#i feel it doesnt look like them emm

[pyopyok]

cue clown music

[imaginewithtearose]

Idk what your character limit is, so if you're only doing one character per request I get it if you only choose one, but can I request hcs of Chenya, Floyd, and/or Azul with a mute s/o?

Oh thanks for being considerate! I dont have a character limit for the moment, so im taking everyone here :) Such a cute Ask!!! Of course! I had fun writing this! I hope to see you again.

Chenya, Floyd, and Azul with a mute s/o (gender neutral)

Chenya!

Pretty sure he noticed right away. One of the first that does notice it after meeting you.

Its not a big problem! He is a really talkative cat, so he will find a way to communicate with you.

If he has to learn hand signs, he goes right after his dear friend Riddle. Im pretty sure he knows about it. And then, one sunny afternoon, you found your cat boyfriend in a three, hand singing you a "Hello!" Way too excited.

If you can hear, great, at least he learned to understand you. A big win for you two.

Wanna ask about the reason, but he will just wait until you tell him. He is a prankster, yeah, but he isnt someone to get into your business!

If someone makes fun of you because of this, che'nya just makes a uncomfortable silence until all realizes that it wasn't a fun joke and just runs. In case that doesnt work, che'nya is ready to make that person so scared with his unique magic that he doesnt wanna go back! Never!

Those pranks doesn't make sense, thats what he says. But you know when he winks at you that its his form to say he loves you. Even if saying every day in every form was enough lol.

Anyways, that doesnt save you from his pranks. It just make them more personable!

He wants to see your expressions, all of them, fear, joy, and sadness. Well, not so much your sad face--

One time he just writed a sign that said "look up" and his head was just there, that how you meet him! You were the first person on all of hearstlabyul that falled in the prank! Hahaha!

A little disappointed that couldn't hear you scream but after he learned that you are mute he just went :00000

For your anniversary he makes the same prank and you do a big act of falling into it again. Seeing you smile dorkly makes him wanna hug you all day.

In general, a very supportive cat-boyfriend :)

Floyd

What does it mean that you cant talk???? Do you not want floyd to hear you???? Maybe if he hugs you with all of his force your voice will be out!!

Jade stopped him before he did this, dont worry about your health.

He is a little... Emm... He doesn't understand at first. Of the three, he just, cant understand.

Until he remembers that story with a mute mermaid! Ohhh! So you're like her!!

When you nodded, he just happily jumped to hug you.

Jade has to teach floyd how to read hand signs, he didnt do well. But when you offered to teach him, he was a little puppy behind you!!

He rapidly learned and used this to his advantage.

"look y/n this fish doesnt know what im saying to him!!!!!" He was just saying "dumb fish" lmao.

Aggressive agains everyone who makes fun of you. Even if you dont care or notice it. No one can say anything bad to his little shrimp.

Floyd just goes with the flow with this, he learns the basics and if you need something specific, you write it down.

A very supportive and funny eel. I can imagine him being your support and always going behind you so everyone know about his fabulous partner!!

Doesn't make you feel inferior tho, he is just excited about this

In fact, he didnt admit it at first, but you caught his attention because of this.

The curiosity didn't kill the eel, but instead give him an awesome partner :)

Azul!

Yeah he is a nerd and all but didnt notice that at first. He just thinks that you are shy and dont want to talk to everyone. Same tho, he says mentally.

Until he has to talk to you about something, and he sees you using hand signs.

“Oh, so thats why...”

Another one that doesn't stop comparing you to that little mermaid who lost her voice for love. Sorry y/n.

Makes everyone at the mostro lounge learn hand sign language. He already know btw. But he just wanted to make you feel comfortable in there.

Another one that if someone makes jokes or bothers you about this, well... Just might warn you that their reputation will fall until apologizes to you lol.

You never suspected about the octopus boi. Well not never but-

He just loves to take walks with you around octavinelle or the nrc, while making you take his arm like the gentleman he is. He likes see you express your day to him. And vice versa.

The way you two became close was because he wanted to take advantage of this condition to make you sign a contract for your voice back. But slowly, he realized that you didnt need something like that, you expressed yourself better than him.

And thats when he falls in love. And ironically, you are the one that confess.

This octo-boi will be with you all the way. A sweet boyfriend who will help you like a true gentleman, or that will cry like a little baby in your arms.

Hope you like this answers!! Have a good day!!!

