Decompressing from Pokémon fic a smidge with Stardew Valley and asdfghjkl honestly I kind of wish there was a "default" farmer character (or two) that's used in fic like how there's "default" Pokémon protagonists (Juliana and Florian for Scarlet/Violet, Red and Leaf for RGBY, etc.). Like, a default understanding of the character's appearance, name, and the knowledge that this isn't a self-insert, it's an interpretation of the Player Character.
This got obnoxiously long, so have a cut lol
Because GOD I'm having a hard time nailing down fucking anything about this farmer character. I was inspired by playing with the mod Alchemistry a while back and the idea's been percolating of a character who starts growing a lot of medicinal plants to supply Pelican Town due to a medicine shortage in the Ferngill Republic (due to the war, you see), and slowly grows closer to Harvey because of it.
But I can't figure out anything else. In theory this story is meant to continue to be inspired by an upcoming Stardew playthrough (I've never actually romanced Harvey, though I know a lot of the gist just from having played for a decade), so I defaulted to a "female" (AFAB genderqueer) character. But that feels too much like a self-insert. I could just make her a literally female character - no genderqueer - but that takes away one of the few things I actually did know and like about the character.
I could also optionally change to an AMAB genderqueer character. Though for personal reasons I prefer not to - despite the 10k fic earlier this year based entirely on my own experiences as a genderqueer person, I struggle with games acknowledging and addressing me as anything other than a she/her woman, unless it's part of a preexisting character. (Like playing as Link from Legend of Zelda is fine, but as a GNC male character in Animal Crossing is not. Mario is no problem, but a gay male farmer in Stardew Valley is a deep struggle. Don't even get me started on how short a time I lasted with the Gender Neutrality Mod and being able to actually personalize my pronouns and forms of address. I fear that even at this fucking age, I remain utterly unready to be out. Even in the most minor of ways.) But maybe it would be okay if I come up with a whole-ass character before starting up the game? Or maybe I should just abandon the idea of taking inspiration from a real playthrough altogether and go watch all of Harvey's heart events and dialogue on YouTube?
If I write the character as AFAB and genderqueer, that's closer to my own experiences, which might be healing. Though considering how healing the aforementioned fic was, I doubt the character approaching from the other side of the gender binary would hurt things much. Certainly it worked well with Larry. And if I write them as AMAB (read as: perceived by everyone as a man) I could add in Harvey struggling with his sexuality, which could be very nice. But with an AFAB character (perceived by everyone as a woman), I could have the extra layer of her feeling very happy in the relationship but also but frustrated at and relieved by how it reinforces the way she's viewed as being a woman. (And a straight woman at that, which is irritating in its own way; not that there's anything wrong with straight women, but it's that itch under your skin when you're being misunderstood, you know??) Either way the character isn't out and hasn't transitioned in any way - part of the idea is the character struggling with that, completely closeted, unable to find the slightest happy medium.
There's a story in here to be told about common perception VS reality VS what a person is willing to reveal in the face of a deeply queerphobic society. (Though in this case, we the people viewing the story from the outside know that the residents of Pelican Town will largely be accepting of at least nonstraight sexualities, though gender is still an unknown quantity.) But either way I lose something - either Harvey's struggle with sexuality goes down the drain, or the farmer's struggle with being perceived wrong is taken down a notch (the gender struggle remains, but the sexuality perception doesn't), losing a layer of deeply personal experience that I as a genderqueer AFAB person married to a man would rather like to pour out onto the page. Or would I??? Do I want it to be that personal???
Auuuuuggggggghhhhh I'd just switch to this being Harvey/Shane or Harvey/Emily or whateverthefuck really, but the whole medicine scenario doesn't work with anyone but the farmer! And that was the whole point in the first place!! AAAGGGGHH
Maybe the problem is that I've been picturing this being from the farmer's POV? Like I can see how I just automatically went there - player character and all.
But maybe it should be from Harvey's POV? If I look from his POV I can immediately see that I want the farmer to be a character that's perceived as male. I want him to look at this guy ("guy") and go like ? oh no ?? why do I feel this ??? I'm too old and tired for this and there's no way he feels the same in return.
Right. A little scrolling of friends' blogs helps to clear up the Gender Crisis Spiral, as usual. I need to remember that.
