#they're in totally different universes but I'd be cool

[marzipanandminutiae]

Do you know much about historical cuisine? Saw yet another anime with friends and they went the whole 'modern food always tastes better' bit. I feel tired of the trope and am wondering how different historical cuisine would taste compared to modern times. So anything you happen to know as a historian would be cool to know!

That varies MASSIVELY based on time and location. Like. Much more than fashion does, even, I'd imagine (in a given sub-region- I can talk about Mainstream European and Euro-American Fashion of the 19th CenturyTM but the food was so different in different countries that were dressing the same, if that makes sense? just as an example).

Food is often more globalized in a lot of places nowadays, so the characters might have more diversity of flavors from the regional norm than they're used to. But this could be a good or a bad thing- a woman from 17th-century Japan might love pizza and much sweeter Western pastries, or she might absolutely hate them. Which is not to say regional cuisines haven't evolved, too- a museum here in Boston used to have tastings of 18th-century-style hot chocolate, and it was very different from the modern sort. But that's the largest blanket difference across the globe that I can think of, food-wise.

Not sure what anime this was, so it could have been Japan-specific, but I feel like this gets applied the most to the 19th-mid 20th century UK and United States. The whole Captain America line about "food's better; we used to boil everything," for example, and the general belief that everything was bland mush in those areas until the 1950s and then it was incomprehensible Jell-O mold horrors until approximately the 1980s. And of course, none of that's true- there were plenty of dishes that used spices and different cooking methods, many of which are still popular today. See also: Jonathan Harker, a Normal 1890s Englishman, getting so rhapsodical about paprikahendl that he simply must have the recipe for his fiancee to make. There also WERE bland mushes and fluorescent nightmares, but there's less than ideal food today, as well.

(Note that I'm much less confident talking about the whole English StodgeTM thing as we get into the 20th century. That is outside my history wheelhouse and there's a lot of different stuff embroiled in it relating to class and such that I don't want to talk out my ass about. All I know is that I've seen plenty of recipes from as late as the end of the 19th century, from England and some from urban Scotland if I recall correctly, that made ample use of spices. Nutmeg, mustard, black pepper, rosemary, caraway, and cayenne pepper were especially popular (not all together obviously). There was a belief among the middle and upper classes that strong flavors of garlic and onion were distasteful to ladies, but the fact that cookbooks and such feel the need to mention it implies that those elements WERE being used in cooking generally, in the UK, at that time. So wherever the idea that All British Food Is Beige And Tasteless came from, it wasn't mainstream late Victorian cooking for adults as far as I can tell)

(They gave kids a fair amount of the beige and tasteless because they believed their digestive systems couldn't handle strongly-flavored- okay now I'm getting off topic. Read Ruth Goodman's "How To Be A Victorian." Anyway!)

tl;dr- The answer to "is modern food better?" is "that's literally impossible to answer as a blanket statement, since it's massively dependent on the character's original time, place, social status, and personal taste- and where they end up in the present, of course."

Now, I do agree that the trope is annoying the same way every single princess being totally shocked and appalled when her marriage is arranged gets annoying- not because it can't be true based on history and human behavior, but because fiction treats it as some kind of universal precept. Mix it up a little sometimes! Have a Regency character who comes to the present, finds out that her favorite local cheese isn't being made anymore, and loses her entire mind!

[devsgames]

Playersexual

"Playersexual" is a term I only recently learned about and it's fascinating to me. For those who don't know, it usually means a character whose sexual orientation is basically open to whatever the player happens to be playing as. Trans? Yeah they're romancible. Man? Romancible. Woman? Sure, romancible. As long as you're the player they don't really care.

I think this term, combined with playing a lotta Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield, sorta helped me come to terms with understanding why I often dislike really "open" romance systems where every character is Playersexual.

I'm a queer, bi/pansexual person, and that informs how I perceive interactions in and out of games. I totally understand the affirmation and liberation that comes with being able to romance whoever the heck you want. To some people, that's where the fun is at, and I get it. It's valid.

For me I just I feel weird when Playersexual is the orientation of characters in a game world that is also trying to get me emotionally invested. In my eyes, it tends to strip the perceived agency other characters might have; it makes them feel less like real people with wants, needs, attractions and preferences. They end up being more like a checklist or object to be interacted with until I choose all the right option and unlock the kiss or sex cutscene, or the mechanical bonus a relationship brings or whatever the case may be.

To me, characters that feel 'real' have sexual preference. Honestly I feel that if they lack that they sorta lack a fundamental element that informs them as a person and a character. Like, any queer person can tell you that when you're queer things are different. Interactions are different, how you act on the world is different, how you assess situations and the way you engage in conversations are different. Queer people interact with a predominantly straight world different than straight people do. Similarly, being a straight person in a world full of straight people affords interacting with the world fundamentally different than if you were queer. I think to say "every character is maybe queer" steamrolls this fact and sort of undermines that queer experience to an extent.

Plus I think its just like, a missed stroytelling opportunity! The straight dude turns my masc ass down because he's not interested in men? Oh hell yeah, if he's polite about it I think that's really cool! He feels like more of an actual person that way, and what might ordinarily be perceived as a 'failure to romance' feels like it could be spun into another step in our journey as friends together. Maybe we'll crack jokes about it later, or he'll have a change of heart once he gets to kmow me better. It might be awkward, but we had an experience together and set some friendly boundaries, and built an understanding. After all, people having boundaries are often what makes people people in the first place.

So when I play a character and a game tells me everyone in a game is queer, then I'm either lead to believe 1) my character is incredibly charismatic (trust me, that's not usually the case) 2) queerness doesnt exist as a concept in this universe (weird in its own way and also usually not true) 3) eh i dunno we didn't think about it too much just choose someone as a partner already (boooo!).

Look if everyone in my party has strong opinions about me pickpocketing someone and stealing 5 bucks from them, I'd expect them to have opinions about who they share a bedroll with >:(

[phantomrose96]

hi your short story is giving me absolute brainworms it’s DAMN good. I don’t have anything of real note to add so I’ll just ask: is there anything you really want to say about the story but haven’t yet (like trivia or whatnot)?

(938 Seconds Per Second)

Probably that I'd very nearly abandoned it!

The idea started from an article I was reading about time dilation - the gist of it being "okay but what's to stop you from accelerating infinitely? Up to and past the speed of light?" and the conclusion was kind of "you sort of can... from YOUR frame, from YOUR perception of time, potentially. but from a resting frame, you will appear to only ever approach the speed of light." So even if you could perceive yourself traveling 100 light years in a month... to every resting body, 100 years have passed.

So I was like cool! Fucked up potential! I really liked the concept of "you can notice your mistake after 5 minutes and already be 100 years too late to fix it."

I toyed with a few ideas and ended up gravitating towards "what if one shipmate intentionally leaves another shipmate behind... and by the time this is discovered days later, the left-behind shipmate is long dead." I also settled on "what if your shipmate sucked so bad that he causes you to snap and leave him behind"

So I started writing with that as the core idea. Main character Mendoza has the Worst Coworker in the World Universe, and he snaps and leaves Carson behind on a planet.

...But then I was a little lost. I was struggling with the substance. The "what makes this interesting" and the "what ties this all together." Sure I could just write Carson being an ass for 3,000 words and then... Mendoza leaves him behind the end?

I was even struggling with the first draft because part of me was like "what's even enjoyable about reading about a completely insufferable person...?" Even Mendoza himself is no peach. Maybe the whole concept was just unpalatable. I kinda just... ditched it where it was.

Then I came back to it this weekend and decided to kind of rethink it, fresh. And the absolute biggest difference between the early stumbling draft and what I ended up with was Sampson. He actually solved so much. (He existed in the early draft, but not importantly.) He introduced the character stakes and the tying thread to the story I was missing.

Now it wasn't just Carson annoying Mendoza. Once Sampson's tome enters the story, the stakes change. Mendoza is now in the middle of Carson actively destroying the thing Sampson is even alive for. Mendoza is now in a position of actively needing to make choices--he could intervene and try to save Sampson's tome. He could tattle. He could do anything--but he doesn't. Because "not letting Carson win" is the single most important thing. Mendoza doesn't need to be any kind of hero. He chooses not to be.

