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war-of-heirs · 1 year

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War of Heirs is a low fantasy story where you are thrown into court intrigue, conspiracy, and rivalry with your siblings.

The game focuses on family, romance, war, and relationships.

You’re the third-born son/daughter of Queen Celine and Emperor Otto. Your mother declared your name for succession without your say-so, making you a contender for the Golden Throne and a threat to Queen Helga and your older half-brothers. Will you manage to build a power base, an army, and most importantly, win the throne, or will you die trying?

Play as a prince or a princess.

Have a beast of a companion by your side that is ready to die for you.

Customize your appearance and personality.

Have children.

Be a cruel person or kind or both.

Survive assassination attempts.

Build and lead an army.

Gather support from outside of the empire.

Fall in love.

ROs (Portraits are still in the works and could be changed later.)

Lady Gossa

Lady Gossa of House Noorga, known as the Blood Queen of Noorga.

Gossa is an unstable, sadistic, and cruel woman, even by her house standards. She suffers from the Noogren madness that plagues her entire family. She sees and hears the world differently from others.

Unlike her mad mother, Gossa is good at hiding her true self. She will not leave you alone until you fall in love with her, whether you are into women or not.

Nobody knows what she will be like as a partner, but having her support will mean having access to her father’s large duchy and the feared Black Guard of her house.

She can be romanced by a male or female MC.

Lady Sabrina

Lady Sabrina of House Astilaa is a known figure in the Northern regions of the empire. As the younger sister of the Duke of Ouwdel, she commands great respect as a member of one of the strongest houses in the area, serving as a bannerman to the Northern Archduke.

Sabrina possesses a sharp mind and ambition, always looking to expand her power and influence. She has earned a reputation for throwing extravagant parties and being a trendsetter in fashion, drawing the attention of many throughout the empire. She rules her brother’s duchy while he spends most of his time at the brothels, making her the true power in the duchy. A duchess with the title of a lady.

As an ally, Sabrina's intelligence and influence make her a valuable asset, but as an enemy, she is not to be underestimated. Those who cross her would do well to beware of her formidable wrath.

As your enemy, can she even be trusted?

She can be romanced by a male MC.

Lady Quella

Lady Quella of House Goldstone, the Hand of the Emperor’s daughter.

Quella is a sweet, shy, kind-hearted, and compassionate young woman who has devoted her life to improving the lives of others. While some dismiss her as naive or overly idealistic. Quella is beloved by the common folk for her tireless efforts to champion their cause.

Using her vast wealth and resources, Quella has established numerous charities throughout the city, providing aid and support to those in need. She has also taken it upon herself to build an orphanage to house the countless children left homeless and destitute on the streets, constantly funded by her.

Despite her soft-spoken nature, Quella is fiercely protective of those she cares about, and she will go to great lengths to support those who share her kindness and compassion. Her unwavering dedication to doing good in the world makes her an invaluable ally to any who seeks to make a positive impact on the world or improve their reputation.

Those who would seek to take advantage of her kindness, however, would be wise to tread carefully. While she may seem gentle and unassuming, Quella is no pushover, and she will not hesitate to use her wealth and influence to protect those she holds dear.

She can be romanced by a male MC.

Lady Varina

Lady Varina of House Stefield: Your friend and companion. She was sent to serve you in exchange for you to find her a good marriage offer and to secure the alliance between your grandfather and her house.

She can sometimes be a controlling freak over everything and everyone around her.

As a fifth-born, most see no future for her but to marry into a minor nobility. But Varina always strives for perfection and will never rest until she achieves her goals.

She can be romanced by a male or female MC.

Sultana Layla

Sultana Layla of House Morved: A foreigner from a rival empire. She is the sultan’s favorite child.

Layla is a strong-willed and free woman that likes to do what she wants. She will hate anyone who tries to control her. She loves riding horses and hunting. She also learned how to fight from a young age and prefers fighting using a spear

. She will be a supportive and strong partner that will stand with the MC no matter what happens. Having her support will mean having access to the sultan’s massive resources and the empire’s formidable army, maybe even war elephants.

She can be romanced by a male MC. (Maybe also a female MC?) ¯(ツ)/¯

Lord Sandor

Lord Sandor of House Noorga. The crown heir to his house and Gossa’s older brother. Like his family, the Noorgen plague haunts him every day. He’s in a constant battle with his other self, the other Sandor that wants to control him.

Yet Sandor still remains strong, but for how long? Which one of them will win in the end? The MC can help him in his battle.

He is also a formidable commander that can cause havoc across the battlefield. His enemies never see him coming. If romanced, he will cut the tongue of anyone who speaks ill of the MC and will do his best to protect her.

He can be romanced by a female MC.

King Vlad

King Vlad of the Kindom of Avridia. Betrayed by his uncle, Vlad is forced to run away from his kingdom with his mother and some forces loyal to him.

He crossed the empire border seeking the support of The Vorla Empire to reclaim his throne. Unfortunately for him, Emperor Karl is yet to grant him an audience, so Vlad sets his eyes upon his heirs. He will do everything in his power to reclaim his throne, no matter what.

At first, he will see the female MC as nothing more than a naive little girl that can be easily manipulated, but he will be on a tough ride once he finds himself in love.

He can be romanced by a male and female MC.

Prince Karif

Prince Karif of House Morved: A foreigner from a rival empire. He is the sultan’s second child.

Advangerer, fighter, mercenary, and explorer, Karif had the most freedom among his siblings leading him to follow his dream of exploring the world.

From the Far East to the Deep North, Karif wants to experience and explore everything the world has to offer. He would very much love to explore it with the MC.

He can be romanced by a male or female MC.

Lord Oliver

Lord Oliver of House Stefield: Your friend and companion. He was sent to serve you and to secure the alliance between your grandfather and his house.

Oliver wants to be your bodyguard in hopes of raising in status. Unlike his twin sister, Oliver is chill and outgoing. He doesn’t care about what others think of him.

Oliver will cherish and love the MC with all of his heart and will do anything for her.

He can be romanced by a female MC.

#interactive fiction #game WIP #interactive novel #romance #dashingdon #if game #if wip #if #work in progress #choice of games #cyoa #hosted games #hg #cog

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alpaca-clouds · 7 months

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The Top/Bottom Thing

Okay, I need to vent about something. Because it really annoys me. You do not need to agree with me, but this is my blog, so I can vent about it all I want.

I hate how a lot of fandom stuff clearly assigns queer ships the "top/bottom" dynamic. I hate it so much. Because for the most part, it just tends to enforce heteronormative standards. Especially when we see who gets to be the top and who gets to be the bottom. Because, spoileralert, most of the time this is completely and utterly based on who is the more feminine and the more masculine between the characters.

Let's put a pin in that, because I want to talk about something else first.

*clears throat* You folks are aware that a lot of queer people switch positions, right? Sure, there are some that prefer one thing over the other, but in general a lot of queer relationships do not have "the top" and "the bottom". This is true for both gay and lesbian relationships. (And while we are on it: Some gay men do not like anal sex. I know, shocking, right?)

The reason this is so popular with fan related stuff (and also non-fandom female oriented mlm original fiction), really is that it kinda enforces heteronormative relationship dynamics.

A lot of queer people in same-sex relationships - especially of the millennia and older generations - know the question of: "But who in your relationship is the man and who is the woman?" Because straight people cannot imagine a relationship in which the partners are eye to eye.

In earlier queer anime/manga fandom we still had the idea of uke and seme. In which the uke was the girl in every way imaginable. It often looked something like this:

You had the big, masculine seme, and the soft, feminine, petit uke. In some manga it went so far, that the uke was even drawn like a girl. They tended to be like girls - just without breasts. It was also one of the main reasons for a lot of gay men in Japan very much despising yaoi, keeping very much with their own gay manga genre, bara.

Now, admittedly by now this has mellowed out a lot in yaoi manga. Newer yaois tend to have way less physical difference between the uke and the seme. While often we still have the scenario that the seme is more powerful and influencial, at least the uke is no longer "a girl".

Still, this dynamic then also got duplicated on fanfictions at the time. Basically fandom usually decided (especially with anime fandoms) that within a gay ship one was the uke and one was the seme. So in the fanfictions that followed, any canon characterisation would be ignored in favor of making the seme toxic masculine and the uke a little damsel in distress, who would cry a lot.

Now, most of fandom has grown out of this phase (thank God), and uke and seme has mostly been replaced by the idea of top and bottom, which usually tends to be way less extreme in the depiction. But... the general issue is still there, right?

Because... people still kinda subconsciously enforce the idea of a heteronormative relationship with queer ships.

For those who usually do not engage with this, quickly let me explain: The idea of Top and Bottom is about, who is the "giving" and who is the "receiving" part within a relationship. The bottom is the one, who gets penetrated, the top is the one who penetrates, to overly simplify this. But also generally it also kinda means, that the "top" tends in most stories be the one who holds the control or more control within the sexual scene. This is especially a big thing with male on male smut, where a lot of stories male it clear that one of the two characters in anal sex is the one who gets fucked, with the other one doing the fucking.

And most of the time this is very much based on who of the ship is the more outwardly masculine and who is more feminine. And yes, this even holds true for sapphic ships. Let me talk about some of my own ships, so you can see what I mean, alright?

Alucard/Trevor (Castlevania) is probably the least strong on this one. While a lot of fanwork has Alucard as the "bottom" - you know, the long haired, rather androgynous twink - his femininity clearly is a bit cancelled out by being half-vampire. So there is in fact a lot of stuff where he gets to be "the top". But still, there is a definitive tendency to have him as the bottom.

Hector/Isaac (Castlevania) is one, where I literally have never once seen a fic with Hector topping. Admittedly, I can understand it with them in so far, that Hector is not only feminine, but also clearly shown to be submissive within the show. So both things kinda go into one another. But, you know... While I have him be the submissive one and passive one more often, I do make a point of switching it around a bit. (And it should be noted: I have not found a single fic outside of my own, that even adress the fact that Isaac might actually not want to do anal sex, because the Qur'an is very clear on the topic of it being a taboo.)

Mizrak/Olrox (Castlevania: Nocturne) to me is probably the most offensive one in regards of Castlevania gay ships. Because while still fairly new, I only so far have seen Olrox as the bottom. Because of course the more feminine one, with a very masculine partner, has to be the bottom. *eye roll* Which in their case does so clearly just not even have any other possible explanation rather than "the masculine and the feminine". I doubly hate this, because this does play into a lot of racist ideas about indigenous men, but I will not go into that now. Just... why?

Joe/Cherry Blossom (SK8) is another one, were one partner is very masculine and one is very feminine in their appearance. And of course... this translates to like 90% of the fandom having Joe top and Cherry bottom. *sighs* I can't even...

