#for lack of easier shorthand

[oldsargasso]

sticks & stones (pit babe ficlet)

so there's nothing I love more right now than the pit babe polycule of kenta/kim/winner/dean, and @le-trash-prince said "I bet Kenta is the one to lick Dean’s wounds when Winner pushes too hard with his verbal roughhousing." this isn't really anything but it's something, you know?

dean-centric, rated g

It's Kenta that comes after him. Of course it's Kenta.

They'd been having fun, all of them; half-watching a bad movie and mostly just talking, Winner and him trading little love-bites of insults back and forth under Kim's indulgent gaze. And then with a slow gradual ooze like warm honey, it had slipped into something not fun, and Dean just--- He just had to get out of there quick.

It's dark out on the balcony off his and Kim's bedroom. Dean leans against the railing and tries to time his breathing to the red-light cycle at the nearest intersection, two floors and a hundred metres away. The flame of Kenta's lighter is a tiny blinding thing.

"I thought you told P'Kim you were quitting," Dean says. It comes out far more level than he'd feared. He hadn't been crying, not really, but Winner's words are still stinging in his chest.

Dean doesn't mind the smoking, not really. His dad, from what little he remembers of the man, was a smoker. There's a long-ago deep hidden feeling of comfort that comes creeping out when he smells nicotine. And he likes watching Kenta go through the little rituals that come with the act: the way he flicks the lighter on-off twice before touching the flame to his cigarette, how he always selects his next smoke from the middle of the pack instead of the edge.

Kenta takes another drag with a shrug of one shoulder. He blows the smoke away from Dean. "I will when Winner does."

Dean snorts inelegantly. "P'Winner says quitting goes against his name."

"Winner says a lot of shit," Kenta says. It's as pointed as he ever gets.

Someone impatient blows through the next red light to a chorus of horns. Their neighbour has turned on her <i>going out dancing</i> playlist. Kenta's free hand comes to rest, heavy and warm, on the back of Dean's neck.

"I know." Dean slumps sideways, just enough that Kenta understand he's supposed to hold tighter. "I know, I'm just being dumb."

He feels dumb. He feels the gap in years between them all most keenly at times like this. Getting all worked up about Winner saying something slightly mean, hurting Dean's <i>feelings</i>, when Kenta carries scars on his skin from what he's had to deal with. When Kim was beaten up and locked away just for caring about someone other than himself.

Winner didn't even look like he cared when Dean insulted him back.

"You're not dumb," Kenta refutes, the same steel in his voice as what he carries in his ramrod straight spine. He tugs Dean in a bit closer. A slight weight on the top of Dean's head, his hair ruffling slightly when Kenta breathes out slowly. He smells like nicotine and the beer Kim had been drinking. He tastes like all three when Dean twists around to pull him in.

"Thank you," Deans tells the shadows and reflected lights over Kenta's face. The hand on the back of his neck tightens once more.

[yunhogosailing]

So…you want to know more about Korean shipping terminology (and how does this apply to Ateez?)

Luckily, I have spent the better part of six years of my life learning Korean! Which fortunately(?) means that I have learned plenty about the lingo Korean BL fans use re: shipping dynamics. Actually, this makes it SO MUCH easier to navigate websites like Twitter, where NSFW posting is censored for security reasonable. The difference is that English speakers do not have an organized method of referring to the members in their ships (for example, one user might write seongjoong as secngjccng where one might instead write sxxngjxxng, and where another one might even write sngjng, etc etc). But how do Korean speakers handle this situation? What is the context behind all of this? I will provide with you with a fun and easy chart at the end, but first….Let me explain:

Taking you back to the early 2000s

Our setting: the early Korean BL online forums. The terminology originating from these spaces were unsurprisingly heavily influenced by the original sources from which BL manga was derived: the Japanese language. Japanese has a system of Chinese characters used to simplify the writing process known as Kanji. Korean has a similar concept, known as Hanja. Where as Kanji is still heavily utilized to this day for a variety of reasons (my Japanese teacher would always say its main purpose is to minimize the amount of script needed to convey an idea), Hanja has largely fallen out of fashion—used primarily to clarify homophones in text, in literature such as novels and older writings, and as a stylistic choice to depict words such as Death and God, etc.

First, I’m going to give you some terms that are familiar to quite possibly all of you.

Seme (攻め) - the dominant figure in the relationship. Most often, this person will also be depicted as the top.

Uke (受け) - the submissive figure in the relationship. Most often, this person will also be depicted as the bottom.

Are you following so far? Great! In the most stereotypical depiction of homosexual relationships in Manhwa, these roles—the dom top and the sub bottom—reigned supreme so much so that eventually the community fell into the pitfall of believing these four terms to be interchangeable. While simplifying the process of understanding each person’s role in sexual intimacy, it also didn’t lend much of an allowance to explore ideas that defined this view of sexuality. This lack of nuance and flexibility has very little to do with why I’m writing today, but I do want to give some more context as to why these terms became such reliable shorthand.

Anyway…

In Korean BL spaces, these Kanji symbols (攻/受) were directly translated into 공 and 수, respectively. 공 literally means “Ball” but in the context of the Hanja, it means “attack” or “strong”, basically dominant top. 수—“Number”—“to submit” or “to receive”—submissive bottom. Don’t worry, this is the absolute last time I will be explaining these ideas.

How does this work in Korean BL spaces?

Now this may also be familiar to many of you: the placement of each figure in the ship name MATTERS! In SFW spaces, you can get away with referring to Yunho and Mingi as Yungi because….well….platonic friendships aren’t normally referred to by dominance dynamics. In NSFW spaces, specifically dealing with fictional depictions of gay sex, referring to Yunho and Mingi as YunGi will have most people assuming that you mean fanfictions in which Yunho is the top and Mingi is the bottom. Oh, you didn’t? Well, obviously you meant to say MinYun (or MingYun or MingHo, I’ve seen this written all kinds of ways tbh). See what I mean? Now this isn’t always the case—familiarity is everything, so it’s not uncommon to see Wooyoung and San referenced as WooSan, no matter who is intended to be the top.

In Korean, ship names are almost always written in order of placement. For example, 윤낫 (we will get into why the Hangul in San’s name is reversed later) would refer to a Yunho x San pairing where Yunho is the top and San is the bottom. Likewise, 낫윤 would imply the exact opposite. Anyone want to take a stab at what 밍웡 means? How about 섷쫑?

2010-2024, A minor shift in focus

As the spaces for these conversations grow and change with time, as did the terminology used to describe shipping dynamics and pairings.

If you are a fourth and fifth gen K-pop stan, you know what a coupling, or chemi, name is. Korean fans who did either did not want to discuss their idols in a romantic/sexual manner, or otherwise wanted some way to differentiate a typical shipping name from a platonic pairing name, developed the concept of using a chemi name instead. For Ateez, these would be:

E-Kang-Mo (에강모) / Yunho and Yeosang - the shortened version of 에이티즈 강아지 모임, literally translating into the Gathering of Ateez Puppies.

Matz (맏즈) / Seonghwa and Hongjoong - TWO MEN WE’RE ON FIRE 위험해‼️‼️‼️ Shortened version of 맏형 which literally translates into Oldest brothers. This quite obviously refers to our two oldest members within the group.

Elsewhere, you may come across 삼복즈, Jiwoong and Yujin from ZEROBASEONE. Or 채채즈, Chaewon and Eunchae from LE SSERAFIM. Usually this name is derived from some personality aspect or moment the two idols share, and can be given organically by fans or by the idols themselves. They are used strictly by both Korean and international fans as a means of referring to these idols and their friendships. It’s still possible that you find a fan who skips the whole “having to learn a completely different unit name” thing and just uses the traditional pairing name (I know, because I’m one of them), and in this case you can likely tell exactly when they first got into K-pop.

During this decade, shippers developed two more terms to further break down sexual dynamics, this time focusing on top/bottom. 왼 is the Korean directional word for “left”, and in the context of BL, means top. For bottom, Koreans use a shortened version of the directional word for “right”—른. I am not entirely sure whether the general consensus seems to be that these terms are still strictly tied to the idea of a dominant top and a submissive bottom, as most of the resources I used to search for these terms waffled on the subject.

In practice, 웡왼 will refer to shippings in which Wooyoung is a top (I searched for this on Twitter and came up unsurprisingly short….) and 쫑른 is in reference to shippings where Jongho is a bottom!

Enough Already!! Just give us the tags!!

Loud and clear, boss. However, I just need a bit more contextual information out there before I finally get into the list:

Variations - there are few variations that exist within the Korean shipping fandom, save for instances in which another pairing could possibly exist within a different group.

Censorship - Korean fans are also heavy on making sure these posts do not make it into the hands of Ateez themselves (see: the chaos that happened when San stumbled across self-insert fiction written by K-Atiny). Member names are not written properly, and will always be altered in some way as a means of masking it from normal search results. Please pay attention to this!