And now the reader is captive to this conflict, privy to everything Mendoza knows, and does not act on, as Sampson unravels in the background.

And now we have a thread that leads to Carson and Mendoza ending up on-planet together. Carson isn't out there for shits and giggles, he's out there because the plot point about Sampson's tome led to this. Now Carson knows about the cargo, and now he's offering Mendoza the chance to not just be passive witness, but be accomplice to Sampson's destruction.

And it's enticing. It's unimaginable wealth, and it's getting off the shitty ship, and it's never seeing Carson again. Mendoza has the chance to stick to his every-man-for-himself ideals and go along with Carson. And it's interesting to explore Carson's reasoning for why they deserve this! They're the ones who sacrificed 300 years for this journey! Don't they deserve this over some fucker who wasn't even born when this mission started?

And then it reaches one pivotal moment--Carson's gleeful declaration that Sampson will totally kill himself once he discovers what they've stolen. Because now there are consequences to this action. If Mendoza follows through with this, it's with the knowledge that he's gotten Sampson killed. (And maybe he shouldn't care. Maybe it doesn't matter. As he's asserted this whole time.)

Mendoza doesn't do it. He pulls up the ladder after Carson.

He doesn't let Carson win.

And then the ending... the ending where Sampson very much was witness to Mendoza following Carson out of the ship. If Sampson were every-man-for-himself, he could just comply and tell Major Kensington what he saw. Mendoza knew Carson was outside the ship. Mendoza came back. Carson didn't. The ship took off. Sampson knows this all.

But, Sampson has an idea of what, may, have happened. He knows he accidentally revealed too much to Carson. He knows Carson stole the tome which contains information about the cargo. Sampson, maybe, knows what decision Mendoza made.

So Sampson lies to Kensington. Sampson will swear on his life he never saw Mendoza that evening. No one will ever know.

And just!!! It was delightful to find the piece that ties the WHOLE story through. It's not just "your coworker sucks and you booted him to live out 40 years on a planet for your next 2 weeks". It's character-driven now. It's about choices and consequences and the fucked up implications that the time-dilation travel throws in.

[icedragonlizard]

What if dream friends had dialogue in Star Allies?

I suppose it could've been a lot of unnecessary work for HAL to do, but I still think it could be highly fun and imaginative to think about.

How cool would it be if the game's plot actually acknowledged the existence of the dream friends? The things they'd say in-game, etc...

I think it would be especially fun to think about what all the different dream friends might saying during the mage sister fights. Like, y'know, the points of the game where there's dialogue. What they all might say to the mage sisters in response to their words....

... I'm not going to go over what I think every dream friend would say in these moments, but I think I'd like to focus on ones such as Susie, Magolor, Marx, Taranza and Daroach. Why these ones in particular? Because I think they'd probably be the more entertaining ones in what they'd have to say in their dialogue during the mage battles.

How funny would it be that Marx and Magolor just troll the shit out of the mages? How funny would it be that Susie acts condescending when talking to them? How funny would it be that Taranza joke-flirts with them, he doesn't actually mean it as he's just doing it to get them riled up? How funny would it be that Daroach tells them to watch out before he steals from them? This stuff is fanfiction-worthy! Heck, this might be the biggest reason why I might attempt my adaptation of Star Allies into a fanfiction in the future, although I've got many other fics planned beforehand so it'd be a long while.

But still! There could be endless potential when thinking about this.

Let me demonstrate an example. First, let's look at the part where the game first introduces Flamberge, and she's really angry.

"HEY, YOU! Stubby little...pink thing! Yes, YOU! I have a buuuurning question for you! You're the one who was so rude to sweet Francisca, aren't you?! Don't you dare try to deny it!"

"Ohohohohohohoho! We sure put that crazy blue lady in her place! What are you gonna do about it? Throw a temper tantrum? Go so berserk that you lose control and we can easily beat you?"

Wanna guess who said that? Hahahaha... the purple text probably made it obvious. In this interpretation, it's Marx who said that. There's no way he wouldn't just totally mock them and rub it in their faces. At the very least in my interpretation of Marx, it'd be like him to do that.

And by the way, I'm one that actually headcanons Marx becoming friends with the mage sisters post-HiAD because he loves how chaotic they are, and loves that they're willing to join him in doing insane shit (especially Francisca). But during Star Allies when the mages were the enemy? I bet he totally mocked the shit out of them!

Magolor, too. Here's a good example of Magolor having dialogue against one of the mages:

"Bonjam. I am Zan Partizanne, the eldest of the three generals of magic."

"Woah... Zan what? I didn't hear that thoroughly! I think I'll call you Zan Parmesan Cheese, though!"

".... I absolutely HATE that you ended up getting my name more right than a lot of other fools have."

It'd be hilarious to see a lot of dream friends trying to say her name. All the different ways they could say it wrong.

Here's a Taranza example:

"This must be the fiery flames of fate at work! Ooooh yeaaaah! My flames and I are fully stoked now!"

"Golly, you're really hot, good ma'am!" with a trollish look on his face.

"... Excuse me? EXCUSE ME?"

"Hahahahahaha! Am I making you overheat too much, fool?"

I think Taranza deserves to be depicted as silly sometimes.

A Daroach example:

"We wish to assemble the dark Jamba Heart pieces that were scattered across the universe."

"Woah... you want them all? That's a big bummer! What if I want to steal some of them? Maybe I'll still do it out of spite, teehee!"

I hate the limited amount of colors allowed for tumblr posts. To make it clear, for this example, the blue text is Francisca while the red text is Daroach. While, of course, Flamberge was the red text in the examples with Marx and Taranza, while Magolor was the blue text in the example with Zan.

And now, let me demonstrate a couple examples with Susie. I think she'd delightfully fire off on them like the feisty cheeky woman she is.

"I shall now turn this pink ball of nice into a frozen block of ice!"

"No you won't. This 'pink ball of nice' is a force of pure destruction, and you're going to defrost by daring to harm the universe with all of this insolent nonsense. You must be destroyed!"

"... Very well. But I won't go down without a fight, so you best watch out that you all might become ice sculptures this time. I can more than make sure of it!"

"We will more than make sure to obliterate you, just like the rest of your barbaric cult! Let's put her in her place, Pinky!"

Susie example with Zan:

"I did not expect you to survive your visit to Jambastion."

"You thought that would've gotten us? Pfft! We've all been through worse than that. You're going to have to try harder than that if you really want to eliminate us for good."

"Really, you survived worse? Well, that doesn't matter, because your luck has run out."

"No. Your luck has run out. We're going to exterminate all of you like the savages you are!"

This works out well with my interpretation that Susie's Japanese SA pause description containing the words "exterminate the savages!" is referring to the Jambastion cult when they were still the enemy. I headcanon that she's slowly in the process of unpacking baggage, and "savages" is just a thing she calls people she views as enemies.

And uh... to be honest, the cult kind of deserved to be called words like that during Star Allies when they were threatening everything.

I've done a lot of examples of a few dream friends having dialogue during the mage battles. But what about when confronting Hyness?

I think all the dream friends would be horrified at the moments that Hyness knocks Zan out of the way, weaponize all three mage sisters' bodies in his second phase of the fight, and then sacrificing them and himself to Void Termina. It would make them just flabbergasted.

Although I bet Marx would probably laugh at how unhinged he is.

"It seems... we do not have enough energy... to revive our Dark Lord... Must we... allow ourselves... to fall... into oblivion?"

"Yes, you should do that!"

"No."

"Yes."

"NO!"

"YES!"

"No no no no no!"

"Yes yes yes yes yes!"

"*goes on his giant unhinged rant*"

"*laughs hysterically* Look at you go off! It's hilarious!"

Marx is just... lmao.

Sorry that I don't have examples with every dream friend having dialogue in this post. But you get the general idea! Perhaps if you have ideas as to what the other dream friends could say in these moments, feel free to mention them in the notes!

Although I'll leave you here with a King Dedede example, just cuz:

"For what you've done, I'll scorch you to such a degree that... that... even tasty, toasty marshmallows will seem like ice cubes compared to you!"

"You ain't gonna be scorchin' any of us, ya hot fiery slimeball! We'll put you in your place like we did to the blue look-a-like of ya!"

