#my only way to describe these two is just. that one quote from men on boats

[caligulalotus]

one day. owen and sutton picklestein manifesto that i’m rotating in my brain. one day i will write you.

[loveerran]

Utah Bathroom Ban

In an effort to protect women and children from a problem that does not exist, Utah legislators recently passed, and the governor recently signed into law, HB 257. Among other things, this bill defines criminal penalties for improper use of a binary, sex-designated (male or female) restroom in a government owned or controlled space that does not correspond to one's assigned sex:

"Going into a bathroom that is not consistent with your birth gender, or your birth sex, you are putting yourself at greater risk. I think that’s the best way for everybody to look at it and say, ‘How do I avoid risk? How do I avoid risk of arrest?'" - Senate sponsor of HB 257 Dan McCay

As a trans woman who has been out and about for 20 years, what I hear in this quote is very specifically: "We want you to be scared when you use a bathroom that doesn't align with your assigned sex at birth. You already know someone may report you just for being there and the criminal justice system is horrible for trans women, so maybe you'll think twice before trying to pee when out in public."

And it works. I am reminded I am different and should be scared of what will happen if the wrong person is having a bad day, reports me to the bathroom monitoring authorities, and some cop starts making choices that put me in a difficult or dangerous situation. Stories of abuses suffered by trans women in the system are legion.

But I don't think my situation is the real problem here. In practical terms, this bill means a trans kid can't use a school restroom that aligns with their gender identity and/or presentation. Instead, they have to develop a 'privacy plan' with the school and use separately designated facilities or a faculty restroom, etc. - reinforcing that they are 'other'. This is very dangerous and will create victims and we have actual data and studies to back up that assertion.

Let me restate: There is data demonstrating that bathroom restrictions hurt gender non-conforming kids, with a reported increase in the sexual assault rate of nearly 50% when bathroom restrictions of this type are in place.

My wife points out "I would be safer in a men's restroom than you. Most men will actually try to protect women, but that doesn't apply to trans women. Quite the opposite."

The sponsors of the bill could not name a single instance of trans kids being a problem in spaces aligned with their gender identity. Not one single incident for them to rely on. And they ignored evidence indicating there are actual harmful effects. This bill makes a small, marginalized group of people more likely to be victims of violence.

This issue was so important to the Utah legislature that they devoted a substantial portion of the 1st two weeks of the legislative session to HB 257, including significant changes after the public comment period passed.

When the bill went live on May 1, the Utah State Auditor's office began being flooded with false reporting (I love you all :)!). The Auditor's office responded by publishing what can only be described as a scathing indictment of the situation:

"the Office created the complaint form to comply with a statutory mandate – a role we did not request. Indeed, no auditor sets out to become a bathroom monitor... Like many in the public, we learned about our role under this bill shortly before the bill was rushed to final passage. I recognize that many Utahns feel trampled by an invasive and overly aggressive Legislature that too often fails to seek input from those most affected."

Thank you to everyone who continues to fight for us on this issue. There aren't enough of us to win this on our own. We need your help.

[justforn0thing]

Ah Polin, my darlings.

How i love that the season is saturated with falsehood from our main characters, when they strenuously try to portray themselves as someone they are not.

Colin's flirting made me want to close my eyes and ears, it sounded so cloying. Luke smartly conveys the expression of a kind of dandy who arrived in the season to conquer everyone and everything. And how wonderful it is, how with each episode this feigned bravado collapses, releasing that very Colin with big eyes and the whole range of emotions in his soul. Colin goes all the way: the new me, I will do everything to fit in, because it's necessary to survive in society, everyone is waiting for this. Share your charm to help a dear friend? Easy. To pretend that you are like that and certainly believe in it exactly until your dear friend asks for a small favor is a trifle, honestly, for the current you. And oh, how wonderful that such a small favor breaks a huge hole in your armor. And then you just lose battle after battle in the internal struggle, when every mention that a dear friend will get married with your help, unpleasantly shackles all your insides, when you have to admit that a small favor turned out to be not at all small and awakened something that you could not feel all this time, jumping from numerous beds of other ladies. And if your dear friend really pretended that the service did not change anything, then you might have a chance to continue deceiving yourself. But you notice the mirror awkwardness and begin to suspect that you were very blind. You gain courage, but you are interrupted. Your friend seems to be happy and you make one last attempt to be someone you are not, but conversations filled with vulgarity and emptiness make you sick yourself. When comes one of my favorite quotes from Violet about armor and the final admission that it's impossible to pretend.

Colin, since arriving at the last ball, is the real Colin I've been waiting for for so long. All decency is forgotten: to break into the ball - yes, to push away the talking vile men - yes, to interrupt the dance - yes, to argue loudly with a dear friend - yes, to run after the carriage - yes, to find out if a dear friend has received a proposal - yes. Having overcome all fears, to lay out everything that has been on your mind for the last few weeks to the one who told you a couple of minutes ago that she would accept another's offer - yes. The scene in the carriage is really very beautiful and true for these two characters. Colin's reel goes off and he switches to the "blown away" mode. Inside the carriage we see on his face anxiety, sincerity, pain, fear, hope, excitement, lust, in other words it cannot be described, surprise, love and determination. One man got into the carriage, and a completely different one got out. Improved. He carries himself differently, he looks differently, he talks differently. Next, we will see another Colin - truly confident and with a purpose he found in Penelope. It is clear that she is the only thing that will be in his focus.

[quantumcartography]

Daniel and The Uninvited Guest

PALAMEDES     (As if reciting) “And her body was like the chrysolite, and her face as the appearance of lightning, and her eyes as a burning lamp: and her arms, and all downward even to the feet, like in appearance to glittering brass.”

I was writing about something else entirely when I dug into the context of this quote and it rocked my whole socks. Context for those who don’t remember it: in this scene, the Voice that Palamedes has been talking to finally reveals herself as Dulcinea. After admitting his love for her and promising to find her on the shores of the River, he asks to see her “for the first time and the last.” He then has a light shone on him and he recites this quote from Daniel 10:6. After that, she asks if she was cute and Pal responds “You’re perfect.”

I am, needless to say, obsessed with this scene.

Now, the book of Daniel is one of apocalyptic prophecy (apocalypse here meaning a truth being revealed to a person by way of a divine source.) At this point in the Bible, the Jews have been captured from Israel by the Babylonians and have been displaced into Babylonian territory. The book recounts the visions of prophet Daniel that allude to the eventual restoration of the Jewish people to their homelands under the reign of Cyrus the Great. In Daniel 10 specifically, Daniel is mourning for Israel by fasting for three weeks when he is visited by an angel who tells him that he is fighting to return him and his people to their homeland. Daniel 10:6 is a description of this angel, who in the passage isn’t called an angel but vaguely referred to as a “certain man.” Only Daniel can see this certain man but all the men around him are gripped by fear and run away and even Daniel was terrified throwing himself face down and trembling at the sight of this certain man.

