#just. let friendships and queer relationships EXIST already

[void-tiger]

…sometimes I just. Think about. How literal siblings get stuck with rumors they’re dating, and m-f friendships often don’t get a chance to truly start or develop because of the strain those assumptions and pressure causes…

…while literal same-gender and aspec-affirming couples get slapped with “like siblings” this and “just really good friends” that.

And then how this gets even more reductive with infighting like “m-f friendships can only occur when one of them is homosexual,” or aspecs picking at eachother over rep until it’s a very specific type of aroace on the aroace spectrum of the aspec spectrums (and nobody’s actually happy), and of course fanon ships pitted against gen-no-ships…

…and how everyone just ends up feeling stressed out and invalidated. Because anything—and I do mean anything—that doesn’t fit neatly inside of the heteronormative narrative of “men and women can’t be friends, men and women must be romantically involved, people of the same gender and/or aspec/any other queer identity(ies) must never date.”

And how it makes the queers and cichets alike absolutely miserable.

[bengiyo]

Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo: We Are So Fucking Back

I am glad that we are all having a normal one in reaction to Hwang Da Seul's latest project (@chicademartinica, @dropthedemiurge, @shortpplfedup, @lurkingshan). I'm still meditating on the whole affair, but for now want to get into how Hwang Da Seul feels so compassionate to closeted men, and how I also am stuck on the removal of the cross (@my-rose-tinted-glasses).

Shan already linked back to The Knowing, and I keep thinking about how rare it is to see two boys who've already come to an understanding of themselves meeting each other, and also including a bully who knows himself. What stands out for me with Hwang Da Seul is how old the pains weighing on her characters feel each time.

Dohee has suffered the abuse of his father, abandonment of his mother, and dissolution of his closest friendship, and he's just pushing through to leave all of this. His pain is obvious and lived in. He doesn't have to sit around moping exclusively about how he feels, because it's ever present. Like anyone else living with chronic pain, you just have to do stuff while hurting a lot of the time.

Juyeong is so fascinating to me because his exuberance and passion makes it almost impossible to hide who he is, and I will always be a sucker for the characters who love so loudly that you can't turn it off. I also keep thinking about how he has been communicating his attraction through his eyes so often, and how he's made desire known through all of his careful flirting.

The building romance between them hits for me most because they're paying attention to each other. Dohee made food that he realized Juyeong would like, is careful about hurting him in their sparring matches, and went for the ice cream that Juyeong said he wanted. Juyeong heard Dohee say he wanted to see snow, and so he made snow for him!

Now, back to that cross. Rose's post and one @benkaben posted have been rattling around in my head for hours. We know that Juyeong's mom is a pastor, and that he's being sent here as essentially conversion therapy (as Shan already pointed out). It's not just that he takes the cross off before confessing, which clearly shows that he's setting everything associated with that aside. It's that he's also confessing through a wall. It's such a small detail in how you can set aside the weight of responsibility and guilt associated with your queerness, but you don't lose the cultural touchstones: for some Christians (I was raised Catholic) you confess your signs through a mild layer of anonymity by putting some sort of wall or separation between you and the priest. There's something so subversive about having Juyeong set down his cross but still confess his feelings like a Christian.

I am also curious where Hyeonho will feature in the rest of this story. It's clear that he and Dohee felt something between each other at some point, and that Hyeonho ran from it. He doesn't want Dohee to get hurt too badly, and he's observing the growing relationship between Dohee and Juyeong. I'm so happy this character exists, because it gives us three characters struggling with the pressures on them to be a certain way. If we had to have a character who will make ugly choices around that, it helps for it not to be part of the main pair, and it also shows that these boys have not been the only queers around that they knew of.

Finally, let me just thank Hwang Da Seul for not being precious about the kissing. I like that their first proper kiss was their second kiss, and I like that it was awkward. I loved them false starting multiple times, trying to make sure they weren't observed too closely (considering their history), and I like that they built back to it. I know that kissing early means we're in for much pain, but it's so nice to have a show not dance around the kissing, or have it be especially mild. I like when two boys like each other and go for it.

I'm so happy that Hwang Da Seul is back. Every time I watch her shows I feel like I'm talking to someone who understands what the inside of the closet looks and feels like. I always feel seen by her in a way that feels gentle. She lets me remember how scary and ugly all of that was without it being a triggering or jarring experience. Peak drama season is upon us, because we're also about to get Love in the Big City in just three days. See you all on the other side.

[madlori]

Ok my fam, I think we all need a lil Come to Jesus moment. So let's talk about it.

"I'm disappointed Tommy wasn't in 8x02 and 8x03." That's ok! We'd all like to see him, and see our boys together. Going by precedent, we can probably expect to see him in 6-8 episodes this season (it could be more - Taylor had 13 episodes in season 5 - but we shouldn't count on it) and we've already burned one. I'd prefer not to have half of them during the opening disaster when SO MUCH ELSE is going on. I'd rather him appear in episodes when he's got a storyline with Buck, or even on his own, and especially at the midseason break or the end of the season when Relationship Events are more likely to happen.

"But the 217 engine!" I know. But as we sometimes like to say to other fans - we kind of baited ourselves with that. It was suggestive, sure. But the fact that production has MADE a 217 engine is also suggestive that we may see it again later, and they just put it in the hangar scene because they already had it and they had to fill up that hangar with as many vehicles as possible.

"An airplane disaster without using the pilot??" As others have pointed out, Tommy's not a jet pilot. And don't let anybody make you think you were nuts for thinking it was possible. It was definitely a reasonable theory, with supporting evidence, that he might be involved, but in the end, the big opening disaster is always going to be about our mains. As it should be. And honestly? It was great.

"But the whole point of bringing him back was to integrate him with the 118 more!" I'm sure that's still a goal they have, but it's probably easier said than done. Not just from a writing standpoint, but a contractual one, in that there's a limit to how often they can use him, so they have to pick and choose where.

"It's like they don't care about this relationship as much as we do." You're right. NOBODY will care about it as much as we do. They care about the main characters, about the show's actual premise (i.e. first responders encountering wild situations, secondarily the characters' personal lives). There is no universe in which ANY relationship in the show will be prioritized as much as we, the fandom, would like it to be. That's just life in the big city. But they do care, oh boy, they do. Enough to use BT scenes in off-season promo. Enough to write Tommy into a scene in the opening episode where, frankly, he didn't NEED to be. Also, consider this - to shoot that scene, Lou was probably on set a grand total of one day, MAYBE two. And they made sure to include him in the jokey "bee pickup lines" reel. You know what other relationship we haven't seen much? Buddie. They have not appeared together outside of work (and honestly, barely AT work either) except in the birthday party scene, and hey, did you notice that they do not interact at ALL in that scene? Buck spends that entire scene interacting only with Tommy. And that's a friendship featuring two mains that we know they value. That's not indicative of anything except the sheer scarcity of screentime.

"They should be promoting the queer relationship!" Should they? They've never really done that before, with the several pre-existing queer relationships. I have always sort of appreciated that they have not hung a neon sign on Buck and Tommy saying LOOK AT OUR NEW QUEER PAIRING. It's never gotten the Very Special Episode treatment - Buck never had gay panic, or much coming-out drama - and I like that. I like treating it no differently than other romantic pairings on the show. And they did actually promote it quite a bit when it happened. Now it would just feel kinda performative to me.

"Will he be in [whatever episode]?" Imma gently suggest we not do this every week. He'll be there or he won't. There'll be some we know he's in (I think 8x06 is a lock), some we won't know and will be pleasantly surprised, or unpleasantly surprised. I'd say odds for 8x04 are...20%, rising to at least 50% with 8x05 and 100% for 8x06.

And if you ever feel sad about it - go look at a still of Buck from any episode so far this season, and say to yourself, "This man is having heaps of amazing sex with his hot pilot boyfriend on the regular. Canonically."

I know a lot of us have encountered some pretty irritating gloating from people who hate this relationship (in a frankly weirdly obsessive way) about him being not there. Just remember - that's all they have to gloat about. The only "victory" they can claim is the absence of a character? Lame. And it's not even a victory, it's just the cost of doing business when your ship involves a recurring character. Sit back and enjoy your canon relationship between two men who've actually kissed on screen and ignore it. We can be generous about it.

So let's not talk ourselves off the deep end, shall we? I'd like to keep being a reasonable fandom.

