#Trans Tillie :D

[emilykat-artblog18]

Tillie Trans Mug! 🏳️‍⚧️

This was inspired around how when i introduced people to Tillie, they first thought Tillie was trans because of the Sodor Flag and while it wasn’t originally what I intended, I really like the idea of Tillie being Trans and I don’t discourage people from thinking that since Trans people and character representation do matter.

So I hope everyone loves it!

Also I used this as the bases:

[grave-z-boy]

Right so I love your writing and just need more mx m cause fuck I'm tired of imaging dead me .

I'm a Trans man..I think ( female to male ??) So I was hoping for a fic somewhat like that . Arthur and reader meet when they're female but 2 years later or so they meet again and arthur doesnt recognize y/n (because they transitioned) I just want some fluff and acceptance of that . I know back then homosexuality was a big no no and being trans is unheard of so it'll be fun to see where you take it.

Arthur Morgan x Trans!Male!Reader

Summary: You’ve felt stuck and unhappy for years, so, in pursuit of your own happiness you leave everyone and everything you’ve even known behind. Including your currently out of state lover, Arthur Morgan.

Word count: 6,011

Warnings: reader is a bartender, reader steals, readers sister and mother are mentioned, implied past sex between Arthur and reader, drinking and alcoholism mentioned (not reader or Arthur), y/n and his guns, guns mentioned, shooting mentioned, abandonment, hurt comfort, reader being One Of The Guys™️, sleep deprived Arthur, Tilly being helpful, reader get misgendered and deadnamed a lot but it’s before they knew he was trans, reader cries really fucking hard at one point Arthur being sleep deprived, sleep deprive Arthur being really gay for Reader, not mentioned in the story but the reason Arthur is so tired is because about half way though his second trip to town his horse bucked him off for pushing her too hard and he had to walk the rest of the way, worlds longest warning list damn

Sept. 15, 18XX

My Dear Arthur Morgan

It’s been thirteen months since I saw you last. The time has passed slowly for me- sometimes it felt as though I was standing still for days at a time. Like everyone and everything around me was moving forward- but for me, and only me, time stood still. In the months since you’ve left it seems my joy, as well as a my love for my home town, has dwindled to nothing. Staying here, the way I am, it pains my heart. I know I said I would be here, that I would wait for you to return. But I need to change and the change that I need cannot be achieved here. The people here know me, they’ve known me my whole life, and no matter what I do I will always be that same little girl to them.

I’m heading up to a little town in Nevada, maybe I can start over there.

Always yours, D/n.

Arthur received your final letter months ago. In the time since he’s read it hundreds of times, mulling over every little detail. The crumbles in the paper, the unevenness of your writing, the all too familiar tear stains that permanently warped small circles on the page, the way your name ripped through the paper, as though you’d traced it dozens of times before sending it off.

He doesn’t think he’ll ever understand what happened, why after all this time of waiting, all this time of writing him dozens of love letters, why you decided to say goodbye, he understood change. Arthur has seen people change, he’s changed, and if it was change you needed he’d do it again. But you left. If he really wanted to, he could find you, ride day and night, ask everyone he saw if they’d seen the beautiful woman that he loved more than anything. But…

You didn’t want that. You didn’t want to be hunted down, you didn’t need to be convinced. You needed change, not a reason to stay the same. So he let you go and even when the following days were filled with the nothing but pain and confusion and the complete desolation your decision brought, he still let you go.

The gang knew he was hurting, he was withdrawn, went off on his own for a couple of days. They figured he went to find you, but when he returned, without you and in a severely worse state, they knew not to press him on it.

You weren’t much better.

This was your decision and you were going to live with it. You yearned for Arthur, every day and every night, it was different from waiting for him in your hometown, he was the one who’d left then, but you knew he’d come back to you one day. Now you were the one leaving, and you could never go back to him.

You needed to move on, you sold every piece of clothing you had to a local tailor, it was almost funny to see some of your nicer dresses displayed in the window the next morning, early on, your new wardrobe came from various drunk men. You’d be surprised just how much you could find in an alley next to a bar. After you had an outfit, a proper male outfit, you were able to assimilate.

You lived above a tavern. The owner was far too old and far too tired to run it anymore, and he wanted to live in his own house for the first time in decades, so he offered you the place for a little over a hundred bucks. You worked at the bar at night, while you handled various chores and other responsibilities during the day. The pay wasn’t great, but you had a permanent place to stay and spare food from the bar to eat, and it was more than enough.

You’d taken up a new name, y/n, you thought about it for a long time before you left. A good name, the name of a proud man with no connection to who you were before. No one ever questioned you. You were just a man to them. They teased you, in the earlier days, called you feminine, pointed out your hand, your cheeks, and your hips among other things, but in the end it was just teasing, they didn’t know why you were like that, and they didn’t question when you put in an effort to change or hide your more feminine aspects. Maybe they were just too drunk to care.

You loved this life, you were just the friendly bartender.

But even with this new life, you found yourself missing aspects of you’re old one.

Your old friends, your old family, your old lover. They wouldn’t take you back, not like this, they’d think something was wrong, they’d try to change you, try force you back into the box you clawed yourself out of.

But still you dreamed of them, your sisters cooking, the way she was effortlessly graceful even when she was teasing you, your friends, the girls you’ve know since you were in diapers, singing, making flower crowns, getting into trouble. Arthur…

You dreamed of Arthur the most. Your days and nights were filled with thoughts of him. You think back to your last night together, the way he held you so tightly, you swore you could still feel his hands there. The praises he muttered, the love he confessed through out the night, every move he made, the way he left and the hole that was left in your chest after.

You dreamed of him, like one day you’d wake up and he’d be beside you. And he tell you that he loved you, not d/n, not the girl from before, but you, y/n, as your truest self.

But just like yesterday, and the days before that, he wasn’t there when you opened your eyes.

The sun was just coming up. But the sliver of light that did shine through the window seemed to magically be angled at your eyes. Making the rest you so desperately wanted impossible.

You pushed yourself up with a groan, your elbow popping the moment you were upright, your eyes were just barely open, you scratched your chest and let out a long yawn.

Your room was still dark for the most part, but you were still able to pull on some pants and fasten a belt so you could head downstairs. The tavern was empty, you cleaned up good last night and you wouldn’t have to worry about really opening until later. Still, you unlocked the front door and flipped the wooden sign in the window to say open, the people here knew you weren’t really open to serve, you were just open to the chatty people that passed through in the morning, locals coming to say hi, or travelers in need of direction, others came to sit with their friends and get out of the violent Nevada sun. Either way, you’d be polite enough to them, but they weren’t welcome for a drink for another couple of hours.

Stepping into the backyard you picked the laundry off the line and into a basket. You heard the bell up on top of the front door ring a couple of times. As you got closer to the back door you could hear the faint chatter of two people inside, Doctor Mayer, one of three doctors in town, and Anita, a house wife. She was in here more often than her husband was, but you always figured that she just needed something to do while he worked considering you’ve only ever seen her drink a handful of times in the past year.

When you came through the back door she let out an excited yelp,

“Y/n!” She shouted, like she hadn’t seen you the night before.

“Mrs. Matthews.” You said with a respectful nod. “How’s you’re husband?”

She groaned, “paranoid.”

Setting the basket down on the bar, in between the upturned stools, you turned back to her.

“He used to be a farmer, farmers are always paranoid.”

“He was not a damn farmer, don’t let that man fool you, he was a farm hand, it’s different,”

Dr. Mayer piped in, his voice low and tired, though that just how he always sounded, “the bastard smells like one…”

“It’s getting warmer out there.” You responded, leaning against the bar.

“Doesn’t mean he has to walk around smelling like a damn animal!”

You laughed, turning back to Anita, “what does your husband do anyway?”

“He’s a banker, which is why he’s so damn paranoid in the first place.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well..” she stated, adjusting herself in her chair, “one of his colleague’s brother-in-law told his colleague that he saw a gang ‘a outlaws heading up this way, but here’s the kicker, Johnny, the colleague, is a notorious liar. Lies left and right like his life depends on it.”

“Johnny Flores?” You asked.

She smacked the table, “That’s the bastard!”

“Yeah, he comes in here every Wednesday like clockwork, telling the boys his stories. It’s a surprise the whole town hasn’t heard about this..”

“Well, it isn’t Wednesday yet, is it? It’ll make it’s way into you’re bar, don’t worry”

You laughed again, grabbing the basket off the table you said, “Alright, I’ll be back in a minute, got a few more thing to settle.”

You weren’t too worried about the rumors, there wasn’t much in the town anyways, no sheriff either so if they did come and make noise, it’d be a free for all and they’d leave with less than they came with. Everybody had a gun, hell- you had two, a shotgun the last owner had given you, and a pistol Arthur had given you a few weeks before he left, one was under the bar on a shelf, the other was under your bed, you’ve never really had a need for either, but if Johnny was being truthful for once in his life, which you doubted, you figured it was good to have them.

That night, when the bar did open, a few unfamiliar faces strode in, though none were to shady. A couple of working girls took to them quick and they were gone after being chatted up by for a bit. Outside of that, it was a normal night.

You closed late, shooing out the last drunk nearly two hours later than usual. Wiping down the tables, flipping the chairs and stools on them, washing the glasses, sweeping, mopping and making sure the front and back door was locked before heading upstairs. You scrubbed yourself down at your washstand. Of all things you missed from your old home, your bathtub was one of the bigger ones. Your mother had invested in it early on, and now you were saving to have one installed here too. What you wouldn’t do for a hot bath after a long day. You were almost there, another fifty dollars and you’d have all the money you needed. That’s were a good portion of your money went, you didn’t mind, after all you’ve sacrificed you deserve something nice.

——-

A couple of weeks later, Wednesday afternoon, Johnny Flores and a couple of his friend decided to take over the seats directly in front of the bar. Again, he told stories of bandits headed your way, but he was “serious” this time.

“I swear, I know what I saw, Dutch’s boys, just like the damn posters! I saw them coming from the east, clear as day.”

Before one of his friend could respond you asked, “and what the hell were you doing in the east, huh?”

“Well-“ he straightened himself out, “I was out with my lady friend-“

“The prostitute-“ his friend, Oscar, interrupted.

“-Not a prostitute, she's a-”

“-escort-” both Johnny and his three friends said together, they've heard that one before.

“Isnt that the same thing?” you asked.

“He doesn't think so!” Oscar said.

“They almost knocked our carriage over!” Johnny shouted, getting the conversation on track.

“Sure they did..” you said, drying the glass in your hand before setting it back down. “Bet they stuck you up too, only let you live cuz you're so pretty.”

“Go to hell, y/n.”

“I'll go where ever your lying, drunk ass ain't.”

“Im not lying, and I’m not drunk either, so get me another whiskey, asshole!”

“Hey now,” Daniel, who was also a regular, piped up, “careful how you talk to him, he might shoot ya’”

You set the glass down in front of him, he snatched it quickly, gulping it down.

“Or I might just piss in your whiskey.”

He choked hard, luckily the drink went down his throat instead of all over your counter, then you would have shot him. His face morphed to one of irritation, but his friend's laughter was infectious and he found himself laughing along with them.

The night ended with you carrying a passed out Johnny to the alley, you cleaned up, scrubbed yourself down, and went to bed just as you always did.

The next morning a delivery was made to the bar, food and alcohol, you kept your meats and some of your more expensive liquor in the ice box and things like bread and supplies were kept on the shelf. Food wasn't ordered commonly in the tavern, but there were those who ate here nearly every night because they had no skill for cooking and no one else to do it for them. You enjoyed those people, and you think they enjoyed you too, especially since the last owner would drive them out if they tried to come in for more than three days in a row. He thought that they were stealing food from other customers, but you didn't, You knew they were just hungry and needed to eat, and they couldn't be stealing because they always paid.

After that, your day was pretty normal- other than what you consider to be one the best things to happen to you in a long time- your bathtub, your beautiful porcelain bathtub with golden feet and faucet, was done. Fully installed and in perfect working order. You weren't going to pretend to understand how the man you paid did it, but he did. And finally, after what felt like years, you were able to take a hot bath.

It was weird, staring down at your distorted body as you soaked. Usually, when you scrubbed yourself down at the washstand all you could think of was how desperately you wanted this to be over. Your mind was clear, but that clarity only lasted so long though, as it did most nights, your mind wander to Arthur.

Saying you missed him was redundant, it was meaningless, it was stupid. You know, but you did. Letting out a long sigh, the last time you saw Arthur was like a dream, you spent an entire day together, you woke up together, ate together, bathed together, dressed together- everything you did, every little move you made reminded you of that day. And with Johnny spreading rumors about the Dutch’s gang, you heard his name more and more. You let yourself sink into the water, your eyes clenched shut as warm water covered your face. You stayed there longer that you should have, when you finally sat up, you were nearly gasping for air.

You got out few minutes later, you were tired, dressing yourself halfway before collapsing into bed.

You didn’t dream that night, your mind either too tired or too pained to show you your usual fantasies.

——-

Arthur swore he wouldn’t look for you, he swore it to you and to himself that he’d let you be free. But it seemed unavoidable now. Dutch had settled the gang in a large clearing in Nevada, the gang was mostly hidden by a small chain of mountains, and there was a streak of towns and settlements all within a couple dozen miles from each other.

There weren’t many cities in Nevada, it was dry and damn near impossible to farm out here if you didn’t know what you were doing, and if that wasn’t enough, the heat would be.

You were out there somewhere.

Dealing with the heat, with the drought, and with the shitty crops. And you still didn’t go back home. He’s been to your home. He's gone back dozens of times, you were never there, whatever you wanted to do, whatever changes you made, you succeded. He was happy for you, you were happy, God he hoped you were happy- he doesn't know what he'd do if he found out you weren't. If you were somewhere miserable and sulking, all this time, when you could have been with him.

