#they're a bit of a weirdo. maybe an alien

[keiitopop]

who is this freak

[mr-damian-s-power]

Mini-tangent incoming, but this thing always got under my skin a little bit. Crazy fantasy/sci-fi worlds where the entire main cast is almost exclusively Humans or species that looks almost entirely Human but with a very minute difference. I know it's the ultimate first world problem and really just a nitpick at the end of the day, but I'm gonna pick!

Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with having a main cast that is just all Humans or 'Humans but with pointy ears', but when the world they're in contains a bunch of fantastical and interesting looking species, that's where it gets a bit boring.

Star Wars is the main culprit of this! Hundreds of thousands of unique Alien species, but 90% of main casts are Human or 'Human but green', with maybe a single Droid or Alien to break it up if you're lucky. How about a story where the entire cast is a bunch of crazy Alien designs. Or a ragtag group of runaway Droids from different jobs.

Then, you've got the Owl House! The Demon Realm is a world of all kinds of crazy Demon people, but most of the characters of significance are Witches, which are just Humans with pointy ears. Look at Luz's friendgroup, the Hexsquad. You've got Witch, Witch, Witch and magic Human/Witch hybrid clone who looks exactly like a Witch.

Wouldn't it have been cool if one of the Hexsquad were a quirky looking Demon person? Make Willow or Gus a Demon! Luz's first friend could've been a Demon! Fits her characterisation as a weirdo! Hell, make Amity a Demon! Luz falls in love with a non-Human because she can look past physical differences. It doesn't matter that Amity has 6 arms or 12 eyes or is some weird giant Mantis creature, she's still her Batata!

Any other franchises you feel this applies to? Tell me!

-

Okay, tangent over! You may all go back to your tedious lives!

[tothesolarium]

im memepin (currently not logged into that acc) and on your space elves comment, i have a species of space elves in a scifi thing where they're technically immortal but as they age/take damage/etc their tissue hardens into an obsidian like substance. taking off from a planet/landing on one/dealing with atmospheric changes causes microscopic injuries and repeated stress like this gives them a shimmer like glitter. it also generally gives them Space Arthritis. Bc yknow. i have arthritis of course im giving it to my pretty boy elves. They consider becoming a statue to be a high honor and outsiders arriving on their world learn most statues aren't carved but are corpses. so like, you can make more humanoid aliens you just gotta get weird with it and arguably this isn't That Weird. (also you can use this concept its fine :thumbs_up: ) Also for writing romance i always suggest beta readers, or even more deranged, rping. Bouncing my bad writing off another person always made it come out better. I really like focusing less on actions and more on mental state for romance and affection, etc. small motions get a whole sentence or more. slow pacing for more effect.

oh my goodness that's such a beautiful idea!! Love the statues being corpses, that's so, macabre but beautiful! a love for who once was putting them on display, but also what kind of lessons/statements can be made with them! what a lovely idea!!

though I would feel terrible using your own idea. if i ever do you'd get extensive crediting + i'd talk to you about the vibes of the ideas.

I will tell ya about what i'm thinking for my space elves. I am going on the, they are mortal, but try to beat time. this is done with different methods. They are very royal~nobility ruled, but better at giving out hearty bread and entertaining circuses. Circuses that can put younger royals and nobles at risk, so it feels like an even more important show.

ANYWHO ON BEATING TIME! they're finding ways to stall aging, or regrow themselves (think immortal jellyfish), or beating time by out living others. there is the practice of using others bodies to try and to invigorate themselves. just, eating blood, wont do anything but make them sick. so it takes a lot of processing to turn a Whole body into new material that can keep the recipient young (but i don't want to do suprise blood libel so,,, i want more,,, vampirism, sucking the life from already struggling people or the royal's own children because they don't want 'ick' body. but i'm still working on this and really don't want blood libel. More willingly turning self into pretty frankenstien) It's also, not looked highly on! so if its done! not flaunted! except for those who are okay being scared and hated. the other, more common, among royals!nobles! is a sort of metal 'alchemy' where they fuse/weave their skin/muscle/soft tissues with metals or gems. But it's not how any are naturally born.

Naturally they are more tall, with point ears and long limbs. with color pallets that range from warm and cool greys to black, green, and blue. maybe some pink but that's more on albinism end (I think it colors the colors came first so the rest is me trying to justify colors and elves with silver eyes and gold lips. SO! crit~ideas welcome, if ya want mwah. more magical is okay too i'm just stuck. story fully involves a ghost who can become physical a bit and Can make Very Strange web of blue brains, v v loose science heavy fiction )

you're ideas for romance is very good too. i just need to stop being, embarrassed by the thing thats making me happy lolol. also love the deranged path, that would probably work really well + help with genuine responses that aren't just me clacking dolls together. I always worry that i'm making the characters boring, or doing what i want them to do. They don't know the plot! they should mess it up! if the romance did that, that'd be Cute, but these two weirdos are difficult (affectionate) ANYWAYS I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE YOUR RESPONSE!! and your elves put such a lovely image in my head. love the space arthritis + damage making them glitter. people who don't know them just see this beautiful being approaching, possible with more labored/intentional movements. others just see the most Life Hardened person. it's such a good idea you got!!!! my brain did make the crystal bits a dark blue, like,,,

or like a geode crack where a scar could be!! sorry, brain is a picture book. all in all!! love your brain!! thank you for sharing !!!!

[mwolf0epsilon]

💗💧☁️🔥🖍️🎭🌌 epsilon the among us

💗 GROWING HEART - if they have a crush, is it noticeable? what changes when they're in love?

Tangy. It's Tangy. They are partners for a reason! (Heck they adopted a kid together!)

