#also i don't completely understand the concept

[anna-no-emma]

If you were born into a time were there are wrong words and right words (like gender terminology) to use to signal your politics, like gen Z has been, I think it creates a certain mentality. Like you grow up watching people get shunned (cancelled) from the only third space that's available to you and your peers for using the wrong words...that's going to create some anxiety about using the right words, right? Like if you get it wrong, your community (possibly the only one that's available to you due to the destruction of physical communities and third spaces) will stop engaging with you (at least in a positive manner). And maybe anxiety is too strong a word but the experience is certainly going to cement the importance of what words are socially acceptable and what words aren't, the idea that certain words are acceptable and others aren't.

Now take into account that current undergrad students have probably been on TikTok since they were 11? 12? The people on TikTok are using certain words, certain euphemisms, and they do too. They've spent hours a day on that app, listening to people talk, it's completely understandable to pick up those speech patterns. They also might have spent hours using the app to talk to audiences and had to modify their language to do that. And then the people around them in real life use those censored words or phrases too (maybe it's just to show their peers they're in the loop with a trend, maybe it's to be funny, or maybe, unfortunately, it's just that the first time they heard of that concept it was in a TikTok video with a funky little censored euphamism was being used - maybe they were eleven and the first time they heard anyone properly speak about sex or rape it was as smex or grape on TikTok and that's just how it cemented into their brain, especially because their peers then use those censored euphemisms in real life too. And if they come from a conservative or information poor background it's gonna be a while until they're exposed to the proper terminology). A lot of these now-undergrads grew up only engaging, at least in a meaningful way, to people their own age (due to the destruction of communities and third spaces, as well as the pedophile scare). Older people, at least that the undergrads wanted to connect with as teenagers, who use the real terms are going to be a rarity. Motivation to actually use, for example, sex as opposed to smex is going to be low.

So, maybe if you grew up with this mentality around certain words being socially acceptable and then everyone around you (everybody you crave validation from) is using the TikTok censored version of words...the TikTok words become the socially acceptable terms, at least to you. You can kind of see how one might get to college and be using this 1984-esque language without understanding you are censoring yourself. When you and your peers talked about the issues before college, you all used, for example, the word smex. So why wouldn't you use it now in a lecture hall filled with your peers?

And maybe you feel like the proper term isn't acceptable, especially when addressing someone older (or someone in a position of power), because it feels rude. You haven't had a chance to desensitize the real term. Like I spent ages 15-18 almost constantly saying sex to my friends meaning it wasn't so taboo when I got to college. It was just another word. But if you haven't used the real word that much and your talking to someone older, especially when you don't have much experience talking openly to someone older, you might shy away from the real word and use the term you're used to or that feels more socially acceptable.

I think the language politics anxiety gen Z grew up with (combined with the destruction of communities and third spaces, and TikTok taking the place of these things pushing TikTok to a play a very central part in Gen Z's lives from a very young age) has made them more susceptible to language censorship.

And it's a fucking problem. And having the poor teaching academics pushing the kids to use the real words isn't a real, systematic solution. I don't know how to fix this (not without a lot of money going into education and legislation, anyway).

we have GOT to kill tiktok/twitter self-censorship i just witnessed a grown adult say the word “smex” out loud to our professor

[maladaptivewriting]

since the tiktok ban, i've been seeing a lot of stuff where people blame americans for jegulus and i can't stop thinking about it. i don't know why people feel this way, but i am prepared to make an argument. so please allow me to make my case.

[also this is completely based on generalizations. i know americans that hate jegulus and love jily, and i know british people who hate jily and love jegulus]

so i've never been a jily girl. even years before i found jegulus, i never cared about that ship. i straight up didn't even know that people wrote fics about them specifically. (i actually still don't know if people do write fics about only them because i would never seek out something like that).

originally, i'd thought it was just because i only cared about the golden trio characters and occasionally sirius and remus, but the more i got into the marauders era, the more i realized that james and lily together were the standouts, i just really didn't care for them.

it got to the point where i only read fics that referenced jily if they were extremely background to the story (which they almost always were bc there is just not that much to say about them) or preferably if both of them were already dead and it was just remus, sirius, and harry who remained.

shortly after i really started getting into the fandom and writing for jegulus, i spoke to someone who hated jegulus and loved jily, and i told them that i'd always felt like james and lily were on the road to divorce before they died. this person was SCANDALIZED. they could not understand why'd said that.

now granted, this person was in their early twenties and in my experience, if you haven't lived long enough to see a lot of your friends go through divorces, then the idea that james and lily might divorce may seem crazy.

however, and this is where the american thing really comes in, i realized after this conversation why i felt that there was no way that james and lily were going to make it and that was specifically because of growing up a conservative christian bible belt ass place.

do you know how many couples i knew in high school who started dating their senior year even though they seemingly had nothing in common, had sex one time and didn't use protection because sex education is extremely limited down there, got pregnant, and had to have shotgun wedding?

so. fucking. many.

do you know how many of them are still married?

only one.

so when i see jily, two characters who have nothing in common beyond being gryffindors, get together, have a kid, and get married (not necessarily in that order) all within like two years, i know that the odds are not in their favor. those two aren't staying together. don't play with me.

now i don't know how people feel about young marriages in other parts of the world, especially in the uk, but i've spoken to a lot of americans, especially ones from the south, and so many of them have had the exact same experiences with their peers. i just can't help but wonder if that lends itself to less people being interested in jily.

i have other arguments to this, like that jily is not as entertaining as almost every other ship that james or lily could be involved in and americans being partial to entertainment above all else, or the american (and christian) obsession with the concept of redemption and self sacrifice making regulus a more compelling character than one that lived and died good (lily and james), but this was the one i wanted to focus on today.

