#Sail the Oceans Queer

[penguinpanic]

The sixteenth game we’re playing on Roll Plus Heart is ‘Sail the Oceans Queer’ By La Lionne Publishing. Becs is running this one shot and after not recording for like a month and a half it felt great to jump back in with this joyous, gay, high fantasy, pirate adventure, with this unlikely trio of found family. If you’ve never listened to Roll Plus heart before I feel like this one shot is a great place to start!  

[byler-alarmist]

I am SO DEEP in the weeds right now about the "Surfer Boy" motif in Stranger Things beginning in S3 and being cemented in S4.

It began with kind of a joke post, but now I'm fully convinced if its deeper meaning re: queer coding and what it could possibly mean for S5.

[waywardsalt]

Holy shit I will talk about Linebeck for FREE

I did skim the PH manga to see if I could steal anything, and uhhh it certainly made some Choices. I didn't end up taking much, just a few cues for how I wanna characterize Link and a couple ideas for how I wanted to handle Linebeck's backstory.

I thought the flashback scene with Linebeck abandoning his crew to escape the ghost ship was an interesting concept. It didn't quite fit what I wanted, but it was close? I like the survivor's guilt angle, like maybe he joined up with a crew of people he admired and he let them down somehow.

It's fun to talk about Linebeck hell yeah

The ph manga does certainly make some Choices, that's for sure. The backstory they come up for Linebeck is... it's interesting, but as I'll probably go over when I actually talk about the things I disliked in it, not a great choice in the greater scheme of things.

It's a good concept though, even if it's one I don't use. One of my favorite things about Linebeck is the sheer lack of concrete information we're given about him, so his backstory can be whatever the hell you reasonably want it to be.

The survivor's guilt angle that the manga touches on is really good, though. The idea of him joining people he admires and ends up letting them down in some form is a cool concept to explore with Linebeck specifically, I think, and you can tie it back to the story of phantom hourglass decently well.

I think that with the way Linebeck is in phantom hourglass, you can do a lot of things with his backstory. I think you can whip up a lot of different interesting events that lead to Linebeck acting the way he does at the beginning of phantom hourglass.

I've pretty much got his entire backstory planned out for myself, (I'm considering writing it out as a fic but it does contain topics that I would need to be careful handling) and I don't really do anything similar to what the manga does, instead opting for a more mundane but still tumultuous backstory centering more on the ideas of social isolation and struggling with identity and stuff.

I can't tell since I know exactly what parts of my fics relate to this backstory and what part of that backstory is referenced, but I'm curious about what people might piece together just based on clues and implications I leave in my phantom hourglass oneshots.

I have a handful of backstories for him because I like to come up with aus, so he has a different backstory in every story, but it's fun to identify what parts of the backstory remain static or share the same themes despite the backstories being in genres ranging from futuristic sci-fi to modern times or even just vastly different Zelda-type settings.

The phantom hourglass manga, I think, is a questionable choice for reference on these characters, although Link is enough of a fluid character that all of his manga portrayals are fine. Manga Linebeck is not nearly as good as game Linebeck though lol. I'm still angry about losing the second half of the game. We lost his letter, which I consider to be a fantastic snippet of characterization for him.

Anyways, Linebeck backstories are interesting since there's pretty much nothing that canon suggests about him. I'm interested in whatever you decide on doing with him!

[veenilla]

@penguinpanic

Pirate jokes

[lizzle-the-edu-gamer]

I see you have a shonen anime there.

Mind if I ship every bro hug, punch, or meaningful stare/glare?

[burningvelvet]

36 chapters into moby dick. some thoughts:

- take a shot every time he expresses his love for nantucket or whaling trivia

- i know everyone said it was queer and usually i've come to expect that as hyperbole but this time they weren't joking

- CHILDE HAROLD REFERENCE?!?!?!?!?! BYRON QUOTED?!?!?!?! not surprised bc it is the romantic genre which byron & chp helped inspire & he was the best selling writer in early 19c usa & is noted for his oceanic refs & he & esp childe harolds pilgrimage esp are both noted on wikipedia's "nautical fiction" page but like. i had no idea they were immortalized in moby dick

- "Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian." AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

- does gay cannibal tumblr know about queequeg & ishmael?

- utterly obsessed with captain ahab for numerous reasons but does anyone else notice how similar he is to captain flint from black sails? like he's literally him but a bit older & combined with silver's leglessness.

- the part where ahab calls stubb a dog lmao

- ishmael getting worried for queequeg when he couldn't find him omg...

- "Where's that girl ? — there, Betty, go to Snarles the Painter, and tell him to paint me a sign, with — 'no suicides permitted here, and no smoking in the parlor;' — might as well kill both birds at once." MRS. HUSSEY!!!!