Epsilon in love is... A very curious thing indeed. It's like that deep-seethed desire to be wanted is not as pressing anymore. Like for once his appetite is actually sated...

For what it's worth, the parasite also seems to like Tangy.

💧 DROPLET - random angst headcanon

He gets phantom pains sometimes. That's to be expected after a traumatic amputation. What he doesn't understand is why the feeling of his missing limb contorting itself into something else seems so vividly real...

Or why he gets so many nightmares about losing his first crew where he sees himself doing terrible things to them. He would never kill anyone! Would he...?

☁️ CLOUD - a soft headcanon

He adopted Golf to help overcome the trauma of losing his arm and crew. It's kind of funny seeing this very big man walking around with a pony sized alien dog under his arm like the big beast weighs nothing!

🔥 FIRE - do they have any self destructive tendencies? what habits do they have that hinder them from becoming their best self?

Epsilon Is over-critical of himself and tends to care too much about what others think of him, which leads him to run himself ragged trying to be a people-pleaser.

The thing is, Epsilon desperately wants to be liked.

And while there's nothing wrong with this per say, his desire for companionship and attention from friends tends to be a little on the excessive side. He's constantly craving it. And when he doesn't get it he tends to stress-eat to cope.

There's a reason why people can so easily take advantage of him, and it's this right here. He wants so badly to come off as friendly, reliable and likeable that he basically gives into the whims of others just chasing after a very brief feeling of empty fulfillness.

🖍️ CRAYON - what advice would you give to them?

Stop trying to make the entire world your friend. That's not an achievable or healthy goal. Not everyone will like you.

Stick to those who've proven themselves worthy of your loyalty and kindness. Also maybe seek medical attention.

🎭 MASKS - do they act differently around certain people? what's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.?

Yes but it's not really intentional on his part...

Epsilon is overall a pretty decent guy in terms of socializing. He's polite, soft-spoken, respectful of other's wants and feelings, and he genuinely gets invested in making friends with them. He tends to come off as a bit gullible tho, and sometimes people take advantage of that, or write him off as a big weirdo/bother.

Unfortunately, due to his condition, the way people treat Epsilon tends to affect how the parasite treats them in return...

Anyone who's proven to be of some use to his well-being like Tangy (who Epsilon is very attached to), or even just people who provide him with basic decency, get a free pass because they provide endorphins which the parasite also benefits from.

But anyone who's confrontational, rude or downright condescending towards him tend to be targeted as a potential meal, since they're causing him needless stress that harms both him and the parasite.

Which means Epsilon's behavior goes from the polite idle chatter, occasional silly joke, and offerings of snacks, to a very eerie silent indifference that feels incredibly out of character for him. Epsilon is not in the habit of being quiet... And while it's easy to write it off as him just giving up on trying to be nice to a jerk, in reality that's an indicator that he's not the one currently steering the car, so to speak...

🌌 MILKY WAY - what was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

The main inspirations were John Carpenter's The Thing, Carrion game, and overall just my love of body horror, body-snatching horrors and unwilling/unaware transformations.

I wanted Epsilon to be horrific in concept (he's a big beefy dude that got taken over by a parasite with an insatiable appetite for flesh), but at the same time I wanted him to subvert the trope and actually be a pretty decent and upstanding friend.

He really means well and wants to look out for the team. He just can't help what his condition makes him do!

[eridanidreams]

For the fic writing asks:

36. Which fic are you proudest of?

41. Who’s your favorite character you’ve written?

72. What’s your favorite writing compliment you’ve received?

And only if you fancy it:

34. How much of your personal life/experience do you include in your fics?

36. Which fic are you proudest of?

That's a tough one, but I think in the end it's a short Deus Ex genfic called Small Kindnesses: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20010490

It started off as an experimentation with personal style and ended up being something that keeps giving people warm hugs when they need it.

41. Who’s your favorite character you’ve written?

Author: nervously eyes the cast of characters in her head, all staring at her Well, um, obviously you are all near and dear to my heart, except the ones who aren't...

Violette: hrmphs

MacReady: Yeah, get on with it, mate.

Lillian: yawns, checking a slate

Author: ...but if I had to pick just one of you as my favorite... whines This is really hard!

Cora: No it's not! You know the answer already! Me! *stands next to Author, hands on hips, glaring down the rest of the characters in Author's headspace.

Author: gestures helplessly at the 12-year-old force of nature Her. Definitely her.

72. What’s your favorite writing compliment you’ve received?

That one I can't point to a single comment, but I can point to a single category of comment. That I made you, the reader, feel. That it was like a warm hug. That I tore your heart out. That you wanted to kill a character. That I reached into your soul and evoked a feeling. That's the absolute best. Don't get me wrong, I love when people call out bits that work especially well for them, but for me, the best compliments are "My teeth are full of cavities." "This made my heart melt." "This made me laugh so hard." (Comedy is hard!)

Because that's what I want to do. I want to reach out and pull out some emotions.

And only if you fancy it:

34. How much of your personal life/experience do you include in your fics?

Probably too much! laughing I've said before, Cait is a love letter to all the people who grew up in less-than-ideal circumstances, who were made to feel like freaks or weirdos or outcasts or aliens, abused and neglected, hurt over and over and still got back up on our hind legs and kept going. And for that matter, so's my Deus Ex OC Sloane. (My OCs rarely have loving birth families; there's a reason for that.)

The story of people who feel like they're on the wrong side of human, who don't think they can be loved, or deserve to be loved, or maybe even don't quite know how to love... and they find out they're wrong, that they're loved and lovable and capable of loving? That's my story. And I think it's a powerful one, and a very human one.

My life/experience shows up in smaller ways, too. I think you were the one to mention the gun safety bit in the Cora snippet I posted earlier; that came directly out of my childhood. I'm a programmer IRL, and that knowledge and expertise sneaks through in some ways, too. I am the sum of my experiences, and I mine it all for my art.

