#Terra's recommendations

[dont-f-with-moogles]

Fic Recommendation

We Built This Town on Shaky Grounds - Krikkit (this-is-krikkit on Tumblr / imnotstubborn on AO3)

The Alliance makes its way to Odiha to stop the Rumbling, and Levi and Hange get a moment of well-deserved peace. A beautiful, private glimpse into the untold feelings between Levi and Hange. Years of pain and sacrifice are briefly put aside for a few desperate moments of respite. And yet, whilst readers are momentarily satiated by the exciting development in Levi and Hange's relationship, the ever-present threat of The Rumbling lingers over them. This is a recommended read for all Levihan fans, particularly those that like a little spice and a shot of angst in their cocktails. Read here on AO3

[terracyte]

bert in yellow from chp 21 of worst weapon <33

[bergamont-trek]

what you were and might've been by tomakelifemorebeautiful

ao3 summary:

T'Pol has just turned one hundred and forty four the day the child is born. They have named him Spock.

review: this is literally one of my favorite fics (ever) in the star trek fandom. this fic wonderfully shows the beauty of star trek, grief, acceptance, and love. i absolutely adore t’pol’s voice in this and the style of the writing. i’m required by law to reread this fic four times a year.

cw: elizabeth from terra prime and all of the grief that comes with losing a child.

[utilitycaster]

A few recent books I've read and disliked led me to this conclusion but it feels like there's been this switch over time with queer stories. It used to be that queer relationships (or queerness in general) had to be Show Don't Tell because, well, you could not make them textual! So you get, for example, shows like Legend of Korra, or Xena: Warrior Princess, where you have women who are clearly devoted to each other to a degree that goes beyond mere friendship, and a ton of effort and care is put into that depiction because they can't actually be shown in an explicitly stated relationship. And as a result, these relationships, while they never receive confirmation in the show, are rich and complex.

Now not only is it much easier to make explicitly queer stories outside of niche areas; it's even popular (and, cynically, a marketing tactic). The problem is I've run into a bunch of stories that are marketed very clearly as A Queer Story that forget to like...be a story, or show me why these characters should be in a relationship. It's All Tell No Show: I'm told that the characters are gay and are in a relationship, but no work is done to actually explain why I should care about this beyond "well they are gay and in a gay relationship."

I'm not going to rehash what I discussed here, but Baru Cormorant is an example of those books where I'm given no real reason to care. The protagonist is a lesbian but the prose reads like a phone book. On the other hand, while Starless has a queer disabled woman as a one of the two protagonists, it also provides her with traits other than "queer, disabled, woman, important" and grants her a rich interiority (even though the story is told entirely from the first person point of view of the other protagonist.)

And the thing about the good examples in that link (Starless, Teixcalaan): they show and tell. It's both explicit that these are queer stories with a canon romantic relationship, but the little moments that make up the tapestry of a relationship are given the time that moments in a subtextual - or frankly, even a queerbaiting work are. That's the real tragedy; for queerbaiting to work, you have to actually make the relationship compelling enough for people follow it until you pull the rug out from under them; whereas you can slap a cold fish kiss on a cold fish queer relationship and technically you are Better because it was Explicit Representation even though everything about it was poorly constructed. I would rather have an lazy and shoddy explicit relationship than queerbait just on principle; but honestly I'd rather have a good story that does neither.

One of my more cynical interpretations of this is that writers are either intentionally or inadvertently taking advantage of the legacy of the Show Don't Tell era of queer coding to place the burden of those small moments on the audience. They know that people looking for queer relationships in fiction are used to having to dig for moments and subtext; but instead of providing that subtext, they set up the clunky text and assume the subtext to support it will emerge from the fandom. Or perhaps, more generously, especially for younger queer writers, they are just so used to having to provide that work themselves that they forget they are doing the writing and are able to (and should) layer subtext and text together and weave something actually good.

Either way, it's this that's led to the "Lesbian necromancers in space, need I say more"* era of recommendations, taglines, and writing, in which explicit representation is, if not plentiful, at least available; but a worrying amount of it forgets to actually write realized characters or a relationship with chemistry or a plot that makes sense.

I should also note: there's obviously a TON of straight romances and books that range from mediocre to abominable. I am under no circumstances arguing that "gayboring" media shouldn't exist. But while I don't think queer stories should be held to a higher standard, I don't think I should be obligated to settle for a lower standard either simply because it's gay. I know it's fraught, in that we're at risk of publishers and producers taking away the message "people hate this because it's gay" rather than "people hate this because it's poorly developed," but like...at the very least, could we recommend things in terms of "this is a great book that has a wonderful queer romance" and "this show is gay but it is also deeply mediocre, and if it weren't gay I wouldn't recommend it at all; do what you will with this information."

*I should note: I happen to like The Locked Tomb (of Lesbian Necromancers in Space fame) a lot! I know it's not for everyone; I know it can feel very gimmicky at times. But no matter how you feel, that tagline is DIRE and does a miserable job of representing the books. Like, that premise could suck, actually (and plenty of people find it does) if you're not sold on the mere fact that it's got lesbians, necromancy, or space in it. Worth noting that neither Starless nor the Teixcalaan books were heavily marketed as Queer Romance Fantasy/SF even though both very much are, which does further make me think this is a case of people writing good books that are queer, vs. people writing books with the intention to be on some New Queer SF list or, god forbid, Booktok.

