#idk how many folk share like the same interest

[chrimsone]

theyre the same image

[tau1tvec]

S/O to a few of my favorite TS3CC Creators

I know this community is small, and therefore doesn't get as much love and attention as it deserves, but know that it is alive and well, much like my love for it, and it's many thanks to these ppl for keeping it fresh and fun even today.

@simtanico literally what would my sims be without you and your amazing sliders, slider fixes, and conversions.

@rollo-rolls you always work so hard to keep our sims looking stylish, I know a lotta people in this community appreciate you as much as I do!

@johziii you put so much love into your CC as you do your sims, homes and gameplay, you're truly the whole package!

@sim-songs an absolute legend for helping revive the Maxis Match ts3 community!

@nectar-cellar an absolute legend, period.

@imamiii idk how you do it, but you make this game look how it probably would had it been released today. Whether it's your gameplay posts, or your CC, I know when I see your post on my dash, I'm bound to be blown away.

@sourlemonsimblr still can't tell whether we're playing the same game, bc everything you post looks like The Sims 10, but I am so glad you're willing to share your CC with us, so maybe one day we will be playing the same game, lol.

@pleaseputnamehere just thought I'd let you know that I kiss your nosemasks goodnight as I tuck them into bed.

@xiasimla an amazing talented and devoted creator all around, every download post is a WIN.

@martassimsbook you keep my love for ts3's buy/build mode alive!

@billsims-cc ty for never giving up on us. 😭😭😭

@bioniczombie for sharing your amazing conversions, and helping run one of my favorite ts3cc finds blogs!

@satellite-sims although you aren't too active right now, I miss you, and I love your conversions sm. The extra work you put into making them the absolute best quality, just like all your posts is so loved and appreciated.

@simbouquet your mods and fixes are such a MUST, you always know exactly what this game needs, and execute it like a pro.

@phoebejaysims another amazing modder keeping this game truly interesting, ty so much for your dedication.

@criisolatex you're like some ethereal being sent to Earth on a mission to make ts3 the best it can be, and you're kind enough to share it with us.

@nemiga-sims-archive you pop out every once and a while like an all year round Santa giving us presents to throw into our games. TY!

@olomaya you work so hard to expand and improve and also make the gameplay in ts3 a lot more interesting.

@twinsimming you know you carry ts3 simblr, right? 💕

@thesweetsimmer111 besides being just the most talented animator I've ever seen in any modding community, your dedication to the youngest and ignored age groups is most admirable, ty.

@flotheory yet another talented and devoted modder giving ts3 the love and attention it deserves. I just know the devs would be so proud.

@greenplumbboblover you've always got something big up your sleeve, your ambition knows no bounds, and the ts3 community is so lucky to have you.

I'm likely forgetting some folks, so I'll probably add some more when I remember, and ty again everyone on this list for working so hard to keep this game alive, and fun, and freeeeeee!

[freckliedan]

Hi!!! I just wanted to talk about how Dan and Phil as a brand is so relatable to neurodivergents in the way that they've been treated recently. So DnP built their careers off of being "weird" and "quirky" and socially awkward. That was Their Thing. Dan spoke for years about being violently bullied (quotes such as "being punched in the head by dickheads" stand out as a pre-BIG example of just how violent it got at times), Phil had the Why I Was a Weird Kid series, they both were frequently talked about as being "weird" and "awkward" by other YouTubers - they WERE the "weird" ones of the vlog group. The ones that awkward teens could relate to. Unfortunately, this got the attention of the #imsoquirky crowd who talks like they're experiencing all of these things while also being the same people who would mock me for my autism.

And that's the crowd now saying Dan is too old to be posting catboy photos or saying that the two of them "give the ick now, idk why." And I just can't help but notice how much I relate to that as an autistic and ADHD person. So many times over the years, I've made "friends" who were slightly into my interests, but then got weirded out by how hard I went into them. I think what we're seeing is the same thing happening to Dan and Phil. Drawing cat whiskers on your face to answer questions? Well that's "so cute and quirky"!! (/s). But actually playing as Catboys in JRPGs, dressing up in cat ears, making animal noises (which the two of them always did but ig this group overlooked), etc? Well that's "too far" and "so weird."

I think Dan especially got hit with this because he has more subscribers. When he talks about being bullied, most people can relate to that. But then when he goes and honks a horn in a game repeatedly (which tbh I've done before myself, very ADHD coded of him) or talks about hiding behind vending machines to avoid talking to people, that is suddenly "too annoying/weird" for some of the audience that got into him for his "relatably weird" content.

Sorry this is such a long ramble, but basically Dan and Phil have accidentally become the perfect examples of how kids with autism/ADHD/social pragmatic disorder/nvld/dyspraxia *insert other neurodivergencies that can cause atypical socialization* are treated. People might find your initial "quirkiness" relatable because everyone feels awkward or socially anxious at times, but it's when they see that you are Actually Just Like That and it's not to be #relatable that they turn on you and start saying that you're "too much" and "too weird."

Dan and Phil were the "weird" ones of the British vlog scene, and those of us who tuned into the younows or watched their older videos knew this, but someone who only subbed after watching a meme review or the two of them playing undertale might have assumed that they were the "right" kind of quirky/weird.

