#I mean I don’t make to rules this seems pretty queer

[queeringdiedreiausrufezeichen]

Manifesting the Jülich parents being in a triad in the TV show. 🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯

Cause why have two different actors listed as Kims dad if not cause she is gonna have two dads. 🤔🤷

The Jülich Parents Triad:

[piratefishmama]

Fake it till you make it | Part 4

‘Boundaries’ were harder to settle on than they'd expected them to be. Eddie didn’t seem to want to put anything on the “strictly no” list. Even when Steve suggested sex should be on there Eddie just wiggled his brows and claimed a week in a cabin with him might change things.

Steve found that hilarious enough to laugh at (much to Eddie's adorable pout) but also too fair to disagree with.

They were two healthy, queer, adult men! What was a little consensual nookie between fake boyfriends?

Plus he couldn’t tell if Eddie was joking or not so he put that on the mental ‘maybe a boundary’ list that may or may not be tested.

Steve wasn’t about to completely rule it out either! He had a healthy libido and Eddie wasn’t unattractive. He… actually was pretty damn attractive.

Nice eyes, nice hair, nice lips, nice voice, nice han— anyway, they had a whole week together in a romantic chalet, pretending to date.

Anything could happen. Especially if they didn’t rule anything out. And ruling it out only made it seem more exciting, like it was dangerous. Best to just not rule it out.

“What about kissing?” Steve pondered aloud, a small frown on his brow

“If I’m not ruling out sex, Harrington, I think kissing should be fi—"

“No, dumbass, not ruling it out, I mean… it’s gotta seem like a thing we normally do right? An you gotta stop calling me Harrington, it’s Steve. Boyfriends don’t call each other by their last names.”

“I’ll have a mental list of pet names prepared before the day ends, don’t you worry, Stevie, but what do you suggest? Are you thinking we should practice?” Eddie leaned forward a grin stretching on his lips that almost seemed predatory, like he was expecting Steve to stumble through a rebuttal, expecting him to back down or to apologise, but no, Steve wasn’t some simpering maiden who’d bashfully turn him down.

Steve was an experienced ladies man with a reputation for being… for lack of a better term, a bit of a hometown slut.

Even if he had no practical experience with men, that didn’t stop him from exuding confidence as he moved onto his haunches and crossed the very short distance between them, forcing that mischievous little shit right back into his spot as Steve basically climbed from his hands and knees into Eddie’s lap, watching in satisfaction as all that mischief just kind of…

Drained from his face.

Drained and replaced with wide-eyed rosy cheeked surprise, his hands extended out either side of himself to avoid touching Steve’s body. Adorable.

“Maybe we should.”

“Ah—uhm—heh—y-yeah I mean—m-maybe not here though, yeah?” He talked a good game, he put on a damn fine front, but Eddie Munson wasn’t exactly swimming in cock. Wasn’t even paddling. Or wading the cock waters.

No he was mainly just suffering in queer silence on dry land with just good ol leftie and a few skin mags to make himself feel better. Although the image of Steve Harrington in his lap? Oh yeah that’d do him for a few months.

Sad that it ended so fast though, with Steve backing his perfectly plush ass right back into his seat quickly after, holding his hands up in mock surrender, accepting the stuttered rejection like a champ.

“Wherever you feel comfiest, man, but I suggest we figure that shit out fast, we don’t have long before this trip an you’ll have to meet them before we go so we’re going to have to be comfortable with each other, especially if it’s an environment where we have no excuse to not be comfortable.” If they were in public? Absolutely they’d have many excuses readily available.

The chalet? Not public. In fact it was quite big, the only reason he was so sure his parents would bring someone for him was because it was big enough that they could do their own thing for hours without crossing paths. Sure the bedrooms were close to each other but there were other rooms to fuck around in.

Damn thing had two Jacuzzi’s and a sauna. Not to mention a home cinema to fool around in.

They’d be hoping that he’d spend some easily obtained alone time with this mystery person. God he’d be being pimped out by his parents. How had his life come to this?

“You want me to meet them before we go?” He was just expecting to turn up on the day and be ‘Steve’s new boyfriend’ that they’d never met and would just have to accept would be in attendance. In that scenario he assumed Steve would just get the okay from them to have him come and that be that but—

Clearly his imagination was not even remotely true to real life. “Uhh… yeah, they’ll wanna know who they’re spending a week with, Eddie, c’mon, fake dating starts like… now…”

“So can I charge you from now?”

“Dude that’d be double—”

“Aren’t you rich?”

“I work minimum wage at Family Video for crying out loud, no I’m not rich. My parents are rich, I make enough to keep the lights on and keep my fridge stocked while they’re away. C’mon man… I can do a week, I have savings that’ll cover a week but two weeks? That’s fourteen-hundred, dude, I can’t—” Two weeks was stretching things uncomfortably far. Like… going into debt kind of far. He couldn’t ask his parents for money because they’d wanna know what it was for and for him to get a receipt and Eddie didn’t do receipts. Or refunds. “I might actually starve.”

“… Fine.” He almost argued, you live in a McMansion Steve, I live in a trailer park, but then… Steve did actually work at Family Video, wouldn’t just do that if he didn’t have to, who’s to say his parents paid for anything for him? Who’s to say they didn’t pull the ‘you’re an adult now, son, we’ll let you live here but you have to pull your own weight’ shtick parents were apparently so fond of? God what if they made him pay rent?

Eddie really didn’t know anything about the Harringtons.

Steve clearly didn’t go to college, so… maybe his dad wouldn’t hire him for a role he wasn’t qualified for? Unlikely but not impossible if recent discoveries concerning Steve Harrington were to be used as a reference point. Couldn't assume anything about him. “Fine?”

“Yeah, fine. How about, instead… we stick with my original rate an call it a flat seven hundred, fifty per day, an we start now? We can head to the trailer park an figure shit out there, deduct today so it’s only six fifty cause we’re brainstorming. My uncle may be home, but he should be asleep now. He works nights. We should be fine… unless you wanna head to yours and go in blind, take a ‘we’re figuring things out together awkwardly’ approach to it?” That’d track, he could do awkward, he could probab—

“Nah, they’d never think I was awkward at dating, even though you are a guy.” Of course they wouldn’t. Their lady killer son would never be awkward about dating… he wasn’t either, that was the kicker. He’d got all the way up in Eddie’s business not five minutes ago and looked comfortable doing it, like he actually would have practiced kissing in the back of Eddie’s beat up old van.

Holy shit he could have been making out with Steve Harrington in the back of his van.

He said not here, yeah?

What the shit was his problem?!

Was he actually completely insane?

He was going to be a virgin forever.

“You good there, Ed?”

“Huh?” He squeaked. Eddie Munson did not squeak, but yet, there he was. Squeakin away. “Oh! Y-yeah yeah, just coming to an abrupt unfortunate conclusion, yep, I am a-ok completely and totally oooone-hundreeeeeee— okay I came to a very real realisation that I could have been basically making out with you for ‘practice’ in the back of my van in the bushes where nobody could interrupt us and that could have gone anywhere cause it’s comfy back here yet i decided to tell you ‘not here, yeah?’ like a perma-virgin so— yeah.”

“Jeez… maybe you could pull off the awkward boyfriend thing.”

“…So about that fourteen hundred.”

Part 6

[canines-alter-creation]

Hey Guys!!! Its Us!!! (We Were The Anon That Got The Builder's Choice A While Back, If Your Wondering Jupiter Is Doing AMAZING He Loves Writing Classical Music & Easing The Body To Sleep) But I Personally Have A Problem, As An Alter, I Am Very Touch Deprived, So I Was Wondering If We Could Have Someone To Help (If You Need Smth To Base My Personality Off Of I Am Just Your Standard Golden Retriever Personality) Again!!! This Is Optional, Feel Free To Send This To The Bottom Of Your Que ~ Sincerely, Sunny, From The Society Of The Depressed Mushroom🍄☀︎

HII! We+ finally got around to this request! So Our+ thoughts on this based on what you told Us+ about you, is to make a Black Cat type person to balance you out! I hope you like them!!