[auriidae]

my brother and i went on a 4-hour walk to a different town and back today and recited, like, the entirety of the steven universe movie from memory (complete with songs!)... both of us have only seen it twice but we are both Insane 👍 it was very fun!

[storm-driver]

gonna become a square enix executive so i can get exclusive access to kh4 stuff, and when the marketing team starts splicing together the worst trailer in the world to show you guys, ill whisper "psst don't watch that it'll be full of so many spoilers" and ill make my own trailer of all the shit i got to see instead without revealing the most important and plot-heavy stuff

[inyourbenevolence]

I Need A Miracle gets a shout-out in this week's The End newsletter – alongside Sinkhole! If you've finished I Need A Miracle season 1 and haven't given Sinkhole a listen yet, do yourself a favour. Like our show, it's a single narrator setup that does a lot of cool, intriguing worldbuilding in a few words. And the sound design!!!

[assassinsith]

Felt like being emo before bed and decided to listen to Malcador's monologue from The End and the Death Part 3. Hurts a lot.

[kailuakat]

Here are some songs from newer emo and pop punk bands that I like

[jay-ackerman]

classificação indicativa: +18

Uma releitura do clássico conto de Peter Pan e Wendy, um livro que de fato me surpreendeu.

Li o livro como desafio, uma leitura conjunta com uma amiga. Não estou acostumado com com o gênero 'dark romence' é um território estranho pra mim, embora em tenha lido muitas fanfic's desde do início de minha adolescência. Sou um leitor de fantasia e a ambientação do livro com o toque de maturidade que o livro trouxe para essa história me conquistou.

Realmente achei uma boa leitura, a protagonista está longe de ser chata e sempre toma atitude, mesmo estando no escuro sobre a situação, ela manipula quando precisa(manipula mesmo).

E sobre a parte +18...é de fato boa, digo isso como alguém que leu MUITA fanfic na adolescência. Se trata de um harém reverso, o que eu ADORO, mas não vou me estender nessa parte para não falar baixaria. Acho a relação da protagonista com Peter e os garotos perdidos um pouco superficial, mas não atrapalha muito a história.

nota: 8/10⭐⭐⭐⭐

[exponentiate]

crying about ch13 of Perhaps the Stars again

[dont-f-with-moogles]

Fic Recommendation

The Truth Is Out There, But So Is Love - Alice/WanderLustQueenWrites No plans today? I've got you covered, Buddy. Directions: 1. Take one cup of tea and a bag of strawberry sprinkle doughnuts (replenish as needed). 2. Watch episode one of The X-Files (available on Amazon Prime) 3. Binge chapters 1-5 of this spine-tingling, nail-bitingly good Levihan AU fic here on AO3. 4. Enjoy the suspense of these out of context spoilers for chapter 6. 5. Go on, read the final chapter. 6. Profit.

Seriously, this fic is peak storytelling - you'll think you're watching a crime drama. X-Files meets Attack on Titan in the most glorious of crossovers.

[supercantaloupe]

finished reading into the wild

[featherymainffins]

I just remembered We Know The Devil and Heaven Will Be Mine. Ow.

Anyway everyone go and play hit visual novels We Know The Devil and Heaven Will Be Mine.

WKTD propaganda: WKTD is more grounded in reality and provides the sense of dread you can only get at a catholic camp, which is because it does take place at a christian summer camp. This psychological horror features themes of religious abuse and zooms in on 3 girls considered to be the devil by the society they live in (Jupiter and Neptune are lesbians, Venus is a trans lesbian whose whole arc in the game is about realising that she is a woman). It is about ostracisation and demonisation and how you're pressured to hide yourself and hollow yourself out to be pure and how your community will attempt to get you to throw your friends and lovers to the hyenas to save yourself. They want you to mark someone with the mark of the devil. They want you to say "She's guilty, but I'm not like that. I'm Good. I'm one of the Good ones." The game's atmosphere is creepy and isolating and the characters deeply relatable. 10/10 game. Short and definitely worth it

(phemiec also has a wonderful song about the game, called Daughter Of God. I recommend listening to it. Do it alone though because you'll cry a river.)

HWBM propaganda: While WKTD was a psychological horror taking place at an ordinary summer camp, HWBM instead takes us into space. It's a sci-fi visual novel, once again about three girls. This time, two of them are trans and one is cis. While in WKTD, Venus' coming out was the climax of her arc, Luna-Terra and Pluto are both out and mid-transition when the story starts. It's how they got into space in the first place. The story heavily focuses on being treated as subhuman and alien by others, and while a lot of things are way more literal than in WKTD, there is also a lot more symbolism present (eg Earth's gravity being used as a symbol for dysphoria. Luna-Terra quite literally says that she wants to be free of Earth's gravity and it means her wanting to be free of her body.). I may have actually compiled everything that either references being trans or that is a metaphor for being trans in the game. There are also themes of autonomy and what it means to hurt or be hurt. The style of the game is colourful and very artistic and more reminiscent of typical visual novels and sci-fi media. There are mechas if that's your thing but I won't talk about them because they're important to the metaphors and symbolism. At one point Pluto and Luna-Terra literally time erase their dead names from history, if you even care.

[wsancho]

That's right! 😁🙌���

Reminds me of this cute drabble. Some short communication between these boys 🧐

Edgar: This is my beautiful gorgeous angel who has never done one thing wrong in her entire existence ❤️❤️❤️

Also Edgar: this pile of lard has a warrant in three counties

[auriidae]

thinking about martyn inthelittlewood (<knows next to nothing abt martyn inthelittlewood)