Viktor/Jayce (Arcane) are a bit different, as neither of them is very feminine. Buuuut of course Jayce is still the more masculine between the two of them, so... yeah, you know it.

And again, this is even true for sapphic ships. I had people being very upset at me writing CaitVi a little kinky with a submissive Vi and a dominant Caitlyn. Because again, Caitlyn is more feminine, Vi more musculine. So oft course people want the relationship dynamic to reflect this...

And that... is exactly my point.

See, when I brought this up in fandom spaces, the answers I got were like: "Well, I just think that is their sexual preference." But of course not a single person could answer me, why that was. Why they think the more feminine (within a western understanding of this, mind you) would be the one who would prefer bottoming.

And that is without - again - going into the fact that not all gay people will have or enjoy anal sex and frankly, I find it unimaginative, how in so much gay fiction, anal sex gets depicted as the end-all-be-all.

I mean, I will openly admit that, yes, this does not only hold true for women writing gay fiction. Because there is a lot of historical baggage in this regard within the gay community itself. Because, yes, this was something explicitly forbidden by a lot of religion. Because, yes, this also is the one way (well, with the exception of 69) for gay man to have sex that can be pleasurable for both at the same time. And because, yes, there is a whole lot of just stuff of it being condemned and... It is a whole big thing.

But I just... I would just wish for it to be depicted with a bit more nuance. And for it to stop enforcing heteronormative genderroles. Because... god damn it. I am so sick of all of that.

#vent #rant #rant post #fanfiction #queer fiction #smut #mlm #gay #gay fiction #top bottom #heteronormativity #lgbtq #fandom #yaoi manga

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afniel · 7 months

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Today (on three hours of sleep which is my own fault) my partner and I got up early and got breakfast and then went to a community education seminar at a local university's educational garden about native bees, and made a wooden bee house. Our landscape designer team (two women who I'm pretty sure are queer) was there attending and it was run by a really cool woman who runs another landscaping co-op (with a nonprofit educational side) who is also working with them to teach them all the ins and outs of permaculture, and they kinda group-projected our yard, so I got to know all three of them over the course of the contract, which was cool.

It was great, you guys. We talked about the importance of supporting native pollinators, because honeybees are fine and all but outcompete native bees, some of whom are so specialized that their exact wing frequency is what it takes to pollinate a single, specific species. The world's smallest bee is 2mm at the largest and lives right here. We've got sweat bees that look like tiny flying gems. We've got bumblebees that are so docile you can gently pet them while they're gathering pollen. We have huge, harmless carpenter bees with metallic black shiny females and golden fuzzy males and they'll bonk into you just to see what you're doing.

I got to get excited about iNaturalist to a bunch of people who haven't heard about it before! I got to see thousands of honey bees just doing their business and I realized I wasn't having my usual phobic reaction anymore! I got to use a power drill! I got on the mailing list and I'm gonna see if I can't get even more involved in this kind of shit over time, because it's honestly great.

You're only one person but even little things can have an outsized impact, and it's not in turning off the water when you brush your teeth, it's in things like planting native keystone species so that the other living things that rely on it can move back in. Even in a tiny area. Animals and plants spread and have ripple effects. The same way removing a species causes a spreading collapse, bringing back a species, even just one, causes a spreading regrowth of diversity. Literally a handful of plants can support countless insects that support countless animals and this changes the environment just a little bit at a time back to a better state. It does make a difference and it doesn't have to be hard or expensive.

I get really excited about native species because as I see it, getting educated about them and making decisions to support them is what's going to locally make the biggest impact for the least money. The success stories can be literally microscopic, when it comes to things like soil microbes, but they really, really matter. One person can't fix the whole climate but one person can fix a one-person-sized patch of ground, and that's enormous when you remember that thousands of important little things spend their entire lives within even the smallest yard.

Anyway I'm tired to hell now but hey maybe next spring we'll have a bunch of big goofy carpenter bees living in the yard! Or even other native bees. I'm hype as heck to find out.

Also, and I forgot to say this so ETA, I guarantee THIS IS HAPPENING wherever you are. Look up your closest university and find out what kind of research/community gardens they have and what kind of seminars they offer. Look into your state and county conservation programs. There's outreach education all over, and a whole lot of it is donate-as-you-can, because they just want to get knowledge into the community. If you want to hear it, they want to teach it to you, and they're almost universally some of the kindest folks you're going to meet. If this sounds even a tiny bit interesting, do some searching and I would bet you anything there's opportunities right there waiting.

#conservation #permaculture #nature #native species

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genderkoolaid · 1 year

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An upcoming main cast character in a story I'm working on is a multigender boygirl, and I'd really like to (as with all my writing) make sure my characterisations and writing reflect and represent real experiences as much as possible. I've also started asking other multigender folks so I can get an even better pulse on it than just my own experiences and knowledge, so - the question.

What sort of internal experiences would you like to see expressed in the writing of multigender characters, especially boygirls?

Thank you so much for asking!!!

Some general things I'd enjoy seeingI

In general, I'd love to see the different ways people conceive of their genders. There are so many labels, now and and throughout time- I like boygirl, but also manwoman and androgyne. Some people used to use "bisexual" as a description of gender. And multigender people often have such diverse ways of seeing their genders & the way their genders interact. If one of someone's genders technically aligns with their AGAB, some might feel partially cis and some might see that gender as equally trans. I think it would be lovely to see multigender characters who are really deep and complex and feel like a full person, and also have their genders considered a meaningful part of them.

Multigender sexuality, if it makes sense to incorporate it into the story. It's something that gets very heavily policed (and I personally have had to deal with the trauma of having mine policed) and I'd love to see some represention of what it's like to have multiple sexualities/labels. There's also the complicated topic of relationships, and how multigender people interact with those. There's concerns of your partner/s being comfortable with your genders, and being respectful of them. A couple people on that other post made the good point that multigender people aren't depicted as desirable partners. At least some of us worry if we could ever be desirable, because we fear our multigenderedness makes us too complicated and strange for people to actually consider as partners. & on a less sad note, there's also how different people describe their relationships; spouse? wifesband? boygirlfriend?

Atypical medical transitions! There's still not enough awareness of how genderqueer transitions can look. I, personally, would enjoy seeing a character who is also multigender and salmacian, (although salmacians can be any gender), especially because it's so rarely heard of by people outside of porn. But you could also use stuff like different ways of doing HRT, like SERMs & other stuff (can't be fucked to find links rn but if anyone wants to add atypical HRT methods go ahead)

The daily ins-and-outs of presentation, pronouns, and names. I'm someone who changes their presentation pretty regularly, who sometimes prefers different pronouns, and generally prefers different names based on the dominant gender/s of that day. I also tend to crossdress; I dress much more femme when I'm a man and much more butch when I'm a woman, although I always stay androgynous. Some people may be gender conforming for one or all of their genders, some people may not vary their presentation at all!

Related to above: the struggle of everyday binarism. you are surrounded, especially as androgynes, by the forced choice between genders, especially male and female (just by virtues of those being the most discussed and compared). People expect you to be able to fall in one, OR maybe to fall in male, female, or neutral- but ime people generally don't think about you falling in multiple. It's an issue on things like forms that ask you to choose just one gender, or using bathrooms. It can be daunting to speak up about your experience as any gender, both because it might cause people to view you exclusively as that gender, and because you worry people will discount your experiences because you are multigender. People often don't think of us as fully any of our genders, in comparison to monogender people. You may not want to include discrimination in your story, but if you choose to I would enjoy it because I'm the kind of person who prefers stories that tackle those issues to ones where they don't exist.

Shapeshifting. I feel like it's a near universal genderfluid desire. Absolute ideal body situation tbh

If you have any other questions about multigender characters I'd be happy to answer them :)

#m.#ask box

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monstersandmaw · 7 months

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Hello friends! Surprise!! Another WIP for you of Demon's story. I know you wanted Oats the dad-bod kelpie too, and I promise he's not been forgotten about, but Demon's story is written up to Chapter Four at this point, so I figured I'd spend a couple of hours editing this for you tonight, and post it on Patreon as a WIP.

I really hope you enjoy this - I think it's one of my favourite things I've ever written, and it's dedicated to everyone who has wished for their own demon (or equivalent!) to come and be their fake romantic partner to get them out of an awkward ex situation... You're seen...!

Content: pining, hiding in a bathroom to avoid an awkward encounter with an ex, fake boyfriends trope, and lots of fluff. Seriously, watch your teeth, folks. It's sweet. We also meet Coco and Țepeș a bit, and there are some other cameos from the Full Moon Motorcycles gang!

Wordcount: 6470 (!)

Chapter One (WIP) here

Demon needn’t have worried about his Ducati.

By the time he’d done a U-turn, reached the t-junction at the end of Grosvenor Street, and turned right, the bike’s familiar roar splintered the peace of the night loudly enough to set off two car alarms as he passed, and he laughed, leaning lower and sending the bike practically flying. Either he’d left the spell's radius of influence, or the witch had relented. Either way, he was relieved that the others wouldn’t have to know about his feisty little witch just yet. After the shit he’d said to both Pumpkin and Țepeș about their getting involved with a human though, he knew he deserved it.

As his mind followed the path of those thoughts, he shook his head like he was trying to shake raindrops off the visor. That feisty little witch was not his. He didn’t even know the witch’s damned name, nor did he want to.

Except…

… he did.

He wanted that witch’s name in his mouth; in his head.

Yes, he wanted to know him, but Demon also ached to know the intimate feel of the witch’s magic, and maybe even to have it drew on his own. Witches took all sorts of familiars to regulate and manage their magic, and some even took demons…

Maybe — no.

Fuck.

No.

He knew what that kind of yoke felt like, and he had fought every day to keep humans’ attention off him precisely because of it. But that yoke had been slotted unwillingly over him before. What if this time he wanted it?

No.

Fuck. No.

The Ducati screamed beneath him and he realised he’d hit neutral instead of second like a fucking noob. He ground his teeth and focused on the bike and on the road.

He had planned to go back to Full Moon Motorcycles to see if any of the others were around — some, like Pumpkin and Barbie, didn’t really sleep, after all — but instead he took the motorway away from town, and rode until the pastel wash of dawn lit up the sky behind the nearby rolling hills.

If that pink hue was almost the exact colour of his witch’s rosebud mouth, he’d soon be turning his back on it to ride home anyway.

A week passed, and Demon’s mood was tangibly so much worse than usual over those next seven days that Țepeș finally punched him on the shoulder to get his attention as they drew their two Ducatis up beside each other outside Hank’s shop.

As the vampire’s gloved hand connected none-too-gently with his right shoulder, Demon snarled openly at him, rounding on his best friend and baring his teeth beneath the visor, snapping like a cornered dog. He felt like a cornered dog, though it wasn’t anyone’s fault but his.

