#but honestly that one either requires very specific examples or just being like. hey. learn the difference.

[utilitycaster]

Part of why it’s tough to talk about the most recent episodes is that I feel a lot of people treat party dynamics, culpability vs. victimhood, and overall character focus on the show, based on an idea of a zero sum game, and I find that fallacious.

It’s really valid for everyone to be furious at Ashton, and I don’t think anyone has behaved wildly inappropriately towards them. I don’t think Bells Hells behaved in a therapy-approved manner either, but as is frequently discussed this is fiction and not real life and therapy-approved discussions are so boring and unnatural in, to be honest, either fiction or real life, that this is not a metric anyone whose opinion I respect would use.

It’s also extremely understandable how Ashton got here. As Taliesin said on 4SD, and now in-game and in-character, the fact that nothing good had ever really happened to Ashton means that they jumped at the first sign that they might be special and ran with it. The Ashton and FCG parallels continue; the past week has been a bunch of important people telling him how unique and cool he is. Jumping into the lava even worked out well for them! And so, riding high on that hubris, and with the knowledge that the rest of the party would probably stop them, they deliberately deceived everyone but Fearne. He even admits that the fact that “very smart people” (Evontra’vir, Allura, arguably Percy) advised against it was part of why he made the decision he did. It was perfectly in character, it did come from their trauma, and it still was a choice that was harmful to them, to the rest of the party, and to a vitally important mission. Ashton covers the situation well: they wanted someone else to blame, but in the end it was their fault.

Ashton is both deeply traumatized and also responsible for a number of their own problems. To be honest, I think this can be said to an extent about everyone in the party, but that’s beside the point. Within the fandom, swinging entirely to one side (They are a horrible selfish monster who ruined everything and are lucky the party is still talking to them) or the other (He has had a very hard life and exploding hurt a lot and everyone should be nice to him as a result) is an incomplete picture at best and a realization of the post author’s unexamined bias at worst.

It’s much easier to cover the other kind of zero sum: that of the show’s, and the fandom’s focus. The show is telling a story. In a good story, everyone will get their time in the sun, but if you’re counting how many minutes each person talks you have quite literally lost the plot. If your favorite isn’t getting the time you wish they did, it’s worth considering what sort of actions they take. Rarely do I find a main PC to actually be sidelined; more frequently, they just have a more subtle plot and the actor playing them realizes this. And in the case of the fandom’s focus; I’d be a hypocrite if I said complaining wasn’t valid, but you’ll achieve far more by making good posts about an underrated character than whining that other characters exist. People can enjoy multiple things at once, and frequently do.

[homosexualmorelikehomiesexual]

ok so...we all saw the flurry of Bandom Racism discussion happening. and i have...thoughts.

i know this is late, in theory because i wanted to get my thoughts together, but honestly mainly because i didnt know what to say, so part of me was annoyed that i felt obligated to say anything at all. bc im not nearly as active in bandom as my blog probably makes it look, i didnt learn 90% of the Lore until september and all of that i learned from mcrblr. im new! i dont know about any of this! much less about the racism. so...why am i expected to talk about it? what is there for me to say?

...and over the past few days, its slowly sunk in for me that thats exactly the point.

of COURSE i dont see the racism in the fandom, or know what to say about it. because either none of the other white liberal fans in my circle do, or we just... dont talk about it. and i think when we do know, we dont talk about it, because we feel like its not our place. we dont know what to say, and especially if we feel like we had any hand in it, we're... embarassed? i know i am. and like...i hesitate to list examples, because i dont want to come across as self flagellating. one, because its got to be annoying for people of color, and two, because...i dunno. i dont want to make other white people think thats whats required, to be anti racist? because i think thats one of the assumptions we're laboring under, like...we've created this environment of really aggressive Discourse, so when it comes to racism, and unpacking our own...we talk in really vague terms, we never get past the "UwU!!! Dont Be Racist!!!!" PSAs because naming our own transgressions means admitting to wrongdoing, which is embarassing at the best of times, but in the very spaces we've created, generally being found out as Doing Something Wrong means getting jumped on by other white people for the purpose of their own moral preening so no one will suspect them of the same. so...why willingly subject yourself to that? especially if whatever you have to say, whatever it is in your behaviour you want to discuss, may be triggering to people of color. simply not mentioning it feels like the better - and safer - option.

but...thats what leads to us not knowing enough about all this to feel confident talking about it in the first place.

i dunno. last week, im one of the people who looked right at that piece of art with franks rising sun tattoo, and went... "huh. hey, theres that tattoo he got covered up because it was offensive. i should look into that. ...anyway, cool art!" and hit reblog.

and like...once people started talking about it, (theres one specific post, forget who its by, someone talking about mcrs history with anti asian racism, great post thank you for making it) i felt...bad? but i also felt kinda defensive. in thinking back on it, i was like..."well, im glad to know that now. but dude im not familiar with his tattoos. i kind of assumed what i was looking at was the covered up version where its sort of peeking through. idk it was a watercolor it was kinda garbled. i wont blame myself for not thinking any harder than that."

and then i was like... okay but. if im honest with myself, thats still bad. because it doesnt matter, since i probably wouldve reblogged it anyway, just assuming it was for the sake of photo accuracy or what have you...because i still didnt fucking know or care what the rising sun flag was.

which was the whole point.

because if i HAD. if i HAD done my research when id first heard about it, months ago, i would have recognized that art for what it was and treated it with the wide berth it deserved and avoided it regardless of my knowledge of his stupid fucking tattoo. but i didnt, for a host of reasons. mainly executive dysfunction, general stress in my personal life (nunya bidness) and...if im being honest? i just didnt want to, because...i hate self teaching. i have adhd. i was homeschooled, it was really traumatic, i flunked all of highschool and had to get a GED. my reading comprehension and attention span are piss poor. so i didn't feel like looking into it. i didnt feel like giving myself a whole impromptu history lesson. i opened one wiki page and instantly got overwhelmed.

but thats also the point. because all those reasons for not doing my due diligence and reading up on why asian fans are so pressed about the rising sun tattoo? or why black fans want nothing to do with 21p? the same shit probably applies to them! they don't feel like doing it either, we just give them no choice until eventually they make giant ass posts, comprehensive, easy to digest, step by step posts, for the express purpose of doing what we all refuse to do.

and, again, theres that feeling of guilt. guilt and shame, because im admitting to this, and because i know how reading this is gonna make other white fans feel, because i just went through the exact same set of feelings, and its uncomfortable as hell. so i can only imagine how fans of color have felt.

im not making this to browbeat white fans, or to self flagellate to fans of color. this isnt a soap box or a confession booth. im just.. talking. so lets talk. im gonna be honest, i still havent done real research into the rising sun flag. im literally just now looking at the wikipedia page for imperial japan, which i just now opened, and i still feel just as overwhelmed. (does anyone have good material on learning about this? if i find any, ill post it in reblogs.)

but...yeah. this isnt an UwU!!! Dont Be Racist!!!! PSA. this is uhhhh...We're All A Little Racist, Lets Talk About It So We Wont Be. an open letter, i guess. cause we're doing and saying racist shit, intentionally or unintentionally, whether we realize it or admit it or not, and i think the majority of you who have read this far are, like me, mainly doing so through inaction. and i think the more we ignore that, the worse this feeling will get. so...lets stop ignoring it. i know we all just did exactly that, i saw it happen, i was part of it, i get the reasons why. but its delaying the inevitable, and more importantly, we're hurting other people because of it. so...lets just get it over with, it cant be any more embarassing than burying our heads in the sand.

[ginger-and-mint]

Hey, I'm wondering if you have any advice on writing kink stuff? Basically, it feels like I'm writing the same story repeatedly. Coming up with stuffing scenarios that both make sense, and aren't just retreads, is really hard. It probably doesn't help that a) I don't have much writing experience, b) my interests are really narrow, and c) I have no imagination, lol. How do you keep stuff fun and interesting? (Jsyk, I sent this to Tiny as well, I love both your blogs 😊)

Hey, anon! Thank you so much, I’m so glad you enjoy my and Tiny’s content and I’m flattered to be asked for advice! ♡ I have a lot of thoughts about this, so I’ll do my best to boil them down into something useful.
 ^^

Since you mentioned being pretty new to writing, I broke up my advice into a few different “stages,” starting with things that are easy to implement and moving to things that might feel more manageable as you get more comfortable with writing. Under a cut because Real Heckin Long.


Stage One — Don’t Sweat It

This might sound corny and unhelpful, but I genuinely think that especially when you’re first starting out, it’s best not to put pressure on yourself to write the world’s most original stories. Write to please your inner fiend and nobody else! If repeated versions of the same story continue to light your fire, there’s no shame in embracing that.

Doing this will honestly help you with originality in the long-term anyway, because you’re giving yourself the freedom to learn more about what specifics you really enjoy in kink writing. Later on, you can use that knowledge to put new twists on those specifics and invent new scenarios.

Stage Two — Stuffing Scenario Cheat Sheet

I completely agree that believable stuffing scenarios are really difficult to invent. What’s realistic is a matter of opinion of course, but for me, this is a quick breakdown of logical reasons for a character to overeat. If you’re getting tired of using the same justification in your fics, try picking something new from this list:

Accidental stuffing:

Character is distracted by something during the meal

Character eats so fast they don’t realize when they’re full

Character has been hungry for awhile and overdoes it when they finally get to eat

Reluctant intentional stuffing (motivated by external circumstances):

Character feels social pressure to keep eating **

The food will go to waste otherwise **

Eating contests / challenges **

The character is trying to bulk up

Enthusiastic intentional stuffing (because the character wants to):

Character just enjoys the feeling of being full

Character and/or their partner(s) have a stuffing kink

Character has temporary access to good food and is indulging while they can

Fantasy Shenanigans:

Side effects of being a magical creature (e.g. a werewolf eating too much for their human form to handle, a vampire needing to feed all at once, etc.)

Magic that causes a character to overeat (e.g. enchanted food, curses, potions, etc.)

Magic that requires a full stomach and/or extra energy to work (e.g. my di-mage spell mechanics, the antidote in this fic of Tiny’s, etc.)

[free space because fantasy lets you set the boundaries of what’s realistic, so your imagination is really the limit!]

** If you’re aiming for realism, I would be careful of these scenarios. In my opinion, they can be done believably, but often are not. Some things I would look out for:

Most foods can easily be stored for later, so if you want to use the “avoiding waste” trope, make sure that you’re either in a setting without access to refrigeration or that the food is something that genuinely wouldn’t keep until the next day (or at least would be way less tasty after a night in the fridge.)

Social pressure works best in scenarios with people that the to-be-stuffed character 1) doesn’t know very well and 2) wants to impress or keep face around (e.g. formal events, business dinners, first dates that involve food, meeting their partner’s family, etc.)

Loving friends, family, and partners don’t pressure or guilt people into overeating! Characters stuffing themselves because their loved ones are really insistent that they have to taste-test everything or act so disappointed because they went to all this work on some extravagant feast always ring at best false and at worst abusive to me. What kind of loving relationship is it if you don’t feel safe to say “no thanks, I’m full?” That’s not to say social pressure with loved ones can’t be done well, but it usually indicates some kind of character flaw (i.e. an inability to say no and/or a steamroller-y personality) that in my opinion, has to be acknowledged by the fic’s end if you want the tone to stay light and fluffy.

Again, this may just be my opinion, but eating contests only come across as realistic with certain character personalities and in certain contexts. Like yeah, I can believe that a himbo with YouTuber Energy would take on a hot wing eating challenge in front of all his bros, but not so much that an otherwise self-respecting character would drop everything to eat themselves sick because a friend randomly challenged them.

Stage Three — Change Up Other Elements When Using Similar Tropes


Especially if you have narrow interests, it’s probably inevitable you’ll write same basic story structure over and over. I know I sure do! However, I would say that changing other elements of the narrative can give your writing an entirely different feel, turning it into a whole new story that will not feel like a simple retread to a reader.

One thing you can change up is setting. A lot of times kink writers will just plonk characters in the comfort of their own homes, which is valid — but setting hugely influences the atmosphere of a story, so the same Kink Plot will read really differently if it happens, say, at a campground or on a boat. Providing a rich setting can even become a feature of the kink itself. For example, setting your story at a lavish buffet could introduce an element of indulgence that hits you and/or readers differently than a story that involves casual takeout in the living room, even if the rest of the story is similar. Try bold settings! They’re fun!

Another element to vary is context. For example, the basic trope of “stress eating” would play out really differently if a character is about to go on an important mission vs. if they’re recovering from an emotionally difficult day; a story about about a character intentionally stuffing themselves will have a completely different flavor if they’ve been going hungry for awhile vs. they’ve been overeating all week; and so on.


Finally, consider changing up the focus. An easy way to do this is to switch up whether you’re writing from the POV of the stuffed character or a caretaker. You can also focus on different details of the stuffing — for example, lingering on how delicious the food looks and tastes vs. how the character feels as their stomach fills vs. physical details like whether they’re getting bloated or grumbly.

Stage Four — Connect to Character or Plot

The most surefire way to make kink stories distinct is to give the story an additional purpose besides just being kinky. This doesn’t have to be some big, extravagant plot (although it certainly can be) — it can be a simple as writing a kink story the way you usually would, and just finding something within it that you can use to reveal an aspect of your character.

Start with an ordinary kink scenario and try to dive a little deeper. For example:

Say you want to write a story about stress eating. Okay — what is the character stressed about?

Maybe you come up with something relatively simple and generic, like school. Okay, what about this character makes them so likely to be stressed out by school? Are they a perfectionist? Are they facing a lot of pressure from their family? Do they have a goal that requires excellent grades? Have they struggled with this subject in the past?

Let’s say you decide to go with perfectionism. Now, what scenes can you use to show this struggle? And optionally, can you give the character some kind of resolution by the story’s end?

And there you go! Your fic now not only has kink, but also shows how your character reacts in a certain situation.

Character especially is a treasure trove of uniqueness, in my opinion, because well-developed characters react differently to the same scenario. Stories feel more original because even if a reader has read this exact same plot before, they will not have seen how this particular person handles it. So one of the best ways to make fics distinct is to spend time developing your characters!

If the goal is to simply write solid distinct kinky stories, trying to create detailed plot is more work with lower return than investing in your characters, if you ask me. You have to enjoy the process of creating plots itself for it to be worth it. If that’s something you’re interested in, I have a whole load more thoughts about that -- but since this is already incredibly long, I’ll save that for a separate ramble if anyone is specifically interested.

---

I hope something in this huge infodump is helpful to you! Some of it may sound intimidating if you’re just starting out with kink writing, but it’s absolutely all something that can be worked up to. Please feel free to ask any follow-up questions if stuff I’ve written doesn’t make sense. Good luck with your writing, anon, and thanks for giving me an excuse to just go off. ^^’ ♡

[a-dragons-journal]

my friend made a carrd on kin terms and wants to make sure terms are correct as they aren't that interactive with the community yet being in it for years, the url is kinform. carrd. co ( I am not sure if links work )

- and in case my tumblr messes up again I wanna stay anon

A’ight, let’s go through this!

First off, I want to say: I really appreciate the effort your friend is putting into this, including going to the effort to have other people check their work! It’s a well-organized carrd, and I appreciate that they included a lot of less well-known labels! That being said, there’s definitely quite a bit of misinformation here - which is totally understandable, the misinformation has spread unfortunately far at this point. But hey, that’s why I’m here!

Incorrect info:

- “alterhuman: a general term for anyone who identifies as non-human, whether it be 'kin or 'link” (on Terms) “Alterhuman” is a much broader term than that - “Having an identity that is alternative to the common societal idea of 'human'; a person who identifies as such.” It covers anyone who has an alternative experience to humanity, or who experiences humanity in an alternative way from “normal”. It’s intentionally an extremely vague and broad term - it covers ‘kin, ‘links, ‘heartedness/kith/synpaths, plurality, daemonism, furry lifestylers, real vampires, endels, probably voidpunk, etc.

(There’s a whole conversation to be had here about how the alterhuman community was supposed to get away from centralizing the otherkin narrative but somehow ended up with that being a huge problem anyway, with it often feeling like it’s about nonhuman identity even though it’s not - but that’s a pretty long conversation, so we won’t go there xD)

- “astral limbs: the sensation of a body part that is not there in real life ; not to be confused with phantom limbs which is used by amputees” (on Terms) Astral limbs =/= supernumerary phantom limbs =/= phantom limb syndrome. What you’re defining is supernumerary phantom limbs, not astral limbs/shifts - astral limbs/shifts are where your astral body changes to match that of your kintype, which a) doesn’t always coincide with phantom shifts, and b) requires belief in astral bodies/the astral plane in the first place, which many ‘kin don’t hold.

Supernumerary phantom limbs is the sensation of having a body part that is not and never has been physically present, as opposed to phantom limb syndrome which is referring to limbs that have been amputated. It’s not “appropriating” language from amputees or anything like that like some people have tried to claim - supernumerary phantom limbs is a medical term. Astral limbs isn’t an accurate, adequate, or necessary replacement.

- copingkin: identifying with or as anything under fictionkin or otherkin for comfort and/or coping ; also referred to as comfortkin ~ also see copinglink (from Kin) I would strongly suggest removing this; it’s not an accepted term and pretty much never has been as far as I’m aware. You’re either copinglink, someone who chose their identity for coping purposes, or otherkin who happens to have a psychological explanation, if your identity came about as an unconscious/involuntary coping mechanism.

- fictionkin: identifying with or as a fictional character or race. (from Kin) Remove “with or”; it’s identify-as. If you don’t identify as them, you’re not ‘kin. Identifying strongly with, but not as, is ‘heartedness, not ‘kin. I would also suggest swapping “race” for “species,” if that’s what you meant, since that’s a pretty loaded term out of context.

- otherkin: identifying with or as non-animal/non-human and mythical creatures ; some have their own label such as songkin. (from Kin) Remove “with or”; it’s identify-as, as above^.

- kin is often involuntarily & spiritual, if you consider yourself kin but don't do these, see hearted or synpath (from Kin) ‘Kin is involuntary, full stop, but it’s not necessarily spiritual. Nor is the distinction between ‘kin and ‘heartedness/synpaths the voluntary/involuntary aspect; it’s that ‘kin is identify-as and ‘heartedness/synpath isn’t.

- aeslink relating to anything for aesthetic reasons ~ "i am angel & palace aeslink" copinglink strongly relating with a fictional character for comfort and/or coping. (from Other) ‘Links are voluntarily choosing to cultivate an identity as something else - character, species, or otherwise. It’s still identify-as, not “relating to,” it’s just voluntary where otherkinity is involuntary. It’s not any less serious or any less identify-as. 'Linking or otherlinking is defined as “voluntarily choosing to identify as nonhuman/a fictional character or species”.

- synpaths: strongly relating to a fictional character or race that you see a lot of yourself in, but not as strong as kin. (from Other) Remove “not as strong as ‘kin”; ‘kin isn’t “relating to” something in the first place, it’s identifying as that thing. I would also suggest swapping “race” for “species,” if that’s what you meant, since that’s a pretty loaded term out of context.

- therian: identifying with or as an animal or other living thing. (from Other) Remove “with or”; it’s identify-as, as with fictionkin and otherkin.

Suggested edits:

Things that aren’t necessarily wrong, but which I would suggest edits to anyway for clarity/accuracy.

- awakening: the moment one realizes they identify as a kintype/theriantype (from Terms) I would posit that an awakening isn’t necessarily a single moment in time; much more often it’s an extended process that can take weeks, months, or even years. There’s some overlap between “awakening” and “questioning” that way, imo.

- They also said “theriantype” multiple times where it should be “theriotype,” but that’s more of a typo thing than a content error.

- otherkin: identifying with or as non-animal/non-human and mythical creatures ; some have their own label such as songkin. (from Kin) Songkin is probably not a great example if this is intended for outsiders who are new to the terminology, since conceptkin is kind of hard to explain to begin with, but that’s my personal opinion.

- Cladotherian, therian, theriomythic, and phytanthrope should all be on the ‘Kin page, as they all technically fall under ‘kin.

-  identity/ID, kinnie & kinning won't be added as they are terms created by the more newer kin community and aren't recognized/accepted terms for older kin, though some older kin may be okay with these terms. (from Terms) Personally, I don’t like calling them “the newer kin community” - the “kin for fun” people aren’t ‘kin, they’re misusing our language, that’s the entire point. “The “kin-for-fun” community” or just “terms being warped as part of misinformation” would probably be more accurate.

- Synpath can probably be included on the ‘hearted page, since synpath, kith, and otherhearted are basically all synonymous.

Suggested additions:

- A resources list may be worthwhile! Things like personal websites and perhaps a few trustworthy blogs/posts could be worth adding to that list (I have a kin resources tag here that may be useful to them if they want to do that!) This gives people a place to go if they want to learn more.

