#its not that long but i chatter a lot

[travelling-hydaelyn]

Lahabrea possessed Thancred before this questline even started which means these are back to back Laha interactions. Here is how he greets the WoL in the Waking Sands immediately after his Disney villain introduction.

Meanwhile in Minfilia's solar:

presumably he took a brief break from running Alphinaud's errands to go dramatically laugh at the WoL

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

btw! You were talking about your multi shipping and some secret rare pair. I've been in suspense ever since. What's the pair anyway? Or are you in the middle of making a chart? I'm just real curious

oh lmao did i not say what it was? it's not some 'oooh ahhh' thing i just had a Cute Thought and went "yeah i can dig that!". its simply Niche!

first i was thinkin "aw, yk Barnaby/Eddie is kinda cute" and then immediately went "wait ohhhh established Laughingstock but they fold Eddie into the relationship" and yeah <3

[tumblweeds-omegaverse]

assorted thoughts on omegaverses and identity

tl;dr - if queerness is what's outside of the norm, then who and what gets to be queer in omegaverse? that depends! on what? the universe itself. but also the wishes of the person writing it.

also, omegaverse as a trope has vague norms, things that are associated with it in general. (not rules but markers?) if the thing you're thinking of would surprise you if treated as "standard" in a random a/b/o fic or book, you can probably queer code it!

very long version below! seriously, this is long for what it is, and I probably could have written more if the original didn't get eaten by my phone last night. (thoughts may be jumbled or repeat, sorry)

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One of the most fun things about omegaverse, for me, has become how it throws things in a box and shakes em around.

What's it mean to be straight or gay in our world? Which group is someone referring to when they say, "I'm attracted to women" or "I'm primarily into men romantically?"

Yeah, I know what it means in general, but what does that specific person intend with those words? I do think there can be a difference.

Omegaverse can help with questioning my real assumptions by nudging me to ask, "What does this mean in this context?" For characters, for societies, and for worlds.

What happens when the signals of who "belongs" in each group change? What shifts when there are more variables?

What even is straight or gay in omegaverse? Depends.

◇

First up: what does it mean to be attracted to a dynamic within a certain verse? Before that can be get answered, there's another question: how do people know what dynamic someone else is?

Is it based on visuals? The body type or shape? What they wear? How they move? Coloration? Height or weight? Are these seen as generalities or treated like requirements? Could a character tell someone else was an alpha while they're blindfolded?

Is it based on olfactory info? Are there scents that signal it? Does it work within arm reach, inside a comfortable conversation range, from across a room, from the other side of a busy street? Is it the same as someone's scent? Are there pheromones involved? Could a character figure it out even through a bad head cold?

Is it based on sound? Are there noises that only one dynamic makes? Is there something about a voice that serves as a tell? Has the society set things up where certain phrasings or pronouns are associated with a dynamic? Would a person wearing headphones know despite the blockage?

Is it all of those things? None of them? A combo?

And then, which ones are associated with sexes instead of dynamics? Are the two similar or separated some way?

Why's it even matter?

◇

(disclaimer: this next bit is about people labeling themselves straight, gay, queer, etc. its identity markers, not behavior, that i'm talking about. i have thoughts about society labeling people in response to perceptions, too!)

Because, when people in our world say "I'm attracted to women," it's not like they mean every woman. But there's still a loose bundle of associated traits they're referring to. A capacity to maybe like some people out of a deeply diverse group. Things that, if they're missing or on another scale, the spark of attraction is less likely, maybe nearly impossible.

Before they can be attracted to a woman, they have a concept of which attractive people ping to them as women in the first place. Not in a demanding "you can't be a woman without this and this!" way, but in a "the traits I find attractive are things usually associated with people who are women" way. What are those traits, to that person?

(am I over analyzing this? yup! 🎊 i'm weird so it's fun!)

More importantly: if a person identifies as a specific thing, it's because it means something to them. There's some purpose it serves - either it adds to how they interact with others, or it helps clarify something about the self. In our world it's (hopefully!) impolite at best to tell somebody that they aren't who they say they are. Our labels hold meaning to us, and help us find commonality with others, and communicate which things we have words for.

