#but None of them are allocishet

[practically-an-x-man]

who was the first person your queer ocs came out to? how'd that go?

Oooh good question!! I meant to answer this earlier but kinda forgot I had it lol (blame it on the ADHD lol)

Jasper probably first came out to a group of close friends, since they were still in the experimentation stage and needed a safe place to test out names and pronouns before officially coming out to their family. That part went well, but coming out to their family later... not so much.

Similar story for Quinn, actually - she first came to that realization in uni, and came out in stages to their friends (and even experimented with drag a bit before realizing she's a woman). Thankfully they had a supportive friend group, though her parents were extremely transphobic and ended up cutting her off after she came out. She's pan too, but being trans was the bigger hitter there.

Ophelia got her first crush on a girl back in fourth grade, and Harry was probably the first person she told - not even in the sense of "coming out", they were just talking about crushes and hers happened to be same-sex, it wasn't a big deal for either of them really. Her parents found out soon after and had a similar reaction (Otto's for sure bi himself, but they'd both be supportive either way)

Katherine realized she was asexual shortly after starting college, since she realized she didn't have interest in sex like most of her roommates and classmates. She told Jace first, trusting that he'd be cool about it since he's trans and queer himself, and he helped her process those feelings and get comfortable with it. He's still one of her closest friends!!

If it counts, Kestrel "came out" as a changeling when they were twelve and wreaked havoc in their parents' house, and that's both an allegory for growing up queer and is literally tied to their queer self-discovery.

Eris had a similar story to Kestrel's - their coming out as queer happened about the same time as their other big life decision, when they decided to leave Themyscira and explore the wider world. His mothers were much more supportive of his being agender than the fact that she wanted to leave home, lol.

Most of my OCs in earlier time periods are queer but aren't as aware of it - Madison is demisexual but wouldn't have a term for it, and Robin would realize she'd bisexual and come out later in life (and Peter's probably the first person she tells, and they work out that bit of self-discovery together). Rae is bi too, but it's more of a lingering fact in the back of her mind. She doesn't repress it, but she also doesn't really acknowledge it.

And while I sometimes write Prometheus with they/them pronouns and their relationship could easily be read as queer, I'm not including them in this lineup both because any queerness would be innate to them without any perceived need to come out, and because I intentionally gave them more of an open-interpretation identity because I wanted their fics to work as reader-inserts (they don't have to be, but they can be)

[mildlyinterestedcreature]

My Headcanoned labels for the doctors (no none of them are allocishet obviously) classic edition

[1: heteroflexible genderfluid, 2: queer demiboy, 3: gay greyromantic, 4: rainbow because I have no clue what’s going on with that dude, 5: aroace, 6: gay aromantic, 7: non-binary asexual, 8: aroace]

[velvetvexations]

Just read that t4t masc4fem (?) kind of article everyone is speaking of, and sure... Being a trans man in the nonbinary lesbian kind of way myself, I kind of understand gnc or queer transfem ppl feeling repulsed since it just feels like too much gender roles...

I can't deal with cis nor trans men who'd approach me like this, not because I see it as predatory but because it's just not my cup of tea. It's not hurting me to get flowers. Or if a femme person is interested in a way that expects an overtly 'manly' role of me etc., again I am not harmed by them expressing such interest.

Initiation isn't coercion, it's where you can either give or not give consent. That's how people find people to date or flirt with. No shit.

Also... There are trans people into those dynamics described in the article. Trans people who wish they could just go on a kind of a stereotypical straight people date. Even a bit old-fashioned flowers and stuff. I think people forget how magical that can be to trans people who, by default, are not expected to be able to experience it.

I'll respect trans folk who find this type of thing gender-affirming. I've seen t4t straight or masc/fem couples like these, as well as butch/femme lesbian couples like this. This is normal trans and/or queer people stuff.

The way people read into the article as inherently rapey or predatory or incelish seem wild to me. Have they ever read anything written by an actual incel...? Because I'll tell you. Incels describe everything a woman says as manipulation. Incels view every interaction with women as a power game. Incels encourage deception, emotional abuse, manipulation and coercion.

None of the above is implied in the article. It's cheesily written for sure, but says something about society how cishets can have their cheesy romantic straight people things but when trans people do, it's gross and bad...?

Trans people are... * checks notes * attracted to or interested in relationships with literally ANYONE and are inherently seen as predators. That's fucked up. I feel like this could even be internalized shame in some of these transfems esp. if terfs have demonized transfem lesbians a lot so it's like. Seeing a trans guy into fem people be masculine and cheesily romantic feels like a taboo, I guess? Could that be it?

Ughh. Also. The part about "exploring sexuality unconventionally" or whatever, being equated to cis guys' tgirl fetishes... Like. People commenting this stuff do not know anything about trans men's sexualities or complex relationships to our bodies. To me that immediately read as;

"Another trans person will understand that the sexual roles or acts we may prefer may not be stereotypical to what people automatically assume about our anatomies."

Allocishet people have an infamously poor grasp of the idea. Trans people on the other hand... May be a liiiiittle better about taking dysphoria to account and not reducing people to specific sexual roles based on their anatomy.

Also they really have decided to view trans men as these hypersexual predatory monsters who can't even be attracted to someone without being a fucking predator. Idk that hurts to read. I wonder if it's again some internalized stuff from how TERFs predatorjacket and shame transfeminine people's sexualities. So they feel instinctively angry, because of shame, when seeing anoter trans person be a sexual being.

Also I wish more people understood not everything other people are into sexually or romantically is about them, nor has to be their cup of tea.

Yeah, it is like, at worst kinna retrograde humor but even on that level it's...not a big deal, and the outrage is especially galling because this is right in the midst of egg drama where it is vitally important we still be allowed to stereotype trans girls.

I wish I had more to add to what you've said here anon but you really laid it out.

