#My first attempt at femslash

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

I've been having such a shitty time with life lately and my therapist told me that my homework was to do something that fulfilled me so I re-read a fic that I never finished from years ago and then impulsively opened my continuation document of it where I had two pages written, and then proceeded to write FOUR FUCKING MORE PAGES and stopped at a very inconvenient place for me, lmao 2am because I was so tired.

Do I feel better? Kind of. Do I think what I did was stellar writing? No, definitely not. DID I WRITE CREATIVELY MORE THAN I HAVE IN MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS? YES, I FUCKING DID! So, I count this as a win. And it was actually a very good balm to my aggressively shitty, depressed feelings lately.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/746553097204203521/the-fandom-hates-women-response-to-lack-of-ff

The "fandom hates women" part of it comes from the fact that fandom as an entity just doesn't watch the kind of media that draws femslash, even if it ticks all of the boxes of things those very same people say they like. There are so many times I've watched a show that I've seen mega-popular Tumblr posts wishing existed, and then the fandom is so, so small comparatively and often in general. There have been superheroes, vampire/supernatural shows, fantasy shows, movies, books, the list goes on, that feel like they were generated out of Tumblr's desires for ideal fandom media, and everyone knows they're never going to attract anywhere near the same attention for fandom and fanworks because the common denominator just tends to be that if there isn't a full ensemble of attractive men to ship either with each other or with the women, fandom's not interested.

So it's not about prioritizing women in that sense, it's about people witnessing hypocrisy over and over again the second a show doesn't have a mostly-male ensemble. The people who are in these fandoms are frustrated that good faith attempts to get people interested are met with every excuse in the book that all eventually boils down to "I don't like watching stuff with women in it as much as I like watching stuff with men in it." And if that's how people feel about it... sometimes the conclusions are going to turn into the more uncharitable take of "fandom hates women."

--

Maybe, but whenever I see a "fandom hates women" reblog of my stuff, one or two reblogs further down the chain I get an overt TERF. I just had to go block several people today, in fact.

The first person to reblog with a comment like that is usually subtle, but their friends and friends of friends are not. The rhetoric that very quickly starts is the fandom equivalent of that "All the butches are becoming trans men! We're losing lesbians!" stuff.

Here's the thing: I've been in ten billion fandoms that were so awesome and fit fandom's supposed tastes to a T and yet no amount of promoting them could get anyone to try the canon. This goes for canons that are all men or all white men or all majority ethnicity men or whatever else.

The default state of media is to not engender a big fic fandom.

I agree that the rare outliers mostly follow certain patterns, but we extrapolate too far when we say that a lack of those patterns is why a fandom is small.

A fandom is small because that's the near-universal default.

--

Yes, a small slice of fandom consists of guilt-ridden queer fujoshi who say they want more f/f but don't make much of a move to make that happen. I tend to run into that a lot because of my own tastes and having friends who share those tastes.

Far more of fandom is people talking generally about how representation matters without saying they would personally join these fandoms if they existed.

Neither group is large enough to be the real reason some woman-heavy canon fails to take off to HP levels.

The real reason is not hypocrisy but the fact that most things don't take off like that. Most things without massive, massive audiences especially don't take off like that. And the very few things that do are flukes and don't actually predict that another similar thing will take off in the future.

--

Go to AO3's tag search. Search for all canonical fandom tags. Sort by uses and descending order.

Right now, I get 64,390 tags.

The first page, 50 tags, goes from HP with 497,845 works to the Thor movies with 59,266 works. By page 6, we're below 10 thousand works.

By the end of page 10, we're down to Labyrinth with 3,906.

Somewhere in the top 500 AO3 fandom tags (many of which are just franchise metatags for each other), we go all the way from megafandoms to medium size and down to relatively modest ones.

That's not a lot of room for a big f/f-heavy fandom given the trends in mainstream media and that mainstream media is where most really big fandoms come from.

--

I also notice that you're conflating a lack of desire to watch something that's primarily about women with a lack of desire to watch something that includes women.

There are tons of fans who want something more like The Mummy with a leading man and leading woman they love.

Granted, that's not me and that's not a lot of my fujoshi/slasher audience, but it's extraordinarily common. I know plenty of people who don't like canons that are only dudes, but since they also don't like canons that are only ladies and they don't ship f/f, this gets spun into "fandom hates women".

--

Let me be clear:

Conflating "lesbians" and "women" is a radfem position.

[ffverr]

Lots of new folks are following me these days so here is my attempt at a pin!

(art by Lukas Werneck)

Hi, welcome !! I'm Fever, I love the X-Men but most importantly X-women! I mostly post read through reactions, Fanart and memes on here! I'm always always happy to share more X-Men with people and talk about these characters so my inbox, dms or comments are open <3

Check out my "ffverrart" tag to see some of my X-Men Fanart. I am also @/ffverrr on twitter (less active on there)

Donate to @marvelgotchaforgaza to get any marvel commission from me or another participating artist!

Participate in my initiative with friends @x-femslash Fridays to talk and promote X-Men Sapphic ships every Friday! (Post whatever you want and tag us! It's a blast! <3)

I was originally a huge manga/anime fan (jjk, wha, fma, haikyuu and more) until the pandemic hit and I fell head first into american comics, Marvel specifically.

After some Daredevil, I started reading X-Men comics around 2021 with Astonishing by Joss wheadon (yeah ik....), the Krakoa era and simultaneously the Claremont era!

I'm currently around 87/88 in my Claremont read so stick around for talk and reactions of that!

Some of my favourite characters include but not limited to: Storm, Jean, Cyclops, Madelyne Pryor, Magik, Magneto, Mystique, Destiny, Mirage, Sunspot, Dazzler, Kitty, Rachel, Nightcrawler, Angel, Emma and some underrated favs like Manifold and Longshot

I don't necessarily enjoy the fox movies so I'm avoidant of that topic and I'm also not known for liking Logan Wolverine so do with that what you will!