This is probably incoherent, but I hope you get what I mean.

this isn't incoherent! just such a well thought out ask i don't have anything to add. there's really specific ways i'm comfortable talking abour dnp + neurodivergence & neurodivergence in general so it's not something i've ever done super in depth posts abt!

i've actually gotten a few really lengthy asks like this over the last few weeks, so this is to you and to my other askers: i really appreciate that folks want to share their ideas with me but sometimes i genuinely don't have enough to contribute in response to add on to what's being said! and that makes it pretty impossible to answer asks like this.

so this is to everyone: feel free to @ me in the replies on your posts! (doing that leaves things cleaner than @ ing in the body of a post, which in my experience means folks are more likely to engage, if that's what you're looking for). especially loop me in about dnp + neurodivergene or dnp + gender!

this isn't a promise i'll rb or even see things, this website's functionality is shit, but like. it's actually way easier for me to see and support than if yall are sending me essay length anons, and this way i + others can find more people who share the same opinions as us! make ur own posts & ppl will follow u i prommy

[dreamtydraw]

Hi from fishbowl this isn’t a red flag but I just thought of another ick I get from otome games/vn’s that I wanted to share and ramble about!!

When the male love interests all have the same stupid washboard abs, SPECIFICALLY AND ESPECIALLY when it makes no sense for the character to be built like that. Like, I know a lot of people find abs hot, but I always lowkey hate it when I see it. Unless it makes total sense for the character to be built with a six pack I’m just like immediately no </3

Idk what it is but there’s something about abs that just… doesn’t attract me, in fact it kinda deters me lmao. It is kinda funny though since there will be times where there’s a scene where the guy’s shirtless or something with his abs all out in the open and it’s obvious that the game is trying to get you to be like “Ooh la la~” meanwhile I’m sitting there like “Oh… Mmkay……” (I have a specific game in mind when I’m saying this cause there was a game that I played a while back that I remember did this all the goddamn time and it would immediately take me out of my immersion so it’s like personal beef at this point lol)

Sorry this doesn’t really align with your question at all I just spontaneously thought of the ick and wanted to share-

-🐟

Hello again fishy !

I think what I dislike about this trope is how shallow it is.

Usually giving M Li abs when they shouldn't have is a result of unnecessary fanservice that sometimes goes directly against characterization and for me ruins the narrative experience. Also usualy since they want to have abs but not too many muscles most of the LI with abs looks like they are behond deshydrated.

I think the only game where shirtless fanservice abs worked for me was Roadkill which btw is funny because they did it right for one of the Li and totally ruined their good writing by giving them second M li also abs...

But why does Howie's fanservice work on me ? Because it make sense.

The game gives you a reason as to why he has abs: He did sports with the only goal to have a musculature that would make people stop picking on him for being a theater kid.

the game's use of fanservice is a part of the story: Roadkill is a big love letter to horror movies and the entire premise is that your life turns into a horror movie that is cliché. The fact this guy undress in the middle of a snowy road to give you his shirt ( is not only cute- ) but also understandable because HE'S THE CHARICATURE OF A HIMBO !

That a good way to impliment fanservice in my opinion. I know it's not a must, not all game needs to have perfect writing but it would be nice if it became a standard that fanservice (both for men and women ) was written in a way that makes sense to the story and dosen't feel like a pity grab of attention for horniness.

Also as an ace folk having a game that doesn't force you into fanservice is always a nice touch. LET ME CHOOSE IF I WANT TO SEE BOOBS OR NOT !

Anyway live, life, laugh, and play roadkill I swear it's a funny game.

[lovelypurpletyphoon]

Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel from a Christian perspective:

I'm expecting to possibly get some negative feedback from this, but I'm okay with that.

So, some of you folks might know that I'm a Christian. I grew up in church, so Jesus is my homie. I'm deeply against the toxicity and hatred in the church today. A while back I decided to check out Helluva Boss to see what all the fuss was about. It's an interesting show, and it prompts ideas for discussions.

Granted, it has flaws, and I've heard that Vivziepop shares many negative beliefs that I've seen in the church. Just watching the show and reading up on the lore, I feel like Vivzie or at least some people on the writing team may have deep religious trauma. Who could blame them with all the horrible things done in the name of God.

I do like some of the worldbuilding, and it's only a human response to laugh at the occasional dick joke. (I like sinners and such taking on an appearance based on how they died) There are many things I would probably do differently. I can't see lucifer as a good guy due to my upbringing. I just can't, I'm sorry. But I do find sympathetic demon characters interesting.

The difference between Heaven and Hell has me thinking of how people can be born into unfortunate situations, living in misery for their whole lives because nobody bothers to change the system. It's a very interesting analogy.

If I were to write the show, I'd have The Church be the main antagonist, as opposed to Heaven itself. Idk, this made more sense in my head. Either that or do something similar to Bloodborne, I'll be honest, there's deep rooted evil in the modern christian church. I feel like a lot of these people who push for anti-gay laws and preach doomsday cult stuff won't find themselves in heaven. Folks like that only push people away.

I also think the show has a similar problem to Dragon Ball Z, in that the lore isn't planned out. Writing lore as you go, as opposed to having a plan from the start, will create inconsistencies in said lore. It's frustrating for writers and fans who like to do in-depth media analysis.

If I were to write my own version of HB and HH, it probably wouldn't even be the same show anymore. My upbringing would just leave a different mark on things that not all people would like. Given my impression of the fandom, I feel like creating my own version would be like showing a Brazilian Black Tarantula to someone who's deathly afraid of spiders and has been hurt by them in the past. The result would be someone understandably fleeing from anything even somewhat resembling what hurt them.

