#I will never feel as seen as I do with like. nonhuman characters who are weird and off putting and above gender

[longhandsart]

Big bold letters in my WIP that just says

MORE TRANS SUBTEXT

[unboundprompts]

Hello! If it’s not too much trouble, would you be willing to discuss how to describe a character with nonhuman features? Such as wings, specifically? Thank you!

Prompts for Describing a Character with Wings

-> @she-who-fights-and-writes made an in-depth post about writing a character with wings with many helpful tips to remember while writing. They also include a list of vocabulary to describe the movement of wings based on the character's emotions. Their post can be found Here.

-> @kedreeva made a post regarding the science behind a character having wings, including anatomy of the wings themselves and the feathers. They also dive into info about preening, molting, nesting, etc. That post can be found Here.

-> feel free to edit and adjust pronouns as you see fit.

He was a handsome guy with sharp features, but she couldn't keep her eyes off of his wings. They sprouted from his back like two extra limbs that he could control at will, with long, silky black feathers like a raven.

The feathers of her wings flared when she was angry, making her appear bigger than she was.

They had wings like a hummingbird that fluttered just as fast as his heart when he saw them.

He hated his wings sometimes. They were big and bulky and never useful to him when he was on the ground. He groaned as he bent to pick up the things his wings had managed to knock off the shelf, only to have them swipe a few more items from the counter and onto the floor.

Her wings were neatly folded behind her back, tucked close. At a sudden noise behind her, she jolted, her wings shooting out to display her full wingspan. Her heart pounded in her chest, her feathers twitching as she searched for the source of the noise.

The wings on their back gently shifted, hovering over her head to shield her from the rain.

His wings stretched out to their full wingspan as a last minute attempt to keep himself from falling.

She felt free when she was in the air, her wings finally able to stretch out to their full potential. She felt so trapped on the ground sometimes, forced to keep them folded so they don't get in the way.

God, he thought they were beautiful. They were an angel, had to be. An angel blessed with the prettiest wings he had ever seen on a person, sprouting gently from their back like a waterfall of feathers.

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[a-beneficial-union]

Heya howdy, it’s my day off and hotter than sin out there, so instead of picking the grapes before we reach lethal temperatures (like a sensible person), I would like to procrastinate by rambling about an idea that’s been increasingly taking hold of my thoughts.

To put it simply, I think that Ben Tennyson, Rex Salazar, Danny Fenton, and Zak Saturday would be very interesting to compare and contrast in terms of their backgrounds and how their occupations are either matters of passion or functionally forced.

Ben and Rex are the most similar to one another in that they are deeply entrenched in the heart of organizations which can, and have repeatedly threatened, to severely punish them (through captivity or execution). They are both viewed as inherently irresponsible in spite of the fact that they show shocking maturity in how they act given their circumstances. Rex gets a bit more leeway in this, as his makeshift family (Dr. Holiday, Six, and the monkey) make compromises with him so that he can still live his life, the way any healthy relationship should allow for, and overall there is mutuality between this group’s members.

Ben, on the other hand, is lambasted constantly by the people he cares about for not being responsible enough, for not being constantly around. When you remember that he is a child (and later a teenager) working for a relative, it feels less like trying to teach him and more like trying to wring him out for all his worth. Moments where characters other than Rook show concern or regard to Ben are shockingly scarce, often reserved for climactic moments or as ways to demonstrate severity. I think Ben is seen hugging his grandfather one time per series, in spite of the fact that he’s demonstrated to enjoy physical affection and in spite of the fact that his grandfather is the sole generative figure actively in Ben’s life at this point. (Rex isn’t shown receiving much physical affection either, but in his case it feels like he prefers it that way?)

Danny and Zak both live in a part of larger organizations/communities which have threatened them, but it’s always clear that the people closest to them would never do them harm, and are very loving. There’s an entire episode dedicated to Maddie fussing over her son, trying to spend time with him (and having to protect him). Fenton Works might hate Phantom’s guts, but that’s because they’re misinformed due to some unfortunate scenes causing them to perceive Phantom as a threat. A lot of Maddie and Jack’s theatrics in the house about how they’ll take Phantom apart “molecule by molecule” starts feeling less like proclamations of aggression and more like wrongheaded attempts to comfort their children, one of whom is repeatedly seen fleeing at the sight of ghosts.

In regards to associations with peers, Ben and Danny were both ostracized (with Danny having a small friend group and Ben being part of a soccer team, who dump him without much hesitation) whereas Rex and Zak were isolated. Rex and Zak still had friends, but they were always long distance. Zak’s peers were most often species other than his own, generally his pets and the sentient bear-thing that is his adoptive brother (Fisk).

All four accidentally wound up in their respective fields due to family matters, with Rex and Zak becoming what they are very young (Zak being Kur from birth); Danny and Ben become what they are just after their formative years. That said, Ben is an Anodite descendent, which was from birth (the relevance of this varies based off of interpretation of canon), and he has a fair amount of close family who are nonhuman, all of whom are either implied or explicitly stated to have hidden their natures.

Onto deceit. Danny and Ben’s life orient around how well they can misdirect, confound, conceal, dissuade. Both were keeping their natures secret from the people close to them, including their housemates and families. They had two or so people who were aware of what they were or of their activities, and that’s it. For Danny, discovery is dangerous. With Ben, as aforementioned, a lot of the people in his life growing up were keeping pretty massive secrets from him. Was he truly ignorant, or did he clue in on the fact that no one could know? That would be a good explanation for why he’s so practiced in discretion and perfectly fine with not telling people what’s going on in his life. His grandfather and cousin knew right from the get go, but even then his grandfather was very obviously hiding things.

Zak’s family and family friends pretty much always knew what he could do and what he was up to. When he does start hiding things, it clearly pains him with guilt and he’s incredibly unskilled at covering up his activities. His parents know he’s up to something almost immediately, recognize that life has been stressful of late, and make the choice to give him some space while reminding him that they’re there for him.

Rex…doesn’t really hide things from Providence, at least not from what I can remember. He runs away at one point and the people in his life are talking to/at him over the phone the majourity of the time.

The subjects of Rex’s work often lack self awareness, being generally destructive because their bodies (and brains) have just been violently reshaped into large, dangerous beasts. His work is intervention and captivity.

Danny’s work is with more sentient beings; the undead and the effected living. Some are maliciously violent with premeditated plans to harm others since they’re no longer mortal, therefore can act lawlessly. Others are obsessive and unbidden, the abilities granted by their new existence drastically changing their capabilities compared to their much more fragile peers. It’s easy for such people to get carried away, and their undeath is broadly believed by the fandom to have given them all aggressive monomania. For them, they need to be either redirected, made aware of how their actions are effecting those around them, or be brought to safe places where they can continue on without putting others at risk. The last ghostly group are those who are aware of their deaths and are acting out. How should young Danny approach them? If they try for vengeance, are they not justified? (We see him point a group towards the one who wronged them at least once, when he steers a group of animals to the person who cruelly experimented and killed them.) At the same time, he has to navigate a world where people have seen the chaos brought by the ghosts and who would probably have some strong feelings on the matter. Some would be worshipful, others enraged as their homes and lives are desecrated. Valarie is shown loathing ghosts on principle and goes on to target the demographic as a whole, do we really think she’s the only one?

