#saying 'gay' is just easier

[ghcstcd]

Aren't you gay and a trans man?

Baby, I'm too hot and wise for exact labels

[queer-is-future]

so when straight people ask me why I say I’m “queer” or “gay” instead of sharing my actual identity as a panromantic demisexual non-binary sapphic queer I just tell them “ok look, when you’re talking to someone who isn’t local and they ask you where you’re from and you either say the name of the largest city nearby or ‘town name, suburb of large nearby city’ so they can get some geographical context of where you’re located right, bc they’re probably not going to know the name of the little town you actually live in.”

but if you’re talking to a local you can say the name of your actual town bc they have a greater chance of knowing where/what that is.

ok well when I’m talking to a straight person I start with queer bc chances are they aren’t as familiar with the context of all the little towns in that big queer city and need gps (gay positioning system) to find me.

if I’m talking to another queer person and I say I live in a suburb of gay city in a town called panromantic on the demisexual side of the tracks which is in the county of queer and I live off the intersection of non-binary and sapphic, they’d probably be able to find me with little to no problems, make sense?

[crumbledtoast]

I actually like how this turned out :3

[cosmicredcadet]

A character looks straight into the camera and says "I'm not interested in romance" and people will still say "No, it's not confirmed they're aromantic!!!" "They could change their mind!!!" "it's a challenge for them to overcome!!!" "They'll have character development that makes them fall in love"

It's like they are given the most blatant answer to a character romantic orientation and they actively ignore it. all the while all it takes is subtext for people to speak as if it is fact for a character to be any other sexuality.

[n0anix]

woah more of them who would've guessed

[project-changeling-zero]

my sonadow boom vision ( cuz i think boom shadow is fucking stu- )

sonic: would you do me a big favor? shadow: who do you want killed? sonic: heh. i'll do my own killing.

[elodieunderglass]

I can't resist bothering you with more questions. I'm sorry! I want to put Killie in a basket and carry him around with me like a purse dog. Did Charlie always know that he wasn't going to be a horse pilot forever and that he would find a way out of his family's net, or was he never going to escape if him being kicked out hadn't forced him into it? My heart breaks for him a bit, even though he seems the most well-adjusted person in that family. How old was he when he ended up on his own?

(In reference to Killie the jockey OC, crown prince of a horse-obsessed family, and his identical twin brother Charlie, who was disowned/ escaped the orbit of the Horse Planet)

You are never a bother. Nobody could be anything but grateful to have such insightful, brave, witty and inspiring people to talk about their OCs with! Are you kidding?

That’s such a good and deep question - I don’t think that Charlie knows the answer himself. He certainly was quite a talented apprentice jockey. In terms of his place in the family, his parents and siblings all adored him - he is warm and charming and funny - and thought they understood him. He has that special child-of-rotten-parents survival-mode sensitivity to reading a room, that in Charlie translates into useful skills, like “changing the mood of the room” and “sensing what people want him to say”.

But Charlie has a strong sense of identity, and with it, a hard internal limit on personal sacrifice; there are parts of Charlie you can’t have.

And despite being a fifth-generation jockey of impeccable pedigree, the whole “stoic, fearless, impervious to pain�� thing appears to be a state of mind - not a physiology thing, but a mental one, engendered by passion for the sport. Charlie has had passages of his life where he’s carried off the Jockey Constitution (TM), but a problem with armouring yourself with a mental state is that if you are an especially clever little liar yourself, like Charlie, you catch on to the trick.

And the sport is inextricable from the horses in their family. So Charlie stormed out (was thrown out) of both family and sport… but I think he does like horses and he was good at it. And it would’ve been hard, in that family, in that immersive and passionate world, to break out naturally - especially when you are so beautifully built for it. It would again come down to Charlie’s strong sense of self.

I think a lot of his sense of identity and resistance came, early on, from connecting honestly with his bisexuality. He’s clever and sneaky, and likes mind games and code-switching and putting on characters, and when he realised the necessity of masking early on, it felt like a secret identity. He was simply Built Different, and couldn’t change it, so he made a game of tap-dancing on the tightrope.

Then he left to build that secret identity into his real self, on purpose, and he threw himself into The Opposite of Being a Jockey. He was not only the first in their family to go to university, he went into academia. He covered his bills by bartending and busking (take that, Dad). He eats cake. He is valued for his mind and brain. He is NOT COMPETITIVE AT ALL. HE’S COLLABORATIVE, EVEN.

…He was just about eighteen. And perhaps it affected him more deeply than he’d say. But what saved him - what always would save Charlie - was a sense of identity.

