#this is an i love you to myself and all other gnc transfems

[trans-androgyne]

hey, thank you for having and running this blog. you're doing the equivalent of gods work.

first, i'm sorry for the amounts of jerk anons you have to deal with. you literally articulate yourself very well and clearly, and still, people will find a way to twist it or not take it seriously. it reminds me of me "arguing" with terfs back in 2022 on twitter. (shudders.)

and second, how do you deal with the constant negativity? i have found myself doomscrolling the transandrophobia tag, and, well, to no ones surprise, my mental health is down the gutter. do you have any tips to deal with it? mainly with the transandrophobia in general? it is more than exhausting existing as a (gnc & enby) trans guy atm, and it's really getting to me. the thing is, I wouldn't mind it if it were non-queer bigots, but the fact it's coming from inside the community is devastating. i am more than hurt. this intense hatred for men and masculinity, queer, trans, or not, is incomprehensible to me. it never does anything good. anyone who says "i hate all men and anything masculine" is definitely going in the "yep that's either a radfem or a radfem hatchling" box. i partially understand as to why- i had a fear of men myself when i still identified as a girl, and slipped into the "all men bad. kill" side of the internet for a short while but ONLY because of this rhetoric ("you need to be afraid because there are men outside." , "men and masculinity are inherently predatory or dangerous")- but i got out of it because i saw how fucked it was eventually (thank goodness)- but nothing should ever be an excuse to excessively hate a gender or masculinity this badly. and its mostly gender essentialist bs anyways imo, so i do not understand it at all...it reminds me of people saying men/mascs cant be asexual because it's "in their nature to be sexual"- because testosterone. its hard. i just wish we all could respect each other. you're either "one of the bad bad evil men" or "noooooo not YOU. you're AFAB!! never!! youre a girl/woman in spirit!!" from my personal experience with terfs/radfems/idiots.

anyways, sorry for invading your anon space with this long rant, but i just wanted to leave this and the question. i hope you have a nice day/night, and thank you for reporting on transandrophobia as much as you do. it's sadly very much needed right now.

Thank you so much, this is such a kind ask to receive. To be honest with you: I don’t handle my mental health very well around it </3 It’s weighed on me pretty heavily these last few months especially. The things keeping me running this blog anyway are my passion for the transmasc community and lovely anons like yourself cheering me up. When it comes to trying to manage it, the most important thing for me has been finding people I can vent to about it who will understand. I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful discord server full of awesome trans people who will talk it through with me, and that’s been a life-saver. Staying offline for a bit and trying to engage in person with people who are unlikely to be transandrophobic towards you can be a nice relief. I catch myself doomscrolling constantly too, and it doesn’t feel great. If you need to set some sort of time limit on your phone even just to remind yourself not to do it, that’s helped me before and might help you too.

Having this much hatred levied at me for my identity from my own community lately has been devastating. I completely understand you. I’ve always been vocal about supporting transfems in particular, so it really hurts to see so many turn against me for speaking up. I understand how the queer community got this way, though. Antimasculinism has been an issue in queer and feminist spaces for ages. I think people are starting to notice it more and understand why it sucks and how much it negatively affects trans men and mascs. It feels like a losing battle sometimes with how much cultural feminism — the Men Bad Women Good flavor of pop feminism — has pervaded our communities and often led to very overt radical feminism that people still can’t always recognize because they don’t know anything about TERFs outside of them hating trans women. I believe the culture will start to shift soon such that people are able to recognize sexism and gender essentialism that harms all genders, and I will be doing my part to help that happen.

[the-gay-disney-games]

Round 1B: The Lion King 1 1/2 (2004) vs. Mulan (1998)

Propaganda:

The Lion King 1 1/2:

“This movie is about Timon and Pumbaa raising a child together”

“Just 2 dudes raising their son and dealing with commitment issues. The movie heavily leans into the bit that Timon and Pumba are like a couple. Timon is voiced by gay icon Nathan Lane. This movie was my childhood.”

Other propaganda for the original movie with the same idea:

“Simba was literally raised by a gay couple (Timon and Pumba…Timon even literally wears drag in the movie)”

“Timon and Puumba are a queer couple that raised simba into adulthood. Scar is a mean gay. Nuff said”

“Timone and Pumbaa are Simba's gay adoptive dads.”

Mulan:

“Trans awakening for so many of us”

“Well Mulan gives off very non-binary vibes”

“Literally listen to the music also Li Shang”

“just what your intro post said - Milan being trans (or gnc) coded and Li Shang being bi coded. like come on do i even need to explain? I’ll just add that I was listening to “Reflection” on repeat cuz the lines “Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me?…When will my reflection show who I am inside?” we’re stuck in my head. So with that song on loop I decided to finally chop my hair short in true Milan fashion (ok that’s a lie, I didn’t do it myself, but the PRINCIPLE) so not only is Milan trans/gnc coded but I can’t be the only one the movie inspired to finally go for The Haircut or something else related. sry that’s very rambly”

“gnc. bisexual. what more could u want.”

“Both trans and gay coded. Shang was so into Ping that he couldn’t stand to execute him for his “crime”. Also includes drag saving the day!”

“This is less a competition for the queerest movie and more a competition for the second queerest movie. Just *look* at every aspect of Mulan and tell me it’s even a contest.”

“Not only is mulan super trans coded but Shang is definitly bi”

“I know it's the obvious pick, but Mulan is so gender and Shang is so bi. 💯💯💯”

“Mulan is very trans coded. Li Shang is totally bi. Dude absolutely had a thing for “Ping” before learning he was actually a woman (Mulan). Also watching that movie as a young egg made me feel less alone about the fact that I didn’t fit into the “girl” role everyone around me pushed me into. Mulan was kind of my hero and sometimes listening to Reflection makes me tear up a little bit because it’s such a mood but also such a TRANS mood. It’s probably my favorite Disney movie song. “Why is my reflection someone I don’t know” made me THINK as a kid. Disney may be evil but they did the world a great service with Mulan.”

“It is obvious why”

“If movies could turn you trans this one did it to me”

“I mean I assume this one is going to be there, but what if we all think “oh everyone is going to put mulan so I won’t” and then nobody does?”

“it’s mulan”

“Gender”

“Mulan is so trans, however you want to read her (as a trans man, genderqueer, genderfluid, etc.) and Shang is hella bi. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk”

“This movie is SOOOOO trans coded. Captain Li is a bisexual icon. As an Asian queer person I have sat and cried to Reflection by Lea Salonga while staring in a mirror too many times to count. Can I be my authentic self without making my parents who I love hate me? It's too good.”

“My little asian tboy awakening”

“Can be read as transmasc- he finds his true purpose/calling in life by presenting as male- or as transfem- she goes against everyone’s expectations for her by revealing her true self as a woman. A very trans movie. Also just a very good movie in general.”

