#i originally posted this to a different blog

[user211201]

My favorites stories (of 2024)

Looking for table of contents? Click here

Hi all, another year is almost over.

I wanted to take a moment to revisit some of my new favorites stories posted this year as well as some old-but-gold posts posted over the last couple years!

First, I want to put into spotlight some stories but out by authors that started out this year:

Catch! (βΓΦ) by @johnbrand

The Witch's Transformation part 1 and part 2 by @keozrb

Spare Parts by @yellowjestertfs

Personal Muscle, Uniform Included by @mrrharper

Miserable Nerd by @alphajocklover

Revenge: Jock Bro Style by @czascornertfs

The Jockrooms by @jockbroski34 (technically started in December of 2023, but...)

Some other reasonable mentions from seasoned authors this year would be:

The Silent Sentinel by @axeeglitter

Reversal Agents II: Going Back, the 2024 sequel to The Reversal Agents by @misctf

Immersive Mode™ by @artificial-transmutations

Be Kind Rewind (Fan title) by @salmonskinrolltf

americanalphajockbro.mp3 by @transform4u

3TH93USA by dumb-and-jocked (thank you for all your stories!)

AL:IV Everycop by @occamstfs

Next up are my old-but-gold favorites. Some of these authors have written dozens of stories and it was hard for me to pick just one favorite to recommend, but alas I can't make the post too long!

New Surf Instructor by @amalianetwork

Pledging the Frat by @agmsye

Mermaid Sire by @fafnir19

Construction Crew Recruitment by @bluecollarmcandtf

Well on your way (Fan title) by @bodriversblog

The Long Game by @captainmalewriter

Himbo Haunted House by @cinaedefuri2 (I could not find a mirror, DM me if you need me to send a copy of the story!)

Pills and Cubes by @deviantknight25

Rogue Muscle Drone by @dougtfs

Kristian by @fullfriendnerdpurse

Veni, vidi, vici by @guytransformedforever

Chess Rivals (Fan Title) by @hyphyphurray

Midnight Snack by @inanimatetffantasies

Pool Table by @jakelandry

Sentenced to Grow by @jd07201990

End of Shift by @joshslater (Phenomenal story, cruel and dystopian but super hot)

Making Todd by @joyfullovepirate

Get Digitized by @just-a-jock (Such a cool theme to write about. Would love to see more digitization-related stories!)

Replacing His Shirt by @mrcavanaughtf

Listen Up: Swimmer by newyoutf

The Box by @omnitf (and their many other excellent stories!)

Genieus Barber by @rakurairagnarok (Fellow Dutchie 🇳🇱)

Boxered into a promotion by @rozza22365 (I must admit it was hard to pick a favorite, haha)

Doctor's Orders by @king-craftsman

Magic Hoop by @the-tfstation

Career Day by @thetfchangingroom (One of my all-time favorites)

Oliver, the handyman by @the-volunteer-host

Terminal Boredom by @transformhim

Model Job by @octuscle

I also want to highlight that there are other good sites that also host great stories, here's some I'd recommend:

Thank me later, bro (Fan Title) by @adonker811

My Roommate Gives Me Nicknames by Derek Williams (From the good old NCMC days...)

Brothers in Arms by @idesofrevolution

Fantasy Models by Lusty Stallion

Permanent Vacation by Nameless

Won't let them change me by realhankmccoy

The Pred Policeman by RotherhamMan

Tailgating by TheBurdenBorne (originally posted on DeviantArt)

Swimming Confidence by ZacharyEverlust

If at this point you are still reading this post, thank you. Not too get too sappy but I really wanted to shine on a light on just how many amazing authors there are, some of which even still actively write stories today! Surely, there are some authors I may have forgotten but I think this is a good start!

I also want to quickly say thanks to blogs like @imsrtman, @bratboy197 for liking, reblogging, and archiving posts for everyone to keep reading. In this corner small corner of the internet where stories get taken down, authors move to different platforms, and some disappear into thin air it's nice to know not all stories are lost!

Furthermore, I want to give a special thanks @mrrharper for the good company and his tremendous help with proofreading some of my stories. As well as others in the community I have chatted with or helped archive more old stories!

Lastly, I hope this post motivates you to read and heart some of these great stories or perhaps inspire you to start writing your own!

-user2112001

[sheeezu]

Things to expect when you've mastered shifting

This isn't the normal "oh you'll feel on top the world" kind of post which just hypes up everything and the sole purpose is to motivate. This is (???) the logistics, the indepth version of what you'll face psychologically.

