Eldritch Mlems

What set Dragon Age II apart from its competition was abundance. If you wanted to pursue a queer relationship, you had exactly the same number of potential companions as someone looking to pursue a straight relationship. And these relationships would be as deeply drawn and as beautifully animated as the straight ones.

I found this game mechanic, now dubbed “playersexuality,” liberating. In other video games, my favourite characters were often locked away from me by my choice of gender. If I wanted to, say, pursue Tali’Zorah in Mass Effect, I had to start the game over as a male protagonist. No such calculations were necessary in Dragon Age II. And it wasn’t just the freedom I appreciated: as a recently out bisexual, I was also smitten with a game that let me play the hero alongside a group of queer, pan and bisexual characters.

Since Dragon Age II, more and more games use a playersexual approach to romance, from indie games like Stardew Valley (2016) and Boyfriend Dungeon (2021), to big-budget role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023). The fourth installment in the Dragon Age series, The Veilguard (2024), has also re-embraced playersexuality, with all seven of the companions available for a player character to pursue.

But while playersexuality attracted me to the Dragon Age franchise, it has also been a lightning rod for very disparate groups of gamers. Conservative players, for example, argued that the LGBTQ2S+ relationships in Baldur’s Gate 3 were shoehorned in to “satisfy diversity quotas.” Players of Dragon Age II complained that the companion Anders would always flirt with Hawke (male or female), which made it impossible to avoid queer content; they derided the all-bisexual cast as unrealistic, and as abandoning Bioware’s “main demographic” (straight male gamers).

I just saw another post with a cat named Penny. Here's my girl, Penny. I'm her person and she's my soul kitty. You can always find her in the kitchen fussing for food, in her princess bed or in her dad's lap.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/21498079

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23996530

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23996399

Estradiol monotherapy. Started HRT 3 months ago with 2mg Estradiol oral tablets. Have a doctor appointment in a few days and wanted to ask to double my oral prescription, split up 4mg into 4 doses sublingual every day. Not sure if my Estrogen levels are too high and my doctor will deny my request.

• Pre-HRT Estrogen (TOTAL IA): 181 pg/mL
• Pre-HRT Testosterone (Total IA): 246 ng/dL
• Levels this week Estrogen Total IA: 438 pg/mL
• Levels this week Testosterone Total IA 115 ng/dL

From what I understand I feel like I'm definitely not achieving Testosterone suppression. https://transfemscience.org/ recommends T levels around 10 ng/dL. But having E levels of 400 pg/mL is the right range for E.

Can I convince my doctor to double my dose if my E is already at >400 pg/mL?

Edit 01: I did not take my daily dose until after my blood was drawn. Blood draw was already 24+ hours since last oral dose.

Edit02: Thank you all for your responses. My doctor approved the prescription doubling. My idiot brain realized after the fact that I didn't even need the doubling in the first place (I guess I get to stockpile now). I intended to follow the 0.5mg four times a day protocol shown here https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38130980/ . Really could have just cut my 2mg pills into four pieces.

I love this guy with every fibre of my being. He is 14yr old and starting to show his age. He has had a great life but I get all teary knowing that I'll out live him.

I always love when a cat loves cat beds!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23783662

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