In conclusion, I'll keep observing this fandom. I'm not sure if I even consider myself part of it, because my upbringing makes me feel like something of an outsider. But I can agree on certain things, like Fizz and Ozzie being adorable together and that Moxxie is doing his best. I will also be roleplaying on Discord to explore various concepts, cuz my adhd gets in the way of fic writing.

[shdwtouch]

🥒 - Are you thinking about reviving old muses? Who?

munday meme || accepting

this is such an unfair question, I feel like I'm being called out XD cuz if you know me at all and have been following me for any amount of time you would know I am always thinking about reviving old muses. like. I've even talked about it on this blog, turning it into a multi or adding side muses cuz I just. have so many muses that I love and want to share and write with folks !

Indi has been my most recent muse I've been going back and forth on. he is a spy oc I made for a group rp that flopped and I just. fell in love with him. he is my cryptid son just doing his best. he has a lot of like. cyberpunk and dystopian lore tho so I'm always kinda :x about writing him cuz I don't want to assume people would write in his universe, but at the same time some of that lore is like ? important to what he is capable of as a character. so idk. I'm always conflicted on if I should bring him back and how I should bring him back, if I should focus on his scifi lore or maybe lean more into his cryptid side... like he really would fit in with kaey and shade...

another couple muses would be zhu dai and yew, they're some of my original lore babs that are always kinda kicking around in my head. but they're both very lore heavy and I just. always feel awkward about presenting that. zhu dai is like. an anti-god ? I really don't know how to describe her but shes a bamf on fire, lets just say that. and then yew is my selkie oc ! which... I also feel awkward about writing cuz like. my name is selkie, does that make it weird ? idk.

lastly but not least we have wystan and myk. wystan is actually a character in kaeys lore / universe that got a lot of his own development due to my friend mel and I just. really love and appreciate him as his own character now. very merc type. while myk is my magic boi, based on mixed lore relating to crossroads, black dogs, etc. hes kind of an asshole and is very eccentric but hes also stuck in a time loop so we gotta give him a tiny break tbh. I love both of them a lot, but just. feel like I never get enough interest in them ? or that maybe they are difficult to interact with ?

in general a lot of my reluctance in writing and bringing these characters back is a) interest and whether their lore is accessible enough to make them easy to interact with and b) my own, like, motivation and energy to write them. currently all of these characters are just. sitting in limbo on my multi sideblog ( @astralradio ) but I really would love to be able to bring them out to play more often !

[rreskk]

Hello !

Saw your post about the mashup so here I am x)

Physically, well, I'm in my 20s, I'm ~1m73 (idk how much that is in feet). I'm pretty muscular, especially my arms. I work out on a daily basis along with helping my family when needed and when I go to feed some of my animals. I wear glasses (thanks to my myopia). I have a few scars, many due to thoughtless actions. I dress a lot in black, not too fond of flachy colors nor dresses or skirts. An appearance that may make you think I'm closed to others but when you know me I'm more like a koala (want hugs, all the time if I could)

Mentally, I love horror movies, thriller / detective books or fanfics… . I listen to almost everything musically (except rap) but I have a preference for metal (Rammstein <3) or american folk (Poor Man's Poison) or Rock and electro swing. A rather hard past but which hardened me in the good as in the bad. Tendency to put myself down a lot or question myself (for example my description is not ridiculous or too developed ^^') and I have some complexes about my appearance...

I think I've covered the "important" stuff Really sorry if this isn't what you expected as a self description 😅

So with who you can mashup me ? xD

I match you with Trevor!

Your physique and fashion sense draws him in. Although his type is varied, he does have a huge soft spot for mature and strong people. (you being that!) in the sense of your insecurities, he’ll happily help bring out the confidence in you. Trevor has no shame in loving you and will express his love, no matter what. You share the same music taste as well as movies. With shared interests, Trevor will automatically feel closer to you, mentally.

Besides… being intimidating but actually cuddly is similar to Trevor as well. He’d absolutely adore you and your personality.

I hope you’d be able to handle his craziness…

(A/N: you sound so cool btw, like omg. Thank you!! It was so much fun doing this!!)

[beck-nightengale]

Summer Reading/Writing/Arting Tag

Yo, I was tagged by @chennnington over here to do this thing and it does look like fun, so why not!

But I'm also going to be boring since idk who to tag, so anyone is free to fill this thing out if it hits your dashboard. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ Go knock yourselves out.

1) Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

Thanks to Enderal kicking my creative nuts into gear and being recently liberated from certain "game-master" obligations (long, long ass story that'd probably go over most Tumblr folks' heads, anyway), I finally started diving back into a sapphic-flavored dark fantasy book series that I'd been planning since like around 2016 or so. It was mostly born out of some frustrations with the lack of WLW in general, and while I have some WLW elements in my existing works, I wanted to write something that was more overtly WLW with a leading lady who was outgoing about her sexuality than my previous protagonists (who are either repressed as fuck or too dead to hold a relationship that would function) and wouldn't take her four dang novels to finally kiss a girl.

Anyway, Morane Soraya was created from a whole mess of complicated feelings about women in media. I describe her as a combination of Julie D'aubigny and Anne Lister, with a bit of Christina of Sweden (all of who were badass women in history. Look 'em up!). I wrote a lot about the basics of who she is/what she's all about here.