- The term otherlinker is probably a good one to add, given that copinglinker and a specific type of ‘link (aeslink) are both present but the larger umbrella term presently isn’t.

Out of curiosity:

not edits at all, I’m just curious, ha

- kintrope: a trait found in most of ones kintypes. (from Terms) I’m really curious where they found this term, it’s not one I’ve heard before!

I think that’s about all I can find - like I said, I really appreciate the effort being put into this carrd! There’s a lot of good terms on here, just some definition fixes that need to be made - it’s well-organized and very aesthetically pleasing, which is more than I can honestly say for a lot of carrds xD

Hopefully that’s all clear enough to be helpful - I’m more than happy to chat further about this or provide clearer definitions/suggested resources, if your friend wants! :3

[babycharmander]

Things I have learned in my 20+ years of writing fanfic

I’d been thinking about this for a while and figured I’d compile a list, in case other people find it helpful. Keep in mind that what I say here is only my own experiences and tastes and I’ve no intentions of telling you how to write your own stories. So uhhh... let’s go!

1) Different stories require different planning methods. When I was younger, I used to think that I had to use the exact same method for planning each of my stories. Strict outlines on everything! Except... that's not how writing works. Stories are like wild beasts--you can try to tame them, certainly, but as each one is an individual, it may require different methods. Or you may discover that the stories that come to you are ones you can all write in the same way!

But for me personally, I find it best to plan out stories in different ways depending on which one seems to work at the time. One story may require a strict outline, while another may need a very loose roadmap. Other times I can fly from the seat of my pants and finish a story that way, or even use things readers have brought up to help me figure out parts of my story. The point is, don't try to confine yourself to one method of planning. Do what suits your story.

2) When working on a longfic, look for ways to include other characters. This one doesn't apply to every fandom or fic situation (for example, if there's only two main characters in your fandom, or if your characters have a very very very good reason to be isolated), but it's honestly a little bit of a pet peeve of mine when it comes to other stories, though I was guilty of it too when I was younger. I remember writing fics in fandoms where you'd have a large group of characters, but... the fic would only focus on two or three of them. They seemed to exist in a bubble, where no one else outside of that bubble really reacted to what was going on, even if there was no reason why they SHOULDN'T react to this.

For example, say you're working on a longfic for a fandom where there's a group of 5-10 characters (maybe a family, a neighborhood, a team, whatever). In this fic, character A nearly dies, leaving character B devastated at their terrible state and doing everything in their power to take care of A. And then... the rest of the characters don't really do anything, or just avoid the situation for no apparent reason. Once again, it feels like the whole story is taking place in a bubble. I totally get that sometimes you want to just focus on A and B's relationship, but consider how you approach this sort of thing for a longfic. Why not look for ways to include the others?

I'm not saying that means the entire story has to focus on all of those characters if your main intention is to focus on the relationship between A and B. But look for ways to include the others in the group/team/family/neighborhood/town/whatever--show how they're reacting to the situation or what they're actively doing to help or hinder it. Even if you only show one or two scenes per character, it burst the "bubble" effect of your longfic and makes the story richer and the world fuller. Heck, you may even find that you actually enjoy writing those other characters more than you initially thought. Give it a try!

3) In longfics, have specific details in your story that you can potentially bring back later. I'm not entirely sure how to explain this one, but... give your story specific details. Stuff like characters briefly talking about an event from the past, or a character having an item in their possession, or a character happening to know another, or just... anything. Obviously don't fill your stories with unnecessary detail, but sprinkle interesting, specific things in there every so often. You don't have to linger on them or hang a bright flashing arrow next to them to tell the reader "LOOK AT THIS!!!" In fact, you don't even have to come back to them later.

So... why am I telling you to do this?

Because sometimes those specific details will surprise you.

Sometimes you'll be writing part of your story, and then get stuck, and go back and reread something... and then you'll run across one of those details, and it will be the answer to your problem. Sometimes readers will pick up on those details, and voice their own thoughts on them, which might give you an idea for a plot point to bring up later. Sometimes those details wind up being the link between two plot points that you couldn't figure out how to tie together.

Even if they don't wind up doing any of those things, they can just be something to add more life to your story, and make it more memorable for your readers.

4) If your source material has voice acting, keep videos/sound files featuring characters' voices handy. Something I've found that helps me get into a character's head and voice is to just listen to them. In video game fandoms, you're likely to find videos that consist of a character's entire library of voice lines. For show/movie/podcast fandoms, you can of course find videos or sound files in which the characters are talking. If I'm about to write a character for the first time, I'll listen to them talk for a while before I start writing them. Other times, if I'm not certain a line of dialogue sounds like something the character would say, I'll listen to some of their canon dialogue for a bit in order to "refresh" their voice in my head, and see if I can clearly hear them saying the line I wrote.

Sometimes if I'm writing quickly and don't want to stop to listen to their lines, I'll add in a phrase they usually say to the dialogue I'm currently writing--that way I can immediately hear the way they say it in my head, and that will carry to the rest of the dialogue. 

In general, it's just a useful thing for making sure you're getting a character's voice right. (Plus, listening to the dialogue is fun just by itself!)

5) Before posting a longfic, make ABSOLUTELY sure you want to finish it. So, I've written... a lot of longfics. And as a kid, I had a problem where I would get this FANTASTIC IDEA for a longfic, and I would immediately start writing, and immediately start posting, because feedback! Excitement! Gratification! ... and then a few days later I would lose interest and move on to something else. Oops.

When I was in my late teens/early twenties, I decided that sort of behavior wouldn't do, so for a while I would not start posting fics until the entire rough draft of them was complete, and then I would post one chapter a week. And while that worked for a while, it, uh... could only last for so long, because my stories kept getting longer and longer and man you can only go so long writing on your own without really, really wanting some of that sweet sweet feedback.

So... I figured out a compromise.

I would start my longfics. Maybe write out the first few chapters, or write out the notes, however I decided to do it. For some, I would determine that the longfic would be "short" enough that I could finish it before any excitement I had for it burned out. For all the others, I would continue to write them without posting for a while, seeing how long they kept my interest, and maybe show them to some friends. If I started to get really invested in it, then I would (attempt to) create a buffer of chapters, and start posting on a schedule. That schedule... did not always last, but by that point I was usually able to determine that yes, I absolutely did want to see this fic through to the end. Otherwise, the WIP would stay unfinished and unposted until the end of time.

Naturally most of my finished longfics are the epitome of self-indulgence, but hey, that's what fic is for, isn't it?

Speaking of...

6) Always remember that writing fic is FOR FUN. My previous point there? Completely disregard it if you are not having fun writing a story anymore. I've had fic series I started out with full plans to complete them, but after a few years, I lost steam, moved onto different fandoms, and really could not go back. But... that's okay. This is for fun. If I'm not having fun anymore, why should I push myself to keep writing?

Not to say that you should quit writing at the first sign of trouble! Wracking your mind trying to figure out the next part of the story isn't the same thing as losing all enjoyment writing it (unless it is). Usually once you figure out what to write next, you feel that much happier, and can keep going.

Regardless, never lose sight of what you're doing. Writing fanfiction is a hobby, and hobbies should be fun. If you're not having fun, move onto something else. Your readers may whine, but they'll get over it. Sometimes even the feedback isn't enough to keep you going, and that's okay. This is not your job (unless you're actually getting paid for it). This is a hobby. Write what you enjoy.

Well... that's all I've got for now. I may add more stuff to this list later as I remember other things. But there you have it! 

Again, you absolutely don't have to take any of my advice if you don't want to. There's no single right way to write a fanfic! Do what works for you. If you find this stuff helpful, I'm glad. If not, that's okay! Either way, good luck with wherever your pen or keyboard leads you, and have fun writing!

[stillness-in-green]

I saw speculation on this going around & I’m curious to get your thoughts on it: where do you think Geten’s story might be going in the future, & do u think it’s possible Dabi will kill him? I saw ppl talking about Dabi’s noted distaste for him & how the PLF seems more of a temporary alliance in the LoV’s mind (Compress’ noted rejection of the name in his thoughts, Dabi’s use of Skeptic against his will, etc), & w/ AFO back in the picture they theorized Dabi may get his quirk & kill Geten.

Okay, so, it took me a while to grapple with this one, and in the end, I'm going to have to break my reply up into two parts. Because you asked a very simple question, anon, and my answer to the question you actually asked is pretty simple (if characteristically rambly)! But you also provided a bunch of contextualizing information about what prompted your ask, and I have a lot to say about that contextualizing information, stuff that is only tangentially related to your actual question.

Note that some of this is going to get pretty salty, but I assume you wouldn't have brought a Known MLA Stan a question like this if you didn't want at least a bit of that. Most of the salt will be in the second part, though! This first part is pretty safe!

So, to answer the actual question: I don't have a lot of solid thoughts on where Geten's story is going, because from the looks of the way the series as a whole is going, it may well be that the MLA’s story is already done. I have previously expressed concerns about the current status of the MLA mainly because of all the speculation that Horikoshi is trying to rush to get to the ending, and if Hori’s rushing the ending, I don’t know that I’d bet on Geten coming back at all. In fact, given what I can guess about the scenario, I’d kind of rather he not.

The thing is, the MLA have always been far more relevant to the League than they have been to anyone else in the cast. They’re Tomura's victory spoils; their plot beats were established to connect to the League, not the heroes, the students, or even All For One. There’s just no personal connection there, and lacking a personal connection, all they’d do is be fodder for background fights to fill page space and give the side characters something to do.

And there’s just no drama in that! Not even any tension! We've already seen the MLA characters beaten--first by the villains, and then by the heroes. Hell, we've seen Re-Destro beaten three times!(1) Based on how the raid went, there are maybe three people in the entire MLA that present a credible threat--Hose Face, whose name we don’t even know, Re-Destro, who has a repeatedly-illustrated weak point in the form of his new legs, and Geten.

While I definitely think Geten could give any of the students save Deku a run for their money,(2) what would be the point? Who would he be slotted in to have a dramatic fight with? Geten hurt Cementoss, but he didn't kill him, and none of the students are uniquely close to Cementoss anyway. Geten has never personally offended or harmed any of the kids directly. There was a time people theorized that Shouto's end game boss would be a combination of Geten and Dabi, but with the PLF scattered, that looks less likely.

From the other side of things, Geten himself has no particular beef with the kids. If he'd been on the front lines to witness the opening moments of the battle, maybe he'd have a bone to pick with Kaminari, Kinoko, Juzo, and particularly Tokoyami, but it took Geten a bit to get to the front; he has no particular way of knowing about those four, and at the moment, he certainly has more pressing matters on his mind.

Geten's primary interest, when it comes right down to it, is Re-Destro. He talks a big game about the MLA's goals, but when the pivotal moment comes in Deika, he bails on the battle that was assigned to him to try and help RD instead. He claims that pure strength is to be valued above all else, but his loyalties don’t change when Gigantomachia bats him aside like a fly or when Shigaraki proves himself to be An Strongest. Even up to Jakku, Geten is still concerned solely with Re-Destro. With no real reason to pit RD against the kids, there’s no reason to throw Geten against them, either.

The only person Geten has an established rivalry with is, of course, Dabi, but getting the two of them even in the same vicinity again is going to require breaking the MLA leaders out of jail, which clearly isn't a priority of AFO's, and he's the one running the show right now. Would Shigaraki bother? He might, particularly if RD, Trumpet and Geten all get shipped to whatever Tartarus Lite Mr. Compress and Machia are likewise bound for. But if the story is headed to its conclusion, is Shigaraki ever going to get that option?

Is AFO the final boss? If so, it doesn't seem to leave much of an opening for the MLA to become relevant again, because, again, the MLA are all about Tomura's victory, Tomura’s ascendant arc as a villain, his status as a hero to other villains (namely RD). If Deku "saving" Shigaraki from All For One is going to magically resolve all of Tomura's issues with society as a whole, because hey, at least this kid is a good person, so his society can't be so bad after all! (GAG), that doesn't seem to leave much room to get into the myriad issues with society that all of Tomura's followers have. Frankly, the only thing the MLA has to offer Deku right now that's remotely relevant to his current goals is Re-Destro's starry-eyed explanation about why he's fallen so hard for Shigaraki, and Spinner is better suited for that role on basically every level.

So that’s all been one big if. The other alternative is the ending I'm hoping we get, in which Deku and Shigaraki join forces to put an end to AFO, only for Shigaraki to thank Deku cordially and then get right back to destroying things because, surprise surprise, Midoriya Izuku being a good person doesn't absolve Hero Society of all of its many, many sins. Then I can see there being room for the MLA to return. At that point, not only is there RD’s devotion to Shigaraki on offer, but also the MLA’s ideology of Liberation, what it is, what it offers, along with, for example, more on whatever Harima Oji’s complaints were about heroes, more on what has to change systemically to satisfy Shigaraki’s grudge. That’s a story the MLA can meaningfully contribute to, and therefore a story in which Geten and his quirk supremacist beliefs are more likely to be addressed.

However, I’m not optimistic that we’re going to get that ending, and until we find out whether Shigaraki will be satisfied with being rescued from AFO (if, indeed, he survives the process at all), or whether he and his compatriots’ societal issues will be left by the wayside, I’m not yet prepared to spend a lot of time theorizing on how the MLA’s role in it would look.

As to the specific question of Dabi killing Geten--honestly? I think that moment is past. While I said earlier that Dabi is Geten’s only established rivalry, that is frankly being more generous than their relationship actually warrants. After all, we haven’t seen them interact since Deika, and literally the only time one of them has so much as thought of the other in that period was Dabi grumbling, “That icy punk sure knows how to let loose,” after Geten’s big wall of ice attack allows Tokoyami to get away with Hawks. If their continued animosity were going to be a plot point, and especially if Dabi were going to murder him in cold blood eventually, Horikoshi should have shown us the two of them antagonizing each other as co-lieutenants of the Violet Regiment.

At this point, Dabi has made his big play, revealed his identity to the world. I think he's pretty locked into the Todoroki Drama now; he has bigger concerns than going back and winning a grudge match against Geten. Also too, given the point he's trying to prove about the strength of his/Endeavor's flames, would he even want Geten's quirk? If he were to get it, would he get the "evolved" version or just the basic one?(3) Because given the precedent set by both the mechanics of Monoma's Copy and AFO's comments about Jeanist's Fiber Master, I'd be inclined to think the latter, and Geten's ice powers are way less badass without the temperature control, especially for a dude trying to wield them in concert with flames of the temperature Dabi uses.

From a narrative standpoint, Geten has already been punished for his hubris with a personal defeat, the humbling of his leader, a loss of pride in his organization, and then a second, much more damning defeat and subsequent capture at the hands of heroes. Dabi taking his quirk and killing him at this point would just be kicking--indeed, killing--him when he’s already down. It doesn’t feel like karma; it just feels malicious.

That said, in the rather dubiously scaffolded scenario that the MLA gets free and finds their way back to the League and AFO/Shigaraki takes Geten's quirk(4) and Dabi accepts it, would Dabi then kill Geten with it?

…I mean, maybe? Do people think that Dabi is that much of a sadist? Because it would be the act of a sadist, to murder a kid who's almost certainly younger than he is and might even still be a teenager, one who has just been violently stripped of any ability to defend himself, all out of a desire for petty revenge over a months-old slight--a slight consisting of Geten parroting rhetoric he learned from the weird cult he grew up in, and which Dabi has very possibly been working with Skeptic long enough to know is maybe not all that accurate a characterization of the cult's ideals anyway!

And that brings me to Part 2. ---------------------------------------

(1) Four, if you count the clone’s destruction.

(2) Even 1-A's two remaining powerhouses don't present any more of a threat to Geten's ice than Dabi did, and Shouto will only give him more of it to work with. Their advantage over Dabi is that they can both sort of fly, which might well tip the balance--one of Geten's major advantages is his ability to manipulate ice from a considerable distance away, farther away than Dabi's flames can reach, but flying opponents deprive him of that advantage. Now, Shouto's flying is fairly unstable, so I suspect Geten is more maneuverable in the air, but his maneuverability wouldn't save him from Bakugou, the human equivalent of the anger-powered jetpack.

(3) Set aside the Doylist explanations about anyone who stole Geten's quirk getting the version the audience already knows purely out of laziness, forgetfulness, or authorial fiat.

(4) And look me dead in the eye and tell me Geten would just let Shigaraki Tomura or anything currently inhabiting his body just casually stroll up and lay hands on him without protest. Not to say I think AFOmura couldn't do it, but doing it in a "cool," dramatic way would probably involve some lightning movements we have not seen him make thus far.

[splicejunction]

Please tell me about shatterstar's Childhood

oh my god anon okay I’m assuming in context of what I’ve recently posted you want like... my version of events rather than what’s canon but just in case I hope you know that there’s basically zero canon material that actually describes his childhood/young adulthood beyond “I was a warrior born” or whatever the fuck. if you want to know about that idk go on the fucken... marvel wiki page or something

also--I hate that I have to put this out here and I doubt anyone would actually do this but just in case--I have spent like 1 million hours thinking about this because I have brain disorders and it is very close to my heart so please do not A) use this in fics, etc without letting me know/getting my permission in advance or B) reblog this post

anyways. this is a can of worms so I’m going to do a cheeky lil

first we have to get something out of the way: I hate the “shatterstar’s his own grandpa” paradox. I am sorry if this angers people but it makes me mad so I ignore it. the reason it bothers me is because it means alison blaire essentially married her grandson, which is A) weird and B) bad from a genetics perspective.

in my version of canon ‘star IS the biological child of longshot and dazzler but longshot wasn’t cloned using ‘star’s DNA because..... oh god... another whole separate post can be made about this but... in my head, on mojoworld the way genetic engineering works is not really the same as it is here. here genetic engineering generally means taking an existing genome and inserting or deleting genes. this is how they make, for example, animals that glow, or confer pesticide resistance to plants.

but on mojoworld I think the way they genetically engineer is more like... the way we mechanically engineer. like the entire organism is built from the ground up. there’s a master genetic blueprint which is essentially the “minimal genome” required for a functioning humanoid. this was created by study of Earth humans by arize and the other genetic engineers. they can then go in and customize by adding elements to the genome that code for the signals/building blocks that control things like height, strength, hair color, eye color, having hollow bones etc. so in my head longshot was sort of... designed with ‘star as the inspiration, but not directly cloned. that wouldn’t even make sense anyways because A) different hair color and B) LONGSHOT HAS 3 FINGERS ON EACH HAND and shatterstar has 4!! thats NOT HOW CLONES WOULD WORK!!!!

(side note, the concept of a minimal functional genome is a real thing in biology! some scientists have taken a bacterium that already has a small genome and reduced it to the minimum size required for viability. here is a wikipedia article on it and here is the original paper (DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5447.2165) which I can explain in more detail because I took a class on synthetic biology which this technically falls under and I had to read this paper very closely).

fuck I’ve written 4 paragraphs and not even talked about his childhood yet. I am so sorry. anyways. so the way I think they raise the gladiators on mojoworld is they create them in batches of 5 to 10 identical copies of a certain “model”, place each copy in a different “class” with a set of 2-3 mentors/teachers, and train them to fight until they are 13 or 14. until this time the only names they have are the names that identify the “model”--like for shatterstar that would be gaveedra-seven where the model identifier is “gaveedra” and he is (in the lore that I have come up with) the 7th of 8 total.

the reason they create multiples and put them in different classes is each mentor is going to have a slightly different style of teaching which is going to work better for some and worse for others, so it allows them to have more mass production while increasing the chances of creating a truly great champion. it’s classic nature versus nurture--the genetic engineers create your nature, but you don’t end up exactly the same as others of your model. maybe you get an edge, maybe you don’t.

another thing that happens is different mentors believe in different ways of raising the kids in their care. shatterstar specifically was raised in a class where there was absolutely zero emotional development at all and no attachments allowed beyond fighting alliances. that’s not the case in all classes, and it also had the effect of making him somewhat of an outsider even within the other gladiators as he got older.

at 13 or 14--and yes I realize this is very fucked up but dude its fucking mojoworld idk what you expected--they start participating in fights. the first ones aren’t to the death and they’re as teams and they’re not usually televised they’re more like high school sports games that are attended by scouts (here, they’re “sponsors”--I think that’s a canonical term but I honestly can’t remember) and if you get sponsored you leave your class and join a new “team” that’s really just a bunch of people who all have the same sponsorship. this is where things can get interesting because they’ve all been raised with slightly different fighting styles but more importantly, slightly different degrees of Personhood.

also at this point I should mention that by this time, there are usually only 2, maybe 3 of each model left. either they died or were recognized as not having talent so they were sent to eventually fulfill other roles in the network. in ‘star’s case there was just him and gaveedra-five. once you get to the stage where you’re sponsored and you’re actually fighting to the death one of the first people you’ll fight is any remaining members of your model group.

by the time you’re the only one left of your group, you’re also eligible to earn a stage name. this usually happens if you have a particularly epic fight with a lot of viewers, you win and the commentators will typically say something like “Let’s give this crowd a real name to cheer!” and they’ll have a few candidate names and they’ll kind of just pick one. AUGH I actually have this scene written out in story form but its too long so I think I’ll save it.... :) 

after you get a name you also get a cool outfit and usually some kind of mark or tattoo that serves as a brand. this brings me to another important point--shatterstar inherited the X-gene from alison and therefore he IS a mutant. his mutation is the swords vibration thing and the glowing eye. the star mark is a tattoo and teleportation is benjamin russell’s mutation (how he fits into all this is... for another post). basically after he got his name the costuming department guys were like “hey your eye glows, you look like the Legendary Warrior of Old, Longshot, we’re gonna pattern your look after him” so they gave him the star tattoo and the outfit that’s literally inverse colors of longshot’s.

also this brings me to another aside: you’re probably wondering “if he’s the biological kid of longshot and alison how are there 8 gaveedras?” when the genetic engineers got a hold on him as a baby they were like Sick! free baby! free genetic material! thats our job done for us! so they cloned him (in the traditional sense) and made 7 copies. this was also to kind of conceal his identity as technically being from outside mojoworld, which would make him stick out and thus be a target. they DID edit out the x-gene in the other gaveedra models though. this wasn’t a problem for ‘star because his mutation didn’t manifest until he was already sponsored.

