#this is about how queer people have never been alone and have always found each other throughout history even in the most repressed of times

[forgondor]

I haven’t read the book so I can’t say but something that struck me in James Ivory’s 1987 Maurice is the fact that Maurice & Alec’s relationship is started by Maurice unknowingly sending a signal to Alec, which Alec largely misinterprets, but it works out anyways, and much later at the end, when they meet at the boathouse, Alec goes “did you get my wire” and Maurice goes “what” because again he completely missed that signal but it doesn’t matter because he’s here anyways. And it’s like. There were a million mistakes to make and a million mistakes they made, but somehow, they find their way to each other, almost unwittingly. Maurice says “It’s a chance in a thousand we met” but I don’t think that’s true. I think it was always going to be like this, in every world they would have found each other. It’s the way they fall into each other’s arms so easily and they try to get away from each other but they can’t and they’re separated by so much but they still collide... This story is SCREAMING at us that no matter how impossible it is no matter how alone and repressed you feel you mustn’t lose hope because your love will find you and you can’t avoid it! You will be happy!

[necrotic-nephilim]

what are your favourite batcest ships and why?

AAA i love this question so much. i'm going to limit myself to a top five, because otherwise, i'd just end up listing all of them. the true joy of batcest is they're all so good for such different reasons and there are so many unique dynamics you can explore.

JayTim - it's funny bc, before i started this blog, i don't know if i would've put these two losers as my number one. but because i've done so much deep diving into their dynamic and i write them the most, i think it'd be a disservice for them to be anything *but* number one. their canon dynamic is just. so fun to play with. i truly love all of their interactions, particularly pre-Flashpoint. the concepts of Tim holding such contempt for Jason while Jason is weirdly obsessed with Tim. i'm a fan of Hannibal and Killing Eve and well. if this isn't a Hannigram-coded ship idk *what* is. i like ships where love and hate co-exist and there's no real "happily ever after", just fucked up co-existing, where they crawl back to each other like a bad habit and really, this ship is that so perfectly. the themes of jealousy in the Robin mantle. Tim wearing Jason's Red Robin suit to punish himself. i will likely never shut up about them. even in the New-52, there's such a substance to them, though the dynamic is wildly different. they will always be so weirdly dependent on each other's existence. i love them.

BruDick - you can't outdo the doer, i fear. i think i like BruDick mostly for the history of it, yk. there's genuinely *so much* queer history seeped into the homoeroticism of Batman and Robin, these two have been a symbol for queer people for decades. but the ship itself has so many dynamics i love. problematic age gap, "are we family or lovers", "i can't be in a room alone with you without getting into a screaming match but if you called i drop everything for you". all of it. i especially favor 80s/90s BruDick when they were in their divorce era just because it's so messy. Dick has canonically said he would die for Bruce, even during their arguments. no matter what, these two will always be single-mindedly devoted to each other. there will be other Robins, but none of them will compare to Dick Grayson, for Bruce. it's a unique and complicated bond that has endless layers to peel back. they always crawl back to each other bc no one else will match their level of intensity.

DamiTim - years and years ago, when i was a teen trying to people-please with how i existed in fandom, i used to insist i didn't like batcest and found it icky and gross. but there was one DamiTim fic that was my exception. that fic was my fucking roman empire. i reread it like once a year even though it's not completed and likely never will be i do not care. so now that i've killed the morality police in my head and i let myself ship what i actually want to ship, this ship holds a top place in my heart just bc of that fic alone. but in general i do fucking love their dynamic. similar to JayTim there's just so much mutual hatred in these two that has endless potential. Damian's insistence to not see Tim as a Wayne and as a legitimate brother/heir to Bruce is something you can play a lot if you give Damian an angry, fucked up crush on Tim he doesn't want to admit to. they have so many reasons to dislike each other, so to try to get them to slowly fall in love is a fun challenge. they either have a long complicated forgiveness arc and end up a happy married couple or they are the couple that tries to kill each other once a week. no in-between.

JeanTim - there's like. one person here on tumblr who goes as hard for this ship as i do and truly god bless them bc they feed me. Jean-Paul is too underrated in the batcest scene. once i reread Knightfall, i will have to help popular this tag on ao3. i enjoy both a very fucked up version of this ship during the peak of the Knightfall arc, where Jean-Paul is deep in his murder Batman era and Tim is trying to stop him to no real avail, but i *also* think there's so much you can do with the ship afterwards, where Jean-Paul is trying to make up for what he's done and be a better person and better hero. they're the peak Batman/Robin ship, to me. they truly care about each other, but have a very complicated/bloody history and i just. man i love it so dearly. i've been meaning to write a fic where Jean-Paul goes to Tim post the Sword of Azrael (2022) arc to properly discuss and apologize for all his actions in Knightfall for his personal healing and they end up fucking. it could be sweet and cute or kinky fun bc what is the joy of a character with that much Catholic guilt if you don't give them a weird religious kink.

BruCarrie - The Dark Knight Returns got me into comics and i will defend it till the day i die. Carrie Kelley can be pried from my cold dead hands. i just really love these two? Carrie took one look at that cranky old bastard and decided she was his problem. and Bruce is at a stage where he should be very averse to the idea of having a Robin, he knows it's a bad idea. but he just. accepts her anyway. idk how to explain their dynamic other than she plunks herself in his lap and stitches up his wounds while telling him he's an idiot and he lets her even if he's grumbling about it. they have the biggest age gap of any Batman/Robin ship and for that, they should get like. a dead dove gold star no matter how rare the pair is.

also honorable mention goes to BruTim, because *god* do i love the concept of Tim offering himself up to Bruce as Robin in every way, knowing that there are likely sexual/romantic implications to being Robin. it's one of my favorite flavors of batcest to exist. i don't view them as a "happily ever after" ship, because Bruce will always go back home to Dick, but it's a fun lil dead dove moment.

[ghostofhallownest]

it’s 1am so this is more of a note to self than anything but:

Nimona isn’t human. She’s her own thing, and the movie refuses to explain where she came from or if others are like her (good). Nimona doesn’t want to find *her* people genetically, she wants to find her *people* in terms of found-family, something she’s always been denied for being different regardless of what species she seeks out

Ballister is an outcast well before he’s used to murder the queen, but for the majority of his life he’s able to carve out a place of belonging. he has institutional power and privilege in a way nimona doesnt, even when he’s seen as a queen-killing villain

Ballister’s character arc is about learning to challenge his internal biases and be a good friend and ally to Nimona, and despite himself also being a type of minority in this world, he never understands her from the lens of his own experiences; he has to mentally venture out from what he knows to meet her where she is. he doesn’t automatically understand who she is because he himself has experienced ostracization, he asks her (sometimes small-minded) questions and listens to her answers and learns---she understands what it is to abruptly lose the community you love, but he doesnt easily understand what it is to shapeshift, but he wants to---or at least, wants to understand her better. and that results in him defending her to his literal childhood best friend / partner.

this but community infighting + how tribalistically dividing the queer community, demanding that we split up into our own little pieces of the alphabet alienates us from each other just as surely as we’re alienated from the broader world. how you can be a minority or part of a marginalized group and suffer in your life for those things and still have privilege compared to others (and how you can bond together with those people and not resent your differences in experience, and have compassion for the parts that suck and work together to achieve world domination your goals)

idk, something about ballister explicitly having grown up hurt and othered no matter how hard he tried to make himself palatable, how ballister graduated top of his class by merit alone and he is still always going to be “the first crack in the wall,” (and being top in the class over the descendant of gloreth is another, and the queen declaring anyone can hold the sword henceforth is another, and so on); there is no world where ballister makes himself Good Enough to not be a threat, and even though nimona knows this, she backs him up and fights for him and hopes against her better judgment that the system can be changed and only walks when he refuses to have her back

and how this is still nimona’s movie and the point is how ballister may be a crack but she’s a fucking wrecking ball in the wall and she must be destroyed at any cost

something something abt respectability politics, yk?

anyway. this is just one thread im kinda absently picking at but fr im going to absorb this movie until it replaces blood in my veins and i can play it while holding a conversation without missing a beat. insane about it v excited to read the graphic novel (im aware it’s different)

[sunflowerwemadeit]

Because of something that I saw on my dash. As someone who completely coincidentally stumbled upon 9-1-1 3ish years ago (I watched LS first do NOT come at me I love queerness) and have watched it from season 1 all the way through the fifth one at that time? Yeah. I saw buddie happening. Mostly because I saw Buck and Eddie giving each other the one thing they both want- companionship.

Buck's arc from season 1 till season 7 has been about a man who never got love so he doesn't know what it looks like. Even when he came to 118 the house wasn't family yet. Bobby was closed off, Chim was very insecure with Tatiana and we'd seen Hen open the Eva Pandora's box. In short, everyone already had their own family, issues, past that they were dealing with. Slowly they all came together and became the 118 through the first season. In all of it we could see that Buck has only ever wanted to belong. To have companionship so he isn't left alone once again. Not when he has just started to experience what a family actually feels like.

His insecurities made him act like a dick and that's.....a fact. Yes during his probie years because he hadn't really committed to growing. He wasn't even aware there was a scope of growth because he had a set pattern. Of the reckless-casual sex-acts before he thinks-young man (he still just wanted people to stay or atleast not cut him off, hence the whole bobby giving him a kick in the ass to get it together). With Eddie in season 2 because again, of course he wasn't sure of his place in the 118, it was still very precarious for him so he doubled back and hated how Eddie was seemingly able to make space in the team easily when Buck himself had had to fight for it. Because of all aforementioned reasons. So he acted out. Because he thought it was him vs Eddie. But the moment he understood it was actually going to be him AND Eddie, that man folded like wet paper. He got companionship. He let his ego go because it was never about that. It was about feeling he has to fight for his place in the family and so he let his guards down the moment he realised that this competent af kinda closed af man was ready to reach out to him first, who had given him acceptance and saw his good side on his own without Buck having through walk through fire for it.

