#ITS RECOMMENDED EVEN

[ghelgheli]

Often when trans women ask me when I'm performing next, and I tell them that it's a queer/trans event, they will tell me that they'd rather not go because they do not feel comfortable or safe in those spaces, that they have been dismissed or belittled at such events before. Even trans women who are dyke- or bisexual- identified often don't feel welcome or relevant in queer/trans spaces. And whenever a trans woman or ally points out aspects about the queer/ trans community that contribute to these feelings of irrelevancy and disrespect—such as the way our community coddles those who support trans-woman-exclusionist events or who make trans-misogynistic comments—we are described as being "divisive." This use of the word "divisive" is particularly telling, as it implies that "queer/trans" represents a uniform movement or community—a "oneness"—rather than an alliance where all voices are respected.

Julia Serano, Whipping Girl. Published 2007.

[cryptocism]

the sillies

dialogue from here if you want a blast from the year 2010

[ale-arro]

been going a little bit insane about this sentence from Ace by Angela Chen for the past week

[beardedhandstoadshark]

formal invitation to drop a stupid amount of oc lore, if you’re so inclined! 😳😳

THANK YOU BUT ALSO I’m gonna have to tell you a secret, c’mere

…

I have no idea what I‘m doing with the lore

Ignoring anything related to character traits and such, The short version is:

Red: 23, ex-Hero, quit being one 2y ago, got her current scarf back then, dipped because of expectations she couldn’t/didn’t wanna meet, got a grandpa, still helps out anyone who asks.

Deniz: 20, resident from a small village set on a bunch of super high and windy cliffs, only one with complete (and functioning) family, good at sailing, left because of the sameness of each day becoming unbearable.

Mage: 23, magic merchant man, aka merchant for antiques, relics, and standard rpg shop stuff. Really good at dark magic, went way too far with it once and it tinted his eyes green, emotional attachment to scarf because of missing/probably dead friend, gold thingy in hair helps detect magic, =) is his default face (on purpose).

Yel: 24, not his actual name but a nickname from Mage, couldn’t follow his dream so he became the next best thing aka delivering stuff to hard-to-reach places, only-child with 2 parents, very good at outside stuff and basic medic things, :| is his default face (not on purpose).

Violet: 19, royalty, gifted child syndrome/burnout, really high light magic potential but it tends to be unstable/uncontrolled, was pretty much playing Rapunzel locked in her tower because of that, lots of siblings, has at least one abduction/attempted sacrificing behind her because being op + locked up + other family related stuff = rumors about her being able to bring forth the apocalypse.

And then there’s a bunch of smaller oc‘s I don’t really actively "use“ aside from maybe a drawing here or there.

(If that’s all you wanna know, you can stop reading here)

The WORLD started out as/ is mostly still just "fantasy rpg but the internet is a thing“ feat. Light/Dark based magic. So it’s every fantasy setting ever but they’ve got phone signals and stuff. If it ever comes up, currency will be called El because the implications of the European Union or US or whatever existing here are kinda funny but not something I wanna deal with XD Cent is still Cent tho, that one‘s universal enough to work since it’s just derived from the word for 100. There may or may not also be a corruption infestation thing going on. Jury‘s still out on that one (as in, idk if I wanna go that far with the setting, but it’d at least fit with whatever the heck is going on in Red‘s lore).

For Magic, Light is basically giving energy to the surrounding while Dark is taking it away. So stuff like fire and ice is also part of light and dark. Because of that, light works best in dark/cold places (lots of area to brighten/heat up; you can only see stars during the night) and dark when its well lit/warm (needs light to cast shadows, lots of stuff to absorb). If someone uses too much of it over a short period of time, it can have lasting effects, usually first noticeable by a change of eye color. (Light = cold, light tones, dark = warm, Dark tones)

(YOU CAN STOP READING HERE, REALLY)

But if not…the long version:

it keeps changing. A lot. To the point where, as of right now, they kinda don’t…have any lore? Because I‘ve essentially been throwing everything I had out of the window/got the feeling whatever‘s going on is too cringe/cliche.

Red‘s is currently the most…stable, I guess?

