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chocottang · 1 year

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Inoki: The gendered parallel between Joy and Golden

I've been thinking about the whole "genderbending Golden in canon" situation, and ended up wondering why many of us were against it. Besides obvious points like the agressive cisnormative, lack of a reason and general aversation to change, I think it's because Golden's gender (or at least the one he was assigned at birth) does play a role in his story. We can see this in the song "Inoki", through the comparison between Golden and Joy.

Let's start with the song's meaning and it's place in the series. The song happens when Joy meets Golden after he ran away from home. She tells Golden that she's proud of him and that she knew he wasn't an inoki, and he asks what that is. The song is Joy explaining Golden what "inoki" means. The whole thing is in the second singular person, when she says "you" she is talking directly to the listener and to Golden. At one point he even appears and Joy sings to him, and also tells him "we won't be inokis anymore". It's pretty obvious the song is about them both, even if it features Joy more.

According to the song, an inoki is someone who acts as expected by society. Someone who does and is everything people tell them to do and be, regardless of how they actually are and what they really want. But the most important part is not in the lyrics, but in the visuals. They tell us Joy's backstory, which is heavily gendered.

Throughout the song, Joy appears in plenty of formal monochrome outfits, while she has an extremely bored face. There is a direct comparison between one of her "boring" outfits and one she seems to actually like.

And when we add this frame, of Joy being forced to do housework, her story becomes pretty clear...

Since her teenage years, Joy's mother forced her to start acting "like a lady". She had to do housework, and was forced to wear formal clothes she found boring. Her mom was trying to make her into a "proper" girl, who would grow up to be a housewife with an unassuming style, someone who wouldn't stand out. She obviously doesn't like this. She wants to stand out; she likes to be colorful, she is unapologetically femenine, she wants to have a career as a musician. She doesn't want to be a "respectable lady" and a housewife, she just wants to be herself. She won't let her mother control her anymore, she won't be an inoki anymore.

Here is where the parallel with Golden lies. He, too, just wants to be himself, but is forced by his grandpa to fill the mold of "The Golden Boy". He forced him to work and have a career from a young age, even when he didn't want to and it damaged his mental health. Now that Golden has ran away and has started doing what he wants, he has stopped being an inoki too. But, why would this be gendered? He was made to work in order to make money for his grandpa, right? What does that have to do with gender? it's not necessarily gendered, but if it's not, if Golden is a girl, then Joy's story doesn't make sense.

Why would the family make a female Golden (or, well, Golondrina, I guess) have a career, but not Joy? She is just one year younger than her, having two idols would make them much more money. We could say it's because they have different guardians, Golondrina living with her grandpa and Joy with her mom. But, it's difficult for me to believe their family wouldn't cooperate in something like this. They are clearly at least a little close, the cousins go to the same school! they must live close, too. In the episode where the song is featured (ep.3 s.2) Joy even mentions that their grandpa is worried, they're in constant communication.

We could also say it's because Joy's mom doesn't support of Golden having a job, but she doesn't seem that pressed about it. She was never shown to try and stop it from happening, or even criticize it. In addition, Golden didn't go to his aunt's house when he ran away, and was surprised Joy supported his decision. I think Joy's mom doesn't mind Golden's job, and he didn't go to her house because he knew she would send him right back with his grandpa. He probably thought Joy had the same mindset. So, if Golondrina was a singer, and Joy's mom was okay with that, why would she not be ok with grandpa giving Joy a career?

Because of their gender. Joy can't have a career, because she's a girl. Golden must have one, even as a kid, because he's a boy. Golden's gender was the excuse they had to make him work. Through Joy, we've seen they have a traditional view on gender roles, which include the idea that men should work, they should be the providers. In order to justify Golden's exploitation, they weaponized his gender. Just like Joy was made to do housework and dress a certain way in order to grow up to be a "proper" woman, Golden was made to work in order to grow up to be a "proper" man. What other reason could they give him to justify forcing him to work even if he skips school, can't maintain friendships, is exhausted, and his family already has an industry and more than enough money? What else could they say to him? The only thing I can think of is that he "needed to learn". His grandpa won't be around forever, and the only other family member we know of is his aunt, who can't teach him how to be a man, Golden has to learn as soon as possible. That's the excuse they had.

At first glance, Golden's gender doesn't seem like an important thing, but when we compare his experience to Joy's, when we follow through the parallel Inoki paves, we see that it was an implicit tool for his abuse. If we try to genderbend one of them, this comparison falls apart. It wouldn't make sense for their family to treat them so differently if they're the same gender.

#fnafhs #fhs #golden fnafhs #joy fnafhs #fhsz3r0 #i hope this is understandable and not all over the place lol #not super proud of this one but it plagued my mind for like a month i needed to put it out into the world #mine

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watermelinoe · 2 years

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1/2 Sorry for dumping this here, I’m currently crypto. As a gender crit fandom goer, I love fanfic but ao3’s genderland is depressing. I used to morbidly dip into reading ABO when I was younger, and it took a while for me to see that it’s just reinventing heterosexuality and sexism. What bothers me most is how it’s a sign that women DO want to talk about reproductive rights and issues surrounding pregnancy and raising children, but they’re so steeped in shame that they can’t even do that AS women. Instead, they have to invent an entire universe where men can be pregnant in order to justify it, even though genderbending the male protagonist to be female would be much simpler. They do not see female characters as fully human, or maybe it’s just too painful to confront the reality of female oppression without cloaking it in something else. The crazy thing is, if you asked any one of these women why male omegas are oppressed, they’d be able to tell you it’s because of the omega’s ability to give birth. And yet they can’t make the connection that real women are oppressed for the same reason. It’s so crazy that all their trans logic completely vanishes in ABO fic. Omegas aren’t told they’re bigots for being afraid of alphas and wanting to avoid them and have omega-only spaces, because omegas get raped and harassed by alphas all the time, and it’s recognized as a pattern. I’ve read fics where omegas take scent-blockers in order to pass as a beta or an alpha, and they NEVER do it because they internally identify as beta or alpha, they do it because they know that they’d be mistreated and stereotyped if anyone knew their true identity as an omega. Alphas hold all the wealth and power in society and are known to turn into violent, mindless beasts due to their sexual urges. You never see ABO fic in which alphas try to transition into omegas and claim oppression. I wonder why? Is it because their biology is immutable and such a thing would be fucked up and wrong? Change alpha to man and omega to woman and most ABO becomes basic TERF rhetoric. I wonder sometimes if mpreg fic is the only way to get through to these people. The ironic part is how most of the women who write mpreg and ABO are gendies. The same women who mock all the straight girls writing hetfic on ffnet, while touting ao3 as some kind of “queer haven”. But almost never do you see fic about alpha/alpha or omega/omega love stories. Overwhelmingly, it’s all alpha/omega with the omega as the self-insert. Hetfic with extra steps. It’s insane to witness. The unashamed straight girls who happily write pure hetfic or genderbend hetfic are braver than any gendie could hope to be, and the scorn they receive from TIFs is pure projection. Homosexuality isn’t some kind of curio. Gays can be both interesting and boring just like straights can be both interesting and boring. I think the main problem is that TIFs are ashamed of being straight women, and they use fic to fulfill their attraction to men while also escaping from how disappointing real men are. Don’t get me wrong, I think turning to writing as an escape from disappointment is a fairly healthy coping mechanism. But problems start when their writing becomes all porn and zero literature, and they become unable to maintain boundaries between fantasy and reality. But it also frustrates me when some radfems see this phenomenon and say that all fic is toxic and needs to go. Because I still believe that fic, even bad fic, is one of the purest distillations of female passion and creativity there is. There exists no male equivalent.