[sadgayeddie]

(i actually didn't read more than that so thanks for the tl:dr i can't imagine anything more important was said)

anyway. buddie is 100% a valid ship. who cares if they're not canon (yet)? fandom is for having fun (like buck said!!!). they are all characters. not real. none of them exists in real life. we can do whatever we want to them. no one can decide what's right or wrong or the correct thing to ship. that's like, the point of fandom and especially tumblr. and we have no idea where canon will take us until the show is literally finished.

buck and eddie have been paired together since the day they met. they have a whole ass backstory that parallells to the other ROMANTIC relationships on the show. more so than the friendships. and wow, you really are some advocates for strong male friendships all of a sudden, like we need more of them? we have multiple of them in the show already. even between queer and straight characters. what we need more of is actually canonically queer people and couples. we can never have enough of that.

well back to the point. no one cares if your ship is canon. they even broke up. dated for like 15 minutes (of screentime......?). did you care this much about bucktaylor and buckabby too? (or have you only watched the eps tommy are in bc that would make sense...) because both of them are equally as valid as bucktommy but we don't hear you defending them this hard. one could even say one of them meant more to buck than tommy ever did. GASP WHAT DID SHE SAY. anyway, what tommy did was to open buck's eyes to something different. totally valid and we appreciate that. no one is taking that from you. arguably, i would say abby did the same thing.

and then you go on to say "one is canonically straight" which is the funniest argument i've ever heard. as if him saying that means it's set in stone. why would they even bring it up if not to touch it later? guess who thought he was straight up until a year ago? even if he never said "i'm straight" out loud, we know he thought he was. how many of you headcanoned him as bi before that? hm. interesting.

anyway. we literally don't care that you think buddie is a less valid ship because they're not canon. we're having so much fun. sorry you can't seem to understand that. you ship buck and tommy if you want and you let us ship buck and eddie. or both! or neither! it's really not harder than that. they're literally equally valid, just as people shipping ANYONE else in this show.

also... when buddie finally goes canon, what are you gonna do since apparently can only ship canon ships? :/

tl:dr

buddie is a valid ship. we're having fun. let us exist at the same time. none of us know what's gonna happen until it happens. all interpretations are valid. and you and i block whoever we want to block for our own peace and quiet if we see something we don't like. it's as easy as that.

[justcallmemrslupin]

40 Lines Isn’t Love: Why Remus Watching Sirius Wasn’t W*lfstar

Let’s talk about Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and fandom rewriting canon beyond recognition.

You’ve probably heard the argument:

“Remus and Sirius were in love! In Order of the Phoenix, Remus spends 40 lines looking at Sirius!”

I’m sorry, but are we really using “he looked at him” as undeniable proof of a romantic relationship?

Let’s be real for a second. Remus spends a lot of time watching Sirius in OotP, not because he’s in love, but because he knows exactly what Sirius is like when he’s unstable. Sirius was isolated, bitter, reckless, and emotionally stuck in his teenage mindset. Remus wasn’t looking at him with longing, he was monitoring him!!

He was watching for signs of escalation. And when Sirius does snap— at Molly, at Snape —Remus steps in. He de-escalates. That’s not romantic tension, for Merlin's sake! That’s damage control from someone who’s seen this behavior before.

And let’s not forget: Sirius already had a deep, emotional attachment with someone: James. They were inseparable. Teachers, classmates, and even Madam Rosmerta commented on it. Sirius and James were so close they invented two-way mirrors just to talk when they were in detention. Remus was never part of that picture. Not in that inner circle, not in that mirror.

But somehow, fandom decided Remus was Sirius's great love?🤯🤔😳

Let’s also address how the fandom rewrites Sirius into a character that’s... just not who he is in the books.

Canon Sirius was:

• A rebellious pureblood who rejected his family’s values.

• A bad boy with long hair and a motorcycle.

• Someone who decorated his room with bikini posters.

• The kind of popular, impulsive, “alpha” type who ignored the girl swooning over him.

• The living stereotype of the '70s rock-and-roll rebel.

But in many fanfics, he’s rewritten as a soft, flamboyant, eyeliner-wearing, queer-coded prince. Which is fine as an AU, but it’s not canon Sirius. And when people push this as fact and then bully anyone who disagrees? That’s where it becomes a problem.

Let’s be honest:

You can love your ships. But don’t gaslight people about canon.

Not everything has to be romance. Concern, grief, and friendship exist too.

[wei-ying-kexing-apologist]

Heesu in Class 2: Adaptations 3.0 Chanyoung, Astronomy, and Confessions

Tomorrow is going to be a bittersweet day for me because after episode 9 I am so desperate to see episode 10, but also that means tomorrow is the finale and I will no longer have this show to look forward to every week. I think this was my favorite episode of the series so far and it’s already been really incredible! 

First of all, I love the changes they made to Chanyoung from the manhwa to the live action. I am absolutely thrilled that they actually had Heesu confess to Chanyoung that he used to have a crush on him instead of having Heesu realize that his feelings had shifted and just not saying anything about it at all. Especially when Having A Crush on Chanyoung was so much of Heesu’s personality and youth. 

photo credit: @hughungrybear

Better than that, however, was the fight between Chanyoung and Heesu in the hallway at school. I will admit that I hadn’t fully picked up on the disparity in the level of intimate knowledge Chanyoung and Heesu have in one another. At the very least it settled in the background for me because I was chalking it up to Heesu learning all of this information about Chanyoung because he had a crush on Chanyoung. I fucking loved that Chanyoung is hurt by the fact that Heesu does not trust in him the way that Chanyoung trusts in Heesu. It paired really well with the conversation that Heesu had with his oldest sister about the most important pieces of a relationship to another person do not change even if romantic feelings might. 

Chanyoung was Heesu’s best friend, Heesu is Chanyoung’s best friend. Best friends should and do know so much about each other, and yet Chanyoung is freer in the information that he tells Heesu because he is straight and he did not grow up with that particular fear of the social repercussions of being queer in a conversative, homophobic society. Heesu has not trusted Chanyoung with information about himself because he is scared of losing the friendship that he has with Chanyoung when he realizes that he’s queer. 

gif by @jimmysea

But because Heesu has been harboring this huge black hole of secrets, Chanyoung also does not know how precarious of a situation he has put Heesu in by confronting him in the hallway. He accidentally set up a (potentially) very unsafe situation for Heesu if he had pushed any harder and forced a confession/outing. Chanyoung relies so much on Heesu, as do many people, and all he wants in that friendship is to be supportive back and Heesu simply has not let him get close enough to be seen. 

It’s working really well with the space metaphor imo, Heesu’s hobby involves being far away from the things he is studying intimately. 

And honestly, I like how the show’s revelation that Heesu is keeping himself closed off to the people he cares about is also supported by the conversation that Seong Won and Heesu have in Seong Won’s room. I know that scene is primarily a nod to the manhwa’s introduction to Seong Won, when Heesu complains that Seong Won is visible from the window buck ass naked. But, I am going to take it a step further and say that Seong Won and Heesu have had glimpses in to each other’s inner lives from the very beginning of this. Heesu can hide from Chanyoung all he wants, but he has (haha) bared himself for Seong Won without even realizing it, simply by existing in Seong Won’s orbit. 

AND he’s been making himself so transparently in his feelings for Seong Won that Seong Won is finally starting to realize that Heesu might not actually be crushing on Chanyoung any more. [Side note: the multiple head turns and catching each other looking at the bus stop was super cute]

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

They had a bunch of light and dark visuals going on in today’s episode that I really appreciated. Chanyoung turning the light on to confront Heesu in his own room. Chanyoung letting himself be kept in the dark when Heesu refuses to answer him and tells him to turn off the light. Chanyoung again, trying to illuminate himself in to Heesu’s inner life by confronting him in the hallway. But forcing that is not safe and will not work. Heesu opening the blinds and absolutely flooding himself in light when he starts talking to Seong Won, that singular bright spot of hope and longing for openness and honesty. Heesu prolonging his confession to Seong Won because his secret crush on Chanyoung has been a black hole inside him for so long that he can’t face Chanyoung with it. He has to whisper it in to the dark so that he does not have to see Chanyoung’s reaction to the news that Heesu’s been gay for him all this time. 

I for one cannot wait for tomorrow when one of them turns that light back on. And I am so excited that Heesu has finally overcome his fear and is getting things out in the open so that he is able to move on from his crush on Chanyoung and move in to a relationship with Seong Won. 

photo credit: @neuroticbookworm

I have to commend Ahn Ji Ho for his performance as Heesu. I could feel all of the emotions wafting off of this boy. I could feel the pit in his stomach when Chanyoung and Ho Sik start asking him about who he likes (especially after Ho Sik says ‘who is she’). I could feel the panic, the fear, the anger coming off of Heesu when Chanyoung confronted him in the hallway, could feel the butterflies in his stomach when he was inches from Seong Won. I could feel the rawness of Heesu telling Chanyoung it’s not that easy for him. 

