#i might swap lot 36

[witchblade]

The autopsy -> the viewing -> the murmuring -> lot 36 -> Pickman's model -> the outside -> graveyard rats -> -> -> -> grim contemplative silence -> -> -> -> dreams in the witch house all of them were kinda corny though so :)

[cbrownjc]

Hi! Hope you don't mind but I wanted to ask your opinion on some stuff we learned in ep 6 and possible repercussions for Daniel's character. So we get the super heavy-handed wink wink nudge nudge "body switch" line from Raglan, which imo definitely implies they are gonna go there at some point - body switching *will* be a thing.

Before this, I was actually pretty hopeful that at some point, Armand was going to turn old man Daniel into a vampire. Not sure yet how and when it would happen, but it felt like they were building towards it (also having not forgotten the super sus levodopa treatment from probably-a-vampire Dr. Fareed). But if they're going to introduce body switching (and it feels significant that this line was said to Daniel so I doubt it will NOT involve him at all), then that no longer makes sense, right? Why bother turning old man Daniel when they're gonna body switch his spirit with what I suspect might be a cloned younger version of him (played by LBF ofc)? I realize I'm making a lot of assumptions here lol but the hints are there, aren't they? Mostly I just really don't want Eric to be written out of the show - I'm so attached to his version of Daniel (though I also want to see more of LBF - I'm so torn lmao).

Where do you think they're going with this?

Hi,

Okay, so. IF older Daniel is turned and IF the body switch is still in play, I feel there are multiple scenarios going on as to where this could be going.

The first thing we have to look at is who we might see turn older Daniel if it happens. (And which I already predicted after last week's Inside the Episode for ep 2x05 gave away that the IWTV book was going to be published I think very likely is going to happen this season.) If it's Armand who does it, then it is 100% Daniel who is being turned. If it's Louis -- or anyone else -- who does it, then it 100% is not Daniel who is being turned IMO, but Raglan James -- no matter if it's Eric that we see getting bitten, drained, and turned by Louis . . . or any other vampire.

Because this show did not go to all the trouble it did in this latest episode (2x06) to specifically discuss how Armand has never once in his whole vampire life made another vampire and then not have him be the one to turn his one-and-only book-canon fledgling.

So if we see anyone other than Armand turning older Daniel at some point? Then that is Daniel's body being turned, but Daniel's actual soul/spirit/consciousness will for sure be somewhere else. Even if we don't actually see the switch happen beforehand.

If this is the case, Daniel's soul/spirit/consciousness will be in some other body -- most likely Justin Kirk's -- and I can see a scenario where Daniel doesn't want his older body back because it's now a vampire. So a new body is made for him -- via clone or whatever -- by Dr. Fareed that is younger, but not super young or something (and played by LBF -- whom I myself have already pointed out is 36 years old right now . . . meaning he could realistically play someone 40 years old IMO).

So this way, Daniel is still human, just in a different body now. And his older body is now a vampire and . . . IDK, goes off to join in on the Great Conversion thing, I'd guess. Or, maybe James just goes off to do what he did in the TotBT book but then, maybe something goes wrong with him in Daniel's older body -- maybe he's not fully anchored to it or something because this is the first time he's ever jumped bodies. Or maybe something else goes wrong (put a pin in this). And so James jumps bodies again, but he now wants to be a vampire again really bad. Which now sets up for him plotting to steal Lestat's body and the whole TotBT storyline.

However, if we see Armand turn older Daniel? I do think they could still be setting up for the body swap but, IMO, it might go more like this if they are:

Older Daniel gets turned and, just like his book counterpart, goes mad sometime very soon after he is. And I think the earlier in the show's run that Daniel gets turned the more likely we are headed toward the book scenario of Daniel losing his mind after he is turned. Because even I have kind of glossed over the fact Daniel being turned by Armand didn't lead to a happy ending for them both -- not right away. Things actually went really bad for them for decades afterward. Daniel went mad, and he and Armand were separated during that time he was, for over 20 years before Daniel finally healed and reunited with Armand again.

And while I don't think Daniel's turning on the show will lead to a +20-year separation -- because Armand and Daniel have already done that on the show -- we are very much not out of the woods on older Daniel going mad once he is turned IMO. I think Daniel going mad after he's turned is not only very much in play but will happen at some point if he is.

And, in the show? Daniel might not just go mad because he's unable to deal with what he now is or he's angry at Armand about, well, a whole lot of things. IMO, the body swap hints might also point to something, even more, being at play here. (Pin!)

This, however, is where my thoughts on these things get a bit more possibly depressing because -- I'm not 100% sure that turning older Daniel would cure his Parkinsons. Because Parkinson's isn't like cancer or being poisoned or dying from being shot or something. Parkinson's is specifically a neurological disease.

And one thing that the books have shown is that The Blood does NOT cure something neurological.

In the books, one of the twins, the vampire Maharet, was blinded before she was turned. And she isn't able to just take some human eyes and put them into her empty eye sockets and have that work permanently. The human eyes just continue to die within her eye sockets and that is because even The Blood can't heal the nerves connecting them.

We also see that The Blood doesn't help with neurological problems with the character of Mekare -- the other twin -- in the book Prince Lestat. Now, I'm only up to Chapter 15 of that book, but I have read past the part in that book where Jesse talks about Dr. Fareed examining Mekare, particularly her brain. Because while Mekare had her tongue cut out before she was turned, something happened to her mind as well. And this is what Jesse says was discovered after Mekare was examined by Fareed (via a CAT scan and other ways):

"They said Mekare was mindless," said Jesse. "They said the brain in her head was atrophied. They said there was so little indication of brain activity that she was like a human in a coma, kept alive by the brain stem alone. Apparently, she'd been entombed for so long, possibly in a cave, no one knew, that even her sight had been affected. The powerful Blood actually hardened the atrophied tissue over time [. . .]"

What this tells me is that there is probably not going to be any reversal wrt Daniel's Parkinson's once he's turned. Daniel's brain, and nerves, might just do like Mekare's did -- harden at the point they are at now. Keeping things forever in the degenerative state they are at whenever he's turned.

The Blood can kill cancer cells, destroy poison within the body, eradicate diseases like TB from the body, and even heal cuts and wounds. But it doesn't seem to be able to do anything for neurological issues, going by the books. It freezes things where they are when you are turned wrt that and does not repair them.

So older Daniel going mad after he's turned? Might not just be because of being unable to fully deal with now being a vampire. It might also be because he was turned while his body had health issues that even The Blood cannot fix. And while he will no longer age or die, Daniel might still have his body's neurological issues that were there when he was turned, just now forever frozen in that state where they were. Just like it remained so for the twins.

The show specifically focused on Daniel's shaking getting worse in episode 2x02 when he was under emotional stress/duress, which is very much a Parkinson's thing. As I know I've said more than once, I took care of my mom for 10 years while she had Parkinson's, and because so I've hyper-noticed these things -- the camera very much sometimes focusing on Daniel's shaking this season. Daniel's shaking was even commented on by Louis just last week.

And if Daniel is turned soon, well . . . imagine having to live with something like that for eternity?

And so just like with Maharet and her eyes, which Dr. Fareed figured out how to give her permanent ones that would never die in her head, (and also knew he could give Mekare a new tongue but, at least as far as I've read that offer hasn't been accepted -- and doing something for her brain was likely out of the question given that she was the Sacred Core at that point meaning her brain was fused with Amel's spirit . . . operating on that would very likely put every vampire in the world in danger), maybe this will have Dr. Fareed coming up with a new, cloned body for Daniel that don't have those neurological issues?

And then maybe that body gets stolen by Raglan James in a later season and we get the TotBT storyline that way? I can see being one way into it.

As it is, I know that making bodies for spirits to occupy does become a thing in the books after Prince Lestat. So their being able to do so is likely going to be established at some point -- and this could be one way they do so.

But, either way, if older Daniel is turned anytime soon, these are the two ways I can see it going afterward, and probably why they are also dropping body swap hints as well along with it. Because I don't think Daniel being turned is going to be simple, or lead to something happy right away. Again, it didn't in the books.

And really, this all just kind of backs up why I wasn't ever really feeling Daniel being turned anytime soon. But I realize now that my wanting the show to wait before they did so was the more happy way I was looking at it to go.

But this is Gothic Horror. And while I don't think Eric will be "written out" right away or something, I don't think whichever scenario I've given for all of this will lead to something happy. Not for a long time. There is just too much already in the source material that points to it not, IMO. And I think the show is very much setting up for that as well with the hints it's clearly dropping wrt all of this.

[knife-eared-jan]

In case anyone is interested, this is the modding wishlist so far...

The bold ones are what I would very much like to try to have fun with myself, the others are a sobbing plea to the universe for someone to take pity on me bc I figured I probably lack the skills to make them myself.

They're roughly ordered by how desperate I am for them to exist.

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

-Remove combat VFX (except mages & bombs reduced) -> sadly this doesn't seem to be part of the accessibility features which are otherwise great, but like, my autistic brain literally fries up with all the flashiness, I'll just meltdown 24/7. If you know how to do this, I would love you 5ever.

-Isabela outfit swap + darker skintone + age-up -> this is terrible in so many ways. Can't believe how they butchered my girl jfc I thought we were done with this type of shit??? (That was the spoiler I saw just now hooo my god). Also, let her be in her 50s pls!

-Morrigan outfit overhaul + hairstyle swap (to 36) -> Free her from the double boobs! Also, her actual hair is basically in the CC, why give her that millenial mum haircut? And again, let her be nearly 50.

-Qunari face texture edit -> needs no explanation, I bet it will be the most popular mod of the game forever

-Shadow Dragon PJ swap (mage outfit without shoulder pads?) -> it's PJs 2.0 and I don't like it. I guess that's why they gave Inky the same outfit, cause it just really looks like that. I got obsessed with this other one that is essentially the mage outfit sans the shoulder thing. I think that would make a great casual outfit.

-Inquisitor outfit overhaul/swap -> see explanation for the Shadow Dragon PJs. It makes perfect sense as a stand-in for the Inquisition PJs but then my Inkys are never actually subjected to them. Hope there is a Dalish outfit or otherwise a Veil Jumper one, that fits my Lavellan. It would also be fun to craft my own with pieces of different armors from Inquisition and Veilguard maybe.

-Inquisitor prosthetic replacement -> There's lots of different headcanons people have for theirs and it's sad there isn't a slider for different options. I don't even know yet what I'd like myself, but something a little more obviously a prosthetic I think. Or none at all maybe. Just, choices are cool.

-Mourn Watch Rogue armor retexture -> I am apparently the only person on this planet to feel this way, but I loathe the Mournwatch rogue armor - it just gives Joker. Like, I might like it in a TOTALLY different setting, but it does NOT give Thedas at all. Love the controversial mage one though, so I guess i'm just weird.

-Irelin hairstyle swap (to 64) -> to match the hairstyle she had in The Missing that fit her much better. Again, it's in the CC, why didn't they just use it?

