#i don't mean this as exclusively an ace option

[helladventurers]

To elaborate a bit on the tags of the last reblog, I wish games with romance options (not talking about games like romance VNs, where the whole point of the game is dating someone) treated remaining single as a route, instead of a "the result of choosing not to engage with the romance aspect of the game"

For example, in games like story of seasons or rune factory, where romance is an optional aspect of the game you can interact with but are not forced to (excluding stuff like RF3 and A Wonderful Life, where you're forced to marry someone to progress), you Can chose to remain single, but in doing so you're missing on stuff like character related events, side stories related to dating people, a lot of character insight that comes from dating them, all of that stuff, and you don't really get anything else in return

So as a follow up to that, if you chose to remain single and not engage romantically with any characters, instead being friends, or in some more extreme cases, unable to get close to a character at all because them opening up to you is tied up to the option of dating them, you get to see new facets of these characters, like you becoming closer platonic friends, or an eventual falling off with a character who has a one sided crush on you because they can't handle being your friend without having said crush being reciprocated, getting to see what would happen to a character who gets character development during your relationship or relies on your love for them for emotional support now that they don't have that to help them

You know, have the choice to remain single one with consequences instead of a mere "option not to engage with our game's romance system"

[stonebutchery]

it's kind of baffling to me that entire sub-groups of queer folks endured a decade of being singled out and targeted for being asexual, aromantic, bisexual, pansexual, nonbinary, polyamorous, etc. and i have yet to see any substantial apologies from people who were directly responsible for causing genuine harm. i find it completely bizarre that there are so many people who want to sweep their past contributions to widespread lateral aggression toward specific queer groups under the rug like it didn't happen so they can wash their hands of it... there are people who are irreversibly traumatized because of this. there are people who took their lives because of it.

i'm wording the post like despite the fact that exclusionism targeting these groups (and more) continues to persist partly because it was a really frighteningly common trend to harass people just because they were ace, aro, bi, pan, nonbinary, poly, etc... and it's crazy to me that many of the people who were affected by this massive multi-pronged public online bullying campaign against the 'unacceptable types of queers' are the ones still receiving messages like "my url got put on an aphobe blocklist in 2016 because apparently a post i made making fun of asexuals got some teenage asexuals harassed and i still distrust asexuals to this day because of that" ...are you fucking kidding me?

we will never achieve any kind of unity as a queer community while we are insisting upon ignoring the hurt that lateral aggression has caused, and acting like the burden lies on the shoulders of the people who were harmed to forgive the people who harmed them and 'just move on', many of whom are not sorry for what they did! or they don't consider what they did to be wrong! how is that not deeply disturbing and troubling to more of you?

03/06/2024 edit: i’m putting a complete moratorium on this post because i am really sick and tired of having my point not only completely misconstrued and distorted entirely but also weaponized against transfems (particularly in replies i have decided to delete about how “ugh yes, exclusionism, and now transfems are bullying transmascs”) i find that really sickening and i’m demanding that it stop, and i can make it stop by turning off reblogs. so i have.

my objective in writing this post was never to request an apology from people who have been laterally-aggressive exclusionists in the past. i don’t think we’ll ever get more than a handful of apologies from those people, anyway. my point was that it was pretty terrifying to witness and experience a lot of lateral aggression that transferred from the real, in-person world to the deeply online spaces back into the real, in-person world in a really fucked up feedback loop and being a young queer person during this time and having that shape me, snd shape the experiences of my queer friends who have been traumatized by it.

however, it is absolutely unacceptable to me that the issue of transmisogyny is so blatantly overlooked by our entire community. for decades, transfems have experienced oppression and exclusion from transmisogyny-exempt women and queers. their exclusion from political queer liberation movements has caused many of the major schisms within our community we are still having arguments about to this day. if you want collective queer liberation, you must uplift transfems. there is no other option. you don’t get to write off all transfems just because one person who happened to be transfem was mean to you online or something.

i have answered and responded to way too many conspiracy-brained transmisogynist reactionaries to allow this post to keep fucking snowballing with people writing paragraphs in the tags about “transmisandry” or “transandrophobia.” please get your heads out of your asses.

this absolutely is the transmisogyny website, as always, and the place where all basic textual comprehension skills go to die, apparently.

[toubledrouble]

More pjo/hoo headcanons

Apollo kids exclusively work out with musics as a cabin, but they always argue about the playlist that should be chosen. Will uses councillor privilege to force them to pick country.

The Athena cabin has a projector for sure

Also, they have youtube premium because of lofi music

Apollo kids have been banned from using guns in training with others (they recreated the ten duel commandments from Hamilton and actually ended up shooting without missing the target. Now, they can only shoot on regular targets, not living ones)

Hephaestus and Athena kids are a living proof of the "an architect's dream is an engineer's nightmare" thing

There is definitely an Athena kid out there that hates math with a burning passion. Their mom isn't very happy about that.

Despite their rivalry, many Apollo kids have Ares cabin bffs - after all, they spend lots of time in the infirmary

Ares kids usually have a great relationship with their father - he is surprisingly encouraging and supportive

Will can definitely ride a horse and you can't convince me otherwise

Also. His mom has a yellow pickup truck with tons of stickers and a guitar on the backseat

Sally refused to use the subway ever since Percy was born (you know how the underground always smells like monsters and that's why Grover didn't notice the chimera? That was exactly why)

Percy used to cry in the seafood section of stores, especially if it had anything living there

Athena kids can achieve Eminem speed during debate, I will not elaborate any further

Oh also. They're not straight As kids, or at least not all of them, especially the older ones. I mean, the school system vs learning disorders? There's no way they're winning that fight entirely. They probably have the subjects they like and ace, and then the subject that are just there, and since they're not failing, they don't really care (yes this is about me getting a C from physics again, I hate physics)

Annabeth loves the "further is for physical distance, farther for metaphorical and father for emotional" tumblr post

Hera's cabin has a family portrait of the olympians, it's quite a bittersweet sight

Let Demeter kids have a scythe as their weapon of choice pls

Athena kids make so many lame nerd puns. Occasionally, a Hephaestus kid or a secret nerd will laugh.

