#even if you have both parents they tend to just not teach the opposite gendered child the skills they have lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ihopethisendswell · 3 years

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The part where you get basic info on my Pokémon oc's so you don't get confused when I post about them.

This is gonna be a long post. I have like 8 total. 16 if your counting the secondary protags (my version of May and Lucas for example,which I won't be going over in detail cause I'm not insane). Might want to check my timeline 9 it's pinned or just check bulbapedia if your confused about the ages. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I hope you enjoy :)

Name :Jin Amachi

Gender: " I am nonbinary. I they/ them pronouns, but I'm alright with he/ him as well.

Age:

12( when started journey in Hoenn( Emerald)

22 by SM/USUSM

26 by SWSH

Basic info: With all things said and done, Jin is grateful for their journey. They learned a lot, even if they had to stop two extreme environmentalist along the way. They know the two meant well, but it's just too bizarre for it to happen. Though the two seem to be in a better place now. They're happy for them. They're father and them talk more now. It's still awkward, but better. They know he's trying his best, and they will do the same. It's much better than back then. But no need to worry about the past.

If anything, they're more worried about the others.

Kenji Elm

Gender: " I'm getting sudden dejavu. But I'm a boy! The best boy! Don't call me a girl, I will cry. And because I'm not one! So don't. Anyway have you heard of-" * starts to ramble*

Age:

10 when journey started in Johto( HGSS)

17 by SM

21 by SWSH

Basic Info: Kenji Elm is not the biological son of Professor Elm. He was adopted at a young age, and he doesn't know who is birth parents. Not that he cares. He's more than happy with the family he got( though he wonders when they'll throw him away like his parents did). Energetic and always willing for an adventure, Kenji is generally on the move!( He's so sorry if he's being annoying please don't leave please)

He has a vast amount of interests, but his two favorites are painting and battling. Battling is obvious, he's the champion of the Indigo League, but he always had an artistic eye. But his favorite pastime is hanging out with his friends! When he gets the time of course. He's sometimes wonder how he was able to hold the title of champion for so long though haha ( his win was a fluke he knows it he knows it) .But yeah! That's Kenji! Always there with a smile! Our little golden boy! 😁

Name: Danica Yamamoto

Gender: "I'm a girl. She/her pronouns. They/ them is cool too. Don't mind Kenji, he talks a lot." *Offended Kenji noises in the background*

Age:

11 when journey started in Sinnoh( Platinum)

18 by SM)

22 by SWSH

Basic Info: Giratina and Arcues are quite alike, the more she thinks about it. Though, the rest if Sinnoh, quite possibly the whole world would disagree with her. Giratina is " the lord of darkness". It's followers have a history of not being....the best. Giratina resides alone in the Distortion World, paying for it's past sins. Clearly, Giratina and Arcues are nothing alike.

Hm? Oh. Right. Pardon.

Danica grew up in Twinleaf town, with her best friend Barry. Those two are almost polar opposites. Barry is always moving, going fast, and doesn't wait for no one( except Danica and Emmet). Danica can go fast, possibly faster than Barry, but likes to take things slow. Both can be quite chaotic.Barry has a bit of a temper, Danica's chill. Both are cases where you should run when they are angry. Like. Very angry. The two bounces of each other well,and hang out regularly with Emmet, even with their busy professions ( Danica as champion, Barry as Frontier Brain and Emmet as a professor). Danica loves baking, and would often be making poffins and other baked treats for her, her pokemon and others ! She's also a bit of a nerd, so you'll also find her in a library or two. Her pokemon are her babies, and she hopes to have plenty of battles with them in the future!

.....

But really. They are quite alike. Both are beings of great power. Both have a following, even if one is less seen. Both are feared. They are feared greatly. Do they fear each other? Did Arcues banish Giratina in fear of the world or in fear of losing control? Did Giratina learn it's lesson after eons of being in the Distortion World? She could never tell. It doesn't really open up much, only going back to said Distortion World on its own Accord( it felt wrong to be it's "owner"). Though it do comes back, surprisingly. Maybe because she asked it to. To make sure Cyrus doesn't die in there. He still won't come out. She doesn't understand why. It's been years. Has he learned his lesson? Giratina seems to be fond of him. Affectionate. Cyrus never objects to this. So he must right? Right?

Ah, getting off topic. They're quite alike, being feared by the masses. Even if Arcues is mostly beloved. It's a god. It has such power. They're both feared. They themselves must fear as well . It must get lonely....... She thinks she gets Cyrus now.

Name: Alexis " Alex" Jones

Gender: " Um, hi? I'm just a dude. Use he/ him pronouns.....yeah"

Age:

14 when journey started in Unova( BW)

18 by SM

22 by SWSH

Basic info: It's so funny, the more he thinks about. He was so excited, despite his worries. He was going on a journey. A gym challenge. Pathway to champion. He was going to do that! With his sister and his friends! On his birthday! It was perfect! It should have been perfect! But everything just went wrong.

The bodies, the blood, the pressure to " be a hero"( intentional or not), it was all too much. Too much. Then- then he was a coward. He fled it all. Even after saving the day. It was stupid. So stupid. And the people in his life had a right to be angry. Why wouldn't they? He deserved it, really. But now things are better(?). He has a daycare to co-run, he's gradually learning his way as a pokemon medic, and he still has his pokemon( the ones that were lucky enough to survive). He's so grateful for them. He doesn't battle, though. No, he's never doing that ever again. He's caused enough harm( he hates how he stares at trainers battling). He's no good anyway( he hates how bored his team looks half the time) . He doesn't understand why people insist that he is( he hates that he has this itch, this desire). He doesn't understand why they look so disappointed when he says he doesn't battle anymore( he hates that he misses the rush, the strategy, the freedom of it all). He's fine with what he got. He's no hero.

.....Why is his aunt calling him?

Name: Evangeline " Eva" Ortiz

Gender: " Hiya! I'm a lovely lady! I use she/her pronouns, please and thank you!"

Age:

14 when journey started ( B2W2)

16 by SM

20 by SwSh

Basic Info: Eva! Eva my Beloved. Eva's fun, y'know? Always moving, helping, laughing, smiling. Life of the party! She rivals Kenji with that winning smile. Not to mention that she's a great battler! It's almost like she was born for this. Maybe she is! Who knows. But what she do know is that she's Unova's Champ and she gotta defend her title! And protect her region! Though she probably would have done that without the title anyway haha! Hmm what else? Oh! She loves technology! For some reason that surprises a lot of people that don't really know her, but she does! She's a bit of a tinkerer if she do say so herself. She likes it when people compliment on her skills it makes her more confident in them. Even Col-

No.

....

Ahem.

Anyway she's pretty talented. But that comes from a lot of hard work! And luck. But lots of hard work.( And also luck). Aaaah, that should that's it? Well, she does tend to be distant, b-but she's busy, yeah? Don't worry about it. Oh! One more thing. It's not really a big deal, just a random fact.

She hates the cold.

Name Jude Bellrose

Gender: "...... Why do you care ?" ( E: Jude don't be rude! Al: No no, she has a point.) *Ooc: Jude is genderfluid. Right now, in this post, she's using she/ her pronouns, but she also uses he/him and they/them*

Age:

18 when journey started in Kalos( XY)

20 by SM

24 by SwSh

Basic info: Death has a way of teaching you things. Jude learned a lot from it. She learns to not take it for granted, both death itself and the one that is dead.She learns to be humble. She learns to be kind.

Jude was, and still is, prickly. She's not rude my any means, unless she is, but she's just hard to become friends with. She used to have this philosophy of trainer and pokemon; they should be no emotional bonds. They're not here for that. They're here to win. And she did. Until she didn't. Her first pokemon died. It devastated her. Her pokemon, surprisingly, comforted her. And then another one died, and her pokemon comforted her again. Star, her Staraptor, was strong. So strong, and yet it died, and she cried and get pokemon cried with her. She never felt so loved. Not saying that her mother doesn't love her, the opposite really, it's just things have been....complicated. Couple that with strangers turn( begrudgingly) friends, and Jude's heart turned all warm inside. Not that she'll ever admit that outloud.

Jude is a kind person, despite her prickly nature. She loves the world around her, loves her friends, loves her pokemon. She respects death, despite the pain she causes her. The world itself of beautiful as it is, which it's such a shame that a capitalist fool a certain someone couldn't see that way( poor Sycamore).

Jude is a good trainer, despite her loss. She knows this. She'll prove it too the moon and back. If only a certain someone thought the same for himself.

Aster Mahina

Gender: "...." "Mizzz Aster is a girl! She uses she/her pronouns! Zzt."

Age:

11 in SM, where her journey started

15 by SwSh

Basic Bio: Aster doesn't hate Kanto. She doesn't. She was born there and lived there for 11 years. She just doesn't want to back. But she has to, cause she's " the first champion of Alola and as champion" yada yada yada. Like. She gets it. Being Alola's first and currently only champion, you gotta make an impression. She gets that. She still doesn't want to go. Even when she's been there, like, 4 times now. There are some good things in Kanto though. Lillie is there. And seeing Lillie physically is always a plus. She also gets to see Uncle Red, Uncle Green, and Aunt Blue. Kenji, while not living in Kanto, is champion of the Indigo League, and it's always fun with Kenji( she loves his art). But. Like. She still doesn't want to go.

But she also likes being Champion. That means she's strong. And since she's strong she can protect her mom. But she can't protect her mom when she's all the way in Kanto! What if he comes back? What if goes to Alola when she's away? She knows that her mom is strong, she knows that but still!

No. No it's okay. Her mom is strong. Lillie is strong. Gladion is strong . Hau is strong. Guzma is strong. They're all strong. She's strong.

She is strong.

Name: Naomi Einar

Gender: "I-I'm a girl! She/her pronouns please!"

Age:

15 in SWSH, which is the start of her gym challenge in Galar!

Basic Info: Hop is pretty convincing, she realizes. Or maybe she's very weak willed. " Let's do the gym challenge together!" He said. He had that look in his eye. She couldn't say no. Or she could, but that would make him upset, and that's the last thing she wants.

If she's being honest with herself, she's scared. She doesn't like big crowds, the attention. They'll be so many eyes on her. So many. A-and then there's Lee and her cousin, Alexis. Hop has made her sit down and watch almost every single match Leon has had. He's an amazing trainer. A-and her mum would tell her stories about Alexis. He was a hero! He stopped an evil team and everything! She can't live up to that! She never even battled before, why would Hop-

No. It's okay. It's okay. She- she'll just quite after failing the first gym. She can handle the embarrassment. And then she'll cheer Hop on when he wins against his brother. Yep. She'll do just that. Okay. Okay.

.....

Everyday, Slumbering Weald seem to intrigue her more and more. It's almost like it's calling her. Da?

No. It- it'sprobably nothing.

#pokemon oc #long post #just the basic info :)#the title is totally not misleading in anyway shape or form #:)#trust me!

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kookiepredictions · 4 years

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Why Jungkook will fall in love with his future spouse

First of all I hear, “Can’t help it”. It’s a strong magnetic pull that Jungkook simply can’t resist. “Before I even knew what it was, I was already in love”. “I try everything to stay out and stay away, but every time I fall deeper and deeper”. I’ve already mentioned that I strongly feel that his is a twinflame connection. There’s an intense and all-consuming attraction between him and his partner that neither of them seem to have any control over. The connection has a mind of its own and instead of getting normal with time, it just keeps intensifying. There’s the typical push and pull dynamic, where one moment they try to get rid of the connection and the next moment they want to cling to it. One moment it’s a gift from the heavens, then the next, the biggest curse. They love each other but don’t always know what to do with it or how to handle it without anyone getting hurt. Specifically speaking of Jungkook, he finds her when he was a bit... lost, for the lack of a better word. She brings in a sort of newness in his life, something exciting to look forward to everyday. Twinflames are reflections of each other, so as the connection grows, he sort of “sees” himself in her, both physically and personality-wise. He finds another him in a world where he was feeling a little lost and lonely. Typically in a twinflame connection, Divine Feminines are the advanced spiritual journeyers who sort of lead the connection from a spiritual standpoint (whereas Divine Masculines lead in the physical world), so Jungkook finds “answers” pertaining to his life, from both her and the connection in general. He gains overall clarity about some things. But that’s not all that a TF connection does, therefore he also gets hella confused about a lot of things. This is because he is in a process of awakening spiritually which is why his perceptions of life are being challenged and changed. This is why, while on the one hand, he gets more clarity, on the other, he gets more tangled up, until those tangles are sorted out and then he gets tangled up about something else again. So on and so forth. This is of course frustrating for him, given that he is in a stage of his life where he doesn’t have the luxury of time for sitting in silence for spiritual awakening to happen. However, he also feels an overall sense of growth and calmness that comes with your spiritual journey, whether or not it is welcomed. This connection propels him to a new direction of knowledge and awareness and there’s almost a supernatural, otherworldly aspect to his life because of this. There are moments when he wants to make it all go away but he also feels himself becoming into a new version. This whole process is one of the reasons he loves her. This “new” perspective that she gives him. Before her, his life was a tired cycle of old thoughts, beliefs, habits and practices. One thing that must be mentioned is that this process starts even before she comes into his life. He starts slipping into the “dark night of the soul”, an indispensable stage of spiritual awakening, a few years before he meets her, where he is a little disenchanted with the world, the people in it, and life in general— including love. There is a sense of despair and hopelessness about what the world has to offer. Everything feels meaningless and purposeless— not like he hates his life, but more of the drudgery of everyday life, the same things happening over and over again without any real growth or advancement on life. This was the stage where he was, consciously or subconsciously (mostly subconsciously, because when you “awaken” is when you find consciousness), seeking answers and some kind of a purpose to it all, that would give him the motivation to move ahead— heck, to even get up from bed every morning. Like, “What is the point of all this? What is the point of life at all? Why am I doing what I am doing everyday? Is this the best way I can live my life? If yes, then why do I only feel OK and not exhilarated every moment? Is there a way to feel happier than what I feel right now?”

TFs typically meet at this point of seeking answers. Like I said earlier, the DFs (gender neutral) tend to be ahead in their spiritual journey so they are the ones who tend to have some of the “answers” before the DMs. So when the meet, the DMs almost feel “initiated” into their spiritual journey. Note, the journey starts even before they meet, but now it starts to make sense, albeit at a very slow pace. Nevertheless, compared to the state of mind the DMs are in prior to the meeting, this new and fresh change in their life situation is very welcome to them. This is Jungkook’s first reason of attraction towards his twin. It’s a fresh change in his life, but not in a superficial way, rather in a deeper spiritual way. Of course, twinflames don’t immediately see it as that, as real twinflames typically know absolutely nothing about either spiritual terms or twinflame concepts UNTIL they meet. (Those who say they’ve met their twinflame AFTER they learn about twinflame connections, aren’t really in a TF connection but that’s a topic for another day). It’s like, they’re thrown into water without knowing how to swim, where they are then expected to learn how to swim. It sounds harsh but spiritual awakenings are about being out of your comfort zone without having a clue about it. Twinflames though, are selected for the job because they are innately endowed with personality traits that won’t allow them to drown in the water. They are problem solvers and answer-seekers. If they sense something is wrong around them, even though everyone else is silently following it, they won’t do the same. They would like to first understand what is wrong and then work on righting the wrong. Jungkook, as the DM, naturally has these personality traits, a rebellious, go-against-the-grain attitude being one of them. He was created to question, he was created to seek answers. “Doing the right thing” is important to him. However, when the whole world around you operates directly opposite of your ideas and beliefs, it’s natural to feel alone and also frequently doubt your own beliefs, or end up doing certain wrong things believing that they might be right, or just ignoring the whole soul-yapping. In this situation, he alternatingly chooses between 1) adapting and adjusting with what others are doing, which gives him some moments of conflict-less peace, 2) getting tired and drained of adapting and behaving opposite of what his soul tells him to do and shutting the world out and being alone with his own thoughts and feelings, and 3) feeling lost with no direction or conclusion to his thoughts and then going back to 1 again.

So when he meets his DF, there’s a sense of having another person who understands his POV unlike anyone else ever has. This is because DFs have already gone through this stage before their DMs. She was also thrown in that water and she has figured out a little of how to swim. This makes him feel not alone anymore. And because she is able to articulate these struggles, she also helps him figure out his own way, which gives him a nudge towards the direction that he had been looking for since even before they met. This is why DMs fall in love with their DFs. This is the outer manifestation of the soul connection that they have. As mentioned in the Ideal Type reading as well, when Jungkook said in his interviews about wanting someone to teach him new things, someone maturer than him, it’s all DM behaviour. As is common knowledge, twinflames, from the time they are born, seek their soul counterpart— subconsciously of course. This is why their ideas and concepts about love are really different from, say, their friends or siblings or parents’ ideas. There is something very specific they are looking for without knowing what it is. Their crushes, previous partners etc. all have some attributes very similar to their twinflame counterparts’. Because they were looking for their counterparts in all those people. So when they meet, they have this sense of FINALLY! that they feel deep in their bones without consciously knowing about it. It’s a strange kind of overwhelming happiness in finding your twinflame counterpart for the first time. You don’t know they are your twinflame, heck, you don’t even know the term “twinflame”, yet you feel like you’ve found someone so similar to you it’s unreal. You immediately want to lock arms, see the world together, have all kinds of experiences together because you now have someone with whom you have the purpose and the motivation to see more of this world. You’re not a lonely loser anymore who is a walk inconvenience for everyone with their unconventional thoughts and ideas. Well, if you’re a loser, then at least you now have a partner-in-crime together with whom you can judge the rest of the world. Although the twinflame connection is often confusing, frustrating and full of external problems and obstacles, just the feeling of having a partner who is truly your other half, in a world where everything is so temporary and uncertain, is unparalleled. Honestly, this is the main reason why Jungkook falls in love with his twinflame. Of course, they motivate each other to become better versions of themselves, but self-improvement is a trait they already had in them before they met. It’s the partnership, the “we got each other while we deal with everything else” vibe that is the main foundation of their love. Everything else, like her looks, talent, personality etc. are subordinate and variable— meaning, Jungkook does appreciate all of these things in her, but even if she looked different or had different sets of talents, he would still fall in love with her.

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dexpairs-blog · 4 years

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Yo so uh i made another Obey me! MC this one. They're VERY similar to Mirai but shh

NAME: Ciel

AGE: 16

RACE: human

HEIGHT: 5'7'' 171cm

NATIONALITY: italian

GENDER: genderfluid THEY/THEM

INFP-T

ADHD and oppositive provocative disorder

LIKES: anime, videogames, fiction and pulling pranks.

DISLIKES: insects, dolphins and their parents.

FAV BROS:

- Mammon

- Levi

- Asmo

They tend to be quiet and need to be included when the brothers do activities or hang out otherwhise they'll Just sit in a corner and watch.

Ciel LOVES going shopping with Asmo, he's always so kind to them and helps them choose clothes.

Ciel and Levi are both weebs and they vibe

Mammon and Ciel are chaotic bestfriends 🥺

Ciel also has gen z humor and is a meme lord

Ciel and Satan like to "ok boomer" Lucifer😳 they also call him a "Karen"

They live in the Devildom because they don't want to go back home to their abusive parents, so the brothers took them in and now they live togheter like a family 🥺

SIMEON👏ADOPTS👏CIEL👏

Simeon basically becomes Ciel's mom, they always go to him when they are upset or have flashbacks of their previous household.

Luke and Ciel are literally siblings. They're very close and always bake togheter!

Simeon was actually the first to see that something was wrong with Ciel, he was very concerned by their morbid humor and when he asked them about it they tried to tell him that It was just a joke but they ended up crying and telling him about all they've been through.