[taiyaki-translations]

Intelligence - Disclosure 6

Season: Spring Characters: Kaoru, Yuzuru Translator: taiyaki-translations ENG Proofreader: verdantcrimson (Yuzuru)

<Late at night of the same day>

Kaoru: (They say that it’s hard to see what the future holds (1), but isn’t it a bit literal in this case? It’s pitch black at this hour, after all~ The way I’m walking around with this flashlight makes me feel like I’m doing a test of courage (2).)

(Well, that’s probably actually what I’m doing right now. Everyone’s calling these Mendako aliens some kind of apparition or youkai.)

Fufu. If I point my flashlight at the top of the stairway, voilà, a Mendako alien…!

—As if. It won’t be that easy.

In these situations, isn’t it usually the case that the more you want something to appear, the less likely it’ll show up?

(Oops, I’ll bother everyone sleeping if I keep making noise. I should keep quiet and continue investigating.)

(In any case, what could be the true purpose of those Mendako aliens?)

(You'd think these guys would be up to no good, walking around at night wearing those costumes like that. But isn't it weird that the only thing they're doing is just some eccentric behavior that, in the end, doesn't count as anything bad?)

(Normally, people wouldn’t go out of their way to do something like that without reason, right? A reason to wear a costume… What reason could it be…)

(Maybe whoever’s in the costume is shy? Or they have a quiet personality?)

(Like, if they’re the type who tends to get stressed out, they’d wear that costume to relieve some of that stress…)

(Hm~ That doesn’t feel right~ I don’t think anyone would do that as a method of stress relief…)

(Us idols are all eccentrics and weirdos, it makes more sense if someone just wanted to mess around while wearing that costume…)

…Hm? There’s someone in the library right now… Maybe it’s a Mendako alien?

(If it is, I need to make sure they don’t get away. I’ll turn off my flashlight so they don’t notice me…)

Yuzuru: ……

Kaoru: …Oh, Fushimi-kun?

Yuzuru: Hm, that beam of light just now… was that from Kaoru-sama’s flashlight?

Kaoru: Ah~ You surprised me. I thought you were one of those aliens, so I was feeling strangely nervous.

Yuzuru: My sincere apologies. I also mistook you for a Mendako alien.

I almost tried to apprehend you…♪

Kaoru: T-The way you say “apprehend” is kinda disturbing…

Anyway, were you trying to look for those aliens too?

Yuzuru: Yes. Although the aliens haven’t done anything wrong, the fact of the matter is that they are still disturbing the peace of the dorms.

If the young master were to encounter one of those monsters in question, there is a high possibility that he will be too afraid to sleep at night.

Therefore, I decided to proceed with this investigation and eliminate that threat as quickly as possible.

Kaoru: Oh, I see~ That sounds like what a model butler would say, I guess?

To be honest, it’s kinda scary to go so far as to call this “eliminating a threat”…

But it’s also reassuring that you’re looking into the aliens as well, Fushimi-kun. I’m curious too, so I’m doing the same.

If you don’t mind, would you like to investigate together? I think it will go better if we team up.

Yuzuru: I agree. I would be grateful if you could lend me your aid, Kaoru-sama.

These aliens are quite elusive. The dorms are also large, so there is a good chance for them to escape if I were to do this on my own.

…However, I do have one concern.

Kaoru: Hm? What is it?

Yuzuru: When do these Mendako aliens… become aliens?

Kaoru: Eh? What kind of riddle is that? When do those aliens become aliens…

Ah, you mean when do they put on the costume?

Yuzuru: That’s correct. And so, I believe that it is possible we may have already encountered someone who was inside one of those costumes…

Kaoru: Ah~... I see. In other words, you are suspecting me, Fushimi-kun?

If that were the case, wouldn’t it be strange for me to be so actively involved in the investigation?

Yuzuru: That could simply be a way for you to deflect suspicion from yourself…

No, I’m being too skeptical, aren’t I?

If I were to follow that line of logic, then we would need to question everyone involved in the investigation, myself included.

I apologize for my rudeness. Please forget what I just said.

Kaoru: It’s okay, I don’t mind. In the first place, wandering around in the dark in the middle of the night was also pretty sketchy of me.

For now, we won’t find any of those aliens by standing around, so let’s search the dorm.

Yuzuru: Yes, thank you for cooperating with me, Kaoru-sama. We can start by going through the first floor…

Mendako alien: …Men!?

Kaoru: Uwah, what’s that!?

Yuzuru: It seems that they’ve been watching us, haven’t they? It appears I have let my guard down.

But now that we’ve found them, I will not let them escape! Let us go after them, Kaoru-sama!

Translation Notes: 1. 一寸先は闇って “There is darkness just a step ahead”, meaning you can’t predict what will happen in the future. 2. Kimodameshi (肝試し) lit. “guts test”- an activity common in Japan where people go to scary locations to… test their courage. A pretty big staple of school festivals or summer camps.

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[being-so-normal-about-reploids]

Rambling about an OC under here lol plus maybe vague and not terribly important first-chapter-ish spoilers for the still unnamed sequel to >E.04642-SYS: Failure to compile. (but I mean if you liked Valentina I guess it could be interesting because that's who I'm gonna ramble about)

So there's a TON more Valentina in the sequel and she's an absolute delight to write, which like. Maybe that's blowing my own horn a little bit but whatever. I'm allowed.

