#i'm not gonna lie it could be a little more diverse in there

[danhalen]

tagged by @beaniegender 😚😚 to shuffle my on repeat playlist and post the first ten songs, then tag ten people.

1. mykonos fleet foxes

2. white blank page mumford and sons

3. white winter hymnal fleet foxes

4. broadripple is burning margot & the nuclear so and so's

5. crash into me dave matthews band

6. don't carry it all the decemberists

7. closing time semisonic

8. simple song the shins

9. hands down dashboard confessional

10. no one's gonna love you band of horses

tagging @bruceewayne @roseoswiins @saoirse-ronan @acommoncrow @andweareunderway @andreethier @blue-da-ba-dee @an-ivy-covered-summer @runsea @wabblebees

[wandanatsthings]

𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭

Hii, so I’m writing this fic because I see ALOT of Wandanat x Reader where Reader is Basically just skinny white girls and while there’s nothing wrong with that I would love to see something more diverse so this is that enjoy :)

(P.s im dyslexic I’m trying my best)

Word count 1.1k

Warnings: If you consider fluff a warning then ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ lol I don’t think there are any, but lemme know if you see anything please!

Summary: Wanda and Natasha help you take out your braids

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y/n pov It was a Saturday morning and your girlfriends were at work, you were home alone so you decided that it would be a great time to take your braids out. You had them for three months now and your new growth was insane. You had been dreading taking them out because you didn't want your girlfriends to see you like that you thought they would judge you. So now really was the only time to do it so you could have it washed and in a new style hopefully before they got home. You checked the clock on your phone to see how much time you had. You were grateful to know that It was only 9:30 meaning you had plenty of time before they came back tonight at 8. With that, you got up and went into the bathroom to grab everything you needed to bring out into the living room so you could watch TV while you did the tedious task.

It was only about 4:30 and you barely had half of your braids down. Your arms were tired and your back began to hurt. This would be a lot easier if I had help. As soon as that thought crossed your mind. You heard the front door open and close. That couldn't be them. Their home way too early you thought...

Nats pov

Wands and I had left the house around 9:00 this morning leaving y/n home by herself. When we got to work we checked our to-do list to see what it was we had to get done today. Turns out we both only had mission reports due, So we both decided we'd work here at the Avengers Tower for a while and then come home early to surprise y/n.

Wanda's pov

After leaving the Avengers Tower, we went back home to surprise you. As we walked through the house, we could hear your favorite TV show playing and you calling out our names. When we turned the corner into the living room, we saw you surrounded by all kinds of hair products and tools.

y/n pov

As I heard the door shut I called out to see if it was them. “Wands?” “Nat?” After a few short moments, you see them round the corner with smiles on their faces. “Hi…guys, what are you doing home so early?” you ask them feeling a little self-conscious because they were seeing you exactly how you didn’t want them to. “We decided to come home early and finish our mission reports here to spend some time with you,” says Wanda. You look up at them with a smile on your face “Aw guys that's so sweet thank you” You tell them. “Of course detka, Um what's going on here?’’ asked Natasha. You then look around to see all of the combs, conditioner, and grocery bags that surround you. You look up at them and say apprehensively “I'm taking my braids out…” What you hear next surprises you. “Oh well, can we help?” Wanda asked. You looked up at them in shock.

You loved the thought of them wanting to help you. Now neither one of them knew much about your hair curly kinky type but they were always open to learning more about it and asked you questions. “You want to help?’ you ask them with surprise in your voice. “ Yes, why wouldn’t we?” Ask Natasha “Well I mean it is a lot of work and I can't look the prettiest right now.” you say looking down. “I can’t lie you do look a little silly like this but still you are the prettiest anyway you look. I think you look quite adorable like this.” Says Natasha. What she says brings a smile to your face. “Um okay if you guys are sure I would love your help, My arms are tired.” With that, they chuckle a little and sit behind you on the couch. “Okay love you're gonna have to tell us what to do though,” says Wanda “Yes of course” you reply. You had already had the braids cut so they wouldn’t have to worry about that. “So first you're going to pick up a braid, and you can choose to use a rat-tail comb or your fingers. With a rat-tail comb, you will take the end of the comb gently and slowly start to comb the end of the braid to unravel it.”

You demonstrated by using the braid you were working on before they came in. “And if you were to use your fingers, you would do it the same way you would unravel a regular braid, but remember it is still slow and gentle okay?” You look back at them and see them smiling while nodding. “Okay if some of them are a little hard to do just add a little conditioner and it will come out easier.” “okay we got it,” says Wanda. As they start to take the braids down you feel Wanda using her fingers and Natasha using the rattail. Both of them are extremely gentle, Not once pulling too hard. As they complete a few braids you all start to get into a rhythm.

It starts makes you wonder what you were so self-conscious about in the first place. After a while of comfortable silence, Wanda begins to speak. “Thank you for letting us help you with this,” she says “Why are you thanking me, I should be the one thanking you guys. Thank you btw” you reply. “I'm saying thank you for letting us help because this is very vulnerable and we appreciate you letting us get this close to you. For letting us see this beautiful part of you.” “ I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Natasha says. You feel yourself start to get emotional.

You always wanted to be with someone who loved all of you and never made you feel ashamed of yourself and now not only do you have one person who makes you feel that way you have two. “I guess I never really thought about it that way. I'm really glad that I get to share this part of myself with you guys too,” you say. When you turn around to look at them, they're both already looking at you with so much love and adoration in their eyes. You lean up to kiss them “I love you both so much,” you say “We love you more” they both reply. With that, you all continue taking the braids out and time goes by so much faster than it did when it was by yourself. Maybe that was because you had 2 sets of extra hands or because you had your beautiful girlfriends helping you and keeping you company. Either way, before you knew it you were all done. “thank you for helping me again.” you say. “Anytime” Natasha replies. “Okay, now who wants to help me wash it?” “ME!” you hear out of both of your red-headed mouths. You made a mental note to never try and take out your braids yourself again. Why would you when you have 2 very eager girlfriends to help?

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Feedback welcomed!!

[jesncin]

Hi it's me again (the person who asked about Harley in CC).

This isn't really an ask, I just figured if I did the first anonymously I might as well keep that up now, which is why I didn't make this a comment instead.

I kind of figured her Jewishness had something to do with why her case was complex. I kept waiting in the show to see if they would reference her being Jewish, since Asian Jews exist even if many people seem oblivious to that fact. Anyway, they never did. So it ended up feeling like they just decided Asians had more diversity points than Ashkenazi Jews (maybe they do, but personally I don't like to rate different minorities on how rewarded I will be if I include them). But since she's only visibly Asian, then that especially puts a light on how they are only diversifying their story in a shallow way, since being Jewish isn't always visible (and isn't visible in Harley's original design), and they are trying to look as "diverse" as possible, rather than actually consider the implications.

I feel like with Harley, it could have actually been a great chance to move away from Ashkenormativity that is so present in Western media.

I wish she was at least allowed to keep her accent, I miss it, because I knew what it meant.

Not gonna lie, did not expect this to be so long. I guess this was bugging me more than I realized. When I wrote my original ask, I guess I was trying to confirm a suspicion, and when it got confirmed I just let my thoughts spill out of me. Anyway, I'm not trying to erase the fact that Harley is half-Jewish with this. Interfaith families deserve to be regarded as such. I think it's just hurtful because out of the major Jewish DC characters (Batman, Batwoman, Hal Jordan, Superman (allegorically)), she is one of the few that people actually know is Jewish, and who's Jewishness often impacts her character.

If there's a perspective you feel like I'm ignoring with this, please tell me. I'm always open to learn.

Pretty much all this! If I was to add just a little bit of additional interesting information was that I too was holding my breath, thinking there was a possibility that Harley's Jewishness would show up in CC even after the casting news because her voice actress (Jamie Chung) is married to a Jewish man. Their wedding incorporated Jewish traditions and even now the two have baby twins who are raised in an interfaith family and celebrate holidays from both heritages. How cool would that be for someone to have that personal experience and bring that to Harley!! But alas. Nothing in CC.

Even when Harley was white, her Jewishness has been chiseled away in a lot of adaptations lately. Which is so sad when her character is literally defined by Jewish identity and a straight up real Jewish woman. We're entering this insidious era of "representation" where characters are being superficially race or gender bent for "diversity" while taking away what made their original characters radical to begin with.

Lois went from being this no nonsense, exceptional career woman to regressing to being less than her 50s era. Now she needs the help of two men to get hired by the Daily Planet and the lesson is "I might not be as career savvy, but at least I got my man" in MAWS. But she's Asian now so you're a racist loser if you hate that. This is the case for sooo many characters in modern adaptation now and it's sad seeing people easily fall for it.

[stephtuckerauthor]

Starry, Starry Night

The party was moving full throttle behind her but she chose to ignore it. She'd escaped to the garden, desperate for the quiet and solitude in a way she couldn't explain. Relaxing on a lounger, her knees pulled up, she gazed at the vast blackness of the sky, stars freckled through the darkness and offering pinpoints of hope in a space that felt too overwhelming to be real.

It seemed such a funny thing, to be surrounded by people but feel so isolated. It was a feeling she'd become too accustomed to in recent months, and she was beginning to feel it was her fated future to forever be alone.

"The sky more interesting than us?"

Her eyes flitted to the left, smiling up at him as he passed her a glass of wine before settling into the lounger beside her, placing his beer on the small table between them.

"It was too loud."

