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Fantasy story with loner male knight and cross-dressing female page

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 04:42:38 GMT

I didn't watch Dunc and Egg but Cam did, and he found himself thinking about how fun it could be to have a story where a somewhat loner knight (disgraced/unproven/just antisocial, whatever) takes on a determined and surprisingly knowledgable page, who he eventually realises is a girl in disguise, and they have Adventures (but no romance, preferably)

He asked if I knew of any stories like that, since it feels like a really obvious premise, and I felt like I must have seen something along those lines by Tamora Pierce/ Mercedes Lackey etc but nothing came to mind. eg the Alanna series has the crossdressing page part but not the loner knight, Kel doesn't have the cross-dressing, etc.

So I come to you! At this point we're mostly just curious if it exists at all, but actual recs are definitely not unwelcome. Books/tv/movies, whatever.

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Historical games about not being violent

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 06:10:27 GMT

During the family Christmas Zoom call Mum asked if I had any recs for historical computer games in which the protagonist does not commit acts of violence. When I asked what kinds of gameplay she enjoyed she just said "nothing too hard".

So here's what I came up with after exploring the historical and education tags on steam, if anyone has any recs or anti-recs please let me know!
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Does anyone want a copy of Little Known Galaxy?

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 19:34:55 GMT

Little Known Galaxy is a farming sim IN SPACE I ended up with an extra key for in a bundle. I have played a little and it didn't grab me but it wasn't terrible and has good reviews. Mac and PC compatible.

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Art Prompts For Visibly Fat or Muscular Humanoid Characters

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 09:50:39 GMT

I struggle every time I have to draw a character who can't be approximated by a series of smooth cylinders, so thought I'd ask for some prompts to help me practice!

So! Please give me art prompts for visibly fat or muscular humanoid characters, preferably in a relatively realistic style (anime is ok but not like Johnny Bravo)

No more than 3 characters, nothing that requires a background or complex/many props. Give me an image reference if it's not something I can look up easily. Picking a pose from the references below or sending me your own would make my life easier!

Fanart or original, including stuff like "This character but fat" or "A man in this pose and this outfit", but not vague things like "Any character in a victorian outfit". Nothing too sexy, squicky, or containing zombies(*).

Anyone who follows me is welcome to prompt!

(*) I only have a problem with the mindless contagious sort, or really gross decay. Possessed/controlled corpses are fine but no skeletons for this prompt ;)

Fat poses:

Muscular poses:

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Question about Vegetarian South Asian Teen Experience in 2000s Perth

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 09:12:08 GMT

Question at little_details from someone trying to accurately write a vegetarian second gen Indian immigrant teen in Perth in 2003.

I'm still getting over my cold but rambled about what I remembered vegetarians eating back then, and it occurred to me some of you might be able to offer useful information as well. No pressure, I don't know this person, but thought I might as well pass it on.

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Sketch prompts!

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 04:54:36 GMT

I have a new graphics tablet after the last one broke, and Clip Studio Paint has updated in the mean time.

So give me some simple prompts to try them out! I'll be trying to do quick sketches since I think one reason I burned out a bit on art was being too perfectionist.

By "simple" I mean no more than two characters, no complex backgrounds etc. And either you give me an image reference or it's something I can look up easily without having to make many decisions.

Fanart or original. Nothing too sexy, squicky, or containing zombies(*).

Also, if you want, here's some new Clip Studio Paint features I want to try out that you can add to your prompt:

A pose from Posemaniacs (you can upload them to the in-built 3d characters)
An image with colours you like, to apply as a colour scheme.

(*)I only have a problem with the mindless contagious sort, or really gross decay. Possessed/controlled corpses or skeletons are fine, and vampires are A+.

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Fantasy with Elected/Communal Gods

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:34:23 GMT

Are there any fantasy stories with democratic gods who follow the conscious decisions of their followers as a group? It's like... a typical god may be similar to a king who tries to listen to his citizens else he be deposed, but I'm looking for something more like a democratically elected president who was voted in and can be voted out.

