#it's part of the reason they lean a little more femme in fashion choices (other than just liking femme fashion)

[byanyan]

today is one of those days where I feel the urge to stress that byan is not tiny. they're not huge by any means, but they aren't small either. 5'10 and a little underweight, yeah, but they've got some decent muscle tone to make up for it. a little gangly, maybe, because they're still growing into their size, but thin waist, broad shoulders... their stature is pretty typically masculine, for lack of a better descriptor

[read-write-thrive]

part 1 (both girls in their full outfits) ; part 2 (Edwina in several other outfits/sketches) ; part 3 (the companion to this piece aka Edwina getting ready :)

part 4 of my fem!payneland fanart series!!!! as I talked about with the poll, I have quite a few variations of this piece as I couldn’t make up my mind on a few of the elements, but I listened to your feedback and have included them all here !! the winner of the poll is above the cut with the rest of the variations below to hopefully make this not take up too much of your dash lol

lmk what you think - especially people who voted on the poll!! I’ve also included my thought process below the cut since I know y’all are interested :)

- first and foremost: I have absolutely no idea what order someone would get ready in with all these outfit components, so if you’re sitting here like “why is her makeup done when she has to pull a shirt over her head?” or something like that: you’re probably correct but my getting ready process is always chaos and there aren’t exactly articles on this sort of thing

- along with that: her straightening her hair is probably not accurate to how hair works but again I’ve got v little experience to pull from and trying to find a proper reference was a pain in the ass

yes her bra is fully rendered and then got covered up by her arm. I'm still mad that I did that to myself but I like the pose too much to change it so oh well

- (onto actual historical stuff!!)

- her hair is being straightened here despite straight not being in style during this era for several reasons:

1. I based her hair (and a lot of her style, as per part 1) on Rhoda Dakar of the band The Bodysnatchers, which was an all-female band that was part of the ska revival in the late 70s/early 80s. Rhoda Dakar in particular is a British artist (who’s still making music!) with an English mother and Jamaican father—so not only was she one of the only women of color I could find as part of this subgenre/in ths era/with plenty of photo references, but considering Jayden Revri is Jamaican and English (alongside Indian) himself I thought it was fitting! Her Bodysnatchers look is also much more femme leaning than the rest of the band, as well as her hair styled in a way that suggests straightening, so I carried that over to Charlotte here as well.

2. On a related note, there is a clear historical and modern difference in hairstyles worn/made popular/deemed fashionable by non-white versus white individuals and I thought it only appropriate to acknowledge that in my design of her. I even went so far as to research how her mom’s hair may have been styled since I assume that’s who would’ve been teaching her how to care for her hair in the first place. With that, I looked at popular Indian hair trends from the 60s (figuring that’s when Charlotte’s mom could’ve still been in India and following those trends) which also involved a preference for straight/wavy hair, with soft fringe made popular by Sadhana and the styles ranging from long and luscious to styled up into a very 60s beehive. Charlotte could easily also rock a beehive, especially since the 60s revival was a part of the ska revival movement and Dakar herself styled her hair as such, but I figured Charlotte is a little too much of a rebellious teenager to go for a look she’s seen her mom wear!

- her makeup is based off of the different members of The Bodysnatchers as well as other punk/ska fans at the time. The look usually required more blush that what I gave her here, but I wanted to make sure the eyes were the feature (since Charles wears eyeliner himself) and then the lips being any less just looked weird to me. Also, Dakar doesn't seem to wear the same heavy blush that the other members do, which could be a stylistic choice but could also be the potential lack of blush shades that would work well on her skin tone, so I went that route for Charlotte here

- her underwear is all based off of meticulous searching of historical advertisements, though I will admit the sources are (presumably) American since I couldn't find British equivalents (I'm hoping the styles were similar enough...) in particular:

1. Her bra is based off of: Playtex’s New Made for Me, Playtex’s Right For Me, and Playtex’s Thank Goodness It Fits (which are seriously the names of these as per the ads—how creative /s)

2. Her panties (or pants or underwear or whatever term you want to use) are based off of: Sears Best’s Nylon tricot panties, Sears Very Impressive Panties Nylon panties, and JCPenny’s eiderlon fashion panties

3. (In the below variations) Her pantyhose are theoretically based on L’eggs and Spirit by Stevens’s Slim & Slender pantyhose. But, honestly, they’re mostly based on my own experience wearing hose bc almost none of the ads showed how the gusset of the pantyhose actually looked so I needed to fill in the gaps (one of the many reasons I’m still unhappy with them—plus the wrinkles would not look right no matter what I did !!)

