#that kids are just allowed to be without gender and once they figure it out they figure it out and its as simple as

[mr-orion]

I just got struck with the memory of how I used to watch slideshow stories recorded and put in youtube of the ppgz when I was 12....and like. I was a rabid consumer of this stuff and even tried making it myself and i never succeeded. I was so rabid in fact that youtube STILL suggests me ppgz slideshows. I even learned a bit of spanish specifically to consume these slideshows. I also had read ALL fanfic on the topic off of wattpad and fanfiction dot net.

Also! Egg moment! I wanted to be a rowdy ruff boy SO BAD. My self insert was named Bash! And he was the MIDNIGHT blue rrb and also he started off as a girl but I changed him to a boy later. His twin was the white rrb Blast. But ALSO his counterpart was the light yellow ppg known as Rika and her ppg name was blitz. I embraced this identity so fucking hard that my roblox name is a reference to this. Along with my password.

That self insert evolved into Maurice, and Rika, well he kept his name. And also became a boy. I had a single thought about these two boys kissing to Alluring Secret covered by Razzy and oh my goodness it changed the trajectory of my life. 12 year old me was like, "I know they're both girls but like he turns into a boy later..." and lightbulb. Lightbulb.lightbulb.lightbulb!!! Nevermind the fact that the rrbs and ppgs being gendered mirrors of each other is such an idea to pop out at young trans kids. It wasn't its intent but it definitely allowed for introspection.

Also. Here is a glimpse into my watch later playlist because I never ever cleared it simply for the memories. These are ALL the ppgz stories I absolutely needed to watch, before I stumbled into ouran host cub and noragami.

Also shoutout to that one person that drew brick winking with his tongue out and a rock sign. They CARRIED this media on the BACK. I would love to meet them.

Also at this time I was writing oko ruto x reader fanfiction on wattpad and doing NUMBERS. If that wasn't a damn sign idk what is.

[personal-progress-dropout]

The Rainbow Sheep III

I have complicated relationship with my gender.

Like many people who grew up in the church, I was raised with a strict concept of gender—there were men and there were women. Gender was determined in the pre-existence, and the gender you were assigned at birth was the gender you got. Trangenderism was, at best, a form of envy or self-hatred, and at worst, an act of rebellion against God. I wouldn’t hear the words nonbinary or intersex until I was a teenager.

Despite this, my parents were pretty easy-going about gender expression. My brother was allowed to dress up in my princess costumes when we were kids and I could buy clothes from the boy’s section without comment. There were some catches, of course—I was expected to wear a dress or skirt for formal occasions, and I’m not sure they’d ever be okay with my brother wearing anything ‘feminine’ once he was old enough to be a deacon. (He isn’t interested presenting himself as anything other than a cis guy, so I’ve never had the chance to see my hypothesis put to the test.) There was always a framed copy of The Family Proclamation hanging in our house. We had firm convictions about gender, so I never questioned my identity as a woman.

Like most things in my life, that changed when I moved out for college. I discovered a lot of things about myself—I was autistic and ADHD, I had seasonal depression, I would actually rather be a librarian than a teacher, and unlike what I had previously claimed to people, I was much more into women than I was to men, and I fall somewhere on the aroace spectrum. Above all, I discovered that my relationship with my AGAB was far more nebulous than I had assumed as a child.

I never had gender dysphoria, which I thought was an essential part of being trans or nonbinary. I was perfectly satisfied with being a woman, although the casual sexism I’d face was frustrating. And then I heard about ‘gender euphoria.’ I realized that I found joy in experimenting with gender, swinging between androgyny and femininity. I played around with pronouns, and found that being referred to as ‘they’ made me just as happy and comfortable as ‘she.’ (I’m rather indifferent to ‘he’.) When I discovered the term ‘demigirl’, I thought, “Yes, this is me.” I’ve since upgraded to ‘demiwoman’, and occasionally refer to myself as nonbinary.

I think it’s basically a rite of passage to have a gender/sexuality crisis when you’re religious and LGBTQ+. Much like the years after I figured out I was queer, I have moments where I worry that I’m actually just a cis woman who’s so empathetic to her trans and nonbinary friends that she’s fooled herself into thinking she’s demigender. Which is stupid, but nobody has ever claimed that anxiety follows rational thought.

Anyways, I wanted to share a spiritual experience I had lately: after the craziness that is Christmas and navigating through family drama, I had a chance to reflect. I was going over my imposter syndrome and how my gender identity is supposed to fit in with God’s great plan when I had a thought:

You are my daughter, my son, my child.

I wasn’t in the temple or in sacrament meeting. I was in my aunt’s spare room, lying on a crappy couch and staring up at a cat tree. And I still felt the assurance that Heavenly Father sees me. This doesn’t answer any of my questions about church policy or doctrine regarding gender identity, but it gave me hope. People may not think we have a place in the church, that we have to keep our mouths shut and fall in line in order to be in good standing with God. I reject that—there is a place for us, both in the church and in the eternal family. One day we’ll know more, and have a greater understanding, but for now, that one sentence of acknowledgement was enough.

[gl1tt3r-gutz-and-r0b0tz-sl]

First things first, I'm gonna be rewriting my fic due to new ideas flowing in.

Secondly, let me info dump some things about sparklings in my AU.

The Sparkling's name in this pic is Firefly. She's an Oplita kid.

A Sparkling's gender is in the optic color. Female Cybertronians will have cooler or lighter tones of the color they have. While males will have a more warm hue of said color. As an example of this, Starscream, who was originally forged as female, has a more pink color to the red of his optics. A Cybertronian born as a male with red optics will have more of a fiery orange tint to it, Grimlock and various Decepticons being prime examples. On the rare occasion that a Sparkling is born without an assigned gender, they will have the base color of optics and will be referred to as neutral pronouns. Nightshade is a great example of this. Gender can be changed in the future when and if they decide to.

On the topic of optic colors, the color of the child's optics will be based on the parents. If a Cybertronian with red optics is to forge a Sparkling with a Cybertronian with yellow optics, the chances of that child being born with orange optics is highly likely, with the rare cases of heterochromia occurring with both the eye colors of the parents. 'Pure color' optics, a rather derogatory term, is where a Sparkling has unmixed optics and has had parents with the same optic color, those two being typically red and yellow. Optic colors can also be slightly changed with a film over the optic, much like a colored contact lense, though, it is usually easy to tell.

Sparklings are born with only one base color, a white or light gray (debatable by cyber-parents) this color is the base color of the metal they are made of. A metal that grows with them and allows their bodies to change voluntarily into whatever mode they wish with some limitations based on heritage and age. Typically, they develop the ability to transform once they are six cycles (6 million human years) old.

Sparklings can change their paint jobs when they are old enough to transform. They also can change their colorings whenever they please as adults. The colorings that are typically chosen matter based on the colors of their parent(s)/guardian(s).

Much like human children, they develop to speak coherently at a toddler age. During their infant and newborn stages, they typically babble in unintelligible Cybertronian, which consists of cybernetic sounds and rumbles. Purring is not something only Sparklings possess. Adult Cybertronians also have the ability to purr and do it quite often to convey contentment or happiness to a situation or individual that makes them feel positive emotions. Cooing is something mostly maternal or paternal figures do in front of their offspring or anything they deem fit to be under their care. Typically, those who transform into avian vehicles coo to their young.

Female Cybertronians are typically more aggressive than males. Originally, in Cybertronian history, females were bigger than the males, dominating the planet until they were nearly all wiped out. Over time, and the lack of resources from hiding, they became smaller, some even becoming male to avoid scrutiny. Because of the shortage of females, homosexual relationships are quite common within the males of Cybertron. Some of the females who have managed to escape Cybertron have populated other planets where it is nearly all female.

Avian based infant Sparklings will likely learn how to run or move quickly with the thrusters built into their bodies, typically their backs or feet. While land based Sparklings will learn on their wheels or just like human children.

[cocklessboy]

Bafflingly, some of my posts are yet again getting notes from terfs and transphobes, so once again, here is a reminder that:

I am literally trans and extremely happy about it. Love being trans and injecting myself with testosterone and being hairy and having a deep voice and being called "sir" by strangers. It fucking rocks.

Trans rights and let people do whatever they want with their bodies and gender presentation forever.

Men are great, I love men, they are not evil or inherently dangerous.

Penises are not inherently dangerous.

Women can have penises and men can have vaginas and anyone can have any combination of genitals and it's none of your business what they have.

Trans men are men, trans women are women, nonbinary people are nonbinary, people's gender is whatever they say it is and I don't care how many times they change it.

Trans women are great, I love trans women. I love all trans people but trans women get a special shout-out because they really seem to have to put up with the most bullshit, hate, discrimination, and violence. I am giving every trans woman who wants one a hug and/or a fresh-baked cookie and telling you how beautiful you look.

Yes, every trans woman is beautiful, this transcends cultural ideas about what is attractive, they are all inherently beautiful.

Intersex people are fucking awesome too by the way, whether they're trans or cis or don't think of themselves in either of those terms.

No one is giving the surgeries you're all so afraid of to typical trans kids, but they sure as fuck are doing them on literal babies who were just born if they are visibly intersex and that is some fucked up shit and needs to be banned everywhere forever.

Conversion therapy is just torture, doesn't work, does immeasurable harm, and should be banned in every circumstance everywhere in the world forever. (That also includes conversion therapy for autistic kids, typically called "ABA therapy," just while we're on the topic.)

People can fuck around and explore gender and try something and decide it's not for them and transition and detransition and retransition and redetransition as many times as they want and that's all fine and cool.

Dysphoria is not a necessary part of being trans, you can be trans without dysphoria. Gender euphoria is more important than gender dysphoria.

Medical transition is not a necessary part of being trans, you can be trans without hormones or surgery.

Not all trans people know they're trans as children. Some of us don't figure it out until we're much older. (I was 35!) It doesn't matter when you realize you're trans, it's still valid.

Ignore whatever other people say about who you "really" are and whether you're "allowed" to be that. You are whatever version of you makes you feel the happiest with yourself, end of discussion.