Did the classic "go on an adventure to save the kidnapped princess/world“ thing 2-3 years ago, because of that was knighted and officially recognized as The HeroTM (and given her current green scarf), but went into "hiding" shortly after cuz everyone had these ridiculously high expectations of what/how The Hero should do/act that she couldn’t live up to or started treating her differently, + didn’t feel like only standing there as a real life attraction could help anyone.

So Red essentially quit, and went home helping people and adventuring from there. And then ran into Violet, which happened shortly before where the timeline’s currently at. The two bells on a string acting as a second hair tie have been in her possession since childhood, and act as a good luck charm. Has a grandpa, + I‘m thinking about adding a sibling. (Also may or may not be able to hear music fitting the vibe of whatever place she’s in- still not sure about that one). That original concept still applies more or less. But as for the other oc’s…oof.

Deniz and Yel both don’t have. Much going on?

Yel isn’t his actual name but a nickname he got from Mage because his bag + hair is Yellow and his voice can be incredibly loud if he wants to. Also I just couldn’t find a fitting name. His dream had always been becoming a Ranger, but due to various things including severe shortsightedness and dumb rules, never got to fulfill it. (Outside of some basic training).Therefore became the next-best thing that‘d allow him to still be frequently outside and not be glued in a single place too much to at least sometimes take paths through forests- which was becoming a postman. Specifically for special deliveries and places that can’t be easily reached. So it’s…more of a courier thing, really?

Which is also how he came to know a lot people, including Red for kinda becoming her personal mailman during that whole adventure thing, the usual deliverer for Mage’s shop stuff, and normal post for Deniz. Without knowing it himself, is actually rather well known as the mailman guy. Got a decent grasp on first aid from that basic training. Animal and health nerd. Good at foraging. Got no siblings but 2 very precious parents (I have yet to design in any way, if at all). Ridiculous constitution. Aaaand that’s about it. Probably the most realistic but compared to all the cool oc’s people have on here idk if it’s interesting?

Deniz is even worse. His whole deal is "npc joined the party“. He‘s literally just some guy from a small village built at the top of a bunch of very windy cliffs (hence why Yel delivers stuff to them because it’s kinda hard to reach otherwise). Originally he was just supposed to be concept villager for said place, which was an idea for what a beach village would look like if the ocean didn’t just rise a bit with the tides in daily cycles but like 40m in a year. (Insert funky microclimate reasons here).

It’s still visible in the attempted beach theme in his design and name, as it means ocean (+ it’s the only one not a color pun so that’s nice). Also he‘s good at sailing because it’s the main way of reaching other places during flood. As well as handing ropes. Met Red during her travels, helped out when she needed a ride later, and decided to stick around because of exploring/curiosity/felt trapped in the circle of doing the same things everyday. Got a bunch of family, and the only one who could do a complete "holiday dinner with the whole family at grandma’s“ thing. Most of his stuff is character-based and not background lore things though. Yeaaaaaa.

Then with Mage, his present appearance is pretty clear, but the background isn’t. Merchant for antiques, relics, and standard rpg shop stuff. Really good with dark magic. Like, that one’s solid. Then it gets a bit goofy. Used to have blue eyes, but overusage of magic over a period of time tinted them permanently green now. Originally became a traveling merchant when he was 18 to be able to search for his missing friend (the blue scarf‘s a reminder/glorified friendship bracelet). But then started realizing a) he‘s most likely dead by now, and b) actually genuinely enjoys the whole merchant thing, decided to open up shop permanently. Still can’t quite let go though. Orphan from an orphanage doubling as a school focused on magic, which is how he met said dead friend (called Rhyme because the idea was both having names 1 letter away from being a herb as a parallel.) And like. That’s fiiiine I guess?

