#I do believe I have a problem with rambling…

[bugzzybabe]

Social Media [Steve Rogers x Reader]

Summary: Reader teaches Steve how to use social media and he sees her more provocative pictures.

Authors Note: This was written with the intention of a second part so let me know by the end if that sounds appealing. Enjoy!

WC: 1.2k

Steve might have been over a hundred years old but he did his best to keep up with the times. Over the past two years of being with the Avengers, Steve and you had fallen into routine of you casually keeping him up to date with societal standards and routines. Whether it was explaining to him hookup culture or ubers, he was always attentive during your lessons.

You hadn't recognized it, but the past few months, Steve had been taking extra care to impress you. Listening and being there for you was something he took extra pride in as he wanted you to know that he cared.

Little did he know, you had also grown quite fond off the talks you would share. The way his shoulder would brush yours would send shocks down your spine as you tried to ignore any type of non platonic feelings. You truly believed he could never feel that way about you, so you did your best to maintain the friendship.

It was especially hard to keep this act up though when he was staring at you with those bright blue eyes that peered straight into your thumping heart, as he was doing now.

"Please teach me how to use the online medias. Tony won't stop posting pictures of my butt and posting them on the bird app calling it 'America's Ass'." Steve shuttered as he recounted the memes the team would make of him when he wasn't looking. Tony did have a secret spam that he would use to often make fun of the team in a loving way. Everyone assumed it was Peter's doing until you walked in one day on Tony snickering while posting a photo of Clint having fallen asleep in one of the vents.

Looking back at the tall and brutally handsome man in front of you, you sighed and patted the seat on the couch next to you. Steve gave you that faint worthy smile as he politely sat within arms reach of you. The body heat he gave off made you want to melt but you brushed it off and gestured for his phone.

"Oh right!" He fumbled as he patted his pockets down for the phone under Stark Technologies. Steve was one of the only people who denied all the updates Tony would provide for all the team's tech. You always felt bad as using technology for Steve was hard enough without all the constant updates of flashy nonsense.

"So first I'm going to go to the app store and download some of the more common social media apps like Twitter and Instagram." You gently explained as Steve watched you maneuver throughout his phone. He was always left in awe of how natural it all came to you.

"And I don't have to pay for it?" He questioned as you shook your head.

"Nope! Some apps cost money but most don't. Either way, Tony probably would cover it no problem." You stated as the apps downloaded.

Once they were loaded, you opened Instagram and began to sign Steve up. Since there was already an account for Captain America, run by the team's press, there was no need to create a professional one.

"Now I'm gonna make you an account just for your personal use, not to promote any avengers things. Just for Steve!" He nodded along as you rambled, just in awe of you. Honestly you could say anything and he would probably go along with it.

"You can use this account to post or not post whatever. Some people use it for aesthetic pictures they take, photos of friends and family or just selfies of themselves."

"What do you post?" Steve asked as your rambling was cut short. You should've expected this question but you never thought your crush/friend/coworker would ever see your feed (seeing as Steve is clueless when it comes to the internet).

You blushed and stammered to answer, "Well I post pictures of my friends, food I really liked or photos that I look good in I guess..." You mumble the last part and internally beg he wouldn't request to see it. The reason for this being that you had a couple bikini pictures up that usually weren't a problem or shameful secret, but you just didn't want Steve seeing them.

"Can I follow you?" Steve asks with a soft look in his eyes. Your heart fluttered as you pretended to be chill and shrugged looking back at his phone. You proceeded to look up your account and followed it before quickly exiting before he had a chance to see anything.

Steve smiled at you before continuing the conversation, "Thank you for helping me with all this. I didn't want to ask the others and have them make fun of me." He shyly stated as you looked at the man with wide eyes. You didn't realize how comfortable he felt around you until you realized you were the person he came to for help with all of this.

"Oh Steve, it's no problem at all! Plus you're such a fast learner that it's no big deal." Plus you loved being around him so that made it easy. You weren't gonna tell him that last part though...

After another hour of explaining how social media worked, Steve gave you another genuine smile and excused himself to go finish up a last minute report. The second he left the room you let out an exhausted sigh and sunk back into the couch.

