#issue 3.1

[konata-in-pony-world]

<-<- beginning

<- last

3.0 friends of mine

[dailydefunctmangamagazine]

Digital Garo (デジタルガロ) / Seirindō (青林堂) / Vol. 1

[vadapega]

I've been having some weird Sound Driver issues on Windows 3.1 and when I thought I fixed it...

ALSO RELEVANT ERROR

[allpromarlo]

just forced myself to watch 11 minutes of a guy on youtube complaining about hsr’s “male character problem” and i think i just ruined my whole day

his issues were that male characters aren’t advertised enough, are half imaginary and that jiaoqiu’s kit was made so he’s a “slave” to acheron. while i agree that some of them didn’t get the promo that they deserved upon release, and that we definitely need more guys who are not imaginary, the last point has me ctfu bc what the fuck does that even mean

“jiaoqiu is acheron’s slave!” (crazy thing to say abt a foxian btw), complaining that his kit is only designed around her and pretending that this is a widespread issue while actively ignoring how versatile the other male supports are? gallagher is a four star healer from more than a year ago and still gets used in just about every team comp out there. same with luocha for hp-scaling teams, now more than ever bc of mydei and castorice. the only time aventurine isn’t needed is for hp-scalers also, and so far we have FOUR of those characters in total (two of which haven’t been meta since 2023). the rest work perfectly with him. and sunday is a good buff for literally every dps out there except castorice. like???

sorry i understand the frustration when it comes to genshin impact but honkai star rail does NOT have a male character problem. rather, you’re just mad that female characters have prevalence and are slightly more important than male ones in meta. and don’t get me started on the story—the two best written characters in the game (sunday & aventurine) are both men, and the most important story character for amphoreus is very clearly phainon. just complaining for complaint’s sake bc muh husbandos aren’t getting shoved down our throats :(((

[tap-tap-tap-im-in]

Quick follow-up on yesterday's post. I am vindicated. I did test out jellyfin with transcoding yesterday and it completely saturated my media server hardware, something that doesn't come near to happening with my methods. By doing it my way I'm able to serve multiple HD streams at once, Jellyfin choked on one SD stream because it insisted on transcoding rather than just passing the file through.

[dainesanddaffodils]

Today on my WoL makes decisions for me, the player

We met Krile!

Cimorene, abandoned by her mom as a small child: Krile’s my mom now.

Me: we met her 2 seconds ago

Cimorene, handing Krile adoption papers: Krile is my mom now!

[starcurtain]

Comparing Phaidei and Other Hoyo MLM Ships (Part 1)

I barely know how to begin, honestly, because I'm still so taken aback by the absolute Phaidei feast that was 3.1. But perhaps because we were so overfed by the patch, I was actually jarred a little out of the story itself--too busy turning over the broader ramifications of such blatant queer-coding of two male characters in a modern Hoyoverse game.

Of course, Hoyo isn't remotely new to queer-coding their characters (or to queer-baiting, either, gacha games gotta hustle at all times). They absolutely have a history of hinting at both WLW and MLM ships and of including fanservice between the player's MC and other playable characters regardless of gender. Strangely enough, due to the unique confluence of their target audiences' tastes, the Hoyoverse team has an active profit motive to create gay characters:

WLW ships are appealing to heterosexual male players.

MLM ships are appealing to heterosexual female players.

Simultaneously, WLW and MLM ships are appealing to queer players.

Heterosexual ships with characters other than the MC are unappealing to a large percentage of the game's playerbase, particularly to heterosexual male players who want to keep their waifus to themselves but also to female yumeshippers.

Hoyo's market is literally telling them that 1) male characters sell better when they're ship-baited with other male characters, and 2) players don't actually want heterosexual ships between playable characters if the MC isn't involved. (Hell, look at Firefly--players hate romances with the MC too lol!)

But at the same time as the market is telling the devs to keep making queer characters, Hoyoverse also faces immense social pressure to avoid including actual queer content.

Let me hold off on the political and legal consequences of including gay characters in Chinese media for just a second, and look at the situation from the perspective of Hoyo's target audiences first:

Take this data with a grain of salt though; I'm not sure where they got their numbers.

First, Hoyoverse games are increasingly global and surprisingly popular in conservative/religious countries such as Russia, Malaysia, and the UAE. The western world as a whole is shifting increasingly right on LGBT+ issues. For the games to be marketed well across the globe, they've got to avoid challenging the morals of these highly varied audiences. (Perhaps this is why past Hoyoverse titles seemed more open to LGBT+ content than present Hoyoverse games do; a broader audience actually means more restrictions on content.)

Second, even though conservative heterosexual male players are actually surprisingly fine with MLM ship tease, that only applies so long as it stays at the level of "I can pretend I don't see it." As long as anti-LGBT+ players can write off any MLM content as "just close friends," the dev team can get away with frankly shocking amounts of queer interaction between male characters. (I'm sorry to any straight male fans reading this [could there possibly be any?], but half of y'all could win gold medals if mental gymnastics were a sport. The lengths I have seen some male Genshin players go to try to explain away Haikaveh are honestly awe-inspiring. 😂) However, the boundary must be respected. The moment a male character's queerness exceeds subtext and becomes text, when even mental gymnastics cannot come up with a heterosexual explanation, and the plausible deniability goes out the window, it is no longer acceptable to anti-LGBT+ players, and they will be "turned off" from pulling that male character en masse. In essence, the market is telling the devs: 1) Huge amounts of queer-coding = a-okay, but 2) Actual canon queer content = that's gayyyy, no wayyyy.

And third, the obvious: China's stance on LGBT+ people is weirdly stricter in media than it is in "real" life. It is not illegal to be gay in China but it is illegal to be gay in a video game in China. Restrictions on media portrayals of gayness are significantly more strict than restrictions on actually being gay (which is interesting cognitive dissonance for those from outside the country, but that's an essay for another day). Hoyoverse legally cannot show characters engaged in any explicitly queer behaviors--at least that can't be explained away.

Furthermore, the rules apply very differently for male and female characters. WLW content gets way more of a pass from the censors. Bronya and Seele can blush at each other, but Alhaitham and Kaveh cannot. You would never see "Rondo Across Countless Kalpas" happening with male Hoyoverse characters. The censors literally would not allow it, strictly because Chinese standards for portrayals of men are different--and more strict!--than standards for portraying women. Legally, there are strong and serious limitations on what Hoyo can do with their male characters.

Summing all of this up, in trying to create their male characters and content, Hoyoverse is actually fighting a battle of conflicting pressures: Male characters sell better when they are queer-coded, but their interactions can never rise to the level of being canonically gay.

Everything must exist in the realm of implication.

(Yes, I can hear you: "Can you please get to Phaidei already?" 😂)

All of this foreword was to lay a foundation for the actual point I want to make about Phaidei: Because Hoyoverse can only queer-code and not actually queer their male characters, they have (in their modern games), fallen into a sort of pattern with their MLM ship bait. Certain plots and personalities keeps reappearing again and again. They've developed a sort of short-hand set of traits to give to their male characters--the Hoyoverse "queer-coded MLM starter pack" if you will lol.

While not every popular MLM ship in Hoyo's games has the same traits (obviously not), certain elements seem central to creating the delicate necessary gray area between "They're just baiting fangirls" and "The devs intended these two characters to be canonically gay but just couldn't state that textually."

And yet... And yet...

You're not imagining things: Phaidei is actually different.

To demonstrate just how different though, I wanted to take the time to compare Phaidei with other popular Hoyoverse MLM ships, looking at both the similarities (the patterns that Hoyo relies on to reliably queer-code their characters) and the noticeable differences (where Hoyo pushed their own boundaries in surprising ways).

Unfortunately, in the interest of full transparency, my own Hoyoverse experience is limited, so I can only use examples from Star Rail and Genshin Impact. I just haven't played HI3 or ZZZ, so I don't feel comfortable trying to use examples from those games, although I think there may be many ships that fall into similar patterns in those games as well. (Maybe some people can share in the comments?)

Anyway, let's start with similarities:

1. A Pair of Equals

The number one "rule" for popular Hoyoverse queer-coded MLM ships is that the two characters must be evenly matched. This isn't to say they have to have identical levels of physical strength (although that is also often the case); instead, the audience needs to perceive them as being on equal footing in some way. They must either be intellectual equals (Alhaitham and Kaveh), political equals (Ratio and Aventurine; Neuvillette and Wriothesley), equal in social standing (Tighnari and Cyno), or, yes, actually physically equal their capability for going toe-to-toe against each other (Blade and Dan Heng; possibly Zhongli and Childe; for those who ship it, Diluc and Kaeya).

For modern Hoyo games, queer-coded MLM ships with noticeable discrepancies in power dynamics are particularly rare; possibly the only one that comes to mind is Ayato/Thoma (though this is mitigated by the game deliberately telling us that Ayato treats Thoma like family, rather than like a servant). And I think this actually says a lot about the devs' thought process: They are deliberately avoiding scenarios in which one male character seems capable of "preying" on another, where the queer-coding could accidentally be perceived as sexual perversion due to a discrepancy in power dynamics.

