#circumventing secondaries

[reds-burrow]

Is "the ends justify the means" a circumventing secondary saying?

It can be... depending on the person. I hesitate to agree fully because this is usually a saying that involves ethics and that ventures into Primary territory. I've had plenty of conversations with Bird and Snake Secondaries who have strong negative feelings about lying, manipulating, or other skills, so they do put limits on their means.

I think a better (or at least more neutral) motto for Circumventing Secondaries is "Work smarter, not harder."

#circumventing secondaries #bird secondary #snake secondary #sortinghatchats #the secondaries

[7amaspayrollmanager]

It's actually funny that the times of Israel writes their pieces on settler violence with the utmost skepticism. But it's also funny that they are a very zionist news outlet that outwardly denies any occupation of Palestine which includes the "West bank" and then write this

"Lawful demolitions against illegal structures in the west bank" so you agree? The zionist state decides legality and housing in palestinian territory? Almost like they occupy it. Notice they don't say "Area C" they included all the West Bank in that sentence

The article above is about the village of Zanuta where settler violence was so bad that all the villagers were forced to leave back in October which is exactly why we say the Nakba is ongoing

Amin Hamed al-Hadhrat took a break from taking down his family’s home in the South Hebron Hills, crying. “I know in a day or two I’m going to live somewhere else, but I still can’t imagine it happening,” the 37-year-old said. “All I know is living here. All my father knew was living here. I don’t know what it is like to live anywhere else.” This week, al-Hadhrat’s village of shepherds, Khirbet Zanuta, joined the growing swell of Palestinian Bedouin villages forcibly emptied since October 7 due to violent attacks from armed Israeli settlers often wearing Israeli military uniforms.

On November 29th, ISM reported that some villagers with activists returned but they still faced threats https://palsolidarity.org/2023/11/zanuta-the-return/

As the villagers and activists were leaving, an armed militia, suspected to be settlers, wearing army uniforms and masks arrived. They stopped the villagers, searched the cars and inspected their IDs. Under observation from the activists and press, the militia let the Palestinians go.

Israelis are now dressing up as IOF and acting as militias and it really is no different from the zionist militias before they enveloped into the IOF. They of course will not be arrested for impersonating soldiers bc the army protects them and often aids them in destruction of palestinian villages like Huwara and other villages. Why? Because that is the function of a settler-colonial state, their settlers advance the further colonization of Palestine with government support. It's not simply the "Netanyahu far right government" or the IOF and any analysis that does not take into account that israelis in all of palestine (that includes the 48 territories) are active settlers, is not an analysis worth making tbh

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/09/west-bank-palestinians-israeli-settlers-attacks-idf/

The blurring of lines between the army and the settlers goes back at least two decades. From the 2000s onwards, there has been a bifurcation within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), leading to the emergence of two distinct armies: the official army and a secondary policing force dedicated to operations in the Israeli-controlled West Bank.

This policing army is comprised of several elements: an infantry brigade permanently stationed in the region; units of the border police; and settler militias, which are part of what are known as territorial defense units, which are armed and trained by the IDF. The forces of the policing army are bolstered by the rotational deployment of regular combat brigades from the official IDF.

This policing army, ostensibly under formal political control, has effectively morphed into a quasi-militia entity. Its own activities in the West Bank suggest that its underlying goal is the consolidation of Israel’s control over the West Bank, particularly Area C, which encompasses both the Israeli settlements and Palestinian-inhabited regions. This strategy serves as an informal means of annexation, circumventing the need for a formal annexation that would likely face international resistance.

[theamityelf]

What about normal Makoto in a room full of his kamakurized friends? 👀

Lol, immediately this brought to mind a kind of inversion of the Undead AU, where the lucksters instead have to take care of super genius versions of their classmates.

But let's put that aside for now.

(I'm making this one a new AU, so the Kamukura 78th class get the same characterization as before, but the backstories from the Kamukuras AU are changed so that instead they were just all entered into the Kamukura Project at the same time. Presumably Izuru Kamukura still exists as the first success and they took that success as a green light to do the same thing with fifteen more kids. None of them have met Izuru, though; he's in the basement of Hope's Peak, and they're at some secondary location where the many people who would be looking for them can't find them.)

So, the scientists Kamukurify the whole 78th class, except Makoto. (Presumably they tricked them into signing off on it, but since some of them are definitely the type to thoroughly read a contract, I'm thinking it was just casually tossed in as a condition to attending.) This does raise the question of "When did they go through with the procedure, and where was Makoto while it was happening?" I'm going to say it happened over some kind of holiday or break, so when Makoto gets pulled in, he has no idea of how serious the danger is until after he's tossed into a room with all of them.

But yeah, the scientists just toss Makoto into a room with the Kamukuras and lock the door.

All of the Kamukuras would immediately reach the conclusion, "The scientists have given us a human plaything, and we're expected to share it, and I know someone is going to break it."

So everyone has one of four reactions:

Someone's going to break him, so it might as well be me.

Someone's going to break him unless I protect him, so I will.

Someone's going to break him, so no point taking an interest.

Someone's going to break him, so I'd better do something interesting with him before they do.

And because they're all Ultimate Analysts, they all know the exact mental journeys the others are on. The best of them are able to circumvent the worst possible outcome (which is, him dying immediately and no one gets to do anything with him and they don't get another one).

As soon as Makoto (again, super not knowing what he's in for) walks into the room, Sakura restrains Junko just to make sure she doesn't do anything to sabotage this chance at stimulation for the rest of them.

Hina runs up to Makoto like, "Interesting. They've never given us something like this before."

("The likeness is incredible," Chihiro's voice floats from somewhere near Hifumi, because Hifumi drew Makoto's face the previous day. "Your clairvoyance has improved, since you spoke with Hagakure." For his part, Hiro is just standing in the corner, looking like he's seen all of this before and doesn't mind an encore.)

"Hina?" Makoto looks around at all of them, confused. They all have shoulder-length hair, uncombed. It's a weird look, especially for those of them who used to have really long or really short hair. (Their hair hasn't grown Kamukura-length yet, since it was shaved for the procedure.) Their eyes are all bright red. "You look...different. Why are you talking like that?"

"He knows us," Celeste observes, having immediately decided to earn his loyalty on the assumption that he can be useful in getting her out. She keeps her hair tidier than any of the others, but Makoto is more focused on how even her eyes are different. They were already red, but before it was a simmering scarlet, like red wine, not a glaring crimson. "Poor thing; you must be so confused."

"Celeste?"

She's unfamiliar with that name, because it isn't the one on record for this body, but she takes it in stride because she doesn't care what he means by it. "Yes? How may I help you?"

"Why did you call her Celeste?" Hina asks.

"You guys- Whoa!" Makoto yelps in fright, as he is lifted off of his feet.

Mondo holds Makoto over his head, like keeping a toy out of reach of children. It's not beyond any of them, physically, to access Makoto anyway, but the idea is that getting to him now would require them to cross a line that would lead to a skirmish, so they won't.

"We should negotiate the use of this resource," Mukuro says.

"He is not a resource for our use," Taka says. "He is a human as humans were meant to be. He shouldn't be touched."

"Guys?!" Makoto calls from his weird position, being held in the air by his shirt and pant leg. "Is everyone okay? You're all being really weird."

"Slow on the uptake," Leon drones. "Might as well let Enoshima cut him open."

"You insult my imagination," Junko replies, casually, from her restrained position.

They're talking like they don't know me, Makoto thinks. And...a little like they don't know each other. At least, not the way they did before. "What happened to you? Did you guys get amnesia or something?"

"Owada, could you put him in the other room while we negotiate?" Sayaka suggests. She has already taken those few seconds to imagine a few outcomes in which everyone would be satisfied. It's the kind of thing she really enjoys doing.

They lock Makoto in an adjacent room and very clinically discuss the best ways to avoid killing him. Or at least to avoid killing him too quickly.

Meanwhile, Makoto is adjusting to all this information he just gathered from that short interaction and preparing for how he's going to interact with them, moving forward.

#danganronpa #kamukura wrangler au #makoto naegi #sayaka maizono #junko enoshima #mukuro ikusaba #leon kuwata #chihiro fujisaki #mondo owada #kiyotaka ishimaru #hifumi yamada #celestia ludenberg #sakura ogami #aoi asahina #yasuhiro hagakure

[drawingpad-studios]

DND Race inspired SPR fan species part 1:

Accentas

(DND Race Inspo: Kenku)

Dark feathers, white chest markings consisting of a brace and a repeating bar to make it look like they're in a suit, decrescendo marked beaks, eighth rest legs, and shiny white stones that they collected to adorn their feather "dress"/"tail coat"

Accentas are one of the two cousins(aka Being a part of the same family in the scientific categorizing sense) of the Harmonians. Being more avian than angelic, like their cousins, the Fortans. Unlike the two species it evolved with, Accentas can't talk outside of parroting the phrases they've heard and they also can't fly due to not evolving wings. Though they circumvent this by using instruments to communicate and living in places where they don't need to fly.

Natural environment:

While you can technically find these anywhere like any other sentient species of Paper Robloxia, you can find the most Accentas in the lower parts of the musical regions. This includes the caves below the musical regions for half of the population of the species. Just really anywhere it's already accessible for ground bound species or can be made accessible for ground bound species.

Communication:

While they can't speak and can only mimic phrases they've heard, mimicking the voice perfectly, they do have a "spoken" language. This language is called Sonette and is only "spoken" through the use of instruments. Basically in the early years of the population, a group of elder Accentas got together and decided to assign words, letters, phrases, and numbers to different "up beats and down beats"/measures. To not have to rely on trying to piece together different phrases hoping they have heard the right phrases to say what they mean. this ended up being passed through generations until it got so popular form of communication to where they have it in their schools, and other schools(where it isn't mostly Accentas) have it as a extra secondary language class. Along with the species being nicknamed the "Conductors" with their way of teaching others the language.