I've shifted close to about a hundred times, whether it was from this reality, or shifting within a reality I shifted.

This is all from my personal experience, you might experience differently.

⋆ Disassociation: when you shift back to your original reality, you'll often times confuse both reality's memory, of course, we all know this, doesn't matter if you shifted or not. But what I've seen no one talk about is that sometimes events and certain objects from your DR will unintentionally manifest into your CR, just because of how deeply rooted they become in your subconscious. For example, I had maybe mentioned this somewhere else, but in my DR I had scripted expensive china cups, which broke on my second day being there. Well two weeks ago my family was gifted the same teacups (some details were off) and one of them managed to get a crack in them after we served the guests tea in it.

⋆ Weird Dreams: Not only is the concept of the dreams weird, but overall mechanics of it are unusual as well (I didn't shift unconsciously in my dreams, that's one boundary I've established)

For example, dreams with people claiming to know the future, telling me, and it coming true the next day, but it being minor details, people from my DRs channeling me, dreams which involves falling out of reality/finding the end of the multiverse.

Dreams which involves me floating, strong winds which blow away entirely of the void reality (CR), I had started getting this dream since I've wanted to permashift, the wind is so strong and I feel it, I'm usually at my college and or doing a mundane activity in my current reality, everything dissapears and I end up in the void state for the rest of the night.

Once my S/O visited me in my dream, he asked me to come back home, it was a lucid dream so I consciously agreed because I couldn't deny him; ended up in my home reality.

⋆ Feeling weirdly sad about your CR: this one might be personal to me. truth be told, I haven't studied a single day since I've successfully shifted. This year all of my classmates and age fellows are going to start looking at university applications, the ones they mention are usually universities I used to dream all day long about getting into, when I didn't know about shifting. It forms a pit in my heart, the passion I once used to have regarding hardwork by investing blood sweat tears into studying, pinterest board filled with quotes such as "some dreams are worth more than my sleep" not stirring anything within me. It's not that I think I can't get these things, i know i can just shift to a parallel reality and get it, but I just don't want to, I don't feel the same about this reality anymore, slowly letting it go, no matter how much I try to cling onto it, I know I was never meant to be here.

⋆ Personality changes: When you become an expert at shifting its no question that you'd shift very frequently. Those DR selfs would influence your personality, and people can think you're developing a split personality disorder.

Take me as an example, if you look at the posts on my blog, you'd notice a different tone in each one of them, some are in a more softer tone and the others feel clinical.

⋆ Putting your DR family first, even though they're not here: I don't know how to explain this one, so I'd just take an example out of my own experience again.

I was out shopping with my mother for sweaters, the ones we were coming across were really good quality, but I could only think of my S/O, she was pointing out the things she thought I'd like, but I kept looking at the men's sweater, subconsciously trying to pick one out for him, which weirded my mother out slightly.

...

Why am I crying.

Anyways I have planned to permashift out of this reality before new year, it was my childhood dream to blog, but I was too shy to do so and never had anything common with anyone. But I've finally completed the final thing on my list, alongside with meeting my cousin who I adored, I decided to add her to my DR.

That's it, I'll go on and answer the 50 asks in my inbox.

...

[lengliet]

Hey there, general notice because a few other people have seen it as well

There’s an art tracer we’ve seen around in madness combat

^ This was done by 3m3raldgr0ve/bioluminescentvi0lance

We saw the art, thought it was pretty cool, and looked around their art tag

Something stood out to us when we were looking through, though, and had to compare it because it was immediately recognizable as a traced piece

No credit for the original piece on their blog (loor2mago on twitter). Perhaps they thought they didn’t need to due to the fact that they used it for a different source material, but still.

For this one, we couldn’t find the original artist due to the fact that the ref is an image found on pinterest.

If I could credit the original artist, I would

There’s this, as well

If you know about the original artist, then you know.

I’m mainly making this post to warn others about the theft. Don’t harass, but perhaps check if your art has also been stolen, as this is pretty blatant theft and there are more pieces that appear to be traced

[holzibackups]

Jayvik nation, I'm gonna need you to block @bestwitchsam

This blog is FULL of stolen content, some of it has thousands of notes. This person has apparently been doing this for years over different fandoms and they clearly know what theyre doing is wrong because people have been telling them to stop for quite some time.