They're intentionally averting the "depraved homosexual" trope by--sometimes literally--spelling out for the players that both male characters in their queer-coded MLM ships perceive each other as, and are interested in each other as, equals.

We see this explicitly with Ratio and Aventurine in Star Rail:

And Alhaitham and Kaveh in Genshin:

Even Blade and Dan Heng are likened to "a pair" of identical objects:

So of course, Phainon and Mydei push this to an extreme. Phainon describes himself and Mydei as "friends and foes," and the game goes out of it way to reiterate over and over that they are perfect equals. Although they compete in everything they do, there is never a clear victor; their score card is constantly balancing out because they match each other's skill and power perfectly.

But there are even hints in the game that this isn't just happening naturally, but also by choice: Even when one of them triumphs over the other, they both backtrack and insist on getting on equal standing again. Whether you win or lose the "competition" in Kremnos in 3.0, the outcome is the same:

Phainon and Mydei perceive each other as perfectly matched (in strength, right, right...) and are actively working to keep it that way.

The game also goes out of its way to insist that Mydei and Phainon aren't just equals in terms of strength but also in social standing. It theoretically should be impossible to match Mydei's place on the social ladder--he's the literal crown prince of an entire nation of world-renowned conquerors. Even Aglaea is not a queen; we see her on screen being forced to contend with Okhema's Council who are fighting her for power. There technically isn't anyone in Amphoreus (at least that we've met so far) who should be able to stand on equal political or administrative footing to Mydei.

Except, of course, for Phainon, who supersedes all others by virtue of being the literal prodigal son, the "Chosen One."

The game insists on putting this in our faces over and over again: Mydei may be a king in the making, but Phainon is the "Deliverer." They are equally matched in terms of authority.

The game even goes out of its way to tell us they're perfect mirrors in personality too:

Hoyo, in the kitchen cooking up another gay ship: LISTEN GUYS, they're equals, do you understand me? A MATCHING SET.

But also...

2. Diametrically Opposed

It isn't enough for the queer-coded men to be each other's perfect equals. They also have to be opposites, typically in terms of their personalities. This is the pattern that repeats itself most consistently across Hoyoverse MLM ships with strong textual support: the two men may be equal, but they're also nothing alike. (At least on the surface.)

Alhaitham and Kaveh's entire plot hinges on their directly opposing personalities and morals, representing the clash between rationality and sensibility. Dan Feng was reserved and cool-tempered, while Yingxing was "arrogant" and brash. Hell, Xingqiu and Chongyun are "refined and clever" versus "forthright and trusting." I actually think Zhongli and Childe, despite being the most popular Hoyoverse ship in the western fandom, have very little canonical support, yet they still fit this pattern, with Zhongli as the refined gentleman to Tartaglia's blood knight tendencies.

We know how Ratio sees himself and Aventurine:

Hoyo really said "Opposites attract" and ran with it for every single MLM ship they ever teased.

And there's a logical reason for this. Making the two male characters dead opposites actually slightly decreases people's ability to argue that they're "just friends"--if they have next to nothing in common, they're not usually bonding over mutual hobbies or basing their connection on shared similarities. It becomes harder to portray two male characters as "bros who just get along great" when they're deliberately written with opposing tastes and personalities. (Real friends can sometimes be dead opposites, obviously, but most friendships are built on mutual interests rather than opposing ones, while romantic relationships hilariously have the "opposites attract" stereotype.)

There's no reason to shove polar opposites together again and again except to watch the sparks fly.

Even Hoyo's male characters' color schemes are often perfectly opposite. Plenty of people have figured out if you palette swap Alhaitham and Kaveh, Dan Heng and Blade, and Ratio and Aventurine, you end up with the same colors. Ayato and Thoma match the pattern here too ("red and blue gays" is a well-known trope).

But once again, the devs pulled out ALL the stops for Phaidei:

They're red versus blue. They're sun and moon. They're outgoing versus introverted. They're a king and a peasant (if we believe what Phainon's telling us about Aedes Elysiae). They're the "outsider" and the "golden boy." One fights with strength and the other with technique, brains versus brawn (actually they're both kind of idiots though, so take this one lightly lol).

However, what I think is most interesting about Hoyo's pairs of MLM opposites that is that the devs deliberately subvert expectations by assigning the opposing traits to the "unexpected" character. In both Haikaveh and Ratiorine, it's the rational scholar who is more overtly caring and attuned to their partner's feelings. In Renheng, it's the kind-hearted Yingxing who is consumed by anger, while the aloof, expressionless Dan Heng's voice trembles in wonder at the mere mention of Yingxing's name.

For Phainon and Mydei, this inversion of opposite traits occurs with their personalities specifically. People expected Mydei to be a gruff, hot-headed, battle-hungry berserker with a sarcastic or arrogant personality at best.

Instead, Mydei is an extremely thoughtful person, who struggles with his fate not because of what will happen to himself but because of a desire to bring the greatest good to the greatest number of his people. He's a respectful, gentle (when he needs to be), and even sentimental young man who continues to hold on to love for those who have long passed away. He's reserved around strangers but generous and warm to his companions, and struggles to express himself but has a clear desire to be considerate of others.

We also know he's deeply aware of and emotionally affected by the racism his people are experiencing in Okhema; one NPC in Okhema reports how Mydei, despite being new to Okhema himself, stood up to the very council still plaguing Aglaea in order to protect his people:

Despite having difficulties expressing his own thoughts, he even scolds Phainon for approaching their farewell with a nonchalant expression--Mydei doesn't reject emotions or shy away from becoming close with people he cares for.

Instead, it's Phainon who actually struggles to be honest. While he might connect easily with others on the surface, seeming outgoing and kind-hearted, he is actually a much more private person, one who is reluctant to show his true feelings and dismissive of questions about his past and identity. As opposed to Mydei's desire to avoid Nikador's power, Phainon is (despite his doubts) eager to prove himself, spurned on by the pressure of the prophecy telling him he needs to achieve greatness. We're told that he craved the power of strife specifically, while Mydei summarily wishes to reject it.

It's Phainon who frequently has to be reined in by others--he was ready to kill Oronyx for delaying his rescue of Mydei--and Phainon who fails to let go of his hatred and desire for revenge, causing him to fail Nikador's trial, which Mydei easily clears.

By inverting the traits of the characters, creating designs which visually oppose each other while assigning the actual opposing personality traits to the "mismatched" character, the devs hammer home an implicit message: These two characters complete each other. They fill in each other's gaps. What you expected to find in one of these men, you will instead find in the other. What they wish to be, they will be drawn to in each other.

(Frequently bought together, do not separate!)

3. The Distance is Artificial

Okay, so if they're so obviously written as a "pair," being perfect equals and perfect opposites, how are they just "queer-coded" and not explicitly queer? How is Hoyo keeping up the illusion of the characters not being an obvious couple when they're literally written to complete each other?

Hoyo has one major tool in their arsenal to do this: Prickly personalities.

With the exception of Renheng, which I'll get to in a second, Hoyo has a favorite method for enforcing the rule of plausible deniability, the idea that "Nooo, we promise, they're not in love; they don't even like each other, see??"--and that's giving one of the characters an intractable personality.

This can manifest, like Alhaitham and Kaveh, as constant bickering, where the pair's main method of communication is to devolve into petty arguments or sarcastic quips.

Fans who support the ship can view this as an "old married couple" dynamic; but for those who do not support the ship and choose to insist that Hoyo isn't actually queer-coding their male characters, they can lean on these arguments as "proof" that the characters don't actually love each other.

A similar pattern was recently repeated with Sethos/Wanderer, with Wanderer's prickly personality being used to keep Sethos at bay.

By placing the characters at odds with each other through bickering, Hoyo introduces just enough doubt to make the "They're only friends/roommates, we promise" argument hold some water. This allows them to get--quite honestly--a lot of queer content past the censors and past homophobic audiences too.

We see them repeat this trope with Aventurine and Ratio in Star Rail, introducing the two characters as initially "at odds" with each other and trying to pass it off as Ratio despising Aventurine.

Even after revealing that they were plotting together, the game insists on introducing some lingering doubts, suggesting that Aventurine fears Ratio would actually betray him.

This creates the necessary "gray area," the gap that Hoyo can use to hide in--no, Aventurine doesn't trust Ratio at all, see? Maybe they don't even like each other? Who knows! The doubt doesn't exist because the story particularly needs it, but simply so that Hoyo has a shield to hide behind if people begin to question how close the two male characters are.

Even in comedic material, Hoyo intentionally keeps this "necessary distance" in order to allow themselves wiggle room. Is Ratio an enamored tsundere who can't spit his real feelings out, or does he actually think Aventurine is illogical, mediocre, and ridiculous? Was the "Keeping Up With Star Rail" video an example of Hoyo deliberately baiting by making Ratio flustered over Aventurine "on air," or is he being Aventurine's biggest hater in this clip?

It's just questionable enough that those players who hate MLM to interpret it as the latter, and provides just enough doubt to help Hoyo slip queer-coding under the radar. Those who want to see it will see, while it's written just vaguely enough that those who don't want to see it will not see it.