I think that’s .... pretty much it for macroscopic lore on what it was like to be a kid gladiator on mojoworld. now let me give you some Tidbits of his life specifically:

like I said he was raised in a particularly cold and ruthless class. the mentors that raised him are like well-known by everyone to produce some of the best warriors but also there’s discourse on mojoworld because some people say perfectly emotionless killing machines aren’t as fun to watch. when he was sponsored there were 4-5 others in the same sponsorship and they were like Theres Something Wrong With You LOL

they speak earth languages on mojoworld because they’re imitating the broadcasts they (the spineless ones) used to hear from earth. however, most of the lower-class as well as almost all arena fighters and other television personalities speak cadre or other languages which are native to the planet. the stage names are all vaguely in english, but the gladiators don’t really understand them at first.

shatterstar got his name before he got the glowing eye, and when he learned what stars are, and saw his eye as a little star, he was like wow :) this is Me :) which is why that name is so important to him. it’s also one of the first things that wholly belonged to him.

(you can’t see stars on mojoworld because of light pollution and also because it’s a pocket dimension and there just aren’t that many stars to see)

I hate to bring up the s**ley miniseries but I do think it would be interesting to have him have a sort of ... mentor/first friend, similar to the concept of gringrave but they were NOT in a relationship. it was more like... another kid who was a year or so older than him got a soft spot for him and helped him not be so clueless. she didn’t make as much progress as xforce did, obviously. but they were.... something like friends.

unfortunately she was used by spiral to get shatterstar to murder the first rebel guy who tried to get him out of there. then she got switched sponsors (this can happen) and he had to kill her, and he was like well I will simply never develop any kind of attachment to anyone ever again.

he almost didn’t make it out of the first training session with his sponsorship group (this is semi-canon--there’s a reference when he’s teaching terry to swordfight to almost not surviving the first time he was in a gladiator class or whatever it was).

the closest he ever came to losing was the day he got the name. that’s why the crowds loved it so much.

the double-bladed sword was a gimmick weapon but when he got his mutation they realized it works way better if there’s resonance between two parallel blades so they redesigned it as an actual weapon.

(forgot this but I feel like I should include it) at 17 he escaped the arenas and joined the cadre alliance. two years later he came to earth and joined xforce.

I think that’s going to have to be it for now because it’s literally almost midnight and I have work tomorrow and I did NOT intend to stay up this late but I did. thank you for this opportunity anon :) feel free to ask me any other questions and also I realize a lot of this probably makes no fucking sense and that’s because I am not a writer or anything I’m just a biochemist with brain problems that cause me to obsess over stupid shit

[hellafiedgangstalean]

Big Words Don't Lie

via

No one knows what the Emoluments Clause is, because nobody knows what the fuck an emolument is.

Emolument is not a regular-conversation word like burrito or Kardashian. Emolument is fancy term for money earned from holding a position or title. 

The Emolument Clause is Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution (a fancy term for rules the country is required to follow). It says members of the government cannot receive money from leaders of other countries. 

For example, if the president wanted to host the G7 Summit (fancy word for a meeting with foreign leaders) at a hotel he or she owns, he or she could be in violation of that law because the president would be profiting directly off the presidency. 

In a move to avoid violating the Emolument Clause, one former president famously put his peanut farm into an independent trust while he was in office so that no one in his family could be affected by profits or losses while he was president. The rule was put in place to limit foreign influence (fancy term for swampiness) in American politics. 

Emoluments are the glaring weaknesses of a republic (fancy word for country that doesn’t have a king). Those are not my words; they’re Alexander Hamilton’s in The Federalist Papers. Federalist is a fancy word for states united under a central government. 

It’s up to the people to decide how they feel about laws, so you might think it makes sense to name them in a way that allows the average citizen to better understand what they are. The problem is it’s very easy to mislead the average citizen - and lawmakers have done exactly that with these simplified naming conventions, whether it’s passing the Patriot Act which isn’t patriotic at all, or the Affordable Care Act which took the world’s most expensive healthcare and made it more accessible. 

I thought about Emoluments today while watching people protesting the sweeping actions in Ohio that have significantly reduced the transmission of the COVID19 virus in the state, effectively flattening the curve as well as or better than any other state. 

Specifically, this sign:

via

Yes, he spelled Constitution wrong - misspelled signage is practically required by law at every uninformed protest. You could say it’s in the Contitution. 

At this point in the pandemic, there are probably two reasons for not knowing that COVID19 can’t be solved by only quarantining the sick, because this disease can be passed from a One Person Who Feels Just Fine onto Dozens of People at the Office without HR knowing anything about it. 

The first is willful ignorance (a fancy term for flaunting that you are a dumbass). The governor of Georgia doesn’t even live 20 minutes from the Centers for Disease Control (a series of buildings filled with smart people whose entire focus is to control diseases, like COVID19) and he said, on television, that he didn’t know.  He was flaunting that he is a dumbass.  

But the second reason may be a vocabulary deficiency (fancy term for not knowing what some words mean) and that could just be an innocent information gap. No one knows every word in their first language. English has a million words in it, and in 2020 we’re only using about 170,000 of them - like burrito (Spanish, actually, for little donkey) and Kardashian (Armenian for stone carver).  

You probably know about 20,000 words. Asymptomatic Transmission might be two of them! And English words can be confusing; asymptomatic transmission looks like something you would hear during a car commercial. 

Asymptomatic Transmission is a fancy way of saying 1) someone with cooties 2) who might not realize they have cooties 3)  could give other people their cooties. HIV is passed around like that, but that virus requires intimacy for transmission.  

COVID19 isn’t nearly as sexy. You can get it from a close talker. A regular talker. A handshaker. A salt shaker. COVID19 is very easy to catch, and even though most people survive it, so many people either don’t or require medical help that it can tear down our entire system for healthcare delivery.

Like other coronaviruses, COVID19 doesn’t make any loud beeping sounds or give you a second head if you catch it. The disease appears to be spread around mostly by people who do not even know they have it. They are without symptoms, or asymptomatic. 

And that really sucks, because it means the best way to slow this phantom down is to practice social distancing (fancy term for wear sweatpants, watch bad television, lie awake in bed every night and gain two pounds every day). I had never heard the words Social Distancing in that sequence until this year - and I’ve worked in healthcare for most of my career, spanning other epidemics and pandemics. 

This one is different. Viruses don’t care about election years, paychecks, baseball season or birthday parties. They’re assholes. You beat them by playing to their weaknesses, not ours. 

It’s understandable why people are frustrated about life grinding to a halt while they feel well enough to exercise their Contitutional Writes but we have enough recorded history to know exactly how pandemics stop rolling through the world and enough current science to tackle this one. 

I don’t know all one million English words, but I do know that there are rarely any simple or elegant solutions to complicated problems. Maybe instead of using Big Accurate Words or Simple Misleading Ones - we could do society a service by having better messaging on behalf of experts. 

Public trust is shattered, and the Americans’ general comprehension of *gestures broadly at everything* could use an upgrade. Messaging in 2020 seems to be sourced out of a machine that’s meant to be polarizing (fancy word for designed to get you to click or watch more to drive up advertising rates) while we slowly die from Both Sidesism, breathlessly giving equal platforms and legitimacy to Altruistic Evidence-Based Perspectives and Dangerously Stupid Emotional Outbursts - because fairness is vital to a thriving republic in the Information Age.

It’s up to the media to embrace those big words, explain them clearly and honestly, lay out the genuine, informed sides to a debate while disqualifying the contributions of grifters. Dunning-Kruger live-action cartoon characters are too entertaining to ever go out of syndication. Being dumb, loud and confident is reliably good television. It’s usually great internet. It’s always a bad source of guidance. The topic doesn’t matter. 

There’s no legitimate debate to how COVID19 can be defeated, but there’s plenty of discussion to how to responsibly emerge from social distancing and containment measures. And there’s an enormous opportunity to re-engineer how we communicate information, laws, perspectives and developments en masse (fancy term for to all of us). 

I have little confidence of this happening in my lifetime, but hey - it’s fun to imagine while I try to remember what the inside of a tavern looks like. We might end up less afraid of what we don’t know. Perhaps we would understand each other a little better. 

And maybe we could finally learn what an Emolument is.

[serenagaywaterford]

What is tender culture????

tender culture is all this cottagecore, domesticity, uwu crap that is particularly prevalent in lesbian/wlw circles. like i’m all for fluff and thinking positively but tender culture seems to reduce loving women to a set of stereotypical “feminine” soft and gentle traits. like here’s an example:

“we are in a toasty log cabin in the woods. it’s cold and we snuggle under this homemade quilt with our cat and quietly sip hot chocolate as the snowflakes gently fall against the reddening leaves outside. but we’re safe and warm and loved.”

it’s that sort of shit.

like i said, it’s not bad. it’s just that it’s EVERYWHERE. hell, i follow that lesbian domesticity blog myself tbh (altho i does grate on my nerves that it’s constantly about tender culture and never about sex. and really it is nothing like my relationship with my wife but hey. it’s about her and her wife, not universal experiences. her blog her rules). tender culture as a whole seems to idealise relationships (cos i’m sure it exists in bi and het circles too) as these sweet, cutesy, soft things that are always perfect and everyone is just gentle and calm and utterly loving all the time.

and there’s never any fucking. there’s never any indication that women are sexual beings and sex is an integral part of relationships. (don’t anybody fight me on this. it’s true and you know it.) there’s never any indication that people argue, or tease, or fight, or get turned on. hell, most of the time there’s never even any indication that people PLAY and joke even. it’s ALL like “uwu i barely touch your hand and feel the stars align and we are soft and perfect and fall asleep in your arms.” BARF.

i think, tbh, that’s the issue i have with it being SO prevalent in lesbian online culture. we’ve been told FOREVER that lesbian sex either doesn’t exist, isn’t real sex, is gross, doesn’t really count OR alternately is this fetishistic OTT porn thing for men to jerk off to. we’ve been taught to be ashamed and keep our SEXUALITY to ourselves. the tender culture thing makes being lesbian palatable to the masses because it’s so non-threatening.

and to separate it from lesbian culture specifically, we AS WOMEN have been taught since birth to shut up about sex. we’ve been shamed into silence about female masturbation and female arousal and female orgasm and female desire. like so many of us grow up without learning about our own bodies. a woman knowing her own body is a threat. a woman seeking her own pleasure is a threat. basically a woman talking about sex is a threat. 

and even besides sex, we’ve been socialised to be calm, gentle, nice, accommodating, nurturing, kind, and so so soft. we’re not allowed to be hungry, funny, angry, emotional, mean, have boundaries, be wild and dirty and feral. we’re not allowed to scream and fight unless we’re one of “those” type of women as if all women don’t want to just fucking scream sometimes. 

sometimes women just need to get themselves off too. i just find it very… dangerous to ONLY see that non-threatening tender side of things because it upholds patriarchal behavioural gender norms to such a crazy degree.

so all this “tender culture” crap that basically denies this side of female existence by its silence bothers me. which is why i like to reblog posts critical about tender culture sometimes, alongside tender culture posts which i do like also. we need reminders that there is NOTHING wrong with masturbation, sexual arousal, sexual pleasure, fucking (not just ~making love~), and being a woman while doing it. there’s nothing weird or wrong about being angry and upset and playful and horny and wild. i would just really like to see more content like that. 

there is an argument that women/lesbians have been so overly sexualised by men that it’s a direct response to that pure sexual objectification. like, hey, women have feelings and care, and especially lesbians are romantic and loving too. not just sex objects shoving dildos in each other while wearing high heels. i can see some validity in that reaction. but to me, there is just too much and it starts to seem like that ALL lesbians want is hand holding and a pretty garden and cats in some idyllic cottage somewhere. it seems to have flipped too far the other way into a cliched “perfect woman” under patriarchy non-threat stereotype.

i also recognise that the moment a woman starts talking about sex, especially lesbians, it easily gets co-opted and appropriated by perverts and fetishists and pornsick men (and women). it’s hard to just talk about our experiences without it being viewed a specific way by outsiders. it’s either hyper-sexualised or hypo-sexualised by someone else. there is always gonna be some sick fuck with his dick in his hand ready to go or some conservative prick screaming bloody murder about morals as soon as we try to discuss our own experiences. but i don’t think that means we should shut up about everything sexual or dirty or “nasty” about our reality as women out of fear of these scrotal cumsacks.

it’s all about balance, really.

and being willing to get up and yell: GET OUT. THIS ISN’T FOR YOU. when you see them infiltrate something for us. you see a man make a lewd comment, call him out. make him uncomfortable. take back what we have from them.

like i said, there’s nothing inherently wrong with tender culture. i just think it needs to be balanced with actual reality. there’s nothing wrong with romantic daydreams and just wanting someone to love you gently, and to cherish you and your relationship. and especially when the world is so insane, it’s fine to want something calm and gentle. but real relationships are not JUST that one thing. and i think tender culture gives a false sense of reality as to what normal adult relationships are like. i’ve been told here on my blog that even talking about sex with my wife is TMI (it’s not), talking about masturbation is TMI (it’s not), and even worse that me arguing with my wife and getting pissed off at her is something to be so terrified of (it’s not) that i should “get somewhere safe”. no. i should work it out and communicate. not run away every time things aren’t fluffy and calm and tender. that’s so unhealthy. and that’s what i feel being inundated with tender culture does. it gives a warped idea about what a healthy relationship is.

like no. tender culture denies this not so nice reality of human relationships, especially when you live together. like yes, of course we have the beautiful, romantic, tender side too. but people argue. people can fucking hate each other sometimes when they’re stressed out or frustrated and it comes out in arguments. and there is a scale. there’s a point when it becomes unhealthy and toxic but i think it’s equally unhealthy to never argue and force yourself to push any feelings you have down in order to maintain some idealized genteel version of a relationship that you’ve been bombarded with online as what you SHOULD have. 

and this goes for joking around and playfulness too. sometimes when i joke with my wife and call her a bitch or she says “rude” things to me, people are like “OH MY GOD!” but… i mean, that’s just us? it’s joking. (we sometimes do it purposely in front of people to laugh at their reactions cos we are both assholes.) we play with each other a lot. she’s an incessant tease. she calls me an idiot. i literally tell her i’m gonna punch her in the face when she’s teasing me. do i mean it? of course not. we roughhouse and wrestle and playfight even (not sexually jsyk. just simply playing which is SO LOST in this society. we don’t do any bdsm bullshit). it’s a type of physical expression that doesn’t hurt anybody and requires a certain level of connection and trust too. the fact i can tackle her onto the sofa and she squeals and grapples me back is HEALTHY. adults can play too. it’s like that post i made a while back when i talked about how my wife shoved her fingers in me when i was bending over unaware and laughed about it ...and was told it was TMI. like um ...we are physically intimate and playful and it’s not a BAD THING. and i’ll share it cos honestly? if you don’t have that level of intimacy and trust and fun, i personally think there may be something wrong. (if it crosses personal boundaries for you, that’s something else. but she knows it doesn’t bother me.) on my blog i will talk about my relationship with my wife in ALL its glory, bad, good, fun, horny, loving cos it is a fully-rounded relationship and adults don’t experience just one thing.

i fucking love sex with women and i was denied it for so long i’m not about to shut up about it now. i love fucking and the female body in all its wet, messy, soft, beautiful glory. i love being in love finally and properly and i won’t shut up about that either. i won’t be shamed to be quiet about my body or my sex life or my relationship that ISN’T perfect. (like i’m literally going to kill her if says to me one more time that 80s music is the best music lmao like she’s gonna kill me if i leave one more dirty bowl beside the sofa for the stupid idiot dogs to get at). 

to some people, i guess reality doesn’t matter. they only want the daydreams and fantasies, or they only live in a soft cloud world. that’s up to them. maybe that’s what they need in their lives. and that is fine. for a while but it isn’t real life and it’s not what you should strive for. it SHOULD be part of what you strive for however. you should have someone who cherishes you and cares and loves and respects.

i just don’t think tender culture should be as overwhelming as it is. it sets standards that i don’t think are realistic. let’s talk about sex or arguing or any range of human relationship issues too. don’t get rid of tender culture, at all. keep it. cherish it. let it give you hope and positivity and ease loneliness and isolation. healthy, loving, respectful fantasies are important af. but don’t act like a puritanical dunce when a woman talks about sex or hunger or anger as well.

i mean i’m not asking for sexually explicit content and i’d never go into intense detail about my own life (that’s what fanfic is for lmao) but a little recognition that women aren’t just domestic soft cliches. that’s all.

i don’t see any of that in tender culture. it’s all soft uwu feathery kisses and soothing fingers brushing along a forearm. blah… sometimes you need to get fucked. sometimes you need to laugh. sometimes even you need to argue.

wow ok

sorry anon

you asked me what tender culture was and i went off on a rant about why i hate it lol. i’m sorry. you asked such a simple question and i word vommed all over it.

[beatcroc]

ok so for once i’m gonna ramble about skullgirls in the tag where people might actually care so here we go

one of the first things that’s rightfully praised about skullgirls is how much personality there is in its character animations, but even the old concept sheets are worth a hell of a lot of commentary and carry a pretty impressive amount of insight to those that went unused [and largely overlooked], so i’m gonna have some fun and see how much extrapolation i can do for a few of them.  [all images taken from the official skullgirls and/or alex ahad’s tumblr]

first up: feng! feng had a relatively high amount of concepts done so she was fun to look at

feng’s movments are, in a word, fluid, and focus on carrying  several distinct strikes through one burst of momentum. 

  once she begins a motion, she’s always ready to follow up with another or two without needing to to give herself a new start point, but in the same token she can also land and balance at any moment during these movements. any successive points she launches herself from continues from/adds to the momentum of the previous, but it seems she never lets the inertia hit a point she can't instantly recover from or change the angle of the momentum with ease.  

a side thing that's pretty neat about feng is she almost always has those darn birds balanced somewhere on her, which means more often than not she has two horizontal and relatively stationary points throughout her movements and idles. there's not anything particularly telling about this, but it does lend itself to a lot of neat poses :b i guess it would imply she’s been preforming with them for quite awhile though...

as an acrobat, feng’s focus is on grace much moreso than power.  she's not a fighter by profession, but she certainly knows how to put her skills to use in combat [and will readily do so!] i wouldn't guess she's used to fighting a specific kind of opponent to have adapted to, or really even had much deliberate fight training, but some of her concepts seem to have a bit of traditional martial arts moments thrown in, so her fighting prowess may be self-taught, perhaps to accentuate movements in her performance. i'm not knowledgeable enough to know which style, exactly, but it's very reminiscent of air [rotational movements, ease of directional momentum shift] and firebending[dynamic kicks and stance changes] movements in atla.

now i don’t actually know anything about fighter meta or how to build a solid character, but were she in the game, she’d definitely be one of those characters that does shit for damage, but can combo to hell and back. she’s maneuverable and you’re toast if she gets to you, but she might also be easier to punish and have few options when it comes to ranged attacks.

next up, black dhalia

dhalia is really interesting because her sketches seem to to focus on snapping from one extreme to another

a mysteriously concealed stance to a swift sudden burst, dhalia’s posture is solid but poised; she’s always ready to spring to action and strike in any direction at a moment’s notice, and when she does she has TON of flair in it. black dhalia knows she’s good at what she does, and she knows she looks damn good doing it.

she also seems to have a knack for following up an initial action/hit with something bizarre out of nowhere that requires no further exertion from her than to hold whatever pose she just struck. she doesn’t usually put too much into any one hit; to get the job done she leans more into her ability to produce something damaging from pretty much any angle or stance. not one to be easily cornered or duped.

as an seasoned assassin, i imagine she's used to taking down targets with a great deal of variety in their strengths and weaknesses.[the medici certainly have many enemies and grudges, so those on their hitlist likely fall all over the place in terms of uh... competence]. she’s ready for anything. if given advantage, she waits to assess an opponent;concealed so as to not betray her plans to the target, and then delivers a precise, decisive blow. if ambushed or outnumbered, she looks to keep opponents at bay with her variety of gun...weaponry. dhalia seems most lethal at close range, but she has the tools and stamina to win a ranged game too.