Wanna learn more about X-Men comics? Here are some of my character reading guides:

X-Men Overall

Magneto

Storm

Polaris

Hope you enjoy the ride and post about X-Men comics too! (We need a lil community on Tumblr since X-twitter is a mess)

[blackcestfest]

Blackcest Fest Masterlist 

Categories: Femslash, Het, Sirius/Regulus, Sirius/Regulus/Other, Other Slash

Femslash: 

Eyes On The Bride by LesbianKJ Ships: Druella Rosier Black/Walburga Black, Druella Rosier Black/Minerva McGonagall Rating: Explicit Wordcount: 2,456

It's Druella Rosier and Cygnus Black's wedding, and Druella isn't acting like the proper bride.

Sweet Possession by sky_watcher_rose Ship: Walburga Black/Bellatrix Black Lestrange  Rating: E  Word count: 4624

Bellatrix has always worshipped the ground her aunt walks on - and so perhaps, Walburga thinks, this was inevitable. Bellatrix was always going to ask, and she was always going to say yes.

Bellatrix Black: An Elegy by @thistlecatfics Ships: Andromeda/Bellatrix, Bellatrix/Cygnus, Bellatrix/Rita Skeeter Rating: E  Wordcount: 5,328 Warnings: Non-con, underage

“Bellatrix Black Lestrange was survived by her husband, sister, nephew, and me, whatever I could be considered, if I could even be considered someone who survived her.”

Het: 

they wed by sanguis_in_excelsis @sanguisinexelsis Ship: Sirius Black/Bellatrix Black  Rating: G  Word count: 6446

and it goes better than expected  Sirius and Bellatrix, and their starry mythology

Vérité by MymbleHowl @st-clements-steps Ships: Sirius Black/Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Barty Crouch Jr. Rating: E  Wordcount: 2957

“By Salazar.” Surely she uses magic somehow to make her sigh resound through all their cells, “let me know when you meet a boy who doesn’t like it hard and fast, Bartemius." To Sirius she says, "darling, be a good boy for me and tell me what you’re doing?” Her voice sings across their dank surroundings. “Sometimes, babydoll, you have to let them take the lead.”

Daddy's Girl by @miss-grimwood Ship: Bellatrix/Cygnus  Rating: M  Word count: 1550  Warnings: underage, rape/non-con

Cygnus prepared Bellatrix to be a good wife to her future husband.

blue light of the flame by @sanguisinexelsis Ships: Sirius Black/Andromeda Black Tonks, Past Sirius/Bellatrix, Past Andromeda/Alphard   Rating: G Word count: 1,748

Andromeda goes to visit Sirius in Number Twelve the week before he dies. They say goodbye.

Her Good Boy by RottenPleasures @caitiewantstobeavadakedavrad Ship: Druella Rosier Black/Sirius Black  Rating: E  Wordcount: 1,273  Warnings: Underage

Walburga has always claimed that Sirius doesn’t know how to behave. Druella thinks that couldn’t be father from the truth.

Short Distance Between Love and Insanity by piximera @piximera-art Ship: Sirius/Bellatrix  Rating: E  Wordcount: 1,829

Bellatrix HATES Sirius, so why do they end up in bed together at every family ball?

M-A-M-A B-O-Y, Mama’s boy, Mama’s boy by Sagiko_AKA_RegulusBlackKinnieBITFW Ships: Walburga Black/Regulus Black, Past Walburga Black/Alphard Black  Rating: Explicit  Wordcount: 2101

Who says romance has to be dead just because her incesty brother died? Her son can always take his place.

Sirius/Regulus: 

Happiness by TheFaeSys @thesun-themoon-andtheirstars Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: T  Wordcount: 1184  Warnings: Mention of past abuse

After spending the first few weeks of the summer at the Potter's Sirius starts getting letters, a lot of letters. They don't stop and when Bellatrix shows up and drags him away to see his brother, Sirius relents, vowing to bring him back to the Potter's.

(ART) That Time My Brother Kissed Me and Not His Boyfriend by @acydpop Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: G 

Sirius didn't know that polyjuicing into one of his mates would lead to a surprise he never saw coming.

Kisses Are For Lovers by DeathBecomesJade @sniperjade Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: E  Wordcount: 13,447  Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Attempted Suicide

Regulus has always loved Sirius but for as long as he can remember Sirius has always pushed him away. He lost track of him after Hogwarts but now that he is free from his mother's influence and has found Sirius again, he will never let him go.

A Candle in the Dark by @ticigi Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: E  Wordcount: 6,674  Warnings: Underage, Referenced non-con

"Hey, Reggie? Want to see the stars with me, just like old times?”

Now That We Don't Talk by @melissamwrites Ship: Sirius/Regulus  Rating: E  Word count: 18,943  Warnings: Past Child Abuse, underage (17 year old)

Sirius and Regulus have been estranged since Sirius ran away at the age of 16 with his best friend from boarding school, James Potter. But they have recently moved to London (the Potters are insistent that they try and work for a living). James is trying to get into a new relationship, but Sirius feels lonely and tries to reach out to some old friends.

Take My Body by acari @ghaniblue Ship: Regulus/Sirius  Rating: E Wordcount: 3140  Warnings: Underage

The last person Sirius expected to find on his front step was his estranged little brother begging Sirius to fuck him.

Winner Takes All by @the-invisibility-bloke Ship: Sirius/Regulus  Rating: E  Wordcount: 8,893  Warnings: Underage

"You call that a kiss?" It’s all fun and games until it’s fun and games and groping.

The Ties That Bind Me (To Horoscopes and Fate) by @tenrousei-kuroi Ship: Sirius/Regulus  Rating: E  Wordcount: 6,007  Warnings: rape/non-con, moderate violence, underage, physical abuse

"Sirius could hear Orion in Regulus's room in the middle of the night when they were supposed to be sleeping. One of those nights he decides to sneak into his brother's room after their father leaves, just to check on him, but what he sees makes it impossible not to take advantage of the situation."

Lessons by dalula Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: Explicit  Wordcount: 2026  Warnings: Underage

Before starting Hogwarts, the Black siblings are extremely sheltered. When Sirius comes back after his first term, he can't wait to show Regulus that he can use what's between his legs to make himself feel better.