Pronunciation - some letters are altered in the pairing names as a means to aid with pronunciation. This is sort of an intuitive thing with Korean, so I’m not sure how to explain this in a better way.

And now…the list!

Here’s how to follow the chart:

Reading from the top down, you will find the 른—or pairings where the member is the bottom. For example, Seonghwa’s column reads:

홍섷 - Hongjoong x Seonghwa

윤섷 - Yunho x Seonghwa

솽섷 - Yeosang x Seonghwa

낫섷 - San x Seonghwa

밍섷 - Mingi x Seonghwa

웡섷 - Wooyoung x Seonghwa

쫑섷 - Jongho x Seonghwa

Likewise, reading the chart horizontally will provide you with the 왼—or pairings where the member is the top. For example, Mingi’s row reads:

밍섷 - Mingi x Seonghwa

솜몽 - Mingi x Hongjoong

밍윦 - Mingi x Yunho

솜여 - Mingi x Yeosang

밍낫 - Mingi x San

밍웡 - Mingi x Wooyoung

솜쫑 - Mingi x Jongho

Additionally, adding (Member name)른/왼 will provide you more general posts where Korean fans are discussing the idol as a top or a bottom in general without referring to a specific ship.

Hongjoong: 홍왼 + 홍른

Seonghwa: 섷왼 + 섷른

Yunho: 윦왼/윤왼 + 윦른/윤른

Yeosang: 솽왼 + 솽른

San: 낫왼 + 낫른

Mingi: 밍왼 + 밍른

Wooyoung: 웡왼 + 웡른

Jongho: 쫑왼 + 쫑른

Thank you for reading! I hope this was as useful for you as it was for me! Of course, I knew a lot of history regarding this topic due to the ample time I spent reading BL, but I will admit that I did not have much time to research this topic specifically. However, if you have any corrections to make, let me know!! This was so much fun for write, and maybe I can do something similar to this in the future as well.

Bye!

[malfiora]

Good Enough

Bruce probably wasn't meant to hear it, but his heart squeezes all the same. His fingers clutch at his chest and his throat works around the lump suddenly lodged in it.

"I'll have to ask my dad," Dick had said. The words belong to another child, one Bruce has never met. But that voice – its tone, its warmth, its certainty – is Dick. Undeniably, unmistakably Dick. He's talking to one of his teachers (Mr. Mather, he recalls only because he had to deal with Dick's insistence that his biology teacher be called Ms. Sciencer for weeks) and he grins when he spots Bruce stalled by the door. "Oh, speak of the devil."

Bruce stumbles his way through a conversation about Dick's exceptional grades and aptitude for abstract concepts and how he has real potential as a mathlete, but his brain is humming with wordless excitement at the word "dad" and eager to hear it tickle the air again. He floats on that feeling all the way home, even elongating their return to tell Alfred to pull over at that fast food joint Dick likes, the one with the milkshakes.

And then he crashes. Dick disappears into his room to allegedly do homework (Bruce is eighty-five percent sure he's actually hopping onto his computer to IM Barbara Gordon), and with him vanishes the warmth of being considered a father. Left in its wake is a coldness injecting nausea into his gut.

He can't be a – he doesn't know how to – when did Dick even – and why him? The past three years flash by in reverse: Dick dancing through a spray of bullets, tears streaming from Dick's mask as he watched Batman fall from a snapped line just like they did, Dick standing proudly before a mirror in his brand new costume, a gleam of murderous intent staring up at him, a broken boy swallowed up in an EMT's blanket while his world lay shattered at his feet. What has he done? How could he think that drawing this bright kid into his dark roost was a good idea? And now Dick thinks of him as a father figure – it's too late to go back, isn't it?

He isn't John Grayson, will never be, doesn't want to try. He hears the whispers among polite society speculating why he won't adopt Dick, but none of them come close to the truth. It's rooted in fear (inaction always is). Fear that he'll be seen as the fraud he is, and then Dick will leave and regret ever calling him "dad."

He's not even Thomas Wayne, not for lack of trying. His memories of the man are faded around the edges but he knows he devoted himself completely to any and all that he loved: his career, his wife, his son. Thomas Wayne didn't do anything by halves. But Bruce Wayne is constantly torn – one foot planted in civilian domesticity fumbling his way through raising a child, the other firm in Gotham's underbelly hellbent on redeeming the damned while keeping his kid partner safe from the danger that he throws him into in the first place.

"Sir," Alfred calls, his voice soft. "If you're done drilling a hole through the carpet with your eyes, I've put tea on."

Bruce blinks and looks up at Alfred. "Tea sounds great, Alfred."

He plods after Alfred and into the tearoom. Alfred deftly sets out cups, saucers, and bowls of cream and sugar before pouring the fresh brew. Bruce murmurs a "thanks" before sipping his. Alfred lowers himself into the seat opposite his at the small table.

"Master Dick seems to be doing well at the Academy," Alfred says. "I can't imagine that that caused your dour mood."

Those who call Batman the world's greatest detective just haven't met Alfred. "Dick called me 'dad' today," he explains calmly. "Not to my face. I overheard him say it to his teacher."

Alfred hums. "Could mean nothing."

That's...true. Dick may have used the term as shorthand. "Dad" is easier to say than "legal guardian" and more specific and personal than "Bruce." It could have been a Freudian slip, Dick's mind supplying him with a cognitive shortcut subconsciously. Bruce sets his tea down and stares into the liquid.

"Or," Alfred presses on (Bruce hates the way his heart lifts a little), "he is starting to see you – us – as his family." Alfred sips and watches him.

"That's what I'm afraid of," he admits after a while. "Alfred, I'm not – Dick deserves so much better than –"

When it's clear that Bruce won't finish the sentence, Alfred clears his throat gently. "If I may, I'd like to share a secret with you." Bruce nods. "There was a time that I considered leaving you."

Bruce's eyes widen. "What?"

Alfred nods. "I thought that after your parents, I was the last person who should raise a child, especially one who needed his world put back together. Surely the Kanes would have made better surrogates. Perhaps a foster if a suitable one could be found." He smirked. "I almost considered the Queens before that awful accident."

The blood is rushing in Bruce's ears. Alfred, his most loyal and longest friend, had wanted to leave him? "What changed?"

Alfred takes another sip, contemplates. "I don't think anything has. Everyday I wonder if I made the right choice. If I am being selfish staying in your life simply because I love you too much to let you go."

Again, Bruce's chest squeezes. Alfred, his Alfred, has the exact same fear. That somehow he'll fail his charge, will lose him. And all this time, Bruce has never considered going anywhere, can't imagine his life without Alfred in it. Maybe – is that how Dick feels? That Bruce is his? God, if that's true then...then Bruce as he is just has to be good enough. Because he's not going to let Dick go.

"My son," he says, testing the word. It tastes sweeter than the tea on his tongue.

[harveyguilleniconodelamoda]

Costume Spotlight: Guillermo's Sweaters in WWDITS Season 1

One of the things that makes WWDITS so visually compelling is the way the characters have the real-world equivalent of cartoon uniforms. But instead of wearing the same thing every day, they wear variations on the same theme every day. This serves not only to establish a strong visual identity for each character, but also provides opportunities for visual shorthand to underscore a particular bit or even a major character or relationship arc with a wardrobe change.

Guillermo has undergone just such a transformation many times over the course of the show's current five seasons, with his clothes becoming better fitted, more coordinated and intentional, and more functional as his arc has developed. But throughout it all, the sweaters have remained a key part of his character uniform.

If there's one piece of incontrovertible proof that vampires have no taste (affectionate), it's the fact that Nadja, Laszlo, and Nandor keep calling Guillermo's sweaters shitty. Never have I so envied a character's wardrobe as when I first saw Harvey appear on my screen in a seemingly endless succession of gorgeous, thick, intricately patterned and textured, cozy sweaters. But as I said in a recent post, that proved to be a massive undertaking, so I've broken it down into somewhat smaller posts by season. Starting, of course, with season 1!

Guillermo wears sixteen different sweaters and cardigans over the course of season 1 alone (and at least five different jackets, not counting the suit jacket he wore to Madelin's funeral in 1x10--I'll do a separate post on the jackets at some point). These tend to fall into a few broad categories.

Fair Isle Knits

Though many of us in places without year-round sweater weather may think of Fair Isle as primarily a winter holiday motif, the term actually refers to a particular method of knitting that allows the knitter to incorporate multiple colors using two strands of yarn or more. Traditional Fair Isle patterns incorporate five colors. This method originated in Fair Isle, Scotland, thus the name. (Source)

Fair Isle sweaters are typically made of high quality cotton or wool, and can create intricate patterns such as the bird motif on this sweater from 1x02 and 1x07.