[baphometboots]

this might get some people really mad but sometimes i look at what i see ppl say on here and elsewhere. and i think about who people like me dont afford the same charities we demand

i think about the gnc people who get scapegoated for transphobia because theyre easy targets, about the butches and femboys who we only talk about to fetishize or villainize

i think about the black people who get shouted down by fellow white transfems for not conforming to an inoffensive ideal of femininity; who get barked down for speaking about antiblackness they face in trans spaces

i think about the religious minorities who get villainized because we assume their cultures are so backwards and hateful; but turn around and appropriate those cultures for our own cutesy images.

and no less for the native americans or indians from whom we pilfer so much of our radical politics and spirituality, but of course get mad at the mayans in chiapas for not being marxist enough and mad at the aymara and quechua in the andes for not being anarchist enough.

i think about my trans brothers, who by in large showed me more patience and love than i was afforded by my trans sisters for the first 5 years of my knowing (learning) what I am. without the grace i was shown by trans men and other transmasculine people, i would be dead. I would not be here. i think about the disdain they are shown, this sort of assertion of original sin pushed on them.

i think about the fucking vitriol ive been shown so many times in my life by fellow transfems when i experiment with or utilize a slightly unorthodox gender expression. i think about how fucking gracious i am for those who have shown me love and understanding, and the sadness I have knowing how many of them have experienced the same.

like any demographic we are capable of injustice. i have met trans sisters who were racist, xenophobic, who antisemitic or ableist or sanist or what have you. i dont think the cutesy memes about how transfems can do no wrong are wise. ive seen it myself, we are capable of grave harms. we're excluded from a lot within patriarchy, but it does not excluse those of us who are white from weaponizing womanhood & racialized fragility against nonwhite people.

i think we need to do better. we owe it to all those nice people, including ourselves

[cardiagf]

Makoto is Makoto

I don't really like engaging into cis or trans character debates especially when it's characters who are gnc/androgynous bc a lot of people especially in twt gets worked up ab these said characters are read as trans, which is completely harmless btw, it just rubs me the wrong way when some people are too insistent about a character being cis

and so I want to talk about makoto and how he is not cis, but is nb/transfem in more ways than just him being a femboy/crossdresser.

Disclaimer: I will be using he/she/they pronouns for makoto in this post just bc i think makoto will be cool with that

and for the record, i finished reading the main series but i have not read the middle school specials, yet.

im also someone who really likes otokonoko and onee characters so yes i am aware of the cultural nuances but this would be just me speaking a queer nb person who loves this series and how i perceive makoto as one

also spoiler warning!

first and foremost, I want to say that gender identity, gender expression and sexuality are all wholly fluid, it's a big spectrum that only you, yourself can figure out. And i think as queer people we're allowed to relate, reflect and see ourselves into the experience and struggles of a fictional character.

while i also don't mind it too much if we think ab how makoto dresses is just her gender expression and that even a cis guy should be able to be feminine and like feminine stuffs with without them being trans / or yk anyone can be gnc but i think as someone who went from being gnc to trans/nb pipeline, it is incredibly hard to not draw a line within queerness or being lgbt with makoto's OWN identity and queerness.

I mean makoto literally uses the "Atashi" 'I' pronoun for themself in which is, by the way, a jp 'I' prn most commonly used by girls when they're dressed as girl while she uses "Boku" when she's not crossdressing

(not to mention both saki and ryuji usually refers to makoto with gender neutral pronouns/referral, with saki always calling him "senpai" and ryuji just having the default gender neutral "Aitsu" pronoun for everyone)

and yeah i know it's also because he's an "otokonoko" but in retrospect, when we read further into the manga we learned that by high school, makoto had transferred to a school that lets them dress however she wants and had been living in said school for ALMOST A YEAR (until he was outed) and he clearly doesn't mind being perceived as a girl.

in fact, as shown in early chapters makoto was so happy when someone made a pass at her because that stranger thought they were a girl and he was so happy when he passed AS a girl.

him being an otokonoko or crossdressing only becomes a problem for them when other people are involved, i.e. when someone confesses to him or when she gets close enough with others, as I believe he sees it as a form of deception/don't want to disappoint them.

either way makoto is makoto, yes this is also a form of expression but i think it's also more of an identity, she doesn't have be locked down by the gender binary

not to mention how makoto hides his true identity to his mom is just something a lot of queer, and especially trans people can really relate to. she literally has to lock a huge part of herself inside a locker when they have to go home bc they cannot be themself in said home, it can clearly be read as someone who is closeted

now onto the spoilers regarding this, makoto coming out properly to his family and most specifically his mom really encapsulated the nb feeling really well

and yes i know she states that "he's a guy who happens to like girly things" (just give him a few years /j) but the point still stands: makoto is makoto. they don't want to live neither as a boy or just a girl. it didn't have to be "one or the other," they chose to be themself and this scene really spoke to me as someone who is nonbinary and how i didn't want to perceive as just my agab...i just want to be myself and i want to be true to myself and that was makoto's answer as well.

i honestly don't want to engage in the debate regarding makoto's gender/gender expression and yes it's canon that he's cis but his own experience and the queer experience especially at her age are just very much parallel to each other.

i know a lot of other trans people will be able to see themselves in makoto and I just don't like how people fight ab androgynous/otokonoko characters being cis only when queer readings regarding these character are completely valid and came from a place that reflects on their own experiences, we can't just lock the fluidity of gender identity of someone in one place, much less for a fictional character. they're queer, they're trans in some way and that is completely okay.

[dreamscape-popstar]

Ohh please give me gender headcanons of the LPS pets I beg

Anons, you spoil me so <3

Before when I was weak minded, I assumed everyone was just cis, like a coward (I got too self conscious that I, a trans woman, had too many trans headcanons. How foolish). And then, I became wise (otherwise known as, I'm a system and my headcanons are affected by introjects and their divergence from canon and because I'm basically a puppet for my own headmates, I default to their identities than come up with my own)

First, the guys, starting with

Sunil: There is no way in hell that Sunil *isn't* transfem to some degree. I have a whole compilation of images of him wearing some sort of feminine attire, and eventually when I go back to rewatch the show, I'm gonna look for and gather more. But as it stands; this mongoose is transfem and there is nothing we can do about it As for pronouns, probably uses he/him and she/her.

Vinnie: Not the type to care about genders or labels, assumes he's cis but probably has a bit of nonbinary in there. Probably would label his gender as "I'm Vinnie". He is extremely GNC though, but in a "man swagged out in frills" rather than Sunil's "I am an egg and I have to be thrown against a wall" He/him pronouns for Vinnie 👍

Russell: Gender fuckery central. As out of character as this sounds for Russ, I love to imagine he'd be whatever gender is funniest in the moment. The only time he'd have fun with something honestly. "Gender is a competition and I'm winning!". I don't think he'd default to any label other than genderweird, but like, genderfluid, agender, or nonbinary all fit the bill. Maybe even bigender or pangender. (Label hoarder) His default is he/him, but does use any prounouns.

Shahrukh: Checked out of the gender a long time ago. Most definitely nonbinary though. And just as GNC as the other boys, but more-so. I think Shahrukh would also be the "I'm whatever gender is funniest" type of guy too. He'd also one-up the other guys somehow. Not in any sort of competitive way, but just to fuck with them. Or just for a bit. And you know what they all love him for it!! Any pronouns work for Shahrukh.

