#if there was a M!A to swap genders for a bit then that's different

[ask-the-totally-real-peppino]

For Fake Peppino, have you heard about Fake Peppina? She made her first appearance in Recd's Lap 3 Cover, and entered the mod called "Peppina Ramen over Peppino." She is only seen in the opening before your boss fight. And in the version 3.8 update, Fake Peppina was now a boss while you're in the background of her boss battle, The Crumbling Tower of Pizza, and the ending of the mod.

('Fake Peppina' does not exist in this AU, and certainly not in the way described - bc that 1. Assumes I (Bean the mod/artist) has seen or was even aware of these (I didn't know about them until this ask), 2. Assumes that the cover and mod are canon here, and their story events played out - which is not the case bc, again I was not aware of them, and I don't take ideas from fan creations such as mods (at least not intentionally fsdklsdf), and 3. Implies that the characters are aware they are in a game and are aware of mods/other fan creations - they're not jlkgsfd

Even regardless of that specific mod, there still is no 'Fake Peppina' or a 'real Peppina' or any genderswapped variation of the characters - I am not a huge fan of genderswapping and that is not the story I want to do

There are plenty of female clones here, but they are their own characters and not just 'Fake Peppina', so if you are looking for specifically her, then you'll have to go somewhere else to find that - there are plenty of creators who do genderswapped AUs etc out there!)

[serxinns]

Yandere class 1a with Aizawa and gender swap?!?

Reader will be female in this

You were fighting a villain with your classmates it was a time-dimensional villain when they shot to quirk it was going for Shoji but you went and in front of him and took the hit the last thing you saw was some kind you falling and a boy that awfully looked like you falling as well

You gasped out breathing heavily and sweating all over you looked around to see that you were in your bed?! Was it a bad dream it felt so real you were about to question stuff until u heard a voice "M/N!, it is time for school make sure u get dressed" a female voice said

Across the door that was weird it wasn't any of your girl classmates you knew what your girl classmates sounded like but this was a new voice it sounded like iida but much more higher also who's? M/n?!

You looked in your drawers to see that they were all men's outfits and boxers. "What the fuck?!" you said in your mind a bit shocked was this even your room?! You peaked out to see the name on our dorm it didn't say y/n l/n well it had the same last name but ur name was different it said what the girl called you earlier

M/n l/n

"m/n what's taking so long," the strict female voice said on the other side she sounded impatient "Okay! One minute Iida" you yelled back you got on you got ready and put on your clothes the clothes were a bit oversized and the pants are a bit lose but it was fine you walked out the door to not see iida but a tall girl with glasses she had her she wore a ponytail at the back "Y-Your not iida who are you" you stuttered back stood back a bit Iida was more shocked then you

"I should be asking you who are you and why are you in m/n's room!" the girl protested back "I-I don't know I was woken up and I-" "I don't wanna hear it." the harsh tone in her voice made you cut off your sentence the girls as getting more angrier and angrier and it looked like u weren't gonna make it out alive so you did the oldest trick in the book "Oh look I think I see him right now!" you pointed just when the girl turned her back you ran for it and scream

down the hall, you ran to your class you ran so fast you couldn't see which made you bump into a group of people "Oi Watch where you're going, dumbass!" Akatsuki! Oh thank you,- you were about to say but looked up to see a short-haired female with orange eyes glaring down at you "Suki! That isn't very badass" another female spoke up this one had red spikey hair with sharp teeth scolding at the female you stumbled back a bit wondering what's going on and why are these classmates look like yours but Different! Then it all clicked

You weren't in your dimension or ur world

That thought swirled in your mind making you lost in thought until you heard a booming voice thundering down behind you "GET HER SHES THE ONE WHO GOT SOMETHING TO DO WITH M/N'S DISAPPEARANCE"

Crap it was her..

"You giggled nervously when the gender swap of bakusquad glared at you they tried to grab you but u quickly ran past them not only did you have an enraged female version of Iida but now an enraged group of your friends as well you kept running until u couldn't anymore you didn't care where u ran until u crashed into another person and it seemingly looked like your teacher you could tell by the clothes so you ran behind her "who the hell are you.." you were panting heavily trying to explain to the woman but you used all your energy and passed out

You wake up in the same bedroom again and are surrounded by a bunch of different teenagers who are all whispering amount each other questioning who was the girl and why was she in their darling's bedroom a teacher "How are you feeling child" the female version of Aizawa said staring at you with a look "uh..Good" you said gulping "Now you will answer these questions about who and what are u and how did u come here" the woman said in a strict tone u quickly told them how you got zapped into another dimension by a villain you were fighting and woke up here

They didn't believe you "How can we know you are the opposite gender of y/n?" a male version of Mina stepped up to you looking at you suspiciously you thought for a while and a random memory "OH OH UH Mina remember when you and Denki broke Aizawa coffee machine so you blamed it on miners and paid me 20 bucks to not tell" the pink male was shocked at this but you kept going to prove your innocence "Akatsuki remember when I was feeling cold and you gave threw me your gloves I kept asking what about you but u threaten to kill me if I didn't shut the fuck up" everyone looked at the blonde woman somewhere giggling to each other the blonde blushed in embrassrament "OUT OF ALL MEMORIES WHY THAT ONE DAMNIT " "Yep that's m/n alright," the class thought while sighing to relief, "But wait!" a female izuku said if this is the genderswap m/n where OUR m/n?!" female izuku said "he must be in my universe having the same crisis as I did " you assumed

once everyone settled down and went to continue class they were calm but since they knew it was you, Iida, and the bakusquad apologized repeatedly for their behavior you forgave them and understood their reaction they blushed at your smile you gave them

During your stay at this wacky dimension, your classmates seem to have developed a liking for you the class would bicker with each other about who gets to hang out with you like "Oh sorry y/n wanted me to help you with this" or "Oh crap I forgot y/n told me to pick up something" it always excuses after excuses,

The sleepovers are a must girls would have the BIGGEST sleepovers they would pitch your cheeks and coo at you for what felt like hours and then Demi (female Denki) suggested they should watch a movie and there was a fight about who gets to cuddle next to you.

El (female ejido) is a God damn acts like a lovesick puppy when it comes to you she would always give you big bear hugs and spin you around she always compliments you about how badass you are, Suki (female Bakugo ) it's like Natsuki but more tsundere she would always demand you should walk with her to class because "Your dumbass would always be late" and even yell at you to hold hands with her so "Your slow ass can keep up duh" acting like she's annoyed with it, Sera (female sero) is a more laid back person but is clingy whenever you play games with sera and kami they would be whining to you to sit on their lap because "I'll have a better chance at winning :(((" if u decline she'll keep whining you until you do, Demi (Female Denki) is always flirting and teasing you trying to either annoy you or to make you blush is pretty hard to do tell

Izumi (female izuku) is a literal angel who is always writing romance novels about you and her being lovers drawing cute scenarios and fantasies of how you'll ask her out on a cute date and kiss she admires and obsess about everything you do even if it's the smallest things, Iicka (female Iida) now feeling bad about what she done she makes sure you're her study partner all the time and during study section, you would always feel like someone is staring at you while ur busy doing work, Sho (female shoto) is always quiet but shows her love in a physical way she always give out small smiles to you and you only she'll spoil you with gifts even if you decline she'll insist

The boys, on the other hand, are much less chaotic but much more clingy and protective they would make you hold their hand or even give you piggyback rides Minato even carries you princess style, umi (male Ochako) and always gets flushed at everything you do when you smile it makes him red as a tomato and floats up in the sky, Tsu (male tsuyu) is always kind and gentle to you always give you small gifts every day and act like gentlemen very calm and quiet and is great at comforting Jiu (Male jiu) is usually seen as an edgy boy who plays music but is a little tsundere he tries to act cool and try to impress you with her music but. You were just too cute! She couldn't help but pinch ur little cheeks and always show Demi getting jammed memes which made you both bust out laughing, Mono (male momo) is your dad friend type and spoiling type like Iida and Shoto, Mono would make you treat you like his sugar baby by spoiling you with these expensive gifts and always making sure your health is well he lightly scolds for whenever u missed something like food, daily routine or forgot something but would use her quirk to give you the stuff you forgot

Shigo (female shogi) would always wrap her multiple arms around you she's like a big bodyguard teddy bear she's always so gentle with you she would go into killer mode if someone ever said anything bad to you and if you tried to get her attention she'll snap out of it quickly and check to see if you were ok sato (female sato) is always spoiling you with sweets the sweets she would make it's meant for romance she makes those in hope you'll know someday she'll make heart-shaped frosted cookies, red velvet cake, or even Valentine's day macarons, Tiki (female tokoyami) Hides her feelings for her but dark shadow gotta be a little shit and tries to tell you but whenever that happens she quickly turns on a light which makes dark shadow hisses tiki loves to go to those outdoor malls with you (mainly because they got good snacks) and because to get good ass stuff she'll take you to either a hot topic or Spencer's if you ever went to a Spencer she'll try to push u far away from going to the back of it

Although some things make you feel strange like how whenever you talk to the other students you feel like a bunch of people glaring from behind when you look back you see your classmates just having their usual expressions, or how the gender-bend of bakusquad and dekusquad argue for who getting to baby you it became so intense that Ms. Aizawa had to pull you away from the situation to handle it even ms Aizawa was acting weird because whenever she does walk off with you she locks the door excusing the classmates will come and interrupt and would make you sleep by her and would pet it was nice you thought, even most of the yanderes at night would think of you in various situations even thinking the two of you are acting dating!

