#every single time i look up anything i think i know about queer history i stumble upon something new

[kitkatcadillac]

seeing a lot of posts making me think about it lately but i think its really important to note when you consider the ways that you accept and support the queer/lgbtq community that its critical, if you want to do a well founded and strong job of it, absolutely CRITICAL to diversify that

i know theres a lot going on right now thats noisy, and scary, and it feels overwhelming and sometimes that pressure is good at encouraging infighting or picking teams or whatnot

but like... i dont know man. step back and relax a little bit. dont engage with the live wire. go... read some stories. read or watch some history, enjoy some queer entertainment.

google terminology. watch something about the AIDS pandemic. see top ten queer artist lists and pick a few to learn more about. look at the wiki for the lavender scare. watch some musicals, learn about theater history. about drag. the holocaust, and how much they cared about whether you were gay, autistic, or jewish, and why its so important to remember who your real fight is with.

not even all at once. just throw some crumbs in with whatever else youre doing, or youre interested in. tidbits. find happy things. find mundane things. find infuriating things. find combinations, confusing things. diversify. grow yourself. give yourself time and tools in bounds. much to learn every day.

[rosielav]

Rosie's Favorite (currently finished/caught up) Podcasts:

The Amelia Project - silly, quirky, morbid but almost always more jaunty and eccentric than completely dark. Great for anyone who loves 'narrator' or interview type podcasts. If I'm not mistaken, I've posted some of my thoughts on here using the pod's hashtag.

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbitity, and Mortality - another narrator type podcast, and probably my favorite of all time. The main voice you hear is perfect imo and keeps you engaged in all the right ways, bringing tension where it's needed, and levity where it's funny or odd. Absolutely consumed this podcast with a voraciousness I haven't felt for a bit. Keeps you guessing and always wanting more from every exhibit.

Victoriocity - excellent voice acting, interesting and unique premise and setting, and great plot. One of the podcasts I'm most looking forward to returning :) think steam punk but also it's the 1800s still in weird ways. If you love an old timey British accent, you'll love this haha.

The White Vault - probably my favorite specifically horror podcast, that makes you wait for answers in a craving sort of way, a longing to know what's going on, and not slogging through a bunch of filler to then get answers. It's great, gorey, geographically diverse fun. Interesting mashups of various cultures re: mythology, history, religion(?). Another on my list to watch out for the return of.

Midnight Burger: the quick pitch is - a time traveling diner that always services people in need, no matter what time, space, or dimension they may reside in. Excellent cast of characters, great development, wonderful implementation of a new character(s), and in general a very comfortable vibe to return to (speaking of, once I run out of recommendations I may relisten to this one). Highly recommend if you like sitcoms with time travel splashed with a bit of horror.

Edit: just finished up another one, so time to add it to the list!!

Monstrous Agonies: A radio show advice segment, about, by, and for the Creature Community. If you like WTNV, but find it a bit intense sometimes, or a bit too plot heavy/etc, you'll absolutely love this. Instead of the whole show, you just get the advice segment, but oh ho ho, is it so much more than that. If you're queer, BIMPOC, from a blended/mixed/broken/anything but 'typical' home... I think you'll like it. Very much what I would call 'easy listening', meaning you can just ease into an episode without having to remember a huge cast of characters, a plots b plots C plots meta plots... And it just feels *real*, in that strange and beautiful way WTNV does, but instead of a fictional town, the setting is the real world, with real problems, and real solutions. Sometimes you really do just need to howl or cry or chew on some slippers and that's OK. Highly recommend for ADHD havers or anyone with a short attention span who loves a soothing voice.

Edit: Another absolute banger to add to the list

Wooden Overcoats - how do I even properly describe the experience of this podcast. Let's start with the basics: It's the story of twins who run a funeral parlor on a small island, in a small village. Their family has been running said parlor for hundreds of years, as the only funeral directors on the island. Until one day... They aren't. A man arrives and sets up his own funeral parlor directly across the square, and boy, do things change for those twins. If you've listened to (and loved) Victoriocity, or The Amelia Project, I guarantee you'll enjoy this one. Strange, silly, and interesting things are always happening, except this one doesn't have quite as much drama (well...... Perhaps a different kind of drama. I'd call this an interpersonal dramedy, with emphasis on the comedy). An incredible listen, through and through. I thoroughly enjoyed every single episode, and the ending was quite safisfying :)

Another EXCELLENT addition to this ever increasing list of content!!! I'm not even finished with this one, I just love it so much that I can't help but add it to the list:

Mission Rejected - you know in those spy movies, where the spy gets a secret message from HQ and they say 'your mission, if you choose to accept it...' ok great. Now imagine if 007 said 'no'. This is the story about the backups, the team that takes the missions rejected by the Top Spy Guy. It's got diverse voice acting (in many senses of the word - you can tell the voices apart, it's not exclusively straight cis white dudes, etc etc), wonderful worldbuilding, great pacing, an excellent plot, I really could go on and on. I highly recommend this specific podcast to anyone who wants something light to get deeply invested in, that has a lot of comedy but also develops the characters outside of just their bits. 100/10 no notes

Edit: not sure which podcast/podcast enthusiast rb'ed this yesterday but I'm so glad more folks get to see this list!!! It makes me so happy that lots of folks enjoy this list, a d share their fave ones, and!!!! Aaaggghhhhhhhhh!!! I love podcasts and podcast enthusiasts!!!!!

Also I have another one for yall :3 if you're looking for another improv comedy to add to your list!!!

Hey Riddle Riddle - exactly what you think it is, but also so much more. Three friends/coworkers who also happen to be sensational improv comedians solve riddles and puzzles together, while also introducing bits and skits and reoccurring segments, so it never feels like 'just a Riddle podcast' (whatever that means). I have laughed every single episode, which is a big deal for me (some comedy podcasts only make me laugh every few episodes, and I require at LEAST one laugh per episode). I can genuinely say this is one of the funniest podcasts I've ever listened to, and the absolute best improv I've ever heard. I'm all for committing to the bit, and this one absolutely delivers on both the commitment part and the bit part haha. Seriously can't recommend this one enough if you maybe listen to a lot of drama/horror and need something easy to listen to (easy meaning there's not a plot you have to be intensely listening for, you can just enjoy it casually). 1000/10, please listen and also tell me YOUR favorite riddles :)

[intersex-support]

(half vent half ramble about intersex, medical neglect, and the racialization of gender and sex binaries)

I am going to lose my mind. There is Something Wrong with my reproductive system. I know this much. It doesn't act how every single piece of (modern, reputable) medical literature I can find says is "normal". At this point I think the reason I can't get any doctors to take me seriously is because I'm mixed race. I pass white easily, and I'll discuss my symptoms with a doctor, show the physical, visible proof of endocrine weirdness on my body, and they look concerned, willing to discuss, in agreement that there's something weird. Then they look over my medical history and profile before doing anything in depth. They see I am biracial. They suddenly insist that everything is normal and that I'm overreacting.

I have some friends that are studying medicine, including one that has particular interest in intersex and general queer medicine (and has her doctorate even). She agrees that there's something different by any metric. All of them are in agreement that I likely have something unusual with either my reproductive system, endocrine system, or both. They all agree I should get proper testing but can't authorize it due too the ethical issue of them being my friends.

So I go to new doctors regularly and the cycle repeats every time. The oddities are only getting more apparent. How long will it be before people can put down their perception of different races as different species? There are differences between us. But they are not as drastic as people make them out to be. How strange must my body become before a doctor can no longer blame it on my mixed heritage?