[tokillamockingbird427]

None of the Walker's are allocishet's or tops fro that matter

Don't know what's going on with them. Shit is beyond human comprehension. They have goals beyond our understanding.

[sam-glade]

9. Are there cultural or lore specific aspects to their identity? If applicable, does their species affect it?

Give me an infodump >:3

15. Do any of your ocs use neopronouns? Which ones?

Thank you, Feather 💜 Answering in reverse order, since the info dump will get lengthy ;)

(For the Pride ask game)

15. Do any of your ocs use neopronouns? Which ones?

None at the moment, unless you count the Sun King using He/Him as opposed to he/him (or They/Them, depending on the time period), analogously to the Judeo-Christian God ;).

9. Are there cultural or lore specific aspects to their identity? If applicable, does their species affect it?

Tl;dr: the Sunblessed Realm has always, throughout its history, been a queer-normative society, so the idea of a 'queer' identity doesn't exist in the same way as in the real world - i.e. defined in opposition to the allocishet norm.

Sexual orientation:

The assumption in the setting is that you're pansexual/bisexual unless otherwise specified (and that's a fair assumption for my characters. Being attracted to a particular gender is pretty comparable to simply having a strong type, so letting someone down by saying 'sorry, I'm not into men' is polite enough, though of course people can still get salty and disappointed ;)

On a personal preference note, I like to define my characters as having a preference (strong or weak or none at all) for masculinity/femininity, so a character who in our world would consider himself a gay man isn't going to have second thoughts about having some fun with a drag king or a very masc woman. He may decide he's not 100% into that, but hey, it was worth a try.

And yes, there are no gender restrictions on marriage or on adoption. We also have at least one example of a polycule on page from a recurring character (Renna of the Sixth Tree), though I didn't need to figure out how the wedding ceremony works then. Yet (eyeing The Truth Teller warily)

Relatedly, given the in theory indefinite lifespan, averaging around 270-300 years, during the period from reaching adulthood at 35 to the cusp of their first century people are free to experiment and decide what they want out of life. Family? Adventure? Are they more of free spirits and don't want to settle anywhere? This also covers what sort of relationships they want.

Gender identity:

I'm using the baseline of 3% of people being genderqueer - it's really hard to find reliable statistics, since it's impossible to tell if the respondents are being honest. That still means that if you live even in a small rural community of 70-100 people, you will probably know a couple of genderqueer folks, so while it's rarer than being cis, it's still fairly common knowledge. It certainly helps that Anthea, a head of state, is trans and that's public knowledge.

Children (up until the age of 35) are considered genderless. Only when they reach adulthood, they choose a name for themselves, which tends to be gendered, thus declaring 'hey, I'm a man/woman/something else/both/neither'. As a rule of thumb, feminine names end in -a or -is, masculine in -m or -n, though it's just a custom, not a requirement, and people from other regions (e.g. Nikols) won't follow it. More on the coming of age ceremony here.

Fashion is also different between genders, in that it tends to highlight the physical appearance and characteristics people tend to find appealing about the given gender. Hence, women's gowns will be slightly cinched at the waist, emphasising the hips, while men's will make their shoulders look a little broader. This also means that trans women can easily add rolls around hips and pad their bodices to have more of an hourglass silhouette, while trans mascs... 🥲 *Cries over a bust too big for a binder*

Ehm, anyway. Gender non-conformity is also considered not scandalous, so we've got e.g. Erya, who's by our standards a butch, never wearing jewellery, and if you tell her to put on a skirt you run a serious risk of ending up with a knife in your gut.

Other than that, the current (as of Days of Dusk) fashion is that men are clean shaven. Hair length is correlated to digital status more than gender, not none of these are hard and fast rules.

Aromanticism and asexuality

Again, it's hard to tell how common these identities are irl, but I wager that more than 9 in 10 people enjoys romance, and so we've got some courting rituals as you might expect. It's not impolite to try flirting with someone and be told 'no' without an explanation (not into you? not into this sort of relationship at all? just not looking for anyone right now?), but it would be rude to press the advances further.

As for anyone ace, there are at least two notable figures who haven't entered into a long-term romantic relationship even once over their millennia-long lives (the Prince of the West and Claren the Nightingale, Ianim's tutor), so that hopefully sends enough of a message that you don't need to pair up with someone to have a fulfilling life. Also, given the long lifespan, I imagine a lot of people (e.g. parents who want grandkids) accepting that there's no need to rush to get married and have children. Maybe their child will change their mind later in life. Maybe they'll form other bonds and e.g. become the glue that keeps a community together.

It's also worth mentioning that sex work is legal and regulated by a guild, much like any other trade, so if anyone is wondering 'do I like sex at all' can easily go to a brothel to find out. Similarly, aromantic allosexuals (*cough* Gullin *cough*) may be frequent clients.

[aroaceconfessions]

Cw: discussions of homophobia

I was having a listen night over discord messages with two of my friends, and we’re all aroace. I will say that I’m more neutral than them, like I’m in a romantic relationship (t4t, somewhat a man with a trans man) and all that.

Anyways, I hit an ad so they have to pause and wait for me, and I casually joke “that’s so homophobic of Spotify”. One of them says in return “[name] none of us are gay”

I am INCREDIBLY baffled, like. Wdym none of us are gay???? Did something happen?? We all have the same identity?? When did we become allocishet??? Who’s going to tell my bf that lol?? I even thought they were joking at first and then it turned out they were serious. They were like “oh it’s aphobic” and ofc we were still joking around and then moved on to talking about Bojack horseman.

For more context, I’m from a conservative state and both these friends are from pretty liberal/accepting states. So while I use gay/queer/homophobic as an umbrella term, my friends . Kinda don’t, like the labels are very important and the people in their states know the labels better. In my town, the bigots just hate everyone. If you’re not straight or anything you’re the enemy and they let you know. I guess up in my friends states they have backstabbing ally’s where they accept some parts of the community but not others (?).

