#i know they're called races in the game but 'race swap' is not a fantastic tag choice in my opinion lol

[sandcastle-art]

I'm sure I saw something like this on here a year or two ago.. but i couldn't find the original post so I made a new template for fun :) If you want to crop/edit this template to only include certain prompts, go ahead!

The 'free space' ones are for things like modded races or unplayable vanilla races, if you want to use them! Or non-starbound species even!

I would love to see if people use these, so if you want to share them then I'm going to be using the '#starboundspeciesswap' tag! :]

[bluecrocss]

Yap-Sesh number... Whatever: "Race-swapping", White supremacy, Misogyny, and Casting in Hollywood

Okay... so Tiktok kept trying to push clips of Walker Scobell and Mason Thames at Comic-con to me (I guess cuz I'm pretty active in pjo series fan spaces), and each time I would find myself quickly scrolling away or having no interest in seeing the clip.

And at first I thought, maybe it's because as much as i love Walker as Percy and as much as I think the cast are so adorable, I'm an adult and I'm not really one of his fan girls (for obvious reasons), so I'm not super interested in edits that are basically simping for him.

But the intensity with which I avoided these clips, I realized there was something else that was driving that feeling... it was resentment.

As you can see from my blog, I've invested a lot of time/energy pointing out the hypocrisy of the anti-blackness and backlash that has been thrown at Leah Jeffries for her casting as annabeth, as well as consistently coming to her defense against the bigots I've encountered on literally every social media site I've used. And I'm already pre-exhasuted knowing that I'm going to have to do the same thing for Nico Parker when the httyd movie comes out, despite the fact that she is just as white as Pete Wentz and more white than KJ Apa (who y'all had no problem with him dying his hair and playing canonically white Archie Andrews), the backlash she's going to get is insane and it's going to be a Leah Sava Jeffries situation all over again.

But when Zendaya or Jaz Sinclair or Amanadla Stenberg play fully black characters, with two black parents, you don't see the black community up in arms and losing our shit. But God forbid somebody who is 3/4s white play a white character and suddenly y'all wanna bring up the one-drop rule and start preaching about racial purity. You people are genuinely closet white supremacists.

Like...

The httyd movies might be based on aspects Scandinavian culture, but they aren't actually historically accurate to Norse (or "viking" as some of y'all like to call it) culture. It's like with Game of Thrones or D&D, the setting is inspired by real cultures but the contents are fantastical and don't require any "Ethnic accuracy" (what's that thing about white people can hold their disbelief for dragons but not POC in fantasy? 💀).

Which is crazy because NONE OF THE CAST (including the fully white actors) ARE ETHNICALLY SCANDINAVIAN. Furthermore, Mason Thames looks NOTHING like Hiccup. Hiccup is supposed to be an awkward, gangly nerd in the first movie and Mason Thames looks like a highschool Jock (which I don't mind. Cuz unlike y'all, I'm more interested in his acting and portrayal of the character).

Y'all did the same thing with Rachel Ziegler and snow white, who is in every way racially white and fair skinned, but y'all lost your shit because her mom is Colombian (news flash, Latinos can be white also. Ask Anya Taylor Joy). I think it goes beyond white supremacy though, y'all are also just misogynistic because when Keanu Reeves (half white) plays Jonathan Harker in Dracula, or Pedro Pascal (Latino) plays Joel and is in gladiator or Oscar Isaac (Latino) plays a welsh folk singer or a british noble or Mark-Paul Gosselar (Half-white) plays the iconically white all-american teen, Zack Morris for 5 years, it's suddenly not a problem.

Everytime y'all dogpile on a WOC actress like this, it's with this idea that they're getting an "unfair advantage". Hollywood is pushing it's "Woke agenda" and a hardworking white actress lost a role because a less-talented woc is "stealing" the spot. So you drag them in the name of "accuracy to the source material". But again, in 2024 71% of lead theatrical roles were played by white people and every other racial group made up 29%. Where is this hollywood woke agenda?

It's so funny, because it works the exact opposite because a WOC getting this kind of role is a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence, and then she's tokenized by hollywood for a few years and then left to dry.

I always think about how Jennifer Lawrence and Lupita Nyongo both had similar buzz when they first broke into Hollywood, and alot of people would put them at similar talent levels in terms of acting (I personally thing Lupita washes Jlaw, tbh). Yet over the course of their career, look at the quality of roles hollywood has offered each. Look at who hollywood pushed in the limelight over and over again.

When Percy Jackson and HTTYD are over, both Walker and Mason are going to get the hollywood white boy of the month treatment. Hollywood is going to try to make them leading men and put them in EVERYTHING. Like they did with Timothee Chalamet, Tom Holland, Chris pratt, Leo DiCaprio, even going back to James Dean in the 50s. And it's not to say that these men aren't talented, but it is the reality of where the bias lies in hollywood. Nico Parker, despite being a literal Nepo Baby, will never get the pure number of opportunities Mason gets, simply because MOST lead roles are written with white people as the default (keeping in mind that she is LITERALLY more white than she is black) and most lead roles still go to men.

