#incredibly homoerotic girls

[mippippippis]

FARSCAPE S04E03 - What Was Lost: Part 2 - Resurrection

part one // part two

"I am bluffing for all I am worth just to get myself in here. Now, D'Argo has a plan." "You're lying."

[total-karma]

im soooo glad sierra exists as a character because that girl is PERFECT for socmed aus. or any fic really. she can be molded into whatever the hell i want

[tsutsumi-kurose]

i fucking love Boundary Aoi and hanako's Fake Bitch Off in the sacrifice to the grim reaper arc bc it's such a simultaneously fun and heartbreaking insight into both of their characters. and it’s especially both fun and heartbreaking if you view it through aoinene glasses and aoi’s just fully in her jennifer check era like “oh? 🥰 my girl best friend is paying way more attention to the boy she likes than me? 🥰 well I have demon powers now and I’m going to kill both of them to cope 🥰🥰🥰” like,

hanako really tries to be like ☺️💕 without help? ☺️💕 that's strange ☺️💕

and aoi's just like ☺️💕 cute ☺️💕 but I invented being fake pleasant and also I’ve loved nene way longer than you ☺️💕you will not beat me at this game ☺️💕die ☺️💕

and good for her <3

(tbh I don’t fully get what was up with that vial and how much of this is aoi vs the effects of whatever happened to her, but very fun and interesting nonetheless lol. and I repeat: good for her <3 )

[boycum3000]

think I just fumbled the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life but its ok I'll recover.

[mansplainmanipulatemalewife]

ur fave ship rn for the fucked up ship bingo go

Well lately I've gotten obsessed with a very niche and specific soldier/sniper/pyro tf2 dynamic

[orcelito]

Now you may ask how Fai D. Fluorite was part of the gay awakening for someone who Back Then identified as a girl? Fai is a man, is he not?

Well, well, well...

Imagine ur in 8th grade and u & your best friend (also a girl) are into anime and manga shit Together. Imagine her favorite manga is Tsubasa, & it's not your favorite (you're way too into Tokyo Mew Mew for that) but you enjoy it & LOVE this one character, Fai D. Fluorite. You and your friends (there's another girl, though she's not directly involved in this bit) have a thing where you "claim" characters from the things you like, who are then Your Characters. Essentially, You! Tumblr kinning before it ever existed, back in the year 2009. We kept track of them in a private Facebook group for the three of us. It was that kind of atmosphere.

Anyways so you laid eyes on Fai and KNEW he had to be yours. You staked your claim, which was accepted bc you generally had the blond twinks anyways (other notable claims of mine were Roxas & Ventus from KH and Len from Vocaloid). So for the purposes of this group, I was Fai.

Now, my best friend claimed Kurogane! Which made sense bc she often claimed the "edgier" ones. It worked out well for us.

And here's the kicker. Fai and Kurogane are... well... very obviously gay. To the point where back in 8th grade, the grand year of 2009, before I even really knew in my head that gay people Existed. We knew those bitches were gay. They even joke in the manga about them being the Mom and Dad to their teenage party members. It's Not subtle.

So you and your girl best friend have claimed these two characters. Who are gay. And they are you.

& so we joked about them being boyfriends and thus Us being boyfriends. We Were Boyfriends! This was a totally normal thing to refer to you and your girl best friend with.

Anyways a year later (when I was a freshman in high school) I realized it was not normal to think about kissing my best friend that much & So I realized I was not straight.

And yes. We ended up dating like 2 years later. Teenage romance of the ages.

[notjanine]

i hung out with both of them again over the weekend and it's going really well* and this is still wild to me. it's been exactly what i needed- just easy and good, and good in different ways bc they're so different from each other! but i don't think i've fully described either here

Bookstore: very tall. verrry sexy voice. nb and bi. does not do small talk.** similar taste in media to my own, esp movies, book genres, and spooky podcasts; every time we hang out is like (sexually charged) book club. big nose. always looks exhausted (hot). younger than me but an oldest sibling and lowkey has oldest sister syndrome, but not in a bad way.

Tech Guy: medium height. v round. v much a standard normal straight guy*** but sweet? adventurous- seems kinda boring and normcore, but the lore keeps getting wilder. he's iranian (initiated his citizenship process immediately after the 2016 election (can successfully navigate bureaucracy (hot))) and has offered to take me on a date to his favorite little middle eastern grocery.**** maintains the exact level of beard scruff that makes me craaaazy. the EYEBROWS on this bitch!! older than me but a youngest sibling (with sisters, so like. he seems to understand that women are human beings).

Both: soft hands.***** lots of friends, including platonic female friends. dislike going out and doing things alone, except for going to the movies, which they do often. when asked what dnd class would you be, personally, like you as the person you are now, both said... bard.****** idk how to feel ab that one.

so i like them both and i'm also glad i started seeing them at the same time, bc i think if it was just one or the other, things would have gotten too intense too fast (bc they both like me A LOT and i'mmmmm enjoying that more than i would have expected, i am tempted to overindulge in such adoration). as-is, i've made a list of guidelines for myself that's helping me to maintain boundaries and keep things as tidy as i can. it helps that they're both good at communicating and planning!

anyway next weekend i'm hanging out with the two friends who set me up with these ppl and i need to think of something very good and special to bring them to say thanks!!!