Zak’s subjects are, well…his subjects. He has inherited governance over a class of life collectively referred to as “cryptids” and whom he can twist the minds of. This ability extends only to what the subject is inclined to, but how far can that go? We see him and his family tempt subjects with external stimuli, granting him the opening to slip into their consciousness and persuade them to his will. He works exclusively in intervention and relegation, if it weren’t for his immense empathy and genuine desire for both the cryptids and humans to live peacefully, he could very easily abuse his position. He verges on this one time and it is the conflict of the episode, and it is something he is called on by those around him and which he quickly rectifies.

Ben’s lot is a more diverse bunch. While Zak’s focus is mostly on animal-adjacent creatures, a few being cognizant, Ben deals with people. He handles war, conflict, invasion, opportunistic cruelty, the beginnings and ends royal lineages, hostile takeovers, the list goes on and on. Rex and Zak dabble in this, bur those are exceptions. Danny has to contend with it on occasion, as powerful people lord over him with threats and control. Ben is often a delegate, but can be far more easilt be called a warlord or living weapon.

I say “living” because I question how truthfully it can be said that Ben’s human. The Anodites are claimed to be all or nothing, but real people say that about ethnicity and so the claim comes across as in-universe bigotry. It feels like someone looking to their children and thinking “You’re Americanized, therefore you have no claim to your ancestors” or “They’re not dark enough”.

Speaking of colour, they’re all white passing with Ben being on one end, Zak on the other, and Rex and Danny (jet black hair) being intermediaries. Ben gets immediate White privilege where Zak might get it denied in the wrong circumstance. I don’t myself adequately knowledgeable to discuss their ethnicities or races, but colourism is something I have quite a bit of experience in. I am the palest person in my family and grew up being teased that I must have been adopted because the Italian and Syrian seemed to have skipped me, and I know others who have similar issues of not having the traits of their predecessors. I have siblings who have some slight Black traits and have been ostracized for it by our parents, and I have listened to the trash people say about my clearly Mexican siblings (and their father) because they assume I’ll be on their side.

I think Rex is the only character whose ethnicity is explicitly discussed, since he’s an amnesiac and gets to reconnect to the surviving member of his original family. His older brother openly finds hilarity in Rex’s Americanization, up to and including Rex’s poor fluency in Spanish. Ben is directly denied his heritage when he meets his grandmother, who takes one look at him and blatantly decides him too dissimilar (which she is implied to have done to her children as well). Zak gets to learn of countless cultures through being shuffled around the map, and Danny is an Illinoisian (he is of the corn and soy).

Back to the human aspect, Ben’s human status is dubious whereas Zak’s is questioned but concrete. Rex and Danny have their humanity and legal statuses questioned repeatedly. Rex, Danny, and Ben are all shapeshifters with nonhuman attributes; Zak is human through and through (ironically enough).

Each of these characters have grown around their work, with it informing their personalities, boundaries, and affects. A neat comparison between Ben and Zak is how they relate to cage fighting— but I really need to get a move on, so that’ll have to wait ‘til next time.

[adolfusraptor1985]

The Effects of DPDR (Depersonalization Derealization) On My Alterhumanity

[Warning: 1,000+ word essay below the break]

The connection between psychological abnormalities and alterhumanity has always been a significant and undeniable experience. I believe that more studies should be conducted to explore the relationship between mental health and alterhumanity. My own alterhuman experiences are closely tied to psychological challenges, and I strongly suspect that while alterhumanity cannot be fully explained by science, there may be substantial links to certain psychological conditions that contribute to it. This short essay will focus on the impacts of and connections between my identity and experiences with dissociation.

To begin, what exactly is DPDR? DPDR stands for Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder, a dissociative disorder that lies at the lower end of the spectrum of related conditions. Dissociative amnesia is in the middle, and at the most severe end is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Depersonalization involves "experiences of unreality, detachment, or being an outside observer with respect to one’s thoughts, feelings, sensations, body, or actions." Derealization is characterized by "experiences of unreality or detachment with respect to surroundings." Together, these symptoms can leave individuals feeling numb, robotic, or as though their perception of reality is distorted. They may perceive the world around them as blurry, dreamlike, lifeless, or fake.

I have not been medically diagnosed with DPDR, although I have never seen a therapist or psychiatrist. I am considering seeking a diagnosis to ease my mind and potentially receive help. My research suggests that my experiences align perfectly with the symptoms of DPDR, and the condition has only worsened over time. I’ve spent the last few years feeling increasingly detached from myself, my surroundings, and my life in general. Everything feels unreal to me, like a dream or a TV show. Nothing seems truly to exist—myself, my actions, the people around me, and their actions all seem either scripted or entirely imagined.

So, what does this have to do with my alterhumanity? How does DPDR make me identify as nonhuman? It’s actually not the disorder itself, but rather the impact of the symptoms that influences me. My primary focus here is on the depersonalization aspect of the disorder, as it directly affects my sense of self. For me, depersonalization creates a profound sense of detachment and emptiness. I don't feel connected to my body or as though it truly belongs to me. While I don't dislike my appearance—I generally think it looks nice—I can't genuinely feel it as being "me." Most of the time, my mind feels empty, particularly when reflecting on myself. I struggle with "about me" projects because I can’t identify personal interests, hobbies, or personality traits. The few things I do know about myself have emerged only after the onset of DPDR. To cope, I immerse myself in work or creative projects. I often daydream about being fictional characters I’ve created, allowing me to embody someone with a defined personality, backstory, and identity.

This detachment from myself leads me to feel nonhuman. Typically, humans have a strong sense of identity, but I don’t. Humans are generally aware of who they are and how they fit into society; I’m not. Humans retain memories that shape who they are, but I don't. How could I possibly feel human if I don’t even feel real? Because of this lack of self-awareness, my mind attempts to fill the gaps with things that feel "right" to it—a fluffy tail I should wag when I'm happy, a collar I should be wearing, a walk I should be enjoying with my owner.

One of the few things I've been able to genuinely connect with is animals. Society and human interactions can be overwhelming for my dissociated mind. Growing up with a dog, I find my identity leaning heavily toward canines, though I still lack a solid self-image. I’m comfortable identifying as a dog, as that feels natural, but I’m not comfortable identifying as human (aside from biologically). This is where derealization plays a role. Concepts involving reality—whether something is physical, psychological, conceptual, or spiritual—are difficult for me to comprehend. Since some days nothing feels real, who’s to say that I’m not actually a dog? Why should having a human body matter if it doesn’t feel like me?