And Eddie? He was a single father with a kid with CP, had just moved into a new place because his parents were suffocating and ableist and who was running, just like always. Found this man who loved kids and despite acting out and being less mature was so ready to just. Try and make it a little better for him. To drive him to the school after a 7.1 earthquake. Both him and Shannon unfortunately never had anyone else to even just be present while parenting. Both of them have been alone for so long and Shannon ran away too and then it was his turn to take care of his kid all alone. And he was, but not for long.

Because Buck was there. To help him out with Christopher and all the red tape bullshit and just someone who loves to fix things or make it better for others was there lending a hand to Eddie without any suffocating or scary implications/expectations. Buck was just there for him. Buck also gave Eddie the easy acceptance he's never gotten from anyone else his whole life.

So yeah. As someone who has watched since season 1 and saw Buck's (and everyone else's) growth and development arcs, buddie makes a lot of sense. All they've ever wanted was companionship and acceptance and they found it in each other, quite seamlessly if I do say so myself.

And yeah I don't conform to the romantic love is completely different from platonic love bullshit because it isn't for me. So it's not even about that. It's about Buck and Eddie just finding it so easy to love each other and be there for each other. And continuing to build and maintain that relationship together. They understood each other and forgave each other and were just always present. They didn't let the other feel lonely if they could help it. It's about companionship. And Buck and Eddie constantly giving the other the feeling of belonging. So yeah.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (December 3-9, 2023)

I made a frame from this shot Wikizilla's Image of the Week. No regrets. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, I love ya. When I was a teenager, explicit queerness was anathema to most big-name franchises. Those dominoes have been slowly falling, often in lower-profile tie-ins first, and to me this is a huge one: 69 years without a queer live-action Godzilla character are over. And Cate's the main protagonist of the show! I'm not under the delusion that media representation will cure all society's ills, but it sure doesn't hurt. Now, the non-Tumblr parts of the fandom are being completely normal about this, right? Right? Whatever, that's why you'll never get rid of me here. Cate had a couple more sweet moments with May in this episode, and Mariko Tamaki wrote episode 7, so don't expect her to stop kissing girls. Hopefully she's learned a valuable lesson about cheating though.

"The Way Out" is also another gift to those of us who have always wanted to see more of the ramifications of a world where Godzilla exists, from underground towns for the super-rich to ruined cities where federal troops shoot looters and harass people experiencing homelessness. And the show continues to find ways to use kaiju to talk about COVID, from Cate and Kentaro's exchange about San Francisco truthers ("It's easier than waking up every day and thinking, at any moment, the same could happen to you") to the blink-of-an-eye speed at which the threat went from on the news to her front door in the flashbacks.

As I foretold, we got a Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire trailer, an amusing contrast to the weighty Toho flick and Apple show already fore of mind. It's Adam Wingard unbound, that's for sure. The human cast seems pared back, a longstanding Monsterverse problem, and the kaiju fights were far and away the best part of Godzilla vs. Kong, so hopefully this approach will play to his strengths. But that movie also had excellent VFX, and some of the shots in here are rough. There's time to fix them, at least... which probably can't be said of Godzilla's design. I like that he's pink (did some Warner Bros. executive take the wrong message away from Barbie?) and sporting a thagomizer on his tail, but his proportions are uncanny. And I see Kong found the Infinity Gauntlet; good for him.

I am, of course, not done talking about Godzilla Minus One. It added over 200 screens and made $8.3 million in its second weekend in the U.S., a minuscule drop considering that its $11.4 million opening "weekend" spanned five days. Almost a third of all tickets sold this weekend were for Godzilla or Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron, remarkable in a market so allergic to foreign imports. That brings its total to $25.3 million (more by the time you read this). With an avalanche of Christmas blockbusters on the way, its grip on premium-format screens is about to slip. Still, I see it hanging around theaters for a while. I have never seen the fandom so united in praise for a film before, and it's making plenty of new fans.

Some of those fans are in high places. Variety leaked that it's on the 20-film shortlist for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars (to be narrowed to five nominees), something I, again, never expected to read about a Toho Godzilla film. Alas, it's locked out of this year's Best International Film category due to the quirky nomination period.

Much has been made of how great the film looks on a $15 million budget. I have two caveats, one in each direction. No one is quite sure where the $15 million figure came from; Yamazaki said at a recent con appearance that he only wished he had that much to play with. (He has yet to divulge the actual budget, just that it was above ¥1 billion.) Now, unions in the Japanese film industry are much weaker than in Hollywood, so a given production budget goes a lot further in Japan. All the same, I doubt that alone explains Minus One looking better than most superhero movies made for twenty times the cost. I'll offer a couple more reasons: Yamazaki has extensive visual effects experience (he's been the VFX supervisor of all but one of the live-action films he's directed), and the film's big effects scenes aren't as busy or lengthy as many of the Hollywood counterparts. I don't know if Disney will ask Yamazaki to direct the next Star Wars movie (that would require there to be a next Star Wars movie), but the studios here should be taking notes.

the sphinx, a blog with a ton of American Godzilla rarities to share, has outdone itself—behold a continuity and dialogue script for the U.S. version of King Kong vs. Godzilla! Included in the download is a detailed comparison with the film. No huge differences, apart from the script giving the secretary added to the U.S. version a name, but a fascinating piece of history all the same.

The Minus One incarnation of Godzilla (MaiGoji?) has joined Godzilla Battle Line, accompanied by [SPOILER]. To be honest, my enthusiasm for this game has been flagging, and I'm not caught up on the strategies developing around these two, so I'll just refer you to Sir Melee's channel as usual. This Godzilla's also doing a collaboration with the Japanese mobile game Fleet of Blue Flame.

Tiffany Grant, Asuka's original voice actress, will narrate the audiobooks for the Neon Genesis Evangelion: ANIMA light novels which explore an Instrumentality-free path for the show. Seven Seas Entertainment published them in English from 2019 to 2021, which, to be honest, was also news to me.

This one's for my fellow library workers: the obscenely popular Who HQ nonfiction series for children is publishing a book about Godzilla next June. I don't know if this will have quite the same impact on today's young Godzilla fans as the Ian Thorne tome had on Gen Xers and Millennials, what with the Internet and all, but it's certain to be more factual. Expect illustrations instead of licensed photos, and not just because of Toho.

I can finally talk more about the Godzilla x Kong: Titan Chasers mobile game without fearing a DMCA. Not that there's much to talk about; it's freemium through and through and I'm not sure I know a single person who's excited for it. Interesting to see some critters from the comics break into another medium, at least. Here's the trailer.

[axel-tiredstudent]

OC MASTERPOST WOOHOO ⭐

Although there's still a lot to plan and do before this story is anywhere near done and I don't even have a first draft yet, I really wanted to talk about it and share who my OCs are (since i keep talking about them in here).

This story (called Ewordis) is one of necromancy, otherness and isolation, but it's also about love, saving and connection!

The main character is Absalom García Medina (much to his own dismay). He is 22 years old and studies fine art in university. He's also a drummer in a band with his two closest friends. Absalom comes from a long line of necromancers! He doesn't really understand or control his powers, but he's set on his goal of finding his mother's spirit, which he has never been able to do!

Almudena is Absalom's grandmother, who raised him when Alma (her daughter), passed away. They are both also necromancers. Almudena taught Absalom how to use his powers until she died when Absalom was 12. She's still with him as a spirit.

Alma died in labor. Not only was she a necromancer, but she also had prophetic visions, something not common in their family. Neither Absalom nor Almudena have ever found her soul.

Angel is Absalom's best friend since they were in higschool. They take care and support each other through everything. Angel has a beautiful voice and she can play many instruments. She's the singer, songwriter and guitarist of their band.

Naomi met Angel and Absalom when they were looking for a bassist for their band. They became close soon and shortly after he started dating Angel!

Percy is Absalom's ex boyfriend. Their relationship was rocky and difficult, which really affected Absalom. They still see each other sometimes, but Percy doesn't seem to be willing to change for the better as a person, which is why Angel dislikes him and wants him to stay away from her best friend.

Ozzie is a non human creature that Absalom meets in the realm between life and death. Ozzie doesn't remember anything of his life before appearing there and he can't go to the living realm, so he and Absalom decide to find out what he is.

Victor also comes from a line of necromancers. He meets Absalom in a graveyard, after many spirits warn Absalom of a creature eating their corpses there. That would be Victor! Victor was brought back to life by his necromancer abusive father and now he's forced to feed on human flesh to not become a mindless "monster".

The Knight of Death is one of the Horrors. No one really knows of their existence, but necromancy powers are related to the Horror of Death. How is it related to the Medina Family? What will Absalom do when faced to this Knight?

LONGER EXPLANATION BELOW THE CUT

As I said before, Absalom comes from a long line of necromancers, this gift/curse always passes down to one person in the family. He got it from his mother, Alma, and she got it from hers, Almudena. Alma died in labor so Absalom was raised in a small close-minded village by his grandmother. Since it was little, Absalom has been able to see and communicate with the dead. Almudena taught him how to use his powers and insisted that this is a gift that makes them special. Nevertheless, she also taught him to hide it to avoid rejection from people outside their family. Even with their powers, there was something neither Absalom nor his grandmother were ever able to do: find Alma's soul.

When Absalom is 12, Almudena dies and Absalom, unable to find her either and suspecting her dead is related to the necromancy, blames their power for it. And so he starts seeing this power as a curse instead of a gift. Something that he doesn't truly control nor understand, something that scares him and isolates him. Absalom goes to live in a bigger city with his uncle. It spends a few rough years feeling alone and othered until, at 15, he meets Angel! They bond over their mutual love for music, being rejects in their school and their queerness. During their teenage years they both join a few bands and, finally, at 19-20, they decide to create their own music band, with Angel as the songer-guitarist and Absalom as the drummer. They are on the look out for a bassits when they meet Naomi. They quickly click and Naomi becomes the third member of TTT (Tres Tristes Trigres). A few months later, Naomi and Angel start dating! Playing with them is one of Absalom's favorite things in the world, and he trusts them more than anyone else. Nevertheless, he never tells them about his necromancy but they do notice weird, worrying things about him.

