#okay but I love you if I follow you

[quinloki]

Oh I really broke Tumblr.

... I sent so many stars to people it started saying people didn't have ask pages. ^^;;;

[casualavocados]

Learn from who? Learn from you?

Chen Bowen as CHEN YI & Chiang Tien as AI DI KISEKI: DEAR TO ME (2023)

[syn0vial]

my gun-loving, car guy, "i'm the straightest man i know" brother who just finished baldur's gate 3 talking about astarion:

[marclef]

so uhhhhh. that Noise update huh?

great job there buddy, you've given the dang frog anxiety!

[teehhhhhhhhhhh]

“How come I see you and ache instead?” - Pork Soda, Glass Animals

[luminique]

Hey, it’s the nosebleed anon again! I’m here with more worms!

Imagine knowing lighter in his competitive fighter era…

You’d patch him up after matches, help him calm down if he saw too much blood. Watched him go from the bottom to the top.

And then one day, after he’s done it all, he leaves. He says he’s going to find greener pastures, but promises to meet you again someday. And then later; maybe weeks, months, or years later. You meet him again, as the SoC’s Champion. And he still has the biggest crush on you that he finally has the confidence to confess to you… OUGH

ANON THE VISION IS VISIONING !!!

he’d look for you during every match, making sure your eyes were on him. the underground fights were more for money, for those who had no other choice. at the time, lighter didn’t have any other choice but knowing you were in the crowd, cheering him on, made every bruise worth it.

but before he even made it to that point, he was barely climbing through the ranks. in the beginning, it was all for winning some extra dennies. then he went through his first loss and it came crumbling down on him. the blood running down his face, his hands were red and all he saw was red. his heart was thumping, a sharp pain in his head followed by a heavy fall to the ground was the last thing he remembered.

you rushed over to him when everyone else just stared at his body. immediately tending to him, bringing him to a safe zone, trying your best and hoping this wasn’t actually the end. after a while, his eyes slowly opened. his green iris and red pupils zeroing in on you as he tried sitting up. your face showed… worry? relief? he couldn’t tell, it was blurry but he knew it was you. it could only be you.

it was a few fights after this that he decided to move on from this life. it wasn’t worth seeing you concerned over his wellbeing, he didn’t want you to worry like that. without saying much, he packed up his things and left, whispers of his name followed behind him as his rivals found his departure strange, almost cowardly.

he made it clear that he didn’t want to recall his past, hence cutting off almost all sorts of connections with the ember arena. yet here he was, sitting at the other edge of the bar while you were chatting with burnice. would you still remember him? does his name haunt you like how your face and voice haunted him all this time? he loosens the red scarf on his neck, maybe you’ll remember why he has it in the first place.

even from afar, he feels something warm in his chest. maybe it’s the drink… maybe its the heat… you used to nag at him for not treating wounds right and not letting them heal. well now there’s a wound in his heart and he hopes you could patch that up.

[metalsonicplush]

[poisonedfate]

bbc merlin - 04x05 His Father's Son

the thing is....the thing is, he didn't have to say any of this. well, he didn't need to think any of it, but that's on him. what possessed him to say any of this out loud? the sharing a bed line was already enough, but to follow that up with "don't be here when i come back"?? like yeah, you're leaving and not telling merlin where you're going or when you'll be back, and sure, maybe, perhaps merlin would wait up (although, servant track record says.....unlikely), but how about "i won't require your services later, you're free to go" or something? and yet. "don't be here when i come back". as if YOU yourself didn't come up with the bed sharing idea. need to study his brain.

[justgleekout]

Sunday morning sleeping in <3

[ursickandmarried]

On codependent friendships and their inevitable demise.

V.E. Schwab, A Conjuring of Light // Sally Rooney, Normal People // Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe // Isaac Fellman, Dead Collections // Elliott Smith, Waltz #2 (XO) // Mitski, Why Didn't You Stop Me? // one of our last conversations.

[aterfish]

Being ace is an opposite of fuck around and find out:

Fuck nobody and never know for sure

[casualavocados]

#he doesn't want to fight with you ai di, he wants to Kiss🙄💘🥺

Nat Chen as CHEN YI KISEKI: DEAR TO ME (2023)

[every-yumichika]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUMICHIKA!!!

these are pieces i commissioned from @drugsandsocks_ on twitter!

it's been just over a year since i posted the first panel of yumichika on this blog and alot has changed since then!! i'm excited for cours three and manifest new chapters from kubo one day soon

[thekittyokat]

you ever just have a lot, a LOT of feelings all at once about a character and not even remotely enough words or brainpower to FORM the words to describe everything you're feeling. so it feels like you may explode. yeah

[opopsums]

Happy halloween (to those who celebrate) and happy day to those who dont!1!1!1!1

this sucks really bad but i dont give a fREAK just uh dont look too close youll see all the uglyjust admire it from afar 🤗

this is based off uhmm off of when they played phasmo with X i actually didnt watch that stream but its we up ☝️🤑

its also aaaa rrredraw? draw over? i uhm i dont know what to call it i drew over a project sekai card here you go

honaemu 🤤🤤

[eddiezpaghetti]

It has come to my attention that SOME OF YOU who read my last Byler post remain UNCONVINCED. So I'm gonna tack onto it this:

I'm older than fucking God and air, and I've been out and proud since 2007. Yes, I know what homophobia is, and yes, I know what queerbaiting is. I know about Supernatural and Teen Wolf and Sherlock and blahdyblahdyblah. No new ground is being covered here. I thought I made that clear in the original post, but, clearly, I did not.

I am aware of queerbaiting and homophobia, and I'm still wholeheartedly certain in Byler being canon anyway.

Okay, so there are three types of relationship I want to discuss when it comes to queerbaiting. They're all, like, "queer relationships that could have happened, but didn't".

