#but I think clothing inherently says so so much about who you are and your emotional state

[queermasculine]

you don't have to answer this but are you still on t? I know you've talked about thinking you were into guys before figuring out u were into butches and I wonder if that realization changed how you saw your body?

I ask bc I'm in a spot where I can't fully tell if I need to go on t to look the way I'd feel right or if I can get to enough of a butch level with exercise and clothing and being around better people than currently. My gender wouldn't change either way, I'm still not a woman, but .. yeah.

realizing i was into other butches did change how i saw my body absolutely, like completely changed it, i don't think i had anything positive to say about my body pre-butch4butch at all tbh. looking at myself and realizing my masculine dream partner would actually have most of the features i was most dysphoric about was a total shift in perspective for me

whether that type of mental shift can lessen your dysphoria to a point where you'll never need T as a dysphoric butch, i'm still kinda figuring that out myself. i was in that "i've done my research and i've seen friends go through the process but i'm being a pussy" stage when i had my b4b epiphany and that brought my dysphoria down to manageable levels (this was years ago now) so i never went on T, but i still think T might be in my future – even if i've cut down my dysphoria by like 70% that remaining 30% can really chafe sometimes depending on the day

but if the question is "is it possible to get to a good place just by focusing on all the other, non-medical aspects of transition" yeah absolutely. like you really can change your appearance completely it's kinda crazy. many ppl don't realize just how much of the average cis guy's masculinity – which can seem so inherent – is actually just clothes and hair. even just getting your hair cut by someone who will give you an actual men's cut instead of the girl version of that style can totally change how you look because it just frames your face and neck so differently (speaking from experience)

that being said i don't think you should ever withhold HRT from yourself if you have access to it and think it might help you. just that it's possible to have a good life even if that's not an option for you, at least in my case it has very much been possible

edit: love all the ppl chiming in with their positive experiences being on T, however i was kind of trying to make this a positivity post for the transmascs out there who are not on hormones rn (like me) so if we could refrain from using wording that paints that life as being incomplete or lesser-than somehow that'd be great, thanks everybody🤘

[dante-mightdie]

long awaited part three of lowselfesteem!reader and simon

part two

invisible clothes

that’s what you called them, the rags you don when you have to integrate with the general population but you would much rather not be noticed. clothing that is so bland that it isn’t nice enough catch an eye but not hideous enough to catch any negative attention

you had told simon about them once, when he called you out on wearing them every time you stepped out in public, including your dates with him. especially since he knew you had a very elaborate wardrobe with a tailored sense of style

clearly they aren’t invisible enough to hide you from johnny’s guilty eyes from across the store aisle. you sigh when he comes up to you, tapping your shoulder to get your attention. he shifts uncomfortably on his feet

“I know ye probably hate ma guts, lass but ye should ken that simon shut down all of that bet talk after your first date. Ah just bring et up to annoy ‘im.” johnny says, with a nervous chuckles at the end. you don’t laugh alongside him

“okay, fair enough. look, he’s miserable without ye! he comes to the pub just to get pished and mope about how he fucked it all up with ye.” johnny continues, a pleading look in his eyes, “he’s supposed to he coming by to drop off some things of yours tomorrow. just hear him out, please, lass.”

you roll your eyes at him, continuing to grab what you need from the shelves in front of you. not even bothering to look him in the eyes when you finally begin to speak

"why should I? why am I always expected to think of other people even when they hurt me? you and simon didn't think about me or my feelings when you made your stupid bet. neither of you stopped to consider that I was just a person who simply wanted to be left alone." you say with a scoff, "he'll be lucky if I don't slam the door in his face."

johnny shifts on his feet, looking down at the floor since he feels too uncomfortable to look directly at you, "fair enough. take care've yerself, hen."

you bite back tears as you watch him skulk off in the corner of your eye. you stand there for a few more minutes, staring at the stacked shelves in front of you to distract you from the war raging inside of your head

-

it's late at night, nearly midnight, when there's a knock at your door. you let out a sigh, already knowing who was disturbing your doomscrolling at this hour. and when you open the door, you see him. you’re brooding prick of an ex-boyfriend. he at least has the decency to look guilty, like a dog caught ripping up the couch cushions

except he wasn’t a dog, he was the love of your life. and your heart isn’t so easily replaced like a cushion. though he definitely treated it like somewhere to rest his head

“hey.”

you scoff, you’re not sure why. there isn’t anything inherently wrong with what he said but it still annoyed you. he annoyed you. with his stupid stormy eyes and his stupid jokes and freckled shoulders that you used to connect like dots late at night

“just give me my stuff and go, simon. don’t have time for this bullshit.”

he doesn’t flinch. he saw that hit coming, and sometimes you gotta let them swing at you especially when you know that you deserve much worse

the exchange is quick, a box with small memories passed over to you. a couple items of clothing, a book and some toiletries. before you can slam the door in his face, he jams his heavy boot into it

“wait… love, I… there’s somethin’ else. I never gave it to you but it’s yours. got it for you and I’ll never give it to anyone else.”

the glare you give him only falters when he places a small velvet box in your hand, he pauses the speech you can definitely feel coming on. looking at you expectantly to open it. you do, waiting for him to laugh at you when you find nothing in there. ridicule you for even thinking he would consider making you his wife

but all he does it look on solemn, the beautiful ring twinkling as a devastating reminder of what could have been

“I kno’ I ‘ave no right to ask. I wouldn’t insult you like tha’ lovie. you can hate me, I deserve it. but you don’t deserve it. I won’t let you hurt yourself over what I did. you deserve to know the real extent of how bad I fucked up. maybe it’ll help to look at tha’ ring and know that I’ll spend the rest of my life having to know I lost the woman who should be my wife.”

there’s no chance to respond, not like you’d know what to say anyway,

“I’m sorry.”

and then he’s gone.

[longing-for-rain]

Katara and the “Mom Friend” Trope

Both in-universe and among fans, Katara has always been identified as the “mom friend.” While often used as a joke, the trope does reveal a deeper and more tragic aspect of Katara’s character: the way the war has forced her to grow up quickly and take on a parental role at a young age.

This is a frequently misunderstood part of Katara’s character, despite it being central to her arc. Since the show first aired, Katara has been the butt of many jokes and has always been one of the most hated characters by fans. From tasteless jokes about how she talks about the loss of her mother too much to accusations of being too emotional and bossy, Katara’s character has always been under attack by fans.

In past years, and still in certain parts of the internet, this behavior was blatant, but lately I’ve noticed a more subtle spin on this. As it becomes slightly less socially acceptable to say blatantly misogynistic things about female characters—particularly here on tumblr—I’ve noticed fans express the same negative sentiments about Katara, but dressed up to appear more progressive. The most common way I see this sentiment expressed is fans downplaying Katara’s role as “team mom” and trying to make it seem as if Katara is less mature and responsible than she really is.

Of course, these individuals would have you believe that their reasoning for these opinions is that they really care so much about Katara and want to “let her be a kid.” But in reality, when you ignore the way that Katara is forced into a parental role in canon, you also ignore and disregard the context for many of her character traits, leading into the accusations of her being bossy and overly emotional that I mentioned earlier. It erases, and therefore minimizes, a huge source of stress and trauma that weighs on Katara throughout the series.

The idea that Katara fans created the concept of her being a “mom friend” is ridiculous. This is mentioned so much in canon that it’s practically a running joke. Toph accuses Katara of acting like everyone’s mom in The Chase. A similar conflict arises again in The Runaway, when Sokka even admits that he thinks of Katara as a mother figure, despite him being her older brother.

Katara seems pretty hurt by this too, and it’s still never properly addressed again.

In The Headband, Katara actually pretends to be Aang’s mother.