"It's a party," he scoffed a laugh, watching as she glanced back to the silent sky, his own eyes following. "Which part exactly?"

"All of it," she said, her voice quiet so not to disrupt the peace of the night. "Everything meshes together and I can't breathe. I like being out here; it's the right kind of quiet for me."

They sat for a while in their own comfortable silence, watching as shooting stars whizzed by above them. A small sigh could be heard from his left and he turned his head, studying her solemn visage before speaking.

"What's really wrong?"

"Do you ever worry this is it?"

"In what respect?" It was an entirely too open question.

"I worry that this is it, all I get, and I can't help but feel... sad. I have so much in my life to be grateful for; a dream job, wonderful friends, a fresh start in a place I've wanted to be forever. But it still doesn't feel enough. Like there's always something missing. There's got to be more to life than this."

"What if there isn't?" he argued, noting her gaze hadn't shifted for a second since she spoke, his fixed on her face. "What if this is it?"

"I don't think I could bear it," she whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek to accompany the saddest smile he'd ever seen. "I have all I've ever wanted and it's not enough. It's the loneliness I can't stand. No matter how surrounded by people I am, I feel lonely all the time."

"Is this about...?"

"No," Wiping her cheek, her fingers reached for the ghost of a necklace, hovering over the place the pendant should lie. "It's been two years, and I've done it all. I denied, I grieved, I mourned, I accepted. I know he'd be happy for me, with where I am. He never wanted me to spend my life so focused on losing him that I stagnated."

Gripping the neck of his bottle, he took a deep swig and licked his lips, exhaling a heavy sigh of his own before he spoke.

"I've been married and divorced twice, and I'm not even forty yet," Frowning, he drank more and shook his head. "No matter the reasons for it, it still feels like failure."

With a quiet laugh, she nodded. "Nights like this remind me of Don McLean."

"The singer?" His brow furrowed, confused by the sudden diversion.

"Mhm. Specifically Vincent. It's beautiful yet melancholy with the saddest ending you'd expect," she said, sniffing back more tears as she closed her eyes. "I sometimes wonder if I can relate a little bit to how he must have felt. Alone, lonely, inevitable."

He ruminated over her words as she reached for her glass, an unexpected kinship between the two friends he'd never expected.

"Well, how about this? If we're gonna lonely," He smiled and held out a hand, letting it hover in the space between them. "We can at least be lonely together."

Taking his hand, his fingers squeezing gently, they clinked glasses and shared a knowing smile.

"Together," she concurred.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me, and how you suffered for your sanity, and how you tried to set them free. They would not listen, they did not know how... Perhaps they'll listen now. ♥

[foxwitchaine]

How would you rank the seasons of Miraculous Ladybug?

Buckle up, everyone. Let's do this:

Season 1 - 8/10

I won't lie. The show actually started out pretty good in Season 1. We had unique ideas, a fresh take on the typical love interests you see in these shows, and a whole range of diverse and interesting characters who got their own spotlight episodes. It was where the show shined the best with what it had, so to speak. It did fumble toward the end with Lila's rather messy entrance. But again, I can't blame Ladybug for blowing up like she did.

Could she have handled it better? Of course. Heck, this could have been a plot line where Ladybug has to address the issue of lying through someone who doesn't have any problem lying through her teeth.

Unfortunately, that's not what we got.

Season 2 - 7.5/10

One less half-point for underdelivering on their promises. In our defense, we had no idea what we were in for past Season 2. We got new characters like Luka, who gave characters like Juleka more beyond their archetype. The reveal that Gabriel was Hawk Moth was something we all saw coming, but it set up an amazing conflict for later down the road.

It was also the season where the earliest red flags were being flown.

To be fair, since the show was still, in a sense, "starting out", we gave it the benefit of the doubt. The biggest contention was, naturally, how they handled Chloé Bourgeois.

Put simply, Chloé had potential for an incredible Zuko-style redemption story. Between her mother Audrey abandoning her to pursue her career, along with virtually every adult figure in her life failing her, we could have had an amazing drama where the school bully was forced to confront her worst self and aim to become better. To deserve the Bee Miraculous.

What we got instead was the showrunners sabotaging themselves with how they handled her.

Season 3 - 5/10

The season where it all started to go downhill, starting with the infamous opening episode Chameleon.

There's... no polite way to put it. Season 3 of the show was where the entire foundation, whatever little there was, started falling apart. Marinette suffered so much for so little in this season, it wasn't funny. Add onto other infamous episodes like Ladybug, Chat Blanc, Puppeteer 2, Reflekdoll, and Miracle Queen, it's become crystal clear the show is nothing more than a vanity project for the creator. And that was before we got the news they were underpaying their staff (take this with a grain of salt, it's been a while since I read that article).

It was also the season where we started to see the faults in the writing show. From Adrien/Chat Noir refusing to see anything past his nose to the frankly rather illegal handling of Marinette's expulsion to the Lila-centric episodes requiring brain-bending leaps of nonexistent logic. Aside from some rare cool moments (Nathalie fighting three akumas, anyone?), this season was more painful to watch.

Especially with that season finale where Marinette lost Fu.

Seasons 4 & 5 - 2/10

I'm just gonna say it. I stopped watching anything from Miraculous Ladybug when I heard they were gonna akumatize Master Fu in Season 4. So my rating here is based mostly on hearsay from what happened in these two seasons lumped together.

Yes. These seasons pissed me off so much I just lumped them together and called it a day. The writing here is just painful to hear about. Who proofreads the scripts before sending it to the animation team? We have these things called quality checks for a reason.

Ranting aside, we've got more infamous episodes like Gang of Secrets and Derision. I've stated before that I will forever hate that first mentioned episode for how entitled everyone was towards Marinette's secrets. And Derision has to be one of the biggest cases of character assassination by the writing team I've ever seen. Kim isn't one of my favorites, I will admit. But even he didn't deserve the frankly awful backstory ruining what was once a fun (if something of a feather-brained bully) jock character.

Back on the topic of the first mentioned episode, Gang of Secrets was also the point of no return for me regarding Alya's character. Which is a huge shame since Marinette is in dire need of an actual support system instead of shouldering everything on her own. Anyone with half a brain after that would have figured out on their own the lying liar who lies was a lying liar who lies, pardon the repetition. Everything she did afterwards, such as her stint as Rena Furtive, just killed any chances of her undergoing redemption.

Phew, that ended up being more longwinded than I intended. Hope that answers your question.

[missdefying]

10 days left on our fundraiser. Over $14k to go. Not gonna lie, this one hurts. We're still topping podcast charts, but between our biggest platform (Twitter) deplatforming folks who refuse to line Elon's wallet, and our issues with Seed and Spark going down during our biggest promo push and missing out on $6k in donations...we're struggling to find hope. And, to be honest, I'm also in the middle of EMDR treatment for PTSD, and I just don't have the spoons to constantly post and seek out more promo anymore. I want this to succeed, but I've also made a conscious decision that I won't sacrifice my mental health to do it. I could be angry at Seed and Spark for utterly failing at their one job, then refusing to make it right.

I could be mad at Elon for making the place where I built my career absolutely useless. I could be mad at the people who betrayed me for fucking up my mental health to the degree that I have to spend so much time on self-care just to keep my head above water that I can't fully participate in my business for now. There were so many early signs that this was the story Jen and I were meant to tell for Season 2. Little synchronicities of things that felt like signs this season was meant to be, the incredible success of our first season, and the way the story just flowed. So, instead of being angry, I'm just sad and confused. What is the future of audio drama if a hit show can't get funded for another season? People being squeezed by inflation is a monster we can't really fight. It doesn't matter how much people want another season if they can't spare funds to make it happen.

Ours isn't the only campaign suffering. Others are missing their goals, or raising far less money than they need to produce a show and pay people a living wage.

Make no mistake--the future of indie audio drama is at risk. We're almost entirely funded by the generosity of everyday people, and now those everyday people either never see we're raising money, or they simply don't have it to give.

The visibility problem can be solved with time.

The problem of corporate greed is much more complicated.

Jen and I would still very much like to hire our incredibly diverse cast and crew for another season. Those people deserve the world. And we'd love to bring a new story to our fans...and frankly, we'd love to keep making haters mad that we dare to include Black and queer people in our lead roles.

If you can, help us out. If not, we totally understand. Times are hard for everyone, but we will get through this.

[wirewitchviolet]

You know there's more to culture war BS than just shouting on the internet, right?

I had a longer version of this, but lost it to a browser crash, so forgive me if this is a bit terse. I constantly see people doing this thing where they look at reactionary propaganda accounts ranting and raving about how a movie having a black woman in it means America is dying or whatever the hell, noting what an absurd thing that is to say, and then ruining it by adding "and then you have people on the other side saying stuff that's just as extreme! Like 'nazis like this guy need to be shot' or whatever!" I used to always be baffled at how people could manage to "both sides" this sort of thing, but it suddenly dawned on me that the sort of people I'm describing might actually think the propaganda accounts are JUST shouty creeps on social media and there's nothing more to it than that.

There was a similar angle I kept seeing back when mainstream media started paying enough attention to Gamergate to start talking about it and referencing it in shows and such. Everyone was hyperfixated on all the messages targets who got media attention got on twitter or whatever, just horrible hateful shouting and verbal abuse and all. Like... that stuff EXISTS, and yeah, that alone would be pretty awful, but it's important to understand that these monsters are also actually murdering people. A lot of people. And this is still happening.