(That's the point Owlbert, that's the point.)

When in doubt, and when stuck with a pair of characters who aren't likely to bicker with words, Hoyo sometimes has to progress to the next level: making them actual enemies.

What's better for creating plausible deniability than one of them trying to kill the other? (They definitely were not fooling around in a past life. We promise.) In an ironic twist with Renheng in particular, the fandom seems to have somehow come to the (mistaken) consensus that Dan Feng and Yingxing were "confirmed canon" (truly, I see this stated everywhere; we love when reading comprehension fails in the right direction for once lol), leaving only Dan Heng/Blade as being of questionable "canonicity." However, this still works as far as Hoyo is concerned, because only Dan Heng and Blade are left on screen.

By insisting on their present inability to reconcile, Blade and Dan Heng are able to introduce just enough doubt into the equation to offset even significant ship tease for Dan Feng/Yingxing.

Enemies to lovers 150k+ slow burn, please look forward to it.

Okay, but back to Phaidei. At first, it seems like Phaidei is going to follow this pattern to a T: When Phainon first introduces Trailblazer to Mydei, the two seem to be at odds, bickering over how Mydei is choosing to confront the enemy. Mydei even calls Phainon out for an unintentionally insensitive statement (when Phainon demands to know why Mydei isn't "protecting the citizens," Mydei asks "Who are you implying is not a citizen here?" i.e., "Are you saying because I'm Kremnoan I don't count as a citizen?" You can see Phainon practically bite his tongue to take back his words.)

Also known as: Mydei experiences a microaggression.

Mydei's very first line directly to the Trailblazer is to insult Phainon's hospitality, and we know they definitely have plenty of silly insults to lob at each other while competing.

But this is actually where we see the first deviation from the pattern for Phaidei. Although there's a few cursory lines throughout their early dialogue, that's all there ever is--just cursory attempts at suggesting the two bicker and don't get along.

Within one scene, the "tension" present in their first meeting entirely devolves into purely playful banter, and it is clear by the time we finish 3.0 that Phainon and Mydei are actually very close and get along well, with virtually none of Haikaveh's biting comments, Blade and Dan Heng's violence, or Aventurine and Ratio's questions of loyalty. Phainon and Mydei took one look at the rest of Hoyoverse's MLM ships and said "How about we skip that will they-won't they?" lol.

But I'm not quite ready to talk about the places where Phaidei departs from the normal pattern yet, so I'll leave this point by just saying that Hoyo did start Phaidei on the same path as a majority of their other MLM ships, making a vague attempt at using their rivalry to suggest they wouldn't get along--thereby allowing for the alternative interpretation to quiet the haters (and the censors).

4. The (Physical) Distance is Non-Existent

Okay, but if Hoyo uses personalities to inject just enough distance into their queer-coded pairings to avoid crossing any boundaries, then what do they do to tantalize the audience, to make it seem like the characters might actually like each other?

They use body language!

First, just to reiterate a basic video game design principle: All animations and character placements have to be programmed by someone, and that means that all animations and the physical locations of characters in scenes are intentional. Nothing happens in cutscenes by accident.

Designers are constantly making a series of choices any time they have to put together a cutscene, and one of the key choices they have to make is how to express each character through their movements and their positions relative to other characters. (I've talked before, for example, about how Aventurine frequently turns his back on people, forcing their eyes to follow him throughout his cutscenes, taking physical control of the reactions of people around him.)

Hoyoverse games have somewhat standardized scene layouts for conversation cutscenes, with characters typically being placed at different distances from each other depending on their relationships. A majority of conversations happen from a generally cordial conversational distance, which means that any time characters cross this gap and close the distance, the dev team is intentionally sending the players a message.

Like, no one mistook what this was about, right?

Heterosexual jumpscare in my queer post; I'm sorry, I was just too tired to find a video with Lumine lol.

Repeating for good measure: Unless it is with a male playable main character (where the presence of the female main character is what lends the deniability), Hoyo legally cannot show their male characters engaging in physical contact that could be construed as romantic. Male characters can't hold hands; they can't even really hug unless it's "caught you as you fell after battle" (props to Dan Heng for being the only male character in Star Rail to get a "hug" with Jing Yuan lol.) There's a boundary that Hoyo male characters do not cross, and that's almost universally the realm of physical touch.

But Hoyo can place their queer-coded male characters into scenarios of physical closeness that they don't typically show among other characters.

Alhaitham and Kaveh's table says hello.

So does Tighnari and Cyno's single tent from this same quest; Cyno's Story 2, truly the quest that kept on giving.

Aventurine, a character who traditionally keeps half a room's distance between himself and the people he's talking to, suddenly doesn't seem to mind closing the distance with Ratio:

And even Renheng, the eternal enemies, are depicted as crossing physical boundaries, explicitly "getting in each other's faces." Yes it's a battle, but also, I've seen yaoi with less domineering poses lol.

You might think these lightcone examples are a stretch, but seriously: Go look at all the lightcones in the game. Does a single heterosexual couple have a lightcone where they are in each other's space in this manner? No, because physical closeness is actually a tool Hoyo is consistently using to queer-code. (Well, there would probably be more heterosexual closeness too if the incels weren't so weird...)

Anyway, when I saw the devs might be heading the direction of baiting Phaidei, I fully expected that we would see them side-by-side more consistently and with less of a gap between them than between other characters. But I wasn't remotely ready for the degree to which Hoyo would take that.

Here is an example of Phaidei exhibiting the "normal" Star Rail conversational distance:

Andddd... here's where they spend the other 90% of their scenes together:

The unnecessarily large distance between them and the Trailblazer gets me every time. Like they are not leaving room for Jesus Kephale.

Even when they aren't standing practically on top of each other, the devs deliberately choose camera angles that frame them both in the cutscene at the same time, which is relatively rare for Star Rail (not unheard of, but usually the camera will just go for the "first person POV" when two people are speaking, allowing for a close up of the speaking character). Instead of back-and-forth close ups, many of Mydei and Phainon's conversations are framed from a "behind-the-shoulder" angle, to catch them both in the frame. This creates the illusion that they're standing closer together than they are, and also reinforces a sense of intimacy in their conversations--the camera (and thus the player) becomes an "outsider" while their bodies turn toward each other.

Again, Hoyoverse is under pressure to avoid showing physical contact between male characters that could be construed romantically. They can't show Mydei and Phainon tangoing like Black Swan and Acheron. When it comes to queer-coding male characters, they have to use the tools available to them, and their primary tool for visually signifying the possibility of romantic closeness is physical closeness.

The camera is telling you that Mydei and Phainon are close.

Anyway, just one more point I wanted to make before moving on to discussing how Phaidei completely crushed the mold for Hoyoverse queer-coding, but...

5. Oh God, We're Turning Into Your Parents

Listen, I'm a reasonable person. I can fully accept that I play games with LGBT+ goggles on at all times. Despite being fantastically aroace myself, I love yaoi. I love yuri. I even like plenty of straight ships. I'm a fangirl first, academic second, so believe me when I say that I understand how skeptics might view some of the points above. "You're just fangirling. Being equals and opposites doesn't automatically imply romance. The devs might have intended close friendship, not a relationship." This counter-argument is valid!

So I want to end with one more point which I think is actually the lynch pin to proving that Hoyoverse isn't "accidentally" making their male characters come across as queer. Hoyo's queer-coding for certain ships is very intentional and even sometimes very overt. In a few cases prior to Phaidei, they were already skirting the upper limits of plausible deniability, and I think the modern ship that previously pushed the boundary the most is Haikaveh.

You can say what you want about other Hoyo MLM ships and their lack of canon textual support (I love you ZhongChi, even if the devs actually hate you lol), but I believe people who unironically say "The devs are not baiting Alhaitham and Kaveh as a ship" are so media illiterate that it's actually embarrassing to share air with them. Whether you think the devs are just doing it to cash in on yaoi fangirls or because they actually want to depict gay characters, it is indisputable at this point that Alhaitham and Kaveh have in-game ship tease. They just do, and one of the most obvious and unmistakable instances of this is when Kaveh's hangout paralleled Kaveh's relationship with Alhaitham to the heterosexual marriage between Kaveh's mother and father.

To draw a direct connection between Kaveh's father and Alhaitham, who is repeatedly described as not being able to understand Kaveh's artistic sensibilities and idealistic world view but nevertheless chooses to stay by Kaveh's side through his many troubles, while simultaneously reinforcing the idea that Kaveh is his mother's spitting image, both physically and emotionally, can really not be interpreted in any other way.

Hoyoverse took a queer relationship and made a one-for-one analogy to a heterosexual relationship--Alhaitham and Kaveh are a direct reflection of Kaveh's very married parents.

This isn't something that can happen on accident. This is deliberate and unmistakable queer-coding.

Which makes it absolutely wild that it happened twice.

I've posted already about the obvious parallels between Mydei's parents and Phaidei, and I'm actually almost out of room for new images here, so I can't post the images again, but I hardly need to at this point: Mydei's parents met when Gorgo challenged Eurypon at the Kremnos Festival. They fought for ten rounds, determined that they were (what do you know) perfect equals, and Eurypon proposed on the spot. Eurypon is explicitly described as a swordmaster, while Gorgo used a spear.