[jesuistrestriste]

YA'LL imagine dilf!art finally retires and tashi found a new young thing she wants to coach who is basically innately incredible at tennis but refuses to leave the simple pleasures of life such as smoking (cigs, weed, vapes, etc), partying and such, and art from the second he meets her despises her. at first he really doesn't understand why but tashi points out how she is literally the girl version of patrick. kind of reckless, free spirited, incredible at her sport, charming but hardheaded. it makes him incredibly hard just thinking about you up in his backyard in tiny ass skirts while practicing with tashi with music on (which annoys the shit out of him because you can't take anything serious). she's instantly knows he his obsessed with her and calls him a dog for wanting to fuck her while he's married and basically toys with him leaving him begging for her attention. YA'LL I CANT!!!

woah. woah ! woah?

this is hot. love.

also art would be the type of guy to fall for a girl and then have someone tell him 'she's just a female version of that guy u had a homoerotic friendship with'. and art just deflates. still wants to fuck her! just feels a little more odd about it now (as if that should be his main issue with it and not how young she is or how he's still with tashi). he's got a lot to process.

he goes to all of her practices; watching her heart-shaped ass bounce under the flow of her short tennis skirt. watches her glossy lips wrap around and suck on a bubblegum flavored vape right after she's off the courts. watches the way the smoke swirls around in front of her face as she makes eye contact with him from feet away and smirks.

he just wants to grab her and shove two of his thick fingers inside her till she's sticky and wet and no longer combative w him about his obsession. till she's begging for his dick and no longer tellin' him how creepy he is for wanting this. till he's finally allowed to stick himself into her cunt and feel every inch of her gummy walls squeeze around him while she says things like

"Mr. Donaldson, please, i'll be a good girl for you now.."

he can fantasize, cant he? he'll leave her be for now, just admiring her pretty body from afar, but he'll definitely stroke out at least one load per day to the thoughts alone. maybe one day he'll have the courage (stupidity) to make them a reality.

[see-arcane]

I'm fairly sure from tumblr osmosis people getting into Dracula daily know that Dracula has homoerotic subtext of different shades, but wonder if people are also aware of how lovestruck and wild the main het couple is for eachother because oh boy I, gayman supreme, was caught unawares

It's so refreshing in classic literature, to say nothing of creative media in general, to really be cracked upside the head with how endearing and intense Jonathan and Mina's romance is. Mainly because Het Couple Default is so often just taken as that. The default. If there's a main guy, there'll be a girl, and the story says 'Oh yeah they're together and in love or whatever, damsel things will probably happen,' and you just take that as another square on the bingo card.

But then we get to see Mr. and Mrs. Holiest Love in action.

Mr. and Mrs. 'I Will Love and Support and Protect My Beloved against All Rules, Decorum, and Expectations.'

Mr. and Mrs. 'If She Cannot Have Heaven, I Will Throw in with Hell.'

Mr. and Mrs. 'Would Rather Die Than Hurt You, Would Rather Kill Than See You Endangered.'

They are just. So much.

And it's so unexpected and wonderful and so so blindsiding to first-time readers who only have a background of lackluster media couples and incredibly warped takes from Dracula media osmosis to go off of. Which is all to say, I know new people are going to be concussed with this revelation and I cannot WAIT to see it.

[azulasmommyissues]

ATLA sexuality headcanons, part 1, Aang's era:

aang

-unlabelled or pansexual, also incredibly gnc. he/they methinks

-he never questioned it, he never thought about it. the air nomads were chill with everything, so he was too.

-he simply loves people, and he loves them deeply. he's the sort of person who says "i love you" very fast. and he doesn't have a specific type, either. he simply connects with people.

-he definitely had a bit of a thing for kuzon back in the day. kuzon taught him all the fire nation dances he knows, and bumi cheered them on.

-he also kinda digged teo, the mechanist's son, but by that point he already had his heart set on katara.

-as for girls, he DID like on-ji. in different circumstances, they would might have dated for a short while. but with katara it was love at first sight. the sort that makes you giddy and stupid.

-he's a lot worse at rizzing up katara because he is just THAT into her and he keeps fumbling

katara

-growing up, she never really questioned it. she knew she definitely liked boys and never had feelings for another girl.

-she's certainly fully cisgender. happily says “she/her/hers” when asked for her pronouns

-on the contrary, she was somewhat attracted to haru and jet both—and might've even considered zuko in different circumstances. like she definitely felt something akin to attraction in the crossroads of destiny.

-she fell in love with aang, because he gave her hope, he gave her joy, he gave her balance. she already felt SOMETHING in the cave of two lovers, but she was deeply confused and her feelings didn't clear until after the war.

