypes and subcultures. It seems really likely that a lot of them have been persecuted by others, that there are demon communities who have been subjugated, muscled out of ancestral homes, enslaved, wiped out, etc. This would probably even explain some "invasions" by demons into the human realm -- I'd imagine numerous cases across history of refugees being taken for (or described as) marauders by cultivation sects, or human communities unprepared or unwilling to deal fairly with visibly inhuman "monsters" and answering their approach with violence, or even displaced demons who did in fact become bandits and such in the fallout of various conflicts causing problems.

But there also would probably have been demons that succeeded in making their way in the human realm, and disguising what they were well enough that the sects never even knew. After all, most of the methods for alerting the sects to the presence of demons involve demons doing something violent (like the Skinner demon) or people seeing demons and going "ahhh!" about it. A demon or a family of demons uninterested in serial killing and only looking to get by and avoid the violence would likely not attract that kind of attention, just so long as they could pass as human too.

I do wonder if the reverse has ever happened as well. Human wars driving humans to seek refuge in the demon realms. It would conversely seem a lot more dangerous (demons are physically tougher than humans, and the demon realms are notoriously harsh), but in some cases it was probably like, well, life is hell already, at least the things trying to kill us in the demon realm are straightforward about it?

There are probably way more half-demons out there than just Luo Binghe, and even more demons with human ancestry or humans with demon ancestry. I wouldn't be surprised if demon ancestry actually played a roll in some humans being cultivation prodigies compared to others -- demons seem to have a natural physical power that most humans don't, and while their cultivation uses different energy, it would make sense of some aspects of things like a physical inclination to store, accrue, or manipulate energy in general could benefit even predominately human descendants of mixed blood.

But anyway, back to politics.

Tianlang Jun didn't seem to be a terribly proactive ruler either. Which on the one hand can be a good thing (he wasn't a tyrant, wasn't interested in waging wars or conquering others, didn't much care to throw his weight around), but someone was actually ruling in his absence. Conflicts were still happening, and being resolved. Tributes or taxes were still being paid to him, for him to live any kind of lavish lifestyle, which means they were being collected, rates were being determined, enforced, etc, which does beg the question of who was doing it. Not Zhuzhi Lang, certainly.

In Bingmei's time, the person actually running things is Shang Qinghua, which means also Mobei Jun is actually running things to some extent too. Shen Qingqiu loves demonic beasts but doesn't seem like he could care less about politics, and Luo Binghe only got this job in the first place because he was trying to impress him, and the post-canon extras would seem to indicate that they check out of the process as often as possible.

Mobei Jun and Shang Qinghua's rule probably makes things pretty hard for the southern demons who are traditionally loyal to the Heavenly Demons. I mean, apart from not being able to beat Luo Binghe in a fight, self-serving ambition would definitely be a motive for Mobei Jun to throw his lot in with him as soon as possible, right? "Give" the emperor your palace, your service, your resources, etc, and the emperor basically becomes Mobei's own tool to reinforce his sovereignty. In PIDW he even uses him to do that in a more immediate sense by bringing him to the fight with his uncle. In SV he decides Shang Qinghua is more suitable, which, symbolically, is even true. The cost of wielding Luo Binghe's authority is having to submit to it, but Shang Qinghua has elevated Mobei Jun even without that.

No wonder the southern demons couldn't get on Tianlang Jun's side fast enough when he reappeared. Given both Mobei Jun and Shang Qinghua's bias, the North has probably been running rampant with their own interests while the South gets hamstrung and dealt crumbs by comparison. Sha Hualing's clearly been trying to get on Luo Binghe's good side with minimal success ever since he got out of the Abyss. Unlike in PIDW, where she's a major player, here she's just an underling desperately playing catch-up and accidentally offending him all the time.

I wonder how that's impacting the complex arrangement of political alliances, cultures, and conflicts among the various factions in the demon realm. It'd probably be like if the remote and somewhat isolated North and Winterfell in ASOIAF/Game of Thrones suddenly became the new capital of the empire, and White Harbor became the main trade hub, while all the southern lords struggled to even get a foot in the door with the new king and kept pissing him off all the time. And every time they try to break free or rebel or kill him, it doesn't work and they get personally murdered by him. Meanwhile the northern lords are making off like bandits, with the current Lord Stark gay married to some inhuman warlock who does all his paperwork and somehow knows all your embarrassing secrets.

...That comparison got away from me. But I mean, it's kind of fascinating? A huge mess and likely miserable for a lot of demons, but still. The implications...

[aventurineswife]

I would like to ask which of the HSR characters would be their favorite type of Goth Girl and how they interact with the goth girl reader.

HSR characters and their favourite type of Goth Girl

Hmm, that's a good question! I'm not very familiar with fashion, so I had to look up the different subtypes(?) and styles of Gothic fashion. Here’s what I came up with, but keep in mind—this is just my opinion on these specific characters!

Blade – Traditional or Occult Goth

Blade would gravitate towards a goth style that embodies the Traditional or Occult Goth aesthetic—dark, intense, and reminiscent of ancient mysteries. This style complements his own fractured soul and aligns with his sense of danger and fatalism.

Blade would admire her goth style in a quiet, intense way. He’d likely avoid compliments, but his lingering gaze would speak volumes. Occasionally, he’d make cryptic remarks about her choice of symbols or accessories, intrigued by the darker meaning behind her look.

He’d invite her on nighttime walks, where they could talk about life, pain, and purpose. Blade would share his own views on suffering and self-destruction, finding solace in knowing that someone understands the allure of darkness without flinching.

When she shares her own struggles, Blade would respond with empathy, quietly urging her to embrace her scars. He’d consider her as a kindred spirit, united by a mutual understanding of darkness, perhaps even guiding her towards finding strength in their pain.