(Obviously not all beings described will turn out as written, but I hope it is helpful regardless!)

> Name(s): Jax, Axel, Blade, Orion, Storm, Void, Vortex, Moon

> Pronoun(s): he/dark/void/space/cat/paw/fluff/tail

> Age: similar to Sunny’s age 

> Gender: masc identifying, catgender, starbodiment, destria, stellarene, starmarked, nocturlance, voidcattic, mooncatic, gothcattic, punkcattic

> Sexuality: queer, very opposites attract but might have a 

> Role: personal soother, relational handler

> Source: brainmade, alterblogic

> Faceclaims:

> Sign-offs: 🐈‍⬛, 🐱, 🌑, 🌙, ⭐, 🐾

> Song theme:

> Front triggers(pos/neg/neu):

+ Sunny, metal and rock music, abandoned places at night, cats

/ Sunny being in front but not actively fronting, his job in general, things that remind star of Sunny

- anyone who upsets Sunny, people who don’t respect the system, mean people in general

> Likes/dislikes:

+ Being alone, night time, Sunny, coffee

- Pretty much everyone else, being touched without permission, being in large crowds

> Personality: “Black cat-esque”, moody and easily annoyed. They can be sort of bitey and hissy towards strangers. Doesn’t like to be provoked or talked to for no reason. May seem somewhat dismissive of others, just because they’re an introvert and prefer to be left alone. Sunny is the exception. Sunny is the only person that he’ll smile to, or allow to touch him or spend excess time around. Likes metal music or other kinds of loud music, but prefers to listen in headphones mostly alone. 

> Ways they do their role: Is a personal soother for Sunny, spending time with them and providing support and comfort. While he has other interests and hobbies, mostly prefers to be around Sunny if doing them. May also be a relationship protector for the whole system, being the only person able to lay down rules and boundaries in outer relationships, making sure that the body is respected and loved in the way that makes them happiest. 

> Inner world occupation or behavior: Might have an apartment or small room/house to himself. The walls are covered in posters and band merch (real and imagined bands). Prefers to be alone, and might spend time in various indoor places being alone (library, cafe, museums, etc). May also like going outside at night to hang out in parks, skateparks, and various abandoned areas. 

> Possible outerworld behavior: Largely solitary alter, only likes to front around people if Sunny is there to be social with them. May like to curl up in bed just listening to music or making art. Likes Sunny’s friends because they’re Sunny’s not because he has any particular attachment to them.

[9w1ft]

Being a gaylor/kaylor is hard. You speak the closest to truth and then Taylor proves you wrong by doing something opposite to please the hetties. Then you are called losers and liars. One thing for sure that Taylor doesn't care about Gaylors/Kaylors at all. She CONDONES the homophobia and bully towards us. Always has been. After the 1989 prologue, Travlor stunt, always in the past. And will do in future. Sometimes I feel like she hates us so bad and always throws us under the bus. I wonder why we are still here. There is nothing positive about being a gaylor. If she wants to stay extremely closeted and parade her bf as the straightest women alive, then what is the purpose of flagging just to prove us fool on a larger scale. Does our existence bother her?? It doesn't seem that she like us. I just wanted to know from someone experienced.

hm, i dunno. i’ve felt very loved by taylor and karlie!

i think so much of how one might feel is based upon self-imposed rules. if you change the way you expect taylor to act, or how you vocalize how you expect her to act, maybe 75% of the frustration one might have is resolved.

i think condone is a pretty strong word to impress upon taylor. i think people have all gone through enough cycles to see what taylor does and doesn’t do in reaction to fandom behavior but i think a lot of people refuse to ask themselves why she always acts the way that she does, and people also refuse to change the way they comport themselves, but still act the same way while expecting a change to come from taylor.

even in the way you wrote your anon, you’re making a lot of assumptions about why taylor does things, and i don’t mean it as a criticism of you personally. i understand why you write it out like that because i think it’s a popular way of thinking. but i think you’re setting yourself up here. for example, you describe a dynamic of taylor flagging and then taylor bearding. maybe she’s not queer flagging for us, maybe she’s just being herself! and bearding to compensate for that, because for some reason she doesn’t want to be out right now. i think a lot of people say taylor doing gay things is flagging because they’re trying to prove that she’s gay (umbrella term) or that she’s trying to tell everyone that she’s gay. that’s voluntarily setting a test up for people who have hate in their hearts to knock down.

i’m not talking in ideals here. in a vacuum, in an ideal scenario, there are things that would be more “right” or “just” or “fair” for taylor to do — i am just not so sure if it’s wise for people to keep trying the same things and expect different results. especially after songs like anti hero and dear reader were put out in the world. so i dunno, maybe try different things, or change the conditions of your own environment, etc. you have the power to tinker with your own experience of what is going on.

i don’t think this is kind advice for a perfect world and im sorry if i sound cold or heartless. sometimes it pains me to see people set themselves up to be angry so i’m just trying to be a little more practical with my response. i still think there are ways to make this all work for you or anyone personally, but i think it requires you the individual and not taylor to make changes. that’s a choice that’s ultimately up to you the individual to make.

i hope everyone can find a balance that works for them, or a pastime that is a better net positive for their life!

[princess-of-the-corner]

Princess Bee

K, couple thoughts, my devices are being weird, so even though I sent an ask, I’m going to compile a few things here, just in case

1) On Artemis being the Fox, possible lore for a name - the Teumessian fox was an uncatchable fox from Greek Myth, sent to hassle the city of Thebes as a punishment. Eventually, when the gods felt the city had suffered enough, they ran into the problem that they had created a LITERALLY UNCATCHABLE CREATURE, so they couldn’t really get the fox to stop. So, they sent in a dog, called Laelaps, who was enchanted to be able to always catch her prey, to catch the fox. The two were basically a paradox, and eventually got put into the sky as constellations (Canis Major [the dog] and Canis Minor [the fox]).

2) I headcanon that the reason the SentiKids are Sapient is in part due to the fact they are “hybrids”. They aren’t “pure” Sentimonsters, the Parents used the Peacock to basically “fertilize” an egg and make a fetus. So while TECHNICALLY a Sentimonster, it’s a little closer to, say, how Steven Universe is technically a gem. And similarly, if Steven’s Gen is damaged, he gets hurt. Like, if the Amoks got broken before … whatever they do to severe the connection, the SentiKids would be hurt pretty badly. They MIGHT be able to do something to manage survival, but the Amoks are still connected to their life force. (I hope this is making sense?) Does any of this sound … like it fits, I guess?

3) OC Chester description, so you hopefully don’t have to go hunting for it. Originally conceived as Lila’s hench person, but he doesn’t HAVE to be, I just thought it would be a little boring if Lila doesn’t have another person to talk to. You can take or leave any part of him.

Chester Fester.

Age: close to Lila and the Miracuclass parents, so … What are we going with here, late thirties, early forties?

Looks: Only thing I ever got was brown hair, face looks … ratty.

General Notes: Rats are his favourite animal. He has two pet rats, Mister Whiskers, and Morning Glory. Likes fermented and/or cured foods. He hates food waste, and sees rats as performing a vital service by eating the food people throw out. Thinks rats are given unfair press as “plague spreaders”. Hates cats, dogs, anything that could pose a threat to a rat. Was nominally trained as a chef, but has been fired repeatedly for allowing “pests” into kitchens. Always seems to be between jobs as a result. Will cheerfully allow himself to be Akumatized into a “Rat King” style Akuma (original name was Ratatouille, but I’m kind of ‘eh’ on it, especially cause at that point, he’s basically Evil Linguini). Favourite movie, the Rats of N.I.M.H..