It can be tricky for non Accentas to get the hang of, especially the non musical species. Thou the species is rather understanding of new learners, because not only are you mastering a language, but you're also mastering an instrument if you haven't already.

They also have a writen "language", but this is like how they communicate through phrases. They just cut and connected different letters from different languages they've read to create a jumbled mess of what they wanted to write out. So to understand it, you kinda need to know pretty much most of the languages of Paper Robloxia. This written "language" is often compared to the language the red teapot character speaks.

Religion:

While all of Paper Robloxia is pretty much Polytheism, Accentas are technically both Polytheism and Monotheism. They do believe in the other gods and Duskkar, but they believe that the Great Mother Bird(the "mother" of the gods from the old world) will rise from death and become the one true god again.

Creating statues of this giant origami swan that adorns the center of their cities and their churches, modeling their instruments around parts of the great mother bird(like guitars being modeled in the shape of her wings), and dedicating most of their festivals to said mother bird. They are technically the most religious species, a bit ironic considering there are two species that are angels and demons respectfully.

Reproduction(eggs):

This species, along with its other feathery cousins, reproduce via eggs. Thou the eggs aren't formed via intercourse. While they and their cousin species do have privates that they didn't evolve out, those are only used for pleasure (this wasn't evolved out because of the rise of the Beast of Lust). How they actually reproduce is with a love song that has been established to be the only song to have the effect of egg creation. (It's also effective in the more furry musical species, but this is more about the feathered musical species) This song when translated is named "Love Bounds". which was originally about two lovers from different realms falling in love, the two rising and falling respectively, and becoming wedlock in the middle once they find each other. This IS based off a true story and was written and originally sung by the people in the story.

Once it was discovered that this was how the species reproduced, it was quickly translated and spread across the different musical species. Though unlike the rest of the species, since the Accentas can't really talk of sing, they of course use their instruments. Basically; a mature adult that can make the egg and a mature adult that can provide half the genes of the egg got to play the song. once the song starts visible music notes come from the two's instruments based on the part they play, whole notes for the one that can make the egg and quarter notes for the one that provides half of the genes of the egg. Once one of each touches, the next morning, the egg layer will wake up with a shelled egg in their pouch(where the feather "dress" starts)

Aging:

They pretty much age the same as Harmonians, except due to their flightless bodies, they ended up maturing faster due to how they were easy prey in the past. Where they weren't really able to survive past ~40. So their start of adulthood is ~40 even after they stop becoming prey, compared to Harmonians' adulthood starting at ~60

(all of these DND race inspired species along with my two first SPR species are all open for anyone to use, just like credit me as the species maker or something in the ref of the characters)

#super paper roblox #fan species #dnd race inspired

[steddieficfind]

kneeling at the altar of your love by habsolutely

“You better not be fucking with me, Eddie, not about this. It’s my whole life on the line here. No sane Dom is going to want a Sub that looks like me, covered in scars neck-down. Even with the Harrington name, I’m fucked and we both know it.”

(Or, Steve's family are traditionalist who want to get the most out of their disappointing Submissive son. Luckily Eddie has some tricks (and old money) up his sleeve.)

Recommended anonymously! Here’s what they had to say:

Very different take on dom/sub. It’s like a secondary gender and I’d never seen that before. Eddie’s care of Steve is lovely. The two of them slow-quick falling for each other while circumventing Steve’s parents from ruining his life: so good.

As always, remember to comment, bookmark, and leave kudos!

Participate in the 1000-follower rec event!

#rec event #steddie #steddie fic #q #mod natalee

[covidsafehotties]

Tonsils are major sites of persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in children

(no longer in preprint as of April 5, 2024, but I do not have access to the latest source)

Highlights

"Study shows that #SARSCoV2 of different lineages can infect tonsils and adenoids in one quarter of children undergoing tonsillectomy"

"Showing that tonsils may be sites of prolonged infection, even without evidence of recent COVID-19 symptoms"

"SARS-CoV-2 infection of B and T lymphocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells may interfere with the mounting of immune responses in these secondary lymphoid organs"

"Unknown potential immunoinflammatory consequences"

"These findings underpin the potential role of hypertrophic tonsils as sites of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children, for an undetermined prolonged time"

"Such smoldering SARS-CoV-2 infection might involve continuous low-level production of viral proteins and cell-to-cell transmission, which circumvent immune surveillance and subvert sterilizing immunity by low virus replication and possibly antigenic variation"

"Shedding of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in respiratory secretions from silently infected children raises concern about possible diagnostic confusion in the presence of symptoms of acute respiratory infections caused by other etiologies"

#mask up #covid #covid 19 #covid isn't over #pandemic #covid conscious #long covid #covid is airborne #wear a mask #coronavirus #covid in children

[sirowsky]

Part 25 - Developments

Pero Tovar and Female Reader (nicknamed Bee) Modern AU

Things are a bit tense still, as you're refusing to give up on William, despite having much bigger concerns baring down on you.

Creator chooses not to use Warnings! This is 18+ONLY!

Word Count: 5986 Masterlist(this story) Author’s Masterlist

<><><><><><><><><><>

   Pero remained guarded around you in the following weeks, refusing to let you wander off on your own or be without some form of supervision as much as possible, to make sure that you didn’t stray towards the bunker alone again.    He knew that at some point, you’d find a way to circumvent his efforts, but he was damned well gonna try and keep you out of there for as long as he could.

   You still kept to your normal routine of visiting William every day, bringing him food and attempting to converse with him. But as you repeatedly emphasized, the man refused to speak whenever Pero was there.    He didn’t really care that much if Will spoke or not, for the time being, because he had been serious when he’d said that the two of you had more important things to worry about.

   Your due date was approaching fast and there was still so much that you hadn’t figured out about your future.    The studio was still just an empty lot, you hadn’t put any new construction in motion there yet. And while you were living on the ranch in order to keep working on de-conditioning your captive, your own home was still where you were supposed to be nesting.

   There was so much that was just sort of hanging in the air, and it made him anxious.    Because Pero wanted to do all the normal things. He wanted to make a crib and a rocking chair, he wanted to outfit the house so that it would be safe for a toddler, finish redecorating the guest room into a nursery…    Everything that had been put on hold when he’d had to send you away still needed to be done, and it saddened him that you didn’t seem to care all that much about those things.

   Happily, however, he had an ally in your best friend.    Abby was every bit as excited as he was for the new arrival, and took every opportunity to remind you that you needed to take care of yourself first and that everything else was secondary for the time being.    And while you tried to ignore her just as you did with your partner, she was well and truly inoculated against your stubbornness, and would force you to listen to her.

   When you were just two weeks away from full term, Pero overheard a conversation between the two of you while Abby was helping you change the sheets in the bed one afternoon.    He heard that you were talking before he reached the room, so he stopped just outside the door and lurked and eavesdropped, already smiling as conversations between you two were almost always amusing.

   “What do you mean?” he heard you question, but in a light-hearted manner.

   “I mean that you’re not exactly nimble at the moment. You’re a minor house walking around, it’s not like you’re gonna be doing any gymnastics in the near future,” Abby explained, so Pero guessed that the topic concerned sex, which made sense given that you were working with the bed.

   “I am not a fucking house,” you countered, slightly less humorous in your tone, but still not quite offended by the comment.

   “You’re home to an entire little person, that’s the definition of a house, Bee.”

   “Be that as it may, I’ll be doing whatever gymnastics I want,” you petulantly insisted, and Pero had to stifle a laugh.

   Because even at nearly nine months pregnant, there was absolutely nothing wrong with your libido, which was why you’d been riding him like a cowgirl earlier that morning.    Something which Abby absolutely did not want to picture or imagine but was also too curious not to further explore.

   “No way. You’re not still…?” she trailed off, clearly uncomfortable with the subject, but unable to leave it be.

   “Of course, we are,” you flippantly answered, obviously pleased to have gotten her off balance. “Just this morning, actually.”

   There was a pause then, during which he couldn’t hear any sound from the sheets that you were working with, so Abby had probably been brought to a halt hearing that.

   “But… how does that even work? How does he… get there?” she finally asked, sounding morbidly curious.

   “The same way he always does, how else would it work?” you replied, but there was a chuckle in your throat then. “Sure, we can’t do that many positions, but it’s far from impossible.”

   “Okay, that’s enough information, thank you,” Abby halted, having finally regained her senses, making you laugh.

   “You asked…”

   “Yeah, I know. Sorry.    To tell you the truth, seeing you like this, glowing and all… It’s making me think about my mom,” she confessed, which surprised Pero.

   He’d never heard her speak of her family, and you had never mentioned them either. He’d assumed that they’d died or that she just didn’t have any relationship with them, but he’d never wanted to bring it up, in case it went unmentioned for a reason.

   “Oh,” you breathed, sounding sad now, which seemed to confirm his suspicions. “I haven’t heard you mention her in a long while.”

   “Well, you know me. I run from everything serious,” Abby admitted.

   “Yeah, except you haven’t been doing that lately. You’ve lost your home and your old life is all but gone, yet here you are, taking care of me and helping my dad about the house and being a friend to Pero when he’s struggling.    This is as well adjusted as I’ve ever seen you be,” you said softly, and he heard your friend sigh heavily.

   “I’m really just putting one foot in front of the other, because I just don’t know what else to do. But all those things are easy to me. I’ve always been a people-person and happy to help others, that stuff comes naturally.    What’s hard is not having a job to go to, a purpose beyond being a friend, and no money of my own to spend as I please,” she elaborated, sounding sad now too.

   “You could always help me get the studio up and running again,” you suggested, with a carefully hopeful undertone.

   “Sure, but you’re the one in charge, so I can’t make any creative decisions for you. I wouldn’t be much help.”

