#it will be interesting to see how it works but the the new gender inclusive rules may be a start

[novaandmali]

ARTISTS WANTED! 

We’re making a new book filled with pulpy sci-fi illustrations based on classic artworks (pre-1800), and, as always, LGBT and POC inclusive <3

Applications open March 25th at noon - the application will NOT be available before that time and will be removed after apps close. HUGE shout out to @ Nukeillustrate for this absolutely stunning piece, lovingly borrowed from “And They Were Monsters.”

The application will NOT be available until that date - we will post it here, instagram (nova_mali), bluesky, and tumblr (novaandmali). The application will be open for five days (March 29th) or until we hit 1000 applications. Please be sure to set an alarm and get your application in ASAP - we will not be able to take any applications through email, dms, or after they close.

A tentative schedule:

Results emailed by April 3rd - everyone will get an email! Sketch due May 15 Final work due June 15 Kickstarter runs July 1-31

We are looking for 50-60 artists (who MUST be 18+ years old by April 3) to join us to create a piece of digital art and/or merch. Traditional art is also accepted if scanned/photographed at a professional level.

We're looking specifically to increase the diversity of our artists, both in regards to race and gender - we want to be including all kinds of voices. Same thing with our art - we're looking to increase the variety of cultures, body types, and disabilities represented.

This is a PAID job. We’ve paid in the range of 200-300 for similar projects in the past, based on a set contract amount plus anything left over after production and shipping, split between everyone. Example: $150 in the contract and $100 extra per artist share. The additional amount will depend on how successful the Kickstarter campaign is.

I’ll post more later this week but first and foremost, get ready to go looking for interesting classical art to re-do into pulpy sci-fi! Your app will ask you what you’re thinking about creating. This is not a final answer but we want to know what vibe, what era, etc what you’re thinking about. 

We’re asking for art pieces that are pre-1800. I want you to really get digging and find some epic cool old stuff, particularly from more women artists and artists of color. Non-Western art is very very much included in our scope of work - we can’t wait to see your ideas!

I know older art tends to have weird people or weird perspectives - that doesn't need to translate to your final art. Just get funky with where you're finding inspiration! We will discuss this in more detail once we’ve hired everyone.

We really want to play with the idea of taking something very very old and make it very very futuristic - it should be funky and fun, and of course full of delightfully gay art <3

I’ll post exactly what questions the app will entail later this week.

The application will include things like: a link to your portfolio (instagram and twitter are NOT accepted as a portfolio) and an idea of what art pieces you’re thinking about and how to transform them.

We also ask for a short artist bio, like twitter style - short and sweet. Please don’t talk down about yourself or your skills - talk yourself up! Make me excited to see your art!!

About us: we’re two non-binary lesbians who really love cats and gay art. We’ve enjoyed our work as a queer publishing house and can’t wait to do more! Some of our previous works include classics but make it gay, And They Were Monsters, and Cover Me Queer.

Check out our work at www.novaandmali.com . 

[darkbluekies]

Kahsiaja if you're comfortable and still feel like writing for Hedwig (writing in general), could we get some Hedwig x Masculine!fem!reader?? It's been stuck in my head since the 'when she's copying your snaps" post😭

I mean I am writing a hedwig onwshot and there was someone that asked if it could be with a fem reader?

Usually I pick gender neutral for inclusion purposes but if darling has to share a room with someone else and schools often put girls and boys in separate rooms, I might have to choose one or the other for the oneshot to avoid complications and plot holes

But that still leaves questions:

Hedwig x male reader? Because that would make more sense to why darling wouldn't be put in the same bedroom as Hedwig, but I have written male reader for hedwig before and it could be fun to try something new!

Hedwig x fem reader? Haven't written fem reader for hedwog in a oneshot before and i thought it could be fun to show how it could be!!

Hedwig x what kind of fem reader?? Masc? Feminine? Something in between? What could be most interesting to read about in this school trip scenario?

... so as you can see there are a few things I need to decide. Masculine fem darling could be i teresting, but I'm not very knowledge about what that would mean (I mean I know on the surface level) but would need some nice people to explain a bit more to me so that I don't accidentally make a stereotype of it😅 i think the dynamic between hedwig and a masculine female reader could be very interesting though since they're VERY different!

Sorry for the ramble this is just how my mind works when making stories lol<3

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Steven Beschloss at America, America:

I talk a lot about the need to speak out. This emanates from my belief that it’s critical that in confronting this hostile, anti-democratic regime we don’t lose sight of what’s true and false, what’s right and wrong. I worry that as the propaganda intensifies and the public is denied the truth, our capacity to grasp reality will get harder and harder. It’s alarming to see how quickly and energetically Donald Trump and his enablers are attacking free speech and working to silence dissent. Sometimes their intent is obvious, but other times they are using hot-button issues as subterfuge to misdirect the public. Let’s look at a handful of their actions to see how they are part of the same hateful plot against free speech. Press Corps Manipulation: The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America at first appeared mostly laughable. But apart from Trump’s obvious imperialist ambitions, it soon became clear that he would target journalists and media organizations that refuse to consent to his desire. Sadly, Google quickly assented to the name change on its Google Maps, but the Associated Press was among the media companies that has stood by the Gulf of Mexico. Trump responded by banning AP reporters from White House press briefings, leading the AP to file suit against the administration. In its 18-page complaint, the AP said it was suing “to vindicate its rights to the editorial independence guaranteed by the United States Constitution and to prevent the executive branch from coercing journalists to report the news using only government-approved language.” But note that this preceded Trump’s plan to remake the White House press pool with a thicket of toadies—stripping away the traditional commitment to the major news outlets there to represent a democratic public’s concerns—to make room for media people chosen by Trump’s press operatives and serve his interests. (“We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office,” Trump’s sycophantic press secretary and propagandist Karoline Leavitt said.)

[...]

Eliminating Words: But these attacks on the press only begin to illustrate the assault on free speech and the First Amendment. Of course, Trump’s gaslighting in a day-one executive order said the opposite: “Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.” In fact, a series of Trump executive orders made clear that his regime would be ending programs and policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as well as changing and deleting words on government websites that demonstrated the federal government’s commitment to DEI. While it’s the prerogative of any administration to make changes to highlight its priorities, the scale and speed of the effort to eradicate both the programs and the words that address DEI is chilling. A new report by The New York Times identified hundreds of words that had been deleted or amended on hundreds of federal government websites, as well as others flagged for review in order to target grants, contracts and other government projects. As you might expect, that includes words related to diversity (such as diverse, diversify, diverse communities, diverse groups, bias, cultural identity), equity (equality, equal opportunity, equitable) and inclusion (inclusivity, inclusive leadership, belong, sense of belonging, marginalized), it also includes almost anything you can think of related to race (racial justice, racism, racial inequality, antiracist, Black, Latinx, hispanic minority, Native American, indigenous community, segregation, systemic) and sexual or gender identity (biologically female, sexual preferences, transgender, trans, LGBTQ, they/them, feminism, gender, orientation, even pregnant person). And anything that even hints at prejudice, bigotry or their impact? Not in Trump’s America. Out goes all references to bias, hate speech, marginalized, stereotype, underrepresented, underprivileged, underserved, vulnerable populations, even victims and trauma. In other words, out goes understanding and knowledge, in comes ignorance and hate. Canceling Town Halls: Republican leaders have also grasped that they can advance their agenda by refusing to engage with their constituents, a growing number of whom reject their policies. Trump activated the efforts to suppress growing criticism by lying in a Truth Social post last week that the town hall protests are the work of “paid troublemakers.” The chair of the GOP’s campaign arm, North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, then privately urged House Republicans to stop holding in-person town halls. House Speaker Mike Johnson continued the evidence-free lie after the GOP meeting, telling reporters, “There are people who do this as a profession, they're professional protesters.” And, he added, it’s best not to “play into that.”

[...]

Slashing University Funding: On Friday, the Trump regime announced that it was canceling $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, claiming the school failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism and other harassment. This came on the heels of Trump posting last week that they would “STOP” federal funding to any school that “allows illegal protests.” There is a legitimate conversation to be had about whether Columbia and other colleges found the right balance between protecting students from harassment and ensuring the free-speech rights of pro-Palestine protestors. But note how Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., got in on the act by saying in a press release that “censorship and false narratives of woke cancel culture have transformed our great universities into greenhouses for this deadly and virulent pestilence.” Do you really believe that Trump and RFK are so concerned about the real issue of rising antisemitism? Or is this simply part of the strategy to target higher education, chill speech and silence dissent? This comes on top of the aggressive pressure for colleges and universities to end programs and research projects addressing DEI.