The man is a bit … morally vague. I mean, he isn’t the kind of guy to think murder is a viable solution to most problems, but he sees a lot of Laws as more guidelines than anything else. Like, “We’d rather you didn’t do this, but if you don’t get caught, we don’t care” is sort of how he sees it. He sees breaking and entering as more of a challenge. I think the only laws he would follow fastidiously would be traffic laws. He sees why those are there, people operating several tons of metal powered by explosions should follow the rules.

Lila specific: The two met sometime when Lila was pulling a con on a restaurant. Chester was really impressed with her skills, and offered to help her, because the restaurant in question had been putting out rat poison. They’ve been friends ever since.

Chester and Lila did have a brief period of dating, before Lila figured out she was AroAce. She was sure this meant Chester would be ditching her, but Chester surprised her by sticking around. In his words “We were friends first”, and he didn’t really see why whether the two of them slept together should mean anything. People do often assume Chester and Lila are a couple, especially as the pair live together, but the two are simply chaotic besties. The best term is probably “Queer Platonic”, but the two don’t really want to label it. They’re friends. Who else cares? They do have a pact that, if they ever need to, they’ll get married, but only as a last resort kind of thing.

-

1.) Did get this one! Rip to your tech though because while tumblr makes asks disappear it’s happening to you A LOT so idk what it is or how to fix it.

2.) Hm! Maybe it’s a combination? Like like like. Okay I made the post about the lore of what went down with the Sentikids and Kagami actually having a dad. So how about Mr. Tsurugi managed to make Kagami entirely from scratch, which is why he died real quick. Essentially giving his Life Energy to make her. But it broke the Peacock so everyone after still got fucked up. 

Emilie tried to mitigate the effects by doing the Senti-Human hybrid trick, so she’s only dealing with ‘broken Peacock’ not ‘took too much Life Energy at once’. Same with Colt. So they’re still dying, but not as quickly as Mr. Tsurugi did.

Adjust the fuckery in age differences by having like. It’s a Senti-baby she can just make it magic so it speeds up and she’s only actually pregnant for like a month. Colt can do the same with Amelie and then just gaslight her of ‘oh we must’ve been so convinced we were infertile that we didn’t notice you actually got pregnant!’.

3.) I love everything about Chester

[my-castles-crumbling]

Soooo, i’ve been following u for a while (adore ur microfics btw ❤️) and now I require advice… thankfully you’re good at that. 

So i’m straight. And i’ve fallen in love with this guy. He’s adorable and sweet and brave and honestly the best person I know. I met him about a month and a half ago at a work thing (he doesn’t work where I work tho, not that it matters) and we’ve been dating ever since. 

We haven’t done anything sex related yet (don’t worry this isn’t abt that). But the other day I decided we should talk about it, because he seemed super bothered by the idea (i had a hunch he might’ve been ace, which I was fine with) but it turns out it’s not that, he’s trans. 

He told me he transitioned pretty young, and that he’s had top surgery but not bottom. I reassured him this doesn’t change anything, cause it doesn’t, but to be honest, i’ve never really been around trans people? I know queer people but i’ve never had a trans friend or anything. So i’m worried about how to do this right. 

I assume it’s best to just be normal? Sex has never really mattered to me that much, so I guess in that regard i’ll just go with the flow of whatever. But I just thought, is there anything I should know or think about? 

I think this could be a really great relationship, we want the same things and get on so well. 

Maybe i’m being panicky, trying to make sure I don’t do anything that could hurt him. He asked me if it was okay that he’s trans because i’m straight. I told him that I love him and I don’t doubt that. And that I still feel straight. I still love a man. I wouldn’t really aline my sexuality with genitals anyway? 

I don’t know. I’m nervous I guess. I’ve been in plenty of different types of relationships. Good and bad. And I just don’t want to mess up or make him uncomfortable or not notice a hint he’s trying to give me? 

Look tbh I don’t totally know what i’m asking but like- advice? Please? Thanks Cas ❤️

AHHHH I think this is so cute. The fact that you're being thoughtful enough to ask is UGH. SO sweet.

So, you're ABSOLUTELY right. Sexuality has to do with gender, not body parts. So you're a girl (I'm assuming) and you're straight. Meaning you're attracted to boys. And this person, trans or not, is a boy. Simple! The fact that he is worried about your reaction is probably because he's experienced transphobia in the past. For this, just remind him that you see him as a boy, regardless of his body parts.

Trans people can deal with something called 'dysphoria' meaning they are uncomfortable (physically or mentally) because they feel like their expression or body doesn't match the gender they identify as. Dysphoria can be caused by anything - looking in the mirror and seeing something they don't like, a comment from someone else (even unintentional), or intimacy (amongst other things).

As far as sex, I'm going to break my rules here and give you some advice because I think it's important.

Sex could cause dysphoria. It's super important to note that every trans person is different. Some experience extreme dysphoria, others just a bit, others none at all! The same thing is true with intimacy- every trans person (just like cis people) has different preferences with intimacy. But this is especially true because for some trans people, intimacy could cause dysphoria because you're interacting with body parts that are normally not as...interacted with, lol.

Because of this, its super important to communicate. Ask him what he's comfortable with. What does he/doesn't he want you to touch? If you're going to use dirty talk, does he prefer certain terms for his body parts?

But here's the thing- communication is important for good, healthy sex anyways. And for a healthy relationship. And it's much better to just ask. Asking questions isn't wrong, and it shows that you don't want to make him uncomfortable. It could also be a great idea to make it clear what you've said to me- you see him as a boy, you don’t want to mess up or make him uncomfortable or not notice a hint he’s trying to give you.

Keep the communication open and everything will be fine <3

I'm going to name you adoring anon in case you write again!

[pjoxreader]

Hey, could you write something for Reyna? There's so little content and you're an amazing writer.

Maybe about how on the Argo II Reyna and the reader have had a secret relationship, and the crew finds out. Except they haven't even been hiding it this whole time. Like when they thought Reyna liked Jason and Percy, she really didn't.

And if you feel like it, something about Nico learning to accept himself after seeing queer relationships. Please and thank you :)) 🙏

((Thank you for the request! I'm only on the House of Hades so I don't know Reyna that well yet but I hope this is ok! I was already spoiled on Nico and Piper's sexuality but please be careful and check what book I'm on in the masterlist in the future! I hope you enjoy! 💕))

Reyna Secret Dating + Nico Accepting Himself

Reyna Ramírez-Arellano

-You two weren’t one to flaunt your relationship. You never saw the need too. You both knew that you cared for each other and that wasn’t something the world needed to know.

-Maybe because both monsters, demi-gods and gods alike could find out and use it against you. But it was better to be safe than sorry. That didn’t mean you didn’t enjoy the moments of peace with her.

-The two of you stayed in the Argo ll falling asleep in each other's arms after a rough battle. You didn’t expect Leo to come knocking loudly on the door and burst in. “Hey! The meeting is- wait what?” he looks between you two for an explanation 

-Reyna was not having it this early in the morning glaring daggers at Leo. “If you don’t get out I’ll shove you out myself.” she says sternly. Leo puts his hands up in surrender and backs out as if staring down a bear, closing the door with that.

-You were all gathered up for the morning meeting while Leo kept looking at the two of you. “So… When were you going to tell us?” Annabeth asks from the head of the table. You raise a brow at that in confusion “We never hid it?”

-”What? But you guys don’t like… Hold hands or even kiss!” Piper asks in confusion. You raise a brow and look over at Reyna who just shrugs. “We’ve held hands and kissed before. We just don’t make a habit of doing it in front of people.” 

-Needless to say everyone was pretty shocked by the news but they were at least happy for you both. 