[transfemme-shelterdog]

i can't send this from my queer blog, but this is genderqueerdykes and i just wanted to say thank you for running this blog. i'm intersex, and i'm a trans man and a trans woman. people love to invalidate whichever gender of mine they please depending on the context. i've had people start misgendering me, treating me with transmisogyny and denying that i'm a "real trans woman" because i stand up for trans men and mascs, and am partly one. people seem to want to completely ignore that i'm intersex for the sake of saying i'm "lying about being transfem" as some type of lame "gotcha". that is intersexism and transmisogyny whether or not they see it that way

people don't want to own up to their own internalized transmisogyny. i have no idea why it offends people that intersex people exist and that we have a complex relationship with gender, but people are not only gladly showing their transmisogyny and transandrophobia on their sleeves, but now their intersexism, too. if people on here disagree with me, they get to deny my gender and say that i'm now magically not transfem or a trans woman despite my intersex variations leading me to live a very real, very transfeminine life

i was assigned male at birth and then had "corrective" procedures done to change my body to be more female, including Estrogen and progesterone HRT in my teens. i've been denied womanhood and femininity my entire life because i'm "too masculine" and look "too much like a man" even before i started T HRT. i wasn't allowed to be a girl as a child or teenager, let alone as an adult. people who were literally assigned male at birth aren't allowed to be transfeminine or trans women anymore. that's how wrapped up in discourse that makes no sense we've become. thank you for doing what you do, and i hope people don't fucking misgender you just because you stand up for trans men.

i hope you have a fantastic week, actually, make that life, and take care of yourself. thanks for being here for trans men and mascs. thanks for being yourself. also fellow nonhuman here, i'm also a canine, you rock!

Oh hey, Equinox, huge fan of your GenderQueerDykes blog, been following it for a while now, I also very much appreciate the work you do on that blog.

Yeah, I don't know why people are such assholes about the situation. The concept that one's internal workings and how they present themselves/their external appearance sometimes don't line up and it can lead to weird gender fuckery is lost on a lot of trans women, for some reason. Like, you'd like that the community that talks so much about passing and "boymoding" would be more understanding that gender and sex are convoluted and messy. Same with intersex people, sometimes their relationship with sex and gender is weird, and that's ok.

I totally support you, and however you choose to identify/present yourself. The way I see it, is that gender is a personal thing, and trying to correct people on what is and isn't "true gender" is ass-backwards and regressive. That goes for everyone, whether intersex or perisex, your gender is yours and yours alone.

I just wish that people, especially trans women, would be more accepting of people who have complex and "problematic" genders, and would cut the transandrophobia and transmisogyny.

I'll always be here for you, and anyone else who needs a feisty trans bitch in their corner. I hope you also have a wonderful life, and keep being yourself sweetheart.

[genderqueerdykes]

Another weird thing about the TME/TMA thing is that the people who push it often believe that any suffering or bigotry we face for being transmasc is by nature lesser. When like I can list on and on the social alienation and violence we face and have faced myself as a transmasc person.

And also it doesn’t fucking matter what intent a bigot has behind their violence, if they’re pointing their violence at me I’m still a victim of that violence! I had a friend almost got attacked while walking down the street cause he’s a trans dude who was wearing drag. Like aw man sorry you got attacked by violent bigots, it seems however your labels don’t match up with that bigots intent. Guess what happened to u doesn’t mean anything!!!! What a weird concept.

i'm sorry you experience it as well. it sucks ass, i'm so tired of people trying to weigh transmasculine oppression vs. transfeminine oppression on a scale to see which one's heavier. like stop that, why are we trying to compare situations to see who has it worse? why are we telling people who are also oppressed that their struggle is "lesser"? what does that accomplish? all it does is hurt the person being downplayed. it doesn't uplift trans women to put other people down. that's not how this works.

i really don't fucking understand this current mindset of "person who has it The Worst gets to talk all the time forever for as long as they want and be as rude as they want and everyone who has it Less Bad has to shut the fuck up and sit with rapt attention and listen and never speak or comment or have an independent thought of their own on what they got lectured on." those people still have problems even if they're ""less"" bad, why do only certain groups of people get to talk about them? everyone in the queer community has problems, it doesn't matter the "severity," they all deserve to be discussed. and yet.

