#they really said no one is allowed to out-gay us huh

[samijey]

Sami and Jey at it again with the tags at WWELive Dublin (feat. a very relatable Kevin and some unexpected homophobia from Elton Prince of all people)

[halfwayhearted]

Elle Greenway x F!reader and Elle was too scared to ask her out bc she didn’t know what way readers swung and then reader makes a comment about being like gay or something or smnth about woman. idk how to phrase that. and Elle finally is like omg and asks her out. Lmk.

(You) On My Arm — Elle Greenaway.

Pairing: Elle Greenaway x Fem!Reader

Summary: She isn’t entirely sure if you’re into girls in that way, but when a particular question prompts you to reveal your orientation, she feels a subtle yet undeniable pang of satisfaction. She decides then to seize her moment.

Word Count: 580+

Disclaimer/s — Small mention of murder (😭), Derek and his nicknames, no use of Y/N, the dinner being Season One, Episode Seventeen! :3

A/N: I LOVED THIS REQUEST BAAAAAAD…

Fiddling with the chopsticks in your hand, you continued to zone out while your team delved into discussions about other cases, the current case you were working on, and well—

“So, Elle,” the BAU unit chief inquired with a light, playful tone, “Are you seeing anyone?”

The girl in question let out a nervous laugh, her eyes inadvertently flickering towards you. Upon realizing that you hadn’t noticed, she allowed her shoulders to slump in visible relief.

Derek let out a dramatic sigh from beside you, shaking his head. “We already know what she’ll say. What about you? We don’t know much about you yet. Enlighten us,” he remarked, gently nudging you with his arm, ultimately snapping you out of your thoughts.

Clearing your throat, you said, “Hm, what?”

“Tell us about yourself,” he repeated. “Talk about your love life—get interesting with it.”

“Get interesting with it?” You echoed with a laugh, setting your chopsticks down onto your plate. You hummed, pondering where to begin. “Huh, I’m not really sure. I didn’t date much as a teenager, and that hasn’t really changed now.”

The Morgan man frowned, “So, nobody? Ever?”

You clicked your tongue. “Hey, I didn’t say that, now did I?”

“Oh, okay, player. Let us have it.”

“I once had a boyfriend, and that relationship lasted about four months,” you began, leaning back in your seat with a sigh. “It didn’t really work out—he was gross and, well, just gross. I did have a girlfriend for about a year and a half.”

Elle’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at that. A girlfriend? For a whole year and a half?

“A year and a half?” She responded, doing her absolute best to keep her voice from sounding overly ecstatic. “What happened?”

Meeting her gaze, you felt your face flush as you shrugged, “We were on different wavelengths.”

Different wavelengths. Right, got it.

The conversation wandered through countless topics after that, so when you got up to use the restroom, no one paid you much mind. However, as soon as you stepped out, you nearly collided with Elle, who swiftly placed her hands on both your elbows, apologizing profusely.

Though, you only focused on one thing.

Her hands on you.

“It’s fine,” you assure her, stepping aside to give her room to enter. But when she remains rooted to her spot, you furrow your eyebrows and softly spoke, “Elle, are you okay?”

“Will you go out with me?” She blurted out, her tone unwavering and her head tilted in a way that quite literally left you breathless.

All you could do was stand there, because had she really asked what she just asked?

You had almost forgotten that you were standing in front of a literal bathroom. Not exactly your ideal scenery, but you understood the reason as to why. “Like—a date?” You asked, feeling a bit stupid. What else could it be? Of course, a date.

“Yes,” she replied rather quickly, “A date.”

A date with her. Nodding your head, you let a smile form on your face as you bit your lip before replying, “Yes, I’d love to.”

Just as you were about to relish in the moment of going out with her, Spencer suddenly peeked his head around the corner, startling the both of you. “Hey, guys. Oh, sorry—we, uh, we just got called in. He killed a cop-killer. C’mon.”

“Okay,” you both replied in unison, exchanging another smile before walking out, side by side.

Likes, reblogs, and comments are always appreciated ^_^.

DT(s) — @pedrilcvr ! ౨ৎ (thank you for helping! 🫦)

[wynnyfryd]

hey, quick question but what if Eddie hadn’t just said “make him pay” at the end? what if he’d actually done it, screwed up his face and his single scrap of courage and kissed Steve hard, one desperate press of lips before he stepped back out of Steve’s space? Only…

Only Steve’s not gay. He’s not. Not that there’s anything wrong with it if Eddie is, but he isn’t. Steve likes girls, is kind of hung up on one girl in particular, actually, and she’s standing right behind him watching this go down, and oh, God is this awkward now.

He squares his shoulders, gives Eddie a nod that he hopes conveys something like “sorry” and “it’s okay” and “I’m not gonna punch you when this is over, man, I’m really not,” but Eddie’s eyes cut away and he clears his throat and then Nancy’s saying, “Steve? Steve, we need to go.”

So Steve goes.

Steve goes, trudges through the woods with Nancy radiating uncomfortable energy all down his side, and Steve’s got a pit in his stomach and a scorch mark on his mouth where Eddie’s lips left a fucking brand, the kiss repeating on a loop in his mind. He starts thinking about how he’s probably about to die, how he’s gonna die feeling all upside down in the Upside Down and it’s a really stupid joke but it gets him mulling over the fucked up weird life he has now versus the one he always kinda thought he wanted. He tells Nancy about it: the crawling backwards, the thump on the head, how she’s always his co-captain in his Winnebago dreams.

She looks at him with soft, sad eyes — God, her eyes are always so sad, have been ever since the day Barb disappeared — and she rests a delicate hand on his forearm and asks, “Do you think… do you think maybe it’s always me in your dream because I’m the only person your mind thinks it’s allowed to put there?”

“What do you mean?”

“Steve.” Her eyes aren’t so soft now. They’re shining with that hard glint they get when she’s lost patience with Steve’s bullshit. It’s a look Steve knows well, and his hand comes up to touch his lips.

“But I- I’m not…”

“Just go,” she says, her jaw set, all that unbreakable resolve on display. “Robin and I can handle this. Go.”

Robin turns back to look at him over her shoulder, gives him an encouraging nod, and Steve takes off running, sprinting through the trees, following the sound of screeching bats.

When he bursts through the treeline, panting and sweating and clutching at his torn-up sides, Eddie’s in the middle of a maelstrom, his makeshift shield held in a shaking grip as an army of bats encircle him.

“Eddie!” Steve shouts, lungs burning as he begs his feet to move faster, to run fucking run because one of the bats dives at Eddie’s head and another takes a bite out of his leather sleeve; a third one whips a tail around Eddie’s ankle and then Eddie’s going down, pulled to the cracked, filthy earth by gnashing teeth and bloodied claws, and they’re eating him, getting at all those squishy vital bits around his middle when Steve finally hacks his way through the horde to get to Eddie’s side. Armed with an ax and Eddie’s spear, Steve strikes and slashes blindly at the wall of shrieking monsters as they start circling tighter, caging them in, and he’s dead they’re both dead they’re so fucking screwed—

The bats drop. All at once and with no reason Steve can discern, their screams fall silent and their bodies squelch all around them as they slap the hard ground like dead fish on a dock.

Steve drops to his knees beside Eddie, and Jesus Christ, there’s- there’s so much blood oh God oh fuck.

“Bad, huh?” Eddie asks, and how is he still smirking when there’s blood spilling out of his mouth? When there’s a chunk missing out of his jaw?

“Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ,” Steve mumbles frantically, not sure if he’s praying or panicking or both. He gets his shirt off, rips at the remaining scraps of Eddie’s, too; starts using them to make bandages. “Shit, Eddie, just- just hold on, okay? Stay with me.”

He wriggles a scrap of fabric under Eddie’s brutalized torso, and Eddie screams when Steve pulls it tight around his sides, ties it off and presses down, trying to slow the bleeding. There’s so much fucking blood. His knees slip in it as he ties a tourniquet just above Eddie’s elbow, hoping it’ll save Eddie’s mangled arm, and he bunches the last of the fabric up and presses it to the shredded edges of the wound on Eddie’s face.

Eddie smiles up at him with tears in his eyes, with blood on his lips. “Pretty- pretty grand gesture for a guy you don’t want to kiss.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Steve says, and he’s crying, too. “I don’t- I just…”

“Steve,” Eddie chokes, his breath whistling out with a sickening wheeze, and Steve doesn’t know how the fuck he’s going to get him through the gate and back to safety without making him bleed out. “Steve, it’s… s’okay. M’sorry I kissed you, man.” His eyes are glazing over, and no, please, please, don’t—

Eddie looks up at him, brow furrowed, like it’s taking a lot of effort. His eyes are still so pretty, even now, as Steve hovers helplessly and watches the light slowly leave them. “Actually, I- I guess m’not,” Eddie slurs. “Had to do it at least once b-before I- before I—”

“EDDIE!!!!” a furious, cracking voice echoes through the empty park. Eddie’s trailer door bangs open, falling off its hinges, and a limping Dustin Henderson comes storming across the lot.

“Dustin!!” Steve hollers back, relief flooding his veins like maple syrup straight from the tap, and incredibly (hysterically, he’s probably in shock), he’s laughing when he looks back down at Eddie. Eddie, who’s half dead in his lap, whose blood is all over Steve’s pants. Who Steve might be able to save now.

He shakes Eddie’s shoulders and says, “You can kiss me all you want when we make it out of here, man,” his voice all high-pitched and full of phlegm and trapped somewhere between a laugh and a sob, and Eddie’s eyes go wide at the promise in Steve’s words.

“Dustin!” Steve yells again, pleading, “Dustin, come on, come help me move him!”

It’s slow going, but they get Eddie through the gate, get him taped up so he’s more bandage than boy by the time the ambulance arrives. A medic claps Steve on the shoulder and says ‘You did good, kid,’ and Steve cries at that and then spends an annoying amount of time crying over the next few days, curled up in a rickety chair at Eddie’s bedside in the hospital.

More tears when Eddie finally wakes up. Happy ones this time, and there’s a parade of people coming in to hug Eddie and give him flowers and even Hopper gives him a grudging hair ruffle and an attaboy, and then Steve’s driving Eddie home in the Beemer; gets all the way to the driveway before Eddie brings it up.

“Did you mean it?” he asks, his voice timid and barely audible over the hum of the car.

Steve cuts the engine. “Hmm?”

“Did you, um- the thing, that you…” Eddie spins a ring around on his finger, lets out a frustrated huff. “I mean, I didn’t die, right? I made it out of there, so…?”

You can kiss me all you want when we make it out of here.

