#a nice label

[inkskinned]

you're grabbing lunch with a nice man and he gives you that strange grimace-smile that's popular right now; an almost sardonic "twist" of his mouth while he looks literally down on you. it looks like he practiced the move as he leans back, arms folded. he just finished reciting the details of NFTs to you and explaining Oppenheimer even though he only watched a youtube about it and hasn't actually seen it. you are at the bottom of your wine glass.

you ask the man across from you if he has siblings, desperately looking for a topic. literally anything else.

he says i don't like small talk. and then he smiles again, watching you.

a few years ago, you probably would have said you're above celebrity gossip, but honestly, you've been kind of enjoying the dumb shit of it these days. with the rest of the earth burning, there's something familiar and banal about dragging ariana grande through the mud. you think about jeanette mccurdy, who has often times gently warned the world she's not as nice as she appears. you liked i'm glad my mom died but it made you cry a lot.

he doesn't like small talk, figure out something to say.

you want to talk about responsibility, and how ariana grande is only like 6 days older than you are - which means she just turned 30 and still dresses and acts like a 13 year old, but like sexy. there's something in there about the whole thing - about insecurity, and never growing up, and being sexualized from a young age.

people have been saying that gay people are groomers. like, that's something that's come back into the public. you have even said yourself that it's just ... easier to date men sometimes. you would identify as whatever the opposite of "heteroflexible" is, but here you are again, across from a man. you like every woman, and 3 people on tv. and not this guy. but you're trying. your mother is worried about you. she thinks it's not okay you're single. and honestly this guy was better before you met, back when you were just texting.

wait, shit. are you doing the same thing as ariana grande? are you looking for male validation in order to appease some internalized promise of heteronormativity? do you conform to the idea that your happiness must result in heterosexuality? do you believe that you can resolve your internal loneliness by being accepted into the patriarchy? is there a reason dating men is easier? why are you so scared of fucking it up with women? why don't you reach out to more of them? you have a good sense of humor and a big ol' brain, you could have done a better job at online dating.

also. jesus christ. why can't you just get a drink with somebody without your internal feminism meter pinging. although - in your favor (and judgement aside) in the case of your ariana grande deposition: you have been in enough therapy you probably wouldn't date anyone who had just broken up with their wife of many years (and who has a young child). you'd be like - maybe take some personal time before you begin this journey. like, grande has been on broadway, you'd think she would have heard of the plot of hamlet.

he leans forward and taps two fingers to the table. "i'm not, like an andrew tate guy," he's saying, "but i do think partnership is about two people knowing their place. i like order."

you knew it was going to be hard. being non-straight in any particular way is like, always hard. these days you kind of like answering the question what's your sexuality? with a shrug and a smile - it's fine - is your most common response. like they asked you how your life is going and not to reveal your identity. you like not being straight. you like kissing girls. some days you know you're into men, and sometimes you're sitting across from a man, and you're thinking about the power of compulsory heterosexuality. are you into men, or are you just into the safety that comes from being seen with them? after all, everyone knows you're failing in life unless you have a husband. it almost feels like a gradebook - people see "straight married" as being "all A's", and anything else even vaguely noncompliant as being ... like you dropped out of the school system. you cannot just ignore years of that kind of conditioning, of course you like attention from men.

"so let's talk boundaries." he orders more wine for you, gesturing with one hand like he's rousing an orchestra. sir, this is a fucking chain restaurant. "I am not gonna date someone who still has male friends. also, i don't care about your little friends, i care about me. whatever stupid girls night things - those are lower priority. if i want you there, you're there."

he wasn't like this over text, right? you wouldn't have been even in the building if he was like this. you squint at him. in another version of yourself, you'd be running. you'd just get up and go. that's what happens on the internet - people get annoyed, and they just leave. you are locked in place, almost frozen. you need to go to the bathroom and text someone to call you so you have an excuse, like it's rude to just-leave. like he already kind of owns you. rudeness implies a power paradigm, though. see, even your social anxiety allows the patriarchy to get to you.

you take a sip of the new glass of wine. maybe this will be a funny story. maybe you can write about it on your blog. maybe you can meet ariana grande and ask her if she just maybe needs to take some time to sit and think about her happiness and how she measures her own success.

is this settling down? is this all that's left in your dating pool? just accepting that someone will eventually love you, and you have to stop being picky about who "makes" you a wife?

you look down to your hand, clutching the knife.

