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citrusotakutea · 4 months

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Hey op just curious what makes you hate the new Hellsing fanbase. As a fellow Hellsing fan I was wondering if I’ve completely missed something strange going on lately.

The new Hellsing fandom honestly irks me because of the surface level probing of the source material*. Yes, to most it's a hard core, dark, violent, mad and bad-ass anime but, like I've said so often, for so long on this dumb blog, it has the BEST female characters I've ever seen, recently rivaled by Arcane. Incredible depiction of platonic relationships and morally grey characters. To me, it's primarily a found family story, among other things.

The side characters are incredible, Yumi and Heinkel are the most underrated of the show. I mean come on priest and nun lesbians (lesbian used liberally). Heinkel is confirmed by the author to be an INTERSEX HUMAN. Alucard shapeshifts into a female (which, looking at the Devilman fandom, everyone took for an obvious trans metaphor, why not here?). The source material is as homoerotic as it can get between a lot of the characters (the tension between Sir Integra and Seras during the blood scene). Let's not forget Rip van Winkle, Pip, Walter, and Alexander. Alucard's teasing, Seras' naivety and subsequent maturity, Pip's endurance and playful wittiness. These characters and relationships are stuck in my head forever, they're all incredibly unique, fleshed out and worth remembering, no matter how short a time they spent on screen. And the character designs? As a long-time vampyr and catholic guilt fan, can I just say. Rawr. This show shaped how I dress like irl and my own shitty characters, as well.

Sir Integra is my favorite character of the show and one of all time. Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. Like, an actually good depiction of a no-nonsense, androgynous as hell, unabashedly commanding (dare I say) woman? And it's played completely straight? No "Whaaa that's a woman?" every 2 seconds or "heh, you will listen to me despite my womanhood" from her. Powerful in her own right despite being the few "magic"-less humans of the series. 0 sexualized Ultimate scenes (sorry Seras and the "hot down there" comment doesn't count, that was banter). She was fucking knighted by the Queen of England before she was even 25, hence Sir Integra. Canonically bi-racial and South-Asian. I'm not even going to go into her character's willpower and values but. Hellloooo???

Not to mention, something noteworthy about the series, but Hellsing works because Hirano made time for silly moments. I mean, hell, one of the scenes I remember most vivdly was the gag of Heinkel lighting Sir Integra's cigar and being mega-pissed about it during the final battle, it's funny yet in character, despite many fans saying the humor throws you out of the "reality" of the show.

Oh no, but what do the new fandom gremlins talk about? "Alufart rails Y/A" "OMG VLADCARD'S BARA HAIRY TIDDIES I WANNA RUB MY FACE AGAINST THEM" (you know who you are) “I drew the most fucked up version of Alucard I could think of in my twisted mind”

and my personal "favorite":

"omg 🥺 what if intewa and alucard kisswdd", it's almost as bad as Seras x Alucard.

Unfortunately, I am a part of the ship police, so I'm gonna say right now that these two are my most hated ships:

1) Sir Integra and Alucard's relationship goes beyond romance to me. Since none of the new fans know the lore, Sir Integra is and will die a virgin (canon), it's literally plot relevant because by having sex, if she gets bit she will become a zombie slave (obvious but apparently needed to be said) and, taking a note from the 2001 anime, gone is any chance to continue the Hellsing mission. If she was bitten, plot armor aside, she'd have to off herself instead of becoming a vampire. (and for you freaks out there/pos, dare I say… ace representation? you can argue about desire and subtext later)

2) Seras and Alucard's relationship was specifically noted by the author to be a father/daughter dynamic, which is kind of obvious in the show. Like I said, fundamentally a found family series. Yeah, you don't need to treat found family like family family but I gen can't stand this ship.

I know that people will ship characters who've never been in a room together before. I can't stop people from shipping them and these two ships have ALWAYS been popular in the fandom. I typically ignore this and, yes, "don't like, don't interact" is my main rule. However, new fans ONLY talk about this stuff. None of the rest of the show seems to matter, just Alucard's hairy mustached tig bitties and him fucking one of the two women in the main cast. Or someone's self insert.

((tangent but personally my favorite ships are Alexander x Alucard (obviously in an enemies to enemies way), Heinkel x Yumi, and a romance only Seras x s.Integra. Like, you want old women yuri??? There ya go! They were in a mansion for like 30 years (I forgot) together, probably going missions alone and sharing their grief over Alucard and their unique experience/history. Like I said, I can't help who people ship, I'm not trying to say the source material is in favor of my ships or "how dare people interpret these obviously gay characters as straight". like no, that's not why I'm upset and ik alucard and alexander weren't yaoi-ing it up but like. alucard and s.integra shippers dni /j))

Not to mention, I couldn't help but notice, despite this information being readily available to my middle school self, no one knows the fckn lore or background of this show?? I honest to god saw someone comment that Hellsing Ultimate™ was a bad “remake” because it diverged from the original anime.

Here's SOME fun facts:

-the 2001 version of the show has a different ending than the manga because it wasn't finished yet (duh). Hellsing Ultimate is "soooo short" because production took almost a decade and it was trying to be a faithful, well-animated (that takes time bruv) adaptation. Oh, and a bunch of directional changes that I won't get into.

-there are multiple OVAs following Walter's youth in WW2 (Hellsing: The Dawn). Young Walter's design honestly was one of my favorites from the series so. Walter enjoyers. Check it out.

-there is a bonus book explaining a lot about the characters and process of creating Hellsing written by Hirano himself. whenever I got a hold of it, though (8+ years ago) there was no English translation.

-Alucard didn't just transform into a girl that one time, he was in his girl form the entire time during WW2 (hence why when people mention his possible affair with the Queen it might've been a sapphic thing but I think that mostly stems from the abridged series. the queen thing not the girl thing)

-Hirano used to be a Hentai mangaka and actually designed many of Hellsing's characters in said hentai or in short stories (such as Crossfire, it's basically extra, non-canonical Hellsing content) beforehand. Which, this used to be the most popular "fun fact" but has been lost to the sands of time now, so prepare for a lot of people rediscovering this.

-personal lore is I almost named myself Rip van Winkle bc of this show (quirked up Portal, Grell Sutcliff, queer-coded, rifle-wielding shawty)

Anyway, to sum it up, I hate when people don't interpret characters in the same way I do. Yes, I am a bad “fandom elder”, idgaf I am fundamentally a hater.

*I keep seeing this happen with old shows that resurface. Unlike newer or more popular shows where every scene gets scoured, characters who showed up for one scene get analyzed, and endless cafe AUs are made- older shows mostly get fan art of the main charas and the ships of the two hottest characters and that's it. Discussion of lore and themes are completely off the table. So I'm not surprised, just disappointed.

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cipheramnesia · 1 year

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Not to be whiny, and feel free to tell me off if I am, but where did you get a "good" polycule? I used to visit a lot of queer/poly munches/meetups but always got bullied for being "the wrong kind of trans" (I'm amab nonbinary) or "too weird for us" (I'm also autistic), and most queer people I've met outside of those were not interested in keeping contact because they already had a polycule and I "wasn't worth it". Idk what to do, finding people to be with seems so easy for everyone here . . .

I don't think there's one right way to go about it, because relationships are so chaotic and personal, and polyamory makes it even more so.

For me a lot of it is like, a good polycule starts at home, with my nonbinary wife and myself being a pretty strongly committed couple, we both have a lot of the tools in the toolbox that support better relationships with new partners. Stuff like being good at talking about stuff and working together and not letting little stuff become huge deal breakers and just kind of finding ways we fit and work well as a couple and how to compromise with stuff that makes friction. We both have good grounding in accommodating each other and speaking up. Which makes it sound like more negotiation than love, but a big thing is how much love cements us.

And so you know when you meet new people you already know how to work with them and care for them and it still takes time to learn how it coalesces into the existing relationship but that main core compassion helps in the phase where everyone is feeling out one another's needs.

But there's privilege elements like, me being able bodied and my brain worms being fairly easy to cope with and having an okay employment situation and owning a house and being like at least okay looking by conventional western standards is all stuff that affects how other people see me as a partner, and it's sucky that these are factors, but I can't pretend they're not. I can function kind of as the cement holding our house together and it's not through some innate arcane poly magic, but because of social privileges built around able bodied etc etc people.