This is an off-shoot of a discussion of Baldur's Gate 3/The Forgotten Realms but I think it should work for any fantasy setting where gods can be deliberately created or are a job mortals can take on, with powers reliant on simple things like their number of followers instead of anything numinous or mystical. I'm mostly thinking high fantasy set in a secondary world, but I guess it could work in other sorts of fantasy too.
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"Get amongst/across/around this song" slang

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 03:38:42 GMT

There is a particular sort of slang phrase I hear frequently in promotions on Australian youth music radio station Triple J and absolutely nowhere else: lines like "get across the latest new music", "This Summer has a bunch of cool concerts! Get amongst it!", "get around this new single" etc.

"Across", and "around" seem to be used interchangeably, with "get across/around this" = "learn about this". "Amongst" is possibly more literal eg "get amongst this concert" = "be amongst the people at this concert".

Attempts to google these usages just got me dictionary entries about getting across bridges or ideas etc. I couldn't find anything in the text promotions on the Triple J site, either, so I might be misremembering the exact wording used.

Has anyone else encountered this kind of slang? Is/was it ever actually common amongst (Australian?) young people or does someone working in the triple J advertising department just have an odd way of speaking? Or have I just been living under a rock?

It doesn't bother me, I think it's kind of cute, I'm just curious.

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Poll: Discord/forum rule against self depreciation

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 03:07:24 GMT

Imagine you join a discord (or other similar online group social space with rules and moderators) which has this rule: you're not allowed to say anything too self-deprecating. If you do, you must say three nice things about yourself.

The discord otherwise seems appealing.

View Poll: Discord/forum rule against self depreciation

Asking because I have seen people reblog this tumblr post mentioning such a rule positively, and I also once encountered this rule on what I think was a separate discord (rather than being for a group of friends it was for a fandom that poster does not appear to be interested in) So it seems a non-negligible number of people are cool with such rules.

But my reaction is very negative, and I'm curious to find out how unusual that is. Thus, a poll! I also just want to get across that some people are seriously troubled by such rules, but am genuinely unsure how that compares to the number who would significantly benefit from them.

Note: I'm not asking about variants like self deprecation being discouraged but there's no actual consequences, or whether you find this kind of rule helpful to enforce inside your own head or in other very different kinds of social situations. Nor am I distinguishing between how you would feel about the rule being applied to you, versus your assumptions about a space that has such a rule. If you have different feelings about Discord versus other social spaces, just answer for Discord.

Just: would encountering this specific rule in a real discord overall feel like a positive thing or a negative thing.
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Could I be allergic to generic meds?

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 04:38:17 GMT

Asking outside my health filter since this is less a personal thing and more a general question of science.

Recently I've tried a bunch of blood pressure meds with different mechanisms/chemical properties and had what seemed to be a similar allergic reaction to almost all of them. Pondering if there's some underlying cause, it occured to me that they were all from the same generic meds company Apotex.

So now I'm wondering if it's worth asking specifically for the name brand version and seeing if I have an allergic reaction to that, or if that's likely to be a waste of time and money.
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Roleplaying online?

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 01:32:15 GMT

Would anyone be interested in some low-key online 'table-top' roleplaying during my daytime? I've dipped my feet into TTRPGs in the past and had a lot of fun, but unfortunately all the existing games I've encountered have been offline (not practical for health reasons) or in the middle of my night. So I guess it's time for me to organise a game myself, unless any of you know of some suitable games I might be able to join.

This post is just me poking the idea and seeing if anyone's potentially interested, if I get some interest and an initial sense of people's preferences then I'll try and organise something more solid.
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The Search For Curly Bangs

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 23:48:56 GMT

Does anyone have recs for anime-ish dollmakers/picrews which allow you to set the fringe/bangs separately and have options for non-straight hair? Wavy, curly, natural, braided, dreadlocked etc, the more options the better.

I'm working on a dollmaker of my own and having a little trouble figuring out a consistent way style that works for all hair types. faejilly happened to link this picrew a few days ago which does straight bangs nicely, but not any other sort. Meanwhile anime characters with curly bangs tend to have the rest of their hair curly in the same style, which is hard to extrapolate from.