[purenonsens]

More matchbox labels-inspired GO fanart! HERE's the first one :)

[mushroominaforest]

I’ve seen so many posts here about “lol this person not from America tried to name the 50 states look how badly they messed up”

Alright Americans. I see how it is.

Name the provinces and territories. Do it. Right now. No looking it up.

If you get to make fun of us for not knowing all 50 of your states then surely you must know the mere 13 provinces and territories of Canada.

[fraternum-momentum]

NO WAYING IT GOT FLAGGED AGAIN

[aalghul]

damian is clearly biased in his misinterpretation of jason in boy wonder

damian's interpretation is supported by the story itself; it is clear that you are not meant to take it as a misinterpretation. the hostage narrator (who isn't damian) establishes dick, jason and tim as being nice, angry and reckless, and smart (respectively) in the first issue. nothing is done from then on to either challenge or add depth to any of these.

ignoring both damian and that narrator, even the story itself proves the mindless "nice robin, angry robin, smart robin" categorization. dick's issue even goes so far as to misconstrue his conflict with bruce when he was 18 as being, essentially, "dick wanted bruce to be nicer". jason's status as the reckless robin is reinforced when the comic spells out for the readers that jason (and damian) need batman to supervise them, otherwise they will not think anything through and instead attack like animals. jason's recklessness could not be made clearer by the writer.

this ends with jason hallucinating the joker (surprise, surprise) and then he just starts randomly shooting (which is something he is prone to do when the joker is involved, apparently. under the red hood and lost days, and all of jason's deliberation and planning regarding the joker, must have just been mass hallucinations that all of us had) and damian ends up shot. once again, jason hurts an innocent person because another writer doesn't have the reasoning skills to come up with a logical argument against jason using guns/killing, so they need to create a specific instance (which would be unlikely to happen were he written in character) in order to counteract his entire methodology.

rather than challenging the characterization of jason where anger is most structurally vital to his actions, the story repeatedly defends it. to the point where jason himself brings up the anger instead of anything else. the writer goes a step further and has jason's anger blind him enough to kill the murderers of a victim who did not want jason to avenge him in blood. jason is himself motivated by the perspective of a victim who wants to choose what is done to avenge him, it's senseless to have him ignore the wishes without any internal conflict.

the ending of this issue is literally damian telling jason that jason is the only person standing between himself and reconciliation with bruce. this implication existed in the beginning of the issue as well, with the narrator claiming that jason's gripe with the joker being alive was pointless because the joker's locked up, regardless of the fact that jason first found out joker was still alive when he saw that joker had escaped and hurt people again.

so. there is no misinterpretation. you're supposed to nod along and agree. jason is angry and reckless, and he ends the issue ruminating on the thought that he should made amends with bruce, who has been freed from any responsibility by this point.

[thebramblewood]

HZID Nation! As much as my need for instant gratification tempts me every day, I've been holding back on resuming the story because I'm trying to build a little queue. This will hopefully give me room to work at a slower pace without having to take breaks every time. I'm currently in the midst of a somewhat elaborate sequence, but I'm hopeful I can finish it in the next couple weeks. Whether or not I do, I've decided the story will resume Monday, February 3, probably only once a week unless my queue starts to get crazy. I've done so many cool things I want to show you, but for now here's just a small taste of what's coming up. ❤️

[ghelullu]

Half the fandom: "The Ministry is in the USA!"

The Band:

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

MDZS Height Poll: Who is (technically) the tallest character. Please remember that these polls are for fun!

[bloodykora]

Loving Viktor in a small gesture way is so important to me. I just have this scene that keeps replaying in my head of.