(personal example: I haven't always used aroace as a term for myself. But my lived experience is definitely a closer fit to the aroace umbrella than the normative one. There could be someone very similar to me who puts a different word to their experiences, and that's fine. We would be focusing on different parts of our stories.)

◇

When it comes to labels as identity, within omegaverse, I think there's a number of directions it could go:

Attraction to sexes - male, female, etc

Attraction to dynamics - alpha, beta, omega, etc

Are there attractions present in the first place?

In general, I figure that the "main" labels say something about the attractions towards other dynamics. Just because of how important dynamics are treated in most things containing a/b/o tropes. Additional info comes in the form of labels within that umbrella.

◇

Looking at works tagged as omegaverse or a/b/o, there's some patterns, right?

Many relationships are alpha/omega, and the sexes of the people involved don't seem to change that.

In other words, it's less common to see a story where a male alpha is looked down on for pairing with a male omega. It's more common for there to be issues from other people if a male alpha is partnered with another alpha.

So, dynamic-based queerness is more impactful to the characters and/or the story. Queerness based on assigned sex may exist but might not be touched on. Things can vary based on verse, but it's what I've seen most.

That means that an alpha attracted to other alphas might identify as gay in order to signal that difference from the norm. Being into omegas as an alpha is normative, closer to what we see as straight, so anything that's not that? It's queer coded - if you want it to be.

Whether a male alpha who is interested in male omegas would identify as straight or not, is harder to put a finger on for me. It's part of why I think identity labels would say something about what the character finds meaningful.

This alpha could say they're straight if most of their attraction is toward traits connected to omegas. Or they could use gay if most attractions are towards masculine traits. Or it could be something else entirely!

(and this is all assuming that everybody is cis! adding trans characters, gender non conformity, identities outside of or beyond the binary? going into intersections between genders and dynamic and race and assigned sexes? shake that box even more! take nothing for granted! wheeee /excited)

◇

About umbrella labels and microlabels:

As a real world comparison, somebody can decide to say, "I'm asexual." That could be their one and only label - no talk on gender or sexes, no romantic attraction markers, just ace. There can also be somebody who says "I'm asexual" in one situation, but in another, they get specific. Demisexual homoromantic still isn't normative, and it's still ace, so they belong under that umbrella. So does someone who says "I'm aegosexual" and doesn't use the asexual label often. Each one is communicating something different, perhaps to various people at different times.

There's no reason why this couldn't be present in omegaverse, especially if there are six "common" options known to everyone.

◇

Where it gets really fun to roll this ball around in my head -

What if m/m and f/f are queer too but not in the same way?

Where do betas fall in all this?

Are there particular intersections that get specific types of stories told about them? How does that change the character's relation to their labels, both chosen ones and ones given to them?

For example: Do male alphas with male omega partners have a different experience than female alphas with female omega partners? What about m/m omega pairs versus m/m alpha pairs versus m/m beta pairs?

Is it possible in the verse to see two people and identify them wrong? If a character sees a masculine looking alpha with a masculine looking beta, are they going to act differently on finding out that one of the two is female? Which option gets the most backlash, if any, and what does that say about the view of masculine females of that dynamic and who they partner with?

Does a female omega who is attracted to betas and alphas identify as straight? Does that change based on the preferred sexes? Would this person identify based on interest or on what they're not attracted to?

Is it less normative for a beta to be attracted to other betas, or to alphas, or to omegas? Would a beta who only is interested in betas be gay or straight? Would they use straight and gay similarly to our world, or in some other way?

If a female beta is self-labeled as a lesbian, for her personally, who does that include? Female alphas? Male omegas? Only other female betas? Are female omegas included? What is she communicating through her label? What does that say about how people in her world view "same" and "different" attractions?

Do people label their sexual or romantic or other attractions the way we would at all? Or is it so different within their society that the terms don't map, and the info shared is about something else?

◇

So, that was a lot, with no answer besides "depends! lol". But because there's no ultimate rules of what makes a setting an omegaverse setting, that means you can design it however you like, and then create or borrow terms to fit!

I'm pretty sure I've seen posts of crafted terms for things like "attraction to alphas" or "omega attracted to omegas" so those could help. I think it's also possible to use some of the same logic behind queer microlabels and create your own!