At 19-20, Absalom meets Percy after bumping into him a few times in campus and in local concerts. They hit it off immediately and start dating shortly after that. They're both interested in music and art. At first, their relationship seems perfect. Absalom (who's in the aro spectrum) falls in love for the first time and he feels really happy and loved, something he has truly struggled with for all his life. As time goes by, their relationship starts to get rocky, they fight and argue a lot, but they always go back to each other. Their relationship ends up beng really toxic on both sides. Percy is manipulative and cheats on him and Absalom is jealous and desperate for this idyllic love and comfort they had at first. But, thanks to Angel and Naomi's support, Absalom breaks up with him after dating for a year and half. During the time they were dating, Percy started noticing a few odd things that surround Absalom, like weird aggresive energies around them after they fought. No matter how many times Angel warns Absalom against it, sometimes, when it feels lonely, it goes back to Percy, looking for momentary comfort.

Regarding the necromancy gift/curse. Its origins are uncertain to the family but what does it exactlty allow them to do? The Medina family (or at least those that inherit it) can see spirits in their daily life and communicate with them (spirits may appear everywhere and they mostly can tell when someone is able to see them so they may follow necromancers around, there's more spirits in places like graveyards tho; they don't really have that much consciousness, except for the spirits of necromancers, like Almudena, who Absalom will be able to find at some point). Thanks to this power they can also search for (and most of the time) find the spirit of a specific person (but still, Absalom is never able to find Alma, which tortures him). Another thing that they can do is enter Ewordis.

Ewordis is the realm between life and death (but closer to death, as no living creatures can enter it, except for some necromancers). Ewordis is a inmense white space full of mostly nothingness and some spirits where time doesn't really exist. Absalom hides there when he gets too overwhelmed by real life, thinking that avoiding reality helps him. When he enters Ewordis, his real body is frozen in time, so he can stay there for days or weeks without truly noticing. But time itself doesn't stop. This has lead to his friends worrying after not hearing of him for days in more than one occasion. Isolating himself in Ewordis like this is something that Absalom does to cope when he is really really bad and he tells no one about it. He doesn't really understand what this realm truly is, nor where does it lead. What are the secrets that hide beyond this seemingly vast white empty unreal territory?

One day, after Absalom's mental health worsens and he goes back to hiding in Ewordis, he meets, for the first time, a demon-looking huge guy! Absalom is shocked, because he did not know of the existence of creatures like him. This "demon" tells him he remembers nothing of before being in Ewordis and that he himself doesn't know what he is. They keep bumping into each other when Absalom enter Ewordis, and it notices that this demon must be lonely. They talk a lot and become friends, and Absalom tells him about his life in the living realm. He ends up naming the demon Ozzie, after one of his favorite movies: "The Wizard of Oz". They decide to try and find out what Ozzie is.

After many spirits start following Absalom around and telling him about a monster eating their corpses in a graveyard, Absalom decides to investigate and get rid of all of them. Not really because he wants to help them, but because he wants to be left alone. He goes to the graveyard at night and he founds a thin young man crying next to an open grave. When he sees Absalom, he runs away. This young man is Victor. Victor also comes from one of the few necromancers families left. Their powers are different to those of the Medina family tho, since they are more related to the pyshical body and flesh than to the spirit. He was alive many years ago and he lived with his two siblings and his abusive father. Victor killed himself to escape his father but he brought him back, mixing his body and soul with those of other corpses. Now Victor is forced to feed on human corpses to keep their conscience. Victor loathes his father, who keeps him locked in their old mansion and forces him to keep himself alive. Thanks to his powers, his father has kept himself and his children alive for many many years.

Necromancy powers are directly related to the Horror of Death. There are many Horrors related to different aspects of existence. The Horrors are cosmic entities beyond human comprehension. More ancient that everything. They are neutral entities, not bad nor good. They just exist and keep balance. They have no human morality or feelings. Or at least, that's how it should be. So why can't Absalom die? Who protects him and why? Where is Alma's soul? Who are the other Horrors and how do their existence affect the characters lives?

[mrspark7777777]

I really hoped that they wouldn't say anything in the show that would allow people to hate on them, and there they go saying that haven't seen or spoken to each other.

The way haters have latched on to this and truly believe they meant it? Like what? How do they think the two of them planned the damn show? It's low key giving scripted to me, as a way to frame the purpose of the show itself. Bros meeting up. When in reality they had seen each other, in person at Yoongis concert that we saw. Only weeks prior. They are the maters of misdirection. Haters spewing that the show ended jkk but forgetting conveniently that they are enlisted together. Have people lost all common sense? Or have they never been in a closeted queer relationship with their band mate or indeed another human beings

Jikook shouldn't change who they are just so they don't get hate. They should be able to say and no anything they want without worrying about haters. Even if they didn't say these things you wish they didn't say, haters would still have found a way. Come on, you know this. Haters will always hate no matter what.

Jikook don't care and haven't cared for years. If they cared they would act differently around eo. If they cared they wouldn't have given us this travel show.

Leave the bitter haters alone. If Jikook don't give a shit about them, why should you?

[im-just-a-ghost5]

I AM HAVING FEELINGS ABOUT DAN AND PHIL AND I NEED TO EXPRESS THEM TO SOMEONE OR ELSE I WILL GO INSANE SO TUMBLR IT IS.

(TL,DR: @danielhowell and @amazingphil have grown so much as people and they're so happy and I'm EMOTIONAL about it)

I have been watching Dan and Phil for YEARS, well over a decade at this point. I'm now 19, so you can imagine how attached I am to these silly little men. Everything I have been through, they have been a screen away. Bullied? Dan and Phil. Major traumatic events? Dan and Phil. Struggling with my identity and subsequently coming out? Dan and Phil. Being open and honest about my mental health issues? Dan and Phil. Possibly autistic and trying to find courage to get tested? DAN AND PHIL.

I have quite literally grown up with these men, I saw them through pinofs, channels, radio shows, tours, apartments, books, DVDs, merch, mental health campaigns, comedy shows and coming out- and let me just say, I have NEVER seen them so HAPPY. Sure, there were some very good times and I will always love them but now it's a WHOLE different vibe. They are so happy and comfortable and free, and it's just so amazing- they're laughing, smiling and you can just SEE this light around them.

Over the years, I have watched these two lonely and awkward guys on the internet find each other and be friends and create this whole world. They have created so many wonderful things, both together and separately, and I just couldn't be more proud. And it gives me so much HOPE. Like, I'm not exactly the coolest person and like only one person outside of my family talks to me on a semi-regular basis, but these two guys are dorky and sweet and they FOUND each other despite the odds and have a HOME together.

No matter what their relationship is like, whether it be platonic or romantic or WHATEVER, they are soulmates. And I wholeheartedly believe that they are the prime example of "life gets better".

The newest baking video literally made me cry. Like, years ago, Dan would panic at the thought of putting on make-up and being openly queer, let alone dressing up as a sexy nun. And Phil would've never even THOUGHT about dropping an F-Bomb or feeling confident in his appearance, whilst making the gayest jokes possible. And that video alone just PROVES how happy they are now. They're being silly and flirty and being more physical with each other because they feel like they CAN now. In their own home and their kitchen (that they designed THEMSELVES), dressed up for Halloween and allowing themselves to be who they really are without giving a shit. And it's beautiful.

Dan and Phil have grown so much and you can tell how happy it makes them. And that gives me hope for my own future. And I don't know where I'd be without them. <33333

[lily-alphonse]

I was talking about this earlier with an anon, and now that I've found you, I am intensely curious: How would you make Gus/Willy work?

OLD MEN!!! OLD MAN YAOI MY BELOVED!!!

Gus and Willy are cute. I like this, I can work with this.

They quietly find comfort in each other. The kind of couple that no one really knows is a couple, big “they were roommates” energy, except for the fact that Gus has always been a little loud and fruity (look at his clothing! The mustache?!). But to anyone outside of the loop it could just look like Willy is a very dear friend.

But how does it start?

I feel like I have to plot their romantic pasts to get my head around it.

Gus grew up in the city. Part of the down-low queer scene, he had a few boyfriends. A couple of them felt like they could have been true love until reality hit, and there was nothing true about it.

He found love in his passions instead, in cooking and found family in a place where life moved slower.

I like to think Willy was married once (idk if we ever get any lore to confirm or deny this, im just a silly little fic writer I’ll slap an AU tag on this baby and call it a day if I have to). It was a good, practical marriage but they were never able to have kids, and his wife passed from cancer a long time ago. He left his life behind when she died. The house had always felt more like her’s anyway. He took his boat and sailed away to start a new life in a small town.

He arrived there long before Gus did, but Gus made himself a fixture in the town so much more quickly. What had taken Willy years took Gus mere days. Everyone in town knew his name and smiled when they saw him. Everyone loved his food. A man might’ve been envious at that, but not Willy. He just found it interesting.

So when Gus made his way to the bait shop it was no surprise. What was a surprise was the fact he had brought Willy food.

“Cookies? Shouldn’t I be giftin’ you somethin’, seeing as youre the new neighbor?”

Gus laughed. He had a bright laugh from deep in his chest that made the air around him sparkle. “Sorry! It’s the ultimate way into people’s hearts, I can’t help it.”

Willy hummed in contemplation, looking down at the plate of cookies. “I’ll take these on one condition.”

Gus shifted uncomfortably, uncertain if he was being serious. “That is?”

“You come in and try some of Willy’s famous trout soup!”

Gus laughed again, feeling relieved, and nodded. “Sure. Nice to meet you, Willy.”

“Pleasure to meet you as well, come on in.”

Conversation flows easily between them. Willy is chattier than people think, but especially to Gus. He likes how Gus reacts to his stories, his eyes widening at the good parts. And Yoba, his laugh.