-Solas face texture edit (no orange contour, bigger scar, more freckles?) -> look how orange you are, gurl! Like, I'll live without it, but I am bothered... I bet the creation of his scar comes up in the memories as well, so why is it so smoll.

-Solas retina change to more outer blue -> I get that he's cool and mysterious now, but I liked the blue a lot. just personal preference tho

[dangermousie]

As I was telling @aysekira, I am definitely obsessed with Iron Family now.

I think what really gets me is the slice of life feel with potential for angst.

You might think I don't like slice of life since there are so many I rant about or end up disappointed in, but that is actually not the case. Slice of life is not like romcom, where I genuinely only like one if it abandons romcom trappings for melo or some other genre. Some of my favorite dramas have been slice of life ones, where you feel like you are peeking at real people - Aishteru to Ittekure, Utahime, Sapuri, Worlds Within, Gloria, Family Honor, Go Ahead, Run On etc - they are all "peeking at real people" with a side of melo (because I am still me :P)

The problem for me is this is a genre that when done well is exquisite, but it is hard to do well. And if not done well, it ends up either boring as heck or like a failed student arthouse project, trying too hard.

And what Iron Family does so well so far is to convey that realness. It's actually a mix of everything because it has the runtime and the mindset to be - there is goofy comedy, and workplace hijinks, and potential for romance. But there are also lovely, achingly realistic family dynamics and that is what sells it for me - the elderly grandparents facing health scares (I already cried because of them in ep 2!!), the widowed mother - loving but harried, the brother who is ready to move out and is surly in that realistic way (where he's detaching but he's not mean or abusive, just trying to find his independence), the responsible oldest daughter (our FL) - failing not to hope but rather crushed by life, the aunt who is divorcing and isn't keen on taking her kid etc etc etc.

I was struck by the scene of family dinner in ep 2 - all the dynamics around food and swapping plates and adding ingredients and convos. It felt like looking at a real family; this drama does stuff with food as character development. The scene where ML's mom visited him at the hospital, made a face at the food she got versus his sick meal, and after token demurring accepting his swapping their meals (tho he was supposed to be eating stuff good for sick people) tells a lot about their dynamics without needing to waste time; and that's another thing I like btw - she's not a great mom and we can see that, but she's not abusive or monstrous, just selfish in that realistic way.

The potential for angst and melo is here - grandma likely has stomach cancer, FL is slowly going blind and the shot to reverse it before it's too late costs $800K which her family does not have (so she doesn't let them know) etc etc. But within that framework, they feel like real people.

It's like the backstory for the future OTP. There is no unforgettable tragic love story, no mad angst, no his being a villain or w/e. They had a mutually satisfying one-night stand, he badgered her into a phone number (despite her saying she didn't want to give it or she'd hope) and then never called. It's a realistic immature college kid thing to do. Not great, not villainous, just life.

Because this drama has 36 eps, it has room to breathe and develop all these dynamics. It's not rushed from story point to story point. It has the luxury of having a competent scriptwriter and competent actors and letting them do their thing. There are too many kdramas lately where they feel so gimmicky and so SMUG (I don't know how to phrase it better), and this one does not. This feels like what I feel in love with kdramas for.

[salt-hag]

fall 2024 cdrama + kdrama check-in list

haven't done a check in/wrap up post of dramas watched in a while so wanted to do one before the end of the year ✨ hoping to have finished a lot of these and have a list of reviews at around new years

dramas watched

story of kunning palace (cdrama)

8.5/10 for me. This is my year of loving costume period cdramas and I kicked it off with sokp. Really enjoyed the time travel/redemption plot line and Bai Lu as a somewhat reformed evil empress.

the legend of shenli (cdrama)

9/10 for me. A little slow in places but this goes down in my list of fav drama romances. Badass and admirable female lead and quirky oddball male lead who simps for her (as he should). I found the fantasy somewhat goofy but lovably so. This is a *comfort* show for me now. Has the best happy ending/post finale last episode I've seen up to now.

the double (cdrama)

9.5/10 for me for the sheer melodrama. Is this technically a better drama than the legend of shenli? No, of course not. Is it entertaining as hell? Yes, so it's gets a .5 boost. Costume period one-woman's-revenge, absolutely delicious. Hilarious male lead who loves the drama of it all and is very handsome. I was telling a friend about this and she was confused. Weren't you just watching this earlier this year? No, dear reader, she had the revenge stuff confused with Story of Kunning Palace. I have a type, and that is conniving women getting what they want in beautiful period costumes while a handsome, competent man answers their beck and call and simps all the while.

currently watching

RIGHT NOW: Are You the One (cdrama) - ep 22/40

This started out as costume period brain popcorn for me but now there's intrigue and back-stabbing and a clever woman out-scheming men in power so. yeah i'm enjoying this i guess whatever...

RIGHT NOW: Cinderella at 2am (kdrama) - ep 3/10

I haven't watched a kdrama in a while and I wanted a comforting, brain-popcorn modern rom com. I think this will deliver.

My Journey to You (cdrama) - on ep 20/24

I am DETERMINED to finish the gorgeous scheming assassin ladies period drama. I WILL. It's just the main plotline made me snooze a bit at ep 20 so it's taking me a while.

The Princess Royal (cdrama) - ep 6/40

Snowfall (cdrama) - 17/24

dropped or on hold (I'm a mood watcher)

[on hold] Love Like the Galaxy part 2 (cdrama) - ep 12/29

[on hold] Meet you at the blossom (uncensored period BL, Thai) - ep 4/12

[on hold] Lost You Forever season one (cdrama) - ep 17/39

[on hold] In Blossom (cdrama) - ep 22/32

Another one I am DETERMINED to finish!! But I don't vibe with the main actress. I loved the one who played the female lead before the body swapping. Otherwise this drama has everything I would ever want: costume period murder mysteries, a very beautiful man who devotedly simps for his nice wife, a clever female lead with quirky interests, BODY SWAPPING AND IDENTITY SHENANIGANS.

[can't decide to drop or not] Only For Love (cdrama) - ep 21/36

I can't really stand modern-setting cdramas, I'm sorry. I was watching this one for Wang Hedi. I somehow made it to episode 21 despite the cringe. Might finish watching this while pmsing.

[can't decide] Tale of the Nine-tailed 1938 (kdrama) - ep 9/12

Idk why but I just found the plotline kind of boring?? I loved the extra character and world lore. But I had problems with the original TotNT too so.

[dropped] Till the End of the Moon (cdrama) - ep 20/40

This was gorgeous but I like sweet romance, I'm sorry. This was too dramatic for even me. I wanted Bai Lu to love her problematic malewife!!

[dropped] Miss Night and Day (kdrama) - ep 2/16

Loved the concept, found the show too painful to watch.

____

anyway hoping to get back into kdramas this fall or in 2025. we'll see!!

[gardenvarietydemon]

I've seen people mention that Crowley and Aziraphale might be swapped at the very end, but I really think they were swapped for the entire final 15, it doesn't really change anything other than the context under which the conversation is happening, but it makes more sense. They're a lot of little things that I'll list below but I'll put the three biggest things at top

Tartan collar: they are wearing the outfits they wear when switching in S1 and "Crowley" appears to have on The tartan collar ( This can be seen by pausing S2E6 at 36:27 it is red earlier in the same episode at as well as in the prior episode the first picture where it's red is when he was coming back from taking Nina and Maggie to the coffee shop)(you have to pause it as Aziraphale and the Metron are leaving the shop to be able to see it is not red)

Crowley gives away a book which we've established he would not do, but Aziraphale has in this season.

Crowley mentions a conversation that happened between Aziraphale and Maggie, not Crowley.

This is everything:

After seeing the metatron talk to Nina we come in to the middle of conversation showing we have missed something.

Azira seems stoic while being threatened (How Crowley portrays him when switched)

Crowley stops walking like Crowley after they (Met and Azi) leave ( He takes a few steps then starts to walk with less sway) then sees Muriel and is startled. (Becuase he was caught out of character?)

Crowley More sarcastic/unnecessarily cruel with Muriel (See swap in S1 Aziraphale plays Crowley as more sarcastic)

Crowley gives away a book (established earlier in season he would not however Azira gives away a Doctor Who Annual and allows Maggie and Nina to throw encyclapidias)

Gives Muriel the crow road. They said they want a book because books are like people but portable, He gave her a book about life, love, death and being human. And says "here you'll like this one" which comes off as a snarky remark (Or is this Azira breaking character to give a book recommendation because he just can't help himself?)

Crowley mentions seeing Maggie crying (only Azira saw this, and when he told Crowley the reason for helping her he did not mention it)

He says he was meddling because Nina needing saving the audience assumes they mean from her relationship but the ineffable idiots never found out about her relationship they would be talking about saving her from demons but that occured at the ball (Crowley tried to get them together before that so it doesn't make sense to say that's when he started meddling, but the ball is when Aziraphale started meddling)

Azira's voice in a higher register during scene (Azira's voice goes lower usually when upset or making a point (correcting Furfur, quieting fighting demons/angels, telling Shax they can't come in) Crowley's normally goes higher)

Azira has spent this season reflecting on the cruelty of heaven and his feelings for Crowley (sudden change from the rest of season does not have narrative flow)

Crowley has spent the season focused on protecting/saving

Opposite sides (through the season as they have changed focus the sides (Crowley on the left Azira on the right) have changed but now they are changed back. It seems normal but is still a juxtaposition from what we have seen in the season) IE in this season the person on the left is the one who wants their needs over the needs of humanity person on the right is the protector.

Azira has been reflecting on the cruelties of Heaven and would know Crowley does not want to go back (Crowley says so multiple times in s1) but looks surprised that he says no. (If they are switched Crowley would not know Azira has been reflecting on this and would be surprised the he said no)

Azira saying I can make a difference (the other angels have beat him down and shown him he can't so many times I doubt he believes that but Crowley does)

Azira specifies Crowley will be his second in command (there is no reason for him to specify this but if it is Crowley he is telling Azira that he is not up to anything and will answer to him)

Crowley says you are better than this (means very little unless it is the other way around Azira has spent the whole season reflecting on Crowley being better than heaven)

Crowley confessing does not move the narrative he has said all of that before in S1.

Crowley says you are always there for me (Crowley always saves Azira)

Crowley says they pretend not to be a team (Azira pretends they are not a team Crowley always says they are.)

The confession mirrors pride and prejudice, (aziraphale is loves with pride and prejudice.)

