Just had a vision of a conversation in my OFMD modern au fic between Ed and Stede where Ed is reminiscing about water wars he had as a kid and Stede has no clue what he’s talking about. So now Ed is getting as many super soakers and other supplies as he can possibly get so that Stede gets to experience the fun of a water war! I mean Stede finds Ed digging a moat around part of the house! He’s going to enlist the entire crew for this water war! 😂 🔫

Nature girl Ed my beloved! I wish we had more of you!

Awww, Stede starts the story raiding a fishing boat and ends it running off with a fisherman…

If Stede in the pilot could’ve seen himself and Ed in this gif there would’ve been more crying, only it’s happy tears! 🥹 🥰

Stede in the pilot is so silly and so sad and wants so much to have friends and be loved and I’m sitting there going, “Hold on, Stede, you’re gonna have so many friends and be so loved! You don’t even know how much you’re gonna be loved!”

I really thought the words The Rosemary Nods sounded familiar and my brain was being super unhelpful. It figures that it’s a line from an Edgar Allan Poe poem. I’ve been obsessed with his work since I was about 12 years old. So anything remotely inspired by his work is going to intrigue me. This original work sounds amazing and right up my alley just from the synopsis alone! Also, haunted house story? Sign me up! It’s gay you say?! I’m in! 😂 🏳️‍🌈

I saw that you tagged me so I’m here to ask about The Rosemary Nods. All of the others I either have read or know about so I’m curious about the last one. Anything with Taika and Rhys intrigues me so I’d love to know what is it about?

So, this is entirely me fancasting my own original work because I generally find it easier to get into character voices if I can hear/see the actors who would play them.

The Rosemary Nods is a working title and reference to a line in Poe's The Sleeper ("The rosemary nods upon the grave."). It's a folk horror/haunted house novel currently in early drafts, based in part on the house I grew up in (and its ghosts).

Quick synopsis is: Cormac returns to his hometown when he learns that the Marten House, a notoriously haunted house where he grew up, is set to be demolished by the college that now owns it. A local professor has invited him and three others to participate in a paranormal investigation of the house before it's destroyed. Cormac is skeptical but his partner, Essie (Ezekiel), is an empath and occult researcher and convinces Cormac to participate. As the house begins gradually shifting to resemble Cormac's childhood memories, Cormac grows increasingly attached both to his old home and its apple orchard, where the youngest child of the Marten family died in a fire a hundred years before.

(There's more to it than that, but I've fancast Taika as Cormac and Rhys as Essie, not least because Essie truly does believe in all sorts of wild shit and Cormac goes through life with one eyebrow permanently raised. Also they're really gay.)

Here’s chapter 3 finally! I hope whoever reads it enjoys it. I’m attempting a bit of a slow burn but I really don’t think it’s going to last long. I don’t have the patience and neither does Ed!

Here's the thing...you don't have to study film or media or anything like that in order to enjoy and discuss it, but if you are going to use phrases like "queer-coding" and "bury your gays" (and "female gaze" and "queer gaze") as a part of your regular fandom conversation, you need to know what those phrases mean and their history. Like, look them up so you know you're using them correctly. Read books. A lot of scholars have done a lot of work on these things and they shouldn't be treated lightly.

These terms do have resonance and meaning.

One thing that does really bug about this “queer coding” discussion is that coding is very important when representation is either impossible or frowned upon. You do not start elevating “queer coded” characters above the ACTUAL REPRESENTATION ON THE SHOW. You do not do that. This has been fought for, my friends. There are still people trying to shove representation back into the closet, trying to claim that coding is enough.

Don’t fucking play into that. It is a betrayal of a community that has fought too long and too hard to be seen.

You do not take positive representation and say "it was better when we were in the closet."

Progression of how Ed looks at Stede from waking up in S2E4 to standing under the moonlight in S2E5 (requested by anon)

we can compliment the writing of ofmd all day (and yes, i will continue to do so until the day i die) but the acting really soars too- especially in season 2, in my opinion. rhys and taika are both fantastic, and perhaps i'll share some more of my favorite acting moments of theirs in the future, but for now i want to focus on one in particular.

specifically, stede during the moonlight kiss.

in just a few short seconds, rhys's face manages to convey a pure tidal wave of emotion without a single word of dialogue. the arch of stede's eyebrows, the desperation in his body language, the way he pulls ed impossibly closer.

it's like ed is an oasis in an endless desert, or a breath in the lungs of someone barely treading water.

it's as if stede's been replaying their first kiss over and over in his mind—thinking about how good and right it felt, but how awkward and clumsy he was, how he didn't know what to do with his hands and just kind of let it happen to him—and as if getting to try it again is the only thing he's thought about for the past three months.

his face during that kiss says so much more than just a few words ever could—i'm sure he could've filled a novel with his thoughts and then some.