Gender can also change. Genderfluid people are real and valid and awesome.

Trans people are in no way inherently a danger to children. While we're at it, neither are drag queens, I love drag queens too.

Misogyny is inherent in our culture and we are all touched by it but we can choose to fight against it, and that includes transmisogyny.

Medical misogyny is real and it sucks and we need to fight against it. (So is medical racism and medical fatphobia and all kinds of other discrimination.) These are structural problems caused by the way doctors are trained and not the result of men being evil. Female doctors are frequently just as bad or even worse in how they treat female patients.

Toxic masculinity is real and baked into our culture but it is not an inherent aspect of men or masculinity itself, it is something we are taught growing up, it can be unlearned, and we can fight against it.

Men are not inherently bad or dangerous, and if you hate all men you should genuinely get some therapy and work on that. Yeah, even if you were traumatized by a man, that doesn't mean they're all bad. The vast majority of them are good and awesome.

If you have been so badly traumatized by a penis that you can't handle seeing one, then I am genuinely sorry to hear that, but it is on you to avoid any place where people might be naked, and not on literally half the human race to hide themselves from you.

Women can also be aggressive, violent, and abusive. They are not all inherently pure and gentle and nurturing.

Most women are good too though, just like most men. People are mostly good!

Gender is not a binary but neither is "biological sex." Your third-grade education in biology was, believe it or not, extremely simplified, because you were a child, and does not reflect actual reality. If you can't face that, then I guess you are still a child, no matter how old you are.

Feminism is about how women are as good as men and can do everything men can, not about how women are weak and soft and men are better at everything. That's sexism, you're doing sexism, not feminism.

Fuck terfs, transphobes, radfems, "gender criticals," or whatever the fuck else you're calling yourselves these days when you realize once again that everyone hates you so you change your name to try to make yourselves sound like you're not a small, sad group of conservative extremists that, again, everyone seriously fucking hates.

Focusing on helping the people you love is more important and productive than focusing on punishing the people you hate, so once more: trans people are fucking awesome and I love every one of us.

Trans rights forever.

In the words of the legendary @drchucktingle, love is real. Now get out there and prove love and make your world a little brighter today.

Terfs please out yourselves in the notes so I can block you. 💖

[qtkat]

being eric cartman’s babysitter would include…

gender: female she/her (being referred to as a girl, as well)

warnings: use of y/n (I KNOW OKAY)

request: nope

a/n: thank you all so much for the likes and reblogs on my first post! i appreciate more than you’d think haha. these headcanons are set when you’ve been his babysitter for a while now, and are based on actually liking you, since i love the mother/older sister figure and eric dynamic (and also i don’t think there’d be much to write about if eric hated you, other than if it’s an enemies to friends i guess lol). also if you want these type of hcs for any of the others just lmk! also wanted to lyk i was fucking smacked writing this, so if there’s any mistakes tell me and i’ll fix them.

- eric dragging you along with him everywhere

- like genuinely dragging you by the wrist and booking it type

- he’s probably tried to take you to school with him

- the bell rings when you were just done getting ready for school and he’s just standing there like ‘ 😃 ‘

- you’re just staring back at him confused

- after a while he’s like “well, are you gonna put on your jacket?”

- FULLY SERIOUS

- and you’re like “what”

- and he just sighs, head down, pinching his nose, “jesus y/n, just puT THE DAMN COAT ON.” (squealing like a little piggy btw)

- “christ, okay - okay.”

- you have one arm in as you’re dragged down the path leading up to your house

- he forced you to drive and you were honestly so disoriented you just did it

- he marches into school, jaw locked dude 😭😭

- everyone is staring, like mr mackey fully stopped in his tracks but didn’t say anything

- mr garrison is so confused bro 😭

- “eric!”

- “yeees” (aka yiiiis)

- “why did you bring a teenage girl with you to school?!!!??”

- ofc you had to leave, because duh??

- don’t worry too much though, the little gremlin made your exit very dramatic

- full on screaming punching the ground at you slowly back away

- i read once about eric dragging out your name like he does his moms, and he does that here too

- has probably accidentally called you mom once (we don’t talk about that)

- you guys have sleepovers

- it’s actually so cute, whenever you’re set to come to his house he gets so excited

- like he’s so hyper the whole day of the sleepover

- his mother is not to disturb

- you improvise stories about clyde frog for him all night, setting up a theater with the plushie in hand

- now presenting: eric and clyde frog go to space

- .. -or the wild west, taking over the world, etc.

- he always opens up to you so much at these sleepovers

- like just fully starts telling you about how hard he has it without a dad

- has cried in your arms multiple times (we don’t talk about that)

- you were so there during the stick of truth

- you’re like an alchemist or a red mage (or a combination, if they’ll allow that)

- this is how you formally meet the other boys

- they like you, even though they didn’t really talk with you too much

- i think it’s pretty obvious to everyone eric is a jealous person, so he wouldn’t like sharing your attention much (hence you not really talking to the other boys)

- if you ever need to go away for an extended amount of time he will freak

- tries to manipulate you into staying like how he did his mom in the real estate episode

- also you better hope he’s the only kid you’re babysitting

- oh boy if he finds out you’re babysitting, like, butters or something he would throw a fit

- i swear

- so in conclusion you have gained 10 extra bucks an hour and a child making you hang out with him 24/7

- you guys have a sweet relationship

[baileypie-writes]

Hello I am back for A request

How about A plantonic Adult Nozomi & gender neutral (male reader if it’s ok) where ingoring Otona existence (as most do) around the same time frame the palmier kingdom is going through A crisis for the third time and Nozomi is unable to transform to cure dream to help and during A monster attack in the city she sees A kid around her age when she first became cure dream attack at the monster and then she notices that it’s the new cure dream

Maybe how she would react or would she become A mentor type character to them

A/N ~ Sure! I love this idea! And btw, yes, the Reader can be male. I do all gender Readers:) Also, I assumed you meant that Reader’s cure name is Cure Dream. I apologize if it wasn’t what you meant haha. I can always edit it later anyway. Hope you enjoy!

~The New Cure Dream~

Nozomi Yumehara + Male!Pretty Cure!Reader

~~~💫~~~💫~~~💫~~~

Fandoms: Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Otona Pretty Cure(though the actual show never happened)

Fanfic Type: Oneshot

Reader: Male, Pretty Cure, younger teen

Relationship: Platonic

Genre: Action?

Word Count: 1,251

Synopsis: Nozomi wished she could be of help during a new monster attack. But to her shock and surprise, a new Pretty Cure jumped into battle.

Warnings: Minor violence and destruction, Coco and Nuts mentioned, sort of abrupt ending?

~Masterlists~

~Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Masterlist~

In this oneshot, the story/events of Otona Pretty Cure never happened

~~~💫~~~💫~~~💫~~~

One of the worst parts about growing up is that you’re not really able to do some things anymore. Things like playing on playgrounds, playing with toys or having slumber parties at your friend’s houses aren’t as fun or socially acceptable. Those are things that Nozomi reminisces about occasionally. But what she reminisces about the most is her time being a Pretty Cure.

Those two years may have been a long time ago, but they were truly the highlight of her life. She wouldn’t be the person she is today if it weren’t for them. She often wishes she could experience them once more.

But she’s never wished that more than she was now.

~~~~

Clouds of dust enveloped the scene of destruction in front of her. Rubble flew in all directions, causing Nozomi to run into a nearby alley for safety. It was a smart move, as right when she did, a large chunk of concrete crashed into her previous spot. The culprit of this incident was a monster in the form of a traffic cone. It very much resembled the Kowaina and Hoshina she used to battle in her early teenage years.

Nozomi had no clue what to do. She knew that this was a job for the Pretty Cure, but she wasn’t one anymore. She hasn’t been in over twelve years! Her eyes darted around, desperately looking for a pink butterfly to come and allow her to transform. But there was none.

Right as her heart sank in despair, a figure swooped past her. Hoping that it was what she was looking for, she exited the alley, following its direction. However, she quickly realized it was an idiotic choice, considering there was still rubble flying everywhere. A particularly large piece came falling towards her, making her raise her arms over her head as a weak defense mechanism.

Just as she prepared herself for the blow, a crash and a grunt was heard from in front of her.

“Are you alright ma’am?” A boy’s voice called out. Nozomi opened her eyes, and froze.

In front of her was you; a young boy. But it wasn’t you alone that shocked her, it was what you were wearing. It looked very similar to what she wore as a Pretty Cure all those years ago. Also, the crumbled bits on the ground implied that you had crushed the large piece of rubble that nearly crashed into her. No normal person has that strength.

“You’re a… Pretty Cure?” Nozomi asked without thinking.

You gasped in surprise, revealing to her that she was correct. You opened your mouth to speak, but you were interrupted by a call.

“Cure Dream!”

Cure Dream.

Nozomi gasped at the mention of her former Pretty Cure name. The one she hadn’t heard in years. But judging by the way you responded by turning in the voice’s direction, it was now your name.

Before she could ask any further questions, you placed your hands on her shoulders. “Please, you have to get out of here!”

Nozomi didn’t say anything, but nodded. She then bolted back to her previous hiding spot. Though, she peeked from behind the brick wall, just to see what you were going to do.

You landed a hard kick to the monster, making it tumble to the ground. It didn’t even get a chance to get up, as you kicked it again.

“Dream, now!” The voice called out again. Nozomi could see who it was this time, though. It was a small fairy, standing on a nearby bench. It resembled a flying squirrel, and had tan fur. She assumed they were from the Palmier Kingdom.

“Alright!” You said, then began powering up.

Nozomi’s mouth hung open in shock, as she remembered the exact movements you were doing. It was her attack.

“Pretty Cure! Shooting Star!” You called out. The attack hit the monster square in the face. Not a second later, it disappeared, only leaving a normal traffic cone behind.

You both watched as your surroundings changed back to normal. It was as if no destruction had happened at all.

“You did it Dream!” The small fairy cheered. Though you ignored them, instead, looking around. “What’s wrong?” They asked.

“Someone knew I was a Pretty Cure.” You said, still looking.

“What? But no one knows what the Pretty Cure are!”

“I do.” Nozomi called out, emerging from her hiding spot. You and the fairy turned to her, shock and confusion written on your faces.

“My name is Nozomi Yumehara.” She introduced herself. She walked up to you, kneeling down just a bit to meet your height. “And around twelve years ago, I was a Pretty Cure, just like you.”

You gasped, absolutely speechless. But it seemed that the fairy wasn’t. “Nozomi? No way! You’re the Cure Dream of the past!”

She chuckled. “Yes, I was.” She reached down, and pet the little creature’s head. “And what’s your name?”

“Cinnamon!” She responded. She got down on all fours, bowing to Nozomi. “It’s such an honor to meet you!” She tapped your foot, signaling for you to bow as well. You did, putting your hands to your sides, and leaning down.

“Oh please, you don’t have to do that!” She blushed a bit, and scratched the back of her neck bashfully. “I can’t believe there’s a new Pretty Cure! And you’re a boy too! I didn’t know there could be boy Cures. That’s amazing!”

“Heh, yeah. I guess all the past ones were girls.” You said. You then de-transformed, revealing your true self to Nozomi. “But anyway, I’m (full name).” You laughed, and stuck out your hand for her to shake, to which she happily did. But only for a few seconds, as she suddenly gasped, and stopped.

“Wait! If there’s a new Pretty Cure, that must mean that Palmier Kingdom’s in danger again! What’s going on?” She panicked.

“Oh, yes! There’s a new threat to the kingdom! That’s why King Coco and King Nuts sent me to find new Pretty Cures!” Cinnamon responded.

“Oh no! What’s the threat?”

“We’re not exactly sure. All we know is that the palace was attacked, and an ominous note was left! And after that, monsters began appearing here!”

“Yeah. I only became a Pretty Cure yesterday. It all happened so fast. And I don’t even know what to do to find the others…” You said, clearly a bit stressed.

Nozomi smiled gently, and placed a comforting hand on your shoulder. “Hey, it’ll be alright. Besides, I know a thing or two about being a Pretty Cure. So how about I help you out?”

“No way!” Cinnamon gasped. “(name), Nozomi wants to be your mentor! You cannot pass up this opportunity!”

“Really? You’ll teach me everything?” You asked.

“Of course! It’s my job as the old Cure Dream to help out the new one!” She said.

“Thank you so much Miss Yumehara!” You bowed yet again, this time much lower to show even more gratitude and respect.

Nozomi chuckled. “It’s no problem. Now come on, I know a building by a lake we can use as a sort of ‘headquarters’.” She said, and began leading you all to the mentioned destination.

Nozomi knew that she’d never be able to be a Pretty Cure ever again. The introduction of a new generation of Cures further proved that. However, she discovered that while she may not be able to transform and fight, she can still help out. And that’s just what she was going to do.