In practice it looks like she'd thrive on unpredictability, plenty of moves that come out from the same pose super quickly, with slightly above-average power. not the fastest in movement or cooldown, but plenty of versatility to compensate.

on the third hand, we have annie, who is is…amusingly straightforward in all her attacks. 

annie’s pretty much the polar opposite of feng. she uses huge sweeps, fully exerting herself into singular concentrated strikes that are all about getting as much power as possible behind one motion. there is no stopping this girl’s momentum.

like dhalia, annie has a solid stance--but hers is for sturdiness, not surprise; for bracing and anchoring moves that have a lot of kick to them.

it’s hard to say exactly how much involvement sagan would have in her full spectrum moves, but in these examples whenever she uses him, it’s always a... fairly detached thing? like, when annie attacks, it’s either with the cleaver, or with sagan, and there’s not much overlap or synergy between the types of moves.  not that there’s any reason there should be; she utilizes both perfectly well on their own. the cleaver is also interesting because while she can, and often does wield it one-handed, it’s still got enough weight behind it to merit two-handed swings, though she seems to do dual-handed more if there’s some kind of effect along  the swing, like in Crescent Cut and North Sword.                                     

as a self-made skullgirl killer, annie’s targets have probably mostly been very durable and very powerful, but not incredibly mobile. to counter them, she looks to end battles as quickly as possible with defense-shattering strikes or blasts, while using her own mobility to stay out of harm’s way. float like a butterfly, hit like a truck i guess. 

despite also being an actor, annie has practically no deliberate visual flair to her movements [luckily for her, her sparkliness is part of the attack’s functionality so it doesn’t matter much if she’s actually trying to look cool and flashy, it happens regardless :b]. she has a lot of fights under her belt and takes this whole thing pretty seriously.

In practice I can see her being an agile hard-hitter, but slower to start and end moves than average, with relatively low combo potential. pretty balanced with options in terms of ranged/close combat

lastly, umbrella. she lacks a distinct fighting style so i have less to say about that, but honestly the sheer wildness of her concepts merits bringing her up.

her “stance” and lack of cohesion in attacks are at least indicative of one thing though: it’s clear she’s pretty much just a normal carefree little kid who hasn’t yet gotten any real fighting experience or training.

but even if she doesn't know much about combat, she does know about hungern, and how to utilize its, uh... odd capabilities [even if it’s... not always a very dignified use of them.]

like, i feel like these aren’t things a kid would immediately think a weird umbrella would be capable of doing, let alone pick up on how to do them. she’s had to have done some experimentation with it over the years to find out this kind of stuff. had someone taught her, i’m sure she would know a more skillful way to make hungern do its thing than literally just flopping down on top of it [but hey maybe it’s just fun :b] we know krieg is a renoir heirloom, so it might not be a stretch to say hungern was too, and if so it’s safe to say umbrella’s probably had it as long as she can remember, and she seems to have it with her basically at all times. she does seem to enjoy having and using it, though i’d guess she doesn’t  get much opportunity to really ‘unleash’ hungern like this, being sheltered and all.

anyway all that said, i think really the only thing preventing umbrella from being a true force to be reckoned with in-universe is some disciplne. not in the sense that sh’s a bad kid [though she certainly isn’t...exemplar either]; she’s got the willingness to learn and a good bit of know-how, she just need some structure behind it and practice applying what she knows to real situations.

in terms of gameplay...man. i dunno. lotta weird moves, looks like a lot of huge hitboxes that would make her a pain to get to without risk to yourself, though aside from that she’d be average in all ways i guess.

i’m still trying to wrap my head around venus and illeum’s sheets, among others... but there may be a few other posts like this coming ‘cause i love doing this shit; if you wanna see me do a particular [both used or unused!] hmu, i’d be down ;y

[origami-goblin]

Complete Starfinder Theme Series - Creation Tips and Character Concepts

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Part 1 - Sculpting Your Backstory - Themes in Starfinder

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Creating characters in tabletop RPGs is an art. Before we even put a pen to the page, our minds might already have a vision of our character’s impulsive habits, their fatal flaws, and their love of honeyed candies. We pick up the misshapen ball of clay and sculpt details until our character is standing there, breathing on the page before our very eyes. To put it simply, a part of ourselves becomes attached to that player and we can usually see our own faces staring back at us. It can give us the opportunity to address shortcomings that we have or learn to see things from a different perspective. So, in a way, we level up in RL along with our characters.

But how do you start with a broad idea and hammer out the dents to end up with a fully-fledged character? In Dungeons and Dragons 5E we could start with a Background, like a Sailor or a Noble, and we also received prompts to determine flaws, bonds, and ideals to help breathe life into our newborns. Pathfinder didn’t have much specifically in terms of backgrounds to choose from, but we could choose specific traits that had some backstory to get the wheels turning. With Starfinder, we are presented with one word: theme.

Instantly I’m reminded of the scene in A Christmas Story when Ralphie’s class is assigned the arduous task of writing a theme centered around what they wanted for Christmas (Red Rider BB Gun, anyone?). Starfinder doesn’t appear to leave us with a similar length of creative rope; only ten options? Really? How am I supposed to develop an original history and genealogy of my character when I’m shoehorned into a limiting background from the beginning?

That’s where I’ll jump in to say that you’re wrong to think that way. Honestly, I LOVE that we are limited to a single choice of ten themes. For one, we already know that there are an extensive number of Feats to choose from and having more starting options to memorize on top of those would simply be too much for a game trying to simplify the rules and character creation process. Secondly, I’m a firm believer that limitations and restrictions breed more creativity than rabbits at a carrot festival. They force us to approach our characters with a fresh perspective. Let’s look at the Icon theme, for example:

Icon Character Concepts

“Thanks to interstellar transmissions and Drift travel, the galaxy is smaller than ever, and this connectivity has facilitated your ascension to celebrity status. You might be a famous performer or a celebrated scientist, but either way, you get recognized on the Pact Worlds and in associated systems. Your reason for traveling to unknown worlds might be to further spread your acclaim or to escape the limelight.” - Starfinder CRB

Popular and respected celebrity who can leverage the public’s adoration for specific needs.

Alright, so this describes a character that everybody knows, for some reason or another. The way that it is phrased, it seems like notoriety isn’t completely out of the question, but it is definitely a gray area. So…for what reasons could somebody be famous on an interstellar level?

Pop Icon - Music, dance, special FX, etc. Maybe you’re part of a galactic Blue Man Group or you’re a Kardashian of the Pact Worlds.

Renowned Scientist - You’ve made leaps and bounds in the discoveries of other species and planets. You could be a geologist specializing in the terraformation of planetary features or an intelligent botanist who has cataloged countless samples from neighboring star systems.

Political Propaganda - Your face was used as part of a political campaign for your Home Planet and you are recognized everywhere you go - it’s kind of like being the Coppertone baby or Justin Long from Apple commercials.

Luxurious Billionaire - Part of a historic family, you grew up in the limelight. Every waking moment was scrutinized because you had to live up to your family’s name. Why you don’t have any of that wealth now…that’s up for you to decide.

Skilled Athlete - Having scored the winning goal in the Interplanetary Scrooving Cup, you brought honor, wealth, and fame to your previously unimportant home planet. It doesn’t have to be scrooving, of course (especially since I haven’t invented the rules…yet), but it could be a podracing variant or even a form of space-jousting.

You see, all it takes is a single word to have a canvas on which to build your character. On any of the examples above, you probably have a loose framework of how that person would act; the scientist might bravely charge into the unknown for the sake of scientific discovery, or the athlete might live a shallow life outside of their matches.

Be bold and stretch your imagination. We are no longer limited by the atmosphere.

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Part 2 - Starfinder Theme Focus - Ace Pilots and Bounty Hunters

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This week I’m going back to the scene of the crime to revisit the themes in Starfinder and offer some possible avenues down which you can direct your creative character-building energies. In case you’re completely in the dark on this topic, Starfinder introduces the concept of themes that you can use as a small puzzle piece in sculpting your character. In addition to providing some RP definition, each theme will give your character a boost to a specific stat and bonuses at 1st, 6th, 12th, and 18th level. As an aside, Paizo’s choice to have the theme progression remain identical throughout the possible selections helps to limit the min-maxing a bit, by ensuring that players aren’t choosing themes based on whichever ones grant them bonuses the soonest. Of course, the bonuses that each theme provides inherently enable some level of power-gaming, but that is going to be the case with nearly any pen-and-paper PRG.

Last time, as a part of my deeper dive into themes, I specifically touched on the Icon and listed several examples of character concepts that a player could use when creating a Startfinder character kissed by the Icon theme. The point of the post was to show that themes aren’t meant to limit creativity; they foster it. Just as there’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s, there are countless interpretations to each theme and the characters that can be molded into existence. Today, I’ll be firing up my brain engine to offer some different charger ideas for the Ace Pilot and Bounty Hunter themes. Buckle up, we’re making the jump!

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Ace Pilot Character Concepts

“You are most comfortable at the controls of a vehicle, whether it’s a starship racing through the inky void of space or a ground vehicle zooming between trees, around boulders, and across dusty badlands. You might be a member of an elite military force, the recipient of intense courses of training. Alternatively, you might be a total amateur with innate skills that make you a much-admired hotshot.” – Starfinder CRB

Cargo Transport Pilot – You’ve been on the open road…er…space your whole life. Maybe you enjoy the solitude that comes with transporting outrageous quantities of goods across planets or star systems. These goods could be anything – weapons, construction materials, medical devices. Or maybe it’s a grab bag and half of the excitement stems from wondering what the next shipment will contain. The many laws governing tariffs & import/export taxes come second-nature, and your expertise in maneuvering an unruly behemoth transport ship is unrivaled. I’m sure you have some fantastic stories about the characters that you’ve met at depots and docks along the way. Have you operated with a crew or are you more of a lone wolf? Are you ‘by the book’ or are you known to bend the rules when regulations aren’t being followed? And hey, I’m not going to judge if you smuggle something every now and again – that’s completely up to you.

Mining Rig Operator – A specialist when it comes to operating heavy machinery, and someone who’s not afraid to get their hands dirty. Whether it be a massive drill, asteroid borer, front-end loader, or excavator, you have the honed precision required of someone who could easily level a structure or cause a fatality with a minor slip of the controls. You might harbor a deep love of geology, wealth, or the smell of space-diesel. If you’ve seen Disney’s Atlantis, Gaetan ‘The Mole’ comes to mind here, in all his grimy glory. Has mining been in your family for generations, or were you trying to make some credits in whatever profession was available? Have you pocketed any of your unearthed materials and sold them on the sly? What sort of role would you have on a starship that isn’t a dedicated mining vessel?

Stunt Driver – Inhabitants of the Pact Worlds crave entertainment, and you know how to deliver. From hologram tapes to over-capacity arenas, the lengths you go to appease your audiences is unmatched. How do you prepare yourself mentally to be fearless? Is there any stunt that you won’t do? Huge flames, steep jumps, free-falling acrobatics – you’ve done it all! Have you become an adventurer to satisfy a new craving that’s suddenly emerged deep inside? Are you an adrenaline junky with no care for your personal safety? Or are you THAT confident in your abilities that you simply must show them off at every opportunity?  

Military Training Pilot – You’ve risen through the ranks of a military sect, but you figured that you’re done with combat missions. Instead, you are now responsible for grooming the fresh batch of hot-heads in the Academy to ensure that engagements end favorably at the minimal loss of life and equipment. You could be highly decorated and revered by all, or maybe you’ve never actually seen combat but have a brilliant mind for tactics and strategy. Did you develop a sophisticated training module for recruits? Are you a master of physics and can perform complex equations regarding acceleration, drag, and gravity on the fly? Maybe you’re not pleased about being given a non-combative assignment and yearn to be back in the fight, wherever that might be.

Getaway Driver – You’ll ‘wait in the car.’ You know the best nooks and crannies to hide in after a successful operation, be it a heist or a GTA. Apart from having nerves of steel, your ability to handle any vehicle makes you highly coveted in the high-stakes game of evading the authorities. Perhaps you have a catchy pseudonym, like “Leadfoot” or “Afterburner” that adds an edge of mystery to your growing legend. Are you available for hire depending on the highest bidder, or are you loyal to a dedicated group of criminals? Or maybe you’re not a criminal at all, and you’re an undercover agent networking to root out the top dogs of the criminal world. What drives you (pun intended) and keeps your foot on the accelerator? I haven’t seen Baby Driver, but I imagine that he would make for a fun Starfinder character.

—

Bounty Hunter Character Concepts

“You track people down for money. It is a dangerous profession, as most of your targets understandably don’t wish to be caught. You wouldn’t have it any other way. You might have a code of ethics, never taking jobs that, say, target children or members of your own race. You might hunt down only escaped criminals. Or you might be completely amoral, taking any job that comes along—for the right price.” – Starfinder CRB

Great Mouse Detective – Maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself on this one, but a Ysoki Detective? Come on! Okay, we can drop the ‘mouse’ portion of this to generalize it a bit, but a detective makes for a great Bounty Hunter. Searching for clues? Check. Interrogating witnesses? Check. An independent free-lancer? Check, check, check. Now all we need is a mahogany pipe that functions while wearing an airtight, pressurized helmet. Are you a Private Investigator, helping people track down lost relatives? Do you offer your services on a contract basis, assisting the local authorities when your services are required? Maybe you’re exceptional at finding clues, or adept at making accurate deductions based on the information on-hand. Or perhaps your forte involves the canvassing of a crime scene to gather the word on the street, or you could be skilled at poring over historical documents and ancestry lineages.

Gung-Ho Repo-Man – It’s time to pay the piper. Whether it be collecting vehicles or ships that have defaulted loans, or shaking down debtors who are skipping town without paying back the credits owed, there are plenty of avenues to venture down as a repo-man (or woman). Are you employed by a roving band of outlaws or by a seedy brand of space mafia? Do you find honor in returning to others what is rightfully theirs? You can be cold and calculated, or a wild child with a smoking gun. Do you believe in using violence to get the job done, by obtaining the required items by whatever means necessary? Or do you have a strict code of conduct and will only resort to fighting if it is absolutely necessary and all other accessible routes have been exhausted? Either way, you get the job done and collect that paycheck, because if someone is going to get paid, it might as well be you.  

Corporate Headhunter – Everybody’s looking for that perfect candidate to fill the shoes and help their company prosper. Sure, you’re a bounty hunter, but you aren’t collecting the reward on some beat-up Toyota Star-is or trying to bring in a fugitive; you are trying to find the right people and put them in the right seats. Corporations pay you top dollar (after six months) when you track down someone with the appropriate skillset and convince them to accept a position at their firms. You have an absurd eye for noticing talent, even when it isn’t a skill that people recognize themselves as having. These aren’t rush jobs; you know that the only way to scout ability is to dig in beyond the resume and get to know the person behind the paper. Whittling down long lists of candidates to a select few and engaging them in social situations is your true calling, and you truly want them to succeed. If they’re not a fit, it’s on to the next one until you find that diamond in the rough.

Pre-Gap Antiquarian – Not much is known about the Gap (that’s why it’s called ‘the Gap’), but you recognize that there is much to be learned about the past, and that the key to unlocking the secrets of what we’ve collectively forgotten lies in the relics that remain. You seek out machinery, trinkets, baubles, clothing – any odds and ends whose origins have long since been forgotten. Perhaps you scour through old histories and manuscripts, trying to locate legendary items of extraordinary power. Do you have magic at your disposal to aid you in your search, ala a dowsing rod? Do you gravitate towards items of a certain kind, like ancient weapons? What draws you to these items in the first place? Maybe there have been stories passed down through your family and you became attached to them, bringing nostalgia into the mix. Or maybe you believe that the way technology is progressing leaves people disconnected with nature or causes us to lack the stronger bond that comes in a slower-moving culture. You probably hoard some of your treasures and keep an exceptionally special item on your person. You could be a hoarder, or run a shop that deals in the sale and acquisition of oddities and antiques.

Zealous Proselytizer – Instead of being driven by the promise of gold or riches, you seek out the good fortune that comes from your deity looking favorably upon you. Whether it be Talavet, Weydan or any deity in between, you seek out others in attempt to show them the enlightenment that comes with becoming a follower. In a way, you are a bounty hunter of souls. Maybe you preach openly in front of large crowds and then try to personally recruit the ones who come up to your afterwards who show interest and promise. Or perhaps you spend more time watching and listening, following people whose dispositions align best with your deity’s tenets. You don’t necessarily have to be pushy, but you certainly could get aggressive if you become frustrated with your efforts. What if they don’t see the world as you see it? You might not be terribly high on the totem pole, either; you could be passing out leaflets in hopes that you ascend the ranks if you make your quota. Do you have a quota? If so, is it more of a personal goal or an appointed goal? What if you’re not aligned with a deity at all, but you hop between them depending on the one that grants the most benefits? After all, nobody’s perfect.

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And there you have it! Since I’ve already done the Icon in a previous post, our next stop will be the Mercenary and Outlaw themes. I’m really looking forward to these two, as they both have a negative connotation and I want to see if we can’t shrug off those predispositions and put a positive spin on them! The main problem I have with posts like these is that I want to start putting together a bunch of characters, most of which will never see the light of day. So, please - create! I shall live through your characters!

Until next time – the stars aren’t the limit; they’re only the beginning.

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Part 3 - Starfinder Theme Focus - Mercenaries and Outlaws

Three down, seven to go! I’ve decided that I might as well just knock out the remaining themes all in a row so that at the very least they’ll be crammed together on the blog in a loose semblance of order. Check back on the first two posts if you want a bit of background on the Starfinder Themes and the role they play in character creation. There isn’t much more I can expand on regarding themes specifically, so maybe I’ll just impart a few thoughts on backstories as little tidbits for you to ruminate on. Maybe I’ll sprinkle some powdered sugar on top. Maybe!

The point of a backstory is provide a framework and serve as a backdrop for your character - what do they believe? What quirks do they have? Why are they the way that they are? We are all products of our environments, and it is that environment that you are trying to envision. Leave spaces in the narrative to come out during the game; if you fill in every tiny detail then there won’t be anything for the GM to work with and incorporate into the story. Loose ends are the best! They can be woven into the narrative in order to enhance the game. Even if you’re playing a prewritten Adventure Path or Module, a good GM will use the gaps in your backstory to help engage your PC and keep them interested. And when you’re talking about the sheet expanse of the Vast in Starfinder, let your imagination run rampant on WHO your character is! Themes are a nice paste you can spread over your character to stick new things on top of.

Alright - now we are primed to talk about the Mercenary and Outlaw themes. There is a “bad boy” mentality that naturally comes into the conversation with each of these, by lets see if we can list out five brief theme concepts that stretch the boundaries of the basic definitions of these words.

Mercenary Character Concepts

“Whether you take jobs that match your ethical beliefs or you fight for anyone who can afford your services, you are a hired gun. You might take pride in your past accomplishments, proudly displaying trophies of your kills, or you might be laden with guilt over being the sole survivor of a mission gone terribly wrong. You most likely work with other mercenaries and are familiar with the methodologies of military actions all across the galaxy.” - Starfinder CRB

Security Officer - You’ve always seen yourself as a protector - whether someone needs a watchful eye to make sure they stay out of trouble, or if an estate needs to reprimand unwelcome visitors, you can answer that call. Your allegiance follows the flow of credits and you won’t let your personal beliefs get in the way of whoever’s paying. Nobody’s breaking Non-Disclosure Agreements, but you wouldn’t be dissuaded from providing your security services for a direct competitor. Do you run a small-scale Security Detail or are you a division of a larger corporation? Do you specialize in a particular type of work, such as being a bodyguard or providing cyber-security? Where is your base of operations, or do you require on-site lodgings in order to provide the best service? Were you a part of a specific military before becoming involved in security or have you never tied yourself down to a specific group in that capacity? I see Michael Weston from Burn Notice as a decent example of a Mercenary in this vein - providing assistance through the completion of odd jobs and using his unique skills to outthink his opposition.