Idk what the moral is, I don’t really have one. I’m not mad at my friend at all I just felt. So confused and ostracized at that and it’s just a reminder that most of my friends won’t really ever know my experience and how isolating it is. Like I call myself gay because it’s basically a class identity, it’s how everyone else down here will treat me. My greatest ally is a professor at my college that uses the term transvestite (and I would kill for her she’s amazing just so y’all know) Idk. Idk !! I just needed a place to vent cause I don’t wanna make my friends upset when this is really just a whole cultural/regional differences thing and they did nothing wrong.

[bookwyrminspiration]

hello i brought up the terrible cultural representstion in keeper to my parents and they said it was probably the publisher pushing for it. dyou have any thoughts? you seemed like the best person to ask about this

I don't know if I'm the best person, but I can certain share some thoughts about it. I'm assuming by cultural representation you're referring to the lack of diverse characters--and subpar representation/inclusion of the few characters who are diverse? (this is a bit long, so warning)

While I doubt it was the only thing, it is likely publishing affected the diversity; this was a book pitched and sold in the early 2010s in an industry dominated by white women--I found an article from 2016 saying about 79% of publishing staff are white. The same survey in 2019 found 76% were white, so while I can't find one more recent at the moment, it's safe to say it's still a very white-dominated industry.

Keeper is published by Simon & Schuster, and I found a few various sources talking about them, but nothing significant enough to override what I've already cited (which applies to them as well). You can check out this site citing a few employee statistics about them, if you're curious.

If you look through the people Shannon thanks in the acknowledgments of her books--Like Laura Rennert, Lara Perkins, Taryn Fagerness, etc.--the people she's working with and surrounded by appear to be predominantly white women (though I didn't look up every single name, and I'm specifically focusing on book 1 right now), and the thing about agents and editors and all the like is that they'll be much more incentivized to work with/sell/buy a book that they connect to emotionally, which in this case is white stories.

The same applies to authors, which I think is another aspect of the supbar diveristy. Shannon's--as far as I know--an abled allocishet non-hispanic white American woman. Authors like to write stories they connect to and see themselves in (which isn't inherently a bad thing), and for her that means stories with straight, cis, abled white characters and heavy American influence. And this story is scouted and enjoyed by white agents/editors/publishers/etc. (I don't know enough about them to truly discuss their identities, I'm coming to conclusions based on suggestive evidence, but may be wrong).

I can't tell you what's going on in their heads, but it's entirely possible that the lack of diversity wasn't a conscious choice, but rather something that none of them prioritized or noticed. Publishers appear to have some sort of diversity "quota" as well, not going beyond it. This opinion piece briefly mentions it amongst the rest of its discussion, how white publishers at Simon & Schuster questioned whether they needed to bid to publish a black author when they already had another. This is, however, one anecdotal instance and may not be representative. My point in including it is to be aware of what the scene may be and how, even though Shannon is white and therefore more likely to be published, a story with increased diversity may not be seen as necessary or be pushed for. Instead, the diversity in their company can come from other authors. So unless Shannon makes that conscious effort herself, she won't be punished for the lack.

That all discusses this from the perspective of including diversity. There's also the matter of the diversity that is there, which has been dissected and commented on by people far more knowledgeable than me. The two are related, and there are likely similar causes.

Once again, Shannon doesn't have the personal experience or knowledge of the various characters/backgrounds she includes. And her editors/publishers likely don't either, which may explain in part what we see in the books. I don't know whether keeper has sensitivity readers or not, but if there aren't any that could also contribute.

Improvements have been made with time--there are more characters of color than when we started--but that doesn't make these improvements without fault. So I think she is making an effort, but it's falling short. And if the prior observation about how they can meet their diversity quota with other authors continues here, there may not be significant push from her publishers/editors etc. to truly focus on quality diverse representation. They're committed to her story at this point and won't stop her, but they don't need her to do much, perhaps? And Shannon has, to an extent, backed herself into a corner because so much of her story was established without diversity early on, and there's only so much she can add later--we see now how the cast is started to get very crowded and complicated with all its additions, and her focus is on Sophie regardless.

There's a lot going on and I'm only touching the tip of the iceberg--and I am not an expert or professional of any kind, so take my observations and hypotheses with a grain of salt--but based on what i know, publishers likely do play a factor. But Shannon herself plays a role as well; the fact of the matter is the story she wrote isn't very diverse. And it was appealing to certain publishers, because the industry is abled straight white woman dominated. So there is a lack of representation, and the representation there feeds into stereotypes and generally isn't good.

No one cause can be blamed, but instead the intersection of various reasons contribute to the diversity issues--that's my conclusion, but don't just take it from me. Think about it for yourself and listen to others as well. I don't quite know where I'm going with all this, but hopefully some of this satisfies your questioning

If not or if anyone would like to discuss it further--including correcting me on anything I may have missed or insensitively said--my inbox is always open.

[oatmeal-stans-the-trash-rat]

YOU! 🫵 talk about your ocs! (if you want :3)

i am ✨ interested ✨ 👀

Since ya asked, here's some things about my OCs! All of them are from my current WIP, Through Society's Eyes.

Argus: he/him, the Hero, sass up the ass, has some questionable moral background, 100% what is referred to as a True Altruist. As most Heroes are, has a rough/tragic backstory. Is often called a cliche by the Narrator (me). Is besties with Ori and enemies with Vesper.

Ori: ze/zir/zem, is closeted so uses he/him until a certain point in the story, the Hero's Bestfriend, wants to be a little more selfish but is afraid to cause ~society~, has some major trust issues. Is besties with Argus and kind of enemies with Vesper & Elidi. Keeps Argus in check when need be. Is a bit of a nerd and takes things literally.