But eventually they see the darker sides of each other, too. Sometimes, Willy gets sullen thinking of the past. Sometimes, Gus gets moody and short-tempered, and needs to be left alone for days. They always come back together, though.

They’ll sit in front of Gus’ fireplace warming themselves. Willy likes that it feels more like a proper home here than his shack. He likes how Gus wears soft cardigans and keeps his house smelling like cinnamon.

They don’t know if this is true love. It might be. Maybe it’s just the closest they will get in this life. But at least it’s warm.

Ow my heart

Send me any Stardew Valley rarepair and I will tell you how I would make them work! (Even non-marriage npcs) If youre lucky you may get a mini fic out of it. Check the list below to see if Ive already answered yours

Rarepair Masterlist

[blushweddinggowns]

“Escrow’s almost over,” Eddie grinned as he hung up the phone, “I just have to go down there and resign the check, but after that we’re in the clear.”

He waltzed over to Steve, wrapping an arm around his waist to pull him against his chest, “In less than twenty four hours, we’re going to be homeowners.”

Steve grinned back, running his hands up and down Eddie’s chest with half-lidded eyes, “Sexier words have never been spoken.”

Eddie chuckled, cheeks a little pink at Steve’s low tone, “Real-estate turns you on?”

“Mmhm. Co home ownership with my illegal husband? Doesn’t get hotter than that.”

“Kinky,” Eddie smiled, leaning in to start nibbling on Steve’s ear, “You’re making me not want to leave.”

“Well tough,” Steve laughed, pushing Eddie towards the door, “But the sooner you get back the sooner we can celebrate.”

Eddie pressed a quick kiss to his lips before leaving, groaning when Steve pushed him back when he tried to get his tongue in his mouth,“If I get a speeding ticket I’m blaming you.”

“I’ll take full responsibility.”

Steve locked the door behind him, smiling to himself as he heard Eddie grumble his way down the stairs. He was barely two steps away from it when someone started knocking. Steve rolled his eyes, as he went back to answer it, a teasing comment already on his tongue, “Did you forget your keys again- oh.” 

Steve paused, eyes wide at the sight of Mike Wheeler on his front door step, alone. He looked nervous, fidgeting while he kept his eyes down, “Can I uh, come in?”

Steve stepped aside, brow raised as Mike walked past him into the hall, “Eddie’s not actually here right now, but if you want to wait for him-”

“I know,” Mike interrupted, slumping down onto one of their couches, “I passed him on the stairs. I’m here to talk to you.” 

That was…weird. Mike wasn’t exactly his biggest fan. It’s not like they hated each other or anything, but they weren’t close. They more…tolerated each other. Mainly because they both loved the same people, but they just never clicked. It also didn’t help that Steve had been the cause for many a rescheduled DnD session, for admittedly, strictly horny reasons. 

Even now, with the California trio moving to Boston they hadn’t found a rhythm together. They only really interacted in group settings, with some kind of buffer between them. 

Steve sat across from him feeling a little lost when he asked,  “Uh, what can I do for you?”

“You didn’t always know you were gay right?” Mike blurted, immediately getting into it, “Like…you used to like girls didn’t you?”

“Well…technically I’m not gay. I’m bi,” Steve corrected, frowning at Mike’s confused look. Though he couldn’t exactly blame him. Hell, he didn’t know what that word meant until he was almost twenty-one, “Like bi-sexual? When you like both? Like your literal sister-”

“Please don’t talk about Nancy right now,” Mike groaned, hiding his face in his hands, “This is embarrassing enough. Did you always know or not?”

“No, I didn’t always know I was into dudes,” Steve admitted with a shrug, “I never even considered them an option when I was younger. I liked girls, so I thought that was enough proof that I was straight. Until,” He gestured to the ring on his left hand, “Y’know.”

“But I don’t know!” Mike cried out, loud enough to make Steve jump a little, “I don’t know anything! Like what? You saw Eddie one day and you were magically queer?”

“Not exactly,” Steve laughed, slowly but surely catching on to where this conversation was going. Directness seemed like the best approach for this one,“When it came to Eddie, it was more…falling in love first and then realizing I wanted to fuck him.”

“Dude!”

Steve shrugged, “You asked.”

“But it can’t just be that easy!” Mike insisted, a few frustrated tears showing up in the corner of his eyes, “How can it be that easy?”

“Hey, hey calm down,” Steve said with a frown. He didn’t really know what to do here. He had methods for talking down the other kids, but he was at a loss when it came to Mike. This was an Eddie or Nancy thing and Steve wasn’t quite sure why he was coming to him.

He opted for tossing him a box of kleenex, politely looking away when he wiped at his eyes while he answered his question, “Why can’t it be that easy? I fell in love with a man, I figured out I was attracted to him. Had a minor crisis, and now we’re living happily ever after. It’s as simple as that.”

Mike rolled his eyes, which…fair enough. And at least he wasn’t crying. Besides, no one could really handle how sappy Steve got when he was talking about Eddie. But he was being honest.

“But what made you know for sure?” Mike pressed, “What was the moment?”

“It was a lot of moments man. They kind of just…added up to love eventually. But if you mean when did I realize it was real then…well do you want the PG version or the real version?”

Mike bit his lip, considering, “Um, PG please.”

“PG version, Robin talked me through my gay thoughts and helped me figure out what it all meant.”

Mike nodded, hesitating before asking, “What’s…the real version?”

“I saw his dick once and realized I wanted it in my mouth.”

“Oh my god,” Mike groaned, hiding his face in his hands, “I don’t know what I expected from you. I really don’t.”

“Well it might help if you’d just tell me why you’re asking,” Steve huffed. Though he had a pretty strong feeling that he already knew what it was, “Mike, what’s going on?”

“It’s…Will,” He finally admitted, staring at his hands, “Ever since we moved here I haven't been able to stop thinking about him. About us and it’s driving me fucking crazy!”

Now that he was talking, it was like he couldn’t stop, “And I’ve never felt like romantic things for him. Or at least I didn’t think I did. But I always thought that…if only he was born a girl y’know? Then he’d be perfect for me. A-and I kept thinking that right? And I kept trying to find someone just like him. And it kind of worked for a while, at least when we were all living together.”

It was official. Mike was having his baby gay moment, as Robin would have called it. Steve’s eyes softened as he watched him stumble through his words, very empathetic to what he was feeling,“What changed?”

Mike sighed, voice cracking when he answered, “When we were all together, we had this deal that we wouldn’t bring people home because like, who wants to hear their brother or sister doing shit right? And we were this weird little family and it worked. But now El lives with Max and Lucas, and it’s just us. And now…he brings guys home Steve.”

This little talk was rapidly steering into the territory of shit that Steve did not want to know. But he was going to be supportive of Mike’s little gay awakening, even if it was going to break his delusion of all of his children being pure virgins. He swallowed, forcing himself to keep the conversation going, “And that bothers you?”

“Does it bother me? It’s fucking infuriating! And it’s not even about them being loud. Most of the time I can’t even hear anything, but it’s the fact that they're even there at all that pisses me off.”

“And why is that?” Steve asked. The answer was obvious, he just didn’t know if Mike knew it or not. He kind of had the urge to shake him a bit, and Steve couldn’t help but wonder if this is how Robin felt when she was talking to him.

“Because…” Mike sighed, “I don’t know. I-I don’t think I’m gay.”

“You don’t have to be gay to like Will.”

“I don’t like Will,” Mike corrected, face red, “I love him. I’ve always loved him. But it’s never felt like this before. And I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t…I can’t try and start something that I don’t know I’ll finish.”

“You’re right,” Steve agreed. If Mike broke Will’s heart there would be at least five people in line to beat his ass, “But what makes you think it wouldn’t work?”

“Because I’m not gay-”

“Forget that for a second,” Steve interrupted, “The label doesn’t matter. How do you feel about Will?”

Mike was fidgeting in his seat, nervously thoughtful, “I…I don’t want him to see anyone else.”

“Why?”

Mike sighed, voice shaky when he admitted, “Because…because he belongs with me.”

“And what would that look like? Him belonging with you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes you do,” Steve pressed, “You wouldn’t be here if you’d never thought about it.”

Mike was staring at the floor, talking like the words were being psychically pulled out of him, “It would just be us. And I would be the person he would come to for the things he wanted. Everything he wanted. I’d be the one he talked to when he had a problem. I’d be the one he’d cuddle with after a long day. I’d be the one to take care of him.”

Steve nodded along, a small smile on his face when he asked, “Is kissing involved with this whole domestic bliss vision?”

“...yes?”

“Then I think it’s safe to say you’re not entirely straight.”

“But I’ve never wanted a guy before! It’s only ever been him and-”

“And that’s how I felt with Eddie,” Steve softly interrupted. He felt like he was trying not to spook a wild animal here, “Being gay or straight or bi or whatever doesn’t really matter when you love someone. And none of those labels changes who you are anyway. You’re still going to be you, even if you want to be with Will.”

Mike was gnawing on his lower lip, face scrunched as he processed the words. He ran a hand through his hair, finally conceding, at least a little, “Okay, let’s say I’m not entirely straight. That doesn’t mean that he’d even want me. He’s so…fun. And creative and smart and…pretty. And I’m just me.”

Steve shrugged. He didn’t want to lie to him, he didn’t technically have confirmation on Will’s feelings, and the whole thing could go south in theory. But he had some pretty good odds, “Look man, the two of you have been attached at the hip since you were in grade school. If Will thought you were just some average boring loser, he would have dropped you by now. And sure, maybe he doesn’t like you back. But if he does, don’t you think it’s worth the risk to ask?”

“But what if it ruins everything?”

“But what if it doesn’t?” Steve countered, “Look at me and Eddie. I mean shit dude, you helped plan our damn wedding. Wouldn’t you say that the risk was worth it?”