I'm so tired of being Schrodinger's intersex. We need to put down the idea that traits can only be intersex in specific races. The amount of poc that are struggling from this is almost certainly larger than we can imagine. The only reason I think this problem becomes so obvious with me is because of my white passing biracial-ness. I feel like the canary, making it particularly clear how much the racialization of gender and sex hurts all of us. I'm so tired

Sending so much solidarity and support 💜💜💜

The amount of racism from doctors is so incredibly fucked up, especially when it comes to the racialization of gender and sex and how that creates so many barriers for accessing care. We've talked a lot on this blog before about how some diagnostic standards for certain intersex variations are just explicitly racist--hirsutism scales and the way that they're talked about, for example. There are so many ways that white supremacy works together with intersexism/compulsory dyadism and a key part of intersex justice is fighting against all these connected systems of oppression.

on this blog we understand that there are so many barriers to getting testing and diagnosis in the current medical system, which is one of the reasons why we support informed self-diagnosis. if you're at all interested in participating in intersex community spaces, InterConnect has online and in person peer support groups, including a peer support group specifically for intersex people of color. Know that you are absolutely welcome here, even if you don't have a confirmed medical diagnosis.

I really hope that you're able to find the answers you need--you deserve better than you've been treated, and I can absolutely imagine how exhausting the discrimination through this whole process has been. Please feel welcome to send in any more asks, whether you need resources, have questions, or just need to vent.

best wishes, anon 💜💜💜

[thehetrophobe]

Go ahead and wave your pride flags while the enemies close in on us.

Go ahead and sing all about positivity while the enemies make more anti-gay bills.

Go ahead and think "not all straight people" while they call you slurs when you're away.

Go ahead and try on more clothes while the enemies work fruitfully to ensure your death.

This post is directly for the queers that defend straight people.

It only takes ONE mistake, one slip-up and the Defaults will show you who they truly are. Talk back at them, stand up to them, act out of line. When they want to hurt you, it's your queerness they'll attack.

Not your fat ass or massive forehead or stupidity or whatever it is that makes you human. It's that gay side in you the Defaults will come after.

Take a look at what's happening in Ghana.

Defaults are using the cover of family to attack you. Does this mean gay kids aren't part of the family? Does this mean gay parents can't have a family? No, they're simply trying to tell you that DEFAULTS ARE THE ONLY ONES CAPABLE OF HAVING A FAMILY.

A Default grows up surrounded by his kind. Because of this, his mind is small, narrowed, typical. He expects everything to continue to remain the way he sees it.

Man marries woman, woman gets pregnant, she gives birth, happy family.

So what happens the second he sees anything different from this pattern?

I think you know the answer.

There's a switch in Defaults that flip over when they see something that doesn't imitate them. It comes with them right from birth and it stays. Some of them, a few, have succeeded in depressing it, but it never truly goes away. Many of us queers have been at their mercy.

You don't know how fucking strange homophobia is.

These Defaults are telling you to your face that YOU SHOULD NOT EXIST. They are destroying movies and books and games that hold any queer elements. They are throwing people like you off roofs. They are disowning kids that show the slightest hint of being gay. They are fucking killing us.

Yet all we are doing is organizing pride parades. Laughing. Holding hands and singing Kumbaya. When will we realize that the Defaults will not rest untill every last one of us is gone? When is the time to take up arms?

Shall we wait untill they are at our doorstep before we recognise love will not solve anything? Shall we wait untill our bridges are filled with gay teens waiting to jump off? Shall we wait untill the streets are chocked with the bodies of disowned gay kids? Shall we wait untill even our own gay members start to kill other gay people?

WAKE THE FUCK UP!

If you want to dye your hair in peace, or wear those feminine/masculine clothes or skip on the sidewalk without fear of harassment, or hold hands and kiss in public, or go on dates without being afraid that some Default might stab you, PREPARE FOR WAR.

Look at history! Every single story, every single poem, every single thing is dedicated solely to them. They wiped out every queer story, they plucked out the gay characters. They hate you, they keep on saying this to your face, but you insist on giving them a hug.

Sooner or later, you will have to wake up. And when you do, I'll be here.

"Live free or die". ✊

[drdemonprince]

Something I think you're missing in how you talk about trans men: how recently you transitioned.

I came out circa 2007, and there was almost no information about us, no community where I lived (the local support group was all older trans women), no media outside of "Boys Don't Cry" and the way-better-but-still-basic "Parrotfish," no anything at all except TERF lesbian communities that coveted and hated us in equal measure, and general GSAs that were sweet, but dominated by cis people. I learned that the worst thing in the world I could be was a trans man - to be a trans man was to be a regressive agent of the patriarchy, and if I couldn't force myself to be nonbinary or a cis woman, I was evil.

In the early 2010s I attended a conference where a trans woman, a national celebrity I looked up to, made a joke about how useless trans men are during her keynote speech. I walked out of that room crying because as far as I knew, she was right - I was almost an elder by the standards of an atomized community where we were expected to die young, and even I couldn't name a single trans man in history who'd mattered.

We take it for granted now that trans men like Lou Sullivan made a difference, but to bring attention to him, folks like me had to swim upstream against a wave of accusations of misogyny from TERFs, and sometimes even from trans women. The acceptance you rejoice in at bathhouses? That was hard won through outreach by trans men. I even remember a specific trans male-run ambassador program in San Francisco circa 2013 dedicated to integrating trans men into the queer male community.

The world that's welcomed you was built by trans men who, like me, felt agonizingly alone and unwanted in both cis and trans communities. You paint a picture of lazy hangers-on who don't understand how good they have it, and maybe that's true for the folks you're looking at, but they don't reflect the hard work trans men have been putting in at every level of organizing for much longer than our efforts have been recognized. I've been involved in the fight for our liberation since I was a teenager, working on school and state-level policy change, medical access, the preservation of history, mentorship, dodging evictions, and all the little jobs my tired, autistic ass can take on, and I've never been rewarded for it outside the thanks of the people I've helped. All I ever wanted was to make things better for the generations that came after me.

I'd just like to have that reality acknowledged - that those of us who came before you built what you're now able to enjoy, and we can use that history to empower and encourage younger generations to continue doing the work instead of implying that no one's been doing it at all.

Thank you for this message. I would like to read a lot more about your perspective on this history. Please let me know your @ -- in private if you prefer. There are some elements of how this is framed here that do make me go, hm (the view was the worst thing you could be was a trans man?) but I am also appreciative of this this glimpse at what I don't know I don't know, and am interested to learn more about it.

But I also want to push back against the idea that I have no knowledge of how things were during the times you're talking about -- I was a queer, gender-questioning adult at that time too, and I was active in many trans spaces.

My medical transition is very recent in the grand scheme of things but I've been rolling deep with trans guys and going to trans masc events since 2003-2004 (in Cleveland and Columbus). I remember how the not-full-blown TERFY yet still very toxic radfems spoke about men, sexually preyed upon trans guys in some cases, and sometimes said things critical of transition. I knew several trans guys who had quite a guilt complex about becoming a "man" because they had internalized that men were inherently predatory and evil. Personally, I'd always thought that line of thinking was absurd and a very poor excuse for feminism, so it didn't get under my skin in the same way. Instead of making me not want to be a man, it made me not want to be a feminist. Which is pretty typical sexist bro shit to do really. Again, no big evidence of transmisandry here. certainly experiences that were emotionally very fraught and challenging for people, but not misandry or transmisandry.

These queer and feminist groups that I moved within were VASTLY more exclusionary to the trans femmes in the city, who were not even permitted to attend events for sexual assault survivors in the Columbus scene. I DID see trans women on the social periphery of these groups be discouraged from transitioning, and I did hear just about every vile transmisogynistic slur and exclusionary idea you can think of be passed around by many without challenge.

The transmisogyny stood out to me even back then as particularly egregious and rampant -- it disgusted me and caused me to distance myself from those groups of people in 2007-8. It was the outspoken hatred of anyone with an "amab" body and frothing transmisogyny that made me not want to be associated with that crowd or to contemplate transition, honestly -- not any kind of widespread anti-transmasc sentiment. These groups held top surgery fundraisers and hormone start date celebrates for trans guys and expressed desire for trans men openly and included them warmly in just about everything while treating trans women like predators and telling them they should just be feminine men (far, far away from them).

So my experience just does not track with what you are saying. I imagine we have two very different vantage points on similar periods of time, and I think there certainly is a lot more about trans masc history I could stand to learn and so many trans masc elders' whose names I should be putting more respect on. And I'd be very open to hearing more about that from you. But I do have to push back against the characterization of the era as someone who very much was there.

