#obviously there are a lot of differences too

[drchucktingle]

how are you human?

so many interesting comments and thoughts on my post saying buds should consider not coming up to strangers in marginalized groups and saying 'how are you a real person that actually exists?'. i will point out this: despite my VERY gentle tone a few buds said i was having a 'meltdown' for even mentioning it

others said i was being too serious for someone who is ‘not a real person’. so if you would any more evidence of what it is like to be a buckaroo like myself there it is. every day, autistic folks who may seem ‘weird’ are bombarded with messages and comments and implications that they are fundamentally not human beings

sometimes it is outright and blatant like the comments on last post saying ‘well why are you getting mad? you are not even real’ and sometimes it is in the very subtle ways that folks use language when they talk to us. there is huge difference between ‘how do you exist?’ and ‘i am glad you exist.’

anyway, something that i think many people who have not lived this experience dont seem to understand is i KNOW the poster who said ‘how are you a real person that actually exists’ probably meant it as a compliment. that is THE POINT of why i am taking a moment out of my trot to gently and anonymously let them know how it might feel to be on other end of something like this as a queer or autistic or otherwise marginalized buckaroo. it is obviously not their intent to actually hurt someone, so i am letting them know

maybe because queerness and autism are not physically apparent it is hard to explain, but imagine going up to very tall or very short person and saying ‘cant BELIEVE you are real’ as a compliment. not a great way to treat others. on my original post, an indigenous author chimed in with their own experience and feelings similar to my own. a woman who said she was very tall told her story. point is, while i do not have their experience, what i am saying has a universal thread for 'othered' folks

point is: i UNDERSTAND there is this sort of exaggerated or ironic (or maybe even sometimes very literal) language around fandom to say things like ‘how are you a human?’ to creators, but since it is not your intent to hurt, i think you might want to know how that feels to marginalized buckaroos sometimes.

obviously you can say anything you want. i do not hold it against you. also, if you think ‘oh no, did i say something like this to chuck at a convention? i am so embarrassed' then DO NOT WORRY i promise you buckaroo you are just fine. i present myself in a way that is unusual by definition, so i have pretty thick skin about this type of thing and a lot of patience. MANY buds start off thinking i am ‘a joke’ and then become fans over time and i am glad to trot beside them and prove love is real.

however there are other autistic or queer or marginalized buckaroos with smaller platforms who hear this just as much as me, so i think it is important to say it loudly and maybe together we can work on making a very slight shift in the way we speak to the ‘others’ in our lives

we do not NEED to let subtle dehumanization slip into our language. in some cases it has been called ‘micro aggressions’ but i think buds dont often consider what that means for COMPLIMENTS. ultimately, telling marginalized people YOU ARE SO AMAZING YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY EXIST may seem very fun and silly on the surface and for some folks it probably feels that way, but for others it can feel like a reminder of the broader doubt about their humanity. you can just say ‘YOU ARE AMAZING’ without the reminder of the many times autistic or queer or marginalized folks are told in a very serious and pointed way (like comments on the last post) ‘YOU ARE SO WEIRD THAT I HAVE DECIDED YOU ARE NOT REAL’

buckaroos can take this information and apply it to their interactions, or they can ignore it, that is totally fine. we are all trotting our own trots and proving love in our own way and thats okay bud, HOWEVER i feel like it is important to at least let folks know, even if that means getting told i am having a ‘meltdown’. i think it is important to have complex or difficult conversations if it will prove a little more love in the long run. THANK YOU FOR READING BUCKAROOS. i am honored to trot forward with you can tackle this kind of thing with you, and honored you buckaroos have created such an amazing space with me to pull apart these kind of feelings. THIS IS PROOF THAT LOVE IS REAL LETS TROT

[charcubed]

Okay in the genuinely least shady way possible and not trying to start a debate here: I understand the wider point OP is making but I also, personally, feel insane when I see posts about this topic phrased in this way lmaaaoooo

“queerbait tv”

???????

What, supposedly, was “queerbait TV”?

[Rhetorical question. I can rattle off the list of shows people would probably reply with, and yet I'd also probably insist that each of them is vastly different and should be viewed through a unique lens rather than compared to the others because no 2 situations are alike]

Because what this post is describing (and what some people are even understanding in the notes of it) is subtext. These discussions are often really about subtext and queercoding and thematically compelling narratives!! That’s what’s described here and it’s what people – or at the very least me personally – desperately crave!!

And look, I’m obviously not saying that advocating for gay people being openly explicitly represented on TV was or is a bad thing. Of course that’s important, whether the gay people are going on healthy dates or killing for each other lmao.

But for God's sake... this is why my repetitive rant and personal hot take is that we need to abolish the word "queerbaiting." It's done so much damage in this regard and it doesn't even fucking mean anything of consistent substance or value at this point, if it ever properly did. Once upon a time and only briefly, "queerbaiting" was intended as an accusation that corporate marketing and false advertising were deliberately being used with the intent to increase viewership of a show with no explicit follow-through or validation of queerness within the story itself. It was a type of pinkwashing for ads about TV shows – something that was actually pretty rare in the grand scheme, to be honest – not about the writing or execution of a story itself. But that potential meaning for a very specific thing quickly became entirely lost, and now the use of the word "queerbaiting" is literally just about vibes. You'd be hard-presssed to get even 10 random people to define it the same way. And more often than not, using "queerbaiting" is about derogatory vibes specifically thrown in the direction of devaluing subtext or deriding creators for whatever a fan personally considers to be a failure, disappointment, subtlety (or even too-slow burn) in a story's writing.

[Btw OP, if you're reading this, I'm really not trying to make an aggressive accusatory example out of your singular use of the word here lmao. I apologize if it feels that way. I'm working up to a point]

At the end of the day, so much of these recent takes about boring gay people on TV or ~queerbait hits harder~ route back to how, in the (still worthwhile!) pursuit of explicit representation and the implicit assumption that it's always the Best, somewhere along the way people got it in their brains that subtext and queercoding deserved vilification as the Worst. And that became the loud and prevailing opinion. Of course a lot of that also stems from personal hurt, anger, or disappointment by past TV shows which is all obviously understandable... but that's why people cling to the simplicity of the word “queerbaiting” as an umbrella anytime something's upsetting, and the accusation is often hurled with misplaced ire at creators.

Ultimately in some ways the concept of subtext became synonymous with "not good enough," and in other ways it came to be seen as something cowardly or malicious that creators put into stories to tease, bait, and disappoint fans. Nuance got lost, as well as the understanding that subtext/queercoding exist at all because they're tools used to tell (or enrich!) stories despite interference, constraints, and censorship – obstacles which have never fully gone away.

So we've ended up here: the need for whatever constitutes Good Representation – an endlessly shifting goalpost – and room for little else. The fear of all the ways stories can hurt and the advocacy for avoiding that hypothetical or potential hurt. The "all or nothing" mentally where if a ship isn't canon in the way someone personally deems acceptable – or in a way where every straight person on the planet will miraculously, mythically accept it's queer – then the story has Caused Harm and therefore doesn't have much value or can't be queer. And the overall cultural framing that subtext only exists when creators are too cowardly to do something more, rather than possibly as a creative choice to add complexities or a byproduct of censorship or both.

I find it all pretty fucked and exhausting to witness.

So, judging by [gestures broardly] the hamster wheel of bullshit out there and specifically the high note count on this post...

Here's where I land, as always:

I truly believe so many people and fandoms would free themselves if they realized that “queerbaiting” as a term is mostly bullshit, and as a concept the fear of Being Baited often robs people of finding joy and meaning in stories on their own merit. And I think they'd also free themselves a bit if they learned, understood, and acknowledged that subtext and queercoding are forms of canon. They're canon and they "count." Explicit queer storytelling is important for all the reasons we all implicitly know and understand, and of course we want to see sweeping epic character arcs reach the natural loudly queer conclusions we and the characters often deserve. But even if a story doesn't have that or get that, if you see and understand it's queer, that's still enough in its own way. It still has value, and you don't need permission or validation from anyone else to maintain that to yourself or to others.