And I loved how heartened that made Seong Won. It’s tragic that that is the case, that twin fear being a sort of comfort. But the reaction Seong Won had to hearing Heesu say literally the same thing Seong Won said to Jiyu about how it is easier for Jiyu or Chanyoung to confess felt akin to Heesu’s reaction to finding out that Seong Won had two moms. As if this is something only they can understand, as if that confession is something that is going to be safe and tended to between them. It is an understanding that Chanyoung or Jiyu can’t really have because they are heterosexual, even as the show has created other ways for Chanyoung and Jiyu to understand the fears that Heesu and Seong Won harbor as queer people (via Jiyu outing herself as Summer and Chanyoung leaving home). 

Extremely looking forward to tomorrow!

[shitpostingkats]

Hello would you be willing to rant about the ace subtext in Yugioh GX season 3 to me ? I haven't watched GX yet (though I plan to) and I have heard about its gay subtext but this is the first time I hear about ace subtext 💜🖤 ! Don't hesitate to spoil to your heart content btw, I don't mind them (they're generally what stimulates my interest in something in the first place) and I already spoiled myself a huge chunk of the season 3 of GX anyway 😅

OH ABSOLUTELY

I meant to make an essay about this ageeees ago but ended up never getting around to it. For starters, let's just talk about how ace coded Jaden Yuki is.

Jaden, at multiple points in the series, expresses a nonchalance, obliviousness, or straight up disinterest in romance. Multiple people ask him out and he either doesn't get what they're asking or turns them down. (This includes a guy btw, no not that one, an undead ghost king asks Jaden to marry him and Jaden turns him down.) Several minor villains attempt to distract him/flirt with him/straight up use love magic on him and it just. Does not work. His tag force profile says, quote "At times a girl may have a crush on him, but he has rarely, if ever, shown any interest."

Okay, so he's gay, right?

Well, as I mentioned, even the one male character that shows interest in him, he turns down, but maybe that was a fluke.

Enter season 3, and Jesse "Johan" Anderson.

Jesse is a sweet befrilled little bishonen boy, with a rainbow magic motif and the accent of Owen Wilson. He and Jaden instantly click. His entire introduction episode is just the two of them hanging out and talking about their shared interests, and Jaden's other friends commenting that they've never seen him act like this with anyone. Over the course of an arc, the two come to completely rely on each other and work in tandem, and Jesse takes to calling Jaden "partner".

This is the part that a lot of folks like to point to and declare "gay!" and I'm not going to deny it. Jesse is an undeniably queer character.

Interestingly, in a series set in highschool, with a large ensemble of characters undergoing coming-of-age plot lines, and having crises of identity, Jesse is one of the only members of the cast to never having an arc around his identity or his relationships with people.

Chazz learns that he came from an abusive family and has to shed the toxic expectations placed upon him by his older brothers, leaving behind the fruitless scrabble for their approval. Alexis slowly comes to terms with the fact that her crush (Jaden) will never like her back and she has spent so long chasing after friendships that she no longer knows how to exist without being an ever smiling supporter and it terrifies her. Syrus wants desperately to live up to his older brother's reputation, except said older brother is actually a mess, and the more Syrus tries to be like him the more he seems to drive them apart. Heck, even Hassleberry has some (extremely clumsy) magical identity shenanigans going on, and reckoning his past life as a dinosaur (it's a long story) with his understanding of himself. Jaden's a whole other bag of worms.

But Jesse is never troubled by his identity, or the way he loves people. That's what makes Jesse queer: he's comfortable with who he is, revolutionary so for his genre. He's happy to just be in Jaden's life.

Then Yubel shows up.

Okay, about Yubel. Now, you might have heard, but Jaden had this bigender ghost dragon demon sharing tenancy in his brain when he was a kid, who's actually a leftover guardian from a past life, who swore an oath to follow Jaden through his reincarnations and protect him, and underwent painful transformative surgery to make themselves an immortal monster creature so they could do just that. They asked past!Jaden if he would always love them, and he said yes of course. Then in present day they got a little into the protector sauce and started murdering anyone who made Jaden sad, so he decided to send them away into the cold isolation of space to stop the murders from happening. Now they're back, and they have a complex.

Specifically, they are very angry at Jaden for sending them away, but also rationalize it as "Jaden promised to love me forever. Then he sent me into the Torment Nexus. Therefore, sending the person you care about to the Torment Nexus = love."

(Learning all this also adds a fascinating layer to Jaden, because it recontextualizes all those interactions he had where he turned people down. Not only is he just naturally oblivious, but subconsciously he tries to hold people at arms length, so they don't go to extreme lengths for him.)

Yubel is royally pissed to come back from The Pain Dimension and see their "spot" at Jaden's side taken by this funky little rainbow southern boi. So they try to reassert their love by killing everyone Jaden knows; placing him in intense pain, and conveniently getting rid of all those "rivals" for his affection.

The plot of yugioh gx season 3 is the villain trying to force the main character into what their idea of a "romantic" relationship should be, while trying to eradicate the person who is completely comfortable loving him in a nontraditional way.

And! The interesting thing about Jaden! Is that he does love!

Jesse sacrifices himself to save Jaden and everyone, and Jaden cannot cope with that. (see above, for him having trouble forming connections because he equates loving someone with deep personal loss that's his fault) He sets out for basically the afterlife, determined to bring Jesse back from the dead, with everyone else in the show trailing after him and telling him this is a bad idea.

Jaden loves Jesse to death and past it. That cannot be understated.

For Jaden, love exists. It's primal and destructive and powerful and almost tears him apart, and he tries to burn down the universe to get the people he cares about back. He doesn't go on dates, he doesn't know what the word "fiance" means, he visibly cringes when people talk about romantic relationships, but he loves so powerfully that the entire conflict of the season, maybe even the entire show, is that Jaden loves so much.

Yubel puts together that Jaden loves Jesse, so they take over his body. They try to shape themselves into the form they know Jaden loves, and short of that, deliver an ultimatum. Them, or Jesse.

Yubel cannot comprehend a world where Jaden is allowed to love them both. Yubel is representative of the view of love as a monogamous, one-and-done kind of situation. Jaden reaches back out and says "No. I love him, and I love you. And I'm sorry."

Yubel cannot love him into the form of relationship they think is "normal". No matter how hard they try, the two of them are never going to be the traditional, picture perfect couple from Yubel's stories of the knight and his bodyguard. They will both always be "alien". And Jaden will never stop loving Jesse, in that messy and vaguely defined way neither of them will elaborate on, even when asked by other characters.

When Jaden gives up on the idea of love and being loved in exactly the way everyone is telling him he should, that's when he gets a happy ending.

It's a theme that permeates so much of the series. Chazz should stop striving for approval from people who don't care about him. Cyrus should stop trying to change himself just to fit a preconceived mold. Alexis can't keep bending over backwards to help people in the vain hope that one day they will love her back the way she wants.

And at the center of it all an asexual character, learning to accept the part of him that loves different from the way he is told he should.

[sbk-prompt-week]

☁️Welcome to skyblock kingdom’s prompt week event! This will be running from January 19th to January 25th, 2025. Modded by @in-the-multiverse

☁️Use #sbkpromptweek to participate

☁️Below the cut are FAQ (please read through them) and a little ramble about each prompt to spark ideas or inspiration (optional to read). Have fun creating! :D

What is a prompt week?

It’s a scheduled fandom event dedicated to characters, ships, or fandoms in general— usually with a list of prompts or themes to inspire and encourage fanworks. They’re announced in advance and fanworks are posted on the corresponding days of the week. In this case, it’s for the sbk fandom as a whole! This blog will be archiving all creations submitted as long as they follow the guidelines

Is this limited to fanart and fanfiction?

Nope. You’re more than welcome to make moodboards, stimboards, song playlists, edits, cosplay and the likes! Additionally, there’s no art requirements or minimum/maximum word count. Anything ai generated is disallowed.

What type of content is allowed?

If it’s within a creator’s boundaries, it’s allowed (this information can be found in #member-info on the SBK Community discord). Tag accordingly for shipping or content warnings if your works contain them. Make use of the tumblr blacklist for topics you don’t want to see. If you don’t like something, don’t engage. Be respectful. And please be patient to those who haven’t stated what they are/aren’t ok with.

Can I post something late?

Absolutely! This isn’t an event with a hard set deadline.

Do I have to make something for every day?

Nah, you can make as little or as much as you’d like, at whatever pace you’re comfortable with.

I have a fanwork I’m already creating, can I submit it to this event?

If it fits within the prompts provided, yep!

Can I combine prompts?

Sure, just mention which ones you’re combining when you post.

Why isn’t my post reblogged?

If I miss something a week after the event is over, please reach out in an ask and I’ll archive it here. Late entries may take more time to be reblogged as I’ll be monitoring the tag less frequently.

☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️👑☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️

Bond

Have a pair or group of people you enjoy seeing together, or would like to depict together? This goes for friendships, romantic pairings, queer platonic relationships, familial bonds, etc. Is it unconditional love? Complicated? Yearning? Or perhaps something more abstract?

In a different world

AUs, crossovers, homelands that weren’t 99% void, we imagine them in a different setting! Maybe you’d like to add a fic or fanart to an AU that already exists, or maybe you’d like to come up with one of your own. Want to explore how the sbkers would react to being in a different mcyt series? Or meet other characters? Whatever your imagination compels you to create, go for it!

Fashion

Casual modern clothing? Royal outfits? Goth? Punk? Catmaid? Cottagecore? Let’s stylize those cubitos! Or maybe you’d like to spin this prompt another way. Does it extend into world building? Is it kingdom specific? The possibilities are up to you!

Horror vs. Fantasy

Wanna put a blorbo through the horrors? Are they the horrors? Or would you rather create something more whimsical? Depict fantasies of certain characters? Wanna do both? The canvas and/or keyboard is all yours.

Retrospect

What happened this season that you’d like to revisit? A fond memory, favourite bit, nostalgic beginnings, something that’s been spinning around in your brain since it happened. Or perhaps you’d like to retell a moment from a different perspective: through another character’s eyes, another narrative lens, etc.

Meme redraw / Crackfic

We get silly with it! Have a reaction image or funny stock photo you’d like to redraw the sbkers in? Maybe a show screenshot or random internet image? Or how ‘bout throwing these guys in scenarios where you don’t have to worry about getting Serious writing it? We’re cringe and free >:3

Free Day

You’re more than welcome to come up with your own prompt. Whatever you feel drawn to, whatever gets your gears going, have fun creating it!

☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️👑☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️

[edwin-paynes-bowtie]

What makes you love payneland as a romantic pairing? Personally when I watched the show I saw them as a platonic pair almost exclusively. Like yes, I believe that sometimes you do look at your best friends with stars in your eyes, bc that's part of the queer experience to me. Anyway I'm getting off track. What drew you to them as a ship? How do you feel about Palasaki? Do you think the show will ever get picked up again? Will it ever be the same?

Love to know your thoughts!

I think Edwin and Charles's relationship is super queer and I love it. Like, they are best mates. They have been married 35 years. They've never kissed. They go to Hell for each other. They have lots of feelings that are a mix between friendship and devotion and romantic love, and the lines between those feelings blur. They are currently in essentially an exclusive relationship. They are not yet together.

Their dynamic is so fucking relatably queer, which I love.

In the end, the reasons that I advocate for them romantically (rather than in an exclusive QPR) are:

Edwin's current canonical feelings for Charles. I have Been In His Shoes and it is kind of a sucky place to be. I want him to experience love and romance, too, and I view Payneland as a Sold-as-a-Set do-not-separate nothing-comes-between-us monogamous unit already.

The fact that Charles so clearly already likes Edwin back. He did the hand over the heart thing! At the end of 8! Yes!!!

George and Jayden have amazing chemistry.

I just want to see them build their entire existences around each other in every sense of the world and be happy. It would bring me so much joy to see them happy and in love, because the trust and devotion they share would lend well to a beautiful and loving relationship.

I actually wrote an in-depth essay on this subject here!

I also think seeing them get together would help heal the sad little queer kid inside me that loved Destiel, lol.

Okay! What drew me to them as a ship?

They are my favourite kind of ship. Two very traumatized individuals who fit around each other's jagged edges and love each other all the more for those edges.

Edwin and Charles have been home for each other. For decades. They share every aspect of their existence and are fully comfortable together, and it's especially beautful considering that they had really lonely, short, horrible lives. They've saved each other.

Edwin wants to be safe? Charles makes him safe. Charles wants to live? He may not realize it, but Edwin is building a life after life with him.

Next, Palasaki! I do like Palasaki. I think they're a cute ship and have a lot of potential, and I would have loved to see them develop.

I'm not sure about the show being picked up again. I really hope it is (and also hope they totally sever it from Sandman). But shows that were canceled are rarely saved, and I'm not trying to get my hopes up. I think it has a chance, but I'm not letting myself hold my breath.

I think that the show would be the same if it did get picked up again. I trust this team of writers and think they have done really well with season 1, and I want to see what else they had in store during seasons 2-6.

However, I do have this fear that we'd do all this work to renew it and Payneland wouldn't be endgame. I think that would be a slap in the face to a lot of the fan base. Luckily, I am 99.9% sure they are endgame and am not that worried about this. I just have Anxiety.

[hippolotamus]

Who would I be if I didn't come barreling in with queer feelings??? Inspired by this post from my wife @bidisasterevankinard, this morning's therapy session and a few too many listens to Cleopatra by The Lumineers 😘

late for this, late for that | 7x06 coda | 757 words | G

“Not late. Right on time,” Evan sighs, content and sated, turning in his arms so they’re back-to-chest. It allows him to settle into his newly discovered love of being the little spoon. And Tommy’s new found love of indulging Evan.

“Good to know.” He presses a kiss into Evan’s mussed, disheveled curls, chuckling at the light snores his – boyfriend? Date? Guy he’s seeing? – is already making. 

If he’s being honest, ‘right on time’ is the furthest thing from what he feels. Evan hasn’t said as much, but Tommy suspects he’s started to question things about himself. About his life in general, past interactions, romances, friendships, crushes. Eventually he’ll likely face one of the biggest, if not the biggest, questions. How could I not know? 

As someone who went on a similar journey, he’ll do his best to guide Evan through. He wants to wave the proverbial magic wand to produce easy, matter-of-fact answers and soothe any wounds, but Evan will have to do that part on his own. Eventually it becomes a rewarding experience, making those discoveries, but he knows as well as anyone that it can be a bitch of a road to travel. An often dark pathway loaded with unexpected landmines. Full of monsters that go ‘boo’ at the very worst times, usually just when the dust of the last jumpscare has settled. 

Not for the first time – and likely not for the last – the notion makes Tommy wish they could have met earlier. That he could somehow turn back the clock to meet himself earlier so he could be there for Evan. He’s already put himself through the wringer, in therapy and in his own mental torture chamber, about why he lied for so long about who he is. But, as his therapist reminds him over and over again, these things are never truly done. There are often new layers unveiled, triggered by different circumstances. Sometimes big and loud, sometimes ordinary and everyday. Tommy thinks Evan might be a bit of both. 

Either way, here he is, wondering how his own life might have been different if he hadn’t denied himself for so long. If he could have been brave like Hen and said ‘this is who I am’. Because it’s not as if he didn’t know. Tommy knew exactly who he was, who he is. He’s known since the first time he kissed CJ, his high school football team’s defensive tackle, behind the bleachers after practice one late summer night. God knows he had been questioning for a hell of a lot longer. 

However, he can’t time travel and change things. He can’t give past versions of himself options that didn’t exist. Well, technically they did, but it meant blowing up his entire life and being ostracized. While Hen didn’t have anything to lose, because she was already being isolated by that era of the 118, Tommy did. 

He had what he thought were friends, though, really, most of them were alliances. People he accepted as friends for the high cost of burying his identity. Paid for with girlfriends and the occasional male sex worker when he really needed to let go. With living an empty, lonely, fraudulent existence, constantly saying no to the things and experiences he craved. Because saying yes - to ‘just one’ gay club, one pride event, one secret boyfriend willing to be called girlfriend for appearances - meant risking being found out. Meant taking a wrecking ball to the carefully curated macho persona he’d built for protection. Meant having all of his ‘meaningful’ supports and relationships ripped away. It was bad enough that his own parents couldn’t be there for him. He didn’t need the camaraderie of firefighting taken away, too. 

Evan snorts and snuffles, pulling Tommy back to the present. He turns in his sleep, somehow burrowing closer as he throws an arm across Tommy’s waist. His mouth is slack and parted, breathing calm and even. 

A wave of fondness washes over Tommy as he watches his… Evan sleep, blissfully unaware of all the things tumbling around in his brain. It’s an emotion he hasn’t felt in a while, not like this, but he’s grateful for how naturally it seems to want to return. 