He pushed those thoughts back- you were happy, you had to be.

When Arthur mentioned he was riding into the nearest town, he got a few odd looks. It wasn't a secret that you'd run off to Nevada, not even close. Most didn't say much, maybe a quick good luck, or a request for something from town. Some didn't say anything, but Dutch did. Dutch warned him, warned him about you and how some changes weren't good, and if Arthur did see you that he needed to be careful.

Arthur wasn't one to ignore advice, and he didn't ignore it, he thought about it as he road through the desert lands of Nevada, but whatever changes you made, he could handle it. He wasn't a child, he didn't need have his hand held. There wasn't even a guarantee that you'd been in this town, or the next one. So for all he knew he'd never have to face you're changes.

The town was bustling with life. The people went about their business. The town was…normal. Small, busy, and normal. He road in unbothered, no one here seemed to care enough to even look when the man when he trotted by.

Hitching his horse to a sturdy pole he set off to one of the small shops nearby, after picking up some extra oat cakes and apples for the horse, he tried to find the sheriff’s office, only to find that this town didn't have one after asking a mildly disheveled yet nicely dressed man for directions, no government either. The town was its own unit outside of the occasional trading.

“Danny Hikman used to be the law here, well, not really, but he kept people on the right track. Encouraged them to do right- and get guns, he used to run a bar a little down the way, gave it to his nephew or something-” the man said, laughing slightly.

“‘ bar any good?” he asked, only half listening to the man.

“The best, fresh food, cold whiskey- bartenders a good guy too, won't hesitate to throw your ass out though.”

“I’ll bet- which way’s that bar, again?”

———

You started serving earlier than usual today, mostly so you could close earlier without complaint. The familiar chime of the bell above the door called your attention for a less than a second, you recognized Johnny, then looked back down at the glasses you were cleaning.

“Changing your schedule on me, Johnny? I thought you were a Wednesday man?”

He let out a short laugh, sitting in the spot directly in front of you, “just showing a friend around.”

“You’re friends are all alcoholics, I doubt they need help finding a bar.”

“Hey now, I’ve got a new friend. Mr. Uhh-“

“Arthur.”

You felt like you’d just jumped out of your skin, the glass in your hand clattered against the floor, ever so sturdy. Landing thankful one piece. Staring at the man in front of you, standing just behind Johnny, Arthur Morgan, right there, looking just the way he did when he left, just the way you remember him.

He glanced at Johnny, then back at you- it felt like he looked right through you. Looking at you with none of the love or adoration from before. Because he loved d/n, not y/n. Y/n was just a bartender to him, an awful one who apparently couldn’t even hold a damn glass.

Your heart felt like it was collapsing in on itself, your chest was tight and you could feel your throat start to close as tears weld in your eyes. Quickly, you broke eye contact with Arthur, ducking down under the bar to grab the glass, using the sleeves of your shirt to wipe the forming tears in your eyes before standing up.

“Sorry boys,” you muttered, “you’re, uh, friend startled me is all.”

Taking off his hat and setting down on the counter, Arthur took a seat on one of the stools.

“Sorry, your friend here talked you up quite a bit, had to see for myself if what he said was true.”

You let out a laugh, forced and almost nervous, setting the glass down with the rest of the dirty glasses, you said, “Trust me, it’s true, what you looking for Mr. Arthur?”

“Just Arthur, and whiskey, thanks.”

You nodded to the man before heading to the storage room, you’d hate to admit it, but you wanted to run, straight passed the storage room and out the back door. But that would make Arthur think something was wrong, and yes, something was wrong, but he didn’t need to know that. He didn’t recognize you, and that was okay, it was supposed to be okay, you left so you wouldn’t be recognized, you left to start over. But he’s out there, and you were hiding in the storage room so you wouldn’t have to face him. You gave yourself a moment, for your throat to release and for your heart to stop pounding and aching. Only the pounding stopped. You needed to work, you couldn’t let them know anything was wrong.

Grabbing a bit of higher quality whiskey out of the icebox, feeling the frosty glass sting your hand as you carried it out of the storage room. Without looking up at the man you grabbed one of the clean glasses and poured him about half a glass. You remember Arthur complaining about it once, only getting serviced the tiniest amount of alcohol, no matter the price. Capping the bottle you gave a short wordless nod before setting it under the counter. Arthur grabbed the glass, before he could speak you were on the other side of the bar, serving somebody else.

Johnny didn’t stay long, he had other things to do on a Thursday afternoon, but Arthur stayed, you poured him a couple more glasses before cutting him off, at least from your expensive whiskey.

“How much do I owe you?” He ask, his speech a bit slurred as he sat unsteadily in his seat.

“Nothing, I’ll put it on Johnny’s tab, come Wednesday he won’t notice it.”

“Thank you kindly-“

“Y/n-“

“Thank you, y/n.”

“You have a good night Mr. Morgan.”

You crawled into bed that night, still in your day clothes, feeling like your heart had been torn out of your chest. And you cried, you cried until the sun came up, until your body couldn't cry anymore and every sound you made was a rough heaving sob. And when you had no more energy left to sob, you stared at your open window, watching the sunrise, listening to the people.

You were supposed to open today, unlocking the door and flipping the sign, staring out the window, at the people, at Mrs. Matthews waiting across the street for you to open your doors.

You flipped the sign back, you stated at the word “OPEN” facing you, then at Mrs. Matthews's face fell as the word “CLOSED” faced her.

————

Sitting on his cot, journal on his lap, Arthur stared at the picture he drew. It wasn't perfect, considering he was half drunk when he drew it, but it was something. The bartender from last night. He was…something. A nervous something. Arthur felt bad for him when he dropped the glass, then he just…stared at him, long enough for Arthur to get a spark of familiarity when he saw his face. Arthur tried to get his attention as the night went on, ordering drinks, asking questions, trying to get the man to stay close, be he'd walk away the moment he'd answered or served him.

He wasn't like that with other patrons, he laughed, he joked- then he kicked everyone out.

He heard him say he was closing early, but let him stay until he finished his last drink. Arthur thought about the name he'd given. Y/n.

“I see you're drawing d/n again, did you catch her in town?”

Looking up he saw Tilly standing next to him with a kind smile on her face.

“No, it's not d/n, some bartender in town, he looks so familiar.”

Tilly hummed, sitting on the cot with Arthur and taking the book out of his lap. She flipped through the pages quickly before finding a drawing of d/n, with your final letter stuck right next to it.

“Needs a change, huh? Maybe she skipped town and became a bartender, you never know.”

“A bartender and a man?”

“You never know Arthur. Maybe that's why she left, couldn't make a change like that where people know you. They would've hunted her down.”

“Tilly..”

“Maybe you should talk to the bartender, if it's not her then it's not her, but if it is, are you really going to miss seeing her again because you won't take a chance?”

Handing the journal back to him she said, “Just think about it, at least.” Then she walked away.

————

You heard the slam of the front door behind you as you sat the freshly cleaned glasses on the rack. If you were going to sulk and lock yourself in the bar then you were going to clean while you did it.

“We’re closed..” you said, your tone not exactly customer friendly.

You had a list of things you needed to do, you've already mopped the floor, scrubbed the tables and walls, washed every glass, plate, and utensil, did your laundry, scrubbed your tub, cleaned your room-

“D/n..?”

You paused, then glanced over your shoulder. You knew it was him, you already knew, you knew his voice too well to ever mistake it. Taking a breath, you hands shaking and heart pounding, you turned around.

“Arthur, I-” you breathed out, but you didn't know what to say. “How did you-”

“Lucky guess..”

Taking slow steps towards the bar, you heard him sigh.

“Are you…okay?” he asked, unsure.

You nodded, “Yeah, yeah I'm okay.”

“We should talk-”

“Yes, we should-”

You stepped from behind the counter, still unsure as to what could happen next. Then, without warning, you were pulled into a tight hug, Arthurs's body practically enveloping yours. You stood there, holding him as tightly as you could until your arms started to burn from the strain.

You didn't know what to say, or how to explain what happened, the realization you went through while he was gone, why you left.

When you pulled away you still didn’t know what to say, you opened your mouth to talk but no words came out. You kept your face glued to the ground for a long moment.

“You look different, I didn’t recognize you yesterday..”

You pulled out one of the stools.

“I told you I needed change.”

He pulled another out beside you.

“I know, I just don’t know what I was expecting.”

“This must be so confusing.”

“It is, but I’m betting it was more confusing for you that it could be for anybody else.”

Leaning on the counter, you looked up at him.

“I guess so. In my home town I figured that they’d be a little more angry than confused so I left..” you stopped, taking a breath, “I didn’t want to leave you, Arthur.”

Arthur sat there silently, his eyes turned towards the counter.

You couldn’t help but stare, you haven’t seen him in so long, his eyebrows were slightly scrunched downward, his pretty blue eyes focused on nothing as his mind raced. His fingers tapped against the counter every few seconds. You tried not to let that anxious feeling in your chest build, but the longer he was silent, the harder it got to push down.

“You said you aren't happy anymore..”

You blinked.

“I wasn't.”

“How about now? Are you happy now?”

“I'm.. I have more good days than I did before, so…yeah, I'm happy.”

He stayed silent for another moment. You figured he was just trying to find his words.

Then, when he did speak,

“I still love you.”

You sighed, “I still love you, too, Arthur.”

Another long silence passed. It was odd, you've dreamed of seeing him again, all the damn time. And now that he's here you didn't know what to say. Your relationship, how ever strong it was before, was dying. Even though you loved him and he loved you.

Arthur was having similar thoughts, he didn't care how much you changed, he wanted you to be happy. That's all he wanted for you. But he wants to be with you, he doesn't care that your a man, it doesn't matter to him, he doesn't think it's ever mattered. He's never thought too hard about it. But now, with you sitting there looking the way you did. Looking so different, so muchlike yourself, so much more at peace even though you were being confronted, he thought, ‘yeah, I could be with a man.’

Before he could, you took a chance.

“How long you thinking of staying in town for, Arthur?”

———-

You laughed, he missed your laugh.

“You can't just go around taking people's clothes off!”

“I needed clothes and they were so drunk they wouldn't miss them!” you argued.

“How have you not been caught yet?”

“I bought new clothes!”

“Why couldn't you do that first?”

“I needed to avoid suspicion.”

“Avoid suspicious by stealing clothes..”

You laughed again.

You and Arthur had found your way upstairs, both of you sat on the floor, leaning back against the wall. He asked you how you ended up here, it was funny, explaining to Arthur, a known outlaw, the various ways you broke the law, and having him lecture you.

“I will not take this from an outlaw!”

“You're an outlaw too, now, Clothes Bandit.”

“Oh that's awful, why couldn't I get something good?”

“‘Good’ like what?”

“I don't know, you're better at naming things than I am.”

He looked over at you a small smile on his face.

“Really now, Mr. Y/n, how’d you come up with that anyways?”

“Well I found a baby naming book.”

He sat up, giving you a look.

“Are you serious?”

You looked at him for a second, a stren expression on your face, then slowly a smile broke out on your face.

“You're an ass.”

“You really think I got Y/n for a baby naming book?”

“You could have!”

“But I didn't-”

Eventually, after showing him your room and the various aspects of your new life that you adored (yes, the tub too), you headed back down to the bar, only to see Daniel, one of Johnny’s friends, behind the bar serving himself.

“Daniel, I'm going to kill you, how many drinks have you had?” you said, rushing over to him, snatching both the glass and bottle from his hand.

“One-” you gave him a look, he caved quickly with a sigh, “five.”

“Goddamnit.”

“‘M sorry, you are closed, your never closed!”

“I wouldn't be serving drinks this early anyways!”

He laughed, walking around to the other side of the bar, “I'm special though right? Won't get shot or banned or nothing?” he practically pleaded, but formed it like a question.

“No, you're not banned, but you still need to leave.”

He sighed, dragging himself out the door.

Sighing yourself, you turned to Arthur, “See what I have to deal with?”

“‘Seems like a handful.”

“Daniel is harmless, he's just an alcoholic.”

“Never met a harmless alcoholic.”

“He's harmless now, he doesn't want to risk almost getting shot again.”

Arthur laughed, sitting at the bar, just like had yesterday, “Who shot at him?”

You stared at him for a moment.

“You?”

“I gave him plenty of warning, see that hole in the wall that there—” you pointed to the very back wall of the tavern, between two tables was a loosely patched hole, “- warning shot, missed him by an inch.”

“Who the hell taught you how to shoot?”

“I taught myself, maybe I could teach you sometime.”

“Very funny, y/n, I wouldn't mind seeing you shoot sometime though.”

“There's a range in the next town, I could take you there sometime.”

The two of you talked until the sun had fully set and the town had gone quiet. The bar made you feel more open somehow, it always did. Arthur helped too, you guess. You missed him, you missed being like this, so normal with him. You were surprised his quickly things settled back in place, like neither of you had ever left. It was clear that you were different, but Arthur seemed to accept this change flawlessly. He never messed up, seemingly having ingrained every aspect of your new life into his mind.

Y/n, Mr.Y/n, Sir, he even called you handsome, you swear you nearly fell over when he did.

By midnight, you both were tired, and despite what he planned before, which was bringing you- if it was you, back to camp with him. But that plan never fell through, you ended up pulling him into the bathroom with you. You thought you'd be uncomfortable at first, but you figured if he was going to be back in your life you should get used to him seeing you naked again. But it wasn't, it was calm, comforting. You were thankful for your massive bath, the both of you fit well, you sat behind him, his hat tossed in on top of the heap of clothes you two had left, you ran your fingers through his hair, water from your hands running down his face. He hummed in contempt. He didn't speak much at first, simply enjoying you and your presence. It wasn't until the water had begun to cool and the cold air of the Nevada night started to seep in did he pressed himself closer to you, muttering something quietly.