The more you spend time with them the worse the obsession gets but as bad as their obsession and selfish desires get their love for m/n still stays heck they have a plan to get the BOTH if you trapped in this dimension so you won't leave them forever

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

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1. Can you help me find a fic? It was a poly ship, with I think Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, Jin Zixuan, and Wei Wuxian. Possibly also Nie Huaisang? LWJ, JC, JZX (+maybe NHS) were divine beasts and WWX was another mythical beast but he hid it. I don’t think they were all romantically involved: WWX was the pivot between the others. It was abo or a fated-soulmate au. I think I might be getting two fics confused though, because I remember there is one where WWX, LWJ, JC, and JZX form some kind of soul bond and they fight through the Sunshot Campaign together and they can read each other’s thoughts and bring each other back to life, but this one is not that one! Can’t remember that one’s name either and it isn’t in my bookmarks. TT

FOUND? I’m pretty sure the one with the fourway soulbond is Quartet series by WithBroomBefore (T, 69k, Platonic Soulbond, Hurt/comfort, Canon   Divergence, No golden core transfer, JC&JZX stay in Xuanwu cave, Fix-it, Temporary character death)

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2. Hello! I am looking for a fic where  Wei Wuxian is a hairstylist. Rich!Lan Wangji keeps coming back even though originally he would only make an appointment with the owner. Likes his scalp massage. I can't remember if the owner is Huaisang or Wen Ning. Thank you for your help! @toopunkrockforshul

FOUND! Delivered in Silence by DeviyudeThoolika (E, 17k, WangXian, Modern AU, Slow Burn, hairstylist!WWX, client!LWJ, Horny WangXian)

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3. For fic finder: An mpreg fic: in the Gusu lectures Jin Zixuan rapes Wei Wuxian, and so Madame Yu pulls WWX out of classes and drags him back to Lotus Pier where he is confined in secret for a year to have the child. The story continues on through the canon storyline with WWX repeatedly clashing with JZX especially over his engagement to Yanli. LWJ realizes that JZX hurt WWX and stands by WWX’s side to face JZX. I think it was a very long fic.(wangxian endgame, not WWX/JZX)

FOUND! secrets for the stars to keep by UchiHime (M, 37k, WangXian, XuanXian, XuanLi, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mpreg, Canon Divergence, not a/b/o, Hurt/Comfort, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Recovery)

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4. Help me please! I am struggling to find a fic due to tumblr’s dumb search system (I know I originally found it due to this blog). The fic involves Lan Zhan slowly turning into jade and Wei Wuxian is asked to help bc he is great at breaking curses! It turns into the two of them basically doing a bucket list for Lan Zhan and it was very cute! @flamboyantly-asexual​

FOUND! A Curse of a Different Color by nickel710 (G, 35k, WangXian, XiChengQing, Modern with Magic, Modern Cultivation, Curses, Curse Breaking, Asexual polyamory, Repressed LWJ, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Drunk LWJ, Falling In Love, WWX Being an Idiot, Non-explicit vomit, just a tiny reference to it, Anxiety)

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5. Hi! For the fic finder, I vaguely remember reading a summary where lwj turns into a girl and has to have an orgasm in order to get back to being a boy or something along those lines? Sorry, that's the only thing I remember about it but I need it 😭🙏🏼

FOUND! Coming Back to Yourself by acernor (E, 21k, WangXian, Vaginal Fingering, Cunnilingus, Oral Sex, Pining, Gender or Sex Swap, Vaginal Sex)

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6. Hi, I'm looking for a fic, large I believe, where a transmigrator was born as Xichen... Any idea which can be @krysaniar​

FOUND? the eve of dawn by theAbandoned_Grimoire (G,132k, LXC & LWJ, LXC & QHJ & LWJ, LQR & QHJ, NHS & NMJ, future wangxian, canon divergence, dumb LXC au, hurt/comfort, angst & feels, fluff, dysfunctional family, happy ending, implied/referenced character death, minor character death, slow burn)

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7. Hello! I’m looking for a fic I read a while back. My memory is a bit vague, so take with a grain of salt. Plot: Lan Wangji is stressed (forgot if it was just stress or if it was autism related) so Wei Wuxian uses his body as a weighted blanket, just laying on top of LWJ. (I think WWX buys him an actual weighted blanket later on but LWJ prefers WWX as a weighted blanket. Also, I think they get together at end of fic, but I’m not sure.) thanks in advance for your help! It’s greatly appreciated! @dweebdaweeb

FOUND? Happy for Now by ScarlettStorm (E, 79k, Female WangXian, Modern AU, no magic, Rule 63, Cisswap, There Was Only One Bed, romance author au, Adhd wwx, service top LWJ, Pining, Smut, Comedy, Minor Angst, major shenanigans, horny yearning, furtive masturbation, Cunnilingus, Vaginal Fingering, Sex Toys) there was a scene like that in 'Happy for Now' by ScarlettStorm

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8. hi ! i’m looking for a fic set in post canon where i’m pretty sure wangxian we’re tg, they go on a hunt where smth puts everyone to sleep and eventually kills. but rlly the curse tricks you into showing u a horrible nightmare that u think is ur reality so u stay asleep. wei ying sees lan zhan die in front of him and he’s super angry and resentful that lan zhan would leave him, and after the funeral he ends up leaving cloud recesses and suzhui bc he can’t be there without him. eventually he is woken up and finds out it was a dream, but wei ying talks to lan zhan and is like “how did you not resent me i chose to leave you”. i cant find it anywhere !!

FOUND? more damage than a soul should see by Kika988 (M, 12k, WangXian, Heavy Angst, Whump, Post-Canon, Please see notes for specific warnings!)

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9. Hello Mods!

I have two fics I'm looking for, that I have regrettably lost amidst my 53 pages of AO3 subscriptions (yes it is a lot no I will not shrink it I have 20+ fandoms I enjoy I am an unrepentant).

A) 1st is a Golden core reveal fic which also included Wangji telling Wuxian about the marriage ribbon and the two of them serving tea to Jiang Cheng and Yanli after it.

B) 2nd is a modern AU fic where Wuxian is a Hacker? Code writer? for his main job but also is a music teacher I think while Wangji works in hospital? They have a big concert together is what I remember.

Any help finding these two gems is greatly appreciated! (^_^♪)

9B)

FOUND? Come Around and Stay by trippednfell (M, 160k, WangXian, NieLan, Modern AU, Slow Burn, Kid Fic, Found Family, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, PTSD, Blood and Injury, Dissociation, So much trauma, Angst with a Happy Ending, Takes a while to work through it, Musicals, POV Alternating, Baking, Yunmeng reconciliation (eventually), Friend Zoning, Literal Sleeping Together, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks)

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10. I'm looking for a fic where they mention that something that sometimes stops cultivators leaving the sects and going rogue is having to pay the forge prices of their swords. IIRC it was in the context of the Lan sect helping WWX get out from the Jiangs by paying the forge price for him. Please and thank you!

FOUND! Rotten Work by ShanaStoryteller (Not rated, 64k, JL & WWX, wangxian, post-canon, protective WWX, protective JL, JC & WWX reconciliation, reluctant matchmaker JL, pre-JL/LJY) Rotten Work by ShanaStoryteller mentions disciples that leave have to pay to keep their sword, but it's about Luo Qingyang and the Jins

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11. Hi! It has been a while. So there's this ff that I have read before and I cannot remember the title. So it goes like

Wei Ying was going to destroy the Yin Tiger Tally and he knows he's gonna die in process. Jin Ling's 100th day is also coming up so he insists A-Yuan to go there too with someone I cannot remember (but I think it was Song Lan) and he told A-Yuan to find Lan Zhan. I think he also wrote some letters for the people invited there to read. A-Yuan started crying I think and yelling that Gold was bad (he was refering to the Jins because they tortured them on camps before).

Pov to Wen Qing and Wen Ning. They weren't aware that Wei Ying was going to destroy the Yin Tiger. I think Wei Ying told them to buy something or collect something. So while they were out Wei Ying started to destroy the Yin Tiger. Wen Qing senses something was wrong and hurriedly went back to the Burial Mounds. Time skip Wei Ying still dies (?) Wen Qing was trying to revive him until she passes out. Time skip again Lan Zhan Jiang Yanli Jin Zixuan came to the burial mounds, Jin Zixuan got shot by an arrow and was poisoned so Jiang Yanli find Wen Qing and beg at her to save her husband. I don't remember much but at some point they saw Wei Ying's corpse.

Last time I read it, it was still incomplete. I hope you can help me with this. Thank you @hellothere9597​

FOUND? #11 i think its a deleted fic. The title is When I'm Gone by qiankun_pouch . Its fit the description that are mentioned

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12. Hi I'm looking for a fic where Wei ying is obessed with marrying a rich man, so he goes to parties with meng Yao looking for one..Meanwhile Lan Zhan his room mate is rich and hiding it. He detests those who seek money. They have chemistry. But Wei ying never wants to risk being back in poverty. And Lan Zhan he into him a lot but he doesn't want Wei ying to be with him for Money.Wen ning is also a roommate. @imgonnablogtheworldtodeath

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13. Hello!! This is a fic finder request but first I have to let you know that ur all doing gods work and that I appreciate u all sm!!

Ok so im not sure if im doing this correctly but I’m looking for this fic that I lost where lwj almost dies in nightless city saving jyl. Lxc was able to save him by binding their souls together or smth at the last minute and then he hid lwj away in qinghe where he’s basically in a comatose state. Wwx thinks lwj is dead and blames himself and iirc he turns himself in at cr and gets whipped? Also lxc 100% blames wwx for lwj’s near death and pretty much hates him. I also remember that when lwj woke up and wwx saw him he went a little crazy and wouldn’t believe he was real

Again thank you all sm for your hard work!! @kitekichenqin​

FOUND? If I Could Go Back in Time by Runningbarefoot (M, 122k, WangXian, NieLan, Canon Divergence, Role Reversal, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, Grief/Mourning, Loss, YLLZ WWX, Eventual Happy Ending, The Twin Jade Brotherhood, Hurt/Comfort, Healing, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Twin Prides of Yúnmèng Dynamics, Slow Burn)

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14. Hello! I am looking for this fic I read a reaaaaally long time ago. The only thing I remember is that wwx died but not really when he was on his way to jin lings one month celebration (ik it's really vague up till here) and wen ning takes him back and then goes to the banquet and talks with the main characters there privately. Thanks in advance! @la-diabla

FOUND? End Racism in the OTW | The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou (E, 66k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Injury, Injury Recovery, Blood, Respiratory Illness, Major Illness, Fever, Grief/Mourning, Burial Mounds, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hunger and food scarcity, Surgery, Fix-It of Sorts)  

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15. During Gusu lectures LWJ and WWX spar and something sparks between them like dual cultivation? I think they were already in a relationship at that point, and during the spar they are giddy with the thrill of the fight and, feeling their energy circling, it gets them horny and they, pardon the crassness, jerk each other off in a hallway after they drag each other off the field. @gloriousclotpole

FOUND! 🧡 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark (E, 663k, WangXian, WIP, Fix-it of sorts, Talisman master WWX, Not JFM Friendly, Study Arc, Getting together, Fluff and Angst, Engagement)