Vesper: they/them, the Villain, completely a selfish person, Gay Sass(tm), is such a queer-coded Villain but they do it on purpose, also not 'queer-coded' cause they're literally ace and it's mentioned multiple times, makes an assload of s*xual jokes, will make snarky retorts to Argus just to piss him off, is a bit on the demented side. Is besties with/mentors Elidi and enemies with Argus. Just likes to f*ck with Ori, basically.

Elidi: she/her, the Villain's Apprentice, wants to be a little more selfless but is afraid of disappointing Vesper, is one the kindest 'Villains' you'll ever meet, also loves making puns that are god-awful, holds a lot of guilt, is more of the background pull-the-lever kind of 'sidekick', idk how she's evil but she has... Things(tm). Is apprenticed to/friends? with Vesper and kind of enemies with Argus & Ori. Can be very questionably violent if need be. Resident lesbian.

Viro: he/they, the Bigger/Badder "Evil", is literally just vibing, snarky and sass and can you say something simply for once omg, is basically Final Boss Battle, shows the rest of the cast things they need to learn and no one takes it well, aro/ace, is Tired of Your Sh*t(tm), likes to f*ck with others sometimes, is just a b*tch to everyone (affectionate). Is kind of just neutral to everyone.

===

I just realized no one is allocishet/cishet at all. None of them. No character whatsoever.

This story is gonna be queer as sh*t-

[zoeywades-spouse]

You make a lot of good points there.

Something like TNA has very obvious gender coding errors, most notably when Paolo talks about how he's marrying Sofia to Sam because he wants her to be a wife and mother and he thinks women shouldn't be in the business world. Yet he's marrying Sofia to a female CEO? There's no amount of mental gymnastics you can do to make that work. And to add salt to the wound are other smaller errors like f!Sam saying the kids have been "without a mother figure" or that time when the kids called f!Sam "Dad".

On the other hand, I think a good example of male-coding that's a little more implicit is Reagan in Surrender. For the most part it probably is a bit easier to suspend any disbelief with female Reagan's writing and behavior. But when you see them say shit like "When a woman agrees to be my sub, she agrees to obey" it feels weird from the female version.

Granted that line has no place in this story regardless of Reagan's gender, but it feels like something that only a misogynistic abusive guy would say. It'd be one thing if they said "when you agree to be my sub you agree to obey" or "when someone agrees to be my sub they agree to obey", but to specify woman in it (even in the possible context that Reagan is into women only regardless of gender) adds a hint of misogyny to it that... doesn't feel right coming from a sapphic woman.

Similarly with Kit from Untameable. Their behavior for the most part felt gender neutral to me, but the way Austin treats their relationship with MC feels more suited for a wlm route. I mean, it's not completely nonsensical for the others and it's honestly terribly written even for the wlm route, but why the mlw route would not accuse him of being slutshamey or the mlm and wlw routes would not accuse him of being homophobic is a bit odd.

With an LI like Kieran though I feel like it's easier to suspend any disbelief. None of Kieran's behaviors felt like they'd be rooted in misogyny, plus it is a fantasy realm setting different from modern day earth.

The extra weird thing about gender coding for LIs is that sometimes it can make the f!LI routes more preferable. I have seen some people say Reagan's behaviors felt less uncomfortable and creepy when they were coming from the female version. And as a GNC woman myself, I far preferred the mlw routes for books like ID, SW, and TCH as they felt a little more refreshing, compared to how been-there-done-that they'd have felt in the originally intended wlm routes. But even then, although stuff like LI carrying MC or MC sitting in LI's lap aren't nonsensical with non-wlm to me, I do still want some stories where it's the wlm route that feels more refreshing than the mlw, y'know. I want to be the one holding the umbrella for the LI, or bridal-carrying the LI, or having the LI sitting in my lap.

I'm noticing a lot of these problems– both the actual male coding of f!LIs and the lack of variety in romance dynamics– do boil down to essentially PB being lazy. They just play it safe and rely on a narrow stereotyped view of who their audience is (genderconforming allocishet women) and what they think they like. They rarely if ever expand their boundaries– and what makes that tragic is the fact that they have shown to be capable of doing so every now and then. But for the most part, it's playing it safe 90% of the time.

Sorry for the long ask, I just have a lot of thoughts on this.

Don’t apologize for the long ask! I love talking about gender so thank you! 😊

I agree that TNA has very obvious gender coding errors that make it clear when PB wrote Sam they wrote them as a man. And you’re spot on that there’s a difference between Sam and Regan but at the end of the day their writing still comes across as them being male-coded.

I think the biggest problem with Untameable in terms of gender coding isn’t the writing of Kit themselves but how they write the other characters’ perceptions and reactions to Kit.

Austin is definitely way too overprotective when it comes to female Kit but my biggest gripe is how in rural Oklahoma everyone is completely okay with Kit being a player who has a history of hooking up with only women. And all the women publicly fawning over her too? It’s completely unrealistic and shows that PB didn’t even consider how this would be unbelievable when Kit is a woman.

Listen I’m all for more queernorm stories but this story isn’t queernorm because outside of female Kit and MC there is not a single queer romance depicted. So having everyone in rural Oklahoma know Kit is queer and having them all be okay with it and a bunch of girls fawn over her just shows that Kit was written as a man by PB.

With Kieran I gotta say I disagree with you there. Domestic abuse and intimate partner violence is rooted in the patriarchy and when the victim is a woman rooted in misogyny. Kieran kidnapped the MC and abused her. I don’t think having that be in a fantasy setting changes the gender roles in any way, not when they’re literally being abusive. Even if Kieran is a woman in someone’s story, that abuse is still rooted in the patriarchy and misogyny.

Furthermore, the Cursed Heart is clearly inspired by A Court of Thorns and Roses. This book series is ripe with misogyny, violence against women, and so forth. The love interest in that series is this dark, brooding man from the Night Court (yes PB used the same name too) who literally groomed the 19 year old main character, SA’d her, and kidnapped her. Yet his abuse is then justified by the author and he is turned into the romantic hero of the series.