- i'm sure that all the focus on queequegs spirituality & his consultation with his god yojo wherein he was informed that ishmael had to pick their boat bc yojo demaded it TOTALLY won't prove to have any prophetic and symbolic consequences later on or anything

- love how the chapters are nice and short but on the flip side that means theyre tricking me into thinking i have less to go than i actually do... as long as i get more ahab i'm good i guess

-melville, at random: and now we take a break from our regularly schedule programming to give you . . . WHALE FACTS! [whips out multiple books on the history of whales and whaling, begins to recite]

[kcrabb88]

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day, so I would be remiss not to plug my recently-completed trilogy! Not that I don't talk about it a lot, but today feels like a free pass :D I like to call it a Les Mis meets Black Sails meets Robin Hood story about stories, historical narratives, and the power they hold. It's got queer pirates of all different stripes, complicated antagonists, ruminations on empire and colonialism, found family, messy blood family, and a whole lot of ships and swords. You can check it out here, and I'll drop the summary of book 1 below! Thank you to everyone around here who has supported me for years while I got this out! <3

In the 18th century West Indies, stories hold the ultimate power. Sailors spin yarns about pirates. Newspapers tell tales full of half-truths. Myths spread like whispered wildfire. East India Company sailor Nicholas Jerome has no patience for pirates, determined to leave his father’s thieving past behind. After a convict and an enslaved woman escape his grasp with the aid of an aristocrat’s mysterious wife, he faces one last chance to save his career. Finding an unexpected home with a new crew, he gains a chosen younger brother in René Delacroix, the son of his wealthy captain and the grandson of Jamaica’s cruel governor. But there’s a storm brewing in the Delacroix household. For René and his best friend Frantz, the Robin Hood tales about legendary pirate Ajani Danso and his famed female quartermaster are a lifeline amidst the governor’s abuse. Danso robs greedy merchants, frees slaves, and shelters queer sailors, inspiring the downtrodden across the New World. When death and betrayal shatter the lives they knew, René and Jerome each face a obey, or rebel. A war for history’s favor begins, and as an uprising against colonialism erupts on the ocean, everyone must choose a story to believe in

[didntwanderstillgotlost]

Stede is really sailing around the ocean in a unicorn ship collecting unhinged, deranged queers like they're Pokemon and I love that for him

[olderthannetfic]

Confession but the only legit reason I ever wanna scream "JUST LET THEM BE FRIENDS!" is when the queerbait crowd comes out of the woodwork and start screaming and harassing people because their clearly never going to happen ship didn't happen, and now they have to tell everyone who listens how they got queerbaited. Who'd have thought it.

I don't give a single shit if people love the idea of two best buddies banging butts. I'm first in line when those fanfics drop, because I'm a shipper through and through and I don't care if the ship becomes canon or nah. That's why I ship. If I want canon queer ships I'm sailing into the queer waters, where the books are gay and the bookmarks taste of strawberry lube. But holy chocolate starfish, you're reading media made by straight people for straight people, in an ocean full of the exact same straight subplot romances. Then you're mad that the clearly canon M/F ship turns unambiguously even more canon, and the two guys who the entire way were framed as best friends or frenemies didn't? You built this entire narrative in your own mind, disregarding everything canon built, believing that your fave M/M ship was gonna do a hard turn in the last chapter and declare their undying love for each other and become canon. Then it doesn't, and you claim to have been queerbaited. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️

You queerbaited yourselves, you saw the canon interactions and decided that the romantic subplot between the M/F couple wasn't loud enough, and then interpreted faaaaar too much into your preferred M/M ship and got disappointed when it didn't happen after creating it yourself.

--

[weird-an]

Max has been getting on Billy's nerves for a whole week now. She wants to get ice cream at that stupid new mall they can't afford to go to. Billy has been ignoring her bitching, turning the volume up in the car or just walking out of the room when she started moaning about it. .

But now, she got on Neil's nerves, too. "Buy your sister a sundae," he orders, face already red with anger - which always ends up being bad for Billy.

So, Billy ends up at Scoop's Ahoy right after work which seems safer than ending up with bruises at home. Max nearly drags him into the store, all shiny pristine tiles and the smell of artificial strawberries in the air.

There's nobody behind the counter. Max presses her nose against the glass. "They've got Butterscotch!"

The door opens and voice he knows way too well says: "Ahoy ladies! Would you guys like to set sail on this ocean of flavor with me, I'll be you captain, I'm Steve H-argrove."

Billy blinks. Steve Harrington stands in front of him. Wearing a fucking sailor's uniform that could be right out of a wet dream. He's turning red from his hairline down to his chest where a surprisingly huge amount of chest hair peeks out underneath the blue fabric.

"Harrington," he says weakly, not able to look away. "You don't look like a captain."

He wants to laugh. All his dad's efforts to get Billy away from any queer shit in California, just for him to end up in the gayest ice cream parlor in this dump that calls itself a town.