2/2 When most men like a show, they usually finish it and then move on to consume the next, or make one brief reddit post about it, or retweet some pornified fanart of a female character. The few REALLY passionate men might make one monetized youtube video praising the show, or create the pornified fanart themselves. But NEVER do you see men flocking together to post daily essays examining the psyche of a single character, or writing novel-length stories about someone else’s fictional characters and sharing them for free. Women OWN passion, because they consume stories in order to create more, and create stories without reward. Men just consume, and create only when reward is guaranteed. I get radfems being anti porn on camera because it exploits real women who are forced into sex for men’s profit, but I personally don’t think written porn about fictional characters is exploitive. No money is made with fic, no real person is raped; fic porn is made by women for women, and women depict men in fic far better than men deserve. I trust women to create weird gore/smut fic and art and still be decent people, or at least non-violent. Japanese women make some insanely kinky fanart, but I know they’re not out there raping anyone or being creepy in public. If fandom were truly grounds for exploitation, if you could reliably use fic to trick people into changing their morals, men would be getting in on the action too, but they’re not. Fandom is still a female-majority space and most men want nothing to do with it. I’ve certainly read fic that I thought was disturbing and disgusting, but I have the ability to click away, so I’d never argue that fic that bothers me personally shouldn’t have the right to exist. Because the moment I try to censor what someone else is allowed to write, they gain the right to censor me too. There is no single authority who can be trusted to decide what can and can’t be said without important voices getting silenced in the process, because everyone has personal biases. The whole “words are violence” narrative and censorship of gender critical voices is how trans ideology continues to reign. You can’t wake people up if you aren’t even allowed to speak. It might be an unpopular opinion, but I believe that any attempt to censor language will always escalate and come back to silence you someday, so I’d much rather everyone have the right to write whatever disgusting drivel they want as long as I get to say my piece too. No tyrannical regime has ever gotten off the ground without first silencing the opposition. Truth can only be found when everyone is allowed to speak freely, even the people you disagree with, so that everyone can make informed choices. Censoring people doesn’t change their internal beliefs, it only makes them lie about their beliefs in order to be liked. And I’d much rather people be open about their beliefs than me hazard a guess and feel betrayed later when their real beliefs come out. At the end of the day, I care most about material harm to real people and free speech. As long as fans mind their own business and don’t force their opinions or fantasies on anyone else, let them create what they want. Blacklist, block, disengage, put up the boundaries you need. Fandom was much more fun when most of us agreed upon these rules and being gender crit was the norm, but no one has self-possession anymore.

i know this took me forever to answer but there's really a lot here!! and i wanna divide your thoughts into three main big ideas to respond to, the first being, in your words: "they do not see female characters as fully human, or maybe it’s just too painful to confront the reality of female oppression without cloaking it in something else."

this is exactly it. i was in fandom spaces for a long time, i've been reading fanfic since i was in middle school, i've checked out a/b/o stuff and some of it, believe it or not, is actually well-written and surprisingly insightful about sex classes - the issue being that the authors substitute male characters. although not all a/b/o fic also has mpreg, i guess it would be called a/b/o-lite? i personally didn't read mpreg, i thought it was off-putting even during a time when i was trying despite my reservations to be open-minded and accepting of whatever someone wanted to write, but the appeal of a/b/o is basically as you said. whether they acknowledge it openly or not, women and girls are very aware of sex-based oppression.

m/m is already appealing to women, of all sexualities, for various reasons. it can be fetishistic of ssa men, absolutely. but, on the other hand, male characters are allowed to be fully human. m/m lets women explore relationships where both parties are allowed to be complete human beings. the cloak you mentioned can be worn in different ways by different women. for a time, without getting too into details, i couldn't read erotica with any women involved because it was too real to me; i didn't want to think of myself in a sexual context at all. so i liked m/m because i could disassociate from my own body. but tbh there's lots of reasons why women would want to see themselves in male characters. it's also a way to explore a same-sex relationship without misogyny. any woman who likes femslash can tell you... it is slim pickings out there. hope you like two feminine women and no real plotline. and bc anime men are basically women anyway, m/m is like, a poor woman's f/f.

a/b/o goes a step further, and what it shows us is that women do want to talk about sex-based oppression... in a vacuum. we don't want it to be happening to us, but wouldn't it be fucked up if there was a hierarchy of sex classes where men could be oppressed? and, with mpreg, what if men could be exploited for their reproduction? because men are fully human, and women want to be fully human, therefore we want to see ourselves in men. it's actually fascinating. i just wish women were self-aware about it, because it's this accidentally brilliant analogy of sex-based oppression and gender roles, and instead they're up to their noses in genderist bullshit :(

moving on to your second main idea: "because I still believe that fic, even bad fic, is one of the purest distillations of female passion and creativity there is. there is no male equivalent."

it's maybe not as popular of an opinion on radblr, but i completely agree. i am a staunch fanfic defender. i've seen women take these mainstream, impotent and unsatisfying male narratives (cough soul eater, rurouni kenshin) and write some of the most compelling character pieces i've ever read. women understand characters and storylines better than the original creators. it used to be believed that women lacked the capacity for artistic creation - at best, women could do portraiture and still life, but lacked the greater imagination required for high, inventive art. i would argue that the opposite is true. as you said, men only consume.

as for the last main takeaway, i don't think i can completely agree with you about censorship, but i don't think it's a black-and-white topic either. i really don't have a problem with women writing erotica for other women, i would not compare it to porn, there are no real people being exploited. i also think women fall into kink for different reasons than men, and don't have the same relationship to it that men do. i believe women can be trusted much more with disturbing content, whereas men lack the capacity to separate fiction from reality. they just don't process it as deeply.

but i think fiction can still cause harm, and that we have a responsibility to mitigate that harm. i just don't know what the exact answer is. jaws is one of my favorite movies, and it also caused a public panic that led to sharks being culled en masse, even though nothing in the movie indicated that sharks in real life are a real danger to people and need to be exterminated. are the movie creators responsible for how people responded to the film? i can't agree with that. just like i don't think nabokov is responsible for what pedophiles did to lolita. just because something is depicted in fiction doesn't mean it's endorsed by the author. but authors can still be irresponsible and create harmful content, some of it to the extent that it really shouldn't have been published, from a moral standpoint. but what do we do about it?

i agree that there's currently a problem with censorship based on moral grounds, because who decides morality? gender critical women are deplatformed for "hate speech" as decided by male supremacists and their handmaidens. it can be called hate speech to criticize your oppressors if your oppressors are the authority figures. you're right that there's no single authority that could ever be trusted to decide what we should be allowed to say and create. but on an individual scale, women are capable of making harmful and irresponsible content, and my problem with that isn't so much that she made it, but that it's so accessible and readily perpetuates itself, and maybe she made it "to cope" or whatever but then it should've stayed on her hard drive. but what kind of hard policy do you implement that doesn't stifle other creative women? i don't have a good answer. because i want women to keep creating, even if it's cringe, even if it's bad.

#answered #long post #now u see why it took so long lol i wanted to give an in-depth response as somewhat of a fandom veteran #but not a fandom mom. ergh

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tsumuri-apologist · 2 years

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Hello there can you do Fem Fumus x Fem Seraph Reader with Fumus being, well Fumus. I just need more genderbend characters

hey I'm really sorry for the very long wait.. it's been a hard time for me.

I hope u like it, tried my best.

CW: abuse/violence

Fem! Fumus x Seraph Fem Reader

You were one of Fumus subordinates, her lastest creation.

When you first opened your eyes she was standing besides you, a smirk peeking her lips. You smiled back, little you knew about your new life.

As soon as she closed the door, you entered the hells of this heaven.

Fumus had other toys, but whenever she gets bored of the others, she would play with a new one for a while. That means no break for your fragile body.

Your young mind didn't understand what were the reasons behind your creator tearing your skin, but eventually you learned to obey the Goddess.

Whenever you could, you started spending some time with the fellow angels that were also there. Taffy being the one you were closest to.

You learned that she used to be Fumus favorite plaything, even tho she seemed sorry for you having taken her place.

Even so, you spend most of the time near Fumus, either whimpering while she cuts open your skin with rusty scissors or you laying limp on a bloody bed next to her.

At first, the tortures got the best out of you, the screams full of agony and the arousing feeling of tearing your virgin skin. The Goddess loved it, and you could tell.

But you eventually started to accept it, your face staying emotionless whenever the door opens, revealing the vivid purple eyes staring mischievously at you. Your body would remain still, maybe twitching s bit whenever the cold metal touched your skin.