So personally I think Kieran’s actions are rooted in the patriarchy and misogyny no matter if it’s in a fantasy world or not, no matter if they’re a man or a woman. Abuse is a lot more common in cishet relationships (and while it can obviously happen in queer relationships it’s not as prevalent and even then that abuse is still rooted in the patriarchy) and considering the inspiration behind the Cursed Heart as well I’d say that Kieran is male-coded.

And you’re spot on. The problem is that PB knows which people in their audience pay the most (genderconforming allocishet women) and writes stories for them. They don’t consider how the relationship dynamics are different when it’s a queer relationship compared to a cishet one.

PB has definitely shown that they’re capable of it. For example, when playing Guinevere I really at any point never picked up on the LIs being heavily gendered towards male or female. And I agree PB absolutely has the ability to write these stories and LIs with care and consideration they just choose not to. It’s all about money these days which is very disappointing

Thanks for the ask!

[topherbuttz]

Yeah actually I don't feel like bothering people on this so I'm making my own post.

Shut the fuck UP you disgusting pig. Trans Liberation is The People's Liberation and until we live in a world where we are seen as equivalent to a cis person I can and will threaten the lives of bigots around me. Are you so comfortable you're willing to roll over and allow them to legislate our existence out of the world???

Let me make one thing clear to you, since I do know you struggle with putting together basic concepts, Jeffrey:

Bigots will not be happy until we are dead. I am not allowed to simply LIVE in any way that will be tolerable for them. Even if I stay in my 'lane' (being a 'girl') I am not ever going to meet the standard of allocishetnormativity they want me to. None of us will. Hell, even allocishets don't meet their impossible standards, the bar will always be changing.

So you can either stand on the side of justice and use your fists to bring equality like the rest of us, or fold your hands in your lap like a good little queer while they shoot you dead.

@xxxbloodskiesdarkwaterxxx

[thepetrichorcollective]

Decepticons, Transform and Rise!

Hi! welcome to the blog, we're The Petrichor Collective.

This is our system sideblog, we run several other blogs and we'll have them listed here soon.

PLEASE READ

our dni:

(pro) endo/Nontraumagenics systems

terf/swerf/radfem

believe in "narc abuse"

anti-mspec, including anti-mspec gays/lesbians, anti-turigirls/lesboys

enby-skeptic/gender critical

(pro)pedo/map

nsfw/kink/vent/gore centered blog

use "yandere/yanderecore", your blog is centered around it or you make content of it and dont have BPD or OLD

you demonize/villainize cluster b disorders

ablest/racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic or bigoted in some way

aroace exclusionary

radincluse/radexcluse/radqueer or "gold star lesbian"

proship/anti-anti

anti-kin, anti-irl, anti-therian, anti-other/nonhuman

ant-agere/petre, think its only sexual or sexualize it

disrespect triggers or purposefully upset others

or support any of the above

people on thin ice:

are bodily under 14 or over 24.

are neurotypical and/or allocishet

neutral on endos

neutral on any of the above

oti:

system

respectful singlet

none of the above apply (especially the dni)

support cripplepunk

share sources/are sourcemates

share interests

are moots of the host

about us: We are a DID, autistic, dyslexic, psychotic system with npd, bpd and a bunch of other things.

collectively:

Blue/Stoat/Tawny, They/He/It/Rain/Storm/Cloud, Nonbinary, TransMasc, AroAce, Queer, Queerplatinic, Xenogender.

the body:

white, 19, severely anemic, disabled, currently a cane user.

frequent fronters:

Tai/Vapour+, host, they/neos - #admin vapour

vax, cohost/caretaker/protector, 22, he/him - #admin vax

eris/eros+, cohost/protector, symptom holder, she/he/neos - #admin e

molly, caretaker, any prns - #admin molly/#admin mollymauk

hanzo, late 30's, he/him - #admin hanzo

jesse, caretaker, late 30's, he/him - #admin jesse

shared interests:

storms/rain

music (rock/acoustic/folk/piano/lofi/ost's)

cooking/baking

drawing

animals (bats/bunnies/cats/foxes/birds)

stars

links

where to find us - kofi - alters looking for sourcemates - tags

tbu

[kodicraft]

I for one would LOVE to see your cyberpunk rant.

(btw i appreciate a lot the fact you would encourage me to post about this /gen)

Alright, here goes.

I'm gonna start by reiterating the initial things I said when I "announced" this, I stated that big budget alien (as in, sci-fi with a focus on non-human space lifeforms, think Star Wars or Avatar as opposed to something like Interstellar) and Cyberpunk stories tend to be a big waste of a really great concept due to prudery, anthrocentrism (I'll be defining this word I made up later) and occasionally racism.

I think both alien and cyberpunk stories tend to suffer from these issues but they appear in very different ways, so I'll talk first about cyberpunk and then about alien stories.

Cyberpunk is a genre that hinges on great technological progress, people now have cybernetic enhancements, everything is an electronic device and everything is interconnected on the internet. While "cyberpunk" was first claimed by a futuristic sci-fi story, cyberpunk as we know it was popularized by Cyberpunk 2013 (and its sequels). It decides to take a much greater look at the social and political consequences of this technological progress which arguably made it very attractive back in 1988. Nowadays more than ever, its setting and story can be used as a direct parallel to the present time and it's clear that it's still a very popular genre thanks to games such as Cyberpunk 2077, arguably one of the most anticipated video games in the last few years.

Obviously, when you have something as large as "technological progress" as a critical plot point, you can take it in lots of creative directions! You can say a lot about the world by displaying current or potential abstract issues with a concrete image like body augmentations.

In 2020, quarantine forced a large majority of the world to work from home, entirely dependent on their electronic devices for working and ultimately being able to live. This can be directly compared to electronic enhancements in cyberpunk stories. These are electronic devices that can allow people to work and socialize in entirely new ways, however they are made by corporations, often closed source, and very expensive. Cyberpunk stories can take these fundamental concepts they have and put them in convincing stories to be able to comment on the real world and create an immersive universe. These are incredibly powerful tools for conveying your world and making it interesting.