~~~💫~~~💫~~~💫~~~

~~baileypie-writes

[memekeymouse]

I know I haven’t been able to shut up about mickey mouse nonstop but sighs!!!! I’ve seen meta fics about toons existing in real life but still being the product of their creators and how that life is like a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit and when it comes to mickey either he’s an spoiled, egotistical asshole who treats his friends like shit and only pretends to be nice for the cameras, or he IS actually nice but also completely sanitized and passive under Disney and everyone shits on him for being so naive or whatever and both takes suck ass tbh

And it’s like. God how do I even phrase this.

I wanna see toon meta stuff where Mickey is still fundamentally kind and friendly and also so so SO unbelievably tired after almost a fucking century and has a MUCH lower threshold for bullshit as a result

A Mickey who has always loved to make people happy with his acting and still does in theory but also has become completely disillusioned with Disney’s business ethics and is now counting the milliseconds until he’s released into the public domain

A Mickey who adores his friends and particularly loves Minnie more than anything and viceversa not because they were made to be a couple but because witnessing and living so many things together over so many years has made them understand each other better than anyone else (and that love can be romantic or not, depending on your read on it; it shouldn’t change the trust in each other either way)

A Mickey who can make crass jokes and swear because screw you, just because he’s a kids’ cartoon doesn’t mean he’s a baby and he’s really tired of being treated like one, specially when he’s not even on the clock.

A Mickey who has a complicated relationship with Walt and— yeah, maybe he DID see him as something of a father once but over the years he’s come to realize he was really just his boss at best.

A Mickey who is aware of his (im)mortality and has lived too much but not aged enough and who has outlived so many humans and toons alike while wondering if he’ll ever see the end. If he’ll even want it or be ready for it.

(Also he probably spent months trying to figure out how smartphones work and is perpetually disappointed the 21st century doesn’t have flying cars like in The Jetsons and sometimes you can see his soul crumble to dust in casual conversation because what do you mean the 50’s were 70 years ago and not last decade????? Huh????)

A Mickey who can do whatever the hell he wants with his gender and sexual/romantic orientation because come one man, it’s been 90+ years. You really think he wouldn’t at least be questioning after all that time?

A Mickey who is very, very sick of people, complete strangers, thinking that because they only know him from his cartoons means they have him all figured out and can make assumptions on who he is or who he HAS to be instead of. you know. get to know him like an actual person

(A Mickey who still wonders in his lowest moments IF he’s even a person and not just a commodity to be sold, a brand pasted on overpriced merchandise)

A Mickey who is depressed and anxious and angry and scared and bitter at all once and is still learning to allow himself to feel all of those things without letting them define him because that’s not the kind of person he wants to be, even if he does have enough reasons to be. Who despite everything still latches on kicking and screaming to joy and whimsy and life and love because he refuses to fall into apathy. A Mickey that isn’t naive or a pushover just because he’s nice, but isn’t cruel or apathetic either just because he isn’t sunshine and rainbows every waking second

[wayward-travelers]

Aïcha Bedi

B A S I C S

Name: Aïcha Bedi

Nicknames: none

Age: In her thirties

Nameday: 28th Sun of the 5th Umbral Moon (which she probably shares with a bunch of my characters)

Race: Midlander hyur

Gender: Cis woman

Orientation: Mostly straight

Profession: Adventurer, formerly a contract killer

P H Y S I C A L     A S P E C T S

Hair: Long and curly. She takes great care of it and regularly despair at what Inge does with hers.

Eyes: Brown

Skin: Fair, but tan easily. Considering how much time she spends outside, people tend to assume her skin is darker than it actually is (on this point the screenshots aren't very accurate since they don't show her tan but that'd be a nightmare to represent accurately XD)

Tattoos/scars: No tattoos whatsoever. She's got plenty of scars, most aren't really remarkable, but there are two that are special: one from Zenos' blade when he stabbed her in Rhalgr's Reach (it's not just her ego who got bruised that day, sorry MSQ), and one from her cesarean section while she was on the First. Don't worry: nothing creepy happened while she was unconscious, G'raha just had the worst timing ever.

F A M I L Y

Parents: Her father lives peacefully in Tural. She has no idea where her mother is, if she's still alive or even who she was since she left when Aïcha was still an infant.

Edmont de Fortemps also counts (haha) as a paternal figure in her life.

Siblings: None by blood. She does consider Alisaie and Alphinaud like her siblings, however. Artoirel and Emmanellain are more like extended family.

Grandparents: Long dead of her father's side. No idea on her mother's.

In-laws and Other: Well, she's in a relationship with Estinien so I suppose Alberic counts as her father in-law. The moment both realized that their respective father would have to meet eventually was glorious, because the dad jokes will be neverending and mostly at their expense.

Officially, they also have a kid together born during her time on the First.

Officially, because Estinien offered to adopt the kid and pretend he was the biological dad. Only three people know who said bio dad truly is, none of them is the man in question, and Aïcha would rather die than say it out loud. It's one thing to make dubious life choices, another one to let the world know about it...

(I haven't decided on the name or gender yet, but we can thank @gatheredfates for the prompt she sent me. It got completely out of hand but I'm having a lot of fun with the idea it gave me.)

Pets: None

S K I L L S

Abilities: Excellent shooter, although her mechanical skills don't go much further than what she needed to maintain her guns. She hasn't touched one in years and has no intention to change that.

Excellent dancer given that she's trained since childhood. She dances about as much for the artistry of it as for the self-expression it allows without having to speak her feelings out.

She also went through the GLD/PLD quests in Ul'dah, and that's mainly how she's been fighting since then.

She's also a surprisingly good poet and singer, albeit that's not known to many people.

Hobbies: Writing or reading poetry, singing, dancing and trying out new food (including the kind of food that even the most adventurous people hesitate to put in their mouth). She's pretty receptive to art in general to be honest and will gladly watch plays or go to concerts if she can.

T R A I T S

Most Positive Trait: Open-minded

Most Negative Trait: her competitiveness. You'd think someone who succeeds as well as her would be graceful when she loses but fuck no! Every Scions and most people who played even a card game against her once know that she's a sore loser and will use every loophole under the sun to try to win lmao

L I K E S

Colors: carmine and gold

Smells: campfires, incense, fresh flowers, the ocean

Textures: Soft fabrics (silk and satin especially), the sand under her feet, the breeze against her skin (yeah it counts as a texture)

Drinks: the main thing that matters is how much caffeine there's in it and how much sugar she can add to it

O T H E R    D E T A I L S

Smokes: No

Drinks: Alcohol sometimes, but never a lot and only very, very occasionally since the banquet and then the drugged beverage in Falcon's Nest. For the most part, she runs on water as well as coffee and tea if available.

Drugs: No, she hates not feeling in control of herself

Mount Issuance: Aïcha didn't join any free company. That'd mean taking orders and she's no soldier, so she didn't have a mount until Haurchefant offered her her black chocobo. As you can guess, it's been her mount ever since.

I'm not entirely clear on the timeline in StB yet for her, but if she got her yol, she left it with the Mols.

Been Arrested: no but she should have.

Tagged by: @lilbittymonster (ty again! I'm probably not gonna tag you every time because you'll get tired of it at some point I think XD)

Tagging @xsummoner-kuro @hinganskies @briar-ffxiv @confusedtia @paintedscales @fair-fae @mrlarkstin @thatonediviner @fatewalker @otherworldseekers @saeta @airis-ray @mymistymornings @riftdancing @sailor-artemis @starforger and anyone else interested. Feel free to ignore the tag if that's not your thing, and I'll do that template for more characters during the week so I'll tag new people then!