-she always thought of herself as straight but said that, if she had the chance, she would be willing to kiss a girl—as an experiment. she just sort of always admired pretty girls, in the sense of "do i wanna BE her or DATE her,"

-and she's really passionate about feminism, obviously

-she always prefers getting compliments from other women because "they're worth mOre"

-eventually she meets jiang who's such a butch lesbian and questions EVERYTHING

-is that a girl? is that a boy? idk but why are they kinda...

-niyok and nutha both give homoerotic friendship vibes with her (all comic specific characters have the combined personality of one person hence why I'm including both)

-since she was dating aang she didn't explore her sexuality, but she discussed it with him and he supported her

-she considered identifying as bi but didn't feel like she qualified, since she'd never actually dated a girl. aang told her it's okay eifher way.

-at the end she decides to keep it all behind closed doors as per water tribe tradition. she's happy with aang, some girls are hot, it's nobody's business but her own.

-i also completely fw the reading of her as a straight cis girl, but you know

sokka

-bisexual, female lean, and maybe even poly.

-he fell for yue, he fell for suki. he definitely found like, ty lee attractive, but he didn't LIKE her. He was involved with suki, and they hadn't had any conversation about the exact status of their relationship so he wasn't about to fumble it.

-suki and him are both bi. and if yue were alive they'd BOTH be dating her. at the same time.

-zuko was sokka's bi awakening. seeing zuko and suki run around in the boiling rock absolutely changed his brain chemistry.

-he had a hard time accepting it, because of how the water tribes roll. he had a preconceived notion of manhood that he obviously had to challenge alongside his initial sexism.

-but then he realised that 1) his dad had been in a secret poly relationship with kya and bato, and then with bato and malina-- 2) his grandma had a fling with hama--3) master piandao and jeong jeongwere a thing--and 4) his girlfriend herself, suki, was bi. so bro had nothing to worry about.

-his identity became clear to him with suki's and his father's help. unlike katara, he was a bit more open and public with it. being poly, him and suki had many opportunities to explore it, always respecting each other's boundaries.

-sometimes suki does his makeup and he grows to enjoy it. he experiments with gender expression until he becomes totally chill with it.

-big part of his character is learning that he doesn't have to be a “man” in the way that patriarchy imposed on him his whole life

-so like, cisn't

toph

-toph has crushes on boys: sokka, zuko, the duke, satoru, sun, kanto. but i think non of them are really legit.

-toph would also flirt with girls, like, yaling

-had a 'not like other girls' phase

-she/they/he vibes, has a very complicated relationship with gender

-because she was made fun off by other girls as a child, it was harder for her to blend in and talk with them

-she was also raised sheltered within the walls of aristocracy which contributed to her not thinking about it

-she avoided commitment and serious relationships like the plague

-so she's unlabelled and perhaps in the aro spectrum. like, demisexual. but being both demi (aka needing to like someone as a person and getting to know them before feeling attracted to them) AND having commitment issues and a bunch of failed relationships is like, a DEADLY combo.

-i don't know. she is chaotic and not at all skilled with romance so she always fumbles it.

-but i also think she might just be 1000% aromantic whether or not she understands it fully

-i think that's very plausible

suki

-bisexual with a female lean and maybe poly

-big she/they vibes

-she's got endless autistic rizz like girl seduced sokka at light speed.

-in kyoshi island they called the bisexuals 'children of kyoshi' and the lesbians 'children of rangi'

-kyoshi island is basically lesbos if you didn't know /hj

-had her first kiss with mingxia before they decided that "ew, never again, i see you like a sister". she was super happy to meet meilin, mingxia's girlfriend

-DEFINITELY liked biyu and they might have been a thing in different circumstances. Aka if biyu hadn't betrayed her.

-would've dated both sokka and yue if yue was alive. like she would have loved yue. both of them having never left their respective homelands. both of them caring about community and having a duty to their people, a leadership position,,,

-but suki being so badass, liberated, free—and yue needing to sacrifice herself to BE free from her oppressive environment,,, like yue would also admire suki so much?? they would love exploring the world together and it'd put sokka out of a very awkward spot-

zuko

-demiromantic, bisexual. like this boy is SOMEWHERE im the ace spectrum but he's also bi. I'd say with a male lean.

-had internalised homophobia growing up, because, duh, fire nation

-he definitely thought that everyone feels like that when he was a child until his mother told him that this was very much NOT the case

-the gaang made him realise that it's totally okay and since they are all so queer he felt very safe with them

-made gay marriage legal in the fire nation

-made pride a thing in the fire nation inspired by the rainbow fire because i said so

-definitely felt attracted to both jet and sokka in the guy department.

-now, when it cames to girls, mai was his childhood crush.

