#her husband is monkey who literally nobody likes so its understandable

[the-acid-pear]

My Mii Gabriela is one of my funniest over like she was G-Man but a woman because i wanted him to hook up with Gordon because haha (Tomodachi life doesn't allow homosexuality but crossdressing is ok) but that never happened and i was getting kinda bored so i decided you know what. She's a woman now. And now she's called Gabriela Man and is a milf and hates her husband so much it's unreal.

[lchufflepuffcorn]

Family matters  Ben Hargreeves x Reader

(Gender neutral reader) 

Omg please write some Ben Hargreeves fluff! Like he married his childhood sweetheart (and he didn't die) and them introducing their newborn to the rest of the family? I think they all just need some happiness and a reason to see each other without the world ending or someone dying -(@Anon) 

Welp, someone still died, but!! It still got fluff, so I hope it doesn’t change too much from what you requested… 

Also, I’m really sorry it took so long, but, as you can see, I made this one extra long as an excuse, even if it barely meets anything to make you forgive me for the delay… 

Please think about taking a look at my ko-fi, or come see my Patreon, lots of love, LC. 

Words: 2471

Warning: Angst, fluff. The gif is not mine, It belongs to its creator/owner. 

You never actually met all of the Hargreeves’ siblings. You saw them, talked to about two of them, and had tea his the robotic mother -that served your husband as a feminine figure when he was a child- only once. Sure, you knew them. Everybody knew the Hargreeves’, they were the prodigy children of the Umbrella Academy. Ben didn’t fancy to discuss his past, neither did he like to speak about his powers. You understood, after years of marriage, you had been able to put the pieces together. The unique occasions you faced his family helped you read his personality. Klaus and Vanya were the closest siblings Ben had. Diego was too bitter now. Luther was -in his opinion- a dumbass and Allison was something he didn’t want to say out loud. After the disappearance of his brother, Five, he hadn’t been the same. 

''We're going to be late for tea, Ben!'' You screamed to the house, before huffing back in your seat. 

You met Ben at a relatively young age, about eight. You were not a child of the academy but lived close by. At such age, you were not yet aware of all that was going on inside their house. You used to help Ben brighten up when he wandered the streets on his free days. He would roam on the streets for hours, he did so for years before you dared to talk to him. A child with a hopeful smile and shining eyes, holding up a little card for Ben to take. That evening, you could remember, your mom baked cookies for the Umbrella Academy children. 

After years and years of being friends, he ultimately kissed you. It was before he went for a mission. You could still remember the sounds of cars passing by and the wind scattering your hairs as he did so. By the window of your room with one foot already out, Ben's lips met yours, knocking your teeth with his in the process. Awkward and blushing furiously, he stumbled upon his words. Saying that he had to go and came back two weeks later to address the subject with you. 

Now, the awkward first love moment was long past, and you were at your seventh year of the wedding. At the moment, you were waiting not-so-patiently in the car for Ben to get in. He stopped the car in the hallway from leaving the manor-like house you owned in London, Ontario. He did so at least two times to retrieve whatever was missing in his opinion. The thoughts of seeing his family once again stressed him out, you could understand that. It didn't mean you were happy to be delayed so much by it. 

''Ben! I swear... Let's go, we're gonna be late!''

 He finally arrived in the car, the lost rattle Justin had let in the house before you took him to the car in his hand.  The trip was made in silence, about two hours of the boring road on the highway with classic rock music in the background and Justin’s nonsensical gibbering.  

 Going back to the Umbrella Academy was making you nervous. Ben had only invited six people of his family out of eight. You weren't even sure the three last knew you he was married. It was sad because, out of the six family members Ben had invited, only four came. His father had work, and nobody knew what Diego was doing at the time. Since then, Klaus and Vanya had visited twice a year, and Grace was coming every now and then for tea. Pogo was tagging along with her sometimes too. But none of the others visited, although Diego did call often. The impromptu passing of Sir Reginald Hargreeves had stumbled upon all as a surprise. 

As Ben pulled up in the parking of the house, he let out a shaking breath.  Your hand find it's way at the nape of his neck. Your thumbs gently tracing shapes at the end of his hair to ease him from his nervousness. 

Ben finally nods, and you get out of the car, taking with you your newborn who was clutching to his rattle. Ben followed your initiative closely. The three of you walked toward the entry and Ben knocked at the door. You don’t wait long before Pogo opens the door, a small smile illuminating his face for an instant. 