Final apology to OP for hijacking their post. And maybe the TL;DR is I genuinely am "advocating for a return to queerbait TV" – or rather the sorts of storytelling and subtext people too often derogatorily slap with the "bait" label, past or present. Maybe people should think a little more about how stories like that were and still are good as well as often legitimately queer... and examine why there's often an implication that they're somehow not.

I am genuinely not advocating for a return to queerbait tv, I was vocally against it the whole time it was happening that was like my whole shtick for a while but it is kind of wild that when gay people weren’t allowed on tv, gay characters (who weren’t allowed to be gay) would be drinking poison for each other and killing bad guys for each other romantically and offering to go to prison in each other’s place and now that we are allowed to have gay people on tv…gay people will just be having a healthy conversation and going going on a date like normal people. Get OUT of my face with that

[cvnt4him]

Diaries of Spider-Man.

ch1

Dear diary; what was I thinking?!

synopsis; the disastrous "adventures" of a teenaged spiderman.

This is a WIP, please let me know your thoughts and if this is what you would like to see from me<3

“let's do this one.. last.. time...”

“my name is izuku midoriya, and for the past 3 years, I've been the one and only spiderman. Annnd, I'm pretty sure you know the rest..”

₊˚⊹

Izuku jots away in his notebook before taking a step back to read what little he's written. the groan that escaped his lips was quite audible. He was rather disappointed in what he's written.

When his therapist "prescribed" him to journaling or writing down his thoughts in a notebook which he didn't want to refer to as a diary, his initial thought was;

‘theres no way in hell writing things down would help me.’

However for the past three years, izuku found himself writing everything he could down in those measly little journals his therapist gave him. Each and every year the thick and huge diary journal she gave him would begin to get fuller and fuller of all of his little adventures or simple daily routines.

Izuku was nothing if not a stubborn little shit at times. Of course he would disagree heavily but facts don't lie. You can't tell this energetic know it all anything. He's really smart and well put together. Most of the time. Upon becoming spiderman he hasn't had a lot of time for much. His consistent tasks of being spiderman are always heavy and time consuming. He doesn't have time to study for his driver's test, his normal class tests which define if he passes the grade and gets into college, or even dinner half the time?!

To be frank; the poor thing has been through a lot the past years. Too much honestly. Izukus "power" awakening was an honest mistake. Like your typical movie spiderman, he was bitten by a radioactive spider whilst he was doing something he knew he had no business doing

₊˚⊹

To go back exactly three years 4 months and 17 days ago, you would find a 14/15 year old izuku breaking into an abandoned home with none other than his typical, usual, partners in crime.

Katsuki bakugou and y/n l/n.

Izuku knew it was a bad idea from the beginning, however he always followed the two of you into stupid situations that could eventually get you killed. In this case, it almost did. Izuku helped you get through the window the three of you had busted by letting you climb onto his shoulders, katsuki who had laid his jacket over the glass so none of you would cut yourselves, grabbed you by your arms and pulled you in, the both of you then helped izuku in with basically the same method.

“woah.. spooky.”

“ heh.. it reeks in here.”

You giggled at katsukis exclaim, making izuku pout slightly. He sighed to himself, not wanting to admit the blonde was correct.

“ you guys i- i really don't think we should— ”

“ hey check it out! there are spray paint cans in here!”

Katsuki yells running to the other room with numerous cans of spray paint. You followed him like a dumb lost puppy leaving izuku to groan and follow behind you both.

There were many graffiti stamps left behind from many different people, obviously they had left behind their spray paint for some odd reason, that's what really intrigued izuku.

“ tch, hey deku, get over here so we can sign our names!”

Izuku jogs closer to you two shivering to himself at all the spiderwebs covering the cans. It was dusty and quite eerie inside of this place. Izuku truthfully wanted no part. You and katsuki signed your names right next to each other with little quirky doodles next to them, izuku soon followed suit. He picked up the green can of paint and signed his name ‘izuku’

“ no no, put deku! ‘ts way better than ‘izuku’!”

The way katsuki could make izuku feel bad about his given name should've been studied. And they way you were quick to agree hurt the poor boy even more. He soon crossed out izuku and put ‘Deku’ big and boldly. It was all alone compared to how closely the two of your names were.

The two of you had long began to explore elsewhere, leaving izuku wondering where you two went off to.

“hey! Come in here izu- I mean deku!”

You yell out catching his attention, he follows the sound of your voice to find you two the small critter crawling up his back going completely unnoticed. Some time passed and it only got later and later, izuku was still hesitant about being there but the two of you just kept going deeper and deeper inside of the manor.

Izuku rushes inside of the next room, breaking contact with whatever artifacts caught his eye. He looked for the two of you calling out your names with no answer, he was confused and quite scared, where could the two of you have gone?

“ boo!”

Izuku jumped back falling down to the ground and scraping his little hands.

“ow..!”

Izuku winced at the sudden sting of not only his hands but the pinch of his skin itching and being very irritated next to his neck, he slapped it and the arachnid soon fell into his hands. With a shutter he threw the spider out of his hands feeling rather jittery after the encounter.

“ are you alright, izuku?!“

You were quick to rush over to him. It was simply supposed to be a little harmless joke, he wasn't supposed to get hurt. You helped him up and dusted him off as well heading katsuki suck his teeth in response.

“ yes, i- I'm fine. I've gotten bitten by a spider however.. one unlike any other I've ever seen.. we should head back so I can tell my mom.”

“ oh, oka-”

“ no.”

Katsuki was quick to shut down before you could get out your sentence. You both turned to look at him he seemed angry a bit as if something completely ruined his mood.

“ if you tell your mom we could get in trouble, she might tell my mom who might tell y/ns. you don't want us getting in trouble, do you deku.”

The way katsuki used the nickname against him made his stomach feel sick. He gulped down the rising bile in his throat and coughed lowly.

“ katsuki he got hurt, shouldn't he-”

“ no! I'm not getting in trouble because wimpy deku wanted to be an easy scare!”

“thats not fair katsuki!”

The two of you started bickering, leaving him out causing him to sigh. He felt a bit weird.. kind of dizzy and out of breath as if he'd been running. It was growing warm and he had began sweating, hyperventilating as if he needed to catch his breath.

The sounds of him caught your attention and suddenly the boy looked quite weak, frail of some sort.

“ izuku..? are you...alright?”

Katsuki sooner looked over to see izuku hardly keeping his balance, he wouldn't admit it but he was quite worried at the sight of him.

“ let's go.”

Was all katsuki said as he grabbed izuku by the hand and ran back towards the broken window the three of you came in.

The two of you got izuku home in one piece for the most part, he was dizzy and hardly standing up on his own, the running had him so our of breath it was almost like he was having an anxiety attack. He probably was to be honest, izuku was a very anxious boy. His anxiety levels were very high at all times, with the growing symptoms in his body and the bite from the spider he was so worried about what was happening to him he most likely started having a panic attack whilst running. Luckily he was home now, you and katsuki beat on his door as you heard him mom yelling she was coming.

She opens the door with a smile to see the three of you out of breath with a dead looking izuku, the sight startled his mother causing her to pick up her son and rush him to the hospital. Both yours and katsukis parents had been called and had quite a talk with inko who was worried sick about her son, yelling at your parents and explaining how she has no idea what happened.

You two didn't speak to each other once. Not even looking at each other. Both your parents had taken you and katsuki back home. After that night you'd never spoken to katsuki or izuku ever again..

Izuku was completely fine however. Those symptoms may have been bad but that was all it was. He was able to go home that same day and the doctors called it a simple panic/anxiety attack. His mother was worried sick for no reason.

From that moment forward things only began to get weirder for this normal teenaged boy.

₊˚⊹

Izuku sat at his desk reading his old journals of how he believes he got his powers, scoffing to himself at the memories. He had all his books all over his desk in a completely messy pile nose buried in his book as someone walked over and bumped his desk back into him, it lightly hit him in the stomach causing him to drop the journal in the desk and the desk of the books that were formerly there onto the floor.