i'm really sorry that happened to your friend, holy shit. that is terrifying. but it happens. you're dead on the money. it doesn't matter what their intent is. they committed an act of violence. it does NOT matter what was going through the attacker's mind. they chose to commit an act of violence. sitting there on your petty ass high horse going "well akshually, i have a transfem friend who got attacked by TWO bigots and it was way worse so be grateful and shut up," isn't helping a goddamn soul. please stop shutting people up when they talk about their pain and trauma.

i don't know how else to tell every other transfem and trans woman on this website that we are not the only trans people who suffer. like i really need every single one of us to step down off the damn horse already and admit that we aren't the only fucking queers that suffer because we're not. we can't keep controlling the narrative like this. that's what we're doing at this stage. we are COMPLETELY controlling the narrative, making it ENTIRELY about us and our suffering and how we have it bad. we DO have it bad. but other people do, too. y'all GOTTA accept that other people suffer. y'all GOTTA accept that trans men are assaulted and killed every single day for being trans men. y'all GOTTA accept that most trans men don't and will never benefit from patriarchy. y'all GOTTA accept that transmascs and trans men have it really, really damn bad too.

i am honestly just so sick of the victim complex already. can we finally discuss how these currently emerging transfeminine and trans woman victim complexes are just out of fucking control at this point. i've wanted to talk about this forever and it's just getting worse right in front of my damn eyes. i've been in transfeminine spaces for a long time, but lately i just don't have a single desire to spend time in them. way too much arguing. way too much hostility. way too much anger directed at the wrong people. yes we are miserable, yes we suffer, yes we are heavily oppressed, yes we ARE very much victims. but so many transfems and trans women make that their entire ass personality and it's gotta stop.

womanhood isn't about being a victim. i don't know if i like the idea of making "woman" and "victim" synonymous. that's not empowering. that's not feminist. if you only see yourself as a victim, that's what you'll be. you will never progress to being a survivor if you keep thinking like that. you can't turn being a victim into a personality. it's a state of being, but it's not an identity. you are relinquishing power when you voluntarily identify as a victim. you are surrendering your control voluntarily if you keep throwing your hands up in the air and giving up like this.

someone else talking about their suffering doesn't diminish ours. someone else talking about their pain is not somehow an attack on you. trans men and transmascs talking is not an attack on you or transfemininity or trans womanhood. trans men existing are not an attack on you! stop with the victim complex already! it's not empowering! not everything is an attack! the world sucks but not everything is an attack on trans women and transfems!!!

i don't fucking care how much it offends you that people other than you suffer, but they're not talking about their suffering to make you feel like yours is lesser.

so why are you doing it to them?

[witchiewitchie]

I would like to address an elephant in the room.

I've kind of reached my tipping point with the amount of slurs that people seem to feel completely comfortable using derogatorily in this fandom, so long as it's in the name of 'in-character' roleplaying.

I don't feel like calling anyone specific out, but these people will know who they are, and what's more, I'm sure that most people who are familiar with the plethora of It fandom tags that I've also used are unfortunately very familiar with these accounts.

Let me be clear: while personally, I do not have a strongly negative opinion of reclaiming slurs, there is a big difference between 'reclaiming', which overwhelmingly is seen as a process of taking back words and redefining them, and just straight up using a slur the exact same way a homophobic (or anything else) person would use them.

It is not okay to use the F slur, for example, as a derogatory term. This is a hard line that we must not cross, because no matter what, it is a term that has been used in the past and will continue to be used in the future as a way of discriminating against or otherwise insulting people.

Even if you want to defend yourself by saying that it is simply in-character roleplay, I would encourage you to take a step back and try to figure out why exactly perpetuating homophobia (which is what you're doing, for the record, if you use a slur derogatorily, no matter the context) is something that you must do, particularly in a public space, without any trigger warnings.

At the very least, trigger warnings are a must, particularly if you insist on using harmful words in public. I understand that in the current year most people are somewhat removed from such a thing as homophobic or otherwise LGBTphobic bullying and/or harassment -- which is a wonderful concept, to be sure! However, that does not mean that all of us are so lucky. Many people have trauma resulting from such kinds of bullying and/or harassment and would appreciate at least a tag that they can avoid, rather than having to walk on eggshells because of a lack of consideration by others.

I think this also holds true for any other slurs you might see people using, but I'm picking my battles where they need to be picked.

As a side note, I think that whether you as an individual feel comfortable reclaiming slurs or being around people who do so is entirely up to yourself, and no one can tell you what to feel or how to act about something that is so intensely personal.

Personally, I have participated in reclaiming slurs that have been used as insults for myself in the past, and to some extent do this even now, although much less often. However, I specifically do not use these slurs in public -- whether in real life or online -- because there is no guarantee that people who overhear or read your public message are not going to take it as A) you genuinely saying the slur as an insult or B) a go-ahead to use the slur as an insult.

I will again state though that it is ultimately your choice to reclaim or to not reclaim slurs, although I will reiterate that I believe that it is actively harmful to use these slurs derogatorily, and I do not think that it is a personal choice but instead a moral failing to use slurs derogatorily or to insult other people.

