#i hope it makes sense to you though anon

[spectrumgarden]

how do you know if you have medium support needs?

Gonna go on a bit of a long winded support needs rant here.

Frankly theres no hard lines between the terms low medium and high support needs. Medium support needs specifically is a community term, meaning it was made by autistic people instead of medical professionals. There are also many people who consider themselves right between two categories, so they'll say they are low-medium or medium-high, which honestly turns it into more of a 5 options system than 3 if you're being pedantic. And then theres also the option of describing the category further, for example like saying you are on the high end of low support needs, or the low end of medium support needs.

( slight tangent: depending on where you live there might be actual legal categories with strict definitions, based on how much support someone needs, seperate from the specific terms of LSN MSN and HSN. In germany where I live there are Pflegegrade, translating to "care degree", which has 5 levels. I am right under the point cut off for level 3, so I'm a high level 2, described as "substantial limitation of indepence and skill". (Which I think also fits well with me considering myself on the low end of MSN.) This care level translates to funding for my care by my insurance and (alongside my disability ID score and markers) is often used in services for disabled people to "prove" that I need them to begin with before the question of funding even comes up. )

When it comes to assessing these support needs, whether legally defined or community coined, you can not really get around ADLs, activities of daily living. There are bADLs and iADLs, and most lists online will be fairly similar in what they include. ADLs are used in assessing disabled peoples need for care no matter their type of disability. It's what was used for my grandmother with alzheimers the same way it's used for me or my neighbor with mobility issues.

Since there are no strict "you need to hit exactly these many of the bADLs and these many of the iADLs that you need help with in this way" rules to qualify for, anything past this point will be my subjective opinion that I formed after looking at tons of peoples self reported and caregiver reported support needs label and what they need help with, and in what capacity. Others might define this (slightly) differently.

Support basically starts at reminders and ends in someone else completely doing it for you (sometimes done as hand over hand to hopefully build motor memory so you might be able to start doing them a bit more independently in the future). Theres also the detail of "how do you define needing care" and in general disability circles, not necessarily autism specific circles, I've often seen the phrase "can you do it reliably and safely" to assess if you need help with something. So if you can only get yourself to shower once a month for example even with reminders, that would still count as requiring care of some level for it to be done reliably. Or if you can use an oven to heat up / make food but you sometimes get burns that go beyond regular "clumsiness" that also means you probably need additional support to use it safely.

From what I've seen in the community over the last few years I honestly consider bADLs to be a large deciding factor for your support needs. If I did not need help with bADLs beyond reminders I could for example probably get away with only having a few hours of support a week for things like assisted grocery shopping or driving me to a doctor's appointment or helping me write an email or make a phone call or helping me deep clean the bathroom or kitchen, while spending my day to day completely by myself. I would still have to accommodate myself the rest of the time, such as mostly relying on instant and generally low effort food, my apartment would probably never be super tidy (but also like. Majority of peoples apartments get messy on the regular, I should know from my friends that are all 100% abled), and relying on a schedule, for example an app or physical list on the wall, for bathing, dressing and grooming.

But because I need prompting for my bADLs to be done reliably in any way or form I suddenly need a lot more care, so this small detail made it go from 1-2 days a week to daily.

with bADLs (and similarly iADLs but that's not the focus right now) it starts with people who need no help with them, then people directly below me who need reminders for (some) of them, people like me who need prompting and on bad days hands on help with some. And over that are people who need prompting for most if not all of them, and ending in people who need hands on help for all of them. And if you crammed that entire experience all into high support needs and left low to medium support needs open for people who only need help with iADLs it would be way too much for the HSN category alone I think. But if you extended it into low support needs it would also make low support needs basically useless as a term. Which to me means it makes the most sense to consider needing some help with bADLs beyond reminders the thing that sort of starts the category of medium support needs applying. Because frankly speaking reminders dont take up a lot of time, often can be done virtually or without the need for another person via reminders and checklists etc. Which is a stark contrast to someone who needs to be walked through a task from beginning to end by someone by their side at all times. So you can need help with most/all of your iADLs, which means you still need a relatively high amount of care if you look at it from an abled perspective ( i.e. someone to control your finances for you, and organize your transportation, and help you keep your environment clean, ...) and maybe rely on a phone app that reminds you to brush your teeth and shower, and still be low support needs, because you're putting it in the perspective of the large variety that is disabled experiences.

