#and instead there is simply no heterosexual explanation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

someone-will-remember-us · 16 days

Text

The first time it happened to Hannah, it lasted “just a few seconds.” Without warning, the man she’d met on a dating app and was now having casual sex with grabbed her neck and squeezed gently. Flustered, she swatted his hand away and tried to wipe the gesture from her mind. A year later, it happened again: Another dating-app match wrapped his fingers around her neck. Then this past May, a third time, when a man she’d just started seeing wordlessly placed a hand on her throat while they were hooking up. “Then I said ‘no,’ and he took it off,” she remembers. Each time, Hannah said, she had a basic conversation around sexual desires and preferences with these men before anything physical took place. But the partners never brought up choking outright, let alone asked her permission to do so.

“In all of these scenarios, the men otherwise seemed very sweet, conscientious, and well-informed, and I think that’s why it always comes as such a shock,” Hannah said. “I’m like, ‘What are you doing? Where’s this coming from?’ It’s a pretty violent thing to come out of nowhere, especially from men who otherwise seem so vanilla.”

What does it mean, then, that this “pretty violent thing,” an out-of-nowhere chokehold during sex, is happening in the post–Me Too age of consent? Today’s straight, liberal men are assumed to be considerably more interested in centering women’s pleasure and safety — so what gives? For one, panicked reports of an anecdotal “rise in choking” during sex have been circulating online for years, growing in frequency since 2019 and often offering up the middling explanation that young people have simply picked up the habit from porn. This year both Business Insider and the New York Times warned of the “trend” among Gen Z and teenagers alike. And while choking is not a particularly transgressive kink — it’s not unheard of for women to enjoy, as psychotherapist Esther Perel puts it in Mating in Captivity, the “politically incorrect … poetics of sex” — these particular instances serve as evidence of something sex-positive feminists had hoped would lessen with time: the unrelenting dissatisfaction of casual sex.

Generations of us have been there. Nearly a decade ago, New York’s Rebecca Traister investigated what she labeled “male sexual entitlement,” the tolerated if not expected discomfort of heterosexual sex. And as sex writer Nona Willis Aronowitz observed in her 2022 memoir, Bad Sex: “Sex has never been more normalized, feminism has never been more popular, romantic relationships have never been more malleable — yet we still haven’t transcended the binds that make sex and love go bad.” Just last month, new research reported in the New York Times confirmed the obvious: The orgasm gap for straight women still persists.

But while the threat of a bad time has always been part of the packaged deal of sleeping with a stranger, those of us aspiring to operate as sexually free agents, ever the optimists, had hoped that with age and education, the quality of casual hookups would improve. Instead, the feeling of despair among young women engaging in casual sex has reached a fever pitch. Just take a scroll through TikTok for proof. The individuals I spoke to (most of whom, like Hannah, requested anonymity for the sake of their privacy) shared sexual encounters that ranged from awkward and annoying to harrowing and traumatic, from unexpected slapping and anal play to a hesitance to wear condoms when asked. The issue isn’t so much that the sex is always outright unenjoyable or ill-intentioned but that consent to casual sex still seems to be operating as a catch-all for anything men only assume women want.

For her part, Hannah doesn’t believe that her sexual partners were acting out of malice. If anything, it seems they were making an attempt at tending to her needs, however misinformed. “But of course, in considering women’s pleasure, the only way that some men can seem to conceive of is strangling,” she added. “It makes me sort of depressed if I really think about it. That instead of asking, ‘Hey, what do you like?’ or ‘Hey, do you like this?,’ they’re just going straight for the throat.”

Other women I spoke to had similarly jarring experiences during recent hookups. Tiana said she’d been slapped in the face on a few different occasions while performing oral sex, a “weird thing to do without consent” even when administered lightly, she says. She noted how common it was for “guys to try to eat or finger my ass without asking first.” Similarly, Ash says lots of anal play happens without her go-ahead — often a finger inserted into her anus in the middle of vaginal sex: “In doggy, it’s always a big ass thumb for some reason.” And much like Tiana, Nicky Josephine, a 33-year-old Brooklyn-based writer, recalled being slapped by a sexual partner without consent, to which she responded by slapping him back.

“I felt it was insulting more than anything,” Josephine said. “I like it as long as it’s not too hard, and it’s discussed beforehand. I was just super mad he didn’t ask or warn. That being said, I kept having sex with him.”

Alyssa, a 31-year-old Brooklynite, describes herself as practiced in BDSM and generally more open to experimenting during casual hookups. (That is, only after boundaries have been discussed.) She’s found that insecurity in beginners can sometimes breed aggression, a textbook sign of overcompensation. “I’m learning that men who have no experience in kink tend to completely overdo it on their first time and just be really, really rough and also not listen,” Alyssa tells me. There are echoes of the same sentiment on Reddit in r/TwoXChromosomes, where users point to the mainstreaming of BDSM as one of the factors producing “ill-informed ‘practitioners’” who don’t understand the negotiation of consent, let alone the practice of aftercare. In January, Alyssa found herself at the hands of one such man in his early 30s.

“I would have been fine with some choking in theory, but it ended up being more of a strangulation that I did not consent to,” she said. “He was shaking me by the neck like in a TV show or true-crime reenactment. It was like he was copying strangling someone as he’d seen in the movies.”

It’s no wonder hordes of young women are opting for celibacy instead. Celebrities like Julia Fox, once positioned as the apex of male desires, have sworn off fucking men altogether. Queer pop star Chappell Roan gave voice to her pleasure-less interactions with men in “Femininomenon” (“lying to your friends about / how he’s such a goddamn good lover … I don’t understand / why can’t any man / hit it like … ”), while former country star Maren Morris divorced her husband, came out as bisexual, and now seems to be taking pleasure in the bliss of sexual discovery: “Sittin’ on the fence / Feels good bеtween my legs.” Meanwhile, online, women are recording TikToks after horrific first dates as they search for solidarity, yearn for real love, and unpack their listlessness toward men. As someone who regularly requests to be choked, this inquiry made me pause to ask whether I really draw pleasure from the act or if I am subconsciously bending to the whims of the men under which I am pinned. Easier to stomach if I get ahead of it and convince myself I wanted it, anyway.

Curious about what exactly compels a man to go for the throat, I turned to Jake, a 28-year-old straight guy who lives in Manhattan and works in tech. He doesn’t often talk “explicitly” about sex when gearing up for a new hookup. Rather, he describes the whole process as a somewhat delicate “dance” that can’t really be taught, composed of subtle hints like “touching on the wrist, or touching on the forearm, or touching on the shoulder when we’re laughing.” When Jake does place a hand on a woman’s neck, he says he’ll either ask outright or gently place it there if it “feels like something [he] should do.” Besides, no one has ever told him they don’t like it.

When I ask why he wouldn’t initiate a conversation beforehand, Jake thinks for a moment. Talking about sex risks “removing the spontaneity of it” or might “feel like a sterilization when you put it into words.” He pauses again before musing that maybe it’s just something he’s seen in movies: that a man should be able to intuit what a woman finds pleasurable and when she wants it. “I understand it could be good to ask,” he adds. “But personally, there’s almost a sheepishness when it comes to discussing sex. I am scared of making an assumption and being wrong.”

Of course, men do talk about sex in other settings. Jake mentioned that both some of his friends and the male comedians, podcasters, and content creators he follows frequently boast about pleasuring women as a means of clout-chasing. “It’s now almost like a sense of pride to make a girl come in my own circle,” Jake said.