There's some dumb luck too, because frankly a lot the stuff I have is by chance more than design. We wouldn't own a house if my mom hadn't died of cancer and got a giant life insurance pay out for example. And having Your Space that can handle a partner or two makes a difference because the other thing is schedules are a damn nightmare. I have a girlfriend a only see every other month or so because we both have our own core and households and lives, and sure we don't wanna apply like hierarchy to relationships either but the time factors of partners you live with and partners you don't are substantially different. So, you know, you may find a lot of cases where it's not easy to see a partner who lives with one of their other partners. Life's just like that and I cannot stress enough how fucky schedules are in polyamory.

So like, basically take everything that's complicated about a monogamous relationship and make it more, and that's polyamory. On my end it was just a collection of factors mostly out of my control that ended up with myself and and my wife in a good place to build a polycule around ourselves and we met a bunch of people we fit well with. But it doesn't have to go that way either, maybe you just kinda date around, don't have to like settle down with a specific person or people. Or end up with a buncha queerplatonic friends together. Or something else.

I'm not super good at relationship advice, due to the mostly dumb luck stuff but for factors you can control, it's pretty much don't be a doormat about your needs, but do make sure you're accommodating what's also going to be the many, many different needs of multiple partners.

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pumpkinblossoms · 1 year

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OK, in the spirit of positivity, here are my top reads of 2022!

A bit in the way of context: I am a librarian, I read a lot, and, for better or for worse, I live and breathe books/publishing buzz/ARCs/etc. The list below is purely based on my own fully biased opinions, though those biases have nothing to do with whether I had early access to a title, a connection to the publisher, etc. and everything to do with whether a book is sad, gory, or gay. And thanks @explosionshark for suggesting I write this up!

DEAD COLLECTIONS by Isaac Fellman: holy fuck was this book good. The whole “trans vampire falling in love and solving a quiet, sad mystery in the archive where he works” angle is catchy, but this is definitely not the fluffy or straightforward story some people are after. I really loved how vampirism is depicted as a life-ruining weakness rather than a cool and sexy superpower. I also really loved the multimedia aspect of including forum posts and TV scripts and listserv chains.

BABEL: AN ARCANE HISTORY by R.F. Kuang: I think some criticisms of this one, like that it’s slow and repetitive and a little didactic, are founded. However, I couldn’t care less. R.F. Kuang excels at unhurried school stories that slowly and brutally dismantle themselves over hundreds and hundreds of pages, and the formula she establishes in the excellent Poppy War trilogy is perfected here. This is what actual dark academia looks like–The Atlas Six could never.

KISS HER ONCE FOR ME by Alison Cochrun: I used to read a lot of contemporary romance, specifically f/f romance, but after being burned over and over and over and OVER by bad books I’m incredibly selective about what I read and recommend in this genre. I gave Alison Cochrun a ton of shit for her incredibly mediocre debut, The Charm Offensive, but I am totally willing to say that she’s improved, and this book–while still definitely goofy and even grating at times–was probably the best f/f romance out in 2022 from a major publisher other than Delilah Green (which I read in 2021 and therefore did not include in this list, but also whose sequel sucked so much it honestly made me like the first one less). Do me a favor and don’t even read the back copy because it doesn’t make any fucking sense and will turn you off the book.

THE PALLBEARERS CLUB by Paul Tremblay: hoooo boy. OK. So this one got dismal reviews from the Goodreads crowd, but I believe fully and genuinely in my heart that everybody is wrong about it and should feel bad about how wrong they are. The thing is, Paul’s books are slow and atmospheric (are you sensing a theme to what kind of books I tend to like best) and there are no easy answers or moments of triumph or anything you might be led to expect via publisher-created blurbs or taglines. And going into a book with one expectation and having that expectation remain unmet is one of the quickest and simplest ways to have a bad-faith negative reaction to said book, in my personal experience. Like, could this book have been scarier? Definitely. But I loved it regardless, and I loved that the physical format of the book–Art’s memoiry fiction draft, or fictiony memoir draft, depending on your perspective, plus his best friend Mercy’s commentary written in red in the margins–is the sort of embodied story that I love because it fucking sucks to read on a screen or an ereader. You’re tied to the format, either print or audio (which I hear was well done for this one, though I haven’t heard it myself), and that’s great to me.

THE THOUSAND EYES by A.K. Larkwood: In my opinion this duology is criminally, WOEFULLY underrated. Csorwe is a grumpy butch orc warrior and she spends most of her time getting herself and her terrible frenemies out of trouble and also falling in love with a powerful sorceress. This book is the second one and is gloriously angsty and everyone gets middle-aged and sad and yet they all still pine for one another across time and space. I cried. I’m not sorry. It’s GOOD.

AN ARCHIVE OF BRIGHTNESS by Kelsey Socha: ok, full disclosure, this is my wife’s book, but it came out in August and it’s a lovely group of interwoven weird little gay stories. I would’ve loved it even if I didn’t share a mortgage with the author, I promise. Like, people live in houses made of scorpion corpses. Come on.

Honorable mentions: I didn’t really feel like getting too much into YA here, but I really liked CONFESSIONS OF AN ALLEGED GOOD GIRL by Joya Goffney, which was a really honest and interesting exploration of purity culture and religion; HOW TO EXCAVATE A HEART by Jake Maia Arlow, an interfaith winter holiday f/f romance (what a year for holiday romances, sheesh); and HELL FOLLOWED WITH US by Andrew Joseph White, a really gross and sad book that also manages to be incredibly, gleefully YA even as the protagonist morphs into a horrifying monster.

I also didn’t want to mention anything that hasn’t been released yet, so HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE by Grady Hendrix and SOME DESPERATE GLORY by Emily Tesh are both out, even though both were SO GOOD and you should be foaming at the mouth to get your hands on them next year. And lastly, I didn’t think The Locked Tomb series needed any extra hype and if you haven’t picked it up yet it’s not like I’m going to convince you, so I didn’t bother saying anything about NONA THE NINTH although it was really very good.

And finally: I’m currently reading WHEN THE ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY by Sacha Lamb which absolutely fucking rips so far, very much Good Omens meets Spinning Silver, but I haven’t finished it yet so it didn’t seem fair to count. I recommend it based on the first half, though!

PHEW ok that’s it! Send me your recs please!!

#books #the locked tomb #the unspoken name #grady hendrix #paul tremblay #horror #lgbtq books #romance novels #best books of the year

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tanadrin · 2 years

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it’s sort of like--okay, I saw a post on reddit being made fun of, where somebody had asked something like, “Can someone explain to me how a man and a man in a relationship together is supposed to be complementary?”

What they meant was to denigrate the idea of a same-sex relationship. And they thought they had a pretty airtight argument against it: a man and a man are the same! They’re not complimentary! Surely that invalidates the whole concept! This is, from an outside perspective, just an absolutely bonkers argument. A total non-sequitur. Who said relationships have to be complementary? What does that even mean? Why on earth, if you were trying to argue that homosexuality was immoral or unnatural, would you approach it from such an arcane angle as complementarity?

It makes perfect sense if you’re steeped inside a particular kind of discourse that’s been waging a losing battle against the advance of concepts like “equal rights” and “not being a huge dick to people for no reason” for centuries. If you’re a conservative Christian, it’s sometimes unfashionable to argue in a public-facing way that men should rule in marriage because God says so, or because women are inherently inferior, or because Eve sinned first or God is a man. Against more appealing concerns in the marketplace of ideas like “what if we gave everyone equal rights in society and equal standing in important social relationships like romantic pairings” it’s been a losing tactic for a long time. Various tactical retreats have resulted in the conservative discourse trying to recast traditional gender roles in various ways, and one way that seems to work okay some of time time is a notion of complementarity, where men and women bring different things to the table and while this looks like traditional gender roles, really it’s somehow egalitarian, or better than egalitarian (because the whole notion of “equality” implies boring liberal sameness don’tchaknow; two things obviously can’t be equal unless they are identical in every respect!). So the fundamental justification for not only gender roles but heterosexual romance as a concept gets recast in this awkward and arcane way which is necessary only if you somehow need to simultaneously uphold one very narrow conception of gender roles, and satisfy a certain instinct for fair play that is in contradiction with other important elements of your hierarchical and authoritarian worldview.