Lastly I do think the ADLs are not perfect, for example at least older definitions usually do not include things like if you can engage in fun activities by yourself such as watching media or reading or drawing, whatever you enjoy, or how effectively you can communicate in daily life even though that is in itself important to your quality of life and will affect how much time needs to be spend on your care. However they are the best we have currently and make a lot of sense.

[foolishlyzephyrus]

The big difference between Clara and Ruby at least so far is that a lot of people don't seem to get it but Clara was a subversion of a mystery girl because the whole point was the Doctor was wrong to treat her that way and his grief for the Ponds made him see a mystery that wasn't there, they'd have gotten along better sooner if he had treated her like her own person and she was normal, just doing what she did because she was a normal companion defending her friend the Doctor she jumped into his time stream just as Clara Oswald the person who cares for the Doctor it wasn't some big mystery. She was this manic pixie dream girl in the Doctor's eyes (because he needed her to be, to distract from the pain of losing Amy and Rory) but that was never actually who she was. Ruby seems, at least for now, to have this big mystery gimmick but played completely straight. She has a mysterious backstory and snow powers and a song in her DNA. Clara was like a normal person who just happened to be split into different parts of the Doctor's timeline. For all people say Clara was this special mystery girl, she isn't that remarkable in Season 7 when you REALLY think about it.

hello anonymous ask. i appreciate your insight into clara. i will admit i was making a tongue and cheek comparison, drawing on the surface level similarities. i enjoy both characters so it wasn’t meant to be any sort of diss on them, just a passing observation.

while i agree that clara can absolutely be read as a subversion of the manic pixie dream girl trope, i feel like it gets muddled in the weird misogyny of eleven’s era. moffat is a solid writer but series five through seven really suffered with the characterization of certain female characters. characters i adore like amy pond and river song ended up overly sexualized and at times reduced to vessels for the doctor’s growth rather than their own. their stories both relied on something needing to be solved about them from our titular male character, with amy’s crack in her wall and river’s true identity. eleven ends up at the crux of their storylines, actively entrenched in their personal histories and driving their stories rather than being a facet of them. i believe that clara was somewhat affected similarly if not to the same extent. i think the subversion would have played a lot better had there not been the earnestness in the “inherently mysterious sexy characters” reinforced by previous seasons.

eleven was riding the coattails of ten’s “he’s so young and hot and how could women not be interested in him” deal so i won’t place the blame solely on moffat but i also think the fact that romance as a potential aspect of their relationship (one-sided or not) being so strongly implied may have also inhibited the understanding that clara wasn’t playing into the archetype. that particular era of the show was dominated by male writers, so i would not be surprised if that anything to do about the lack of clarity regarding clara’s character.

i think you are absolutely correct, there is nothing special about clara from an objective perspective. however through the narrative framework (i.e. oswin/victorian clara, leaf falling at the right time and place to bring her into existence from the rings of akhaten, etc.) it implies a certain sense of destiny, where one could draw up the mythologizing of her character. since we ultimately are viewing the show part ways through the doctor’s perspective (and subsequently through the lens of his grief as you pointed out), this is kind of where we get the weird overlap. it’s paradoxical in a way where a mystery does in fact exist, yet by the doctor acting on investigating it he is also bringing it to fruition in the first place. like you stated, clara acts reasonably according to her circumstances rather than intentionally generating intrigue.

as mentioned, when clara is treated as a normal person is when she truly thrives with the doctor. my favorite of her moments are when she’s at her most mundane. her run with twelve is super compelling for that exact reason, she is intriguing not because she is some cosmic mystery but because of her similarities to the doctor.

with ruby currently, we don’t know all that much about her. it’s unfortunate how close we are to the end of the season and there still seems to be a gap in the information we know about her whether intentionally or not. because of the lack of exploration of her character, she becomes inherently reduced to the mystery surrounding her. however, in this case, the doctor is less actively involved in solving that mystery, it’s more latent curiosity. as opposed to series 7, i don’t think it’s meant to be the main overarching plot of the season or it is at least is tied into the susan twist plot line rather than just standing alone. she appears on a lot more of an equal footing to the doctor too. ultimately, while the whole mystery surrounding her is more genuine, hers is still unresolved.

my comparison between ruby and clara wasn’t meant to be too serious, just noting on the shared tropes that surround them. because in the end, while they both appear to be seemingly normal people affected by some much deeper mystery, that’s where a lot of the similarities stop. clara’s happenstance as you said vs. ruby’s bordering on supernatural traits. eleven thinks clara is deliberately hiding something while fifteen understands ruby to be just as clueless as he is. more can be said. different stories are being told and equating them was perhaps a little reductive.

i hope this make some sort of sense and isn’t too incoherent. all this to say, i agree with you for the most part and i think regarding clara especially certain outside forces ended up in her characterization rather than just narrative purpose. i hope you don’t think i am attacking you for this or anything, i really enjoyed your thoughts.