-he definitely found song attractive but he was NOT in that headspace obviously

-same thing with jin although he was in a better headspace then. he introduced jin and song to each other post-war and they dated each other.

yue

-never got the chance to figure out how much girlypop liked women

-i could so easily claim she's a femme lesbian and that sokka was comphet, and I could even CONVINCE ya'll, because he is SO comphet coded, but I really love yue's storyline as it is and the lasting affect it has on sokka,,,,

-i can also imagine her on the ace spectrum

-she's so sapphic she's so queer bro is literally the moON?? what's more sapphic than the moon

-so, whatever, I'll say she's bi with a STRONG female lean. if she'd survived and joined the gaang she would have dated both sokka and suki and i truly believe that

-she would've loved suki and i just KNOW it

-love her so much let my girl be free of her arranged marriage

ty lee

-lesbian or pansexual. was ready to risk it all for mai. also completely down to be in a polycule

-she simply enjoyed male validation and attention due to her unmet childhood emotional needs. the dudes at the beach as well as sokka were giving massive comphet energy.

-i do also accept the possibility of her being pan, that'd be pretty great, but yknow, we do need more lesbians.

-despite being a fire nation citizen i think she'd be pretty open and liberated when it comes to her identity, at least wherever it's safe

-because her own ideology and philosophy is like. pseudo air nomad philosophy so i think she simply doesn't give a shit

-she is really into pride events. she LOVES the parade.

-i think she did have feelings for azula, at least as a child. then it all became really unhealthy,

-still, she felt sad about how things ended with azulw. she genuinely wishes it were different

mai

-she does also give comphet lesbian vibes BUT the "i love zuko more than I fear you" line SLAPS so I'm going to say bisexual with a female lean. she's also definitely asexual—and also demiromantic.

-ADORED ty lee, she just always assumed ty lee would choose azula

-it takes mai a long time to develop feelings for anyone, but when she falls she falls hard

-she's really not a big pride person, but she grows to enjoy it eventually. she goes with zuko and ty lee.

-she's not super vocal about her sexuality, but she also doesn't hide it. she doesn't give a shit. it's her business.

azula

-azula is a lesbian. not debatable like the others, to me.

-her feelings towards ty lee and mai are very reminiscent of sozin's feelings for roku i believe. like iykyk.

-she couldn't remember which of the boys was the one she was supposed to "like," but she remembered perfectly which bikini ty lee and mai were wearing. she picked chan like lesbians pick a random boy to crush on in middle school.

-and then she instesd remembered one of thr gusy who were flirting with either mai or ty lee. bestie was jealous.

-she had comphet, so much comphet. she wanted to be loved.

-so much internalised homophobia.

-she has a type, and it's brunette non benders of similar build. by which i mean ty lee and suki

-the ill will she holds towards mai in her comic for ruining their group over a stUpid BOY-

-it's comical,,

-i love her.

jet

-all the freedom fighters are queer

-jet is probably pansexual or bisexual. and also he/they

-he had a thing for katara but he sure as hell also had a thing for zuko

-he punches homophobes in the face

-i never liked jet when i was a kid because he was a jerk and i hated him with katara, but i grew to really enjoy his character and his arc

-this boy wants to eat the rich

-he doesn't want gay marriage, he wants to abolish marriage

smellerbee

-transfem ICON, she/her, though generally gender non conforming.

-and she's also also aromantic and asexual.

-queer platonic relationship with longshot, because of how deeply they love and understand and support each other

-if you misgender her on purpose the whole group will gang up on you and by the end of it you'll have four broken limbs and they'll be arrested for aggravated assault

longshot

-he's aromantic and asexual but he's got unmatched non-verbal autistic rizz

-as i said, QPR with smellerbee

-but all the freedom fighters plan to keep living together forever,, they're found family

-him and smellerbee just have a particularly special bond

the duke

-the duke is pansexual, i think

-i think he had a crush on toph

-also he/they

-and that's about all I've got

pipsqueak

-he/they/she

-pipsqueak's literally his chosen name, nothing cisgender about that,

-gay

sneers

-transmasc, he/they, potentially genderfluid

-dating kori who is bi

haru

-bisexual, female lean

-he/they, potentially genderfluid

teo

-gay, crush on aang

jin and song

-jin is pansexual, would definitely date song who is a lesbian

-zuko introduces them!!

uncle iroh

-straight ally. women are great! big womaniser back in his day.

-loves gay people

-huge support for zuko coming out

-that being said, he wasn't ALWAYS an ally. like he wasn't homophobic either, but he didn't support queer people before lu ten came out to him. then he accepted it, because he loved his son. finally, travelling the world and studying different philosophies led him to be a great ally.

-then he became the biggest ally ever amd a huge advocate for queer rights

-on a similar note, lu ten was gay. ozai was straight. zhao was straight and azulon was probably also straight. just getting them out of the wAy.

piandao

-gay gay gay. likes men.

-him and jeong jeong as a salty judgmental old couple is so real

-also everyone knows about it but nobody dares to give him shit for it

-he just glares and you immediately get off his back

-he could get himself a husband and nobody in the fire nation would do anything to stop him because they literally cannot arrest him

-he'll just shut the door on their face

jeong jeong

-also gay. big gay.