Sincerely, someone who was beaten up many, many times in school for being any number of slurs that people have now decided it is okay to use derogatorily even as part of those marginalised groups.

[stars-n-spice]

Brat Batch.

Ummmm silly little dumb drawing after seeing some incorrect quotes about Crosshair and brat summer.

I didn't know which background I liked better :/

If I had the time, talent, and patience I'd animate them doing the dance with Omega but alas.

Individual shots (+headcanons) under the cut :)

Echo only knows about brat summer because Crosshair and Omega explained it to him after Omega asked him to hold the phone so she could record a video of the dance.

Hunter had no idea what "brat summer" is. He still doesn't understand it after Omega and Crosshair explained it to him.

Wrecker didn't get it at first but now he's all for it - he's still learning the dance

Of course Tech already knows about it. No he won't do the dance or anything but he's aware of the concept.

Any excuse to wear a baby tee, Crosshair is going to take it. He knows the dance but he won't do it in front of anyone, no matter how much Omega begs him to. Does he know all the moves? That's classified. Also this kind of pop music is like a guilty pleasure for him.

[ghost-proofbaby]

It's summer for you, winter for me. Warm me up with strawberry fluff! As always, my muse, your muse, the one and only, Eddie.

Midsummer's night, because I don't have a lot to inspire you with. I'm thinking something cute but weird? Maybe some human body softness where Eddie is a bit of a freak and we love him for it. And we're told our bodies are lovely, even when they're doing weird shit.

I lalalove youuuuu. xo Rhi

RHI!!!! <3 i adore you. thank you for this prompt - i had far too many ideas for it, but ended up on settling for this one, which coincidentally feels like the most subtle of them all? either way, it definitely turned out being the softest. give me an eddie munson who just wants to sniff me like a dog. this definitely got a bit long but i hope you enjoy, my dear <3

the smell of you

warnings: weirdos in love? idk. i have a skewed sense of what is actually weird i think. mentions of death and coffins jokingly. eddie 'manhandles' reader sort of. not edited.

wc: 2.2k+

come enjoy a sweet summer treat with me <3

“Eddie?”

The entire apartment is quiet – too quiet – as you drop your keys into the old crystal bowl on the counter. The clink resonates through the air, louder than the soft murmur of the stereo static you can hear from down the hall. 

“You dead?” you call out again, slipping off your running shoes and tossing down your headphones onto the counter as well now, “Do I need to call the coroner?” 

Your tone is lilted, teasing with airiness as you continue to wander deeper into the apartment and head straight for the room you know Eddie has to be in. Like the waves pulled by the moon, there’s an incessant string tied around one end of your soul that connects you to his, and you follow it all the way down the hallway. The bedroom door is wide open, and you can hear his mumbled yell of a response without clarity before you even cross the threshold. 

You wouldn’t have even needed him to verbally respond to find him in this tiny apartment. You two could get separated on the streets of a bustling city, of a buzzing New York sidewalk, and you still wouldn’t properly lose him. It’s more than just soul ties and his gravity that keeps you pulled to him. 

Something unspoken. Something homely. 

“Sorry, what was that?” you hum as you spy him face-down in the bed, pillow muting him by the mouthful, “Say it one more time, and this time not into the pillow.” 

When he finally properly turns over, he’s a vision. Sleep lines folded into his skin and a bit of drool in the corner of his mouth, eyes squinting in irritation not at you but the sunlight flooding in through the bedroom window. Messy hair, messy shirt, messy everything. A kind of mess you just want to collapse into currently, curling up in all that he is from the day’s exhaustion. 

He’d mentioned wanting to take a nap before you’d left for the gym. Something about the summer heat draining him, trailing off as he’d rambled about how he’d probably thrive as a vampire. 

“I said,” he huffs, sitting up, the frizz of his hair becoming a makeshift halo, “If you call the coroner, request the comfiest coffin possible.”

“Why do you need a comfy coffin if you’re already dead?” 

“You dare deny me of being buried in tempurpedic memory foam? In my hour of need?” 

You roll your eyes as you huff out a little laugh, forcing yourself to turn away from him long enough to strip out of your socks. But just as you reach down for the pieces of clothing, you catch sight of the source of that stereo static flooding the room. 

Your shared record player, spinning a blood red pressing of one of your more recent vinyl purchases. The album has been played through, but the player no longer had an automatic stop mechanism, probably from years of use. 

The center of the record is probably scratched, and Eddie knows it, from how sheepish he looks when you glance over your shoulder at him. 

“Speaking of death,” you walk over quickly, purposefully, before carefully lifting the needle and cutting the static finally, “Care to explain why you’re burning scratches into my Momento Mori vinyl?” 

“I’m sorry,” he quickly apologizes, nearly flinging himself off the bed as he scooches quickly to the end, clearly fully awake now, “I put it on and thought I’d just lay down for a quick second, but then the bed was so comfy, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to take a quick nap, and then…” he trails off, looking up at you through his lashes with big eyes already pleading for forgiveness, “I’ll buy you a new one. Swear it.” 

