#non-binary damage

[femme-tank]

1st Game - Fabula Ultima: Non-Binary Damage

So, here we are again. Masc Support, Femme Tank, so why not do a non-binary damage dealer.

As with the other two entries, I'll post the cover and steps again.

Step One - Identity

Okay, let's see about this "A dancer with a masking smile."

Step Two - Theme

For the Theme I'm going with Vengeance. Kinda channeling Primrose from Octopath a bit here.

Step Three - Origin

For the origin, I'm going with "The Mist-Veiled Forests". This person came out of a mysterious forest. Maybe they're a bit fae?

Step Four - Classes

As with the other classes, I'm going to have this character start with three classes. In this case, (and I did end up grabbing High Fantasy) I'm going to choose the following:

Fury 1 - A class focused on damage.

Rogue 2 - A class focused on trickery and speed.

Dancer 2 - A High Forest class focused on dancing for buffs.

For the skills, I'm going with the following:

Fury: Frenzy - Easier to get criticals with certain weapons.

Rogue: High Speed 1 - Ability to do some effect at the start of a fight.

Rogue: Dodge 1 - Bonus Defense if not wearing martial armor or shields.

Dancer: Dance 1 - One buffing dance.

Dancer: Wardancer 1 - Bonus damage after dancing

For the one Dance they have: Bat Dance, so they can gain either dark resistance or have their attacks deal Dark damage.

Step Five - Attributes

And now for the Attributes, I'm going to go with a Jack of All Trades here and just giving all four a d8.

Dexterity - d8

Insight - d8

Might - d8

Willpower - d8

Step Six - Figured Characteristics

Let's start with Hit Points...

Start with the character level. (5)

The maximum value of Might die times 5. (40)

Having any levels of Fury adds 5 HP. (5)

Total is 50.

For Mind Points...

Start with the character level. (5)

The maximum value of Willpower die times 5. (40)

Having any levels of Dancer gives you either Mind or Hit Points, I chose Mind Points. (5)

Total is 50.

And for the first time, we're going to have something more than the base Inventory Points.

Base Inventory points. (6)

Having any levels of Rogue adds two. (2)

Total is 8.

Defense before armor also has some changes:

Maximum value of the Dexterity die. (8)

Value of the Dodge skill. (1)

Total is 9.

Magic Defense is direct however, no modifiers before armor. So Maximum of the Insight die for a Magic Defense of 8.

Initiative bonus is the base 0.

Step Seven - Starting Gear

We're going to avoid shields and martial armor because it doesn't work well with the Dodge skill. So we're going to go with this set.

Shuriken - Dex+Ins, High Roll +4 physical damage, one-handed ranged.

Chain Whip - Dex+Dex, High Roll +8 physical damage, two-handed melee.

Combat Tunic - Defense: Dex+1, Magic Defense: Ins+1, no initiative modifier.

The shuriken is useful for things that fly or otherwise stay out of range of melee.

This brings their starting Defenses to:

Defense: 10 (Dex+1, Dodge 1)

Magic Defense 9 (Ins+1)

Step Eight - Name and Pronouns

I'm going to name this person... Ainsley and of course their pronouns are They/Them.

Ainsley

Identity: A dancer with a masking smile.

Theme: Vengeance

Origin: The Mist-Veiled Forests

Attributes

Dexterity: d8

Insight: d8

Willpower: d8

Might: d8

Skills

Fury: Frenzy

Rogue: High Speed 1

Rogue: Dodge 1

Dancer: Dance 1

Dancer: Wardancer 1

Dances

Bat Dance

Figured Stats and Gear

Hit Points: 50

Mind Points: 50

Inventory Points: 8

Defense: 10 (Combat Tunic)

Magic Defense: 9 (Combat Tunic)

Shuriken: d8+d8, HR+4

Chain Whip: d8+d8, HR+6

Initiative: +0

And with that, it's time to move...

Onward!

For Attributes, I'm increasing Dexterity twice to d12 coming to a total of this:

Dexterity - d12

Insight - d8

Might - d8

Willpower - d8

For classes, I'm doing the following.

Dancer - Buffs and acrobatics (Mastered)

Darkblade - Focus on fear and pain (Mastered)

Fury - Focus on damage and adrenaline (Mastered)

Rogue - Speed and trikcery (Mastered)

Sharpshooter - Ranged comabt (Mastered)

Dancer has seventeen different dances and thus it would be impossible to get them all even if you didn't pick up other Dancer skills. Some Dancer skills include "Follow my Lead" which allows you to share the effect of a dance with an ally you have a bond of affection with. "Frenetic Footwork" gives bonuses to opposed checks that rely on acrobatics, coordination, or speed when using some dances. "Quick-change" allows you to use a piece of equipment (potions et al) in the same turn that you start a Dance, and "Wardancer" means you do more damage after using a dance.

Ainsley already has Wardancer and a single Dance and I'm also going to give them some other things.

Quick-Change - On the same round you perform a Dance you can take the Equipment action.

Frenetic Footwork 2 - For the round after performing a Dance gain +4 to Opposed checks related to speed, acrobatics, or coordination.

War Dancer 5 - Deal extra 5 points damage the round after performing a dance.

Dance 2 - Bat Dance and Banshee Dance

This means that she's not doing too much with the actual dances, but then the primary thing she's doing is dealing damage so I focused on that over the other things. For the second Dance I'm going with the following:

Banshee Dance - Choose another creature that is able to see you. If that creature is already slow, they immediately become shaken.