"Billy wants a sundae," Max just quips and basically runs out of the store. Wait. She wanted to come here, she has been getting on his nerves for day now, she - definitley planned this. What a bitch.

"Uh," Steve clears his throat. "You want a cherry on top?"

Billy shrugs. "I got promised an ocean of flavor."

It doesn't sound nearly as nonchalant as he wanted to. Harrington is wearing shorts. Way too tiny shorts. This might be his most favorite place in the world - or at least in Indiana.

Steve gives him a crooked smile. "I won't disappoint," he promises. In Billy's ears it sounds dirtier than probably intended.

Ice cream, Billy thinks, we're still talking about ice cream.

He watches Steve making him a sundae and decides to come back tomorrow. And probably jerk off thinking about Harrington in his sailor's uniform later.

[duckprintspress]

Celebrate Romance Month with Queer Books!

August is Romance Month, and so we’re back with another rec list, this time featuring our favorite romance books and/or books with prominent romance subplots. This list builds on the one we did last year for Romance Month, which you can view by following this link. These books don’t necessarily fall into the romance genre, but they’re centered around romantic love and have a happy ending. Contributors to this list are: Meera S., Sebastian Marie, Terra P. Waters, Shadaras, Nina Waters, Tris Lawrence, Dei Walker, E. C., Shea Sullivan and two anonymous contributors.

I Want to be a Wall by Honami Shirono

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

Heaven Will Be Mine from Pillow Fight Games and Worst Girl Games

start;again from Two and a Half Studios

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

How to Find a Princess (Runaway Royals series) by Alyssa Cole

Satisfaction Guaranteed by Karelia Stetz-Waters

Cover Story by Rachel Lacey

Truly, Madly, Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur

Those Who Wait by Haley Cass

A Marvellous Light (The Last Binding series) by Freya Marske

Limerence by Jiang Zi Bei

If You’ll Have Me by Eunnie

My Summer Of You by Nagisa Furuya

Something Fabulous (Something Fabulous series) by Alexis Hall

Triple Sec by T.J. Alexander

Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min

Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales

So This Is Ever After by F.T. Lukens

Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens

Consort of Fire & Queen of Dreams (Bound to Fire and Steel series) by Kit Rocha

Blood on the Tide (Crimson Sails, #2) by Katee Robert

The Lady or the Duke? by A.L. Heard

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Witchmark (The Kingston Cycle series) by C.L. Polk

Winter’s Orbit & Ocean’s Echo (Winter’s Orbit series) by Everina Maxwell

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

What are your favorite queer stories with romantic plots? Tell us in the comments!

Want to chat your favorite reads with us? Join our Book Lover’s Discord server!

Update your Goodreads TBR with any of these books by visiting our queer romance shelf on Goodreads! Or, jump straight to buying your own copies by visiting our affiliate shop recommendation list on Bookshop.org.

[byler-alarmist]

I do mean this in the queerest of ways, btw

Surf That Tasty Pie/try before you deny/fruity pizza/Surfer Boy Pizza in general are all linked to acceptance of queerness (and the song specifically refers to when a character does actually try surfing the tasty fruity pie, probably next season).

(Here is some great analysis of the S4 OST track "Surf That Tasty Pie" that was featured in the album, but not used in the show.....yet 🙂)

Also, I'd be remiss to not mention this Urban Dictionary gem from 2004, which the writers were almost certainly aware of when they chose the name of the pizza place:

They could've easily called it Surf's Up Pizza or literally anything else lmao

Thinking about the implications of Surfer Boy Pizza and Surf that Tasty Pie......Steve mentions he dreams of ending on some beach in Cali and "learning how to surf or something"....

🤔

[willgrahamstrout]

Paradise Found

Finally posting the first part of my post-fall Hannigram fic. The chapters are short so I'm posting in chunks, but the first 9 chapters are up on ao3.

Description:

Hannibal smiled up at the stars. “If you wanted me dead, you should have left me in the water.” His voice was scratchy but so was Will’s. “No, that’s not what I want.” “A baptism then?” A birth to a new life, washed free from sin? “Sure.”

Will pulled them off that cliff, so high, then pulled them from that water, so cold. They now travel alone, sailing to safety and freedom. In the cradle of the ocean, they examine and nurture each other, and their feelings.

Tags: Will Graham Loves Hannibal Lecter, Hannibal Lecter Loves Will Graham, wound care as sex, dreamy esoteric romance, Fluff, I suppose, but it feels more cosmic than fluff, Pain Kink, Post-Fall (Hannibal), stick these two alone on a boat and make them realize their love, "We're just having conversations", Blood Kink, but in a Catholic way, lots of treats for the catholics in the audience, love as consummation, love as absolution, Love As Forgiveness, love as divine union, flexing my medieval studies degree in the epitaphs, First Kiss, queering catholic and sufi mysticism, love as confession

Read Here

[sprintingowl]

This TTRPG's Got Tables In It

From now until the end of March (2024), I'm hosting the This TTRPG's Got Tables In It bundle!

