moonlightdoesgenshin

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

how to tell mutual hey i think ur really cool we should talk more but like also im bad at talking and am always exhausted

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

Some of us like the characters how they are in canon so it's annoying when people consistently turn them into completely fucking different characters, boiling them down to tropes and singular flat traits just for shipping's sake usually, like sorry lol

I’m gonna hold your hands while I tell you this, people can and will do whatever they want to fictional characters, and there’s nothing you can do to stop them. But you can mute, block, scroll past or ignore anything you don’t want to see on the internet!!! Yes, even you can do it! Shocking, right?!

Because of your lovely ask, I am now inspired to turn them into completely fucking different characters, boiled down to tropes and singular flat traits just for shipping’s sake, because I CAN and I love having the freedom to do anything and everything forever ❤️ thank you, beloved anon, for giving me the motivation I needed to turn my Blorbos into brainless whores. You’re the best!

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

forgetfulness is wild because sometimes its "oops silly me i left the house without my wallet again" and sometimes its "my friend is trying to reminisce on a thing we did together and the fact its jogging nothing in my brain is genuinely kind of distressing"

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

there's a tiny butterfly asleep on my screen

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

Promulgating a new variant of the Docetist ("hologram Jesus") heresy whereby the body of Christ which his followers perceived was an illusion, but there was a smaller material body inside that illusion:

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

Masculinity is a prison to you. I on the other hand am frolicking in it like a beautiful meadow.

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

I’m reading The Deviants War: The Homosexual vs The United States of America and the entire point of gay pride as a concept comes from police raids on bars, clubs, public restrooms, etc where gays were humiliated and outed in the newspapers (sometimes with their addresses!) and had careers ruined and lives upended by being associated with perversion and vice squads and all that and they responded by going “no I’m proud” and took that pride to the streets in defiance of the huge mechanism of shame that existed to oppress the gay community into obscurity and so the fact that people are now trying to apply conservative dogma to pride parades to make them “safe for children” or in other words “safe for people with oppressive conservative values” is simply insane

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

Ah fuck I've fallen into the well that cuts directly through the center of the earth and out the other side while wearing my jumpsuit that perfectly negates all air friction.

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

the thing with avoiding stereotypes when writing fictional characters is it isnt always like. a concrete list of Traits You Can Never Ever Use. i mean some stereotypes definitely are just dead in the water, warning sign, don't touch this unless you're pulling from personal experience. but like. writing a transmasc character whos soft and feminine or a bisexual character whos wild and flirtatious or a black character whos sassy and tough isnt like. always inherently bad. real people do in fact have those traits sometimes. but if thats their sole defining feature, you have a major problem. and if theyre also the ONLY representation you have among a cast of otherwise well rounded characters then you should probably scrap the entire project, sit in the corner and think about what you've done. in my opinion at least.

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

in american culture it's actually disrespectful to take time off of your job because it's seen as an insult to the economy

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

Every single week I cycle through a different coffee shop in my town and ask the barista to make me their favorite drink in a medium. I have an entire spiel:

“All milk is fine, caffeinated and not caffinated i’m game, hot and iced both work, it can be coffee or tea or anything.”

It has yet to fail me. Every time I have tried a new drink I never would have thought to try and every one I’ve had has been amazing. The true delight I’ve seen in baristas faces pondering on what to make me and the joy they have when I like the drink always makes my day and I hope it makes theirs too. It’s the little things of kindness that can make someone’s day and I feel that it helps the world be kinder. Highly recommend doing this yourselves.

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

Masculinity is a prison to you. I on the other hand am frolicking in it like a beautiful meadow.

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

So the new itch.io guidelines are out and they are both predictably bad and also quite unpredictably bad. There's so much to go over here but here are some of the highlights:

First we have the broadly worded content restrictions. So much of this is just strictly bad for several reasons (for example, you cannot have a NSFW game that doesn't even fetishize rape but has rape be an important thematic element under these new rules) but my personal favorite is that these are so broad that huge swaths of content are just banned from itch.io. You like VNs of monster girls having sex? Sorry, but your favorite spider girl VN is animal-related, we cannot prove that you don't want to fuck spiders so its gone.

(a real problem anyone thinks about??????)

Game where you can transformed by magical artifacts and sometimes fucked? Sorry, that's non-consensual content. Banned. You cannot be transformed into a maid against your will. You also cannot have your protagonist call an older woman "mommy" because likeeeee that's incestual right?

"Minor-presenting" what the fuck does this mean. Genuinely. If a grown woman wears a fetish uniform is that minor presenting??? What the fuck are you talking about.

Also by the way if they feel your content is "too bad" for their platform, which includes a list of conditions incredibly broad to contain things like "a woman who likes being gagged during sex", they will just steal your revenue. No no no not just the revenue from the work in question. All of it. This makes any NSFW work a ticking timebomb, especially since itch.io doesn't have the fucking staff to deal with all of this! There's no second chances. You are not protected against fraudulent report or our dumb as fuck employees.

itch.io right now is just not a safe platform for NSFW content, and honestly, it really should be said, a fair swath of SFW content too. Don't use it, find alternative ways to survive in the market right now.