Darkblade has two non-ranked skills, both related when the character goes to below half Hit Points. "Dark Blood" gives you resistance to Dark and Poison and "Heart of Darkness" allows you to form a bond hatred toward an enemy so you can now trigger other benefits against them. I'm actually taking both of these.

For ranked skills we have "Agony" allows you to recover HP and MP when you hit creatures you have a Bond with. "Painful Lesson" lets you reflexively study a creature that damaged you. And "Shadow Strike" lets you sacrifice health in order to make a dark attack.

I'm actually going to skip "Shadow Strike" it's good, but we're getting a similar benefit from the combination of Wardancer and Bat Dance. So unlike Chase having three different methods of healing, this feels like it's counterproductive. This is convenient, because the other two max out at 5 and 3 respectively, so I can just max them out and that's all 10 levels.

Agony 5 - recover 10 HP and 10 MP whenever you hit an enemy you have a Bond with.

Dark Blood - Gain resistance to dark and poison when your HP drops below half.

Heart of Darkness - Choose an creature to gain a Bond of hatred with the first time in a scene your HP drops below half.

Painful Lesson 3 - When you take damage you can study the creature that caused the damage for free with a bonus of +3.

We talked a bit about Fury on Althea's build. This is going to be a little different. Damage is her job, so we're not grabbing much of Withstand or Provoke. I think I'll grab one rank of each in case of emergencies, not bad to have an off-tank. Then we'll pick up Frenzy and max out Adrenaline, and the last levels will go into Indomitable Spirit.

Adrenaline 5 - When HP drops below half attacks deal +10 damage.

Frenzy - Critical hits with brawling, dagger, fly, and thrown weapons happen on any doubles as long as the check is not a fumble.

Indomitable Spirit 2 - When spending a Fabula point may also choose one of the following benefits on top of the normal ones: heal 10 HP, heal 10 MP, or recover from one status effect.

Provoke 1 - Taunt an enemy, making them enraged.

Withstand 1 - When taking the Guard action and not covering others heal HP based on strength of bonds with allies and temporarily boost Might or Willpower one die size.

There is one non-ranked skill "See You Later" which lets you spend a Fabula point to flee the scene. I might get that.

For the other skills, "Cheap Shot" allows you to do more damage on enemies suffering from a status effect. "High Speed" lets you get a free action at the start of a fight. "Soul Steal" lets you recover IP from minions during combat or gain special items from powerful enemies. "Dodge" increases Defense.

I'm going to go with the following. I'm leaning into the damage. I considered the soul-steal to fuel her IP, but I think the damage is the bigger thing here. High Speed is important because it's a chance to start the fight off with an enemy having a status effect already, thus allowing Cheap Shot to work.

Cheap Shot 5 - Deal bonus damage equal to 5+the number of statuses on the target.

Dodge 3 - Increase Defense by 3.

High Speed 2 - Can Attack, Hinder, or perform an objective just before combat starts with 10 Mind Points.

The Sharpshooter is basically the ranged combat version of the Weaponmaster and it has some similar skills. There are two non-ranked skills: "Barrage" which allows them to target one extra enemy. "Crossfire" allows you to interfere with an enemy's ranged attacks, causing it to fail.

The ranked skills include: "Hawkeye" which allows for using the Guard option to take aim or Guard and take a free small attack. "Ranged Weapon Mastery" increases accuracy. "Warning Shot" allows for doing no damage with an attack but inflicting either one of two status effects or loss of Mind Points.

I'm taking "Barrage" and "Crossfire" as well as maxing out "Ranged Weapon Mastery", that's 6 levels. I'm going to split the last four levels between the remaining levels.

Barrage

Crossfire

Hawkeye 3 - Guard to add +6 damage to next ranged attack or Guard + one free attack that does less damage.

Ranged Weapon Mastery 4 - Accuracy +4 to ranged weapons.

Warning Shot 1 - Instead of dealing damage, inflict shaken, slow, or the loss of 10 Mind Points.

Okay, for Heroic Skills... let's see what we've got available.

Adversity - Status effects make them stronger.

Heartbreaker - Sacrifice lots of HP to deal massive damage.

Powerful Shot - Ranged attacks deal more damage.

Swirling Swarm - Consecutive attacks with thrown weapons get more powerful.

Vanish - After a successful attack, enemies can't target them.

And for gear I'm going with the following, and this character is going for a dual-wield. Which does less damage, but given all the other ways they have to add damage on top, it's been compensated for:

Chakram - Dex+Mig+1, High Roll +4 physical, Multi (2), One-handed

Chakram - Dex+Mig+1, High Roll +4, physical, Multi (2), One-handed

Desperado Coat - Defense Dex+1, Magic Defense Ins+1, -1 Initiative, Barrage has half cost.

Explorer's Belt - +4 Initiative

Level 50 Ainsley

Identity: A dancer with a masking smile.