He scoffed in annoyance looking up to see you with a shit eating grin on your face as you scowled down at him, not even apologizing as you walked out of the classroom.

Izuku seen as the classroom was completely empty, just him and his messy books all over the floor. He sighed and crouched down picking them up and shoving them into his backpack. His phone vibrated in his back pocket, he picked up up to see w text from his friends.

‘ hey! Meet us in the front?’

That singular text from ochako was all he needed for a small smile to form on his freckled cheeks. Just as he was about to put it away there was a pop up from the news channel he had downloaded on his phone, something about a criminal stealing from a jewelry shop.

He sighed to himself and texted her back explaining he wouldn't be able to meet them and that he'd just head home. However that wasn't the case. He ran out the back door of the school pushing through some students earning some angry and annoyed remarks spat at him; but he didnt have time to care. He ran behind some building and quickly slipped his suit on. He'd rather skip the embarrassing details..

Just as he was about to 'web away' he got a call from none other than katsuki bakugou. Izuku jumped and nearly dropped his phone at the sudden ringing, he quickly answers without thinking, lifting his mask over his mouth to speak,

“ oi nerd, y’heard about that criminal stealing that diamond or whatever?”

The normally volcanic boy has a soft tone still laced with a bit of redness and sass.

“ yes, kacchan, and before you called I was just about getting there so if y’dont mind!!!!”

The blond scoffs on the other side, chuckling as he snorts at his sass. Izuku groaned at the sound of him laughing and simply hung up swinging away as quickly as he could.

“ look up there! It's spiderman!!”

People squealed and yelled at the familiar colors of izukus suit, black along the sides and a deep green painting the front and back of his skin tight suit, and a big white spider over the chest. He'd made the suit when he was younger and had started working out he'd wanted to show it off but as of now he thinks it's quite unnecessary..

He swung through the crowds waving and smiling under the mask, as tiring as being spiderman was he was always thankful for the love he'd gotten. They truly made him feel valuable, izuku struggled with self confidence a lot, it's common in people like that to enjoy attention from all.

It wasn't that izuku needed to be humbled or anything but....izuku swung down an alley that reports seen the criminal go down, supposedly the diamond they had stolen was a very important artifact from ancient times or whatever, moral of the story was he needed to get it back to where it belonged! Izuku could do that!

He dropped in front of the criminal with a hero stance making him appear big n bad in front of them.

“ stop! give me that diamond, criminal!”

Izuku was obsessed with action movies when he was younger, his favorite actor was custom to working in them. He always imagined being a superhero and technically he is! However within these three years the fame and glory really went to his head ..

The criminal halted, izuku tried stepping closer to retrieve the diamond in a cool manner, speaking to the cloaked person in a soft voice trying to get them to come to their senses like some kind of......main character. To izukus surprise they pulled out a crossbow. He was stunned at the size of it,

“ how- how did that fit inside of your— ”

Before izuku could get the rest of his sentence out the criminal shot the arrow, it completely piercing izukus shoulder. He yelled out in pain nearly falling to his knees, that then made him realize that was no joke, this person being unlike any other petty thief hes gone up against.

As the criminal kicked izuku to the ground with a bare boot while he was holding his injured and punctured shoulder they quickly made haste and ran past him out of the alley, crowds soon coming up after the person ran away and seeing izuku clutching his shoulder run pain, all of them having different emotions on his face it would be an understatement to say he was embarrassed.

What had he thought that he was just invincible? Izuku struggled into his knees hearing whispers from the crowd and quickly tried his best to attempt swinging away with a singular arm, his left to be exact and that wasn't his maiden arm either. Izuku was fully right handed and did everything with it, with his right arm basically out of commission he did his best to swing with his left hand but...

He eventually wobbled and hit a sign, he was going at a high speed as well trying to hide his shame and find the person who did this to him, as his body came into full contract with the sign knocking every little bit of air out if his body the arrow got pushed deeper, making izuku groan in agony once more. Blood wetting his skin and suit as it dropped down, he didn't take the arrow out before because he thought about how it would cause him to bleed out and wouldn't be any good...now he wished he had.

He held onto the large sign and tried to swing away once more, he eventually got the hang of it for a little while managing to drop himself behind a building. He leaned against the wall of it and groaned, he wanted to take his suit off but it wouldn't be a good idea, anyone could've followed him or even tried to see who he was. It wasn't a good idea.

With every ounce of energy and strength in his body he pushed himself up from sliding to the ground and called who he knew he could.

“ yo?”

“ ka..kacchan... I need your...your help..”

₊˚⊹

AN: this is js a WIP lemme know what y'all think n if I should add or like yk leave out some things!!!!

[andro-dino]

a very eloquent breakdown on my thoughts and feelings about various icebound dynamics I think about a lot bc I love them and I miss them and if I keep these in my head for too long I will blow up:

this one I think is pretty simple. the whole party genuinely means everything to me they r THE family every and make me sob and cry and throw up constantly with how much I love them.

when it comes to ships, I DO NOT FUCK AROUND ABOUT SKRAISY AND JORQUEEN they r seriously everything to me, and then for barnabos skrimm and taishen, I just think they’re silly. all of them have their own moments together at separate parts that I came to each of these conclusions separately.

For a more in depth breakdown of those bc I really like them actually:

Barnabos and skrimm are pretty self explanatory I think. Those two are incredibly endearing together, both in the sillier moments but also just work together really well as a serious relationship and their dynamic is just so so good

Barnabos and Taishen are like, tooth-rottingly cute and I think it’s a crime that they aren’t more popular as a ship. I think barnabos’ maturity and protectiveness combined with taishen’s naivety and sweetness just make for a really cute dynamic and their duo moments together make me smile every time without fail

Skrimm and Taishen are like, the least serious one I have of the three. there is obviously the whole “pumped up” bit that was actually like insane, but they’ve had a couple moments throughout pretty much the whole series that have just made me have my eye on them for a while. I do not know how functional they would actually be together but I like to think that they both at the very least acknowledge that they find the other attractive and refuse to think about it any harder for both of their own sakes

Do not ask me how many times the term “queenie and skrimm/taishen bestieism” has come up in my priv livetweets of icebound (the answer is a lot). seriously like queenie’s friendships with both of them r everything to me they are just so insanely endearing. I like how skrimm and queenie absolutely bring out the worst (best) in each other and are just absolute rapscallions together every time, and I just like queenie and Taishen!!! like I don’t have the full words to put to their dynamic but I love them and I love that they r best friends and love and support each other always I LOVE THEM!!!!

These guys also mean everything to me. Queenie and her boyfriend and her best friend!!! That timestamp is a clip that just shows off the absolute silliness of these three together. I am so obsessed with jornir’s obvious favoritism for queenie and just how much he loves and cares about her and trusts in her and her abilities but is so insanely concerned for her safety and prioritizes it above all else, meanwhile emphasizing how incredibly much he does NOT trust in skrimm or his abilities and how he is there only to help queenie and nothing else. it’s genuinely really hilarious and I love them sm. Jornir and skrimm in general are just really hilarious but when you juxtapose it with jorqueen it’s just that infinitely better. I think also queenie and skrimm’s aforementioned duo dynamic and how insanely silly they are with each other, combined with jornir’s jornirness is also just such a funny dynamic and I love it very much

I dont really know how to elaborate on how much I love them together like you either get it or you don’t. Queenie and her boyfriend and her best friend part 2!!! They r such a comfort trio for me just bc I really like the idea of them all bluetooth syncing to each other and just understanding each other and communicating really well. Also this came to me last night but yk that one tiktok that’s like “‘doesn’t matter what you think, a different gender best friend is a red flag’? I’m sorry Emily, we can’t be friends anymore. and tell your boyfriend I fuckin hate him too”. that’s them to me. (Side note I cannot find this tiktok fucking ANYWHERE now??? it existed at one point I swear)

yeag. that about sums it up I think. queenie’s protective instincts for everyone around her all the time in general make me sob but when it comes to her and Daisy I am genuinely gonna blow up a building about it I love them so much. the way she so instantly jumps to take care of her after honey’s passing and how insanely protective she is over her and is constantly looking out for her I’m just like ooughhhhhhhhh my god. they make me sob I love them dearly

these could’ve been separate images but i didn’t feel like making more separate images lmao

Jornir and barnabos as a duo are really great I love remembering that these guys are like actually awesome and really cool like genuinely. Both of them have different qualities to them that make them so good when they step up into leadership positions for the party and I just think they’re both absolute fucking badasses when they really wanna be and I love when they come together and maximize their joint slay it’s really great.