Later, the game repeatedly (and in various separate instances), emphasizes that Mydei and Phainon's first meeting consisted of a duel lasting ten days and ten nights, where neither of them could secure the victory, proving them to also be each other's perfect equals. Phainon's role as Okhema's swordmaster is emphasized, while Mydei wields a spear just like his mother when killing his father and after taking on Nikador's divinity.

Then there's... everything that came after. Eurypon betrayed Gorgo, effectively stabbing her in the back, and took her life. The foreshadowing that Phainon will do this exact same thing to Mydei is unmissable.

Phainon has even expressed an explicit desire to take part in the same competition where Mydei's father crowned the winner his wife:

In the (very limited) Kremnoan dictionary, I'm pretty sure this is how you say "I'm down to fuck."

Just as in the case with Haikaveh, there is no way that this parallel could have occurred by accident. The devs did not go out of their way to give us entire flashbacks of Gorgo and Eurypon's meeting and downfall for no reason. You're supposed to see the one-for-one connection between Mydei's very heterosexual, married parents and Phainon and Mydei's relationship.

Simultaneously, the devs also parallel their MLM ships to heterosexual relations by incorporating shades of domesticity normally reserved for "traditional" male-female relationships into their MLM ships--including levels of domesticity that heterosexual ships in Genshin and Star Rail usually don't rise to. One of Genshin's most popular MLM ships shares a single-family home and has a chore chart. Thoma is Ayato's housekeeper. Tighnari and Cyno are just flat-out joint raising a child. Jiaoqiu cooks and Moze cleans. Yingxing and Dan Feng accidentally(?) made a baby.

And Phainon and Mydei aren't any exception. They live an apocalyptic world that is constantly calling them away to battle, but the devs went out of their way to tell us Mydei is an extremely good cook who prepares everyone's food and deliberately ruins Phainon's when he's annoying, which is definitely old married couple behavior lol. Mydei is framed repeatedly as being good with children, not just in the distant fatherly way but in the "plays house" and follows-along-after-unaccompanied-kids-like-a-mother-hen way. Yet when Mydei has to leave, taking the classic "I'm going off to war" ancient Greek exit, he doesn't depart without leaving Phainon his people--with the camera panning specifically to the little Kremnoans. Phainon got the kids in the divorce. D; The tragic domesticity is already off the charts, and then they hit you the second punch when Mydei's last question (just one or two lines later) confirms that it was Phainon who got the ring for him. Hoyo couldn't actually have given us a more heavy-handed "parting husband and wife" parallel if someone held them at gunpoint. That whole thing was some Odyssey level bullshit. I see you devs, I see you.

You might be tempted to say that is just heteronormativity, which it could be, but I actually think it serves a very specific place in Hoyo's queer-coding repertoire. In comparing gay relationships to heterosexual marriages, the devs effectively "legitimize" their queer characters, suggesting that the relationships between gay male characters are no less real or valid than those between men and women. In demonstrating that male characters can achieve stable and healthy domestic lives with each other, the devs reiterate that players are not supposed to notice a difference between gay and heterosexual relationships.

There isn't any clearer way for Hoyoverse to legally say "We want you to think of these two men as romantic partners" than to say "Wow, isn't it interesting that their relationship is identical to a married couple's." It's on purpose; at this point, you really can't say the queer-coding isn't deliberate without looking like you can't read, and if it was intentional when Haikaveh paralleled Kaveh's parents, then it was doubly so the second time Hoyoverse pulled this trick to parallel Phaidei to Mydei's parents.

PHEW! Okay, I finally made it through the foundational traits for Hoyoverse MLM ship-bait and where Phaidei fits in with those. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk! 😂

But... the whole reason I started this post was actually because I wanted to talk about differences between Phaidei and other Hoyoverse MLM ships, and particularly how bold Hoyo actually was in 3.1, pushing the envelop to an extreme degree to ship-tease Phainon and Mydei.

So, since the post was way, way too long, I've spit the rest of my point off into a second post.

Check out Part 2 over here. ->

[seelestia]

✧ a healer's touch.

although more than capable of healing himself, mydeimos finds no harm in seeking out medical help for convenience — and when he does, it's almost always and only from you. { 1.2k words }

#STARRING. mydei & healer!reader (gn).

#GENRE. slice of life, fluff, established friendship with feelings.

#NOTES. set pre-3.1, mentions of a minor injury & treating it (pls forgive inaccuracies!), one brief instance of close proximity, mentions of phainon as a tool of banter which leads to jealous mydei, reader is a bit of a gremlin & a tease.

#THOUGHTS. my first try writing for amphoreus charas and it's mydei !!! :-) bcs the concept of him w/ a healer!reader is so hdhshfhs. this was also supposed to be shorter but i got carried away. pls enjoy reading this short drabble! 𖹭

✶ masterlist.

© seelestia on tumblr, mar 2025. please do not repost, plagiarize, translate, use for AI-related purposes or claim as your own. reblogs are greatly appreciated!

Befitting of the Kremnoan pride he bears, it comes off as no surprise that MYDEI’s gaze is closely accompanied by smoldering heat that can scald those who dare to catch a mere glimpse.

But as he stands before you now with a hand over his wounded flesh, whatever flame that persistently lingers ablaze within his sunset eyes seems to have faded into something else... something more akin to avoidance.

Avoiding your gaze, more specifically.

At this point, the entrance to your small clinic might as well be considered a close friend of Mydei’s thanks to the many times he has paid this place a visit. For as often as his feet have stepped here though, it still gets annoyingly difficult to take even a single step inside when you're looking at him like that.

“This is the third time this week,” you let out a deep sigh. You aren't a fool. Obviously, the smooth cut of his injury and the prior ruckus you heard outside point to one thing: another argument-turned match between him and Phainon over... anything, really.

The disappointment in your voice doesn't bother to conceal itself and its presence alone is enough to cause the mighty warrior to flinch slightly. He doesn't question why the thought of disappointing you stings almost as much as his wounds do.

The pen in your hand has been put down, scribbled footnotes about patients are set aside, and your mind forsakes your papers in favor of addressing the looming presence at your door. Looming in appearance but not so much in attitude with the way he still refuses to look you in the eye.

"...I know,” Mydei grumbles. No resistance and no hostility, only acknowledgement towards this particular lecture of yours that he has heard several times before.

“I might have to start using webs as gauzes in the future,” you shake your head. “You and Phainon are going to be the reason I'll run low on medical supplies one of these days.”

This time, he frowns—a fearsome sight, if it weren't for how familiar you are with it in less than fearsome settings—not at you but at the issue proposed by your statement. Mydei glances around to scan your workspace and although it lasts briefly, his conclusion seems firm as he finally looks you in the eyes.

“...I'll bring it up with Aglaea next time,” he crosses his arms against his chest. Carefully, of course. Even with immortality running through his veins and his gradual numbness to the prickly touch of pain, he still can't risk getting a sharp glare from you for being inconsiderate towards his “bodily misery”.

There are times you think that Mydei can be considerate in his own way, though. Just like right now. “Oh, I jest,” you can't help the way your eyes soften around the edges. “I still have leftover supplies from the last time you did that. I'd rather not trouble her again.”

“Well then,” you quickly usher him to the empty chair near your desk before any sort of protest can escape from his mouth. “Allow me to take a look?”

He clicks his tongue—either at your act of rushing him or refusing his offer or both of them—but doesn't protest. Taking a step forward is already enough to indicate his agreement. One, two, three, four. . . exactly four steps from the doorway to reach the empty chair, a rhythm that Mydei doesn't even realize he's gotten used to.

You don't waste time getting to work as soon as he takes a seat. Following your routine, your eyes meticulously examine the wound on his skin to assess its qualities. The silence doesn't have the opportunity to stretch long as you pipe up with a particularly, frequently asked question.

“So, who won this time?” you hum as your hands deftly grab a few items off your shelf, moving on to cleaning his wound.

“Ha, as if you even need to ask,” Mydei proclaims haughtily. It's never not amusing to witness his inherent boldness resurface... after getting nagged, that is.

“Let me guess. Phainon won?” you deduce, but it's less of a deduction and more of an attempt to get on Mydei's nerves. The offended look he gives you afterwards is the exact reward you wish for.

“Don't try to be funny—” he shoots you a scowl, then hisses when you dab a damp washcloth to the area around his wound.

“Worth a try,” you smile amusedly before offering him a small apology. There is a tinge of guilt in your conscience for not giving him a heads-up about it. Cries of pain are never a melody to a healer's ears, after all. You direct your focus back to cleaning his injury, your movements more gentle: “Thankfully, your wound this time isn't as deep as your usual ones. The bleeding is also lessening faster than normal which I assume to be your ability at work,” you observe out loud.

“...Just say it's a curse,” he sighs. “No need to sugarcoat it, healer.”

“Different interpretations,” you counter.

“Whatever,” he relents, an indifference that is betrayed by his flushing cheeks. Hm, is it the heat? You're very sure all the windows in your clinic are ajar, though.