Theme: Vengeance

Origin: The Mist-Veiled Forests

Attributes

Dexterity: d12

Insight: d8

Willpower: d8

Might: d8

Skills

Dancer: Dance 2

Dancer: Frenetic Footwork 2

Dancer: Quick-Change

Dancer: Wardancer 5

Darkblade: Agony 5

Darkblade: Dark Blood

Darkblade: Heart of Darknes

Darkblade: Painful Lesson 3

Fury: Adrenaline 5

Fury: Frenzy

Fury: Indomitable Spirit 2

Fury: Provoke 1

Fury: Withstand 1

Rogue: Cheap Shot 5

Rogue: Dodge 3

Rogue: High Speed 2

Sharpshooter: Barrage

Sharpshooter: Crossfire

Sharpshooter: Hawkeye 3

Sharpshooter: Ranged Weapon Mastery 4

Sharpshooter: Warning Shot 1

Darkblade Heroic Skill: Adversity

Darkblade Heroic Skill: Heartbreaker

Sharpshooter Heroic Skill: Powerful Shot

Dancer/Fury/Sharpshooter Heroic Skill: Swirling Swarm

Rogue Heroic Skill: Vanish

Dances

Banshee Dance

Bat Dance

Figured Stats and Gear

Hit Points: 105 (Darkblade, Fury, Sharpshooter)

Mind Points: 95 (Dancer)

Inventory Points: 8 (Rogue)

Defense: 16 (Desperado Coat, Dodge)

Magic Defense: 9 (Desperado Coat)

Chakram: d8+d12+5 (Weapon Mastery), HR+4, Multi 2

Chakram: d8+d12+5 (Weapon Mastery), HR+4, Multi 2

Initiative: +3 (Desperado Coat, Explorer's Belt)

Desperado Belt Bonus: Barrage is half cost

[corvusunnx]

i hate my art rn but i made this. the second one is the blank template thingy i used :333

I'm kinda sad venture doesn't have a battle pass skin when they literally came out this season??? but whatever

[sugary-spider]

Francel :3

Some ppl on discord were really likin them!

He uses He/they cause hes silly like that tbh

I used @astronomergrump 's base!!! (Heres the base)

[oh-dear-sally]

I know Kalvin Garrah is kind of old news at this point, but I just feel the need to talk about my feelings about this because ultimately it impacted me a ton.

I was a Kalvin Garrah fan in middle school (I know, awful.) I had been in the midst of an identity crisis since I was 10 and started looking towards YouTube at that time. I was a MEGA fan of Kalvin’s. I watched all of his content and genuinely became such an insufferable, annoying, person as a result. I KNEW I was trans, but from watching his content I convinced myself I could only be a binary trans person. I told myself I was a man and forced myself to be hyper masculine as a result. I hated myself so much and finally decided I wasn’t man enough and never would be (because, news flash, I was not a man.) After that it took me years to come to terms with my identity, to accept that I am non-binary and to stop hating myself.

And I have read stories from other people, young trans kids, in these spaces online that just felt so uncomfortable in their transness. Kalvin Garrah, and other transmeds (trans scum, etc) had such a major impact on trans people and it is STILL HAPPENING with trans people trying to cater to conservative people.

Just please keep an eye on any young trans people you know, and be a shoulder to cry on when they eventually realize how this affected them. Only reason I was able to start loving myself, and transness as a whole, was thanks to my lovely friends and other content creators that made me feel welcome and safe.

[syncopein3d]

Left Alone 14: His Eyes Have All The Seeming

Tropes/content warnings: M for mature themes overall. Tropes/content warnings: vampire whumpee/caretaker, male whumpee/caretaker, non-binary whumpee/caretaker, morbidity or thoughts of death. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics. Mostly we're talking about consent to be bitten, but being bitten in this universe varies from "mild discomfort" through "multiple climaxes" and I don't know where the story will end up yet, so I think it's important to be clear.

In this episode: possession by a spirit, bloody non-fatal injuries, vampire sun damage or sunburn, exhaustion, fainting/loss of consciousness from injuries, choking, threats of death, TW for Latin scholars who can tell how bad the translation is.

If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the tag list of this series, please let me know!

Part 13: Cabin

“Tolly. Tolly, hey.” Someone was shaking his shoulder, familiar heartbeat loud and excited in his ears. Tolly tried to ignore it for a while. His body felt made of lead, which meant it was still daylight. But the irritating voice did not stop, so at last he unzipped the sleeping bag and crept out from inside it and halfway out from under the covers.

“Arden, it is day. I trust this is important,” Tolly said. He leaned on his elbow as he regarded Arden, who now sat on the edge of his bed in the cabin instead of their own. Their hair was wildly disarranged, which he hoped meant they had at least gotten some sleep today. He couldn’t help noticing that even now they hadn’t said wake up, which would have compelled him to obey.

“It’s important. There’s letters carved around the ruby in Latin or something,” Arden said. “I can’t read them. Can you?”

They thrust their hand under his nose. Tolly caught at their wrist – warm, delectable, pulsing beneath his fingers – and looked at the ring, trying to focus on it. A faint burning on his face and shoulder drew his attention to the window. The room’s curtains were shut, but there was still a pale, painful glow around their edges. Even looking at it stung his eyes. He looked quickly back at the ring.

Around the edge of the ten-carat star ruby, words were incised, tiny and finely carved into the gold.

“Yes, it’s Latin,” Tolly said.

“What’s it say?” Arden said.

“Hold still. Hold still, Arden.” His entire upper body was starting to hurt. The sun could easily get through his cotton shirt. He could see the flesh of his own hand turning red as he read aloud. “Pactum faciam in nomine - ” He cut off abruptly, letting go of Arden as he jerked back under the covers and sheets into merciful darkness.