Nico Di Angelo

-Being out wasn’t easy. Even though his friends supported him he still struggled with his own thoughts and memories. He was from the 1930’s after all where being gay was well… Unheard of to put it lightly.

-He was torn from his thoughts when Piper put a gentle hand on his shoulder with a sheepish smile. “Are you doing alright?” Nico normally hid his emotions but… Piper was like him, she had a girlfriend. If anyone could relate it’d be her.

-”I… It’s been hard.” Nico admits softly. He wasn’t used to opening up but Piper sits down beside him, watching the sunset over Camp Half-Blood. She seems to take a moment to form her thoughts and words.

-”I’m sure. I couldn’t imagine how you’re feeling knowing how things were in the past but… Things arent’ the same anymore.” Piper says looking over at Nico now with a kind smile on her face.

-”We have a community, even a celebration. I think you’d love going to a pride festival.” That does get Nico’s attention as he perks up in curiosity at that. “A pride festival?” he asks softly. 

-Piper nods happily “An entire festival for people like us, where we can all group up and just be ourselves without worrying what people think. Where we can form up as a community and celebrate being ourselves.” Nico looks at Piper mostly to see if she was joking, but seeing she was serious he hesitantly nods. “I… I want to go.” Piper grins happily at that and ruffles his hair, much to Nico’s annoyance “Perfect! We’ll go to the next one together!” 

-He may never be able to get over the hesitance he felt but he was glad he had friends and a community to be there for him. He hoped his sister was proud. 

~Masterlist & Rules~

Like my writing? Please consider sending me a Ko-fi! ☕

[qwilanikan]

Some thoughts on my current relationship politics

I am a relationship anarchist! Sometimes people mean different things when they say this, so I’m going to explain a bit about what it means to me, share some details about my relationship politics in general, and share some links to articles and resources!

"Relationship Anarchy is the idea that love does not need a specific set of rules, but rather that all of our relationships can be construed as valuable, that all can be constructed and shaped by people who want to engage in them, based on free will, and a radical wish to avoid defining relationships by attempts to exercise power over each other." - from The Road to Relationship Anarchy

I don’t date people or distinguish between my friends (in terms of labels or how I prioritize them) based on what I do with them (including whether I have sex with them).  This doesn’t mean I don’t have friends that I prioritize more at various times. What it means is that there isn’t an implicit hierarchy.  I think people use dating or partner language as a way to tell people who has the most priority in their life.

I am antimonigomist (I think that the institution of monogamism is hurtful to everyone.)  Checkout this article to learn more about this. I absolutely love this article and I think that it’s pretty approachable.

I believe that physical and emotional intimacy are abundant resources and that artificial scarcity is created by folks hoarding these resources by only sharing them in certain relationships.  This is not to say that people are obligated to share intimacy with anyone, but that I don’t like creating rules around who people are allowed to share it with.

“if two people only desired to have sexual relations with each other then there would not need to be rules made to govern this.” 

And 

“monogamy is a contract precisely because we do not expect literal monogamy, because we expect our lover to desire sex with others who are not us. maybe not now, but certainly in the future. we also expect our lover to make rules to govern our desire because we have no trust in the singleness of our sexual desire either. it is ridiculous then, for monogamists to claim they have forbidden each other to have sex with others because they only desire sex with each other.” 

-From this article.

I often say that I think that the only way monogamy should happen is by accident.  If two people really only desire to have sex with each other, then that should just happen without them having to set rules for each other.

I am also anti-marriage.  I think the institution of marriage is harmful.  In our society marriage is romanticized and idealized, and people who are in marriages or marriage-like relationships experience couple privilege and many governmental, financial and societal benefits. We are pressured and incentivized to be married because without being married we don't get these things. I would rather we abolish marriage for everyone than bring more people into this normative and coercive institution.  Especially for queer folks, It doesn’t make sense to me to idealize joining into this piece of straight, normative culture.  

Here are a couple resources about marriage:

A TED talk about the origins of marriage and how it plays out

an article, Marriage Will Never Set Us Free, specifically about marriage in the context of its overall unhelpfulness towards queer liberation

A spicy quote from that article: “It is absurd for married people or people who want to marry to paint themselves as victims of judgment when someone critiques the institution of marriage while the entire society is organized to support them for marrying.”

I totally get why people would choose to date.*  People want to get their needs met and dating seems like the way to ensure that they do.  I don’t actually think dating will ensure that you get your needs met.  You can’t rely on one person to meet all your needs.  And I don’t want any one person to feel obligated to fulfill my needs at any given time.  

Instead I try to focus on building community so that I have many connections and sources of support and intimacy.  Hopefully I will be able to get my needs met at any given time, from one or more of the people in my life, who have the capacity and are excited to do it. And I will be able to do the same for the many people in my life that I care about.

Checkout the Aromantic Manifesto @aromanticmanifesto for some thoughts on queerer, more expansive ways of relating to each other. 

For a bunch of zines and other resources related to RA stuff, checkout the RAD community library!

There are definitely some spicy takes in some of those articles ;P I love it, but if you have pretty normative relationship politics at present, they might be a bit scary.

*I also want to mention that I’m not trying to judge people who are married or in rule-based relationships.  Those are the norm and they are highly incentivized by society. Even if you agree with me that these systems are problematic, It’s hard to do something outside of the norm, especially when you don’t have a significant amount of support and like-minded community. I’m critiquing what I believe is a coercive system, not judging individuals.

[hawkshadowwrites]

✨ stolen kisses, pretty lies ✨

📍 “wedding plan”

🖇️ 1.2k ; Lom/Nuea

🗓️ first fic in the show tag

🏷️ they make out in the locker room

✅ ep 1 missing scene

(Also on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49025569)

The last thing that Nuea needed in his already complicated life, was to fall for one of his clients. Unfortunately, that is exactly what he somehow managed to do.

Seeing Sailom in the McDonald's felt like fate — that perhaps the gods were finally shining their favor down on him after all — that is, until the most gorgeous woman walked in and sat down across from him.

Nuea has always known he is queer as they come, but he can still appreciate the beauty of someone like her. Someone who clearly was of the caliber and worth to date this mysterious hot guy who is exactly Nuea’s cup of tea. He is grateful for the happenstance that he won’t have to see this guy again, that he can sulk and nurse his wounds long enough to forget about him.

This works for him and is all well and good, until the very big important client just happens to be Mr. Perfect.

It’s always been a very poor decision to get involved with clients at any job — or any coworkers for that matter — but getting involved with a client in his line of work is catastrophic. Career ending, really. Because not a single person will hire a wedding planner who would actively break up a wedding.

Nuea has never had a problem with this; he keeps his eyes on the prize and blocking out the rest, but he also has never had a client that have zero desires or wishes for their own wedding. It’s almost as if they don’t even want to get married, as if this is some type of forced match, but they seem to genuinely care about each other which makes Nuea even more confused.

Even pressing Yiwa further gets him nowhere, and Lom is dodging his calls all the time unless he is being actively annoying, in which Nuea wants to dodge his calls. He can’t run from Lom forever, though, so unfortunately it means he is once again back at the gym, once again questioning all of his life choices that led him here, of all places.

It doesn’t help that Lom is just as evasive as always, but this time it’s compounded with the fact that he is glistening with sweat in a tank top that displays his arms like a crime. And it’s not until one of the trainers starts making pointed comments about his weight that Lom stands and abandons his pretense of working out, grabbing Nuea by the hand and dragging him off into the corner.

He tries to keep it on topic by pressing Lom about the hotel choices, but Lom just grins and tightens his fingers around Nuea’s wrist.

“What do you want?” Lom asks, sounding for all of the world genuinely hung up on the concept.

What does he want? All Nuea wants is for Lom to make one goddamn decision on his own, he wants Lom to take this seriously, he wants Lom to push him up against the wall and—

“Why does it matter what I want?” Nuea says instead, feeling the flush grow as he tries to push that thought back down.