Fumus would always start making you cry a little, it seemed to turn her on in some way. She would force you to look at her while she held her cigarette between her lips.

Dragging your face to hers, a messy and gross kiss would start, bitting your lip hard enough to draw blood and forcing her tongue on your mouth. The saliva and blood mixed taste invading you.

To add her touch, she would place the cigarette in your tongue, the burning sensation forming tears in your eyes. Then she would order you to swallow it, the whole thing.

This wasn't new but it was still enough to make you tremble and gag, something Fumus founds very amusing.

Finishing the foreplay, as she would call it, the real torture for you starts.

You would be laying still on the mattress, hands cuffed for less comfort. And she would draw patterns against your skin, her purple orbs staring right into your soul.

The blades cut you deep enough for the blood to stain your dress. Giving more attention to your legs, she would bury the scissors in your tight, playing with the blood that flows of the injury.

This was the edge of your control, tears rolled down your cheeks. The Goddess smiled at your reaction, your cries were like music to her ears.

You just wished for the playdate to end, but the following day would be the same, and the other too. Your relationship with the Goddess felt weird and made your stomach churl, but you knew you couldn't get away from her.

#deep sea prisoner #funamusea #okegom #fumus #i tried #sorry i failed all my maths exams im stressed

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rozunderpressure · 5 months

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Seeing the mention of it, the ML subreddit is. Horrible. Like the people on Reddit will scream about how Adrien was mistreated 24/7 then suddenly go "Ugh, this again?!" when Chloé is brought up and downvote you to hell for saying you like her?? The subreddit is VERY canon loving but when you try to bring up how good/competent Chloé actually was IN canon, they call you delusional and tell you to get over it?? Ok get over Adrien not being in the finale, Alya believing Lila etc then. I'm not salting on Adrien or Alya btw but like. Why is one dead horse okay to beat but the other gets you attacked lol. Also it's full of people who think Felix is the greatest fiction character ever and that people who hate him are just stupid?

Its kinda funny to how the legit personality reasons to dislike both Chloé and Félix are the same... They are both arrogant, assholish, rich kids who, tho for different reasons, in their core, basically believe they are better than everybody, but Chloé used to be a hero and is usually being manipulated through her emotions and has expressed regret a few times, while Félix did a genocide among other horrible shit and literally never expressed any remorse, but his gf say he is nice now and we like her right? So yeah, lets just believe that...

Like, here is the interesting thing about contrasting those two: It clearly shows the writers only think of physical abuse as abuse, the fact Chloé was emotionally neglected is not abuse in their eyes, and also denotes a certain deep form of misogyny that shows in BOTH the fandom and writers (because its one that is an undercurrent in our society to be fair); Chloé is very feminine in the most demonized way by nerds (kinda dumb, trendy, a rich bitch and snobbish) and Félix is very masculine in the most desirable way for nerds (quick thinking, skillful, intelligent in way that makes him smarter than everybody else around him without much caring about the feelings of others, east Asian gfOKJK on that one), so that is that...

I don't hate Felix... I don't care for his character, he does nothing for me personally, I find the kind of character he is incredibly bland and boring, (and I don't hate the MLB Reddit community either-- mostly I don't KNOW the MLB reddit community--) but I don't hate him because I blame the writers for everything wrong with this show.

I have more to say about Alya and characters being plot devices and not characters (which is why she fell for Lila's bullshit, she wasn't being Alya at the time, no salt on her, its the writing that sucks) and how Adrien is treated like a trophy and frail creature who must be protectec from the truth itself and his treatment illustrates why just GENDERBENDING the shitty traditional story structure so the damsel in distress is now a guy without an IOTA of investigating WHY those stories suck IN THE FIRST PLACE doesn't work but-- I fear I already wrote too much, this is quite the long rant XD

So yeah, I don't know anything about the reddit community... XD

#Miraculous ladybug salt #ml salt #I guess?

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theallblue · 1 year

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6. Name 3 things you love most about your muse/muses. 12. Do you prefer writing main or minor canon characters? 13. Is there one trope you can’t stand?

Munday Meme |still accepting|

6. There are a lot of things that I love about Sanji, I probably wouldn't be able to pick just three but I do relate to him as well since we do have one thing in common. I see myself in him just a bit so that would have to be the first reason, we also share the same eye color. I love his fighting style, it's different from the other muses that I have who have learned how to fight whether it be because of a weapon or cultivation methods.

12. I don't have a preference since I have written for main and minor characters which are on both of my multimuses. I have many main and minor characters that are my favorites, a minor character that I continue to RP as even though the fandom isn't as active as it used to be is Yoichi from Seraph of the End. I also have Wei Wuxian from MDZS who obviously is a main character in that series, my muses tend to go all over the place.

13. Body swap/genderbend are tropes that I've never been able to get into for some reason, they mostly seemed boring to me whenever I came across them in fanfics and fanarts. I can't really give an exact reason on why more or less, I just never liked those two tropes.

#theallblue #melodysian #mkay talk

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therealvinelle · 2 years

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I’m almost afraid to ask, but what are your thoughts on Hellsing? Any heretical takes? Why do you prefer the first anime over the OVA?

It's one of those things that are so obvious to me I wouldn't even know how to explain it. The Hellsing anime is just better, plain and simple, the animation, the script, the plot, the OST, the voice acting, the characters, all of it.

I don't like a single thing in the Hellsing OVA, it's rare that I am purely negative towards a thing but that OVA had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Here, for art, script, and voice acting comparison: the Valentine fight scene in the anime, and in the OVA.

It's been years since I watched either of these, and I actively repressed memories of the OVA, so doing a more detailed comparison is tough. However, Seras Victoria's transformation is an example I think says it all.

The situation in both is this: Seras Victoria is a policewoman who gets captured by a vampire that uses her as a body shield. To kill the vampire, Alucard must shoot his bullet through her.

In the OVA, he asks her if she's a virgin. Then he shoots, and explains as she lays gurgling on the ground that he had no choice but hey, you could become a vampire if you wish. Clip

In the anime, he explains this to her, and then asks if she wishes to live on as a vampire. She says yes, and he fires his gun. Clip

To me there's just no comparing the two scenes (in more ways than script! Look at the art! It's so good in the anime! Then look at the generic horribleness in the OVA!). One affords her agency in that final moment, lets her calmly say "Yes." and the other... doesn't.

The anime goes on to focus on Seras Victoria's character development and how she adjusts to her new life, as well as her oddly sweet mentor/student relationship with Alucard. She's a person in the anime. The OVA makes her a part time tentacle monster with a terrible love interest, because the value they place in her is how badass she is. Her moment of glory.

Oh, and I can't stress enough my distaste for how the OVA treated everything like a boss fight. And added sexual abuse to Alucard's backstory for no goddamn reason besides edginess. And characters making speeches that would go on for over five fucking minutes, speeches that in most cases could have been reduced to a single line. "I love war", there, done. And oh, some of those speeches were entirely dedicated to how badass Alucard was, I couldn't find any examples on youtube but they never failed to cheapen him.

You have the Roman Catholic Church, which in the anime is a rival organization with the same priorities, and in the OVA becomes bad guys who side with the nazi robots because hullo, evil.

The final boss fight of both anime and OVA is in the anime poignant, nothing beats the moment Alucard looks like he's lost and he uses his last bit of energy to tell Seras to save herself, but she carries his head with her anyway. OVA final fight was just... bosses being thrown at Alucard and then dying in increasingly bizarre ways. Old butler Walter went dark side and deaged into a sexy bad boy! And dies in some way I can't recall but I'm pretty sure it involved Alucard genderbending and putting on a nurse costume! Anderson gave up his humanity to win but turned into a tree instead! The nazis were swallowed up by a sea of blood and gore, I think! And instead of being derpy hilarity, I'm bored to tears!

Look, I'm just going to keep going. I absolutely loathed the Hellsing OVA, the worst thing about it is that it completely drowned the Hellsing anime. The fandom is impossible to track down because all the content is OVA, and season 2 is never happening because people want the OVA and that's the worst thing in the world because season 1 ended on a cliffhanger.