“Let me take one more look,” you scooch a little closer to inspect his injury again. The sudden shift in proximity effectively throws Mydei's senses into overdrive. He can quite literally smell the fragrance that sticks to your clothes with you this close. It only lasts for a few moments, however, and it's when you pull away that he realizes he's been holding his breath.

“Hey, you look like you're burning up,” you frown as you give him his space back. “A wound accompanied by a fever could indicate—”

“I'm fine,” his response is hastier than he would've preferred. Not enough to preserve the pieces of dignity he feels he has lost just now, but he can pick them up just fine.

“Alright then, would you like a kiss after?”

(Now, he really has to pick those pieces back up with his own bare hands.)

“I— what?”

Mydei looks at you as if you've lost your mind, as if the black tide has materialized out of nowhere to help you accomplish that.

“After I wrap up your wound,” you explain, trying your utmost best not to keel over from laughter right then and there. You know what you're doing. “Children ask me for them all the time. Says it helps with their recovery.”

Mydei can't even choose which aspect of this absolute incredulity he should address first: the logic (or lack thereof) in the sentence itself or the sheer audacity you have to ask him that. Amidst his loss for a response he deems proper, the only thing he can manage to utter is this: “Never suggest something so preposterous ever again.”

You ignore the horror in his voice in favor of fueling the flames a little more. “Not even to Phainon?” you ask, just a tiny bit goading.

“Especially him,” he snarls, “unless you want me to hurl him at death's door myself.”

“Duly noted.”

Ironically, Mydeimos thinks you are going to be the death of him someday. If that's even possible.

─ ⊹ ⊱ ・・・・・・☆・・・・・・・⊰ ⊹ ─

— THANK YOU FOR READING! another reminder: please do not repost, plagiarize, translate, use for AI-related purposes or claim as your own.

[redsugarx]

Hanfu in Components: Hanfu Anatomy, Tops (pt 3.1)

navigation: hanfu in components 1 2 3.1 3.2 4 5 6 ...

Now that you know about the names of different garments, what about the parts of each garment? There are so many confusing terms!!! I gotchu :>

When looking at hanfu and parts of hanfu, it can help to see how the garment is constructed. To do that, we have to look at the pattern of the garment. Sewing patterns are the templates that tell sewists how to cut their fabric into the shapes that are needed to make their clothes. Hanfu sewing patterns are fairly standard. They look roughly like this.

(blue = shoulder fold line // red = center front // green = center back)

To help you understand how this all comes together, when defining different parts of hanfu anatomy, I'll show it on the sketch above, and also on photos of people wearing hanfu, highlighted in green.

身/SHEN1/BODY

This refers to the body of the garment—the part that would cover your torso. Typically there are two pieces of cloth making up the body: one on the left and one on the right.

Once again, one of hanfu’s main defining characteristics is that traditionally, THE SAME PIECE OF FABRIC MAKES UP THE FRONT AND THE BACK. There is no shoulder seam separating the front and back of the garment.

袖/XIU4/SLEEVE

袖 means sleeve (in both technical and colloquial terms). There are many shapes that the sleeve can take: they can be narrow like normal clothing or they can be big and dramatic like the kind you see in cdramas. Like the body, there is no seam separating the front and back of the sleeve—the sleeve piece is draped over the arm and sewn together at the bottom. Another important characteristic is that the sleeves are joined to the body at the bicep or elbow area, NOT at the shoulder. (Short or half-sleeve tops might not have a separate sleeve piece.)

領/领/LING3/COLLAR

領 means collar (in both technical and colloquial terms). This can refer to two things: one, the general shape of the neck area (round, square, standing, cross etc.) and the actual strip of fabric that is attached at the neck to form the collar.

襟/JIN1/LAPEL

This can be translated as collar or lapel; I choose to say lapel to distinguish it from 領. This refers to the area where an open-front top would open. It’ll look different based on the collar type—generally a 對襟/对襟/dui4 jin1/parallel collar top’s jin coincides with the front centerline.

With a 交領/交领/jiao1 ling3/cross-collar top, however, it would coincide with the outer edge of the collar. (Will have a more detailed post about this later.)

下擺/下摆/XIA4 BAI3/HEMLINE

Refers to the bottom hem of the garment. 下 means down/bottom. Note that 擺 can refer to different things in different contexts. If you see someone talk about the 下擺 of a top, they’re talking about this bit.

The following terms only apply to a subsection of hanfu tops and may have fewer images as a result.

衽/REN4/LAPEL EXTENSION

This one is a little harder to translate. Applies to non-parallel lapel tops like cross collar, diagonal-lapel standing collar, and overlapping round collar garments. It’s an extension of the BODY piece on the front, sewn to the vertical center front seam, that overlaps over the other side. (Will have a more detailed post about this later.)

衩/CHA4/VENT

Also called vents or slits—an optional open slit, usually made on each side of a longer shirt or robe, to allow for ease of movement. Might be combined with the word 開/开/kai1/open to form the phrase 開衩/开衩/kai1 cha4/open slit. Mostly applies to longer robes or tops, where the length reaches the knee, so that you don’t have issues with walking.

襴/LAN2/WAIST EXTENSION

Also a little harder to translate. This only applies to 襦/ru2/Ru tops and 襴衫/襕衫/lan2 shan1/Lanshan robes, plus some varieties that were derived off of those two. The 襴/襕/lan2 is an extra rectangle of fabric appended to the bottom of a shirt/top to extend its length. It can be made of a contrasting fabric or the same fabric, and often has pleats on the sides to allow for movement. (Will have a more detailed post about this later.)

緣/缘/YUAN2/TRIM

Refers to the trim or decorative contrasting bits on a piece of clothing. Specific location goes in front of the character. For example, 袖缘 means sleeve trim, aka the cuff. Some specific trims might have their own special names but that’s for another post.

Later post about skirts/pants to come soon!

navigation: hanfu in components 1 2 3.1 3.2 4 5 6 ...

[cozy-sims]

Linux update! (And a few Nvidia tips)

After a dreadful day of trying to make this work, I'm reporting that The Sims 2 finally works on my new Linux system! 😭❤️ Admittedly I have made my own life harder setting this up, but the most important thing I've learned from this experience and thought it might worth sharing:

Before you try to install TS2 on your Linux, make sure that you have your graphics card's driver updated!

When I first installed The Sims 2 on Linux it was incredibly laggy and choppy, because the default Nouveau driver didn't work well enough with my Nvidia card. After I installed the Nvidia driver from the built in driver manager, the game just straightup crashed.

Then I had to find out that Mint's driver manager couldn't install the newest driver for my card (RTX 3070), and even when installed, it didn't work. 😂

So if you have an Nvidia card and struggling or planning to install Linux in the future, below the cut are a few useful tips that I've discovered in the depths of the Internet:

Check what driver the official Nvidia site recommends for your GPU. - I did this and it showed driver version 570.

2. I think this is optional, but open your terminal and type the cmd: sudo apt update - this will trigger Linux to update its driver list.

3. Open Driver Manager, and see if the recommended driver (570 in my case is available). For me it was not available, only the 550, this was my issue.

3.1. If you can see your required driver, awesome, install it from the driver manager and skip to step 5. 3.2. If not, you have to use this PPA. -> Meaning you have to open your terminal and enter the following commands (when I list multiple commands to run, first type the first one, press enter, then type the next one, press enter etc.): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ ppa sudo apt update You can also find installation guide on the link above, but it's basically this. 4. Now you have to restart your system, and repeat Step 3. of this list. The newest driver should show up in your Driver Manager now, install it.

5. After installing, open your terminal and type the following command: inxi -G -> this will allow us to check if the driver works properly. Shock, it did not for me :D When working properly, it should look like this:

Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1:1920x1080~60Hz 2: 1920x1080~60Hz When not working, it looks like this: Example 1: Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa failed: nvidia

6. This is the thread that helped me fix this problem. You have to scroll down to the Nvidia Graphics troubleshooting tips.

7. I had to add this "kernel boot parameter": nvidia_drm.fbdev=1 into the system. On this link you can see how to add it either temporarily or "permanently" (meaning you don't have to add it every time you start your system, but it is removable).

To add it permanently, you have to type the following commands into your terminal:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nvidia_drm.fbdev=1" sudo update-grub

8. After you added it, reboot your system, and when it starts again, check if the parameter is there with the command: cat /proc/cmdline

9. If it's there, run the inxi -G command again, and see if it looks like it should.

10. If not, you might have to update the Kernel version of your Linux, which you can do in the Update Manager/View/Linux Kernels menu. I had to update mine from 6.8 to 6.11.

After all this you should be good to install the game, I made my life so much harder than it was necessarily so I hope my research on how to deal with an Nvidia Graphics card with Sims 2 on Linux is helpful to some of you. 😂

[azari-31]

All the right moves - Joaquin Torres masterlist

Here are a hyperlinks to the new short story with our new Falcon!

Summary: After 3 years of radio silence, Izzy Deveroux shows up unannounced at her friend's door looking for help. Little did she know, her feelings towards the new Falcon didn't fade.