When it comes to both of them with Daisy, I have the same feeling about it which is oughhhhhhhh my god I love them. Again both of them being some of the coolest and most mature members of the party when they really wanna be really comes out with both of their individual dynamics with Daisy and I just really love how they both take up such a protective and supportive role with her. They r so. I dare say fatherly. I just oughhh I love them I love them lots.

[thisapplepielife]

Written for @steddieholidaydrabbles.

Who's the Dad?

Prompt Day 31: Midnight | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: T | CW: None | Tags: Modern AU, Established Steddie, Middle Age, Steddie as Parents, TikTok Trend, Platonic Stobin, Corroded Coffin Guys, Goodie Doesn't Want to Hold That Baby, New Year's Eve Fun is Different When You're Older

"Why am I holding this baby?" Goodie asks, taking Betts from Robin and awkwardly holds her up in the air under her arms. Looking right at her, as if he's willing her not to cry. 

She doesn't, but Betts is highly suspicious of this arrangement. 

Goodie is too, apparently. He might cry first.

Eddie laughs, "That's your niece. Act like you've met before." 

They're gonna have to set this to music, and hope the lip-reading lady doesn't come along and expose them.

Steve is recording on Robin's phone, falling victim to another tiktok trend, but he can't wait to see if the internet can guess who her dad is. Especially since she has two. They're kind of cheating, but that just makes it more fun.

They pass her to Jeff next, and Jeff does better, but grins as he passes her back, "I think that I might be the obviously incorrect answer." 

Eddie laughs, "Adoption, man. Lots of options. Just act cool."

Steve's not sure any of them can be cool. Not anymore. They're too old for that.

"Why are we doing this again?" Goodie asks, hovering behind Jeff, as if he's scared he might be handed her again.

"Because we're bored. And old. And if we want to stay awake for midnight to ring in the new year we need to be entertained for the next four hours," Steve explains.

New Year's Eve isn't as wild as it once was, that's for damn sure.

As soon as Gareth walks in the front door, Steve is filming as Robin immediately hands Betts over to him. Gareth takes her with one hand, gripping her little thigh as he holds her securely to his side. 

Then he looks around at them looking at him, "Why are you all looking at me?"

Everybody just laughs.

Betts isn't paying much attention to Gareth, but she's used to him. Gareth's girls are older, and he's definitely been hands-on to get his baby fix from a kid he can hand back when she starts to cry or needs a diaper change.

Eddie gets his turn, making her laugh and Steve thinks it's very cute. Then Eddie takes the camera for Steve to have his. Betts pays exactly no attention to him, preferring to look over his shoulder at everyone else in the crowded house.

Then they keep moving: Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Argyle. The video's gonna be ten minutes long at this rate.

Robin posts it, the clock strikes midnight, and Steve doesn't think anything of it. Not really.

But when he wakes up in the new year, they've gone viral. Really viral. Thousands of comments are full of guesses, some right, some wrong. And lots and lots of thirst that's spread around to all of them. It's…a lot. It's a lot.

Eddie's already scrolling through them before Steve's even found his glasses.

"Why do they think Gareth is her dad before they think it's me?" Eddie asks, indignant. 

"They don't not think it's you. There are lots of offers to birth your baby if she isn't yours," Steve argues. And there are. Some of these comments are filthy.

"Everybody thinks it's you, and if not you, then Gareth," Eddie says, still complaining. 

He's not totally wrong. 

"They only think it's me because they've dug through Robin's profile. They're cheating," Steve says.

"No, they think Betts looks the most comfortable with you!" Eddie says, and Steve is afraid this is gonna turn ugly, quick. She wasn't uncomfortable with Eddie, she was being entertained. Of course she was looking at him.

Steve needs to diffuse this, but Eddie keeps going, "Elizabeth. How could you?"

He's so dramatic. Steve loves him, but it's too early for this.

"You were making her laugh. Of course she was gonna be looking at you," Steve suggests, trying to keep this from becoming an issue.

"Well, what about Gareth?!" Eddie says, shrill, poking at the screen of his phone.

"Gareth has kids. They had twins, Ed. He's incapable of being uncomfortable holding a baby, it was beaten out of him by overexposure. He could hold two babies at once. One is nothing."

Eddie laughs, but Steve can tell his feelings are a little hurt. They shouldn't have done this, but it just seemed like silly fun. Especially to see the uncomfortable ones, like Goodie and Mike, struggle to look like they've ever held a baby before.

Some of the guesses for Steve were because she paid no attention to him. He's old news. But a lot of them honestly were people digging into Robin's profile, seeing that he is heavily featured, but not watching the videos to see that they are best friends, not a couple.

Yeah, she was comfortable in his arms, and had no reason to check him out to make sure she wasn't gonna get dropped on her head. Gareth had the same vibes.

Eddie had decided to entertain her, and the audience, and that certainly worked against him. It charmed everyone, and Betts was clearly comfortable with him, but they weren't sure she was his, because of it.

"They think she looks like you," Eddie says.

Steve laughs, "Well, we all know that's not true."

Eddie finally laughs, the crisis averted, and rolls closer to Steve. Steve wraps his arms around him, pulling him in tight.

Betts starts crying through the monitor on the nightstand.

"I think you should go, as her favorite," Eddie says, burying his face into Steve's pillow. 

Yeah, yeah. He'll take one for the team. Eddie gets today to whine about this, but that's all. That's it.

Steve stands, and throws a t-shirt over his head, and heads for the bedroom door, "That's fine. I'll go continue to woo her to my side. As the favorite."

Eddie lays there for a second, and when he finally processes it, he says, "Hey! Wait a minute!"

And Steve just laughs as he closes the bedroom door behind him. This will fix itself by noon. Guaranteed.

If you want to write your own, or go see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @steddieholidaydrabbles and follow along with the fun!

Notes: If you've seen this trend on tiktok it is generally pretty easy to tell who is the dad! I think the secret is don't look at who the baby looks like, look at how they're being held and if they are curious about the situation they've found themselves in, lol.

[the-modern-typewriter]

How do you write something longer than a short story? I can write 50,000 words of short stories, but the moment I begin drafting out a novel it seems an insurmountable task!

The most important thing:

A lot of writers don't plot an entire novel in their head at the start. Some do, but many don't. Novel writing is a marathon not a sprint. If drafting the entire novel is insurmountable, then you can just not plan it out.

Focus on one foot after the other. 500 words. 1000 words. 2000 words. Hell, 100 words! Whatever! The point is that you chip away at the thing, you don't sit down and write the whole thing all in one go.

Structure tips:

Some short stories follow a similar structure as a novel, but many don't, so if you are used to short stories than it's worth having a quick look at how novels are actually structured.

If you haven't already looked at overall story structure, then having some idea of common story structure can help you with organising your thoughts and deciding where things loosely go. This is not something that you must rigidly stick to, but it can help you wrestle the overall shape of a novel in your head.

You could also try plotting each chapter almost as it's own short story, with a beginning, middle and end. E.g. the character has the overarching plot goals sure, but in each chapter there is an event, or conflict, or smaller goal of some sort. If doing that for a chapter is too much, you could also plan acts this way. This can help chunk the novel and make it more manageable, because you're not focused on the novel, you're focused on the chapter.

If you have no problem writing the words in volume, then the problem might be that you're not sure how to turn a short story/idea into a novel. I don't know you, so just guessing here, as it's a common thing to struggle with.

Themes/What is the story about?

If you know what you want to write about, consider a mind map with that idea in the centre. Your offshoots are everything that could serve that idea.