Mike paused, stopping to look around their cluttered living room. His eyes snapped to Steve’s favorite photo, the one framed and sitting on their mantle. It was of him and Eddie, clad in their wedding day gear. Steve was grinning at the camera, while Eddie had an arm wrapped around his waist, smacking a kiss to his cheek. It always managed to pull Steve out of a bad mood when he looked at it, a constant reminder of how great the life they built together was. 

Mike stared at it for a while, for an uncomfortable amount of time in Steve’s opinion, but it seemed to be helping. 

Eventually, Mike nodded to himself, standing up with a newfound sense of conviction, “You’re right. I’m gonna do it. Like…now. I’m going to do it now. Before I can talk myself out of it.”

Steve grinned, slapping his knee as he stood to follow him, “Good for you man. Go get him. You need a ride?”

He shook his head, already speed walking to the door, “No thanks, I need the time to figure out what the fuck I’ll even say.”

He lingered at the threshold of the door, stopping to glance back at Steve, “Thank you. For uh, talking to me. You were the only one who I thought would…y’know. Get it.”

“No problem dude, just let me know how it goes,” Steve reassured, feeling more than a bit proud of himself, “And hey um, if things go south you can come back here tonight okay?”

Mike nodded, still hesitating to actually leave. The next thing Steve knew he was being wrapped up in gangly limbs, in probably the most awkward but endearing hug in his life. Then he was stepping back as quickly as he’d come, nearly running down the stairs of the apartment building, leaving a proud and taken aback Steve in his wake.

Steve didn’t find out what happened until later that night, because calls at three a.m. were just a thing that his family refused to not participate in. It took a minute for him to wiggle out of Eddie’s deathgrip to actually get up to answer it, but when he did he was met with an excited Mike on the other end. 

He didn’t even say hello, “It worked! We’re like boyfriends now. Just like that! The whole thing was so stupid, we were both pining for nothing. Can you believe that?”

Steve smiled, a little nostalgic at the memory of him and Eddie being just as stupid. He swallowed down a yawn, hoping his exhaustion wasn’t canceling out his sincere relief, “I’m happy for you dude. You guys are going to be cute together. Annoyingly cute.”

“Shut up, like you can talk,” Mike laughed on the other end. He cleared his throat, voice coming out a little more serious, “Can I uh, talk to you again about his kind of stuff? Because I’ll probably need more advice now than if he’d shot me down.”

Was this what being a proud father felt like?

“Yeah dude. Come over anytime,”Steve swallowed, feeling stupidly choked up all of a sudden. Jesus, is this what it felt like to be a proud dad? 

“Thanks Steve. I’ll talk to you later.”

“See you around.”

Steve crawled back into bed feeling a bit lighter. He lifted up Eddie’s arms to slide back under it, cuddling into his chest, heart full. If the two of them were able to make it for nearly a decade, why couldn’t Mike and Will? Steve fell asleep with a smile on his face, thoughts full of how much he loved his little found family. 

A snippet from this fic

[hellfiresmanicfae]

Baby Wednesday accidentally getting lost in the woods with little Raven and she starts freaking out!!

This turned out to be a little more angsty than I was planning for it to be, but I hope it’s good. Also sorry it took me so long to reply to your ask I was having serious issues with energy and motivation.

This story is based off of posts made about vampravenwolf by @caitlynskitten, @rachelsfav-queer , and @stirthewaters

Lost and found

Today was one of those days where both Wednesday’s mommy and daddy were busy with work, and auntie Bianca had a prior engagement. Nobody was free to give the little raven the amount of attention she craved, so now it was up to her to keep herself busy and keep her mind from wandering into troubling places. Wednesday had been looking outside from the balcony in her room admiring all the colorful falling leaves coming from the trees in the woods on the outskirts of Nevermore campus when she got the bright idea that right now would be the perfect time to go explore the forest and bask in the cool autumn air. The tiny terror grabbed her best friend raven before making her way to each of her mommy and daddy’s respective offices to tell her each of them that she was heading out for a short walk in the woods. “Be careful okay? I don’t want anything to happen to you, and you need to be back before it starts getting dark, understand?” Enid said, slightly worried but she knew the small girl could handle herself, things aren’t like how they were last year, Jericho’s crime rate had significantly gone down. Still the colorful wolf couldn’t help but worry. Yoko had a similar response about the girl going out in the woods alone. “Stay safe and be back before dark” Yoko said giving her girlfriend a hug while sneakily slipping an air tag into the young ravens pocket, to track her, just in case of an emergency. With that Wednesday went out on her way to wander through the woods with the company of her raven.

Wednesday had reached the entrance into the abundance of trees, yellow red and brown leaves scattered the ground with some of the colored leaves still hanging onto branches. As she wandered through the forest a small dark figure caught her eye. As she got closer she noticed a raven that looked just like her best friend only this raven couldn’t hold a conversation with her, and that was not for lack of the little storm cloud trying. If she were in her older headspace she would have already known that the dark bird could not talk to her, however the young seer had regressed after about five minutes of wandering through the forest and jumping into leave piles. In her much younger her state of mind she had believed that If her best friend Raven could talk to her so could this raven. First she tried talking in English, then Italian, then Spanish and German and when none of those worked she tried to talk to the bird using the sounds that the raven was making to her. The bird then flew up and landed on her shoulder before taking flight deeper into the woods. Wednesday figured the raven must be telling her something and began to chase after it leading her to a part of the woods she had never been in. And worst of all she lost the dark bird that was supposed to be her new friend, not her best friend of course but nevertheless she felt betrayed by the flying raven.

“Uh oh” Wednesday said quietly looking all around her for something familiar, but it all just looked the same colorful leaves and many bare branches, nothing seemed to stick out to the regressed girl. As a single tear fell down Wednesday’s cheek lading on the plush raven in her arms, the young Addams best friend began to try to sooth her. “It’s okay Willa mommy and daddy will find you, they always do”. Wednesday then plopped onto the ground crying “I want mommy and daddy” the tiny terror began to cry harder. The fear of never seeing the people she loved again was the worst fear of all. Her mind began to wander to the scary places that she was trying to avoid by going on this walk. Many thoughts of never seeing her mommy and daddy again, what ifs of if they never find her or if they don’t even come looking. “They’re gonna come for you Wednesday, your mommy’s a wolf and is great at finding lost people and things, when you lost me in a store how did your mommy find me?” Raven asked. “She could smell you” Wednesday answered sniffling while trying to stop the tears. “See if your mommy can find me in a busy store, I bet she can find you out here” raven said proving quite a logical point. Even when regressed the seer couldn’t fight with her friend’s logic but she was still scared, just a little less so with her best friend by her side to make her feel okay. At least she wasn’t alone she thought she had Raven and hopefully mommy and daddy would find her soon.

Wednesday had been sitting on the same spot for over an hour and was starting to get hungry and tired. The sun had set and the air had gotten significantly colder. As the young girl laid down on the cold hard ground holding Raven close to her keeping her best friend safe in her arms. As the little Raven laid there the exhaustion began to catch up to her making eyes slip shut as she fall into a restless slumber.

Back at Nevermore Enid had begun pacing the room worried sick about their girlfriend, wondering if something happened and why she was not home yet. Yoko then slipped out of her office, “where’s Wednesday?” Yoko asked upon noticing that their girlfriend was not there. “IDK AND IM FREAKING OUT, WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENED WHAT IF SHES LOST , WHAT IF SHES HURT” Enid said pacing the room even faster then before, panicking about all the possible reasons their little Raven had yet to return. Yoko walked over to the wolf stoping her in her tracks the vampire rests her hands upon Enid shoulders saying “ ‘nid relax it’s okay I took a precaution before she left and slipped an AirTag into her pocket we just need to check where she is and then we can go find her” . “Okay that’s good I’m sure she’s fine, right, please say right or I’m gonna freak out again” Enid said originally calming down before starting to panic again. Yoko pulled her colorful girlfriend into a hug while also pulling out her phone to check their little ravens location. The vampire looked at her phone over Enid shoulder. Enid pulled out of the hug asking “where does it say she is?” Enid questioned “it looks like she’s in the woods about 30 minute walk from here, and it says she hasn’t moved in an hour and a half” Yoko said. With that the two girls grabbed their coats and made their way to the woods.

The two girls wandered through the woods steeping over sticks and fallen branches, leaves crunching beneath their feet. “We’re almost there, it says she’s about five minutes away” Yoko said looking at her phone to make sure they stay on the right path. “ I really hope she’s okay” Enid said as she shivered from the cold air. After about four minutes of walking they could see a dark lump on the ground up ahead. “Oh god, is that Wednesday” Enid said in a worried voice before grabbing Yoko’s hand as she began to run to their girlfriend. As they got closer they say the little ravens sleeping figure with dried tear tracks down her checks as she clutched her Raven plush between her arms. Both Yoko and Enid knelt down lightly shacking Wednesday’s shoulder “baby” “little raven” “wake up” they said trying to get the small girl to wake up. Wednesday rubs her eyes whining at being woken up, her whining was soon cut short upon realizing her mommy and daddy were there. She then threw herself into the both of them “mommy, daddy I sorry didnt mean to not come home” the little raven cried just wanting to be held after that scary experience of being lost. “It’s okay little raven we were just worried, why were you sleeping in the woods?” Yoko questioned. “Got lost and I stayed here so I didn’t get more lost so you can find me, Raven said you’d find me”. Wednesday responded trying to stop the tears. “That was very smart of you little raven” Enid said addressing the regressed girl. “And thank you for helping our little raven, Raven” Enid said addressing Wednesday’s best friend. “Yoko wiped the tears from Wednesdays face while saying “that was scary huh” as Wednesday sniffled and nodded her head “it’s okay mommy and daddy got you, your okay now” Enid said giving the smaller girl a kiss on the head. Upon hearing that her mommy and daddy have got her and the reassurance that she was okay now she slipped deeper into her headspace letting out little babbles of incoherent words. “Let’s get you out of the woods and back to Nevermore” Enid said while picking the seer up and carrying her as the three make their way out of the woods and into the warmth that is their room.