-tons of internalised homophobia, bless him

-tons of self hatred

-like, the way he sees his firebending as a curse of destruction and hatred and hates himself for it—instead of seeing all the colours of the dragons' rainbow fire, like zuko and aang, who symbolise the new generation

-it can work so well as a queer self-acceptance metaphor

-he definitely ends up with piandao, as i said before. begrudgingly in love.

hama

-lesbian. privately, as per water tribe tradition.

-nobody in the south gives her shit for it.

-she definitely had a relationship with kanna.

-when she lived in the fire nation, things were different. living as her authentic self was impossible—even secretly, it became near-impossible.

-hama's life is one big tragedy.

pakku

-straight. initially homophobic as per water tribe conservatism. the sort of, "just don't shove it in my face" homophobia

-but upon realising that like, both his friend group and his wife are incredibly queer, he gets over it

-iroh helps with educating him

-it's also canon that zuko gives the southern water tribe custody of hama after the war which i find incredibly sweet

-but since hama and kanna were... tight, I find myself incredibly entertained imagining possible interactions between pakku and hama

kanna (gran gran)

-kanna was bisexual.

-in the time she spent traveling from the north to the south she slept with a bunch of people

-fire nation pirates, sand bender bandits, earth kingdom soldiers... hakoda's father is a mystery. a mama mia situation.

-other flings include the herbalist, probably, (all old people know each other)

-even madame wu, why not?

-like it entertains me to think that kanna was unhinged the moment she left the Northern Water Tribe

-and being a non bender she used all tools at her disposal to reach the south if you know what i mean

-that being said, she also learned to fight a bit. probably. just to spite pakku.

-when she reached the south, she had a thing with hama. i say this because of the kataang parallel when hama was taken away.

hakoda and bato

-hakoda is bi, bato is gay

-hakoda loved kya, bato loved him secretly and never told him

-after kya died, bato was his only comfort, they fell in love

-once malina enters the situation too, it eventually ends up being a polycule

-note that i strongly dislike malina and those comics

[obsessioncollector]

Hi friends! Inspired by @librarycards I wanted to make a post celebrating Women in Translation Month! Anglophone readers generally pay embarrassingly little attention to works in other languages, and that's even more true when it comes to literature by women, so I will jump at any chance to promote my faves 🥰 Here are some recs from 9 different languages! Also, I wrote this on my phone, so apologies for any typos or errors!

1. Trieste by Daša Drndić, trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać (Croatian): An all-time favorite. Much of Drndić's work interrogates the legacy of atrocities in Europe, particularly eastern Europe. Trieste is a haunting contemplative novel centered on an elderly Italian Jewish woman whose family converted to Catholicism during the Mussolini era and were complicit in the fascist violence surrounding them in order to protect themselves.

2. Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, trans. Anton Hur (Korean): A collection of short stories that are difficult to classify by genre–speculative fiction in the broadest sense. The first story is about a monster in a woman's toilet, which sounds impossible to pull off in a serious, thought-provoking manner, but Chung does so easily—these are the kind of stories that are hard to explain the brilliance of secondhand.

3. Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy, trans. Tim Parks (Italian; Jaeggy is Swiss): Another all time favorite! The cold, sterile homoerotic girls' boarding school novella of your dreams.

4. Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono, trans. Lucy North (Japanese): I think I read this in one sitting. Incredibly unsettling—these stories will stay with you. They often focus on the unspoken psychosexual fantasies underscoring mundane daily life.

5. The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector, trans. Katrina Dodson (Brazilian Portuguese): I think Lispector is the best known writer here, so she might not need much of an introduction. But what a legend! And this collection is so diverse—it's fascinating to see the evolution of Lispector's work.

6. Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, trans. Melanie L. Mauthner (French; Mukasonga is Rwandan): Give her the Nobel! Mukasonga's books, at least the ones available in English, are generally quite short but so impactful. Our Lady of the Nile is a collection of interrelated short stories set at a Catholic girls' boarding school in Rwanda in the years before the Rwandan genocide. These stories are fascinating on many levels, but perhaps the most haunting element is seeing how ethnic hatred intensifies over time—none of these girls would consider themselves particularly hateful or prejudiced, but they easily justify atrocities in the end.

7. Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962-1972 by Alejandra Pizarnik, trans. Yvette Siegert (Spanish; Pizarnik was Argentinian): Does anyone remember when my url was @/pizarnikpdf... probably not but worth mentioning to emphasize how much I love her <3 Reading Pizarnik is so revelatory for me; she articulates things I didn't even realize I felt until I read her words.

8. Flight and Metamorphosis: Poems by Nelly Sachs, trans. Joshua Weiner (German): Sachs actually won the Nobel in the 1960s, so it's surprising that she's not better known in the Anglosphere. Her poems are cryptic and surreal, yet deeply evocative. Worth mentioning that this volume is bilingual, so you can read the original German too if you're interested.

9. Frontier by Can Xue, trans. Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping (Chinese): Can Xue is another difficult-to-classify writer in terms of genre. Her short stories are often very abstract and can be puzzling at first. I think Frontier is a great place to start with her because these stories are interconnected, which makes them a bit more accessible.