Guillermo wears Fair Isle pullovers and cardigans the most often throughout the series, especially in the first season. The most distinctive of these is the bird pattern above, but he also wears a multicolor cardigan in 1x01, as well as a more abstract gray-toned Fair Isle sweater, a brown one, and even a red one throughout the season.

These sweaters are not cheap, either, at least not when of the quality he typically wears (many cheaper Fair Isle sweaters only feature the technique on the front or collar of the garment, with the rest of the garment being all one color). A well-made Fair Isle sweater can easily cost in the hundreds, and Guillermo has around half a dozen or so of them in the first season. This lends credence to my personal headcanon that Guillermo, who works for no pay and owes $1200 a month in rent, most likely gets a lot of his clothes by gift or by thrift--that is, they're presents from family members or he gets them heavily discounted at secondhand stores or websites.

Mosaic Knits

Mosaic knitting, like Fair Isle, is a technique for incorporating multiple colors into a single garment. In this technique, however, you only knit with one color per row. It is meant to be easier than other colorwork methods of knitting, and does not have floats (loose strands of leftover yarn on the back of the knitted work) the way Fair Isle does.

Mosaic knitting is great for creating colorful, repeating patterns, and can be done flat or in the round. Mosaic patterns can also be made to be reversible, due to the lack of floats, and the finished product is generally stretchier than the results of other techniques. (Source)

I also just really like the texture of mosaic knits? There's something about the way the threads fit together that scratches my brain pleasantly.

You can see an example of this style of sweater in 1x03 and 1x04, as well as throughout 1x09, when Guillermo is helping to plan the Orgy.

Fun fact: there's a goof in the editing of this episode! Throughout most of it, Guillermo is wearing this thick, crew-neck mosaic sweater. This is interspersed occasionally with images of him wearing a thinner brown Fair Isle v-neck pullover with a polo-style collar. This kind of switch-up is not uncommon, as talking heads meant to be filmed at a different time are often interspersed with in-the-moment action.

But when Guillermo bursts into the room toward the end of the episode and finds Jeremy losing his virginity with Constantine, he is wearing the mosaic sweater. However, when he steps out of the room and pulls the door closed behind him a second later, he is suddenly in the brown v-neck pullover from his talking head snippets.

(Thanks to @karofsky for inflicting this cursed knowledge upon me. <3)

Guillermo also wears this Fair Isle sweater in 1x03, and at the beginning of 1x10.

Guillermo wears one other sweater which, based on the texture and pattern, looks like it could be a mosaic knit:

This is the sweater he wears at the beginning of 1x04, when Laszlo asks his opinion about the witch skin hat and when Nandor is "flying" him around in front of the mirror.

Coogi Sweaters

These are the most elaborate and unique-looking sweaters Guillermo wears in the show.

Coogi is an Australian clothing brand originally founded in 1969 (then called Cuggi), known for its unusual textures, organic patterns, and bright colors. Egyptian designer Hazem Elsheltawi is the original creator of Coogi's unique fabrics, which have been inducted into the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt museum. For more facts and a brief timeline of the brand, check out this blog post by Filthy Rebena Vintage.

The distinctive Coogi style is achieved by combining several different knitting methods, including Fair Isle, Intarsia, ribbed and warp knitting, and stockinette and reverse stockinette knitting to create layers and textures that no one of the aforementioned methods could achieve on its own. The sources I found were conflicted on whether these sweaters are made by hand, or whether making them by hand would even be practical or feasible. For a thorough breakdown of a Coogi sweater and the various techniques involved, see this Reddit thread on r/MachineKnitting.

At first, I thought Guillermo only started wearing Coogi sweaters later on in the series, but upon closer inspection it appears he wears at least four Coogi or Coogi-style sweaters in the first season.

The first of these is in 1x02, an elaborately-patterned sweater in blues and reds that Guillermo wears to accompany Nandor to the City Council meeting (in what I like to call his Politician's Wife scene).

He wears this same sweater in 1x08 when he is assisting Nandor with studying for his citizenship test.

The second is the cardigan Guillermo wears in 1x06, 1x07, 1x08, and 1x10.

The third and fourth are also from 1x10, which is a very Coogi-heavy episode! Guillermo wears two black and white vertical striped sweaters that are very similar at the beginning and end of this episode.

I know I said I was going to leave the character analysis for its own post later on, but I find the choice to use two very similar sweaters in a single episode so interesting, especially given that he wears a total of six different sweaters just in this episode alone! Looking at them side-by-side, it strikes me that though they're both black and white, the one he wears at the beginning of the episode is on balance more white, and the one at the end of the episode has far more black.

At the beginning of the episode, Guillermo is still (as far as he and we know) just a human familiar. By the end, he has this dark secret to contend with. Comparing these two looks, it's like he's literally begun to be embraced by the shadows he lives among, like they're not just something he aspires to but already a part of him that he's slowly discovering.

I feel as though I've also definitely seen that Coogi cardigan in other seasons as well, so I'm excited to see what parallels there are to be drawn when I start to look at when he wears specific sweaters across the seasons!

These sweaters gained and grew in popularity in the mid-90s and early 2000s as various hip hop and rap artists began wearing the brand and mentioning it in their lyrics. The first of these was The Notorious B.I.G., who mentioned the brand in not one but three different songs. The brand has also been mentioned in lyrics by Kanye West, Rick Ross, Tyga, ASAP Ferg, Christian hip hop duo Social Club, and MC Suffa of Hilltop Hoods, who owns a collection of Coogi sweaters. The brand is sometimes mistakenly called the Cosby sweater, however Bill Cosby never wore Coogi sweaters as the costume designer on The Cosby Show hated the sweaters and thought they were too tacky for Dr. Huxtable.

Though they faded in popularity in the late 2000s, the sweaters saw a resurgence around 2014. Their popularity has waned somewhat since, but Coogi sweaters still signal 80s and 90s counterculture coolness for many fashion aficionados. Coogi clothes are now billed as luxury goods, which makes sense as a single Coogi sweater bought brand new can cost between $400-$600. There are, however, many pre-loved and vintage Coogi sweaters out there, often available for under $100.

Affordable Options

As I mentioned above, high-quality knit sweaters can be damned expensive! But we can do as Guillermo almost certainly does, and embrace thrift shopping! I don't have specific links this time, as links become irrelevant quickly on thrift and consignment sites. I can, however, provide a few tips on how to get your hands on a nice, pre-owned sweater that will have you saying "my name is Guillermo de la Cruz" like you mean it.

Recommended Sites:

Depop

Etsy

ThredUp

eBay

When using any of the above, be sure to search for "Fair Isle sweater," "Mosaic sweater," "Coogi sweater," or just "Coogi" and narrow down by your sizes before you start to browse. Also always check the label and garment details to make sure you're getting a fair price! There are a lot of imitations of Coogi sweaters especially out there, and you might have better luck with those if your Coogi findings are on the sparse side (though I didn't encounter this issue when searching).

Some good search terms include "Protege sweater" or Canadian brands like "Tundra" and "Consensus." They all make nice sweaters in a Coogi-esque style, but should never be costing you anything near Coogi prices, as even a genuine Coogi sweater typically goes for under $75 on any of the above sites. I'd also recommend looking when sweaters are off season; they're going to be in much higher demand, and thus harder to find for a good price, in the fall and winter.

Focus on vintage sweaters from the 80s and 90s where possible, as those are going to give you the most Guillermo styles. For colors, look for patterns with a gray, brown, deep forest green, or muted/navy blue base. Reds should typically only be accents within the pattern, not the dominant color (unless you want to create your own unique vamp!Guillermo look).

Go forth and get cozy!

Note: The information about knitting in this post is the result of several weeks of research on hobbyist sites and video tutorials, but I am not a knitter. If I have gotten anything wrong or misunderstood anything about these techniques, please send me an ask! I'm always eager to learn more!

[lockandkeyhyena]

I have a bit more tips for anon for trans man stereotypes to avoid! Like you said, the big deal with trans men is a huge lack of representation at all, so stereotypes can be hard to nail down, but I've still got a couple more stereotypes to avoid AND some advice:

• Testosterone does NOT make you violent! If your dude is on T, be careful to not portray him as unusually rageful or violent unless it's another part of his character separate from his transness. And even then, just be aware that bigots out there see folks on T as uniquely prone to violence.

• Trans men are not always bottoms or sexually submissive! They CAN be, but if you've frequented fandom spaces, you'll see that a lot of authors seem to see trans men as shorthand for a bottom, sexually submissive, feminine guy. Basically, trans men tend to be seen as either violent aggressors or uwu precious bean softboys. Try not to play too much into one or the other.

• This is more of a trope than a stereotype, but avoid a whole big Secret Revealed scene about your trans guy. Specifically, the whole "someone who didn't know he was trans walks in on him undressing and sees that oh my god he binds! He's actually a she trans!" or any other kind of instance where your dude's keeps his transness secret only to get "found out" in a situation out of his control. This is a bit of an older trope that I haven't seen as much in recent years, but yeah. And again, as with any trope or stereotype, they CAN be done well but it requires care and acknowledgement of what might be problematic about it.