Crowley says if Belzebub/Gabriel can do it we can (Crowley suggest they running away together in S1 he already knew, Belz/Jim's story didn't change things but Azira can be seen in the background excited and reaching for Crowley when they confess this is when HE realized they could be together)

Azira is shocked Crowley is leaving (Every time they fight Crowley leaves until he calms down and comes back and Ariza waits, this is the normal dynamic so why is he suprised, if they are swapped it would be weird for Aziraphale to be upset and leaving especially in the wrong body)

Azira uses some of the same language Crowley used to convince him in last season. (Azira using Crowley's speech patterns)

Crowley has at least seen movies with kissing and would know not to kiss like it was a fight (if they are switched Azira is drawing from experience of their past for how he should kiss while still looking like Crowley and this looks like the scene where Crowley pushes Azira against the wall for calling him nice(Also that's probably been in his head for a minute))

Azira seems shocked but has been trying to work towards something like this all season (Crowley would be shocked)

Azira holding his lips and looking shocked (if they are switched Crowley not realizing that Azira was confessing but thought he was pretending to be Crowley did not realize until this moment)

After a fight Crowley always runs and Azira always waits (Crowley is waiting by the Bentley)

The Bentley can tell them apart and plays modern not bebop music and drives away slowly

After the credits roll Azira smiles and the smile doesn't look like how Azira smiles but it looks like Crow as Azira in the hell fire scene in S1

Neil gaiman repeats/forshadows earlier in this episode Azira is waiting for Crowley to save him from demons and Crowley comes back after because he left to go to heaven.

Neil repeats/ shell game mentioned multiple times they make similar movements in the intro

Crowley knows from the Gabriel docs that Armageddon 2 is in plan and would have a reason to go back to heaven Azira would not necessarily know this yet or have a reason to go back especially if he had already said he was not going.

[fountainpenguin]

Identity Meta

Last June I made a post about asexuality in my FOP 'fics. This year, here's a post about notable ace and aro characters in my MCYT 'fics.

Also, bonus headcanons that aren't ace or aro, but which I'd written up for a Dog's Life author's note a couple months ago that got too long and was never posted. Enjoy!

#Dog's Life spoilers (up through Chapter 36) & #ridspoilers for random additional works, including in the post-Dog's Life timeline

Intro Note

This document discusses attraction. Some characters may not be attracted to someone you ship them with. These are notes for my fanfics; they are personal portrayals. You don't have to agree with them.

If this post makes you uncomfortable, please step away and/or don't interact. Thank you!

---

Correspondent System

Soul temperature:

Warm-Cool

Hot-Chilly

In both my Pixels Imperfect and Neighborhood Watch AUs, the correspondent system determines soulmates. All Double Life SMP soulbonds follow the correspondent system.

NW is a soulmate-normative [correspondent-normative] culture. Feeling attraction outside the correspondent system is considered queer. In the Pixels Imperfect universe, soul temperature is usually medical knowledge and not many people have a preference. However, some do (since it can impact the cuddle experience).

In the Pixels universe, many people would find you standoffish and close-minded if you expressed you prefer cuddling some temperatures, but avoid others

In the NW universe, many people would feel uncomfortable if you expressed sensual interest in any soul temperature other than your correspondent match

Also, in the Pixels Imperfect universe, the forehead is a sensitive area to touch. It’s where mobs and players touch each other while on love hearts. They don’t have the millions of nerves in their lips that Earth residents do - they weren’t programmed with that - so although they might be able to touch lips briefly (before phasing through each other’s skin due to lack of collision), it’s not very exciting for them.

It’s kind of like putting your hand on a piece of steak. It’s… definitely something. You can feel you’re touching steak. But not really sexy.

Pixels Notes

Pixels Imperfect is my series about MCYT characters living in a digital world. Grian is a Watcher who swapped places with the Grian who was originally born in this world, so now there's a digital-born Grian surviving a universe of flesh and a flesh-born Grian living in a world of code.

In Dog's Life Chapter 10, Grian got slapped in the face with the realization that sex doesn't exist in this digital universe; everyone is a hybrid who hatches from a dragon egg and they were not coded with the ability to reproduce. Not only that, but his friends don't know what kisses are, and don't really care.

I went through a lot of different concepts while shaping the world. One concept was to have no one address sexuality or romantic preference at all with everyone being aro/ace. I think that would've worked fine for a shorter and less in-depth 'fic, but I chose not to go that route since it meant erasing existing queer characters like Scott.

In mid-Dog's Life, Scott has a sheet of pride stickers that he claims came from Sims 4 players. This is because Sims 4 has a pride flag item with a lot of different colors, and in general, the characters first born into the Sims 4 world have a better grasp of some of those concepts than the characters born into a world where mobs are canonically genderless and sex doesn't exist.

Below, I've given some characters sensual preferences that are similar to sexuality. Some are classed as allo because of this sensuality comparison, but I wanted to explain for anyone who knows sex isn't a thing in this world.

So, here we go!

Grian - Cupioromantic

Grian doesn't feel romantic attraction, but desires a romantic relationship. He greatly enjoys and pursues activities he perceives as romantic (like cuddling and kissing), but doesn't need to feel romantic attraction to enjoy it... in theory. He's still working on that part throughout Dog's Life and, struggling with a lot of internalized aphobia.

I'd absolutely call him cupiosexual since his character crisis is about mourning what he lost by switching universes. By definition, he doesn't feel sexual attraction (because he has a digital body that runs on code instead of hormones), but desires a sexual relationship. He just can't have it and there's nothing he can do about it. It's definitely an important part of his identity.

In a world that does have sex - like NW AU - cupiosexual may not be the right label

I enjoy Grian's Dog's Life character arc a lot. He stresses about his arranged marriage with his wife, cheats on her chronically, burns all his bridges, and won't back down. He's out of control... Breaking up with BigB, begging Scar for a one-night stand, yelling at Scar about how it's rude if Scar doesn't want to be in a QPR with him, before swaying Bdubs (his basing body in their Dog's Life game) into teaching him about the love heart mechanic that does exist in the game.

He gets his one-night stand, then promptly flits back to BigB and begging him to take him back while a baffled Bdubs watches from the sidelines. He's an extremely contradictory and rapid-paced character and I love him for that.

I like writing Grian because he really is just ruining everything in his total desperation to get what he wants; he has complete tunnel vision and that might be his greatest flaw.

In his mind, the ends justify the means- Shrieking at Scar is fine if it means he might beg and guilt-trip his way into a one-night stand. He is having a hard time and it's mostly self-inflicted. There's a good reason why one of Dog's Life's tags is specifically for Cupioromantic Grian, lol.

Grian's aromanticism affects how he's written and what he portrays in his POV. Flirting is not in his default nature. He's the type to trot around and dig in the garbage looking for something, or he'll admire goods in a shop, but he doesn't find people attractive or feel a desire to engage with them physically.

Small exception: he likes cuddling his close friends. He'll walk up to his friends and touch them, but it's non-sexual to him.

All that said, he can be smooth and rizz you up when he wants to. He's not trying to be manipulative or fake: it's just that most of the time, he doesn't notice you, so when he's intentionally trying to flirt, he sometimes comes on too strong.

In Dog's Life, we see Grian struggle with internalized aphobia as well as paraphobia: a fear of sexual perversion (There's limited research, so this particular name might lean more into "having society shun you because people perceive you as gross"?)

For the purpose of this post, I'm using this word to mean "a fear of turning on others and being turned on." I suppose you could call him sex-repulsed... although, I don't think he's sex-repulsed as much as he's afraid of rejection. As you can imagine, this comes into conflict with Grian's cupio identity, but here are some reasons as to why he's like this:

- The Pixels and NW universes are locked in parallel. The Grian currently in the Pixels universe didn't grow up with Yandere High and EVO's suppressive culture, but the Grian currently in NW sure did. That plays into his feelings which - in its circular way - pings back to the Grian in the Pixels universe - Grian grew up in Neighborhood Watch's temperature-themed culture, which impacts engagement with his current peers. This upbringing left him with paranoia; he constantly feels judged. - Grian's paranoia leaves him fearing that the partners he likes (chilly souls) will judge him or dump him if they learn that he's into them. - Grian was manipulated and gaslit during his time at the EVO hub, so he cares very deeply about his ability to trust and understand himself. If he doubts himself, he starts to spiral. In Pixels Imperfect, this is indicated by pacing. Grian feels that if he can't trust himself, he's in danger, so he NEEDS to nail down his feelings or else bad things will happen to him - Someone being attracted to him when he isn't attracted to them implies they know something he doesn't, that they're thinking of him (stalking him? planning to hurt him??), or it places them in a position of perceived power over him. - Grian gets flustered when people imply he's into someone. If he denies it and the joke continues, it makes him feel like his friends don't believe him and will let people take advantage of him; we see hints of this in Dog's Life when he tells both Martyn and Scar that he hates others making assumptions about his interests. His identity is something he wants to figure out himself, and it's scary if you feel like your friends won't believe you when you say "I don't like this." - See also, Grian was betrothed to Scar in NW AU (because they were soulmates). He was already struggling with feelings of attraction (because Scar isn't a chilly soul), and that folds into his anxiety about his friends wink-wink, nudge-nudging him when Scar enters the room - In Dog's Life Chapter 27, Grian hinted that he pushes Scar away because he "can't trust Scar's mind not to wander," he "doesn't trust Scar to respect his boundaries," and that he might be into power fantasies because he likes the idea of saying No and being 100% confident that his partner will respect that. As you can imagine, it would hurt Scar's feelings to hear this. Grian deals with that by simply not having that uncomfortable conversation with him. #Best Solution (It is not) - Grian's self-defense mechanism is shoving things (or people) away. This often goes hand in hand with casting blame on them. Ex: He doesn't feel guilty for allegedly cheating on Scar with BigB, and if you confront him, he'll simply say his relationship with Scar was never defined, and as far as he's concerned, neither was Ren and BigB's. This is a subtle nod to his procrastination and avoidance tactics (i.e. not finishing his bases). If something gives him anxiety, he'll avoid it, but he does know the logical thing to do is confront the thing head-on. - Grian gets so defensive that he tends to overcorrect, leading people to believe he IS into Scar since he denies it so much (and again, not being believed is scary for him) - Basically, if he experiences any inkling of interest, his immediate response is "oh no, I feel cringe and scared." And if someone expresses interest in him, his self-defense mechanism is to either convince himself he liked them FIRST and they're not taking advantage of him, or swing in the other direction and furiously deny he likes them at all. - I write Grian with anxiety and he's prone to panic attacks (Messy childhood), which doesn't help

Paraphobia doesn't bring up a lot of search results. In fact, it's mainly just one page, and the research I found claims this fear of sexual perversion "occurs almost exclusively in men." I find that doubtful, so if there's anyone out there who knows more (or who knows a better word for what I'm describing), I'd love to learn more about this topic.

NW Grian - The funniest part about this for me is that, again... Grian swapped universes with another Grian. The Grian who's now in the Neighborhood Watch universe wasn't exactly flirty in his trauma-filled days as a Yandere High foreign exchange student, and reproductive talk was a no-no in EVO's restricted walls.

What I'm saying is that the Grian in the NW world also probably doesn't know sex isn't a thing in the Pixels universe. However, he does struggle with one thing that Dog's Life readers just learned about in Chapter 36:

Grian is non-correspondent. He's a warm soul who's exclusively into chilly souls, and not his correspondent match: cool souls.