Adi tactfully took her leave of the pair of them, the delicate little human sliding off Țepeș’ pillion seat and kissing his shoulder as she passed. “I’ll see you inside?” she asked, and the vampire nodded.

Țepeș didn’t usually join them for morning rides, given how lethally dangerous the sunlight was to him, but Adi was there, and if Adi wanted Țepeș to be somewhere, there he was. It was nauseating. For a former SAS solider who was built like a brick shithouse, Țepeș was undeniably soft and squishy beneath all that protective leather now. Certainly where Adi was concerned anyway. They’d just been lucky that Adi was cool with a group of bikers full of non-humans. Demon was sure that Țepeș was feeding from her now and again too, which was a whole new level of intimacy and trust that he couldn’t quite fathom.

Țepeș jerked his helmeted head upwards in a ‘what’s going on with you?’ gesture and spread his hands to drive the question home. He also directed his helmet pointedly at the pillion seat which was still very much in evidence on a bike which had never once seen a passenger in the entire time Demon had been riding with Hank’s crew at Full Moon Motorcycles.

The sparking, skittering unease that had been crackling around inside Demon like lightning for seven whole days now threatened to come roaring out of him, but he leashed it with an effort and bit it all back, breathing heavily. Țepeș didn’t deserve his petty irritation. The vampire was the closest thing he had now to a best friend, and he wasn’t about to throw it all away over some human he barely knew.

“It’s nothing,” Demon muttered into the cushioning of his helmet, but Țepeș wasn’t having any of it. When Demon made to swing his leg over his bike and stump away into the shop to avoid talking about it, Țepeș revved his bike insistently, angrily. Deafeningly. He didn't talk often, and Demon had only heard his scratchy, damaged voice a handful of times, but man, he found ways to be expressive when he needed to be.

“Let it go, Țepeș,” he said heavily, shaking his head.

Before they’d set off earlier, he’d promised Hank that he’d stay for coffee and a bit of a chat with everyone after the morning’s ride, and unfortunately, that oath now bound him as securely as a perfect chalk summoning circle. Instead, all he wanted was to get back to his apartment, shed his clothes and his glamour like snakeskin, and simply… wallow.

Read the whole thing over on Patreon on early release for just $3!! Or consider becoming a $5 and getting access to an exclusive monster romance story once every month!

#demon biker #demon x witch #male demon x male human #mlm #mlm exophilia #patreon #demon boyfriend #supernatural biker group #full moon motorcycles

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stoopid-turtle · 10 months

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Miscellany and Such

I'm just a clown with things to say. You shouldn't believe me.

Intro post for this series

Okay, so that addresses the bulk of my need to splurge. I do want to get into some of the ancillary questions/mysteries though.

- The Timeline

Like most turtles, I have given thought to the question of "the timeline". This question is complicated because there are so many different stages a relationship can go through and they aren't always linear or one-way.

Like, when I think about when GG and DD "got together", do I mean sex? Being exclusive? Romantic commitment? An actual date? Promise of being together for the long-haul? These are all different questions and there's no real set pattern for them.

I guess I'll run through the common theories I've seen and just give an overview of my thoughts.

1. The Consensus Timelines

I feel like this is what I see pop up in fanfic a lot. Basically, DD and GG don't make a long-term commitment till after filming, sometimes way after filming. (Some fanfic opens years down the line with them only getting together in the fic) This often includes casual sex during the filming, but it doesn't have to.

I definitely feel that if DD had his druthers, he and GG would have been married one week into filming. GG's feelings are kinda the deciding factor in pacing for the relationship. Still, it is very difficult to believe that they were not physically intimate during filming.

DD was fucking bold and thirsty, and GG was clearly likewise smitten. I know what guys are like in their 20s. I know this sounds like I'm spouting stereotypes, but genuinely, all of my actual experience tells me that guys who are that outwardly flirty are not the type to faff around before diving into bed.

I doubt it was "just sex" given the romantic undertones of their flirtiness. At the same time, it might have been some feeling each other out and they may not even have decided to be exclusive at the beginning.

Even if they had decided to be exclusive, they were clearly insecure about how the other one felt about them. I think a lot about their (hilarious) English conversation about DD chatting with men and GG chatting with a girl. DD also spent a lot of time reading through GG's messages on his phone, so DD clearly felt some insecurity as to whether GG might be seeing other people.

(It's not really a great thing to anxiously read through your crush/partner/boo's phone messages like that. But DD was hella young, and I know the anxiety and insecurity of love at that age. I think the fact that they quickly built up enough trust to commit to what's essentially a long-distance relationship shows that they both matured past some of that early behavior)

(Also, I can see that if DD was GG's first male partner, DD might have felt especially insecure. Even if he wasn't GG's first, there's often times a special anxiety that non-bisexual gay folk feel when dating bisexual folk. The fear that their partner will leave them for the opposite gender is intense. Just speaking from my experience as a bisexual lady)

It's interesting to me that GG was open to letting DD read his messages. I doubt he'd do that if he were seeing anybody else, so that suggests they'd decided to be exclusive early on. That doesn't necessarily mean they're committed to the long-haul, but it's a serious step given how relationships between actors on set tend to go.

The consensus seems to be that the long-haul decision wasn't made until after GG's Japan trip. That makes sense to me, but I'm not completely attached to it. I don't think we know enough either which way to tell when the commitment happened. There is something romantic about the Japan trip story, and GG's later quote about waiting fits nicely.

I've heard various rumors that GG turned DD down the first time he confessed. This is interesting to me and especially ambiguous. I guess by "confess" we mean "confess to being in love". That confession can come with a desire to commit long-term. This makes me think of DD's Weibo post about things he decided at 21, he hopes to still feel at 81.

In my head, I have a little story that that's a response to GG having turned DD down due to the age gap (and maybe because of the possibility of character bleed muddying feelings). DD is especially sensitive about the age gap being mentioned, and we know he also had complicated feelings about LWJ.

My story continues with another attempt to make them a thing at the end of filming, prompting the Japan trip (and DD's "I miss you" hat). I also think about GG's interview response about having received a confession from someone he liked, and I wonder if he was thinking about DD. About liking DD but also not being sure they could really maintain a relationship outside the relative safety of the film set.

Basically, I have a million stories in my head about how this could have happened, and I'm not incredibly attached to any one of them.

2. DDU Variation

This Timeline isn't mutually exclusive with the consensus. The gist is that DD developed a crush on GG during GG's DDU visit about a year before filming. The rumors attached to this theory posit that DD got GG's WeChat info from DLS but then never did anything with it.

GG and DD have said in interviews that when they tried to connect on WeChat at the start of TU production, they'd found they'd already connected but had never talked to each other.

The evidence for this is heavily linked to a post DDU made in response to GG wishing them a happy birthday where they implied someone in their production was a fan of theirs. This post included a minions emoji, and DD was into minions at the time. Course, a lot of people were into minions, so this could be nothing.

If we take GG and DD at face-value, then there's 2 options:

1. DD had a crush on GG, got his WeChat info, then never did anything with it. 2. DD did not have a crush on GG but got his WeChat info some other way, then never did anything with it.

#1 is frankly hard for me to buy. It is absolutely inconceivable to me that DD would have a crush on someone, have that person's WeChat, and NOT DO ANYTHING WITH IT.

This is DD. He doesn't faff around. When he wants something, he goes for it.

#2 is plausible. I don't know the c-ent industry conventions, but I know in industries I've worked in, social media accounts are traded like business cards to network. Maybe that was commonplace at DDU with their guests, and they just added each other in one of those business card swap networking things.

But what if GG and DD are lying in interviews? They've lied before, after all. This leads to two alternate possibilities:

1a. They didn't have each other's WeChat until they started production on The Untamed. 2a. They did have each other's WeChat and they'd been chatting before The Untamed.

#1a is weird. I can't think of any reason to lie about that. But #2? Plausible. Maybe they did connect and start up a flirtation. Maybe even a relationship. Could be anywhere along the spectrum from early friendship -> light flirtation -> heavy flirtation -> online relationship -> secret in person relationship. Or maybe they just hooked up without a strong relationship attached to it.

It would add a different angle to the fact that they both tried out for The Untamed cast. They weren't necessarily going for the lead roles, as GG tried out for Xue Yang, but maybe they wanted to work on the same production together, and TU was their opportunity to do so.

This does mean they were pretending not to know each other at the script reading and the booting ceremony. This secretiveness implies that whatever relationship they might have had on WeChat already went beyond the bounds of friendship, or else why pretend not to know each other? It shouldn't be a hard thing to explain. "Oh, he guested on DDU last year, and we connected then." That's it. It's not even a suspicious explanation.

But it they'd hooked up or were even just being super flirtatious, then they wouldn't want to divulge that to those around them. (Counterpoint: They were pretty open about the relationship they did have eventually on set, even thing so far as to flirt, fight, argue, and have lewd conversations while getting their makeup touched up)

I can buy the DDU variation. The evidence is thin, and trying to "read" their behavior in the bts is always a little ambiguous and limited. But I'd say, if DD did get GG's WeChat because he had a crush, then it's highly likely they already had some relationship before filming. If DD just acquired GG's number in some routine industry business card swap, then this timeline variation is unlikely.

C. THE DEVIL'S TIMELINE

I love the name of this one. Basically, the speculation is that DD and GG might have been together even before the DDU episode. I think I've seen some Uniq fanmeet highlighted as a potential meeting point, given that GG was into K-pop at that time.

The evidence is even thinner for this than for the DDU variation. There's a picture DD drew of a person with a mole like GG's (I have no clue the context of his drawing that picture) and they have some Weibo posts that are kinda similar.

The Weibo post evidence is always confusing for me. I can see couples having some back and forth in their posts. Like, if your partner starts posting photos of ridiculous desserts, you might post similar photos. Or your crush develops an interest in foosball, so you do too. But some of the evidence is apparently photo sets that bear some resemblance to each other and I just...is this like a known thing for couples do to this? I've never come across this outside of this fandom. I don't know why you would. If my wife started subtly mirroring my photo posts, I don't think I'd even notice. (Hell, maybe she already does)

So I guess I don't find those incredibly convincing. After a point, if you look at any two people's posts long enough, you'll probably be able to find some similarities if you keep the criteria broad enough. If this is a known thing in Chinese social media for couples to do this, though, I might find that more compelling.

Other than that, the main evidence is kinda subjective in that its based on their behavior towards each other. This is real hard for me to gauge, so I'm not placing bets on it.

I don't think the Devil's Timeline is impossible. But I just don't see anything to indicate it as a thing. But who knows?

In sum, overall, I think DD and GG were physically (and romantically) intimate pretty early on in filming, earlier than many in the consensus seem to think. I'm undecided on when the big, serious commitment happened. And I'm open to the idea that they had a flirtation or an early online relationship via WeChat after that DDU episode. I'm not sold on the Devil's Timeline though.