Final thing I'll say before ending the post: notice the absence of Integra in this post. In the anime, she's a fantastic character, a woman made of steel that I can believe could tame Alucard. She's indomitable, a truly extraordinary woman. Enter the OVA, and she's so generic and forgettable badass that I can't remember a single one of her scenes.

Just, the Hellsing anime, chef's kiss, it was beautiful.

Hellsing OVA, boo hiss.

@thecarnivorousmuffinmeta, got anything to add?

#hellsing ova #anti hellsing ova #hellsing anime #hellsing #anti hellsing #alucard #seras victoria #e-v-shellder

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tsarisfanfiction · 2 years

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For the Fanfic Writer asks, could I please request D, T, and Z please?

D: What’s the most personal fanfic you’ve written?

@gaviiadastra also asked this one.

Considering how much I've written, the answer to this is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Two fics immediately sprang to mind; both are ventfics I wrote while life was tough about a year ago (it's amazing how you just don't see how low your psyche's got until you're out of the situation and can look back on it in horror), and both of them I was blessed by other authors adding to, which felt genuinely like a personal reassurance and hug that people saw me and wanted to help me.

The first of these two is Bloodbath, which @gumnut-logic wrote an amazing part two for. It's one of the darker things I've written, in terms of imagery, I think, which tracks with my mood at the time.

The second of the two is Easier, which @gumnut-logic and @thunderbird-one-ai both added to, which prompted me to be able to round it off with a concluding chapter where everything started looking up again.

The sheer love I got from the fandom in response to these very personal ventfics was humbling, and pulled me out of somewhere that was a lot darker than I think I realised at the time.

T: Any fanfic tropes you can’t stand?

I am reasonably open to most things, but if it gives me second-hand embarrassment then it's absolutely out. Misunderstandings often falls into this category, especially in ship fics. I love emotional angst, as I'm sure all my followers are aware, but I don't do so well when it stems from that sort of plot, for some reason.

Romance fics in general I tend to get a little side-eye-y at. Romcom stuff is a no, coffee shop AUs etc. are normally a no, and high school AUs are something I've gained less and less tolerance for over the years. ABO fics are very rarely done in a way that appeals to me (I have found one or two with fantastic worldbuilding and character dynamics, but more often than not they're thinly-veiled excuses for terribly characterised porn fics, and I'm an adult who will read some nsfw but terrible characterisation is a fast way to get me to hit that close tab x). This also goes for things like genderbending, which can be done well so I occasionally brave them, but often I find myself bored or worse by them and back the hell away.

Z: Is there a story you’ve written that doesn’t seem to get much love?

There are several, but that comes with the territory of writing as much as I do, honestly. If you separate out all of my collective-works into their individual stories rather than the collection story I post them as on AO3, I've got somewhere in the region of a thousand stories out there, and of course as I've written for lots of fandoms over the years, I have to take into account fandom size and activity.

For example, my TAG and TOA stuff doesn't get much interaction compared to, say, my Detective Conan works, but the fandom sizes are barely comparable - and let alone when you then look at my One Piece stuff, where I often write for a popular character in a huge fandom. Crossovers also tend to have a notable drop in engagement, presumably because most readers (like me) tend not to bother with them if they don't know all the involved fandoms.

My Lord of the Rings drabble collection Vulnerabilities is probably top of the list, though; it's the only one that got so little interaction that I gave up even trying to get to the one hundred chapters I aimed for with the other fandom drabble collections, and yet the fandom itself is huge and very active. It's also intimidating and terrifying to write for because the fandom seem to be so well-versed in the nuances of lore I could never grasp (I still haven't been able to get through The Silmarillion, for example), and I can only assume my writing and interpretations simply wasn't up to par. Was that a little disappointing? I won't lie, it was. But was it unexpected? Not very, honestly. A little, because I'd thought a fandom that huge would still have something to give me and I got almost nothing, but not so much that it surprised me.

Fanfic Writer Asks

#ask me #thunderbirds are go #lotr #fanfiction #alexthefly #gaviiadastra

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platinumrosetail · 2 years

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Request: opened

(Here is my Wattpad!!!)

(I couldn’t get my profile linked so I had to use my idea book for the link, sorry😅)

The request limit is now set for 5 only as I was overwhelmed by those requests and think it’s is a reasonable amount until I feel ready to do more.

If you use the anonymous feature please add a emoji to it! Thank you!

Also before requesting make sure to see if the fandom that you want to request isn’t closed that would help a lot thank you.

Things I will write about:

I will write character!reader that is referenced of a character from a show, though if I don’t know the character/fandom or don’t know how to interpret them well enough then I will sadly have to delete the ask which I’m sorry if I have to do that.

I will write male x female, male, and gn!reader but I might mostly do female!reader more as it’s the one I’m used to the most but hopefully I can make other genders as well sooner or later.

I will write angst depending on the prompt you give me of your request, there are some things that I won’t or can’t write so please be mindful and understanding if I’m not able to write it for you, thank you.

I will need a prompt for your request as that’s easier on me with one so please remember to give me a prompt to work with or else I have to delete it.

I will do yandere but it all depends on the prompt you request of me to make.

I can do genderbend females (ftm) into male but do specify if you want genderbend female (ftm) as if you then I’ll either cut them out or make them platonic depending on what you request.

I will kill off some characters if need be but only if I think it would make the post interesting and have a good reason in the story to do so.

Oh! Completely forgot until now, the character limit is 4, I might be able to do more but that depends on my mood.

I can do au’s just as long as it peeks my interest (specifically modern au as that one bores me so you have to peek my interest for me to do that one as I just find that au boring for me, sorry).

I absolutely love crossovers so don’t be afraid to submit one or more if you want 😁.

I am ok with mpreg (male pregnancy) 👍 so go ahead and request it if you want to.

If a character is underage then I will make a aged up au for them.

What i don’t write:

I will only do male x others!reader as I am straight and feel uncomfortable to do female x other!reader especially female x male!reader as I have seen plenty enough of that on my apps/websites that I read on with rwby and mlp plus others which annoys me as its mostly female x male!reader and not an even amount of male x other!reader books unles you have to specify a character from that show which just ticks me off so much I’m sorry but please do not request any female x male!reader stuff, thank you for understanding.

No adult x child as that is disgusting, as long as it’s platonic then I will write it but if it’s romantic I will both block and report you

I won’t be doing any fandoms or x !reader that I don’t as one I don’t know anything about it and probably won’t have any interest in that

I will not do self harm or abusive actions on the reader or characters as there are many of those already made so please request someone who is able to do that as I can not and will not do any of that on my account.

I won’t do any nsfw at the moment as there’s some things I won’t do for that as it’s uncomfortable and I haven’t done any at all as I don’t practice at all either.

I will not do rape as that is terrifying to even think about so please do not request that and if you do, you will be blocked as I do not support that action at all.

Incest is off the table, the only thing that will allow this is of the gods character from fandoms like ennead or any other fandoms that have gods married to their relatives (which is a lot of them) as I can’t do much about it as it’s out of my control with them being gods and everything so please understand where I’m coming from with this, thank you.

(Ennead is not a light-hearted manwha, so please be careful when reading it as it’s pretty dark from what I had gather from other people who have gotten father than I am at the moment and it might trigger you in some way and I do not won’t you getting hurt in any way so please be super careful when reading things like this, alright?🥺)

(Reason why I want to write about ennead even though there’s things I don’t like in it is because I would like to have Seth be happy and in a healthy relationship and have revenger on Osiris for all the horrible things he had put others through.)

I won’t write for a ship that I don’t ship with as that is uncomfortable for me, there might be a few I be ok doing but most likely not.

If any of these are requested then I will delete them or post them saying I won’t do them at all.

