#i may perhaps be Stupid

[spenjelly]

The truth about Aizawa’s quirk

This is so dumb but I need to share this revelation with y’all just in case anyone else has been similarly blinded to the obvious truth.

I was out here thinking “what does gene-stopping have to do with gravity manipulation?” And I spent a lot of time wondering what it means when in fact

It’s just so that it isn’t in his eyes. 💀 His quirk just made it so that his hair isn’t in his vision. I cannot recover from how obvious this should have been lol

[space-writes]

asjldkaj the fact that Claustrophilia was the only one you finished feels lowkey on brand :p

non spoilery reasons I liked A Deadly Education: i just loved Gal from page one tbh. Her personality really captivated me, her humour and her cynicism, and i loved watching that clash with her helping people. the 'FINE i'll help but im going to COMPLAIN THE WHOLE TIME' was a major delight factor for me. i also really just dug that it was a fantasy novel without the premise of innate good in a protaganist; there was only the good you choose to do, and that theme kept up through the whole series.

book recs are now going under a cut because i made a lot of them oops

I'd rec Misha Horne - not identical to my writing, but she writes spanking books with feelings, that usually involve two guys spending a chunk of time inside with each other having those feelings and i love it each and every time.

Snowed in With Benefits has a bratty rockstar and an older jaded musician getting uh. snowed in at a cabin together. you can imagine what ensues

and Hot Mess (which i also read this year and loved) has a floundering brat who just bought a house and has no idea how to adult and his hot neighbour whose mail he accidentally gets (a catalogue which has said neighbour in pretty underwear in it). Shenanigans (and spankings) ensue

otherwise...

For You, Sir by Emily Brandish might tick some boxes; it's about a very proper butler starting work for a mess of a screenwriter who had one hit and is now missing deadlines. it's got the D/s-y stuff I like, a little bit of a slow burn too (though not that slow, it's only a short novel).

Devilry by Marley Valentine was a really fun teacher/student romance that I very much enjoyed. A little messy craft-wise in places, but hit all my buttons on the teacher/student end of things. (college-age teacher/student, for specificity)

All's Fair In Dare And Domination by Rikki Leighton also - bratty trans MC with bipolar and so much messy trauma, and nobody gets magically fixed by being in a relationship, they just get loved. starts off as a D/s type agreement to help said MC get over being in love with his best friend who is now dating his brother, and oh no wouldn't you know it they caught feelings :p

that's all from this year; from last year i have a couple too:

Action by Quinn Anderson (@quinnandersonwrites) whomsts inbox i did go in when i'd read it to yell about how good it was. Porn star x co-worker romance, which has yours and my favourite thing: catching feelings whilst already fucking. they're fucking for Work Reasons, but it's still got that tastiness to it, and the chemistry between the leads was sooo good.

The Husband Gambit by LA Witt - fake dating to spite the homophobes basically. and one of the leads has either carpal tunnel or RSI i forget which but he wears wrist braces to recover which at the time i was still wearing a lot for my own wrist pain so this book has a special place in my heart even if just for that. It also has the Obedience delight of 'oh no way he has feelings for me this is just an arrangement' (they both absolutely have feelings)

Top Shelf by Allison Temple - slowish-burn romance between a guy whose life kinda fell apart and now he works at a small town bookstore, and the artist who lives above said bookstore. loved watching them not know each other's trauma and get on each other's nerves about it until they eventually kissed about it

TBR tag game

tagged by @memento-morri-writes, thank you! just about getting this one in before the new year starts~

here’s 9 of the books I read this year that I really enjoyed:

[ID - a 3 by 3 grid of book covers. The books are written out in the post below]

Eyetooth by mars adler (@marsadler) - the impact this had on me cannot be understated

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark - which i literally could not put down, I was walking to and from my train reading this. absolutely insane

The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik - yes that’s a sneaky three books for the price of one but they’re SO GOOD

Snowed in With Benefits by Misha Horne - listen i will never not rec Misha’s books if you like spanking and feelings. always a 10/10 time

Leech by Hiron Ennes - the worldbuilding in this was just PHENOMENAL

Claustrophlia by Erza Blake - this has to go on here because it was insane and is rooted in my brain. if you were here for the brief spate of Posting about it, you know