Do I want to know? I mean, yeah? I find their whole romance interesting and compelling. It's like a romance novel, and I like romance novels. If they were non-famous and I met them at a party, I'd be totally into asking the "So how did you two meet?" question and learning that story.

But I'm just a rando in a different country who doesn't even speak their language. I don't get to know everything I want to know, much to my consternation. So I just have to shrug and move on with life (and read fanfic).

If in the unlikely event they come out with their story, though, I'd buy the shit out of that book.

- Fanfic/Shipping

I read a lot of fanfic (and have done for most of my life), but I felt some discomfort with the first bjyx fic I started reading. Not cause of the fic, itself, but because it felt weird to read fiction about real people. It's a side of fandom I'd never gotten into.

Fiction is a way to take stuff from the real world and make sense of it. This is something I've always appreciated about reading and books. Fanfic and bjyx fanfic fills the same need. I know I'll never get the full story on the truth behind bjyx but I can share ideas with others. I can engage in what-ifs and work through moments that are emotional.

I think sometimes people take a single fanfic to mean that the writer is making a Statement of how they think things are. With real people, they think the writer is seriously ascribing actions/thoughts/whatever to the celebrity.

Writers really aren't doing this, usually. Most writers have multiple fics with different situations, premises, character dynamics, universes. Writers are playing around with ideas, with dynamics they enjoy. Sometimes, they may feel they're hitting close to reality, but they know there's no way to be sure. Sometimes, they just want to write something with a silly premise to make their friends laugh.

Fanfic can be beautiful and compelling and amazing, but it's not real. It's words on a screen, and every fanfic reader moves on to the next fic with a completely different premise afterwards. It's not useful to read so much into any particular fic.

Can some fics and fans cross a line? Sure. But they're rare. And I honestly think people who write fic are less likely to be the crazy stalker fans just cause, well, they're spending their time writing, not stalking their celeb.

I do find the division of fandom into top/bottom weird and offensive. I don't have a preference on the mechanics of sex bc...whatever. But since fic writers tend to base their characterization on those mechanics, sometimes I'll be in the mood for one dynamic vs another. It's not about the sex though. There's just lots of aspects of Yizhan that I like, and I like to read a lot of different takes on them.

Again, it's fiction. Just like everything turtles believe.

- Fanservice

During my development as a turtle, I had a moment where I read a rumor that DD had played up the fanservice intentionally. It threw me back because I'd gotten pretty fond of DD and that sort of behavior was not in line with how I saw him.

I mean, I know actors are actors. They act. Part of that acting involves promos for their roles. But I've always appreciated DDs no-nonsense straightforwardness, so thinking of him playing a role in the bts was hard to stomach.

So I thought about it and did some reading around, as I do, and finally concluded that this whole "fanservice" thing wasn't very believable.

1) Fanservice doesn't look like the bts.

Honestly, there was a point while watching the bts when I felt DD was just kinda bullying GG and GG was putting up with him (I think this is a common takeaway). Even when I cottoned onto the fact that GG was just as flirtatious, I recognize that DD was just as obnoxious as shit.

He wasn't doing the actual romantic fanservice stuff that you see, say, Thai BL actors do. He was acting like a young boy with a crush. And I say this as someone who was a young girl DD's age once who had a similar (unreciprocated, in my case) crush on a coworker and who was as obnoxious as DD was. None of it resembled normal, stereotypical romance, because especially at that age, that's not how you do romance. No offense to DD. I know he hates to be recognized as young, but he was quite young and often acted like it in his clear affection for GG.

2) The experts say so.

By "the experts" I mean BL fans. I lurked around some BL spaces to see what that crowd's impression was. The overall consensus was that ggdd had great chemistry but never actually did fanservice.

True, being a Chinese show, maybe Chinese fanservice is just especially toned down. But that takes us to the next few points.

3) My understand of the release of the bts is that a lot of the bts is "unofficial" and was not planned to be released ahead of time. It was only with the popularity of the series that more came out.

Why fabricate a backstage, weirdly chaotic but low-physical affection relationship on a show that you're not even sure will get aired?

4) Fanservice ends.

Especially for a BL pairing, once the promo is over, the actors have to be separated from teh gay to make room for future het pairings. But there is every indication that GG and DD were still together after this point, and they're still dropping candies to this day.

So in sum, I know gg and dd are gay. The odds are much more likely that they are in a relationship than that they're doing long-term fanservice. They are gay. They fell in love. They're together. That's not so hard to buy.

Also, I went ahead and explained my turtledom to my wife. She easily bought that the two were together during filming. She wasn't sure about them still being together, so I explained about the necklaces. She asked me, "Could it just be fanservice even now?"

I started trying to explain my reasons I listed above and then I also mentioned they were signed with different agencies. As soon as she heard that, she said, "Ah, yeah, that wouldn't make any sense then."

Not saying that my wife knows everything, but she's really smart, y'all.

She is also a clown, though, like me. Absolutely raving mad.

One more post in this series! Some closing thoughts, and I'm also working on a little prezzie for turtles before I retreat to lurking.

#bjyx #yizhan #will clown for food #made my wife a turtle too #did it for love

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faytelumos · 9 months

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Worldbuilding: Inter-Species "Relations"

You're finally at the chapter where it happens. You've been building up the tension for this scene for the entire story. Your pirate captain has captured her quarry, the slippery merman who's held her most private imagination since she first saw him. They're alone now, hearts racing, eyes darkening, and neither one can deny how much they want each other. But now that it's time for these two to come together in a passionate display of mutual desire and good-old-fashioned fun, you've realized something:

You don't actually know how they fit together.

You have a vision for this story, and you specifically want a sex scene in it, so this gap of knowledge is therefore a matter of great consequence.

This guide will explore each step of this potentially tricky puzzle through the lens of analogous species of animals. However, it hopfully contains every step you need to write a cross-species encounter confidently, even if your story takes you to a magical world far, far away.

The Shape of Your Non-Human Parts

First thing's first, you'll want to figure out the equipment you're working with. The reproductive organs, like any others, are built to fulfill a need. Different animals have different needs, whether it's depositing a packet for later use, keeping unwanted mates from bearing children, or socially bonding with both male and female partners. You'll need to figure out what your creature's needs are, as this will influence the shape and position of their parts, which will, in turn, influence the positions and practices humans need to use to be compatible.

Some things to consider:

•If your creature is a quadruped, they will probably be built for a "mounted" position. This means your females will be oriented for those who are standing directly behind them. Your males may also have their parts positioned further up on their bellies, or they maybe longer or even flexible to reach.

•About 97% of birds on Earth do not have a lock and key hookup. Both sexes instead have a delicate, multi-function hole called a cloaca that they briefly kiss together to mate. Of the other 3%, some have been observed to have parts that are… fiercely competitive in nature.

•Social animal species, such as dolphins, bonobos, and bats, are more likely to get jiggy for pleasure and bonding. In the bonobo's case, some structures are also suited for use with same-sex activities. Even snakes have anatomy to make coupling enjoyable.

•If your creature has structures that would hurt humans, such as a feline's barbs, you don't have to Change Him. A silicon sheath or even a specialized condom can make all the difference. And fantasy folks, don't worry; condoms are not a modern invention.

•About 90% of fish reproduce by fertilizing eggs that are already outside of the female's body, so there's no bumping of uglies at all. The ~10% of fish that are live-bearing (such as sharks) have a fin on their underside called a gonopodium that serves that more familiar role of inception.

•Crabs tend to embrace tightly underwater for an extended period of time — up to days — while they wait for the female to molt. Once she's free of her hard shell, the male will slip special antennae into equally special pores on her underside, where she'll keep his materials until she's ready to build a clutch. (Depending on the species, the male will stay with her for protection until her new shell hardens.)

•Never be afraid to make things look and act how you want them to. As fun as researching different animal anatomy is, in the end, it's your world. And anyway, of all structures of the animal kingdoms, reproductive organs are arguably the most diverse. This means you can get as quirky and interesting as you want. There are even species where the female is the pitcher and the male is the catcher.

How Does the Human Fit In?

Now that you know what your alien captain's packing under the hood, your human lieutenant can shoot their shot. But before things can get moving, everybody needs to be in a position they can act in.

Depending on the individual, a vaguely normal timeframe for humans to go at it is 3 to 10 minutes. It may not sound like a lot of time, but that period is very physically active, and if things aren't ergonomic, it's all too easy to tire out or even get hurt. Both parties and whatever limbs they have need to be arranged in a way that isn't painful, and that allows for ease of motion. Think about where their bodies have to touch, and come up with a couple of positions that would work well. If the anatomy between parties is different enough, you may have positions your humans like more, and others that your aliens prefer.

Sex Furniture, Your Very Best Friend

In some cases, there is no "natural" way for both bodies to stay lined up. That's where the magical world of assistive furniture comes into play. If your society is sex-positive and includes both species, then the likelihood of having specialized furniture to help with love-making is extremely high.

It doesn't have to be complicated, either. It could be a large pillow with a groove to help your centaur stay straight on their back. It could be a padded block to give your satyr more traction. Or it could be a special couch that's made to put one or both parties at a favorable angle.

Remember again that whatever the furniture looks like, its purpose is to keep both (or more) individuals comfortable and (usually) able to move.

Don't Underestimate a Good Manual

If someone's put in the work to make assistive furniture, chances are someone else put in the work to make a manual. You may giggle, but sex manuals are, in fact, a thing.

This is a more in-world step, but it's worth considering. If your characters are inexperienced (either with each other's species or with sex in general), then the privacy and patience of a manual can be a life-saver. And it creates an opportunity for your characters to both crowd around an intimate instruction guide, discussing the things they do and don't like the looks of, and agree on the expectations for their encounter.

Climax and Resolution

Now that you've got it all figured out, your human and dragonkin are finally turning up the heat. But before you look up National Geographic footage of large reptiles, remember what your goal for the scene is. Your audience is human and, generally speaking, you want to get them hot and bothered. Whatever fun and strange things you've got going on, you'll want to relate them back to the human experience at this point. If your Point of View character is a human, then it's easy enough. If not, then you've got a little more work to do.

For mammals, the cycle of excitement, pleasure, climax, and refraction will be practically the same. You don't need to sweat the differences here, unless you're specifically interested in the amount of time your non-human will be spending in each phase.

For birds and tuatara reptiles (a small group of reptiles characterized by spines on their backs [like iguanas]), the act normally consists of kissing cloacas. This may seem relatively passionless, but there are ways to make it steamy. Since the cloaca isn't designed for the rigors of mammalian intimacy, you could take things slow and give attention to the other ways the characters are feeling each other, too. Kissing and caressing within each other's embrace can still be hot, even if your harpy only climaxes emotionally.