[moodmoodthecrabking]

sapphic alice woodward moodboard requested by anon

[bonefall]

Briarlights death makes sense to me. As much as I love her character, the movement technology you’ve come up with wouldn’t be enough to keep her alive in a society where her nether regions are constantly exposed to the outdoors. She would get UTIs and kidney infections very quickly, which would be fatal when you can’t feel pain. My partner has to use catheters to avoid them (he is paralyzed in the same spot Briarlight would be.)

I think it’s disingenuous to have a character that’s paralyzed but have no other health problems or concerns regarding it, even if it’s uncomfortable to think about for some readers. It’s just as ableist to minimize the additional struggles she’d face as it is to kill her off unnecessarily.

Not accusing you of ableism, but expressing my concern. They’d need to find a way for her to poop and pee in a way that’s sanitary and a way to combat infections long term - even if the thought is “gross” to some people it’s the reality she’d have to live with. She should, at the very least, remain immunocompromised.

That is a valid concern. I will keep this in mind-- I'll make sure to note her immediately being cleared out of camp at the first sign of sniffles to avoid it. My cats can do some very minor building and there are now several cats on Jayfeather's Garden Patrol, it wouldn't be too much of a problem to make that area into a comfortable "satellite camp".

I do want to add though that my most important guiding principle is a stronger narrative which includes better portrayals of disabled characters, not perfect rugged woodsman realism. The medicine I add and the guides I write are in the hopes of better representing the lives of the real-life people who see themselves in the fantasy battle cats.

Realism does factor into that of course! But it goes out the door the minute it would smash up against a disabled character's inclusion. This is a series for human beings like your partner; as close to it as I can get by bending the setting when needed.

For example, Epilepsy

Epilepsy was deadly before modern medicine. Full stop. The herbs I created for that guide would not save someone like Shadowsight, whose convulsions are at extreme risk of turning into Status Epilepticus. It would help manage, but Shadowsight's life would have been very brief.

All the chamomile in the world wouldn't replace phenobarbital... or even the older medications, barbituates. Barbituates have been replaced and good riddance, but it's important to understand that even this drug known for causing EXTREME lethargy and horrible side effects was revolutionary. It saved countless lives.

But I'm not here to write a story for the real-life horror that is epilepsy in a pre-modern society. I'm here for the parent who personally thanked me for making their daughter feel less alone.

Evil spirits attacking the living! God knocking over trees! Attacking a bulldozer! That all happens; there's no reason they can't help Briarlight too!!

But I'll make sure to include her being immunocompromised. And I'll include ways they handle that. Just like I included a cat engineer who made a blanket sled.

So... suggestion accepted! I will keep this in mind.

Briarlight's Canon Death

...I will maintain though that the canonical death of Briarlight was one of the worst, most short-sighted, cruelest decisions that has ever been made in this series.

Because ultimately Briarlight is not a real person. She is a writing choice. She is a character based on Vicky's paralyzed cousin, "Dan," and Briarlight was directly modeled on Dan's personality and recovery.

What did the new writing team do, the minute they were writing a series without Vicky? Killed Briarlight to fucking greencough. For shock points. Narrative moves right on back to the MAIN conflict-- Alderheart having feelings for Velvet and Jayfeather enforcing the vow of chastity. ShadowClan officially falls apart in the background lol

It was never about realism, or realistic portrayal of disability.

This series doesn't care about realism when cats have bloody Freddy Kruger deaths in their sleep, or when shadow goo starts eating cat hell, or when lightning strikes Shadowsight. But they suddenly care about how realistic it is that the only paralyzed character survives greencough?? No! Of course not!