And looking at everything we know about Katara, it’s very clear how she assumed this role. Think about what she says in the exposition of the entire show:

Katara: Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier! I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks?

The moment Katara is introduced, the audience is given a critical piece of information about Katara—that she’s lost her mother and essentially assumed her role. While Sokka is more or less playing and occasionally hunting (we hardly ever see him do this in canon by the way), Katara is doing the overlooked, underappreciated labor that keeps everything moving. There is a great post here by @theotterpenguin that details this and the inherent misogyny in devaluing the kind of work Katara does, and how many fans tend to do this.

This trend continues throughout the course of the show. Katara is always the voice of reason who keeps things moving. She reigns in Sokka and Aang, who are constantly getting themselves into trouble.

There are countless examples, but to name a few:

As early as The Warriors of Kyoshi, she’s trying to get Aang to behave and not endanger himself to look cool. And having him mouth off when she gently suggests that he help with a minor chore.

In The Storm, Katara warns Sokka not to take a risky job, which he ignores and nearly gets himself killed.

In The Blue Spirit, Katara is trying the whole time to do something productive via Momo, remaining vigilant despite the sickness wearing her down.

In The Chase, being the one to politely ask Toph to help out, and honestly doing a pretty good job of keeping her cool as long as she did.

The entirety of The Desert episode. While everyone else was drugged up, hopeless, and even outright hostile, Katara kept everything moving and saved everyone’s lives.

Whenever Aang goes into the Avatar State, it’s always Katara tasked with calming him down, despite how dangerous and volatile the Avatar State is when not properly controlled.

Additionally, there are so many small details that add to this picture. Katara is always the one we see getting food, preparing food, doing chores, everything of that nature. Everyone else would be completely lost without her.

And sadly, this is something never properly addressed by the narrative nor acknowledged by fans. There is a great post here by @ecoterrorist-katara explaining the tragedy in this. Katara is constantly burdened with the responsibility of keeping everything moving and doing the invisible labor that is never appreciated but keeps everyone moving, which is the reason why she’s viewed as being in a maternal role. Because that’s what she very clearly is to her friends.

This really wasn’t meant to be a ship related post, but it is kind of the elephant in the room here. I know a lot of the motivation in downplaying Katara’s “mom friend” role stems from shipping discourse, in particular, the hatred of the idea of Katara and Zuko acting as team parents. Some people associate Momtara as a Zutara trope and as a result, relentlessly bash it as they do anything even tangentially related to Zutara. But did you ever consider why it’s a Zutara trope? Because a lot of fans recognize everything I mentioned previously, and enjoy the idea of someone helping to share that responsibility. Sokka, Aang, and Toph clearly didn’t, so that leaves…guess who.

Zuko: You should get some rest. We'll be there in a few hours. You'll need all your strength.

It’s tiring seeing this trend from people who clearly don’t care about Katara or her character. Sure, you might try to act like you’re downplaying Katara’s maternal role and how a huge part of her canon character was the war forcing her to assume that role out of “wanting her to be a kid” but you really aren’t that different from more blatantly misogynistic fans who call her immature and annoying. You don’t recognize or respect the work she’s constantly putting in to protect those around her, and then you have the audacity to get mad at fans of Katara who actually like the idea of someone taking some of that burden off of her shoulders?

Same Katara hate, different font. She is forced into this material role, and refusing to acknowledge this is disrespectful not just to Katara’s character, but all the real life women and girls forced into similar roles who see themselves in Katara.

[yusiyomogi]

pretending that mithrun wasn't designed as androgynous character is honestly a bit silly on the surface, but reveals some deeply ingrained beliefs that i don't wanna unpack. i wanna say though, it's interesting. as someone who also draws and designs characters sometimes, i can say, it's clear to me the way kui draws mithrun, the way she portrayed him is very thought-out and has specific feelings she wanted to invoke in minds, just like with all the other characters.

if she didn't want readers to be a little "confused" about his gender at first, she wouldn't make him use "watashi" as a pronoun. the uniform he wears was clearly designed for him, because he's the only character who looks really good in it (she even said that she tried to make it more fitting for others, but it looks a little weird on other dudes) and it has a skirt and thigh-high boots, and it's something that manga constantly puts in focus during the scenes where he fights. if kui didn't want to create gap moe or let you think about mithrun as "cute" in general she wouldn't make him wear clothes that are too big for him and a scarf tied into bow, clearly connecting him to characters like izutsumi. yes, his face is also pretty, but it's not all of it, it's not just an art style.

saying that his tallman's form is how he's actually supposed to look is a bit silly too, it was a joke that could only exist if mithrun's main design was cute and dainty enough to create that funny dissonance. and when you think about it, mithrun's tallman's appearance isn't exactly a true portrayal of his personality, is it? on the same page where he's revealed to be this cool-looking buff tallman, he's also revealed to be just as silly as he's been all this time. he's still the same guy who'd tell you all the gossips. he looks strong because he trains a lot, he trains a lot because he thinks he wants revenge, being physically strong is not some inherent truth about him that puts him in some labeled box. the force of his will is much more important for his recovery, for example.

it's fine to acknowledge that mithrun is elegant and cute and funny but also strong, cool and straightforward to a fault at the same time. it's not a dichotomy, these are just traits of personality that can coexist. and it has little to do with how he looks, but since he's a character and not a real person, there are some thought-out reasons for him to look like he looks. it's fine to redesign characters for your own art style and sometimes it's a good idea, but i don't really understand why people always redesign mithrun to fit more into what they perceive of him. kui is great at character design, so i wonder what's the problem here.

[our-queer-experience]

Tumblr staff have started banning multiple transfem accounts for speaking up against the harassment campaigns aimed at transfems and lack of moderation to combat it going on and the ceo trying to hand wave all away.

I'm genuinely scared for where this site is heading

i’m gonna answer these two at once because… yeah it’s easier.

i think its a shitty abuse of power. i have an ask in my drafts about the copypasta that was going around harassing trans women(whether they were tirfs and hated trans men or not, it’s irrelevant because it was still sexual harassment. it was also often sent to people who had jack shit to do with trans discourse) but at this point things have gotten so much bigger. in the uk an unnamed trans girl at the roller rink was almost stabbed to death, a 16 year old nonbinary student in oklahoma got beat to death in the bathrooms, brianna ghey’s murderers were finally charged with murder and i believe it was legally classified as a hate crime. on top of that with all the legislation passing…. shit is getting scary and it feels like this is only the beginning.

you can also tie it back to how trans women’s existence just… as trans women is seen as inherently sexual and in need of regulation. i’ve seen this enforced socially- women often tell other women “friendly” tips on how to conform to femininity with threat of punishment, and the scale to which trans women are subjected to this is disgusting. whatever you do is sexual because no matter what you do it will be considered inappropriate- so here’s our top ten tips on how to conform! but here it was just straight up censorship on… posts about bugs bunny? fully clothed transition timelines? venting frustration at staff for not dealing with the people harassing her? and for the ceo to threaten to get the fbi involved, if i remember correctly, is just fucking ridiculous.

i’ve also seen posts on other trans women being banned for just… talking about this? which really worries me. banning her was one thing, and that sucked ass enough on its own. but to subtly threaten users by saying “if you call us out, we’ll destroy your blog” is a whole nother level.

it also worries me how many people are, AGAIN, making this a transmasc vs transfem issues. crabs in a bucket; or something like that.

there are some valid points of “where was the solidarity when we were being sexually harassed and threatened?” and like… i get it. a few months ago me and some of my mutuals were getting RIDICULOUS amounts of sexual harassment(on my main blog, not much here) and we were told to get over it and it was just bait and ext ext. but…. why aren’t we extending the sympathy we wanted at the time? it’s so weird that coming from the “be nice and respectful to everyone, regardless of belief, we’re all human” crowd it cant be bothered to be brought up unless our own issues are being talked about. i’m also worried about how a large chunk of people are blaming this on trans men who talk about our oppression, or use this to “prove” we dont have it bad as if we weren’t ignored when similar shit was happening to us a few months back, or even saying we don’t have any problems at all and we should shut up and listen to other trans people.

it also worries me how many people are getting banned for speaking up for her(predesterone? im not good at remembering urls). how the censoring of trans bodies is also being defended and enforced- “she was threatening me!”. threats by cis radfems arent taken seriously- i saw that the other day with that one user comparing trans people to hitler and my reports doing jack shit- but when a trans woman lashes out because the staff didnt defend her, THATS a serious threat?

i left twitter after a month this year because it’s just intolerable, and i’ve never been on tiktok and instagram just lowkey sucks and reddit is… reddit. this has been the chillest and safest place for trans people so far, and seeing that get burnt to the ground just makes me wonder where all of us will go.