Steven Beschloss wrote an excellent column detailing the various attacks on the freedom of speech under the Trump regime, even as 47 delusionally claims to stand for "protecting free speech.”

[paganravennest]

Bending the Binary: Polarity Magic in a Nonbinary World - A Review

I would like to start by saying that I really enjoyed this book. Deborah Lipp (the author) did a fair job, I feel, in explaining what polarity (in the magical sense) is, where our ideas for it come from, and how it can be done differently.

The gender essentialism that is so prevalent in Western Occultism has long rubbed me the wrong way. Gender is not even a cut and dry thing with people, let alone the divine (who is way beyond our understanding of gender) so why do we make like it is during ritual?

This book does an excellent job of not only providing a basic understanding of the societal/phycological/biological basis for gender but how gender has been historically viewed in the Western world. It also explains the origins of magical polarity. Spoiler: humans love categorizing things, but we are really bad at it!

Through this book I got a crash course in the history of alchemy and Kabbalah, both of which had huge influences on Western Occultism. It also touched on Greek Philosophy which is where the ball really got rolling with the classification of everything into opposites. Deborah even provides some examples from outside the Western Magical traditions on classification to really hammer home that this style of classifying everything as male or female is not universal and is largely based on culture (with different cultures associating different things to masculinity and femininity).

The book offers some guided meditations and different rituals on different polar energies, and while these offer some interesting ideas, I felt they were a bit lacking. This book also has discussion/journaling questions and prompts which I found to be much more useful! I could see this being a great book for an occult book club, or a Coven, Grove, or Circle to read together and even work on some of the rituals or meditations.

Deborah is a Gardnerian Wiccan, and that does shine through in her writing, however I feel that people outside of Wicca will find good use and information in it as well. Speaking of Wicca though, this book helped shed new light (for me as an uninitiated dedicant) on the role of the Hight Priest in Wiccan ritual.

Deborah highlights what she feels are the most important polarities when working magic (Force/Form, Self/Other, Active/Passive, Dominance/Submission, and Night/Day) and while I don't necessarily agree with her list, it did really get me thinking about different polarities and how they could be harnessed in ritual. She also gives ideas on new ways of working with gender polarity besides the tired male+female=magic.

Overall, I recommend this book. I think it's an important read for anyone who is looking to lead more inclusive rituals, find new ways of engaging with polarity outside of gender essentialism, or is just curious about this whole polarity magic thing.

[gor3sigil]

Hi, this might be a bit random, but please bear with me. I’m German and curious about something regarding the French language and gender neutral words. Do you also have “Gendering” in French? “Gendering” being a description for giving gendered words “gender neutral” endings. Which is ironic while also fitting, because the most prominent way to do it is in my opinion not actually making words less gendered but just adding a “*” to make the appearance of it being inclusive and not actually have a gender neutral ending. The ending is just whatever gendered version of the word is longer with a “*” slapped in between. Alternatively there is also “_” or “:” as a placeholder in between. Speaking wise it’s just a pause.

To visualise it: “act*ress” would be how it works on an English word. This would be counted as gender neutral by the standers of a majority of people doing “gendering”.

I have heard about something similar existing in French before and am curious, about your thoughts on it. (Full disclosure. As a nonbinary individual I am so uncomfortable with being relegated to being a special character and still forced to relate to gendered endings rather than people putting in proper work and make up gender neutral endings. There are ways to make words gender neutral in a way that actually removes the gendered endings, but they are so wildly unpopular that I’ve never seen them used by queer orgs. Or even at all. There is one way to “gender” that is fairly popular that results in gender neutral endings, but it gets criticised for not working at all times, and works within the regular grammar, while the other versions is making up new endings. (I like both of them way more than the common one with the “*”.))

That's a super interesting question, and we do have that in French ! There's a few different ways of making words and adjectives gender neutral in French:

When possible, we combine the masculine and feminine end of the words. I personally do that mostly orally because it's easier to pronounce. For example: actor and actress in French is "acteur" and "actrice", combining both endings would be "acteurice".

If the word ends in "eux", we use the X to combine masc and fem endings and create a gender neutral form. For example: happy is "heureux" (masc) and "heureuse" (fem), so it becomes "heureuxe" (gend neutral). Both these forms we use orally mostly. When we write, we'll do the third option:

Separate the gendered endings with what we call a median point that has been created for this purpose, "⸱". So it becomes "Iel est content⸱e" (They were happy. Note that "iel" is a neopronoun made from the pronouns "il" (he) and "elle" (she) as we don't have gender neutral pronouns). The median point can be replaced with "-" but the median point is really the most common way of making our language gender neutral while writing. Its use is more and more common but very politically aligned with the left and fiercly contested still by the French Academy and more right winged politicians, as it's deemed as a butchering of the French language. But progressive spaces incomporating it to their publications and, more marginally, it making its way into our literature, help a lot since people are seeing it more and more and getting used to it. The only downside to it is that it's a tiny point so it can be hard to read, in this case we'll use a bigger alternative with the "•" or a "-". I have seen "*" used too in french but it's more used in a way of degendering the language contrarily to inclusive writing as I've shown above, and it's not that common even in queer orgas.

[ultfreakme]

Thoughts on Jessie Gender's video on NATLA

I really admire Jessie Gender's videos usually, she's the one whom I usually go to to see videos on gender and queerness in media. I like her stuff a lot and respect their work.

But the NATLA video left me going "no, wait, that's not what happened" a lot. I can't summarize the video, I suggest people go watch it if they want to know but I disagree with practically everything for the most part.

I'm not anybody on the internet. But what I do have is a lifetime of growing up on ATLA, a degree in Sociology and English Literature, coming from a culture that ATLA is based on, studying about colonial rule, researching the cultures ATLA is based on in my spare time and a love for the original. Does that establish some legitimacy? If for some reason you feel like you need to go hate on Jessie for this, DON'T. DO NOT. This is me just critiquing because I think the video content was biased and I want to honestly engage with the points made because everyone has a tendency to demonize the adaption without looking at it on its own merit. With that said:

Point 1: Sokka's sexism is taken out to make the show more palatable and his arc in the Kyoshi Island episode undermines Suki to prop up Sokka.

She says that Sokka's sexism and him addressing it is a show-long arc, and him deconstructing that is him fighting against the colonial sexism of the Fire Nation.

Sokka's sexism is explicitly dealt with in one episode. He's shown to be overtly sexist in the first 4 and never again except for little comments here and there that every other character makes as well and goes unaddressed. His sexism is not because of the Fire Nation- FN is very inclusive of women as warriors. Sokka's sexism is an anomaly because no one but him cares that Katara isn't just sitting home mending clothes(Bato, Hakoda, none of the men on the ship they are on in S3 say a word and she takes off to join Aang in the Fire Nation islands).

If Sokka's sexism is not systematic to the Southern Water Tribe or caused by the Fire Nation, what kind of commentary on sexism is this?

She also says Suki is played down and demured to give Sokka confidence when she's teaching him, taking away her arc as she pines for the new boy who she likes because he's shirtless. Sokka's throughout the episode shows insecurity and a more subtle form of sexism where he's trying ton prove he's as good as her. He's trying to show off his strength to her, and failing miserably and when he realizes she bested him, he walks away. He goes into it assuming he's better than her but walks away realizing shit she is GOOD. Then he goes to her dojo to observe the practice and follows along, Suki invites him in seeing him fucking up the forms outside and teaches him.

Suki falls for a tackle Sokka does in the og and live action. In the OG, it's shown as Sokka ACTUALLY being better. In the live action? He isn't. One lesson doesn't make him better, she transitions from actually teaching him to kinda flirting until she completely stops. She's not weakening herself for him, both of them are expressing romantic interest. How did Sokka, a boy who that morning was defeated by them, get better than SUKI in a spar she put genuine effort in? I think that's frankly more sexist than the live action take.

Additionally, Suki was meant to be a one-off character meant to teach Sokka that sexism is bad. She existed entirely to serve Sokka's character arc and had no independent motivation in season 1. In the live action, we see her talk about wanting to go into the world, and see her growing motivation through Aang's presence of wanting to not just protect Kyoshi Island, but the world. She became what she is only in season 2 and 3. Sokka's sexism arc didn't even pan out well because he never addressed the issue with Katara after that episode, the first and most affected victim of his sexism.