Theyre currently fixated on arcane and wicked and literally the only posts on this blog are reposted art or screenshots, not an original post in sight. I have no idea why, but the clearly dont plan on stopping.

Please block them and dont spread their stolen content around.

[queer-enderdragon]

tbh dont sweat it, im just passionate abt birds as a side effect of really really Really liking wings,

anyways—late welcome to tumblr! many call it a hellsite due. Several Things. some of them being the eternally broken state of the site that is Not as noticeable casually, but once you know, you know 🧍‍♂️ but if you want a place where you can be 10 times more nuts and genuine about your interests, a place that is 3 out of 5 times ignored and/or forgotten by the rest of the internet and it's influences, and Also a place to ramble to your heart's content with enough words to (LEGIT]) fit the entirety of Frankenstein in a single post, youre in the right place

Let's start with what i mentioned in tags (which is kind of a secondary way of talking, that unlike adding words To the post itself im like im doing rn, is akin to whispering to the Original Poster (op) or the previous reblogger) of the blog themes:

Blog themes are, first of, activated in your Blog settings, not in the account settings, and it comes with the archive, which is exactly that: the blog archive that can show you Every Single Post that exists in your blog, original or reblogged, including private posts that are only seen by you. And actually, because you can also search in your archive by tag, many have created for themselves tag systems, from basic ones (simple stuff, like are most art tags or someone tagging "cats" and "image" in posts that have images and perhaps a kitty cat) to pretty meticulous ones (think dewey's decimal system. yeah.) (even tho searching tags sometimes doesnt work too well still...)

Second of, once the blog theme is available at [your url].tumblr.com, you can either go search for themes on the site in specific tags (like #theme hunter, #blog themes, #tumblr themes, etc), go to another person's blog and see who did their theme to get that one or a different one from that same theme creator or just. directly make your own if you have some knowledge on html, css and a bit of javascript. If it was made by someone else, its usually pretty easy to edit, and you can do the same with your side pages, where some people put their blog info, about, tag lists or anything really (tho, once i saw someone turn a side page into a space-invaders inspired webgame.... with scores...?)

Also, if you want some privacy, in your main blog settings you can toggle a thing to hide your likes and following. Really, nobody here minds that sorta thing, we dont even know most ppl follower count unless they share it voluntarily. And if anyone Ever tries to moralize keeping likes and following visible, saying that ppl hiding them are suspicious, you can just block them and thats that. blocking here is pretty normal and it doesnt even Show if you blocked someone

tho, speaking of, you can only follow and like from your main blog, even if you can block from other blogs,

here on tumblr, you can have a... indefinite number of blogs? i dont Think i remember seeing anyone testing the limit for that Yet. but tbh, you can have just your main blog and put everything there, or have a few dozen of active blogs

for example, i have this side blog for mcyt and minecraft, my main is more for anything and all, i also have a few fandom specific blogs like a mlp one and undertale/deltarune one. and maybe there Is a post limit of 250 post per day that applies to your main And side blogs, is an account thing, but if you dont have the queue running with like. 5 of those to the maximum of post from the queue per day, you'll be fine (and. be careful deleting sideblogs, if easier to just go to the Members option of a side blog and leave it, than trying to delete it in that specific blog settings. there has been some issues with that second thing Also deleting your main blog, and if your main is gone, everything else too)

and before i jump to more general, site wide tips, all of this was as important to note, the queue (+ scheduling posts) is one of the strongest things about this place. because you can fill your queue up to 1k posts of anything you want, and make it so between certain hrs it posts a number of posts, so you dont have to spam ppl with, for example, art, even if you perfectly can. you can also pause the queue if you want to tag your reblogs for your own tag system, n then unpause, but really, this blog and any other in your account is Your house, your city, we all r just visiting. go nuts