• Oh! And actually, on that note a stereotype with any trans person is that they're deceitful or uniquely good at lying. This all comes from the whole perception of trans folks as "traps trying to trick good, pure cis folks." Now, if your trans character is in an environment or community where they have to hide who they are to feel safe, that's a completely normal experience and might mean they ARE good at hiding that part of themself. It's just a fine line to toe so that you don't inadvertently play into that negative stereotype.

• Of course, my best piece of advice, my writing hack for avoiding stereotypes when writing any minority is this: have more characters of that minority! If you only have one character from a minority, than how they're written becomes a LOT more crucial to balance because, within your narrative, they're representing a whole group of people all by themself! They could therefore inadvertently be sending messages about that group just by how you write and how you treat them. But! Even having just one more character of that minority allows you to show off the variety of people within these groups! And even outside of that, they can be useful narrative tools, providing good comparison and contrast on who they are, what there experiences are, what their situation is, and how your narrative treats them. So maybe Arthur has other trans guy friends, or maybe he meets other trans men through the story, or it could even be as minor as his family or hometown having interacted with another trans guy in the past. Having other trans men be a part of the story would take some of the weight off of Arthur for representing trans guys! It's also a good tool for you in that, when you're reviewing your work trying to look for any signs of internalized bigotry in your writing, you might be able to pick up on things easier if you've got multiple minority characters. You might have an easier time picking up on any patterns of how you portray those characters if you have more of those characters in the first place!

oh this is all fantastic advice anon!!! here you go, other anon! haha

[thatwolfnamednyla]

I've fallen in love with N from Pokemon after playing Black for the first time last summer and the lack of N fanfiction is so devastating 😭

Especially when you remove any N/Hilda or N/Hilbert fanfics. Cause they're teenagers and N is an adult. And like, I want to give the benefit of doubt to a lot of fanfic writers that maybe they just want a character in the place of the protagonist and they don't actually ship N with a teen and are using Hilbert/Hilda as shorthand for a generic character, especially if they specify that the protags are meant to be aged up, but I don't know. It still makes me feel iffy.

I feel like more people should just...make an original character to ship with N. Just make an original character and say that the character is taking the place of the protagonist. That would make things so much easier and less uncomfortable.

But most people don't do that and I am starving for N content AAAAAAA

if anyone has any recommendations, whether it includes romance or not (completely fine with platonic interactions, especially if it's platonic N and Hilda/Hilbert because they should be friends and N should have a healthy support system and people who care about him and learn how to have fun and live life not being in a cult!!!!), please share!!!

[docholligay]

I read a really interesting post about someone hating fanon archetypes, which I get and don’t necessarily disagree with, in a number of ways. But where I do disagree with them is the idea that the problem is “not referring back to the source material”

I mean the source material IS canon, but canons often also reduce characters to archetypes. And, as a writer, it’s an easy hole to fall into, I imagine it’s even easier if you’re churning stuff out on a deadline, or lack a lot of READING experience.

I think the real problem is when we approach transformative fiction or media and don’t make an attempt to create or understand wholly realized human beings. Now, for any character to be memorable, by and large you have to tweak and exaggerate characteristics. I get that, I am there. It makes them fun. And archetypes are fun! They are an easy shorthand for how you understand a character in like, five seconds. But it lacks DEPTH, or easily can, and I think that’s actually what the poster was feeling,* specifically because they referenced those “incorrect X quotes” blogs.

I think about this a lot because archetypes are what make it possible to do things like “Anastasia AU” “Titanic AU” etc etc etc. But also, if you’re writing anything that is NOT that, you’re going to find yourself at an emotional dead end with characters because ARCHETYPES MOVE PLOT LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER, BUT THEY DO NOT MOVE SOULS.

I am not immune to an archetype, I think they are a tool in the chest, but I also buck against them for the same reason I buck up against alignments: They are limiting and show a lack of thought in the character’s fully realized personality. Your good, rules is rules and we love em character should have a point break, for example. Having ESTABLISHED them as being rules is rules can make the break MUCH more effective.

There are 87 ways to be a ‘jokester’ sort of person. Some are meanspirited, some are lighthearted. A character can have the capacity for both! Sometimes the joker is an unserious person generally, sometimes the joker is someone looking for attention, sometimes the joker is a person who is looking for an acceptable way to commit social violence. All of these people are ‘the jokester’ but they are very different when you peel away the layers of the onion, and so the hows and whys of how they joke around are different. 

I guess my rambling conclusion is: archetypes are not a fanon based problem, they are a FICTION problem. 

*Being generous here and not going with the ungenerous “fanon is different from my own take on the character >:(” thought, which at the very least many of the tags were.

[graylinesspam]

When having discussions about MY OWN Asexuality these are some graphics and anectdotes that have made it easier for me to explain it to them.

Since I have had so many curious people on my Ace poll, I'm gonna give it a shot and complie it together in a post.

Firstly, the basic deffinition of Asexuality:

As stated in the graphic, libido, or a hormonal urge for sex is not the same thing as an attraction to another person. In basic terms being horny does not equal having a want to have sex with another person.

I'd like to acknowledge that there is more to the Ace spectrum than just flat ace before I make my next point, so here's my favorite graphic.

These are just three of the many sub-identities on the ace spectrum with some basic definitions but they get the point across about differing levels of the lack of sexual attraction.

Because sex can look different to a lot of asexuals. There are plenty of asexuals that despite missing the initial spark of attraction that mighty motivates an allosexual person, don't mind or even enjoy having sex, for the romantic intimacy with a partner or even just for the endorphin release.

But there are many more asexuals that have a more complicated relationship with sex that can intersect with other aspects of their life like their personal relationships (see demi), their past traumas, their romantic orientation, or their sexual kinks.

One of the basic struggles of Asexuality is determining what qualifies as "sexual attraction"

When you rarely or never experience sexual attraction it may be hard to distinguish between different attractions.

Anecdotally, I base my concept of someone being sexually attractive on my Aesthetic and Sensual attraction. I do this for a shorthand to relate to other people in my life who experience sexual attraction. Partly because I find the concept of sex fascinating to discuss and partially because I love collecting my little group of fictional characters that I project my sexuality onto. I choose them based on whether I enjoy looking at them (which trust me, does not adhere to societal beauty standards) and whether I think being physically close to them (sensually) might be pleasant.

I say this because I think it is a common experience for Asexual people. I am honestly astonished that my poll had such an even distribution of answers. It was really just for fun and not a well-thought-out series of answers. Most people noted that multiple of the answers suited them. But the most common comments I got on that poll were that interms of fiction or media of some kind, they were sex positive. But when it came to any reality where they themselves would engage in sex, that was an entirely different answer.

Well, here's my personal reflections on that same concept within myself that others may or may not relate to.

When I was still in the process of figuring out my own Asexuality, I was confused by the concept of having an extremely high libido and a collection of fictional crushes, but no irl attraction.

At the time I was also heavily into dissecting other social tangles such as the way that men view women through their own societal lens of sexuality. And the biggest argument at the time was "If you only find big boob, flawless skin, totally obedient hentai women sexually attractive, then you're probably not actually into women. Because none of the real ones look like that." Which is true.

This made me think about why I found specifically onky fictional people attractive. Which boiled down to a set of ideals that I could never expect a real person to live up to. If the only way I can even consider being sexually attracted to a person is with them following a humanly impossible set of ideals, then I'm probably just not actually attracted to anyone.

And that's fine. It sounded scary at first. But I grew used to it.

When you take the attraction factor out of sex many people will lose interest entirely. Sex can be a really complicated and messy buissness. There's so many factors you have to consider like, location, time, partner, physical discomfort, physical and emotional vulnerability, body fluids, contraception, std testing, and a plethora of other things that can be really overwhealming even if you are really motivated to have sex. If you arent? Many people don't see a point in it.

But some do and having sexual experiences and even enjoying them doesn't make you any less asexual. There are whole kink groups that are ran and populated by asexual people because kinks gives a structure to the otherwise chaotic buisness of sex and makes it more appealing to them. On top of that kinks can be arousing reguardless of your sexual orrientation and may make it easier to engage in sex.

I'd like to add, for my own peace of mind, that asexuality can feel very isolating. Many people want a partner that finds them sexualy appealing. And that's understandable. But try not to think of your sexuality as limiting. Because asexuality can open so many doors in the queer community that you may not have considered yet.

Being Asexual means you don't have attraction to any gender, meaning that you may be open to dating or having a QPR with others regardless of their gender.

Sex repulsed? You certainly may be able to meet the needs of another asexual person especially if they are sex repulsed too. Having the pressure of sex removed from a relationship can be so relieving.