But if you try to trot out this gotcha in any context where you’re not just hosting a circlejerk with people who already think like you, you look like a crazy person, because you have so badly failed to understand the psychology or the worldview of the people you disagree with, you can’t even properly ask a question in bad faith.

This is very frustrating to me! If you’re going to try to make an argument, even one in support of a dumb worldview, you should--again, at least outside the context of a good old circlejerk, and hey, everybody loves a good circlejerk from time to time! not knocking the venerable institution of a circlejerk--at least be able to put together a coherent argument. It’s no fun when someone can’t even string a coherent set of ideas together.

And I feel the same way about a lot of the stuff transphobes put out. “This just grosses me out” and “holy book says no” are at least consistent, though they’re not really arguments. They don’t make persuasive truth claims that anybody outside your narrow community of preference-sharers or co-religionists can really engage with. But “trans people are crazy and should be therapied into being cis” is actually more annoying, in that it’s a terrible argument that just gets worse the more you try to develop it.

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avulleonastick · 1 year

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what abt S and T?

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

Oh hummmmmmm. I'm not sure I super have headcanons, tbh? Like... I sometimes take ideas and build fics and stuff around them, and sometimes I reuse those a lot, but I don't feel super attached to them? Maybe that's what a headcanon is?

Anyways...

For Naruto, I have "all ninjas are bi and poly" from the fic I never stop talking about and "orochimaru, tsunade and jiraiya were a triad before everything went to shit".

For RWBY, I have "Ruby is trans" because like 90% of the RWBY fic I've ever read was trans-Ruby fanfic and it's actually the greatest idea.

For Supergirl, I have... "Supergirl is transfemme" because like... it makes the shows everything so much more interesting! Like, the girl is so Rah Rah Girl Power, which I've personally found to be moderately poison as a trans woman. Like, how does being "Supergirl" make Kara feel? Like, the skirt and lipstick and the Everything Everything of that? Does she feel she needs to do that to not be subsumed into her (male) cousins shadow? Does she like those things? She is so Strong Strong Strong which is such a male-coded thing, and I feel like the show really leans into the Girl Power aspect of that but if Kara is trans than maybe she has weird feelings about that? She eventually switches to pants and ends up in basically the same suit as Superman, which is so very something! The way everyone in the fandom (and probably also in-universe, lbr) Thirsts for her arms and shoulders is also something that I think she would feel ways about! I could really go on forever >.>

Misc: "Chloe is important to Adrien because she was his first friend",

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Hmmm. Does "Shadow Weaver abused Adora, too" count? Because I have some Strong feelings on that.

"Ruby RWBY is trans" and "Catilyn Arcane is trans" I consider mostly canon and will read every RWBY and Arcane fic from that lens unless I am provided with extremely strong evidence counter to that. (The joke is that there is no evidence strong enough to dissuade me from these points.)

Oh, I know! "Catra has a horrible cat tongue, and her body is completely covered in fur." I will fight people on this. I have been known to (internally) call people cowards for not drawing/writing her furry.

Yes, let's go with that last one.

Pay attention to me!

#pay attention to me!#thanks!#:DD

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vampirecatboy · 2 years

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i gotta get Aja lore out or i'm gonna combust

assuming we're doing an Arcane-based game, i've used what little Arcane lore i have and also the Runarcana pdf to modify my once fiery boy

his mother, Hara, is a Vastaya, specifically a Lhotlan, so like, a fox person, and she works in a brothel. Aja's father was a customer she got close with, a human, but once he found out she was pregnant with his child he high tailed it out of there and she never saw him again

so Aja was born and raised in a brothel, a little half-vastaya with bright red hair and fox ears, cared for by his mother and many other workers. every so often a worker will have a child and that child is well-loved within the brothel

when he was born he was assumed to be female, but around age 8-9 he realized he was, and promptly came out as a trans boy. there were plenty of trans workers in the brothel, so he was no stranger to the concept. a couple years later, everyone pooled some of their earnings to get him puberty blockers, then a few years after that, he started T

as he grew up, and especially when he hit his teen years, he witnessed a lot of flirting, a lot of seduction, and learned how to apply that to his own life

but of course he assumes himself straight. my running theory is that the only trans men within the brothel were straight, so he had no concept of being both gay and trans (despite the presence of trans lesbians lol)

i think deep down he knows he's not attracted to women, but it just takes him a while to accept that, he just needs a push

#stuff and things #aja tag #he's on my miiiiind i'm sorry #also his last name is going to somehow riff on mozilla #because firefox lol

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pastthegardenfence · 3 months

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Hey there.

You can call me Rowden, or Ro. I’m in my 20’s, and my pronouns are he/him.

I follow from another blog!

Heads up, this is a Ship and Let Ship/Anti Harassment/Proship space. Don’t like it, don’t read it. This is also mostly a self-ship blog.

My asks are open! My DM’s are open! I may take time to respond.

My main interests are very varied and often changing, but a few major ones are:

The Adventure Zone: Balance, The Legend of Zelda, Fairy Tail, Doctor Who, Gravity Falls, Final Space, Undertale/Deltarune, Homestuck, Arcane, My Hero Academia, The Owl House, Fullmetal Alchemist, Danny Phantom, Markiplier Egos

Hobbies:

Gaming, writing, learning to draw, sometimes I LARP.

Onto the self shipping:

My self insert is named Rowden, or Ro. His lore will change around depending on the F/O, but generally speaking he’s in his 20’s, he’s trans (post top surgery), and enjoys tinkering with things. He’s also gifted (magically or otherwise) with plants and flowers. His main art looks like a wind up doll. I don’t have a real reason for that, it just seemed neat. Personal stuff about Ro and F/Os will be tagged with “Ro’s Garden”

Who are the F/O’s in question?

Romantic:

Karkat Vantas (Homestuck)

Yancy (A Heist With Markiplier/In Space With Markiplier)

Darkiplier (Who Killed Markiplier? And other skits)

Sans (Undertale)

Harvey (Stardew Valley)

Gajeel Redfox (Fairy Tail)

Platonic:

Simon Petrikov (Adventure Time) (Familial/Mentor)

Magnus Burnsides (TAZ: Balance) (Friends)

Content warnings:

This blog is a proship space, mostly meaning I think it’s fine to ship what you want. I will tag things, so you can avoid content you don’t want, but there may be ‘problematic’ stuff here, such as:

Age gaps, incest, adult x minor ships, suggestive images and writings, and darker content. This may veer into dead dove do not eat content, and will be tagged appropriately.

This blog is not for minors. This is your last warning. I am not responsible for what you choose to look at. You have been warned.

If you are a minor, I will block you. If you harass me, I will block you. If my content bothers you, or I break your DNI, block me. This is a place for you to curate what you want, and I know this blog isn’t for everyone.

#pinned post

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zorlok-if · 2 years

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🌌 for everyone!

From this ask list.

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

This one's actually really interesting because, as I mentioned before (but a while ago), Zorlok is a character I played in a Monster of the Week campaign and this story/cast is inspired by that game. So, many of the characters did not start off as my OCs. Some are new and some are adopted (though I've changed them considerably). It's been an interesting process divorcing these characters from who they were before and reinventing them in my storytelling style.

Tommy: When I thought of the idea for Zorlok, Tommy came about simultaneously. Originally, his name was Timmy (so, the bottom left bit in this art by @mansymdraws nearly made me do a spit take the first time I saw it). The idea for Tommy came from me asking myself who a demon would least like to be stuck in a Faustian pact with and boom, Tommy was born. I think he's also inspired by TV/movie high schoolers like the kids in Stranger Things, It Chapter 1, etc.

Dev: Dev was one of the other two PCs in the original campaign. The main idea behind Dev has stayed pretty similar (a former criminal trying - not so successfully at times - to redeem xemself with an ex-friend detective nipping at xyr heels) but I've made a lot of changes to xyr backstory that were likely inspired by Dorian Gray, Fig Faeth, Arsene Lupin, Peter Pan, Jay Gatsby, etc. I also took a small element of the original character's story and altered it to work better within the context of this story (hint: the original Dev—who wasn't named Dev—didn't wear an eye patch). I also knew that the gender selectable Dev I was creating would use neopronouns when nonbinary and that xe would play with/ignore gender norms no matter xyr gender identity.