As a quick aside, I learned something from the magnificent Dan McClellan, a biblical scholar who is very active on TikTok and YouTube, about angels in the Old Testament. He recently posted a video discussing this in detail but I will try and do it justice. The theory among biblical scholars is that many instances where angels are present in the Old Testament were originally instances of God themself appearing before a person. That’s why these excerpts have people seemingly talking directly to God and why these angels inspire such fear because it’s assumed the only time a person would see God is when they die.

So this quote in this context, is when Palamedes is stuck inside the body of Naberius Tern and fighting against Ianthe’s soul for control. The reason why he’s doing this is to hopefully find a safe place for the Sixth House after spending months being held by Blood of Eden as political captives. While in this fight with Ianthe, he’s helped and supported by the soul of Dulcinea who he describes looking like an angel. Not an angel in terms of beauty or grace, but as unassailably powerful, perfect and righteous as dawn's first light, a face made of precious gems that cannot be cut and a body made of brass like the finest armor. This is a form untouchable by flaw or fault.

The two narratives have clear parallels. They are stories about a people's restoration and salvation. And since this takes place in the middle of Nona the Ninth, the connotation is clear that he will live to see his people saved and returned home. And he does, he becomes Paul and they guide their people back to the Dominicus system. But this also underscores just how much he loves her. He loves Dulcinea like an angel. He loves her like a homecoming. He loves her like a vision of rapture in the wasted desert of his enemy. He loves her like the promised end of death itself. He loves her like the indelible weight that love brings on one's soul.

[ankh-morporkianpostalworker]

Anatomy of a Hero - Samuel Vimes

He wanted to go home. He wanted it so much that he trembled at the thought. But if the price of that was selling good men to the night, if the price was filling those graves, if the price was not fighting with every trick he knew... Then it was too high. History finds a way? Well, it would have to come up with something good, because it was up against Sam Vimes now.

Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

Fantasy has created some truly remarkable characters, and it's fair to say that Samuel Vimes of the Discworld series is among them - and he's a personal favorite.

This is the first in a (sporadic) series of posts analyzing my favorite fantasy protagonists and what I think makes them work as characters and how they fit into their stories.

Samuel Vimes is the protagonist of eight of Terry Pratchett's seminal Discworld novels - specifically, Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud!, and Snuff. These novels make up what is colloquially referred to as the City Watch series, and they answer the question "what if the city guard in a fantasy series got stuff done?"

Vimes is the head of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and starts off as a parody of the drunken watch captain, literally waking up in a gutter at the start of Guards! Guards!. While it's obvious from the start that he has a sense of justice and a desire to see justice served, years of being beaten down by a city that doesn't need him anymore has left him at his lowest point. In fact, Guards! Guards! is about him getting her proverbial groove back and solving his first real mystery in ages.

We then see Vimes grow into a respected member of the community, transforming the City Watch from a joke (at the start of the series, it's four people) into a pillar of the City, an institution in its own right.

Vimes himself struggles with addiction throughout the series with the help of his wife, Sybil, and members of the Watch (especially his right-hand man, Carrot), going from alcohol to cigars to bacon sandwiches by the end of the series.

We also see how Vimes fits into the central theme of the City Watch - social inequality and the importance of overcoming it. Sam starts the series with a... not-great view of the non-human residents of the city of Ankh-Morpork (although this view is better described as general misanthropy than racism, with him distrusting anyone who isn't his wife or a member of the Watch). This view is changed as the series progresses - between the first two novels, a coalition of minority groups successfully sues the city of Ankh-Morpork for employment discrimination in government positions and Vimes is forced to allow non-human people into the Watch. He comes to recognize that these people are, well, people with value not only as people but as law enforcement officials. Twice, Vimes uses his social power to advocate for downtrodden species to be treated as people, with full rights and protections under the law - for golems in Feet of Clay and goblins in Snuff, and the City Watch becomes the most diverse organization in the entirety of Discworld.

The last thing I'll talk about is Vimes' aforementioned desire for justice. Night Watch gives us a view into the life of an early Sam Vimes (Vimes is sent back in time to just before the Glorious Revolution, a now-forgotten struggle against a despot) - indeed, in his youth Sam was a revolutionary, inspired by Sgt. John Keel (whom Vimes takes the place of after finding Keel dead). During this Revolution, young Sam Vimes witnessed a number of things that would impact him for the rest of his life, including the torture chambers of The Unspeakables, a secret police force who committed horrible crimes in the name of the public good and who act as the antagonists of the novel. The quote that started this essay comes from near the climax of the novel, and I think it really encapsulates that desire for justice and why Sam Vimes works as a protagonist - one of the best in fantasy.

[txttletale]

hi miss healed, could you elaborate what you mean by dictatorship/authoritarian not being useful/meaningful terms? i know they're terms the west likes to tack on its political enemies, but i thought it might be a case of just misuse of terms that can still be useful, rather than outright a problem with the concept itself, so id be interested to understand your opinion. thanks!

so i don't think 'authoritarian' has any useful analytical value because every state is 'authoritarian' -- the only metrics by which one state might be seen as less 'authoritarian' than another are the metrics which privilege liberal democracy and a free market as a meaningful sort of 'freedom', which as a marxist, i don't! every state is an institution for class suppression--in the state and revolution, lenin quotes engels as saying:

[...] it is sheer nonsense to talk of a 'free people's state'; so long as the proletariat still needs the state, it does not need it in the interests of freedom but in order to holddown its adversaries, and as soon as it becomes possible to speak of freedom the state as such ceases to exist.

every state uses violence to perpetuate and legitimize itself. there is no state that would let you march into the capital and declare its dissolution without deploying armed men against you -- every state is authoritarian, it excercises authority, this is a tautological statement about how states maintain their own existence.

and sure, you could then say 'well we can just call all states authoritarian', but i don't think that makes any sense. the criticism of a state 'authoritarian/totalitarian' implies that there is an alternative, a point of comparison against which the state comes short--and i simply don't think it's possible to use 'authoritarian' as a cogent criticism without having such a point of comparison (usually the US or some european liberal democracy) which in turn means buying into liberal & capitalist ideas about 'freedom'.

as for 'dictator', i have a different criticism of that, also stemming from my marxist perspective. basically, i just think it doesn't describe anything useful in terms of political analysis and massively overemphasizes the role of individual psychology and personality. i frequently criticize both anticommunist and 'stalinist' views of stalin by joking that he must have been a very busy man if he singlehandedly ate all the grain or killed all the nazis. which is obviously a glib way of putting it--but my point is that any dictator who has ever 'done anything' could only do it because they could order a government official to do it who in turn could order a department to do it that could in turn mobilize hundreds or thousands of soldiers/construction workers/bureaucrats/etc. in order to make that happen.

sure, the leaders of countries might make decisions, and in some systems an individual leader might have greater leeway than others. but there are always very clear hard limits about what they must do and what they cannot do. i am sure i can say pretty uncontroversially that mohammad bin salman has an extreme level of political control over the economy and government of saudi arabia, but if he woke up tomorrow and said 'good news everyone, we're converting the country to wicca and donating all our oil to iran' then that would not happen and he would be deposed instantly. for a more realistic example, imagine any 'dictator' of your choice saying 'well, it's time to massively defund the military' -- this would be completely fucking impossible without some kind of loyalist paramilitary organization (which then exerts its own forces upon the 'dictator'.)

