#butch ancestry

[dyke-husband]

(On left) Self portrait I took my sophomore year of college. Honoring butch ancestry, closely imitating one of my favorite photographs, (on right) Peggy Shaw by photographer Eva Weiss. I’ve learned a lot about my butchness in the past year, I’ve become so much tougher and softer than I had ever imagined I could survive.

[skrunksthatwunk]

ok soooo im like 5 episodes into dear brother and i need you guys to know how much i love rei so far if only for her staggering around like a rain-soaked stray dog just haggard and unseeing all the time. like we know very little about her thus far except that every scene she's in she steals the show by flopping and wilting all over the frame

[low-budget-korra]

The L Word Reboot - Fancast

So, what if we get a TLW reboot? So this is my Fancast for that hypothetical idea

Adria Arjona as Bette Porter

Listen, no one is gonna match JBeals portray of the character, but we can try to find someone who can do it justice (this actually can be said about this whole fancast really). And in this case, I think Adria ia really good at bringing this girl boss aura. Of course, it would be a change in Bette's back story and struggles, being all about her latin ancestry instead of her black/mixed ancestry but I still think it could work just fine. Or, if they want an older actress to portray an older Bette, there's Zoe Saldana who is in their 40's

Phoebe Dynevor as Tina Kennard

Look at her, just look.

Nell Tiger Free as Jenny Schecter

Okay, okay, I just want to see her play gay. Busted. But in defense, she is great at doing a problematic -with crazy girl aura - character. Fellas who watched Servant will understand. But other actress who could play the role is Victoria Pedretti

Joe Keery as Tim Haspel

Jenny's betrayal is supposed to hurt both Tim and the the audience, as we should be caught in a cross fire between wanting her to be with Marina and yet not approving her cheating on Tim. And who's better than Joe? Bro is charismatic and would evoke those feelings in the audience

Kelsey Chow as Marina Ferrer

Look at her gaze. Just look. She effortlessly has this striking gaze that is essential to Marina

Ayo Edebiri as Alice Pieszecki

I don't think I need to sell you this one

Naomi Scott as Shane McCutcheon

I know what some of y'all my think, that she is not gay or butch but just look at this photo and tell me y'all can't see the potential?

Sarah Pidgeon as Dana Fairbanks

Girl needs to work, she is great

Stephanie Nur as Helena Peabody

Fellas who watched Spec Ops Lioness knows what I'm talking about.

Melissa Barrera as Carmen de la Pica Morales

I also don't think I need to sell you this one

Ps: There's actresses I wanted to put in this but I didn't see how they could fit, at least not without changing the essence of those characters but I definitely wanted to see Katy O'Brien, Alice Braga, Lucy Lawless, Carla Gugino...and other openly queer actresses like Katy in this type of projects

[arcenciel-par-une-larme]

*Yet another attempted heist...*

Cassidy: Your luck has expired this time, wankers! Butch: Oh yeah! This time, we're going away with Pikachu, Piplup, AND our much-defiled honour! Dawn: Well, well...if it ain't our old pals Kasha and Borscht. Butch: NOPE! You're not getting away with disrespecting our names again! Behold! *a huge billboard with flashing arrows appears behind them, reading "Cassidy" and "Butch"* Butch: You have no excuse anymore, ya hear me! Ash: You know what, sweetie...let us be charitable for once. It is time to honour them both with due respect. Dawn: Wha...really? Ash: Yes, really! *Butch smiles triumphantly* Ash: In fact...I intend to honour his very ancestry as is due; he must have written this billboard in his own mother tongue, Welsh! Right? *Dawn smirks at him diabolically* Butch: ...you have got to be kidding me. Ash: So, if this is in Welsh, and we want to pronounce it properly...lemme see if I remember those vowels correctly... Butch: NO. Ash: ...that means that we are standing before the two highly distinguished members of Team Rocket... Butch: Shut that bloody mouth of yours THIS INSTANT. Ash: ...which are Cassidy... Butch: KETCHUM, DON'T YOU DARE UTTER ANOTHER WORD! *later in the evening* Butch (speaking while typing): Most highly esteemed Giovanni. It has been a joy to serve you and our most fearsome Team Rocket throughout the better part of the past score of years. Herewith, I regret to inform you that I wish to submit my resignation at long last. The reason for that being, quite simply, that I am not being paid NEARLY enough for collaborating with that donkey, for lack of a better word, which is Cassidy; or much more importantly, being addressed on a regular basis by our targets with names including, but not limited to: "Bill"; "Bob"; "Botch"; "Batch"; "Biff"; "Buck"; "Bach"; "Brahms"; "Boomer"; "Bilbo"; "Bourdon"; "Bombard"; "Buzz"; "Buzzkill"; "Bouzouki"; "Borscht"; "Masculine Lesbian Lady" (that one thanks to Prof. Samuel Oak no less); and, as of today, courtesy of Mr. Ash Ketchum, "Bitch". Sincerely, Deiniol "Butch" Andrews.

[elacular-kink]

Poly-Techhic character sheet

For readers' reference, here's some descriptions and basic info about the main four characters of Poly-Techhic. (This may be edited later on).

Edit: This character sheet's formatting is completely borked. Go to this one instead, it's actually readable.

Susanna Jane Butler

Also called Susan and Susie

Appearance:

4'10" (147 cm)

Very average weight and build

Tan skin

Chinese

Adopted by American Catholics.

Short, straight black hair

Bangs can fall over eyes.

Wears baggy clothes

Almost always has on a baggy hoodie with the hood up.

Neurotypical (I think?)

(The author isn't, so...)

Extremely gay

Sophomore (AKA, 2nd year)

Loves and is studying music

Plays multiple instruments

Piano

Guitar

Sings well

Learned how to sing in kids choir in her church.

Is way less cool than she looks or acts

Is cooler than she thinks she is.

Is great at telling people off

Is terrible at telling people good things.

Has a hiccup fetish.

Has been like this as long as she can remember.

Has extremely big emotions and anxiety about it.

She's not able to get off without it.