Hahaha... ha... I interpret southern accent Dedede. Sue me.

Thanks for reading the post if you did! Let me know about more ideas of dream friend dialogue you have in the notes. I'd be curious what else you think in this broad, interesting concept.

[gotham-daydreams]

Ooooh can't wait for your isekai fic, speaking of isekai what's your perspective of it? I feel like there's two form of isekai that's popular with people the first is thrown away by magical object to another world and given mission to go home the second one is full reborn into another world the term isekai truck come to mind when we talk about isekai reborn....

Maybe just a niche of mine but what do you think of isekai reader that doesn't know jackshit about world or universe they got it? The don't know anything about this people might as well destroy the plot for shit and giggles for all they care

Oh I definitely agree that the whole "i got hit by a truck, died, and now i'm reincarnated into this thing i'm crqzy about and know everything on" is suuuuper popular at the moment, and honestly before i looked up the term I thought it literally meant just "reincarnated into a diff world" and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't! I haven't seen too much of the "object sends you to a diff world and you need to head home" kind of story, but I'd like to, honestly!

Also, I love your niche because that sounds funny as hell, and honestly more people need to write stuff like that! I'd read the hell out of it.

Though, maybe it's because I love psychological horror and such so much, and just delving into the mind and people's thoughts... but I honestly wish that more was done with the genre? Not even from a horror aspect or anything. I just sort of wish I saw more main characters that wished they got to go home, or back to their own world (without being certain if they are even able to). Or characters that are having a genuinely hard time adapting to the world because - even if they are familiar with it, it's just so different then what they're used to. Or where, even as they are going along - they kind of miss their old life, as shitty and boring as it was in comparison. Or not even their life, just the world. They miss the ocean, the forests, and the kind of subtle peace they knew they could have there if they wanted to take a break. It wasn't perfect, and it didn’t have magic, but... it was still their world, y'know?

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the idea and I think it can be very interesting! But for the most part it's definitely very power-fantasy... and just generally very fantasy esc, which- there's nothing wrong with that! Sometimes reading something like that just feels good, or its so silly and a good way to lift your mood- or just generally just fun to read!

I think I just kind of wish that sometimes more was done with it? Since, I'll be honest, a lot of stories feel like that, and I wish that someone would try to do something a little different?

I really only mentioned psychological horror earlier because I believe it could get a darker if anyone really ever does try to kind of delve into an unwilling protagonist- which is a up my alley a little more, but is that really a surprise when I write yandere content? LMAO

On a lighter note I'd also like to see characters that just like... come from completely different world, going to another??? It's both hilarious and so interesting to me, genuinely.

I mean- technically I'm doing that with Clover? And hell, I'm also kind of doing some of the more existential stuff with another yandere fic of mine that isn't Batfam or DC related at all- but that's nor here nor there. I'd still like to see other people do it, I think it'd be really cool! And I don't mean like, fantasy world to modern world (even if that is a semi-good example), I moreso me just, like, alien world -> completely different alien world. Or even like, fantasy world -> world with totally diff magic + apocalypse? Just cool things people could mess with, really!

On topic of a character not knowing anything... maybe they do but just can't even interact or even apply half the knowledge they have? Like, either they're in a magical setting but still can't use magic- but everyone can. Or there is a system they just can't use (another idea of mine that's completely unrelated the Batfam/DC, actually), and so on and so forth!

Or they don't know and are just stumbling around, trying to find a way back home... and are either completely ruining everything or actually making things better without that even being their full intention. Broski just wants to go home, and they're just making the world a better place/destroying the entire universe by pure chance and accident.

Also like, what if people just accidentally stumbled into these worlds? Or random people are being brought there for... whatever reason? (I've seen that done a bit, and I'm also kind of doing it myself, but again, not going to dwell on that too much!) I don't know, I'm just throwing things around here, haha!

Tldr: I don't mind the idea and actually find it really interesting, I just wish more was done with it and I saw more experimentation with the subject! I do find it very fun, though :]

[f1llory]

i know a lot of people think it's not that deep but idk, the constant desire for more gory stories of past hunger games rubs me the wrong way. don't get me wrong, i'm all for fanfics exploring that, but there's a reason there will never be novels detailing that.

the reason people want spinoffs for finnick and johanna is the fact that we love them. there is nothing that would be added to the universe if we had an official/canon account of their games. they're typical games and typical victors--which i think is the point of their character. they're different from each other in some ways, but their stories are so common among victors--because that's simply what the capitol does to people.

i'm not sure i agree with the people who think it's inherently bad for people to be interested in that. there's a reason people are interested in that. the characters and worldbuilding in the hunger games are so beautifully done that there's always something to notice, theorize about, explore, and expand on. i just think that having novels on things like this would be pointless--and detrimental to the message of the series. the point is not to show violence for violence's sake, the point is to show what it takes for people to become who they are, and how the choices they make can lead to either oppression or liberation. that being said, i'm all for exploring them in fanfic. i think fanfic is an incredible thing, i love reading and writing it, and there are so many things that fans of the series can explore and create.

i'm also all for new novels if they happen! i just think they would have to add a hell of a lot more to the world of panem than the gory details of a typical hunger games to satisfy people's curiosity. here's some things that i think would be cool to see:

-the life of an avox in the capitol. this would give a totally different outlook on life in the capitol, since we've only seen people who benefit from the system and not those who are punished by it. this could be some random unknown avox but because i'm me, i would LOVE to have a full pollux spinoff i'm literally in love with him

-a victor we've never seen and their life after the games. it could show their life after returning to their district, how they're viewed, how their view of their district has changed. this could also be an interesting way to see a little more of the mentoring process and the toll it takes

-something exploring life in any of the districts we haven't gotten to see. this could also be part of the previous idea, i just think it would be interesting since our knowledge of so many districts are limited. although maybe that's the point? all we know of panem is through the eyes of two deeply unreliable narrators

-the first rebellion, or anything set before the hunger games were created. how was panem different back then? and how did things get to the point of such a big rebellion?

-are there people living outside the bounds of the districts? obviously people like lavinia have been caught trying to escape, but there very well may be people living out there. i wonder what they'd think of what was going on, or if they'd come into contact with people escaping to district 13. and no i do not want this to involve lucy gray i never want confirmation on what happened to her

basically, there's so much more of panem i'd like to see explored, but there are some things that i don't want to see, or expect to see, in any offical continuation. i absolutely love fanfics exploring those things, or anything other fans find interesting. i just think that there are so many things that could be added to the canon and i don't understand the focus on the idea of novels that would really detract from the way suzanne collins approaches her work.

in conclusion i am simply losing my mind over tbosas and i’m using a blog i never use to yell into the void thank u for reading

[nohoperadio]

Here's a little breakdown of my personal relationship/non-relationship with various types of aesthetic self-modification (?, I feel like there might be a word or at least a more elegant phrase to denote this category). The point is not to offer my "take" on each thing but to express the different feelings/desires/inhibitions my psyche manifests around them. Some of these will approach awkwardly personal territory, fair warning! You may notice that basically none of them are especially positive; I'm going to leave off from analyzing that pattern for this post.

Tattoos -- I think tattoos as a concept are extremely cool, frequently they're cool in practice also and I like seeing other people's, but I don't think I've ever had even the smallest urge to get one for myself. I'm not totally sure why. The lack of an obvious thing to get is one factor, I feel like "band tattoo" would be the most likely thing for me to have but I don't like the idea of directly lifting a band logo or album art and I really don't like the idea of a lyric tattoo (I offer no justification for these prejudices), so I'd have to get clever with it if I'm doing that and I'm not very clever. More broadly, I predict that my enthusiasm for any artwork I put on my body would fade through overexposure in a matter of weeks if not days--other people describe "barely knowing it's there" after a short time--which on top of making the value of the project seem dubious, I feel like having a permanent image on my skin that I don't actively love would be something I'd feel bad about rather than neutral. Like "man, that thing's on my arm and I don't care about it at all, that sucks" rather than just not noticing it. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

(Tattoos are the one that got me thinking about this whole subject I think, it feels like they're reaching a ubiquity in the culture where it's almost like you're expected to have a reason not to have one rather than a reason to? Maybe that's just a people-I-know thing, anyway it got me thinking about why I don't want one.)