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16. hellooooo I've been looking for this fic but I can't find it all I remember is Thant lwj goes back in the past after wwx's death (during the cloud recess study arc) and it ends withe a threesome with him wwx and younger lz. also at the end he goes back to the futur to wait for 'his' wwx can you help ????? thanks for all that you do !!!!!✨✨✨✨✨✨

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17. hii i was looking for this wangxian fic where I think they accidentally end up taking care of a-yuan? the only thing i remember from the fic is that around the end social services or cps take a-yuan away from wangxian for a day or two and then they have to go sign some papers before they can have a-yuan back. that's all i remember sorry 😭 i read it a long time ago maybe 2020/2021? I've been looking for it for ages and i can't find it, please help 🥺

FOUND? All those roads are pointing to you by jiejieaini (E, 81k, WangXian, Modern AU, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Drowning, Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Bunnies, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Dubious Consent, Dom/sub Undertones, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, WangXian Have a Breeding Kink, Rimming, Panic Attacks, Anxiety, Marriage Proposal)

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18. Zero idea if you still do this, but Im looking for a certain fanfic which is about lwj and wwx moving together i think because he was kicked out by madam yu, because he outed himself and I remember Lan Xichen being very supportive and even going back to the house to retrieve wwx‘s belongings and ofc lwj and wwx fall in love other the time course

FOUND? Found Family by fyredancer (T, 10k, WangXian, Modern AU, Fluff, Getting Together, POV Outsider, Dysfunctional Family, Coming Out, Bad Parenting, Protective Older Brothers, Protective Siblings)

FOUND? Where is home? by SpicyRamen_10969 (M, 42k, WIP, WangXian, Modern AU, High School, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Coming Out, Not Jiang Family Friendly, Supportive LQR, Good Sibling LXC, Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, JC Being an Asshole, Possible Smut?)

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19. Hello, this is an FicFinder request.

I don't remember much, but it was a rare-pairing of WRH and WWX. I'm not sure if it was a time travel fic. When bunny was 14 or something, a water deity came from the waters of Yunmeng and told him of his powers/potentials. Bunny then was take. To kunlun mountain or smth like that and found out that he controlled the void, darkness, some elements as well. He meditated and became immortal and had lived for more than 200 years in another realm. In Yunmeng, he was still a kid and went to seclusion to complete his meditation or something. He also had a wife/lover in underworld and it was a mix of Greek mythology and others as well. @tinyfoxpeach

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20. I particularly remember that it is a four part series with one fic rewritten. It's basically post burial mounds siege where wwx ascended to immortality, and lwj ascended after his 33 discipline whip punishment. Lwj's injuries were so grave that it carried to his ascension. It's not specified but lwj ends up in wwx's domain and wwx goes batshit after finding out what the lan sect did and confronted them. Mostly fluff and angst. @bananatoffeepie​

FOUND? Deity AU by crypticidentity (M, 5k, wangxian, hurt/comfort, madness, implied/Referenced character death, whipping, angst, protective WWX, BAMF WWX, deity WWX, deity LWJ) check all the tags before reading!

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[ctlightner]

@summerchild-finn

Hi! Finally saw this reply, and I will absolutely explain.

First of all, I want to be clear that I love Alva. She's a spiritual successor to Megara from Disney's Hercules, and I think she has a very well done arc in the movie. This is not me hating on a canon female character for the sake of gay shipping. I think she and Jesper have great chemistry... I just think Jesper and Klaus have even better chemistry.

Part of that is the nature of the flim: it's a buddy movie, so it's important for the two buddies to bounce off each other and make us believe they're good together--if not romantically, then platonically. I can't say I've watched a lot of buddy movies, but if I were writing one, one of my top priorities would be to make sure the leads worked well together on a base level.

However, if we look more closely at the language of film--how the scenes are laid out, the shots, the cuts, etc--I think the movie starts resembling a romance when it comes to Klaus and Jesper.

(warning, this turned into 3k of film analysis. very long and image heavy. spoilers for klaus, and the discussion assumes youve seen it at least once)

Exhibit A: The Touch

Step one is a base of good chemistry, but then we add in things like Jesper accidentally touching Klaus' broad chest and pulling away quickly (~43 min in):

But that's not the beginning and end of this sequence, otherwise it would simply read more platonic. See, when Jesper firsts lays his hands on Klaus, his eyes travel to his hands. And then he realizes what he's done and glances up at Klaus:

The shot lingers on this quiet moment between them, filled with nothing but touch. And if that was it, well, yeah you'd get people reading it as romantic, but it still could just be platonic as Jesper realizes he's breached the personal bubble of the man he thought was an axe murderer two nights ago. But something happens between Jesper realizing he fumbled over the touch barrier and him pulling away:

A POV shot. Through Jesper's eyes.

When we shift into Jesper's head, we're privy to a full reaction from Klaus. We don't know exactly what's going on in his head, but he's not angry. If anything, he looks quizzical. Part of this is because Jesper doth protest too much about how much he cares about toy delivery, and this mountain man is re-learning social interaction after decades of isolation.

But again, the movie pauses here. It's not a long, long shot, but it is about one second long. That doesn't seem like a lot, but you can fit quite a bit of information in one second of a movie. Furthermore, the entire sequence, from the initial touch to pulling away is a solid 5 seconds. The movie purposefully delays us here, on this moment, to make sure we see them interact in this way.

Let's play Swap the Genders for a second. If Jesper was, idk, Jespina, how would this interaction be different? Theoretically, it's the same actions and the same, surrounding implications of plot context. But we as an audience have been trained to read "boy and girl share brief, awkward touch" as foreshadowing for a romantic future. In all genres, not just romcoms and dramatic romances, though you bet your butt they're extremely deliberate in those. And with how long the movie lingers here, it would absolutely read as romantic if this were m/f.

But Wait There's More!

Exhibit B: Jesper, The Light

At about the 55 minute mark, we get another interesting sequence. By this point, we know that Klaus' store of toys is drying up, and he hasn't been keen on making more. Jesper, meanwhile, is still a few letters shy of being able to go home to luxury, so he gets an idea on how to convince Klaus to make more toys for Christmas.

We see Klaus out chopping wood when the magic wind we saw earlier in the film (that convinced him to go on the initial deliveries), leads him up to his workshop. Once there, he's greeting by a curtain obscuring part of the shop. A lantern within exudes soft, comforting golden light, and we see a silhouette moving.

The silhouette is feminine, from the look of hair pulled back, to the curvy spine, to the soft triangle of the lower body that implies a dress. We're to assume there is woman there, and as the sequence continues, we're led to assume this is a woman Klaus knows.

He starts to approach, a look of surprise on his face. Then we get a close-up that further betrays his want and concern and hope. This is all portrayed without words, by the way. It's just a series of well-executed shots and poignant music. It's an excellent example of how to raise tension via shots when you have a very stoic character. Klaus doesn't really move his face much. He doesn't mug to the camera like a desperate Let's Player to illustrate that he's having Complicated Emotions. Instead, the shot changes intensify. By the time Klaus is ready to see who's behind the curtain, so are we.

And after all that buildup, the feminine figure reaches out and flings the curtain away to reveal...

Twink Supreme.

Klaus is annoyed the silhouette wasn't who he thought it was and gets more annoyed the longer Jesper tries to pitch him on making toys for Christmas. Klaus tries to get him to stop, but he helps himself to the workshop and starts touching things he shouldn't. This culminates when Jesper yanks a sheet off a wall.

He reveals a very dusty fixture with a familiar-looking masculine woodcut, and a less familiar, but notable feminine one. And underneath their slot are completely empty ones. This is the first time the scene has been shunted into darkness since Klaus entered the workshop.

Klaus is horrified at this thing, even though we can surmise he made it himself. This is forbidden, even to him.

He orders Jesper to leave. Jesper obliges, and we follow him back to the post office where he meets up with absolute cinnamon roll Margú and finally decides to help her write a letter so she can get her own toy like the townies. Jesper goes to Alva for help and via the power of pop ballad montage, we see them get a little closer and end the sequence with the letter in hand.

Now, Jesper knows he can't ask Klaus for help making Margú her toy, so he sets off to make it himself despite not being qualified in the slightest. It's the thought that counts, right?

As the ballad ballads on, we get a crossfade from Jesper working by candlelight to Klaus still sitting and brooding in his dark workshop. A crossfade is a type of transition from scene to scene where one picture gradually fades into the next. As we fade from Jesper to Klaus, we get an incredible image:

Jesper is in the forbidden zone. His visage has replaced the dusty, hidden remnants that have been there so long. Moreover, once again, the movie heavily contrasts light and dark. Much like how the curtains obscuring Jesper earlier were the only light in the darkness of the workshop, now again is Jesper the beacon of warmth. A beacon that Klaus has turned away from, much like he did the tree carving before.

Now, I need y'all to put a pin in this. I swear I have a conclusion to this sequence, but I need to talk about something else first.

Exhibit C: The Porch Scene

Klaus eventually shows up to the post office and sees that Jesper made a mess of the woodworking for the gift. He starts fixing it, and the two head out into the night to the nearby Sámi camp/village to deliver Margú's toy. The ballad is still going, by the way, and it rises back up in lyrics and power as the young girl tests out her... snow-windsurfing board? It looks dope. Jesper seemingly for the first time understands the meaning of doing good deeds. Eventually, they return to Klaus' home, all excited from the escapade. Especially Jesper.

As they stable the reindeer, Klaus admits that it's been a long time since he's felt this way, and that "she" used to tease him when he got that doofy smile on his face. Who is "she," Jesper asks.

"My Lydia," he replies.

Klaus recounts how he and his wife found enjoyed their little mountain hideaway. But, he says, it wasn't going to be the two of them for long.

Light blossoms again as we flash back to a younger Klaus and his wife, excited to start their lives together, and very excited to start a family, a large one. At least seven children judging by the niches on the tree. Unfortunately for them, no children came. And then Lydia got sick. And then she was gone. He supposes he lost his way after she died, making birdhouse after birdhouse because she loved birds.

"Then," Klaus says, turning to gaze fondly at Jesper, "you showed up."

He says that he never thought he'd feel this again--"this" of course being the joy of seeing children's faces when they got a new toy he worked hard on. No, "this" doesn't refer to romance, but again, if Jesper were Jespina, we would absolutely be expected to take this as, if not foreshadowing, then barely-subtextual confirmation that there are romantic feelings somewhere in the mix.

But that's not just looking too hard through a queer lens at this interaction. Remember that pin from the previous section? Pull it out and let's discuss. See, the movie, through film language alone, equates Jesper to Lydia.