Sirius/Regulus/Other: 

Love in Different Shapes by Shadowmun @mundrakan Ship: Sirius/Regulus + Severus  Rating: E  Wordcount: 2742  Warnings: Rape/non-con, underage

Father asked Regulus to dose Sirius with a potion, so he would find an "illegible partner" and return to the family to do his duty of marrying and producing beautiful little pure-blood children. Too late Regulus finds out: Father didn't read the fine print.

Naughty, Knotty, Naughty by BrokenBoughs Ships: Regulus/Sirius, Regulus/Sirius/Harry  Rating: E  Wordcount: 1k 

Regulus tells Harry a bit of Black history.

With Seed As Strong As Blood by @greenmegsnoham Ships: Orion Black/Regulus Black, Regulus Black/Sirius Black, Orion Black/Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: E Warnings: Underage, Rape/Non-con  Wordcount: 2,200

"You want him," Orion states unquestioningly, his fingers trailing along Regulus' side to the dip of his waist and those widening hips... "Do your duty," Orion commands Sirius, "and you shall have your fill of our sweet Omega."

Take me with you (find a way) by cassetteinability @onehundredflamingos Ship: Regulus/Sirius/Narcissa  Rating: E  Wordcount: 10,352

When Walburga sets up a wedding between Regulus and Narcissa, Sirius vows to do whatever it takes to get back to his brother.

James Knows by @goldenbi Ships: Regulus Black/Sirius Black/James Potter  Rating: E  Wordcount: 5,030  Warnings: Underage Sex

James knew his best friend. He knew his best friend more than anyone else could know another person. From the first moment they met they were in sync in almost every way. Nearly every sentence that included James also included Sirius. Sirius’s wand felt just as natural in his hand as James’s own. They were closer than any two people could be. It was as if their very souls were made of the same bright light. So why didn’t Sirius admit that he was fucking his own brother?

Other Slash:

finders keepers by dalula Ship: Draco Malfoy/Sirius Black  Rating: E  Wordcount: 1269  Warnings: Underage, Animagus Bestiality

Draco finds Padfoot on the grounds at Hogwarts and smuggles him into his dorm. He's always wanted a dog.

[longing-for-rain]

How do you think Zutara's dynamic would change if both Zuko and Katara were female, what about if their genders were reversed? (M katara, F zuko?)

Oh this is interesting, I think their characters would both be very different and therefore their dynamic would too. Especially Katara.

The thing about canon Katara is that being female and therefore subject to misogyny was a huge impact on the character she became. In her very introduction, she’s irritated at Sokka for being misogynistic to her (with implications that this is a pattern) and we see multiple instances of her being overlooked or outright discriminated against for being female. It feeds into her drive to prove herself, to be a great waterbender, and contributes to her feeling an obligation to look after those around her at the expense of her own feelings.

Male!Katara would share some issues but not all. He would suffer the pressure of being the last southern waterbender, and having to hide that ability. He’d probably have somewhat of a paternal role at a young age, but not to the extent of his female counterpart. I also think it’s likely he would know hand-to-hand combat as well since he’d likely hunt but not be allowed to openly waterbend. He’d also still carry the burden of grief over his mother.

As for female!Zuko, I think she would suffer an added layer of misogyny on top of her abuse. There is no precedent for a female Fire Lord, so as a firstborn daughter, she might have been intended for political marriage for a young age. Her attempts to surpass Azula at firebending would have been deemed all the more pathetic by Ozai—proof to him that she’s only good for marriage and not leadership. This would have an impact on her and give her a strong drive to prove herself. I also think appearance would be a much bigger factor. There are only implications that canon Zuko feels insecure over his face, but female!Zuko would probably be even more impacted due to the pressure on women to be physically attractive (especially if she was a princess intended to be a bride). I think she’d probably be a bit butch and embrace her warrior side, deeming herself ugly (this would be interesting to work through). She fights with swords still and relentlessly pushes herself to excel at any skill she can.

How would these characters work together?

I actually really like femslash Zutara. Picture this—female!Zuko, told she’s weak and ugly and good for nothing but political marriage, encountering a powerful female waterbender. At first they fight, but over time gain an appreciation for each other. Eventually, female!Zuko finds a partner in Katara who admires her for her abilities as a warrior and a firebender, and on top of that, thinks she’s beautiful as she is. Her rough edges, her tough demeanor, everything she was told made her a failed woman, are all beautiful to Katara. Not to mention how she’d have an intimate ability to understand Katara’s own experiences of misogyny and its impact on her. They would have a truly beautiful connection.

Now male!Katara and female!Zuko… hard to say. To be completely honest I don’t seeing it having the same depth as canon or femslash Zutara, mainly because taking away femaleness from Katara’s character takes away a lot of the complexity (at least in my opinion). I think there would still be some “you’re beautiful as you are” and bonding over mom trauma but other than that I’m not sure.

[alicesadventuresinffxiv]

What are the most popular F/F Final Fantasy XIV ships?

(*on AO3, as of October 13, 2024)

I like writing femslash, so while I was doing the FFxivWrite challenge, I had the thought: wouldn’t it be fun to try writing each of the top 10 most popular FFXIV F/F ships? 

I figured it would be a good way for me to learn to write characters I wasn’t used to, plus hopefully it would mean some of the well-liked but rarely-written pairings would get more fic for them!

But then I ran head-first into the question: what are those F/F ships? I hit some interesting challenges attempting to figure that out, so here’s a post about how I reached my answer!

.

First things first: I’m using AO3 stats for this analysis, entirely because AO3 has the most robust searching and filtering tools. Trying to wrangle this kind of analysis on tumblr or twitter would be a nightmare, as much as I’d love to know the answer on those sites!

Second, let’s quickly double check my assumption that F/F ships are indeed rarepairs in this fandom.

Yep, if you’re at all familiar with @centrumlumina's work on AO3 stats (which this analysis is somewhat inspired by ^^;), this is exactly in line with general fandom trends! For reasons that I understand intellectually but not in my heart, F/F fics tend to hover at around 6% of AO3 output overall.