Maybe they couldn’t meet earlier or change their histories, save themselves or each other from pain. But they’re here now with their combined battle scars, ready for something, whatever that looks like. And isn’t that better than never? So, perhaps what Evan said was true. Maybe he’s not too late and they’re right on time. 

part 2 (Eddie's POV) here

[bogkeep]

(CW for death)

i know we're so long past the era where people would say online friendships and communities and relationships aren't as real as offline ones, since we're all online now, but, man. it still gives me vertigo to think about the impact my internet homes have had on my life, or the way i've had an impact on others, all across the world.

familiar haiz lore for anyone who's stuck around for a while, but i used to hang out on an old school internet forum for a fandom for a while about a decade ago. i burned bright and fast, a pivotal moment in my life where i gained a lot of social confidence, made a lot of friends - maybe too many, having not yet known that there is a limit - and consequently burning out as i tried to be present for too many people, having tied too much of my identity to a piece of media starting to stack up controversies, to a place becoming exhausting in its discussions. i can not and will not regret the time i spent on there, as what i gained from it has shaped so much of who i am now, but i spent a long time feeling bitter about it.

i did a lot of exchanges with people. conversations with people about gender and identity, postcard exchanges, art exchanges. i have met many of the friends i made in person. i have received messages thanking me for helping them learn about gender stuff or helping them figure out their identities, or just for being stubborn and contributing to making the forum a more queer friendly space than it was when i joined. when i logged in to join a discussion years after i left, new people i had never talked to were excited to see me. occasionally i log in to see if i've received new private messages. it's very rare, but it does happen.

last year a very beloved member of the community passed away. several people contacted me to let me know. it is not the first person in this community to have passed away, but it was a person whose avatar was a portrait i had drawn for her (based on a photo) in exchange for a poem. that is going to be her avatar for as long as the forum exists. that is already a strange feeling - not bad! just, oh. a ghost wearing the face i made for them.

it's been nearly a year, and for no particular reason i felt compelled to log in to the forum again, not expecting a message at all - but i had one. it was a message sent just this morning, passed along from the widower, about how he had made prints of the old drawing, how he still had the original file and so even if the prints fade he can get another made, and how he's been keeping a print somewhere in his presence. reading about it makes me weep. i could never have known something i drew so long ago could still hold so much meaning to someone - not only to the person i gifted it to, but to those who associated it with her.

maybe this is too personal to share on a public platform, but... i don't know. for all that i had burnt myself out in the past, overextending myself in what i was capable of offering others, for all that i left... the things i've said and done still matter to people. they don't go away, even when i am no longer able to be what i used to be. our beloved community member did so much, and she too, will live on for a very long time.

[my-castles-crumbling]

Anon Advice Asks - July 2

rabbit anon (new), simultaneous anon (new), frog stuffie guy anon, wise anon (new), default anon

rabbit anon

Hi! Can I ask you something?

So, i had a friend group of 7. One of my friends is homophobic (let’s call her Rabbit). She’s a huge homophobe. We all know about it because she keeps talking about how gross it is, etc.

But one night during a sleepover another friend of mine came out (let’s call her Cat). I already knew about her sexuality, so i wasn’t shocked. Other people in the group also knew. 3 didn’t, but we weren’t too concerned about them because we knew they weren’t a threat. We were mostly waiting to see Rabbit’s reaction, it felt like we were holding a grenade or something.

Cat was incredibly brave to come out after fifteenth years of friendship. She’d been scared of Rabbit’s reaction this whole time. But surprisingly, Rabbit was supportive! She said something like, “Okay, good for you.” And then we never talked about it again. I expected her to avoid Cat or act weird around her, but she didn’t. She still hangs out with us, and even though she remains openly homophobic in general, she’s never been that way toward Cat.

I’m confused by her behavior. As a straight person who has a lot of queer friends and considers myself an ally, I’m wondering: does this make Rabbit an ally too? Or is she just being supportive of Cat?

It’s confusing because she still says she doesn’t like same sex relationships, yet she stays friends with Cat and the rest of us. She didn’t mind when Cat brought her girlfriend on vacation, and she even befriended her.

Thank you!!

Hi!

No, in my opinion, that doesn't make her an ally at all. It makes her a hypocrite. I also kind of wonder if she's truly supportive or if she's just keeping her opinion to herself.

I also feel like I need to give you a tough truth here: if you're not calling rabbit out on her bullshit, then you're not being a good ally to Cat. The thing is, by being friends with rabbit and accepting her for who she is, you're enabling her homophobia. As a queer person myself, I probably wouldn't see you as a safe person, BECAUSE you associate with someone who's homophobic.

I know it can be super hard to call people out, especially when it can affect your social life and can cause drama. But I think if I were you, I would think about my friendship with rabbit, and what that means.

I'm sending you lots of love. I know this isn't easy, and I'm proud of you for thinking about difficult topics like this!

___

simultaneous anon

Do you have any tips on how to come out as trans to your family when you simultaneously want them to know but also don't, if that makes sense?

I think that makes sense!

What if you focus on your presentation, and not the actual words? Like what if you tell your family you want to dress more feminine/masculine, but don't tell them you actually are a boy/girl? If they take that well, you could even ask them to use different pronouns for you? That way it's kind of...a soft launch? I hope I'm making sense <3

___

frog stuffie guy anon

I'm so sorry that you're in this situation right now <3 I hope you know I'm here if you need to vent. I'm sending you so much love!

___

wise anon

(I already have an anon name so don’t feel pressured to give me a specific anon name, I’m just a little embarrassed to admit what I’m gonna say 🫶✨)

I might sound stupid, and very very self centered, so I’m pleading with you not to think of me as arrogant or selfish:

I feel so wise. I’m fairly young, I know, but I feel SO wise. Wiser than some adults I know, and because of my culture, people my age are like, tolerable, but when the adult simply does not want to listen they believe they can just, deny the child an opinion and talk over them, override their existence, and it makes me feel so under appreciated, because I know so much.

I’ve been being so self aware as of late. I’ve been taking accountability, being honest with myself when it’s scary,

I’ve been looking at everything from new perspectives and have been trying new philosophies.

Jack of all trades, master of none, I can play 2 instruments, do many mediums of art, I have a wide variety of books and movies I consume to educate myself, I get top grades in everything, I’m good at acting, I’m grounded in my body and existence,

I’m trying to be kind and honest to myself and others and I feel like I’ve been succeeding.

I just, don’t know how to articulate this, and I don’t even know who to articulate this to. I just feel smart and wise and good enough. And people around me always bulldoze over me and tell me there’s constantly room for improvement—

Which I know!!! I know I know I know! I know that, I know other things, I just know SO MUCH. Why can’t they just tell me that I’m fine as is?

Why do I just have to keep going? I want to keep going in life and in my mind but it feels hard to do so if I feel that the moment I take a break of feel satisfied, nobody’s proud of me anymore.

Everyone around me occasionally tells me I’m wise or prudent or articulate and “sooooo mature for [my] age” (which is also partially another thing entirely), so why don’t they say it more often?

I’m just rambling really. I know what this is and what I’m feeling, but knowing doesn’t equate to fully processing, and the act of knowing doesn’t change things.

I know that my love language is words of affirmation and nobody around me likes to give me that, so I always kind of have to beg.

I know that I know things and that doesn’t equate to my worth, and that I’m worth slightly more than just my knowledge,

I know that this self-actualization has come from years of unaddressed mental issues and trauma

And I know that I could really use some good human connection. Not from my family, but a good deep conversation with someone I’m not afraid of (people who aren’t family members, existing friends, etc.)

I just feel so stupid. A part of me is angry at myself for even saying anything and is trying to suppress all of this.

I just want to feel adequate, I guess

Nobody makes me feel adequate.

And when it comes to adequacy, I don’t actually know if I’m adequate. If enough people just don’t bother to figure out how to like, make me feel adequate I don’t know if I deserve it? It’s not that I get my worth from others, I just get connections from them. And connections don’t feel good when they’re one-sided really.

Aughhhdhshdhshsakckdjdfjjj

This is all from the recesses of my mind. I know what I’m saying is selfish. Very selfish. I guess I just needed to get it out.

Sorry for being self-centered. Your blog is super cool 🫶✨

Hi <3

I don't think you're being wise or arrogant or self-centered! I think you want acknowledgement for all that you've accomplished so far, and there's nothing wrong with that. I was also a 'mature for their age' person, so I get it.

I'm going to be truthful with you, because you seem to want the truth, and you also seem self-aware enough to be able to understand. I'm hoping you don't take any of it as like...an insult? It really isn't <3 I just think sometimes adults don't take the time to actually explain things, so I'm going to try.

Looking back as an adult now, I think sometimes teens (I think you're a teen?) who are mature for their age have this like....dissonance? Because they ARE super smart and want to be treated like an adult, but adults won't do that. So you feel like you're caught in the middle of adulthood and childhood, and it's frustrating. And adults get nervous to give you too much responsibility because they don't want to overburden you or for you to take it and run and make big mistakes. They think you aren't ready- sometimes they're wrong, and sometimes they're right. And then there's the fact that most kids your age ARENT that mature, so connections are hard. It's like a limbo of feeling so fucking ready but being held back.

I can't pretend to understand you, personally, but I can look back and know what *I* didn't know at your age, and it's this: You ARE adequate. You are good enough. You're educated and self-aware. And you're definitely super mature. You're ready for more than adults think, but also, you might lack experience, and that's the scary part that adults see. But You still deserve to have your opinion taken into account, and your feelings should be valued.