EJ: The other PC, EJ is probably the character I've made the fewest changes to. I think that I've turned down some of the original goofiness of EJ, who was a bumbling ball of anxiety before, and made them a somewhat more optimistic bookworm (though they are still in many ways a bumbling ball of anxiety). In the original campaign, EJ's player and I loved to play off the Odd Couple-esque dynamic between the two who were forced to constantly be around each other even though they didn't always get along. That's something I've kept. They also have a non-traditional relationship with gender (but, in all honesty, you can probably just copy and paste that into the description of every character I write).

Adam/Eve: One of the original NPCs, A/E—who was originally just Adam, a cis man—arose from a character choice associated with Dev's character, specifically this one:

Randomly, our GM (or Keeper in this system) named the detective Adam and I enjoyed playing off that since I was playing a demon. When I took over the character I wanted to continue playing with the Adam thing, but I wanted them to be a trans person who had adopted the name as a way to eschew their former faith and project the idea of them remaking themself and their body in their own image. They're also inspired by classic film noir detectives, Riz Gukgak from Dimension 20, and the idea of Sherlock/Ganimard (or someone who thinks they're Sherlock/Ganimard).

Lucía: Originally Anna, Lucía was just a member of a rival group we were pitted against. She was completely different in terms of personality, appearance, skillset, etc. Really, Lucía's pretty much an original character who occupies Anna's former spot. (She's also tied to ROs from a different IF that I've worked on which is set in the same universe). Lucía's also inspired by the women from Arcane, particularly Vi and Caitlyn. Her name is also inspired by Lucifer (as many of the characters' names are inspired by religious themes and/or are deeply symbolic) though she's only like him in that they've both fallen from a position of grace having sided with the enemy and... you know what, yeah, Lucí's actually got a few parallels to ole Luci.

Ciel: Ciel is the hybrid of an original NPC, Ethan—who was a hunter on the rival team with Anna—and the version of Zorlok that I played. (And yeah, the name wasn't intended to be so but might in some ways be a reference to Black Butler). Ciel's big thing is that they pride themself on being a mystery, so, I won't say anything else here. 😈

The Celestial: A completely original character. I can't say too much without getting into spoilers, but the Celestial emerged from my desire to have a character who knew Zorlok's past but couldn't share it with them. Who could provide some insight into infernals and celestials, but you also can never be sure if it's reliable info or not. I've suggested before that eir relationship with Z is similar to Aziraphale and Crowley's from Good Omens, and I think that's a really good comparison (but even though ey's meant to be a fallen angel figure, the Celestial's closest to Crowley in all honestly). Ey's mostly inspired by classic roguish tricksters like Loki, Anansi, etc. but also fall into the classic fallen angel archetype.

Danny: Danny was a character from the original game, though I can't tell you why they came about. I'd also just like to say that I didn't name Danny and they've always been a ghost, but, yeah they're perhaps a bit inspired by Danny Fenton (and I don't know if that was my GM's original plan but I like to think it was). I think I've drawn aspects of them from many different places, including Rick Blaine, Samwise Gamgee, Jorah Mormont, Indiana Jones, Victor Frankenstein, Edward Elric, etc.

Rose: Rose is one of the characters who's based on an NPC from the campaign, though he was originally named Chris Jeffries. Rose serves as a domestic, "normal" contrast to the fantastical absurdity of the rest of this story. I also knew I wanted an older RO who was a parent and Rose was perfect for that. Character-wise, I know that my GM based him on Andy Dwyer from Parks and Recreation and while I've tried to keep a bit of that spirit, Rose is a lot more complex now. He'd also fit into the game Dream Daddy while the rest of the cast is more Monster Prom.

Okay, I think I answered all these questions 😅 Let me know if I missed something or if you have any questions about this stuff!

#thanks for sending this in!#asks #zorlok #cast #tommy #dev #ej #a/e #adam/eve #lucía #ciel #danny #the celestial #rose

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arrowjaeger · 2 years

Text

Arcane Gender & Sexuality Headcanons

because i felt like making this- leave me alone-

warnings: none- but if you are lgbtq+ phobic you shouldn’t be here and, in fact, you shouldn’t have watched arcane-

Jinx

Jinx is a raging bisexual

realized it pretty early on

“eh.. boys are nice. BUT HAVE YOU SEEN GIRLS?!”

doesn’t really have a preference but-

✨titties✨

outed herself by agreeing with Ekko

“Wow- did you see that girl that just walked by? she was really pretty…” “oh of course i saw her! her ass looked really nice..”

theeeen she realized what she just said and they both stared at each other till Ekko just nodded and smiled. (spoiler but he’s pan so they definitely bonded over looking at attractive people)

Jinx uses she/they pronouns

that or she would say “i don’t use pronouns” THERE IS NO IN BETWEEN-

they identify as female and has no issues with people referring to her as a girl

she just thinks they/them pronouns are neat :)

she probably would use neo pronouns but Ekko told her bomb/grenade pronouns miiiight get her kicked out of several social settings..

“that only encourages me, Little Man”

Jinx would definitely be supportive of anyone who comes out to them

unless ofc you are Vi or Caitlyn

Ekko

Ekko is pansexual

literally everyone is so hot help-

he came to this conclusion as soon as he formed the Firelights

before that, he didn’t understand why he thought everyone was so cool

probably came out to Scar first

probably in a similar why Powder outed themself

personality>>>>

he uses he/they pronouns and is trans ftm

he realized he was not in the right body very quickly- started transitioning as soon as they could

it helped that Powder and Vi were so supportive right from the beginning

ofc he doesn’t tell anyone that he uses he/they pronouns because he’s too paranoid of people making fun of them for it-

remnants of being made fun of for being trans still linger-

they pass really well so he comes out to AS FEW people as possible

being in the Firelights means that you’d be around a lot of different kinds of people. being the leader of the Firelights means a lot of kids look up to you

and because of that he’s never been anything but supportive about anything anyone has ever told him

if you came out to him he’d probably give you a hug and offer to paint a mural of your flag above your bed

also might offer tips on binding and/or packing

would definitely ask to switch genitals with trans women

Vi is a lesbian

NEVER been interested in men literally EVER-

came out of the womb making grossed out faces at them

probably refers to herself as all of the lesbian slurs

listens to girl in red unironicly

top energy

is actually a bottom

she’s questioning her gender identity BIG TIME-

the more she thinks about it the more confusing it gets

she thinks she might be non binary but isn’t quite sure yet

STILL FIGURING SHIT OUT-

if you asked for her pronouns she’d say “she/her?”

definitely as a question-

if you came out to her she’d wonder why you seemed so scared. shed offer to punch anyone who reacted badly to finding out about your gender/sexuality

Caitlyn

Caitlyn is questioning

she knows she likes girls especially Vi

she doesn’t really know why she should think about it any more than that since she is in a serious relationship with a girl

girls? pretty.

boys? they’re ok… ig

if you asked her, she’d say lesbian BUT NOT CONFIDENTLY-

she uses she/her pronouns and is totally comfortable in her gender assigned at birth

if you came out to her she’d most definitely congratulate you on figuring that whole sexuality thing out because she is hardcore STRUGGLING-

#lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq headcanons #arcane headcanons #jinx headcanon #ekko headcanon #vi headcanon #caitlyn headcanon

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electronicdelusionstarlight · 2 years

Note

What holidays are celebrated in runeterra? Your lore posts are amazing!

Mmmm, good question.

It obviously depends on the region. Like, in Noxus, for example, there is obviously a celebration for the foundation of the Empire (especially since it marks Year 0 of the calendar), but I don't think other regions would celebrate it, especially Ionia or their historical cold war enemies Demacia.

In fact, we can assume the foundation of the region is probably a generic festivity in most of them outside of Ionia (No central government to found), Targon (No central government to found) and Shadow Isles (Nothing to celebrate when you're undead).

For Pilltover we have Progress Day, as is shown in Arcane, to symbolise the birth of the city of progress. Zaun obviously doesn't follow this same festivity, and probably doesn't have much time for festivities as is, but I can see some days of mourning over the Tragedy of the River Pilt or Vander's failed Rebellion.