For other reptiles, the biggest difference will be in the fact that they're cold-blooded. A lizardfolk can still feel their heart race, still love how their partners smells, still have a heavy-lidded gaze, but they won't flush or become hot to the touch. Also, since reptiles don't shiver to maintain heat, they might not tremble when stationary (though they can still be shakey when they move).

If your PoV character is merfolk, depending on how far into the deep end you go with them, you'll thankfully have a lot of human material to draw from. But if you want to play up the novelty, they may notice how warm a human is, and how velvety their skin feels. Additionally, a bit of a dance, teasing chase, or display could go a long way to convey excitement, or even nervousness.

If your aliens or seafolk are more crab-like, then it can seem tricky, but don't fret. You might take the chance to explore the dynamic from your alien's perspective of needing to be held, or of the urge to protect their mate, for an extended period of time. Since feeling cared for and needed can really make the heart sing, this is something you can use to demonstrate intimacy, even if you don't decide to adjust the anatomy for a more traditionally human experience.

Aftercare

Not all scenes will include this step, but it is still an option. If you choose to show the afterwards, it can be a good place to transition from a shared experience back into the differences between species. Is your kappa still ready to go, even if your human's tuckered out? Is your hive-minded alien going to sleep off a pheromone high? Maybe your mermaid just needs to spend the next hour by her partner's side. If this kind of scene is useful to your story, it presents ample opportunities for world- and character-building.

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I hope this has been helpful! If I missed anything, if you have further or more detailed questions, or even if you're curious about what this article did to my targeted ads, feel free to send me an ask or DM!

Happy writing! ;D

#worldbuilding #writing #writeblr #romance #monster lover #how to #writing tips #writing advice #writing romance #after dark

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yanphobia · 2 years

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Cleithrophobia - Chapter 2

Cleithrophobia: The fear of being trapped.

Pairing: Yandere Male Drider OC x Reader

Warnings (for the entire story): Yandere, Horror, Graphic Discriptions of Injury and Death, Spiders, NonCon Touching, Possible NonCon (depending on reader's interpretation), Implied Female Reader (although it doesn't really factor too heavily into the plot), Extreme Dead Dove Do Not Eat

Chapter 1 Index Chapter 3

Author's Note: Wooow it's so nice to meet all of you! I was in the process of moving to a new city last week and didn't have the time to check on this account. But seeing how much support I've recieved in that time has been a great surprise ❤️ I'm going to be posting one chapter every weekend and this story has about ten chapters planned for it. Don't ever hesitate to say hi (or give me reading recommendations because I always love a new story!) Thank you so much for reading, and I hope that you'll enjoy this next installment!

This story was inspired by cobalt-sphinx's Drider x Reader from Quotev.

You were startled awake by Stan’s frantic pounding at the door. You bolted up and immediately regret it as pain floods through your shoulders and back. After last night’s encounter, you had immediately hidden yourself, terrified that that thing would break into your meager little cabin and attack you. You were on high alert, jumping at every sound outside of your window. As the sun began to rise, you must’ve passed out, still wearing your clothes from the night before.

And now you’ve overslept, judging by Stan’s knocking. You open the door and step outside.

“Stan, I am so, so sorry! I didn’t mean to oversleep.” You figured he’d be angry, but instead he looked worried. He took in your disheveled state but didn’t comment on it, most likely out of politeness.

“...It’s fine, no worries. But I need your help. The new rabbit hutch we just built was torn into last night and something got to ‘em. Think it was a coyote. Anyway, today I’m gonna teach you how to reinforce fences so it don’t happen again.” You felt your stomach turn as he spoke. You knew. You knew exactly what had happened last night.

You remain silent while he shows you exactly what to do. After a brief lesson, the two of you get to work.

“’S a damn shame, too. Those where some premium New Zealand Whites. Now, granted, there were only the two, but I was looking forward to breeding ‘em. Great meat, ya know? Delicious.”

“...Stan, exactly what type of animals live around here?”

“Oh, tons. You mean the bad ones, though, right? Bears, wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, wolverines even. They can be nasty when they want. Thankfully they don’t attack often, just so long as you respect their space.”

“...And... anything else? Are there any, I don’t know, myths or urban legends or anything about something really crazy living in the woods?”

“I’m sure! These lands are old, ma’am, and have been home to some very strange folk over the years. Native Americans, you know, and then settlers, all with their own superstitions,” Stan laughed lightheartedly. “But none I ever heard, not even a Bigfoot sighting. Guess that’s natural, though. The way stories and things just get lost over time.”

As Stan left to reinforce the turkey fences, and you finish up work on the chicken’s, you thought about what he had said. Things really do get lost over time, you thought to yourself. You certainly had. Once, you had dreamed of a happy life for yourself, with a career that you were passionate about and a family that you cherished. You had wanted to begin your life as soon as possible and quickly began creating it without a second thought. But as you matured a bit, and as each goal came closer to fruition, the doubt began to creep in. You fell out of love with your chosen field of study and stayed up at night worrying that you would spend your life working a job that you despised. When your partner, Alex, began describing your future together, excited at the prospect of marriage and starting a family, you only felt smothered. You were being forced, you quickly realized, dragged into an existence that you did not want and could not escape from.

Thinking about this made you uncomfortable, and so you forced it out of your mind.

The day passed without any further incidents, the next one as well. Well, it did until night fell. You had been walking towards your cabin, eager for a hot shower and a bit of relaxation, when you heard the panicked squawking of the chickens. They were out, everywhere, and hysterical. A quick look told you that the gate enclosing the designated area for them and one of the coups had been unlatched, allowing their escape. You quickly rushed back to the house, throwing open the door and calling for Shadow.

“What’s wrong?!” Laura asked, startled by your sudden appearance. She had nearly dropped the dish she was washing.

“Chickens got out. Don’t worry, I can handle it!” you responded quickly, although you knew that Laura would never miss the opportunity to help out. The two of you and your herding dog were quick to start gathering the chickens when you noticed that a few had been scratched up. Immediately, you knew who the culprit was. He had tricked you at first, admittedly, by simply opening the gates instead of tearing into them, but when Laura noted that two of the chickens were missing, you felt your fury grow stronger inside of you.

It was a game, you realized, just a sick game that monster was playing until he decided to kill you. To kill Laura and Stan. Maybe even more. It wouldn’t happen, not to such lovely people. You had brought this farm to his attention, and you wouldn’t allow him to hurt anyone because of it.

You found yourself slamming your cabin door open, grabbing a flashlight and a bowie knife, and charging into the forest. You didn’t even hear Laura’s desperate calls for you to come back.

#yandere stories #yandere fanfiction #yandere #yandere x darling #yandere male #yandere drider #drider oc x reader #drider x reader #drider #tw yandere #yandere writing #yandere oc x reader #terato x reader #terato #cleithrophobia

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thaeonblade · 11 months

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Okay MHA...I’m tired...

I know I’m going to get hate for this and I don’t care. But can My Hero Academia go five minutes without romanticizing a fucked abusive unhealthy, destructive or terrible relationship? Because right now, the heroes look like self-righteous dumbasses who should not be trusted nor have any good sense of reason, logic or frankly a consistent sense of morality, ethics and justice. And every time the story pulls out that “the villain is a child inside” crap or goes on about how life was unfair to the mass murderer, it makes the villain look more and more unintentionally unsympathetic. Can heroes like Izuku and Ochako be allowed to set boundaries and priorities to let horrible people hurt them without being considered bad heroes or bad people? Is it really bad for them to not let themselves get hurt just to validate some asshole’s feelings? Ochako doesn’t owe Toga shit. Toga isn’t entitled to shit. But the story is basically absolving Toga of all of the shit she’s done so that Ochako looks heroic for bleeding to death to reach out to this selfish murderous psycho bitch with a stalker complex. It doesn’t make Toga sympathic, it makes her look even more selfish. It doesn’t make Ochako a better character, it actually makes her kind of pathetic and hard to respect. I’m not sorry, I can’t respect people who disregard lives lost, families destroyed and can actually look a mass murderer in the eye and say that she has a lovely smile and admires how carefree she is while attacking her and her friends. This is Ochako’s big moment apparently. Enabling and coddling a fucking murderer because holding her accountable for her crimes and telling her that she mad bad choices and she’s responsible for them is “bad”. Society may have been unfair to Toga, but Society didn’t make Toga kill Saito (yes he’s dead per the databook) or any of the people she left to bleed to death, Himiko Toga choose that for herself. However, when I say Toga’s responsible for her choices I also state that she has the ability to make the right choice and do the right thing. Same goes for Shigaraki, but that requires taking personal ownership and responsibility for your actions. This is why the Toga and Ochako storyline sucks so much because it acts like Toga’s entitled to sympathy and patience and completely ignores all of the horrible and shitty things she’s done or been apart of. When Ochako says that she “can’t forget Toga’s actions”, this is empty protest and her actions and other words like “have my blood for the rest of my life” don’t add up. And no, Toga being bisexual does not excuse shit. She’s still a psycho murderer and deserves consequences. She sure as shit doesn’t deserve Ochako after nearly killing her and all of the harm she’s caused against her and her friends. I won’t change anyone’s mind here, but wanting TogaChako canon is basically saying you support a fucked up relationship between a selfish psychotic murderous borderline-sexual predator and the girl she’s trying to murder. If you want to support a Yuri ship, at least pick one that isn’t romanticizing or enabling abuse and romantizing suffering for an abusive or harmful partner like for example Momo x Kyoka. If Toga was a male, ya’ll would agree with me and you know it. I halfway wonder if some of you only ship TogaChako despite all of the objective red flags because you’re that desperate or thirsty for some kind of validation. Well sorry folks, you’re picking the wrong hill to stand on because canon-wise it sucks. Fanon wise, you can make it whatever you want, I mean it. I’ve read plenty of good fanfics where Toga got the help she needed before she went off the deep end and I enjoy reading about her relationship with other characters like Ochako and Izuku. But just like how Fanon Aizawa or in some cases “Dadzawa” is very different from the objectively asshole Canon Aizawa, Fanon Toga is a sweetheart compared to the psycho murderer Canon Toga is. I honestly wouldn’t care what you ship because it’s your business. I highly question your choice of ship, but feel free to ignore me and enjoy your warped fucked up ship as you please. With that said, I’m free to dislike said ship and use evidence from the story to point out how this is the worst possible cruelty you could inflict on Ochako. But please stop pretending like Canon Toga wouldn’t be a constant threat to anyone she was with. She fucking stabbed the first guy she had a crush on and he died (again databook) and even if he didn’t die, that’s still not someone who should be shipped with anyone. And after reading all of that, if you think I’m some kind of sexist, homophobic asshole because I don’t absolve or excuse murderers regardless of race, sex or sexual identity then we have nothing to discuss because I’m not wasting any breath on you. Fuck off. For the record, I already had this problem with the Bakugou and Izuku dynamic where Bakugou basically gets no consequences for his objectively bad actions and attitude. No justice for ten years of abusive bullying; No accountability for trying to kill Izuku during the training exercise; Izuku holds Bakugou on a pedestal he doesn’t deserve and basically does all of the suffering and giving for their messed up relationship; and the story doesn’t even do the bare minimum to make Bakugou’s “redemption arc” passable. The story ignored it for almost 300 chapters and then puts in a few grand gestures then acts like that’s all that’s needed and goes no further. I also have this issue with how Izuku is lionized for acting on blind idealism and emotionality to try and “save” Shigaraki despite the thousands he’s chosen to kill; the path of villainy that he’s chosen to take; and how he’s going to kill everyone if he’s not stopped. Society didn’t make Shigaraki become a villain; attack USJ; attempt to murder the Class 1-A students and teachers multiple times; send an attack against the Camp; try to make Bakugou join him or die; make an alliance with Overhaul whose torturing a child; or willingly take AFO’s quirk to be even more destructive and evil. That was Shigaraki’s choice. Tomura Shigaraki made that choice. Tenko Shimura made that choice. The little child within Shigaraki is irrelevant. It’s not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you. If Izuku and Ochako really respected Shigaraki and Toga, they’d respect their choices and stop holding back. Take off the kiddie gloves and defeat them however they have to. If the villains have to die so that no one else is killed at their hands? So be it. Nope, instead the story treats Shigaraki and Toga like children who can’t be held responsible for their actions because it’s all society’s fault. Which is insulting to them as characters, insulting to the many they’ve killed and Izuku and Ochako are also disrespecting their friends, teachers and comrades who’ve died or almost died including Midnight who was killed by one of Shigaraki’s men on Shigaraki’s command. What is heroic about disregarding the families destroyed? How will Ochako and Izuku explain themselves to the families of Shigaraki and Toga’s victims? Will they have any answer that doesn’t involve blind emotionality or idealism? I doubt it. What’s wrong with holding the villains accountable for their actions and giving them deserved consequences and acknowledging that society is flawed and wrong them? They are not mutually exclusive. You don’t have to scream at the audience about how you’re ignoring the problem if you don’t absolve these unsympathetic people because you know murder is wrong. And while we’re at it, if Horikoshi really wanted a story about Izuku and Bakugou repairing their relationship, then he needs to hold Bakugou accountable and responsible for his shit. Izuku needs to be allowed to love himself, knock Bakugou off of his “symbol of victory” pedestal, and learn that he doesn’t need to tolerate shit from Bakugou nor prove anything to him. Instead, Horikoshi’s portraying his characters as emotional pushovers and I’m sick of abusive horrible harmful people being treated like they’re entitled to sympathy, empathy or whatever. All because society wronged them and that apparently validates their chaotic emotions and how they’re lashing out and killing thousands of people. Yet, the story expects us to treat them like they’re the victims and they’re therefore entitled to infinite patience, forgiveness and empathy. They’re not. They’re entitled to a punch to the face. And I’m done here. Note: If you disagree with what I said then do so with respect. I don’t care if you agree with me, but harassment, threats and bullying will not be tolerated. Note: Just because I’m critical of MHA, doesn’t mean I’m any less of a fan. I just will not ignore its major problems as I’ve outlined. So if anyone wants to tell me that “I’ll have no peace in this fandom”, then just know that I don’t give a damn if you think I belong here or not. PS: Despite my harsh and blunt language, I really have nothing personally against TogaChako, BakuDeku shippers or whatever. I just hate these ships because of the unfortunate implications within them due to the canonical actions and attitudes of Bakugou and Toga. I strongly and fundamentally disagree with anyone who’d support or defend these ships and it honestly annoys how much some fans desperately force their interpretations over other fans, but otherwise you can like what you like. I just reserve the right to hate what I want to hate and sadly, your ship checks off all of the wrong boxes.