Simeon told Lucifer, and now Lucifer has the legal custody of Ciel. Diavolo wants to spend time with Luci and Ciel so they go on family trips togheter at least once a month.

Ciel has to message them EVERY SINGLE TIME they arrive, and they recieve like 373626362726 calls from them(mostly Mammon and Levi, they miss their best friend ok?🥺)

Diavolo, Barbatos, Solomon and the angels also help take care of them.

Ciel often stays to Diavolo's castle in the week end, he's dad nr 2😳

They also stay at purgatory hall on during the week, the day always changes though. They usually go when Luke wants to see them or they feel like it, it's often during the middle of the week. The brothers are always so jealous when they leave (even though it's like two days and a night)

Sometimes Solomon sneaks them in the human world and they go to amusement parks togheter 😳😳 but you didn't hear that from me.

The brothers also stole all of Ciel's baby pictures from their parents, saying that they didn't deserve to even LOOK at them for what they've done. They actually just wanted the baby pictures and to isolate Ciel's parents from the poor thing as much as possible. It's a win win situation 😳

Ciel has simplified school work and takes different classes, Dia hired a special teacher for them so they can help them with their schoolwork and teach them subjects they used to study back in the human world.

Ciel also regularly goes to therapy

Ciel has stepsister and often goes to visit her.

The undateables, the brothers and Ciel also go often togheter for trips and stuff. Dia wants some family time😡😡

This is how Ciel looks like with their hair down (plus an outfit Asmo made them wear)

I'm gonna put this in a tag called "ocCiel" !

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me mammon #obey me lucifer #obey me satan #obey me beelzebub #ocCiel #self insert #platonic f/o #platonic f/os #obey me mc

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reading-while-queer · 4 years

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The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, Alison Bechdel

Rating: Great Read Genre: Graphic Novel Representation: -Lesbian ensemble cast -Racially diverse ensemble cast Trigger warnings: Reclaimed D-slur, animal death, cheating, divorce, cancer, casual transphobia, biphobia, and ableism, difficult topics ranging from war to AIDS to 9/11. Note: Not YA; sexually explicit

If you’re familiar with Fun Home or Are You My Mother? you’ll know what I mean when I say that Dykes to Watch Out For is no entry level work - though Dykes to Watch Out For is difficult for different reasons. While Bechdel’s ruminations on her childhood, psyche, and sexuality require a decent amount of outside reading to be fully appreciated, Dykes to Watch Out For requires an equally rigorous knowledge of the political landscape of the past forty years.

But on the other hand, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The wars, elections, discourse, and protests are not so unfamiliar. If I had to pinpoint Dykes to Watch Out For’s continued importance to lesbians today in just one idea, it would be this: “Against the sweeping backdrop of history... everyday life pretty much continues” (371).

It’s not a major theme of the work, yet it is the shape of the final tapestry. Politics, discourse, trauma, and sickness make their ravages, and here we all are, much the same as we ever were 10, 20, 30 years ago: this pattern, far from intentional, emerges from the tide-like flow of 30 years of comics. But it’s why Dykes to Watch Out For is so special. And we have the privilege of going back to look into that reflection of the 80s, 90s, and 00s and recognize familiar features. The political scenery may be different (or, honestly, not so different) but has daily life changed much?

I first tried to read Dykes to Watch Out For as a curious high schooler, and my eyes glazed over. Without having absorbed enough recent history through cultural osmosis, nor having developed a taste for gray morality, I just didn’t get it. Two characters would have an argument on the page, both of them would make provocative points, and then Bechdel would refrain from telling her reader which was in the wrong. Neither character was a straw man; it almost felt like Bechdel was arguing with herself, trying to decide what was right - if there even was a right answer. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it, especially when the vocabulary and context were both tantalizingly out of reach.

Reading now, I found the once alien discourse all too familiar. The same exact discussions were being had in 1985 as are being hashed out on Twitter. One of a hundred examples is whether gay marriage is a buy-in to the privilege bestowed by heteronormativity. Bechdel asks if marriage is a patriarchal model that can be salvaged, but she doesn’t have an answer for you, just a prompt to chew on.

Another example is Bechdel’s discourse on the outliers of lesbian spheres: trans lesbians, trans men, genderqueer people, and bisexual lesbians (Would you believe that term is used in the text - and equally as contentiously?). These are conversations we are all very familiar with. However, this discourse is especially interesting in a work that took 30 years to write. The reader combs through 30 years of metamorphosis in just a handful of hours. Bechdel’s tongue-in-cheek “Whatever will they come up with next?” is printed in the same volume with genuine consternation on who is allowed to be a lesbian.

Trans women start as a punchline. But on most topics, Dykes to Watch Out For tends, eventually, to stop itself to re-evaluate. Thirty years later, one of the main characters IDs as genderqueer, finds herself meeting trans men and doing drag king shows, fights with her friends over their trans exclusivity, and in the end, ends up advocating for and co-parenting a teenage trans girl, who ends up a main character in her own right. It’s one of Bechdel’s firmer positions on right and wrong, although she doesn’t hesitate to mouth the opposite argument, too.

Plenty of sympathetic characters say transphobic things which just hang in the air, unaddressed. It’s maddening - but in sticking with the material, I got to see the characters who flubbed the pronouns and complained about gender confusion eventually get in line - changes which are not commented upon and happen so gradually in the thirty years over which the comic was written, that they mimic how change happens in real life. In our own lives, change may seem impossible, but then you blink, a decade has passed since you first came out, and half the homophobes have come around. Much the same for Dykes to Watch Out For, which is almost as much a memoir as Fun Home (albeit of Bechdel’s discourse rather than her life). I think every cisgender lesbian should read it - it’s a powerful antidote against TERFism, not because it lays down the law, but because it meets you where you are and gives you the chance to say your piece without ridicule, before taking you by the hand and showing you something kinder. If Dykes to Watch Out For has anything to teach us, it’s that hard lines in the sand make you look like a dick thirty years later. Take Sparrow’s story arc. Mo, Lois, and Ginger are thrown when their friend Sparrow starts dating a man. They say some rotten things about how betrayed they are, how they don’t know if they can trust Sparrow anymore, or her politics - but when they are overheard, the “discourse” suddenly becomes real. That’s their friend, and her feelings are hurt. What else can you do for your friend who has spent decades of her life as a lesbian, whose identity is culturally and socially interwoven with lesbianism, and who identifies as a bisexual lesbian - except love her?

A frequent lesson is that anyone can be reactionary - even the left-est of leftists. Years later, when Sparrow faces an accidental pregnancy, her friends overwhelmingly pressure her to keep the baby, not because of their politics, but because of their excitement - yet the impact, if not the intent, is anti-choice. It’s ideas like these being brought to the forefront that make Dykes to Watch Out For something special.

In her introduction to the book, Bechdel frets over both keeping up with the changing current of discourse (XVI)

...and her own role in shaping that discourse (XVII)

But her work speaks for itself: if we are to do right by one another, we must prioritize one another, not the rules. The same conversations will be had again, and again, and again, from 1983 until we all go blue in the face. We can’t control someone angrily shouting into the room (or Twitter timeline) “but WHAT about BISEXUAL LESBIANS?” and the chaos that follows - but we can accept that someone will shout it again in twenty years, and that the following chaos will be so nearly identical to the previous chaos as to challenge whether it is chaos at all, or just the universe putting on a matinee performance of the same old song and dance. Is it useful to put on your tap shoes and sing along? Or do you end up hurting the feelings of a genuine friend who just happens to be one of the outliers this time around?

Dykes to Watch Out For is thought-provoking (as you can see, my thoughts have been well and truly provoked), occasionally in poor taste, but mostly surprisingly sympathetic, both to its more marginalized characters, and to its wrong-doers - this comic doesn’t have any villains. The initial gag, that Bechdel would write a catalog of lesbians like a lepidopterist giving clinical attention to a series of specimens, works to her favor. There are no bad lesbians and good lesbians. At least, not essentially. This approach lends Dykes to Watch Out For more staying power than it might otherwise have had - it’s relatable. You know these people. You’ve had some of these arguments, and hurt each other’s feelings over them. Your friends live in the mildewy house that’s kept at 64 degrees in the winter, where you’re as likely to be walked in on in the bathroom as not, a home where everyone in the friend group feels free to stop by.

Here in the future, we have the immense privilege of watching how these parallel lives to ours play out. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For may be a comic for a different generation, but Bechdel has given us something fascinating from both a history and literary perspective. She has put to paper a sprawling epic about lesbians growing from their twenties to their forties, getting married (or not), progressing their careers, having children, having PTA meetings, having affairs, and doing civil disobedience with their kids. Rarely do we see the map from here to there laid out so meticulously. I read this book voraciously, both the earlier chapters that relate to life as a new adult, and the later chapters, which serve as a window into what life was, and could be.

For more from Alison Bechdel, visit her Twitter here.

#the essential dykes to watch out for #alison bechdel #lesbian #great read #graphic novel #protagonist of color #not ya #reviews only

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eternalstrigoii · 4 years

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Fledgling

Borra (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) x Gender Unspecified Dark Fae (Forest) Reader

** Sequel to Warbirds **

It had been a long time since you felt like this.

If you were being facetious, as the fey tended to, you would tell the tale of how you could pinpoint the exact last time you had felt so free – when you were little older than many of the children who flew with Maleficent now. You had raced, barefoot and dirty-kneed, through the earthen level of your forest home. You had known how to fly by then, and you had longed to know what it was like for your steps to remain earthbound. How attentive you’d been, your feet flying over the mossy steppes, how easily you’d leapt over the mushroom-shelved logs! Your steps had made no sound on earth so soft, and you had reveled in it. You frightened what few animals lived among you. You heard the music of your parents’ revel and rather than join them, you ran until you had a stitch in your side that throbbed for the rest of the night.

It was one of the few instances you could recall where no one else played a part in your flights of fancy. One of the few times, particularly before you grew older, where being alone had been as safe as being among your own.

Of course, anxiety pricked at your chest, then, and your mate closed his wings around your line of vision as he ensnared you. “You’re dancing with me,” he murmured in your ear.

“Am I?” you teased. “And who will be to blame when I step all over your feet?”

Borra’s face was inches from yours, much too far a distance after what you’d been through. He let you turn to face him before kissing you himself, and you pulled him closer by the back of his neck, soaking in the warmth that he radiated.

He swept you up before you had the opportunity for further protest. Dancing was so much like sparring that you never should’ve underestimated yourself. Borra certainly didn’t.

He grinned as he caught your hand, his steps in time with yours though it had been an age since either of you danced this dance – another time, another place, what felt like ages and lifetimes before.

You knew the children were watching, mesmerized by how easily the both of you folded your wings to avoid the other, how rhythmically your feet hit the ground.

Creeping violets spread at your touch, their black-flecked mouths agape. White magnolias wound around the bodies of the healthy trees, flowers blooming moments after their vines took hold.

Your heart was in your throat. You were so happy you felt as though it might just explode out of you.

The children squealed and screamed, jumping onto their logs excitedly as a blanket of violets overspread the ground.

Perhaps it had.

He laughed, and caught you around the waist, pulling you skyward. Your wings beat in time with his, his hold on you slipping to your fingers before returning to your waist. You ascended together in a loop, the wind in your canted wings.

“Borra,” your hands rested on his strong arms, “It’s time.”

The gemstone green of his eyes never left yours. He nodded once, and his breathless grin joined with yours in a kiss high above the moors.

You landed in a place where you saw no other creatures. For the first time in so long, Borra shed his armor. He did not let you undress yourself; he had waited so long to have you that he intended to savor it.

And he did. You honeyed together well into the late morning. When you finally slept, secure in the cover of his wings, the mossy knoll you’d settled on was alive in brilliant shades of wildflowers that had not existed the night before.

“Doin’ alright, then?” Diaval asked, and you thought it was in passing. You were watching Borra fly with the children, teaching them to coast on the currents as their parents did. It was as necessary a skill for survival as the flight itself, lest traveling take too much energy.

You nodded, but the lingering raven gave you pause.

He lifted his brow, nodding to your hands. How they had instinctively folded over your stomach.

“Yes,” you replied. Diaval was not supposed to be the first to know, but you’d rather him than someone else – someone who’d tell your mate before you had the chance. “We’re doing more than alright.”

“Y’know you can tell us, if you ever…?”

You didn’t know him well enough to be outwardly fond, but these weren’t exactly ordinary circumstances. You squeezed his hand amicably. “Thank you.”

He gave you a gentle half-smile, and you knew he’d tell Maleficent.

That was fine with you. Her blessing would be the opposite of a problem.

Borra paused.

Perhaps you should have waited, but you made quite the elaborate effort to get him to dine alone. No sooner had he settled than your admission was tacked on like an afterthought, and when he looked up at you…well, he looked at you just like he had when he brought you to Maleficent’s castle. Or, rather, when you’d detoured him there.

“Already?”

You nodded. It was so hard for you to contain your smile; after a moment, laughter just bubbled out.

“A baby,” he repeated. “You and I?”

“Well, I certainly haven’t stolen one!”

He joined you on your feet and swept you into his arms. You threw your arms around him in delight, your wings flapping so hard you nearly knocked your cups over.

You pretended not to notice that he kept you flush against him as he clutched you, your stomach pressed safely against his. Your wing had all but fully healed, and you could return to the great nest to retrieve what you needed, if you wanted to, or to relocate for your fledgling’s birth.

“Is it too soon?” you murmured into his shoulder.

“No,” he replied immediately. “No…I’ve never been happier.”

“You don’t sound it.” Normally, the idea of confrontation didn’t faze you, but this was different – he wanted to become your nest-mate.

His hands ran up your back, palms large enough to nearly cover all of your skin as they swept over you. “When you sleep, I touch the scar they left on your shoulder.” He touched it then; it ran from the flesh of your arm across much of your upper back. You were very lucky it hadn’t been a few inches higher. “I think of how easily you could’ve been stolen from me.”

You kissed him, not that you needed to remind him you hadn’t been.

“I am happy. I swear that I have never been happier.” He took both of your hands in his, his thumbs sweeping across your well-calloused knuckles. “I also swear to you that no harm will ever come to you or our child. No mortal, no fey, no force of nature may act against you. Not without my retribution.”

“I know.” You cupped his cheek and gently bunted your horns against his. “If you’re worried, we can always return to the great nest. Stay there until they’re strong enough to evade capture.”

“Is that what you want?”

You stroked his jaw. You were both scarred by the war you’d lobbied for; there was a part of you that did want to return to the great nest so your fledgling could be safely born in the same woods where you had been. His desert would have been even greater protection.

“I think,” you were deliberate with your words, “we are safer with Maleficent.”

It was the one phrase he could not argue. Your people had been massacred without her, and as much as you’d hoped you would be able to change the tides of war on your own, she was far too powerful to be discounted. Even the great nest seemed vulnerable in comparison.

“Tell me if you change your mind.” He kissed your forehead, then drew your body flush with his.

You nodded, but your wings folded to allow him to cover you with his as he had with increasing frequency since your time on the battlefield. You knew that it was soon, that you both needed to heal from the loss and the trauma you’d experienced, and you didn’t want him to feel like he had to protect you. You were a warrior in your own right; his partner, not his bride.

But you loved him, and you’d never oppose the safety of his arms.

The moors threw you a grand celebration.

You were not the celebratory type, not in the way they were used to. You preferred to stay in your nest, tucked away in a small pocket of the moors, far from the reaches of any human kingdom. Your people rarely made permanent structures, and yet you and Borra made this one yourselves – he rent the earth for its formation, and you cloaked it with camouflage to keep it hidden from prying eyes. On the cliff face, your nests had never required doors, but on the openness of the moors, you and your mate sheltered yours well.

But a celebration was necessary. He was the voice of his people, and yours was to be the first child born outside the great nest in generations. There were lives to be honored, particularly the both of yours.

So you let them.

The Folk of the Air, the colorful little dragonfly-types with bodies hardly bigger than drops of summer rain, wove crowns from your violets and his magnolia blossoms for the other to wear. They even fit them neatly over your horns, apparently well used to that measure of adjustment.

The Folk of the Earth, from the little toadstool people to the anthropomorphic porcupines, brought you woven mats of colorful straw stuffed with down, and the softest spider-silk in which to cloak them. The men of the trees even gave you a cradle made of curled and living branches.

You and your mate exchanged bemused glances from time to time. Neither of you had the heart to tell them that you didn’t plan to put them down until they were ready to walk.

It was as though the residents of the moors were aware there was little need to offer you anything that was not purely a gesture of welcome, though they had many things in common with humans that you found odd (the duo-and-pot of Aurora’s other godmothers gave the both of you wooden cutlery and plates, which you were both gracious enough not to comment on). There was little that they hadn’t thought of – offers to be your sentry, to be your fledgling’s playmate, to assure you that your fledgling would never find trouble (though you knew no fledgling of yours would be so lucky).

The procession was allowed to end with Maleficent.

As she was the queen of the land you now called home, you both stood to give her the respect she deserved. Diaval inclined his head to you, and you to him in return; you may have been a warrior in equal to your mate, but you were no one’s leader, just as Maleficent’s raven was hers and hers alone.

“My sincere congratulations to you both.”

“Thank you,” you murmured, inclining your head.

“I admit, I’ve considered my gift for some time. You are both fierce warriors, strong and capable in your own rights. You’ve led successful campaigns,” she gestured to Borra, “and protected my people.” To you. “In many ways…a blessing would be more of an insult than a gift.”

Her people were afraid, but you were not. Maleficent was as cunning as she was powerful; she understood the power of her words and what they meant to others of her own kind.

She leaned between you and your mate, and whispered so only you could hear.

You spent much of your pregnancy in Borra’s arms.

Whenever you protested that you shouldn’t be stealing him away, he’d lean in and murmur to you, “If they need me, they will come.”

Your belly grew steadily, and your fledgling was quick to respond to the warmth of their father’s touch.

They came when they were least expected, in the dead of night during a storm. You sent the will o’ the wisps for Udo of the Tundra, who was to be your midwife, and then your husband sent for Maleficent.

Pain was natural. It was to be expected. But you clung to Borra, your wings broad across his arms, and you keened as though your ancestors ensured you would birth an egg unopened.

Maleficent reached you first.

Your breath came in heaves, pain in your chest for the first time in what felt like ages – damage from the iron powder to your lungs, you were certain.

For what you’d done for her, she owed no debt.

But, like the sister you no longer had, she held your hand while you struggled – while your mate kneaded your back with his knuckles to keep your breath even.

Your fledgling came when the storm was at its height.

You fought to breathe while your child cried, the darkness and the thunder offering little comfort to a creature newly born. Diaval bundled him in blankets and passed him into the crook of Borra’s arm. “A son.”

You were exhausted, your hair damp with sweat as you lay against his shoulder. You thumbed the bumps where his horns were soon to emerge, trailed your fingertips along his cheek.

“Breathe.” Borra moved closer to you, elevating your body against his chest.

You looked to Maleficent, and her grasp on you tightened. You did not know the extent of her power, nor did you think you ever would, but, eventually, Udo was able to reach you. Your breathing softened gradually, and you rested well before you were ready.

“Your rest is what saved you.” Udo returned several times over the course of the next several days, to ensure you and your fledgling remained safe. Part of you wondered if Borra insisted; he hadn’t traveled more than a few feet away from you since.

“It was Maleficent,” you replied. “I don’t know how, but she protected us.”

Udo glanced to Borra, as though you did not know the stories of the power she was said to hold. Your mate, to his credit, had eyes only for you.

“You should continue resting. Give yourself another few days before you try any undertaking.”

You nodded, though you felt fine.

“And if it happens again?” Borra asked without looking away. You hated that he’d felt powerless in the face of the one obstacle he had not thought to name.