[anomymoussoapbar]

I'm proship/profiction because I understand that the content somebody creates or is interested in isn't a perfect reflection of how they are irl.

I trust that other proshippers understand how to separate fiction and reality.

I'm anti-censorship; I won't make any exceptions because we've seen in history that once you start making exceptions, it can lead to queer media also being demonized and banned (the best I can think off the top of my head is the trans institute that existed in nazi Germany, which had so many amazing trans resources, getting destroyed by nazis).

I believe people should be able to use art as an outlet for anything. Not every single thing in life needs to be censored, and people do often use art to process feelings and experiences.

I'm against harassing people for their art. Not only does harassing some internet stranger sound like a waste of time, it's bullying too. I don't want to be a bully.

I believe in "don't like, don't look, don't interact" (my own variation of don't like don't read). I have tools to block people and hide content I don't want to see. I'm going to use them. I am responsible for curating my own online experience.

I've seen people online who use proshipping as a coping mechanism. I don't understand how that's possible, but that doesn't really matter so long as those people are safe. I wouldn't deny a victim their coping mechanism unless it endangered their life because that's against my beliefs and I'm not a therapist, so that wouldn't even be my place to speak. I've noticed antis don't like these kinds of victims because they don't fit into the antis' perfect boxes of how they think victims should be, so they often harass and bully and claim victims need therapy/need better therapists. I find this ridiculous because in my and many other's experiences, therapy is inherently proship/profiction and antis ignore this/claim it's not true (idk how you can do that if you're not a psychologist but they're too far gone to argue with). And they don't even offer to pay for the therapy, lol.

Thank you for making this blog and being curious, you're amazing. Sorry that this is kinda long lol

Hello!!! :*)

Thank you so so so much for your views.

I find it interesting how you listed it and specifically how you explained "don't like don't look don't interact" [I really like how you phrased it :*)] which I myself see me doing a lot.

When I read through your explanation, I began getting vaguely reminded of those internet safety PSAs they would make kids watch when you are younger, of curating your own safe environment.

How to report bullying, and to not harass others online as well being points that made me think of those internet safety PSAs LOL

Something I find myself thinking about is on how a lot of what fiction can affect reality is a concern long ago that was likely brought by concerns by parents who were against video games saying it promoted violence.

I also find the idea of fictionally dark themes interesting, as I have realized I. Do often indulge in dark medias. In an oddly comforting way.

I really don't like how people harass proshippers, or anyone in general. And from what I have been gathering, not all proshippers indulge in dark thematics. Perhaps the majority, but the proshipping idea is simply respecting even if you dont share it.

Also, when you mentioned people not being exactly how they write or the creations they make, I realized how a lot of mainstream medias follow this. The creator of most Studio ghibli movies is COMPLETELY different from the peppy and cute movies he makes and the creator of popular horror Manga Junji ito makes a lot of horror visuals and grotesque stories however is just a sweet guy in real life.

I know I bring it up a lot in my posts, but a lot of why media can be triggering for me and sickening is when I see what reminds me of my own traumatic experiences [S/A /COCSA and grooming.] And how no matter how much I filter, it will always end up appearing.

As it makes me physically sick, revolted, and sadly reminds me of what I've so deeply buried.

However, I am ONE side of the S/A survivor victim experience and spectrum. The other is people who find comfort in exploring their feelings and it helps them understand on what happened to them.

And I love art. I express myself through art. I used to draw what happened to me and draw out how I felt with characters. But it would make me feel so much worse. As I am and was at the mental point of connecting so hard to the fictional reality which I built to be so much better than I was in.

I don't really know why I'm saying all of this, I guess I just want to lead to the fact that every survivor has their way of coping, and mine isn't the same as everyone else's. And I am still learning to accept that and educate myself on it. Because I do. I really do want to understand and take away my own personal stigmas.

I have so much more I would love to add but I feel I have been rambling for too long LOL

Oh my goodness I'm so sorry for ranting but anyways, thank you so much for the ask and informing me in this much detail. You are so so loved and appreciated. 💞🌸

[pyroreadscomics]

What are your thoughts about Howard's Catwoman run?

The run being really gay doesn't save the writing from being really mediocre.

(More nuance below the cut)

Well that was snappy, unfortunately my thoughts are many and complicated and probably won't be entirely ironed out until a few months after she leaves the book or I reread the run again, or both. That phrase was something I said while reading through the series for the first time a some months ago that I still mostly stand by, but now feel the need to caveat and add nuance.

(Also, it feels weird that, because I put off answering this for months, the end of Howard’s run is just a few months away now, but I’m just going to assume the ending is neither so good it retroactively makes everything better or so bad it tanks the run with guilt by association)

When I say mediocre, I very specifically don't mean bad. I'm using mediocre to mean it's average, ordinary, of moderate quality. Not bad enough to hate, or even particularly dislike, but not good enough for me to shed a tear if it was suddenly canceled (which… seeing as it’s end is now on the horizon… I’m actually filled with anticipation as to what comes next.)

And like many multi-year runs, Howard's Catwoman has had it's ups and downs while it's low points are i think widely known: Her dialogue tends towards what i can only describe as AO3 generic, the plotting itself is sub-par, Gotham War disappointing even though there was no way to go into it with high expectations (joint effort i know, but even taking only half blame for it Tini Howard doesn't come out of that event looking remotely well), and I have an entire rant ready for how I dislike how Black Mask is used in that series.

1. The reintroduction of Eiko

But, that said, at this moment I do feel like calling out some highlights of Howard's run (or at least, the bits of it I really liked.)

Also yes, alot of this could be considered fanservice, but I’m at least acknowledging that things that make me happy don’t inherently make a run good. (but at least more enjoyable to slog through than Tom King’s batman or most of her New 52 stuff)

Okay, let me be clear, Eiko in this run is a shadow of her debut in Valentine's run but Selina's supporting cast has a worrying tendency to disappear without a trace after one, max two runs, so damn if it wasn't nice to see Eiko suddenly reappear in a major role in the Catwoman run after a 6 year absence and not have her confined to the dustbin of comic history alongside other Catwoman supporting cast members such as Gwen, Alice, Zee, Clutterbuck, Wilder, Arizona, and Cassandra Cartland (If you knew every single person i mentioned without having to check, I like you, and you like me also know too much about Catwoman)

If nothing else, if Eiko's appearances in this comic, and her guest appearances in other current Gotham stories (like Punchline: Gotham Game or Ram V's excellent Gotham Nocturne) manage to cement her as a persistent part of Catwoman's cast, this run will have done enough for me to earn a passing grade.

Also I like Eiko's new catsuit and not just because it makes it easier to tell her apart from Selina

2. Catwoman #43 & #44 (The Harley Quinn two parter)

Judging by the mood in the room, If anything gets me an angry response it's going to be this.

It's fun, it was a fun two parter, and honestly there are times when I wish more writers would stop trying to do the high drama stories they're kinda bad and instead write fun inconsequential side stories.

Also yes I do ship it. What of it?

Actually speaking of

3. The queerness.

It’s not a lot, but for a character who’s been out as bi since 2015 Selina is never written that way (at least in the main comics, I understand the HQ show and the recent movies have either explicitly or implicitly had bi Selina). Like it’s so bad Selina doesn’t even get pride tie in stuff, no appearances in the pride anthologies or even pride variant cover. JFC Nightwing gets one every year and last time i checked he was still canonical cishet. And… a bit like Eiko, but less important, it’s nice to have another run where Catwoman is canonically queer. Selina acknowledging Eiko as an ex, flirting with other women, that Selina and Harley sharing a bed scene. It’s just nice to have that part of Selina’s character acknowledged.

Also it’s so minor but the gay bar called Conroy’s got me just a bit.