Morane is a good bean:

Book 1, Bloodtithes, will go into her venturing into a scarcely-visited icy continent to investigate a possible cure or effective treatment to the painful condition she had been forced to live with, which gives her the proficiency she has in Blood Magick (which isn't inherently evil in her world, but very often misunderstood because of its side effects). She's from a mercenary group who all share the same condition and propensity for Blood Magick, so they're interested in this so-called "cure" as well, but not many make it to this country and survive, so Morane is sent alone instead. Along the way, she meets a horned jackal-man named Darius ka Dir, and gets entangled in a plot with a strigoika named Viorica Avanas who has a whole buttload of inner demons of her own (side note: I once played Vio in Skyrim to mess around with Kaidan and they got into some... Situations).

A friend drew Darius and he has a single giant and glorious curl that he is very serious about.

I've also talked a lot about Jade for my Enderal stuff, who was already based on an existing character, and I've figured out how to work her into Morane's world. She won't factor in until Book 2, Cloverleaf, because she's essentially gonna tear down a wall and break freaking everything.

You know. Like she do.

It's still in the planning stages but I'm feeling pretty good about it.

2) Rec a book!

I just started reading Dreams of the Dying by Nicolas Lietzau, which I'm enjoying a lot, but haven't read enough yet to form a coherent recommendation on it. I just got the audiobook though so I'm looking forward to that!

Otherwise, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is one of my favorite novels of all time and was a major writing inspiration for me. It's creative in how it gets you to feel uneasy while you're reading the book itself, a huge mindfuck, and one of the few novels that actually made me feel a sense of dread while I was reading it.

If you'd like some seriously bonkers reading material, I'd suggest giving it a looksee.

3) Rec a fic! (outside your character tag)

Iiii don't actually read fanfiction that much, so I'm not sure if I can rec one!

On the flipside, feel free to rec me some Enderal fics (or your own, if you have any). I'll read the shit out of it.

4) Rec music!

I can't recommend Murder by Death to people enough. They're my all-time favorite band, one of the few I've ever made an effort to go see live when they were playing in my city (just before lockdown hit, no less), and deserve more love. I've been listening to them since I discovered them high school and their albums just keep getting better and better.

Also it's not hard for me to find some character-centric songs from them because the topics they write about is very versatile. I tend to think of Lost River for Jade's story, and Ditch Lilly and Rumbrave for Rey's.

5) Share one piece of advice!

Writing women! Because I guess this one needs telling as there are people who still find writing female characters daunting or somehow more difficult than it is to write men. Which, fair, I was the same way. Despite having mostly female protagonists in the novels I'd written, the dudes in my earlier stuff somehow ended up taking the spotlight and stealing most of the development. I really struggled to work through some of my own internalized misogyny and "there are no good female characters in media" mindset, and it took a lot of opening my mind up before it got easier. Now I predominately focus on writing women to be that change I want to see - this includes not killing certain ones off to enhance manpain like I used to, which I learned was called "fridging", lol.

My advice for writing them is to just write them as characters. It sounds simple and stupid, but I'm surprised how much people get wrapped up in the "she must be a strong girlboss" brainrot that they end up with a very flat, boring character that literally no one can relate to, so she still gets outshined by the dudes because the writer tried to overcompensate her badass womanliness without giving her actually compelling character traits.

I feel like one of the main reasons why I absolutely adored Ellen Ripley when I was a kid was because she was written to be a man in the first Alien movie, but they changed the character into a woman without changing the script and it just worked. I didn't know that when I was young, but finding that out just made me appreciate Ripley so much more, because the writers didn't treat her like a "strong female character" but as just a character. I think if writers approached this mindset more, we wouldn't have the "no good female characters in media issue" that doesn't need to be an issue in the first place.

These days I approach character-building by not restricting certain traits by gender, and finding a balance between strengths and weaknesses. Just shut off your critical analysis brain to create a "strong female character" and just write "strong character" instead.

I could word vomit more about my own ladies and how much I love them now than I used to but I feel like this has gone on long enough. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[casluvscas]

casluvscas: WHO ARE THEY?

We've all seen the Tumblr User going by the name 'casluvscas', but there's not much known about the said person. Perhaps it's time to ask some questions and gain some knowledge through this interview.

"Hi! I'm Cas, just a reader trying to look for art and writing scraps in the fandoms I'm in so I have something to fan over. No, I am not a bot !! I just don't have tweet or blog (twt/tmb) or make posts (ig) so I can see why you'd think an account with nothing on it (not even reboots but truth be told I forget I can do that lol) is an automatic account. Don't worry though! A living and breathing person is running this :p

Right, introducing myself. Well, you know my name, so I'll tell you about my interests.

Currently, I'm not actually in that many fandoms, just two (and I guess two more but also not really?) which are Genshin Impact (GI) and Miraculous Ladybug (MLB)! (The two maybe-maybe-not fandoms are ATLA and well some webtoons but idk if there's actually 'fandoms' for that)

That's out of the way, but I guess I'll share some more. I actually just got into reading webtoons and I've been a fanfic reader since like 2021-2022?? So maybe 1-2 years tops, and I tried writing my own fics but that sucked. I'm really into shoujo manga/Anime but I'm also just starting to get into that lmao (I'm just starting to have a hobby) and I really like horror movies!

I love listening to music, and I know it seems very 'tik-tok music' to listen to Laufey (at least to some) but I've been a laufey lover since 2020-2021 soo... I also really like jazz and classical music like Chopin and Mozart!

I do not have the skills to draw, I love color theory because it's so cool to see how things change in perspective and lighting and making the same color look like 3 totally different colors (even though half the time I can't make heads or tails about anything (another thing I just got into lol))

That's all about me I can think of from the top of my head. Oh, and I'm Filipino. I also seem to really like blondies. So, uh, yeah, that's that for 'casluvscas'! Thanks for having me!"