“Send for me,” Udo replied, patient as ever.

“I will be fine,” you insisted, gently bunting horns with your mate. “I swear it.”

He flexed his jaw, but moved closer. You had not fully touched your bed in days, wrapped in the down of his wings. You weren’t entirely opposed, but sometimes it distressed you.

“If you keep worrying so intensely, it will do nothing but cause me to worry for you.” You brushed your fingers along his clenched jaw until he released it, and the tension in his shoulders with a long, slow breath.

“I will be fine, Borra,” you whispered. “I will never leave you. Above all else, don’t you remember?”

“Above all else,” he repeated.

Though you thought you ought to amend that for your fledgling, it wasn’t as though he neglected to hold you both as close to him as your bodies would allow.

“It was Maleficent,” you whispered, firmly. “Please, believe me.”

“Do you remember when I told her it was time she took care of one of her own?” He held your eyes without an ounce of doubt. “She honored that.”

“Now we’re even,” you whispered.

He nodded.

Your hand rested over one of your fledgling’s, and his closed over yours. He gave your horns another gentle bunt, and let out a sigh that you finally believed to be relief.

#Borra #Borra x Reader #Borra Maleficent #Maleficent Borra #faerie boyfriend #cw pregnancy (comma) birth (comma) some post-genocide trauma #Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

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myaekingheart · 4 years

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You've been visited by the random OC question fairy! :D ~☆

Happy International Women's Day! What is your OC's relationship with being a woman? How has being female affected their upbringing and/or their past? How does being female affect their actions, thoughts, and relationships with others, if at all?

Hi OC Questions Fairy!

I’m gonna answer this for all of my female OCs so they each get a little attention so this might take a minute hahaha With Rei, it was never so much of an issue of being a woman than it was an issue of what was expected of her as a woman. Her parents had a very specific vision in mind for the type of life they wanted for her that involved the usual “get married, have babies, be a housewife” route. And while Rei has always yearned to be a wife and a mother, she also has always yearned to be a ninja. The opposition of her family about her becoming a ninja, however, led her to believe that she could not do both and for a long time she suppressed her desire for domesticity in order to focus entirely on her career. Which is also telling of Rei’s mother, Hana. She had sort of an opposite experience in that her family wanted her to become a ninja and take advantage of the Yamanaka’s kekkei genkai, the mind transfer technique, but Hana was not fit for becoming a ninja. Every time she tried to use the family jutsu, she would get splitting migraines. She never even wanted to become a ninja in the first place, however, and feels right at home fulfilling her expected gender roles. Kakashi’s mother, Aijo, never really played by the rules when it came to femininity. She was always kind of feral and wild, she didn’t have any reservations about getting down and dirty in her work. Rei’s grandmother, Teiko, had very much the same path as Rei. Her family had no interest in shinobi whatsoever, but Teiko had a gift and she was drawn to ninja work. She also kind of defied what was expected of her for a really long time and tried to balance both a ninja career and being a mother but she ultimately had to make a sacrifice and choose her family over everything else. Teiko’s old teammates, Komori and Edna, have interesting relationships with their womanhood. Komori is kind of eccentric and materialistic in a way. She has a twin brother, Rojin, and together they run the local antiques shop. She never really felt like she was not on equal footing compared to her brother, but she also worked very hard to become a solid ninja. She was ready to give it up in a heartbeat in order to be the best mother she could to her children, though. Edna is the type who loves being a woman and engaging in things that are deemed “womanly.” Though she, too, was a fearsome ninja, she is also an expert in fashion and even runs the local high-end kimono shop. She’s the type who just absolutely revels in everything that she’s allowed to do and expected to do as a woman and she does those things with utmost confidence. Komori’s granddaughter, Suisen, struggles with not just womanhood but existing in a body in general. She deals with an eating disorder and therefore has struggled a lot with body image, peer pressure, and a sense of control, all of which are not exclusively feminine issues but are definitely influenced by those issues. Edna has two granddaughters, Sefure and Arai, who could not be more different. Sefure is far more feminine than her younger sister, but at a price. She has adopted that maternal instinct of wanting to provide for her sister, while Arai has the instinct to protect. In turn, Sefure has learned to use her womanhood and sex appeal for a source of income in order to support her sister, who instead turns to shinobi work and yearns to prove herself as strong and capable so that she can create a better life for the two of them. Rei’s teammate and best friend, Sekkachi, has a similar issue to Rei in that she has certain expectations pinned on her by her family. Sekkachi wants nothing to do with them, though. She refuses to become the doting wife and mother--it’s just not in her blood. She is, instead, the strong, independent woman type but with a fault. She wants to have companionship but she struggles with accepting others into her life and allowing herself to be vulnerable. She’s built up an impenetrable wall and keeps up this facade of being unaffected and aloof. And while we’re on the subject of her and womanhood, it’s also important to note how significant woman are to her as a lesbian, so despite her bluntness and her independence, she of course tries her best to support women (even if sometimes her support seems like the opposite, in terms of her and Rei’s relationship where they butt heads constantly and she tends to criticize Rei’s life choices once and a while. All in all, she’s not perfect.) Rei’s other teammate and childhood best friend, Naru, definitely also revelled in her femininity much like Edna and Sefure do. Naru has charm, she’s popular, and she always knows everyone’s business because she feels like she has a responsibility to be a nexus of information. She’s bubbly and bright but also knows how to use her feminine charm to her own benefit, i.e. manipulation and genjutsu. Rei, Sekkachi, and Naru’s sensei is Chikara, a former dancer turned shinobi. Chikara has a very vast knowledge of what it means to be a woman in this profession but rather than fight against that inequality, she teaches her students how to use that to their advantage. She taught her students choreographed dance routines and as a team, they created an entire ensemble alter ego of rave dancers to perform at a local club where many enemy ninja are often attracted so that in this way, the girls essentially weaponize their femininity in order to lure criminals to their deaths. And on the subject of weaponizing femininity, none do this better than Tenshi. While she also exemplifies some of the negative social aspects of being a woman such as sexualization and competition, she uses her sex appeal to lure men so that she can get what she wants. And often times what she wants are eyeballs. Specifically Sharingan. Because she works for Danzo. This is why she is currently in jail. Mikazuki doesn’t really feel very tied to her identity as a woman, I don’t think? She’s very spiritual and while she’s also very feminine in the way she presents herself, as well as demure and shy, I don’t think she really focuses much on the fact that she’s a woman. I know in terms of sexuality, none of it matters to her one bit. She’s more concerned with what type of person you are than what gender you are, though she definitely is aware of the inherent inequality of being a woman. After all, she’s in this shinobi business, too, which doesn’t really let you forget about that. In terms of Sekkachi’s family, her grandmother Kohai’s entire backstory hinges on her womanhood. She migrated to the Konoha because she dared to practice a sense of agency over her female existence in terminating an unwanted pregnancy, which her family disowned her for. She knew that she made the right decision for herself, however, and went on to carry that with a sense of self-acceptance--as well as a reclamation of the term fumeiyo, which means dishonor, and was the surname she chose for herself when she branched out on her own. Sekkachi’s cousin, Tenjikubotan, is another woman who soaks up all the advantages of her womanhood. She behaves like a socialite and enjoys the company of attractive men, as well as making herself attractive for them. Tenjikubotan’s younger sister, Roru, is far less concerned with appearances. She just wants to follow in her cousin Sekkachi’s footsteps and become a badass ninja. She isn’t entirely concerned with what effect her womanhood might have on her, which perhaps is merely a positive sign that her much younger generation is making strides toward gender equality in the shinobi world. While these two are more minor characters, I really want to include Amai and Hiretsuna, as well. Amai is very much invested in her womanhood and she enjoys engaging in the cute and the feminine. She is a waitress at the local dango shop and loves pink and sweet things and cute animals. She just wants to exist as something bright and positive and to make people smile. Hiretsuna is far more subtle in her femininity, but is feminine nonetheless. She works reception at the hospital and definitely engages in the local gossip and fantasizing about attractive men, even if it’s far more fairytale-esque and fluffy than sexual. Sosei and Seiiku are middle-aged twins who work in the hospital and represent the significance of mental and physical/reproductive health for everyone but especially women. Sosei works in the mental health ward as a leader for group therapy and inpatient treatment, a role that she takes very seriously. She is passionate about mental health and the inherent sense of healing that comes from community and communication. Her sister, Seiiku, is the head of the maternity ward and is very passionate about reproduction, pregnancy, childbirth. She has a very holistic, female empowerment approach with an emphasis on expecting mothers taking charge of their own birthing experience.

Seiiku’s star pupil is Tanjo, who had a really interesting struggle with accepting her womanhood. She was initially an enemy ninja sent to Konoha to gain intel but her mission was quickly sidetracked when she began experiencing severe abdominal pains and had to be rushed to the hospital where she discovered she was in labor and she didn’t even know she was pregnant.* This startling and life-changing incident at first left her reeling and with very little sense of direction but she decided to take charge of her own life after this and train to become a midwife herself as a way to regain control over a situation in which she had none. She is very much supportive but also a tough-love type of woman who went through a very traumatic experience but came out the other side better for it and having found a true passion in helping other women and empowering them the way that she wished she had felt when she gave birth. *This whole chapter originally began as a gag based on the fact that Kakashi Hatake’s English voice actor, Dave Wittenberg, also narrated I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant. The characters and plot points from this chapter, however, expanded to something far more developed so now here we are. I have more characters that I could speak on on this because about ninety percent of my OCs are women but this is already getting really long and I feel like there’s a pattern in the way I write female characters so many of them will probably sound the same in terms of the way they approach womanhood and the influence that being a woman has on them. I think this is a pretty well-rounded group to have answered this for, though. Thank you for asking!

#long post is long #i am so goddamn sorry #the scarecrow and the bell #naruto #naruto oc #answered asks #ramblings #random-oc-questions-fairy

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metellastella · 4 years

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Mao Mao Pride Week Prompts, Part 2

A continuation of the prompts put out by @maomaosmother Previous batch here: https://metellastella.tumblr.com/post/621726687992872960/hello-everyone-happy-pride-month-to-all-of-you

4. Who I am

Mao said, “You know how some people like B.C. marry the other sex and have children to ‘fit in’?”

“Yes.” Snugglemagne said. “It’s something that’s crossed my mind once or twice, to be honest.”

Mao started in surprise. “Really?”

“Yes, to continue the throne. Hard to imagine committing to someone you weren’t drawn to, but …” he shrugged. “Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad?”

Mao rubbed his chin. “I don’t think a lot of people would agree with you there. But. For my own part. A good number of Mao members choose celibacy, because of our offered teachings. Would that not simply be a form of celibacy, just on one side, not the other?”

The king thought about it. “Well, it does seem to make it more manageable, when put that way. I’ve been visited by groups of nuns traveling from their covenants, and they don’t seem to be worse off for it. But, obviously it’s easier for women than men.”

“There are friars, too,” Mao pointed out. “Wanderers. Tending to the poor. Stand-up characters. I felt lucky whenever I’d run into one. Camped out with a few of them in my time. Nice fireside chats.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Both of those genders we just talked about . . . and we in the clan tend to think of all of it, more of as an option. Not a core part of who I am.”

“Hm.”

“How about yourself?”

“I’m with your battle partner on this one, Mao.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.”

The cat chuckled. “It was kinda cute on nights when he’d pick up a partner and I wouldn’t, and he would get all anxious on my behalf, and, say, ask if they should go to a different floor and not the next room so I wouldn’t feel more ‘lonely.’ He just doesn’t get it’s not that big a deal. He never has.” he shrugged. “And, heh, I have more than enough training to block out distracting sounds from my mind, and I sleep really deeply. But, I appreciate his being concerned over me anyway.”

“I guess I might think of it a little less as a central tenet than he does. After all, I haven’t been actively courting anyone since you both got here, or a little before that, either.”

“So, nothing to do with me?” Mao quirked an eyebrow.

“Heh, unfortunately not. I’ve experienced ‘love at first sight’ before, but for your particular case, it crept up slower. Sometimes that’s just how it is.”

Mao opened a gloved hand. “Right! That’s kinda like the point I was going to make about marrying someone the spouse wasn’t drawn to. Think of the reverse! At least among us siblings, no matter whom we’re drawn to, or how strongly, we tend to seek the same sex a lot, anyway, because it’s just much less hassle and worry, you know? Somewhat because we have warrior duties that take precedent over having children and domestic life, somewhat because we’re wielders, when mixed-magic-and-non-magic opposite-sex pairings can be complicated. We do have, not only the magical blockers to consider, but we’d like to have more wielder children if we’re going to pair up and take that risk in the first place. My sisters would be … I guess a word for it might be … embarrassed? Or frustrated …? To go through an entire pregnancy and not ‘gift’ the world with a wielder. A new dragonslayer! It’s not just outside pressure, either! The bond between a wielder child and parent is just … unfortunately more satisfying than not.”

Mao paused, examining the non-magical animal’s face.

The lion carefully guarded his expression at that. It really didn’t sound like prejudice. He seemed apologetic enough. But it felt that way.

Of course, he could never understand it fully.

If Mao was looked down on for being the weakest … what gauntlet must a non-magical child born into the clan go through??

Maybe it was sheer, pure benevolence on the womens’ part to do what they could to prevent that.

But that in itself was kind of hard to think about.

Mao didn’t get any hint as to his thoughts.

Another animal might have given into an angry or irritated expression, but the king’s diplomatic and political training paid off.

Not finding anything amiss, Mao resumed. “Sometimes, we just want to let off steam. We seek the same sex. Sometimes, in the past, despite being drawn to both sexes, I’m not really all that attracted, but I want the option anyway. The ‘option’ concept goes both ways.”

“I . . . guess I understand that, though I still have a hard time picturing being intimate with someone I wasn’t drawn to first. Despite my idle musings on the possibility.”

5. Obstacles

“What?” Mao’s sister asked. “Just because I’m up for fun, you think I’m any less controlled than you, little brother? Conscious decisions are just as fun. Get over yourself.”

His ears went all the way down. “I … I’m so sorry,” his green eyes got bigger than ever. “So sorry! I always thought you were so impulsive … How could I think so badly of my own kin…”

“Aww, it’s all right, Mao,” she backpedaled. “Oh my gosh, stop taking everything so seriously.”

But he looked genuinely grieved. “I don’t have any room to talk,” he looked at his own gloved hands. “Was it my Ego defense mechanisms kicking in? A blind spot? Or … I mean … the others don’t approve of your actions either. Was I just emulating them? They don’t care as much about my actions. Is it because I’m a man, and you’re a woman? Is it prejudice?”

“Really Mao, stop stressing over it. The elders have their penalties in place for both men and women! The social aspect of it … it is what it is. All people have got their personalized hurdles in life. Like the athletes! Tiring, sure. But. Everybody’s just gotta buck up and jump over them.”

“You think maybe that’s a reference to real bucks?” the badger wondered. “Man, imagine catching an antler to the chest.” His voice faded, losing its joy. Did the lion spot him trembling? “Think of facing an even more massive caribou or wildebeast! All antlers, all business. All genders. I mean even a bare-headed female moose with her mountain of muscles is nothing to sneeze at. I do feel sorry for any one of them who might consider themselves male, though. Antlers are hard to fake. All those dudes and dudettes are WAY scarier than predators. Preds like to make out like they’re hot stuff! Psh!” the animal shook his head. “Many bovine species outweigh them several times over … ”

“Didn’t stop me,” the black cat said confidently.

“Yeah, yeah,” the badger waved his paws dismissively at the magically strengthened animal.

“I guess in that case the phrase ‘buck up’ might be slightly sexist,” she hummed thoughtfully. “Deer can definitely jump hurdles, though. Way higher than bears could. Like horse jumping! I wonder if their sports earn more money because the audiences like them better? It’s more graceful, they have more natural ability? Higher stakes, too. Their legs are very slender even though they’re strong … it’s very easy, with their massive weight, to totally shatter their bones if they land wrong. Even just racing, not jumping. The same isn’t true, for, say, greyhounds. Their welfare isn’t as endangered. Enough money flows that there are always magic salves on hand, but bone still takes pretty long to heal after the initial injury. But, because they’re so graceful and skilled, they’re drawn by the money rewards. Bears, who usually do it more for status and reputation, are trundling, bumbling, and clumsy by comparison. Even though they’re half-predators. How did they ever manage to make any kills in the old days? I guess a diet of mostly fish didn’t favor their developing grace and speed, as with canines and felines.”

The badger crossed his arms. “With the other type of ‘hurdles.’ I guess even though I admire you in a lot of ways, I don’t envy you outright being a woman. I can lie about attractions and pretend that I’m never drawn to men, if the situation demands it. There is no ‘closet’ for presenting as a woman. That’s tough, though you’re a wielder, so that offsets it a lot.”

“It’s not like being an average woman. Not nearly! Even if I didn’t have powers though. Being drawn to men is a whole lot harder than my stuff, too,” she disagreed.

Snugglemagne thought it was sweet how they seemed to be mildly arguing over whom to support more.

6. LGBT+ Safety

“There was the phenomenon of ‘male daughters,’ in the ancient world,” the lion said. “They were as perfectly ordinary legal designations as a birth certificate nowadays.”

“Oh?” Mai perked his ears, interested.

“Yes, I’ll give you some material on it. They lived like men did, and inherited wealth like they did. They were treated as men in pretty much every way. No having to conceal for safety concerns, like the mess in some places in the modern world. It was just obvious, and pedestrian, to that culture and those individuals. They weren’t harassed because they looked different, nor was a body seen as gender role ‘destiny.’ The approaches and conceptual framework to this issue have varied so much from place to place, and time to time.” “Can’t wait to read about it.”

The sister made a face. “Oh yeah, that’s Mao, always holed up with his scrolls. I’m more of a party girl.”

“Same,” the badger said.

“I told him …” Mao sighed. “I told him that you all seek the same sex often too. But it’s different for guys.”

“Why?” the lion asked.

“Remember what I said about the ‘lower’ position,” the badger reminded him flatly. “Actually, among most adventurer circles, at least, it’s totally OK for a pair of guys to get jiggy with each other, as long as neither does that. It’s called a warrior bond.”

“The warrior bond was something B.C. and I considered,” Mao said quietly. “Out on the road, you never knew whose nose you’d run into. Subbing is not something you can conceal. With animals who aren’t nose-blind, there is no ‘closet.’ We’ve been to places where birds could do things on the sly. But that’s a rarity. Everywhere else, there are predators, or heavyweights, or wielders who’ll take a piece out of your hide for it. Of course I’d have zero problems defending us if necessary. A random group of anti-heroes or bandits just nosing around for trouble in general didn’t have any chance against me, either. But. Just not worth the hassle. Not to mention I’d want to break the nose on whoever it was. All it would take is one good pop.” He made a lighting-swift motion-retraction with his fist.

The smiles on both the badger and the bigger cat faltered. They looked at each other in concern.

Mao either pretended not to notice, went on because he wasn’t about to soften his feelings on the matter, or was so absorbed in his own reflection that he really didn’t see them. “And I’d enjoy it too. I always did.” He glanced up at them, expression unreadable. “I won’t apologize for thinking it. In fact, I still do. Being a wielder, though, fanning those thoughts is not a good idea. I had to learn that through trial and error.”

“That’s not healthy for anyone,” the badger shook his head, “wielder or not. You’ve managed to avoid growing more of a … like … you said Blue mentioned … a ‘martyr complex’ over it? Right?”

Mao sighed in aggravation.