4. Knight Terrors

On balance, despite me having criticisms of it, I did like it as a version of “What does Selina’s worst nightmares look like”. It’s not quite as good as Devin Grayson’s take on the matter (and ain’t that a sentence) but I’m a big fan of Selina’s mind dark fears conjuring force a lot of catholic imagery and doing something actually interesting with the Sister Zero concept. (It’s really just a shame that this story is clearly setting something up for Gotham War that never actually gets paid off, which is wild considering that was literally the month after Knight Terrors)

Lastly:

5. Valmont

Look, I really liked Valmont for two reasons, one of which is superficial, one of which actually had thought put into it.

Superficially: Selina deserves a whipped subby bisexual twink, as treat. Sure he's a cocky asshole, sure he looks like pirate au ghostmaker, sure he's ready to murder anyone who looks like a threat to his dom love (and honestly anyone in general), but honestly that's all part of the charm.

Because Bruce, as the whole wedding thing shows, is big on these concrete declarations of affection, even as he’s really bad at actually expressing his affection in more casual ways. And Eiko, as she says, is “comfortable with these declarations, names. Things like titles and vows.” So in dating either of them Selina would be consenting being put into a box and labeled, even if it's a box as unconstrained as “dating” and a label as loose as “girlfriend”.

But, putting a bit of thought into things, Valmont has this really interesting role in the story. He's the obviously incorrect choice in a love triangle, but also the one who Selina would pick anyway.

Like, the issue before he dies the story teases a bit of romance with Bruce and Selina, and earlier there were some teases (or.. maybe acknowledgement is the right word?) between Selina and Eiko. There's two existing love interests for Selina, Bruce, who's the moral and safe choice, the wedding bells and gaggle of step kids choice. And there's Eiko, who's a major crime lord, one who's conducting business with some of the worst in Gotham. If it was just the two of them (especially if Eiko was closer to her Valentine personality), it'd be a pretty classic "the good boy and the bad boy girl" love triangle but Valmont is here, and he adds an interesting angle onto that love triangle(?) (is it still a triangle when there's three potential lover interests?).

(A reversal on Eiko and Selina’s very undefined relationship in Valentine’s run, which could be seen as divergence for the character but also kinda makes sense. With Eiko ending that run by shedding Catwoman (and identity that embodied personal freedom and also rebellion against her father) to become the head of the Hagisawa family (an identity marked by responsibility to the family and her place as her father’s heir) that going forward she’d be a lot less likely to engage in a nebulous undefined relationship when her life is now, by choice, very defined. It’s still however one of those things that assumes a non-zero amount of character development happened off screen.)

But Valmont? Valmont doesn’t ask anything *of* Selina.

Sure he does initially, “hey here’s this cat, I know where you live, join my thieves guild”. But this tactic gets him shot down by Selina and at best relegated to “untrusted ally” status (and more likely “useful but dangerous”). But after this, and after a brief break during the CatQuinn two-parter, Valmont’s back with a new tactic called “I’ll do literally anything you ask of me, including stopping killing people, and ask for nothing in return.” Which… with Selina being somewhat adverse to long term commitment (or commitment in general depending on the writer) this works.

Valmont’s hardly a healthier romantic option (he might not be the worst person Selina’s ever dated, but he’s still at the end of the day an arrogant invasive assassin) but he puts a spin on himself that makes Selina let her guard down around him and they do eventually become some vaguely undefined item.

And then in his final issue, Bruce accuses him of still being loyal to the league of assassins and of manipulating Selina. Then he kills again in the process of undoing a problem he caused, and gets in a big fight with Bruce about it. And when Valmont goes to kill Bruce, she kills Valmont which… It’s a weird moment for Selina, she’s normally very reserved about killing people and while yes needing to save Bruce could theoretically push her far enough. But also, it’s the best thing this run could do with Valmont.

Because Bruce’s accusations (along with Valmont’s general sketchiness) lead to this question with Valmont: does he genuinely love Selina, or is he using her for some unknown end? Because he know what he’s naturally like (down with murder) and we know he’s changed his behavior, but we don’t know whether it was because he wanted to be with Selina enough to change himself for that chance (which… understandable) or, if he was on some deep cover mission to manipulate Selina towards and he changed behavior in order to further his own covert ends. And… imo the possibility of it being one or the other is more interesting than any story you could get out of committing one way or the other.

And by killing Valmont, the run gets out of having to answer this question, which, again imo, is the most intelligent narrative decision this run made aside from bringing back Eiko.

That said, If in the last two issues Howard answers the question of “what really was up with Valmont” I’m retroactively taking back all of this praise and will be downgrading this run to "of poor quality but at least Eiko's here"

[chevelleneech]

"Because from the outside it seems like such a serious commitment when you think about how serious the military is."

Apart from jkkrs this is thef first time I'm seeing someone actually acknowledge the importance of the companion system and jm and jk using that for their military service. you might be jkk biased idk anything about you so...at the end it might be coming from a jkk bias at the end but i love that.

Don't get me wrong but when jkk's enlistmemt news hit the tl i saw only the same 3 big army accts talk about how big that is all others were busy making their typical tweets plus "how dare you separate vmin", "how dare you separate taekook", "return hobi his jm back" like okay i get the sentiment but where is anyone acknowledging the fact that jkk will be together? nowhere. saw few About jikook having jin to guide them but there was nothing specific for jkk ever acknowledged. but given the fandom's record it's nothing surprising how they hardly would acknowledge jikook's moments like that.

Idk how it looks from outside cause I'm quite a jkkr (not the one who belives they're dating cause i personally don't think so but yeah they're my bias) so for me it indeed seems important for them. if we look at all these yrs of jm providing comfort to jungkook, how jungkook would chose jm as the hyung that gives him comfort the most, and how jm would always say that he feels protected and comfortable around jungkook their decision makes sense. tbh the news was a shock to me cause i like other jkkrs always thought jm would enlist months before jk's MS so it was shocking. But if you know the history then it shouldn't surprise you.

Jkkrs say not even military can keep them apart and if you think then they haven't been apart from eachother for longer since the time the first met. not saying haven't been apart enjoying their time with other ppl cause they did but they somehow always want to be present in eachother's business lol. Even when they left the dorm jkk were one the members who left it last when some members left it early. This was the time where they definitely could have taken break from being around same ppl all the time yet they said nope.

They're also the only idols that come up when you search for "idols that have used Buddy program" so it is interesting. Other members do casually shows up here n there post things yet we Hardly hear from them both. willingly choosing to go to frontline because you're using buddy prgrm is also something. I'd rather let my fate decide where i land my training in sk than willingly go to the dangerous part of borders. but if i had the chance to do my MS with the person who is my emotional support and is my comfort I'll take it in a sec.

I don't think we'll ever get the proper in depth answer to the question, maybe they'll say that since they're the ones with tattoes they decided to go together. i mean even if tattoed there's many options open for them, far well than the frontline and as you said saying (them telling us) they needed most emotional support wont look good on them so i know they won't be too deep with their answer. They're too private like that.

Thanks for your beautiful posts.

Hello!

Just to put it out there, I am army, so I’m pretty deep in the trenches of Jikook. I don’t know if I think they’re dating with 100% certainty, but I am someone who doesn’t understand why people think it’s impossible. They grew up together, work together, and clearly really enjoy each other's company seemingly more than they do their other members. That obviously doesn’t equal romance, but acting like assuming they’re together is gross or ridiculous, it’s stupid. People date their friends and coworkers every single day. Celebrities more than anyone else, so why would presumed queer people be any different?

As for the rest, I’m glad you liked what I said! You also seem to be the only person who really got what I was trying to say. It’s clear JM and JK care deeply for each other and find comfort in one another, so them choosing the buddy system makes sense on the surface, but it doesn’t really explain anything. Which they aren’t obligated to do, but them making such a choice is a big deal when they had other options. So why make such a serious choice? What was the catalyst, when their friendships with other members are equally as important to them? What was it about their bond that caused them to decide, “We can’t do this alone like the rest of them. We have to do this together.”

Was it just them being close friends? Was it mental health related? Was it romance related? Was it work related? We’ll never know. We just know they’ve always been there for each other, and enlistment didn’t change that, no matter the missing (for us) context.