Word count: approx. 8300

Warnings: none, just two idiots having communication issues :)maybe a little bit ooc Joaquin; about parts 3 - one is angst one has a happy ending. You can guess by the titles which is which 😅

part 1 - Back to you

part 2 - The one who left

Part 3.1 - All my secrets away

Part 3.2 - What have they done to us

Playlist with songs I was inspired by

Also, if you're into another Latino man from MCU, here's other work of mine, old one may I add 😅

Two worlds collide - Namor x OC

[katyawriteswhump]

love and other catastrophes at the omega cafe (8.2/8) The end 🐈‍⬛

Summary: Steve is a runaway Omega who gets a job at an Omega café, where he’s basically paid to curl up and purr in Alphas’ laps. It’s legal, and he earns a living, rents his own place. He’s getting along fine for a packless Omega. Then Alpha rockstar Eddie Munson turns up for an hour of ‘kitty’ petting, and shatters Steve’s fragile little world… Rating: E; Tags: omega steve, alpha eddie, a/b/o dynamics, fluff and angst, sexual content, very fluffy ending, reference to mpreg. 💚

Chapter 1 on tumblr (also index post)Chapter 2 Chapter 3.1 Chapter 3.2 Chapter 4.1 Chapter 4.2 Chapter 5.1 Chapter 5.2 Chapter 6.1 Chapter 6.2 Chapter 7.1 Chapter 7.2 Chapter 8.1 Complete fic on Ao3 Also, thank you so much @moonjelly69 you are the best and this ending is for you 💚

🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

Chapter 8.2

Steve awoke in the softest-ever nest, with an Alpha body spooned cosily around his, and with gentle nibbling kisses warming his claim mark.

“Morning, Stevie,” whispered Eddie. “You okay?”

Steve’s answer trickled from his happily sleepy soul: “I’m feeling perfect.”

“Not sore anywhere?”

“Uuuuuuh… Gimme a sec?” Steve’s mind started roving through yesterday’s wild ride. The not-so-great parts, he skimmed over. They seemed to have no place in this sun-drenched morning.

Onto the good parts, then.

The bite had hurt. Christ, it was a gooooood hurt. When Eddie drank, the suction created a light sting, and the edges of Steve’s consciousness had flickered and grayed. At the same time, his mind opened up and he’d whirled, weightless, through starry skies, and he’d not been alone there. He’d felt so very safe, like he did now, and Eddie was Steve’s universe, and Steve was his. He’d wailed with a strange, searing joy, and when Eddie replaced teeth with that healing tongue, he’d landed back in his body with a pain-free splash.

Right now, the bite was slightly sore. The emptiness in his tummy and the mess of slick between his legs bugged him way more. Oh, and the lowkey fever simmering beneath his skin. And the fact his hot, hard, naked Alpha had a raging hard-on slabbed against the curves of Steve’s ass rather than wedged inside his pussy.

“I’m hungry,” Steve said, at length. “I sort of want breakfast, tho’ I need your knot more. Jesus! I think your bite induced a mini-heat or something.”

Eddie rubbed Steve’s tummy, and his laugh zinged deliciously across his claim mark: “If I lie here much longer, I’m gonna be in full-on rut. Not that it’s a problem. Just wanna be totally present for you.”

“As long as your dick is constantly present, I’ll be fine. The rest of you is kinda meh, tbh.”

“Bad Omega angling for a light spanking?” Eddie flicked Steve’s ear, and Steve mulled the idea over. That actually sounds kinda hot. “How about I order coffee and muffins,” said Eddie, “then we fuck, have breakfast in nest, then fool around more?”

The weekend was literal heaven. While Steve was slightly woozy, it felt like being happily buzzed, with no hint of headache or nausea. Eddie didn’t spank him. He did spoil him rotten in every other way, including massaging and kissing his feet when they weren’t even cold, and barely letting him out of the nest all day Saturday. Steve’s main discomfort came from not having Eddie inside him. Still, mild heat pangs were completely endurable knowing he had his Alpha to cater to his every whim and fill him at a heartbeat’s notice.

On Sunday, Steve felt up to brunch on the veranda. They made love in every room apart from Wayne’s—who was staying in a hotel, for obvious reasons. They even fooled around in the pool, though only after Steve had planted his hands on his hips and stamped his foot about it.

“I’m totally fine to swim, Eddie! You make me wet constantly. What difference would a dip make?”

He was in such a state of carefree bliss that he only recalled the issue about the filters later. Eddie said he’d take care of it, made a call, and by Monday morning, they owned the apartment. “We need a base in the city, so you can visit your friends. Now we can bathe in your slick to our hearts content.”

“Gross!” said Steve, crinkling his nose. He still loved that Eddie wanted it. The pool seemed fine anyway.

When Eddie announced he was gonna cancel the album-launch gig, however, they had their closest thing to an actual row. “You can’t let your fans down!” protested Steve. “Believe it or not, I can totally handle a few hours without you.”

“Yeah, but can I handle any without you,” growled Eddie. “I’ll literally start rutting against an amp or something.”

“Why don’t you rehearse here? I could get used to your music without flipping out. And get to know the band. It’ll be cool.”

In the event, having Corroded Coffin practice in the apartment was the opposite of cool. Steve curled in the nest with his ear-defenders on, while Eddie’s voice ignited a renewed bout of heat fever. He was soon squirming and sweltering in a state of nigh-orgasmic bliss and his perfume clouded the apartment. As soon as the guys left—pissing themselves laughing at the seam-busting bulge at Eddie’s crotch—Eddie rutted him hard, buried his knot deep, and licked and snuggled him for the rest of the day.

The guys brought gifts for the nest, old tour scarfs and hoodies and the like. The only one who didn’t was Gareth, who seemed kinda grumpy, so Steve didn’t push things. By day three of rehearsals, Steve also made a bit of a breakthrough. Which he told Robin all about, when Eddie went to do his soundcheck at the venue on the day of the concert.

“Music doesn’t make me flip out anymore,” he said, rolling his tongue around a cake-pop. “Eddie’s voice makes me totally puddly, yeah, but he is my Alpha. Yesterday, I stayed in the same room, while they jammed, and yeah, I perfumed like fuck, and Jeff said he was getting horny, and Eddie joke throttled him. It’s like… the feelings still arise, good ones and bad ones, but I can ride them, even control them a little. They don’t overwhelm me anymore.”

“That’s because you’re safe now, Steve.” Robin smiled a hilariously cinnamon-and-coffee-cake-crumbed smile. “You got your soulmate to look after you and can let yourself go. You can finally trust the world around you.”

“I guess.” Steve let this sink in, smiled back and then… narrowed his eyes and twitched his nose. “You reek of Chrissy more than you do cinnamon, Robin!”

“Jesus, Dingus, you finally noticed. Corroded Coffin’s gig is gonna be our third date.” He reached across the table and squeezed her hand, and she squealed nearly as excitedly as he did.

They chatted for ages, including about the divorce papers. Steve’s ex-husband signed them, uncontested, around the same time Hopper’s deputy turned up to arrest him for kidnap. Yeah, they were trumped-up charges, but no less crazy than the attempted murder one.

“It still scares me a bit,” he admitted, “knowing what they tried to do to save face and all. I figure I ought to be more scared, really. It’s hard to be what with—”

“—a super-hot, super-rich Alpha to look out for you?” She picked at her cracked nail-polish and sighed. “I wish I could be all that for Chrissy.”

He was about to remind her how she, in her way, was equally kickass, and hey, Omegas could be badass, too, in a pinch. Most crucially, soulmates came in all shapes and forms and from any designation. Instead, she blurted: “Oh shit-birds, look at the time! I gotta go get ready for the gig, or I’m gonna turn up looking like a corpse.”

Steve had already gotten his outfit sorted—a snug-fitting Corroded Coffin logo vest that he’d had custom printed, with the original blood-red and lime-green transformed into hilariously Omega pastel lilac and sage. Steve was chief groupie now, and he’d even gotten a Corroded Coffin charm dangling from his peach-leather collar. He was gonna rock it with pride beneath his kitty-ear tiara, which totally deserved another outing.

One, hopefully, where nobody got arrested.

Backstage, Eddie couldn’t keep his hands off Steve. He scooped Steve close for a ridiculously erotic kiss—cramming him with tongue and grinding into him. Pitching Steve, yet again, into a happily wibbly, semi-orgasmic state.

While the band had their pre-gig huddle, Steve took his place in the wings at the side of the stage. It was an old-fashioned theatre, so a smallish venue, and he peeped out to spy Robin and Chrissy holding hands and ready to party in the ‘golden circle.’ Carol and Tommy squeezed in alongside a grumpy-looking Hopper and his excited pups. Joyce—who had, surprisingly, said ‘yes’ to her offer of a VIP ticket—had huddled her way into the middle of the group near Hopper. He hoped she’d be okay. The air was thick and hot with aggressive Alpha scents.

Well, he figured it was.

All Steve could breathe was the super-strong zest of his Alpha.

Then Eddie roared onto stage, stuck that first wailing power-chord, and Steve was gone.