Sokka wearing the armor in the original, is a joke. Aang calls their uniform a dress while laughing (it's not, like it's not even constructed like one, the bottoms are loose pants called Hakama). He isn't put into the uniform to show solidarity, it's a joke, and we are meant to be laughing at Sokka for the most part. Queer fans have reclaimed and redefined that scene to be like drag, but that wasn't the original intention of the show because we get jokes on Aang's masculinity which never actively get refuted from Toph in season 2. Katara of all people points out Sokka wearing a poinytail in a demeaning manner multiple times, a supposedly girly hairstyle. If the original wanted to honor Sokka embracing gender fluidity, they wouldn't consistently mock him for being choosy about buying a bag and wearing a ponytail(which in-universe has cultural importance to him).

All signs of 'femininity' in Sokka are played for laughs in the rest of the show(down to the scene where he draws a rainbow, and his master Piandao simply rolls his eyes).

Sokka is also never once shown as a better warrior in the live action- his story is the opposite. Sokka yearns here to be an engineer, a scientist tinkering away with new inventions. His father Hakoda and the SWT discourages this because there is no value in that for them. Value is shown for them to come from physical strength, which Sokka NEVER has in live action season 1(him having biceps and being shirtless is not a glorification of strength). He's good, but he's nothing special. His true highlight is in his intellect and the show implies pretty well that Sokka doesn't need to be physically strong or a warrior to fight back against oppression.

That's his defining line in the show teasers "you do not need to be a warrior, to be a hero."

Point 2: The sexism arc isn't replaced by anything more nuanced.

It is! It's replaced by the biases against bending. Sokka discourages Katara from bending because the Fire Nation attacked the SWT to eliminate waterbenders. Both Katara and Sokka hold fear for waterbending, a part of their own culture, specifically because of the Fire Nation's hegemony and hierarchical beliefs. Waterbending = preservation of culture and Katara says these exact words in episode 1. Sokka stopping her is him being under the colonial hegemony of the FN because waterbending is what brought Fire Nation soldiers to their shores to kill their mom. That's the new arc and it has follow through to the end. Instead of Sokka telling Katara to kick ass because he isn't sexist anymore, the live action Sokka says it because he's embraced waterbending and his own culture now through seeing Katara grow and letting her choose for herself what's best for her (instead of smothering in his faux warrior persona, which they literally discuss when stuck in the cave). This arc is exclusive to the show, there's no comment on the cultural significance and erasure of waterbending in the original.

It's made more explicit in Katara's arc, where she needs to get past the fear the Fire Nation has put in her of the dangers of her own bending, and embrace that her people wanted to protect it (Kya sacrificing herself, Gran-Gran hiding the waterbending scroll).

Point 3: Showing the genocide of the Air Nomads is disrespectful

In the original, the Air Nomads are nothing but a memory. At all times. We never see the influence of the Air Nomad culture on Aang, or see them alive and thriving at any point. We see them fight back on the live action, and the actual genocide is a few short minutes, interspersed with Aang sinking. It's not a lingering process and it shows the abilities of Air Nomads. Jessie says this is purely aesthetic and to be cool, but there are significant moments that happen here.

Establishing the powers of Air Benders- this is the first and last time we'll get to see Air Bending on this scale and this shows what they can do

There's a scene where two air nomads nod to one another, and the air nomad switches from defensive to an extremely offensive move. It shows that this isn't typical for the Air Nomads, and that they are being pushed to their limits

This is a festival, they were defending themselves and it's important to show that the Air Nomads didn't just go silently without a fight and were ambushed on an important day.

To show the Fire Nation's cruelty and the extent of their power during the comet specifically.

To give weight to WHY everyone Aang runs into is so critical and hateful of the fact that he was gone, and to also show why Aang never refutes them and the weight of what he's lost (and also that even if he were there, he couldn't have done anything)

It's not just to be cool, it's honestly not cool to watch and taking Gordon Cormier, a child's quote to say that's what everyone's impression is, is disingenuous despite the disclaimer given. The kids' quotes always get taken out of context. Reviewers and Avatar fans who went to the premiere were disturbed overall by the violence. They did not think of the Fire Nation as "cool", they saw the Air Nomads like that. Like don't we want people to think of the Air Nomads in a positive light for fighting back?

Their culture gets little to no expansion in the original, and whatever Aang has left of them is actually slowly stripped away in the original.

Aang is made to okay the destruction and modification of the Northern Air Temple when destruction is shown as wrong during his rage and grief in the Southern Air Temple. The new settlers have used the gliders of Air Nomads to device weapons that fly, which were then sold to the Fire Nation. The Mechanist and his people continue this and create more weapons to fight the war in the temples(albeit this time agaisnt the fire nation but the cycle of violence continues using devices and cultures of a peaceful people). A once-peaceful place, is now a center for war innovation and Aang is told to accept this because he must let go of the past to look to the future.

The above, in comparison to Aang simply saying "I should let go of the past and look to the future" is FAR more disrespectful of Aang's culture and past. The live action keeps Gyatso's memory a constant companion to Aang, he is terrified of letting go of the past and it hinders him from simply living.

Point 4: Violence is shown as good and the cycle of violence is perpetuated.

She says Kyoshi demanding Aang to fight back and hit hard is showing that Aang needs to embrace strength and power. That everyone telling him to fight and be alone means strength is given importance, and that the same is shown when Zuko says "sometimes the weak can become strong, sometime you just have to give them a chance."

Kyoshi is wrong. She is willfully portrayed as powerful, but harsh. Roku(though his screentime was small) disagrees with her and tells Aang to find his own way of fighting and that is ultimately what Aang follows.

Kyoshi doesn't come off as correct, she's demanding and harsh, unforgiving. Aang initially lets her take over because he is scared of the power he holds and she promises she can control it to help others. Aang doesn't want power(he literally says 'I don't want these powers'). In the finale, he gives in to the ocean spirit and does what Kyoshi asks; save everyone, even if it costs his own life. But it is shown as a tragedy. Katara calls back for him and tells him he shouldn't have to sacrifice himself, that he has a place in this world as he is no matter what others tell him and he listens to THAT. He says he will save the world not alone, but with his friends, in the memory of the Air Nomads to ensure it never happens again.

Physical strength is only a priority to Katara's character. Sokka doesn't fight in the end, he's begging Yue to not sacrifice herself and is protecting her. He's not some macho man. Aang is also not embracing power.

Zuko says that line not to show that he can grow stronger, but that people should get second chances. He's a hurt kid wishing his father had the compassion to let him grow. But he doesn't and Zuko walks away from it thinking physical strength and bending prowess is important, crushing his compassion. That line on a meta level isn't even about physical strength. It's about mental fortitude and character, and the strength to be compassionate.

Jet was mentioned as being portrayed as more wrong, but in the original he was ready to sink a village of innocents. in the live action he genuinely helped Katara with her waterbending and was justified in wanting to kill the mechanist(who collaborated with the fire nation) and King Bumi (who is neutral, incompetent and has let the Fire Nation run rampant in the city). He's more sympathetic here because he's doing it with a concrete reason, and he didn't even manipulate Katara the way he did in the original. She was genuinely charmed by him.

A big problem I had with Jessie's video was putting in clips from some right-wing channel between critique of NATLA....which....why? Huh? And these were used to say NATLA is leaning into fascist tendencies and smoothing out any critique of colonialism when it really isn't. I think NATLA is very explicitly saying the same message as the original. Not in the same way, but it is. The show actively engages audiences and the characters in discussions of cultural erasure and the problems of valuing power(the latter especially through Zuko and Azula).

There are million issues with the live action (Sokka's casting, ableism in Zuko's burn scar, the writing issues, pacing issues, the lack of screen time for Aang and focus on the Fire family). The ones Jessie Gender discussed though, are not it.

[faerieroyal]

Hey!! May I suggest/request some headcanons of what Ken (Ryan Gosling) dating a zookeeper Barbie would include, please? Thank you!!

ooooh, yay, a request for ken, i was honestly worried i wasn’t gonna get any for him !! thank you so much, dear anon, and i really hope you like these headcanons !! <3

✩⡱ headcanons: ken (ryan gosling) x gn!zookeeper barbie!reader

(note: i am aware that technically all the barbies are ladies, but in the interest of inclusion i am keeping this gender-neutral - hope you don’t mind!!)

— in a world like barbieland, where so much is the same - the days, the weather, the outfits, the words exchanged between those who live here - you are a notable outlier.