We were expected to believe the silhouette from earlier was a woman's. A woman who we understood to be important to Klaus. Now, we know that she wasn't just important, he loved her, was married to her. To see her silhouette in Jesper's positions the two as equals if they can so easily be mistaken for each other. Essentially, something about Jesper reminded Klaus of Lydia.

But of course, the movie didn't do this just once.

The movie equates Jesper to Lydia when it crossfades between the post office and the workshop during the breakup sequence. I mentioned that Jesper is the light in the darkness here, but superimposing him over something so important and devastating to Klaus places him squarely within the field of those feelings as well. And once we learn that the carved tree was Klaus and Lydia's wish for family, suddenly Jesper being there in the frame puts him as family.

Now, could you read this as just platonic "found family?" Yeah, absolutely, and the film does a great job doing that later on when the Sámi enter the workshop. But I argue that the movie has gone out of its way several times to specifically equate Jesper and Lydia. These two people are both lights in the darkness for Klaus. They tease him good-naturedly. But most importantly, the porch scene recontextualizes a much earlier scene from being merely mysterious to Lydia outright endorsing Jesper's presence in Klaus' life.

Back around the 30 minute mark, Jesper approached Klaus after a successful day of getting the kids to write letters for toys. He implores Klaus to give away his myriad of toys that're just collecting dust in the workshop. Klaus is seemingly less than impressed, until a strange wind blows in. We see this odd wind several times throughout the movie, and Klaus seems to understand what it wants, despite it not speaking. During the porch scene, we learn that he believes the strange wind is Lydia's spirit keeping him company and giving him a nudge in the right direction if he needs it. At the end of the movie, the wind tells him it's time to let go and to move on. At the point where Jesper is trying to persuade Klaus to do deliveries...

The strange wind circles him in a halo, forcing Klaus to pay attention. The wind's approval--Lydia's approval--is what makes Klaus decide to help deliver the toys beyond the first one.

Essentially, not only does the movie equate Jesper to Lydia through imposing their likenesses over each other and through similar light/dark contrasts, it has her appear in the beginning and straight-up endorse Jesper's entry into Klaus' life.

Exhibit D: "Ah, Young Love!"

This next section is not so much about the homoeroticism as is it why, despite my love for Alva, her canonical romantic entanglement with Jesper pales in comparison to the accidental (?) homoeroticism of Jesper and Klaus.

There's a line that the boatman says about 39 minutes into the film after Alva has a very public, very angry confrontation with Jesper. At this point, the kids are very reward-driven, attending the school-turned-fish shop purely so they can learn to write so they can send a letter so they can get a toy. Alva yells at Jesper about how the violent, constantly feuding families won't stand for their children attending school together. She views his sending the kids to her as a threat to her ability to save up enough money to get away from Smeerensburg forever and pursue her dreams somewhere she'll be useful and appreciated.

After Alva leaves, the smug trickstery boatman says:

"Ah! Young love."

I have always found this line incredibly grating because it's a classic example of Telling rather than Showing. Now, people in recent years have pushed back against that old adage, but there are times you want to show something to the audience rather than just stating it in a straightforward manner. Romantic relationships, for one thing.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, this is a buddy movie between Jesper the Postman and Klaus the future Santa Claus. They are the main characters of the film. Both of them need to carry this movie equally, and the best way to do that is to make sure they have excellent chemistry with each other. The film succeeds at this, and then some.

Alva, on the other hand, is not the main character. She is a major supporting character, and I think the movie would be lesser if she were absent, but her and Jesper's romantic relationship was always doomed to be Told rather than Shown. Because theirs is not the most important relationship in the movie.

I think the film could have done better about this, though. Getting rid of that young love line, for one thing. It's the sort of line you have someone say in the hopes that you can sneak in some romantic foreshadowing for the canonical couple. Unfortunately, it's about as subtle as a brick to the face.

The film seems to be going for a Bad First Impressions/Enemies-ish to Lovers thing with Jesper and Alva, but it really falls flat. They just don't spend enough time with each other for me to believe they're falling in love. Not to say they don't have cute moments. The montage where they help Margú write her letter is really nice, and the film shows Alva scooting closer and closer to Jesper as they hang out more and get to know each other. However, it's a montage, one with a song covering the bits of dialogue we get from them as they work. If the movie wanted to make me believe that Alva and Jesper had as much, if not more, chemistry together than Jesper and Klaus, then they probably should have changed the scene to be less focused on the montage and more focused on them playfully bantering back and forth.

But again, I think the relationship was doomed from the start, purely because Alva is not a main character. They probably would have had to make Jesper the eventual Santa Claus and nix Klaus in order to give Alva the proper amount of room.

(However, I think that would have ended up making the movie a bit too much like Rankin-Bass' stop-motion Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Think about it: that special starts with a postman narrating about letters; it emphasizes that the question "Why do people write letters to Santa?" will be explored and answered; the main setting is a depressing, grungy town headed by a cartoonishly evil leader; there's a jaded ginger-haired schoolteacher who learns to loosen up and love life again, etc.)

I wish things had been different with Alva, or maybe that they had been allowed a longer runtime to really sell the relationship. As it is, it's fine. It works for what it is. But Jesper and Klaus' relationship is simply deeper, more subtle, and more meaningful.

Conclusion

Thank you for coming to my post about why Klaus is an extremely gay movie despite not being a gay movie. I wish I could wrap this up more academically, but I've made my thesis obvious and I have work at 7:30am tomorrow.

Hope this answers your question!

[insert-cephalopod-joke]

YOU SHOULD ramble about your headcanons/aus NOW!

A!

I will!!

At least some of the aus because headcanons are gonna be explored in mah main comic

Also ye there’s definitely aus where the agents get mixed around with one another into different groups because thanks to au there are infinite possibilities and outcomes

Now, Top 13 AU (Numbered Randomly) ((Bakers dozen let’s go))

Green: What If scenario for/related to AU-00

Blue: New set of agents, separate from AU-00

Red: Never used/scrapped AU concept

AU-00: MC3 (Hyousuke), M4 (Liam), M8 (Milo), FN3 (Beatrix/“Bea”)

The main one I work with, pretty self explanatory (though not the very first batch of agents I’ve made)

AU-01: FC3 (Summer/“Sunny”), F4 (Ember), F8 (Saturn), MN3 (Rook)

Second most used batch. Sort of a gender and personality swap, with Sunny being more extroverted (but much, much more creepy looking), Ember being actually cool instead of faking it, Saturn being less… feral?.. and Rook constantly questioning the whole Secret Child Labor Service Thing instead just rolling with it like Bea does.

AU-02: F3 (Three), M4 (Four), M8 (Eight)

The first ever batch. Didn’t make it very far though…

Their dynamic was mostly Four getting into trouble, Three getting mad at Four getting in trouble while trying to put out whatever fire he started, and Eights there just vibing in the background or something. I think Three and Four were siblings…

AU-03: M3 (Tres), F4 (Quatre), M8 (Vosem)

The second ever batch. Lasted a teensy bit longer. Tres is a little hotheaded but it’s mainly to cover up insecurity and fears of not being “worthy” or “good enough” for Squidbeak (which leads to some… very bad coping mechanisms/strategies to be good enough). Quatre is the type to have a smaller smug look under the smug look on her face. Also she makes a majority of her income through art commissions and writes a bunch of fanfic. Vosem tries to come off as aloof and put together but is “secretly” a little obsessed with Tres. Not like in a stalker way, just always thinking about him and hanging out with him and leaving food in his backpack when Tres “forgets” (this has led to Tres being very confused because “who puts 7 oranges and an unwrapped sandwich in someone else’s backpack?!?!”)

AU-04: M?3 (Three), M4 (Liam), M8 (The Commander)

The bad end, essentially. Three (prev. Hyousuke) gets re-corrupted by Tartar and loses (almost) all of his memories, becoming a husk that only does anything when The Commander tells them to. The Commander is formed when Tartar uses Milo as a host body, but due to Milo’s Special Soul Gimmick, he essentially takes Tartar down with him and they fuse into one conscious. There is no Tartar. There is no Milo. All that’s left behind is a manic cyborg that wants to “reunite”/sanitize Squidbeak (they disbanded after losing so many members) and get Three to “wake up.” Liam was struck with grief and went into a horrible depression due to it all and Octavio tried to help him by making new Hypnoshades that would act like an advanced antidepressant. Cuttlefish, Marie, and Callie are with Octavio too, hiding until they can make a plan to get their friends (and Inkopolis Square) back. Off the hook… off forming a rebellion to fight back. Oh and I should probably mention that Three is talking to Liam through his headset and shades and maybe watching him through any other tech in Liam’s vicinity.

AU-05: M[UNKNOWN] (Three), M4 (Liam), M8 (Eros)

(Same Liam technically different Three and technically different Eight)

Sort of a role swap between my one splatband oc Etto and Hyousuke. Essentially, Squidbeak believed that Hyou… “didn’t make it out” of the metro, but when Liam and Eros split up on a recon mission down there a few years later.

Let’s just say Eros finds him.

AU-06: M3/10 (Déka), M4 (Luke), M8/C3 (Apollo), NBN3 (Zip)

(Usual 3 base becomes Agent Ten, usual 8 base becomes Captain, Four is an octoling)

What if the Octos won? Cuttlefish would probably go complete villain mode ngl. His flaws are bad sometimes but make it worse.

Octavio, who’s not even king anymore as he passed the responsibilities to others (gotta spend time with the grandkids, you know?), starts noticing reports of octos getting attacked around town and decides hey, I’ve already got military experience so let’s do some quick vigilante stuff and hire a team.

Story would pretty much be the same from then on. Maybe instead of the Squid Sisters there’s another band with ties to Octavio, but I definitely imagine the original idols becoming high ranking, vicious generals (Callie would def defect later tho)

AU-07: FC3 (Haru), F4 (Liana), F8 (Mia), MN3 (Beau)

Genderswap, except practically nothing changes design wise. You would never know

AU-08: MC3 (Hyou), M4 (Liam), M8 (Milo), FN3 (Bea)

AKA No Metro Milo. Just. Just imagine a Shadow version of Milo and that’s it.