Neighborhood Watch is a very correspondent-normative world, so Grian's considered queer in NW and struggles with that. In Dog's Life, Grian confessed these feelings to BigB, who was confused because... in the Pixels universe, soul temperature isn't a big deal. Grian shifted into a high anxiety mode and made statements like "I thought I was going through a phase and would grow out of it."

There's a whole talk we could have about how if Grian had roleplayed attraction to Scar in Double Life, that would've made his soul (which is connected to the NW universe) feel attraction to Scar... and by that logic, he's now added "I am attracted to Bdubs" to his body's canon (as he's about to roleplay attraction on-screen in a season that's canon in the NW world).

Or was he already attracted to Bdubs because this was always going to happen? Food for thought.

tl;dr - Grian is "Attraction makes me anxious, but it's the umbrella embodying the intimacy I want, so I desire it." But if you put him in that situation and took away his anxiety, he'd be delighted to engage in the behaviors he enjoys (and receive the romantic affection he desires) and would probably stop fussing about it.

I think his fatal flaw is that he knows this is exactly what will happen - Grian is very aware of his anxiety and the effect it has on him, and he's familiar with breaking through those walls to obtain what he's after and finally be at peace - and that's what leads him on this self-destructive course of scrambling to get there, even if it means infidelity and begging along the way.

"Done is better than perfect" could be his motto, and that's not the kind of attitude you want to bring to your relationships.

Grian's past trauma may possibly influence his identity, but even if it does, he's valid.

TwoMuchGrian - Arospec

TwoMuchGrian's identity is a lot less detailed, but it's fun to talk about. Two is Grian's twin brother. He has a fluid, undefined relationship with Joel's twin LazyBeans26, AKA PiglinMyNose. Here are some excerpts of their relationship from my meta doc:

- Flirt regularly, but don’t cuddle as much as you’d think. Lots of hair brushing, preening, and just hanging out to do crafts and have pajama parties - Probably some kind of QPR, but if you asked them if they’re dating, married, friends, etc. they would just say “Yes.”

Two and Pig definitely see each other as "special" or each other's favorite. I'd say their relationship is similar to whatever Grian has with Mumbo: a dear friendship that tumbles into fixation sometimes. Two is probably just as weird about Pig and probably builds shrines to him too.

Other meta notes I find funny:

Acts like BadTimeWithScar disgusts him - they’re rival captains in the competitive camming field - but they work together a lot and are good friends. They hang around MumboDrone a lot and sometimes pull him in for cuddles

- See “Here’s to the Health of Married Men” (BadTime asked Two to dance and Two got huffy, but agreed) & “No One Likes the Opening Band” (Sports captain rivalry) - Cuddle and carrot more than you’d think. Possibly some kind of “friends with benefits” hate you / I don’t actually hate you rivalry - Two will get huffy and deny associating with BadTime in his private life and will instead treat Pig as his closest companion (Holding his hand, staying over for sleepovers, spending holidays together etc.) - Two is captain of the Jade Jaguars on the competitive camming field. He takes care of his fellow cameras. - Was briefly in a polyamorous relationship with Pig and WellsGlazes. Glaze backed out after a few weeks because she found it exhausting to keep up with two people. Technically that relationship was never dissolved between Pig and Two, so “they’re in an amorous relationship” would probably define their otherwise unlabeled affection - Once invited SnifferMyFeet to join the ambiguous relationship since Sniff is buddies with Pig, but Sniff turned him down

To me, Two embodies this idea of chasing sensuality without romantic attraction. Grian cares enough about the romantic side of things that cupioromantic feels like the right label for him.

Two likes the physical presence of a person. He's less content with long-distance signs of affection and he's really into things like hair brushing, cuddling, and flirting, with emphasis on teasing. He and Pig are really into cosplay and I'm just waiting for the perfect opportunity to have someone walk into them dressed fancy or silly with zero context.

Mumbo - Quoiromantic

Quoiromantic: Not being able to distinguish romantic from platonic attraction and therefore feeling unsure if you've experienced it. It may be used by those wishing to express they felt something strong, but their instinct isn't to call it romantic; nonetheless, it's too notable to wave off and pretend it never happened.

For Mumbo specifically, I think all the lines of his platonic, romantic, and sensual attraction blur.

I previously spoke about how I arrived at Mumbo's orientation in the end notes of One and a Half Birds Chapter 11, so you can check that out if you like.

To me, Mumbo's the perfect example of goofing around and living his life, letting the chips fall where they may. Marriage to Martyn? Sure! He loves to play with his friend and he'll follow bits like breadcrumbs.

Mumbo looks at Grian's cuddly nature and covers it under the umbrella of "This is what my relationship with Grian is like." He does that with each of his friends, so each person ends up creating their own dynamic with him. He doesn't really sort his friends by relationship type, but by their personalities and preferences.

Possibly, this is a result of jumping from a loner life into a social group of physically affectionate friends at a young age. Pixels Mumbo is a wandering trader and I feel like they're quite a social species, so that may play into it as well

Martyn found this very annoying when they were married, which was a small plot point in One and a Half Birds. Mumbo focused on Martyn's behavior, which was a lot of Martyn snuggling him in bed for a night, but leaving by morning (Possibly because phantoms are active at night and wandering traders are not).

In that 'fic, Mumbo implied several times that he saw Martyn more like his friend with benefits than his husband, which frustrated Martyn, who valued the husband title and felt like Mumbo was brushing him off. Martyn offered to share souls with Mumbo and he meant it. For all his trickery in the Life series, Martyn considers himself an honorable man and was planning to follow through. Mumbo was uneasy, feeling that Martyn couldn't commit.

To a degree, I feel Mumbo and Grian have similar interests: they're both likely to enjoy gestures and activities that are commonly viewed as romantic (like kissing, flirting), but these situations don't make them feel like they're experiencing romantic attractions.

Like Grian, Mumbo also struggles with trauma in his past that may impact his relationship with intimacy. This is discussed in One and a Half Birds; one of the things Mumbo confesses to Martyn is that he feels like he's better with long-distance relationships, but that he greatly appreciates Martyn for letting him take the lead.

Fun Fact: In NW AU, Mumbo is soulmates with Lizzie: the other Life series member who plays in the same seasons Mumbo does, and doesn't when he isn't there.

I enjoy Double Life, so one thing I like doing throughout my 'fics is, I try to hone in on what makes each soulmate pair feel like soulmates. Double Life was the wrong environment for some of them, but I wanted to emphasize that they were paired and they vibe well with their partner.

Lizzie and Joel are a little unconventional in their relationship, in that they really enjoy chasing and killing each other... the inherent intimacy of taking someone's life. I feel like Mumbo and Lizzie would connect well there.

In One and a Half Birds, Mumbo flirted with Martyn by urging him to chew on his soul. Martyn and Mumbo weren't chasing each other around, but it's a similar way of trusting your partner with your safety.

Lizzie is curious and clever. In Last Life, she set aside hidden storage chests, she rigged traps around her base, and iirc, she also set up the teleporting lever that brought her back to the Fairy Fort. She likes honing in on artistic details. I think Mumbo would've loved having a base that blended beauty and redstone.

In the Pixels Imperfect universe, they have no reason to believe they're soulmates (since neither participated in that season), but I have a draft where Mumbo takes Lizzie on a minecart ride and it makes me happy. Even if they don't know it, they vibe.

Mumbo is a cool soul and Lizzie a warm; they're correspondent. Joel and Lizzie are a warm-warm pair

BONUS: I made this post about Ahasbands (Mumbo/Martyn) and I find it very funny that several people reblogged and tagged it with variations of aro/ace Mumbo. Correct!!

I love platonically married Mumbo. Does he know what's going on? No. Is he committed to the bit? Absolutely.

Scar - Recipromantic

Scar is recipromantic (and/or reciprosexual in a relevant universe).

He feels attraction only after someone has expressed their feelings to him. Or, if they haven't expressed it verbally, they've heavily implied their interest.

He heavily implies this in Dog's Life Chapter 22, when Scar says he never minded Grian wasn't romantically interested in him (but that he would've accepted and responded if he was, or if he wanted to roleplay a relationship).

In a recent 'fic comment, I said Scar's attitude makes him perfect for the lekking behavior I'd already given the vex hybrids. A lek is a group of animals that display for their mates (It's often a male displaying for a female, hoping she'd choose him). Scar's like that: he'll make himself available, but he wants someone to take an interest in him.

In that comment, I also mused that in the Pixels Imperfect universe, mobs are genderless and either one might have the baby, so they might be divided into groups like "one who approaches" and "one who receives or rejects advances." In the wild, this would mean one mob produces love hearts and the other one decides whether they want to engage.

I feel like Scar tends to see the world using this view... He'll look at people, smile, welcome them, and fan his wings, but he won't get up and pursue. He waits. If he feels your interest is genuine - which could take many weeks or just half an hour - he'll probably accept your advances. But if he senses you're ingenuine, he'll kindly turn you down.

Above, I said Grian tends to wander around and he doesn't usually approach people to flirt. Scar definitely clocked him as "not interested" early on (and thus removed Grian from his list of suitors). However, if Grian started flirting with him, Scar would put him back on the list.

Scar is passionate - and keen to explore romantic and sensual opportunities if he wants to - but it's important to him that his partner enjoys his company. He's not big on one-night stands, though he might enjoy one with someone who'd wooed him for a while.

Obvious conflict... Dog's Life Grian begging Scar for a one-night stand so he can experience romance.

It's important to me that Scar always tries to support Grian as best he can. For example, he may experience a bit of surprise or sadness that Grian prefers flirting with BigB to flirting with him, but he will always support Grian loving whom he wants.

Scar is my fix-it for anything I've ever read that villainizes a character or IRL person (often a woman or aspec person) for not returning someone's affection. I love drama, but I do feel uneasy reading about a character who loves their friendships, but a friend develops feelings for them and decides the friendship can't continue, and/or becomes aggressive.

Scar is allowed to have a range of emotions - and sometimes he gets quite upset or feels like things are unfair - but he will never bash Grian for not being attracted to him.

In Dog's Life, there are multiple times that Scar tells Grian (and even SnifferMyFeet, unprompted) that he "isn't mad about BigB." This tends to be a thing Scar fixates on when Double Life comes up in conversation- In fact, he even said this to BigB in a recent chapter, also unprompted.

I think "I don't hate you" is a thing that Scar really clings to. He clings to this idea that he's doing the right thing even if he feels like others are being cruel or unfair.

Scar would be a great partner to someone who wanted to be with him (and he's had some lovers in the past) but Grian isn't into him and Scar doesn't want him to think he has to be.

tbh, even though I often portray Scar as lonely or stressed throughout the BigB arc, I think some part of him is grateful that at least he knows Grian's not pretending to be attracted to him.