It's just so unfair that these are young hard-working actors who have done nothing to y'all but because of pure racism and misogyny (that's what it is, even if you personally feel like it's not), look at the difference in the experience Leah and Nico have versus Walker and Mason. The difference in peace of mind. Feeling loved and supported vs being told you don't belong and you're not good enough. It's so reflective of real life for WOC and white men in general.

Everyone says they believe in "equality" and "hiring based on merit" and "representation is important", but most of y'all are lying. How are we ever going to get to point of actual equal representation in hollywood, when this is how white people act while they are STILL the majority? And don't say it's because of "race-swapping" because Amandla Stenberg has gotten racial backlash TWICE. Once when she played a character that was written to be black, but got backlash from white audiences because they had imagined the character white (and once again, the character was supposed to be fully black AND darker-skinned, but you didn't see black people losing our mind that she was being played by a light-skinned, biracial actor); and second in the acolyte, where she played a COMPLETELY ORIGINAL CHARACTER and still got racial abuse (yes, I have heard the show isn't very good, but the backlash started before it came out so save the gaslighting).

And for the Walker and Mason fans who are going to ignore the entire thesis of this post and interpret it as a hate-post towards your faves... this is literally a blog dedicated to the pjo live-action. I love Walker as Percy. He's seems like a really sweet kid and I'm glad he's getting all the recognition he's getting. And I love how supportive he's been of Leah. Same with Mason, he was great in Black Phone and I have no doubt he'll kill it in HTTYD. But would y'all ever give that level support or benefit of the doubt to their costars?

Also, also... for all the weirdos who are going to catch on the Rachel Ziegler example and say "oh it wasn't her race, she shit-talked the character" blah blah blah. No she didn't. Y'all took a few interview clips out of context and joined in on a misogynistic hate campaign from the anti-woke brigade like y'all did with Brie Larson. There was already backlash to her casting before she had even done a single interview. Why don't y'all save the hate for the literal Zionist that is playing the evil queen (apt title tho 🤔) instead?

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Today have two writing ideas, pick your favorite! 1) HCBBS fluff! Every hermit when swapping bases as like "you mean MY base", but Impulse and Stress just act like they're babysitting each other's children. (I basically just want Dadpulse and Stressmom :>) 2) More Hermit Among us! This time a fictional scenario, where Zedaph joins in one of the games. Impulse and Tango get impostor, and Zed third impostors just for them. Maybe he even finds a way to kill someone, who knows?

I decided to go with the first one (though I definitely do want to write Zed in Among Us soon), mostly because I had been wanting to do something similar for a while! I apologise that Stress’s section is a little lacking but I’m not as familiar with her. I hope Impulse’s part will make up for it! :D

...

  It was fair to say that StressMonster101 had been fairly apprehensive about the big move at first. After finding out another Hermit was going to have her base for a while and vice versa, she hadn’t been sure who to hope for. But it was also fair to say that once Stress had found out she would be swapping with Impulse, her excitement levels skyrocketed. 

  After giving each other a quick tour of their bases, Stress and Impulse separated. Her mind already racing with ideas and plans, Stress returned to her new base and went straight to the storage area, gazing down through the floor at the unfinished cactus farm as she did.

  “Right!” She beamed. “This place is a little lacking in something very, VERY important: pink. Everyone needs more pink in their lives, especially Impulse.”

  So the very first thing she did was swap out the blue concrete highlights around the base to bright pink concrete, followed by replacing the blue stained glass lining the walkways with pink stained glass. 

  “Perfect,” she said proudly, admiring her work. “Impulse could definitely use more pink in his life.”

  As she went back into the base, she could almost feel the energy inside the pyramid changing, as if the whole base itself was complaining about her decision. 

  “Don’t you give me that,” she laughed aloud, to nobody in particular. “I’m not gonna do anything TOO drastic. I’m just babysitting you for Impulse, yannow.”

  The base seemed to object to that statement too. 

  “You know what Impulse needs now?” Stress proclaimed to the base. “A lovely little indoor park. Working on that cactus farm has gotta be so monotonous; he needs somewhere to relax, surrounded by flowers and- OOH, I SHOULD GET HIM SOME BEES!”

  She dashed off immediately to root through Impulse’s chests for flowers, mumbling to herself about how happy he would be when he saw the changes she was going to make to his base. Nothing too drastic, just some little things to improve Impulse’s daily mood and bring some more life to the place. While she couldn’t deny that the build itself was fantastic, it just lacked a certain spark that made it truly feel alive. 

  Stress vowed to bring this spark to the base. 

...

  Waking up after his first night in his new base, Impulse momentarily didn’t know where he was. Then he registered the decor and remembered what had gone on the day before and why exactly he was sleeping in a pink bed surrounded by stark white walls. 

  He gingerly got out of bed and smoothed down the covers. Normally he wouldn’t bother making his bed, but it felt weird not to do so here in Stress’s base.

