#it's basically human nature

[mayplantstarrwaters]

person who have never entered any fandom spaces in their life : Why aren't artists making beautiful art anymore?

[keferon]

Just want to say, love your mimick au. I only found it like, an hour ago and I've devoured everything in the tag and I'm planning to do the same to the spellbound and monster hunter aus.

That said, in one of the mimick fanfics, Orion tells Prowl to leave him alone and to find a hobby, but a comic that (presumably) happens after this conversation when Orion meets Jazz, Orion seems to be back to working with Prowl. I thought the whole "leave me alone" order would go on infinitely because Orion didn't seem to have his goal locked down and he also never specified when to come back. So how did they return to working together? Did Orion find Prowl post-meltdown, or was it Prowl who just set an arbitrary amount of time before going back to Orion and going "so, how do you feel about defying god?" I just find Orion and Prowl's relationship so interesting in this au, simply because of how Orion doesn't seem to apply his morals about freedom and coexistence to Prowl despite the fact he's the one who points out that Prowl didn't include himself in his calculations, but at the same time, if he doesn't recognize Prowl's autonomy and only sees him as a tool (chatGPT style), he would have to accept that he's the one responsible for Prowl's actions because he's the one using him. But also also, Prowl encourages him to not take responsibility for all the immoral actions (like killing monsters to keep the Council's favor), which I think Orion does take up, but that would indirectly be accepting Prowl as a individual capable of making his own decisions, you know? It also the fact that Orion and Prowl both have different (and somewhat incompatible) ways of communicating. I was thinking when Orion asked Prowl to what he'd do to make the most amount of mechs happy, Prowl understood it literally: the majority of the population are non-monsters, so statistically, he'd focus on making non-monsters happy. But Orion doesn't want to make most mechs happy; he wants a diverse and equitable society, and that doesn't necessarily lead to happiness, especially in transition phases. Even in the academy, monsters are learning to compromise to live in a non-monster society; compromises are about restriction, which often aren't a source of happiness. But Orion equates that vision to happiness, and probably gets a bad impression of Prowl given "free reign" from his answer. It's great, it's so juicy.

And contrasts so well with how Prowl and Jazz interact and communicate with each other. Like how Prowl makes an attempt to learn hand language for Jazz in the same way he attempts to comfort Orion post-Shockwave demonification. But unlike Orion who has "Prowl is not alive" at the core of their dynamic, Jazz doesn't know and sees Prowl's attempt to learn as a genuine attempt to understand/communicate. You can argue that Prowl is just "programmed" to try and get more information and it's just efficient to ensure Jazz doesn't get carpal tunnel while working together, but you can also argue that we're all programmed to do that as well; small talk or bids for attention are behaviors/actions to build connection through information exchange that we are trained to do from formative years and general society. Which is to say, even if Prowl learns and tries to accommodate Jazz for mission purposes, it doesn't negate the fact that he is investing effort into communicating and building the foundation for a meaningful connection in the same way other people do. It's great, I'm having a blast with the whole AU.

Orion despite being afraid to continue his mission still has responsibilities in his Order so him and Prowl. Yeah hahah they just keep working together but purely on their usual legal tasks. I didn’t talk about the whole situation enough yet but basically Prowl never informed Orion about his new quest of suing God. Primarily because he knows that Orion definitely will try to stop him.

It’s kind of like. “What isn’t forbidden can automatically be considered allowed” mentality.

Also MY GOD YES. My favourite part of this au is reading asks like yours:0 Prowl exists in that thin line between being and not being a person capable of his own choices. Orion exists on the thin line between considering him being one of those options. He can’t see Prowl as a “real mech” because he knows for a fact it’s not true. But then seeing him as a tool means accepting that all questionable things he does are Orion’s responsibility.

At the end of the day Prowl is a metaphorical piece of fabric Orion uses to clean his consciousness. In his eyes Prowl isn’t alive enough to be fully blamed for all the bad things he does but he is also alive just enough for Orion to say “it was your fault. Not mine.”

Jazz doesn’t have that dilemma. Uh. Yet haha he will discover the truth eventually of course~. He thinks Prowl is obviously a real mech because in his world magic isn’t alive. It can create an illusion of a mech, sure, this is what all usual golems are, but it’s not smart or believable enough. It’s like one of those tests where all people think they can tell if they’re talking to an AI chat bot because “duh I would obviously know” and then fail to distinguish AI from a real person. Jazz is perceptive but he doesn’t know what to look for. All he knows is that Prowl is somehow doesn’t love anyone but seems to care about of things that aren’t people.