In the middle of the CONSTANT "Ohh she's finally in heaven where she can run and jump and not have a disabled life"? And the infamous Squirrelflight's Hope line, "You don't want to be alive again, Squirrelflight! You might become disabled like BRIARLIGHT"

(WHICH BTW THEY STILL HAVE NOT REMOVED DESPITE PROMISING IT YEARS AGO)

I absolutely do not believe for a second that they had a realistic portrayal of an immunocompromised cat in mind when they did it! Hell, screw it. I'll just say it outright;

I firmly believe that the new writing team killed Briarlight because they did not want to deal with her.

I flatly refuse to give them charity towards this choice. At NO POINT did they earn a speck of good faith. They continued every negative trend that was set up by the previous writers (including Vicky herself tbf), and went a step further by killing her to "we need to get rid of some randos" disease.

Not only that; but the Clan dynamics were NEVER the same after her death, because there was no character who could replace her personality. In this cast of cardboard cats, they plucked out one of the few optimists with a clear, unique perspective, not shared by ANYONE else.

My ire wouldn't JUST be because they happened to kill a disabled character in the way they did (though that is frustrating on its own imo). It's because it was Briarlight.

I hope every writer involved with the decision to kill Briarlight in the "Nothing is Happening! Quick! Kill Someone!" book of AVoS chokes on it. I will DIE on this hill and my blood will never wash out of the grass.

[skyward-floored]

just started playing ss any tips?

Love you <3

Well I'm a little sleepy right now but I'll do my best! Let's see...

I play the wii version so some of these might not be helpful if you're doing it on the switch, but swordfighting gets easier the more you do it. Take the time to smack the lower-level guys so you won't be blindsided when you get to a boss! (Learn from my mistakes lol)

You can use arrows and other items to smack The Imprisoned's toes, not just your sword.

Always get an extra shield. You'll need it. Trust me.

Get those goddess cubes! The chests have all sorts of stuff, including rupees, and are a good source of income if you waste all your money by accident (...on shields, for instance XD)

The silent realms are terrifying but manageable! Do not give in to panic! Utilize the tears and other tools you have, and don't give up. My personal method is screaming the entire time, which also makes it much more fun.

Catch bugs if you can, they're helpful for upgrading stuff

Yes you can also catch tumbleweeds (I did not realize this for a while)

Sidequests are your friends <3

And when you get a musical instrument... play it next to a sheikah stone. It's cute :)

[skeletalheartattack]

wait hold on now I am genuinely curious: Why is D-Sides your favourite Gorillaz album? I never vibed with it myself so I am interested in hearing what you like about it that I'm missing out on.

so, i haven't listened to Gorillaz in a long while, nor do i tend to listen to music that actively these days, but i re-listened to the entire album, side 1 and side 2, to try and come up with a reason why i like it so much. i do want to preface and say, yeah, the album (side 1 atleast) is very "plain", there's not a whole lot going on, nor are there any guest artists on any of the songs.

but in listening to the album again, a few things kinda appear in my brain regarding the album. one is that it brings back a set of memories of taking trips to and from Ohio to live with my mother and step-father during a few breaks between high school, and how a lot of the songs in the album i remember heavily listening to while trying to sleep in the back of their car (i'm 6'2", and sleeping horizontally in the back of a moderately small car was. not great). i had the main 6 albums before Humanz installed to my kindle, since Humanz hadn't come out yet as these trips were between... 2014 and 2016. i mainly remember hearing D-Sides the most i feel on those trips, whether it be intentional, or my sleep patterns would have me looping back around to D-Sides... that or i mostly started with D-Sides at the beginning of those trips.

another thing i'm kinda thinking about after having re-listened to the album is how much side 1 kinda reminds me of Boe, in terms of the vibes; there's a lot of somber vibes i get from some songs that fits well for him (Hong Kong and Spitting Out the Demons both being notable songs that remind me of Boe himself, and also of those long trips). side 2 on the other hand, it's remixes remind me a lot of the Sims 2, specifically the console version, as i associate a lot of Sims 2 with it's console selection of music... which is mostly a more heavy focus on the electronic tracks from the PC version; a lot of the remixes feel like something i could hear playing on the radio while i'm controlling my sim around and doing tasks.

last thing, maybe, is that i never hear folks refer to D-Sides as one of their favourites, so maybe that's why i have it as mine. out of respect perhaps.

[roostertuftart]

I know you're the Kyle expert, but I knew a guy who thought Stan would be an incel. Thoughts?