As you write, you will not use all of these, because some will make more sense than others. But having all of these possible events/ways that your story could manifest will help you decide what happens and help make sure it feels coherent to a larger idea.

Key ways to bulk a story

Unlike a short story, a novel requires a certain amount of meat to fill the word count. You need an idea you can sink your teeth into, not padding. Here are some ways to do this:

Dig deeper into your characters. What do they want? What do they need?

Add a subplot or subplots.

Add more characters than your short story.

Example of turning a short story to a novel

There are some different ways to achieve this. I'm going to walk you through how I would do it, in case this is helpful.

Here is an example, using my short story The Blue Key. It is a simple short story inspired by the Bluebeard myth. The idea as it is works for a short story. Obviously, this will include spoilers, so if you want to read the story, do so before continuing.

If I was going to make it into a novel I could/would:

Keep the same overall structure, but flesh out the characters and their relationship more.

For example, I could show them falling in love with each other through the flashbacks, or linger more on the protagonist getting used to her new home. The reader will explore this fantastically huge house with her and learn more about her at the same time. Maybe we explore her insecurities about comparing to his previous wife as he meets more of his friends/immerses herself in his world. We will see the strain more then as the key becomes more and more of an issue.

What is behind the door?

The Blue Key at the moment would not work entirely as a novel. The idea and especially the ending would need tweaking. However, we can continue to explore the same themes as in the short story and expand them.

Previous wife?/E.g. The classic Bluebeard ending

Gateway to a nightmare world?

Some monster/minotaur in the centre of the house that will be released if she opens the door?

A darker version of the husband? A part of him that he has locked away?

I could either have her open the door in the midpoint or at the beginning of the third act. Depending on what is behind the door, the last 25% of the story will play out differently. I'd also write the husband accordingly to drop hints etc. throughout the first half of the story.

Is the house haunted? This changes how the rest of the novel and the protagonist's exploration goes.

(So the non story-specific takeaway here is decide what your original short story was trying to say, and then think how you can expand that.)

Add a subplot/add characters

Possible subplots to explore our themes could include:

The mystery of what happened to the first wife/could include her POV to compare and contrast with the second wife. This could drill more into the idea of not knowing which genre you are in/the inevitability of the fairytale wife and their role.

Maybe the second wife hid letters around the house for the second wife to find.

Maybe the housekeeper or another character key in the husband's life does not like the new wife, a la Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (one of my inspirations for The Blue Key). How does this impact the relationship between the couple? How does the protagonist overcome this? How does this tie into the story themes? E.g. if a housekeeper, does she also have a key?

What does the protagonist want to escape in herself that she can't to mirror or foil the key/room/her husband?

I hope this helps. A novel is a bit like a long game of 'and then what? What interests me here? What does a character do? Okay, what problem does that cause? How do they fix the problem? Does their attempt to fix the problem work? Does it cause another problem?

[quirekey]

Hi Quire! Thanks for the HCs from the last request. I have another one for you to try out.

May I request HCs of [TFP] Optimus Prime and Smokescreen (separately) with a Cybertronian![S/O] [Gender Neutral] [Romantic] who's a Flier (like a Seeker or any flight-based ‘Bot)?

[Context]: Their partner is basically the Autobots’ Aerial Support for patrolling in the skies to report any Decepticon activity or detect possible Energon veins.

Oh! Remember during Season 3 of Transformers: Prime, Optimus gained the ability to fly? Imagine him and [S/O] flying together. That would be so cute!

There isn’t much to come from this so it maybe short, also welcome back :D!!

[ OPTIMUS PRIME, SMOKESCREEN ] x [ GN!READER ]

[ optimus prime, smokescreen x cybertronian!gn!jet!reader ]

HEADCANONS

OPTIMUS PRIME

- Optimus let you onto the team from the beginning. He had a lot of trust in you before the war even began, so he thought that you’d be a reliable asset to the team. Considering every bot is a land-vehicle, you being a jet would be very useful.

- In season 3, when Optimus gained the ability to fly was when you two got closer as lovers. You were finally able to travel around the world with him without any hassles. Sometimes he’d even carry you in your original mode while he’s flying, if you're small enough. ( don’t worry bro, he’s strong!! )

- When Optimus has to go meet up with somebot, he usually gets you to tag along. He considered you to be agile and witty, able to watch from up-high incase if backup is needed. Optimus did love you too so your company from above was pretty comforting to him.

SMOKESCREEN

- When Optimus announced that you were joining the team, he was ecstatic. There aren’t many autobots who have levitating or flying alt modes. He was eager to finally have somebot in the team who could do something different that isn’t drifting or doing ramp-stunts.

- Considering you two were together before the war, but then separated when it did come, he was way more affectionate than he usually was to you.

- When you go on missions, he’d wanna come. He thought that if he held onto your two wings while you're in your alt-mode flying, that it would work. This was obviously not the case when you tried it outside of the base, it wasn’t surprising but he was pretty insistent.

- He would usually hang around just below you when on patrol. Since you are a flying vehicle, Optimus gave you just a few extra hours compared to the others and you didn’t mind. When Smokescreen realised you were gone for a patrol for the 6th time this week, he decided to go out with you so you two could hang out.

- He would run after your jet just for fun and you two would do loops around the base to pass the time. Maybe some affectionate stuff too like some kisses or cuddles but you two never let your guard down either.

[13leaguestories]

2025 Forecast

Do you hear that along the wind? It's saying "you copied and pasted this from Patreon"

looks back at 2024 Yea, naw. I don't really have much to say about it besides it gave birth to some really good ideas that got me psyched about some stories. But mostly it just felt like a really long mile with covered holes that I kept falling into. If any of you watch Neebs Gaming on YouTube, I was Simon this year. If you know, you know.

Like one of the good things is I realized Superstition needed a rewrite that has me so excited, it also gave birth to All That Comes Before (which more on that below) and that my gosh. Like I don't think I can actually explain to you how well that has helped me understand Roe's character.

Sea of Stars came up and I love that story to death, sue me.

It was not the year for shorter stories and prompts though. Like my brain just pretty much died with anything on a smaller level and I hate that. I don't know why! That's the worse part. I don't know why. It also failed on the NSFW parts. That part needs to change pronto but writing them just became ... meh.

But I'll try to stay positive. So this forecast will be a mix of what to expect in January as well as what I hope to accomplish for the year.

Superstition

January: I'm nearly done with AtCB. There's one story left for me to write and that is sitting at 60% and I'll be working on today and tomorrow in hopes of finishing it.

So, I'll repeat this again on the itch.io page as well as maybe somewhere on Tumblr. This add-on will cost $3 and each edition will just add more backstory to what already exists. For example, one of the stories is about Roe's mother's funeral. These stories will also include variables that can be be moved over and will further shape Roe & Company personality. Another example of one of the variables introduced is $fear_romance. This variable gives Roe a clingy, jealous, fear of being cheat on, never having a relationship, or nothing. This will obviously work with the characters with Zillah liking clingy but not so much Sydero.

So, with all that said. IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO GET. If you 1. just don't want to buy it or 2. know that the device you use hates exporting/importing then don't get it. It's not needed and is more so something you got cos you just want to read it and "hey, look, you get to bring over some cool variables too!"

Alright, moving on.

Yearly: I really don't know what to expect for yearly besides maybe saying I'll get all of S1 rewritten, out and ready. And will be deep into working on S2 and S2's AtCB. I feel like that can easily be reached. But saying "oh yea, S3 will be finished" when I have the other stories to do as well, yea. Can't just spout that lie.

Throne of Ashes

January: So I said that I had some news on Nour. I won't get too deep into it as I think I've said a lot about why Nour is weird for me. Long story short: I wrote Nour with the same build as I did Ruben whereas every other story ended up changing to be something totally different. Nour didn't go through that and so their story always felt like it was over much faster and wasn't hitting right in the end. Well, guess what! I found out what to do. No, I don't have an ETA.