Lom raises an eyebrow, almost looking offended that Nuea would ask. “Because you are the one planning it, we hired you because you are good at what you do. Were we wrong?”

“No!” Nuea shakes his head vigorously and tries to tug his wrist out of Lom’s grasp. Lom doesn’t let go.

“Then help me plan this wedding,” Lom murmurs, taking a step forward. He is now close, much much too close.

“It’s not my wedding,” Nuea protests. “It’s yours, and—”

“What if it was?”

“—what?”

“What would you pick if it was your wedding?” Lom takes another step closer and this time Nuea tries to take a step back. He doesn’t get very far and Lom doesn’t release his grip on his wrist.

Nuea has a rule about distance and boundaries, it’s important to keep a line between personal and professional, it’s important not to give too much away when working for someone you probably won’t see again. So it surprises him at the unprompted honestly that tumbles from his mouth.

“People like me don’t get married. Or happily ever after.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Lom says. He looks Nuea up and down and if he wasn’t absolutely sure that Lom is marrying someone else, he would be convinced Lom is checking him out. But that is preposterous.

Because—

“Can I tell you a secret?”

Nuea freezes, looking up into Lom’s overly earnest eyes. “Only if it will help me plan this wedding.”

Lom hesitates and looks around the gym and even though they are alone in this particular hallway, Nuea has a feeling that this is something he doesn’t want anyone to overhear. He sighs and pulls Nuea down the hallway into the locker room, closing the door behind him.

“Yiwa doesn’t love me.”

Out of all of the things Nuea expects Lom to say it is not this. He has a gut feeling that Lom might be fucking with him, but he looks completely serious. “It’s a fake wedding. It’s why she doesn’t care about any of the details.”

Oh. Oh. “Then—”

“She’s got a girlfriend.” Lom pushes Nuea backwards and he stumbles, his back hitting the locker with a bit more inelegance than he would like. Lom places both of his hands on either side of Nuea’s face and leans in. “Which means, I’m not actually in love with her.”

“Oh,” Nuea repeats, this time out loud.

This changes everything. Well. Not everything, but it changes enough that Nuea no longer feels guilty about wanting Lom to fuck him right here right now. And you know what? Maybe it’s time he actually takes what he wants.

He isn’t quite sure who moves first but one moment Lom has him boxed in against the lockers and the next they are kissing, wild and hungry and desperate. Lom’s skin is warm under his fingers and the sweat has not quite dried, enough that Nuea feels slightly unhinged as he claws Lom’s shirt up over his head.

Lom reaches down and picks Nuea up and Nuea gasps, rocking his hips forward against the hard bulge in Lom’s gym shorts. Nuea wants Lom inside of him, wants to fucked against this locker until he cries, but he knows they can’t. Not in a public locker.

That doesn’t stop Lom from rutting into him, lips trailing down Nuea’s jaw and neck, teeth nipping at a sensitive spot near his collarbone. Nuea knows it’s not going to take much for him to fall apart, and he doesn’t doubt that he would let Lom fuck him right here in the open.

Luckily — or unluckily — he is saved from making that decision by the sounds of the locker room door opening and Lom breaking off the kiss, pulling back looking flushed and much worse for the wear. He reaches forward and pulls out a packet and hands it to Nuea, a smirk tugging at his lips.

“Here. You might find some of this helpful.”

And then that’s when reality comes crashing back down on Nuea; that even with all of this, Lom is still his client and still getting married.

“Right,” he mumbles, looking away. “Well, if that’s all.”

“Nuea—” Lom says, “hey—”

Nuea shakes his head. “Thank you for meeting with me, I’ll look these files over and get back to you.”

And then Nuea flees, with the ghost of Lom’s lips on his.

[vlovers19]

I have a theory that might seem a little controversial & wondering your opinion.

So This is interesting to me. Right after Taennie goes viral in Paris JM drops a tiktok of him dancing to a song called "Masquerade" wearing a 123 shirt (Tae's bday is 1230) and he literally starts the tiktok coming out of a closet. Look at the lyrics. "So go on and leave me 'cause I don’t think I need ya. Everything's an illusion, Won't look back and I mean it. Yeah, we can keep up the role play, I don’t care what the rules say, making up things that push me away" and this lyric "Masquerade, danger in what we're doin' It's all over and done, I don't know who we're foolin". This tiktok was also JM's idea.

So I might be losing it right now, but I'm pretty certain Tae had feelings for JM and Sweet Night echos that, about falling in love with his best friend which is JM & pretty much confirmed he had queer & real feelings for JM. Since the Taennie rumors, Vmin seem to have a bit a tension. I don't think they are divorced. I call it adjustment period. Maybe the closet got too hard on them, maybe they even broke up and Tae started dating someone new & JM is adjusting to it. If we think Tae is in fact queer (which he could be bi) and was in love with Jimin, but now dating Jennie and they were walking hand in hand in Paris. Yeah, I think that's gonna hurt Jimin and maybe even cause him to throw some shade Tae's way, esp if he thinks Tae is Masquerading in public with Jennie, while he had a closeted relationship with Jimin. Isn't it funny too that JM released a song Face Off, which mentions a Masquerade party and someone breaking his heart.

Yes...you might have a very good point there but then again, we don't know. He just might be trying to support his friend or it just might be a statement. Besides, he ended up dancing with two seventeen members as well. Maybe as a cover up? I don't know but definitely, Jimin likes to be seen on our screens. Anyway, It's too early to make a conclusion so let's simply wait and see.

Oh my goodness! This whole situation is interesting to me. You have no idea. Just some days ago and for months now, Taekook shippers wouldn't let the rest of the fandom breathe but now look at what's happening. In my last post, Didn't I tell you something will happen and everyone would change their tune? Because I have noticed something is always happening with these idols but it has never been on this scale especially in the kpop world. All these started when Big hit became Hybe. Now two extremely popular idols are publicly walking the streets holding hands to declare to the world that they are a couple, like these Hollywood celebrities do. Just on that one day not on any other day. We should have seen more of them publicly out and about if they were so brave as some people say they are. How very interesting. Yet these same people won't confirm if they're really together despite all the 'evidences' so that if you see them with someone else tomorrow or the next day, they would simply go; but we never confirmed we are a couple. If they really are in a relationship, then they are not that serious about it and feel no reason to clarify anything.

In the end, Taehyung would still return from paris and continue where he left off and People would forget what happened and continue to talk again. One thing I can tell you is that there is more to come. Until they are all in the military, you'll continue to hear plenty of things from them so sit tight, fold your arms and watch.

[lets-talk-spirituality]

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this article:

https://uproxx.com/pop/harry-styles-harrys-house-review/

I think it’s very harsh but not altogether wrong. There are darker parts to Harry that he doesn’t share, however not every artist should have to make art based on the darkest parts of themselves to be considered iconic. I think there is room for many sentiments in art. I personally like exposing and writing about the absolute darkest shit, but that doesn’t mean that is for everyone. People used to shit on One Direction to me and I always defended it. Is it the most in depth profound music ever? No. But it is really well done and fun manufactured pop and why is that seen as less than.

I don’t agree that Harry’s album makes him out to be squeaky clean and illusory. I think this critic maybe heard it that way since Harry’s reputation proceeds him. I actually think Boyfriends is him owning up to behaviors his younger self engaged in. Just because this critic doesn’t understand the philosophy or sentiment doesn’t mean it’s air headed (in a way yes it is because he’s Aquarius). I really hate this perpetuated idea that he is stupid. Like the whole a movie that’s a movie thing. It deeply pains me because I don’t think people actually understand him. It’s like with queer baiting argument. Ultimately he can’t always clearly articulate his more expansive thoughts to people and that doesn’t make him stupid. I actually think he’s just years ahead and usually that makes you seem stupid or crazy. Pretty sure people thought Galileo thinking the sun was the center of our solar system was stupid and crazy. People judge things they don’t understand. I think later on they may better understand the genius behind him, but Harry is still learning how to show his brilliance in music. I don’t think he’s yet clearly articulated what’s happening in his mind and I think he will only get better.