#mha critical #toga critical #bakugou critical #shigaraki critical #ochako critical #izuku critical #abusive relationships #mha393 #mha394 #Togachako critical #Bakudeku critical #rant #essay #responsibility

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honest-moth-of-silver-grove · 7 months

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Hello! Thank you for doing BG3 match-ups. I know these can be a lot of time and effort, but I’m sure you’re making lots of people happy! (I’m also very curious to see what other people submit because I love learning about everyone’s Tavs/Durges.)

A few tidbits about my Tav, Chamois: to begin with, she is a wood elf sorcerer with draconic ancestry (silver). Her family has long been tea artisans and she, as the youngest of four, has just started her apprenticeship under her mother. For now, she assists her mother in selling their tea leaves. Chamois can get a little tunnel-visioned at times, so deep is her love for all things tea.

Positive Traits

Chamois can be quite charming, in a sort of awkward way. As a child, she was very studious in her eagerness to understand more about the trade, to the detriment of her social development. Now that she’s older and not such a shut-in, Chamois has almost leaned into that awkwardness—she know she can be an oddball but she’s a friendly oddball! Who likes to laugh! And also wants to sell you some delicious tea! She talks to almost everyone with an unguardedness and cheerful energy that most would reserve for close friends. Hence, even if she says something strange or goes off on a tangent, many folks just see it as an endearing trait.

Negative Traits

Chamois has a tendency to tell white lies. It’s almost instinctive, the way she’ll slip a lie into some story she’s telling, even when she’s not being interrogated or pressured. Whether it’s to make her tale a smidge more exciting or because she can’t be bothered to give a long explanation, Chamois doesn’t have any qualms with sticking to absolute truth.

She’s also a huge coward; this comes more into play for the tadpole adventures. She’s never fought before and most of her sorcerer spells are teeny tiny bits of magic to help out on the tea farm. She desperately wants to be better though. After her moments of fear, she tends to really berate herself over her mistakes.

Chamois struggles with her negative emotions. She feels jealousy (especially jealousy), anger, and loneliness as much as anybody else, but always wants to present a cool, composed face so badly to others. A lot of her self-worth (when she’s not with her family) is placed on her friendliness and charm.

Likes

Tea (obviously!)

Reading, particularly on botany and chemistry

Theatricality and dramas

Windy days

Meaningful work

Socializing with others

Sour foods

Dislikes

Practical jokes

Unreliable people

Disruptions to her schedules or plans

Alcohol

People who never or rarely complain

Preferred Result

Male; monogamous or poly is fine!

Sorry my response got a little bit away from me. Thank you again for taking match ups and I hope you have a good night!

A/N: Holy information, Batman! Thank you for being so detailed. I love how you organized it too! Very neat and considerate. Thank you!

For you, my Detailed Anon, I think your best matchup is… Gale!

Gale is the perfect match for Chamois! He’s smart and kind, and a bit awkward himself. He’s a wizard, which may put him in competition with sorcerers from time to time, but he finds he actually Chamois great company to be around because she’s much more humble and less overconfident in her abilities than typical sorcerers are.

For sorcerers, magic comes from within, but wizards are required to study and practice in order to harness and control the natural web of magic flowing through the universe. This means Gale is a great partner to study with. He’d be very encouraging to Chamois in helping her learn more about her innate abilities. He’ll most likely suggest she look into more traditional means of magic as well, be it potions or using The Weave, just to help her gain confidence and sort of find her footing as a magic user. With his constant cheering her on, Chamois is bound to become more proficient in her natural abilities, the longer they spend time together.

He’s also lowkey obsessed with the fact Chamois is a tea artisan, as he’s quite the avid enjoyer of tea. He insists on having at least one cup a day, and cannot quiet his mind before bed without it. Plus he was raised by a single mom, so he’s very understanding of Chamois’ closeness to her mother.

Gale is very social. He’s also incredibly awkward. Thanks to spending much of his formative years locked away studying magic, he didn’t develop the nuanced social disciplines possessed by most adults. The good news is the two of them can be awkward together! The bad news is, it can make them a bit more obvious to others in public. But Gale doesn’t mind. Being the odd one out looking in never bothered him all that much before, why should it bother him now?

He’s not always cheerful per se, but he does tend to look on the bright side of things. This makes him much more likely to appreciate Chamois’ sunny disposition. And he loves it when she goes off on one of her knowledge tangents! He does the same thing as well! Their niche love language is basically them taking turns info-dumping to one another.

Gale isn’t a huge lair, although he does tend to be a bit withdrawn when meeting new people. He’s more likely to omit a detail than to tell a fib, as he’s more on the secretive side. (It’s a wizard thing.) He’s also used to being in close competition with braggarts (like Rolan and Lorrokan) so Chamois’ embellishment doesn't shock him too much. He does ask however that she remain honest with him on matters of the heart as it relates to their relationship. He’s been burned in that area before.

I wouldn’t call Gale a coward, but he’s on the fragile side (also a wizard thing lol), so he’s often more in the back or the side of the fight as opposed to the frontlines. He’s not put off by Chamois being scared- he’s scared too. And he thinks it’s smart of her. It shows she’s paying attention, and she understands what's at stake.

Despite how hard Chamois is on herself, Gale thinks she’s wonderful. He’s always singing her praises, telling her what great thing she did to aid the fight, no matter how minor it may be. He knows what it’s like to be hard on yourself, and he certainly knows the pain of making mistakes. He doesn't want Chamois to ever feel alone in that way. He wishes she could see herself the way he does, through his eyes. That way, maybe she’d understand how truly lovely she is.

Gale’s traditional when it comes to love. He’s a one-lover-at-a-time kind of person. He tends to be a bit insecure in his affections, which often manifests itself as jealousy. It comes from a deep-rooted fear that he won’t be enough for his lover. (And it’s all the more recent a wound because that’s how Mystra made him feel when she abandoned him.)

He’s not a huge drinker, but he does indulge occasionally. So Chamois better be prepared for the odd drunken declaration of true love, because he's most certainly going to get up on his soapbox and give that speech one, too many times. He really does mean everything he says- he loves her. And he thinks she’s the best thing that could have ever happened to him. Even with the tadpole, and the orb in his chest, he wouldn’t have had his life turn out any other way.

He loves staying indoors on thundery days, with delicious tea and good books, Tera nestled between the two of them. He can hardly wait for the day their families meet, hers and the Dekarios clan, so they can be one big happy tea-selling, potion-making, magic-using family.

#gale x tav #gale x reader #gale imagine #baldurs gate imagine #bg3 imagine #bg3 x tav #baldurs gate 3 imagine #bg3 #matchups

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ghostinthegallery · 10 months

Text

I kind of want to talk about my experiences with Warhammer stores. Visiting them is a popular recommendation for how to get into the game, so I want to toss in my two cents particularly as a woman in the hobby (spoilers, story starts out as a bummer but has a happy ending).