If you're just the average person on the sidelines, you're going to see the people throwing temper tantrums about movies, because that stuff exists as a recruitment and retention tactic. The people who produce the 4 hour long videos about how they're making a new version of Snow White and this time Doc is gonna be played by Lucy Liu (this is not a real example) or whatever don't actually care about children's cartoons at all, or the integrity of dwarves, or whatever other stupid thing they're going on about. And their regular viewers don't care about any of that either. They haven't watched it, they aren't planning to watch it, there's good odds they never watched the original. What they're doing is keeping the fires going. There is this whole huge scene of bigots and grifters and delusional bloodthirsty wanna-be feudal lords, and their whole thing depends on keeping this pile of howling frothing little rage monsters they rely on both as a crowd to direct and a source of income scared and angry at all times, and they can't ever let then calm down and think straight or they'll realize they've been wasting their time obsessing about ridiculous fantasies.

The followers they have now all got recruited in with some variation on the idea that there is some sort of all-powerful evil cabal with an evil agenda to ruin something they used to like "with diversity" and they're going to do it to everything else next. So now that lie has to be kept up or they'll leave, and the people benefiting from it HAVE TO keep finding things to hold up as "further evidence" that no, really, look, they're gonna make a new X-Men with Giancarlo Esposito as Professor X! (I don't THINK this is a real example, but he'd be great for that.) We're not just making this up!

The real Rosetta Stone for this was these people freaking out about TMNT Mutant Mayhem. For something like two months after this absolutely fantastic movie came out (for real, go see it if you haven't, any given frame of it would make a fantastic blacklight poster), if you searched for anything related to it, you'd see a bunch of youtube thumbnails of performatively angry losers screaming about how "THEY MADE SPLINTER GAY!?"

And yeah, same garbage content in these about the evils of diversity and destroying your childhood and the legacy of characters and bla bla bla... But the thing is, they uh... didn't make Splinter gay. He's actually straighter than he's ever been, in fact. It's central to a lot of really solid jokes. There's no fake out about him being gay, no misleading trailer where you'd maybe get that impression. It's all a big telephone game thing where some creep overheard someone laughing about a scene where he's hitting it off with another character, and didn't realize that she was a girl. Because, and I cannot stress this enough. Not one single person freaking out about this had actually watched the movie, knew anyone who had, or did even the most basic research before making their propaganda videos about this. They really lost out too, because not only is it, as I said, a great movie, but they could have gotten fodder for like half a dozen more videos about how those evil diversiteers made several characters women whose toys from the 90s didn't have giant boobs! And they didn't even give them giant boobs for the movie! Can you even tell which of these are women without hearing their voice actresses!?

But yeah. Months of shouting about this non-existent gay Splinter in a movie they never watched, and never being called out on it by their audience who also didn't watch it. Because they're not there to review movies. They're there to keep nazis stirred up about how SOMEONE is ruining movies and insist how people need to do something about it. People who actually buy into that stick around, they watch a bunch of other videos like this, maybe follow the people making them on social media, and eventually, they get fed a list of names of people and organizations who they claim are the ones doing all this ruining, and where those people live, and where people are getting organized to deal with people like this, and eventually this genuinely leads to people taking bags of guns to public spaces and killing a bunch of people and letting poison gas loose in convention centers and overloading the phone lines of hospitals and such.

So yeah, if you see other people getting a bit heated about stuff like this, it uh... may in fact be that you're looking at some of the people who are dealing with terrorists trying to kill them or having actually killed people they care about, and not just people being overly heated about people saying the stupidest things you've ever heard about movies or games or whatever.

[ieatkeyboard]

BEELZEBUB CHARACTER DESIGN JUDGING

@ewesless WOOOOO ANOTHER OOONE. PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OWN OPINION AND I'M NOT HATING ON THE CREATOR, THESE ARE JUST THINGS I DONT LIKE.

He looks comfy for sure- The jacket is a choice. I feel like having mismatched sleeves can be cute but not with this color pallet. The shirt is so bad- I know I have beef with triangles in these designs but the overlapping on the left side(Your left) IS SO BAD. I feel like the little straps are fun but why did we decide these colors :,] AND I JUST HATE TRIANGLES NOW. If I didn't the triangles on the straps MIGHT be fine but again the color pallet is dookie and triangles. His shoes are ROUGH with this outfit but since Beel DOES work out and go on runs and stuff I could see him wearing weird little running shoes.

LET'S DO THIS

WOOSH. He's going on a little morning ruuuun, getting a little snack on the waaay. We see Beel wear green and orange a lot and as much I do believe in the brothers having a wider color pallet (Mammon, Asmo), I feel like Beel more "I like these colors and I like how these clothes feel so I dont need anything else". And I'm not gonna lie I feel like the before is if Beel tried to be out there and pick more diverse clothes but he can't style it for shit. ANYWAY. Made the jacket green instead of blue and kept the orange but made both sides orange. Made the triangle straps light gray and the stripy strap orange. Made the pants darker. Of course, took the triangles out of his shirt. And didnt touch his shoes.

NEXT

I actually really like his demon form but his boots are really light, weirdly blend into his pant leg. His wings also feel very flat- I kinda thought they had a gradient to begin with but I haven't his demon form in a really REALLY long time. His shirt also feels flat, I won't take away the stripes(?) I think it's kinda funky but I wanna make it stand out more.

WEEEEEE

OKAY. I will say now he looks gayer(You cant look like a sexuality but HE LOOKS GAY.) But I kinda fuck with it so- WHATEVER. I made his boots darker ofc and added a gradient to his wings. I also added little orange specs in his wings? I feel like they'd be kinda shiny but that doesnt read super well :,] I made his nails longer so he can rip stuff apart. I know he's already built like a tank but he works out on his own it isn't really from his sin so his nails are :> I gave the print on his shirt a gradient so it would stick out a bit more and that's it!

It wouldn't be a part of this series if I didn't mess with his bunny boy outfit. >:]

LETS GOOOOO

I took the sleeve dangles away, took the white patches off his shoes, replaced the tie that was hanging off his neck with a collar 👀 and as usual, made the ears in solid color.

BEEL WAS SO FUN TO DO BRO OMG. LOVE THIS LITTLE MAN

[yowlthinks]

Numbers Game

Something happened today in the way of mixed age social group dynamic and I am still thinking about it. The key question I am still struggling with is what is better, what is healthier (for all the participants): segregate the participants by age with lower and upper limits, or just let everyone who wants to be part of the group be there? And then if we say "better", for whom exactly is it better?

A few days ago a massive GO fandom WhatsApp group was founded and pretty soon it swelled to nearly a 100 participants globally. Did you know you could reach 1500 (one thousand five hundred) unread messages in a group by just not looking at your phone for a couple of hours? Neither did I, but now I know. Anyway, it was lovely, just as this whole fandom is, and among all the one-liner chatter there were some really nice more in-depth discussions about life. It was a little overwhelming, but I liked it.

Now, the age of participants varied, you could see that straightaway, but that was not a problem, because it wasn't like there was anything in the discussions that you could not discuss with a teenager. But then today the inevitable question of "how old are you" came up and apparently some members were shocked to find out the age differences. When you're 36 and a 16 year old asks you "What are you doing here?", I'm not gonna lie, it stings a little.

You want to turn around and tell them that in those 20 years since you were their age you have not, in fact, disappeared. You still read and write fanfiction, enjoy a good meme and generally are allowed to have fun. Yes, even if you have a job, kids and all those other adult things. Especially, because you have all those other adult things and they weigh on you, but you are still you and it is good to remember that. You want to turn around and scream that you are not "old and boring". That you need that little happy corner to dive in and let yourself go happily unhinged over fictional characters. And you have every right to do it.

But then I guess, if you are 16 and you have this fandom where you run away from school, parents and teen angst, you want to have this as your own world. You think people who are in your fandom are essentially all more or less like you. And finally someone understands, someone knows your suffering!! And when it turns out that apparently there are people closer to your parents' age enjoying these same things, well, it feels like a betrayal. Like some sort of spies infiltrating your fortress of happiness, and you want to turn around and shout at them. How dare they take this from you?! You are already going through so much, and now these old boring people dare to steal this one happy thing from you?!

The thing is, Internet is great at mixing people and bringing them together. And fandoms are a place where discussions happen, which wiuod never happen in real life. And to get those discussions, it is good to have different perspectives, and yes, this diversity includes diversity of age.

It is also good for teens to know that life does not end after 20, or 30 or 40. Or even 50, or 70. Life only ends when you die. And there is noone who should police what you enjoy as long as you are doing this without harming others. You do realise that the first modern fanfiction authors are pushing 70 and 80 now, and can you honestly tell me that these people suddenly lost their ability to imagine and enjoy the things they love? I bloody well hope not, because being ale to enjoy what you love is what makes life worth living. It is just a little uncomfortable to think your gran is probably not averse to reading or at least imagining Kirk/Spok stories in her head, yeah, probably saucy ones too. This thought doesn't really fit the narrative, so you push it away. But knowing that it is possible, makes the thought of being an old person a little less scary. "I will still be me".

Anyway, long story short, there is now a separate group. It is smaller and also devoid of stickers (did you know WhatsApp has stickers?! I had no clue, I don't know if it is a generational or cultural thing, but whatever), and I hope it will be a joyful place and full of discussions.

That "what are you doing here?" still stings a bit. But I guess, it is the right thing to let the teens have space wherever possible, they are going through it all, so let them be.

And hey, look at me, having fun on Tumblr, coping with being in my mid-30ies so well.