“Yeah. I was in the throes of that before. Anyway. For other normal or lesser powered people, the warrior bond provides safety.” Next: 7. Marriage 8. Self-Acceptance V Click below V https://metellastella.tumblr.com/post/622003595371544576/mao-mao-pride-week-prompts-part-3

First chapter of the fic here: https://metellastella.tumblr.com/post/617045879413719040/piercing-the-swordsman-chapter-1

#maomaosprideweek2020 #mao mao heroes of pure heart #mao mao snugglemagne #snugglemao #badgerclops #mao mao sisters #fanfiction #LGBT Pride Month #piercingtheswordsman

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aro-thoughts · 4 years

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The Traditional Life

There are many things that capitalism teaches us about love from a young age, directly or indirectly, that are just plain wrong. Many people have begun to realise just how wrong they all are, but not a lot have realised it to the full extent. The traditional life differs between cultures but many of the constants are that we are all taught to marry one person of the opposite gender, have children with them, and live with them happily for the rest of our life, while also fulfilling specific roles in the family depending on gender.

Gay and bi people as well as feminists have differed from this norm through their subversion of gender roles, but asexual and especially aromantic and polyamorous people completely break and recreate the system that gay, bi, straight, feminist and sexist people all conform to.

Terminology

Aspec: Being somewhere on the aromantic and/or asexual spectrums

Arospec: Being somewhere on the aromantic spectrum

Acespec: Being somewhere on the asexual spectrum

Aromantic: Experiencing no romantic attraction

Asexual: Experiencing no sexual attraction

Aroace: Being both aromantic and asexual

Allosexual: Experiencing the normal amount of sexual attraction

Romance/sex favourable: Being open to and enjoying romance/sex

Romance/sex neutral/indifferent: Being indifferent to or having mixed feelings about romance/sex

Romance/sex averse/repulsed: Being repulsed by romance/sex

Polyamoury: The healthy and consensual practise of having more than 1 relationship

Alloaces Vs Alloaros

The first part of the traditional life aspecs have begun to dismantle is the need for sex. We are generally taught to have sex with our 1 romantic partner of the opposite gender to express our love for them and to reproduce, however, it is now more accepted than it used to be to have a romantic relationship with someone without sex, as you can show your love in other ways, and you can adopt or foster children instead of creating them yourself. It is still quite unacceptable to have no children at all though, and these people are often greeted with pity and sympathy or even disgust and confusion.

This may be due to capitalism's emphasis on marriage only in order to handle both work and household chores when we must give a lot to get a little. A person who isn't interested in a romantic relationship, whether or not they are also interested in sexual, familial or platonic ones, will likely struggle to balance home and work lives because of the benefits necessities marriage brings that aren't available without it.

Attraction ≠ Action

When we ask allos exactly what romantic and sexual attraction feels like, they tend to describe it as butterflies in your stomach, feeling like everything is right in the world but also feeling stressed about the person's impression of you, wanting to do anything for the person, but not everyone's experience of these attractions is the same, as some people describe it as a sunny day or the smell of cookies baking in the oven...

What I personally believe is the best thing we've ever done is break attraction down to its core essentials, differentiating between attraction and action. This is where favour, indifference and repulsion come into play. Just because someone is aromantic or asexual, doesn't mean they can't still enjoy romance or sex. This is because attraction means a desire to do romantic/sexual/etc things with a specific person and doesn't equate to a desire to do romantic/sexual things in general.

It's like food. Sometimes we crave a particular food, but sometimes we eat just because we want to.

Types of Attraction

Another important idea aspecs have brought to light is the existence of attractions other than romantic and sexual. Allos don't usually differentiate between them because they often feel romantic, sexual and aesthetic all at the same time all towards the same person.

Platonic attraction has been known about for some time now but is still seen as lesser than romantic and sexual, obvious in phrases like 'more than friends' and 'stuck in the friend zone'. Romantic attraction is not more than platonic, it is simply other and should be treated as such. The friend zone isn't an inherently bad place to be in and is mostly a phrase used by men who believe their crushes owe them sex only for being nice to them.

Relationship Anarchy

Aromanticism and polyamoury, although seemingly opposite, have very similar ways of subverting relationships and a person can even be both aromantic and polyamorous at the same time. As I have mentioned previously, capitalism emphasises the importance of marriage as it is a good way of sustaining people while still keeping them trapped, but it may not have always been this way.

It is believed to be that, the reason why we experience menopause at a certain age is so that grandparents can raise the children while the parents go hunting for food. Also, the reason for why our menstrual cycles sync up with the people we spend the most time around is so that we might reproduce at the same time and help raise each other's children. This may suggest that we used to live in closely knit communities where we support each other rather than having 2 parents baring the responsibilities of parenthood, food and defence.

Ableism

The talk around society's need for marriage and children also sparks a conversation about ableism. People who are physically unable to not just reproduce but to work a certain way are left in the dust. The support network that community living gives you is absolutely necessary for disabled people but capitalism doesn't agree that all life is worth living as some lives don't contribute to the economy.

Conclusion

It is extremely difficult to dismantle the amatonormative story capitalism has told us, and for some it may be impossible to live authentically in this capitalist world, but we still have hope for the future, as the aspec community is constantly growing bigger and better than ever with every new person who discovers it. I hope I got my points across well, as I think it's very important to have more posts talking more in depth about amatonormativity.

#my post #neutralitea #lgbtq #aspec #no colour #disability #ableism mention tw #arophobia mention tw #alloarophobia mention tw #aromantic #asexual #amatonormativity

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islamicrays · 5 years

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I was sitting on a park bench the other day, chatting with a friend of mine whose kids were playing with my kids on the playground. She's a boy mom too, with two sons around the ages of my older two.

During one part of our conversation about raising kids with values from a young age, she said, "I want to teach my sons to be good, so they grow up to be husbands who are kind and helpful to their future wives inshaAllah--basically, not to be abusers."

I agreed with her, then added, "I also sometimes worry about the converse happening, that my sons grow up to marry women who aren't good wives, who aren't kind or helpful--basically, women who are abusers."

She paused. Gave me a startled look for a second, before recovering and then nodding.

"I had never thought of that before," she said.

Never thought of it.

She had thought of the possibility of her sons, the babies that she has birthed and whom she is currently raising, who are currently laughing and squealing and running on the playground with childish wonder and carefree joy--being abusers of women.

But she'd never once thought about the possibility of her sons ever facing abuse from women.

It's fascinating to me to see how much society influences our thinking, the very ideas that even enter our minds at all. We are influenced by what we see and hear about. Our ideas are often a product of the messaging we encounter, the media we consume.

And the social messaging around us regarding domestic abuse or intimate partner violence only goes one way. "Men are inherently violent and tend to abuse women!" This is part of the social script. We are bombarded with it. But the reverse, the notion that "women can also abuse men" is not part of the social script.

Unfortunately, abuse happens in relationships and within marriage. It's always tragic to witness or hear about.

Certainly, men abuse women sometimes. Men can use their bigger bodies and superior strength to physically abuse women, who are smaller and weaker than them physically. They can also use their position of leadership as head of the household and wali in order to suppress their wives. This is terrible.

But also, women abuse men sometimes. Women can use their greater capacity for communication and higher emotional intelligence to abuse men. They can also use their status as dependents of the husband in order to manipulate him and gain far more than their due, all the while claiming victimhood for themselves. This is terrible, too.

It might be easier for most people to imagine that a woman could be capable of verbal and of emotional abuse toward a man. But most of us have a hard time believing that a woman could ever be physically abusive towards a man.

I know this because I used to think this myself. I'd just never seen or heard of any cases of physical abuse of a man by a woman. My own husband is twice my size and at least a foot taller than me, so the idea of a woman being able to physically hurt a man had sounded preposterous to me. Nowhere near as plausible to me as the idea that a man could physically hurt a woman.

But unfortunately, women committing physical abuse against men is a very real phenomenon.

"Why don't we ever hear about it, then?" You might ask. "We definitely hear about men physically abusing women! Why don't we ever hear of the opposite, if it really exists??"

The answer to this has to do with two main factors in my opinion: the inherent differences between the two genders, and societal expectations of each gender.

Typically speaking, men don't like to show weakness or broadcast vulnerability to anyone, if they can help it. Their sense of masculinity or pride forbids it, just by nature. Men are notorious for disliking to ask for help, because they'd rather just fix it themselves. So a man who is getting physically abused by a woman will not readily volunteer such information to others, because it only makes him feel worse and more of a failure to admit it. To voice the truth would only hurt him worse, so he stays quiet. So...nobody hears about it.

The second piece of it is the societal view of men vis-a-vis women. Most human societies, regardless of country or culture, have certain expectations of men, among them being the assumption that a man cannot be physically harmed by a small, pretty, delicate woman. So a man who goes against this assumption, and pipes up about any physical abuse he has suffered at the hands of a woman, is typically met with disbelief or discomfort. He's just mocked as a weak man who can be beat up by a woman, taunted and ridiculed for being so fragile that someone weaker than him is hurting him. So it's easy to see how most men would never admit publicly that this has ever happened to them. Public ridicule is not something they'd like to add to the existing physical abuse.

Another level I have also read about--google this if you don't believe me!--is sexual abuse and rape of men. By women.

There is a population of male rape victims whose rapist is a female--yet, again, very little is heard about these victims. Most people just can't imagine sexual abuse going the other way, with a female rapist and a male rape victim, because we have been so busy with the reverse scenario. Most men simply won't ever tell anyone about their rape, but the few who do try to seek help find almost none. Male rape victims who speak up about their female rapist are almost always laughed out of the room. The assumption is that men love sex so much that it's simply not possible for a woman to sexually violate a man. If a man has any sexual interaction with a woman, he must have enjoyed it. Otherwise his sense of manliness is questionable. The attitude seems to be: "Dude, you got laid! And you're complaining?? Come on!"

So in order to save themselves from the inevitable social backlash, shame, and public humiliation, male abuse victims stay silent.

And so the general population stays blissfully ignorant of the reality.

In Islam, we are taught to be unswerving in pursuit of the truth, unbiased in our quest for justice (القسط). No gender is more prone to violence than the other, more likely to be abusive, more often unjust. No gender is completely blameless or perfect or always and forever the victim.

Yusuf, alaihi assalam, was abused by first one woman and then later a whole group of her friends, and we find the story documented in great detail in the Quran.

We need to wake up to the full reality and be even-handed and fair enough to see both sides, without being swayed by old stereotypes or feminist myths. We have to pursue true justice as Allah commands us in the Quran, instead of being skewed by biased cultural trends such as #believeallwomen. Don't allow mainstream cultural programming from western secular liberal-feminist propaganda to steer you in a specific direction and blind you to the full spectrum of reality.

Especially for Muslim parents: We have to protect our children, our sons and our daughters equally, from all kinds of harm or abuse or injustice. May Allah protect us and our children, ameen.

Via Umm Khalid

#hope #relationship #islam #mentalhealth #selfimprovement #prayer #dua #parenting

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frankensteined · 5 years

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DEPUTY ROXANNE BAILEY (made using this template, edited to add/remove some stuff like body temperature who needs that)

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: roxanne bailey (no middle name~) PRONUNCIATION: rox-ann bay-lee MEANING: roxanne means “dawn/dawn of day” or “bright, radiant one” (which i did not know until right now!) REASONING: she was named after her father’s baby sister, who passed away when she was four years old (her father had been eight at the time). NICKNAME(S): roxie, rox, deputy/dep, rook/rookie (by the entire hope county sheriff’s department), “kid” (by dutch), shorty (by unexpected bff sharky boshaw, though he, along with most of her allies, tend to stick with “roxie”), brosenkrantz (by hurk jr, after a very intense debate over which of them was brosenkrantz and which was guildenstern), Various Terms Of Endearment from adelaide (but she calls everyone by those names so it doesn’t really count) re: the seeds and how they address her: • jacob’s taken to condescendingly calling her “precious”. as in, he did not take her seriously at first, so her attempts at bravado when they first met were greeted with a patronizing “aw, that’s cute. that’s just...precious.” so now he calls her ‘precious’ instead of ‘deputy’ half the time and she hate hate hates it. • joseph has a way of saying her first name that somehow makes her feel like he’s the one that gave it to her, so she prefers him to use “deputy” as well. it makes her feel too exposed, otherwise. • it doesn’t matter what john calls her; it always sounds like he’s playing with the name like it’s a toy she can’t get back from him. • and faith asked during their first encounter if she could use ‘roxie’ for her “like we’re friends”, so even though that’s just her regular nickname, the way faith uses it always feels a little like a trap. or an invitation. roxie isn’t sure which is worse, especially since she isn’t entirely sure that it isn’t both.

PREFERRED NAME(S): “just...anything but what the seeds call me. or the way they call me. ..you know what i mean.” BIRTH DATE: april 10, 1987 AGE: 31 (circa fc5 time, set in 2018) ZODIAC: aries GENDER: female PRONOUNS: she/her ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: biromantic SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual NATIONALITY: american CURRENT LOCATION: hell hope county, montana LIVING CONDITIONS: UHHHHHH....currently not. awesome??? (”occasionally, i’ll find a house that hasn’t been riddled with bullet holes that i can rest in for a couple of hours? that’s fancy.”) often crashes either in fall’s end or nick rye’s house, but will catch a few hours of sleep at various locations that she’s helped liberate when she’s not in that area. nothing has become a sort of “home” for her yet, though. pretty much, as soon as she finds a place with a working shower she’ll plop down for a bit to recuperate and then moves on. likes to talk/joke about moving into the seed ranch now that it’s out of john’s hands, but also worries that if she does that he’ll harm hudson worse than he already has, out of revenge (so for now it’s just stops there to do laundry and shower and that’s probably pushing her luck enough). TITLE(S): junior dep-yoo-tee with the hope county sheriff’s department

BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE: america HOMETOWN: gunnison, colorado SOCIAL CLASS: lower-middle class EDUCATION LEVEL: high school graduate; was attending columbia unversity on a scholarship (studying psychology), but didn’t complete her program FATHER: jameson “jim” bailey -- owner of a local hardware store in gunnison MOTHER: elizabeth “liza” bailey (nee wright) -- high school art/music teacher SIBLING(S): none BIRTH ORDER: only child! CHILDREN: hahahaha no PET(S): she grew up with a bunch of cats and no dogs, though she desperately wanted one. currently, her parents have four cats back home: ginger, roy, caesar, and bunny. in hope county, she has boomer (which is why she got so attached to him so quickly). there’s also cheeseburger and peaches, but they’re....not really pets, exactly (even if she pets them all the time) OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: lloyd bailey (paternal uncle, lives in missoula, montana), richard bailey (paternal grandfather, lives in flathead county, montana), sarah wright (maternal grandmother, lives in gunnison, colorado) PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: michael lennon; ex-fiance. (he insisted on going by “len” which, now that she’s long out of that relationship, she jokes “should have been my first red flag that we weren’t going to last”. gets roasted pretty regularly by her friends in hope county over it after they find out: “your judgment’s been pretty good so far, but then again: you were gonna marry some dude who wanted people to call him len...so...”, etc) ARRESTS?: nope! PRISON TIME?: ...not unless you could the literal cage that jacob’s kept her in~ DETAILED BACKGROUND:

• her father, jim, was born and raised in flathead county; he was the middle child, with an older brother and a younger sister, but lost his sister to an accident when she was four years old. he and his older brother became inseparable, and on his twenty-first birthday they set off on a roadtrip around the country, just to see what else was out there

• her mother was born out of wedlock to a woman who “found god” after she discovered that she was pregnant and was subsequently abandoned by her lover; liza wright never knew who her father was, as her mother refused to tell her, but she was assured that she was considered a gift, rather than a punishment.

• jim and liza met when the brothers ventured through gunnison while on their trip; initially, it was lloyd who was interested in her, but jim’s soft-hearted demeanor was much more appealing in the face of his brother’s louder presence, and lloyd bowed out graciously. it quickly became a whirlwind romance, but liza called it off once he started talking about just staying in gunnison instead of completing his trip. jim told her he’d be back once he was done, but she didn’t believe him. she should have; he returned that fall, hoping she hadn’t moved on. she hadn’t. they resumed their romance, much to her mother’s displeasure, and were married the following spring (also to her mother’s displeasure)

• jim got work at the local hardware store, while liza began her career of teaching at the local high school. she’d planned on just teaching one subject, but due to a series of administrative mishaps she took on an additional role as the music teacher as well. within a year, though, she discovered that she was pregnant. they hadn’t planned on having kids so soon, but there was no helping it. jim ended up taking over the store, while liza worked until she couldn’t anymore. their daughter was born the next spring; they named her in honor of jim’s baby sister

• roxanne was a healthy, happy baby, but her parents were finally beginning to come down from their whirlwind relationship, and began to worry about money more and more. they did their very best, and they loved their daughter, but roxanne grew up thinking that it was normal that her father was only around for dinner time at 6 pm, and that he was in bed by 8 o’clock. she grew up thinking that it was normal for mothers to stay up late into the night with work, so she’d need to put herself to bed from the earliest age she could. she grew up entertaining herself, but needing to be quiet about it, lest she wake her father, or interrupt her mother’s grading or lesson planning.

• she grew up lonely. roxanne has very vivid memories of sitting on the school steps, watching parents picking up their children one by one, and having to wait until well after everyone else had gone home before one of hers remembered to get her. she remembers being embarrassed as her teachers had to sit and wait with her, and she remembers being in third grade and deciding to try to just walk home on her own; naturally, she got lost, and was found crying on a corner by the sheriff. after he drove her home, arrangements were made for her grandmother to begin picking her up and keeping her at her house until one of her parents were done work

• sarah wright might have disapproved in her daughter’s choice of career, her choice of husband, and her choice in her granddaughter’s name (she had been hoping that liza would have at least given roxanne her name as a middle name!), but she wasn’t a cruel person, and she tried her best to make her home accommodating for her increasingly moody granddaughter. roxie would later go on to recall how her grandmother would refrain from bludgeoning her with “too much church talk”, but she would make comments such as “i’ve been praying for you lately, because i know you aren’t doing it for yourself”, and other such things that would sour her on faith in general, but she shrugs it off by adding “at least i wasn’t alone all the time”. it was her grandmother who suggested she try some sort of physical activity to get her frustrations out, and she enrolled her in dance lessons, which roxanne would stick with for much of her adolescence.

• by middle school, roxanne’s moodiness had given way to real, proper anger. she was angry at her father for always being at work instead of spending time with her. she was angry with her mother for prioritizing other people’s children over her own. she was angry with her teachers for innocent infractions, such as not realizing that casually suggesting that her parents could help her with her homework felt like the equivalent to open mockery to her. eventually, the anger turned into acting out, which eventually landed her in a chair opposite a children’s counselor; here, she’d actually begin to voice these issues, which delivered a much needed wake up call to her parents. they began to seek out ways to better balance their lives, and roxanne began to realize that she rather enjoyed being able to see where her anger was stemming from, and see where it was going. it was her first brush with understanding psychology, and that redirected her focus towards the subject once she hit high school.