@staff, treat your userbase, especially your trans userbase, fairly. it’s not too much to ask.

[maxdibert]

Ron Weasley is not working class just because he wears second hand robes. Why do so many people think this? The Weasleys are fucking ARISTOCRATS, descended from a centuries-long line of aristocrats!

They work their own land! Molly doesn’t have to find paid employment, and Arthur isn’t forced to compromise his moral integrity in order to take a better paying job at the ministry! They have seven children, and there’s always bountiful food on the table despite it being underlined several times that food can’t be conjured or transfigured and that magic won’t save you from real poverty (Merope, Eileen). It’s a whole plot point in Deathly Hallows that Ron can’t handle a lack of food! Their aunt has a (implied to be dubiously appropriated, as many jewels belonging to nobles) goblin made tiara! They’re members of the wizarding gentry, while Severus - and Mundungus, who the Weasleys view with contempt - are the underclasses. Missing this misses so much about the dynamics among the Order of the Phoenix members, who are almost all members of the wizarding elite, which is why the werewolves and the giants and the underworld laugh in their faces when Dumbledore sends envoys to try and persuade them not to support Voldemort. Many of JKR’s political analogies fall apart if you think about them for longer than a minute, but she did nail the inherent conservatism of upper class ‘progressive’ politics.

One of the biggest problems I find with the Weasleys' interpretation is precisely the lack of class perspective from a purely cultural point of view. This is something I've talked about many times on this blog, that purity of blood can be interpreted with aristocratic status and that in Europe no matter how broke or broke you are, being part of the nobility gives you a social status of your own that is above any bourgeois no matter how much of a millionaire you may be. Aristocratic status is something in itself just like blood status in the magical world. Lucius Malfoy, who is not only a pureblood but also very rich, may laugh at Arthur Weasley, but Lucius Malfoy would rather have his son Draco marry Ginny a billion times than any half-blood and muggleborn, because it's a matter of blood. Because the Weasleys are aristocrats, and because for the aristocracy, ultimately, even if someone is from a family that has fallen into disrepute, they are still a family in name only. Hence when Ginny becomes the ultimate marysue the Slytherin boys openly admit that they find her attractive. It's something they wouldn't do with half-bloods or Muggleborns even if they thought about it, but with Ginny they do it without qualms because Ginny, despite being a ‘traitor’, is still a pureblood and therefore recognised as an equal.

Trying to equate the Weasleys with any character who is not pure-blooded is absurd, because the discrimination towards them comes only from people with the same status who are also socially above them by having more economic power, but they cannot be compared with characters who lack status and, moreover, economic power. It is a complete misunderstanding of how social structures and class dynamics work. Plus, they are not poor. They have no real need. They don't have to do whatever it takes to survive. They don't have, in general, to survive. They live and do so comfortably and probably wouldn't have to wear second-hand clothes if instead of fathering a football team they had had three children. As you say, Rowling's view is very much of the privileged bourgeois left who have no idea what it is like to go hungry or to have to do terribly immoral things in order to feed children. Everything you have said is something I underline 100%.

[gladiatorcunt]

i’m thinking about modern!coryo again… ‘n the way he’d just love humiliating you. when you’ve been particularly bratty (let’s be real, any time you tell him no he thinks you’re being defiant… no matter the circumstances), he loves to shove your face into the mattress so your ass is facing him, and grip your hips, teasing his cock against your entrance until you’re whining and begging for him to fuck you. but he doesn’t! he just lets his cock slap against your clit and tease your slick hole until you’re soaking your panties. his favourite thing though, is filming you take his cock, because even though he’d never let anybody see the videos (besides maybe his friends), he gets off on the way you’re whining for him to put the phone away as he fills you up, pearly cum sliding down your soft thighs. but he won’t, because he just loves the way you’re absolutely humiliated at the thought of somebody seeing how much of a whore you are for him

CW: anal, sejanus mention (throuple au tease), typical coryo type warnings, yandere/possessive & obsessive behavior, gn reader but there is feminization (reader calls themselves a "good girl", coryo calls your pussy "sweet girl" & assigns it she/her pronouns), blood (coryo has a fantasy of you tearing), accidental slight pet play/dumbification, my modern coryo's typical inability to understand/care about poor(er) people, the ending is inspired by ghostface's finishing move in dbd, implied plus sized reader (who's afab) he loves you really.

So true, you could do something as small as say “i want to be alone in the bathroom for 5 minutes” and he’d lose his shit. Something about that arrogant rich boy behavior turned up to 100 because he’s inherently a psycho….. like he loves you deeply but wdym his prized possession has a mind of their own (if you just decided to do everything he wants, he’d support you making your own decisions). His whole vibe was being untouchable and unavailable but now it’s coming apart. Like do you know how much he planned to hoe around when his family inevitably made him get married??? But now you’ve fucked it all up and made him feel like he’s constantly writhing around in every circle of hell fr.

So yeah, he can’t take it if he feels like you aren’t “putting in as much effort” as he is. And i don’t mean that he’d be pissed if you’re not cooking or cleaning, i mean that he’d be peeved if you weren’t matching his energy (batshit balls to wall insane). He’ll do a little cute open palm wave like “Hi, baby 🥰” when you look at him over your shoulder with tears in your eyes. King of false sympathy with all the cooing and mocking your facial expression (which you wouldn’t even have to make if you were behaving). His weird ass is completely naked even though he made you keep your clothes on, and he tore a hole in your leggings with his teeth for easy access.

He’ll put his dick in between your ass cheeks and fuck you like that until the sheets are soaked because you got so desperate (you nearly pissed yourself). He’ll press the head against your asshole and see how deep he can get before you realize that he’s using the wrong whole. Sometimes he wishes that he’d tug his cock from your hole to find the whole thing covered in blood. If you catch on him, he’ll just say that it was an accident. But to be real, you knew immediately. It just gets you hot watching him go on his little power trips. The pleasure of letting your rabid dog off of his leash but he thinks it’s his idea does something to you that you’re currently ignoring.

The iPhone camera you can see from the standing mirror by your bed doesn’t exactly catch you off guard. Coryo’s got a fair few videos of you getting backshots in his family’s limo and even more of him devouring your pussy anytime and anywhere he pleases. Your stomach rolls with shame but your pussy clenches in arousal. A big part of being able to handle being his s/o means having the ability to straddle the line between calling his bluff and baring your neck in submission. So you just whine pleadingly and let your head fall forward onto the pillow.

You'd never admit that there are times where you'd be perfectly happy if your ass was all he fucked; that on mornings when the sunlight beams down on you as Coryo pushes the velvet curtains from the large penthouse windows and all you can see out of the eye that's not smothered in the pillow is your boyfriend in a pair of gray sweatpants, you feel feral with the need to swallow his cock all the way to the base and lie there forever.