   “Abs, you’re practically my twin, and one of the most artistically talented people I know, in so many different fields that I couldn’t even name them all,” you exclaimed, sounding almost shocked that this wasn’t already obvious to her. “Of course, I trust you with creative decisions… You’d probably make the new place look twice as good as the old one, with minimal effort and a fraction of the cost.    And with everything that I’ll be dealing with over the coming months, I’d happily put you in charge of everything business related. It would take so much pressure off of me.”

   There was a pause then, and Pero held his breath in anticipation, because he really wanted Abby to agree to this. It would help so much more than she could imagine.

   “You’re gonna be an amazing mother,” she said after another beat, and he thought that she was side-stepping the question, but then she continued. “You’re so good at making me feel like any problem isn’t actually that bad, or that whatever crap I’m dealing with is completely manageable if I just take a breath and think about it.    I know that I mostly haven’t listened whenever you’ve done that for me, but I’ve always heard you and I’ve always been amazed by how tolerant you’ve been with me.”

   She paused then, but you didn’t respond, and a moment later, she added:

   “If my mother had been half as good at that as you are, I probably would’ve been a much better person from the start.”

   “Hey, don’t talk like that. You’ve always been a good person, and you know it,” you countered. “Sharon was a broken and cruel woman and if you’d stayed there any longer, she would’ve broken you too.”

   “Yeah, I know. It’s just… most of us only get one mother, and as much as I knew that mine was shit, she was still my mom and I loved her. I wanted her to be better and I was always so disappointed every time that she reminded me that she just wasn’t.    Anyway, my point is that I love you for being everything that she wasn’t, because I know that your little girl is gonna be so loved and cherished and that you’re both gonna protect her the way that I should’ve been protected.”

   Pero suddenly felt bad for eavesdropping, because this was clearly something that Abby would only speak to you about. But just as he was about to step through the door and reveal himself, you made a surprised and slightly pained sound.

   “Pintora?” he called as he hastily entered the room, startling you both and making you yelp.

   “Jesus, Pero… where’d you come from? Were you lurking out there?” you gasped, but he was already kneeling in front of you where you sat next to Abby on the edge of the finished bed.

   “Where does it hurt?” he asked, completely ignoring your questions, putting his hands on top of yours on the sides of your belly.

   “It was just a tinge, nothing to worry about. I probably just over-worked some muscle while we made the bed,” you brushed it off, but he wasn’t convinced.

   “It didn’t sound like muscle ache, it sounded like sharp pain.”

   “It was, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared, so clearly, it wasn’t anything labour-related.    Breathe and relax, honey, she’s still two weeks away,” you soothed, and the reminder did help him to unclench his own tense muscles.

   “Sorry… you scared me,” he admitted, as if that wasn’t already perfectly obvious.

   “It’s okay, love. I’d rather see you jump into action than just shrug.    But seriously, were you eavesdropping just now?” you pressed, and he looked apologetically at Abby.

   “I apologize if I overheard something that you were not willing to share,” he confessed, but she offered a warm smile in return.

   “Thanks for coming clean, but don’t worry about it. I don’t much like to talk about my mom, but not because I don’t want people to know. Just because it’s fucking hard to talk about someone that hurt you when they should’ve cared for you.    Which I’m sure you know all about,” she finished with a meaningful tilt of her head, and as much as he might’ve wanted to, he couldn’t disagree with her.

   She slipped off the bed and leaned down to give him a hug, which he gratefully reciprocated because it was her way of saying that he was forgiven and that they were still good, and then she turned back to you but began moving towards the door.

   “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a studio to build,” she said, winked at you and then slipped out of the room.

   That made Pero smile.

   “Good. You need to get your life back on track, mi amor. I’m happy that you have set things in motion and that you are ready to start looking ahead.”

   “I have been looking ahead all along, Pero, it’s just that I also see Will in our future, not just Abby, Dean and the baby,” you replied, and he sighed.

   While he tried to gather his thoughts on that subject, he felt your right hand begin to rub the side of your belly, a movement so common to you now that you weren’t even aware that you were doing it anymore.    But he knew that it meant that the baby was kicking, causing you some discomfort, so he gently pushed your hand away and replaced it with his own.

   Slipping under your shirt, he started to rub large circles over the area where he felt the tiny foot patter against the inside of his hand. And when that didn’t work, he began to sing a little Spanish lullaby for her.    If nothing else, his singing always helped to soothe you, which was sometimes enough to make the baby relax along with you.

   “I want that too. You know that, right?” he asked once the song ended, and the baby had calmed.

   “Yeah, I do. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have made much sense to spare his life. But you don’t seem to believe that it’s even possible that he might get to that point.”

   “Because so far, I’ve seen nothing to give me confidence in such beliefs.    He might improve, and you might be right about you being the one that can bring him back, but even then, how could I ever trust him with you?” he questioned, meeting your eyes and seeing how you slumped hearing that. “How can I ever trust that he’s not just waiting for us to begin letting our guard down before he completes his mission?    Tell me how I’m supposed to trust him with my family, ever again?”

   You didn’t have any of those answers, and it saddened you more than he’d thought that it would.

   “Why is this so important to you, pintora?” he carefully prodded, and you exhaled tiredly.

   “Because I wasn’t playing him when I said that I love him. I really do,” you declared, which puzzled him, but you were quick to explain yourself. “He’s my brother as much as he is yours, and I hate that there doesn’t seem to be any way for us to just be together and be a family.    I refuse to believe that that’s impossible. Especially now that he’s started talking and I can hear how desperate and frightened he is.”

   “I do understand that, my love. But the problem that you can’t see, specifically because you didn’t know him before this, is that he was a master at putting people at ease. He had such a genuine way about him that even when he lied through his teeth, no one could tell.”

   “Not even you?” you challenged, and he frowned.

   “Yes, but I don’t trust that I still can.”

   “Why not?”

   “Because I don’t recognize the man in that cell as the same man that I knew. I see bits of him, but not enough to trust even my own perception.”

   “So, that’s it then? We just give up and let him rot down there?”

   Pero sighed in frustration and got up to start pacing around the room.    This was the exact same argument that he’d been having with himself on a daily basis ever since Will turned up, and there was still no answer in sight.

   “You can’t do that either, because you still love him too,” you continued when you saw that he wasn’t offering any further thoughts. “So, if you can’t trust him and you can’t let him go or end him, then how about trying something new.”

   “Like what?”

   “Trusting me,” you said firmly, and before he could object to the idea that he didn’t already trust you, you got up and took his hands to stop his pacing. “You’re right, I don’t know him like you do, but what if that’s precisely why I can reach him?    What if the fact that I don’t have all those memories and history with him to interfere with my perception, is exactly why I can meet him where he is right now, without judging him based on previous behaviour.”

   He hated how sensible that sounded, because he still didn’t want to admit that you were probably right about everything. He simply didn’t dare to.    But maybe, he could find some manner of middle ground.

   “If you swear to me that you will remain out of his reach at all times… not giving him the benefit of the doubt just because you feel sorry or bad about chaining him up… then maybe I can agree to ten minutes alone time per day,” he suggested, feeling dangerously generous.

   “Ten minutes won’t be enough, it took forty minutes just to get a word out of him last time,” you protested, but he just glared at you.

   This was already a stretch for him to even consider, and if you pushed it, he’d take that offer off the table in a fucking heartbeat.    Which you could see in his eyes even though he didn’t answer you.

   “Okay. I’ll make it work,” you wisely conceded, looking oddly defeated, even though he’d just taken a huge leap for your sake.

   “You are quite impossible, sometimes,” he said with a soft smile, while leaning forwards to rest his forehead against yours.

   “Only in response to pig-headedness,” you joked, making him snort.

   “You’re the one with the pig.”

   “Oh, right,” you recalled, and then started looking around the room. “Where’d I put it?”

   “You’ve really gotten attached to that little toy…” he said, laughing a little at you as you began to rummage around the room.

   “It’s comforting,” you shot back over your shoulder, without stopping in your search. “And it smells like you.”

   “Then you should not leave it in the kitchen, or the dogs might steal it,” he told you, holding his hand out to you in a silent invitation to accompany you downstairs where he knew the toy to be, to retrieve it.

   You chuckled at yourself, but also seemed to make a mental note that he was right about that and that you should be more careful with it.

<><><><><><><> 

   Pero could be quite infuriating at times, and the closer your due date got, the more impossible he became.    The ten minute limit that he’d put on your solo time with Will got shorter and shorter, hampering your chances of progress, and annoying you to no end.    But in his reactions, you also began to wonder if perhaps your judgement really wasn’t all that reliable at the time.

   Because you really were putting yourself in grave danger, and yet it seemed perfectly safe to you. Not even worthy of worrying about.    You wondered if hormones had something to do with it, making you feel invincible or indestructible somehow.    But whatever the case, when you were just three days away from popping, you decided to stop torturing your partner.

   You told him that you weren’t going to see Will at all for a while, which seemed to make a giant boulder fall from his shoulders.    He hugged you for a good five minutes, whispering repeated thanks in your ear and promising to look after him until you’d be able to start working on him again.    So, from that moment on, you were singularly focused on becoming a mom.

   You went shopping with Abby, letting her pick out all the ridiculously cute miniature outfits that she wanted, adding a few of your own to the pile as well.    And stocking up on diapers and pacifiers, wet wipes and towels, bibs and bottles, and all the little bits and pieces you could think of that you might need, finally made everything hit home for you.

   The child inside of you was baked and ready and could come into this world at any moment, and suddenly you didn’t feel at all ready.    Suddenly all the potential complications of childbirth were swirling through your head, making you terrified for Pero’s sake, because if anything happened to you, he’d be completely heartbroken.

   “Wait…” you said to Abby, who was carrying all the bags for you through the mall. “I need to sit down.”

   “Sure,” she agreed, and you turned to a bench on your right and sat down, spreading your legs wide to accommodate the belly as you leaned forwards to try and calm yourself with a few deep breaths.

   “You okay?” she asked, and you could hear worry in her voice. “Dizzy spell? Or sore feet?”