In short, my dissociation detaches me from my own humanity. Does this make my entire identity a disorder? Am I not truly a dog because this is all a construct of my mind? Could this even border on clinical kynanthropy? My personal answer is no, but honestly, the answer might be "possibly." The challenge with endelic and similarly caused alterhuman identities is that it’s nearly impossible to draw the line between what’s "real" or not, and asking someone with DPDR to define these things is like asking a four-year-old to solve an algebra problem. I barely understand what reality is—but when you think deeply about it, does anyone? My belief is somewhat divided. On one hand, I recognize that much of my alterhumanity is related to a potential disorder and therefore isn’t "real." But on the other hand, it’s a deeply personal and integral part of my own reality. At the end of the day, no science or logic can disprove the concept of nonhuman identity unrelated to biology, meaning this is, at the very least, not delusion based.

[featherwingfae]

So the nonhuman theme of the day that I've been seeing on the Internet seems to be self doubt both due to internal and external influences.

My response to this theme is this. You are who you are. And no one can tell you who you are but you. (The rest of the post is pretty much just this^^ in way more detail than necessary. You have been warned lol. Buckle up this is gonna be a long one. Literally took all day to write 😅)

Most of us live in a society where we've been told since infancy who we are are and what we must be, and if we don't fit in the predesignated boxes then there must be something wrong with us and we just need to be forced into a box. But just think about the vastness of life for a second. From macro to micro there's just so much to everything it's breathtaking. Everything is layered. Why should one being's existence be any different. There is what is seen and then there is everything else. Some thing's don't need to be understood by others, because they are not there for others. They are simply there. Wether we understand them or not. And that in itself (I think) is quite lovely.

I am Fae. Not just because of ______. I am Fae because it is simply what I am. It's what feels right.

It's ok to just exist. It's ok to live without ever fitting into boxes or labels. And if you find a label or box that fits you, that's ok too. It's your existence. Do what makes you happy. I've also found that sometimes, finding that feeling that you fit somewhere, comes first and the reasons why come after. Be patient. I know it's maddening sometimes when you've got a million questions bumping about in your head, or even just one or two burning ones, but life is a journey. A mystery to uncover through experiences.

I could give you a whole laundry list of reasons why I can call myself Fae. But at the end of the day, the only reason I need is that it feels right. I don't need to act like the stereotypical Fae (from folklore, media etc), I don't need to have magical experiences, I don't need memories. Keep in mind that your nonhuman identity does not need to match anyone else's.

If you're a Fae who loves technology and finds the modern age fascinating. Guess what? There's nothing wrong with that. (I LOVE Minecraft 😁 Though that may or may not have to do with the fact that I get to fly around and build whatever I want from nothing. Yes I'm obsessed with creative mode 😅 I usually get bored in survival)

If you're a Therian who's never enjoyed being on all fours or who doesn't like gear. It doesn't make you any less Therian. Do what makes you happy 😊.

If you're some ancient entity and you use an ungodly (hehe) amount of emojis and/or abbreviations (ex. Lol, omg, etc) it doesn't make you any less ancient or awesome. Do what you enjoy. You are too old to not be having as much fun as you can experience. I'm also an ancient creature, you really think I want to spend my time not doing what makes the happy chemicals 😊✨👁️🪽😁.

If you're an Alien who's not obsessed with space stuff. That's ok. Human portrayals probably don't do it justice anyway, and there's so many other things to be interested in. Like have you seen mushrooms? Those funky little guys come in so many varieties it's absolutely delightful 😊🍄✨.

If you're a vampire who can't stand the sight of blood. Don't worry about it. I can almost guarantee you're not alone (plus there's a lot of different types of vampires. If you know you are/were definitely sanguine then you're still valid 😊).

If you're fictionkin and you're absolutely nothing like your fictionkin type/character. That's ok 😊. People often change with their experiences, it doesn't make you any less yourself.

That last one applies to most nonhumans identities in general honestly 😅.

If you're an angel that doesn't/didn't have big feathery wings. You are still an angel. The universe is filled with too much color and variety for me to believe that all ______ have the same or very similar designs. I've never heard of an angel with dragonfly or beetle wings. That doesn't mean they don't exist 🙃.

You can be a plant who loves salads, a placekin who hates going outside, an objectkin that doesn't use it/it's pronouns or is super expressive, a vampire who adores sunbathing or just sunlight in general, a carnivore that doesn't like meat, an avian that's afraid of flying or heights, a demon with a heart of gold, a deity with social anxiety and/or low self esteem, an herbivore that loves going hunting, a dragon who prefers minimalism, an aquatic creature who doesn't like water, a void that's constantly overthinking, you can match all the known stereotypes for your nonhuman identity or none at all. You can have phantom shifts constantly or never get any, you can have countless identities, you can have just one, you can remember your past life/lives in detail or remember nothing at all, you can believe in past lives and souls, or not, your identity can be psychological, physical, spiritual, etc.

It's s your identity. No one else's. Just because you choose to share yourself or your identity with someone else does not mean they own you or your identity. It is, was and always shall be, yours. (Btw please please please, be careful who you share your nonhuman identity with. Not everyone is going to "get it". And not everyone is going to accept it. Stay safe, mentally, physically, emotionally etc.)

They say names have power. They also say not all things are what they seem. Whatever your nonhuman identity looks like, only you can know what it truly is. Understand that I am not saying that the appearance of one's nonhuman identity should be dismissed altogether, especially when one is still questioning. I am saying, that we shouldn't rely solely upon appearances. If your nonhuman identity fits in the category of x as far as appearances go but x just doesn't feel like it fits, then chances are, you're not x, or there's more to it than just x. I've known I was Fae since right around 2019. However I doubted myself for a long time because as far as I knew Fae were "supposed to have insect wings" and on top of having big feathery wings, I have a lot of them. In fact many of my nonhuman features could be considered angelic. However I've never felt particularly comfortable identifying as an angel. It just never felt like the right fit. It took awhile but eventually after I'd already accepted that my "angelic features" didn't make me any less Fae. I remembered why I had those features to begin with, and it all just clicked into place.

It's ok to not have all the answers or even the correct answers right away. Life is experiences. From moment to moment you are who you are. Things may change, new truths may be revealed, that doesn't make you or your identity any less real. You are whoever you are right now. Wether that is someone/something from everything you have ever been or ever shall be or just one thing right now, unconnected to anything else. You are not fake for changing. You're not fake for not changing. Most have doubts about themselves about all sorts of things. To the point where it seems like doubt is just part of the human world experience (not saying it's only a human world experience, just that everyone here seems to doubt themselves about something or other) and perhaps working through our doubts is a lesson of this place, then again maybe not 🤷. In the end what you believe is up to you😊.

Now, I'm not expecting that this single post from a total stranger will erase all your doubts. Not at all. I didn't write it to erase doubt, but rather to give it a little bit of something to fight against. To plant just one more seed in the hearts and minds of others who might need it or whom it might help in any way. This post is far from the only one out there, fighting doubt in its many forms and faces. And what I've said has already been said in many times and ways. But it's my take and not everything will click with everyone. If this post helps even just one being, then it has served it's purpose. Each and every single one or plural of us is unique in our own ways. And I truly believe that's one of the most wonderful things about life as a whole.

If you've read this far, I apologize if I got a bit carried away and made this post longer than necessary but it means a great deal to me and things that matter to me are very difficult to "sum up" 😅. And if you follow me. I warn you now that most of my posts will probably be a bit lengthy if not extremely so.