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca - if you’ve read this you’ll know exactly why i loved it, and if you haven’t GO DO THAT

So You Want to Be a Game Master by Justin Alexander - i’ve been reading Justin’s blog for years and his DM advice is top notch

Content Warning: Everything by Akwaeke Emezi - one of my goals this year was to read more poetry, and i think this was my favourite collection of the 12 I read

my TBR is so long it’s painful, but here’s some I’m hoping to actually get to next year:

[ID - a 3 by 3 grid of book covers. The books are written out in the post below]

Prince and Assassin by Tavia Lark

House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

A Rival Most Vial by RK Ashwick (aka beloved @ashen-crest)

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis

The Demon Cycle by Peter V Brett

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

As many of Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books as possible

true to form, it's all gay and fantasy goodness, so hopefully I'll actually manage to read the books I intend to read, instead of reading like a hundred books of Not The Things I Planned to like i did this year TT_TT

no-pressure tagging @princessbonecrimes @thegreatobsesso @viscerawrites and @winterandwords to share 9 books from this year and 9 books on your TBR (definitely not fishing for recs that would be irresponsible to the 1000 book-long TBR i already have >.>)

[loniirstar]

Bruuuuuhgghhj ain't no way drawing Tintin in November during June saved me from art block for a while.................. Smh......................

In all seriousness though, I'm actually really proud of this one. Like, really proud. Probably because it's my first full artwork after a good while. Sure, there are some mistakes here and there, but I still think I did a quite decent job here.

Sorry for not posting so much rock related art lately, I just don't like the way they turn out and I'm really burnt out. I'll promise I'll try to do something later. But for now, this is all I've got to offer.

Also, here's the reference:

Goes so hard, I just couldn't resist redrawing it when I first found it on Pinterest, lol.

[altschmerzes]

seen one too many snide posts about this in the last week or so but did you know that if you don't enjoy scenes in smut establishing consent or checking in then you simply don't have to read them and you don't have to go online and whine about how they're Consent Posturing and Purity Culture and Sanitizing Everything and God Just Kill Me Now. like you can have a preference without making it into a three act morality play, which is ironically what you are accusing other people of doing.

the same goes for like, detailed content warnings on fics. or content warnings at all. you can just skip those. they're not a sign of Purity Culture Gone Too Far or Those Damn Puriteens or whatever. you can dislike things without being an asshole about them or implying they're Taking Away What's Good And Correct About Fic Or Creativity.

[lavenderrvalleyy]

Tankmen? In my Pizza Tower??? More likely than you think.

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer Polyship Week 2024, Day Three: Reverse Tropes – Convinced Not Actually Dating (Modern AU)

It's Day Three of Valicer Polyship Week 2024, as presented by @polyshipweek, and we're up to an interesting prompt: "Reverse Tropes!" Basically taking a trope and switching it around into its opposite -- the classic "Only One Bed" becomes "Too Many Beds," for example. Now, I wasn't originally going to do this prompt for this day -- I was more interested in "Queerplatonic Partners," as I felt I could write something interesting about Smiler and Alice's dynamic within the OT3 for that one --

And then I ended up writing "someone is a jerk to one of OT3 for some reason, and gets theirs by the end of the story" fics for Alice (Valicer In The Dark version) and Smiler (Soulmates AU version) for Days One and Two of this particular week, and decided that I needed to do a third story on that theme from Victor's POV to round out the trilogy. And when I looked at the linked examples of "reverse tropes" provided by Polyship Week in their write-up on the prompt, I came across this list which included the reverse-trope "Instead of fake dating, everyone is convinced that you aren’t actually dating." Pair that with various tumblr posts I've seen decrying people being "gatekeepers" when it comes to queer identities, and I quickly came up with a story where poor Victor gets harassed at his first Pride by a jerk who's convinced he's a "cis het faker" and can't believe he's dating Alice and Smiler. :( Sorry Victor -- I had a theme to keep to! And fortunately, as per that theme, he gets his at the end... Enjoy!

--

“So – first Pride, I’m guessing?”

“What – oh, yes,” Victor said, smiling awkwardly but genuinely at his surprise conversation partner as they – they looked like a man, but Victor was not about to make that assumption at Pride – sidled up to him. “A-am I that obvious?”