[whatudottu]

I want to hold your hand I don't want to hurt you

More of @fiestylittlebeetle's Malether propaganda they have been parasitising off my brain especially now that I've drawn then once have more hand language *grins*

[habitual-truant]

as a persona fan. i HATE atlus. like, theyre always SOOOO close to having really good social commentary on like, pretty much anything in general i guess. but. they pussy out and it has the opposite effect!! like, biggest example that i actually have well formulated thoughts over is persona 4.. i wrote a long ass essay type thing that id honestly like to rewrite now that my thoughts are more solidified on this but, tl;dr… :

kanji isnt gay and naoto isnt trans. kanji’s story is about accepting that hes got feminine traits and learning to stop internalizing what everyone says about him to be true. naoto’s is about accepting that she is a girl, and she IS everything that people look down on her for, and learning to stop rejecting herself just so she isnt disrespected and dismissed by others.

kanji isnt gay and naoto isnt trans, but they should have been. being queer is very obviously a theme in their stories, and without looking deeper into the characters and their arcs, on the surface level, the story is saying that they’re learning to accept that they ARENT queer. which is pretty clearly homophobic and transphobic.

the entire game is about accepting yourself for who you truly are. for the character that is EXPLICITLY stated to be gay and for the character who EXPLICITLY lives socially as a male despite being born a girl to both have their true selves actually be “normal” is… counterintuitive. while it does fit within the theme of accepting yourself, it’s saying to accept yourself as “normal” and “correct”, not as someone who doesnt fit into societal norms. it undermines the idea of being true to yourself. it’s SO close to being a great message that anyone, no matter who they are, can relate to, but it singles out the unusuals, the people who really need to hear that it’s ok to be whoever you are. i could go on and on about how it’s honestly impressive that the writers managed to miss the mark by such a small amount that it ends up completely undermining the entire thing, but it would be redundant (just like my use of the word ‘undermine’ within two run-on sentences..), and i want to take this back to my original point

the writers at atlus are very, very skilled. its amazing, i really really respect them. but at the same time, i think that their ability to write amazing characters and themes and weave them together into a universe with such inconsistent rules is exactly what makes this so infuriating. i KNOW they’re 100% capable of not being misogynistic in their portrayal of women, i KNOW they’re capable of not being homophobic, i KNOW they can take topics like misogyny and homophobia and transphobia and explore the reasoning behind why people are close minded and hateful, and how it affects people who are at the receiving end of the hatred.

but they dont, because either the writers themselves are prejudiced, or what i think is faaaarrr more likely, the executives think it’s too “risky” to talk about and criticize bigotry, and that they want it to be as palatable to everyone as possible. unfortunately that means no gay people, no trans people, no “controversial” minorities in general.. sure, we can have a few complex and well written women as a treat, but they either have to be fanservice or largely irrelevant to the rest of the plot.

no conclusion paragraph this isnt english class

thanks if u read my 11:00 pm hyperfocus fueled rant i am sending you joy and happiness and good things

[right-there-ride-on]

Gyjo in the fandom

cw: light discussion of ableism

Gyjo… what am I thinking about gyjo…

I like them. I like them a lot, actually. They have paralleled narrative arcs, they complement each other nicely, the romantic subtext is incredibly obvious to the point that even the most homophobic fan you know will admit they understand why people ship it… so why do I also have a problem with it?

There’s a lot of good fanart. Hell, I’ve reblogged plenty. Maybe it’s just something that’s more pronounced in fic.

I’m trying to word this correctly. My issue with gyjo has nothing to do with the text itself. I think my problem is just how people portray it in the fandom.

Maybe it’s because it’s so popular, or maybe it’s the sheer prominence of applying ‘Character A’ and ‘Character B’ dynamics without considerable regard for the characters involved, but I feel gyjo is very prone to flanderization. I believe the intersection with how ableist people are toward Johnny (intentionally or not, subtly or not) and the old tropes these two get shoved into makes it so I have trouble enjoying fics in the fandom.

I’m not saying it’s bad to enjoy certain tropes. I’m not saying headcanons are bad either. What I am saying is that writing is hard, but if you’re going to write fanfiction please have consideration for the characters you’re writing. The arcs of these two are complex and multilayered, which is why I think they have such staying power, but I also think they also provide a good opportunity for us as writers and artists to examine our biases when it comes to the portrayal of certain groups, personality types, mental illnesses, queerness, disability, etc. and maybe come out better people for it.