‘’I didn’t think you would come.’’ He says softly, embracing Ben first, turning to you and your child after. 

‘’He was still my father, Pogo,’’ Ben answers to the talking monkey. 

There wasn't a living soul present in the living room. Grace seemed happy to see you, her hand clutching to the tea set you offered her the first Christmas you spent alone with Ben. She doesn't seem to realize she's not alone anymore in the living room. She sings under her breath, carefully pouring tea in the porcelain gift. 

''Mom?'' 

Ben's voice makes Grace raise her head, her plastic smile carved on her face once again. She meets the both of you with a cheerful ''Good morning children, tea?'' Your husband dismisses his mother question, but you nod happily. 

''Where are the others?'' Grace smiles as she pours you a cup of tea, her answer is fashionably late but teasing all the same. Just like when Ben was a child. 

''They won't be long my love. Sit.'' 

You make the living room cozy. Pogo took out one of the many blankets Reginald had for his children. He also takes out some old toys that he never had the heart to discard. Ben is lost in his thoughts as he watches you and your son play on the ground. 

As massive steps are heard going up, you just understand that Luther just came back. You also know that it's inconceivable that he didn't see Ben's car in the driveway, so he did just ignore you. When you look at Ben, he prefers to smile and act as if nothing is bothering him. Justin coos, agitating his little fist in the air. 

The first sibling you meet after coming back to the academy is actually Allison. She couldn't be happier to see her brother, even with the dark circumstances. 

“Hey, Ben!” Your husband gets up to greet her with a hug. You cradle your baby in your arms, so Justin can officially meet his aunt. 

 ‘’Hello honey. Who might you be?’’ Allison drops to your son’s level, adding a smile to her question in your direction. The both of you were never close, and you weren’t even sure that she knew Ben was married. Justin raises his head an awkward smile on his chubby face. A gurgle left his mouth and made Allison laugh. 

Allison makes grabby hands toward the little boy, and you slowly -carefully- give him to her. You know she has a child of her own, but the feeling of uneasiness that you feel from being away from your child is always excruciatingly hard to ignore. 

''I'm aunt Allison. Yes, I am!'' 

''I didn't know you married.'' Luther's voice made you flinch. How come a man so big could sometimes be so discreet? You sometimes forgot that they were trained superheroes. 

The blond brother of your husband was taller and more built than you remembered.  He was supported by the wall with his arms crossed upon his chest. Your husband lowers his head in shame, you take it upon yourself to speak on his behalf. 

‘’You weren’t available at the time, being on the moon and all... ‘’ 

Luther’s cheek flushed bright red at your words. You didn’t mean any harm, but the truth was sometimes harsh. Justin started to whine, his rattle getting your attention back on him.  Allison gave him back to you. You adjusted the baby, so you were both comfortable.  

Ben gave you more space to sit next to him, his arm resting on your hips as a sign of support. You were not one to hate people, but even as a child, you found Luther tough to find pleasant. Sitting under the needlessly huge dedicatory painting of Five, you felt small. Even more because of Luther and his eyes seemingly piercing holes into your skull. 

‘’How come when shit becomes interesting nobody calls me? Ben, (Y/N), darling love of mine, how are you?  How is that sweet nephew of mine?’’ Klaus exclamation brought everyone to turn in his direction. He cradled the child in his arms, sitting on the ground as you did in the first place. 

 To say that his presence in your hospital room surprised you was an understatement.  He had still his rehab bracelet and an exuberant bouquet of orange roses and Peruvian lilies. Klaus had acted deeply offended by your choice of not making him the godfather, but he looked like he was recovering now. 

A little bit later, as you didn’t really like Reginald, you took Justin for a stroll in town. Going out, you crossed path with Diego, in the staircase. He greeted you with a nod, his eyes staring a bit longer than he probably intended too on Justin before he continued toward his room. You could hear Allison’s comment on his spandex costume. 

‘’He’s right, I shouldn’t be here…’’ You heard Vanya mutter under her breath as Allison was trying to make her stay. 

‘’Hi, Vanya!’’ You were in good terms with the woman. She was kind and sweet, it was crushing your soul to know that most of her life her father had been so awful with her. 

‘’I’m so sorry about your father, Justin and I were about to go for a walk, do you want to join us?’’ The shy woman smiled at you, gratefully. Clearly, she couldn’t think of a better way to become comfortable in her own house than to hang out with the wife of her adoptive brother, literally an outsider. That just made you sadder thinking about it. You offered Vanya to take Justin and took her outside so she could breathe. 

