#i think partially they're saying it this way to simplify some stuff around it

[thefirstknife]

Rambling is good! I've been thinking about all angles on this for hours.

Yeah, the Vex managed to make a mind that can drain his Light! It's always been described as something that took them everything they had and it being something they can essentially never do again because it was such a monumental problem for them to deal with and solve. I think it's possibly the only thing they've ever truly managed to do with paracausality.

Simulating a perfectly good Lightbearer for a long period of time, in the real world, without anyone ever noticing for years is basically impossible for them (that we know of!). It's like an extra layer of work, basically insurmountable. If they can really do that, then we're fucked and this whole plot has a much larger consequences than just what happened to Saint.

The whole thing with the Forest is that Saint was in there and he was accessing simulations, so technically the phrasing of him being pulled from a simulation is correct, but it's also a lot more complex. Another issue is that there's a lot about the Forest that isn't properly understood or at least it's not entirely clear, on top of nobody really knowing the full extent of what the Vex can (could?) do with it.

I'll go on a ramble below:

The Infinite Forest is a simulation engine; it's a physical place and it's located inside of Mercury. Like, it is literally inside of the planet. The true scope of what can be done inside is... not entirely clear. Anything can be simulated in there, but also you can move to different points in time as well as timelines and places, including accessing situations where Lightbearers are present; most notably obvious in the intro to Curse of Osiris when Osiris shows up to the Vault of Glass raid. It's possible to maybe even just... see other timelines in it?

Mind you, Osiris has a way to manipulate the Forest and open/close gateways within it; it's possible that his mastery of Vex tech and his access to Light enabled him to do with the Forest what the Vex cannot on their own (Osiris was able to use his reflections to further explore and manipulate the Forest). It's also possible that the Forest can show things that happened, especially if the Vex were there to see it, even if Lightbearers are present, despite the Vex not being able to really do anything with Light. They can still essentially have a record of it, they just can't manipulate it or make accurate predictions around it.

Saint didn't have the technology or knowledge to do what Osiris did so he got lost wandering the Forest. He wasn't simulated or duplicated or anything, he was just inside, wandering through simulations on his own and killing Vex until they got tired and dedicated a lot of time to finally kill him. The Vex for sure gathered a lot of information about him, including information on his past and probably compiled it all when they were building the mind to kill him. They also must've somehow analysed his Light because the mind was only ever linked with his personal Light frequency. This may have given the Vex more information about him, including possibly information on him through other timelines.

This is where it gets convoluted even more because of the Sundial. I think a lot of confusion comes from conflating these two; they're not really connected. The Sundial is basically a device built to connect to Saint's personal timeline, and specifically his timeline on Mercury, because that's where he died. It can only reach into the Forest because it's actually just reaching into Saint's timeline. The Sundial is technically not breaking any rules; it's just a time machine. "Just." It's "means to walk the corridors of time." Obviously in order to work, it required some heavy shit to be done, the details of which are unknown.

When we used it the first time, we were able to visit Saint on Mercury in the Dark Age, at Zephyr Station. We were able to find this moment because of the shotgun, which reacted with the Sundial. We had to get to this specific point in time in order to give him the shotgun in the first place. Once we give him the shotgun, we leave.

The second part of the quest was visiting Saint at another point in his personal timeline: after he's entered the Forest. We found him just after his Light was drained. He gets trapped by the Vex and we save him by fighting in his stead. Once we kill the Vex mind, his Light returns. After that, Saint insists that he can stay in the Forest and just wait it out; we simply have to open the Forest from the outside in the future. We do just that and Saint is able to leave!

This is how his "point of death was overcome." Note that the whole time we're only ever interacting with one Saint. We are tied to him with Perfect Paradox. It cannot be the "wrong" Saint and it wasn't a Saint Osiris or us "picked randomly." The Sundial simply allowed us to go back into his own personal timeline and change it. Osiris couldn't do it because the point of change is Perfect Paradox; aka the "paracausal disruption."