— rather than spend your days at the beach or cruising around the pristine streets of barbieland like your barbie counterparts, you are more than content to spend all your time in barbieland's only zoo, where you work, among the animals. rather than perfectly fitting clothes in pastel colors, your wardrobe consists of a standard zookeeper uniform, beige and khaki and shorts and t-shirts, the type of clothing always ready to be stained with dirt and animal saliva even if they somehow never are.

— you're also a bit different from the other barbies, and even the kens, in terms of personality. you much prefer the company of animals, and after spending so long among them (although curiously, it has never felt like that long), you're left in a place of often not knowing how to socialize with people. the other barbies and kens are all very nice to you when they come to visit the zoo or see you in public, of course - you're not sure any of them know how not to be nice - but the fact remains: you are quiet and relatively isolated, not peppy and social like every other barbie seems to be.

— which is, perhaps, exactly what allows this particular ken to notice you.

— the two of you know each other, of course, everybody knows everybody in barbieland, but you don't have an official conversation until one day when the other barbies finally convince you to come to the beach with them.

— you’re feeling intensely awkward when you first arrive with them, an unusual sight at the beach standing there in a borrowed swimsuit, and that’s when ken first sees you.

— he originally comes up just to talk to classic barbie, but of course take a moment to say hello to all the other barbies standing with her, and it’s then that he notices you, standing there between physicist barbie and president barbie and clearly trying hard to hide how nervous you are. he doesn’t recall ever having seen you before, and given that a new barbie hasn’t appeared in barbieland in a really long time and he definitely would have known if it had happened, he’s immediately interested in who you are and what you must have been doing in order for him to have never met you before now.

— you’re the last barbie he greets, and when he hits you with his classic “hi, barbie!” and dazzling smile, all you find yourself really able to do is smile and awkwardly wave back, feeling like your face is on fire. of course, this only draws ken in more (he’s as curious as a puppy), and so he asks if you want to share a towel with him so that he can get to know you better!

— you’re a little nervous about the other barbies getting upset if you leave them, but they’re all smiles, encouraging you to go and have fun with ken if you want to (and in fact, classic barbie might even give you an extra little push towards him, happy that ken might finally have someone else to have a crush on since she doesn’t return his feelings), so you agree to the towel-sharing, face getting even hotter at how utterly excited ken looks about it.

— the two of you wind up talking for almost two hours, with ken wanting to know everything about you and asking a million questions about your animals and even promising to come to the zoo as soon as possible. he’s so invested in talking to you that even when beach ken taunts him and tries to challenge him to a volleyball match, he doesn’t accept like he normally would - which is how the other barbies realize that in such a short time, he’s already starting to develop a crush on you. (the kens, bless their hearts, take a little longer to pick up on it, but when allan lets them know they very quickly realize how obvious it is.)

— the two of you continue talking and hanging out for a few weeks, during which you even give ken a private tour of the whole zoo and allow him to help you feed the animals, which you’ve never done for anyone before. you’re not quite sure why you offer to let him help you at first, but it’s afterwards that you realize: ken’s special to you. you like him, in the way he used to like classic barbie. in a dating way.

— (even if he does keep mixing up which feeds are meant for which animals and almost gave your zebras the steaks meant for the lions. but you kind of like that he’s a little hopeless, if you’re being honest; it’s ridiculously endearing.)

— it’s about two months, while the two of you are dancing at the first party at classic barbie’s dreamhouse that you’ve ever been to, that ken eagerly asks if he can be your boyfriend. for a moment, you’re frozen in surprise - you ever actually thought he returned your feelings, even though it’s rather obvious as you actually look back - but you quickly beam back at him and, under the pink glow of the dreamhouse’s lights, give this sweet man the only answer you could ever give.

— “of course, ken. i’d love for you to be my boyfriend.”

— and as nervous as you are for the first few weeks after that, it turns out to be amazing. there isn’t even a lot of change from when the two of you were friends; you still spend the majority of your time together, and ken still follows you around like a puppy dog, always telling you about how cool he thinks you are and doing his best to help you take care of your animals (which, again, makes you feel a little bit silly for not realizing he liked you back sooner).

— one of the only differences is that now, you feel a lot less nervous about showering ken with as many compliments as he gives you; barely an hour goes by without the two of you telling each other how beautiful and amazing you find the other person. (the other barbies, for the record, find this absolutely adorable and can never keep from constantly “awww”ing when the two of you hang out with them.)

— another difference, and possibly the best one of all, is that you actually get to kiss him. your kisses normally aren’t very long, just sweet little pecks on the lips - or a flurry of little kisses all over your face when ken gets in a silly mood - but they’re always incredibly nice and leave both of you grinning from ear to ear when you pull away.

— your animals warm up to ken a lot more once the two of you start dating, too. they weren’t always the friendliest to him before, both since they’re protective of you and because he isn’t the best at caring for them, but once they realize that ken really cares about you and isn’t going to do you or them any harm, they become a lot warmer, making happy noises when he approaches and bumping their heads into his hand to demand pets even when he messes up their feeding yet again. (he even strikes up something of a friendship with amelia, one of your lionesses, and you’ve often found him just sitting in her enclosure, having a lively one-sided conversation while she rests her large head in his lap.)

— of course, the other barbies and kens (as well as allan) are very supportive of your relationship - even beach ken, as reluctant as he is to think positively of his rival, can acknowledge that you’re adorable together.

— classic barbie tells you as much one sunny day on the beach, almost exactly like the one where you and ken first met - except that this time, you’re sitting there confidently in your own swimsuit, one that you bought after ken noticed it and declared that he thought you’d look amazing in it, as you lounge on a beach chair with the other barbies and watch the kens square off against each other at the volleyball nets.

— “you know, barbie, you and ken really do make an amazing couple. i’m super happy for you guys; just because i didn’t like him as a boyfriend doesn’t mean he shouldn’t ever get to be anyone’s boyfriend, so i’m really glad he’s yours.”

— and you look over at ken, your ken, as he successfully keeps beach ken from scoring and immediately looks back at you with a big smile to see if you noticed, and you smile as bright as barbieland’s ever-shining sun.

— “me too, barbie. me too.”

barbie (2023) taglist: empty for now !

general taglist: @maddipoof, @thatmagickjuju, @talkingturnedtoscreamss, @malafvma, @auxiliarydetective, @heliads, @oneirataxia-girl !

( send me an ask if you want to be added to a taglist !! )

[ninjagobythenumbers]

Ninjago Species by the Season

I made this chart upon @weirdcatbean's request. I also wanted to include allignment and centrality on this chart, but as you can see that would get pretty busy.

Here's the percentages.

Interestingly, it keeps a pretty consistent human:non-human ratio. The earlier seasons actually have less humans percentage wise, which I did not expect. However, I should note that this chart includes every single named character, so while yes there may be 36 humans in Seabound for instance, 19 of them are ensemble who were just there for Nya's funeral. I'll be making an improved version of this chart later that's a bit easier to read and includes some more relavant data points. Now, you may be wondering, why didn't I include what the chart looks like without the inclusion of ensemble from the beginning. I admit, normally I would. To explain why I didn't, I have to tell the story of how I came up with these numbers.

Methodology

While I could have just tallied up individual species season by season, I knew I would probably want to play with the data in other ways besides just this one chart. Thus, I undertook the massive endeavor of indexxing every Ninjago character by Name, Type, Allignment, Species, Gender, and Season. For instance, here's the pilot season.

You may be wondering what the New/Old column is all about. In order to include the full character breakdown for each season, I had to make new entries of each character every season. This created a lot of repeats, so to separate unique characters from repeats I noted whether character's were introduced with this season (new) or whether they were a repeat (old). This was also useful in that it allowed me to alter the criteria of a character with each season so I can accomadate for changes such as Cole turning into a ghost. Once I had compiled this data (839 entries and 292 unique characters), I attempted to use Google Sheets' pre-provided data analysis.

It was sort of useful, but it would only show the top 4 and bottom 4 frequencies and I couldn't copy and paste the data. It also was a bit fussy around filters. Thus, I did something a bit wonky where I filtered by season and just copy pasted the column into a different sheet.

I then used functions (ex: =COUNTIF(AC3:AC1002, "Skeleton")) to create my raw data table which you can view above. This process worked but it had a lot of problems. It was time consuming, didn't allow me to employ multiple filters, and, most importantly of all, it wasn't allowing me to use this data I had spent days compiling to its full extent. Thus, I decided to create a sort of search engine for Ninjago characters.

This search engine allows me to input criteria and recieve not only the total characters that fit the criteria, but a list of all of their entries. The fact it lists all of their entries may not sound that impressive, but trust, it is. (For me at least) Here's an example search of good, recurring Serpentine.