But the events between [hanging out together] to [Rhyme goes missing] to [Mage chills here now] are. SO BAD. At one point it was "boarding school is actually super shady because those with high magic potential regularly go missing while they pretend they just graduated/got adopted/decided to go away/etc., and Rhyme was the newest disappearance which makes no sense for his character so Mage went off to find out what’s going on“ to "the same thing but Mage actually found out that whole place is super shady“ spiced with "he‘s now in this country because he‘s actually from across the border so they won’t search for him“ to "the only reason they’re not coming after him is because they think he‘s dead“. And all of these have variations where the whole place burned to the ground after the basement exploded (leading to them thinking he‘s dead). And ALSO that shady business might be connected to whatever the heck is going on with Violet‘s lore. So like. The whole thing is on ice now because idk if this is really anything worth using. Idk.

And then there’s her. As if Mage wasn’t bad enough, Violets lore was…messy. Really messy.

She’s royalty, got a lot of siblings, and what is essentially gifted child burnout. Also aforementioned magic (light in her case) is super high for her but kiiinda uncontrolled, which led to her pretty much exclusively being pushed to learn streamline it, but there’s never really been much progress. This part of the lore still seems ok right now. The problem is the actual backstory that led to "now“. Because as of right now, Violet is hanging out with the others, and therefore very much not where she should be, at all. And that’s where the mess is.

The original reason for her being with the rest of the gang rn was that she was once abducted 2 years ago so she could be sacrificed to bring forth the apocalypse, and met Red during her escape. (Spoiler: there isn’t some ancient god dragon sealed in her blood or whatever probably. Just got unusually high light magic reservoir, which, combined with her always being in the background, let to people believing there’s something going on with her that warrants that secrecy.) Recently, after another attack, decided that her being missing would be better, and broke out to search for Red and hide with her. So despite being. Royalty. She‘s deliberately not going back home as she‘s "more useful" if missing, so everyone is so focused on her that it keeps any trouble away from her family since everyone will be focused on getting to her instead. (It’s totally not also because she feels incredibly trapped and knows her being gone wouldn’t actually chance much for them. Absolutely not. It’s only out of usefulness.)

That one‘s got a variation where she was abducted twice- first time saved by Red, which is when they met, second time was what happened above with her breaking out herself, and directly lead into the whole "staying missing is better“ thing. In another alternative version, that og thing didn’t happen 2 years ago, but recently, so instead of "2y ago + recent event leads to her booking it“ that 2y ago becomes said recent event.

And I‘m also thinking of just throwing everything away and rebuilding it from the ground up, but the only thing I can really come up with rn is the "royalty that definitely shouldn’t be wandering around but their knight/guard/whatever (Red) is there so it’s cool“ trope. Also if I change the lore in that regard I‘d kinda have to redesign her again (or at least clean it up a bit?)

In any case, the only story beats I‘ve kinda got down are "was abducted, kicked ass, met Red during or on the road shortly after escape, [stuff], not going back to the castle because of [reasons], road-trip ensues“.

Also I might do urban fantasy and zombie apocalypse AU‘s. Idk.

As I Said, it’s REALLY long and REALLY bad. You can laugh, point out plotholes and cliches, whatever

And laugh some more. It’s cool, I understand, really XD

(Someone please help set this lore right/make some better ideas)

(Tough, thank you for reading it you actually made it through this? Holy shit?? That’s so much!?? Yea)

[satelliteduster]

oh my god i forgot to post my absolute favorite strip from gay comix (issue #2, 1981)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

We could have had it all...

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[m-kyunie]

do not ask me about the plot of JJK

[ohvun]

MY BOYYYYY:DDDD

Couldn't find what I wanted, so I made my own>:) Put it on a jacket now I feel rly cool:)

[sysig]

Light and darkness, but mostly darkness (Patreon)

[etchy-a-sketchy]

Obsessing over this fic

Doodled this for it!

[apradonite]

continuation of this post, this time somehow worse

twit

[unexpectedbrickattack]

shenanigans

[koobiie]

fanart for what may be my favorite fic of all time, Running Behind by @asidian! here's prompto enjoying all the foods from the fic beacuse he deserves it <3

[yardsards]

people have brought up the difference between "this piece of media is good" vs "i like this piece of media". i would also like to mention the third axis "i would easily recommend this piece of media to others"

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Been having some ISaT tech level and timeline (as in 'when backstory things happened') thoughts and want to ramble a bit:

Tech

ISaT's setting is based on your classic sword and sorcery fantasy JRPG so its easy to assume that tech wise everything is 'fantasy medieval' and call it a day but consider:

Body Craft is at bare minimum is magic sex changing surgery (earliest known equivent in our world dating to 1930) that any old person can learn to do safely on themselves in only a few months, and more likely has many many broader applications like regular old surgery, the 'combat healing' Mira and Sif use, etc.