It wasn't until you got out, long after the water cooled, we're you able to figure out what he was saying. You had some clothes you figured might fit Arthur, something you'd bought impulsively without actually checking to see if you could fit it.

“You have…nice arms-” he muttered.

You were pulling your pants up over your waist when he spoke, you turned to look at him, one hand holding your unbuttoned pants up, you asked, “Arthur, are you drunk?”

“No, no I'm just…real tired.”

“Didn't get much sleep?”

“I didn't sleep, I kept thinking of you.”

“When was the last time you slept?”

He groaned, “Tuesday, I was on watch Wednesday, I was pre occupied by your ass on Thursday, and now here we are.”

“Fucking Christ, go to sleep.”

“I want to look at you, I missed you-”

“I'll be here in the morning Arthur.”

He didn't respond for a long moment, you figured he dozed off finally, until you decided to switch shirts, shoving the one you had on into your drawer and pulling out another.

“You have a nice back too-”

“Good night, Arthur.”

Your night ended with you curling up around Arthur, your arms nearly wrapped completely around him. You didn't dream again tonight, your usual fantasies of seeing Arthur were deemed useless now and we're thrown out with the rest of today's mental trash.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

International Non-Binary People's Day

🦇 Good morning, bookish bats! It's International Non-Binary People's Day! Looking to add some great non-binary books to your ever-growing TBR? Here are books from authors who publicly identify as non-binary, starring characters that are non-binary, too! Which are you reading first?

✨ Fiction ✨ 💛 She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan 🤍 Loveless by Alice Oseman 💜 Nettleblack by Nat Reeve 🖤 Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor 💛 Truth & Dare by So Mayer 🤍 X by Davey Davis 💜 Chlorine by Jade Song 🖤 Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee 💛 I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver 🤍 On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden 💜 Pet by Akwaeke Emezi 🖤 The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld 💛 The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey 🤍 The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang 💜 Outlawed by Anna North 🖤 An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon 💛 The Heartbreak Bakery by A. R. Capetta 🤍 Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything by Justine Pucella Winans 💜 Jamie by L. D. Lapinski 🖤 Mordew by Alex Pheby

✨ Non-Fiction ✨ 💛 In Their Shoes by Jamie Windust 🤍 Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon 💜 Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe 🖤 Gender Euphoria by Laura Kate Dale 💛 A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni and Tristan Jimerson 🤍 What’s the T? The No-nonsense Guide to All Things Trans And/or Non-binary for Teens by Juno Dawson 💜 Life Isn’t Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between by Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker

[twirlyfemme]

pinned post <3

welcome to my blog!! :D

my name is harley, i’m 18, i go by all pronouns (she/he/they) & I’m a femme lesbian! my gender is girlthing girldyke ♥️

this blog will mainly be me shitposting abt being femme, lesbianism in general (thereby, politics will arise bc duh), lesbians/celesbians and my current hyper fixations (hello adhd) - including but not limited tooooooo:

- new girl (yes the “twirly” in my name is a jessica day ref kudos if you got that)

- women’s soccer - arsenal + tillies !! (save me leah williamson)

- criminal mindssss

- the l word (shane save meeeee)

- gossip girl lol

- derry girls (i love them sm 😭)

- MUNAAAAAA (i am a katie gavin femme. no i will not be expanding on that. love them so damn much) + gayotic podcast

-> aaaand whatever else takes my fancy :p

DNI: ageless accs, cishet men, terfs, transphobes, homophobes, racists & ableists!! this is a gnc lesbian loving space! no meanies allowed!! there’s tha door bitch ->🚪!!

PLS INTERACT IF: other femmes (im only recently discovering my identity as specifically femme so this is new to me, i love hearing other femmes experiences and advice/ literally anything like talk my ear off babes), gnc lesbians (trans+, nb, gender diverse - COME HERE), butches (RAHHH iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou), dykes of all forms, fonts, shapes and sizes <333, FELLOW MUNA FANS COME HERE, gayotic listeners, writers, readers & tea drinkers!

#femmelesbian #dykeposting #femme #butch #femme4all #muna #lesbian #lesbianreader

[pendantaudio]

Tilly's Trans Tuesdays episode 46: We continue our discussion of voice, and what that means when you're transgender. This week we my full gender-affirming speech therapy experience, when is the right time to work on pitch, D-I-S-T-E-R-B, and you get to hear a voice timeline... of me saying the exact same thing, from pre-transition, through every stage of speech therapy, on to where I'm at now. It might blow your mind (it certainly did mine). Sound editor Jillian Morgan returns to discuss becoming comfortable with your trans identity and learning how to smile! And folks, please be sure... that if you're doing voice training on your own, you check the credentials of who you're listening to!

Hosted by Tilly Bridges and Susan Bridges. Sound mixing by Jillian Morgan. Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Samsung Podcasts, and more!

[wyntertales]

CAST OF CHARACTERS :: MUSES EXISTING IN UNIVERSE

Lavinia G. Cortez. 28-32. horror television hostess. actress. fc: sofia carson connection: friend/colleague of Landon B. Wynter :: film universe

Esmeralda C. Domingo. 30-34. diamond casino manager. fc: shay mitchell connection: friend/default love interest of Landon B. Wynter :: most universes importance: original canon connection of Landon

Emeline P. Entwistle. 30-34. actress. fc: blake lively connection: canon ex girlfriend of Landon B. Wynter :: all universes importance: original canon backstory connection of Landon

Tobias S. Fairchild. 37. producer for majestic studios. fc: ed speelers connection: rival/colleague of Landon B. Wynter :: film universe

Harold E. Graves. 41-45. psychiatrist. fc: hugh dancy connection: therapist of Landon B. Wynter :: film universe; therapist of Lance T. Wynter :: twin universe importance: muse 1st created in 2015 & adapted/returned for new use

Natalie Hill. 31-35. tabloid reporter. lipstick gossip magazine. fc: zoe kravitz connection: frenemy. colleague. at Crimson Media

Susan Horowitz. 31. ruby casino. socialite. fc: carlson young connection: former high school & college friend-enemy :: main + various aus depending on plot importance: original canon backstory connection of Landon

Jackson N. Hunter. 38. detective. fc: andrew garfield connection: American Money universe. available for interaction outside this depending on plot

Ophelia Keal. 26-29. actress. fc: tilly keeper connection: colleague/costar at Cosmic Vault Productions :: film universe

Mark J. Lansing. 30-34. news anchor. film agent. fc: chace crawford connection: canon best friend of Landon B. Wynter :: most universes importance: original canon backstory connection of Landon

Camilla Luna. 31. oceanographer. fc: lindsey morgan connection: deceased fiancée of Lance Wynter :: twin universe importance: original canon backstory connection to Lance / available only in plots pre-death / not available for shipping

Marigold D. Sinclaire. 32. failed actress. waitress. fc: amanda seyfried connection: American Money universe. selective for interaction outside this depending on plot

Brett R. Sutton. 30-34. radio dj. true crime podcaster. fc: jack quaid connection: canon best friend of Landon B. Wynter ::  most universes

Michelle O. Woodward. art director. fc: jessica chastain connection: default fiancée of Lance Wynter  :: twin universe importance: not available for shipping

Florence L. Anton-Wynter. 52-55. mystery novelist. fc: michelle gomez connection: mother of Landon B. Wynter :: all verses/currently only around in beast + film boi verses & twin universe

PRIVATE MUSES:

Aiden Lucas Wynter. 22. college student. photographer. fc: felix mallard connection: son of Eloise Gray & Landon Wynter :: Eldon ship universe

Benjamin James Wynter. 21. college student. street artist. fc: christopher briney connection: son of Eloise Gray & Landon Wynter :: Eldon ship universe

exclusive to Landon + Eloise ( ELDON ) ship universe for @itsagraywcrld

TBD: muses not currently involved but will appear plots permitted + by timeline

Veronica Allen. 33. model. fc: teyonah parris connection: ex of Landon B. Wynter :: film universe

Claudia Chen. 33-37. actress. fc: gemma chan connection: nyu friend + original documentary crew member of Landon B. Wynter

Gloria Mancini. 32. media editor. lipstick gossip. fc: dakota johnson connection: friend + colleague of Natalie Hill :: all verses

Maya Tran. 35. assistant + executive of productions. fc: maggie q connection: assistant of Landon B. Wynter :: film universe

[lesbereading]

books i read in 2023

I completely forgot to make a post like this. Then again, I forgot I had this blog. So here it is now

In 2023, I managed to read 55 books in total!

THE TOLL by Neil Shusterman [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

A GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER by Holly Jackson [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

GOOD GIRL, BAD BLOOD by Holly Jackson [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

AS GOOD AS DEAD by Holly Jackson [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

KILLJOY by Holly Jackson [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

DOROTHY MUST DIE by Danielle Page [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens [⭐️/5]

WHITE SMOKE by Tiffany D. Jackson [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

HOUSE OF HOLLOW by Krystal Sutherland [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

WILDER GIRLS by Rory Power [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

LOCKWOOD&CO: THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE by Jonathan Stroud [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

HORRID by Katrina Leno [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

THEY'LL NEVER CATCH US by Jessica Goodman [⭐️⭐️/5]

SHE WHO RIDES THE STORM by Catherine Sangster [⭐️⭐️/5]

ONE OF US IS LYING by Karen M. McManus [⭐️⭐️/5]

GIRL IN PIECES by Kathleen Glasgow [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

EMILY WILDE'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by Heather Fawcett [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by V.E. Schwab [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

FAKING REALITY by Sara Fujimura [⭐️/5]

A SEMI-DEFINITIVE LIST OF WORST NIGHTMARES by Krystal Sutherland [⭐️/5]

AURORA RISING by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff [⭐️⭐️/5]

AURORA BURNING by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

AURORA'S END by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff [⭐️/5]

SIEGE & STORM by Leigh Bardugo [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

HOLLOW CITY by Ransom Riggs [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE by Samantha Shannon [⭐️/5]

SERPENT & DOVE by Shelby Mahurin [⭐️/5]

BLOOD & HONEY by Shelby Mahurin [⭐️/5]

A THOUSAND BOY KISSES by Tillie Cole [⭐️⭐️/5]

SHE GETS THE GIRL by Rachael Lippincott, Alyson Derrick [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

GOOD GIRLS DIE FIRST by Kathryn Foxfield [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

THE IVIES by Alexa Donne [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

THE HEADMASTER'S LIST by Melissa de la Cruz [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

BURN OUR BODIES DOWN by Rory Power [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

WHAT WE ALL SAW by Mike Lucas [⭐️/5]

6 TIMES WE ALMOST KISSED (AND ONE TIME WE DID) by Tess Sharpe [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

CINDERELLA IS DEAD by Kalynn Bayron [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

ROYALS by Tegan Bennet Daylight [⭐️⭐️/5]

THE PRISON HEALER by Lynette Noni [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

THE GILDED CAGE by Lynette Noni [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

THE BLOOD TRAITOR by Lynette Noni [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

KILLER CONTENT by Kiley Roache [⭐️⭐️/5]

EXTASIA by Claire Legrand [⭐️/5]

THE CHEERLEADERS by Kara Thomas [⭐️⭐️/5]

FIVE SURVIVE by Holly Jackson [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND THE CITY by Rachael Lippincott [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

IMOGEN, OBVIOUSLY by Becky Albertalli [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

THE WICKED KING by Holly Black [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

THE QUEEN OF NOTHING by Holly Black [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

LOVE IS FOR LOSERS by Wibke Brueggemann [⭐️/5]

THE GIRLS I'VE BEEN by Tess Sharpe [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

HOW TO FIND A MISSING GIRL by Victoria Wlosok [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5)

WHEN GHOSTS CALL US HOME by Katya de Becerra [⭐️⭐️/5]

THE STOLEN HEIR by Holly Black [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

SHE IS A HAUNTING by Trang Thanh Tran [⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

[moth--blood]

i give you: hcs with my favorite horror characters

part 1 probably

featuring: the sawyer brothers, og/rz michael myers, tiffany ray valentine, vincent sinclair, billy lenz, brahms heelshire, randy meeks

the Sawyers (Nubbins, Choptop, Bubba, Drayton)

nubbins is ratgender, and uses rat/he pronouns! rat doesnt really know what xenogender or ratgender is honestly. he just knows that being called rat makes him feel good about ratself so the others have no problem going with it

choptop is trans, and uses he/him!

nubbin's blue shirt was originally drayton's, and he's had it entirely too long. regardless how many times it gets ripped or gross nubbins refuses to get rid of it

jumping off that; chop's sweater was also from Drayton. he takes better care of it than rat does (i.e doesnt deface graveyards with it yk). it still gets ripped often but thats when we ask bubba to sew it lol

nubbin's is asexual! rat's not exactly sex-repulsed, but definitely not favorable. he doesnt see the appeal.

the twins bracelets and jewelry are all either handmade or stolen from victims/the people nubbins hitchhikes with

the name "choptop" came as a slight jab to his head injury, and he never really minded too much. eventually it just stuck.

nubbins doesn't identify with the trans label, but regardless "nubbins" is rat's chosen name. he got the idea once choptop came out and if rat's honest, he doesn't remember where he got nubbins from. just that it stuck and rat likes it :)

bubba's genderfluid! they dont really mind what pronouns you use for her, as long as its not it/its.

he loves sewing! they picked it up just after choptop left for vietnam, and has a bunch of little patches sewn into her apron even if it was never ripped

drayton uses he/him!

he's gay and asexual! definitely sex-repulsed.