[tidescfchaos]

Walking through the picturesque streets of Cardinal Hill, you find Sterling Webb, the 34 year old farmer originally from Cardinal Hill, WA. Living alongside them in such a small town, you know that they're cunning and wistful, but what you might not know is that they are a witch, and that they’re hiding something… ― jacob anderson, bisexual, non-binary, and he/they.

Basics !

Full name: Sterling Webb

Nickname: N/A

Gender: Non-binary

Pronouns: He/him/they/them

Age: 34

Birthday: August 12th

Sexuality: Bisexual

Relationship Status: Single

Occupation: Farmer

Time in Cardinal Hill: 24 years (10 years spent outside of Cardinal Hill between the ages of 18 and 28)

Enneagram: 3w2 - the enchanter

Aesthetic: Once smooth hands now calloused from work, the sound of pages turning in the middle of the night, having one foot planted in the past while the other reaches for the future, specks of dirt clinging to every pair of shoes you own, indistinct ramblings falling on the ears of farm animals, the scent of old books mixed with fresh apples, a sly grin, plans getting derailed

Quick Backstory !

The only child born to the Webbs, Sterling has always been their parents' pride and joy, while also bearing all of their hopes and expectations, largely due to the fact that he was the result of many years of trying. Instead of buckling under the pressure, he rose to the occasion each time, excelling in his studies and later pleasing his parents further when he began to show signs of his magical abilities.

Just like their academic pursuits, they seemed to have a healthy mix of natural talent and desire to put in hard work and time into mastering their magical abilities. Divination in particular was something he focused on, almost obsessively wanting glimpses into his own possible future in the hopes that they would see themself continue to live up to what others hoped for them.

Having always had his future sort of predetermined for him from the moment he was born, they did what was expected of them after graduating high school and left Cardinal Hill in order to pursue a college education. While he certainly enjoyed learning overall in his college courses, they seemed to open too many doors and left Sterling with a feeling of overwhelming uncertainty when it came to what he wanted to do with his life.

In this uncertainty, he decided to take a gap year to work a little and try to figure out what he really wanted for himself. What was only supposed to be a year soon extended into two and then three before it became clear he was likely not going to return to college. Instead, he did some travelling around the country, taking up odd jobs as he did so.

All the while they kept in contact with their friends back in Cardinal Hill, especially their childhood best friend who they also sent postcards to from the various places they would visit, that was until a two year period went by without a word from him.

Following those two years of silence, Sterling reappeared one night on his childhood best friend's farm, looking for a place to stay with a very vague explanation for the last two years. For whatever reason, his friend has allowed him to stay with them ever since and work on the farm there with them. Whether or not this is truly what they want for themself remains to be seen, but for now they seem rather content with how they're living for now.

Misc. !

Unfortunately has major "what do you mean I didn't reach out, I literally thought about you" vibes. They just get so wrapped up in their own little world that they aren't the best at maintaining their relationships.

Somehow manages to be so focused on both the past and future that the present often escapes them. That definitely adds to his neglectful tendencies.

He lowkey has some burnt out gifted kid energy about him, but will usually brush it to the side like "it's fine though, because look how useful I am on this farm!", even if not achieving something "great" still stings.

So very easily distracted in conversations. You mention one thing in passing that's even vaguely interesting to him and suddenly he's off on a tangent about something that's completely unrelated to whatever you were originally talking about or dragging you along to the nearest bookstore to get more information on the topic.

They know better than to mention they're a witch to whoever they meet, but they're still definitely someone who uses their magic regularly out of convenience (or to occasionally show off).

Tending to dairy cows is by far his favorite thing to do on the farm. Sometimes he just carries on full conversations with them in his spare time.

Wanted Connections !

Childhood Best Friend + Roommate: They were practically attached at the hip while growing up, very you never saw one without the other type of vibes. They kept in touch while Sterling was away through phone calls and random postcards up until the point he stopped reaching out to everyone for two years. Sterling then reappeared on their doorstep and hasn't left since. Whether it was properly discussed that they would stay with them or it just sort of happened can be plotted out. Either way he does carry his weight on the farm this muse lives on.

Friends: Old or new, former or current! They've lived in Cardinal Hill for a long time now so these could be friends he either grew up around or met once they settled back in town.

Enemies: To whatever degree of seriousness that will fit. Sterling has a strong personalities that I could definitely see rubbing people the wrong way and is unfortunately the type of person to find his own annoying behavior amusing so it wouldn't be surprising to find there are a few people who don't get along with them.

People They Met While Traveling: Could've just been a brief encounter while they were traveling outside of Cardinal Hill over the years, or maybe they were briefly friends in that time. Whatever the case, there's a 50/50 chance he sums it up to an odd coincidence or thinks fate is somehow involved and will be like "okay, but what do you think this means?? 🤔"

Literally anything !! These are just a few quick ideas I came up with off the top of my mind. I'm open to any and all ideas you want to throw my way <3

[grasshopperdoingdogpaddle]

As much as I love "Tangled Web" because it shows Kimiko winning her solo showdown and generally kicking ass, I can't sit all the way through it because that episode drives me up a wall. Even when I was a kid I hated the way the boys' sexism towards her essentially goes unchallenged and unpunished, but as an adult it makes me *more* heated because Master Fung is RIGHT THERE. Why are you allowing 3/4 of your team to belittle and deride your only female student right in front of you?! Not even mildly scolding them! And then to turn around and give *Kimiko* a lesson like *her reaction* to being mocked *to her face* on the basis of her gender is the problem!! I understand the point of the episode was that Kimiko needs to work on self-controlband maintaining her focus, I just think there are so much better ways they could have gone about itm

Absolutely one of the several moments that really makes me disdain Master Fung's teaching abilities.

Temperance may be important, but temperance is not the same thing as "letting disrespect fly" or "never reacting to anything".

The boys were walking out with her things, and the only one Fung deigns to lecture is Kimiko for getting rightfully angry about it, even when Kimiko calls to Master Fung for some help.

Digging through Kimiko's personal belongings, looking through her PDA, reading her diary. And Omi is sucking on her tube of lipstick like a baby bottle, parent him for once-- and that doesn't mean giving him that outdated book.

If Fung wants to give Kimiko artificial distractions for her exercise, he should, but he should get up and give those boys a talking to first and foremost. There's no foundation for any team without boundaries and privacy.

Master Fung!

Keep pouring.

If Master Fung was going to lecture anyone here, he should have lectured the boys. They're supposed to work as a team, and their actions right now are hugely detrimental to that, which is theoretically a more overarching lesson Fung wants them to learn.

Digging through Kimiko's personal belongings, looking through her PDA, reading her diary. And Omi is sucking on her tube of lipstick like a baby bottle, parent him for once-- and that doesn't mean giving him that outdated book.

She's being mocked and belittled and prodded as soon as Rai picks up that this is an exercise in patience for Kimiko where Fung has more-or-less barred her from reacting to "distractions".

If Fung wants to give Kimiko artificial distractions for her exercise, he should. But he should get up and give those boys a talking to first. There's no foundation for any team without boundaries and privacy.

And the way he just shakes his head in disappointment at Kimiko and walks away, when there's so much he could have said if this was apparently supposed to be a teaching moment.

Wanna bet chores on when Kimiko will find her focus? This century or next?

Not even a disapproving Fung-stare at any of the mockery that's thrown her way. He'll make his disapproval clear when Omi does something like try to trust Jack or try to set boundaries after he can't trust Rai anymore, but this whole sexist things the boys put Kimiko through goes unchallenged by him.

She does eventually figure out the part of it that she needs to.

And Kimiko and Master Fung have a surprisingly interesting character arc as a sort of foils to each other, and there's something almost sweet about contrasting this first lesson Fung gives Kimiko to the lessons later, where he makes an active effort to offer her more emotional support and be more aware of how much she needs to let it out.

In regards to Kimiko specifically, he does try to be better after this... in regards to the hands-off approach of teaching her to just suppress her emotions and never react to anything and try desperately to be perfect. They're two characters that ended up playing off each other surprisingly well, narratively.

But despite all that, at no point does Master Fung ever address the sexism here or otherwise. In the context of the fact that he tries to be better for her over time, that is a pretty glaring hole that he just... overlooks. The three boys on her team were being sexist towards her, and Fung's stoicism was not appropriate for that at all.

[mdhwrites]

Wait so is Lilith being aro/ace just Dana's headcanon and not actually canon because it was never stated in the show? If so...that sucks. Lilith's rep isn't even good to begin with but aro/ace things in media is so little, it's sad

NOPE! Just like Amity, she's no longer canonically repping anything. And actually to be fair to her representation, while she wasn't a good representative, at least she was emotional. Most aro/ace rep from what I know kind of falls into robots and not understanding the human condition which is... Rough. Honestly, all of this has me thinking of how to state in my stories what my character's canon sexualities are, especially in Rich Witch. It's more awkward in Eyes Beneath the Water but there will come a point where talking about it with Chary might actually make sense but that won't happen for a WHILE. Where as for Rich Witch, I can actually use the fact that their nobility to my advantage. After all, much like celebrities, they have the excuse to go to charity events. Make it a speed dating event and I play into the fact that they're teenagers and ones that normally can't be approached by others. Have the person at the front check preferences and I can officially state which gender each character is into. Even for the non-noble, she can be asked to check if she wants to be courting both the male and female nobility there.