[dkniade]

Not gonna lie, I voted for the platonic option in the poll. My reasoning is that I'd really just like to hang out with some of these characters and get to know them. Character analysis has always been my thing and I'd like to see other's takes on them. I'm hardly one to write it out for myself as much as putting them in situations, but the ones I find are quite nice.

Context: types of reader inserts

Yeah, it’d be interesting to hang out with the characters and see what they’d do. I likewise enjoy how others interpret the characters and how it comes across in their writing. It seems to allow for more diverse scenarios too, which is refreshing to see.

Also, speaking of getting to know characters—

(I ended up talking about the development in Kaeya’s & Albedo’s character story so it got a lot longer than I had expected. Also has some reader inserts I like at the end)

-

It seems fan fiction—at least the ones I’ve come across—is written with the assumption that the reader knows about the overall setting/background of the source media. E.g. if someone’s looking for canon-compliant Kaeya-and-Diluc-centric angst/hurt-comfort fic, then it’s generally assumed that the reader knows about the two’s strained past relationship to some degree. So for short reader insert stories (one shots), exposition for the (non-reader) character’s backstory isn’t usually the focus (in my experience)—

(Occasionally I find some where the reader insert’s backstory is just forced straight into the first few paragraphs in a tell-don’t-show fashion like “Your parents were always busy so you always had to take care of yourself but ever since you met [character] your life began to change.” That feels rather dry to read. It’s more fun (and difficult) to scatter bits and pieces of info across the story to imply the reader insert’s backstory.)

—But I think a little exposition for a character background works, so that the story can kind of stand on its own even as fan fiction. Making the context specific when it comes to a scene about why a character is acting a certain way helps set the scene too. Maybe I do it for my stories in general so I don’t forget why I’m writing a character in a way. I tend to forget about character motivation a lot in the middle of writing…

When I say specific context that helps one to know the character… Let’s compare and contrast Kaeya and Albedo’s character stories as examples.

-

KAEYA’s Character Details gives basic info on his position in the Knights of Favonius. “目前他担任西风骑士团的骑兵队长，是一位可靠的行动派、深得琴信任的人物。” -> “Currently he’s the Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius. He’s a reliable person who gets things done, a figure who Jean trusts immensely.”

(Official English version: “Kaeya currently serves as the Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius, and is trusted by Jean.”)

*行动派 describes someone who prefers to do things instead of thinking/talking about them. Man of action is closest the equivalent I could find in English… But someone who gets things done works too.

Story 1 is about his reputation(s) in Mondstadt, his love for alcohol and his ability to manipulate his words and get information (there should be a better way to word this…). “It's hard to imagine someone as mischievous, amiable, and wine-loving as Kaeya being the Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius. Hunters and bandits alike are often among Kaeya's drinking buddies. As wary of him as they may initially be, all are ultimately disarmed by his smooth talking, and end up telling him everything he wants to know.”

Story 2 tells us Kaeya’s view on justice and his unconventional/somewhat sadistic choice of methods in getting things done (e.g. triggering a Ruin Guard and putting both his foes and allies in danger, relishing his allies’ momentary hesitation & his enemies’ fear in a life-or-death situation). The ruin guard part is a nice & specific little snapshot that highlights that part of him. I like how it’s told.

Story 3 is another snapshot but it’s rather subtle (so I’m not quite sure how to interpret it). “Kaeya battles against this threat to Mondstadt not only with his sword, but also with his smarts and his wit.” “When Death After Noon is out of season due to lack of supply, the number of reported incidents inside and outside the city show a drastic decrease, and this remains the case until Death After Noon returns to the market...” Given the previous stories that keep on emphasizing Kaeya’s connection to alcohol, one can interpret it as Kaeya dealing with the enemies a lot more when he’s not drinking/at a tavern… Or that it shows how Kaeya uses information given to him to his advantage, hence “his smarts and wit”… We learn a bit more about him.

And then, Stories 4-5 are about his past, but we’re given details of two specific events that impacted him, one for each story. Instead of saying “Kaeya’s relationship with his birth father and Crepus was like this”, it showed bits of dialogue, thoughts, weather conditions… Other characters’ reactions… Story 4 tells us his abandonment at the Dawn Winery, teases his Khaenri’ahn lineage, and how Crepus took him in. This is about his relationship with his birth father, and Crepus. Story 5 tells us his partnership with Diluc and their past reputations as knights. And then, we get Crepus’ death, another major event for him. “It was the first and only time that Kaeya failed in his duty.” We’re finally given background on why Kaeya is seen as reliable in the knights (character details), and why he’s trusted by Jean. And of course through these two scenes we get to learn about his past relationship with his birth father, Crepus, and Diluc.

And then, because contrast is important in having impact storytelling, we get to learn about an inconspicuous list, a break from the intense tragedies of the previous stories. It’s the object that gets highlighted before the Vision story (usually GI character stories have an item that’s discussed before the Vision section it seems). Lovely. Interestingly, it’s also in second person point of view… It’s got a similar nature as story 3. Motifs… First a report by a young knight (story 3), now a list that “meticulously records the details of bandits in the city and further afield, as well as mercenaries and mid-to-senior-level Treasure Hoarder members, listing for each entry a name, position, area of activity, and personal profile.” And then, “Your gut feeling is that Kaeya purposely let you see this list, but you have no way of proving it.” This feels strangely specific. (In Hidden Strife we also get an epistolary storytelling style…) Piecing the context together like this is fun.

And then we get the Vision story, and more details regarding his inner turmoil and an explanation for him concealing the truth (to Varka in Story 4 for example). Basically, it’s a long-winded way of saying, I like how the separate scenes show off different sides of Kaeya, each with a different context.

-

ALBEDO’s Character Stories, in comparison, seem to have roughly the same tone all the way through. His Character Details introduce his prowess at alchemy (“This young man displayed the true prowess of alchemy to all, bringing with him a massive corpus of wisdom that even the Sumeru Akademiya did not possess”) and his theme of birth., which he demonstrates.

Like Kaeya’s, Albedo’s Character Story 1 shows his social reputation, but glosses it over in a bunch of surface descriptions of he feels this, he feels that, he is this. (“Albedo's tendency to avoid social interactions does not make him a cold-hearted person. He is sincere and contented when instructing his assistants, Timaeus and Sucrose. He finds pleasure in giving his sketches to the citizens of Mondstadt.”)

His information about Alice, and his past with Rhinedottir and Khaenri’ah, is revealed in a very matter-of-fact and emotionally detached manner throughout Character Stories 2-5 and Albedo’s Artwork– But as I’m writing this, I wonder if it’s a third-person limited narrator? If it’s Albedo himself telling the tale, then it all makes sense as to why it’s told this way, since he—at least a part of him—is methodical…

The Vision section felt underwhelming when I first read it. (I had expected every Vision story to be of Kaeya’s calibre but I’m, of course, wrong, haha)(Saying this now, I wonder how Albedo’s Character Stories would be if Durin/Festering Desire and the Primordial Human Project are included in there too?)

But my point is, I don’t feel there’s a particular emotional climax in the progression of Albedo’s character story. In Story 4, he was abandoned by Rhinedottir—and he genuinely believed every one of her threats to abandon him if he couldn’t finish the assignments.

(“In the past, Albedo's assignments had always been very difficult. He had always believed wholeheartedly that his master would make good on her threat to leave him, should he fail. But this assignment she had left to him was far too hard, far beyond the limit of his abilities. Did this mean, then, that he was fated to never complete it, and thus never see his master again?”)

That should’ve been the climax of his character story, yet where’s the tension? Did it impact Albedo emotionally, and if so, I wonder, couldn’t the story show that a bit more? If it didn’t impact Albedo emotionally, maybe because of Alice’s care, I wonder if they could’ve told us about his views towards Alice some more in his story? The Albedo of the past and the Albedo of the (character story’s) present feels roughly the same, meanwhile the Kaeya of the past went through a lot to become the Kaeya of the (character story’s) present.

-

…Back to reader inserts and specific details in showing emotion.

Compared to Kaeya’s character story, maybe how a story unfolds feels different in a one-shot reader insert, which would likely be only one scene (unless it has multiple super condensed scenes). Over the years I’ve learned (from experience and from taking some writing courses) that—

1. Contrast makes emotions hit harder (e.g. we’re repeatedly told how popular, friendly, and mischievous Kaeya is, so perhaps it’s a surprise that his backstory is actually quite dark)

2. How much time elapses between various scenes is important (e.g. Kaeya’s stories 1-3 seem like they could happen across a few days or months, while story 4 suddenly pulls us back to a decade ago, and then some years after in Story 5, and from that point towards we’re slowly experiencing the afternoon of Diluc’s 18th birthday across Stories 5 and Vision. We get a more varied range of experiences this way.)

-

I suppose by now I could mention a few reader inserts that I enjoy. (Last one’s NSFW and the line I mention is suggestive)

by wipcore

changing seasons (Kazuha x reader)

This one I like for the Inazuma textile store assistant reader’s implied backstory and how Kazuha subtly changes them as their paths cross. It’s a specific character setting I didn’t encounter before.

only fools are satisfied (Kaeya x reader)

This one I like for the Sumeru scholar reader and Kaeya’s witty dynamic and for how it opens up the conflict and how Kaeya feels straight from the beginning. Again, it’s a unique character setting I rarely see.

by gold-rhine

NSFW First time sub afab! Kaeya x GN Dom! Reader

(It includes Diluc, Ayato, Gorou, and Kaeya separately but I specifically mean the Kaeya section because, let me just quote a line—)

“an intoxicating feverish thrill from how hungrily you rake your eyes over him mixing with both his own arousal and nervousness into a heady, daring mix.”