It’s impossible to be mad at him when he’s looking like this, inhumanely soft and easily forgiven, “You’re lucky you’re cute, or you really would be dead.” 

He doesn’t respond with words, but instead the outstretch of his hands, fingers flexing as he beckons to you. The needle rests on its perch, the vinyl left behind to gather dust for a few extra moments, as you go straight to him. 

When his palms slip beneath your old t-shirt and meet your skin, they’re pleasantly warm. 

“You were right,” you admit as his knees spread, delegating even more room for you to stand in front of him as your hand wanders to cradle the side of his face, fingers tangling in sweaty curls from his rest. Your thumb mimics his on your own skin instinctively, tracing a large arch right up over his cheekbone, “It’s hot as balls outside.” 

“Told you so,” he murmurs, smiling softly in satisfaction as he leans lazily into your touch. 

“You did,” you agree quietly, half-entranced by his relaxed face, no sight of pride in the room currently. 

He resembles a cat as he continues to preen under your gentle hand, and you almost expect him to start purring right before you find the strength to pull away, removing his hands from where they'd wandered to your lower back. 

One swipe of his finger along your sweaty spine, and you’d remembered what your original intentions had been immediately upon getting home. 

“Wai- Where are you going?” he’s seemingly brought back down to Earth the moment he loses the pattern your thumb had been tracing, the press of your fingertips into his scalp. When he reaches back out to latch onto you again, you take a step back, “Get back here-”

“I need to shower,” you laugh, shaking your head and smacking his hands away as he continues to barter, “I’m all sweaty and smelly, let me go clean up and then we can nap togeth-” 

“You can shower after we nap,” he nearly whines, finally catching your shirt between his fingers and tugging, uncaring for if he stretches the fabric. A small price to pay to have you close to him, “C’mon, sweetheart. I know you’re just as exhausted as I am.” 

You swear you meant to take another step backwards, but somehow, you end up back between his knees, “Did you not hear me, Munson? I stink.”

“Good.” 

He doesn’t give you any time to react – in an instant, he’s throwing his face forward, burying it against your stomach as you let out a gasp and immediately try to pry him away with far too gentle of hands in his hair. 

“Eddie!”

If it were anyone else, you’d probably be mortified. But Eddie just takes a dramatic deep breath in, nose buried just shy of your belly button, and when his shoulders start to shake with muted laughter, you can’t stop the smile from breaking. Your fingers are still twisted in his hair, still pulling back in an attempt to get him away from you, but he’s resilient. 

And all your faux resistance is weak in comparison. Soon enough, you’re back to melting into him. 

Only once you’re relaxed once more, no sign of trying to pull away again any time soon as his hands once more evade the space beneath your shirt to wander up and down your sticky skin without a care in the world, does he lift his face away from you long enough to breathe and speak, “I’ll have you know – I love your stink.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m serious.” 

“You’re an idiot.” 

“I’m your idiot.” 

The game of banter is cut short when he goes back to pressing his nose into your clothes that surely can’t smell good. No amount of deodorant or perfume could erase that underlying stench of sweat. Hell, the shirt is still a bit moist from it all: from the walk to the gym, from your workout itself, from the walk home. It’d been through the ringer, and you’re back to tugging him away from you. 

“I refuse to believe you like how gross I smell right now,” you reinforce, eyes darting towards the bathroom connected to your master bedroom, “I promise I’ll be quick with the shower.” 

“Baby,” he fights back, wrapping his arms around you securely, no intention of losing this battle, “You remember that time we went to the fair, and you were complaining about how you were sweating, so I tried to lick your face?” 

Your nose scrunches quickly at the memory, “I do, unfortunately.”

“You really think I’d be willing to lick the sweat off your body but be afraid of you smelling a little bad while we cuddle?” his shoulders drop as he looks up at you, head tilted, almost as if amused with the conversation, “What kind of man do you take me for?” 

“The kind that gets off on annoying me.” 

His jaw drops, putting on a fake look of offense before he dramatically throws himself back onto the bed, laying flat as he makes a fist to mimic stabbing his chest, “You wound me.”

You’ve heard those words a thousand times in a hundred different ridiculous voices. You’ve seen this scene enough to have it mesmerized at this point, down to the over-exaggerated pout of his lips and the lingering of the fist against his sternum. 

You never grow tired of it. You never will. 

“Need me to kiss it better?” you joke as you prop a knee up on the bed, following the same script as always. 

And he hits his queue perfectly when he lifts his head eagerly at the expected response, wiggling his brows a bit. “Absolutely. Doctor’s orders, in fact.” 

“Great,” you see an opportunity, and take it, “I’ll get right to it, after my showe-” 

You don’t even get the final syllable of the word off your tongue before he’s clenching his thighs around your own, knees pressing hard before he wraps his legs the rest of the way around your waist to pull you in. A squeak of surprise leaves your lips as you begin to fall forward, but Eddie is quick to break the fall with ease. Catching you with his eager hands, maneuvering for you to half drop to the mattress while some of you still lands atop of him. 