Olivia Elizabeth Jones

Appearance

5'9" (175 cm)

Skinny

Isn't skinny on purpose, just naturally doesn't develop much fat.

Annoyed when people conflate thinness with health.

Very dark skin

Black (African American)

Nearly buzzed black hair

4C texture

Uses reading glasses

Keeps them around her neck on a chain for practicality

Everyone else says it makes her look like an old lady.

Wears very practical clothes.

All fabrics must be soft and/or smooth.

Clothes are generally tight. She dislikes having clothes that hang loose.

Doesn't care about how butch or femme it is.

Autistic

Very blunted affect

Sincerely emotes only for huge feelings.

Still feels things when not emoting, just doesn't move her face much about it.

Hates social niceties

Is overly honest with people

Aromantic

Does not feel or have a great understanding of romantic attraction.

Can still identify it in others

Bisexual with a female lean.

Considers Susanna her life partner, but does not consider her a girlfriend.

"See, this is why I explain it with 'it's complicated', Olivia."

Does consider Maya a girlfriend

"It means something different to her, and I can do that."

Sophomore (AKA, 2nd year)

Gets the hiccups all the time.

Doesn't generally mind them.

Has been shunned or punished for them in the past.

Thinks this is stupid.

This is part of why Susanna has been her best friend.

Almost nothing cures them.

No apparent medical reason, she's just very hiccupy.

Kind of a troll

People don't expect it from her since she seems so serious.

Primary victims are Susanna and Maya.

Extremely emotionally perceptive

Maya Heffernan

Appearance

5'4" (163 cm)

Feels taller because of her personality.

Also just often wears cleats

Both very muscular and very chubby

Built like a professional weightlifter.

Is capable of lifting weights like a professional weightlifter.

Is basically a physical freak with absurd strength, speed, and endurance.

Exercises constantly.

White

Ridiculously pale (Irish ancestry)

Covered in orange and brown freckles

Massive mane of curly red hair

Sheds red hairs everywhere.

Wears glasses

Including when playing rugby

Has prescription sports goggles

Hates getting things in her eyes=no contacts.

Almost always wears her rugby uniform.

She's number 7, the openside flanker

So she gets to tackle people!

A lot!

Dresses very butch outside of it.

ADHD

Takes adderall occasionally when she needs to focus

Does not like how she feels on it.

Solo-poly

Wants to avoid becoming overly dependent on someone or having them become dependent on her.

Still enjoys having romantic and sexual relationships with many people.

Keeps most relationships at arm's length.

Only forms closer relationships with other people with big poly energy.

Has gaydar, but for polyamorous tendencies.

Pansexual

Not all pansexuals are sluts. But she is.

Fucks lots of women, men, and other types of people.

("But where are the men?" They're offscreen somewhere, shut up.)

Junior (AKA, 3rd year.)

Gives people nicknames

Whether they want them or not.

Will relent if they genuinely hate them.

Eventually...

Susanna=Susie

Olivia=Liv

Kiran=Kiki

Chaos agent

Loves to disrupt people's lives.

Often for the better, sometimes for the worse, almost always for both.

Genuinely thinks this is fun and wants others to have fun too.

Actively trolls people

Frequently goes too far.

Extremely easily bored.

Will cause problems when bored.

If there's nobody to cause problems for, will cause problems for herself.

Really fucking stupid.

Under no illusions about this.

Has always struggled with academia

Has no common sense

Has no impulse control

Is still alive because she's impossible to kill

Kiran Mandal

Appearance

6'1" (185 cm)

Very fat

Deep brown skin

Indian American

One parent is first generation, one parent is second.

Long black hair.

Wants to do interesting things with it, is too nervous to try.

Always wears a dress or a skirt.

Has yet to figure out what her fashion sense is, has been fairly conservative thus far.

Autistic

Terrified of eye contact

Often makes it anyway due to masking.

Always tries to "win" eye contact.

Has a lot of difficulty socializing

Has very little experience doing so, which doesn't help.

Particularly with people her own age.

Extremely socially anxious and shy.

Stims and makes repetitive movements

Used to make a lot of sounds with her mouth, had that mostly trained out of her.

Has never been able to stop flapping when anxious or happy.

Is extremely embarrassed by this.

Sees it as a personal failing.

Trans

MtF

Is on hormones

Has not been on them long.

Not very secure in her womanhood

Is rarely accidentally misgendered.

If someone misgendered her on purpose, the other three would kill them.

Uncertain sexuality

Definitely likes girls.

Definitely really really really really really likes girls.

Freshman (1st year)

Really academically smart

Brilliant at the vast majority of what would be considered "nerd shit".

Particularly likes computer programming.

(Forgive me for my trans woman stereotype.)

Has studied under professional tutors all her life.

Speaks English and Hindi fluently, is proficient in Spanish

Currently being tutored and learning Mandarin.

(please don't expect me to know anything about any of these languages, German is super close to English and I'm still not learning jack shit).

Has very little "street smarts"

Very limited practical knowledge of the world.

Family is stupid rich

Probably some tech sector shit.

Dad may be an insufferable tech bro.

She has access to a shitload of money.

She has no idea what money is actually worth, but is self-aware about that.

Has been insulated from a lot of normal people's experiences because of that

[theenpcbracket]

Seeding Round: Poll 1

Image IDs are included, click each for the full image please!

More about each NPC below the cut!

Character Descriptions are in the order of their appearance in the poll!

Character 1

Name: Angtha Reinhardt Party: The Fosters Relationship to party: Previous pest, current comrade. What makes them the best NPC: She's a butch anarchist three-quarters orc cowpoke, just to set the stage. Though she started out morally dubious and doubtfully loyal, she's worked through some stuff and has become a dedicated, passionate, and good-hearted friend to the party. Part fighter, part bard, part homebrew caster, Angtha is an all-around heavyweight in battle -- whether it's bashing heads, inspiring her friends, or coming in clutch with last-resort counterspells, she's got your back. Other quirks include her inability to cook (her favorite dish is medium rare chicken soaked in whiskey), her love of ridiculously huge weapons, and her ultimate desire to help people make the world a better place for everyone (except for CEO's). Quote: "I didn't say 'hey,' I said 'howdy.'"