The girls<3

Zoe: Maybe it's projection but every fashion diva girl in media who always has a wardrobe change is so transfem to me. Zoe wouldn't be fully binary but still extremely trans in the fem variety. She/her pronouns

Pepper: In a past life I was a simple butch cis girl Pepper idealist, but then my third eye was open and I ascended to being the "World's Most Annoying Transfem Headcanon Fan" Freakzterz (hii) made a post about how the song "A Skunk is a Skunk" is about how Pepper and Mitzi are trans women and how Mitzi is obligated to be overtly feminine because she's afraid she won't be seen as a "real woman" meanwhile Pepper is more masculine/butch in her presentation and still passes despite that. I tried to fight myself in saying "I can't headcanon every character I like as transfem" but the demons won and butch trans woman Pepper is just, like the best gender headcanon. She/her and they/them for Pepper, only the best for this skrunkly skunk

Penny Ling: There are two sides of this. Cis girl Penny Ling who is comfortable being feminine, or, a Penny Ling who is obsessed with xenogenders and identifies with every cute one she can find. Cutegender and pandagender are at the top for her. "Well... I'm cute, and I'm a panda! That's my gender!" She/her pronouns as default, but maybe some neos like cute/cutes and/or pan/pandas.

Minka: Much like Penny Ling, I think she'd mess around with xenogenders. She first decided on demigirl, but xenogenders relating to painting and space caught her interest. I'm not super knowledgeable on all xenogenders though, so naming some may be difficult for me. She/her, paint/paints, and star/stars pronouns and neopronouns for her.

Buttercream: Another xenogender girl. Firstly, transfem demigirl, but also, loves genders relating to any sort of sweets. And she collects as many labels as possible too. She/her and they/them pronouns. Maybe some sweets based neos :]

Sugar Sprinkles: Agender trans woman. Loved the idea of being a woman but so chill that gender still eludes her. Maybe thought about xenogenders but decided "Nah, I'm good." Just she/her for Sugar Sprinkles

And that's it for my gender headcanons of the pets! Can you tell I have a bias? I thought I'd be more self conscious about how many transfem/transfem adjacent headcanons I have but nope :3. This just affirms that I'm self indulgent, and that I love to see myself in some of these characters.

I would request to ask about my lps human character headcanons but I can just fit them under a readmore <3

Blythe - trans girl, bisexual, she/her.

Youngmee - trans girl, lesbian, she/her

Sue - transmasc lesbian, she/he

Jasper - trans man, aroace gay, he/him

Brittany - cis girl, lesbian, she/her

Whittany - trans girl, lesbian, she/her

Josh Sharp - trans man, aromantic bisexual, he/him

Maddison - cis girl, aromantic pansexual, she/her

Roger - trans man, straight, he/they

Mrs. Twombly - trans woman, lesbian, she/they

[shopcat]

how do you feel about transfem steve in general? I admit as a transfem-ish nb person myself I really enjoy projecting myself onto Steve but I mostly have to restrict myself to enjoying art and my friends creations because so much of it is like. the extreme of the baby girl twink bottom boy waif steve fetishization trend to eddies bad boy s&m gay sex master. it's like people can't acknowledge that mlm in the 80s could be gnc and not transfem, and that steve could retain his personality and not be a blushing virginal archetype the minute he puts on some makeup

OH in general i think it's awesome like Fuck Yes transgender right. i love the idea and i love all trans hcs but especially for steve and i think it's also really cool that a lot of people do like it because in my experience in the past people r far more unreceptive out of just like transmisogyny.. :( like it's cool how open people are TO the idea it's just sometimes the idea sucks ass when someone is doing it with ill intention or ignorance 😭

i've talked about this a little i honestly think 😭 there is just a huge problem with casual transmisogyny in the st fandom and it's dressed up as like, inclusivity?? bc it will not be outright blatant bigotry it's the weird insidiously needling things or like, genuine fetishisation or like that weird shit where people have eddie say transfem steve is his "exception" but he's gay (when eddie is not ... gay. so they're making him gay to insert this weird roadblock and it comes off uncomfortable it is not as coolpillbasedawesome as people assume it is... sexuality can be fluid and change especially in the wake of gender and identity shifting and growing with a relationship but people can't actually apply that needed depth and complexity in a 30 word wordcount lame headcanon post or 2 second comic it just comes off that eddie sees her as a boy or otherwise invalidating tbh!!). and tbh one of the largest aspects from my perspective at least of the reason the hc became popular over on st twitter is because the nsfw artists got really into the "trend" just making blatant trans fetish content as people will Always do but like god that's just depressing 😭😭 that it was even called a trend is concerning in the first place to be honest but i guess that's just a semantics thing..

and yeah i think ur absolutely right :0 i think one time i said um like it's really clear when people who are making this harmful content (albeit out of ignorance and not malicious intention) will be doing it as an extension of steve being the ultimate subby blushing baby girl and if the starting line for a trans headcanon is someone's FEMINISATION KINK that's just plain concerning :( going hand in hand with shipping her with robin i think it's just fucking weird to go as far as you can to try and get stobin to date and they're always making her a trans girl TO date robin as the crux of it and never ... just to be a person. with autonomy. then they think it's like awesome and validating her gender because robin sees her as a woman but like ?? 😭 why wouldn't she. i don't know it's just weird to me to use robin's sexuality as a prop like that on top of the fact it implies robin's sexuality is "in the way" of them having feelings for each other... yuck. like even if i understand the angle to go against what a lot of tma people have spoken out against (the... iffiness of headcanoning a male character as a trans girl from the perspective of a tme person no matter their intention) to specifically do that to those two in particular is so STRANGE and then every single time someone goes this is weird they're like "well you just think robin wouldn't date her cuz she's not a real girl" like omg you're soooo stupid like rocks in your fucking brain. even if steve was a cis girl they wouldn't date also why r they never going Yesss transfem nancy or vickie or fucking chrissy or whoever they ship her with now like it's TRANSPARENT. anyway.

other than that i think it's a really fun & cool thing !!! :) if they're made responsibly especially if like you said it comes from a place of empathetic projection let alone from someone actually transfem it's so fun & cool i honestly think a big problem IS that tme people are spearheading it and end up perpetuating harmful ideals and honestly as one myself i don't even know if i can identify it all but i try my best to at least be like Hey guys... 😭. but it sucks when something fun so connected w peoples irl identities and senses of selves like that is taken by fandom and like strangled to death U_U. i have a lot of free floating little steve's in my mind and i really i suppose enjoy..? both the transmasc and transfem experience 4 him i can see it in both ways and it rules + with the stipulation that like. transfem ofc doesn't equal binary trans it's just a sweeping term or that all tma people ARE transfem etc etc so he is transfem a lot of the time just by virtue of it and It Rules. it rules. honestly this answer ended up more airing my frustrations again i'm sorry 😭😭 Basically i love transfem steve in all manner of expression... from genderfluidity to bigender identity to he/she realness to the outright trans girl coolness and i also love seperately from that hc him being just a little fun with it like u said. gnc steve one of the most beautiful things in the world. insert a how i look with he/him in my bio picture here.

[johannwolfgangvongoethe]

reading yaoi for the plot

recently i seemingly entirely stopped my life for a week to read the visual novel Slow Damage.

i dont really play vn’s (reading in front of my pc is HARD) nor do i read that much boys love (i am a bit of a gayboy by nature, so im not opposed to it) so what drove me to absolutely devour this one.....i honestly dont know. i would never have bought it for myself but my bestie gave it to me. so here we are.

slow damage is a game that you Could play. maybe should and maybe shouldnt. its sad and since it deals with self harm, suicidal thoughts, violence, sexual violence and rape, child abuse and just about every other bad thing you can imagine.......... man that shit can be depressing as hell. and since its a eroge, they are out there sexualizing shit they really SHOULDNT.