Yeah, he danced like a demon, and yeah, he definitely indulged in some apeshit 90s-style head-banging till his hair was wrecked and his tiara fell off. He knew his Alpha scented his joy. Eddie couldn’t stop glancing Steve’s way, and even grinning at him, dopily and lovestruck, and totally ruining some of his goriest brain-matter smeared lyrics.

At the end of the set-list’s final song, the lights dimmed to total dark. Predictably, the crowd clamoured for more. Steve sensed his Alpha dash toward him and grab his hand. Before he could panic about it, Steve was dragged onto the stage and the lights flared up.

“What the hell?” he mouthed. He was laughing too. He should be nervous, but how could he be? He was with his Alpha, and the whole crowd felt like family and pack.

“Want to introduce y’all to someone really special,” drawled Eddie, pulsing Steve’s hand reassuringly. “This is Steve—my Omega and my soulmate. Uuuuh, this next song may be a little rough around the edges. So yeah, indulge us on this one, huh?”

He leaned down and whispered, just for Steve, “You okay, Honey?” Steve nodded. “Cool.”

A roadie dashed on, with a velvet-cushioned seat. Okay, it was genuinely a gold-painted throne. Eddie backed him gently onto it, so he perched like a princess in his wonky tiara. Jeff was facepalming and cackling like he’d gone bananas. And Gareth? Ouch, his face was one total cringe of despair.

Eddie, meanwhile, ditched his electric guitar, and grabbed… Were they goddamn jingly handbells?

Okay, it was totally cheesy. And that was before the naff-tastic song launched off, with Eddie screaming the lyrics as crazily as he jingled.

“These bells gonna chime for you, my little kitty. Wanna marry you now, please say yes, my little kitty. Gonna make your nest a heaven, and daddy your little kitties … If you’ll say yes, yes please please, my little kitty?”

Steve said ‘yes.’

Of course, he did—through tears of happiness and of hysterical laughter at the catastrophically lovestruck Alpha kneeling before him.

….

Epilogue—one year later

Steve arrived at ‘Kitties’ first thing Monday morning, as he always did when they were staying in the city.

When the bell on the door tinkled, Carol looked up from where she was arranging the cake counter. She was eclipsed from Steve’s sight by Chrissy, who threw herself at Steve, shadowed by Robin, who’d soon gotten them both tight in a three-way, totally squealy hug.

“OMG, Steeeeve!” cried Chrissy. “It’s been yeeeears! We missed you so much!”

“It’s been three weeks,” pointed out Steve. “We’ve nearly got the house out west kitted out, so you can come and stay. Seriously, Chrissy, you need to see our nest. The whole room is like a bowl-shaped basket of floofy cushions, with soft lights in the ceiling all color-coded, and—”

Chrissy shushed him: “Don’t ruin the surprise!”

“Tone it down will ya?” Carol sneered. “Monday morning hangover here? Jeeez, I’m scared to make you ditzy O-heads coffee—how hyped up you gonna be after caffeine?”

She returned to her cakes, in no hurry—the café wouldn’t open till noon. No point opening for the ‘graveyard’ shift, when old friends needed a place to catch up. Without the dampeners and chemical ‘fresheners’ turned on, Steve breathed only of friendship and coffee, with hints of sweet pastries and thick double cream. Steve got high on it, while curling on the biggest beanbag with his two besties.

They talked relatively quietly—to stop Carol’s bitching—though there was a lot to share. Chrissy and Robin had set a date for their wedding. Which they wanted to be rather less shouty than Steve and Eddie’s insane nuptials at the crack of midsummer dawn in a full-size replica of Stonehenge. The chorus of super-amped wedding bells was so loud that Eddie claimed to be disappointed they’d not raised a zombie apocalypse.

“Do you want to borrow anything for your ceremony?” asked Steve.

“From the wedding that taste forgot?” sniped Robin. “No thank you, Dingus. My ears are still freakin’ ringing! Oh, but we wouldn’t mind borrowing the apartment for a pool party afterward. That would be cool.”

“She wants to use the chemical analysis from your pool for her Omega-access-to-swimming campaign,” whispered Chrissy, squeezing around Robin’s neck. “Isn’t she the absolute bestest?”

Steve wasn’t gonna argue, and then they got onto some of Steve’s latest gossip. Eddie had finally made peace with Gareth, who’d rejoined the band, although: “He still refuses to play, ‘Marry me, Kitty.’” Gareth had stomped out after the novelty track went viral and became Corroded Coffin’s biggest ever hit. “Gonna admit I still get edgy vibes off him. I know his return makes Eddie happy, so as far as I’m concerned, we’re good.”

The doorbell tinkled again. Eddie’s metallic-wine-with-peaches scent billowed in, followed by Eddie: “If Gareth as much as looks at my kitty wrong, I’ll kick his sorry butt to the moon.”

Soon, Steve was back in his happiest of happy places, curled with his head in Eddie’s lap. Eddie petted Steve relentlessly. Steve’s skin tingled and he purred in undiluted bliss, while Eddie sipped his coconut mocha with extra cream.

Nobody anywhere made it like Carol did, and soon she joined them too, cuddling up with Tommy, who arrived late as usual. Their chatter eventually tailed off into a comfy quiet, broken only by a small chorus of those contented purrs.

Until, Eddie said, “Ya know, dudes, it’s not gonna be so quiet with us in a few months’ time.” He leaned down and whispered to Steve, “Told them yet, honey?”

“Oh my Gooooood!” Chrissy was already bouncing up out of Robin’s lap, hands spiralling like she’d gotten imaginary pompoms.

“Okay. Cat outta the bag, I guess. I’m due in February.” Steve scrambled up to sit, so he could beam point-blank at his husband. Eddie slid a warm hand onto Steve’s teeny bump, which Steve’s most comfy stretchy shorts and looser than usual t-shirt still disguised. He pecked a coconut-y kiss on Steve’s nose.

“Um, yeeeeah.” Carol snapped her gum. “I’m sorry, Sirs, but I’m pretty sure kids are against the Ts and Cs in this place.”

“Yeah, pretty sure.” Tommy nodded as keenly as he always did, when agreeing with his Omega. “If not, I say we write it in. No pups. Not in my… erm, Carol’s café.”

“You’re kidding?” said Eddie, though Steve laughed out loud.

He knew they were kidding. He also loved that Tommy, who didn’t want kids, had found an Omega who didn’t want any either. What were the odds?

“I suppose we could make an exception,” said Carol, “but seriously—your brats start to wail, and you can make your own damn coffee!”

“Deal,” said Steve, “tho’ I really suggest you make the most of the peace while you can, because Joyce is joining us in about ten minutes.”

It was Carol’s turn to squeal: “No way!” Joyce and Hopper had gotten together soon after Eddie’s gig and had already added a new-born pup to Hopper’s army of foster kids.

Yes, everything had turned out absolutely perfectly for everyone Steve cared about. Wasn’t life great?

Steve hunkered down into Eddie’s lap once more, and they both purred so loudly the sofa shook with it.

🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

Thank you so very much for reading. If you enjoyed, every little like and reblog or comment means a lot to me so thank you💚

tags 💚🐈‍⬛💚 @disrespectedgoatman 💚 @bumblebeecuttlefishes

@katethetank 💚 @themoonagainstmers 💚 @chaotic-waffle 💚

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

On AO3

[lipshits-continuous]

Relative de Rham Cohomology

One interesting thing from my dissertation was looking at relative de Rham cohomology and whether we get a long exact sequence like we do for singular (co)homology. The answer is we do and we'll go through the constuctions and results in this post!

This is covered briefly in Differential Forms in Algebraic Topology by Bott and Tu and in a bit more detail in Riemannian Geometry and Geometric Analysis (Second Edition) by Jost. However some details like the functoriality of the de Rham cohomology of a pair and the naturality of one of the homomorphisms in the long exact sequence aren't touched on. I filled in these details in my diss!

In what follows, I will be assuming you are comfortable with de Rham cohomology, the theory of smooth manifolds and a bit of homological algebra. I might make some posts in the future about these but in the meantime, I cannot recommend enough Introduction to Smooth Manifolds by Lee.

1. Pairs of Smooth Manifolds

In the more general setting of topological spaces, we say a pair of topological spaces (X,A) is a space X and a subset A⊆X equipped with the subspace topology. The key here is that the structure on A is inhereted from the structure on X. Since in general, subsets of a smooth manifolds are not smooth manifolds, we must be more careful about which subsets we choose. For what follows, we will consider a pair of smooth manifolds (M,S) to be a smooth manifold M and a smoothly embedded submanifold S⊆M. The notion of maps of pairs carries over with no issue since the restriction of a smooth map to a smoothly embedded submanifold is smooth. That is, a smooth map of pairs F:(M,S)->(N,T) is a smooth map F:M->N such that F(S)⊆T.

2. de Rham Cohomology of a Smooth Map

The motivation for relative (co)homology is to study how a subspace contributes to the (co)homology of the whole space. In a sense, it is the (co)homology of the space without the affect of the subspace. For singular homology, singular n-simplies of a subspace A⊆X are already also singular n-simplices of X and hence span a submodule of the nth singular chain module of X. So we may take the quotient Cₙ(X)/Cₙ(A) and produce a new chain complex. However, this approach doesn't quite work for de Rham cohomology since differential forms on an embedded submanifold S⊆M aren't automatically differential forms on M. If we wanted to take this approach, we would have to worry about methodically extending differential forms from a submanifold to the whole manifold. However that might get messy and perhaps might involve too much analysis. There is, however, a neat algebraic solution!