Randy Meeks

randy's gay and trans (ftm) and uses he/they pronouns! he realized after stu and billy came out in middle school, but randy waited til their freshman year.

they're aegosexual! similar to nubbins he's not really repulsed but definitely not favorable by a long shot.

he has/had a thing for everyone in the group, excluding casey who wasnt really around that long. he has mild tourettes, and has a few verbal tics from movies; the majority of them are physical.

he has a lot of trouble controlling their volume when excited and goes nonverbal when they're stressed

Tiffany Ray Valentine

tif uses she/they!! she's probably experimented with heart or doll centered xenos, but they never stuck

pansexual!!! i love her sm

definitely had a thing for Martha Stewart or Jennifer Tilly. celebrity crush type thing yk

i mean, okay- you cant tell me she didnt have a thing for tilly. she literally was like "i HAVE to have jennifer tilly, charles. it is a need :((".

uses a kitchen knife to do her eyeliner :)

a very good baker

Michael Myers (og)

this man does not know what pronouns are dude

hes the type to go ",,,im a guy"

ESPECIALLY old myers.

i love him but its TRUE (╥ w ╥)

definitely aro-ace

he probably doesnt know what that means either tbh.

Michael Myers (rz)

he/it!

hes also asexual! :D

it's bisexual, probably has a preference to men

he has tourettes!

making/wearing his masks is a giant comfort, regardless of how old he is. mans wore those things year-round, including to school

unlike og myers, he actually know what his labels mean ಥ‿ಥ and he likes them! they're the most accurate to him and make him comfortable

Vincent Sinclair

they/he

aegosexual! pretty sex-repulsed ngl

trans!! :D ftm!

selectively mute; when they do talk, he's never loud

sweater paws. i will not elaborate.

likes having his hair down while hes working, even if its a hazard. it's a mix of the weight/blinder effect is comforting, and so his mask is hidden from victims

that being said they are a GOD at braiding.

very good at painting, too!

Billy Lenz:

he/it

sex-favorable asexual

pansexual!

is a whore for weirdly flavored candy canes

is THAT person who plays christmas music year-round.

it'll be dead quiet in the house and the girls just hear a very quiet "all i want for christmas is youu" and none of them can find the source

it thinks barb is the funniest to annoy, mainly because she actually gives him reactions

Brahms Heelshire

ace!!!

uses he/they pronouns!

a straight man sobs

he genuinely did like gretta (even though she SUCKED) and her leaving was a bitch to get over

has eaten a rat before.

[bosspigeon]

Carabosse et la Fee des Lilas

Prompt: 💋Drag

Pairing: Adam/Male Detective, Bonus Found Family Vibes~

Words: 5,346

Summary: Tina spends some quality time with Arlo and Unit Bravo as they prepare for Wayhaven's first real Pride festival, Tina torments her best friend and his maybe-boyfriend (as is her god-given right), and Arlo has a big think about his favorite role and what that role allowed him to explore~

CW for references to transmisogyny and implications of past trans/homophobia

Sometimes, Tina wonders if Arlo missed his true calling. His hands are surgeon-steady as he pencils delicate patterns onto Felix’s cheeks, outlining with white eyeliner in preparation to fill them in with bold colors and glitter. Tina almost can’t wait for her turn, even though Felix looks like he’s in real, physical pain with the effort of holding as still as possible. She’s no stranger to that struggle herself.

Neither is she a stranger to Arlo’s forceful, if toothless, threats, overcome as she is by fondness when he growls that he's going to draw a mustache on Felix’s face with permanent marker if he doesn’t stop bloody bouncing.

It’s pretty fun to watch from the outside. Sure, when you first sit down when he’s like this—all sharp and snappish and “stop moving or I’ll chuck you out the window”—it’s hard to keep still, but Arlo’s got this sort of quiet intensity to him when he’s focusing on something that’s oddly meditative. He’s just a soothing presence, really. Like a capybara or something. He’s friend-shaped.

Whatever weird magic it is, it’s definitely catching, because Felix looks less like he’s about to burst, like he did when Arlo was putting down the foundation, and more like he’s enjoying the attention. Tina’s not sure how long it’s going to last, seeing as Felix has given her a run for her money in the “manic energy” department, and he’s nowhere near as caffeinated as she is at any given time, but for the time being, he’s (mostly) still and quiet.

There’s music playing, quiet enough that the broody one (she knows his name, but it seems to bug him when she calls him "the broody one," which is funny, so—) only grumbled about it for a few minutes when Arlo turned it on, and even seems to enjoy sitting close enough to Arlo’s stupidly fancy stereo system to, she guesses, feel the rumble of the bass through the floor. Vampires are weird.

Anyway, it’s Arlo’s usual sad goth boy nonsense, but as quiet as it is, and with its intense instrumentals and rumbling vocals, it’s pleasant background noise more than anything.

Nate (the handsome and charming one, because of course all Arlo’s vampire friends are handsome, so she has to differentiate between them somehow) is rifling through Arlo’s bookshelf like it’s his job, and visibly struggling to pick something to read, because Arlo’s sitting room bookshelf (the one she found at a yard sale three hours away and lashed to the top of her sedan with every single bungee cord she could find at the local hardware store because it was coffin-shaped, for god's sake) is where he keeps all his weirdo occult stuff to, quote, “make people who pop by unannounced leave faster.”

And then there’s the big, handsome, stupidly fit blonde Arlo still won’t call his boyfriend, even though they’re so obvious it’s sickening, and she means that with all the love in her heart. He’s sitting in the armchair by the bookshelf, positioned so he can look like he’s reading one of Arlo’s old music magazines and totally isn’t taking advantage of the perfect line of sight of Arlo perched on the end of his coffee table so he’s not too tall to work on Felix, sitting in a chair from the kitchen. Tina sure hopes he doesn’t think he’s subtle, being a super special vampire secret agent and all.

He seems to notice her eyeing him, at least, and keeps his attention pinned firmly on the magazine, though he is definitely not reading a single word. Nate keeps browsing, the Broody One keeps brooding, Arlo keeps working, and Felix starts to hum. Arlo gives him a sharp look, but it doesn’t seem to be moving his face in any major way, so he just rolls his eyes and keeps tracing pretty patterns onto that unfairly smooth, dark skin. Do vampires do skin care? They probably don’t even need to, and that’s probably one of the reasons people like to villainize them. It always comes down to jealousy, doesn’t it?

She sighs, loudly enough that every eye in the room turns to her, and while she did not expect the sudden attention, she knows she can at least use it to entertain herself. She homes in on Adam, and smiles when she finally looks at the magazine he’s still valiantly pretending to read. There’s a familiar man on the cover, and while she can’t be bothered to remember his name, she grins. “Oh, hey! Arlo, he’s reading the one with the guy who looks like you!”

Arlo doesn’t even look up, but he huffs out a laugh and rolls his eyes again. He’s going to give himself a headache if he keeps that up.

The comment does exactly what she wants it to, which is draw the attention of all the other vampires. Arlo even begrudgingly pulls the pencil away from Felix’s cheek so he can take a look, and he immediately bursts out laughing.

“Arlo!” he exclaims, slapping at Arlo’s knee. “You didn’t tell us you had a twin!”

Nate chuckles (warm and rich and handsome, if a sound can be called handsome) and turns from the shelf to study the magazine curiously himself. Even the Broody One peers over to see, a little smirk curling his permanently-scowling mouth.

“Considering he was born in the sixties, I definitely don’t,” Arlo drawls. “Tina’s been making that joke since we were kids. She’s just happy she’s got an audience who hasn’t heard it twelve times a week since she first saw my old Type O Negative poster.”

“Some jokes just get better with time,” Tina says archly. “Like a fine wine.”

“And some jokes age like milk,” Arlo fires back.

Adam tilts the magazine so he can look for himself, and his dour expression clouds over even more, brows furrowing and mouth twisting. He peers up at Arlo, studying him, then down again.

Got you. “Yeah, you’re right,” Tina says, nodding sagely at him. “Arlo’s much prettier.”

It has exactly the reaction she was hoping for. Arlo drops his eyeliner pencil and makes a strangled noise, glowering at her with his cute freckly cheeks going all red, and Adam, who is a good bit paler than Arlo, goes pink from the crewneck of his just-this-side-of-too-tight tee shirt to his hairline. Tina wants to punch the air as the other vampires snicker at them. Well, except for Nate. Nate’s not a snickerer. He chortles. It’s adorable.

“Speaking of pretty!” Felix crows once they’ve all had a laugh at their fearless leader’s expense. He points to his own face with both hands, dancing in his chair, and Arlo sighs and rolls his eyes again, bending to pick up the dropped pencil. Luckily, the tip isn’t broken, so he can get right back to work, once he’s given the young vampire a moment to get his wiggles out. He settles, sitting on his hands and pursing his lips when Arlo gives him a dry look. He hovers back in with the pencil, and then Felix blurts out, “How’d you get so good at this anyway? Well, I assume you’re good at it. I haven’t seen it yet.”

Arlo doesn’t say anything. He just looks at him, pencil poised, until Felix pinches his mouth shut with a quick little apology. Once Arlo’s satisfied his canvas is actually going to hold still and keep quiet, he gets back to it. “My school was pretty small, especially compared to the bigger-name performing arts schools out there,” he says after a moment of quiet focus, tracing the outline of a heart around one of Felix’s eyes. “Our department didn’t really have a huge budget, and workspace was at a premium too. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for performances before someone else had to use the theatre, so we all did our own makeup at once, for the most part. Sometimes we’d help each other out, because we all had our strengths and weaknesses.”

He pulls back the pencil, squinting critically at the heart like it’s not completely perfect. “Demi was the best at laying the groundwork, and at matching colors to our costumes and complexions. Viv was the best at coming up with concepts and making sure we looked like a matching set. Wendi could do insane prosthetics, and was the best at bullying our department head into giving us the money for them. I had the steadiest hands, so I always did the eyes and the details.”

“Was Wendi the one who did your Dracula look?” Tina gasps. “That one was so cool!”

“Dracula?” Felix blurts. Tina doesn’t miss how the others perk up with interest too.

Arlo glares at him, and he shrinks back with a sheepish little grin. “Yeah, we did Dracula, uh… second year, I think? That was when Tilly transferred in and started doing our choreography. She’s the one who got Professor Dacey to let us do less classical stuff and start branching out a bit.” He glances briefly at Tina, staunchly ignoring the way Felix pouts at him for dividing his attention. “And, yeah, Wendi did the prosthetics for that one.”

“She’s got to be magic,” Tina asserts. “She managed to make your sweet, mopey face look so scary.”

Felix and Mason both snicker at that, and Arlo’s mouth goes all lemon-sour pinchy, like it always does when she calls him a sad puppy man, or any variation thereof.

“Take a lap,” Arlo says to Felix. “Don’t touch your face.” He jerks his head at Tina when Felix bolts to his feet and starts zooming around the flat to get out some of his energy. “Your turn, if you’re done being a comedian.”

“I’m never done,” she says with a sunny smile, but she bounces over to take Felix’s place in the chair and closes her eyes serenely so he can start on her makeup.

“And, God, do I know it,” he grumbles under his breath, knowing full well she can hear him, and so can everyone else in the room, too.

“Do you have pictures?” Felix hollers. He’s dipped into Arlo’s studio, and he’s making no secret of rifling through the desk in there, drawers slamming and paper rustling.

Arlo tips his head back so when he sighs, loud and dramatically long-suffering, he’s not blowing his breath right in Tina’s face. She appreciates the gesture. “Bottom right drawer,” he calls back, resignation thick in his voice. Given how long he’s been putting up with Tina—and Felix might just be Tina’s second platonic soulmate (Arlo, of course, being the first)—he already knows that keeping quiet is just prolonging the inevitable. Tina opens her eyes briefly to see Felix come sailing out of the studio with a thick leather-bound album held triumphantly over his head.

“Oh, I haven’t seen that in years!” she coos happily.

Arlo bops her on the forehead pointedly with a sponge covered in foundation, and she closes her eyes obediently.

She hears Arlo’s antique sofa creak as Felix plops down onto it, rifling through the plastic pages. “Aw,” he whines, “no baby pictures?”

“I can’t imagine him ever being a baby,” Mason snorts, and he sounds closer than he was before. Tina knows better than to open her eyes while Arlo’s in the zone, though. He’ll bop her with something less soft than a sponge next time. “I figured he’s just always been a giant.”

Felix laughs, high and chiming. “No wonder Agent Priestley’s always so sour, then,” he says. Tina giggles, and it becomes an inelegant snort when Arlo bops her again on the nose.

“Ask Rebecca if you want to see my baby pictures,” Arlo mutters blandly, and Tina can feel the weight of his attention. “I doubt she has many after age two, and the ones before I’ve barely seen.”

Tina’s not a super-special supernatural secret agent, but she tries with all her might to will someone to change the subject before things get weird. Now’s as good a time as any to learn telepathy.

Felix, heart of her heart, interrupts what’s shaping up to be a real prize winner of an awkward silence with a loud gasp. “Woah!” he exclaims, and pages crinkle as he presumably holds up the book for Arlo to see. “Who’s this? Did you do her makeup too?”

Arlo’s hair rustles as he turns his head away from her, and then the hand on her cheek freezes. Tension radiates through every inch of his body, practically leaching into hers. She cautiously opens one eye, and sees Arlo sitting up impeccably straight, stiff as a board and staring at Felix like a deer in the headlights. He swallows so hard she can see his throat move. “Um,” he says, stilted and strange. “Yeah. I did.”

Tina opens both eyes and squints at the photo album. Oh.

Felix looks at the sudden strain in the way Arlo is sitting, the tightness of his posture, and looks quizzically down at the picture again.

Tina remembers that performance. She remembers Arlo dancing (ha) around the subject when she asked him teasingly if he was going to be playing the prince, who was the lead, was he excited to kiss a pretty girl?