...anyways, in terms of culture in this site, the two most important things are: reblogs and your dashboard

first, keep in mind that while this site is definitely Social, this is not a social media website, is a Blogging website. So reblogging is The most important thing here. you can reblog stuff once, twice, 100+ times every day for a month or longer and is Completely fine. if you dont want to see something, block the tag or the word and it'll be gone from your sight. but if you Do like it, and unless the poster says not to, you can reblog it

dont worry about reblogging Really old things btw. you can turn on timestamps for posts and you'll notice how sometimes people bring back posts from 2018, 2015 or even all way back to 2010 or 2008. it keeps the post circulating and the site alive

and actually, im not sure how much you know of this, but while there Is some kind of algorithm on tumblr with things based in your likes, if you have that option toggled on, the best way to experience tumblr and learn all the little things that comes with it is letting the people Be the algorithm, including yourself. that means instead of letting your likes define your dashboard, follow as many people as you want (the limit is 5k), turn on that reverse chronological dashboard, and interact with others too with reblogs. also, reblogging is really good in the sense that if the original post is deleted, your reblog will still be up unless you delete that post too

ive been in this site for almost 8 years, and ive found that you will find good and bad here the longer you stay, like with anything else, but you can also just... curate your experience more easily than in other places, and with how bad everything else is rn.... thats pretty nice :o

last thing, but you can Also ask any questions: play around with things. your settings, your blog theme, how you interact with the site. i know it feels obvious, but unless it says "delete [thing]?" or it makes something pop up a "are you sure? this will do [thing]" is fine. be silly, nothing will explode

what do u think of my grian design be honest <3

[proshippers-against-censorship]

..anyways… liking dark fiction doesn’t mean you condone bad things. Same goes for antis not wanting to see bad things romanticised. I haven’t seen anyone pro-censorship in the fandom, the story itself is a pretty important piece on war, Harlan Ellison included lots of holocaust related things in his work as well because he thought it was important to address and understand bad shit and it’s MEANT to make people uncomfortable because he was anti censorship. But that doesn’t mean it should be glorified in real life or condoned. It’s pretty obvious that ihnmaims is saying that torture is bad. Why are antis suddenly not allowed to like dark media? Because of your rant post? What even is your point? Besides, shipping abusive stuff just cuz it’s abusive in ihnmaims and then claiming that ‘it’s dark media so it’s ok!!’ But you’re erasing the original intent of the story (addressing actual problems.) is kinda tone deaf isn’t it? You can’t stop people from liking fiction in a way that you disagree with so what’s the point in ur self victimising blog. Go watch a history video on the Cold War or the holocaust or something, the point of the story is much larger than ‘the computer is evil and if u like him then u have to like all other bad things’ like oh my god go outside

...so is it alcohol or drugs? Because you went in so many different directions so barely related to what's going on in the original post that I really...don't know if it's something the sober mind could fathom.

[horrorvale]

HorrorVale Development Blog: End of Year

Hello, citizens of HorrorVale!

As the year draws to a close, we (or more specifically me, Dustin) wanted to put together a little blog to talk about HorrorVale! How launch went, what our current and future plans are, and more!

(Note that this blog post does not receive audio, so if you respond I cannot hear it.)

Dream Colosseum

First, before I start talking about HorrorVale's Launch, I want to discuss an upcoming patch.

Currently, we're working on a massive patch for HorrorVale that will include the following:

Even MORE bug fixes

Brand new optional dialogue for every single party member in the game for main story cutscenes

More skill re-balancing

Other minor things and scenes I still wish to include

But most importantly... The DREAM COLOSSEUM!

I originally didn't think many people would bother with the "Secret Bosses" in HorrorVale, but since so many of you enjoyed them and also desired to get more opportunities to mess with party combinations, I decided to punish you horribly!

The Dream Colosseum is a brand new feature that will allow you to fight Bosses you fought previously, now all scaled up to End game stats, with new moves and quirks, and all very difficult.

If you've fought the "Last Secret Boss", now you get to imagine what a Dream Colosseum version might be like.

It will require you to 100% the game to access, but won't give any unique rewards outside of a cosmetic change to Alice's bedroom so people don't feel compelled to torture themselves for completionists sake. Naturally, there won't be any new trophies either.

Right now we're working steadily on this update, and hope to have it out very early next year.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about how launch actually went for HorrorVale...

HorrorVale Launch

After 8 years in development and 5 years since announced, HorrorVale finally released on October 1st, 2024.

This reception has been tremendous.

Leading up to release, I was anxious but overall feeling pretty good about launch. There were minor things I wish I had included or changed, but knew that delaying what was otherwise a feature complete game would be extremely silly.

I actually intended on releasing these things as a patch in the first week of launch, in the hopes of catching most people before they get too deep in the game.

...What I did not expect however, was the unfortunate discovery of several bugs, some of which were game breaking.

What made these bugs especially frustrating is that most of them were NEW bugs, created from me adding things right before launch, or fixing other unrelated bugs.