This isn’t what he’d be like with his memories… well… sorta.. he has some but trauma repressed the rest

AU-09: Everything’s the Same Except Little Buddy is a Big Buddy

AU-10: Everything’s the Same Except Milo Got Sanitized in the Metro Yet Somehow His Personality Was Left Untouched by Tartar Aside From Increasing His Separation Anxiety

AU-11: Everything’s the Same Except Liam Wears Glasses (It Causes an Extreme Butterfly Effect)

AU-12: Everything’s the Same Except Hyou’s The Only Agent Hired Besides 1 and 2 (Trauma x1000000)

AU-13: Everything’s the Same Except Little Buddy is a Psychic (As In Can Read Minds Based On Vibes and Souls, Presumably) and is the Main Character of the Series ((Little Buddy Psycho 300???))

[olderthannetfic]

I'm someone who's part of a fandom that has tons of male and female fans. One thing I really hate is how needlessly aggressive the male side is when you have a M/M ship. Like there are like 5+ ships with the same dude but different female characters, and like one super popular M/M ship with the same dude, there are some other M/M ships as well, but less big.

Anyway, I just find it so ironic and just ridiculous how these guys are fine shipping their M/F ships, most of which are literally "just friends" but the moment the M/M ship gets mentioned the main tirade that people go on is "It's like they don't understand men can be friends!" Bruh, we get it, men can be friends. Do you realise that these characters are fictional? People are exploring fictional characters and shipping them, hold onto your pearls girls. Anyway, pot calling the kettle black, why can't this Dude also just be friends with the female characters by that logic? Men and women can just be friends, why do you always have to make it sexual between them, or is that irony just lost on you? Double irony is that there are several F/F ships of the same female characters who're also, to quote "just friends", but for some reason the mantra gender-swapped of "Do they know women can't just be friends." for some reason doesn't apply. In the end, I don't really give a care what ships or what pairings you have, but the hypocrisy and double standard does get a bit exhausting when you enter these fandom spaces. Or maybe it is because despite women often having porn as well in shipping, many of them also like to explore deeper feelings of affection? Idk, whatever, just a lil fandom vent.

Also, if you know what fandom I'm talking about. Hi, you get a cookie. 🍪 (not like it's hard to guess)

--

[airlock]

well, the winners and top 20s for CYL8 got announced while I was ass-deep in the CK3, so I missed the midnight hustle; ain't that splendid. anyway, seems they dropped earlier because, uh, only they dropped, and the deeper results -- y'know, the part of this that really interests me -- aren't out yet. weird, since they must have already tallied those, but I guess it works out some way for people who are more interested in the final results

anyway, under the cut are my impressions about those top 20s

Alfonse winning men's is a jeb bushening the likes of which we haven't seen since Eliwood, or ever really. funniest thing that could possibly happen to Felix, too, since Diamant couldn't keep up and the Jugdral people failed to focus fire again so this CYL would have been all his if not for, y'know

on the women's side, f!Robin just barely squeaked ahead of Yunaka (2000 votes on the topmost spots is narrow difference; not so much elsewhere in the poll), so we actually got a 0% victory debut for Engage after all. but also not even due to Engage actually failing to make much of an impression, it was just how the die landed. that's how it be in this bitch of a world sometimes!

speaking of the Jugdral people -- I was expecting people to be pushing Leif, but in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have been too surprised about Sigurd getting a fresh influx of attention this year. Engage just gave him one of the more preeminent roles among the Emblems after all, both in story and gameplay as it were!

still on predictions on the men's side that I got wrong: well, I was spot-on right pretty much about Diamant and Alcryst, but Alfred only just barely hung on to the top 20 at all, which is about the furthest you can get on this list from my original prediction of, y'know, possible actual victory contender. he's not even beating Rosado

now, as for the alears: both of them broke top 10 but are a ways still from real contention, especially seeing as they're both third place so far even among Engage characters. in the direct comparison between the two, it seems that f!Alear is the fan-preferred avatar gender this time around -- and it's not very close, with a difference of nearly 4000 votes between them. we've seen worse (remember how much dirt m!Corrin ate in CYL1?), but the preference is clear

although, interestingly enough, a different avatar -- Shez -- has actually swapped gender tendencies this year, with m!Shez taking a pretty solid 900-vote lead. last year they were very close with f!Shez only barely leading in votes, so I guess that tie is somewhat breaking now? either that, or it'll just swing again next year.

anyway, I had an initial impression from these results that the Fódlan deathgrip is as strong as ever, but looking at the lists closer, it's loosening up a bit actually. to an extent this is because almost all of their top 10 CYL material have actually won CYL by now, another two more this year even, but elsewhere in the list they're losing ranks fast. Sylvain slid all the way down to #17 overall this year, while a lot of the lifers from other continuities just don't seem very disturbed to compete for space with Engage characters at all. (although the Elibe stocks on that front are in shambles -- Nino is decisively out of the top 20, and even Lilina just barely made it)

lastly, man, turnout for CYL is still looking abysmal these days, even with the fandom freshening up a little, huh. it has pretty firmly become seen as a FEH thing rather than the Fire Emblem thing it used to be embraced as, and FEH is, well, I know overwhelmingly more people who got sick of it than are playing it right now, Alfonse win notwithstanding. still though, our big winner this year again doesn't crack 20000 votes. remember when Edelgard won with over 70000 votes? (this was, in fairness, back when they allowed you to vote without a Nintendo account, but still!)

[zmediaoutlet]

Happy Wincest Wednesday! I've been meaning to leave a comment on your Deanna fic but I keep forgetting so I'm leaving one here instead. I am so invested in this fic, I'm gobbling up every single post you make about it like it's my life force. I'm also completely entranced by how much Deanna still feels like Dean? It is so weird and so wonderful at the same time. Usually in genderswap fics the swapped character ends up feeling like a caricature, in the spirit of the original but still very different. The fact that yours doesn't speaks volumes about both Dean as a character and your abilities as a writer. Anyway this was mostly an excuse for me to fangirl over your writing a bit more, because your writing is seriously my gold standard for fic and every time I get an email that you've posted something new it makes my entire day. So, yeah. May your Wednesday be the wincest-iest! :)

aww bud, bud <333 -- happy wincest wednesday to you too!

You um may have seen that I did in fact post the 2nd part today, for the holiday! So I hope that she still comes off okay to you in the full fic. It's a bit squishy there at the end, ahem.

Super cool that you're liking how the genderswap works, though! I spend a lot -- too much -- intense amounts of time thinking about Dean-and-gender, and how differently an always-a-girl Dean would work (or halman, in another universe), and more importantly how not-different she'd be, which is fascinating to me much more from the m!Dean end of things. I'll crib from some old musing, if that's okay to self-plagiarize --

it's striking how much ~easier this is going from M to F for a character. I don't know how many people are genderswapping a female protagonist -- maybe someone out there is really into butch, like, Jessica Jones -- but part of what makes it interesting to go M to F is that women are allowed to indulge in masculinities in ways that don't happen in the reverse Deanna can drink beer and wear a plaid shirt and boots and listen to cock rock and work on cars and it's nbd. (granted, more unattractive ways of being masculine are still out, e.g. she can't have an untended moustache -- but she wouldn't want that anyway, in the same way that Dean isn't growing out his unibrow.) so it becomes fun to tease out those hidden elements of the masculine character that were already mildly fem-coded and see how they fit; and then fun to say, okay, Dean clearly cares about looking good and as he gets older especially he starts to like nicer clothes. what if Deanna got to indulge in being a shopper? etc.

AND WHAT IF THAT?? That's why I find Deanna so interesting -- to dig into the places where she's different, and the places she's exactly the same, and the places where it really is the same but permission is given to indulge in some personality trait instead of bluffing it away, e.g. Dean's nurturing side -- which Deanna can just... have, and no one even questions it. Makes the top of my head come off!! So I'm glad you like it too. <3

And to bring it back to wincest wednesday, I really do think Sam thinks his sister is the hottest creature in the universe and the example against which he judges all others, so. It's fun to see him do that, sometimes. :)

[yellowocaballero]

HEY!! Your trigun swap au is so very good!! I've always loved roleswap aus as a concept, and yours is the perfect example of why. it's all about the balancing act of twisting the (swapped) character's background/mentalities for maximum domino effect while not actually *destroying* the character ya know? you still gotta recognize them, it's half of the fun. just some little nudges here... and there... with the delightful result of a changed plot/world that you can discover anew

Also I surprisingly vibe with Dr Knives. a lot. what can I say I guess it's the fucked up superiority-inferiority/guilt complex with a dash of imposter syndrome. also the transgenderism. he's just like me fr fr (minus the speciesism and bloodlust) 1/3

SPEAKING OF! I'm literally a week late for that but chapter 4 may be my favorite so far. it's got it all: Ww's bloodlust coming through and being given a GUN, M&M being #JustNormalGunsmokeKidsThings about it, Knives being incredibly tired and enthusiastically murderous in turns, TRANS PEOPLE!! Funky morally dubious trans men ! Intersex nonbinary Knives (in humans terms) !! small internal rants about ecosystems!

I particularly like that one bc I too found myself twitching whenever I see (in fics or fandom at large) Gunsmoke being shown as a ~hostile, barren~ planet when, like.... *waves agitedly at the Tomases* *waves frantically at the WORMS, in all their INCREDIBLY DIVERSIFIED sizes and shapes* tell me there isn't an entire ecosystem supporting and including these bad boys. And god do I wanna know about it. Terraforming this terraforming that. Enough. I want bio-worldbuilding fics that are just as weird and unhinged as the rest of trigun (2/3)

To go back to Nicholas : I loved his discussion with Knives about fate and predestination and stuff (esp since -I may be reading too much into it, but it’s interesting that Knives says he doesn’t believe in predestination anymore, and just a bit later goes about how his personality is Like That bc he’s Biologically Programmed for it), and his last words in it are especially ominous. WHAT were you gonna say about Vash. How does it concern Nicholas. This is gonna bite them in the ass later isn’t it.

Also ur last asks/answers REALLY doesn’t reassure me about woowoo’s fate. Is he gonna die. Is he gonna end up going thru the same things than his canon counterpart (concentrate of medical-and-general unethicality). Idk what those flags are for but boy They Are There.

Aallll that to say I absolutely love that fic and can't wait to see what you do next with it, thank you so much !! (3/3)

This is so nice thank you so much :D :D :D To comment in order:

Roleswaps are no fun if you can't recognize the character. You're absolutely right - the funnest part is to make the smallest changes possible, and see how they cause the biggest differences. That's true of every AU, honestly - you guys know those 600k shonen manga aus where something major is different but every story beat is identical to canon? Or they're identical to every other au? They're addictive but without substance. Also sounds boring to write.