First off, queer-coding. This isn't really a thing so much anymore, but it still crops up every once in a while. I'd argue it probably happens most with male-male relationships in family shows these days. First example that comes to mind is Mr. Smiley and Mr. Frowny from Steven Universe. You can't make a relationship canon because some shitty overhead bastard overhead said no, so you get as close as you can without compromising the show. Can't make someone gay? Well, now their comedy routine is a blatant allegory for a romantic relationship. Boom-shaka-laka. This is something I don't see being a problem with regards to Stranger Things, but I want it to be there as contrast, a demonstration of one of many things queerbaiting is not. However, one could argue that, thus far, Will Byers is, canonically, queer-coded. It's pretty fucking heavily implied in the show, and the creators have confirmed it, and you're gonna be able to see it if you're not FUCKING BLIND, but word of god is not technically canon which means that interviews don't technically make something canon, blahdyblahdyblahdyblah, technicalities, Robin has been explicitly stated in the text to be queer while Will has, thus far, not, outside of good ol' Show-Don't-Tell. Of course, anyone with two brain cells to rub together can tell that that's going to change by the end of Season 5, but, hey, for what it's worth, I'm throwing this out there.

Alrighty, Thingamajingama Number Two: "Oops, I accidentally made the greatest love story known to man." AKA, a genuine, honest-to-goodness mistake. Unfortunately, we do live in a heteronormative society. Sometimes people who don't think about being gay much write a friendship that's incredibly compelling and don't even consider the possibility that it could have been read as romantic. Something something Top Gun something. This is, again, not queerbaiting. This is Steddie, this is Ronance, this is Elmax, this is your favorite flavor of non-canon ship this week, this is not Byler. The creators know DAMN well what they're doing. They've talked about it. We know this. Nothing new here.

Which brings us to the topic of discussion here. Actual queerbaiting. This usually starts out as an "accidental greatest love story", and then reacts to fan response. And when I say "reacts", I mean like a goddamn chemical reaction. Like bleach and ammonia, bitch. It's noxious and it's gonna kick your fucking ass without mercy. This is when a creator is like, "Hey, let's get our queer audience invested, but we're not actually going to give them what they want because our straight audience isn't here for that/we personally think it's gross/we don't give enough of a shit to want to research a goddamn thing to write a real gay character," blah blah blah whatever excuse they want to come up with this time.

And when you think "queerbaiting", I want you to think "bullying". Because that's what it is. It's lucrative bullying, like beating us up and taking our lunch money, but it's bullying all the same. And it's a real goddamn thing, even if people misuse the word a lot, often when they mean one of the two above, sometimes when they mean "bury your gays", which is another homophobic thing entirely that I'm not going to get into here. Queerbaiting is the thing we're focused on, and it's real, and it's bullying. And here's the reason I want you to think of it as bullying:

They

Think

It's

Funny.

They are actively making fun of us.

That's why Dean had the "Cas, get out of my ass," line in Supernatural. It's why the "Do you like boys?" line happened in Teen Wolf. It's why "Lie with me, Watson," happened in the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movies. Because "It's just a joke, mate." "It was just a prank, bro." "You didn't really think it would happen, did you?" "You should see your face."

So here's probably the biggest reason I don't think it's specifically queerbaiting in this specific instance of Will Byers and Mike Wheeler.

Stranger Things has never, not once, made a gay joke. Ever.

Every single time queerness comes up, it's dead serious.

Lonnie calls Will a fag, and the show is not at all reluctant to show what a goddamn horrible person he is. And when Hopper latches onto that, it's not as "Hahah, is he gay, though?" It's because he's trying to determine a potential motive for Will's disappearance, and even if someone had interpreted it as a joke, Joyce immediately has a line that functions as snapping her fingers in front of the audience's face and yelling "FOCUS" when she says "He's MISSING." Basically outright saying "This isn't funny!"

Troy calls him a fairy, along with targeting Lucas and Dustin for their skin color and disability respectively, and Mike gets damn near murderous. Troy is portrayed as a goddamn monster and the show portrays it as justice when El makes him piss his pants and later breaks his arm.

Steve calls Jonathan "queer" as a slur and gets the shit beat out of him for it.

Billy's father is revealed to be homophobic and abusive in the same breath.

Mike says "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" and we're shown how devastated Will is and Mike immediately follows him to beg for forgiveness.

There is a joke in Robin's coming-out scene, but it's not at Robin's expense. It's at Steve's. Specifically for being heteronormative.

Jonathan has multiple scenes where he's trying so hard to tell Will that he's always going to love him as he is, whether he's gay or not, without pressuring him to come out before he's ready.

Even when there's a little bit of ribbing at Robin's expense, it's always because she's an awkward nerd who's nervous around pretty girls, just the same as Lucas and Dustin are teased when they both first develop crushes on Max, and even then, even then, it always comes as a package deal where they make fun of Steve's girl problems at the same time.

Stranger Things is an emphatically pro-gay show. It may not be the core point of the show the way it is in, say, Our Flag Means Death, but there is nothing less than respect for its queer characters. Its queer characters are always taken completely seriously. No one is making fun of us. They never have. That's why I have serious doubts that this is queerbaiting. It would come completely out of left field for the bullying to start in Stranger Things' final season.

So it's not at all likely to be queerbaiting because queerness is taken completely seriously. The creators have talked about Will's queerness, at least, so it's not an accident. And queer-coding would be silly to expect from this show when it's already on its final season. Like, what is Netflix gonna do? Cancel it? Not to mention all the explicit queerness that's in there already. And no one's gonna "What about the children?" a show that's had sex scenes in it since the first season.

There's no fakeout here. It's gonna happen. Breathe.