Kafka – Elegant or Victorian Goth

Kafka would be enchanted by an Elegant or Victorian Goth style, one that exudes mystery, timeless beauty, and a touch of refined danger. A style that combines old-world charm with darker, alluring elements would captivate her attention.

Kafka would treat her as her accomplice, matching her elegance with her own polished look. She’d appreciate her ability to blend dark, regal sophistication with subtle danger and would often compliment her in her composed, low-key way.

She would revel in their shared love for all things dark and alluring, occasionally teasing her with whispered secrets and mysterious invitations, making her feel like part of an exclusive, hidden world.

Whenever the reader/she reveals a darker or emotional side, Kafka would listen intently, then offer her hypnotic words of wisdom, nudging her towards a balanced yet sophisticated approach to their emotions. She’d subtly manipulate her into embracing her elegance as armor.

Sunday – Dreamy or Romantic Goth

Sunday would be drawn to a goth style that embodies a sense of ethereal beauty and dreamy mystique, like a Romantic or Dreamy Goth. This aesthetic, filled with delicate lace, ethereal black layers, celestial accessories.

Sunday would admire her goth look as if she's an angel of the night, often complimenting the dark beauty she bring to his Sweetdream Paradise. With poetic and enigmatic language, he'd express how she reminds him of a serene vision, free from the pain of the waking world.

Behind closed doors, he’d reveal a gentler, protective side, seeing her as someone worth preserving in his dream-like world. He’d subtly ask her about her philosophy on life and pain, curious if she'd share his perspective on a reality without suffering.

Whenever she displays a darker or more melancholic side, Sunday would be there to “soothe” her spirit, gently guiding her towards his paradise—although this “soothing” might actually involve urging her to escape painful thoughts.

Robin – Ethereal or Pastel Goth

Robin would admire an Ethereal or Pastel Goth style, with softer tones like lavender and violet combined with traditional goth elements. This blend of gentleness and depth aligns with her own music and tragic past, which holds an undercurrent of beauty amidst sorrow.

Robin would feel a comforting connection with the reader’s look, as it aligns with her own aesthetic of blending light and dark. She’d often give small, heartfelt compliments, noting how her style reminds her of a bittersweet melody.

She’d enjoy quiet moments with the reader, perhaps inviting her to her studio, where they’d share their thoughts on beauty, darkness, and the ways they each express their emotions. Robin might even dedicate a song to her, inspired by her unique blend of innocence and mystery.

When the reader is feeling down, Robin would offer soft-spoken support, listening patiently and reminding her of the beauty in every emotion, treating her struggles like notes in a beautiful song that deserve to be heard.

Aventurine – Cyber or Industrial Goth

Aventurine would appreciate a goth style that leans into cyber or industrial aesthetics—think metal accessories, bold colors, and futuristic touches. This type of goth aligns with his strategic mind and love for taking calculated risks, mixing sophistication with an edge.

Aventurine would be fascinated by her bold look, often pulling her aside to compliment her style in a playful, flirtatious way. He’d likely buy her accessories, such as metallic chokers or bracelets, to enhance her look and treat her style as another high-stakes investment, always encouraging her to be bold.

With his knack for creating excitement, Aventurine would take her to the casinos or exclusive places where they could revel in the aesthetic together. He’d suggest that every encounter and style choice is part of a larger game, creating an atmosphere of thrill and risk, which he finds irresistible.

When the reader shares her darker feelings or thoughts, he’d humorously encourage her to “double down” on it, teaching her to gamble with her emotions, to transform them into something powerful and alluring.

I hope you like it! I tried my best, and it was challenging to decide styles (and writing for a female reader as I'm used to writing for gender neutral) and all, so I really hope you enjoy it 🫶❤️‍🩹

[lu-is-not-ok]

Btw, me and a friend have been working on a theory about what the defensive skills could mean, and I wanted to know your thoughts on it

(Apologies if there's already a post about them and I just missed it hfkdjfj)

We thought that maybe it could be the way the sinner reacts to external threats, either physical (like in combat) or psychological.

So essentially, Defense would be closing themself off, or isolating, ignoring the threat by putting up a defensive shell. Using the gameplay mechanics, it could work (for a while), but there's also a chance that the threat is stronger than anticipated and can breach through anyway.

Somewhat similarly, Evade would be running away from the problem, avoiding thinking about it at all, or distracting themself and/or suppressing it in one way or another. Once again using the gameplay, it would depend on a lot of factors when it comes to whether they could avoid it successfully this time, or take the full hit anyway.

And we thought Counter could be something like lashing out. Taking the full hit, internalizing and then attempting to hit back. That's pretty much what the gameplay mechanic would be too, putting yourself at risk just to get a chance at hitting back, or accepting the inevitable hit.

And then the Sin Affinity could possibly be the reasoning, or how the action is conducted. Taking N Corp Sinclair for example, I interpreted it as closing himself off from everything around him (Defense) and ignoring the consequences of his actions for the sake of carrying out his "mission" (Pride), thus reaching some respite in the form of SP.

But this is just a base idea and doesn't go into the subtypes (like counters that can be clashed with), and your analysis posts tend to go more in depth, so... Any thoughts?

Yeah that sounds about right from what I've been thinking. It's definitely something you can see with how some Sinners behave as well.

Take Hong Lu for example. In Canto 7 we see his trauma response be just trying to get the conversation over with by no longer trying to be invested in it - he's Evading the percieved threat via Sloth (apathy).

Though I'd say Guard could be just as much ignoring the threat as it could be simply just taking whatever comes at them.

Look at Gregor at the end of Canto 1, he takes full responsibility for the failure of the mission and actively puts himself down while doing so. He's just taking it all as if Guarding, while focusing on the negativity and his past through Gloom.

