#REACTED TOGETHER LIVE

[starbylers]

Interesting how Noah and Millie both post bts within a day of each other yet there is no Mike/El content to be seen from her….interesting……..

[dayurno]

what gets me re: kevin with jean is that kevin is seriously the worst. like we see in-text specifically that kevin used to lean into jean’s space to whisper to him and it seems it was common enough to him that he didn’t think much of it (he did it once for asking jean to teach him french then again to make jean promise not to off himself), he said horrible things like ‘it could be our secret’ and ‘i don’t want to lose you’, he wrote jean memories and notes in postcards, he bought jean silly little magnets, even up to the point of tsc canon he was cradling jean’s face and gently touching his hand. so flirty! no wonder jean was down so horribly. no wonder nora sakavic said kevin was always the problem child

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

An example of queercoding in Alhaitham and Kaveh's relationship: Madam Faruzan edition

Due to the rules in place for game development in China, the possibility for queer confirmation within Genshin Impact is denied, which therefore renders the usage of characters alluding to the potential romantic connection between two same-sex characters as impossible. However, the same insinuation can be made by omitting specific language which strictly conveys romantic sentiments, such as ‘couple’. Instead, the idea of secrecy or something unmentionable can be drawn upon as indicators, as this draws parallels to the taboo of homosexuality practiced within certain cultures and media forms, which the real world audience can identify.  

For example, Alhaitham and Kaveh as secret housemates. This can be used to convey an idea of ‘taboo’ as Kaveh desires to protect his reputation by concealing his shame of having to live with Alhaitham. In-game, the context here is that Kaveh wants to uphold his reputation of a successful architect, but within Alhaitham’s Story Quest, upon the player’s discovery of Kaveh living with Alhaitham, this context is omitted for some time. This prompts Paimon to question what exactly Alhaitham and Kaveh’s relationship is, with Kaveh denying that the two used to be friends but are not anymore: “I wouldn’t say ‘friends’ exactly”.

This tactic of double entendre can be seen again in A Parade of Providence when Paimon almost reveals Kaveh’s living situation to Faruzan.

Faruzan’s can be observed to resort to a thinking pose, in comparison with Layla, when Alhaitham is mentioned in relation to Kaveh wanting to buy property, as Paimon almost ‘outs’ the truth, that Kaveh resides with Alhaitham.

She then seemingly dwells upon the subject, as she returns to it after Kaveh requests for a change of topic later in the conversation. Here, Faruzan follows up on whether Kaveh lives alone, which he fails to deny. 

Here, it can be seen that she has already began associating Kaveh and Alhaitham, possibly speculating that the two live together. When Kaveh fails to supply an answer, therefore not denying her theory, she explicitly ties the two together, and asks if the two are “hiding” something.  

This question evokes a physical reaction from Kaveh, as he denies this question out of fear of being revealed, with Paimon opting to leave in order to cover her role in revealing Kaveh’s predicament.  

A deliberate potentiality has been created here in regard to what Faruzan has inferred, as her phrasing of “are you two hiding something from me?” is non-specific. Rather than asking: “are you two living together?”, she asks a question which holds multiple connotations. Due to the ambiguity of her meaning, her question can be observed as a non-explicit version of the: “are you two a couple?” question.

On the surface, this question is a reference to their situation as roommates, however, her phrasing is non-specific, and hints to another cause for “hiding” something. For Faruzan, Kaveh’s blatant evasion of the topic and dismissal of Alhaitham’s name, could easily be inferred as “hiding” a romantic connection – which is something that the player, too, can pick up on from her gesture of suspicion, her inquisitive questioning, and her excitement when piecing together the clues. The ambiguity of her question generates multiple meanings as to why she has surmised the two could be “hiding”.  

This overt secrecy in Kaveh’s living with Alhaitham, another man, prompts the player to generate associations between this in-game secrecy and real world queer shame. In this, there is an implication of the need for Kaveh to confirm the status of his relationship between him and Alhaitham. Not only does this scene connotate an ‘outing’, in which a queer character has their queerness forcibly revealed to a heteronormative audience, but this creates a sense of secrecy, which, again, can be interpreted by the player as ‘taboo’.  

Kaveh does not want to tell anyone of his living situation out of preserving his stellar reputation, however, Faruzan is missing this context. She relates Alhaitham and Kaveh together in the phrasing “you two”, coupling them together in a secret that they “hid[e]”. The player understands this as indicating to their living situation, however, this creates a separate context which Faruzan has interpreted and that, we, as the audience are not privy to, but can interpret based on her allusions to cohabitation between two men being a secret.

Whilst this is not explicitly romantic within Genshin’s world of nameless sexuality, Faruzan’s ambiguous questioning here draws parallels between real world understanding of sexuality and the connotations of queerness which stems from two men living together in secret. 