“Are you okay? I closed the curtains,” Arden said.

“It’s an instruction for forming a – hhh – a pact with a spirit,” Black Tolly said from the safety of shadow, trying to keep the pain out of his voice. Everything in contact with his upper body hurt. “But there’s no name to summon them by. Nicholas would have left a name.”

“Damn. Tolly? You looked - ”

“It doesn’t hurt. I’m already healing.” The pain in his skin was rapidly fading. He could feel his blood being spent on it, but he had fed well. It wasn’t a problem. It probably wouldn’t even grow his hair back out. But it still felt like trying to think through mud, like looking at the world through molasses. The blankets felt like iron weighing on his shoulders.

“We’ll talk of it tonight. The sun is too heavy, Arden.” He slumped, face in the crook of his arm, and not even Arden’s worried voice could keep him from black sleep now.

When he woke again, his mind was clear.  Night had fallen. Something warm lay across his right wrist – familiar pulse – Arden’s hand. He lifted the covers and found Arden asleep, their breathing shallow and regular and extremely close because they were lying across his bed. Tolly regarded them as he lay on his side.

This is good. If they care for me, they will treat me better than he did.

I don’t deserve that. Nicholas understood me better than they do.

What choice do I have?

As he moved, they stirred, blinking in the dark. “Tolly? Are you back?”

“I’m back,” he said.

Arden fumbled for the lamp, giving Tolly enough warning to shield his eyes until they adjusted. “Are you all right? You scared me a little.”

“If I’m not ashed and scattered, I am not truly dead.” He slid out, eellike, as Arden sat up. “Worry about your own health, not your monster’s. Did you eat today?”

“I finished the Soylent and had another bar,” Arden said. “And I went and got a burger at the Lodge restaurant.”

Black Tolly warred with himself about whether to scold Arden for leaving without him or be glad they were at least eating. Finally, he settled on, “Good. Drink another Soylent, please, and we will discuss the ring.” He ran his hands over his head as he straightened away from the bed, standing in front of the treacherous curtains. His hair was still too short to be easily disarranged.

“You said it had a summoning ritual on it, but no name,” Arden said. “You don’t know the name of the spirit that Nicholas got power from?”

“No. He never said. So, he can’t have expected you to learn it from me,” Tolly said. “It must be somewhere else on the ring.” He considered. “He wouldn’t imperil your life by forcing you to remove it.”

The two of them stared closely at the ring for a while. Arden tilted it slowly to and fro in the lamplight.

“There’s something inside,” he said. “Something’s carved on the back of the stone inside the setting. Can you see it? It’s only visible if you tilt the ring just right.”

“Give me your hand again.” Tolly tipped the hand and ring very slowly, eye almost touching it, until the light hit just right in the red depths and he saw…

“Letters,” he said, letting go. “There is more than one language, but one is in Carolingian Miniscule. As few people who now exist understand a script used to write the Vulgate in only the earlier part of the thirteenth century, I have to assume it is meant for me. Of the others, one is in runes I can’t read, one is in a later Latin script, and one is in English. These preceding three are each marked with a small cross.”

“So what’s the final name?” Arden asked.

“Aeolus. Perhaps it is intended to summon the spirit.” He couldn’t keep doubt from his tone. Tolly was well aware of his ignorance in these matters, an ignorance cultivated by long centuries of carefully avoiding people he knew could end him, and Nicholas had very deliberately done nothing to dispel that.

“And it’ll teach me to cast spells? To defend myself?” Arden said.

“I don’t know,” Tolly said. “He must have thought so. Perhaps it is a familiar he has used himself.”

“It can’t hurt to try, right?” Arden said. “Worst case is that nothing happens.”

“I think we have little choice,” Tolly said. “The Silencer team were not able to cast violent spells. I’ve never had to face someone who could.”

“All right.” Arden sat up straighter, wiping at their eyes to get the cobwebs out. “Read me the Latin.”

“Pactum faciam in nominee illius qui hunc anulum non praecipere potest,” Black Tolly said. He paused every few words to let Arden repeat after him. Then, when he had come to the end, he said, “Now the name.”

“Aeolus?” Arden said.

The two of them sat looking at each other for a moment, Arden with one foot off the bed braced on the floor, Tolly standing opposite them.

“So what’s supposed to happen?” Arden asked. Before Tolly could answer, he saw them twitch, grabbing at the cheap headboard behind them. “The – the fuck is happening - ? Who are you?” They were staring at something, as if someone stood to Tolly’s right. When he turned his head, he saw nothing. There was no sound or scent of another person in the room.

“There’s no one else here,” Tolly said.

“He’s gone,” Arden said. “I don’t - ” They jerked violently, as if yanked by invisible strings. Tolly would have sworn they lifted completely from the bed for a second. “No, wait. You can’t - ” Their eyes rolled up into their skull, only white showing. Tolly dove in and grabbed at their arms to stop their head bouncing back against the wall. For a moment he thought they might be seizing.

“Arden? Arden, can you hear me?”

The tremors stopped. After a moment the eyes rolled back down, and Arden blinked up at him slowly.

“I’m not Arden.”

Tolly was violently yanked backwards and slammed into the floor. He was stunned to realize he couldn’t move. All of his great strength couldn’t lift one finger from the carpet. It was like being crushed by a giant fist. If he had needed to breathe, it would have been very difficult to do so. His bones creaked and the floorboards creaked under him.