But don't forget that books, movies, etc only teach so much. Would the adults in your life be willing to let you try to go out in the world and get experience in the things you want to learn about? Could you volunteer? Get a job? Work with kids? I feel like those kinds of thigs would be so much more rewarding for you and also...you're smart enough to do them. You seem grounded and responsible enough to actually do things like that, and the more you do things like that, the more adults take you seriously.

But remember that no matter what anyone says, you ARE worthy. And I believe in you!

---

default anon

hi default anon here!!

when you started off with 'i know this probably isn't going to be helpful' while answering my last ask just know you were right 😭

okay idek if u remember asks but like i'm just sending this u dont have to answer if this is kinda confusing idk

sorry

but yeah bro im crashing out literally htis is so confusing i cant wait it out and see how ti goes like i literally cant. plus probably nothing si going to happen anyways so theres not much to see how it goes

and i know i probably should just see and not worry about this now and i know this is extreme overthinking but like idk okay

pls helpp ugh sgjsfkjhgjfshg

:(

anyways i hope you're having a great day ty for doing these advice asks <3

hahahaha the beginning of your ask made me laugh.

yeah, it's a lot easier said than done to just...not overthink.

What if you keep writing down your thoughts? You can send them all to me if you want. Like after you see her, just write it all down to get it out of your head?

sending you love <3

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

Aren't you tired of forced romances with no chemistry that only take away from the actually interesting plot? Don't you just want media where romance isn't portrayed as being superior and more important than (queer)platonic relationships?

Well, my exhausted aro ass is too, so here are a few tricks and wisdoms I've gathered over my years of being a-spec (which is all of them) on how to avoid romance (in media) in a very allonormative society 💚🤍🩶🖤

(this is a rec list btw. no I am not shitting on the shows that I tagged, quite the opposite)

1. Middle Grade

I get if you aren't really into that, because it is kind of annoying to be pointed to literal children's literature when all you want is a story that isn't constantly being interrupted by describing the main guy's heated eyes for the twentieth time.

However.

It is true that in middle grade, friendship is always more important than romance. Because, let's face it. Making two eleven year old characters kiss is kinda weird. So even if there is a romance, it isn't very prominent and treated more like friendship and/or a puppy crush. Plus some stories get surprisingly dark?!?!

Examples

- Howl's Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones), technically a romance in the end, but mostly focused on found family, shenanigans, and finding your own value

- House of Many Ways (DWJ). Yes, again. I really like her books okay? They always have something so fantastical and whimsical about them. This is my other favorite book by her and it has literally no romance at all. Plus a hmc cameo that is so fun !!

- Coraline (Neil Gaiman). Maybe this is cheating because I never actually read it. However. a) the movie traumatized me. b) Wybie was added to the movie, he doesn't exist in the book, so if "power of friendship" isn't your thing this will be great. Probably vibes over plot.

Flyte (Angie Sage). Technically this is the second book, but I never read the first one and still understood everything. Once again, no romance at all. A fun read, which can get surprisingly dark at times.

2. Short Story Collections

Once again, I get it if it isn't your thing. Short stories are - as the name reveals - short. Which means: no worldbuilding, very limited narrator, open ending, no time to really get attached to characters, etc.

But.

The cool thing about collections, is that they always have a certain theme. And as long as the theme is not romance, romance will not be the focus. Even if there is a romantic relationship, it will be used to explore this theme since there simply isn't time for anything else.

Examples:

Life Ceremony (Sayaka Murata) This is the book that actually made me figure out: hey! I do actually like short stories !! The main theme is basically about being different and it plays a lot with body horror and the perception of your own body in contrast with how society sees it. There is even a story about two women who platonically live together and raised multiple children!

Canterbury Classics: Classic Tales of Horror (introduction by Ernest Hilbert). As the name suggests, this is a collection of horror short stories, featuring well-known authors such as Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe or Charlotte Perkins Gilman. As these are classic old tales, the language is a bit complicated at times and you can read them for free on Gutenberg. However, the book is very very pretty and the introduction is very interesting (Origins of the genre, specific tropes and monsters, etc.)

3. Podcasts

PODCASTS!!! If you follow me, you are probably already aware of those. However, in case you don't, let me introduce you to the wonderful world of Audiodramas.

The cool thing about Podcasts is that pretty much anyone can do it. All you need is an idea, a mic, a lot of motivation, and you're pretty much set to go. No producers or publishers you need to get approval from. So it is only natural that this medium is filled to the brim with queer creators. Basically every character is somewhat queer. It's awesome.

Examples:

- The Silt Verses. I adore TSV. I listened to the first season like, four times. (the second one is good too but OH MY GOD THE FIRST ONE). And one of the main characters is canonically and explicitly aro!! Sister Carpenter, I love you with my whole being. And the great thing is, it is very clear that the writers love her, too!! There is a lot (like a LOT) of body horror so it isn't for everybody. But if you think you can handle it I really recommend it. (Plus, not any romance plotlines at all !!)

- Wolf 359. This is one of the older ones and it is really good. It's a bunch of restless and very unwell people stuck in a spaceship under the unforgiving rule of capitalism. However bad you imagine it, I can assure you it is worse. But the really cool thing is that there literally isn't any romance at all. Like, there are great m/f friendships but they never even hint towards a romance. Some people are so unused to that that they literally ship the main dude with the fucking robot AI. (don't worry, not an actual romance plot).

- Girl in space. I am sure you will be absolutely shook to know that this one also takes place in space. It is about a girl. In space. Shocking, I know. Except that she has been on her own for well over a year when suddenly a fleet of strange ships arrive and kidnap her. There is also a very asshole-y robot. And questions about what makes us human. And found family!! And a goat. And cheese. Just go listen to it okay. This is also one of the shortest ones of the list, so maybe a good start.

- Malevolent. I have to confess that I personally am not a huge fan of this one? Like the premise is really cool - a detective who wakes up blind and with a demon in his head who can see through the detectives eyes. What the fuck?, you may ask yourself. So does Arthur Lester. Mysteries and other dimensions and a whole lot of pain ensues. Harlan is undeniably an awesome VA and a great writer, but his stories just seem a bit too repetitive to me? Nonetheless I know of lots of people who enjoy it a lot. Trying to define the relationship between Arthur and John (his demon) is perhaps the biggest mystery of them all. (Jk. there are multiple murders and stuff. they've really got other priorities)

- Middle:Below. This is another short one and probably the least famous of this list? It's about this funky lil dude with a ghost roommate and a cat who can talk (.....or can it?). There is a m/f friendship but it never turns into a romance (wow it is possible!!). They all go on adventures on the dimension between life and death. Despite the description, this is literally just a comedy. A bit spooky at best. Reminds me a bit of scarier kids cartoons like gravity falls.

4. "Gay" movies/series in countries with homophobic censorship

Now you may think, "hey that seems like a bit of an asshole move!". And you would be 100% correct in thinking that.

However.

It does also mean that the main relationship of the story can never be explicitly romantic. They can allude to it, they can try to show it. But they can never confirm. So it is very easy to interpret them as having a QPR. (because tbh I don't think I've ever seen one on television.)

Examples:

The Untamed. Look. I am aware that the first episode is so fucking atrocious, all right? And no, the CGI does in fact never get better. And sometimes the translated subtitles are a bit awkward. But I swear that it is so good. Trust me on this one, okay? Just make it through the first ep. It's a wild ride. Lan Zhan I love you. (However the book it is based on (written by a woman) depicts them being in an explicitly romantic relationship, with lots of very inaccurate and badly researched smut, so the fandom pretty much sees them as exclusively romantic.)

- Word of Honor. Very much in the same vein as The Untamed. Except that the first episode is less horrible. And the one dude has a very fruity fan. And they also raise a kid together. And the costumes of the villains are really fun!! I actually never finished this one tbh. I know that the book it is based on has one very extremely terrible ableist plot point, but I don't know if that made it into the show since I never got that far

The Devil Judge. The last two were fantasy, this one is a dystopia. Very tense and interesting. There is a romantic subplot (typical childhood friend vs bad boy love triangle), but he rejects the childhood friend and they can't exactly show him and the "bad boy" (who is actually a judge. and also kinda his sugar daddy) as explicitly romantic for the reason above. They also live in the same house and cook together and take care of a child together. Can totally recommend.

Assassination Classroom. A bunch of students have to kill their teacher who is an alien. that's literally the plot. I cried so hard at the finale. Nagisa and Karma have MASSIVE vibes and you can't convince me otherwise. (There is a romantic subplot that does end in a kiss, but they agree to continue as friends since those were..... extenuating circumstances. The dude very clearly is not into her). Nagisa also very aro-spec coded imo.