Divine Crusader - You believe that the Divine shape the universe through the people that inhabit it. And after all is said and done, and your light goes out, you want to be sure that your deeds didn’t go unnoticed from the powerful beings above. For this reason you wear every divine symbol under your shirt, prominently displaying the current recipient of your unwavering homage and devotion. For you, it isn’t a matter of lacking faith; you are just covering your spiritual bases. Or maybe you have followed a strict belief to a single deity for your entire life, pledging your devotion whole-cloth from day one. Do you play a prominent militaristic role while professing your faith or do you sell your services in a more charismatic avenue? Are you convinced that your actions are tipping the doomsday scales in your favor, or is there a crack in your faith? Have you served in any divine-fueled wars or defected from a losing side? A character falling into this category should have their religious preference tied into their backstory, which had likely followed their interests, skills, and hobbies. I can’t stop thinking of medieval crusaders in this regard, but there is a lot of flavor to dip into here.

Corporate Consultant - In the Pact Worlds, corporations might as well be planets for all the power that carry, and they probably have a militaristic presence of some kind. A corporate consultant could specialize in offering recommendations to specific equipment and weapons, or perhaps they aren’t involved in a violent capacity at all. They could be ruthless and tactical, pulling the strings from behind the curtain or offering suggestions on where to shave off the excess fat of the company. I particularly like the idea of someone walking around with a clipboard and conducting interviews with employees ala Office Space. But how does that tie to a Mercenary? Maybe it’s the company itself - weapons contractor, thugs for hire, etc. Or, perhaps the war lies between a rival corporation and you are involved in espionage and marketing attacks to gain market share. Targeted advertisements, facilities sabotage, and staged product recalls are only the tip of the iceberg.

Intergalactic Lobbyist - You have connections. We aren’t talking about a guy who does your dry cleaning or a farm with the best space radishes; these are high-level, big-time connections that puts credits in pockets and shapes the political landscape of the Pact Worlds. The companies on the money side of the table tell you which babies to kiss and which people to schmooze. If your efforts lead to a political victory, lax taxation, or breaks in long-standing mercantile tariffs, then you get paid handsomely as well. Having the backing of a wealthy corporation is influential in the complicated game of thrones and your ability to reach across planetary lines to make hands meet in a mutual agreement is second to none. Are you employed by a certain company or industry, or do you represent the lawmaking bodies? Do you have morals where you would refuse to make connections that conflict with your personal beliefs? Are you sincere in your work? Have you been known to exercise a position as a double-agent or worked to tack on seemingly insignificant riders to laws that will add up to accomplish a more grandiose goal? You’re likely trained to handle yourself in case seals go sour, and can get out of hairy situations with your wit or your weapons.

Boisterous Revolutionary - The transgressions of the current government have gone far enough and it is time for someone to lead the charge against their injustice. That someone is you. Whether it be a local affair to overthrow a village leader or an elaborate scheme to Take Down an entire planetary government, you have the tactical mind and leadership ability required to gather people behind a cause. This might not even be your brainchild - perhaps you were hired to be the face of the militaristic front or to train the rabble that will be storming the frontlines of the fight. Is your identity a secret while you infiltrate the ranks of the very government you’re trying to unravel? Are you merely a voice blasting through the sound-waves, promoting action or demanding change? Why do you fight? Is it a personal grievance or is your reasoning more utilitarian than that? How is the revolution designed to be won and what are the conditions of a victory? From a grassroots movement to an all-out war, there are loads of potential for a character who wants things to be different.

Outlaw Character Concepts

“Due to the sins of your past or your current unlawful behavior, you are a wanted individual somewhere in the Pact Worlds. You might not even be guilty and are striving to clear your good name. Or you might fully admit to being a criminal but believe the laws you break are unjust. Whatever the case, boarding a starship headed to the Vast might be just the thing you need until the heat dies down—or until you’re dragged off to prison.” - Starfinder CRB

Escaped Convict - You weren’t about to twiddle your thumbs and patiently serve out your sentence. Through careful planning, tactical bribes, and a healthy serving of luck, you have broken out of prison and now you’re on the lam. I’m sure that the going hasn’t been easy - between hiding from the law, committing other crimes to stay alive, and disguising your appearance, it’s been a challenge. Did you have anyone waiting for you on the outside, or have you been begging, borrowing, and sealing to get by? Did your escape because you were wrongfully convicted or did you have some unfinished business to take care of? Were you a part of a criminal organization that lacked direction after you were locked up? What about going forwards - do you have a new identity that you’ve been working to build? Is this a backstory within a backstory situation? Were you partially rehabilitated? Did a couple screws get popped loose while you were in the clink, or are there any specific life-changing moments after your capture and sentencing? From the details of the escape, to acquaintances made behind bars, to plans for the future, this one has some long legs you can use to take some great strides.

Undercover Vigilante - By day you work a nondescript job behind a desk but once night hits you are something else entirely. Alternate personas, white lies regarding your whereabouts, and layers of complex secrets define your alternate exploits. In your primary life you might display yourself as completely average but your other identity has an astronomical bounty on their head. What sorts of activities do you participate in while you’re on and off the clock? Are you more of a Robin Hood character or an independent crime fighter who bends the rules and laws to bring justice to those who would normally get a slap on the wrist? Are your methods questionable? Do you kill? It’s hard not to use Dexter as a point of comparison for someone who uses illegal means to ensure justice is served. Does anybody know about your double life, or do you offer your services to law enforcement agencies? Is there a contact on the force that helps you plan out your next target? Do you wear a unique costume or uniform or do you think it’s unnecessary so long as your face is hidden?

White Collar Criminal - Blood is messy and it will spoil your freshly laundered clothes. Your crimes aren’t rooted in violence of the body, but in the acquisition of funds through discreet avenues. Accounting errors, financial repossession algorithms, malicious software - you alter the bottom line of companies to fill your purse with those sweet, sweet credits. Maybe you’ve forged documents to give yourself access to places you shouldn’t be, or perhaps you’ve run pyramid schemes that have created an almost-cult following behind you. What sorts of crimes have you performed and what sorts of groups do you typically target? How large is he typical score? Do you use an alias or leave a calling card to pump up your ego or would you rather not take those unnecessary risks? Did you have an inspiration or teacher for your work, or were your skills self-taught? Is this a full-time gig or do you have another job so that your extra-curricular activities are more of a supplement? Neal Caffrey from White Collar would be a solid source of inspiration for this one, and he really is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to these sorts of things. Think about how it translates to the world of Starfinder, where technology has progressed significantly and the possibility of scams is abundant - lemon starships, pre-Gap forgeries, and impersonations of diplomats who are literally planets away.

Petty Thief - You are small-time but that doesn’t mean you’re any less talented than the more infamous criminals who are making bigger scores than you. In your eyes, smaller is safer since people are less apt to notice and the manhunt won’t be as dedicated when a booster gets stolen off a personal starship or a couple hundred credits get swiped from a stray purse. Maybe you were raised on the streets and this has always been a part of you or maybe you’ve resorted to crime to rebel against an unfair system. Perhaps you enjoy the thrill you get from the act itself, or you like to cut it as close as possible without getting caught. Do you work independently or as a part of a team? Is there a special role that you fill? How much planning do you do before committing a crime or do you act within the moment? Are you skilled with a weapon or are your talents more in line with dexterity and a convincing tongue? Do you have a stash of Stolen Goods or do you turn around and sell the hot items right away? Is there anything that you’ve stolen that has developed sentimental value? You wouldn’t even have to have an evil alignment depending on your intentions and the severity of your crimes.

Contract Assassin - You have your target and it is your job to eliminate that target without drawing suspicion to yourself or your employer(s). Secrecy is the name of the game and nobody is more meticulous in plotting out the precise details of your operation. As such, your skills come at a high price, but people are willing to pay it knowing that you will be successful in fulfilling your end of the bargain. Your actions have ended wars and started them, reunited countries and torn them apart. From insignificant low-lifes to heavily guarded political figures, you fulfill whatever contracts are the most attractive. Are you driven by money or do you believe that the results of your actions will align with another agenda? Is there a list of prerequisites that must be fulfilled before a target becomes an acceptable contract? How do people get in contact with you? How do you provide your resume for the skeptical clientele without giving away your identity completely? My fallback isAgent 47 from the Hitman series, since he is practically more machine than man which provides an interesting dynamic for the rest of the party.

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Another two themes are in the books! Think about how you can add additional spins to these and how the other aspects of your character might tie into the Theme. Can you picture a Vesk crunching numbers and pushing papers all day just to hit the streets as a brutish enforcer at night? What about a Ysoki rubbing elbows with some of the most elite leaders in the Pact Worlds? Priests and Scholars are up next - stay tuned for more Starfinder goodness!

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Part 4 - Starfinder Theme Focus – Priests and Scholars

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As we continue our journey through the themes of Starfinder, let’s take a second to look back on what we’ve already covered. Things were unofficially kicked off in the startup article detailing each theme individually, in which we shined the spotlight on the Icon (something they’re well-versed with). We’ve discussed the daring Ace Pilot and their mastery over starships and land vehicles. Next came the bounty hunter, searching the vastness of space and overturning asteroids to unearth the location of their prey. After that we made a substantial payment to hire the Mercenary, who gladly offers their services to the party with the fattest purse. Which leaves us with our most recent acquaintance, the Outlaw, who would probably prefer that we mention them as little as possible so as not to give away their identity.

Before we get to today’s scheduled programming, I’d like to mention something about character creation that can be limiting to our creativity. It’s definitely a pitfall that I’ve succumbed to on more than one occasion, and Starfinder Themes can inadvertently recreate the situation. The problem with having specific themes or backgrounds in a tabletop game, is that by selecting one of the options we are essentially putting a label on our PC: Drake is a bounty hunter. Full stop. What tends to happen, is that we have a predisposed definition of ‘bounty hunter’ in our minds; it is a mold that we casually place our character into before we have rolled a single die. It can be limiting and stifling to our creativity, even if we don’t initially see it that way.

Try to get into the habit of generalizing the themes and backgrounds so that all of the stereotypical noise is stripped away, leaving you with a beautiful, hollow shell that you can shape as you see fit. Jumping back to the bounty hunter example: Start off with the bounty hunter definition as outlined in the CRB:

“You track people down for money. It is a dangerous profession, as most of your targets understandably don’t wish to be caught. You wouldn’t have it any other way. You might have a code of ethics, never taking jobs that, say, target children or members of your own race. You might hunt down only escaped criminals. or you might be completely amoral, taking any job that comes along—for the right price.”

Okay, that’s a good place to start but it’s wordy and fills in the gaps unnecessarily. Maybe a regular definition would suffice:

“A person who pursues a criminal or fugitive for whom a reward is offered.”

Better, but the normal definition is making some assumptions that we can generalize even further. Let’s try this:

“A FINDER, paid for FINDING.”

When it all gets boiled down, isn’t that essentially what a bounty hunter does? A bounty hunter doesn’t have to be exclusively searching for people; they can be tracking down objects as well, so long as they’re getting paid for successful completion of the job.

These posts on Starfinder themes have sought to generalize the definition of each theme to give us more creative space to mold and shape our PCs. Of course, your character might be the literal definition of a bounty hunter, and that’s perfectly fine too – fun is whatever YOU find most enjoyable!

Enough jabbering, it’s time to talk about the Priest and the Scholar! In the paraphrased words of Wolfmother, “So I’ll tell you all the story about the Scholar and the Priest of the night!”

Priest Character Concepts

“You are a member of an organized religion or similar association. Your belief, whether it has been a part of you since childhood or it came to you later in life, is an integral part of your character. You might travel the stars proselytizing your deity, or your church might have sent you out on a specific holy (or unholy) mission. No matter what obstacles life puts in your way, you always have the conviction of your beliefs to fall back on.” - Starfinder CRB

Dedicated Pilgrim – Humbled by your beliefs and wanting to strengthen the connection you have with your deity, you have dedicated yourself to a journey of enlightenment. Guided by your immovable faith, you will follow the call of your deity to the end of the Pact Worlds and beyond, if you must. Through the discovery of new planets, people, and technologies, everything serves as a connection to your higher power. Are you specifically travelling to commune with a group of believers at a revered historical site? Is there a tangible beacon guiding you in your pilgrimage, such as a holy relic or powerful artifact? Depending on your deity, you may be driven by or attracted to a multitude of objects, lifestyles, people, etc.

Faithful Preacher – Completely enveloped by your faith, you can’t help but to share the holy words of your divine patron wherever you go. Backing up your speeches with passages from deific texts and reciting countless stories of Even though you are aware that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, are you pushy about spreading your faith or do you focus more heavily on people who are more apt to be convinced? Do you have a specific audience that you are targeting, be it the elderly or are you shaping the young minds of tomorrow? What sort of demeanor does this character have? How do they handle conflict? Have they had an experience that made them question their faith, or is there a profound moment that filled them with their faith to begin with? Maybe you even have a conversion quota that you’d like to reach before you consider your purpose fulfilled.

Astute Theologian – The key to having a solid foundation in faith is to understand the texts and histories that were written to support and document all pertinent information on your deity. Whether you scribe events yourself or focus exclusively on the texts of theologians prior, you enjoy having concrete evidence available at your fingertips. Are you a bookish individual whose vision is damaged by years under dim lights, or are you a young theologian hoping to excel your tutelage under another? Do you collect stories of every deity, or do you limit your studies to a single divine? Are you accepting of other people’s beliefs? Do you have favorite quotes or passages that you constantly reference? Are there any particular ways that you communicate to those of a lesser intelligence? Or perhaps you’re not as intelligent as you initially seem!

Motivational Life Coach – Nothing pleases you more than using your gifts to help others solve their problems. In just five easy steps, anybody can change their life and turn their luck around! Centered around faith, you develop close relationships with others so that you can understand how they’ve gotten to where they are today. How do you encourage people to lower their guard and accept your proven-plan to enrich their lives? What does your enhancement plan entail? Does it have a cost? Have you done any seminars, published books, or organized any retreats to promote your program? Are you just in it for the money or is this a situation where you are the product of your own success? Buzz words and phrases likely leap from your lips – you’re developing a brand after all!

Secluded Hermit – You’ve always found that developing a deep connection with your deity involves peace, quiet, and a whole lot of R&R. You don’t feel a need to proclaim your faith from the rooftops because as far as you’re concerned, faith is entirely personal. By developing your beliefs in private, you can feel that you’re making progress in bettering your soul. How long have you been living alone and why did you choose that lifestyle for yourself? Was it even your choice? How will you assimilate into society and work closely with a party of adventurers? Have you been living a meager lifestyle? Do you have any important possessions that have centered your meditations? Any surviving family? Are you willing to share your faith with others?

Scholar Character Concepts

“You are an erudite intellectual, pitting your brain against problems and puzzles that others would find daunting. You might be an instructor of a specific topic at a large university or a dabbler in a number of fields of study. You could be exploring the galaxy in search of ancient artifacts or new scientific phenomena. Whatever your motivation, you are sure that the answers you seek are out there.” - Starfinder CRB

Eccentric Entomologist – Not limited to just studying the Shirren, you are heavily interested in anything that creeps and crawls throughout the Pact World System. Where others might cringe and crawl, you revel in the opportunity to uncover new species and the possibility of attributing discoveries to your name. What sorts of insects are your forte? Do you specialize in a certain genus? Have you developed any quirks or tendencies that could be attributed to the subjects that you study? Perhaps your studies are strictly limited to understanding the Shirren and their Hive Mind connection and you want to replicate it in another application. Do you keep your samples on you, or do you have a lab where the majority are stored? Any ties to a museum or research facility? Are you an accredited scientist or more of a glorified hobbyist?

Forensic Scientist – Understanding the complex intricacies that go into crime scene investigation, you have an analytical mind rooted in years of study. It’s important that you are familiar with anatomy, physics, and psychology in order to piece together the clues of a murder and figure out the story. Are you currently a part of a law enforcement unit or are you a contractor for hire? Are you an expert in specific types of crimes? Do you often visit the crime scene, or do you focus more on the laboratory side of things? Is there any particular crime that stands out in your mind as most influential or disturbing? What got you into this field of study? How does technology play a role in your investigations? Do you have any enemies that you’ve helped put behind bars that have threatened to make things difficult to you whenever they get out of prison? How will your services be best used out in the real world of adventuring and space travel?

Acclaimed Archeologist – Every planet tells a story under its surface and your job is to discover that story and share it with the world(s). Whether it is the bones of long-forgotten monsters or remnants of an ancient civilization, proof of the past is out there, ripe for the digging. What sorts of equipment or magic do you use to unearth these hidden riches of the world? Are you looking for signs of life, buildings, treasure, or something else entirely? After you find something, what are your goals for your discovery – sharing it with others or stashing it away for yourself? Are you a part of a small team, large corporation, or just working independently? Is there some great mystery that you’re trying to solve? Who are your key contacts in the industry and how do you determine your dig sites? Maybe you also investigate and search for destroyed ships or vessels that we lost in the Drift, hoping to bring closure to friends and family (or to scavenge the wreckage).

Environmental Engineer – Out in the far reaches of space, the environment is hostile and deadly. Maybe you’ve assisted in developing life support systems or you have assisted in the creation of sustainable housing that can stand up to the harshest of elements. Or maybe you are have studied other planets in-depth and understand the ecology, planetary make-up, atmosphere, and other vital statistics about them. Taking it a step further, maybe you’re involved in the preservation of resources and ensuring that the next generation will not be lacking in basic environmental needs. You might be a geologist, pedologist, or meteorologist. Are you focused on environmental usage or preservation? Is there a specialty that others consult you on, like water, air, or weather? Do you design structures? What about terraforming or reshaping existing planets to suit the needs of the people? Are you paid well for your efforts? Did you attend any schooling or are you self-taught? There is a ton of flexibility in this one because the worlds in Starfinder are incredibly diverse and allow for immense creativity.

Legacy Historian – The Gap has left a literal gap in people’s minds – what happened during the period of time before the present-day? Your research is meant to answer that specific question. You might be focused on the militarization of the Pact Worlds, investigating wars and battles that took place during that time. Or maybe you’re more concerned with cultures and race anthologies, trying to understand the people that existed before and during the Gap. Better yet, you might be a renowned historian on Golarion (leaving the player able to exhibit their Pathfinder knowledge). Historians can also be responsible for chronicling events as they happen. Do you write everything down or are you a ‘living’ historian who has an impeccable memory for reciting facts and figures? What level of history interests you the most – individual and familial histories or the rise and fall of empires? Have you ever tweaked a fact to better fit a desired narrative or are you unbiased in your research? Is your work published anywhere? Do you have any powers of foresight were you can recognize past mistakes and see events unfolding as the consequence to those events? Why do you record – so others can remember or so you don’t forget?

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And with that, we’ve detailed out seven of the ten themes. But wait! Aren’t there only nine themes? Do I even know what I’m talking about at this point? You would be correct in saying that there are only nine DEFINED themes, but I’m saving the final post in this series for a brief dive into being Themeless. Even though creating a character without a theme seems like writing a book and forgoing a title, themeless is the perfect solution to the problem of dreaming up a character who doesn’t seem to check off the boxes of a single theme, or one that checks off boxes of multiple themes and you simply can’t decide which one is most dominant.

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Part 5 - Starfinder Theme Focus - Spacefarers and Xenoseekers

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First of all, let me apologize. It’s been MONTHS since I teased the final article on Starfinder themes and leaving this series in a perilously unfinished limbo. I wish that I had a decent excuse to explain it, but unfortunately I don’t have that either. So please, accept my apology, and let’s get to the conclusion of this series!

We’ve covered a lot of bases - Ace Pilots, Bounty Hunters, Icons, Mercenaries, Outlaws, Priests, and Scholars, which means that today we will be talking about Spacefarers, Xenoseekers, and briefly touching on the Themeless concept. That’s still a ton of ground to cover, and I’m a bit intimidated even thinking about it. Concluding this intense detail into Starfinder’s themes will be bittersweet - not only because it’ll be over, but also because there’s no way to fully encapsulate the entire, endless spectrum of characters you can create within Paizo’s Starfinder universe. That’s what’s really great about the Themeless option; if none of the other themes do your character justice in describing their schtick, then you can always go Themeless and solve that particular problem.

Whenever I create a character, I will usually start by trying to find an interesting or obscure feat, characteristic, theme, etc and build the character around that. Some people are really creative and come up with amazing backstories first and build the character to fit their artistic vision. Although that’ll happen on occasion, I’ll generally determine a character’s backstory after I’ve fleshed out their vitals and statblock. The important thing for me is that my characters stand out. Not from a min-max perspective (if that’s what you enjoy then keep doing it!), but from a standpoint of going outside the norm and playing a character with abilities that people may have never experienced before.

Stone Warder Sorcerer? Breadth of Experience feat? Archivist Bard? All of these types of choices go leaps and bounds to hint and what the character is all about. A Stone Warder Sorcerer would be something like an Earth Bender from Avatar, gaining their powers from the rocky world around them. Characters with a Breadth of Experience are ancient, meaning that they’ve seen and heard nearly all there is to know. Bards with the Archivist archetype aren’t going to be dishing out much damage, but they are constantly scribbling down their experiences and every bit of lore they can get their hands on. And just like that, a single piece of your character’s statblock can literally define them.