Athena kids are definitely the type to fight the teacher about their grade. They will gather evidence that their answer is technically correct and either impress or annoy the teacher so much they will actually change their grade

All Athena kids have a resting bitch face (just like Hermes kids have a face that says they're troublemakers)

Hermes kids are naturally skilled at orientation on a map and in terrain

Hephaestus and Hermes cabin have once held a lock-picking competition (based on speed but also the amount of damage caused)

Every single person in the Athena cabin has seen both Dead Poets Society and School of Rock (and loved it)

For an absolutely nonexistent reason I think the Aphrodite cabin has some pro tip for washing blood out of clothes and stuff

Very stereotypical of me but in the Ares cabin, the strongest is the leader and their word is law, if you disagree, you gotta participate in a one on one fight of choice (it doesn't matter that much if you win, at least you still prove your bravery and the courage to stand up for what you believe in). Meanwhile, the Athena cabin votes on everything. And yes, they are proud of it. And yes, they have senate level debates where everyone uses whatever dirt they have on the others to win (because they probably know too much gossip without even really intending to) sometimes. Only sometimes.

Also. They have ostrakism which is basically a thing where you break a pot/vase/something, each person gets a piece and carves on the name of someone who is endangering democracy in their option. The person with the most votes gets chased out I think. Athena kids have changed up that part, they simply ban that person from voting for 6 months.

Athena kids with learning disorders. That's all I want to say.

Mentioning my previous 'Athena cabin has a Pallas cat' headcanon

Also Athena kids are the people who will point out historical stuff behind the names of places or companies (example: my country has a shopping centre called palladium, i instill the lore of the original palladium on anyone unfortunate enough to be there with me)

Apollo kids personalise their instruments - stickers, paint, carved initials, cool straps and other accessories, you name it!

They also have a whole row of those instrument hangers, yk what i mean?

[ugly-anarchist]

I've seen a lot of debate on what is/isn't considered "alloaro" and I just wanted to give my opinion on that.

The meaning of allosexual has been debated but I think the best way to define it is "feels sexual attraction in a non-ace way". I like this definition because there's some gray area between "ace" and "not-ace" that's important to acknowledge and it leaves more room for discussion and inclusivity than just "not ace" or "feels sexual attraction"

I for one think that labels are optional and that it doesn't matter where you "technically" fit but instead what matters is how you feel about a label. If you're technically somewhere on the ace-spec but you don't want to identify as ace then... You can be allosexual instead. Also, non-sam aros exist and they shouldn't be forced to pick between the two.

However, while I do believe that labels can be loose and fluid and I want to prioritize inclusion, labels do still have meaning and I don't think you should use both allosexual and an acespec label at once. I don't think you can be both. I know that aceflux people exist but I don't think they should be using the label alloaro.

I don't want alloaro to be this exclusive thing where you have to be only one specific thing in order to be one but at the same time, the distinction is important.

The entire point of the label alloaro was to say, loudly and opening, "I'm not asexual!" Because it's important. It became important because people constantly assume we're ace and the distinction needed to be made. I don't like people who say "you can't be __ if you're already __ >:(" and I've already said that I accept people with "contradictory" labels but there was a reason alloaro became a thing. I think that there's just some things you can't be because it completely butchers the original intent and the importance that it has to the community.

So, if you don't want to use the ace/asexual/acespec label then you can absolutely be allosexual because that's the whole point of the word, but you can't be both. (In my opinion)

[nompunhere]

You've been staring me down all day. Not that I don't appreciate the attention, but it's... getting a little unnerving. My reading is interrupted a rather loud rumble from your stomach, from your position on the couch. I look up from my book to see you, of course, still looking at me. There's a sort of conflict in your eyes. Consideration, as you eye my curled up form, tucked into my favorite chair.

I offer a nervous smile and speak up. "So, eheh, sounds like we're about ready to get started on lunch-?"

"Get in my belly."

...I must've misheard you. "I- Sorry, what was that?"

"Get. In. My belly."

That low growl hardly sounds like you. I can see saliva building up at the corners of your mouth, your features painted in sharp relief to my eyes as fight-or-flight starts to kick in, involuntarily. It must be evident in my expression, by the way you jerk that piercing gaze off of me so abruptly, bowing your head to run your hands down your face.

Hesitantly, I set the book aside and sit up, tense. "I'm- I'm afraid I.. don't understand?"

You growl again and snap your eyes back up to mine. "It can't wait any longer—I need you in there. Now."

I flinch back and scrabble against the chair as you abruptly stand and start towards me. I can't get my limbs to work right. I don't- what- "What's going on? I-I- W-what are you- you doing?"

"You have no idea how long I've been holding back, do you? For your sake. You'll be fine. But I'm not, and I won't be, not unless you can sate me." You're exceedingly close, now, looming, arms to either side of me and watching my every move with what I now recognize as hunger in your eyes.

Out of panic, my arm flies toward your face, but you catch me by the wrist before it makes contact. The reflexes of a predator, I can only imagine. I tug at it with a whimper, cowering against the back of my seat. I trusted you, but now- now-

"I don't want this either. But this has to happen, before I start actually hunting down strangers. This is the better option. You'll be fine, I promise you. But I need this."

Your growl is the last thing I hear before my world goes dark, and damp, and hot.

--------------------------------------

It's... calmer than I expected. No acid, for one thing. Seems you weren't lying about me being alright. ...Physically, at least. The walls shift and knead, but they're strangely passive. You'd gone quiet after, er, eating me, even if your guts hadn't. It took a while for you to come to your senses and reassure me that you truly mean no harm, dragged out of your instinctual post-meal bliss by the sound of my terrified and betrayed sobs. I'd only just calmed down a bit, soothed by the sound of regret and urgency in your voice to make amends, before you succumbed to the urge to nap.

And now, I... don't know what to do. It seems safe enough, at least? So here I sit, hidden away deep within you, listening to your sleeping body's inner workings. All that fear, slipping away into.. boredom? ...Peace, let's call it that.

It's soft, at least. I think the warmth is starting to get to me, bringing with it a deep drowsiness. Maybe this.. isn't so bad. Maybe I can still trust you. Maybe I could, mm, join you, in your.. nap...

———————————-

DNI NSFW blogs, blogs that post exclusively hard and/or fatal vore, weight gain blogs, proshippers, TERFs, ace exclusionists, etc.

[ijust-really-likedanandphil]

If you think it is impossible for dan and phil to be in a queerplatonic relationship, please take some time to learn about what a qpr actually is (or just unfollow me).