Interestingly, this small slice of femslash makes FFXIV more similar to large, broad fandoms like the MCU or MHA (pictured above), and less similar to other online multiplayer videogame fandoms (pictured below). You might think that given its friendly reputation, FFXIV would attract more women and/or LGBTQ+ players and therefore have a higher proportion of femslash. But nope!

(Admittedly, pitting FFXIV against the fandom that contains Arcane feels a little unfair... :P)

.

So alright, with that out of the way, let’s start by doing the obvious thing. Hey AO3, what are the top 10 relationship tags when searching FFXIV on the F/F category?

[Note: Since the Warrior of Light is typically written as the author’s original character - especially in cases with multiple WoLs - I am combining the WoL/WoL and WoL/OC tags together.]

If you’ve been in FFXIV spaces for a while, you probably already guessed the #1 result! But as someone relatively new to the fandom, I was actually quite surprised. None of my previous fandoms had nearly this much focus on original characters!

Indeed, WoL/NPC ships and OC/ OC ships absolutely dwarf the numbers for any NPC/NPC ships, with the exception of the three largest M/M pairings (Aymeric/Estinien, Emet-Selch/Hythlodaeus, and Thancred/Urianger). Also, given that not everyone tags their OCs using either of the WoL or OC tags (ack! please use tags, your works get lost otherwise!)… you can always expect results for OCs to be an undercount. Woah!

Anyway, since WoL ships are so huge, I decided it made the most sense to give them their own list:

Another thing that surprised me is that male characters in FFXIV are so many times more popular than female characters that genderbent M/M pairings will show up in these F/F lists.

And… I wasn’t quite sure how to count those ships in my tallies.

On the one hand, genderbending (not to mention trans headcanoning-ing!) characters is a fun and often subversive way to approach popular ships. More power to everyone doing it!

On the other hand, part of the underlying motivation for my own writing goal was that I wanted to write pairings that fandom somewhat overlooks. 

As such, I went with a compromise: I’m including pairings with canonically male characters in my graphs (those are the pink bars), but I kept the lists going until I reached 10 pairings involving characters who are portrayed as women in the source material.

(There were no nonbinary FFXIV characters which placed on any of my lists, sadly. Apologies to Feo Ul, who is still the loveliest of branches in my heart.)

Other than that caveat, the results here aren’t too far off from my own guesses. Anecdotally, I’d seen that a lot of WoLs are self-inserts for their players, so it makes sense that typical WoL ships are with NPCs that are generally considered to be attractive by the fanbase. Correspondingly, the Reader/Character fics that are somewhat common in other fandoms don’t even rank on these lists, which might suggest WoL/NPC ships are largely fulfilling that niche.

(Something something, FFXIV is a dating sim with combat, in this essay I will…. :P)

.

Anyway, WoL ships are nice, but what I actually wanted to write were NPC/NPC ships. So let’s add a bunch more excludes to the filtering… and…

Hm. That's interesting. There's a bunch of F/F ships that I know I’ve seen fic and art for that are missing from this list!

Out of curiosity, I did a few searches specifically on these missing pairings, in case they were so rarely tagged as purely F/F (or so commonly shipped alongside a WoL ship) that trying to find them via excludes didn’t work. These were:

Alisaie/Tesleen (20 total, 13 tagged F/F)

Krile/Tataru (14 total, 7 tagged F/F)

Ysayle/Heustienne (5 total, 5 tagged F/F)

Wuk Lamat/Sphene (4 total, 4 tagged as F/F)

[Note: The first number is what I used during the writing challenge last month… which is how I ended up putting Krile/Tataru over Lucia/Hilda. Oops! But the second number is more in line with the rest of the analysis here, so I will use that going forward.]

Seems my expectations were flat-out incorrect! Of these four, only Alisaie/Tesleen makes the top ten. Meanwhile Wuk Lamat/Sphene is a pairing consisting of very new characters... so perhaps it will grow over time!

Right then, let's add Alisaie/Tesleen in, and while we're at it, let's run direct searches on all the potential candidates rather than using excludes to ensure no fics are getting needlessly thrown out.

With those adjustments in place... I reached my final top ten!

Not bad! Predictably, pairings that get more focus in canon (Gaia/Ryne and Sadu/Cirina) tend to place high, as do pairings involving Y’shtola (since she’s a very popular character overall). 

As a Lyse-enjoyer, I found Lyse getting 3/10 spots on the list to be pretty funny, as was the heavy presence of Stormblood characters! Apparently I’m not the only one who thought StB was a good expansion for lesbians. :D

There are also a few pairings here that I hadn’t ever considered before doing this analysis. But hey, that was the point of making the list! And trying to figure out the dynamics for pairings I didn’t usually ship did indeed turn out to be a fun writing exercise last month.

So what do you all think, tumblr? Did the results surprise you like they did me? Or did I overlook a pairing that really deserved to be included?

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this analysis!

[littlestsnicket]

Hi! I'm new to the fandom (not new to the books or show though) and I was wondering if you knew where the name lemonberryice comes from? Thanks, and I'm glad to see someone still posting about the ship and the series!

hello! welcome to asoue fandom!

i’ve been a fan of the books for… since they were first published, but i didn’t really get involved in this fandom until after the netflix series finished airing.

it’s not a super active fandom, but we still do events and get awesome fic and meta sometimes. it is the best fandom! or at least the pocket of it that i’ve kept in contact with is. (my other fandom is the witcher which is the worst fandom except for the parts of it that make the rest of it worth it!) so much femslash, exploration of platonic dynamics, and thoughtful meta even when i disagree with it!

to attempt to answer your question: lemonberryice comes from if you take lemony-bertrand-beatrice, smoosh them together and squint really hard?

fic rec since this is what i think of whenever the ship name is used, because it like… embodies those words as part of their dynamic.

tagging @whoslaurapalmer @lesbianscieszka @beatricebidelaire: since i think all of you have been in this fandom much longer than i have, is there an actual answer for the origin of this ship name?

[blanket-of-moss]

MLB Femslash February-LilAlya

My first submission for @mlbfemslashfebruary 2024, it's day 12 and I decided to go with the prompt 'Jazz'! In this art, the two share a silly little dance at a jazz club, with Alya taking the lead in an attempt to get Lila properly into it (spoiler alert: it works).