So it’s not that men are ignorant of — or worse, don’t care about — women’s pleasure; it’s who benefits from that pleasure that’s up for debate. Take, for example, Andrew Schulz’s bit about squirting (“We know it’s pee, ladies, we’re not stupid … but here’s the thing, we don’t give a fuck because we made you pee”). Or Mike Majlak describing his “process-driven” approach to foreplay on the Rawtalk podcast and his need to “spray in every nickel hooker.”

“This sounds bad,” Jake tells me, “but I think a lot of men are seeing women not necessarily more as people but more as sexual beings who also like sex. Things have changed a lot in the past decade, but I think that the pendulum has swung in a way that’s probably also not healthy.”

While casual sex is a two-way street, several of the women I spoke to expressed regret that they hadn’t been more clear in the midst of a hookup about what they did — and, more importantly, didn’t — like. Maybe they’d issued a curt “no” or pushed away a grazing hand, but they hadn’t articulated why a particular act made them uncomfortable or bothered them, the words caught in their throat. Hannah, for instance, doesn’t think it’s her job to close the systemic knowledge gap around consent and pleasure burdening men. Still, she wonders whether she could’ve stopped the cycle by educating her partners more clearly.

“It’s just another burden. It makes me feel like I’m gonna have to take this on myself,” she explains. “It’s just another responsibility that women have. I’m not doing a lot of work in terms of trying to make sure that they don’t do it again with someone else, but like, I’m exhausted.”

Willis Aronowitz writes of this feeling — of all we stand to lose when we express sexual discomfort: “Even the most sexually confident among us sometimes hesitate to talk about all this, because we don’t want to hurt our partners’ feelings or seem demanding, because we want to appear as horny as we initially advertised ourselves to be, because the length of time it takes us to orgasm will spoil the mood … because too much is at stake, because we’re simply not sure what we want.”

For Samentha Teah, a 25-year-old who lives in Virginia, taking a vow of celibacy seemed the only way to discover what she really wanted out of casual sex. After a particularly irksome on-again, off-again situationship with a man in 2021, she swore off sex, albeit unintentionally. But by February of the following year, Teah began actively identifying as celibate. For nearly a year and a half, they tried to unravel their attachment to penetrative sex and rethink the possibilities of physical connection. She needed to get to know herself “outside the expectations of hookup culture, because hookup culture is dependent on you having no boundaries.” Toward the end of last year, Teah decided they were ready to have sex again. Naturally, the hookup wasn’t great — her male partner repeatedly ignored her requests “to slow down, or to take it easy and be gentle.” “I feel like through sex, I can understand how a relationship is going to go,” Teah said, “And the way that he was with my body, I just didn’t want to interact with him anymore after that.”

While many women have documented the intense disappointment of breaking celibacy for milquetoast men (and renewing their vows immediately after), Teah had a different takeaway. She still engages in casual sex but is now “very, very selective,” prioritizing “fooling around” with men and women she already knows over vaginal intercourse with strangers or dating-app matches. Their new relationship to physical intimacy, they tell me, feels like “true liberation.” “I get to have sex when I feel like it. I get to take breaks when I feel like it. If I don’t like sex, I can walk away from a person. I can stop sex mid-act. I didn’t know that I really, truly could do these things … I was searching for autonomy.” Within herself, at long last, she’s found it.

#radfem #radblr #radical feminism #gender critical #terfblr #radical feminist #radfem safe #terf safe

11 notes · View notes

mad-as-a-box-of-frogs · 10 months

Text

Always thinking about Layla going through the books in Steven’s apartment and him saying ‘that’s my favorite poet,” and then her going, “No, she’s MY mine [favorite]”

Like yeah sure i guess there’s always the heterosexual explanation that Marc simply left the books there and Steven discovered them … but they never really went into the details of how Marc set up Steven’s life, and the way the conversation is framed …. When they could have made Layla say ‘she’s my favorite poet too,’ instead of the proprietary way, like she ‘owns’ the trai …. like Steven’s love of poetry comes from Marc’s wife the same way his name comes from Marc’s childhood comfort…

Anyways catch me always believing Steven is made up of the people and things Marc loved most. Literally made of love and to love Marc.!

#moon knight #Marcsteven

20 notes · View notes

paladibun · 1 year

Text

Internalized Homophobia Chat:

Disclaimer: this is a gay!Mike POV, so if you view him as bi, you might disagree with a lot of these.

So I was pondering whether Will is struggling with Internalized Homophobia or just dealing with self worth issue due to growing up in a homophobic environment and I realized those two are both different definitions people use to describe IH interchangeably which caused me to look up the actual definition and I found some interesting things that are really making me think. Aka Ways in which Internalized Homophobia Manifests! Taken from this Link

Skipping ones that don’t apply to either because It’s probably going to be miles long.

1. Denial of your sexual orientation to yourself and others.

We don’t see it too much from both of them explicitly, but it’s definitely a solid for Will, as he can’t even say the exact words to his brother. He denies admitting his sexuality to others.(as most in his place in the 80′s) But as @ pinkeoni argued, we see Will accept himself just not feel accepted, as we see Will grow more comfortable with himself personally.(Turing project, boldness with the painting, acknowledgement of his difference/calling himself different, not having hang-ups about rejecting a pretty girl’s advances, etc) When it comes to Mike, we don’t see actual on screen denial, however, if we have perceived his arc and explanations of his actions, que billion other analyses we’ve already seen about his internal turmoil related to admitting his own sexuality to himself, there is pretty obv. denial. And I think it would be very strange for Mike to be like I’m gay? Okay! 👍 next season if we’re getting inside his head at all. Will’s denial is external. Mike’s denial is internal and likely external(though if he’s coming out at all in s5 the external wouldn’t last long)

2. Attempts to alter or change your sexual your orientation.

None of that from Will who probably knew for ages what he is. Mike’s whole season 3 experience was about emulating his heterosexual father, forcing himself to date a girl. I personally think Mike understood what he was at the end of s3, but definitely had hunches and subconscious reactions to the idea with being with a girl causing him to act the way he did.

3. Feeling you are never good enough.

Oh that’s a definite both of them. Will feels like he’d never get to have a normal life and date like his hetero friends, and Mike feels social inadequacy(that one comic page where he feels like everyone is judging him?) and the his monologue about feeling inferior and insignificant when it comes to El being the big hero which to me reads as feeling pressured to perform the hero roll. (hyper-masculine heterosexual warrior that saves the day) which he simply isn’t. (Also if it reads as nerdphobia instead, its because the Duffers like to present a sanitized GA reading for most minority struggles aka Nancy’s coded feminism talk with Karen being more about personal worth and not actually feminism but the people who know, know. Billy’s racism coded in nonracist terms just implied othering. Robin and Steve’s original incompatibility being about their social groups, not sexuality, Will’s s3 issues reading as him not growing up as fast as others and I’m sure there’s more)

4. Engaging in obsessive thinking and/or compulsive behaviours.

This one we could probably attribute to Mike. It’s not explicitly stated, but if you take his projection’ed “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls.” and the way he acted toward Will in s4, there’s definitely at least incredible overthinking going on.