Piercings -- An interesting thing about me and piercings is that it's virtually impossible for me to notice when somebody has them unless I'm like, actively consciously scrutinizing their face (or whatever it is). When I was about ten months into my current job I asked my co-worker who I worked closely with almost every day "hey when did you get that septum ring" and she was like "well way before I met you". That is simply how it is with me and piercings and I make no apology.

If my inability to perceive piercings (perceirvings...) makes me indifferent to the idea of getting one, what makes me actively hostile is the total certainty that I would fiddle with it constantly if I did. I know these hands and their ways and there would simply be no dissuading them, it would be so bad you guys, oh my god. This is probably the hardest no on the list I think, although I haven't finished the post yet so idk maybe I'll think of a worse one.

Makeup -- There's undeniably a lot that's very beautiful in the universe of makeup and there's also the weird dark side, I have dabbled a little in this area and in my heart I feel more positively than not about it, but it's just never going to be a sustainable part of my life because (not unrelated to previous para) I am a perennial and unrepentant face-toucher. I will be itching and rubbing my face-skin and also inflicting other hard-to-characterize punishments upon it (is this "stimming"?) until the day I die and anything that wants to be on my face has just gotta deal. It would probably be better if this was not the case but I don't make the rules, sorry.

Haircuts -- When I was a child I haaaaaated getting my hair cut, like the physical sensation of it? Was so horrible and would usually make me cry and always ruin my day (is this "sensory overload"?), I didn't understand why I was being made to go through this ordeal and basically as soon as I reached an age when I realized my mom couldn't literally force me to do it if I just stubbornly refused hard enough--that age was 13 I think--I stopped. I haven't had a professional haircut since that time although I'm sure I could cope with the sensory aspect at this point, it's just not a habit I ever picked up again (I've had a couple of non-professional ones from my ex who just kind of wanted to try it, in a not particularly ambitious or dramatic fashion). Sometimes I feel like I should, but idk. My hair as it stands is not optimized for making me look hot but I don't think it looks especially horrible either, it's just kind of whatever I think.

Complicating factor here: I've had trichotillomania since I was 15/16, and it's hard to imagine it going away at this point but it's a lot more under control than it used to be, to the point where you can't really tell just from my appearance that something's up now. I say "under control", I have very little conscious control over it and usually no conscious awareness that I'm doing it, but over the years the compulsion seems to have unconsciously settled into a routine where it's just kind of... sculpting my hair into a more-or-less normal silhouette? Like I sort of have a fringe and stuff despite no haircuts. Oh I guess this doesn't make sense unless I clarify that I mostly break rather than pluck the hair nowadays, that's a big part of the gradual unconscious shift that's occurred.

A fun thing about trichotillomania is that it often makes people really uncomfortable when you talk about having it, which sucks for me because it makes me feel lonely, but I guess it sucks for the person feeling uncomfortable too in a smaller way. If you're one of the people who feel uncomfortable around this topic, sorry! Quite genuinely.

Gender transition in general -- I feel like I'm just, just on the boring side of cis-by-default. I think about transitioning shockingly often for someone who's never gonna do it, like it's not searing a hole in my heart or anything like it is for a lot of people but it occupies that "it would be cool to learn an instrument" kind of niche in my thoughts, if that makes sense? (Probably a bit stronger than that analogy makes it sound, it's on my mind frequently but not with a massive sense of urgency attached I guess is what I'm getting at.) I can see myself taking the plunge if the medical technology was like 10% better, or the social technology was like 20% better, or with some medium-sized changes in how my personality was configured, but this life being this life there's no way in heck the juice would be worth the squeeze. If I had one fifth of the executive function required to do all of that lying to doctors and learning how to clothes shop and having awkward conversations with people in my life and all the rest of it, well I can list like ten things I'd rather spend it on first. And I don't!

Glasses -- Love wearing glasses, 10/10 no notes. I knew since I was like 11 that my face should have a pair of glasses on it and I was very smug when the optician agreed (I did not cheat on the eye test in any way for what it's worth). The only times I'm not wearing glasses are sleeping and showering. I don't even carry a case because there's no point because I simply don't ever take them off. This is probably overkill, I think as a kid I was instructed to only put them on when I need to see something in the distance, ignoring that and just wearing them permanently has probably led to my vision weakening to the point where they're now pretty much mandatory in every situation, but I don't give a shit about that because just let me wear my goddamned glasses okay, fuck off. It's actually crazy how much I like wearing glasses, this is the only true thumbs up on the list.

I remembering trying to explain how I like my glasses to a then-close friend of mine many years ago when the subject of laser eye surgery came up in conversation, he said I should get the surgery and then just wear glasses with non-prescription lenses. When I tried to explain why that wouldn't be the same at all he was adamant that I was just being stubborn. That guy was a wonderful person in many ways and I loved him very deeply, but man what a dumbass thing to say.

Facial hair -- There are so many great beards and moustaches in this world, there are few more cheering sights than someone bearing some swish whiskers who's pleased about it, but personally I don't wish to be involved in that business at all.

I never learned how to ride a bike -- Obviously this one doesn't belong on the list, it doesn't fit with any of the other categories, and yet I feel compelled to include it here. And why should I resist that which compels me? This is my post. Yeah, I'm the oldest of four siblings, we were all given bikes at the appropriate kid-on-bike age, the others picked it up but not me. I liked it when I had stabilizers on my bike, then they took them off and I started falling off the bike, and after a very short amount of time I gave up. Like I didn't get mad injuries or anything, it just felt like I wasn't improving at it quickly enough and I didn't feel like keeping it up so I didn't. Early indication of my bad personality.

Fashion in general -- Clothes shopping has always been extremely aversive to me for whatever reason, it's gotten a little better in recent years, I have been able to exist inside clothes shops for long enough to purchase a small thing or two, but eh. Most of my tops are band t-shirts I bought at gigs, most of my bottoms are exactly identical pairs of jeans, there's just not much going on you know? But unlike with most of the items on this list I would really like to be doing this properly. I would like to wear cuter things with prettier colours and designs. This one's an actual goal. But so far I haven't really made progress. The aforementioned shopping sucks thing, plus a fear of being so aesthetically clueless that I just make myself look like a big idiot if I try anything risky, plus the fact that doing things that are not my established routine is tricky in general--these are barriers for me. I guess another barrier is that the things that would be most interesting to try out and therefore most potentially motivating fall into the wrong-gender-clothes category and therefore bring into play some of the barriers from that other category a few ones up. I did actually somehow get myself to dabble in that area some years ago to a modest but positive degree of satisfaction. It'll probably happen again. The patterns and causes that determine whether I can or cannot find motivation to engage in a thing--they are mysterious indeed.

Like horn implants or whatever other crazy miscellany -- I don't want anything in this category and don't have any non-trivial thoughts about it either. Including this section for completeness only.

---

Well, there you have it, that's the post. Now you know a bit more about some of my little weirdsies. If you actually made it through the whole thing, a) how interesting and b) why not tell me a little weirdsy of yours in return, whether it pertains to the above list or not? Why not get all antiphonal on my post, that way I'd get to know a thing about you as well, it might be a whole fun kind of deal. You don't have to though, I didn't make this post to try to snare people into letting themselves be known, I just kind of made it to be a post mostly. I make all sorts of kinds of posts you know? And so I thought I'd try one that's like this.

[sureokyeahwhatever]

i finished vampire the masquerade bloodlines after chipping away at it for a couple weeks after work. Those first 2/3rds of the game are a genuine masterpiece, but man, that last third gets really, really weird and racist.

The thing is, is that I actually have very little to say about that first 2/3rds. It's just good. The design is great, it's well balanced, it's open ended, it has great characters. It's wonderful. This part of the game feels like a real, worthy successor to Deux Ex. There's just nothing more to say, I think.

...

And that's why I almost have a hard time believing it's written by the same people as the last bit. The whole game up to that point (up to just before chinatown) is pretty darn smartly written with some relatively cogent social commentary. The quality of the missions also takes a really, really steep dive in that section too (lots of run and gun hallways, lots of extremely buggy areas, shitty boss fights, etc. But that's honestly understandable because balancing the endgame of an ImSim is practically impossible). Idk, it feels like a totally different game. I could almost just forgive all of that though, if it weren't for the ungodly and seemingly genuine racism with regards to the east Asian vampires.