And now my dear creatures, crawlers, beasts, beauties, hellions, heavenlies (no I don't care that that's not a word it is now lol), magicals, marvels, wonders, wanderers, wildlings, winged things, whimsies, and whatsits (and everything beyond and in between) I wish upon you a most wonderful day/night. May you always know/remember that your existence makes the world a more magical place. 🌍✨ (And in my opinion we could use all the magic we can get 😊)

👁️🪽✨🍄🍀🪻🌱🥀❄️🌟✨

Till next time.

[morningstarofdawnx]

Franky is autistic af

When I first started One Piece I thought no character could be more autistic coded than Zoro... that was until I got to water 7 and was introduced to Franky. I will list off all the autistic coding in him one by one, starting off with

Franky is a very emotional guy, but only people who are close to him knows this, because he rarely shows any emotion to strangers besides anger and determination. He literally masks like crazy and only shows his actual personality when hes comfortable enough to unmask, some of you may think Im reaching with this but then there is the fact that;

He literally gets introduced with a mask. A MASK. You first see him and think hes this badass and evil guy thats holding the whole town hostage, he talks in a very low tone and never makes it obvious what hes actually feeling, it goes like this until he sees his home and underlings beaten up and gets very very mad!! this ALSO brings me to;

He is incredibly apathetic towards people he doesnt know, but is very empathetic towards his friends, before he meets usopp in his new base and they talk about the merry together, he literally made his underlings beat the living crap out of him when he came to get his money back!! Sounds very rude, but we later on learn its for his dream of making a ship one last time so, HES EXCUSED.

After him and usopp talk about the merry and he hears usopps story, they get closer, and the second that happens he immediately shows his emotional side and starts crying for this random guy he met 2 days ago?! He does this for Robin as well after hearing her story about her sacrificing herself, HE NEVER EVEN MET ROBIN. It shows how much he cares about the people gets closer to, he knows Robin is important to usopp and sanji and even though he doesnt know Robin personally he sees shes important to his friends so he immediately shows his care and appreciation 4. Hes born with superhuman abilities, he can make a CANONBALL out of some random junk he found off the ground, he is shown to be incredibly smart with his main interest being tech stuff and ship building, he didnt even need any training to be able to make very powerful warships, HE WAS LITERALLY SO BORED HE SPENT HIS TIME BUILDING WARSHIPS LIKE HE WAS MAKING TOYS OR SOMETHING?? Autistic characters in media are often represented as these nonhuman beings that are very good at doing a specific thing, Franky fits this description perfectly

5. He has a vocal stim where he says SUUUUPEEEER before words or just says it by itself, its basically his trademark

6. This is like the most obvious one, but hes literally a robot. Hes a cyborg, he built his body himself after getting hit by a train, autistic people both in media and in real life are seen as these robots with no emotions and many autistic characters in media are often represented as robots/aliens/nonhuman as well

7. His bikini his his comfort clothing, he has been wearing it since he is a child and its pretty clear he got attached to is in some way or another considering we never see him take it out ever, there is also the scenes where he does robot things and his bikini literally COMES OFF LIKE ITS PART OF HIS BODY so it can be theorized he made it a part of his body LMAO

8. He dances as a type of stimming. Not even just dancing, sometimes he'd just be standing there and he starts moving his arms and body as if hes bored, which can also be a sign of ADHD but that type of stimming is common in autism as well 9. HE BITES PEOPLE WHEN HE CANT USE THE REST OF HIS BODY. HES A BITER. Nom THAT IS ALL FOLKS! Or at least all that I can think of at the moment, share your thoughts if u agree

[twistedminutia]

Twst Talk: How Natural is Unnatural Hair?

Like a lot of anime and cartoons, many of the characters in Twisted Wonderland have fantastical hair (and eye) colors that seem to be natural to them, despite being completely unnatural hair colors here. Which made me wonder: how common is it to have strange hair colors in the world of Twisted Wonderland?

Some basic guidelines before we start: first, I will be doing two groups of comparison, one human and one nonhuman. We don’t have merfolk or beastmen or Fae in our world, so there’s no telling what kind of hair color is natural for them, and it didn’t seem fair to include them with other humans without a baseline looking at just humans. For the purposes of this writing, Sebek will be classified as a Fae (I’m sure he’d be thrilled).

Second, hair dye and presumably even magical methods of changing hair color exist in Twisted Wonderland. I am going to assume that everyone’s hair color is their natural hair color unless there is canon material (in or out of game) that states otherwise or I have a good reason to suspect their hair color is not natural.

Third, in the interest of getting as big of a sample size as possible, I’m going to be including all named characters with sprites that have been introduced so far, including in the JP server, so there will be spoilers for JP server events and chapter 7. Theoretically, I guess I could include the background characters as well, but I am not interested in trying to categorize all of them. If someone else wants to do that and add to my results, feel free.

Fourth, there are going to be some exclusions. First on the list: Idia and Ortho. Their hair color is explicitly stated to be part of a curse, which means that it’s magically caused. Since this list is supposed to be about what hair colors occur naturally in Twisted Wonderland, they’re out. Second: Marja (Epel’s grandmother) and professor Trein. Both of them have had their hair turn white and gray, respectively, with age. Since we don’t know what their original hair color was, I’m making the executive decision not to include them in the count. I’ll also exclude the Faerie Queen and assorted elemental fairies and Eliza, since their hair seems to be more like element or vapor based than actual hair. Everybody else is fair game. Let’s get into it!

The Humans

We’ll be listing all humans with unnatural hair colors first, along with their hair color, then the natural ones, then the conclusion and percentages.

Unnatural hair colors: Deuce (blue), Trey (green), Riddle (yes, red is technically a natural hair color, but what we refer to as red is usually more of an orange color, like Cater or Ace’s hair; I’m going to consider Riddle’s blood red hair as unnatural), Kalim (yes, white is also technically natural, but it’s pretty rare for someone his age and there’s no indication that his hair color is unusual that I’ve seen so I’ll count it), Epel (lavender), Mama Spade (seemingly mixed blue and blonde), Rollo (white/gray). Total: 7

Natural hair colors: Cater (ginger), Ace (ginger), Jamil (brown), Rook (blond), Vil (OKAY YES HE HAS PURPLE IN HIS HAIR but we never see any other character who has ombré hair like that, even in other two-color characters, so I’m going to make an executive decision and list him as blond), Silver (yes, silver hair is not natural, but we learn in Ch 7 that his silver hair is caused by magic and his natural hair color is blond, so he will be listed as a blond here), Coach Vargas (black), Crewel (black; he canonically dyes the white part of his hair), Sam (black), Najma (brown), Neige (black). Total: 11

So that makes 18 total human characters with 7 having unnatural hair colors and 10 having natural ones. It’s unfortunate that the characters I had to exclude were all human, since this is kind of a small sample size. But, with 7/18 characters having unnatural hair colors, the total percentage of weird hair is about 39%. So, a bit below half. Unnatural colors would seem to be less common than natural colors, then, at least in humans, but not really rare. Let’s see how that stacks up with the nonhumans!