I'm going off about this in detail mostly to just establish the fact that the Saint we saved is the right one. It cannot be any other. He died in the Forest, a Vex simulation engine, technically inside a simulation itself, but he was never simulated in a way that he seems to think he was. However, do the Vex have access to other timelines about him? Most likely yes. Technically, the Vex could maybe still see the "original" scenario in which Saint dies, since the Vex operate out of time (or rather... with time).

With that set, I think what Maya did is access other timelines and mess with Saint's head. He IS the right Saint, but she accessed other versions of him from the network the Vex may have on him, and implanted or merged different memories to confuse him and mess him up. Note also how Ikora in this interaction also mentions how Exos are uniquely susceptible and how Saint spent a lot of time dealing with simulations. I think Maya is exploiting both of these points and is using Vex timeline shenanigans to confuse Saint.

It's very interesting that we didn't get the Perfect Paradox yet, despite it being confirmed it's coming this Act. It looks like it might be a part of a mission next week or week after, possibly a way to prove things to Saint or just prove things in general.

The Primary Query is mentioned also in this lore tab. This whole thing makes a bit more sense now and I think the Primary Query revolves around personhood. Maya is trying to figure out her own personhood and her own reality and she talks a lot about dopplegangers and fascimiles and what makes us us. I think she's running some sort of a test with Saint and using him as an experiment by feeding him alternative information from possibly his other selves.

As for the Sundial itself, I mention the Sundial stuff pretty much every other day and I know the theory was that the core was Ahamkara, but this never resonated with me much. It was also more or less debunked in Wish with this interaction between Riven and Osiris. Riven basically told him that he could've wished for Saint back, had the City not ordered Ahamkara to be killed. Osiris replied in a way that kinda shows he didn't even consider it, given the cost it would come with. Also, if the Sundial core was Ahamkara, then he DID wish for it, so Riven's tease doesn't really make sense. And to boot, if he used Ahamkara magic, the Sundial would've worked for him, but it didn't.

I'm not sure how important the core details are in the grand scheme of things (and for this plot in particular), but I'm pretty sure it's some sort of a Darkness artifact and I personally believe that, with information we have currently and barring any new discoveries, it might be a Nezarec relic.

I'm not sure if any of this helps or answers anything, but I just needed to add this because it's killing me. There is no feasible way for Saint to be some wrong version. We are connected to him with the Perfect Paradox. We used this to save him and only him, not some other faux Saint. Also as you mentioned, the simulation being the other way around also doesn't work because then that would mean that Saint is correct and everything else, including the players, are not. Kinda like "oh actually you've been playing in the wrong timeline since Season of Dawn."

Purely from the Occam's razor standpoint, it makes more sense that the Conductor is using the Vex shenanigans to mess with Saint, rather than "the Final Shape you stopped actually happened in the wrong timeline."

Barring some WILD reveals, I can't see this situation being taken at face value. As in, the radio message showing us a discrepancy between Osiris' and Saint's memories is a really good drama moment, but I don't think it's actually a huge reveal that this isn't the right Saint. It absolutely is the right Saint. We made sure of that. They've gone to great lengths to be as detailed with how he was saved, a story that spanned multiple years of storytelling.

He has to be 100% the right Saint, but do other Saints exist? They have to, because multiple timelines are canon in Destiny and the Vex can see them. And anyone controlling the Vex could use this to feed information from those timelines to someone who is easily yoked and manipulated with Vex tech, using it all as an experiment that revolves around personhood.

Sundial mentioned! Random lines in one of the battlegrounds. It feels like not even Ikora knows the full extent of it. The "paracausal disruption" is, I assume, the shotgun. It's what tied us to Saint and made sure we're only ever interacting with one of them. Most importantly, with the right one, contrary to what Saint believes now.

I feel like the shotgun might be brought up somehow again. They already told us Perfect Paradox will return in Act 2, but it's not available yet. So maybe at a specific point during the story? Either next week or week after. Maybe it might be a point to convince Saint or explain things to him. Eagerly waiting to see if any of this will be further explored; the Sundial, what we did to save Saint and the Perfect Paradox are all fairly important.

