#also half of those people aren't even bisexual

[loser-female]

It's because people are so invested in hating bisexuals that they made up 192792720 other definitions of bisexuality that are basically "better than THOSE whores", so the OG definition of bisexuality had to be scrapped otherwise these biphobic idiots would get offended by getting compared to us filthy whores. (That's not even that unsaid, just press those that claim omnisexuality or pansexuality as real a bit, they will admit the truth).

"attractions of both sexes" also covers trans people for obvious reasons.

But being "inclusive"* was never the point. It was always about distancing themselves from bisexuality because they are "better" than those bisexuals.

*(also why one would even be "inclusive" with a sexuality- sexuality is exclusive by definition wtf 😭😭😭😭 I wish people stop treating relationships and identity like a performance this is so toxic)

why is the new bisexual definition always ‘attraction to multiple genders’……..i’m attracted to SEX. In this case, both sexes. Male and Female. not a stupid ass gender……………..keep stupidity out of our spaces

[sunthyme]

Okay y'all made the mistake of encouraging me so here's my headcanons and some ocs for Heartslabyul!

Sorry for how small it is but format-wise, I'll discuss the dorm leader, then canon characters in descending year order, then ocs in descending year order.

Also, decided to make the school co-ed because 🌸 girls pretty 🌸! And safer for Yuu. Additionally, as a general rule of thumb, if a character is the same gender as the og reference, I tend to make them transgender in some way.

Anyways!

♥️Riddle Rosehearts♥️

(she/her) Transfem - Panromantic and Demisexual

- Firstly, transfem Riddle has my heart so there's that.

- I made her mixed, probably British and Chinese, though I'm open to suggestions cause these are pretty much first drafts.

- From the get-go I wanted her to have hella freckles, idk they're cute.

- Also toned down her og hair, too many damn gingers in this house lol. Gave her grey streaks from her stressful ass childhood.

Next up,

♣️Trey Clover♣️

(he/him) - Bisexual

- I made him black. No particular reason other than his og skin was waaay to pale in contrast to his hair, in my opinion.

- The reason he and Riddle seem so close is 'cause he and Che'nya were the first to know Riddle was trans and he does his best to cover for her.

- Autistic, dental hygiene is a strange special interest but whatever floats his boat.

- Also, he still wears glasses, I was just lazy lol.

Onto

♦️Cater Diamond♦️

(he/they) Transmasc - Pansexual and Demiromantic

- Stayed more or less the same. Gave some lighter blonde streaks for 🌟flavour🌟. You can decide whether those freckles are real or not.

- The first of the Depression Club(tm) characters because I love Cater angst. Wait til you find out my kin list omg.

- If we're talking my college AU, he'd be a cosmology or cosmetology major, whichever the makeup one is idk. He was taught by an older sister (who works at a tattoo shop/piercing parlour) how to do piercings and is the primary piercer on campus. He did Trey's probably Riddles, Adeuce's lip piercings and more characters that'll show up later.

- The one natural ginger left in Heartslabyul (I hunted them to near extinction lmao). Also, transmasc. I think his mom really wanted all girls and was not thrilled about him being trans. Anyways!~

Ah, now for

♥️Ace Trappola♥️

(he/him) - Bisexual

- Made him half Hispanic, half Asian. No particular specifics (again, open to suggestions pls I love hearing others' headcanons). Also got some freckles, I fucking love birthmarks lmao.

- As mentioned, I'm on a crusade against the gingers /jk but I did give him dyed hair. He and Deuce dye their hair together, idk cute date idea tbh.

- Adeuce also got lip piercings together, even though Deuce tried to warn Ace that lip piercing aren't the best first ones, Ace insisted. Cue Deuce having to help take care of Ace's piercing cause he's a dumbass. Can you tell I love them? And their one collective braincell.

- Crippling ADHD, this bitch cannot sit still to focus on anything.

Speaking of Deuce,

♠️Deuce Spade♠️

(he/him) Transmasc - Gay

- He's half-Filipino, half Vietnamese(? Not quite sure yet) and I gave him dyed hair too, obvi.

- Gave him his momma's blonde streaks and some scars from his delinquent day, plus some piercings.

- Couple moles for funsies, and made his eyes brown.

- He is soooo AuDHD, people can fight me on that. On god, he's my son. Also transmasc, his mom is an amazing ally (she's probably bi herself nvm).

Onto my ocs!

🔮Oki Chiang🔮

Third Year - (she/her) - Asexual Aromantic

- So this is my girlie twisted from the Blue Caterpillar. She's not a smoker or anything but I think she's be a total incense and perfume and whatnot girl.

- Spiritualistic and whenever you walk into her room, it smells amazing. If you want a tarot reading, she's your girl.

- Oki's very reserved and tends to keep to herself, often reading or quietly sipping some tea with Riddle as they work.

- She's Taiwanese and also autistic. Her whole wardrobe is blue, so are most of her things and she love nice smells.

Next up is

🎀Luna Madden🎀

Second Year - (she/they/it/whatever, she doesn't care too much) - Bisexual Aromantic

- You'll never guess who she's based on /j. My Mad Hatter character! I didn't have a particular ethnicity in mind for her but she takes heavy inspiration from Harujuku fashion.

- She and Cater have to work together to dye her hair every time it needs touch ups. It's a huge pain in the ass but she likes how it looks and Cater is fine helping.

- Has acne and uses those cute lil star and heart cut-out patches to cover it.

- She LOVES bright colours and has way too much fun prepping for the tea parties. Owns a ton of weird and neat lil earrings that she likes to mix and match.

- Also has ADHD. I feel like that's obvious lol.

Now for

⏳Bunnie Chrona⏳

First Year - (she/her) - Asexual Lesbian

- Twisted from the White Rabbit, and a super creative name I know... I don't have a ton of explanation here other than I thought it would look neat.

- I was super close to giving her all white hair but I didn't want another character with dark skin and light hair (which will be relevant in later designs too) so I gave her a gradient. All natural, by the way.

- She's autistic too and gets extremely anxious whenever she's late or someone else is late (Adeuce constantly give her heart attacks because of this).

- She's also a part of the track and field club!

Last, but certainly not least

💥Ness Benoit💥

First Year - (she/they) Transfem - Bicurious?

- Last girl and she's based on Lock from The Nightmare Before Christmas movie. Spoiler, she is one of three triples, I assigned them to different houses, and they have an older sister based on the Boogeyman.

- I thought it'd be cute to give her little devil horns as a hairstyle and I made her makeup the same as the og characters'.

- It's been a hot second since I've seen this movie so I can't remember much about the kiddos' characterisations but my dad said Lock was the brains of the of operation so she gets book smarts.

- Also, her name is a silly little joke on 'loch-ness' because I was too lazy to try and find something else.

Thank you so much if you read until the end, this was a massive post to make. I'll make my Savanaclaw one tomorrow, hopefully. If I remember lol.