Cameras and photos are rare enough that Odile comments on it (namely she's happy the group get a photo in the House due to them being 'so rare') yet are also common enough that everyone in the party knows about them and doesn't question the existence of a camera beyond being surprised that the mirror was one. (In our world cameras date back to the 19th century, with the earliest manufacturing of them being in 1839). 

Printing presses and ways to make plenty of paper to feed those presses given absolutely everyone in this game can read, expects everyone else to know how to, and both mass produced book series and newspapers are a thing. (Note: Printing presses have existed since waaaay back but it's the mass paper manufacturing that makes newspapers and The Cursing of Chateu Castle possible that really has my eyebrows raised here, especially since neither Siffrin or Odile find either odd in any way, indicating such things are common everywhere, and while newspapers have been around since 1604 in our world, mass produced fantasy books didn't really take off until the start of the 20th century).

Food production and storage: despite being in the middle of a national disaster that almost certainly cut off trade networks and access to most suppliers for literal months now, Bonnie, a small child, is able to easily get their hands on fresh Pineapple, curry ingredients (for samosa), potatoes, plantains etc with no issues or anyone commenting on this being unusual or lucky. Oh and the only character who even brings up the concept of potential starvation is the Fishing One, and only in a sort of 'we're not at risk now but sooner or later...' kinda way due to noticing that the fish they fish up for fun are disappearing and likely being frozen. So yeah, that heavily implies Vaugarde has very good food storage tech/Craft (possibly better than ours), and likely also good food production and harvesting tech/skills also.

The Island's incredible knowledge of the stars: while the oldest known orrery in our world is dated from around 205 to 87 BC (ancient Greek, earth centric model), the fact Sif -who would've learnt this as a child/teen- is so very certain that stars are big balls of fire made up of gas is interesting as that's something our world couldn't prove the theory of until around the 1900s (note: it'd been theorized a LONG time but Sif talks like its complete facts to them . Additionally the earliest existing record of a telescope in our world dates to a 1608 patent and we see one of those in game.

Post posting EDIT: A wonderful user qds-place pointed out that Mirabelle has anti-anxiety medication in her room. This is in both ISaT and SAaP and though we're not sure what form the medication takes (pills? Valium? Megitech esc Craft boosters???) the fact they specifically have 'anti anxiety' medication at all (as opposed to idk dragging Mira off and drugging her through the gills) is kind of impressive and if it IS modern anti anxiety pills those could be as recent in creation as the 1950s! So um. Some high levels of tech implied in chemistry there <3

So... yeah. All this, plus the fact that the highest tech implied area, The Island, literally specialised in the study/Craft of turning wishes into reality (for a long enough time period that Wish Craft is culturally so ingrained in the King and Sif that they do it without thinking and it seems intertwined with their nation's religion) has been completely erased from memory to the point anything heavily associated with them has been forgotten, and also we only ever see Dormont aka a little village well away from the cities, it's not hard to conclude that you can basically justify giving the ISaT world any level of tech you want, so long as you lock any of the truly 'setting breaking' stuff like planes and rockets behind The Island's forgetting curse (I would've said trains too but thinking about it trains were invented in 1802 so it's honestly easy to imagine that they totally exist in the ISaT setting/Vaugarde but aren't ever on screen because rail is way too dangerous to consider using while the Curse is active and potentially time freezing things on the tracks).

Side note: We know absolutely nothing about Vaugarde's transport system but as a fan of fantasy RPGs it is honestly a travesty I have yet to see a fic that has flying dragons/wyverns or other fantasy mounts in setting. Like, ok yes, the party would probably have wanted to use those but maybe they don't like the Curse and fled? Maybe the King's Curse targeted them first? Maybe all their handlers dropped the heroes off in Dormont and said 'Well Saviors it's been fun, but well me and Scales here are off to Poteria until things wrap up so best of luck to you' before buggering off?