He has you right where he wants you, turning his head to be face to face with you, noses nearly brushing, “Unfortunately, the doc said you have to kiss it better now, or else you’ll be comfy coffin shopping.” 

“A fatal wound?” you gasp, nearly mocking him. It doesn’t offend him – if anything, his boyish grin only grows wider, “First, I’m smelly-”

“Again, I like when you’re smelly.”

“-And then I inflict a fatal wound upon my lover? Oh, how dare I.”

Slowly, all your insecurity of how you currently smell is simply fading. The entire ordeal has become an art of childlike, whimsical jokes – and Eddie is an artist. A professional at the dance, locked and loaded with his incomparable skill set equipped for disarming you this way. The ability to make someone feel loved, imperfections and weirdness aside. 

He likes you, even when you claim you don’t smell your best. And you like him, even when his hair is tangled beyond recognition and one of his socks is half-hanging off his foot from a nap.

You like him when he’s embarrassing you in public, tongue chasing after you with the threat of licking your sweat away, and he likes you when all you can do in response is a weak palm to his chest (that isn’t even making an effort to push him away) as you giggle relentlessly. 

You like each other on the good days, the bad days, the weird days. 

Disarmed entirely, you don’t even notice when his face conveniently slots itself far too close to your armpit as you two scooch further up into the bed. You’re more occupied with the way your legs tangle up, toeing each other’s socks off properly as he slings a heavy arm across your torso. 

“We’re gonna have to wash the sheets,” you mumble, exhaustion catching up as the two of you finally settle. 

He hums absentmindedly, nuzzling into your skin a bit further as he makes himself comfortable. “And wash away your sweet, sweet stink? I don’t think so, sweetheart.” 

“Oh, fuck off,” you laugh, unbothered as your fingers start to trail up and down his back over the t-shirt, smoothing out wrinkles along the way, “I’m serious. We need to change them soon anyways, I think I got crumbs in the bed the other night with those crackers.” 

“Bury me in the crumbs of all your midnight snacks,” he almost slurs, clearly drifting back off. 

You snort in response, relaxing and letting your own eyes shut. Matching all your deep breaths with his own, a million different last words crossing your mind to whisper to the boy you’re sure is once again asleep. 

I love you.

I adore you. 

I would like to spend the rest of my life with you, if you’ll have me. 

And maybe some of those unspoken thoughts slip out without you realizing, because he squeezes you just a little bit tighter, presses his face just a little bit deeper into your skin as his scruff tickles you. 

The only actual thought you can know for certain that you say, though, is, “Do you think they actually make coffins with memory foam inside?” 

To your surprise, even despite the almost-snores that had been escaping him, he answers in a heartbeat. 

“Oh, definitely. We’ll order two.”

[atopvisenyashill]

Sorry, but I saw your tags on an Alicent post and I am now using your inbox as a way to rant about the reaction to the Viserys praise in Season 2.

Because no, we probably didn’t need a once-an-episode mention of how great he was. But people acting as though that’s out of character for Alicent or that the show is engaging in abuse apologia really annoys me.

First, in the context of Westeros, none of what Viserys did to Alicent is recognized as abuse. While she was slightly under the Westerosi age of maturity when they married, she had almost certainly had her first period by that point and was therefore seen as appropriate to marry. Marital rape is not a concept for them, and even if he hit her (which I think is unlikely from what we are presented) no-one is going to punish him. He is the king. So while she clearly knows that she doesn’t like “having sex” with Viserys, it’s likely that she (consciously) sees it as less of “he’s forcing me to do this” and more as “I am bearing my marital duty as best as I can, perhaps this is how it is for all women” or at worst, “I’m a bad wife.” As for the emotional abuse: even our modern society is really just discovering that concept. Either way, given the context of Westeros and how she was raised, I think it would be very unlikely for her to recognize his treatment of her as abuse and subsequently rail against it. My guess is that she sees him as a kind of typical husband: she wasn’t in love with him, but she liked him sometimes and he was sometimes nice to her, and he was never overly violent in a way that she would recognize. In her mind, he was a fine husband and a good king.

Second, the idea that abuse survivors feeling anything less than murderous rage towards their abusers is “abuse apologia” really pisses me off. Especially when we’re talking about Alicent in the context of being a victim of grooming, which is done specifically so that the victim sees nothing wrong with their abuse. I see this with Rhaenyra about Daemon sometimes and it just…that’s just not always how it works. Not every single survivor of abuse is just going to hate their abuser with no complicated feelings (which there’s nothing wrong with to be clear) and oftentimes, they are going to have a lot of complicated feelings. So the idea that she should just plainly hate Viserys seems very reductionist to me and just further feeds what I’ve been feeling about the way that a lot of people seem to want Alicent to be a perfect victim.

