#(it's not but blake doesn't know that)

[almea]

[amelia-yap]

@white-rose-week day 1: body swap

ecosystems rapidly dwindling in the name of hoodies

[foxaoxarts]

BEE KISS TOMORR- *dead* /j

If anyone wants to watch me drawing this like a little victorian child then the timelapse is below the cut 🤣

(FLICKER WARNING. It's all through out so be careful!👍 )

[kaelidascope]

Midnight Menagerie Chapter 19 is LIVE

**SHAKES UH OH DOGGY BAG OF TREATS**

This aint an April Fool's joke folks. This chapter is DARK and I wish I was kidding but I'm not LOL

The second biggest chapter I have ever written for MM is LIVE!

Please please please mind the content warning on this one guys. From here on out, we're getting into the darkest segments of the story. Every negative tag will be relevant. For the sake of spoilers, I'll only label the extremely graphic scenes. ALL ABOARD THE ANGST TRAIN! CHOO CHOO

[chittychittyyangyang]

“Knowing what it is to feel loved…”

[akajustmerry]

my main thing about this it ends with us pr crisis is literally how there's just no way to make Blake Lively using a film about DV to launch her hair care line and promote her booze (when most DV incidents are alcohol related) and also her husband's homophobic superhero movie....you can't make that look good. like....justin baldoni is a zionist weirdo but he's doing the bare fucking minimum here of [checks notes] promoting a film that is about DV by being honest and respectful about the issue of DV???? and there's just no way around that ridiculous contrast between these approaches. It's so funny to me because here you have 2 very different flavours of out of touch icky celebrity but Blake Lively is soooo out of touch that she makes a guy who regularly gets on the internet and cries about how much he loves Israel look like a Saint. yeah sure there's an element of misogyny to some of the dog piling on Blake, and Baldoni did hire the same PR firm that Depp used in the Heard trial so this is becoming unnecessarily ugly in some ways. But my tin foil hat theory of this whole thing is 1) bread and circuses! and 2) the only way this ends is in destroying both Lively's carefully curated American dream girlie persona and Baldoni's feminist man persona!!! this whole thing is fascinating because it's two celebs fighting for their lives to hold onto their brands but the only way either of them can "win" is by destroying those brands, and you know what? GOOD. I'm tired or celebrity branding!!!!!! It's useless!!!

[tiredandoptimistic]

One of my favorite details about Trapper that I don't think I've seen anyone else comment on is the fact that he's the only lead character whose person back home is his kid. They've all got somebody who's the focal point of their "I wanna go home" scenes, the one they write letters to (other than Frank, who doesn't give a shit about anybody). Potter, BJ, and Henry have their wives, Mulcahy and Charles have their sisters, Margaret and Hawkeye have their dads, Radar has his mom, Klinger has his uncles, and Trapper's got his daughters.

Now, I know that BJ, Potter, and Henry all have kids they love too—hell, Erin and Peg are about equally prominent in BJ's stateside dreams—but the thing that sets Trapper apart is that he doesn't seem to care much for his wife. He talks fondly of her, sure, but he's also cheating on her constantly. Henry cheats too, but there are whole episodes dedicated to how he could never actually love anyone but Lorraine. With Trapper, he's just kinda...distant from his wife. Doesn't really talk about her much. If anything, his behavior is closer to Frank's; the serial adulterer who doesn't spare many thoughts for the woman back home. HOWEVER Trapper is leagues better than Frank in literally every way! Not being wholly in love with his wife doesn't make him a bad guy or a negligent father, it's Frank's many personal failings that are to blame for that. I think that's my point here, that I just think it's neat how Trapper is able to be a relatively more complicated figure because in him the symbols of domesticity (wife and kids) are divided. He doesn't need to be an adoring husband to be a devoted father, he can write home to Cathy and Becky because they're the ones he's really waiting to get back for.

The main cast of MASH has five married characters; Henry, Trapper, Potter, BJ, and Frank. Of that list, Trapper's the only one whose wife I can't name. Conversely, he and BJ are the only ones whose kids I can name. Henry and Potter both have children given names sometimes, but they're not consistent at all because they're not actually important in comparison to Lorraine and Mildred. Nobody gives a fuck about Frank's kids, least of all him. What I'm getting at is that, in general, the wives are the point of consistency, the anchor point representing "home." Not for Trapper though, for him it's his daughters, and I just think that's neat.