Asexual people also occupy a space outside of the societal norms of what is considered sexually appealing. And may often completely disagree with general society about what they find attractive. There's a lot of ace people I know personally that are with their partners purely for domestic compatibility and not for appearances at all. This may actually lead to stronger relationships. Even though the process of vetting others looks a bit sterile or like a buisness deal, it's more effective in finding somone you genuinly like and agree with. Someone you can spend forever with.

It also opens doors to people of all types of physicalities.

These are really just anecdotes, but I feel there's so much us ace get put down for. I'd like to lift the community up for once.

Final thoughts on the matter (unless I am asked to elaborate) are that Asexuality is a hugely varied expirience. It affects people in many different ways. And it can be really confusing to figure out. But the point of the poll I made was to point out how many ace people there are just in my orbit on Tumblr. We are not alone. There are so many more of us than you might think. Thousands. And I for one am so excited about that.

(I didn't credit the graphics bc i've had them saved for years and honestly fon't remember where they came from.)

[kaengeru]

cyberpunk 2077 au ramblings (because you asked for this!!)

(shorthand: streetkid=purple. nomad=cowboy. corpo=monochrome.)

OKAY to start, this is ALL cyberpunk2077!au that ignores the story for the most part. nomad is the only one who is intrinsically tied to the relic plot. the other two have some vague connect to the lifepath background to a point, but otherwise dont end up in the same hole. THEY ARE all around 23/24 at their current state(s). (also: apologies if anyone thought i meant they were actually related - each of them are just a different cyberpunk!au of enya) theres sarah too of course! but im still working on his different designs and he is Not the main character, sorry bud. you will get a snack of him because he is always important to her story <3 GOD. OKAY. ANYWAY. if you know nothing about the game im sorry (my knowledge is only from 2077 and internet research anyway) but here we go!!

streetkid; solo. sante muerte theme. also Purple and/or gold. MAXIMUM chrome. shotguns, sandevistan, mantis blades.

-the most similar to default enya. ANGRY. loud, brash, quick to violence. aggressively hetero. comes off more composed in the downtime between jobs from her excessive confidence. smokes, drinks, drugs, alls fun and fair. lazy grins. head tilts. hands in pockets. baggy pants, tie-front bras, tennis shoes.

-known as rabbit/coneja rather than v, due to a few tattoos, her tendency for jumping fences, jumping onto people, and rabbit-kicking her way out of a tough spot (the chrome she's got makes bone breaking very easy and fun). heywood born and bred. russian/spanish. speaks both fluently but leans heavier on the russian to throw people off (this backfires frequently outside of her immediate neighborhood, where people will often assume she's a scavenger).

-physical embodiment of "why do i hear boss music?". alternates between horror movie villain casually walking after people, or DOOM slayer run-n-gun. thorough, albeit not precise in her work. incapable of subtly or silent tactics. shooting people is way easier than talking to them; will give valentinos the smallest bit of leeway, but so little no one except her can tell. VERY hard to kill. mantis blades are almost exclusively used in tight spots, and even then, if a grenade will do the trick, thats more fun anyways.

-high-functioning cyberpsycho (with a legit diagnosis just in case she does snap, they can make her a nice statistic), virtually no empathy/humanity. very disconnected with her self of self. about 75-80% chrome - including both necessary and for improved functions - with a preference toward (funny enough) subtle or hidden cyberware. WAY heavier than she looks with basal caloric needs being stupid high so she is constantly eating. mostly things she finds (steals) (digs out of the pockets of someone she just killed) etc. her lack of social awareness is most obvious when it comes to food because if it is there, she will take it.

-brief history: mom dies when she's 9 during a bird flu pandemic. dad gets killed when she gets grabbed by some maelstromers for cyberware experiments with a couple other kids at 12. ends up as a violent little street urchin between mandated therapy sessions. starts working simple jobs around 15, largely thefts and such, getting her first hit when she's 17 (though she's already killed her fair share of people). almost all the money she makes is put into upgrading and adding onto her cyberware.

-the sarah connection: her, 17/18. him 19. first contact is she and her "buddies" bullying him into taking his shirt off (to prove he isn't a tyger claw) (because theyre awful). he's new to the city, working as a cook for a local dumpling place that she frequent(ly breaks into to steal food). most similar to default enya/sarah beginnings where she simply will Not leave him alone, though he's more anxious in this realm (for good reason) so she wins out faster.

-he lives in the apartment above the restaurant (owner doesnt because its been broken into numerous times) (guess who) and works a lot, so they often spend their time sitting on the roof and talking. sort of mellows her out, having a comfortable space to explore feelings and whatnot helps process Things, including these weird emotions she gets when she looks at him.

-he dies when shes 21. just gets mugged by a couple guys. closest she comes to a full psychotic break, and likely would of if she hadnt found the culprits in quick succession. theyre left an unrecognizable mess and she's given a friendly warning that the ncpd has her as their prime suspect and she should probably stay out of sight for a while. then streetkid path: goes to atlanta, comes back 2 years later, etc. would probably run into jackie but doesnt work well with others, so, hey, she'll take a free lunch but thats about it.

-dies before her thirties. no blaze of glory etc. just gets gutted in a back alley after finally picking the wrong fight and bleeds out behind a dumpster. she is, surprisingly, fine with this - she's had a pervasive sense of suicidal ideation for a LONG while, but was never going to do it herself, and everyone else sucks at it.

-shoving this info somewhere:

=low INT. has a vague grasp on how to navigate some systems and read a little bit of code, but could much more easily disassemble a deck. that and no people skills. says what needs to be said. impulsive and unpredictable but not unstable. =not a believer in sante muerte, but very much enjoys the concept and messing with valentinos where possible. also was never a part of the tinos, but has a fair number of connections within the gang. =the sort who will roll over to sleep for a couple hours, then get right back to business when she wakes up. not good with quiet or stillness, cannot be alone with her thoughts for an extended period. always has to be doing something.

-im definitely forgetting SOMETHING but this motherfucker is my favorite

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

nomad; techie. flower theme. cowboy. minimal chrome. sniper rifles, berserk, gorilla arms.

-enya-adjacent. the most well-adjust and happiest of the three (ignoring the depression). quiet! straightforward when she does talk, and doesnt talk very much. no silence is awkward (for her). actually finds some humor in how differently people react. comfy bi with a preference for women. smokes, but doesnt drink (anymore), and drugs only when necessary. blank stares. careful deliberation. sleeveless vests, leather chaps, cowboy boots.

-prefers val as she gets older, before just going by v when she starts doing merc work. follows the nomad lifepath pretty directly. born in the NUSA, traveling with the bakkers, etc. has that curiosity toward explosives as a child, up until she fucks around and finds out real quick. loses both arms and left eye, burns mostly on her face and upper chest/shoulder. that was the last time she messed with choo2 and gasoline. instead, shifts her energy toward tinkering with machines and cyberware. the latter she finds more enjoyable, but doesnt have many opportunities to experiment with except for her basic (hand-me-down) implants until she saves up herself for an upgrade.

-almost exclusively uses long-range rifles. highly skilled sharpshooter helped along immensely by her one cyber-eye. many problems can be solved this way, for any that cant, her gorilla arms are deceptively customized to deliver a lot more power than expected. not a boxer but enjoys fighting. doesnt get a lot of sleep, spends her nights doing body weight exercises, fiddling with her arms, reading, trying to meditate. professional to a T. whatever the scope is, she will follow it to the letter. not so much "has to be done right" more "thats what i was told to do"; however, she is prone to leniency. minimal deaths depending on the job and involved gangs. being newer to night city has her grouping gangs, corpos, cops, etc in the same bubble. except for shivs, they all get the bullet.

-"brief" history: mom shot by raffen shiv at 9. while tagging along her first patrol at 12, her dad is killed and she's captured alongside a few others when theyre ambushed by raffen (including another girl, sam). rescued after a week or so of rape and torture. her and sam end up becoming inseparable, bonding over their shared trauma. ends up being useful because she goes mute for a number of years with sam being the only person she talks to. becomes an angry violent teen, getting into a whole host of trouble over the years. between those moments, she helps with mechanic work, insisting she gets a fair trade of pay for her work, saving up for improved cyberware, specifically gorilla arms. violence and trouble get worse for a period after this before she gradually begins to soften (very much helped by her interactions with sarah). spends a lot of time alone, improving and modifying her arms and guns, endless target practice, generally honing her skills and abilities into something useful. works random repair and general modification until she starts legitimate merc work at 18.

-sarah connection: these two are THE sarah/enya pair. he is a traveling monk under a teacher who believes in reaching out to the forgotten of society. but not a bhikkhu (the in-game ones, who are ordained) but a ngakpa (under tibetan buddism). different colored robes and vows. theyll travel, spending a few days in an area before moving on. happy to explain their beliefs (which happens frequently enough), but their only real goal is to converse and learn about others. has a vague rotation so they come around every year or so.