[thedreadvampy]

Also speaking of 2012 Tumblr censorship Discourse I feel a desire to clarify this stuff about the need for discomforting language is Unambiguously Not About Slurs

and if you think those come under the same discussion of discomforting words then I invite you to think about who coins words and for what purpose

Discomforting words like "rape" and "death" are words used to describe the discomfort which comes from an experience

Slurs are words used to create discomfort in or about a person's identity

There's some muddy area around self-identifiers for marginalised/stigmatised groups - ie some self-identifiers are reclamations of slurs (queer, dyke), and as well, when people are conditioned to be discomforted by a group of people, any word which describes those people can be both used as a slur and treated as discomforting language (gay, lesbian) - because the insult and the discomfort is the comparison to a stigmatised group

and I think the reason this is important is partially that the response to that language should be different

I very much believe it's important to use specific, meaningful language over comfortable euphemism when we're talking about discomforting topics. And although I hate that we're this in hock to advertising algorithms, I would much rather someone talk about a discomforting topic using specific but censored language (eg r4p3, that thing YouTubers do where they say "when I say 'hamburger' I mean" ["rape"]. I don't like SA in this context but that's only bc sexual assault is much less specific than rape). It's imperfect, but it retains the weight of the issue much more fully than talking around it or avoiding talking about it. Tbh in circumstances of external censorship, I don't mind unalive or sewerslide or le dollar bean or whatever - it's a way to continue talking about the thing you want to talk about. It's when you carry it on out of circumstances that necessitate it, or begin to believe that you're avoiding the original words because they're Ontologically Evil, that it becomes a problem.

Slurs, on the other hand, are words designed as weapons, so in that case yeah it is appropriate to use euphemism or talk about them indirectly. It used to drive me nuts on Ye Olde Tumblr where people would use slurs in casual speech but put a star in there (hard to give examples bc I'm very uncomfortable Doing It but along the lines of "you're acting like a r*tard") as if that was what denatured a slur. And my position then, as now, was that (other than in reported speech, which is where that asterisk-censor might be appropriate) you either think the word's a slur, in which case don't use it, or you don't, in which case why are you censoring it?

Again, there's grey areas. Simplified: slurs are words which draw power from marginalised groups; to the degree that self-identifiers are Discomforting Words, it's because they draw power to marginalised groups by naming their experiences. Obviously things get muddy when different people use the same word differently.

To use the classic example: is queer a slur? yes. is queer a self-identifier for a community which power would prefer to invisibilise? also yes.

there's some personal discernment to use there on how it's appropriate, therefore, to approach this word. Should it be embraced, and censored only under sufferance, because it describes an experience which is valuable to have the language for, which may be discomforting to some but is a part of people's lives experience? Or should it be avoided and referred to only obliquely, because it's a slur? Which outweighs the other? Am I discomforted by the word, or by what it describes? By avoiding speaking it, am I avoiding speaking the word or avoiding speaking about what it describes? Who does it serve to say the word? Who does it serve to avoid it?

obviously by the fact I said "queer," my opinion is clear. but there are words about which there are similar debates that I wouldn't use because I land on 'I'm avoiding the word not the concept' - the n-word would be the most obvious example. I'm not saying the n-word because I have other, non-derogatory ways to refer to Black people, and because it isn't a word that the people it refers to would generally use to self-describe.

but yeah like there's words which inspire discomfort because they describe a discomforting thing. and if you wanna talk about the discomforting thing you have to be willing to be discomforted.

then there's words which create discomfort in their own right. slurs, insults, expletives, etc. Censoring those words isn't censoring the thing they describe, it's censoring the Words Themselves

I think it's an important thing to discern is all

[mandos-mind-trick]

The Thing About Soulmates...

Okay, so I've been wanting to make a post like this for a while, I just haven't gotten around to doing it until now. I considered kind of dropping bits and pieces of stuff like this into the fics themselves, but then I decided I really wanted to make them all about the clones and that this kind of stuff might take away from that a little bit. I also wanted to leave things a little bit intentionally vague because I feel like it sort of adds to the more common understanding of soulmates in the galaxy and how little is really understood, at least from the common being's perspective.