It's so funny that you (and others) vibe with Dr. Knives! From my end, he has my own very wry deadpan and self-esteem problems. Characters who have both a ridiculously inflated ego for comedy purposes and some real self-esteem problems for drama purposes work great.

I was surprised that so many people enjoyed the trans thing so much! I didn't expect it to make people so happy. Of course it's a nice surprise. I don't remember why I made the BDN decision (funny, probably) or the 'Knives invented gender reassignment surgery' thing (funny definitely), but a very active decision and something that made Knives above every other character fun to write is that he is not a human being and does not think of himself as such. The way his body experiences emotion is different, his body itself is different in a way that probably includes genitalia, and there's no reason for him to experience gender the same way. As I'm about to talk about in the upcoming chapter, he casually refers to himself as a thing and with it/its and it doesn't affect his superiority complex whatsoever.

I...would not have said that this is trans by myself, if that makes sense, because I wouldn't have wanted to say "in order to really hammer in how this character is INHUMAN then I'm gonna make him not male or female and prefer neopronouns!". It's just the shape of the character, to me. BUT LIKE IF Y'ALL LIKE IT! NO PROBLEM! I was just worried I might be saying the wrong thing, so I didn't want to say it, if that makes sense. Y'all can say it though.

Trigun worldbuilding is nonsensical and hideously vague and as a writer if you stop and think too hard about silly questions like "where does the wood come from" or "why is Vash eating salmon sandwiches" then you go insane. But...yeah, Gunsmoke's like any other ecosystem, and its worms and thomases seem to be doing great! It's not Gunsmoke's fault it is almost completely uninhabitable to humans. It sucks for us, but...does Knives care about that??? Lmfao???

There is a shitton to say about Knives' relationship with predestination and inevitability, because it's why he made the worst decision of his life. I think of it as...reasonable, in a lot of ways. If all you knew about humanity was what you read in history textbooks, and human history ended with the destruction of Earth and themselves, how would you feel? Everything humans have done, they do again. And if they dissected your sister, in an act of cruelty that they had done to even themselves...of course you'd worry. Of course. If you're young and scared and you can hear the screams of the dead in your ears, of course you feel like it's going to be you or them. And if you're.........Millions Knives.......and reverse!Vash.....then eliminating the threat is just good business sense.

And you aren't reading too much into it - Trigun in so many ways is about choices, and the impact of your choices. Your decisions are you own, and you must take responsibility for them. Decisions have weight in Trigun. I think what ppl miss sometimes about Vash is that he also wants to fuckin' murder people sometimes. He wants to be violent, he wants to hurt. He just chooses not to. Sometimes choosing pacifism is a hard fucking choice, and I think wiping that away does a disservice to the character. So if Knives would say, "Well, it's just who I am, I had no choice, I had no control, I just go nuts and murder it's not on me..." - what does that mean, in Trigun? It's??? Like??? A pussy thing to say???

But, the way I thought about it - what Knives is fighting is his internal sense that he is predestined for cruelty. He knows "who he really is" and any attempt at goodness is futile, because he's secretly bad and will always be bad. And he fucks up sometimes and starts exploding worms. But Knives chooses goodness, and I don't think he's really cottoned on that his choice to do good is more important than his internal desires to do bad and his history of badness. Because he hates himself.

I think what Knives knows now as an adult is that our lives have paved a path for us to tread. Sometimes that path is innocent, and sometimes your life paves a very nasty path. But it's our choice if we walk it or not. Knives knows what his path is, and it gives him extreme shame - but he chose which one he walked, and that's what I judge him on. Still funny how much he loves murder though.

[blondiest]

Have you thought of F Matt x M Halle? How would the dynamic change in your opinion.

i have not thought much about this, mostly because when i genderswap a m/f ship, i usually just make it f/f. i don't, like... completely hate the idea of F Matt x M Halle, but there are a few things that make it less appealing to me than non-swap or sapphic-swap:

the age difference and the fact that Halle is substantially stronger and more capable than Matt is, imo, a bit less fun in a F Matt x M Halle setup. obviously even in the non-swap setup there's a bit of a power imbalance there, but i think some of it is evened out by the gender dynamics at play in canonverse. i feel like the power imbalance is too stark in this swapped configuration.

i do HC Matt as bisexual, but i tend to see Matt as more attracted to women than men, regardless of whether or not Matt's gender is swapped. this is a little different than my view on Mello's sexuality [who i think of as bisexual with a preference for the same sex and an inclination towards somewhat androgynous partners]

that being said, if someone wrote a F Matt x M Halle fic, i would read it. we're starving out here in hallematt nation.

[jonyxtion]

TW: Death, Sexual Language/Description, Drugs, Necrophilie

Full Name: Kimani [Redacted]

Alias: Bonme (Ohh, i am a bad bunny)

Gender + Pronouns: Woman; She/Her

Age: 26

Body Type: 🍐

Weapon of Choice: Knife Kit (pretty little shiners)

Occupation + Specialization: Stripper + Bait

Romantic Interest: M!Host

Background

"More infos on ME? Of course here ya go honey ;). Well what can i say.....OTHER then that i am fucking EXREMELY good looking, i mean ma body of course not my eyes, they suck cause i got freaking poor eyesight, can't even look as far as my hand goes :(. Anyways, i am cute 5'5, very seductive and flexible. I am an absolute party girl and have always been an attention centre. During highschool i was the head of the cheerleading team, haaah i loved every second of it, after graduating i went straight to the strip club where my mother used to work and applied for a position, yes you heard right, i wanted to continue the legacy of my mother." "Since we are talking about my mother, i guess i can say a bit about my past, even tho i- i am reluctand to talk about it. *Phew* ok...ok, so i am a only child, and have been brought up by my mother alone since my fathers death in a fatal car crash, when i was 6 years old. Even though she was a very loving parent, and i am really grateful for her, she fell into a drug addiction which sadly ended with her getting killed during a drug session by some stupid jerks, who wanted to know how it is, having sex with a dead person. I still loathe them and hope they get what they diserve. *Phew* Ok...wow t-that was hard, but i am glad i got it out of me."

Tidbits

Piercing: Nipple, Navel, Clit, Tongue

Tattoos: Tramp Stamp, multiple small ones

Birthday: October 01

Zodiac: Libra

Highly oragnized

Multilingual

Cooks for Carter and herself = great cook

Vegan

Hemophobic

Seduction GOD

Sexual Infos

Lost virginity at 16 to the captain of the basketball team

Body Count of 80+

Has tried many kinks, loves BDSM, powerplay and gloryhole sex

Massive bratty sub

Extremely flexible

Would be willing to get a tattoo, which shows that she is "owned/claimed"

Fav positions: Bomb, Missionary, Throat swap, Niagara Falls

Relationships

-Carter: Family (i wish it wasn't like this) -The Host = Crush (he's hot, like really hot)

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

IF: @harlequinoccult (SlaughterSquad)

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

This was honestly so much fun to do, obviously this will get updated the more the story progresses and maybe i will make a different post for a more detailed background, but it was a blast to make this what you already see here. This is one of two MCs i have and i am starting to work on the second one, pretty soon. I also tried to do something different, cause i let the character actually tell the background, tell me how it came off, was it good, was it bad, honest criticism is always appretiated.

Long story short, it was fun, NOW go PLAY this amazing IF

[kraymerman]

My favorite Shovel Knight: Body Swap configuration:

Shovel Knight: Male Body, He/Him pronouns

I like the silhouette of the larger horns more, and the Shovel Knight-shaped hole in Pridemoor stays as the male silhouette regardless of what body you choose, and I think the joke is funnier if the silhouette matches perfectly.

Shield Knight: Male Body, He/Him pronouns

It's a switch up I approve of (queer fellas), and I think the Male Shield Knight is hot.

Black Knight: Female Body, She/Her pronouns

It's a change up I approve of (it implies that Shield Knight is bi), and the larger shoulder armor things are way cooler.

Queen Knight: Female Body, She/Her pronouns

I prefer the Queen Knight crown over the King Knight one, and I think the concept of fighting as athletically as she does in a big dress is funny.

Specter Knight: Male Body, He/Him pronouns

I do like the female body over the male body, but I wanted Specter Knight to be a cisgender man (for a reason I'll say later), and the female body's bust is too obvious for me to hand wave. We all have to make sacrifices, I suppose.

Plague Knight: Female body, They/Them pronouns

I like the witch hat design, and since Plague Knight is meant to look pretty androgynous, I like to take it all the way.

Mole Knight: Female body, He/Him pronouns

The fire hair is way cooler than whatever the male body has going on, and I feel like the bust is subtle enough that I can handwave it (or maybe Mole Knight is trans, I like both interpretations).

Treasure Knight: Female body, She/Her pronouns

The absolute biggest glow up out of all of the changeable characters. The female body is better in every way. I like the trenchcoat more than the bomber jacket, I like her diving helmet shape far more than the male equivalent, and it feels a bit redundant to have two buff guys in the order (Polar Knight fills that extempore, bit of a spoiler warning for later on). I am extremely attached to the female, woman version of Treasure Knight, if I had to pick one out of any of the swaps to be canon, I'd pick her.

Polar Knight: Male Body, He/Him pronouns

He fills an archetype, and I like him that way.

Tinker Knight: Female Body, She/Her pronouns

I don't really like the Male Tinker Knight. His head is too flat looking. The pigtails the female body brings a wider frame that I prefer. I like the She/Her pronouns(, and another reason I'll discuss later).

Propeller Knight: Female Body: They/Them pronouns

I like the various flowy bits on the clothing the female body has (and I find it more attractive than the male body, and, as per Yacht Club Games, Propeller Knight is meant to be sexy), and Propeller Knight has They/Them pronouns for a reason I'll get into later.

The Enchanter: Male Body, They/Them pronouns

I really like the armor that the male body has and I like to have a clear distinction between Shield Knight and the Enchanter (and I like how "Enchanter" is gender-neutral).

Now to get to the later point I've been talking about in terms of Specter Knight, Tinker Knight, and Propeller Knight.

In addition to just picking what I like, I also wanted to include, in terms of the Order of No Quarter, an equal amount of representation between all the different types of people that can appear in this game.

With this setup, we have:

Three Men

Three Women

Two They/Thems (Three, if you count The Enchanter)

With this setup, not only do you have an equal representation between all, you have a diverse selection when roaming the map.