A face hovered into his view. Now it was smiling, and not in the shy small way he had seen Arden smile. The wide, slightly distorted grin didn’t look right. It didn’t move the eyes, and the eyes didn’t blink.

“Well, that was more effortful than it should’ve been,” said the possessing spirit. The voice was forced into a lower pitch, rougher than Arden’s normal tone. A thin trickle of blood ran from one nostril.

“Let them go. The body isn’t yours, Aeolus,” Tolly said.

“Obviously it is,” said Aeolus, through Arden’s mouth. “It’s still weak, but I’ll soon see to that. Thinking he could fight me for it. Ha. Yes, idiot, I can hear you in there screaming THEY. I don’t care. The body’s mine now, and so are you, until I see fit to throw you Outside.”

Tolly, listening to this monologue, had never ceased straining against his bonds. He knew immediately when they started to weaken.

“Stop struggling,” Aeolus said immediately, head snapping around to look down at him there on the cabin floor. Tolly froze out of pure reflex. “That’s better. You’re a prisoner of Nicholas’ little toy, aren’t you?” He held up the ring to look at it, sniffing back more blood from Arden’s nose. “I watched everything he did, you know. That’s part of the pact. But why be a passenger when you can drive?”

He walked Arden’s body over to stand straddling Tolly, looking down.

“His eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,” said Aeolus. “Nicholas quoted that a great many times, looking at you. I see why.”

It was at this point that Tolly came off the floor so fast that his movement could not be tracked with the naked eye. His hand closed around Arden’s throat as he spun, and then he slammed Aeolus back into the wall by the door. Their feet – his feet – their feet barely touched the ground, scrabbling to keep him from being choked to death as Arden’s hands clawed at Tolly’s wrist.

“Let me go,” hissed Aeolus.

Tolly slapped him.

He was careful. He could’ve taken Arden’s head off. But he had been out of his prison for long enough to have rebalanced himself to his own strength, to the habit of lifetimes. Arden’s head rocked to the side, a red mark rising on their cheekbone.

“I take it you don’t truly hear the words of the invocation. You certainly didn’t stop to read the inscription yourself,” Tolly said. “Pactum faciam in nominee illius qui hunc anulum non praecipere potest. And you, Aeolus, cannot command this ring.”

“Let me GO,” Aeolus demanded again. Black Tolly slapped him back the other way.

“Let me go, or I’ll tear you to pieces!”

“Why don’t you, then?” Tolly asked. Aeolus’ eyes rolled upward again, and Tolly felt a sensation like knives cutting at his flesh, but now when he braced himself the bruising force could not pry his fingers from Arden’s throat. It was an exquisite agony, wounds opened all over his body as if slit by many little knives, but he remained. And blood gushed from Arden’s nose. The eyes came back down, furious, old eyes in a young face.

“Arden’s body isn’t accustomed to your power yet, is it?” Black Tolly said. “You’ve already spent what they can channel. And now you can’t stop me from drinking you dry.”

“He – they say you’ve been ordered not to kill them!”

“And so I have. But, as you’ve pointed out, you’re not Arden,” Black Tolly said. He leaned closer, grinning brightly so that Aeolus could see his fangs slide out of their sheaths in his gums, growing to a length unnatural in a living human being. “And I can do whatever I like to YOU, Aeolus. So, mark me well. You can remain where you are, and I will consume you. I’ve been desperately craving this blood from the instant I first scented it. I can barely contain myself. And now you’ve made me bleed.

“Or you can fall back to where you belong, and teach them and give them power in trade for sharing their senses. That is the pact. As long as Arden is in control, I can do no harm to this body I hold. I suggest you make your mind up very quickly. My thirst grows every second.”

Black Tolly leaned in very deliberately, ignoring the weak attempts to pull his fingers away, and ran his rough tongue over the blood that covered Arden’s lips and chin. Aeolus could see his eyes glaze with the intense pleasure it gave him, his grip starting to tighten as the giddy frisson rolled through every one of his senses. For that instant, he didn’t feel the pain of his wounds at all. For that instant, every single thing he had suffered over the last few seconds had been more than worth it.

“All right, all right! Stop!” Tolly came back to himself to find Aeolus suddenly limp in his grip, features slack, eyes half-open. He let go at once, jerking back in terror. Had he killed Arden after all?

 But no, he could hear a pulse thundering in his ears when he had none. The body crumpled in a heap in front of him was alive.

Now he felt the pain.

Tolly swayed, looking down at himself. Blood soaked his clothes in oblong patches where his skin had been slit. He felt the sting where the open air touched the cuts in his face and hands. He bled slowly, and the narrow wounds were already trying to close, but he could feel the loss of strength where blood had been lost, where blood was being spent to heal. His mouth felt dry. He fought down panic at the memory of his shriveled flesh inside the secret room, at every swallow scraping his throat.

He bent to seize Arden and carry them to the bath, before he should bleed on the cabin’s carpet, and there he slumped into the tub with them lying against his chest. He could see blood running down the drain between his bare feet. Some of it soaked into one of Arden’s white socks with their worn-down heels.

The sensation of a living body draped over his dead one was intoxicating. He could feel every small pulse. And that pleasure would become more painful every instant that his thirst was not sated. His canines refused to draw back on their own.

“Wake up. Please, Arden,” he said, and now he could not keep the exhaustion from his voice. “I can’t – I can’t bear this. I need you here.”