• speaking of which, things improved by the time she entered high school. it helped that she was now seeing her mother regularly in school, and she got a part time job as a waitress in the diner across the street from her father’s store so she could see him on his breaks, but beyond that she simply...had a place to put her energy now. more accurately: her goal was to get out of gunnison, and to study psychology. everything else seemed to fall into a strange, but welcome place in the background. her family began taking yearly trips to visit her uncle and grandparents in montana, where they would go hiking and camping, and her uncle would introduce her to bird watching. those trips became some of her fondest memories

• she worked her ass off in high school, academically-speaking, in order to have a shot at a scholarship. her mother’s position definitely helped her to at least get the audience she needed to apply for one, but roxie somehow, miraculously, managed to get one to her top school of choice mostly through her own merit. she left for columbia university, and while she was feeling wildly out of her depth there, she managed to attract a small bunch of (much more well-off) friends who saw her as a “project”. it wasn’t a flattering comparison, but by this point she had come to attach herself to anyone who actively appeared to choose her over others, and so she was inducted into their numbers and it shielded her from getting too in over her head, financially and emotionally

• one member of that social circle was michael lennon, a bio-med student, son of a senator, asked that everyone just refer to him as “len”, who, for reasons she still doesn’t understand, decided that he needed to pursue her. he was far from her type, and she turned him down initially to focus on her classes, but that only increased his interest. despite herself, roxanne was flattered by the attention, even if he was self-important. eventually, they began dating, whereupon he introduced her to things like galas (which she hated), yachts (which she hated), and how to fly his own, personal, two-seater plane (ridiculous...but she kind of enjoyed that). eventually, he asked her to marry him, and, again, for reasons she still doesn’t understand, she accepted his proposal. (...it was because it was the ultimate “i choose you” display. that’s the reason, even if she doesn’t want to acknowledge that)

• back home, her father’s struggles with money only increased, and her mother returned to throwing herself into her work at the school. it became the perfect storm needed for a man by the name of “cal jethrow” to waltz on in and offer jim help, only to turn around and con him out of everything. jim had thought that he was going to expand his business, and that could keep him afloat, but by the time that cal vanished (with his fakey-fake name), he was left with nothing. as soon as roxanne had all the details, she was already on a flight back home. her parents had told her not to return, but she ignored them. len had told her not to go, but she ignored him. her return home was bittersweet, but she was in a better position than any of them were to dig her heels in and try to help her parents back on their feet

• len told her that if she stayed, their engagement was off. with a detachment that really should have tipped her off to how little she actually loved him, roxie replied “then it’s off.” he then went on and told her to hold onto the ring “for when she came back around” (because he’s a jackass). she turned around and pawned it as soon as she got off the phone with him, so her father could keep the store running for the next month. with her life firmly turned on its head, she began looking for work that would help her help her parents, and found herself facing that same sheriff that had helped her all those years ago. she was trained up, and joined the ranks of the sheriff’s department as soon as possible.

• eventually, financial matters smoothed, somewhat, but issues between jim and liza only worsened. their relationship, which had never exactly been on anything other than shaky legs to begin with, had been strained to the point of fraying. they were forced to admit that they were struggling during another trip to montana, after jim’s mother’s passing, and roxie, attempting to keep her own anger in check, asked them what she could do to help beyond what she’d already done for them. they admitted that they were blaming themselves, and each other, for her returning home, so she suggested that she just stay in montana, with her uncle lloyd, for a while in order to give them space to figure their own shit out (direct quote). so, that’s what she did.

• her uncle was (self-appointedly) tasked with helping her find a job in montana, initially in missoula, where he lived, but he heard from an old friend, earl whitehorse, out in hope county, that he was looking for a new deputy. lloyd and his niece debated the position, with him filling her in on hope county’s history, and the cult that was operating within it, framing it as nothing she couldn’t handle, given her psychology background. “you think i can, what, deprogram people in a cult?” she asked. “christ, no! you just won’t get scared from it, is all i’m sayin’! anyways, those seeds are keeping to themselves, so i hear. you probably won’t even see them very often. it’ll be breaking up barfights and handling domestics, just like you’re used to!” she considered her uncle’s sales pitch. “alright,” she shrugged. “give your buddy a call. what’s the worst that can happen?”

• freshly relocated to hope county, roxie found herself immediately taking a liking to sheriff whitehorse, as well a fellow deputies joey hudson and staci pratt. they welcomed her with genuine warmth, taking it upon themselves to give her rides to work, as well as good-natured hazing (referring to her exclusively as “rook” when it wasn’t just ‘rookie’, and teasing her when she decided to wear the nickname as a badge of honor, since she already was a bit of a dork as far as bird knowledge went). by the time us marshal cameron burke appeared, tasking them all to accompany him in his arrest of joseph seed, pratt and hudson had delivered her one last prank: they’d had her uniform shirt ordered with the name “rook” on it instead of “bailey”. roxie found it hilarious, but nancy, the dispatcher, assured her that she’d already placed a new order for a proper uniform shirt for her. roxie dramatically thanked her for being the only person to have her back. (*sad trombone noises*)

• on the way over to the compound, while on the helicopter, roxie was checking her phone for the briefest of refreshers on the project at eden’s gate. her mother attempted to call her, but she dismissed it, intending to call back later than night, after the arrest was done and they’d all gone home.

• and. well. ....here we are. (note: at the time that i’m writing this, roxie’s sitting just shy of full resistance points in all three territories, but she’s yet to confront any of the heralds in their final encounters yet. so, that’s where i’ll be imagining her at for the most part, because it’s a fun dynamic to be playing around with, in terms of her relationships with all the other characters)

OCCUPATION & INCOME

PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME: does “deputy with the HCSD” even mean anything anymore? she isn’t exactly getting paid right now... SECONDARY SOURCE OF INCOME: ummm...selling pelts? TERTIARY SOURCE(S) OF INCOME: UMMM....looting peggies? APPROXIMATE AMOUNT PER YEAR: $Who, cares, about, money, right, now. ?? CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: “...y’know...i think my job could be better these days...” PAST JOB(S): waitress, deputy with the gunnison county sheriff department SPENDING HABITS: she’s actually always been pretty frugal, but given her current situation she’s more willing to part with funds for the sake of better supplies (or clothing). mostly, her response has been “why are you making me pay for this when i’m helping--no. you know what? fine. just give me the keys to the helicopter.” (Capitalism Never Sleeps, roxanne) MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: a necklace with a gold wishbone pendant; her mother gave it to her when she was leaving for university, “for luck”. it has since absolutely gone missing thanks to the nightmare that is her current life in hope county, but she doesn’t know when she lost it. could have been when john had her in his bunker and he was prepping her for confession. could have been when she was being dragged into a cage at jacob’s behest. could have been while she was wandering around in some bliss-fueled hallucination. she doesn’t know, it does upset her, and, yes, she’s taking it as a sign that her luck’s running out.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

PHYSICAL STRENGTH: 7/10 (she’s stronger than she looks and has decent enough upper arm strength to pull herself up ledges and ropes without struggling, but she’s also not going to win any brawls unless she ends up with an unexpected advantage) OFFENSE: 6/10 (knows how to fight, But Would Prefer Not To) DEFENSE: 8/10 (knows how to defend herself And Prefers That Very Much Actually) SPEED: 8/10 (outruns a lot of chosen in their helicopters. pisses them off. pisses the seeds off. feels good. ♥) INTELLIGENCE: 7/10 (she was a good student and has a good enough head on her shoulders, but generally isn’t too above average outside of her preferred interests) ACCURACY: depends on her condition 8/10 (generally, pretty good! she hates it!) AGILITY: 8/10 (can successfully walk in a straight line and run without tripping, can dance well, but has also slipped off a dock and fallen into the water while trying to be sneaky, so...) STAMINA: 5/10 (running on fumes most of the time these days, but still does just enough to keep going!) TEAMWORK: 9/10 (she prefers to work with others! the only times that she tries to go it alone is either if she thinks a situation is going to be too dangerous for them, or if she’s experienced something especially upsetting. she can quickly get called out of that funk by someone simply reaching out to her, however, so all in all she’s a really good team player) TALENTS: ignoring the practical skills she is honing during this ordeal (ie: picking locks), she has a stupid amount of knowledge about birds and how to get by in the woods, thanks to her uncle. she’s also a fairly skilled dancer (she was absolutely That Person who went out to clubs to actually just dance when she was in university), but generally just prefers to dance like an idiot to relieve stress. she’s a little bit crafty, too, thanks to her mother’s background in the arts, but her talents are limited to making non-fancy jewelry (though she will friendship bracelet the hell out of someone if given the chance) SHORTCOMINGS: not so great with melee weapons/hand to hand sorts of situations and has been knocked on her ass too many times to count. she’s also not super wild on heights, so every time she needs to climb something high her heart’s firmly lodged in her throat. LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english is the only language she speaks fluently, alas DRIVE?: she’s a great driver! [footage not found] JUMP-STAR A CAR?: she can get it eventually, but definitely not on the first try. luckily, she travels with much more competent car-lifters :’) CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: if she has to but there are so many abandoned vehicles everywhere is it really worth it when you can just take a new one? RIDE A BICYCLE?: yes! SWIM?: yep, and she’s had to do a lot of it lately, unfortunately. she’s always in need of dry socks :( PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: her mom tried to get her into playing instruments when she was younger, and she can pluck away at guitars well enough, but she never stuck with anything long enough to get really good at it PLAY CHESS?: hahahahahahaha no. BRAID HAIR?: yeah, but she can’t remember the last time she’s braided anyone’s hair (including her own) TIE A TIE?: yep! PICK A LOCK?: heck yes that was the second or third perk i unlocked for her

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM: krysten ritter EYE COLOR: hazel HAIR COLOR: black HAIR TYPE/STYLE: shoulder length, straight. ties it back when it’s hot out. GLASSES/CONTACTS?: thankfully unneeded (though she will wear sunglasses if she finds a cool pair) DOMINANT HAND: right handed HEIGHT: 5′9″ WEIGHT: 130 lbs BUILD: slight EXERCISE HABITS: running and hiding and climbing and crouching and swimming and absolutely none of it is done for fun :) SKIN TONE: fair TATTOOS: none yet PEIRCINGS: she has her ears pierced once in each ear, but nothing more fun than that MARKS/SCARS: she’s absolutely covered in scars across her torso/arms/back/legs these days (or, if they aren’t scars already, they’re definitely going to be once they’ve healed up properly!). by far her most concerning scar is the one on her neck that came from a wolf attack, uncomfortably close to a spot that’d have been pretty fatal if she’d been less fortunate. she’s also got a burn scar on her upper left arm thanks to being too close to sharky being sharky (she doesn’t blame him, though. honest accident!) USUAL EXPRESSION: lately it’s been like this when it comes to seeing what an epic shitstorm she’s landed herself in, but prior to this she was much more relaxed and oftentimes open, if not downright playful, with others. that side still shines through when she’s with her friends in hope county, but it’s getting harder and harder to feel that way the worse and worse it gets. still, she’s trying to keep it together. CLOTHING STYLE: currently she’s stomping around in a tank top, jeans, combat boots, and a hat on, but even before coming here she was always a pretty basic jeans/t-shirt type of person. doesn’t get too attached to clothing these days, because it always gets damaged if not literally torn off her JEWELRY: the aforementioned necklace that’s gone missing, as well as some larger rings that she’s found in abandoned houses throughout the county that she keeps on to add extra insult to any punch she might need to deliver. ALLERGIES: n/a DIET: ironically, she eats fresher food now than she did before coming here. her current diet mostly consists of whatever gets hunted/fished up and whatever canned foods she finds in prepper stashes around the county, though now that the resistance has reclaimed a number of farms she’s been able to enjoy more variety. is gonna storm john’s bunker for a chocolate bar someday, though, seriously PHYSICAL AILMENTS: just...basically perpetually injured at this point. always at least a little Fucked Up

PSYCHOLOGY

JUNG TYPE: i took three different tests to see and in two of them she got the “hero/champion” archetype, so that’s what she is (as much as it pains her) MBTI: ENFP ENNEAGRAM TYPE: six “the skeptic” MORAL ALIGNMENT: neutral good TEMPERAMENT: choleric ELEMENT: fire PRIMARY INTELLIGENCE TYPE: interpersonal/intrapersonal MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: she was neglected for much of her early upbringing, and with that came issues involving anger and attachment. while she was in a much healthier place recently, some of those issues are resurfacing as she’s feeling more and more pressure from dealing with This Mess SOCIABILITY: prior to all of this, roxanne was slow to engage with others, but quick to befriend and trust them if they showed her an equal level of enthusiasm towards her. that’s essentially still the case, and she certainly excels when she’s in groups of people, but she’s becoming obviously more withdrawn and jumpy, finding it hard to accept praise or to feel like others are being honest with her when they thank her. but she still thrives off of that validation, so she keeps herself surrounded by other people as often as possible. EMOTIONAL STABILITY: L O L it’s all over the fucking place these days. she has a hard time controlling her anger, but on the flip side she’s also become even more fiercely affectionate and protective towards her friends. some days, she will swallow back every feeling she has, and the next she might end up crying over any little thing. her emotional state is kind of like sharky’s homemade, duct tape reinforced flamethrower: it’s holding together, but you’re always gonna be a little worried that it’s gonna blow up and take out everyone around it under the wrong circumstances. OBSESSION(S): for the sake of keeping sane, she’s 100% thrown herself into collecting the comics and bobbleheads and whatnot that she comes across. sometimes, roxie and her team will search a house that contains nothing but a baseball card for her collection and still consider it a success COMPULSION(S): she’s compelled to...break every tv set she comes across that’s broadcasting something she doesn’t want to see on it :) PHOBIA(S): shockingly, she’s developed an extreme fear of drowning! wonder where that came from. ADDICTION(S): she’s addicted to validation and having people choose her (going all the way back to her childhood, where her parents often did not prioritize her over others, despite their best efforts). this really, really isn’t something that she acknowledges in herself, but it does explain her responses to the accolades the people of hope county throw at her: even though she absolutely doesn’t think she deserves it, it keeps her going. she tells herself it’s because she has to keep going for them, and that’s true(!), but there’s a part of her that is sated in having others validate her. unfortunately, that also subconsciously influences her responses to the focus the cult has on her as well. DRUG USE: recreationally in her youth, but hasn’t done any for some time. (unless you count helping aaron kirby/tweak out once by being his guinea pig) ALCOHOL USE: occasionally; more so when stressed, though she tries to keep a clear head as often as possible. still, if it’s there, she’s gonna drink it. PRONE TO VIOLENCE?: ........guilty.

MANNERISMS

SPEECH STYLE: she’s fairly blunt, but surprisingly playful even now. keeping a sense of glibness to her responses, hopefully, masks just how poorly she’s coping with all of this. it isn’t all a front, though: she does genuinely speak with levity when she’s with her friends, enjoying being able to banter and joke with them, because they bring out the best in her. she used to be much more mouthy towards her enemies, until she saw firsthand how her allies were faring in their clutches. now, she saves those kinds of comments for just the right level of tension. there’s no sense in antagonizing them verbally when they’re in a better position to hurt her friends than she is to save them.

ACCENT: american QUIRKS: • even before coming to hope county, she was someone you could count on to always have gum on her person, and that’s especially true now. she’ll use pieces of gum as a peace offering/extending of an olive branch to people who don’t quite trust her, figuring that even the grumpiest of people can be won over thanks to the promise of fresh breath these days. • she also tends to “ask permission” of her animal companions before doing something dumb or reckless. if cheeseburger didn’t say no, then it’s fine, right? NERVOUS TICKS: fidgeting and picking at her hangnails DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: • from the beginning, her main drive was to understand herself, which fortunately branched out to understanding others. that’s how she came to understand and make peace with her parents, it’s what made her able to harness her own negative emotions (...usually), and it’s what made her think that she’d fare okay in hope county in the first place. she’s still trying to understand these people, as much as she is trying to survive them. • she also, of course, wants a place to belong to. so much of what she grew up tolerating was in the name of being wanted and appreciated, and whenever she finds that it becomes dear to her, even if it isn’t necessarily a positive thing (ie: frickin’ len). thankfully, the friends she’s made here are quite happy to accept her into their numbers, so she doesn’t need to pull validation from elsewhere (even though...it’s out there, in some twisted form) • also, revenge? vengeance? not a positive goal, but!! it’s in there, simmering! FEARS: she fears so much lately it’s easier to list what she isn’t scared of, but obviously the biggest one is failing everyone that’s counting on her. it’s dying here. it’s her own mind, thanks to jacob. it’s joseph. but also, it’s turkeys, because those assholes are bloodthirsty. POSITIVE TRAITS: roxie is loyal to a fault, and absolutely fails any attempt she makes to turn her back on someone that she could help. she’s genuinely affectionate with her friends, and enjoys having inside jokes and opportunities to be silly with the people who like having her around, which, all in all, makes her a really good friend. she grew up without many of those, so she tries to be better than what she started with. NEGATIVE TRAITS: roxie’s prone to flashes of anger and tends to hold grudges because of it. it makes her somewhat vengeful (part of why she leaned toward law enforcement was because she liked to imagine taking down the guy who conned her dad), which can sometimes make her take risks she really shouldn’t. she has a stubborn streak that borders on foolishness at times, and that makes her unable to just walk away when it would be better for everyone involved. she also does not handle loneliness well at all.

also she’s been turned into a brainwashed attack dog whenever jacob plays his gd song SENSE OF HUMOR: her own brand of humor is pretty dry/sarcastic/it’s-a-defense-mechanism, but in the right company she’ll lean into being silly/absurd and goofing off a fair bit (traveling with sharky and hurk together really brings that side out the most often, though nick and adelaide can get that too. she at least tries to be more serious with grace and jess, but between the three of them she’s probably the most likely to goof off). roxie does find sharky and hurk’s nonsense genuinely hilarious about....85% of the time, and although adelaide’s style doesn’t match her own at all, it still cracks her up a lot of the time as well (in an incredulous way). DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: only when stressed :) which :) i mean... :) :) :)

FAVORITES

ACTIVITY: dancing ♥ ANIMAL: birds (except turkeys. she knew true betrayal when a wild turkey first attacked her) BEVERAGE: no one believes her when she says this, but it’s really just any herbal tea! COLOR: the kind of deep orange you associate with autumn FOOD: blueberries! she likes blueberry flavoured anything. (least favourite: peas) FLOWER: peonies (least favourite is.....bliss flowers. obviously. but also roses, because she associates them with cheap apologies) GEM: citrine HOLIDAY: halloween! (all about that fall aesthetic) MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: cars, though she’s getting less rammy with big fuckoff trucks in hope county :) (least favourite is probably the quad because she. tends to crash them.) MOVIE: the wizard of oz (least favourite: moulin rouge, entirely because of “el tango de roxanne”. or, more specifically, how it influenced people to say her name for like five years after the movie came out) SCENERY: as shitty as her situation is, montana really is beautiful, and she appreciates a lot of the natural sights around when she’s moving from place to place SCENT: fresh laundry is always a good one, but she’ll be the first person to admit that a really nice cologne or perfume will turn her head quickly. it’s a weakness. (least favourite is....uh. the smell of burning bodies, which wasn’t something she’d ever expect to have firsthand experience with, but here we are.) SPORTS TEAM: “uh....go cougars?” WEATHER: the kind you get right before a storm is rolling in, though she’s also fond of a good ol’ thunderstorm as well. (least favourite is snowy anything. she does not enjoy winter) VACATION DESTINATION: ironically, it used to be camping in montana. now it’d be...literally anywhere but here.