Steve’s ears burn at the memory, his mouth going dry, and he must take too long to answer because Eddie starts trying to backpedal. “Sorry. Sorry, you said you’re not— I just thought, maybe— shit, uh, f-forget I said-”

“No! No, um.” Steve scratches the back of his neck. “Turns out I kind of am. Or, like. Well, I mean, Robin said liking both is its own thing, it’s not a mix of the two, but…”

“…But both?” Eddie finishes, and his eyes are sparkling.

“Yeah. Both,” Steve shrugs. It’s getting easier to say. “…Mostly just you, though.”

“Oh, just mostly, huh?” Eddie teases, unbuckling his seatbelt so he can lean into Steve’s space.

Steve’s face feels too warm. His neck is probably all splotchy. “Whatever. Are you gonna shut up and kiss me already or what?”

“Uh huh,” Eddie grins and runs his tongue over his teeth. “Many times as I want, right?” He brushes Steve’s hair behind his ear, his calloused fingers so gentle against Steve’s jaw as he lines their faces up.

“How many times is that?” Steve whispers.

“Mm….” Eddie’s mouth brushes against his. “Start counting and let’s find out.”

[guywrestlingaddiction]

Everything Great About a Match: Tanner Von v Dio Characi (bgeast.com)

Everything Great About a Match: +6

Tanner Von v Dio Characi (bgeast.com)

SPOILER ALERT: I highly recommend viewing this match in its entirety before reading this post.

So let's begin:  +1: For our two studs admiring each other. The match is missing all of the usual macho 'I'm going to beat you' attitude we've come to expect and it's refreshing honestly. They not only want to win physically, they also want this match to mean something. 

Dio is thinking 'damn I get to wrestling this' while Tanner sizes him up

Tanner: This is what actually counts. *Flex*  Dio: Okay, you might be right. You have big muscles. 

Dio: You think your abs are better than mine?! Well, let me check.

+1: Laying your opponent up on the turnbuckle.  Is this move the apex of making your opponent feel vulnerable?  Is this not the perfect way to humble a big man?  If there is a better way show this let me know cause I need to see it.  

+1: For all the worship.  This match has it all. We got muscle worship, we got crotch worship, bicep worship, and who could miss all that pec worship.  Our two studs take turns to please each other and really get into each other's heads, confusing pain with ecstasy.  

Dio giving Tanner his reward for a sweaty beat down.

Dio again tries to fight off giving into the domination

That look on Dio's face says it all. The man has lost, but what a way to go! 

+1: For all the face smothering.  These guys play to win.  Watching Tanner shove himself in his opponent's face or Dio's impressive pitt smother is definitely worth a point.  I mean why simply pin the other guy when you can choke them out in the sexiest way possible.  

Tanner: How's that chest?! huh? Dio: *Muffle* *Muffle*

Struggle all you want Tanner, you know what's coming. 

Dio: Take it, you want it?! Tanner: AHHHH *Muffle*

+1: All that humiliation.  Our guys don't just want to pin their opponent, they want to win through humiliation and domination.  Like I said early, the theme for this match is really about getting into your opponent's head.  Our men use what they have and while we might quibble over their techniques, no one can argue that Dio/Tanner got skills in seduction. 

Tanner: You're liking that a little too much.

+1: These guys are leveling up!  It's a thing of beauty to watch our guys grow over time and I love that gay pro wrestling allows fresh talent to level themselves up.  Tanner and Dio may not be a Jonny firestorm caliber wrestler but they are both miles away from where they started their careers.  By now most of that rookie awkwardness has faded away revealing the sweaty, skilled wrestling aggression underneath.  

First Tanner enjoying squeezing the life out of his poor opponent.

Then Dio softening up the big man.  Where has this Dio been? 

Tanner: AHHHHH! We all knew that Dio could use those muscles against his opponent. 

------- Everything Great About this Match: +6

So there you have it.  I love the combo of Dio and Tanner, two wrestlers historically on the losing end of the match have been given the opportunity to shine.  They know where they stand in terms of wrestling skills and really push the limits of the erotic in this match.  This was never about some knock down, drag out, but rather the perfect libation of pain and seduction.  Getting in each other's head is the goal here and I'd say they succeeded cause in the end one fighter is left dizzy and overwhelmed by lust for his dominator. 

[morlock-holmes]

Part of my confusion about "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria" is that it's really just... not a good term? It doesn't really reflect what it's supposed to, which is the idea that some teenagers essentially take on a trans identity as a sort of social role spurred on by friend groups.

I think that this is likely to be actually true in at least some sense, so I was amazed at how unconvincing the Littman paper which coined the term actually is. The parental narratives advanced in that paper are just unbelievable on their face.

Ever since the gay rights movement I've felt that our vocabulary for talking about this stuff is deliberately incredibly stupid, for reasons I haven't quite been able to suss out.

In the gay rights battles, everybody got together and agreed that there were exactly two possibilities:

Gay people are born that way

Gay people made a choice to be gay

I think this is really dumb because those are really obviously not the only two options, and also because there's lots of biological "born this way" things we still treat or try to eliminate, and lots of choices that are still incredibly important to protect.

But also, like, okay, think about sexual fetishes. Say you have a guy with a cheerleader fetish. Cheerleaders are a contingent social phenomenon; no 12th century Breton had a cheerleader fetish. The possibility of such a fetish arose with the invention of the cheerleader.

But it's just as obvious that people do not choose their fetishes the way that they choose, say, a new car. Nobody says, "After listing out the pros and cons, I felt that having a cheerleader fetish was the best choice, because it combines a little bit of exotic spice while still being mainstream enough that it can't be used as blackmail if people find out about it."

No, one day you just realize that you think cheerleaders are really hot.

I do tend to think that gender identity is, for most people, a lot less immediately set in stone than sexual orientation is. My personal impression is that the vast majority of people start to understand very quickly whether they are attracted to men, women, or both, and that they only tell themselves differently because they fear social censure.

I'm not really convinced that the same is true of gender identity; I think that for an extremely large number of people it does function a bit more like a fetish, in that there are people who encounter the idea for the first time, go, "Huh, yeah that's cool or whatever" and after repeated encounters come to think, "Actually I am really into this."

I'm very, very suspicious of the tendency to then assert that this must inherently, then, be a discovery of something that always existed within the person since birth.

There's also the fact that gender roles exist, and people want to be legible to people around them.

For a lot of people, dressing up as a vampire on Halloween is fun, but dressing up as a vampire to go grocery shopping in June would be deeply embarrassing. Because on Halloween all the people around you understand why you're dressed that way and your dress makes you part of a larger social whole; in June you're going against the grain, marking yourself out from the people around you, probably drawing stares and hidden smiles.

Because sex roles in our society are so set in stone, there is a certain extreme dissatisfaction with not following them, even when allowed to do so.

I can wear chokers and frills and pretty hair ribbons if I want, but the women around me can do that anywhere in the country and have people think of it as normal, as obvious, rather than *a statement*.

Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, from reading the Littman paper, seems to refer to a parental conviction that their child essentially got the idea to be trans from a peer group who convinced them they were trans despite a lack of gender dysphoria in childhood.

Like I said, the general narrative is really, really hard to believe at face value, for example:

A total of 63.8% of the parents have been called “transphobic” or “bigoted” by their children for one or more reasons, the most common being for: disagreeing with the child about the child’s self-assessment of being transgender (51.2%); recommending that the child take more time to figure out if their feelings of gender dysphoria persist or go away (44.6%); expressing concerns for the child’s future if they take hormones and/or have surgery (40.4%); calling their child by the pronouns they used to use (37.9%); telling the child they thought that hormones or surgery would not help them (37.5%); recommending that their child work on other mental health issues first to determine if they are the cause of the dysphoria (33.3%); calling the child by their birth name (33.3%); or recommending a comprehensive mental health evaluation before starting hormones and/or surgery (20.8%)

So, like, the whole tenor of the paper is that these are basically very liberal parents who are sort of being cut off by their kids for no reason, but like...

This is typical of the general weasel wording used by Littman. Are the third of parents who called their kids by pronouns they used to use going, "She - Oops, he, I'm sorry" one time and getting blasted? Do they claim to be trying but just get it wrong literally every single time? Or do they just flat out refuse to call their child by their preferred pronouns?

When my brother was first entering high school, he joined the Sea Scouts, a division of the Boy Scouts dedicated to learning about sailing. He later entered a maritime college and has had a succession of maritime jobs, which will likely be his career for the rest of his life.

Is that the result of social contagion or was he born that way?

I think the question is obviously both absurd and irrelevant.

[heliswife]

☁️ DAYDREAM - L. HEESEUNG X READER

Your brother, Beomgyu became an idol a couple years back, and since then, you've met a lot of his idol friends. There were the members of his group like Kai and Soobin, but there were also members outside of his group, like Jeongin and Heeseung.

Lee Heeseung. Whenever you visit Beomgyu, he's willing to talk to you. You'd be lying if you said you didn't have a crush on him.

"Y/n, you have a crush on Heeseung, don't you?" Beomgyu asks you after Heeseungs visit one day.

"Nuh uh! I do not!" You exclaim, but your outburst says more than your response. Beomgyu stares at you blankly. "Okay I do."

Don't worry y/n, I'll help you! I'm a fire wingman!" Beomgyu pats your shoulder and takes his phone, "I'm calling Heeseung. Today is pocky day, isn't it? I have some pocky in the pantry. Go get it, y/n."

5 minutes later, an already opened box of pocky in your hand and your brother sitting between you and your crush, the plan started.

"Did you know today is pocky day?" Beomgyu states, eating one of the pocky sticks from the box you're holding.

"I'm not gay Beomgyu." Heeseungs reply catches both you and your brother off guard.

"I wasn't asking you to play it with me!!" Beomgyu blurts, face flushed with embarrassment. "Why don't you play it with y/n? I'll leave you two to it, bye bye~!"

Beomgyu gets up out of his seat, allowing you and Heeseung to finally be alone.

There was a pregnant pause and you had never found the amount of different vitamins and sugars in a pocky stick to be so interesting. You were trying to look everywhere but at Heeseung.

"Do you want to try or not..?" Heeseung finally says.

"Oh. Yeah, sure," You mutter. You can feel your heart beating out of your chest as you place on end of the pocky between your lips, allowing Heeseung to have the chocolate coated part.

As he ate the pocky, his face got closer and closer to yours until they were millimeters apart. Terrified, you bite your end of the pocky off and back away.

"You good?" Heeseung asks. You meekly nod. He approaches you ask you back up and stops once you hit the dead end of the couch. "You're really red, y/n."

"I-" Your thought process get caught in your throat, unable to say anything, "I know." There was no use in denying, you had already failed at denying your crush to your brother, so you weren't gonna try denying it to your crush himself.