  No, not Stress’s base, he corrected himself reluctantly. My base.

  He shivered. Even just thinking those words felt wrong. 

  After he had left the bed as presentable as he had found it, Impulse headed into the main part of the skull base and stood in the middle of the room, trying to think of ideas that weren’t too invasive. The last thing he wanted was to change something big and then have Stress hate it. 

  And it really didn’t help that the style of this base was so different to his own. 

  Glancing to his right, he spotted a slightly raised section of the floor that looked almost like a stage. Recalling that Stress, like himself, was a drummer, he got an idea. 

  Half an hour later, he put the last block back in place and dusted off his hands. It was time to test out his invention.

  He flicked the switch in front of him and grinned as a funky beat started playing. As he stood up, he couldn’t help bouncing from side to side in time to the beat, even going so far as to incorporate some dance moves. 

  “She’ll like this,” he said confidently to himself. “She likes music. Ooh, maybe I should order a drumset from Beef’s shop to put around it? That’d be pretty cool.”

  As he turned the lever off, he spotted the chicken Stress had spawned randomly in her base, staring at him from a few blocks away.

  “Hey,” he said slowly. “Uh… you wanna dance?”

  He turned the drumbeat back on and awkwardly shuffled through some dance moves. 

  The chicken just stared back at him.

  Impulse sighed and switched off the beat. “What do you want from me? Why do you hate me so much?” He paused. “And why am I so insecure about being judged by a chicken?” 

  He strode past the chicken and started looking through the chests stacked by the wall, looking for anything that might spark a new project idea. All he found, however, was stacks upon stacks of building materials that only served to remind him of the base he had left behind and all the plans he had been itching to get started on. 

  Closing the last chest, he stepped back in disappointment. No inspiration whatsoever. Stress probably had loads of ideas for the pyramid, so Impulse felt bad that he couldn’t think of a single thing to improve his new base. He was letting Stress down already.

  Something rubbed his leg, causing him to yelp and leap to the side, expecting to see a monster.

  “Ugh,” he groaned, nudging the chicken away with his foot. “You scared the crap outta me, you-.” He broke off before he inadvertently called the chicken a horrible name. “Buddy, don’t scare me. Please. I’m still not comfortable here.”

  The chicken cocked its head and continued staring at him.

  This time, Impulse gazed back. “Are you hungry? Is that why you keep staring at me?”

  He dug out some seeds from one of the chests and hesitantly held them out to the chicken, which approached him immediately and pecked them out of his hand.

  Impulse chuckled and watched the chicken gobble up the seeds. “You really WERE hungry, huh? Well, maybe you’ll stop bothering me now.”

  Once the chicken had finished the seeds, it turned and waddled back into the main room. It stopped in front of the lever and pecked at it.

  Impulse curiously followed the chicken and flicked the lever on. “Is this what you want?”

  The chicken jiggled back and forth in time with the drum beat, its little head wiggling from side to side. “There you go, you little drumstick,” Impulse laughed. “Now you’ve got a full belly, you wanna dance.”

  He paused. “Hmm. That’d make a good name for you. Hey, you wanna be called Drumstick?”

  The chicken looked up at him and clucked happily. Or rather, Impulse assumed it was a happy noise. 

  “Then I guess your name is Drumstick now,” Impulse chuckled.

  Drumstick responded by laying an egg. 

  Impulse couldn’t help laughing at the comedic timing of the event. “Oh dear. You’re a funny chicken, aren’t you? Shall we see if we can get you a little friend?”

  He picked up the egg and threw it at the wall. It burst open and a tiny chick fluttered down to the ground.

  “Heeeey, you’re a mommy, Drumstick!” Impulse beamed and picked up the little baby from the ground, before bringing it over to his feathered friend. “Look. This is your baby. And I guess I hatched it, so would that make me her dad?”

  Impulse blinked as he fully registered what he had just said. “Nope, don’t wanna open that can of worms today. So what should we call you?” He gently tickled the baby under its neck with the back of his finger. “You’re just a little nugget, aren’t you? Shall we call you Nugget? Drumstick, should we call your little baby Nugget?”

  Drumstick clucked and bobbed her head.

  “Great! Impulse, Drumstick, and Nugget, the three musketeers.” A smile spread over Impulse’s face. “Hey, you know what? You two can be my project. I’ll build you a nice little area to live in and make it look all pretty. Stress would really like that. Would you guys like that?”

  Nugget responded by chirping quietly and snuggling into Impulse’s neck.

  He chuckled and gently stroked her feathers. “I hope I don’t get too attached to you guys. You’re both gonna have to stay here when I move back to my base.”

  Drumstick made a sad noise, as if she had understood his words. And perhaps she had. 

  Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, Impulse lifted Drumstick onto his left shoulder and Nugget onto his right, ignoring the slight twinge as their claws dug into his skin. 

  “C’mon, gals,” he said, unable to stop grinning. “Let’s get started.”