The Nonhumans

Unnatural hair colors: Jack (I debated on him being considered natural or unnatural, since he’s a wolf-boy and white hair is technically a natural color for a wolf, but to keep things consistent, we’ll go with hair colors that are unnatural for humans, so we’ll count his white hair as unnatural), Jade (turquoise), Floyd (turquoise), Azul (white), Sebek (green), Baul (green), Snick (this one’s on the edge, but it looks more red to me, so I’m giving it to the unnaturals), Dominic (silver), Grum (magenta), Shelpie (green), Timmy (blue), Toby (purple? I think?), Chenya (purple), Cheka (red/yellow), Kifaji (blue), Gidel (kinda reddish-purple, I think?) Total: 16

Naturals: Leona (brown), Ruggie (blond), Lilia (black; according to an interview with Yana, he dyes the pink part of his hair), Malleus (black), Crowley (black), Malenoa (Malleus’ mother, black), Hop (blond), Fellow (orange) Total: 8

Wow, pretty much a complete reversal! That’s a total of 24 nonhuman characters with 16 having unnatural hair and 8 having natural hair. Literally over twice as many have unnatural hair! Even if we remove the seven dwarves, who you could argue are slightly skewing the total, we still have 9 people with unnatural hair and 6 with natural. That makes 68% of the characters here with unnatural hair! As for specific species proportions, Fae have 8/13 or 61% unnatural hair, beastmen have 5/7 or 71% unnatural hair, and merfolk have 3/3 or 100% with unnatural hair (and this makes me realize we literally haven’t met any merfolk outside the main cast. Huh. Makes sense, I guess, if they all live underwater and have to attend a boot camp to learn to live on land.)

Interesting comments: this means that nonhumans as a group outnumber the humans, though only by 6, and no single group of nonhumans outnumbers humans. Fae have the most characters shown in game as nonhumans (not even counting the faeries from the gala and camping events!) thought the seven dwarves skew this a bit. There are more recurring characters who are human, though- of the humans, 14 of the 18 characters are part of the main cast whereas only 10 of the 24 nonhuman characters are recurring. The dwarves might be skewing this again, though.

Final Totals

If we combine all characters, human and nonhuman, that makes 42 total characters. Of those 42, 24 have unnatural hair colors and 19 have natural, meaning that, overall, 57% of characters have unnatural hair. That makes a majority! Unnatural hair colors are actually more common is Twisted Wonderland, just based on the sample size we have.

Couple other fun stats: for exclusively the main cast, 10 out of the 24 (42%) characters have unnatural hair, so side characters bulk out a lot of the unnatural hair havers. Speaking of side characters, their total is 13 out of 18 (72%) characters with unnatural hair. The seven dwarves seem to be the biggest skew in terms of unnatural hair, so if we remove them from the original total, we have 18 out of 35 (51%) of characters with unnatural hair, which may be a slightly more representative sample.

Conclusion

Based exclusively on this data, we can say that having unnaturally colored hair is actually more common in Twisted Wonderland than having naturally colored hair. Humans have the lowest likelihood of having unnatural hair, and merfolk have the highest.

Of course, this is an extremely small sample size, so this data may not be generalizable to the entire population of Twisted Wonderland. The sample also has a lot of mages in it, so we also don’t know if having magic may affect your hair color or something. Regardless, this was an interesting attempt to study hair color in Twisted Wonderland.

As always, I appreciate comments. Let me know if the math is wrong or if I’ve missed any characters. Or if you would classify anyone differently! I know Vil’s positioning might be controversial… and let me know if you want to see anything else analyzed too. Thank you, and good night.

[butwhatifidothis]

Nice blog you have hear. Your VW rewrite is great and I adore the idea of a Claude-Rhea rapport, but there's one thing I'm struggling to understand.

How is Claude becoming tolerant of the church--an institution mostly run by white people--in VW any different to Nader being scolded by Lorenz about the Almyrans' behaviour in GW (from what I've seen--I have no intention of playing Hopes ew)? Especially since Rhea's need to hide her identity is a more abstract exploration of othering compared to Claude's which is more grounded in reality, thus running the risk of making their (personal) connection problematic.

(If you don't want to answer this publically, please make a post saying so and I will come off anon.)

Hm. I don’t think I quite understand the comparison being made here.

Claude becoming tolerant of the Church would be a result of the Church itself being tolerant to outsiders and foreigners, at least per my rewrite that you're referencing. He is accepting of a good institution doing good things that he already agrees are good things, with no requirement of the "mostly run by white people" institution telling him these are good things.

Meanwhile, in Hopes, you have it to where Nader - a POC man - is turned into someone who enjoys pillaging conquered lands, when that has never been established in his character before. Building onto that you have Claude - a man of the same POC race as Nader - saying nothing against him doing this; he is either enabling Nader, or is outright also fond of/okay with pillaging conquered lands. It is only Lorenz - a white man - who steps up and reels Nader back in a good moral line. It would have been one thing had Claude been the one reprimanding Nader, or even showing disappointment in specifically Nader doing this (which would indicate it's a pattern of behavior for specifically Nader), but him saying nothing at all speaks volumes on how Almyra's culture seems to be like. These are two out of a whopping four Almyran characters we ever see (when counting Cyril, even though he explicitly doesn't adhere to much of Almyra's culture), meaning that half of the game's known Almyran characters participate in or otherwise allow for pillaging.

I don't mean to be rude, but what you are trying to compare are two entirely different scenarios. Claude accepting an mostly-white-run institution being open to outsiders/foreigners is... not the same as him and Nader being used to paint Almyra as a pillaging bandit continent that have to be calmed down by the good white man. Not to be rude, but I'm having a hard time understanding the point trying to be made here.

Nor do I really understand what you mean by "Rhea's need to hide her identity is a more abstract exploration of othering compared to Claude's which is more grounded in reality, thus running the risk of making their (personal) connection problematic." Rhea's need to hide her identity is... absolutely not abstract. Like, at all? The most "abstract" thing about it is that she's a nonhuman entity, but pretty much every else aligns almost perfectly with Claude's need to hide his identity. They both experience the following:

A sense of being unable to truly trust/open up to those around them due to how they've been treated because of their race

A real, logical, physical danger that looms over them should their identities be revealed too callously and to the wrong people

Being seen as strange and untrustworthy in extremely large part due to how they come off because of them hiding their identities

While the depths of Rhea's trauma includes far more immediate tragedy than Claude's, both experience very similar feelings because of what they went through. I don't see what risk would be ran should they be written to have a personal connection to one another?

Again, sorry if I come off rude or standoffish, but I genuinely do not get what you're trying to say here

[leptonyx-constellate]

heglo. main blog is @lesboylycan where we post sillies and where you can find our selfship blog. this is our plurality blog. a blog for us being plural. collectively, our pronouns are it/its and ze/hir. do not use they/them for us.