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Character 2

Name: Hellen Highwater Party: Team Kill Relationship to party: A party member's girlfriend, a party member

What makes them the best NPC: She's very silly and makes so many puns, she's a dragonblood sorcerer whose dad is a copper dragon. For most of her life she could spit acid and thought it was just because of the specific ancestry she had and had no clue it could have been related to her copper-y scales. She was the first person to really get to know the party's resident edgy man. Originally she was supposed to be a minor part of the plot, sending the party letters from her home, but the party and the DM liked her so much she managed to stay in the party.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Character 3

Name: Prince Indus Party: Tesser's gayest soldiers Relationship to party: Prince of the kingdom the party finds themselves in, and also the man betrothed to one of the biggest lesbians in the party

What makes them the best NPC: He's a war criminal. He's aroace. He's socially inept and filled with guilt over the aforementioned War Crimes. Surprisingly though he desperately tries to make his relationship with his (supposed) future wife go smoothly even though neither of them want to go through with the marriage - also his PC wife has no clue that she's in an arranged marriage with him. Also he might want to kill his dad (somewhat justifiably).

[cargopantsman]

so i'm

cis, in that way where i don't really care.*

het, in that way where it does take a Really boy to catch my eye in the same way the "beauty standard" girl would.**

middle-aged, well... numbers don't lie

white, irish and estonian ancestry... the sun makes me cry

guy***, i'm just a dude.****

*i'll wear skirts and put on war paint and dye my hair, but that also takes effort so it doesn't happen that much i just default to cargos and a t-shirt. so i'm in that guy/butch slice of the venn diagram.

**still, things have Happened in my time that this also me being lazy about my orientation

*** my name is not Guy

**** I'm fine with the meat configuration I have for the most part (aside from my sinuses) and I'm okay with being male even if I'm bad at it.

[our-nonbinary-experience]

honestly im still havin trouble with labels and stuff, even a year later after i started questioning. i still feel mostly dude-like but also somewhat femme, somewhat butch, some that conflict and some that tiptoe on the edge between gender and poetry. i feel less like one cohesive set of labels and more like an ancestry dot com test result. 48% this, 15% that, and so on. which is like the antithesis of the way my brain works cause i just wanna put something simple in my bio so i don’t have to write an essay every time i meet someone. any tips?

Sounds to me like you could be genderfluid, or, if you experience all those genders at once you could look into being multigender, which is an umbrella term for anyone who experiences more than one gender. For your experience specifically, you could look into polygender, which means you experience many genders at the same time or are fluid between them, hope this helps!

[campgender]

mac’s tags

links + descriptions under the cut

note: some of these tags tumblr doesn’t like to link because of special characters; those will be added as tags to this post so they can be accessed from there.

all of the excerpts i post are tagged as “mac’s bookshelf.”

butch, femme, both

everything goes back to femme – some of the infinite fem(me) ways, both my own & others’. line from “Between My Fingers” by Stacey Park Milbern

they are our stigmata – butches & butch ways. line from “The Butch Question” by Judith P. Stelboum

butch/femme – romantic, platonic, sexual, & beyond

but what gets it for me is high femme – high femme posts & resonances; line from Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

οἱ λίθοι κράξουσιν – “the stones will cry out,” from Luke 19:40. tag for stone sexuality more broadly - stone topping & bottoming, clothed sex, sex without touching

mutual polarization – femmebottom4femmebottom; answers to the perpetual “what’re they gonna do, get in bed & hold hands?”

double role playing – futch, stem(me), & others who embody both butch & fem(me) identities. phrase from a quote by narrator Mattie interviewed in Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold

sex

impurity culture – sex ed & building a sexual ethic

tomorrow sexting will be good again – sexting-as-sex + related practices & boundaries. a play on Foucault’s quote “tomorrow sex will be good again,” also the title of a book by Katherine Angel

places to be had by – non-normative sex from a crip high femme lens. denial, vaginismus, impotence & other non-penetrative wonders. line from “The Cure for Melancholy Is to Take the Horn” by Natalie Diaz

another night wandering the desire field – longing & fantasy; line from “From the Desire Field” by Natalie Diaz

eat your meals at the red table of my heart – the feminine urge to treat a man like your dog & other assorted high femmedom viscera. line from “If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert” by Natalie Diaz

why not take me now as i am? – kink, leather, promiscuity, cruising; line from “Shameless” by Tyler Glenn

bottom text – bottoming & the meanings imposed on it

one must imagine the wound man in sexual ecstasy – S&M

simone weil says that when you really love you are able to look at someone you want to eat and not eat them – looking at someone you want to eat. line from “After the Movie” by Marie Howe

indignity of risk – forthcoming poetry chapbook about eroticizing / playing with chronic illness

asexual tendencies – phrase from Asexual Erotics by Ela Przybylo

spirituality

in the dark i thought i heard somebody call – spiritual experiences, posts that resonate with my spiritual beliefs + practices. line from “To the Dogs or Whoever” by Josh Ritter

habitual intertwinement – drug use; phrase from “4mg of Phenomenology” by Dr. Simone Dennis

quaker tag – Quakerism & pantheism

❌ – rage in the key of religious trauma. the red X symbol was used by Tyler Glenn (in lipstick on his face & later a tattoo on his wrist) in his 2016 album Excommunication

i got the holy roll ❤️‍🔥 – christian trauma but make it fashion. line from “Fever Pitch” by Rainbow Kitten Surprise

self-image, mirroring, & ancestry

she steals the show (she is the show of difference) – a gender tag of sorts. line from “Revealing Femmegimp” by Loree Erickson

epistemic love poem – hermeneutical justice; the frameshifts that enables us to recognize our own oppression + discuss our experiences. phrase from poem of the same title by Heather McHugh

all day my body accepts what it is – things that make me go “me shaped!” + fat art, fat fashion. line from “August” by Mary Oliver

fag4dyke <3

you are the result of the love of thousands – ancestorship in general; line from Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World by Linda Hogan (i haven’t read this i just liked the quote)

unnatural frequency – people & figures i consider personal ancestors + moments of highly specific resonance across time & space

fashion

lipstick technology – phrase from The Color Pynk: Black Femme Art for Survival by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley

​how we dress the mouth reflects what we need it for – lipstick; line from Lipstick: A Celebration of the World’s Favorite Cosmetic by Jessica Pallingston

it’ll be the goddamned dress they bury me in. – red dress dreams; line from “What Do Women Want?” by Kim Addonizio

i am tough; i’ve got nails like god – nail art, fake nails as femcrip technology, high fem manicure emotions. line from the song “Nails Like God” by McCafferty

disability

life is in your house too – homeboundedness

tabula rasa – memory loss

the epic highs & lows of emotional lability – severe mood swings (in this case related to brain damage)

movements of the uncontrollable body – movement disorder; phrase from piece of the same name by Bronwyn Valentine

[possibilistfanfiction]

Hello! I had a quick question about your Warrior Nun fics. Do you think in any of your universes that Ava has done a DNA test or ancestry dot com kinda thing to see if she can find any family members? I can't remember if you've addressed her family directly already but I got curious in the butch Bea universe when Bea found her brother again. Thanks and I hope your move is going well!

ok i’m terrified of dna tests bc all of ur info gets stored + ava’s like. gotta be incognito so i don’t think she’d do a dna test lol but i think sure she might look for some family of origin.

on the other hand, though, i don’t know if ava would care about finding family of origin. no one looked for her? & she has such a big family now! her sisters! her friends! her partner & her family of origin! i don’t think ava would rly have a ton of desire to seek out family of origin when she has so many ppl who know & love her dearly.

[manemelody]

may have made the ancestry post too soon because i realised i forgot about the cloverleafs being descended from rich and diamond tiara and how tracey tailspin is an appledash descendant because she is literally a butch lesbian

[nattravn-art]

TTRPG Questionnaire

Tagged by @lipsie! Thank you this is lovely! :D

I'll answer for my butch main gal: the paranormal investigator Beatrice Blythe (homebrewed universe based on Call of Cthulhu, a pseudo Noir-fantasy universe set in an alternate reality version of the UK).

GENERAL

Name: Beatrice Blythe

Alias(es): None but her friends nickname her as Bea. A colleague of hers call her Sir. She likes that.

Gender: Female (she/her)

Age: 30

Place of birth: Small town in Wales

Spoken languages: English, Italian

Sexual orientation: Demi/lesbian... GIRLS!

Occupation: Paranormal investigator/detective

Class: Inquiry Agent

Ancestry: Human

APPEARANCE

Eye color: Amber

Hair color: Auburn (red)

Height: 1,80 m

Scars: Nothing notable (she's got a good healing skin)

Burns: Nothing notable

Overweight: No

Underweight: No

FAVOURITE

Color: Teal, warm browns, fall colours in general

Hair color: Doesn't care

Eye color: Doesn't care

Music genre: Doesn't listen that much to music but dances to swing.

Entertainment: Reading, dancing with her girlfriend.

Pastime: Reading too, and napping when she can. She has a bit of a.. sleep problem. She recently picked up endurance running.

Food: Mamma's ragú (she might be obligated to say that by Italian Family Law but she genuinely loves it)

Drink: Coffee, black, no sugar

Books: Nonfiction books for the most, she enjoys reading about practical things. She might enjoy a sappy lesbian romance book or two though, but you'd rather catch her dead before she admits it.

HAVE THEY

Passed university: Took a course in Criminology before an apprenticeship with a Detective before she applied for her own license.

Had sex: Yes

Had sex in public: No, and is not interested

Kissed a man: No

Kissed a woman: You bet!

Kissed someone of other gender(s): No

Gotten tattoos: No

Gotten piercings: No

Had a broken heart: Yes, when she got rejected by a crush. She then thought she didn't have time for relationships with her line of studies/work and grew close to her best friend she TOTALLY thought just saw her as a friend.

Been in love: Is very much in love with her girlfriend Lizzy.

Stayed up for more than 24 hours: Too many times, both due to her job and the fact otherworldly presences tend to find her at the dead of the night because they NEED her services to break their curse and have no concept of open hours.

ARE THEY

A cuddler: Yes but only in the privacy of her bedroom.

A kisser: Only in private.

A smoker: Yes, of cigarettes and more rarely cigars

Jealous easily: No, she's exclusive with her girlfriend and has absolute trust in her.

Trustworthy: Absolutely, she puts her honour on the line and she has a VERY strong sense of honour. Even it it's detrimental to her sometimes.

Dominant: Quite often. She doesn't particularly like it but she has a very strong "no bullshit" rule and some people she works in collaboration with can pull up quite a lot of bullshit. She also has a temper.

Submissive: It depends of the situation but not often, and as long as she judges it to be fair.

Single: Nope!

RANDOM QUESTIONS

Have they harmed themselves: No

Wanted to kill someone: Yes, but more in the sense that she wished some people would drop dead.

Actually killed someone: No, but she's gotten into physical fights and might have sent some people to the hospital that way.

Ridden a horse: For her girlfriend's sake, yes!

Have/had a job: She's a detective at the head of her an agency that she co-owns with a colleague. She also has 3 associates and is part of a network of paranormal investigators.

Have any fears: Losing her loved ones or have them harmed by looking into too powerful forces/dangerous individuals.

FAMILY

Sibling(s): Single child

Children: Two foster daughters, one that she gets along with greatly and another who she's quite similar with in character. They... tend to clash.

Grandparents: None, all passed

Parents: A witch and writer of a mother and historian of a father! Both are alive and teaching classes at university.

Aunts/Uncles: A bunch of them in Italy that she's barely met, from her mother's side.

Cousins: A bunch in Italy, she's barely met them too.