-first runs into him at 16 (him 18, still going through training). distant curiosity a contrast to the rest of the teens. doesnt start bothering him until the next year, finding him when he goes to find a quiet spot to meditate to ask her own batch of questions. seeing as this is sarah dialed up to 11, he has a whole lot of suggestions for her, mostly meditative option. blows him off at face, but ends up following some ideas and finds they actually help.

-sarah is, well, sarah, so she finds him an incredibly comfortable and safe presence. helps her relax and open up more. especially so after they start secretly dating (he isnt that kind of monk, after all). plus, his frequent absences actually brings its own sense of contentment. they get married a couple years later when she's 21.

-since this enya/v follows the game, she does end up in night city, relic, johnny, etc. sarah manages to find her, as he does every year, and what with her whole dying thing, decides he's gonna put off his traveling until she figures it out or, well, dies. he's her rock!! okay!!

-for my own headcanon etc: endgame choice is to have the aldecaldos help out (because of course she'd join them), albeit with a whole host of hesitancy and regret after. the connection in arizona helps out because this bitch deserves a happy ending, dammit. relic and whatnot leaves her with a traumatic brain injury, and after all the shit in night city, both cant and wont do merc work anymore. rather, goes heavy into general mechanic/implant modifications which keeps her busy, well-paid, and content. sarah fully shifts into a householder lifestyle instead of traveling and they live happily ever after fuck u.

-some extra info:

=also low INT, cannot hack to save her life, but her people skills are more refined. more prone to not talking than blurting things out which usually works out for the better. =not a believer in buddism but supportive of her big hubby, and finds some of the practices useful for her own mental health. =has memory dampeners in place a few months after her abduction. part of the reason she doesnt touch alcohol is if she drinks too much, it fucks em up and she gets night terrors. relic eating away at her brain introduces the possibility of the dampeners failing at some random point, so she has those removed. misery and suffering for a brief period but gives her a way to deal with her trauma more directly. =her and sam consider each other what they call friend soulmates. they love and adore each other - which theyre fully aware came about because of the suffering they experienced together - but they wont ever be more than friends (albeit, very, very close ones). sam leaves the bakkers a couple years prior to them disbanding officially, but they both stay in contact.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

corpo; netrunner. monochrome theme. medium chrome. knives, overclock??, monowire.

-baby… baby boy (not really, he's a dick). i do NOT have a solid grasp on his character because the corpo lifepath bores me and i dont like netrunning but i needed someone to fill the role. that and i havent given male!enya (aidan) any real thought. drinks (excessively) but doesnt smoke. casual bi, big flirt, bigger narcissist and ego. pretty standard corpo jackass in the way he talks to people he deems lesser. blackout tattoos. toothy smirks. puppy dog eyes. folded hands. subtle designer clothes. long sleeves, dress pants, combat boots.

-aidan vincent (last name). goes by v/vin/vinny or vincent in general, aidan only with people he's close to. russian/japanese with split citizenship between night city/US and japan.

-NO idea what his "trauma at 12" enya hallmark is, but it does involve someone clawing out his eyes (hence, the scars and implants). was leaning toward one parent being in maxtac, maybe something with a cyberpsycho attack?? dunno yet.

-sarah connection: fem!sarah is seth! specifically sesu in this au as she's based in japan. making my own cyberpunk headcanon where arasoka also is very supportive of traditional entertainment and sports, including sumo. including female sumo because HELL yeh. proves herself and works her way to a higher level. him being involved with arasoka and travel etc. runs into her at a sort of after party. BIG old heart eyes immediately, this boy is a sucker for giant women. takes some work on his end but manages to convince her hes genuine and they have a strong but brief relationship.

-she's the one who ends it - in part, because she knows theyre both trying to focus on their careers, and his work in particular keeps him away more than either of them want. probably also the whole kill-or-be-killed attitude. not her thing.

-he's TOTALLY not bitter and disappointed and mad about this (< lying to himself constantly). overcompensates in his treatment toward others, flirting, and hookups.

-the random bits im making up as i type:

=NO clue on his future. dies sometime in thirties probably, something like he has a hit put out on him by a younger corpo and has gotten to the point of hardly caring so he gets caught off guard. unhappy but resigned. =high INT but people dumb. when he's got less of a stick up his ass, it's fairly obvious he's a himbo. extremely so when he likes the other person. =when he's not diving through the net and experimenting with backdoors and various ICEbreakers, he enjoys knife throwing. will happily play circus act when he gets drunk enough, but otherwise, the knives dont come out unless he aims to hurt someone. has a surprising number on him at all times from having an excessive amount of hidden sheaths stitched into his clothes.

-bonus fun fact about aidan: would unironically call himself a short king (he's 6 feet tall).

(if any of you actually managed to read through my brainrot, you deserve a prize holy shit i love u <3)

[figandthewasp]

@magic_of_i Mercury enters Virgo ☿♍︎ 8th PST 23:50 / 9th AEST 16:50

Mercury enters Virgo, picking up where it left off on August 14/15. Second time is the charm! Although we have the details that we lacked a few weeks ago, we’ve also been humbled by Mercury’s retrograde reality check. After being called out for bluster or forced to backpedal overzealous statements or little white lies, we’re primed to confess to gaps in our knowledge. But most importantly, we’ll see that there’s no shame in this game. Lacking information isn’t a personal failure, but rather an invitation to learn.

And learn we will! Mercury in Virgo presents an excellent opportunity to pick up a new skill, deepen a course of study or resume abandoned projects with renewed focus and clarity. Streamline your schedule. Have the talk. Get into the conversational weeds. Your attention is unlikely to drift.

Virgo season kicks into high gear now that the sun and Mercury are in the same sign. However, Mercury will make its passage through its domicile in just about two and a half weeks. That may seem like a short timeframe to maximize this transit’s full potential, but that’s not necessarily true. It’s more likely that we’ll slip into The Zone, tackling whatever tasks are on our plate at a healthy click. This could be your most efficient moment of the year! Expect a minor mishap on September 18 when Mercury opposes Saturn, fostering pessimism. Yet this obstacle can be quickly overcome. And while Mercury also clashes with Jupiter and Neptune during its travels, both mystical agents actually answer to Mercury now! The shorthand: we’ll handily resist the temptation to over-exaggerate and we’ll find it easier to recognize deceptive forces in our midst too!

[theblob-1]

Something I don’t see people talking about on being on the a-spec is that you have to come to terms with both your sexuality/romanticism and your lack of it. In my experience it’s pretty easy sometimes to get caught up in only asexuality, to focus on it and try to make yourself fit into its most primitive box, and so on seeing someone and feeling attraction immediately start self-flagellating. For me, even on years of working on sex positivity and acceptance of myself, I still react very negatively to attraction in real life and it’s much easier for that to go unnoticed, unchecked, and unresolved when you handle both sexuality and asexuality on a balanced platter.

I refer to sexual attraction more, to shorthand it and because that’s where my personal experience lies. Of course, it can mirror to other attractions (although I imagine the differing attitudes around platonic and romantic attraction would change it a bit. Tell me your experiences in the tags!).

[soumic]

Sorry long art ramble incoming- the screensaver hit the corner of my brain and I had a coherent thought about like, the ever-present online discussion around diversity in character design/illustration and the idea of “art style.” I’m thinking mostly about ‘anime art’ (but western comics/cartoons as well) because that’s what’s dominant in the circles I’m in, but I think it’s broadly applicable.

I wonder how we might move the discussion towards the idea that everyone’s art is influenced by broader movements and existing works, and that every art style/movement has an inherent set of values that are reflected in their aesthetic choices. All art looks at the world and makes choices about what to include and what not to, and that’s political. Anime art is really beginner friendly because the long line of artists in the industry sat down and made a bunch of choices about how to simplify drawing people in service of the speed/clarity needed for animation/comics. It’s much easier to copy anime style which has been engineered for ease of drawing than it is to draw from life. This is great! It’s one of the reasons anime is so popular and enduring as a movement. Because of this though, when you draw on anime in your work, you are drawing on a visual shorthand/iconography of the human body/face that reflects certain cultural ideals of how people should look- and nowhere is that more apparent than when the visual shorthand falls flat. This is where we usually see the online discussion crop up- issues with grey skin tones, lack of body/facial diversity, difficulty drawing older characters, etc. and that’s where you get the reflexive “but it’s just my art style” response. Now, of course, having anime (or any other) influence in your style is not inherently a bad thing! It absolutely is a pillar of my own style! But it is also not a value neutral thing. By repeating the anime art shorthand without reflecting on this, you are a) robbing yourself of a chance to develop your artistic eye, and b) blindly subsuming a set of ideals into your work that declares what types of people are worthy of being depicted. Skilled artists can recognize the limitations of the shorthand and draw on other influences, research, and fundamentals to fill the gaps.