Due to these bugs and the massive influx of new fans, comments, reviews, and more I found myself extremely overwhelmed, and it ended up being probably one of the most stressful 2 weeks of my life after launch.

In the end, everything worked out and I was quick to patch the game...

...Multiple times.

Still, despite these issues the reception was overwhelmingly positive. Certainly some critiques here and there, but the general response was that the game was so enjoyable that even the most egregious critiques could be brushed aside. All of the wonderful things I've read by people who had fun in the world I created... It truly means the world to me. The... Underworld you might say.

I'm sure some people are also interested in how the game actually DID. Good reviews and positive reception are one thing, but this is also a product being sold, so how did it DO!? Did it SMASH RECORDS and become bigger than UNDERTALE? Did it FLOP???

Well, to be honest I'm not entirely sure!

Which is a strange thing to say, but it's difficult to gauge "Success" when so many factors can change what that means. For a AAA game, success means something very different to a small indie game with a publisher, which also means something very different to a ragtag team of people with no real budget, no publisher, no marketing, and especially no notoriety whatsoever. Not to mention as first time developers we have little to compare it to...

But that being said...

As of right now, HorrorVale has sold...

1,000 COPIES!

That's an INSANE amount of people. If all of you were in a big room crowded around me, I would be very scared.

That's 1,000 new citizens to HorrorVale that have entered its gates.

If we gauge success purely based off "did it make back what you invested in it?", then HorrorVale was absolutely a success!

However, unfortunately it did not necessarily meet the expectations we had.

Going into the launch of HorrorVale, I had 3 goals in mind.

To make back what I invested in it (out of pocket, not including Patreon earnings)

To pay Matt, the composer full royalties for the HorrorVale OST (since he created the entire 170 track monster soundtrack for FREE.)

To be able to devote myself full time to Game Development

Of these three... Only 1 has been achieved so far.

While I generally try to avoid discussing topics like these, I feel like it's important context for the next piece of discussion. The future of HorrorVale.

HorrorVale: Act M

HorrorVale: Act M is a small side story featuring none other than Mothman himself! This spinoff game was greenlit thanks to HorrorVale fans reaching our Wishlist goal for the main game. This game will tell the story of HorrorVale from Mothman's perspective, giving you new insight into his side of the story, as well as elaborate on events leading up to and following that story.

I think there's something really special waiting for you in Act M, and I want to use it as an opportunity to experiment with the HorrorVale formula based off of feedback from the main game.

No matter what, this project will begin development and it will be in your hands....

...At some point.

Which is where the previous topic comes into play, because naturally how long Act M takes to make is dependent on the time I have free to work on it. HorrorVale sales could certainly pick up, and I might one day be able to devote myself fully to game dev, but for now Act M will have to follow the same development process as "HorrorVale", which means it's difficult to give an estimate of how long it'll take to make!

What I can say for sure, is that Act: M will be much, much shorter than HorrorVale. Don't expect a 50 hour experience! I'm aiming for something more like 8.

And yet, you might be asking yourself dear reader...

"How can we help?"

Indeed, you asked yourself that exact sentence and in the voice of the King from Zelda CD-I no doubt.

Which brings us to the next topic!

Patreon Revival

My original plan after HorrorVale launched was to completely retire the HorrorVale Patreon as it seemed unnecessary at that point, but since:

We did not reach our expectations of sales so far

Several fans expressed a desire to support the game in some way because of the Steam Early Access debacle

I thought it made sense to keep it up and give it a little makeover.

Now fully dedicated to "Act: M", you can expect Monthly Progress Reports here, just like the main game!

Not only that, but we've added a brand new "Cryptid" Tier, that will allow you... Yes YOU! The ability to design a Creepy, Scary, or Starry for Mothman to fight in Act: M! We don't want Mothman to just fight all the same enemies as Alice! He'd naturally encounter foes she never even knew existed. This is your opportunity to help the game out and get to be a part of it as well.

(Please note that in order to participate in this reward, you must be 18 years or older and willing to give all rights of your design to Batworks Software.)

(Also please note that Mothman will kill your beautiful creation with a crossbow and it will hurt very badly.)

Since as of now I can't "live" off of HorrorVale sales, instead my plan is to put it and Act: M Patreon earnings towards Act: M itself and Mystery Future Project. This will help ensure a smooth development cycle as possible. If you're interested in helping out the HorrorVale universe, now's your chance!