Given the Ionian influence from the recent influx of refugees I guess they probably celebrate the Spirit Blossom Festival, or at least if it's spread outside of the communities a Zaunite/Pilltovan version of it. The Spirit Blossom Festival is when the barrier between the mortal and spirit world is thinner, so there is the usual ancestor worship and all, mostly via folk tales of tragic stories and the spirits they left behind, which given the tragedies Zaun lives on a daily basis I feel would be pretty popular there once the Ionian refugees start introducing it.

She doesn't have an Official festivity unfortunately but I feel a Zaunite celebration day for Janna, their patron God/Saint, bringer of clean air, saviour of the oppressed, whose winds carry the sails and wings of the broken and the dreamers, would work well.

There is a Christmas analogue on Valorant (Northern Continent) which is yet another story about Frejlordan Folk Hero and living legend Braum, who therefore is compelled to act it out, of a burly, shirtless man wearing a Santa hat riding a sled filled with Poros and driven by Elnuks to bring presents in the coldest, darkest, longest night of the year. It's a relatively well known legend even outside of Frejlord since Veigar, Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain ruling over Boleham In a confederation of Buffer States between Demacia and Noxus, knows enough about the legend to send Santa Braum a letter demanding to be put on the Naughty List.

Most of Shurima's festivities would probably be less relevant for PnZ since as of Arcane most of the continent is still divided and isolated from the northern one. Same for Ixtal.

Solstices are of course celebrated among the Solari, and most of their festivities are used as propaganda and indoctrination tools. Two of note are the Festival of the Nightless Eye, which is the festival where Diana and Leona kissed for the first time, and the Monthly Solari Barbecues, Leona idea, during which grilled meat and propaganda pamphlets are given out in equal amounts.

In Bilgewater it's not celebrated as much as dreaded the Ruination, which is when the shackles that hold the dead of the Shadow Isles to their island lessen, and they can finally ride and sail out to plunder the nearest inhabited Island, which so happens to be Bilgewater's.

In the Shurima Empire there are probably 3 festivities, one of mourning for its fall, and two of celebration, one the traditional one for the implementation of the Sun Disk, and a newer one for its restoration. Solstices are, of course, also celebrated given the ancient ties between the Solari and Shurima.

Pride Month, which is fairly recent mind you since Tyiari ascended as an Aspect shortly before the Ruined King Invasion, is celebrated and dedicated to the Aspect of the Traveler, which guides everyone lost to their right path and is seen as a metaphor for the personal journey of self discovery, which does indeed help people find their orientation and gender identity and all. The Traveler herself being a Trans Woman also helps.

Let's see... Aside from other celebration/mourning anniversaries (IE, Avarosa's death on the Frejlord, Wrenwall Massacre in Demacia etc) and I think something to do with the Aspect of Justice in Demacia (Kinda remember something like that being mentioned in the Lux Comic) can't think of much else.

#arcane #league of legends lore #lol lore #legends of runeterra #lor

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cryptovexillologist · 2 years

Text

Ken Liu has a fantastic essay on the many slippery factors involved in translation, with one of them being that you don't always want something to seamlessly feel like the source language, sometimes you want to preserve some idiosyncrasies of the original.

On good days, this is how I feel about transitioning. I don't have much chance of conventionally "passing" unless I did some drastic and expensive things I don't really want to do, and looking seamlessly cis sounds pretty off-putting to me anyway. I like Big Freedia's strategy of being such a force of aesthetics and personality that nobody would dream of misgendering me no matter how far I am from conventional femininity, but even then not everyone will be equipped to Get It.

(One of my favorite ways to describe the frustration of that is "feeling like a neon billboard in Linear A.")

I love seeing how HRT overlays my old physique without fully displacing it, like a palimpsest. I think one of the reasons that a hypothetical "magic body swap" would feel wrong to me is that it would cost me any sense of lived-in history this body has, for better or worse. I mean, there are certainly times I pine for a transition a lot more seamless than this one, but on the whole I quite like who I see in the mirror.

My tattoos are an integral part of this process, too. All but one of them were gotten after I came out, and two of my five are extremely arcane trans in-jokes/monuments to illegibility: ZXX, the language-reference code for "No linguistic content/Not applicable", and a "Trans Rights" rebus in an undeciphered ancient language. I feel very well-armored with them, like a pauldron that nobody can strip from me, and they're a nicely vivid way of expressing that my body is mine to shape as I please. Even though transition makes the process more painful, softening skin and eroding muscle, I have tentative plans for more.

(If you have a chance, complimenting someone's tattoos is a great way to make them light up, and you might learn some fascinating personal backstory.)

I love my body that's far from pornographically perfect, and I really wish there were more opportunities for casual, nonsexual undress/nudity in my local culture. So many peoples' first (or only) notions of trans bodies come from porn, often framed with indifference/contempt for actual trans people, but even erotica by and for trans people often settles into the usual ruts of "petite/lily-white/skinny/heavily-transitioned/etc." I've looked into modeling for figure drawing (unsuccessfully, so far), and being seen as a statuesque artistic subject sounds great, but I'd also love to be less literally pedestalized.

I don't have a firm conclusion here, but I hope this resonates with people or provides a window onto something they hadn't considered. My tattoo artist was interested in how I saw tattoos entwined with transition, and his work has won praise from a lot of strangers I've met as a clerk. As much as I love being an Aloof and Ominous Specter, there's something beautiful about demystifying myself.

#trans #this whole thing smacks of gender

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existential-dread-in-the-am · 2 years

Text

Alright Mika you asked for this

@narcissisticvictorian

Context: this is a post-apocalyptic world with two main opposing sides, those who manage to get a place inside an underground city and those who managed to survive outside of it. There are also humans on Mars.

The underground people's naming fashions are intentionally questionable. The underground people are intentionally questionable. It's not their fault, they just don't know better. Yet.

Generation 1:

Serena (she/her)

-do not mess with this woman or you will soon learn why that was a bad idea

-tendency to be...how do I put this, political

-literally no friends, only haters and followers and a few people who tolerate her at lunch

-actually of sound mind and tries to change things for the better

-does not sleep

-you do not want to know what happens to her. I do not want to know what happens to her. My mind knows and I wish it didn't, it's not...it's not good to think about.

There's also her illusive enemy's figurehead but let's not go there yet.

Three generations pass: you do not. want. to. know. what happens. Most people survive fine and get to somewhat establish a life, but some...new rules and major life events are introduced. But basically no one is raised by their parents anymore

Gen 2: Gen 3's parents basically, I'll explain more when I get there

Generation 3: Rebellion

Atziam (they/them)

-rebel rebel, a two-faced liar, cosplays as a perfect science student

-think Vi from Arcane but with extreme caution born from constant fear, and a lab coat

-confident introvert, only their best friend and squish know they have a heart (and weaknesses)

-developed a new language with their mom in which Atziam means hope (atzi=fire, ziam=night)

-they/them, asexual

-extremely vengeful

-likes to read and daydream and think

Rani (she/it)

-average on purpose, keeps to the background, secretly runs the entire circus that is their friend group

-the only sane person in the whole gen 3 cast, the only voice of reason, liked and trusted by basically everybody

-likes to try weird food combos and loves growing abnormal plants

-ecology and agriculture student

-somehow simultaneously more and less emotional than everyone else

-when Rani snaps, run

Neriko/Neri (she/they)

-female (or feminine nonbinary idk how to explain) sherlock holmes with manners

-or not (sarcastic as fuck)

-enjoys victory immensely, think Kirari

-studies physics and history

-sweet tooth, likes sweet flowery tea and fancy things, and is a book nerd

-slightly political and slightly bossy but mostly just gives sarcastic input

-gets shit done but freaks out when asked to make decisions under pressure

-likes to do her hair up, mostly in a bun over her head when there's no time for anything else

-HATES Atziam and hates being challenged

Cora (she/they)

-give her all the love she's attention starved

-hopeless romantic and constantly worried abt appearance and performance and all that

-tries to please everyone and clings to Neri in the beginning, however as the story progressed Cora will go through some big character development just you wait

-chemistry student and really invested in science stuff but holds herself back

Caspian (he/they)

-kind of lost??

-doesn't really know who he is or what a personality is (but will figure this out eventually)

-just wants to exist

-constantly tired of Scarlet

-guard

Scarlet

-hates given name so she changed it, she was called scarlet witch (derogatory) for dyeing her hair red very young so she just...reclaimed it out of spite I guess

-very extremely stubborn and angry and I mean will fight anyone for any reason

-loud and rude but actually respects boundaries??