She can’t remember the character’s name, not so many years after the fact, especially since they were all weird classical nonsense, either Latin or French or some mishmash of the two. But she remembers the costume. She remembers waiting with bated breath to see Arlo onstage, to stand and scream and cheer obnoxiously loud in support of her best friend. She shot to her feet the second she saw his obvious silhouette rise from a feather-bedecked black chariot, head and shoulders taller than anyone else onstage. The music swelled, lightning flashed, and then when the spotlight hit him, she was so stunned she plopped right back into her seat with her jaw on the floor.

Arlo’s always been one of those guys that straddled the line between pretty and handsome. Long, lustrous hair and eyelashes she would kill for, cheekbones that could kill, a defined jaw, a proud nose, and intense eyes she could only call sultry—if she hadn’t known him since they were both weird, gawky brats, she’d probably be half in love with him before figuring out she wasn’t his cup of tea. But seeing him onstage was always an adventure. He threw himself into whatever character he played, put his everything into them, from the costume to the makeup to the performance. He just became the character, and in a way that was so very Arlo, all that intensity and focus channeled into an act that completely stole the show, in Tina’s humble and completely unbiased opinion.

Carabosse! That was her name!

Carabosse was no different.

Arlo’s makeup was flawless, ghost-white foundation giving him intense Morticia Addams vibes, contouring that made his cheekbones look absolutely unreal, bold black (or maybe really dark purple?) lipstick and shiny, smoky eyeshadow that made him look ethereal and wicked, with a daggerpoint cat-eye that she spent an hour begging him to teach her after the show. When he turned his head in a sharp, birdlike motion to look down his nose at the dancers playing the King and Queen, she gasped at the way his hair rippled down his back, shiny-black and woven with actual feathers that trailed back from the ornate metal circlet resting on his brow like a bird’s crest. The costume was breathtaking, too, a tightly corseted bodice and a high collar, a dramatically billowing skirt and trailing, feathered sleeves that flared like wings whenever he moved.

And the way he moved! Arlo’s dancing changed with every role, whatever he felt would suit the character. One of her favorites was always his Hans-Peter (she had a soft spot for that one, and had ever since she was little—one of the first Christmas gifts her stepmom had ever given her was little storybook version of The Nutcracker that came with a CD) because his dancing was so stiff and stridently mechanical, he looked like a real toy soldier come to life. But his villains moved with a slinking, predatory prowl she’d only ever seen in monster movies, and never in something like a ballet. His Carabosse was as beautiful as she was terrifying, and it was incredible to watch. She wanted to fling herself at him after the show and babble at him endlessly like she always did, but she spent a solid minute staring at him slack-jawed, until he shifted awkwardly and looked down, and the confident intimidation of the Wicked Fairy sloughed away to reveal Arlo underneath.

He almost melted into the floor with relief when she finally startled to babble.

She puts a hand on his shoulder and squeezes, and he takes a slow, deep breath, offering Felix a strained smile. “Take a closer look, mate,” he says quietly.

Felix does. He looks up and squints at Arlo, and then back down at the photo. Tina has to bite her lip so she doesn’t laugh when he looks over at Adam, still holding the magazine with that metal singer that kind of looks like Arlo on it, and then back at Arlo. His mouth drops open into a little o, and he shoots to his feet and shouts, “No way!”

Mason was allowed his name back briefly, but he goes right back to Broody One when he grimaces at Felix and slinks pettishly back to his corner.

Arlo’s shoulders are practically around his ears, but he tries to keep smiling. “Yeah. Sleeping Beauty. Fourth year. I was the Wicked Fairy.”

“He was amazing,” Tina declares, shoulders back and chin tipped up challengingly. “The costume was insane, but the way he played her was absolutely, ridiculously badass.”

“You look awesome!” Felix blurts, still gawking down at the photo. He flips to the next page, and squeaks happily when he finds more pictures, from different angles, showing off the costume, the way Arlo loomed over the other dancers, the way he commanded the stage. Tina should really find out who took the pictures and send them her thanks, because they really put in the work. “Your makeup, your dress, your hair! How’d you even do that?”

Arlo laughs, and it sounds so utterly relieved, Tina’s heart breaks a little. Arlo’s always been sensitive, and for someone who dresses and holds himself the way he does, he worries more than he lets on what people think of him. Especially people he cares about. She squeezes his shoulder again, and he bites his lip when he glances back at her and smiles hesitantly.

“A lot of wire, and enough hairspray to choke a bloody cow,” he says, twisting around and slinging his long legs over the coffee table so he can face the sofa. “I think we bought every bag of black feathers the craft store had, and then spent an entire weekend painting them with this stupidly expensive embossing powder. We had to get, like, ten pots of the stuff, because the craft store only had pots the size of a quarter.”

“I admire your dedication,” Nate says pleasantly, strolling over to peer over Arlo’s shoulder. They tighten just a bit before relaxing slowly. “That costuming is superb. I’ve seen professional productions that weren’t half so detailed.”

“That would be Viv’s work,” Arlo laughs, looking down at the pictures fondly. “She took whatever cheap garbage the department had for us, raided the nearest clearance fabric rack, and worked her magic. The employees at that little craft store loved and hated us in equal measure.”

Arlo is still tense, but he’s loosening up little by little, and with him Tina does too. The easy camaraderie is soothing, and she knows how much Arlo cares about his vampire friends, so it’s got to be a huge weight off his shoulders to be able to let his guard down around them. He deserves that. He deserves to be able to be himself.

Adam standing up draws Arlo’s attention like nothing else could, and he freezes like a startled rabbit again looking up at the burly blonde vampire as he approaches the sofa. He looks a split second from bolting. Tina sits up straighter and gives Adam her most daring look, squaring her shoulders to make it perfectly clear she's ready to fight the second he opens his mouth. She’ll definitely lose, sure, but she’ll make as much trouble as she can before she goes down.

He reaches out, his hand hesitating before it touches the album’s glossy page, and he looks up at Arlo with a questioning tilt to his brows. Arlo looks like he’s barely breathing, but he nods, and Adam slips one of the pictures from its sleeve. He straightens his spine, shoulders back, holding the photo and studying it carefully. His face is impossible to read, about as expressive as a bloody brick wall. Tina’s vibrating with nervous energy. She’ll fight a vampire, though. She will.

When Adam does finally speak, his voice comes out so softly Tina almost doesn’t hear it over the adrenaline rushing through her. “You look… striking.”

Striking. Oh my god.

She wants to laugh. They’re ridiculous.

“Thanks,” Arlo chokes out, his cheeks and ears going red this time.

Oh my god. Tina covers her mouth with both hands. Arlo glowers at her. It’s a lot less threatening when he’s blushing like that. “I didn’t say anything,” she mumbles against her palms.

“Your face,” he hisses, and she yelps.

“Oh! Shit!” She pulls her hands away, and he grabs her by the chin to check the damage with a click of his tongue.

Tina thought things would get better once Arlo actually kissed the man (and maybe got a leg over, but that’s only her business when she can finally get Arlo to actually talk about if the big, beefy Adonis is as missionary-with-the-lights-off as he looks) but at least they’re not just staring longingly at each other from across the room and then getting all sad about it anymore . Thankfully, Felix seems to be an old hand at clearing up the weird tension between the two of them, chiming in a delighted, “I’ve never seen you look so scary!” as he rifles through all the pictures from the Sleeping Beauty show. “I mean, you’re pretty scary when you go all furry, but also, you sort of just look like a big lanky puppy, because it’s just you, you know? This is someone else! Who is she! She's so cool!”

Arlo sighs and turns around to fix whatever Tina’s ruined with her foundation, and throws himself back into dolling her up. Thankfully, the actual festival’s not for a while yet. She complained about the unnecessarily early start when Arlo suggested the time, but now she’s glad he’s such a persnickety prick about scheduling. “I had a lot of fun with it,” he admits, shrugging his shoulders. “The original script notes said to get, y’know, sort of silly with it, but I wasn’t a big fan of that angle for a character like her. Yeah, I wanted to be campy, but not in the way…” He purses his lips. “Okay, well, Nate probably knows this, but a lot of classical ballets that have a female villains do this thing with them that I hate.” He frowns deeply, patting at Tina’s chin with gentle ferocity. “ An evil female character is supposed to be sort of… sort of a cautionary tale, I guess? Like your typical bitter spinster crone, the old hag, or the wicked stepsisters, things like that. So they’ll specifically cast a male dancer and put them in bright, gaudy facepaint and garish costumes that are supposed to be cartoonish and ugly, that you're supposed to find funny, to show you that this character is bad because she’s indelicate and mannish, and that’s why she’s evil.”

His mouth twists around the words, and he looks up, back at the vampires, leaving Tina a moment to really appreciate that Arlo’s comfortable enough with them to do what he’s only ever really done with her—which is ramble about something he’s passionate about. It’s always fun to watch. He turns back to her, and she just wishes his hands weren’t occupied, because he’s a big hand-talker otherwise. “I got the role because the professor thought it would be funny to stick me in a role like that, being so tall and, y’know,” he gestures vaguely to his faded old band tee and dark jeans, the thick leather cuff around his wrist. Tina doesn’t see what he really means, seeing as he looks cozy and content right now, but she gets what he’s going for. “He was expecting me to be awkward about it. The big, tough guy doing drag as the creepy crone caricature.” He huffs. “I talked with Demi about it, and we decided to say fuck that.” He sits up straighter, tilts up his chin, and looks down his nose at Tina.

She peers up at him, wide-eyed, and suddenly wonders if this is how Demi felt, playing Aurora when Carabosse looked down her nose at her like an insect under her heel.

“I thought Carabosse deserved better,” Arlo says fiercely. “If I was going to be a villain, I was going to be a damned good villain. I was going to tower over all the delicate, dainty little princesses and fairies, and I was going to be fierce. Professor Dacey wanted Aurora, and Candide, and Florine to be the epitome of sweet, delicate femininity, the ideal damsel in any classical show. Carabosse is supposed to be the complete opposite. You’re supposed to root against her, not want to be her. She’s a threat to the idea of womanhood, of the ideal feminine. She’s bold and selfish and she takes what she wants. I leaned into that. I even danced en pointe for parts of it, even though Carabosse isn't supposed to, and between the rehearsals and the actual performance, I thought my feet were gonna fall off, but it was worth it.”

Arlo smiles, and Tina is thrilled by the wickedness of it. She thinks she even sees just a hint of fang. Arlo’s been so careful about showing his teeth, ever since he told her what happened to him, why he disappeared for so long, so it's somehow special for him to feel like he can show her even a hint of what he’s become.

“Professor Dacey was pissed, afterwards, of course,” Arlo laughs, but there’s an edge to it. He seems to shrink. From Arlo to Carabosse to Arlo again. He looks down at his hands as they work on Tina more than at her face. “He didn’t, y’know, say anything he could have gotten fired over, but he did rail about being left out of planning and the budget and all that rot. Got even madder when Demi pointed out we’d spent our own money on the costumes. I think if he was tall enough to look down on me, he would have.” He snorts, a bitter curl to his mouth. Tina thinks of it painted bold, dark purple, thinks of how it would look with those teeth behind it. She wonders if he’d let her do his makeup for the festival. She’s not nearly as good at details as he is, but she’s no slouch either.

“You should have let me put raw fish in his hubcaps,” Tina mutters, just to make Arlo laugh. It works, and she beams at him.

“Would have been a waste of fish,” he mumbles, sucking his teeth. He finally picks up a bright eyeshadow palette and starts waffling over colors. He’s quiet while he deliberates, but after a while, he sighs. “I liked being Carabosse,” he says, like it’s a secret. Like he’s trying very hard not to be ashamed.

“I wish I could have seen it,” Adam says, almost dreamily. Tina could scream. “I— We could have, I mean. All of us. In solidarity.”

“Smooth,” Felix whispers.

“I’m sure it was a phenomenal performance,” Nate adds helpfully. He’s taken the album from Felix to flip through to some of Arlo’s other shows. “The passion you have for your characters shines through in just photos. It’s quite impressive.”

“You should have gone pro,” Tina mutters. “You’d be a household name by now.”

Arlo snorts and bops her with the brush. How many bops is that now? She’s certainly on a roll today. “And who’d keep you in line back here?” he teases.

Tina squints up at him and sticks out her tongue. “Like you’ve ever even tried to keep me in line, you big softie. You love the chaos, just admit it.”

“I’ll admit you to the hospital when you do something stupid and get yourself hurt again, how about that?”

They bicker like children back and forth while Arlo finishes her makeup, a wash of pink, purple, and blue eyeshadow and matching lipstick, overlaid with a lustrous sparkle to her cheekbones and a cute little black heart-shaped beauty mark under one eye. Felix gets a bi flag heart to match her eyeshadow around one eye, and then the rest is a sort of confetti splash of sparkly stars and hearts in every color. Even Nate goes for the bi eyeshadow (Bi-shadow? She should have been saying that this whole time!), making him, Tina, and Felix a matching set, and Mason consents to a very simple pan flag on his cheek. Tina suspects Adam only allows the eyeshadow treatment so he can have Arlo cup his face all tenderly, but she keeps the thought (mostly) to herself. He looks good in pastels, she thinks when she sees the finished blue, pink, and white.

Arlo draws a little heart under his eye too. The heart in Tina's chest almost explodes with warmth.

And then Arlo disappears into the bathroom, leaving the rest of them to entertain themselves while he gets ready on his own. They go through the album some more, and Tina tells them all about her favorite shows, because she went to every single one she could manage, and got Arlo’s school friends to send her videos of the ones she couldn’t. Tina Poname is Arlo Priestley’s number one fan, and that will never change. Not even now that she's got some competition.