Everytime Steve was around you, you got so in your own head that he basically consumed your mind. Little did you know you had the same effect on Steve. The second he stepped into his office, he let out a sigh he didn't realize he was holding. The only real reason he wanted to get on social media was to see all the photos you always seemed to be posting. He saw one of your photos on Natashas phone the other day when she left it out and had never felt so compelled to steal something before.

Within the privacy of his office, Steve finally brought his phone back out and opened Instagram. Going to his following page like you taught him, he opened your account and almost passed out. Right there on your third latest post was a picture of you and Wanda from a hike you had gone on a couple days prior.

Looking at the blissful smile on your face, Steve felt himself falling even harder for you. He continued to scroll through your account until he landed on one of your posts from a couple months ago. You had gone with the girls on a beach trip (funded by Tony) and had a mini photoshoot at the beach. Steve's face flushed bright red as he tried not to look too hard at the photo. He couldn't help but admire the red one piece you were wearing and how it hugged each of your curves in a way that left his mouth watering.

Fumbling to exit out of the photo before he continued to think the lewd thoughts forming in his mind, Steve accidentally hit the like button. Actively trying to not mess up further, Steve threw his phone across the room, hoping it would turn off. Digging his nails into the desk, he took deep breaths as to try and erase the image of you looking so breathtakingly stunning in his mind.

Hesitantly going to pick back up his phone, Steve noticed a new message from you. He quickly opened it up to find a text that made his breath catch, "Come meet me in my room in 10". Holy shit. 

Authors Note: Comment if you want a part 2 with smut ;)

[aoelustious]

(A lil rambling on queer discourse outside and inside the fandom from a genderfluid bisexual)

One of the most enduring tensions within queer communities — especially as queerness becomes more visible in media, fandom, and state-sanctioned institutions — is the question of assimilation vs radicalism. And no, this isn’t new. We’ve been circling this debate since at least the post-Stonewall era, and arguably since before the term “homosexual” was even coined.

I. “Normalization” as Strategy

The move to normalize queerness — to make queer relationships legible to heteronormative society through things like marriage, monogamy, parenthood, or even just public respectability — has roots in practical survival.

Think: the Human Rights Campaign’s messaging, “Love is love,” marriage equality, queer representation in sitcoms and yogurt commercials.

This direction can be read as a bourgeois political strategy (Duggan, 2002), often referred to as “homonormativity.” It prioritizes “acceptable” queer subjects (cis, middle-class, often white, often masc) who resemble their straight counterparts as closely as possible — except for the gender of their partner.

And it’s true: this has tangible benefits. Legal protections. Cultural legitimacy. Safety.

But this approach also comes with costs. It sidelines queer people who don’t fit the norm — trans people, poly folks, kinky folks, poor people, disabled people, racialized people. It risks transforming queerness from a challenge to dominant systems… into a rebranding of them.

II. “Preserve Queerness” as Resistance

On the flip side, there are those who argue that queerness should remain fundamentally oppositional. That queerness is not just about who we love — it’s about how we live, what we disrupt, how we imagine new futures.

Think: José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia, in which queerness is positioned as something not yet here, something utopian, always pointing beyond what is.

Here, the critique is not just of heteronormativity, but of the institutions that structure all our lives — the nuclear family, capitalism, the state, colonial timelines of success. “Queer” is a method, not just an identity. A verb, not just a noun.

But this view can also become rigid. When queerness is defined only by its capacity to reject, it risks becoming inaccessible to those who do want things like marriage or kids — especially if those things weren’t always accessible to them before. We shouldn’t turn queerness into a test people must pass to be “valid.”

III. And Yes, This Applies to Your Fanfic Discourse

This debate resurfaces constantly in fan spaces:

– Is shipping fixed top/bottom roles inherently heteronormative?

– Is using seme/uke language a form of internalized oppression?

– Is “switch hate” in fandom actually just queerphobia in disguise?

And the answer is… it depends. But more importantly, intention and context matter.

