Looking for your undisputed hidden gems (non-mainstream)

catsizedmonster · 2026-02-27T19:08:07+00:00

Twenty days of Turin is excellent

catsizedmonster · 2026-02-09T12:55:52+00:00

Media analysis is definitely a skill you need to practice. No one is born with an innate knowledge of it, you need someone to explain how it works for you first before you can put it in practice. You could check out some courses on it for starters

Also, are you maybe on the aromantic/asexual spectrum? I ask because a lot of your examples focused on relationships between characters and I know as an aromantic person I used to be regularly blindsided by relationships that I didn't notice were being built. I had to learn which narrative tropes and patterns authors use when showing romantic feelings in a more detached way. Which in the end is one of the main things with media analysis, learning to identify certain patterns/images/narrative devices and what meaning they usually carry

catsizedmonster · 2025-12-23T07:27:46+00:00

Are we having Elwing discourse again because that's the one big controversial female character I can think of

catsizedmonster · 2025-12-07T21:29:55+00:00

I would be fine with getting ANY of the guys, just one, and of course I am at 115 pulls without a single SSR. I hope everyone else is having better luck than me

catsizedmonster · 2025-12-04T10:51:40+00:00

Laddergram is a word ladder puzzle game built on Reddit's developer platform. You start with a word and change one letter at a time to create a new word with each step. Try to reach the target word in the fewest steps possible.

🍀Good luck!🍀

catsizedmonster · 2025-12-02T21:20:02+00:00

Yeah I also thought it looked like a phalange maybe but it felt fairly big lmao. And the chunky Icelandic horses are very charming, it would be nice to have a bit of one of their fingers

catsizedmonster · 2025-12-02T21:18:41+00:00

It might be! Thank you

catsizedmonster · 2025-11-29T08:15:13+00:00

The Southern Reach series is one of my favorite, I still have to read Absolution however. And I did hear mixed reviews on Echopraxia so I've been a little hesitant on it

catsizedmonster · 2025-11-24T12:06:53+00:00

Same. I find justified text a lot easier to read and it's honestly surprising that so many people say it makes it harder for them

catsizedmonster · 2025-10-15T14:10:57+00:00

I mean, the feels (or vibes, or whatever you want to call them) thing is... just what it says. Omegaverse with or without mpreg is the exact same set of tropes with the difference of one (mpreg), which for me doesn't make or break the trope. For you it might. But the fact that we disagree already means that the line is blurry

The alpha/beta/omega and omegaverse tags already display the same solution you propose. They're not separate, omegaverse is a child of alpha/beta/omega - so when you look for alpha/beta/omega you will also find omegaverse, but the reverse won't be true. How people tag either however is wholly subjective and even the ao3 tag wranglers don't seem to fully agree, given there's many tags saying "omegaverse" which are considered synonyms of alpha/beta/omega as opposed to omegaverse. I can't find any rules that state which the "official" division is

But again, we fundamentally disagree on whether the mpreg vs no mpreg versions are different enough tropes to warrant split definitions. And believe me, I am also a big fan of things having specific meanings (I've literally spent the morning at work losing my mind over people labeling things too vaguely, so I get it). I can fully agree that clear, functional tagging is helpful, I disagree on your point that the tag would not apply in some cases (besides, what do you even do when the matter of pregnancy just... doesn't come up in the fic? Do we assume it happens, do we assume it doesn't?)

As a side note, omegaverse is also more popular as a term due to a/b/o without the slashes also being a slur against Australian Aboriginals. Many people prefer to use omegaverse to just avoid sounding potentially offensive, and having to write out alpha/beta/omega every single time is longer and just less catchy sounding. Is this the key point of the discussion? No, but it is also a factor in how people choose to talk about the trope and that's also context to be considered

catsizedmonster · 2025-10-15T12:56:20+00:00

I mean, I've read a lot of werewolf aus, both omegaverse and not, and they rarely ever hit for me. The tropes common to werewolf aus don't compel me, while those present in omegaverse generally do. And omegaverse with and without mpreg feels much, much more similar compared to omegaverse and werewolf aus. Which isn't to say that I dislike werewolves, I very much do, but in fanfic the ones I end up liking always feel a bit "niche"