[samasmith23]

Viewing Kamala Khan as a mutant through a queer lens

I’ve gotta say, after having read Issue #3 of Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant miniseries yesterday, one of the elements that I’ve really grown to love about this book is how well it functions as a metaphorical coming out narrative for Kamala Khan! In addition to the previous issues showcasing Kamala struggling with the newfound pressures that being a mutant comes with, especially during a time when anti-mutant bigotry is at record levels following Orchis’ genocidal attack on Krakoa, during this issue’s dream sequence we’re introduced to the idea that Kamala’s hesitancy to accept her newfound identity as a mutant and inability to access her new powers is all due to a mental roadblock inside of Kamala’s own psyche. However, when the villains try to force Kamala to accept her mutant powers before she is ready by invading her dreams (as part of a Trojan horse to activate a psychic bomb against other mutants), Kamala refuses her “dream-self’s” offer upon realizing that only she alone can decide when she’s ready to define who she is, countering Orchis false anti-mutant narratives and defining her solely by her latent powers by proudly proclaiming, “It’s not about the powers. It never was. It’s about the why we fight. The who we fight for. My powers don’t define me! They aren’t the testament to who I am, in here! I was afraid that being a mutant meant that I was no longer anything else. But that doesn’t erase any other part of me. It just makes me more… me. Who I am — that’s up to me to decide.”

Kamala’s story has always been one about identity, self-acceptance, and intersectionality. This has been evident since her initial run by G. Willow Wilson & Sana Amanat, where Kamala was at a crossroads in regards to figuring out who she was as Pakistani-American Muslim from an immigrant family who had just obtained Inhuman powers, eventually deciding to embrace the best aspects of each part of her respective identities.

Discovering that she now also happens to be a mutant doesn’t erase those previous aspects of who Kamala is, but simply adds to them. Additionally, several X-Men stories in the past have framed the mutant allegory through a queer lens, and there’s a lot you can read into Kamala’s journey of self-acceptance as a mutant in regards to both queer theory and intersectionality. I’ve mentioned before how the recent spike in anti-mutant bigotry amongst the general public following Orchis’ attack on Krakoa Island bears a lot of real-world parallels to the recent upsurge in homophobic and transphobic legislation by Republican politicians here in the US, and Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #3 further expands these parallels. Similar to how Queer people of color are the groups most severely affected by homophobic and transphobic legislation, Vellani effectively demonstrates how Orchis anti-mutant hate campaign significantly impacts Kamala as a woman of color who just found out that she’s also a latent mutant. Orchis’ attempt to try and play on Kamala’s fears of being rejected by her non-mutant superhero friends while framing mutants as inherently arrogant beings with god-complexes, feels eerily similar to how Republicans have recently tried to push false “groomer” conspiracy narratives in order to frame LGBTQ+ people as inherently “predatory towards children,” further isolating an already vulnerable community by falsely defining them solely through the lens of sex. But similar to how sex & sexuality does NOT entirely define a gay or trans person’s identity as an individual, mutant powers do NOT solely define the sum of Kamala’s identity either. It may be an important aspect of who she is as a person, but it is NOT representative of the whole of her identity. Just like how being a Muslim from an immigrant family is an important facet of her personhood, but it is not the sum total of her personality. People are more complex than the narrow-minded stereotypes that bigots like to falsely project onto them, and Kamal effectively demonstrates this by accepting her newfound status as a mutant as merely another facet of personhood. She’s a mutant, as well as an Inhuman, a Muslim, a woman of color, second-generation Pakistani immigrant, nerdy fan-fiction writer, and a compassionate human being who simply wants to help others in need!

From Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #3 by Iman Vellani, Sabir Pirzada, Carlos Gómez & Adam Gorham.

[fallen-and-holy]

Background/Bio post for fictotype/fabling

Cw for GIANT ASS POST (2.5k words) and for traumatic background stuff, abuse, villainous stuff, gore, etc. We’re not glorifying it. 

Tokoyami Eztli, known by people close to him as “Shi”, is a non-canon character from MHA/BNHA. He’s a trans guy, uses he/it pronouns, is pansexual, and is in its early twenties. Its quirk is Khaos, which is similar to Tokoyami Fumikage’s Dark Shadow. A sentient shadow being named Khaos, along with birdlike mutations on the user's body. 

Our life started about 21 years before the events of canon started. Our father was the brother of Tokoyami Fumikage’s father, which is how we’re related. Our parents never wanted a child, and even more so a queer child with a ‘villainous’ quirk. Most of our childhood was spent enduring emotional and physical abuse from our mother, and neglect from our father. We visited Fumikage often, because his parents wanted a relationship, but our parents were always ‘mysteriously busy’. From the moment he was born, we thought of him as our little brother. When we were around 11, we lost control of our quirk and seriously injured a neighborhood kid. We ran, and our parents lost control and tried to kill us. We- m. We killed them, in self defense. The police found us sobbing, and of course assumed that ‘the kid with the villainous quirk finally snapped and killed its poor, innocent parents. The bruises, scars, and blunt force trauma we found on him must have been from his parents' self defense!!!’ and shipped us off to a prison for dangerous, villainous kids. Neither Khaos nor us liked that very much, so we broke out, and started living on the streets. It wasn’t great, but we did what we had to. Khaos and us ended up beating the hell out of a lot of people who tried to hurt us, or the other homeless people we were hanging out with. Eventually, we got such a reputation that other people on the streets would come to us for protection, and offer whatever food, shelter, etc they had. We’d protect them, and take whatever we needed to survive. We ended up being a kinda unofficial vigilante? But we didn’t go after the big, flashy villains, as long as they left us and our people alone. At one point, when Hitoshi was around 11, he ran away from his foster home because of mistreatment due to his quirk. He happened to live in the same city as us, so when we heard of a runaway kid with a ‘villainous quirk’, we were immediately intrigued. We took him under our wing (so to speak) for a few days, but he ended up going back to the foster system. We still met up from time to time, and he basically became a little brother. 

After a few years, we started hearing of a new kid on the streets, with an extremely dangerous and destructive fire quirk. He minded his own business mostly, so we didn’t go looking for him. At one point, though, we found him after a quirk malfunction getting fucked up by some assholes. In a normal situation he could take care of himself, but he was half comatose and delirious from heat damage. We took the guys out, and took Dabi to the place we were staying at the time. When we picked him up, he made some woozy comment about us being an angel, and it's been his nickname for us since. We bandaged him up as best we could, and when he woke up he took off. After that, we ran into each other and saved each other’s lives often enough that we became- allies with benefits was the best word for it. When he joined the League, we did some sniffing around. It had potential, even if it kinda sucked at that point sadfjkahlsfdj. So we joined. The events of our universe split from canon at the training camp. The kids got Bakugo’s marble back somehow, and we made the split second decision to take him instead. We personally thought from the beginning that he would have been a better candidate, but at that point Tomura probably would have killed us for suggesting we had a better plan than him :/ We watched him at the sports festival (we keep tabs on kids with ‘unusual’ quirks, look out for them as much as we can) and we recognized the look in his eyes when he saw his ‘father’ in the stands. So when we uh- when we kidnapped him we convinced Tomura to let us talk to him. And we told him what happened to us. How the whole system, the police, the heroes, just made everything worse. And I told him he didn’t have to be a hero. I told him he didn’t have to join us, either, that I'd make sure he got out safely if he refused. And i told him that if he did join, i would personally make sure he got to exact his vengeance. Also, we knew Dabi was Toya (he told us once while we were high and traumadumping), so we made him go in there and talk to his little brother. They- didn’t make up, not immediately, Dabi still had a lot of shit to work through- but they started. Sho joined the League, but decided to stay at UA and keep his involvement with us a secret. We took him ‘under our wing’, and he became like a little brother to us. Around that point, we also became really close with Himiko. She was a little sister to us. (are you starting to notice a pattern??) Tomura was pissed at the time that he didn’t know what we said to convince Sho to join, but having Endeavor's son in his league was big enough for him to let it go. Things passed like that for a bit, but we started to get more concrete Feelings for Dabi, no longer just a fuckbuddies thing. We also started getting closer to Tomura by gaming with him (and getting fuckin destroyed lol) and getting him high with us. He chilled out a bit over time, we think being treated like An Actual Human Being was all he needed. We kinda assumed Dabi and I were already dating, bc we said ‘ily’ all the time during aftercare and when we were alone, but apparently he thought it was just a sex thing?? God he’s so stupid we love him so much- anyway eventually we had A Discussion and started actually dating. Around that time we both realized we had a massive and hopeless crush on Tomura so we commiserated about that a lot- it all came to a head when Tomura and i just snapped and kissed him- he kissed back, but then broke it and was all worried like “i thought u and Dabi were together” and we were like- “yea and he has a Fat Crush on u too” (not verbatim) and so then i ran and got him and we all ended up making out. We made both of them go to therapy <3 