Queer codes like top/bottom, bear/twink, fem/butch emerged from the queer community as tools of navigation, identity, intimacy, and play. That they’re sometimes messy, stereotyped, or commodified doesn’t erase their history or usefulness. And yes — these codes have always intersected with fandom culture. Sometimes clumsily. Sometimes joyfully.

Fandom is not a political campaign. It’s a liminal space where fiction, fantasy, and projection collide — and trying to impose rigid moral frameworks onto it flattens the complex emotional and cultural labor happening there.

If you critique top/bottom dynamics in fic because you believe they replicate heteropatriarchal logic — fine. That’s a discussion worth having. But if your critique shames people for their preferences, you’re reproducing the same moral purity logic you claim to oppose.

IV. The Problem of the Queer Police

The worst-case scenario here is that we start using queerness not as liberation, but as a tool of internal policing. When queerness becomes something that must be performed correctly to be respected, it loses its radical potential.

If your queerness is only valid when it aligns with a particular brand of politics or aesthetics, we’re not breaking binaries — we’re just building new ones.

Queerness contains multitudes. It can be domestic or deviant. Normie or revolutionary. Tender or obscene. Apolitical or hyper-political. And it is still queerness.

To quote Eve Sedgwick:

“People are different from each other.”

And that includes how they ship, write, love, protest, fuck, and self-identify.

We don’t have to collapse queerness into one monolithic definition to protect it. We just have to trust that its range is part of what gives it power.

[gydima]

Paddy/Eoin fic: Fancy running into you here

I'm a simple girl. I see a funny tumblr post, imagine it happening to my OTP, and write a quick fic about it. (Also posted to AO3.)

"What the fuck is wrong with—"

Paddy comes out of his car blazing, anger exacerbated by the pain in his shoulder and the rush of adrenaline. He cuts his oncoming tirade short when he sees the other driver exit his car, wide-eyed and horrified.

"Oh, god, are you all right?" the man asks, rushing to Paddy's side without sparing a glance at either vehicle. "I'm so sorry, I can't believe I hit you." He reaches out abortively, stopping short of touching Paddy.

"I'm, um." Paddy flounders; there's no mistaking Eoin McGonigal, who Paddy spent hours ogling at university. He's older, obviously, and somehow more handsome, lanky body wrapped in smart trousers and a dress shirt, with the top two buttons open and sleeves rolled up far enough to expose the lean but strong forearms that starred in many of Paddy's fantasies. "I'm fine," he says when his brain comes back online.

Eoin's expression changes from worry to disbelief. "You're fine? I don't think your arm is meant to look like that!"

"What?" Paddy asks, looking down. He's not nearly so well-dressed as Eoin, wearing joggers, trainers and a vest that clearly reveals his dislocated shoulder. "Oh, that. You mean this doesn't happen to you all the time?" he asks, bracing himself against the side of his car and using the force of his body to push his shoulder back into socket.

"Fuck me!" Eoin says, looking a bit green.

Those are words Paddy never thought he'd hear Eoin say, and they're certainly not said in the way he'd ever imagined. Ah, well.

"It's truly no big deal," Paddy explains, holding the arm close to his body and bracing it there with his other hand. "It's Ehlers-Danlos."

"Is... is that your name?" Eoin asks.

"Oh. No. Paddy Mayne. I'd shake your hand, but— " He nods toward his shoulder, although he can barely feel the pain now through the excitement/terror of seeing Eoin again.

"Of course! I'm so sorry, again. I don't know if you saw it, but a dog ran across the road, so I swerved to avoid it and my car skidded. I should have known better than to do that when the roads are this slick. I'm rambling, sorry. Eoin McGonigal."

Paddy nods. "I know. We were in the same Law & Ethics course a few years ago."

"Oh!" Eoin says, warm brown eyes brightening. "Blair!"

"Aye, that's what the professor called me. I mostly go by Paddy, though," he says, taken aback that Eoin remembers him. Eoin was surrounded by friends in the course they shared — and everywhere else on university grounds. They had a few exhilarating debates in the lecture hall that term, but only ever exchanged hellos and some quick pleasantries outside of class.

"Paddy, then. Are you OK other than the shoulder?"

"I think so. Are you?"

Eoin nods. "The dog made it across unscathed, or else I'd be an emotional disaster right now."