Yearly: Obviously wanting Nour to come out. I'm aiming for Q1 and if I dedicate the early months to them then that should be easy. After that, the next character will be Ozara. No. She will not be done in 2025. (I say that so maybe my brain proves me wrong, it won't).

Sea of Stars

Obviously won't be out this year but man do I really want to put a big dent in it. Like this story gets me so excited. Look, forgive me but this story gets me so pumped to do.

Riders of Abauruth

I want to do at least something with it here. Probably after I finish Nour's route, I'll slot RoA in for a bit of fun. I miss the dragons. I tried to do a bit of it in November but it was obviously going to take all of my attention and not the "spare a day" attention I was giving it because I have to iron out some plots, brainstorm, reread the old one, etc. But I'm hyped for this.

So, uh. Here's to 2025. A year that I'm not looking forward to at all if I must be honest.

[cardboardheartss]

PICK-A-HANNI : How Would You Spend New Years Eve With Your Bias?🦭

🦭Hanni #1 : 10oS rx, WoF • Resisting rx, Karma, Time rx

Hanni #1’s! I’m getting a feeling that your bias may force you to spend some time with them! They probably know that you went through A LOT in 2024, and they genuinely feel bad for you. So… they will drag you out, and obviously you’ll be very hesitant and sulking about the whole outing. Your bias will be lucky enough to have you stay out for an hour or two, but I see you eventually leaving and going back into self-isolation.

🦭Hanni #2 : Judgement rx, PoS rx, 4oS, 8oP • Past Life rx, Longing rx, Beauty

Ugh! Hanni #2’s!! Your bias is literally so sweet!! Orr maybe you’re the sweet person they have around!! Both of you guys will most definitely have a sleepover! You’ll just be scrolling through social media, laughing your assess off! This connection/ time spent won’t be forced at all and this will be genuine and meaningful time spent with your bias! Expect to take a million selfies or even film your own vlogs and mukbangs.

🦭Hanni #3 : PoC rx • Breaking Point rx, Silence, Elusive rx

Oh! Umm! Apologies Hanni #3’s! I don’t see you spending any time with your bias during New Year’s Eve. Sorry guys!

🦭Hanni #4 : The World, KNoC, 2oP, The Emperor, 8oC rx, 10oP rx • Healing, Bitterness, Influences, Cloudy Judgement, Ecstasy

Hmm! Hanni #4’s! I see your bias is most likely a male idol/celeb. I don’t want to feed any delusions today, but I forfeit! You and your bias, are definitely a couple, an interracial couple to be exact! I see your bias had to pick between 2 people, and they chose you. Unfortunately, I do see them trying to let you meet their family but the family will not approve of you! This will make you quite sad, but your bias will cheer you up and take you to a club and get all turnt up! Probably do some drugs too!!

🦭Hanni #5 : 5oP, QoW, Death rx, 2oS rx, 9oW, 5oS • Apology, Spying rx, Running rx, Conflicted

Hanni #5’s!! You and your bias are so wild lol! One of you are either financially struggling or living your best lives, or you yourself could portray yourself as rich but in reality you’re not rich at all! You two will meet and will not hide your meet up. The public will see you two together, partying and expect people to post you on social media. I also feel as if, your bias is a male idol/celeb and this will obviously lead to controversy. The public will be attacking you Hanni #5’s, and I see you being forced to release a public apology.

🦭Hanni #6 : KoC rx, 7oS, Strength rx, 3oS, KNoS rx • Distracted, Return rx, Soulmate, Broken

Oh! Hanni #6’s! I also see you guys not not spending any time with your bias during New Year’s Eve! You two are in an already established relationship, but i see you could’ve broken up before new years. It’s possible you’ll come across their social medias, possibly a burner account and you’ll see him living his best life, and all turnt up with other girls. At that moment you’ll be overwhelmed by so many emotions, you’ll be angry, sad, devastated and like really really pissed off all at the same time.

Welp!! This was my gift from me to you all on this blog! Thank you all for the overwhelming and undying support! Thank you for all the asks, the interactions and just your overall presence! My year’s highlight HAS to be you guys!! You all have kept me up on my feet, gave me my first self earned money?? Like how insane is that???

So thank you! thank you guys! i love and appreciate you all! Happy New Years Eve (time zone differences lol), i will try to be as active next year but it’s my final year of high school so… i need to be focused on my books!!! So… I’ll try keep you guys posted!

Love y’all’s!!🎆♾️📦

[kings-highway]

alright its 2025 so I'm gonna take a little break from my usual fandom posting in favour of a new years team huddle so everyone get in close everyone put their hands in come on, yep, just like that, dont be shy, hands in-

there's always a desire to make new years resolutions. that sweet 01/01 looks so perfect for new habits and new goals and it is a great time to start them. but in case nobody has ever told you this before, and you're like me, and you suffer every year struggling to accomplish even one of your goals and you'll be lucky to see december 31st having even one box checked, if that, let me tell you something really, really, important:

realistic goals do not necessarily mean life changing goals.

do you remember the "set realistic expectations for yourself" talk? well, sorry to break it to you, but sometimes your realistic expectations will be embarassing. and thats okay. to make an example, for a lot of people, "my new years goal is to shower consistently" is already considered bare minimum, and embarassing as is. and you know what? it might be too much for you. and thats okay. whether its mental illness, physical illness, any kind of struggle that you yourself are facing, setting really, really realistic goals for yourself is important. "my new years goal is to shower at least once a week" hell, if you have chronic pain that makes standing and showering difficult, twice a week. once a month. this doesnt make showering once a month the best thing you could do - obviously every day would be ideal - but maybe its realistic for you. maybe its not even a goal that will make any difference to an outsider looking in.

The point is to pick something, anything, that you want to work on, and have an honest, genuinely achievable goal. The point is to set yourself a goal you can make. not one that would theoretically fix all your problems. something that, you in your currently life, can do. And once you start hitting those little goals, the goals that look so pathetic and simple you'd be embarassed to admit you need them, other, more complicated goals will start fitting into place.

but even little goals require accountability, they require effort. so thats all this huddle is for. me and you, you and everyone here, lets make this year worth something. anything. even if it's just a small, almost unnoticable step forward, those steps matter and those steps can take you places and whatever it is you want to be and do, you can do it, one tiny, unseeable step at a time, you can do it. I know you can do it. hands in. we can do it.

[reignpage]

happy new year love!

i don’t know if you’re still doing those types of questions and i’m sorry if you don’t or if you’ve done something similar 🙂‍↕️

i’m enjoying the little things about the characters of the college au a lot, it’s such an important thing for a hyperfixation.

i am curious to know if you’ve thought about any hobbies or little things the characters might enjoy in their day to day life that you didn’t implement in the text itself or i might’ve missed it. apart from the obvious ones, of course, like drawing/tattooing for Geto, visual art for Choso and his reader, sports for Toji, writing for his reader etc.

perhaps some of them enjoy sudoku or times crosswords? or play different video games? or sew clothes? or watch foreign films?

obviously you’ve touched on gojo being into little nerdy things or some of the readers listening to true crime. maybe you’re interested in saying a bit more about your vision of the characters. tho i understand you prefer to leave most of it for the readers ♥️

gojo:

cinephile (watches anything people online says are a must watch)

collects anything that can be collected (loves the Hirono series)

does TikTok dances (he blows up often but he doesn't care to pursue it)

reader:

watches any paranormal horror (doesn't like slashers) and Tim Burton movies loves Letterboxd ironically follows witchcraft recipes like love potions

geto:

plays piano

does martial arts (kendo, aikido and judo)

makes origami

casual interest in ikebana

reader:

plays violin watches kdramas big Kpop fan

choso:

crochets when anxious

film photography

fashion designing (makes doodles of dresses and jackets etc)

reader:

loves rock music (goes to underground music concerts often) plays bass in a band very casually bullet journals

toji:

likes ice hockey

reads mangas and comic books (only reads books with pictures basically)

watches cooking shows (he loved Culinary Wars, Kitchen Nightmares and all of Gordon Ramsey's works)

reader:

reads bl mangas people watches from her window and likes to make up storylines for everyone volunteers at local elderly centre (she likes talking to them)

nanami:

leaves reviews on google

plays chess (he's pretty good)

plays all of the New York Times games (pays the subscription, he's super good at Connections)

reader:

plays volleyball very casually bakes when stressed loves nail art

sukuna:

watches any violent/aggressive sports like wrestling, MMA, formula one/ice hockey etc etc

goes to comedy clubs just to watch people crash and burn (their embarrassment and shame fuels him)

knowledgeable about lots of mythologies for some reason

knows latin

reader:

goes to rage rooms plays poker (she's too damn good) goes to gun ranges

[florencesf1blog]

idk if you’d be into writing this type of thing but i was hoping to see a step brother!carlos au👀

oh i’m open to a lot of things girl but i’ve never written for something like this so i hope it’s good🙏