Things to know:

you don't need to be aro or ace (or on either spectrum) to be in a qpr

anyone can be in a qpr regardless of gender, sexuality, or orientation

a qpr is defined by whoever is in it

Liking/enjoying sex or romance is not the same thing as feeling that type of attraction (ace people can have sex, aro people can be in romantic relationships)

Actions are not inherently romantic. They can be interpreted as such depending on the relationship between people, but ultimately, the romantic aspect of an action is due to a person's interpretation or intentions

Amatonormativity is the assumption that everybody prospers in an exclusive romantic relationship.

To undo amatonormativity, you've got to understand that no type of relationship is superior to another. Romance is not "more" than friendship, unless defined as such by an individual.

Queerplatonic is whatever the fuck you want it to be. Sex, marriage, kids, living together, none of those, some of those, all of those, whatever. Depends on the people. It is the "do whatever you want forever" option. Romantic relationships can be like this, but the idea is that they come with societal norms that we are expected to follow — qprs, until amatonormativity is uncommon, are an escape from that.

The fact that you might not want a queerplatonic relationship does not mean no one else does. That's like saying you don't want to be in a heterosexual relationship, so how could anyone else want one?

On the topic of Dan and Phil specifically:

I am not claiming to know if they are or aren't in xyz kind of relationship. That's the whole point

One of the main messages of "We are in a relationship" is that you don't know everything, even if you do truly know a lot.

You cannot know something about someone's relationship until they tell you, just as you cannot know someone's sexuality or gender until they come out to you.

Again, I am not suggesting that they are in either a qpr or a romantic relationship. I am clarifying that we do not know for sure. We can be 99% sure (I personally would not have that kind of confidence in my knowledge of strangers' relationships lol), but you can never know til they tell you.

Even then, they could be lying or leaving out parts of the truth (rightfully so). You don't have the right to that information, which I'm sure most of us agree on

Them respectively liking sex does not mean they fuck. Honestly, it's none of our business what they do, but there are other ways to have sex than with the person you're living with. Arrangements can be made. Again, they very well could. Not really our business though

The "hints" that DnP may be dropping could be real. They could be exactly what a lot of people think they are. It could also be DnP fucking with you, they could also just... not be hints. They're just people. They aren't characters being written for your consumption. The thing about hints is that they aren't explicit and therefore could be misleading, especially when so many people want hints (confirmation bias)

The whole point is!!!!!! we don't know!!!!!! it's fine to think they're cute and ship them but to pretend to know them well enough is crossing a line. Write your fanfic, make your fanart, but please stop pushing the idea onto other people that you either Know they're fucking + in a romantic relationship or you're just an idiot. 'Cause the world is not that simple, there are not just two answers. You're hurting aspec people with some of the rhetoric you use, so let's try to unlearn some stuff

Final disclaimer: if DnP ever come out and clarify that they are in a romantic relationship, spill all the beans, etc then that's cool, whatever! But I won't claim to have "known" that information before they gave it to me, just like I never claimed to have "known" someone was gay before they came out. It's disrespectful

[readwanderlust]

Wanderlust Returns!

Life's been a heck of a roller coaster ride for the past several months, and now, after a lot of soul searching, I'm doing absolutely fantastic.

Wanderlust had to be put on hold while I figured out what steps I had to take in order to get back in action, and I'm finally ready to leap back in. The news, as promised, is this:

1. Wanderlust is going to be published IN PRINT. The timeline is currently TBD, and it's going to be fully *remastered* - there will be reformatting, updated dialogue and brand-new color. This will be a massive undertaking, as I will be going back to the lineart to start the color work from scratch, but once this process is finished, the art moving forward will be completely print-ready!

2. Chapter III is fully written and partially "boarded". I want to get a good head start on the print preparation of the first two chapters before I dive in too deep on the third, so there will still be a measurable delay on new pages. 

3. I'm in the midst of establishing changes for Patreon, as it will take time before I can produce new pages to share with you all - that being said, the Wanderlust Patreon WILL also be returning soon! The rewards may be a tad different until chapter III is rolling but there will be options for anyone who wishes to support it in the meantime! I'm beyond thankful to those who do wish to help fund the work that goes into it and make Wanderlust possible.

With the comic becoming a published print book, will it still be available to read online? YES. For the time being, Wanderlust won't be exclusive to print-only format, so don't worry, it isn't disappearing from Webtoon or Tapas anytime soon. The new remastered pages will be released to Patrons first!

I can't express my deepest gratitude to every one of you who has patiently waited for this story to return, and how much it means to me that you've followed Sophie and Ace on this journey so far! I am sincerely thrilled for the day I get to release the next chapter, and in the meantime, I hope you're as excited as I am for the newly polished print release!

-Jay

[goodqueenaly]

@ainedubh reblogged your post “Reading the question about the lack of...”

Okay, I’ve been obsessing over this for days now, came to the conclusion that up to the point of Rickon’s death, he and Daena are the only viable Pact marriage, and it’s led me to a very tangential question I can’t believe I haven’t thought of before. Why were Daena and Baelor married? It obviously wasn’t a love-match. Were they betrothed as kids by Aegon III? If so, why did he skip over betrothing his heir to his eldest daughter, particularly since he seemingly didn’t betroth Daeron to anyone else? If they weren’t already betrothed, did Daeron arrange their marriage once he was king? Again, why not marry her himself? And even if he didn’t want to marry her, why not arrange marriages for each of them with useful allies for his Dornish war instead? Was this actually arranged by Viserys II while he’s Daeron’s Hand of the King? Why would he do this?

Me getting ready to answer an ASOIAF marriage making question like:

I do indeed have thoughts. 

While I don't think we have nearly enough information to pick one option definitively, I believe that there are three probable answers to the question of who arranged the marriage of Baelor and Daena: Aegon III (along with possibly Daenaera Velaryon, that is if GRRM feels like giving her agency and personality in Fire and Blood Volume 2), Daeron I, and the future Viserys II. Importantly, I do not believe these answers have to have been mutually exclusive with each other; it is entirely possible, I think, that aspects of any of these explanations or all three of them might end up being true. (Also this turned into a literal essay which is why I'm putting a cut for length.)