In the first section, you have Queen Knight and Specter Knight; a man and a woman

In the second section, you have Mole Knight, Treasure Knight, and Plague Knight; a man, a woman, and a they/them

And in the third section, you have Polar Knight, Tinker Knight, and Propeller Knight; a man, a woman, and a they/them.

At every moment, you have as many possible options as the world setup allows.

Alternate Favorite Body Swap choice:

Swap Queen Knight's and Propeller Knight's genders, because I like how the name Monarch Knight feels in my mouth and, really, I'm fine with any gender for Propeller Knight, because, regardless of gender, my crash on Propeller Knight is deep-seated and ravenous.

In conclusion, this is my favorite body swap configuration for Shovel Knight. I prefer it over the almost completely male-dominated cast of the base game and it's more inclusive. Have a wonderful day. :)

[multifandomsimagine]

Tag Games

Was going through my likes and found a few tag games that I completely forgot about so here they are now months late but still here lol Under a 'Read More' cause it's a bit long

Tagging anyone else who wants to be part of this! 

this or that - tropes edition

slow burn or love at first sight // fake dating or secret dating // enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers // oh no there’s only one bed or long-distance correspondence // hurt-comfort or amnesia // fantasy au or modern au // mutual pining or domestic bliss // smut or fluff // canon-compliant or fix-it // reincarnation or character death // one-shot or multi-chapter // kid fic or road trip fic // arranged marriage or accidental marriage // high school romance or middle aged romance // time travel or isolated together // neighbors or roommates // sci-fi au or magic au // body swap or gender bend // angst or crack // apocalyptic or mundane  

1st anime crush vs current anime crush from the same anime

I don't really watch anime (I read manga more) so I'm just going by the first three shows that pop up on my reading list

Hayato Kamitani -> Usaida Yoshihito (School Babysitters / Gakuen Babysitters)

Mamoru Chiba/Darien -> Haruka Tenou/Amara (Sailor Moon)

Giyu Tomioka -> Obanai Iguro (Demon Slayer/Kimetsu no Yaiba)

3 Characters Who Live Rent Free

How do I only choose three?

Wanda Maximoff (Marvel) - I don't remember how I was first introduced to Wanda but I've loved her ever since. Her character has gone through so much (not just in the MCU *cough cough* House of M) and it just makes my heart ache for her. She just wants to have a good life with her family and they just keep being taken from her. Why must she continue to suffer? Leave her alone!!! God I just want to wrap her up in a blanket and make sure nothing bad happens to her again

Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond (Steven Universe) - Rose is such an interesting character because I know she's so polarizing in the fandom. I think it's just so fascinating how we see her arc in reverse; at first, she's this character whose been put on this pedestal and described as this caring and loving figure and then we learn that she was Pink Diamond who was this selfish and childish authority figure. She's just such a complex and gray character which is why I think about her often

Andrew!Peter Parker (Marvel) - Andrew's Peter is my favorite of all the live-action Spider-Man. I love that they went in a different direction with his films by having his love interest be Gwen Stacy. Their story was so cute and I just love how passionate he was about playing Peter. My dork <3

Would You Rather

- musicals or plays

- lemonade or iced tea

- strawberries or raspberries

- winter or summer

- pandas or koalas

- beaches or forests

- planets or constellations

- pastels or neons

- diners or cafes

- unicorns or dragons

- gemstones or crystals

- hummingbirds or owls

- fireworks or sparklers

- sunflowers or hydrangeas

- brunch or happy hour

- sweet or sour

- Rome or Amsterdam

- classic or modern art

- sushi or ramen

- sun or moon

- polka dots or stripes

- macarons or croissants

- glitter or matte

- aquariums or planetariums

- road trip or camping trip

- colouring books or watercolours

- fairy lights or candles

- honey & lemon or milk & sugar

You've been asked out. The ninth recent picture in your camera roll is who asked you out

Thanks Bernie lol

[firespirited]

Today was derailed (in a good way) I was doing futher desk buying research as the stuff I'm seeing online looks kinda flimsy and M was passing by and goes "hey I don't like my desk, can we swap?" so I spent the day on the floor dismantling desks.

Lily the dog insisted on hazardously getting in the way of any and all furniture moving including a point where we all got trapped in the tiny corridor and had to lift the item and gently kick the dog forwards.

She was furious when I closed the door on my room which could only be navigated like one of those sliding puzzles. Pretty sure she thinks she's the foreman and doing important supervision. I love having her around but she likes to nick dremel bits and screws.

I'm too sore to say if the new desk (it's actually super old) is any better so it'll be a few days but at least it's another size to try in case I buy later. M's happy with mine at least.

The finale of Quantum Leap left us on a vague single sentence cliffhanger. I was starting to enjoy it and the cast but it was only 8 episodes. Hope it gets renewed, the format is great for tuning in to a different story and perspective every week.

Decided to not watch Warrior Nun, I'm burnt out on the binge watch season with cliffhanger episodes. There have been some great ones this year: Midnight Mass and Paper Girls are just the most recent but I remember thinking "oh hey it would actually be more fun-fun and less pushy-stressful-fun to rewatch something like Stargate Atlantis."

I'm thinking about the GdT curated Cabinet of Curiosities or Archive 81, it fits my current taste for the episodic and might have some decent smart horror. I really enjoyed the Monsterland anthology in 2020.

Speaking of, Something In The Dirt from the Benson and Moorehead cosmic horror and very relatable characters universe is out, go see it if you can. It'll be on streaming at the end of the month but I just know it'd be amazing on the big screen. Watch The Endless on netflix if you want an idea of what these two storytelling friends do on a budget.

Will put together small postage and parcel postage posts of baldies and unfinished projects after the second more agressive sweep. Below cost or for trade: black saran, vivid or pastel hq nylon colours, nylon strands for building a swatch, good acrylic paint and medium, new gloss as mine is old and seems to break down a few weeks after painting when I've used watered down paint. Maybe interesting textured or coloured yarns for when I get to be able to do 40 mins an hour at a time. Yikes, We're not even close to rebuilding my lower back yet lol I'm already planning how to get back to creating.

I've talked a lot in the past about how I dislike twitter for how it made me feel and having to navigate back through the quote tweets to get answers feels like in jokes you have to learn (this is a feature missing from mastodon because they believe it promotes dunk/cringe content culture instead of direct communication) . But I hadn't really talked about the fascinating people who used to study twitter, large scale moderation, harm reduction on current events (think 'not naming school shooters guidelines' but for a host of issues). I really hope some of them get hired by tumblr on how to engage hate speech and put them into contact with deradicalization programs, not just nazis but the gender essentialists of the terf, pro choice and red pill types are in cult-like communities.

Love to everyone who's feeling the autumn in their joints and american friends not looking forward to the ungrateful work of making thanksgiving happen. ❤️🌸❤️

[rk-ocs]

So the Cycles series needs some context.

It was an overambitious Dragon age timelooping series, where The Curent cycles Protagonist was able to get advice from the previous protagonist whenever they got a TPK. As a sort of mentor. Orgins character Castless Dwarven Warrior (F)would advise orgins character (F) City elf Rouge (, Agressive Hawke (F) would advise silly Hawke (F), ect.

After being taken out of the story for that cycle, the previous protagonist becomes meantor, and the former mentor can go use that knowledge to change things about the timeline.

I wasn't going to do all the cycles, so much as let the mentor, and former player characters tell the current character about their cycles.

I also made the decision to have 2 universes, with oppisite gendered and choices characters of the first worlds incarnations. Sometimes they just swap places in the universes. Had fun with coming up with their stories, but is also probably the reason I never wrote it. I was not ready to keep the varried timelines and universes, with their changes, cohearent.

Here's from what I wrote down on a google docs about it .

(Like Red, there is a possibility of more)

Names

DAO story

Main for 7th: Hazel Surana (Mage elf)

Mage human: girl- Ida Amell

City elf: girl - Margret Tarbris

Dalish elf: boy - Ash Marihal

Brosca : boy- Cobalt  Brosca

Nobel: boy- Stephan Cousland

Dwarf Nobel : girl-Khutulun  Aeduncan

Alternate

M Surana:  Joseph

M Amell : Simon

M Tarbris: Jarred

F Brosca : Amber

F Cousland : Elizabeth-

M Aeducan : Dailen

F Marihal : Ebony

Chronological - Mica wins proving.  Time - , Eleanor's  wedding goes horribly wrong. Time. Zhanshi gets exiled. Time. Ash explores cave. Time. Hazel gets harrowed. Time Stephan's  family is massacred. ->blight.

7th cycle

Mica wins Proving. Zhanashi meets up with Mica, gets her to work with him.  Eleanor  invites Stephan to her wedding, when the Couslands are in Denreim for weapons.  Couslands go to wedding. Eleanor and Stephan go on a massacre to get her cousin back. Couslands become involved in eleven affairs.  Zhànshì manages to avert  Exile because he knows his way around Belhans Bs by now. He enters political campaign. Hazel gets harrowed and recruited. Stephan manages to avoid the massacre.

They are all friends in a way. Brosca to Aeducan. Tarbris to Cousland.  The Dalish Elf and the Mage were occasionally close, depending on who  was there, but Ash had always felt himself a bit of a lone wolf.

Stephan and Eleanor team up, as well as Aeducan and Brosca (along with his second and Leske). Ash runs to the wilds, through it, becomes a warden and brings Zevren, Shale, Fiona (with a bit of trickery) gets Anders to escape with her early, heads to Ashs cave, and saves his life. They then leave to make him a warden, and grab Davith and leave early.

Change. With enough tries at it over the timeline Daveth becomes a warden. So does Couslands friend.

Hazels team consists of Dog, Alister, Morrigan, Sten, Lillianna, Oghren, and ,Wynn.

Brosca's mentor is Ash. She is third cycle. She mentors Tabris, who mentors Aeducan, who mentors Cousland. Mages are a bit out of it, because they interact differently within the Fade, even for Dwarves, who shouldn't be in there.  Richard mentors Hazel.

-----

Khutulun is a badass Mongolian princess. Why not name Lady Aeducan after her?

Dailen is the name of the dwarf who was in charge of the last stand of Kal'Hirol. Fitting for a house who got their paragon status for saying "screw politics" and taking control of the army during the first blight to defend Orzammar.

Cobalt: A blue colour related to metal

Amber: fits both yellow and vaguely related to rocks, sort of

-----

Ida Amell has an unrequited crush on Ash, who does not want to engage with it, as he wishes for his children to be elves. Unfourtunatly, Margret Tarbris who he respects as a fighter, is very gay and likes Ebony.

