#and neil...thank you to neil

[ohgeesoap]

@deadbranch

[hansoeii]

we go just right.

[sparklingthedas]

Astarion lectures of disappointment >>>

[theoldkyokodied]

Really quick doodles of a few scenes from the stream yesterday. Including combat flirting taunting, gale’s magnificently distracting shoes and.. whatever you wanna call gale agreeing to give 15 gold to astarion 😐😑😐😑😐 (that’s me blinking)

[operakings]

andreil commission for a friend

[doesephs]

jean moreau came back to himself in pieces

[manicpixiedreamygirl]

Neil and Katlyn problably look at each other from time to time and go "OMG, This person has the worst taste in man under the sun😭😭😭"

And then their men are literally twins

[pani-artz]

BALDUR'S GATE 3 WON GAME OF THE YEAR, DARLINGS

And 5 more awards

NEIL WON BEST PERFORMANCE ❤️❤️❤️🦇

I'M SO PROUD OF HIM AND EVERYONE INVOLVED IN MAKING THIS MASTERPIECE OF A GAME👑

[minyard-05]

no no no guys do you. Do you get it.

^^^^ this wasn't aaron warning neil off of andrew!! this was a test!!

it was a test in the exact same way andrew threatening katelyn at the library was a test, the same way andrew drugging neil at eden's was a test– this is aaron assessing neil as a threat to andrew and to him. if he'd wanted andreil to be over, he would've fucking said it– he would've outright told neil to stay away from his brother. but he doesn't. he asks why. admittedly, he doesn't do it in the best of ways, but that's the point. he purposefully gets neil angry to see if he'll slip up and give something away. that's why he brings up drake and that's why it had to be aaron. aaron doesn't give a fuck what neil thinks of him, he's well aware that neil doesn't like him and he doesn't care. but he's able to get to him through andrew, essentially, and if anything, aaron's right. neil is exactly as much of a violation of their deal as katelyn is– aaron is approaching the situation the exact same way andrew did. andrew understands that, so if he did know that aaron talked to neil (and i think he probably would've figured it out if neil doesnt tell him), he wouldn't be able to hold it against him the same way aaron can't hold andrew's threats to katelyn against his brother.

nicky is the one that thinks it's hate sex, aaron thinks its something else. neil passes aaron's test the second he punches him, really. the fact that he leaves after neil admits he doesn't think andrew would fight for him is clear evidence– aaron didn't approach that conversation expecting neil to admit he was just using andrew (and if he had, aaron probably would've punched him)– he went into it knowing that it had to happen in order for the deal to be ended. neil tells aaron to figure out what you have to do to make him let you go, and that's exactly what aaron does. he figures out that neil is how he breaks the deal and he takes that to andrew as an ultimatum– either they keep the deal and break things off with both of their partners, or the deal is over; andrew keeps neil, aaron keeps katelyn.

aaron minyard is a LOT smarter than he lets on– the reason we don't see all of this play out is because neil doesn't realise that he's technically part of that deal.

[naturecalls111]

[brandyschillace]

The Forgotten History of the World’s First Transgender Clinic

I finished the first round of edits on my nonfiction history of trans rights today. It will publish with Norton in 2025, but I decided, because I feel so much of my community is here, to provide a bit of the introduction.

[begin sample]

The Institute for Sexual Sciences had offered safe haven to homosexuals and those we today consider transgender for nearly two decades. It had been built on scientific and humanitarian principles established at the end of the 19th century and which blossomed into the sexology of the early 20th. Founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish homosexual, the Institute supported tolerance, feminism, diversity, and science. As a result, it became a chief target for Nazi destruction: “It is our pride,” they declared, to strike a blow against the Institute. As for Magnus Hirschfeld, Hitler would label him the “most dangerous Jew in Germany.”6 It was his face Hitler put on his antisemitic propaganda; his likeness that became a target; his bust committed to the flames on the Opernplatz. You have seen the images. You have watched the towering inferno that roared into the night. The burning of Hirschfeld’s library has been immortalized on film reels and in photographs, representative of the Nazi imperative, symbolic of all they would destroy. Yet few remember what they were burning—or why.