and of course all that leaves aside the massive extent to which 'dictator' is politically charged. do i think that vladimir putin was democratically elected? obviously not! but i don't think that any US president has been in any meaningful sense 'elected' by anything other than capital either, and two of the last four straightforwardly lost a popular vote even by the standards of liberal democracy! i think that any political system is best analyzed in class terms, in terms of what interests the government serves in terms of class struggle and competition between global capitalists, rather than in terms of individuals or what formal power structures give out the fancy titles

tldr: as a marxist, i think that 'authoritarian' is a useless distinguisher because excercising authority is the sole purpose and function of a state -- 'dictator' is a useless distinguisher because even the most autocratic fiefdom-state is ultimately a class dictatorship first and foremost

[sweetkpopmusings]

minghao boyfriend headcanons <3

a/n: posting his next as requested !! one of my best friends said "minghao makes me want to believe in scorpio men" and she was so right for that. i have also said that if someone doesn't feel about me the way that "hai cheng" describes, i don't want it. this is my long-winded way of saying minghao is my kryptonite <3 pics not mine !!

content: fluff | wc: 1.4k | warnings: none! | pairing: boyfriend!minghao x gn!reader | requests: open

minghao's giggle will ring in my ears for hours after i hear it for a few seconds so you can imagine how long thoughts of boyfriend minghao will linger in my mind after writing this :,,,-)

to put it simply, minghao is so so dreamy

he's romantic!!! in a natural way that isn't rehearsed

he thinks of you so dearly and treats you with so much care that everything he does makes your heart swoon and your knees weak

always has his hand at your back when you're walking in a public place. always asking you if you've eaten/had enough water/taken your medications or supplements/etc. always always always looking around the room to check on you, whether at home or at a party or a crowded restaurant, because he wants to confirm with his own eyes that you are still there and doing okay

and he really just wants to look at you 25/8 because you make him feel so safe <3

he adores picking out outfits for you and lying them on the bed/hanging them on the closet door so you can grab them the next morning before you head out to start your day

if you two are attending an event together, he will shyly ask if he can coordinate your outfits <3 he is over the moon when you say yes and even more over the moon when people do double-takes at you two because y'all have taken couples outfits to a whole new level of elegant and cool

he loves how it feels to show your relationship through something as expressive as fashion, and he's so proud to be seen with you :,-)

frequently sends you silly selfies

and also cool af selfies

these are the majority of your phone notifications when he's traveling, and he will ask you to send you selfies too

jokes that "i'll forget your face if i don't see it daily" but really he's collecting photos for the album he has on his phone so he can look through them when he misses you which is every second he's far away from you

he also asks you to help him to pick which photos to post !!! he takes your opinion so seriously and knows you would only pick the best pictures

definitely has opinions on which photos of you are the best he thinks every photo of you is perfect and absolutely adores taking photos of you !! he knows all the best poses and angles to show off your beauty

he'll make mental notes of places that are perfect for lil photoshoots and will take you to those places on your dates

he even sends you a message before those dates and tells you to dress up <3 this is also a time he'll often pick out your outfit so it pops with the scenery <3

please i love him so much

whenever he teases you, he giggles right after

like he's being savage but he's so enamored with you and how cute you look when he teases you that he can't hold back the giggles

also giggles like a child when you roast him because he loves that you feel comfortable enough to tease him

he tells you when you've said something particularly clever because he's proud of you and your wit i'm yelling

minghao has a notebook where he writes down quotes, lyrics, artworks, etc that remind him of you

whenever you're having a hard time, you two are apart for a while, or he just wants to express how much he loves you, he'll share one of these with you

he also keeps a list of everything you've ever recommended to him

i mean everything

like a movie you mentioned on your second date ?? he has watched it several times and can recite most of it from memory but it remains on that list like a souvenir of your first conversations

a coffee drink you said he had to try the next time he went to that one coffee shop in that one neighborhood ?? not only is it on that list, but he also makes notes of what he was doing every time he drank it

this notebook is basically his diary chronicling your relationship it's so beautiful and sentimental and a precious belonging to him <333

he revisits these places or things when he wants to feel close to you :-( there are pieces of you everywhere in his life and he'll never let them go <3

the best listener in the world !!!

before he shares his advice or opinions, he will ask you questions about your thoughts and feelings on it, encouraging you to explore the situation more on your own

he doesn't want to influence your feelings before you have the chance to sort it out yourself <3

sometimes he might be a little stubborn about his views, especially if he is offering you advice to resolve a problem, but, ultimately, he will respect your decisions

honestly it's one of the things he loves so much about you -- the fact that you're an individual and you don't always have to see exactly eye to eye to love and support each other

he always asks for your input too because your mind is beautiful to him and he knows he can rely on you for honesty and clarity

he acts so young in love, but he's so incredibly mature

like he blushes when you kiss him on the cheek and he looks at you with puppy eyes more often than not

but he also enjoys having serious conversations about boundaries, love languages, relationship desires, and so on

very much the type, once he gets comfortable enough in the relationship, to say "our future" instead of "my/your future" <333

he's grateful every single moment of every single day that your paths intersected

intersecting paths are definitely a recurring theme in the art he makes about you

as an anniversary present, he gives you a small painting that depicts a special moment in your relationship, like the building you stood in front of the first time he said "i love you" or your favorite flower intertwined with his favorite flower tied together with a ribbon that has the date you two met on it

keeps special house slippers, pajamas, toiletries, and clothes for you in his home at all times

he says it's because he likes to be neat and prepared but really it's because he never wants you to have a reason to leave when you stay late at night

adores painting, drawing, and doing anything creative with you <3

sharing his hobbies and passions is one of his love languages for sure, so coexisting while making art together is one of the most intimate ways he can say "i love you"

in general, he simply loves coexisting with you

reading together, napping together, watching the sunrise/sunset, walking around the city, any activity you can both do simultaneously is something minghao will sign up for in a heartbeat !

he finds so much peace in your presence that he seeks as much time with you as possible

and, whenever either of you want some alone time, you both can say it freely

the respect you two share for each other as individuals is so special

it enhances the love you have toward the other, and it enhances how meaningful time together is

he loves to compliment you, and the word that falls from his lips the most is "pretty"

you are so breathtaking to him, in every possible way. while he tries to use the most accurate words each time, something about "pretty" captures his admiration for you enough for it to become instinct

he WILL completely lose it when you call him pretty

because he melts at your compliments and also because "pretty" has such a powerful meaning now that he defines it with you sorry i'm sobbing at this

minghao is just a breath of fresh air and the feeling of warmth that comes when someone says "i love you" as they tuck you in for the night and kiss your forehead softly

as his partner, you will never feel forgotten or uncared for because he is always watching out for you and holding you, whether that's physically, emotionally, or mentally

minghao is a sweetheart who loves you with his whole heart and soul !!! every moment he spends with you is a dream come true to him, and, while he can't believe his luck, he is so grateful for you

i'm going to curl up into a ball now because minghao is so !!!!! i hope everyone gets the minghao they deserve <333