On occasion, Grian's antics or words will really push him over the edge... but despite their conflicts, Grian and Scar are soulmates. They connect well when they're both communicating. Unfortunately, they both try to suppress their issues with the other, leading conversations to be a bit explosive when those things come out. They do have issues, but they're also great at coming back to each other and supporting each other.

The meta doc I'm drawing from has this note: "Grian's cupio-, Mumbo's quoi-, and Scar's recipromantic. They don't know what this means and probably never will, but they're learning more about themselves as they experiment, which is where Pixels Imperfect's complex stories come in." I think that about sums it up.

Pearl & Gem - Aroace

Pearl and Gem are my aroace gals. Not only do I love aroace characters, but they were a good fit in my early outline days since I was aware their creators don't enjoy romantic/sexual ship dynamics.

One thing that was very important to me when designing Pearl's character in my 'fics is that I really wanted her friends to be aware of her aroace identity and respect it. Here's a detail I enjoy (Pixels universe), but may not be obvious unless you think about it:

Everyone in New Star Station [who has their own room] has roommates, except for one. That one is Pearl. In other chapters, we hear that New Star is short on rooms, yet Pearl has a large space all to herself. Scott gave her the same amount of kitchen and living room access that all her friends gets, but she gets to live her dream loner life.

Throughout Dog's Life, we see hints of conflict between Scott and Pearl that seems to revolve around Scott wanting to move in with her (to express he's fond of her and enjoys her company) while Pearl would prefer he doesn't (because she sees this as Scott not respecting her space).

I have a WIP called "With Acid In Your Eyes" where Pearl and Scott live in the NW world in a queerplatonic soulmate marriage (because... divorce quartet should be married if they're going to claim they went through divorce; #change my mind). I specifically set my first chapter up to imply that Scott's gay identity is often acknowledged (in-universe), but Pearl's isn't.

i.e. Pearl's sister told Scott he was queerbaiting the entire neighborhood because he's in a straight-passing relationship, but she didn't say that to Pearl, who is the other half of the straight-passing relationship

It may not come across perfectly in future chapters (since it's not the main plot,) but Scott and Pearl are not in a QPR "just because Scott is gay and Pearl's a girl." They're in that QPR because it's what they BOTH want; Pearl could be straight and they'd still be in that QPR.

They are two soulmates who love and support each other, but they're also very aware that they have different interests, so they have an open marriage. Nonetheless, Chapter 1 depicts Scott and Pearl cuddling and discussing their relationship boundaries again.

Specifically, Scott cites a rule that he's allowed to flirt with his crush Jimmy, but Jimmy stays out of the bedroom he shares with Pearl. NW Scott is very big on respecting Pearl and assuring her that he cares deeply for her and I love that for him.

It's very important to me that Pearl's friends don't flirt with her because they respect that she doesn't want them to. And not "Because that's my sister" or "Because she feels like a sister to me."

I recently went through my blog and removed the Skyblings tag from my stuff because it made me uncomfortable to imply a sibling relationship when I portray those characters as unrelated friends.

I don't mind if other people like this tag. I greatly enjoy Grian and Pearl as siblings, but because they're not related in my fanfics - and I specifically portray Pearl as aroace - I don't like tagging my posts with it. I want Pearl and her aroace identity to stand apart from the other characters and potential sibling connections.

Also, the other characters should be allowed to think she's sexy.

Etho - Diagnosed with QPR Awkwardness

During Dog's Life, Etho isn't sure what his identity is. This is a nod to his NW self, whom I'll discuss below.

It may not be stated outright in Dog's Life (depending on where it goes, though I 100% see him having this conversation with Cleo), but Etho is correspondent-normative; he's a cool soul exclusively into warm souls.

But... he hasn't noticed. At the moment, Etho will just admit he likes cuddling. However, he gets shy and avoids admitting much more.

Etho's soulmate is Joel, a warm soul. Etho fixates on Joel because a surprising number of people in Etho's life are the three other soul types: hot, cool, and chilly. Joel is the first person Etho ever cuddled with who was specifically warm, and it flipped a switch inside him he didn't know he had.

In Dog's Life, Etho struggles with his attraction to SnifferMyFeet, which makes him feel weird because logically, he knows Sniff and Joel are separate people and he feels guilty for projecting his feelings of Joel onto Sniff.

But... Sniff is also a warm soul, and he's playing into the same patterns Etho saw with Joel... Very confusing for Etho.

In-universe, Etho wouldn't be considered queer. Or at least, he wouldn't be seen as queer in NW world, which doesn't really care about gender and really fixates on temperature. It's very funny to me that he's the equivalent of straight while he's pining over men

In Scar's section, I mentioned Scar's worldview of "approach vs. accept or reject." In the same comment where I brought this up, I also mused with the commenter that I think Etho's the same way: he will also wait for someone to flirt with him. Joel and Sniff are both people who will approach, so they're very good at drawing Etho in.

Hilariously, I think Cleo is also this way - as in, they're open to offers but would rather wait than pursue - which is very funny in the context of Secret Life. Cleo (iirc) stated her alliance with Etho was platonic. I feel like romance-chasing, will-make-a-move-if-he-wants-to cupioromantic Grian walked into that dynamic and was immediately exasperated.

Grian POV: I can't believe neither is making a move, especially when there's already married life roleplay from Limited Life they can build on. They clearly both want each other :| Cleo and Etho POV: /chilling like two cats on a chair

In Arsenic Waltz (NW AU), Etho and Cleo meet when they're on Red life. They pal around for a while and later conceive Scar Clocker... while still on Red. It's only after Etho gets up to Yellow life that he realizes there's a disconnect in his feelings for her. Nonetheless, Scar's existence ties him to Cleo, so Etho sticks around and tries to be a good dad (later fathering Bdubs too).

You could describe the Etho-Cleo relationship as platonic or possibly queerplatonic, but Etho would probably struggle to wrap his head around those ideas.

NW society would love holding up the Clocker divorce drama as a warning for "all the bad things that will happen to your life if you go against the correspondent system." This probably plays into Etho's guilt, leading him to stay as long as he does, trying to make their life seem quaint and perfect on the outside

In Cleo's section below, I discuss how I feel she chooses partners logically. To me, Etho is someone who would think he's logical, but he tends to follow his heart. I have an upcoming draft where Etho suggests someone seduce their partner for information, and when everyone gives him weird looks, he mutters, "It would work on me."

Coincidentally, Etho kept avoiding SnifferMyFeet's questions about his past with Joel for most of Dog's Life, up until Sniff flirted with him in Chapter 33 and Etho finally spilled the things Sniff kept asking about. Yeah...

If you get him comfy, he will just talk. He loves cuddling and pillow talk.

Bonus Etho info:

- In Dog's Life Chapter 28, Bdubs heavily implies Etho wants kids... or at the very least wants something to cuddle. Throughout Dog's Life, it's noted that Etho is touch-starved. His bedroom features a large collection of plushes that he cuddles when he's lonely - In Chapter 31, Etho tells Sniff he likes his rings because they made him feel excited, like Sniff is expressing interest in him (circling back to that bit about how Etho tends to wait for someone to approach him and flirt) - In "Canadian Idiot," Etho daydreams about sneaking back to his singleplayer server without rinsing off the Double Life mod, allowing him to feel Joel's pain even though Joel rinsed his half of the mod off - In "The Man He Sets His Spawn With" and "I Love You (You're Obsessed)", Joel finds out Etho's been secretly wearing the Double Life mod. He's not happy - In "No One Likes the Opening Band," SnifferMyFeet plays the sport of competitive camming with Etho as his partner (i.e. Etho does the combat and Sniff does the camera work). Sniff wears a white ring representing Etho and a striped ring representing PiglinMyNose. We don't know what this ring means for them, but presumably Etho likes when Sniff wears it

I really like the songs for Etho's two early Dog's Life chapters (in my 'fic playlist): "Surface Pressure" from Disney's Encanto and "Never Blue" by Maggie Jean Martin (particularly the moment in the latter song where the singer breaks and screams).

I feel these embody his character really well: he desperately wants affection, but especially cuddles and commitment. He feels like everyone around him gets swept up in romance, but he doesn't quite get it or isn't allowed to have it. He's constantly torn between trying to be so cool that someone asks him out and also feeling uncomfortable, like people are only interested in him due to perceived social status.

Joel really swept Etho up, in the sense that Etho really connected with someone who was willingly spending time with him, getting to know him, and might even like him. SnifferMyFeet plays into that vibe too, with the "added bonus" of not going home to Lizzie at night. And the added con of, y'know... Sniff not wanting to be Joel 2.0 even though he has all Joel's Double Life memories and enjoys Etho's company.

Man, I love Dog's Life... I love goofy Snetho drama... it's so silly.

Martyn - Funky Identity (Cool, Chilly, Feminine)

Martyn's an allo who greatly admires femininity. In the Pixels Imperfect series, I play him as very sensual, in that he would undeniably be feeling sexual attraction if he lived in a universe where that was a thing.

- Compare Grian's fairly tame mental/external response to almost kissing Cleo in Dog's Life Chapter 20 to Martyn's strong physical/internal response to Cleo texting him in Chapter 21. - Grian did react with interest and excitement, but his strongest response was grabbing his hair and leaning back, which he only did after he fed Cleo bread from between his lips, which was very close to kissing her: something he's very much interested in, but probably perceives as more romantic than sexual. ^ Martyn kept taking time-out breaks to pace and talk himself down from his piqued interest. Grian - Dog's Life poster child for pacing - didn't even do that when having a flirty face to face conversation with her. Cleo's texts definitely elicited a sensual response in Martyn. They talk about this in Chapter 26 when Martyn asks her to stop texting him stuff if she's not interested in him... to Cleo's confusion, as she didn't think her texts were sensual). - I feel like it's also worth pointing out that in Chapter 21, Martyn sent shirtless pictures of himself to his husband (Mumbo) in a blatant attempt to rizz him up. ^ Grian is the type who would send Mumbo a picture of his chest because he saw a splotch on it and wanted to ask for advice (or because he spilled sauce on it and it made a funny picture). Mumbo would cough and splurt because Grian just sent him a shirtless pic. It would take Grian a while to remember that there's a sexual connotation if you send stuff like that to your friends

Martyn's queerness is that he's exclusively into cuddling cool/chilly souls in a universe where temperature preference is uncommon (Grian, Joel, and Etho are the only others confirmed to care about temperature, and they prefer chilly, warm, and warm respectively). He's also into femininity.

Ex: Martyn probably has a crush on Ariana Griande even if he knows she's Grian in drag (and that Grian is a warm soul )

Martyn's attraction to femininity is a mirror of Martyn's IRL gynesexuality, though it's played in a way I thought was fun. Specifically, making Martyn interested in cool and chilly souls lets me play his marriage to Mumbo as something that involved attraction. Martyn is attracted to one side of the temperature spectrum... He likes a wider range of people than "good, proper people" do, but he's not crossing over that center line the way Cleo is.