Hmmm. Idk, I've seen that float around and I don't really get it?? Like, I can sorta get it more than when people seriously say it about Kyle. Stan definitely seems to fall into more... Viewing girls sort of in that perhaps lightly internally sexist way than Kyle seems to, of having some sort of unintentional separation between boys and girls that makes him kind of view girls as very different types of people friendwise, if that makes sense. Like, say he was dating a guy- I don't think much would change in terms of the guy being an extremely close friend who's been elevated up an extra level to romantic. But Wendy isn't really like that. She's not Stan's friend outside of their relationship.

And okay, that's not to say Kyle is a bastion of anti sexism himself, ESPECIALLY noting earlier seasons, but Kyle doesn't really seem to act the same way Stan does when interacting with girls?? His early season sexism felt more innocent and childish, something he's definitely grown out of now. It was less built on this deep internalized toxic masculinity and more like the "eww cooties" ideas that happen a lot with young kids. Obviously division based on traits like sex is not good under any circumstance, but it doesn't seem to have carried on much in his modern view of girls. Nowadays Kyle just seems to view girls far more equally even when divided from them, and cares more about listening or hearing out where they're coming from and understanding their frustration with sexism, for example. While he doesn't really have many close female friends (and really none of the boys actually do besides Stan), his behavior doesn't really shift at all to trying to be gentlemen-y or something around women, denoting a very equal level view of them.

But, in Stan's defense, we see him interacting with the girls way more than Kyle, and I think him having dated Wendy, interacting with her friends, etc etc over the series gives us way more to work with in that area than we get to with the more or less far in between hints we're given with Kyle. One thing that I think may impact this for me is also kind of that the few times we HAVE seen Kyle's attraction to girls play out, putting aside Leslie bc oh boy was Kyle blindly simping there, he doesn't seem to be as quick to focus on like... I guess vaguely sexual aspects like the other boys, which leads to him just seeming to objectify women less (Not to say that being sexually attracted to someone is inherently objectifying, but there is more of an overlap with people who are drawn by looks and engagement in objectifying behavior).

And then there's how Kyle has reacted to being rejected, and I know the big one is Super Hard PCness that everyone likes to point out as Kyle being a "nice guy", but in actuality, he was extremely graceful in how their relationship ended, moreso than he needed to be with the horrible things Heidi said to him, and only flipped out after being bullied and teased and harassed by virtually the whole school, Cartman and Heidi especially. It was definitely not anger purely because he didn't get a girl he liked, it was anger that someone he'd trusted and tried to help so swiftly turned on him and humiliated him for no reason at all, that once again he was being put down by Cartman, and that everyone else treated him poorly as well, Stan included. There's also Rebecca who Kyle just... Kinda let go. Like, we don't really see much of his reaction but there's nothing to tell us Kyle was angry their relationship was broken off, so I'm counting it at least a little. There's Nichole too, who once again we don't really straight up see Kyle's reaction to her breaking up with him. But we do see how he treats her, how much he tries to find stuff they have in common to talk about, how his only anger of their relationship not working is Cartman's blatant racism and lies about him purposely made to sabotage any chances he does get with this girl that he likes. It's not anger towards whatever choice Nichole makes here, it's anger about Cartman's needless and morally egregious interference. I know this is a low bar to pass in whether a character is decent to women, but Kyle just repeatedly not behaving badly over his breakups is a big tell to me. So often we see male characters act like assholes just because a girl doesn't like them or a girl broke up with them or something. Even with Stan, in fact, we've seen this play out. I mean. He's pretty okay too but we did see him tell Wendy she was a bitch for dating someone else. This is from early seasons, that I wouldn't solely use as evidence Stan is a crazy sexist even now, but it plays a part in this conversation on whether or not you can more accurately call Stan Marsh the incel-ish one of the two.

Okay, but like. Why am I even talking so much about Kyle here when you're asking about Stan? Well, I honestly think that the duality of them as characters reinforces the ideas of what the other is like to the audience, and this leads into a LOT of the extremes the fandom will push them into (the fem/masc debate, the nerd/jock debate, etc etc) and likewise it does so here. When we see Kyle being kinda more normal around girls, even though it's rare we see him like that at all, it makes Stan seem all the more awkward when in reality, he kind of isn't that bad at all?? He's pretty normal with girls for a boy his age, though he could be a bit less of a dick sometimes. I do think he sometimes has this huge focus on looks, and that can be... Not great, but it's not to a horrible evil incel-ish degree by any means, and I'd argue for his age he's a pretty good guy to, say, Wendy- Not that he can't improve a LOT but Idk, his shittiness comes off more as "dumb little boy is sometimes a jerk to his friends" to me than "secretly hates and disrespects women".