A "love tap" to your clit brings you out of your thirsting. When all you do is gasp, you receive a firmer strike.

"Don't tell me you're already out of it? Did I make my smart baby all stupid already?"

"Hngh~ Uh huh, don't stop..." You beg, the carefully maintained image of the prim and proper perfect student crumbling under his touch.

Your need to be praised and to have male approval can really be a curse sometimes, because outside of the bedroom you don't let yourself be as willing of a kept pet as Coryo wants. But as soon as you're alone, you gratefully sink into the safe space he creates for you where you can just... let go and have someone else think for you for a change.

It feels like bolts of electricity go through you when two of his fingers start to trace letters on your pussy lips. It makes you think of his family crest branded on the gates of their mansions.

C-O-R-I-O-L-A-N-U-S S-N-O-W, pinching your clit after every letter. (training)

"That's okay, I like you dumb anyway. Can't use that big brain to think about anything else but me when I get this dick in you." He says and wags it in his hands at you like it's a treat.

The bed creaks as he sits back on his heels, and like a good girl you parts your legs as far as they can go.

Welcome Home.

The heavy weight of his palms clutching your hips calms any lingering anxiety, his nails bite into your flesh but you know he'll be licking and nuzzling the marks soothingly later. He's told you how beautiful you are in the beginning, that he relishes in the way you give up all tension to him with a sigh; that one of his favorite versions of you is the you that shuts down. Has him feeling like the "family man" he always vowed to never turn into.

"Now, you know the drill, take a deep breath..." He pants, somehow already pussy drunk, "It's going to be a tight fit, dove."

His grip tightens as he feeds his tip to your clenching hole, you soak in the mutters of 'aw, I missed you too, sweet girl.' You know he wasn't talking to you.

Your breath hitches when you start taking him past the tip, and like always, Coryo wraps a hand around the nape of your neck and massages it to distract you from the inevitable sting of pain. It'll always be there no matter how much of a mess he's made of your cunt.

"That's my dumb bunny, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig stretch." He grunts, dragging his words out when the thickest part of his cock comes to greet you.

You moan when he takes his other hand off of your hip to reach it around and rub your twitching clit. More juices drip from your hole, making the remaining inches slide in a lot easier.

You hear shuffling and the bed creaks as Coryo leans over to grab something off the nightstand. He quickly finds what he's looking for and settles back into position behind you. He gropes one of your ass cheeks and gives it a couple long squeezes before he jiggles it, letting out a low whistle when he does it again.

You mewl impatiently, clenching your pussy around his long cock. He doesn't give you what you want, however, until almost a minute later. He jostles his hips against your ass, showing off for the camera that's focused down on where the two of you are connected.

Coryo's head shoots up when he hears you sniffle, and even though he could tease about how much of a needy whore you are, you're HIS needy whore so he only smiles.

"Alright, alright. 'M sorry, petal, I know your pussy's gagging for this dick. I'll give her what she wants, don't you worry."

Your mouth falls open on a silent moan as he leisurely drags his length out of you until the tip catches on your entrance; being forced to be broken down and rebuilt around it until you both turn to ash. He has never wanted anything more than he wants you to somehow grow to only survive of his own body. His blood would be your water, his very dna would be your floss, his bone marrow would soothe your raw throat, his organs would be your snacks, his bones would be your jewelry, his teeth would be your little trinkets, and his surrounding flesh would be your every meal until you could eat no more.

You have no idea how much of your boyfriend's time has been spent making sure he tastes delectable, in every way.

Like those people from Pompei who are forever immortalized in the arms of their lover, chained to the passage of time but the eyes that dust them off are the only things about them that change.

You made him watch Titanic once, saying that your MasterChef binge could be paused for a night. He huffed but complied, and gun to his head, he wiped his tears on the arm of the couch before you could notice that he was crying. Rose could've done a little more to help Jack in his opinion (they both could have fit on the wood), he'd have never just let you go like that. But there was something in the way all they really had in the world was each other, in how calm the old couple was as the water creeped into their room; because they were together, and to Coryo, death after a very very long and happy life is an experience that's meant to be shared (no matter the circumstances).

His body has been moving on autopilot during his usual mid-sex spiral monologue. There's ringing in his ears as he tunes back into your hiccup-y whines and high-pitched moans (he loved when you stopped being so fucking shy). His thrusts had gradually sped up until they were at the speed they were now, your bodies now making wet smacking sounds as his dick pulverizes your pussy. He had been so lost in thought that he nearly dropped his phone, but he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was still recording.

He removes his death grip on your ass cheek to slap your swaying tits one after the other. He can never resist showing love to the chub of your tummy either, so he hits that too.

"Yeah, you like that, bunny?" He sneers, tonguing your ear and gnawing at the lobe as the excess saliva trickles down the valley of your breasts.

It's a rhetorical question, of course you do.

But you answer, using your words like he often "urges" you to.

"Like it so much, Coryo.... fuck!"

His thrusts become even faster, and he gathers as much of your hair in his hand as possible. Your moans cut off into a gasp as he wrenches your head up off the pillow by your hair, bringing the phone around to put your tear-stained face into frame.

You're helpless to do anything but take every inch he slams inside your puffy cunt, which will no doubt be sore and red by the time Coryo's done with his latest fit. He bends down to whisper in your ear about braindead you look, sobbing with your eyes glazed over and your mouth gaping.

"Shh, that's it, keep going baby. It's all about you, these'll just be fun memories so I can have little parts of you forever, so you could never really leave me."

You never look away from the camera though, and he's suddenly overcome with so much gratitude that he uses his grip on your hair to bring you into a sloppy open-mouthed kiss; your tongues making it so wet you'd think he'd been eating your pussy nonstop with how soaked the lower half of his face gets.

He doesn't let you pull away, the impulsive french kissing only ends so he can lean his head against yours and get into the shot with you. He's smiling so warmly like you're taking a selfie on one of your numerous vacations, but his hips never stop their rough assault on your already thoroughly debauched pussy. Coryo tightens his hold on your hair and pecks your round cheek when you whimper due to the sting.

"Smile, petal."

The videos are kept in a locked folder on his phone titled “💍💒", and while he threatens to show his friends (in actuality he’d only show sejanus in some version of this au where he’s trying to force him into a throuple), he’ll apologize with his tongue swirling around your sensitive nipples once he feels like you’ve learned your lesson. If you’re really upset, he’ll offer to make up to you on his father’s yacht in Greece. (he has your bags packed already)

faetreides 2024. request rules. please consider tipping/reblogging if you enjoyed!

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching reading. Today's choice: 死亡万花筒 / Kaleidoscope of Death.

Kaleidoscope of Death is a 2018 Chinese webnovel about two young men who fall in love while basically playing a whole bunch of horror-themed escape rooms that can for-real kill you.

This novel was gripping. I could not put it down. It started out fun and ended up ripping out my heart several times. It does a good job getting the ball rolling with a series of adventures in weird worlds, then turns into a meditation about grief and loss and what it means to have something to lose in the first place.

This is the first time I've ever done a book rec! I'm doing it in conjunction with a rec post for the Spirealm, and originally I was just going to do this as a bonus section for that post. However, I felt they both deserve whole different posts, because they both have very different things to recommend them. I also think Kaleidoscope of Death a 100% necessary read if you've seen the show, because it provides some context that the show simply cannot include -- but it's not a necessary read before you see the show.

Therefore, I'm going to give you five reasons I think you should sit down with this one, and not a single one of these reasons is going to assume you've watched the Spirealm! The book is great and deserves to be read on its own merits, and then if you then start watching the drama afterwards, so much the better.