This isn't really a serious complaint just. Me reminding myself/potentially other fanwork writers out there that there's a lot about the setting we just don't know about and limiting all travel to walking, horse drawn carriage and boat is not actually required. (Also please mix up travelling to the Island. Boats are a wonderful classic and have great thematic vibes for Sif's original leaving of the Island but like. Imagine the sheer in-universe wtf of the memories of The Island suddenly coming back and people on the north coast suddenly realising there's a massive bridge, subway or underwater tunnel leading there that everyone just forgot about - potentially filled with all kinds of Sadnesses that need taking down. Or Warp Panels in a House of Change, idk XD).

Timeline

Canon notes first:

Bonnie is a preteen (8 to 12), Mira and Isa are in their early to mid 20s (with Isa slightly older), Sif is late 20s to 30, and Odile is 40+ Nille is stated to be around 18 to 20.

Siffrin ran away from home when they were a teenager (13 to 17? 18?) and this is heavily implied to be when the Island was Forgotten.

Bonnie (in ISaT specifically*) says that Nille told them that when it happened all the adults were talking about it, hence why they think The Island is close to their village. *In Start Again a Prologue, Bonnie says that they themself remember the adults talking about the Island disappearing, which er. Is a bit impossible given they likely weren't even born yet when that happened but that can be explained away by AU differences, InsertDisc5 still finalising details between SAaP and ISaT, and/or OG Siffrin having been in the loops so long they weren't actually listening when Bonnie was talking and just 'scripted' in their head something 'close enough' to what Bonnie was saying to get the idea (note: mentioned that idea before in my post here on the differences between the House and King in Start Again vs In Stars and Time for anyone curious so er please feel free to give that a read if you haven't already).

Odile mentions remembering 'when it happened' as well and has been 'travelling for years'.

The King 'appeared out of nowhere' sometime in his adulthood, and lived in the city of Corbeaux for a few years before he became the King.

The King became the King as was freezing people in time long enough before his attack on the House of Dormont that everyone inside knew he was coming, there were a wall's worth of newspaper articles about him, and everyone was expecting Euphrasie to defeat him.

Mirabelle's quest began 'almost a year ago' and Sif lost their eye 'recently'.

Thoughts on the above:

Calculating when The Island was forgotten:

Sif being mid 20s to 30 and having run away from home as a teen means that The Island has to have been forgotten somewhere between 9 to 17 years ago with nine only possible if he ran away at age 17 and is only age 26 now, and seventeen being the far opposite if he ran at age 13 and is currently 30.

To narrow down the timeline: Given Sif ran away from home because he 'didn't want to eat his veggies' and 'just wanted to scare [his] parents a little bit' it's probably safe to assume Siffrin was likely on the younger end of the teen spectrum (teens run off all the time sure but with loving parents and over veggies? That screams 'kid who has not yet learned that freaking out the parents will get their ass grounded and/or yelled at a LOT and is therefore best saved for doing fun forbidden stuff that ideally the parents will never find out about' XD) Additionally given Siffrin can't remember his age/birthday etc but Isabeau outright says near the beginning of the game "But you're older than most of the people here?" meaning Sif must be visibly older than Isa or Mira, so he's probably closer to 30 than not.

Those alone would imply the Island likely disappeared closer to the '17 years ago' side of things BUT Nille (tops 20 years old) told Bonnie that "[the Island's disappearance] was all the adults would talk about for ages" and kids usually can't remember anything prior to 4 years of age so with that in mind...

I'd say The Island most likely disappeared between 13 to 16 years ago.

Nille stuff:

This is more a general mention but. Nille is tops 20 years old. Bonnie is between 8 and 12 and doesn't remember their parents at all.

This means Nille ran away with Bonnie and gained emancipation and custody of Bonnie (if Vaugarde has formalised that kind of legal stuff) while she was at most 12 years old herself and could have in theory been as young as 6..!