5. "Straightbaiting" Anime

Sometimes Anime does this thing (which I personally find very hilarious) where a boy and a girl will have no other romantic involvements or love interests while growing closer and closer, but never get together. A bit like reverse queerbaiting.

Examples:

- Fairy Tail. The ultimate power is friendship anime. That is all you need to know. (I should also perhaps warn you that the end of the last arc (and the sequel series, but we don't talk about that) are huge letdowns. Like the buildup? So good. But....welp. If that doesn't bother you too much and the idea to have a group of people be the main character instead of one person only, this may be the series for you. Just do yourself a favor and skip all the filler arcs

Soul Eater. I really love the vibes of this one. Once again, most of the fandom likes depicting them as explicitly romantic, but they never canonically are. It also reminds me a bit of creepy children cartoons. It is also where the superior fictional school exists, Devon. Frankenstein teaches there (the dude, not the monster). People transform into badass weapons. Nobody can convince me that Make Albarn is not a trans woman. However the ending deviates a bit from the manga, and I personally think the anime one is a bit worse

Noragami. This one will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the first anime I really watched. This one also has people who transform into weapons, but the vibes are very different. It goes a bit more into Japanese folklore in case that interests you.

Bonus: Canonically Aro/Heavily Aro-Coded Characters

They were not anywhere above because the stories they are in didn't really fit any of the categories. But they exist!

Wolf (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts). I adore Wolf. There is also barely any romance. Like, it will seem like it at first, but don't worry, it's only straightbaiting. There is a romance subplot but it's very brief and very much in the background. Overall very good aro show 👍

Isaac (Heartstopper) Very queer show, very high likelihood that you already know of it. The series per se is very romance focused, but as far as I've heard the a-spec rep in S2 is really good

Georgia (Loveless). Actually never read it. But, well. Title pretty self-explanatory dare I say. By the same author as Heartstopper (Alice Oseman)

Chance/Chris and Shadow/Ryan (woe.begone) Are explicitly in a QPR together !! they are also probably the healthiest couple in the podcast lol

Henry Clerval (Frankenstein). Henry is the "a couple of besties!!" to Victor's "we look like a couple <3"

Barbie (Barbie 2023) If you've seen it you know what I mean.

Jo Marsh (Little Women). I never read the book, but Jo in the 2019 movie??? very sus.

I would also recommend checking out Japanese books! I personally think they are much better at writing romance than the western people lol. It's more about knowing each other and sharing your views of the world, thus changing each other and leaving a mark forever, even if the relationship ends. (studio ghibli romance vibes). My favorite Japanese book doesn't have an English translation :(

aber an alle Deutsch-Sprecher*innen: Die Katzen von Shinjuku (Durian Sukegawa) -> og title: Shinjuku no Neko

Can't think of anything else right now, but please leave some of your own recommendations! Hope this helps ^^

[maxwellssilverbeatles]

if ABO existed in the real world, what flavor of omega would each of the beatles be?

i am here to answer this question that no but me has ever asked! IF YOU DON'T LIKE ABO OR MENTIONS OF IT, DON'T INTERACT WITH THIS POST.

first off, i fully believe that all the beatles would be omegas, maybe george as a token beta, but absolutely no alphas in the band. thinking logistically, this is the 1960s we're talking about, and ABO is basically just a second gender aka a second set of gender norms assigned to people from birth. omega = more feminine traits, alpha = more masculine traits and beta = neutral, we all know this already. but because of this we can assume that omegas experience discrimination in much the same way as women do, a form of sexism based in the fact that omegas are supposed to be subservient to betas and particularly alphas, who are meant to act as protectors of weak, defenseless omegas. in the 1960s, such sexism would be much more normalized in society, and therefore the idea of separation between the different sexes in any context other than courting would be stronger. just as the idea of boy/girl platonic friendship wasn't normalized (even to this day), the idea of casual omega/alpha friendship wouldn't be normalized either. because of that, i believe all four of the beatles would most likely be the same second gender, because of their comfortability and intimacy around one another and the way that most people's closest friends are of the same gender as it's an easily shared and relatable experience.

now, why do i believe they are all specifically omegas? they could just as easily all be alphas or betas? this is where more of my opinion comes in. ABO and the omegaverse was created as a specific way of fetishizing queer male relationships and viewing them through the lenses of staunchly heterosexual, patriarchal relationships. a way to take a homosexual relationship and distill it down to inherently harmful stereotypes of queer people, that there's always a more feminine/masculine presenting person and that whether you decide to top or bottom determines your amount of "gayness" and therefore your masculinity. the creation behind the omegaverse was just a kinky way of being able to view male/male relationships as essentially just a straight relationship in which both partners just so happen to have dicks. alphas are portrayed as big, strong, aggressive protectors with huge cocks to knot their mates with. omegas are seen as overall gentle and demure, who go through periods of heat in which their sexuality is inherently tied to wanting to be fucked and impregnated by their mates aka seen as submissive. betas rarely have any emphasis in omegaverse stories, due to them just being regular people who don't have raging horomones in them telling them to give in to their most basic, sexual, animalistic urges, but they are often portrayed as mediators between the bs of alphas and omegas.

the beatles were never and have never been viewed as pillars of masculinity in the way that other rock stars at the time were viewed. that is just a simple fact, whether it be due to their overwhelmingly large female fan base from the beginning of their careers or the way they dressed and presented themselves. much like their rise to mega-stardom, i believe it was a mix of a lot of different elements of themselves and their brand that let them get this more "soft" label that they eventually tried to break out of. it wasn't just the female fans, as elvis also had a disproportionate number of female fans and he was always seen as a masculine rocker. it was also the matching suits and haircuts, their "silly love songs", their goofy demeanor in interviews and the fact that paul mccartney just has a really pretty face and voice. because of this, i highly doubt the alpha label fits any of them, not because they were particular feminine but because they didn't express their masculinity in a particularly obvious, stereotypical way. one could just say it was the styles of the decade, and i would agree with you, but also not every rock star has people debating on whether or not they were bisexual + having an extremely large community of people fully believing they were fucking/in love their best friend to this day quite like john lennon.

so, they're all omegas imo 🤷 now here's my cringe hcs (,,◕　⋏　◕,,)

paul is a sluttyyyy omega who pretends to be a beta. because of his extremely repressed nature due to his upbringing (*cough* jim mccartney *cough*), he would probably be ashamed about his second gender and try to bottle away his inner feelings on the issue through suppressant abuse (if we're in a universe in which those exist yet) and overall randy-ness (he's a horny boy! he fucks a lot!). his repression leads to a lot of frustration, the regular kind and also the sexual kind, which he expresses primarily through his stubbornness/unwillingness to compromise and his obsession with perfectionism (both represented through his overbearing presence in the studio).

john is a confusing case. he is undoubtably an omega, just like paul, and he also has a great deal of self directed shame as most male omegas do (they're supposed to be masculine as they're boys, but they're also able to get pregnant and go through heats so they're seen as lesser and gay- derogatory). but i also believe he uses his omega status to benefit himself in ways paul does not do (paul hides and represses while john makes self directed digs at himself and his gender and then bats his eyelids to get whatever he wants). he is also more open about his feelings than paul is, talking more freely about his struggles and is more willing to be vulnerable around others. if it weren't for the fact that he was married with a kid, he would've probably received a lot of hate and controversy due to his very un-omegalike and flamboyant personality.

ringo is just a confident omega man who settles down when he's ready to settle down. due to his shorter height, he was never really going to pass as a beta or alpha and he's resigned himself to that. he was also the most disregarded member of the band, which led to him having less of a focus on himself than his other group members, and therefore less pressure to become a family man despite his age. but such inattention leads to insecurity in himself, his looks and his musical abilities which he compensates for by acting as “the funny beatle” and being generally the most easygoing of the 4.

george is the youngest of the group and because of that he was always being overshadowed by an image of innocence and the overwhelming force of johnpaul. he obviously hated this image. he got girlfriends, slept around a lotttt, made sure to be more expressive and loud in interviews, and changed his style and his hair to suit the person he felt he was on the inside but that wouldn't stop the public from viewing him as "the quiet beatle" or the most ideal omega of the 4. it also didn't help that he wanted to experiment more with music and get more of his songs onto the LPs but repressed and stubborn paul mccartney kept treating him like a baby brother.

this is unbelievably long and stupid and probably unreadable as i wrote it in one sitting as a ramble and didn't look over it at all. hope this gets no attention and forces me to realize i need to get a life and a hobby outside of being parasocial about (dead) 80 year olds. holy shit