4. Her socks are called slouch socks! I don’t have a specific brand for them but the style was all the rage in the 80s-90s (and I want to own some so bad ngl)

- the hair straightener is just a blob based on the reference photo since trying to research historical hair tools was beyond me at the time apparently, but the style of outlet/plug is accurate to Britain in 1989 so there’s that at least (I have no idea why my brain works like this)

- since I talked about it in the poll I feel like I should address it here: technically having a bush was well out of fashion by 1989 due to the grooming boom and new types of hair removal popular throughout the 80s and 90s. However, she’s wearing multiple layers over it and is technically a teenager (in an abusive household and a catholic all-girls school, at that) so I kept going back and forth on it. It won the poll so it’s in the main post, but you’ll see in the below variations that I really went back and forth on it. that being said I do think it’s interesting given her nylon pants being semi-sheer besides at the gusset, so I’m not mad at it. plus I figured she was definitely shaving her legs/underarms, so maybe that balances it out ?

and finally here’s the other seven variations of this piece :) lmk what you think!!

[tumblunni]

Ok so.. I feel really ungrateful as fuck saying this.. but it kinda bugs me how much perrin being nonbinary just.. isn’t really shown at all.

At least, in what i’ve seen so far, yknow? I watched the first ep of someone else’s let’s play to see if i was gonna like this game, and i like this game SO MUCH that I stopped right there and am downloading it at the speed of light yo!!! My hype is maximum and I really don’t want this to be seen as a hate message or anything, it's just a mild opinion piece about something that bummed me out a little, as a nonbinary person.

Ok so.. again, this makes me sound like an ASSHOLE but I have to say it.. Perrin looks like a boy. 100% of all LPers I have seen have assumed they were a boy. I, a nonbinary person, assumed they were a boy. (And felt like absolute shit afterwards, man I still have to work on my internalized gender stereotypes!)

Now in real life I absolutely wouldn’t go around being some douchebag who tells other NB folk they aren’t dressing ‘right’, or whatever. In real life people can feel very different ways about being outside of conventional gender norms. Some people feel like “both at once” or “neither” or “something else entirely that doesn’t touch either side of our society’s current binary stereotypes”. And regardless of whether you’re agender/bigender/genderfluid or any other type of genderqueer person, your fashion sense doesn’t have to fit any strict rule to “prove” it to people. Some people try and dress in androgenous stuff, some people try to mix parts of both gendered fashion worlds, some people like to wear very neutral baggy stuff as a different way of being androgenous, some people like to wear wild and fun stuff that never had any gender stereotype in the first place/because it helps them feel confident in themself if they have a big brave kind of fashion, yknow? (that’s why I dyed my hair at least, and why I think a lot of lGBT people do) And of course, some people just prefer ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ clothes regardless of not being that gender, and if we can accept that cis women can enjoy ‘tomboy’ fashion then we should accept that trans people don’t have to fit into even more rigid fashion rules in order to ‘earn’ their gender.

BUT this isn’t real life, it’s a videogame

We have a lot more context here, with the context that this is a character designed within a fandom whose previous attempts at NB representation have kinda started setting up a trend. In that context, this is a bit worrying that it’s happened again, and maybe future fangame creators are feeling like they have to do it, or something?

Like the NB protagonist Pluto in Pokemon Uranium.

They’re still someone I deeply love, but their design looks incredibly masculine aside from a side ponytail. If anything their design communicates more that they’re a younger option compared to the other two, or something?

And the two NB protagonist options Ari and Decibel in Pokemon Reborn

Their designs look like more traditionally masculine and feminine-leaning ways of being nonbinary, ykno? And that wouldn’t be bad on it’s own, but let me try and explain what I mean...

A similar issue occurs in the unrelated dating sim Hustle Cat:

Which is generally incredibly progressive and actually the first dating sim I’ve ever seen that lets you play a nonbinary protag! But you still get only two character models to choose from.

Like it’s great that they had two options to aknowledge how not all trans people are the same, but it starts to look a bit.. odd, when those two options are ‘feminine and masculine’ and no form of androgenous is ever an option. or even like.. someone with a ‘masculine’ body build but a ‘feminine’ fashion sense. That would be kind of a stereotypical way to depict a trans character but it wouldn’t just be making a random design that could fit amoungst the already existing gendered protags and then just saying they’re trans. And a lot of people found it weird how these ones seem to be drawn as like.. both on the far masculine end, just a cis man and a trans man.