Also all art is basically redoing what’s been done. All human thought is that too. I think it’s a weird argument to say this music sounds like this other song when it’s like yeah, just like your profound thought you had probably is the same as Aristotle. Everything is recycled. That doesn’t lessen it. It’s part of human existence. There’s so many of us and usually the ones we act like had original thoughts are only the ones privileged enough to write it first, usually due to unfair advantages. White men didn’t have all these profound thoughts before everyone else, they just got recorded in history.

Ultimately I think it’s so hard to truly critique Harry that they resort to a base insult of it lacks substance but just because the substance is obscured in a way you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I’ve never thought his work lacked substance. And ultimately I find constructive criticism to be helpful but not really when it comes to art. The goal of art is to capture points in times, feelings and emotions, abstract things that are expressed every kind of way. I believe everything is art if it speaks to the human experience and to judge it as not human enough is odd because that means you’re placing rules around what it means to be human.

[chimaeraonwards]

I want to ask you, Tumblr user @against-forms-recognizable if it's okay if my neighbourhood is bombed because I live in a homophobic country?

Would me saying that I'm also a queer help or make your decision harder?

I think I speak English pretty well, but I do have a lot of grammar errors and speak with an accent since English isn't my native tongue. I'm not sure if that would help you make your decision.

I love Kirby and I think he’s the cutest character Nintendo has made. I’ve read the Percy Jackson series since I was 12. I like to hang out with my friends, and we play D&D together. I like to watch sad movies and my sister will laugh and roll her eyes when I cry.

Is this enough proof of my humanity for you to say something if I get carpet-bombed?  

Surely, committing genocide in my country and on my people is okay because the authority figures here would go insane if I kissed (let alone marry) another girl.

Clearly, I should leave my country! How dare I continue living here where my culture is. I don’t have the money or resources to leave this country, but I must because I, as a queer, should not be living in this country. I shouldn’t try to stay here and fix the issues like queer activists throughout European and USA history.

Surely, I should go to somewhere in Europe, where they clearly welcome me, a person from the global south, with open arms. Maybe I should lighten my skin? (Someone with skin-lightening tips please drop recs below 🙏 I heard bleaching is all the rage.)

I would add the USA to the list of countries I could go to but “a record number of anti-LGBT bills have been introduced this year” so I guess that doesn't fit your criteria either.

 Source: CNN

But yes, clearly let’s allow Israel to bomb Palestine and that’s okay with you because Palestine is homophobic right?

(ppsssttttt Israel isn’t a great place for queers too.)

Source: i24news

Source: The Guardian

Source: Times of Israel

So by your logic, isn't the violence enacted by Hamas a good thing?

Maybe, just maybe, there isn’t a single country that is free from homophobic rhetoric. Does that mean it’s okay to commit genocide? Eh, I’ll let you answer that for yourself.

If you’re a true ally for queer people worldwide, then I highly suggest you look up the term “pinkwashing”. Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:

I also want to address a concern that you brought up here:

“All of which is easier said than done. But if I was in Palestine, what choice would I, as a gay man who seeks my own liberation, have but to oppose Hamas or flee? There is no solidarity with people who desire your death.”

If you were in Palestine, you would be dead because the Israeli government is carpet bombing people. I'm sorry to let you know that they probably don’t check to see if you’re holding a pride flag before bombing.  

Moving on to my next point:

Your impression of advocacy work is faulty at best and harmful at worst.

Advocacy should not be transactional, it’s a moral obligation.

If BLM does not stand with women’s rights movements, does that mean that non-POC women should not stand up for police brutality against POCs?

If advocacy was transactional, where were you when queer people in Southeast Asia were being prosecuted? When Southeast Asian queers were arrested? When we were sent to conversion camps?

The people of Palestine have stood for many issues including BLM. I'm sure you will able to find other global social causes they have supported online (but let's be real I'm already spoon-feeding you so many sources I'm sure you can find some on your own.)

You seem to be under the impression that queers living under homophobic rule should, in your words, "flee" if we are under homophobic rule. Where should we go? How should we go? Will your country welcome all of us?   

Who is speaking up for the Palestinian queers? Yes, queer Palestinians exist. These are the same queers who post on Queering the Map which you can also find screenshots in this article but let me share 2 of them which shred my heart to pieces.  

Let's break down what you said here:

Sabotage, theft, infiltration, deception, propaganda, attacks on infrastructure, assassination. Anything to remove the useful idiots in power that Israel placed there so they wouldn't be forced to continue bargaining with more sympathetic and reasonable Palestinian leadership.

“Sabotage, theft, infiltration, deception, propaganda, attacks on infrastructure, assassination” all sound like things that the US government has done to rid of Osama bin Laden, an operation that took 40 minutes.

Do you think that the USA should have committed genocide and broken more international laws instead of sending in special ops teams? Maybe the Israeli government should take a page out of the tactics you mentioned to remove “terrorist organisations” instead of carpet-bombing people.

Also, about 50% of the population in Gaza are children and Hamas was voted in 2006, so do with that information what you will.   

What Hamas did on October 7th is a tragedy. The Israeli government enacting genocide on the Palestinian civilians is also a tragedy.

Both things can be true at the same time.

But one side is continuing to carpet bomb civilians, not allowing humanitarian aid, and treating a list of war crimes like a to-do list.

Now I want to address this line from the initial post:

"if you're there - what other choice do you have?"

You’re under the impression that there are other things that could have been done right?

To fully understand this, let's get some context and look at SOME of the crimes that the Israeli government were knowingly committing against the Palestinian people.

Israel skinbanks and organ harvesting – a non-consensual organ harvesting committed by the Israeli Forensics Institute against mostly Palestinians. You can find excerpts of the journal article below in this tumblr post I made.

Israeli settlers stealing the homes of Palestinians and justifying it by saying, "if I don’t steal your home, someone else will steal it"

All the abuses that Palestinians face in Israeli custody. In that same linked article, it says that there are currently more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli custody.

Activists and human rights groups have been calling Israel an apartheid state for years just cause how they treat Palestine

This is just a small small list of the atrocities that Israel has committed against the Palestinian people for decades.

The Palestinians have gone the peaceful route. They were greeted with gunfire from the Israeli Defence Forces.

Source: Amnesty International

October 7 did not happen in a vacuum. If an abused person attacks their abuser, would that be unprovoked violence too?  

I leave you with this final thought:

If Israel has the right to self-defence through violent methods, then why is that same right not granted to Palestinians? Why are the victims of decades of oppression and colonisation held to higher standards than their oppressors?

What do you do when the peaceful methods have time and time again not worked?

I highly suggest you read history of Korea, South Africa, Haiti, and Ireland to understand the brutality of colonialism and how people are driven to desperation. Read the history as written by the people from those places, not some “cleaned” version by their colonisers. Please reaccess your biases and reevaluate why you might have them.

I do hope that you made those comments due to a lack of information and context rather than a lack of empathy – one of those problems is easier to solve than the other.

In conclusion, pinkwashing is not allyship, there is more context for the October 7 attacks, nothing excuses genocide, John Cusack's best role (in my opinion) is still Dimitri from Anastasia (1997), and as always, Free Palestine 🇵🇸.

xoxo,

done with this bullshit

John Cusack, the voice actor for Dimitri in Anatasia (1997), shared his statement on Palestine 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸

P.S. He has been a Palestinian supporter for years

[talenlee]

4e: The Bloody Hamadryad and Satyr

Ehhh this article is due up in a few days. And I’m behind because the blog went down. And it’s marking season. And it’s Pride month.