So I'm making a sort of master post explaining a little bit deeper in detail about soulmates and clones and the Republic and how they all kind of work. That, and I know not everyone is going to want to read the entire series so sprinkling bits in every fic wouldn't really work if someone prefers not to read one, they might miss it. So here's what's gonna be a really long post about how soulmates work in my AU.

So, I've touched a bit in the fics about this thing called Fate. Most of the readers call the thing that designates soulmates and their links "Fate." It's a sort of invisible force that is sort of omniscient and a bit omnipotent. In the Wollfe Soulmate AU, the idea of Fate gets addressed a little deeper, simply because the reader's culture heavily believes in Fate being this all knowing, guiding force and things will just happen because they're fated to. There's also probably some species and cultures that even view Fate as being a sort of deity almost.

In reality, though, "Fate" and the Force are the same thing. The Jedi understand that it's the Force that's creating these connections and driving people to each other. Every being in the galaxy is made up of midi-chlorians, but some have more than others which is what allows them to be sensitive to the Force, blah blah blah we all know that much.

It's a bit simplified to say that it's the midi-chlorians making the bonds between people. They do play a role, at least in forming the physical side of the bonds. Marks, dreams, all the ways soulmate links can present themselves, the midi-chlorians have a hand in, and the physical feelings one experiences when touching their soulmate is brought on by the midi-chlorians reacting and interacting with each other.

But it's ultimately the Force that's behind the matching, the influencing of actions that lead soulmates to each other. How exactly the links work, how they're able to influence such strong emotions and feelings is still relatively vague because that's just something that can't really be put in words. It just is.

Allowing the soulmate bond ultimately makes the two stronger. Two Force-wielders who are mated together, if they allow the bond to form, would be able to utilize the Force better and ultimately be stronger in the Force by allowing the Force to flow through their bond.

That's partially why the Jedi enforce rejection.

I like to think many many many thousands of years ago, the Jedi did allow soulmate bonds, as it did allow for them to be stronger in the Force, but it came with the downside of weakness with one's emotions. Since soulmates invoke such strong emotions, trying to remain balanced in the Force can become harder. That's why so many fell to the Dark Side and there were so many Sith. The Jedi had to decide that, while rejecting your soulmate made you weaker in the Force, and also caused some pretty agonizing physical symptoms, it kept the temptation of the Dark Side at bay.

So the Jedi, for thousands and thousands of years, had to reject their soulmates once they inevitably met. This practice continued into the time of the Clone Wars, though, as we'll see shortly, not all Jedi necessarily agreed.

The decision on the Kaminoans part to make the clones reject their soulmates was easy, since they were tasked with creating perfect, loyal soldiers. It was unknown early on whether the clones would even have their own soulmate links, seeing as they are clones, but it became very prevalent early on that they do, in fact, all have unique, individual soulmate links. That stems from the Jedi being able to tell all of the clones individually in the Force, proving that though they may be genetically the same, they're still all individuals.

The Republic was quick to agree to the same rule that clones should not be allowed to form bonds with their soulmates, and the Jedi were expected to uphold that rule if they discovered a clone had in fact found their soulmate. They needed numbers in their army, and having clones desert for their soulmate was not a good look, nor was it beneficial to the army trying to win these big, impossible battles.

While the Kaminoans were strict in enforcing the rule that all clones must reject their soulmates upon meeting, the Jedi were not. Though Jedi can sense the connection between two beings since it is based in the Force, many of them simply refused to, or were so busy they didn't have the time to. After all, it would be exhausting walking through thousands of clones, trying to sense a soulmate bond in just one.

And, most of the Jedi, unlike the Republic, viewed the clones as being individuals. Stripping yet another piece of their humanity away felt cruel. Not to mention, most clones didn't have the time to go through the process of rejection. Though the initial pain of the link being broken would fade eventually, the lingering pain and emotions was something that could last a lifetime. How can one be an effective soldier when they're still mourning the loss of half of their soul?

This led to many of the Jedi Generals choosing to ignore if they happened to feel a bond formed in a clone. Some upheld the rule, some even enjoyed enforcing it (*cough cough* Krell) but most just chose not to pay that much attention to the private lives of the troopers.