Like. Ok. If we're being VERY charitable and we just flatly forgive all of the misguided-though-not-malintentioned 2000s era attempts at humor-via-stereotype (dialogue options referencing "tentacles" directed at a young japanese woman; old chinese guys who are always loud and drunk; jingoistic WWII-surviving japanese soldier; Chinese businessman speaking in riddles and mentioning the I-Ching; so on and so on) the whole handling of the "chinese vampire" storyline is psychotically racist.

You first hear of these guys -- the Kuei-Jin, which I learn from the wiki is a portmanteau of the Mandarin word for ghost and a the Japanese word for person, which... ok. -- as being basically like animals. They slaughter who ever they see, lots of people in the bourgeois faction see them as a nuisance, the people in the anarchist faction see them as "invaders from the east," which already had me like "Jesus fucking Christ, maybe these anarchist guys aren't cool after all". But anyway, you go to Chinatown to talk to them and -- by my estimation -- they were basically the same as everyone else. They're protective of their territory, they're secretive, they're paranoid of outsiders... I mean, yeah, they're fucking vampires and apparently all the other vampires see them as sub-human, so yeah, I'd be paranoid and secretive around me too.

The thing is, is that you have this anarchist friend who you tell everything to -- Jack -- and I wanted to go tell him "hey, I don't think these guys are so bad. Maybe we misjudged them" or something like that. And there was a dialogue option along the lines of that, but when I said it, his response was something to the effect of "don't let them sweet talk you with their 'spiritual path' bullshit. That stuff ain't for /us/". Which, I heard and again, said "ah! Interesting writing decision! We're learning that Jack ALSO has flaws like everyone else! he's not just some perfectly cool, levelheaded badass -- he has unjustified prejudices just like everyone else!" So I continued the story under the assumption that, yes, while the surface level of the whole "Chinese vampire" thing was being handled in a really immature, racist way, and in-universe all the other factions seemed to see them as exactly that -- racist stereotypes of conniving, backstabbing Chinese mafia goons -- this was all setting up an interesting "let's all learn to put our cultural differences aside and defeat those rich assholes who want to rule LA"-style ending. This would not be the case.

There was a moment towards the end that I THOUGHT confirmed my suspicion. You are told by the leader of the bourgeois faction to convince the anarchist faction to ally with them so they can, together, take down the Kuei-Jin. Around this time you also are intercepted by the leader of the Kuei-Jin who straight up warns you "hey, that bourgeois guy set me up. He's about to set you up too. Be careful. I hope we can be friends in the future." So I get this information and go straight to the anarchist faction with the intention to say "Ok, bourgeois guys are obviously doing a power play. Now's the time to join with the Kuei-Jin and take them out. We'll settle our petty differences later." (Side note, yes, I understand they were recently at war, but war happens in these situations. The best way to prevent another war is actively making peace. Not by just constantly threatening to go BACK to war). But no such option was available. Instead, all the options were different variations on "Let's join with the bourgeois faction and kill those Chinese guys!" What? But I don't want to kill those guys! And I don't really trust either of these other factions either because the anarchists are racists and the bourgeois guys are, well, bourgeois guys.

So eventually the "ending-tron 3000" comes up in the form of a conversation with a taxi driver which, as far as ending-trons go, is pretty cute. If you decide to ally with the Kuei-Jin two things happen: one, everyone hates you because it's completely impossible to convince anyone that they are anything other than parasites, and two, they kill you in a cutscene and you die in the ocean, which, all things considered, is probably the worst possible way this whole story line could have been handled. There was an opportunity here to have an exceptionally interesting moment where you bring people together to fight in solidarity against those who seek to concentrate their power over the city and all it's inhabitants. There could have been an ending where you work together with the Kuei-Jin and the anarchists to get rid of the bourgeois faction, render the "anarchist" faction system redundant, and allow LA vampires to establish their own federated society where people can live where and how they please without the iron fist of some Ivory tower pretty boys telling everyone how to live their lives. You could establish a system of vampire democracy across LA, with all the benefits and negatives that it brings. Would LA then be crushed under the heel of the bourgeois faction coming in from other cities? Or would it be able to stand the test of time and serve as an example for other cities to rise up and do the same? There's some interesting stuff here, both politically and for individual characters as perhaps you have to work extra hard to get Jack and the rest of the anarchists to believe that the Kuei-Jin are, despite superficial differences, just vampires like they are and that they all share common interests.

Instead, the game goes hard in the other direction. It calls you an idiot for trusting those eastern invaders and basically says "you should have listened to everyone else when they were mumbling under their breath about how you can't trust those Kuei-Jin as far as you can throw them". i.e., you were an idiot for not being racist enough. Like, I can understand the general theme of "trust no one", since it permeates through the whole game, but to literally introduce a faction of "conniving foreigners" who everyone hates, and then to have that hate be perfectly justified just feels boring, hateful, and honestly like a waste of a third of what was otherwise a great, great game.

Anyway. The game is good. Great, even! It's really hard to make an ImSim, so even though the last third has some rough (ROUGH) design flaws and bugs, I'm happy to look past that. However, it's really easy to not just put Chinese people in your game and make them evil stereotypes that everyone rightfully hates, so that's harder to look past.

I would say the ideal way to experience the game is to marathon the first chapter up to downtown, play less and less frequently from downtown up until the end of hollywood or so, and gradually lose interest around the time that you're asked to go to Chinatown. I think if you did that, you'd end up remembering the game very fondly.

[al-the-remix]

Ghost!Tommy AU Brainstorming:

Okay I still have a fic to finish, but I've been toying with this idea for afterwards: set during season 6 where Buck returns from his coma dream with the ability to see ghosts. Once back at the 118 he starts seeing mild signs of ghosts everywhere: orbs and partial apparitions, more like echos of memories trapped at the sites of tragedies that full fledged spirits. The one exception is obviously Tommy who appears more realized to him than all the others. Tommy, who's been trapped in the firehouse for 7 (??? what is the timeline) years. 

I need to go rewatch season 6 to figure out some plot and character beats, but I like the idea that as Buck is struggling to come to terms with everything from the coma dream, and all the baggage that comes along with dying and coming back to life, he has this person to talk to that's–at least on the death side of things–been there before. I still want him to meet Natalia, and have a connection with her and they begin to date or are friends who are just hooking up casually (and have a lot more to talk about, lol). But at the same time Buck struggles with being drawn to Tommy like a magnet, this person who isn't even alive. 

I haven't quite settled on what Tommy's backstory is going to be beyond Chim not being able to save him in time during the gas explosion in season 2. But some of the things Buck fears the most are dying and people moving on without him and not remembering him. So when he starts seeing Tommy and realizes that he was part of the 118 and died and…no one ever talks about him? There could be so much potential connection there. (Obviously there's a deeper reason why Hen and Chim don't bring Tommy up, chiefly shame and guilt, but Buck doesn't know that quite yet.)

I don't know if I'd keep the sperm donor plot line. I'm not a hater, but I feel like recovering from dying, a death doula girlfriend, and a ghost boyfriend, is a lot for one guy to deal with all at once. Instead I think I'd like to bring Albert back into the fold in one way or another. I really enjoyed his friendship with Buck and was sad when he pretty much disappeared from the show. I just see this as a fic where the Buckley-Hans really lean on each other. 

I'd like to keep the tone of the fic not too heavy, and retain a good amount of humor even while Buck is thinking he's going a little insane seeing dead people and having a torrid, seemingly doomed, love affair with one of those dead people. 

One of the things I appreciate so much about the show is its ability to balance humor and angst, as well as developing this campy atmosphere where it's totally not out of the realm of possibility to have ghosts, and cursed bracelets, and magic fire truck that can drive you all over Los Angeles in midday traffic without the building burning down before you get there…

I'd prefer a happy ending, but I'll write a heartbreaking one if I think it fits. The difficulty with ghost aus, if you're going to have the love interest come back to life it's got to feel earned, and fit within the rules of the universe you've set up, and that's not always an easy thing to accomplish. 