Sure, why not.

I want to make sure that any time I write about 4e D&D, it’s about 4e D&D and that means it’s about the specific edition and not stuff that can be generically applied to and drawn from any other edition of the game. I could just write about tabletop RPGs in general or even about D&D in general and claim it was ‘about 4e’ but that doesn’t do anything as to my motivations for writing about 4e. See, I write about 4e for three basic reasons:

To be an experienced voice willing to talk about 4th edition D&D as someone who engages with it rather than the people who dismiss it without ever engaging with it

To highlight the way that 4e represents a historical contrast to the editions that came before it, and how the problems of that edition are addressed by 4e

I like talking about 4e stuff because I find it fun

And there is still fertile fields for this conversation! What’s surprisingly thin on the ground in 4e is Pride Stuff, and that is because, for the most part, sadly, 4e takes a position of absolute neutrality on issues of gender and sexuality. The 4e way of handling sexuality and gender is to broadly speaking almost never talk about it. There are a few heritages that don’t seem to have genders, like the Shardmind and Wildren, and there are some queer NPCs in some work, but that’s not new territory. It’s more that 4e is the first place where the rules text and lore doesn’t seem to feature gendered language the way it was in 3e. There’s less mention of goddesses with all-female followers, or player class options that are limited to a particular gender.

See.

I did say less, but not no mention, alas.

And that’s where we get to these two.

In one of the last hardback books of 4e, Heroes of The Feywild we got handed a collection of options that manage to hit the high water mark of ‘fine, I guess.’ If you want to play a witch who turns people into frogs, there is a class for that – it’s the wizard. But Heroes of the Feywild brings along specialised powers that fit that flavour better, and honestly, that’s pretty great, I would have liked more of that kind of thing in these splatbooks that didn’t have to bring along variant class rules. Whatever.

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

The thing that stands out and apart in this book is the only instance of main-content, coherent, obvious player option information that is mechanically locked to a specific gender, and that gender explicates a binary gender. There’s a heritage in Heroes of the Feywild called the Hamadryad, and Hamadryads are all women. There’s also a heritage called the Satyr, and Satyrs are all dudes.

If you want to, you can play a representative of a culture that is entirely gendered one way, and they’re even really heavily magical cultures, which can get around a lot of the weirdness that that entails. Because trust me, in any given organic society of humanlikes, you have only a very limited amount of time before gender nonconforming individuals started to happen, just because gender is such a flexible space in any given culture. You need something completely inhuman to enforce that simplicity of gender representation because humans in any given segregated space start to Get Gender Feels. It’s not like dudes look at women and think ‘well, now I am captivated by a need to become the thing I looked at, in the same way that a trip to the zoo convinced me to be a gazelle.’

I don’t like these heritages, I don’t allow them in my games. It’s kinda ideological, but that’s behind several layers first. Like if you wanted to play a Satyr in my game because you want that mechanical package I’d give you a grimace but accept it, and find some reason for this mechanical toolset to exist for the one game, but I wouldn’t be putting Satyrs in my game world, not as a culture. The ideological position against them isn’t purely gender based, it’s mostly that they’re boring. And if you did need them in the world, I’d get rid of the gender limitation too, because it’s stupid, and in so doing, I would be taking the one interesting thing about this culture of not-interesting people and getting rid of it.

I think that things in my worlds for my games need to be things that create opportunities to do interesting things. I recognise that 4e needed to serve a lot of different player needs and that’s why there are options presented that may not service the needs of me or my players. The Bladesinger, for example, is there because a specific kind of player really wanted a wizard that could hit things with a sword, and wasn’t satisfied with the idea of, say, playing a Swordmage because that’s the wrong kind of wizard. I can accept that these things are for players who aren’t me and they have more weight when they’re a way of letting a player play something that did exist in an older version of a game in the new version of the game. The Sentinel Druid isn’t something I want to touch with a long stick, but I recognise that some people had experiences of druids in 3e where they weren’t shape-shifting battlefield-controlling doombeasts, and were kind of just healers who made herbal tea. I get that these things are there to serve a need.

But the Satyr and Hamadryad don’t feel like they serve any need at all.

They’re not mechanically distinct. Their stats aren’t unique combinations. Their heritage powers are neither amplifications of an existing powerful axis like the Dwarf and Half-orc offer, nor are they a new axis that you can build on with useful feats like the Eladrin or Dragonborn offer. These mechanical additions are honestly what I consider trinket text – they’re there to make sure a space doesn’t look empty, to make sure that something isn’t missing and ideally presents something that does as little impact as possible in real terms but feels good to be there. If you want an example of good trinket text, check out the Changeling from Eberron, with the extremely low-power shapeshifting power, without which the changeling would absolutely feel like it was missing something.

They’re also not precedented! 3e didn’t have either of these cultures at all! It’s not like someone has been aching for a chance to update their Satyr PC from the Adventure Path and Wizards needed to give them proper support. I was pretty familiar with all the weird cultural options in 3rd edition and I not once remembered getting

This is as close to a wholly new player option introduced right at the end of 4th edition D&D. It brought with it a gender essentialist pair of cultures and they don’t serve any purpose but to be exactly that. There’s no strong reason for them to exist but to present a unique example of a heritage that breaks one of the best examples of neutrality in the mechanical worldbuilding.

And I’m not saying you can’t do something interesting with these cultures. Sure! A Satyr Princess presents one immediate question of ‘but how’ and that’s cool. But is that ‘Satyrs are interesting’ or is it ‘I did something interesting with a cishet cultural perspective on Being Interesting About Gender 101.’

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#DnD4E #DungeonsDragons #Games

[autisticlee]

is it normal to feel like no matter who you might date or are attracted to as a nonbinary person, it would be gay?

I have settled into a gender place where I feel like am a combination of male/female or masculine/feminine. i'm both while also being neither. so I feel like it would be gay no matter who was the object of my affection. it's definitely not straight probably lmao

if I were to date, I would match the other person. I would never want to take the role of their "opposite" if they were male/female. I would never be the man or woman in a relationship. I try to remain neutral and equal to them. it would be easier with another nonbinary (or agender or etc) person probably because i cant trust other people to see me equally) but this would apply to everyone.

I'm to the point where I don't like being seen or treated as either male or female. I hate the social stigmas and expectations of both of those and do not want them applied to me ever. this would be especially in a relationship, or even close friends. I can't change strangers' perceptions. they decide against my will lmao. but when friends decide to treat me as a man, when they're all girls, and decide I can't be part of "girl time" anymore and they kick me from the friend group. then on the other side, creepy men treat me like a little girl and be disgusting freaks with their harassment, sexualizing, and gatekeeping of everything they think "girls can't do" ugh no thanks! I want no part of that pointless shit!

but anyway, gay relationships give the freedom to be more equal, compared to straight relationships where one is a man and one is a woman. they always have that opposite dynamic and expectation in them. the hets always tend to be super protective over that as well. they make it some weird rule that they need to obey and can't cross. I mean, they can cross it, but they're afraid to. or at least, the man refuses to in most cases and the woman just accepts it.

that's how I view gay relationships and the difference they have to straight ones ones: they come with a unique equality you don’t get from the het side of things. i love that. I think it's how ALL relationships should be! but it's a lot easier when your relationship doesn't have those gender expectations and fake rules in them. perhaps some of these straight couple love having that het dynamic. but I see more disgruntled and deeply unhappy straight couples than happy and supportive ones in a healthy relationship, so I may not have the best perspective to compare to.

but i have never seen straight couples be equal the way I have seen in gay relationships. they may exist, but even if they are equal inside their relationship, society overall will always push the heteronormative roles on them. hell, people even try to push it on gay couple and try to make one be the "man" and the other be the "woman" for some reason. that always irritates me. if I had a penny for every time someone called one man in a gay ship the "wife" or whatever.... stop it!!!! highlight their unique equality they can have! you don't have to turn gay ships or couple into het ones. that's weird lmao. they're perfect as they are being equal! I want to see more of that dynamic! can we make the popular please?