Of course, forking over your hard earned candy isn't the only way to help though!

Just enjoying the game and telling your friends about it is a MASSIVE help. Without a marketing team, word of mouth is a tremendous help to us, and it's thanks to that that we're here at all!

Closing

In closing, I just want to say thank you to all of the HorrorVale fans that have supported us over all these years. The love that HorrorVale has been shown has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. As long as I'm able to, I'd like to read every comment and message I can, but I fear that if the game does get bigger one day I won't be able to see them all. Just know that the love you've given Alice and her friends mean the world to me.

Wait Stop Right There What Do You MEAN "Mystery Future Project"???

That's all for now goodbye!!!!!!

*The device he was speaking from explodes spontaneously*

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

And if you only communicate via each other’s blogs, as many Tumblr friends do, then the following of the blog is the friendship mechanism. Additionally, the original post was not about differences of tastes and interests, it was about attitudes and behaviors.

The reason blacklisting is superior to unfollowing is 1. They don’t know you’ve disengaged. That’s actually a big deal. If my friend bakes a batch of cookies for a party and I eat one but don’t like the taste, it would be a jerk move to inform her I’m not having any more. It’s even more of a jerk move if the reason I don’t like the cookies is that I have a bad attitude about having to attend the cookie party. 2. Their posts still show up in your feed, just behind a curtain. If you want to see the post’s content, all you have to do is click “View Post.” It is through this occasional viewing of posts that one tests the waters of their own patience and can whitelist again sooner rather than later (or never). With blacklisting, you are daily reminded of your friend’s existence instead of conveniently being able to forget about them as one does in unfollowing. 3. You don’t have to re-follow them. Sure, they may chalk it up to a glitch, but they may ask what happened, and then you have to tell them you had a bad attitude about their cookies. And that’s assuming they never noticed you had unfollowed.

listen I am telling you this very important thing. shh listen. it is so much better to temporarily blacklist that Tumblr pal who is irritating you than it is to unfollow them. because over time you will realize that annoying thing they were doing was a phase or that bad attitude they had was a phase, OR that it was YOUR bad attitude making them seem annoying, and YOUR bad attitude is also temporary. and when the phases fade away you will realize it was just a little dumb thing in the grand scheme of your good life together, and in real life you can’t just unfollow your friends when they’re being dumb, you have to forbear with them, and you have to live with the consequences of your own actions.

[swaggot-socks]

I’m a boy in a girl way

I’m a girl in a boy way

I’m a chick using he/him pronouns and a dude using she/her pronouns

I’m transmasc AND transfemme

[arienai]

[irate-iguana]

Okay I've calmed down enough to maybe put this into words.

Fourteen's ending was so validating to me as an aroace person, specifically because they chose platonic love. Often, QPRs are treated as a last resort, a poor consolation prize for people who can't have romantic partnerships. But Donna has a husband, and while I firmly believe the Doctor is on the ace spectrum, the Newton conversation implies that Fourteen isn't aroace. Despite the fact that he could be in a romantic relationship, the Doctor chooses a platonic partnership. And Donna gets to have both! What's more, her husband and her best friend get along, they aren't jealous or competing for her attention. It's so rare for media to treat platonic relationships as equally valuable and desirable as romantic/sexual ones, and it gave me so much hope for my future.

[dazedpuppydairies]