I think if I wanted to bring Tommy back to life it could go two differently ways: either I could veer into full crack–which I'm not opposed to doing–but is really going to need the right set up (unless we're all cool with Buck and his hot zombie bf 🥰 )

But the more likely option is some time loop shenanigans as a fix-it. Buck is able to solve whatever preternatural puzzle I set up for him with his big brain and endless imagination, fixing whatever bad timeline they're in and making it so Tommy never actually dies. They say their goodbyes and Tommy ““goes back””--whatever that means with context–and Buck's all alone again. The firehouse feels so empty now without Tommy around. And the more days that pass by the more Buck worries that his big plan didn't actually work at all (maybe in here either everyone at the firehouse does actually forget Tommy ever existed for a little while because of yet to be established hand-wavey reasons or Buck's too afraid to ask about him/look Tommy up incase it didn't work and he really did lose him forever–preparing for that reality and living it are two totally different ball games–)

Until one day they have to call in air support at an emergency and suddenly Chim yells “Hey, there's Tommy!” and when Buck whips around sure enough there he is. And Buck's all like “can you introduce me to your friend? 👀” to Chim and Tommy's all like “have we met before? I feel like I know you from somewhere 🤔”. Tommy doesn't remember Buck (right away?) but here's this man who is SO CUTE and hot and smart and funny, and weirdly, like, super into him? And he pulls Chim aside like “why haven't you introduced me to this man before? Have you been holding out on me? What about my romcom happy ending?” And Chim is like “I didn't even know that he was into men!!” Meanwhile, Buck’s just hovering in the background full heart-eyes mode waiting to woo the fuck out of his man (the best he can without sticking his foot in his mouth)...

They exchange numbers and agree to meet for a drink after their respective shifts end and at the bar Tommy asks how Buck knows what beer he prefers, and Buck's all cocky like “I guess I have good taste in more than just my men 😏” and Tommy is caught, hook line and sinker. 

After that it's happily ever after for them, and Natalia is one of Buck's "groomsmen" at the wedding (they're all bffs now.) The end. 😌

[but-a-humble-goon]

As are aware of Bruce's more negative character traits, who while not liking them doesn't dismiss them as a non canon aberration, you seem like the person to ask this question.

Do you think Gut's could be a good comparison as far as characters go in terms of being someone who is capable of great kindness & great cruelty, who is meant to be sympathetic but can at time horrify.

Obviously Guts having been written by one author for one story is a notably more coherent character. This is more of a general comparison if someone embodying two extremes & still making sense.

Guts in the Misty Valley arc could both save & be very cool towards a young child & be a source of comfort, but could also switch to holding a knife to that same child's throat to lure in an enemy for a surprise attack & still feel coherent.

Do you think a well written Batman could be handled as such, and or that Batman as he largely stands in terms of overall collective works could be regarded in a similar light?

I think the sheer insurmountable difference in the writing quality is what makes the comparison difficult. The way I'd describe it is Guts feels like an incredibly well written dark fucked up antihero and Batman feels like a very badly written morally grey goodguy. It's hard to reconcile Bruce's good with his bad because most of the time it genuinely feels like him being kind of a monster happens unintentionally thanks to writers just having no clue what they're doing. Like, clearly during the whole Stephanie War Games saga the audience was supposed to sympathize with Bruce over her but like... they sorta forgot to make him sympathetic and forgot to make Stephanie do anything bad besides being a teenaged girl so the result his he just comes across like a willfully abusive piece of shit motivated apparently by pure spite. Or, again, by pure misogyny if you take Chuck Dixon's word for it. Or whenever he's casually gleefully cruel to criminals and treats them like animals. Most of the time it doesn't feel like the story is commenting on Batman's own issues, it just kinda feels like it's being written by people who think the thoughtless brutality is okay and/or super cool actually and are using Bruce as a vicarious power fantasy. Or all the times they have him lash out with physical violence against his kids, do they actually get how screwed up and over the line that is? Because it feels more like the writers are just like "nah, it's cool, they're not his real kids so it doesn't count as child abuse, just regular abuse which is fine." I've said it before but it genuinely feels like writers think him just being Batman (the beloved childhood icon of whole generations) is a free pass to have him constantly act as awful as they feel like and never face consequences, learn any lessons or grow as a person while expecting everyone to still like him for some reason. I don't think there really is a way to square Batman's constant shittiness with the good person we're supposed to take him to be. Instead it just ends up feeling like there's two Batmans; one who's gruff, antisocial and scary but ultimately a hero who always means well... and another who is a totally incoherently horrible leech of a human being who everyone inexplicably has infinite patience for, presumably because they mistake him for the first guy. On the other hand, Berserk clearly at least understands that the extremes of bastardry Guts ends up going to are indeed extremes. They actually endeavor to make it make internal sense for the character. The dude is at any one time just barely clinging to his sanity after all the horrific shit he's lived through and every single time he tries to let his guard down and start healing the universe punishes him for it, leaving him broken all over again. He ends up being sympathetic because he's somehow only as much of a monster as he is. Even at his absolute darkest he's managed to hold on to even just the faintest glimmer of his humanity despite everything. Also to be perfectly honest, accounting for the sheer difference in quantity of content I would put money on Guts having a much higher proportional rate of humanizing moments of genuine kindness for contrast than Bruce does, even if he does also go a whole lot darker than Bruce ever has.

So if anything the comparison feels more like: here's what to do and here's what not to do.

[arcadekitten]

are you okay with people making aus that alter your characters? (eg; changing their appearances, age range, race, personality, etc)

I don't have a problem with AUs in a general sense, but when it comes to the list you made, it makes me wonder what the point is of an AU to begin with.

Twyla is my example guinea pig today, so I'm gonna go with her. Let's say I'm a fan of Cemetery Mary and I want to make an AU of Twyla.

I like the premise of her being involved in organized crime and living with her uncle, so I keep those aspects. But, I don't want her to be a young adult. I think I'd rather make her a teenager this time around. And, I don't like her being an owl, I think it's too silly for what I'm going for--and so are her eyebrows! So I assign her a human race and make her a human, and trim her eyebrows down so that they're big but not cartoonish. And while I'm at it I'm giving her a new color scheme just to keep it fresh, and curly hair because I think it's cute! And rather than being just mean-spirited, she is soft at her core!

It's a cool character idea to be sure...but is this still Twyla? How much of her needs to be lost before we recognize this as a new character who isn't really Twyla after all? What does she share with Twyla at this point other than organized crime and an uncle she lives with?

To me, the idea of an AU works best when characters personalities stay in-tact and their appearance remains recognizable. When it gets to the point where it feels more like an OC...well, you'd probably have more fun just making an OC! And they can still be inspired by the base characters of course, I totally understand needing a "jumping off point" to make your own creative endeavors. But when you change so much of the base character to make them work for your idea, it sounds like you just have a whole different idea! And that's fun and cool and great too!!

I hope no one takes this as me trying to like, discourage creativity or something. That's not my intention! It's more that I'd like people to recognize when an AU is trying to stay true to the source as an alternate universe VS when you just needed the right starting point to create your own original stories! I hope that makes sense!