"i missed you more than anything."

"i dreamed of this moment every single day."

"the thought of feeling your lips on mine again has kept me sane."

"i already know that i want to spend the rest of my life with you. i've known it for months. you're the only person in the world for me."

"i love you. i love you. i love you."

I’m currently having a debate with myself about whether to end the third chapter of my OFMD modern au fic where I left off with it or keep going. I finally got my muse to get back to the third chapter. I haven’t even gotten Ed and Stede to the arcade yet. I have a feeling that will be an entire chapters worth itself which would make the third chapter another long one. It’s already been several days since I published chapter two. I spent far too much time trying to get my muse to focus. 😂

I just got the cutest and best smelling soap ever that made me think about my OFMD modern au fic. I think I’ll have Ed and Stede ride a carousel when they get to the town’s boardwalk because it sounds adorable and I think they’d love it! (Warning: This soap smells exactly like cotton candy so if you get it you might be tempted to eat it or smell your hands a lot 😂)

Hmm, read this chapter first and continue procrastinating while my muse is off writing future chapters of my own fic? Or get back to writing my own fic?

AGH!

Excerpt:

When he saw Stede coming around the corner, past the white marble steps leading into the museum, his heart gave a flutter and a squeeze at the same time. A…squtter. A fleeze. Stede was wearing a teal T-shirt that made his eyes almost green and brought out the copper highlights of his hair and his pale, freckled arms. For moment Ed just couldn’t think of anything except gold, gold, golden retriever, fucking golden Disney Prince, fuck. God, you really are down bad, aren’t you? Stede was frowning as he approached, but then his eyes met Ed’s and he smiled and waved. “Right! No time to dilly-dally! Great art awaits!” he cried. Down bad for a dork.

@livwifeofkarl @gentlebeardsbarngrill @ayomason @pushbuttonkitty @brainfugk @anniegetyourblog @beautitudes @epersonae @sleepystede @gaypirateslife4me

ed teach didn't get sexually stabbed with a whole entire sword or wear a cat collar for you to exclude him from your definition of "queer coded kinksters" in favor of izzy hands and ned low

Listen OFMD fan artists, I can only take so much fucking adorable fan art before I’m running around my neighborhood screaming at my neighbors about gay pirates! First of all they already think I’m strange, so this wouldn’t help matters. Secondly I’m an asthmatic. I do not need to have… another asthma attack over the gay pirates! So in conclusion please continue with the fan art, it’s all absolutely amazing! Love y’all!

nature walk

Underappreciated OFMD thing: Wee John always has a place to sit.

I love that Kristian was accommodated during filming. I love that Wee John can be an active part of the crew without being on his feet at all times. Trust Stede Bonnet to have a ship that's more accessible than half of the concert venues I've been to.

What’s really sad is that we have an entire episode of Stede trying so hard to take Ed on an adventure and be interesting enough for him, and he’s succeeded, and then the very next episode Ed seems to be saying “you’re not interesting enough for me.”

It’s especially sad because of course Stede is interesting enough. Ed’s whole reason for wanting to leave is that he’s falling deeper in love and he doesn’t know that Stede feels the same. Then he receives confirmation that yeah, that bizarre little man likes you very much and he’s doing this all for you, to be cool enough for you. So Ed thinks that if Stede can accept Jack and all the stuff he does with Jack, then Stede can accept all of Ed. And Stede thinks that Ed sees him beside Jack and thinks him inadequate.

They’re both so much in love and they both think they’re not good enough for the other.

It’s a good commentary on class as well, because Ed couldn’t fit into aristocratic society and Stede can’t fit into traditional piracy. But neither of them really want to belong to those societies—Stede hates the aristocracy he came from, traditional piracy makes Ed want to die. Neither of them really fit, but they fit with each other.

The Iranian Regime is going to execute rapper Toomaj Salehi for supporting protests of Jina Amini’s murder by the regime in his songs.

Iranian activist Elica Le Bon says, “Iranians in the diaspora picked up on the fact that the regime tends not to execute people who become known to the international community. We have seen many examples of prisoners that were either released on bail or had their sentences commuted through our “say their names to save their lives” campaign on social media, using hashtags to garner attention for their causes, and even before social media existed, through getting the stories of political prisoners to international media outlets. Once reported on, and once the eyes shift to the regime and the reality of its pending brutality, realizing that the action is not worth the repercussions, we have seen them back down and not execute. For that reason, this is part of an urgent campaign for readers to talk about Toomaj as much as you can, using the hashtag #FreeToomaj or #ToomajSalehi. Every comment makes a difference, and if we were wrong, what did we lose by trying?”