5. Under-achievement or even over-achievement as a bid for acceptance.

We don’t really get to see inside Will’s performance outside him being called a good student and his original report card, but we do see Mike act out and isolate throughout the show. (But personally I attribute it to being just a smidge traumatized by almost losing Will, and in after s3, after pretty much losing Will to a different state. (Mike having a breakdown about it as described in Lucas’ novel))

6. Low self esteem, negative body image.

We see the former, not the latter, but definitely more prominently a Will thing. While Will seems to have accepted himself for who he is, he still feels inadequate and like a mistake. He always puts others first and his self worth issues are probably one of his more defining characteristics. Mike, however also has some of these. You only get a glimpse of it in s4 when he talks about himself but I like to assume its not just El related. (Seriously how shitty would it be if it wasn’t a “Mike overthinking and having original self worth issue” from being bullied his whole life.” Like he is an invisible queer man, but it doesn’t mean he feels invisible.(that comic page again))

7. Contempt for the more open or obvious members of the LGBT community.

10. Contempt for those that are not like ourselves or contempt for those who seem like ourselves. Sometimes distancing by engaging in homophobic behaviours – ridicule, harassment, verbal or physical attacks on other LGB people.

Not contempt or anything violent or extreme but...”It’s not my fault you don’t like girls” is externalizing that internalized homophobia.

13. Attempts to pass as heterosexual, sometimes marrying someone of the other sex to gain social approval or in hope of ‘being cured’.

Definitely a Mike thing, but again, not as extreme.

14. Increased fear and withdrawal from friend and relatives,

Will naturally withdraws as a “my feelings matter less” thing, and Mike is shown to not be as connected to his family in the first place. Season 3, he withdraws from others to pursue El, and withdraws from Will in the beginning of S4.

15. Shame or depression; defensiveness; anger or bitterness.

Will has trauma-based depression and self worth issues and Mike seems to have just the “regular old teen depression” from the way he withdraws, acts out, and feels about himself. + from almost losing will

17. Continual self-monitoring of one’s behaviours, mannerisms, beliefs, and ideas.

It is not easy to say just how much either of them self monitor when it comes to performing masculinity from anything explicit in canon. (Although I would argue Will isn’t performing as much as we see him liking what he likes, not liking what he doesn’t like, not changing his way of dress much from his boyish flannels when s4 was definitely marked as a “coming into oneself” season when it comes to expression. Mike was definitely acting the “actual straight man” when it came to most things in s3, and we see him unclench a little in s4 and shown his extreme with his airport outfit.)

21. Conflicts with the law.

I know in the show it’s presented as sort of a goof, but both Will & Mike are very comfortable breaking the law. (Mike being rebellious from the start + disobeying Hopper as a hobby and Will passionately fantasizing about cheating in Vegas.)

23. Separating sex and love, or fear of intimacy. Sometimes low or lack of sexual drive or celibacy.

That fear of intimacy part. If you read Mike as bi, his whole behavior toward El in S3. If not, the way he acted toward Will early s4. (But I’m sure there are other examples)

25. Thinking about suicide, attempting suicide, death by suicide.

This might not be accurate, and up to interpretation referencing the Quarry Scene but if you read Mike also having trauma caused by Will’s disappearance, that could be a thing as well. I personally don’t know what to think about that theory, but I do think either or both will show their self sacrificial tendencies in S5 and we will know more about all that.

The conclusion is that they both struggle from Internalized Homophobia. For Will it’s more of a “I can process being gay but the world’s homophobia crushing me and my hopes & dreams” flavor and for Mike it’s a “the world’s homophobia is confusing me and causing me to lash out at others because I can’t process being gay and am making it everyone else’s problem” flavor of IH.

Anyway anyway, thank you for reading I actually found that whole article fascinating and thinking how many people just don’t really think on what the term means(or all of what it means)(including myself) so yeah.

(feel free to correct me or provide counter arguments et cetera)

(another disclaimer that applies to this and any subsequent long posts I might make: everyone is allowed to have differing POV’s and I don’t think less of anyone who doesn’t agree with me & I encourage everyone to have their own unique repertoire’s of specific takes and reading on this and other topics)

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #gay mike wheeler #do i tag this as analysis? idk just let my brain get away from me

31 notes · View notes

solivagantingrebel · 9 months

Note

*busts through your wall* LAST AND POV FOR THE ASK THING PLEASE (if I were a greedier man I would simply say all of them 🫡🧎🫶🏼)

SOBS,,, ABSOLUTELY<333. Anything for you, comrade 🫡. I've been working on the second chapter of the christmas/holiday themed fic so, I'll probably use that for this one.

LAST —

(last two lines from my wip)

“Self discovery after retirement, Johnny.” Was it too late to tackle him to the ground again and kiss him instead?

There is no heterosexual explanation for this, very fortunately 🧼🤭

POV —

(a scene that has already happened from a different point of view)

“You were waiting for me?”

Johnny was always smarter than the rest, he noticed things most didn't bother with; saw my hesitation and discomfort for what it was, accommodated me regardless. It had extended well into our friendship that winter, he cared when others didn't—his whole family did.

And, he was here.

After all those years, he was finally here.

“Finally catching on, Johnny.”

I focused on preparing dinner, unable to deny the smile that broke free without the cover of the mask. His gaze felt heavy on my back, a familiar sensation; Johnny had a staring problem back then too, but it hadn't felt uncomfortable from him. Attention was disastrous in almost every aspect of my previous life, yet his was the one I coveted the most.

I wasn't here to force him into anything but I had made a promise to myself, if he ever returned I'd make a compelling argument for my inclusion in his life. This was the closest thing to a 'home' I had in my childhood, I didn't want to let it go.

“I could’ve never returned.”

My heart dropped to my stomach, and for a second, it felt too bittersweet to breath. I don't mind waiting forever for you, I wanted to say but the words never came out.

I found myself muttering something in agreement, and a lie I hadn't believed in ages slipped out before I could give it much thought.

"But you did, we'll consider it a Christmas miracle."

Christmas was a few days away.

There is also no heterosexual explanation for this, I think they should both kiss actually. Thank you for sending, I appreciate you so much 🫶

WIP: With The Softness Of Your Breath

The Ask Game.

#talking about my wips #my writing #writing ask game #<33333 #btw you are everything to me thank you for sending /pos #alsoo diebudbr janky first person pov #i tried and i am trying #at least theyre in love that's what counts #ghost soap

4 notes · View notes

sheltershock · 1 year

Text

Sashamilla is such a nice ship. I just want to gush about my otp, so sorry if this isn’t organized as neatly as it could be. But thinking about them, their dynamic, and how they’re portrayed just gives me so much hope and makes me feel happy. Like suddenly throughout my day I’ll just break out into a big, goofy smile and that’s just nice.

Also: warning, this is a long text post.

I like how we get personally introduced to each of them separately, and that they get to be their own characters first and possibly in a relationship second. In the first game we get to meet Sasha, get a feel for his personality, run experiments, explore his mind, discover his traumas, and then get directed towards Milla. Sasha’s a complete, standalone character with personality, quirks, and a backstory by the end of his level without any mention of romantic relationships. And then we meet Milla. We don’t get as much time with her, but that’s because she shined more in the opening of the game. She’s already established with her job as an international secret agent, we see her character design which is colorful with lots of circular/spiral patterns, and we see that she’s motherly, kind and responsible. And then we enter her mind and get both an expansion of that and a subversion. She's a bubbly party girl who’s always pumping everyone up, and has probably one of the most tragic backstories in fiction. Although her trauma memory vault is hidden, it is 100% accessible before her second one even if you’re playing the game for the first time. So before you get to her second memory vault you get her personality, a few quirks(overprotectiveness w/ the explanation of why), and her super depressing backstory. She’s a stand-alone character. And only after we have two complete standalone characters do we get to see her second memory vault where we get the implication that they’re both in love with each other.