AND I HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!! all those “fiction doesnt affect reality” talk some people do is bs in my opinion. yes, you probably wouldnt hurt people irl bc youre reading this rape scene. but YES, bad porn will still condition your brain negatively in the long run.

anyhow. slow damage is pretty damn self-aware. dont get me wrong man, i love the game so much. and yet, and yet.

its so deeply important to me how the game really pictures.... unconditional love between friends and multiple different endgames that finish the story Well for the protag. he can attain salvation and peace. whether it means never touching the wounds of his past or confronting it headfirst. either way he can go through the worst of the worst and end up better. or worse. its all so fickle but thats the good part right. mental health is very sensitive and as a chronically sick person, he is so so vulnerable. (not madarame. fuck everything to do with him. i think theres a storytelling and character study merit to his ends as well but this paragraph wasnt about them)

ive been thinking about talking about it but theres probably people who have. better more informed takes than i do. here are my 2 cents anyway

id love to talk about the ludonarrative dissonance that is a yaoi game with rape scenes taking a stance against rape

im also really intrigued by the setting; a very desensitized city with desensitized people, which we are supposed to see as sad, yet a lot of scenes are there for shock value

CAN WE TALK ABOUT GENDER. WHY IS SLOW DAMAGE SO FILLED WITH GENDER. ITS EVEN GOOD WITH GENDER. I LOVE THE AMOUNT OF GENDER IDENTITY TALK!!!!! WE LOVE TO SEE CIS PEOPLE TALK ABOUT GENDER. WE LOVE NORMALIZED DYSPHORIA TALK. BUT ALSO I LOVE HOW SENSITIVE THE TRANSLATION WAS ABOUT ITS TRANSFEM/GNC CHARACTERS

the fact that the game has an Entire big arc about gaslighting and an abusive relationship, that makes the protag really really internalize selfhate and doubt and makes that mindset smth that he wears like a protective “its just us two against the world” shield. its so sad yet so close to life

the protag, though horribly abused and traumatized, has the advantage of having a very functional very very loving support system in the form of his two best friends, one of which happens to be a doctor. can you imagine how much worse this could be. im constantly aware of it

thinking a lot about how much class plays a role in the last route and towa and fujieda only start to get along once their perceived differences are lifted, in fact them being “the same” is of fundamental importance - but also undermines how unbridgable their differences would have been otherwise

deeply in love with the fact fujieda, as someone who studied law and has been dealing with courts professionally, is this huge vigilante. bc he doesnt trust justice to happen unless he does it himself. and towa is important to him, but ultimately his own goals are just a bit more important than towas comfort. i love when characters have spines <3

on a related note, i also love when characters dont have spines. taku is literally my fav. the fact hes a human sanctuary contrasts so beautifully with him withholding vital info, constantly telling white lies, being conflicted about Everything, but eventually going to jail bc he thinks he Deserves it

how and why is eiji a metal gear solid character stuck in a pokemon characters body

[lttleghost]

thank you for everything you do for transfem jesse it means so much to me

it's all my pleasure really!! I love talking about transfem Jesse, there's so much to it as an analysis, and it's nice to have his transness being an active part of his character arc and Breaking Bad’s dealings with gender in general, and it's so like... happy for him as well cause god the idea of "manhood" has been a significant factor in the trauma he's experienced and the times we've seen him at his happiest is with women

here's some additional thoughts/headcanons I haven't posted about I don't think, all MOSTLY specfic to my particular personal headcanon for Jesse but I wanna share:

I think Jesse already having a look thats pretty similar to some other butch lesbians would be a pretty big confidence boost, I think he'd have some insecurity about being no-med no-op along with using he/him pronouns a lot of the time, and especially since the whole "gender is a social construct" thing is new to him he'd have that sort concern on wether or not he's "allowed" to be trans, so knowing about the existence of or even meeting other gnc feminine identifying people would be really helpful, especially other gnc transfem people. I ALSO think knowing that there are even cis women or at least afab fem-aligned people that go on testosterone could also really help solidify that it's okay for him to be trans without medically transitioning, because if there are women who are willing to invest in medical transition to be more like him then he has even more confirmation that it's fine to stay the way he is

oh and then speaking of being butch I do think Jesse still prefers mostly feminine terms which I just mention since at least some butches will use things like "boyfriend" for themselves but I think Jesse would still use "girlfriend" and pretty much all feminine terms, the only masculine term I think he still likes is "gentleman"... I have no explanation as to why I think he's still okay w/ that one that I know how to articulate

I think for at least a pretty long while very feminine clothes like dresses and skirts are something he doesn't typically go out in public wearing, but he does often wear them at home around whoever is lucky enough to end up as his partner (I totally don't picture myself in that role what are you talking about hahahaaaaaaaa)

I believe his lovely long eyelashes give him a lot of gender euphoria, and that mascara becomes the makeup that he most consistently wears since it makes them more visible from different angles

LIKE SERIOUSLY THOUGH LOOK AT THOSE LASHES

I'm really honestly sad this analysis isn't super popular. while people do have a right to project and have Jesse as their own gender goals, for those who aren't projecting the fandoms preference for transmasc Jesse relying much more on looks without delving much deeper into her character and how BrBa deals w/ gender and considering other ways of her being trans is... frustrating. AND MUCH WORSE is things like when those same people who often claim Jesse is "obviously transmasc" b/c of how she looks also do observe her connections w/ women and reason that it's specfically evidence Jesse is afab and transmasc which... yay! (hopefully mostly accidental) bioessentialism! and even ppl who project should still be aware of the unpleasant connotations of interpreting Jesse's connection to women as ONLY evidence that she's transmasc

I don't think most people are being malicious, and I definitely don't think the transmasc Jesse headcanon should dissappear, but there is something to discuss about the difference in attention and treatment transfem vs transmasc Jesse gets (espec b/c if we're being truly honest egg Jesse is really the only trans interpretation of Jesse that could actually be canon, tho that does still technically cover A LOT of possible specfic identities, it just does exclude transmasc)

[emmenai-kalliston]

Still thinking about the guy I met at a party in a club on Thursday... In order of how it went (under read more bc I ended up writing a lot):

-he stared at me since he got there? Lately found out it was because he thought my outfit was amazing <3 but like. He passed next to me like three times and we made prolonged eye contact each one

-given that, I decide to introduce myself, also mostly because he's hot, think incredibly androgynous frizzy-haired white person in sparkly faux leather and graphic eyeliner. He also sports sideburns, but I didn't notice at first, which brings me to part of the following point:

-after panicking because I have never introduced myself talking at a party (it was a moment of pause between the live music and the djset), I decide to just... wave hello and see if he does something. Somehow we start a conversation (!) and I introduce myself, fully expecting the androgynous creature to be a transfem person. He introduces himself with a very common masculine name, he/him and I'm even more invested at that point because wooh GNC people!