ATTITUDES

GREATEST DREAM: being able to see her parents again GREATEST FEAR: “i just don’t want to die here.” MOST AT EASE WHEN: she’s taken to setting some time aside for herself to play with boomer, or to lounge against cheeseburger when there’s some precious downtime. sometimes peaches will come lay across her lap then, too, and there’s something really reassuring about having these apex predators just relaxing with her, knowing that they’ll keep her safe. also, the jukebox at the spread eagle often gets hijacked after really stressful days, and being able to dance for a bit without worrying about an airstrike or something interrupting does wonders for putting her at ease. sometimes, her friends will put the music on for her and force her to dance with them when she’s in an especially bad funk, and it’s hard to really stay up in her own head when she sees them go to that much trouble for her sake ♥ worth noting: most of this dancing is not, strictly speaking, good, but it is ridiculous and fun. (and that’s valid!) LEAST AT EASE WHEN: joseph seed is making very intense eye contact with her (which is the only way he seems to make eye contact with anybody, in his defense) WORST POSSIBLE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN: she literally can’t think of anything at this point that could make things worse for her, save a literal, actual apocalypse hahaha :( BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: retaking the hope county jail and saving sheriff whitehorse. having him back has been the first real sense of normalcy to return to her life, and was the push she needed to press on towards trying to locate and rescue hudson and pratt. BIGGEST REGRET: ...failing thus far to save either hudson or pratt. in joey’s case, roxie can sort of forgive herself, because she wasn’t in the absolute best position to be able to rescue her, but having been so close to her that she could see the tear tracks on her cheeks while john was wheeling her out of the room still weighs on roxie even now. she can’t stop to think about what she left hudson to deal with in there without feeling sick. in staci’s case, the feelings of regret and guilt are even worse because they’d come so close to being able to escape jacob together, but it was never enough. pratt had saved her, and he was left behind to suffer for it. she’s taken to smashing every tv she comes across that’s looping that video of him being left to die. MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: probably this moment when she first met hurk. it was a Class Act. BIGGEST SECRET: the seeds get to her. they’re in her head, she can’t shake certain things that each of them have said to her, and it all really boils down to the fact that a part of her -not even a part that she wants to recognize or acknowledge - thrills at the attention they have fixed on her. that part of her that yearns to be a priority is grateful, in a twisted way, that she’s apparently worth more than just a bullet in the head to them. that’s the part of her that’s keeping her skirting between territories, rather than just finishing it with the heralds one by one. roxie doesn’t accept that that’s what’s happening to her, but if she’d just stop to really think about it...she’d see that it’s true. • despite the warnings, she can’t help but...wonder if maybe faith is actually sincere but has been manipulated. if maybe she could be reasoned with. she doubts it, but roxie has to admit that hearing faith’s accusatory “i thought you were different!” made her feel. well. bad. (roxie’s totally wrong about her, and she’s been warned against faith by loads of people, but. oops.) • she isn’t....not attracted to john. like. aesthetically. it’d be an absolutely terrible idea, she would hate herself if it happened, and she loudly rejected both sharky and adelaide’s observations on their dynamic, so she’s not even thinking about it, but. ...well, anyway. that’s one of those take-it-to-the-grave secrets so shh • out of all of them, despite what everyone else has done to her, the one that’s gotten to the her the most, the one that scares her the most, the one that’s seen through her the most, is joseph

TOP PRIORITIES: “stay alive, save my team, save my friends, save the rest of the county, if i can. stay alive some more, finish this, then sleep, for a long, long time.”

#deputy: roxanne #court vs far cry 5 #my characters #profile: roxie

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svtegg · 5 years

Text

dad!svt (hyung line)

seungcheol:

three kids...he wants more though.....whew

two boys n a girl

minjae, 12, a charmer like his dad, looks exactly like him

rowdy, loud and yells all the time

loves football and is naturally good at most sports

when he went to a cafe with his dad he ordered for his dad and when the barista gave him a confused look when he ordered a double shot dark roast ice americano he said

“i’m not young i’m just really short” making seungcheol who stood five steps behind his son bust out in laughter

chorong, 10, a tomboy who idolized her older brother and wants to do everything he does, she also plays football

her focus is worse than her brothers though so she always finds herself doing other stuff while pretending to play keeper

but don’t tell him that bc she doesn’t want him to know

she’s a very independent woman and gets very agitated when someone tries to help her with what she’s doing

taeoh, 6 BUT HE’LL HAVE YOU KNOW HES 6 AND A HALF actually

a total mamas boy and seungcheol will never admit how jealous that makes him

taeoh is a calm soul and tends to be a little shy

enjoys nature and animals n prefers playing with sticks and rocks over plastic toys

seungcheol is a stressed out parent....kinda like a stereotypical movie soccer mom

stressing over the shopping list at the grocery store n you just have to take a hold of his forearm to tell him that it doesn’t matter if you get taeoh red or yellow socks for his school talent show next week because taeoh is 6 and he doesn’t care

loves his kids more than anything in the world and is extremely supportive and encouraging

isn’t very strict but does have house rules, chores and routines and treats every one of his children with respect and love

almost never gets angry or worked up....only when the kids fight or hurt each other will he slightly raise his voice to assert his authority

but always ends his lectures with an i love you and a big hug

the “that’s my kid!!” type of dad

so so proud of his clumsy, messy and comical children

cheered for chorong when she did a handstand in the goal in the middle of a match

the rest are under the cut...

jeonghan:

“two” children

a two year old son

and another on the way

you don’t know the gender yet but!!! he’s very excited to meet his second child (it’s also a boy shhh it’s a secret)

his son is named haneul and he turned two on the 3rd of may

jeonghan calls him hannie though, passing on his own nickname to his son heheheh

he’s a smart kid

jeonghan taught him all the colors and is very proud of that

when jeonghans mom comes over jeonghan will always pester his son to get him to say all the colors

“what color is this, hannie?” he would ask, pointing to the emerald green mat on the floor with an exited voice

haneul would just give him the stank eye and go back to playing with his wooden moomin figurines

a total daddy’s boy he loves his dad so so much and jeonghan rubs it in your face constantly

hannie co sleeps in your bed,,,,and lemme tell you....that lil boy is wild as fuk,.,.,.hes basically doing acrobatics in his sleep...ends up splayed across both you and jeonghan, cheeks squished into your chest and feet resting on jeonghans stomach

jeonghan is a more hands on parent, always keeping an eye or a hand on his boy at all times

anxious when haneul goes to daycare for the first time

a little over protective almost breathing down the child’s neck when he’s playing with his blocks on the floor

you have to tell him to calm down and give your kid some space to explore a little

calms down a little when the other child arrives bc he finally realizes that he won’t have time to protect his children from every potential booboo

still spoils his kids rotten and leaves it to you to be the strict and stern parent

he doesn’t tolerate any backtalk or attitude however and will discipline whoever it was that gave attitude right away

always reads bedtime stories, even when the children are almost teenagers and whine at him to just get out of their room already

joshua:

two daughters

elisabeth, age 9, her korean name is eunchae

elisabeth’s nickname is ella and both you and joshua never call her by her full name unless it’s to be assertive

ella is an artistic soul and loves to draw and paint, shes a little diva and wants everything her own way

but she’s a sweet girl down deep, clinging to her parents at every chance she gets

emelia, age 5, her korean name is eunbi

emelia has a lot of pet names, she’s the little sweetheart and always sucks up to her parents (josh loves it)

emelia is a little more shy than ella, and follows her sisters footsteps carefully

both the girls look exactly like him, the cat like mouth and the kind eyes copied from his body and onto their faces

both the girls have almost golden toned black hair if that makes sense....

joshua is a gentle parent, letting his girls do their thing while watching from a few steps

he loves exploring with his girls and taking them to parks and zoos and botanical gardens to teach them different animals and insects and flowers

the girls really like superheroes and they will make their dad play avengers with them on the suspension bridge on the playground

he will always have to be hulk and his girls will be captain marvel and groot

is a loving and sensitive father who is very open and emotionally available to his girls

has set house rules, bed times and is very respectful when asserting authority

never raises his voice to his children but guides them with an impeccable patience

the girls have their own bedroom but they often end up in your bed during the night...emelia frequents your bedroom most though

has hearts in his eyes when he watches his kids do anything

that adoring soft smile that makes the edges of his eyes turn up covering his face

jun:

one son

4 year old chaohua......english name...joshua

(yes joshua cried when he found out)

chao may only be 4 but he’s already as handsome as his dad

he’s the most adorable child ever

the kindest soul to ever walk the earth

he loves cuddling and would be content for a good hour just curled up in the corner of the sofa with one of his parents or uncles

he’s already lost his one front tooth and is very proud of it

likes watching cartoons!! especially old pokémon episodes

jun’s so loves animals...all animals,,,and when he found out meat cane from animals he refused to eat it...so now i guess jun is a vegetarian bc of the puppy eyes chao gives him whenever it’s dinnertime

when walking anywhere with his son, jun has to stop every five minutes so that chao can pet a dog or talk to a bird that’s trotting along the sidewalk

the little boy squatting down with his hands around his knees to carefully speak to mr.dove....but mr.dove is clearly a city pigeon

also always nagging his dad for a cat

chao is very good at swimming and jun takes him to his swimming lesson every week without fail

jun is v supportive and sits on the benches along the wall to watch his son

isnt really scared for chao bc he knows his child is careful and smart

so let’s him do what he wants most of the time

jun convinced you to let chao co sleep with you and he still does that

you had to get a bigger bed but no one is complaining because chao is such a cuddle bug it’s a win for everyone

basically chao is just as kind and gentle and loving as his father

and chao being born made jun grow up a little...he’s still goofy happy junhui but he’s just 10 times more loving n doting....towards his child that is

wonwoo:

two sons

twins

taewoo and wonseok, both 5

both complete opposites but still a match made in heaven

wonseok is a carbon copy of wonwoo, even his personality

while taewoo is a carbon copy of just wonwoo’s face

wonseok is quiet, thoughtful, neat and incredibly smart while taewoo is rowdy, loud, messy and lot of fun

wonseok is braver than taewoo however and this way they balance each other out perfectly, one being the life of the party while the other evens out the energy levels a bit more

wonwoo loves his kids so much

his stoic and mysterious image being completely thrown away the second he hears one of them squeal out a loud DAD!!!! when he walks through the front door of your house

the twins are v often perched on either side of his hips, or clinging onto his back as best they can

they love their dad and thinks he’s the coolest person on the entire planet

wonwoo is a strict parent, expecting his sons to behave and treat each other with kindness.,,..,,.,,.,,...most of the time

they’re twins so ofc they get on each other’s nerves

wonwoo doesn’t mind a little fighting and crying from the boys....as long as they make up after

otherwise wonwoo would sit then down and have a discussion with the two of them

and bc of this the boys are extremely mature for their age,,,again.,,.,,...,,,most of the time

but they’re wonwoos greatest pride and he loves them so so much

wonwoo will often play board games with his sons,,,,sometimes he becomes a little too invested

taught wonseok how to play checkers and now he almost never gets peace from the little boy who’s constantly asking to play him again

taewoo just wants to play spider-man...which is basically wonwoo lifting the boy up and holding him up to the roof so he can pretend to walk on it...while screaming at the top of his lungs in happiness

he can’t handle bedtime though and so you and him always put them to bed together

soonyoung:

he’s been busy

he has a one year old boy....

and a 3 year old girl

and one on the way,,,,no one knows the gender yet shhhh (it’s another baby boy but i didn’t tell you that)

daehyun and hanbyul

he’s the biggest softest dad ever and cries at every first

cried when hanbyul said her first word...which was apple for some reason

cried at daehyuns f

cried at daehyuns first steps

cries when his child cries

keeps a list on the fridge of funny things his kids say

is super stoked and excited every time his kid learns a new thing, showing it off to every uncle one by one

is also completely on top and updated on what disney characters your daughter likes recently

knows exactly what stuffed animals his son likes and always knows what he needs when he starts fussing

he knows his kids so incredibly well its almost like he can read their minds

plays dress up with byul all the time, his favorite princess is elsa

you would often find him in the signature Dad™️ pose (the lying in the floor supporting yourself in your forearm) on hanbyuls bedroom floor with a tiny elsa costume on smiling like an idiot at your daughter who was explaining how to drink tea like a princess

a whole idiot for his kids, literally in love with them would do anything for them

spoils them rotten and makes sure theyre always happy, healthy and laughing

will never get tired of bouncing his son on his knee just to hear him laugh

his kids adore him just as much back

soonyoung almost has as much energy as his toddler daughter but will often go down as well at nap time

basically having kids with soonyoung is like raising and extra kid (him)

jihoon:

1 daughter

she’s just as badass as him

theyre best friends like actual best friends

she’s already turning into a little sassy savage princess

her name is youngsun (or just sun)

jihoon calls her sunnie or ms young

she’s currently 7 years old, and she has NO front teeth so she has an adorable lisp

she’s good friends with joshua’s girls

the little lady is very well behaved and always listens very well....jihoon likes to think this is bc he raised her to think for herself and respect and treat people like she wants to be treated herself

even though she’s jihoons daughter she is still a little cuddle bug and will savagely call her uncles out in their bull while resting her head on their chest

she’s very small, probably inheriting jihoon height lmao mingyu teases her adoringly by calling her teeny while she jokingly pouts up at her beanstalk uncle

jihoon treats his daughter like an equal, and bc of this they have a very special bond

jihoon and sun often discuss and exchange opinions on various subjects like adults and many people are impressed by how articulate and eloquent the young lady is

but she’s also a mischievous little lady and often pulls pranks on her parents or uncles,

hiding from them and scaring them when she thinks they aren’t looking and then running away with the loudest most adorable giggle leaving her toothless mouth

of course everyone just pretends they get scared but she doesn’t know that and thinks it’s the most hilarious thing

youngsun has a very strong bond with uncle mingyu and uncle seungkwan

the three of them often pairing up to scare jihoon while he’s working on something or spaced out in his own world

sometimes jihoon gives in and plays harry potter with his daughter, pretending to have dueling battles in the kitchen with chopsticks as wands

jihoon would be on the floor yelling out VINGARDIUM LEVIOSAAAAA

and you would be sat in the living room reading, laughing to yourself

you never in a million years pictured this would ever happen

basically jihoon is a very good dad and his daughter loves him,,,you could say she’s a daddy’s girl

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jabbers-written-world · 4 years

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Character Creation

Okay, first things first. Most people seem to think that to create a character, you need a setting first, and perhaps you even need to know the plot. The truth is, you technically don’t. Not for the very basic character skeletons. All you need for that, is this basic profile.

Name:

Age:

Height:

Weight:

Gender:

Sexuality:

Personality:

Appearance:

Motive:

Flaws:

Backstory:

Looks pretty simple, doesn’t it. And it is. This is the most basic character profile skeleton, and I myself often use this, even for the most minor of background characters. Why? Because everyone is the protagonist of their own story. Even those characters that only get one line of dialogue, or maybe they don’t even get that much. But they are still there. They are still a character, and the more you know about them, the more real and believable your story will be.

Now, let’s get into this a little further, shall we?

Names

This can be literally anything you want it to be. You want to call your protagonist Mugwump Doozeldorff? Go for it. But, here’s the catch. You have to think about why. Why did you name them that? Why would they go by that name? Think about the reasoning, and the plausibility. You can name them absolutely anything, but you can’t pass it off as a simple joke, really. Are they named after a legendary hero? Do their parents just hate them? Is it a common name in their culture? Is it a respectable name where they live, while a name like Steve is considered strange?

These questions help to develop not only your character, but the world around them as well. It even helps add to your character’s backstory a little, because it lets you start thinking about their parents and their family as well. In addition to this, something I tend to enjoy doing, is I like to look into the meanings behind names and where they came from. The meaning of a name can also give insight to a character, whether it’s their role in the story, or a personality trait.

So yes, you can name your character whatever you want to name them, but name them with a purpose. Think of it like a parent naming their newborn baby. Parents choose the names of their children for a reason, and often spend time debating names before the child is born. Do the same for your characters.

Age

This is another choice that should be made with particular intent. Don’t just pick a random number and be done with it. With age, comes experience. Not necessarily wisdom or intelligence, but experience. And experience can come across as wisdom the other a character is. For example, say you create a character who is a human in their mid-70′s. They have experienced a lot in their life. They have seen decades go by, and watched the world change. And they can teach younger characters about these experience, and share what they know of the past, to help those younger characters move toward the future.

On the opposite end, the younger a character is, the less they’ve experienced, and the less they’ve been affected by the way the world has changed, if it has at all in their lifetime. A ten-year-old kid is less experienced than a 25-year-old adult. But even that 25-year-old is less experienced than that person in their mid-70′s. As well, as people age, we develop different speech patterns.

Very young children often tend to talk a lot, and at a quicker pace, and they mispronounce words, or sometimes repeat phrases they don’t know the meaning of. Older children and preteens are still often eager to share what they know, and still may talk quite openly, and may even mispronounce a few things, but they know better now. Teenagers no longer mispronounce things, and they’ve developed a more unique speech pattern specific to themselves. This may carry some heavy pauses, or a tendency to say certain words more frequently.

Adults between 20-50 are more settled into a consistent way of speaking. They speak with intention, and some are more charismatic and well-spoken than others, but there is a deliberate intent to what they say, even if they might be wrong in saying it. And adults and elders between 50-100 even have their own ways of speaking. Still with deliberate purpose, but they think more on their words, and do their best not to offend. At least, until they’re around 80-100.

At that point, any filters are thrown out the window, and elders say what they want. Doesn’t matter if anyone else shares their opinion. They have one, and that’s that. Yes, you can get those sweet and gentle elders that are still so polite and kind, but even they lose their filter and speak just as openly as a young child, just now they have more experience to go with it.

So yes, be purposeful with the age you give your characters, because you’ll have to stay consistent with it. Now, I used humans as a base reference for this, but there are of course all manner of other beings that you can play with, and they all age differently. Especially if you’re working in the realms of fantasy, or the different planets of sci-fi. Elves tend to age much slower than humans, but there may be an alien race somewhere that ages faster. Vampires don’t age at all except in particular circumstances, and there may be aliens that are effectively the same.

In the case of aliens, it’s a good idea to look at various animal species on Earth first. How do they age? Do they have longer or shorter lifespans than humans? These are all things to consider when creating aliens for a sci-fi novel, or even if you intend to create your own fantasy species. All in all, age is important. So choose carefully.

Height and Weight

Something to consider when creating a character, because the bigger they are, the more trouble they may have with doorways, or the smaller they are, the harder it may be to reach things on high shelves. And in addition, weight changes proportionally to height as well. A taller person may be heavier, while someone smaller would be lighter.

Of course, every person is an individual, and sometimes tall people are skinny or short people are chubby, and vice versa. Still, it’s a good idea to research healthy body weights, and use it as a basis for fantasy races or aliens as well. And you should always consider if their weight comes from fat or muscle. Muscle is of course denser than fat, and by all accounts weighs more. So pay attention to that as well. Even if someone is for example, 6′2″ and skinny with some nice, lean muscle, they may still weigh around 200 pounds. Why? Because they’re tall, and they have muscle.

In addition, weight certainly plays a part in whether or not a character can reasonably walk across something that may break if they’re too heavy. Like thin ice, for example, or a rickety old rope bridge. Make it believable. And I am by means telling you that your characters all have to be at healthy weights. Just think about why. If they are underweight, why is that? Do they just have a very fast metabolism, or are they malnourished? If they’re overweight, why? Is it genetic, or did something else cause them to gain weight?

Again, make it believable.

Gender

We all know this is not synonymous with a person’s physical sex. This is in regards to a gender identity, not what genitals they happen to have. And again, this should be chosen carefully. Honestly, this is one thing that should be chosen even more carefully than anything else, besides perhaps sexuality. Because having a different gender identity than your assigned sex does come with burdens and stresses.

Also, if you intend to write a character with a gender identity that differs from your own, it is always a good idea to do your research, but even that won’t give you everything you need to write that identity properly. Talk to people with that gender identity. Get to know them and understand them, but don’t just talk to one person and call it a day. Like I’ve said, every person is an individual. And individuals all have their unique views and experiences. Talk to as many people as you can.

Otherwise, you can go right ahead and write what you know! Want more good representation of your gender identity? Absolutely go ahead and write it. Drawing from your own experiences is a great way to really develop a character as a real person. Be careful making them too much like yourself, though. It can be a tough market for those sorts of stories. You can absolutely go for it if you like, just be aware that you may learn things about yourself that you realize you hate more than you thought, or ever even knew you would. Believe me, I’ve already faced that in my own writing.