Do big budget cyberpunk stories do this though? Rarely, if ever! In Cyberpunk 2077, augmentations are never questioned. They have none of the flaws of a real electronic device and are instead just an excuse for abilities and the occasional plot armor. What sucks even more is the fact that in order to convey their world, these stories rely on extremely fucking stupid tropes.

Sex work, god I fucking hate sex work in cyberpunk stories. It's always literally just used to "show how bad things are". If you know me, you know I genuinely respect sex work and that I believe it is unfairly stigmatized and separated from other types of work. Obviously, the white allocishet male does not care because he is a prude and immediately correlates seeing a prostitute with a sign that society is crumbling.

I hate how prevalent sex work is as a cyberpunk trope, it's shoved in the face of the person consuming the work because the writers couldn't find a genuine way to use all of the tools their genre allows them to have in order to convey the depth of their fictional society. It's a crutch for bad writers, and quite frankly really insulting to sex work. Like please, these people have consumed porn in the past, of course they have, do they really lack the thought process to realize that it's a very important part of society and that it simply existing isn't a dystopian feature?

Sex work can definitely be used in good ways, don't get me wrong. I will always love works that genuinely normalize or comment on the stigmatization of sex work, but big budget cyberpunk stories written by prudes don't do that.

Same goes for gender stuff too, like are you gonna tell me that in this world full of electronic prosthetics and enhancements literally nobody is openly non-binary, transgender augmentations aren't literally everywhere? That's an incredibly unconvincing aspect of these stories that's entirely due to the fact that the writers are so goddamn close-minded and probably all cishets.

This is also the part where racism comes into play. I'll be more brief about this because it's not nearly as common as the other two criticisms I have at least in my experience, but it's worth remembering that cyberpunk is a very occident-centric genre mostly written and consumed by whites. Part of the appeal (to some, not to me) of cyberpunk is its "exoticism", how "different" it is from the present (which as I already stated is not true, but again, this is only the case to some people). Obviously, when you're a white writer with an immense toolkit of creative tools, what do you do? Fucking base yourself on asian culture.

Oh my fucking god.

The stereotypes of "Japanese" and "Chinese" culture are fucking filthy. It genuinely feels sometimes in these stories like the world is governed by weebs. I can understand that "Japanese culture" is very different from the Occident in a lot of ways that can be interesting to explore, it's genuinely uncomfortable as fuck when characters are literally just stereotypical anime men and women. Playing through Cyberpunk 2077 with its stupid-ass focus on this futuristic Chinatown felt like I was visiting a Chinese town as told by a American conservative.

This even combines with the prostitution point from earlier! White men fetishizing Asian women is nothing new but it's just way too fucking present in these big budget cyberpunk stories. Since the teams in big corporations are so heavily stacked against women and POC, it's clear why that's so often the case.

The last point that I cited was the "anthrocentrism", now, that's a term I coined myself because I couldn't find a preexisting word that said what I mean.

Anthrocentrism refers to a tendency in writing fictional non-human characters as just humans with "differences" shoehorned in. Think anthropomorphic two-legged aliens that breathe that are mammals or androids with mechanical blood that need to eat something (but oooo it cant be human food!!!). This is just a design route I hate a lot, humans aren't the center of the world and real beings aren't just humans but different. These anthrocentric characters tend to have very surface-level differences from humans that are made into big important plot points just to try to show how different they are, which really just brings attention to how they're not that different at all. I think Avatar is a very good example of that: Avatars are literally just bigger stronger humans with blue skin, a cat nose and a tail. They are mammals, they still breathe, eat, hunt, have societies with birth rituals, death rituals, hierarchies, etc. That fucking sucks so bad, these aliens are more similar to humans than 99% of creatures on Earth.

But I'm not talking about aliens yet, anthrocentrism tends to be apparent in big budget cyberpunk stories through artificial intelligence! For some fucking reason, these AIs are designed to be limited in very similar ways to humans. They don't benefit from multithreaded thoughts or snapshots or clusters or even internet connectivity. These are all features of computers that can be incredibly interesting for an AI but their implications are deep, you can't just multithread a human mind, you need to design a mind from scratch to support features like these, and obviously clever design is too damn hard for our poor close-minded big budget writers. I like how Portal decides to do this with GlaDOS. GlaDOS is a backed up human mind, while she gets access to controls for the facility and a highly advanced processor, she isn't fully artificial. Her human limitations make sense and are convincing.

In Cyberpunk 2077, Delamain is just an AI that drives cars. It has a human face n shit, but it's just a driver. Does it have anything that makes it different from humans fundamentally? Nope, its only differences from human characters is the fact it talks very formally and doesn't have a physical form. This is such a goddamn waste of a perfectly good idea because the writers can't be fucked to write a non-human character without it just being a human with surface level changes.

You can make the excuse "humans made it so it makes sense that it would resemble humans" but like when has that ever happened in real life? Literally what piece of technology around you has been designed to resemble humans? Our technology is an interface between the human world and a mathematical abstract world. Why don't we have characters that are the other way around? Why don't we have mathematical abstract characters that need interfaces to interact with the real world? That would be so cool! Strange non-human entities that program their own interfaces so the human at the monitor notices their presence, trying to learn human language based on their natlang processing code in order to communicate. That would be so fucking cool!

Let's go back to Avatar because I still have more to bitch about. The anthrocentrism in the series doesn't end at the design of the characters. Next time you watch one of the movies, pay attention to the breasts of "female" Aliens. Just admire the fucking lengths the artists went through because female nipples can't be shown on screen. They still want their aliens to look tribal and primitive for some reason but no nipples, not allowed. I think that it should say a lot about how these characters are just different humans that the prudery of the executives forces their clothes to behave so awkwardly. Star Wars for instance does a little better on this front but quite frankly most aliens that aren't based on humans are nothing but one-time side characters, which is possibly more insulting than them not being there in the first place as it shows that the writers only value human-like characters.