[writingwithcolor]

Showing Culture: POC Representation Speed Round

Representing POC in Ancient Fantasy Scotland

@adoliin submitted:

hello there! i’m an artist currently working on writing a high fantasy comic. the story all takes place in a made up country heavily based off of ancient scotland (i’m scottish and white). i want to include plenty of poc in my comic, but religion and culture within this setting (which takes place entirely in one small country) is fairly homogenous -  not many people visit and the church is totalitarian, which is important to the plot. 

my initial plan was to create people who happen to be poc but otherwise don’t differ in their culture or religion from the white characters, but of course that are unique in other ways. but i have no idea if that’s a good idea or not -  i’m very aware that the culture and religion that are in the story are based on things practiced by ancient white people, and don’t want to whitewash characters in this way - if that is what i would be doing. 

should i definitely make room to represent other types of cultures and religion in the story, and not just skin tone? any advice is very appreciated.

Yes to your last question. The thing with POC in Europe is like, they gotta come from somewhere! Because of some form of migration, they ended up from the places they were originally from. So your world has to account for the existence of these other cultures. Even if the POC characters’ are multiple generations away from the initial diaspora, they’re still going to have remnants of that original culture embedded in their home life and customs. Since your main setting is already based on a real-life place, just code your POC with other real-life identities. 

Here’s a link on avoiding White As Default and incorporating markers of POC identity. Also see Emme’s response in the very last ask in this post. 

~ Mod Rina

Coding Effectively, “Indonesian Culture?”

@wintersrchild submitted:

Heya! In this fantasy story I’m writing I do a lot of detailed worldbuilding and history for several different cultures/countries over a long period of time (on the scale of centuries). Because I can’t really cover every aspect of life I want to base those countries on existing cultures (especially so I could use already existing languages for names), however I want my countries to still be their own independent thing affected by the events in my story not just irl culture+magic, kinda like how most fantasy is based on medieval europe without actually being europe. 

My question is how should I go about this without coming across as disrespectful? Since I am essentially using that culture only for inspiration/aesthetic and want to leave a large space for my own creativity, which feels like it could very easily come across as insulting if I’m not careful. If it matters any I plan on using Indonesian culture for basis and if that’s the wrong term it’s because I still need to do most of the research ^^“

Read more fantasy that codes multiple cultures effectively (I like Tamora Pierce, Nahoko Uehashi and N.K. Jemisin). Without further detail, we can’t provide advice. Don’t be afraid to do your research, do your coding and then come back to us for our opinions.

- Marika. 

Re: Indonesia, as far as I’m aware this is just a national border and says nothing about the religious and ethnic diversity within. I also prescribe research!

~Mod Rina

Showing Nationality Where There’s a Disconnect from All Nationalities?

@alduranattackdog​ submitted:

So, I’m writing a story with the main characters having come from a nation cut off from every other country, such as China and Mexico, meaning that race indicators for them are unconnected to any nation. Is there a way to say “This person looks Dominican”, for example, without using nations that doesnt stem around foods and colors?

I have already stated the dangers of equating coding to racial appearance by nation (Post here, scroll down to my commentary). However I think the bigger problem is I don’t understand what you are asking us. 

- Marika 

I’m confused. If you’re cut off from every other country to the point you’re completely disconnected, then why would you describe someone as a certain nationality? If I’ve never heard of China as a country, then I wouldn’t describe an Asian person as Chinese. In fact, I really wouldn’t describe people by their nationality at all.

- SK

Indicating POC Race in Urban Fantasy

@genotaurus said:

I'm fearing I might be oversimplifying things for me when trying to write PoC characters. I for example write a multi POV Urban Fantasy where there is a magical society still on earth with the same countries and everything, but with highly different view points on, for example, sexuality and gender. "Normal" humans exist, but don't do much. Now, the story takes mostly place in Germany and I have written two prominent black characters, one protagonist and love interest. But I don't really indicate race in my story. I'll describe the skin, hair and eye color of every character (+ details like scars if they have any), but not really much else. Am I creating some type of unnecessary out for myself by making their descriptions so simple?

I think that (even if your story’s world doesn’t contain elements of racism/xenophobia) the fact that POC tend to keep their native cultures even with assimilation, is a very normal thing among diaspora. It’s not something that people would have a problem with reading, and actually much more realistic than having 100% culturally-assimilated POC (especially in a West-European country like Germany). 

I celebrate American holidays and whatnot, living in the United States. At the same time, my family also speaks Chinese, celebrates Lunar New Year, and lives by Twn/Sgp-Buddhist principles. 