   “Anxiety,” you answered, and felt her hand begin to rub slow circles on your upper back.

   “What’s on your mind, Boo?”

   “Uh… I think that I just kinda realized the real gravity of all this. The stakes, you know?” you tried to explain, struggling to speak with the aching pain in your chest.

   “I can only imagine,” she admitted. “But as your sister, I need to remind you of the rewards that you stand to gain.”

   “Yeah, I know that. It’s just so scary to think that it could all go horribly wrong, even if we do everything right,” you said, leaning back to try and open up your airways a bit more. “It’s not like a whole lot of these nine months have been relaxing.”

   “True. But even though you’ve been under almost constant stress and fear, your pregnancy has still been pretty much textbook. Even that little scare a few months ago never repeated itself or caused any further reason for concern.    You’re a superwoman, in so many ways, and I truly believe that everything is going to go smoothly,” she soothed, having moved her hand to hold yours instead.

   Her words helped, but more than that, it was her genuine positivity that crept inside your brain and eased your worries, letting your chest relax and the pain fade away.

   “Thank you,” you offered while leaning into her side and resting your head on her shoulder for a moment.

   “Anytime, my darling.”

-=¤=-

   Back at your father’s house, Pero met you at the door with a big smile and a kiss, happy to have you home but also glad that you’d taken some time for yourself and done something normal for once.

   “I will carry the bags,” he insisted when Abby went to the trunk to start unloading it, and she was only all too happy to not have to haul the giant harvest of stuff inside.

   “In that case, I’m gonna go see if Dean needs any help with dinner,” she said, and then skipped off into the house.

   “Are you sure you’re alright with all that?” you asked, watching Pero try and get as many bags with him as he could.

   “Of course!” he enthusiastically chuckled. “I will have to make two trips, but this is good, Pintora. I like this very much!”

   You laughed at his childishly happy grin as he passed through the front door while you held it open for him.    Once inside, you found both your father and bestie by the stove, lovingly bickering about which seasoning worked best for whatever dish that they were preparing, and smiled to yourself as you slipped past them and followed your partner up the stairs.    Groot was in the kitchen too, and fell in beside you as you passed him.

   “Take a seat, amor, and don’t start unpacking anything until I get back, I want to see everything,” he said, planting a sweet kiss on your forehead once you’d plopped down on the bed, before rushing out of the room to get the remaining bags.

   “Oh, you don’t have to ask me twice,” you called after him and then kicked your shoes off to let your swollen feet have some air.

   Groot thought that that was a game, and kindly retrieved the footwear for you before he sat down beside your left leg and stuck his tongue out to grin at you.    Smiling back at him, you stroked the top of his head and told him what a good boy he was, even though you didn’t need the shoes, because he was so proud of himself.

   You’d resorted to using crocs, as they were the only type of shoes that didn’t give you blisters, even though you’d never liked them before.    But around the house, and even outside, you walked barefoot all the time. It was by far the most comfortable, but obviously not advisable when moving around town, where you never knew who might’ve thrown a glass bottle on the sidewalk. Or just gum.

   “There, that’s all of it,” Pero grinned as he returned with the last of the stuff, dropping another six bags on the bed and then clapping his hands together. “Where should we start?”

   You spent a good hour sitting on the bed, letting him organize and hand you things while you unpacked everything together. And you grinned the whole time as you watched him carefully inspecting every item and making sure that he knew what every last thing was and what it was for.    He was like a kid in a candy-store, which made Groot excited as well.

   The dog mimicked the human, sniffing all the items after Pero had looked at them, wagging his tail the whole time, which amused your partner and made him start handing the canine each item once he was done with it.    The two of them even had their own little commentary, with the human assessing and offering his thoughts to the dog, who would answer him with unintelligible (and adorable) babblings and then the two of them would agree that whatever the item was, it was good.

   “Ay, mi amor, this makes me so happy. Look at all these baby things!” Pero eventually bubbled, not bothering to hold back any bit of the joy and excitement that he felt, as he came to sit beside you and planted a big kiss on your lips. “We’re so close, pintora, she’s almost here!”

   Infected by both of their happiness, you laughed with your partner and just sat there, enjoying the simplicity and complexity of that moment, allowing it to cleanse your mind of the fears you’d had earlier.    It seemed almost silly in hindsight, because while there certainly were risks, there was no reason to think that anything bad would happen to you or the child. And even if something did go wrong, your beloved Pero would be there with you through all of it.

   And if, stars forbid, something terrible should happen to you, your family would take care of him and your little girl. They would never abandon or refuse to help him, nor would they allow him to destroy himself.    One way or another, everything would be okay.

-=¤=-

   The next morning, you were in the stables, giving Ike a little well deserved pampering when Dean came back from a ride with Happy and all the dogs.    Groot immediately bounced over to you for pets and scratches, when he noticed you in the rear half of the corridor between the stalls, and you greeted him with happy nonsensical ramblings about what a good boy he was, which made him even bouncier.

   “Morning, Bumblebee. You’re up early,” your father greeted as he led Happy into her stall and started taking her gear off.

   “Morning, dad. Yeah, I couldn’t sleep, I’ve been up since four,” you explained, and he hummed thoughtfully.

   “Feeling okay?” he prodded, and you knew from his tone that he was really asking about the baby.

   “Unfortunately, I don’t think today’s the day,” you replied, annoyance making you scrunch up your nose, which he noticed.

   “Well, don’t try to rush it, honey. The first time is almost always a bit too long, because it just takes a minute for the body to figure it all out.    She’ll come only when you’re good and ready.”

   “I know, but I really do feel very ready. It seems like every day that passes now is just more time for my body to discover another thing to torture me with,” you complained, because sometimes whining for a bit did actually make you feel better.

   “At least you only had the one nightmare, and no hallucinations,” he reminded you, trying to put things in a bigger perspective, because your pregnancy had been pretty easy, all things considered.

   Then again, you hadn’t been mentally present for the first few months of it.

   “True enough, but believe it or not, that doesn’t make my back or ankles feel any better,” you persisted, and he smiled in an empathetic sort of way, so you sighed and continued. “All my joints feel off, like they’re full of jelly, which makes me feel unsteady. And my hands hurt for seemingly no reason.    My neck is under so much strain that I get headaches and even toothache from it, which I didn’t know was possible. And the heartburn is unbelievable, it’s completely robbed me of all appetite, so then I don’t have enough energy for anything, but I also can’t get comfortable enough to really sleep… it’s fucking endless.”

   “No, not endless. Just very uncomfortable,” he reminded you, making you sigh.

   “There’s not much distinction between those two words for me right now.    Especially since just this morning, my body decided to hit me with a brand new discomfort, out of nowhere, in the form of mild constipation. As if I nee-…” you grumbled, but then Dean cut you off.

   “Wait, wait… how does it feel?” he asked, which left you scratching your head for a second, just from the apparent uselessness of the question.

   “Like I wanna take a dump, but I can’t, how else would it feel?”

   But then a peculiar little smile came over him, and your annoyance abruptly vanished.

   “Here, let me take the horses outside while you go and wake Pero,” he suggested, stopping to kiss your temple and give you a quick hug, before he untied Ike and started leading him away.

   “Yeah… okay,” you answered almost in a daze, suddenly struggling to grasp that it might actually be happening. “Do you really think it’s…”

   “Yes, sweetheart, I do. Because you’ve never had those kinds of problems before. It’s probably unlikely that you’ll see any major developments for several hours yet, but I’m sure that you’re in the early stages of labour. It can masquerade as bowel discomfort at first.    And if I’m wrong, then at least you get a thorough check-up.”

   You nodded, still not fully understanding what was happening, but you did as you were told, because your father was not only 100% more experienced than you on this matter, he was also a trained army medic.

   Walking into the kitchen and heading over to the stairs, you were suddenly worried about tripping or falling, so you grabbed the handrail tightly and moved with exaggerated caution as you took one step at a time.    Meanwhile, Groot was confused by your slow advancement, repeatedly skipping up a few steps, only to immediately turn around and come back down, when he noticed that you weren’t catching up.

   Once you reached the bedroom, you found Pero on his stomach, hugging your pillow and snoring lightly in the dim light of the still closed blinds.    He’d woken up when you’d left the bed hours earlier, but you’d assured him that you were just uncomfortable in the bed, which was entirely true, and he’d asked you to let him know if you needed anything, before falling right back asleep.

   “Honey, wake up,” you gently whispered, but despite the soft tone of your voice, he sprung to action before he’d fully woken up, fumbling around among the sheets until he remembered which way was up and what part of his body needed to move to get him to sit.

   “Wha-I’m up! I’m awake, whas-goin-on?” he spluttered with a half-asleep tongue, making you smile.

   “It’s hospital time, apparently,” you answered, and it took him about one and a half seconds to realize what that meant.

   His gaze darted down to your belly and back up to your eyes, before popping wide… and then he panicked.    He bounced out of the bed and was by the closet a second later, ripping out clothes and pulling them on without even checking that they were the right way around, pulling on his t-shirt backwards.

   “Pero…” you calmly interrupted after another few moments. “Those are my jeans, they won’t fit you.”

   Confused, he looked down at the pair that he was attempting to pull his leg through, staring at the garment for a solid two seconds before it sunk in.

   “Calm down, there’s no rush,” you said while moving around the bed to reach him, taking his hands once you got to him. “Nothing’s happened yet, it might even be a false alarm, but we’re gonna go and check.    The go-bag is packed and ready and waiting in the front hall, remember? So, all you need to do is your morning toilet, get dressed, and walk out to the car. Dad’s gonna drive us.”

   He seemed to regain most of his sanity as he listened to you, but he was trembling with adrenaline.

   “Are you sure that you’re okay?” he asked in a whisper, probably because that was as much as he could manage.

   “I feel fine, I promise,” you assured him, pulling him in for a hug. “Now, go brush your teeth and splash some cold water on your face, while I prepare some clothes for you.”