I am very excited about the potential of this tool. It's going to allow me to create a lot of great charts, including an improved Species by Season chart. For now though, I'm only uploading the original requested chart, because creating this tool has taken the better part of my day. I plan on sharing it, but I still need to work out a few kinks so you can look forward to that as well. I know I already said it, but I'm so, so excited about what I'll be able to make. Here's a preview to the search if you're interested. It also includes all my previous spreadsheets, but I'm still working out some formatting issues and stuff.

[wanderingaldecaldo]

WIP Whenever on a Wednesday

I am terrible at keeping up with tags in general but I am aghast to see my oldest WIP Whenever tag was from nearly 8 weeks ago. I completed a couple of things since my last one, namely the sock garters and the boots, and added quite a few more projects to the list than I scratched off. 😩

Tagged by (and tagging back) @fly-amanitaa @streetkid-named-desire @ouroboros-hideout @aggravateddurian @luvwich

@ghostoffuturespast. Also tagging with the usual zero pressure @olath124 @dustymagpie @medtech-mara @corpo-cunt-couture

@merge-conflict @blackrevell @fereldanwench and YOU reading this! Share and tag me!

Modding

Shocking that it's still my main focus 🙄 but the first one is in support of a couple of VP project:

Presidential Props which include a variety of flags and the NUSA medal with box. The flags are part of the VP set below, though I didn't actually show them here.

Featuring: five different flag varieties with five appearances each; medal box in multiple states, plus the medal itself; and the presidential coin, scalable and with multiple appearances.

SlutWear, a new line of clothing that will tell NC just how slutty your V is. It will be gender and (smaller) size inclusive. 😊

Does Val really heart NC?

An update of my tee framework for dynamic AXL just in time for Pride, though there are no interesting pics to share. Sorry!

However, in support of the previous two items, a modder's tool: a CodePen to generate instances for the yaml. Both the SlutWear shirt(s) and the custom logo tees will require a lot of instances to get all of the color and logo combinations that are possible through dynamic AXL. There's still a little work to do, but it's already been of great use to me, as it wrote 220 lines of code for me. Let's not discuss how many lines of code I wrote to save those 220. 😂

Me using the tool to generate instances for the custom tees yaml. This will remove the limit on colors available to the user, so they can have any color with any of the logos!

VP (and Writing)

A glimpse at a set I took last week for inspo in the presidential PWP that's been stalled out at 5.7k words. More on it in a minute...

Even though the pics are cropped, they're still on the risque side, so I'm sticking them and the rest about the PWP behind the cut.

Not shown: Johnny both rolling his eyes at V and enjoying the show

I've been working on a PWP that was unrelated to the President's Merc AU for months now, but have been stuck because, well, I don't know how to wrap it up. I posted about it a little ways back and someone helpfully suggested that I just have to keep going until one of them passes out. Which, is what does happen, but I don't have that kind of patience to write it out and nearly 6k words is already well longer than my usual PWP, so I went in game to set the scene and possible prompt some ideas for a potenial ... climax to the scene.

It worked! I have a plan, and I think it won't take more than 500 words to reach the end, plus a few more touch-ups to help set up everything, then a rewrite or two for cleaning and polishing.

In the meantime, as I've been working through this version of Val and how she responds to Rosalind, it's the perfect prologue to The Tower story that I've been writing longhand. Val is going to leave this encounter fully loyal to Rosalind and will turn So Mi over with only a moment's hesitation. She doesn't have any attachments in this universe other than Misty and Vik, and after she wakes up to what Night City has become, it's easy for her to walk away from it forever. Especially when it puts her closer to Rosalind.

What about you? What are you working on? 👀

[starsfic]

DogDay is initially anxious and withdrawn after waking up in his new body and life, but the genuine care and support he gets from the Ranglers and mascots gradually helps him find his old optimistic spark again. Seeing his old friends slowly make a comeback one by one definitely helps. He gradually learns as time goes on that he doesn't have to always be the emotionally supportive one, and (most of) the other Critters are more than happy to return the emotional support he's given them in the past back to him. When CatNap revealed to the other Critters what was happening on August 8, 1995 as it was going down, all the other Critters had their reserves about the whole thing, but DogDay was the one to stand his ground and refuse to go along with it, which inspired the rest to follow suit.

Trying out a number of different hobbies he didn't have as much time for when PlayCo was just using him mainly for manual labor, DogDay has taken a particular interest in video games. In fact, he seems to find an odd comfort in playing horror games, including mascot horror games, either in spite of or because of his past, though he still gets enjoyment out of feel-good games on the side. After the Smiling Critters' inclusion at Indigo Park becomes public knowledge, DogDay starts his own gamer streaming channel and is known for always having positive things to say to his viewers no matter what genre of game he's playing.

Bubba Bubbaphant is the first Critter other than DogDay whose remains are found and used to transfer him to a new body, and DogDay was overjoyed to be shown this to be in the works, as it was the first concrete evidence that his friends may not be dead for good. Working for PlayCo, the Bigger Bodies Experiment based on Bubba would have his intellect and photographic memory (traits that got his former human self selected as a subject in the first place) used for problem solving skills, but he was given little to no freedom for real critical thinking and none at all for having opinions. So it takes him by surprise for a while when he's given full freedom of both by the Rangler staff. Bubba is, in turn, happy to occasionally contribute to the technical upkeep of the park and more than happy to jump in and assist in designing the new bodies of later recovered Critters. Bubba does enjoy gaming as well, albeit not to the extent of DogDay, and has a particular talent for puzzle games. DogDay would occasionally bring him on as a guest on his livestreams, to his initial embarrassment. Bubba's trunk on his Bigger Bodies form was fully functional, and the same is true for the trunk on his new form. Both were/are somewhat notably bigger on his face than what's depicted in his official artwork.

Bobby BearHug was the next one recovered (the news was broken to DogDay and Bubba by showing her recovered emblem as a humorous "late Valentine's Day" present). Bubba recalls the troubled production her Bigger Bodies Experiment form went through with multiple surgeries before she was able to properly move, sense the world, and ultimately even talk. Bubba had managed to discover the concept of ASL to communicate with her in the meantime, and all the Critters still remember how to this day, even CatNap (if this sounds like a PP fic prompt you still have in your ask box, there's a reason for that, lol). Similarly to DogDay, Bobby starts to learn that it's OK to put her own emotional needs first from time to time.

CraftyCorn (or just Crafty most of the time in conversation) came next. Like each newly remade Critter when first coming online, Crafty was a wary at first of the freedom the ones remade previously express in living how they want but grows to embrace that freedom. Funny enough, it's the park's designated "antagonist" Salem that draw's Crafty's attention by identifying as something other than girl or boy, something pretty much everyone around them supports and goes along with. This leads Crafty to explore their own gender identify and ultimately identifying exclusively as they/them, which the other Critters wholly support (albeit with Bobby jokingly "complaining" that she's back to being the only girl back at that point).

Crafty continues to express themself in creative endeavors, given even more creative freedom than PlayCo gave them. At times, this includes artwork with some disturbing imagery inspired by their past experiences, including things she witnessed during the Hour of Joy. The hired on-site therapist encourages this on the basis that it helps them process lingering unresolved feelings. Crafty creates puppet animation assets for themself and the other Critters, based stylistically somewhere between their old cartoon depictions and their current android forms, with eyes inspired more by the art style of Indigo Park's mascot designs. As I previously established, Rambley wasn't even aware until DogDay one day casually slid on screen next to him.

Hoppy Hopscotch came next, so Bobby was once more no longer the only girl in the gradually regrowing group. She was perhaps the most actively curious out of all the Critters getting revived and occasionally needed to be reigned in before the public could take notice until Indigo Park's legal team either influenced/proved their brand's shift to public domain or secured it for themselves (whichever of those two I go with). For a while, Hoppy would occasionally slip up and accidentally address Crafty as a girl before correcting herself. Apparently, she was ultimately caught as the Hour of Joy was still ongoing trying to spring-jump low-level employees caught in the massacre to safety.

KickinChicken (or just Kickin) was perhaps the most initially distrusting of the Rangler staff and park cast, not counting CatNap who had his own reasons. He was certain at first that he and the others were being lulled into a false sense of security and expected another proverbial shoe to drop. But gradually, he grew to realize the freedom and support they were getting now came from a genuine place. Kickin found Crafty identifying as neither boy nor girl and everyone allowing them to do so amusing, which ultimately led to him questioning himself. While being called a girl had some appeal, he still liked being called a boy. That's when he was told by Bubba, who spent time researching the subject to be a good ally, that bigender is a thing. Following this, Kickin would come out to the others by jokingly asking Crafty if he can have their old pronouns if they're not using them anymore. She has also taken to music, particularly singing and a little in songwriting. Heavy metal is a genre Kickin has gravitated towards, and he hopes to use it to process and express his feelings of past trauma.