Also it’s a bit unrelated but I find it soooo interesting playing with the usual concepts of magic and technology. Because usually magic is perceived as something more “coming from your heart” and “connected with emotions” while technology tends to be more “soulless” and “emotionless”. And then we have the entire world of robots who think they are alive and magic isn’t :)

[scruncheduppaper]

mv2 is crazy when you think abt the implications of v1 and mirage basically almost being the same people like yeah idk. like im not saying theyre the same people but do you think that when v2 looks at mirage they catch a glimpse of their previous rival and the thrill of the battle and their eventual defeat and death. do you think that v2’s shoulder socket aches a bit more every time they look into mirage’s lens. do you think that v2 would be imagining v1 in mirage’s place for a split second when theyre in bed and mirage doesnt have her clothes on. guys uh

[hyacinthsgrimoire]

( @womenaremypriority for the text post; aesthetic meme is mine @hyacinthsgrimoire )

[shepscapades]

You might have gotten this question before so if you did you can ignore this lol-

But how did you choose who would be androids and who wouldn't?

for me when it comes to AU's based on something it's always hard to choose. So I'm just curious haha

OOH no this is a really good question honestly! I kind of just looked at majors 'pairs' (usually, but not always, based around ships or popular duos) of hermits (specifically from s8, since that's when the au started) and picked the one that i personally thought would be more fun to undergo a characterization process where part of that journey would be coming into one's emotions and stuff... like, for example, for ethubs it seemed more fun to have etho break out of his programming and grow into his awkward silly stoic self, and it seemed more fun to have bdubs be the stubborn human of the two--it just seemed like the most enjoyable way to engage with their dynamic for the au. I kind of just followed that line of thinking for all of the pairs, if that makes sense!

In hindsight, I did realize that looking at hermitcraft in groups of two or three and then picking one from each grouping to be an android for the au made it so that basically half of the server would be androids, meaning over the course of two seasons the cast of hermitcraft essentially doubled, and I'm not sure if I would change things were I to start over, but it certainly makes things interesting in a way that I didn't really anticipate!

I've also gotten a couple of asks over the years wondering if me choosing all of the red stone-adjacent hermits to be androids was on purpose, and honestly, no! It's just kind of a weird coincidence that it happened that way. I kinda just went with vibes and did what i thought would be most fun, most fitting, or most interesting for any plot or dynamic ideas I wanted to run with :]

[soupmanspeaks]

Glammike but like you ever wonder if being in a mega-mall themed around the rose tinted version of the 80s ever gets to Michael. You think he misses it? You ever think the nostalgia gets to him sometimes? You ever think he takes a look at all the neon lights, and patterned arcade carpets, and game cabinets, and, despite every single bad thing that happened in the history of this company, for a single selfish second, he wants to go back? You think his soul wanders round the Fazcade occasionally, and he feels 13 again? Just a misguided kid, goofing off and having fun? You think after trying to kill off that misguided kid, the kid with blood on his hands---Michael can't help but find himself to be once again in his shoes as he sits somewhere in the Atrium of the Plex?

[sha-brytols]

magical derangement syndrome (dont worry about the name. hysterically its not as bad as it sounds) sounds exactly like that one fan theory about alistair. someone remind me to write this part down so i dont forget

[starssoblue]

"the reason adrien is just instantly good at everything he tries is because he is programmed to be that way as a senti" aside from the fact that i don't think that's how it works (and also while he was decent at everything he tried with marinette he wasn't instantly good at all of them, and what marinette actually said to him was that he could improve in anything with practice but it was a great first attempt) did we all collectively forget about how adrien actually canonically isn't the best singer?

[ranticore]

i actually drew these last year for my own self-reference and today i wanted to draw something in sai, found that sai was having a rough day, so instead i dug these up in procreate and coloured them. some kings and their fun faces

the winglets/ear wings/whatevers are not lift generating surfaces they're mostly for communication. they can hide their whole face under those things.

some of these expressions are inborn but some must be taught (i.e flinching, hiding the face, etc probably looks the same no matter what, but the more complex expressions conveying social dominance are copied from older harpies). human-raised harpies struggle to express themselves and are considered (ironically) very dangerous to be around because they won't give proper warning when they're about to be violent. and they are often violent; a major struggle of working with an imprinted harpy is their food aggression and resource guarding behaviour. most falconers in the classic tradition [taking and raising eggs] are missing at least one fingertip.

[serpentface]

You said that the Ulelilwa people are the only group fully permissive of intersophont relationships, in this case between Qilik and Elowey. But since the Elowey are mammals and the Qilik are avian and would thus have very different "equipment", I wonder how that would work.

It could involve pretty much any of the litany of non penetrative sex acts out there (with some limitations to oral and digital due to Teeth and Claws)

Elowey have the same basic anatomy as humans and the mechanical act of reproductive sex is basically the same. Their mouths are a little more intimidating than those of humans, but not really any More dangerous to have near your genitals and have similarly flexible lips and muscular tongues, so they would be capable of performing all forms of oral sex. Their hands are the biggest difference- their fingernails are much thicker (though can be filed down to the base) and their fingers are furred, so receiving penetrative digital sex from that might be uncomfortable. But other than that, any sex act performed by humans from Real Life could be accomplished by elowey in the same or similar ways, so there's a lot of possibilities on that end.