The first time I went to a store it was because my partner (who's a man) had been trying to get me into 40K, and we were driving past a store. He decided to take us in. I was skeptical but curious. Liked the look of Ad Mech, thought Tau might be neat. There was an event going on at the store that day (Kill Team tournament I think?) The employee proceeds to greet my partner, chat about what he's looking for, armies he's played in the past. And I'm standing there just being totally ignored by this guy. It seriously felt like he had mentally categorized me as "disinterested girlfriend" and moved on. I'm sure the employee was busy and distracted and the service industry sucks. However, that dismissal did not feel great. I've spent a decent chunk of my life in male-dominated spaces and I am too old to put up with this shit. It put me off the whole game and hobby for years.

Fast forward a few years, I become addicted to necrons, and I genuinely want to get my own army. We ordered pretty much everything, but there were still some models I wanted, so I decided "okay, let me try this store thing again."

I was visiting my parents and they had a Warhammer store nearby (plus some independent stores, but the Warhammer one was closer). So I popped in with my mom while we were out, and the guy at the store was SO NICE! We chatted, he showed me the tyranids he was painting, gave me painting tips for my crons. He recommended some books that were excellent, and even checked if my mom was interested in anything! It was fantastic.

And there was my visit to the Warhammer Café in LA. Partner and I went as a special outing while visiting LA and the store was incredible. The employees were so excited! And talked to both of us about what we were looking for! There was one person running a tutorial game for some folks and hyping up every single dice roll. There were dudes playing games in the back, kids and families, and some stunning miniatures on display. We spent way too much money and I have no regrets XD

I guess the moral of my story is that bad experiences can happen and that sucks, especially if you aren't the "stereotypical" wargamer type person. That's important to acknowledge, and I don't blame anyone who gets turned off the hobby because of that. But at least for me, that negative experience turned out to be the exception. Others have been so kind and welcoming and excited about this weird little game and the weird little toys we love.

So if you do have a bad experience, I see you. It's not you, it's them. And I promise someone else will be better.

#warhammer 40k #warhammer #personal story #wargaming #I now have more painted miniatures than my partner #so he succeeded in getting me interested #he just might regret it #shoutout to the awesome game store employees everywhere #you guys rule

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cursedvibes · 7 months

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Hey, I'm the person who commented on Stitches Across, asking about your references and such! Sorry for taking so long to reach out through here. First of all, The Changelings story got me very curious. I found it on Amazon and will try to see if I manage to get the ebook of it for further reading. If you have anymore tales like this to rec, I'd gladly take them. Second, the explanation towards the centipede motif was absolutely perfect, I don't think I myself would be able to come up with something so spot-on for a symbolism. Arthropods to me are very fascinanting, but I'm a bit scared of/disgusted by them, so I generally only observe them from afar and read about them, I actually prefer Mollusks. Anyway, I digress. The thing is you're a very talented writer. May I ask what about Kenny's explanation for their gender. Was it based on something or is it a writing construction for them specifically? And also why were they so repulsed by the breast-touching? Is it because, in that moment, they were directly related to birth and motherhood or more of a quirk related to their gender views? And, finally, the Japanology thing is really, really cool! It makes a bunch of sense actually. May I ask if is it true that Gege's kanji choices are very peculiar to Japanese readers? Anyways, thanks for the delightful read! I'm very glad you responded to my comments! Have a great weekend!

Hi! I'm so glad to hear back from you! I hope you had a nice weekend :)

Glad you were able to find the story and I hope you will enjoy it (despite having some questionable parts)! Hm, I can't think of any tale that is quite like The Changelings. In terms of Heian literature you have the classic of course, like The Tale of Genji, with some entertaining stories and look into the court system and court ladies past time. As for historical queer texts, the ones I can think of are written by Edo period samurai. For example, some of the works by Gennai Hiraga about how homosexuality is superior to heterosexuality. Rootless Grass is about King Enma and a kappa falling for an onnagata and trying to win his affection (and try to kill him so he can come to the kingdom of the dead). Then of course we have The Great Mirror of Male Love by Saikaku Ihara, a collection of romance stories between samurai, monks, kabuki actors and town folk. It's interesting and at times pretty sweet, I especially find it fascinating how monks are depicted here, but its also very much a product of its time. You always have the expectation that the older, more masculine partner will take on the dominant role and his younger, beautiful, more feminine counterpart the submissive one. It's also pretty misogynistic because the author is convinced that love between men is better than love between men and women because men are just categorically superior and women barely more than baby-making machines... But that's historical texts for you. Very similar to how The Changelings features trans characters, but also forces them to detransition in the end.

I also used to not pay much attention to insects or arthropods, but jjk has made me a lot more interested in reading about centipedes, millipedes and spiders in particular and turns out they are a lot more fascinating than I thought :D that's also what I love about writing. It encourages me to do research into things I would otherwise never bother with. I haven't looked into molluscs much, but I know snails and slugs are very complex organisms and can do some crazy stuff like produce scales that include metal.

About Kenjaku's gender, I played around with it and wanted to have their gender identity actually change fluidly and not always line up with their current body. It wasn't based on anything specific, just one way of how I interpret their character. We don't have a definitive statement on how Kenjaku identifies and if that identity changes or is affected by their vessels, so there's a lot of room to explore. In other fics I stick to they/them or pronouns that match the sex of their vessel, but I changed it up a bit here. In the prequel Perfect Preparation Kenjaku starts out with he/him pronouns and later switches to she/her shortly before taking over Kaori even while being in a male body. Same in Stitches, except their journey is a bit more detailed with Kenjaku starting to switch up between she/her and they/them after Yuuji's birth. It's a combination of Kaori's body having served her purpose and Kenjaku wanting to move on, and generally just being uncomfortable with the body because it doesn't quite match their identity. Not a huge bother because I assume Kenjaku is used to inhabiting bodies they don't like but keep for necessity (like needing Geto's body, but disliking being addressed by his name while Noritoshi's name is still fine even after a century), but things like Jin addressing them differently or taping their/Kaori's chest do make the whole thing a bit more comfortable for them. It doesn't have anything to do with motherhood, they don't mind or even welcome being called "mother" (I think that's always the case, no matter the body), the body just started to overstay its welcome and didn't match their self-perception and current preferences.

Oh yeah, Gege's way of writing can be a bit peculiar sometimes. Kanjis and their hiragana/katakana reading being different (like Kenjaku saying "my body" but the kanji being "Geto's body) isn't that uncommon in manga, but Gege can sometimes use very uncommon kanji or ones with ambiguous meaning. You have the way Sukuna is talking for example, which can incorporate some outdated words, like recently using 写真機 (photographic device) instead of カメラ (camera) when talking about Nanako's phone camera. Or how he praised Gojo in his death. It can be understood as "you were magnificent", but his wording and kanji usage references an idiom that refers to the sky becoming clear after a rainy day, so his words mean more literally: "you cleared the skies".

Another example would be Kenjaku bringing out Chinese idioms when spitting their little "I have lived" poem at Tengen in chapter 206. "tug-of-war between feuding giants" 竜戦虎争 literally translated to "a battle between dragon and tiger" with the dragon representing heaven/sky aka Tengen and the tiger (Itadori) earth or Kenjaku. The other line about "capricious alliances and betrayals" 合従連衡 references the Chinese Warring States period and it's many coalitions and political power struggles. I assume Kenjaku prepared that little speech a while ago to finally throw it in Tengen's face. Or the poetic spirit just overcame them in the heat of the moment.

Kenjaku also incorporated a lot of pregnancy symbolism in their language. Like in Shibuya they said "What I can create does not exceed the bounds of my own potential", but it can also mean "What I birth...". Similar when they talk to Choso about the merger they say Tengen will become a cursed spirit bearing/becoming pregnant with/swollen with the cursed energy of a hundred million people. There are dozens more examples. Names for cursed techniques and the sorcerer squats in the Heian era are also notoriously difficult to translate in English because they contain so many references and possible meanings that you can write entire essays about it. Some fantranslators thankfully do exactly that, like TCB and Shishiso. I really appreciate their input and the research they do when necessary. TCB dedicating multiple pages to explaining how Tengen's sunyata barrier works was crazy and Shishiso recently did something similar as an explanation for the Heian era squats and Sukuna's cursed tools. Too bad we have John Werry as official translator, who doesn't even know the story and just skips over the finer parts of the text...

I'm glad you got in touch! Hopefully you don't mind the word salad :D

#asks #my stuff

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debunkingtherightwing · 16 days

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The dating market as seen through the eyes of an absolute lunatic

Well folks, I've been seeing a lot of talk in right-wing media about a "dating crisis" sweeping America recently. Naturally they have the citations to back this up, those citations being random videos that they found on TikTok. So I figured we'd take a look at one of the guys talking about this epidemic and see what's going on here, lets get into it.

02:10, Matt Walsh: "In what has become something of a monthly tradition on social media, two videos have gone viral featuring young women distraught over their inability to find a man who they consider worthy of their time. A week ago it was this woman expressing her deep frustrations over this video, listen."

I figured who would be a better fit to educate us on this pressing issue than Matt Walsh? He's famous for being a guy who lets trans people live rent free in his head and works at a platform that restores your virginity the minute you open their website, surely he can tell us all we need to know about the dating scene.

Jokes aside, Matt Walsh citing some random woman's TikTok video as proof that the dating market has been ruined by women having professional lives is peak Daily Wire journalism.

Matt plays the TikTok and then tells on himself a little bit.

04:16, Matt Walsh: "Even though I may be, infamously, a Grinch whose heart is three times too small. Even I will say that I truly feel bad for this young lady and the loneliness she's experiencing. You'd have to be a sociopath to not feel bad for her and despite popular misconceptions I am not a sociopath."

Golly, I wonder what gave people that idea about you Matt. Guess that will just have to remain a mystery for the time being.

04:39, Matt Walsh: "She says that she's worked on herself, she's done everything she can to make herself desirable. Part of the problem of course is that some of the things she highlights will have no effect either way on making her more desirable to men. For instance, no man cares whether a woman is successful or independent. Like, there has never been a man in the history of the world who has left a first date and said 'Wow, she's great. She's so successful and independent'. Those are just not characteristics that a man is looking for, they certainly won't be at the top of his list."

Ok, Matt Walsh dating tip number one is "If you are a female be submissive to your male partner at any cost. They're not looking for success and independence after all". Nothing messed up there. If you think this is a distortion of Matt's words, I would like to point you towards a blog post he made in 2014 entitled "Your husband doesn’t have to earn your respect". Quote;

"This doesn’t mean that a man has a license to be lazy, or abusive, or uncaring. He is challenged to live up to the respect his wife affords him. If his wife parcels out her respect on some sort of reward system basis, the husband has nothing for which to strive. As the respect diminishes, so too does his motivation to behave respectably. Respect is wielded like a ransom against him, and he grows more isolated and distant all the while."