[lurking-latinist]

re: these tags

THAT'S SO COOL AHHHH!! good for you aubreyad community stays winning

[introducing this with a disclaimer in case i'm wrong about everything: i am only halfway through the series rn (just about to finish 10) and also am but a mere undergrad classics major who has yet to even declare said major and I probably don't have the right to be yapping about propertius. nevertheless i shall.]

anyway i have been growing persistently more insane about diana's proximity to a Lot of classical imagery, like how her first appearance in post captain is literally during a fox hunt + all the gender stuff she has going, obviously linking her to mythological diana (and artemis if we're going to conflate the two) but your take has sent me in a whole new direction with that-- because she doesn't actually really embody the artemis archetype all too much overall (an emphasized character trait being that she's notably Not Chaste) EXCEPT in relation to stephen, w/ whom her relationship is much more brotherly than it is sensual i guess?

which would align very well with your idea of diana as elegiac puella-- sort of in a way being mythologized by stephen-- resulting in the reader actually being able to see two different manifestations of her character (one through the eyes of an omniscient prosaic narrator and one through the perspective of stephen as a "poet" figure). and i just think that's neat.

my latin class has also been looking at a few of propertius' love elegies and, at least to me, they read a lot like if stephen 1.) hated himself significantly less and 2.) were less indecisive in writing about his Feelings?? 1.8 (and all of the poems concerning cynthia moving/traveling away and propertius being all moody about it) is very reminiscent of the arc from post captain to the surgeon's mate imo. 1.12 is also Literally Him-- "cynthia prima fuit cynthia finis erit" can be compared to stephen's poetic catastrophizing about how his life is Literally Over and Love Is Dead when he believes to have fallen out of love with diana!?!? i'm going to lose my mind.

sorry for dumping all of this on you unprompted and also sorry for the fact that it probably does not make sense. peace and love

if undergrad classicists don't talk about propertius literally WHO WILL. (genuinely my currently-being-written phd dissertation chapter is based on an idea I had in the class I read propertius in freshman year. never feel like you're not a 'real scholar' or something yet, because you honestly never do become something different, you just keep reading and talking and this is what we do! there's nothing realer than this!)

oh wow that's really well put--we kind of get to see her from an omniscient-narrator perspective and through the eyes of her lover who is Not Being Normal About Her. very nice!

yeah I keep reading bits of propertius and being like "hmm is po'b going to quote this one I wonder." (he doesn't mostly but I keep thinking he should. because I want the aubreyad to be denser and less accessible I guess? :P) there's a lot of catullus woven in too of course - I associate Catullus 72 with the 'falling out of love' arc (my dude that is not what falling out of love looks like).

oh gosh yes 1.8 -- that was one of the things I was trying to describe to Distinguished Classicist, the way she's so -- what's the word I want? not volatile... she disappears. she's constantly Gone. you turn around and oops, she's eloped to Sweden. (honestly though if Cynthia and Propertius could manage to have *fake* revenge affairs that would actually be *great*, for them that would be an improvement.) Gareth Williams (in a chapter called, amazingly, "From Grave to Rave") describes Cynthia as "ever only elusively visible in the narratological mist" and I feel like that's a bit what's going on with Diana. For her there's a genre element as well--she's a woman in the Men Going to Sea books, and even though the Aubreyad gives way more time to women than the average Men Going to Sea book, the fact is the camera frequently simply isn't on her. We see far more of Stephen thinking about her, hearing rumors, etc. than we do of her actually being on the page. Now in elegy nobody seems to be quite fully on the page, we only get "fragments of story" as Genevieve Liveley and Patricia Salzmann-Mitchell say (excellent collection by that name btw, I recommend checking it out if you're at all interested in narrative and lyric/elegy). But Diana manages this while being in a novel, which is impressive to me.

yeah stephen as a character is a lot more... self-reflective? than propertius' speaker. for one thing he's in a novel, I think, so he can actually... have a series of contiguous experiences. he's also a compulsive diarist which is helpful for self-reflection I guess. and more mature, like, as a human being, than propertius' speaker, who apparently does nothing with his life except be in love and write poetry, he doesn't exist outside of as a poetic voice whereas, again, stephen benefits from a third-person narrator and has medicine and spying to do and so on. also he's Catholic.

I love the "Catullus-and-water" line, it's like O'Brian just put in a little wink to those of us who would notice this, like, "yes I am doing this on purpose." All in all I've pretty much defaulted to assuming that O'Brian is doing things on purpose. although he did forget Babbington's first name that one time and retconned it very awkwardly

[fancyfeathers]

Okay I went to go see a production of the musical Anastasia, which is quite a bit different than the animated film and so got an idea for the Yandere Moriarty brothers and with darlings who are sisters are share the story of Anastasia.

(I put the lyrics of Anastasia songs in this so I recommend you listen to them when they come up when you read this because that is how I read it and it also just adds vibes)

The order of the songs that are included

In My Dreams

Stay, I Pray You

The Neva Flows

Still/The Neva Flows (Reprise)

Picture the plot of Anastasia, a royal family murdered and an entire nation turned upside down by a revolution that said times would be better but they were not. Well the entire royal family was murdered, though they did not survive the daughters may be still alive and there is a rumor that her grandmother who resided in London would pay a hefty sum to whomever would bring the three of them back. A few young ladies in the nation who happens to resemble the missing princesses gets picked to play the parts but it just happens that it is not a part they were playing, it is actually them. When the three and their friends escaped the nation and made their way to the capital of the British Empire to look for their grandmother who is looking for her missing granddaughters, and when it turns out to actually be the missing girls, Britain booms with the news, foreign royalty reunited.

But to back track a bit to when the three and their companions arrived in the nation they had the brief encounter with an Earl and his two younger brothers when looking for directions around the city. While their meeting was brief but very kind which was nice since the three of them were nothing in that moment, of course the sisters did not notice how smitten they had the men. So when the morning paper arrives at the Moriarty estate and reports the heartwarming story of old royal family being reunited and the Moriartys are not oblivious to why most of the old royal family was murdered, they were hated by the people but now the new government is also hated, an example of what they would not do in their plan.

When the sisters encounter the Moriarty brothers again it is at their first ball since the massacre of their family, the three of them returning to high society. William had no doubt when he read the paper that the sisters were the missing princesses that the paper spoke of, but it is certainly something else to see them all dressed up while their grandmother shows them off. The brothers manage to get a moment alone with them and the conversation is pleasant till Albert asks what life was like between what happened and now and they all go pale in the face, and to describe what they said I can only quote the lyrics from the musical…

They said I was found by the side of a road There were tracks all around, it had recently snowed In the darkness and cold with the wind in the trees A girl with no name, and no memories but these

Rain against a window, sheets upon a bed Terrifying nurses whispering overhead "Call the child Anya, give the child a hat" I don't know a thing before that

Traveling the back roads, sleeping in the wood Taking what I needed, working when I could Keeping up my courage, foolish as it seems At night all alone in my dreams

In my dreams shadows call There's a light at the end of a hall Then my dreams fade away But I know it all will come back One day

The brothers watch as the girls get dotted on by the aristocracy of England, it must have been so hard for them, terrified and alone like that, and then having to live like the lower class. Then one of the nobles mentions the Lord of Crime and says that the girls must not be scared since they have been through that sort of thing already and the girls have never heard such a person and then explanation comes up and the three look like they are about to vomit, all those horrid memories come back of the massacre that night, killing nobles just because they wish for change is what caused them all this pain.