[rabbitindisguise]

migraine cheat sheet for folks not sure if they have migraines

A couple cardinal signs for migraines:

pulsating/throbbing

nerve pain-like (tingly, electric, shooting)

aching, especially radiating into the jaw

can be on one side or both sides, in one area or more than one area, or even at the base of the skull, front of forehead, etc

at least one of sound sensitivity, light sensitivity, nausea +/ vomiting, and veritgo (typically- there are subtypes and other headache disorders)

and of course migraine aura (flashing lights, dark spots in vision, etc)

can come in short bursts of 1-30 seconds repeatedly, can last for hours or even weeks, and have different phases with different associated symptoms

Headaches:

don't interfere with work, school, or socializing

mildly annoying

take a lot of effort (weeks of staying up too late, being hungover, etc)

happen infrequently (closer to 1-2 a year)

are not "bad ones" (if you had "regular headaches" and "bad headaches" then it's very likely you have migraines - though personally both headache types turned out to be migraines for me)

happen when you have the flu or another illness as a result and it's clears up by the time you recover from it

do not last 30 min - 72 hours with a clear start, middle, and end phase

don't make you feel wrung out dry afterwards

don't affect you neurologically (fuzzy feeling, slow movements, slurring, feeling exhausted/sleep deprived, feel like you can't rest properly even after taking ibuprofen)

don't respond to sumatriptan or another migraine reliver

you don't dread having a headache

you don't avoid chemicals/harsh scents, chocolate, concerts, or any other migraine triggers

[honey-dont]

types of freight cars

made a whole post to help ppl design stex ocs as the resident freight enthusiast :) while this isn't every freight car in existence, it's definitely a good chunk of them!

FLATCARS

The most basic type of freight car. They’re…well…flat! Designed for carrying bulky loads.

Autorack: Transport automobiles. Can have single, double, or triple levels.

Boom/Idler: Placed in front of a breakdown crane to protect the boom or in front of/behind oversized loads to protect the overhang.

Bulkhead: Have walls (bulkheads) on the end. Used to transport pipe, poles, slabs, and lumber. Prone to derailing when traveling empty and put speed restrictions on the freight train.

Centerbeam: Carry lumber. Another type is the opera (round) window style. Have to be loaded/unloaded evenly to avoid the car tipping over.

Depressed Center: Used to carry extremely heavy loads such as generators. Have a lowered (depressed) middle section.

Intermodal/Well: Carry semi-truck trailers and containers. Have a lowered bottom (well).

Skeleton/Spine: Very narrow car used to transport lumber. Has stakes on the sides. Spine cars do not have stakes and are often used for intermodal transport.

GONDOLAS

Open-topped cars that generally transport loose goods. Can also be covered. Differ from hoppers in that they have flat bottoms and have to be manually unloaded or put through a rotary dumper.

Bathtub: Transport coal. Have rounded bottoms for extra space.

Coil: Carry coils of metal. Can be open or have specialized covers to protect the cargo. Typically considered a subtype of gondola, but can also be a subtype of flatcar as well.

Side-dump: Cars tip sideways to dump loads. Often carry ballast or rocks for railbeds.

HOPPERS

Evolved from gondolas but differ in that they have sloped bottoms and discharge doors. Can be covered or uncovered, and have between two to five chutes. Open cars transport bulk goods such as coal, while covered ones carry food items.

Ore Jenny: A small, specialized hopper designed to carry large loads of iron ore from mines.

BOXCAR

Enclosed cars with side or end doors. Used for bulk commodities and for goods that need to be protected from the weather.

Stock: Used to transport livestock such as cattle, horses, sheep, and poultry. Have ventilated sides for airflow. A variant used to carry fish was attached to passenger trains and was more luxurious.

Refrigerator: Insulated and cooled cars used to transport frozen goods.

TANKERS

Used to transport liquids or gases. Can be specialized to carry hazardous materials.

Milk: Specialized tank car variant (as opposed to the boxcar variant) that carries milk. Attached to passenger trains to prevent spoilage.

Pickle: There's pickles in there! The vats were filled with vinegar.

Torpedo: Carry molten iron. Designed to withstand very high temperatures.

Whale Belly: Large tank car with a lowered midsection for additional carrying capacity.

SCHNABEL

These cars are a type all of their own. Used to transport extremely large loads by pinching it between the arms of the car.

[mistype360]

How can you tell the differences of a social 4, self preservation 4, and sexual 4?

so4: cares more about others emotions. romanticizes his pain the most. expressive, often through their style or appearance. has trust issues. more outgoing. has a low self-esteem, often with a victim complex. like an e9, tries to avoid conflict. acts kind and caring as a result. still very empathetic. but when in conflict, will act passive-aggressive. also lazy like an sp9. may complain a lot. seeks sympathy from others. feels shameful. can be mistyped as an e6.

sp4: least envious. more tolerant of emotions. "hoards" objects and experiences. strong sense of justice. often loving, and cares for others. very "masochistic." feels like they have to be "tough," and wants to be loved as a result. never feels like they are enough. keeps struggles and emotions to self. may often appear as a 1. wishes they were more like others. prone to self isolation.

sx4: feels "misunderstood." the most humorous, extravagant, and histrionic of the subtypes. most focused on uniqueness of the subtypes. has emotional swings between feeling "depressed" and feeling "euphoric." affected by hardship/failure quickly. can resemble an sx2 or 8. most commonly mistaken as a 3 or 7. struggles with shame, and acts "shameless" as a result. treats feelings as if they are more important than others. competitive mindset (towards resources, relationships, and love), says what's on their mind, blunt. wants to be respected and admired, but often struggles to achieve it.

[cripplecharacters]

What are your thoughts on people making random characters albino (especially regardless of their race, even if they aren't black? Would it count as fetishizing under certain ways?

I've heard that albinism can appear in any race group, but I'd just like to know how you view just random characters casually having albinism (even without it being sexualized for fetishized)

Hey!