[IDs in alt text]

(sidenote: here is a link to collective identities we either already have in the #id hoard tag, or that we're looking for! if you find any of the ones that we're looking for, please please please send us a link to the coining post, we'd appreciate it much. also, here is a link to our frequent fronter directory in case you're curious about some of the more common names to pop up here!)

we're mixed origins spontaneous-adaptive, and we're a mediple gateway collective; we as a whole do not consider ourselves a system due to the semantics of "many parts that make up a whole"; we do not feel like we make up a whole anything, and are simply connected by being (A) having dropped into this headspace, (B) being able to control the body, and (C) being part of the "hivemind" (and thus being affected by our DID). our otherworld is seen as a real, physical place, and it's separate from us--it existed long before we did, and it will exist long after we cease to. as such, natives of the world--Yhine--are never and will never be forced to consider themselves as "part of Us" (although they're free to do so if they wish)

we have DID. the DID did not cause our plurality, however. we're also polyfragmented as you will see below. our DID does not cancel out our basis in metaphysicality; if you try to turn any part of our plurality beyond the DID itself (and particularly the dissociation and amnesia) into a psychological thing, we will block you without further warning. this is your warning. don't fucking do it.

there is a small group that does consider itself to be a system: Wolf, made up of Oakley, Matty, Dave, Inti, Junie, and Twitch. it also considers itself to be a disordered system, specifically via AvPD; tl;dr: unlike how most of us form, Wolf is made up of a bunch of AvPD masks and coping mechanisms that split off of the core/genitor, Oakley, and they are specifically disordered because their functioning as masks instead of individuals makes it more difficult to handle symptoms related to our AvPD (particularly fear of vulnerability, judgment, and ridicule) and the trauma that caused it.

when talking about themselves, they'll frequently switch between i/me/my/mine/myself and wei/meus/myur/miurs/myursel[f/ves], as opposed to how the whole collective is referred to as we/us/our/ours/ourselves. they also will frequently refer to themselves in the third person (as wei're doing now!)

we have posts from before where we talked about Wolf being disordered via ASPD; these were from before we knew we had AvPD.

we are very big according to most folks' standards at 550+. about 85% of that is made up of introjects, from fictives to factives to songtives to dreamtives to octives, etc etc etc. the vast majority of those are fictives from our SpIn, both of canon and non-canon characters.

as said above, we're polyfragmented. to keep in mind, the 550+ number is almost entirely made up of people in our main homebase layer/otherworld, Yhine. it is very possible that there are thousands of us, considering we have 16 layers total, 15 of which are either inhabited or otherwise owned by the constellate. we're not super interested in actively finding Every Single Headmate; we'll meet them as they come.

we like talking about ourselves please send asks :3 (outside of the plurality stuff: we're physically disabled + a mobility aid user; we're autistic, ADHD, ASPD, NPD, AvPD and schizophrenic; and we're a clinical lycanthrope, which you can see a little more of on our main, and a lot more of on our nonhuman sideblog which is linked in our main's pinned post)

[ID in alt text]

no DNI (other than "anti-endos and those willing to be friends with them, shove off" (this includes "neutrals". no, we don't fucking trust people who say they're "neutral" on people's existence, screw you. not to mention, we're not risking anti-endos who might interact with you finding us and trying to pull shit) and "if you believe in thought crimes--in ANY fashion--shove off" [note: this means we're proship/profic. follow your own DNI; self-identified antis get blocked on sight]. + if you're exclusionary in any way, we're the mspec alloaro transsexual male genderfaun butch gaybian the exclus are afraid of), we use the block button liberally. tag list below

#original post - original posts made by us

#[name].txt - posts by specific headmates who are making it known that it's from them specifically

#reblog - reblogged posts

#self reblog - posts made by us that we're reblogging

#id hoard - for (plural) terms that we identify with

#off-topic - posts not about us being plural

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#on Wolf - posts (whether original or reblogged) related specifically to Wolf

#on Yhine - posts (whether original or reblogged) about Yhine and how it works/how we fit into the mix

#silly goofies - fun, good things that happen within us that we'd like to share

#syscourse - syscourse. sometimes also tagged #tw syscourse, although that tag is usually (note: emphasis on usually; this is not a hard and fast rule) used for posts where syscourse is talked about, but is not inviting discourse

#plural positivity - general positivity!

---

#asks - all asks

#ambiguous mail - we're very bad at tone, this is for asks who we can't tell if they're intended as hate

#hate mail - hate asks (probably won't post many, if any of these unless we're proving a point)

#ask games - both reblogged posts for the ask games and asks for those games!

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#vent - vent posts

#werebeastliness - anything regarding us being a physical werebeast (note: will not ever be tagged as unreality; it is, at the very least, real for us, and tagging it as unreality would be reality checking if not just entirely false. if this makes you uncomfortable, block the tag or block us)

#queerness - anything regarding our queerness

#other neurodivergencies - anything about our other neurodivergencies

#physdis - anything about our physical disabilities

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#intro post - this post

#blog upkeep - blog upkeep

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tag list subject to change

[zalrb]

I honestly really like River because while it’s clear she loves the Doctor, she can’t give up her entire life like the companions and travel with him non-stop. Like, it’s obvious she prioritizes him, she cannot make him her first priority? Idk if that makes sense or if it’s even accurate, it’s been so many years since I watched Doctor Who.

I also liked River’s relationship with Eleven. One of my chief complaints about Steven Moffat is that he separates the Doctor from humanity, and River gives him a connection that I feel is more genuine than with the Ponds because the Ponds are just there.

I liked her before she was tied to the Ponds, especially Amy. I couldn’t stand Amy because she was a hot mannequin and although her and Rory’s relationship was played for humor with the girlboss/sad wet man thing they have going on, it became grating after a while because I was like, why do you stay together? You’re so annoying.

Sorry for the rant lol, this is bringing back some old feelings I hadn’t realized I still had.

So, this is interesting to read because I skimmed through some reddit threads about seasons 5-7 of Doctor Who and about 11 as a doctor and saw people say that 11 was the most "alien" doctor and that some people thought he was too dark and because Moffat made him so alien, they didn't like his interactions with River because they seemed out of place when he suddenly got really horny and flirty, and it just reminded me that I have never seen a take on reddit that I've agreed with lmao.

Granted, I haven't seen any other Doctors yet but it's funny that the reason why I didn't start with 10 when I realized Tennent was 10 was that I got the feeling that the portrayal would be overly sentimental and emotional and I just didn't care to watch that, but 11 doesn't seem overtly "alien" or nonhuman to me, if anything he seems to be the most human character in the seasons so far because Amy and Rory don't feel like people, as you said they're kind of just there. Like I'm at the Let's Kill Hitler episode after they found out that Amy was a ganger and their baby was a ganger and River is their daughter and they barely register it, they barely have any feelings about it, but 11 raises an army, gets angry, has to be told not to let his emotions get in the way because he can make a mistake, underneath all of the cockiness and brashness, he's actually quite upset and I was like, he's having the most human response to this whole ordeal over everyone.