So yeah, Trapper McIntyre is dad of the year, even if his marriage might not be the best. This post was brought to you by the scene where he writes a letter home to his daughters and all the times he's cute with local kids in the show.

[bellamysgriffin]

bellarke + twenty love poems and a song of despair: [21/21]

[augustjustice]

Second in Line

AO3 Link

Blake Harrington’s heart hammers in his chest as he stares up at the peeling door of number 402, taking a deep breath to steady himself before he reaches up and gives a firm rap with his knuckles. It had just begun snowing before he managed to duck inside the shabby apartment building, dampness clinging to the shiny leather of his loafers and his perfectly pressed khaki pants now wrinkled from the train ride.

His mother would cluck her tongue if she could see him. Though, he guesses she’d probably have a lot more than that to say if she actually knew where he was. 

He hears shuffling inside, the muffled sound of a deep voice calling out Yeah, yeah, coming! 

When the door swings open a moment later, Blake barely manages not to gape.

The man standing before him has wild, curly hair that falls down to his shoulders and a thin silver hoop through his bottom lip. Inky black tattoos litter his arms, with even more peeking out from the neckline of his black t-shirt. The words Corroded Coffin are splashed across the front in a spiky graphic font. 

If this is his brother, there’s little doubt in Blake’s mind now why his parents never mention him. 

When the man blinks down at him with big brown eyes, though, they don’t quite match his mother’s. Even so Blake can’t help but wonder if this really might be…

“Steve?”

Maybe-Steve’s eyebrows shoot up at that, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Planting his hands on his knees, he stoops slightly, so that he and Blake are more at eye level. 

“Who’s asking, big guy?”

Blake extends his hand for a shake, mustering as much maturity as a thirteen year old can manage, the gesture business-like just like his father taught him. 

“Blake Harrington, sir.”

The man’s already large eyes go wide as saucers at that, jerking slightly like he’s been shocked.

“Uh, Stevie?” Gaze still on Blake, not-Steve tilts his face slightly to call back over his shoulder into the apartment. “You got a visitor.”

Part 2

[rusted-pipe-of-wisdom]

eldritch blake. yes i will elaborate

[blujaymi]

With every smile, you told me...

"I love you"

thinking about this lyric specifically in the context of this scene, it's so from yang's perspective. even though blake waited for yang to say it first, every time she smiled softly at her was a silent "i love you" to encourage yang to tell her how she feels. she knew yang was scared, so she smiled to let her know that she feels the same, until yang finally smiled back (how poetic). especially the "just say it, yang" like...wow. she wanted yang to know there was no reason to have any doubts because she loves her too.

bonus: the way blake smiles even RIGHT BEFORE the kiss because she notices how nervous yang is, and its when yang looks down and sees blake's little grin that she stops hesitating...oh my heart.

[deadmcnwalks]

"hah. Sinners."

[cuntylittlesalmon]

I came across one of your posts criticising Delilah Green, and the radfem-esque rhetoric of Ashley Herring Blake's works. I agree, I completely despised her works. But every time one of my friends or I spoke about it, we were criticised on bookstagram and book twt. I was curious to know your thoughts on these books, if you are okay with it.

i am aaaaaaalways down to talk shit about bad books! i’ve felt completely isolated in the larger sapphic bookish spheres because i hated AHB’s work, i’m glad to have found another one of us 🫶

this’ll be under a cut because it’ll be incredibly long, as every instance of me criticizing these books has been

DGDC - delilah green doesn’t care

APDF - astrid parker doesn’t fail

AHB - ashley herring blake

SO!

these books suck. lmao. i don't think they're particularly interesting on the character-level, or the world-level, or the prose-level, or really anything at all. there are scenes here and there where i can see what AHB can do but she's too busy trying to seem like the funniest and the most progressive white cis woman out there--of course, without doing any of the actual work that comes with deconstructing the racist, transphobic, and homophobic ideology she grew up with as a person from the united states.

which leads me into my first complaint: everything to do with emery and their pronouns. every single thing in that scene felt like pandering, and the pronoun sharing aspect felt like word salad that needed to be edited down to a single sentence of "And then everyone else shared their pronouns". we're already deeply aware that every single person in this book sans emery is cis, i don't need that shoved into my face further with a cis woman expounding upon how she's terrified that she's going to fuck up somehow in sharing her own pronouns. unnecessary bullshit, since i'm guessing the point was to show that astrid is insecure, particularly around industry professionals, but with a slightly funny slant to it. this was not the place to show that, especially when there are so many other instances both before and after this part that show her anxieties better.