Why???? There are so many animals on earth and you pick fucking humans??????? Motherfucker there are creatures on god's green earth you could convince the whole of the internet are aliens from how they look and behave but you decide to make them anthropomorphic breathing mammals? With custom biology you can create such interesting characters with particular abilities and a unique culture that's so different from the real world that it truly feels like seeing another world, another convincing world that could have been ours.

The racism shows here again. I think we can all immediately identify the issues with displaying any non-human societies as "tribal" with "primitive" technology unless they're the bad guys. To white close-minded humans, that's what non-humans are.

Also, considering the fact that these writers aren't really making a creative and unique biology this is a bit of a moot point, but really, no alien reproduction? Are humans such prudes that we can't even imagine a reproduction process that isn't unacceptable to show to children? You are creating Aliens, fictional creatures, you have full absolute control over the biology and sociology of these creatures, you are literally god itself but you still drop an integral part of who they are just because it's too sexy.

Now, I do recognize that this is not always because of close-minded white neurotypical allocishet male writers, sometimes it's because of close-minded white neurotypical allocishet male executives! Either way, at some point in these high budget creations there is someone who doesn't understand their own humanity, who doesn't understand what humanity is or means, who can't put themselves in the boots of someone who isn't a white neurotypical allocishet male, and because of how the world is right now, that person is the weakest link and makes the chain break.

Smaller budget stories are just so much better, usually they are written by people doing it out of real passion, smaller groups with lots of creative cohesion, and usually people with a way better grip on reality.

I myself am currently writing my own sci-fi story, and am paying attention to how my setting can be used to comment on the present while creating an engaging fictional world. I've experimented with creating custom species and cultures in the past and if you know me you know I ain't no prude. I'll post it here once I'm done, this way if I'm a hypocrite I can be fairly judged for it.

Ok that's it for my rant, again thanks for feeding the fire that is my spiteful soul.

[delete-the-kisses]

rant about religion/christianity below

i've thought about religion and queerness a lot recently, mostly because my friendgroup now has queer people and also a straight, religious girl.

i used to believe in god. and when i got older i just stopped believing. there was science and evidence and the internet and my baby gay brain was like "woah! i'm not a sinner because none of this shit is real!"

my family apart from my grandma and aunt aren't really religious either. my mom and dad have never repressed me or my identity and haven't tried to make me believe in anything. and don't get me wrong; i don't really have any childhood religious trauma either? so now it's like, why do i of all people care?

but it truly, truly hurts me how much of this whole fucking world is being run by major religion. why is christianity a part of literal fucking social structures? why do they teach religion in public school? (not in every country but mine) why does the president say god bless you in their speech? (once again, could be just my country.)

and another thing that hurts is that it's scientifically proven that being religious can give you brain damage. because religion refuses to change with time and the sole fucking reason humanity has survived this long is adapting to change.

i know there's accepting christians. my friend's family is incredibly accepting. my friend may be allocishet, white and christian and she's one of the most open-minded, kind, amazing people i've ever met. her family is so kind as well.

but then, there are the ones who say that being queer is a mental illness. there are the ones who invite a priest over to cure their child who just came out. there are the ones making anti trans and queer laws and banning pride flags. that's the other extreme.

most christians i've met aren't straight up hateful. they're a calm, civil, hidden kind of hateful who get kind of uneasy when there's discussion around queerness or just... something that doesn't agree with their stance.

and i GENUINELY have trouble understanding how your worldview can be centered around something that there's literally no scientific proof of. sorry (not) if this offensive but to me, it's equivalent to believing in unicorns. but i respect your beliefs and i won't make fun of you for them or hate you for them BECAUSE i refuse to be equally bad.

i also don't understand willingly being a part of something that limits the things you can do. why are you living a restricted life to get into heaven where there truly isn't any certainty that it even exists? how do you blindly trust this? isn't religion just a socially acceptable cult?

and why the fuck do you claim to accept other people's beliefs and religions but the SECOND someone's a satanist you go guns-a-blazing at them. (fun fact: satanism isn't even about the christian satan!) (fun fact 2: no queer person is going to hell for their identity and telling someone they'll go to hell is mean and disrespectful!)

is it TRULY necessary to "spread the gospel" to people? that is literally just shoving your beliefs down other people's throats... the EXACT thing you claim the lgbtqia+ community is doing. or is it only okay since it's your belief?

why are your morals based on your religion? i see shit on social media saying "atheists, what's restricting you from just killing someone if your religion isn't telling you not to?" and maybe that's an extreme example but what do you MEAN "what's restricting you"?! MAYBE MORALS? BASIC HUMAN DECENCY? like... do you find yourself lacking those??? if the bible tells you to hit your wife and support slavery do you do those things??? (the bible probably says both of those lmfao.)

so. that was my rant for today. ain't no hate like christian love, amirite? if you're christian or religious otherwise and find yourself reading this with an urge to comment "jesus loves you" or "god please help her" just save the time. every time i get a comment like that i carve a pentagram on a dead goat! xoxo

(everyone believe whatever the fuck you want i don't care but remember anyone has the right to question it. christianity is the biggest world religion btw and the "oppression" you experience stops existing when you put your phone down. stop whining at it. that's all fr byee)

[rose-fall]

Q&A

-

General

Q: Why are they furries?

A: ‘Cause I want them to be. I’m a furry and I enjoy drawing anthro characters. I know them being anthros have nothing to do with the story, lore, or symbolism at all but I don’t really care.

Q: Why are there two blogs? Why not just post the pages on this one?

A: I post the pages on a separate blog, @rose-fall-comic, for organization purposes. It’s easier to navigate the comic there than it would be on this blog. The pages have their own tagging system and I don’t want to add a whole bunch more tags to my tag guide just for volume navigation alone, so I feel it’s just best to keep them all in one place instead.