[aroapl]

hello! first off, this ask is not at all meant to be antagonistic and i am genuinely coming from a place of wanting to understand. i've always been extremely for "people can be and identify as whatever they want, so long as they're not hurting anyone". what i'm struggling with is that last bit and the way that i am seeing some people using the aplatonic or loveless labels.

i am both aro- and ace spec myself, so i definitely understand not having emotions or attraction in the way that a lot of people feel that you should. and while i am pretty high empathy myself, i'm also friends with people who have low or no empathy and have no trouble understanding that that's just another way of existing and doesn't mean that you can't have compassion for people or treat people decently. my best friend has no empathy and is incredibly supportive and caring.

i also totally get when i see people iding as loveless because the way that our society (especially western society) uses the word "love" is so weird and definitely not universally relatable. completely understandable.

i've seen many people identify being aplatonic as meaning "idk i just don't really Connect with people in the way that i see most people talk about, if my friends all moved away, i wouldn't really be bothered" okay, cool. i don't Get it, but just seems to be a different experience.

where i'm really struggling is not to condemn or get angry at people who i straight up see saying "i'm loveless meaning i don't care about other human beings and if any number of people just died right in front of me i wouldn't care. if i saw someone in trouble needing my help i'd walk right past them. i hate humans". i haven't seen a TON of people express this, but i've seen enough to where i feel like they can't all be trolls, and i'm not sure how to respond.

i've also seen a lot, like definitely the vast majority of people i see pop up on my dash who id themselves as aplatonic, say that they feel horribly lonely and disconnected and just Can't make friends...therefore they must be aplatonic, and they should stop trying and be "naturally" isolated. a lot of these people also mention having past trauma, and a lot of them seem to be young teenagers.

now. i am of the opinion that identifying yourself "incorrectly"--eg, a young trans woman identifying as ace before she figures out she's trans because she has no interest in sex as someone who's seen as a man--isn't ever really harmful. not having sex with anyone isn't going to hurt you. briefly deciding you're a lesbian isn't going to hurt you if you're actually a trans man.

but these teenagers i see iding as aplatonic because they're unable to make connections with people but want to really worries me. if you don't have any close friends or even casual friends and are totally happy with that and id as aplatonic, that makes sense and seems perfectly fine to me. but i just can't make "i id this way because i'm miserable" mesh with my worldview, nor can i make "i id this way because i hate everyone" mesh either.

in the past when i've brought this up to people with the loveless able specifically, it's incited threats of violence, doxxing, and a lot of ableism, which tbh did the opposite of convincing me it was a harmless label.

do you have any thoughts on this?

(Little preface to say I consulted a server with a lot of apls and loveless folks in it to get a second opinion on how to respond to this. So, some of this is entirely my own thoughts and some is paraphrased from another loveless apl. This person did not want to be credited/named.)

I’m gonna start with my main thought on all these points, which is this: there are always going to be some people that identify with a label for the “wrong” reasons, and there are always going to be some assholes and some people you fundamentally don’t agree with in every label/community. None of these things ever make it okay to try and get rid of or police a label, to take it away from the people that genuinely find community, joy, and self acceptance in it.

A lot of what you’re saying here is quite frankly just classic aphobia, the same stuff a lot of people say/think about aros and aces just directed at apls and loveless people. There are plenty of aros that desperately wish they could like romance and have romantic relationships, and there are aphobes that think these aros are just mentally ill and that the aro label should be done away with to “save” them. There are some violently sex negative aces out there, and there are aphobes who think they speak for the whole community and that the ace label should be done away with because of it. There are people that mistakenly identify as ace and/or aro because they’re struggling with other things, and some of them isolate themselves because of it in ways that genuinely do harm them, and there are people that think ace and aro are inherently harmful labels because of this. 

Whether they truly are aplatonic or just falling back on the aplatonic label because of other struggles, some aplatonic people genuinely wishing they could make/keep friends and feeling lonely doesn’t mean that the aplatonic label as a whole is a problem. Like I said, people misidentifying in ways that do actually harm them in some way is something that can happen with any label. Also, trying to make someone drop a label that doesn’t actually fit them and force them to face the problem that led them to it before they’re ready to is rarely helpful. A lot of people in this situation would at best feel disrespected and upset, and at worst double down on their misidentification or have a serious mental health spiral over being made to face a problem they aren't ready to face. People wrongly IDing as aplatonic might find understanding and resources in our community that help them heal, they might be miserable the whole time they ID as apl and eventually move on and get help afterward, or they might learn and heal in other ways or go on to struggle for a very long time. Either way, it’s not the job of outsiders to decide someone is identifying with a label for the wrong reasons and make them let it go. 

(Also, a side note on this point. While aplatonic is currently primarily defined and used similarly to other aspec labels, there have been several other definitions that differ quite a lot. One of these definitions defines it as struggling to make or maintain friendships due to neurodivergence, or just generally struggling with friendship. Some people do still use this definition. Some of these people you’re talking about may be using this definition.)

Now on to lovelessness. Some of what you’re saying here gets into ableism, particularly towards people with personality disorders. Some people with personality disorders genuinely just aren’t capable of caring about strangers like that, or people in general. Some often aren’t capable of going out of their way to help people, or struggle a lot with it. That doesn’t make them bad. People can’t control how they feel. As long as they aren’t hurting anyone, people can feel or think whatever they want. Thought crime isn’t real.

Now, if someone is actually hurting people and using the loveless label as an excuse, that’s obviously not okay. The thing about that though is that taking the loveless label away from them won’t make them stop hurting people. They will just find another excuse, or stop bothering with having an excuse. An asshole is still going to be an asshole no matter what label or excuse they attach to it. On top of that, some people within an identity/community being bad people doesn't make it okay to vilify everyone that shares that label or get rid of that label/community. 

I’m genuinely very sorry some people have been ableist and violent towards you, that is never okay. I do need you to know though that despite what may have been good intentions, this does come off as aplphobic, loveless antagonistic, and a bit ableist. That can rightfully inspire anger and defensiveness in people with these identities, especially since many of us are already used to having our identities antagonized, disrespected, and demonized. Since you’re aroace-spec, imagine how you would feel if someone came to you and expressed these exact same sentiments, but towards ace and aro identities instead. Imagine how you’d feel if some came to you doubting that ace and aro identities should be allowed to exist because they’d encountered some aces and aros that were mean or unhappy in their identify.

At the end of the day, not everyone is going to share your worldview, and that’s fine. You don’t have to understand them or like them, or even get along with them, but they have a right to exist as they are even if you don’t agree with them or like it. If they aren’t hurting you, simply move on and focus your time and energy on the people and communities you do like and understand.

[lpsgirl109]

THE OFFICIAL OLIVIA ROSEMARY OCTAVIUS INFO POST 🔥🔥🔥

Finally deciding to make a proper explanation on who this girl is, considering I talk about her so much. Gonna preface this by saying that this character has nothing to do with Spiderverse Doc Ock. I genuinely forgot she existed until I was info dumping to my friend and he made a joke about it, and then I mentally exploded about it /j. So, same name, completely different character

Olivia is my OC who is the daughter of Otto and Rosie Octavius. She's childhood friends with Peter, Harry, and MJ. In terms of relationships, I've sort of dug myself into a pit where I've ended up shipping her with just about everyone ever /hj. But the important Olivia ships are Harlivia (Harry/Olivia) OJ (MJ/Olivia) Spider Quartet (Peter Harry Liv MJ polycule) and Felivia (Felicia Hardy/Olivia)

Here's a basic idea of what she looks like

i plan on making individual designs for each version of her eventually, but this is kinda her main design

Olivia's story differs with every universe I put her in. Because I plan on making at least a few long fics about her in the future, I'm not gonna go too deep into those plots, mainly because there's some things I'd like to see my friends' live reactions to (Hi Jade. The raimi Olivia fic is gonna destroy you :3). The main thing she shares across every universe is that post Otto dying or getting arrested or whatever, Olivia goes on to recreate an eight armed version of his octopus arms. Sometimes they're used for good, sometimes they're used for evil. Really depends on the circumstances she's in.

Some fun little facts about her are that she's half mexican (I hc Rosie being mexican. This may or may not have been for projection purposes). She's really good at cooking. A huge hobby of hers is gardening, her favorite flowers are roses. Her dream is to one day become a marine biologist (though she only achieves this in like one or two universes LMAO). She has a lot of knowledge in engineering from Otto, which is how she recreates his arms. I often associate her with these like reddish pink colors. I can't really explain it but they fit her to me. I also think she'd be a huge cat person

My ask box is always and forever open to Olivia asks. I love talking about her. I'm also totally cool with people having their own OCs associate with Olivia!! It's super fun to me :)

[astaraels]

Hi Leinth! Hope you’re good🩵 I’m here to invade your inbox. Do you have any more Starr verse headcanons to share? What are they up to these days? I love reading about this universe!