Obi-Wan is proof of that, in the Cody fic, he's the one who figures out reader is Cody's soulmate. Though he chose to uphold the Jedi Code and reject his soulmate (*ahem* Satine) since it would be far too complex for both of them to even try to keep it, he never forgot his feelings or what could have been. So of course, he's going to look the other way, despite being the one to figure out Cody had just met his soulmate.

Anakin also does not care to uphold the rule. He literally is secretly married to his soulmate so like...he's not gonna force his men to uphold something he didn't. I actually had a part written for the Rex fic where Anakin discovers them and of course reader freaks out but Anakin's just like "I trust Rex to keep my secret, so I'll keep his," but I decided to omit it cause that's kind of easy to figure out if Anakin ever did find out, he'd obviously keep their secret. Same with the others in his Battalion.

Aayla and Bly are literally married so that speaks for itself.

This is going to come up briefly in the Wolffe fic (which at the time of this being written has not been posted yet) but Plo Koon definitely has a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about his boys. He obviously cares deeply about the clones under his command and he's definitely not going to enforce that rule and force them through that, when really they don't need to. Obviously the war's gonna end eventually, and the clones deserve something to look forward to after. Even if he does figure it out, he's not gonna report anything. Let his boys be happy.

I chose to omit a lot of this simply because I wanted to focus on the clones and how just the general public in the galaxy understands soulmates. Obviously the Force is mostly unknown or mysterious to the general public so they're not going to have the understanding the Jedi do. I did want to kind of give a deeper dive into it for those interested and kind of explain that the clones and most of their Generals don't uphold the rule about rejection when it comes to them.

The original fic that actually started this whole series (that is also unfinished at the time of writing and posting this) takes a deeper look into soulmates and how they work from the Jedi's perspective. It touches more on how Force-sensitivity affects soulmates and vice versa, how soulmate links affect the Force and Force-sensitivity. It goes a lot more in depth into things like this versus just the more surface understanding the clones and most of the galaxy has about soulmates. I do plan on finishing it and posting it once I get the clone series done. I intended to post it first, but then it grew into more than just a simple one-shot and I got clone brainrot so I'm doing things a little backwards.

Anyway, I thought I'd post this just cause it would be fun and some people might be interested in getting a deeper look into things and how they work beyond just the explanations in the fics.

So I hope you enjoyed this nerd brain dump as much as I loved writing it.

[masschase]

Some Troy and Casey cousins lore as promised the other day!

I'm basically back to saying this is part of my canon now. It's just in a very different form to the original vague hc I had for them.

Once again, yes, maybe there are AUs where they aren't related, and maybe there are AUs where they know they're related. In fact I kind of need there to be because I need to see a teenage Troy being made to babysit Casey as a baby/toddler; the results are gonna be precious and/or hilarious(I hc her being a pretty chill baby as long as she's fed frequently but like... toddlers in general... uhhh good luck Troy 🤣)!

But main universe, they don't really know. They never really know. Now I really like when aspects of my hc just kind of... fall into place? So here's some parts of Casey's backstory I created for entirely different reasons that link in with this really well.

Casey had limited contact with an uncle on her dad's side who taught her to shoot and fight not long before the events of SR1. The uncle was originally aiming to teach her sister Phoebe, who, presuming Casey was around 13, would have been 17 at the time, but she really wasn't that interested. Casey on the other hand was fascinated. It was her first time having a hobby that was more focused on channelling her feelings into a hobby rather than reading which was a lot more for the purposes of escapism.

Casey has some gratitude towards this uncle, but also some cynicism too. "Never checked we had food in the house but, you know, at least I could shoot a gun and punch out a guy twice my size." she points out. But eventually she does process that it was her mom who might have been keeping that side of the family away from her, and while I never confirmed it, I believe that is indeed what happened(her dad, however, is entirely responsible for his own absence).

I've never really got into why this uncle was particularly skilled at/decided to teach them this stuff, why Elizabetta allowed him contact with them when no-one else was allowed that, or why he was so interested on checking up on the kids. But I'm now suggesting that this man is Troy's dad and I think that in itself goes to some way to explaining it.