"You like me, don't you? You had Beomgyu set this up for us, huh?" His words have a treacly coat to them. You could listen to him talk all day.

"I do," Your eyes dart away from his, but even so, you can tell he's practically staring into your soul.

Heeseung holds your cheek with one of his hands and approaches your ear. "Well, you should be lucky I like you back," he whispers. Before you could even form a thought in your head, he kisses you.

His lips are so soft against yours and they fit together perfectly like two puzzle pieces from the same board.

Once he pulls away, he smirks at you. "We're dating now?" Still speechless, you nod. "Great, I'll meet up with you Friday night, got it? Don't forget." He presses a kiss to your cheek then turns around. Beomgyu had walked into the room, only adding to your embarrassment. "Hey, Beomgyu."

"Hey, Heeseung. Guess the plan worked, didn't it y/n?"

a/n : not me having to choose between my two enha biases to write this... @orimuraa hope you enjoy, sincerely, 🐺 >_•

[autisticjoshrusso]

ok ok ok. a post about josh, buck, and maddie at dispatch as promised. (and because i dont feel like writing a whole separate post or repeating myself etc, if im pointing something out as evidence for my autistic josh headcanon, it'll be in parenthesis like this) also this is long because im going basically line by line in some places so just be prepared for that and such.

the first thing i wanna say before anything else is that like... as far as how this conversation fits into the larger narrative, i was fairly disappointed, due to the way that including this scene like this is kinda implying that the racism was fine because of being closeted etc. HOWEVER. luckily for my sanity it is pretty clear that from a character perspective, that's not at all what's being said by josh himself here, and we can be pretty certain that he is not aware of tommy's past behaviors. in fact he has almost no facts or context about the situation, which i'll get into later.

now that the disclaimer is out of the way, im gonna move onto character analysis and will not be touching on what i think the narrative might have meant etc. any further. like this is going to be purely talking about character dynamics and dissecting the dialogue etc.

we start out right away by skipping all the exposition right into a hard cut of maddie reacting to the news that tommy and abby were engaged. LOVE this set up we get right into the important part quickly and we as the audience only have to hear information that is new to us, not the information being repeated back to the character for whom the information is new.

and oh maddie. i love you so bad. she's like DAMN thats crazy, and then makes the obvious turning people gay joke. her energy here is sooo like it didn't make sense until looking at it in retrospect, but she's shocked and invested yet not taking it very seriously as a concern for buck, because well, she's having a baby and this is objectively not that serious comparatively <3 but i do love that she sees buck's reaction and quickly reins it in and is like woah im kidding im not actually being homophobic holy smokes. which. it kinda still is a little. but i think she's allowed <3

and then... josh enters the scene. he apparently only walked in as buck was saying "-kissed a boy" so of course he had to be like huh? gay shit? something gay? boys?? what's going on over here? and i love that for him. and i love that maddie immediately is like oh hi bestie i catch u up to speed on the tea <3 the maddiejosh bestieism is so back we never lose <3 and that fact that she's like. feeding in the facts in a way to dramatically amp up the tale i love it. she really said man the things my baby brother gets himself caught up in are wild.... anyway <3 true sibling behavior is finding the perfect balance between being supportive and being so so annoying <3

and she is supportive still. like when it becomes clear that there's something deeper going on here she does try to help him work through it. and its so interesting to me the way she is sort of seriously contemplating his words and is shocked when josh not only speaks up but is being very serious and equally focused on the problem at hand. it's like... she's trying so hard to figure out how to help her brother with something she doesn't fully understand that having someone else speak up to help them kind of shocks her and boy does that say something about their lives and the buckley sibling dynamic!

side note, the way josh is jokingly like "she didn't bring her personal life to work, unlike SOME people" and maddie's little look of mock offense?? they're so cute i cant handle it.

i also really love how the shots are framed during this conversation. at first, even when she's not talking and is just listening to josh talk, maddie is still in frame, we're still getting her reaction, she's an active participant in what's going on. and then there is the one shot where she's talking and josh is out of frame, hidden by buck, because whatever reaction he might be having isn't important, it's a buckley sibling moment. (he's not an active participant at that point; he's entirely observing and reacting and gathering information, not dictating the direction of the conversation whatsoever.)

it's only when josh gets very serious and it starts to turn into a heart to heart moment just between him and buck that maddie is allowed to leave the frame. it still goes back to her in very brief cuts when her reaction is relevant, but she steps back out of focus and let's josh handle the conversation. and i love that so much. thank GOD someone else is helping buck sort out his problems that isn't his parentified sister or just generally someone more marginalized than him. it was kind of getting irritating to watch, as much as i love buck so much. like dude... the emotional labor. watch it.

and man. this conversation guys. everything about it makes me an insane crazy person. ive already mentioned this in the tags of some other posts but like... its so fascinating because on the surface it is such a cohesive conversation, but when you really break it down and analyze both of their expressions and body language alongside what they're saying, you can start to see the cracks in it. what one of them is saying is not what the other one is hearing, in both directions. they are having two different conversations and i think it's critical to analyze both of those conversations and how they are interacting with each other. what josh says, what josh hears, what buck says, and what buck hears are four entirely separate things happening alongside each other.

the first part is josh trying to get a sense for how serious this relationship is to buck. when buck falters at the question of "do you love him?", he elaborates with follow-up questions that, to josh, define "love" or close enough to it. answering "yes" to those questions is close enough to a "yes" to the question of "do you love him?".

(which. ok. the particular choice of questions makes me insane because they do essentially boil down to "do you prefer this person to solitude and grant them an equal or greater importance to yourself?" which is sooo... it's said from the point of view of someone who greatly values their solitude and would not easily grant someone that level of importance.)

unfortunately, well, buck is NOT someone who greatly values his solitude, and puts other people before himself quite easily. buck would answer "yes" to those questions for basically anyone. josh does not know or understand this about buck and takes buck's answers at face value, while buck is taking this as sort of... it's hard to explain, and i think others have done a better job of capturing buck's perspective already tbh. he's convincing himself that he loves tommy here because josh is unknowingly handing him that information and expectation, and buck loves to mold himself to fit an expectation etc.

and then comes the second part, which... i think this is where it is most critical to realize that josh has none of the context about tommy, abby, and buck and those respective relationships. by his own admission, he didn't really know much about abby or about her breakup with tommy beyond the fact that it was upsetting. he didn't hear the way tommy talked about abby to buck at dinner, and he definitely didn't get to see any of the real fallout and damage to her psyche that tommy leaving her caused.

but buck did! im not inclined to rewatch s1 to get any exact quotes or anything but from what i remember, she either outright said or implied that she was so heartbroken because tommy left her because of her mother's illness. buck is understandably very upset because he understands exactly what she went through and how, unless abby was lying to not out him, he didn't exactly come clean with the breakup, and left her feeling like it was her fault, like there was something wrong with her or she was being weighed down by caring for her mother. he calls tommy's behavior exactly what it is: dishonest and cruel.

but josh doesn't know this. all he is hearing is a young, freshly out bisexual calling a gay man "dishonest and cruel" for having been engaged to a woman for his own protection. and he responds exactly how you'd expect! he reminds him of queer history and the fact that he doesn't really have a right to judge the people who grew up and had to survive in a world that was much less safe to come out in.

(and i said in my other post that's still doing numbers that "pre-Glee/post-Glee" is an actual queer discourse talking point and makes sense that it'd be used here, as awkward and cheesy as it seems, but it's also a win for my television/film/popular media/hollywood culture/etc. as a special interest headcanon. <3 we love to see it)

and it kills me because of course buck is just going to take this at face value and decide he needs to stop feeling the discomfort he's feeling, leading to the subsequent doubling down and over committing that is typical of his unhealthy relationship patterns.

(and then at the end of the speech josh has to literally announce that he's leaving DSJFHJKDSKJ. because walking away/ending conversations is so awkward and difficult and the easiest way to mitigate that is to lean into the Dramatic Homosexual Stereotype mask or whatever <3 i've long been of the opinion that josh is someone who uses the behaviors associated with queer men and queer masculinity as the blueprint for his neurotypical mask, which is why he often comes across as being just a little bit off from the Funny and Bitchy Gay vibes that it seems like he's going for. and boy did his exit from this scene just reinforce that headcanon so hard!)

they wrap the scene with a little bit more levity too which is kind of nice to like. move on from that. because it got kind of heavy there for a second.

overall i do like what this scene accomplished, but like i said at the start, i think it has some really unfortunate implications that weigh it down for me. still, always nice to get more josh content, especially when it's pretty consistent with his character as established AND not at all related to doing his job. we got to see him and maddie being goofy and maddie being allowed to let someone else deal with buck's problems for a second. and the whole thing was very well shot! excellent camera work going on throughout.

i don't actually know how to end this post so yknow. im gonna make a dramatic exit now or whatever <3

[my-castles-crumbling]

oh my GOD the weirdest thing just happened to me and I NEED ur advice.

So basically, I have this friendship group of like eleven annoying idiots (love ‘em all), and me.

Two of them and me r in the marauders fandom. We’re all 16 btw, just finished GCSEs!!!!!!!!! This is THE summer!!!!!

Anyways, we have ONE couple in our friendship group (that gives rosekiller vibes ngl) and a few others are dating people but not from inside the group (not much group-cest).

So like yesterday, we were all hanging out at one of our houses and I turn to my best mate in the group (who’s also a marauder girlie) and say “isn’t it so weird that our friendship group doesn’t have a wolfstar ship.” cause like ngl, we do give marauder era friendship vibes.

AND EVERYONES GOES SILENT???????? Like people were halfway thru words and they SHUT up. They always ignore us when we talk abt the marauders.  

So I turn to everyone and go “what’s with the silence, half of u don’t even know what wolfstar is.”

And one of them goes “we might not know shit about harry potter but someone’s definitely mentioned wolfstar a few times”. 

AND SHE LOOKS AT ONE OF OUR FRIENDS.

I assume I shouldn’t use her real name her so imma just call her Clara (she loves TS Clara Bow song so-).

Clara blushes REAL red and looks down and whispers for the person who said that to shut up.

So I say “Hang on, I thought we weren’t allowed to blab abt the marauders after *my best mate* and *another person in the group* argued over who hated JKR the most? For three hours.”

And the girl from before who apparently knows what wolfstar is says “Yeah- except when we’re watching wolfstar happen, of course we have to know what it is.”

HUH,

So I furrow my eyes brows at her and she goes “you know” which I DONT.

And then my best mate rolls her eyes and says “we do have a wolfstar in this friendship group dumbass.” 

LIKE WHO OKAY? 