(Update: For more analyses like this, the essay this is taken from is now uploaded! It can be accessed here and here as as a pdf <3)

[deadbaguette]

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it here on tumblr, but I recently started listening to TMA! I’m like a little over a quarter of a way through the 200+ episodes of the podcast and I am THOROUGHLY enjoying it ☺️

[crazysnakey]

Something something about the Third Doctor and the fate of Tantalus. You're trapped in one place. Everything you want, that you once took for granted is right there in front of you, you can see it you can reach for it but you can never have it. You will never attain it on your own. Your fate is dependent on the mercy or cruelty of others and you hate it and you rage against it but you can’t do anything, your defiance is treated like nothing but a childish tantrum but you refuse to beg, you won’t get that desperate no matter how long you’re trapped here, no matter how low you’re brought down. You stand among humans and you look human but you’re not, you’re an animal in a cage with them and you’re the only one who can see the bars. Gnawing and hacking at them to no avail. And yet all you can do is wait and hope and try and fail in an endless loop until an outside force interferes to free you from your prison. The carrot and the stick. How does it feel to be on the receiving end?

[ffverr]

Omg??????? OHmg????????!!

[callowmooree]

ESSEK BUDDY WHY ARE YOU HURTING MY FEARNIE😭

NO NOT ASHTON TOO😭

[dayabot]

anyway crystal talking about get dusted lore crystal talking about lux and daya lore crystal talking about old get dusted promo videos and mentioning the outland :sob:

[bunnyboy-juice]

spent the first hour and change at work deleting some old files and am having a grand ol time laughing at myself for not realizing i was a lesbian sooner

[selfinflictedgunshotwound]

sorry for only saying this type of shit lately but i kinda wanna drive a car straight into a brick wall at the highest speed possible

[banished-away]

feeling slightly vindicated watching an RAS interview bc keep getting this feeling from the drizzt books that theyre very italian-american (as in, i see a lot of things i recognize from italian culture in it, but influenced and changed by american culture) and he said that he based off the culture of menzo partly on his hometown and then the sopranos/godfather which confirmed it to me

also he pronounces menzoberranzan the way i used to before someone else corrected me JKNDSKJFKDS

[desktopmermaid]

look at my dramatic fish lesbian yaoi boy

[damagecompilation]

quick icebreaker what was everyone favorite winx / trix member ill go fast i was a stella and icy girl

[acourtofquestions]

TOWER OF DAWN SPOILER ALERT

OH MY WORD

ITS LYSANDRAS FATHER isn’t it

Update:

OH MY WORD IT IS

Updated Update: OH MY WORD I HAD IT WRONG HES HER… UNCLE??

But still…

Wait… Does that mean her father’s alive??

I can’t keep track of the updates but I’m pretty sure Nesryn just put the pieces together and almost said it

Mostly just my mind is blown twice in less than 2 chapters… I have no coherency… just… wow

[aheathen-conceivably]

Wait so if this is a modern au....what does this mean for my favorite lesbians? Where are you hiding them? I miss them so much (joking, not about the missing them part because I do, so much. If you had them available for download I'd make them apart of my decades challenge gameplay in a heartbeat. The whole family actually it would be fun to see them as townies) - LGL

Well well well leave it to LGL to sniff out my behind the scenes plans…

What I WILL tell you is that I’m kind of going by what I laid out for the modern Darlingtons in this post. The timing isn’t quite right (since everyone has grown since I first wrote that and the timeline/ages need to be shifted accordingly) but it still gives you an idea of what everyone may be doing and where they are in this universe.

Now unfortunately that means your favorite lesbians are not together in this au, and we won’t be seeing George. However, I think I have a pairing that may make it up to you, dearest LGL.

[wackpedion]

I finished Raincode chapter 5.

IM GOING TO STRANGLE KODAKA (for legal reasons this is a joke)

uerhfhgh. no. literally one of the things i said to my friends as i first started the chapter was that I hope the game wouldnt end with shinigamis and yumas pact ending. guh. AND THE GOODBYE KISS. NOOOOOOO

I didn't expect like to be genuinely invested in Shinigamis and Yumas partnership, but they we're just so cooperative and soft this chapter I can't take it

I called the "everyone was killed and replaced by a humonculi" and the meatbun twist pretty early into the chapter, I felt so smart even though it was likely easy to deduce seeing as its one of the first things you figure out in the mystery labyrinth

I ALSO predicted that Makoto was the humonculi of Number One, what i DIDNT expect was that YUMA WAS NUMBER ONE. WOW. I felt so much for Yuma like what an identity crisis

also the ending...

Yakous still dead, Yuma has his memories back and isn't the same Yuma I've grown to love, Shinigamis pact is over, the Nocturnal Detective Agency is now abandoned and empty

I can't be mad at the ending, it makes sense, it delivers on what it wants to deliver, its a decent conclusion, but GOD DAMN IT I just want everybody to be okay and being good ol detectives together and Yumas an amnesiac with his little ghost partner... I kinda wanna write a self indulgent fic but idk if I have the willpower for that.

I will say playing as Kurumi in the epilogue surprised me, and the after credits cutscene was interesting. I also checked the eshop to look at the DLC and the first one releases tomorrow I'm pretty sure?? so that's interesting timing on my part