The thing about her as a character and also in-world as a reploid is that she's very easy to not take seriously. She was created as a sex worker. She likes being a sex worker, at least when she has autonomy about it, and that makes her kind of bizarrely human-adjacent and even gross to most reploids. And it's not subtle, it's not something she can just hide, because she's physically constructed in a very different way to the rest of them. She doesn't even have the goofy feet (which actually means that she's got a very good balance system, since she can't make up for it by just having a large footprint like a lot of reploid designs do. She also uses it for dance). Humans look at her and see a thing made for their entertainment or abuse, reploids look at her and see something even worse. If she's not gross, she's pitiful, but either way, ew, she's not really One Of Them. She's kind of alien to both groups.

And yet she's emotionally intelligent in a way that most reploids are not, because she's got a lot of life experiences that are specifically with both humans and reploids and not in a work capacity. She's the kind of person who hangs out with the freaks and weirdos. She's dated both humans and reploids, sometimes at the same time, in a lot of different capacities. She's been homeless longer than a lot of the others and she's known a lot more people of all stripes so she's got a lot of street smarts that reploids in general never develop. Valentina is actually ridiculously capable and resilient!

But that tends to go unnoticed because she was designed to be a manic pixie dream girl that you could rent for a few hours. And she doesn't even deny or dislike that. That's part of her and she's into radical self-acceptance, so she doesn't even see it as "yeah I'm a sex worker but you should still value me because I'm a person underneath that." She sees it as "yeah I'm a sex worker AND you should still value me because you should value everyone no matter what they do with their body" and that's a much harder sell.

X sometimes even trips on this despite his best efforts because he's just not had to ever consider how to treat somebody like Valentina before recently. She's not a combat unit, she's ridiculously good at what she does, but what she does is all soft skills that he's never learned to value. He does figure it out, and they actually become good friends, but it takes a lot of conscious work on his part and in the wrong mood if he's feeling antisocial (aka something's triggered his PTSD that he definitely has but doesn't know what to call) he'll still slip into 'ugh why are you bothering me with your frivolous shit' mode unless he calls himself out on it.

But the thing that Valentina talks about in >E.04642-SYS: Failure to compile. (while she spooks X pretty hard lol), where she says that they aren't that different, is pretty accurate actually, and X comes to realize that months later because he's slow and has the emotional IQ of a doorknob, while Valentine's kind of a prodigy for a reploid. They were both pushed into doing what they hated with skills that they had originally enjoyed having and it really fucked with both of their senses of self and ability to relate to anyone else (and resulted in a trail of corpses, whoops). She's got a huge head start on processing it though.

The thing about Valentina that X appreciates absolutely the most though is that she does see where they're similar and treats him like a regular person about it. He's not a poor little broken baby or inspiration porn or anything. He's just a guy who's Been Through It, like just about everyone else she's known. She's actually pretty comfortable to talk to as a result because she's a good listener and gives him a fair amount of insight, and she turns into probably X's third closest friend, which is a tight race with Glitch and Mack (X would never even try to put them in any kind of order either). I've really enjoyed watching that develop more in the sequel. She's got a pretty big role!

Anyway I love Valentina. Absolutely simping for my own OCs today and nobody can stop me.

[hellogoodbyeitsme]

[Spoilers for Mob Psycho 100 s3e9]

After last week's disappointment (the aliens), I'm glad to say episode 9 brought me unending pleasure! So, here's a list of things this episode did that brought me joy:

We actually got much more of tsubomi's pov in the anime, than we got in the manga. I understand that Manga Tsubomi is strictly through Shigeo's (and now and then Ritsu's) eyes and that is cool in its own way, but whew, it's really nice to see her being a character instead of just the idea of one. (I'm going to write a full post about her - I'll let you know when that's up!).

Serizawa is pretty much the only person who seems to genuinely see Reigen's true self, but rather than going along with his ruses/lies for the sake of "the flow", he just seems to accept that people don't actually have their shit together - that he didn't waste as much time as he'd thought, and by going to school and working with s&s, he's actually able to live a pretty normal life. He's happy with the way things are, not just complacent like he was with Claw. (I will also make a longer post about this - I'll let ya know when!)

Okay, serious points are said, from here on they're a bit dumb ahaha!

Takenaka revealing Tome isn't a girl 😱😱😱 this is a joke but I like thinking Tome is agender like me, so even though his comment was more along the lines of "ugh as if she knows what girls want, she's a weirdo 🙄" it just gave me fuel for my headcanon, sorry! Agender person who uses she/her because tbh we like these ones well enough, and have much more important things to think about (like the occult) 😩😩

RITSU SITTING SO FORMALLY IN FRONT OF SHIGEO I CRIED oh ritsu if you want to be closer with him,,,, you,, you have to act normal around him,,,, lmao. And oh Shigeo feeling more confident because Ritsu is nervous for his sake (aw I love my favourite brothers ever) and the little 🙏🙏 Ritsu does while Shigeo's on the phone, this guy is so funny for no reason

The... The shot of Shigeo playing football with ease :((( parallel to our first meeting :((( the very first episode :((((( he's all grown up :(((( gorgeous :(((((

Ending at the car-crash: AS IT SHOULD BE!!!!! I thought it might end the episode there for shock value and oh it did NOT disappoint!! The way everything just stayed static there for like.. a full minute with the crosswalk tune playing? Masterpiece! Also RIGHT after he used his powers in FULL public???? Of his own choice??? Shigeo really did grow so much!!! Like I said!! S3 is about his finale of self acceptance and it's coming in like a steamtrain!!!! (And also maybe it's unnecessary to mention and I'm sorry, but him saving the cat vs being unable to save the cat during the Mogami arc is a parallel I'm unable to remove from my mind)

Side note, anime-onlies I'm SO sorry for the whiplash you received/will receive at the end of the episode!! I'm sending you the strength to survive until next Wednesday!! I remember the crash happening in the manga and me going feral about it haha! This arc is So Good.