1. All the Cross-Dressing

(Yeah, I'm going to punctuate this one with screencaps from the Spirealm, because otherwise it's just a wall of text.)

I'm not going to tell you why the male characters frequently dress and pass as women, since the book explains the practicality of it better than I could. You just need to know that they often do, and it's never not kinda hot when it happens.

When you first meet Ruan Nanzhu, it is as Ruan Baijie, a stunningly beautiful and noticeably tall woman. Lin Qiushi, our POV character who is extremely confused for a number of reasons, spends the first whole arc talking and thinking about Baijie like she's a girl. In fact, one of the cutest things about sweet, earnest Qiushi is that he clocks Baijie several times, and every time he's just like, oh, she's so flat-chested, how unusual for a girl, anyway...

And this isn't even just dressing up! Stepping into the door worlds changes you physically based on your clothing and cosmetics. Nobody inside looks the same as they do outside, and nobody looks the same inside as they did last time they were inside. The rules that govern these transformations aren't even clear to the characters themselves! So, you know, have fun with that.

I'm going to say it's not an out-and-out trans thing, in that we're not dealing with an AMAB egg who will crack someday. Ruan Nanzhu is a very male-identified, penis-having man! He's just also pretty entertainingly comfortable with performing whatever gender makes him the most fuckable person in any given room. Lin Qiushi is not so inherently genderfluid, however, which means that when his gremlin sort-of-boyfriend makes him pretend to be a girl, it's a completely different kink.

Therefore: If you like it in any way when boys dress up like girls, you owe it to yourself to pick up this one. And if you like a fandom that likes it when boys dress up like girls, baby, welcome to the world inside the doors.

2. Those boys GAY

This is a textual romance. Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu are in love. This is a danmei novel about how they fall in love. There is kissing and there are fade-to-black scenes that explicitly acknowledge that the two of them have sex with one another. We even know that Ruan Nanzhu (usually) tops. This s not just me pointing at them and saying gaaaaaaaaaay. This is actual gay.

And it is gay that takes its fucking time. They do not actually hook up until well over halfway through the book, but they are physically affectionate from almost the get-go. Ruan Nanzhu is such a trickster and a liar that Lin Quishi finds it hard to believe that anything he does is sincere, which leads to nearly lesbian levels of wondering if it means anything when a guy demands you kiss him on the mouth when he's pretending to be your girlfriend. Meanwhile, Ruan Nanzhu is over here being the Kate Beaton comic about sitting here consumed with lust all evening.

Even once they both acknowledge what they're feeling for one another, they don't get together right away. After all, they're playing a game of life and death where they lose friends left and right. Every time someone goes inside the door, there's a real chance they won't come out again. Is giving your heart to someone worth how much it will destroy your entire life when you lose them?

(Yes, says the book. Yes, it is worth it.)

The slow burn of their relationship is delicious, in part because the physical (though not sexual) aspects of it predate the romantic ones. It also has the fun hot-and-cold aspect where Ruan Nanzhu is incredibly affectionate inside the doors, then icy outside of them. Poor completely inexperienced, never-been-kissed Lin Qiushi does not know what to make of any of this. He can barely manage parenting a cat. He does not know how to handle a boyfriend who is also a girlfriend who is also (spiritually) a cat.

I also find it charming how much the gay part of it both is and isn't an issue. It's not that Lin Qiushi has a problem being in love with a man; however, the fact that Ruan Nanzhu is a man does mean the heteronormally indoctrinated and relationship-inexperienced Lin Qiushi takes much longer to realize what exactly those feelings he's having are. The book's world is one where heterosexuality is the assumed default, while queerness is unexpected but everybody's still pretty cool with it. Besides, no one's going to judge Lin Qiushi's gay yearnings, because who doesn't want to fuck Ruan Nanzhu?

3. HAKO ONNA HAKO ONNA HAKO ONNA

So as I was reading through @zintranslations' earlier chapters, I kept seeing translators' notes down at the bottom about being so excited to finally get to the Hako Onna arc. Okay, I thought, this is a lot of hype; I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Friends, it does not. This is the arc I was reading while screaming into a pillow. It's thirteen chapters long, tied for the longest arc in the book with the first door. It is a fucking nail-biter. It does the clever thing of taking all the things you've learned about what can happen inside the doors and combining them for a worst-case scenario.

The setup is pretty simple: There's a bunch of boxes. One has the exit. Most are empty. Some have things that help you. Some have things that hurt you. The more things you find that hurt you, the more things there are to hurt you. And you have to open the boxes.

All the door arcs are pretty well-written, so that you can more or less play along with their various adventures. Hako Onna, however, is exceptional. It's so complicated, but you can actually follow it. And you need to be able to follow it, because the multiple emotional gut-punches that happen in this arc all depend on understanding how the rules of the game have just been leveraged to fuck someone over.

Now I really want to play the board game -- which I was pleased to discover is a real board game! And speaking of board games...

sidebar: Betrayal at House on the Hill

I know this isn't technically related to the novel at all, but if you like board games, horror, and being incredibly dramatic, you owe it to yourself to try out Betrayal at House on the Hill.

It goes like this: You and several other horror-movie archetypes wander through a mansion, "building" it as you explore it, so the game layout is different every time. At some point (and it's based on so many random factors that you never know when it'll be) someone triggers a condition, and the haunting begins. All the players then get the rules of haunting explained to them -- except for one player, the one picked to do the titular betrayal, who gets a different set of instructions and becomes the antagonist. From that point on, the game is about either surviving or completing the haunting, depending on which side you're on.

I have played this game before with normal board game people, and they were like, eh, this is fine. I have also played this game before with theatre kids who RP and LARP, and we all had a fucking blast. So I'm going to warn you that you have to choose your crowd carefully. This is a game for people who do improv and voices.

4. The art of losing isn't hard to master

The book has a high body count -- higher than the show's, in fact, though that's related to how the book also has more characters than the show does. When you meet someone who can go into the doors, be careful how much money you'd lay on their survival.

Death after the doors comes so quickly, too. There's barely any time to say goodbye, if there's even any time at all. Often there's just a phone call telling our main characters that one of their friends or allies or enemies is gone.

Everyone who gets the chance to go through the door worlds is only able to do so because they're dying already. The more doors they pass, the more they get to kick that death further down the road -- but the more doors they enter, the more chances they take that they might die inside one. So really, none of the players can be that resentful of being forced to play a game that can kill them, since they're already playing it on borrowed time.

I will say, somewhat cryptically, that the book has a positive ending that leaves open the possibility for other positive things. The path to that positive ending, though, leads through some pretty wrenching takes on living through grief. It's not even all rah-rah and it-gets-better, either -- the text acknowledges many times over what it means to have someone that life isn't worth living without.

And that's maybe not what you expected from a BL horror adventure webnovel, but it's what you're gonna get! Ha ha!

5. What He Is

Which is the title of the first extra chapter, which is not extra at all, but is in fact a necessary explanatory piece that whacks you upside the head like a two-by-four and recontextualizes the entire story.

...Yeah, that's all you're going to get from me about that. You'll understand when you get there.

Have you put it on your reading list yet?

The way you have to read it is a little convoluted: @zintranslations has chapters 1-17 and 63-end + extras. Taida Translations has chapters 1-62. So no matter where you start reading, you're going to have to switch sites at least once.

There are also apparently Portuguese, Indonesian, Russian, and Spanish translations too? And the original Chinese webnovel, of course. And some audio dramas and subs linked to from this Carrd, which helpfully has other information, like content warnings for specific chapters, in case the horror aspect of the story gives you pause.