[the-technicolor-whiscash]

me reading your posts about astronaut history (i literally do not know anything at all but am drawn in by your thoughts and read all the posts all the way through)

Thank you lmao I know too much about the early astronauts and have no one to subject to my knowledge so I bring it here. I cannot deny i definitely have a little bit of a parasocial thing going on there but unlike many who blindly deify these men I at least acknowledge that many of them were extremely flawed (which speaks to why so many of them got divorced because they were workaholics riding death machines for a living) and while i greatly enjoy learning about them and poking fun at them, I will be the first to admit that some of them should not be admired for anything other than the work they did. Alan Shepard was a total dog who cheated on his wife obsessively (and he was also kind of a bitch if you didn't play his game right), Buzz Aldrin's a notorious shithead who was a raging alcoholic and even the other astronauts couldnt stand being around him, Jim Irwin was an abusive husband before having a religious experience on the moon and becoming an evangelical, and several of them went on to become republican politicians. These guys were a product of their time and their upbringing. Nearly all of them were former military test pilots. None of them were good at expressing human emotions except for maybe Alan Bean (whose artistic spirit caused him issues in the astronaut office but resulted in some of the most beautiful space artwork) because they effectively had the emotions beat out of them by the nature of being a test pilot and watching up to 50% of your coworkers get turned into ground beef.

The early astronauts were an interesting crowd in a totally unique time in human history. That's why I like learning about them, learning about their dynamics, their personalities. Do I think I'd be capable of being friends with many of them? Absolutely not. Truth be told I get on pretty well with former military folks but what I can't stand is an ego. These sons of bitches had egoes that stretched up to the moon and back. And part of the issue is that the astronaut selection process back then was looking for the all-american boy (preferably with a degree in engineering) who just so happened to have a personality capable of being stapled into a capsule with as many as two other dudes for a week or two with no private toilet. I am extremely glad that we've moved beyond that in our astronaut criteria and have gone on to hire people who can express human emotions. And also gay people shoutout to Sally Ride for being the first known queer person to fly in space (even though she wasn't out at the time she flew). We may not have gotten the first man in space but we did beat the Russians on gay people in space so I'd consider that a space race victory.

Oh also don't take my word as gospel here much of my knowledge comes from firsthand sources which have a certain degree of bias from whichever astronaut has chosen to write a memoir to capitalize off of the last successful thing he did in his life because he figured it could net him a little cash (Buzz has done this many times, Fred Haise has done it most recently albeit with a fair bit of success because at least his book is pretty funny) and every single one of these guys has a different description of events depending on the angle he's coming at it from so while I try to read as many different perspectives as I can, outside of video/audio footage, official documentation, and mission transcripts you are never going to get 100% of the story from just a personal account. That's part of why i read the transcripts I didn't even know about the piss tube problems on Apollo 7 because as far as I can remember Wally didn't even mention it in his memoir but it takes a prime seat in the transcripts. But that's also a point of view you should take to all historical research there is never just one perspective and each perspective outside of the genuine technical facts has biases and opinions one way or another.

Anyway this got long but I'm glad you enjoy my carefully curated astrodrama

[ethanhuntfemmefatale]

Hey Cecil, as a fellow MI1 enjoyer (although you are a gold medal winner where I am a hobbyist) and resident Luther(/Ethan) enjoyer, do you ever think about how Luther is literally the only person still alive who saw even part of Ethan and Claire’s dynamic together? In the same vein as your ‘what if Claire lived’ scenarios, I am thinking ‘what if Luther saw what was happening and/or ever tried to bring up the subject of Claire with Ethan?’

Oh god punct. I think about this literally every single day.

To start, I just want to say this idea is deeply close to my heart and hurts a bit to think about. Personally, though, I can’t imagine a world where it happens, at least not one that also maintains my specific take on the Luther/Ethan dynamic.

I have my own ideas of Luther/Ethan. Going off on a tangent for a bit, if you don’t mind indulging me, Luther is an interesting figure in MI. the other agents are routinely given “moral tests,” benji and the bomb in DR1, Brandt and the nuclear codes, Ilsa and the ‘come away with me’ scene as a few examples. Scenes that act to solidify to the audience the character’s morality, priorities, etc. Luther isn’t given those hardly ever, he’s treated as a known commodity—he’s Ethan’s friend. That’s his morality. And there’s an assumption that we must know him, he’s been around for so long, but his character arc has basically been as follows: MI1 gives us a very batshit snapshot of a hotshot (queer) wrong-side-of-the-tracks former agent who happens to have an unexpected almost naive moral core, that Ethan picks up on. In that movie, Luther’s most striking for his ability to roll with Ethan’s plan throughout while having no knowledge of his history or intentions. Then in MI2 he likes Gucci. Then in MI3 he likes gunning down relative innocents, and pestering Ethan about his love life. In MI5 he’s shown to generally trust Ethan to handle things himself—“you don’t know Ethan. They’ll never catch him.” “Sometimes Ethan is the one who can see the only way.” Then in MI6 he sits ilsa down to have a talk with her about ethan’s feelings, and his history with Julia, which would be probably fine if Ethan wasn’t such a private person, but he is, and the Julia Thing is his business, not to mention something he doesn’t generally bring up to Anyone. It’s…confusing.

This is why I generally base most if not all of my luther characterization off of mi1, because that’s where he feels the most dynamic and believable to me. With a side of mi5 cause it tracks with MI1 the most. There’s a lot about mcquarrie era luther that I love, but honestly I sometimes feel like his character never gets back to the sheer fascination he holds in MI1. Anyway, tangent concluded. Onwards:

Like I said earlier, Luther in mi1 minds his own business. Not only that, his friendship with Ethan is founded off of ask-no-questions, at a time when Ethan is deeply evasive and Luther is equally so. (Honestly, the principles of ask-no-questions are baked into early MI, the movies where Ethan’s relationship with luther is centered the most, just because none of them ever fucking reference each other.) I have this working theory about Ethan and Luther’s friendship which is, they don’t talk. And canon contradicts it, but I don’t totally care? There’s a professional respect that is established between them in MI1, based in the fact that they didn’t need to know anything about each other to trust each other. I can’t help but feel that Luther asking Ethan about his history or his personal life would violate their unspoken pact of Literally Completely Illogical respect and trust and care. And I think Luther, with his diva tendencies, his secrecy (“no one’s ever been able to prove I was involved with that”), values that mutual privacy and trust a lot.

Whenever I watch him in the cheek kiss scene, I’m struck by the way you can see him notice it, and then you can watch him look down. I think he’s trying to mind his own business—I think he’s a nosy bitch, and I think he wants to know badly, and I don’t think he would ever ask. I think part of his and Ethan’s loving professional QPR is based in the itch of the hacker to know more and the respect of the friend that holds that desire back. And on Ethan’s side, the itch of the agent, the itch of the honeypot, to leverage his friendship with Luther, to get closer to him, to figure him out, to test him—the way that that’s also held in check, by trust and respect. Luther is kinda the first person who has any kind of boundaries with Ethan, and that’s too sacred to me to imagine a world where it doesn’t last.

That being said I do think he holds the memory of seeing that kiss inside him and he thinks about it sometimes. I honestly love the way that Luther acts as a witness, the fact that by virtue of still being alive he means that the things that happened to Ethan were real. And they don’t need to talk about it for that reassurance to be there. Ethan knows that Luther saw it, and I almost feel like the trust deepens between them, with Luther being essentially handed blackmail on Ethan—without the context to understand it, but with enough context to realize it’s probably blackmail—and keeping his mouth shut and his head down. It’s a formative moment for them in my mind

I really really really like the idea of Ethan’s “sins” coming to light in a visceral way, particularly the Jim/Claire relationship and the Max relationship, as well as the Alanna thing. And I’m actually playing with that in fic form currently, mostly because I think it would be Ethan’s absolute worst nightmare, and those are fun to write. But I think that Luther takes his role as Ethan’s first real friend seriously. He would rather leave Ethan alone with his trauma and self hatred (trusting him to ultimately be fine) than risk violating the trust that they’ve formed over the years, comfortably living by the honor system in the most deceitful organization around. It’s not necessarily the “correct” choice, if there is such a thing, to ignore everything going on with Ethan—especially given how self destructive Ethan is in mcquarrie era—but it is a well-intentioned one, and one that I think is in line with Luther’s Deal in MI1 and tracks with the better part of his characterization (by which I mean, the characterization that’s good). Crucially, Luther is not the team member who gets to yell at Ethan. That’s benji’s job.