But y'know, at the end of the day, Kyle and Stan are more alike than people think about many of these things, this being one of them. Whether or not Kyle or Stan are better with how they act to women is hard to say. I can see why people would be able to twist Kyle into being incel-ish even if I don't really personally think it's based accurately on the information we've been given. I can see even moreso how someone might be able to with Stan, and while I do think there's at least a bit more of a leg to stand on him having some issues with internalized sexism, I don't think it's accurate with the information we've been given either. Neither of them are really incel-ish to me.

Honestly, if they were dealing with the issue of not being able to find a partner, they'd probably mostly internalize it into self blame and feel bad about themselves but not really broadly blame other people. Stan might slump into a depression or put his focus elsewhere, Kyle, if wanting a partner badly enough (I don't think it's ever been his first priority and I doubt it ever will be) would make efforts to fix the problem by figuring out what's putting people off about himself and try to figure out how he can fix it rather than lashing out. (Also I already lightly touched on why I don't think Kyle would redo his actions in The List right here over not being able to get a girlfriend lol)

[spearxwind]

I was reading your tags on that one post about how you wish you could cull your follower count and uh… would it help if I unfollowed? I know I’m just one person but I thought I’d offer just in case….

oh, please dont do that! its very sweet of you to offer, but genuinely don't worry about it :]

I think a significant chunk of my follower count is things like bots or abandoned accounts, especially remnants from when i first joined, or people who followed me for fandoms and then ignore everything else i ever post (not that thats a complaint, mind you)

Also something that comes with having a large following is that some people who follow me will put me on a pedestal, and then try to make a big stink out of not 100% aligning with me, or people will outright be scared/intimidated by me, or they will think that because I have a large following they can just be mean or hold me to arbitrary standards or are entitled to things i post, its all honestly just really tiring. With the passing of time ive gotten a bit more harsh in setting my boundaries with these things, and i shut them down asap

and my following isnt even THAT huge, either. I cannot imagine what it must be like at higher numbers. I hope i never find out

Those are the kinds of people i was thinking about when I wrote the tags

its kind of a difficult situation, in general. I dont want to seem ungrateful, but numbers have a big hold on people, and ive generally found im much happier just considering myself a guy who posts things for a bunch of fellow freaks who enjoy it

[allylikethecat]

Completely the wrong day to be sending this ask topic wise but just have to say I’m SO glad All the Kings Horses has a weekly scheduled update. Genuinely don’t know how I’d survive if I didn’t know when the next chapter was going to come. I LOVE all your other stuff ofc but have made a solid attachment to the little equestrian universe and couldn’t imagine sitting waiting on edge every Tuesday for a possible update!!

Also the new chapter of the ducklings fic was SO GOOD and honestly I’m trying to hold back on rereading the whole thing but it will definitely happen sooner rather than later. Everything is building up oml there’s so much happening now and I’m LIVING for it.

Asks relating to All the King's Horses are welcome ANY and EVERY day of the week! (Also we can just call this Talk Shop Tuesday if you'd like, that's not fic specific!) I'm so happy to hear that you're enjoying my little Equestrian AU, I am honestly having so much fun working on it, and it is currently my favorite fic that I'm working on! I'm so grateful that you (and others!) have given it a chance because I know it is extremely niche but those are my babies!!

It's also the first one I'm writing with an *extremely* detailed outline meaning that the chapters are very easy to write, which makes sticking to the weekly schedule very easy as well! Even if I had wanted to add it to the Tuesday rotation, I'm honestly too excited about this fic to only post it every few weeks 😂

In particular I am SO EXCITED for Friday's chapter omfg it's a tad longer than the previous chapters but we are FINDING OUT THINGS and my girl Fictional!Charli makes another appearance! I'm so excited for Fictional!Matty's tragic backstory to fully be revealed and WOW do I just want to wrap him up in blankets and force feed him soup lol

I'm also very happy to hear that you enjoyed the new Duckling's update! I know that one is very niche as well lol Also the fact that you have read it once is amazing and I am so grateful but that you're thinking about reading it a second time?! Oh my gosh thank you so much also I apologize if there are any major continuity errors the outline on that one was thrown out the window a few times....

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my fics and send me this ask! I'm so grateful for the continued support! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on Friday's chapter!! I hope you had a great day and that you have a great week!