For example, isoeidyllic could label "a person who is romantically attracted to the same dynamic." I literally just stole the "iso-" prefix from Greek and added it to the word for romance. An alternative could be equiromantic? With equiro as a shorthand. (not sure if that's a word in another language but probably good to check!)

Or you could keep it simple and do a4a, b4o, and similar for people without multi attractions. I don't see anything wrong with using pan, omni, poly, and other existing prefixes for people with multiple attractions either.

◇

I haven't made terms yet, but I'd like to. The issue for me is that they'd all be unique to their settings. I keep making each one juuuust different enough where the definitions wouldn't fit neatly...if "what or who is an alpha?" changes, then the labels used to describe attraction to an alpha would also be different, or at least, organized around different ideals, right?

Quick examples:

setting 1: alphas can be any sex or gender, dynamic is signified by scent cues and pheromones, attraction labels are used to signal what one isn't attracted to due to the number of combos. (12 in total)

setting 2: alphas are masculine coded but can be any gender, dynamic cues are scent oriented with build secondary, so attraction labels are used to signal what scent families one is attracted to.

setting 3: alphas are considered male no matter their gender expression because dynamic has taken the "role" of assigned sex at birth, dynamic cues are linked to visuals and scent about equally, labeling is based on behavior rather than on identity.

Whyyyy do I keep making it impossible to reuse my own work? Though that probably explains why I'm researching the speed of wagon travel and technology levels by century and various biomes and what scent families are and animal symbolism, instead of actually writing...or outlining...or finishing character notes...hahaha.

I mean, I'm having fun, but setting 1 has been going through various changes since October of 2023 and I certainly can't write my scenes where the cast bond at a festival if I haven't figured out how people celebrate yet, or what clothes they wear during which seasons, or what foods they eat on special occasions, right? I should at least know in a vague sense...right?

Right??? 😭

(help i am trapped in worldbuilder limbo /affectionate??)

also: all of this was sparked by somebody else's post that showed up on my dash with no notes and I didn't reblog because I was at work with too many thoughts and now I can't find it 🫠

[sollucets]

hi everyone :’) i havent been on tumblr much lately because i am 1) not watching anything and 2) still dealing with the effects of a bunch of fun medical stuff! i am doing ok but my body hates me so so so much lately. i have the energy and ability(?) to do only a few very specific things right now (play elden ring, let youtube forcefeed me kpop videos, languish) and that does not include watch show or make gif or even write no matter how much i might want to. so. this is how it is haha. miss u guys

[inkykeiji]

U GUYSSSSS this toji fic is finally ALMOST DONE!!!!!!! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡ i just have to finish editing this last lil bit and then !!!!!! i can finally share it!!!

[torchiiko]

i finished a game with some friends today,, experiencing smth for the first time with others, whether its their first time too or not, is such a wonderful thing. a bonding moment, a shared memory, a little experience that will bind us together until the end of time...

im such a sucker for games about helping ppl & having a positive impact on their lives.. the protagonists of these games can do amazing things & i want to be like them. the kind of person that can make ppl happy, set them on the right path, to just be kind... in an ideal world i could help everyone & get a happy ending where no ones left out but sadly real life just doesnt work that way

but! instead i can focus on a much smaller scale & be kind to those closest to me in the hopes i can brighten their day, even just a tiny bit, even for just a moment. if i can make others happy, then im happy :)

[director-phobos]

I don’t wanna be clocked as the “I’m better than you disabled type” for saying this, so please don’t go there. But I feel like people do have a problem with getting way too comfortable in their misery over the years here and I hope people see what I mean one day. Back when I was miserable myself and didn’t have the resources I do now, I used to get angry at those who said I’m capable of “doing more” or related but after receiving the help I’ve needed I’ve come to realize its a kind of fucked how normalized its been in these spaces to just.. use specific experiences or illnesses as a scapegoat? For a lack of better words. I used to do it but again, it’s normalized here I guess.. we’re capable of so much more and I’m growing more and more tired of the “I’m x so I can’t do x” thing..