-he goes to get a drink (he was already clearly on something), I lose him, I go to dance bc the set had started

-cue like. two hours of finding and losing each other continuously, while I'm getting increasingly drunk and subsequently crushing hard on the guy

-somehow we get into a convo again, he lets me touch his hair (soft...) (also tells me he's seven years older than me, not that I care), I tell him he's beautiful :)

-at that point I had already previously tried to get closer to him while we danced but when I did he cheered me for some fucking reason? Multiple times. Fun tho

-I think he goes out? idk. I go to dance again, he disappears for a while (probably with his friends), I go to the toilet, somehow he gets out of it (when the fuck did he get there?), he joyously hugs me

-I, a notoriously shameless person, and also drunk, since my attempts didn't work directly ask him if I can kiss him (in a heavy Roman accent for some reason unknown to me even)

-he, as expected, tells me no, but also happily states "I will kiss you on your cheek, because I love you!" (the friends and family one, there's a distinction in Italian)

-rest of the party goes as before, dance around, random cheering again, he keeps drinking, all well

-party finishes. Before leaving with his friends, he goes to me (!) and says "see you at the next party, I love you Calli!" (friendly ily as previously) and hugs me tight for quite a long time

-I go out, go wait for the bus, and he passes me on the other side of the road and happily waves at me and shouts "goodnight!"

Do you get why I'm still thinking about him?? He's hot, he was randomly super nice to me (also never ever misgendered me which is not that common), drunkenly decided that he loved me, and like those hugs felt so affectionate... I feel like I've lived the whole development of my recently ended friendship in the span of three hours, like some kind of alcohol-powered speedrun? It was such a nice night :)

[7clubs]

i have never thought of franseb before but i've got to say you definitely have my attention now! do elaborate

(CLAPS HANDS TOGETHER) OKAY. THE YUMIMEI AGENDA.

TL;DR: You have two similarly aged youth with so much room to grow, who have a lot in common in terms of family trauma and are mirrors but are simultaneously very different personality-wise, which is SUPER SUPER fun. Similar base appeal here as Fran/maya: silly and serious. Opposites attract, except they're also the same.

Franziska's view of Seb quickly grew from disrespect to seeing them as a mirror of her and perhaps an equal. There is so much opportunity for that to develop into a deep friendship during the 7 year gap, and for them to do a lot of healing together as two who would relate to each other a lot but crucially have different perspectives.

Sebastian is imperfection, is becoming stronger from making mistakes and learning from them. Franziska is perfection, and becoming stronger in realizing it isn't everything.

(Gender stuff and more details under the cut whee)

First of all to get this out of the way. I think most of this part of the fandom agrees that Fran is a huge lesbian and I've hc'd her such pretty much as long as I known I've been into women (2013?) I think this is a big reason why people don't even consider sebfran within the blip of possibility.

It just so happened that a few years ago, before I ever once thought about the parallels between the two of them, before i even had a single thought about them being friends, I started HC'ing seb as a non-binary trans girl. Seb is a magnet for trans HCs, because literally any story about defying your parent's expectations is really really fucking good for that and also they're incredibly Gender.

But I think most people go with transmasc (where they're already presenting as such in canon) which is really understandable and still an epic hc, but I've always found it really compelling for her to realize she's trans after the events of AAI2. Blooming beyond the shadow of her father.

Basically I accidentally put myself into a position where I (big lesbian) could become really, really invested in these two once the dominos fell and I connected the dots. And I did, once I really got into AA again last year, since these two have always been really high up in my favs list and AAI2 is my absolute favorite game. I realized how much they had in common.

(Obviously you don't have to hc Fran as a lesbian and Seb as transfem and you can still ship these two. It's just that I'm a big lesbian and I like weird women in love, so snooty mean girl x ALSO snooty silly girl is a really. really good combination and boosts this ship up for me, especially once you make them sapphics in cool law suits. soooo gnc so true <33)

I THINK if you like Fran/Maya then you're gonna understand a lot of what I like in YumiMei already: they have a lot in common in terms of twisted family histories and expectations, but their actual personalities are VERY different. Which is a really awesome tried and tested recipe for a REALLY GOOD dynamic.

There's a really solid foundation at the end of AAI2 for these two to become amazing friends. Franziska outright makes a comparison to her experiences with MVK with Sebastian's experience with Blaise. She was very impatient and rude to them at first, yes, but quickly realized that they're mirrors.

At the end of AAI2, Franziska establishes the respect she has for Seb by returning care of Roland's trial to them and watching them on. Same with the credits: she knows they'll be tested, just like her.

They're not necessarily at the same stage of their law career, yeah, Seb is a rookie and Franziska is a freak who has been doing this since 13. But I feel that they stand as equals. (That said, yeah, I'm not super comfortable with them getting together until late 7yg and beyond, when Seb's already an established professional and Also, you know, Knows She's A Girl Now.)

Both of them are grieving the fallen images of their fathers. Both of them have felt that there was a time when they had no one else on their side, with Sebastian being disowned and Franziska dealing with both her father's death and her brother's disappearance. Both of them, for a time, struggled wondering whether they should keep doing the work they do. Throwing away the whip, running from the prosecutor's path.

Veering more into headcanon territory; since they're both closely tied to Edgeworth, it's very easy for them to keep in touch after AAI2/during the 7yg. Franziska puts up a facade of being mean and aloof, but she's an inherently caring person and I think she'd look out for Seb. I think from there they could start talking.

I feel like Franziska is a very guarded and emotionally constipated person and she struggles a lot opening up to someone who's known her her whole life, like Edgeworth. (in general, the vk siblings are just Very Bad at being open with eachother.) I think it's important to remember at this point, despite her accomplishments, that she's barely an adult and I think it helps a lot to have someone close to her age as a new friend and peer without all that baggage.

Sebastian on the other hand is someone who just... has their heart on their sleeve. an Open book. emotional and gutsy if they have to be. And in that final logic chess you can see that they understand the importance of listening to someone.

Anyway yeah. they become rant buddies. they talk about their messed up fathers with each other and the complicated relationship they have with the work they've both devoted their lives to and they just get it and are a shoulder to lean on. they develop a rich, deep friendship over the 7yg and teach each other what they know. and this is important to me: yes, Franziska teaches Seb some of the tools of the trade, how to be a better prosecutor, just as a courtesy bc they're friends. but Sebastian also teaches her a lot in turn, about life. About picking yourself up after all your mistakes. I like genuinely think because of more connections and openness, Seb winds up with a bit more emotional maturity. Franziska doesn't need to be perfect in front of them. So they both can be their truer selves.

And that's the main thing really. I think they just become the best of friends. Before romance, before anything else. Seven years of contemplative nights at the office and mutual support. From there, love is just like breathing.

[army-of-mai-lovers]

Re: misogyny in atla fandom post. I’m a butch/gnc woman and there’s so few representation for women like me. I really relate to toph and admire her for being androgynous and masculine but still being a woman. She shows that there’s no “wrong” way to be a woman and that you can reject gendered expectations and still be female. She’s the only character I’ve ever been able to relate to for this. I feel like it’s kind of misogynistic when people HC her as a trans guy or non binary with they/them pronouns. I’m all for HCing characters as trans, but with toph it feels weird.

