#but the speech patterns and the bisexuality are real

[lacefuneral]

okay but i'm utterly obsessed with dale cooper

weird little autistic guy that acts like he's never seen a tree or a bird in his entire life and is full of awe and wonder at every aspect of nature. fully believes that his dreams are prophetic for some reason with pretty much zero proof and one of his methods of "investigating" is to throw rocks at glass bottles.

severe caffeine addiction. talks a thousand miles per hour. instead of making a phone call like a normal person, he dictates voice memos on cassette tapes to his secretary and mails them to her. he treats these like diary entries and will mention that he's doing mundane things like meditating. he randomly hangs upside down like a bat in his hotel room.

has a speech pattern that is nearly impossible to replicate in writing because it's both overly formal and overly casual. randomly goes on infodumps about niche topics. he tells a guy about his watersports kink entirely impromptu. he's extremely compassionate, even to people who don't necessarily deserve it. constantly doing a thumbs up every 5 minutes - even after he's been shot three times in the torso.

does the responsible thing by turning down a teenage girl that's interested in him, buys her french fries and a milkshake to cheer her up, and then becomes a safe adult she can trust (unlike her father). complete and utter romantic - he goes on this tangent about The Power Of Love and the guy he's talking to literally says "what the fuck are you talking about?". extremely tender to women and men alike - bisexual king.

canonical ally to trans women. serving butchfag realness in his undershirts and flannels and his anachronistically slicked-back hair. wears a trench coat that makes him look 3 feet tall.  one time he tried to "cure" his partner's hangover by describing gross foods until he threw up.

guy of all time maybe

[frieddiscjockey]

#FRIEDDISCJOCKEY writing blog for gregor "gonzo" vukovic, a ghost character from abc's crazy fun park. highly selective & private. minors dni. primarily runs on queue due to work schedule. loved by billie ( 32 . est. ) this blog will contain triggering content and spoilers . 21+ preferred . minors do not interact . established february 2024. followed back by coastercrushed.

 open starters./ headcanons / verses./prompts. / board.

affiliated with; @rvnawaytrain, @luminarot also found at: lennon. mapplethorpe .gareth. april. siobhan. marko.

INFO / STATS UNDERCUT.

01. first things first, i am aware that a lot of people haven’t seen crazy fun town. i highly recommend it. it’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, it’ll make you feel nostalgic. i digress because this will have a lot of horror aspects. a lot of the park kids died in really horrific ways. gonzo was the dj at the park in the 90s who got electrocuted going down a water slide whilst some loose, broken cords got wrapped around his foot on his way down. a lot of depressing topics will be mentioned considering gonzo had died suddenly and he's almost decayed to nothing due to his memory nearly being forgotten.

02. drama is not my thing. i avoid it in real life and you best believe i’m going to avoid it online, being that this is my hobby. i wont reblog callouts, but will read them. i’ll only reblog if the person is incredibly dangerous to make my followers be aware. no gross behavior with minor muses, either, thanks. don’t be transphobic, genderbend, whitewash, don’t be a racist asshole, don’t support n*zi imagery, don’t be a fucking dickhead. 

03. oooooh i do love shipping! though, i do prefer a little bit of plotting beforehand. i think it’s very important to build a relationship ooc as well. i’m more comfortable to ship if we talk a little ooc.

04. i’m billie! i’ve thirty one years old and i’ve been apart of the rpc since late 2010. i’m an old lady. i’ve been around the block a few times. i work full time overnight ( twelve hour shifts ) at hospital & i have a lot of social obligations so i’m primarily mobile. most of my replies will be posted by queue due to this. my reply speed is slow and whilst i post a lot of ooc posts while at work & what not, it may sometimes take me a few days or even weeks to reply to a thread. patience is key! this is something i do whenever i want to destress and have fun.

STATS

 GENERAL.

BIRTH NAME. gregor vukovic ALIAS(ES). gonzo, dj gonzo, greg. AGE. eighteen. DATE OF BIRTH. january 23rd MARITAL STATUS. single. verse dependent.  SPECIES. the ghost with the most GENDER. cismale PREFERRED PRONOUNS. he/him ROMANTIC ORIENTATION. bisexual  SEXUAL ORIENTATION. bisexual.  OCCUPATION. was a high school graduate getting ready for college. disc jockey at crazy fun park within life and death.

                                                                                                         PHYSICALITY.

HEIGHT. 5'11" BUILD. athletic. in good shape. has a slight chub around his hips. HAIR. brunette, almost a mullet. EYES.  SCARS. a lot of scars from just doing stupid shit.  ABNORMALITIES. other than being dead? some brain damage from being electrocuted that effects his speech. TATTOOS. red, melting smiley face on his forearm that he got for his 18th birthday. PHYSICAL AILMENTS. abdnormal speech patterns due to electrocution. ex: eat your cereal with a fork. ALLERGIES. none.

                                                                                                          HEADSPACE.

ALIGNMENT. chaotic good MYERS BRIGGS.  esfp FEARS. being forgotten, something happening to his dj booth. DISORDERS. undiagnosed adhd, autism OTHERS.  n/a.

                                                                                                          BACKGROUND.

PLACE OF BIRTH.   CURRENT RESIDENCE.   RELIGION.  agnostic  FAMILY.  the fun kids. parents unknown, little sister who is a radio dj named asha. ( she's 30 now. ) STATUS.  lower-middle class

[carmenized-onions]

WAIT OMG I FOUND MY NOTES FOR PART 3 (THAT TUMBLR DELETED)

part 3 - hello get ready for more yelling in your asks (that you can feel free to ignore btw!!)

i finished the chapter so:

HER WEARING HIS JACKET!! I REPEAT HER WEARING HIS FUCKING JACKET

the allusions to reader being bi - i feel so seen. this story is perfect. bis love carmy ik that’s right

…Chip’s (i love that nickname so that’s my name for them now) making him a painting, excuse me while i sob

ALSO I HAVENT MENTIONED THIS YET BUT YOUR COMEDY AND ALSO THE DIALOUGE IS IMPECCABLE TEACH ME YOUR SORCERY

YEE HAWWW

WEARING HIS JACKET ALEERRRTTT!!!

Bisexual femmes either want any woman or a man that looks like he could die in 72 hours. That's it. That's the sentence. Send tweet.

So many people loved the painting idea, as a stupid little mixed media artist, this did make me very happy to see people would find trash that i make a good gift as well. Very happy to see that. I'm also honestly delighted to see someone calling Chip Chip instead of Tony-- Actually. Can you make polls on asks, holdon.

I'm just very curious, if people have a preference. It's also low-key high-key no spoilers a sticking point to the story, so I'm just curious what the audience perception is on it as well.

AND DIALOGUE!!! THANK YOU!!! AND THE BEING FUNNY!! I've still got some rough spots with my dialogue, sometimes I think I definitely make characters yap too much, I'm just a yapper, at heart, what do you MEAN people don't usually say 4 full lines of dialogue without stopping? What do you MEAN people don't break into sudden monologues? WHAT!?!?!?!?!

But really, if you think I'm funny and good at dialogue, the secret really is uhhhhhhhh Talking a lot, and Watching a lot of shows and also a lot of people, in real life. Listen to your friend's speech patterns, try to do impressions of them, it's easier than you think.

[domgalton]

Age: 42 Gender: man Sexuality: bisexual Birthplace: Terre Haute, IN Location pre-outbreak: Nashville, TN Town job: farmer Previous job: director of marketing Personality traits: charming, attentive, secretive, methodical, philosophical

Dominic is a midwestern boy, brought up in the heartland of America by loving, if not strict parents. As an only child, he got no shortage of attention, but it did mean he had trouble interacting with his peers. He learned how to manage, over time, even if socializing never came very naturally to him. Once he got the hang of it, he became an expert at giving people exactly what they wanted so that they would give him something in return.

He went to college in California to study political science and made friends with a group of ambitious guys who wanted to take Silicon Valley by storm. He was the face of the operation and a talented salesman. He might not have known the tech side of things, but he was unmatched in his ability to spin a story. By the time the outbreak hit, he had millions in the bank and a lucrative future ahead of himself.

He was in Nashville on business when shit hit the fan. Not being very familiar with roughing it, he relied on ingratiating himself into other groups in hopes that they'd take care of him. He used this method, just skating by, until he found a settlement in Knoxville--New Origins. At first it was just a place to survive in, but over time, he realized that the folks there had real vision. They saw the outbreak for the opportunity it was--a chance for mankind to start over and make something better of themselves.

What's more, they saw his potential--with his uncanny good looks and incredible charm--to spread their metaphorical gospel. Dominic is in Redwood under slightly fictitious circumstances to scout for any folks who might make a good addition to New Origins. In the meantime, he's happy to help them with their town. Who knows, maybe the whole place has potential.

Headcanons:

Talks often about the group he came from that was destroyed, but has only ever explained what happened explicitly to the council

Loves gardening and keeping an eye on the crops but doesn't have much interest in the animals

An excellent storyteller

Tends to turn conversations toward philosophical questions

Has a tendency to mimic the accents and speech patterns of whoever he's talking to.