Like.. even as a nonbinary person myself, I wouldn’t have known these characters were nonbinary if you hadn’t told me. And that leaves me feeling horrible about myself that I judged them on first sight, but I mean this is within a genre of entertainment that’s literally never had any Me in it and i’ve got used to being all ‘no you’re just reading too much into it’ whenever i headcanon anyone as genderqueer...

And just.. I feel like if you’re gonna just draw another two masculine and feminine looking characters, or just a second masculine one (or a weird two masculine ones that’re labelled male and female with no option for in-between...) then couldn’t you have saved time by just letting us choose our pronouns for the two you already had? like I already play a lot of games headcanoning the protag as just a masc-fashion version of my enby self, I feel like kinda the point of adding a third design would be to make it something the others aren’t already delivering. Look at it this way, you already HAVE two nonbinary characters who look masculine and feminine, just like the player could also play them as a trans boy and trans girl. Pronoun selector box is the greatest invention of our time! So what I’m really saying is not “don’t have super masc NB protags” but just “can we have another option too?”

Oh, but then that’s also been done not-so-well by certain games too.. Awesome amazing multiplayer party game dating sim Monster Prom let’s you choose your pronouns!

...except these are your only character options! All of these are very clearly intended to be read as masc or femme, you’re probably gonna feel dysphoric as heck if you play them as trans, and none of them work super well as nonbinary either. I think pretty much every NB player has always gone for Oz (yellow one), cos he’s the one that’s most capable of fitting that headcanon just by virtue of being perpetually shadowed. Tho still his default is “he” pronouns, his fashion sense is masc and his voice is masc. Still I’m really fuckin proud of the fandom for collectively latching onto NB Oz and using “they” all the time in fanworks, and then the developers being okay with it, like holy shit man you healed my goddamn heart... <3

Still, it makes me feel a lil like this would have been easy to fix? like I’m not saying redraw everything to have them all change bodies/fashion style depending on your pronoun choice, but like.. maybe just not draw them with such super disparate body styles in the first place? like in this style every girl is hourglass and has weird legs out arms out pose, and every dude is a chunkfest with twice as big hands and feet. Like you could have maybe just made two of the characters be a very curvy girl and a very buff boy, and then the other two be more neutral in appearance but still retaining the same designs. Like I think if you just gave the blue girl a baggier shirt that doesn’t highlight her boobs and hips so much, she could easily be my favourite ‘most NB-able’ design! maybe also tone down the eyelash and lipstick effects?

I think probably a similar thing could have been done with the Reborn protagonists? like there’s nothing inherantly feminine about wearing a tanktop and having a fancy undercut hairstyle and such, its just the way they drew Ari that makes them look feminine. I guess maybe that’s a necessary evil of fangames, since they usually use edits of already existing characters from the games? Then again the games have plenty of androgenous characters already, even if nobody is canonically confirmed as LGBT. *shrug*

Anyway

I absolutely am not trying to nitpick and attack the game for not being perfect in this one aspect. i’m still super excited to even see someone like me in a videogame at all, and I’m definately not one of those people who’s like ‘I’d rather have nothing than have something flawed’. I already admire you greatly for what you’ve done for the inclusivity of this fandom, and I hope that my discussion of this stuff doesn’t discourage you from continuing.

And I guess my point is, in summary

What I mean is not “there are no nonbinary people who prefer to dress masculine instead of androgenous”, but instead that when you’re designing a nonbinary person as the only option a nonbinary player gets or the only nonbinary person in the game, with no playable option, it would probably be a little better to draw them androgenous.

Like, you’ve put that NB character into the role of representing all nonbinary people ever, to the hypothetical audience of people who’ve never heard of the concept before and aren’t super educated about the intricacies of gender presentation. And then also rather than using traditionally gendered outfits to aknowledge that NB people have many ways to present themselves... you’ve given us less ways to present ourselves.

Also it’s a little bit odd that you have an NB rival but said “we’re not ever considering an NB player option in the future”. Sorry but I cannot understand the logic? Like.. you know NB people play your game if you wanted to put NB representation in it, but you didn’t put it as playable because... reasons?? I hope maybe that interview was just taken out of context and you meant something more like “it’s not planned for now because it’s a lot of work and the game is still in its demo stage”, which is absolutely an understandable reason and how Uranium and Reborn did it. But Uranium and Reborn were kinda odd for being a world where literally nobody else aside from you could ever be NB, so I am really grateful that your game did add an NB character. And one in a big role!! This is what i mean about how grateful I am and how I feel awful that my bad internet typing skills are making this post come off as more aggressive than intended.. *sigh*

OH and also maybe a tip for Periin? just.. like.. mention their pronouns. It’s really frustrating to watch everyone doing let’s plays of this thing and constantly assuming Perrin is male because their design is very masculine. Even me! Even me was assume! :( So like... maybe just have Perrin actually tell the audience that they are nonbinary at some point, during this introduction? or have the protagonist’s inner monologue mention it, or another character mention it on the way towards meeting Perrin? like I dunno, maybe a Perrin fan npc?cos it would seem a bit more natural to talk about gender if it’s someone saying “wow I admire Perrin’s androgenous fashion sense” rather than like.. a stranger saying “i can’t tell if you’re a boy or a girl from your face”.