TLDR Luther Stickell World’s Best Ethan Hunt Enabler 27 Years Running. And I would be interested in what benji would do if he was handed evidence of something like what Luther saw

I am writing this at. just before 4 am. So if it is incomprehensible forgive me

[britcision]

There’s been another round of the semi-constant “the kids these days don’t know their history” and 1) you know who you sound like

But also 2) the kids are being told that anyone over 19 who talks to them is a sicko and a pervert. How are they supposed to know when they don’t know what questions to ask?

And it’s being done so pervasively and so successfully that I gotta wonder if that isn’t the goal

Forcing a divide between queer kids and the queer adults who could support them and help them with the benefit of experience

The people who could teach them all this history and how we got to where we are

There’s a reason the US and Canadian governments have a long and ongoing history of stealing children from Indigenous families; if you want to remove a culture, you start with the kids

There’s this weird dual mindset now where young queers are acting like it’s both always been this safe to be out and queer, and that they’re the first ones doing anything for queer rights

They’re trying to reinvent the wheel and getting scolded by the older queers they’ve already been told are perverts because they’re no longer minors (and isn’t that a familiar rhetoric)

But what’s gonna happen to those teens on their nineteenth birthday, when they’re now the perverts if they keep hanging out with their same friend groups?

Are they gonna magically forget everything that told them older queers aren’t safe? Will they know how to navigate the world without the safety brand of “minor”?

(Fucking wild the first time I saw a baby queer use that in public, telling some creep they were a minor and to leave them alone. There were about 8 of us in the group and we just gently folded them back into the middle so creeper knew they weren’t out alone because holy shit that is dangerous.

The people who think harassing others on the street is fine and good really aren’t the people you should trust won’t be encouraged by finding out you’re a minor)

A good damn chunk of my queer friends are at least four years older than me and oh boy did they have a lot to put up with when I was 16-17

But they taught me our queer history, and things like why the leather daddies and kinksters will always have a place at Pride (we did not get this far without them and we’re not leaving anyone behind)

I learned a lot from having older friends, including things they weren’t trying to teach me just because I looked into stuff they casually talked about

And bear in mind, when I was that age queer rep was pretty much “oh and they’re brothers so no one ship them”, Brokeback Mountain, and Rocky Horror Picture Show

I’m over the moon that queer kids have so much more stuff to choose from now. We’re going to need more, because we always need more and there should never be a cap on the amount of rep any group needs

I’m just suspicious of the kind of discourse that tries to put lines down between members of the queer community

Again: we did not get here without every single group that fought and died under this umbrella. And we will lose everything we have if we start to leave people behind.

Being queer still isn’t safe for everyone, everywhere, and even where we’re relatively safe there are still people chomping at the bit to roll us all back and we don’t all fit in the closet anymore

Anyway, TL;DR: don’t trust anyone who tells you that they’re the only person you can trust and everyone else is dangerous, the only way to stop predators is to teach people about predatory behaviour, not “all predators are x”, and we all need to share our queer history in as open and approachable a manner as possible

[weirdmageddon]

i am so serious remember what is actually at stake. zoom your perspective out.

do not fuck up this opportunity. for the love of god PLEASE get over your petty shit that means jack shit in the grand scheme of things. remember, anything kamala harris could do would be the same thing but a million times worse with trump. republican party are showing they are 100% ready to implement project 2025 on entry to the oval office. women queer poc disabled homeless people are all going to be taken under. civil liberties and climate change and federal regulations too, and don’t forget having nuclear access. can you live with staking your frustration about the cop shit on a literal christofascist tech broligarchy dictatorship lead by a geriatric twice-impeached convicted felon with a cult of personality that would actively make the quality of life for everyone so much worse? do you really want that? and don’t forget the global destabilization it would have. the US is a global superpower and what happens here affects the rest of the world. do you really want that?

Often, a single leader became associated with this revolutionary transformation and came to be treated as a benevolent "guide" for the nation without whom the claimed transformation to a better future could not occur. Generally, this has been the justification for personality cults that arose in totalitarian societies, such as those of Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, Joseph Stalin of the USSR, Kim Il Sung, his son Kim Jong Il, and currently ruling grandson Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, Mao Zedong of the People’s Republic of China and Hafez al-Assad of Syria, whose son Bashar al Assad currently rules the country.

this election is where the timelines split. if there ever was a time for this bullshit, it’s especially NOT right fucking now. every politician has skeletons in the closet. weigh the scales of how insignificant it is right now. get fucking real and open your eyes to the big picture of what’s at stake. virtue signalling is not the objective priority right now. stop trying to make us fucking lose. that shit is part of the reason why the democratic party has been so weak in recent years. yes we all deserve better but realistically in order to even have that opportunity we need to act smart in times like this. inaction is not neutral action either.

harris could absolutely demolish trump in a debate. he looks like an absolute buffoon next to her. trump is the old fart now. she is going to appear a lot more reasonable. as a leader she has so much going for her against him. she actually has charisma whereas joe really didn’t. conservatives were really staking their win on biden being sleepy joe and losing supports among dems. check this out: his nickname for her is laughing kamala. really? people hate laughing?

tldr i think there’s the potential there for kamencing. a lot of heavy shit has rocked the country in the past few years and especially within this year alone, enough to make a lot of people reconsider their stances on things to be on the right side of history.

put best here:

it wouldn’t be strategically smart to repeat the backlash from joe’s downfall. kamala harris needs to unite the left somehow. i also trust her more than joe just because she knows like what it’s like in america to be non-white and a woman.

You motherfuckers yes I hate Kamala too but when she is announced to be the Democratic candidate we are all going to shoot fireworks and go to the goddamn polls

[laneydays]

ghost boy headcanons

______________

billy showalter

adults and old people LOVE him. take him to meet ur parents, do it

but also hes the type to act way different with ppl his age than adults

kind of a smart mouth.... but in a cool kind of annoying way

twirls his hair a lot LMAO

crosses his arms when he's upset mad sad or annoyed

loves coca cola and root beer

adores dogs, his dog is his best friend

extremely supportive of queer identities even if he isnt queer himself

love language is acts of service

just loves to be helpful

feels bad if people do stuff for him though

griffin stagg

autistic 

is lowkey a menace sometimes

but also a sweetheart

he likes weird unexpected shit for someone his age

incredibly smart but doesn't rlly know that

great at art

doesnt curse a whole bunch but when he does he curses like a sailor and he does it good

doesnt know how to match his clothes for the life of him

wears bandanas to pull his hair back, gets made fun of and called a girl for it

everyone just wants to kiss and hold him like a little kid, he doesn't understand it

doesn't like when people baby him

love language is gift giving, probably picks up random shit to give to you

"here have this rock" "i got a pretty flower for you" "i found a cola bottle cap"

you keep them all

vance hopper

adhd probably 

pinball hyperfixation need i say more

he's actually pretty chill when hes not angry. if u don't bother him he's real quiet

aromatic and asexual. no he wouldn't be a player

but also is open to meeting someone, whether its platonic or romantic (remember aroace people can still date)

tries to act tough but hes just a big nerd tbh

smoked a cig once. never again, hated it

gets very mad at people when they make fun of his choker, he gets embarrassed 

acts homophobic but he really doesnt care

would probably beat someone up if they made fun of a queer kid

that doesnt stop him from saying "thats gay" as a (joking) insult however

doesn't really have a specific love language, just anything to show you care he appreciates it quietly

not big on physical touch but he doesn't mind it 

collects vinyls

wears a looot of denim

finney blake

also autistic

space special interest

kind of good at drawing

literally wouldn't hurt a fly

his jokes are so unfunny that its funny

sounds like an angel when he laughs and looks like one when he smiles

and its hard to get a smile out of him

carries that little spaceship with him everywhere, freaks out if he can't find it