FIrst, why might Aegon III (and again, maybe Queen Daenaera as well) have arranged the marriage of Baelor and Daena? The reason might lie in the fundamental power shift occurring with the Targaryen monarchy during the adult reign of Aegon III. Remember that Baelor was born in 144 AC and Daena just a year later - that is, during the terminal decline of the Targaryen dragons. These animals, once the guarantors of Targaryen supremacy in Westeros, were growing fewer, smaller, and weaker, with the last one dying not even a decade after Baelor's and Daena's births. In their absence, the Targaryens were set to lose not just the physical means of enforcing their will upon truculent vassals or enemy invaders, but the semi-mystical cult of authority which their control of dragons had afforded them. It is a point I have brought up before, but it bears repeating here: if the Doctrine of Exceptionalism depended on the Targaryens being "the blood of the dragon", unique masters of dragons among all (surviving) families in the world, how Exceptional (capital E) could the Targaryens be once they no longer rode dragons? 

So perhaps Aegon III (along with potentially his queen) decided that a marriage between Baeor and Daena would serve both as an acknowledgement of and a response to the loss of the dragons. By openly arranging for a brother-sister betrothal, the king would have demonstrated that the Doctrine of Exceptionalism had lost none of its force in the absence of the dragons which had once justified it: the Targaryens were still "the blood of the dragon" even without the animals themselves, once dragonriders if no longer so, and thus continued to have every right to the sort of incestuous unions forbidden to their non-dragonlord subjects. At the same time, by arranging only for his second son's betrothal while leaving his heir Daeron nuptially free, Aegon III might have wished to quietly recognize the changing political balance in a post-draconic world. Without their dragons, the Targaryens could no longer stand so independently from their vassals; now more than ever, the (virtually) continent-wide feudal structure created by Aegon the Conqueror kept the Targaryens in their royal position - and those who protected a monarchy could just as easily overturn a monarchy (a bitter lesson learned by Aegon III, who had grown up first with the violent national fraction of the Dance and then the murderous rival ambitions of the regency years). The hand in marriage of the heir to the throne, a familiar diplomatic bargaining chip for eons in dynastic Westeros, might, so Aegon III could have believed, have aided the Targaryens in appealing to one of these powerful bannermen in the future. 

(It may also be worth pointing out that, insofar as Baelor may have been named in honor of Prince Baelon - and I do like to headcanon this - Aegon III and/or Queen Daenaera may have wanted to underline the connection between the two through such a marriage. Just as Prince Baelon, that loyal lieutenant and second (surviving) son of Jaehaerys I, had enjoyed an apparently happy marriage (my criticisms of the writing of it notwithstanding) with his sister-wife Alyssa, so perhaps the king and queen thought their Baelor, another second royal son, would be like Baelon not just as a (hoped for) loyal and brave lieutenant, but as the husband in a (so they might have hoped) successful brother-sister marriage.)

Now, why might Daeron I have arranged the marriage of his brother and his sister? Perhaps we might compare Daeron here to Robb in ASOS. Remember Robb's dynastic dilemma, as related in "Catelyn V": while Robb had found himself a wife and (without being too crude about it) was working on getting an heir by her, Robb also knew that he could very well die in his next battle - and he was planning on fighting plenty of battles in the near future, as he marched to retake Winterfell. Yet with Bran, Rickon, and Arya all ostensibly dead, with Sansa the new wife of Tyrion Lannister, and with his next closest (legitimate) Stark cousin a distant relation in the Vale who had never so much as seen Winterfell, Robb had no obvious heir presumptive to whom he could trust the dual crown of the North and Trident if (and when) he died. Robb's solution, of course, was Jon: a (supposed) half-brother whom Robb could legitimize, an adult male Stark in all but name and (again, supposed) son of Lord Eddard who could, so Robb hoped, easily assume the mantle of royal leadership.

I could very well believe Daeron I might have found himself in a somewhat similar position to that of Robb. While we don't know if Daeron ever planned on marrying himself (and it is a mixed bag on that score for Daeron's real-world inspirations), he definitely never did, nor fathered any known children. Certainly, Daeron did not lack an obvious heir presumptive in quite the same way Robb did: by both birth order and gender, Baelor would have been almost certainly expected to succeed Daeron if the latter died childless. Yet Daeron may have found himself lacking what we might call a spiritual successor: pious, peace-loving, unmartial Baelor may not, so perhaps Daeron thought, have been the man to entrust his kingdom to when he, Daeron, had (as he believed) worked so hard to conquer Dorne and assert Targaryen rule over this last independent Westerosi state (especially by 160 AC, when Baelor and Daena actually married, as Daeron’s military involvement in Dorne was far from over). Yet Daeron had no easy alternative heir to designate: while he might have found Daena most similar to himself in personality, Daeron only needed to remember the devastation of the Dance, just a few decades past, to refrain from naming another female heir when a male heir existed. 

Perhaps, then, Daeron believed the marriage of Baelor and Daena would remedy this dilemma. Even if Daeron himself died childless, the monarchy would be overseen at least partially by the now Queen Daena, the sister who idolized Daeron and shared his energy and martial spirit. Baelor would propagate the male line of House Targaryen, as the next male heir of Aegon III, but Daena, so Daeron may have hoped, would raise such a child in Daeron's image, with Daeron's ideals. Daena would not be queen in her own right (with all the potential for civil war that might have promised), but she would be the next best thing (or so Daeron might have thought): queen as wife to King Baelor, perhaps even a near co-monarch along the lines of Rhaenys and Visenya, and the guardian of the monarchy’s future through the children she would (again, so Daeron might have hoped) have with Baelor. Even if Daeron died in his next battle, the crown would have been left at least partially in the hands of someone he, Daeron, could trust would continue his work (although if true, in practice this proved a complete misreading of Baelor’s own strength of will). 

Turning to the third option, why would Prince Viserys have supported a marriage between Baelor and Daena? Perhaps Viserys thought he could avoid what he might have seen as a mistake of his grandfather and namesake, and avoid the potential for another civil war. If Daeron died without an heir, then the crown would, as I noted, have been assumed to pass to Baelor - yet Viserys might have worried that the succession would not flow so easily from one brother to the other. It was not so long ago from 160 AC, after all, that a strong-willed and determined princess had at the death of the king asserted herself as the rightful queen over her brother - and that very woman the mother of Aegon III and grandmother to his children. If Daena hero-worshiped Rhaenyra - and I think that’s very possible, with her fondness for dressing in all black as Rhaenyra did, her self-confident statements that she was “born to ride a dragon”, and her use of Rhaenyra’s infamous consort's name for her own son - then Viserys may have worried that, like Rhaenyra, Daena would claim the throne over brother Baelor at the death of Daeron.