When Arlo comes out of the bathroom, they all look up in sync, and he stands there, shifting anxiously from foot to foot under the attention, and lifts his hands in a stilted shrug. “So?” he asks, smiling nervously. He’s changed clothes, too. Tight pants, big boots, a mesh-sleeved black shirt underneath his patch-and-pin-covered denim vest. His wrists jingle with chunky bracelets, and his hair is braided neatly over one shoulder. But his makeup is what really steals the show. That insanely sharp cat-eye, of course, but one eye is done up in blue, pink, and white, and the other in yellow, white, purple, and black. He smiles timidly. “I, uh, I couldn’t really decide on just one,” he says, sticking his gloved hands into the pockets of his vest. “I’m, um, I’m not sure which one’s really right for me yet, I guess?” He shrugs again, and Tina watches delightedly as Adam stands up slowly, his eyes on Arlo with such an awed intensity she wonders if he even remembers there’s other people in the room. Arlo keeps babbling as he approaches, the words tumbling nervously from his black-painted lips. “I sort of like matching with you, Adam, and I know they’re both fine, but I—”

Adam grabs him by the lapels of his jacket, yanks him down to his level, and silences him with a kiss. Tina throws her arms up in the air with an impulsive shriek of “WOO!” that Felix echoes even louder. They high-five over Mason’s head, and he looks like he wants to throw them both out the window. Nate sits by with a pleasant little smile, which only fades when he takes note of the clock.

Adam and Arlo are still kissing, Arlo’s hands cupped around the vampire’s cheeks and Adam clinging to his vest like he'll drown if he lets go. Tina thinks she might see a hint of tongue when Nate loudly clears his throat.

They break apart with an indecent smacking noise, and Tina yelps out a sharp laugh when she sees Arlo’s black lipstick smeared all around Adam’s mouth.

Nate crosses his arms and smiles dryly at them. “Why don’t you two go fix your faces,” he suggests. “The rest of us will make sure the car is packed for the festival.”

“Um, yes. You— We—” Arlo fumbles for a bit, touching his smeared lips, his eyes just a bit dazed. He and Adam look at each other, and then flee for the bathroom together.

Tina’s never been more excited for a festival in her life.

[citizensmth]

Alastor’s accent and the Golden Age of American radio

I really adore Alastor’s character so far. That eccentric strawberry dandy is just dripping with a slightly sinister sort of genteel charm. But I particularly love his accent/affectation. That over-enunciated ‘old time radio’ voice is a very specific style of speaking with an interesting history that I think adds a lot of richness to his character.

If you’ve ever wanted to know about where Alastor’s accent comes from then grab some tea, settle in, and read on! I am a huge history nerd, my first job was in radio, and I can write for days when I’m in the mood.

Alastor’s speaking style is based on the Trans-Atlantic accent. This accent is also called the Mid-Atlantic accent (as in ‘middle of the Atlantic ocean’, not the Mid-Atlantic region of the US). It is an invented style of speaking that combines elements of British English with American English to create a hybrid accent with no geographical roots. This faux British style of speaking was extremely popular among the American upper-class in the first half of the 20th century. Wealthy Americans were imitating elements of aristocratic British speech as far back as the 1800′s. By the end of the 19th century, this learned affectation was increasingly associated with East Coast urban elites.

About the same time, this style was also becoming popular in both formal public speaking and the theater. Regional American accents were not desirable so serious aspiring actors trained to imitate British speech on stage. Many stage actors during the early 1900′s embraced the works of phoneticians like William Tilly who wanted to create a universal standard of class based English. Tilly and his followers heavily promoted the teaching of this invented style of ‘proper’ American English pronunciation. Private New England preparatory schools in particular embraced this form of English instruction.

Some elements of the Trans-Atlantic accent include:

Lack of rhoticity (means you tend to drop the “R” at the end of words).

Soft vowels. Example: The A in Dance pronounced as ‘ah’ and not like ‘ant’.

Sharp, clipped emphasis on the “T”. American English frequently softens “T” into a “D” sound. Hit that T like it owes you money.

So... how did a sound associated with East Coast urban elites and high culture become synonymous with the Golden Age of radio?

Early audio technology was extremely primitive and radio broadcasting didn’t take off as a form of electronic mass media until the 1920′s. Prior to WW1, radio was dominated by hobbyists and amateurs experimenting with crude homemade equipment. Microphone technology was in it’s infancy and so was recording technology. Early radio experimenters were forced off the airwaves at the outbreak of WW1 to make room for military use; a major setback for the development of the technology.  The first radio stations didn’t become operational until 1920 and a commercial plug-in receiver with speakers wasn’t widely available until the late 1920′s. The first feature length movie featuring both sound and spoken audio wasn’t released until 1927 and it took about 4 years for Hollywood to complete the transition from silent films to ‘talkies’.

The biggest problem was that early microphones really struggled to pick up natural speaking voices and had a particularly hard time with base tones. Early receivers also lacked the ability to effectively reproduce natural base tones. One had to learn how to speak in a manner that could be captured and reproduced into something intelligible. The Trans-Atlantic accent with it’s clipped nasal pronunciation that elevated treble tones and strongly enunciated individual words was ideally suited to early radio technology. Performers were trained in this style of speaking and it formed the foundation for the classic ‘radio announcer’ sound of the era. That the accent was geographically neutral and associated with cultured respectability was also a plus. Microphone and radio receiver technology improved greatly by 1940 but by then the sound had become part of radio culture. Although you could now speak in a more natural voice, announcers continued to invoke the old affectation in order to sound like ‘real newsmen’. The Trans-Atlantic accent rapidly declined in use after WW2 due to continued technological advancements, an emerging middle class, changing social attitudes, and a decline in schools willing to teach it. In a relatively short time, it completely disappeared from every day use.

So there you have it. A little history about Alastor’s accent and where it fits into America’s Gilded Age and the Golden Age of radio. No one organically talks this way so Alastor would have had to deliberately learn this artificial style at some point in his life. His style of speaking also firmly dates him to the 1930′s. Lastly, the fact that his speech sounds like it is being played through an old radio receiver is super cool.

That’s enough of my sleep deprived word dumps for one night.

[2ofswords]

Inner Shadow Character Songs

Hier noch einmal die Zuordnung der Songs aus der Playlist für die Inner Shadow Tribute. Vielen Dank noch einmal an Linda, die die Playlist mit mir zusammen erstellt hatte. ^^

Glory: “Presence of a Legend” von Shea Diamond Rubin: “Soldier Poet King” von The Oh Hellos Artemisia: “Dangerous” von Royal Deluxe Dareios: “I Think It’s Arrogance” von Set It Off Kester: “New Bromance” von Hegge Jademis: “Bring It All Back” von Lucy Spraggan Barnacle: “Gracefully Facedown” von Devil Makes Three Prion: “When I Grow Up” von Mayday Parade Sora: “The Light” von Regina Spektor Soleya: “Day Of Glory” von Sebalter (I know.. it’s confusing “^^) June: “Born To Be Wild” von Steppenwolf Tave: “The Phoenix” von Fall Out Boy Caravel: “Cellophane” von Sarah Jackson Holman Wren: “sorry haha i fell asleep” von Egg Firmin: “Because You’re Young” von Cock Sparrer Matilda: “All Eyes on Me” von Victor McKnight, SquigglyDigg und Ritter Lincoln Delta: “Nightmare” von Halsey Elivin: “Think About Things” von Daði Feyr Kyra: “Weird Science” von Oingo Boingo Agnes: “Hallelujah” von Rufus Wainwright Laure: “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” von Blue Öyster Cult Acorn: “I’ll Drink to That” von Outasight Turis: “Traitor” von Daughtry (Who would have thought...) Blake: “Staying Up” von The Neighbourhood Mikesh: “Know What I’m Not” von Nico & Vinz

Ein paar Worte (und Zweitsongs) zu den Songs under the cut:

Glory und Presence of a Legend war glaube ich der Song, der ganz am Anfang die meisten beim Raten aufgehalten hatte. Aber zu dem Zeitpunkt wussten wir auch noch nicht so viel über die Karriera. Der Song ist übrigens auch von einer Trans Frau gemacht. (Und ergibt in dem Kontext auch einfach sehr viel Sinn.)

Dareios war erschreckend lange ein Problemfall und die Lösung war am Ende “Byakuya Togami Playlist” zu suchen. Was sehr effektiv war! :D

Barnacle hat einen Zweitsong! “Such a Looser” von Garfunkel and Oats. Der Song ist... super weird um ehrlich zu sein. Aber ich wollte ihn hier erwähnen. ^^

Ich erinnere mich daran, bei dem Soleya-Lied sehr gezögert zu haben, eben weil der Name aufgrund unserer Glory ein bisschen verwirrend ist. Aber es hat verdammt gut gepasst, auch weil Soleya eben auch Geige spielt und es war schwer, etwas für sie zu finden.

Tave hat inzwischen eine gesamte Playlist, aber als Zweitsong von The Inner Shadow würde ich “The Wrecked and The Worried” von NateWantsToBattle. Ich bin sehr genervt davon, dass dieser Song es nie auf eine offizielle Liste geschafft hat. Er passt so gut zu Tave, aber ein anderer Song passt immer einen Tick besser zur speziellen Situation, in der er sich befindet.

Falls ihr euch frage “Wo ist ‘Guilty’ von Marina hin??” ... Äh... ja... War mal Caravels Song. Hat aber nie so wirklich gepasst und inzwischen wurde er dann auch mal ersetzt.

Für Wren einen Song zu finden, war ein Elend! Ich hatte für denen einen sehr speziellen Vibe im Kopf, für den es aber nicht wirklich viele Lieder gibt. Am Ende bin ich aber super zufrieden mit dem Song gewesen! ^^

Tilly hatte andersherum viel zu viele Lieder, die gut gepasst hatten und wir hatten schon zwei Songs, als “All Eyes On Me” am Ende aufgetaucht ist. Tatsächlich war “Kill the Lights”, der Arenasong, auch ursprünglich mal für sie angedacht. Ihr Zweitsong ist “Milk and Cookies” von Melanie Martinez

Agnes Zweitong ist “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” von Flores + The Machine. Hasenmotive!! :DDD Inzwischen passt der Song auch ein bisschen besser, er geht eben ein bisschen mehr mit ihrer Entwicklung mit.

“MONTERO (Call me by your name)” von Lil Nas X. ist aufgetaucht, weil Linda mal eine Playlist dazu gemacht hatte, was die Tribute selbst hören würden und da war dieser für Acorn zugeordnet. Und dann habe ich begonnen, den einfach immer weiter mit Acorn zu verknüpfen. ^^ Der Song ist sehr Tavecorn.

Turis Zweitsong ist “Sometimes” von Nick Lutsko. Der Song passt wie die Faust aufs Auge, aber Linda und ich hatten ihn erst gefunden, nachdem die Playlist schon hochgeladen war. Und Traitor war ebenfalls sehr gut, weshalb ich sie nicht ausgetaucht hatte.

[mlmcaptainpike]

Can you do Philippa (Prime) for the character ask? :D

OMG OF COURSE you know me lol this ask is my ideal ask. thank you sooooo much for sending this and sorry if its late?? i didnt get a notif for this so idk when you sent it but thanks ily!!!

Sexuality Headcanon: i think of her as a lesbian but (like with tilly) i’d also accept bi

Gender Headcanon: trans woman :)))

A ship I have with said character: milippa. the way i would give LICHRALLY anything to have made that ship canon. smh they should have kissed

A BROTP I have with said character: her and saru!!! i love that she helped get him away from kaminar and stuff..... so much found family!!! i think she and saru and michael should be the petty gay friend group we all need.

A NOTP I have with said character: idk i havent seen anything too nasty w her?? not a huge georgiou/lorca person but thats more of a mirror pippa thing :)

A random headcanon: michael calls her pip!!! i made a post about this but i find it to be both true and adorable so i’ll mention it again

General Opinion over said character: oh wow milf rights. shes soooo pretty but thats just my lesbian side; in terms of character shes epic!!! i love the hyper- idealistic captains that are self-righteous paragons of goodness like..... pip just reads like a fairytale king or knight. so full of goodness and chivalry and tragically martyred before her time. OH it delights me. wish she hadn’t died :(

[grimbeak]

tell us about the plot hole you fixed!

I will!! Even though 0% of you will understand me!!

Looking at the notebook I wrote it down in, I’m still trying to figure it out a little bit, but here we go.

So, originally I had 7 ppl facing off against the 7 deadly sins, each person facing what plagued them the most (might change up a few because some of them don’t rly make sense)/whatever they hated the most. Still working out the kinks.

So, we had Jensi vs Gluttony, Thom vs Pride, God vs Sloth, Lucifer vs Wrath, Ren vs Envy, Bug vs Greed, and Mark vs Lust. 

But, here’s the thing.

About a month or so ago, I came up with the idea to bring back a character (Tilly) that was mentioned literally once in the 1st book (ianguiar im already planning out the next 4 books despite being 1 chapter into the 1st-) back into the 3d.

But, I’d have to kill her off for Bug’s (our mc) development. And I really didn’t want to, because killing off women for the mcs development sucks. 

But, last night, I thought of something. 

7 deadly sins.

7 people were brought to the tournament (just go with it). 

Lucifer wasn’t brought to the tournament, and after a moment of thinking I decided that Thom wasn’t either, so that left two people that were at the tournament that I didn’t have facing against the sins. 

The people that were brought to the tournament all together were Bug, Jensi, Ren, Tilly, and Rex’s ex (think ima call him Jason for now). Mark was there, too, but he wasn’t a competitor, but the Overlord (who brought them all there) was using Mark like he was using the others- as a way to spawn in the 7 sins. The Overlord had brought God there before any of these 6, making 7 sins. 

 Which brings me back to the vs chart. Lucifer was on it, despite the fact that he wasn’t in the tournament in the first place, which was kind of a plot hole since I didn’t want to bring him into it. Thom was on it as well, despite him not being brought into the tournament at all. 