cant think of anything else for him

doesn't have a specific love language either, just anything to show that u care

bruce yamada

bro is not as good in school as everyone thinks he is

but tries very hard and does his best

really loves history

i feel like this is obvious but he collects baseball cards

flexes them on you every time you come to his house and it gets a little annoying 

is the nice guy of the friend group

probably the corniest person ever

is pretty funny but when he tries to be funny it doesn't work

love language is quality time definitely

also physical touch, just the little things though like touching shoulders or brushing fingers

robin arellano

wears his bandana literally every day and it smells so bad

says its to keep the hair out of his face

bro is gorgeous without it

his wardrobe is 70% sleeveless shirts

a huge showoff and a sucker for praise

laughs at potty jokes every single time

his humor is fake flirting

very protective but he isn't scary at all

fucks up the school lunch like its his last meal

probably complains about it though

can talk to literally anyone and everyone, its really nice

he's.... not great in school but he tries to be nice to the teachers

passes notes in class 24/7 and he gets in trouble so much for it

canon movie fanatic, loves watching them even if they suck

______________

[brawltogethernow]

Spideytorch?

brutally honest ship opinion meme

Spideytorch is the m/m ship for people who like to do deep, complete continuity reads and compile coherent impressions of characters based on their totality. There's an incredibly strong case for it strewn one issue, sometimes one panel, at a time, over sixty years of crossovers in literally dozens of different titles. Spideytorch is for people who unironically enjoy comics from the 60's and then apply queer readings to them. I have consumed significantly more spideytorch content than reflects my actual relative investment in it because it's a cheat code for finding good 616 fanworks, and I'm not at all looking forward to the FF joining the MCU ruining this for me.

So like...for me the short version is "spideytorch is very real" and the long version is "but is it though??????" Like it is but it's this situation where Johnny is just as plausible a love interest for Peter as the many, many other people he has romantic chemistry with, whereas Johnny's secondary superpower is being an utterly inhospitable environment for any kind of romantic chemistry, so this like, actually means something, but more for Johnny as a character than Spider-Man as a property.

It's pretty standard, as much as anything can be within this incredibly small niche of media analysis, to interpret Johnny's absolutely nonexistent chemistry with every single female character who's ever been deliberately written as his love interest as him being gay, but by my read Johnny having romantic chemistry with men is also very rare. I generally address ask answers to the class, but you specifically and you alone have gotten the outline notes of the "Johnny Storm is on the ace spectrum" essay I promised I would write like...two...years ago...... so you know that I'm like, uh, having some thoughts about this.

Like I think if we lived in an alternate history that weren't heteronormative they would have been an item, but if we lived in one that also wasn't amatonormative Johnny wouldn't be wildly miscast in the role of a playboy in the first place, or would at least be written into this position with deliberation instead of largely by bizarrely consistent accident. Peter Parker might be the love of Johnny Storm's life, and the fact that I think Johnny isn't strictly allo (while Peter is like one notch below Zeus Tier on the ranking of extremely allo fictional characters) doesn't contradict that but it does make it weirder and more fraught. Peter falls in love if you say hi to him and this keeps him so busy he's never even fit noticing he knows next to nothing about queerness into his schedule. It's a confused doomed pining conflicted forever-angst fest but then you look at their actual dynamic and it's just the most comfortable bickering you have ever seen. Hell of a flavor happening here.

Like, if I'm ranking Peter love interests, Johnny is in like, the Betty Brant zone, but you need to know when I say that that I think Peter and Betty are great. They light up my life. Absolutely never going anywhere, but that's not the point. But also, you can't just make this comparison cold, because you need to correct for how only one of these ships actually gets to be a thing in official media, because society bad. But then that correction creates new problems and weakens the verisimilitude of your takes overall. Analyzing spideytorch is an endeavor in sociological studies. You know I kind of thought that when I came back from the break I took from answering these I would sound slightly less insane.

[thecollectionsof]

dayasco + “what did you just say?”

it's a long one for you this time as a sorry for making you wait!! anyways it's a secret admirer college au oops <3

“What did you just say?”

Shit. 

“Gotta go, love you, bye!” She hangs up the phone without letting Crystal get another word in, then slowly turns her body from the position she was in, reclining on her bed, towards the new voice. And there they are, arms crossed as they lean against the door frame, one brow cocked. 

“Bosco! I, uh—”

“No, say that again. I wanna make sure I heard you right.” They’re still leveling her with that same stare, and Daya can’t help the way her shoulders shrink. She can’t glean anything from her expression. She’s terrified.

“I… was joking?” she tries.

“You weren’t,” Bosco hits back immediately. 

Daya sighs. This is not at all how she wanted this to go, not anything like she’d planned. She should’ve known to be more careful talking about stuff like this, especially when she gave Bosco the key to her apartment and told her that she could “just come in anytime”. 

She’s never regretted that more than she does right now. 

“Well?”

“I told Crystal that I was going to leave a flower with the next note to you because I thought you’d like it.” She looks at anything but Bosco, gazing intently at the pillow beside her as if it could hide her from Bosco’s gaze. 

“As in, you left the notes? Every single one?” 

Daya shrinks into herself even more at the clarifying question. What’s she supposed to do? She’s been leaving the notes for months, all of them containing the things she wishes she could say to them that make it obvious that Daya likes them more than platonically. 

It started small, as these things often tend to start. Little notes left in her bag complementing her wheezing laugh, or her eyes, or the way she rolls her eyes when fucking Dylan opens his mouth to “play devil’s advocate” in every single one of their Queer History classes—why he took the class in the first place is something they were both still trying to figure out. 

But then she couldn’t help but write more, complimenting the way she spoke when she was passionate or the way her face would say what everyone else was thinking when she was fed up with fucking Dylan again. She would write notes confessing to each and every thought of hers—those that didn’t sound too weird, at least—and slip in into her bag or onto her desk during Queer History, and in one case she even had a friend help her do it when she wasn’t there to avoid suspicion. And it had worked perfectly, until she had to go and fuck it up by talking about it.

“Yeah,” she admits, subdued and cautious, “I left them. Every single one.”

Bosco moves, but Daya can’t see how, too busy staring at the pillow. 

“Daya.” She must take another step closer to her, because she’s blocking some of the light of her lamp. It’s darker. “Daya, look at me, baby.”

Baby.

Daya’s head moves to look up at her almost of its own volition, bolstered on by the pet name. It wasn’t uncommon for them to use pet names for each other, but she wouldn’t use one if she was mad at Daya. Right?

She sits on the bed in front of her, putting one hand on her leg, “God, Daya, I’m so fucking glad it was you.” Bosco’s looking at her hopefully, but takes pity on her when she gets nothing but an uncomprehending look in response. “I’ve had the biggest crush on you since the first day of class. Do you know how hard it was to get these beautifully romantic notes from a secret admirer and trying to work myself up to tell them that ‘your dream date for the two of us sounds perfect but I have someone in mind already’?”

Oh.

Oh.

Bosco liked her back. Bosco thought the date that she’d detailed in one of her last notes was perfect. Bosco was going to turn down the secret admirer for her. 

Bosco was watching her, one hand still on her thigh as her thumb rubbed back and forth soothingly. She knew just what Daya needed, and Daya liked her so much for it.

“You like…” me? The notes? Daya knew what she wanted to know but didn’t know how to ask.

“Yeah, baby. I like you, I like the notes, I like every single thing you wrote for me.”

“Okay,” Daya says. And then she blinks, then blinks again. What are you supposed to do now? She confessed and it went nothing like how she planned. Bosco likes her back, and now they’re sitting on the bed together. So what now?

“Y’know, you did say that you’d love to kiss me to see what chapstick I’m wearing. And I put on chapstick, so…” Bosco nudges, and for the first time that conversation she looks flustered. It’s cute. She wants to kiss her.