Qilik mate via cloaca contact and have no penis, so the external parts of the cloaca is where pleasurable stimulation occurs and their reproductive tract is not predisposed to receive penetration. VERY shallow insertion of a digit or tongue might feel good for the average person but that’s the full extent of it. There’s probably people who like putting things up their cloaca, it’s just not going to be a Common desire (and a qilik cloaca doesn’t have any internal structures like the prostate that are directly pleasurable to stimulate), and the difference in size wrt elowey would likely make penetration painful and potentially dangerous in most cases (it could Probably be safely accomplished for some people with practice/carefulness/substantial lubricant because elowey penises are pretty small and thin, but this isn't going to be all that common).

There are also obvious limitations to performing oral on the part of qilik, they don’t have mobile lips and their jaws are full of small, sharp teeth. You cannot put a penis in there in any way that will benefit you, and their tongues are long and thin and can't lick with that much pressure or finesse. A lot of qilik are more likely to perform oral-adjacent sex with the bare skinned tips and sides of their snouts, which is a notably sensitive area of the body (not in the Fetish World IF YOU TOUCH IT I WILL CUM way, just tactile and good for physical affection of all kinds).

Like Humans, sexual pleasure is not solely derived from the mechanical reproductive act, but this is PARTICULARLY pronounced in qilik. Exclusively reproductive sex is very rapid- the entire act with full sperm transfer takes about 5-10 seconds. Their pre-sophont ancestors would breed over a period of a few hours, cycling through periods of male display, mutual preening, and mounting with sperm transfer. Bonded same sex drake pairs/throuples cooperatively rearing young would also intersperse their greeting allogrooming with mounting and full cloaca contact, as an affiliative sexual behavior that strengthened social bonds. This translates substantially into how behaviorally modern qilik tend to enjoy recreational sex, for most the act is 95% about intimate grooming and physical affection While Aroused and 5% direct genital stimulation.

This would actually be a fairly agreeable circumstance for a qilik/elowey pair, as both species have allogrooming as a basic behavioral drive (with layers of cultural convention tacked on top of it). Allogrooming feels nice in general and can be enjoyed in a sexual context.

So like bottom line for what would commonly be on the table:

Horny allogrooming

Other physical affection (licking, nuzzling, cuddling, etc)

Non or lightly penetrative oral/digital sex

Non-penetrative genital contact

Charged allogrooming moment between Ulelilwa men. Guysrule, beautiful romance, etc

[moeblob]

Shockingly I named some OCs recently and fleshed out the deity lore a bit for my "guess i'll marry the demon lord?" plot.

Solei has existed since near the start but Mehra and Valdas are new to the concept and all three? Petty. They're technically the Trio of Peace cause that's kinda their goal and duty to their world but really, Trio of Pettiness is suitable as well.

[karihighman]

HBD to this icon miss Melissa O’Neil!! 🎊🫶

(aka: the only person who can still slay with dirt on their face from The Rookie set 😅🙌)

*update: a snippet of Melissa’s birthday post is below ⬇️ link to her full IG post here! 🌱🌳

[br1ghtestlight]

personally for 95% of my humanizations i want them to look like real actual ppl and have their personality/character make sense for how they look like. what would their fashion sense be? would they realistically dye their hair or have piercings?? etc

like it tends to be more about vibes than just taking their object and making a humanization of that without taking their character into account. so almost all my humanizations have natural hair colors or look like boring regular everyday guys. cuz that's beautiful to me <3

[mammomlette]

People don’t talk about MC needing to wear a magical ring to not accidentally yk cause NATURAL DISASTERS with their powers??? Not only accidentally but without realising???

Diavolo or smthn is asking too much of MC or being a bit too annoying and their other hand slowly drifts towards the ring and they hold onto it while maintaining dead eye contact. Like continue to piss me off hoe I’ll blink and blow a hole in your castle idk

Obv they never do it (or do they?) but the threat is there and it’s a risk dia (or whoever but I’m using dia) can’t take

[katyspersonal]

me before SoTE: Gehrman 🤝 Miquella on being seen as creeps and awful people by fandom over misinterpreting some bits!

me after SoTE: Gehrman 🤝 Miquella on not being able to accept the drastic change (mostly to the worse) of a person they held dear and latching onto their former, "nicer" version, attempting to resurrect that version even although the result is a bit of just a husk (.....AND being seen as creeps and awful people by fandom over misinterpreting some bits lololol)

_________

I guess they're doomed to be friends no matter what gfjhjgv At least with Gehrman's crafting skills, he can make him many pretty dresses

[jet004]

TSH is not really about 'academia'. It's about the performance of civility, with a feral, starving, and archaic energy festering beneath.

What can happen when one drops the veil of Man (or toys with the concept and gets immensely inebriated), separate from nature? becomes Human, one of many beasts. Chaotic, violent, and unlawful...

(& of course the unreliability of romanticism, the role of power dynamics within undue influence)

At least by my interpretation.