Sitting on the bench in front of the house, the two of you spoke about life. Justin was going back and front between you and his aunt happily. Vanya asked about how your life had changed now that you had a son, and you asked about the orchestra. You always loved how she played, it was mesmerizing. When Ben came for you saying that Luther wanted to pay his respect in the ward, Vanya gave you back her nephew and entered the house, leaving you alone. 

The town was not so different than when you left it. It had been a long time since then, your parent had moved away, closer to where you lived, and the last memory you had of it was before going for college. A weird feeling burst in your chest. As you thought about its origin, shouting gave away the answers to your suspicion.  

Ben had always been a little reluctant with fights, due to his past and his abilities as a superhero. No matter how ironic that sounded for a hardened superhero. The dispute between Luther and Diego and triggered an anxiety attack. You had to be frank, it had been a while since his last downward. He was clutching to you for dear life, Justin tenderly hugged in his other muscular arm. 

''You're doing great.'' 

His breath was slowly becoming more relaxed, Justin was sleeping now, his small head on his father's shoulder. You detached yourself from your husband's grip to put the baby the bassinet you had transported from London.  

You woke up the next morning without Ben by your side. Comotion could be heard from the kitchen so, carefully, you went that way. You had made numerous scenarios about what it could have been. None of them involved thirteen years old Five surrounded by his siblings. Ben was looking disgustedly at the sandwich his brother was fixing himself. It was a tradition that you never understood from the Hargreeves. Peanut butter on the corner of his lips, Five looked up in your direction with a frown. 

''Did dad adopt a new child after me?'' He asked, making his sibling turn to look at you. 

''That's Ben's wife.'' Said Luther with a harsh tone. Ben gives his brother a look before making his way to you. Trying to explain the situation. 

''So you're telling me that Five created a temporal vortex to come back, that it changed his physical form from sixty-something to thirteen again?'' Ben nodded. 

Your cup of tea half empty in your hand you looked at the wood table in astonishment. You were somewhat used to Ben's power, but the others were still hard to grasp. And seeing as you didn't grow up with abilities yourself, it was kind of difficult to process the news of Five reappearances. 

 You were enjoying the last moments of calm before Justin’s crying would oblige you to parent businesses. Five was sipping at a carton cup of coffee from the donut’s house from downtown, eating peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich in all it non-nutritive glory. You, as a new mother with strong and newly acquired motherly instincts, were horrified. Only Five was not making things easier for you to forget about him and eat your own breakfast as he was intensely staring at you. 

‘’You’re that girl from down the road, ain’t ya?’’ He asked finally, his mouth half full of the disgracious sandwich. You nodded. 

‘’I assume that Ben is your significant other, now, if I may ask, how did the two of you actually become…’’ He gestured the rest of his sandwich in your general direction, ‘’a thing?’’  

As you opened your mouth to answer, a cry echoed in the academy, you bolted up to go see your baby. You could hear Five finish his monologue to your husband. “I never assumed that you would be the one to have the most healthy relationship of us all.”

 You took your time to bring your child down to the kitchen. Changing him and making sure he was comfortable. Diego stopped glaring at Allison to face you. A small smile on his lips, he gently touched your son's cheek with a finger. Luther sunk deeper into his seat as if he was trying to disappear, Five, on the contrary, rose from his chair to see Justin better. Ben offered him to hold him. It took Five a moment before Five accepted after you guaranteed that he wouldn't snap your son's neck. 

Seeing the happy smile on the teenager's lips grow, you found yourself thinking about how damaged they all were. The love they had known came from a robot and a monkey. So maybe they had troubles, but your husband's family could still work on their differences. 

[incarnateirony]

The Problem with DreamHunter...

Is that there is no problem with DreamHunter.

You're probably like "wait, what?" So let me clarify: This is absolutely not a Dreamhunter!Critical post. In fact, I have a lot of accolades for DreamHunter. I'll address a few complaints I've read from a surly, never-happy swath of stan twitter, but this post isn't actually about that - it's about a pervasive cultural issue involving coded phobia and how Bobo Fucking Berens showed his level of quantum literary and social brainfunction to do everything from canonize an LGBT ship to run a far deeper and more exposing social experiment on the fandom at large.

We've all seen the gif sets. I can't find the video in my vat of poorly maintained blog, but I'm sure someone else could, wherein Bobo on Twitch was talking about being ecstatic over us seeing what he wanted us to see. To the fandom that keeps their ears open, none of DreamHunter's premise is new to us. The only new thing was a certain confirmation, "First love strikes quick."