Frankly, I talked a big game about sexualities being hard to talk about in stories but there ARE ways to do it. If they're adults, blowing off a guy at the bar. If they're kids, have one of the characters make an off hand remark about how embarrassing it can be to have to tell someone who asks you out that you're not into them on a fundamental level. The story REALLY has to be focused on adventure and the like not to allow enough socialization so as to make some remark about their sexuality or preferences made in show, even if maybe using the literal terminology might be awkward. And with how TOH is, the ONLY excuse for not doing it is that Disney blocked and them and it's PRETTY CLEAR at this point that Disney hardly gave a shit about what they were doing. If Disney was against the show for being gay as it claims, we wouldn't have even Luz's sexuality canonized, let alone having in the third season ANOTHER non-binary character canonized and these are done pretty quickly. If they had just figured out a quick joke to make it clear Amity didn't like guys, just like the joke that plagues people of her cuddling with a male looking Azura character, then we could have had her preference canonized. Hell, Eda is enough of a bitch and likes mocking people enough, why not make her tease her sister just once about not liking all that romance stuff? Eda literally makes jokes like that about the Azura series in S1. Without knowing all the behind the scenes stuff, I can't say anything for certain but it is one of those things that, frankly, feels like checking boxes. Luz is in a gay relationship not because them being gay is important, though I imagine for a bi creator who literally made their setting's initials BI it was important for her to be bi, but because of the optics. Luz could have been bi and still been into a dude after all. Post S1 she never does but it was theoretically possible. But making it a girl is not a larger selling point for the show but a larger shield for Disney against criticism that they're anti-LGBTQIA+ which theoretically helps people ignore the legislature they're supporting. The fact that Lilith is Aro/Ace but it's never reflected or contrasted against in the show just makes it feel like it's the creators telling the fandom "Don't worry, we got you." Which is a nice gesture but that's all it is. It's a gesture if you don't work it into the actual material because you have to keeping up with QAs and panels and livestreams and the longer we get from the when show ends, the harder that material will be to find. It is complicated. It is REALLY complicated which is why despite all the shit I'm giving it here, I'm still happy it's there. It's why I'm sticking with the headcanons because these groups do not get enough love and representation. At least the creators did at least at one point stay steadfast and firm on "Yes, these characters are a part of this community," regardless of what new statements mean for those old facts. It's still literally better than what main stream creators were doing just a decade ago. It's part of why my personal philosophy is just to try to do my best. Perfection is almost impossible when it comes to this aspect of the world because we're still as a culture and people figuring out what gender as a social construct means for everyone. What the full spectrum of sexuality is. And as someone who is firmly in the old titles and the like, I can only present what I hear and infer from others but I try to keep my ears open and learn from what people have to tell me so I can do better.

So I can't judge TOH for its representation as a whole. I can only judge it by what that meant to the story, like how Amity, once she becomes a full on love interest is just as bland as any character who's only purpose is to be a love interest to the main character and that sucks regardless of her gender or sexuality. I can judge the fact that Lilith is one of the worst treated characters in a show that LOVES its romance elements and she doesn't like romance which is... Awkward to put it mildly. Raine is a plot device and Masha is mostly for exposition, even if that's hidden better in Yesterday's Lie. Neither are true characters because they either don't have the time to be characters or are so dead set on a singular goal. And this is without getting into just how poorly almost EVERY male character is treated in TOH since they're all either villains and/or comic relief with VERY few exceptions. It reminds me of writing advice someone who was meant to work with me on my first original book gave me. When making Diane and Kat, they wanted the two to be lesbians because A: we were MLP writers but also B: I believe they were adopted by lesbians if I'm remembering things right. This is almost a decade ago at this point and I haven't talked to them in almost that much time because we just stopped talking for some reason. However, they made sure I kept the writing advice I do to this day about such characters: Make a good character and story first, then make it that the characters happen to be X. Then you can maybe change some elements in order to make X feel more natural or not depending on its place in the story. But above anything else, don't make X the one thing about them or their story. A piece of writing advice that directly to a great joke in the second chapter of a cheapskate mayor trying to short them their money not because they're female or lesbians but because they're a dating adventuring couple and "You know know how distracted those sorts can get! You were probably too busy making out to notice a bandit getting away or something so how I can be sure your report is accurate!" It's just a solid fantasy joke that happens to be being made at a pair of lesbians who will definitely still get their cash because they're very good at their jobs at that point in their career. TOH... Doesn't have that mindset with their characters, representative or not. They are meant more for narrative goals than anything else. The fact that Raine is a plot device more than person makes them no different than Willow except for pronouns. It's part of why I struggle to get upset about their representation in general because they'd have to care more about these characters to be more offensive. Instead, everyone is treated equally, even if equally bad.

Sorry. This ended up being more rambly than expected. This is just a topic that is on my mind a lot since I prefer writing female characters over male characters and so just gravitate towards sapphic representation of some sort even though I am not a part of that group. This isn't the first time I've considered canonizing Rich Witch's sexualities. It's not the first time I've thought about how I write these sorts of characters. It's all a mess and complicated and I think at the end of the day, the most we can do is try our best. And unfortunately, I do think that's what the writers of TOH did in this regard. Their best. (As a final note: This was not meant to be self aggrandizing or the like. I don't plan my blogs well enough for that. If you think it's me mocking TOH and saying I'm better, I get it but I hope the general point helps make it clear it's not meant to be that. Also initially this was meant to be a short blog but that went out the window, didn't it!?) =========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[princevictoriapunk]

Kid Pirates hcs #2

🌹ꦽꦼ̷  More Kid Pirates hcs 1 | 2 | 3 | 4.1 - 4.2 | 5 | 6 | 7

🌹ꦽꦼ̷  Kid Pirates OC bios — Light | Blaze | Calista | Kira | Eun | Grunge

🌹ꦽꦼ̷  Manda — @silvernyxchariot ; Solace — @ramdeviltart ; Osiris — @/idonthaveacluewhatsgoingonhere

Hcs under the cut for length ✨️

🌹ꦽꦼ̷  On an island, the Kid Pirates' chef got into a minor issue with some other pirates. One of them had glared at her for too long, what she took as an attempt from them to start a fight. The crew wanted to move on, since they were rushing to set sail again. Kid, Killer, Solace, Heat, and her were out together to retrieve the last things they had to restock. Eventually, Light had switched into her Zoan form to attack the pirates. She didn't hear Killer calling for her to stop throwing a hiss fit and to catch up, so Kid walked over to the group. He scooped her up like she was nothing but a small pet cat and threw her over his shoulder. The Vivacious Puma allowed him to proceed; It took a few moments until she went from yelling, growling, cursing, struggling and wiggling to just resting on her head on her paws, ears relaxing, tongue sticking out in a blep, starting to purr and relaxing against him after turning back to human. When they returned to the others, Killer only sighed and scolded her for causing such a ruckus when they're in a hurry. After laughing at how she almost immediately calmed down, Kid figured he'd allow his crew to pick her up and carry her like this whenever they need to prevent a similar situation.

🌹ꦽꦼ̷  A lot of daily things became rather embarrassing and uncomfortable for Kid for the first weeks to months since he got disarmed. Having noticed his struggles, Light started subtly helping him until he directly told her to help him. Either way, his ears would flush a little, and he'd get grumpy whenever he had to try asking her to lend him a hand, but she promised him not to tease him for it. For some things, they only needed to exchange a look, a nod of the head, or just any subtle gesture to communicate after a while.

🌹ꦽꦼ̷  Mosh is known to be one of the tanks of the crew. Alas, he not only can take a lot of hits without going down immediately, he also hands out a lot of damage himself whilst utilising his Zweihänder he can swing with just one hand. Before he had joined the Kid Pirates, he used to be a blacksmith in the town he grew up at. This got him the same position on the crew later on, but Mosh isn't above also helping their shipwright Eun and the others when fixing the ship, nor when he is asked to fix someone's weapon (or craft them a new one). He doesn't mind carrying any heavy things either, as he's strong enough to handle it on his own. Sometimes, just sometimes, their chef abuses this fact when she's going on a shopping spree. Overall, he's a rather flamboyant person as he likes loud colours and flashy designs, stating that those are exactly what describe him. In most cases, others would have to remind him to use his indoors voice, as his volume is rather big. Mosh tends to pick up anyone much smaller than him once he first spots them, so he doesn't just plow them over - focussing especially on Doflamingo's and Kid's partners as well as Solace as they're the shortest of the bunch. He apologises when they start struggling but explains to them every time that he wouldn't want to squish them if he didn't see them. Man's got a heart of gold, radiates big himbo energy, and is part of the big tiddy committee. Some people think that he might be as straight as a pole, but they forget he's part of the rowdy Kid Pirates; and thus rather as straight as a pole someone just was heavily beaten up with. Mosh does identify as masc, probably with the tendency to use he/him and they/them interchangeably, but he's more on the poly and pansexual side with little to no preference for his partners' gender.

🌹ꦽꦼ̷  Oscar, Osiris, Emma, and Eun function as those with probably the most brain cells, next to Killer, Manda, and Light. The other members of the crew usually make fun of the blond, though, since he's the most laid-back one of them. They also call him "grandpa" for reading the newspaper, sipping some coffee every morning, without fail. Eun often is considered the wine 'aunt', as they tend to sip their wine and just watch the others (primarily Killer and Oscar) handle the "children". Albeit the Fishman hybrid isn't that much older than some other members of the crew, they call their crewmates "brats" majority of the time, claiming that the others aren't their responsibility to keep in line. Emma is generally one of the calmest ones, bringing the crew together even when there are internal fights breaking out within the little cliques of the crew. As for Osiris, she was raised by the Marine (thus having learnt quite a lot about various topics). That aside, they share their taste in music: A little bit of everything with classic rock mixed in it.

🌹ꦽꦼ̷  Kid Pirates pet edition! If they had enough space on the Victoria Punk, some of them would have pets. Kid would want to keep a fighting and/or hunting dog breed and a bull, most likely. Killer would be the type to keep a hedgehog. Heat has a few different lizards and snakes. Wire takes care of a bat that has randomly nested in his room one day. Mohawk has ferrets and a possum. Oscar keeps a goat. Noe would want to keep a bear, presumably. Eun definitely would get a blob-fish. If she could, Light definitely was going to keep all the stray cats she comes across - but she only has a black cat named Salem. Aside from keeping Ziggy the racoon, Kira would help Light, though he might try to get more cats and raccoons for himself in general, too. Chrom is the type of person who'd like to keep something bigger, such as a rhino because he thinks they're cool. Grunge's pet since his days at the Shadow Bazaar is a Blue Pit Viper named Sir Lapis Lazuli, often just nicknamed Lapis. Osiris' black and grey ball python is named Mercury (Hg).