I’m diagnosed with various things, some expected some new, I’ve been through heaps of traumatizing both irl and online situations resulting in the cptsd, chronic depression, BPD, some sort of dissociative disorder etc all being treated. What gets me though, is I see people experience way more mild things that they end up intensely identify with and blaming it or a few bad experiences on every negative trait they have, and don’t try and change anything. A lot of the time leading to misdiagnosing themselves as well with something serious, and yeah, I get mad about it. I get that people don’t all experience things the same but the same awwrghwk729191

The more I see this sort of thing taken happen between mutuals/acquaintances etc after I provide my insight the more (unreasonably?) angry I get? Because in my mind I guess people should know better but at the same time they haven’t been “enlightened” like I have so to speak. I’ve helped a couple of people, but some are so, so stuck in the “I’m this so I can’t do that or be expected to” thing and I only see this mindset in people who are very stuck on social media. I do not see this in people who are more “offline” or focus more on projects/friends/etc who have been through a lot like I have as well.

And just like. Dude.

[CW experience dump of unpleasantness];

If I can go through 13ish years of back to back domestic violence, witnessing my parent trying to kill themself multiple times, being woken up to screaming at 1am almost every day for months at one point, see people get beat, get beaten myself, have someone try to run me/family over twice, have a sibling die, endure s/a and on top of that be sent through multiple manipulators online after thinking I was through it all; I’m sure others with more “mild” problems in comparison they’ve ever went through can pull out of the “I’m so constantly drained and I can’t do xyz thing,” like I have, with work. But they have to really want it, when I get angry is when I see someone perfectly capable of using those resources and they don’t, but instead sink more into the “I can’t to blah” mindset.

I guess yeah there’s no hiding that this is a direct nod towards something that happened to me/someone recently, but nothing would change even if I dumped my feelings which I’ve done way too much of and itd always amount to nothing sooo instead I’ll just dump about what I see it all relating to in online phenomena. I’ll never be satisfied with how a friendship fell apart because of [the everything], and I could explain my pov further but I don’t want to get anymore specific than I am + I’m all around very certain it all culminates to this sort of thing. Out of all the worries I have recently reflecting on this is the only upsetting thing I’ve really been through recently besides random works issues and I think this will plague me for a long, long time. Wegh

Ty for the like attention span of idk 3 peanuts of my 50-ish followers who would read this post 🏓

[pristine-starlight]

My toxic trait is that I really love fiber arts: I love to crochet, I think handspun yarn is the coolest shit, I'm seriously considering trying wet felting someday,

But none of it fits my clothing style outside of maybe the occasional scarf or bag (tho I much prefer backpacks, so even that is shaky), sofrom the outside I still just look like I have no appreciation for handmade clothes and am all about fast fashion

[neoncityrain]

Can you tell me about the orgin of the Mechits? :0 Were they made? Created? If so, by who? Or have they always existed?

the mechit were the result of nothing but their own influence! the technology on their heads isnt a natural occurance- its tech fitted over a creature, not the creature itself.

mechit once were a more "standard" species- think of the first ones as more like the mechit equivalent of a neanderthal! it is important to note that their blood is rather gooey and conductive. while this has its downsides, they learned how to make technology that they could operate using their sorta-antenna-like 'whiskers, that protrude from the sides and backs of their heads.

the evolution from that came from tech, as you may well imagine- they began to carry computers on their heads, figuring out ways to directly communicate with it to do as they wished with a new "head"! this was revolutionary, lifespans of expanding drastically as life support became part of their own body, as cameras behind the screens became capable of networking directly with the brain, as they learned how to keep snapshots of memories as interactable computer memory that could be played back... and so on. suddenly, interacting well with a technological head became attractive!

and the mechit evolved, for better or for worse.

now, even newborns must be immediately fitted with tech or else. rather than birthdates, its a great event to be celebrated when a child outgrows their old computer and into a new one! but head injuries are common and can be fatal, medicine has lagged severely behind technology, and 99% of mechit without tech simply die. their advances are both a good and bad thing!

now, their heads are smaller, snouts are shorter, mouths barely open, eyes rarely (or dont) open, and ears are longer both to keep out of the tech and to keep cool despite computer heating (thats why theyre resistant to ice element stuff when given traits! cool temperatures are beneficial). they intake nutrients by intaking liquid throuth their whiskers (now referred to as wires by the mechit)... but they cant eat solid food.

essentially, the species spent so much time in the past and present that they forgot the consiquences of the future!