"Priorities," Paddy says with a smile. "Speaking of, shall we check the damage?"

They each take stock of their own vehicle and the other's. Luckily, the damage appears to be mostly limited to their bumpers.

"Not too bad," Eoin says. "I have good insurance, so coverage shouldn't be a problem. Unless you're feeling litigious?"

"Not particularly," Paddy replies. "But shouldn't you have known better than to admit fault, as someone who was at the top of our class?"

"Near the top," Eoin corrects him. "Not quite at the top."

"Aye, I know," Paddy says with a smirk.

Eoin laughs. "Did you know my goal that entire term was to best you on just one exam? I never did get there."

"Me?" Paddy asks, raising his eyebrows. "I didn't think you even remembered me."

Eoin looks down, scuffing one of his shiny Oxfords across the pavement before glancing back up through his eyelashes. "I might have been pretending not to recognize you, until you said you remembered me."

"Is that so," Paddy says. "I wouldn't have guessed that."

"Really?" Eoin asks with a soft, lovely smile. "You were the prize law student and rugby player. I'm more surprised you recognized me."

"You shouldn't be," Paddy says, emboldened by Eoin's signals. "You were one of the only other out lads at uni. And the handsomest."

Eoin flushes, cheeks going that sweet, blotchy red Paddy always found so endearing. "Well, I was too shy to ask you then, but maybe we could exchange numbers now? For insurance purposes, if nothing else."

"I wouldn't mind that," Paddy says, rattling off his number after Eoin pulls his phone out of his pocket and opens a new text. He watches Eoin tap in his number with long, elegant fingers (which also figured heavily into Paddy's fantasies) and keeps watching for a good minute longer while Eoin types out what looks to be an awfully long message.

"There," Eoin says at last, and Paddy's phone vibrates. "I just sent you a text."

Paddy reaches for his own phone and opens up his latest message, from an unsaved number.

"Hey it's Eoin, the guy who hit you with his car. Sorry if this is inappropriate but would you wanna get dinner or coffee or lunch or a drink or something where l open doors for you & buy you consumable goods sometime? I promise not to run over you ever again 🥺 I just don't know many guys who can pop their own shoulder back in & make a joke while doing it. Ur very cute."

Paddy looks back up, squinting at Eoin's hopeful smile as if in thought. "Hmmm, I suppose so," Paddy says teasingly. Then, more seriously: "You don't know how disappointed I would have been if you only wanted to exchange insurance details."

Eoin laughs, the sound just as enchanting as it was at uni. "I think I have some idea," he says.

Paddy starts to shrug, then winces as the pain in his shoulder surges back to the forefront. "If you really want to open doors for me, could you start with your car? I probably shouldn't drive until I can get home and get my arm in a sling."

"Oh, of course! I can't believe I've stood here flirting with you while you were hurting," Eoin says. "Do you want me to drive your car instead? I can catch the bus back this direction to pick mine up after we get you home."

"Sure, all right," Paddy agrees, pleased at Eoin's thoughtfulness and admission of flirting. He gives Eoin his keys, and sure enough Eoin opens the passenger door for him, helps him fasten his seat belt, then closes the door behind him.

"I'm surprised you trust me to drive you after all this," Eoin says once he's in the driver's side, adjusting the seat and mirrors to account for his height.

"As long as we don't come across any rogue dogs, I think I can trust you," Paddy says.

Eoin wraps those long fingers around the steering wheel and grins over at Paddy. "I won't let you down," he says.

Paddy doesn't doubt him for a moment.

end.

A couple of notes: If you were worried, Paddy and Eoin had already pulled their cars off the road and into a parking lot or something before the fic starts. They're not in the middle of the road having a chat with traffic all around them.

Also, should Paddy have been playing rugby at university if he had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? Absolutely not. But he would have anyway, and he definitely would have been the guy who popped his own joints back into socket once he got tired of seeing doctors for it all the time.