This is what people are getting at when they say things like “if you can’t draw fat people you aren’t a good artist,” or when they critique the popularity of things like genshin. Those statements are designed to be provocative, yes, but that’s because the people saying them have a vested interest in pointing out how the dominant artistic trends fail them. I think the more we can stress the importance of developing a critical eye for the political elements of art, the faster we can move away from the canned “but my art style” defensive response. We gotta remind people, especially beginner artists, that it’s not a personal slight about their own creativity, but more that cultivating our catalog of artistic influence is a collective and ongoing responsibility that we all share. It should be a skill we aim to cultivate just as much our technical skills, and by framing it as a skill it leaves the door open for people to learn and grow.

[mdhwrites]

This is a me thing, but one trope I’m tired of with even if I understand why it’s used is a previously masked character having their face revealed to indicate they are sympathetic or a “real” character now. I think my main complaint is how it’s often used as an easy shorthand to indicate a character is now deserving of sympathy or more focus from the narrative without any other buildup. Hunter in Hunting Palisman is an example for me of the former, and Steve was an example of the latter (especially since he spent an entire episode with King with the mask on)

So I actually find this trope especially fascinating for TOH from the perspective that it could have been a one off episode concept about different ways people express themselves comfortably. Of Luz learning a lesson that is actually tied into the main theme of the show instead of the self expression stuff mostly being tied to the overall plot of the show. I'll get into that in a bit though because I do want to first talk about the difficulties of masked characters and how they're treated because while it's a pretty simple concept, it's one that's easily overlooked by people because we don't think about it.

So first there's just the basic human fact that we like things that look like us. It's easier to connect with them and to bastardize the other. This is kind of baked into our brains, as much as I wish it wasn't, and something as simple as a mask can be enough to cause disturbance, especially if the mask in question removes the ability to perceive someone's eyes and mouth. Not only are they lacking features we associate with ourselves, they've also robbed us of the ability to read their emotions through one of the two most expressive parts of the body.

This is especially true for animation. Ever wondered why Sonic the Hedgehog's eyes and hands are so big? That's because they're the most expressive parts of the body to most and so emphasis on them allows for easier broadcasting of emotions. The inverse of this is where you get mascot suits or Power Ranger actors where they HAVE to do big actions with their whole body and/or hands to get an emotion across because the subtleties of your face are lacking.

So when it comes to a character on screen, it is literally easier to connect to them without the mask and from a work standpoint, you don't have to be as creative/wild with your animation, or rely as heavily on your voice actor, with the mask off. It also comes with the extra perk that everything above makes the moment of taking off the mask feel like a moment when the walls come down. When a character is willing to open up and express themselves instead of hide.

And TOH… Does fine with this. Hunter gets no choice but even the first time we see him without his mask, with Belos and talking about wild magic, we're already getting vivid signs that he's actually a good person. It's why the claim of him and the Golden Guard are different characters exists. Literally anytime Hunter has the mask on, he straight up acts like an entirely different character.

Steve gets his unmasking moment but it's less about him opening up and more about removing the symbol of an oppressor and becoming his own person. I actually like Steve's more than Hunter's because A: the mask coming off is a choice and B: it's one of the few times where a character's arc still accounts for the past because while he leaves the EC, Steve isn't fundamentally different. His morals shifted but he is still the same laid back goofball we know, even if that episode has him at easily his most relaxed. It's not hard to go from class clown to chill stoner bro though.

So with all of that out of the way… I wish someone had kept the mask on and joined the good guys. Or just existed in general. I'm not even talking about the EC mask. Just a mask in general. Not everyone is comfortable with their face after all. Not everyone is comfortable with being able to be read constantly and having to manage their expressions. Being able to let their voice and hands do the talking is their form of expression that they're comfortable with.

Imagine the contrast possible between them and Luz. Luz hides NOTHING with her body language after all. She is a very loud character both in volume and action. This easily leads to going too far for her and I wish was the cause of more mischief for her but I can only immediately think of Winging it Like Witches and Covention where her non-stop flood of emotions is a problem for her.

Meanwhile, you have a dude who appears tall, brooding, scary as hell with the mask and… Isn't any of those things. He's just quiet and strong but still shares a kind heart and a focus. So while seeing an injured bird might raise enough emotions out of Luz to start panicking, he has the control to immediately start tending to its wounds. Contrasting that, the two could be at something like Grom together and he's obviously incredibly uncomfortable by the amount of people and social etiquette that he's constantly running through his brain. The small actions that could offend people that Luz doesn't think about because she's more optimistic about others.

It also allows an arc where Luz starts off not understanding why he wears a mask and even teasing him about it but eventually the teasing stops, she seems to start being able to read his emotions by the small movements and like that he makes and even defends him from being unmasked. When pushed about wanting to see the true him, she pushes back that the mask IS the real him. Because it's the him he decided to use.

And so we get a character climax… NOT of taking off the mask. Instead, the masked character says that they think it's time for a new mask, or at least an update, and asks Luz if they would like to help with that. And so something a bit happier, less blank and with a few more flourishes is made for him to wear. Something that shows his better nature more clearly and the influence Luz has had.

And yes, I effectively just made up a new side character that would probably replace Willow… Or Gus. This is probably something I should make a whole blog about, a blog about TOH's problems when it comes to themes and not having any filter on its jokes is probably warranted to. The basic concept though is that if TOH's number one lesson, number one theme, is self expression. Gus… Expresses themselves. All the time. Louder than Luz even. Admittedly, they actually DO get good stuff out of him about identity to this isn't like how Willow and Gus contradict the very plot of the show. It's just…

Again, something I A: need to give more thought to and B: deserves its own blog.

In general, talking about this kind of made me wish self expression, how people expressed themselves, the wide range of people who exist and their strengths as people, was more widely explored. Then again, when you have a statement screamed at the top of your lungs like "We weirdos gotta stick together!" (a line that BETTER come back in the finale honestly) in your first episode, it feels like a mission statement. A thesis on what the show is about.

HOWEVER, a rebuttable to all of this: It is much easier to amend than it is to create. It's much easier to sit on a high throne that can see it all and talk about what you believe would have made something better when you're not in the trenches and figuring this stuff out while also talking to studio heads, collaborators, etc. like that. This is, at literal best, a nitpick. It is exactly the sort of thing fanfiction is for. If I wanted to, I could write a theoretical episode about a masked character who becomes friends with Luz. That's what fanfiction is for. To turn speculation into some level of reality. Anyways, I hoped you liked the thought exercise and enjoyed the rambling. ^^; Which actually makes this a good blog to start finally adding schilling at the end of these because my own job as a content creator requires it. *sigh* ---------

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead,

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[vmures]

Today's musings are on the complex and fascinating bonds between humans and how those are viewed in various cultures. In particular, I want to talk about found family and my personal experiences regarding the topic.

First, I want to set the stage as to what larger cultural norms are at play for me personally. I'm a US American, generally raised in the South (though there were childhood years spent in the Southwest and Inland Northwest as well) who has, as an adult, largely lived in New England and the Mid-Atlantic regions of the US.

My bio family is...well the politest terms would probably be "a dumpster fire of generational trauma, dysfunction, and toxicity." Those relationships are complex and fraught with issues for the most part. I was fortunate to mostly patch things up with my dad before he passed and after he sobered up and acknowledged a majority of his fuckups as a dad. I still talk with my bio brother, and we love each other, but we're not particularly close these days. I haven't talked with my bio mom for twenty years. The only other person from my bio family that I'm close to is a second cousin who is only a year older than me and who was a dear friend to me growing up. Always felt more like a sibling than a cousin, to be honest.

Despite the lack of supportive and healthy relationships with my bio family, I have a wonderful found family that I've been a part of for more than twenty years. And the thing about familial relationships (found or bio) is that they are layered and complex, and sometimes it's easier to use shorthand to refer to relationships rather than a whole long ass story on how you are connected or, in the case of bio family, disconnected.

My found family is largely made up of a group of women and their partners, plus some of our extended friends. Most are in the same age range, with some variation. And we all consider each other family. For the core group, we tend to refer to each other as sisters, because that is the easiest way to explain our relationship to others. One couple tends to get referred to as the parental units of the group though we do not call them mom and dad.

One of the key reasons we end up using familial terminology to refer to each other is cultural expectations. These folks are my next of kin. They are the ones who will visit me in the hospital should something happen. It's a hell of a lot easier and quicker to say "sister" when visiting someone at the hospital, especially if someone is in critical care and only family is allowed. It was also easier when one of us had to go pick up one of the kids from school or something to be listed as their Aunt. People understand those relationship terms and it's shorthand to help you get through social situations without having to give a longwinded explanation of your relationship that makes you feel like the guy from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia with his conspiracy board.

Is this the case with all found families? No. Found families, like bio families, come in a wide variety of configurations. But I bet in certain situations, people do use shorthand just to bypass the cultural bullshit or restrictions that come into play (e.g. visiting someone in ICU). But I wanted to share my experiences and thoughts. Because I am getting a bit tired of some of the "stop using family terms for found family" dialogue. It feels a bit like a slap in the face and someone telling me that my lived experience isn't valid or real.