🌹ꦽꦼ̷  Since he's somewhat clingy, Kira will seek the company of his crewmates when he feels lonely. It doesn't really matter whether that is the case while he's fixing or making some clothes, when he feels anxious and needs distraction, or just when he wants to relax after a rough day. The tailor tends to just plop down next to whoever is available. In most cases, that is his boyfriend Mohawk, their shipwright Eun, or their cook Light. Mohawk will just babble about what comes on his mind to entertain and/or distract the redhead. Eun tends to pick him up and either cradles him like a child, or when they're working, they put him down somewhere above or next to them so they can talk about things. He watches Light make prepare some snacks for them from the door frame whilst talking to her about what's up, though she also has him sit down in front of one of the few mirrors on board of the Vicky, so she can see what she's doing while braiding his hair and they can see each other's mimics.

[colderdrafts]

8: A late night walk

The Great Assembly, gender neutral reader x monster (male naga). Sfw. Previous Next

You eat an early dinner (actually managing to convince Amren to COOK his food before eating it) and pull on your now only slightly damp clothes.

You grimace. Hopefully, they’ll dry a bit more as your body heat does its thing.

The sun hadn’t completely set yet when you went out, though it’s not long before you have to pull out your flashlight to know where to place your feet without slipping. The night air is cold, and you mentally berate yourself to allow Amren once again bringing you along for his wacky ideas.

It’s like with Irwin, you realize, constantly being pulled in several directions at once for the next shenanigan - the only difference this time being it's not funny at all and includes slightly more potential for bodily harm.

The sounds of the night isn’t helping your confidence, and you look up and around at every crack and noise.

“You’re like a deer in headlights,” Amren comments, slightly amused.

You glare at him. “What the hell did you expect? I can’t believe I let you drag me out here.”

“You’re walking on your own. As far as I’m concerned, you came at your own volition.”

You ignore him, and turn your light to the source of some brush rustling nearby.

Amren sighs exasperated. “It’s a deer.”

“And how would I know that?” you grunt. “I don’t have a magic detect-animals tongue to flicker around. What I have currently is a flashlight. You bet your ass I’m going to investigate every single thing out here. If it’s annoying, it’s your own fault.”

You can’t tell in the dark, but you can almost hear how he is once again irritably rolling his eyes.

“Squirrel,” he says, when something in the branches above move. “Mice in the brush in front of us. Bird on your right. The deer from earlier is running away.”

You look up at him as he’s looking around and tasting the air as he lists off anything he happens to note.

“Molerat. More birds in the shrubbery.”

“What are you doing?” you ask, even though you do have a feeling you know.

“Have a glimpse of my world,” he says. “Did you honestly think we’d be out and about right now if I wasn’t sure the boarbeast had left for good?”

You look at him for a bit. “You’re not just messing with me? You can actually tell all of those animals are around?”

“Figure it out,” he grumbles.

There’s not much to figure out. If he’s actually trying to do something sort of nice in reassuring you, you shouldn’t bark at him about it.

“Is that just a naga thing, or did you have to practice?” you ask.

“Terrible student,” he sighs. “And you still haven’t answered my question from earlier.”

“I’ll answer yours to the best of my ability if you answer this one.”

“You first.”

“No.”

He gives you a stubborn sideways glare. “Fine. It’s both. We’re just good at recognizing all sorts of scents. Though I had to train to learn to follow a specific one to a location – but it’s useful for hunting.”

“Wait, hunting? So that’s why you know these mountains?”

He nods. “Been here a lot.”

“Huh. You weren’t kidding when you said ‘carnivore’.”

He snorts. “In case it wasn’t obvious. I can eat bread and stuff. I just don’t like it.”

“You don’t like bread?” you gape, incredulous. The nerve. The actual mockery. How can someone not like bread?

“You don’t like raw meat?” he copies you.

“If I ate it I’d get. So sick.”

“And there you have it. Now. Your turn.”

He looks at you expectantly. You sigh. Explaining the whole ordeal of body issues is somewhat of a difficult topic to tackle. You try your best to cover the basis of bodily dysphoria and the many ways it can present itself.

Amren listens intently to your description, a somewhat concerned expression on his face. When you finish, he says: “That explains your modesty-thing."

"Oh, no that's different - for most of us it's like- it's rude? And uncomfortable to show yourself like that. Unless everyone who can see you, and you yourself, is okay with it."

He looks utterly baffled. "I don't understand."

"It's kinda hard to explain," you finish.

He doesn't press the issue.

“What do you hunt?” you ask after a beat, mainly to change the uncomfortable subject.

“Whatever is around,” he replies. “Though I prefer deer, they’re easier to wrangle and one alone will last me about two weeks.”

“’Wrangle’?” you inquire.

His taps the side of your foot with the tip of his tail.

Ah.

You guess it’s pretty regular in the mon world to take down something like deer with your bare whatever-nature-gave-you. A mental image of Amren crushing the life out of a defenseless deer with his tail intrudes your mind, and you quickly file it somewhere under lock and key in your short term memory. You walk through the night, your clothes thankfully dry enough now to actually help keep you warm.

The quiet walk in the night gives you space to think back on Irwin and Elise, and wonder how they’re doing with all this - and more importantly if they actually had a run-in with the northern pack of boarbeasts. You’ve only seen one, and that was more than enough.

Why on earth would you be sent out into dangerous territory on a working conference? And why send you out two-and-two? Wouldn’t groups of four or more be more beneficial, if the whole point was to create some sort of cheesy bonding experience? Clovers are rare, sure, but then choose a different price – people would probably still be happy competing for a hotel stay or something.

If you had Irwin and Elise with you here, or maybe even Mira as well, this whole trip would have been so different. You’d be four on one, and actually have gone north, and you wouldn’t be out here feeling somewhat useless, stumbling around in the dark.

On the other hand, you probably wouldn’t have gotten to know Amren at least a little bit better. He’s still a living brick wall to get through, though you sense there are cracks in the cement forming. At least very small ones, since he’s somewhat actively engaging with you now.

You glance at him and wonder what spurred you to even start the process of socializing with him. Any sane person would probably have taken his hostile behavior for what it was, and not made any effort whatsoever. He sure tried to make it very clear he wanted to be left by himself. To be honest, if Irwin hadn’t pulled Amren’s name from the hat, and you weren’t forced to be out here alone with him, you’d probably have listened to him.

But here you are, and at least he’s shown he doesn't want you dead. Progress!

“What are you thinking?” Amren suddenly asks, taking you out of your thoughts.

You frown. “I’m wondering how things would have been different if Irwin hadn’t pulled your name from the hat,” you reply. Might as well be honest. “And then I’m worried about him, Elise and Mira.”

Amren thinks for a minute, tasting the air.

“Do you wish your partner had pulled someone else?” he asks.

You grin. “We didn’t exactly get off on the right foot, so in the start I was kinda grumpy about it. I’ve accepted my fate by now, though.”

Amren snorts, but stays silent to let you continue.

“And don’t get me wrong. You’re still a major pain in the ass. But I guess you are practical with all this survival stuff. If I’d been here with Irwin, we’d probably both be dead by now.”

“Your partner doesn’t seem like the most responsible type,” Amren agrees. “I’m still surprised you went out of your way for him like that.”

“Come on, this again? Really, you’re starting to sound like my manager. I would ask if you wish he’d pulled someone else so you could get a cohort who’s actually useful,” you say, looking at him.

He looks somewhat puzzled.

“- but since you hate everyone, I guess it doesn’t really matter.”

“I don’t ‘hate’ everyone, and who told you it didn’t matter?” He smirks. “If I’d gone with Elise instead of you, everything would have gone much easier.”

You scoff and lightly punch his shoulder. “Asshole.”

“Slowpoke.”

“Bastard.”

“Tiny.”

“Oversized serpent.”

He nods at you. “Correct."

“Well, if I’m so tiny, it’s a good thing Mira was around to help me up after you snapped at me when we first met.”

He ignores your attempt at guilt-tripping. “You keep mentioning ‘Mira’, but I don’t recognize her name. What department is she from?”

“Does it matter?”

“I work security. Elise and I know who’s attending the conference,” he shrugs. “It bothers me I don’t remember seeing her name on the list.”

“She’s with the cleaning staff,” you offer his memory.

Amren frowns. “Cleaning? The cleaning staff isn’t attending this conference. They get their own trip later in the year in the holiday season.”

Now it’s your turn to frown. Mira definitely said ‘cleaning staff’, didn’t she? Maybe you misunderstood? “She came here alone. Said she was the only one they could spare.”

Amren flicks his tongue. “Maybe she was on a separate list then. Odd they’d send her alone, though.”

“Or,” you offer nonchalantly, “could it be possible you forgot her name?”

He looks at you grumpily, and doesn’t reply.

You continue through the dark forest and, according to Amren, you manage to make up for some lost time. The forest has been mostly quiet, save for a few noises from the nocturnal part of the animal kingdom and the wind howling through the trees. The moon shines down between the branches, and though it’s dark, the starry night is beautiful.

You’re however exhausted and cold at this point, and you catch Amren every so often also suppressing a yawn. One time he fails, and you get a full view of his long row of small, but needle sharp, teeth.

“You don’t have fangs,” you note.

Amren stares at you puzzled, mid-yawn, as very clearly he does. “What?”

“I mean like. The two long ones in front,” you elaborate.

You can’t tell if you’ve offended him somehow from his expression, and you’re about to mumble an apology when he beats you to it.

“I don’t have venom,” he explains. “Don’t need them. You’re thinking of another type of naga. I’m a constrictor, not a viper.”

“Huh,” you say, and grin to yourself. “I’m still confused about something, though.”

“What?”

“How did you get the venomous attitude, then?”

You laugh at you own joke as Amren looks very unimpressed.

“You’re horrendous,” he exhales, rubbing his face.

“I’m tired,” you correct him. “Which is your fault.”