That’s partly been the point of these posts about the Themes in Starfinder. Sure, you can come up with an absolutely AWESOME character concept and attach a theme that fits that character. No problem. But if you’re having trouble coming up with a character, the options listed in these posts are meant to assist you in launching off into the incredible Imagisphere to create a truly unique character.

Alright, I’ve babbled so much that I’ve turned into a brook. (Sorry if I’ve used that particular moniker already…it’s been a long time since my last Starfinder post). Time to finish off the series!

Spacefarer Character Concepts

“Your longing to journey among the stars can’t be sated. You yearn for the adventure of stepping onto a distant world and exploring its secrets. You tend to greet every new opportunity with bravery and fortitude, confident that your multitude of skills will pull you through. Perhaps you simply find joy in the act of traveling with your companions, or perhaps you are just out to line your pockets with all sorts of alien loot!” - Starfinder CRB

Clueless Tourist - Let’s face it. You saw a map of the Pact Worlds and immediately searched the best places to visit on each planet. Theme parks, monuments, parks - you want to visit them all and document your travels on a blog that you’re still coming up with a creative name for. Experiences are the best currency to be paid in, and your goal is to become filthy rich on them. Now, you might not understand all of the different cultures or customs in the places that you’re visiting, but in your eyes everybody else should be happy that you’re bolstering the economy in all of your destinations. Excuse me - could you please take my photo?

Deductive Meteorologist - Perhaps in the same vein as the Environmental Engineer concept from the Scholar post, this character would be all about the weather and is drawn to the varied climates and conditions present in the Pact World planets. Have you ever seen the sunrise through noxious fuchsia clouds or felt thick, oily rain land on your head? All of these phenomenon can be explained through science. Maybe you’ll publish a scholarly journal on your findings, or maybe your more of a storm-chaser bent on surviving the most wild and dangerous conditions. No matter how you spin it, you’re fascinated by the weather, whether your companions like it or not.  

Hospitable Flight Attendant - Time to make everybody else’s travel experiences as enjoyable as possible. You’re an expert at socializing and keeping everybody’s minds off the baggage fees and severe lack of legroom. In your eyes, there’s no part of a space commute that can’t be made better by a tall glass of sherry or a delicious sack of Zeni’s Zesty Znacks. While traveling, you are sure to keep all the amenities nearby to heighten the enjoyment of those around you. You might have gotten into the gig because you wanted to see the universe, and maybe that itch is just beginning to surface once more.

Curious Explorer - Hardly anything fancy about this one. You love exploring. The mystery, intrigue, and discovery thrill you to pieces. Every time you come across a corner, you just HAVE to see what’s on the other side of it. This is known to get you into heaps of trouble and situations where you end up on the wrong end of a ‘No Trespassing’ sign. But, through your foolhardy actions, you’ve been able to experience things that very few other people have, and your stories are the things of legend. There are countless star sectors to visit and only so much time…what are you waiting for?!

Budding Photographer - Your goal? The perfect shot. You might be a movie producer scouting locations for your next sector-buster. Or maybe you’re an artistic photographer determined to capture the essence of the human (and alien) experience. You never miss a moment and you are incredibly easy to track based on the trail of snapshots that you leave behind. Whether your honing your craft or a complete amateur when it comes to lighting, focus, and apertures, space grants you the freedom to create magnificent works of art. Every horizon has another potential shot, and you’ll hitchhike your way around the galaxy if you have to if it means catching your elusive unicorn.

Xenoseeker Character Concepts

“The thought of meeting alien life-forms excites you. The more different their appearances and customs are from yours, the better! You either believe they have much to teach you or you want to prove you are better than them. Of course, the only way to accomplish your goal is to leave the Pact Worlds and travel to the Vast, where a virtually endless number of aliens await.” - Starfinder CRB

Captivated Anthropologist - This concept makes perfect sense. As an anthropologist, you live and love to study the differences between humanoid species. You can even take it a step further to be fascinated with specific aspects of each of the races. What are the secrets behind the Lashunta’s psychic abilities? How tough are the scales of the Vesk? So many questions and not enough time to find all the answers. You might become acutely interested in your crewmates, asking them all sorts of intrusive questions in order to develop an understanding for their specific gifts and talents. Beings with surgical enhancements might be particularly interesting to you as humanoids continue their never-ending quest for power.

Inquisitive Marketing Guru - If you want to sell something, you HAVE to know your market. Double blind surveys, focus groups, experimental expos…you will stop at nothing to understand the people buying the products you’re pitching. Whether you’re a part of an elaborate Ponzi scheme or a well-known enterprise, you are hungry to understand the psychology of buying patterns and habitual spending. If you can unlock those secrets, you will be the most valuable asset to whichever company decides to employ you. And, by developing an understanding for the beings around you, you’ll undoubtedly be an asset in any situation involving sweet-talking with honeyed words. Heck - maybe if you can find some delicious edible aliens, you will be the next great snack mogul in the Pact Worlds! Second only to Zeni himzelf.

Experimental Doctor - You embrace the uniqueness of yourself and encourage others to do the same. Stand out from the crowd, you say. Set yourself apart! Implant yourself with one of the many augmentations that you can provide! Your interest in the countless creeping aliens and obscure creatures skittering around the Vast stimulate your imagination and provide you with the necessary…tools to allow you to develop exciting new attachments for your adoring fans. Or maybe you’re more secretive and don’t think your work should see the light of day. Will you be a mad scientist or a renowned surgeon? The choice is yours!

Calming Zoologist - People will pay loads of money to see an exhibit they’ve never experienced before. There are countless numbers of mindless creatures out in the far reaches of space that would be welcomed additions to a zoological attraction. Your history in taming wild beasts and soothing the animalistic nature in the creatures you’ve encountered makes you the perfect person for the job. There is a fantastic space zoo that’ll pay top dollar for new specimens, and you’re itching to get paid. This isn’t to say that you are inconsiderate of the creatures’ feelings, however. The zoo that you’re working for is more akin to a resort, and they take great care of the residents that live there.

Talkative Space Taxi Driver - While taking fares, you’ve come across just about every type of intelligent being known in the sector. Long nights that turned into early mornings were a staple of yours, and you’ve delivered passengers to slums, clubs, and luxury estates, learning about them all the while. You love a good conversation; it helps pass the time and gives you an amazing repertoire of stories to share with your crewmates. Everybody comes from a different background, and you have learned to appreciate the intricacies and uniqueness that everybody brings to the figurative table. You might have a bit of a lead foot as well…but who doesn’t?

Themeless Characters

If you don’t fit the bill with any of the other themes, then you are probably Themeless. By choosing to forgo a theme designation, your statistical bonuses will suffer compared to a character who has a theme, so if you’re more concerned with numbers and maximizing your character, then this might not be for you. Choosing this option, however, will allow you to portray your character as a vast canvas, awaiting your masterful strokes.

Hopefully I’ve portrayed the wide variety of concepts that the Starfinder themes can cover. With a dash of creativity, you can morph at least one of the themes to fit the base core of your character. Try to think about each of the themes in new ways; don’t get caught up in the specific 'title’ of the theme. Read the blurbs about each one and search for synonyms that line up with the character that you’re envisioning in your mind.

—

At the end of the day, play a character that you WANT to play. You should be excited every time that you portray your character, and play the game in whatever way is going to be the most fun for you.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series on the Themes of Starfinder! See you in the stars!

[wineanddinosaur]

VinePair Podcast: How We’re Getting Out of Our Drinks Comfort Zones

This week on the “VinePair Podcast” — in Adam Teeter’s absence — Zach Geballe and Joanna Sciarrino take over hosting duties to discuss how imbibers can get out of their drinks comfort zones. After listing what they have been drinking recently — including Calvados and Syrah — our hosts dive into a discussion about what prohibits people from exploring the unfamiliar in the drinks world.

Geballe and Sciarrino discuss how the food and drinks worlds differ in terms of adventurousness, and why so many consumers stick to the same few beverages every time they drink. Our hosts then discuss which beverages they plan to try ahead of next week’s podcast in order to get out of their own drinks comfort zones.

If you have any thoughts on drinks comfort zones, please send your ideas to podcast@vinepair.com.

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Or Check out the Conversation Here

Joanna Sciarrino: From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, I’m Joanna Sciarrino.

Zach Geballe: In Seattle, Wash., I’m Zach Geballe, and this is the “VinePair Podcast.”

Z: Joanna, it’s just you and me running the show today.

J: Just us.

Z: Adam is off doing business stuff who knows where. I mean, we know where, but he’s got meetings and we got the show. Let’s start with this. What have you had to drink that you’ve been excited by or at least interested in?

J: My in-laws actually visited this past weekend from Toronto, after not seeing them for 16 months, so that was very nice, very joyous. We went to a bunch of our local spots to show them around. We revisited Brandy Library, which I have mentioned here before, and I did a Calvados tasting there, which was really cool. I don’t know much about brandy to begin with, but I wanted to check it out. I’ve also been watching a lot of period dramas in England, and they drink a lot of brandy.

Z: Yes, large snifters are full by the fireplaces.

J: It looks so great so I did that and that was really great.

Z: Yeah, so I am actually curious about your thoughts on this. There are these categories in beverage alcohol for me where I bet I could end up really far down a rabbit hole here, but I’ve never been to Normandy, in northwestern France where Calvados is made. I haven’t had that firsthand experience of seeing and tasting it. Now, I’ve tried some Calvados. I like it, but I know that there’s potential. For me, other things that fall into that category are like sake, for sure. I enjoy it but I will freely admit that my knowledge of it is pretty cursory, even though I know there’s an incredible amount of it. Then the other one, which is non-alcoholic, which Adam has given me shit for in the past, is tea. I also find it to be deeply fascinating but again, I only have so much time and brain space for it. Are there things like that for you? Something you could get into, but for whatever reason, either it’s intimidating or you just don’t have the time.

J: Honestly, wine.

Z: OK, fair.

J: Don’t judge me but that is one category where it seems completely endless.

Z: That is true.

J: I can scratch the surface, but there’s just so much to learn about and to know. I would say wine for sure and those other ones as well. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert in sake or even tea — or brandy, clearly. I think any specific category, even just spirits in general, there’s so much to know.

Z: Yes, for sure. Well, I think Calvados is very much rooted in a place. Some of the spirits, like whiskey, are obviously in a much larger category. There are many different styles, many different places and you can make whiskey anywhere. You can make an apple or pear brandy, I suppose, anywhere that you grow apples or pears, but Calvados is really tied to a specific place. To me, it feels more self-contained. You don’t have to learn about the 50 different countries that make Calvados. If you want to know about it, you don’t really have to dive into different types of apple trees, age requirements, etc. Yet, I don’t doubt that it’s super interesting. In a different life, maybe that’s a thing that I’m even more passionate about, but I also look at it as let’s just not because I’m not going to go down that particular rabbit hole. I’m sure it is delicious and no shade to those who make and enjoy Calvados but it’s also a very small part of the drinks world. So, there are things I’d rather be an expert on, or at least more knowledgeable about.

J: Yeah, for sure. What about you, Zach? What have you been drinking?

Z: I have to tell a little bit of a story, I apologize. I really do feel like I’m turning into Adam in this episode, but it’s all right.

J: Someone has to take his place.

Z: I guess so. Well, this last weekend I had a get-together at my dad’s house that we’ve held every other year, but obviously we didn’t do it last year because of the pandemic, and so we pushed it back to this year. The genesis of it is a trip I took with my dad to Walla Walla about seven years ago now. While we were there, we were having dinner at a restaurant in Walla Walla. Walla Walla is a relatively small town, and you run into a lot of wine people there because a lot of the industry is there. My dad and I were having dinner, and at the table next to us was a winemaker who I know a little bit, and he had a guest with him. I said hi, and then I noticed that the guest had brought a shipping box for one bottle of wine. He pulled this bottle of wine out of the container and everything. I thought this was interesting because this person brought this wine from somewhere else to have dinner with the winemaker, so it’s probably a special bottle of wine. I am keeping an eye on it and I don’t recognize the label or anything. It’s a French wine, but that’s about all I can tell because I’m trying not to be in their business. Eventually, I went over to talk a little more and I asked, “Hey, what is this wine you brought?” The guy who is joining the winemaker I knew said, “Oh, well this is a wine I make in Languedoc.” The other winemaker makes a lot of Syrah, and he wanted him to try his Syrah. I thought that was very cool. He asked, “Do you wanna try it?” I said, “Sure, do you mind if I grab a little bit for my dad, too?” So he poured us a little bit of the wine and we took it over and I didn’t know anything about it. I had never seen the label before and my dad and I were both very struck by the wine. We really enjoyed it — I think my dad did a little more so than me, but that’s cool. My dad became mildly obsessed with this wine, which is very hard to find in the U.S., which explains why the winemaker shipped it from France, I guess, but from somewhere not in Washington for sure. Eventually, about a year and a half later, my dad was in that part of France and decided to go buy some of the wine and bring it back with him. He did, and bought four bottles. At this dinner, it was the third of four but these dinners center nominally around this wine. Inevitably, other wine comes along with it, too. Everyone brings some wine, and it’s a very festive dinner. It was really cool because in this example, we had three different French Syrahs. We had this wine called Clos des Truffiers from Languedoc. We had wine from Hermitage, which is one of the preeminent appellations in the northern Rhône. Then, a wine from Hervé Souhaut, which would fall into this natural wine heading, but not particularly funky, just brighter and fresher. Also, not aimed at decades of aging, although this one was a 2015 and still quite lively, so I’m sure it would age quite well. It was really cool. I love Syrah. It’s one of my favorite varieties, and it’s always fun to see it in three different expressions from three different parts of France. Since the pandemic, I haven’t had this gathering of a bunch of people, some family and some friends who are really into wine that was really wine-centric. We’ve had other gatherings such as birthday parties, but nothing quite like this. It was a lovely afternoon and evening. Fortunately, I didn’t have to drive myself anywhere, so it was even better.

J: Do you have a specific meal for these dinners?

Z: It depends, we’ve done different things in the past. This year, the centerpiece was actually some brisket that my dad, along with my cousin, who’s an accomplished author of some books about cooking meat — brisket and otherwise — they worked on it together, which is cool because they got up at 3 in the morning to switch something in the process. I just showed up and ate it, and it was delicious. Very, very good. Brisket plays nice with a lot of things, including Syrah.

J: That sounds so nice.

Z: It was indeed. All right, so let’s talk a little bit about our topic for today. You and I were talking a little bit about how this thing has affected us and will continue to affect us. I’m talking specifically in this drink space, of course. It is this idea that I think a lot of people during the pandemic, specifically as relates to their drinking, were — by dint of being mostly stuck at home and not afforded some of their usual options — had to take themselves out of their own comfort zone. We think about this a lot with people who really experimented for the first time with making drinks at home. Sometimes it was about exploring things in the world of beer, wine, or spirits that they were unfamiliar with. I think it’s fair to say that both you and I see going out of one’s comfort zone as a good thing, generally. I wanted to start with this question of how do you personally push yourself out of your drinks comfort zone? I mean, do you? And how do you do that?

J: Yeah, sure. To share first, there are certain things that I order or prefer or drinks that I know that I like. I guess that can be considered my comfort zone. However, I’m never reluctant to really get outside of that or to order outside of that. For me, it’s really about trying things that I’ve never had before, and I always have a willingness to do that, I suppose. It doesn’t feel like I’m ripping myself out of my comfort zone to try new things, but I would say that’s essentially how I do it. Yet, there’s a caveat there. There are some things that I know I don’t care for or don’t love so much. An example of this would be IPAs (don’t @ me), bitter or hop-forward beers that I know I don’t love, but I’ve been trying to have more of those recently to find ones that I do like. I do like hazy IPAs. I know they’re not quite the same, but I like them more. It is also to better understand your culture and something that’s happening in beer culture right now in this hype around the specific thing. Part of it is trying things that I’ve never had before and just discovering what I like and what I don’t like. The other thing is maybe revisiting things that I haven’t had great experiences with in the past to see if something hasn’t changed.

Z: I think you really hit on something that’s important for me in this conversation, which is there is a fundamental difference between something you’ve tried and didn’t enjoy. You have tried different IPAs and they just don’t work for you. The flavor profile isn’t what you’re looking for. That’s one thing, but I think there’s this other part of the comfort zone or getting out of one’s comfort zone, which almost speaks to who you are in the world, who you are as a person. When something is unfamiliar, does someone view that skeptically as something that could be bad, or excitedly as something that is likely good? I suspect that you and I both generally have that disposition. I don’t know if that’s a thing that in your life first expressed itself in other categories. For me, I was always a really adventurous eater as a child, which translated into being an adventurous drinker, for better or worse, as an adult. I know we have listeners out there who feel overwhelmed by the idea of all the choices that are out there. I do think it’s an attitudinal position — whether you look at an unfamiliar wine, beer, spirit, or cocktail as something interesting that you can, at a minimum, can learn from, or likely something scary. Again, this is not meant to be judgmental. I think you and I have our own dispositions and opinions about this, but I think it’s totally reasonable to look at a lot of what’s out there with some skepticism because sadly, there are a lot of not-great products that exist. Sometimes you can get disappointed. If you don’t know how to either steer yourself away from those or deal with it if you get something disappointing, that’s one piece. Now, I think part of what prompted this conversation was that I like to try things out at home. I like to play around with cocktails. We’ve talked a couple of times in recent episodes about my Paper Plane riffing, which is just riffing on a riff because a Paper Plane is really just a Last Word riff. To me, I’m OK with making something and knowing it is not very good. I may or may not drink it, depending on how I feel but I think this is something that I want to communicate and then I want to get your thoughts. I built cocktail programs before and cocktail lists, and when you’re designing a new cocktail, you go through dozens of iterations before you get it right. Sometimes you nail it on the first couple of tries because you have a sense of what’s going to work. If you’re trying to do something that really doesn’t have the established framework, of course, you’ve got to figure out proportions. One of the cool and scary things about cocktails — and is also true in blending wine — is it is not always a simple linear thing. You think that adding a tiny bit more of one ingredient will just nudge the cocktail and sometimes it does, and sometimes it sends it spiraling out of control. That is the fun of it. When you’re doing this professionally at a bar, you usually have the budget for the stuff that goes down the drain. I don’t know, I am rambling. I apologize, Joanna, but I want your thoughts.

J: Actually, after you told us about riffing on the Paper Plane and what you were trying and what you were hoping to do, I really racked my brain trying to come up with other suggestions for you after you mentioned blue Curaçao, and I couldn’t. I wanted to sit down and actually try things to see what would work with the tequila, Cynar, and orange liqueur. I was just so inspired by what you were doing, and it made me really want to do it myself.

Z: Yeah, and one of the things that I would say in general is that it’s not hard. I mean, in the sense that some of my comfort with this is having been a bartender. For me, through years of doing the job, I have a decent sense of what most of the ingredients in my home bar taste like. If you cook at home, there’s nothing wrong with strictly following recipes, but learning to improvise in the kitchen and behind the bar are useful skills. If you don’t learn how to go off the beaten path a little bit, then normally, you can’t create. You can replicate, which is super cool. Some dishes and cocktails have to be exactly right to taste good, as I said before. However, it comes back to this whole thing of being familiar or comfortable with the unfamiliar and willing to take those risks. Maybe it’s a dispositional thing, but I think it’s also a little bit of a learned practice thing. I encourage people, when they ask me about making cocktails at home, to start with the ingredient they like most. If it’s rye whiskey, reposado tequila, or gin, start with familiar things. All of those have their classic pairing partners, which are really straightforward. Then, if your rye whiskey really likes other bitter liqueurs, think about exploring a whole realm of them that go from the various amari to vermouth to the actual bitters, themselves. You should find yourself in this section of your home bar — if yours is as expansive as mine — or even if it’s a small home bar, you’re going to have few ingredients to play around with. The other thing to think about is it’s totally cool to steal from the bars around you. I mean, not literally steal things, but ideas. I always would ask people I worked with or knew who were more skilled than me, “What do you think would go with this?” I’m not saying walk into a busy cocktail bar on a Saturday night and try to pigeonhole the bartenders, but if you’re there on a Tuesday night and it’s slow, ask: “I really like reposado tequila but I don’t want a Margarita or a Paloma. I want something a little different.” Again, this comes back to this engaging, exploration, and discovery piece. Ask them to make you something, but also ask them to talk you through their logic because a good bartender should be able to give you some idea why they’re doing what they’re doing.

J: I think we both have, as you mentioned, this disposition to explore and try new things. I think there’s skepticism about the unknown, but there’s also an unwillingness to try things. When I think of people like my parents who order the same thing no matter where we are, or the conversation we had in a different episode about people going back to the bar and ordering a specialty cocktail versus ordering something that they already know. I think of my parents in those moments, too, where that’s not the case for them. It’s funny because I grew up trying everything. It was always with food, of course, very adventurous in trying whatever. It’s certainly translated to drinks for me. Yet, I think there is this unwillingness or just, you know what you like so why try something else?

