#ANYWAYS. these three are Such a Vibe tbh.

[5ome-7ype-0f-5hapeshifter]

Legs shipping plz

bet. also love ur designs btw.

main image.

and i uh. [(un)fortunately?] got carried away so there's a minicomic included with this bundle.

so erm. Yur foods. here yuo go.

[waitineedaname]

mxtx characters who, in my humble butch opinion, should be butch

Luo Binghe: listen. look me in the eyes. in a genderswap situation, Binghe should get to be butch. one of the key themes in SVSSS is gender, and one of the things that distinguishes SVSSS!Binghe from PIDW!Binghe is that he's not the hypermasculine protagonist and instead is allowed to enjoy more feminine things (like being Shizun's housewife). that's why he's specifically called Bing-mei and it's also why im on my transfemme Binghe soapbox all the time, but that's a whole other topic. what im saying is if we're reversing the gender situation, then fem!Binghe in SVSSS should get to enjoy more masculine things. it's what she deserves. she strikes me as the kind of butch that gets a thrill out of doing gentlemanly things like giving SQQ her coat when she's cold. she should be the Bing-di to PIDW's Bing-jie

Shang Qinghua: this one is deeply self-indulgent projection but don't fucking worry about that okay. SQH is a very specific flavor of low effort butch nerd. SQH is the cookie monster pajamas to butch pipeline. SQH cuts her own hair with regular scissors for convenience and Shen Yuan is dying to get her to just buy some goddamn clippers. SQH is running off of four red bulls and spite. She inexplicably has game and she's just as confused about this as you are

Xie Lian: imagine this for me. you go to one of those volunteering events where you're cleaning trash out of a creek or something. there is a woman there in cargo pants or maybe overalls, something with a shit ton of pockets. she has not shaved in months, maybe years. her hair is in the messiest bun possible, or maybe tied back under a baseball cap. she is somehow the most beautiful woman you've ever seen. after taking away all the trash and informing everyone how to sort the recycling, she is picked up by another woman who appears to be the definition of high camp. you leave this encounter feeling like you might have been converted to something. perhaps to lesbianism. this is what an encounter with butch Xie Lian is like.

[chatdae]

honestly it doesn't bug me that Jerry Seinfeld is bad at acting because the other main cast of Seinfeld are so good, Jerry's acting becomes a joke in and of itself.

[britneyshakespeare]

i think very often about that telegraph article from 2011 asking various writers if they prefer wuthering heights or jane eyre, and blake morrison said:

Asking which you prefer out of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre is similar to the questions, “Are you John Lennon or Paul McCartney?” and “Are you cat or dog?” The more exciting people are John Lennon, cat and Wuthering Heights. But I am Paul McCartney, dog and Jane Eyre.

[goldensunset]

surprise art attack!!! here’s @deityofhearts ‘s cashmere, everyone’s favorite whimsical tiefling

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

okay my qbbh playlist is too small and i would LOVE to pad it out more- anyone have some good recs? 👀

[highdensityrabbitsituation]

amazing that the world cup final didn't kill me. the drama. the plot twists. the penalties, the extra time, the penalties. literally everyone on the field crying. my heart rate still hasn't settled

[diningwiththeasquiths]

👀👀👀👀

[solymn]

Wish me luck lads, we’re entering crunch mode

[moe-broey]

Hmmmm.....

[tevinter-pariah]

Shoutout to academic literature™️ for giving me those Critical Role Campaign 2 spoilers I’ve been trying to avoid for the past few years. Truly an experience I never expected and would rather not replicate again.

[stripesysheaven]

ben/jack, jack/sawyer, sawyer/christian shgjhsks

OOO SUCH GOOD ONES 👀

ben x jack (my disgraced beloved):

jack x sawyer (the wlws fr):

sawyer x christian (best ship designed to fuck with jack’s head completely):

x

[lovevalley45]

i have smeared sara's name thru the mud complainin abt her character interactions post-s4 but. frankly watching ava start her mentor arcTM in s4 and basically just see any woman n be like. yeah i'll try to be her friend from then on is fun for her

[du-hjarta-skulblaka]

It just occurred that for all im interested in Dragon Age Darthvader, I should maybe like. Actually. Finish inquisition,,

[dyed-red]

ooh please expand on why you think sam didn't go to a school in new york? (and why he did go to california)

in response to the tags on this post.

also sorry this took me a while to get back to, i started replying then had to save in drafts.

-

ooh okay. so. i’m not going to articulate this well at all, but i’ll try.

First thing: population density.

The Winchesters spend the bulk of their time in small towns and smaller cities. They seem to rove about in all corners of the US, but we very seldom see them in major cities or in densely populated areas (and they seem to seldom visit either the northeast or the southeast but some of that is for another post sometime).

Obviously, Stanford is in Palo Alto, which is in the Bay Area, which includes San Fransisco, Oakland, San Jose, and smaller communities. The population density of the Bay Area is about ~1100 per square mile. Palo Alto itself is a bit more with a density of 2800 people per square mile. But like...  NYC comes in at ~29k people per square mile. So there's really no comparison. 