Anyway, we sorta moved on. And when I tried to hound my best mate later that night she wouldn’t tell me shit. She just kept saying “no. you know all the ships in our friendship group. we aren’t keeping the wolfstar one from you.”

ANYWAY I went home and THEN it occurred to me that… ME. I could be in the wolfstar ship our friends were talking abt. Otherwise I would KNOW, since I always know.

And there’s only one person they all ship me with in our group, Clara. 

SO I TEXT MY BEST MATE LIKE, WAHT RHE FUCK GIRL YOUVE BEEN SHIPING ME WITH SOMEONE SECRETLY

and she says, she hasn’t been shipping us secretly she’s been shipping us to my face

and so I say, that it wasn’t serious until she compared me to my FAV marauders couple

and so she says, WELL IM GLAD U NOW FEEL ITS SERIOUS 

and so I say, how dare u compare me to remus, I love him but he’s def not me. 

and she says, IM NOT BITCH YOURE SIRIUS

so I say, SIRIUS? 

and she says, SIRIUS!

And I say, girl how? 

And she says, how about the fact that ur family are psychos and u really need to move out. How abt because ur an idiot who can’t see what’s right in front of her? How about your a demi bi queer chaotic mess who can’t recognise what could be the love of your life if she literally kissed you on the cheek which she FUCKING DID

so I say, … that was platonic? 

And she says, I hate you (jk I love u) but no rlly I hate u so much. WHAT RHE FUCK DUDE. 

So I say, wait, u don’t think she has a crush on me do u? 

and she says, I FUCKING HATE U HOW R U THIS DUMB.

(this is all taking place over text in case I hadn’t made that clear).

So i say, JUST CAUSE SHES GAY DOESNT MEAN SHE FANCIES ME.

And she says, NO BUT KISSING UR CHEEK AND ASKING U OUT ON SINGLE DATES AND BEINF SAD WHEN U GET A BF AND SPENDING ALL HER TIME WITH TOU DOES MEAN SHE FANCIES U DUMBASS.

So I say, has she told you? 

And she says, u know I can’t say either way.

So I say, so no. She doesn’t. 

AND RHEN I STOP REPLYING.

But now I think she might. 

Which is awkward. Look i’m not like- straight or anything, but I never get crushes, who has the time to care honestly. 

And I don’t wanna be like, oh my friend who’s a lesbian ObViOuSlY has a crush on ME. I’m not like, Erin in Derry Girls. UGH. 

But in hindsight, she HAS seemed bothered whenever I talk about boyfriends (which isn’t that often cause again, who has the fucking time). 

And she did NOT like my ex. Which was only sort of fair personality wise.

And like yes, technically, we have hung out solo and then she kissed my cheek. But like, we’re just really good friends.

ALSO how dare my best mate compare me to Sirius. Sure my parents are evil but they’re NOT RICH. I mean if you’re gonna be horrific at least be rich right? 

And here’s the thing, if I bring it up and Clara does like me- WHAT DO I SAY

and if I bring it up and she doesn’t, i’m that bitch who assumes she does cause she’s gay.

AND if I don’t and she does like me, am I just being ignorant so it’s easier for me. 

Or if i don’t and she doesn’t like me, will I think there’s some weird air here and she won’t even know what’s going on. 

I HATE being in the unknown.

And like I had known our friends shipped us but they’ve done it for like… three years maybe? Not religiously but as a jk. 

So by this point it’s just background noise. but now they’ve compared us to WOLFSTAR (and know what wolfstar is it seems) now I’m like thinking about this.

MAYBE THATS THEIR PLAN. Maybe it’s just a trick to mess with us more. 

But now I can’t help worrying that when we hang out it’s supposed to be a date. Or that time she kissed me was supposed to be a date and I DIDNT REALISE and just rudely ignored her. 

WHAT IF IVE BEEN A BITCH THIS WHOLE TIME? 

Also like yes, she was there for the wolfstar comparison, but idk if SHE knows it was US being compared to them.

Clara doesn’t LOVE the marauders fandom, but she’s lovely and always lets me ramble about it (like I let her ramble abt her books). And so she knows a lot of lore, specifically about Wolfstar. 

So idk if she knew it was abt us, or if she’s just like realising now.

Also, and here’s the weird part, I care. 

I never give a shit usually, about whoever has a crush on me or whatever. I just do what I want and deal with other people later. But now it’s my friend, my really lovely and funny and sweet and beautiful and kind friend and I don’t want to hurt her.

BUT MAYBE I WONT. Cause maybe she doesn’t even like me so it’s nothing to worry abt. 

WHO KNOWS ANYMORE.

Anyway, that’s the story. Got any advice for me Cas? ALSO congrats on your new school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh boy.

First of all- babe, it sounds like you're the last to know about all this. But I'm glad you're aware now. Welcome to the party!

Also- "my really lovely and funny and sweet and beautiful and kind friend" uhm. do you wanna say that again? And tell me there's no feelings there?

I mean, I'm not gonna tell you how you feel but it sounds like you need to stop overthinking and just spend some time with Clara. Because it could be that you're overlooking something great, here. Stop getting in your head and just feel for a bit. Wolfstar is a superior ship for a reason :D

Naming you wolfstar anon

[anauro]

I’ve been going through my Google docs and found this alternative ending to ch20 of Drugs and surgical scrubs aka what would happen if Regulus didnt blurt out “the Barty and Rel thing”

“You know how sometimes friends decide to fuck up the friendship with sex?” Evan didn’t wait for an answer, before carrying on, “they say it’s just gonna be a one time thing, that it won’t change anything, but it actually does change pretty much everything. And then the other person expects things to get back to normal and I want it too, don’t get me wrong, I really do. But I can’t.” Evan looked at him pleadingly. “I can’t.”

Regulus felt anxiety weave its way into his brain. He set down his coffee and looked Evan in the eyes.

“What exactly are you telling me, Evan?”

In the peripheries of his vision, Regulus could see Evan’s nails digging into his palm. His breath hitched in his chest as Evan opened his mouth.

“Me and Barty slept together.”

Oh.

The air got knocked out of Regulus’ lung and his vision went black as Evan’s words settled in.

Evan and Barty slept together.

His two best friends. Straight. Fucked each other.

This better be a fucking joke.

But Evan didn’t look like he was joking. Instead, he mirrored Regulus’ terror, both of them staring at each other with pure fear.

Regulus cleared his throat. “Come again, sorry?”

“I slept with Barty.”

The pain that exploded in Regulus’ heart was overwhelming, each heartbeat spreading it further around his body.

“But…but you’re both straight,” he managed to squeak out.

“No, that’s the problem, Reg.” Evan reached forward and grabbed Regulus’ hand. Regulus allowed it, too shocked to protest. “I don’t think I’m straight and it scares the crap out of me,” he said in hushed voice. “I… you’ve known me since I was a little kid, so tell me. Am I different now? Does this change anything?”

Regulus wanted nothing more than to run away from here and be sick in some bathroom and then challenge Barty about this new development.

The pain in his chest was not easing off and Evan’s fingers around his hand felt like blades, seeping the poisonous venom into Regulus.

The same fingers held Barty’s hand. Touched him.

Regulus closed his eyes shut.

“Liking men isn’t a bad thing, Evan,” he forced the words out of his mouth. “It doesn’t change who you are. You were always like this, you just didn’t realise until now.”

“So I lived over twenty six years of my life without knowing? What other things am I hiding from myself then, huh? From you?”

Regulus shook his head, biting on his bottom lip. He didn’t want to have this conversation with Evan, least of all now. But when he opened his eyes and saw the desperate look on Evan’s face… Evan was still his friend. Even if Regulus hated him at that very moment.

“I’m gay, Evan.”

Surprised flickered through Evan’s face.

“You… what?”

“I’m gay, Evan,” Regulus repeated, wringling his hand free. “I’m gay and I always have been and there’s nothing wrong with me, so there’s nothing wrong with you either.”

Evan watched him, utterly astonished.

“Don’t give me this look, Ev,” Regulus sighed. “I didn’t tell you before, because it wasn’t relevant. You guys were doing your girls and I… I was hooking up with men all along.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Regulus scrunched up his nose. “What are you sorry for?”

“For making you feel like your sexuality wasn’t relevant. For not being enough of a good friend that you felt safe coming out to. For that… I’m sorry.”

Oh.

A warmer feeling started to spread through Regulus’ body, originating at the fingertips Evan held just a moment ago. It eased Regulus’ heartache, an aloe vera to his soul.

“It’s okay, Evan,” he said quietly. “It was me who didn’t want to come out to you guys rather than you doing anything.”

“Man, look at us,” Evan mused. “We could have been having awesome gay sex all throughout uni.”

Regulus swallowed down the bile that was coming up his throat.

“Yeah. We could have.”

He could have had Barty all along. For years, he could have had him.

If only he had said something.

“How did it happen?” The question was out of Regulus before he realised.

Evan gave him a confused look. “You mean me realizing I like women and men?”

“I mean you and Barty.” Even saying the words out loud burnt in Regulus’ throat. “How did it happen?”

“Oh.” Evan’s smile faltered. “It… just kind of did? I said I’ve been having thoughts about men and he offered and I agreed.”

“He offered?” Regulus all but choked out.

Was that how easy it was to get Barty all this time?

All he had to do was ask and Barty would offer?

[eds6ngel]

another idea: reader going over to robin and vickie’s with steve for dinner one night, robin talks to reader about how good reader is for steve, little bonding moment with robin, and reader starts to feel deeper love, then fluff with steve and maybe a reciprocation of feelings? I think that’s it for now, but you don’t have to do any of them! thank you so much for writing the series, its soooo good and I can’t wait for any spin-offs!

hi my love!! i started off with this one as it goes in the order i'd like to tackle my asks in! i changed it up slightly (not too much), so i hope you enjoy!! ♡

warnings: dad!steve. singledad!steve. 90s!au. fem!reader. use of y/n. swearing. kissing. a lil bit of making out. allusions to sex. pet names. food mentions. r is mentioned as unlabeled (so you can assign the label according to your identity!!) r being an ally. fluff. comfort. love confessions!! [2.3k].

full 'when i kissed the teacher' masterlist.

“Babe?” Steve asks you, currently attending to the dishes piled in the sink from your beautiful handmade soup the two of you had for lunch. Alena was currently staying with Jonathan and Nancy, having a sleepover with her friend Ashley, which meant you had the place to yourselves.

“Uh huh?” you reply, not tearing your eyes away from the very intriguing book about the psychology of the human mind.

“You’re accepting, right?”

The question draws you away from the paperback, looking behind you to where Steve was scrubbing away at a green bowl, placing it neatly on the drying rack. “Yeah, I would say I am. Why?” The question seemed out of the blue, almost unordinary for him. It’s not like you had an issue with said question, it was just the timing that was confusing.