This uncle wasn't actually Casey and Phoebe's dad's brother as they were told, he just put it that way to simplify things for these two kids who didn't really know him. They obviously just accepted it because they didn't know their dad in that much detail. He was his brother-in-law. His wife was Casey's blood aunt, and Troy's mom, and she took her husband's surname of Bradshaw while, as I've mentioned in a previous post, her brother took his wife's name of Clark until their divorce.

I definitely hc Troy's dad being a cop. This explains would explain why he would have a reasonable amount of expertise in not just combat but teaching combat to a reasonable level. Troy's dad wanted contact with his nieces partially because he felt some duty of care to them, and also because his wife probably suggested they be subtly checked on. "Teaching them to fight because I've seen a lot of shit happen to young women" or something was a good way to frame it that would explain why it's worth travelling halfway across Michigan for.

The fact that he wasn't actually blood related to Stanisław made Elizabetta a little less concerned about letting her daughters see him. But really, her ongoing paranoia about social services involvement made her more inclined to agree with his request in a way she felt she could maintain control over. Because overall, her kids didn't come across as problem kids if seen outside the house.

It seemed to work in that respect. Phoebe seemed sociable and responsible with some typical teen disinterest, Cassandra was shy and intelligent but came out of her shell a lot as he began teaching her. Even if he did have minor concerns, his wife would probably tell him it was fine based on what he'd told her.

Troy's mom was not uncaring about her nieces, not at all. But with a house full of teenagers, pushing for contact with two small children was never her priority. Once her children were grown? Yeah, she may have had some concerns, but unless they were in actual danger, she wasn't going to get involved with a situation where she might end up taking responsibility for them. I hc her having had an OK relationship with her sister-in-law in the past, so less reason for concern. The relationship between her and Stanis I think could be a post in itself, but I think they weren't super close as siblings go, I think again the age gap factored into that.

What does Casey know about her cousins? Pretty much nothing. Her mom didn't allow it. She doesn't know their names. She's never seen a picture. She once asked her mom about them upon seeing a schoolfriend who was close with their cousin, only to be basically told "they're adults, they don't wanna come play with you", so she knows they're all older. By the time she's an adult and could reasonably go looking, she's so disaffected with her family she doesn't do so. Bear in mind that even when her grudge against her sister (who she loves very much) for leaving her with their mom was let go, she still doesn't visit often due to 'not wanting to be around her perfect family'. I make it pretty clear she has issues around stuff like that which she knows she just can't have due to her line of work. When you add in the fact she's secretly got some shades of social anxiety, going to see cousins in their 30s/40s who she's never met and potentially ending up sitting with their perfect little families is her idea of hell. So she never makes contact.

What does Troy know about his cousins? He knows their names. Phoebe, Cassandra. He saw a couple of photos of them that their mom allowed his mom to have before he left home, when they were still pretty young. He would assume they have their dad's second name, Kendziorski, just due to that being more common and knowing their parents were married (his mom making mention of an ex-sister-in-law). He has other young cousins; his uncle's even younger children/Casey's half siblings if he has interest in that sort of connection. But honestly I doubt he's that interested either.

Neither of them know the right things about the other to make the connection when they meet in SR1. Casey has nothing to go on, really, and she's not the type to jump to conclusions about that sort of thing. Troy has a face that's obviously nothing like the picture from when she was 5, a name that doesn't match, at first not even the right gender as both of his estranged cousins are girls and obviously Casey is mistaken for a boy for a while. Casey never talks about her past. Troy doesn't look much like Casey's dad and Casey doesn't look much like Troy's mom. With a closer friendship and more time together they absolutely would have figured it out. But for various reasons they don't have that.

I do think they met once prior to the game though. Casey was just way too young to remember it.

Stanis was miserable around the time of Casey's birth. Elizabetta's keeping up appearances nature would have prevented him feeling he could vent to most of their friends. So I think at some point when she was a few months old he went to his sister's house under the pretense of introducing the new baby to her aunt. He does, but he also really just needs to talk to someone detached enough from the situation; his sister. So baby Cassandra is placed in a little play ring in a corner of the room attempting to put everything within reach into her mouth. Troy is made to sit with her while his mom and uncle talk in hushed whispers on the other side of the room under the pretense of "watching her" when they really just don't want him eavesdropping.