   He pulled back, placing a sweet kiss on your lips along the way, and then hurried past you to the bathroom, still very much stressed out, but in control of himself at least.    And a few minutes later, he re-emerged looking fresh and much more relaxed, smiling at the comfy, but still appropriate outfit that you’d prepared for him, in the form of his favourite jeans, a grey t-shirt and a red flannel shirt.

   “How are you so calm?” he asked while sitting down on the bed to pull the pants on.

   “Because I don’t feel anything alarming yet,” you explained, but that didn’t make sense to him.

   “But then, how do you know that it’s time?”

   “I don’t, but Dean thinks it is.”

   Pero trusted your father perhaps even more than he trusted you, so just hearing that made him feel more at ease about all this.    He nodded and gave you a small smile, pulling his socks on and then coming to your side as he slipped the red shirt onto his shoulders and adjusted the collar.

   “Alright. Then let’s go,” he said, offering you his arm to support your waddling while you made your way to the stairs.

   Like before, you were still scared of tripping, so you were grateful to have his strong frame to hold on to on your one side, and the railing on the other, as you carefully stepped down to the ground floor.    He picked up the large duffel bag that was waiting inside the front door, and then you walked out to your father’s car.

   For some reason, it was heartbreaking to have to tell Groot to stay inside and then leave him behind, but there was no choice. He wouldn’t be welcome in the maternity ward, no matter how good he was for your emotional strength and overall sense of security.    He whined unhappily after you’d closed the door, and suddenly you were fighting tears.

   Dean wasn’t by the car yet, so Pero helped you get in and get buckled up while you waited, and just as he was done, a large hand came to rest on his shoulder.    He turned to find the older man standing behind him, and suddenly Pero looked so small and worried. Because in front of you he was trying to be strong and brave, while your dad’s experience and calmness made him feel safe enough to let his emotions show.

   “Everything’s gonna be fine, son. I’m gonna be there with you the whole time. We’re gonna do this as a family, right?”

   Just as he said that, Abby hopped into the car in the front passenger seat, leaving the backseat for you and your partner.

   “Damned right we are,” she said with a smile, turning back to hold out a closed fist at you, which you bumped with a chuckle.

   “Damned right we are,” you mirrored, winking at your partner and father, which made them both smile too.

   They hopped into the car, buckled up, and then you set off to find out if today was the day you’d get to meet your little piglet.

===============

Link to Part 26

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, please consider reblogging, I would dearly appreciate it.

@idreamofboobear @prostitute-robot-from-the-future @sjdraws-00 @shsoba05 @radiowallet @thisshipwillsail316 @myfavpedrothings @cannedsoupsucks @bluegalaxyprime @tintinn16 @winter-fox-queen @shadesofnerdlygrace @tanzthompson @little-mrs-morales @hotchlover @gallowsjoker @cosmicbreathe @criminalmind1927 @harriedandharassed @bilibiche @anditsmywholeheart

#pero tovar fanfiction #pero tovar x female reader #pero tovar x fem!reader #pero x reader #modern!pero #the great wall modern au #the great wall fanfiction #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal fanfiction #sirowsky stories

[sasquach-scratches]

Elise Durant

She/Her Breton Early 20's

Birthsign: The Atronach

Primary Attributes: Intelligence and Willpower

Primary Skills: Mage (Alchemy, Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Mysticism, Restoration)

Secondary Skills: Speechcraft, Mercantile

Titles: Seventh Champion of Cyrodiil; Duchess of Dementia

A Thaumavocalist from the city of Jehanna. Her magical talent was clear from a very early age, seeing her quickly rise through the ranks of the Mages Guild. Even after finding ways of circumventing her Wombburn condition, she dedicated herself to both conventional and melodic spellcasting. Over time, she took more to the latter, and eventually saw herself changing careers.

She found modest fame as a singer of both magical and mundane music. After her mother's insistence to return to a more "respectable" career in the guild, she decided to take her words to heart and settle on an even less respectable career as a traveling bard. Sure to find even greater fame in the heart of the Empire, she set out for the Imperial City to seek her glory.

Unfortunately her career wasn't as successful as she had hoped. With few connections in the city to truly get off the ground, she begrudgingly fell back on studying at the Arcane University until she found her "big break". She found it in the theft of the Orrery's components.

In volunteering to retrieve the components, she discovered another talent in magical violence. Through these feats she gained the fame she dreamed of much more quickly than she anticipated. Her mother always said adventuring was the least respectable career choice out there, which made her decision to embrace her identity as the "Siren Witch" easier.

It wasn't long before her connections among mages and glory-seekers led her to Daedric Shrines. Though she erred on the side of caution at first, her repeated success in earning the favor of every Prince she appealed to eroded her scruples fairly quickly. Soon her fame turned to infamy, and her abhorrent achievements put her behind bars.

Bonus art and comments after the break

Riding outfit since pants for the female character model are nearly nonexistent. Also trying to figure out her SI hairstyle a bit

So I didn't plan on having this one be a wall of text but whOOPs. I figure it's okay if I reserve these bigger bios for the main Hero of each TES game, but who knows

Decided to start with my Oblivion OCs because I feel like I don't use them as often? So this is sort of an exercise in fleshing them out (i say sort of because Elise's backstory was mostly fleshed out before this)

Anyways, fun fact! Elise actually started as an attempt to play as Kumatora from Mother 3. Eventually I decided to turn her into an OC and here we are. Thinking about it, that's like, a good chunk of my early TES OCs lol

#elder scrolls #oblivion #breton #my characters #long post #i'll find a better way to organize/tag these later for quick retrieval idk #my art

[discluded]

Hey, same anon that talked about BOC distancing themselves from the LGBTQ+ community. My post wasn't meant to dampen the excitement of them doing new projects with a broader audience. Just saying BOC is shitty for what they're doing. They drop the LGBTQ+ community once they want the eyes & money of homophobes. I hope MileApo's Chinese project is amazing af because they deserve it (& if BL related, it's censored as little as possible).

Thanks for clarifying! Yes, I'm just... tired of BOC right now. To me, I'm happy to throw them away with any other company that practices rainbow capitalism until it's time to stir up my ire again. My main anguish was the impression that BOC had a tight stranglehold on MileApo's potential future success by creating this ceiling with their own incompetence and we're finally free of that concern.

About whether or not it'll be BL and Chinese censorship:

First of all, I'm going to say: I'm excited either way. I don't want their work to be confined to romance, which it sounds like Man Suang will not, and while it will be lovely that queer couples are treated the same way as straight couples (In that they just sort of appear in series as leads and the primary plot is the focus while them having a relationship is background/secondary like Mabel's second season personal plot line in Only Murders), I do understand that's not the media capacity in China.

Either way, we do know they played brothers for the lolz once and it was... um, uncomfortably sexually charged.

That being said, lol this insane drama is gonna come out in China supposedly:

RIP to you if you watch, you might need brain bleach after. I'm not even sure how something like this going to pass censorship review but 😵 I guess we're see.

As far as I'm aware, I saw discussion within danmei fandom that there was potentially some loosening of the censorship rules because apparently capitalism rules all, but I can't seem to find anything about that lately so who knows. I actually saw that TGCF's drama supposedly passed censorship review last year, but it's been almost a year now and no updates.

Finally, a word about LGBTQ censorship by the CCP -- I know not everyone here lives in America or the west (thank God) but I often see comments on Tumblr and Twitter to the effect that people living under governments with human rights abuses share the same beliefs as the government. While there is definitely manipulation of public sentiment through propaganda, please remember that places with such restrictions on human rights hurt the people living in their country first and foremost. (And yes anon, I know that is not what you're saying! just my rant!!!)

The behavior of the government does not reflect the sentiment of individual citizens who live in China ( who don't get to choose their government at all lol )

Article from Feb 2022 about public outrage about the lesbian plotline in Friends being censored

A September–October 2016 survey by the Varkey Foundation found that 54% of 18–21-year-olds supported same-sex marriage in China.[124]

An online opinion poll from Phoenix Network in December 2019, which garnered close to 10 million votes, showed a 67% majority in favor of same-sex marriage in China.[46]

Again, I known anon this is not what you meant or said at all, but if I see anyone in fandom saying racist ass shit about Chinese people, I'm going to start publicly calling them out because fandom is my fun safe space and I don't need people to bring racism into my life 😊🔪

Finally, about what MileApo committed to: a full version can always air on iQiyi internationally while a sad cut version airs domestically (I think what happened with La Forte). Queer storytelling that circumvents censorship to tell the stories of queer people to a wider audience even if maybe not the full version isn't bowing to censorship - it's showing the resilience of LGBTQ people in spite of the attempts to quash out our light.

#be on cloud #censorship #chinese censorship

[askagamedev]

why is it so difficult to animate convincing interactions between two characters in a video game where they are making any kind of physical contact without using those motion capture suits with the balls on them and then going from there? it seems to end up looking awkward a lot of times, or you will end up with bugs where the models freak out and start bending in weird ways or one model will touch another model and send it hurtling across the screen.

It's a combination of two primary reasons. The first reason is because there's no physicality or collision inherent in video games. Animating physical action without being able to touch anything is like miming - believable miming is really quite difficult. The second reason is because we humans are intimately familiar with physical touching. We're going to notice any subconscious visual oddities, so it sets the bar of acceptability incredibly high.

When we render 3D models, there's nothing that can physically stop them from interpenetrating each other. The only way it works is when the program does the math to figure out whether the polygons actually penetrate at that moment, and too many of [those calculations can get really expensive]. For animations of two or more characters physically touching for longer than a single frame, we cannot depend on procedural collision detection. The animators have to make the characters to look right similar to making shadow puppets "physically" interact with each other with no real physicality. Try making two shadow puppets touch each other believably (e.g. have one punch another) and you'll see what I mean.