Basically, if you are a female and your husband is abusing you it's actually your fault because you weren't respecting him enough. A lot of his comments recently, including the one I just quoted above, show that Matt Walsh's views haven't changed that much since then. Matt plays another TikTok of a woman lamenting her relational struggles, recaps the TikTok for some reason and then decides to present more "evidence".

08:14, Matt Walsh: "Now, it's not just women having these problems obviously. In fact, one guy replied to this last video with his own story."

Matt Walsh should never be allowed to comment on things like the minimum wage again after this episode. The reason I say this is because it's becoming glaringly clear to me that Matt's job is just watching TikTok, reading the comments under those TikTok's and attempting to turn those videos and comments into a coherent argument.

09:10, Matt Walsh: "Now, by now we're all familiar with the statistics which we've talked about on the show many times. Fewer young adults are in relationships, few are getting married, few are having kids, more of them are remaining single than ever before while people of all ages report record levels of loneliness."

It is true that we are experiencing a loneliness epidemic but the causes for this are a lot more complicated than what Matt Walsh thinks they are. According to an article written by psychology professor Susan Dugan for the University Of Denver, a lot of it is caused by people unable to manage their work-life balance and increased reliance on social media. Due to the increased reliance on social media, especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people have became overly reliant on things like texting as opposed to seeing people in person.

Dugan also writes that one of the biggest things causing the loneliness epidemic is an overly-work oriented culture and people using their spare time to get more work done as opposed to spending time forming meaningful relationships. Now, I wonder what Matt Walsh, a guy who thinks that social security should be abolished and that the best solution to a low minimum wage is to "just stop being on the minimum wage", would have to say about dismantling a workplace culture focused around toxic productivity.

09:26, Matt Walsh: "A Pew analysis published in 2021 found that nearly 40% of adults between the ages of 25 and 54 are quote on quote unpartnered. And by that they mean these are people that are living without a spouse or a live in boyfriend or girlfriend."

If Matt actually did some research into what he's talking about instead of just skimming hed's and dek's he'd find the percentage of single Americans looking for a relationship or casual dates has decreased massively since 2019 with 58% reporting that they aren't interested in a relationship or even casual dating. Also, 40% is a scary number that Matt can use to freak out his audience but it's still the minority but I guess that's something that Matt's just going to ignore because his main solution is "just get married" (despite marrying young statistically leading to divorce but we'll get to that).

10:05, Matt Walsh: "So, what's going on? Um, there are several major factors, some of them I've discussed before but lets lay them out again in one list."

I can help Matt Walsh by compiling some of the things he's discussed in the past into a helpful list.

Factor #1: We don't just force people to marry each other

Factor #2: We don't force sixteen year old girls to get married because that's when they're "technically most fertile"

10:15, Matt Walsh: "First of course, many people are just waiting too long to get serious about getting married. The lie that my generation was sold and that the next generation after mine was also sold is that your 20's, the first decade of adulthood, is a time to be aimless and lazy and selfish and focused primarily on recreation and pleasure."

What universe is Matt Walsh even living in? Most people in their 20's are either in college or are looking for work, often due to them having to pay off large amounts of student debt from said college. If Matt wants more people to get married and have kids at a young age than he should support things like student debt relief that help make that lifestyle more affordable for young people.

According to a 2023 survey, 73% of Gen Z and millennial couples say that getting married is simply too expensive in todays economy.

Ok, so Matt Walsh factor #1 is pretty stupid if you do even the most basic research like "actually meeting somebody in their 20's". Matt's second point is that there are too many choices, fair enough, that's probably the most respectably true thing he's said this entire episode and society would be better off if Matt would just quit while he's ahead and end the video here. His third point though is just "why don't we just put traditional gender roles from the 50's back?!"

12:33, Matt Walsh: "And third, at a much deeper level, people are very confused and we've lost the basic understanding of what dating is for in the first place. Worse, we've lost any understanding of what men and women are for and what our roles are supposed to be. If we even talk about roles as it relates to men and women it's considered outrageous and offensive somehow."

So, a very verbose way of saying "get back in the kitchen", got it. Should I be taking notes for this?

13:08, Matt Walsh: "Think again about that woman in the first video highlighting her professional achievements. If she understood what men wanted she would instead highlight herself as a kind and affectionate woman who knows how to cook and take care of her man."

You thought I was exaggerating in that last bit of text didn't you?

14:09, Matt Walsh: "Four, this may be the biggest factor but the institutions that once facilitated matchmaking have completely broken down. Have been mostly abandoned or have simply stopped performing those functions."

Citation needed there Matt, no you can't cite your feelings.

14:21, Matt Walsh: "How were people matched up in the past? Well, for most of history families would arrange the matches. That's no longer the case, at least not in the west."

So, Matt still wants arranged marriages to be a thing in America, cool. In a strange stroke of coincidence, arranged marriages would strip women of their autonomy and right to choose which is what Matt was oh so subtly hinting at wanting in factor #3 and has historically espoused wanting even more blatantly in the past. Probably a coincidence.

14:30, Matt Walsh: "And so if the families not doing it, well churches used to play a major role in connecting young people with each other but most young people don't even go to church regularly so that no longer happens."

Yes Matt, that's why cultures that don't practice Christianity are sterile cultures where nobody marries ever. Seriously, we went from kind of stupid to misogynistic to extremely stupid (and still misogynistic) in the span of five minutes.

By the way, Matt Walsh met his wife on eHarmony so his stupid ass argument doesn't even apply to his own lived experience. But yeah, everyone else can only meet women through the church and arranged marriages.

14:38, Matt Walsh: "And if you don't have the family or the church, you've cut out the two institutions that used to be primarily in charge of this kind of thing, you've thrown them out then who's helping single people find each other? The workplace was sort of the third option and never the best place to facilitate romantic relationships but now it's even worse. HR regulations make it a risky proposition for a man to try to initiate any kind of romantic relationship with a co-worker and with more and more people working from home your co-workers may be thousands of miles away in any case."

So, the only alternative to church and arranged marriages is for men to sexually harass women in the workplace. Too bad those pesky HR regulations get in the way of that.

Ok, I’ve had enough “learning” from Matt Walsh for one lifetime.

Conclusion:

Well, that's was the stupidest take on the dating market that I've ever heard. I'm starting to realize that "What is a Woman?" might have actually been a genuine question because Matt Walsh clearly has no idea what women want outside of "they should be my personal slave".

I guess the takeaways here are that women don't understand their "roles" well enough and that the only possible places to meet a partner are the church and arranged marriages.

Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

Original Video:

“Ep. 1373 - Why the Modern Dating Scene Is a Nightmare.” The Daily Wire.

Sources:

Dugan, Susan. “Psychology Professor on the “Loneliness Epidemic” — and How to Counter It.” Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, 27 June 2023.

Gelles-Watnick, Risa. “Roughly Six-In-Ten Single Adults in the U.S. Say They Are Not Looking for a Relationship or Dates.” Pew Research Center, 7 Feb. 2023.

Gelles-Watnick, Risa. “For Valentine’s Day, 5 Facts about Single Americans.” Pew Research Center, 8 Feb. 2023.

Nathan. Gen Z & Millennial Survey on Marriage and Living Together - New Statistics 2023. 23 June 2023.

#right wing bullshit #conservative bullshit #journalism #fact checking #bad takes #conservatives #disinformation #politics #daily wire #debunking #matt walsh

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tarmac-rat · 2 months

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6, 13, 17, 23 for Riley beloved!!

AH YES I SHALL THANK YOU!

6) Any flowers you associate with your OC?

Black-eyed Susans and Star Cacti! Black-eyed Susans are symbolic of survival, strength, and justice, and Star Cacti flowers represent resilience and endurance. Riley's personal favorite flower, however, is a California Gold Poppy.

13) Does your OC have a good relationship with their parents or no?

Riley had a consistently good relationship with her mother Ivy up until she split from the Bakkers when they dissolved into Snake Nation. Riley and Ivy were virtual copies of each other in appearance and personality and folks in the Bakkers used to call Riley "Lil' Ivy" as a joke when she was growing up and going through her training. They were consistently each other's partners on raids and Riley spent many years worshipping the ground her mother walked on, pretty much accepting that her path in life was going to lead to her inheriting her mother's position as head of the Bakker's scouts. When the clan dissolves (in part due to Raffen raiding and killing a good 80% of them in a surprise raid), Riley and Ivy have a huge 3-day fight regarding the Snakes and the pair of them don't talk for a good three years, only meeting back up well into a planned fix-it. They're very close overall, but with them being so similar in personality, it was inevitable that something as earth-shattering as that would cause them to be at odds with each other, especially since Riley basically saw it as her life as she'd known it ending. Riley never knew her father-- a smuggler on the Texas-Mexico-New Mexico territories named Felix Moreno-- growing up and only encountered him after actively seeking him out in 2080 when she was around 27. Felix and Riley are about as opposite you can get in terms of personality; he's very theatrical, easygoing, quick to trust, something of a wisecracker, and does not know how to keep his mouth shut when he probably should, so Riley was naturally going to not really get along that easily with him right off the bat. They warm up to each other after a while, but Riley doesn't really ever take to Felix in the way she took to Ivy, though she definitely does like having him in her life.

17) Does your OC have a pet?

Johnny Nibbles! Nibbles is a male in my canon and Riley's first ever real pet. She never really intended to adopt him, she just kinda took him in for a night and gave him half a burrito and a pile of clothes to sleep in, but then the morning came and her bleeding heart couldn't bear to kick him out. She's pretty careful about NOT letting people see him, though, since she doesn't have the money to pay a $40k penalty if someone realizes she has a pet without a license, so when people are over she relegates the cat to the ammo room and hopes against hope that people don't want to check out her guns lol. Post-Temp, Johnny and Nibbles go through some...ups and downs together, but he eventually does hold onto the cat and lets him stay in the apartment at West Wind Estates. The closest thing she ever had to a pet growing up was this one time her brother caught a king snake when they were eight and they kept it in a plastic tub and fed it scop-SPAM for a week. Ivy was NOT jazzed when she found out lol, and they were forced to release it back into the wild. Riley wanted to name it Wiggles but Kai named it Sammy (after Samurai, go figure) and because he caught it, his choice won out.

23) Is your OC religious and what religion? If it’s a fictional religion for your story please give a summary of the core teachings of their faith?

Riley isn't religious at all. The closest thing to a religious belief she subscribes to is belief in the cycle of karma and that every wrong will eventually be righted by the universe/a higher power, but there isn't an organized religion she herself belongs to. Riley didn't even realize how widespread religions in the NUS even were until she moved to Night City and started living with the very Catholic Welles family.

Thank you again for asking!

#togepies #V #My V #Riley Aldana #HEY MOM LOOK HOW HARD I CAN PROCRASTINATE *proceeds to write all this*#aldi speaks

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