First, to the part that is NOT the point of the post, but I feel needs addressed before people start yelling at me:

Now, this has opened up a floodgate of hard-end-stan-twitter complaining like "Oh so they didn't just kill a WOC but a queer WOC and then after-texted it?" Well, no, fam. They were setting up a queer romance of the century with her dream half and potential return to the self while facing the darkest parts of challenging the self and deleting our weaknesses, and maybe even going so far as to make a statement of self imposed biases. Wayward just wasn't picked up so they've had to funnel and condense the concept in other ways. Dark Kaia wanting to target Claire after seeing what she meant to Kaia isn't an arbitrary and random sentiment. But arguing literary romantic value with stan twitter is like arguing algebra with an ill-behaved goose, so that's as far as I'm going to take that explanation beyond "y'all are often our biggest enemies on content."

Now then... to the actual point of the post:

I've mentioned it before, but it really deserves its own rebloggable master post not attached to some overlong thread, and able to be brought into fuller scope. The problem with DreamHunter is almost nonexistent. In fact, the simple fact is: with a line that simple, it was universally accepted as a truth, whether people are screaming about tropes they want to read in the worst light before the romantic element ever got a chance to get its feet under it. Nobody's out there saying it doesn't exist. Nobody's out there downtalking that line.

THAT is the problem with DreamHunter - that there is no problem with DreamHunter. And by that, I don't mean to say we should have a problem with DreamHunter. It's that DreamHunter reveals a hugely systemic coded bias in our culture.

And honestly, I think Berens did that on purpose.

There’s a certain level of coy battle in acceptance going on. First of all, people naturally seem to accept F/F before M/M due to a bunch of cultural reasons. Mostly because F/F has been convenient to publicly fetishize while M/M freaks out dudebros that are really uncertain about themselves, so for a longer time, GA has been exposed to and accepting F/F. And I think of anyone out there, My Big Gay Author King Berens is going to understand that.

WLW still has its own stigmas, I'm not saying it doesn't, but acting like resistance to it is on any cultural coding level parallel to the stigma against MLM is a weird display of intersectional privilege and lack of awareness.

Acting like it’s coincidence that they monkey-stomp packed as many identical lines and scene arrangements into all of one episode as possible, then dropped a bomb like that episode two, is silly. We know exactly what he’s after – hell, he said he was ecstatic we saw what he wanted us to see. So the real question is, why is it that “first love strikes quick” is taken without argument from the GA but a thousand up-nods for the M/M pairing with the same content – and TBH, far far far more that could never be packed into a single episode – has people take lines like “attached at the everything” and immediately have a portion of the audience start laughing, despite the surrounding substance around it?

Destiel fandom read into yet-again heaven and hell believing DeanCas are an item; antis decided it was an insult to “annoy” them. Even the angel in the past threatening to gouge Cas’ genitals over it. Because that’s what I do when I don’t believe it but am a religious zealot. Threaten to cut dicks off to annoy people. But somehow, it’s far easier to negotiate, to these people, that the male queer coded content is a punchline, rather than either a genuine or perceived truth. Antis choose to interpret MLM as a punchline. It’s that simple. No amount of surrounding content or story thematics can convince them otherwise. 

The same substance they monkey stomped, condensed, and largely stripped down for time limitations, into DreamHunter?

I’ll give a hint: it’s the same cultural stigma that – which late night show was it, where they started playing well-edited slash videos and the audience started laughing despite it being well timed and edited? It’s that. It’s the same thing that made Ateo unable to play queer roles in the industry as being “not believably gay” despite being a gay man himself, until the Hunter Husbands. It’s a horrific stigma that the audience has been coded to bite and gnash back against M/M content unfairly to the queer male audience and it’s gross, but it’s just there, sort of in the collective mind.

I absolutely don’t think Berens, of all fucking people, is unaware of this. And I see what he did as a really, really fucking coy set of actions beneath already masterful writing.

Berens knows exactly what he’s fucking doing and has basically coded a social experiment into the show that betrays people’s biases against M/M queer pairings while allowing the saturation (largely by fetishization) of F/F pairings to do the heavy lifting for him. Nobody out here yelling that Jody could be wrong about it or that “we didn’t see a kiss so it didn’t happen LOL they’re just in a sismance” – it is what it is. And here we are.