Ideologically too, Daena may have represented a very different, and potentially very attractive, option for rulership. Would those lords who actively supported Daeron's conquest of Dorne (and perhaps personally benefited from it as well) have looked forward to the accession of a prince who embodied peace, piety, and a total lack of martial fervor? Or would they have gravitated toward energetic, athletic Daena who so adored the Young Dragon? If a war over such a political divide seems speculative, remember that nearly these exact circumstances led to the First Blackfyre Rebellion: Daeron II, pro-peace and pro-Dorne, who openly embraced his role as Baelor’s spiritual successor, versus Daemon Blackfyre, pro war and pro conquest, who was not only Daena’s son but seemed to embody the “old days” of Daeron’s conquest, “when Dornishmen were the enemy to fight, not rivals for the king’s attention or largesse”. 

In turn, perhaps Prince Viserys wanted to do what he may have felt his grandfather had refused to do, to his and the dynasty’s cost. Viserys I had rejected a marriage between Rhaenyra and Aegon the Elder, and while I don’t believe this marriage would actually have been a complete panacea to the brewing civil war between the black and green factions, Prince Viserys may have felt that a similar marriage, between the king's most senior male and female heirs, would have avoided the terror and destruction of the Dance. If so, then Viserys, his grandfather’s namesake, might have thought he had the chance to avoid the calamity of another succession dispute turned to war. Those who supported Baelor would have had no choice but to support Daena, and those who supported Daena would have had no choice but to support Baelor; their marriage would, so Viserys might have hoped, unite potentially clashing factions behind a single royal couple. 

Again, none of these are guaranteed to be the answer (F&B was hardly consistent in its political explanations of Targaryen royal marriages), but I could very much see one of these or a combination of these being used to explain the marriage in, say, Fire and Blood Volume 2.

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on the Last Nintendo Direct for the Switch?

It was alright. A lot of people are very excited by what was shown but, I dunno.

A lot of modern Mario RPGs are pretty hit-or-miss, so Brothership isn't necessarily an instant win for me.

Nintendo World Championship could be interesting. It's probably a better take on the NES Remix idea than previous games, and the way they're doing online multiplayer could prove to be pretty cool. It's a shame it isn't live, but I suppose racing against ghosts means you don't have to worry about latency.

The thing is, with both NES Remix and this, I also want the option to just... play the full versions of these games. No timers, no competitions, just the raw games. But Nintendo's not going to do that. They'd also rather have you subscribe to their NSO service, too.

Fantasian is mostly interesting to me for the fact that a lot of the backgrounds are effectively pre-rendered -- but not using CGI. They apparently made realworld dioramas using actual model making material and photographed them. That's cool. The rest of the game seems like generic JRPG fluff.

I've tried over and over to like Donkey Kong Country Returns, both on the Wii and the 3DS, and it just rubs me the wrong way. I've said it's something weird with the controls feeling sluggish, but I think it's also the level design. It feels like it stretches some of its ideas pretty thin. Like we did not need a whole world dedicated to minecart levels. I'd hope the DKCR remaster is the version I'd finally enjoy, but I don't have my hopes up.

It's cool to see the "HD-2D" Dragon Quest games, at last. Those old phone versions they have on the Switch are awful. But also the only DQ game I've ever connected with was the demo for DQ8, so I dunno how much this tickles my fancy. But I've also never given a real one of these games a chance.

Hearing "timed exclusive for the Nintendo Switch" for Denpa Men is weird, given that was a 3DS game. I always thought it was first party. Is this also coming out on PS4? PC? Very strange.

Glad to hear about the Marvel Vs. Collection. I was just scrolling through my XBLA library on my 360 a few days ago and lamenting how I only own MvC2 and not MvC1, even though I like MvC1 better. Weird it's apparently only coming out for last gen; there aren't native PS5/SX versions of this or the Ace Attorney Collection. Just PS4/Xbone/Switch. With backwards compatibility I guess they don't have to bother with a native version, but still. Weird.

Zelda looks good and is a long time coming but I wish it wasn't so different. Like I have faith it'll be interesting but it does disappoint me it's going to be more puzzle-y and not an action game. After so many years of asking for the ability to play as Zelda, for them to say "well she CAN'T swing a sword like Link!" feels a little compromise-y. I'm sure it'll be fine.

That was not enough Metroid Prime 4. They picked the most unceremonious, least exciting way to show it, too. I actually thought it was them announcing remasters of Prime 2 + 3 like they did with Metroid Prime 1, because it's just generic "shooting nameless space pirates to metroid prime music" footage until the end.

Rewatching it, I can definitely see how people are saying it's a Switch 2 game, though. Like that Metroid Prime remaster seemed like it looked really pretty, but this feels like a step above what the Switch is normally capable of, at least as far as 60fps goes. Like compare for yourself. Prime remastered on the left, Prime 4 on the right.

Look at the ridges in her shoulder panels, and how they're a 3D modeled groove with inset detail in Prime 4. That detail is probably just a texture in the Prime remaster. And just, like, how much better the material work is overall.

I could see this being 1080p 60 on Switch 2 but only 30 on the OG Switch.

Also please show me new guns or mechanics or something next time.

[baratrongirl]

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

B - I don't have a lot for Ace Attorney because most of its ships are very obvious. I did however discover a fondness for the very rarepair Maya Fey/Simon Blackquill after reading a fic about them. She is a spirit medium who is going to become the leader of her village, and is also obsessed with the TV series The Steel Samurai. He is a raging weeaboo and/or British man with Japanese ancestry who wields a spirit katana and wants to be a samurai. They are even the same age! They are absolutely perfect together!

K - Urgh, see, this is the thing that Ace Attorney is very bad at. The games are good at showing 50-75% of a character development arc and then giving up. Like, AA4 is all about Klavier Gavin receiving trauma after trauma, and you'd expect him to need some time to process everything that's happened to him - yet he pops up in AA5 as if nothing has happened at all. Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth both have development, but even then you don't see the trauma being processed. In fact, the way Phoenix flips back to his old self in AA5 ignores all of the changes that happened to him in AA4, and seems false.