Anyway, once you're done reading it -- or even before you're done! -- you should absolutely go watch the Spirealm. I think it's clear from both rec posts that I definitely like the book better, but I appreciate having the drama to bring so many scenes to life, and I think the casting is great. Also, I don't think reading the book makes you like the drama less! Rather, I think reading the book gives you insight into the awkward and sometimes terrible choices the drama had to make to survive -- which in turn gives you the ability to see through those choices, on to what the show always wanted in its heart to be.

I do find it funny how "Kaleidoscope of Death" and "Death's Kaleidoscope" technically mean the same thing, but they sure read different, don't they?

[your-average-teenage-mess]

The first time I read discworld as a kid, I didn't really understand what the whole "if you are asked to find the real you in a maze of mirrors, ignore them all and look down, and that is you" thing was supposed to mean. I thought it was kinda weird and pretentious. Like, why are you avoiding the question?

But now that I've actually experienced some of the identity crises that you encounter when growing up, it makes so much more sense. It actually makes more sense now than it did back then, to people who grew up in a post-social-media world. You're constantly presented with esthetics and identities to give yourself a sense of meaning, you're supposed to place yourself on every imaginary scale someone made just because, and while that can be fun, there's this added expectation to assign your sense of self to an image someone else made, if you feel like it resonates with you. And... That's especially true with gender. Trans people online have this constant pressure on us to "find our truth" and care oh so deeply about it, but then algorithms start marketing curated pictures of our identities to us, to find pride in it. We're supposed to look at a list of tiktoks about our microlabel and think, "those are my people and I'm proud to be one of them". And don't even get me started on the concept of gender envy. Like, you're supposed to look at something that has nothing to do with you, and assign your identity to this thing, which surely doesn't help the fact that young people are now collectively paralyzed by a lack of sense of self. And I'm not saying any of those things are inherently bad or invalid- we all look at mirrors to examine ourselves, and that's FINE. But the person you ARE isn't gonna come to you in a dream, or an essay, or a post, or a reflection. It's in you. Your sense of self isn't a riddle to be solved, it's just who YOU are. This isn't to say you shouldn't do things that make you feel happy or authentic. But those things don't define you. Nothing that you do or experience would make you no longer you if changed, and that's okay. You're not your body, or your clothes, or your attitude, or your job, or your abilities, or your fandoms, or your diagnosis. You can love them, and hopefully you do, but they're not you. You're you. You're the perspective that experiences the world around you. You're the thing under your mind that feels. Please don't forget that.

[sugar-crash]

🏎️Turbo (Wreck-It Ralph) x (gn) Reader🏁

(His Last and Only Love Edition)

(Picture’s not mine!)

(Request here! Howdy hey! Sorry for being a little lump in the log lol)

- With how inherently loyal and caring this kind of reader is, I don’t think it’d be much of a stretch to say he’d take them for granted.

- Like having a sort of carelessness about your relationship that’s a constant all throughout it, sees it in a “They’re going to love regardless of what I do” sort of way.

- Spawns an unhealthy dynamic between you two if that isn’t obvious already, denies that he depends on your affection but to the people who really pay attention see that he’s lying through his teeth, you both metaphorically cling to each other like an unhealthy symbiotic relationship.

- Turbo is really a parasite even before he worms his way into Sugar Rush. And you probably are as well, considering you follow him from Turbo Time to Sugar Rush after he systematically ruined two worlds in one day. Unwilling to let go of an idealized fantasy.

- Entitled to a frightening degree, for not only his fame but also your affections, keeping you close but also pushing you away— His actions are confusing and dangerous but you simply can’t find yourself in the haze of being his lover. It was what you were made to do.

- It feels like an act at times, especially when you’re both in Sugar Rush, the overdramatized version of himself that tries to play your relationship off as whatever you both decide it to be.

- I kinda like the idea of you being a jester of some sort over a ruler alongside him as KC, I mean, the original use for a jester was not only for amusement— But also stress relief among other things.

- That and the symbolism of being a lovesick fool, blinded by their own desire to keep Turbo happy, wearing the makeup and the clothing of one feels fitting.

- But there’s also potential in the reader being another ruler, being the quiet one in comparison to the talkative and enthusiastic persona Turbo portrays as KC, a metaphorical doormat of a ruler that lets their husband command Sugar Rush in a unfair society that’s thinly veiled under all that positive image and wanting what’s “best”.

- And all you can do is nod, you’ve never gone against him, even at his worst, why would that change now?

- There’s so many reasons why you’d do something like this, probably too many to count, maybe it’s simply the way you are, or you were influenced by the people you care about to be like this, who knows?

- But what we do know is that you both are each other’s folly all the while being quite literally being made for one another, people expected you to be there alongside Turbo. The doting S/O. The hopelessly devoted.

- I see it in a way that I see Simon and Betty from Adventure Time, albeit far more unhinged, your very being has been based upon him, is there anything beyond that? That’s for you to decide and come to terms with if you don’t want to be delegated to simply being his.

- Would you have the opportunity to? Or would you be loyal till the very nasty end? Stuck in a body that was mutated with the compulsion to be lured to a thing that would kill you indefinitely?

- You have always sacrificed so much for him, whether it be various friendships, opportunities, or options. So much. Are you willing to sacrifice yourself as well?

- A love like that is just draining, an aching for a man that undermines your heart for the sake of being “better” in all things he deems worthy.

- He does so little yet so much to keep you from falling out of love with him, honey coated promises and the way he just knows what to say when he feels as if you’re pulling away, even if it’s rare.

- By the end of it, you probably can’t even recognize him anymore, who is this person? And why does it hurt to love him? Why do you need a person you know can be so volatile?

- Are you partly afraid of him? Do the things he does concern you? Those kinds of thoughts are a common occurrence between the two of you, even as the years go by and you both find yourself tangled up in a lie of your own making.

- Death is more than likely the only way you guys separate, but would the damage be too great after tearing the tumor from the host?

(.-- .... --- / .. ... / - .... . / - ..- -- --- .-. / .- -. -.. / .-- .... --- / .. ... / - .... . / .... --- ... - ..--..)

[doberbutts]

i know people rag on gc2b but. i don't really get why? i have like 5 underworks binders of various size and model and none of them bind well on me and roll up constantly. gc2b requires adjustment every now and then but that's normal for any garment. but binders with a stiffened front panel are binding, all stretch with no solid panel just acts like a shitty sports bra. i don't get it. half convinced people just say shit because they got One with mid stitching and decided all of their product must be just like that, and that underworks must have superior binding because they make things for cis men. which i don't think is true for comfort or binding.

I don't honestly know either- I haven't bought a binder for about 3 years and before that for another 3 or 4, so I can only say that it was a recent development that I see people complaining about the quality of gc2b. They've always worked for me but yes, they do fall apart after a while. When I started binding, it was a known thing that you would be replacing your binder yearly, and maybe if you took very good care of your binder you could get away with every 2-3, with specific care notes on how to make your binders last longer. It does make me wonder if somewhere we lost track of that.

I do know some of the people complaining about gc2b are well outside of the sizes the company makes their clothes in. This is a fair complaint in my mind because I am not a particularly big person (and my doctor called me obese at my last weight check due to BMI) and I am already in the XXL/XXXL range. I do think that a restructuring of sizing and also offering larger sizing should happen. And I again wonder if that is part of the problem- people squeezing themselves into a binder that is inherently too small for them is absolutely going to wear that binder out way quicker.

Another complaint I've seen is that they don't bind well enough for the particularly well endowed. I have fairly medium sized breasts myself so I can't speak to that on personal experience, but I do have a friend who is at the top end of gc2b's range who has breasts that are both larger and saggier than mine and he is quite satisfied with his binding experience. That being said, anyone larger than him would be SOL, so again, it does sound like there is a significant sizing problem.