“I can spot people like you a mile away,” the person replied, looking him up and down. “Ben – he/him, if you care.”

“Oh, thank you – Victor, he/him as well,” Victor introduced himself, offering a hand. “N-nice to meet you.”

“Yeah,” Ben said, giving him a rather perfunctory shake. Then again, Victor supposed a handshake was probably a bit formal for this setting… “What are you doing here?”

“Just t-taking in the sights – my partner insisted we come,” Victor explained, glancing around hoping to spot Smiler or Alice and wave them over. I know I told them I’d be fine on my own for a bit, but they’re both so much better at talking to people than I am… “I grew up in a rather, ah, r-repressed little village, so I never got to experience this before now. It’s been…” He paused, swallowing as someone walked by in a leather harness and not much else. “Enlightening.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Ben said, folding his arms. “Partner, huh?”

“Yes – I have two, actually, but Alice is as new to Pride as I am – oh, there they are!” Victor pointed at Smiler – resplendent in their non-binary stripes tee, favorite pair of worn black jeans, and bright yellow sneakers – and Alice – proudly decked out in a purple dress with white and black triangles along the skirt hem – standing by what looked like one of the merch tables. Smiler was holding something in their hand, showing something to an intrigued-looking Alice. “Those two, right there. They’re really into celebrating who you are.”

Ben looked over at them, then back at Victor with a raised eyebrow. “You came here with them?”

“Yes – my girlfriend and my themfriend,” Victor said, a warm glow suffusing his body as he watched Smiler gesture at the thing in their hand while Alice rocked thoughtfully on her heels. “They’re – they’re the best. I’m quite lucky to have them in my life.”

“...yeah, I’m calling bullshit on that.”

Victor blinked at the sudden harshness in Ben’s tone. “I – what?”

“I said, I’m calling bullshit on that,” Ben snapped, moving a little closer to Victor. “Fuck me – you really think you can just gesture at anyone in this place and say that they’re your partners? Especially those two?”

“I – uh – n-no?” Victor stammered, automatically reaching for a tie that wasn’t there. “I – t-those are my p-partners.”

“Sure. Sure.” Ben looked him up and down again, appraising him and finding him wanting. “Two people like that are gonna want to hang out with you.”

...Oh. Oh wow. Victor had thought he was used to comments like that, but – he hadn’t expected to hear any of them at Pride. Nor for them to sting like that. “T-t-they do,” he insisted, aware that his nervous stutter was not helping matters. “I – I a-admit, I’m not sure why m-myself, but–”

“Save it,” Ben snapped, inserting himself into Victor’s personal space – and suddenly Victor was hyper-aware that, though Ben was shorter than him, he was definitely more muscular. He backed away on instinct, eyes flicking around for the nearest tall object to climb. “I told you – I can spot some cis het faker a mile away. You asshole – you think you can come here, enjoy the party, and claim to be one of us, then go back to being ‘normal’ tomorrow? Huh?”

“N-no! No, of course not – I-I-I’m bi!” Victor babbled, flapping a hand at his blue, pink, and purple sunset sweater while holding the other up placatingly.

“Sure, yeah, you’re ‘bi,’” Ben growled, complete with scare quotes, and somehow that hurt even worse than being told he couldn’t possibly be dating Alice and Smiler. “Just long enough to get a few drinks, anyway. Then you’ll go home to your simpering little girlfriend and tell her all about us ‘queers’ and have a good laugh.” He poked Victor hard in the chest, making him stumble slightly. “Well, I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen. So how about you get your stuff and–”

“Excuse me.”

Ben turned around – and immediately doubled over as Alice’s fist introduced itself to his gut. “How about you get your stuff and clear out?” she snarled, in a tone of voice that Victor somehow knew she had used with Bumby. “Before I decide to show you just how good I am at knife tricks?”

“Alice,” Smiler said in warning – though judging by the expression on their face, they weren’t really all that concerned with stopping her. “No getting us kicked out.” Their eyes narrowed as they regarded the gasping Ben. “But yeah – I’d recommend you fucking skedaddle.”