We kept tabs on Fumikage. After we- after our parents died, we never saw him again. But we watched him, tried to make sure he was okay. When he got into UA, we were proud but worried. We know what the hero system can do to kids like us. We saw him a couple of times in battles, but he never recognised us, which was understandable. At one point though, we were in a battle together. (HEROES SHOULD NOT LET FUCKING CHILDREN BE ON THEIR BATTLEFIELDS!!!!) the League was retreating, Giri’s portal was about to close, when something started to collapse on top of Fumi. We didn’t even think, just launched ourself at him and pushed him out of the way. Khaos managed to keep the thing (dont remember exactly what it was, it was person-sized and made of concrete) from killing us, but we got knocked the fuck out. We woke up in a hero holding cell, with Eraserhead and Fumikage on the other side of the glass. We didn’t- we didn’t do well with the quirk suppressant cuffs. Khaos is- xey’re a sentient being, and a part of us. You can’t just- take xem away. We had a breakdown and nearly managed to get through the glass. Eraserhead- understood, though. Fumi helped convince him because- well, he knew. They got the cuffs off us, and we behaved very well after that. They wanted to know why I saved Fumi, and I decided to tell them the truth. That i would save the life of any child on the battlefield, but that Fumi was my brother (cousin, whatever. He’s our brother). I told them what my ‘parents’ did to me, and what I had to do to them. I told them what the police, what the heroes, what the system did to me. And I told Fumi I loved him. And then the League broke into my cell <33 they knocked out Eraserhead, but we wouldn’t let them touch Fumi. And we told him where to find us if he wanted. The others were Pissed that we risked our life, but it was worth it to us. A few weeks later, Fumi showed up at the ‘neutral ground’ coffee shop we frequented. We restarted our relationship, and became close again. We love our collection of little siblings <33 oh! Speaking of that- in our canon, the overhaul arc was basically: overhaul murdered Big Sis and took Atushiro’s arm. Not Allowed, obviously. Tomura had a genius moment, and pretended to be ‘impressed by his show of strength’ and sent me and Dabi to play nice with him to find somewhere to stab him in his back. When i found out what he was doing to Eri, i lost it. I made Dabi hide her eyes, and i destroyed that fucker. Took his arm, for Atushiro, and his eyes, for Big Sis. Left him alive though, dumped him on Endeavor’s doorstep with a “You’re welcome” and something ominous about ‘consequences that abusers will face’ note.  We took Eri home with us, and she immediately became the League’s kid, and my next little sister. We couldn’t keep her, though. A villains lair is no place for a kid. I heard how well Eraserhead treated his kids from Toshi, Fumi, and Sho, so i brought her to him.  It was a pretty awkward moment tbh- he came downstairs in his flat and i was. just Sitting There. At his table. With a small child. I explained the situation to him, and managed to get out w/out being arrested. After that, me and Eraserhead had an understanding.

Uhhhh that’s all i can think abt that doesn’t happen in canon/isn’t too new/isn’t still developing, so have some random fun facts!

Himiko was the first to ever groom my wings. She was a little sister to me, preening like it was natural to her.  She was excited to do it. That was new to me, any intimacy was. Her preening was quick, exuberant, and she’d wriggle happily in her seat the whole time.

Dabi was the second. He saw my grooming sessions with Himi, and he was curious. I sat down with him, and taught him how to do it. It became a regular thing, even before we started dating. His preening was a little rough, a little clumsy, but it was him, he was trying. And that meant everything to me. 

Tomura was the last to learn. It wasn’t until we started dating that he let himself touch me, let himself be gentle. He was careful and quiet, learning the way my feathers fit together, the way to coax them into place. He was terrified of hurting me, but he never did. I was never afraid of him.

Every human has a scent, but only people with animal mutant or scenting quirks can smell them. A tiny bit of the world only a few people could see (so to speak). 

Dabi smelled of fire. Burning. Cigarettes and gasoline. Acrid smoke. Beneath all that though, was a hint of what his scent must have been before. Palo Santo, a sweet woody scent. He’d probably be insufferable if he found out it was a sacred wood. 

Himi smelled of blood and citrus, bright and metallic. 

Tomura smelled of hibiscus and honey, sweet and regal. 

I smelled of sandalwood and vanilla, earthy and sharp. Khaos smelled of fog and jasmine. 

Fumikage was sandalwood and rose, with Dark Shadow being fog and blueberry. 

Sho was a funky lil combination of floral and mossy wood scents, rose and amber. 

Dabi and I knew each other before the league. We were homeless teens on the streets at the same time. I saved his life once or twice, he returned the favor. (and gave me my nickname of ‘angel’ while delirious from blood loss)

We’d sit on rooftops, smoking and trauma dumping, just holding each other through the pain. Sometimes we’d look at the stars, just… being together. Against all the odds.

Tomura and I weren’t as close in the beginning, but he respected me. And when I learned he liked the same games as me, I started playing with him. Through that, and through missions, we got closer. And once we started dating, the late night playing sessions always ended with us tangled together, luxuriating in each other's presence. 

Dabi sometimes joined us, although his version of ‘joining’ us involved not playing and begging for attention the entire time. 

Dabi and I would share cigarettes and joints, and usually ended up making out by the end of the session.

For most of my life, I fought with knives and my claws close up, while Khaos did long range attacks around me. After the fight with Re Destro, Tomura got me a new weapon. Strengthened metal claws that retract into rings at will. He didn’t say out loud that he was proud of us, but I know he meant it.

Dabi and I share a nickname. “Phoenix”. It's surprisingly not the hero's fault this time, but the reporters. I was doing ‘villainous stuff’ (we thought it counted as vigilante work because of how terrible the people we hunted were but I guess you’re only doing good for the world if you’re taking down flashy villains) and Dabi was coincidentally doing a lot of arson in that same area, and the media ‘connected the dots’ and called us a ‘dangerous new villain’ with ‘some sort of bird-mutant quirk and a penchant for arson’ which… i mean isn’t wrong- but anyway they dubbed this ‘new villain’ Phoenix.

Dabi and I thought it was fucking hilarious and now Tomura calls us his ‘Pheonix princes’ which is just aaaaaa /vpos

..I didn’t actually know how to read when I joined the league. I could recognize important stuff, like ‘danger’ ‘do not enter’ etc, but I couldn't read. Giri and/or Kumo started to teach me sometime after we broke them out of Tartarus. 

I’d fluff up my feathers when angry or scared; my pupils, while usually slit like a cats, would dilate when I was happy/excited/loving

Mirko and I had a kinda frenemies thing going on? We’d chat, gossip, and play flirt while fighting each other, it was pretty fun. 

Our tail!!! Our tail was so cool!! It was a thin whiplike tail, with a fan of feathers at the end that could fold up. It didn’t take up much space, and we could fold it back when not using it, but it was useful for balance/steering in flight. Also, we could smack ppl with it!! :D 

Although our wings had blackbird coloration, they were shaped like a falcons', and so were our talons. 

Uhhh there u go!! Ty for reading this monstrosity of a post- if anyone wants to rant abt their OCs/non-canon characters in my asks PLEASE do- i want to hear about them sm <3

[karinyosa]

Hello fellow asp enthusiast lol not to ask you like…. Half of your ask meme but 4, 5, 6, 13, and 14??? I would love to hear asp thoughts

no no believe me this is the ideal situation since i have a limited number of asp mutuals so THANK you for all the questions i am rubbing my hands together gleefully

4. favorite part?

i’m bad at favorites but one part that always gets me is the section where gene talks about “his” moment in history, which in his words is supposed to be the moment where if asked generally about the world or “the world today”, a person will think of this moment/era. and his is of course devon during the war, aka his school days. i just found that very poignant, and i think it’s so in line with everything we know about gene, how he continues to live in this very specific traumatic time bubble and how it has never really died for him, it’s just as present as it always was, he remembers it just as clearly as he always has and (as the explanation implies) always will. it haunts him, it is alive for him still, he carries it around inside, etc etc. it hits me in the heart a bit

5. favorite quote?

“[E]verything at Devon, the playing fields, the gym, the water hole, and all the other buildings and all the people there were intensely real, wildly alive and totally meaningful, and I alone was a dream, a figment which had never really touched anything. I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.”

goodness does this one hurt/hit! again i’m bad at favorites, but after i read this in middle school i was like i think i know exactly what he’s talking about in fact i think he’s hit the nail on the head. i was obsessed with that quote for quite a while and made this art piece that was a watercolor painting of devon at sunset and then i had a cut-out sketch of gene i’d done on looseleaf that i pasted in the middle. and yeah that’s exactly how i feel about it

6. brinker opinions? love or hate him?

LOVE! i cannot lie i love that boy and i also think he sucks 🫶🫶🫶 he has that lovable smarmy rudeness, which i can’t find flatly hateable. and i mean, he’s a funny guy, like he writes those poems and i think they’re very much written to be at least kind of funny. i’m not an apologist in the sense that i don’t think he did nothing wrong, but i find him a fun and interesting character with fun and interesting flaws. he also has a level of conviction about everything that he believes that is kind of endearing to me, especially when he does that 180 at the end of the book about his war opinions. he’s all, i LOVE the war everyone should come do the war with me, and then by the end he’s like i fucking hate the war. lol or at least he thought it was stupid and was sort of disillusioned about it. which was especially interesting in the context of that allusion to his Complicated relationship with his father, plus the fact that gene was AWARE of how complicated it was. i love the camaraderie implied by those two’s wariness of each other’s parents lol. and i love to think about their relationship after devon. i like to think brinker continues his 180 away from his father’s politics and expectations and becomes the loud bisexual that the spirit of gore vidal inside him is willing him to be, and i think down the line he’d be a lot more open and liberated about his sexuality than gene. but i mean, gene’s a low bar to beat in that department. i am a capricorn brinker truther

also, i'm a firm believer in the idea that all of the main four are queercoded in various ways, and i find him interesting to place in the tapestry of queerness/map of gay drama that asp paints. i'm majorly mixing metaphors but whatever. brinker is obsessed with monopolizing the attention and time of gene, while also feeling the need to present himself as morally superior to the object of his affection, to the point where he takes on literally the role of a judge. like there is something deeply wrong with him but not just in the silly asshole way and i think we haven't talked about that enough. i imagine his relationship with popularity and having kind of a curated public face/persona is more similar to gene's than it seems, and i think they understand each other in ways that neither of them were necessarily able to do with finny, which is why their friendship remains strong even at the end the book. plus i've always thought they knew each other before the events of the book took place. there's a lot of shared history there and i think that would cause them to continue to share their lives even after enlisting. this went on a tangent i didn't intend, but i have a very detailed idea of their lives after the war lesjdkksdlj

13. appearance/voice headcanons?