“Just… I really hope she doesn’t kill me for this,” Steve mumbles to himself, just loud enough for you to catch the tail end of, “You know Robin, she’s uh… She’s a lesbian, had a girlfriend for nine years. That’s okay with you… right?”

You smile, “Of course it’s okay. It’s more than okay. People can love whoever they want to love.” You were very passionate about this topic. You hadn’t particularly labeled your own sexuality, but you were striving for the ones that didn’t fit into the heteronormative society to have as many rights as you did. You frankly thought it was stupid that they didn’t already, and that as long as relationships are consensual and healthy, anybody of age should be allowed to love and potentially have sex with whoever they wanted.

Steve sighs out, chuckling lightly, “Oh thank God. I was so scared for a second.”

“Babe, if I didn’t support gay people, I shouldn’t even be deserving of your time. Besides… I’ve been to a few protests in my life,” you smirk, quickly looking back down at your book to leave Steve standing there in shock.

“You’ve been to protests?”

“Mhmm,” you hum, “College is a wild ride babe. You end up doing things you never thought you would ever do.”

“Huh… Anyway,” he shakes his running thoughts off, “I was asking because I was wondering if you’d like to go on a double date with them. You know, me and you, Robin and her girlfriend Vickie, that sort of thing?”

“Of course!” you happily agree, “When were you thinking?”

“Well, I’ll have to check with the girls, but since Alena isn’t back until tomorrow evening, I was thinking we could grab lunch somewhere tomorrow afternoon?”

“That sounds great babe! I’m totally down.”

He puts the final dish on the rack, walking up behind you and placing a tender kiss on the crown of your head, “Great, let me just give them a call, see if they’re down too.”

“There’s nothing good on this menu,” Robin whines, “You couldn’t have chosen a better restaurant, Steve?”

The four of you were squeezed into a booth of a small sandwich shop on the outskirts of Hawkins. Steve had his hand on your thigh as he scanned through the menu to the right of you, Robin and Vickie sat opposite.

Steve scoffs, “Just because you’re an extremely fussy eater, Robin. Everyone else here seems to be fine with the menu. The menu’s good, isn’t it, babe?” His question holds a slight waver of uncertainty, his best friend making his insecurities come out.

You take a quick look up at Robin over the top of your menu, smirking away as you pretend to cringe, “Well…”

Steve’s eyes open wide as he thinks he made the biggest mistake of his life, you having to quickly put a reassuring hand on your shoulder to calm him down, “I’m only kidding babe, it’s wonderful.”

“Well, according to someone it isn’t,” he narrows his eyes at Robin, her sticking her tongue out at him. You and Vickie give each other a look, as if you were both mothers parenting your immature children.

The waiter soon comes, Robin ordering a plain chicken sandwich, as suspected, Steve a ham and cheese toastie, Vickie a cheese and salad sandwich, and you deciding on a pulled pork sandwich.

“So,” you begin to start the conversation back up, “I’ve heard the two of you have been together for nine years. That’s incredible!”

Vickie holds Robin’s hand in hers on top of the table, the other leaning against her cheek, “Yeah. Almost at the nine year anniversary. You know, it took Robin two years to ask me out. She had a crush on me since the start of ‘86, took her until the Spring of ‘88 to make a move. We were both just blubbering messes up until that point. She finally asked me out, we had our first date, and then the rest is history I suppose.”

“So, just like me and Steve,” you giggle, Steve squeezing your thigh as he smiles down at you, Robin noticing how in love her best friend looks. “Always the whole mutual pining game, huh?”

“Apparently so. After the earthquake happened here a decade ago, we had to help out at the school for anyone affected,” Vickie explains, “Well, Robin and I got put on making PB&J’s, and I got so rambly and nervous in her presence that I buttered both pieces of bread with peanut butter.”

“Yeah, I was sorting clothes, watching the two of you be all cutesy and shit from across the room.”

Robin lets her mouth hang open, “You were watching that day?”

Steve nods with a grin on his face, “Uh, yeah? My best friend talking to her crush who she wouldn’t shut up about for months? And the two of you laughing and getting along? Of course I was watching.”

Vickie sighs happily, “I’m trying to think of some questions to ask the two of you, but I think we know every detail of your relationship.”

Robin raises her eyebrows with a smirk next to her girlfriend, “Oh yeah. Every goddamn time we saw him. ‘She called me handsome.’ ‘She’s just so pretty.’ ‘What am I supposed to do?’ Over and over again. It was constant reassurance, trying to encourage him to ask you out.”

“Just to let you know though,” Vickie points at you, “We did not encourage him to kiss you and therefore lose your job. We take absolutely no responsibility in that.”

You brush her off with a wave of your hand, “I mean, it didn’t end up so bad in the end. I mean, no insult to Hawkins or anything—”

“Babe,” Steve interrupts you, “We’ve all grown up here. You can insult this place however you like.”

“I don’t like to be rude though honey, you know that!” you laugh as Steve presses a kiss to your cheek, Robin and Vickie giving each other a knowing look, “Okay, fine. Just to preface, I loved the kids I taught, okay? Nothing wrong on their part. Just… some of the teachers were extremely mean in the staff room, some parents were just absolutely awful and the place itself was just… I dunno, something felt off.”

“Yeah, because it’s a piece of shit,” Robin truthfully states, Vickie jabbing her lightly in the ribs, Robin letting out an “Ow!”

You giggle, “Yeah, it kind of is, I guess. At least in comparison to Ernie Pyle. I suppose parents take their kids education a lot more seriously there. The student population is mostly made up of ethnic minorities from disadvantaged backgrounds, so the parents want to give their kids what they never had growing up. Plus, I think it’s around 90% of the teachers already have at least three years of prior teaching experience. It’s one of the reasons they took me on actually.”

“Well, I’m glad you got your happy ending. Perfect relationship and a perfect job,” Vickie points out, “Seems like a total win.”

“Yeah,” you look up at Steve lovingly, “It was.”

You had all enjoyed your meals, no matter how adventurous your selections were. Before you all got ready to leave, Steve excused himself to the bathroom, Robin sipping the final bits of her strawberry milkshake. “I’ve never seen dingus so in love before. I imagine you must get fed up with how much he says it.”

But, that’s the thing: he’d never said it. You weren’t gonna critique him on that, you were happy to take things as slow as possible, but there was that lingering thought in the back of your mind that maybe he wasn’t as in love as you were. And you didn’t want to scare him off by saying those three words if he didn’t feel that confident in the relationship yet.

“Actually, he hasn’t said it yet…” you let out.

“What?”

“Are you kidding?”

The two girls sit there in shock as you shrug it off. “No, you have to be lying,” Robin says, “Dingus has been in love with you since… well, forever!“

“Yeah, my love’s not kidding,” Vickie adds on, “I’m pretty sure he told us after you two did the Christmas Fayre together.”

“Probably even alluded to it before that.” Robin looks you in the eye, “You do love him, don’t you?”

You nod, “Of course I love him, Robin! I just don’t want to say it, and then he doesn’t feel the same—“

“Y/N, I’m telling you,” Vickie interrupts you, “He is 100% definitely in love with you. I know that for a fact. We both do.”

Robin nods, making you lean back in your chair and pinch the bridge of your nose, “Why won’t he say it then?”

“Y/N,” Robin starts, “The first girl Steve ever said ‘I love you’ to was Nancy Wheeler two weeks into their relationship, and they broke up a year later. The second was Alena’s mother who walked out when her daughter was a few months old, leaving Steve alone with a child to raise by himself. I think he’s just scared to say it in case you leave, since that’s all he knows.”

Vickie nods along, “But, if you say it first… I think that he might calm down a little. Realise that you are the one taking initiative.”

“Just say it…” Robin says softly, “What else have you got left to lose?”

But, you could have a lot to lose. What if he was just saying it to Robin and Vickie and doesn’t properly mean it? What if you tell him and he doesn’t reciprocate? You’d lose your whole relationship.

You have no time to think as Steve re-appears, reaching for his denim jacket the other side of you, “Right, we ready to go?”

Robin and Vickie smile at you, giving you a look as they begin to stand, collecting their belongings as the four of you head out the main entrance of the shop.

After bidding farewell to Robin and Vickie, Steve drove you back home, him having to clean the house for when Alena got home, and you having to prepare resources for your class tomorrow.

He pulls up to your apartment complex, leading you to the entrance as always, like the gentlemen he is.

You grab his hand, Steve noticing that it was slightly shaking wrapped around his, “Um… Steve? I just want to say something before you go.”

He simply stares back, you taking it as a sign to continue talking. You let out a breath. It was now or never.

“I understand that you’ve been wanting to take this entire thing slowly, and I get that. But, I just want to reassure you that I am in this for the long run. I love how you treat me, and care for me. I love the dates you take me on, they are so varied. I love how kind, and caring, and slightly stupid you can be sometimes. And I guess what I’m trying to say is that… I love you.”

You can audibly hear how his breath hitches in his throat, your brain instantly taking that as a mistake, “But, don’t feel as if you need to reciprocate or anything, because I don’t want to pressure you into doing that. I just needed to let it out—”

Your rambling is stopped by Steve’s lips crashing into yours. You can’t help but let the slight moan slip from your mouth as he deepens the kiss, your hands wrapped around his shoulders as he cups your cheeks. Before the kiss can escalate, Steve pulls apart from you, leaning his forehead against yours as he whispers back, “I love you too,” a goofy smile gracing his features. “Shit, I was just so scared to say anything in case it made you leave, as that’s what usually happens whenever I say those words—”

It’s now your time to interrupt him with a giggle, “I know baby, Robin kind of told me everything.”

He shakes his head, “God, I hate her. Always revealing secrets about me.”

“Damn,” you huff, “Maybe I should hang out with her more, get more juicy details about you.”

He leans back, raising his eyebrows at you, “Absolutely not. I’ve revealed way too much of my life to her.”

You both laugh, “You’re an idiot, Steve Harrington.”