❤️Ally

[mxtxfanatic]

I was wondering what your thoughts are on the take that MXTX love interests are one dimensional? I saw a post that mentioned how MXTX doesn't let her characters explore their sexuality, but it rubbed me the wrong way honestly.

I don't mind if you focus on any of the main pairings, but I would love to hear about TGCF primarily if you're up for it.

Well you’re in luck, anon, because this is an argument that infuriates me! But before I get into that, let’s start with this: if you think the love interests of any of the mxtx novels are one-dimensional, you are not paying attention to the plot, character interactions, or anything to do with the love interests. All of them have lives and motivations outside of just the MCs, and even the one who arguably doesn’t (Luo Binghe) is fixated on the MC in a way that still has to do with his own character development and growth within the story. He doesn’t just perpetually play support with no internal life of his own.

With all that said, you were right for feeling like this discourse sounds wrong, because it’s absolutely a red flag when people say that “surely you can’t know your sexuality unless you experiment with a bunch of different people before you fall in love!” 🤢 Never in my life have I seen anyone argue that straight people must first date/have sex with a bunch of people before they can “really know” whether they’re straight; this is strictly something that homo/bi/queerphobes say to dissuade non-straight people from acknowledging their sexualities. Real people in real life are allowed to fall in love with whoever they want, regardless of what sexuality they do or don’t identify with and how many different people they have or have not slept with. This goes doubly for fictional characters who are products of their story and therefore 100% allowed to be in love with just one (1) person without that throwing into question the “validity” of their love, sexuality, or the believability of the story.

It’s funny cause it’s definitely a trendy discussion topic in mdzs and I guess tgcf now to suggest that the MCs and LIs can’t possibly be fulfilled as people due to the fact that they dedicated their love lives to just one person. In tgcf, Hua Cheng became a ghost king, kept humans safe, and started a ghost city to keep ghosts and spirits safe in the interim of Xie Lian’s second banishment, but this is somehow “unbelievable” or “one-dimensional” because he also only loved and held out for Xie Lian the entire time? He couldn’t have possibly grown as a person and become a more well-adjusted adult without the healing powers of hook-up culture?

Idk, there are just way too many stories being written about characters who date/sleep around and romances that come after that period, but mxtx novels are not those stories and the existence of one should not negate the validity of the other. If a reader finds that loving one person your entire life and not being interested in romance or sex otherwise outside of that one person is unbelievable, then they should simply find another story they do find believable enough to read that doesn’t break their immersion. But to then question the skills of the writer because their writing choices don’t speak to a reality you have experienced or accept?

[inkykeiji]

Thank you so much for answering my question! I'm kinda new to fanfiction (not that I didnt know it existed but I literally have never seen or engaged with any until like a month ago lol) and so I just wanted to get your perspective on something I dont really understand yet. I'm autistic so I guess sometimes it's just hard for me to see/imagine characters as anything but how they are in canon, but I understand that it would be totally boring to write fanfic that only follows canon! I kinda see fanfic as that writers version of the character, like that's your specific version of Dabi and other writers have their versions of Dabi and maybe they're completely different 🤔 and I guess in my head it made more sense to me to just make a new character to make them exactly how you want and then you wouldn't have to worry about canon at all lol (because my mind wont let me see characters differently sometimes) but I get it now that you explained :) so if you dont mind me asking in your au's what happened differently in dabi/ touyas life to make him a sexual person? In canon I dont really see Dabi as a sexual person like he couldn't be bothered with relationships or anything sexual, like I almost see him as being asexual. So what kind of changed for him in your au's to make him more sexual and willing to have relationships? And thanks again for taking the time to explain for me, I really appreciate it 😊💕

hello again!! c: oh i’m glad i could help! <3 i mean, ultimately, just like all other fiction, it’s all personal preference. some people only like to read in-canon fic and some people only like to read AUs and some people like both, etc etc etc and it’s all totally and completely fine! i think you seeing fanfic as that specific writer’s version of a character/characters makes complete sense and, in a way, is also true—we are each expressing our own interpretations of him! so i absolutely get where you’re coming from there c: and i think your reasoning for being confused makes sense, too!