The alcohol metaphor, the similar feeling you get when reading the line in Kaeya’s friendship Lv 4 Companion Voiceline, “I have to say, though, that chatting with you is quite intoxicating... Actually, in much the same way that drinking is. So, I suppose... I'm just greedy and want to enjoy both of these pleasures at the same time.”

Yet, gold-rhine’s line works in that context while having it be undoubtedly Kaeya. That, is intoxicating.

And yet, it’s not just smut. There’s character development too, and Kaeya’s layers reveal themselves through the progression of the story in a similar way to how his character story progresses except with enough time that one set of emotions (including his trust issues and self-hatred and desire to please) is wonderfully explored.

…

Inevitably I ended up talking about storytelling again. Anyway, thank you for the comment on reader inserts. I think it’s interesting too, how between the line of character analysis and storytelling, in the hands and scenarios of different fic writers, a character can act differently, yet still retain that part of them that makes them them.

[mermaidsirennikita]

I'm actually a little worried over the fact that Bridgerton is gonna be the standard for period dramas nowadays, like, that's how period dramas are gonna look like (and I'm not even talking about the diversity part, I'd ve very happy with a show actually giving poc people the protagonism they deserve and not call it diversity and having the only White character to be the main character of the whole show) we have things like The Buccaneers and that horrible Emma film Netflix made and wonder if that's the quality we are gonna have now

Mr Malcom's List was amazing, I love everything about that film, it was so well done

Honestly? I'm not that worried about it. Period dramas have always been hit or miss for me, and I think that while big hits always have an impact on their genres, they often don't have as massive an impact as we may think--because shows that try to follow them underperform, tastes change, and other big hits happen.

An example I'd think of is The Tudors, which... I'm not gonna lie to you. Like it or not, is probably one of the most impactful, if not THE most impactful period dramas we've seen in the past 20 years. It revived the idea of the high end period piece soap for an American audience--and it reminded people that period pieces don't have to be Masterpiece, BBC, ITV, whatever. They could be super sexy and super dramatic and super bloody. You didn't have to be a stickler for history.

That show got a lot of viewers and a lot of buzz--and honestly, it went a long way towards launching the careers of Henry Cavill and Nat Dormer. Showtime tried to replicate it with The Borgias, but obviously had much less success there. HOWEVER, I always think it's a little unfair that GoT gets credit for making period pieces hot again when a) it's not a period piece and you can tell its core audience doesn't associate it with those because of how much they talk about the dragons and the ice zombies and b) The Tudors had already stoked that flame, and then the general Tudor frenzy grabbed onto it, which is why Starz has been able to get mileage out of its PGregs/Tudor-general shows for so long. THOUGH! I hope the flopitude of their last Elizabeth show means they slow up.

You see other mini trends too--Vikings was a big hit, and because of that you got The Last Kingdom and its ilk and Vikings: Valhalla. Vikings really was nothing like The Tudors, aside from the fact that it had somewhat explicit sex for its network (nothing like The Tudors, but still) and centered on a piece of shit who treated women like garbage and needed!!! Sons!!!!!!!! It walked through a door I think The Tudors left open, but it wasn't as clear a followup as The Borgias or the PGregs shows were.

So while I think Bton is obviously having an impact, as seen with Buccs, I'm not worried about its long term impact. I HOPE we see more diverse period dramas continue to be a thing, though I feel that really is less a thing we can thank Bton for (see: Mr. Malcolm's List) and more a trajectory that was brewing already. I mean, Shondaland had technically already done it with Still Star-Crossed, a show I didn't like... at all. But it was diverse.

I mean, shows like Mary and George on the horizon are nothing like Bton and hopefully (if they're good) will have an impact. I think we're slooooowly seeing the rise in more explicit, less woebegone period dramas (not movies) centering queer people. Gentleman Jack got cancelled, obviously, but I think it still made strides on that front, and Mary and George will obviously be very queer but also very much not a "sad queer man is closeted and sympathetic but doomed" narrative. We haven't seen many shows depict a man actually using his sexuality to get ahead the way women are often depicted doing in shows like The Tudors--and at his mother's urging, versus his father's as is usually the case with a narrative like Anne Boleyn's.

Things just come and go in waves. I mean, watch The Artful Dodger if you're super worried about more romantic period dramas, it was so fucking refreshing. I do kind of wonder if the romance in that show was upped BECAUSE Bton had success, but it's so much better than anything they offered, all the while focused on a period of history we never see in international TV (1800s Australia), doing a fun little revamp of a classic story (Oliver Twist), with a diverse cast and a focus on like... medicine? But medicine in a way that feels less procedural and more narrative? Medicine and THEFT? Medicine and Theft and Kissing? And putting a salve on her inner thigh and blowing on it in an alley? And sexual tension during medical exams? (The 30 seconds of Jack and Belle tensing while he sits behind her and listens to her heartbeat in her darkened room after she strips out of her dress is better than anything Bton offered in two seasons.)

And additionally--if books are any indication, I actually don't know that Bton is having that big an effect. Historical romances are going through a slump right now; the most Bton has done is push Julia Quinn's books and offer a "if you like Bton" comp for some books, which...

Yes, Buccs got renewed, but I don't know that it... has had much of an impact? I don't see it mentioned much on social media, which could be my circles, but I also don't see it mentioned much on sites that normally push streaming shows, so. I don't know. I've yet to see a Bton acolyte (and there have been few) actually make an impact and stick around the way some of the Tudor spawns did, or the way shows that followed Vikings did, for that matter.

[renatogpadilla]

My version of an MVC4 Roster:

I'll be real: I think I cooked with the Marvel side, but I don't know about the Capcom side. I've tried to be as unbiased as possible.

For the record, the main concern with the Marvel Roster was fixing the CRIMES commited by MvCI. Thus, the first 24 base roster characters are returning faces. I separated them in groups (Avengers, Spider-Man, X-Men, Supernatural/Magic and Cosmic) and then did Heroes, Villains and then Newcomers in each. I wanted to have a roster that would make the most people happy (if it were up to me, Captain Marvel wouldn't be here), bringing back some familiar faces (Ghost Rider but no Blackheart felt like a crime to me).

Also set myself the goal of bringing in as many cut characters from the previous ones as I could, even if they can't be base roster.

Let's be real though, I feel like Blade could sell a whole DLC pack by himself in the same vein as Vergil.

I ALMOST didn't put Deadpool here... But if Ruby Heart is Base Roster for Capcom, Cable had to be base roster too. You understand.

Speaking of which, this was CONSIDERABLY easier than the Capcom side.

Here, the point wasn't to correct anything, but rather make sure the usual suspects got represented, but leave some room for the deep cuts, so I set myself some goals:

Goal 1) CLASSIC Mega Man! He and Roll and Wily were a MUST! Zero and Vile are there for the X Series and T-Bonne for MM Legends.

Goal 2) As much gameplay diversity in SF as possible, one character for each: Ryu for 1, Chun for 2, Gil for 3, Juri for 4, Rashid for 5 and Bison is supposed to be based off his SF6 gameplay style.

Goal 3) Get the MvC2 trio back! Amingo, SonSon and Ruby Heart SHOULD be put in a Darkstalkers game in the near future for the love of GOD! Speaking of which...

Goal 5) REMIND THE WORLD THERE ARE MEN IN DARKSTALKERS! Morrigan returns, obviousIy, but as much as I love Felicia and Hsien-Ko, it's time for the boys to play! Jon Talbain, IMMEDIATELY, and Lord Raptor because I NEED the world to see him turn Thanos into a basketball and DUNK him straight to Hell! And YES, Jedah comes back! He HAS to! He's too cool not to! But the main reason I went with Jedah and not Dimitri is because Midnight Bliss would take a LOT of resources we probably already blew making sure Mystique can copy everyone without issue.

Goal 6) Resident Evil. Look, I'll make a confession: If it were up to me, there would only be Jill and Wesker here, but RE has become so MASSIVE that we HAVE to pay it the respect it deserves, so I did what I though would be a proper compromise: Jill and Wesker for RE staples, Leon for the Remakes and Lady D to represent the obligatory new Poster Monster of the franchise. Let Chris and Nemesis sit this one out and keep Jill's gameplay more like her MvC2 style and we are golden!

Goal 7) THAT DLC IS FOR THE FANS! I wanted to put in a mix of characters that Capcom fans would want first and foremost: Vergil, to continue the tradition of him being the Special Edition/DLC character, Donovan and BB Hood for more Darkstalkers love, Gil to round out the SFs, Monster Hunter because it's MASSIVE nowadays, Vile, for one more Mega Man villain and Jin and Captain Commando for the Oldies that mained them in MvC2. Full disclosure: Edward Falcon WOULD NOT BE HERE if Power Stone hadn't just announced a comeback earlier today. And Regina is here because... Well, because you Dino Crisis stans went absolutely CRAZY this year. I'm not gonna lie. You guys kinda scare me. But you wanted her, so here she is!

So yeah. If anyone asks WHY Amaterasu is Main Roster, it's because I got Rocket in there and it only felt fair. I DO regret leaving Frank West out this time, but I couldn't find a way to fit him in without taking out someone that SHOULD have been there... AND YES, LUCIA HAS TO BE THERE! She's the ONLY unique thing about DMC 2 anyone remembers! Trish can rest for a little while!