Like all such discourse, it is nuanced. I agree that people shouldn't police others' interpretations of things (i.e. tell someone they can't ship someone because they are siblings in a found family). But that is a different issue. One more related to people being unable to see that their interpretation doesn't supersede anyone else's--that there is no one true way to see anything. It's all filtered through our own experiences and views.

Human relationships are complex and varied across the board, and languages don't always have words to express those connections fully. English is fairly limited when it comes to words describing relationships. Add in that certain cultures, in my case US American culture, often favor some relationships more than others, and you have a bit of a mess that can make describing your loved ones and family challenging. It would be lovely if we could all keep that in mind when discussing these things. There are many ways to live your life and many types of families, found or otherwise. Maybe someone's experience is beyond your ken, but that doesn't mean it's less valid or real.

[llllillin]

Three writing systems from my conworld

A made a whole bunch of bad languages that I am too embarassed to showcase. But I also made writing systems for them, and I lack self-consciousness about those, so...

Säärňoviťa

This is the oldest surviving writing system from which the others derive. As such, I also made the logographs from which they derive.

From top to bottom, these are: the origin the shorthand the older cursive horizontal script the older handwritten shapes the newer printed glyphs

It is an abjad with featural vowel diacritics.

Here's how it looks in cursive:

The development of magical printing meant that closed shapes made paper break apart easier, so the following script became the de-facto standard.

Their number notation (don't ask about what the base is).

Uolhiskěla

Fascinated with the cursive script and calligraphic tradition, Uolha people developed their own writing system that better suited their language.

Here's the same sentence from the first showcase in the Uolha language.

Number notation:

Líwþalas Pfiþǿs

And finally a nice and simple alphabet with two variations.

The example in this third language:

They have two numeric systems, one decimal and one dozenal.

Bonus Round!

I have a few more languages in various stages of completeness.

One for a tonal language

Another a writing system developed by big sentient birds for quick messages scratched into bark.

A weird cypher thing

And a whole logographic syllabary that I will probably never finish.

[sixth-light]

I posted 2,059 times in 2022

110 posts created (5%)

1,949 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@ilikesallydonovan

@darlingofdots

@raedear

@angualupin

@starfoozle

I tagged 2,036 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#in the queue - 1,241 posts

#wheel of time - 210 posts

#wot book spoilers - 134 posts

#tumblr stuff - 90 posts

#the old guard - 89 posts

#ofmd - 89 posts

#wot tv show - 88 posts

#lgbtqia - 72 posts

#fandom - 69 posts

#fanart - 52 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#and she only asks about food in the context of 'are you having any digestive issues' and monitoring of things like iron and b vitamins

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I am extremely not going to dignify that 'walkable cities ARE ableist actually' post which has crossed my dash with a reblog, but four things to keep in mind:

'Walkable cities' is almost always a shorthand for 'cities which deprioritise cars as a mode of transport and make it possible and enjoyable to travel by other modes instead', rather than a call for everybody to walk and only walk everywhere all of the time. We live in a golden age of micromobility options, for starters. And when most people do not need to use cars, it will be much easier for people who do.

Advocacy for walkable cities and active transport often does slide right into ableism and fatphobia and this needs to be directly challenged whenever it appears (as someone who has been a cycle commuter my whole adult life and overweight for all but five minutes of my whole adult life, if I never hear "if everybody cycled we would solve the '''obesity epidemic'''!!!" again...)

AT THE SAME TIME, while this will change in degree from place to place, the Venn diagram between 'people who advocate for walkable cities' and 'people who advocate for accessible cities' has a significant degree of overlap. There's probably at least one car-centric conservative out there who genuinely advocates for accessibility by the law of averages, but it's neither a coherent nor common position. Walkability IS a form of accessibility. It is not accessibility for everybody but no single kind of accessibility is, which is why we need cities with MULTIPLE kinds.

Therefore, as with goddamn near everything in life, if you actually want to see more accessible cities...advocate for more accessible cities, and what that means for you. Going 'but there are some people who will always need cars therefore walkable cities is ableist' does exactly nothing except turn people off the idea of change. Say what you want to see. Be specific. Imagine better futures. TL;DR - cui bono when we lock ourselves into "cars vs walkability"? you guessed it - people who benefit from the (observably harmful) car-prioritising status quo. so is this assertion always a cynical psy-op? No. Does it function as one in practice? fuck yes. be smarter.

2,024 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

#4

 As of the morning of 17 Jan, local time, regarding the Tonga eruption: even nearby governments have extremely limited information on what has happened/is happening on the ground. Recon flights have not yet launched. The internet is down. There are 36 inhabited islands in Tonga and there has been no confirmed contact with most of them. There has been no formal government-to-government communication. We know there was a volcanic eruption, a tsunami, and significant ashfall following. That’s a good 90% of what’s reliably known. 

The impetus in these circumstances is always to “do something” but the reality is that there is almost nothing anybody outside Tonga can do right now. Quite frankly, if you don’t have a direct personal connection/knowledge I would hold off even on donating to fundraisers until there’s more clarity on what is actually needed and where that help can best come from. (It remains true as with almost all disasters that money is the best and most useful thing you can give; however, given the limited info/lack of contact and how little most people on the internet know about Tonga, this is going to be prime scammer territory.)

A lot of social media content that purports to describe local conditions is likely untrustworthy - there’s only been a few verified videos and images, because of the undersea cable being out of action. RNZ, which has an excellent and very active Pacific bureau, is being very conservative with its reporting because it does not want to promote misinformation. Just...cool your jets on this one for a few more hours or possibly couple of days, everybody. We don’t know what we don’t know. 

2,343 notes - Posted January 17, 2022

#3

I am very pleased for everybody losing their minds over Our Flag Means Death (I shall be watching it on the weekend) but if it’s alright, I’ll just be over here in the interim losing my mind that Tumblr’s new boyfriends are the Say No To Racism guy and the 2Degrees Ad Guy. 2022 is really Something Else 

3,149 notes - Posted March 25, 2022

#2

The thing that has been vexing me lately about Fantasy Historical Sexism (vs the real kind) is how it flattens out actual historical politics - particularly in the high medieval period, sexism against female rulers was a tool for people who were already their political opponents for political reasons, rather than a common primary motivator for contesting inheritance. Fairly large numbers of women in medieval Western Europe inherited estates ‘suo jure’, in their own right - not even getting into things like the political power of abbesses (who could often be those same women in retirement, or their sisters or daughters or mothers). 

Historical fantasy tends to be so obsessed with having One Special Woman Who Is Fighting Sexism that it actually erases from the popular conception of history the women who were already there, and the complexity of their lives, and it’s just...very...dull. 

4,379 notes - Posted September 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I think one of the things that makes OFMD feel freshest is how it balances being a romantic comedy and being queer - specifically, a romantic comedy about queer men (& Jim). Queer men are not unknown in the romantic comedy genre! But what makes the show stand out is how exceptionally careful it is to ensure that the fact of their romances, and of their queerness, is never the source of the comedy. It’s never meant to be funny that someone is queer, or that someone is in love. Coming out, even in the most casual and incidental way, is never used as a punchline. 

And yet, it’s also not a utopia where stereotypes about queer people and homophobia (the things that ultimately fuel those kinds of jokes) don’t exist - they do! But every time somebody tries to make them funny, it falls completely flat. It steps outside the acceptable bounds of the genre and the characters react to it in that way. Homophobia isn’t a central obstacle, it’s a faux pas. It’s not allowed to be funny and it’s also not allowed to take up space in the narrative by being the thing the characters must overcome to get their happy ending. Which is a hell of a balancing act.

That scene with Izzy trying to mock Black Pete and Lucius is absolutely crucial to this tone. These characters know they’re in a comedy and they react to things like they’re in a comedy, but they don’t react to his mockery like it’s a joke OR like it has power to shame them. They react like Izzy is embarrassing himself by failing to read the room - like he’s a bully, but a pathetic one. You can be evil in comedies and still be funny, but Izzy is committing the cardinal sin of failing to be funny...and what that does is draw very clear boundaries around what the show is going to allow as a legitimate joke. Homophobic jokes can only be funny when the people making them have consensus from the rest of the group that they’re funny. Instead, in this show, it is clear instead that they are acts of violence and (attempted) control. Which defangs them, because the ultimate power in a romantic comedy always comes from acts of comedy. I find it extremely powerful for a queer romcom to look homophobia in the eye like this and say “nah” than either to ignore it completely, or to make it a central problem.

It’s very very smart writing and acting and it should be cited every time someone tries to whine about comedy and boundaries and not being allowed to be homophobic/transphobic any more. You can be extraordinarily funny about queer people and be received well. Queerness just can’t be the punchline. 

10,662 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

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