#request #anime #x reader imagines #anime x reader #x reader stories #x reader #lego monkie kid x reader #sinbad x reader #genshin impact #rwby #naruto #one punch man #obey me #disenchantment #ennead manhwa

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liquidstar · 2 years

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no literally I think about the if stories like ALL the time. I think one of the big advantages of having a story where time travel can happen is that the side stories reveal so much about who the characters could have been if things went a little differently. one of re:zero's biggest themes is the way identity is informed by both the choices you make and the people you meet, and it's strangely fitting that both subaru and emilia are at all times disturbingly close to a breaking point. you really get to see how fragile both their identities are and especially how bad subaru can be when he's at his worst. it reveals so much about both of them

YEAH NO FOR REAL THE WHAT:IF STORIES ARE SO GOOD FOR THAT EXACT REASON

like. okay i know that theres a marvel "what if" series and im not ragging on it but a lot of the concepts for it based on what i know are totally random scenarios, which can be good fun, but i feel like the way re:zero handles the what:if stories as dark routes the characters could have EASILY gone down if subaru didnt make the "right" choice in that arc so much more interesting. especially w how theyre combined w the sin he learned to overcome within himself and how those themes end up relating back to the story even if theyre not in the main route... if anything its closer to like, you know, video game routes! the whole "return by death" thing is already sort of a dark twist on the respawn mechanic lol. but like in the way that theyre "canon" but not actually the one true route, the events in them are still equally important to the story and the characters. theyre not just aus because they matter thematically. (well, most of them, butterfly dream doesnt count since it was written as a joke before the author knew what he wanted the "what:if" series to be and i think its since been discontinued as the "canon" lust:if)

ill say i was a bit disappointed with this years april fools story to that end though since we didnt get a proper what:if and instead just a genderbend of arc 1- i understand that maybe its not quite the time for one yet but a genderbend is so boring to me because its the exact same scenario but with pronouns flipped, and arc 1 isnt even a particularly fun arc on reread (we're ALREADY introduced to the world! we dont need a reintroduction to Reinhard With Boobs). oh well its not actually a big deal at the end of the day its just mildly disappointing.

but i do think its really funny and clever that the what:ifs come out on april fools day because its also subaru’s birthday. did you know season 2 was originally meant to air from april 1st to september 23rd (emilia’s birthday)? i think thats a super cool and fun concept but sadly covid happened in 2020 lol. but season 2 still rocked... the full 30 min episodes w no op or ed you can tell there was care there

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ihopesocomic · 2 years

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How do you feel about gender bending?

Yeah, I like it in concept, but most people don't do it right. They take stereotypes to the extreme. And in an extremely old-fashioned way that's just sexist and/or boring. Like men with short hair when they're genderbent are given long hair, as if long hair is an inherently feminine trait (it isn't). Or they'll take a super muscley brick wall like Kratos and make him into a big-boobed hourglass when in all honesty he should remain the big buff cheeto puff he is. Bald and all. As if the only way to "be a woman" is to look stereotypically effeminate and the only way to "be a man" is to look stereotypically masculine. None of which I vibe with because that's just how it's most commonly executed, rather than me having a problem with the idea of genderbending. Cuz nothing about the character should change. Except they're now a man/woman.

So I will say MY genderbends are inherently better than everyone else's because I keep character traits without resorting to pointless gross gender stereotypes. EDIT: According to my sources, "my genderbends” aren’t even genderbends, so shows how dumb I am LOL TL;DR genderbending is pointless at best, offensive and transphobic at worst.

We also don't vibe with IHS characters being gender-bended because it goes into 'redesign' territory and the characters are the gender that they are for a reason. - Cat

#ask #ask us stuff

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watermelinoe · 2 years

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Can I get some weebfem thoughts on genderswap/genderbend fanfic and fanart? It really should be called sexswap, but you know what I mean. Personally, I enjoy it when it’s done well and doesn’t resort to gender stereotypes, and I noticed it used to be a lot more popular pre-2012, but now all I see are fanworks where the characters have been transed, and it just seems like such a pathetic cop-out to me. I think stereotypical shounen protagonist personalities like Naruto or Luffy (big eaters, ambitious dreamers, shameless, gross, loud, honest, dimwitted, fights everyone, wears heart on sleeve) become a hundred times more interesting and endearing when they’re written as female characters. It’s disappointing when art depicts Fem Naruto or Fem Luffy wearing skimpier versions of their iconic outfits or with their hair long, or when their canon personalities are switched to more submissive or “feminine” ones in fic, or when they’re written to be blatant self-inserts, but when I encounter the rare art or fic that leaves their canon outfits and personalities intact with the only difference being that they were born female and are indifferent about being female, it makes me so happy and I wish more fans created content like that. I think if we had more (or any) shounen manga with well-written tomboy protagonists, especially hetero tomboy protagonists, there would be less genderwoo in fandom. Being weird, gross, and unfeminine is considered unremarkable in a man but repulsive in a woman, so I think one reason for all the straight TIFs in fandom is that they’ve never seen a man—real or fictional—show any love towards a weird, gross, unfeminine woman (whereas lesbians love women like that) so straight TIFs who are weird, gross, or unfeminine believe that identifying as gay men is the only thing that will make their natural personalities acceptable, thereby making them worthy of a man’s love. But a boisterous GNC straight woman will always be cooler and more subversive to me than a “gay trans man”. And why are there no sweet, joyful tomboys? I can’t think of the last time I saw a tomboy character who wasn’t angry, depressed, or alone. They make it seem like turning your back on femininity means giving up all your positive emotions and relationships. It’d be nice to see a tomboy actually having fun and being loved for once. It’s exactly why characters like Naruto or Luffy would be so much better as females.

no but everything you said is spot-on. i remember when i still had my fandom tumblr in high school seeing the first debates about genderswapping being ""transphobic"" and thinking literally who cares. they're not real. i was a ~trans ally~ in that i defended trans people's pronouns irl but i thought most fandom gender discourse was stupid bc there were like, actual problems in the world lol. but now that you mention it yeah, genderswapping quietly went away after that for the most part and was replaced with trans headcanons :/

but that's my big problem with shounen anyway. i don't care about male narratives and male characters. if a manga goes too long without a girl doing something meaningful, i get bored. couldn't keep up with naruto, one piece, or fairy tail bc of that. whereas like you said, these protagonists would be totally compelling if they were female.

maka albarn from soul eater was an incredible shounen protagonist imo, but every single solid concept from that manga was ultimately overshadowed by the mangaka's degeneracy and misogyny (seriously do not even talk to me abt "boob madness"). if a woman had written soul eater it would've become a classic (and if u read soul eater fanfic like i did in high school, u can see average women writing circles around that basement-dweller ohkubo hfsjkgkg) bc men just cannot write! their work only encompasses the male half of the human experience, and reading it is like trying to enjoy a 3D movie with only one eye.

shounen does an incredible disservice to boys and girls by refusing to show female characters as classic shounen protagonists. loud, gross, a little thick, nonsexualized, single-minded, everything you described abt naruto and luffy. if they made female characters like that i would actually read shounen. lol.

#answered #weeb hours #long post #i know i get shit for reading shoujo but i just don't caaare abt males and their storylines unless girls are equally involved #if the main interpersonal conflict and overall narrative is completely male? boring. i'm asleep. i don't care.#sorry to whatever naruto and sasuke had goin on

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four-rabbit · 3 years

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My best friend died in the 90′

Ok, so, this is part of an ghost AU that I have and probably will be talking about in the future, where Virgil is a ghost and them and Remus are best friends, (this is not the main plot but anyway, like I said, I'll talk about it in later)

However, while this doesn't happen, please have this oneshot about Remus and Virgil meeting each other

Summary: Remus never had any friends, but that changed when he decided to go to the cemetery in the middle of the night, just to meet Virgil, a kid that besides being just as weird as Remus, happens to be dead.

(For a little bit of context: in this fanfic Remus comes from a family where eveyone can speak to ghosts, on his mom side, at least, but unlike Roman, Remus was never able to talk to a ghost before meeting Virgil)

Characters: Remus Sanders, Virgil sanders, mentions to Roman Sanders

Warnings: swearing (specifically a kid swearing), discussions of death, mentions of a fight and bullying.

Obs: in this au Virgil uses exclusively they/them pronouns and Remus uses he/it. This is not a genderbend version of Remus.