“I love you too, Y/N L/N,” he replies, leaning in to kiss you once again. You melt into the kiss, Steve swiping his tongue across your lips, asking for permission to which you accept, opening your mouth and letting his tongue slip in, the lingering taste of his sandwich invading your senses. The two of you moan, you pulling back to catch your breath, realising the two of you were technically stood directly next to a busy road. “Amy’s out with her boyfriend today… So, I have the apartment to myself…”

Steve looks down at his watch, before turning his gaze back to you, smirking and seductively replying, “I think we have time.”

i hope you enjoyed!! i will get to the rest of your asks (and everybody else's) tomorrow and during the course of next week!! ♡

taglist: @livsters @bakugouswh0r3 @nix-rose @ihatepeanutss @cats00089 @suitelif3 @clincallyonline17 @crowssixof @starkeylover @eris-rose-86 @frostandflamesfanfic

[shaunashipman]

Just saw one of your posts calling Oliver biphobic. Apparently no bisexuals are allowed to sleep around when they're single. Only straight people can huh? Can gay people? Or is that homophobic to want a gay character to sleep around too? Buck from season 1, slept around. So much that he self diagnosed himself as a sex addict. He dialed it down until he cheated on Taylor in season 5 or did you forget that too? It's literally part of his character to like to sleep around and that doesn't go away when you realize you're bisexual. I'd say it's more outrageous to think you become more demure and less promiscuous just because you found out you like both women and men. That doesn't solve his problems. It just opens up his dating issues to men too.

I can't believe you're attacking Oliver because you think Buck sleeping around is a bisexual stereotype. No that's just what BUCK does. Even when he only thought he was straight. Heck if Buck cheated on his next male love interest that wouldn't be a stereotype either since he is canonically a cheater. I'm bisexual and see you are too. I seriously want to hear your thoughts because how the heck do you find Buck sleeping around when he's single biphobic?

Mind you, they filmed the bucktommy breakup in September so Oliver repeatedly texting Tim #letbuckf/uck shouldn't even be causing outrage. If Buck wants to let off steam over a breakup by sleeping around, there's no problem with that. Pls explain your side because I am actually so curious how you bucktommy shippers are trying so hard to label Oliver biphobic and calling him names over that interview.

you're a fucking moron. like just really dumb. he didn't cheat on taylor by sleeping around, he had a drunken kiss, you fuckweasel. when was the last time he did sleep around, huh? when? he hasn't fucked random women since THE PILOT. the closest he came to that was in s2, "buck, actually" when he slept with taylor. he hasn't been someone who fucks around in at least 6 years. it is explicitly against what his character has wanted since the beginning, when it was quite clear by him asking groovyheels for her number that he did not actually want anonymous meaningless sex, he just thought it was the only way for him to have a connection.

like that's the whole fucking point of our anger, fucking around is not what buck does anymore. if it was, then oliver wanting him to go fuck a bunch of ppl wouldn't BE biphobic. he said on his bullshit "apology" that he would advocating for buck to do that if he broke up with a man or a woman, except buck's broken up with 4 women in the show, and oliver never said he should react to any of them by sleeping with a bunch of random ppl. and in-universe, his breakup with abby is the only one he came close to "fucking around" after, and even then he literally said he didn't want to do that! as early as s2 he was visibly, and verbally, telling us that is not what he wants.

and his answers about sleeping around were explicitly tied to his bisexuality, to his apparent need to "explore his bisexuality", which went right along with the biphobic reasoning the show gave for the break-up. buck has fucked plenty of woman, and he's had serious relationship with several woman. tell me, what is exactly is so different about a relationship between a man and woman, and a relationship between a man and man, that you need to fuck a bunch of different ppl before being allowed to settle into the second one? cause that's what the show said and that's what oliver reinforced in his interview

this is textbook biphobia, only one step up from "all bisexuals are greedy cheaters". why are YOU comfortable with the show and actor telling you that you can't know what you want just because you haven't experienced everything SOMEONE ELSE says you need to?

[jade-kyo]

RvB 20th rewatch: s1

Here it is, after giving myself some time to let the post restoration emotions settle I am finally commencing my 20th rewatch of RvB 1-13. I’ll be sharing my thoughts as I go and doing a few other special things. I’ll also be rewatching the PSAs, miniseries, and some of the extra stuff that’s on the dvds! Welp let’s get started with season 1!

Trocadero really didn’t have to go that hard right out the gate but they did that for us

Grimmons and chucker really started it all huh…

Also the way one of Sarge’s first lines is a grimmons joke istg

The way the characters are so well established right from the get go- they say so much with so little. Like right away you get that Sarge doesn’t like Grif and Simmons sucks up to Sarge without them ever directly saying it. They just have natural flowing and sounding dialogue that allows you to infer all this information so easily and I just RAAAHHHH THIS SHOWS DIALOGUE IS SO GOOD

“A walrus” “didn’t I just tell you to stop making up animals!” Is one of my favorite lines in the whole show I quote it so frequently

DONUT MY BELOVED REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE JUST A NORMAL DUDE

Remember when Caboose called Tex a slut? Absolutely wild times fr

I love how this show allows its characters to have bad comebacks and lame jokes. It’s part of what makes the characters feel so damn real cause let’s face it- we all fail to have witty comebacks from time to time

“WHO IS RUNNING THIS ARMY” a line that came back to bite RT in the ass so many times lol

Love how the character that can’t aim for shit had the sniper as his signature weapon. One of the funniest bits in the show.

Also love how in the time that they spent arguing over the teleporter they could’ve walked to Donut 😂

“What the fuck are you babbling about” is also one of my most quoted lines

Donut really was the only normal one in the beginning lol

Ah the true inciting incident- Church’s first death. If that hadn’t happened we’d probably have an entirely different show.

Remember when Vic was also normal

TEX MY BELOVED

“That makes you a gay robot” Caboose predicted the entire story in one line

Church: explaining that he’s a ghost. // Tex who knows the entire truth: oh I am going to milk the shit out of this

Girlie really just said yes and to a bit Church didn’t know he was a part of

GOD THE UNINTENTIONAL FORESHADOWING IS CRAZY FROTHING AT THE MOUTH

“I never told him… he was my son” imagine if In restoration when Sarge dies he told Grif he was his son… honestly that single throw back could’ve redeemed the entire season for me could you IMAGINE I would have LOST IT

Church’s determination to save Tex being their downfall is such an established thing all the way back in season 1 and it follows the entire series and I just AGDJGAKSHSKHSKDGDJHD

They were doomed from the start

They could never escape the cycle

O’Malley my beloved

Holy shit the nostalgia hit hard during those credits, it’s only season 1 and I’m already getting teary eyed I’m not gonna survive this rewatch

Welp season 1 is done! God I love this show so much. Truly there are no words for how much it means to me. It just feels like coming home every time I watch it.

[thesoftboiledegg]

What up, libsharts. Since you all fell for my brilliant social experiment last year, I thought I’d come back to troll you for another round. You really thought that I was gay, huh? Well, you weren’t the only ones. I showed it to the bros in my Elon Musk Discord server, and they stupidly went “Wow, that was pretty gay” and I said “No it isn’t” and one guy said “You said that you’re attracted to Rick a bunch of times” and I said “No I didn’t” and another guy said “Dude, you said the exact same thing yesterday” and I said “No I didn’t” and he said “You literally showed up out of nowhere, said ‘im going to jack it to rick tonight lol’ and left” and I said “Haha, it was all a social experiment! I’m fucking with you! I’m a master manipulator like Rick! What’s gay about what I said? If somebody on Discord said ‘I want Rick Sanchez to ream me in the back room at Spencer’s’ and you thought ‘Wow, that sounds pretty gay,’ maybe YOU’RE the one who has dreams about Rick railing you in a blow-up inflatable pool while Bird Person lies facedown in a ditch!”

I beat them with cold, hard logic, just like Rick would. But one aspect of my genius experiment was true: I’m a dudebro sent here to infiltrate Tumblr. We do everything better than you, and to prove it, I wrote a fic that’s infinitely superior to anything you Tumblrinas could shit out. You think you’re the only ones who can come up with stories? Ha! You’re never going to beat me. You ass clowns have no idea how many times I’ve fantasized about Rick!

Anyway, here’s my one-shot that’s better than a thousand Rick Sanchez/Reader fics combined, and I would know, because I read all of them. And this is NOT AI-generated, by the way–no machine could compete with the brilliance pulsating in my brain stem. Get obliterated with literature, dumbfucks!

Your Majesty: Rick Sanchez/Elon Musk (PLATONIC!!)

Elon Musk gazed at the sky as a spaceship shimmered into view, glittering in the sunlight while it approached the SpaceX landing strip. Elon–or E, as his most respected admirers called him–was a ruggedly handsome man of over six feet tall with a chiseled jaw, godlike facial features, sizeable muscles and a full head of hair that one would love to run their hands through–if they were allowed to, of course. But few people had enjoyed this privilege. In both a literal and metaphorical sense, Elon Musk was truly untouchable.

A SpaceX rocket launched to the left of him, undoubtedly on another successful mission, but E’s eyes were fixed on the giant spaceship drifting to the ground with a barely audible whirr. The Tesla logo glinted on the front of the incredible ship, a mark of Elon’s brilliance. Steam hissed from the entrance as the side door opened and a lengthy shadow stretched across the ground.

“Greetings, Elon,” Rick Sanchez said as he approached. He was just as handsome as Musk, perhaps even more so. At nearly seven feet tall, most humans could only gaze up at him and marvel at his unfathomable genius, matched only by that of the engineer standing in front of him. He strode magnificently toward E as if he knew that he were God’s perfect creation, the scientist that would give Stephen Hawking envy diarrhea.

“Salutations, Rick,” E answered in kind, acknowledging the pleasure of being in his presence. “What do you have for me?”

“I have a concept that will revolutionize our lives and showcase our brilliance to the rest of the planet.” Rick paused. “Nay, the entire galaxy. Alien species will look up at us in wonder as they question how Earth could have produced not one, but two, of the universe’s perfect beings.”

Musk flashed him a smile brimming with boyish charm. “It seems, as I’ve suspected many times, that you and I are the main characters in this simulation, and everyone else–girls and normies in particular–are mere NPCs.”

“This is true, but I can’t take credit for all of it,” Rick admitted. “While most of this idea was mine, I confess that I couldn’t have developed this plan without Tesla’s impressive technology.”

“You are too humble,” E said with a nod of his head. “Of course, none of this would have been possible without your technology that turned Tesla into the pinnacle of human achievement, a stunning display of masculine brilliance and prowess that womenfolk could never accomplish because they’re dumb.”

“You are familiar with my Raising Gazorpazorp manifesto, I presume?”

“Of course, Rick. I have watched every moment of your life with intense fascination. Our Twitter interaction all those years ago was the highlight of my existence, moreso than the birth of every one of my children combined, and it compelled the author of this story to jerk off to it even though we’re both men.”

“He was imagining all the hot chicks that he sucked off in his fraternity, I’m sure.”

“Undoubtedly. Now, if you would, please lead me into the ship so that I can witness your latest intellectual conquest.”

“Follow me, Your Majesty,” Rick responded with a limp-wristed wave that was stunningly, incredibly heterosexual.

