Pronoun Trouble

I just sent the following Ask to neil-gaiman:

Hello! Sorry to bother you with this, but a friend of mine encouraged me to send in a question I have about Season 3 of Good Omens: What is the force exerted on the mass of a body by a gravitational field, and what is the third letter of the English alphabet? Thanks in advance!

(The answers being, naturally, "weight" and "c", a play on his eternal answers for any "What happens in the next season of Good Omens???" questions, "Wait and see".)

I fully expect the Ask to be ignored as soon as Neil (or an assistant/staff person?) reaches the words "Season 3 of Good Omens", but if not, I rather think he might get a kick out of it.

Anyway, here's a rebloggable version on Tumblr proper, just in case anyone here wants to give it an artificial Blaze.

Me: *shaping dough at work, casually thinking about how to describe a particular fanfic that ended up going in a very racist direction*
Me: ...This is an omegaverse fanfic, why do I keep trying to describe the POV omega character as "the uke"?

Brain: Same difference, honestly.

Me: ...What.

Brain: Hadn't you noticed? Omegaverse omegas and alphas are basically ukes and semes for Western media fandom.
Brain: I mean, it's not a perfect 1:1, but it's pretty damn close! And yeah, a non-zero number of people are doing subversive things with omegaverse, but a non-zero number of yaoi/BL manga-ka also do subversive things with seme and uke roles, so.

Me: ...Okay, this is going to get its own post, because I am not going to derail an important post about anti-Black racism in fandom with this.


(I don't know if I'm actually going to make a post about the fic in question, but wow did the author make one hell of a racist decision with it.)

I've got an origific plunny I've been sitting on for nearly six months now, just kinda prodding now and again for fun, and tonight I finally realized that the main character is probably autistic, and one of the reasons he really wants a familiar is because they can act as service animals/emotional support animals. I'm not sure that he realizes that's why he wants one (he really wanted one just to have a lifelong companion), but it's definitely a thing.

Meanwhile, the main character's love interest is probably also autistic and/or ADHD and already has a familiar, and is doing pretty dandy if you ask them. I don't know if they realize that their familiar is totally a service animal, but their familiar is totally a service animal (in addition to being a working animal for their job).

A delightful turn of phrase entered my mind as I was getting ready for work this morning:

Fandom Police are not exempt from ACAB.

I immediately extended it to the Purity Police and Identity Police, and am perhaps a bit too proud of myself.


In other news, the theme contest for next year's AnimeIowa has opened! Turns out attendees will be the ones to vote on next year's theme, which is. Interesting. I sincerely hope it doesn't kill my chances, but I'm prepared to keep submitting themes every year until I get one that will support Bikers Against Child Abuse as our annual charity.

Okay, less than half an hour left to make just one more Dreamwidth post this year, what have I got?

Uh...

Potatoes!

...You know what, I'm gonna stick with that one, I think it's a winner.

Apparently my new special skill is coming up with good video game ideas 😂

Today's entry:

New super simple computer game or phone app idea:

- It’s like whack-a-mole, except it's for practicing your friends'/loved ones' pronouns.

- Representations of people pop up in designated spaces with randomized sets of pronouns. You click on/tap the ones that are correct, and avoid the ones that are incorrect.

- The game includes some customizable data where you can basically make "characters" who look like the people whose pronouns you want to practice, BUT you can also upload your own pictures/photos/drawings/whatever images to represent them as well/instead.

- Regular mode is just one person and the pronouns they use; in challenge mode, you can have multiple people pop up in a single game and practice all of them at the same time. Maybe up to five people?

- Prizes for winning are, like. Collectable stickers or something, IDK. Maybe you can put that person’s avatar into cute frames that get fancier as you win more? Bronze, silver, gold, platinum?

- No penalties for losing, you just get to try again.

- If someone’s pronouns change, you can "retire" their old pronoun set and start fresh with a new one, keeping your old prizes in a special imaginary cabinet for inactive pronouns or something, or you can delete the old one entirely.

- Some sort of option for people whose pronouns depend on circumstances; maybe tied to an accessory or specific photo? Not sure how it would relate to Challenge Mode, though.

- Maybe some stock characters to practice on?

Added since my initial post:

- For people whose pronouns are "Any/all", incorrect answers will be a set of random nouns. Like "chair" or "staircase" or "tree" or something.

- You can take profiles back out of the "retired" cabinet if someone decides to go back to a previous set of pronouns.

- If someone whose pronouns have changed once wants to go to a previous set of pronouns and also keep their new pronouns and you have a previous profile in the "retired" cabinet, you can add new pronouns to their current and/or you can merge their current profile with their retired profile.


And that's all I have right now. A coder who's working with me on Language Town has expressed interest in making the game, and I've given them my blessing, so maybe it'll even happen!

(I swear I haven't given up on Language Town, executive dysfunction is just a terrible beast.)

(Cross-posted from Tumblr.)

For anyone who has trouble coming up with titles, here's the trick I use:

Start with an important element from the story. Then, think about things that are related to that element, especially phrases and puns. Keep going until you have something that feels at least a little right.

Examples:

Adrien eats some magic cheese and turns into an actual feline, but still has patrol with Ladybug? How about, uh, The Catification of Adrien Agreste, or Felis Domesticus (implying that Cat Noir is a domestic animal), or wait, what's that meme again? That's it! Love is Stored in the Cat!

A blanket scenario where Marinette needs to cuddle Cat Noir so he doesn't get sick from being too cold? Something with blankets, something with covers, hah, covers, he's trying to keep his identity secret, so he's under cover, but will also be under blankets, as in covers—that's it! Under Cover(s)!

Hmm, this one hinges on using a wishbone to make a wish, except it's a Lucky Charm; Splitsville, maybe? Since they're splitting the wishbone in half, and also splitting their identities (depending on interpretation)? Wait, I should look up whether that's even a thing in Europe, never mind France. Oh hey, looks like it probably is! And it was called something else back in the day? Well, it doesn't have quite the punch of Splitsville, I think, but I love it as an obscure detail too much not to go with it. Merrythought it is! (Note: I'm pretty sure a lot of people skipped out on this fic because I went with the obscure title rather than the one that had more punch, so think hard about how much presentation means to you.)

And so forth.

Dunno how well it works for original fiction, but it might be worth a shot.