So on a social level I am fucking fascinated to see where he takes this next.

Berens has come out swinging for the queer male community whether anybody wants to accept it or not. Which is, modernly, by our demographics, at least an equal if not the greatest portion of our primary male demographic of viewers for the show. And I'm not just talking about the fandom census. I'm talking about Nielsen's demographics shift on gender since season 10, and general Kinsey-scale-esque testing of the true target demo at large in the US. Our ads count 18-49. CW targets 18-34.

Following the work of Berens within Supernatural will give you a very blatant papertrail. It started in deeply layered subtext; his first episode Carver directed Misha to play Cas as a Jilted Lover; after that, he took Robbie's work on Cain and manifest the Colette parallel coded into our story; he chose to take Dabb's Dean-speech from 12.1 and turn it into our coffee-Mixtape-Win spree that other authors shed from their pen in his wake, just like later in season 10 people continued his Colette grind. Berens has been an internal motion for the legitimization of truly structured and admittedly intentful elements of Destiel in the show. And people can scream that they don't like or see it all they want, but it's right there -- and with DreamHunter, it was What He Wanted Us To See.

It's grossly disingenuous activism to try to accuse SPN's first overtly queer author of queerbait while internally shifting the motions of our author room mechanics towards genuinely structured and intentful romance-skewed storytelling, whether it remains subtextual or not. Especially as that author continues to throw wrench upon wrench upon wrench into the no homo gears in ways the GA is perpetually exposed to and spun into having to think about. An eternal negotiation of poignantly delivered lines that catches even the most resistant ears and at least plants a seed in their mind about something else. A true normalization of it as a potential element to the story.

The same sort of normalization hyper-condensed into DreamHunter, but as per the above discussion, far more readily accepted. I have literally heard, from people who argued the "bromance, I'm not entirely convinced" on Destiel, that DreamHunter had been "obvious" to them and the "first love strikes quick" wasn't even necessary, because everybody knew. Cue me sending simple gifsets and script line side by sides and blowing their brains because suddenly their entire world scope just got bent sideways in -- why do I accept the one while I negotiate away the other?

Well, I covered why, above.

The problem with DreamHunter, I repeat, is that there is no problem with DreamHunter. People accept and see that it exists, without argument, even going so far as to label it "obvious" from a single episode, of a highly condensed version of only a fraction of the moments of another queer-coded duo in the show, but simply with culturally differing gender dynamics.

The concern troll of "bromance" or "why not let men be close" dies here. The idea of a bromance is letting two men have a friendship with the form of openness platonic female friends can have. That's fine, that's great. Dean-Benny would be a great example of this, and even then we once again had the offset of Dean-Cas to show different operations. I might even say Dean-Sam as an idea of that, but I don't think "bromance" is necessarily needed since brothers natively have a different sort of dynamic from growing up together. But once you are going out of your way to dismiss elements that we accept in hetero pairings with a laissez-faire “duh”, or even WLW scenarios as “it’s so obvious”, because it's MLM, we have left the area of "bromance" and "why not just let men be close without making it gay" and into “I am negotiating this away due to some sort of coded unwillingness to accept it, perhaps subconsciously, even if I consciously consider myself an ally.”

And that's the true masterpiece of this social experiment Bobo planted in the Supernatural universe with DreamHunter.

The world is grossly unfair and tilted in remaining cultural stigmas about queer males after ages of repressing them to limited niche capacities and stereotypes so strong that masculine gay men couldn’t even get cast in roles as gay men, where the world reads queer men as a punch line rather than a “duh” or “it’s so obvious” or “it’s just right there”, and DreamHunter is a walking fucking social experiment putzing around in Supernatural universe that gives no choice but to pick a side of the fence once you’re aware of these things.

Whether or not it’s physically consummated does not make it not-romantic. Being queer isn’t just about sex. It’s about feelings. And yes, we want our feelings to lead somewhere, and they deserve to lead somewhere, but is Jody acknowledging Claire’s “first love” now what suddenly makes it romantic, or is it the motions, the stories, and the feelings that preceded those lines, even though they never kissed and all hand-holding could be negotiated away the same way we can negotiate away our canon touches for two very emotionally involved men? “She was just leading her through the gate because she was scared,” “she was just consoling her as she died.” See how easy that is? But we won’t do that. And now, frankly anybody that does looks like a jackass.