And that is it for today, folks! We've learned quite a lot about Ms. Cas right here, but it feels like that's just the start of her personality, so stay tuned for more news on who casluvscas really is!

Cas Out! ♡

[urban-unease]

Interview with the Vampire Thoughts!

Spoilers Abound!

After a second, drunker viewing of the pilot, here be my drunk thoughts. More sober thoughts may or may not come. IDK:

When I first saw the shots of Lestat at dinner with Louis' family a few days ago I immediately thought about all the ways smart writers could convey this scene. My favorite idea was if the writers conveyed Louis' family as almost immune to Lestat's charms. It would make so much sense! As a black person, I can say that groups of black folks are not easily won over by white people no matter how supernaturally charming lol. The bar is high for us to let our guard down particularly when a white person you dont know is in your personal space. I love that ultimately even Lestat could recognize that Louis' family was not having it and was not the least bit amused by him.

It's amusing and concerning to me how many people don't know/understand that the "French White" thing is not a IWTV specific thing. I mean this EXACT joke was in a Wanda Sykes special a few years ago.

Lestat is a "I'd vote for Obama a third time" kind of white and this very appropriate for his character.

I've seen complaints about the show talking about Louis' blackness too much and I'm just ?????? I mean, he's telling the story of his life and what it was like to live at that time, so yeah he's gonna talk about the hardships of being black at that particular time. It's the only the first episode and their setting the stage. and lestat is a tactless bitch so of course he's bring up Louis' race in the most grating way possible lol. It's a dog whistle y'all. don't fall for it.

I'll be honest - I never understood what was so special about Book!Louis that Lestat was so obsessed with him. But here I totally get it! Show! Louis is a gay black man out of place, in the margins, struggling to make a life for himself. He has these hidden depths that he cant share with anyone, like his gay identity and his love of the opera. An Jacob Anderson is so captivating. It makes sense to me that Lestat would want him as a companion.

Along these lines - the main reason why Book!Lestat is so attracted to Louis is because he reminds him of his ex. So does this mean show!Nicki is going to be Black? That could be interesting, but also fetishistic and weird on Lestat's part if it's not handled well.

On the note of tact - I dont expect to show to be some thoughtful and deep mediation on race. They're trying....but you know....white people....At the end of the day this a trashy show about vampires and I'm fine about that.

The levitating "sex" scene was vey silly and not as a erotic as I thought it was gonna be (though it was very fun). It was just a gay naked cuddle in the air. To call it a sex scene is hella reaching. But I appreciate the show getting weird.

that being said I want a proper sex scene because it would be an incredible waste of the chemistry between these very hot actors not to have them bone.

Daniel's personality feels on point to me. This feels like the same sassy guy that called Armand an immortal idiot. IDK

Louis' modern apartment feels accurate to his personality. He's one of the view vamps that doesn't care that much about aesthetics and I think the show did a good job of designing a home for him that combines luxury with austerity (I know that doesnt make sense but I cant think of the word right now). Its a cold gray cinder block with gray and wood furnishing. there are pops of red and gold here or there but ultimately it feels like a largely empty space only filled with the most necessary furnishings and space decor.

Grace is wonderful and adorable

rip to Lily. a real one.

I dont think Lestat pushed Paul to suicide. I think Lestat is just classless lol

The show does not do a good job of setting the stage for New Orleans culture for an audience that might be unfamiliar. IDT that Louis' thinking that Lestat's powers are just tricks is that weird when you consider that New Orleans has long been a hot bed of voodoo, witchcraft, and supernatural happenings. New orleans is a place where someone like Marie Laveau could make a name for herself in society as a Voodoo practitioner. It wasn't uncommon for folks of all classes to turn to magic for help with illness, love, and other life matters.

A big mainstream show that dresses and lights black people well - what a concept!

I have more thoughts but my hands are tired 🙃

[caroloftheshells]

Re: indie rock/indie folk, which I cannot meaningfully distinguish between because I attended SUNY Purchase: Jenny Owen Youngs, Kiss Kiss, Langhorne Slim, Regina Spector, Joanna Newsom, and O’Death come to mind on the “folkier” end. On the “rockier” end: The National, Arcade Fire, Waxahatchee, Japanese Breakfast, Vampire Weekend. I enjoy a handful of records from a handful of these bands/artists and openly disdain others but for the most part characterize the “indie rock” that I prefer to listen to — louder, dumber, angrier, hornier — as “alternative rock.” I wouldn’t classify myself as a hater but I regard the labels with admittedly ungenerous suspicion.

As for indie classical: uhhh Max Richter? Jack Treese?? Zero real reference point here for what that means. I asked my husband and he went, “…like NPR shit?” LOL

this is super interesting! thanks for sharing!

i definitely find myself distinguishing between "indie" and "alt" as signifiers (both supposedly shorthand for "non mainstream") along the lines of "how obvious is the guitar distortion," which seems super specific and/or arbitrary but then so are many learned associations and it's interesting that this one is shared. i also feel like the music i associate with the terms in my op generally does not "do" anger in the way mainstream or even "alt" rock does anger as a primary or comfort-zone subject matter / affect, like you mentioned. this may also just be the word "indie" having a diminutive feel; idk; but it's interesting to note

"npr shit" is also evocative, lol. max richter absolutely checks the boxes of "classical crossover" and "new music" for me while somehow not being on my radar of what those things connote which is interesting! same deal with ólafur arnalds for example. for me "indie classical" brings to mind discourses on artists that are “rockier” & more bang on a can-ish, ie more self-consciously "not easy listening," but that's strictly from a u.s. perspective too and my own perception of it is maybe more about self-marketing than sound anyway. thanks!