No Shading Version:

[titleleaf]

I’ve wanted to watch more Roger Corman films for a long time — he’s been a pivotal force in the careers of a lot of directors whose works I enjoy and his impact on some of my favorite silly horror tropes is off the charts — but tonight we did a questionable thematic double feature of Corman’s Masque Of The Red Death (1964) with Visconti’s Death In Venice (1971) and hoo boy… my Vincent Price thirst… is strong…

Some thoughts:

- It’s a delight to have an adaptation that engages with Poe’s use of color and the color palettes of all that highly saturated, artificial, Star Trek TOS-looking costuming is a pleasure after “the Middle Ages were brown and gray” has been the norm for so many years now. The presence of the Red Death is undercut by the liberal use of red in the courtiers’ costuming but the costume/character design fucking rules.

- On the flipside, every single one of these costumes could be dated like a tree trunk slice; they are pure 1964 and they look like if you held a match up to them they’d melt. I would loved to have seen more Bogus Renaissance Italy vibes rather than Bogus Generic Medieval but I get that they were working with what they were working with.

- If I saw this movie in 1964 as a teenager it would have blown my tits right off. Arch, sexy, incredibly nasty Prince Prospero low key holds a virtuous peasant girl hostage in exchange for sparing the lives of her lover AND her father, then proceeds to attempt to seduce her into his philosophy of cynicism, skepticism regarding organized religion, and also Satanism, while his clearly pretty lonesome consort is off doing her own thing with Satan and they have a truly bonkers triangulation with exquisite wife-mistress femslash potential and also there’s a lot of evil bathing and evil dressing??? Also there’s a pretty loosey-goosey adaptation of Hop-Frog but I don’t give a fuck, Hop-Frog (excuse me, Hop-Toad for some reason in this) is my favorite figure from Poe and while the ending of the film is a bit Hays Code-y (just too many people being spared!) him and his lady love getting away clean is always a lovely element. (Even if the choice to cast him with an actual adult little person actor who’s appropriately super charming and scheming and her as an ADR’ed child is: super super weird. It was the 60s, I guess.)

- @allthestoriescantbelies pointed out to me that Jane Asher is also the protagonist of The Stone Tape and damn, girl cannot catch a gothic break, no matter what era she’s in. She’s lovely in this.

- I want to show this movie on repeat to all historical costume accuracy discoursers.

- I also want a bunch of Jacobean revenge tragedies costumed exactly like this. In some alternate reality where all the incest wouldn’t be a dealbreaker I think Corman could have cleaned the fuck up adapting Webster and Middleton and whatnot. Hell, do Corman’s Hamlet.

- All the courtiers’ debauchery is pretty tame at first — they canoodle fully clothed, impersonate animals, and drink a lot of wine — but when that finale hits, it really hits.

In conclusion I feel like this film gave me an injection of vital villain/heroine essence directly to the bloodstream.

[obstinaterixatrix]

"Is this how it feels to have a friend?"

Bibi is obsessed with Peter, the prince of the school. When she spots Amy next to him, she starts to feel jealous. She invites Amy to her house to warn her, but instead takes a liking to the girl. They agree to be friends on the condition that Amy has to help Bibi confess.

happy femslash february, here’s a 50 episode webtoon about high schoolers in the 🇺🇸USA🇺🇸. the author has stated that she loves yanderes and her goal for this series was to write a happy ending for a yandere, so it’s a zany and dysfunctional series with a lot of love for its own characters.

being a love letter to yanderes, I’d say the series keeps fairly lighthearted (no actual present murder) while having darker gags/plot elements (references to past pet death, past abuse, past attempted murder, past actual (?) murder, ableist language, etc.). the tonal dissonance is done pretty well in my opinion, plus the art and writing is super charming. check out the introduction to amy

bibi doesn’t even see her as an actual person at first, so the relationship development is really fun with how she gradually swaps targets from ✨the most popular boy at school✨ to some random gloomy gal lmao

great balance between vaguely threatening and genuinely heartfelt

[ladyluscinia]

I have rewatched the mean lesbians episode in hopes I would like them more the second time, but I'm afraid I'm still not vibing with it. Credit that they tried to undercut the "lesbians who drop in to give our main couple therapy" with the whole reveal it was game and Mary's little rant about their relationship "losing the magic", but like... did they really? Do Anne and Mary not successfully tee up the really touching BlackBonnet airing of grievances and reconciliation? Laughing at them a bit for being dorky doesn't change that they really didn't do much sabotaging, overall, so it's not like they weren't pushing them back together.

I mean, even Mary's whole rant happens after Anne leaves the room. By the time they really start telling us how this couple has their own foundation cracks and issues (vs the veneer of just keeping it interesting) and aren't a longstanding example of a healthy relationship, Anne is literally offscreen making a grand romantic gesture that will solve Mary's discontent. I know they are fitting a miscommunication arc into half an episode instead of 2-3 seasons, but the end result just feels like speedrunning a knock off of BlackBonnet's issues.

And that along with the fact they function as BlackBonnet mirrors first and characters second, it all just feels very... underwhelming (?) to me.

Like why do I care about Anne and Mary? Is the face stealing gimmick supposed to have hooked me? They also, imo, really fucked up by ending on a hug - it just spotlights the fact that, for all the sex jokes, they don't really bother to sell physical intimacy between the two. They maybe bump shoulders at the shop, sit in separate chairs in every scene in the house... honestly the best they do is the offscreen knife flicking. Which funny metaphor but like. Why can't the lesbians be into each other without the metaphor? Or am I supposed to think that Anne "burn the whole house down the second her wife admits she doesn't like swamp life" Bonny didn't pick up that Mary was maybe unhappy when they entirely stopped touching each other and replaced it with murder attempts.

Even a repeat of the offscreen joke but this time imply they are hardcore making out as Stede and Edward slip away would have probably hit better? (I'm assuming for some reason kissing was off the table, otherwise even more wtf why not just kiss?)

(Can you tell I've been thinking about the sorry state of femslash?)