She’s constrained by the expectations put upon her for being a girl in a patriarchal society and also being disabled, and how those two intersect. But her acceptance of being disabled & and a girl and breaking the stereotypes pushed upon her for those facets of her identity is the whole point! And as a disabled gnc woman, I feel like stripping her of her womanhood bc she’s masculine/androgynous is the same as stripping her of her disability because she’s strong. Idk

This is a really interesting perspective, anon! Outside of tumblr, I’m a prospective gender studies minor, and in my gender studies classes we have this practice called situating. Basically, I explain who I am, so you know where I’m coming from. Esp wrt things like race, gender, and sexuality, you can read and learn and listen to other people, but you’ll only ever truly know your own experience, and it’s important for people to know that’s where your perspective on a certain debate is coming from. So, hi, I’m Arthur, I’m an afab nonbinary person who uses they/them pronouns, my gender expression is very much in a period of flux because I don’t have the ability to socially or medically transition as much as I’d like, so, at least for right now, most people interpret me as a sometimes gnc cis woman. Because I’m most often interpreted as a cis girl, even though that is not who I am at all, I experience misogyny, and that is unfortunately part of my trans experience. That doesn’t give me the authority to speak over women at all, but I do think it was a large part of me noticing the misogyny in this fandom and deciding to write what I did (and I’m so glad it resonated with you!) All of that colors the way I view gnc characters, as well as trans/nonbinary characters, and misogyny, within fandom and without. 

So, now that you understand where my thoughts are coming from, here they are. I definitely think it’s transphobic to hc Toph as a trans guy if you are not transmasc yourself. I’ve never seen trans guy hcs for Toph, but the idea of cis ppl equating this canonically cis girl character to someone who is unequivocally, indisputably, a guy, makes me super uncomfy. If there’s a trans guy out there who really relates to Toph and wants to create and develop that hc in a way that works for you, be my guest, but I do not have the authority or the desire to make trans guy Toph hcs. 

As for the nonbinary thing... I will admit, they/them Toph hcs make me feel seen, probably the same way you feel seen by Toph as an unapologetically androgynous/masculine cis girl. I answered some asks a couple weeks ago about lesbian hcs, and in that I talked about how since both lesbians and bi girls are underrepresented in media, hcs that might make one group feel seen and valued are gonna make another group feel erased, and I’m not really sure how to resolve that. The same goes for hcs around androgynous afab characters: butch women and afab* nby folks have so little representation that hcs that make one group feel seen are going to make another group feel erased. As a afab nonbinary person who uses they/them pronouns, who has never connected with any concept of womanhood despite sometimes having a pretty femme gender expression, I do relate to Toph a whole lot. I’ve also had to navigate (and am still navigating!) a minefield of gendered expectations in a patriarchal society, and talking and listening to and reading about other trans people, it seems to be a pretty integral part of the trans experience (not that there is one sole trans experience, we’re all very different, but that’s a topic for another time). The gender binary is, after all, a central feature of Western white supremacist patriarchal constructions of gender, and if you deviate in any way, whether it’s through being gender nonconforming, or through being trans/nonbinary, you’re probably going to have to fight really hard to exist and survive and feel confident in your body and your expression, because society is constantly sending you the message that you are deviant and thus not worthy. And it’s nice to think of your favorite character as having some of the same experiences you do. 

I will say, I see they/them Toph headcanons more often than I see they/them Katara or they/them Yue, and I’d encourage people to really dig deep and think about why they’re more comfortable hcing an androgynous character as being nonbinary than they would be a more obviously feminine character (especially since nonbinary folk come in all gender expressions). I also would just love to see more transfem hcs! People for whatever reason seem way more comfortable hcing male characters as trans guys than they do hcing female characters as trans girls (and the reason is transmisogyny--Mae @transtenzin made a post about this a couple months ago about how most transfem atla hcs are characters like Smellerbee, while transmasc hcs can center around more major characters like Zuko or Sokka--a wonderful post that I would link to if tumblr’s search function weren’t absolute shit.) 

But at the end of the day, I am going to have to disagree with you on thinking of nonbinary Toph hcs as misogynistic, because I know as a disabled afab nonbinary person myself, I’ve dealt with a lot of the same struggles that Toph deals with in the show, and I’m sure there are a lot of other afab nonbinary folks who feel the same way. However, I understand feeling frustrated by people hcing a canonically androgynous female character as nonbinary. I hope what I’ve said here can offer you a little insight into the other side of this, and I so appreciate you offering me insight into your side. 

Another thing to note: while I haven’t seen trans guy Toph hcs, I have seen people hc Toph as a he/him lesbian. He/him lesbians are of course a valued part of our community, and I applaud any and all he/him lesbian Toph hcs. Pronouns =/= gender. 

Tl;dr don’t hc Toph as a trans guy unless you are a trans guy and even then I would tread lightly, gender and transness and representation is complicated and I’m not entirely sure how to resolve conflicts between different groups of marginalized people who are trying to find rep in opposing hcs of the same character, and imo hcing Toph as nonbinary is not misogynistic (but my opinion is not the final word on any subject!) Also, we stan he/him lesbians. 

*amab nby folks of course also receive very little rep, probably even less than afab nby folks, and that is a very important conversation to have, but seeing as 1) this ask was about hcs for an afab character, and 2) I am not amab and therefore very unqualified to lead a conversation about hcing certain characters as amab or the larger field of amab nby rep, I thought it best to focus on afab nonbinary people in this post. 

[what-even-is-thiss]

The thing is, early on in discovering myself I read about a lot of varied experiences. People who medically transition but don’t consider themselves trans and don’t transition socially. People who consider themselves trans but never transition. People who use neopronouns. People who detransition later in life because they feel like their needs changed. People changing their gender identity after being out for decades. And none of these people saying that they regret their decisions.

And now what are people hearing? Absolutes, I guess. Why are people bashing neopronouns? In 2013 I didn’t even know that they/them pronouns were an option. Neopronouns were all I saw. Nobody even talked about dysphoria much from what I saw. Trans people were what they were and made the decisions that they did. Now I guess people are trying more to appeal to the mainstream?

I guess this is especially a problem for transmasc people. Transfem folks have it rough and have their own debates I’m not going to comment on because it’s not my place, but the main difference between trans men and woman and what causes tension between the communities at times is our difference in visibility. Generally in The past the strategies of trans people that transitioned and didn’t just stay in the closet or live as gays or lesbians or drag performers fell into two different categories. Conform and aim to be invisible or reject conformity and live on the fringes of society. And there are trans men and women who have chosen either path, but in general, Trans men have opted for conformity and invisibility. Not all trans men can pass even with medical transition, but those who can have most often opted to vanish.

However, in the new age where trans rights is a meme and at least two transgender celebrities exist, transgender men have slowly started to realize I think that conformity isn’t always a necessity. And that, I think, scares some people.

A lot of early stories that influenced me were by transfeminine people. Not necessarily people like me. It’s very possible that I’m wrong but from what I’ve seen transfem folks (or at least the ones in the spotlight) more often see rejection of societal norms as inevitable and that’s historically how they’ve survived. How Trans men have survived is fitting into societal norms. But now that we no longer have to conform and be invisible we’re kind of caught in a weird spot. Generational trauma is a thing with trans folks I think. Unless there’s a better term I don’t know about. Other people’s stories and pain affect the way you think, especially if they’re like you. And trans men have had problems. Emotional pain from performing femininity, bullying and abuse associated with sexuality or gender performance, high rates of substance abuse, high rates of being sexually assaulted, other problems associated with being raised as a girl experienced in a uniquely transgender way.

So with all this collective trauma floating around as transmasculine people’s voices finally start to bubble to the surface a bit I think some of us are starting to cling to the community’s old coping mechanism. Conformity. Because if we’re trying to be visible now then cis people might want to hurt us. So how do we stop them from hurting us? By trying to be cis. By acting like being cisgender is the ideal. If we try to look like cisgender men then they won’t hurt us, right?