I actually think one of the best development arcs I've ever seen in a game/game series is Martin Septim in TES IV: Oblivion. He goes from being the priest of a town attacked by Daedra (TES version of demons) to the Emperor of Tamriel, willing to give his life to stop the Daedric invasion. Each time you return to Cloud Ruler Temple on the main quest, he's a little more resigned to his fate. He goes from giving an awkward speech to the Blades where he says, "I know you all want me to be Emperor, but this is very new to me" to leading a major battle dressed in the Emperor's heavy armor. When did he learn to fight in heavy armor? Before that, he's only worn priest's robes. A lot is happening to him behind the player's back, and it gives him life.

W - I agree with you about hating soulmates and Hanahaki Disease, unless those tropes are subverted. I am quite fond of the idea of "soulmates" which simply means that the person will be very important to you - not necessarily your one and only partner, but perhaps your best friend forever. And I find it interesting when people write Hanahaki Disease as a chronic illness which affects people who love too easily and deeply. I've often felt that I'm a person who does that, and it's brought me emotional pain. Why not have physical pain to go with it?

The tropes I REALLY hate though are "Pair the Spares" and "Everyone is Gay".

Ace Attorney has a juggernaut F/F ship of FranMaya which is Miles Edgeworth's adoptive/foster sister Franziska Von Karma paired with Phoenix Wright's best friend Maya Fey. But there are plenty of other options for both of those women, both F/F and M/F. I feel they get paired together despite their wildly different personalities and interests simply because Phoenix and Miles do, and I really dislike that. I don't even hate the ship! But I LOATHE the idea that they are together BECAUSE of their brother/best friend's relationship.

When the trope is subverted, and FranMaya get together years before WrightWorth, then I like the ship much more. Though I still feel that both characters have plenty of other interesting ships available to them.

"Everyone is Gay" bothers me when it's literally everyone being GAY as in exclusively same-sex relationships. Especially as three characters are about as close to canon bisexual as it's possible to be! Others have strongly headcanoned sexualities which are part of fanon (e.g. Miles Edgeworth being homoromantic demisexual and Kristoph Gavin being aromantic homosexual). But other characters are more flexible, e.g. I've seen Ema Skye written as lesbian, bi, straight, asexual, aromantic and acearo!

By all means, make everyone queer. But recognise that a trans woman might date a man, that a lot of bisexuals end up in relationships with people of different gender, that heteroromantic asexuals are still queer, and that acearo people likely don't want partners at all. And all of that is okay.

[somecunt]

It's okay to go where you can.

Sometimes we don't always have access to the communities that would be most beneficial and relevant to our identities.

If that's the community you feel most welcomed by, as well as being your only option, that's okay.

You can have overlapping experiences and that doesn't invalidate your or your group's identities to have that.

A cis ace woman may relate with a trans allo man on feelings of exclusion, that doesn't necessarily mean that either have the wrong identity.

However, being in communities not specific to your identity can also be helpful and/or educational.

For me, although unsure if I'm aspecs, I discovered tertiary attraction due to interacting with the aspecs community.

This doesn't only apply to queer/gsrm/lgbtqia+ communities, but it's the circumstance I relate to the most.

[aspecpplarebeautiful]

Hope it’s ok to post this here. I currently identify as aroallo but I am still questioning my aro identity. When I was a kid I would have “crushes” with all the butterflies and stuff but in hindsight I think it was more a desire to be their friend rather than romantic partner.

So I guess I am just really confused about romance, in particular how it is different from like a really close and probably exclusive friendship. I know that alloaces exist who don’t want sex in a romantic partnership so I don’t think the sexual part is what makes it different. Maybe I just want a QPR? Or “friends with benefits”? Or perhaps I am in just in some sort of deep denial of any actual romantic feelings I have and I’m just completely allo? I don’t see a lot of aroallos out there talking about their experiences so I feel like I’m doing something wrong. Am I overthinking this? I don’t know :(

Yeah, you're far from the only person who's had trouble with this, Anon (even outside of ace/aro spaces), and it's a fair question. The line between romance and platonic friendship isn't easy to distinguish for everyone, or easy to define. (And there are some identities built around that like platoniromantic, idemromantic, quoiromantic and the concept of alterous attraction.)

Generally speaking what makes romantic attraction/feelings romantic is that it feels romantic. And that's not very useful to someone who isn't sure if they're feeling it or not, but often there's a specific romantic feeling people can identify. And it makes them want to connect with people in a romantic, so being in romantic situations, or being in a relationship defined as romantic.

Romance also tends to be a situation attraction. People who experience romantic attraction will have situations or scenarios they see as romantic (growing old together for example), and will feel a desire or pull to be in situations like that with the other person.

Sometimes the line between romance and platonic friendship is very blurry though, and some people can experience a mix of the two. If that's something you want to explore, some labels I'd recommend looking into are:

Idemromantic: Someone who categorizes relationships as romantic or platonic but experiences no internal differences.

Platoniromantic: When someone experiences no difference between romantic and platonic attraction.

Quoiromantic: An umbrella term that means actively dis-identifying with romance/romantic attraction/romantic orientation or not seeing it as a sensible/applicable category. Or finding romance/romantic orientation/romantic attraction non-sensical, inapplicable, inaccessible, etc. (There's a good article on quoiromanticism here)

Alterous attraction: An attraction that isn't wholly romantic or platonic, but may contain elements of both. If you look at platonic and romantic as binaries, alterous is a non-binary option.

Another thing I'd recommend looking into are squishes, Anon. These are completely platonic crushes, but they can feel very similar to romantic crushes and include a lot of similar symptoms.

Usually people experiencing squishes want to be important or want to be close/friends to the person they're attracted to, but it doesn't feel romantic at all.

As for what you want, you can want anything regardless of what attraction you may be feeling. So I'd really recommend trying not to worry too much and just trying to ask yourself as honest as you can what's appealing to you? You can also try different things out and see how they go if you want, as well.

This is a lot, don't feel like you have to have everything figured out right after reading all this. Let information sit, let yourself process things. And feel free to look into a research what looks interesting. Sometimes just because of the ineffable nature of romance, these things can be a bit subjective and there can be some overlap in ways of identitfying. So don't tie yourself in knots worrying about getting it exactly right, 'this works for me' or 'this is a useful way for me to label myself' is pretty good when figuring out labels and identity.