Love you! 🩷🩷🩷

[facioleeknow]

Frat boy 2 • Choi Seungcheol

WC: 868. Genre: Frat boy au

TW: bisexual Vernon and Reader, suggestive thoughts, sassy writing, maths

He fell first and hard. She thinks he hates her but he's actually emotionally constipated.

Mathematics sucks. Most people can agreed on that, approximately 90% percent of the world's population. The bad news is that those 10% appeared to have been on the board at your colleges but that same wretched subject was a MANDATORY subject. 

So here you were sat first row because of your very poor eyesight instead of the back where you could sleep trying to make sense of Mathematics I. Your head started pounding as soon as you got into the class, the air in the room was enough to make you feel like you wanted to claw your eyes out. The scribbles on the blackboard made absolutely no sense. You looked around, everyone was nodding and happily writing along the professor. This had to be a nightmare, the ones where nothing makes sense and people glare at you like you're the weird one.

Unfortunately for you this was reality. Hard, cold and ruthless reality. You let your head hit the desk with a rather loud thud, you didn't care anymore nor did the professor in your defense. Daydreaming was the only thing that could save you from a full blown migraine, which you clearly didn't want. Closing your eyes, you inhaled deeply and tried to escape into your Dreamland where you didn't have to take a stupid maths class like this was some ordinary highschool or something. 

Your thoughts flew right to that scary but beefy blond dude you saw at SVT frat. He was clearly well built and you were sure that if the situation was different you would've drooled on him and maybe even asked him to touch his muscles. His hair also looked really soft and framed his face so perfectly, you were sure he was drowning in pussy. Ugh, that was so unfair. Why weren't you drowning in pussy? 

Your train of thoughts was rudely interrupted by the bell and then by Vernon who shook your shoulder so hard that you bumped your head against the desk again. At this rate you were going to get a concussion.

“Why aren't you taking notes?” he asked with that displeased look of his.

“Why are you all in my business Vernon?” you huffed, quickly shoving your things in your bag.

“I'm your friend, I don't want you to fail.” You pursed your lips at his words. He was just trying to be nice and you were sassy without a reason.

“Notes or not, I still don't get it, my brain is not wired like that.”

“I can ask Seungcheol to tutor you,” he exclaimed with a weirdly chirp smile on his face.

“Who?”

“Seungcheol, the head of my frat and the professor's TA. Choi Seungcheol.”

“Is that supposed to tell me something?”

“Did you ever pay attention?”

You looked at him with a raised eyebrow. The question was entirely too stupid and the answer was entirely too obvious for him. Vernon huffed.

“Don't worry about it I'll handle it. I have to go now, we got a new pledge yesterday,” he waved already half out the door.

“You're fourteen now? That house is a fucking nightmare.”

The same day you received a text from Vernon saying that it was all set and to meet him at his cursed frat house. You rolled around in bed debating whether to go or not, it would've messed with your napping schedule but maybe sacrificing a nap to pass a class wasn't the end of the world. Getting up took all of your strength and getting dressed took even more, by the time you were halfway to the house you were cranky, tired and sluggish.

Seungcheol had never been more awake on the other end. Tutoring? You? He could never pull that off. He’d had his eyes on you since the first day you stepped into the class, you were clearly not paying attention so he doubted you noticed him. Mathematics I, which was dreadful for him because he hated teaching, it required too much patience, started to become the happiest part of his week. He looked forward to see you daydream, the way you twirled your hair in your hand and rested your cheek on your hand was enticing and hypnotizing.

As Cheol saw you walk towards him, looking clearly tired and pouty, he heard angels sing, church bells ring and birds tweet. He wanted to wrap his arms around you and watch you sleep on his chest, he also wanted to bury his head between your thighs until he couldn't breathe anymore but that was a thought for another time.

“Good luck Coups,” smirked Vernon. He knew. He did it on purpose.

As your eyes laid on Seungcheol your steps faltered. Wasn't he the guy that was looking at you like he wanted you to combust? What was he doing here? Why did he look like he was waiting for you?

“Hi, I'm Seungcheol, you can call me Coups. I'm your tutor,” he kindly extended your hand to you. His grip was gentle and his hand was warm and steady.

“I'm Y/N, thank you for agreeing to tutor me.” 

Oh my god her hand is so soft, thought Cheol, he was sweating bricks.

“Shall we go in?”

[venvellan]

There ARE valid arguments to be made about "playersexuality," especially if a character is written/heavily implied to be gay/lesbian but given a straight romance. That specfic scenario isn't something I'll get into in depth right now to make this as brief as possible, but "it's ridiculous that every character is bisexual" is NOT one of those arguments. I saw it for Dragon Age 2, and I am annoyed but not surprised to see it for Baldur's Gate 3.

This will feature reclaimed use of the word queer. Tagged below, but thought it might be good to mention.

Dragon Age as a franchise is significantly less committed to queerness than BG3. Thedas was built, intentionally or otherwise, to be heteronormative and gender conforming. To a lesser extent than real life, in that same-sex attraction in Thedas is generally considered unremarkable, but oppression and othering of queer people in-universe DOES exist and it isn't hard to find. (The biggest examples: Dorian's experiences in the upper-class Imperium, the framing of Krem's trans-ness as uncommon or atypical). And DESPITE that, the bisexuality of DA2's main cast does not feel forced or ingenuine to me. The party doesn't remark on or make political statements about each other's sexuality. Sexuality is, at least to this group of people, entirely apolitical, and they all just happen to be a similar sort of queer.

PLEASE consider, then, a world built entirely void of the widespread social culture surrounding sexuality, as Baldur's Gate 3 has tried to create. Where bi or pansexuality is the "common" or "expected" orientation, or more appropriately, where the concept of orientation is absent entirely. This person just cares about personality in who they date, this one doesn't really want to date anybody, this one wants to be in a polycule, and those are all completely neutral positions to hold and inconsequential to their greater character as an individual.

In this world you could easily pluck a half dozen or so random people out from the millions and find that they all desire sex and/or intimacy with any gender equally. If there's no erasure of queerness, it follows that open queerness is more abundant. Sexuality is fluid and various as gender is fluid and various and neither are reflections of someone's personality or morals. Being gay doesn't make you effeminate because there's no preconceived notion that straightness is manly, etc etc.

That's all true in the real world of course, but the difference is that it feels like Larian has tried to craft their narrative around it being the cultural norm. YOU might think it'd be ridiculous for a half dozen random people to be bisexual, if you haven't spent the time in queer spaces to learn that there are gay people everywhere. Even if you have, and there are more queer people in your life than straight ones, you might think it'd be unlikely to pick 6-8ish random people on Earth and find that they're all specifically bi or pansexual. You may even be right, because all over the world there are restrictive dominating cultural narratives that alienate, suppress, and persecute queerness. BG3 doesn't take place on Earth, though, does it? So sit down and think about it for a minute, please.