I can understand how it can be tricky to figure out how to introduce a LGBT character’s LGBT-ness without having them go around saying it to every new person they meet, it’s something I’ve had to fix in the editing process even as a trans person writing trans characters. But just having their gender only be mentioned on missable promotional material outside the game means that a lot of players won’t ever hear about it, and it like.. has zero impact of actual inclusivity on the game. It’s why people were angry about DUmbledore only getting revealed as gay after the series already ended. Him being gay missed all of its chances to make gay readers of the series feel welcome, or have any part of his character be informed by his sexuality. like the plot between him and grindlewold could have been way more effective if it was him losing a boyfriend to the dark arts, just sayin...

anyway whatever, bunni is bad at writing coherant posts in summary thanks for perrin and sorry for whining about perrin, aaaaa

[elaristalselin]

D&D Character Asks: Elaris Edition

I wanna do all of them because they’re all so good and I love my boy and Sara said to do all the odd ones anyway so....

1) A story for every scar. Do any of their wounds have interesting origins?

He doesn’t have many visible scars, actually! There is a stab wound on the right side of his back, that he sustained almost three years when he was still a naive, young adventurer newly out on his own. (For fellow party members, this is apocryphal and not part of his primary backstory) He met a drow woman known simply as “Darling” who recruited his help in a simple enough burglary job. Get in. Get out. Split the loot 60/40 and go their separate ways. They snuck in and out of a wealthy merchant’s manor while the family was out on holiday and made off with close to 2,000gp. He thought he’d be set for awhile, but when it came to part ways, Darling turned on him and took everything, leaving Elaris in the gutter with a dagger in the back. Luckily, in her haste she missed any vital organs or blood vessels and he recovered in time.

other than that, he’s made it through most of his life relatively unmaimed.

2) Three  five songs that show their character progression.

Ok so I have a playlist for this very reason! But it’s 37 songs long. If I had to narrow it down:

1. Beautiful Boys- CocoRosie

2. Bird Set Free- Sia

3. Dance Little Liar-Arctic Monkeys

4. Stars- fun.

5. All These Things That I’ve Done- The Killers

3) If they were a god which god would they be? (to quote my last post:)

Joanne the Scammer; next question please!

Seriously, though? I think The Traveler, among the Dark Six of Eberron is most like Elaris. His domains include chaos, charm, liberation, travel, and trickery, which is just about as close as I can find to what Elaris deified would be. Maybe add in a tiny bit of St. Anthony,the patron saint of the impoverished and oppressed. Elaris may not be a “good” person, but he empathizes and cares deeply for orphans, slaves, and minority races of Cartowitt. Other than those demographics, he’s always ready to charm and cheat his way into people’s wallets so I can’t really see him being even a chaotic good deity.

4) What was their favourite subject at school?

Elaris hated school as a child,but he found joy in music. It was something he was good at, and he loved weaving magic into each note of his compositions. He also enjoyed reading the ballads of the bards of old, and aspired to become one of them.

5) What does their voice sound like?

Elaris’ voice is a sultry tenor, with a vague, unplaceable but sophisticated-sounding accent. As a whole, he sounds a bit like a pretentious, highly educated asshole with a masters in Snobbery™

6) Animal, vegetable, mineral: what one thing symbolises them the most?

He’s got a small shell with mysterious carved runes on it that he has yet to decipher. The mystery of the shell is reminiscent of the secrecy he uses as a defense mechanism. 

If not, possibly his small pet mouse, Basil. He sees a lot of himself in Basil, from the petty theft to the insignificance of his role in the world, and would do anything to protect this old, fat mouse.

7) If they could control one of the four elements what would it be?

Probably Earth. I can Imagine him terraforming in a remote area trying to magically mine diamonds and other riches with the least amount of effort or sharing possible.

8) What would their favourite tv show be?

Probably some really ridiculous reality tv show, like Millionaire Matchmaker or one of the Real Housewives dramas. He takes joy in seeing the petty inconveniences of the rich and stupid, though deep down, his dream is probably to be a very wealthy and powerful sugar baby.