Except that’s not really how that works. Even if you live as a cis man you’re going to be surrounded by transphobia anyways and know that you’re always one locker room incident away from being found out, because for the most part even with surgery and prosthetics we do not pass the locker room test most of the time. And when they find out you may be tempted to hold yourself up as not like those weird transtrenders but transphobes don’t really see a difference between you and gnc trans men and non binary people on a fundamental level. You’re the trans community’s version of the two conventionally attractive white gay men making a nuclear family in their big house. A poster child. Not necessarily representative of the majority. But it’s hard to accept that. It’s a lot easier to believe that everyone else wants to conform to survive too. But that’s not how it is.

So you get all these trans men striving for conformity and everyone else striving to just... be themselves basically. Not necessarily aiming to show a middle finger to society (although that is a valid goal) but not aiming to conform either. Then in the wake of all that we get the focus on dysphoria, the shaming of neopronouns, the backlash against feminine trans men and sometimes even gay or asexual trans men in rarer cases. And it stems from fear, I think. A fear we all have. Of rejection, violence, resurgence in mental illness. I think almost everyone who’s been in contact with other trans people for a while knows at least one person who has died for one reason or another. But at the end of the day, and what I think a lot of people don’t see, conformity doesn’t really fix any of our problems or make us more acceptable to cis people. Most cis people have no idea what dysphoria is. Even cis people with transgender loved ones. They really don’t understand it or care about it. In my experience medical professionals don’t even ask you about it. I told my doctors that I use two sets of pronouns and they didn’t bat an eye.

So like... I dunno. I just wish we focused less on conformity and more on exploration. We’re coming out of the shadows now. Who are we as a community? Unwelcoming? I sure hope not. With my experience talking to trans people irl everybody’s just kind of like whatever. They don’t care as much and I just wish that the Internet would catch up.

[stormysapphic]

any other femme (or butch!) lesbians have thoughts on this? i see a lot of posts around reminding people of butch/femme history and the relationship these identities have to each other. that’s super great because the thing that made me come into my own identity was in fact reading about butch/femme history and not just the aesthetics/”butch/femme is just about gender expression” you see online! however, a lot of these posts also reference the thing that made it very hard for me to come into my identity in the first place; the assumption that femmes are always gender conforming/pass as straight. this ofc in based on the factual history of femmes protecting butches in many ways, because butches were more easily targeted by homophobes - i’m not refuting that at all! in addition, i’m sure none of the people writing these posts mean to actively ignore gnc femmes. but it does make me feel taken for granted in my identity and community sometimes! i myself have a buzzcut with a mullet and i bind, among other things. i have been heckled, attacked, and had the shit kicked out of me for being visibly gay. and i know butches who “pass” as straight hipster women - even if they hate it (and we all hate how straight women have hijacked parts of our culture). gnc femmes exist, and nonbinary femmes exist, and transfem femmes who don’t “pass” exist. and in many other ways, too, the butch/femme “code” isn’t exactly the same it was in our history. again, i’d love to hear people’s thoughts, experiences, and opinions on this! this isn’t meant to be an all-encompassing thinkpiece, just some thoughts i’ve had over the past few days!

[stickclosetomyside]

12 18 22 24!!!

12. what gives you the most gender euphoria?

Legit just being gendered properly in public by randos...... Makes my little trans gay fem guy heart jump

18. what do you wish other people understood better about being trans?

I think I wish cis people would understand transfem people better. I feel like if people offered an ear to listen to them and not demonize them a lot of our problems in relation to transphobia would be solved

22. do you find yourself fitting into gender roles, or consider yourself gender non-conforming?

I definitely consider myself gnc! I’m very What The Cis Would Consider Feminine in nature and mannerisms.

24. any trans role models?

Literally any of the trans people that have fought at or led riots. Every day I wish I could thank them all

Thank you for asking my beautiful  lovely boyfriend 

[tieflng]

chocobox 2020 letter under the cut, because i do things and participate in things now i think.

dear chocolatier: thanks for writing for me! my actual requests were sparse because they were. quite long. especially the pyre one, because it turns out i have a lot of thoughts about minor/historical background characters as seen in the book of rites. so my prompts are all here, along with the dnws just repeated for good measure. thanks for reading all of this, i hope you can find something to have fun with.

pyre -

oops!! all golathanian! i was just really drawn to him reading the book of rites; there's something about an ordinary (certainly flawed) human man making the choices that brought every event in the game to pass and turned him into a godlike eldritch basketball saint. also, 'you gave your freedom that i might yet have mine' is a line i've been thinking about for an entire year. also, the g in lgbt is for golathanian. i'm really into the idea that the man the commonwealth could lionize as the ideal of strength is admirable not as a conqueror or warlord, but as someone with commitments to others that make him overcome his flaws-- someone who does the cooking for the group and makes dry comments and lectures out of worry and has a stupid laugh and acts like a grouch when he is secretly a giant softy. (and someone who is visibly gay and gnc, because the base of my mazlow hierarchy of needs is gay/bi men presented as admirable figures of authority, and i think that's something that should have been in the game, even if the commonwealth in-universe was going to erase it.) the heart and idealism and earnestness is what makes him worthy of respect, and that he's human, even if technically he ends up as a demigod sports-omen star.

i'm firmly in favor of autistic scribes (solidarity with chae) and scribes as large-r Readers. aside from soliam and khaylmer who both have cis energy i'm very up for any of the requested characters as trans or nonbinary, and near and dear to my heart especially are transfem chae and triesta and a nonbinary/my-gender-is-just-gay gol. explicit lgbt identities in general are a plus. environmental details-- i adore the richness and mystery and wonder of the downside, but i'd also kill for some sahrian imperial court ambiance. adventure is good, character study is always good, shenanigans and mischievous escapades between friends, misunderstandings that work out or not, angst with comfort is fine, moral or philosophical dilemmas or conversations (perfect for this group). it'd be nice to see something about titans, about (r/R)eading, the downside as an eldritch landscape, the simultaneous decay and might of imperial sahr, about turning into celestial bodies, a good old fashioned slow burn/mutual pining.

ha'ub & gol - i've always imagined these two are best friends - the first two scribes, 2/3 of the og triumvirate, and both dealing with the fact that 'mercy' means they have to keep soliam murr's fool ass alive. ha'ub is a chaotic little bumpkin who's never belonged anywhere, gol is an increasingly long-suffering visitor to purgatory dimension-- i feel like for all that he knows more about survival here than his new Big Friends, ha'ub feels just as indebted to them for being able to relate to him. it can't be easy being the first imp with human-like intelligence, or at least surely the only imp you know. misunderstandings between different species, teaching each other about sahrian human and downside imp customs, teaming up against howlers (did the howler/imp distinction exist yet, if all imps were wild and drive imps didn't exist??), learning to communicate with someone whose speech and language are very different. gol standing up for ha'ub in the 'why does an imp get a triumvirate' debate. why is ha'ub accursed? too, if there's gol/soliam, there's an opportunity for 'just kiss him already', or whatever misunderstandings imps have about human relationships/will-they-or-won't-they tensions.