Could you secretly be alloromantic? It's possible, but my experience is that alloromantic people--while they may have a hard time sometimes describing or explaining romance--often don't have a hard time identifying if that's what they're actually feeling. Though again these things are a bit subjective, and the most important thing I'd suggest is to keep asking yourself what makes sense to you.

You're not doing anything wrong, this stuff can be incredibly confusing to figure out.

Feel free to send in another ask if you have more questions or want anything elaborated on. But hopefully this is helpful.

All the best!

[youhideastar]

Hi!! I really love your writing! If you're still doing the WIP ask game, would you tell us about Heat-Guide Rut-Guide AU. docx?

Thank you for your patience, anon - I know it's been a few days, but I wanted to save this ask for WIP Wednesday! (And thank you for your kind words ☺️) This one is going to be a long post, so the whole thing is behind the cut.

So this WIP is a modern-day cultivation A/B/O AU very loose retelling of the plot of the drama (way fewer people die 😂). I've long been interested in the facet of A/B/O worldbuilding that posits the existence of licit and openly acknowledged sex workers available to help an unpartnered alpha or omega (sometimes just omegas, but that doesn't make any sense) through their heat or rut - sometimes you see references in fic to a "heat service alpha" or just "a professional"... almost always in the context of the main character's distaste for this option. 😒 The reflexive sex work antagonism is just... *sigh.* ANYWAY. It seems inevitable to me that there would be a class of trained professionals, because, like... what about ace people, or people with sexual trauma, or people whose partners don't have the pheremones/hormones/anatomy to meet this particular need, or kids whose heats/ruts come on too soon--or a million other scenarios where going through a heat/rut the "usual" way would be unacceptable or outright impossible?

And then I thought to myself, "Self, you know what would be super helpful in doing that job? The kind of incredibly powerful yet finely-tuned control over your own bodily processes that you get from a golden core in The Untamed." And then I thought, "Okay, then what are talismans?" And the answer was obviously: assistive devices and pharmaceuticals. And then it was ON.

All cultivator-guides are trained to be generalists, but it’s common to develop a particular specialty as well; Wei Ying is a talisman specialist, a trained biochemist who uses and invents the pills, patches, powders, and injections that they all use, to a greater or lesser extent, to supplement the work of their golden cores. Lan Zhan’s specialty is working with clients who, due to neurological conditions or physical injuries, have an impaired sense of smell. It’s a very narrow niche; so narrow that he is, as far as he knows, the only such specialist. But he earns great satisfaction from helping clients who other guides, so dependent themselves on scent, would not know how to help, or might declare beyond help.

They’d been paired with each other for their first heat and rut as guides, at the Gusu Lan Guide Academy – they were each other’s first client. And it was good, so now they handle each other's cycle peaks exclusively, which they time to coincide for that purpose. Lan Zhan tried other partners, early on, but he and Wei Ying are ideally suited - equals in cultivation, with enough in common to have something to talk about during the downtime, holding themselves and each other to high standards, and well-matched in preferences: Lan Zhan is more assertive than most alphas prefer, and Wei Ying likes rougher handling than most omegas are comfortable providing.

And then, of course, there’s the fact that Lan Zhan is hopelessly in love with Wei Ying, and that's the only time he gets to have him. But maybe he's wrong, he thinks. Maybe the fact that they keep returning to each other after all these years means something, beyond the fact that they like each other as friends and respect each other as colleagues. Maybe, someday, he'll work up the courage to ask.

[sunset-peril]

FAQ (Read first please ^^)

Tumblr won't let me link to the FAQ section I have on the desktop version (for whatever reason) so here it is for mobile users.

-----

What Does HFS and AMNT stand for?

HFS = Hyrule’s Final Stand (My Zelda Series)

AMNT = A Man Named Terran: A Dual Destinies Tale (My Ace Attorney Series, no relation to the Mutant Ninja Turtles, haha)

How does your ask box work?

When submitting an ask, please note whether you want to talk to a character, or me. Options are as follows:

Anyone from A Man Named Terran 

Anyone from Hyrule’s Final Stand 

Me.

Silly little ask blogs are what got me onto Tumblr, so I'd love to answer those types of things!

Do you post any art?

I can’t draw very well. Sorry to disappoint. I’m a writer over an artist, and most of the art that might be here are reblogs or presents.

Is this a personal blog or a themed blog?

This is my everything blog. Myself, my Zelda series, my Ace Attorney series and other related nonsense will be here!

May I draw an OC of yours/draw a scene from your stories?

PLEASE! I’d love that very much. You don’t need to ask, I just ask you credit me for the story/character and send it to me so I can marvel at it. ….and shove it in everyone’s face like it’s Phoenix Wright’s attorney’s badge because someone likes my stuff enough to make more stuff.

Do you take requests?

Nah. And I can’t promise it will happen in the future either. I don’t do “trends” or “-tober” events either. Sometimes I’ll do a few Shiptobers casually, but with no intention to do the whole month. The ask box is what I offer for interactives.

What about prompts?

I accept prompt suggestions, but may or may not complete the prompt. That is up to my own discretion.

Headcanons?

I get so into my stories that I forget what is a headcanon and what is not. Keep this in mind when interacting. I’d love to hear your headcanons about my stories!

Anything obviously canon-deviant will be noted at the top of the post if I think it will be problematic. However, if its obvious then... its obvious.

I found something unrealistic in one of your stories!

I probably put it there on purpose. Especially with the Ace Attorney series, A Man Named Terran, I’ll sometimes sacrifice complete realism. There will still be some degree of realism, but it may not be 100% guaranteed-to-work-on-Earth. Don't try it at home.

Do you have a Ko-Fi or Patreon?

No. Because I don’t expect people to use it, and I don’t really have reason to restrict things at the moment. If many people become interested, I might open a Patreon or something for exclusive stories and whatnot. Emphasis on the might.

Also, Paypal hates me so I have no way to take donations due to the sucker refusing to link to a financial account for withdrawls.

Do you make NSFW material?

Not intentionally. I prefer to keep material PG-13 and under. Sometimes I’ll make something that’s Mature/R-rated for gore/violence, but making that material M/R is not the intention. Usually my M/R content is related specifically to the UR-1 Incident from Dual Destinies, which is mostly where the game’s M rating comes from anyway.  