I've always been the weird child so it seemed appropriate that my first friend had been dead for more than a decade.

It's a funny story: I had gotten to another fight, I even lost a tooth that day and probably would have lost two if I hadn't run away the moment the fucking coward that called himself a bully invited his friends for help. I may be fast but I can only bite so many people at once.

I didn't want to go home because Roman would be worried and my parents would be angry, which was the usual, but getting bullied was also the usual, didn't mean that I couldn't get tired of it, that's why I decided to go to the cemetery I mean, why not?

I knew I was far from my house because it took me less than ten minutes to reach it. My parents moved to as far as possible from there the moment Roman was born, the guy can't stand even getting closer to it, which I founded stupid at the time. I would give anything to have the stupid paranormal sensitivity that he was so afraid of instead of being the disappointment of the family.

Turns out he was right for being afraid.

After a quick look I confirmed that there was no other living soul at the cemetery besides me, so I smiled and sat on the closest gravestone. Mom always said that we should respect the dead and their resting place or else they would teach us a lesson or whatever but I was fine with that because I had decided a long ago that If a ghost showed themself to me it would be the coolest freaking thing ever. I kicked the gravestone weakly, as if knocking on a door. That thought made me giggle as I imagined a ghost appearing in pajamas, angry at me for disturbing them that late at night. I kicked again, this time a little harder.

"Stop that" someone mumbled besides me. I immediately got to my feet, thinking that the gravedigger had seen me but fortunately I didn't see an angry adult, but a kid. They were using a black hoodie and had equally dark hair falling on their face. They were pale as a dead body, fat and tall, basically the opposite of me, an unhealthily skinny latino little shit. I snorted.

"What are you gonna do about it?" I kicked the gravestone once more. They seemed startled, backing up a little.

"You- you can see me?"

"Why wouldn't- OH MY GOD YOU'RE A GHOST?!" I screamed not even caring if someone could hear me. Virgil cared.

"Sshh! I-" they seemed disconcerted but gave up with a sigh "Yes, I'm"

"Oh! Holy shit! Is that your gravestone?! Is that why you appeared when I kicked it?!" I jumped in excitement, getting close to them to take a closer look at my most recent discovery.

"No, I just don't think you should kick it. It's disrespectful"

"Yeah, whatever! Oh my god I can't believe I'm seeing a ghost! Suck it, mom, I knew I could do it too!" I exclaimed to nothing in particular as if she could hear me. "What's your name?"

"No- look, I'm sorry, I didn't think you could see me, I just- I should go" they said in the classic "I want to get rid of you" that everyone used after talking to me for more than five minutes. I started to get desperate, this was my first time seeing a ghost, I wouldn't let them leave that easily.

"No, don't go! I promise that I'm cool! Sorry for kicking your friend's gravestone, I don't know, please stay!" I begged and I guess my irresistible cuteness touched their heart because they turned to look at me again.

"He's not my friend," Virgil explained. "Just an old ghost that doesn't like to be bothered." they looked down shyly and I thought that was cute. "My name is Virgil. What's yours?"

"My name-" I always hated to tell people my deadname, I just didn't know why at the time "You can call me the Duke because my name is shit I really hate it y'know, it really sucks ass" They probably raised an eyebrow, it was hard to tell with all that hair failing on their face, but didn't say anything besides:

"Why not the duchess?"

"Because I don't want to" replied, crossing my arms as if challenging them to disagree. Virgil looked me up and down, processing my appearance. I was using dirty green legs, a black dress that my mom insisted that I wore for school and an old all star. Their eyes stopped at my face, with my bloody nose and the missing tooth. "What happened to your face?"

"Oh yeah I got into a fight! But it's cool, I'm not afraid of those assholes" now they seemed worried.

"Why did you get into a fight?"

"Just the usual, he stole my lunch, pushed me out of my bike, called me some bad words and I bit him. Y'know everyone thinks blood is so gross but I kinda like the taste." I looked at them, trying to see their reactions. I couldn't see their eyes but I'm sure they widened as Virgil got closer, saying in the same worried tone that Roman used:

"You should be careful! Have you told your parents?! Do you have any friends to walk with you? Or you could tell a teacher! No, forget it, teachers never help, at least not when I was alive. Is there anyone you can trust to protect you?"

"Wow, chill, I can take care of myself"

"I'm serious, Duke!" I rolled my eyes. I hated when people treated me as some fragile girl that couldn't take care of herself. Turned out I just hated that people treated me like a girl.

"Why do you care? I just met you"

"Because-" Virgil changed their mind mid phrase. Can't blame them, I wouldn't share my backstory and the reason I died that easily either if I was a ghost. "You seem nice, I don't want you to get hurt" I don't think anyone had ever called me nice by that time. Weird, gross, disturbing, problem child, ungracious I had always heard, but nice was new, even Roman just called me "cool" or "brave" at best. So, of course, I got defensive.

"Hm. Want me to tell you what he, Peter by the way, is the name of the asshole, yeah, he's a big asshole, what Peter and his friends called me?!" Again, Virgil barely reacted to my swearing and I was starting to get frustrated, it was always an easy way to get some fun reactions, especially from adults.

"Not really…" as they would learn in the years that followed, that kind of phrase rarely stopped me from speaking.

"He called me a bitch! That's when I bit him, actually, he was like, listen here you little bitch and he pointed his finger at my face and I bit it and I almost ripped it off I swear!" I looked at them, waiting for their reaction, already imagining what it would be. I was young but I had lived enough to mainly aim for negative responses just because they were better than no response at all. Virgil stayed in silence for longer than I wanted which was like the most boring response.

"How old are you, Duke?"

"I'm going to be nine in three months! How old are you?"

"I died when I was ten."

"Cool! I was never friends with an older kid!" I was never friends with anyone besides Roman, but anyway. "I mean, you're my friend, right?" They didn't answer immediately, but then Virgil opened a smile and probably decided they were going to protect that little chaotic gremlin.

"Yeah, I guess I’m.”

#ghost au #Dukexiety #remus sanders #virgil sanders #cw swearing #tw death mention #tw bullying mention #rabbit writes

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sorry-apsalar · 3 years

Text

Does This Mean I'm a Girl Now?

Content Warning: this fic contains genderbending (sort of anyway) and gender dysphoria as a result of it, also multiple mentions of genitals as well as nudity in general.

My friends and I were discussing a thing that we were mildly salty about which brought on the topic about how we were salty in general over how a lot of genderbending stuff is portrayed. It often relies on stereotypes and gender roles which is really annoying and pretty shitty. Then my dear friend @itsladykit (I hope it’s okay that I tagged you, I just wanna give you proper credit for the idea) brought up the idea of a cis character getting magically genderbent and experiencing gender dysphoria because of it. Which I thought was a really neat idea but I wasn't sure if I was qualified to tell that tale but then they told me to follow my heart and write it and that's why this fic came into being.

Now I feel like I need to put the disclaimer that while I have personal experience with gender dysphoria, the worst of it was was back when I was a teenager, I've mostly grown out of it and I'm pretty sure most people have it stronger than I ever have. So if this isn't an 100% accurate depiction of dysphoria, that is why. I did my best though.

Also, Frender features in it mostly just because I was already fueled primarily by salt, might as well let my usual Futurama salt fuel me too.

“Wow,” Fry said as they looked over the naturally formed pool of bright pink goo. They’d been to a lot of different planets and seen quite a few different kinds and colours of goo but never one so pink. “It’s kind of pretty, don’t you think?”

“I guess,” Bender replied, disinterested. “I’m bored though so I dare you to jump in and see what happens.”

“Do not!” Leela snapped from somewhere behind them before Fry could even decide if he wanted to take that dare or not. “I don’t know what you guys found over there but don’t listen to him Fry because whatever it is, is probably dangerous.”

��Fucking killjoy,” Bender muttered so that only Fry could hear. He was right though; they were hiding out on a dumb planet with nothing on it to escape some asshole pirates which meant they had to just sit around and do nothing until Leela was sure they were free. It had only been probably an hour so far and Fry was already bored out of his mind. Leela had forbade them from doing anything ‘dirty’ in case they needed to get out in a hurry so the least she could do was let them investigate some cool pink goo.