“Being tired is nowhere near an excuse for your behavior,” he grunts.

“Sure it is. A tired human is a messy human,” you state as-a-matter-of-factly. “But seriously, we should probably camp soon and get some sleep. It’s like 2am, and you honestly don’t look so fly either.”

You shine your light in his face for a better look, though he actually hisses at the light and covers his eyes.

“Ow, Tiny, not directly in the face!” he snarls, harshly pushing your flashlight down.

“Oh hush you big baby,” you pull the flashlight out of his hands and wave him off, but keep the light pointed to the floor.

You look around.

“There’s a clearing over there. Should we make camp?”

A little while later you’ve both set up your tents and crept in to settle for the night. Despite your eyes being so heavy, you find it difficult falling asleep. Today’s events has grown nervous strings through your core, gripping tight. The looming anxiety of you actually being in danger won’t leave your gut. You try and logic your way out of it, because nothing really happened and you are by all accounts, safe, but it doesn't seem to work.

You hear Amren moving around in his tent again, and berate yourself for the sense of security the sound gives you. It’s not that you exactly feel completely safe just because he’s in your proximity, but it somehow feels.. safer.

Though you’d never tell him that. You don't think you'd be able to reach his face in time to punch off the smug expression he would make.

The wind is howling outside your tent. You stare out in the darkness, just listening for a bit, and waiting for sleep to take you. You’re about to drift off when Amren suddenly hits against the plastic wall of his tent and it makes a sharp squealing noise, immediately startling you back to full awareness.

You groan in annoyance.

“I was this close to falling asleep,” you complain at him.

If he heard you, he ignores you.

You sigh. You momentarily wonder if there’s any connection out here. Since you're up now anyway, might as well check. You pull up your phone, turning it on, wincing as the sharp light from the screen hits your eyes as it’s booting up.

You wait for a few seconds for everything to start, and smile slightly when you spot you actually have bars in this location. Then, your phone starts chiming rapidly.

You swear and cover the speaker as much as you can as it blares multiple times with text messages and notification sounds.

“You were saying?” Amren hisses from his tent.

“You woke me first,” you hiss back.

Your phone finally calms down, and you dare peek at what caused the calamity.

Your stomach drops.

You have 13 unread messages and 6 missed calls.

They’re all from Irwin.

[cheekycreditcarddebt]

Arcane Legacy Challenge

This isn't the best challenge ever created but I couldn't easily find another legacy challenge themed around the TV series Arcane and I really wanted to play one - so here is one I made myself!!

Feel free to revamp, make graphics, etc., just credit me if you stay quite similar to my pre-existing prompts (no need if you're changing nearly everything, though)

Prompts do require packs, but feel free to rewrite them or skip them if you want!

Rules

-Mods are allowed, I love mods and would never want you to go without if you also play with them!

-Money cheats are allowed in getting/building a house at the start, needs cheats are allowed specifically with infants and other Sims while there are infants in the household because they're buggy as all hell or if you're playing with 5+ sims and aren't used to it, try to keep other cheats to a minimum though. Also, cheats for storytelling reasons are all fine :)

-Sims are allowed to move house unless otherwise specified, I know how crowded it can get in legacy households and not everyone has MCCC to increase household size

-Lifespan can be any length: I recommend normal but choose whichever you like best!

-You can choose your own heirs, though some prompts may leave you with only 1 option

-Sims may be of any gender despite the characters they resemble

-Max out every skill, the aspiration, and at least level 4 of each career

-It isn't necessary to follow every single rule and challenge, these are just my personal settings for this challenge and will depend totally on your own gameplay style!!

Generation 1: Silco

Aspiration: Public Enemy

Traits: Hot-Headed, Macabre, Perfectionist

Career: Criminal (Boss branch)

Skills: Writing

Other Challenges:

-Have your only positive relationship be with your child (therefore no marriage, etc.)

-Adopt 1 child and have no more

-Live with a "friend"/roommate until death (I'm meaning for this figure to resemble Sevika's role, a semi-parent figure to this gen's child and not actually a friend, more of an assistant)

-Die as an adult while your child is a teen (or ya, but depending on lifespan that may not be possible)

Generation 2: Jinx

Aspiration: Chief of Mischief

Traits: Creative, Erratic, Goofball

Career: Secret Agent (Villain branch)

Skills: Charisma, Mischief, Dancing (requires Get Together EP)

Other Challenges:

-Adopt 1 child and have no more

-Change your hair colour once a week and have permanently long hair after childhood

-Make your house a bit of a mess, a lot of clutter, mismatched furniture, etc.

-Stay close with your parent's roommate after they die

Generation 3: Isha

Aspiration: Friend of the Animals (requires Cats and Dogs EP)

Traits: Childish, Clumsy, Child of the Village (requires For Rent EP)

Career: Politician (Charity Organiser Branch, requires City Living EP)

Skills: Video Gaming

Other Challenges:

-Spend a lot of time voting on neighbourhood action plans and protesting for important causes (at least once a week)

-Have/adopt at least 1 child

-Go out a lot as a child without your parent's permission

Generation 4: Viktor

Aspiration: Nerd Brain

Traits: Geek, Loner, Proper (requires Snowy Escape EP)

Career: Scientist (requires Get to Work EP)

Skills: Logic, Rocket Science

Other Challenges:

-Go to university and choose any more scientific course

-Join either the debate guild or the brainiacs depending on which university you go to

-Have at least one child

-Have at least one disability aid (preferably a cc prosthetic, or brace if those exist, but can also be hearing aids or a patch)

Generation 5: Sevika

Aspiration: Bodybuilder

Traits: Jealous, Loyal, Mean

Career: Reaper (requires Life and Death EP)

Skills: Parenting (requires Parenthood GP)

Other Challenges:

-Have 2 kids via adoption (other bio kids on top of that are okay)

-Be a prominent/active member of a club, but not the leader (requires Get Together EP)

-Eventually try and lose your mean trait via self-discovery (can be replaced with any) or cheat it away if you're struggling (must replace with "good" trait)

Generation 6: Ekko

Aspiration: Master Maker (requires Eco Lifestyle EP)

Traits: Romantically Reserved (requires Lovestruck EP), Loves Outdoors, Maker (requires Eco Lifestyle EP)

Career: Astronaut (Space Ranger branch)

Skills: Gardening, Baking (requires Get to Work EP), Handiness

Other Challenges:

-Marry a childhood friend, bonus points if you drift apart then get back together

-Have at least 1 child

-Do a crafty hobby on the side like woodworking

Generation 7: Jayce

Aspiration: Renaissance Sim

Traits: Self-Assured, Good, Insider (requires Get Together EP)

Career: Scientist (requires Get to Work EP)

Skills: Handiness, Programming

Other Challenges:

-Become best friends with your lab partner (and/or go out with them if you want)

-Have at least 1 child

-"Make a dumb mistake with a science thing despite everyone's warnings" (clone your child)

Generation 8: Mylo

Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy

Traits: Cringe (requires For Rent EP), Squeamish (requires Outdoor Retreat GP), Slob

Career: Entertainer (Comedian branch)

Skills: Comedy

Other Challenges:

-Marry a bartender and/or somebody who likes metal music

-Have at least 2 children

-If you have siblings, go out with them at least once a week

Generation 9: Vander

Aspiration: Big Happy Family

Traits: Generous (requires For Rent EP), Family-Oriented, Outgoing

Career: Culinary (Mixologist branch)

Skills: Mixology, Herbalism (requires Outdoor Retreat EP)

Other Challenges:

-Have a bad relationship with one sibling

-Adopt at least 4 children, you can have more and have them biologically if you want to

-Give your children basement rooms and bunk beds

-After completing your career to level 4, quit and open a "bar" run from your house (you can do this in any way you can find since it isn't a preset option in the Sims 4)

Generation 10: Claggor

Aspiration: Master Chef

Traits: Paranoid (requires Strangerville GP), Practice Makes Perfect , Foodie

Career: Freelancer (Programmer branch)

Skills: Cooking

Other Challenges:

-Stay living with your siblings forever

-Have at least 1 child

-Meet up with your parent(s) via a dinner party once per season

Generation 11: Heimerdinger

Aspiration: Bestselling Author

Traits: Cheerful, Genius, Green Fiend (requires Eco Lifestyle EP)

Career: Business (Management branch)

Skills: Fishing, Guitar, Violin

Other Challenges:

-Have at least 1 child

-Play the guitar on a public lot at least once a week

-Tutor a child in a skill you're level 10 at

Generation 12: Mel

Aspiration: Painter

Traits: Creative, Art Lover, Chased by Death (requires Life and Death EP)

Career: Painter (Master of the Real branch)

Skills: Painting

Other Challenges:

-Have at least 1 child

-Marry a scientist

-Be the leader of a club

-Become a politician after completing level 4 of painter (I would've done this as a main but I already had a politician so I wanted to do something else)

Generation 13: Vi

Aspiration: Extreme Sports Enthusiast (requires Snowy Escape EP)

Traits: Kleptomaniac, Skeptical (requires Life and Death EP), Bro

Career: Athlete (Bodybuilder branch)

Skills: Fitness

Other Challenges:

-Fall in love with somebody who you have "bad compatibility" with (can either be suggested in-game or another sim you think you're very different from)

-Have at least 1 child

-Come 1st place in 10 videogame tournaments (meant to be like that boxing machine but there isn't really a Sims equivalent of that)

Generation 14: Caitlyn

Aspiration: Seeker of Secrets (requires For Rent EP)

Traits: Adventurous (requires Snowy Escape EP), Neat, Overachiever (requires High School Years EP)

Career: Detective (requires Get to Work EP)

Skills: Archaeology (requires Jungle Adventure GP)

Other Challenges:

-Have at least 1 child

-Have a rocky relationship with one sim (at least 2 break-ups) but ultimately end up together

-Have a love-hate relationship with your parents and a best friend they don't approve of

Generation 15: Ambessa

Aspiration: Master Actor/Actress (requires Get Famous EP)

Traits: Ambitious, Active, Lazy

Career: Military (Officer Branch, requires Strangerville GP)

Skills: Flower Arranging (requires Seasons EP)

Other Challenges:

-Don't have kids (trust me, it's best you don't) - sort of a joke, if you want kids then have 2

-Have a lot of different partners and don't settle down with anyone

-Honestly I really want to see people being really mean in this generation, I want you to be such a horrible person to every please (again, optional, but... 🥺)

Enjoy the challenge!!