All indie titles, 85% discount, everything's got roll tables.

We've got Bat'Ship, Shoot n' Loot, Dawn, Neon Knights, Fire & Stone, Armored Bones, Spellblades, Kitten Corralers, Questfellows, Haxen, Sail The Oceans Queer, Ash Trapped In Cracked Lips, Lil Gremlins, The Cupid Cup, and more!

These bundles are a way for us to get new games in front of new people, so if you see something that looks like you might enjoy it, feel free to click through and check out that game page specifically.

There's everything from big feature length 00s era shounen manga inspired core books to solo westerns about herding cats.

[enby-jellyfish]

Shipwrecked

Prologue to Pirate's Life For Me

Elizabeth Swann X GN!Reader X Will Turner (POC friendly)

Pronouns: You/Your, They/Them

Summary: A shipwreck brings you, Will, and Elizabeth together.

Warnings: Mention of drowning, mention of death.

Word Count: 660

A/N: Both of them were somehow my queer awakening.

Having pirate parents seems pretty neat at first glance. You get to spend a lot of time on the ocean and have lots of freedom.

That is, until you accidentally got separated.

You remember the battle. It wasn’t anything new, you had already seen countless battles before you even hit double digits.

You had done as you were told; stay out of sight and wait for one of your parents to come get you.

Unfortunately, someone had found you before they did. You had kicked, scratched, hit, and screamed. Anything you could think of. The man ended up dragging you up on deck, but due to the fight you put up you both ended up falling from your parents’ ship.

The man had started drowning instantly, a funny quirk in hindsight, for a pirate to not be able to swim. He had dragged you down with him until you managed to kick him off you.

You remember the feeling of your burning throat as you screamed for your parents, or anyone, to get you back on the ship. Defeated, you had watched the ship sail away from you, the sounds of battle continuing. You had managed to swim to a nearby island where you started figuring out a plan of how to get back to your parents.

Months later, chasing lead after lead you end up stowing away on a merchant vessel traveling through the Caribbean Sea. You are not the only stowaway on this ship though.

A boy, around your age. You found each other when looking for food. He introduces himself as Will Turner. Funnily enough he has a similar goal to yours, he is looking for his father. The two of you immediately click and decide to stick together.

One day a ship with black sails appears seemingly out of nowhere, pirates spilling out and attacking your ship. They are vicious unlike anything you have ever seen before, running through anyone in their path and taking bullets like it’s nothing.

Using the chaos and destruction the pirates are causing, you and Will manage to get off the ship, using a piece of driftwood to stay afloat, Will passing out shortly after your escape.

You watch the ship go up in flames, slowly breaking down and sinking to Davy Jones’ locker. As the black sailed ship sails away, disappearing into the nothing it appeared from, another comes your way.

Your voice sounds hoarse as you yell for help. You hear commotion on the ship and a rope is thrown your way. With great difficulty you and Will are pulled out of the water and hoisted aboard.

You hit the deck with a loud thud. You lay still for a moment, catching your breath before taking in your surroundings. You immediately recognise the funny wigs, formal uniforms, and the Blue Ensign waving in the wind.

This is a ship of the British Royal Navy.

A girl around your age kneels down next to you. “Hello, My name is Elizabeth Swann. Are you alright?” You introduce yourself, you have to play your cards right, you can’t look for your parents in prison, or worse.

“I’m alright, just-” You are interrupted by Will suddenly waking up. He starts panicing but you and Elizabeth manage to calm him down. They introduce themselves to each other and Elizabeth assures him that he is safe and that she’ll watch over him.

Seemingly reassured he passes out again, his movement revealing a golden medallion with a skull marking. You and Elizabeth share a look. You don’t even want to know what would happen to Will if they found him with this obvious pirate symbol. You carefully take the medallion off Will’s neck and put it into Elizabeth’s hand, wrapping your fingers around hers to close it.

“Please, promise to keep this safe.”

She considers you for a moment.

“Yes, I promise.”

You nod and lie back down, exhaustion washing over you and everything going dark.

Next part (TBA)

Masterlist

Thank you for reading <3

[burningvelvet]

dear everyone on the piratecore/maritime/nautical/age of sail/gay/british/history/ocean sides of tumblr: i finally watched master and commander (2003) and this is yet another piece of media where i thought everyone on here was exaggerating about how good it is or about the queer vibes but once again i stand corrected on both accounts. it also has the vibe of a tv show and i wish it was because i want more & may have to read the books now.

also RIP stephen maturin you would have done numbers here on tumblr hyperfixating about lizards and ranting about politics