[bookcub]

Chappell Roan Book Rec

like many other, I am currently obsessed with The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess so here are a few book recs based on the songs!!

(you can message me for questions about content warnings!)

Femininomon

A Guest in the House by E. M. Carroll (horror graphic novel)

What happens when you marry a mediocre liar and there's a ghost you are definitely attracted to in the house (that might be his dead wife)?

Relevant lyric: Stuck in the suburbs, you're folding his laundry/Got what you wanted so stop feeling sorry

Bonus Rec: Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger (adult steampunk romance)

Red Wine Supernova

Satisfaction Guaranteed by Karelia Stenz-Waters (adult romance)

Imagine inheriting a sex toy shop with a enchanting stranger who you feel incredibly connected to. . .

Relevant lyric: I heard you like magic/I got a wand and a rabbit

Bonus Rec: Sunstone by Stjepan Šejić (adult romance graphic novel)

After Midnight

Ash by Malinda Lo (YA fantasy)

I had to choose a queer Cinderella for this one, especially one whose mother warns her away from the forest at night.

Relevant lyric: This is what I wanted, this is what I like/I've been a good, good girl for a long time now

Bonus Rec: A Restless Truth by Freya Marske (adult historical fantasy, sequel)

Coffee

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec (adult fantasy)

When your ex is the trickster god Loki and you have prophetic futures, you know you can never just have coffee.

Relevant lyric: Here come the excuses that fuel the illusions/But I'd rather feel something than nothing at all,

Bonus Rec: Seven Days in June by Tia Williams (adult contemporary)

Casual

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi (adult gothic)

Remember that toxic homoerotic best friend you had a child? Who believed in magic and was also the most manipulative person you've ever met? It never was a casual relationship, was it?

Relevant lyric: Hate that I let this drag on so long, you can go to hell

Bonus Rec: Ben and Beatriz by Katalina Gamarra (adult romance)

Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl

A Spindle Splintered/A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow (adult fantasy)

Entering the fairy tale multiverse always leads to the strangest (and funnest) relationships (platonic and romantic) of your life.

Relevant lyrics: We're leaving the planet and you can't come

Bonus Rec: Cash Degado is Living the Dream by Tehlor Kay Mejia (adult contemporary)

HOT TO GO!

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz (graphic novel)

What if I dressed up as a count to inherit my father's fortune and you were a princess and we both liked grilled cheese???

Relevant lyric: I could be the one, or your new addiction/ It's all in my head but I want non-fiction

Bonus Rec: Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

My Kink is Karma

Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan (adult historical romance)

She said, let's destroy my terrible nephew's life, and how could you say no to such a romantic proposal?

Relevant lyric: Wishing you the best, in the worst way

Bonus Rec: Girl Serpent Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust (YA fantasy)

Picture You

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall (adult historical romance)

Oops, I faked my death and reinvented myself and you were way more distraught than I thought you would be. . .

Relevant lyric: Do you picture me like I picture you?/Am I in the frame from your point of view?

Kaleidoscope

The Scapegracers by H. A. Clarke (YA urban fantasy)

What if we formed a coven and what if we were all a little in love with each other?

Relevant lyric: And love is a kaleidoscope/How it works we'll never know

Bonus Rec: The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe (YA thriller)

Pink Pony Club

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang (graphic novel)

He was a drag queen, she was a seamstress, can I make it anymore obvious?

Relevant Lyric: And I heard that there's a special place/Where boys and girls can all be queens every single day

Bonus Rec: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (YA historical)

Naked in Manhattan

Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail by Ashley Herring Blake (adult romance)

Isn't it romantic, designing a house with someone with your entirely opposite tastes?

Relevant lyric: Boys suck and girls I've never tried

Bonus Rec: Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust (YA fantasy)

California

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers (adult contemporary)

If a PhD can't save you, maybe a drunken marriage in Vegas can?

Relevant lyric: Cause I was never told that I wasn't gonna get/The things I want the most

Guilty Pleasure

Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner (adult romance)

Fake dating your boss? 0/10 recommended. . . right?

Relevant lyric: I want this like a cigarette/Can we drag it out and never quit?

Bonus Rec: That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming (adult fantasy romance)

Bonus:

Good Luck, Babe

Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni (adult contemporary)

Relevant lyric: You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling

Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie (YA contemporary)

[ideas-on-paper]

On Carlo and Romeo's relationship & homosexuality in Victorian schools

In my quest to find out more about Carlo and Romeo's lives at Monad Charity House, I have once again resorted to my tried and tested method of historical research, this time with a primary focus on Victorian boarding schools.

Along the way, I stumbled upon Lord Alfred Douglas, aka "Bosie" Douglas, the lover of Oscar Wilde. As people familiar with them may know, their gay romance caused quite a stir in 1895 due to the (in)famous trials of Wilde for “gross indecency”, the tragic result of which was that the latter was convicted to two years of hard labor that ruined his health.