[frozen-fountain]

5, 8 and 20 for the writer ask 🐦

What aspect of writing have you most improved over time? How did you improve this? What are you trying to improve on now? 

I think I've come a long way with dialogue. I'm not the most adept verbal communicator in real life and I think it bleeds over onto the page sometimes. But I've been writing these characters for long enough that I think I have a decent handle on the quirks of their speech patterns, what makes them respond in certain ways, the manners in which they misspeak or obscure things - group conversations especially have started pretty much writing themselves!

As for what I'm trying to improve on now... it's always the text-to-subtext ratio, because that's something I find really hard to judge for myself. I can see all the arrows and where they're pointing to, but it's really hard to know if anyone else can when I'm the one who put them there.

How do you view canon works? Do you like to abide by them closely, or loosely? Why? 

Depends. For my FFVII fics I try to stick closely to the original game while borrowing a few elements from its expanded universe. I've never pretended to be the biggest fan of said expanded universe, and once I started looking into it while already having some fanfic ideas in place, I knew trying to make sense of and incorporate everything would suck all the joy out of writing for me. So I'm pretty upfront about not considering anything outside of the OG as gospel, which probably lost me some potential readers, but they might not have liked what I had to say anyway.

Within that, I like to think I'm adding rather than changing when I do something differently to the source material. Fleshing out backstories where there aren't any, throwing in small details about the way the world functions, asking what happens next, and of course there's nothing in the text that says this character isn't bisexual. And when I do add, I try to do so in a way that I feel is in line with the overall theme of the work and the narrative purpose these characters were created for.

What’s your favorite work you’ve ever written?

This changes by the day, but I'll say Penitent because it was my going wildly out of wheelhouse and pulling off a bizarre idea I didn't think I could.

[delgado-master]

I don't know a lot about the transandophobia discourse so excuse me if this is just the same comparison repeated but the whole nonverbal/nonspeaking thing just reminds me of the whole division in the lesbian community a while back where they basically tried to say lesbianism was ONLY this specific xyz thing, and if you weren't that, you had to use other terms (I think shit like trixic / doe / stag came from this era?) and it was all under the guise of "well the lesbian tag isn't just lesbians anymore" which... Yeah that sucks. I can agree that sucks.

I mean damn, I'm not opposed to changing vocabulary when needed. I started using polyam instead of poly as a shortened term when Polynesian folks spoke up about it. But this feels like a broad spectrum term is being taken and crushed down to its narrowest view, and everyone outside of that is left floundering to figure out where they're supposed to go now.

And I don't mean this as a dig in any way, but I do kind of struggle to follow what's being said by a lot of the blogs discussing this, for whatever reason irregular/unfamiliar speech patterns are hard to parse, so I feel like a lot of it is getting lost in translation, at least for me personally? I don't know, the whole thing just seems unnecessary.

Much of Modern Lesbianism is heavily based on exclusionism (bisexual lesbians have repeatedly been kicked out of the community because they’re *impure* or whatever), so like, that shit doesn’t surprise me. The fact that lesbian tends to mean “a women who only likes women” is an act of exclusionism. Not even bringing up the Transphobia of it all.

Changing terminology is fine and all for people who can speak normally, but when you (even sometimes) use AAC to speak, you can’t change your terminology as easily, and sometimes can’t change it at all. You have to use what’s given to you. This has real life consequences: autistic children and adults frequently are abused, and the abusers get away with it because the children literally don’t have the words available to them to describe their abuse.

You’d think that aac users would understand this sort of thing, as they’re using aac to communicate their exclusionism. But I think they think that if someone can sometimes speak, they have no reason to use aac. Which is shit.

[hushpadart]

This is actually the first drawing I've done of my OC Sam. I originally created him for Call Of Cthulhu but liked him enough to keep him as a character outside the game.

About Sam:

His full name is Samuel Clarence Gabriel. Before coming out at the age of 14, his middle name was Clara after his mother. After coming out, he wanted his middle name to still be in her memory, so he went with Clarence. He's a very short trans man(he's about 5'0"/153 cm), finger guns disaster bisexual, parapsychologist from Brooklyn with the accent to match and some medical experience.

His father is a medical doctor(and I ran him through a Call Of Cthulhu campaign before I actually rolled up Sam), but after an incident with a shoggoth that killed his wife, left him with a number of scars, and depleted some of his sanity, he threw himself into studying the occult and mythos and learning to use firearms so he could defend himself and his two sons if this ever happened again. Sam and his younger brother Philip were 13 and 7 at the time when their mother was killed, and Doc Gabriel thought it wouldn't be right to not tell them the truth about what happened to her, and that was when they learned that monsters are real.

In the game and my own personal main canon, Sam has a girlfriend. Her name is Constance and she's an Appalachian gal from the mountains of northern Georgia who practices the folk magic and medicine that's been passed down in her family for generations. I'll post about how they met when I post the drawing I did of both of them together!

Also he has that Neurodivergent Thing that I also have, where I mimic the accents and speech patterns of other people I'm talking to without realizing it because the thought of him traveling to visit Constance for a few days and ending up talking in a weird mix of Brooklyn accent and Appalachian dialect is very funny to me.

[quietwingsinthesky]

hi will!!!! can I get uh. ruby & my main man bones mccoy for the character thingy???

absolutely absolutely and you know let's just. pretend i answered this in a timely manner. definitely.

i do think that for the wait you've earned both! (and i want to talk about both so :3)

Ruby

Sexuality Headcanon: It's funny, I don't usually have a set sexuality for any character right up until the moment I'm asked, at which point I receive visions from beyond my understanding that inform me of the truth. and the visions said she's a bisexual lesbian.

OTP: local idiot forced to choose between samruby and annaruby, 69 injured, 420 dead

BroTP: I actually love dean & ruby's weird combative vibes. i love when she saves his life in Malleus Maleficarum, and he immediately gets all huffy about it ("It's called witchcraft, short bus." "You're the short bus … short bus." AFTER SHE'S ALREADY LEFT SKLAJSLDKJALSD) i love the few moments we get where they aren't at each other's throats, but also i do love when they're both so unnecessarily mean to each other like girls. girls, you're on the same side. it's so funny. and the fact that they have the same speech patterns. if you locked them in a room together for a week and they didn't kill each other, they'd come out speaking a pop culture language they invented together that no one but them and sam can understand.

NoTP: i don't think i have one for her? uh. bobby/ruby. sure.

First headcanon that pops into my head: from what i remember, what we know about Ruby is a) she was human once, b) during that time, she was a witch, and c) this was probably a pretty long time ago? let's say it was a long time ago for my purposes. anyway. salem witch trials ruby real. (also, additionally, ruby loved sam. she did. she really did. this was just Not A Good Thing.)

Favorite line from this character: yes yes she is the best of those sons of bitches but that entire speech is bitching. "You didn't need the feather to fly, you had it in you the whole time, Dumbo!" and obviously the lucifer parallel lines that drive me insane, "Because it had to be you, Sammy. It always had to be you. You saved us. You set him free. And he's gonna be grateful. He's gonna repay you in ways that you can't even imagine." LIKE. OKAY. YEAH. SURE. IM FINE AND NORMAL ABOUT THIS.

One way in which I relate to this character: she is sooo. god i don't know the word for it, somewhere between determination and loyalty, and i don't know so much about 'relates to this' as i want to have some of that. yes, okay, the thing she was determined to do was start the apocalypse but. but. she did it, didn't she? and that's damn impressive. and i just need some of that energy to finish my chemistry homework.

Thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character: SamRuby sex scenes, but idk if that's so much second-hand embarassment as it is me averting my eyes like a scandalized victorian gentleman going 'oh dear lord, this is none of my business, i should not spy on them.' It's just. O-O they really went all in for those scenes huh. huh.

Cinnamon Roll or Problematic Fave: Problematic Fave and i love her for it.

McCoy:

Sexuality Headcanon: gay gay homosexual gay

OTP: Bones/a vacation (but if pushed, i will admit to being a pretty big fan of McSpirk. OT3s my beloved.)

BroTP: okay okay hear me out: bones and uhura. she's the language lady, and he's the guy who has about 700 different sayings all tucked away inside his head, and no way do they not get drunk together. asdfhgjljk her teaching him vulcan sayings that are almost equivalent to something he could come up with, just so that they can both see spock's muted confusion (which is practically him shouting "bones what the fuck are you saying to me.") and oh obviously they are the people closest to the eternal disaster that is the kirk & spock dynamic (romantic or otherwise) and if they don't bitch to each other about those idiots, they might explode.

NoTP: Bones/that salt monster from The Man Trap. but in all seriousness, I don't think I have one.

First headcanon that pops into my head: Spending a few years in space means that whenever they get their feet on solid land, he's happy for transport that's less likely to send them into the freezing void if handled wrong. He's happy about this, for all of the ten seconds he's fool enough to let Kirk drive. He is never getting in a car with that man again.