Pets: No but a benevolent twinned eldritch house spirit who she's welcomed into her home, under the pressure of her girlfriend/colleagues. They eat cobwebs and dust bunnies. She actually really likes them.

tagging @thecrimsonvalley-creates @guided-by-the-blood

[elacular-kink]

Poly-Techhic character sheet

Poly-Techhic is a serial hiccup story about a group of polyamorous college girls. This is a description of the four main characters and may be edited later.

Susanna Jane Butler

Also called Susan and Susie Appearance: —4'10" (147 cm) —Very average weight and build —Tan skin —Chinese —Adopted by American Catholics. —Short, straight black hair —Bangs can fall over eyes. —Wears baggy clothes —Almost always has on a baggy hoodie with the hood up. Neurotypical (I think?) —(The author isn't, so...) Extremely gay Sophomore (AKA, 2nd year) Loves and is studying music —Plays multiple instruments —Piano —Is actually better at pipe organ —Guitar —Sings well —Learned how to sing in kids choir in her church. Is way less cool than she looks or acts —Is cooler than she thinks she is. Is great at telling people off —Is terrible at telling people good things. Has a hiccup fetish. —Has been like this as long as she can remember. —Has extremely big emotions and anxiety about it. —She's not able to get off without it.

Olivia Elizabeth Jones

Appearance —5'9" (175 cm) —Skinny —Isn't skinny on purpose, just naturally doesn't develop much fat. —Annoyed when people conflate thinness with health. —Very dark skin —Black (African American) —Nearly buzzed black hair —4C texture —Uses reading glasses —Keeps them around her neck on a chain for practicality —Everyone else says it makes her look like an old lady. —Wears very practical clothes. —All fabrics must be soft and/or smooth. —Clothes are generally tight. She dislikes having clothes that hang loose. —Doesn't care about how butch or femme it is. Autistic —Very blunted affect —Sincerely emotes only for huge feelings. —Still feels things when not emoting, just doesn't move her face much about it. —Hates social niceties —Is overly honest with people Aromantic —Does not feel or have a great understanding of romantic attraction. —Can still identify it in others —Bisexual with a female lean. —Considers Susanna her life partner, but does not consider her a girlfriend. —"See, this is why I explain it with 'it's complicated', Olivia." —Does consider Maya a girlfriend —"It means something different to her, and I can do that." Sophomore (AKA, 2nd year) Gets the hiccups all the time. —Doesn't generally mind them. —Has been shunned or punished for them in the past. —Thinks this is stupid. —This is part of why Susanna has been her best friend. —Almost nothing cures them. —No apparent medical reason, she's just very hiccupy. Kind of a troll —People don't expect it from her since she seems so serious. —Primary victims are Susanna and Maya. Extremely emotionally perceptive

Maya Heffernan

Appearance —5'4" (163 cm) —Feels taller because of her personality. —Also just often wears cleats —Both very muscular and very chubby —Built like a professional weightlifter. —Is capable of lifting weights like a professional weightlifter. —Is basically a physical freak with absurd strength, speed, and endurance. —Exercises constantly. —White —Ridiculously pale (Irish ancestry) —Covered in orange and brown freckles —Massive mane of curly red hair —Sheds red hairs everywhere. —Wears glasses —Including when playing rugby —Has prescription sports goggles —Almost always wears her rugby uniform. —She's number 7, the openside flanker —So she gets to tackle people! —A lot! —Dresses very butch outside of it. ADHD —Takes adderall occasionally when she needs to focus —Does not like how she feels on it. Solo-poly —Wants to avoid becoming overly dependent on someone or having them become dependent on her. —Still enjoys having romantic and sexual relationships with many people. —Keeps most relationships at arm's length. —Only forms closer relationships with other people with big poly energy. —Has gaydar, but for polyamorous tendencies. Pansexual —Not all pansexuals are sluts. But she is. —Fucks lots of women, men, and other types of people. —("But where are the men?" They're offscreen somewhere, shut up.) Junior (AKA, 3rd year.) Gives people nicknames —Whether they want them or not. —Will relent if they genuinely hate them. —Eventually... —Susanna=Susie —Olivia=Liv —Kiran=Kiki Chaos agent —Loves to disrupt people's lives. —Often for the better, sometimes for the worse, almost always for both. —Genuinely thinks this is fun and wants others to have fun too. —Actively trolls people —Frequently goes too far. —Extremely easily bored. —Will cause problems when bored. —If there's nobody to cause problems for, will cause problems for herself. Really fucking stupid. —Under no illusions about this. —Has always struggled with academia —Has no common sense —Has no impulse control —Is still alive because she's impossible to kill

Kiran Mandal

Appearance —6'1" (185 cm) —Very fat —Deep brown skin —Indian American —One parent is first generation, one parent is second. —Long black hair. —Wants to do interesting things with it, is too nervous to try. —Always wears a dress or a skirt. —Has yet to figure out what her fashion sense is, has been fairly conservative thus far. Autistic —Terrified of eye contact —Often makes it anyway due to masking. —Always tries to "win" eye contact. —Has a lot of difficulty socializing —Has very little experience doing so, which doesn't help. —Particularly with people her own age. —Extremely socially anxious and shy. —Stims and makes repetitive movements —Used to make a lot of sounds with her mouth, had that mostly trained out of her. —Has never been able to stop flapping when anxious or happy. —Is extremely embarrassed by this. —Sees it as a personal failing. Trans —MtF —Is on hormones —Has not been on them long. —Not very secure in her womanhood —Is rarely accidentally misgendered. —If someone misgendered her on purpose, the other three would kill them. Uncertain sexuality —Definitely likes girls. —Definitely really really really really really likes girls. Freshman (1st year) Really academically smart —Brilliant at the vast majority of what would be considered "nerd shit". —Particularly likes computer programming. —(Forgive me for my trans woman stereotype.) —Has studied under professional tutors all her life. —Speaks English and Hindi fluently, is proficient in Spanish —Currently being tutored and learning Mandarin. —(please don't expect me to know anything about any of these languages, German is super close to English and I'm still not learning jack shit) —Has very little "street smarts" —Very limited practical knowledge of the world. Family is stupid rich —Probably some tech sector shit. —Dad may be an insufferable tech bro. —She has access to a shitload of money. —She has no idea what money is actually worth, but is self-aware about that. —Has been insulated from a lot of normal people's experiences because of that. Vegetarian

