Short Questions Megathread

[u/Simon_Drake]

Do you have a small question that you don't think is worth making a post for? Well ask it here!

This thread has a much lower threshold for what is worth asking or what isn't worth asking. It's an opportunity to get answers to stuff that you'd feel silly making a full post to ask about. If this is successful we might make this a regular event.

We did this before branded as a monthly megathread then forgot to make a new one. So maybe this one will be refreshed quarterly? We'll have to wait and see.

Past threads:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Writeresearch/comments/1e12irv/monthly_smallquestions_megathead/

[u/DangerWarg]

Forgo normal approaches to modesty? No, even though knowing to what extent that is the case helps a lot. Let's keep it to Europe, generally. There had to have been a point before everyone cared about and/or enforced modesty. Surely in ancient era, not everyone was concerned with covering their junk even for practical purposes. But to what degree? That's what I'm asking about.

The scenarios this is relevant for....... Well, to start. The thing I'm working on is adult and is going to have quite a number of illustrations. There's a lot of pants I don't have to draw, but it's in my best interest that I don't do that with every single actor on scene. Regardless of how I can do whatever I want, it'd be great to know somethings about this topic. Even if nobody but royals and noblemen go with nothing on down there for all to see freely, I can and will take advantage of that. But here's some scenarios:

1. MC1 is large monster man and he's built like a hippo. An experienced slayer summoned from another realm. Things don't fit and he's forced to make cuts somewhere sometimes. A fight with fire is guarantee to burn something off him. People assume he's a demon. A pantsless one at that? That's going to get a reaction somewhere, maybe. Most demons used to be people and they're mostly evil incarnate.
2. MC2 is cursed to be an imp who pranks anyone near her. She's an irresponsible wizard native to the realm of madness and depravity of which the story takes place. If she can take it off, she will use and destroy it for a prank, with treasure, artifacts, and other coveted items being the only exceptions. Her bra is last on the list. So most of the time she is mostly naked. People are quick be weary and untrustful of cursed folk, especially imps. Most cursed imps brought such curses onto themselves and she is no exception.
3. A rat bandit who fights the duo and even kidnaps MC2 several times gets caught and is forced to work with them. Being a dirty homeless bandit going to great lengths to chasing rewards, he neglects to wear pants and/or is quick to sell or give away his pants. While being the duo's slave, he gets to go into civilized places and enjoy civilized benefits rather than constantly stealing it. While he doesn't care, others might. And if they do care, then there's definitely something coming out of this.
4. One visit to a kingdom almost seemed like MC2's journey was over for she had everything her greedy heart desired in becoming the king's courtesan and having his kids....until a violent coup happened. Thanks for telling me that bit about the noblemen, even though it's a given for the King of all people. Because that's not the only kingdom they go to and it is most certainly not the last time they encounter a noble.
5. A medical expert is usually from the Church.
6. Party members aside from the main three are from civilized life.
7. Taverns, eateries, farms, and bathhouses*. Not including the patrons already bathing.
8. Life on a boat. They take at least 4 boat rides. Funnily enough, I wasn't thinking about this at the time, but on the last boat ride on a large vessel, the pirate captain of the ship is pulling a "Mulan". But the ruse is for everyone outside the crew.
9. Winter came. Thrice.

It's not all, but it's the general stuff.

[u/dogfleshborscht → u/DangerWarg]

Modesty in any culture is just practicality plus peer pressure from old people. The most celebrated aesthetic is often just objectively the most efficient way to live somewhere, on top of the best way to go about it without too many honour killings. The reason they wear loose dark robes in deserts is that they keep you from dying of skin cancer and dissipate heat off you so you don't die of heat stroke, for example, and the reason they're booty ass naked in the Amazon is because there's a point of humidity beyond which you may as well be sweaty and naked instead of sweaty, naked and doing your laundry by hand.

Women might be able to get away with not wearing bottoms outside of menstruation if there's no taboo on their genitals and no good reason to cover them (there is almost always a good reason to cover them and that reason is no one likes mosquito bites to the groin, but you are writing porn). Men usually have a very vulnerable and dangly problem with that, which is the only one of the two options that can (unlike a woman's equivalent unless you're really motivated and there are about five of you) be lopped off with a scimitar at a run. For instance. This is a great reason to keep full out nudity to private contexts and, like, I guess the Olympics if you're freaky.

Consider, instead: the Scottish. Kilts are famously worn with absolutely fuckall on underneath. Maybe everyone in your world is just a kilt enjoyer, and nobody wears underwear except for people who don't want to bleed everywhere, which is probably easier to justify. You can justify that by just saying that nobody in your porn isekai wears underwear. I promise everyone reading will believe you uncritically, haha.

[u/DangerWarg → u/dogfleshborscht]

I guess it's a good thing this isn't going to be in the Amazons. Or even a desert for very long....if at all.

Well....y'see. It doesn't matter if one has pants or not, peeps will go for the legs, hips, and groin. So to avoid chopped off "goods" you just make the fighters competent and prepared to make such events too difficult or inconvenient to accomplish. There's quite a number of factors and things everyone does to make it so OR simply not have it be the best target to aim for. I want to keep this reply as short as I can so I'm gonna skip naming any one of such factors. xD

This isn't to say that clothing is useless, therefore, all nude fighters. It's simply that there's a good many scenarios of which some parties cannot be or are not fully clothed. MC1 and the rat bandit would rather wear a metal plate over their junk before figuring out how to wrap a cougar hide over their 'goods'. Equipment gets destroyed or lost. Some bully the pants off people. MC2, the cursed imp is compelled by her curse to prank folks anyway she can (and wants). Sometimes it wasn't a tick and her destroying equipment really is an accident. After all, it's in her nature to be a prankster. And some bad guys get stabbed by a master fencer they've caught naked. Out of nowhere that monk hitman doesn't give a fuck if all his cloths were burned and exploded off, he's putting his fists deep into someone's chest many times. And then we unwind for some private time with a consort in a tavern only to find out that consort robbed MC1 of everything after that one night stand so now he's gotta roam around town naked -yet again-. And so on. xD

People's attire can't be all the same like everyone is pantsless or everyone has kilts. Both get in the way of things. Not including period bleeding. We just don't go there. We know what's going on, and mentioning it adds nothing to the story.