Also I love the body improvement club so much they're so silly I'm so glad Shigeo knows them and has them in his life 😭

[whysojiminimnida]

i (an early millennial) really do worry about teens and young adults these days, especially the ones who were really affected by the pandemic. they live in a "sanitary" bubble, their lives are online, they don't have enough real life experiences. they don't know what life is really. among other things, and to the point i'm trying to make: it's all oh so progressive, they are so inclusive and open minded and accepting of diversity... on the surface only. since two adults having sex is too much for them, two men in a romantic and sexual relationship is too much. when sex is simply human nature and can only be good and healthy when it's mutual, consensual.

I think I agree with the general idea of what you're saying, anon. I also think that every generation of teenagers and young adults has their own stuff to deal with, and while it's been really hard lately, it wasn't a great deal easier trying to learn to navigate our sexuality and education and life experience in a time with working (or otherwise absent) parents and no internet. I don't want to get into a "kids these days" discussion because it's all kids, on all days, and growing up just sucks and is hard no matter when you're born.

It really doesn't matter whether the sex is gay, straight, or orca/alien tentacle orgies - sexual relationships should be adults only in nature. Even though most of us who are now adults engaged in activity before we were of legal age (gosh I mean I hope so otherwise I'm the slut over here), I personally don't think my blog should be read by minors. I've been very clear about that. Hasn't deterred them one bit but at least I said it. I'm not going to alter what I post - I block kids when I find them but beyond that it is up to their parents and their software to determine whether my stuff should be in their faces. That many of them are clearly into explicit weirdo Y/N fanfic is disturbing but not surprising given the media that's readily available.

Surface diversity or the cool-to-be-uncool-just-like-everyone-else is not exclusive to Gen Z and beyond. We all been there, done that, if it's edgy or it's gonna make our parents and grandparents cringe we as kids have all felt the need to do it. But that also really cheapens and invalidates what queer and misgendered kids go through. Suicide rates are not dropping among queer teenagers and even younger children. They're not dropping among trans kids. So if it helps them to have community, it's not up to me to decide who's actually queer or who's just riding the edgy kids train. Queer kids have it hard enough without adults trying to tell them who they are or are not.

Long story short I love teenagers as people. They're so smart. Kids are just fucking smart. We should listen to them more. We should maybe protect them a little bit better but I didn't invent the internet. We're not gonna be out here making it the Jeon-Parks' fault for Jeon-Parking in front of their little salads or my fault for talking about the jeonparking. I'm not even out here making it the kids' fault. All I can do is block 'em when I find 'em but even then, if they're articulate and intelligent enough I have no problem conversing with minors at their maturity level. Just.... maybe not about who's topping in the jikook house tonight.

[hellomynameisbisexual]

When we say something is biphobic, what do we mean? Many people are familiar with homophobia, but is there a specific different 'biphobia'? And do bisexuals face homophobia too?

Teenagers calling things they don't like "gay". Musicians writing lyrics urging the killing of "faggots". People using sexuality as a slur in the press. We're all increasingly familiar with what is meant by 'homophobia'.

The lobby group Stonewall defines homophobia as:

Homophobia is the irrational hatred, intolerance, and fear of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people.

These negative feelings fuel the myths, stereotypes, and discrimination that can lead to violence against LGB people.

From www.stonewall.org

What many people don't expect, and the above definition does set out, is that bisexual people suffer from homophobia too. The idea that identifying as bisexual is a way to avoid homophobia, or easier/safer than coming out as gay is a myth.

The people who hate us don't distinguish between us. In fact it's entirely possible to be discriminated against and bullied for being gay without actually being LGBT at all - it's about the perception (here's an example - Stephen English) that the bullies have of us. We're "wrong", "unnatural", "filthy". These people often don't distinguish between homosexuality and bisexuality - it's "not-heterosexual" and therefore to be feared, hated, distrusted. As a blanket term, some people prefer "heterosexism", and instead of biphobia "monosexism", but these aren't in common useage - perhaps because 'homophobia' is so widely known but also because they aren't as clear: 'monosexism' sounds like a version of sexism (maybe for people who believe there's only one gender?) whereas 'biphobia' is clearer that it relates to bi people.

In homophobic environments, whether schools or offices or households, bisexual people are scared to come out, because they'll be seen as "them" and "other".

There's an International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia every May 17th.

How is Biphobia different?

But as bisexuals we face biphobia too, both from people that are homophobic and from ones who aren't. It's possible to be biphobic without being homophobic, as sayings like "you're either straight, gay or lying" make clear.

Our Bisexual FAQ tackles the most common myths about bisexuality, each of them is a biphobic statement. And people who subscribe to these are discriminating against bisexuals.

If, for example, bisexuals are unable to make up their minds, or commit to being 'straight' or 'gay', how can we be sure they're certain about other things? If saying we are bisexual is seen as a denial, what else are we lying about?

This is why these seemingly innoccuous statements like "People just say they're bi to appear cool" are harmful - they don't just upset us when we hear them but they damage other people's attitudes to us on other topics. People who perceive us as being confused, or in denial or lying about our sexuality think we're the sort of people who get confused, get into denial or are comfortable with lying. Should they ask a bisexual to commit to a project, they can't even commit to a sexuality! Should they ask us how we feel about another topic, when we can't even get our heads straight on our own sexuality!

Biphobic attitudes from gay and lesbian people have made many bisexuals unwilling to come out to them, preferring to remain 'under the radar' and pass as lesbian or gay in just the same way that other people pass as 'straight'.

A lot of this website deals with spotting biphobia, but these two pages are the best place to read up on it:

Our Bisexuality FAQ lists the main biphobic myths

The most common myth is "It's Just A Phase" - when a celebrity comes out as gay they are trumpeted in the press but when they come out as bi it's often that they are "allegedly bisexual" or "now says she's bisexual", because everyone knows bisexuality is a phase, is just confusion.