Favorite line from this character: Oh, the first one I can think of is from the hand-off from TOS to TNG (the thing they do every time a new show starts where a character from the last one makes an appearance, however small, to sort of... I don't know. Wish them luck.) Anyway, in Encounter at Farpoint, when he's talking to Data, he ends the scene by saying about the Enterprise-D, "This is a new ship, but she's got the right name. Now you remember that, you hear. You treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home." which. feelings. T-T

One way in which I related to this character: we are both southern and grumpy lmao

Thing that gives me second-hand embarrassment about this character: I honestly can't think of any? I think his general 'I do not give a fuck, this is my medbay and you're all going to do what I say' negates my ability to feel second-hand embarrassment from him.

Cinnamon Roll or Problematic Fave: Hm. I'm giving him cinnamon roll status, but he would Not like it.

[edierone]

Antes de la Guerra

From a fic request by @emceecapitalc, who wondered - based on this piece of the trailer, made giffy by @tatianagmaslany- how the hell a couple of 50-somethings could fight assassins on no notice after years out of the game ...

It started out as just exercise — a joyless 30-minute pre-dawn burst of cardio at the zero-frills gym one sketchy block from the hospital, three days a week. Kept her weight down and her heart healthy, even if it was broken.  

But later, when she and Mulder fell into spending weekdays at the place she kept in town, he started accompanying her there, and as they regained fitness, the old competitiveness kicked in — they gradually got up a little earlier, stayed a little longer, started adding some weights to the routine.

They never spoke to anyone else there, never looked into any of the gym’s other offerings, just pushed themselves, a team of two again.

Then one frigid spring evening, she has to help subdue a psychotic patient and despite her old skills kicking in, he almost gets the better of her. That’s when she starts asking around (among certain women) for a trainer — who materializes one morning at the gym, seemingly from out of nowhere.

Eduardo doesn’t offer any personal details, not even a last name; his accent (in what few words he does say) is similar to that of Irina, Scully’s best surgical nurse, so they think of him as Honduran, whether or not that’s the case. He’s somewhere around 30, and has two inches and 25 muscled pounds on Mulder — lithe, ripped, and with the wingspan of an NBA center.

He makes them for law enforcement immediately, despite the years since they’ve been in the field, but he asks no questions about their service — or why they need his — and they pay him in cash.

Under Eduardo’s tutelage, four brutally early mornings a week, they both get leaner, harder, more flexible. Mulder quietly gives up his teenage junk-food diet — it won’t support this kind of training — and when Scully finishes the last of the bottles she picked up during BevMo’s most recent 5-cent wine sale, she doesn’t restock. They sleep better, they fuck more, they both stop needing their occasional anti-anxiety meds.

They don’t tell Eduardo when they’re back at the Bureau, but one steaming marshy 5:15 a.m. that summer, he straddles Scully as she bench-presses her last heavy rep and says in his calm but deadly-serious way: “You ready for fight?”

Mulder, who’s right there spotting for her, guides the bar from her shaking arms into the rests before he grabs a fistful of Eduardo’s painted-on tank top. “What the fuck did you just say to my wife?”

The next few seconds are a blur, at the end of which Mulder finds himself on the floor with the other man’s knee on his chest, and Scully held in a chokehold with Eduardo’s free arm.

“I say, you ready for to learn fight? I can teach you.”

He releases them and stands, as unruffled as if he’s just offered them tea and scones.

The things that have been bothering them lately, the feathery edges of paranoia about what lies in the shadows and what they might have to face now that they’re officially back in the mix — it takes but a second for their minds to connect in the old way, one live-wire glance between them, for both to heave out a yes.

Not here, he says; he’ll come to them. He warns them that they’ll get bruises, scratches, headaches, “make your whole house a mess” — they understand, they agree.

Eduardo may be a man of few words, but he delivers on every one of them.

It’s the oddest working partnership they’ve ever had, Mulder reflects one morning as she’s helping him get his arm into the sling that had been necessary after Sunday’s session: “We pay a guy money to come into our home twice a week and kick our asses — a guy whose real name and origin story we do. not. know, I might add — and then we’re so pumped, we have more sex than a couple of horny teenagers. Not that I’m complaining about that last part.” She laughs, agreeing, then scrapes her nails over his newly-chiseled abs — and once again, they’re almost late to work.

A week later, Scully hobbles gamely into the Hoover with a boot cast on her right leg and a yarn about jumping into a too-shallow pool; the fact that she actually sprained her ankle vaulting a stair rail in her apartment building with Eduardo in pursuit seems somehow implausible as an explanation. She’s not sure why neither of them are telling anyone about their increasingly-rough combat and evasion lessons, but they’ve apparently decided to keep it to themselves and pretend they’re just regular middle-aged agents with a normal level of field readiness. It’s that old instinct for cover, she supposes; better to let your enemies underestimate you, no matter how nebulous those enemies are.

She’s forced to explain herself at the hospital, though, when the department head stops her after a meeting for a little chat about how “ever since you’ve moved back in with your husband, Dr. Scully, I’ve been noticing … things that concern me. Now, I’m not judging, or implying — and of course this is off the record — but as your friend and a fellow medical professional, I have to ask: This contusion on your face — can you tell me how you got it?” She’s not sure Dr. Parekh buys the krav maga explanation, but it’s all she’s willing to say.

That evening, out at the house, is the first time she manages to fend off both Mulder and Eduardo, teamed up against her in an exercise Eduardo called “you get attack by two big motherfuckers, they gonna take you and put you in the trunk.” Her feral scream of victory as she stands astride Eduardo’s “dead” body leaves her voice raw; by the next morning, having traded control back and forth all night in bed with Mulder, she can barely speak at all.

The situation gets weirder, but so gradually that they barely notice: Eduardo stops texting in advance of showing up, and sometimes just accosts them — even in public places — with no warning. He turns off the power to the house, makes them fight in the dark, all three against each other. He handicaps them in various ways — handcuffs, zip ties, one of them dragging the faux-unconscious other. They switch from toy-store blasters to their real pieces — unloaded, of course, with safeties on and fingers nowhere near the trigger.

And then one day, they realize it’s been a week since they’ve seen Eduardo. Figuring they should keep in fighting trim, they turn off all the lights, pursue each other in the dark, end up fucking their brains out on the hardwood floor of Mulder’s office.

A week becomes two, then almost three. They improvise workouts, but start to worry that whatever brought Eduardo to them in the first place has found him.

Just when Mulder is about to start putting out feelers, they get a text from an unknown number: tonight 11 Go to the place I find you argue about if that girl isa good actor or no

The parking garage underneath the AMC Bayview 20 Theatres is deserted at that hour on a Monday. They go, expecting to engage — nerves alight, muscles tensed, adrenaline high. But there he is at the farthest, darkest end — not leaping at them from the shadows, but leaning against a ’70s Mercedes in $300 jeans and an ancient wool overcoat, looking like the scion of an old and wealthy family. He holds his arms up, palms toward them in a gesture of harmlessness, as they approach warily.

He gifts them with a rare smile, and they respond in kind, glad to see him unharmed. “I have to go now,” he says. “You not finishing you training yet, but you gonna be ok.”

“Where — why are you leaving?” Scully asks, half-aware of the bad form of asking that kind of question of a person who obviously wouldn’t or couldn’t answer truthfully. Eduardo just smiles again, shaking his finger at her.

“Best you not know. Come here.” He holds his arms out to them both for a hug. Pressed close to them, he murmurs quickly, with some urgency, “You know I am not Eduardo. I am not Adrian either but — is who I am for now. Entiende? I see those scars at the gym, I see how you together against everybody, all the world, is why I teach you fighting. I don’t know who you fighting, but you ready when they come, yes?”

Then he pulls back a little, turns to Mulder, and kisses him deeply, one arm slung low with the palm flat between Mulder’s shoulder blades — though he hardly needs the leverage — and the other caressing the back of his neck. When Eduardo breaks the kiss, he pivots immediately to Scully, brings her in like a dance partner and lifts her almost off her feet as he dips low to kiss her — a soldier going off to war.

His smile when he lets her go is brilliant but profoundly sad. The two of them stand there, blinking and stunned, as he backs away, opening the car door and shaking his head at them. “You should both have kick my ass for that,” he says with a rueful laugh. Then, soberly, he adds, “Buena suerte, my friends.”

“Buena suerte,” they mumble uselessly as he drives off, their hands finding each other without so much as a downward glance; he’s right, it’s the two of them against the world, and in that moment they’re conscious of just how much better prepared they are for whatever might come — will come.

They’ve never been this sharp, not even with the advantages of youth. And a few weeks later, when strange headlights come bouncing up their private road, they find that Eduardo was right: They are ready.

-------------------------------- @today-in-fic

[rainbowsky]

Hello! Thank you for working hard to provide information, your blog is the best source! I am an older (30+), bisexual fan and I want to ask the elephant in the room: how do we know that they are still together? I believe that during the time of the Untamed being filmed they were indeed dating, but now? Yibo was 22 at that time, I find it unlikely to be with the same person forever. Maybe the cryptic posts are about being queer in general and not about each other?