And of course, if your character’s gender identity does differ from their assigned sex, you are of course free to make a note of that when creating their ‘file’, so to speak. Because that is what this is. You are creating a file detailing information about your character, like a detective with a case file, or a psychiatrist with a patient file. All their little ticks are important to make note of.

Sexuality

Yep. This is another big one. Sexuality, as in who your character’s romantic and/or sexual interests may be, definitely plays a part in your character’s opinions and actions, and their personality. It changes how they view themselves, and how they view others around them as well.

Is your character a young boy figuring out how to handle being homosexual in an environment where it’s not accepted? Or is your character a heterosexual young girl in such an environment? Is your character attracted to both males and females equally? How does this correspond to their culture and environment? Or perhaps your character doesn’t experience any sexual attraction or really have much interest in the whole thing. Or maybe they’re that type of character that.. well, is perfectly happy getting down and dirty with anyone, anywhere, any time. Doesn’t matter the species, or the gender, or the sex.

And again, like with gender identities, do your research if you’re writing something different from yourself. Talk to people, get to know them and their experiences to write something from the perspective of a character like them. As writers, we are only capable of writing from what we know and have taken the time to learn about.

Personality

This is one of the most key details of any character, regardless of gender, sex, appearance, or species. This is what decides how they act, how they think, and even how they move. Confidence can make a character walk tall with their head held high, but if your character is the shy, quiet type, they’re more likely to keep their head low, and do their best not to draw attention.

Personality traits also define how easily angered your character is, or if they’re the non-violent type. It decides if they like things clean or messy, if they cry easily or not at all. This can also be affected by your character’s backstory, because.. well, aren’t we all changed a little bit by the things we lived through? That being said, this again should be done with intention. Yes, sometimes it can be fun to put our characters through hell more than once, I know I’m guilty of being a bit of a torture master sometimes, but too much trauma, and you end up with a character who can never recover.

So it’s a good idea to choose your character’s personality with intent, and be sure that you can keep to it. Even if you need to refer back to your character’s file, try to keep things consistent. Now, I’m not saying your characters can’t grow and change like real people do, but it should be believable, just like everything else.

Appearance

Here’s where you get to have a little fun, but again, think about what you’re doing, and how your character’s appearance and physical features may affect how they get around or how people react to them. Still, extra features like wings or tails can actually be helpful tools for getting some emotion across too. These are very expressive body parts.

You are free to decide your character’s hair color, eye color, their skin tone, how their body looks, how their hands are shaped, do they have weird feet, or maybe they have an odd birthmark somewhere. And of course, height and weight play into this too. Just know that you should know how to have your character’s looks also affect their surroundings. Are they attractive? Are they not the best in the looks department? If they have a different skin tone than is common in the area, how do others react to that? Every detail plays a part.

If you’re planning to give your character wings, think about them. Do some research on different types of wings. If your character has large feathery wings like a bird, what kind of bird are they most similar to? Or are they more like bat wings, or perhaps dragonfly wings? Just remember that if your character has wings, they should be noticeable even in the small details, not just something that’s there for the sake of convenience. Wings are very expressive.

Watch a few birds for a while, make note of how they move and use their wings. Feathers can stand on end when a bird is upset, or cold, or even too hot. Your character can spread out their wings to make themselves bigger if they’re trying to be intimidating. Or if they’re happy, maybe their wings give a little flap or buzz (if they’re bug wings) in excitement. As well, how large wings are can affect how your character fits through doorways, so be mindful of that as well.

Tails too are very expressive. Dog tails wag, cat tails twitch and quirk and display all kinds of emotions, even a cow or horse’s tail will move and flick back and forth depending on their mood. When a cow or bull gets upset, they can start lashing their tail. Horses too. Even a bird’s tail fans out or gets ruffled whether they’re happy or upset.

And there is also a lot of expression to be had if your character has ears different from those of a human. Do your elves’ ears move like a cat’s with their feelings? Or maybe a half-dragon has ears that occasionally twitch and wiggle like those of a cow. Everything makes a difference, and even if your character is typically the stoic type who doesn’t express much on their face, if they have other features like wings or a tail, or even different ears, those things aren’t as easily controlled if they want to hide their feelings.

Motive

Another fun little bit here. This is your character’s goal in life, and this can change over the course of the story, especially if they achieve their goal. Motives can be as simple as a child wanting to catch a very particular bug, or as grand as a rebellion leader wanting to protect his people. Again, though, these have to have purpose, and often they may tie into your character’s personality as well.

Still, as ever, we have to ask the question of why. Why do they have that goal? Why are they struggling so hard for this? Or, why aren’t they trying harder? As well, we of course have to think about (especially for larger goals, like rebellion for the sake of the people or a world saving quest) what the character is willing to sacrifice for their goal.

That kid who wants so badly to catch that bug. What is he sacrificing? Snack time, and to a kid that can be a pretty big deal. That rebellion leader protecting his people? He’s willing to sacrifice his own life to keep them safe. Even someone who wants to be with their true love, they may have to sacrifice family ties for that.

Motives create sacrifices, and sacrifices can certainly affect your character’s experiences. Also, you have to think about, is the sacrifice worth it in the end? Say your character was trying to save their best friend from a horrible fate, and to do it, they lost their eye because it had to be used as collateral to seal the monster. Was that worth it, if they still didn’t manage to save their friend in time? Is the little kid’s sacrifice of snack time worth it if now he’s really hungry and he still hasn’t caught the bug yet? Always think about if the motive is worth the sacrifice.

Flaws

These are the great equalizers. So your character seems like the knight in shining armor type, and they’re so perfect and everything they do is for a good reason and- wait. What do you mean they’re rude and biased about another species. Should that be considered racist? Well, maybe not completely, but negative biases like that can be a problem. So you see what I did there, right?

The perfect good boy, practically a shining example, suddenly brought back down from his pedestal to be just like the rest of us humble peasants. Flaws humanize people. They balance the good traits with some bad ones. And no, I’m not saying you should make all your characters racist. Not all flaws need to be grand and life-changing.

Like the kid with the bug. Yeah, we’re back to him again. Okay, so he’s a kid. Who’s sacrificing snack time to catch the stupid bug. Let’s say this kid is a pretty polite kid, he says please and thank you like he was taught, and he’s pretty easy to handle most of the time. Except.. uh-oh. This kid drew on his mommy’s newly painted living room wall yesterday! Even though she told him not to draw on the walls! Does this suddenly make this kid a horrible little demon spawn who no one would ever like? No. He’s just doing what kids do.

People develop flaws, often based on what they were exposed to growing up. So what about that character with those ugly, negative biases toward another species? That’s the rebellion leader again. He wants to protect his people, would sacrifice his life to keep them safe, and yet.. he thinks things like that? Oh, boy, people are gonna hate this one, right? Well, maybe, but what if I told you, he has his biases because it was members of that same species that killed his parents when he was only seven? What if I told you that members of that same species were cruel overlords that took over his home city?

Flaws have reasoning, and it’s usually because of life experiences and what people are exposed to, especially from a young age. Some of them though, may just be flaws because of the character’s age. Like that kid with the bug that sacrificed snake time and drew on the wall. That’s a kid being a kid. He’ll grow out of that one.

Sometimes, flaws can be used as a jumping point for a character to change and improve. The rebellion leader with ugly biases? He’s recently met some other members of that same species, and didn’t even know it before he became good friends with one of them. He got upset when he learned what they were, but that friendship he made, it changed him. He has his biases, but they’ve been softened by a good friendship. He’s learning not to be biased towards the whole species, because it’s not all of them that are the problem. Just a few giving the rest a bad reputation.

So you see why flaws can be a good thing, even if they are something as dramatic as some.. pretty nasty biases.

Backstory

This. Decides. Everything. How your character acts, what their experiences are, where they came from, what their culture is, why they may be hiding their sexuality or not hiding it. Everything. Like I said with that rebellion leader, his flaws are because of his backstory.

He was seven years old and watched his mother and younger sister killed right in front of him. Pretty traumatic for a kid to witness. Not only that, but they dragged his father into the center of the city and killed him as an example to the rest. Yikes. And as if it couldn’t get worse, one of them nearly tore off his leg, so now he needs a brace to even walk right.

Yes, this is one of my.. tortured characters. Him, and his best friend, who was enslaved by the same people who killed the rebellion leader’s parents and sister. Captured when he was three years old and raised in that nightmare. Yeesh. You’re probably thinking I need to pull back on the depressing backstories for a while, huh. Yeah, I probably do. And by no means do you have to follow my example.

Maybe your character had a great life. A great childhood with loving parents, got to visit their cousins every summer at their grandma’s house, everything was great. But then maybe they had to move from their childhood home, and it felt like the end of their whole world. It wasn’t, because life goes on, but it sure felt like it. And they’ve moved several times since then for different reason, and maybe it’s making them worried that they’ll never have a permanent place to call home, so they don’t get attached to places.

See? Even a happy backstory with a couple small bumps can have big effects on the character’s outlook on life. Backstories don’t have to be wild and dramatic to be important, and your character certainly doesn’t have to be dragged through hell and back to be interesting. It all depends on how you work with it.

Species

Now’s where things get really interesting. Humans should never be ruled out as strong characters, especially if they live in a fantasy world, or even if they’re surrounded by big tough aliens. Humans are tough. We are resilient, and we compete for everything. Space, food, love, happiness. We toughen ourselves up and live on a planet that.. to be fair, is sort of trying to kill us. But we are survivors. The human race even in the real world has gone through a lot of pain, but we survived.

Still, if you don’t want your character to be human, that’s fine too. There are literally hundreds of species out there to choose from, and you can even create your own. Want an alien a furry lizard face, four arms and a tail with porcupine spikes? Okay, that’s cool. Want a fantasy creature that’s sort of like an elemental spirit but also like a genie? Sounds good to me.

But of course, like everything else, your character’s species comes with important questions to think about. You know where I’m going with this by now. Everyone, say it with me. WE MUST ASK WHY. Why is always going to be the most important question you ever ask as a writer. Why did you choose this species? Why is this species living where it is? If they’re the last of their kind, why? As well, you need to think about the limitations of the species, as well as what they may be able to do better than humans.

Can your character fly? That’s great! But that also means they probably have large wings that may be difficult to fit through a doorway. Do they have huge claws great for digging tunnels? Awesome, but now that may cause some trouble trying to pick up small objects. Does your character have more than two legs and run super fast? Super cool, but now they have more legs to worry about and coordinate when doing other things, like sitting or even climbing up stairs. Maybe your character is a super big and strong rock monster. Absolutely fantastic. But that sort of makes them less than comfortable to hug, and also they have trouble fitting through doors.

Every species has their strengths, and their limitations. So, like with everything, we have to be aware of the details, and think about the balance. As well, things should be fairly believable for your world to seem real enough. Well, unless realistic isn’t what you’re going for. If that’s the case, ignore me. Go nuts, my friends. But from a believability stand point, your species’ limitations should make sense. Like the big rock monster for example. He can’t fit through door too easy, but what else? You wanna make him horribly hurt by water? Eh.. That’s Pokemon logic and if you want to go with that, that’s fine. But there are other things that could work better. Metal won’t hurt him much, but acid does. He’s got a hard, impenetrable shell of stone? Oops, there’s a gap in the rocks making a weak spot.

What about a person with dragonfly wings, like a fae or something like that? Ooh, very nice. Good with magic, tend to be rather pretty, and- Oh. Oops. Their wings rip like wet paper. Ouch. Also, there is real mythology that elves and fae, and species like them, they are repelled by or even hurt by or can’t use their magic when in contact with iron. You wanna put your elf in an iron prison cell for the sake of storytelling? Great, but remember that they won’t be able to use any magic to escape, and that iron could even possibly burn them. Even if it isn’t hot.

So, keep in mind your species’ limitations, and have fun building your world now around these characters you’ve created. Creating them gave you a great starting point, so go on! Write something fantastic!

#;; a gem in the hoard (writing tips)#writing tips #writing #long post under the cut

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keepermcge · 5 years

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CHARACTER SHEET repost. do not reblog.

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

FULL NAME. Lann Farna NICKNAME. None/or Dummy which just makes me wanna cry, so I’ll think none. He deserves a cute nickname! GENDER. Male HEIGHT. 5′6 AGE. 15 (Mentally and physically) ZODIAC. Taurus SPOKEN LANGUAGES. After much debate with myself, Grymorian (English/Japanese)

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

HAIR COLOR. Strawberry Blond, leans more towards the blond side than red, especially in the light.

EYE COLOR. Deep blue more on the dark side, but not so dark to the point where you can’t tell they are blue, like hair appears lighter in the sun.

SKIN TONE. Fair creamy light skin, although it takes a sickly pale form often due to him overworking himself.

BODY TYPE. Thin, slim and lithe, although his cheeks unlike the rest hold some chubbiness of a childlike appearance. While thin, bones do not really stick out a lot minus around the collarbone, sternum and wrists and elbows.

ACCENT. When not in Grymoire his voice probably sound a tad bit different from most, although not enough to pinpoint an exact accent it holds a strangeness, like Grymoire itself, that can’t quite be placed.

VOICE. I imagine my Lann’s voice to be more like the Japanese voice, a little more on the high end due to his childlike nature, but a little more on the deep side when he’s angry or sad, although when crying it raises in an octave, also tending to be more in the high side when panicking. Regardless of pitch though, it tends to hold a general cheeriness and energy that sometimes is fabricated, although when helping and holding gratitude it can hold more of a soft tone, not like usual energy. When confused or worried, this energy tends to either drop or increase depending on the situation and like eyes that reflect how he feels his voice will give away how worried he is ect.

DOMINANT HAND. Left Hand.

POSTURE. Usually pretty lax, although he doesn’t slouch by any means, he doesn’t usually stand full straight, letting his shoulders stay dropped, unless in dire situations where in panic or fear he will straighten up completely, the opposite for if he is trying to hide. Lann will make himself smaller and will more so slouch when he is being yelled at. When at fault he won’t hide as much, but if he is not at all at fault he will genuinely full on sink as low as he can as a defense measure.

SCARS. A light mark on his left wrist from when Brandelis grabbed his arm, other small nicks here and there from fighting, although not a scar, left hands fingertips hold a more red hue due to casting a large amount of fire spells.

TATTOOS. None.

BIRTHMARKS. Dark Markings that run along his left arm.

MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S). The Markings on his left arm, his hair both in color and style, and his eyes.

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 !

PLACE OF BIRTH. Somewhere in Nine Wood Hills, possibly Lusse’s home. HOMETOWN. Nine Wood Hills. BIRTH WEIGHT. N/A BIRTH HEIGHT. N/A MANNER OF BIRTH.

FIRST WORDS. Sis. Because imagine Lusse and Rorrik teaching him a bunch of basic words at the same time; Mom, Dad, Yellow, Dog, but they add in that one as well considering they are twins, and then they both wait in anticipation for the usual, will it be Mom or will it be Dad first… only for Lann to crawl over to his sister and say Sis.

SIBLINGS. Reynn Farna (Blood Related Older Twin Sister), Wyn Farna (Non Blood Related Older Sister) PARENTS. Lusse Farna (Mother) Rorrik Farna (Father and imma assume he took the last name cuz)

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT. While generally pretty involved when he was really little, they both became rather busy more and more overtime, starting from as early as his toddler years, leading him to become more clingy to his sister, the only real family he had around, this as an end result despite their father’s attempts made Lann strive to help his Mother, so she would no longer be ill, resulting in a disaster that would only end up damaging his mental state. It’s not that they were bad people or parents, they loved their children, but due to a lack of them never being around, a general lack of friends and even his sister hanging out with Wyn more than him, Lann was left alone and lonely in solitude most his childhood. They didn’t have much involvement at all, although he retains his Mother’s kind and loving nature.

𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 !

OCCUPATION. Eventually something like a Barista like he once was in their fake Nine Wood Hills. CURRENT RESIDENCE. Unknown/Nine Wood Hills (Unknown if we go with Canon; Nine Wood Hills If we’re going with most threads things on my blog that assume he ends up back in Grymoire eventually AU style.)

CLOSE FRIENDS. (Too many to list, but here are some, plus some he’s not nec close friends with, but feels a deep connection to) Yuffie, Serafie, Princess Sarah, Reynn, Vincent, Runa, Wyn, Tama, Bartz, Tea Girl.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS. Single FINANCIAL STATUS. Low/Middle (Have you seen Chocolatte’s prices? Plus the little fact of Reynn not letting him hold onto any of their Gil.) DRIVER’S LICENSE. None. CRIMINAL RECORD. None. VICES. None really.

𝐬𝐞𝐱 & 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 !

SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Pansexual. ROMANTIC ORIENTATION. Panromantic/Demiromantic PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE. Submissive | Dominant | Switch. PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE. Submissive | Dominant | Switch.

LIBIDO. None really. Yes, he is a 15 year old boy, but he’s also innocent and was mostly left alone in childhood or bullied, later on his only company being family and friends, plus generally being picked on by his sister, and later other females makes him subconsciously have a preference to those of the same sex versus the opposite sex of females who picked on him most, plus the people of Grymoire are Lilikin’s also, leaving him no opportunity to ever really awaken such a thing.

TURN ON’S. I will think this as more emotional things in partners. He’s not picky, but someone showing genuine kindness is one.

TURN OFF’S. Although, he’s not mentally aware of this himself, deep down anyone who puts the blame on him for everything, generally degrades him all the time.

LOVE LANGUAGE. Words of Affirmation

RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES. He will put all of his partners needs before his own, would be incredibly loyal, and always caring and kind no matter how he is treated in turn.

𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 !

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG. X

HOBBIES TO PASS TIME. Napping, Baking, Playing Video Games, Drawing, Making little arts and crafts projects for others, reading Comic Books, Watching Movies, Helping others, Playing Board Games.

MENTAL ILLNESSES. PTSD (Flashbacks, Panic Attacks, Some memories still are blocked out, Nightmares and Insomnia at times) Anxiety.

PHYSICAL ILLNESSES. N/A

PHOBIAS. Athazagoraphobia (The fear of being forgotten, ignored, or abandoned.) Autophobia (Fear of being alone or of oneself) Arachnephobia (Fear of spiders) Atychiphobia (Fear of failure) Eremophobia (Fear of being oneself or of loneliness) Isolophobia (Fear of solitude, being alone) Poinephobia (Fear of punishment) Sexophobia (Fear of the opposite sex) Thalassophobia (Fear of the ocean) Potamophobia (Fear of rivers or running water)

SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL. He has little, the only confidence coming from abilities that aren’t even his alone that he inherited, and from a fake world when it comes to the hobby of making coffee. Although it will occasionally spark upward with a success in a hobby, be it beating a level in a game or baking something right, it won’t stay high for long. He feels little self worth, or respect for himself because of the amount of self loathing he feels towards himself.

VULNERABILITIES. He’s extremely emotional, gullible, and likes to see the good in everyone making him an easy target to take advantage of, he’s also kind and always wants to help, leaning to the same thing of making him an easy target.