But both of them have already been built up so well that they got time to be their own characters instead of simply being “X’s love interest.” It prevents this problem that happens in a lot of heterosexual couples in media where often it’ll just be one full character split into two roles. So the couple “completes” each other, because neither character was actually a complete character to begin with. I actually have a bit of a distaste to the idea of “completing each other” in romance, and I heavily dislike how it’s leaked into real life in the form of “your other half.” You are your own person, and absolutely complete as yourself. I like the terminology of “complimenting” instead of “completing,” specifically in the analogy of color theory. For example the colors red and green. You can make an entire painting in just shades of red or just shades of green and no other colors and it’s a complete painting. But if you put red and green together, it looks really nice because they’re complimentary colors. People in romantic relationships should compliment each other, rather than complete them.

Sasha and Milla absolutely compliment each other as a couple. It helps that they’re clearly apart of the “opposites attract” trope, but the literary term would be a foil. They are so badly and fully themselves that they can’t help but highlight the other person’s qualities. Control vs. Chaos. Monotone vs. Colorful. Flat vs. Expressive. Logical vs. Emotional. But the reason they compliment each other so well is because it isn’t as easy to say that they’re just opposites, because they’re also extremely alike. For example, you can’t say that Sasha is emotionless, cold and uncaring. You just can’t. Milla is absolutely emotional, warm and friendly, but you can’t say that Sasha is the opposite of that. Firstly, because emotional baggage exists in his mind, which would imply, y’know, emotion. He sympathizes with Raz enough to step up to be his mentor, and when he believes Raz has mistaken a “scary, flaming-eyed demon” for a Censor, he doesn’t berate Raz for wasting their time, but just gently encourages that problems often seem larger in our heads, and that it’s alright. And in Rhombus of Ruin, Sasha tries extremely hard to be as comforting as possible to Lili, to the point that he actively tries to imitate Milla with slow speech, a softer tone of voice, and even throwing in a “darling” at the end.

The same can be applied vice versa, too. Sasha is clearly a smart, intellectual character. But Milla can’t be called stupid. Except for the times where she is literally brainless, she proves herself to be really smart and capable. She can easily put herself in other’s shoes to identify problems, she knows how to read ripples in emotional oceans and trace its source, she’s extremely knowledgeable about children and their development, and in RoR she can rally the Psychonaut team from their emotionally charged, personal tasks to work together to achieve a goal. Milla isn’t stupid. She just has a different version of intelligence. Instead of Sasha’s logical-mathematical intelligence, Milla has really high emotional/interpersonal intelligence. And that’s the beauty of complimentary characters, that lean towards comparing and contrasting.

Speaking about how Sasha and Milla compliment each other…well, they compliment each other. Literally. Their version of flirting is just them hyping each other up. Which is really cute. Complimenting their work ethic, ideas they come up with, talents and abilities, etc. Never in the games do they really talk about the other’s physical appearance. Which makes sense since they’re both psychic. But it’s refreshing to see a relationship where both people value their personality and talents instead of physical attraction. The famous scene in PN2 where they are both inching close in way that’s so obvious that they’re going to kiss, they’re talking about how fucking talented and good at their jobs they are.

Since we see that this is how they flirt with each other, you can actually go backwards in the series and see that they’ve been kind of doing it for all three games. In RoR, when Sasha suggests the idea of tracking a constellation, Milla says “oooh~ great idea, Sasha!” Or in the first game when Sasha refers to Milla as “one of the world’s foremost levitators,” which Raz repeats to Milla as “the most powerful levitator the Psychonauts had.” And Milla’s response for her tone to get really soft and go “Sasha said that? Really? I didn’t know he noticed…” Which, uh, they went on multiple missions together and she’s in the air for most of them. I think he noticed. Then Raz goes on to say that he only works with the best teachers and Milla calls him a flirt. But armed with the knowledge from the sequel that they’re literally always talking to each other, and can do so while having a different conversation, I personally like to think that she was referring to both of them as a flirt.

And that’s another thing, they’re always talking to each other. Which communication, yay! And it also hints that they like each other enough that they always want to be available for conversation. But surprisingly, when this is revealed in PN2, I think it’s the first time a two-way telepathy connection has been brought up. Of course, characters have been projecting their thoughts into Raz’s mind during all three games, but in these scenarios, Raz always responds out loud. You’d think in an organization of psychics, this kind of two-way communication is normal, but it isn’t? When Sasha, Milla and Hollis go on the casino mission, they’re using radios to communicate. Out loud. Radios. This is a stealth mission and they picked a type of communication where you have to vocally express your thoughts? At one point Milla is saying into her earpiece, “I’m approaching the front desk, I’ll distract the clerks.” That’s not something you want to be saying out loud, within earshot of the target you’re going to distract. Of course the argument can be made that this choice was because the interns were coming and they needed to hear what good correspondence sounds like. But there’s got to be a more effective, less life threatening method right? Unless, of course, that two way mental links aren’t very common.

Projecting yourself into a mind doesn’t seem to be very hard, but manipulating the mental world does. Within all the games, Raz has to play each level and mind by its own rules. The same is probably true in the real world, that each mind is different and has its own vibe and rules. Solutions that worked in previous worlds are viable in new ones. For example, in Hollis’ mind you have to disconnect the ideas of money and risk to destroy the Lady Lucktopus. Bob’s mind seems to work with a similar boss idea, each plant represents a person in his life that has caused pain, and realizing that his view of them determines if they’re a monster. So if Raz really wanted to optimize his therapy speedrun, all he’d have to do is disconnect whatever thoughts Bob has with these people. But that’s not the solution, Bob has to do the disconnect himself. Like Hollis said, the Psychonauts are there to help people fight their own demons. Because it’s almost like trying to go in and manually changing someone’s mind usually fails in some way, because everyone’s mind works differently.

What I’m trying to say is that psychically linking two people is probably extremely difficult. You probably need to have a good understanding of each other, get on each other’s wavelength, etc. The only other time something like that has happened was with the Meat Circus, which was terrible, and multiple characters said that untangling Raz’s and Oleander’s minds would be difficult. So thinking about how Milla’s and Sasha’s minds are linked in such a way that they can communicate without it going horribly wrong is extremely impressive. Especially with how stated previously that they’re really different from each other. But seeing how they can get on the same wavelength, it again shows how similar they actually are. It seems really symbolic of a healthy relationship.

I don’t really know what else to necessarily say. They have their own identities, they compliment each other, they have subversive banter, they’re psychically linked and are probably really good at communication. Just watching them being in a relationship is cute. Even if the games don’t make it clear what exactly their relationship is. They love and appreciate each other for being themselves, and that’s just so hopeful and adorable to me.

#psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #psychonauts rhombus of ruin #rhombus of ruin #sasha nein #milla vodello #sashamilla #part analysis essay part headcanon #entirely cute shit #two precious people in love #I’ve just never seen a het couple as good as them #I didn’t even talk about their trauma or how perfect their dynamic is for hurt comfort #like they have to know each other’s baggage right? and they just love each other anyways #they probably know better than most how secretly broken their partner is and they still think they’re amazing because of course they are #they deserve a happy ending together after all the pain and heartbreak and loneliness in their lives

17 notes · View notes

meloshbielka · 22 days

Text

"What is gender artifactualism?" par Julia Serano

Why is this term needed?