Yeah first - I wish we had gotten an equivalent of Rhaenyra's "we became one person he could love" speech for the greens. I think that speech went a long way in telling us how Rhaenyra feels about her father (and Daemon, and vice versa) and how he's negatively impacted them and their lives without being an ooc "wow maybe my dad did suck all along" sort of thing. I don't think the greens really get that - I think it makes sense for Otto to compare Aegon disfavorably against Viserys at this point (Aegon is acting kinda wild) and for the smallfolk as well to look disfavorably on Aegon and Aemond (Viserys never dragged them into a dumb fuck war, did he) but at the same time, these comments are not made in a vacuum and I think especially when it comes to Viserys' neglect of his kids and the domestic violence Alicent experiences, which is not only kind of, idk, subtle I suppose (subtle for a general audience, anyway, bc even people real deep in discourse in fandom don't understand dv lol, let alone random joe schmoe just watching his dragon show), but also it's not a thing they have words for or context for in the show, and i think there should have been more spice there when discussing him. but that gets into how the greens writing fell off right around regent/smallfolk.

But secondly - YES. God last season it annoyed the SHIT out of me because I watched a) the throne room scene and b) Alicent crying alone over him, and I FELT that shit. It all rang so true to me - Viserys making a grand gesture at the 11th hour that makes him feel good but ultimately does not really help Rhaenyra's cause in any sort of meaningful way, and Alicent who feels so duty bound to be A Good Wife left crying alone in her room after her shitty husband dies because she HAS to mourn him, that's what a good wife does. And I saw people describe it as "rhaenyra needs viserys to save her" "why does alicent care about that rotting idiot" "why can't rhaenyra/alicent be strong on her own" and it made me want to scream.

Viserys is integral to understanding their characters! Arguably he is the influence on the way both of them develop as people, in both the book and the show. Rhaenyra loves her father - and I will say it again because I don't think people understand that Rhaenyra loves her father. When she's angry with him, when she argues with him, it is because she feels rejected by him, not because she hates him! She does not resent him for putting her in this situation - or, she does, but that resentment does not point towards him and frankly, it never will! It's the same reason Sansa cannot resent Ned, Cersei can't hate Tywin, Arianne is so desperate for approval from Doran. I think often people want Rhaenyra to reject Viserys completely because they think it's what they would do (no, they wouldn't, but alright, u can lie to urself here) but feeling like you've been backed into a corner and reaching for a parent, even a flawed one, to come rescue you, and he does (sort of, kind of, in a way that makes him feel better and is flashy but kind of useless) makes sense when you think about where Rhaenyra will end up which is following this thread and this inheritance she gets from her father to a bitter, violent end!

And then Alicent. Alicent who spells it out literally right on screen that her whole life is about serving ideals she thinks are above her, outside of her, greater than her. And what are these ideals? Family, duty, sacrifice. And who is the living embodiment of family, duty, sacrifice? The patriarch! Her husband! She is duty bound to love him, to mourn him, and so she does, because even in the privacy of her own room, the privacy of her own mind she is incapable of separating her self from her husband, her sons, her duty. She uses Viserys as a cover for her own feelings and desires constantly. And like you said - I mean, nothing that happens between them passes any sort of line in Westerosi society. I think Alicent is the sort of person who would force herself to find things to love about him and she very much seems to love the things in him that she loves in herself - his propensity for quiet, for reflection, his reluctance to act rashly, his perceived lack of violence. Of course she loves him. He practically raised her. Do we not love our fathers, even when they are imperfect?

It very much ties into all these ideas about being a "good victim" but people don't want to really talk about the way our concept of a "good victim" has shifted over the years. Now, when people love their abusers, when they don't rage against the abuse they experience, when they don't realize they're being abused, when they crave the abuse back, it's seen as being weak, unfeminist, bad writing. Real victims rage and seethe. Real victims plot to escape. Real victims may fawn in the moment but deep down they never loved their abusers even a little. That's just not true and it's especially not true when it comes to domestic abuse such as spousal or parental abuse, and because Rhaenyra and Alicent love and crave the abuse heaped on them because it is done by people who they love, by people who love them in return (however selfish that love may be!), it means the writing is bad. No, it's not actually. Sometimes, your dad sucks and you know he sucks and he never gets better and you love him anyway.

[unfamiliar-ghostly-system]

Endogenic and other plurals who don't have DID or OSDD can use the term system unapologetically.

[sysig]

He was a human pirate, which you wouldn’t think you’d have to specify and yet (Patreon)

[tenwhiteandalusians]

and then no one said anything about the fact that if i watched ONE MORE episode tenax pulls a "i'm not angry i'm just disappointed i'm hurt" about scorpus signing with the white faction.

[screamingfrenchfries]

does.... does the hot daga qualify as an object show ????

poll under the cut bc fuck it

[blackwaxidol]

I want to draw architecture from the Throne Worlds, but unfortunately my best work with buildings or landscapes is purely by using paper and pencil and that is hard to show off as a photograph I think. I suppose I could try and make a paper drawing and then trace it digitally, that would be fine.

[nebulations]

i wanna get into ORV but i still don’t understand it 😭😭

CACKLES SO FUCKING LOUDLY (Caps: cackles so fucking loudly). Ahem. [cracks knuckles]

Okay so ORV (Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint) is a webnovel which is currently being adapted into a webtoon, and I really enjoy both!! But if I had to pick one, it's the webnovel no question <3 I talked about accessing both here!