Regardless, it's very likely the original home situation was that bad, Nille deserves a ton of credit for raising Bonnie as well as she has and I'd say it's very VERY likely she had a lot of help from villagers in Bambosche and/or the local House of Change in doing so. ...But also Bonnie is very adamantly 'my sister and village' and not 'my sister and [specific names who live with us]' so there's clearly by the time Bonnie was 4 or so they were living in their own place so... Yeah. Lotta drive for independence there too it seems (so the party might have more trouble adopting Nille into their group post ISaT than Bonnie might expect).

King stuff:

Already an adult 13 to 16 years ago so at bare minimum 33. Given his vibe probably much older though.

Newspapers get printed pretty quick though for there to be so much speculation and research done into his background so quick, either Vaugarde has some form of fast messaging system (something like a Chappe telegraph on top of the Houses of Change? Odile I think does mention that they'll have a message sent to let Nille know they'll be returning Bonnie...) or the King was freezing stuff for IDK around a month or two before reaching Dormont? Alas can't find out how long it takes to walk across all of France out very easily (I'm sure the numbers are out there but my brain is pudding rn) but if we had those numbers we could probably make some guesstimates based off the rough sketched map of Vaugarde InsertDisk5 did... Which I would link but apparently the tumblr post I had it linked on has been deleted???? 'wails at this very unhappy development'

Mira's journey and Sif's eye:

We really don't know a lot but almost a year ago gives us somewhere around 9 to 11 months to spread the journey out along and after eye removal surgery the patient can out and about as soon as 2 to 6 weeks after, maybe sooner with magic healing (though full recovery/growing used to the changed spacial awareness -which Sif clearly does not have- probably can't be sped up and takes around 3 to 6 months) so um. I'd guestimate Sif's eye injury is really recent; like two months ago tops recent. ...Which sorta explains a lot of why Bonnie is not dealing with it right now and also why the others might be trying to avoid bringing it up (since Sif clearly loves avoiding the issue but they haven't yet realised that maybe they really should bring it up even if it annoys them anyway?)

Odile with some Ka Bue speculation:

When it comes to The Island, how did Odile, presumably living in Ka Bue at the time, remember 'when it happened'? Was the Island well known enough even on the other side of the world that it's disappearance made waves? Or was Odile herself or someone she's close to paying attention to the region? (Like maybe her dad or a friend is/was into politics or trade, keeping up with overseas news and got concerned it could happen to Ka Bue? I'd say 'I remember when it happened' line implies it was more immediate knowledge than being informed by a messenger much later though...)

As for Odile's 'years of travel' I have to wonder, what's left behind for her in Ka Bue? She brings up going back there quite a bit, might just miss home and possibly her father if he's still alive, but given it took her years to get here for something so personal rather than idk 'materially rewarding' I think Odile might have some kinda family estate or something back in Ka Bue... Something she wasn't worried about potentially losing while far away, but solid enough to want to return to, beyond her father who she'd definitely want to see again if he's still around. (...But given how open she is to chilling about Vaugarde a few more months with the others, I really don't think he is alive, since well, given their respective ages and travel between Vaugarde and Ka Bue apparently taking years, there'd definitely an uncomfortably high chance of him passing away while she's gone and that seems like the thing that'd stress Odile out so... Yeah. Probably got an estate in Ka Bue she'd like to take the Family to visit/possibly sell off if she decides she'd like to live with them in Vaugarde so... Just my off the cuff headcanoning here and hoping that gives others ideas or something).

---

Anyway that's all the ramble I've got in me so... yeah! Hope this was interesting and useful for those needing a bit of a 'possible tech'/timeline calcs breakdown for the Island + a few more vague things and um. Probably will post a long winding ramble about my attempt at a ISaT Selkie AU fic I've been working on next <3 (Not to be confused with looped-140-and-counting's already existing and quite wonderful Selkie Siffrin AU which already has a completed oneshot fic, a snippet of sequel, two snippets of prequel/Sif flashbacking and I believe a comic too, all of which I highly recommend <3)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Collection of edits from this comic with Disco Elysium dialogue.