I created the term to make a distinction between the idea that gender is “socially constructed” versus the idea that gender is “just a construct”—both of which are common refrains within the aforementioned academic and activist settings, but which imply very different things. As I put it in Excluded:

To have a social constructionist view of gender (by most standard definitions) simply means that one believes that gender does not arise in a direct and unadulterated manner from biology, but rather is shaped to some extent by culture—e.g., by socialization, gender norms, and the gender-related ideology, language and labels that constrain and influence our understanding of the matter. By this definition, I am most certainly a social constructionist. Gender artifactualists, on the other hand, are typically not content to merely discuss the ways in which gender may be socially constructed, but rather they discount or purposefully ignore the possibility that biology and biological variation also play a role in constraining and shaping our genders. Sometimes, even the most nuanced and carefully qualified suggestions that biology may have some influence on gendered behaviors or desires will garner accusations of “essentialism” in gender artifactualist circles... [p.117-8]

Is gender artifactualism correct as a theory?

Absolutely not. In Chapter 13, “Homogenizing Versus Holistic Views of Gender and Sexuality,” I thoroughly detail why gender artifactualism (along with its sparring partner in the nature-versus-nurture debate, gender determinism, which presumes that gender-related behaviors arise solely via biology) is flat-out incorrect as a theory to explain why gender differences exist. Instead, I forward a holistic perspective that acknowledges that shared biology, biological variation, shared culture, and individual experience all come together in an unfathomably complex manner to create both the trends as well as the diversity in gender and sexuality that we see all around us. This holistic perspective is completely compatible with the idea that gender is socially constructed (i.e., shaped by socialization and culture), but incompatible with the idea that gender is merely a social artifact (or in activist parlance, “just a construct”).

Why bother debunking gender artifactualism?

The prevalence of gender artifactualist thinking within feminism and queer activism has led to two major fallacies that have undermined these movements. The first is the idea that gender artifactualist positions are inherently liberating, progressive, and anti-sexist in contrast to gender determinism (which is why artifactualist views are so often touted in these settings). However, as I point out in Excluded:

The truth of the matter is that gender artifactualism can be used to promote sexist beliefs just as readily as gender determinism can. For much of the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud’s hardline gender artifactualist theories were used to pathologize queer people and to portray girls and women as inferior to their male counterparts. Similarly, contemporary feminists and queer activists are outraged by stories of intersex children being subjected to nonconsensual genital surgeries, or gender-non-conforming children being subjected to rigid behavior modification regimes, yet the justification for these procedures is founded in the gender artifactualist theories of psychologists like John Money and Kenneth Zucker, respectively. [p.145-146]

Indeed, I go on to make the case that both gender artifactualism and determinism have an “exception problem,” in that they focus on explaining typical genders and sexualities (e.g., the preponderance of heterosexual, gender-conforming people), yet “...fail to provide a reasonable explanation for why so many of us gravitate toward various sorts of exceptional genders and sexualities.”[p.147] As a result, both approaches can provide a rationale for pathologizing gender and sexual minorities on the basis that we represent “mistakes” or “developmental errors” of some kind.

The second fallacy of gender artifactualist thinking goes something like this: If our gender and sexual identities and behaviors arise solely as a result of culture, and given that our culture is hierarchical and sexist, then we (feminists, queer activists, people more generally) must simply unlearn these oppressive ways of being that we were indoctrinated into, and instead “do” or “perform” our genders in more liberating, subversive, and righteous ways. While this line of reasoning might sound promising on the surface, in reality, it is often used to condemn and police other people’s genders and sexualities:

After all, if gender and sexuality are entirely social artifacts, and we have no intrinsic desires or individual differences, this implies that every person can (and should) change their gender and sexual behaviors at the drop of a hat in order to accommodate their own (or perhaps other people’s) politics. This assumption denies human diversity and, as I have shown, often leads to the further marginalization of minority and marked groups. [p.134]

Granted, not all gender artifactualists buy into this idea that we can readily change our genders and sexualities in order to better conform to some political view or another. But those who do will typically cite gender artifactualist mantras (e.g., “all gender is performance,” “gender is just a construct”) in order to make their case. In Excluded, I borrow Anne Koedt’s phrase ‘perversion of “the personal is the political” argument’ to discuss how this premise has been used repeatedly to police gender and sexual expression within various strands of feminism over the years. In contrast, the holistic approach that I forward accommodates gender and sexual diversity both within our movements, as well as in the world more generally.

#Gender #transgender #feminism #biology

0 notes

narrators-journal · 1 year

Note

Fandom: persona 4 (NSFW) kirks: threesome, double penetration, creampie and stand and carry position. Characters: yu narukami, Margaret and izanagi no okami. "Plot": Margaret wants to see yu's world arcana and his true Power and have some Fun.

YIKES am I rusty at heterosexual smut and Narukami. I hope this is good, I tried to clean it up and really polish it. If anyone wants to give some pointers on how to better write smut, feel free to comment it lol, until then I hope you still enjoy it~

CW: Monsterfucking, threesome, everything listed in the ask "Margaret, what exactly are we doing here?" Narukami asked, following the elegant blue-clad woman known as his velvet room attendant. "I need more space than your velvet room provides, so I'm taking advantage of the tv world." She explained simply, stopping her sudden search when she reached Yukiko's family's inn. Naturally finding it silent and still beyond the gentle trickle of the hot springs behind the privacy fences. "Why exactly do you require more room, though?" the persona user asked, but the concern in his voice was assuaged with the simple explanation, "It's nothing to worry about, dear. I just want to try something and I need more room."

So, obediently, and admittedly out of sheer curiosity, Narukami followed the beautiful woman into the inn so she could survey the space. Leaving the tall silver-haired male at the front desk until she found a place she seemed satisfied with.

Then, she eagerly pulled him out to one of the quietly bubbling pool of warm water. And from there, Narukami was far more familiar with the way things were bound to go. Watching with a tingle already in his pants as she loosened her belt and let her dress fall into a puddle on the pavement. Leaving the elegant woman in nothing but the yellow fog until she lowered herself into the steamy water. "Well? Come on." She invited when she looked back and saw the wildcard still standing there clothed, chuckling at how fast he tossed his own clothing to the side in what equated to a rush for him to join Margaret in the bath. And while he was notoriously difficult to read, the fog couldn't seem to hide how excited he truly was.

From there, Margaret was quick to pull her wildcard into a hungry kiss. One that the silver-haired man returned almost instantly while snaking his arms around her waist to keep her soft figure pressed against him in the warm bath. Running his hands along her sides and over her hips while they kissed, making her groan and hop up to hook her legs around his waist so he could easily grip her ass and grind her hips against the throbbing erection he sported.

However, when he tried to lift her up enough to allow his throbbing member into her warmth, the silver-haired woman broke the kiss and breathed, "Wait, wait. I want to try something." "What is it?" The wildcard asked dumbly, making her turn a little pink, but after a moment's hesitance, she did finally say, "Well, you can summon Izanagi, right?" and he nodded, biting back the urge to grin as he connected the dots. Instead, he let her say it with a bright red face, "Do you think, maybe you could...summon him?" She asked quietly, her golden eyes locked on the water lapping at the bit of her stomach that wasn't in the water despite the flicker of hope in her words. So Narukami didn't push her to outright say what she wanted the persona for. Simply repositioning her so she could continue to cling to him as he summoned his tarot card and crushed it. Releasing the requested, white-and-gold monster.

While normally Izanagi no okami towered over any regular human, due to not being summoned for a fight, he seemed to match Narukami more closely for height. Which, made sandwiching Margaret between him and Narukami far easier. The simple action earning a low, pleased hum from the attendant that turned into a moan when her wildcard began nibbling and kissing along her throat while his person ran his hands up her sides from her hips to her breasts.