So. 

I was, at first, going to bring back Tilly and then kill her, but. That means Jason would live (or maybe not,,, idk what I was thinking back before last night fam), but not fight any of the sins. 

So INSTEAD of killing off Tilly, I decided to kill off Jason, successfully fixing the plot hole in which Lucifer wasn’t there (now Tilly’s taking their place), getting rid of an asshole transphobic ex, setting up the relationship even more between Ren and Bug, and also not having to kill off a woman for Bug’s development.

But the thing is. Jason. Where does he fit in if he’s dead? He was supposed to fight the sin of pride. 

The Overlord brought God (yes, actual God, it’s Christian-based) in 1st, and then brought her daughter Jensi in with the rest of them. Thom, despite being God’s son, wasn’t brought (a terrible day for him, just like 12 yrs old and then ur mom goes missing and then you get her back and your sister dissapears), but he takes Jason’s place. 

Now, the vs chart looks like this:

Jensi vs Envy, Thom vs Pride, God vs Sloth, Tilly vs Wrath, Ren vs Gluttony, Bug vs Greed, and Mark vs Lust. 

Also! The 7 deadly sins for each person, I hadn’t thought of there being just 7 ppl there. I expected the 6 but I didn’t really process that it was just six, or that God had been there before, alone. 7 ppl for the 7 deadly sins. 

Hey, at least Tilly won’t die now. Mark’ll still die though. Sorry dude, but to be honest even though you sorta redeemed yourself you lowkey deserved it. Still love you tho. 

(Also, there’s 0 point in telling any of you this, but Mark’s nonbinary and uses he/him pronouns (he feels comfortable with them), Bug’s genderqueer (twinsies :D) and uses xey/xem/xyr pronouns, Lucifer’s also genderqueer and uses any pronouns, Messenger (who you haven’t met) would prefer not to be perceived, possibly because they are literally made of light, and Ren is bigender and uses she/he pronouns. God is pan and uses she/her pronouns, Jesus is a pan/poly trans man (he/him), Jensi is bi (she/her), Treeolas (who you also haven’t met) is aro/ace (he/him) (sorry for killing you dude even though I haven’t done it yet), Tilly is a cishet (? Im not sayin she was in love with a woman at some point but she was def in love with a woman at some point), Thom is our token cishet and Jason doesn’t deserve rights.) 

[discotreque]

Disco 3.04: Forget Me Not

The way Doug Jones delivered “Previously, on Star Trek: Discovery” this week—audibly out of makeup, almost entirely out of character, and over the super-intense footage from 3.02 of Disco plummeting helplessly to a shattered ruin of a planet—in such a brisk, cheerful little chirp had me laughing so hard I was wheezing. I could see his little mannerisms and everything 😂

I slept like a brick last night, so I’m a little too disoriented for much of a preamble. Let’s get right into it. Spoilers ahoy:

REPAIR ROBOTS!!!

Prop watch: the “salt-shaker” medical scanner Culber uses during his opening voiceover is by far the most elaborate we’ve ever seen on Star Trek. Try to fit that into the top of your tricorder. (I guess it’s connected to an iPad now...)

Adira has amnesia too? Literally a mystery wrapped in a mystery, lol.

Stop calling it a squid! It’s an ankylosaur! (ˈaŋkɪləsɔː)

Michael asks Adira on the bridge if the planet Trill looks familiar. Not to be a planet-racist, but don’t all Class M planets kind of look alike from orbit? I’m not sure I could reliably recognize that much of Earth, especially under so much beautifully rendered CGI cloud cover.

I’m going to be praising Doug Jones a lot this season—he’s not just playing Saru as captain, he’s playing Captain Saru in an interesting and distinctive way. He’s not the babysitting big brother anymore—now he’s their dad, and he’s still visibly getting used to the role. It’s played so sweet and subtle and I’m really loving it, and the way the show as a whole is leaning into the “family” vibe this season.

The holographic version of a red-yarn-string conspiracy board that Michael is using when she talks to Culber is one of those acceptable sci-fi breaks from reality for me. It looks super cool and futuristic, but imagine actually working like that for a few hours. Your arms would get exhausted. My neck hurts just watching her crane around. And the eyestrain of focusing on glowing shit, in mid-air, at various distances, with no backdrop whatsoever? Fuck off completely with that. But it’s simple and tactile, so the audience immediately understands the general idea of what she’s doing, and it’s literally see-through, so we can simultaneously know how she feels about it. And if you’re not a total weirdo like me, you won’t be thinking about any of this, except maybe “oh, neat!” when Culber first walks in—it just helps establish Michael’s state of mind at the beginning of the scene.

OKAY SO TWO EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT MICHAEL’S QUARTERS. First, she decorated!!! 😭😭😭 Last season they made a point of (repeatedly!) contrasting her uhhhh “minimalist” living space with Tilly’s more personalized and homey side of the room, and now they explicitly note that Michael either brought her 32nd-century knick-knacks over from Book’s ship or replicated a bunch of new ones for Disco, and frankly either scenario makes my heart want to scream into a pillow.

THE SECOND THING IS THAT SHE’S STILL LIVING WITH TILLY??? ARE YOU ACTUALLY KIDDING ME WITH THIS SAPPHIC SHIT. I WAS READY TO BID MY SAD FAREWELLS TO MYLVIA AND HOP ON THE BURNBOOK TRAIN AND YOU DO T H I S??? YOU’RE PLAYING WITH MY HEART, MICHELLE.

I thought it was unfair that people were criticizing the last episode for not like, fully developing every single one of the plot points it was obviously setting up to play out over the rest of the season—but fair or not, I was genuinely surprised when they came back to Michael’s insecurities around leadership, so I guess this show is still working on winning me over too.

“Post-traumatic growth... can inspire us to evolve, to live our lives in a different way.” Well, fuck 😭😭😭😭😭

This is going to sound like either rank sarcasm or damnation by the faintest of praise, but it’s actually a genuine and heartfelt compliment: I did not expect this show to ever even approach the emotional depths of the recent She-Ra reboot on Netflix, let alone include a conversation that directly evoked one of the most powerful moments of that entire series for me. “You know what I love about you most? You’re a responsibility hoarder” has the exact same energy as “You’re worth more than what you can give to other people,” and it sucker-punched me right in the goddamned heart. Let 2020 be the year all our overly self-sacrificing heroines learn to let themselves accept the same love and support they give so freely.

AND THEN SHE JUST LAUNCHES INTO BIG-SISTER MODE WITH ADIRA??? Put me in a photon torpedo and shoot me into space while Scotty plays Amazing Grace on the bagpipes because I am D-E-A-D dead. (Also any time SMG lets her accent out a little bit I just fucking swoon, and apparently that accent is an integral component of her big-sis persona, so 😍😍😍😍😍)

I have been waiting my entire life for a Star Trek character who stuns first and asks questions later.

No. No WAY. THIS is how the Disco computer becomes Zora??? Basically the same way Data created Moriarty, except with a boost from the sphere data, and driven by Saru wanting to heal the crew’s emotional trauma? Holy SHIT.

I’m not sure I realized how many gaps existed in Trill lore until now. We knew a lot about Dax’s specific experiences, but I never had a good sense for how “typical” Dax actually was, and I feel like I learned more about Trill in general in this episode than I did over seven seasons of DS9, which is cool.

Listen, Saru, if you want to have family dinners with the crew, sometimes they’re going to turn out like family dinners.

The closed captions when Michael was arriving in the Trill dreamscape or whatever said (ambient warbling), which is also one of my favourite genres of music.

“I know you’re afraid, but you have to let them connect with you.” OKAY, STOP, JUST STOP.

I guess it wouldn’t be Discovery if every other character didn’t have a grotesquely tragic backstory, but Adira and Gray’s managed to cram about half a dozen of my favourite romantic tropes into a few fleeting moments of screen time before crashing into my heart—much like an asteroid crashing into the side of a generation ship that really should have solved the “random asteroid collision” problem at, like, the blueprints stage—so this one hurt even more than usual.

(Looking forward to blocking all the cis people with ~scorching hot takes~ about Adira and Gray this week. If you’re not trans, then your feelings and opinions about this are literally meaningless to me.)

One of Tal’s previous hosts is seen in a circa-2399 Starfleet uniform, which unfortunately doesn’t fit him any better than it fit anyone on Picard. We also get a (presumably fairly contemporary) admiral’s uniform on Senna, but there’s a lady on the far left with a different style of uniform but the same “post-canon” oval-backed delta concept for the combadge, and I wanted to see more of that one.

AWWWWW, STAMETS ACTUALLY DID STOP BEING A JERK, GOOD FOR HIM <3 (And if I’ve learned anything from science fiction, it’s that dark matter can do literally whatever the writers want, so this seems like a promising road of inquiry!)

Is Gray going to live in Adira’s head like a non-toxic version of Six and Baltar on Battlestar Galactica? Because I am into it.

...and that’s four in a row that ended with a goddamned tsunami of feelings. It’s still finding its feet, but this new version of the show—this slower, softer, sweeter version of Discovery, and the things it’s even attempting—you could say it gives me hope.

Next week: we finally get to see Starfleet in the 32nd century, who are as friendly as everyone else has been so far, and I’m going to have to figure out who’s playing the admiral who talks to Michael in the trailer, because he’s such a “Hey, It’s That Guy!” I got whiplash.

[cardest]

Florida playlist

Are they still counting the votes in Florida, Nevada and...speaking of Florida. I made a Florida playlist and last Xmas, I updated it, added songs to it for my trip across the state. I visited Daddy Kool Records in Saint Petersburg, Wax Records in Vero Beach and St Pete Records. But in the hire car, this was my playlist across Florida. Made the road trip that much more awesome. Not to mention a fabulous meal at Nicko McBrain’s Rock n Ribs!