So, feeling rather rebellious especially as the sound of Leela’s footsteps approached, presumably to investigate, Fry lowered himself to the ground so he could lean forward and stick in his hand in. The goo didn’t come up all the way to the lip of the natural pool, forcing him to lean a bit farther than he was really comfortable with considering the utterly unknown alien substance he would fall into if he lost his balance but if he fell Bender would catch him… probably anyway, so it should be fine.

The goo was pleasantly cool as it engulfed his hand, almost seemingly clinging to him and pulling it down. It was like sticking his hand in thick syrup fresh out of the fridge, a pleasant texture if a bit odd. Right away though his hand began to have that pins and needles feeling that came from laying on one’s arm wrong for way too long so he should probably…

The ground gave way beneath him, sending him into the goo. He didn’t even have time to yelp in surprise before he was fully submerged in it. He gasped instinctively, inadvertently breathing it in, making him choke and sputter.

He needed to get to the surface now! Except he didn’t even know where it was. He thrashed, trying to go in any direction but to no avail, the goo was too thick to swim well in and blackness was already eating at the edges of his vision. He couldn’t die like this! No fucking way! It wasn’t…

“…think it’s permanent?” Bender was saying from somewhere above Fry as he slowly came to.

“Who knows?” Leela replied from also somewhere above him. “For his sake, I hope not.”

“You make it sound like it’s a big problem.” Bender’s tone indicated that he disagreed.

“You don’t understand.” Leela was giving Bender her annoyed look, Fry didn’t even need to open his eyes to know that. “Though I guess I can’t really blame you for not understanding this, you’re a robot so it’s probably different for you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Leela sighed. “Maybe you’re right, maybe it won’t be a big deal. Heck, maybe it’ll only last a few hours.”

As much as Fry enjoyed napping, the way they were talking was rather disconcerting so with a groan he opened his eyes and forced himself to sit up. Bender and Leela were standing to either side of where he lay on the ground. Bender was coated head to toe in bright pink goo, calling to mind what had happened last. That meant he’d jumped in after Fry and was probably the sole reason he hadn’t drowned. Now he was trying to wipe the goo off with a pink rag that might’ve once been white but it wasn’t very effective.

“Hey meatbag,” he said, turning his attention onto Fry. “How do you feel?”

“Uh… weird.” Fry was covered in goo still too. It clung to him and made him feel all tingly and odd, like his whole body had fallen asleep even though that wasn’t possible. And it smelled strange too and tasted bad. He turned his head to the side to spit as much of it out as he could, though it did little to rid his mouth of the taste. “I got to wash this stuff off,” he said as he stood up, careful of the probably slippery goo coating him and pooling around where it had dripped off him and Bender. “Thanks for saving me.” Was it just him or did his voice sound strange?

“Uh… Fry,” Leela cut in before he could turn to start for the ship. “The pink stuff kind of did something to your body.”

Oh no. “What?”

“Well, uh… um…”

“The most noticeable thing it did was give you boobs,” Bender finished. “I didn’t check your pants so it might’ve changed you down there too. You might want to look into it.”

Fry looked down at himself and… true to Bender’s words, his chest was quite different; his clothes soaked in the pink goo clung to him, highlighting the weird lumps on his chest. Boobs was what they were called, he had them now, big ones too. Or at least they looked big to him from this angle which wasn’t an angle he was ever supposed to see boobs from so how was he supposed to know?

“Does this mean I’m a girl now?” he asked as he looked back up at Leela and Bender. The strange thing about his voice was that it sounded more feminine and if it sounded that way to him how much more so was it to everyone else?

“Not unless you want to be,” Leela said with a reassuring smile.

“Uh… I don’t think I do.” He’d never considered it before even in passing but now that was forcibly faced with it, he was pretty sure he didn’t want to be a girl.

“Come on, let’s go wash this gunk off,” Bender said as he gave up on the rag, tossing it disdainfully to the ground before starting for the ship. Fry was more than happy to follow because who knows, maybe it would only last as long as the goo was coating him.

“All right,” Leela said, “I’m going to collect a sample of the pink stuff to bring back to the Professor.”

Undressing brought to Fry’s unfortunate attention that the goo had changed more than just his chest and voice. His hips were wider, his shoulders a little narrower – not by much, he’d never exactly had broad shoulders but enough that even if no one else was likely to notice he still did – and the other biggest change was that his dick was missing. He could explore what was there instead with his hands but… he didn’t feel particularly inclined to do so.

Which was odd, wasn’t it? In every movie or TV show he’d ever seen where a man ended up with a female body through whatever means, the joke almost always was that they were excited to touch themselves down there and play with their new boobs. It wasn’t even that he wasn’t into such things, while he did prefer men – especially if they were robots or aliens – boobs and vagina weren’t turn offs by any means. On himself though it was just… too weird.

With a sigh, he did his best to shake it off and stepped into the shower after Bender. There was only one on board the ship because it wasn’t exactly meant for everyday use, mostly decontamination and washing off dangerous chemicals which this probably counted as. There was enough room for both of them though so it was whatever.

“You owe me for going in after you,” Bender said, turning to face him. “It leaked into my everything and now I have to clean everything.” To demonstrate, he opened his chest compartment, revealing that it had been partially filled with pink goo, Fry had to pull his foot back to stop it from splashing on him. Bender then began taking things out to wash off too, including his cigar case, its contents most likely ruined. He gave Fry a pointed look as he put it back as if this were his fault, which it kind of was.

“Sorry, thanks for saving me though, I owe you big. But uh… you did dare me to jump in.” Not that Fry had meant to or would’ve if given the choice, not even he was quite that stupid.

“I didn’t think you’d actually do it. But whatever, I guess this is more exciting than sitting around doing nothing. By the way, in case you haven’t noticed yet, your dick’s gone.”

Fry had to hold back a groan; that wasn’t something he really wanted to think about. “Yeah, I know. How long was I in the goo before you pulled me out though?” Because surely a change this drastic couldn’t have happened in brief awful seconds he remembered.

“I don’t know, five, ten minutes. That stuff isn’t exactly easy to see through and it was a lot deeper than it looked. Which was why I had to jump in to find you in it.”

“How come it didn’t do anything to you?”

“I don’t know, maybe because I’m a robot.” That was kind of an ‘oh duh’, huh?

They were silent for a bit while Fry focused on making sure to wash all the goo off. He could probably safely step out now if he wanted to, the pins and needle feeling the goo had given him was rapidly fading, but the water was warm and… “What do you think of this?” He did his best to keep his tone casual. “Does it uh… change how you see me or anything?”

Bender scoffed as if Fry was stupid to even consider such a thing. “No, why would it? I’m a robot and I’m pan so I have double the reason not to care what your body is shaped like. It should be fun to play around with later though.” He winked as if his meaning wasn’t already obvious.

Fry wasn’t really sure about that but… that was probably just because he still wasn’t over the shock of the sudden change. When he was more used to it, it would probably be fun to experiment with so… “Yeah, maybe once we’re home and stuff.” Or maybe it would wear off before they even got there and thus it would basically be a non-thing, just another weird adventure that wrapped up quickly and left everything exactly the same as before. He could always hope, right?

“… and it’s permanent,” Professor Farnsworth finished, jerking Fry out of the bored stupor listening to the scientific explanation behind the exact mechanics behind the sex change had put him in.

“It’s what?” Hopefully Fry had just misheard something. He hadn’t exactly been paying attention after all.

“It’s permanent,” Farnsworth repeated. “It’s not going to wear off.”

“You mean I’m stuck like this forever?”

“Not necessarily. There’s of course the traditional transition methods you could take or I could use this,” Farnsworth held up the vial of pink goo that Leela had collected for him, “to engineer a substance that will have the opposite effect. And then it’ll be like this whole misadventure never happened except we’ll have the means to get rich off of selling this stuff. Of course we don’t yet know what all the risks it might pose are but that’s all the more reason to sell it to as many people as possible so we can find out.”