Of course there'd still be variation. You'd find people that fit the definition of straight or gay or asexual, but there's no expectation of straightness. Sexuality simply is. If you're interested in somebody, either they're interested back or they're not. You find out, you move on. Githyanki even reproduce asexually, so they don't have any flimsy biological reason for straightness, though if you're resorting to "biology" to debate sexuality, you're too far down the pipeline to have read this far anyway. Lae'zel wants a warrior, not a man. You might happen to be both, but it's not your gender she's lusting over.

Also, bisexual men deserve to exist freely without you policing exactly how gay or straight they get to "act." And you aren't somehow less biphobic for invalidating them just because you yourself are gay, so don't think that absolves you. Yes this is about Astarion. He's a bit more overtly queer-coded than Gale or Wyll. He's not gay. Bisexual men are evidently only valid to you if they "act straight." Fuck off.

Gay people exist! Let's put that lukewarm take to rest now, please. If gay people live in a culture that allows them to exist, they exist in much greater abundance. Who would've thought? Left-handedness over time graph my love. The single greatest refutation to Straight People Whining.

Look, you can just say that you're jealous you aren't in an all-bisexual friend group. It's okay. All-bisexual friend groups are awesome.

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

proper works by lgbt authors that aren't annoying definitely fly under mainstream radar. and generally i think it's also bc if a gay person writes something that caters to other homosexual audiences, it instantly becomes niche/underground bc let's be honest here, straights and spicy straights can't stomach proper works by homosexual (hell even bisexual) people. that's why everything that's sanitised and whitewashed and q*eered up to a marketable medium is more popular. That my main grudge against mainstream gay lit. Like all those lesbian romances, where the most butch woman people can handle is a pretty, skinny, white with long hair, and just wearing a leather jacket and some boots idk, no one is properly lesbian, but just a woman who happened to fall for a woman, just this time etc. Mainstream gay romance is either depraved or sanitised, written by women etc. But mostly it's this vague q*eer characters. Like no, im sure this is a straight romance, i doesn't turn gay simply bc the woman is nb.

and like the most annoying part is that this half assed stuff gets printed and paraded as representation. so people look at me like ive gone mad when i say that good interesting gay and lesbian representation is till rare. like " wdym there's the whole book stand for pride month in this big chain bookshop" and the stand in question contains contemporary books only, half of which is Heartstopper, Hanya Yanagihara, Rainbow Rowell and They both die in the end series etc. They literally don't even put any old time gay lit out there. Even books like Colour Purple i have to dig out in foreign lit section. They are not even that old or problematic, just...not as marketable ig. I feel like opposite, it feels like erasure and appropriation.

even this whole shit with RS is upsetting simply because i still remember what a joy it was to see women in love in a mainstream cartoon. Bubbline relationship, that Ruby x Sapphire wedding was revolutionary for mainstream kids media. It paved the way to the more open depictions like She-Ra or ToH etc. I still remember times when there was none. It feels like a 100 steps back now. An it's annoying that RS treats the backlash like oppression and still claiming to have made representation...

God, you're so real. I really have issue with ambigous "queer" characters. If they're bi then just say that and don't market your book as some gay masterpiece. I hate reading books marketed as gay and then the character shows interest in the opposite sex. The state of gay lit is abyssmal.

[cantsayidont]

WE MIGHT REGRET THIS Series 1 (2024): Uneven BBC sitcom about a tetraplegic Canadian artist named Freya (Kyla Harris, who also co-created and wrote the show), who's moving in with her much older, newly divorced British boyfriend Abe (Darren Boyd) and hires her best friend Jo (Elena Saurel), who's at loose ends, to become her new fulltime personal care aide. As Freya is scouted by a modeling agency that hopes to essentially rent her out as a diversity prop for advertisers, Jo further complicates their situation by secretly getting involved with Abe's shiftless adult son Levi (Edward Bluemel).

It's clear that one of the objects of the show is to bluntly depict the realities and frustrations of Freya's daily life — from sex to bathing to urination to the ongoing challenges of accessibility — and it's at its best when it focuses on those areas, which will probably be relatable to many people with disabling chronic conditions. Unfortunately, the show wastes a lot of screen time on Abe, Levi, and Abe's ex-wife Jane (Sally Phillips), who aren't very sympathetic, interesting, or funny: Abe is a wet blanket and Levi is a dipshit, making it hard to see what Freya or Jo see in either of them, and it's even harder to care about Abe and Jane's divorce-related arguments or their ongoing angst over the death of Levi's older brother (which was 15 years ago and has nothing to do with the rest of the plot).

CONTAINS LESBIANS? The promos had given the mistaken impression that Freya and Jo were together, but while Freya is canonically bisexual, the show focuses (to its cost) on the characters' relationships with men. VERDICT: Fun when it bothers to focus on its ostensible main characters, but with only six half-hour episodes, the abundance of tedious, digressive subplots really hurts.

[kuruk]

i think half (not exaggerating) of the people here have never been in a relationship so that's why the results of any relationship poll are always a bit skewed. nothing wrong with that ofc but I've noticed people answering these questions as if they are some kind of logical problems and not something that's mostly irrational urges and feelings

that's true and like yeah nothing wrong with that, I did see that a lot of responses seemed to be from an outsider's point of view and separated from any emotion which makes sense as to why they were quick to judge people for not having the same "logically right" answer. able to see it as objective because they just have never dealt with actually applying that and realizing relationships aren't as straightforward and perfect as you would think they're "supposed" to be based on what you've read from like tumblr posts highlighting what a healthy relationship is..

like if you've never dealt with embarrassing or ugly emotions it's easy to see it as kind of formulaic. because a lot of people responded to the wrong question and instead answered about a different issue on a wider societal scale rather than even remembering to ask themselves what they personally feel like not even addressing their own emotions and for some it almost seems forced because they already have a correct answer in their heads and they're afraid of the deterioration of their own self image as seen by others and it would have them question their worthiness to be loved lol. like I saw some people call themselves crazy and insecure for having a boundary that I've known literally tons of offline straight women to also have like sorry... and that's *without* paying for it..

actually not even just that they were like "I don't care about porn but if my partner was directly privately sexting an e-girl that obviously isn't cheating but I think I'd be a little sad because I'm too jealous and insecure and irrational.." Like I think it's probably normal for plenty of couples to be open about porn and include it in their sex lives and I don't think that there's something seriously abnormal about the people who want that but on a wider scale I think some people are too scared to even confront whether that's their wish as well and they don't address the emotions that would get them labeled negatively. I know most people in our tumblr circles here are gay but this feels like it has a lot to do with misogyny sorry help like I've seen a lot of straight and bisexual women trick themselves into thinking they're too crazy because their boyfriend is just devoid of such empathy so they drive themselves crazy thinking they're just being hysterical no matter the level of maturity that they've handled it with. which to be fair I'm sure handling it maturely is more difficult in the first place if even the emotions alone are considered wrong. like experiencing feelings that already affect your self worth obviously get harder to manage when by even having those feelings you are now considered part of a group of undesirable and unreasonable women. so yeahs

[shsl-heck]

So because I've seen it compared to Worm, I started reading The Boys by Garth Ennis. It's bad! Like really bad! It feels like what would happen if you let an edgy anti-feminist atheist youtuber from 2015 write a comic book. I finished the first volume of the omnibus in large part because it was a train wreck I couldn't look away from, and am debating starting the second since I hate myself. The most interesting parts are actually the little forewords. Through them I learned both that it was supposed to be a comedy, and also a critique of the military industrial complex/police (or at least that people read it as one). This was surprising to me since it is neither funny nor incisive. Anyway, now I want to ramble incoherently about my problems with it because this goddamn comic broke my brain.