So yeah, this is what I got! Lemme know what you think and I guess I'll answer any questions you might have as to why I picked anyone or why I didn't pick soomeone else, if you want to know!

[pertinax--loculos]

Figured I might as well update this! Thinking about doing a 2024 general writing roundup soon, but until I have the brainspace to do so, this is what I'm doing. ^_^

Wilder Girls, Rory Power

-> not my usual, but very good. I think I found the ending a little unsatisfying?

One Life One Chance, Luke Richmond

-> bought all three of his books because I met him at a market while I was on holiday and I have issues with impulse control lmao. This was okay, but honestly it mostly comes across as a privileged white man trying to tell you that you can do anything if you put your mind to it! ...while also being, y'know. A highly privileged white man. Probably won't read the rest.

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros

-> I know, I know. Look, was the writing good? Not really. Was it compelling as hell? YES. I legit downloaded the sample for a laugh and ended up reading a solid third of it during a quiet shift at work. It's readable, I'll say that.

Iron Flame, Rebecca Yarros

-> like I said, impulse control issues. 😅 This was... fine? Honestly I'll probably read the next one when it comes out.

I Wish You Wouldn't, Alex Ritany (our very own @aritany)

-> very, very good. I have always loved Alex's writing and tbh I'll probably read anything they put out. This was a cozy read and I highly recommend spreading out with it on a lazy summer day wherever you are. ^_^

The Sins on Their Bones, Laura R. Samotin

-> this was fantastic. Queer as hell, kinda gross, lots of lore and an atmosphere that was just impeccable. I saw the other day that there's a sequel not too long away and I'm excited.

So Let Them Burn, Kamilah Cole

-> disappointing, tbh. The premise sounded really interesting but the execution was just a bit meh. Forgettable. I will not be continuing the series.

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, Jason Pargin

-> as mentioned above, Pargin's an auto-buy author for me; I actually preordered a signed copy of this book. It's good -- a little more preachy than his other works, but Pargin has always been the type to comment on current societal issues, and that's what he's done here. Eminently readable and the first hardcopy book in a long while that I've wanted to highlight and scribble all over </complimentary>

Cuckoo, Gretchen Felker-Martin

-> ooof. I didn't really like this. It's billed as horror but leans heavily into the 'sex in horror' tropes, has a weird focus on periods, and despite the amazingly diverse and queer cast it left me cold. I think mostly that gore-centric written horror just doesn't work for me; this had a fabulous premise and what should have been an interesting story, but mostly I just cringed throughout.

Poor Man's Fight, Elliot Kay

Rich Man's War, Elliot Kay

Dead Man's Debt, Elliot Kay

-> I loved these. I'm not gonna lie, the not-quite-omniscent narration style threw me out a few times in the start, but once I'd adjusted to what the author was doing it was fine. The series is slow in places but I never stalled when I hit a POV that I was less interested in; the plot always had me reading more to find out what was going to happen. The trilogy also ties up in a really lovely way and I enjoyed that a lot.

Empire of Light, Alex Harrow

-> I read this trying to recapture what Kay's books had, and that was a mistake. I fucking hated this book. I spent the vast majority of the time I was reading it enthusiastically rooting for one of the main characters to die (spoiler alert: they don't die). I thought there were a number of interesting ways the plot could go and it went in none of those directions. Upon reflection and with some distance, I think the ultimate issue was that I'm just not the target audience for this book. (I also have a huge bone to pick with the grammar in it, however. It reads like it was originally written in present tense and then edited (poorly) into past tense; almost every single instance when a sentence could have been "he had" or similar, it was shortened to "he'd". It's hard to explain without examples and I've already gone on way too long for something that is supposed to be a short little comment on the book, but trust me, it was noticeable and annoying as hell.)

Which brings us to a total of 38 books read for 2024! 🥳 (41 if you count the three rereads I did.) Given that there were large swathes of time where I didn't read anything, I'm pretty happy with that. ^_^

Books Read in 2024 (so far)

(Looking at my Goodreads, where I've been keeping track of this, I apparently only started keeping track in March? But I guess that's fair, there's a chance I didn't read anything before that. So let's go with that. ^_^)

The Foxhole Court, Nora Sakavic

The Raven King, Nora Sakavic

The King's Men, Nora Sakavic

-> These kicked off my reading binge for the year. Also, how have I never read them before? Because my god. Instant favourites. Don't talk to me.

Like Real People Do, E.L. Massey

-> My attempt to recapture the All for the Game vibes. It failed. The book was okay, though.

John Dies at the End, Jason Pargin

This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It, Jason Pargin

What The Hell Did I Just Read, Jason Pargin

If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe, Jason Pargin

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits, Jason Pargin

Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick, Jason Pargin

Zoey is Too Drunk for This Dystopia, Jason Pargin

-> Some of these are technically rereads; JDatE, Spiders, and the first Zoey book. Regardless, Pargin is an insta-buy for me.

Leech, Hiron Ennes

-> Tumblr recommendation off a random post. Very good.

American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

-> I enjoyed this. If you can say that about this book. Taking it as what it is, I thought it was very well done.

Dead Girls Don't Say Sorry, Alex Ritany

-> Go check out @aritany if you haven't already! Wonderful human, incredible writer, new book coming out soon!

Tales from the Gas Station: Volume One, Jack Townsend

-> Trying to recapture some of Pargin's bizarre humour. Pretty similar, and I did enjoy it, but I was starting to move away from that vibe, and to be honest this just wasn't as good as Pargin.

Maze-Born Trouble, Ginn Hale

-> My only complaint with this book is it was too fucking short. 😠 Astonishing worldbuilding and a very rich story for what amounts to a novella. Love.

Altered Carbon, Richard K. Morgan

-> Following on from the scifi of Pargin's Zoey series and Maze-Born Trouble. This was good. I doubt I'll read more in the series because from the blurbs they're quite disparate, but holy hell the world that was built was incredible.

Mystic River, Dennis Lehane

-> Complicated reason why I read this that actually has to do with OOC. Also technically a reread, from a while ago. Love Lehane, though, and this as a standalone is very good. Has some examples of omniscient POV that I would almost classify as head-hopping that actually works, and as a thriller, so an interesting read for a writer as well.

Educated, Tara Westover

-> The beginning of my brief nonfiction binge.

I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jenette McCurdy

-> Because, obviously.

Eggshell Skull, Bri Lee

-> Highly HIGHLY recommended. Some heavy stuff regarding sex offences and the legal system, and quite centred in Australia, but a brilliant nonfiction read.

The Sunshine Court, Nora Sakavic

The Foxhole Court, Nora Sakavic

The Raven King, Nora Sakavic

The King's Men, Nora Sakavic

-> Why yes, I did see that The Sunshine Court had been released and immediately read it, then immediately reread All for the Game, because what the fuck else was I gonna do? Not reread it? C'mon.

Icebreaker, A.L. Graziadei

-> Note the author there, cuz I know there's another book by the same title. This one was excellent. Still not the AftG vibes I was seeking, but closest I've found reading something immediately after finishing that series.

The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley

-> I know everyone's talking about it. Read it anyway.

Summer Sons, Lee Mandelo

-> currently reading. Currently loving.

...and that's 27 so far this year -- 23 if you don't count rereading books I read for the first time this year. 0.o Still, not a bad effort!

If you'd like more info or just wanna chat about any of this books, feel free to hit me up. Also if you've got this far without being intimidated by my awful formatting choices, congrats! And thankyou. ^_^

[luxiferiicae]

The fact that Haniyya is, absolutely, my most fleshed out and diverse muse by far ( besides say Yuujin ), and I feel like of i were to speak on her or try to push for more interactions that I'm deliberately being pushy and greedy?

What has roleplaying done to me? As someone that will sit and listen to every last female Muse's story, lavish them with attention, or pay attention to those muses that don't quite get as much attention as the rest for this that and the other reason, I am so likely to dig through a wishlist and give people things to make their day all the better that I don't even think to want or to try give myself.

Genuinely, what kind of things have I witnessed in my sixteen years of this shit that I felt I had to have her perfect and viable on every level in comparison to someone like say Deimos. Deimos is lovely and I love him, but he's literally man see shiny, man steal shiny, cat burglar go brrrr brrrr. The fact that I feel comfortable in making this weird and just barely not a throw away character at all, and feel right as rain that he's a fucking fever dream, is wild. I could never do that for a woman muse and I'm just now processing this fact as we speak. I cannot half-ass or not have a grand five step plan for them in comparison of the many stupid, bad, idiotic male muses I had one inkling of an idea for and still put him up as an option. And I feel like if I speak on this character, try to dangle her in front of people like a carrot, or think to suggest her to someone that I freeze up and have to ask myself if it is okay. I don't want to push people out of their comfort zones, but like it shouldn't. Women exist, I swear they do.

As someone who will never not have bisexual / pansexual characters, I don't want to limit myself or put myself in a box ANYWHERE, because I myself am very comfortably pansexual. And the fact that I have to put this in the context of shipping, when most people don't even want to ship, explains it all on why I have been psychologically conditioned to downplay how amazing both my female and other female Muse's have to be to feel even the slightest bit validated.

Don't even — by jove !! — don't even ask me how much worse it is when this muse is not only a female but a female of color. That's a whole can of worms that grows to encompass the entire umbrella of poc and is compounded upon when it's a woman. I have actual horror stories of people being driven off and downright belittled for wanting to roleplay these very repressed demographics, even as a poc themselves. As a black woman, I cannot tell you how agonizing it was to avoid certain stereotypes that are seen as harmful in a general sense, but exist in my space as something of a comfort. AAVE being one of them. It gets labeled harshly, but I can relax and be more myself when someone is clearly on the wave.