Spoiler Policy -

Official content like trailers and Direct content must have been published by the producer (Nintendo, CAPCOM, etc) before I will publish or talk about it. I don’t like to deal with “leaks”.

Gameplay/Story information will be released (with a spoiler warning) ONLY after the end of the day of release (Usually 8-9pm on the day a game releases)

Yes, that means I won’t talk to you about the storyline of Tears of the Kingdom outside of trailer material until May 12th, 2023… if I even get off my Switch for long enough to interact, haha.

Major Spoilers will be tagged as spoiler warning until the game’s first birthday. Minor spoilers will depend. After the content’s first anniversary, you assume sole responsibility for avoiding spoilers on my page.

It is always implied that one of my stories about a certain game will contain major and mild spoilers.

Proceed at your own risk. :D

[plottwiststudios]

Women of Xal is 15% off in the Steam Summer Sale!

Hey, did you know that Steam doesn't let you talk about summer sale stuff before the sale actually begins? If you didn't know, then now we both know! Anyway, the visual novel Women of Xal (WoX) is on sale now. If you're new to this, don't worry: so are we. WoX is our company's first game.

[steam][itch.io]

You'll follow Xjena as she begins her climb up the dangerous political ladder against other women eying the same powerful position of Matriarch in an alien society where lying is impossible. Utilize your powers to rewind time as you choose whether to help and support those around you directly, focus on the future, or take advantage of your position to exploit others!

10 to 20 hour story, depending on how much you use the aforementioned rewind function, with countless branching paths.

Four major endings: two bad, one neutral, and one good. Plus a bunch of ways to accidentally end things early by getting Xjena killed.

12 full character arcs with most having options for either romance OR friend routes! 7 women and 8 men. They're not mutually exclusive, either; you can do multiple arcs in one run. That means…

That's right, polyamory is available. As is an aro/ace playthrough! You won't be forced into smooches you don't want.

Over 100 individual unlockable CGs and selfies. Is that too many? I mean, maybe.

140 minute soundtrack with familiar Jazzy vibes, niche ambiance and synth-heavy tracks, and genres I’m pretty sure the composer (see: me) made up.

If you're worried about a POC, queer cast being written by an unknown staff, then fear not; you're not the only one who is asking that question. Our head writer/composer/founder is a Black man, and our co-writer/co-founder is a bi woman. You can see more about our staff on our official website, or just drop by our tumblr and shoot us an ask.

Jump into the lore today! The water is fine. Solve mysteries, make your new friends smile, and go on a journey that will stick with you for a long, long time. Go to Steam for more information and to purchase the game!

(Or, if you're wary of the Valve overlords, we do also have the game on itch.io. u-u)

[steam] [bundle link] [itch.io]

[utilitycaster]

1-player parties: an informal discussion

Now that we're on Campaign 3, everyone has played at least three characters in a main campaign, which is generally considered the minimum possible party size. Let's see who is absolutely screwed, who's doing okay, and who's thriving.

Travis: At low levels, this is going to be rough unless they can get their hands on a bunch of healing potions, but given Grog's general ability to stay up and feed healing potions to people, Fjord's pretty impressive CON score and ability to do damage at range if necessary, and Bertrand's d10 hit die and good AC it's not bad; Fjord would probably need to use the sword less and build his spell list with a little more AOE. At high levels Fjord's paladin multiclass completely resolves the healing issue and the only gap that AOE is still admittedly weak, but also Grog can attack like 6 times which is basically AOE. Also, a generally charismatic party, with Fjord and Bertrand each bringing decent intelligence; wisdom is really more an optional stat anyway.

Marisha: Very good, although as often was the case in Vox Machina Keyleth is called upon to fill two mutually exclusive roles as both healer and tank. Laudna is good on ranged/magical damage though, and Beau can stunning strike and figure out damage types, so while it's rough to tell a Circle of the Moon druid to stay out of wildshape in combat, they're a pretty solid party.

Sam: This is the first party that's absolutely golden on healing, but will likely struggle at lower levels with damage. Everyone but Veth has some healing capabilities, and, to be fair, while low levels require speculation for all of Vox Machina, Tary is particularly complicated and could be rebuilt as a damage-heavy artificer. Scanlan and FCG can focus on AOE, healing, and support; Tary can, if he's willing (he's probably not) send Doty out to stand in melee with the enemy to grant Veth advantage. DPS is a weakness, but otherwise good.

Ashley: Possibly one of the stronger parties, in that Pike can take the healing and hold her own in melee combat, letting Fearne explore the damaging side of druid and Yasha gain flanking advantages and get in there with sentinel. They are going to struggle a bit with the INT score side of things, but Fearne and Pike are at least unlikely to get possessed. Also: this may be the most chaotic party.

Laura: If I had to pick a party to play, it might be this one. Vex can handle ranged damage and tracking, and is a capable healer. Jester is also a capable healer and a decent melee build, given her dexterity, strength, subclass features, and predilection for inflict wounds. Imogen can handle arcane magical damage, and both Jester and Imogen have AOE options and plenty of cantrips. I would assume Trinket is also included and can shoulder the strength and melee burdens.

Liam: Until high levels this group is slightly fucked. Like Travis's group, there's no healing until higher levels; unlike Travis's group, Vax and Caleb are both the glassiest of cannons, even Orym doesn't have Fjord or Grog's sky-high con, and Vax needs to be within 30 feet of his target vs. Fjord or Caleb's 100+. On the plus side, however, they have all the major damage types covered and Orym means Vax gets sneak attack a decent amount of the time, and the mental stats are good, so like, if they somehow survive to level 14 when Vax gets 5 whole points of lay on hands healing and Caleb can use his transmuter's stone, they're golden.

Taliesin: If I don't pick Laura's party I pick Taliesin's. Percy is good at one kind of damage, mostly, but he's very good at that one kind of damage and any ranged fighter build will still tear it up with a finesse melee weapon, plus he's got a decent number of skills and areas of knowledge. Caduceus is obviously built for support and healing but can handle area of effect, and Molly and Ashton serve as a melee tank line, with Molly handling some degree of debuffs as well. This does means Percy is probably handling the bulk of arcana, which is very funny, and personality-wise Percy and Caduceus would probably detest each other, but it's probably the best, mechanically.