So she does. She surges forward, knocking their noses together as she connects their lips. She can smell Bosco’s perfume, or maybe it’s her hair? Bosco, to her credit, grabs Daya as she goes to pull away and brings her in again.

“You didn’t kiss me enough. I’ve been waiting months for this, you’re not done,” she says against Daya’s lips as they go in for another kiss. It’s achingly sweet, as if both of them were saying finally, finally, finally. 

When they pull away, Bosco’s face breaks into a smirk. Daya can’t help but smile back, happy and overwhelmed and ecstatic and pleased. 

“Was getting all those notes worth it?” she asks, and Bosco snorts. 

“You’re such a bitch! I really thought Jasmine was leaving them!” Bosco says, shoving her playfully as she lets out a wheezing laugh. Daya can’t help but grin.

“I got her to help me so you wouldn’t catch on,” she admits. It’s easy to talk about it now that Bosco knows, even if it still makes her cheeks heat up a bit in embarrassment. “We may argue a lot, but she’s like a sister to me. A little, bratty, loud, not-Crystal sister. She said that she’d help as long as she was invited to the wedding, so… it was a good deal for me.”

“Idiot. You’re an idiot.” Bosco’s beaming, a wider smile on her face now than she’d ever seen her sport before. They lean over and kiss her again, and again, and again. “You’re so stupid and I like you so much.”

[qqueenofhades]

20+ Books That You (Might Actually Want) To Read During Pride Month!

Right, so. I got annoyed after seeing the list referenced in this post last night, told myself that my books are all packed up so I couldn’t do anything about it, and lasted all of a whopping 10 minutes before picking up my phone and attempting to make my own list instead. Behold, my from-memory attempt to present 20 books with strong LGBTQ plots, characters, and/or authors, that DON’T just rely on Suffering and Identity Politics and are... you know... fun.

Listed in alphabetical order by title. Links take you to Bookshop.org, where you can buy them from your local independent bookstore at a discount and NOT from the evil empire.

1. A Master of Djinn – P. Djeli Clark * author of color * steampunk Cairo in 1912 * djinn! magic! murder mystery! * butch Arab lesbian main character * devout hijabi Muslim badass assistant * anticolonial alternate history

2. An Accident of Stars – Foz Meadows (Sequel: A Tyranny of Queens) * trans author * bi, pan, trans, aro representation * racially diverse characters * all female POV characters * high-fantasy world adventures

3. Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall * queer author * look I love this book SO MUCH and have absolutely screamed about it before but also I LOVE IT SO MUCH * contemporary M/M fake dating in modern London, complete with full cast of disaster found-family queer friends * it is. fucking. HILARIOUS. I almost died the first time reading it * there is a sequel called HUSBAND MATERIAL scheduled to be released in 2022; I am a normal amount of excited for this book

4. Gideon the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir (Sequel: Harrow the Ninth) * the book cover says “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted palace in space!” * that is exactly what you get * slow-burn enemies-to-lovers F/F main romance * I cannot describe this book, it is dark, genre-bendy, science fiction-y, Hunger-Games-with-lesbian-necromancers-in space? Kinda? I have literally never read anything like it * also fucking HILARIOUS

5. One Last Stop – Casey McQuiston * queer author (who wrote Red White and Royal Blue) * bisexual fat girl from the South/lesbian-daughter-of-Chinese immigrants from the 1970s-riot-grrl main romance * time traveling mystery involving the Q train in Brooklyn (mentions Brighton Beach ahem) * magical realism * many more found-family chaotic queers including a trans Latino psychic and a Black accountant by day/drag queen by night and the mean little gay disaster who has a hopeless crush on them

6. Parasol Protectorate (series) – Gail Carriger * this is one of my favorite series, and there are five books: Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, and Timeless * steampunk vampires/werewolves late Victorian London, like Jane Austen crossed with P.G. Wodehouse (they are all fucking hilarious) * pretty much everyone is queer; we got your flamboyantly camp gay vampires (Lord Akeldama ftw!) We got your gay werewolves! We got your lesbian French inventors! We got your big disaster idiot werewolf main male love interest! We got your crazy adventures! You name it we got it! * two spin-off novellas: Romancing the Werewolf (M/M) and Romancing the Inventor (F/F) * she has a ton more books in this same universe and writes sexy queer supernatural romance as G.L. Carriger

7. Plain Bad Heroines – Emily M. Danforth * queer author * historical horror-comedy set between a haunted girls’ school in early-1900s New England and in the modern day * all sapphic female main characters * plays with style/form/voice, a story within a story within a story

8. Red White and Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston * you’ve probably heard of it but here I am reccing it again * the biracial son of the first female POTUS falls in love with the Prince of England; shenanigans absolutely ensue * yes, the British monarchy still absolutely sucks a big fat dick * hilarious, heartfelt, reads like fanfic, just go get it, it will change your life

9. Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake – Alexis Hall * same author as Boyfriend Material, this is his newest * bisexual female protagonist * absolutely perfect satire of The Great British Bake Off (you can tell this man has watched EVERY SINGLE SERIES and all of the holiday specials) * sweet and surprisingly thoughtful

10. Starless – Jacqueline Carey * genderqueer/transmasculine main character of color * almost all main characters are brown people! * lush Middle Eastern/India-inspired fantasy world * gods, prophecies, monsters * the best Oh God Why Me I Am A Horrible Mentor wise-old-mentor

11. The Future of Another Timeline – Annalee Newitz * nonbinary (they/them) author * time travel but make it The Handmaid’s Tale * will probably make your head explode * feminist, queer, subversive * diverse characters

12. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue – Mackenzi Lee * queer author * technically YA but historical/magical adventure set in the 1700s * bisexual disaster main protagonist and love interest of color * (mis)adventures across Europe * has a sequel (see below) with the badass asexual sister of the protagonist

13. The Hate Project – Kris Ripper * nonbinary/genderqueer author * M/M enemies to lovers/sex with no strings attached (spoiler alert: strings attached) * HECKING HILARIOUS * sweet, escapist, and very low stakes * diverse characters, including fat protagonist with realistic anxiety disorder

14. The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy – Mackenzi Lee * PIRATES, obviously * sequel to Gentleman’s Guide * asexual female protagonist * strong queerplatonic f/f friendship * more historical/magical 18th century adventures

15. The Last Rune (series) – Mark Anthony * Imma be real with you chief, I haven’t read this series since I was a clueless teenager with no idea why I liked Gay Stuff so much, so if it does turn out to suck now, don’t throw rotten veggies at me * but especially since it was written in the NINETIES, this series was hella progressive?! * gay characters, disabled characters, characters of color, all playing significant and heroic roles in six-book epic fantasy cycle * people from Earth end up in high-fantasy world of Eldh * endgame M/M romance for the main character * books out of print, I think, but you can find them cheap somewhere like AbeBooks; first one (Beyond the Pale) linked above

16. The Library of the Unwritten – A.J. Hackwith * queer author * heaven-hell-Valhalla supernatural adventures * The Good Place x Good Omens x Lucifer x The Librarians * Pansexual Black badass female heroine * Queer found families * The Sassiest TM Bisexual Villain Turned Reluctant Hero (is he my favorite? Why on earth would you think that.)

17. The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon * epic doorstopper science fiction/historical fantasy set in a vaguely 16th-century world * main F/F romance between a queen and her sorceress bodyguard * sassy old gay alchemist whose backstory will give you Feelings * so many strong women and characters of color * no homophobia! marriage is fully gender-neutral, spouses are called “companions”

18. The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller * likewise one you have probably heard of but still * a little light on the myth/historical part imho, but the writing is beautiful and will give you many feelings * M/M romance between Achilles and Patroclus  * reimagining of The Iliad (her other book Circe is also really good)

19 The Stars are Legion – Kameron Hurley * all-female apocalyptic space opera * messy messy antiheroines * grimdark war fantasy * queer sci-fi drama

20. Witchmark – C.L. Polk * author of color * M/M romance * main character is a veteran and a doctor dealing with his own hidden magic and repressed war trauma * gaslamp fantasy set in a world reminiscent of post-WWI England * strong sibling relationship