Part 15: Glass of Water

@fleur-a-whump, @bitchaknso, @valravnthefrenchie, @thewhumpcaretaker

[theunmanipilateddiaries]

I can't wait for the day when we can get our leg amputated. It'll make our life so much easier, in regards to dressing more masculinity or androgynously, in regards to pain levels, and so much more.

For context, our left leg is extremely screwed up (as in permanent damage-wise). Our knee is our biggest issue, constantly in pain, frequently swelling, subluxating and dislocating, giving out and being unsteady, and more—and we don't even have a diagnosis about what's wrong because we can't see all of the damage on MRIs or x-rays! Our ankle is also an issue, with being weak and hypermobile from constantly spraining, straining, and rolling it in elementary school. And last but not least, tendinitis. In not one, but more recently TWO tendons in our lower leg. (There's three tendons in lower legs.)

Our left leg is literally a piece of crap.

Someone take it away, please. I beg you. ToT

- Max / Kenneth

Front: Evan (xe/they)

[toxicrevolver]

Halloween tag game! Thanks for the tag!!! @serendipminie

Do this quiz find out what horror movie stereotype you are

And make this picrew/dolldivine to design your look

I’m also somehow a tragic hero. Idk. Maybe it’s bcs I’m always trying to fight. In all actuality I’d probably be one of the first people to die in a horror movie bcs I can’t keep my mouth shut (which is filed under reasons I’d do terrible in prison). This was super fun tho. I love doing pic crew things (even tho I hate my face).

And as per usual I’m not tagging anyone bcs I am lazy (and socially awkward) plus I have the big sad. But if anyone wants to participate they can blame me as the reason.

[trollbreak]

The clown twins paired up

[fox-mulder-gets-pegged]

My darling gender is a show and you and I are fucking around in the hair and make up department giggling and putting red lipstick on each other and huffing hairspray 💕💕💕

[mxbutchtwink]

Do any Monster High fans know if Frankie is cannon non-binary or if they just use they/them pronouns now?

[cats-in-the-clouds]

it’s all been said before but the whole pronouns thing for some people is getting so ridiculous it’s honestly just sad

[noagskryf]

Thinking about how in the UK, all trans kids are in danger of being outed to their parents immediately if the government decide to pass that law.

We won't have to fill in a form and write an essay discussing whether we're TMA or TME or whether our gender identity is validated on tumblr. Schools could be forced to out us to potentially dangerous situations.

The tma/tme thing is such terminally online brainrot. Yall need to actually do shit that matters instead of infighting with tumblr gays online over who has it worse being a tranny. Where i come from being a fag in wrong place at the wrong time gets you injured or killed so i have more important things to do than go on a tirade to my enby friend about how transmisogyny doesnt affect them. How about you uplift and help your queer siblings instead of just hinting that their trans experience isnt as valid as yours cuz they have it better. Mf hoe. No one outside of this app uses these terms anyway btw.

This comes from someone who is really fucking "tma" as a binary trans woman from a very homophobic country and guess what, i think this is a pissing contest.

[genderqueerdykes]

if you are a trans man or masc, masculine nonbinary, genderqueer, genderfluid or other gender non conforming identity, masc gay, a bear, a butch, stud, or boi, or other masculine queer person and don't feel welcome in any queer spaces, you're not alone.

the communities both irl and online have become EXTREMELY hostile toward mascs and men to the point of straight up excluding us and changing their wording to justify their violent exclusion. from renaming nonbinary spaces to "femme & them" and "she+" spaces, to telling men & mascs that they would "Scare" the women and "nonbinary" folks just by being there, as if masculinity and manhood are inherently traumatizing to be around.

masculine and male nonbinary folks have it so hard- most nonbinary spaces are almost definitely women's spaces who also conflate womanhood with nonbinaryhood, and often times just view nonbinary people as confused women. we are not inherently traumatizing to be around: masc enbies need places to go. we are still nonbinary and still trans and still queer for fucks' sake

nonbinary has never and will never mean femme or woman-adjacent inherently. nonbinary means what it means: people who don't or refuse to adhere to the gender binary, regardless of what side it is. masculinity is included in this, femininity is not the only way to be nonbinary.

masc queers do not have to bend over backwards to try to be more feminine and thus "less threatening" in order to have places to go. that's dysphoric and just inaccurate to a lot of queer folks' identity and presentation. it blows my mind because it makes no sense, anyway, even within the gay community, hypermasculinity has been present and even sought after by some people who find it very attractive, twunks, hunks, bears... but between the periods in queer history people started viewing masc gay leathermen and kinksters as the ones who were responsible for spreading AIDS and thus removing them from pride parades,

AND the lesbian separatism moment picking up to remove butches & male & masc lesbians from lesbian spaces identity, paving the way for modern rdical femniism, we've only entered a downhill landslide of hating men and mascs and ultimately trying to erase us from the queer community entirely.

the queer community is not the "women & femmes community". the queer experience is broad and vast, it includes a wide variety of masculine and male experiences, as well as genderfluid, multigender, completely ungendered and other gendered experiences. the lesbian, trans, bisexual, nonbinary, gay and general queer communities aren't the "safe place to hide from men & mascs community" like estranged rdfems and terfpilled trans folk like to tell you they are.