[etirabys]

current original work protagonist is the magically powerful bastard child of a clan with mind control; her thing is that she despises them for how they treated her mother, is plotting their downfall, and considers herself morally superior to them. like the rest of her family she on some level considers it her natural right to maneuver other humans around on the board, but she has trained up her charisma so that she can manipulate and gaslight people the old fashioned way instead of using dark magic, which is Bad

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

I know I’ve said this before, but as much as I think gallifrey really wouldn’t work all that well outside of audio, I would absolutely love to be able to see character’s mannerisms, how they stand, how they walk, the facial expressions they make. I want to see the stupid time lord outfits and the halls of the citadel and what low town and the outlands look like, what the houses look like, I really just wish we had more visuals of gallifrey

[matteoberrettini]

genuinely hilarious btw how people on twt want soo bad to make matteo a villain in jannik's story or some shit like it's a disney movie. less than a month ago he said they'd talked recently and he's never had anything but good things to say about jannik but to some people it'll never be enough because he made a decision for his career that i understand is hard to digest but it has nothing to do with his relationship with jannik, jannik himself said it doesn't bother him, they both have never indicated they weren't on good terms. like yeah we can't ever really know the truth behind what they say in public, but i think we should stick with what we can see and read, yeah? because making wild assumptions based on nothing doesn't lead to anything good, it's just speculation and i don't see what anyone gains from it?? i think maybe some people need to grow up and accept that they don't know these people. they don't know jannik and what he thinks or feels or who he talks to or who avoids him or whatever. we know what he shows and tells us and that has to be enough because otherwise we go down dangerous paths

[lesbiansforeddiediaz]

Where my Eddie meta differs from the popular fanon is I don't think all his problems are because he's gay and I don't think kissing a man would heal him or really benefit him much at all. (He is gay but that's not important right now)

[novantinuum]

steven quartz universe is a wild character because never before have i simultaneously had various facets of imagined scenarios in my head where a character is either: cis+, nonbinary, a trans boy, OR a trans girl before

like you could genuinely go ANY direction with this character and still come up with a satisfying and interesting bit of character work for Why gender is the way it do be

[pyrepostings]

imagining a defiant interrogation whumpee who gets sick of saying "I'm not telling you" so they start going into what sounds initially to be them finally telling whumper what they want to know, but ends up being whumpee wasting time by just quoting a song.

[gojoest]

not the usual good morning post, but hello and morning! ( :

i’m deeply grateful to everyone who is looking out for me here — it truly means a lot and i appreciate it immensely. however, for my own peace of mind, i kindly request that you refrain from mentioning other users in my inbox, especially one in particular whom many of you are likely aware of. this is purely for my own comfort. thank you! 🤍

[viridian-house]

remembering the time I asked my ex to please make some distance between himself & my bestie because of remarks he'd made to me about her body and his response was to get home, sit on the sofa and fold his hands, and look at me and say "since you're thinking I'm cheating on you, I can only assume this means you're projecting your own guilt onto me and you're the one cheating. I'd like to look through your phone now."

and guess who ended up being the one cheating 🥲

[king-lena]

roger waters and david gilmour would have either had a much better or a much worse relationship if they had just listened to plato and socrates and given in to their carnal desire towards their fellow man and just fucked about it in the first place but they really took the beautiful homosexual wisdom of man loving philosophers for granted and look where it got them

[quetzalpapalotl]

Pre Dark Cybertron exRID it's pretty balanced towards its ensemble cast, but if there was a main main character it would be Bumblebee, so it is very hilarious how Optimus came and stole the show and made it All About Him when Bee complained that people won't respect him as a leader as much as they did Optimus and there was even a storyline in the Costa ongoing where even tho Bumblebee is supposed to be in charge Optimus keeps steamrolling him.

[m0thlegs]

As much as purity culture IS penetrating fandom spaces and sanitising them beyond their core intent, I feel like some of you are overusing the phrase "don't like, don't read" (and others like it). Rather in response to people being nitpicky about certain themes merely existing in content (fan-made or otherwise), you guys keep using it as a way to shut down critical discussions of your favourite medias in a way that feels oddly anti-intellectual and ironically puritanical in and of itself.

[somatosensors]

my hater moment about marvel designs is that female superheroes are overwhelmingly young. and also other things but thats a big one.

[purgemarchlockdown]

Hm...