While people living in one country generally share many cultural elements, you should remember that (especially with POC in a West European country like Germany) diaspora from other places of the world retain a lot of their original cultures, even in assimilation (myself a prime example). I’ll link you to our tag on assimilation where you can look for OwnVoices feedback to asks pertaining to this.

In fact, there are really simple ways that you can represent us beyond physical appearance! It doesn’t take a lot of work to do as these are really just small, everyday things.

Foods that they eat at home, restaurants that they frequent

Holidays and cultural occasions that they celebrate

Music that they listen to, instruments that they play

Language: name, culturally-specific phrases/vernacular English, other languages that they’re fluent in, name honorifics (which can also be used to indicate relationships between people!)

So many more: religion, principles, parenting styles...

I also encourage you to read the coding tag on our blog-- we have plenty of asks about coding tastefully if you’d check that out. :)

Although choosing not to write about POC cultures is something you can get away with your world still being called (ethnically) diverse, there’s also that facet of cultural erasure with not allowing us to celebrate the elements that make up our (socially-constructed) races. It takes a long time and some very specific situations in which POC retain their ethnicity/typical physical traits of their people, while being 100% integrated into a completely different society.

If you’re still on-the-edge about writing this, I urge you to check out our post on braving diversity from a while back. I think that a lot of your oversimplification of things stems from fear of misrepresenting us; However, with the right effort and work put into research, I think that including the little everyday things that POC do, can truly let you write something different, grow as a writer, and allow others to feel represented in fiction. :)

~ Mod Emme

[scalproie]

dee emm cee 5 anon back at it again! ive had nero for less than 24 hours but if anything happened to him id kill everyone in this room and then myself. i have a few more thoughts on him than that but its the most important one. you were right... son boy... i got to play as v and... words cannot describe how confused i am as to whats going on in every single fight. also i have no idea how they managed to create a character from basically every goth stereotype ever, and then he ends up being cool instead of cliche AND doesnt seem out of place in the game. hes chill so i like him but hes also v sus, as the kids say, and i picked up on enough spoilers to believe im right about this, i just have no idea how it all fits together... yet. i also tried all my moves in the void and wrote an itemized cheatsheet of them but i lack practice oh so severely... im lowkey scared of getting to dante bc that seems like an overwhelming amout of new stuff... but i asked for it didnt i?

DEE EM CEE 5 ANON HELL YEAH

So happy you feel that way about Nero... rejoice. son boy be upon ye. Im here whenever you wanna articulate your other thoughts on him but I get it. I love him too.

ABOUT V- YEAH. when i'll be able to, im really hype to play as him because of how chaotic every fight with him look. I hope youve made good use of the "designated poetry button", and did you had the orchestra taunt? Ive seen quite a few footage of it and it just look like the coolest thing ever in the middle of combat with rise of the valkyries and everything.

And yeah hes sus, so excited to see you find more about this 👀 i personally dont care about spoilers so youll find a lot on spoilery stuff on my blog if you wanna avoid that

Dont worry too much about dante, id say it start slow enough, all four styles are immediately available but you start with just 4 weapons: 2 melee and 2 distance, and it build up from there so its not immediately overwhelming. One thing is that Dante takes practice if you wanna pull some really cool combos and flashy moves, so from what youve told me I think hell be perfect for you

[ayuforreal]

Pillow talks.