Population density often comes with traffic, noise, a more rushed pace of life, less community and social connection and other issues. It can be A Lot to people who aren’t used to it, and it’s not something Sam’s upbringing would have accustomed him to in any comfortable way. Not to say that the Bay Area has none of that, but overall much less. NYC is probably the extreme end of this scale to be honest -- it is The City That Never Sleeps. It is bustling and loud and busy and overwhelming as hell, especially in a sensory way.

Given how much of a leap Sam was already making by going to university at all, it makes sense that he’d want to go somewhere less overwhelming, where he’d feel a bit less like a complete gawking novice.

There’s also the vibe of both places.

NYC has a reputation as a world city. It is historical, huge and layered and absorbs all manner of folk from all walks of life into a complex mosaic of interactions. It is in many ways very impersonal. It is where It is happening in terms of important major-scale world events. While it might be selling you the promise of reinventing yourself and being lost in the crowd, it’s typically less about becoming a different you and more about success, about being where it's at, about being part of the fabric of this intensely unique place.

There’s not really anything about it I’d describe as quaint? I’m sure pockets are and the locals would be able to point to them, but that’s not its reputation, and assuming Sam had been there before sending out applications, I don’t think that would be his perception of it. It’s not inviting to outsiders, necessarily, except that it swallows and absorbs all types of people without issue. While appealing to someone who feels other, unclean, etc, that may be appealing, but he’s seeking normalcy, not to embrace his otherness.

California has a very different reputation (and vibe) than NYC.

Not to say the core of California as LA is not loud and overwhelming and that Hollywood is not also a complex layered historical city, but even there (which is not where Sam went), you have a much lower population density, less hustle and bustle, and the impersonal aloofness of the city has a different tone to it.

But California in general, and the Bay Area? Cali has this sunshine vibe, and by reputation (and to a certain extent, reality, though ymmv) it is this progressive bastion of more free thought and acceptance. There’s a longstanding history of queer people moving to NYC or to California, and for good reason. Places that accept all manner of people. The Bay Area is very true for this as well.

In Cali, that promise of freedom is big, and that promise is tinged with reinventing yourself. This is LA in a big way, but in the Bay Area Silicon Valley? The promise of meritocracy is big too, that American Dream of hard work = success embedded in the fabric of the area’s development. Your background doesn’t matter, not compared to what you’re bringing to the table.

While the east coast scholarly history and the sheer number of incredible universities along the American east coast would appeal to Sam, the Bay Area also has a ridiculous number of very good schools, but they are less old-school, old-money elite than many on the east coast. They are not the Ivy Leagues, they are the younger upstarts who hit at the same level despite not coming from the same pedigree. This, I think, would appeal to Sam on a deep level.

(Also - not like, consciously. Sam isn’t sitting there thinking about things this way when he’s 16-17 and trying to figure out what he’s going to do. He’s just absorbing cultural narratives and responding to them and trying to figure out what fits best and feels best. He’s got more important things to think about than any of what I’ve mentioned here).

Also, just to reiterate, the Bay Area actually is kind of quaint in places. San Fransisco and its iconic colourful townhouses and hills? That lower population density and slower more chill pace of life? It would appeal more to a person who has spent most of their life in smaller towns. Not to say that these cities are without their issues (good luck finding a public washroom in San Fransisco. And good luck with the cost of living omg), but vibe-wise, I think it fits Sam much better than NYC.

Practicalities

NYC gets cold in winter. Sam has lived in some shit places, probably with quite variable heat and cooling, not to mention nights in the car and at the whims of the elements. If you’re going to live in a shit apartment with drafts etc., or god forbid spend a night on the streets if you can’t find a place to stay, then you want to be in the place with the warmer climate where you’re less likely to die of exposure.

Also, both NYC and the Bay Area have pretty good public transport as far as US cities go, and are more urbanist cities than many in North America. There’s no question that NYC wins in this regard, but the Bay Area doesn’t fall so short that it’s out of the running. Sam doesn’t mind walking or doing what he needs to in order to get around so I don’t think he’d take public transit much except for long distances when he has to, but given the complete lack of resources he’s starting out with, the walkability or transport options of the area maybe mattered.

That might have also helped disqualify very high quality universities in college towns or ones in parts of the US which might have felt more familiar, actually? Because as much as Sam likes small towns, considering he’s trying to present himself as Joe Normal and shuffle off the skin of his previous hunting experiences and life, he doesn’t want to find himself in a position where he needs to steal a car in order to get out of a given situation or to get somewhere. He needs independence in a way that doesn’t make him stand out.

He also wants something different than how he was raised, wants to disappear into a larger city at least a little, get away from the feeling of constraint that small towns imposed on him and gain that sense of freedom and novelty and exploration that comes from being in a bigger city for the first time.

So - California.

[raddishwrites]

Chapter Sixteen! I also can’t believe it’s on time!