Hi Anon, glad you're enjoying my blog! 😊

As for your question - "how can they still be together?" - it's one of the most common questions asked in this fandom, because newer turtles aren't as familiar with the history of GGDD, and they tend to be less aware of how evidence is seen and evaluated. They also tend to not yet be fully conscious of how to navigate and curate their fandom sources, so they're often a lot more exposed to disinformation and negative messages from solos. All this leads to newer turtles often being anxious, uncertain and doubtful, with a lot of questions about 'how it can be true'.

So I'm assuming you're a newer turtle because older turtles don't tend to have questions like this anymore.

A couple things I want to say about this:

Heteronormativity and Burden of Proof

I think it's important to be conscious of heteronormativity and how heavily weighted the whole 'burden of proof' thing tends to be in favor of straight relationships vs queer ones. There is an enormous volume of evidence that GGDD are in a relationship, but somehow in spite of this, relatively few people actually believe or accept that they're a real couple.

Straight celebrity relationships in China have been fully outed based on infinitely less info. Like, a few incidents of shared clothing and flights to the same cities a few times - stuff like that. Yet here we are with:

dozens and dozens of incidents of shared clothing and shared clothing brands

wearing couple jewelry and couple clothing

flight patterns that bring them closer to wherever the other one is filming

dozens of overt kadians, regularly being used

references to each other in their activities and social media posts

frequent incidents of them both 'disappearing' from shishengs and social media when they're known to be in the same city

changes in behavior, speech habits and style of dress to become more and more similar and like a married couple

uncannily similar (aka practically identical) visual styles in their videos, graphics and photo posts

multiple incidents of DD's bodyguards looking after GG when DD is around

and a lot more I can't be bothered to list because it's not my job to convince people

If this information existed about a straight couple, the debate about their being a couple would be long over by now, but because it's two men people have a really hard time accepting it. Which actually works in their favor, and is a huge part of what protects them from being outed, but is no less frustrating in fandom circles.

A lot of fans - including some newer turtles - were willing to believe or at least entertain the possibility that DD was in a relationship with ZLY, simply because a few toxic solos were spreading a rumor that she was wearing a bone necklace exactly like DD's. Just because they'd worked together once and were believed to have the same necklace.

Never mind that there was not even one clear photo of the supposed necklace and no verification she owned anything even remotely like it, never mind that she was a married woman with a child and the fans were basically calling DD a homewrecker by spreading this rumor, never mind that their BTS and promo appearances were decidedly sibling-ish in nature, never mind the fact that ZLY herself said that DD barely spoke to her during filming... Fans were willing to believe this bullshit because ZLY is a woman.

Meanwhile, GG and DD are confirmed to wear couple clothing and jewelry, and there's a mountain of other evidence showing they're a couple. Heteronormativity at work.

You suggest their 'cryptic posts' might be about them being queer, as though the cryptic posts are all we have to go on and that's just not the case. There is a mountain of evidence. It's not just about old BTS and easily misinterpreted cute posts. If there is an 'elephant in the room' it's that they are obviously together.

Persuasion Breeds Doubt

As I've said many, many times, the path to belief in GGDD is each turtle's own private path to tread. It's not for me or for anyone else to proselytize, to make or debate a case, or to win anyone over to SZD.

If you stick around the fandom long enough and become familiar with more and more of the evidence, you might eventually reach SZD, but if you do it will be because of something that happened inside of you - something about it all that clicked into place and made you realize, "This is obviously real."

No one should ever try to spackle over your gaps in belief, or try to convince you or persuade you or alleviate your doubts. Anyone trying to do that is doing you a huge disservice. Because belief doesn't come from the outside, it comes from the inside. It doesn't come from lists of proofs and candies, it comes from your own internal evaluation and experience.

Turtles who doubt and then have that doubt ground away by another turtle - such turtles will forever be enslaved to other turtle's proofs and candies. They are always just one candy washing away from anxiety and insecurity. Those are the turtles you'll see panicking on social media saying, "I saw (X anti message) and now I feel sick inside. Candy dump, please!" Such turtles are like addicts, chasing the next sugar high. It's not a happy experience of fandom.

I'm not going to sit here and try to assuage your doubts. Doubt is healthy. It's what will help you evaluate and examine the information you come across, and what may eventually lead you to SZD. Until then, Anon, just enjoy the ride! Enjoy being a fan, enjoy GGDD and the material they put out.

Find and follow your own path through the evidence that's out there, and if you have specific questions about a particular candy or event or whatever, go ahead and ask trusted turtles, but don't worry about being convinced of broader questions. It will come or not, but as long as you're enjoying yourself it won't much matter either way.

Non-comprehensive chronology of answering this question and variations thereon, related posts, etc.

What is the latest proof they're together?

What is the biggest proof they're still together?

The pursuit of proofs and candies

Protecting GGDD, and candies and material I won’t discuss on my blog

Is the CP real?

Digging into doubt

[katsidhe]

Destiel, yay or nay. Why?

Emphatic nay. 

Reasons:

It’s correlated strongly with various types of erasure of Sam from the central relationships of the show: with Dean and Cas, yes, but also with characters like Jack. Gives me hives to see Sam relegated to a status like “uncle” for Jack or “brother-in-law” for Cas or “shipper” for Dean. Can we not?

I don’t think Dean is bisexual. Nor, indeed, do I think Dean would have a particular aversion to sexual experimentation if he were attracted to men; I really don’t think it would take him fifteen years to think of that one. I think Dean is basically heterosexual, that he is drawn strongly to deep platonic (queerplatonic) relationships with men, and that he is mostly aromantic. I think the sexual, romantic, and platonic spheres of his attraction are largely separate, and I think that on its own is interesting. 

Do I have to mention the fandom clownery around 15.18-15.20? 

Here’s the thing. Especially from Cas’s side, it’s not totally uncompelling. Especially in s4-6, where Cas is highly critical of Dean and has high expectations for him both despite and because Cas has personally sacrificed so much for Dean. But, that’s the element that I feel like often gets elided both in later seasons, and in the broad fandom attitudes that I have brushed up against... Cas gets folded into this pattern that was writ grotesquely large in his 15.18 speech, where he extolls Dean’s virtues.

[re 15.18 in particular: the wish to half-mollify a shipping audience pushed so visibly and uncomfortably into that scene in particular, that to me personally, it very nearly felt like a fourth wall break. and then it pleased no one, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]

I feel as if quite a lot of the momentum behind two-sided Destiel comes from a push for Dean to accept some part of himself that he is afraid of, that he cannot admit. Like, Dean learning to accept romantic, same-sex love would prove to himself that he is ~worthy of love, and that therefore he can break the cycles of abuse his Dad taught him, etc etc. 

Which, okay, first of all, why does that need to be romantic love? Why the implicit and fundamental devaluation of other iterations of Cas’s real love for him, and Sam’s too, for that matter? WHY the insistence that the ~real~ point of SPN needs to be primarily about a romantic relationship, when the major thing that SPN does inarguably well is to put a premium on non-romantic relationships, in a world and a television full of romance?

But that isn’t actually even close to my biggest issue with that framing. Dean does not need someone to love him uncritically. It is not that Dean doesn’t ‘deserve’ love, or anything like that--I rather think that love is neither something to be earned, nor something redemptive. Dean’s problem is not his self-hatred, or that he needs to learn self-acceptance, and that outside love will be a panacea, or something that will help him to disentangle how his behavior hurts the people he loves. 

This, for me, hearkens back to when he calls himself “poison” in season 9--the problem in season 9 is not that Dean needs to learn that he is not a fundamentally poisonous person. It is that he needs to accept that hurting the people he loves is not excusable by the fact of his love, and that boundary-setting is not an act incompatible with their love for him. Dean’s abandonment issues are his own problem, not for someone else--whether that’s his brother or an angel or a woman--to fix. For me, fandom Destiel brushes too often and too uncritically against this theme. (again, at least, in the brushes I’ve had with it.)

why destiel when SASTIEL??? literally right there??? Soul fisting, Will you boy/I will look until I find out and I don’t sleep, chaos duo, I was lost until I took on your pain, do you have a guinea pig, Sam keeping faith in Cas, Cas keeping faith in Sam, both of them weathering Dean together and apart, Cas pulling Sam out of the Cage, Sam trusting Cas with his very soul. 

I just got another reason to loathe Destiel, because, true story, I just googled “sam and cas” and the second result was a Screenrant article entitled “10 Reasons Sam & Cas Aren't Real Friends.” Go fuck yourself, Screenrant, I know exactly why you wrote that. 