If not then hope your day is going well anyway💛

Sure thing! I'd love to talk more about Starr 💫 and her silly dads 🧡🖤 (thank you for being so patient I've been so brain exhausted lately)

So I think Starr would really end up liking art once the guys get her back in school. And Ian goes all out—he and Mickey have been doing well with making money (in this au Ian is an EMT again I don't care if it's realistic, and Mickey has the security business with at least two employees because Ian nagged at him until he was gainfully (read: legally) employed, and business is doing good) and even though they're back on the South Side they have their own house and everything—he buys her art supplies and the fancy paper and pencils and she wants to try charcoal? They're getting her charcoal. Watercolors? Fuck yes. Oils, pastels? You know it! He is doing everything. Mickey tells him he's being ridiculous but Ian saw him bring home some of those drawing help books and stick them in Starr's room with her stuff so she "doesn't know" he got it for her (she totally knows, and she thinks they're both ridiculous)

She also uses the whole Gallagher clan as practice for drawing people—Debbie is absolutely thrilled when Starr does a really lovely portrait of Franny and frames it and everything; Tami does the same for Star's picture of Fred, too. It also gets her interested in photography, and Mickey tells Ian not to go crazy but he's the one who buys the super nice camera and takes her out scouting cool places for pictures or landscapes. Sometimes she just likes to take the L to different places around town and either snap some photos or sit down with her sketch pad. Ian gets nervous at first about her going off on her own but Mickey is like stop worrying—they compromise and get her a cell phone on their family plan so she can call them if she has any trouble (really she can still pass at her age for the most part but Ian still frets).

It's summer here so of course you gotta imagine her taking Franny and Fred to the pool—everyone learns pretty quickly that she's very trustworthy (she had younger siblings growing up) and the kids adore her—which makes her anxious with swim wear. But there's a specific swim line that I read about a few years ago, where the father of a trans girl put together swim bottoms specifically for trans girls to wear, and they might find something like that for her and a cute top (I figure they would help find a way to get her on HRT—Ian and Mickey got a whole packet of informational material from Debbie about taking care of trans kids once she knew Starr was staying with them), and she's nervous the first few times she goes out in her new swim wear but she starts getting more confident! Learning to love herself! It's a glow up and we love to see it <3

Honestly there might be some angst up ahead on the horizon (trying to formally adopt her would have its challenges, not to mention if her bio family tries looking for her) but right now it's just goofy family stuff! Fluff and fun!

[thegeminisage]

tos ep rewrites/stid rewrite for the wip meme!!!

HIIII ty for asking

this isn't technically a fic per se, it's almost like a half-fic half-meta kind of deal - essentially it's an outline of what could be a fic if i had more time and patience. i did this for the first tos movie here and had a lot of fun doing it, and then i also did a small rewrite of "tholian web" here, and i had SO MUCH FUN DOING THEM but then i got side tracked and haven't done anymore. my plans for other episodes/stid are vaguely as follows:

the enemy within - loved this one conceptually but the crass rape jokes left a real sour taste in my mouth. i'd have less of that (or, if i had it, take it seriously) and more shenanigans where someone can't tell the two kirks apart because. they're both the real kirk!! that's the real point of the episode, right?

the conscience of the king - frankly, there was too much shakespeare here, even though it will always be my fav trek episode of all time. i also thought the lenore thing, while a great twist, could have been a little less "but kirk really secretly loved this woman 20 years younger than him!" and more "man this is crazy fucked up that is trying to honeypot this very young woman and surprise she is doing it back to him." more foreshadowing and drama, you know? the tos version wouldn't have to be gambler's knife but it could be something more than what it was considering the huge effect it had on fandom - i always kinda wished it had the vibes that obsession did.

the galileo seven - i thought this episode treated spock like he was kind of stupid. "why is my first command failing when i've been an asshole to everybody?" he has a human mother! he knows how emotions work! he is not stupid! i also thought there was a missed opportunity: they all talked about how callous it was for him to be picking a man to leave behind to lighten the ship, and he was so obviously going to choose himself, but it never went anywhere. let's do him more justice!

metamorphosis - let's chill with the horrific misogyny and have more fun with the accidental parallel kirk made in his really cool speech. like fuck it this is my edit let's just do spirk

mirror, mirror - this one is actually perfect as it is but i wish we'd had more time to se what the mirror kirk & co were doing in the prime universe.

journey to babel - this one is great but i don't think it takes either of spock's parents to task enough for him turning out like that. also, they tricked us into thinking amanda was the good cop in aos and then have her slap him in tos but then acted like that was just fine? girl, let's get into it

the paradise syndrome - i just want this episode without the heinous racism. please please please. easily easily EASILY my biggest trek disappointment ever

requiem for methuselah/the enterprise incident - these two go together as part of a more complex story based partially on the fact that they originally wanted kirk's breakdown in the latter episode to be a real result of the various um things that happened to him in season 3 and partially by the fact that requiem for methuselah WAS my november 5th and i am being completely serious. i didn't think i would ever feel that way again but i did at the end of that episode. you can read about the general idea here at the end of @maulthots close encounters powerpoint which i helped a little bit with.

honorable mention to episode premises i would have loved in a different context - lights of zetar where spock is the possessed one and an episode totally unrelated to wolf in the fold, the funniest tos ep after tribbles, where an enemy who feeds on fear jumps around the ship possessing people. that could have been great had it been in a serious episode and not been played by piglet's voice actor

and finally, star trek into darkness...everything about this movie was bad, except the warp core thing which was accidentally very very VERY good. so i'd rewrite it from the ground up, starting with recasting khan, because that was just a hateful thing to do. i don't have very many concrete ideas on this yet except you'd HAVE to get assad zaman for khan, right? because he can do that thing where he makes his eyes shake? he would have rocked it.

let people send you an ask with the WIP title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!

[jojo-schmo]

Hey, can I see what your other Kirby ships look like?

Hahaha I'm going to be totally real, there really aren't a lot of other Kirby ships I actively think about other than metadede-!! -u-'

I don't know what it is, but that particular ship just happened to scratch an itch in my brain I didn't know I had lol. And I only really started shipping it around a year and a half ago! A King and a knight who have worked together through the ages and both have really interesting and different personalities and likes and dislikes... I have a lot of fun with them! I never thought I'd ever gain the confidence to regularly produce and share ship content on any platform. So I was happily surprised and grateful to find a little corner on the internet here to share my thoughts on them with willing readers haha.

Other than that.... I don't have a strict list of ships I stick to! I feel like I keep saying this kind of thing, but in most cases I get more enjoyment seeing other people's interpretations of ships more than producing them myself! The Kirby universe is rich with characters and a wonderful space to explore character interactions and relationships with each other (platonic or romantic or otherwise!)

I mean, I know everyone interprets Kirby character ages differently which is also cool and all! I just have my own set of established headcanons that I've been slowly cultivating since I got introduced to the series 15 or so years ago.

I personally see characters like Kirby, Bandee, the other Waddle Dees, Ribbon, Adeleine, Gooey, Prince Fluff, Elfilin, etc. as children. They're powerful and brave and very unique from each other, but still kids in my eyes.

And then there's the characters like Dedede, Meta Knight, Queen Ripple, Daroach, Hyness, etc. that are characterized definitively as adults. And other characters like Magolor, Taranza, Susie, the Mage Sisters, etc. that might be interpreted differently by different people, at least from what I have personally seen! (But I see them as adults, personally)

Again this is all my personal opinion haha. I quietly stay away from ships that mix characters from my personal child and adult categories above- (which are not exhaustive lists because this post would be ten million words if I tried to list every single Kirby character, and are my personal characterizations and not me trying to impose my views as the one, canon interpretation!).

OC x Canon is also enjoyable in my book as long as the ages and dynamics are appropriate and consensual for both parties :)

And I don't need or want to make a list of everything I stay away from or anything. I don't feel that strongly about it. I guess my biggest personal example is that if someone ships Metakirby or Dedekirby (or their respective mirror versions), I'm not going to enjoy or support that no matter what their creator's justifications/reasonings for shipping those are. I'm just going to stay away from that ardently.

Anyway, I'm not trying to be controversial or say my opinion is fact either! These are just my personal thoughts and feelings and I curate my internet experience accordingly. My interests change all the time, I just enjoy seeing character interactions and stories written with love and passion!

....If I had to pick another ship that I like thinking about, I guess I'd pick Magoranza. It's fun to think about how they'd interact with each other, and sometimes I like to think of Magolor and Taranza as Garak and Bashir from Star Trek hehehe.

TL;DR: At the time of writing this post I only like creating metadede content for Kirby ships but I quietly enjoy a variety of other people's ships.