Albert’s darling, the eldest of the three, the one who looked out for and protected her sisters all those years, is the one to find out about the Lord of Crime’s identity first. Since she is the eldest, she gets invited to many of the parties and balls, including the masquerade that had the game of Lord of Crime that the nobles laugh at but for her it all just feels to real for her. She was invited by Albert himself to be his plus one and as they dance she confesses that making a game out of the deaths of others makes her sick. When they were leaving their home, boarding the train, they encountered a count from their past who cared for them, who bent of his knee and kissed each of their hands, and led everyone in a prayer of farewell to their homeland because they would never return again, someone she hoped would be here but he died protecting them, fatally shot by the police for illegally boarding the train and they would have been killed as well if he did not care so much about them. He was kind and yet was said he must die, it was sick, she can still remember the words he said to them…

How can I desert you? How to tell you why? Coachmen, hold the horses Stay, I pray you Let me have a moment Let me say goodbye

To bridge and river Forest and waterfall Orchard, sea, and sky Harsh and sweet and bitter to leave it all I'll bless my homeland till I die

How to break the tie? We have shared our tears And shared our sorrows Though the scars remain And tears will never dry I'll bless my homeland till I die

She has to excuse herself to keep herself from crying, but when she returns there is a man dead and practically no one cares and she just looks up to the upper balcony where Albert is and he is smiling while speaking to another. People are unbothered by the dead man or the smiling one above that is responsible. She runs out the party and calls her own carriage and leaves while just sobbing uncontrollably.

The second to uncover the truth is Louis’ darling, she is awake when her sister returns home from the party and absolutely mess and she rushes to her sister’s side to see what was the matter and everything pours out of what she saw. At first she does not believe her, that is until the next day where she is sitting down at the park with a book in the nicer part of London and is approached by Louis who spotted her from afar. He sits with her and the two chat and then Louis tells her that Albert let him know that her sister left the party rather early last night and asks her if she knew why and instead of responding to his question she asks him what he thought of the Lord of Crime and his answer makes her shake her head, the country needs reform and-

She interrupt him and excuses herself, because she had everything taken from her and she never did anything wrong. She tells him that what the Lord of Crime is trying will get them nowhere because she has seen what has happened when this sort of thing happens…

I saw the children as the soldiers closed the gate The youngest daughter and her pride My father leaving on the night they met their fate His pistol by his side

The Neva flows, a new wind blows And soon it will be spring The leaves unfold, the Tsar lies cold A revolution is a simple thing

I heard the shots. I heard the screams. But it's the silence after I remember most

She leaves, running off as Louis calls after her but to no avail. She runs home to tell her sister that she believes her and they both try to tell their littlest sister but she does not believe them…

With Williams’s darling, there is a part of the musical, a man is sent after them to kill her if she turns out to be the actual missing princess. She was invited to tea at the Moriarty estate and she goes to show her sisters that they are being silly and there is nothing wrong with the Moriarty brothers since they were so kind to them when the first came to London and where no ones. Tea is very pleasant, though most of it William just asked her questions and asked her questions. When it came to an end and William is helping her get her coat on there is a knock on the door and since she is about to leave, she opens it only to see a face and a uniform she thought she had left behind in Russia

Gleb

An underhanded girl An act of desperation And to my consternation I let you go

Well, not this time Paris is no place for a good and loyal Russian

We are both good and loyal Russians

I've come to take you home

My home is here now

Stop playing this game, Anya! I beg you

We both know it's not a game Gleb

If you really are Anastasia Do you think history wants you to have lived?

Yes! Why don't you?

The Romanovs were given everything And they gave back nothing Until the Russian people rose up and destroyed them

All but one Finish it I am my father's daughter

And I am my father's son! Finish it I must

There is a gun pointed at her and her life flashes before her once again. She truly thinks she is going to die in that moment, she closes her eyes tight, awaiting her fate, but the bullet never comes. She opens her eyes only to see her assassin dead on the ground, a blade buried in his skull and she screams and falls back, right into William who is wiping the blood stain off of his face. It is when he caught her and she looks up at him to see him smiling at her that she realizes her sisters were right all along.

[winterxfrost]

Anthony and Benedict are so similar

okay hear me out, anthony has the burden of his family in a way that he was to be the provider and benedict in a way that he had the name, that was earned by both his father and then his brother, to protect

But I think both of them were hurt in a similar way, it's just that both their lives were shaped in such different ways that their stories somehow turned out to be so different from each other.

Think about it, would Anthony have set about to marry just anyone as long as she were a suitable lady for his household if he weren't a viscount ? I don't think so. And what would have happened, if benedict were the viscount, would he have been so outwardly blithe? I don't think that too

To me it's almost very endearing of how similar these two brothers are. Even though their ways of dealing with their pain are so very different from each other, they are the same in so many ways one cannot describe.

I read a quote the other day on these two, idk if anthony said it (if anyone knows where it is from, do tell me) .. it said “he is my only brother, the others are my children” .. and yes, it completely suits my favourite bridgerton men and brothers.

Their stories are my favourites because of how strongly kate shook Anthony's walls and how magically sophie walts into benedict's heart.

I love them.

[andromythical]

im dangerously obsessed with frank zhang rn so here's a "little" thing about him bc people don't realize how complex his character is. Buckle in cause this is a long one.

Frank arrived at camp (correct me if I'm wrong) about two weeks after his mother died. The night of the funeral was the night he found out he could die at any moment if a wooden stick caught fire. (Again, please feel free to correct me about the timeline and stuff.) Frank travelled from Vancouver, Canada to California. A 415 HOUR WALK. As far as we know, he did it illegally too. All while still dealing with the fact that his mother had recently passed and his (low-key kinda neglectful) grandmother was now his legal guardian.

We see how in the first few chapters, just how much Frank is drawn to archery, his grandmother even chastising him about his obsession. He wishes to be claimed by Apollo. Yet, after he wins the war games for his cohort, he is claimed by Mars. Mars, the god of war. The god of violence. The god of what killed his mother. Frank couldn't be less like him, or so we think. Of course, Frank doesn't want to be violent, but it's shown on multiple occasions how his first instinct is to fight.

When he sets off on his quest, there was no way for him to know what would lay ahead. There was no way to know that he would meet Iris, who would show him his gift. Speaking of Iris, however, this where something very interesting happens. Iris claims he is connected to the stick because he 'had too many gifts'. This confused me on my first read, because how could he have too many gifts? He could shapeshift, sure, but it's not like he had any other major powers or anything. That's where I was wrong. It was confirmed in a book, I can't remember which one, that children of Mars and Ares have control over the dead, as long as they were on the losing side of a battle. So no, he doesn't only have one power. He certainly has skills, too. He is gifted in war strategy and tactics, as well. Making him an absolute unit in combat.