-might be aro???

-also guard like Caspian (they're like siblings and constantly fighting but also best friends)

Snow (she/they)

-quiet and extremely nice, very soft, you can't not like her

-also small and wears mostly blue and white

-yes that's a chosen name she's trans

-studies medicine and psychology

-secondary passion is music and visual arts

-reading comprehension problems

-really likes decorated knives and blades for some reason

-very aesthetic focused

-prefers to sit weird on table surfaces rather than in a chair

-has a habit of stealing random things and sneak into random places just to see if she can (she can)

-gets along well with Atzi and Rani

And many others

Also gen 3 from Mars:

Tega Scott

-shsishdidgsaisbsjdiahsjsi

-she.

-she doesn't hesitate to do what needs to be done, no nonsense, no wasted time, nothing.

-Tega is short for Ortega, named after the character from Altered Carbon BUT think more Quellcrist Falconer

-leader. I can't find any other way to describe her. She doesn't try to be but that's where she ends up. She's always doing things

-she was a bit asocial growing up and her only good friend used to he her study partner from earth (Atziam), they're the only one she's opened up to as a teen

-her worst trait is how uncompromising she is with her decisions, she doesn't let anyone get in her way and will burn herself out trying to reach a goal she's set and she can only do team play when she focuses very hard. That's why she once hesitated with everything and it will also be her downfall

-she's used to having enemies and having to go through them, but she has a few casual friends she trusts

-she's an only child and her parents are usually busy but they all love each other, but...well, they're all very stubborn. So they fight and when they do it can get pretty bad.

-she cut ties with Atziam because she was falling in love and she couldn't handle that since they're on different planets. (Tega's asexual)

Gen 4

Keizan / Varjon / "Key" (he/they)

-basically the reluctant prince of the former underground cities

-daddy AND mommy issues but doesn't show it

-hates his mother, biological dad some unknown person in high society, liked his adopted dad and half-sister though

-leaves for the outer cities, changes his name and disappears and almost dies several times

-does he have emotions? no one knows

-doesn't understand people at all, very confused all the time abt people

-no personal moral compass, asks his friend instead and has adopted her idea of right and wrong over time, and he trusts her more than he trusts himself.

-very polite at all times and very chill, never loses composure

-will get stabbed, say "ow" in a casual tone and sort of laugh before collapsing, and he'll just look at you confused if you charge at him with a knife

Vale (she/they)

(not me and not a character I kin, I just found the name while searching for a name for this character)

-military family, youngest, two older brothers

-tomboyish but only kind of

-colorful hair, huge t-shirts and weird sunglasses when she has the chance

-very professional and serious when necessary but more silly/goofy when not working, basically night and day

-strong sense of right and wrong and basically functions as Key's moral compass

-very compassionate

-doesn't get angry easily but when she does...well. sometimes she loses her head and Key logics her out of it. They're a good team

(Outside the underground people's cities now expanded above ground for resources) (descendants of the people who were closed outside of the bunkers in year 0)

Arunn (he/him)

-oh dear he has trauma

-always sits weird, barely talks, talks in a manner the others find "off", can somewhat read social cues but doesn't care, just...they don't understand him and would rather believe the worst than try to understand

-literally rejected by everyone until they discover he's actually incredibly intelligent and the only person in their community who understands how their enemy works when they're attacked

-before that he had one friend, a mentor of sorts who taught him how to hunt, and he contributes by hunting alone or with his mentor using traps and a bow and arrows, spending a lot of time alone out there, also sneaking closer to the newly re-inhabited cities and learning about them (this knowledge is what eventually buys him a place in his own community)

-sometimes frees the animals he's caught for food

-likes berries and fruit

-actually doesn't mind people and cares about everyone's well-being but he just gets tired trying to communicate and doesn't want to be yelled at

-likes to climb things and is really good at it, has crow friends he's taught to find potential food

-basically aroace

Aojasin (it/he/they)

-vampire coded but not a vampire

-extremely pretty

-rich bitch with heavy material girl energy and a minor god complex, think if Light Yagami didn't care abt justice and liked fancy and flowy clothes instead

-not exactly evil but definitely not good. Very selfish, only interested in personal gain and not shy about it, and he struggles to see other people as people

-it's not exactly all his fault though, he's practically worshipped where he's from bc he likely has a mutation that protects him from the affects of radiation, meaning he's protected by everyone and gets all the attention from suitors, he's basically groomed to be the next ruler of the region (this world suffers from radiation pollution and it's causing a lot of health problems for everyone especially outside the underground bunker thing)

-very kind to his parents and younger sister who he actually sees as people like him, so there's hope

#long post

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ascalonianpicnic · 3 years

Text

so the twisted marionette is back and it seems like a good time for this~ @mystery-salad requested I do an essay on Scarlet and discrimination in STEM so~

Warning: discussions of sexism, racism, and ableism. If I got anything wrong (in terms of real world issues) or was disrespectful in any way about certain subjects please let me know

Hey, let's talk about Scarlet Briar.

More specifically, I wanna talk about Ceara, and how she became Scarlet Briar. Because I'm a gay mathematician and former computer science major, and I think Scarlet is cool.

So let's start here. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is a heavily male dominated set of fields and career paths. A few decades back in the real world, there was this deep set societal belief, at least in western society, that cis women were just "worse" at STEM related things like math and chemistry. It's not as visible of an issue now, but, like I said, STEM fields are still really male dominated, and that's because STEM fields still have a massive issue with sexism. Women have full on left the field due to the sexism they faced in workplaces in just the last decade. Trans women in STEM share really interesting and important personal accounts about how before transitioning, they were treated with respect, offered high level jobs, and entrusted with loads of responsibility, and how post transition, despite having even more experience, are offered significantly lower level jobs, worse pay, and are all around treated like they know less. STEM has a sexism problem.

So, why is this important to Scarlet? Well, her backstory and her life before Omadd's Machine actually tie in to this real world issue in a really fascinating way. It's about Respect. And Scarlet's story is about how she was denied respect over and over, because she was a sylvari, because she was a woman, and because she was neurodivergent. Let's talk about Ceara.

Ceara was a sylvari secondborn, and an engineer from the start. She emerged from the Pale Tree when her race was still brand new to the world and largely unknown. She spent 8 years of her life studying all the Grove had to offer her about mechanics and nature and the universe. She was born curious and as such, was determined to learn everything and anything she could get her hands on. After her time in the Grove, Ceara left, off to find new teachers and extend her knowledge further. After the Grove cane Beigarth, a famed norn smith. He gladly took Ceara under his wing, seeing her genius and potential. For a year, she trained under him, his best student. Then, much to his dismay, she left, feeling she had learned all he could offer about what she wanted to know. She moved south, going to study under iron legion gladium and demolitionist Asagai. Asagai was an old charr, and it took some convincing on Ceara's end, but she eventually took the sylvari in and taught her about gunsmithing and artillery. And after two years, Ceara moved on again, this time heading for Rata Sum and its colleges.

The asura of Rata Sum did Not like Ceara. She had to fight to be allowed to study at the colleges. She won in the end, being admitted into the college of Dynamics. Within a year, she finished the course work, and, feeling like she was finally getting somewhere, she applied again, this time getting admitted to Statics. Two years and two colleges down, at the top of her class both times, Scarlet still wanted more. The Arcane council was curious now if she could keep this streak up, so they let her enter Synergetics. This was what she had been looking for, and she got deep into her studies, taking her time. The Arcane council was unimpressed with her work at best. While not driven from the colleges, she found herself being walked off and looked down on more and more, so she sought other sources. These other sources, both of knowledge and support, came from the inquest, and it wasn't long before she fell in deep. It didn't last, however. When the krewe she was working with ran into trouble, she was abandoned as a scapegoat, and thrown out of the asuran colleges. She wandered on her own for a while, taking the time to study alchemy with the michotl hylek, but mostly keeping to herself. Until Omadd found her, pulled her back into his personal research, and, with her help, built Omadd's machine. Once it was finished, Ceara walked in, and Scarlet walked out.