It is something someone like Nekoya ( being creole and from Louisiana ) or Yuujin ( because he is with Nekoya often and loves predominantly in Louisiana ) would very clearly be exposed to and would use, but I have to treat it as something that would only come forth when with the right kinds of people.

And that feels a little ick, I'm not gonna lie. All of it feels a little ‘ grimey ’.

[edai-crplpnk]

Part 3: Thoughts and Feelings

I happen, as you may have guessed, to have many of those regarding tops and doms. This is a disorganised list of them made by me at 3am, I apologise in advance if it is a little messy maybe.

By default assume that I am always talking about mlm dynamics here because I am way to ignorant about wlw dynamics to say something interesting (outside of: i would really love to write a fic between my service top chara and a stone butch chara because i find it really touching when queer ppl of different communities bond over their own iteration of a common identity), and straight dynamics have common points but also a lot of different stake and for now I'm gonna leave it to them to figure out, I do not have the time for this lmao.

Also I have decided to give this list some pompous title to make it look like there's a plan so:

1 - Being a top makes you human

And being a bottom does, too.

Allow me to explain.

When I started being active in fandom, I was very wary of describing characters as tops or bottoms, and of anyone who did so. (Let's put it frankly: I was a little stupid.) I bought into the idea that it was objectifying and "fetishising" (and honestly now I try to avoid that word as much as possible because I've found that 9 times out of 10 the people involved in the discussion would be unable to define what they mean by that, and so would I). That people were people, not tops and bottoms, and that reducing someone to this was bound to be dehumanising.

Dear readers: it is not.

To me, this idea comes from the same place as stuff like, "I think everyone would be bi without social norms/is actually bi/should be bi." or, "If there were no patriarchy/social norms, no one would be trans."

First of all, we don't live in a patriarchy-free society and most likely won't, while it's not a good reason not to try to get there, it's absurd to base your reflection of what life would be like in that hypothetical words to talk about how we should act in the real one.

But what is more important for me here is that this also comes voluntarily or not, along with the idea that people would not have an identity in an ideal world. And I am not fond of that. My gender, my manhood, and my masculinity are not things that are sad collateral damage from a brutal society. They are a joyful part of what makes me human. My love and attraction for men is not a restricted view of humanity. It's genuine and rich and extensive.

People have tastes and preferences and that's good, that's what makes them people. To give my characters sexual preferences and feelings about the various position they could be put in or take on during sex is not reductive, on the contrary. It's rich and it makes them diverse and distinct and it gives them an individual essence that is not that of every single other around them.

I will try to not ramble too much about my own personal life here, but I will just say that being helped to understand all of this has also done tremendous things to my ability to accept and embrace the fact that I am a gay man, because it has allowed me to view it as the joy and rich and precious individuality and shared love that it is, rather than the previous framing of it that I had of it being somehow a fault because, I'm not gonna lie to you, living in primarily queer and feminist spaces does not always make it easy to be able to think "men are neat". (And while I absolutely understand why because it is true that the violence brought by men, in general, onto women, in general, is extreme and entirely disproportionate to how it goes the other way around, the way it's framed is still an issue if it makes gay and trans men hate themselves or gives the tool to white women to threaten and get black men killed, but I digress.)

2 - Clichés are okay sometimes, actually

I will nuance this, I promise.

Sometimes, when people say that having characters that are tops or bottoms is okay, they will put an addendum like "but it's important to not equate personality and top/bottom or dom/sub, you can have any looks and personality and be a top/bottom/dom/sub". And, of course, I agree with the sentiment, fem tops are cool, shy tops are cool, dominant bottoms are cool, you get the gist. Part of saying that tops and doms should be treated as humans and embraced in their diversity has to mean that you want characters of various looks and personalities to be tops and doms!

But I have some issues with that, or rather, with how some people frame and think it albeit really agreeing with the statement in itself.

First, as per point 1, I personally think that seeing sexual preferences and dynamics as part of the characters' personalities is important and humanising. So while, yes, tops can have various personalities, of course, I think that it's important that it doesn't mean "my character's preferences are entirely unrelated to their personality".

For example, in the second series I shared earlier, some of Kankurou's personality traits are that he likes to show affection to others by doing things for them and is quite domestic (he's shown loving to cook for his siblings for example), that he tends to catch on feelings very easily, but doesn't necessarily wants to act on them in a romantic/committed way, it's more that for him love and attraction are only very mildly separated, so while he doesn't want to date all of his hook ups (or any, really), he does tend to view those encounter as also a very emotionally charge things and that while not necessarily ashamed of that, he is someone who cherishes privacy and modesty a lot, and is not necessarily comfortable with exposing himself. These things transpire in him being primarily a top, or rather in the specific ways that he is. Part of the dynamic he likes is being able to put himself at the service of his partners because he is often quite emotionally invested in them and their pleasure, and finds joy and fulfilment in being able to provide this for them, while also often finding it a more comfortable position to be in because the focus is less on him and it allows him to be more private about how he feels and make it more about what his partner want and like and feel like.

It's not that someone with this personality has to be a top, a bottom could like all of that, mix and match works with almost any combination, but his identity as a top, how he does it and why he likes it are very directly tied to his personality, and it's cool.

The second thing is that often this will come alongside a suspicion for any character that will tick too many boxes of the same archetype. It's okay that a chara is a top, and maybe it's okay if their also the masculine, or tall, or dominant, or idk what other cliché associated with tops, but if he's all of that, then he will be seen as too cliché and therefore bad and unrealistic or objectifying. While I'm sure that's the case sometimes (many times even maybe, I genuinely don't know) and I understand where this suspicion comes from, I think that it's also important to recognise that some people just do fit certain stereotypes, and are still people.

There is intrinsic issues with clichés that are actively stigmatising (like, no, i will not answer "queers are groomers" by "it's a generalisation, but it's okay that some of us are" OF COURSE) but some are most problematic in that they make blanket statement and, more importantly, I think, in that they are viewed as a negative thing.

The main issue with "gays are effeminate and always friends with girls and they like shopping and not sports", for example, is that it's just plainly not true for a number of people, and it's dehumanising in that, once again, it negates the diversity of individuality within a given identity, but also it's that the sub-text (or sometimes full on text) is "and that's bad". Yes, I have a character that is gay and effeminate and always friends with girls and who likes shopping and not sports. The big difference between me and bigots is that I appreciate those are human traits that he has because he's a person, not categories made to other him without thinking about what they mean for him, and that I think he's neat and that it's cool he has things and people he likes and preferences that mark him as an individual.

The third thing is probably less important (or is it? I don't know anymore) but it's fair to say at this point I'm not trying to keep this short anyway so I will still say it. It's that another thing that can be heard is, "It's okay if you have stereotyped characters, as long as it's not All Of Your Characters. It means that it's just that, yes, some people to happen to fit stereotypes, but that they're just some within a larger diversity." and I think that I don't agree with the idea that characters have to be people.

I love to write characters that are people, as I think this whole post is making very clear, crafting characters that have complex personalities and personal tastes and strong individualities is something that is very dear and important and joyful to me. But I have also written things with characters that are no people, and I certainly have loved works that did the same.

What I mean by "characters that are not people" is that it's also an option to write characters as symbols, ideas, forms that are meant to represent complex or more general feelings or experiences, and not contain a human individuality and logic of a past and a set of traits and experiences building their present self. This is how an astronomical amount of art functions, paintings, poetry, tales and fables, myths, a lot of theatre, and I'm sure, even if maybe less, a lot of novel-type writing too.

This isn't an issue, and it's not an issue in porn either. I will use the word this time, it's okay to fetishise characters in porn. That's quite literally what porn and fetishes are for. Representation of erotic ideas, topoi, imaginary, figures, etc. within a human character that is not written like a person, is not bad, it's a lot of what porn is. (And it's not even what I write at all, I'm not defending my church here, I just think it's very valid and cool.)

I think that what is important is to be aware of it, both as writers and readers, when this is what we write or read, and that characters are created equal in this. If you have human and complex characters in your story but suddenly there's that one chara who is a symbol of an idea or a cliché and not meant to be treated as a person, especially if it's a marginalised character, we're getting into very iffy territories.

Of course, it's important to be mindful of the fact that stereotypical figures, symbols, fetishes and the rest are always soaked in harmful social norms and we have to think about that too, but that does mean we have to burn all and every symbolic figures and characters because, again, the harmful social norms will never be fully gone of anything you'll do. Better know that than do something that you think will free you of them but will only achieve to make you stop thinking about it.

3 - Hurting people is not easy nor inconsequential

We're entering more the dom side of this than the top side now. (And once again, although I wholeheartedly believe in and love sub tops and dom bottoms, I think it's dishonest to act like topping and dimming are not to things that are linked in our imaginaries whether we want it or not and that, therefore the issues regarding the representation of both of those are interconnected and interdependent, just as are, shall I say since I'm here, the way we think about men, and the way we think about masculinity, for example.)

I think there is an assumption that, of course, being a sub (especially in a context of more "intense" kink, like pain play or, idk, fisting or whatever) is challenging and vulnerable and potentially dangerous, so it's important to make sure the sub is really wanting and ready to receive that, but that since the dom is not the one in physical danger and isn't the one who is going to receive and suffer (albeit with pleasure) through this violence (albeit consented), it will be less challenging for them.