Of course, how could I talk about SoN with our bringing up the whole Zhang mansion chaos? It begins with Frank, Hazel and Percy in desperation. They resort to going to his 'grandmother's house' as he calls it. Not his house, his grandmother's. (This has absolutely no significance I just wanted to point it out). His grandmother is quite literally on her death bed when they arrive, Mars at her side. When Frank and his father have a one on one, Mars mentions how he is 'Junos secret weapon'. While talking about Gaia, he mentions that - in a direct quote - " I think you worry her more than Percy or Jason or any of the seven." This ties back to Iris' comment. He is too powerful.

Grandmother Zhang seems very shitty, and for the most part is. She has told Frank that "Men do not cry, especially not Zhang men" which we can see ties into a quote further on in the book, after the mansion catches fire and they're on the plane back. Percy mentions that "Frank kept his head down, as if he was ashamed to have been crying."

What people don't mention about Frank as much, is that he lost his only family about a month or so apart. A month.

People don't like Frank because of his conflict with Leo, but what people choose to ignore is the fact that the arguments started after Frank started hearing Mars and Ares in his head. And as we see in HoH, Mars and Ares are very pushy. Some of his behaviour could be contributed to his anger at Mars, who he now hears encouraging him to fight the Greeks at every opportunity, and some could also be contributed to Leo himself, who caused the Mars and Ares fiasco, and who also teases him at every chance he gets.

it's getting very long now and I'm getting very unmotivated so I'm gonna leave it here and if I think of anything else I'll edit it :3

The moment we've all been waiting for... the Venice incident, when Frank killed between 200-300 monsters. He was blessed by Mars afterwards, and is described to have been more confident. Even Leo had stopped teasing him.

And THIS, dear readers, is why Frank is the physical embodiment of "I'm not a violent dog, I don't know why I bite."

[wintersshowers]

RONAN and ADAM and... ETHEL CAIN

(trust me its gonna be so good)

My thoughts on “crush” by Ethel Cain and The Raven Cycle (because my niche right now is rereading the raven cycle for the first time in 4 years and I just happened to see Ethel live and I cannot stop connecting them) 

As a prelude to my lyric/quote breakdown… Ethel Cain is a trans woman who writes hauntingly beautiful music.. She is religious and from the south, which is a HUGE part of why it is so undeniably apparent to me that she can be connected to specifically RONAN (gay catholic from the south with his barn house). Her music is so amazing and she is an awesome story teller so I hope you give her a listen.

Her most popular song CRUSH is so goddam Ronan and Adam I had to write this because I needed to put it somewhere. 

“His window's already passed, so he's shooting at the glass

Keeping guns in his locker, and he denies it

Like it's actually important, but he lied 'cause I sure did watch him

Showing up wearing black, and he knows that” 

His daddy's on death row, but he'll say it with his chest, though”

This is just very Ronan angst i don't feel like i need to explain.. 

“His friends move dope, he hasn't tried coke

But he's always had a problem saying no”

OKKK soooooo lets get into the the dream thieves helloooo 

Yes Kavinsky and Ronan’s relationship is very hard to define but whatever it is he takes up a lot of his time in dream thieves.. And he loves coke (or whatever the hell he dreamt up)… and Ronan is VERY BAD at saying no when it comes to any sort of challenge from Kavinsky.

OK NOW LETS GET INTO THE GOOD STUFF

“Can you read my mind? I've been watching you.”

“As they moved through the old barn, Adam felt Ronan’s eyes glance off him and away, his disinterest practiced but incomplete. Adam wondered if anyone else noticed.”

“Adam finally sat down on one of the pews. Laying his cheek against the smooth back of it, he looked at Ronan. Strangely enough, Ronan belonged here, too, just as he had at the Barns. This noisy, lush religion had created him just as much as his father's world of dreams; it seemed impossible for all of Ronan to exist in one person. Adam was beginning to realize that he hadn't known Ronan at all. Or rather, he had known part of him and assumed it was all of him.

The scent of Cabeswater, all trees after rain, drifted past Adam, and he realized that while he'd been looking at Ronan, Ronan had been looking at him.”

“When he opened his eyes, he saw that Ronan was looking at him, as he had been looking at him for months. Adam looked back, as he had been looking back for months.”

“Couldn't fight to save your life, but you look so cool”

“I’ve watched the evening news, Adam,” Gansey snapped. “Why don’t you let Ronan teach you to fight? He’s offered twice now. He means it.” With great care, Adam folded the greasy rag and draped it back over a toolbox. There was a lot of stuff in the carport. New tool racks and

calendars of topless women and heavy-duty air compressors and other things Mr. Parrish had decided were more valuable than Adam’s school

uniform. “Because then he will kill me.”

“Good men die too, oh, I'd rather be with you, you, you”

“See, Adam Parrish is wantable, worthy of a crush, not just by anyone, someone like Ronan, who could want Gansey or anyone else and chose Adam for his hungry eyes.”

HELLOOOOOOOOo are u kidding…. 

1st Gansey is the definition of a “good man”

2nd Adam is OBSESSED WITH THIS the whole damn series and is constantly attempting to model himself/who he wishes he was after gansey 

3rd to tie it all together… the whole series its like oh yea gansey is about to die (along with everyone else if we are being real) 

“I owe you a black eye and two kisses

Tell me when you wanna come and get 'em”

PLEASEEEEEE like this is MY WAY of describing the ANGST and SLOWWWWWburn of their relationship. When I hear her sing this I cannot help but giggle and kick my feet because of how amazingly it fits. 

“I only want him if he says it first to me”

"It was Adam’s ribs under Ronan’s hands and Adam’s mouth on his mouth, again and again and again. It was stubble on his lips and Ronan having to stop, to get his breath, to restart his heart. They were both hungry animals, but Adam had been starving for far longer.”

We all know the Ronan longing and it being a HUGE secret that he likes Adam... and Adam like knows and its like lol embarrassing (as if he isn't down bad as well)

ADAM is like oblivious to the legitimacy of his feelings until ronan gives him a little kissssss and then it's like he is all like “what is love” 

“He looks like he works with his hands, and smells like Marlboro Reds”

HELLOOOOOo this is so adam are u kidding

“Ronan crossed his arms to wait, just looking. At Adam's fine cheekbones, his furrowed fair eyebrows, his beautiful hands, everything washed out by the light. He had memorized the shape of Adam’s hands in particular: the way his thumbs jutted awkwardly, boyishly; the roads of prominent veins; the large knuckles that protruded from his long fingers. In dreams Ronan put them to his mouth.” 

“Adam twisted off the lid. Inside was a colorless lotion that smelled of mist and moss. Replacing the lid with a frown, he turned the container over, looking for more identifying features. On the bottom, Ronan's handwriting labeled it merely: manibus. For your hands.”

“Something's been feeling weird lately

There's just something about you, baby (there's just something about you, baby)

Maybe I'll just be crazy (I'll be crazy)

And piss him off 'til he hates me

Yeah right, he fucking loves me”

…… do i even need to say anything??