——————————————————————————

your father recently remarried, which brought a lot of changes in your life. it took you some time to adapt, but luckily your kind step brother!carlos is here to help you out.

step brother!carlos who is all about helping his new step sister move into her new room. he carries the heavy boxes and helps to put shelves and closets together. what a gentleman! but really he’s mostly intrigued by the stuff you brought with you. to get a bit of an insight he’s all about helping you unpack, too.

step brother!carlos who makes sure you feel welcome in his home. he shows you around, tells you where stuff is and even offers to take you out to lunch to show you his hometown. isn’t he just a sweetheart?

step brother!carlos who often workouts in your yard, that just happens to be the view out of your bedroom window. you often catch yourself staring, especially because carlos can’t be bothered to wear a shirt. you think he never notices, because he never brings it up. but there’s a reason he keeps working out in the same spot.

NSFW UNDER THE CUT

step brother!carlos who comes to call you downstairs for dinner, but catches you doing something else instead. the sight of you fingering yourself should have scared him off, but the two of you think different. ‘go on then, cari��o. show me what you do to yourself’. ‘i know you’re thinking of me. i know you’ve been watching me, too’. ‘i’ll help you cum, only if you cum to my name’.

step brother!carlos who is all about teaching you new things. he wouldn’t say he was disappointed when he found out you were a virgin (though it would’ve been more fun of you were) because he had other things on his mind. when you told him no man had ever eaten you out before, he was happy to be the first. ‘you’ll have to stay quiet, bebe, wouldn’t want your father catching us now would we?’ he’d tell you, though he’d make quite an effort to get some noise out of you. the way he sucked on your clit, the way his tongue lapped up and inside of you had you writhing.

step brother!carlos who doesn’t like to share. nobody can know of the things that take place once everyone else in the house is asleep. so when he invited his friends over, they think you’re up for grabs. and you, being the tease that you are, let them think that. obviously carlos couldn’t stand for that. he excuses himself and goes straight to your room. ‘what do you think you’re doing?’. ‘maybe i should stuff your mouth so you can’t rattle your mouth anymore’. he doesn’t waste any moment. his friends are waiting for him after all. you take his cock, gagging as it hits the back of your throat at a brutal pace. after he came in your mouth, he leaves you disheveled in your room.

——————————————————————————

kind of a scrap cause idk how i feel about this and i haven’t done this in a while. lmk what you think!

want more step brother!carlos or have other ideas? leave them behind in my inbox!

[softness-and-shattering]

If I may respond, because I think its important to address trauma. I think as a collective as Jews we need to address our collective and generational trauma. Im learning how to do that individually which is the only way I know how to make a start.

There is a difference between fear and danger. Fear is a warning that there may be danger. Fear has obviously kept us alive as our ancestors, with an additional huge amount of luck or providence, got the hell out of dodge before it was too late, probably many many times over the millenia which is why we are here at all.

And it is normal human pattern-seeking behaviour to see awfulness and death wishes from people who identify a certain way, and become afraid of everyone similar to them. When its nazis, and the hate and violence are inherently part of the ideology, theres nothing to be done except take precautions and stay away. Someone should try rescue them from the lies and misery they've bought into, but as the target of their hate thats emphatically not our job.

When it comes to pride flags and BLM and id definitely like to believe watermelons, Jew hatred *shouldnt* be a central part of the identity. And I think thats where we have to take a look at fear as a coping mechanism, and evaluate how useful it is. Because it isnt the same as danger. At this point maybe lets say its an orange-to-red flag. Its not inherently danger but its something to watch out for.

And its not an obligation, to interact with people. If you need to shut down and stay in small safe circles then do that.

Its just that you say that you dont like how distrustful youve become. Ive been there and I hate it too. Two things, I guess. One is that connecting to people, trusting anyone, is inherently risky. Theres a level of intimacy and vulnerability involved even if youre just joking around with someone. For me, I dont want to become a hateful mistrustful shell of myself. What that means for me is extending some trust and knowing I could ger hurt by it. Thats just being human. But its also having other support and other coping mechanisms in place so that if I am hurt, I know how to dress the wound, I know how to unwind and recover. A lot of that is DBT self-soothing skills, its having places I can vent and be myself without worrying about the worst version of someone twisting my words might be, where I know everyone present is either on the same page as me, or shares a level of understanding of complexity that even if I say something that sounds unkind or awful I will be kindly told "hey what the fuck we need to talk about this" in a way thats constructive and thoughtful with room for learning, instead of being publically dogpiled and cancelled for eternity over a mistake or a misconception or even unexamined bigotry because we all have it and its a process to unlearn for everyone. And we need to publically be better about that but I digress.

The second thing is differentiating fear and danger. This isnt mandatory but if youre up for it I think its a healthy skill to learn in general. In tumblr terms, investigate a little. You come across someone with a pride flag in bio, look at their top posts, skim their blog, maybe throw a couple terms into the search. Then look at what comes up. Is it straight up vitriol and antisemitism, block em. Is it something that makes you defensive, pause, take a few breaths, look again. Is it actually in tone or in words calling for or excusing violence, is it black-and-white villain and victim no nuance? Probably also block. Is it passionately upset about violence without any calls for revenge or retaliatory violence? That person might be safe. Its ok if your first reaction is fear, just let yourself have a second or third reaction and srr where it goes.

The last point I have is about levels of trust, and levels of safety, and levels of vulnerability. Because youre not determining if you can give someone your home address, and youre probably not determining if theyre safe to meet in person. So its not a full on black or white safe or not safe thing. Its more like, am I safe to have this interaction? Are we talkimg about how cute our pet cats are? Probably a safe conversation to have with most people. Are we talking about the ethics of war and the existence of nation-states, thats way dicier. I talk quite a lot on here, and there are always things I choose not to share, conversations I choose not to have, posts I writr and discard, for any number of reasons. Im getting better at seeing things I disagree with and recognise when Im super unlikely to change the persons mind, and just not engaging even if it makes me really angry. Sometimes its not worth it, sometimes its too close to home and even if it might be a productive discussion, im not in a place to be having that discussion rn. Some things just arent anyones business. Some I know will be misunderstood so I dont bother.

I think in general, with basically everything, is that it takes courage to be who we want to be. Its easier to say everyone who says x or believes x or identifies as x is dangerous and I hate all of them. Black and white thinking is always easier, and because youre listening to your fear it feels safer, until you look up and youre bitter and hateful and lonely. Fear is a warning signal but it flags false positivites, and it sometimes flags danger as more extreme than it is. Like any gut feeling, always pay attention, and also use your brain to evaluate how correct it is. And then make decisions based on your evaluation.

Because its not good or fun or helpful to be afraid of vast swathes of people. And people can hurt us, thats part of the human package and very much part of being Jewish. You gotta be careful, and brave, and vulnerable imo. And have a strong support system + soothing activities you can fall back on when you do get hurt. And be selective of who you trust with how much, so when the hurt comes itll hopefully be minimal. We cant avoid pain entirely, only learn how to minimise it and look after it.