It's not going to be easy, but it's necessary. Here's a link to an article going over some solutions. I cannot personally vouch for any of these in particular but you need to do what you gotta.

Also, harass VISA and Mastercard. Phone calls over emails. Ruin their workflow. Do it for weeks, don't give up.

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

consider: "Love in the form of something greater" is 100% about BKDK & TGCK & why they are as canon as Queer ships are allowed to be in the current, conservative (aggressively anti-Queer) climate

It's easy to get wrapped up in heternormativity. Especially when you do have a bunch of people who care solely about a Win over actually understanding the text barking & yapping in the dredges of online discourse.

but "To save & be saved" not only ties in with the overall theme of Katuski & Izuku's back & forth -- but also in the way Ochako's focus turns almost solely on Toga once they've crossed paths.

I've seen the take running around that "Ochako was just lying to comfort someone dying" but that is. so flawed. (x) Especially taking into account that the only reason we didn't get an ending where Toga survived & Ochako upheld her promise of giving Toga her blood is that someone needed to "take responsibility."

But Ochako was changed by her time with Toga -- for the better.

the megaphone scene, admittedly having Toga in mind during her plea to an aggressive & close-minded public

the Quirk counseling program she focused on after the fact

To love is to be changed.

To save — & be saved, from yourself & your small minded view of the world that was encouraged by the culture around you; from that sacrificial idea of Heroism that forces you to break both mind & body in your self-imposed isolation.

Toga's theme has always been to live & love the way she wanted to. Her execution was definitely unacceptable, but I'm not discoursing about villains & heroes here-- but how that theme reflects in the epilogue, how Ochako carries Toga's memory on by trying to save the next generation from a fate similar to their own. How Izuku eventually made his way back to Katsuki, so they could continue competing for the rest of their lives.

--because at Katsuki's side is where he's happiest.

Just as Ochako found her purpose, looking past the "I'm just here for money" & realizing the root of her cause has always been helping those who can't help themselves through Toga.

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

Question about Natlan-can

I don't quite get what was upsetting about Natlan, besides the lack of formality, could you tell me what makes it something that needs a rewrite? I have a Natlan fic of my own that I'm trying to write well, and I want to understand what parts of it people are put off by. Your writing is amazing and an inspiration to me, so I was thinking that you could tell me what's wrong with the region.

this isn't so much a question about natlancan as it is about canon natlan but your wish is my command

(beware: massive ramble below)

contrary to what my ramblings might've led you to believe, i don't actually think natlan as it is needs a rewrite. i quite like it, both in a vacuum and in the context of genshin as a whole. could it improve? oh god could it improve. does it have things that are upsetting? yeah. it's far from perfect. but there's a lot to like there natlancan came not from the idea that natlan needs a rewrite, but that it already has been rewritten. that what we have rn is either a completely different story or a heavily altered version of what was originally planned. so the thought process was, if i was also given the order to suddenly rewrite natlan with little time and while having to abide by what the public already knew (stuff like travail and what little info there was pre-alleged rewrite); then what would i have done?

but that wasn't your question, so, i think we can separate the things i personally (and that i think a good chunk of the community as well but idk for sure) take issue w natlan in two categories: overall concerns, and story concerns. for a fixit fic, i think it's far more reasonable to ignore the former and try to correct the latter, as trying to deal with the overall concerns would require far more time and effort than any single fan should be expected to sink into something like this. still, it's your call, overall concerns:

the designs of the main roster. hardly any of them give you any meaningful information about what their characters and their roles in the plot actually are from first glance, which is what a design is supposed to do, usually. like not to beat a dead horse but why is mavuika in full leather. why is ororon an emo bat boy. isn't he a farmer? what in xilonen's design could possibly tell you she's a blacksmith? or a dj, for that matter? and what does her being a dj have anything to do with literally any part of her character in the plot? what even is varessa. why is citlali like that. what is the deal with kinich's pixels when no other ancient dragon technology has it. what is up with chasca. ifa is literally the only design up to par w the other regions and he's the random tall male that comes out after the aq is over. also hoyo is scared of melanin wbk but just because we know doesn't mean it stops being upsetting that they refuse to change. natlan isn't supposed to be based on a predominantly white-skinned region. on that topic,

what is natlan even based on like specifically. why is it all over the place. they reached for so much they ended up with nothing in the end. like i'm all for having tons of representation for tons of different people but at some point you want to think about the kind of representation you want and if you wouldn't rather just quality over quantity. like idk about you but i don't see people complaining that fontaine is mostly just france or that liyue and inazuma are literally just china and japan and nothing else.

story concerns:

natlan in-game isn't a nation at war, it's a nation with a war. outside of the best part of the aq (the war segment), the war they have doesn't affect the nation in most ways an actual war would: there seems to be little human life toll, there is negligible structural damage, and there is very little land damage. the pilgrimage is once a year (?) and they send what, five people? per year? and usually they just come back to life in the end anyway? so where are your casualties? in attacks like the ones we see in game? not from everyone's reactions, i'd think. the way the characters reacted it was like that was not the norm. so where is your war if nobody feels it? where is your war if all your warriors come back to life and you send them off elsewhere out of sight out of mind to do their nebulous fighting? i don't necessarily want doom and gloom but i want proper weight to this conflict, and outside of the war segment, there just is none.