And while Margaret wasn't shy about letting out lascivious noises to show her pleasure, Narukami let out his own quieter noises when she squirmed and wiggled her hips against his erection the right way or squeezed him with her legs. So, once again, he repositioned the attendant so he could press the tip of his member just barely into her warmth. "You still want to try this?" He asked her while Izanagi lined himself up as well, making the curvacious woman shudder and breathe out an eager moan before she nodded. So, giving the attendant a kiss on the cheek, the silver-haired wildcard lowered her onto his erection.

Naturally, at the same time that he slipped his twitching member into the moaning woman, so did Izanagi no okami. Which, provided a new sensation for Margaret, but also Narukami. Because, while Margaret got the bliss of extra friction and a thorough sense of being full, Narukami could feel his persona filling her ass just as full as he filled her pussy, and he couldn't quite tell if that was through the same bond that made him feel every attack against the persona, or them being inside of her at the same time. Either way, it sent an extra zip of pleasure straight to his dick.

The one downside though, was that Narukami had to go a bit slower than he usually might with his attendant to avoid hurting her. Not that Margaret seemed to mind too much, as each slow, deep thrust they gave her earned a decadent moan that mixed with the gentle sloshing of the warm water they stood in to make quite the lewd soundtrack.

At a later point Narukami might be thankful that the tv world was pretty much abandoned, but for the moment he was too caught up in the thrill of seeing the increasingly bliss-blinded look on his lover's face and feeling her claw his shoulders and twitch around him. If someone came across them in that pool, he wouldn't care one tiny bit.

While he continued to thrust into the desperate woman though, Narukami did his best to steal a few hungry kisses and hit her g-spot every time he moved. All in an attempt to draw out more mewls and whines from her. All the while, Izanagi no okami helped in his weilder's mission by continuing to play with her breasts and kiss at her neck when Narukami wasn't. The duo working together to alternate their thrusts and continue to work Margaret up until her golden eyes just about glazed over and she came unravelled around the silver-haired wildcard. Who, with a few more thrusts, wasn't too far behind her in letting the tightly wound spring in his stomach come undone. And judging from Margaret's loud moan and her clawing into his shoulders like she might float away without him, Izanagi no okami flooded the velvet room attendant's soft body with his own hot seed.

Margaret just about melted against Narukami into a puddle of warm butter after that. Letting the silver-haired wildcard hold her as they both caught their breaths and let the pool wash away whatever juices may have dripped out when Izanagi no okami vanished. "So, was that as fun as you'd hoped?" Narukami eventually panted, letting the woman nuzzle into his neck affectionately as she hummed, "Fun enough for me to know that we may do it again."

#Yu Narukami #persona 4 #Yu Narukami x Margaret x Izanagi no okami #persona #Izanagi no okami #not sfw #spicy #lemon #ask #Margaret from persona 4

1 note · View note

sleepy-moron · 2 years

Text

If Mike has always been intended to be 1000% straight, then why did they add this in the show: Aka this info makes no sense unless they intended Mike to not be straight or they are baiting the audience

-Make both the "crazy together" and byler fight scenes be shot matches for two separate movies where the two characters involved in these scenes are boys that wind up romantically involved with each other+going through the effort to match Will and Mike with the characters they have more in common with.... unrequited gay pining is such a common trope that they could have easily found shots that didn't suggest mutual romantic feelings if the point was to code it Will as gay

-The shot of Mike hugging Karen at the end of season 3 being a shot match for a character hugging a false romantic lead while realizing he's gay from Dawson's Creek, aka a show the Duffers have said they were obsessed with and cited as a major inspiration for the show

-The kiss at the end of season 3 where Mike not only does not reciprocate a kiss from the girl he's supposed to be in love with, he also looks uncomfortable the whole time, straight up either denies or forgets he confessed he loved El, and does all this while being framed in front of an open closet, the set design of this show is way too detailed for them to have not know what they were implying with this one

-The clip of Mike in the trailer once again being framed in front of an open closet, but this time there's a one way sign pointing into the closet....the staff and crew of this show aren't incompetent enough to have not realized what they were implying to anyone with literally any background in film analysis

Literally every other piece of evidence you can make a semi competent argument that it's either extrapolating symbolism from set details that the creators could have possibly not been aware of, was meant to be gay coding for Will, the eighties just putting rainbows everywhere, and literally a million other explanations. I'd argue quite a few of these arguments are stretches too.

You cannot convince me that these examples were not deliberate, and if there was not ever any intention of going anywhere with this I'd argue that makes it baiting

#byler #stranger things #stranger things 4 #this isnt me saying it isnt going to be endgame #just that i can literally not think of a heterosexual explanation for this #i am simply tired and needed to get this nonsense out of my system #i just want to be able to focus on college worj instead of this nonsense

191 notes · View notes

yokonami · 2 years

Text

There is no heterosexual explanation for the camera zooming in on tadashi as adam's aunts tell him he needs to find a wife soon

#theres no heterosexual explanation for a lot of things in the show tbh but #i just learned both joe and cherry's english va's are queer!#i had NO idea jonah was bi but hell yeah #i am simply holding out way too much hope for things to become explicitly canon in s2 #instead of extreme subtext like they currently are #pointless post

1 note · View note

lunaevangeline · 2 years

Text

Okay, this is random but on my latest fic, I mentioned about how lovers' heartbeats can turn in sync. I had known about it before but I wasn't sure whether it's scientifically accurate or not. So yesterday when I was writing that line, I did a quick search and found out that they really have a paper about it!!

It's quite an old paper by Ferrer, E. & Helm, J.L. (2012). And here's a graph that shows the heart rates of a man and woman are in sync if they're involved in a romantic relationship.

Honestly I didn't read the full paper and this graph is actually a bit complicated (using deferential equation modeling). But I found an easy explanation from nature journal :

This couple (referring the graph) was one of the 32 heterosexual couples in a study conducted by physiologies at UC Davis in the US that aimed to see if people in romantic relationships co-regulated their physiologies with their partners. By co-regulated, read change; by physiologies, read heart rates.

In one of the experiments, the couples sat facing each other but just far enough that they would not be able to touch. The researchers asked them to simply stare at one another for three minutes straight in as calm a manner as possible (ahem) while they monitored the couple's heart rates.

The graph above does not actually show the heart rates of the man and woman changing with time. Instead it shows a complex measure of heart rate which takes into consideration the observed changes in heart rate due to the individual self-regulating, that is trying to control himself or herself by keeping calm for instance, as well as the changes associated with the individual as he or she unconsciously mimics the partner, known as co-regulation. Since the extent of both self-regulation and co-regulation is different in men and women, this measure allows for comparison between the two. In the above graph, the measure is actually shown by a blue line.

But the blue line is so closely matched by a red line that you barely see it. What does the red line indicate? It indicates the changes one would expect to see if the couple's heart rates are the same. Therefore the more closely the blue and red lines match, the closer an individual's heart rate is to the partner's. It is no surprise then that when the researchers compared the measure of heart rates between people not involved in a romantic relationship, the blue and red lines did not match.

The researchers also found that it was the women who tended to adjust their heart rates to their partners. Why this actually happens on a psychological level however is still a mystery. The researchers speculate that women have a strong link to their partners may have something to do with them having more empathy.

The study does have some limitations, which the researchers readily acknowledge. For instance, the study only looked at 32 couples which is a small sample. It also only looked at heterosexual couples. But regardless, it does at least give some evidence that we match our physiologies without even knowing to that special someone's.