Casual representation is great. Not just albinism, but disability in general. You don't always have to go into complicated details of "how's it like to be disabled". But just because it isn't meant to be a work about a certain condition doesn't mean you shouldn't do your diligent research - if by making random characters have albinism you mean giving them the "aesthetic" and nothing besides that, it would be fetishization or at least just poor representation.

Also, for this answer I'll be talking about oculocutaneous albinism because I'm fairly sure that's what you were referring to, but please be aware that there are other types, like;

ocular albinism (has 3 different subtypes)

Heřmanský–Pudlák syndrome

Chédiak–Higashi syndrome

Griscelli syndrome

oculocutaneous albinism also has multiple (7) main subtypes, with some of them splitting further. You should take that into consideration as well when deciding on what kind of albinism your character(s) has. I'm not saying that you should write "X has oculocutaneous albinism, type OCA1b" in your book, but it will help to inform you what their needs and symptoms could be.

First thing I will mention is that the word "albino" is generally not the preferred term and you probably shouldn't use it unless you have albinism yourself. Here's a page on it by the National [USA] Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation or this post we reblogged recently.

To make sure that your representation works, you need to understand how albinism works. Even if it's a side or minor character, you should be aware of the symptoms other than just the lack of melanin. Prime example, the extreme majority of characters with albinism in media don't have any vision issues at all, which is not how it is in real life. If you make a character with albinism, you're making a character who is blind or low vision. It's important to research aids and assistive technology, as well as blindness tropes that your character could fall into. For a character that only shows up occasionally, it's still important to show things like a white cane, their light sensitivity, them having to avoid the sun.

If that's your approach to "making random characters be disabled" then you should be good. A lot of disabled characters end up boxed into specific tropes (for albinism: being evil, being emotionless, having magic powers, or being mystified because of their disability) so having e.g. a background character with albinism who has a regular job and shows up in the story from time to time would mitigate that. People with albinism are normal people.

It's true that a person of any race or ethnicity can have albinism! Some types of albinism are more common in certain demographics; for example, Heřmanský–Pudlák Syndrome appears much more frequently in Puerto Rico and OCA4 is almost exclusively seen in Japan, and oculocutaneous albinism is more common in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole (which is a giant area, but there's not much statistics about it). But your character could be of any background to have albinism in general.

In short, if the representation would end at "giving a character white skin, white hair and red eyes*" then it's more fetishistic than representative; that's just using the appearance but ignoring everything else. Keep in mind that it's a medical condition, not an aesthetic. If a character stops having albinism when they dye their hair, tan, and wear colored contacts, then that's just a character who happened to have light hair skin and eyes, not a person with albinism. Good representation of disability means showing the disabling parts of it - again, you don't have to go into detail about how it is to have albinism if the character shows up for two chapters, but show them navigating with a white cane.

*In real life, people with albinism don't have red eyes. I mention it because it shows up in media all the time. It just screams fetishization because it's not a thing - most people with albinism will have blue, gray, hazel, or brown eyes.

I hope that this helps - if you have a more specific question, feel free to send another ask. I also recommend going through our #albinism representation tag, it might answer some of the questions you might have.

mod Sasza

[beemovieerotica]

I just saw your post (one of? ) where you discuss your OCD symptoms, and they sounded... Familiar, for lack of a better word. I went into a therapist recently for anxiety and intrusive thoughts, and she wanted to evaluate me for OCD. My dad has diagnosed OCD, and I don't think that my internal experiences match his at all. I really feel like I just have stress-correlated anxiety. Do you mind talking about what your OCD experience is like, for comparison?

oh 100% my ocd ramps up a lot with stress. I have a lot going on but basically ocd can attach itself to anything in your environment and create reasons for why it is an existential threat. anything can be a trigger.

there's also a distinction where people may do none of the habitual compulsions (like physically checking things) and it's all just things revolving in their head - this is a lot of what I have. but yeah here are some more common symptoms / subtypes im familiar with that do get screened for by specialists:

intrusive thoughts like horror movie imagery throughout the day

spiraling what-if catastrophe scenarios that go on for minutes at a time where I just kind of blank out and get wrapped up in an extremely vivid and distressing daydream that feels like it's actually happening. like I will straight up start grieving for someone who is not dead.

superstitions/very specific fear-based beliefs that go beyond what would be typical for the person's religion. centered on blasphemy, moral goodness, purifying one's thoughts, punishing one's self, believing you deserve retribution/death, etc

believing that you're going to hurt/kill yourself and having obsessive suicidal thoughts. suicidal ocd is different from actual suicidality but a lot of providers don't know this or that it needs to be treated differently - it can lead to highly avoidant behavior like not wanting to use kitchen knives or being near ledges out of fear that you will do something.

questioning your memories of the past. being convinced that something horrifying and traumatic happened to you but you just can't remember it, obsessively analyzing memories to try and fill in the gaps. you can develop false memories in this process.

persistent fear of forgetting things, needing to feel like you have to remember everything all the time to avoid catastrophe

re-playing conversations word for word in your head hours or days after something happened over and over assessing everything that happened to try and figure out the precise way in which you fucked up

no amount of re-checking can reliably convince you that you haven't fucked up, or maybe you do get a moment of peace before something else takes its place

also, I heard somewhere that having 1 parent with ocd gives you a 50% chance of developing it...ough.

[feralcoffeebug]

i saw in the tags of ur new fic that hua cheng has BPD in ur hcs…. if ur willing to talk abt it id love to hear abt it 🙏

Hi!!! Ofc I’d love to talk about it.

So Hua Cheng is one of the characters that I hold super dear to my heart, in that fic he wasn’t quite old enough for the actual symptoms to start showing in ways that would be super obvious hence the whole “it’s not really shown/explored here” that I mentioned. But! Let’s get into it!

There are 3 suspected subtypes for BPD, not really “officially” used in the dsm5 but! Hua Cheng fits Really Well for quiet BPD, which is often where the symptoms are more internalized rather than outward. As a child and teen when he was the little boy and little soldier the BPD symptoms are more outward, as is extremely common for people with quiet BPD that they do not start with this presentation of symptoms.