Okay, so one of the most common ways it shows you which characters you aren't supposed to like is by having them do comically "gross" sex stuff. Notable examples include cocaine fueled orgies, mentions of shitting during sex, bestiality, masturbating in public to the sight of disabled people, and a little person using sex toys. One that shows up repeatedly in this context is characters being bisexual or gay. Now, I don't wanna get controversial, but I think any claims that your work is a critique of capitalism, police, the military, or whatever are rendered moot when your villains are a group of secret hedonistic sex-freaks. Like we can't pretend that doesn't sound a lot like regressives and their obsession with "degeneracy". Sexual assaults, misogyny, and slurs also appear pretty often, mostly as the punch line for jokes. Victims are rendered down into objects and denied any sense of interiority so we can instead focus on what really matters (gore porn, and middle school 4chan posters' sense of humor). Never once does Ennis deign to explore the actual impact and trauma of these things, or ask why he views these things as material for jokes.

That incuriosity is I think the real problem with The Boys. There is no actual coherent thought about why things are bad. Superheroes hurt people and are wrong because of their personal moral failings as selfish perverts, not because their whole job is to violently enforce the will of the state. It's like if someone agreed that all cops are bastards, but only because all cops just so happened to be "bad apples". The main characters literally work for the fucking CIA, and yes, I know the titular Boys are at best meant to be anti-heroes a la the Punisher. My issue here isn't that they're hypocrites who are frequently also horrible. It's that this premise for is absolute nonsense if you think for half a second. Superheroes do not function without the legitimacy granted to them by the state and it's monopoly on violence, so why would the CIA need these 5 randos with zero oversight working to take out the supers? Is the force Homelander and the others can bring to bear so great that even the apparatus of that state can't deal with them? If so, why does this group of assholes change that? Normally I'd be willing to give the story a lot more of a pass when it comes to questions like this, except I'm being told that this story has things to say about systemic problems involving the government and corporations! So I have to ask, where? Where is the commentary? What does it actually have to say about the state of the world circa 2006-2012? The only answer I can come up with is "not a whole lot". It's a story which dares to ask the tough questions like "what if the world was made of pudding" and then ignore answering those questions so it can instead recite Ellis' favorite slurs in alphabetical order while showing you a woman's tits.

On a lighter note, it's also just not very good. The plot (as mentioned) falls apart under any amount of scrutiny, pacing is bizarre in a bad way, the characters aren't compelling, themes remains stubbornly unexplored, and Ellis is allergic to doing anything interesting or creative with the premise he's decided to base a whole comic around. I genuinely do not know what people enjoy(ed) about this comic.

[lcviathans]

( dev patel . agender . they/them ) — blasting so real by jeff buckley down main street we’ve spotted kiran ekansh sheth sporting a forever wrinkled button - down, sleeves rolled to their elbows; skewed spectacles from a few too many broken noses; and their old, yet hardy wooden cane. the thirty four year old werewolf who’s been in town for twenty seven years often can be seen flipping through the pages of a well - loved book, repairing old radios and watches and anything mechanical they can get their hands on, stitching up their own wounds with a surgeon's precision, leaning against the railing of their balcony - a warm cup of tea in hand, spending the day after a transformation in bed and in pain, or working as a family physician at portum general. people say they display courteous and ambivalent traits, but we rather trust their vibes: lavender deep set beneath the eyes and a tiredness that stretches muscle and rips flesh, voice hoarse from screaming with no mouth; calling out to the moon only to be met with chilling silence, legs that cannot run fast enough from her eternal chase; coffee so sweet it might as well be bitter, nose scrunching with every reluctant sip; ill - fitting jackets that poke more holes than worth mending, limbs forever too long; flinching away from fire as if the warmth hurts, as if it's unknown, undiscovered. also, we’ve heard they love earl grey tea ! aren’t they fascinating ?

content warning for mentions of... arson, fire, death, chronic illness ( fibromyalgia & chronic fatigue ), addiction, and injury.

profile.

full name — kiran ekansh sheth.

nickname(s) — really just kes, an acronym of their name.

place of birth — windham, connecticut.

date of birth & age — june 9th, 1990. thirty4.

gender / pronouns — agender, they/them.

orientation — bisexual.

occupation — family physician at portum general. amateur potioneer. awkward bumbling being.

astrology — gemini sun, capricorn moon, libra rising.

kind of being — werewolf.

abilities — monthly transformations, enhanced senses and physical capabilities, empathy through touch & pain transference, telepathy, regeneration ( to an extent ).

residence — a shoe - box studio apartment with tightly squeezed appliances; mostly books without shelves and a half - made mattress in the corner. a rickety old tv that doesn't work half the time, ground littered in clean clothes and medical journals. comforting, but claustrophobic.

interests — hot mugs of hot liquid, whether it's tea or coffee or hot chocolate. just - warmth, as a concept. as a permanent state of being. old radios and phones. reading, from ancient tomes to medical journals to embarrassingly erotic romance novels. cloud - gazing. the stars on a moonless night. sleeping for long periods of time. helping others - especially their patients. the alchemy behind potion - making. the pursuit of knowledge. home, whether it's their apartment or found within other people. snow days. playing fetch. occasionally debating others. big meals, and cooking them. fuzzy blankets and wool socks.

aversions — being reminded that they have a body ( the reminders never stop, how could they? ). walking without their cane; people pitying them because of it. small talk with strangers ( is just so terribly awkward at it ). blind dates that their mother keeps setting them up on. unethical hunting. accidentally starting actual arguments that aren't just like a casual debate. being seen without their clothes, beneath all those layers. wildfire.

quirks — microdoses wolfsbane to see if it will lessen the extent of their transformations, and thus, their chronic pain ( this does not help ). will insist on washing the dishes after dinner, no matter whose house they're in attendance at. always seems to have overgrown their clothes, limbs too lanky to ever fit right. is constantly taking their glasses off and cleaning them, even with a speck of dust.

most played — so real by jeff buckley ( get help ).

notable features — inky black curls that they're at constant war with, cut by their own blunt - blade scissors. a strong nose that no longer sits straight, glasses constantly askew. prickly stubble that remains no matter how meticulous their facial hair is kept.

general disposition — intimidatingly tall if not for their trembling hands and gravelly smile, nothing but warmth beneath their gaze. comforting and familiar.

character study — harvey ( stardew valley ) & remus lupin ( that one book ).

background.

kiran was born in connecticut, but their memories of the state are dense, clouded - hidden away somewhere deep in their mind. unwilling to be open. they can't remember their faces - but there's the vague idea of two parents, two siblings; of being adoringly in the middle. of happiness.