finny:

has heterochromia, parts of his eyes are different colors

very melodic voice, a bit higher than average (the melodic part might actually be canon)

dimples

tan for a white guy, freckles

bad at volume control, always ends up talking Loudly. if you take him to a diner, the next table over will hear his entire half of the conversation, terrible in libraries, etc

never wears his uniform fully properly. it's always folded up or modified in some way or he's just not wearing part of it

i think he has curly hair, but the color changes in my head all the time

gene:

brunette bowl cut bitch. the early 2000s movie was so right about the bowl cut. hair is wavy

pale, sunburns easily

i always draw him with these big downturned glassy eyes, always looks a little teary

ill-fitting clothes (hand-me-downs from his brother)

BAD posture that makes him palpably little next to other people

i think he has a weird like tired quality to his voice that i think dane dehaan also has. not raspiness but that kind of low, slow, round, weirdly nasally sound. is that a tired quality? idk but he and dane dehaan both have it

this is not a headcanon this is completely canon but his ass does not have a southern accent or at least not a very strong one. he was playing it up to get attention

brinker:

in ms/hs i headcanoned that he had some form of a buzz cut or crew cut at devon because he was such an enlistment enthusiast

gene described him as athletic looking which in middle school i could only conceptualize as buff. so now i just imagine him stocky, wide, and chubby, with a brief period of weight loss during/after the war

lipless. notably so

i think he cares the most about fashion out of the main four in that elitist rich people private school way, so he’d have all the right pieces and brands, everything would fit properly

enunciates very sharply. has like, a teacher voice lmao

blond but like of course he is

leper:

light brown hair, kinda dorky middle part

very quiet, breathy voice. people ask him to speak up often

overgrown hair. grandma always says he needs a haircut

i am a tall leper truther. i think he’s a beanpole and i think he’s the tallest one. i had a friend who thought the opposite

layered the fuck up in terms of clothing

the book mentions him wearing “spectacles” when he goes off to find the beaver, which were probably just snow goggles or something, but i like to think he wears glasses

leftie with an always-stained hand (paint, pencil lead, etc) and badly bitten nails

lots of knitwear from gramma

14. what would you change about the book apart from [REDACTED]?

you know i’ve admired and liked a separate peace for so long and spent so much time dissecting its various intricacies that i just haven’t been in the mindset of looking for/noticing things i want to change about it very much. if anything, i think leper’s ptsd or “madness” or whatever it was was handled poorly and with an obvious lack of understanding of what that was and how it worked, although to be fair the mental illness knowledge at the time was probably lacking in general. leper’s actions and choices at the end of the book are explained away by generic tv movie craziness when i think it could’ve been a lot more interesting to explore the implications of leper having more obvious agency in those choices, leper actively choosing to be vengeful towards gene (he definitely had reason to be!) and battling with that internally during the trial. his explosions of emotion would’ve been more impactful to me if that had been the case

i would’ve of course loved for the book to be canonically queer, just so we could get a more explicit exploration of each character’s relationship to their queerness and how it colors the book’s pet topics of repression, rivalry, devotion, and coming of age, but i don’t even think it’s necessary because you can truly just read the book as if it were queer and nothing need change. like it all works, no leaps in thought or reading-into required. i mean it certainly helps to do those things, and i think reading into things is often part of a good reading experience, but it is literally about gene’s repressed desire for finny and the unintended consequences of that repression, among other things, but very explicitly that. plus there's the ass paragraph and the characters’ relationships with family, etc etc. like gene LITERALLY stops himself from telling finny how much he means to him at the beach and that could just as much be about gay love as straight boybestfriendship, in fact i think the case is stronger textually for it being queer than not. no straight person can read asp and not have at least one moment of, hmm this seems gay, but you can absolutely just read it as gay without issue. as much as i would love to see the "canon" version of their queerness, i am also very comfortable with the amount of freedom we have to take it in many different directions ourselves, and i think there's something very poignant and true about asp's queerness being heavily implied but never outright confessed

[nanowrimo]

4 Tips for Success and LGBTQ Community Building

Amara Lynn is a five year consecutive NaNoWriMo winner and a member of the LGBTQ community. Today, they’re going to be sharing 4 tips for success and building your writing community!

1. Have a plan.

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard of the phrase “panster”, and you might even be one! If you aren’t a big plotter or planner, that’s okay! You can still have a plan!

My first year, I was also a panster. What I did was make a word document full of the scenes I knew I wanted to include in the story. When I got stuck, all I had to do to was look at that file. I still had plenty of room to play and pants!

Planning doesn’t just go for writing, either! NaNoWriMo can be stressful, even without distractions and other tasks we all have to do day to day. That’s why a little planning in your personal life can go a long way!

This could be anything from catching up your house chores, doing some meal prep or planning, or stocking up on your favorite snacks and writing fuel (coffee for me!). I also take some vacation days. If that’s something you can do, it can be very helpful, and brings me into my next tip, which is…

2. Have a writing buffer.

We all know, no matter how much planning you do, something won’t go your way. One year, my waterbed burst and I had to spend all night cleaning it up!

If you have time and the words are flowing one day, keep on writing! Being ahead can only help! If you’re roped into Thanksgiving dinner prep, or things just aren’t going well for you one day, it doesn’t upend your chances of crossing that 50k mark.

3. Participate in writing sprints!

Sprinting with your friends can add a bit of friendly competition, urgency, and companionship to your writing sessions!

It can be a challenge at first, especially if you’re going for that infamous 1k words in 30 minutes! I’ve only managed that once so don’t feel bad! Remember progress is progress and all words are great! If you manage at least 500 words in 30 minutes, it’s only about one and a half hours to get your words for the day.

4. Find a community.

Finding your writing people can be hard, but it’s one of the best things you can do to help you succeed!

I’ve known about NaNoWriMo for a long time. I would try, but never made it past the first day. It wasn’t until I had a community of writing friends that I won my first NaNo.

Because I felt having a community is important, particularly for LGBTQ+ writers, I started a Twitter writing hashtag called #LGBTQWriMo! Any LGBTQ+ writer is welcome to participate by answering the questions posted each day. There are check in days, line shares, and more!

As a queer, nonbinary person writing queer books, I know how nerve wracking it can be to participate in local events; not everyone may be welcoming of the content you write. That’s why an online community specifically for LGBTQ writers can be so important! It helps to know you’re not alone.

If you're seeking to build up your writing community, I highly recommend online spaces like Twitter for doing so! The LGBTQ writing community has been so welcoming and supportive to me, and I wouldn’t be where I am without them!

Don’t go it alone! Encouragement and enthusiasm others give is essential for success!

Amara Lynn has always been a quiet daydreamer. Coming up with characters and worlds since childhood, they eventually found an outlet in writing.They were born and raised in the Midwest USA, where they remain stuck with their spouse and two cats. They love to write about soft monsters and cryptids, grumpy enbies, and forever will be weak for the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one trope. When not writing, they are usually watching anime, playing games, and obsessing over their out of control music playlists.

You can learn more about Amara and their books on their website or follow them on Twitter, Instagram, or Tiktok.

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

[terrainofheartfelt]

Sort of inspired by your discussion of Jenny needing to go to London alone to really grow into herself and mature as a person, in an ideal world in which none of the main characters were forcibly tethered to the UES or its more toxic inhabitants post-high school, how do you generally - like broad strokes - imagine them developing as people in college and throughout their twenties? I always wonder where everyone might have ended up had they not been constrained by the type of narrative they were living in, and I’d love to hear any headcanons you have on the subject!

I've been thinking about this on and off since i received it (an embarrassingly - for me - amount of time ago) and now finally feel like I can answer.

because, like, what if we weren't constrained by the harsh realities of making tv? what if the rules meant that they could leave new york?

well, first, let's dovetail off jen moving to london and blossoming, and send eric along with her. he can go to cambridge, or any of the other big name universities in the area, and he and jenny would be flatmates and live their own hilarious queer sitcom of being students in london.

I've already plugged nads' yale au in my answers this evening, but I still really like the idea of dan and blair attending yale, and outside of the maelstrom of manhattan drama, they settle into their own selves and learn they could actually...like each other? and then they fall in LOVE as far as careers, they are the most driven. and we've talked about novelist dan and editress blair and art historian blair and college prof dan.....but lately I've been thinking about blair working in costuming. It's not high fashion design, but I think it's a great synthesis of the things we know blair loves: literature, film, history, art history & fashion history, Evil Dictator of Good Taste, being a specialist and big boss on a niche subject...yeah...

i still enjoy the idea of vanessa being at nyu, or at another arts college in nyc, and making her own way and building her own story (without being boxed in to the secondary character of anyone else's story!) I like the idea of her attending Tisch too, and expanding her skill set into screenwriting in that way.

to plug another au by a friend, S's goodbye stranger introduced the concept of Serena attending Berkeley, and I LOVE it. I love that for her. Berserk-ley. I think that school in that part of the country would be where Serena would really thrive. She becomes a full glamorous SF queen. perhaps she opens a coffee shop. Blair is outwardly mortified but inwardly very proud.

As for Nate, I think he is the character who really should take a gap year. It's never questioned, but the way he is yanked around by the collar those first two seasons, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense that nate would decide that he needs some time to figure out what it is he wants. sidebar: bc the serena gap year felt disingenuous in many ways, yk? serena was so eager to leave new york and go to school and study. she likes learning, we see it, and the opportunity to reinvent herself that college would provide....why would she walk away from it? except for TV Reasons. so, I like the thought of nate taking at least a year. traveling, volunteering, maybe he takes a community college course or two. he falls off the grid for a while and he realizes how healthy and how happy he feels without the constant eyes and pressure of his family & gossip girl. and after that time, he's found what he actually wants to do, and goes to school to do it. -- as always, I'm fond of nate working in health care, as a nurse or pt or something, but it could really be anything. teacher? chef? social worker? children's librarian? (actually culinary student nate has come up in convos with ivy & cherry before and I am into it.)

and uhhhhhh i guess chip wiskers can crash his inherited business and money into the ground bc lets be real that fucko would try to launch his own cryptocurrency and since he seems to hold such disdain for education and self-betterment, he stagnates and falls off the face of the earth byeeee