Since I love researching especially for my headcannons this will have me pulling from the DSM and using that lol. Sorry if this isn’t quite what you wanted! Feel free to send another ask in that case! I love answering questions haha.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE NOVELS

The diagnostic criteria means you need 5 of the main 9 symptoms of BPD to be diagnosed with it. A lot of these behaviors start around 13, HOWEVER it is very difficult to diagnose in children and teens due to regular hormonal changes and a developing mind can often mimic the same instability that comes along with BPD. Please do not use this as something to diagnose yourself.

Hua Cheng, as he is, meets a few of the symptoms. I’ll go symptom by symptom to explain them a bit more

1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment (not including sh or sui behaviors as it is covered in a different criteria).

Throughout TGCF Hua Cheng often spends a lot of him time attempting to be useful or good enough for Xie Lian, He gets very anxious and fearful around areas that might make Xie Lian leave him or be disgusted by him.

As Hong’er, he often changes entire things about himself with just a small off-hand comment from Xie Lian. He picked up the saber and focused on it because Xie Lian told him that he would suit it well. He panicked every single time someone tried to remove the bandages covering his red eye because he knew that it was something a lot of people hated or treated him badly for and was disgusted by, and he didn’t want Xie Lian to see it. When Xie Lian found out about the fact that he was born under the star of solitude and that meant he was cursed he had a breakdown about it, only calming down when Xie Lian assured him that he was believed that he wasn’t cursed. He showed anger at anyone else where for Xie Lian he would do anything (except talk haha)

I can’t say much about Wu Ming or him as a ghost fire; mostly due to not having gotten to his chapters yet. But my brain wants to use the part with the 33 heavenly officials and his anger at Feng Xin and Mu Qing as proof as well. Along with his devotion to Xie Lian.

As Hua Cheng, he often looks to Xie Lian when he’s not sure what he will think of things, often changing his likes and dislikes when it comes to him. He changed his form to be one that Xie Lian might have liked more, being extremely insecure about his true form while trying to play it off that he was ugly, which obviously Xie Lian didn’t agree with. And once he saw that Xie Lian wasn’t as disgusted by his actual form he uses it more often along with (At least in the manghua) he incorporates some parts of it in his San Lang form.

All in all, usually he sees things that could displease Xie Lian as being bad, and I believe this comes from a place of fearing abandonment by Xie Lian.

2. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation

This symptom is a hallmark of the disorder, and most of the other symptoms are what leads to this symptom to showing up. For Hua Cheng, his relationship with Xie Lian is pretty constant and in this context he would be his Favorite Person (FP) (will be discussed later) but his relationship with others are far more unstable. He goes between not caring for those he barely knows to being extremely angry and vindictive if they even so much seem as if they are insulting or disrespecting XL. He also seems to not have very steady relations with those he is simi closer to than strangers (such as yin yu and black water, the only two that, outside of XL, he has around him decently often enough, which honestly probably shows more so that he is attached to Xie Lian like a person with Bpd is to their FP). His opinion of those people seems to be very dependent on how they’re effecting his current situations as they happen, at least from what I’ve seen myself. He also holds very little regard for people outside of Xie Lian, which honestly might point to something like ASPD or something but in my opinion HC fits BPD more so than the other one but I could see the argument for it.

His unstable relationship mostly goes in relation of himself and his self image, which are very dependent on Xie Lian.

3. Identity disturbance: marked and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.

For this criteria, this mostly means changes in personality, likes, dislikes, goals, and role. Often the only sense of self people with BPD have is that they are bad or evil, which we see a lot in Hua Cheng, his view of himself is very negative. He often does not feel as if he deserves to be treated nicely by Xie Lian.

4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentionally self-damaging (e.g. spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating. Not including sh or sui behaviors.

Idk why for this one specifically but in my heart I feel like he is very impulsive even outside life or death situations. I cannot for the life of me recall why right now

One of them is him betting his ashes in the fight with the 33 gods, while that could be seen as him being confident in his ability to win it is still very dangerous. I’m unsure if this would count as impulsive or just sui behavior lmao.

5. Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior.

As Hong’er, He was going up the wall to die. Not only that but when he was in the army he often put his life on the line specifically trying to protect Xie Lian, to the point that Feng Xin mentioned offhand that it seemed like he had a death wish and that he had no concern for his own life. All of Hua Cheng’s deaths actively involve dying for Xie Lian, as he decided to live for the man as well.

6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g. intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days).

Hua Cheng’s mood often shifts very quickly from extremes, there seems to be very little grey area for his moods. Often times, he is happy and content only for a small thing to bring his ire and anger, especially when it comes to his time with Xie Lian. This is often set inwards, anger at himself for not being able to protect him. But this also is directed at others as well as seen by his reactions when Feng Xin and Mu Qing show up.

7.Chronic feelings of emptiness.

In my headcannons this is very true. He is often bored, he often acts very bored in the donghua when something doesn’t have to do with Xie Lian.

8. Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger.

I don’t know about you, but I think a lot of Hua Cheng’s emotions include anger. He hits He Xuan because of a situation that endangers Xie Lian. He is known for getting into fights over small things. He killed 33 gods for simply disrespecting Xie Lian. He often has outbursts in anger at Mu Qing and Feng Xin, using a lot of sarcasm. These outbursts often happen when Xie Lian isn’t giving him attention or when they are disrespecting/looking down at Xie Lian in some way, shape, or form.

9. Transient, stress-related paranoid idealtion or severe dissociative symptoms

This symptoms often comes up when in response to something that may be relating to possible abandonment. Hua Cheng tends to get more quiet and withdrawn when situations have to do with himself or when something comes up that Xie Lian might hate him over. The topic of E’Ming makes him start to try and move the topic off of it’s emotional responses, when he hurt Xie Lian he gets quiet and stares where Xie Lian left for a long while, getting quiet when Xie Lian apologizes for the situation before nearly crying over it and apologizing over it.