It was a testament to how angry Smiler sounded that they could use the word “skedaddle” and yet Ben still left, holding his middle and shooting them all confused, slightly terrified looks. “Fucking gatekeepers,” Smiler grumbled, then wrapped a tight arm around Victor. “Hey – you okay?”

“I – I-I’ve been better,” Victor murmured, dropping his hands. “I d-didn’t expect...I t-thought...isn’t t-this whole thing about acceptance?”

“It’s supposed to be, but some idiots think they’ve got reverse gaydar and gotta ruin it for the ‘interlopers,’” Smiler said, rolling their eyes before giving him a squeeze. “Probably would have assumed I was a cis guy too…I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“And I’m sorry we didn’t show up earlier,” Alice said, coming around to give Victor a hug from the other side. “Smiler was rather invested in showing me some of the flag pins they had on display over there – we didn’t realize what was going on until the bastard started getting loud.”

“It’s fine – I’m sorry you had to do that at all,” Victor mumbled, putting his arms around both of them and pulling them against him. “I didn’t...I just…”

“It’s not your fault,” Smiler said firmly, patting his back. “You didn’t anything except exist.”

“Some people are just arseholes – believe me, I would know,” Alice agreed, before stretching up on tiptoe and tugging him to the side slightly so she could kiss his cheek. “But I imagine he won’t be bothering us again now that he knows how prone I am to violence.”

Victor laughed despite himself. “Hopefully...if you don’t get in trouble for slugging someone,” he added, grimacing.

“I think we’ve got plenty of eyewitnesses saying he pretty much started it,” Smiler assured him, looking around at the other attendees before shooting him a grin. “Would picking up a ‘Bi Pride’ pin make you feel better?”

“...I think it would, yes.”

[friend-dogor]

actually wait in relation to the last post about ghibli and how it is aestheticized into bland and toothless images of comfort, it's got me thinking abt Ursula K Le Guin again

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.

(from The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, 1973, top of pg.2)

i think that the original post is guilty of this to a degree, seeking to refute the idiocy and simplicity of focusing on the "happy" themes of ghibli movies my instead shifting attention to the horrors and pains contained within the text—those which could be seen as intellectual, needing perhaps a more sophisticated understanding of environmentalism and geopolitics.

but, furthermore, i think i'm guilty of it even in trying to defend miyazaki's often returning narrative commitment to hope and environmentalism and anti-war sentiment and kindness—after the last tag, i wanted to add something about "i know that putting kindness above pursuit of power feels like a baby theme for babies" because it Does, to me. "be kind" is, like, the first and simplest rule most of us are taught as children, be kind, don't hit your brother, be kind, share, be kind.

i don't refer to this as one of his more challenging themes, of course, because why should i? we all know to be kind. of course, i refer only to topics of war and environmentalism and grief as challenging. kindness is simple!

(nevermind that one of the biggest challenges for myself and a lot of people i know is how to stop being cruel to oneself after decades of practice and learned examples and instead to learn to be kind and forgiving with one's own mistakes and failures and perceived flaws)

and i wonder two things: 1) is it possible that the self-aestheticization of miyazaki's movies (for example, the rapturous visual attention paid to food, the attention paid to soft chairs, pillows, small and pleasantly cluttered environments, with plenty of natural light, lush plantlife and endearing creatures) contribute to miyazaki's more "challenging" messages, and if so, that there's a degree of success in people remembering the thick-cut bacon and eggs on toast from Howl's Moving Castle before they think of Sophie Hatter's town on fire because of the king's war? Has Hayao Miyazaki succeeded in making war and destruction at once horrifying and banal, but a simple good breakfast fascinating and compelling? ——not to say that people who simplify the movie to Only the aesthetics are right. they still aren't. they exist in dialogue with the destruction and it's ridiculous to sever the two. but is it possible that the majority of people thinking first of the "cozy" elements of Studio Ghibli's work is not nonintellectual and reductive, but rather contributes to a larger point of attention?