Z: Yeah but that’s interesting to me because I think with food, that mindset makes sense because most of us are exposed to some diversity of foods as a child, whether it’s our parents making things, or in restaurants, or takeout. At some point in our lives, we’re probably having dinner at other people’s houses and we are probably trying some other new things. I’m sure there are people who go through their lives trying very few different foods until they are adults, but most of us have some exposure and increasingly more to a range of cuisines and ingredients. Yet, drinking is weird in this country, right? I don’t know if your parents introduced you to drinking. My parents did a little bit, but a lot of my exploration of drinking came after I was out on my own. At the time, my parents were predictable-ish drinkers. To some extent, they still are. My mother in particular, but also my dad in a lot of ways. For me, I’m fascinated by all these different things — food, drink, etc. — so it’s totally natural for me to want to explore. The things I liked at 23 are different from the things I like now, and that seems natural. At the same time, there’s no cultural pressure — or there’s some and it’s increasing — but there isn’t a longstanding cultural pressure to be a diverse, well-rounded drinker.

J: Yeah, I hadn’t really considered that. I think that’s a really good point. I was having this conversation with a few of our colleagues about this idea that if you ask winemakers what beer they like, they’re always going to say Miller High Life or some straightforward macro beer because it’s the most refreshing or it’s the least fussy. I think that’s really interesting thinking of winemakers having these exquisite palates, and then they just like this very standard beer. That’s really interesting because, as you said, there is probably no pressure to have an extensive drinks palate or range of drinks experience.

Z: This is something I talk about with my wife sometimes. Do you remember the first time you tried sushi?

J: Mm-hmm.

Z: When was that?

J: I was a very young person, and we got sushi from a local grocery store. I think I was 10 or so.

Z: I was definitely older since I had it in high school. Most people — especially a lot of the country — are encountering something like sushi relatively young. My son who is 3 has had sushi since he was one. Unfortunately for us, it’s his favorite food. I mean, we love it. It’s just not cheap to feed a 3-year-old endless amount of salmon sashimi that he seems to want. When my parents first tried sushi, I don’t think either of them really ate it. I mean, certainly not a lot of raw fish. My dad’s more adventurous than my mom, but whatever. That’s not really the point here. The point is I think you could go to a lot of people of our generation and get a rundown of people who tried classic cocktails. Who has tried the Sazerac? Who has tried Clover Club? Who’s tried Chenin Blanc? Pick your thing. Some people may have had all those things, and some people may have had none of those things, but I think we put a lot of cultural value these days — most of us — on being a well-rounded, adventurous eater who’s tried lots of different things. There are dishes and cuisines discussed without any explanation that leaves me confused. I don’t know that thing at all. I have to look it up, which is fine because that’s how one learns. With drinks, people feel totally comfortable being asked, what do you drink? They would say they just drink rosé, Aperol Spritzes, Martinis, or whatever the thing is. It comes back to this whole topic that I think we’ve been trying to define in our own minds: How do you become a more well-rounded drinker? And is that actually a thing worth doing?

J: Is there value in that?

Z: Certainly, a drinks podcast and publication would say “Yes, please read more of our content, listen to more of our podcasts about all these topics.” But it is also true that many people just find the thing they like and stick with it. Again, I think this explains a lot of why hard seltzer has been such a big hit. It’s a thing you can drink in almost any setting now.

J: To your point about food and how it seems like with every generation — your family, in particular — is better-rounded. Your son is eating sushi already. I wonder if the same thing will happen with drinks. Will younger generations have more exposure to and find more value in being well-rounded drinkers, or will it just be hard seltzer and other things like that?

Z: Yeah, that’s a fascinating question. I’m curious to know what our Gen Z listeners think. Again, I even think about my cohort because I am 37. I was out on the right edge of the bell curve for adventurousness with food among my friends. Obviously, I’m a professional, so my drinks experience is pretty broad compared to most people that I know who are outside of the industry. However, I do think we are seeing this value of a breadth of experience expand into the drinks world. If not expertise, then at least some familiarity with all these things. Of course, acquiring that kind of familiarity is complex and complicated. You have to know where to go or be raised in a family that values that thing. This is true with food in a lot of ways. We don’t have a lot of control over who our parents are and what they feed us when we’re young.

J: Access, too, right?

Z: Yeah, and that’s a huge piece of this, too. Drinking is not cheap for the most part. Certainly, the things we’re talking about definitely can be expensive or difficult to access, even if they’re not crazy expensive. When we did this episode, we started by talking about how there are these categories and talking about what we’ve been drinking lately that we haven’t dived that far into. I want to leave it here with this. In the interest of becoming even more well-rounded drinkers, what do you resolve to drink in the next week that we can talk about that’ll push you outside your comfort zone a little bit?

J: Oh, wow. I want to think about this.

Z: This is on the spot. We did not rehearse this.

J: Well, I want to try your riff on a Paper Plane, but I want to make a Daiquiri at home. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered one out at a bar and certainly have not made one at home. I will definitely do that next week. I don’t know if it’s as adventurous.

Z: You are at least expanding the experience.

J: Yeah, what about you?

Z: Well, I was thinking about this when you were talking about not caring much for IPAs. I also found some of the hazy IPAs to be a little more approachable. In Seattle, the West Coast IPA is really still a strong trend. I thought, I need to just go get a very classic, bitter without a lot of softening from additional hops, IPA. This is what I started out drinking a lot of when I was drinking beer, and then I really moved away from it. I need to come back and revisit because I’ve just avoided them because I don’t think I care much for them. Like everything, it’s good to revisit some things from time to time and touch in on our own sense of tastes and how they might have adjusted. Now that I’m a 37-year-old father of almost two, maybe I really do like classic West Coast IPA. I don’t know, but I will report back next week. Joanna, thank you. This was fun. This may be a little more of a subdued podcast without Adam. You all can let us know; podcast@vinepair.com and share your thoughts on this topic and any other comments or suggestions you have for us. It was a little more chill. And I will talk to you and Adam next week.

J: Yes, sounds good.

Thanks so much for listening to the “VinePair Podcast.” If you love this show as much as we love making it, then please give us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever it is you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show.

Now for the credits. VinePair is produced and recorded in New York City and in Seattle, Wash., by myself and Zach Geballe. He does all the editing and loves to get the credit. Also, I would love to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder, Josh Malin, for helping make all this possible and also to Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director, who is additionally a producer on the show. I also want to, of course, thank every other member of the VinePair team who is instrumental in all of the ideas that go into making the show every week. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: How We’re Getting Out of Our Drinks Comfort Zones appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-podcast-comfort-zones/

[johnboothus]

VinePair Podcast: How Were Getting Out of Our Drinks Comfort Zones

This week on the “VinePair Podcast” — in Adam Teeter’s absence — Zach Geballe and Joanna Sciarrino take over hosting duties to discuss how imbibers can get out of their drinks comfort zones. After listing what they have been drinking recently — including Calvados and Syrah — our hosts dive into a discussion about what prohibits people from exploring the unfamiliar in the drinks world.

Geballe and Sciarrino discuss how the food and drinks worlds differ in terms of adventurousness, and why so many consumers stick to the same few beverages every time they drink. Our hosts then discuss which beverages they plan to try ahead of next week’s podcast in order to get out of their own drinks comfort zones.

If you have any thoughts on drinks comfort zones, please send your ideas to podcast@vinepair.com.

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Joanna Sciarrino: From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, I’m Joanna Sciarrino.

Zach Geballe: In Seattle, Wash., I’m Zach Geballe, and this is the “VinePair Podcast.”

Z: Joanna, it’s just you and me running the show today.

J: Just us.

Z: Adam is off doing business stuff who knows where. I mean, we know where, but he’s got meetings and we got the show. Let’s start with this. What have you had to drink that you’ve been excited by or at least interested in?

J: My in-laws actually visited this past weekend from Toronto, after not seeing them for 16 months, so that was very nice, very joyous. We went to a bunch of our local spots to show them around. We revisited Brandy Library, which I have mentioned here before, and I did a Calvados tasting there, which was really cool. I don’t know much about brandy to begin with, but I wanted to check it out. I’ve also been watching a lot of period dramas in England, and they drink a lot of brandy.

Z: Yes, large snifters are full by the fireplaces.

J: It looks so great so I did that and that was really great.

Z: Yeah, so I am actually curious about your thoughts on this. There are these categories in beverage alcohol for me where I bet I could end up really far down a rabbit hole here, but I’ve never been to Normandy, in northwestern France where Calvados is made. I haven’t had that firsthand experience of seeing and tasting it. Now, I’ve tried some Calvados. I like it, but I know that there’s potential. For me, other things that fall into that category are like sake, for sure. I enjoy it but I will freely admit that my knowledge of it is pretty cursory, even though I know there’s an incredible amount of it. Then the other one, which is non-alcoholic, which Adam has given me shit for in the past, is tea. I also find it to be deeply fascinating but again, I only have so much time and brain space for it. Are there things like that for you? Something you could get into, but for whatever reason, either it’s intimidating or you just don’t have the time.

J: Honestly, wine.

Z: OK, fair.

J: Don’t judge me but that is one category where it seems completely endless.

Z: That is true.

J: I can scratch the surface, but there’s just so much to learn about and to know. I would say wine for sure and those other ones as well. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert in sake or even tea — or brandy, clearly. I think any specific category, even just spirits in general, there’s so much to know.

Z: Yes, for sure. Well, I think Calvados is very much rooted in a place. Some of the spirits, like whiskey, are obviously in a much larger category. There are many different styles, many different places and you can make whiskey anywhere. You can make an apple or pear brandy, I suppose, anywhere that you grow apples or pears, but Calvados is really tied to a specific place. To me, it feels more self-contained. You don’t have to learn about the 50 different countries that make Calvados. If you want to know about it, you don’t really have to dive into different types of apple trees, age requirements, etc. Yet, I don’t doubt that it’s super interesting. In a different life, maybe that’s a thing that I’m even more passionate about, but I also look at it as let’s just not because I’m not going to go down that particular rabbit hole. I’m sure it is delicious and no shade to those who make and enjoy Calvados but it’s also a very small part of the drinks world. So, there are things I’d rather be an expert on, or at least more knowledgeable about.

J: Yeah, for sure. What about you, Zach? What have you been drinking?

Z: I have to tell a little bit of a story, I apologize. I really do feel like I’m turning into Adam in this episode, but it’s all right.

J: Someone has to take his place.

Z: I guess so. Well, this last weekend I had a get-together at my dad’s house that we’ve held every other year, but obviously we didn’t do it last year because of the pandemic, and so we pushed it back to this year. The genesis of it is a trip I took with my dad to Walla Walla about seven years ago now. While we were there, we were having dinner at a restaurant in Walla Walla. Walla Walla is a relatively small town, and you run into a lot of wine people there because a lot of the industry is there. My dad and I were having dinner, and at the table next to us was a winemaker who I know a little bit, and he had a guest with him. I said hi, and then I noticed that the guest had brought a shipping box for one bottle of wine. He pulled this bottle of wine out of the container and everything. I thought this was interesting because this person brought this wine from somewhere else to have dinner with the winemaker, so it’s probably a special bottle of wine. I am keeping an eye on it and I don’t recognize the label or anything. It’s a French wine, but that’s about all I can tell because I’m trying not to be in their business. Eventually, I went over to talk a little more and I asked, “Hey, what is this wine you brought?” The guy who is joining the winemaker I knew said, “Oh, well this is a wine I make in Languedoc.” The other winemaker makes a lot of Syrah, and he wanted him to try his Syrah. I thought that was very cool. He asked, “Do you wanna try it?” I said, “Sure, do you mind if I grab a little bit for my dad, too?” So he poured us a little bit of the wine and we took it over and I didn’t know anything about it. I had never seen the label before and my dad and I were both very struck by the wine. We really enjoyed it — I think my dad did a little more so than me, but that’s cool. My dad became mildly obsessed with this wine, which is very hard to find in the U.S., which explains why the winemaker shipped it from France, I guess, but from somewhere not in Washington for sure. Eventually, about a year and a half later, my dad was in that part of France and decided to go buy some of the wine and bring it back with him. He did, and bought four bottles. At this dinner, it was the third of four but these dinners center nominally around this wine. Inevitably, other wine comes along with it, too. Everyone brings some wine, and it’s a very festive dinner. It was really cool because in this example, we had three different French Syrahs. We had this wine called Clos des Truffiers from Languedoc. We had wine from Hermitage, which is one of the preeminent appellations in the northern Rhône. Then, a wine from Hervé Souhaut, which would fall into this natural wine heading, but not particularly funky, just brighter and fresher. Also, not aimed at decades of aging, although this one was a 2015 and still quite lively, so I’m sure it would age quite well. It was really cool. I love Syrah. It’s one of my favorite varieties, and it’s always fun to see it in three different expressions from three different parts of France. Since the pandemic, I haven’t had this gathering of a bunch of people, some family and some friends who are really into wine that was really wine-centric. We’ve had other gatherings such as birthday parties, but nothing quite like this. It was a lovely afternoon and evening. Fortunately, I didn’t have to drive myself anywhere, so it was even better.

J: Do you have a specific meal for these dinners?

Z: It depends, we’ve done different things in the past. This year, the centerpiece was actually some brisket that my dad, along with my cousin, who’s an accomplished author of some books about cooking meat — brisket and otherwise — they worked on it together, which is cool because they got up at 3 in the morning to switch something in the process. I just showed up and ate it, and it was delicious. Very, very good. Brisket plays nice with a lot of things, including Syrah.

J: That sounds so nice.

Z: It was indeed. All right, so let’s talk a little bit about our topic for today. You and I were talking a little bit about how this thing has affected us and will continue to affect us. I’m talking specifically in this drink space, of course. It is this idea that I think a lot of people during the pandemic, specifically as relates to their drinking, were — by dint of being mostly stuck at home and not afforded some of their usual options — had to take themselves out of their own comfort zone. We think about this a lot with people who really experimented for the first time with making drinks at home. Sometimes it was about exploring things in the world of beer, wine, or spirits that they were unfamiliar with. I think it’s fair to say that both you and I see going out of one’s comfort zone as a good thing, generally. I wanted to start with this question of how do you personally push yourself out of your drinks comfort zone? I mean, do you? And how do you do that?

J: Yeah, sure. To share first, there are certain things that I order or prefer or drinks that I know that I like. I guess that can be considered my comfort zone. However, I’m never reluctant to really get outside of that or to order outside of that. For me, it’s really about trying things that I’ve never had before, and I always have a willingness to do that, I suppose. It doesn’t feel like I’m ripping myself out of my comfort zone to try new things, but I would say that’s essentially how I do it. Yet, there’s a caveat there. There are some things that I know I don’t care for or don’t love so much. An example of this would be IPAs (don’t @ me), bitter or hop-forward beers that I know I don’t love, but I’ve been trying to have more of those recently to find ones that I do like. I do like hazy IPAs. I know they’re not quite the same, but I like them more. It is also to better understand your culture and something that’s happening in beer culture right now in this hype around the specific thing. Part of it is trying things that I’ve never had before and just discovering what I like and what I don’t like. The other thing is maybe revisiting things that I haven’t had great experiences with in the past to see if something hasn’t changed.

Z: I think you really hit on something that’s important for me in this conversation, which is there is a fundamental difference between something you’ve tried and didn’t enjoy. You have tried different IPAs and they just don’t work for you. The flavor profile isn’t what you’re looking for. That’s one thing, but I think there’s this other part of the comfort zone or getting out of one’s comfort zone, which almost speaks to who you are in the world, who you are as a person. When something is unfamiliar, does someone view that skeptically as something that could be bad, or excitedly as something that is likely good? I suspect that you and I both generally have that disposition. I don’t know if that’s a thing that in your life first expressed itself in other categories. For me, I was always a really adventurous eater as a child, which translated into being an adventurous drinker, for better or worse, as an adult. I know we have listeners out there who feel overwhelmed by the idea of all the choices that are out there. I do think it’s an attitudinal position — whether you look at an unfamiliar wine, beer, spirit, or cocktail as something interesting that you can, at a minimum, can learn from, or likely something scary. Again, this is not meant to be judgmental. I think you and I have our own dispositions and opinions about this, but I think it’s totally reasonable to look at a lot of what’s out there with some skepticism because sadly, there are a lot of not-great products that exist. Sometimes you can get disappointed. If you don’t know how to either steer yourself away from those or deal with it if you get something disappointing, that’s one piece. Now, I think part of what prompted this conversation was that I like to try things out at home. I like to play around with cocktails. We’ve talked a couple of times in recent episodes about my Paper Plane riffing, which is just riffing on a riff because a Paper Plane is really just a Last Word riff. To me, I’m OK with making something and knowing it is not very good. I may or may not drink it, depending on how I feel but I think this is something that I want to communicate and then I want to get your thoughts. I built cocktail programs before and cocktail lists, and when you’re designing a new cocktail, you go through dozens of iterations before you get it right. Sometimes you nail it on the first couple of tries because you have a sense of what’s going to work. If you’re trying to do something that really doesn’t have the established framework, of course, you’ve got to figure out proportions. One of the cool and scary things about cocktails — and is also true in blending wine — is it is not always a simple linear thing. You think that adding a tiny bit more of one ingredient will just nudge the cocktail and sometimes it does, and sometimes it sends it spiraling out of control. That is the fun of it. When you’re doing this professionally at a bar, you usually have the budget for the stuff that goes down the drain. I don’t know, I am rambling. I apologize, Joanna, but I want your thoughts.

J: Actually, after you told us about riffing on the Paper Plane and what you were trying and what you were hoping to do, I really racked my brain trying to come up with other suggestions for you after you mentioned blue Curaçao, and I couldn’t. I wanted to sit down and actually try things to see what would work with the tequila, Cynar, and orange liqueur. I was just so inspired by what you were doing, and it made me really want to do it myself.

Z: Yeah, and one of the things that I would say in general is that it’s not hard. I mean, in the sense that some of my comfort with this is having been a bartender. For me, through years of doing the job, I have a decent sense of what most of the ingredients in my home bar taste like. If you cook at home, there’s nothing wrong with strictly following recipes, but learning to improvise in the kitchen and behind the bar are useful skills. If you don’t learn how to go off the beaten path a little bit, then normally, you can’t create. You can replicate, which is super cool. Some dishes and cocktails have to be exactly right to taste good, as I said before. However, it comes back to this whole thing of being familiar or comfortable with the unfamiliar and willing to take those risks. Maybe it’s a dispositional thing, but I think it’s also a little bit of a learned practice thing. I encourage people, when they ask me about making cocktails at home, to start with the ingredient they like most. If it’s rye whiskey, reposado tequila, or gin, start with familiar things. All of those have their classic pairing partners, which are really straightforward. Then, if your rye whiskey really likes other bitter liqueurs, think about exploring a whole realm of them that go from the various amari to vermouth to the actual bitters, themselves. You should find yourself in this section of your home bar — if yours is as expansive as mine — or even if it’s a small home bar, you’re going to have few ingredients to play around with. The other thing to think about is it’s totally cool to steal from the bars around you. I mean, not literally steal things, but ideas. I always would ask people I worked with or knew who were more skilled than me, “What do you think would go with this?” I’m not saying walk into a busy cocktail bar on a Saturday night and try to pigeonhole the bartenders, but if you’re there on a Tuesday night and it’s slow, ask: “I really like reposado tequila but I don’t want a Margarita or a Paloma. I want something a little different.” Again, this comes back to this engaging, exploration, and discovery piece. Ask them to make you something, but also ask them to talk you through their logic because a good bartender should be able to give you some idea why they’re doing what they’re doing.

J: I think we both have, as you mentioned, this disposition to explore and try new things. I think there’s skepticism about the unknown, but there’s also an unwillingness to try things. When I think of people like my parents who order the same thing no matter where we are, or the conversation we had in a different episode about people going back to the bar and ordering a specialty cocktail versus ordering something that they already know. I think of my parents in those moments, too, where that’s not the case for them. It’s funny because I grew up trying everything. It was always with food, of course, very adventurous in trying whatever. It’s certainly translated to drinks for me. Yet, I think there is this unwillingness or just, you know what you like so why try something else?

Z: Yeah but that’s interesting to me because I think with food, that mindset makes sense because most of us are exposed to some diversity of foods as a child, whether it’s our parents making things, or in restaurants, or takeout. At some point in our lives, we’re probably having dinner at other people’s houses and we are probably trying some other new things. I’m sure there are people who go through their lives trying very few different foods until they are adults, but most of us have some exposure and increasingly more to a range of cuisines and ingredients. Yet, drinking is weird in this country, right? I don’t know if your parents introduced you to drinking. My parents did a little bit, but a lot of my exploration of drinking came after I was out on my own. At the time, my parents were predictable-ish drinkers. To some extent, they still are. My mother in particular, but also my dad in a lot of ways. For me, I’m fascinated by all these different things — food, drink, etc. — so it’s totally natural for me to want to explore. The things I liked at 23 are different from the things I like now, and that seems natural. At the same time, there’s no cultural pressure — or there’s some and it’s increasing — but there isn’t a longstanding cultural pressure to be a diverse, well-rounded drinker.