[xenodelic]

I love you masculine transfems, I love you butch transfems, I love you bulldyke transfems, I love you transfems who use pronouns other than she/her, I love you GNC transfems, I love you genderqueer transfems, I love you genderfuck and genderweird transfems,

I love you transfems who can't pass or don't try to pass, I love you pre-op / pre-med transfems, I love you no-op / no-med transfems, I love you transfems who haven't changed their name, I love you transfems who aren't out of the closet

I love you intersex transfems, I love you transsexual transfems, I love you genderfluid and multigender transfems, I love you xenogender transfems, I love you plural transfems and transfems in systems, I love you alterhuman transfems,

I love you transfems with genders specific to your culture or religion, I love you transfems who don't fit into western colonialist boundaries of gender, I love you two-spirit transfems, I love you transfems of color, I love you transfems who are reconnecting to their culture or ancestry through their gender expression

I love you transfems!!!!!!!!!!

[reanimatedcourier]

How to Write Indigenous Characters Without Looking like a Jackass:

Update as of December 26th, 2020: I have added a couple new sections about naming and legal terms, as well as a bit of reading on the Cherokee Princess phenomenon.

Boozhoo (hello) Fallout fandom! I'm a card-carrying Anishinaabe delivering this rough guide about writing Indigenous characters because wow, do I see a lot of shit.

Let's get something out of the way first: Fallout's portrayal of Indigenous people is racist. From a vague definition of "tribal" to the claims of them being "savage" and "uncivilized" mirror real-world stereotypes used to dehumanize us. Fallout New Vegas' narrated intro has Ron Perlman saying Mr. House "rehabilitated" tribals to create New Vegas' Three Families. You know. Rehabilitate. As if we are animals. Top it off with an erasure of Indigenous people in the American Southwest and no real tribe names, and you've got some pretty shitty representation. The absence of Native American as a race option in the GECK isn't too great, given that two Native characters are marked "Caucasian" despite being brown. Butch Deloria is a pretty well-known example of this effect. (Addendum: Indigenous people can have any mix of dominant and recessive traits, as well as present different phenotypes. What bothers me is it doesn't accommodate us or mixed people, which is another post entirely.)

As a precautionary warning: this post and the sources linked will discuss racism and genocide. There will also be discussion of multiple kinds of abuse.

Now, your best approach will be to pick a nation or tribe and research them. However, what follows will be general references.

Terms that may come up in your research include Aboriginal/Native Canadian, American Indian/Native American, Inuit, Métis, and Mestizo. The latter two refer to cultural groups created after the discovery of the so-called New World. (Addendum made September 5th, 2020: Mestizo has negative connotations and originally meant "half breed" so stick with referring to your mixed Latine and Indigenous characters as mixed Indigenous or simply by the name of their people [Maya, Nahua].)

As a note, not every mixed person is Métis or Mestizo. If you are, say, Serbian and Anishinaabe, you would be mixed, but not Métis (the big M is important here, as it refers to a specific culture). Even the most liberal definition caps off at French and British ancestry alongside Indigenous (some say Scottish and English). Mestizo works the same, since it refers to descendants of Spanish conquistadors/settlers and Indigenous people.

Trouble figuring out whose land is where? No problem, check out this map.

Drawing

Don't draw us with red skin. It's offensive and stereotypical.

Tutorial for Native Skintones

Tutorial for Mixed Native Skintones

Why Many Natives Have Long Hair (this would technically fit better under another category, but give your Native men long hair!)

If You're Including Traditional Wear, Research! It's Out There

Languages

Remember, there are a variety of languages spoken by Indigenous people today. No two tribes will speak the same language, though there are some that are close and may have loan words from each other (Cree and Anishinaabemowin come to mind). Make sure your Diné (you may know them as Navajo) character doesn't start dropping Cree words.

Here's a Site With a Map and Voice Clips

Here's an Extensive List of Amerindian Languages

Keep in mind there are some sounds that have no direct English equivalents. But while we're at it, remember a lot of us speak English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. The languages of the countries that colonized us.

Words in Amerindian languages tend to be longer than English ones and are in the format of prefix + verb + suffix to get concepts across. Gaawiin miskwaasinoon is a complete sentence in Anishinaabemowin, for example (it is not red).

Names

Surprisingly, we don't have names like Passing Dawn or Two-Bears-High-Fiving in real life. A lot of us have, for lack of better phrasing, white people names. We may have family traditions of passing a name down from generation to generation (I am the fourth person in my maternal line to have my middle name), but not everyone is going to do that. If you do opt for a name from a specific tribe, make sure you haven't chosen a last name from another tribe.

Baby name sites aren't reliable, because most of the names on there will be made up by people who aren't Indigenous. That site does list some notable exceptions and debunks misconceptions.

Here's a list of last names from the American census.

Indian Names

You may also hear "spirit names" because that's what they are for. You know the sort of mystical nature-related name getting slapped on an Indigenous character? Let's dive into that for a moment.

The concept of a spirit name seems to have gotten mistranslated at some point in time. It is the name Creator calls you throughout all your time both here and in the spirit world. These names are given (note the word usage) to you in a ceremony performed by an elder. This is not done lightly.

A lot of imitations of this end up sounding strange because they don't follow traditional guidelines. (I realize this has spread out of the original circle, but Fallout fans may recall other characters in Honest Hearts and mods that do this. They have really weird and racist results.)

If you're not Indigenous: don't try this. You will be wrong.

Legal Terms

Now, sometimes the legal term (or terms) for a tribe may not be what they refer to themselves as. A really great example of this would be the Oceti Sakowin and "Sioux". How did that happen, you might be wondering. Smoky Mountain News has an article about this word and others, including the history of these terms.

For the most accurate information, you are best off having your character refer to themselves by the name their nation uses outside of legislation. A band name would be pretty good for this (Oglala Lakota, for example). I personally refer to myself by my band.