Both already had their fair share of gay affairs beforehand though - Bosie specifically was very popular among his peers during his time at Oxford University, being excellent at sports, artistically gifted and incredibly handsome, so it's not too surprising he hooked up with some of his fellow students. What absolutely had me rolling on the floor was this statement, however (quoted from this page):

"[...] we argue that the English public schools in the last part of the nineteenth century tolerated, if they did not actually encourage the development of strong homoerotic friendships between students."

Apparently, homosexuality in boarding schools was so common people made off-hand jokes about it. In the novel Rites of Passage by William Golding, the protagonist finds a fellow traveler engaged in oral sex with a sailor, thinking of it as "that silly schoolboy prank". Admittedly, Golding wrote his novel in the 20th century, so we don’t know for sure if the 19th-century attitudes portrayed in it are accurate, but this might imply that sexual interaction between schoolboys was fairly common.

In the first edition of Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes, published in 1857, there was even a passage of the protagonist insulting two boys who were clearly in a sexual relationship with senior boys, with the author commenting that "everyone who studied at Rugby would understand why this passage was necessary". (Hughes himself was Christian and condemned homosexual relationships; the concerning passage was cut out in later versions).

This does not mean, however, that all the boys attending boarding schools were gay - rather, because boarding schools were restricted by gender, they had their first sexual experiences in this male-only environment. Many of them would try the exact same thing out with a girl later and find they enjoyed it much more. However, there were also those who never felt any desire to try it out with a girl - and given how close Carlo and Romeo were, I would honestly be more surprised if there wasn’t anything romantic going on between them.

I mean, it’s not like the entire LoP community isn’t already shipping Carlo and Romeo, but in case there was ever any doubt about it, take it from me: I’m positive these boys were gay.

And in case anyone feels like pointing out that “well, actually, the setting of Lies of P is based on France”: Homosexuality was already decriminalized in France as early as 1791 by the National Constituent Assembly, making France the first Western European country to do so - or rather, the penal code drafted with the intention to only punish "real crimes" made no mention of homosexual acts in private. Still, it was a major step for gay rights.

[silviakundera]

Snowfall ep 1 watch comments

I'm so very ready for patriotic Republican era vampires

Communist vampires lets goooooooo

Big get together of all the important people in town, at an asshole's mansion. Very 1930s. or 1920s. Damn it, someone tell me what approximate year we're in

Everyone knows ML waters his flowers with blood, good job keeping a low profile 👌

Dad of the FL is a rich ass dude w 8 wives, squabbling w the main one loud enough that even chinese opera can't drown it out.

I'm having flashbacks to The Tudors as this guy announces to the crowd that after only having a disabled daughter, he finally has a son to celebrate! Hope he goes the way of Henry VIII with a stinking, puss filled wound that never heals.

Or perhaps he can water ML's garden.

Mr Li is an attractive, smouldering antagonist type guy who wants to win over or kill ML for....mundane reasons? The way our vamp gentleman just paid him zero positive or negative attention, the absolute indifference. Brutal.

ML just fucking hears some domestic violence bullshit and walks out to smoke and casually ruin the hand of abusive mom, then strolls away like a boss. He is THAT kind of cdrama protagonist

Haidong Army are run by some local warlord, I presume. Superintendent Chi? Now that he was so rude to Mr Li they want ML dead and try to kill him 4 different ways. Which the vampire finds v annoying.

Really love how everyone is running around in leather jackets and tailored suits and lighting matches for dramatic effect.

This poor henchman: I ran him over 3 times! Then shot him in the forehead! Then I double fisted machine guns and filled him with lead! Definitely definitely definitely dead!

Abused, blind FL takes a walk in the snow to find a nice place to die. Lucky for both of them, she finds our injured vampire and he very politely asks her to pause seeking death in order to help him out.

Honestly, just what that poor girl needs to give her back some fighting spirit: a project!

Just like in Forever Knight, he has 1 doctor friend. (But probably not an incredibly homoerotic, though censored for television, relationship w his maker. alas!)

Hot antagonist Li is apparently not a total scumbag, just a normal baddy, as he sees a blind teen wandering the streets and stops to help.

But maybe touching vamp blood allowed FL to see for a few seconds???

[txttletale]

youve mentioned offhand ur issues with thirsty sword lesbians, have u talked at length abt this somewhere before and if not do u want to? i want to hear ur thoughts hehe

now before i get into this i want to clarify: i like thirsty sword lesbians, overall! i think it takes some of the best stuff from monster hearts and refines it -- i think it does great and exciting things with pbta playbooks -- i think anyone making a pbta game should check it out because it's full of valuable ideas -- and i've had a lot of fun playing it!

however, i think it's just as flawed as it is brilliant. there's a few different flaws but the biggest one for me is a catastrophic clash between two things the game is trying to be. one on hand, it wants to be a catradora rpg. there's no shame in that, i love games that wear their influences on their sleeves--TSL¹ wants to be a game about kissing your rival after you've both been disarmed, about having a fraught and complicated relationship with your girl best friend who abandoned you to serve the dark lord, about having homoerotic sword duels where your blades lock and you stare into each other's eyes for just one second too long before one of you kicks the other in the chest. i think that's an admirable goal for an RPG and one that TSL hits a lot of the notes of--the fact that the move to "Figure Someone Out" has special questions you can only ask someone when you're duelling them is incredible design. the Strings system, adapted from Monsterhearts, the ability to fluster your enemies when you use the Entice move, the constant focus on what characters desire and how their actions conflict with those desires--so much of the game is working towards that!