arson, fire, death; they're five, or six - maybe - when it happens. their family home ablaze; consuming everything in its path, everything in sight. it's a sick miracle; but kiran makes it out alive while the rest of their family burns. they're a product of the foster system from there on. group home to group home, never fitting in with the other kids - shying away from their touches, too afraid to be seen.

injury mention; despite their quiet, withdrawn nature; by the time kes is seven, they're taken from their last group home and placed with the sheth family in portum. they don't mind that they barely speak, that their skin is adorned with scars, that they howl at the moon. they howl too. it's the first semblance of love that kiran feels after the death of their family, but it takes time until they're ready to accept it. they fight it, at first; unaccustomed to it, expecting to be sent back once they realize how fucked up they are. it doesn't happen, they don't give up. by twelve, kes is officially adopted by them.

injury mention; despite being loved; kes is still angry - angry at the world, for the answers they never got for their family's deaths - mysterious circumstances at best. they fight with the neighborhood kids and act out in class - speak back to their parents; attempt to run away, once, only to realize there's nowhere else for them to go. teenhood is years of broken bones and swollen skin that only worsen as puberty hits and they begin their transformations. it hurts; more than it hurts the others.

eventually kiran recedes into themselves; their fire isn't extinguished, but exhausted. the transformations take all of their energy from them, saps it away; days afterwards spent in recovery. they turn to books, searching for answers. medical journals and historical tomes, books on lycanthropy and on chronic illnesses. their desperation follows into adulthood, and before kes knows it - they're going through medical school.

chronic illness; somewhere along the way, kes is diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome; their flare - ups stemming from their first transformation and only worsening with wear and tear. with the recognition comes treatments that don't work, and questions onto why. some days are tolerable - but twice as many are unbearable.

addiction implied; with time comes acceptance, though it doesn't become any easier; kes merely learns to survive as they are. they fear the moon, and what it brings; but there's a village behind them - a family that cares. they try to let it be enough; but when it isn't, they turn to anything that'll relieve the pain. it's just survival - that's all. they're just learning how to survive.

details.

somewhere along the way; the fire within kes crackled out and instead turned into a bundle of anxious nerves. no longer are the days of playground fights; but it was a gradual change - not entirely unexpected. they're quieter, now; friendly. most have forgotten what they were like in childhood.

they regularly go by kes, an acronym of their initials. going by kiran isn't unheard of, but they only really expect their family to call them by it.

fire, injury; kes was left with substantial burn scars from their childhood house fire. they keep them hidden beneath their clothes; it's rare to see them willingly expose them. it's a point of insecurity for them; they prefer to keep the lights off.

they regularly walk with a cane; the same one they've had for years now. sturdy, durable - it's a plain wood, nothing special except for a brass knob.

a part of kes dislikes being a werewolf; they've long accepted their chronic illness, the weeks and months of flare - ups, but sometimes they think about what life would've been like for them if they had never transformed. would they still be angry - would they still have fight to them? but another part of kes knows that it's the very reason why they became a doctor, why they kept going.

has a tendency to fixate on their fields of study, whether it's repairing old technology or doing medical research in their spare time; or their constant pursuit for a cure - all. they enjoy learning, love listening to others. an introvert - but they will occasionally ramble if given the opportunity.

tends to be wary of strangers, or just people they don't know very well. will still be cordial, or even strike up a conversation if it suits them - but the wariness remains, remnants of their year spent in foster care. they don't trust easily.

on the other hand - they're endlessly loyal to those who've stuck by them since childhood. treasures their friends deeply, would probably die for them despite the stress they constantly induce.

tends to run more neutral - doesn't care for taking sides, though is naturally biased towards his friends and generally tolerates their shit more than anyone else. patience can wane a little thin towards others. tries to end arguments, not start them.

a lover at heart; they've had far and few relationships - but the ones they've had, were long - term in nature. they don't generally fair well in flings or hookups, feeling too awkward to pursue them - too insecure about the scars beneath their clothes, and it takes time to build their trust. sometimes gets hung up on the past. their mom sets them up on blind dates on occasion, which kes will always oblige just to satisfy her, but there's rarely a second date.

[fireladybuckley]

here's the thing, girly pop

all buddie shippers have been silent and supportive of the toxicity in their fandom for years. including you. so you're all fucking complicit in what this fandom has begun

and stop pulling that both sides are the same bullshit. only buddie stans sent graphic child rape fics to my inbox. your evidence of "bucktommies just want to take Chris from Eddie and give him to buck" is a completely made up fucking LIE

this is why I don't ship buddie anymore. you can fucking DIE mad about your little clique finally encountering a group who won't back down to their childish bullying. this isn't sudden. this isn't a ship war. this is the environment YOU and YOURS fostered for fucking YEARS. and now you think some meek and mild little "let's all just get along" finger wagging is good enough? fuck that and fuck you. your fandom has run fans of color out of the fandom, has perpetrated homophobic attacks on actual queer men, has told queer men that lesbians and "bisexual" teenage white girls are more qualified to speak on GAY MEN AND THEIR CULTURE, have organized targeted harassment campaigns on every actress to play a love interest for their faves, erased actual queer characters for their straight fave, have declared the Black lesbians a "ship for heteros", have used those same Black lesbians as props for false racism allegations, on and on ad fucking nauseam

but yeah sure jan buddie stans are the real victims because bucktommies aren't sweet and nice and angelic about putting up with being called n*ggers and f*ggots and fetishizers and pedophiles and groomers and hags. we're not nice about fake accounts and lies and hacking attempts and violent, pustulent bigotry. we're the real problem, clearly

idgaf if y'all are suddenly uncomfortable sleeping in the bed you made. y'all should have been calling out this shit from the jump but y'all wanted to sit at the table with Regina george

well bitch here's the fucking bus

This is a pretty good example of what I’m talking about. I didn’t say or have any part in half the stuff in here that I’m being accused of. I’ve never been part of a clique as I’ve always hung out with anyone in the fandom regardless of who they ship. I didn’t say “Bucktommies just want to take Chris from Eddie”, I said people who don’t like Eddie often say shit like that. You read my post and wrote this entire thing so fast I’m not surprised you missed some of the context.

I am very happy to see Buck in a happy and fulfilling relationship with Tommy, even if he’s not my favourite person to ship Buck with. But all you needed to see was “I ship Buddie” to let loose this avalanche of vitriol. If you even glanced at my blog before upending this on me you’d have seen plenty of supportive bucktommy posts I’ve reblogged recently. As I’ve said, he might not be my favourite but I am plenty happy with their onscreen relationship.

The entire point is I AM NOT ON ONE SIDE OR ANOTHER. There shouldn’t even BE sides like this. I do not paint myself solely as a “Buddie shipper” and that’s it because that’s ridiculous, this show is huge and there’s so many wonderful characters and me liking one ship more than another doesn’t mean shit because I am always respectful when it comes to other people’s ships, and shipping is just ONE part of fandom experience. I have never once spewed hate and toxicity at people for liking some of the ships I disliked, because, shockingly, people are allowed to like what they like. I also really fucking hate that this entire show with all its wonderful characters and storylines boils down to only Buck or only Buddie for SO many people.