[murdockquills]

im on volume 2 of spider-gwen and i'm reading 100% for murderdock pls tell me truths you perceive about him i humbly request u give me your best murderdock headcanons

OH BOY UHHHHH YEET HERE WE GO:

he’s covered in freckles. just absolutely loaded with freckles. I know this isn’t shown in the comic but I feel it in my heart. he’s also hairier than he looks.

his eyes are brown [which is actually seen later on, but I’m putting them here anyway because it’s important to note considering 616 matt has blue eyes in the comics] and he’s right-handed but taught himself to be ambidextrous mostly to drive the nuns crazy when he used his “improper” left hand. [and 616 matt is left-handed] when I draw him based on NMCU matt, I part his hair the opposite way and also he’s 2 inches taller than regular!matt putting him at 6 ft — this may or may not be because he was nurtured more under the Hand than regular!matt ever was.

he likes to go by matthew. not matt, or matty. full names are kind of his thing, though he dishes out nicknames for everyone else.

he grew up in the orphanage and lived in a dorm at Catholic school, but unlike regular!matt he was seen as a perfect angel who could do no wrong. everyone pitied him and his hard life. everyone let him get out of trouble scot-free. he brown-nosed everyone he could to get what he wanted. of course, he was actually a chaotic little demon coming up with elaborate pranks and skipping class to get high under the stairs but he never took the blame for anything he did. he’s been a manipulative mastermind since DAY ONE.

he was 10000% a theatre kid. like, always getting the lead part in the musical, stuck-up, holier-than-thou kind of theatre kid. he can sing, he can dance, he can act his heart out and put tears in your eyes — and everyone ate it up because he’s the poor little orphan blind boy! and look how talented he is! [big headcanon he played Valjean in Les Mis] he was also big into speech & debate for obvious reasons. he loves going to Broadway performances and is also partial to drag shows. he thinks drag queens [and kings] are the funniest people on the planet.

because he was fully trained by the Hand, I think his senses are actually better honed and more controllable than regular!matt’s. this is why he can wear strongly-scented cologne and occasionally smoke without making himself ill, and go to clubs without blowing his eardrums out.

like any poisonous animal, he wears bright colors and garish patterns, though he prefers shades of red and only wears gold metal. he has his suits tailored, and almost always wears silk shirts underneath them; the only other thing he ever wears are [red and gold] silk robes when he’s at home. Tom Ford quivers before him.

he’s shamelessly bisexual but prefers men, and he’ll run a blade through anyone who dares to judge him for it. [and despite how controlling he is, he actually is a bottom most of the time]

he likes to be barefoot because he can feel minute vibrations and get a “clearer” picture around him in a larger radius. also it lets him move quieter, which he enjoys so he can sneak up on people like some terrible phantom. And it’s just a plain power move in front of people during board meetings, especially when he sits on the table itself. feral bastard energy. no one can say boo to him about it.

after he became kingpin and got all the riches and power along with it, he converted a church into a luxury loft so that he could live and work out of this very imposing stone fortress with gorgeous stained glass windows and also be as blasphemous as possible. when he calls people in for one-on-one meetings he sits at his desk in the dark with nothing but the light through the stained glass to illuminate him. it’s about the ~theatrics.~

he’s a food snob, let’s be real. he wines and dines at the nicest spots in the city, or makes them do his dishes to-go so that he can sit and eat them on top of a roof or a bridge, overseeing his kingdom in peace. also bc he’s just weird like that. his favorite food is szechuan.

I could make...... an entire post..... just about sexual headcanons for him but I’m gonna spare you those for now unless someone wants them fhdjfjdkss

also a personal headcanon unrelated to the comics but.... he’s married to e-65 eddie brock in my heart and soul, twin to elsa brock. they grew up as high school sweethearts but parted ways to protect him after the Hand imposed a rule that he must kill his first love to prove himself, and spent college apart when eddie moved across the country. eddie moved back to NYC in adulthood and essentially became the wesley to his kingpin; who better to accompany him than a personal symbiote bodyguard? he can kill AND he can clean up the scene. [and this is all in a fic that I can link in another post!]

ENJOY READING THE HORRIBLE BASTARD BOY!

[writers-411]

3, 8, 14!

These are very good questions, so I took my time to answer them. Thank you for the ask @ruddcatha!

Something you wish a commenter had called attention to but got ignored.

This is a very good question! When I look at either Like the Setting Sun or Metal & Coffee, I think an ignored detail I wish people called attention to is that both stories are LGBTQA+ stories. Granted that the main pair (inukag) is m/f, Kagome is depicted as bisexual in both stories. Koga is depicted as queer in both stories: bisexual in one and ace in the second. Ayame is non-binary (a trait I’m very fond of) and is attracted to women. I don’t see any non-binary Inuyasha characters in fic, so I figured Ayame was fair game for this. I’ll be fair, Ayame’s gender was called to attention in Like the Setting Sun mainly because there was confusion (and someone looked to have an issue with it). Sesshomaru is queer in Like the Setting Sun (I also haven’t decided how to play with his sexuality in Metal & Coffee yet), and Kagura is depicted as a lesbian in both stories. I gave these characters challenges (especially in Metal & Coffee) that touch on experiences that can be seen in the LGBTQA+ community. Granted the fics aren’t solely focused on the characters’ roles and identities in the queer community, those identities and roles still play into who they are. There’s a lot of (almost exclusive) focus on what’s happening in the story (which is very fair), so I feel like this detail (these stories being queer stories) is overlooked.

I’m a queer writer writing queer stories. Like the Setting Sun and, most especially, Metal & Coffee mean the world to me as they give space to talk about a different set of experiences.

Something you love to see in dialogue.

I love seeing dialogue that showcases natural speech patterns or reveals the type of personality via the energy of the dialogue (words and punctuation and any of that sort make such a huge impact on delivery). I love inside jokes and incomplete expressions that can still be read by the reader and the other characters. I also really love habits, favorite words, slang, and hand gestures with dialogue. I guess in sum I like dialogue that gives complexity to a character and gives that sense of real-ness (like you could see this conversation in real life).

Sorry I couldn’t talk about one thing. There are so many pieces in dialogue and beside the dialogue that could make character conversation so fun to follow.

What aspect of writing have you had the most growth in?

I’m going to focus on the writing itself for this one.

I think the narration style changed a lot for me. Compared to older (worse written due to my inexperience and heavy imitation) fics, my narration has taken a more purposeful function than just saying what’s happening and giving a bland description of what everything and everyone looks like. It’s also less heavy and, hopefully, therefore less work on the reader. I read paragraphs aloud to myself and think over words and phrases a lot more. I get playful in my narration, so the reading is a smooth experience.

I do this a lot with Metal & Coffee. I’m taking care of this fic as much as possible by focusing so hard on narration delivery. There are sentences that I’m very happy with in the story, and there are moments that I worked out a couple times or more simply because delivery wasn’t working. I also think this fic, with all its composition, best shows that style growth since my start as a fic writer.

I’m glad for it.

[queerlilacroses]

Nothing to fear but fear itself (TW Blood, Murder, Biphobia)

Richie had always been afraid of werewolves,  ever since he was a little kid the thought of them sent shivers up his spine. He didn’t know if it was the sharp claws, the big teeth or the fact it could be anyone, watching waiting to turn him into his worst fear.                                                                                                                                                              It has also been theorised that werewolves are a metaphor for a specific sexuality, bisexuality, not many people believe that bisexuals exist, at least that’s what Richie hears when he attempts to come out.  

   “There’s no such thing dear, I mean you can be gay or straight I don’t mind I know you’ve always been an odd child but there’s no such thing as both”. He had lamented over that loss for a while, honestly he know lots of people wouldn’t understand but his own mother! That was his biggest disappointment.

So he ran out on her, hiding in the Clubhouse™ that his good friend Ben had built, waiting hours until his best friends Bill, and Bev came frantic down falling down the hole of the clubhouse, “why didn’t they use the stairs”, he wondered aloud forgetting that he had disappeared without letting anyone know and it had been all day since he had ran out on his mother.

“WHY DIDN’T I… I was looking for you you’ve been missing for 6 hours you dummy”

“I’ve been wounded Bev darling, I…wait SIX HOURS”

“Yea is s-something wrong”

Whilst his friends had accepted him all those years ago Richie was still paranoid about his bisexuality despite knowing he wasn’t gay or straight there was a nagging doubt in the back of his mind watching, waiting to creep up on hm like a horror movie jump scare that made him spill popcorn all over the floor like an idiot.

The problem with horror movies is they are real; Vampires, Zombies, Witches and of course Werewolves which are the worst of them all. The first time Richie had seen a werewolf had been in a stupid movie , a teen movie, “supposedly a romance” Bev had mentioned nonchalantly as they walked past it at the Aladdin and well it was, for the first 20 minutes or so then it turned out the lead had a secret…the movie plagued him for months after that day after day, night after night all he could see was the male lead chasing him waiting to turn him into a werewolf. He never knew what to do or where to go Richie was traumatized.

Eddie, had been a new confusing figure in his life, they had met at gig which Eddie had helped organized and hit it off but there was something about him Richie wasn’t so sure of. Was it the smell of wet dog despite Eddie claiming to be allergic? Was it the fact that he refused to wear the silver chain that Richie got him as a present? Was it his oddly hairy body? Or was it the fact that anytime  a full moon was around no matter what Eddie would make and excuse and disappear so nobody would see him for days. It confused and scared the hell outta him so he had to confront his ‘boyfriend’ he isn’t sure honestly they haven’t labelled what they are yet and Richie’s kinda nervous that’s because Eddie doesn’t wanna be with a bi man and whilst all these thoughts are in his head he’s overthinking again and he needs to talk to Eddie.