So why, oh why, is this treated with ambiguity? This is a canon statement of “this relationship is being in love.” It was young love - it struck quick, in only an episode - but it was love. But name an element DreamHunter has to define that love that Destiel doesn’t? If you bend over backwards and try for the handholding, I can raise you hundreds of moments of intimate style contact. Try again.

Canon just confirmed what we already knew -- that Destiel is romantic. That there is love there. And not the kind of love we dismiss as Bros. Bobo just did that. Because every element of their relationship exists in Destiel, and a hundred times more. But it was first love. Dreamhunter was young love that came quickly, and not a single soul argued. Destiel is the same showcase of love, older, more matured, grown over years with dozens more moments of contact and display -- but in the very least, those moments -- those ones lived through DreamHunter in parallel -- that’s love. Canon literally just painted those sparse, compacted down elements, these behaviors we’ve seen, these moments, as coded romantic and in love. If you take nothing else from that -- take that. The elements that build Destiel are canonically romantic, when within DreamHunter and the question is -- without any physical affirmations or DreamHunter on screen, why is it romantic to them and not to Destiel? Why do we even humor this as a discussion, though we expect it, and what does this say of the coded phobias in fandom that we even have to expect it?

Dean and Cas haven’t kissed or dual-confessed to it in public, but you know... neither did DreamHunter. Unless of course we don’t talk down the timely placement of Need Yous and Love Yous and Big Wins and whatever else like people insist on doing with the MLM arrangement. Nobody’s talking down Jody’s third person “first love,” because we know better, and there’s not a mix of MLM and ship warring in play with DreamHunter. Bromance ends at the same line platonic female friendships end. Everyone accepts that DreamHunter is not platonic. Even without ceasing previous negotiations around poignant DeanCas lines, DreamHunter has established the romantic and loving engagements in retrograde. Canon has literally confirmed -- this relationship is romantic and in love.

And until this post, not a single person has tried to argue it down as Just Young Sis Love. Because we all know. Just like, deep down, everybody knows it about the mothership, some just don’t want to accept it. For whatever reason, subconscious or otherwise. I’ll laugh if the same antis that just tried to blind parallel it to W*ncest as a proof of love, while disconnected from the very origins and confirmations of DreamHunter, suddenly start rambling that doesn’t make DreamHunter canon either once this post gets around.

Berens is a fucking master ISTG.

I mean, I guess you’re free to celebrate any network level blockades going on right now while Bobo does Big Queer Fatal Combat from within, but allow me to celebrate DreamHunter whether or not we get consummation for Destiel, an MLM-scenario ship that has to deal with entirely other stigmas on a network primarily run by a bunch of old dudes. This is there. This will never be taken away. And cheering any blockades being run against MLM content with blatant intent does not make you the gr8 person here, m8.

This post is probably gonna have a low level of spread because it’s also something that forces even Destiel fandom to negotiate with themselves too -- how many lines and moments and whatever-else have we negotiated down, talked around, and chosen to interpret in the most left field way as if arguing ourselves from the position of an anti, only to get crack slapped across the jaw in this? How many have yelled queerbait without really observing what Bobo has been doing from within, how many have to face-or-deny the unfair queerbait shouting? How many hold-outs are we putting up, ourselves, because it isn’t the type or level of confirmation we want; we’re sitting here waiting for a bigger more dramatic reveal than a third person statement like that, or what-have-you, but when it’s not “our ship” that we are eternally defending from antis, and not a ship being targeted due to a mix of ship warring and MLM social issues, this is fine? And why is it okay when it’s not The Mothership and we totes accept it for DreamHunter canonization but we’re still talking circles around DeanCas like we’re our own antis? Why do we let anti-dom spin everyone’s head up in such knots that the majority expect Dabberens to live in stan twitter, abandon narrative properties and quality, and have Sam walk in on something while they profess their love and walk away with pictures as hard sealed photographic evidence when that isn’t expected of literally anybody else?

Can anybody tell me why Bobo Bookends Berens, who penned Cain -- Dean’s kindred spirit and fated path parallel -- calling out -- as confirmed -- that Castiel was his Colette, his wife, the love of his life that knew who he was, and what he was, that loved him unconditionally, forgave him, and only asked for him to stop -- a third person perspective -- has a third person, offscreen confirmation of the same sort, with far less plot weaving, taken universally as canon without the play of shifting goalposts via MLM social stigmas and/or ship warring stan twitter getting up in everybody’s heads?