Bisexual erasure is rampant. We're gay when we have same-sex partners, straight when we have different-sex ones. (Yet, oddly, neither gay nor straight people become asexual when single). As soon as a previously thought-of as "straight" celebrity has come out as bi and they're then seen with someone of the same-sex, it's described as a "gay fling" or they've got a "lesbian crush".

We've always been a part of the LGBT scene (the first ever Gay Pride festival anywhere was the idea of a US bisexual activist - Brenda Howard) but the assumption that everyone there is homosexual, and the attitudes towards bisexuals, keep our achievements silenced and pushed down. As recently as 2010, London's LGBT Pride didn't fund a bisexual working group, and listed among their event goals "fighting homophobia and transphobia" (but not biphobia, or lesbophobia).

Combating Biphobia

When we talk about fighting biphobia, it's important to realise that we need to fight homophobia too. It's no good hearing someone being homophobic and then asking them not to include you because you're "only bisexual".

We here at the Bisexual Index believe one of the main causes of prejudice is ignorance. It's important to realise that a lot of prejudice isn't conscious, it's the result of long-standing attitudes that people may not have ever dismantled and examined.

The easiest enemy to hate and fear is the enemy you never meet, like the monster under the bed. We think the best way to make the transition from "them" to "us" is to come out as bisexual. We've got a page dedicated to that if you want some advice - Coming Out as Bisexual.

Celebrities and television drama caricatures of LGBT people are easy to ridicule and feel unfamiliar to the people mocking or hating them. But when "Them" includes work-colleagues, other people at school or church, the shopkeeper, the next-door-neighbour, or even Aunty Beryl then suddenly we are a little bit less alien and removed. Suddenly we're not "Them", but a bigger and more diverse "Us".

We should also stand up to negativity. We're not undecided - we've decided on bisexual. We're not confused, except by their prejudice. "Gay sex" isn't dirty, or a sin, or spreading diseases, and nor are bisexuals spreading diseases between the perceived gay and straight communities - it's actions that spread HIV, not identities.

What if you're not bisexual? Then you can still spread the word, correct biphobic myths, and support bisexuals. Help create a positive mood, support people when they come out and don't treat them like weirdoes. (Constantly asking your bisexual work colleague for details of their wild weekends, for example. We have the same lives as everyone else! It's all X-Factor and knitting...)

Biphobia and homophobia together make our society into one where bisexual people don't want to come out, even to other LGBT folk. We need to stand up to it, we need to disprove the myths, we need to start recognising bisexuals.

I'm facing biphobia, what next?

If you find yourself the victim of harassment at work or school, please tell other people. At work you should tell your manager, union representative or HR department (who may have a contact specifically for equal opportunities issues). Stonewall has a good summary of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 which we recommend reading if you find yourself being bullied or harassed at work. ACAS has some really good advice and information too.

At school we recommend talking to a teacher, but also to your parents and your friends if you're out to them - get support and don't allow the behaviour to be silently encouraged. You might also consider Schools Out which is a national charity.

In your family, tell your friends. Find a member of your family you can trust, and tell them.

You can also try local advice lines, citizen's advice bureaus, and local LGBT support groups. Maybe you have a local Bi Group you can turn to?

There's support out there when you need it. Please don't suffer in silence.

Bisexuals - We're Just Like You, Only More Bisexual!

[the-firebird69]

We all get to race them and they had so many and we did not send engines over no. And we beat them at every race I'm going to start doing it on every single race there is and our sunset it's kind of hard on him around track to do it and we agree on races they have them out there and they're invited to come and race unless they're chicken s*** they do it anyways but we're going to start not allowing the race unless they allow us in out there and he says it's a great idea and we know it is I had it when the process of taking over all the racetracks and surrounding areas in the cities and excluding them from all sorts of areas and seeing it's going dark and we'll say yep I'm going to put huge hotels in around the race area. And we're beginning the race is shortly

Yes we did win every race most of us got to race but they ran out of people and cars and they said we still have 200 cars I want to race and tried to repeat it and they wouldn't let them so they do want to race and it's good

Frank Castle Hardcastle shows our son I'm into the military ball cap with a brass fish hook and our sun sets to him outstanding so does Sarah and we do too. Is the word in the metals and it's for courage and it is well deserved because our area he says was first and it led. And everybody followed.

Thor Freya

I don't care what you say your hot potato no matter what happens it stinks around you it's abnormally rude and we do understand what you're saying if you're doing things to occupy them and that's seen their focusing on how you pee and stupid stuff so I got pee like everyone else is a pain in the ass and you're right we did incredible job now it's kind of our job to leave a little bit and to get Thor Freya thoroughly involved and do it with them too but boy what a statement this is intense we did leave It is Us we're still we're still emptying them out but boy everybody caught on to the idea

Frank Castle Hardcastle

You got tons of people watching these people and what they're doing is annoying to our son and mean and Petty and it's nasty and stick their face up and they start having a safe stuff your shoulders because I want to see why you're such a loser I'm going to go ahead and do that these three jackasses

Duke Nukem Blockbuster

I'm issuing orders now you're not supposed to be sitting there taunting us and harassing us and thinking it's great for them and having fun doing it and I'm blaming like little assholes I'm going to take it to them I'm going to bury this piece of crap