Sexism in STEM means that people perceived as female are often perceived as knowing or understanding less than they actually do. It's because of this that you'll find young cis male students in STEM classes trying to correct or speak over their female presenting professors. It's why you'll find men at science conferences telling the women presenting for certain topics that they don't seem to understand the topic they're covering or grasp the basics that well, and then recommending or referencing books and research papers written by these women. It means that women will often be overlooked for internships, research positions, and grants. And that is the sort of thing Scarlet faced as a young woman trying to learn everything she could. She had to work for the apprenticeships she could get, and with Beigarth, despite how highly he thought of her, she had to work harder to prove she was ready for more each step of the way. Finding anyone to teach her at all among the charr was a struggle, until an older woman took her in. And no one in Rata Sum took her seriously.

There was more than just the fact that Scarlet was a woman at play with Rata Sum though. As stated, STEM has a bad sexism problem. But that's not all. STEM isn't just mostly men, but also mostly white men, and as such, the fields have a bit of a racism problem as well. Personally, I can only speak so much to this as I myself am white, have never faced racism, and never will face racism. I do know that the intelligence, skill, and effort of people of color goes largely unacknowledged. They will be denied the same opportunities and respect that their white peers receive, and their work and contributions will be ignored, exploited, and stolen.

Racism in Tyria isn't the same as it is in the real world, though it is still present there, and prevalent. And it is something Scarlet has to face and struggle with repeatedly as a sylvari. The sylvari are young and new to Tyria. Because of this, the other prominent groups all tend to think of sylvari as innocent, ignorant, and overly naive. The asura are especially bad about this. They already think of themselves as the smartest of Tyria's inhabitants, above everyone else. And when they first encounter the sylvari, the asura refuse to believe this new group could even be sentient. So, when 11 year old Ceara shows up at the colleges, the Arcane Council and the asura in general doubt she could possibly understand asuran studies. She's a sylvari, after all, and just a girl on top of that. There's surely no way she could keep up.

So when this young sylvari girl finishes at the top of her class in just a year, not once but twice, the Arcane council is intrigued. They don't respect her. They don't hold her work in high esteem. But they do want to know if this is some sort of fluke or if she can do it again. So she's admitted into the third and final college, and when she gets caught up in her studies, genuinely interested and invested in what she's learning and wanting to take her time to take it all in, the Council is disappointed. Never mind that Scarlet has already done what no other non-asura has. She took too long doing what she loved, learning, so the Council dismisses her, and dismisses her hard work. Her theories are looked down upon and ignored, and she is left with only support from Omadd, who can use her and her theories for his own gain, and the inquest. Omadd and the inquest make her feel valued and respected. The inquest let's her try anything she wants, it lets her really explore the fields of study she's most drawn to. The inquest makes sure to profit off her hard work and, when it comes down to it, the inquest leaves her to take the fall for everything. It's easy, after all, to pin the blame on someone already so looked down on by the society she's in. Scarlet is kicked out of the colleges and the city. She loses her access to information, her belongings, and even her own research and findings. All her hard work, taken from her because the inquest was more than glad to use a sylvari.

And then of course, there's Omadd. He was glad to have Scarlet as a lab assistant, and endlessly fascinated by and supportive of her work. So once she's gone from Rata Sum, he leaves too, taking her research and starting on his own personal project. He gets stuck, he seeks Scarlet out, and he convinces her to help him again. Once Scarlet is back on board, the project goes smoothly and the two construct Omadd's Machine. Omadd's. Despite being built off Scarlet's theories and research, despite her being integral to the construction of this machine, it's Omadd's and it carries his name. Funny how that happens, isn't it? And once the machine is up and running, he thinks Scarlet should test it first. Who knows what could happen in there, better to leave it up to the assistant to try it out, and frame it as her getting the honor of the first try. As we all know, it goes poorly. Scarlet learns so much more, all the knowledge she had been seeking for over a decade, but in return, the seeds of Mordremoth are planted in her mind and slowly take over, destroying her.

Now Scarlet, who has been used and devalued and disrespected and infantilized every step of the way, her whole life, is going to start tearing down the things that held her back for so long. She just needs a plan, and with the help of a certain sleeping dragon, one begins to form.

There's something I glossed over earlier that is so important to note, and that's how Scarlet was treated in the Grove. Now, it's been stated explicitly by Scott McGough, a narrative designer for the fame, that Scarlet emerged with lacking empathy. Low empathy doesn't make Scarlet, or anyone, a bad person. It's sometimes a symptom of autism, as well as some personality disorders, and it does affect how Scarlet is treated. As an autistic person myself, Scarlet very much reads as autistic to me, between low empathy, a one track mind, and an intense special interest in the universe and its mechanics. She has a hard time connecting with others, is easily bored by subjects that don't relate back to her special interest, can focus intently on and get caught up in her work, and doesn't really get social graces or expectations. Regardless of any diagnosis she would have if she existed in our world, Scarlet is treated differently due to her low empathy, a trait she cannot help about herself.

From the moment she emerges in the Grove, she is treated differently. She is talked down to. Her desire to take in her first sights and how it overwhelms her is dismissed as overconfidence and rudeness. Her own brother, barely older than her, talks like he knows so much more than her. Scarlet is an outsider among her own people. How does it feel to have low empathy among a race connected to each other deeply through empathy? Probably not great. Her studies in the Grove are limited, she is treated as rude and prideful for wanting to be independent and needing space. Rather than being accommodated, rather than being understood, Scarlet is infantilized, dismissed, and disregarded. She isn't neurotypical. She was born different. She's punished for it.

When she emerges from Omadd's Machine, made from her own hard work and creativity, Scarlet Briar is a young woman who has frequently been overlooked and rarely understood. All these thoughts and ideas, all this passion, and the only people who have ever even seemed to understand her have used and betrayed her so thoroughly. Scarlet Briar has always had to look out for and take care of herself, as a woman, as a sylvari, as someone who is neurodivergent and is in a field that doesn't respect a single aspect of her identity. The world won't accommodate her and the world won't take her seriously. So why shouldn't she show the world what she can do? Why not force everyone to recognize her for who she is? Why not give in just a little to that voice that has been calling to her in her nightmares since she left the machine? After all, it promises power and recognition and a sense of belonging.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #scarlet briar #my essays #anyway uvu

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caspercryptid · 2 years

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hello yes i absolutely love ur arcane fics but i read ur oc thing when it popped up on my dash and i would LOVE to know more abt grace and helen. pls tell me all the things

SO I actually have a fic in my drafts for them right now (I got another ask about them!) so that's gonna get published in the next hour or so, but let me actually tell you about them!

Gonna write lil bios and a ship section. the ship sections are weird because it’s everyone i’ve ever shipped them with but not all of them are...canon. Christ it’s weird to refer to my own canon. anyway. Feel free to follow up with more questions or requests or whatever I am always happy to write about the blorbos from my brain.

Angel / Grace Macfinley / Grace Algamest -

Some specific details of Grace's deal in the mainline canon ((I can't believe i'm saying that. the @theasperagroup canon)) are a little bit secret. But she's always associated with angel shit, she's stubborn to a fault, principled, lover not a fighter but someone you really do not want to put in a corner. She's scottish (same as Helen!) and at the end of the day would really prefer to be chopping wood in the countryside than doing any of this shit, but with great power... etc. Typically how it goes is that when she has great power she does her time and then does her best to find someone quiet to retire.

Ships: She has a failed (and extremely bad) relationship with one Macbeth Macfinley, the details of which I would not get into without a domestic violence TW. From there, she gets involved with either Helen and/or Lorelei Algamest, The Lady In Black, who will be featuring in this next fic and is one of the central characters of my OC system. Unfortunately Laurie (lorelei) is also susceptible to Macbeth so that goes a little Badly sometimes. (Helen would have none of that shit. Helen would Kill Them)

Dr. Elaine Cheshire / Helen Cheshire

Helen has a.... complicated history. While she's got some secrets, too, the main trajectory of her character is from being a really truly abysmal human being to doing her absolute best to be a better person. She does not do very well at it, frequently. Being a trans student at an academy to make supervillains did not make her the best adjusted person, and she experimented on herself to the degree that she frequently makes herself sick. Her history is a patchwork of grand scale supervillainy, smaller scale villainy, bad decisions, substance abuse problems, medical problems, and stints in prison and rehab programs. She Is Trying. So Hard.