The idea is to somehow study differential forms on M whose restriction doesn't contribute to the cohomology on S. More specifically, we will construct the de Rham cohomology of a pair in such a way that cohomology classes are represented by closed forms on M whose restriction to S is exact. As in Bott-Tu, we can actually define a more general cochain complex given a smooth map F:N->M by noticing the restriction of a form to a submanifold is precisely the pullback of the pair by the inclusion. So more generally, we will define cohomology classes represented by differential forms on M whose pullback to N is exact.

Definition 2.1:

Proposition 2.2:

Definition 2.3:

Remark 2.4:

We now consider two obvious linear maps.

Proposition 2.5:

This means that β is a cochain map and hence induces a well-defined map in cohomology. Whilst α is not quite a cochain map, it's easy to check that it induces a well-defined map in cohomology given by α*[θ]:=α[(θ)]. Combining these with the pullback of F:N->M, we get a long exact sequence!

Lemma 2.6:

3. de Rham Cohomology of a Pair

Now that we have developed the more general case, we will bring our focus back to the de Rham cohomology of a pair of smooth manifolds. As alluded to in the previous section, we define the cohomology of a pair to be the cohomology of the inclusion map!

Definition 3.1:

Just as smooth maps between smooth manifolds induce well-defined maps of their respective de Rham cohomology groups, smooth maps of pairs also induce well-defined maps of the respective relative de Rham cohomology groups! This results is the first of two that is completely my own. The key to the proof is the following commutative diagram:

Lemma 3.2:

We can now show that α* in Lemma 2.6 is a natural transformation, which is the second of my two results. This along with a quick argument to show that β* is induced by the inclusion M->(M,S) will actually show that de Rham cohomology satisfies the Exactness Axiom in the Eilenberg-Steenrod Axioms.

Proposition 3.3:

You might wonder now whether we also have excision for de Rham cohomology and we do! The proof can be found in Jost's book!

If you have any questions, I'd love to chat about this (or anything else about my dissertation)!

[kevin-the-bruyne]

here’s an opinion that you can leave or take or call me puritanical over but I feel this strange sentiment come from the thai QL fandom here that equates explicit content as progress in queer representation.

am I even reading the vibe right? idek because that life view is so unreachable to me lol but if you ask me the most progressive queer representation to have been released in the last couple of years is this

I understand that different people have different markers of progress and you don’t have to ascribe to or even understand mine but you must acknowledge that it exists.

SOTUS and A Tale of a Thousand Stars are older BLs that have very few parallels to me BY modern standards because to me progress is being able to watch a queer show with my family.

I’ve had a lifetime of watching queer as folk, grainy old school Japanese BL, lipstick jungle, weird french movies about gays with mommy issues in the dark, in the middle of the night; alone.

A lakorn like To Sir, With Love is something I can watch in the light with my whole family. Queer retelling of quintessential asian love stories like ATOTs or Moonlight Chicken that I can show my mom and have her understand queer love in the narrative language that she understands - that’s progress. That is what I have spent my entire youth praying for.

Don’t get me wrong I love buttcracks and the threat of male pregnancy just as much as the next person but dear god do I also need offgun to make 57 more heartwarming shows where their lips touch for 3.1 seconds so I can share this part of my life with the people that matter to me.

[rq-questions]

if you're easily offended, please don't read this post, i can accidentally do just that

i want to learn about radqueers

now, if you chose to click "more" and read further, i want to say i'm anti rq... was anti rq? still am??? i don't know. the thing is, i realized i never really listened to any of you guys, nor have i ever encountered you personally. i think that's wrong, and i want to know more about your views

i don't guarantee i'll change my mind about this, but i promise to stay respectful in discussions. if i say something you find offending, please politely explain this to me, i genuinely don't understand you but want to

you can reply (but i can't reply in comments, technical issues), reblog and add something, send me asks (you can do it anon). please stay nice to me, i'm coming from curiosity here and not judgement

tonetag for all listed questions: /gen

1. i saw a carrd about paras. beside the big three, those are just kinks? am i getting this right? why would you choose a paraphilia label if you know you'll probably get hate for that, if you can easily pick a kink label and you'll be safe among adults?

2. what's your views on big three? i'll be honest, i hate pedophiles and zoophiles, it's obvious reason - they're harmful. i was a pedo victim too, still heavily traumatized. why would you support them? do you actually support them?

3. if someone's anti radqueer, are they hurting anyone? if yes, then how exactly?

3.1. what if they're against transIDs?

3.2. what if they're against paras?

4. if someone claims to be transdisabled, transautistic etc, any transcondition - don't you think it's disrespectful to people who actually live through those experiences, don't have any choice and face ableism no matter of how they identify?

5. what does your identity as radqueer mean to you?

6. what's your hard taboos? what/who you'll never support?

***

thank you in advance. i appreciate anyone who might spend some time to answer

[cpericardium]

Compilation of Megafire's Wildbow Essays (Imported)

I haven't read all of them myself, but the few I did were always worthwhile and interesting, so I thought I'd index them here for anyone who hasn't heard of them or checked them out. As I recall, these were written by Megafire as the chapters were coming out.

CHARACTERIZATION OF CAROL IN WARD

REDDIT INDEX

Chapter 3.6 

The Warden's HQ, or, Playing With Time

Chapter 4.6 

Natalie, or, Working Through Proxies

Chapter 5.9 

Power Dynamics, or, Why Carol Love(s/d) Mark

Chapter 6.3 

Trust, Safety and Control, or, General Opinion

Chapter 7.4 

A Glimmer of Hope, or, Victoria and Carol have an Actual Conversation!?

Chapter 8.2 

Meeting the Parents, or, Never mind, Carol is Back to Being Carol

Chapter 8.9 

Baby Steps, or, Carol Manages to Respect Boundaries for Once

Chapter 9.12-9.13 

Bonus Damsel Interlude, or, This Will Pay Off Later, I Promise

Chapter 10.1 

The Diner, or, I Yell a Lot

Chapter 10.y 

Bonus Chris Interlude, or, This Has Nothing to Do With Carol, I Just Really Like This One

Chapter 12.1 

Ruminating on New Wave, or, Why Mark Loves Carol

Chapter 12.2 

Carol vs Damsel, or, I Told You It'd Pay Off

Chapter 12.f 

Ryan and Cradle, or, What It Means to be Good, and, Competing Access Needs, or, Why the Dream Room is the Worst

Chapter 12.9 

The Bubble, or, Making You Feel Even Worse About Carol Getting Hurt

Chapter 14.5 

The Greenhouse, or, Carol Brought Low

Chapter 14.6 (Sort of) 

Drawing Similarities, or, What's Left for Carol

Chapter 14.7 

Chris' Crossroads, or, Screw It, I Guess I'm Talking About Chris Too Now

Chapters 14.9 + 14.10 

Her Mother's Daughter, or, What Amy Learned From Carol

Chapter 14.12 

Piecing Together Chris, or, What Do Monsters Mean?

Chapter 15.7 

Slaves to Fate, or, Predictions and Responsibility

Also Chapter 15.7 

Ultimate Agency, or, Who Is Contessa?

Chapter 16.4 

Mockeries and Funhouse Mirrors, or, Paths Not Taken

Chapter 16.y 

Attempted Therapy, or, Amy Is Not Doing Well

Chapter 17.1 

Family Issues, or, Confrontations Vis-a-Vis Parentage

Chapter 19.1 

The Curious Case of Sarah Pelham, or, A Basic Overview of the Shit That Happened to Sarah

Chapter 19.9-19.10 

The Talk, or, How To Screw Up Your Kids In One Easy Conversation

Chapter 20.e6 

Carol: Final, or, What Has Carol Learned? (Hint: Not Much)

---

PALE ANALYSIS

REDDIT INDEX

Verona and her Dad, a Transactional analysis

Why Verona's Dad is a Literal Manchild - mostly about Out on a Limb 3.1, but with references to 3.4

Adults, Parents and Children

Lucy is Verona's Only Good Parental Figure (and That's Kind Of Sad) - Leaving a Mark 4.2

Pale: Justice

The Cast Of Law And Order: Kennet - Cutting Class 6.z

Practitioner Supremacy

Boy There Are Some Real World Parallels Here - Gone Ahead 7.1

Practitioner Parenting

Regular Old Bad Parenting - Vanishing Points 8.4

Abuse

Brett is an Absolute Bastard - Shaking Hands 9.9

Avery's Games and Gimmicks

Breaking Patterns Is Hard - Dash to Pieces 11.10

Transgressive Acts

Why the Mussers are like the Spartans - Break 5

Practitioners and Others, a Binary

The Binary is a Lie! - Gone and Done It 17.x

Judging the Judiciary

What About the Judges? - Crossed With Silver 19.z

Hostile Environment

Power Plays for the Future - In Absentia 21.12