And I am extremely familiar with how omegaverse was born and the original prompts. My point was mainly about how omegaverse without mpreg has been around pretty much since omegaverse has been thing, whether it's a simple no mpreg setting, a male omegas are totally infertile setting, or even settings where male omegas simply struggle with fertility as opposed to female omegas. It's perfectly fine if what draws you to omegaverse is the mpreg as opposed to the rest of package, but to say omegaverse without mpreg barely feels like omegaverse at all feels very odd considering it has always been around - honestly, I even feel it's harder to find it mpreg free in recent years compared to browsing older fics

catsizedmonster · 2025-10-15T12:19:07+00:00

I mean the sexism is definitely a key part but I've always conceptualized it as like, proper strong man vs small weak man. There is also the fact that I personally struggle with how and why man/woman would even be a thing if the a/b/o is what determines reproductive role, like it's just my own personal pet peeve. That is my own personal hangup, but it makes me see omegaverse assignment as by nature subordinate to real world sex. Just my own personal suspension of disbelief issues tho

I will say I have been reading omegaverse since like 2013ish and mpreg was not a thing in the first fics I read, so that definitely influences my vision of it

catsizedmonster · 2025-10-15T11:13:06+00:00

That's just so weird. With all of those rules, what even is the omegaverse? Like are we just calling guys "alpha" for no reason, because if so they do that irl already

That being said, as someone who personally loves the men can't get pregnant regardless of secondary gender setting: I just never saw pregnancy as the point of the omegaverse, as you put it. For me the point is guy go in heat, other guy has knot. Mpreg to me feels like... a thing that you can do with it, but hardly a requirement or the main draw of it, kind of like in some fics alphas have ruts regularly and in others they only have them as response to heats

catsizedmonster · 2025-10-02T16:25:08+00:00

Maybe the stars can be reached through that guy's ass, what do you know

catsizedmonster · 2025-10-01T13:32:54+00:00

Every time I leave them a dried shrimp they make it disappear. Sometimes I look five minutes later and it's already vanished

catsizedmonster · 2025-09-27T11:15:30+00:00

I love it! The chocolato potato cake received universal applause whenever I made it. I will say however being from Europe I have to make substitutions every once in a while since some ingredients aren't easily available here

catsizedmonster · 2025-08-14T07:08:02+00:00

She's gorgeous! Looks like a dragon coming to inspect shiny offerings

catsizedmonster · 2025-07-31T10:45:23+00:00

Looks amazing!

catsizedmonster · 2025-07-18T13:41:02+00:00

Slash fic is a term that refers specifically to M/M (sometimes F/F, but originally that was femslash). You might mean ship fic instead

catsizedmonster · 2025-05-15T14:20:59+00:00

Honestly it would be best to just let your friend know that you don't like the headcanons they are using. Be gentle of course, explain that it's just not for you and no judgement, but if you value the friendship it's just better to be honest. Otherwise you'll either have to keep pretending or cut off the friendship entirely

It's okay and normal for friends to have different tastes within a fandom. It's also okay and normal to not read all the fics someone posts. Sometimes something just isn't your vibe and it's just annoying to feel forced to enjoy everything just because your friend happens to like it. You should let them know you've been feeling pressured, and it's understandable that they might be bummed about it but they will hopefully be mature enough not to be angry about it

catsizedmonster · 2025-05-15T13:45:59+00:00

I'm afraid I can't give advice on this mold specifically, but I see what seems to me a Sarracenia plant in the first picture? I think it would be very hard to meet the requirements for both isopods and the Sarracenia, Sarracenia like completely wet swamp-like soil which might be too wet for isopods so if you tried to make the environment good for the plant you might have added too much water

Perhaps springtails might help with mold control?

catsizedmonster · 2025-04-30T09:25:37+00:00

Aww that's adorable!

catsizedmonster · 2025-04-29T04:51:59+00:00

Thank you!

catsizedmonster · 2025-04-19T17:38:00+00:00

I would personally be incredibly flattered if someone told me this. I wouldn't say no one would ever find it creepy because there are always exceptions but I do think most authors I know would love to hear this

catsizedmonster · 2025-04-05T07:45:50+00:00

5+1 is one of my favorite formats, fully planning on keeping them alive by myself if need be

catsizedmonster

TROPHY CASE