In terms of River, it is funny considering that narratively speaking, her character does revolve around the Doctor in the sense that she was raised to one day kill him but she falls in love with him, she says that she lives for the days that she sees him, but she's also very clearly her own person and is like nah, can't do this, I have to go back to prison, at least with 11, rather than him coming at her beck and call, he comes at hers, she knows he'll appear whenever she jumps out of a window during whatever side mission she's doing and while she's clearly upset about how much he doesn't know/remember about their relationship whenever they meet and she clearly has affection/attraction for him, he's the one who comes across as entirely smitten by her. It's an interesting dynamic.

[big-coyote]

(this is the oc anon) i also forgot to ask but is there stuff that i could write about them to give them more depth as a therian? i dont think i am one, i may be animalhearted i tthink is the word, but ive seen posts about how being alterhumans not always pretty and fun and want to incorporate that too but again i dont know enough abt that hah ! thank you so much by the way

(2/2) Hello again! This is a follow up to the first ask! If you have any of your own thoughts feel free to comment or reblog!

I don’t think there’s any one universal experience in being a Therian or having a nonhuman identity. Some find it a very positive experience overall while others find it a very stressful and difficult experience. I think like many other identities there will be good and bad, fluctuations in how your OC may feel at any given time.

Maybe they at first try to hide their identity and feel ashamed. They don’t talk about it to anyone and feel like they are making it all up in their head, many therians I’ve meet often have imposter syndrome in their own lives. And maybe overtime your Oc learns to push through the feelings of doubt before finely embracing their identity in all of its forms.

Maybe they have always had a feeling they were different. Despite everything they felt separated from their peers and loved ones around them, but never had words to properly describe their feelings. Until one day they discover their identity and it all clicks into place, they find the correct words for their feelings and it all makes sense. The years of feeling out of place finely comes together and they feel at ease with this new found understanding of themselves.

Maybe they don’t care about their identity all that much. Maybe it is only one small factor of their life and there are other things that take priority over it. They may still be a Therian but they are also have many other identities or aspirations that influence them and make them who they are. Their job, their school, their friends, their family, their religion, their gender, their race, their sexuality, other parts of their lives take priority first so being a Therian is just one more thing to them.

Maybe they feel dread. They hate the body they live in and they loath the life they live. Being nonhuman has been one small bright spot in their life, but they wish they could run away from it all. Go into the world as their true self and be seen for what they are on the inside rather then the outside.

Or maybe they’ve always known they were a Therian and have loved every second of it. They are out, proud and loud. No shame. No guilt. They love their lives as authenticity and happily as possible without a single doubt.

There is no right to wrong way to feel about your own personal identity, that’s entirely up to you to decide. Or- I guess your OC to decide lol. I feel like looking at your OCs lives experience and their personality might be the best way to build a story about how they feel about their identity. I find it really fascinating when characters perception of themselves is shaped by the world they live in or how they experience things.

I’ve heard about being animalhearted which seems really interesting! I do hope you’re able to continue on your OC and again if you have more questions/want to share stuff my DMs are always open to chat! Thanks so much for the ask! I appreciate it! :D

[hwlpmg]

I’ve talked about this many times with close friends but I guess I do want to expand upon my rambles on the interwebs.

As a kid I’ve never been into vampires. I was a furry kid; and so I really liked wolves, cats, foxes, basically anything four legged with fur. And I guess it was because those creatures and characters I gravitated towards felt the most accurate to how I felt and acted as an autistic child. I’d mimic animals a lot, I got compared to cats a lot, but at times where adults didn’t know how to deal with me (having a meltdown, being overstimulated, made uncomfortable particularly for things that come along with being on the spectrum) I felt I was always treated like a wild animal for it. Like I was some wild thing they couldn’t control. Or that I was uncaring. When I was just a really sensitive, easily spooked child with really big sensory issues regarding lights and food.

But Now as an autistic adult who’s had trouble with self isolation I find myself heavily gravitating towards and relating to vampires. I prefer tasty drinks more than food, I hate entering buildings or homes unless I am told I am invited, I have a sensitivity to the light of a bright sunny day or the bright lights hanging in a typical classroom, and I have no tolerance for heat anymore. I have a parasol I walk around with sometimes now during hot sunny days, lol.

I’ve also had my fair share of horrible and traumatizing isolation and loneliness.

And this is a mix of me being both mentally ill and autistic; but I find my autistic loneliness to be rather similar to vampiric loneliness. Lonely because you have limitations others might not understand, lonely because people find it hard to understand you and at worse can make you feel like a villain/monster for it, lonely because at times you don’t feel human- you don’t connect with anyone.

I spent 5 years in isolation. The first four being some of the worst years of my life. (So far!)

The loneliness that day after day after night after night nothing changes. To feel like you’re spending an eternity by yourself. And I remember watching IWTV in particular (who’s surprised) and I felt like I saw pieces of myself in each of the vampires in that show. The trauma of isolation and loneliness they carry has felt so similar to the feelings I’ve had over the past 5 years. And during those worst moments, you do anything to keep finding and holding onto your humanity. I felt so seen. I felt so seen in these characters that aren’t even human.

It feels weird to make the connection! But those are my honest and true feelings. I feel and see myself as a vampire more than anything else as an autistic adult. And I saw a part of my humanity I felt so ashamed of for so long in nonhuman characters. Because they were people. And we just want to be people. We want to feel like people. We don’t want to be alone.

(Not every autistic person will relate to this obviously, but that’s my experience)

[krakensdottir]

Followup to my sexless angels post: To be clear, I do not think of Aziraphale and Crowley as substitutes for human ace representation. I don't see them as asexual in the human sense (because yes, to be asexual is still to be human - if you want to be, that is; we'll get to that). It's not an identity for them, like Aziraphale's gayness is. It's not part of who they are, it's part of what they are. They are beings without sex organs or a reproductive drive.

And that's what I like. Give me ALL of that shit, man. Genderless androids, asexually reproducing aliens, angels in anatomically minimalist meat suits - YES to all of it. It's not for everybody but it is absolutely what I'm here for.

The thing is, I'm not just a monsterlover because Tentacles Are Hot. I'm on that part of the spectrum where I've never quite felt human, and not in a negative sense. I know I'm Homo sapiens, that isn't the point. I've just always seen more of myself in animal, alien, and even robot characters than in humans. It's that outsider feeling. I've made peace with it, reclaimed it, and found pride in it, as any fellow queer can understand.

And that's why I'm glad they exist. We definitely do need more human aspec rep, no argument. But nonhuman is just fine for many people, and even preferable for some of us, so I think it has a place too. It shouldn't be seen as a substitute, but as its own beautiful and important thing. It still counts as representation, because otherwise SO MANY ace fans wouldn't see themselves in Aziraphale and Crowley.

[nonhumanwithin]

i'm trying to better understand myself and i think i'm alterhuman? i'm a kin of a character actively right now but i for years and years have wished to be among the stars and that one time in my existence i was apart of a star and i desire to be a star existing out there in space and just letting the universe run its course while i watch the beauty around me

i've felt this way for the longest time, like i just feel like i belong in space

by chance do you know what this is? i'm still learning so much about fiction/otherkin and i'm just trying to understand myself since discovering this community helped me learn so much about myself that i could never put into words

Alterhuman is a vague umbrella term that includes fictionkin and otherkin by default, so if you find alterhuman a helpful term to you then feel free to use it!