Thor Freya

Can I ask you something I wonder what they're doing out there in Arizona near Utah and we do see what it says and Max might go out there and fight over Hawaii as aliens and that's who it is no it looks like Tommy Allen and it is and he's a weirdo and it's going to be a battle and for some reason max out there and it tangles up with him like Billy z is Tangled up out here. And Lori remembers him and can't stand him she says. And we do have a lot of things moving in here factories buildings and we're building like crazy and we are cutting these people off and they are fighting each other and it'll be fighting foreigners shortly and it will get better and what they're doing is stifling and they're complete bozos and bigots and pigs and they're going to learn it's not appreciated and they'll get wiped out to a degree all over just like the morlawk. And the morlock are taking a beating and we think that they might be out this evening and a lot of people think maybe if it continues at this rate especially the bearing Sea you're up to about 20,000 octillion an hour and the southern route is about the same and we don't think they're going to make it they're emptying out of countries entirely and we're taking huge areas is what we needed it's a boon and Max have to fight on their own and they're getting beat up when they're trying to get back and they're taking ships some of them and it is increasing the size of the blockade in the foreigners just trying to fight and the molar are fighting the Max and they're using it. It's a huge War and it's step by step. And what draws our son out to the West is probably foreigners perhaps of making some headway and we don't think so we think it's really easy. And my son our son all of our sister and daughter think that it's Mac Daddy to draw hits on the West Coast and draw Asia out who are known for being warriors on the sea. It's on now Tommy f says I'll draw them here

And he's going to use things that Mac Daddy's doing finally instead of just beating on you our son

Olympus

[buggyrpt]

bestie I need help/advice and probably to go outside and touch a tiny bit of grass. my muse is friends with someone plotted & chem and they were fine a few days ago interacting but since then they and a few others have been dropping threads that are easy to respond to, or straight ignoring responses with my muse. and our muses used to go back and forth like lightning. this might just be me being paranoid cause I got issues zczczc but I'm not sure if they're intentionally ignoring my muse or not . I don't want to msg them ooc just cause what if I am just being paranoid then I'll sound weird and possibly make them uncomfy but I also don't know what else to do to figure out if maybe my muse did something or said something that made them uncomfortable . and its not like theyre just casual friends, we plotted that they were pretty close and the chem was great and now just not responding to threads and dms but are clearly responding to everyone else in the dms cause people post screenshots lol and also keeping other threads going on long with others. gah idk it might just be me feeling insecure and paranoid but it's really starting to get under my skin amd affecting my muse for the rp and I love my muse so much but idk now. I've got my own issues with shit like this so maybe I just need to take a step away and give myself time to separate (and I probably will either way) but it's also weird because it's not like it's just one muse it's both the mun's muses and other muses from different muns.

i'm not sure if you didn't want me to post your ask . feel free to ask me to delete this ! but hi bestie im really sorry that you're feeling like this . i know sometimes it's easy to get into this headspace when we're really passionate about a muse and we just wanna rp and have a good time , and especially with people in the rpc who call everyone weirdos for just about anything (im guilty of this at times as well) . i know just how you feel because i've been in similar situations before and honestly i never do anything about it and just let myself lose muse and drop . at the same time sometimes i think we assume others will think us speaking up and communicating about how we feel makes us weird/inadequate/annoying , but it's important to keep in mind that there's nothing wrong with communicating your feelings to others. especially when it's clear that you're being avoided/alienated by other muns/muses . if you communicating makes them uncomfortable, then thats a THEM problem , not a you problem . still , i know it's easier said than done to just straight up tell someone how you feel / ask if you're doing anything wrong . if you think that taking a step back from the rpc is the best thing you can do right now for yourself, then i highly encourage you to do that . sometimes i get so caught up in discourse / problems exclusive to this community that i lose sight of what actually matters , so i just take some time to disconnect and gain a fresh perspective before returning . it helps a lot and i really do recommend that you do that <3 i hope this helped !

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

i just realized what would eventually be a big (and oh so very human) problem in the post-war society. copyright claims. the rate of yeerk infestation among musicians, showwriters, and authors must be quite high as they're prominent and influential and their work reaches a big audience. but who do the works produced by a controller actually belong to? the yeerk? the human? how do you even prove who the idea originally belonged to? let's face it: people would sue for that.

Honestly I don’t foresee it being a problem at all, for several super-cynical reasons.

First of all, do we ever see any alien species put out work that any other species considers ‘art’?  Ax alludes to a bunch of different andalite jokes that mostly fly over his human friends’ heads, Dak Hamee describes some of the hork-bajir communication as ‘music’ whereas Aldrea considers it ‘noise,’ the andalites have a bunch of artistic structures on their Dome ships that to the Animorphs and Loren just look like trees near ponds, and if humans and hork-bajir ever manage to share any kind of artistic experience during those ~4 months they’re living together near the end of the war we never hear about it (#49-#54).  Similarly, most aliens don’t seem to get human culture: Ax loves “these messages” and says “[human music] is awful. All of it” (#8).  Yeerks probably have their own art forms, but Visser One describes television as “artifice and deception” and music as “screaming” (Visser).  We rarely see controllers watching or reading stories unless it’s as a cover for something else, never hear them listen to music, and the only mention of television in a yeerk-runs setting are the human voluntary hosts watching a human sitcom while their yeerks feed (#1).  Even Elfangor, who is the biggest human-culture nut in the series (and a little bit of a weirdo for it, Andalite Chronicles strongly implies) thinks cigarette ads are more beautiful than the actual content of magazines.  This motif actually makes a ton of sense when you think about it, because there’s no reason that extremely different cultures would have similar enough music for cross-pollination to occur.  As it is, there are tons of jokes and songs and shows within human cultures that get labeled as “I guess you have to be American [Japanese, Irish, etc] in order to find it funny,” and that’s just within cultures on the same planet.  Standards of taste vary by geography, and there is a LOT of geography separating the alien species in this series. Anywhoo, it would strike me as relatively unrealistic within the series as a whole and within our knowledge of sociology for a yeerk to put out something that many humans consider art.  