And for the record I absolutely have spoken out about people being gross and taking Buddie or Buck worship too far. Also about the fetishization, and the sidelining of the amazing canon lesbian POC relationship that we have. I am queer myself and will always be against people tearing down actual queer storylines and characters in favour of their ships. I have posted and reblogged stuff about people being disgusting about Tommy and/or Lou and how they’re making homophobic accusations that are completely inappropriate.

Please in the future, whoever you are, when you read what someone has to say, try to keep in mind that not everyone is trying to attack you or argue with you. Not everyone is even on a “side”, like that’s literally what my post was about. 🤦🏻‍♀️

[polaraaace]

Hrrng. Iron Widow is pretty nostalgic for me and it's got a lot of things I like, but I can't help but keep dissecting the attempts at feminism/queerness and comparing it unfavorably to The Locked Tomb (major spoilers for both under the cut)

Gideon and Zetian's narration styles are definitely distinct, but I can’t unsee the similarities now that I've noticed. RIP girlies, you would either be BFFs or hate each other

The lack of interactions between women in Iron Widow really gets to me. Even though TLT is less in-your-face about being a feminist/gender allegory, giving us all those scenes of fucked up ladies doing fucked up shit to and with each other sets it miles ahead of Iron Widow in terms of showing us that the author and story care about women and their agency. In Iron Widow, you get 1) the MC 2) her fridged sister 3) mean girl who's actually nice 4) nice girl who's actually mean (shoutout to Zhao for their analysis/explanation of those last 2 and I'm sorry for oversimplifying; I just think they would have benefitted from more screen time). I'm super hyped for the countess class mech and the Yang Guifei analogue in Heavenly Tyrant though, and I'm still holding out hope for an Empress Cixi analogue to show up, maybe with a girlfriend inspired by Empress Ci'an

Speaking of which, we just. Never see Zetian showing attraction to women? We're told but not shown that she’s bi—again, having more women in the book could have fixed that. Whereas looking at Gideon the Ninth (also a story about queer characters), waaay before Griddlehark starts developing and even before Dulcinea shows up, we get to see Gideon being very gay in a casual way. And while being queer isn't an accepted thing in Huaxia like it is in the Nine Houses, we could have at least seen Zetian angsting about the struggles of bisexuality in a homophobic society instead of the author inserting it in a random throwaway line that felt like them trying to reassure us that their MC isn't a fujoshi, her getting 2 boyfriends is ok because she's queer too! And speaking of Huaxian homophobia, that's another thing we're told about but not really shown

The pilot system is essentially a more heavyhanded version of TLT's necro/cav dynamic. Both are metaphors to explore gender, and both are combat-based unequal pairings that usually end with one half of a pair dying, with a major theme being that those deaths aren't necessary. I'm actually not going to get into those too much here since analyzing and comparing the pilot and necro/cav systems deserves its own post

The handling of transness within those allegories is markedly different in both quality and tone. The beginning of Iron Widow gives us a brief musing on intersex butterflies, Zetian internally monologuing about feeling disconnected from the label of womanhood (which is never brought up again), and wondering how intersex or nonbinary people would fit into the gendered pilot system. To be fair, we do get a scene of Zetian taking the male pilot's position later in the book, but iirc the author kinda undermined that by saying something on social media along the lines of "sometimes the solution is pegging a thousands of years old emperor," which is just. So disappointing. If you think penetration is degrading you need to do some serious reflection before trying to write a feminist/queer story. (If I'm misremembering and Zhao didn't say that, I sincerely apologize, and please let me know so I can edit this accordingly.) Whereas in TLT, we get Cam/Pal and Pyrrha, both of whom serve as allegories for transness in different ways, born for real world gender and for the in-universe necro/cav system. Also Coronabeth and kinda Judith are their own kinds of in-universe gnc

Both first books end on one of the main characters' love interest dying. Then God/the gods show up and the MC asks for help resurrecting their love interest, to no avail. Also the gods aren't really gods, but technologically advanced people (or a 10,000-year-old millennial kiwi as the case may be). The beginning of the MCs being miserable in their frontier homes and trying to get away isn't anything you can't wouldn't find in a typical hero's journey, but that's such a specific beat to end on.

I'm genuinely curious to see how Qin Zheng is gonna compare to Alecto; I'd love to analyze them after finishing Heavenly Tyrant and the last two Locked Tomb books

For the record, I don't think the parallels were intentional; I just think Muir and Zhao happened to have similar ideas and the latter's execution didn't turn out as well. And I'm saying that as someone wholeheartedly convinced Andy Weir plagiarized several elements of Project Hail Mary

[cordycepsfem]

Pageboy Readthrough, Part Five

Previously:

more Canadian history

EP's step-family is an absolute bucket of shit-heads

EP doesn't know the difference between a dab and a dollop, but I forgive her given the "step-family of shit-heads" thing

the subconscious message EP takes in from her family is Why aren't you like them? meaning Why aren't you normal? and your reviewer got maudlin and sad again

Now:

Chapter Six

we start off the chapter with EP and a friend at dinner

EP is living with this friend at the time

earlier in the day that we start into, EP had to call the police about a stalker

the stalker started off as a pen pal when EP was first on TV at the age of 11

EP diverges into telling us what she likes about acting, and surprise surprise, it's "being anyone but who I am"

EP has a music teacher who told her to "stop roughing up the boys at recess" which, you know, same

EP realizes that acting means she will have to wear "girl" costumes, which, you know, duh

EP there is a 900% chance that you did not know they were "cis" boys nor did you refer to them as "cis" boys because no one talked about people as "cis" when you were 11.

Also, "how is that not you"? They're wearing costumes! You are also wearing a costume for what sounds like some sort of historical drama? No one is wearing "suspenders, knickers" in modern-day Canada except in their Mennonite or Hutterite communities.