Also I'd be remiss not to tie my dissatisfaction with Anne and Mary to my dissatisfaction with OFMD's prevailing approach to female characters. Spanish Jackie's entire thing is being so awesome and desirable that she has 20 husbands that all work for her, which is super fun. Mary Bonnet became a widowed girlboss with a Doug, which was also fun. Then suddenly we're meeting Zheng Yi Sao who is a girlboss Pirate Queen better than any man, and her right-hand woman that seems like a more stable and competent Edward/Izzy parallel, and her crew of only hyper-competent women... do you see how this is getting a bit repetitive?

Now we add Anne and Mary speedrunning BlackBonnet parallels to teach them a grand gesture romantic lesson? So... doing Stede and Edward but Better™?

Zheng Yi Sao still has time to get more interiority that could offset the whole "girlboss" gimmick which would help, but until that happens the only real female character standout to me is Archie - a woman who has something deeply wrong with her but has so far just kind of slotted in as a equal crewmember instead of the Competent Woman Character.

[divinemissem13]

Multiverse Diplomacy

Star Trek Femslash Week Fandom: Discovery Pair: Cornwell/ Mirror Georgiou Other Characters: Michael Burnham (POV) Word Count: 693 Rating: T Prompt: Enemies to Lovers Michael tries to keep Admiral Cornwell and Emperor Georgiou from killing each other... with middling success.

"This is not your universe, Emperor. You are not in charge here." Admiral Cornwell's voice is firm, confident, commanding, despite her small stature. Of course, the Emperor is a small woman too but Michael has already learned not to underestimate Philippa Georgiou in any universe.

"The only reason I am not in charge here is because I do not want to be," Georgiou counters. She doesn't move but her eyes flash dangerously as she holds Cornwell's gaze. "Send me home, and that won't change," she says casually, though not casually enough to fully obscure the underlying threat in her words.

Michael watches as the two women stare each other down, neither one willing to blink first. If not for her own Vulcan upbringing, she would surely be squirming in her boots. Instead, she makes an attempt at diplomacy. "Emperor, you only narrowly escaped a violent revolution in your universe," Michael reasons. "Surely you would prefer political asylum here rather than certain death there."

"I do not need your protection," Georgiou snaps. Her tone leaves no room for argument, and even though she is speaking to Michael, her dark eyes remain fixed on Cornwell's ethereal blue.

"My mistake. Next time I will let you die," Michael says coldly. Two (or rather, three) can play at this game.

The Admiral takes a few deliberate steps towards the Emperor who immediately counters and soon the two women are circling each other like rival lionesses preparing to pounce. "The resemblance truly is remarkable," the Admiral purrs, sizing the other woman up.

"I cannot say if you resemble your counterpart or not," the Emperor replies with a sneer. "She was never important enough to be worthy of my attention."

The Admiral's nostrils flare involuntarily and the Emperor's sneer turns into a wicked smile at the other woman's momentary loss of control.

"I wouldn't recommend ignoring me now, your highness. I just might be the only thing standing between you and an airlock," the Admiral snarls.

The two women have moved closer as they circled and are now mere inches apart. Georgiou appears to be sniffing Cornwell, like a wild animal. "So, dear Admiral, what do you plan to do with me?" Georgiou asks, leaning dangerously close to the Cornwell's ear, close enough that Michael fears she may try to bite it off.

"Oh, I have a few ideas…" Cornwell growls in response

Michael, desperate to keep the two women from coming to blows, blurts out the first thing she can think of. "The Emperor conquered the Klingons in her universe. She may be able to help us win this war."

Both of the older women freeze and then their heads snap towards Michael, eerily in sync. Cornwell looks surprised, as if she had forgotten Michael was in the room. Georgiou, on the other hand, seems fully aware that Michael has been watching and she narrows her eyes preditorily and bares her teeth.

"Specialist Burnham, your assistance is no longer needed. You may go," Admiral Cornwell orders, with a surprising amount of calm considering.

"I only-"

"Out. Now," the Admiral commands, point to the door for good measure as she returns her focus to the Emperor.

As the door slides shut, the Emperor gives Michael a self-satisfied smirk and a fluttering wave that puts a pit in Michael's stomach. She really hopes Cornwell knows what she's doing.

Over an hour later, Admiral Cornwell emerges to find Michael still hovering in the corridor. The woman is wearing a smug smile and looks surprisingly satisfied.

"Admiral, did you come to an agreement?" Michael asks, falling into step behind Cornwell.

The Admiral seems to have regained her composure and is all business again. "We found a way to work together. Any further details are above your rank, Specialist. Now, surely you have more important things to do than hanging around in hallways?"

"Yes, Admiral." Michael nods and falls back to allow the Admiral to continue on without her. It's only when she gets a clear view of Cornwell walking away that Michael notices the very un-admiral-like sway of her hips and she has to wonder: What the hell went on in there?

[trillscienceofficer]

One-Armed Scissor

Borg Queen/Seven of Nine, Seven of Nine/B'Elanna Torres, Rated M, 14.5k words

Additional Tags: Horror, Dreams vs Reality, Non-Graphic Violence, Torture, Blood, Stabbing, Guilt, the religious mysticism of a born again convert

Summary: When Seven starts having dreams about the Borg Queen that leave no trace in Voyager's logs, few crewmembers are willing to take seriously her fears about possible repercussions in the real world.

—

Written for the Rare Femslash Exchange 2023, I had a lot of fun filling in the prompt for a Seven/Borg Queen fic that also included B'Elanna in a prominent role. Being who I am, the B7 angle was practically inevitable. Please let me know what you thought if you read it, constructive criticism is very welcome as this is my first ever attempt at a horror story. (It's not really scary btw, mainly creepy.) The title comes from a favorite song of mine by At The Drive-In.

In the exchange I received a really cool B'Elanna/Seven h/c fic as well, set during “Year of Hell”, ask me. Go read it!

[yeliuxi]

Fic Writer Q&A

Tagged by @dragongirlg-fics :") Thank you ahh

How many wips do you have currently?