I don't think this is entirely wrong, just as I don't think that the same type of belief being held towards tops and bottom is, because there is often more intrinsic physical risk to bottoming and/or subbing than there is to topping and/or dimming. However, I think the depth of this disparity is really overestimated.

As someone who is both verse and switch, I will tell you that I find it immensely scarier to top and dom, and I say that even as bottoming is not exactly easy either lmao. (Another day we should talk about how sides don't get enough appreciation either. Writes sides! Over a fourth of my smut fics do not have anyone top or bottom. You don't even have to do any of this!)

Hurting people, even when they want and like it, is not easy. Being the one who is made to take all the decisions is not easy. Being the one mainly responsible for checking everyone's safety (which isn't always the dom's role, but often is) is not easy.

More generally this boils down to something that is very important and way more general than anything sex or BDSM-related to me that is: being in power is not intrinsically easy or comfortable. It is exactly what it says on the tin: more power. It will often come with more resources to protect yourself, and more autonomy so you can flee a situation of violence, so in that, yes, it is a protection, but it can still be a very violent situation to be put in. (For example if you can't see where I'm heading: men tend to have more resources to protect themselves or get away from situations of abuse, but male socialisation, in itself, is not intrinsically less traumatising than female socialisation is.)

All that to say, domming can be a very vulnerable and scary and draining position to be in, and it shouldn't be overlooked simply because it is often (and not even always) less physically dangerous.

What that means too is that you need to consent to sub, and you also really, really need to consent to dom.

I've rambled about this before I'm fairly certain but I feel like while (in people who do actually care about consent which I will admit is not a given) there is a general understanding that anything violent done to someone should be thoroughly consented by said someone, the acknowledge that it should be thoroughly consented by the person who hurts is a bit slipped under the rugs sometimes.

This is something that I wrote a lot about in The Smell of the Rain, but I fundamentally think that making someone do something to you without them being fully aware of and okay with the impact it will have on you, including "negative" (quotation mark for "pain in painplay isn't negative per see but it's still pain") is abusive and a breach of consent. Letting someone do something that hurts you without telling them, when it's someone who does not want to hurt you, is a breach of consent.

This is complicated because of course, I don't want to say that anyone who has struggles upholding their boundary is a vile abuser, and that being unable to say no or stop during a sexual activity is active sexual assault. I certainly have been there many time, this shit is HARD. (And it can be hard for tops and doms too, it's to be noted.) It's something that is messy and takes time and work, but it's important. And it's not important just because you owe to yourself to be able to do that (and you do) but because you owe that do the partner who do not want to hurt you or force you, too.

I think it makes sense to think of things like that, because ina situation of abuse that is how it work, you aren't abusing someone who wants to harm you by letting them do. And because we often discuss consent in regards to base (which again, makes sense) this is what we think of. Making people who might hurt others know to not do that. (Not sure we're succeeding but-) But if you are writing about a relationship that is meant to be healthy and where characters have good intentions towards each other, then this is not the right perspective to have on consent than to think of it as "making sure that the person to whom something is done wants it" and not "making sure that both parties involved are equally aware of the meaning of this act for both, and both want to go forth with it.

Unless there is a reason why one of the two character is a likely victim and the other a likely abuser (which can happen), I don't want to frame consent between my character as "person who might be abuse and person who might be abusing need to make sure that doesn't happen" which will go on to dehumanise one of them (again, if there is not a precedent that realistically causes that, and then it will likely fall on the top/dom) but really as "two people who are all in capacity of hurting the other in various ways, trying to not do that".

Well. It is now 5am, I've been at it for 3 hours, and I'm sure there is a lot more to say but this is probably way more than enough for today lmao. I will now sleep so tomorrow can be another day full of loving tops and doms and other men loving other men. I will also not proofread this post for evident reasons, so I hope it won't happen to be a nonsensical sleep deprave mess. Bye 👋

I wish more fanfic writers were empathetic to tops and doms. I think a lack of empathy there explains a lot of the fandom discourse around the idea that it’s racist to make characters with darker skin the top or seme or whatever.

Part of why it bothers people, I think, is that in fandom spaces—for a variety of reasons—people have somehow come to a consensus that it’s fine to have submissive and degradation oriented fantasies, but not fantasies about making someone submit or doing the degrading. SOME people don’t let themselves think about the interiority of those that could actually deliver them what they want, sexually. And I don’t even just mean actual sex! I can tell when a fic author actually gets off on topping or domming. Those people are kind of rare in fandom, but their fics really stand out if you know what you’re looking for. Side note—I think there’s a lot of untapped potential in whump writers, who could probably write really wonderful nasty smut, but who are ashamed of writing something sexual and worried about backlash (so they just stick to narrative torture for now).

If you instinctively think that writing a character as a top or dom means they’re incapable of having interiority or complexity because YOU can’t write a compelling top or dom character for shit, then you might also think that any writing of people of color as tops or doms is inherently bad or offensive writing. And this is sad for everyone, but it’s especially sad for the actual tops and doms of color in the real world who have to read people saying that they don’t exist, or that characters who feel like them are offensive and racist.

Ironically, the people who claim that writing a character of color as a top or dom automatically makes that character a racist or brutish stereotype are reenforcing that stereotype. I want to see more compellingly written top and dom characters who have actual wants and conflicts. Give me more woobie, extremely emotional doms. Give me self esteem issues, or the struggles of being mistreated by subs, or feeling reduced to what they can provide sexually but not seen as a good person outside of that, please.

tldr; I wish more people knew that it’s not an insult to write a character as a top or dom, and therefore that it’s not an insult to write a character of color as a top or dom.

--

[haikyuudescendants]

i think what the last ask regarding bokuto was about how you draw daishou masc and bokuto fem, making it somewhat heteronormative? i mean personally i'm not against it as long as not all gay ships are drawn like that. the problem what they're focusing on is with the fetishisation from a straight perspective that happens with a lot of ships so yeah :/

hi there! an apology in advance for my broken english, it's three in the morning here. 💤

as I said before, a homosexual relationship cannot be "heteronormative" because both are men, no matter how feminine or masculine one of them is. if I call them heteronormative I'm reinforcing the old and stupid gender stereotypes that we currently want to eliminate (such as thinking that there's a "woman" or a "man" in a homosexual relationship, or thinking clothes and colors have some assigned gender, for example). and I'm not gonna lie, I actually had to talk to other queer people (even if I'm queer myself) because the mean threats that anon sent me made me doubt what I was doing. like, is it really wrong? am I offending a whole community in any way? am I looking at it from an allocishet perspective even though I'm not? but they told me that it wasn't really the case.

sure, not all ships can be drawn like this (I mean- they kinda can?? because I'm nobody to dictate any rules for ships dynamics... or fiction, also a single ship can and will be drawn in a hundred different ways depending on the artist's perception) but what I'm referring to is that there are thousands of different ways a queer couple could act, so yes, I understand there's this complaint of "they always make ships very fem / masc" especially when they're made like this by heterosexual folks who have a point of view somewhat different from ours, and it's totally valid if people don't want absolutely all ships to be portrayed like this, but it's also... not wrong to do so because there are thousands of queer couples who are actually like that, and it's okay. it's, you know, the infinite expression and diversity of humanity's gender, personality, and sexuality.

plus, the fun thing about fandoms is that you can explore millions of different dynamics and ways to portray a LGBT+ couple/character in a safe and comfortable way. especially since I'm not going to mess with real relationships or real people, THAT would be fetishization because I would be messing with someone real and making them an object for my personal enjoyment, that's horrible and wrong. but I'm not, I'm just spending my free time with my fictional ships in my little bubble like everyone else!

And the funny thing here is, I didn't even categorize my ship as fem/masc before these messages. like... huh?

(you can see how some drawings are older than others lmao) but anyway, after thinking about it for a while, I assumed they were referring to the skirts, flowers, or pastel colors I often use on bokuto. I have two reasons why I portray them like this, although, in theory, I would NOT have to justify my ship preferences:

the most important reason is that it's pure projection honestly. I love the soft-kawaii-sanrio style A LOT, while my best friend is more into the emo-edgy-eboy style, so I always project our styles and some parts of our personalities into bokuto and daishō (our respective favorite characters). It was something very personal and when that anon complained about it I felt that what I was doing was wrong. my best friend was furious.

in relation with the previous point, I adore the kawaii/dark(?) ship dynamic. That was the only thing I thought really, not something like "bokuto = femenine and daishō = masculine", I just... like that dynamic a lot, and I NEVER saw anyone complain about that specific dynamic in a wlw ship although it's veeeery common for them to have it, so when I got those anonymous messages I was like "damn what?? I didn't know that pink was still considered for girls and black for boys" lol.

I mean, I hope that's what everyone mean by "fem bokuto / masc daishō". if it's about my poorly nsfw art then the reason i like to see bokuto in babydoll is because he's cute (the fandom never draws him in pretty lingerie or "provocative" outfits, C'MON, they could dress him like that! I mean, it's sexual content after all, ppl can go wild with sexual content, it's literally p0rn, BUT THEY NEVER DO IT, a shame) but uh, again, lingerie is clothing, and clothes are genderless, so... I assume then these people have never seen a real man wearing a babydoll💀. and yeah, I prefer to see him being a soft and cuddly bottom bc i got tired of seeing him in the dominant top role all the fandom puts him in, but the sexual position has literally nothing to do with being feminine or masculine, so uh— yikes?

I hope everything I wrote makes sense because honestly I'm falling asleep. Have a nice day, anon!