[jamies]

rereading daisy jones and the six and here are some quotes that make me go feral

We love broken, beautiful people.

I was drawn to him mainly because he was drawn to me. I wanted someone to single me out as something special.

“Your mom is beautiful.” “Yeah, beautiful and nothing else.”

I think I was seventeen, maybe. And it was the first time I wondered if I had a purpose.

There’s this peace that comes with knowing you have a person in the world who would do anything for you, that you would do anything for.

“I love you as much as I’m willing to love anybody.”

I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse. I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of fucking story.

This is how dark the world can be. Some fathers don’t love their sons.

Nice never did much for me.

He sort of looked like he’d never had an interesting thought in his life.

Men often think they deserve a sticker for treating women like people.

What’s good is when everybody thinks you’re headed somewhere fast, when you’re all potential. Potential is pure fuckin’ joy.

Love and pride don’t mix.

I was going to get it, hell or high water.

I think you have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it’s not faith, right?

When you put your life in your music, you can’t be clearheaded about your music.

It was such a rush, singing like that. Singing a song that I felt in my heart. Words that I had written that were all mine.

You know how sometimes people will describe other people and say they make you feel like you’re the only one in the room? Billy and Daisy could both do that. But they somehow did it with each other. They each seemed like they thought the other one was the only person in the room. Like we were watching two people who didn’t realize thousands of people were watching them.

Just by touching you, he’d scrape you.

If you redeem yourself, then believe in your own redemption.

When you have everything, someone else getting a little something feels like they’re stealing from you.

“There’s just as much to hate about you as there is to like about you. And that’s annoying.”

“It’s like some of us are chasing after our nightmares the way other people chase dreams.”

I was paying the price for the parts of himself that he didn’t like.

It feels good, to be understood.

“This song isn’t meant to be pretty. Don’t sing it like it is.”

When you’re living your life, you’re so inside your head, you’re swirling around in your own pain, that it’s hard to see how obvious it is to the people around you.

Everybody wants somebody to hold up the right mirror.

She was dangerous. And I knew that. But I don’t think I could recognize that the safer she felt to me, the more dangerous she was.

Self-expression is about what it feels to live, not whether you had the right to claim any emotion at any time.

I hurt. So I wrote about it.

I wish someone had told me that love isn’t torture.

I came to hate that I’d put my heart and my pain into my music because it meant that I couldn’t ever leave it behind.

“I think in order to be happy like I’m happy, you need different things. And I want you to have whatever those things are.”

Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding.

“You don’t understand me. You expect me to be someone I’m not.” “You never loved me the way I loved you.” And both of those things were true.

To this day, there is a piece of me that still loves her. And there is a piece of me that will never forgive her.

[skibasyndrome]

hii lovely writer 💓

because of all those talking about this challenge in october and your writing in general i was just wondering (if you feel like answering):

is writing smut or explicit scenes personal for you? if yes, why? if not, why not?

looking forward to your future works 🥰

Hey there anon!

That's an interesting question and definitely not easy to answer tbh. For me there are different things that play into writing (or creating "art" only in quotes cause I'm weird about calling myself an artist of any kind I suppose), and one of them definitely is... hmmm... personal experience? If that's what you mean? I mean I love being a queer man, I love reading about queer men, I love writing about them as well, that's probably why I ended up writing fanfic in the first place? 😅

But more than that I just... idk... stumble upon some topic or something that I find inspiring and wanna explore further, then of course I also have the characters in mind and I like putting them in all kinds of different scenarios or situations and thinking about what they'd be like confronted with xyz, how they'd act, react, what they'd say or think. Personal experience is part of it, like when I tried to describe that beautiful summer day in my last fic, but it's never all there is for me. I think I especially love AUs because of the whole... what-if of it all, you know? I mean, what if Wilmon were criminals? It's obviously not something I have experience with nor is it like a desire of mine, but wouldn't it be neat to find out, you know? (tangent, but that is how I feel about literature in general. I love it because it allows us to explore all aspects of human existence no matter how far-fetched or grim or, conversely, how utopian it might be)

That was more general about... all fic 😅 But I guess while we're here: smut/explicit scenes are just something I gravitate towards when writing, I can't really explain it beyond the fact that I think smut is a GREAT way to explore characters psychologically. Which, I know this may sound paradoxical because sex is so physical obviously, but I just think that in those moments where you have two (or more, I suppose, but that hasn't happened in my fics yet) characters interacting so intimately there's soooo much room for exploration of their feelings, their worries, their fears, their joy, anything tbh. Like, I LOVE writing sex scenes that reveal something about the characters, or maybe where the characters learn something about themselves or each other. I don't think I always succeed and this sounds a lot deeper than it often is, but... yeah. Explicit scenes are excellent for getting deep into the psychological processes and for having them take a break from the "action" of every day life to just... feel and think and experience lots of things at once.

Tbh that's also one reason why I think kink in fic is soooo compelling lots of times - it's so interesting psychologically!!! I've always said that I could probably read close to anything if it's only like... well explained how exactly the characters got there and what is compelling them to do/like xyz. And that's what I hope to do with this challenge! Find a way to write the characters we know and love in situations that we maybe might not (or maybe we do?) expect them in and explore what could motivate them and what they might be feeling and thinking of during these moments. So in a way it's personal because I like to do these thought experiments and obviously we're all sort of... caged in by the borders of our own imagination if that makes sense? But also not that personal at all, because it's more like... thinking through the filter of a fictional character.

I don't know if any of that made sense 😭 but thank you so much for that interesting question and the love for my fics 💜

[dawsonscreekwasalwaysbad]

funniest parts of inside job pt 2

mommy likey drinky

“santa is fake! but student debt is real!” “you had to learn sometime, brayden”

“this is gonna be the most globally damaging midlife crisis since elon musk” oh that is APT

“ok boomer”

“are you poland? because that german guy straight-up owned you”

reagan saying that alex jones “looks like an orangutan fucked a fire hydrant”

“i’m the only one left who will listen to me!”

spending the whole episode confused on why oprah is back and then seeing her yell “i’m not the first oprah!”

“our missions do feel suspiciously like b-stories”

“why is my wallet on a metal leash? where would it be trying to go?”

lights being mothman’s kryptonite is a very obvious joke but it still works every time

KEANU FUCKING REEVES

“MOTHERFUCKER!” “well, he is fucking reagan’s mother, so yes. motherfucker.”

*takes out a lotus* “i don’t put these in my pocket. they grow there spontaneously.”

“i’m feeling drained from staring meaningfully into the distance”

“after dating so many billionaires, his millionaire lifestyle keeps me grounded”

the pussy posse being amazed and confounded by brett’s respect women juice

the real reason leonardo dicaprio only dates women under 25

“someone on the internet found out margot robbie is cgi” FINALLY SOMEONE WHO AGREES WITH ME

reagan accidentally imitating owen wilson

“when i’m done with you, men will look at you the way they look at me: briefly!”

gigi’s reaction to her make-under: “i wanna cyberbully myself!”

tamiko’s reaction to rand turning into a literal manchild: “way to turn subtext into text, rand”

myc’s absolutely SAVAGE comebacks at the constitution heist

“how would the founding fathers feel about this?” “probably the same way your father feels about you”

“ok, give me the word and i’ll blow the hell out of this thing” “said your ex-wife to brett’s dick”

“aliens? a woman being in charge of a team? nobody’s gonna believe this!”