[gendercensus]

Supplementary survey: they/them reflexives, The Sir/Ma’am Issue, and Spivak vs. Elverson

This short, clarifying survey ran from 4th until 24th April 2021. There were 2,998 usable responses. Unlike the annual Gender Census survey, this one was open to anyone of any gender, provided they lived in an English-speaking country.

It asked about two things:

They/them verbs and reflexives - basically whether people who prefer they/them pronouns prefer the reflexive to be themself or themselves, and which people feel is more “correct”.

Sir/ma’am/? - investigating why people use sir/ma’am in areas where it’s polite and common to do so, and whether there are any viable nonbinary or gender-neutral alternatives.

This blog post will also investigate the Spivak vs. Elverson issue, which was actually a separate poll that took place on two social networks.

~

THEY/THEM VERBS AND REFLEXIVES

Someone asked about themself vs. themselves, and it reminded me of some of the they/them issues that people ask about in feedback boxes and various confusions surrounding them.

Singular they - what is it, and when and how do people use it?

Plural they - what is it, and when and how do people use it?

What is the “correct” reflexive for each of these?

You can see the statistics in more detail here, but here’s the graph as an overview:

Participants were asked a series of questions about singular they pronouns. Everyone was asked a “which is correct” question, and participants who sometimes or always like to be called ”they” were also asked about their personal preferences.

The graph is a view of only participants who sometimes or always like to be called “they”.

Verbs. As you can see, participants overwhelmingly (94.3%) wanted people to use plural verbs (”they are reading a book”) when talking about them in the third person - even though the percentage of people who thought that was the most “correct” form was a little lower (81.8%). This was lower because 11.4% of participants who preferred “they” answered “both are correct”.

Reflexives. People were much more likely to say that both themself and themselves were correct (28.3%), and more likely to have no preference between the two (17.4%). However, themself was still more popular overall at 59.3%, and 47.3% thought themself was grammatically correct.

You as a control. I also asked all participants whether yourself or yourselves was more correct when addressing one person as a kind of control question, because they is almost grammatically identical to you - it can refer to one person or multiple people, it takes plural verbs even when referring to/addressing one person, and in that situation only the reflexive changes. Many people who say that singular they is grammatically incorrect have no issues with singular you, so it seemed like something that might be interesting to compare. In the graph above you can see that 93.6% of people thought yourself was more correct; only 4.2% of they-accepting participants felt that both yourself and yourselves were equally correct when addressing one person.

There were a couple of things that came up several times in the comments:

“They is” is common in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), and probably in other dialects too. As I don’t live in the US I’m pretty unfamiliar with this dialect, but either way that seems fine to me. It’s part of why I also asked for participants’ locations, because I wanted others to be able to download the results and see if some regions were more likely to use some words/constructions than others.

There were some alternatives to themself and themselves presented, such as theirself and theirsen. Both of these points lead nicely to the third...

The idea that any language choice is more “correct” than another is quite prescriptive. What feels correct or natural varies depending on a lot of factors, such as where in the world you learned English, and there is no such thing as objective correctness when it comes to such a broad and variable language as English.

I am aware of and agree with that third bullet point, so my asking which phrases were more “correct” was a bit of a trick question. It was a good way to get a feel for people’s linguistic instincts.

I also thought it was interesting that participants who never wanted to be called they were slightly more likely to side with the most popular view on what is “correct” across the board, and less likely to say “both are correct”.

~

PLURAL VS. SINGULAR THEY

I actually ran another version of this survey first and then scrapped the responses, because it was clear that my survey design was leading to some pretty confused and unhelpful data! Among other things, it asked participants whether they preferred singular or plural they for themselves and then directed them to particular questions based on their answer, and the comments suggested that people either didn’t really understand the distinction or meant different things by those terms, even though I had added help text.

This is my understanding:

Singular they is they/them pronouns when used to refer to one person. Verbs are usually plural (i.e. “they are” rather than “they is”), and themself and themselves are both common. Example usage: They are getting themself a cup of coffee. They bought themselves a nice new hat.

Plural they is they/them pronouns when used to refer to two or more people. Verbs are usually plural (i.e. “they are” rather than “they is”), and themselves is almost universal (with the exception of regional variations such as theirselves). Example usage: They are getting themselves some coffee together. They all bought hats for themselves.

Some plural/multiple people refer to themselves as “we” and prefer to be addressed as “they/themselves” (which they call plural they) because they are a group of individuals sharing one body.

The reason I initially asked directly about singular vs. plural they is because I was concerned that plural/multiple systems would cause some statistical confusion. Many plural people have asked me to add plural they to the checkbox list of pronouns in the annual survey, but since it has never been entered by over 1% of participants I have never had reason to do so. As far as I knew, the only difference between singular and plural they is the reflexive (themself for singular and themselves for plural), so I wanted to be able to investigate non-plural people in isolation, and I was curious to know about any trends or differences. I wanted to find out if I should be doing anything differently to ensure that Gender Census statistics are helpful.

So, I swapped out the badly-designed question for a straight-up checkbox, a “check this box if you’re plural/multiple” type of thing, with a note that participants should fill in the survey once per body wherever possible, and then I made some graphs.

Here you can see that plural systems were still more likely to prefer people to use themself to refer to them rather than themselves, though the margin is narrower:

Plural participants were also more likely to say that they sometimes or never want people to refer to them as they, whereas non-plural people were more likely to want people to always refer to them as they (or they just feel fine about it):

There’s not a lot in it, though. It’s all relatively evenly distributed, with no strong leader in either category there.

For the curious: 8.2% of participants checked the plural/multiple box.

In conclusion: plural and non-plural people alike all prefer people to use themself when referring to them in the third person using they/them pronouns, and I feel that there is probably no need to ask about plurality or separate out data from plural people in future. (Asking about this and seeing the responses did in part prompt me to start an anonymous feedback form for plural participants of the Gender Census, though.)

~

THE SIR/MA’AM ISSUE

For several years participants have been asking me in the feedback box of the annual Gender Census survey to also ask about gender-inclusive or nonbinary-specific alternatives to sir and ma’am. I’ve largely not done anything about it, because when informally asking around I’ve generally had the response “just don’t say sir or ma’am, just leave it out altogether.” I live in the UK, where if someone calls you sir/ma’am you’re either looking at home in a fancy restaurant for billionnaires or you’re being made fun of - or sometimes both.

However, during this year’s annual survey while talking about it in a little more depth I learned that there are places in the world where sir/ma’am is very common, required for politeness, and basically inescapable. Nonbinary people in those areas are really struggling, because they do actually need a nonbinary-friendly stand-in for those terms - omitting the sir/ma’am isn’t an option.

Again, the location question was asked so that anyone else downloading the spreadsheet of responses can analyse by region to find out whether sir/ma’am is ubiquitous in particular regions and in which contexts it is used, and can even check whether there is a region-specific alternative to sir/ma’am emerging. I asked several questions about sir/ma’am, including about reasons/contexts and personal preferences, and some superficial analysis is included on the spreadsheet of responses.

But the juicy bit is the nonbinary-specific and gender-inclusive alternative words, right?

[The counting formula is case-sensitive so I made everything lowercase to make the count a little more accurate.]

Suggested gender-inclusive alternatives to sir/ma’am

mx - 4.1% (151)

friend - 2.2%

comrade - 1.2%

captain - 0.7%

ser - 0.5%

mate - 0.4%

m - 0.3%

per - 0.3%

boss - 0.3%

folks - 0.3% (9)

Suggested nonbinary-specific alternatives to sir/ma’am

mx - 8.3% (250)

mix - 0.7%

tiz - 0.5%

friend - 0.4%

ser - 0.4%

comrade - 0.3%

mixter - 0.3%

captain - 0.2%

ind - 0.2%

mir - 0.2% (6)

So it looks like Mx (pronounced “mix” or with a toneless vowel that sounds a bit like “mux”) is the clear winner in both categories. If you want to try to introduce a gender-neutral version of sir/ma’am in your area this one is probably your best bet.

~

SPIVAK VS. ELVERSON

This wasn’t part of the same survey! It was a Twitter poll and a Mastodon poll that ran for one week and ended today, and I’m putting it here because it has to go somewhere.

Sometimes people refer to the ey/em and e/em “versions” of the Spivak pronoun set, which makes my eyebrows do things, because they’re not both Spivak. They are distinct established pronoun sets with their own names.

Spivak - e/em/eir/eirs/emself - written about by Michael Spivak in the 1990s. [source: Nonbinary Wiki]

Elverson - ey/em/eir/eirs/emself - created by Christine M Elverson in the 1970s. [source: Nonbinary Wiki]

The Elverson set is older, but it’s less well-known for some reason, so they’re assumed to be variants of Spivak due to the similarity in spelling.

I was recently asked how we can know which is more popular, given the “oh this checkbox option is close enough, I’ll just choose that instead of typing in my very slightly different set” effect and the “hmm this checkbox option is very close to my set, I’m probably meant to choose this one” effect, plus the boost that checkbox options get with the “oh I hadn’t thought of that one but yeah, why not” effect. Spivak (e/em) is on the checkbox list of pronouns in the annual survey, so it appears to be much more popular than Elverson (ey/em)... but is it really?

I ran a poll on both Twitter and Mastodon, and then used a spreadsheet to extract the useful numbers. There were 141 relevant votes after one week. I wouldn’t usually make annual-survey-altering decisions based on a sample that small, but in this case the results are extremely decisive:

It seems that the highest proportion of people who like at least one of the sets are happy for both to be used, at 48%. 45% prefer ey/em (Elverson) and 7% prefer e/em (Spivak). This is pretty stunning! I’ve been presenting e/em (Spivak) as a checkbox option on the Gender Census annual survey for years, possibly since the first survey in 2013, and because it’s a checkbox option it seems to be consistently a lot more popular than ey/em (Elverson). That’s 4.3% and 0.6% respectively in the 2021 survey. But this poll suggests that actually ey/em (Elverson) is much more popular when the two pronoun sets are viewed on a level playing field.

When you remove all “I don’t mind” votes, you get this:

Over 6 times as many people prefered Elverson!

I will definitely be adding Elverson to the Gender Census next year, just so that we can split the e/em and ey/em votes and really get to the bottom of this.

Anyway, while we’re on the topic, ey/em takes singular verbs most of the time.