I went into it completely and entirely blind except for the main character's name, which was probably the best thing I've done for myself all year, but my summary for you (which I had to stop myself halfway through and cut down for size THRICE):

ORV follows Kim Dokja, an isolated and lonely office worker whose contract is expiring and whose only (and I mean only) joy in life is a massively long, horrendously convoluted webnovel called "Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World". He is the only reader in the entire world of this novel, as everyone else had long since fallen off about ten chapters in due to the fact that it fucking sucks-- but that means that when his subway ride home is interrupted by the world ending in exactly the way it does in his favorite story, he's also the person with the best chance in all the world to see the apocalypse through to a happy ending.

The novel, as indicated by the title and premise, is SO meta, and never in a cheesy or grating way-- ORV chews you up and spits you out with how incisively, brilliantly, and beautifully it works its themes, and every single character and character dynamic will grip you by the motherfucking throat. It is the funniest thing I've ever read and I've almost cried about it in public multiple times and I keep zoning out and staring into the middle distance during dinner because I keep having new belated realizations about its ending. It may look long and intimidating, but it doesn't FEEL long because the pacing is incredible, and also it constantly lampshades itself by acknowledging that the in-universe apocalypse is incredibly stupid and by having multiple scenes where the characters lay out past plot points in great detail and then go "wow this sucks and is stupidly overcomplicated." ORV is complex and beyond intelligently written, but it never takes itself too seriously, and it's better for it <3

ORV is hard to explain because it is so much all the time. In the best possible way, half the time it sounds like a fanfic-y fever dream. Kim Dokja IS bisexual and he IS autistic and he IS INSANE. It is impossible to encapsulate because everything I could say about it would fall short of its actuality, and Tumblr functions on recommending things through hyperbole but ORV is literally just like that. ORV is about the power of fiction and it's about meeting your blorbo in the flesh and immediately annoying him so bad he tries to kill you and it's about staggering, world-defying love of every kind and it's about your friends kinkshaming you and it's about learning to live with the fact that you deserve to live. I will, very genuinely, never be the same after reading it. This is the worst rec post in the world and I sincerely apologize. Please read ORV

[pomellon]

Welp today started off a bit messy

[harrowscore]

Your point about the only thing Rey people being interested in was her relationship with Kylo and how that paralleled the Luke/Vader relationship is interesting. It would have added a lot of depth to the story if they'd been twins. Rey goes for the kiss. "No Rey, I'm your brother." lol. Awkward. Insanely awkward.

Hey, sorry but since I ship them and SW has already had enough soap opera-like "i'm your secret twin" last-minute revelations for my tastes I prefer them to be a romantic enemies to lovers pair - something that in SW (at least the movies; the EU was a bit different with Luke/Mara Jade and Revan/Bastila etc.) has never been seen before, so it adds an element of originality in what is basically Poor Man's OT. Same themes as Luke+Vader (love and compassion as a redemptive force) but not make it a family thing, please. That would have been uselessly redudant imo. What I meant with the Luke+Vader parallel is they're a similar brand of "the protagonist shares their most important relationship with an antagonist who turns to the Light thanks to their influence; said dynamic also challenges the main character's naive and black/white beliefs on evil&good, it challenges them to see the world under a different light". Rey didn't need to be a literal Skywalker, Kylo/Ben could have been enough for that as "one half of the protagonist/one side of the coin" - also because he has had to live with that legacy/lovable dysfunctional family for all his life while Rey struggled in a desert and Luke was "a myth" to her. She doesn't even know them; Vader&co. mean nothing to her (that's one of the many reasons the Rey Palpatine revelation feels so hollow - are we even sure she knew what a Palpatine was? lmao). The Vader Is Luke's Father plot works so well because he's the antagonist Luke has been fighting since Film 1, and Luke has been idolizing his dead dad since forever. This forces the kid to grow up - his world shatters, so he has to find a new sort of belief code. Similar to what her relationship with Kylo does (or should do) to Rey, but in a romantic key. Maybe a romance that redeemed the original star-crossed space lovers (Anidala) - this is all about Vader's legacy after all. In fact, it's all about that and how Leia couldn't (understandably) cope with it, and her son getting targeted by Snoke. Anakin's ghost should have definitely made an appearance in TROS and had an overdue talk with his grandson and his daughter but alas, "Palpatine somehow returned" but Anakin can't be bothered about his family I guess lol (that's deeply OOC of him - I'm saying this as a fan of the character).

But I agree with your point about Rey never failing/fucking things up/needing others' help. That's one of the reasons the audience feels like she's never really matured and changed. She needed to face her own demons, not someone else (specifically a man)'s. The angst about her parents abandoning her and treating her like shit should have sufficed: if she's shown her parents were Good People All Along and they were really coming back for her - well, that only reinforces her childish beliefs and never really puts her in the position to challenge them. Same as if Luke's dad had been a good guy, like he dreamed, and not literally Satan's right hand man. That's How To Write Protagonists 101 but I don't think Disneylucas ever cared about creating a somehow coherent story.