“it’s a psychic union where everyone thinks the same and acts the same like fucking marvel fans” HGFHJGSDHKJHSJGH

“the last time i saw a white guy that generic, he was on a don’t walk sign!”

“fresh dirt is brought to you by blue apron. do you only care about the environment when it’s super convenient?”

INCEL STEVE

“how did he get that hoodie?”

“WE’VE BEEN FUCKED BY THE POPE!” “for the love of god, CONTEXT!”

saying “when in rome” is half the reason people come to rome

the gay dog weddings

“i now pronounce you two very good boys!”

“that’s me in the corner, losing my religion.”

reagan offending the italians (again)

“oh man, if god is real, i’m fucked”

“in the name of the father the son and the HOLY SHIT”

in a vow to make air travel as inconvenient as possible, the third wright brother invented sharing an armrest

“i deserve to be punished. i still quote borat sometimes”

“look! a woman’s ankle!”

*takes one look at hell* “those flamin’ hot cheetos commercials really nailed it.”

“i love cable news. it’s like watching the apocalypse in slow motion.”

gigi describing brett as “the comic sans of people”

andre reminding us how old millennials are now

“destroying your brother’s political legacy. what are you, a bush?”

the ayn rand tattoo

brett accidentally unionizing and legalizing sex work

“the solution just seemed so obvious”

“because faking your own death worked so well last time, reagan. redundant much?”

“maybe all conspiracies are real!” “oh, that’s not good.”

brett’s lil brett puppet

lil brett dying

lil brett going absolutely batshit crazy during the entire end credits of that episode

“you look like a white girl at burning man!”

the coughing and face-touching station

“the only way you’re associated with the number 300 is in pounds.” “you calling me fat?” “explicitly!”

“i literally have no idea what you’re going to say next!” “vagina egg.”

“i feel like we have the same interests. wanna start a podcast?” “no! this is like a siren song for straight white men!”

reagan once used cheetos as croutons

*route 96 turns into route 69* “haha, nice”

the fact that andre is just the original text of the “one fear” meme

“fun for ages six to six and a half!”

berenstain bears originally being berenstein makes SO MUCH SENSE

“and finally the rich white underdogs became the rich white ruling class. an inspirational story”

jr refusing to put his shirt back on

brett gives a tinfoil hat to the shazaam poster and it WORKS

“turns out i wasn’t pregnant, i just had way too much del taco” “i’ve been there”

“you said something nice, but it felt mean!”

mothman’s alternate timeline was a reverse of the fly

andre is canonically into tentacle hentai

lampshading the plot holes

“me? in charge of a whole workforce, like santa?”

“how many oscars is meryl streep supposed to have? three seems kinda low”

andre, just having shoved nixon back into his grave, now covered in blood and holding a shovel: “i don’t wanna talk about it”

air bud!!

“i could beat a dog in chess! probably.” same, brett, same

[spicybylerpolls]

So I just read a really interesting review of the gay WW1 novel In Memoriam, and the reviewer (in a respected newspaper) is describing this adolescent, boyish, somewhat cowardly attraction between the two boys. 

Although they later prove themselves physically brave, Ellwood and Gaunt are cowards in love. Despite being well inducted by other boys into the improvised physical intimacy widely practised at their Wiltshire boarding school, Preshute, their own relationship remains chaste and hesitant: affectionate; Tennysonian; intensely sexless. Both characters are recognisable stock figures of boyish adolescent romance.

Now, it’s well and easy to say such in today’s era when homosexuality isn’t punishable by death, but in terms of Mike and Will, they’re going to explore in fine detail in s5 how and why both Mike and Will have been so careful. But what gets my eye is the mature way of discussing sex. If anything, works are often taken LESS seriously when they are coy about sex, because they suddenly seem embarrassed or childish or Disney-ified. I cannot imagine a more opposite view to the byler sex antis on here, who say, instead, that portrayal of adolescent sex is paedophilic. Can you imagine how you would be dragged to shit by any literary or film critics worth their salt for thinking that? For thinking that teenage sex is inherently bad or paedophilic? 

The review goes on to say:

Both young men torment themselves in attempts to hide their attachment from one another and themselves. It is a losing battle, the first of many they will see as war draws close.

Oof it sounds familiar! 

But mainly, the reviewer (a man) is appreciative of the detail that the author (a female) put into the work as regards sex:

Winn has written against the grain of her “lived experience” in another way too. In addition to not being a veteran of the First World War, some quick detective work in the acknowledgments section of the book reveals that she is also not a homosexual Edwardian adolescent. In fact, she does an intelligent job here too at simulating the male imagination, and although the sex remains carefully speculative, there are occasional observations of striking acuity. (“Gaunt’s prick was a little smaller than his. Ellwood had noticed that a long time ago, at school, had found it ruinously attractive.”)

I want to point out that this last quote comes before these characters engage in any sexual activity together in the book. 

And this comes on the back of the author running the novel by her male gay and bisexual friends for realism before publishing:

‘I had one friend who was really generous and candid about how to make the sex scenes feel real, but also about how to make the characters – outside of the sex – behave more like men. I mean, I don’t want to put too fine a point on this, but I remember at one stage he asked me, “So, who has the bigger penis?” And I was like, “I don’t know!” And he said, “Well, the characters know!”’ 

- Alice Winn

So there we are! Have Mike and Will ever showered together in the gym at school? We see the high school boys do this at Hawkins in s2, but Mike and Will have never been together at high school. Either way, there’s an acknowledgement here of the fact that teenage boys think very differently about sex than girls, and that if you want to create a piece of art that not only is enjoyable and exciting and compelling, but respects its characters and source material, you must be realistic about those character’s thoughts and experiences. I can understand prudishness a little, but to go as far as to call people who are calling for sexual realism in a coming of age story paedophiles????????? What is your aim?????? Feel free to be afraid of sex until you can figure it out, but do not call others who are engaging with something natural and normal perverts and degenerates. It’s not just cruel, but completely ignorant. 

In short, Mike and Will have definitely thought about and possibly know who has the bigger penis - and yes, they’re also very interested in that topic. 

Okay first of all, I'm definitely adding that book to my reading list! I love queer coming-of-age period pieces. Thanks for your service to the spicy byler community!

Second of all, this brings up a lot of interesting points. I especially love your point that, "If you want to create a piece of art that not only is enjoyable and exciting and compelling, but respects its characters and source material, you must be realistic about those character’s thoughts and experiences." So true! I think Bylers are typically really good at understanding this concept, but for whatever reason they completely throw that out the window once sex is in the picture.

"In short, Mike and Will have definitely thought about and possibly know who has the bigger penis - and yes, they’re also very interested in that topic."