Following him along into his home after a long day, his chronic pain flaring up more then the usual amount. Just trying to get his mind off it with jokes however today it's just not helping. You can tell by the moment he takes a seat and leans his head back, brows furrowing before his hand covers the top part of his face.

Understanding he is not accepting of help most days but. Kneeling down in front of him, taking his feet onto your legs gently. Silently undoing the laces of his shoes and sliding them off. Pulling out the string a bit so tomorrow morning it would be easier for him to put them back on.

There's no eye contact exchanged due to your gaze being so fixed onto his skin right on yours but he is for sure staring at you through his fingers. Kneading at the muscle along his calf with your hands, stretching and flexing it carefully so some of the tightness would loosen. You finally breaking the tension by asking if it would be helpful to run a bath for him.

Idk it just. Mmmm.

[fennthetalkingdog]

Sometimes I forget I'm a therian. Then I get the urge to bork bork and shake out my fur and lick my muzzle, lol.

[motorcide]

random hot take that shouldn't be a hot take but if the labels someone's using don't hurt anyone, who gives a fuck. like when i first heard the term bi-lesbian i was like. twelve. and very uncomfortable in myself and my identity, so since that label challenged my perception of identity, i hated it with a passion. and then i like. got the fuck over myself?? did my personal work??? figured out that my anger was entirely about me and not about an actual problem??? then later on i was more neutral on microlabels but was one of those cunts who complained constantly about it going 'too far', and then (shocker) i found the label sophian and felt more at home than i ever had before. if labels make people feel even a one hundredth of the relief and comfort i felt when i found that label (and the label isn't actively fucking hurting anyone, and no, 'making the community look bad' does not count) then that label is valid. plain and simple.

tldr: use labels that make you happy. don't use labels. use a huge hoard of labels. use just one. if you aren't hurting anyone, you're valid, and you deserve to feel comfortable, and fuck anyone who tells you otherwise.

PLUR, peace and love on planet punk rock

[jarvislover]

is considering jacking off to be a sport one of the COVID symptoms

Art creds:

wp_38_mayonezx (on Twitter)

vv3spa (on Twitter)

karonnnnn02 (here on tumblr)

[takemetodragonstone]

to everyone telling me that the tma/tme thing is “not a sex binary because cis men and cis women are both tme'!!! it has nothing to do with what's in your pants!!!!!”

it literally is though—when it comes to myself and other nonbinary people. would you not need that information to decide which of these categories to sort me into? does your determination of whether or not i’m “affected” by or “exempt” from transmisogyny not hinge on my biology and agab??

i don’t hold any more or any less social power over other nonbinary people based on what parts they and i were born with. and i'm sick of being told that my discomfort with this sorting system isn't valid and that i should just shut up or i obviously hate trans women.

(and that's not even touching upon the fact that i think it's flawed to claim that someone is inherently "exempt" from a certain type of bigotry based on factors you decide, when in reality the bigot decides what kind of bigotry they're going to spew regardless of the identity of the target)

[fountainpenguin]

So, I haven't watched Wild Life since Session 1, but I opted to pick up Grian's Session 5 with no context and honestly, I'm really vibing with this.

Scar reading out his trivia question: Who was Grian's secret soulmate in Double Life? It was BigB, because, y'know, Grian was, uh... He was leaving at night. Telling me he was going to get some gum at the gas station. Jimmy: Ohh... Oh, he was leaving at night? What a cheater! Grian from the distance: BigB treated me right. Mumbo: Are you guys having cross-season beef now as well?? Grian, laughing: It's bringing up all the bad memories.

Come on... How can I (secret soulmates enjoyer that I am) not go wild with that, fr fr...

Me remembering how I made a post about how the Life Series folks would never be able to enjoy gas station pizza, head-in-handsing over secret gas station snack meet-ups at 2 AM...

[donotbelasagne]

Man is tiny (and lovely)

[tubbytarchia]

me when a female character I like gets labelled a mom for the 17th time