I do have a friend who prefers the old style of underworks which had a binding front panel the full length of the garment, which has since been deemed unsafe and discontinued en mass for most binder companies. He had a dysphoria related panic attack meltdown the first time he put on a gc2b because the front panel being only chest-length felt far too much like a bra to him. He has fairly significant chest dysphoria and he also has been binding since he started growing breasts during puberty, and is significantly older than me, so I've long chalked that up to different world and dysphoria. He has since gotten used to the gc2b style and still wears them, but it was quite startling for him.

If I weren't having top surgery hopefully soon, I would still be buying gc2b, and when I buy binders for trans guys starting out I buy from that company unless they tell me a different company preference. Like I offered to buy someone a shapeshifters a few months ago because he was saying that he wouldn't fit a gc2b and wanted to bind and had a specific binder in mind. But otherwise if someone who I know fits in their size range asks, I still refer people to that company, because I and my friends have not had problems.

[astroismypassion]

Astrology observations 🧡🐱🍊

Credit goes to my Tumblr blog @astroismypassion

🧡 Libra Chiron and Chiron in the 7th house native can often attract a partner with a “man child” behaviour. They might go that far to give nickname to their partner, such as “mamma”, “daddy”, “mamacita” etc.

🍊 Saturn in the 7th house people can divorce around the same age as their parents age were when they got a divorce. This native can disconnect emotionally from their partner around the age their parents divorced.

🐱 Why Sun in the 12th house often comes across as a victim is often, because they change the narrative. They present one story and later they change it or present another aspect of it, which people don’t end up accepting and would often accuse the person of trying to portray themselves as a victim.

🧡 Gemini IC or Gemini over the 4th house native: some of your family members tend to have allergies

🍊Libra Moon men inherently have a knack for what women like in partnerships and how they enjoy being seduced. They just have this natural knowing and instinct. They also think that they seem to prefer big romantic gestures (such as picnic) over gifts.

🐱 Saturn over the 2nd house transit: in the middle of the transit you might realize that money and financial stability doesn’t buy you happiness, emotional stability, confidence, optimistic outlook or status.

🧡 Cancer Venus loves the idea of marrying their first crush. Or someone they have known since teenage years or their whole life.

🍊 Capricorn Jupiter ends up marrying someone older than them. Or a bit younger, but often older. Similar Aquarius Jupiter, either someone a lot older or someone younger. Meanwhile, Libra Jupiter often marries someone with the same age, their peer, because they like an equal partner. Gemini Jupiter ends up marrying someone with whom they have 2-3 years age difference.

🐱 Pisces Venus really enjoys reviewing red carpet looks, fashion choices and outfits. They also really like to discuss fashion and they sometimes idealize it. They share this with Taurus Venus as well.

🧡Aries Moons love dance soo much. Even if they just broke up with someone, failed an exam, broke off an engagement, they are like... at least I can still have dance and have fun. They really express their emotion through dancing.

🍊Celebrities who have Libra MC are often known for their perfume. Such as Gabrielle Coco Chanel and perfume Chanel No. 5, which remains one of the best known perfumes of all time around the world.

🐱Taurus Venus women often face remarks of other people about their body, I would say even more so if the woman also has Taurus, Libra or Aries Moon and Scorpio Rising or Rising at a Scorpio degree. Much like in the case of Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez.

🧡 People who have Gemini Moon or Gemini IC: your parents might often criticize your partner.

🍊Virgo MC often perfects their craft to the last detail. Their clothes are really carefully chosen and curated when younger just to have nurture this image of being flawless. But with age, they tend to dress down, show themselves just as their are. Often they grow to understand that what their identity is and who they are (Pisces IC) is already enough on its own. That they don't need to be perfectly dress or put on a performance without any mistakes. Celebrity examples would be Kim Kardashian, who dresses down with age and likes to present herself in a more "natural" light. Also Justin Bieber, who used to plan out all of his performances with perfect dances and clothing. All was well curated for the audience and the public.

🐱Also, when you have Virgo Midheaven you are more likely to SELL something. Like your own perfumes, bracelets, tarot readings, astrology chart readings, your own music, clothing etc. Even if you are working as a waiter since Virgo is related to service, you are selling drinks and food in the end.

🧡 People with Libra MC or Libra over the 10th house might get accused of having a job or a career only because of their spouse or partner. Like "Kanye made Kim" who has Libra over the 10th house. These people can also end up working for their spouse's business.

🍊Composite Pisces Mars or Mars at a Pisces degree (12, 24) can often cause delays in who one person sees things and when the other learns about them. You might write them a love letter or decide to tell them your feelings months in advance. But they don't really know about your intentions and might hear things for the first time much later than you. Or you might plan a birthday surprise months in advance, but your person might only learn about it much later. Or they mention something they like that you have already bought them or plan to give them.

Credit goes to my Tumblr blog @astroismypassion

[goodqueenaly]

Question that's been on my mind for a while. What do you think a maiden's cloak would look like for a woman who doesn't have a family sigil? For instance a bastard woman, or a member of the Smallfolk (It was Jenny of Oldstones that inspired this line of thinking)

The inherent problem, of course, is that ASOIAF is a story almost exclusively told from the perspective of the aristocratic and royal elite. Therefore, while we have not exactly lacked for examples of weddings in the story, we as readers have not exactly been positioned to observe a peasant wedding, much less to understand the general format of weddings among non-noble Westerosi. (At most, we’ve heard of such weddings secondhand, with nothing in the way of ceremonial detail - the marriage of Lyonel Corbray to his Gulltown bride, for example, or Alysanne’s sorry tale of the blacksmith’s daughter raped by her local overlord.) Is a cloaking ceremony even part of your average Westerosi peasant wedding, or is this more common among aristocratic marriages? We simply don’t know, and we probably won’t know anytime soon, at least in the main novels.

Still, if I were to speculate, I would say that to the extent peasants and the Westerosi merchant/middle class follow this tradition, brides and grooms would likely approach the idea simply literally, rather than dynastically as well. So long as the bride was being publicly de-cloaked by her father (or, perhaps, paternal equivalent), using any given cloak or cloak-like piece of clothing, and re-cloaked by her new husband, I don’t think any of the attendees would have been confused about the symbolic message - namely, that the bride “passed from her father's protection to her husband's” at that moment, in the words of Tyrion.

The other point I would note here is that I doubt the validity of any given Westerosi marriage ceremony has ever hung on whether the bride was cloaked by her new husband. Rogar Baratheon, after all, was far more concerned with whether Jaehaerys had consummated his marriage with Alysanne than whether there had been a cloaking; conversely, while Tyrion may have performed some sort of cloaking ceremony with Tysha (given that Tyrion “wrapped her in [his] cloak” after Jaime left them), his marriage ceremony certainly did not prevent Tywin from having the union dissolved. Whether the marriage was consummated, whether the married parties had the ability to enter into and consent to the union, whether the union was properly conducted (at least in terms of the septon performing a marriage in the Faith) and witnessed - all these factors are or likely are far more important in determining whether the marriage is valid than merely whether the husband put a cloak on his wife. Consequently, when we get to the story of Duncan and Jenny, I imagine the debate around annulment will be whether their wedding was witnessed (and thereby able to be verified) and consummated, and whether Duncan and/or Jenny (but especially Duncan) had the ability to agree to the marriage (given that Duncan may have been below the Westerosi age of majority and was certainly betrothed to someone else).