why are the saurians built up and made to be the companions of all natlan warriors, these super important creatures they share the land with; and their coexistence is as basic as yours is with your dog? they're no more than glorified pets, slightly more sapient. but that's a minor nitpick and maybe my remembering them wrong. what's more glaring is that, of our entire main roster, hardly any of them have a saurian companion the way every natlan warrior ought to. ajaw, cacucu, and alaye don't count, just look at them. chasca has her mom and cucusaur sister but they're not her companions, they don't fight in the war with her. i'm down to accept mavuika's died five hundred years ago except would you look at that, the massive yumkasaur is also supposedly from back then?? unless i'm misremembering that?? so where is hers?? and kachina has one, right? why doesn't it fight with her? is it because it's young? if that's the case, then,

why is nobody distraught at the fact kachina, a child, has to fight in the war? aside from pacal acting like a normal person abt kachina suddenly having an unknown adult friend, nobody else seems to worry about her like they would a child. i'm not saying they have to baby her, but all the concern about her is bc she's mualani's friend and she's not strong enough yet. but not about the fact she's a literal child being made to fight a war. and if you want to say that that's the point, that natlan is in such dire straits that it's normal for children to go to war; then where are my children npc fighting in the war? i don't see them. i don't see a single other one. oh is it because kachina is the only one w an ancient name? weak excuse. if you want child soldiers you're not gonna start discriminating on which child is fighting unless you wanna make it a class/racist thing. and even then, okay, maybe there's never any reaction from anyone bc that's just how things are, right? but then what's the point of having the traveler and paimon as the protagonists? the entire reason why you have an outsider pov (which is what they are btw) is so they can be culturaly shocked when shit isn't as they are used to. so they can give you a different perspective. but no. the traveler and paimon aren't any more shocked at anything (bar the war segment) than they are during any other aq. if you wanted natlan to be this super violent always at war nation then make if fucking feel like it. again, the war segment is saving this, but still, outside of it?

mavuika is a mary sue, sorry. it's not the fact that she's perfect, it's the fact that the plot and the characters and everything around her bends over backwards to make sure she stays that way. it's not about her not having any flaws (i'd argue she has plenty), but about the 'flaws' she has never having any meaningful impact or consequences in the story. she has a batshit insane plan that never faces any relevant friction, never falters, and suceeds with full scores and with a surprise super special even better result than anticipated. all of this could work if the story just presented it differently. you wouldn't even have to change all that much about her, just about how you show it. think abt her situation for more than two seconds. could you imagine the levels of angst we could've gotten? the actual proper foil and paralels we would've had with capitano? with her relationship with those around her? but no. no, instead we have to sell, so she has to be powerful and perfect, and capitano is a man so he must have compelling depth to sell so he's the only one allowed to be decently written between the two. fuck i have thoughts about mavuika but god she's trapped in a gacha so nothing can be done

i'm a firm believer that as an outside pov protagonist, the traveler is at their best when they're filling in their role of the witness. i got secondhand embarrassment from the tumaini dance celebration sorry. i'm not against them being important to the plot, but i much prefer it when they're not the chosen one, the super special one, the only one who could ever do this job. natlan walks this line very clumsily and sort of dips into chosen one territory for a good chunk of it, but it could've been worse. the fact that mavuika is there at the end does keep it from being too bad, but like. man. this isn't even touching on the optics of the white blond foreigner being the savior here. that's a different can of worms lmao

the entire magic cure for ptsd interlude. what even. again, you could pull pretty much anything off with proper writing, but proper writing there was NONE in that scene.

i know they've been getting better and ik why this happens this is a gacha etc but i'm not the biggest fan of the whole. suddenly you have these characters after the aq is over. this isn't a natlan-only thing tbf it's an issue w all the regions. like who is varessa even. i know they give us a quest for her there's worse examples (still don't know who heizou is), but like. if you're gonna be making a fixit fic you might as well consider making her part of the actual world LMAO even if it's a minor role. always remember baizhu was in the liyue aq for all of five minutes 👍

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

>Be me

>Make bowl of panda express leftovers

>Chow down on 2/3rds of it before father calls you over to show you memes

>Leave bowl unattended

>Laugh about memes for a good ten minutes

>Return to room

>??Bat? In bowl? ?

>Don't have anything to grab bat with that are bite proof

>Offer bat the head of the Winston Churchill marble bust to climb onto

>Bat does so

>Slowly carry Churchill and the bat to the window

>Bat won't let go of Churchill

>Pry bat off of him with nearby plastic skeleton hand

>Bat sits on windowsill for a second before flying off into the night

[moonlightdoesgenshin]

I think that in addition to giving autistic people lessons on social skills they also ought to give family members lessons on how to better communicate with autistic people because tbh the effort ought to go both ways and also there’s a lot of things it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out when it comes to talking to my own brother