[not-poignant]

hearing you do research into singaporean culture for m&m makes me so excited! i have heritage there and almost never see southeast asia represented in things i read/watch

Hi anon!

I've been to Singapore! It's a beautiful country, and one of the best places to celebrate Lunar New Year :D I don't know if I'll ever be able to travel like that again with Covid, but if I can, Singapore is actually really high on the list of places we have to get back to soon.

Perth, Western Australia is actually closer to Bali, Indonesia than it is to Sydney, Australia (and it's about the same distance to Singapore as it is to Sydney), and as a result, we actually have a huge proportion of SE Asian folk who live here, and a lot of SE cuisine and culture we can access that folks have brought over with them. So the foods that Kadek mentions in Falling Falling Stars are all foods I'm familiar with. Likewise, it's very common for many Perth folk to fly to Bali and nearby regions for holidays and work, because it's a closer flight than, well, other places in our own country. I have a friend who's working in Singapore right now, and I'm not sure if he's coming back! He loves it too much. (Though not the driving, so much dsalkjfsa).

Due to a combination of having some great friends who have SE Asian heritage and being able to share dinner with their families and hobbies and stay over as a kid etc, and just finding other places and foods interesting, and enjoying learning new things, it's been fun to include more of that in my writing in ways that are hopefully respectful. It also just feels natural in the sense that... for me, in my part of the world, we have more to do with say, Southeast Asia than we do many other cultures, and it's annoying that when people represent, god, 'eastern cultures' in fantasy, it's always like... idk, samey, if it's done by white authors. I'm hoping to avoid that, and not do it terribly. I'm definitely more focusing on Indonesia, and then aspects of Singapore as well, including how cosmopolitan and multicultural it is, while still having a strong sense of identity and place.

Fun fact, I share a timezone with Singapore, but I don't share a timezone with any other state in Australia.

Australia is big and weird.

[rabbitindisguise]

Something I've noticed is how often disabled people pile onto the same hobbies they share with other disabled people, as I become more used to my Being Disabled

Like:

Fandom (cosplay, fanart, fanmixes, fanfic, lurking, rec lists, and general participating like reading, reblogging, liking fandom content)

Blogging, reading, journaling, writing

Fiber arts (felting, knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving, etc)

Homemaking (sewing, baking, cooking, gardening)

RPGs/board games/video games

Something I can only define as Thing (programming, chess, math, science, bugs, etc) where the *concept* is the focus rather than the activity

And like these are basically just things people like to do, however since I've become more disabled I've noticed that a lot of disabled people I interact with online do honestly most of these, often at least one in each category. It's a trope that people fall more into the fiber rabbit hole, but in particular people who are disabled seem to acquire these types of minimal physical activity hobbies at an exponential rate. I've gained 9 of these just this year. And I'm sure part of that is from developing an interest that folks around me share . . . which might be affected by my knowing so many disabled people. I've witnessed this through Tumblr as well, it seems to kick up from "I was disabled and didn't know so I liked to do this thing" to "I'm disabled and embracing my newfound identity by doing 3553234643 of these new activities I've never tried before." A sort of quarantine response but for being disabled.

Idk I need to think on this more when I'm not crashing into bearer of the curse time. There's some irony there that I can't analyze disability culture on account of my disabilities rip

[lotusmuses]

how did you feel about the whole scarlet king thing? cause for me it rode a weird line between the iffy rhetoric that oppressed people should never rise up and fight back because AlL ViOLenCE iS BaD (completely ignoring the passive violence that happens by literally walling people off from society and forcing them into harsher conditions) and the better idea of targeting an institution to initiate change. i appreciated dehya’s anger at the wall and her wanting to tear it down while recognizing that the way others were trying to initiate change was hurting innocents, she wasn’t outright saying you should never fight for rights, just to pick the right target, but at the same time everyone else felt so unsympathetic to how awful the desert folk were being treated!? even cyno?!!? idk just want to hear someone else’s prospective (if you’d like to share that is!)

Hello!

Okay, so my thoughts on it might not apply too well since I haven't actually started the Sumeru archon quests (bc i'm avoiding finishing the chasm quest and instead doing sumeru world quests haha), so I really can’t give too much of an opinion since I don't exactly know how the eremites have taken action. Are they being violent with everyone from the akademiya/rainforest side?? bc that i can understand is considered bad since many of those people are just believing the rhetorics told to them and weren't actively in the wrong.

Anyways,

The whole wall idea,,, I genuinely don't understand why it was made. I'm pretty sure Rukkhadevata made it during the time Al-ahmar accidentally corrupted his kingdom but.. even with exhausting her form for those people it feels kind of insensitive to just close her own people off from the others (could be her version of quarantining them i guess ahah)

Yeah, I can fully agree with you about Dehya. From the little I know about the archon quests, she's a huge voice of reason.

As far as Cyno, I genuinely expected him to care a lot more about how the desert folk get treated (i made a post vaguely talking about it along with the treatment of the matras) but from what I've seen, he's only mad about the Akademiya's illegal stuff. I know that's his job and a big part of his personality is punishing those against justice, but it feels so weird that he doesn’t care much about everything else going on.

He's been out of the desert long enough that I think he's just not considering that it's his community getting treated the way that they are. Honestly if it wasn’t obvious that he was from the desert, based purely on his lack of interest in the place compared to practically every other character and their respective homes, I'd think he's from somewhere else.