Now, a lot of the reasons behind why I say a character has a mental illness usually does not come from what criteria they meet, but I felt that explaining what could possibly meet what criteria is a fun way to get the conversation started. A lot of BPD is the mental process that gets the reactions, or what causes the reactions. I’m going to get into the like, less official practical and professional view of BPD and go more into it as someone who shows a lot of BPD esc symptoms and the research I’ve done from other people with the disorder.

In BPD, there is a thing called a Favorite Person, also shorthanded to FP. I mentioned earlier that Xie Lian would be his FP, and I stand by this. Often to a person with BPD their FP is everything to them. Their emotional wellbeing and sense of self is often based on the person. It is often very intense and their FP is often what is the root cause of their symptoms showing up. Often FPs are caregivers, friends, crushes, and other things. It can be a very unhealthy relationship for both parties due to the fact that a person with BPD rely heavily on their FP for regulation.

This is something we often see with Hua Cheng and Xie Lian. Hua Cheng relies on Xie Lian for reassurance, taking every grain of it. He does everything in his power to appeal to Xie Lian but also doesn’t mind if Xie Lian doesn’t know about him or hates him as long as he can be useful to him. He also does all he can to get Xie Lian’s attention and praise. He bases a lot of himself and his environment around Xie Lian. I think that the opinion that some of the fandom has of him that “everything revolves around Xie Lian for his character” is a very good example of this. I do not agree with this sentiment, obviously, but it is very common for people with BPD to base almost everything around this FP.

Hua Cheng also wants to spend all of his time around Xie Lian, which is often seen with people with Bpd and their fps.

A lot of this headcannon also has a lot to do with seeing myself in Hua Cheng, seeing behaviors I’ve done for past FPs and even my current FP. I see my relationship with my current FP (which is my boyfriend before anyone asks) in Xie Lian and Hua Cheng. I am a lot more unstable in my relationship with my FP than Hua Cheng is to Xie Lian, but I also feel like Hua Cheng often would turn his anger inward a lot more than I do and fall heavily into self blame for any issues. Along with that, I feel as if Hua Cheng is also pretty inclined to feel as if he overstepped and to internally berate himself for thinking he could have or do or feel whatever unstable emotions and feelings and devaluation towards Xie Lian.

Anyways here’s a small, very tired and sleepy explanation. I’m sorry if none of this makes sense. I just woke up to write this and I’m probably heading to bed.

[vocalux]

" remaking " my queer stance slothqueer , there isnt much difference , but i wanted to " redo " it

— slothqueer [ sloth-queer ]

slothqueer is a stance related to being " lazy " , just like the animal . being too lazy to care about other peoples identities , getting into arguments , or just in general ! usually just agreeing with others , especially strangers , to avoid anything .

— pro ;

𖹭 - transids + any type / subtype

𖹭 - any paraphilia + pro - consensual - contact ㅤ ( nothing specific , thats up to you )

𖹭 - muds + self diagnosis

𖹭 - contradictory identities

𖹭 - reclaiming terms , mainly from antis

𖹭 - using terms made by antis

𖹭 - using terms out of spite

𖹭 - creation of alternative terms

𖹭 - any kind of identity

𖹭 - any kind of gender

𖹭 - any kind of fiction + ship

𖹭 - any kind of system

𖹭 - any kind of self expression

𖹭 - consent

𖹭 - conabusive relationships

𖹭 - transition , as long as it doesnt hurt anyone without consent

𖹭 - choice + abortion

— anti ;

𖹭 - forced recovery

𖹭 - abuse without consent

𖹭 - harm without consent

𖹭 - declawing

𖹭 - removing any part of an animal other than for medical reasons

𖹭 - any kind of hate

𖹭 - math / j

— " ohhh but - " i know theres probably already something like it , but i just wanted to !

— emojicombo ; 🦥🌈 / 🌈🦥 / 🦥🌳 !

— a more specific one for this " remake " ; 🦥💤 !

— old flag ;

— any of the 8 can be used , no problem !

[3liza]

i would like to do some very informal data-gathering just for my own interest. if you can self-identify with the symptoms of the autism subtype known as "Pathological Demand Avoidance" (PDA), please answer this poll. if you do not think you have PDA, please hit the "IDK" button at the top of the poll.

THE WORDING ON THIS POLL IS GOING TO BE A LITTLE CONFUSING. I'm doing my best but it's hard to communicate a set of abstract behavioral preferences with so few characters.

This poll is not about how GOOD you are at following routines. this is about whether you LIKE THEM or not. Except I have included a "I'm too bad at doing this to be able to have preferences about it" option because thats the option I would need in order to participate at all.

[hypexion]

It's the end of the year. So that clearly means it's time to look at some Magic: The Gathering mechanics!

People have claimed that this year's sets have been too tropey, and moreso, that the mechanics themselves have a flavour that's too restrictive. As with many wide-ranging statements about Magic mechanics, all I can think is "Is that really true?". So let's have a look!

I'll be looking at new mechanics from six sets: the four Standard releases, along with the Fallout commander decks, and the Assassin's Creed miniset. How "reusable" the mechanics are will mostly be considered in terms of Standard sets, as supplemental sets have much looser flavour requirements, as they often draw from the entire Magic canon.

Murders at Karlov Manor

MKM is perhaps the set people are getting most up in arms about, to the point where they make ludicrous statements. No, this couldn't have been done on New Cappena, there are like a million issues with that idea. (But a new plane would have been fine since it wouldn't have all of SNC's baggage)

Disguise/Cloak - These two are variants on morph and manifest respectively, and the flavour is flexible, while being an accurate description of what the mechanics do. When you cast a spell for its disguise cost, you are literally disguising what it is. Cloak is a little less clean, but there's a similar conceptual throughline. While there's a little bit of baggage around why creatures (or other stuff) would be wearing disguises, it's still a pretty universal thing to be happening.