Cleo favors extremes in the temperature scale over mild temperatures (i.e. they prefer hot and chilly souls, though they may be interested in some warm and cool souls... especially those close to the hot or chilly ends of the scale), paralleling their IRL bisexual identity.

Martyn still flirted with Mumbo and enjoyed his company, and he was sad when the Ahasbands relationship ended (even though it was probably for the best since Martyn tended to put a lot more into that relationship than Mumbo was).

In Dog's Life, Martyn is faced with the moral dilemma of continuing to wait for his betrothed (NettyPlays) to return from her offline world, where she's been cut off from him for about 4 IRL years, or hitting the dating scene again.

Netty woke up with a betrothal ring on her finger while Martyn didn't (Implying his creator didn't see reason to give him one).

Over time, we learn Martyn struggled with his attraction to Netty and told her that he wasn't rejecting her forever, but he needed more time to think. When he did ask her out, she went offline (due to IRL Netty removing herself from the YouTube space to care for her and Martyn's daughter around that time).

Knowing what we do about Martyn, it's likely Netty is a warm or hot soul, which isn't what Pixels Martyn is into.

- There's a very real possibility that Martyn is fascinated with Cleo because she has red hair. In NW AU (where mobs are gendered), female phantoms are red, which would definitely line up with Martyn's gynesexuality. [Phantoms were red in their OG color concept] - Pixels Martyn wouldn't know that's the feminine phantom color because it's not sex-linked in his world. It's possible he's picking up interest from his parallel universe counterpart, who definitely views the color as feminine (and finds Cleo very attractive). - Is a redstone-covered Mumbo also perceived as feminine and perhaps attractive to Martyn? The world may never know

In NW AU, Martyn was once a high-profile individual (the Red King's hand), so he risks more backlash about his non-correspondent identity than Cleo does. Arsenic Lace is my upcoming 'fic about Martyn meeting his soulmate, Cleo Clocker: divorced civilian mom with two teen kids.

Martyn has very high hopes that Cleo will accept and love him. Although he identifies as queer, he tends to keep his head down because he's essentially "straight passing," especially when he's with his soulmate. He's still under the queer umbrella, but he doesn't always talk about it... Yeah, I think Cleo - who is very open about their identity - is looking for someone who's more open about theirs.

Pixels Martyn is the same way: he's into cool and chilly souls, but not interested in warm and hot ones. BigB is a chilly soul - Grian's interest - and the correspondent rule means Ren is a hot soul. Ren finds Martyn attractive because he's an undead monster who could eat him. Martyn sees Ren as an aesthetically attractive and super fun BFF.

In the Pixels universe, Martyn and Ren embody a relationship that's supposedly prevalent, but isn't always shown: the on-and-off relationship culture. Sometimes, Ren and Martyn are QPPs for 100 days, which is usually defined by them taking stronger notice of the other (i.e. stopping by for visits daily instead of infrequently) and being more touchy-feely. Sometimes they describe themselves as friends who are not currently in a QPP.

This drives Grian nuts. He's a foreigner to the culture and is still coming to terms with the fact that this on-and-off relationships are quite common in the Pixels world

On a side note, cool and chilly souls aren't tied to femininity. Martyn's identity is just an example of things that are similar. You could just as easily spin him to have an interest in warm and hot souls, or in only the mild temperatures (mild and cool), etc.

However, it wouldn't make sense for him to be into, say, cool and hot, because those are opposites that don't fit in a category like "both mild" or "both extreme." Martyn's identity encompasses similar things.

He definitely has a type and Cleo definitely checks a lot of boxes:

Temperature? Chilly

Femininity? Long red hair, commonly wears fashion associated with femininity such as dresses and jewelry

Undead, like a phantom? Yes

Likes to dig and/or roleplay being buried alive? Yes

Large, sexy wingspan? While wearing elytra, yeah (See also, "Mum's the Word")

Prone to pithy one-liners? Absolutely

Loud with him, which is also in line with the courtship behavior of a famously noisy species? ... Hey man, I'm just saying Double Life was very confusing for him.

Cleo doesn't play well into the phantom courtship behavior of letting him provide for her, but you can't win them all.

Cleo - Aspec

Pixels Imperfect Cleo is an interesting case in that I specifically... don't delve into her aspec identity. I think on some level, Cleo is in the same quoiromantic boat that Mumbo is. She's ambiguous, mostly because IRL Cleo is bisexual and I don't want another identity to take too strong of a precedent.

That said, I really enjoy playing aspec Cleo off allo Martyn. As mentioned in Martyn's section, NW Cleo is into a variety of soul temperatures with a preference for hot and chilly.

I feel Character Cleo prefers logic when it comes to partner selection. For all his faults - like risk-taking and blame deflection - Martyn can be very sweet. He gives many gifts... but Cleo's not going to fall head over heels for him. He needs to work hard to prove he's a good match.

Martyn is also a logical person. He tries to paint himself as a good partner by providing gifts and resources, but this isn't enough to impress Cleo. Cleo would rather have someone who's there for comfort and emotional strength (or at the very least is humble and doesn't push blame on them).

Ren is another person who flirts with Cleo, but doesn't get much of a response even though (like Martyn) he's a hot soul and therefore falls within Cleo's "extreme temperature" interest category. Cleo just hasn't seen something that wins them over, and/or maybe Ren is flirting at a time they're interested in someone else.

Etho is another person who flirts with Cleo a little, but his ways are more subtle (and/or don't meet expectations); he's also within the mild half of the temperature scale and not the extreme half, so theoretically less attractive to Cleo than Martyn or Ren.

NW Cleo is committed to Scar and Bdubs... probably more than they're committed to Etho, who's perceived as flaky (despite his frequent attempts to be a good dad). They get along okay, but it's a rocky relationship to be sure.

I also play Cleo as trying to avoid polycules, which is a nod to their comment from a Decked Out 2 stream where Scar asked Cub if he'd be the new Clocker dad and Cleo's response was "We are not forming a polycule." Every now and then, the opportunity for a poly relationship comes up in 'fic, but she's not into that.

Bonus - Sniff (He/They)

Here's an end note I was going to include in Dog's Life Chapter 34, when SnifferMyFeet struggles to select a Pride sticker from Scott's sheet and Scott finally tells him to take one that "means he likes dating multiple people":

There's a polysexual pride flag in Sims 4; that's Sniff's sticker. There's a bigender flag too. I spent too much time wondering if you can identify as bigender when you feel you have two he/him personas duking out in your head. I don't see why not and this is Sniff to me. I considered they/them pronouns for Sniff when he was introduced, but felt other characters would interpret this as "I am speaking to someone who embodies both Grian and Joel" and that would make Sniff uncomfortable. So, there's some meta for you: Sniff is nonbinary - probably bigender - but uses he/him and will actively shut down they/them usage due to trust issues. Only Pig is trusted to use they/them (it's more he/they in practice). Pig is genderfluid and uses different pronouns in different situations with different people. He's even roleplayed as someone's husband and someone else's sister at the same time. Sniff adores Pig and holds him on a pedestal as the coolest person ever... Pig is just so cool and inspiring and Sniff wants to hang out with him all the time. He just shows that affection by killing him and laughing about it. Two and Pig have an unlabeled relationship… they "Yes, And" off each other 24/7. They are each other's gay best friend and wife and boyfriend, you feel me?

Sniff already has issues with people calling him Grian or Joel, so he's definitely not ready to put he/they pronouns on the table. But he does connect with them and uses them privately in the future. Maybe publicly someday.

Also, bonus shout-out for Etho trying to explain his relationship with Joel at the end of Dog's Life Chapter 33 and Sniff says "Oh! You're like me and Pig!" I think it's cute.

And one more bonus shout-out to Joel and Lizzie, who adore each other and show that love by hunting each other down in the woods. Cuddles are more for brutal murder aftercare than "the main event," I think.

Thanks for reading! If you'd like to share your thoughts or ask for elaboration, you can send me an Ask.

Asks stating you dislike this post's content will be ignored. Positivity and fandom fun only, please!

[random-mailbox]

Random-Mailbox's Favorite Sailor Moon Fics - Week 46 - Tutoring

Back to our regularly scheduled programming after the excitement of @usamamoweek2023 (check out the blog for various contributions, master post is coming in a couple of days to allow for any late submissions).

This week we look at fics where Mamoru takes on the role of a tutor for Usagi in various settings - ranging from high school to university. Some are more lemony than others.

Reminder that @smquickies2023 are next week! August 6-12 (and is open to any SM pairings).

As always, my apologies in advance for spoiling some of these for you (Fic Titles are linked to either FFN or AO3 entries).

we are absolutely made of glass - @cgsf

This one shot is a lemony culmination of years of build-up that led to Usagi convincing Mamoru to help her graduate.

The Physiology of Tutoring - @uglygreenjacket

Usagi’s dad gets Mamoru to become her tutor for Biology because Ami’s methods were clearly not working. Leading to higher grades for Usagi, but also a lot of miscommunications and half truths spoken that will have to be cleared up. 

A True Hero: An Essay by Usagi Tsukino - @linlamont

Mamoru, who has been dating Rei for a bit, agrees to tutor Usagi in English in spite of his girlfriend’s protests. In this enemies to lovers fic, Usagi and Mamoru slowly discover how to co-exist before realizing what they mean to each other. 

i should tell you to leave ‘cause i (know exactly where this leads) - @goddamnelsa

Usagi thought that taking a physics class in university would be easy if she does it with her friends. Except Ami has too much on her plate to help, so she has to rely on her TA. With their tutoring sessions moving from office hours, to the library and eventually his apartment, Usagi and Mamoru have to make a decision on what they want to become and how ethical that might be. Make sure to read the entire series of stories! 

Stuff Tippy Wrote -- Sailor Moon edition: Chapter 20: Usagi is bad at math - @tiptoe39

Mamoru is trying to help Usagi understand how to solve for X in a new way - using Choco Pies!

---

That's it for this week. Here is the schedule for the next month:

August 7 - Thunderstorms 

August 14 - Food

August 21 - Proposal 

August 28 - Locked In

Here are the links to the previous Tumblr posts in these series to explore more amazing works based on different themes - make sure to check them out if you haven't had a chance! (Click on title name to go to the post) - I will keep updating the list every week as new posts come up:

Week 1 - Groundhog Day

Week 2 - Established Relationships

Week 3 - Sex Positivity

Week 4 - Unfinished Stories

Week 5 - Darker Stories

Week 6 - Potions 🧪

Week 7 - Reveals

Week 8 - 👻Halloween🎃

Week 9 - Wrong Perceptions

Week 10 - Non-Senshi AU

Week 11 - In-Progress Fics

Week 12 - Mutual Pining

Week 13 - Enemies to Lovers

Week 14 - Slow Burn

Week 15 - Christmas Part 1 - Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Santa!