I got very off topic. so tldr: is it gay when you're nonbinary and like/date anyone (because it doest feel straight at all to me) so would it make sense to see a pretty boy or a cute girl and say "I'm so gay" to both? or is it just me really liking the equal energy gay can bring?

(I know most people call it "queer" relationships, but that word still seems to be muddied for some people and not all want to reclaim it? I haven't decided where I stand on it)

[tarotphlow]

Astro Observations 2

✨cancer in mercury natives threaten to leave the friend group their with in a joking sense, which isn’t bad but gets tiring at points 😭

✨having Sun in the 9th house can often indicate your father left you in a certain way, I have this placement and my father gained a condition that doesn’t make him the same anymore mentally while a friend of mine does not have their father in their life period 😢

✨people that have a libra midheaven are often pretty, I think it’s because of Libra’s desire to beautify things so having a pretty face in the workplace makes sense

✨Mars in the 1H can mean exceptional strength, but bad acne and or scarring of the face in some way shape or form

✨surprisingly enough, most millionaires or people with a lot of money have Uranus in 2H, I’d assume it’s because when in this placement it’s more or less of a high highs to low lows kinda vibe, if anyone does get windfall with this placement be sure to Manage your Money Wisely 🚨⚠️

✨people that are queer can usually have the following aspects in their chart:

moon trine Mercury Δ

Uranus trine Mercury Δ

Uranus trine moon Δ

HM: Venus in one of the mutable signs (Sag, Pisces, Virgo, Gemini)

✨Sag rising= Thick thighs save lives (loll)

✨Lilith in the 2nd house can mean you have self confidence issues 🥺

✨Fire signs seem to be very emotional, like sometimes a LOT more than water signs ig it’s because fire can be really destructive sometimes and they can’t contain so it just erupts, kinda cool to think about 🔥🔥

✨Pisces in Venus cannot see those red flags oml😭, if y’all have some good friends pls pls plsssss ask them to help you identify them if any, on the flip side tho, they can be single for a while and be quite content with it since Pisces rules isolation.

✨ Capricorn placements cannot see to save their lives😂

✨ I noticed air signs always have the habit of attracting friends that are really really intimidated by us🥴, i still don’t know why, but its like a thing, can anyone explain this???

End of thread, hope y’all enjoyed the observations

(Likes and reposts are appreciated! 💙)

[ragana62]

This. This is also why (in combination with the whole 12 years in Azkaban thing) I think the characterization of him as “oh, pureblood character who actually knows muggle culture as opposed to Arthur “what is the function of a rubber duck” “how does the money work at the tube station” Weasley who thinks it’s neat but doesn’t fully get it” is also inaccurate.

Sirius didn’t have a chance of much if any exposure until he was at Hogwarts. Then he spent his entire 20’s in prison where he absolutely wouldn’t have time to keep up to date on the latest muggle music/fashion/etc even if he wanted to. Sure, maybe he took to it like a fish in water when he had it, but that’s still 10 years max of exposure, mostly from other 11-17 year olds, many of whom if they knew any muggle music probably did like the poppier end of things at least in part because that’s how the stats on it work.

Not to mention, he didn’t not have cultural exposure before then. Wizarding music seems to reflect muggle music a bit, but something tells me that even if there was a Weird Sister’s equivalent for the 60’s/70’s, it probably wasn’t something getting much play time at Grimmauld, at least not with parental approval. This is a kid who turned up at 11 probably most accustomed to listening to things on the classical/jazz/easy listening end of the spectrum. You don’t immediately go from concertos and Sinatra to hardcore, not without a bridge between them.

That of course doesn’t somehow make him less punk. Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day has a musical theater/jazz background and that doesn’t mean it wasn’t punk as fuck that at early shows the band made a point of booking queer opening acts and then getting in the pit themselves to beat up the bigots turning up to give them shit. I’m not saying I don’t think he could have gotten into harder genres once he was exposed because I also had a classical background and have played in punk/goth bands. I just think odds are if he did it took a lot of habit breaking, and maybe, just maybe, he never quite took to the full heavy stuff as much as a lot of fandom likes to immediately assume because at the end of the day, while Judas Priest and X-Ray Spex and the like might piss off his parents the most, it’s an easier transition from listening to Celestina Warbeck at the most pop adjacent to liking ABBA/Cher/etc.

Actually, because of this, I think he probably took to goth/new wave/more art rockexperimental stuff better than punk. It’s a much easier adjustment going from Sinatra to Cher to Lene Lovich/Kate Bush/Yazoo, etc. It’s more melodic in a lot of ways as a general rule, there’s more obvious overlap. There was also a pretty solid British Blues scene (I.e. Dr Feelgood) that I feel like would be a logical transition point as well, not to mention I feel like Remus perpetually exists in the Mod side of things where he’d have at least some of it sitting around for it. Of the major British punk bands of his era, I feel like The Clash would be the easiest to adjust to, because again, they lean in on more melodic sounds, less intentional dissonance etc., particularly from London Calling on.

Then he goes to prison, hears nothing, experiences nothing, and gets out in the early to mid 90’s right in time for BritPop, for Pulp and Blur and Oasis and Black Grape, and I think that too would be an easy transition for him, though he’d still not have as much exposure because he’s in hiding and under what amounts to house arrest until he dies. So maybe Tonks brings him records here and there, maybe he steals an issue of NME off a newsstand here and there, but I don’t think he’s going to necessarily be more properly informed than someone like Arthur who actively has to work around muggle things, or for that matter someone like Kingsley who is actively working for the PM undercover at that time and almost certainly does have to be able to at least fake it convincingly enough to keep that up.

one thing that i haven't ever totally agreed with is how some part of the fandom portrays sirius as this character that was born good and who has been against his family from the second he learned how to talk.

the tragedy behind the black brothers is that one of them had a support system who helped him see how his family's beliefs were not the correct way to go and offered him a safe space to run to when it all came crashing down. while the other was stuck not only by his family's duty but everywhere he turned was also filled with the same beliefs.

i don't think sirius was fighting with his parents about muggles and blood purity until maybe a year after coming back from hogwarts. i think he had the same beliefs, actually, because that's all he knew. he might have doubted them a time or two after spending time with andromeda or alphard, but at the end of the day he was a child, and children do follow whatever their parents tell them to, especially when there's not a proper and constant role model teaching them there is another way.

sirius was the proper black heir until getting to hogwarts, but deconstructing himself didn't take a day. i've read how he feels free the second he gets into gryffindor, and how with a single chat with james, he's ready to forget about everything his parents have spent years telling him.

sirius was probably spewing the same pureblood things his parents taught him, he was probably not happy about getting into gryffindor in the first place, it's against everything he had been told his entire life.

that's where the marauders intervene, he is able to have his own beliefs and realize that his family was wrong because he had a whole group of people teaching him and allowing him to make mistakes along the way without fear.

while regulus has been stuck forever, first in his own house, then in slytherin, and then with the death eaters. he also learnt about loyalty and friendship and what was wrong or right, yes. but he didn't have the freedom to even talk out loud about it given the place he was in.

their own personalities doom both of them. when sirius learns that his family is wrong, he turns defiant and outspoken, that's how he is and even if he's aware of it or not, he has the liberty of having a place to go to when things go wrong. regulus is cunning and thinks everything through first, so even if he learns his family is wrong, he knows he can't say anything, his friends are tied in the same world, and his only "protector" is gone.

that's the tragedy between them.

they are both the same, no one wasn't born being "good", one just got lucky enough to be placed with the correct people