this is the QUEER community and it includes ALL forms of queerness, masc, femme, butch, male, neutral, bigender, neutral, and all. he/shes and he/hims and he/theys and he/its and so on are just as much of a part of this communities as she/hers and they/thems. you can't cast a blanket of "inherently abusive" over all men and mascs and one of "inherently abused/incapable of being abusive" over all women and femmes because that just traps you in a fantasy land that doesn't exist AND it prevents mascs and men from getting the help, resources and community they NEED.

men & mascs are hurt and abused by women & femmes every day and we refuse to speak about them because we live under a white cisheteronormal patriarchy and have complaints about how that functions. the complaints are legitimate but assuming that all men and mascs are oppressing all women and femmes and that women can never be oppressive is a false as hell narrative that actively damages people.

enough is enough. this mindset is hurting people. it's leaving masc and male queers to be estranged, harmed and even dead. i care about you if you're being affected by this mentality and these behaviors. you deserve community, safety, and a sense of belonging, you do belong, even if we struggle to form our own spaces due to unjust hatred. we will do our best to band together and keep each other safe. we must

[spaceysoupy]

So apparently it’s that time of year again where I have to post about this.

On lesbianism, white queerness, and 2S identity

Text below readmore

I am a two-spirit. My identity is specific to my Tribe and Clan, and even more specific to my family. I am not a man, I am not a woman, and I am not nonbinary; I am not defined by what I am not.

I am a two-spirit and I am a lesbian. That's not debatable.

But I am not a non-man.

There's an idea of two-spirits that we are just the ethnic version of non-binary

We're not. The reason you're so comfortable calling us nonbinary is because your idea of queerness is centered around the binary&what you are not: you're not cishet, you're not the oppressor, etc

White queers like to speak about 2S identities constantly as if we are monolith. "It's just a gender" "it's not a gender"

"they're not trans" "they're not queer" "they don't belong here"

The community tries to decide for the individual and that's so weird to me.

So much of white queerness is inherently about exclusion.

You need strict labels to exclude the people you fear. You write your definitions around your fear of intruders and by consequence you exclude the people that need your support the most.

You need people to "prove" they are queer before you let them in. You're like a fortress and you let vulnerable people drown in the moat; ignoring that the real oppressors don't need to be a Trojan horse to do damage, ignoring they are actively burning down the castle.

It's very sad to me, because it's ultimately tearing the community apart even further.

I've never felt very welcome in white lesbian circles and they've never understood my experience of gender, but it's gotten worse in the past 5 or so years.

As TERFs start to revive gold star lesbianism and center hatred of men as their definition of lesbianism, you start to get these younger lesbians that don't know history that start to parrot the rhetoric. First it's "non-men loving non-men" then it's "you're too close to Man™"

For many two-spirit lesbians like myself, this is very concerning. White lesbians are historically not the ones targeted by radfems.

Now we've gotten to the point that there are people denying that lesbian is an spec (multispec) identity while including (white) nonbinary people

White nonbinary people (usually AFAB nonbinary people) are seen as woman lite and are welcome in white lesbian spaces while queer Indigenous people are considered dangerous because white lesbians can't understand their gender.

When did understanding become a requirement?

We're getting very dangerously close to "lesbianism is ONLY attraction to women" and very close to "lesbianism is only attraction to *a very specific type of (white) woman*" and I really need young white lesbians to read about political lesbianism so they can see this

I don't want to hear "not all lesbians" or "well then they aren't welcome" because every time this rhetoric goes unchallenged you are actively welcoming these people to continue it and make it more and more extreme. Yes, even the kind that seems to have nothing to do with racism

Almost all of your exclusionary rhetoric is based on the racist ideas of political lesbianism and I do not know why you all cannot see that they want to move goalposts. It wasn't just bi lesbians, it wasn't just he/him lesbians, it wasn't just nonbinary lesbians. It's a tactic.

It really feels like young lesbians are not only letting us go backwards, but encouraging it. And that's thanks in part to the historical racism of political lesbianism, but many of these people ARE old enough to think critically and talk to people who've been through this.

So far I've seen this in younger lesbian spaces; the ones with older generations (the ones that don't welcome TERFs) have been pretty welcoming even if not totally understanding, because they at least recognize that you don't need to understand someone's experience to validate it.

But I'm really concerned for the young Indigenous lesbians who don't feel comfortable around older people and are going to these younger lesbian spaces only to be indoctrinated with thinly veiled TERF rhetoric. It makes me very concerned for our spaces as well.

So I'll say again

I am not a non-man and I am not a non-woman. I'm not defined by what I am not. I do not ascribe to your binary-centric definitions of queerness. I experience queer attraction to women. I'm a lesbian. You do not get to use community to decide my individuality.

Thread by ~Alitsanosga

Pronouns: hi'a/vsgina/utseli/uwasa

[theglamorousferal]

Just found out about the Enough Stuff Non-Profit in Illinois and it got me thinking about Crime Alley and about if there was a place like that, they’d work hard to keep it going.

Now I’m imagining Danny, ghost king with its coffers, things at relative peace, but not having to actively work. He’d want to still be able to give back I think even if it’s not actively fighting. What if Danny started an Enough Stuff shop. Everything there is free. Everything is donated. It runs on donations. (The first few months it runs on his savings; ghost money translates thankfully).