Ugh, Fry hadn’t even considered what other possible risks his inadvertent bath in the pink goo might’ve had. What if it was also super toxic and was going to eventually kill him? Or what if it drastically increased his risk of cancer other possibly fatal condition? … Eh, it was probably fine so… “How long is that going to take?”

“Hmmm…” Farnsworth held the vial up to the light as he studied it. “I don’t know. I should probably get to work on it.” And without any further word he was shuffling off out of the room. Everyone in the room, which was everyone employed at Planet Express because privacy didn’t exist in the modern age, watched him go.

“On the bright side,” Leela said from the other side of the conference table, “if he can make something that can do the reverse, we’ll have discovered something that can help a lot of people.”

“Assuming it’s safe anyway,” Amy added. “It could still be super toxic and deadly or something. So, congrats Fry, you get to be a guinea pig for a new way of transitioning. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t kill you in the end.”

“Uh… thanks, I think.” He’d rather not be a guinea pig for anything but seems he didn’t have a choice here so yeah, hopefully it was safe to use. But at least if anyone could make something that could turn him back to normal it was the Professor. So really everything would be fine. He just had to deal with this weirdness for a little while.

Looking at himself naked in his bedroom mirror was a mistake. His boobs were weird shaped lumps on his chest that hung there kind of like those ballast bags that hung on the sides of hot air balloon baskets but rounder and with nipples. How could something that looked like that be natural? Crossing his arms over them to try to hid them from view sort of worked but it also pushed them closer together which wasn’t a pleasant sensation. And combined with his hips, they gave him that ‘hourglass figure’ that was supposed to be desirable but didn’t look right in the mirror.

He couldn’t bear to look at his crotch for more a couple seconds because his dick was gone! That was weird and just plain wrong. Everything about his body looked wrong now and he hated it. He’d never particularly liked his body before – muscles would’ve been cool to have but weren’t worth the effort – but it had been utter indifference. Now looking at himself was an unpleasant experience.

He… wasn’t just going to just get used to or over this, was he? His body wasn’t supposed to be like this and thus he couldn’t feel comfortable in it while it was.

Eager to be done looking at himself, he stepped forward and turned the mirror around to face the wall. It would stay until his body was back to normal. All he could really do was hope that that would be soon.

In the meantime though he went to his closest in search out the baggiest clothes he had. Luckily everything he wore on a typical day was already baggy and a lot of it a size or so bigger than needed. Zipping up the jacket should help obscure his boobs too, maybe even completely, though probably not because his initial call had been right, they were on the larger side. But regardless it would be better than nothing.

Right as he was pulling on the jacket, the door opened behind him. “I don’t like this whole sex change thing,” he said as he zipped up and turned to face Bender as he entered. “Like I really, really don’t like it.”

“Why?” Of course Bender wouldn’t understand and well, honestly Fry didn’t either.

“I don’t know.” There wasn’t any solid logical reason for why he disliked it so much. “It just makes me uncomfortable. My body’s not supposed to look like this with boobs and… stuff.” And lacking of other things. “I don’t like it. So if we could pretend that it’s not a thing that would be great.”

Bender gave him a weird look before shrugging and moving on. “I swear you meatbags never cease to be weird. But if it really bothers you that much, I won’t mention your boobs or junk if that’s what you want.”

“Yes, I would like that, thanks.”

“That means we’re not going to fuck tonight though, huh?”

“Uh… yeah, I’d rather not.” That would involve exploring his new body and he couldn’t imagine that being fun.

“The things I put with for you. But whatever, let’s go watch TV then.”

Fry was more than happy to follow him back out into the living room. He could really use the distraction of both watching TV and of cuddling up with Bender.

True to Fry’s prediction he never got over his discomfort about his new body. Wearing obscuring clothing helped as did making sure to never look at himself in the mirror, especially without clothes, but it was still there. He could go for hours at a time without thinking about it but ultimately it always came back in one form or another and it was the worst.

Thankfully no one at Planet Express treated him any different. None of them even mentioned it after the initial buzz about it had faded. Sadly, such was not true for strangers; men flirted with him more which wouldn’t have been much of an issue if they weren’t flirting with him because of something he was uncomfortable with and wished wasn’t a thing. Bender put a jealous stop to a lot of that though which was much appreciated. And then there was everyone calling him she or her which sucked – he got called they or them some too which was better even if it still wasn’t right – most people didn’t care when he corrected them but it was still awkward that he had to.

But finally, just when it was starting to seem like he’d reached his limit and couldn’t take it anymore, upon arriving at work, Professor Farnsworth was there to greet him with some actual good news for once. The opposite of the pink goo was ready to be tested. The fact that Fry would be the first one testing it didn’t even matter to him to anymore.

It was in the pool out back where everyone else was already waiting because again, privacy wasn’t a thing anymore apparently, though honestly Fry didn’t even really care that much. But… “I’d thought it’d be blue,” was the first thing he said upon seeing it because it was bright yellow.

“Why would it be blue?” Farnsworth asked, genuinely confused.

“Because the other stuff was pink and it did this to me so it just makes sense for something that’s supposed to do the opposite to be blue, right?”

“That makes no sense,” Bender said. “Stop being stupid and go jump in already. And don’t almost drown this time because I’m not jumping in to save you again if you do, once was more than enough.”

“You say that but I doubt you mean it,” Hermes chimed in. “We all know you’d jump if to save him if you had to.”

Bender glared at him but Amy spoke up before he could say anything. “Yeah, you two have been dating for like a year now and were like totally in love for like ever even before you were official so don’t pretend to be a tough guy.”

“Just jump in already,” Zoidberg butted in. “I want to see what happens.”

“Yes, let’s just get this over with,” Fry said before anyone else could chime in with anything. He stepped forward to stand on the edge of the pool. “Can you guys like… look away please? I don’t want to ruin my clothes and uh… yeah.” He didn’t want them seeing him naked when his body was still like this even though logically they all already knew what he looked like but… he just didn’t want them seeing.

“Of course,” Leela said as she turned away. Thankfully everyone else soon followed suit with only a little grumbling.

Eager to have this over and done with, Fry quickly undressed. After tossing his balled-up clothes to the side, he sat down on the edge of the pool and slowly lowered himself into the yellow goo. It felt exactly the same as the pink goo had; cool and thick, quickly giving him that unpleasant pins and needles feeling. He had to force himself to submerge his head.

Fry was awoken by cold water being splashed onto his face. His eyes shot open to see who else but Bender hovering over him. “Hey Fry, I thought I told you not to almost drown this time.”

He didn’t remember falling asleep or unconscious and he certainly hadn’t intended to. “Sorry,” he said as he sat up.

Everyone had crowded around to loom over where he lay on the ground next to the pool. “How do you feel?” Farnsworth asked, adjusting his glasses. “Did it work? I can’t tell with all the yellow.”

“Uh…” Fry looked down at himself. … “It worked!” he said as he shot up to his feet. He was back to normal, how his body was supposed to be. His chest of flat, his proportions back to normal, and he had his dick back. Gosh, he never would’ve thought he’d feel so good while naked and surrounded by a bunch of people staring at him.

“Congrats on surviving another sex change,” Leela said.

“And on getting your dick back,” Amy added with an unhelpful thumbs up.

“Maybe next time think twice before deciding to play with a mysterious alien substance,” Hermes said.

Of course the Professor had something to say too. “Now we just got to wait a couple weeks and see if you randomly drop dead before declaring it tested and ready to sell.”

This was very quickly growing awkward with everyone standing around Fry and talking at him while he was butt naked and covered in experimental goo. “I’m going to go wash this stuff off now,” he said as he was already backing away. Also, now that his body was back to normal, there was something he wanted to do because he finally could again and the shower would be the prefect place to do it.

He’d learned an important and valuable lesson though: next time Bender dared him to play in an unknown substance, no matter how bored he was, he’d think about it a little harder before deciding to risk sticking his hand in. And to be more careful around alien goo in general.

#My writing #futurama #Frender #genderbending #dysphoria #gender dysphoria

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