[ohara-n-brown]

Kink is inseparable from pride not because Queer people are inherently sexualized - but because Kink is an inseperable part of Queer History.

By forcing kink out of pride you're disrespecting all of the queer kinksters who marched in the streets for YOUR freedom. All of the Queer kinksters on the 70's, 80's, and 90's who were assaulted by police, or died of AIDs.

Bears and leather daddies have been apart of our culture for decades - and erasing them in order to appeal to children is basically telling a historical queer community to not show up to pride because they're not 'family friendly enough'.

You say that pride is a majority of teens figuring themselves out, but eventually those teens do figure themselves out. And if they figure out they're into kink - they should still get to return to pride. They shouldn't have to miss pride because the person they found themselves to be is once again 'not family friendly enough'.

Because let's be honest 'Kink at Pride' is about FASHION. What they're wearing.

Because people are not doing fill BDSM scenes in the middle of the street in June. They're not. At most they're playfully swing a flog about. But 9/10 they're just coming out in their leather outfits or puppy outfits and hugging and kissing each other.

They're literally wearing leather and being happy about it. And if you have a problem with that or think it's not 'family friendly' - that's borderline homophobic.

Because female celebrities like Rihanna can walk around in sheer diamond dresses, and Lady Gaga can walk around in a latex bondage inspired leotard, ass cheeks out, and dozens of other cishet celebs can walk around in revealing clothing on TV and red carpets and no one bats an eye

If the outfit on the left is fine and you think it's fine to wear that to a basketball game where kids may be present (it is fine) - but you think the outfit on the right isn't, ask yourself what about it makes it so obscene?

Why can a cishet woman who wants to look sexy wear that in public with no problem, but a gay man who wants to look sexy can't??? Why does it need to be censored when it comes to queer folk, but when cishets are allowed to wear bdsm as fashion???

Kids don't just spawn at pride.

If there is a child at pride, they are there with their parents. It's their PARENTS responsibly to explain to the kids what they're seeing. Not the person wearing it who doesn't even know the kid.

If you want to bring your kid to pride but you're worried about kink, Google ways to explain it non-explicitly, or go to a children-centric and focused event.

Don't police queer people because you personally made the choice to take a child to pride where adults are celebrating their sexuality.

Because you can say pride is about love. But it isn't.

And I'm saying that as an Aromantic.

Pride isn't strictly about love cause some of us don't even experience that. Some of us are here for gender and identity, not who we love.

Pride is about FREEDOM.

Freedom of love, freedom of identity, and freedom of sexuality.

Freedom to be who you want to be and show that to the world without fear, judgement, or erasure. And that includes queer kinksters. 🤷🏾

Genuinely don’t understand this narrative from conservatives that queer people back then were super reserved and modest, and now the queer people today are too sexualized.

Do they seriously think “Kink at Pride” is a new phenomenon lmao.

[riting]

Bad Stars True West by Amanda Horowitz

DJ Hills on Bad Stars True West

Two images have stuck, like pin art, in my memory.

The first is Jess Barbagallo as Cricket, knife in hand, toaster between his legs. Despite the chord, dangling, obviously unplugged, I still flinched when Jess dropped the knife into the toaster. A fear leftover from childhood. There was a time when I was sure a toaster would kill me.

The other image is of an open briefcase, wet pasta spilling out into a bathtub. Wild and so earned it felt inevitable, this moment comes after a verbal tennis match in which Arne Gjelten performs both mother and father, voice and body contorting to fit an idea of gender that is as slippery as it is ever-present.

Bad Stars True West is a game—like the ones I hope we all once played with friends—where a train track-rug bears very real possibilities for travel. This game-nature allows danger to lurk so innocently at the edges of the play.

We are all in danger. We are all having fun. Anything can happen. Every moment is a surprise.

Boundaries are fuzzy in Amanda’s world. Images and words bend around us, reshaping themselves, beat by beat, into familiar things made unfamiliar.

Outside the gallery, Hollywood, too, feels even less tethered to reality than before. I’m still in child’s play mode. Each person I pass on the street has a little cowboy inside them. There could be spaghetti in anyone’s briefcase.

DJ Hills is a writer for the page, stage, and screen. They are the author of Leaving Earth (Split Rock Press) and their play TRUNK BRIEF JOCK THONG was shortlisted for the Yale Drama Series.

Stacy Dawson Stearns on Bad Stars True West

Sam Shephard holds a wiggly warm spot in my dirt. In the 80’s, I was a young teen and already starting to feel out of place in the creative boxes available to me. The play Cowboy Mouth showed up. Shepard and his unique troping of the American West plus asphalt and addiction tripped my switch so I tried it on, acting out scenes and making costume designs for characters I didn’t understand. I was just a kid and had no idea what addiction and love do to each other, no idea about the thin line between obliteration and inspiration, no idea how hard it is to stay free when you cross the threshold from childhood to the big A. But I learned that Sam and Patti Smith were lovers who had written and acted that play out together, so maybe the line between fake and real was a dotted line. Is it a coincidence that Patti Smith made her public debut as a poet at St. Marks Church on the same day I was born? Funny that I would debut artistically there, too, 20 years later performing on the 2nd floor at the Ontological Hysterical Theater. Dotted lines on road maps worn thin from thumbing connect disconnected folk to one another. Ghosts of the living and dead love churches that act as theaters.

I moved to NYC 6 years after my first exposure to Shepard and saw a flyer wheatpasted to a mailbox for a production of Cowboy Mouth. The theater was a basement in the East Village. Ghosts love basements, too. The mythical Lobster Man character was played by a guy with no clothes on- very unlike the Lobster Man costume design I had drawn years before, but much more honest and economical. I couldn’t believe how weird and normal the play was and how easy and hard it all seemed at the same time and how it made sense without making sense. I figured that Shepard was my uncle and these folks were my cousins: children of an America made of narcotics, disfunction, TV, and asphalt. It felt good to sit without lies for a while.

30 +years later I’m in a small gallery space in Hollywood seeing a play by a playwright named Amanda Horowitz that spawned somehow from Shepard’s True West. Ghosts are ok with galleries. Sam wrote True West 9 years after Cowboy Mouth- but with Uncle Sam it’s all just one play, really. Different acts. I came because I wanted to see Jess Barbagallo, who is a rock star of an actor just like Malcovitch or Shepard himself but braver, more vulnerable, tougher, softer. Shepard no longer lives in flesh- he is a ghost grampa who passed out and left the car keys on the dresser next to his drumsticks. He is sitting with me on these metal bleachers a block away from the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, fading in and out of vision depending on the angle of my glasses. On the stage, wild ones with their hearts pushing through their shirts are taking his car on a joyride into new territory: a wormy place of what we do when fucked up romance and being sad about wasted people is no longer enough. They run off the road in a town called Almost Hope, population 3.

Bad Stars True West is a beautiful evolution of Shepard Country where surviving the death of relationships is worth trying. Where the threat of being run over by a train is no worse than the threat of not being run over by a train because worms survive and thrive. Where mother and father are an actor who has noodled himself into a Mobius strip: self-contained yet unwieldy, feral yet capable of being studied. Jess is not the only star in this trio; Arne Gjelten and Sophia Cleary end up rocking my world, too.

On the sidewalk after the show, Jess and I talk for a minute about the ways we all put out for our own art, and how great it is when projects feel necessary and fullfilling. Part of me feels like saying “feels like old times,” but I don’t want to. Nostalgia sits too close to atrophy for me, so I choose gratitude for this hijacking of Sam’s direction, saying in my mind: “Thank you for acknowledging that we are way beyond the era of hopelessness as a statement. Thank you for not being snarky and guarded. Thank you for discussing platonic love and heartbreak.” In his day, Shepard did not write to celebrate abuse and codependence per se, but at some point in the rotation his plays stopped being exposed wounds and started becoming reliquaries. I am not saying these plays have lost their prescience, I am saying we have a hard time being present*. Sometimes textual legacies need not be revivals. Enter Horowitz et al on the dusty horizon of Shepard Country. Having eaten the old plays like worms in a corpse, they split in two and regenerate their own heads. They fill a bathtub with spaghetti, they lay down on the tracks. Mom becomes an artist but maybe she always was and we didn’t notice. As still night falls on Almost Hope, USA, we don’t know where this is going, but we feel like we just might get there.

*Say a little prayer for Buried Child to erupt through the floor of the Supreme Court soon in a showdown of the undead! We can dream, can’t we?

Stacy Dawson Stearns (she/they) believes that artists support societal well-being by modeling and instigating collective creative practice. A Bessie Award-winning artist known for her work with Big Dance Theater, David Neumann, Hal Hartley, and Blacklips Performance Cult, Stacy has choreographed for pop icons Debbie Harry and Ann Magnuson, House of Jackie, and The Vampire Cowboys, and has performed and presented in 10 countries in venues ranging from NYC’s Lincoln Center to Tblisi’s Teatr Griboyedov. Stacy develops new media with Channel B4 and uses her curation and programming to serve communities and further social justice, representation, and accessibility initiatives as a CultureHub LA 2023 Fellow.

Bad Stars True West by Amanda Horowitz was presented at STARS Gallery in Los Angeles on July 13-16, 2023. It was performed by Jess Barbagallo, Sophia Cleary, Arne Gjelton, and Beaux Mendes as the "plein-air-painter." All photos by Jonathan Chacón.

Amanda Horowitz is an interdisciplinary artist working between performance and sculpture. She writes and directs theater projects with experimental and collaborative methods. Past performance projects include: The Plumbing Tree (co-written & directed with Bully Fae Collins, 2018-19), Suddenly, This Summer (2019) and Bad Water True West (2022). She is currently a 2022-2024 Playwright-in-Resident at Rutgers University.