Decompressing from Pokémon fic a smidge with Stardew Valley and asdfghjkl honestly I kind of wish there was a "default" farmer character (or two) that's used in fic like how there's "default" Pokémon protagonists (Juliana and Florian for Scarlet/Violet, Red and Leaf for RGBY, etc.). Like, a default understanding of the character's appearance, name, and the knowledge that this isn't a self-insert, it's an interpretation of the Player Character.
This got obnoxiously long, so have a cut lol
Because GOD I'm having a hard time nailing down fucking anything about this farmer character. I was inspired by playing with the mod Alchemistry a while back and the idea's been percolating of a character who starts growing a lot of medicinal plants to supply Pelican Town due to a medicine shortage in the Ferngill Republic (due to the war, you see), and slowly grows closer to Harvey because of it.
But I can't figure out anything else. In theory this story is meant to continue to be inspired by an upcoming Stardew playthrough (I've never actually romanced Harvey, though I know a lot of the gist just from having played for a decade), so I defaulted to a "female" (AFAB genderqueer) character. But that feels too much like a self-insert. I could just make her a literally female character - no genderqueer - but that takes away one of the few things I actually did know and like about the character.
I could also optionally change to an AMAB genderqueer character. Though for personal reasons I prefer not to - despite the 10k fic earlier this year based entirely on my own experiences as a genderqueer person, I struggle with games acknowledging and addressing me as anything other than a she/her woman, unless it's part of a preexisting character. (Like playing as Link from Legend of Zelda is fine, but as a GNC male character in Animal Crossing is not. Mario is no problem, but a gay male farmer in Stardew Valley is a deep struggle. Don't even get me started on how short a time I lasted with the Gender Neutrality Mod and being able to actually personalize my pronouns and forms of address. I fear that even at this fucking age, I remain utterly unready to be out. Even in the most minor of ways.) But maybe it would be okay if I come up with a whole-ass character before starting up the game? Or maybe I should just abandon the idea of taking inspiration from a real playthrough altogether and go watch all of Harvey's heart events and dialogue on YouTube?
If I write the character as AFAB and genderqueer, that's closer to my own experiences, which might be healing. Though considering how healing the aforementioned fic was, I doubt the character approaching from the other side of the gender binary would hurt things much. Certainly it worked well with Larry. And if I write them as AMAB (read as: perceived by everyone as a man) I could add in Harvey struggling with his sexuality, which could be very nice. But with an AFAB character (perceived by everyone as a woman), I could have the extra layer of her feeling very happy in the relationship but also but frustrated at and relieved by how it reinforces the way she's viewed as being a woman. (And a straight woman at that, which is irritating in its own way; not that there's anything wrong with straight women, but it's that itch under your skin when you're being misunderstood, you know??) Either way the character isn't out and hasn't transitioned in any way - part of the idea is the character struggling with that, completely closeted, unable to find the slightest happy medium.
There's a story in here to be told about common perception VS reality VS what a person is willing to reveal in the face of a deeply queerphobic society. (Though in this case, we the people viewing the story from the outside know that the residents of Pelican Town will largely be accepting of at least nonstraight sexualities, though gender is still an unknown quantity.) But either way I lose something - either Harvey's struggle with sexuality goes down the drain, or the farmer's struggle with being perceived wrong is taken down a notch (the gender struggle remains, but the sexuality perception doesn't), losing a layer of deeply personal experience that I as a genderqueer AFAB person married to a man would rather like to pour out onto the page. Or would I??? Do I want it to be that personal???
Auuuuuggggggghhhhh I'd just switch to this being Harvey/Shane or Harvey/Emily or whateverthefuck really, but the whole medicine scenario doesn't work with anyone but the farmer! And that was the whole point in the first place!! AAAGGGGHH
why are so many people acting like you have to adhere to some kind of rigid rulebook of “playing with fictional characters” oh my goodness?? people are throwing a fit because one day your Ryland Grace Ken doll went on a non-romantic beach house adventure, and the next totally-separate play session he smooched the Rocky Barbie or whatever. now people are up in arms because he’s just chilling in the nifty pink jeep instead of doing the fucknasty with Markiplier Bratz. IT’S PLAYTIME. IT’S ALL PLAYTIME. ARE PEOPLE REALLY TRYING TO CALL YOU OUT OVER THIS SGSKDJDHSH
Okay so, a lot of things changed for me ! I moved back to my parents house, hence why I haven't been active (again !) But I finally have my own little place ! My own room, my own bed (no more sleeping on the couch yay !) and my own desk !!!!