Ships: Helen struggles with trust issues extremely severely and has an unfortunate tendency to self sabotage by falling in love with people she thinks she can't have, either because they're her enemies or because they’re taken or both. This has resulted in her falling for Grace, for Laurie, both of them at the same time, her lab partner in an undercover job (Dr. Evangeline Ariane, a physicist), and also @the-neon-pineapple’s man, Damien Allio, who is just a genuinely good man and thus Well Beyond Her, In Her Opinion (and taken!) (Several times over), oh also the god of winter, Rolf McAnnaly. She has also fallen in love with the god of winter. someone help her.

#oc tag #Helen Cheshire #Grace Macfinley #aspera project

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ao3tagoftheday · 4 years

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i see a lot of people talking to you about trans stuff and i was wondering if you'd be willing to explain transgenderism to me? everyone just says "i feel like a man/women" and that literally means nothing to me? I don't understand how a person could feel like something they're never been, nor have i ever felt that sort of attachment to traditional gender. it just sounds like sexism to me? can you help me understand this?? i'm trying to hard! I don't want to hold prejudice against anyone.

Ok, friend, you sound genuinely sweet sincere and earnest, so let me try my best to answer your question. (Note to followers: shitting on anon in the notes will not be tolerated. People are allowed to ask questions. Don't be jackasses. Ok? Ok.)

So, being trans. I don't know anything about your life, anon, but I'm going to guess that at some point in your life, you've been in a situation where you felt fundamentally out of place. Not because anyone was doing anything wrong or being mean to you or whatever, just because you didn't quite fit. It happens to everyone. So you kinda laugh it off and try to fake it, or you hide in the corner, or you make up an excuse to leave, and you get yourself out of there. Problem solved.

But now imagine that, instead of having that feeling one time in one place, you have it all the time, in all places. Every time you talk to someone, every time someone says your name, even when you're entirely alone, there's just a little something off. Sometimes you can ignore it, sometimes it's just a bit annoying, and sometimes the wrongness is so intense you feel like you can't breathe.

And then, one day, you realize that something makes the wrongness stop. Maybe you're six years old and you haven't had a haircut in a while and someone says your hair looks pretty. Maybe you're fourteen and you figure out how to wear a shirt so your breasts don't show. Maybe you're twenty-five or thirty-five or seventy-five and the barista says "here's your coffee, sir, I mean ma'am, I mean-" and it just feels right. For the first time in your life, just for an instant, that wrongness, that sense of distance, disconnection, that void between you and the world, vanishes. For one second, you feel whole.

So you chase it. You shave your head in the bathroom mirror. You buy floor length gowns at the thrift shop. You imagine your body in different shapes and taste new names on your tongue. And you feel better.

That gap, that distance? You start to close it. When people start to call you by the name you choose, you feel connected to them. When your body starts to twist into the right shape, you can actually enjoy yourself in it. Slowly, as time goes by, the wrongness you've lived with your whole life recedes, dissipates, leaves you with nothing between you and the world. You're free, free to reach out, to talk, to laugh, to play, to exist. It is a joy beyond expression.

If none of this makes any sense to you, anon, that's ok. I can explain the feeling of being trans until I'm blue in the face, but, well, it's a feeling. Explaining will only get you so far. So it's ok if you don't understand. You don't need to. All you really need is to know that the fact that you don't understand something doesn't make it not real.

So next time you hear people talking about trans stuff, don't spend your energy trying to wrap your head around transness as a concept or the definition of gender or whatever. I mean, you can if you want. It's interesting as all hell. But you sound like you want to just know what's going on.

So here's what's going on: We are here. We are part of the human experience. We'd like you to be polite and respectful and stick up for us if other people aren't. If you're interested in deconstructing the patriarchal imperialist gender binary, there's a workshop for that on alternate Thursdays, but it isn't compulsory.

That's all, really. No arcane secrets or hidden agendas. Just us, making joy where and how we can. Which isn't, I think, very difficult to understand.

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fernthewhimsical · 3 years

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Pride Witchcraft

Happy Pride everyone! It’s the rainbow time of the year again… This will be the first time for me where I will incorporate Pride month actively into my witchcraft practice. As I’ve written about before, self-discovery and self-love is a big part of my daily and monthly practice and exploring gender- and sexual identity has dominated that over the past two years or so. I learned a lot, not just about myself but about queer history and the queer community as well. Which is why I decided that this year, in a year where everything still sucks, I will take Pride month as a sacred celebration, not only to celebrate my own identity and the journey that I’ve made, but also to celebrate how far we’ve come, as a community, and the things that we’ve already achieved.

But there is still quite a way to go. Homophobia and especially transphobia is on the rise again. There is a lot of infighting in the community as well with the rise of TERF ideology and purity politics based on white, Christian values ingrained in our societies and cultures. Which is why @madamehearthwitch commented that for her Pride had a very double feeling this year. We talked about how we both looked forward to it, and didn’t, because of these issues and struggles. We also talked about doing some community magics, where we as a community practice our witchcraft to better the queer community, which I will talk about below (And make into a seperate post for easier shareability).

So, what are my plans for Pride? (My Pride bucketlist, if you will)

Celebrate

Journal about what Pride means to me and the journey I went through

Shop locally and in small, queer owned businesses for some queer merch

Finish my “acceptance” tarot spread, and use it

Read/watch/or listen to something related to queer history, -people or -education topics every day

Donate to a queer cause

Join an online queer event

Read Arcane Perfection, an anthology by queer, trans and intersex witches that is now 0.99 on kindle!

Do a binding/banishing spell (see below)

Do a community protection spell (see below)

Watch some fun queer shows and movies

Celebrate some more!

So let’s talk about the community magic. We invite everyone to join us on a witchy Pride weekend! June 18 to 20 we will be doing various spells to help the queer community, and the more people who cast them, the more powerful they will be! We’ve also chosen this date because we can harness the potent energies of the Summer solstice into our workings.

Binding and banishing On June 18 we will perform a binding and banishing spell to bind queerphobia, harmful laws, and any other personal things you might want to include. Use your own binding/banishing method, or use the following, which is my preferred method. Take a piece of black paper, or paint one side of a white paper black (protection/banishing). Write down the things you wish to banish, think of things like homophobia, police brutality, job inequality, the names of certain laws, TERFs, or more personal things like people using your deadname or the name of a homophobic uncle (for example). Make sure the black side is on the outside. Focus on binding and banishing every point as you write them down. Now fold it up in a way that the black is the only colour that’s shown. Wrap your folder paper in some black twine, wool, thread, laces, whatever you have. Focus on binding the things you’ve written, say some words if you wish. I like to bury my bindings/banishings, but you can also dispose of them by simply tossing them in the trash where they belong.

Protection Sigil On June 19 we will cast a protection spell for the queer community. I designed a sigil for this to function as a focal point for your magic. You can print it out or redraw it yourself. Place a candle over it, use it as a base of a crystal grid, place it on your altar and meditate, make it the centre of a (digital) moodboard, whatever feels right for you. The centre of the sigil is the Pride flag, symbolizing our community (you can redraw the sigil and place a different flag inside, if you wish to focus on a specific part of the community). Around it is a circle (protection, community) which is made by five stickfigures holding hands (people, community). Around them is a square (protection) and then a ring of intertwined briar branches with the thorns pointing outwards (again, protection). On the right side I also snuck the rune Thurisaz (briar, protection) into the ring of briar branches. The pentacle in the centre stands for magic as well as, surprise, protection. Customize this for whatever you need, the pentacle is optional, place more stickfigures, change the flag, whatever makes it work for you.

Celebrate and Remember On June 20 we will celebrate! Celebrate our own identities as well as the community and all we’ve achieved so far. Watch a fun movie, shop for some fun merch, eat and drink something rainbow, dance to music of queer artists, whatever you want! We do also want to acknowledge and remember those who we’ve lost, those who have paved the way before us. You might want to do this by making a toast to your queer ancestors (by blood or – more often – not). By saving a place for them at the table and inviting to join you. Or by using a Beloved Dead sigil and burning a candle in remembrance. I will also be making a list of names of those I wish to honour, which is at the same time a nice excuse to dive deeper into queer history!

So please join us for a witchy Pride weekend! Share your thoughts and experiences with #PrideWitchcraft and share this post far and wide so we can have as many witches adding their magic and power.

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