PickyPiggy (alternatively, Picky Piggy, two words, or just Picky) has an initially awkward time adjusting to no longer having a body with a stomach, relying only on water. She always did enjoy baking and cooking food just as much as she did eating, however. According to her files, the human test subject who became her had apparently been given her own Owen the Oven to use, despite the toy having been pulled off the market due to multiple lawsuits over second- and third-degree burns. Even without taste buds nowadays, Picky has an intricate understanding of how to to combine ingredients well for tasty and filling meals; she's interested in pursuing nutritional science studies.

Nobody at Indigo Park knew CatNap was no longer an accepted member of the Smiling Critters group until they were already partway through designing his rebuild, mainly because the Critters were so cagey about addressing the alleged "former friend turned traitor" that it didn't even occur to them that said former friend was, himself, a Critter. Rambley was quite happy to show DogDay that the eight and final Critter was on his way to a comeback only to be surprised when met by a quiet yet forceful "No." They went through with it anyway, reasoning that CatNap was just a frightened kid forcibly turned into a living plaything like the rest of them and probably just needed proper adult guidance, to which DogDay reluctantly agreed on the grounds that CatNap be kept away from the rest for the time being.

CatNap is constantly kept on surveillance during his rehabilitation period and kept away from anything he could potentially use to harm others or possibly even himself. He is given a private room to himself, where he stays when he isn't being escorted around the Rangler areas, and he at one point calls it "a luxury suite compared to his old cage," but he hates that it's nicknamed "The Cathouse". Despite openly not wanting to be around CatNap, DogDay finds himself occasionally peeking in on him via his Crafty-made puppet-animated form and the screen in The Cathouse. For a while, this would typically lead to arguing matches, as both are unapologetic for their opposing actions back in 1995. Eventually, as time goes on and CatNap slowly and reluctantly alters his worldview, things start to cool down between the two during DogDay's virtual visits, though DogDay still isn't letting him forget he lost his legs to him.

The Critters all have artificially-generated voices modeled after voice clips of their characters, though some creative liberties have been taken for CatNap, since the most anyone could find of him was audio of snoring. They initially have no memories of their past human lives, aside from CatNap having second-hand knowledge from the Prototype. But as they undergo therapy sessions and explore themselves over time, bits and pieces come back to them every so often in their dreams. Interestingly, they rediscover that they all sort of knew each other before the experiments to some degree or another. Even Theo, CatNap's former life who was noted for a lack of friends at PlayCare, has some memories of Neil, DogDay's former life, trying to connect with him, though DogDay seemingly regains those memories first. Perhaps that past attempt to make friends subconsciously made CatNap's betrayal sting all the more.

OOH, this is all so great!

Is the "DogDay plays video games" inspired by that one YouTuber who has started playing as DogDay? I know it would be complex, given the whole copyright issue, but maybe it would be fun for Indigo Park to draw attention via its characters streaming and playing video games!

[justgrey]

OMG OMG OMG!! Okay so, I had this idea. Imagine Medic with a daughter (or child if you'd like to keep in gender neutral) except this kid is a clone of him! I think she'd be in her mid to late teens during their time in Mann Co, so how do you think Medic would be with a cloned version of himself as a kid? TYSM!!!

I'm gonna keep this gender neutral, I like keeping things as inclusive as possible when it comes to things like the gender of the reader because I know what it feels like to find a good fic and then get a little down because the description of the reader isn't you, it's somebody else lol.

Also I'm playing around with formatting so if things look different it's cause I'm experimenting 😋

Medic & Teen Reader that is his little clone - Headcannons (Platonic)

Warning : Mentions of human experimentation

At first, he has no damn clue what to do with this kid he created by cloning himself.

To be honest, he had no idea that his kooky experiment would actually work that well. He didn't think you'd make it to 3-years-old, let alone your mid teenage years.

Whatever, either way you'd have a scalpel in your hands by age 6. He's not mentally sound enough to raise a child but he's going to try his best and you love him for it.

During yours and Medic's time at Mann Co, everything got like, a lot weirder. I mean, hanging around a group of crazy dudes all trying to make a living isn't normal, and that's without even looking Merasmus' way 💀

Medic would encourage you to watch him experiment on his teammates and would point things out like organs or other specific parts of the body, and he'd quiz you about it later, wanting to see if you'll be able to keep up with him when you inevitably become a medic yourself (He hopes)

Yeah, unlike most of the mercs, Medic would want you to go down his path, the path of, "Medicinal study," whether it's more on the illegal side or the legal one. He'd keep teaching you even if you told him you weren't interested.

I don't know, he just strikes me as the kind of dad that wants his kid to follow loosely in his footsteps.

Heavy would most likely refer to you as, "Little doctor," or something along those lines because he sees you the most out of all of the mercs as he probably visits Medic more than the others.

Being Medic's kid at this time would also mean that you are required to attend Pyro's tea parties. I don't care what anybody says, you are obligated to attend and be their buddy.

Medic tries to keep you out of Pyro's sight but it's too late, Pyro has already declared you as their new best friend and will menacingly glare at Medic until he let's you play hide and seek with them.

Being his kid and clone would also probably mean that Archimedes and the other doves probably go to you for comfort and love because you remind them so much of Medic.

Medic would treat you almost like an experiment for the first few years until he develops an attachment and fatherly love for you, his dearest creation.

He's never really felt an attachment like that so he'd definitely study that too. You're one big experiment that he grows to love spending time with and adore. He is so proud of how far you've come, he might even start showing you off to the other mercs, bragging about how cool his kid is.

[asinnerscity]

　　　　 welcome to sinners city

This is an all inclusive build a headmate blog run by a subsystem that resides in a medically recognized traumagenic cdid system, working on getting a proper diagnosis. This blog is ran by the host and cohost of that subsystem, with our own personal blogs found at @xyrosins and @hamsterfoods.

Please let it be known that we are bodily a minor, though respectively are 18 and 20 ourselves and would prefer to be referred to as such, do not call us children or say we are "too young to be in paraphilic spaces," we know where we are, what we are doing, ect... and are indeed, adults with adultlike minds.

Because we are a minor bodily though, we do partake in schooling activities as we do wish to have an education, which is required for our dream occupation, because of this our answers to asks may be delayed, especially since we are cracking down on the last few months of school meaning finals are coming up.

We allow requests that include introjects (fictives, songtives, foodtives, factives, ect...) of any sources, no matter how "problematic" they are deemed to be, as well as brainmades. We accept the idea of radqueer ideologies and are radqueer ourselves, meaning, feel free to request your headmate with paraphilias and trans/cis/trisids.

We reserve the right to decline any request that we deem inappropriate or that makes us uncomfortable, and we mainly do so without warning, so do beware if your request isn't answered within 1-3 days, it has most likely been declined and deleted by either me, Hewa, or Hammy for our own, or the general publics comfortability.

Our requests are open, considering we are a brand new build the headmate blog-share us with your friends, please! We would love to get ourselves out there. Also feel free to ask questions, the majority should be about radqueer stances and systems as a whole, but do not be afraid to reach out about anything, we enjoy researching several topics.

Be warned that our details and expertise with certain sources vary, this is primarily because we have autihd and know way more about one media than we do others, but we will try to have good information for each headmate no matter the source. And eventually we will create a list of sources we know tons of information about.

We have 3 tiers as of currently, with more to come as we continue our build a headmate blog adventures, so look out for any updates that come here so you can look and see what new information we have to offer to make your headmate more detailed! You are also completely allowed to request any additional information you would like that isn't already included in the tiers, you may also mix and match tiers, so say you want TIER 01 + paras, feel free to ask for such.

TIER 01 - Name, pronouns, gender, sexuality, role, source (if applicable), faceclaim

TIER 02 - TIER 01, interests, hobbies, likes, dislikes, proxies/sign offs

TIER 03 - TIER 01 + 02, music taste, paras, transids

We do tag appropriately to make sure that our posts do not blend together into a big giant soup of nonsense, you can search personally for specifics through these tags, or just note that this is how our tagging system works and move about your day; and yes, these tags do include caps + the quotations.