I might make a better post once I play through the quests. Thanks for asking! ✨️

[the-busy-ghost]

Who do I have to blame for turning every single minor character out of the fairy tales I knew as a child into a Mystical Mother Goddess, worshipped in a Generic Celtic Culture (despite having the most Lowland Scots or Norse name and story I have ever seen) and whose name was allegedly blackened by those Evil Christians who crushed the pure native Established Pagan Religion of... *checks notes*... eighteenth century Scotland?

[the-fae-folk]

Hello! I am writing a story that involves the Fae Folk and I have a quick question in regards to sharing your name. So, I know that you should never tell a faerie your name as it gives them a certain amount of power over you. What my question is, do they obtain that power if it is just your first name, or do you have to give them your last name, too? Or, is it that they have a bit of power over you if they only have your first, but then a much stronger hold if they know your last? IDK, curious!

Okay. A fair question. A Prosoponym, also known as a full or personal name, is the name or set of names by which a person is known or called, and that when used as a word group it is with the understanding that they refer to a single specific person and no other. In many cultures, this is synonymous with the birth name or legal name of the person. Names come in a number of different types.

Titles such as Lord, Lady, Imperial Highness, Sir, Doctor, etc. All meant to convey what role and rank a person holds within society. Sometimes the nobility of Europe held names that referred to places which they ruled over. For example Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch Gilbert du Motier, known also as the Marquis de La Fayette, was the owner of the fief of La Fayette in the historical province of Auvergne in central France. As you can see, the name La Fayette refers to the place over which the House of La Fayette held power. But far too many people mistake it for being the name of the family, but it was not. In fact, the family name was Motier. A name passed down from long before their distant ancestor Pons Motier de La Fayette, a knight of the Seventh Crusade. Surnames such as Motier above are often referred to as Family Names. But their purpose is to indicate the group to which a person belongs; such as their family related by blood, their tribe, or even their community. Some have called them Last Names, but that is a very European idea and other naming conventions place the Surname in the first position instead of the last. In truth, Surnames do not have a simple and consistent history. The practices have varied around the world and even in Europe, the focus of our current interest, the hold of them began during the reign of the Roman Empire and died out again during the Early Middle Ages. The practice made appearances sporadically, such as in Ireland and Spain, but it did not take hold in England until the 12th Century, but was still very rare deep into the 13th. In fact, many places, such as Scotland and Wales, did not adopt the practice until the 17th century. Without Surnames, there were different ways by which people would be known. They each had a Given Name. A name by which they would be called by family, friends, and anybody who knew them. If you know a person's given name, you can call out to them to gain their attention, drop their name in casual conversation with someone else who might know them, and send them a message with that name on it so that they know it is addressed to them. But what happens when you have multiple people who have the same Given Name? You could have several Richards and more than one John in the same city. How to tell if you were referring to this particular Richard? Or that specific John? This led to the use of epithets known as By-Names. You've heard things like this before. For example the King Alexander III of Macedon was often known by the by-name of Alexander the Great. Was he great? Well certainly, his accomplishments changed the very course of history with his vast empire. But what's the point? Why not just call him Alexander? Well say you had a brother named Alexander, and perhaps you knew another boy in school by that name, and your father's business associate has Alexander as his middle name, and your grandmother likes to speak to you of her late husband, whose name was also Alexander. Now if in school your teacher was to ask you if you knew about the history and deeds of Alexander, you might ask "Which one?". Your teacher, possibly flummoxed and desperate to answer something, might say "The GREAT one. Alexander the GREAT." And you would know precisely which Alexander they meant, because as nice as all the Alexanders you know personally are, none of them has done anything particularly great or noteworthy, not compared to the Alexander who created an entire empire that stretched From Macedonia to Egypt to part of India. You could have a by-name that referred to all kinds of things. Such as qualities of your person like "the Great" or "the Bald" or "The Strong". But the problem was that people are very easily changeable and that it's likely old "Richard the Bald" wasn't always bald, and that "John the Strong" won't stay strong as he ages. You could refer to someone by the place in which they live, or perhaps the place they came from, such as the name "Richard of Coursey". But that too had the problem of people moving about and no longer knowing what to call themselves