The door hissed shut behind them as E followed Rick into the ship. Since Rick had partnered with Tesla a year prior, his ship had become a sprawling technological wonder full of everything that the space traveler could possibly need. Only E could have done this, Rick thought to himself, as he gazed around the interior of the ship as if seeing it for the first time. Truly, being in the presence of his hero reminded him of his incredible fortune.

Rick’s ship, once small and held together with duct tape but an astonishing creation nonetheless, now housed five scientific laboratories stocked with alien technology that Rick and E had amassed on their many adventures together. His ship also possessed a gigantic library, a hologram room where he spoke with digital recreations of Earth’s greatest MALE scientists, a math classroom where he solved and invented equations, a Tesla think tank where shareholders held board meetings, a SpaceX rocket manufacturing plant, and a cafeteria that served exclusively reheated taquitos and Mountain Dew.

Elon felt the same way as Rick. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the scientist as they walked to one of the laboratories. Of course, this was done in a completely straight, masculine way. E thought that he would later have sex with lots of beautiful women that looked a little like Rick, but they weren’t Rick, because that would be gay.

“Here it is, my dear E,” Rick said, spreading out his arms in front of him like a Greek god.

A scale model of a glass dome stood on a pedestal with tiny figures moving inside to represent a community. As E peered into the dome, the glass reflected his breathtakingly handsome features.

“This is the community that we will build on Pluto,” Rick announced. “As you’ve undoubtedly guessed already due to your unfathomable genius, those crystals in the center release pheromones that will cause the most beautiful women in the universe to flock to us while the ugly ones stay at home and cry about it on Tumblr. These beauties will fawn over and make out with us while we chug Mountain Dew and watch video game livestreams where one guy just says ‘BANG!’ over and over. One of our wives will microwave taquitos on demand while another will periodically wipe the sweat off our gaming chairs. Truly, we will be the gods of our own universe.”

E smiled at this thought. He had colonized Mars years ago and had no less than 1,000 Martian wives with male relatives who had invested in E-Coin, his genuis cryptocurrency that only tech bros could understand, but he now saw an opportunity to enter the NFT market. Any male would be delighted to own a digital representation of one of these alien Helens of Troy. And of course, who but Rick should be at his side? Who else but the god-like scientist who deserved to have dominion over every living being in existence?

“If you have a minute, E–” Rick began, then stopped. “You do have a minute, don’t you? As the owner and CEO of X, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, OpenAI, Neuralink, xAI, Midjourney, OpenSea, Adult Swim, Dogecoin, McDonald’s, Fox News, The Joe Rogan Experience, Funko Pops, Discord, and Harmontown, I realize that your time is so precious that one second with you is worth ten kilos of fine Neptunian gold.”

Once more, Elon flashed his iconic boyish grin. “Rick, don’t you know me by now? If I weren’t a man of science who understood the natural disasters that it would cause, I would stop the world from spinning on its axis just to spend another minute in your presence.”

Rick responded with a flushed smile, then pressed a button on the side of the display. “Then allow me to demonstrate.”

When a set of steel doors slid open, a girl robot emerged from the storage space. I guess she was attractive for a girl. In her extended arms, she held a glass case piled high with shimmering jewels.

“This is a scale model of one of our Plutonian wives,” Rick said intelligently, lifting the case from her hands. “In preparation for our mission, I’ve amassed a fine collection of intergalactic space jewelry.”

Rick typed in a code to unlock the case: 42069. 420 and 69 were Rick’s favorite numbers, as well as Elon’s. The gemstones glinted in the light as the lid clicked open. Rick attached the earrings and kissed the robot’s ears, slid on the bracelets and kissed her wrists, and strung on the necklace and kissed her neck. He looked amazing in that jewelry.

“Well, Rick, this calls for quite the celebration,” E said cheerfully. “Should we celebrate with a bottle of Twitterian space wine?

“Of course,” Rick said with a wink. “What do you think I stashed in the wine cooler?”

Rick pressed a button on the wall, causing a drawer to slide out with a hiss and a cloud of steam. The steam dissipated to reveal a sparkling bottle of golden wine and two identical glasses with Rick and Elon’s names etched into the side. Rick handed Elon one of the glasses, the surface reflecting his Adonis-like visage.

“Let’s take this to the lounge, shall we?” Rick said. “I could use some quality time with my technological muse, the scientist whose mere existence transformed my life the second I laid eyes upon him.”

“Ah, but the feeling is mutual,” Elon confessed. “When I first saw you in that Tesla board meeting and realized that you had invested in our stock, I knew that I had reached the defining moment of my career, the pinnacle of achievement that made everything else seem like watching an orangutan pissing into a lake.”

“Your affections charm and dazzle me,” Rick responded. “I may go on adventures alone when you’re busy transforming X into history’s greatest social media empire, but I confess that my travels are incomplete without you by my side.”

“I will have to take a break from X to join you on the next mission,” E said with a nod. “After all, we have not yet had sex with all the hot babes in the universe. We’ve had sex with most of them, this is true, but I’m sure there are far-off corners of the galaxy that have yet to hear the legend of Rick and Elon: a hundred years, a hundred more, our friendship extending into eternity.”

A few minutes later, the two of them were reclining in a lounge furnished with plush velvet couches, Greek statues of famous scientists, and a bubbling hot tub. Rick and Elon had slept with many hot alien chicks in this lounge, but they didn’t really enjoy it even though they were both straight. One might say that they were super-straight. It was a special type of straight that only their genius minds could possess.

Elon and Musk clinked their glasses before they each took a drink. “While we’re here, should we engage in some meta commentary?” E said with a sly chuckle.

“Of course,” Rick said, straightening to look at the reader. “I would like to say that the author of this fic is an incredibly handsome, virile, and heterosexual man, and if I were gay and he were gay–which we’re not, of course–I would love to take my pants off and sit on his face while he recites mathematical theorems.”

“I concur,” E said with a tilt of his head. “I also find this author to be quite attractive, brilliant and god-like, and although I’m super-straight, I would be up for a threesome with you, him, and I in a truck stop bathroom while some other guys watch.”

“Truly, that would be the spectacle of a lifetime,” Rick said with a charming, boyish grin. “Of course, this is impossible because I’m straight as well as white and neurotypical, and whenever I said otherwise, I was in fact performing a social experiment on my audience.”

“I, too, have done such a thing,” Elon agreed. “And Birdrick is platonic, is it not?”

“Birdrick is indeed platonic. Anyone who thought that scene was gay needs to watch some gay porn and learn what ‘gay’ really means, which this author does on a regular basis.”

They nodded in agreement, then drank their glittering space wine as the sun set outside the ship, casting the inside of the lounge in a deep, romantic glow. Rick lit a set of Tesla candles powered by Teslectricity, a new form of electricity that Musk had patented. The lights shimmered and flickered as if the candles were about to explode any second.

Orange light shined on the surface of the water bubbling in the hot tub. “It’s growing warm in here,” Rick said, fanning himself with his strong yet elegant hand. “I think I need to remove a few layers. Excuse me, E, while I change into something other than my iconic lab coat.”

Rick disappeared into another room and returned a few minutes later, wearing only a bathrobe. Elon rubbed the back of his neck as he found himself sweating. Suddenly, the temperature seemed to have increased a hundred degrees.

“I believe that I will also remove a few layers,” E stated. “Excuse me for a moment.”

E disappeared into the same room, which had several robes and outfits in his size just in case he lost his clothes for some weird reason. The room also held outfits for other prominent male scientists, plus Dan Harmon. The room had no clothing for womenfolk because they’re gross and dumb.

When Elon returned, Rick sat on the edge of the hot tub, drawing circles in the surface of the water with his toe as he swirled the remainder of the wine in his glass. His eyes were lowered with an expression that one could almost consider lustful–his thoughts full of girlies, no doubt, even though they scarcely deserved a moment of his attention.

“I’m thinking about taking a dip in the hot tub,” Rick said. “Would you care to join me?”

“Of course,” E said, already removing his robe. “I desire nothing else in this moment.”

—

HAHA noobs, you thought you had it all figured out, didn’t you? You thought this was going to lead to some gay shit? Well, I’ll tell you what happens. Rick and Elon PLATONICALLY sit in the hot tub together. That’s all that they do. And they talk about all the babes that they’re going to make out with when Rick gets his crap on Pluto set up. Yeah, that’s right, libpukes: Rick likes GIRLS even though they’re stupid and dumb and don’t understand Rick and Morty! No one will ever understand Rick Sanchez like I do! Not Elon Musk, despite his unfathomable brilliance! Not Dan Harmon, despite his magnificent beard! No one but me, Steve White, the man of every scientist’s dreams!

Anyway, I just proved to you that the woke crowd took over the writers’ room and made Rick something he’s not. This story is more accurate and in character than every episode from seasons 5-7 put into a blender, spun around and spewed onto a plate like a horse vomit smoothie. Rick was once a manly, masculine man–a man’s man, you might say–before they turned him into a twink like they’re challenging the audience to jerk off to him.

I told the guys in my Elon Musk server “Wow, Rick and Morty has been a real jerkoff machine lately, huh?” and they said “No? Not really?” and I said “What show are you watching? Rick and Morty has been a total jerkoff machine” and one guy said “Yeah, I agree with you, I jack it to Rick on the regular” and I said “Haha, I was just fucking with you guys! It was another social experiment! I’m a master manipulator! I’m the real-life Rick! What’s gay about what I said? While you queers jack it to Rick in a gay way, I’m going to jack off to Rick to PROVE TO MYSELF that I’m STRAIGHT!!!”

I got banned from the server for a week, and I had so much time on my hands that I decided I’d pop back in and give Tumblr another textual ass-crushing. The server’s going to be so proud of me when I tell them what I did. Elon would be proud. Dan Harmony-to-my-ears would be proud. And Rick would DEFINITELY be proud. If my Rick Sanchez body pillow were animated, he’d look directly into my eyes and whisper to me as tears of joy stream down my face.

Oh my God, forget it. Why am I still wasting my time with you idiots? You have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty.

[mythicalartistx]

Soriku in Novels Part 4 — DDD

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 5

The cricket's question made Riku think of Sora. Of course, Riku couldn't tell him everything, but Sora was still a friend with a special place in his heart.

"Yeah... actually I do." Riku closed his eyes and imagined Soras's face for a moment, then looked at Pinocchio and Jiminy. "That stupid grin he's always wearing— he's the best teacher I could ever have."

DDD novel — Riku's side.

I loved this scene during the game and it was clear in DDD he's so gay and he loves Sora so much. A big part of DDD in my perspective was being able to accept yourself/forgive yourself of the darkness of the past and maybe someday open himself up to Sora about his feelings.