Good luck! Its not easy out there. Be safe, be brave. ❤

one of the things I hate most about all this is how distrustful it’s made me. if I see a pride flag or BLM or a watermelon in someone’s bio, I immediately wonder if they want to kill us. if they deny rape. if they cheer massacres. I don’t see those things and think of tolerance or acceptance anymore. they just make me afraid. that’s what this movement has done. and I hate not trusting people, being scared of people, but what else can I be when they’ve shown us how much they’d like to see us dead?

.

[peachhcs]

okay obviously sammy and mack have an adorable brother sister relationship… i think will and blarie become like that … like wills never had a younger sibling before and he really comes to just adore blarie and blarie she has a tough relationship with her brothers so it’s really nice how easy her relationship is with will sometimes and she feels relaxed around him

waittt yes!! 100% she becomes really comfortable around him and he’s always willing to be there for her even mack can’t be there or something—kind of like a flip in roles like the way gabe and ryan are there for samy.

i think after awhile blaire opens up to will about the rough relationship with her older brother and semi-okay relationship with her younger brother, just how she overall feels alone a lot of the time because she has no shoulder to lean on (besides mack, but that’s a given) and now it’s different when she tells mack stuff because he knows some of it already, but it’s also one of the main reasons why they broke up the first time so blaire doesn’t really wanna burden him with it.

so, she turns to will instead who is more than willing to listen. i picture him helping her through some of it to the best of his ability and helps her open up to mack more about it all so they can both be on the same page and it’s just the first time blaire has really had a real brother-sister relationship.

also because blaire doesn’t have any sisters, she really starts considering samy a sister too :)

[morphean42]

I read through your Falsettos unpopular opinions post and I'm so glad that you brought up the way that au's can sometimes completely disregard the most Important parts of the story.

I absolutely hate people making Whizzer or Marvin trans for a multitude of reasons, though of course the main one Is that It's so Important that they are cis gay men. I myself am trans and headcanon a lot of my favourite characters as that too, but with Whizzer and Marvin people are completely throwing away one of the most Important details of their story. I also hate trans Whizzer headcanons because of the fact that most of the time It's because people see him as a twink and more feminine than Marvin, so therefore he's obviously afab (sarcasm).

Trying to make the characters trans or a different sexuality frequently shows that people don't really understand the story and why their Identities are so Important. Bisexual Marvin especially pisses me off because It shows that people don't actually know anything about him, and think that just because he was with a woman that means he's attracted to them, forgetting that Marvin was a victim of comphet, and repressed his sexuality for so long.

You brought up so many good points and I agree with them, this was just the one that I wanted to add my thoughts to.

Yes! You’ve said exactly what I was thinking and better than I did before. Whizzer and Marvin bring anything but cis gay men simply doesn’t make sense with their stories and what they represent as characters. Also, of the few trans fics and headcanons I’ve found, it’s always Whizzer, which feels just a little bit off to me as he is the ‘more feminine’ one. Which, even that is up for debate if you aren’t going off the revival. Just the whole ‘male character headcanoned as a twink is transgender ooo’ shtick is tiring and almost transphobic at this point. We’re more than small baby twinks.

Yeah I wanna hit anyone who even thinks about bisexual Marvin with a metal bat. Not only does it hurt his character, it does a complete disservice to Trina and her relationship with Marvin. The whole point of Trina and Whizzer’s similarities is to show that Marvin would have loved Trina had he been able to, but he can’t. Bi Marvin completely disregards that and I hate it so much!

I’m glad you agree with these points, I’m tired of seeing them and it’s good to know others are too.

[vivid-bad-brainrot]

Fav vbs ship?

I would say polysquad but that's too easy so I guess if I had to rank vbs ships itd look like this ^^

And I'll give explanations cause I feel like yapping

🥇Touan!!! ☕️🎧

TOUAN. My love for this pairing goes so deep I am the sole admin for @timelytouan over or Twitter. I'm. A little insane. Bro their dynamic is everything to me its not even funny. I think they have a really wholesome relationship /p and /r and i think its really sweet for an to be such a big proponent of touya getting new experiences and especially watching their relationship grow as the game progresses and seeing the two of them develop an understandingof eachother!!! I've written about 40k words of touan fanfic in total....my little eebies AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON TOUAN PARALLELS. I could do a separate post yammering about that since An and Touya truly are two sides of the same coin

• "we're teammates, so when you're happy, i wanna be happy with you. And when you're sad i wanna console you,or maybe even cry with you!"

• "hehe, you really have changed a lot, touya. Before, i could never tell what you were thinking at all!"

"if we're saying that, isn't it more impressive that you've learnt to understand me?"

🥈Anhane🎧🐹

Anhane is so.....anhane....*wipes tear* I finished writing a 15k words long anhane fic last night so my passion for these two is very strong. I think Anhane is a ship that is prone to misconception especially in the way some people characterize An—how some people just see her as Kohane obsessed and water down her character just to that (the way i see it is that Kohane is a BUFFER to everything that makes An who she is!!! Again. Another rant for another time) While Anhane's dynamic isn't the first of its kind, it really goes deep!! The mutual importance to eachother is so precious to me.... Kohane who was given the chance to grow into her best self and An who gets to gets to share her love of music and Vivid Street. With An's crippling abandonment issues ESPECIALLY regarding kohane, anhane is a ship that is SO fun to play around with wherein it gives you the best fluff and angst....anhane so good

🥉. Akikoha 🥞🐹

Akikoha is one of those ships where I will randomly get hit by the most severe brainrot of my life for a few days and then be fine but have to live under constant threat of gettjng killed by akikoha cuteness... akikoha is just so cute man!!! Disecting them down to a deeper level, I really love how they complement eachother in their world views and how they approach things!! They both admire eachother so much!!! With Akito and Kohane, they seem really different from wachother but all they want to do is prove themselves!!! I also love to see akito hyping kohane up!!! Good stuff!!!

• "Look, there's always gonna be haters. Don't let it get to you. If it bothers you so much what people say about us, shut them up with an awesome performance. Like that other time. Keep your chin high and show them how awesome you are. Anyway, An's really late. Let's go inside. Besides, this way our sensitive member won't have to listen to some guys badmouthing us while they wait for the gig"

"Um... Was Akito being considerate towards me just now?" (LMAOOO 😭😭😭😭)

4. Akian 🥞🎧

Whether you like them romantically or not can we just talk about how banger their dynamic is???? Their constant bickering makes them so fun!! An and Akito have known eachother since middle school and probably met some time after RAD WEEKEND when Akito would sing on the street and catch wind of An. I think this plays in to not only their deep friendship but also their rivalry!! The two of them indirectly helped eachother through their loneliness 🥺🥺 An found comfort in Akitos voice simply being there!! Then we obviously have akitos deep understanding of an (although generally he's just very perceptive of the people around him!! Don't forget!!!) We see in sis bfby and kiuan where akito is able to see RIGHT THROUGH an and call her out on her shit! That familiarity means so much to the both of them and I think their dynamic is SO sweet what the hell man!!! Guys akian is so peak EVERY VBS PAIRING IS SO PEAK

5. Toukoha ☕️🐹

EVERYTIME SOMEONE CALLS TOUKOHA BORING AN ANGEL LOSES ITS WINGS 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 NO ONE GETS THEM 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 NO ONE DESERVES TOUKOHA 😭😭😭😭 anyways toukoha get shoved aside alot as the quiet ones of vbs when. Guys. Thes mfs are YAPPERS. Touya and Kohane's autism sync up like Bluetooth. If you want to be enlightened on toukoha I EMPLORE you to go read take the best shot....do it for them.... I wish they had more in game content there's not even alot of them in card stories which is sad because that's usually where u can find the most content for vbs pairings outside of ahn/akty 💔💔💔 I think their dynamic in vbs main story is really interesting....... if you think toukoha is lame YOU are lame 🫵🫵🫵

5. Akitoya

Guys I LOVE akitoya very much they are SOULMATES but I put them down here because I think about them the least (i am biased towards women. Off topic but shoutout to girltouya) and don't trust myself to write an analysis of them 😭😭😭 but I really do love them they are very cute

I know people (at least from my experience in vbs communities) get really defensive over ships so remember that I ADORE all of these ships and brainrot all of them