Cases - A new enchantment subtype with a condition to unlock additional abilities. The flavour is slightly restrictive here, but you can have a case outside of criminal investigations. Bloomburrow's use of the Class subtype also suggests that you can mostly ignore the subtype's flavour as long as the card name is evocative enough. Since a lot can be done with Cases, this is likely a situation where the flavour can be stretched in such a way, as opposed to other keywords and subtypes.

Collect Evidence - Now we're getting somewhere. Collecting evidence requires you to exile cards from your graveyard, which makes a lot of sense in terms of a murder investigation, but less so outside of one. The name is less of a problem, as like with Cases, collecting evidence isn't limited to crime solving. Still more restricted than the previous two, however. (Of course if it was just "Collect" it would be so open as to be usable anywhere.)

Suspect - Last and least for MKM is suspect. On its face, suspect is already quite restrictive, since you generally suspect people of doing crimes. Even in a slightly wider context, it's still tied into investigating implicitly bad things. But the specific mechanical implementation makes suspect incredibly clunky, as being suspected grants menace. So it somewhat implies that a suspect creature is suspected of doing something bad enough to make them scary.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction

In an attempt to avoid the problems with the Western genre, OTJ ended up being set on a world that's kind of weird and empty. Would a Thunder Junction Planeswalker's Guide helped things, or merely revealed that the plane is naught but a dusty canvas?

Mount + Saddle - A very open-ended subtype-mechanic pair, much like Vehicle and crew. If a plane has rideable animals and people to ride them, it can have Mounts to saddle. There's really not much else to say here.

Spree - Like Cases, there's enough leeway in the concept of sprees that this is a less restrictive name that it first appears. You can go on a crime spree or killing spree, but also a shopping spree! Which is nice, because "modular spell with modular cost" is a very usefull design tool. This might not be as stretchable as Cases, but it's not fully fixed to the crime and villain themes of OTJ.

Plot - This is an interesting one, because OTJ already ignores the implicit flavour restrictions. You can plot creatures, including wild animals. What does that even mean? So while this is theoretically narrow, it turns out in practice you can just do whatever you want with it. Perhaps this is a somewhat meta thing, as Magic is all about plotting your opponent's downfall.

Outlaws - Yeah, this batch of baddies is a very narrow idea, requiring a setting where being an outlaw is a Big Deal. I think this will be a general issue with batching going forward - it works very well to tied together specific set theme, but outside of the theme it ends up being too clunky. But batches are cheap, so it's not too much of an issue.

Committing Crime - It has crime in the name. Although in terms of putting a name to "targeting your opponent's stuff", I think that's as about as good as you can get. At least without coming up with a really weird technical-sounding term nobody likes. But yeah, it specifically uses the word crime, which brings a certain level of "caring about the law" into things that most Magic sets tend not to.

Bloomburrow

Everybody loves BLB, the set that's very original, assuming you aren't familiar with the material being referenced. It's cute and cuddly, except for the Calamity Beasts, living embodiments of natural disasters. Also it has a lot of mechanics.

Expend - This mechanic has basically zero flavour beyond what it is. You expend mana on spells, you get an effect. Since that's a thing happening in any set, expend has essentially no flavour restrictions.

Valiant - The updated version of heroic, which works with abilities, but only once a turn. Much like heroic, the flavour here is pretty flexible, since being heroic or valiant is something a lot of things do on a lot of planes. Not as extremely open-ended as expend, but still no serious restrictions.

Forage - Another funky cost mechanic like collect evidence. Unlike collect evidence, it's a bit more flexible, although the graveyard component is linked to the specific thing Bloomburrow's squirrels have going on. That's still something that bends fairly easily, but it's a restriction that the previous two didn't quite have.

Pawprints - A different way to do modular spells with modular costs, BLB featured a cycle of cards letting you chooses modes costing a total amount of pawprints. While this specific implementation is somewhat restrictive, the underlying technology can easily swap out the symbols. It's a little extra work, but it gets you where you want to go.

Gift - The first of the fun cute mechanics. Gift is essentially a kicker variant, where you get your kicks by being nice instead of paying more. While gifting is a universal concept, in the wizard-fights of Magic, the specific vibes of Bloomburrow are doing a non-trivial amout of work here. However, it's more a case that specific settings are broadly incompatible with the flavour of gift, rather than gift being locked to Bloomburrow.

Offspring - At first, offspring seems very flexible. Sure, maybe you can't put it on an angel or a construct, but lots of things have offspring. It's fine. Except when you think about it, Bloomburrow's cutesy flavour and funtime vibes manage to cover up that in some ways, offspring is a child soldier mechanic. It's right in the name! Perhaps that's a little bit of a mean reading... but March of the Machine did the same thing, just in the opposite direction. The scariness of Phyrexia covers for what exactly comes out of an incubator token. Which is also a mean reading I guess. Either way, offspring does have some peculiar flavour restrictions going on to avoid Big Troubles.

Duskmourn: House of Horror

I'm not going to lie to you: I love Duskmourn. It's a great concept for a plane and no amount of "but the cheerleaders" counts as an actual argument against it's strengths. Did you ever consider that Valgavoth wants the cheerleaders there, for his own sinister purposes? I thought not.

Rooms - Another new enchantment subtype, bringing the previously theoretical "split permanent" to life. Most planes have rooms. And since Rooms are enchantments, in some sense they represent the idea of a room more than the actually physical space. A tent could be a room. Or a cave. Or a cabin in the wood and it's princess-holding basement. But I digress. Flavourwise, Rooms can be dropped into essentially any set without serious work being needed to justify them. Can you believe people actually think otherwise?