“Eds,”                                                                                              “Urgh what?”                                                                     “Are we like?”                                                                             “Like what Richie use your words”       “Are we boyfriends?”                                                           “no we’re Italian farmers who love growing tomatoes of course we’re boyfriends”                                                                                                               “Geez okay I’m just making sure”                                                                                                      

“Especially cause you’ve been acting so weird, I mean I hardly see you, anytime you stay it’s daytime and the two occasions that we’ve stayed together you’re like a magician here one minute and then disappeared the next like some cruel trick it’s not fair Ed’s, I wanted to move forward with this relationship but it’s so hard when I can’t, don’t, know? Do you understand what I mean?                                                                                                                                          

“Uh no? Why would that ever make sense babe” sighed Eddie although he understood Richie well and knew him inside and out he didn’t understand how his brain worked? His ADHD flickering from thing to thing topic to topic and although Eddie could sometimes be known to ramble he couldn’t keep up.

“Well I mean with you? Why are you avoiding me at night? What’s the big secret?” Richie teased.

“I’m a werewolf”

“WHAT”

“I’m one of those creatures you know the ones that come out on the full moon I turn into a wolf howl at the moon y’know all those stereotypes”

“WHY WOULD YOU TELL ME THAT! YOU KNOW ABOUT MY FEAR OF WEREWOLVES”

“I’M SORRY BUT YOU ASKED. THIS IS WHY I’VE BEEN AVOIDING YOU! I DIDN’T WANT YOU TO BE SCARED OF ME YOU ASSHOLE”

“I…what”

“Yea I remembered you saying that you were terrified of werewolves since you were 12 so I’ve been trying to avoid transforming and all the side effects around it whilst I’m around you so I guess that seems like I need to avoid you and I mean there’s the murder”

“MURDER”

“Well I mean it’s not exactly murder more people get in the way of me as a 7 foot tall wolf and unfortunately I think my instincts kick in? Although it could be deer,  but there’s been bodies found and I…”

“BODIES!!?! BODIES AS IN PLURAL !!?!”

“Richie can you stop yelling, it’s been a long night I’m tired and sore, honestly I just want to rest…”

“WAIT WHAT,  YOU WERE OUT LAST NIGHT? Like it was a full moon ? I’m sorry I have to go call Bev or something, I-I can’t.

“WHERE ARE YOU- it’s your never mind” Eddie sighed as his voiced tailed off his head in his hands. This hadn’t been the way he wanted Richie to find out, honestly they’ve only been together for a few weeks and as soon as they talked he found out about his fear of werewolves and was horrified, he knew it might potentially be a dealbreaker and although he didn’t want to lose Richie. He had known that at one point that he’d have to sit down and tell him the story of the doctor, decided that his mother, who was a maniac bringing him to the hospital every time he even touched the ground too hard convinced he’d broken or dislocated his ankle needed something to worry about properly and turned him into a werewolf whilst he was at one of his many stays when he was eleven. His mother had been far more protective when she had found out, it was as if she had been normal beforehand, complete and utter curfew (“back straight after school Eddie-bear don’t talk to anybody, you don’t want them to find out!”), bars on the windows and even restraints at night as she was too paranoid, which wasn’t fun, especially as every night he just kept breaking out of them which in turn scared his mother more and more.

Shakily Richie reached into his pocket for his phone that he’d grabbed in his     haste to leave the apartment building, as it rang the word murder went in his stomach over and over again. “Hello?” Oh good she answered he wouldn’t have known what to do with himself otherwise I mean…. “Helloooo??” Oh right yeah she’s still on this phone.

“I-I Eddie, and…”

“What’s wrong with Eddie, depth breaths calm down and try to try me what happened.

“He.. he.. he’s a monster, a werewolf a murderer I don’t know if I can do this” sobbing he knelt on the pavement holding the phone thinking about how he didn’t want to lose Eddie, the problem was that he loved the shorter man despite them only dating a couple of weeks and he knew about the dangers of dating a monster.

They had learned about it in school which only fuelled Richie’s fear further the teachers explaining about scientific experiments gone wrong and turning ordinary people into creatures that could climb into his slightly opened window in the dead of night and maim them or if they were dating whilst in transformations they would completely forget their partner, ending up harming them. Listening to this had made him scared to moved his bed and slept under his window to make sure nothing got in, freaking out anytime a bug crawled on him.

“A werewolf? Yea probably. A murderer? Probably not and an I mean a monster definitely not. Don’t you love him? Don’t you want the chance for him to prove you wrong, honestly you’ve been scared for far too long. All this time people have been putting ideas into your head about ‘this that and the next thing to do with monsters and no offence Richie but I’m sick of hearing about it, time to march back to your apartment and make your own decisions about Eddie.

“Yea, yea I guess you’re right, I should maybe go back? I.. okay Bev darling I’ll speak to you later”.

Sitting up he decided that it was time to get back, not realising it was getting darker and darker as a full moon approached.

Waiting for Richie made him terrified he was transforming in an hour and he had no idea what would happen. Would they break up?? If they did it would be so much worse, the adrenaline in this body taking over, making him more angry and upset and he knew his wolf side would harm anything that got in his way, which could include his caring but stupid and scared boyfriend. Hearing the door creak open his head perked up realising that Richie hadn’t let for that long and that probably meant bad news, knots grew in his stomach as he waited in anticipation for Richie to say something, anything whilst looking at the clock ticking on closer and closer to his time of transformation.

“I’m home babey! I wanna talk to you, my love” he said in a singsong voice. This wasn’t good, he honestly knew Richie’s speech patterns very well and he almost never called him babey unless there was a big problem or something was wrong.  

“Yea I’m in here what’s happening”

“I just wanted to say, I talked to Bev and she put things into perspective, I think I love you and I shouldn’t judge you based on what happened when you were younger and I should try to get over it, I wanna keep dating you so I think it’s a good idea to see you at least once.

“Wait wait you want to stay with me? HOLD UP YOU THINK YOU LOVE ME”

“Well yea, I guess? I know we’ve only been dating for a few weeks and technically I only found out a few days ago but I have really strong feelings for you and I think I love you”.

“ I … okay… really don’t know what to say I love yo…” but before Eddie could finish off his sentence something happened, it was supposed to be a strange scary thing but Richie didn’t feel scared all he felt was concerned H could see the pain manifesting on Eddie’s face as he twisted and turned and hair grew from his body turning him taller, more muscular and then into a wolf.

Werewolves, although potentially not less dangerous were smaller than the stories, and Eddie didn’t seem to want to attack him honestly? Richie was very confused and conflicted between everything he had ever heard and feared vs the man who was his boyfriend who had just turned into what looked like a slightly taller dog still vigilant just sitting there. Well until it started talking, but you never hear about things like that when people are attempting to scare you.

“Well aren’t you going to say something? You’ve been looking at me in a daze for the last five minutes like I get the idea of you being scared like yea but can you please snap out of your like -why are you- dude why are you laughing?” Forgetting he was a wolf he attempted to walk over to Richie and ended up falling over four paws”.

Doubled over in laughter Richie realising his boyfriend was an idiot as a wolf decided that there something they needed to talk about “Eddieeeeeee we need to talk soooo I also have a secret”.

“Okay, and it is?

“I’m boisexual, well actually I’m bisexual but we both know I couldn’t come out without a pun”

“And an awful one at that I mean, what does that even mean rich? But honestly I know you told me about the time you dated Bev before she started dating Ben so I just assumed, why is that like a problem?”

“Oh…I- forgot about I just -I assumed like most gay guys you wouldn’t be down to date a bisexual guy I mean most of my life I’ve been told I don’t exist and-“

“Wait who told you this, how many people told you this? You know they’re wrong right I mean you’re bisexual”,

“thanks I means it was mainly my mum and a couple of ex-boyfriends, some teachers and stuff you know”

“Do you want to get your own back?”.

Richie looked at the small wolf in surprise thinking about how he could play pranks and stuff or what they could do in order to get his own back but Eddie had something else in mind.

“Do you want to come with me to kill them”

 Maggie Tozier, was baking in the kitchen humming a light tune whilst taking a pie out of the oven, she hadn’t spoken to her son since he turned sixteen and came out as bisexual for the third time to her disbelief that it wasn’t a phase and after she decided not to accept him they both just stopped talking to each other and then a year later he up and left.

As Richie made his way to his childhood home with his boyfriend in tow he looked at his mom and realised there was no turning back, it was now or never, he could talk to his mom get clarification? If it all went wrong Eddie would be there to make sure he’s okay. Walking in announced he saw he face drop and her mouth open, unfortunately it didn’t seem to be in a nice way. “What are you doing here” her voice laced with disappointment at seeing her thirty-odd year old son standing in front her for the first time in years waiting for her approval or acceptance at last, but that would never come. “Do you still think you can live in cloud cuckoo land and date both boys and girls, I hate to tell you baby but people are going to take advantage of you, I don’t see a ring if you’d just stop all this nonsense I could-“

Before anyone knew what was happening Eddie had lunged at Maggie and grabbed at her arm to bite her, Richie frozen in shock and horror couldn’t do anything except gape at the site as he could see she was losing more and more blood out of her arm, thinking realising he didn’t have many options his adrenaline kicked in, he pondered back to all the times he’d been told he was invisible, bisexuality didn’t exist or he was a monster for trying to invade both communities and he snapped. Grabbing a butcher’s knife from the kitchen he could see his mother attempting to back away muffled screaming, and stabbed her stomach, hearing the organs squishing made his feel better so he did it again and again until he was cover in a pool of blood, surrounded by his mother whilst he was sobbing, Eddie in a corner waiting on him.