Adaptations

Q: Can I make a comic dub of Rose Fall?

A: Not yet. I know I’ll be ok with it one day though (when that happens I’ll update this answer). Just not now.

Q: Can I translate the comic into another language?

A: Yes, I’m all for making the comic accessible for other languages. As long as you keep the integrity of the original (dont change any story details, don’t change characters’ genders, sexualities, etc.). Make sure to post it with proper credit too, including links to the original english version. I’d prefer you post it either on Tumblr or ComicFury. If you want textless versions of the pages, DM me and I’ll provide you a link to a Trello board that holds textless versions of public pages so it’ll be easier for you to edit.

Other Permissions

Q: Can I submit any of the characters to gimmick blogs? (otd blogs, polls, etc.)

A: Nope. I don’t want the kind of exposure polls or otd (of the day) blogs would give. Or any gimmick blog for that matter. This includes gimmick blogs made to be specifically about Rose Fall too (examples: roleplay blogs, incorrect quote blogs, out of context blogs, confession blogs, etc.).

Q: Can I make a tvtropes/fandom wiki/etc. page/article on Rose Fall?

A: Nope. Though if I wanted a fandom wiki for Rose Fall, I’d make it myself.

Q: Are headcanons regarding the characters ok?

A: It depends. I don’t want anyone having headcanons that changes a character’s gender or orientation (since none of my characters are allocishet) or headcanons that removes a character’s transness or disability. However, I am fine with trans headcanons of characters that aren’t canonically trans (as long as the gender itself isn’t changed) and headcanons that give a character a disability they aren’t confirmed to have (as long as its disability-positive, none of that “this character is an awful person so they must have [insert demonized mental disability]” bullshit). I also ask to not spread headcanons as though they are fact.

Questions That Will Be Ignored

Q: Can you draw this or that for me?

A: I’m not taking requests. I’ll make posts whenever I’m feeling up for it though. But those times will be temporary and they won’t occur often.

Q: What would this character look like in a certain media’s world? / How would this character fit in a certain media’s world?

A: I don’t like trying to translate my characters into worlds they weren’t made for. So you won’t be getting any answers to these kinds of questions. The same goes for whenever I’m open for requests too, I won’t take any requests that are like “draw so-and-so as if they were in this one media’s world”.

Q: What are your thoughts on *insert other webcomic name*?

A: I won’t answer these kinds of questions and any similar because they are not Rose Fall related. And while we’re at it, I don’t want anyone to name drop any other creators here under any context either. To avoid spreading misinformation. If I do ever somehow respond to a question that name drops another creator, the post will be private.

Q: *insert what is essentially roleplay*

A: Just don’t try to roleplay in my inbox lol. If you wanna interact with my characters, you can do so at the ask blog, @ask-rose-fall.

Q: *insert what is essentially venting*

A: We are both strangers to each other. I’d prefer you didn’t vent in my inbox. Please talk with a professional or someone you trust if you’re feeling unsafe. If by any chance I do answer, the post will be private.

[origami-butterfly]

7, 8 and 14 for the pride asks :)

7. Am I the "token" queer person in my family?

Kind of! In my immediate family, yes, my brother is extremely homophobic so I'm not out to him, and as far as I know, my parents are allocishet. Although I came out to some of my cousins last Christmas, and one of them came out as pan! I also have an uncle who has something queer going on, although I don't know the specifics. (I think he's pan, although that may have changed since the last time we spoke)

8. Describe my gender without using any words traditionally related to gender:

Incredibly dusty bookshelf containing all the books in the world, however none of the books have been read for centuries. Even when new books are put on the shelf, they immediately age and have somehow not been touched. However there is a cat who occasionally leaves paw prints in the dust.

14. How do I think other factors like neurodivergency or upbringing have impacted my identity?

I live in a fairly "traditional" family, and when I was younger I wasn't really exposed to any sort of queer media. I think the first time I came across any sort of queer rep was Nico Di Angelo saying "I had a crush on Percy" in one of the HOO books, and that kind of made me think "oh, this can happen too?". Didn't really interact with any queer communities until one of my (at the time) close friends said she was confused about her sexuality, so after that I spent a while researching queer identities and labels. I've been raised in a very heteronormative, amatonormative environment, so I'm still figuring a lot of stuff out. Neurodivergency is a whole other can of worms, that I don't know if I can talk about that well.

[autistickirstenlarson]

All my American Girl OCs

Héloise Cormier, an Acadian French girl in 1765, coping with her father’s death, who has recently moved to New Orleans, LA and loves animals, sewing, and playing the fiddle.

Reina Mendes, a Sephardi Jewish girl in 1834 Savannah, GA who dreams of traveling via steamboat across the country but struggles with the expected gender roles of the day.

Aoife Callaghan, an Irish girl who immigrates to Boston, MA during the Great Famine in 1846 who loves helping others and caring for children.

Minna Hoffmann, a German girl in 1889 Johnstown, PA, who has recently survived America’s deadliest flood and loves to play the piano.

Etta Mae Bradley, a half-Black and half-Mexican girl in Amarillo, TX in 1894 who wants to be a teacher but also loves helping on her family farm.

Francesca Vitale, a recent Italian immigrant in 1920 Pittsburgh, PA, who uses baking to cope with her mother’s death and father’s union hardships.

Honoka Oishi, a Japanese girl in 1949 who loves softball and helping in her family’s restaurant in Portland, OR’s, Japantown.

Chela Suarez, a recent arrival from Havana in 1962 Miami, FL, who finds pride in comic books and her Cuban heritage during the beginnings of one of the most tumultuous decades in US history.

Karine Bedrosian, an Armenian girl whose cousin was recently drafted in the Vietnam war, who dreams of being a poet and peace advocate in 1971 Chicago, IL.