Secondly, this question raises a lot of bigger (messier) questions about the respective power dynamics of the yeerks and human hosts after the war.  We never know a single goshdarn thing about what happens to the yeerks after their surrender, so this is all speculation, but… The human hosts are the ingroup.  The yeerk invaders are the outgroup.  The humans win; the yeerks lose.  There are five billion humans on the planet at the time, and maybe 100,000 yeerks.  All of those factors suggest that the yeerks are going to be awfully low on the pecking order of human society, if they’re in communication with human society at all.  There are other possibilities, including them being moved “elsewhere” on Earth as the taxxons are, including them being culturally annihilated, including them being barred from mainstream communication.  Let’s assume for a moment, though, that they simply go to live among the humans.  (I consider that possibility wildly unrealistic, for reasons I outline here, and no I’m not discussing it anymore for reasons I outline here.) They’re still a group of outsiders who have an extremely nasty cultural history with the humans.  When these kinds of questions arise, it tends to be the individual with more cultural power that wins: we talk about “Watson and Crick’s Theory of DNA” even though they blatantly stole from Rosalind Franklin because the alternative would be respecting women in science, about “Darwinism” not “Wallaceism” because although those two genuinely discovered approximately the same concept at the same time Darwin had better social connections, and about Archimedes more than Hypatia because Hypatia was yet another woman with power violently erased from math texts for millennia.  AND THOSE ARE JUST THE ONES WE KNOW ABOUT. Historians have hypothesized that entire libraries’ worth of literature both scientific and artistic have been published by women using their husbands’ names, people of color using white fronters, and otherwise disenfranchised geniuses forced to rely on better-connected backers.  Anywhoo, I honestly don’t think there would be a fight even if a yeerk did make art, because I’m pretty sure the human would win.

Third: let’s talk war reparations.  Humans tend to suck at them, and tend to prefer revenge to reconstruction, but generally speaking people tend to try to help other people who have suffered as a result of war (as long as it comes at minimal inconvenience to themselves, of course) which is why we’ve got the G.I. Bill in the U.S., which is why Germany has outlawed NeoNaziism, and which is why the phrase “never again” strikes such a chord with so many groups.  Ergo, assuming that the war happened and the humans came out the other side, it’s probably safe to say that the humans are at least making a half-assed effort to acknowledge that “oh lord what the yeerks did was OBJECTIVELY TERRIBLE” and therefore would probably just err on the side of granting rights to the humans.  

Fourth, copyright law might not work like that.  Now, I don’t know shit about copyright law, but what I do know is that once a copyright has been filed and is on record, it’s heckin hard to get that copyright changed.  Generally it would involve a GINORMOUS civil case and some really strong evidence that someone currently uncredited with a particular output definitely inarguably beyondallreasonabledoubtedly contributed to the process of creating that output.  The few cases of Person A suing Person B for rights to a piece of art that I’ve ever read about have tended to go with the “Possession is nine-tenths of the law” principle (AKA if Person A’s name is on the piece of art then everyone defaults to assuming it belongs to Person A) with a side of “Can we all just exchange money and stop fighting?” (AKA everyone loves out-of-court settlements because generally speaking everyone benefits).  So if a yeerk was challenging a human over the rights to a piece of art that would have the human’s name on it anyway (because yeerks putting out art in their own names that would be recognized by humans enough to have legal issues would be hella suspicious), and if the human and the yeerk were both like “dude, I wrote this”…. Then I would assume that 99.99% of cases would end with the judge being like “go away and stop wasting my time, yeerk claimant,” or saying “take a little money and then go away, yeerk claimant” and at some point there would be enough precedent that the yeerks would get screwed.  

Fifth… Sorry to the yeerk fans of the world, but I don’t give a crap if the yeerks do get screwed.  If the host was voluntary and working with the yeerk to put out art, then there shouldn’t be an issue.  If the host was enslaved to the yeerk and being used as a puppet to make stuff the yeerk wanted to make, then the yeerk kinda deserves to get screwed out of anything they used a slave to make.  

Tl;dr: The issue of copyrighting assumes a) that yeerks put out art humans can appreciate, b) that yeerks have enough status in human society post-war to even attempt any claims, c) that any judge wouldn’t just say “the human deserves the rights” and call it a day, d) that there’s enough ambiguity left in the authorship of a piece of art with the human’s name on it to create space for conflict, and e) that there would be any “justice” in letting an involuntary host and a human-assaulting yeerk share credit for a work.  I’m not sure any of those assumptions is necessarily backed by sociology, history, jurisprudence, or the Word of Our God and Savior K.A. Applegate.

[0jamajos]

ok I would go around it like this: I would think their alien traits depend on their specific planet, so maybe Domino's traits are just a bit weird but not enough that they can't be disguised or overlooked, and maybe their weirdest most bizarre traits aren't visible things or become visible just in a specific environment or circumstances that wouldn't exist on earth, or in situations that humans would consider deathly but are ok for Domino ppl, like, idk maybe they can easily stand temperatures that would instantly kill any human being, hence Bloom would have never found herself in that situation.

Maybe Domino also has a lot of human traits so they're the weirdos of the galaxy compared to all the other shiny aliens. And maybe that's part of the reason Daphne chose earth specifically, because Domino's traits would be easy to hide.

I absolutely Adore the idea of each winx girl having certain alien traits that set them apart from each other (like scales on skin, bioluminescence, sharper teeth, etc) and simultaneously love the idea that growing up as a fairy includes reaching certain biological markers of physical growth

But then I immediately have to limit myself again because I have to skirt just under that point where Vanessa and Mike would have to ask themselves "what... the hell... is going on with our daughter"