Week 16 - Christmas Part 2

Week 17 - New Years

Week 18 - High School AU

Week 19 - Slice of Life

Week 20 - Coffee shop AU

Week 21 - Huddle for Warmth

Week 22 - Friends to Lovers

Week 23 - ❤️Valentines Day❤️

Week 24 - Do a Grouch a Favour Day (or Cheer Up Fics)

Week 25 - Soulmate AU

Week 26 - Amnesia Fics (and resources)

Week 27 - 🍀St Patrick's Day🍀

Week 28 - Fix it Fics

Week 29 - Prompt: Mug

Week 30 - Flowers

Week 31 - Traditions

Week 32 - Dreams

Week 33 - Friends

Week 34 - Body-Swap

Week 35 - Medical Assistance

Week 36 - Sex Pollen

Week 37 - Psychometry

Week 38 - What If

Week 39 - Missing Scenes Part I

Week 40 - Green Jacket

Week 41 - Dr Chiba

Week 42 - Birthdays

Week 43 - Fluff

Week 44 - First Kiss

Week 45 - Reviving Shitennou

[stone-stars]

thank you for answering my question!!! I admire your dedication!!!! do you happen to have a list of the new songs that have been written for c3...? I know this might be a big ask hehe but I'm currently big into c3 and am very curious.. were there new songs in crown of dreams for example....... (also this is my main blog but i am also fia-bonkginya !! big fan <3)

oh hey!! i haven't made a full post for c3 yet (like i've done for c1/2) mostly because i'm not done going through c3 and timestamping out music, i'm only about halfway through right now, and the campaign's in progress

that said, there are much fewer new songs in c3 in general on account of the size of the library they've already built out, and since murph tends to be reusing a lot more songs this campaign especially from c1 (since they're visiting previously established locations) because of that-- it only took me a little bit grab the rest of the new song timestamps! i'll put that with some notes below the cut, and as new episodes come out i've been making song timestamps posts that will always call out at the bottom of the post if one is new! i'll make a full proper c3 post once the campaign ends!!

(and to answer your question, no new songs in crown of dreams, there's actually no new music in the dragon elf chronicles! though there is a new one in old man at the edge of town (winter's mantle for callie's eladrin transformation). if there's a moment you're curious for the song for tho, i am past crown of dreams so i could tell you very easily / i can just break down the crown of dreams music if you're interested!)

list down here ↓

1 - Mothership, 5:58 1 - The Frog, 9:02 1 - The Frost Giant, 27:06 1 - Paetina, 28:30 1 - Synth Night, 33:28 1 - The Trade District, 35:34 1 - Alexandrite, 40:40 1 - Cable Car Ride, 43:11

2 - The Fairy, 15:39 * * not credited as 'the fairy' during ezry, but adopts the name later pretty consistently

4 - Mob Goblin, 56:36

10 - A Fairy Remembers, 25:11 10 - On the Prow, 52:18 10 - Mothership Lobby, 58:07 10 - The Game Plan, 1:02:48 * * also used very briefly in ep 1 at 25:33

30 - Winter's Mantle, 24:19

(note: beyond this is the point where i haven't fully listened through the episodes for music, just skimmed through to pull the new songs. because of that i might have swapped the names of some of the songs, especially the three starred ones in the undersea interlude. but this should be pretty accurate with only minor inconsistencies! i may have missed a song but i don't think i did)

35 - Detect Thoughts, 59:13 35 - Bronzebeard Baddies, 1:16:03 35 - The Down Below, 1:25:24

40 - Winch, 25:32 40 - Malscurial, 31:51

47 - The Wild Down Under, 7:04 47 - Corrupted, 31:07 47 - Tsunare, 48:54 * 47 - The Sea Elves, 58:30 * 47 - Ursea, 1:02:22 * 47 - The Inkling Syndicate, 1:05:43 47 - The Gambling District, 1:20:58

48 - Ol' Guppy, 51:20

52 - The Frozen Fist, 38:49

57 - Home is Where the Hearth Is (instrumental version), 8:20 57 - Spearmint & Tea Leaves, 21:24

63 - Rousel, 28:06 63 - Rattlin' Snakes, 54:36 63 - Triss 2, 1:12:21

[ablatheringblatherskite]

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

📈 How many fics do you have?

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

Oh man I don't know if I can remember. I think I laughed when re-reading what I wrote for a fic I'm writing where my One Piece OC, Kiki (who's like, Zoro's little sister) insists on practicing decorating Christmas trees using Zoro as the practice Christmas Tree??

So basically, this LOL:

Zoro wasn’t sure how he ended up in this situation. His face was slightly flushed as he heard that stupid cook laughing loudly at him in the background. He could only grumble as he watched his fifteen year old sister, Kiki, running around him gleefully as she wrapped him up in a string of Christmas lights. “You’re enjoying this too much,” he grumbled, and Kiki only laughed. She kept running around him until she was out of Christmas lights, then came to a stop, tilting her head with a grin as she observed her handiwork. The Christmas lights were glowing brightly against Zoro’s body, keeping his movements restricted. He gave her a deadpan look. Meanwhile, his sister tilted her head to the other side. “How’s that?” Luffy grinned widely from where he was seated on the deck, then laughed loud. “It’s perfect!” Zoro rolled his eyes. He couldn’t believe he let himself get roped into this situation. 

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

Oh gosh. It might have to be a fic I wrote that was requested. It was literally just supposed to be a body swap fic and then it turned into a fic about some guy who was trying to use magic to kill George Washington and end the war??? And the guy controlled Hamilton, Laurens, Mulligan, Lafayette and Burr at some point... and then turned them into inanimate objects... (I wrote that MANY YEARS AGO and I cringe thinking about it today...)

📈 How many fics do you have?

Like the PUBLISHED ones?? On Ao3, I have... 36!!

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

WAUGHGHHGGH okay uhhh akjsdfhkjadsf... I mean, I actually really enjoy writing and enjoy re-reading my writing!! I mean I wrote it for me so it makes me happy that a lot of the time I enjoy reading it back! I'm also really happy that apparently I'm good at characterization!

Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask

[fayes-fics]

#36, #49, #55

Hi queen!

I hope you are doing well! 😁

36. What fic are you proudest of?

So I answered this here, but I guess I can say proudest all-time might be the whole Moments-verse as its a whole world I have built with these tiny OC humans in it (James, Isobel, Amelia & Thomas) that have their own personalities and I sort of adore them, even though I don't like kids haha.

49. What fic of yours would you say is the best introduction to you as a writer?

WOW fuck... I don't know. I think my writing has probably (hopefully?) grown over time. So I would say start at the beginning, Sonnet #29. If a flavour of how I more am now, maybe Somewhere Only We Know? That has a soft spot in my heart, probably cos it snowed here today.

55. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics?  Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

YES and I hate myself for it. ShowBenedict's eye colour I know is under debate, so I've swapped to just describing them hazy and that's probably in every fic. I way overused the phrase "Take what you need" for a while and when it was pointed out to me, I've since made a conscious effort to stop that little trope. Other than that, probably a LOT. There's only so many ways I can describe a cock, y'know. 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for your ask lovely 😁🧡🧡

[crystalelemental]

Continuing the Violet Adventures.

Gym Team Larry.  Larry, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to own you so hard.  Brambleghast just could not be harmed by Komala or Dudunsparce.  Komala required me to attack for Sucker Punch, which apparently still counts even if I’m asleep and not really attacking.  Go figure.  If he hadn’t gotten a sudden crit on Brambleghast with Aerial Ace (I shifted to Ghost tera), we would’ve swept with just that one.  If I were smart, I would’ve switched to Naclstack to just sit on it forever.

Nemona’s fight, by contrast, was a lot scarier.  I couldn’t switch to Quaxwell, which initially made me scared because I know damn well that Lycanroc has Bite.  But I tried, and got my shit slapped a bit.  Mabosstiff handled it, then bit through Goomy, but had to throw back to Brambleghast for Pawmo.  The scary part was Torch Song Skeledirge.  Quaxwell was slower, because this thing is made of sludge, and after it killed Brambleghast, we were not in a great position.  Thankfully, Aqua Jet landed a crit and barely managed to finish the job it otherwise wouldn’t have.  This is the only time the opponent dialogue about how well timed the crit was actually held true, because ooooh man.  I had Focus Sash Naclstack in the back ready to finish the job, but still.

Larry may have gone down easy, but at least he tried.  Ryme feels like another point of proof that main series doesn’t care to teach about Double battles by making them really easy.  Mabosstiff and Garganacl just obliterated her, which is expected to a degree, but the crowd boosting my offenses and her own Mimikyu continuing to Shadow Sneak Garganacl until it died off Rocky Helmet is just embarrassing.

Tulip’s gotta deal with the problem of me having Mabosstiff, so like...good luck, girl.  Mabosstiff destroyed her opener, Brambleghast handled Gardevoir, Espathra got the drop on Brambleghast but Rabsca revived it, with Dudunsparce taking it out.  Dudunsparce paralyzed Florges, then Garganacl finished the job thanks to Salt Cure/Recover.  I kept waiting for it to be full paralyzed, but that only happens when I’m inflicted with it.  Still, no deaths.  The pre-battle with Nemona was substantially harder.  Granted, that’s in part because I led Brambleghast again, and didn’t know Nemona would fight me here.

Grusha...didn’t fare much better.  Garganacl immediately killed Frosmoth as it set Tailwind.  Beartic was a 2HKO, we survived with 1HP.  I let it drop against Cetitan, but went to Mabosstiff for Intimidate, then to Rabsca to revive Garganacl, then back to Mabosstiff for another Intimidate and a Lick paralysis, then Garganacl could Recover up with ease while Rocky Helmet took it out.  Altaria is honestly really weak offensively, so surviving that was really not an issue in the slightest.

Team Star Atticus got his by the #Clodsweep, which is unfortunate because I know his team is scary.  Impish Clodsire with Recover is just too huge for him.

Ortega, however, is a complete wussbag.  You might think hey, that’s not fair, you have Clodsire, of course it was easy.  But because of Charm, I had to swap it out to deal with that lack of damage.  Bellibolt proceeded to completely blast him apart.  Like, no resistance.  We weren’t even on level, we were like level 45.  Dunked, kid.

Titan Team Orthworm is relatively challenging when you don’t have a good specially offensive option that can hit its weakness.  My best was Careful Charcadet with Incinerate, and it...did not do great, given how easily it could slap Charcadet’s shit open.  Iron Tail spooky.

Iron Treads is a massive pain.  I never never tell what level I’m supposed to be for it, but the ridiculous speed makes it incredibly hard to manage.  Even with Ceruledge.  Then again, being level 36 may have something to do with it.  I caught the Iron Treads that appears afterward, and it’s level 45, so...that’s probably what I’m supposed to be.  OOPS.

Hilariously, Tatsugiri is really easy.  Like, Meowscarada absolutely shits on Dondozo, and Tinkaton blanks Tatsugiri just fine.  So it was actually easier than Iron Treads, despite I think being higher level.  I guess that kinda confirms it, at least for me.  The desert Titan is the toughest to handle.