oh that’s a good question! unfortunately, i don’t have an answer for you, though, because i personally have always interpreted canon dabi as someone who would use casual sex (and drugs!) to try (and fail) to fill the gaping void in his chest. it is 100% fine if you disagree with me, and i will always encourage anyone to interpret any character however they’d like to. the beauty with art and fiction is that there’s technically no wrong answer to a lot of this stuff—if you personally see dabi as someone who is asexual, then he is asexual! if i see him as a sexual being, then he is a sexual being! we can have our own conflicting views on him and who he is, because he isn’t real, and he can be whoever we want him to be. does that make sense? let me know if you have any other questions or something seems unclear and i will try my best to further explain myself! <3

[uncanny-tranny]

transsexual thursday! i've been pretty dysphoric lately but i wore this like salmon-pink womens sweater yesterday and for some reason its like the least feminine looking i've felt in a while? so that's wierdly cool!

Love when traditionally gendered clothing feels flipped on its head and makes you feel good

[expiredsoda]

Hi I'm like, actively trying to draw good (I'm trying my bestT^T), do you have any advice or tips on getting better? Or how you learned to do so? If you're ok with telling ofc

hmmm

I think what helps me a lot is to just keep drawing honestly, like I have my fair share of hyperfixation back in the days, I've been in su, tlok, aot even and now I have rl. I was so in love with these shows I just can't help but draw a bunch of my favs and I guess repeating drawing people would tend to make my skill at that area much better lol.

Oh welp another actual tip I can think of is just be more observant...? Like focus on how clothing would fall on peoples body, watch how people would hold a cup, see how the lights would hit on their skin. If you drawing with a reference don't just blindly follow the shapes, break down how the hand were piece together etc.

I also just scroll through a lot of other artists artwork, like everyone draw stuff differently, some focus more on the colors, some are more expressive with their line work. Study the lil things in their works that made you obsessed over with and applied them into your own work, that's a good way to make your art meet up to your standards of beauty and more eye catching to others.

Speaking of eye catching if you think your art looks boring you could try out dynamic poses too. Even if the character is just standing you can still tell their personalities from that one singular pose alone. Unfortunately I don't color often but trying out different color palette also made me have a better understanding on tones and values. Basically just get out of your comfort zone and draw more then just 3/4 front face view.

Those are just some of the things I think off my head now that made my art the way they are today. And believe this anon, you ARE doing amazing, keep going on this journey and you'll reach the destination you long for. I trust you anon you can do it >:3c

[layzeal]

I don’t quite get why people get so defensive when someone simply points out that LXC is directly responsible for his brother’s punishment. Because he is. LXC is the sect leader. It’s ultimately his decision. However, it’s up to the readers to decide how to feel about it. Some may find it too charitable. Others might cheer him up for it. Personally, I think it’s not his proudest moment. I doubt he feels good about it. It happens. As to 33 wronged “grandpas”, 1) they were senior disciples whose actual age is unknown, and 2) we don’t really know what they intended to do if someone who’s not a raging psychopath had to fight them. That cave scene is pretty vague. We don’t know how the fight actually started only that it did. Were they going to kill WWX? To kill both of them? I dunno. In any case, my sympathies are ultimately with someone who got his back flayed open which took 3 years to recover. I feel like whoever inflicted the punishment is pretty damn fine, they got their justice. But ymmv 💁‍♀️

????? ok?

[corrodedcoughin]

I hope ur having the best day

Well I am now 👽

[tinned-beef]

Hello! I'm rewatching TUA and I was thinking about why the world had to end .... why it seems like no option to not have the world end. And when the handler said "some things had to end" it came to my mind that maybe they meant Reginald Hargreeves schemes? What if the Commission worked against Reginald and at the end of Season 3 they failed? Cause with the apocalypse happening (1 & 2) Reginald would've never been able to reset the universe. I just .... I'm having emotions right now. And poor Five blames himself for everything, poor man just can't win in this.

sorry this took me a bit to answer!

but woah- you bring up a really good point! the idea that the commission has been trying to stop reginald this whole time is really interesting!! i’ve seen people theorize before that they could be working together, but never really thought about it the other way!

although, i can’t help but wonder why reginald offed himself in s1 then. it doesn’t make sense to die when his main goal was to reset the universe? unless he already had the events of the past three seasons planned out?? idk, reginald’s motives have always been a bit confusing to me.

i 100% agree with your last statement haha, poor five. it seems like this little guy always loses, always gets dealed the worst hand, always ends up with the short end of the stick. the fact that he still keeps going despite that really is admirable though, it’s one of the reasons why he’s my favorite character!