Impending - It's like suspend, but on the battlefield. Plently of things can impend, although the word and time delay imply a certain level of grandness. An ordinary Ravnican does not impend, but Rakdos might. There's a bit of a catch in that an impending creature needs to also be an artifact or enchantment, but that's a fairly small hurdle to clear in terms of flavour. There's a lot of space to play in when it comes to "creature that shows up after a delay" that means the restrictions aren't too tough.

Survival - A little bit of a weird one, as it carries the implication that surviving isn't a normal thing. Many Magic planes are dangerous, but a certain level of survivability is generally implied. While this isn't entirely pinned to Duskmourn, there's a possible grimness to it that boxes survival into a more limited numbe of locations.

Manifest Dread - A second twist on manifest, for fun. Or terror, I suppose. Dread is a bit of a weird thing to manifest outside of places like Duskmourn and Innistrad, so this one definitely has a certain level of flavour baggage. While not entirely insurmountable, the flavour isn't quite as stretchable as some other mechanics.

Eerie - Like constellation, but it also works when fully opening a Room. This one actually feels very restrictive, because an enchantment entering or a Room unlocking is only eerie in the specific context of Duskmourn. In other contexts, that makes less sense. This might not be a large problem, since Rooms were used in a specific way in DSK, but eerie is still very glued to that.

Fallout

Pip pip, it's PIP. War never changes, but war has changed. I guess there's technically three mechanics here.

Junk tokens - It's junk. Lots of places have junk, and the junk effect is very generic. Just exiling a card off the top of the library so you can maybe play it. Perhaps the whole flavour package doesn't quite line up, but Blood tokens are in a similar niche. And Junk feels more like a thing that can show up anywhere than Blood does.

Rad counters - The problem here is not the concept of radiation. Every lorehead knows that Kaito and Eiko Skizuki's mother died due to radiation poisoning. Also, some guy called Yawgmoth investigated how powerstone radiation was bad for people, with terrible results. Thus, the multiverse has radiation that is bad for you, although only on planes with a certain technology level. The sticking point to me is that a "rad" is technically a real-world unit. Not as bad as the SI units that are named after actual people, perhaps, but still something to consider.

Bobbleheads - Honestly not quite a mechanic, but this artifact subtype does have a connected theme. This one is very wired in to the specific Fallout aesthetic, which is the first point against it. The other is that a bobblehead is a very particular thing, which most planes probably wouldn't be producing. Maybe pre-Valvagoth Duskmourn, but you know, the whole place got eaten by a demon.

Assassin's Creed

From my understanding, Assassin's Creed involves both an ancient precursor civilization, along with a millennia long conspiracy. So it's basically like Dominaria but less excessive.

Freerunning - An alternate cost, payable if you did combat damage with an Assassin or commander. It's a bit like prowl. It's also entirely wired into the specific details of the Assassin's Creed franchise. "Freerunning assassins" is like the entire point of those games. A very, very restrictive mechanic in terms of flavour, but it does feel like it was designed to be a one-off.

Conclusion?

Thematic keywords were not as troublesome as some might say. While a few end up being quite restrictive, others can be stretched further than expected, and some are actually quite generic, even with the context that created them. We also shouldn't forget that Magic has been doing this for a long time. Sometimes baking a little flavour into a mechanic's name is a good thing, especially if it doesn't really have the design space to exist outside of its original context.

Also it's a little weird there were two crime-themed sets in a row, and both 2023 and 2024 had what could uncharitably be described as child soldier mechanics.

[nostalgiclittlespace]

Hi, I like your blog! I was wondering what the term "impure age regression" means, because I've seen it mentioned in one of your posts as well as others in the community. Does it just mean NSFW regression?

(TW: mentions of NSFW, kink, and ageplay)

Hey! and thanks! I’d be happy to explain the term :)

So in the SFW age regression community, we frequently use the terms ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ to describe our regression. I think it would be easiest to explain both terms, as they are cooperative.

Pure regression is what you’ll see mostly on this site. It’s the stuffed animals, play time, kid’s shows, snacks, moodboards, and general joy. This is what people usually think of when they hear the term ‘Little Space.’ All together, this is the happy stuff.

Impure regression still refers to entering a younger headspace, but not because you are happy, nor is it going to make you feel happy. Impure deals with the darker side of regressing. It often includes tantrums, crying, feeling overwhelmed, depression, flashbacks, and other negative feelings. That joy and happiness isn’t there. Usually, this is where we are processing our trauma.

Both pure and impure regression are very important in their own ways. While it might seem best to avoid the stress and negativity as much as possible, working through trauma is how we are able to move on and overcome it. And, the balance of pure VS impure headspace depends on the person. The way they experience and cope with it will vary as well.

While I can understand why someone might assume ‘impure regression’ to refer to NSFW due to its title, it is in no way sexual. Quite frankly, it’s the opposite, as this is when a regressor is at their most vulnerable—literally being in the headspace of a traumatized child and absolutely cannot consent while in that mindset.

The SFW age regression community is in no way affiliated with any ageplay, kink, etc. Unfortunately, the internet loves to prey on the agere community, which has made it harder to distinguish terms.

Age regression (SFW) and ageplay (NSFW) are completely separate groups and mean very different things. The first being a trauma healing community, and the latter being a BDSM subtype. It is a common misconception, but there is no such thing as NSFW age regression. It is either age regression, which is inherently not sexual; or it is ageplay, which is sexual. I hope none of this is coming across too hard, btw; I don’t want it to seem like an attack or anything. I absolutely understand how the terminology can be confused, I just want to make sure to draw clear lines between the SFW and NSFW in order to keep the community safe.

Thank you for your question and I hope this helps! If something doesn’t make sense, then feel free to shoot me another ask and I’ll elaborate. Lots of love to you, anon, and I hope your day is going well :)

-Marty 👻