because they no longer lived in the same places or had moved away a long time and wasn't sure they wanted to be known as the person who came from somewhere else. They might even take a name from their trade. John the Smith, or John the Butler. But by-names were not easily passed down. If you weren't a smith, but you'd taken the by-name of your father who WAS a smith, then you might cause confusion. Eventually when last names became more fashionable, by-names were still in use and quite popular. You could have John Smith the Short (his great grandfather had been a smith you see, but nobody else in his family had carried the profession since), or his cousin John Smith of the Mill, who works in a mill as his current profession. And the further you look into the history and use of names the more tangled it becomes. Married Names (called Maiden Names if used in some cultures where the wife is the one who assumes the surname of her spouse's family), Pseudonyms, Religious Names, names given only to people while they are children, names given to people when they become adults, names passed down from from the father's side of the family (Patronymic), names passed down from the mother's side of the family (Matronymic), Middle Names, Nicknames, titles given to people for great deeds, noble families who simply make up new names to be passed down for the sake of appearances. At this point you might be wondering what all of this has to do with your question. Well the answer lies in another question entirely. Do you understand WHY a Faerie gains power at all from learning your name? Names are like maps or signs or instructions. They tell us something about the person to whom they refer. Given names are often arbitrary. Chosen by parents based on a place they'd been or how nice they sound or a particular meaning they hold or passed down from late relatives. Some Given Names are less powerful than other ones, because the power of a name lies very much in it's ability to accurately describe the thing it names. Look at Sankt-Pieter-Burch, a city established by the Tsar of Russia, Peter the Great. He had named it after the patron saint who was the source of his own name. However due to the influence of his own ambitions to modernize Russia, his foreign advisors, and his own Dutch Mistress Anna Mons, he gave to the city a name styled after Dutch naming conventions but with subtle German influences as well. Later the name was standardized as Sankt-Peterburg under the German influences. But after the outbreak of World War 1, on 1 September 1914, the city was renamed Petrograd (Peter's City) in order to remove the German styled words of Sankt and Burg. Then on 26 January 1924, the city was renamed Leningrad after the recently deceased Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, the leader of the Soviet Union who went by his Alias of "Lenin", a name taken from the River Lena in Siberia, the place where he'd been sentenced to exile for three years earlier in his life. On 6 September 1991, the previous name, Sankt-Peterburg, was returned by citywide referendum. The change was widely and heavily debated, and though many Veterans of the Second World War and the Communist Party resisted and protested against it, the name it had held for two hundred years was restored by its citizens, many of whom had always quietly called it by the name Pieter anyway. It still stands with that name, Sankt-Peterburg, or Saint Petersburg as its called in English. Saint Peter's City. But it has other names too. It is the "Window to the West" and the "Venice of the North". It is even called "The City of the White Nights" due to natural phenomena caused by its close proximity to the Polar Region. So you see, if you know the name, Petersburg, you have a tiny glimpse into its history. A fragment of its identity as a city. But if you learn more of its names, the changes in language, the renaming, the nicknames, the fond epithets, the name of the captured Swedish Fortress that occupied the space it was founded upon (Nyenschantz)... You begin to know more of what it is, what it truly

is. That is the power of names. The nature of naming. Without even knowing it, people are creating stories of places and people. They draw from the world to grant names, and in doing so they bestow the stories of all those things to the thing which they have named, giving it a history which is then built upon by all that comes after. You may not see it when you think of your own name. You'll likely wonder how it has anything to do with you as a person. But its connections and roots go deeper than you know. Names influence people over countless generations, and a name can even influence who you become or were once. Some keep their names their whole lives, others might choose to take new names for reasons of their own. But taking on a new name doesn't make it less of a true name, just as restoring the name Saint Petersburg to an old city didn't make the name Leningrad any less real of a name than Petersburg. Both are names for the city, reflecting different histories and different ideals, but building upon one another. That old city is Petersburg, but that name now carries the very memory of Leningrad, of Petrograd, and even a distant reflection of the venerable Saint from which it draws its first name. Do you understand? If the Folk learn your given name, they have some power over you, yes. And perhaps if they learn your Surname they might gain even more power over you. But it's not the words, it's not the sounds or the order or the letters that give the names the power they hold. It's all the things that have led and contributed to those names from the very beginning of time to the current moment, it's all the things you have done and said and felt that have added power to those names. If you have loved a nickname greatly, it becomes powerful in that way, if you hate your given name because you do not like how it makes you seem other than what you feel you are inside, that too becomes part of its meaning and power. This is the reason we are warned to keep our names from the Folk. Any name, every name. Tell them to call you by a name that isn't yours. It is still a name you have chosen, and thus your name, but because it has not long had much to do with you, it holds very little power over you, not like names you have kept all your life, held close to your heart, hated, loved. With each name they catch, they can feel the power within, the kind of name it is matters not, but the power it holds and how much influence it has over you as a person whether you are aware of it or not, that is what is important. That is what we are afraid of the Fae taking advantage of. And with magic, you can do far more with a name of such power than any mortal ever could. Terrible things, frightening things. If the Folk learn your name, they could take it from you, or if they were truly truly angry with you, they could use its power to strip away everything that makes you yourself. Everything tied to whatever name they got hold of. Memories, scars, good deeds, ties with other people, other people's memories of you or the things you've done, anything and everything you had because of that name would be gone. You would still exist, of course, but missing a vital part of yourself and unable to restore it. They could also use your name to control you, or change you, or influence you without you knowing. Names are powerful, we have always known this, whispered this in the shadows. But to consider what that means is a truly frightening thing. (Please note that much of this is more related to a philosophic analysis of the power of names, rather than an analysis on why humans in Folklore would take different names when dealing with the Faeries. Based on my brief forays of research into Onomastics and the Philosophy of Language, I believe the central ideas I've presented concerning the inherant power of names are accurate. But you should be aware that the above answer contains much conjecture on the reasoning and purposes of the Fae when seeking out the names of humans. And that there are many different philisophic worldviews that have been

debated historically about the nature of names. Like any good subject, the more you delve into a thing, the more you find how tangled and complex it really is. Personal Names is one of those kinds of subjects, and Faerie Folklore is another. I do hope this answer is of help to you, since I have striven to offer an explanation of what could make a name powerful and why having one or the other would be more powerful than the other or why having both would give you even further power over a person. The truth is that Folklore's reasoning for hiding your name from Faeries is unknown. They never actually state why. And the answer is likely something mundane such as making it harder for them to find you if they don't know your real name or anything about where to look for you. Taking your name could be similar to how throughout history, for a variety of reasons, humans have been known to change the names of people they've enslaved. But the modern trend of fantasy literature is leaning more towards a magical explanation, an inherant power in names. Thus my answer aims to fulfill that expectation.)