The other issue is that humans in general are extremely familiar with what touching things and people look like. We've seen it constantly for our entire lives. We've seen our own bodies touching things and we've seen other people touching things. We know how clothing is supposed to hang on peoples' bodies. We understand how skin deforms when pressed. We know which joints can bend in which direction. Anything that doesn't obey all of these little rules at all times will trigger alarm bells in the viewers' subconscious. You might not be able to explain exactly why, but the motions will seem awkward, stilted, and just... off somehow. This is a variation on the uncanny valley effect that we see quite often with CG in movies and television. We’re so used to seeing natural motion that small errors become magnified. Even if the image looks ok when frozen, it’s the motion that gives it away.

Using motion capture circumvents both of these problems to some extent because motion capture must take the physicality into account when capturing the animations and has the added benefit of being able to capture all of the motions involved with the action (including the small secondary and tertiary movements). It isn't a perfect fix - as the various off-putting CG that was built from motion capture can attest - but it can get us closer to our goal.

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#motion capture #animation #technical constraints #animation principles #how things work

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: SEGM

Published: Mar 10, 2024

Significant parallels between gender dysphoria and anorexia in teen girls calls for a nuanced and developmentally-informed approach

A new publication* in Sexuologie (the journal of the German Society for Sexual Medicine, Sexual Therapy and Sexual Science/DGSMTW) takes on the issue of the sharp rise in transgender identification in adolescent females, which remains poorly understood. The authors, Korte and Gille, present an intriguing hypothesis for this novel phenomenon, comparing and contrasting gender dysphoria to anorexia nervosa, and finding a number of important similarities. The authors conclude that clinicians working with gender-dysphoric adolescents must familiarize themselves with the complex dynamics of female adolescent development, and that trans-affirmative medical interventions should not be considered until adolescent development is complete.

With the Journal's permission, SEGM is posting the full English-language translation below, preceded by a brief synopsis and the SEGM take-away. 

Synopsis

“The development of a stable female identity in adolescence is highly complex, demanding, susceptible to disruption and accompanied by crises,” observe Korte and Gille. Female puberty presents serious challenges that every girl must find a way to navigate. Temporary crises during this stage are common as girls attempt to navigate their changing bodies and the ways families, peers, and society at large respond to these changes. The authors observe that successfully traversing this crucial phase of psychosocial and identity development requires “a high degree of willingness to change, flexibility and advanced emotional and self-regulation skills.”  

When an adolescent girl fails to negotiate these challenges successfully, serious disorders, including anorexia and gender dysphoria, may arise, with psychological conflicts projecting onto the body. Either disorder may serve as an “exit strategy” employed when a girl cannot find a way to accept her developing female body. However, the diagnosis of "gender dysphoria" can offer several societal advantages in the current cultural moment:

"... the trendy diagnosis of gender dysphoria or self-identification as trans offers two decisive advantages over anorexia and bulimia nervosa: first, in comparison to eating disorders, the projection surface for gender incongruence is more diverse, and the boundaries are not only sought, but crossed in a very concrete, not just symbolic way. Secondly, gender incongruence and “being trans” are currently extremely socially and politically legitimized and have been defined as a matter of human rights in recent years, which is also reflected in the planned “law of self-determination”. As a result, those affected experience strong external validation and positive reinforcement in their disorder – which, according to the proponents of a transaffirmative care, should no longer be described as such."

Korte and Gille note that “similar to anorexia, pubescent girls are offered another, albeit particularly drastic opportunity to avoid dealing with maturity-related changes and developmental tasks and to express their individual suffering in a form that is accepted in our time and culture.”

Drawing on their clinical work with such patients, Korte and Gille observe that trans identification in adolescent girls may reflect the desire to circumvent the challenges of female adolescence rather than a deep identification with maleness. They note that “although there is pronounced rejection of the female body and/or the female gender role," there is frequently no pronounced desire for the primary or even secondary physical characteristics of the opposite sex. The authors do not assert that there is a single cause for the rise of gender dysphoria in all adolescent females. Instead, they suggest multiple pathways for the development of trans identity in adolescents, with a few common etiologies:

Temporary adolescent maturation crisis (i.e., a result of failure in pubertal developmental tasks)

Non-conformity with gender role expectations ( i.e., the requirements, rules and norms of how girls/boys should behave in the respective culture)

Sexuality-related problems (e.g., internalized homophobia or sexual preference peculiarities especially in male adolescents);

Psychiatric conditions (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, trauma, personality disorder)

The authors note several similarities between anorexia and gender dysphoria. Both involve body image disorders where  aggression is "turned against one’s own self, inward, but also outward, against important others." The authors note:

"...in both anorexic eating disorders and gender identity disorders (gender dysphoria), relatives, especially parents, are exposed to strong feelings of helplessness and powerlessness in addition to the massive feelings of guilt and failure that often arise. In both disorders, this sometimes exacerbates the symptoms” of the … patient within a correspondingly pathological relationship dynamic."

Korte and Gille conclude by outlining concrete steps that pediatricians, child and adolescent psychiatrists, gynecologists, and other medical providers can take to help girls navigate puberty in a way that averts or mitigates these developmental crises. They caution clinicians that in the vast majority of cases of gender dysphoria arising around adolescence, it is likely temporary and represents a maturation crisis or insecurity of 'sexual, rather than gender identity." 

The authors criticize the "trans-affirmative" (gender-affirming) model of care for adolescents, which is focused on the provision of physical body modifications, as inconsistent with the principles of adolescent development. They highlight the importance of addressing adolescent gender dysphoria within a developmental framework, recognizing the complexity of adolescent experiences and the need for tailored interventions that address underlying conflicts and promote adaptive coping strategies.

SEGM Take-away

The German-language publication, translated in full below, is a brilliant and nuanced discussion of the topic of transgender identification in female adolescents. While the title “Elective Affinities” (or “Kindred by Choice”) may be confusing to English-speaking readers (the paper itself is eponymously titled Wahlverwandtschaften after a famous novel by Goethe), the authors' nuanced exploration of the complexities surrounding female adolescent development is clear even in translation. 

The authors examine the complexities surrounding female adolescent development, including brain maturation, identity formation, and the quest for resolution during a period of dramatic developmental challenges. They propose that both gender dysphoria and anorexia nervosa should be viewed in the context of these developmental changes and opine that both conditions represent attempts to cope with developmental conflicts related to identity formation, autonomy, body image, and societal expectations.

This, in turn, suggests that the current trans-affirmative approach to gender dysphoria in youth and the focus on irreversible physical body modifications obtained before maturity has been achieved is not only at odds with adolescent development, but also may constitute direct iatrogenic harm. Clinicians caring for this population should familiarize themselves with the complexities of female adolescent development and heed the author’s advice not to “hastily collude in their use of trans-identification template."

*Korte, A., & Gille, G. (2023). Wahlverwandtschaften? Trans-Identifizierung und Anorexia nervosa als maladaptive Lösungsversuche für Entwicklungskonflikte in der weiblichen Adoleszenz [Elective affinities? Trans-identification and anorexia nervosa as maladaptive attempts to resolve developmental conflicts in female adolescence]. Sexuologie / DGSMTW, 30 (3-4), 105–122. 

--

Full paper: https://segm.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/korte_gille_heft_2023-3-4_engl.pdf

==

Gender affirming care: If you say you're a boy instead of a girl, we believe you unequivocally and affirm your identity as a boy. Here's some hormones and we'll organize a double mastectomy.

Weight affirming care: If you say you're overweight instead of dangerously underweight, we believe you unequivocally and affirm your identity as an overweight person. Here's some diet pills and we'll organize lap band surgery.

#SEGM #Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine #gender dysphoria #anorexia #anorexia nervosa #gender affirming care #gender affirming healthcare #gender affirmation #weight affirming healthcare #weight affirming care #weight affirmation #medical scandal #trans identity #gender identity #gender ideology #gender identity ideology #queer theory #intersectional feminism #medical malpractice #medical corruption #religion is a mental illness

[fallenlondonreviewed]

The Pursuit of Moths

You come across a street-artist whose artworks depict chains and whose cloak is buzzing with frost-moths. You decide to investigate and join a small club dedicated to her art.  As you delve deeper into your investigation, you learn more about this troubled soul, discover that nobody is who they say they are, and ultimately have to decide who to support when time is running out.

My Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Community Rating: ★★★☆☆ (Community Survey January 2023) A tragedy hidden behind lighthearted writing, which is sadly over way too soon. Main Focus: Judgements, Snuffers, Sunless Skies Secondary Focus: Liberation of Night

Spoiler Free

Opening

While strolling down a road, you see a young woman in a black coat finishing her art-instalment. Something with chains, correspondence symbols, melting faces and a seven-pointed star. Before you can ask, the artist flees up a drainpipe. You are left with just a torn-off piece of her cloak when the men of the ministry already arrive to defuse this incendiary instalment.

Later, you find a letter in your mailbox: The Society in Pursuit of Moths wants to hear your first-hand account of this newest instalment of their favourite artist.

As far as openings go, this is another one that happens by chance and is therefore suitable for all characters. Especially characters interested in the Liberation of Night might want to check this one out. During the course of the story, you’re never forced to break the law, but you will cause or witness some death. It ties into Sunless Skies a lot – not to the point where you can’t follow if you haven’t played SS, but one will feel a little bit clever if they understand the references.

Review

If I had to assign one word to “The Pursuit of Moths,” it would be ‘tragedy.’ It has a rather light-hearted tone and loves to joke around with its writing, but underneath it’s a deeply tragic story. In fact, the longer I’ve been away from the screen and the more I processed the implications, the sadder the entire story got. It is the opening story in the seasons of adoration, but this story is about a kind of love that only the Masters and the Bazaar will find romantic. It is self-destructive, unrequited love that will end in death.

At its centre is the Vandal – a character we rarely interact with, but that one cannot help but feel compassion for. She is deeply troubled, firm in her decisions and with that, doomed from the start.