gol & chae - please call the vagabond girl chae! i loved her basically at the moment i saw her and her arc means a lot to me. she’s autistic coded but her belief in the scribes-- in actually hearing and speaking to the scribes-- is never undercut by the narrative. and she’s immensely strong! she’s survived in the downside by herself from 17-19! and imo at least the scribe known for being strong and resilient and untiring, not to mention idealistic and loyal, would admire the absolute fuck out of her. i’d like her childhood as moontouched/homeless and displaced, her topside ending as a religious leader and inspiration in the sahrian union, wandering alone in the downside, her role with the nightwings-- i just really want to see what conversations these two would get up to, i want them to learn from each other, i want chae to have support and encouragement and comfort from everyone’s favorite nomad scribe. what does she ask him? what does he tell her? passing messages from ti’zo or the heralds? looking for advice/help on behalf of the nightwings, or just comfort when she’s feeling out of place? god, the fact that she’s in the companion class that parallels khaylmer-- do they talk about that, or how does gol feel? there are so many damn good interactions here. please don’t infantilize her or portray her beliefs and reactions as nonsensical or weird.

gol/soliam - i have so many thoughts about these two that i almost don’t want to say everything. my sense is they didn’t get together until the downside, with a very long enemies > grudging allies > friends > lovers, at least on gol’s end. you don’t jump over the edge of the world to kill someone and immediately kiss and make up. topside before he gets disillusioned there’s potential for that good courtly love - gol pining hopelessly (and perhaps obliviously, depending on how soliam acts towards him) for his beautiful distant liege, sol who so very clearly did not feel anything genuine for anyone as emperor, but who maybe has some ‘oooh, master-general ;)’ poking out of the hedonism-flavored depression. and then he falls down the river and realizes he was a big idiot. i could do very early sweet moments, courtly aesthetic and accidental intimacy, seeing a tender side to the emperor that most people never get close enough for/soliam murr Almost having a real feeling other than physical attraction. i could also do rebuilding their trust and rapport in the downside, mutual pining, growing closer despite everything and wondering privately if they couldn’t actually work out. or established relationship tenderness and fluff. i could also very much do explicit content with these two.

gol & khaylmer - ahh, yes. enemies. i got the impression from gol’s account (and gol’s account is really all we get) that these two hated each other, to ‘put his picture on the bull’s eye of the dartboard’ levels of hatred-- but also, maybe, that they had more in common than they wanted. gol and khaylmer as the only two grownups in a decadence-obsessed imperial court? certainly as the closest advisers to the emperor, whatever that means when your emperor is soliam murr. i always got the impression that gol was a bit more of a bastard than he let on-- nomad masteries are very ‘now i’ve thrown him off his rhythm!’ and you can’t tell me ‘preferred to fall on his enemies by surprise under the cover of darkness’ Isn’t the trait of a highly slippery character. then again, their worldviews and beliefs might as well be from two different planets, but then again again, do we really get an unbiased opinion on khaylmer to know what his worldviews really is? two driven and idiosyncratic people, more similar than they think, who just deeply hate and misunderstand each other at a fundamental level. also, please a deep dive into khaylmer’s head. lot of opportunity for backroom dealing and court drama here.

scribes & scribes - scribe adventures! or scribe shenanigans and arguments! i see these eight as having strong and contrasting personalities, but fundamentally caring about each other, even if they can get into real drama and conflict. fighting titans, exploring together, writing the book of rites, becoming eldritch basketball gods. found family is great, early stages of found family that grouchily insist they're business associates is better. there is so much you could do with these losers as a collective and i love them with my entire heart.

dnw: fantasy homophobia or transphobia, dubcon/noncon including under the influence, hand/eye trauma, unsanitary things, angst without a positive/hopeful resolution. in terms of explicit content, please no humiliation or impact play/physical pain. fandom specific: don't undercut chae's feelings or beliefs or write her in an ableist way. i also see gol and soliam as gay, and milithe and triesta as lesbians, so i'd prefer no references to past/current m/w relationships for them-- not because having m/w history invalidates gay peoples' identities, but because for me personally that'd be a horrible experience and it makes me sad thinking about my favorite characters going through that.

hades -

i did not expect to like a large soft-spoken honor-bound minotaur who duels you in honorable combat as much as i did, but probably should have knowing basic facts about myself. anything asterius-focused is great-- i really want to see him well-received in elysium and with a partner who cares about him......! he deserves nice things! elysium as a setting is so lush, environmental details, moments of respite, greenery, the river lethe, the elysian stadium, the beauty of eternal paradise And the fact that the people who live here decide to just beat the tar out of each other for fun.

this game has a really strong cast, and i'd love to see mentioned or featured olympians/house denizens/run npcs other than the requested characters. patroclus is a strong possibility for a fic in elysium, but achilles, hypnos, hermes/artemis/athena, and eurydice are also favorites of mine. i'm always down for explicit gay/bi identities, and i've been toying with trans masc zag and/or nonbinary aster.

Asterius/Zag - the inherent romantic tension of having a standing date to fight someone in hand to hand combat. but also, meeting outside of the arena in some way - a peaceful moment in a fountain chamber? maybe aster helps zag in a tough spot with some exalted? they both meet up in patroclus's chamber? i like how aster respects you for your strength and ability and the comparison he draws between them both as having been born monstrous/in darkness could use some (gentle) exploration. both of them uncovering hidden depths or softness in each other.

Asterius/Theseus/Zag - the inherent romantic tension of having a standing date to fight two people in hand to hand combat. i very much see this as an aster-centric v-- i don't really buy these or zag being into each other on their own, but learning to get along for the sake of their mutual boyfriend is good, and the comedy that ensues. anything i like in aster/zag or aster/these would be good here. absolutely not opposed to an aster-centered threesome (he deserves it).

Asterius/Theseus - how did these persuade hades to move the bull of minos to elysium? how did they become champions in the stadium? fighting by each others' sides, aster discovering after a mortal lifetime confined to a labyrinth that he's into men, these feeling weirdly compelled to show off or impress him. theseus training him in 'heroic ways'. theseus's lines about ariadne felt needlessly gross/borderline misogynistic and i'd like for them either to not come up Or for aster to sit him down and give him a piece of his mind. that's his sister, you idiot.

Cerberus & Zag - just a boy and his dog! cerby comforting a younger zag when hades is on his bullshit, or kid zag sleeping all cuddled up with his pubby. growing up and watching the house change. zag venting to cerberus or asking for advice, like you do with your pets when you don't expect an answer (and maybe getting one??). something in styx would be good, or zag finding any other kind of treat or toy and smuggling it back in from one of his runs.

dnw: fantasy homophobia or transphobia, dubcon/noncon including under the influence, hand/eye trauma, unsanitary things (please light on the descriptions of the satyr sack, lmao), angst without a positive/hopeful resolution. in terms of explicit content, please no humiliation or impact play/physical pain. as far as fandom specific: please nothing that portrays hades as good or justified in any of his actions. nothing zag/meg or zag/than; i really prefer zag and meg to have acknowledged their feelings and decided to stay friends.

arthuriana/let’s be real i’m here for the gawain and the green knight - 

......i'm just in this for the inherent homoeroticism. explicitly gay/bi gawain and bi bertilak is great, bertilak and his wife both being in on it is great, threesome? more christmas games? courtly flirting? being cozy inside? going on a dangerous quest? anything sounds great, just have fun with it!

dnw: homophobia including period-typical (just not why i read fanfiction), dubcon/noncon including under the influence, unsanitary things, hand/eye trauma, cheating/negative feelings between the hautdeserts, angst. in terms of explicit content, please no humiliation or impact play/physical pain.