Magnus Hirschfeld had built his Institute on powerful ideas, yet in their infancy: that sex and gender characteristics existed upon a vast spectrum, that people could be born this way, and that, as with any other diversity of nature, these identities should be accepted. He would call them Intermediaries.

Intermediaries carried no stigma and no shame; these sexual and Gender nonconformists had a right to live, a right to thrive. They also had a right to joy. Science would lead the way, but this history unfolds as an interwar thriller—patients and physicians risking their lives to be seen and heard even as Hitler began his rise to power. Many weren’t famous; their lives haven’t been celebrated in fiction or film. Born into a late-nineteenth-century world steeped in the “deep anxieties of men about the shifting work, social roles, and power of men over women,” they came into her own just as sexual science entered the crosshairs of prejudice and hate. The Institute’s own community faced abuse, blackmail, and political machinations; they responded with secret publishing campaigns, leaflet drops, pro-homosexual propaganda, and alignments with rebel factions of Berlin’s literati. They also developed groundbreaking gender affirmation surgeries and the first hormone cocktail for supportive gender therapy.

Nothing like the Institute for Sexual Sciences had ever existed before it opened its doors—and despite a hundred years of progress, there has been nothing like it since. Retrieving this tale has been an exercise in pursuing history at its edges and fringes, in ephemera and letters, in medal texts, in translations. Understanding why it became such a target for hatred tells us everything about our present moment, about a world that has not made peace with difference, that still refuses the light of scientific evidence most especially as it concerns sexual and reproductive rights.

[end sample]

I wanted to add a note here: so many people have come together to make this possible. Like Ralf Dose of the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft (Magnus Hirschfeld Archive), Berlin, and Erin Reed, American journalist and transgender rights activist—Katie Sutton, Heike Bauer. I am also deeply indebted to historian, filmmaker and formative theorist Susan Stryker for her feedback, scholarship, and encouragement all along the way. And Laura Helmuth, editor of Scientific American, whose enthusiasm for a short article helped bring the book into being. So many LGBTQ+ historians, archivists, librarians, and activists made the work possible, that its publication testifies to the power of the queer community and its dedication to preserving and celebrating history. But I ALSO want to mention you, folks here on tumblr who have watched and encouraged and supported over the 18 months it took to write it (among other books and projects). @neil-gaiman has been especially wonderful, and @always-coffee too: thank you.

The support of this community has been important as I’ve faced backlash in other quarters. Thank you, all.

NOTE: they are attempting to rebuild the lost library, and you can help: https://magnus-hirschfeld.de/archivzentrum/archive-center/

[d4rkshad0w]

i physically screamed when Neil told Andrew “Choose us.” in tkm

[hansoeii]

stuck in the rain.

[very-small-giant]

finally finishing the king’s men to prove i’m not a quitter

[cubbyyyy]

You know what makes me sit in silence everytime i think about it?

The fact that Andrew was attracted to every version of Neil.

He thought he was hot when he still had his brown eyes/brown hair

He thought he was hot when he had blue eyes/brown hair

He thought he was hot when he had blue eyes/auburn hair and the number 4 tattooed under his eye. ”you are a pipe dream“ , he said, looking at Neils bruised and most honest self.

Then Baltimore. Neil got tortured. Got bruised all over his skin, scars that’ll never be forgotten and what does Andrew do? He asks yes or no and kisses his hip.

It sure af wasn’t love at first sight but the fact that his initial attraction never faded gives you a hint about what Neil is for Andrew.

(Not to mention how the versions of Neil changed the more Andrew learned about Neil as well. First he was Neil. Then he was Abram. Then he was Nathaniel. Until he finally became Neil Abram Josten.

All the lies. All the truths. It all came together and Andrew was there during all of it).

and if I start talking about Neil falling for Andrew the more he learned about him and the role he took over-

(Neil is there to protect the one who protects them all)

[dawnatlas]

starting this thing called Forever Partners Friday bc i cant commit to inktober but i still wanted to do something weekly for october anddd ofc it had to be jeaneil related 🙂‍↕️

first one: halloween costumes!!