@zermaidz

I mean, I kept saying that I'm asexual and talking about experiences that (I have) as an asexual and you've worded all of your replies as if you're the asexual and I'm not, which has been very frustrating. Like, it's felt like you've been purposefully avoiding that I'm asexual despite the fact I've been very explicit about it. I'm not graysexual or demisexual and wasn't originally talking about them. I was talking about sex favorable asexuals and less explicitly sex indifferent asexuals like myself. I was talking about exclusionists who insist folks like me aren't real asexuals if we choose to have sex despite not experiencing sexual attraction. You derailed the conversation into something completely different. I was talking about sex negativity and purity culture in the asexual community. You derailed the conversation into being about graysexual people and demisexual people. I've been engaging with that because I still think what you're saying is harmful, and I think it's an important conversation, but that's not even what my blog post was about. Like, when I was sharing why I have sex as someone who doesn't experience sexual attraction, I said that it could be a bonding experience, and rather than being sexual it's sensual. You responded to that saying, "If they think sex is a fun bonding experience" It feels like you've been ignoring that I'm asexual and that I'm talking about myself and my experiences. You've been talking about asexuality like you're the authority figure, but I'm also asexual. Also, I'm not talking about people being (encouraged) to have sex with people they're not attracted to I'm trying to explain to you that some people like having sex with people they're not sexually attracted to. I think the big picture that you and others are missing is that a lot of the time when people point out that some asexuals have sex it's sex favorable and sex indifferent asexuals just clarifying that we exist and asking you to stop erasing us. I'm not saying that there aren't aphobic people who encourage asexual people who don't want to have sex to have sex, but a lot of y'all project onto us and demonize us for just saying that we exist. Some asexual people like having sex despite not experiencing sexual attraction, which is very nuanced. I understand that it's nuanced, but we are so often erased from the conversation, and then when we say hey we exist, we get attacked. When asexual people explain that we can and do have sex as asexual people, we get attacked. I'm so sick of being erased and excluded, and then hearing the people who erased and exclude me say that I'm erasing and excluding them just by saying that I exist. Also, that's fair. If celibacy isn't a good word, just say that your sex adverse. I was trying to use celibacy as an example, but I admit it wasn't a great one. Edit: I do wanna add after rereading my post, I DID briefly mention that exclusionists don't think that asexuality is a spectrum and I understand that that's probably why you brought it up. It just really wasn't the central focus of that blog post, though. That's partially why I'm so frustrated.

I'm becoming hyper aware of the fact that there's a group of radfem like exclusionist in the ace community. Like I kinda knew, but I didn't realize quite how bad it is. I understand that's likely because I'm not in and never have been in niche ace forums, so I apologize if I'm ignorant. Anyhow, it seems to be really seeping into the mainstream right now. These exclusionist think that asexuality isn't a spectrum and that only sex repulsed asexuals are real asexuals. I get SWERF vibes, too.

Also, I've noticed a lot of toxicity in general. I've been noticing a lot of sex negativity in online ace spaces, and when folks point out that things being said are toxic the folks pushing sex negative ideology argue that sex favorable aces are being exclusionary of sex repulsed aces, but that's generally not what I've seen happening. Sex repulsed ≠ sex negative. There's nothing wrong with being a sex repulsed asexual but pushing a sex negative ideology is toxic. Sex isn't inherently bad. I know some sex repulsed asexuals have trauma that has manifested in a disordered mindset surrounding sex and I sympathize with that, but that doesn't mean sex negativity should be encouraged and normalized in ace spaces. A while back, I saw a tiktok where a person talked about how an asexual person got a queer sex education class in their campus lgbtq+ center shut down because a sex education class makes the lgbtq+ center exclusionary of asexuals and that just makes my soul hurt. I've seen ace folks saying sexuality shouldn't be celebrated at pride because it alienates asexuals, which is a wild take.

I saw a person on one of the asexual subreddits earlier complaining about how they don't like when people, especially women, wear revealing clothes that display the body. I understand and respect wanting to dress more "conservatively" for lack of a better word. I actually often do. I really like Mori Kei fashion, which is known for being more "conservative" because it involves a more loose flowy silhouette and a lot of layering. I'd say Mori Kei has really inspired the silhouette of how I dress. Anyway, that's a side tangent. I understand wanting to dress more "conservative." I get feeling frustrated with the "womans" clothes on the market, but then to make comments about how you don't want to have to see others wearing revealing clothes feels icky. Like, if you sexualize the clothes women are wearing in public, that's a you problem. It's fine and dandy to have a preference, but this felt like purity culture.

I don't know, I'm frustrated. I'll probably have more thoughts on this later, but my brain hurts. Also, to make it clear, I'm not trying to demonize the ace community. I'm aroace, just hate seeing this kind of stuff I'm describing becoming so normalized.

[skitskatdacat63]

It’s always “your Fernando brakechecked my driver!” or “your Fernando participated in spygate and crashgate!” and never “did your Fernando have fun during the race? He looks like he was having fun! What a good boy!” We live in dark, ignorant times. Stay safe everyone.

[yzafre]

I've decideeeed to do a "draw fast" experiment this week. Basically: given a sketch I already have on hand, I have to get to "finish" (new line art, flats, & shading) in under two hours - the closer to 1hr, the better.

The idea with this is that, like... trying to get a fast time will keep me from sitting and overthinking things, then fidgeting with it. I just gotta get stuff on the page. Don't know how, if at all, it'll help my art, but I think it'll be fun.