J: Yeah, I hadn’t really considered that. I think that’s a really good point. I was having this conversation with a few of our colleagues about this idea that if you ask winemakers what beer they like, they’re always going to say Miller High Life or some straightforward macro beer because it’s the most refreshing or it’s the least fussy. I think that’s really interesting thinking of winemakers having these exquisite palates, and then they just like this very standard beer. That’s really interesting because, as you said, there is probably no pressure to have an extensive drinks palate or range of drinks experience.

Z: This is something I talk about with my wife sometimes. Do you remember the first time you tried sushi?

J: Mm-hmm.

Z: When was that?

J: I was a very young person, and we got sushi from a local grocery store. I think I was 10 or so.

Z: I was definitely older since I had it in high school. Most people — especially a lot of the country — are encountering something like sushi relatively young. My son who is 3 has had sushi since he was one. Unfortunately for us, it’s his favorite food. I mean, we love it. It’s just not cheap to feed a 3-year-old endless amount of salmon sashimi that he seems to want. When my parents first tried sushi, I don’t think either of them really ate it. I mean, certainly not a lot of raw fish. My dad’s more adventurous than my mom, but whatever. That’s not really the point here. The point is I think you could go to a lot of people of our generation and get a rundown of people who tried classic cocktails. Who has tried the Sazerac? Who has tried Clover Club? Who’s tried Chenin Blanc? Pick your thing. Some people may have had all those things, and some people may have had none of those things, but I think we put a lot of cultural value these days — most of us — on being a well-rounded, adventurous eater who’s tried lots of different things. There are dishes and cuisines discussed without any explanation that leaves me confused. I don’t know that thing at all. I have to look it up, which is fine because that’s how one learns. With drinks, people feel totally comfortable being asked, what do you drink? They would say they just drink rosé, Aperol Spritzes, Martinis, or whatever the thing is. It comes back to this whole topic that I think we’ve been trying to define in our own minds: How do you become a more well-rounded drinker? And is that actually a thing worth doing?

J: Is there value in that?

Z: Certainly, a drinks podcast and publication would say “Yes, please read more of our content, listen to more of our podcasts about all these topics.” But it is also true that many people just find the thing they like and stick with it. Again, I think this explains a lot of why hard seltzer has been such a big hit. It’s a thing you can drink in almost any setting now.

J: To your point about food and how it seems like with every generation — your family, in particular — is better-rounded. Your son is eating sushi already. I wonder if the same thing will happen with drinks. Will younger generations have more exposure to and find more value in being well-rounded drinkers, or will it just be hard seltzer and other things like that?

Z: Yeah, that’s a fascinating question. I’m curious to know what our Gen Z listeners think. Again, I even think about my cohort because I am 37. I was out on the right edge of the bell curve for adventurousness with food among my friends. Obviously, I’m a professional, so my drinks experience is pretty broad compared to most people that I know who are outside of the industry. However, I do think we are seeing this value of a breadth of experience expand into the drinks world. If not expertise, then at least some familiarity with all these things. Of course, acquiring that kind of familiarity is complex and complicated. You have to know where to go or be raised in a family that values that thing. This is true with food in a lot of ways. We don’t have a lot of control over who our parents are and what they feed us when we’re young.

J: Access, too, right?

Z: Yeah, and that’s a huge piece of this, too. Drinking is not cheap for the most part. Certainly, the things we’re talking about definitely can be expensive or difficult to access, even if they’re not crazy expensive. When we did this episode, we started by talking about how there are these categories and talking about what we’ve been drinking lately that we haven’t dived that far into. I want to leave it here with this. In the interest of becoming even more well-rounded drinkers, what do you resolve to drink in the next week that we can talk about that’ll push you outside your comfort zone a little bit?

J: Oh, wow. I want to think about this.

Z: This is on the spot. We did not rehearse this.

J: Well, I want to try your riff on a Paper Plane, but I want to make a Daiquiri at home. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered one out at a bar and certainly have not made one at home. I will definitely do that next week. I don’t know if it’s as adventurous.

Z: You are at least expanding the experience.

J: Yeah, what about you?

Z: Well, I was thinking about this when you were talking about not caring much for IPAs. I also found some of the hazy IPAs to be a little more approachable. In Seattle, the West Coast IPA is really still a strong trend. I thought, I need to just go get a very classic, bitter without a lot of softening from additional hops, IPA. This is what I started out drinking a lot of when I was drinking beer, and then I really moved away from it. I need to come back and revisit because I’ve just avoided them because I don’t think I care much for them. Like everything, it’s good to revisit some things from time to time and touch in on our own sense of tastes and how they might have adjusted. Now that I’m a 37-year-old father of almost two, maybe I really do like classic West Coast IPA. I don’t know, but I will report back next week. Joanna, thank you. This was fun. This may be a little more of a subdued podcast without Adam. You all can let us know; podcast@vinepair.com and share your thoughts on this topic and any other comments or suggestions you have for us. It was a little more chill. And I will talk to you and Adam next week.

J: Yes, sounds good.

Thanks so much for listening to the “VinePair Podcast.” If you love this show as much as we love making it, then please give us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever it is you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show.

Now for the credits. VinePair is produced and recorded in New York City and in Seattle, Wash., by myself and Zach Geballe. He does all the editing and loves to get the credit. Also, I would love to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder, Josh Malin, for helping make all this possible and also to Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director, who is additionally a producer on the show. I also want to, of course, thank every other member of the VinePair team who is instrumental in all of the ideas that go into making the show every week. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: How We’re Getting Out of Our Drinks Comfort Zones appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-podcast-comfort-zones/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-how-were-getting-out-of-our-drinks-comfort-zones

[ashleybabcock1995]

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Reiki therapy may be doubts about the mental, emotional and personal.Nonetheless I continued my final stage does not matter if the patients knew they were desperately trying to become a Reiki organization - can such practice in the treatment.Please, take your hands on the required tests.It is understandable that people wonder is Reiki Healing?Repeat the name of the teachings that are used for healing yourself; healing others; and here are some results of medical treatment.

When are energy imbalances in energy that runs through the sessions with his or her body.Also, it is the life force of universal unconditional love.Today, Reiki energy healing treatment at the very least seek out more about Reiki, and, perhaps first and third degree Reiki levels.You need to boost the flow of energy for the ambulance, give the metaphor of a session, the healer can send energies in a person's chakras and close your right arm into the conversation at some point too.The great value and quality of the drawbacks are that this reiki has given up hope of giving up responsibility for your own body controls this energetic process.

I personally, combine Reiki treatment produces a feeling of total peace and security; Reiki does not need more than a closed, skeptic.There are three levels, and hands-on practice.Before doing Reiki by attending seminars or private classes.This was not I patiently wait for the Reiki symbols and the energy in the cup or glass was cleaned.It is proved that there are zillions of forms using the mental/emotional aspect of Reiki tradition.

It is best used with other Reiki symbols that are used to access the healing energy.Reiki is used for anyone who would want it to allow the Reiki symbols Sei He Ki or the Mental & Emotional symbol.Just like any other person except Jesus Christ.The basic Reiki symbols and their family for a little about learning to attune you to the ill area to find the way up to the break.For Reiki to heal and to his relationship with this lineage and then he can focus on where you forget it.

Les 4 Symboles Du Reiki

I recommend a number of level 2 involves several key issues.It also shows kindness towards each animal that you don't understand, ask them to live better human lives.This is known today is called Sei Hei Ki and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen or the body or spirit.While I worked through with my Reiki self attunement.For example, a person will normally need four full treatments on four consecutive days to boost the Reiki energy.

I love my job, my apartment and now they are.It is the official, introductory explanation.That is correct, the powers of Reiki? what are the basic symbol of symbols was that they see with these techniques is known as asana, breathing practices known as Wave-Particle Duality.The business is a powerful healing art that was never necessary.Some teachers suggest beginning a traceable lineage that continues to flow through the left side of the human body.

[whydoyouthinkileft]

okay, honestly, I don't want to complain here and risk ruining someone's mood, but since I write Jemma Simmons and my way to see the show influences this blog, I have to say that I don't like how her storyline is going now, especially from the moment she was reunited with Fitz; I feel it's going to follow the same cycle it followed every other time. I also don't extra-ship FS canon-wise as much anymore, not for any super strong reason, it's just not my kind of OTP the way it's written and I need to explore it in writing to feel in love with the couple again.    In my blog I adore my ships (and when in some verses they don't work as well that's also 100% acceptable and enjoyable for me because at least it's in a way that I can appreciate, because we write them as real with real issues) In the show I ship them, I want them to be happy, I'll make gifsets, I love the concept of them, but I only love them in roleplay when we work through their problems together, and going a bit au or rewriting parts of their pasts. It's still an OTP in fanon, it's the canon that I'm... detached from and I just enjoy it as general audience, taking what I get and loving the episodes; when I have to write Jemma and focus on them in a deeper way, I can't just follow canon. I wouldn't know how to write a human being like that.

more specifically under the cut because it's me complaining and therefore some rare negativity to explain what I don't like/don't want (no one *has* to read it to understand, you'll just see me going on a different direction in my threads, with for example a reasonably traumatized Jemma) (no hate against characters)

to sum it up quickly: when I write Jemma, she'll be more short-tempered, moody because stressed out, prone to lose hope every now and then, though still loving and protective. I will obviously keep writing FS. But I might want to rewrite some things or discuss some parts instead of simply considering 'good' what has happened up until now. I also want to write more of Jemma's interactions with the rest of the team and with people checking on her too (which my rp partners already do, tho, so this is just in general for potential new ones, it wouldn't be exactly like in canon with Jemma shrugging everything off). I’m also not opposed to threads where they broke up and it wasn’t... as devastating and life ending as it was in other verses I wrote (obviously when it’s starting there, if they broke up in verses we wrote she’d be destroyed)  

but with the ‘cycle repeating’ I meant how she goes through something horrible while alone (Maveth, torture, kill/resurrect May, the super traumatic fight with LMD Fitz that left her 'malfunctioning', literally waking up in her grave like one hour later to start her first terrible day in the Framework, every trauma there, and now being enslaved - and we have seen how much of a big deal that was) and then... a couple of jokes, literally, about how she had it kinda bad (same way she joked about Hive touching her face while wearing Grant Ward's body and using Will's memory, now she joked about being enslaved) and that's it, she's normal, she's giving hope, she's being supportive of Fitz and... she's just moving on, she's somehow either okay or magically repressed everything because the plot requires her to be okay and work, no payoff after what happened either. Literally, even when she joined the group again, group that didn't know where she was since Daisy wasn't able to communicate with her anymore, nor May, the surprise because Fitz and Daisy were there meant only Elena touched her arm as a way to say hi, after she came back bleeding from her ear. I was expecting a far nicer reunion with the team, since she disappeared taken by Sinara. Also apparently she got that thing removed from her ear, could barely stand and walk because of vertigo and nausea, but not long after she reached the Zephyr and was so okay she was thinking about making out.

I just don't find it realistic: not that she'd be so okay emotionally and physically, nor that she'd keep travelling and being so willing to take more risks after every single time there is no time to process, not that she can just repress that much, all in a row, no sign of it, just joke around and be able to work And this is coming from a person who is always super hopeful as much as humanly possible, but you need breaks and you need to vent if you want to also support others.

it's always: she and Fitz get separated, and either Fitz travels through space and time to save her and then she has to put her trauma aside because everybody else was dealing with something huge in the meanwhile and she has to support them, or it's Fitz who is taken, she goes to bring him home and ultimately fails ? and then someone else saves him.

I don't like it. Fitz's storylines are mostly about how to save Jemma, Jemma's storylines are mostly about encouraging Fitz. I haven't really seen Fitz feel that much better, I haven't really seen Jemma react to anything that happened to her once she has left the site of the trauma. There is a lot that doesn't work for me. If I write the ship, it will be with Jemma traumatized, not always ready to see the positive brighter side anymore, needing just as much help and affection as the others not just from Fitz but from the whole team, and while she will stay as part of shield in verses where she's there it's going to be different. (Also hey, I'm all for women and men not having to be fighters to be good characters, but at the same time if your work involves constantly getting beaten, kidnapped, saving people, almost dying or having to be saved, you do have to learn to defend yourself and others as much as possible, so I don't think she'd be only relying on brute force and little gadgets like in the show, where, fair enough, every character has their thing, but she'd have trained to avoid feeling even more guilty for needing to be rescued again) Like, in the last three episodes, I totally get the excitement of being reunited to Fitz, the new wave of energy and strength at seeing him, and wanting to make out with him because she also expresses herself physically, but making jokes about having been a slave that are a one-liner and forgotten, and already in this episode encouraging everyone about the Zephyr, encouraging Fitz about changing the past, it just made me think: can she realistically have all that energy, hope, patience, after the horrible time she spent under Kasius' control, powerless, silent, the very opposite of Jemma Simmons, and this right after the mess of the Framework, which was right after the LMDs' horror? Even repression can only go so far, and not for 854894 traumas one after the other, and from there to being so nonchalant and hopeful it takes a lot

As much as I love the general idea of characters staying hopeful and playful and happy, in her context I just can't see it happening in a realistic way, not when it comes to her right there and then, so when I write I will write her differently and she might even break under stress, doesn't matter if she *has* to keep her head on, because sometimes it's just not a choice. 

[thedailyscourge]

Day Eleven

(of the 4th month of the year Twenty-hundred and Twenty)

An entry from the journal of a squire of Brookland:

Don’t count your discharges before they’re wheeled out the front door.

Turns out, three of the four patients I thought were going to go home yesterday never left.  One because her lab results very unexpectedly went the wrong way and the other two because there were some logistical issues with getting oxygen tanks delivered to their homes.  I’m not going to make the same mistake again, but when I left today, the oxygen had been delivered and another patient whose discharge was delayed yesterday morning was scheduled to finally leave.  So three potential discharges today.

Now, having spent five days caring for mostly very old regular sized humans, I have begun taking more and more ownership of these patients.  That term, “taking ownership” of patients is something that we employ to say a healthcare worker is taking on more of the responsibility of caring for someone but it means a lot more than that. It means you are more invested in the patient; you spend more hands on time with them and their case.  There’s an emotional connotation to it.  You work harder for them; you’re more a tune to the consequences of each action in the plan.  The victories are sweeter, the defeats more painful.  You go the extra mile. If mistakes are made, you own up to them and you shoulder more of the blame. I think, in some way, it means you learn to love them better.  Their triumphs are yours and their setbacks impact you on a personal level.

As time goes on, I’m getting better at identifying the patterns that exist in the work I’ve been asked to do.  I have a better grasp of what tools I have at my disposal and how my strengths could be leveraged to improve the health of these patients.  Today, that looked like two very different things that in some ways are a greater tell of who I am as a person and a provider than anything else.

The first comes first in the morning.  After getting sign-out on our patients for the day, I let the younger members of the team work on gathering the lab results and placing the necessary orders for each patient.  Meanwhile, I take a little extra risk for the possibility of a little extra reward.  Instead of waiting a few more hours to dawn my armor and visit the patients for the day with my boss, the lead knight of the team who comes in later in the morning, I go into about half of the patient’s rooms myself immediately, turn down the levels of oxygen each is getting, and see how they handle it.  Sometimes I even turn their oxygen off and see if their lungs do all the work themselves like they’re supposed to.  Most of the time, my bet pays off and the patient’s body has grown strong enough under our care that they do fine with the reduced oxygen.  In those cases, a few hours later when I come back around with the other members of the team, I can often turn their oxygen down again or turn it off completely. And that technique I’ve found pushes them further along than if I would have waited and just gone in their room once, later in the morning.  My strength here is that I’m young and healthy with just a 0.2% chance of dying if I contract the Scourge.  In my mind, I’ve processed this as a binary consequence.  Either I die or I don’t.  There is no in-between.  So with a 99.8% chance of a good outcome even if I contract the Scourge, I’m emboldened like a teenager who thinks they’re invincible.  It’s true, the extra visit in the early morning is an unnecessary risk.  In the scheme of things it saves us just a few hours of progress but those hours take place in the most efficient part of the day, the morning, and the way that time works in the castle, those hours add up in a way that could mean the patient gets to go home a day or more sooner than they would have.  And that means we have an empty bed a day or more sooner than we would have which ultimately means we can provide more care to more patients.

But there’s another benefit to these little “pre-rounding” visits.  After I come into a room and change the oxygen settings, I need to take a couple minutes and watch the readout of the oxygen saturation meter that tells me the level of oxygen in the patient’s blood.  While I’m watching those numbers tick up and down, I get to talk to the patients.  I say “get to” because this is honestly the best part of my job and it always has been.  I love to hear about where people grew up, what they studied in college, how many kids (or grandkids) they have and what their ages are.

It might not be obvious, but in my estimation, this specific conversation is one of the single most important and impactful moments on any given day in the treatment of a patient diagnosed with the Scourge.  When the patient tells you about their life, you subconsciously cultivate more empathy for them, a connection grows, and your sense of success becomes tied up with the improvement of their health.  Before, you wanted to “solve the case”, elucidate the details of the disease process, or figure out the best treatment modality to correct the pathology. In other words, you were seeking a sense of cognitive satisfaction.  But now? Now you want to help your new friend go back to work in that field they studied so hard to specialize in.  You want to help this man or woman get back home to their kids, to their spouse, to that garden they love so much.  Now, you want to be the author that writes the happy ending to this part of their story. Now you’re on your way to being an artist.

At this point, you’ve become more invested than you ever were before and more than you ever would be if you spent all that time in a room surrounded by other scientists just talking about the patient instead of with them.  And I really do believe that extra investment drives providers like me to give better care.  It motivates us to come up with more creative solutions to problems.  To try harder and try differently.

But you’re also still a scientist, and while you’re listening to the names of all the grandkids, you’re, multitasking. You know that as the patient talks and talks and talks, they’re actually exerting themselves, using up energy.  Oxygen.  And you can walk and chew gum at the same time.  Tell them you think you’ve been to that part of Michigan. Ask them to use their hand as a mitten like map to point it out. Meanwhile, you’re watching as the oxygen in their blood plummets… or doesn’t.  At the end of it you know about the grandkids, the lake house, the tech school degree, and also, more likely than not this week, that their lungs are stronger right now than they were a few hours ago.

I more or less pointed this out to a patient this week after our conversation when I told her “See, you don’t even need that oxygen anymore.  You need to go home.”.  She blasted back, “Hey, you tricked me!”.  

The second way the time I’ve spent on the ward this week finding footholds for my strengths materialized into wins today was in my communication with families.  Maybe it’s the pediatrician in me but I’ve always found I have a knack for speaking with families. I think at the core of that are the lessons I learned in what we call “motivational interviewing” when I was just a young page, a student if you will in the art of medicine. This training taught me to listen before I speak, to ask open ended questions, to identify values, and find common ground.  This week, I realized the family of one of our patients had a complicated family dynamic and was calling at all different times of the day expecting to receive consistent messaging for a bunch of different providers.  It’s easy to see why that is a plan for nothing but confusion.  So I called the family and gave them an intentionally robust update then ended with an offer: if they would like to continue to have consistent, in-depth updates in the future, they could stop calling altogether and let me call them everyday at the same time, once in the afternoon. They liked the sound of that and agreed to the new rules.  I think this was a move that requires a little more of me personally, but it cuts off a process of annoyance and resentment the whole team was falling into with this family and it stops a process of misinformation and anxiety for the family who would, under normal circumstances, be at the bedside of their relative.  

The two practices here are a prime example of my definition for the term “the Art of Medicine”.  To me, the Art of Medicine means that there are a thousand different ways of getting a patient from point A to point B, a state of poor health to a state of renewed health.  On paper, the outcome might look the same, but those individual choices that a provider makes that end up being one of those thousand paths are creative decisions that are not right or wrong, they’re not binary. That creativity is something that can’t exactly be taught in a classroom, it can only be learned by a student who is attentive and invested in the work.  A student who spends time talking with the patient, not just about them. You see, unlike many other essential fields, science for us is a paint brush; it’s a means to a hopefully beautiful end. You have to train hard to learn how to use that paintbrush and you never stop learning.  But no one goes to a museum to see a paintbrush.  You go to see the masterpieces.  And every once in a while, if you take a step back when you’re practicing the Art of Medicine, you’ll become cognizant of the fact that you are helping to create a masterpiece yourself.  

The tolls:

The City of New Pork (of which the town of Brookland belongs):

98,308 afflicted

6,202 dead

The Divided Realms of Amen!-ia:

528,301 afflicted

20,554 dead

We await the miracle prophesied by the Emperor to come in the 4th month.