Cowboys

And something the Fallout New Vegas fans might be interested in, cowboys! Here's a link to a post with several books about Black and Indigenous cowboys in the Wild West.

Representation: Stereotypes and Critical Thought

Now, you'll need to think critically about why you want to write your Indigenous character a certain way. Here is a comprehensive post about stereotypes versus nuance.

Familiarize yourself with tropes. The Magical Indian is a pretty prominent one, with lots of shaman-type characters in movies and television shows. This post touches on its sister tropes (The Magical Asian and The Magical Negro), but is primarily about the latter.

Say you want to write an Indigenous woman. Awesome! Characters I love to see. Just make sure you're aware of the stereotypes surrounding her and other Women of Color.

Word to the wise: do not make your Indigenous character an alcoholic. "What, so they can't even drink?" You might be asking. That is not what I'm saying. There is a pervasive stereotype about Drunk Indians, painting a reaction to trauma as an inherent genetic failing, as stated in this piece about Indigenous social worker Jessica Elm's research. The same goes for drugs. Ellen Deloria is an example of this stereotype.

Familiarize yourself with and avoid the Noble Savage trope. This was used to dehumanize us and paint us as "childlike" for the sake of a plot device. It unfortunately persists today.

Casinos are one of the few ways for tribes to make money so they can build homes and maintain roads. However, some are planning on diversifying into other business ventures.

There's a stereotype where we all live off government handouts. Buddy, some of these long-term boil water advisories have been in place for over twenty years. The funding allocated to us as a percentage is 0.39%: less than half a percent to fight the coronavirus. They don't give us money.

"But what about people claiming to be descended from a Cherokee princess?" Cherokee don't and never had anything resembling princesses. White southerners made that up prior to the Civil War. As the article mentions, they fancied themselves "defending their lands as the Indians did".

Also, don't make your Indigenous character a cannibal. Cannibalism is a serious taboo in a lot of our cultures, particularly northern ones.

Our lands are not cursed. We don't have a litany of curses to cast on white people in found footage films. Seriously. We have better things to be doing. Why on earth would our ancestors be haunting you when they could be with their families? Very egotistical assumption.

Indigenous Ties and Blood Quantum

Blood quantum is a colonial system that was initially designed to "breed out the Indian" in people. To dilute our bloodlines until we assimilated properly into white society. NPR has an article on it here.

However, this isn't how a vast majority of us define our identities. What makes us Indigenous is our connections (or reconnection) to our families, tribes, bands, clans, and communities.

Blood quantum has also historically been used to exclude Black Natives from tribal enrollment, given that it was first based on appearance. So, if you looked Black and not the image of "Indian" the white census taker had in his brain, you were excluded and so were your descendants.

Here are two tumblrs that talk about Black Indigenous issues and their perspectives. They also talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

However, if you aren't Indigenous, don't bring up blood quantum. Don't. This is an issue you should not be speaking about.

Cherokee Princess Myth

"Princess" was not a real position in any tribe. The European idea of monarchy did not suddenly manifest somewhere else. The closest probable approximation may have been the daughter of a chief or other politically prominent person. But princess? No.

Here is an article talking about possible origins of this myth. Several things are of note here: women from other tribes may have bee shoved under this label and the idea of a "Cherokee Princess" had been brought up to explain the sudden appearance of a brown-skinned (read: half Black) family member.

For a somewhat more in depth discussion of why, specifically, this myth gets touted around so often, Timeline has this piece.

Religion

Our religions are closed. We are not going to tell you how we worship. Mostly because every little bit we choose to share gets appropriated. Smudging is the most recent example. If you aren't Indigenous, that's smoke cleansing. Smudging is done in a specific way with ceremonies and prayers.

Now, a lot of us were forcibly converted. Every residential school was run by Christians. So plenty of us are Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Lutheran, etc. Catholicism in Latin America also has influence from the Indigenous religions in that region.

Having your Indigenous character pray or carry rosaries wouldn't be a bad thing, if that religion was important to them. Even if they are atheist, if they lived outside of a reserve or other Indigenous communities, they might have Christian influences due to its domination of the Western world.

Settler Colonialism and the White Savior Trope

Now we've come to our most painful section yet. Fallout unintentionally has an excellent agent of settler-colonialism, in particular the Western Christian European variety, in Caesar's Legion and Joshua Graham.

(Addendum: Honest Hearts is extremely offensive in its portrayal of Indigenous people, and egregiously shows a white man needing to "civilize" tribals and having to teach them basic skills. These skills include cooking, finding safe water, and defending themselves from other tribes.)

Before we dive in, here is a post explaining the concept of cultural Christianity, if you are unfamiliar with it.

We also need to familiarize ourselves with The White Man's Burden. While the poem was written regarding the American-Philippine war, it still captures the attitudes toward Indigenous folks all over the world at the time.

As this article in Teen Vogue points out, white people like to believe they need to save People of Color. You don't need to. People of Color can save themselves.

Now, cultural Christianity isn't alone on this side of the pond. Writer Teju Cole authored a piece on the White Savior Industrial Complex to describe mission trips undertaken by white missionaries to Africa to feed their egos.

Colonialism has always been about the acquisition of wealth. To share a quote from this paper about the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples: "Negatively, [settler colonialism] strives for the dissolution of native societies. Positively, it erects a new colonial society on the expropriated land base—as I put it, settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event. In its positive aspect, elimination is an organizing principal of settler-colonial society rather than a one-off (and superseded) occurrence. The positive outcomes of the logic of elimination can include officially encouraged miscegenation, the breaking-down of native title into alienable individual freeholds, native citizenship, child abduction, religious conversion, resocialization in total institutions such as missions or boarding schools, and a whole range of cognate biocultural assimilations. All these strategies, including frontier homicide, are characteristic of settler colonialism. Some of them are more controversial in genocide studies than others." (Positive, here, is referring to "benefits" for the colonizers. Indigenous people don't consider colonization beneficial.)

An example of a non-benefit, the Church Rock disaster had Diné children playing in radioactive water so the company involved could avoid bad publicity.