I think 5. Though all having various degrees of actually aiming to finish and post haha

For Qi Ye - The longer Ming Hua fic. Ming Hua's impressions of Jing Beiyuan and his bullshit throughout the years

Also for Qi Ye - My main fic. The genderbend modern organized crime AU that I have been working on for years now with femme-but-also-kind-of-becoming-butch-at-the-end Jing Beiyuan + butch Wuxi. But I ended up drawing a lot of it to procrastinate the writing... so now I have a lot of art (including first attempts to draw NSFW art), and not even a complete outline

& another for Qi Ye - Just straight porn featuring Jing Beiyuan domming Wuxi. Also topping like Jing Beiyuan initially wanted to do in the novel. But that's a separate sex scene. That's all

For MDZS - modern AU inspired by my RBB prompt. Lan Wangji has feelings for Wei Wuxian & when helping him out Lan Xichen accidentally ends up dealing with his own problems

For Locked Tomb - Palamedes/Camilla gender thesis fic. Where they fuck (? Masturbate? What happens when you share a body) and cope in unhealthy ways and Pyrrah is there going "wow yeah that's fucked up. Do you feel fucked up about this" and having an uno-reverse moment about her in Gideon 1's body

Still in brainstorming phase but The Double femslash where jealous Situ Jiuyue indeed "knocks up" Xue Fangfei. They blow off steam and the fake pregnancy drug is administered in sexy way lolol. The two lines of ":0 Whose baby is it" "Jiuyue's" live rent free in my head

More of the Q&A below

Which one are you finding the hardest to finish?

#2... It keeps growing... I thought I would end with an AU equivalent of Jing Beiyuan faking her death but then I started writing post-fake death... and now it's 90% ex-criminal-but-still-committing-a-continuous-crime Jing Beiyuan relearning how to be a normal person and Wuxi fitting herself back into a normal life 🤦🏻‍♀️Also did I mention the procrastination with my drawings?

What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you?

Unfortunately I think when I am most inspired it prevents me from writing haha. I get all excited and then stare off imagining the scenes... and do not write them. But there is a moderate amount of inspiration where I go onto 4thewords co-op writing battles and write out 10k in a day. I had several of these days in July and then have not since...

Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?

No... I feel too much pressure to have songs that "relate" to the fic and I don't like doing that because it's time consuming and burns my energy that could be spent writing lol. Also I don't usually do any creative things with music because it's distracting to me

Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organized?

I am a pantser mostly (tragic result of often having more vibes than plot thought out haha) but for certain long fics I will put together a detailed outline

Tagging: @difeisheng @geneticcatalyst @minnarr and whoever else wants to :D Yes this includes anyone reading this. Even if we aren't mutuals haven't talked etc. Just say I tagged you because I did and I am nosy and want to read it

[blackcestfest]

Blackcest Fest Anonymous Masterlist 

Categories: Femslash, Het, Sirius/Regulus, Sirius/Regulus/Other, Other Slash (Not all fics fit neatly into these categories)

Femslash: 

Eyes On The Bride Ships: Druella Rosier Black/Walburga Black, Druella Rosier Black/Minerva McGonagall Rating: E Wordcount: 2,456

It's Druella Rosier and Cygnus Black's wedding, and Druella isn't acting like the proper bride.

Sweet Possession  Ship: Walburga Black/Bellatrix Black Lestrange  Rating: E  Word count: 4624

Bellatrix has always worshipped the ground her aunt walks on - and so perhaps, Walburga thinks, this was inevitable. Bellatrix was always going to ask, and she was always going to say yes.

Bellatrix Black: An Elegy  Ships: Andromeda/Bellatrix, Bellatrix/Cygnus, Bellatrix/Rita Skeeter Rating: E  Wordcount: 5,328 Warnings: Non-con, underage

“Bellatrix Black Lestrange was survived by her husband, sister, nephew, and me, whatever I could be considered, if I could even be considered someone who survived her.”

Het: 

they wed  Ship: Sirius Black/Bellatrix Black  Rating: G  Word count: 6446

and it goes better than expected  Sirius and Bellatrix, and their starry mythology

Vérité  Ships: Sirius Black/Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Barty Crouch Jr., Sirius Black/Bellatrix Black Lestrange, Sirius Black/Barty Crouch Jr. Rating: E  Wordcount: 2,957

“By Salazar.” Surely she uses magic somehow to make her sigh resound through all their cells, “let me know when you meet a boy who doesn’t like it hard and fast, Bartemius." To Sirius she says, "darling, be a good boy for me and tell me what you’re doing?” Her voice sings across their dank surroundings. “Sometimes, babydoll, you have to let them take the lead.”

Daddy's Girl  Ship: Bellatrix/Cygnus  Rating: M  Word count: 1,550  Warnings: underage, rape/non-con

Cygnus prepared Bellatrix to be a good wife to her future husband.

blue light of the flame  Ships: Sirius Black/Andromeda Black Tonks, Past Sirius/Bellatrix, Past Andromeda/Alphard   Rating: G Word count: 1,748

Andromeda goes to visit Sirius in Number Twelve the week before he dies. They say goodbye.

Her Good Boy  Ship: Druella Rosier Black/Sirius Black  Rating: E  Wordcount: 1,273  Warnings: Underage

Walburga has always claimed that Sirius doesn’t know how to behave. Druella thinks that couldn’t be father from the truth.

Short Distance Between Love and Insanity  Ship: Sirius/Bellatrix  Rating: E  Wordcount: 1,829

Bellatrix HATES Sirius, so why do they end up in bed together at every family ball?

M-A-M-A B-O-Y, Mama’s boy, Mama’s boy- Ships: Walburga Black/Regulus Black, Past Walburga Black/Alphard Black  Rating: E  Wordcount: 2,101

Who says romance has to be dead just because her incesty brother died? Her son can always take his place.

Sirius/Regulus: 

Happiness  Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: T  Wordcount: 1,184  Warnings: Mention of past abuse

After spending the first few weeks of the summer at the Potter's Sirius starts getting letters, a lot of letters. They don't stop and when Bellatrix shows up and drags him away to see his brother, Sirius relents, vowing to bring him back to the Potter's.