“I just murdered my mother”

“Well yea, I just thought you’d hurt her a little honestly but that was a full on murder, but I think she had it coming? Do you want to get cleaned up?”

“Mhmm, that’d be nice, but the problem is I liked it, I enjoyed stabbing her, is that weird?

“Weeelll that depends on who you ask, me, I’m fine with it I mean I enjoy maiming people as a wolf but to normal person I guess?? Hey do you wanna murder people when I’m in my wolf form”.

“You mean people who deserve it right? Not just random people on the street because I don’t know if I enjoy it that much”.

“Yep yea sure of course I won’t pressure you it’s only been your first murder  after all”.

That next night was the final full moon for the month and Richie was trying to think who he would want to murder next, one of his teachers who made him terrified of werewolves, one of the executives who said he’d never get a job in comedy (look at him now!) or one of his biphobic ex-boyfriends who made him feel so disgusting and pathetic that he decided not to date for six years and when he at last did date ‘forgot’ to disclose his sexuality every date he went on.

Tracing down his ex-boyfriend wasn’t as difficult as it seemed just follow the scent of disappointment and go to the nearest seedy gay bar. Julian, who was happily walking towards his car according to the police report, was ribbed in the heart with a duller kitchen knife as if to mimic a broken heart. One arm was ripped off and had teeth marks in it as if it was created by both man and dog.

Waking up next to Eddie, was one of the nice things about existing having had one of the weirdest dreams of his life, although as the blood dripped from the mattress that he couldn’t see he did know one thing though.

He wasn’t frightened of werewolves anymore.

[creativitycache]

ngl asking for people who self-identify as "antis" is already biasing your results because the term originated from fans being defensive over getting called out (eg the types who sincerely think fandom culture is ""puritan""). fair number of people started to use the term ironically and it might be evening out but overall the post calling for responses on the survey still comes off as something written in bad faith?

I wrote a rather long and involved response and then tumblr ate it. Goshdarn.

Fair warning, this is a hyperfixation and I’m coming off of a migraine so this may not be very cogent. Please read this in the over excited tones of someone infodumping about emulsifiers, with no animosity intended.

So, tl;dr and with a lot fewer links, I’m incredibly interested by your perspective that “anti” originated as a derogatory term.

As far as I am aware, the etymological history of the word “anti” being used pejoratively is coming from some very new debates.

I’m also noting that you had no feedback regarding the content of the questions themselves, which I would be interested in hearing as I am genuinely coming from a place without censure.

The term “anti” actually is a self-descriptor that arose in the Livejournal days, where you’d tag something as “Anti ___” for other like minded people to find. (For example, my cursory google search pulled up 10 Anti Amy Lee communities on LJ).

I’m a self-confessed old. I was back in fandom before Livejournal, aaaall the way back in the Angelfire days. Webrings children! We had webrings! And guest books for you to sign!

I’m going to take a swing for the fences here Anon, so if I’m wrong please let me know, but I’m going to guess you became active as a fan in the past 5-8 years based of your use of the term puritan.

There’s actually a HUGELY new debate in fandom spaces! Previously, it was assumed that:

a) All fandom spaces are created and used by adults only.

b) If you were seeing something, it’s because you dug for it.

These assumptions were predicated upon what spaces fandoms grew in. First you had Star Trek TOS fandom, which grew in 1970s housewives kitchens. They were all friends irl, and everyone was an adult, and you actively had to reach out to other adults to talk about things. (By the way- a woman lost custody of her children in the divorce when her ex husband brought up to the judge she kept a Kirk/Spock zine under her bed. The judge ruled this as obvious signs of moral deficiency. That was in the 80s! Everyone is still alive and the parents are younger than my coworkers!)

Time: 1967-1980s. Is Anti a term? No. Who is the term used by? N/A Is fandom space considered Puritanical? No.

Then, when the internet came about, it was almost exclusively used by adults until The Eternal September. 1993 was the year that changed the internet for good, but even years after that the internet was a majority adult space. Most kids and teens didn’t have unlimited access if their parents even had a home computer in the 90s.

This is the rise of Angelfire, which were fansites all connected to each other in “rings”. You had to hunt for content. If you found something you didn’t like, well, you clicked out and went on with your day because you’d never see it again unless you really dug. This was truly the wild west, tagging did not exist and you could go from fluff to vore in the blink of an eye with nothing warning you before hand. All fannish spaces were marked “here be dragons” and attempts were made to at least adopt the “R/NC-17″ ratings on works to some limited success, depending on webmaster.

Time: 1990-1999. Is Anti a term? No. Who is the term used by? N/A Is fandom space considered Puritanical? No.

In 1999 LiveJournal arose like a leviathan, and here is where the term Anti emerges as a self descriptor. Larger communities began to form, and with them, divisions. Now, you could reach so many fans you could reach a critical mass of them for enough of them to dislike a ship. The phrase “Anti” became a self-used tag, as people tagged their works, communities, and blogs with “anti” (NB: this is at far, far smaller rates than today). Anti was first and foremost a tagging tool used and created by the people who were vehemently against something.

You could find content more easily than in the past, but you still had to put some serious elbow grease into it.

In 2007, Livejournal bans users for art "depicting minors in explicit sexual situations”. The Livejournal community explodes in anger- towards Livejournal staff. The account holders/fans view this as corporate puritanical meddling. The outrage continues as it is revealed these bans were part of a pre-sale operation to SUP Services. SUP Services, upon taking over Livejournal in 2008, proceeds to filter the topics “bisexuality, depression, faeries, girls, boys, and fanfiction”.

The Great LiveJournal Migration begins, as fans leave the site in droves.

Time: 1999-2009. Is Anti a term? Yes. Who is the term used by? People self describing, seeking to create communities based off a dislike of something. Is fandom space considered Puritanical? No.

Where do fans go? Well, in the last decade, they migrated to Tumblr and Twitter (sorry Pillowfort- you gave it a good try!)

What’s different about all of these sites? Individuals are able to create and access content streams. These are hugely impactful in how communities are formed! Because now:

a) finding content is easier

b) finding content you dislike by accident is easier

c) content you dislike requires active curation to avoid

d) truly anonymous outreach is possible and easy (for example, you anon! Isn’t it much easier to go on anon to bring up awkward or sensitive topics? I’m happy you did by the way, and that’s why I keep my anons open. It’s an important contextual tool in the online communications world!)

Now the term Anti gets sprightly. Previously, if you didn’t like content, there was nothing you could really do about it. For example, I, at the tender age of way-too-young, opened up a page of my favorite Star Trek Deep Space 9 fansite and pixel by pixel with all the loading speed of a stoned turtle a very anatomically incorrect orgy appeared.

I backed out.

1. Who could I contact? There was no “message me here” button, no way to summon any mods on Angelfire sites.

2. If I did manage to find a contact button, I would have had to admit I went onto a site that wasn’t designed to keep me safe. I knew this was a site for adults, I knew there wasn’t a way to stop it from showing something. There was no such thing as tags. I knew all of this before going in. So the assumption was, it was on me for looking. (Some may have argued it was on my parents for not supervising me- all I can say is thank GOD no one else was in the living room and my mom was around the corner in the kitchen.)

But now? On Tumblr? On Twitter? In a decade in which tagging is so easy and ubiquitous it’s expected?

Now people who describe themselves as antis start to have actual tools and social conventions to utilize.

Which leads to immediate backlash! Content creators are confused and upset- fandom spaces have been the wild west for decades, and there’s still no sherriff in town. So the immediate go-to argument is that these people who are messaging them are “puritans”.

And that’s actually an interesting argument! A huge factor in shaping the internet’s social mores in the latest decades is cleanliness for stockbrokers. Websites can become toxic to investors and to sales if they contain sexual content. Over time, corporations perfected a mechanism for “cleaning” a site for sale.

Please note there is no personal opinion or judgement in this next list, it is simply a description of corporate strategies you can read during the minute meetings of shareholders for Tumblr, Twitter, Paypal, Venmo, Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo Answers, and Livejournal.

1. Remove sex workers. Ban any sex work of any kind, deplatform, keep any money you may have been holding.

2. Remove pedophilia. This is where the jump begins between content depicting real people vs content depicting fictional characters begins.

3. Remove all sexual image content, including artwork of fictional characters.

4. Remove all sexual content, including written works. If needed, loop back to step 2 as a justification, and claim you do not have the moderators to prevent written works depicting children.

I would like to reiterate these are actual gameplans, so much so that they’ve made their way into business textbooks. (Or at least they did for my Modern Marketing & App Design classes back in the early 2010s. Venmo, of course, wasn’t mentioned, but I did read the shareholder’s speeches when they banned sex workers from the platform so I added them in the list above because it seems they’re following the same pattern.)

So you have two groups who are actively seeking to remove NSFW content from the site.