But I have some family dinners in the next few days, for my birthday and just to reconnect but then I'll be all alone in the beginning of August !!
I'll try to get back into streaming and commission if I feel comfortable enough !! 😌
Consider: emmet trying to properly introduce his boyfriend(s) to his brother while ingo is simultaneously trying to introduce his boyfriend to his brother - but the meet goes awry when emmet recognizes colress and tries to strangle him for killing an entire city
I actually recommend everyone write for a rarepair once because it completely changes your relationship with fandom. Engagement stops being numbers and starts being names. You know who's going to show up. You recognize usernames. Someone disappears for a while and then comes back and you're like “OH MY GOD WELCOME HOME.” It's incredibly wholesome. It is also deeply inconvenient when all six of you simultaneously get writer's block-
Hiya, Trainers! We're currently doing a Bang on our official forums under the theme of 'Everyday Life with Pokemon', and we'd absolutely love for you to join in! Making an account is free, and we're looking for plenty of writers and artists to come in and join our Bulbabang festivities! Click on this link for more info!
A Bang is an event where writers submit short stories based around a theme (in this case, 'Everyday Life with Pokemon'), and then after those stories are done, artists create pieces based upon those stories in collaboration with authors. Once the event is finished (sometime in the autumn), we'll have come together as a creative community! This is a super amazing event and the first time we're doing anything like this, so please please consider joining in 🤍
The thing is, people will swear up and down that you become good at media analysis by reading Their preferred self torture device (Classic Literature, the canon, literary fiction, grim dark fiction, fiction covering horrifying topics, etc) and I got really good by not doing any of that. There's no reason you can't explore media analysis using barbie movies or the powerpuff girls or magical girl shows, or comic books, or plays, or poetry or songs. All fiction is made of the same fundamental building blocks. If it weren't they wouldn't be fundamental.
I say this as a guy that loves Book and would die for Book: it doesn't have to be what I enjoy to be useful. I learned media analysis by reading a metric fuck ton of trashy romance which would feel like punishment for other kinds of people. It doesn't have to be respectable. What's important is using your brain a little extra to get a little more enjoyment from the thing you were already doing, improving your ability to engage with anything using words. No need to make an already difficult process difficulter.
Just a reminder that Bilbo wrote The Hobbit. Bilbo could say whatever the fuck he liked. Bilbo could definitely say Thorin died in the battle if he wanted all the nosy people to leave him and his husband alone.
#alternatively how do we even know there was a battle?#bilbo watching the orc armies get buried under a random landside: ...yeah we're going to have to come up with something better than this#the dragon didn't actually burn down laketown there was actually an unfortunate cooking accident#thranduil reading over bilbo's shoulder: make sure i come across as absolutely amazing#bard: can i talk to birds?#thorin: can we skip over the part where we got so lost we ended up in gondor for like a week#bilbo: thorin that's like half the quest#thorin: please#bilbo: ...fine. you're lucky i love you#the dwarves were actually partying with the elves in mirkwood#but then they got super drunk and fell asleep in the barrels#and the elves accidentally shipped them downriver#bilbo: i'm going to have to change most of your names so they all rhyme because otherwise no one is going to be able to remember them all#legolas: can you just... write me out? i'll appear in your movies to up your cool factor#bilbo totally upping his own suffering the whole time to make people feel bad for him#gandalf: why am i missing half the time?#bilbo: ...yeah to be honest i forgot you were there for like three chapters#so it was easier to pretend you ran off and write two paragraphs about that than go back and put you in those chapters#bilbo writing the gollum chapter: i outsmarted him and played this whole game with him#also bilbo: what actually happened? oh i bitch slapped the shit out of that thing and then ran the other way#i got that invisibility ring thingy when it got stuck in my hair after i tripped and fell on my way out#this becomes the biggest prank in middle earth's history#dwalin: thorin what are you doing#thorin lying on his back on a stone slab with his sword and the shiny rock that bilbo insisted they make up a whole backstory for: i'm dead#thranduil sitting in his husband's lap drinking wine: and then i threw them in the dungeons because i got sick of dealing with them#dain: i don't know what's going on but for some reason i'm king now#anyway the point is bilbo is a lying liar who lies
Every scene is him wyrming about like every joint in his body was slathered in baby oil and every close up seems to show him approaching orgasm or ego death, and this is a visual experience incredibly in line with Cats