EP makes a website with basic HTML for school

a man contacts her through it

she likes it because she likes feeling "seen" - the man said he could understand her feelings

he probably could because he was like twenty-eight

we once again digress into the Canadian Part of the story, where I learn that the drive between Toronto (close to where I used to live) and Halifax (where I went on vacation once) is two days

EP and her mom would eat ketchup chips on vacation because, of course, Canadian

back to the pen pal

he is a Creepy Fuck who makes collages of her with angel wings

EP jumps headfirst into an eating disorder which starts by hearing a voice in her head

during what is going to be a very serious moment about a stalker, we take a header into Canadian Stuff because OF COURSE we do

Did you know Toronto is the Raccoon Capital of the World? OF THE WORLD? Jesus, I'm glad I moved... they could have definitely overrun my small town

apparently 100,000 raccoons live in Toronto

2.93 million people live in Toronto, just for a further demographic

anyway, back to the part that matters:

the Creepy Fuck emails all of EP's friends trying to find out where she is

he finds out

EP and her friend call the police

the police are worried and she gets a restraining order against him

we once again play All These People Are Shitheads

the Creepy Fuck FINDS HER, because of course he does

he tries to get her to take a walk with him

she runs

he gets arrested

he has schizophrenia

she does not press charges

things go from Bad to Worse because we are well and truly out of control at this point

EP decides that she will stop eating

she tells us that trans and gender-non-conforming youth are more likely to struggle with eating disorders

I did some research even though I feel like shit trying to correct her in her own sad book, but I am a very specific type of asshole

we know that female individuals are most likely to have eating disorders; I'm sure that now a lot of those female people are trans men and enbys

I had no idea that gay and bisexual men and boys made up almost half of male sufferers of eating disorders

anyway, EP starts doubling down on an eating disorder

I need a moment of levity so I will say that I would eat the fuck out of a Fear Sandwich if it was served at a cool restaurant or a nifty food truck

anyway, back into Hell

We've come to the end of the chapter which is good because I am so incredibly upset about all of this. I thought I was going to be able to do two chapters today since I didn't do much else, but Jesus fuck this book is so incredibly sad.

EP, you can have my dad. We can share dads. He is a very good dad. He would not come to Toronto to kick your ass... he would have come to Toronto to be comforting and to be very involved with everything. He was so concerned for my safety online that he told me that I had to give a fake name to the Christian women in my "Touched by an Angel" fanfic mail chain when I was fourteen, even though all we really did was tell each other we were praying for whatever causes they brought up and sending around new chapters of fic. I think I told them my name was Rachel.

My dad is funny but not at the expense of his children. He's been married to my mom for almost forty years and they love all three of us, let us be our own people throughout our childhoods. He is so incredibly proud of us, for wherever we are in our lives. He would have been proud of you and he would have fought for you the same way he fought for me when I got sick, the same way he fights for my disabled sister's care, the same way he stood up for my baby sister when she punched a kid in junior high because said kid was teasing her and the school wanted to suspend her.

(And this might just be me being selfish, but you are a few months older than I am and I would have loved an older sister. Again, we could have been weird together.)

My point is, you deserved better people around you. You still do. No matter what, you did not deserve this - from your father or from your stalker. You deserved to be a kid, and to be happy, and to eat.

And now I need to go eat, because reading this reminded me I haven't done that yet. Maybe I'll make a Fear Sandwich.

[biopanik]

One of the downsides of being a social chameleon and bisexual was how I'd talk to the people I was out to. Most people in my life are straight, so I'd talk mostly about the opposite sex to the person I happened to be hanging out with. I didn't feel like I belonged to the LGBTQ+ community because my friend group wasn't outright queer, even if half of us identify as alphabet people.

This also created weird issues because guys (even those I liked, ouch) thought I'd prefer women to them and tried to oppress that side of me. On the other hand, many girls used my enthusiasm for dudes as fuel to their "uhm ackshually you sound straight" argument. Or the fact that I've only ever dated one girl (technically two but she wasn't out when we were even acquainted). Irl, I've only had experience with men... because it just happened! And I'm tired of explaining myself!

I'm tired of reinforcing my label that I don't wear on my forehead! I'm tired of bi girls acting like they hate the idea of being with a man or fearing the wrath of their families when dating a woman. I'm sick of the sexualisation of what's in my heart and the downplay of my experiences. Bi women aren't attention seekers nor whores. Bi women are human beings and don't owe anyone any explanation. They just are.

Because I know for a fact that if I was truly open about my love for all genders to everyone, they'd hunt me down with torches to burn me at the stake.

[soreddieforme]

bisexual richie tozier

so we all know about the discourse between gay richie and bisexual richie and i think is obvious where i stand here, but it's been bothering me too much lately, so I'm gonna put my thoughts out there even if no one asked me to

so first the first argument on why a part of the fandom says is bad is; "richie was canonically gay on the it chapter two movie"

and well they could try and tell me that all they want, but I'm still not gonna change my mind because is still subjective, in the movie it was never said richie was gay, neither was it explicitly stated

and you're gonna say to me, "but it was coded"

and all i'm gona say is ("oh like the book bi coded richie that you all ignore and underestimate" but that would just be petty of me so I'm not gonna) actually i didn't get that richie was gay from that, i just thought "oh he likes a guy, not sure who, but he likes one" so just making the assumption seems kind of a stereotypical and something that straight people would do, just because a man likes another man that doesn't make him gay and assume that is wrong

but andy moscarrietty and bill harder confirmed he was gay

the same bill harder that didn't read the book and just went with the script (look i don't have anything against bill, i actually liked his performance, it was really good, but again he didn't read the book) and the same andy moscarrietty that doesn't respect characters arc's and switched them how most convenient seemed for him and if they need the actor and director to confirmed it in interviews and such, they didn't do a good job portraying the so call gay representation, sorry to break it

"y'all can't let gay men have representation without trying to steal it"

i could say the same, people reading richie as bi existed before it chapter two, even before it chapter one, this character was seen as bisexual and andy instead of using his bi coding decide to joint his coding with eddie's gay coding, he literally admitted he used eddie coding on him because richie wasn't angsty enough (what does that even mean, a character doesn't have to suffer to be a good character), actually it was half hearted representation, just because he saw the potential to profit out of the reddie fanbase wich was huge and didn't want to let go the opportunity. he was going make it more subtle, so if that doesn't tells them how much he doesn't cares about representation, i don't know what to tell y'all

"representation is still important and they gave it to us, stop whining" (something i literally read)

look gay richie wouldn't exist if there wasn't previously a fandom that shipped reddie so hard and that same fandom was played dirty, not only by andy but the people that joined after it chapter two too, all those fic writers, edit, gif and art creators were bullied just by saying they didn't agree and still saw richie as bi, people were receiving death treats, being call homophobic and were drove off of the fandom, just by stating their opinions as if the 2019 movie was the only canon, wich it isn't

"who cares they aren't real, this are just characters"

well yeah, but the experiences that richie and eddie had are real to bisexual and gay people respectively and those aren't interchangeable (and the people being bullied were real too so), andy not respecting that is homophobic and biphobic, but also denotes then again that he doesn't care about representation, but if y'all still want to make richie gay bc andy said so, then go off you capitalistic baby, even so they have to respect the people that won't settle for his half hearted portrayal of a lgbt character, i want representation and i want it to be good and fair, i want eddie kaspbrak canonically being the gay character that he always was and i don't want andy stealing his coding to give it to richie, i want justice for this characters and the people that identify with them

"people still should respect other people's headcanons"

and i agree, gay men identifying with richie were never the problem, it is valid if you respect bi richie, identifying with gay richie doesn't make you a bad person, the thing is the majority of the fandom that saw richie as bi, me included, initially didn't care if people saw richie as gay, we were just disappointed and sad, but i used to read any fanfic and reblog any fanart even if gay richie wasn't what i hc the character as, but at least to me, it left a bad taste on my mouth thinking about gay richie, because i saw all the biphobia happening and excusing it with wokeness saying:

" yeah in the book richie may be bi coding, but it is a bad book because it has that orgy scene and book richie was racist"

even if they prefer the movies because of that, they have to be realistic, the movies were based on the book, andy moscarrietty isn't their grand savoir, the rights are still king's and he profit out of the movies, he is in it chapter two, be serious please (he was also high on drugs, which isn't a excuse, but it explains a lot), andy read the book (supposedly bc his treatment of the losers says otherwise), he's a fan, stop trying to be on the higher moral ground when you aren't, also the part of the fandom that likes the book better, condemned that scene too, just because we like the book, doesn't mean we don't have critical thinking about its problematics themes

richie was born and raised in the 50's, was a kid that didn't really understand what he was saying, he just wanted to make his friends laugh, I'm pretty sure he was imitating the comedians from the time too, this meta by @dear-wormwoods explains it better, but it just seats wrong to me that that's an excuse against bi richie when they don't have a problem using other of his treats like him being a radio host, his nicknames and pet names like eds and eddie my love, make sandy his girlfriend mind you, a lesbian (is that the only way to make his love for eddie more valid or what?) or having him say he wasn't really attracted to her, why is that ok? but bi richie isn't? if all of that is part of the book too? sounds pretty biphobic to me, but not only biphobic, is also racist and performative, (if you only care about his racism when it comes to his bisexuality, but everything else is fine, start questioning your biphobia and racism)

also just because the movies didn't say the nword doesn't mean they aren't racist, the only black character was strip of his arc, made mike hanlon just a side character that doesn't talk in the first movie and don't make me get started on how they portray mike on the second movie and no, I'm not trying to make anyone feel guilty for liking the movies, I'm just saying, be more critical and less hypocritical

also, also i have to say attacking people just because they like bi richie with things like "you're racist because you like book richie" or "you're homophobic because you're making a canon gay character like women" are so stupid, be for real guys, you don't even know if were are white or gay, because yeah I've seen black and gay folks being pro bi richie and you're just assuming what we are without knowing for sure and just making us feel bad and even if we were white what's the problem, we just like the book characterization and that's totally valid

[will80sbyers]

Feel free to not answer this if the gay vs bi mike discourse makes you uncomfortable, but I completely agree with that other anon. I dislike how people use Mike looking at these guys for a second or two as "evidence" that he's checking them out, because none of those scenes were meant to come across that way and it really feels like it's playing into the homophobic rhetoric that gay men are attracted to every man that they see. I also hate the implication that Mike glancing at these guys for a split second means that he's into all of them whereas Mike finding El 'beautiful' means nothing and must be comphet (especially when people are called homophobic for taking his attraction to El as genuine).

Yes, background details do matter on Stranger Things, but at the same time - if the show wants us to know something, they will spend time focusing on it (like all of the blatant shots of Will staring at Mike in S4). Mike looking at Gareth and Angela's boyfriend for a tiny moment - while they are talking about D&D or during a scene focused on El being bullied - is not meant to signify that he finds them attractive. The only guy Mike has actually had romantic scenes with is Will, and even in those scenes, the show mostly focused on Will's perspective because we were meant to understand that Will was in love with Mike.

You could make an argument for Mike having a crush on Eddie if you really wanted to because of the background music, but all of the other instances of Mike 'checking out' guys are so far-fetched and I don't get why Gay Mike folks are so quick to dismiss canonical evidence of Mike finding a girl beautiful while also latching onto the biggest reaches to prove that he's into every single guy out there when canonically....he's not into any of them.

Also, even if Mike was gay in canon, it still wouldn't mean that he's into every guy he sees, just like how him potentially being bisexual doesn't need to mean that he likes every girl he sees. His lack of interest in Max isn't evidence of him being gay because the show makes it very clear why he didn't like her - because he was still actively grieving El and felt like she was being replaced. Bisexual people aren't into every person of every gender, and even liking just one girl (and one guy) would be enough to make him bi.

I feel like this isn't even discourse about Mike being gay or bi because you make very good points about the fact that gay men don't need to be attracted by every men they see like bi people are not attracted to everyone!

I don't think any of these things prove one thing or the other necessarily (people read this again before sending me a polemic about this pls!)

but I agree that taking half glances as definitive proof while dismissing whole scenes and parallels for Mike and El and even what Mike says himself, doesn't make much sense to me, that's why I believe the most likely answer is Mike being bi/queer because I think he showed attraction for both El and Will

I'm not sure about him having a crush on Eddie, maybe... but I definitely don't think he has one for Gareth or Jake, I don't even think that Finn looks at them in any different/crush way from what I've seen

[historyhermann]

Webcomics Focus: "Lesbiampires"

Fab, the Argentinan creator of Lesbiampires, tells the story of lesbian vampires who feed off humans in order to survive.

Reprinted from The Geekiary, my History Hermann WordPress blog, and Wayback Machine. This was the eighteenth article I wrote for The Geekiary. This post was originally published on December 8, 2021. Also, this post has been slightly changed from the original.

Lesbiampires tells the story of lesbian vampires such as Daphne and Veronika. In this story, which takes place in the current coronavirus pandemic, humans are the villains, with the vampires having to eat them in order to live. It has adult situations and themes and should be read by mature audiences, especially due to its bloody content at times.

On the one hand, the comic tells the peaceful home lives of Daphne and Veronika, who live together. On the other, it tells their back stories and has episodes where they go out for the "hunt" so they can feed off humans to survive.

Lesbiampires has compelling characters and a storyline centering around Daphne and Veronika. The webcomic emphasizes themes like self-worth, acceptance, and lesbian romance. Like other fictional vampires, these characters have to avoid exposure to the Sun so they aren't burned to a crisp and down to the bone. This makes them somewhat analogous to the half-Black bisexual vampire-demon, Marceline the Vampire Queen in Adventure Time, or even the recent vampires in anime, like those headlining the series Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, and Vlad Love, to name two prominent series. It also makes me think of the webcomic by InVenus titled Venus & Lyra are Soulmates, which focuses on a growing romance between a vampire queen and an alpha werewolf, or potchimew's Vampire Girlfriends.

The webcomic, which has more than 150 episodes, is compelling and has diversity in its characters beyond Daphne and Veronika. Fab's art style and design allows for the characters to pop out from the page and make a impression, making readers that much more invested in the webcomic as a whole. Fab does a wonderful job providing the backstories of characters, especially Daphne and Veronica, and outlining their motivations so people can understand where the characters are coming from. That makes the webcomic that much more compelling and interesting to those who are reading it.

The webcomic is a labor of love, but it is so smooth and well done that sometimes you can get pulled into the story and the characters, making you forget you are reading a webcomic but feeling you are part of the story itself. Fab also uses the comic to comment on things like the fascination with sexy vampires in series like Twilight books and films.

Lesbiampires is available to read on WebToon.

You can find Fab on her Instagram and Twitter. You can support her on Patreon.

© 2021-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.