[hesperocyon-lesbian]

Your post on the subject is relatively respectful of transmascs, which is great, aside from the inherent issues with the word "TME", but as a transwoman I also don't like egg culture because of how often and how frequently it devolves into uncomfortable flippancy at best and pressuring someone to be something else at worst. If AMAB people are less allowed to explore their gender because the rules for how they present is tighter - and that's also somewhat arguable, but putting that aside - should we not simply give them the chance to do so without saying a boy who wears a skirt might be trans, as we wouldn't say a woman who wears pants might be? Of course, they -might- be, but my point is that breaking down those barriers is better than pushing people through them. This is why I don't understand the hostility towards femboys, or even forced fem fetishists which historically have been very tied to realizing they were trans all along because a noncon scenario was the only way they were socially allowed to conceptualize their dysphoria.

The fact that you start out objecting to my post’s use of the phrase “tme” is already a bad sign frankly.

Anyway, as to your main point, you’re ignoring how much overwhelming pressure there is on people who are amab to be men. A few jokes from some trans women aren’t gonna outweigh that societal pressure. When you start to buy into narratives about trans women pressuring cis men to be trans, you’re just mirroring the same absurd rhetoric people use about us secretly transing everyone.

You need to understand that “you don’t have to be a trans woman, you can just be a guy who wears feminine clothes” is a thing a lot of conversion therapists say to trans women. I think what you’re calling hostility to femboys is a backlash by trans women against constantly being told “you can just be a feminine man”.

[talon-dragonbeast]

Hi! I’m having questions that I’m not sure where to find the resources about safely, I hope it is okay i sent them here instead.

What is the difference between a transspecies and physical nonhuman and a clinical lycanthrope?

I know what they all are (vaguely, at least) but i am confused where the overlap ends (i know there are overlaps still, but i am confused where it ‘seems’ to end)

I’m really sorry if this ask is rude, i did not intend it to be.

excellent question! and dont worry, not rude at all, the terms are very similar after all :D

transspecies

transspecies is an opt-in label that some nonhumans choose to use for themselves, so its definition may vary among its users. some use transspecies to describe their experiences as transgender nonhumans, some use it because they intend to transition (usually through clothing, gear, jewelry, tattoos, piercings, and other species-affirming methods), some choose to use it to spite people who try to dilute our experiences to make them more acceptable to others, some use it as a political statement, some use it because they are physical nonhumans... I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

from what ive observed, transspecies folks seem to share some common experiences, such as species dysphoria (or its positive counterpart, species euphoria), the intention to socially or physically transition to their desired species, and a certain attitude towards their nonhumanity ("cringe culture is dead", "i will not water myself down for your convenience", "i will be myself even if it makes you uncomfortable", etc).

there exists a misunderstanding among some alterhumans that the transspecies label was originally created by the radqueer community (for those who don't know, radqueer is a label for those who are radically inclusive of all identities, regardless of the potential harm they may cause, including pedophilia and zoophilia, transracial people and abusive relationships), but rest assured that this is not the case. there are records of the term transspecies since 1997, before the radqueer label was even created. some transspecies folks might also identify as radqueer, but definitely not all and this is not inherent to the label.

physical nonhumans

what it says on the tin. a physical nonhuman is a nonhuman who identifies their own physical body as that of their 'type. there are many reasons why someone may identify as a physical nonhuman, some believe their DNA is not human, some may say they use a veil or other similar abilities to hide their true form from humans, some experience delusions related to their physical body, some follow the reasoning of "i am nonhuman, this is my body, therefore this is a nonhuman body", and some are that way just because! no one reason is more valid than another, and some physical nonhumans dont even have a reason for being the way they are; they just are.

clinical lycanthropes

also called clinical zoanthropes, they are beings who believe they are experiencing or have experienced physical transformations to the body of an animal, often due to mental health conditions such as delusions or hallucinations. for example, a clinical cynanthrope may experience transformations to the body of a dog, and may or may not act accordingly to their physical body.

clinical zoanthropes are a very misunderstood part of our community, and should be treated with the care and respect they deserve. they are not crazy, they are not dangerous, and they are as much a part of the alterhuman community as "sane" folks. it is terrible that i even have to clarify this, but i have seen too many alterhumans deny that CZs are part of our community in favor of the more "acceptable" identities, so unfortunately this is necessary.

conclusion

so, to actually answer your question, while there is certainly some overlap between these three communities, they are definitely not the same.

from what ive seen, there are many transspecies folks who are also physically nonhuman, and vice versa. some clinical zoanthropes use the physical nonhuman label for themselves, but it seems that most describe themselves as simply their species. most CZs dont use the transspecies label, because they already perceive their body as nonhuman, although some do wish to socially transition. both physical nonhumans and CZs may have their origins in delusions or hallucinations (though definitely not all, especially on the p-nonhuman side), but i dont think ive seen any transspecies users claiming that their label stems from that; i could be wrong though. and finally, i think CZs maintain a certain degree of separation from the therian/otherkin communities, mainly because they dont relate to a lot of our experiences and also because of the constant attacks they tend to receive from closed-minded beings. thats a problem that definitely needs solving, as i think were stronger together than we are on our own; but thats a post for another day.

i hope my answer satisfied you anon, but feel free to ask more questions if it didnt! and for those of you reading this, feel free to correct me if i said something wrong! im not part of any of these communities, so take everything i say with a grain of salt. have a nice day! :}

[stone-stars]

Transcript:

Fia: Okay, I will help in whatever way I can. ["Irina" begins playing.] I can picture her very vividly still. I don't know whether it is true, or if I have made up a version of her, but she's still so strong in my mind. Sienna: Do you sense her arrival? Murph: Uh, and-- and looks at you, Fia. Fia: Do I? Murph: Um, and just then… you guys see a figure. Deep in the distance, in the maze of trees. ["Irina" begins playing. Fia gasps softly.] She's radiating with magical energy, surrounded by these swirling green sprites. Fia: It just kind of flowed from her very effortlessly. In fact, when I knew her, I… ah, I did not have a spell to my name really. I-- I-- I was not magical at all. The most magical thing about me was her probably. Murph: Yeah, Fia, you have this strong, strong memory of this magical girl that you grew up with in this very un-magical place. Just this burst of color in this grey world. Murph: She wears a multicolored cloak that she's clearly made herself. Murph: She has the looks of like, a bandit. Like, kind of like [Emily: Yeah.] patchwork clothes and things like that. [Emily: Yeah.] Of-- of like somebody who's like stolen armor. Fia: Okay. Henry: So it's gonna be like that. Fia: This is gonna be a problem because I actually really like you, because you seem sweet, because you made your own clothing, so… Emily: I am going to just…. ooh, I really don't wanna hurt her. Murph: And, um, she's kind of looking around. It looks like she probably just plane shifted here, and is a little bit like-- she's like staring around in wonder. Because, you know, even as somebody who's inherently magical she probably hasn't been to groves before. Um, or if she has, they're still beautiful every time you go to one. So, she looks around. Emily: Okay. I think I-- I take a moment to enjoy the pleasure of seeing her before she sees me. Fia: She is like a pressed flower in my mind. Murph: Yeah! You see uh, she smiles. She's got these, uh, little tusks that pop out, just like you Fia. Emily: Does she still wear her hair long? Fia: She loved honey cakes, but she would never finish one. She always gave the rest to the birds. Um, she had long silver hair that sometimes I would braid, but she didn't know how to braid her own hair. How funny is that! Sometimes I wonder, did you want me to braid your hair and that's why you never learned? Murph: She still wears her hair very long. She's got, uh, her silver hair goes all the way down her back. Fia: Okay-- ooh! Thank you. Silver is my favorite color. Yes, let's do this! Emily: I think then I can't help myself. I say, like-- Fia: I'm glad you kept it long. Murph: Um, you-- you-- you say-- Fia: It's such a beautiful color. There should be as much of it as possible.