I figured my "three iteration" sketches I did last week were good ones to use, so have some Leo's for today. This one was at 1hr 32min.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[anghraine]

Speaking of GW1 and GW2 ... I've had plenty of complaints over the years about how GW2 has chosen to handle and retcon human-centric GW1 lore, the framing of the human gods, etc. That said, I've recently been appreciating that GW2 has retained a particular element of GW1's treatment of humanity and their gods that I've always really liked.

Humans in the GW universe are not really generic everymen, as humans so often are in fantasy settings. Nor are they so wildly varying and unpredictable that there's no sense of humanity having its own distinct flavor like the other playable species do. In many ways, they occupy a vaguely "elvish" position in the world—they've been on this world for a very long time and used to be a major power, or rather, made up many major powers with various warring factions that sometimes found common cause.

But in more recent eras, many of the ancient human civilizations have dwindled and/or suffered various atrocities and/or lost their minds. And culturally, humans tend to have a strong affinity for the mystical and even more for the divinely mystical, which their political power in previous eras was directly tied to. The vast majority of humans in this world are faithful worshippers of a human pantheon of six gods (formerly five).

Not all humans are magical or religious, to be sure, but a lot of them are, to the point that this seems their most distinctive cultural quality. Minor NPCs tend to have background dialogue invoking the gods ("By the Six!"), or referencing one of the gods (often but not only the goddess Dwayna, leader of the Six). The main human NPC of the core game, Logan Thackeray, continually references the gods, as do most of his military fellows.

Most interestingly, though, if you choose to play a human, you will automatically be a devout adherent of the faith of the Six regardless of any other choices you make. In addition, human PCs are blessed by one specific god among the Six whom you choose at character creation.

This mostly has minor flavor effects in practice. A priest of the god you chose permanently hangs out in your home district, and sometimes other priests of your god can perceive some mark of their deity's favor when they look at you.

Howeverrrrr, when I say "their deity," I don't mean that they exclusively worship the god they've dedicated their lives to, or that "your god"—the god whose favor you enjoy as a human PC—is your god in any remotely monotheistic way. Humans faithful to the Six are faithful to all the Six until one of the gods falls to evil. And when that god becomes the villain of the second GW2 expansion, various human NPCs are shown going through a crisis of the soul regardless of whether he was their particular patron or not. Having a more specific personal tie to one of the gods, or being particularly blessed by one of them, or being specifically devoted to a life of service to one of them, does not in any way prevent humans from devotion to the rest of the pantheon.

Mechanically, this means that no matter which deity you choose as your particular patron, your human PC starts the game with the ability to pray to Dwayna, goddess of life and air and healing. When you pray to her, a blue image of Dwayna materializes, heals you, and vanishes. As you level up, your human-based skills will extend to prayers to the other gods.

Praying to Lyssa, goddess of illusion/chaos magic and water and beauty, confounds foes by inflicting random conditions on them and random blessings on you. Praying to Kormir, goddess of spirit, order, and truth, will free you from negative effects like immobilization. The final prayer you can use, iirc, and the most powerful, is the prayer to Balthazar, the god of fire and war who ends up going super evil. If you're playing a fragile class like an elementalist or mesmer, praying to him is actually great, because he blesses you with two fierce hounds made of flame who fight alongside you and soak up damage. (Praying to Balthazar does feel a lot weirder in retrospect, I'll admit.)

In any case, the point is that you can pray to ANY human god and receive a brief visitation from that god, because the entire human pantheon are your gods even if you're only special to one of them. A similar dynamic is at work for NPCs as well. A recurring NPC in the core GW2 story, for instance, is Rhie, a priestess of Grenth, god of cold, darkness, judgment, and death (he's not evil, just goth). Even by priest of Grenth standards, Rhie is greatly favored by him, and as a result is able to perform powerful rituals dealing with the boundaries between life and death. But there's no expectation that this means she should abjure the other gods in any way, and she certainly does not (in fact, she provides a Human Religion 101 rundown about the gods in general in her first appearance in the human storyline).

And it's so common in fantasy, I feel, that polytheistic cultures are conceptualized as giving adherents a wider choice of gods to be the one they actually worship for real, often with the implication that worshipping one god in the pantheon naturally translates into hostility or apathy towards other gods in the same pantheon. And so I do enjoy playing a religiously devout character who has a special patron deity blessing her and who is emphatically polytheistic throughout her entire original storyline.