If I wanted to say something poignant and beautiful and rather contrived I could write something about how even then Troy knew he had to protect this kid, even though he didn't know her yet. How their meeting 15 years later would perfectly mirror that one.

But come on! He's a thirteen year old boy! He's a thirteen year old Troy! His thoughts on the situation are "Why the hell am I the one stuck looking after this thing?".

But you know what? That's OK. Because that mirrors his views on their future situation pretty well too. 😉

[shinxeysartgallery]

so I was curious and read your toyhouse rules for drawing your ocs. You have a few rules that are really hyper-specific like the one about not giving kids to your ocs, and it got me thinking

Has anyone ever actually fucking done some of this shit to you for you to need to make it a rule???

A large majority of the rules I put into place are basically "this is what I am and am not comfortable with" that wouldn't necessarily be common sense. Like, "don't draw porn of my characters" should be pretty obvious, but if I don't explicitly say no, people might assume I'd be fine with it. People shouldn't be making/sending unsolicited NSFW of peoples' characters to them, but some people have the idea that "user is 18+ and doesn't explicitly say 'no NSFW content'" = "user is okay with me drawing porn of their characters", and I didn't want to give people that impression. (And yes, I haven seen this actually happen to people. I don't think it's all meant maliciously, but bros, have some fucking common sense!) There are a few other minor ones like "don't do human versions of my non-human OCs" that wouldn't necessarily come to the forefront of peoples' minds when considering drawing someone else's OCs.

Other stuff is for clarity's sake on some of it, with a lot of that being based around similar rules I've seen other people make. For example, I've seen a few people say no to drawing their characters together or they're REALLY anal about how they want you to depict their characters to the point they'll pitch a fit if you don't use the exact hex values to color them. A few of those points in my ruleset were basically "stylize however you want, exact colors don't matter, and simplifying designs without taking away the character's identity is okay". That way people know that I'm not going to pitch a fit if the colors aren't exact, or if they might've forgotten a button on the character's shirt, or if they make gradients be flat colors because they're too hard for them to do. I'm not that petty and I don't want people scared to draw my characters because they're worried I'm going to explode on them if it's not "perfect". I've also seen a few very rude content creators say things like that beginner artists or people with "bad art styles" shouldn't draw their characters because their art is "bad". Because of people like that, there are a lot of beginner artists that don't end up drawing/sharing their art because they're scared that the content creator will hate them or their art. So part of my thing was also saying that I'm fine with ALL styles and skill levels. I cherish all the art I get of my OCs and I don't care how "bad" people think the art is; it just makes me happy to know that someone loved my characters enough to want to draw them. :)

Others were there because I either actually had it happen to me or because I saw it happen to someone else and wanted to pre-emptively say no so that anyone with any semblance of respect would go "okay I won't do that". I had to make an addition to the "no NSFW" rule because someone unironically asked me if they could draw one of my OCs with giant boobs. So basically had to add "yes, exaggerating the tits, ass, or genitals DOES count as porn imo". The one you mentioned about "don't give my OCs kids they don't have" happened to someone I know a while back. This weird dude got attached to one of her OCs and made a bunch of fankids of his and her OCs and she got really uncomfortable with that (as you would). So that was a pre-emptive "yeah, please don't do that". Same friend also unfortunately got hit with another dude drawing her sona in lingerine, and that's partially where the "you can change my OCs' clothes, but not into anything sexual" one came from.

Everything else was about any exceptions to the rules I had, because I do have a few. For example, one rule was "no gore", but an exception is made for robot gore regarding my robot characters (sans Skystrike). I said no to maid outfits and swimsuits because people tend to fetishize/sexualize those so much, but I did say that if I posted an image of the character wearing one, that design (and ONLY that design) was fine to use. And a third example was "don't depict my OCs as dead", but an exception is made for Family Guy/Yamcha death pose memes because those are silly.