The other characters we interact with are less tragic, but interesting in their own right. Over the course of the story, we get to know them – and through them the Vandal – a bit. All of them offer a very unique insight into the workings of the Neath.

Which is one of the biggest draws of this ES: The lore. While not on the forefront, the Liberation of Night vs. the Judgements play a huge part in the characters’ motivations. We can even get to see the Judgments working their powers right in front of our eyes. Additionally, we learn a bit about snuffers in London, including some interesting conclusions as to their biology.

In the end, the best we can get is a bittersweet ending, and by a long stretch of the word. The other options leave a feeling of powerlessness and disappointment in oneself, down to feeling outright sick. The biggest point of critique this ES received is about how there is no way to circumvent the death of certain characters and that, to add insult to injury, the text doesn’t make it clear how severe the outcome of a set of very pivotal actions is. (My cryptic clue: Go to the docks alone.)

From a roleplay perspective, it’s a mixed bag. At the climax, you have to make a few decisions that are really challenging to both the player and to the character. However, the ES doesn’t really offer a broad spectrum of solutions. It’s one of those where you have to decide on one character’s approach instead of offering one yourself. Therefore, to some the ending might feel like it was forced upon them. Otherwise the ES offers next to no branches where your decisions matter. Most cards move the story along its path. In my opinion, this story would have been better off as a non-interactive short-story instead of a roleplay experience.

However, my personal gripe with this ES is its shortness. Many revelations feel earned too easily. In retrospect, some of the events in this story read more like a summary instead of my character actually discovering them. That is not to say that the writing is bad -- the writing and tone are on point. I just wished there would have been more checks and interrogations before characters readily spill their secrets onto me.

All in all, I have to give this ES ★★☆☆☆ two stars. It is a very good and touching story with some awesome implications, but it doesn’t deliver on the 14€ it set me back. For half the price, this would have been four stars. But as it stands, it’s simply too short to warrant this price-tag.

Additional Thoughts (Full Spoilers)

I was lucky to have been in a good spot mentally when I played this. This could easily be read as a depressed person who has convinced themselves that suicide is the only right thing to do, and the narrative paints their self-destruction as a tragic, unpreventable twist of fate. As a suicide survivor myself, I find stories like these absolutely insulting. It takes away my player agency, and the mentally ill person’s agency as well.

And yes, not everyone can be saved. But to make me stand by and watch is just another twist of the knife.

This makes it sound like I disliked this ES way more than I did. I actually didn’t mind the Vandal’s suicide and its romantization too much. In a weird sense, the ES offering so little agency to the player made it feel less personal. This story really would have made for a great short story about flawed characters who try, but in the end fail – to stop the Vandal, to connect with her, or, in the Vandal’s case, to accept herself. And throughout the entire play, I felt very much like reading a book, or watching a movie – with no agency to influence the plot. And this passive sort of consumption makes reading about a tragedy much easier than standing by and failing to prevent it.

As far as suicide representation in books and movies goes, this ES did a terrible job, but I guess it was never meant to do a good one. It was written to be a tragedy, and the Vandal was written as this tragic manic pixie dream girl whose only job is to invoke a sense of sadness in the reader, not to show how debilitating the process was that she went through to come to this point in her life. The ES frames her suicide as a victory, like her three steps in the sun make up for her lifetime of suffering. The impact her action has on her surroundings are minimal – her father’s despair is only mentioned in a half-sentence between two comedic bits.

It is bad suicide representation – it is, however, good drama.

And that’s really the crux here, isn’t it? As someone who has gone through this (and has been successfully talked out of it), stories like these will read a lot different than they will for people who have never had any contact with it.

… at least the story acknowledged the animal cruelty that was going on and didn’t just use the moths as romantic decal…

Now, away with the media analysis side and into the thicket of the Neath itself.

It’s a rare thing to see a worshipper of the Judgements. And a Neath-born and a (half-)snuffer as well. For her to have figured out all the things about the Judgements, the stars etc. without ever being to the surface is a tremendous feat. She clearly had a very avid mind, and it did her no good in the end.

I really love how the ES handles her characterisation. Since we rarely interact with her herself, most is done via other people sharing little glimpses of her backstory, and it’s up to us to connect the dots and to see why she is so troubled. And yes, being a half-snuffer in London must be hard, especially when you were raised by humans. (But also, I never knew snuffers can produce offspring with humans and now I’m thinking about biology in ways I never expected to.)

What I didn’t quite understand was her moth-coat. The way I read it was that she was torturing these moths because to her, they were abominations just like her and only deserved pain. But then why did the one moth fly back to her? Are all Frost-Moths self-deprecating creatures? Why didn’t she kill the moths, but instead tucked her to her coat?

Anyway, I was positively surprised about the option to tell her that she doesn’t get to take the moths with her. It felt like the only decision that we, the players, could make that was actually our own (that and tipping the relicker.) Before, the ES seemingly ignored the blatant animal abuse that was going on. Whenever my character tried to catch and subdue her, it was because he wanted to get that damn coat off of her and set the moths free! Not for some public decency or admiration or curiosity reasons or whatever the game offered.

That and the moral dilemma this ES created in probably a lot of players. I’m pretty sure every player sympathises with one of the club-members. Either because they’re a revolutionary themselves, or because the father’s story is really moving, or because the constable is a hot piece of ass. But in the end, all of them don’t want what’s best for the Vandal, who is clearly the emotional centrepiece of the story. So almost every character will have asked themselves at one point ‘For the Cause? Or for the Vandal?’

Also, big kudos for the Conspirator casually revealing some of the day-to-day inner workings in the Liberation of Night. Usually I get that only from the Revolutionary Firebrand when married.

Other than that, all my points from above still stand: The club members give up their identities way too easily, the choices in the fight between the Vandal and the Scoundrel are unclear and the story is simply too short as a whole.

Oh, and I’m so glad I didn’t get the ending where the Collector showed me her ‘collection’ because then I’d probably rate this ES with one star. That was so ghoulish, and a bit out of tone with the rest of the story. And in quite the same fashion as the entire ES, we can’t to anything about her.

It almost makes me gloss over the fact that my character, fresh off the slow boat, took a ship up the Cumaean Canal and didn’t disintegrate on the spot.

I scoured the forum thread, however, and a lot of people expressed that they really enjoyed this ES. They enjoyed the gravity that the ending choices had, the moral dilemma about one’s loyalties and many pointed out that the characters were very lovable and memorable in their own ways.

Sigh… I really enjoyed playing this ES. I really did. It was aesthetics over implications, and the aesthetics were really wonderful. One shouldn’t think too much about it, however.

Credits for “The Pursuit of Moths” Writing: Harry Tuffs Editing and QA: James Chew and Caolain Porter Art: Paul Arendt

Link to the FL Forums

#fallen london #exceptional story spoilers #The Pursuit of Moths #failbetter games #exceptional story

[patricia-von-arundel]

Okay, here's the thing -

One of the arguments trotted out about people who are trans is that their genitalia may not match their "outward appearance."

(Though honestly, who cares? Does a "masculine" woman get a pass simply for not having a penis? Or a "feminine" man for not having a menstrual cycle? Do we draw the line only at whether you have innie bits or outtie bits??? Because my belly button would like a word, if so.)

Let's talk a little more about that - the genitalia thing.

First of all, one of the "gotcha" arguments is that if you are a gay man, you wouldn't have sex with someone with a vagina, and if you are a lesbian woman, you wouldn't have sex with someone with a penis. Let's keep it simple as that, for the moment, though I realize there are shades of bi, pan, etc., in as many colors as a pride flag. So - simple.

But even there... is it?

It's rarely referenced as dating someone with certain genitalia. Only sex.

But not every relationship, even romantic ones, is sexual. For all sorts of reasons. People may be ace, may have pain during "traditional" intercourse (PinV intercourse), may have trauma related to sex, damage to or development of genitalia such that it isn't possible to have "traditional" sex, may be celibate for their own reasons, or any other reason. Can someone not date, even if sex is out of the picture?

Of course they can.

And here's where the dating-vs-sex thing really comes into play. Those who insist genitalia must be both "normal" and used for sex to qualify as male or female clearly believe "relationship" is defined by "sex."

But it isn't.

And that's something that has to be factored in in using genitalia and sex as defining what is a man or a woman. Especially considering there are conditions where chromosomes don't match up with physical and sexual development. Individuals may have the XY chromosomes generally seen in those with male development and genitalia - but have some or all female genitalia development (aside from the uterus) and secondary sex characteristics (such as breasts). On the other hand, there may also be an individual with XXY chromosomes, and they develop with male genitalia, but few secondary male sex characteristics (such as increased body hair). In either case, individuals are often sterile (though genetic research is slowly finding ways to circumvent this), but regardless, develop female sex organs, male sex organs, or some combination (and there is some debate about including these conditions as being intersex, but I'm not informed enough to speak on whether I would agree with that or not - and regardless, it is irrelevant to my current focus).

Okay - so there are situations where a woman (with female genitalia and secondary sex characteristics) is XY, and situations where a man (where male genitalia and some secondary sex characteristics) is XXY.

So to loop back around, we already have situations where chromosomes don't match the development of sex organs. Already well on the way to having to rethink genitalia = gender. Let's then consider genitalia = sex = relationship.

I'll offer my own preferences as an example: I am physically and sexually attracted to women. If I were to seek a sexual relationship with a woman, would I consider penetrative sex if they have a penis?

Probably not.

But - would I consider having a non-sexual or non-penetrative romantic relationship with a woman who has a penis?

Absolutely!

And here's the thing: if there was someone I was very into as a romantic partner, would I be averse to that if they were 100% asexual and not interested in any sex?

Nope.