*Chapter 46 from the book I can never complete. * "please dont break.." i whispered as i stood in front of the mirror checking how i looked.. "what the fuck naina.." i didnt notice KV standing right near me. he might have heard my little conversation with objects like mirror and shoes and things.. "too late to realize i'm weird." i shrugged and sat on the bed to tie my shoelaces.. "as quoted in Benjamin button,  its never too late or too early to be whoever you want to be.. so mending that," he sat next to me, reciting all those bleh bleh words.. "ugh." i rolled my eyes on him at which he chuckled. "dont you have to use the mirror? i left it for you.." being done with my laces i was finally ready to go. "do i look like i need to ?" he smirked as he stood up showing up his perfection. how was he always so well dressed. i've seen guys spending around half an hour to set their hair like the way they want and this guy is so sexy in any way, no significant effort. how did he do that.. i looked at his perfectly set hair and stroked my hand all over them, totally messing them up.. "now you do" i laughed and picked my bag quickly and sprinted away from the room before he could catch me. he tried running after me but i was long gone. on my way,  i fell at the entrance of the elevator and got a bruise on my cheek.. if i wasn't so experienced in falls, i would have cried and called for first aid but instead i womanned up and stood like nothing happened. later when we joined other down in the lobby to start our trips, KV didnt really notice my bruise because of my bangs on the opposite side but somehow Amruta did. "oh my god Naina..what is this.." concerned she touched my cheek and i shrieked so loudly. "eh nothing.." i replied as i moved her hand away. "Nainaa how did you get this?" kv touched my cheek in the softest way possible. "KV? what did you do?"  divya joked. "divya does this look like a hickey to you? stop that " Amruta snapped. "no she was alright in the room.something might have happened like right now" kv ignored divya's joke. "guyyysss i'm okay. i just tripped in front of the elevator and knocked my cheek.. its fine. i get bruises like this always! dont worry.." i shooed everyone away from my closest vicinity and smiled widely. although it hurt like hell but still i did.  "oh and whats a hickey?" i asked in that lethal amount of innocence that could be easily taken as stupidity.. it wasnt even 2 whole seconds that all four of them started laughing hysterically. but kv wasnt laughing.. "she's so cute aahahahahaha" Rudra laughed. Kv , lightly smiled and wrapped my shoulders by his hand and started heading back to the hotel.. "emm going for first aid. will take 5 minutes max" he waved as Adarsh and Rudra still laughing got inside the rover. "why the fuck were they laughing." i asked again. "because you're the cutest creature on this earth.. and i love you." he spoke slowly while putting an ointment on my skin. "they were laughing bcz you love me? of course thats a thing to be laughed about but also, they were laughing because i asked what a hickey was." "Naina. why dont you google it how to give an hickey?" he hid his smile by his hand while i opened my phone to check. "uh oh ..." i made a weird face. "that.oh." love bites!!!! fucking love bites !! yes my bruise does look like a love bite !! "i'm such a fool." i made an awkward face.. "haha its okay." "but the question remains, how do you get them?" i asked, totally confused. "Naina..eh. enough embarrassment for today ?" he sighed and smiled. and we returned back to them so that i can be totally flushed. that day i bonded with everyone except Divya who was way too jealous and reluctant to talk. rest, everyone seem to like me. Amruta found me really cute and honest so she was mostly with me for the rest of the day..like we were some sorts of best friends. we came back early that day as our road trip tiredness was piled up too.. coming back to the room and lied on the bed switching on the tv.. i put on my pajamas and my sweater.. had a habit of changing back to pajamas as soon as i come back from any place.  i was so fucking unaware of the fact that there was also a second person with me. probably my boyfriend.kept on lying there untill i fell asleep there.. half on the bed and half on the floor.  idk for how long was i asleep but i heard somebody switched off the tv. and that woke me up. "get up naina..sleep here." he held my arms, picking me up.. "how long were you here?" "emm 15 minutes maybe" "why didnt you wake me up, was i sleeping like this all along? why didnt you wake me up??" "bella i was watching you sleep.." and he laughed, looking really proud using that twilight's reference..  "duh..word of advise, never switch of tv or music after i'm asleep. because thats the reason i was asleep. when the sound's gone, believe me i'll know." i sat on the bed half hugging the pillow. he sat on the bed, extremely far from me as if he was way too nervous to sit close. "eh kv? are you a guest here? why are you sitting like its my home and you've been invited half heartily" he gave me a questioned look and i understood.  he was feeling awkward from my behalf..we were officially staying in the same room. was that the problem but why was this freaking him out? like i was so cool with it. since a year or more we've been staying in each other's houses, hanging around in each others rooms, and that too in a close way. ahem, in a comfortably close way. "hey, come here" i reached my hand for him and made a puppy face, this always kills the awkward silence between us. always a way too make him smile. and there we were lying next to each other, just a pillow between us (because i had a bad habit of hugging something and sleeping, usually a stuffed bear but i sometimes use a pillow). "are you tired too ?" i asked. "yes" he whispered. "you know i really enjoyed today. too cold but really nice." "hmm" "it doesnt snow here,too bad.. but do you like the cold here?"  i was literally darting questions at him. and all he did was stare at me. "yes" he smiled and suddenly touched my bruised cheek. "how can you manage to stay pretty even with one purple cheek." his touch was so comforting and appropriate accompanied by his contended stare.  well nothing in the day but this made me blush so hard. i couldn't jump back from the bed but instead i lowered my eyelids and i can feel the hear emitting from my cheeks and ears. i didn't say a word and closed my eyes. was he still looking at me? well why was he.. too afraid to open my eyes, i closed them for few minutes till i actually felt sleepy. i was hoping somewhere between these 5 hours, i could lose this pillow. a huge mistake to keep it between us.