Cuz it’s the same dude, guys. Same pen. A moment nobody even dismissed or TRIED to heckle out. If we just want to go third person while dropping punchline perception, we have everything from The Angel In The Dirty Trenchcoat Who’s In Love With You to Attached At The Everything. Y’all really think Bobo Berens is out here using his own sexuality as a tool and a punchline to be laughed at though? Bobo, “I protest human trafficing and ICE engagements front line in the body walls while people are being arrested” Berens? That guy? 

You’re gonna go out of his way that hard to miss the point just because you have phobic asshats on twitter, and/or asshole haters with “opposite ships” on twitter, or it’s just not the kind YOU wanted to see for Destiel, even if it’s enough for you to take it as canon in DreamHunter, when you already Been Had It for Destiel?

Meh. So many problems with DreamHunter, in there not being any problems with DreamHunter.

All Dabberens. Every Dreamhunter moment was a Dabb or Berens written previous Destiel moment. The meaningful third party line from Jody was Berens. Just like the meaningful third party line in Executioner’s song, also by Berens. Not just a random jab - someone who knew them inside and out. And that - people will take that as canon, again, when there’s no rival ships or MLM phobias in play. Every inch of Dreamhunter (and far, far more) existed in Destiel, by the same authors, porting the same concepts across, piece by piece, and like magic, nobody protested.

And if you’re protesting, or worse if you hilariously ship Dreamhunter but reject Destiel, despite -- I dunno -- Bobo’s own book reviews on issues like queerphobia and intersectional issues -- you may want to introspect on the real reason you’re denying it.

Because that, my friends, is a strictly personal problem.

[jessiewre]

Day 30

Mon 3rd Feb

I went to the restaurant in the morning while Phil tried to snooze a bit more and after a few coffees, the guy from the hotel came over to tell me that the manager of Soft Power had arrived to meet me. Took me a little by surprise but its amazing how much effort the people make here to reach out to us. Like at the football coaching the day before, they are so friendly and welcoming to us. Agre, the manager of SP, told me about the charity and that 20 years previously, it had been set up by one English girl called Hannah who had been travelling in Uganda and felt that she needed to do something about all the poverty and children in need everywhere (honestly, they are everywhere). She started off trying to make small changes, then cut a long story short, it became an organisation on a small scale to help bring education and other services to the communities - and now its grown into something much bigger.

They have pre-schools, funding & suppport for disabled children who are shunned by society and often their own families, education for adults, they build schools, decorate existing ones, renovate them - I’ll share a link to their website but the list goes on. Reminds me of that phrase, something like ‘If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sharing a bed with a mosquito’. One person can positively change 1000’s of lives.

I can’t imagine Hannah thought she’’d end up creating such a large successful organisation that has helped so many.

Agre said we would be welcome to visit the next day to volunteer in their pre-school and so we arranged for us to meet there the next morning.

We then had a bit of a lazy day, as we’d planned.

Lunch was at the Black Lantern (vege curry for me & Moroccan wrap for Phil). I went a bit crazy on the chilli sauce and the rice got a bit lively, but was nice. Sat by the pool for a bit and watched monkeys grooming each other bein’ dead cute. After delaying it for aaaaaages (we stayed in Jinja for 6 nights instead of 3...) we finally decided to bite the bullet and move onto Nairobi the next day, despite our apprehension about going there (we heard it’s nickname was ‘Nairobbery’).

Phil decided he’d go for a run and like a good lad, he’d combine it with going to get our coach tickets from Jinja. Well this was an absolute RESULT for me cos I could not be arsed to do it so shout out to Phil for cracking on with that one and being my loyal servant once again.

We settled our bill but turned out that we didn’t have enough for the final night - so they said we could move to a dorm for half the price. It was nice of them to offer this considering it was already 5pm - but considering they weren’t going to be able to sell our private tent and moving us would mean extra sheets for them - I personally think they should have just give us the private tent at the dorm price - but WHATEVER, we ended up with a private room anyway as was just the two of us in the dorm. So jokes on them really.

Obviously Jimi joined Phil on his run as they are true Jinja running pals now, and they went via Jimi’s house to get something so Phil met Jimi’s pigs & ones called Jessica apparently! Couldn’t work out if that was a wind up or not...I sat in the restaurant overlooking the Nile, listening to a proper annoying English guy talk about himself super loudly, saying he’s been to over 100 countries and Wales and Scotland don’t even count in his list blah blah blaaaaaaaaaahhh.