' SINNERS ' - general anonymous asks that came through our inbox, most likely antis/hate we decided to prevoke for the fun of it, or that just aren't related to questions or building a headmate.

' SINNERS HEADMATES ' - this is obvious enough, but these are requests around building a headmate.

' SINNERS QUESTIONS ' - answering questions, no matter what they are about, that flow through our inbox.

' SINNERS MAYOR ' - general posts that aren't related to anything above, usually us announcing hiatus or that request answers may take longer than usual for a specified or unspecified reason, just be patient with us.

[khajiit-journal]

Middas, First Seed 19, 2025

🗓️ | Wednesday, March 19, 2025 🌦️ | warm & clear 🌙 | waning gibbous 🎊 | no holiday

— ☆ —

no dream remembered

— ☆ —

Gosh gosh gosh I just keep on forgetting to upkeep this blog [ shakes myself like a maraca ]

Let's see... today I got back into my daily draws which is good, got a very mixed bag of messages which is honestly a good sign for the haunting being in a resolved state. Because the haunting spirits would broken record, so getting a mixed bag of different types of advice is really good. Even if the advice miffs me a bit lol.

I had to take a break partway through because of mental health reasons, in which I was also recepted to kindly and compassionately, which was a shock in a way because I got so used to the lack of compassion from impersonating spirits that being shown kindness and a simple "Hey... go take a break and calm down, we'll be here when you get back, take care of yourself" was a shocker. RIP me I'm devastated

I am happy to see that the haunting can be kept at bay like this. It sucks that every Sunday I have to go through the motions, but I've essentially struck a deal with those spirit guides helping me that they get dinner every night if they help with the banishing.

Which reminds me, I did get scolded for not calling upon them the first time the new routine started. Got a resounding bonk for not relying on them to help me, and it proved to be a legit concern because that first week, my banishment wore off sooner than intended, but the next week, when I did call upon my spirit guides, it lasted until the next Sunday.

So... generally good to know that things are gonna be peaceful. Annoying to upkeep, but peaceful.

Speaking of, though, I need to tend to my shrines. I remembered I left an old offering to Bumori Cail on my shrine for too long now, and my shrines are starting to collect dust. I know my spirit guides do not care that much about it right now and they really want me to settle in at a pace I can work with, but I feel bad when I look at my shrines and see dust.

I don't actually tend to my shrines as much as I really should. ADHD and all that. So I do need to try and break into a habit for upkeep at some point. I need to get back to my daily water offerings proper too.

I know I harp on and on and on about the stupid haunting, but it really was a big pain that halted a lot of the habits I did have and stopped a lot of my progress. I couldn't make offerings and have it matter because all my offerings were stolen and only proved to make the haunting worse. So now that I've got it in a resolved state... I can do offerings now!

I've also worked today on assigning more Citadel significators to my spirit guides and helper spirits of various flavors (familiars, hired, servitors), so I can just pull from that and refer to my list, which is color-coded for deities, non-deities, ancestors, etc.

Speaking of ancestors, my second Scottish clan accepted the small offering and inclusion on my ancestor shrine, which is good. I wonder how the two clans get along... I'll have to ask with tarot tomorrow if I remember.

I've also been getting back into working on "today's pop culture spirit is..." The next post should be Tamamo no Mae from Onmyoji, who is a fascinating spirit to work with because they're very gender queer. I don't think Onmyoji the game intended them to be seen as anything other than a crossdresser, but Tamamo no Mae self identified to me as fairly queer in the gender department, which always makes me happy to have spirit guides that are mutually non-cis.

Tamamo no Mae is also interesting for the spirit communication aspects they bring with them, especially with the deceased. I'll have to explore this further in the future.

I haven't finished the post as of writing this one, but I'll work on it tonight or tomorrow. We shall see. If it doesn't release tomorrow oh well, it's a for fun project than a serious one so I'm not actually holding myself to some standard.

Had a lot to say today! I think I'm done now. See you all in the next one.

[fbenvs3000f24]

Unit 3 Blog Post

What role does “privilege” play in nature interpretation? Please include your working definition of privilege.

As nature interpreters our goal is to connect with an audience to communicate the wonders of the natural world while educating about specific aspects of our environment. It is very easy to get wrapped up in our learning/teaching styles and ideas for new ways to be an interpreter. However, when all of our focus is on how to best communicate our knowledge, it may be even easier to forget to consider privilege (which is a privilege in itself). In my opinion, privilege is defined as the advantages given to a person based on their race, gender, orientation, class, education level, and other factors. Notice the use of given in the previous sentence. Privilege is not something that people work for but something handed to them by society. When we fail to consider the effects of privilege on people's perspectives, we are failing to be proper interpreters.

As discussed in Unit 3 of this course, and as Peggy McIntish suggested, every person has an “invisible backpack” that we carry around every day. Invisible backpacks are basically our tool kits for getting through life. All of our privilege is held in them and can be used as needed for an easier life. While reading through this chapter of our course I was able to take some time to reflect on my invisible backpack and the privilege that I have. 

Growing up I always had access to nature through summer camps, camping trips, vacations, and kayaking on the river near my house. I realize that all of these are opportunities provided to me by privilege as not everyone has the ability to attend camps, have access to kayaks and camping supplies, and vacations. I grew up with parents that were able to fund these opportunities who also shared similar interests for the outdoors. Due to this, nature was always accessible to me. This is not the case for everyone though,  which is where privilege in nature interpretation comes into play. 

Because of my privilege, I was able to grow up with perceptions and experiences with nature that not everyone has. Privilege influences the way we see the world. When interpreting nature we must be sure to make things accessible for everyone so that everyone has the same opportunities to experience it. It is important to consider the experiences that each member of our audience has had in order to be as inclusive as possible. For example if we were to lead a camping trip for a group of teenagers; Maybe some have grown up going camping with their families multiple times a year, and maybe some have never been in a tent. Obviously the first-time campers are going to be more apprehensive and maybe even intimidated by the whole experience which could make them feel isolated on the trip. It is our job as interpreters to take the time and make sure everyone is comfortable no matter their experience level. 

The effects of privilege can be very clearly seen in the experiences that people have had with nature. While interpreting nature it is crucial to consider this in order to make a positive learning environment for everyone involved.

[mademoiselle-red]

Reading the Renault fandom dissertation, part 4: the online TC fandom analysis begins…

An academic decided to write about us, online fans of Mary Renault’s works, for her phd dissertation in 2018, and as the subject of her research, I will be covering & commenting on what she wrote over a series of posts ✍️📑 (Here is part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, and part 6)

For part 4, we begin to delve into Chou’s analysis of the online TC fandom, which she calls the “millennial fandom” because it sprung up in the new millennium (the mid-2000s).

“While Renault’s works have mostly lost their relevance for readers of historical fiction and gay literature, Renault has found a new fandom in internet communities. On LiveJournal.com, the social networking website that has been a platform for many fandom communities since 1999, there are two major communities devoted to Renault and her works: maryrenaultfics (since 2004) and maryrenault (2005). While these communities have become less active due to decreasing popularity of LiveJournal itself, Renault fandom is still active on more recent fandom platforms such as Tumblr and Archive of Our Own”

So far this checks out. These are all the places we have congregated in.

“Renault’s new fans are not the “older gay men” who have gone digital, nor are they the “serious-minded teenagers” interested in classical times, or the academics who are finally paying the author her long-overdue attention. The cult popularity that Renault’s works achieved in the community of online fan “prosumers,” especially for those who are interested in “slash”—fantasy about male homoeroticism largely produced for and by women—demands a renewed examination of how Renault’s works could be reread and re-evaluated.”

I’m pretty sure there are middle aged men, academics, and serious minded history-obsessed teens among us. But cis women (and bisexual folks) do comprise half of the fandom (according to an informal poll I ran a while back).

“According to Fanlore Wiki, one of the largest Wikipedia websites about English- speaking fan activities, one of Renault’s LiveJournal community has been in existence since 2004, aptly named “Mary’s Handmaidens.” On the Fanlore page about “Mary’s Handmaidens,” a passage describes the gender and sexual constituent of the online community: “The community includes members of both sexes, with (by comparison with many other fandoms) a notable contingent of men, though the majority of writers of fan fiction are women. Various sexual orientations are represented among the membership.” The statement about a “notable contingent of men” is a curious one compared to the “handmaidens” in the title of the community. Despite its consciously inclusive taglines (“the community includes members of both sexes”, “various sexual orientations are represented”), the community adopts a female persona as its identity.”

This is a fair point! The handmaidens group name really wasn’t inclusive. And cis women did and still do comprise the largest group in Renault fandoms (and slash fandoms in general).