A) Corporate shareholders

B) People are upset they’re seeing NSFW content they didn’t seek out and squicks them

Now, why does this matter for the debates using the term “puritan” as an insult? 

Because the reasons corporate shareholders hate NSFW material is founded in American puritanism. It’s a really interesting conflation of private sector values! And if Wall Street were in another cultural context, it would be a completely different discussion which I find fascinating!

But here’s the rub- that second group? They're not doing this for money. If there are any puritanical drives, it’s personal, not a widespread cohesive ideology driving them. HOWEVER! The section of that group that spent the early 2010s on tumblr did pick up some of the same rhetoric as puritanical talking points (which is an entirely separate discussion involving radfems, 4chan raids, fourth wave feminism, and a huge very nuanced set of influences I would love to talk about at a later time!)

These are largely fans who have “grown up” in the modern sites- no matter how old they actually are, their fandom habits and expectations have been shaped by the algorithms of these modern sites.

Now HERE‘s the fascinating bit that’s new to me! This is the interpretation of the data I’m getting, and so I’m out on a limb but I think this is a valid premise!

The major conflict in fandom at this time is a struggle over personal space online.

Content creators are getting messages telling them to stop, degrading them, following them from platform to platform.

They say “Hey! What gives- we were here first. The cardinal rule of fandom is don’t like, don’t read. Fandom space has always been understood to be adult- it’s been this way for decades! To find our content, you had to come to us! This is our space! This is my space, this is my blog! If you don’t like it, you’re not obligated to look!”

Meanwhile, at the exact same time, antis are saying “Hey! What gives- this content is appearing on my screen! That’s my space!  I didn’t agree to this, I don’t like this! I want it to be as far away from me as possible! I will actively drive it away.”

This is a major cultural shift! This is a huge change and a huge source of friction! And I directly credit it to the concept of “content stream” and algorithms driving similar-content to users despite them not wanting it!

Curating your online space used to be much simpler, because there wasn’t much of it! Now with millions of users spread out over a wide age range, all feeding in to the same 4-5 websites, we are seeing people be cramped in a technically limitless space!

Now people feel that they have to go on the offense to defend themselves against content they don’t like, which is predicated upon not only the algorithms of modern websites but ALSO talking points fed from the top down of what is and what is not acceptable on various platforms.

Time: 2010-2020. Is Anti a term? Yes. Who is the term used by? People self describing,and people using it to describe others. Is fandom space considered Puritanical? Depends!

So I, a fandom ancient, a creaky thing of old HTML codes and broken tags, am watching this transformation and am wildly curious for data.

Also...I uh....I can’t believe this is the short version. My ADHD is how you say “buckwild” tonight.

Anyways...um...if anyone has read to the bottom, give me data?

[radfemmethinker-blog]

I know it might seem the opposite, but I understand.

I deeply 100% understand it, if you're in love with gay culture. I understand if you feel awe and longing when you see M/M couples. I get it if you think gay men are better than straight ones for whatever fucking reason. I know that you might think gay M/M couples are cute. I get it, if you'd like to be a gay man.

I know it. I can get what it feels like if your heart fills with joy to the mere thought of two men being in a relationship. No matter how fucking weird it may look from the outer perspective if you're a biological woman and you feel like this, I get it. I understand if you wished you were born a man because you just deeply feel that gay men are so adorable, no matter how weird it looks, I GET IT.

But for the love of God, gay men are PEOPLE. Just like any other one. You can't become one. I understand you might have a randomic feeling that they are so much better, that their relationships and their culture and their whatever-the-everloving-fuck are just so much better. You know why I get it? Because, even if it doesn't have an actual explanation, it is a feeling. An impression. A randomic brain pattern. And I do believe it may exist. I do believe you might feel this way. It does exist. It's valid if you feel this way. But it does not make you a gay man. And if you disagree, you know what you're not taking into account?

Respect.

If you really love gay men and gay male couples so much, why the fuck would you disrespect them? Why the fuck would a biological female feel entitled to literally appropriate gay male culture? How is this okay, if you put it into perspective?

I'll give you a little insight.

It is not.

You might like gay men as much as you want, wishing you were born one as much as you want, but if you face reality, you'll understand that you were not. Therefore, fetishizing them and appropriating their fucking culture as an outsider is a big lack of respect to them. Expecting same-sex attracted men to be attracted to you is the biggest fucking homophobic act you can do under the false guise of """loving""" them or their culture.

You are not a man. There is no surgery or bippidy boppidy magic out there that will make you one. This is literally a scientific fact, and if you feel offended or attacked by biologic reality, please for the love of God seek help, because it is not normal.

A gay man is exclusively same-sex attracted, if you're born a woman, there is literally no way he's gonna be attracted to you. Genitals dictate sex. Sex is a fact. Sexuality isn't about gender identity: it is about sex. Genitals. The definition of SEXual orientation should not be this hard to grasp. A person is not sexually attracted to social constructs. To the way you dress. They're sexually attracted to your sex. It is not the only standard you have to meet in order for people to be attracted to you (to be a part of a biological sex that is included in their sexual orientation), but it IS an important standard. And there is literally no surgery out there that can give you genitals that even vaguely resemble the ones a biological man would have, let alone mimick their functions.

I understand if you randomically like very much gay culture and M/M relationships. I understand if you fantasize about them, I understand if your artworks revolve around them. It's not a bad thing. But if you actively try to erase homosexuality just so you can feel included in an identity that does not, and will never, include you- if you use other people's bodies or your access to them as a form of self validation- you're literally advocating for homosexuality erasure and rape rethoric against the very people you swear you love so much. And that is not okay. Ever.

Love includes respect. You can't love someone and actively disrespect them. You can't say you love someone and then try to force them to have sex with you against their will. If you try to imagine this in a one-on-one situation, you'll see pretty clearly how that would be an attempt to rape someone. The reasoning is not different. If you love so much this category, respect it. Respect boundaries. Respect the literal definition of the category. People don't magically become gay if they say they are; the definition of gay is being exclusively same-sex attracted. If anyone who isn't exclusively same-sex attracted claims to be gay, they're lying. Being gay is not an identity you can give yourself. It is not a choice. It's a biological fact. You don't "identify" as gay. You are, or are not. No inbetween. Bisexual people are bisexual, not "half-gay". That does not exist.

Please stop claiming you love a category if you literally appropriate and fetishize it. Please. Fucking stop. You're free to have a randomic liking of any category, but that does not make you a part of that category, and never will. If you love gay men as much as you claim you do, I'm begging you, stop trying to strip them of their identities, bully them into not being the literal definition of their category anymore, and erase them from the face of this Earth. That is not love.

That's hate. That's homophobia. Stop being the very thing you swore on your life you would destroy.

There's no secluded category of gay men which are also "TEHMs". All gay men are TEHMs. Gay means same sex attracted ONLY. If anyone claims to be a gay man it doesn't make them one, I can claim to be a crocodile all I want but I'm still a human being. Also, categories are literally made to keep together people with something in common, so don't even fucking try to say I'm "stereotyping" a category. Any category MUST have a caracteristic that keeps its members "similar" in some way, and if you really think that YOU claiming to be a gay man because you like glitters is non-stereotypical, but me saying gay men are literally any type of men with any type of interest as long as they are same-sex attracted only is stereotypical, you either have a chimp brain or you perfectly know you're wrong. Having a good "comeback" does not mean you're right. Factual evidence means you're right, and TRAs literally have NONE.

(I would also expand this to people who claim they like lesbians so much that they "are" one - when they're biological males- but I have the feeling most of them perfectly know these things already and literally don't give two shits, since biological men have ALWAYS hated biological women and have ALWAYS used rape rethoric on them.)

I'm literally just ranting and if you even try to disrespect me interacting with this, I'll block the everloving fuck out of you, because really, if you read all of this and you still think you're right, you're a literal homophobe and there's no hope anyone will ever get anything good out of you.

RESPECT FREAKING GAY PEOPLE. BEING GAY IS NOT A CLUB YOU CAN ENTER FOR THE LOLZZ. IT'S A FUCKING REALITY. PEOPLE ARE BEING KICKED OUT OF THEIR HOMES FOR BEING GAY, AND YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST "CHOOSE" TO BE ONE, WHEN YOU'RE OBVIOUSLY NOT. WTF.

I'm not hateful, only angry. If you see yourself as loving and respecting when you stereotype and disrespect the everloving fuck out of this category, yet see me as hateful because I literally state facts, then there's literally no hope for you to ever understand how the hell this world actually works, so you better hide on Tumblr forever, because I can assure you actual gay people in real life feel the same way I do. Fuck, even STRAIGHT people in real life feel the way I do. All this gender-madness is literally the biproduct of people creating non-existent online safe spaces where they validate each other's delusions, and sorry, but the lgbt-whateverfuckingletter community on this hellsite is not a good representance of the reality of life and ideas outside, in the real world. Move on.

And if you think this is hate-speech... get a grip. No one is threatening you or anyone else with violence. People just fucking wished you'd leave them ALONE in THEIR SPACES.

Wishing you were gay doesn't make you gay.