[the-fidgety-fiddler]

Drove for the first time in 3 years today and I got tailgaited, brights-flashed, followed, and cussed at by a strange man in a stupid sports car after doing literally Nothing wrong

[somberine]

Only somewhat related + I know the creators of both series are Shit, but Fn@F and B@tim are both games that get the "mascot horror is shit" treatment which sucks because

1 . Fn@F wasnt supposed to be some huge series, it was supposed to stop after 3 and didn't have the intent of changing the blueprint of an entire subgenre of horror

2. B@tim series is really not That bad and has a lot of potential and interesting aspects when you look past "kids mascot horror" when it's teen/mature

3. it's so unfair to all the smaller series to compare them and every other game to the big names like FN@F, B@TIM, PP, etc. and to assume the worst just because it's mascot or analog horror

All in all, a couple games got popular, got a lot of copycats, and now entire genres of horror are getting such a shit treatment because of it, and it's really unfortunate and unfair :( Analog and mascot horror both have so much potential for being really cool and I wish people weren't so presumptive about the genre as a whole.

TLDR; You're Right and You Should Say It

Yeah exactly! Like I sooo get when people say "I'm really tired of seeing Mascot Horror" because yeah, due to FNAF's rise in popularity that it had, theres been a lot of games and series that try to grasp that same popularity that it had back in the day and it makes their own series feel sorta empty because theres not a lot of heart put into it. Like Poppy and Garten of Ban Ban both could be incredible series if not for them feeling like they're trying a little Too Hard to get the popularity FNAF had, on top of the dev team problems. Its sad to see that because of these games, people will look at any series now thats horror based or based around a video game be it real or fake (such as Petscop, Catastrophe Crow or honestly even a series like Welcome Home) and go "These are just copies of FNAF too" without giving it second thought <:( because I guarantee those series would have a lot more love if people would simply look into them more before just going off what they've seen from a couple theory videos or something someone said about it. I love horror series and series that keep me thinking, I love games like this too, but I don't like when people compare it all to FNAF because they're really missing the true point of many a series.

[beagleboysinc]

i think vanilla can tell smth's up today because she keeps coming up to me and meowing really loud in my face and then rubbing her face on mine and like. thanks nilla. i love ou

[disabled-dragoon]

I have joint pain and a massive tailors bunion so walking SUCKS and I got to use a wheelchair for the first time. Holy shit. I am in awe. It was so much better. It was just a kinda crummy hospital wheelchair but I could move so much better and nothing hurt and also I got to spin around real fast in a small circle while waiting for the lift which was such a small thing but I had so much fun usually the lift and the steps are twin nightmares (standing and having my knees lock or walking and having my hip joints grind) I don’t think my issues are serious enough to buy a wheelchair or consistently rent one since I can walk perfectly well and if I tilt my foot just so then it’s not so much of an issue but it was gonna be a very long day on a big trip so I caved and rented one for the day. Sorry for coming in here and chatting your head off about this but I’m honestly just elated right now it was so cool

Oh chat away!

The spins are great aren't they. And on a recently polished floor is just 👌 [Okay hand emoji]

I'm so glad it helped you, and I hope you enjoyed your trip!

[acaciapines]

rereading parts of thanks to them so i remember what luz n friends were up to for watching and dreaming and yall...i missed them....

[escargon]

Thinking of Roy as an ominous and malevolent presence but not a cartoonishly evil one... like he's a producer with a Child Star son he's trying so hard to set up for simultaneous success while also keeping him ignorant enough that he can play a "child" on TV as long as possible so he doesnt grow up and grow independent.

He hates Duck's guts and fires him but will take his input and all his ideas (feeding Yellow canned Duck both the literal visual sense but also Duck's input in the show's writing is still there just uncredited).

He sees a kindred spirit in Red so seeks him out when the show jumps the shark and says "hey. We made a great team, didn't we? Come back on the show, I can give you a voice"

[famewolf]

the best part of getting to party with ppl my age was how well people knew their boundaries. the balance of being able to get absolutely zooted until the late hours while also all of us waking up before 8am to make breakfast and clean was genuinely comical

i woke up just before 8am thinking i'd be one of the first to rise but i was the 3rd to last