“Another example of Renault’s Internet fandom is The Theban Band’s fan arts based on Renault’s novels (see fig. 4). Among fan artworks on Renault’s works by The Theban Band, one piece based on The Charioteer illustrates serial lines of flights from the fans to Renault, from Renault to her characters, and then from her characters to antiquity (see fig. 5). The artwork demonstrates the fantastical disposition of the simultaneous disidentification and cross- identification with otherness, which in the scene depicted is embodied in a leap to another time and place. This artwork captures the moment in which Ralph and Laurie’s flirtatious book-exchange takes place in The Charioteer.”

What about this above image demonstrates disidentification and cross-identification with its subject matter? It appears to be a just a faithful visual rendition of the scene from the novel.

“If Ralph is attempting to initiate Laurie to homosexuality, it is interesting that the knowledge of homosexuality that he passes on (instead of homosexuality itself) is explained as a fantasy. In this scene of erotic initiation of a young boy, the only physical contact between the two characters is through a book that is “just a nice idea.” In the same scene, the two are depicted as dangerously close to a kiss In the passage, Ralph merely makes an “outward movement” and then steps back. What takes place in between, the “[h]alf-remembered images” of “the tents of Troy, the columns of Athens, David waiting in an olive grove for the sound of Jonathan’s bow” preoccupy Laurie’s mind strangely more so than the immediate presence of Ralph.”

I guess she is on the no-kiss team for chapter 2. 😚

“Together with the Phaedrus that Laurie physically receives, the fantasy of a homoerotic past mediates the modern, homosexual relationship between Laurie and Ralph throughout the entire story. In this sense, Phaedrus functions for the two characters much like how Renault’s books function for her readers. The Charioteer is an adoring look to the past clothed as a story about the inner struggles of a modern homosexual, or, more precisely, about how the struggles must be negotiated through a fantasy of the past. Renault’s books were for her mid-century gay readers “a badge of homosexuality” in much the same way Plato’s Phaedrus is for Ralph and Laurie: a communication about desire in the present through a collective fantasy of a past that contains the ideal form of that desire. […] Laurie looks back into a mythical past in order to contextualize his homosexuality, and Renault herself turns to the idea of Greek Love to write about male homoeroticism. In a similar way, the 21st-century fans locate in Renault’s works a kind of male homoeroticism that seems unavailable in the here and now of post-gay sexual politics.”

What are post-gay sexual politics? In what way precisely is the kind of male homoeroticism in Renault’s works, and in TC in particular (since this passage focuses on TC) no longer available in the here and now? While things have improved a lot for queer people, especially here in the west, homophobia has not gone away! Do all LGBTQ people in the Americas and Europe (where Renault’s books are published) no longer face familial and social ostracism after coming out? Readers both in the old livejournal and here on tumblr have mentioned how they could relate to TC because they come from homophobic families and communities. Through TC and the Greek novels, people can read about characters experiencing similar emotions and situations, across time, space and sometimes gender, and feel comforted, knowing that they are not alone, that this love exists, it is real, and it will find a way.

“The three-fold leap in time for Renault’s millennial fans constitutes a fantasy that is thrice removed from the “reality” of sexual desire. If Ralph and Laurie could be said to negotiate their own identity through an ancient Greek philosopher, and if as critics have argued, Renault masks her own lesbian identity by male homoeroticism located both temporally and cultural distant from her own, it is much more difficult to argue that there is a sexual truth being filtered through Plato, Renault’s characters, and finally Renault herself for the millennial fans.”

While Laurie & Ralph and the mid-century gay readers use The Phaedrus / The Charioteer to communicate their sexuality through “a collective fantasy of a past that contains the ideal form of that desire”, the “millennial fans”, according to Chou, are too far removed from the “reality” of sexual desire to receive “a sexual truth.” This assumes that the millennial fans do not use The Charioteer to explore and understand their own sexuality and cannot relate their own sexual realities to the same-sex desires depicted in the novel. This, as I said in the paragraph above, is not true, since many readers in these online communities do identify as LGBTQ+ and can relate to LGBTQ+ experiences. It is true that many of the millennial fans are not specifically gay men using these gay books to reveal their sexualities to each other. And there are indeed straight women among us, but in my experience, we are definitely NOT a majority straight-women group. Most of us are queer people who, like Ralph/Laurie and the mid-century gay readers, have found each other through this book (as friends and as lovers ❤️)

My commentary on Chou’s online TC fandom analysis continues in part 5, and a tumblr username familiar to many of us here makes a surprising appearance in the dissertation 👀👀👀

[makers-muse]

Tips for Encouraging Girls to Start Coding Early 

When Maya was just eight years old, she discovered a fascination with how her favorite video games worked. Her parents, noticing her curiosity, decided to introduce her to coding. They enrolled her in an after-school coding club where she was one of the few girls. At first, Maya felt unsure, but with the encouragement of her teacher and the support of her parents, she began to see coding not just as something she could do, but as something she loved. Maya’s journey highlights the importance of early exposure to coding for girls, setting the foundation for future success in technology. 

Why Start Coding Early? 

Introducing girls to coding at a young age is essential for developing problem-solving skills, creativity, and confidence. According to research by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), girls who engage in STEM activities early on are more likely to pursue these fields in the future. Early exposure helps break down the stereotypes that coding is “only for boys” and allows girls to see themselves as capable coders from the start. 

Practical Tips for Encouraging Girls to Code 

Make Coding Fun and Relatable 

The best way to spark a girl’s interest in coding is to make it fun. Use platforms like Scratch or Code.org that turn coding into a game-like experience. These tools allow girls to create stories, animations, and games, making coding a creative outlet rather than just a technical skill. 

Encourage your daughter or students to build projects based on their interests, whether it’s creating a game with their favorite characters or designing an app that helps solve a problem they care about. When coding is connected to their passions, girls are more likely to stay engaged and motivated. 

Introduce Role Models and Mentors 

Seeing women who have succeeded in tech can inspire girls to pursue coding. Introduce your daughter or students to female role models in the field. This could be through books, videos, or even local coding clubs where women in tech share their experiences. 

Mentorship is another powerful tool. Studies show that girls with mentors are more likely to continue in STEM fields. If possible, connect girls with female mentors who can guide them, answer questions, and encourage them along their coding journey. 

Create a Supportive Environment 

Girls often feel more comfortable exploring coding when they are in a supportive and encouraging environment. As a parent or educator, create a space where girls feel safe to ask questions, make mistakes, and try new things. Celebrate their successes and help them learn from challenges without fear of judgment. 

You can also foster a supportive community by encouraging girls to join coding clubs or groups where they can collaborate with other girls. These communities provide a sense of belonging, which is crucial in retaining girls in coding programs. 

Use Gender-Neutral Language and Examples 

The way we talk about coding can have a big impact on how girls perceive it. Avoid language that reinforces stereotypes, such as referring to coders as “he” or using examples that only boys might find interesting. Instead, use gender-neutral language and examples that appeal to a wide range of interests. 

For instance, instead of saying, “Let’s build a robot that plays football,” try “Let’s design a robot that can play your favorite sport.” This small change in wording can make coding feel more inclusive and accessible to girls. 

Encourage Persistence and Resilience 

Coding can be challenging, especially for beginners. Encourage girls to view coding as a process of trial and error, where mistakes are a natural part of learning. Teach them to approach problems with a growth mindset, understanding that persistence and practice lead to improvement. 

Share stories of successful women in tech who overcame obstacles and kept going despite challenges. This can help girls see that coding is not about being perfect but about continually learning and growing. 

The Long-Term Benefits of Early Coding 

Starting coding early not only builds technical skills but also fosters critical thinking, creativity, and resilience skills that are valuable in any career. Girls who begin coding young are more likely to pursue STEM degrees and careers, contributing to a more diverse and innovative tech industry. 

Programs like Black Girls Code and Girls Who Code have shown that early exposure to coding can lead to long-term success in technology. These programs emphasize the importance of starting early and providing girls with the resources, mentorship, and support they need to thrive in coding. 

Start the Journey Today 

Encouraging girls to start coding early is a powerful way to empower them for the future. Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or mentor, you can play a crucial role in guiding girls on their coding journey. 

Join us at Makers Muse to explore coding resources, mentorship opportunities, and supportive communities designed to help girls succeed. Start the journey today and watch as they grow into confident, creative coders! 

Do you have questions regarding our STEM program?

Contact us anytime.

Take your first step into the magical world of coding for kids