We went BACK to the NRE place next foor for dinner AGAIN (ya know, masala fries place) and it was burger night (CALM DOWN JIMI) so Jimi got a Kula Shaker burger but put WAY too much chilli sauce on. He was struggling big time and trying to wipe his tongue with napkins to get the chilli off which was jokes. I had a healthy Greek salad...with normal chips (eww they had run out of masala fries ffs) and Phil had a VEGE BURGER MMMM ORIGINAL.

Going on a run seems to make Phil believe that he must drink 20 beers afterwards, so the Nile Specials were flowing. On the walk back at 11pm, we got chatting to a shopkeeper of a little shack. He was friendly and chatty, and he told us about the cultural differences, like with food and drink, you don’t ask if someone would like any - You just give it to them, so they don’t have to admit that they want it. It now made sense when we offered to buy people a drink they would be weird about it!

We chatted to him for over an hour in the end and he did seem like a nice guy, but its tricky when someone has ingrained sexist views and doesn’t seem to realise the problem.

I’m cutting a long story short - but he said that men are the King of the family and they should be because they provide and produce everything. I mentioned that they do not produce the children and he said yes but women are ‘a box’ (Yes he said women are a BOX. At this point I began to laugh as I was about to BOX him in the face, but then I realised I was only a box and had no arms). So yeah, apparently women’s job is to push out the child but the husband is always the head of the house.

Yawn.

He was saying that men have to provide everything that the woman and children need and that the kitchen is the woman’s place. I understand the theory of this and sometimes this is literally just a fact, sometimes men go to work and earn the money, and then women do all the cooking. But he was saying it like it was a fact of life, there was no other option, and this was how it had to be. So I asked him about all the women I see everywhere in Uganda who are now working, and therefore are providing money for the family ie. doing mens work, does this mean the men are also doing ‘women’s work’ to balance it out, like cooking and housework. But he basically said No.

Ok cool, sounds fair mate.

I told him about women earning more than their partners in the UK sometimes (cough cough #iamlegend) and that if the couple has respect for each other and they share, then it is no problem. To his credit, he didn’t disagree with this and said that Respect was the most important thing in a relationship.

He also said though, that if a woman in Uganda gets too much money and opportunity and experiences, then she’ll leave her man for a richer one cos her eyes will wander.

Why do some men still think that women’s lives are just there to fit around them and their egos? If someone doesn’t want their partner to do well in their career cos it makes them feel bad about themselves, then they have serious issues that they need to deal with. Women around the world seem to be having to do a bit of everything to get by - create LIFE (that whole casual giving birth thing), feeding their babies with their own bodies, deal with all the household chores, AND earn money.

And what is with the pressure that the world is putting on men all the time?? In Uganda and SO many other places, men are under ridiculous amounts pressure - from society and therefore themselves too - to provide all the money, pay a huge dowry to get married, be super strong in every way etc etc.

Yeah, so the world has a long way to go before we are anywhere near equality...and like the guy said, it all starts with respect eh...

(I must add that I am not the best example of a the suffering women I’m speaking about, and neither is Phil one of these men expecting that his box’s life has to fit around his. But I’m speaking about the women and men who are not as privileged as us)

Moving on - I quietly mentioned to Phil that I wanted to head back soon - the street was getting very quiet, and plus we needed to be on time for volunteering the next morning - but Phil was too deep into his beer journey and wouldn’t take the hint. So I said quite loudly that I was going to head back. So naturally he said ‘Ok one more beer for the road!’

By the way, the ‘road’ was approximately a 1 minute walk.

I knew he wouldn’t finish the beer (10 years in you learn these things) and I also knew that our monies were low, but trying to suggest maybe he did not need that beer did not go down very well (maybe something else I should have learnt in the last decade).

When back at the dorm, I took this nearly full beer and hid it outside for jokes, then told Phil to hurry up to go brush our teeth. He took aaaages as was obviously looking for his beer (god I’m funny), but when he came out, he found it on the side and pretended he knew it was there. I asked him why he’d taken so long, and he was like ‘Uh well I was looking for you actually’. LOL.

We quietly got ready for bed as there were dorms either side of our room with an open ceiling, but we shouldn’t have bothered as an hour later people appeared in the other rooms and were chatting SO loud that they woke us up. OMG I realised one of them was the annoying English guy from earlier and the other was a loud American. Who by the way had also been to over 100 countries wow how about nobody cares love.

Phil tried sshh-ing them but it didn’t work so eventually Phil shouted SHUUTT UPP!

And they totally did. Maybe drunk Phil does have his uses.