And inspired from this study, here's a great line which may do wonders today of all days: "I love you so much that my heart beats as fast as yours whenever I see you."

References:

Dynamical Systems Modeling of Physiological Coregulation in Dyadic Interactions

Lovers' Hearts Beat at the Same Rate Everyday

#sorry I think this is cute #so I just want to share hehe #luna rambles about science #okay I made a new tag <3

25 notes · View notes

tokumusume · 3 years

Text

I watched The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity and I won't stop talking about it.

I didn't expect it to be so good and so gay. For real, I only watched it for Xu Kaicheng (more on that later) and Wang Duo (who I casually found looking for someone else, it’s destiny) and thought it was going to be another cheesy paint-by-numbers fantasy movie with cringe-y visual effects but it's sooo well-done and I actually care for all the characters?!

Boya is gay. There's no heterosexual explanation for the looks he gives Qingming (who is canonically bisexual, fight me). Also, Boya is a bottom. This, my friends, is the face of a bottom:

(he’s screaming ‘top me’ on the inside)

Back to Xu Kaicheng and slightly off-topic: everyone wants him to be Jun Wu in the TGCF drama but I think he fits Hua Cheng much better. May the gods of cdrama casting bless me.

XKC is amazingly hawt in the five minutes of screen time he gets as The Mad Painter (btw, is he the palace painter the Hair Demon was talking about?)

(abs... chest... lips... tattoos... *drooling*)

At times I wish this was a series instead. The fast, almost breakneck pace is good and leaves no room to be bored (unlike a certain other movie I watched the other day) but some characters could be a little more fleshed out, specially the shikigami (looking at you, Killing Stone, you're cute). On the downside, the budget would be spread through various episodes and we would get a giant snake on par with (or worse than) the Wen's dog from CQL. Better not then...

(beautiful soft baby, I want to pet)

The makeup and costumes... simply gorgeous. I have a weakness for accurate period makeup and the Princess hit all my sweet spots. Correct me if I'm wrong, the eyebrows and hair are much more Heian Period in Japan than anything Chinese (the story is based on a Japanese book after all). The lips look like Tang Dynasty, though. The butterfly shikigami sports a hime cut and the main characters' conical hats are also very Heian.

Ah, romance... I don't hate the straights this time, in fact I almost cried (the horror!) during the flashback scenes. The power of Wang Duo's abs, I guess. He is very hot and spends quite a lot of time shirtless. Thank you, Mr. Director.

Final rating: 9,9/10

#The Yin Yang Master Dream of Eternity #The Yin Yang Master #晴雅集 #Qing Ya Ji #QYJ #Boya #Deng Lun #Qingming #Zhao Youting #Mark Chao #He Shouyue #Wang Duo #Xu Kaicheng #Netflix #cmovie #text #tw snake #totally unbiased movie review *cough cough*#spoilers

157 notes · View notes

des8pudels8kern · 3 years

Text

Good morning, internet. It is December 23, I have the day off and really need to go grocery shopping to beat the holiday rush, and I still have feelings and opinions on S2 of The Witcher, in particularly Jaskier and his role and treatment in it.

We’ve seen Geralt be more sociable and act like old friends with Nivellen, a supposed friend he clearly did not know very well, and Yarpen Zigrin, you know, random dwarf from the dragon hunt, than he does with Jaskier. We get some nominal signs of a meaningful friendship in the Geralt&Jaskier interactions (Geralt goes to get Jaskier out of trouble in Oxenfurt and asks for his help, Geralt apologizes for the mountain, Geralt trusts Jaskier with Ciri after confronting Yennefer), but the pay-off just isn’t there for me.

I don’t feel the depth, the actual friendship, in their interactions, and instead Jaskier feels detached from the rest of the characters too me.

Geralt only goes looking for Jaskier once Yennefer takes off with Ciri and he shows little regard for Jaskier’s well-being; he only came because he needs Jaskier’s help since Yen mentioned having met Jaskier, so he might know where she took Ciri. The apology happens, yes, but it’s short and Jaskier quickly turns comic relief and stops any serious conversation - after not only the S1 scene on the mountain but the added scenes in S2, with Burn Butcher Burn and Jaskier admitting to his broken heart, that’s a cutesy little band-aid put on a big, festering wound and simply not sufficient to provide any closure. There is never any talk about or fall-out from Jaskier having just been kidnapped, his lute (tool of his trade, necessary for livelihood) destroyed, and literally tortured because of Geralt, there is no acknowledgement of Jaskier, who is not a fighter, walking into the Voleth Meir vs. witchers battle and staying and persistently trying to give Geralt that stone despite seeing several witchers die. Jaskier and the things he does and goes through (that he is willing to do and go through for Geralt and Geralt’s fight) are not acknowledged by anyone.

Jaskier is an equal in his scenes with Yennefer (the only character who seems to care whether he lives or dies tbh). He gets the bare minimum in his 1:1 interactions with Geralt. And in every other scene, any scene where it’s Jaskier and someone of Geralt’s group (and I use this term loosely since it also applies to Yarpen, whom both Geralt and Jaskier met during the dragon hunt and who has no closer connection to Geralt), the other characters consistently brush him aside as insignificant and an annoyance who inserts himself where he is not one of them.

And, personally, I think there’s a Doylist explanation for that. I think Lauren Hissrich didn't like how popular Jaskier turned out to be and every much didn’t like that Geraskier became the show’s juggernaut ship over Yenralt, and now she’s trying to redirect people. Are there any DS9 fans here? My theory is this: Lauren Hissrich = Rick Berman and Geraskier = Garashir. Fans are being gay about these characters? These heterosexual man characters? Well, that needs to stop! Won’t someone think of the loud homophobic nerds and the executives who want to sell this property to conservatives/internationally! Now, we are all progressives here, so the lesser character may still be somewhat queer-coded (Jaskier literally uses the word other for himself) as long as we maintain plausible deniability, but the two characters’ interactions need to be reduced and they need to spend more time with other characters instead compared to which their own interactions pale and are put into perspective, so the misbehaving fans have less “evidence” for their theories and no one has cause to question our manly main character’s heterosexuality.

#the witcher #negativity cw #the witcher season 2 #jaskier

45 notes · View notes

wackybuddiemewbs · 3 years

Text

Buddie Moodboard - The Eagle AU

In celebration of another OTP of mine. Because there are few heterosexual explanations for whatever the hell is going on with those two in the movie. Since I can't envision Eddie's dad as the awesome hero, I played a bit of poker and made Eddie, sorry, Edmundus, the captain of the Ninth. Among other things. *cackles*

Surely, for most, returning home after a battle of life and death is a gift of the Gods. Edmundus views it no differently. He dreamed of the day when he'd finally get to hold his son in his arms again. Yet, doing so after he lost his entire legion in a battle against the tribes North of Hadrian's Wall proves to be a most difficult task.

Stricken not just with injury but regret and grief, Edmundus has a hard time settling into his new life in Calleva at his friend's villa. Because not only his legion was lost. His wife took leave and hasn't been seen since, seemingly bringing just proof for his own inadequacy.

Robertus, despite Edmundus' wish to simply linger at the villa and hold his son close, insists he accompanies him to town. They stumble upon what turns out to be a gladiator fight - but with only one gladiator, as the other contestant is a slave, given no more than a blunt sword and a meager shield.

While Edmundus still feels more than conflicted about the people North of Hadrian's Wall, he knows such fight is without honor, so he and Robertus undertake any effort to sway the crowd and let the young man live who'd rather die than give the Romans a show.