and frankly, in sharing this part with a friend, they thought it was astrid being insecure about getting emery's pronouns correct which....if your cute lil romcom protag can be see as an annoying and borderline transphobic cissie when they come face to face with a nonbinary person for the first time because your prose just sucks ass......maybe you shouldn't include that lol

and i think that leans in a lot to the "humor" of these books. at one point in ADPF, delilah makes a joke about fighting someone "like a lesbian", which in her eyes (and somewhat therefore AHB's eyes) means gazing disapprovingly at someone and making her mouth "look like a butthole" (paraphrasing, but not the butthole part. she really says butthole). i'm assuming this was supposed to be funny, but it fell so fucking flat with me. like, these books are supposed to be romcoms. romantic fucking comedies. but most of the humor is so deeply steeped in white millennialisms that it's actually unfunny unless you're like my gen x mother who spends 90% of her time on facebook.

which, i suppose that's my biggest gripe with the books, and with AHB herself. it's a lot of self-serving nonsense, with little to no introspection about why certain things are included versus not. i mean, i can say that about a lot of popular romance novels, but thats beside the point. there is no reckoning with institutions, despite all of the call backs to how rich people suck, or how white people suck, or how men suck. it's all so very wink-wink-nudge-nudge, "im in the know, can't you tell?", correct terminology wrong ideology kinda of stuff. ok yeah, white people as the institution suck. i think we all know that. but also, ashley, every single important character, every single side character (save a couple), and every single background character (save a couple), are all white. you are actively participating in the "white is default" ideology that you seemingly dislike and make fun of in your book. so which is it?

this disconnect between AHB's story choices (all white main cast, etc) and the prose-level choices is so fucking obvious throughout the entire body of both books:

the lesbian main characters cannot call themselves lesbians, but one will call themself dyke without a second thought.

the trans-positive lesbian main characters will talk about dating/being attracted to nonbinary people, but do not have any nonbinary friends, do not talk to any nonbinary people, and the one nonbinary character included thus far speaks one (maybe twice) just to give their pronouns.

the lesbian main characters call themselves butch (or are called so by other wlw (but not lesbian) characters) and yet are still conventionally feminine in their presentations.

men are the worst people in the world, and yet josh (an ex of claire from DGDC) is consistently trying to atone for his past harm, and within the story we're given, is like, an actually alright guy.

men are the worst people in the world, and yet the worst actions taken against iris was not by her ex-boyfriend, but by her butch girlfriend (which. i have a lot of thoughts on this).

the books say they believe one thing, but are never backed up with actually evidence that this is the case.

and so, when i say the books have some radfem-y bullshit in them, this is largely what im talking about. i have no clue if AHB herself is a radfem, or exactly what she believes in. im not combing through her twitter account because she as a person annoys me, and anyone promoting her work annoys me. but she is participating in some fucked up shit, and the fact that they are so beloved just makes my ass itch and i feel like i need to speak on it more than i already do now 💀

anyway. the radfem-y stuff.

the books use some pretty covert gender essentialism when it comes to the lesbian characters vs the bisexual woman characters. every single lesbian is said to be masculine (specifically butch) while every single bisexual woman (and every single ostensibly straight woman) is, while not called out as feminine, exclusively present femininely. which....is weird. i don't think i have to say why saving masculinity for lesbians (and men) is stereotypical, and kind of gross, especially coming from someone who isn't a lesbian.

but wait! its worse! masculinity (regardless of how prescriptive vs. descriptive it is) in these books are very much associated with emotionally unavailability and callousness toward the feminine (emotional) counterpart. and really, its even worse when you compare difference within the lesbian characters (delilah, jordan, and iris' girlfriend).

delilah and jordan, when you actually examine them, are feminine presenting. they both wear red lipstick, eyeliner "sharp enough to kill a man", and in delilah's case, heels. the most masculine aspects about them is that they don't wear skirts or dresses. literally. whereas, iris's girlfriend in APDF, who only wears suits, has short cropped hair, never wears makeup, and has a stereotypically masculine job. jordan and delilah are love interests. they're allowed to grow into emotionally available people by their love for their feminine partners. the butch girlfriend, however, is a cheating piece of shit who's entire point is to set up iris' storyline for the third book in the series (a role that could've been done just as well by her ex boyfriend, who she dated in DGDC, instead of what feels like a very pointed and spiteful subplot).