Moving on, don't sterilize your Indigenous people. Sterilization, particularly when it is done without consent, has long been used as a tool by the white system to prevent "undesirables" (read, People of Color and disabled people) from having children. Somehow, as of 2018, it wasn't officially considered a crime.

The goal of colonization was to eliminate us entirely. Millions died because of exposure to European diseases. Settlers used to and still do separate our children from us for reasons so small as having a dirty dish in the sink. You read that right, a single dirty dish in your kitchen sink was enough to get your children taken and adopted out to white families. This information was told to me by an Indigenous social work student whose name I will keep anonymous.

It wasn't until recently they made amendments to the Indian Act that wouldn't automatically render Indigenous women non-status if they married someone not Indigenous. It also took much too long for Indigenous families to take priority in child placement over white ones. Canada used to adopt Indigenous out to white American families. The source for that statement is further down, but adoption has been used as a tool to destroy cultures.

I am also begging you to cast aside whatever colonialist systems have told you about us. We are alive. People with a past, not people of the past, which was wonderfully said here by Frank Waln.

Topics to Avoid if You Aren't Indigenous

Child Separation. Just don't. We deserve to remain with our families and our communities. Let us stay together and be happy that way.

Assimilation schools. Do not bring up a tool for cultural genocide that has left lasting trauma in our communities.

W/ndigos. I don't care that they're in Fallout 76. They shouldn't be. Besides, you never get them right anyway.

Sk/nwalkers. Absolutely do not. Diné stories are not your playthings either.

I've already talked about drugs and alcohol. Do your research with compassion and empathy in mind. Indigenous people have a lot of pain and generational trauma. You will need to be extremely careful having your Indigenous characters use drugs and alcohol. If your character can be reduced to their (possible) substance abuse issues, you need to step back and rework it. As mentioned in Jessica Elm's research, remember that it isn't inherent to us.

For our final note: remember that we're complex, autonomous human beings. Don't use our deaths to further the stories of your white characters. Don't reduce us to some childlike thing that needs to be raised and civilized by white characters. We interact with society a little differently than you do, but we interact nonetheless.

Meegwetch (thank you) for reading! Remember to do your research and portray us well, but also back off when you are told by an Indigenous person.

This may be updated in the future, it depends on what information I come across or, if other Indigenous people are so inclined, what is added to this post.

[ayellowbirds]

state of the system, edit 2024/9/04

There's been a LOT of additions to the system, over the past few months! A mix of stress, and developments in our comfort being ourselves due to internal work.

2024 really seems to be the Year of the Fictive for us. Welcome, Harley and Scarlet!

@autobots-one-half: the Wreckers subsystem: Arcee¹, Concord, Hammerdown, Horsepower, and Mayday

@chateau-maupertuis: Fenix, Sienna, Rey (short for Reynartine), any pronouns. Pansexual fox of many names.

@dzhukhe: Kerys Freeman*, it/its or she/her. Pansexual lumin gyne.

@exit-running: Lina Inverse, she/her. Bisexual female fictive, first fronted completely by surprise on May 17th, 2024.

@faxedstar: Shavit MiBeyt-Halley, co/com or they/them. Asexual nonbinary coronis.

@flowerhurricane: Lita, she/her. Human woman, biromantic asexual. First fronted 2023/12/6

@fraylin: Aidel*** RS, she/her. Near-human woman, possibly bi? bisexual.

@galaxycrowned: Taylor Barzelay, she/her. Transbian superheroine fictive, first fronted properly on May 29, 2024.

@golemgirlgoop: Rainbow Taylor, it/its or she/her or they/them. Lesbian demigirl golem, median subsystem.

@gothamgirlie: Harley, she/her. Fictive of nonspecific source media. Don't talk to her about the 2019 cartoon.

@gymnosome: Sera (short for Serafina) and Ocean, the Café Sub-Subsystem. Both she/her fictives; a butch lesbian and shoregender trixensexual demigirl ghost. Fronted for the first time May 19 and 20.

@hebephage: Ran, she/her bisexual kijin, fictive² median subsystem.

@luckyno13: Sophie/Sophia, she/her small anthro cat. First fronted completely by surprise on April 6, 2024.

@neveyleh: Miriam** "Bone" Bowen, any pronouns. Genderfluid human (corpse), sexuality is "yes".

@notarockyet: Maia, young (60 years old, older than our body) troll maiden. Fronted briefly in the mornings for a few weeks of February 2024 before properly spending time in front March 7th. She/her.

@okonomiyakimeansiloveyou: Raleigh Westchurch, he/him or she/her (alternating) bigender bisexual fictive. Made himself known for a while before she properly took front February 5th of 2024.

@playplayplayletsplay: Sitari, she/her. Magical girl fictive puppy. Fronted properly for the first time on June 8th, 2024.

@responsiblyirresponsible: Justine Wakely Tylor, she/her. Trans woman fictive, sexuality is a noncommittal hand-wave. First turned up in headspace a while after Aidel, but only recently started fronting for more than a few minutes.

@sungsingsanguine: Scarlet, she/her. Heroic!Himiko fictive heavily inspired by the fanfic Adalheidis but with some notes of other sources.

@ultra-intergalactic-cybot-g: Marina Liteyears, she/her synthetic fictive. Turned up 7/12/24.

@urukuduk: Sylviandrine Augustina Attercop, fae/faer or she/her. Bisexual woman, orc/halfling mix.

¹: I turned up 8/15/2023! I was around in the background of headspace for a while but nobody was sure who I was until I pushed to front.

² Ran has been hiding in-system for a while (we're not entirely sure how long), but only actually fronted for the first time on 9/9/23

*: Kerys didn't have a surname, so it asked its husband Haskell for his. This caused Haskell to briefly bluescreen, it was cute as fuck.

**: Fuck yeah! That's me, I'm not new but the realization that I'm my own damn person is.

***: Aidel is a fictive but felt anxious about using the name she had in her source media since this body is of European/Mediterranean Jewish ancestry and she's from an anime/manga/LN franchise. She showed up completely unexpectedly on December 2, 2022.