Edmundus is none too pleased when Robertus introduces him to his new "body slave" named Buck the very next day. Anyone who knows Robertus is aware that he despises the practice and has since helped in freeing slaves rather than own them. Which makes his act all the stranger in Edmundus' eyes. But he since learned that the older man's wisdom runs a curious course at times.

Buck is likely even less pleased than Edmundus is about this turn of events. Yet, he considers it his duty to serve him, since Edmundus saved his life in the arena. Edmundus wants to hear none of that and would rather have Buck take leave.

But the young man sticks around, tends to him and his injuries, and soon holds a special place in Christophorus' heart.

Edmundus, under the careful ministration of Hen and Buck, soon regains most of his strength, despite the injury he suffered to his shoulder. He can ride horses again and hunt alongside Buck. And if he didn't know better, he'd think that Buck enjoys himself on their excursions as well as he does.

But Buck keeps himself heavily guarded, Edmundus understood by now. While he will seem almost carefree when he plays with Christophorus or annoy Hen with the brightest of smiles, Edmundus understands that this is also his armor. And it'd seem that nothing he can say or do will ever pierce it.

The surprise is all the grander when a friend of Robertus arrives at the villa, a merchant from overseas who insists being called Caminus. He announces the happy news of his union with Magdalena. Though his wife's sole interest soon lies on Buck as she rushes up to embrace him, seemingly with no intention to ever let him go again.

As it turns out, Magdalena's name is actually Madailéin, Maddie for short, and Buck's is Evan. And they are siblings.

Maddie used to be wed to a Roman soldier named Duglasius who'd come to their tribe for negotiations. She found out too late that he was of rotten character and that he had part in the annihilation of her tribe. She had to kill him when he tried to do the same to her. Still stricken by guilt over her tribe and having believed her little brother among the fallen, Maddie did not dare to seek out her people and instead lived among the Romans until she found true love with Caminus.

Buck reveals that he'd been in search for her and was thus not there when their tribe fell. He went on his journeys, following the revelation that he was not, as he'd thought, the chieftain's firstborn son. And that his sole reason for having been brought into the world had been a prophecy that foretold that he'd save his older brother. Upon learning of this, Buck fled the village to find himself, only to return to a field of ashes - and then be captured by the Romans.

Despite the sadness and grief, the siblings are happy to finally be reunited. In the aftermath of the revelation, Buck seems to warm up not just to Christopher but everyone around the villa a bit more.

So perhaps that armor can be pierced. Though it leaves Edmundus wondering why he'd want to pierce it in the first place. It shouldn't be his business, after all. And he himself values his armor above all else. He has to keep himself together somehow, for his son.

For a time, Edmundus dares to think that maybe things are headed in the right direction, despite his own shortcomings. Though Gregorius' father visiting and telling of the rumors spreading around the Wall, of sightings of the Eagle, leave Edmundus restless all over again.

He failed to save Gregorius and his men on the battlefield. Edmundus was separated from his legion during the ambush, which left his second-in-command Gregorius in charge while Edmundus hoped that he could hold the enemy off long enough for his legion to make it back to the camp. He won the battle in the end, but he passed out from his injuries shortly after. Once he awoke back in camp, he learned of the terrible news of his legion having gone missing and the Eagle having been taken.

The knowledge that Edmundus sent his own men to their deaths still haunts him, more so as people continue to whisper and spew rumors about how the Ninth deserted and died cowardly.

Gregorius' father ponders that the return of the Eagle may clear their names. And Edmundus finds himself agreeing, much to the host's dismay. Robertus reasons with Edmundus that he would do better focusing on his future with his son, instead of letting his remorse and regret of the past devour all the good that's happened in his life since. And looking at Christophorus, playing carefree with Buck in the gardens of the villa, Edmundus dares to tend to agree, hoping that the Gods will grant him peace after all.

But all of that is shattered a few days later, when a gravely injured and disoriented Buck staggers inside the villa. He beckons Edmundus to forgive him for having lost Christophorus before passing out.

Edmundus does not understand at first, but soon, it becomes achingly clear that Buck had been assaulted while at the marketplace, with the sole purpose of abducting Edmundus' son. As ransom, the return of the Eagle is demanded.

While he is not surprised, Edmundus is still taken aback by Buck's unbroken will to return Christophorus safely to his father. Thus, the two agree to search for the Eagle beyond Hadrian's Wall, leaving it to Robertus to investigate who may be behind all this while they are gone.

The journey proves strenuous and dangerous, to say the least. While Edmundus knows he is fortunate to have Buck by his side, as he speaks their language, he is also aware that every second may be their last if they were to discover his heritage. The Northerners are not fond of the Romans, naturally.

Tensions continue to grow between the two, driven by their anxiety to return Christophorus home safely and the shadows of their pasts, and that of their respective people. Yet, they are bound not just by a common purpose, despite the men's insistence to the contrary. It'd seem that their armors grow weaker in each other's presence. And now so closely together, the shields seem to be faltering fast, leaving them open and vulnerable.

When all seems almost lost, they find themselves under attack. As it turns out, the man is a former legionary who lived in the far north for many years. He and his men, much like Edmundus', had been lost after a fight against the Northern tribes, but it was also the Northern tribes that welcomed the injured and malnourished men into their homes. They all became part of that tribe. And so, they laid down their arms and vowed to keep this sanctuary of peace a secret.

That was until Edmundus' own men stumbled their way to here. Gregorius, as the two learn, led the men to safety as Edmundus had commanded him. Yet, he died a short time later during another ambush that resulted in the Ninth losing the Eagle.

In such state, the former legionaries found the Ninth and brought them to their tribe. Gregorius was given proper funeral and honors by his men and the former legionaries. The remains of the Ninth chose to stay here, partly out of shame for having lost the Eagle, partly because they sought a life away from all the bloodshed.

A feast is arranged in celebration of the Ninth's reunion, leaving both Buck and Edmundus wondering about their futures. Because as they watch those families, born of love between people at war, they can't help but think that maybe such life is possible after all. Even though both believed it a thing of impossibility.

If only you choose it.

If only you choose to lay down your arms, your armor, your shield.

if only you choose to embrace each other for strength.

If only you choose to lay yourself bare to each other, to reveal that underneath metal and leather and cloth, they are indeed the same.

And as the fires die out, a Roman soldier the son of a chieftain of the Brigantes dare to choose, for a single night at least, the comfort of each other's arms without any shield or armor separating them.

They spend a passionate night, which leaves them with more questions than answers once the sun rises. Because they cannot shake off their pasts, for what it seems, despite their choice that very night. Because in the light of day, they are still men of two different worlds whose lives don't lie in this strange sanctuary, hidden from the eyes of both their worlds.

But by morning's rise, their sole focus returns to their shared purpose, which is to find the Eagle and save Christophorus. Thus, they bid farewell and continue their quest towards the coast, as rumor has it that the Seal People are the ones holding the Eagle ever since the Ninth lost it in battle.

Though it'd seem that their worlds are yet to be shaken to their very foundation as their pasts come to haunt their futures, leaving them to decide, once and for all, what side they stand on, and who they choose in this life, and perhaps only ever in the next...

Find more moodboards here.

#buddie #buck x eddie #eddie x buck #evan buckley #eddie diaz #evan buck buckley #evan buckley x eddie diaz #eddie diaz x evan buckley #moodboard #aesthetic #buddie moodboard #buddie au #fanfic #in smol

59 notes · View notes