So far so good, only Eri left.  I’m running out of places to go, though.  I basically have the north, and Socarrat Trail, as the only areas to train against.  For three teams.  I think I’m going to keep the Gym Challenge team where they’re at.  Ie, sub-50.  I know, Geeta caps at 62, I may be setting myself up here as a non-EV trained team.  But also I have some plans and we’re going to see how they go.  I’m absolutely pushing the Team Star team up to 56.  I refuse to be even one level below Eri and her bullshit.  I fucking hate that Starmobile so much.  All that’s left then is actually clearing the League run, and deciding which team conquers The Way Home.

[marionrav]

Vintage knitting patterns

Let’s use two vintage knitting patterns to discuss how a modern (or of the era knitter) might look at them.

First off, let’s look at a dressing jacket.  This is something that might also be called a bed jacket.  Most patterns have them tied shut with ribbons, but covalescent / male versions sometimes had buttons on the shoulder, and a shortened back (so the sweater wouldn’t catch under the body, or overheat the bits of you that were warm from the covers.

Here’s the Ravelry link for this jacket, and the actual pattern on Trove.  The needle size is an interesting thing since you have no way of knowing if you’re talking UK needle sizes, millimeter sizes, or US sizes save by the origin of the pattern, the era, and the yarn.  In baby weight yarn, this will come out to a generous 52″ chest with no waist shaping on US 3 needles (less about 2″ if you put in buttons along the front band instead of ribbon.)  Since it’s garter stitch, it will stretch in length and in size easily, so the original size would be quite forgiving.

40″ in this time period was often a plus size, or a “matron” size.  In 30′s to 40′s patterns, a matron was someone who was married and had children, versus a college aged student or an older teen.  34 to 36″ was a “generic” woman’s size, and a 38″ chest was a common man’s size.  While clothing sizes aren’t particularly useful, a size 4 to 8 would be your generic, and a 12 would be your matron.

Now, before you say that this is the Depression and you’re dealing with starving skinny people, bear in mind that you’re coming out of the 20′s, and a lot of fashionable women are still wearing corsets in some manner and low flattening bust support.  This would draw your shoulders back (changing how your sleeves fit, and the resulting width of them) and reduce your bust measurement.

A 1950′s sweater, in comparison, would be sized for the pointy bust support that you would see in that era, and a 1940′s man’s sweater will often end “high” compared to what you might expect.  This is due to high waistlines on trousers, and yarn shortages leading to reduced sizing.   A good example of this would be these make do and mend socks made by Retro Claude.  Note the very short height of the socks.  While they use very little yarn, and allow you to use scraps, they’re also clearly designed to be the minimum height possible.

Moving past sizing and design concerns, one simple sign that this is a vintage pattern is that it’s designed to be a seamed garment.  Double pointed needles and circular needles were not usually used in garment knitting in the 30′s, so you often knit things in pieces and then seam them together.  A seamed garment does gain some structure and strength from seams, and it’s a lot easier to steam / press a flat shape rather than a tube.

There’s also some out of the ordinary knitting terminology with using “Wool forward” or “make one” instead of yarn over, and one immediately obvious probable typo (you knit 10 stitches to make the front band, but the purl row on row 4 does not mention avoiding purling in the front band.)

Swapping over to a man’s pattern, here’s the Ravelry link to a man’s vest.  Here’s the original pattern from Trove.  Sizing wise, this is fairly close to the actual chest size it says it should be in the original gauge.  Vests are often knitted at 1 - 2″ smaller than the listed chest size to provide some trim smooth lines under a jacket and to not stretch to fit poorly over the shoulders.  The back pattern piece makes it clear that the diagonal ribbing is a sort of two stitch wide ribbing knit in an angled V pointed at the center, so you would get some pulling in and smoothness from the ribbing wanting to contract, but not as much as if it was simple vertical ribbing.

When I first looked at the pattern, I was baffled.  It starts with casting on two stitches, then you knit in the back of the cast on while you twist your stitches (this tightens your cast on to make your stitches appear more even and smooth.)  Then the next row says you cast on two more, then knit two stitches and purl two stitches.

It took an embarassingly long time to realize they meant you cast on stitches on the left needle (resulting in four stitches,) and then continue to knit those two new stitches and your two older stitches in the pattern.

As a fun game for new knitters, the pattern also assumes that by row 12 you can read the stitch pattern, and you know where to put your knits and purls to continue it, even when increasing the number of added stitches per row.  (The pattern, mind you, is simply moving one stitch over every other row, but I could not have discovered that without seeing the actual pattern in the yarn.)

There is some shaping in this garment, so you’d be advised to check your gauge against the stitch count before the armhole, the one at the button band (since that would be roughly a waist measurement, but remember to subtract the size of the buttonband once to account for the overlap) and the same for the back at the cast on and the armholes.

[darling-daydream]

Just working my way through the whole list at this point oops but 29, 36, 37, 54, 32, 68, 80? (should have broken this up into two asks maybe. my bad)

29. Describe a typical masturbation session.

I will be so honest, masturbating feels good, but If I'm by myself, and there wasn't anything specific (ie you) that turned me on, or I'm not talking to you, I'm typically more focused on getting to the end goal- most of the time. I'll pick out a toy, pull up a fic, get under the covers, and sometimes swap between fics or RPs, or re-read certain parts that are really hot until I finish. Every now and again, I'll be a bit more involved, and might use a different toy, or tie my legs/cuff my arms, or do some sort of edging.

36. Are you loud or quiet when you masturbate?

This may be shocking considering the everything about me, but unless I'm on camera, with you, or doing something more intense like edging, I'm essentially silent lmao, which is why it really took me off guard when I was very loud in person.

37. Do you own any toys? What’s your favourite?

I do! My go-to is the blue wand, mostly because it doesnt take a lot of work and does the job well. I have a star dildo that I like a lot, but I get tired easily. I do like my rabbit that is controlled by an app on my phone, but I tend to save that more "intense" sessions. I would like more toys! I want to learn how to masturbate better hehe

54. What’s the most amount of times you’ve orgasmed in a day?

Probably four, if I had to guess. I like multiples of 5 or 10 though, so if you wanted to...

32. What is the wildest fantasy you ever had that actually came true?

I don't know if it's really that wild, but somno. Hands down somno, I have always wanted to try being woken up to being played with.

68. What is your favourite pair of underwear like? When did you last wear them? Was it special occasion?

I like when my underwear matches my bra! Lately I've really been a fan of the black and pink matching set. Also anything with suns/moons/celestial bodies on them.

80. Do you have any recurring fantasies you keep coming back to? Do you think they’ll ever happen?

Yes! And maybe? You are more delicate than I though, so I think maybe LiteTM versions of things are probably a nice middle ground :)

[iapetusneume]

(For context, for anyone reading this who doesn't know me: my elderly father almost died in June 2022 of non-COVID reasons, and has had a lot of hospital stays since.)

In January 2023, I had to take my father to the ER, because we had a concern that he might be internally bleeding. We get to the ER, and it is packed. We arrive around 9 PM. Dad sits in a wheelchair, and the ER has gotten a ton of folding chairs since the existing seating was spoken for. There are patients in the hallway next to the ER where the vending machines are, both in wheelchairs and some on beds.. One woman has an IV of saline, right next to the vending machine.. We hear from other patients that every hospital in the area is like this.

A nurse takes his vitals and draws some blood to test his hemoglobin levels. And we wait.

They check on him frequently in the waiting room to make sure he's stable. Some patients are so fed up by waiting that they leave. We don't have the luxury of that, with my dad's medical history.

It took 16 hours for him to get a room in the ER. It took 36 more hours before he got a room in the main hospital.

Because of hospital policy, only one guest could be allowed with the patient while in the ER. I didn't want to sleep because I had to keep an eye on my dad. Not only did i need to listen for nurses calling his name, but also so he might not accidentally fall out of the chair. I ended up swapping out with my mom at the 12 hour mark so I could go get some sleep, since by that point I had been up all night.

In February 2023, we had to take him to the ER again. This time, the wait to get an ER room wasn't anything out of the ordinary - about 3 hours. But it took 72 hours for him to get a room in the main hospital.

(He also got COVID while at this stay, and my mom caught it from him. Up until now, they had managed to avoid it.)

Shit's bad, y'all. I've had a chance to see it with my own eyes, and it is absolutely terrifying.

When I had COVID it was pretty bad. But I'm lucky it wasn't worse. Because emergency rooms are literally at capacity and turning people away.

I don't understand what yall aren't getting to out in public without a mask, to willingly be with people that have COVID, to still utilize the open food and food sharing format at gatherings (I'm looking at you, Thanksgiving planners), to demand schools be in person.

But people are dying because emergency rooms don't have enough space to care for people coming in because COVID IS STILL BAD.

"Well. So-and-so got it and they literally had no symptoms. Only the sniffles." Yeah. My dad got it and had no symptoms. But I got it and had a 102 fever that I couldn't keep down (I can't imagine how bad it would've been if I hadn't started taking something for the fever when it hit 102). And my mom ended up in the emergency room on IV fluids and low O2 levels (we're both fine now).

There's different strains of COVID. Some of them aren't bad. Some of them are very serious. Don't let the anecdotal evidence of one person guide your decisions.

"But, fae. I'm vaccinated. I'll be fine." I'm vaccinated too with Pfizer and one booster. My mom had Moderna and 2 boosters. They'll limit how bad you get it, but that doesn't mean it can't still be very serious, even with the vaccine. There's strains out there that have mutated to be resistant to the vaccines.

-fae

[deusvervewrites]

I’ve been thinking about the entrance exam a lot lately and, while I understand that it was mostly done for shounen reasons, I feel like it’s wildly unreasonable and that it should’ve been swapped with the recommendation exam. The recommended students get to show off to the faculty while the general admission students are allowed to actually compete without putting untrained children in incredible danger.

The Entrance Exam is an incredibly efficient way at sifting through hundreds of kids.

We also know that UA has an acceptance rate of ~0.33%

36 Hero Course students are accepted per year from the general exam, meaning we can estimate 10,800 applicants.

Running an massive obstacle course 5 kids at a time, means that if we assume an average of five minutes to get through this

is already 900 hours of exams. And that's just running the thing. It would actually take longer because they'd need to clear any debris left by Quirk use and get the next kids in line. We'll be generous and say that's another five minutes.

1,800 hours. 75 days straight without breaks.

Of course, if this was how they intended to do it, they would likely have more than one course, like how the Entrance Exam is at one of seven sites, so we can divide that number by seven.

A casual 257 hours. A measly roughly eleven days straight with no breaks.

By contrast, in total the canonical entrance exam takes ten minutes. Flat. All 10,800 applicants are tossed into an arena and walk out ten minutes later and everyone can move on.

"But Deus, you dashingly handsome man!" you might say, "In WIMTBAH you basically did what OP suggested!"

Correct! That's because I casually ignored this problem.