(ART) That Time My Brother Kissed Me and Not His Boyfriend  Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: G 

Sirius didn't know that polyjuicing into one of his mates would lead to a surprise he never saw coming.

Kisses Are For Lovers  Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: E  Wordcount: 13,447  Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Incest, Attempted Suicide

Regulus has always loved Sirius but for as long as he can remember Sirius has always pushed him away. He lost track of him after Hogwarts but now that he is free from his mother's influence and has found Sirius again, he will never let him go.

A Candle in the Dark  Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: E  Wordcount: 6,674  Warnings: Underage, Referenced non-con

"Hey, Reggie? Want to see the stars with me, just like old times?”

Now That We Don't Talk  Ship: Sirius/Regulus  Rating: E  Word count: 18,943  Warnings: Past Child Abuse, underage (17 year old)

Sirius and Regulus have been estranged since Sirius ran away at the age of 16 with his best friend from boarding school, James Potter. But they have recently moved to London (the Potters are insistent that they try and work for a living). James is trying to get into a new relationship, but Sirius feels lonely and tries to reach out to some old friends.

Take My Body  Ship: Regulus/Sirius  Rating: E Wordcount: 3,140  Warnings: Underage

The last person Sirius expected to find on his front step was his estranged little brother begging Sirius to fuck him.

Winner Takes All Ship: Sirius/Regulus  Rating: E  Wordcount: 8,893  Warnings: Underage

"You call that a kiss?" It’s all fun and games until it’s fun and games and groping.

The Ties That Bind Me (To Horoscopes and Fate)  Ship: Sirius/Regulus  Rating: E  Wordcount: 6,007  Warnings: rape/non-con, moderate violence, underage, physical abuse

"Sirius could hear Orion in Regulus's room in the middle of the night when they were supposed to be sleeping. One of those nights he decides to sneak into his brother's room after their father leaves, just to check on him, but what he sees makes it impossible not to take advantage of the situation."

Lessons  Ship: Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: Explicit  Wordcount: 2,026  Warnings: Underage

Before starting Hogwarts, the Black siblings are extremely sheltered. When Sirius comes back after his first term, he can't wait to show Regulus that he can use what's between his legs to make himself feel better.

Sirius/Regulus/Other: 

Love in Different Shapes Ship: Sirius/Regulus + Severus  Rating: E  Wordcount: 2,742  Warnings: Rape/non-con, underage

Father asked Regulus to dose Sirius with a potion, so he would find an "illegible partner" and return to the family to do his duty of marrying and producing beautiful little pure-blood children. Too late Regulus finds out: Father didn't read the fine print.

Naughty, Knotty, Naughty  Ships: Regulus/Sirius, Regulus/Sirius/Harry  Rating: E  Wordcount: 1k 

Regulus tells Harry a bit of Black history.

With Seed As Strong As Blood  Ships: Orion Black/Regulus Black, Regulus Black/Sirius Black, Orion Black/Regulus Black/Sirius Black  Rating: E Warnings: Underage, Rape/Non-con  Wordcount: 2,200

"You want him," Orion states unquestioningly, his fingers trailing along Regulus' side to the dip of his waist and those widening hips... "Do your duty," Orion commands Sirius, "and you shall have your fill of our sweet Omega."

Take me with you (find a way)  Ship: Regulus/Sirius/Narcissa  Rating: E  Wordcount: 10,352

When Walburga sets up a wedding between Regulus and Narcissa, Sirius vows to do whatever it takes to get back to his brother.

James Knows  Ships: Regulus Black/Sirius Black, Sirius Black/James Potter, Regulus Black/Sirius Black/James Potter  Rating: E  Wordcount: 5,030  Warnings: Underage Sex

James knew his best friend. He knew his best friend more than anyone else could know another person. From the first moment they met they were in sync in almost every way. Nearly every sentence that included James also included Sirius. Sirius’s wand felt just as natural in his hand as James’s own. They were closer than any two people could be. It was as if their very souls were made of the same bright light. So why didn’t Sirius admit that he was fucking his own brother?

Other Slash:

finders keepers  Ship: Draco Malfoy/Sirius Black  Rating: E  Wordcount: 1,269  Warnings: Underage Tags: Animagus Bestiality, Cousin Incest, Anal Sex, Knotting

Draco finds Padfoot on the grounds at Hogwarts and smuggles him into his dorm. He's always wanted a dog.

[peemil]

i'm supposed to tag nine people for this YAHOO YIPPEE but idk if i'm gonna actually tag that many. We'll See

i was tagged by @figbian THANK YOU i love doing these sorts of things, especially when i'm stressed out!

three ships: wow this sure is tumblr dot com narumitsu/wrightworth, sylvix (i'm sorry women), aaaaaaaand for the sake of #feminism, my ride-or-die femslash rarepair: asuhika ❤️

first ship: if we want to go all the way back i was a hardcore may/ash (advancedshipping) stan back in the day. i made something like 7 amvs in the span of maybe a month and a half and then BURNED THEM ONTO A DVD. AND GAVE IT TO PEOPLE.

last song i listened to: when i first attempted to answer this a few days ago, it was fucking "sissy that walk." i regret to inform everyone that, by complete coincidence, the answer once again is "sissy that walk."

currently reading: i honestly am so bad at finishing things i've started reading. i also generally don't like reading books for pleasure? people will come after me for that but i like the feeling of having finished something, which is why i tend to read a lot more essays and papers and the like, as opposed to novels.

currently watching: *sigh* vanderpump rules... though i do still need to finish part 6 of jojo as well!

relationship status: discord moderator

current obsessions: fire emblem three houses As Well. i've also recently started to seriously try to learn chess again. and as always i'm playing a lot of splatoon!

currently craving: oh man i went on a whole thing about the stuff i wanted to eat last night but i really want a melon cream soda so bad it makes me look fucking STUPID

fave color: bright teal

tagging: @sweetfloatapartment @nitroplusofficial @humhallelujah @thewrongtrouser @squimp @toasttheinkling @cow-inthe-closet @reikomakoto aaaaaand i guess that's only 8. sorry! there are some more people i want to tag but i'm so shy...

no pressure to do this obviously! but i am thinking of all of you and sending my love