2) i ought to find other examples of media which do not treat "happy" themes or "light" themes—(i struggle even to talk about the category i mean without dismissing it entirely as Simple, or mischaracterizing it. i mean things like kindness over power and compassion over fear, things like that) which do not treat the themes as childish or nonintellectual, but also do so without fetishizing violence and suffering as Special and More Deserving of Thought than Simple and Stupid Good Feelings so that i can kind of investigate this concept a little more

[supahstarrr]

Spoilers

Okay so since Eden is implied to be the one to who stabbed Xander uh... a lot of people's theories about Teruko being the one doing it was wrong (haha). just wondering why the hell would Xander be the one saying "I need to kill Teruko Tawaki to end the killing game" is...? So i would like to say I think her being the mastermind could be possible even though thats typical, but Im leaning towards her existence somehow triggering/motivating the killing game to happen somehow. Something something about her family being connected to hope peaks academy and/oor the killing tragedy thus her needing to be orphaned,, and Mai finally taking Teruko to her family ended up triggering the killing game and killing Mai too idk man. Maybe Teruko's existence was so important that enemies or something triggered the killing gaming to happen probably over and over again. Idk man Don't fucking look at me and my stupid fucking brain

[darkdragon768]

Just two monsters with huge mouths filled with pointy teeth, and their lil birdie friend.

[river-gale]

STOP naming things after euler. i have nothing but respect and admiration for leonhard euler and his contributions to the beautiful field of mathematics but TOO MANY THINGS ARE NAMED AFTER HIM. please. enough. it's getting so confusing

[incomprehensiblelentils]

Also…Furiosa spoilers I guess…I did not realize we were supposed to read her and that guy as in love? I thought he was just like her emotional brother or whatever bc they touched foreheads and shit lmfao. I’m not mad if people ship them or whatever but like the plot summary claims they “fall in love” and I was legit shocked by that interpretation

[themintman]

Staring into your soul rn if you ever take requests or art trades please let me know, itd be so cool to get some art of my oc

i do in fact take requests and art trades! They just may take a while depending on what they are, what I'm doing, my mental health, blah blah blah all that stuff. But I'm down to do them whenever! 🩷

[dandyshucks]

everyone pray for me that i did not just give myself food poisoning (;･∀･)

[bumblingbabooshka]

Movik-Taar: Future proprietor of a very popular natural hot spring spa & inn on Vulcan. Husband of T’Meni-bu, Sek’s daughter. He’s self-conscious about his hair loss.

Movik is a braggart, a bit of a lia- exaggerator and a gigantic coward and T’Meni-bu knows that yet earnestly thinks he’s the best thing since sliced bread. I’d say she’s that ‘If I had a lame boyfriend-’ post but she genuinely doesn’t think he’s lame and would be defensive if you said he was. Sek thinks Movik is odious but tries to take solace in the fact that T’Meni finds him extremely pleasant. T’Meni and Movik were married before either of their pon farrs because T’Meni wanted to and both families saw no reason to delay if that was her wish. Movik wore a toupee to the wedding and was hesitant to take it off in front of her but when he did she just seemed weirdly charmed.  Movik has a Vulcan parental unit (mother, father) who sired him and another father who is Bolian. He has a Bolian younger sister who’s around elementary school aged.  He has a tendency to exaggerate his accomplishments but often quickly backpedals into the truth. He isn’t a malicious person and is actually a bit of a push over. Said he was going into Starfleet most of his life but when he was the age to apply he suddenly said he was going to take over his family’s inn instead.  T’Meni is very bad at doing actual work in the inn but very good at guest relations and trends which makes the inn even more popular. Movik showers her with attention and gifts so she’s perfectly content. Movik thinks she’s an extremely capable, intelligent person (an excellent match!!) and the two are absolutely insufferable together the way close couples are <3 

[asterdeer]

been rewatching gravity falls during therapy and i think "double dipper" unlocked something in my brain for real. yeah it does feel like there are often 12 or 13 of me in my brain, all yelling about Plans and being Correct and how to do things Exactly Right Or Else You're Evil And Bad And Probably Ruined Everyone's Day And Will End Up On The Internet As A Subject Of Ridicule. there's also a half-baked version of me that's just Screaming. maybe sometimes it's okay to just douse the whole committee with a can of sprite and see what happens without them. maybe this will make it easier to ask if the anxiety-inducing thing has the power the committee is telling me it has or if maybe i can just not micromanage myself into paralysis and self-hatred.

[puppygirlkat]

Looking into aromanticism and queerplatonic relationships is a lot like idk im just vibing here kinda carefree, who needs a label for what i do anyway