[arttsuka]

"Awwww my bl mind 🙈" girl go touch some grass because wth

[aro-arttorneys]

consider a swap smp aa au where Miles is the pixl

HI I absolutely RAN to my ipad upon seeing this ask to make sure I had some sketches down. Ended up working out some coherent designs ehehe

Man I lowkey like these designs more than I had for the initial AU :') Also OUGH I think Phoenix getting so fucked up and sad that he ends it all is just...kind of neat actually.

[queen-mihai]

Aye yam make king a powst awn tuhmbler dott cahm

[actual-changeling]

This post is something that can actually be so personal and no I am not done talking about it. There's a whole concept behind it and the fucking hair ties are just one way of channeling it but oh boy is it a good one. This works so well with the hair braiding too and i cannot think about it to much or i will spontaneously combust, but I had to so I hope you enjoy the result of it.

-

Joel has a hair tie on his wrist because Ellie forgets to take a spare and when the first one breaks or she loses it somehow, he can offer it to her before her hair becomes an annoyance.

He has one because she gives it to him sometimes when they're laying on the couch and her ponytail makes resting her head on a pillow or against his chest uncomfortable. At times she also takes it out simply because her scalp is especially sensitive that day and the constant pull becomes painful after a while. There's always another one in his jacket pocket, too, so when Ellie asks him for braids afterward or allows him to do her hair he isn't limited to simpler styles.

It starts with hair ties in Jackson but there are months of different acts preceding it.

Joel carried whatever he could for her, taking more than necessary sometimes because the slim line of her shoulders being weighed down by her backpack made his heart ache even when he couldn't admit it to himself back then, not at first at least. There are water bottles, sweatshirts she cannot quite fit into hers that day, all of their food, whatever first aid materials he can find, even a spare bar of soap.

Then he starts carrying hair ties once they get to Jackson and suddenly he needs to keep a brush on him, too, and with the brush comes a comb and with the comb comes a hat and with the hat comes a homemade creme he traded for since her hands are uncomfortably dry sometimes (she never said so but he knows her), and after that what started as a small piece of twisted fabric turns into him carry a bag around that is filled with everything his brain thinks Ellie might require at some point. Sure, maybe he is being a little bit overprotective and maybe Tommy jokes about getting him a purse several times, but he can offer her sunscreen and a bottle of water during summer, he gives her gloves and a scarf in winter when she doesn't remember to put them on before leaving, there's always one of her books in a side pocket, too, and as soon as he finds her a new one, her Walkman gets an especially safe place in his bag.

And yes, he fusses over her a little bit too much, maybe even to the point of being smothering sometimes (she always tells him to back off when that happens and he does without complaint), but Ellie grew up utterly alone and without someone to look after her for fourteen years, she deserves to know what it is like to be cared about by someone. Whatever she asks for, whatever she needs, he gives it to her even when she could walk home and come back with the thing in question in less than ten minutes. There's always a snack, a spare sweatshirt in case she gets cold, space for the one she takes off when she gets too warm, a small sketchbook and a pencil both as a distraction and so she can draw whenever she feels like it.

No one pays any attention to it, and while Tommy softly teases him about it from time to time, the smile that blooms on Ellie's face when he quietly gives her something she needs based on nothing but hardwired instincts before the words leave her mouth tells him everything he needs to know.

Joel might not be good with words, but he continues to carry a bag and hands her little pieces of his love time and time again, hoping she can put the puzzle together, hoping she knows.

Ellie does the same, hoping Joel notices it, hoping he knows what it means, that with every time she tells him to rest, every cup of coffee on his nightstand, every night spent in his bed when she wakes to the mere suggestion of a nightmare and brushes them away before they can settle so she can put herself in their place instead, every trashy action movie she borrows from the library for their weekly movie night, every handmade guitar pick she gifts him, every single gesture she does not have to do but does regardless because she wants to, she is saying I love you, too.

They notice, they care, they willing hand over carefully chosen parts of themselves and the puzzle they piece together is one and the same, because paying attention to things is how they show love and it is oh so easy when there is nothing to look at but each other.

[mattzerella-sticks]

Bad thought - what if the Daniel Molloy we've been following... isn't really Daniel Molloy?

What if the original Daniel Molloy was killed in the 1970s and the Daniel Molloy now, the Daniel Molloy we're watching interview the vampires, was some poor boy they picked up at the gay bar and brainwashed into thinking he was Daniel Molloy?

And the 'real' Daniel Molloy was that body in the bag?

[gaudebo]

how do i become less of a weenie time sensitive