#various characters in one

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[muirann]

all comic fans know how to do is: develop superiority complexes based on their personal perceptions of a character, eat hot chip, and lie

[reksink]

Beloved Residents of Dirtmouth (And Quirrel 👍)

[canisalbus]

Oh, speaking of Vasco & Machete's voices, I always imagined machete as having either a very high and delicate voice or an uncharacteristically grave, low and regal voice, similar to how Jeremy Irons voices Scar in the original lion king. I personally like the grave voice idea much more, i find it at the same time a curve ball and somehow fitting of Machete

I think it's a little bit of both. Machete has a meticulously crafted work persona that is quite different from what he's like off the clock, you could say he has developed a distinct customer service voice. It's imperative that he comes across as professional, respectable and authoritative, so he has learned to use a lower register than he normally would, and keeps his tone cold, measured and impersonal. I'd say he sounds dignified and somewhat long-suffering, often with a tired, bitter creak. All in all he sustains this business facade quite well.

In private he's very soft-spoken and tends to have an underlying wounded, whimpery frailness to him. He practically never raises his voice but when sufficiently agitated, he becomes a fast and expressive talker and his pitch rises sharply. He doesn't sing (outside of conducting an occasional Mass, I suppose) but has a surprisingly light and airy laugh.

[7clubs]

Addendum to my previous post now that I'm basically done with all of their scenes in the official translation...

Lines that hit real differently if you headcanon eustace/seb as a closeted trans woman / transfem during the events of aai2:

[ fan tl: …you're really not worthy of being called my son. Don't you think? ]

Fan translation only:

[velvetwyrme]

(for the RQs) You like Transformers, you like Undertale.... what lies at the centre of these 2 things? Mettaton (or Swap!Napsta) as a transformer, of course :3 I just think that's something you might have fun with haha ^^

requests closed!

i DID have fun with this one thank you!!

... i also had to break out the "how to draw planes" book and spent a lot of time squinting at other transformers designs dhfjchsj,, i dont know shit about vehicles or how to design transformers but i did my best :>!!

id usually write my design notes in an image but i am once again out of battery so yall get bullet points (about Mettaton)

the white/pinkish lines on Mettaton's chest and wings are intended to be kinda shaped like an M

his visor is also intended to mimic both the shape of his hair (over his eye) as well as the shape of his wings in NEO form

also, the visor always shines just so, and obscures his eye, but the other eye can generally be seen, unless dramatics call for his visor to be entirely opaque LOL

theres some joke to be made here about Mettaton's box form just being just a G1 styled version of this design lolol

the plane he turns into is a Lear Jet 23! the reason for this is: i saw this page in the book i mentioned and just went YES. METTATON.

(did you think i was joking about the how to draw planes book? i was not. i own this book. i got it for $2 lol)

originally he was going to be a fast car of some sort but then i remembered i also know fuck all about cars, and if hes a plane then i can give him thruster heels.

also his windshield is kinda shaped like a heart <3 that and the white lines being shaped like an M on his chest were incidental and i just leaned into it

... the lines on his head were also slightly inspired by Stealth Bomber!Megatron from the IDW comics because. Mettaton. Megatron. self explanatory.

[sysig]

Good skeles, like you lots (Patreon)

[alien-bluez]

errrrmmm cheesed to meet you?

[turtleblogatlast]

Something I like about Leo is that he’s honestly really chill? It’s easy to remember the moments where he’s being obnoxious or excitable but I feel like most of the time he’s incredibly “go with the flow” and has an overall affable demeanor.

[chiropteracupola]

there's no rule saying you can't turn medieval kings into magical girls.

[tubbytarchia]

Sorry for forcing yall to look at a very indulgent cryptid dragon but anyway um. its an attempt!! I'm so iffy on the colors but urgg. I wanted it to be an approximate mix of Grian's various "lives". I wanna draw dragons!!! So bad!! I love dragons!!!!!!! So much!!!!

Some other lifer dragon concepts/sketches below cut

If people still wanna see me dragonify lifers then sure!! These are just quick ideas I wanted to get on paper

[itsafreetrialofdeath]

(((He only ever wants to sleep with himself. What's better than the devil you know, eh?)))

[spockderangementsyndrome]

I appreciate that, as far as I can tell, K/S fic doesn't seem to have a fanon consensus on top vs bottom. Almost like--stay with me--those are preferences and not personality traits

[pep-rambles]

While I can't speak for other Alastor ships (but I'll tag you all and you can weigh in). But in the RadioApple/DuckieDeer fandom a lot of those making fanwork, including the smuttier stuff, are acespec/arospec themselves so maybe learn what is actually going on in these fandoms before try to gatekeep in their tags

[diggity-didge]

The biggest jumpscare is reading a manga and then watching the anime and a characters hair color is COMPLETELY different than what you assumed it to be due to the shading/tone applied

[selunesfavouriteprincess]

BG3 + Text Posts: Part 1

(Shadowheart Edition)