Identifying as a star or something adjacent would be otherkin. Otherkin just means a nonhuman identity in general- I've met people who identify as songs, colors, and other nonphysical concepts. I don't know of any starkin personally but have seen em around so I'm sure there's a community out there. I hope you find them :) I think starkin sound wonderful and would love to hear about those kinds of experiences more!

[readingrobin]

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain. 

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe. -Storygraph

I've always had a hard time trying to break into the sci-fi genre. I don't know if it has to do with the common settings, tropes, or themes typically associated with it, but there's always been something that keeps me from seeking out these stories and really enjoying them. Whatever the case, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet easily became one of the outliers of this issue, right alongside The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to which it feels like its distant, more emotional cousin.

At first, I was surprised at the more character-driven nature of the story. It focuses more on the journey to the titular small, angry planet, where the crew takes various pit stops and detours, whether to gather supplies or visit old friends and family. Surprisingly, the main conflicts come more from the interpersonal relationships of the characters rather than the world at large, though there are greater threats that appear in the book's third act to introduce more dire stakes. From what science fiction I have read, there is a greater emphasis on story driven content, where conflicts are typically more physical and the characters develop through that rather than their connections with each other. This quality of the story definitely gives a breath of fresh air to the genre, or to me at least.

While the tone is fairly laid back, the characters are what truly keep the book moving. Following a cast of ragtag, lovable weirdos, this book exudes the oh so wonderful found family trope, where no matter how many disagreements they have or what trouble they find themselves in, they're in it together. Chambers gives a chance for each member of the crew to shine, making the most out of the ensemble cast. I think I liked the Wayfarer's pilot, Sissix, the most, as it was so interesting to see a nonhuman character try to navigate situations through human terms. Her species is highly affectionate, having no qualms about intimate displays of touch in public settings, which naturally isn't going to fly well with those who are more influenced by human social standards. As a result, she has to hold back what comes so naturally to her, which, in turn, gives her a bit of discomfort. 

What Chambers does so well in this story is depict cultural differences not as a way to keep people apart or deem them "inhuman," but as a way to better understand others. There are moments when the differing perspectives of the crew clash, but ultimately, they remain respectful. No one is in the right or the wrong simply because to judge a species' custom or belief through the lens of their outsider's views that come from their own, differing culture is a tad unfair. To accept these differences is to better know and connect with those that come from different walks of life and to share them is for them to better know us in return. The inclusion of aliens that actually feel like beings distinct from humans leads to an engaging diversity that prompts discussion about our own values and why we may possibly think the way we do.

If I had one criticism, it would be that there were some scenes that seemed a bit disconnected, that there were events that were mentioned, but mostly glossed over or were told rather than shown. But really  it wasn't enough to bring the book down as a whole. This was an excellent feel good session in space and I really can't wait to see what other worlds Chambers has in store.

(4/5)

[daringdoombringer]

“Maybe in another universe my life isn’t a setup by the person I look up to most.”

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME.”

Trope/character rant incoming! CW: STUFF ABOUT DEREALIZATION

i havent watched TOH but from loads of fan content ive seen i know Hunter Wittbane and Mack Hartford follow the same trope: being told their entire lives were lies by their parental figure, and they were in fact created artificially for a greater purpose. Hunter for destruction, Mack for loneliness cause his “dad” really *really* wanted a son? Idrk yet, i really need to rewatch Overdrive. I do remember Mack’s dad being a much better dad than Belos, and that Mack was created with good intentions. (fuck Emperor Belos all my homies hate Belos)

The only thing I vividly remember from watching Operation Overdrive was when Mack was revealed to be a robot, programmed with memories and tricked into believing he was always human. Being told his super strength and endurance were simply genetic superpowers. That there was nothing to question and everything was fine.

He was lied to. His whole life. His EXISTENCE was an elaborate lie.

Do you realize how screwed up that is?? The thought of your life and the reason you are alive and breathing is a cover up for something greater. If you can even breathe in the first place! That you were artificially created by someone/something else? That youve never truly been in control of *anything?*

That youre really just someone’s ELABORATE ART PROJECT???? THAT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE IS FAKE?!?! DO YOU SEE WHAT IM GETTING AT HERE? After you find out, then what? What else is a lie? Are your friends lying to you? Your thoughts and body were never truly yours. You’re not in control. Only the person you now have to call “creator.” Is there anything you can call your own? Are you real? Is anything else real? Were you EVER real?

What’s the point?

What’s the point of anything when your existence was a ruse from the very start?

What if it weren’t for Power Ranger’s infamously bad acting? What Mack had reacted realistically? If he did it likely wouldn’t have been pretty. Idk about y’all but I think he deserved to snap. Just for a moment. As a little treat.

He was programmed to think he was just a kinda weird human, surely that’s what he is? He’s alive, right? And robots never go against their programming, right?

What if he runs off in a blind rage, feeling utterly betrayed by his mentor and fellow Rangers? What is he supposed to do? How is he even comprehending this? How is he doing this? Can robots do that?! Robots can’t act, only think! Only thinking with the preprogrammed thoughts and information that were deliberately given to them! His thoughts aren’t his! His life never belonged to him in the first place! No wonder he never felt like he belonged among the other Rangers! He was never a real person like they are!

Mack’s now in a paranoid frenzy debating everything he’s ever known. His life, his personality, his memories are artificial. HE is artificial. He doesn’t know what or who to trust anymore. He’s never had a life to call his own because it never happened! Now desperately looking for something to call his own, something he KNOWS ISNT FAKE. Something that isn’t a lie like he is.

What if one of the bad guys finds him in this state?

I mean, having a now distressed and enraged but ridiculously powerful robot on your side wouldn’t be too bad, would it? And those pesky Rangers would be without their leader…

What if Tyzzon steps up in Mack’s absence, determined to find him and have the team be whole again? Mack and the Rangers saved him, now it’s time for him to return the favor. From one nonhuman to another. Mack is the only friend Tyzzon’s had, after all. They can’t afford to loose him. Not now. Not when the world is under attack. Not ever.

But ofc something like THAT would be much too brave for Power Rangers. A Pangender person can dream. Oh wait I just wrote down the plot to one heck of an alternative universe fanfiction… damn. I was just going off what little I remembered from the show lol

BUT WAIT. THERES MORE.

When I was at GalaxyCon this weekend, I found Derrick Cameron. (actor who played Tyzzon, the Mercury Ranger.) I brought up the Mack being a robot thing to him, and he said the cast wasn’t informed of it at all.

SO NOT EVEN THE ACTORS KNEW UP UNTIL IT CAME TIME TO FILM THE EPISODE. OH MY GOD.

So yeah this post WAS about a general trope but I kinda got sidetracked lol. Anything in fiction involving robots/machines/AI debating their existences, learning how to be human, any symbolism involving them, GOD.

THAT SHIT FUCKS. ME. UP.

✨thank you for witnessing my unhinged rant✨