I'm going to ask faejilly and tumblr in general but I find it easier to marshal my thoughts on dreamwidth, and some of youse may have links too! It doesn't have to be fully anime style as long as the art has dark lines filled with flat colours.

EDIT: bbgulrot linked me to Black Centered Picrew which also led me to the POC tag on picrew.

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A question about The Unsleeping City

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:11:29 GMT

How much of a thing are the Santa Zombies going to be? Just the rest of the first episode or an ongoing thing?

If there's one thing I learned from Shaun of the Dead and Gravity Falls, the zombies being very silly doesn't help as much as you might expect /o\

If noone's listened that's fine, there's other places I can ask. It's otherwise pretty good so far! And not even especially scary, unless you're me.

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Looking for stories whose main characters hit my 'genderfluid' button

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 01:11:30 GMT

I have recently found myself bouncing off of stories about characters who have a single, set gender. Which is unfortunate, since that covers 99.99% of stories, even the few about non-binary characters.

So! Rec me stories with at least one mainish character whose gender is blurry or shifting, especially if they actively enjoy presenting in multiple ways and describing themselves as different genders. General queerness and deliberate trans inclusion is a plus, but the character themself doesn't have to be being written as non-binary on purpose. I specifically like stories where gender roles are in general treated as things people can take on and personify temporarily at will, regardless of their underlying gender, especially when the edges of those roles shift and blur.

It's fine if you're not 100% sure if your rec is quite what I want. I'm still figuring out what I want, so more recs are always good, even if only to help me figure out what I don't want.

Content note: I talk about certain real gender identities "not working for me" which might feel jarring if it's your actual real life identity. I just mean in the context of fictional characters who hit this one specific gender button for me. Even other genderfluid people may feel differently!
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Is there anyone reading my locked posts via livejournal?

Sat, 03 Sep 2022 10:43:12 GMT

My access filters are a mess of dead accounts so I was thinking of at least removing all the livejournal accounts, now that crossposting isn't happening any more, but if anyone's still using them to access dreamwidth via openid I'll hold off. So, let me know or lose your access!

Also, what would happen to the posts on an access filter if I just deleted that filter? Is there some way to make all the posts on a filter private first? It's annoying when I go to choose a filter and the list is cluttered up by like...the filter I made to process my feelings about a breakup with a mutual ten years ago etc, and it's all such old news I just want to sweep it all into private posts and be done with it.

EDIT: Tested it with a new filter, and yep, deleting a filter seems to make everything private. Sweet.

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Art Prompts!

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 01:01:30 GMT

Fanart or original! I may ask for references if it's not something I'm familiar with.

Please no: zombies(*), or anything too sexy or squicky. Also not "Word of Honour" (or Faraway Wanderers) since I'm in the middle of watching.

(*)I only have a problem with the mindless contagious sort, or really gross decay. Possessed/controlled corpses or skeletons are fine, and vampires are A+.

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Another Video

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 13:14:24 GMT

Here's more answers to questions from this post.

fred_mouse: Tell me about something you can see from your window?

brainwane: Are there words you particularly enjoy reading, hearing, writing or saying? Or particular numbers that delight you? Could you share any words you remember learning in the last few years?

skygiants: If you could pick an iconic adventuring outfit, and practicality was no consideration -- say you were designing a personal sim for an immersive virtual world in which you were about to have a sff adventure -- what would it be?

Transcript below the cut, with image descriptions. The sound worked better this time since I made sure to shut down everything but the recording software and text editor.
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Give me questions!

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 04:10:28 GMT

I want to try and socialise more online, but one issue is that video calls make me a bit anxious. I've decided to work on that with a little video as a controlled practice situation.

Thus! So I have something to talk about: give me questions to answer! It can be basically anything, since this is just for practice, but preferably nothing too deep. Also my overthinking pedantic brain prefers "An X you like" over "your favourite X". If you're stuck for ideas, here's some ask memes off tumblr.