Danny lives in the apartment above the store and the store has two floors. Sam moves in next door and runs an apothecary and plant store. She ends up running a vegan bakery and coffee shop too. If you perform or write a poem, you get a free coffee and scone. If she has the chance, she’ll teach you about basic herbal remedies and also some basic first aid because while honey is an antibiotic, it doesn’t do shit for something needing stitches. Jazz moves in and opens a free pediatric clinic. Tucker can be found running the business side of the non-profits and pushing Sam to “just get an EMT certification already, you’re more than qualified, and you know you want to.” Val travels a lot, she’s an Olympic martial artist, but when she settles someplace to train it’s usually with the trio in their Frankenstein apartment made up of the top two floors of three connected buildings. Between Danny finding he enjoyed training from his years as a hero and Sam wanting to always be in top form there’s a gym there she can train in and Danny’s usually free. She helps with whoever needs it when she has free time so she doesn’t feel like a mooch for living there only part-time. She ends up saving some kid from a thug and deciding to train him up. This leads to the kid bringing more kids to learn from her. She ends up buying a building on the block and renovating it to be a gym and training facility for her and it gets added to the list of non-profits Tucker is running. (He only leaves his corner office, he insisted, during working hours for lunch or meetings and the occasional lunch meeting).

Tim losing his mind trying to find anything about them. Him constantly hitting firewalls of binary, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Esperanto and some other language he could only describe as auditory Zalgo text. Tim desperately wanting to investigate in person but he promised Jason he’d stay out of it until he asked.

Jason coming back from a long mission with the Outlaws seeing the “cute little trust fund kid’s experiment” not only flourishing, but growing. He goes to research them only to find they’re mostly squeaky clean. There’s some stuff about disturbance of the peace and minor property damage when a teenager, but that doesn’t mean anything for someone setting up in Crime Alley. He watches them for a while, listened to what his guys said about them and the general opinion. He decides they’re above board, but he’d still watch them.

Then he got shot. More accurately, a shot grazed just under his armpit where there was a gap in his armor. He ended up stumbling out of an alleyway and directly into the pathway of one red headed doctor.

Kinda want to add more Amity Parker’s at some point. Debating having Paulina run a fashion house in the fashion district because she couldn’t convince her dad to let her move to a place known as Crime Alley, and just spend a bunch of time at Danny’s shop and maybe drop off ‘fits she made there. Star and Wes running a local radio station. Dash becoming a mechanic (after freaking out about not making it in football). Kwan opens a vet clinic. Eventually the Amity Parker’s own a full two blocks of housing and businesses.

[genderkoolaid]

Translated with Google and edited for clarity

Transgender men in Mexico suffer the same type of violence as trans women, but they tend to remain silent and not report it due to gender stereotypes that impose the idea of ​​strength on men, LGBT rights activists agreed on Wednesday. Davien Gómez, a transgender man originally from Guadalajara (western Mexico), told EFE that this sector faces attitudes of devaluation in society, since many of them are in a process of gender transition in which their feminine features have not completely disappeared. “Since they are perceived as women from the start, they have this idea that they will always be women. There are [transmasculine people] that do not have a phallus, but that see themselves as cisgender men, so there is not so much of a problem as long as no one knows, but if they do not [pass as cis, they think,] "how can I consider you a man if you look like a woman?” he said. The activist from the Impulso Trans organization stated that this devaluation is present not only in front of acquaintances or in work and family environments, but also when trying to establish emotional relationships in person or on dating apps focused on the LGTBIQ+ community. Impulso Trans and the Existimos Foundation conducted a survey among trans men in various states of the country, in which they found that 80.2% of the participants have experienced discrimination and violence, but 9.9% of them do not know how to identify it. In the data released within the framework of the LGTBIQ+ Pride month, it stands out that 54.9% of transmasculine people experience violence in the family, 50% at school, 33.5% at work, 38.5% on the street and 34.6% when requesting a service in public institutions. Adrián Arellano, a trans man, told EFE that sometimes violence arises because people have an idea of ​​what it means to be a man, dictated by a heteronormative system in which only what is conceived as masculine is valid. “There are people who believe that all trans men want to have a beard and want to look 100% like a [cis] man, if we don't get to that point we continue to be treated as women,” he explained. Worse still, transgender people face verbal and physical violence because of their appearance or gender expression, attacks that extend to those who identify as non-binary, although transgender men tend not to report them, Gomez added. “It doesn't have the visibility that transfemicides have (...) there is a huge invisibility towards the trans male community and it is very strange that transmasculine people cannot say what happens to them because of this sexist idea that men have to put up with it or that nothing happens to them,” she said.

According to the survey conducted in early 2024, trans men who have experienced violence or discrimination do not file a complaint because they do not know how or where to do so (31.9%), because nothing will change (23.1%) or out of fear (19.2%). Izack Contreras, coordinator of Impulso Trans, told EFE that while it is common for trans men to remain silent out of machismo or to act tough, they also do so because they do not know how to recognize or differentiate violence. “We don't recognize violence, we don't know when I'm experiencing violence or discrimination and I don't know where to go or how to report it or what to do, in general. Add to that the fact that the justice system doesn't work, so we report it, but nothing happens,” she said. Of the survey participants, they found that in 6.6% of cases there was no change among those who dared to report, 3.8% of them were re-victimized, and in 2.2% of cases there was reparation of the damage. Based on these results, both organizations will launch a campaign to make the problems of the trans male community visible, “to make them aware of the violence they may experience, to inform them of the places to go if they are victims and to generate a culture of respect in different areas of society,” explained Contreras.