#;a memory long forgotten | headcanon |#;lann | the muse |#(I hate to say this cuz it oof it really hurts and I don’t wanna but since I’ve never had any ships I’m basically game to say whatever cuz #I dunno I doubt I’ll ever have any with all the like list of things I have making it harder so! If I ever get lucky I guess this #wont have to be true but since I don’t have any! Spec that whenever he actually endsup in a relationship it’ll probs be abusive #becuz even if a bunch of things are red flags the moment they even show the tad bit kindness or say smth to butter him up he’s #gonna like accept cuz he’s so used to be treated badly for so long even with the nice peeps in his life you know more so the RP #peeps and less anyone in the game tho there are some that don’t treat him like trash all the time or at all he’s still used to it so it’s #not gonna seem off and since he has no confidence it hurts my soul to be spec this stuff cuz it hurts but)#(I want my kid to have a happy relationship but I mean it would make sense in my eyes so unless I ever get a miracle ship or smth #to my blog this is probs now like official in the future)#(Anyway I og only had anxiety as like a sometimes thing ie italics but I changed my mind on the last thing I did that had you bold some #things and this reflects it)#(I know a lot of Reynn’s here tend to think her hair as more red so I like to do the opposite with Lann #I don’t really see his hair as more on the red side #Plus I like the idea of them having little differences and his being more blond if hers ismore red is 👌 to me that’s also why me and Sis #well aside from just generally seeing her eyes as more purple cuz look at the anime scenes the reason I think they are more is to #give ‘em even more subtle little differences I say me and Sis it’s more me but she does agree her eyes are more purple tho #I’m not like pushy force headcanons on so I will always do whatever someone’s bio says cuz that’s what I want done for me #we respect people’s headcanons in this house!)#(Yo going thro this fear list and there’s a million ones that are close but dif so I gotta out ‘em)#(The punishment one made me cry tho cuz he always assumes he’s gonna be punshied yelled at in trouble fuk)#(So I bolded the main ones and itclaized the sorta one cuz it’s sorta complicated)#(Still I went a down a damm list and there wasn’t a single water one the honk!)#(So I hada look it up)#(Tbh this took forever and then I’m like who’s even gonna read any of this but I had fun thinking about my child so it was worth it)#(Also this took so long I didn’t do my usual 3/4 times editing I ran thro it once so ignore any and all mistakes lol rip)#(Anyway I talk about the whole no self confidence thing a lot so I shortened it cuz if it hasn’t been gotten across at this point he has #none! Thanks for coming to my ted talk)#;off to grymoire | queue |

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Annotated Bibliography

1) Cartoon Network. “Reunited with Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey (Vol.3/Ep.5).” The Steven Universe Podcast, Cartoon Network, 20 Sept. 2018.

The podcast discusses an episode of Steven Universe named “Reunited”. In the episode, there is a very important scene where two characters, Ruby and Sapphire, get married. Ruby and Sapphire both use female pronouns. The network had issues with this, and Rebecca discusses the fight she had while trying to get this episode made.

Rebecca talks about the argument she had with the network on whether or not LGBTQ+ content is suitable for children. The Network expressed that since the show would be airing in a G timeslot, this type of content wouldn’t be acceptable. Rebecca was repulsed by the idea that these two characters wouldn’t be acceptable for a G rating when throughout the history of G rated content, a majority of the stories revolved around characters falling in love and living “happily ever after”. That is the exact same thing being represented in her show, and she feels that it’s her character's right as a cartoon couple to be able to experience everything that heteronormative cartoon couples get to. An argument Rebecca makes in the podcast is that by labeling LGBTQ+ content as adult content, you are depriving children of learning about LGBTQ+ people and possibly stifling their own growth. By showing LGBTQ+ content to children it allows them to learn more about themselves and others without the subject feeling taboo. Rebecca also mentions that it's bittersweet getting the wedding approved and hearing the fans’ responses. She is happy that it went through and is proud of the fight she fought, but she feels like there is still so much more work to do. This wedding is a small piece of representation when compared to the last hundred years of heteronormative family-friendly content.

2) et al. “Suicide Etiology in Youth: Differences and Similarities by Sexual and Gender Minority Status.” Children & Youth Services Review, vol. 102, July 2019, pp. 79–90. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.03.039.

A study done through twitter concluded that LGBTQ+ people between 14-21 are twice as likely to be at risk of suicide than other people the same age. The survey covered age, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, school enrollment and grade, social connectedness, truancy due to feeling unsafe, school-based and cyberbullying victimization, sadness, suicide ideation and attempt, social media use, and preferences regarding survey mode and recontact. The study found that support at home and school greatly decreased these numbers, but there is still a gap for the places outside of home or school. Because of the stigma of LGBTQ+, it is harder for people of this community to reach out for help, and instead internalize their feelings. While many LGBTQ+ feel more protected in homes and schools where they are accepted, there is no hard evidence for suicide prevention in LGBTQ+ youth. Places of belongingness, such as church and religious youth group involvement, are good places for hetero people to decrease suicide ideology, it has the opposite effect on LGBTQ+ youth. This journal argues that integrated learning, without excluded anyone, on LGBTQ+ people and issues is most beneficial for decreasing LGBTQ+ bullying and suicide ideology. The Journal also argues that with youth suicide in LGBTQ+ people increasing, adults should be calling for action. Since these adults have the power to teach their children, they need to be teaching their children that these people aren’t an issue. The study shows that exposure to LGBTQ+ people helped decrease LGBTQ+ youth suicide rates.

3) Kaiser, Vrai. “Interview: Gravity Falls' Alex Hirsch Talks About Disney's Censors, Pacifica's Parents, and Future Plans.” An Interview With Gravity Falls Creator Alex Hirsch | The Mary Sue, The Mary Sue, 14 July 2017, www.themarysue.com/alex-hirsch-interview/.

Alex Hirsh, the creator of Gravity Falls, is being interviewed. One of the questions asked was about the episode Love God, and Alex’s fight to show a same-sex elderly couple. The episode is about Cupid, and in this particular scene, it shows Cupid using his magic to make people start falling in love. When the storyboard artist first drew up the scene, there was a moment depicting 2 elderly ladies falling in love. Alex knew immediately that Disney wouldn’t allow this to go through, which led him to keep it in the story. Sure enough, the board came back with the note, “The scene of the two old ladies kissing in the diner is not appropriate for our audience. Please revise.” To which Alex responded with a one-word answer: “Why?”

Disney couldn’t come up with a good reason, other than the scene would make homophobic parents angry, and so that they could avoid the headache, asked Alex to just drop the moment. Alex had a discussion with Disney six more times after that; he stated that a small moment like this would make a lot of fans happy and argued that since Disney is such a big company, they should just ignore the homophobic parents; it wouldn’t make a difference in the long run. The censors told him that if he doesn’t revise the storyboard, they will cut the moment themselves.

Alex finally gave in, but this didn’t stop him from representing the LGBTQ+ community later in the show. In the finale, two male police officers declared their love for each other, and Disney censors didn’t bat an eye.

4) Thorfinnsdottir, Dia, and Helle Strandgaard Jensen. “Laugh Away, He Is Gay! Heteronormativity and Children’s Television in Denmark.” JOURNAL OF CHILDREN AND MEDIA, vol. 11, no. 4, 2017, pp. 399–416. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/17482798.2017.1312470.

This article is about studying children’s media on Danish public service television. Most of the characters on these shows are heterosexual, and the ones that are non-heterosexual are seen as jokes. This alienates children that aren’t heterosexual or gender variant. In the article, there are interviews with various children’s organizations: Save the Children, LGBT Denmark, The Danish Media Council’s Unit for Children/The National Council for Children (the interviewee is active in both councils), and DR’s Children and Youth Department. When the interviewees were asked about casting light on LGBTQ+ people, they argued that children are extremely vulnerable at a young age, and the children’s age should be considered when exposure to certain material, especially LGBTQ+ representation, is brought before them. They also argued that they were fine with LGBTQ+ characters being represented, but stressed the importance of making sure the content doesn’t get sexual. Each answer was directly related to censoring the sexual part of an LGBTQ+ relationship. These answers show that they think LGBTQ+ people are inherently more adult. They don’t see the innocence of being LGBTQ+, and that its the same as heterosexual people. When the interviewees were asked about bullying, and what they’re doing to help stop homophobic bullying, a majority of them said they weren’t including LGBTQ+ specific bullying in their messages. In Denmark, they don’t necessarily have anything against LGBTQ+ people, but there isn’t anything being done to support these people either. These people claim to be on the children’s side, but they don’t include LGBTQ+ children.

5) van der Toorn, Jojanneke, et al. “In Defense of Tradition: Religiosity, Conservatism, and Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage in North America.” Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 43, no. 10, Oct. 2017, pp. 1455–1468. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0146167217718523.

A study was done throughout North America and Canada on homophobia and which groups it was prominently featured in. The study shows that Religious and conservative groups are the main people with homophobic tendencies. Christians use passages from the Bible, such as “not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22), and state that those who do “shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 20:13) to support their homophobia. Pope Francis has been more supportive and open-minded to the LGBTQ+ community, but little has been done to support them. Religion tends to have stakes in defining the status quo in America and it supports conservatism. Conservatives, even nonreligious ones, tend to lean toward an ideology that most religions also support. When the study continued, they found that people who do identify as Conservatives and Republicans are against the LGBTQ+ community because they tend to idealize resistance to change and opposition of equality. The study theorizes that resistance to change is more likely a reason than the opposition to equality for conservatives. They conducted 4 studies, and these were the findings:

Study 1: The more religious someone is, the more likely they are to oppose same-sex marriage.

Study 2: The more religious someone is, the more likely they are to protest the LBGT community as a whole.

Study 3: Conservatives tend to be much more homophobic because of the strong similarities that conservative ideals have with Religion.

Study 4a/4b: Because of religion being a big role in North America, those ideals are mainly upheld and considered a societal standard. This influences conservatives to be more resistant to change and oppose equality in order to maintain the status quo.

6) Ryan, Caitlin. “Generating a Revolution in Prevention, Wellness, and Care for LGBT Children and Youth.” Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review, no. Issue 2, 2013, p. 331. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edshol&AN=edshol.hein.journals.tempcr23.16&site=eds-live.

Caitlyn Ryan has been a social worker for over 40 years, and has helped numerous LGBTQ+ people. In 2007, there was an understanding that LGBTQ+ adolescents talking about their family was too painful and many organizations weren’t pushing for family inclusion in LGBTQ+ lives. There wasn’t a strong connection between LGBTQ+ people and their families. Caitlyn understood how important family can be for LGBTQ+ children's health, mental health, and overall well-being. According to researchers, on average children form an understanding of their gender identity by age three, start realizing their sexuality at age 10, and identify with LGBTQ+ around age 13. Researchers have found that children now are quicker to understand their identity because of widespread access to the information, seeing positive light on LGBTQ+ people in the media, and just knowing other LGBTQ+ people. With children understanding themselves more at a younger age, it creates this gap between LGBTQ+ children and heterosexual caregivers that may not understand. There is a common misconception that sexual orientation is strictly about sex and not felt until late teens or adulthood, when really its about human connection, and simply, who someone loves. Caregivers have admitted to not knowing how to treat their LGBTQ+ children; they’re unsure of the LGBTQ+ community and grow scared and angry when they see the paths their children are going down. Many times caregivers feel there is pressure to choose between their religion and their LGBTQ+ child. These findings led Caitlyn to create the Family Acceptance Project; an organization that aims to teach caregivers about their LGBTQ+ youth, and help these caregivers understand how important their support to their LGBTQ+ youth is.

They conducted a study gauging both LGBTQ+ people and the family’s responses to LGBTQ+ coming out. “We started with in-depth individual interviews ranging from two to four hours each with LGBT youth and key family members who were accepting, ambivalent, and rejecting of their adolescents' LGBT identities. Our research explored family, school and peer experiences, gender expression and related experiences, cultural and religious values and experiences related to the adolescent's sexual orientation and gender identity, the development of their LGBT identity, specific family reactions to their LGBT identity, victimization, social support, and future hopes and dreams.” Their interviews found that children who were rejected are more likely to (1) More than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide; (2) Nearly six times as likely to report high levels of depression; (3) More than three times as likely to use illegal drugs; and (4) More than three times as likely to be at high risk for HIV and 2 sexually transmitted diseases. They also found that families who’ve rejected their children had the ability to change over time, and wished that they had more information on how to accept their children. Caregivers sometimes don’t understand that their behaviors and actions, in an attempt to help their LGBTQ+ children have a “good life” can sometimes be highly problematic, even when motivated by care and concern. Caregivers should avoid attempts that try to change the adolescent's sexual orientation or gender identity, prevent them from having an LGBTQ+ friend, or include heavy religious studying. Also avoid behaviors that are not always thought of as rejection, such as not talking about/discouraging an adolescent from talking about their LGBTQ+ identity, or denying/minimizing an adolescent's LGBTQ+ identity. These reactions are commonly seen in phrases such as, "It's just a phase", “he'll grow out of it", "how could he possibly know?", or "he's just confused.". These actions lead to higher risks for their LGBTQ+ children. Caregivers should instead advocate for their children when others mistreat them because of their LGBTQ+ identity, require respect for them within the family, and help their congregation become more welcoming of LGBTQ+ people in an attempt to keep their children connected with their faith.

Caitlyn teaches caregivers proper ways to support LGBTQ+ children when they come out, by helping them understand how impactful their words, actions, and behaviors are. “Nearly every family in our study has said that "We needed to know this information when our child was little," or. . ."Why didn't the nurse tell me this could happen in our family when I took my baby home from the hospital?’” She reflects on a Chinese dad who was monolingual Mandarin-speaking who said, "’Why doesn't every Chinese newspaper have this information? Why don't they tell us how to help our gay children? We need to know this information before we know who our children will become.’” In short, Caitlyn has been teaching families ways to support LGBTQ+ children when they come out because she understands that support saves lives.

7) Kelso, Tony. “Still Trapped in the U.S. Media’s Closet: Representations of Gender-Variant, Pre-Adolescent Children.” JOURNAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY, vol. 62, no. 8, pp. 1058–1097. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00918369.2015.1021634. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019.

Children need representation young so that they can identify with something. It’s great that we have this representation for adults and teens, but at that point they’re already well into their LGBTQ+ journey. Because sexual orientation first manifests in childhood, there needs to be more role models for LGBTQ+ children. Adults who rarely converse with the LGBTQ+ community need to not base their knowledge of LGBTQ+ people on depictions in the media. Often times in media, the tragic queer trope can be seen. This trope instills the idea that LGBTQ+ people will live sad lives because they’re LGBTQ+, when in reality, they lead sad lives because people don’t support them. Scholars have argued that the lack of representation can lead members of the LGBTQ+ community to feel they’re victims of “symbolic annihilation” and may receive the message that they don’t matter to culture at large.

The article goes on to explain all the different types of media gender-variant children have been portrayed in, and the effects this has had on people. “In advertising, probably the promotional material of late that has drawn the most attention to childhood gender variance was a single image in a J. Crew catalogue featuring a mother (none other than the company's president and creative director, Jenna Lyons) painting the toenails of her young son (Ms. Lyon's own 5-year-old boy) in hot pink, with the caption, "Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon." When it ran, it became controversial, evoking considerable online discussion and news coverage, both in print and on the Internet (e.g., Stadtmiller, [170]), and on television (e.g., Cibrowski, [31]). Not surprisingly, comments from both media personalities and the public spanned the range from "Yeah, well, it may be fun and games now, Jenna, but at least put some money aside for psychotherapy for the kid" (Ablow, [ 1]) to "I think the add [sic] is adorable, at least the son and mother are having a great time and she is actually spending time WITH her son" (Jessica, [99]).”

While things have been getting better over the years, there is still a lot to be done in terms of representation, especially for gender-variant representation. Children cannot make this change, which is why it comes to the parents to be the outside force to make this change.

8) “Media Portrayal of LGBT People.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Nov. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_portrayal_of_LGBT_people#cite_note-3.

This Wikipedia article contains a timeline of LGBTQ+ representation in film, music, and television since the 30s. There was little shown from the ’30s to the ’60s, with most representations used for a joke. When the Stonewall Riots occurred, shout out to Marsha P Johnson, there was a large push in equal treatment and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. Because of the riots, there was also a large push for LGBTQ+ representation placed on Hollywood. Things started to slowly make progress, but then the AIDS epidemic hit. When the epidemic hit, acknowledgment about the LGBTQ+ community increased, but ultimately the LGBTQ+ community was shown in a negative light. This drove off supporters of LGBTQ+ people. In the ’90s people started to slowly get used to and accept LGBTQ+ people, but it’s still been an uphill battle. It’s getting better and better each year. The article also touches on LGBTQ+ representation in children’s media and goes over a few examples. Such as Legend of Korra, Steven Universe, Adventure Time, and Andi Mack. The examples of LGBTQ+ people in the media are both helpful and hurtful. Representation of LGBTQ+ people can start to create stereotypes, especially when a lot of LGBTQ+ people exist in film and movies as either comic relief or tragic queer motif. There needs to be a debunking of this stereotype, and the way to do that is with more exposure to diverse LGBTQ+ people in tv and movies. The more you learn and are exposed to something, the more understanding you build on the topic.

9) Mares, Marie-Louise, and Emory Woodard. “Positive Effects of Television on Children’s Social Interactions: A Meta-Analysis.” Media Psychology, vol. 7, no. 3, 2005, pp. 301–322. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1207/S1532785XMEP0703_4.

This study sets out to find what the effects of prosocial content in the media has on children. Because of the arguments that “violence on screen can lead to violence off-screen”, researchers wanted to test if the same is true after viewing prosocial content on screen. Through their studies, they found that children learn the most through the preschool to adolescence stage of their lives. In these stages children’s minds are still developing, and each year their comprehension of the world around them grows. The study found that the older the child is, and the more prosocial content they consumed, the more likely the child would behave prosocially. For younger children, around 5 years old, they too may behave prosocially, but they have a harder time grasping the ideas of morality. The study yielding the following findings:

“1. Children exposed to prosocial content have more positive social interactions, show more

altruistic behavior and self-control, and have less stereotyped views of others.

2. The strongest effects of prosocial content were found for measures of altruism.

3. Relying on children’s ability to pick out the moral messages from programs which feature violence or conflict and some prosocial resolution may backfire, leading to more aggression than

merely showing the conflict.

4. Effects of prosocial content are often strongest when viewing is combined with discussion.

5. The effect sizes overall ranged from small to medium.

6. Effects of prosocial content were strongest for pre-school and grade-school children, diminishing in adolescence.

7. Effects are somewhat stronger for girls than for boys.”

“In any event, the conclusion is that television has the potential to foster positive social interactions, reduce aggression, and encourage viewers to be more tolerant and helpful.”

10) The American Psychological Association. “Answers to Your Questions For a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation & Homosexuality.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, 2008, https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/orientation.

The American Psychology Association created a pamphlet to help people understand more about LGBTQ+ people. The pamphlet explains that, people start to become aware of their sexuality during middle childhood and early adolescence, and while there is no scientific consensus as to why people have a certain sexual orientation, people overwhelmingly feel no sense of choice in their identity. Homosexuality is not a mental disorder either. “Despite the persistence of stereotypes that portray lesbian, gay and bisexual people as disturbed, several decades of research and clinical experience have led all mainstream medical and mental health organizations in this country to conclude that these orientations represent normal forms of human experience”. During adolescence, people tend to be the most exploratory with their sexual feelings. When these young people come to their conclusion, it’s important to be supportive no matter what. Support leads to happy, satisfying, and healthy lives. Young people today may face discrimination and bullying, which commonly results in suicide idealization and higher risk activities. It’s important to support your child if bullying does occur. During much of the 20th century, LGBTQ+ people have been largely discriminated against. “Public opinion studies over the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s routinely showed that, among large segments of the public, lesbian, gay and bisexual people were the target of strongly held negative attitudes.” (This may be a big factor for why older generations tend to be more homophobic.) The AIDS pandemic was a large push back in accepting LGBTQ+ people. Discrimination is still alive and happening today, leaving many LGBTQ+ people with major mental health concerns. A good way to combat this discrimination is through awareness. Being openly LGBTQ+ or openly an ally does wonder in creating representation for the community.

#english class #writing #annotated bibliography #lgbt #lgbtq #steven universe #gravity falls #representation #lgbt representation

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