I'm giving myself permission not to post captioned text if it's too hard but I'll see what I can do, especially since I'm not always the world's clearest speaker.

EDIT: I recorded a video answering the first few questions and the sound quality was APPALLING, so later questions will be useful while I poke at that but it may take a while before they get answered!

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Vegetable slicers?

Sat, 06 Nov 2021 21:22:49 GMT

Has anyone had good experiences with devices to help cut vegetables into thick slices or sticks? I specify thick because my in-laws gave me this thing for making thin slices, and it works fine but it's still a lot of physical effort and I don't actually want thin slices most of the time. If I want something diced finely I just use my food processor. What I have trouble with is making slices/sticks/cubes.

The physical effort of cutting is something of a problem for me, but even a manual device that used the same amount of strength but required less concentration would be helpful. Variable widths would be the most useful but a set width over 1cm/half an inch would be something.

I looked it up online and there are things that do what I want but I have no idea how useful they are in practice.

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Gardens and cats

Sun, 29 Aug 2021 09:34:40 GMT

Does anyone have recs for cute, gentle animal videos on Youtube with a small amount of plot/narration? Darcy likes watching them with me and I get bored of the ones that are just random animals, but also find constant narration irritating. The best I've found so far is mugumogu, which posts things like "Maru meets a new box" which mostly just shows the cats doing their thing but adds cute little humourous title cards describing events.

After a billion (ok, like...4) years I finally got around to getting my garden neatened up. I tried Weeding Women but they were booked up, I instead ended up hiring someone off serviceseeking.com.au which was pretty easy to use and quickly acquired me a heap of potential gardeners. The one I ended up hiring was fine, and now it is done!

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Looking for two animal crossing items

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 04:55:32 GMT

Does anyone have a DJ turntable or math-type chalkboard?

I haven't been playing much lately so am thinking of turning off my nintendo online subscription, but naturally first I must make my house PERFECT (and then I will update my dream and get everyone to admire how pretty it all is)

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Image descriptions and alt text on this blog

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 07:13:14 GMT

Reading this guide to alt text made me aware quite how much longer some of mine are than the recommended length. Their advice for long descriptions is to either include it in the surrounding text or link to a longer description elsewhere. Dreamwidth does have space for a longer description in their image code, but as far as I can tell the only person who can see it is me, which isn't helpful.

So my two questions are (a) Does anyone actually see my alt text and (b) For those who do, what their preferences are. I'll keep doing alt text even if noone chooses it on the poll, you never know when someone might wander past and find it useful, but it's good to know.

View Poll: Image descriptions and alt text on this blog

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How to reply when I have nothing interesting to say

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 14:12:07 GMT

Sometimes when I make a post I get a lot of nice but similar comments I really appreciate, but I have nothing interesting to say to in response beyond, like, "thanks". Thinking about a unique variation on "thanks" for each comment is a lot of mental work for little benefit, but a wall of identical replies, or no replies, might make people assume I didn't like their comment. Especially since sometimes I do happen to have something interesting to say to one or two comments in particular, but not all of them, which could make everyone else feel weird.

Or maybe people won't notice or care!

So! Help me find replying to comments less mentally tiring.

View Poll: #24977

Please don't feel obliged to say you don't mind when what you mean is "It would make me feel a little bad, but I'd prefer that to you getting stressed". I just want to know what people prefer out of these two options so I can make an informed decision.

If other, please explain in the comments!

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“hi, I’m not from the US” meme

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 09:45:32 GMT

From a tumblr post. As tree pointed out it's got some built-in assumptions that don't really work for Australia, but at least they're different assumptions than the US-centric memes you usually get.
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Does anyone have a phone that takes Micro-sized sim I can borrow?

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 11:55:32 GMT

I just need to reply to an SMS and copy over some numbers and then can give it back(*). My iphone 4 died and I want to keep my number, which Optus makes very annoying if you can't access your old phone/sim. All the phones we have in the house take the new nano-sized sims.

(*)Hopefully. I can't guarantee there won't be some further shenanigans as I wrangle with Optus, but it's definitely a short term thing.

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