9) Would they ever use magic to gain love?

He uses magic to charm and manipulate others as part of his JOB. It’s what he was trained to do as a bard, really. He’s definitely used it to charm money out of people, but he wouldn’t ever like...sleep with anyone who didn’t approach him first or was too charmed to actually consent. 

He’s never truly fallen in love with someone, but if he did he wouldn’t want to magically ruin the integrity of their feelings. Being able to genuinely feel such things towards him is a huge step that he doesn’t think anyone would ever reach that point with him. By taking away that choice from them, he would be toying with them the same as any of the people he’s scammed and cheated.

10) What do they think of themself?

Elaris is confident in his skills as a bard, but he (justifiably) sees himself as a pretty shitty person. He likes himself just fine, but is afraid that others would turn on him if they knew who he really is. That’s part of the reason he works so hard on his facades; he doesn’t want people to really see the filth beneath his pristine mask.

11) Gender and sexuality?

Boring I know, but Elaris identifies as just a plain ol cis guy. He’s not afraid of femininity-- if anything he uses it to his advantage and keep people off guard. The way he explores fashion and gender expression as a whole leans towards androgyny, but his identity is still masculine.

12) Do they have a type?

Rich and stupid. If he can get a lot of cash out of them easily, he’ll go for anyone,really. 

If he were to get into an actual relationship, he’s attracted primarily to men and nonbinary folks. Regardless of appearance though, deep down he just wants someone he can match wits with that wouldn’t judge his past or skewed moral compass.

13) Playing video games, would they be a completionist, a speed runner, how would they play?

While WIlhelm would be a modder, Elaris wouldn’t mess with much beyond the occasional console command. He wouldn’t be a completionist per se, but he’d spend the vast majority of game time looking for workarounds to the conventional methods of playing. Will certain dialogue options affect ones later in the game? If you jump backwards 5 times after leaving the game on for three days, can you access a secret room that makes finding a rare item that much easier? He’d want to know

14) If they could solve one problem, what would they solve?

He’d really like to abolish slavery and diminish the roles and obsession surrounding the suits, sure, but most likely he’d want to set up plenty of soup kitchens, food banks, and homeless shelters to prevent children from ever dying from starvation and the effects of destitution.

15) What horoscope stereotype fits them the most?

He’s technically a Virgo, but he fits with the charming, diplomatic qualities of Sagittarius much better. 

16) Favourite terrain?

While not actual “terrain,” he loves the city and within the halls of the homes and manors within. Regal balls and social events have always fascinated him more than any wilderness, always dreaming of the danger and delight of court intrigue.

17) How do they dress?

His clothes range from masc to femme of center, but he cares more about the quality of materials used and the way they make him look. Rich furs, heavy velvets, and luxurious silks are his favorite materials to work with, especially if intricate details, such as embroidery or woven patterns are included. His favorite color is ultramarine, so often his outershirt will be similar hues. 

Please give this boy a reason to dress fancy. He loves fancy more than he loves himself

18) What would their ideal home be like?

It would be rich and luxurious, with fine furniture and fine trophies stolen throughout his escapades. However, it wouldn’t be too large. He may love the finer things in life, but also reviles absurd amounts of excess and the people associated with such extravagance. Fine and tasteful, rather than gaudy to the point of tackiness. To make it an actual home, he’d love to share it with the few friends he does have, along with those he had lost along the way. However, there’d always be a single extra guest room, intentionally left empty.

19) What would they like their mark in history to be? (to quote my last answer)

His whole schtick involves aliases and disguise to prevent infamy. If he were to gain a reputation as a conman, the gig would be up. In an ideal world, he would want to be portrayed as a young, famous musician or maybe even a charismatic diplomat who worked hard and built himself up from the ashes of his childhood to go on to live a fulfilling, preferably wealthy life. Maybe he’d have a beautiful, happy spouse and a life that’s normal and not too far beyond ordinary. Of course given his current circumstance and his outlook on the future, that’d never happen.

In this life, he’d be happy to fade into obscurity, living off the riches he’s swindled out of rich people through unnoticeable skimming and other forms of fraud.

20) If they could be a dragon, would they be a dragon?

To be or not to be, blah blah Hamlet is my favorite edgelord manbaby.

Really though, I don’t think he would be a dragon. Sure, he’ be powerful and rich beyond his wildest dreams, but brute force and intimidation aren’t his forte. He enjoys seduction and subterfuge too much to be a big lump of muscle, stomping around angrily to get his way.