so, it becomes very clear to me that masculinity is the worst thing you can have in these books. none of the men are given grace either, and i touched on it a bit earlier talking about josh. he was flaky as hell with claire and their daughter before the events of DGDC, and so claire (and by extension, her friends iris and astrid) are wary of him when he comes back into her and her daughter's lives. but, for all of that, josh isn't flaky in the book. like he very much steps up to be a good dad to his daughter. is the best? no, obviously. i dont think AHB is capable of writing a "good" character. but he literally doesn't abandon anyone, despite us being constantly told that thats what he does, to the point that when he ends up being unreachable for a couple of days, every single character freaks out and treats him like a monster. iris fucking punches him for this, even though he actually had a good reason. and im not one to defend men like 💀 i am very much a manhater, but like. cmon. it feels entirely unearned. and its that disconnect again. AHB wants you to believe that josh deserves this because he's a man, so of course he's going to be terrible, its what men do, despite him, like, not being terrible.

(and its even worse in APDF, where astrid is literally disgusted to be in his presence point blank, period, even though hes been like. consistently a decent guy.)

and my last piece in this, is natasha rojas. the otherworldly sexy and gorgeous latina host of the reality show in APDF, who literally wears a clitoris necklace. like not only is it leaning on racist stereotyping, but she's the ultimate feminine who wears a literal piece of the vagina. yonic imagery is cool and everything (genuinely, there should be more!) but this is not only extremely heavy handed in a brick-to-the-face kind of way, but also as the Ultimate Feminine, she's this deeply warm and caring and nurturing person, who is never posited as a antagonist or anything despite her positioning as a literal corporate player for HGTV (the hallmark of home renovation. every fucking person on that network is some flavor of conservative). she very much could've been a stand in for the capitalist homogenization of the housing market that HGTV absolutely caters toward, especially when you take into consideration astrid original plan for the house that she's renovating (taking it from very classically victorian to white and grey contemporary), but instead she's positioned as a mouthpiece for the glory of the clit and female sexuality only. which is fucking frustrating. and so fucking weird.

but yeah. AHB has a very white millennial liberal queer view of gender and presentation and sexuality, which in and of itself is very essentialist. but she tries to play out of her biases as a white and cis woman by making in-narrative jokes about it, but they fall completely flat because she has no idea what she's doing, and thus perpetuates the exact same shit she's trying to make fun of. she's got a lot of unchecked bigotry rattling around in that empty brain of hers, which when you're trying to write a feminist book, leans itself to radfem & white feminist ideology (which. lbr. are the fucking same but whatever).

ik this was long as hell but ty everyone who made it to the end for reading 😤🙏💓

[sevi-fuk]

Blake got another blonde. Congrats

[maburito]

The fact that for years no ship ever had the same intense grip on me that Monochrome/Checkmate from RWBY had

And the first time I actually start feeling the same type of brainworms, it's for a ship where one of them is already dead zoxnzoxksos

[izloveshorses]

god, maya’s impression of bellamy must’ve been absolutely legendary. first off, she’s only heard stories about him from jasper and co, who all essentially worship him, and then when she meets him he. he knows her name right away, like some kind of mythical creature. he’s is this powerful and intense and vengeful guy with beautiful and kind eyes who keeps asking if she’s okay. and then not 2 minutes into their relationship he beats the shit out of someone and gets all bloody and looks monstrous in this yellowish lighting, but then he’s like, “are you alright?” in this soft and gentle voice, as if he’s not the one bruised and pained about what he had to do. i can’t imagine how intriguing he would be. and then he’s super intense and serious and broody for the rest of their walk, until they meet the children, and he’s even more tortured about it. and when he talks to clarke about their plan and maya doesn’t seem confident about the long laundry list of tasks they have to do, he still smiles and assures that it’s not a problem. always believing in the impossible for the sake of everyone else. 

the way he immediately steps into that big brother role with her. the way maya sees all these complicated sides of him all at once, and still chooses to go all in. 

this dynamic is one of the most interesting ones on the show, it’s a shame we only get to see it for just a few episodes.