[visgrapplinghooks]

friendlinghood: a proposal

skip to "terminology" if you don't want the long explanation

QPRs are really difficult to talk about because of the way the modern queer community has kinda framed it as like "dating but without romantic attraction"

when that's not entirely true

I mean, you COULD say that's a kind of QPR but it'd be a mistake to frame all of it that way. this is in large part to internet misinformation and shit as well as amatonormativity from which a lot of relationship discourse is framed against

queerplatonicism, from my pov refers to what is essentially the natural byproduct of queer and neurodivergent people having close friends

the queer community has been aware for a while that its members would have close friendships that in some way violated traditional social norms for behavior outside romantic relationships or family, etc.

when you sit outside the neurotypical and patriarchal norm, the conventional social understanding of what relationships are kinda breaks down for you

you display levels of closeness and intimacy and affection that are "inappropriate" for neurotypical and patriarchal society. in most cases they're not formal relationships, but natural evolutions of friendships between queer and neurodivergent folks

cishet people actually do have variants on this like the concept of "blood brothers" where two men who love each other basically make a pact to always have each other's backs and be their support and they do the whole movie thing where they mix blood to bind them together (it's a very cinematic thing, but the point is it exists in the popular consciousness)

"romance" and "friendship" each refer to a set of social norms and expectations. there's like a whole narrative constructed around those concepts and people internalize and have their own versions of them

a lot of people probably have friends they want to fuck or kiss or cuddle or declare their undying affection for but it'd just be "weird" within the social boundaries of acceptability and so people pigeonhole their relationships into either friend or romantic partner.

queerplatonicism (from my pov) is essentially accepting or practicing relationships which are neither platonic or romantic or even strictly familial. many queer people have them with other queer people they're close to. if you know queer folks then you probably know what I'm talking about - the friends they have that they're not dating but seem intensely attached and close to. they usually have weird names for each other that go beyond friendship like they'll jokingly call each other wives and husbands and siblings and partners... but it doesn't feel quite entirely joking. they'll express a lot of physical affection in the casual way you might typically ascribe to romantic partners. they'll prioritize time with those people as much as any romantic partner they may have etc.

straight and cis people and neurotypical people obviously experience them to some extent, it's just that patriarchy was built around cishet neurotypicals in particular, so it tends to cling to their mindsets more strongly, and once you're already outside of the "bounds of normalcy" by being queer, ND, etc. then it's a lot easier to feel like it's okay for you to be in relationships that aren't "normal".

because like the idea of loving someone with your entire fucking being... it's so tied up in these cultural ideas on how to behave about those feelings and it never made sense to me, because if you just let yourself feel those emotions you start to realize there are people in your life that maybe you love so much more than friends. but "more than friends" is so washed up in romance that you force those feelings down and think "this is fine, I'm happy with being just friends, what else can we be?"

maybe I don't want to have sex or hold hands on a ferris wheel or get. married or kiss or any of that. maybe I just want to exist in the same room as that person know that that person is in my life and know that person cares about me just as much as I do them.

terminology

I've started to use the term "friendling" in my day to day life, now. the term is a portmanteau of "friend" and "sibling" and "loveling" (the english cognate of the German word "lieblings" which can mean "favorite", but is also a term of endearment).

to me, it's probably the most accurate way to describe the Everything All At Once feelings that are simultaneously your weird friends that are your found family and also "romantic" but twisted beyond recognition where the term stops meaning anything.

I'm just throwing this word and explanation out there for anyone who feels like me and wants to use it too. not exclusive to queer people or neurodivergence or anything, I just think it's often easier to be cognisant of those feelings when you are queer and neurodivergent.

that being said, I do NOT want this to be folded into another "attraction label". this is, as far as I can tell, not a unique form of attraction but quite literally the opposite. it's an abstraction of the core impulses of attraction that ALL humans experience without the labels or social structures built around it. I do not want the language that I've spent so long trying to find for my experiences losing all of its value and being reapporpriated into the amatonormative, allonormative, and cisheteropatriarchal framework.

"friendlinghood" - is what I see as an attribute of relationships and the extent to which they deviate from socially conventional definitions of a relationship.

"friendlingship" - used grammatically like friendship. referring to any complex relationship acategorically.

"friendling" - used grammatically similar to friend. referring to those involved in any complex relationship acategorically.

all of this shit is nebulous and doesn't really mean anything beyond what meaning you choose to give it. I think any relationship can have some amount of friendlinghood and I don't think there's a clear line between friendlingship and friendship or romance or family, because it's not a type of relationship in the first place. it's just silly words I made that helped me.

language and labels

so the biggest problem with terminology like this is you can end up creating labels. my point was to create personal terms for myself and my relationships because that's what helped me personally process my own feelings.

that's not to say everyone needs or benefits from them. you can just vibe and do whatever you want and many people are happy with that.

I don't think words like this being codified and standardized really helps anyone. it's unavoidable that we as humans like articulating feelings, but the entire point of my interactions with friendlinghood is about certain things defying labels and language. language in this sense is just a tool, it's a hammer for a nail. it's not embodying the concept itself, it's just useful shorthand.

I will still freely refer to friendlings as close friends, best friends, found family, and other words. as long as I know the intention behind it is all that matters. I just needed that initial bit of language to articulate the feelings before the other words felt right to me.

[throes-of-redemption]

"hey you": a submission to a departed blog

You'll never see this. You'll never post this. Unless they have Tumblr in whichever realm you exist in now.

I have regrets. The last time we spoke I was dismissive. I honestly didn't think it would be the last time we'd run into each other after a long absence. Well, it wasn't the first time either. But before then I was convinced I'd never hear or see you again. I was wrong twice. Fuck.

Anyway, since we last spoke I've felt like been an asshole. A selfish pervert with bad habits and boundary issues. It's disgusting.

At first, my decision to leave you alone was to protect my emotions.  We've already talked about it, but it was impossible to settle for just being friends. It was painful. You deserved better-so much better than me tbh. In retrospect, I wonder if you were trying to protect your friends from the heartache of your sudden loss. I suppose I felt justified in letting you go. I finally found someone to fill the void that you were never meant to fill (see, that already sounds dumb as hell cause people aren't responsible for filling each other's vacancies). Besides, reigniting our friendship might have caused unnecessary drama in my current relationship. Nonetheless, it felt right. 

Now that you're not here anymore it feels like I miss you a bit more all the time. I miss your new obsessions every month, and the way your eyes light up whenever you talk about some fictional character in some obscure piece of media only nerds like you know about. Shit, I logged back into Tumblr for the first time in like 6 years, and in less than 3 days I'm here scrolling through your blog checking out the last things you posted. I miss your queer fanfics and head canons. I miss the eloquent way you spoke when you read. I miss you tryna bake, even though I would sit there and eat them burnt cookies. I miss bickering about Star Wars v Harry Potter. I miss you teasing me about my cishet masculine insecurities. I miss the way you stood firmly against injustice and oppression, particularly your arch nemesis the fuckin patriarchy! I miss how you really didn't give a damn how anyone saw you or tried to squeeze you into their little box. I miss how you would drive people nuts just being yourself. I miss how loving you were even when you tried to hide it from the world sometimes. 

Remember that one time you spotted me on the bus all zoned out, and you sat right next to me and forced me to practice our lines for that play we were in? I was annoyed and happy at the same time lol. This year I did 4 plays. First one I did was HAIR up in Harrison, and you would've loved some of my cast mates. At one point we had a recasting...um..."crisis" to find a new Dionne. I couldn't think of anyone else but you. Except you'd already been gone for some eight months by then. That almost broke me. Oh! And one of them was this bizarre musical parody of Hamlet (I was hamlet btw). It made me think about hearing how you were such a talented Lady Macbeth in high school that the production was requested at Purchase Collage. So whenever I prepared to step on that stage, I thought to myself secretly "I hope she's watching and I hope she's proud." Honestly I felt that way for every show, but that's the one I wish you could've seen.

When you left it seemed like all of Mount Vernon came to see you go, probably a lot of people you didn't even like. But as each person got up to talk about their favorite memories of you, I realized as much as we talked and hung out, all I ever experienced of you was just a fragment of who you were. And I always knew you had heart issues, but I didn't realize just how sick you really were because you were so fiercely independent and full of life despite it all. As we left, my friend asked me how I thought I could honor your memory. I told him "By doing everything with as much passion and energy and purpose as she did." 

The problem is that when I had an opportunity to be friends again, I took you for granted. There was only one of you. Anybody similar to you by comparison was a bootleg with missing pieces. You were the genuine article: the Real Deal. I'll be processing the guilt of how things ended for quite a while longer than I should. I don't know if you were upset or indifferent, or if there's any slight that you held against me after we parted ways for the last time. But I hope, if it's okay with you, that I could take part of you with me in my journey through life.

You are missed, and you are loved.

Beloved (11/18/1993-6/21/2023)