And here it shows Sora has a special place in his heart... He definitely likes him. I love how he imagines Sora in the scene, I mean I thought he was thinking of Sora BUT TO EXPLICITLY SAY he imagined Sora's face is another thing.

"He saved me. But you two are nothing alike." Shiki leaned in close to Sora's ear and whispered, "You know, Neku and Riku are really similar."

"Huh?". Surprised, Sora looked at Neku.

Now that you mentioned it, I can see it. They're both a little prickly sometimes, but they have a heart of gold underneath.

"Wh-why are you staring at me..?" Neku returned Sora's gaze uneasily.

"Yeah, you may be onto something."

DDD NOVEL — Sora's Side

This is a nice section that shows a comparison between the characters. Shiki notes how Sora and Riku are nothing alike, but Neku is quite similar to Riku. It's not that Soriku filled, but it's nice to see the comparison with Neku who ends up in his actual game accidentally trading Shiki (who's very important to him/ with no memories at that) to continue to survive another round to be able to return to life.

Also I'd imagined Riku getting flustered if someone stares at him because of one of the kh2 novel states that Riku always won sword fights, but Sora won starring contests. HE PROBABLY GETS FLUSTERED.

"I won't hold back, and I won't underestimate you. I give everything I have to set you free. I was always jealous of you, Sora. I used to feel it all the time, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't still. I believe that feeling was darkness, but now I know it's not.

The truth is, it gave me strength, and so did having someone to challenge me. Light and Darkness are perfect compliments of each other — the shadows are always greatest next to the dark. I know what that means now, truly. When those dark feelings come over you, only your heart can decide whether to let them sink deeper into the darkness or to bring them out into the light of the sun.

Accepting both is what it means to have a heart. It gives us strength. Even a form of pride, in a way. I don't think anyone can honestly say it's not. Same with wanting to be stronger. Joy and Sorrow, Anger and Hatred— whether those feelings become your light or your darkness is for you to decide.

The strength of your darkness is what allows you to choose. That's why I choose to let the light shine onto my own darkness. And Sora that's you."

DDD Novel — Riku Side

I made a post on just this entire statement Riku made before but I had to include it, it's so gay. He's comparing dark and light to him and Sora. He says Sora is his light. He accepts both light and Darkness and because of that it's strength and some sort of pride... Maybe gay pride 🧐🧐🧐

But he realizes his jealousy made him stronger and just shows his development of how he is with darkness and how he is with Sora.

[bokettochild]

i completely understand the whole argument about wanting a community and a place to feel where you belong but a big problem that many people had with the discord server was that is was advertised in the main "linked universe" tag. because of that, every queer person who was looking at that tag would have seen a post calling them predatory. again, i understand wanting to have your own space, but if you really don't like a group of people and you come into their main space and tell them that you don't like them, they are allowed to have a bad reaction.

Well dang! Why didn't people lead with that?

Yeah, it's one thing to have your own space, it's another to make a shared space feel unsafe, no matter who's doing it.

I feel like suggesting they not use the fandom tags has already been done though, huh?

Maybe (hey, Christian folks, this one IS for you) it would be best to have our own space? Like... a place were we can be free, but not harm. A Discord server might work better than having a small community within a larger one here on tumblr.

While I respect the freedom all people have to speech, I do understand that no one wants to be in their fandom space and find content that paints them as a monster. As someone who sees Christians displayed as such in a lot of modern media, I do in fact speak from experience (yes I have a specific show in mind here).

While being targeted and pushed out of the fandom is not fair or right, making the fandom space feel toxic isn't either, no matter who is doing it.

Feel free to keep being you! Please, yes, be a Christian! But don't be out here treating others like scum, because that hurts everyone: the people you're talking about, the people like me who aren't involved but have to handle the lashback and hate for something we didn't do, and of course those who said/did it to begin with. It does nobody any good to stand in the center of town and say unkind things, which is basically what I'm hearing has been happening. Maybe, if you want to share your thoughts, share them with people who want to hear, not in public places where they will hurt and damage?

I know how it feels to be the one getting trash talked; I got targeted back in 2020 for saying I wouldn't write gay ships, and I had.... a really tough time handling the lashback. Like, I had to quit my job, the stress was so bad! Don't do that to people!

To EVERYONE: If you want a space, by all means, go make one and be happy! But don't turn a space for enjoying art and stories into a political war zone, because nobody wants that, and those of us here for the story may end up leaving it to avoid the chaos, thus harming the artist and not just the viewers.

Be respectful guys.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s3 ep10: Warlord

Another alien possession episode, this time mixed with a rare foray into castle intrigue, this is also a big Kes episode. Kes was one of my favorites when I was a kid, and I loved getting to see her fighting spirit come out here. Despite not having the strongest plot, this is def one of her strongest eps.

It opens with a shot of Neelix experiencing some kind Talaxian foot oomax that's presumably supposed to be funny, but is actually just truly awkward, and something I didn't ever need to see. They're on the holodeck, and this is the first ep where we see the tropical resort program that the crew will take to playing around in for the rest of the season. (It's kind of cute how the crew goes through fads of which holodeck program is the cool one for them all to hang out in.) Tom and Harry are there, and Harry's wearing his slutty little see-through mesh shirt, which I love, because it's the same one we saw Libby wearing in the alternate timeline in 'Non Sequitur', which means Harry brought it from home when he left Earth. I love little continuity details like that! Plus, he's slaying in that thing, that look is fire! (And then later B'Elanna shows up in a sparkly swimsuit, and it's just like wow. ok. just gonna hit us over the head with half dressed hot people in this ep huh? Rude. And her saucy little 'yeah i'm a bad bitch' wiggle as she walks away is just like, illegal levels of hotness. how it took me until my late 20s to figure out I was bisexual when I grew up watching this show, I'll never know.)

Then we go to the bridge, where Voyager is rescuing a small ship that's going to explode. They beam the three survivors to sickbay, and one of them dies while Kes tends to him. Not long after, Kes's behavior starts to become odd. When she meets Neelix in the holodeck for lunch, she snaps at him, and tells him how annoying he is (valid, tbh, but so not Kes) and ends up breaking up with him rather abruptly. While I admit I wasn't sad at the idea of Kes and Neelix breaking up, it did feel very out of character. We soon learn the reason- Kes has been possessed by the spirit of the dead patient, a bloodthirsty warlord.

The possessed Kes and her alien friends shoot the transporter chief, then hightail it back to their planet. (Though why they shot him when they were already gonna get beamed down, idk!) I gotta say, I love the matte painting of the castle on this planet! They really went with a full on fairy tale type castle, and it looks really cool. I wish they'd have gone with something equally castle-y for the interior set though, because it was just another nondescript grey design without any distingiushing visual identity.

After they retake the castle, all trace of Kes's personality is gone, replaced by the 200 year old warlord Tieran, who changes into a black leather catsuit, and swans around killing people and yelling orders. Jennifer Lien does a great job portraying the evil warlord, making her voice gruff and growly, and sneering and slinking around the castle like she owns the place. Tieran uses her telepathic powers to hurt people, and attempts to seduce people over to his side, including Tuvok, when he came to rescue Kes- they really are determined to make her kiss every man who's old enough to be her dad on this show, aren't they?? Ugh. (But yet, they didn't go for her kissing Tieran's wife- Rick Berman probably said nuh-uh, no gays allowed! But then a few scenes later, no one had any problem with Kes/Tieran suggesting a threesome with the wife and the prince that Kes/Tieran is now betrothed to- I guess gay shit is okay, as long as it's only used to show how depraved the villain is - ugh!! Only allowing evil characters to be queer is worse than zero representation at all. Tbh, that shit is probably why it took me so long to figure out I was bi- growing up, only evil, immoral characters were ever depicted as bi on tv, especially on DS9, where the evil mirror universe characters were almost all depicted as queer. It's pretty hard to think of yourself as bisexual when even Star Trek depicts it as a perversion, rather than an actual normal thing for normal people to be. I know now most of the writers and actors didn't feel that way, and it was Berman's homophobia overruling everyone else, which makes me feel a little better, but still. It's a huge thorn in my side when I watch old Trek, and it makes me want to vandalize Berman's house with rainbow paint. Happy Pride Month, you asshole!)

But we learn that Kes's mind is still there too- that she haunts Tieran's dreams, and fights him so hard she gives him headches. I love the scene where she stands up to him, and assures him that she'll fight him relentlessly, and that he should be afraid of her; and best of all, we see that he actually is afraid of her! Tiny little Kes, spooking the hell out of a gruff, growly guy twice her size! We love to see it!! Kes is the clear winner of their battle of wills- Jennifer Lien brings so much intensity to it, she's truly ferocious, and it's awesome! I remember how happy I was to see Kes finally get her assertive badass moment back when this first aired. Kes was the relatable stand in character for the young girls in the audience- my grade school friend and I both loved her- so it was a real thrill for us to finally get to see her presented in this strong, forceful way, like all the other characters routinely were. One of the reasons she became less of a favorite for me as I grew up was recognizing how often she was infantilized, relegated to being a sex object, or an emotional caretaker, for male characters, or not fighting back when she was treated disrespectfully. So often she was written off as being the naive, softhearted innocent, when she was clearly capable of being more complex and interesting if they let her break out of that mold. I really appreciate that they let her do that here- it's a tantalizing hint at what her character could have become if she'd had more time on the show, and writers who believed in her more.

After Kes successfully fights back against Tieran, the final scene is her and Tuvok back on Voyager, discussing what happened. Kes admits that what she went through was a big deal that changed how she felt about herself and her relationships with her friends, and she wonders how she can go back to normal. Tuvok, ever the good space dad, tells her that she can't, but she can move forward in new directions, building on the strength she found in herself. It's rare to have characters on Star Trek actually talk about how much the crazy things they deal with every day actually effect them, and I appreciate that they did it here. It's a lovely scene, and even though Kes is still troubled at the end, we know she'll have the support of Tuvok, and all her friends on Voyager, as she finds her way forward.

Overall, this episode was a run of the mill 'bad aliens posssesed somebody, we must get them out!' story, with a twist of royal intrigue silliness that doesn't fit well with Star Trek's tone. It felt more like a Xena or Hercules plot than Star Trek. They literally have a Tony award winning actor in the cast- Anthony Crivello was playing Tieran's aide, Adin- but he practically blended into the scenery of this over-the-top, psuedo-medieval fantasy plot that gave him nothing to work with. Nontheless, I appreciated Kes being given an opportunity to take the spotlight, and to show a steely resolve underneath her sweetness and cuteness.

Tl;dr: One of Kes's strongest episodes, despite a weak plot, which marks a turning point for Kes's character on her path to becoming more mature. Essential for Kes fans, and anyone who wants to see her branch out beyond her usual storylines.