unfortunately, the game also wants to be about queer resistance to homophobia and capitalist/imperialist hegemony. this is clear in its sample settings, with their eyerollingly on-the-nose conflicts like defending 'queertopia' and fighting the evil sorceress 'repressia'. but much more importantly, it's clear in the game. several of the playbooks are defined by their relationship to sexual hegemony--the beast is about someone who is othered and monsterised for expressing their existence and the seeker is about someone sheltered and prejudiced moving past that and discovering themselvs and others. like, it's not subtle--

and to be clear, there's nothing wrong with that, either. just as i like a lot of TSL's swashbuckling girl-romancing flirting-at-swordpoint mechanics, i really appreciated how (although the game's outlook on what these forces are is predicably liberal and its tonal approach to these things is one that i personally find teeth-grindingly insufferable) these things are actually integrated into its mechanics. playbooks like the beast and the seeker (and the rest!) imply something about the world the game is set in and its sexual politics. this game is meaningfully queer in the way something like dream askew is, in that its mechanics ask you to actually explore your character's queerness specifically. this is good, and it's something that elevates it above about 90% of ttrpg stuff that sells itself as queer.

so if both these things are good, what's the problem? well, it's that they're two great (or at least--interesting) tastes that go fucking horribly together. the fundamental problem that i have with TSL and one that i think takes a lot of work to get around in your own campaigns is that it simultaneously wants you to be fighting (on the individual level) a lot of antiheroic ultimately sympathetic hot girls you can flirt with and kiss--a lot of 'i can fix her's or 'she can make me worse's--and on the broader narrative wants you to be fighting institutional queerphobia (and often, although this is nowhere near as actually supported by mechanics, a more generalized 'imperialism' or 'capitalism' or 'bigotry'). so you end up fighting 'those stupid sexy homophobes'--people who are according to the text (not just 'lore', but the rules text, the mechanics you're playing with!) simultaneously the violent enforcers of cisheteropatriarchy and a bunch of fuckable lesbians with sympathetic backstories.

& i just think those things are fundamentally at odds. the result is a game that if you try and play it at face value works at cross purposes with itself, attempting to do two perfectly valid things without considering what happens when the streams cross.

it also has a few other flaws--like many other PBTA games, its balance falls apart if you play any long campaign (my group and i had to figure out special alternative level-up rewards!) but it comes with no inbuilt way to neatly conclude a campaign or character. its tone is something that, as i often mention, i absolutely cannot fucking stand--it has a certain sense of humour that feels profoundly dated to me and was never my cup of tea when it was in vogue. this is something i try not to hold against the game bc it is very much a personal taste-level 'cringe' reaction but the game lays it on pretty fucking thick.

more to its detriment, it is profoundly, gratingly liberal in the exact way people who deploy that tone usually are. its understanding of anything outside queerphobia specifically is just a purely aesthetic & thoughtless 'imperialism is bad!'. it manages a more nuanced understanding of homophobia, but it only manages it on the individual level--for a game about queerness and about fighting systems of cisheteronormativity, it has no systemic or material understanding of these systems and no interest in establishing one.

and finally--and this is just one paragraph but it's so fucking awful i feel the need to complain about it here because i think about it often as an example of something i never want to write:

this sucks! real bad! so deeply fucking silly to reassure people in your game that you called Thirsty Sword Lesbians that it's okay if you want to be cishet. like, it would be one thing to make a game where you can neatly extract the lesbianism and have the same game, a surface-level aesthetically queer game with no actual interest in queerness except as a marketing term. it would fucking suck but this paragraph would at least describe such a game. but TSL isn't that!!! . 'thirsty sword cishets' would be a very different and much worse game! awful and self-defeating paragraph. deeply silly concern to address and give airtime to. i didn't buy a game called 'thirsty sword lesbians' to be told 'its okay to be heterosexual i pwommy'

so yea just to reiterate: i like the game overall, i think there's a lot of good valuable stuff in there designwise despite all this. but i'm very ambivalent about it--ironically, i feel a love-hate relationship with this game about love-hate relationships. i admire it and yet i despise it! i long to put it at the tip of my sword and slowly tilt its cover up so that the pages look up at me coquettishly but with burning anger in their page numbers. if this book was a person id hatefuck it, is the joke, thats the joke im making, here, in this post. thanks

¹ i call it TSL whenever i can because the name 'Thirsty Sword Lesbians' makes me cringe out of my fucking skin. genuinely horrible name. i'm sure it's funny the first time you hear it, i got a mild chuckle the first time i heard it to, but it's such an obnoxious thing ot have to say repeatedly when seriously discussing it. should have stayed a placeholder name amiguitas