001 Bob Seger - Florida Time 002 Grant Peeples - Sunshine State 003 Faith No More - Land of Sunshine 004 Death - Defensive Personalities 005 Johnny Cash - Orange Blossom Special 006 NOCTURNUS AD - Precession Of The Equinoxes 007 They Might Be Giants - Oranges 008 Pretenders - Space Invader 009 Florida Man - Brain Cell 010 Kraftwerk - Spacelab 011 Man or Astroman - Super Rocket Rumble 012 ZZ Top - Gun Love 013 B 52s -There's a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon) 014 The Police - Walking On The Moon 015 Ohio Express - Jacksonville Station 016 Sam Jones and Co - Rhythm-a-Ning feat Thelonius Monk 017 Dick Dale - Misirlou (5-62) 018 GWEN McCRAE - Rockin Chair 019 CHRIS REA - Daytona 020 FREDDIE SCOTT - Are You Lonely For Me Baby 021 Devo - Space Junk 022 Janelle Monáe - Sally Ride 023 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Red, White And Blue 024 Tom Dissevelt - Ignition 025 Def Leppard - Rocket 026 I Dream Of Jeannie - Theme Song 027 Apollo 440 - Carrera Rapida (Theme from Rapid Racer) 028 David Byrne - Astronaut 029 Status Quo - [If You Can't Stand The Heat] Long Legged Linda 030 Elton John - Rocket Man 031 The Gathering - Liberty Bell 032 Captain Clegg And The Night Creatures - Redneck Vixen From Outerspace 033 Peter Schilling - Major Tom (German version) 034 Rush - Countdown 035 Masters Of Reality - Third Man On The Moon 036 Mudhoney - Orange Ball-Peen Hammer 037 Jan Howard - Bad Seed 038 Willbie Harrison - Florida Special 039 T. Rex - Space Boss 040 David Bowie - Starman 041 Beach Boys - Ten Little Indians 042 Obituary - Slowly We Rot 043 Paul Revere & The Raiders - Indian Reservation 044 Craig Leon - Donkeys Bearing Cups 045 Suzi Quatro - Daytona Demon 046 The Lively Ones - Surf Rider 047 The Outlaws - Green Grass and High Tides 048 The bellamy brothers redneck girl 049 Charles Bradley - Golden Rule 050 The Night Flight Orchestra - Floridian Eyes 051 Cynic - Celestial Voyage 052 Serg Salinas - Longnecks and Rednecks 053 Ramones - Surfin' Bird 054 KAMELOT - Liar Liar 055 Hank Williams Jr. - New South 056 Donald Fagen - Florida Room 057 Bonnie prince billy - west palm beach 058 Brutality - These Walls Shall Be Your Grave 059 Sammy Hagar - Trans Am 060 Billy Ray Cyrus - Redneck Heaven 061 Al Green - Are You Lonely for Me Baby 062 Mel Tillis - The Old Gangs Gone 063 Quiet Riot - Back To The Coast 064 Charles Bersntein - The Florida Cricket Frog 065 Six Feet Under - Hacked to Pieces 066 The Jesus And Mary Chain - Kill Surf City 067 Torche - Kicking 068 The Monkees - (I'd Go The) Whole Wide World 069 Savatage - Jesus Saves 070 Cannibal Corpse - Eaten back to life 071 Blue Mitchell - Blue Funk 072 Blues Brothers - Going Back To Miami 073 Rossington Collins Band - Don't Misunderstand Me 074 Original Surfaris - Exotic 075 Cher - Half Breed 076 The Beach Boys - Surfin' U.S.A. 077 John Anderson - Seminole Wind 078 Glenn Frey - The Heat Is On 079 Air Miami - Warm Miami May 080 MIAMI HORROR - Bellevue 081 Manfred Mann - Pretty Flamingo 082 Jack & Misty - Miami Sidewalks. 083 John Cougar - Miami 084 Ray Charles - every saturday night 085 Nat Adderley ‎ - Calling Out Loud 086 Jerry seinfeld - on florida drivers 087 THE SUPREMES beach ball 088 Weird Al Yankovic - Buy Me a Condo 089 Elvis Presley - Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce 090 Agoraphobic Nosebleed - flamingo snuff 091 Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band - Miami 092 Dexter Theme Song 093 Sander Kleinenberg - This Is Miami 094 Power Station, The - Some Like It Hot 095 Zuider Zee - Miami 096 2 Live Crew - Be My Private Dancer 097 Harry Belafonte - [Sings Of The Caribbian] Haiti Cherie 098 The Night Flight Orchestra - Miami 502 099 Air Miami - Afternoon Train 100 Jans Hammer - Miami vice theme song 101 MC Hammer - Turn This Mutha Out 102 Iggy Pop - Pretty Flamingo 103 John Fogerty - Sea Cruise 104 The Beach Boys - I Get Around 105 Vanilla Ice - Ice ice baby 106 Earth - Miami Morning Coming Down II (Shine) 107 CSI Miami Opening Theme 108 Beastie boys - Heres Something For ya 109 Barry Manilow - Copacabana 110 Ice T - 99 Problems 111 Stool Pigeon - Kid Creole & The Coconuts 112 Elvis Presley - Clambake 113 The Love Boat - Theme 114 Alex Cameron - Miami Memory 115 Clutch - Arcadia 116 Miami Sound Machine - Dr Beat 117 Bruce Springsteen - Stand On It 118 The Replacements - Message To The Boys 119 Pat Benatar - I Feel Lucky 120 The Gun Club - Mother of Earth 121 Clay D - That Booty In There 122 Breakfast machine - Danny Elfman (Pee-Wees Big Adventure soundtrack) 123 Three Bars & No Bras - Caribbean Cruise 124 Was Not Was - I Blew Up The United States 125 The Night Flight Orchestra - Turn To Miami 126 Rory Gallagher - Daughter Of The Everglades 127 Nixa - Opus Tierra 128 ROY ORBISON - IM A SOUTHERN MAN 129 ZZ TOP - Heard It On The X 130 Debbie Harry - Chrome 131 Molly Hatchet - Gator Country 132 Monstrosity - Remnants Of Divination 133 Gretchen Wilson - Redneck Woman 134 Unknown Hinson - I Cleaned Out a Room (In my Trailer for You) 135 The Vandals - Gator Hide 136 Alabama - Clear Across America Tonight 137 Brooks & Dunn - Redneck Rhythm & Blues 138 Billy Ray Cyrus - The Fastest Horse in a One Horse Town 139 Rory Gallagher - Ride On Red, Ride On 140 Deicide - Trifixion 141 Tad morose - Power Of The Night (Savatage) 142 Joe Perry - 4 Guns West 143 The Mavericks - Brand New Day 144 Soulfly - No 145 Archon Angel - Fallen 146 Van Zant - My Kind Of Country 147 Buck Owens - It Takes People Like You (To Make People Like Me) 148 Perdition_Temple - Goddess In Death 149 Muddy Waters - Deep down in Florida 150 The Cramps - Alligator Stomp 151 Charles Bernstein - Skinny Dip 152 The Progressives - Hot Cinders 153 Trivium - Blind Leading The Blind 154 Diabolic - Supreme Evil 155 The Glaciers - Holiday Hill 156 L7 - Everglade 157 Dave Matthews Band - Alligator Pie 158 Black Witchery - Desecration of the Holy Kingdom 159 S.O.D. - Shenanigans 160 Cave of Swimmers - Reflection 161 The Bellamy Brothers - You Aint just whistlin Dixie 162 Atheist - Retribution 163 ZZ Top - Alley Gator 164 Merle Haggard - If We're Not Back in Love by Monday 165 Lynyrd Skynyrd Workin' For MCA 166 Tedeschi Trucks Band - Come See About Me 167 Kc And The Sunshine Band - Get Down Tonight 168 Cynic - Integral Birth 169 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - About To Give Out 170 Saigon Kick - All I Want 171 Maruta - Submergence AKA Barren Oceans of Infinity 172 Omen - S.R.B. 173 Styx - [The grand illusion] Miss America 174 Nine Inch Nails - Big Man With A Gun 175 UV-TV - Fear 176 Death - In Human Form 177 WRONG - Stop Giving 178 Peter Gabriel - Kiss That Frog 179 Randy Newman - rednecks 180 Beach Boys - Still Cruisin' 181 Johnny Cash - Southern Accents 182 Carole King - Alligators All Around 183 Waylon Jennings - Everglades 184 Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Alligator Wine 185 Foxboro Hotboobs - Alligator 186 Grateful Dead - Alligator 187 Hate Eternal - Lake Ablaze 188 Charles Bernstein - Mating Call of the American Toad, Bufo Americanus 189 Roky Erickson - It's a Cold Night for Alligators 190 Demons & Wizards - The Gunslinger 191 The Travelers - Spanish Moon 192 Tom T. Hall - Gone To Hell In A Basket 193 Manassas - Witching Hour 194 The Trammps - Love epidemic 195 White Witch - Crystallize & Realize 196 Cornells - Beachbound 197 Ween - Ocean Man 198 Florida Gators fight song 199 Dick Diver - Waste the Alphabet 200 Iggy Pop - Dirty Sanchez 201 Steve Miller Band - Kow Kow Calqulator 202 DRUID LORD - House of Dripping Gore 203 Lou Reed - Last Great American Whale 204 Rob Zombie - White Trash Freaks 205 Acheron - Raptured To Divine Perversion 206 Hank Williams Jr - Amos Moses 207 Bo Diddley - Hush Your Mouth 208 Obituary - Redneck Stomp 209 Tornadoes - Shootin' Beavers 210 Beach Boys - Kokomo 211 Los Straitjackets - Rockula 212 Bob Seger - Sunspot Baby 213 Morbid Angel - Existo Vulgoré 214 Lil Texas Assholes - Redneck Like Me 215 LOVE AND ROCKETS - HOLIDAY ON THE MOON EXPRESS 216 Dr Feelgood - Hurricane 217 Handsome - Swimming 218 Nocturnus - Aquatica 219 Bobby Freeman - -C'mon And Swim- 220 Atheist - Piece of Time 221 Malevolent Creation - Systematic Execution 222 Scott Engel - Devil Surfer 223 The Challengers - Satan's Theme 224 Massacre - [From Beyond] Cryptic Remains 225 Paris - The Devil Made Me Do It 226 Danny Toan - Snapper city 227 The Frogmen - Underwater 228 Melvins - Stop Moving To Florida 229 Charles Bernstein - Warning Croak of the Florida Gopher Frog 230 Crawl OST - Race Day 231 Deftones - Gore 232 Death - Born Dead 233 Morbid Angel - Beneath the Hollow 234 Nat Adderley - St. M 235 Assück - Salt Mine 236 CRIMSON GLORY - Red Sharks 237 Municipal Waste - Jesus Freaks 238 The Tornadoes - Bustin' Surfboards 239 Sonic Graffiti - Ghost of Betrayal 240 Bloodbather - The-Final-Request-by 241 Iced Earth - Dystopia 242 Queens Of The Stone Age - I Sat By The Ocean 243 Dick Dale & The Del-Tones - Surf Beat 244 Warmduscher - The Sweet Smell Of Florida 245 Jon Oliva's Pain - Maniacal_Renderings 246 Jan and Dean - Surf City 247 Blue Oyster Cult - Eye Of The Hurricane 248 Tandems - Beyond The Surf 249 supertortas - LETRAS 15 250 Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten 251 Hawkwind - Opa-Loka 252 Worm - Abysmal Dimensions 253 Van Halen - Honeybabysweetiedoll 254 ABHOMINE - Buried with Pig 255 Faster Pussycat - Aint No Way Around It 256 ASG - Florida Sleep On 257 Swashbuckle - Scurvy Back 258 Dave Myers And His Surf-Tones - Gear! 259 Ry Crapper - Going To Tampa 260 THE ABSENCE - Do What You Want (Bad Religion cover) 261 Hank Williams Jr. - Ten Ton Load 262 Dave Allen Coe - Blue Grass Morning 263 David Bowie - Moonage Daydream 264 Jungle Brothers - Because I Got It Like That 265 Animal Collective - A Manatee Dance 266 Tom Petty - I Dont Know What To Say To You 267 Blasphemic Cruelty - Icons of Revolt 268 "Weird Al" Yankovic - CNR 269 The Allman Brothers Band - Stand Back 270 Edenbridge - On the Other Side 271 BOLDER DAMN - Rock On 272 Original Surfaris - Surfs Up 273 PARISH_-Danger_Zone 274 Bill Haley - See You Later Alligator 275 Circle_II_Circle_-_Who_Am_I_to_Be 276 Black Sabbath - Dirty Women 277 The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations 278 Molly Hatchet - Kickstart To Freedom 279 Charles Berstein - A Large Breeding Chorus of Florida Gopher Frogs 280 NASTY SAVAGE - Unchained Angel 281 Orville Peck - Dead of Night 282 Blotto - I Wanna Be A Lifeguard 283 Mel Tillis - Little Ole Wine Drinker Me 284 Fair to Midland - Dance of the Manatee 285 Blackfoot_Highway_Song 286 Jan Davis - Surfbuster 287 The Supremes - Surfer Boy 288 Byrds - Psychodrama City 289 Catch A Wave - The Beach Boys 290 The Surfaris - Wipe Out 291 Cannibal Corpse - Gutted 292 Obituary - Chopped in Half 293 TIMMY VULGAR'S GENETIC ARMADGEDDON - Fall Of Man 294 Pee Shy - Mr. Whisper 295 Order of Ennead - As Long As I Have Myself I Am Not Alone 296 George McCrae - Rock Your Baby 297 Morbid Angel - Chapel of Ghouls 299 Deicide - Dead by Dawn 300 Joe Woe - Talk Me Out Of Tampa 666 Queens Of The Stone Age - Smooth Sailing Ok....so who or what song have I missed?

[idk-my-aesthetic]

I posted 20,855 times in 2021

125 posts created (1%)

20730 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 165.8 posts.

I added 221 tags in 2021

#undescribed - 58 posts

#my post - 36 posts

#long post - 23 posts

#tagging just in case - 20 posts

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Longest Tag: 140 characters

#it’s so good and literally about a psychic kid being like ‘i’m not psychic what are u talking about’ while he levitates desert into hi mouth

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I think Mrs. Michael Burnham deserves just. One nice day. At the very least

There should be an episode where she’s got like a day off or smthn. Tilly has dedicated herself to making sure Michael has a good day. There’s just a bunch random insane bullshit happening in the A and B plot, like idk Staments trying to clone a tardigrade and it being like feral or something, and then we just cut back to Tilly doing Michael’s nails

93 notes • Posted 2021-01-03 20:18:34 GMT

#4

Reasons I have more than 1 name:

1. Gender greed

2. You know how dragons hoard gold? I hoard names and pronouns

3. If you have like 12 names how are the Fae ever going to figure out your True name?

- Like. They try call me “(birth name) ‘Blue’ ‘Pluto’ (last name)” and I’m just like “haha nice try buddy, u got 4/10, better luck next time”

4. I am secretly the demon that shows up and steals everyone’s gender and name in the middle of the night. I don’t use all the names but they’re in my possession. So they’re mine now.

- if u are reading this I stole ur gender. No u cannot have it back. Ur welcome.

5. I’m indecisive so instead of choosing one name I hit cntrl + a

6. It’s my gender and if I want to selfishly hoard names I can

7. Light yagami will never be able to kill me

99 notes • Posted 2021-05-02 20:49:33 GMT

#3

I feel like any time I hear a question that’s like “what would you do with a million dollars?” My first instinct is “pay off any debts, save enough so there’s always food in the pantry, take care of my family, donate as much as possible, pay off people’s medical bills, etc etc”

And I think a lot of people jump to those same answers. Partly bc they’re logical and partly bc like we live in a capitalist hell world

But like those answers are, while valid, depressing and boring. I don’t wanna have to apply reality to a fun hypothetical

So. Instead here’s my question. Let’s say we live in a perfect world where all human suffering has been completely eradicated. All of it. There is literally no one in the world who needs or wants any sort of help.

I want to know what you’d buy with a million dollars. Actually, no. You now have infinite money. What are you buying? Are you going to commission a book? Blow a thousand dollars on video game micro transactions? Buy a tiara made of genuine gold and jewels?

Be as gaudy as possible. Be as selfish and money wasting as possible. (The only rule is you’re not allowed to buy things for other ppl)

So rb and tell me what you’d do with infinite money

275 notes • Posted 2021-02-07 00:09:47 GMT

#2

Everyone’s talking about gender envy what about the other 7 deadly gender sins?

Gender envy: I want your gender

Gender wrath: your gender makes me so angry. I am probably jealous but will not admit it. I will probably end up with a different gender sin and possibly steal your gender

Gender sloth: chilling in sweatpants and a shirt that says “any pronouns idc”

Gender lust: whatever lil nas x is doing in montero

Gender gluttony: stealing other ppl’s abandoned genders

Gender greed: hoarding pronouns/names/ids like a trans dragon

Gender pride: that shit cis ppl do that more trans ppl should do

1096 notes • Posted 2021-04-13 12:02:14 GMT

#1

Xtians: it is our judeo-xtian values to listen to g-d and do exactly as he asks and listen to the Bible exactly. It is not for us to interpret.

Jews, banging the tables: WAS THE FROG PLAUGE ONE BIG FROG OR ALOT OF LITTLE ONES? WAS IT A BIG FROG THAT SPIT MORE LITTLE FROGS? DID IT GET CUT IN HALF AND RELEASE A HUBDRED THOUSAND FROGS? DID THEY WORK LIKE MINECRAFT SLIMES?? ARE THE FROGS A METAPHOR???? WHO FUCKING KNOWS

2873 notes • Posted 2021-03-24 00:08:19 GMT

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