Love and relationships are built around partnership. Having a penis (or vagina) isn't what I would immediately discount in looking for that. By the same token, I'd be fine on the other side, if I found myself attracted to and compatible with someone asexual and sex-averse. Sex is not the central part of a relationship, for me, and it isn't intrinsically for anyone else! Again, this is partnership, and partnership is two (or more) people coming to a mutually-agreeable consensus about what each requires in a relationship. That can include sex, too, of course - someone is not a bad person because they do feel there has to be a sexual element to a relationship, just as they aren't a bad person if they never want to engage in any sexual behavior at all. Both are fine! And a healthy relationship is built around compatibility, open communication, and healthy boundaries.

So again - I would not personally want a sexual relationship with a woman with a penis, but that doesn't mean any person in a lesbian (or bi, or pan, or poly, etc.) relationship would share the same preference. There are probably lesbian, bi, etc., women who want penetration, and wouldn't mind or even prefer a penis. Strap-ons exist for a reason! 🤷‍♀️ And it's much the same as wanting a BDSM relationship, an open relationship, etc. - your preferences and theirs need to be considered and a decision reached if the relationship is to remain healthy and happy. Having preferences does not make a person good or bad, nor does it mean anything is wrong with their own comfort zones. Just as you shouldn't have a sexual relationship with someone who wants an open relationship if you would prefer to be 100% monogamous, it's fine to prefer to date a woman with/without a penis (or a man with/without a vagina). And, again, a romantic relationship doesn't have to be sexual at all! Nor does a committed relationship have to be romantic, but that's beyond the scope of this discussion.

The scope, in the end, is this: chromosomes and/or genitalia don't 100% define what makes a man/woman, any more than being into bondage 100% defines BDSM.

There are plenty of people who would prefer a woman with a penis or a man with a vagina, plenty of people who have a preference but not one so strong they can't try to find ways to work around it that are mutually enjoyable for both parties, and plenty of people who do not want a penis or vagina even if they would prefer a sexual relationship. Point being, relationships, like chromosomes, are something that should be considered and agreed upon by both (or all) in the relationship.

Scientifically, intersex people, genetically male people with female genitalia, and genetically female people with male genitalia, all exist. I don't care how you feel about those who are trans or GNC, that is scientific fact based around our current understanding of sex chromosomes.

Saying you prefer not to date a woman with a penis does not mean women cannot have penises. Saying you prefer not to date a man with a vagina does not mean men cannot have vaginas. Some people prefer those taller than them - it doesn't mean, if you prefer tall men, that short men do not exist. And it doesn't mean you can't adjust your preferences or comfort levels based on other aspects of the relationship. There are some who are asexual and sex-repulsed, some who are neutral on sex if a partner wants it, and some enjoy sex even without initial sexual attraction. If these things aren't difficult to understand, and find examples of in your own relationships, why is the line drawn at genitalia as defining gender?

It shouldn't be.

Hi - I prefer women who do not have penises. I would not be in a penetrative sexual relationship with a woman with a penis. Were I in such a relationship, we'd need to discuss how we can either find mutually-agreeable sexual alternatives, or end the relationship as friends who realized their respect for one another means a romantic, sexual partnership where each has different needs is not going to work out, but neither has done something wrong.

Regardless, I still think women can have a penis. Trans women are women, whether they have surgery to change their genitalia or not. Trans men are men. And for all those who shriek about science as justification for their transphobia - check above. Science says women can be XY and men can be XXY.

A relationship is not inherently centered around sex and genitalia. Neither is gender.

Deal with it.

And if you start giving me bullshit in the tags, especially transphobic bullshit, I'm just going to chase you off my blog with an axe. 🤷‍♀️

[level1colorcorrections]

So I had a client today and I think it would be a good idea to explain what I did and ponder what I could have done differently. It was a blonde retouch with maybe 1 and a quarter inch of regrowth.

I used blondor lightener with 20 volume developer and started off with applying on the entire regrowth. As you might surmise, the first half inch was lifting more. So I applied more bleach to the dark banding and sandwiched some foil between the subsections for insulation. However, the new bleach ended up extending over the demarcation line, which thankfully didn’t cause breakage but made a band of white.

After I lifted the regrowth to the best I could get it, I washed the bleach out and towel dried the hair. I used color touch with 13 volume emulsion equal parts 8/81 + 10/81 and applied from scalp to white band. After 10 minutes I decided it wasn’t doing it for me and decided to blot the excess off and applied 2 new formulas (still CT 13vol) on top of it: 9/73 and 8/81, to target the white band and the dark band respectively. I left that on for 20 minutes.

After giving the client a shampoo and blow dry, the final product was okay enough to let her leave the salon, but i was unsatisfied. The banding was still there and the toner wasn’t strong enough to match the rest of the hair, which was fairly ashy. Though I mean, since I’m still a student I’m going to give myself a little slack, and after all I never felt lost enough throughout the service to run to the instructor to save me (also, the current instructor isn’t specialized in color, so I feel like their advice isn’t very helpful and we’re ultimately in the same boat)

But if I could do it over again I think I’d start from the get go with a platinum card. I’d leave a 3/8 inch margin at the scalp, and then go back to it once the rest lifted to a medium yellow. This would circumvent the bandings. After that, I’d rough dry the hair to at least 50% dry and tone with 7/86. By having the hair drier, lowering the toner level, and having violet as the secondary tone, it would make the toning give a stronger result.

[cast-in-copper]

Thoughts, guesses and Ideas on the ancient breeds yet to come:

Nature Ancient: on the world map, it mentions that Nature clans are shamanic and weve the nature around them. Wildclaws are very much not that, but perhaps the ancient breed was. The Gladekeeper created one breed to care for the forest, and another to defend it/be wild creatures hunting around in it. As for appearance, I’m guessing either a bulky dinosaur-like dragon with plants on its back instead of wings similar to the gladekeeper herself, or a small Dino-bird like creature with feathered wing arms and a beak for weaving plants. (Or both it’s arms and legs could be wings like an archaeopteryx!) Another route they could go with is crazy wild primate or leopard like creature hidden in the shrieking wilds, or something like a bird of paradise with heavy sexual dimorphism and bright garish colors. This last idea could also be combined with the Dino-Bird one.

Light Ancient: it’s stated in the encyclopedia that the Imperials were the Lightweaver’s first children. This seems unlikely to be retconned, so I’ll try to work with it. I could see a species like the knowledge seekers from Avatar, one that exists to gather information and bring it back to the Lightweaver. I could also see a breed that was created at the same time as, or shortly after the imperials, they might be a healer class, to help deal with dead imperials, perhaps a breed who became jealous/afraid of the imperials and hid underground, a breed that has been asleep for a long time that the emperor trampling around inadvertently digs up, ex. As for appearance, it’s gotta be either very beautiful and elegant or small and kinda weak, with big’ol’ eyes. It also definitely has the brightshine gene.

Wind Ancient: perhaps a breed that never stops flying, and has been up in the clouds for forever, or going on a long journey to circumvent the globe. it’s ether got disproportionately large wings, numerous wings, or no real wings, instead having a mane and/or wings made of vapors like the windsinger does.

Earth Ancient: This is the breed I think is most likely to not have wings at all, instead having some other structure to serve as the main expression of the secondary gene. A heavy beard or mane, a large dorsal fin, piles of colorful stones on their backs, ex. Although it’s pretty likely they will still get wings anyway. I can see this breed being something that was buried long ago, perhaps in the Carinstone Rest to care for the dead. Or their breed was all dead but they are revived through some magic and when they rise they have bones heavily incorporated into the design, and they are where the secondary genes are expressed. Or perhaps they all live on that weird island between earth and nature.

Unaligned Ancient: I’d like to see another unaligned breed, but i have very few ideas for it as there’s basically nothing to go off. Something aligned with the beast clans is a possibility, as is something that came from the surrounding ocean, or a tiny spec of unclaimed land. For appearance, I’m imagining something gator-like, or even cooler would be something horse like, a Kirin with wings. I guarantee all the horse girls will love it.

#flight rising #mine #my #flight rising ancient #flight rising nature ancient #flight rising light ancient #flight rising Wind ancient #flight rising earth ancient #flight rising unaligned #flight rising breeds

[reds-burrow]

First of all, thanks for your answer to my last question! I've started watching The Good Place for very important research purposes.

An open question for you & the SHC community at large - if you had to assign a theme song to each sorting, what would you choose?

This is such a fun ask that I'm going to go ahead and post it (even though I don't have much of an answer for you right now) so that others can answer.

I expect songs that express Secondaries are less common than songs that only focus on a Primary. Most of the songs I can think of at the moment that include Secondary lyrics are songs from musicals, where there is a story attached with some plot puzzle or obstacle that needs to be addressed. (The second half of "Wait for It" from Hamilton is a Circumventing Secondary watching a Straightforward Secondary with envy. "Master of the House" from Les Mis describes a stereotype of a Snake Secondary cheat/toady. The beginning of "Dancing Through Life" from Wicked is a Improvising Secondary, likely a more even take on a Snake. "Almost There" from The Princess and the Frog is a Badger Secondary song.) Then again, there are a fair amount of Lion Secondary songs outside of musicals since breaking down walls to be true to yourself is a beloved song theme ("It's My Life" by Bon Jovi is one of many).

Otherwise there are plenty of Badger Primary songs about wanting to belong or about showing love to your fellow human being (Jason Mraz's "Look for the Good" is a personal favorite). And there are lots of Lion Primary songs about believing in yourself and letting your heart guide you ("Wild I Am" by Vocal Few always makes me think of Lions, possibly even a Double Lion, for obvious reasons), just as there are plenty of Snake Primary songs about doing anything for the ones you love (Is "Anything for You" by Ludo too on the nose?). Bird Primary songs are the ones that question the meaning of things or are advice songs that list out rules to live by ("Humble and Kind" by Tim McGraw jumps to mind).

Anyway, as someone who is awful at remembering lyrics, I'm not the best person to answer this. So y'all please share your thoughts! I'm eager to hear what others come up with.

#good choice watching The Good Place #it's one of only three shows I've found with all four Doubles in the main cast so far #also it's a great show #sortinghatchats #sorting hat chats #ask response