you're grabbing lunch with a nice man and he gives you that strange grimace-smile that's popular right now; an almost sardonic "twist" of his mouth while he looks literally down on you. it looks like he practiced the move as he leans back, arms folded. he just finished reciting the details of NFTs to you and explaining Oppenheimer even though he only watched a youtube about it and hasn't actually seen it. you are at the bottom of your wine glass.

you ask the man across from you if he has siblings, desperately looking for a topic. literally anything else.

he says i don't like small talk. and then he smiles again, watching you.

a few years ago, you probably would have said you're above celebrity gossip, but honestly, you've been kind of enjoying the dumb shit of it these days. with the rest of the earth burning, there's something familiar and banal about dragging ariana grande through the mud. you think about jeanette mccurdy, who has often times gently warned the world she's not as nice as she appears. you liked i'm glad my mom died but it made you cry a lot.

he doesn't like small talk, figure out something to say.

you want to talk about responsibility, and how ariana grande is only like 6 days older than you are - which means she just turned 30 and still dresses and acts like a 13 year old, but like sexy. there's something in there about the whole thing - about insecurity, and never growing up, and being sexualized from a young age.

people have been saying that gay people are groomers. like, that's something that's come back into the public. you have even said yourself that it's just ... easier to date men sometimes. you would identify as whatever the opposite of "heteroflexible" is, but here you are again, across from a man. you like every woman, and 3 people on tv. and not this guy. but you're trying. your mother is worried about you. she thinks it's not okay you're single. and honestly this guy was better before you met, back when you were just texting.

wait, shit. are you doing the same thing as ariana grande? are you looking for male validation in order to appease some internalized promise of heteronormativity? do you conform to the idea that your happiness must result in heterosexuality? do you believe that you can resolve your internal loneliness by being accepted into the patriarchy? is there a reason dating men is easier? why are you so scared of fucking it up with women? why don't you reach out to more of them? you have a good sense of humor and a big ol' brain, you could have done a better job at online dating.

also. jesus christ. why can't you just get a drink with somebody without your internal feminism meter pinging. although - in your favor (and judgement aside) in the case of your ariana grande deposition: you have been in enough therapy you probably wouldn't date anyone who had just broken up with their wife of many years (and who has a young child). you'd be like - maybe take some personal time before you begin this journey. like, grande has been on broadway, you'd think she would have heard of the plot of hamlet.

he leans forward and taps two fingers to the table. "i'm not, like an andrew tate guy," he's saying, "but i do think partnership is about two people knowing their place. i like order."

you knew it was going to be hard. being non-straight in any particular way is like, always hard. these days you kind of like answering the question what's your sexuality? with a shrug and a smile - it's fine - is your most common response. like they asked you how your life is going and not to reveal your identity. you like not being straight. you like kissing girls. some days you know you're into men, and sometimes you're sitting across from a man, and you're thinking about the power of compulsory heterosexuality. are you into men, or are you just into the safety that comes from being seen with them? after all, everyone knows you're failing in life unless you have a husband. it almost feels like a gradebook - people see "straight married" as being "all A's", and anything else even vaguely noncompliant as being ... like you dropped out of the school system. you cannot just ignore years of that kind of conditioning, of course you like attention from men.

"so let's talk boundaries." he orders more wine for you, gesturing with one hand like he's rousing an orchestra. sir, this is a fucking chain restaurant. "I am not gonna date someone who still has male friends. also, i don't care about your little friends, i care about me. whatever stupid girls night things - those are lower priority. if i want you there, you're there."

he wasn't like this over text, right? you wouldn't have been even in the building if he was like this. you squint at him. in another version of yourself, you'd be running. you'd just get up and go. that's what happens on the internet - people get annoyed, and they just leave. you are locked in place, almost frozen. you need to go to the bathroom and text someone to call you so you have an excuse, like it's rude to just-leave. like he already kind of owns you. rudeness implies a power paradigm, though. see, even your social anxiety allows the patriarchy to get to you.

you take a sip of the new glass of wine. maybe this will be a funny story. maybe you can write about it on your blog. maybe you can meet ariana grande and ask her if she just maybe needs to take some time to sit and think about her happiness and how she measures her own success.

is this settling down? is this all that's left in your dating pool? just accepting that someone will eventually love you, and you have to stop being picky about who "makes" you a wife?

you look down to your hand, clutching the knife.

what if we eloped in the earth kingdom 👉🏼👈🏼 and we were both girls 🫣😳

for mailee week day 2 // post canon

((heavily inspired by Uemura Shōen’s whispering beauties <333))

[ID: a colored digital drawing of Mai and Ty Lee. they’re drawn from the thigh-up, standing. Ty Lee is behind Mai and leaning close to her, tucking a white magnolia flower behind her ear. Mai’s head is slightly turned, and she’s looking softly back at Ty Lee. they’re both wearing kimonos in tones of green. the drawing is colored to resemble ukyo-e prints]

aaaa

thinking about older women

s1 luz was at least a little bit gay for willow i will not be told otherwise

idk if it was a full on crush but it was at least one of those types of nebulous not-quite-romantic not-quite-platonic "hahaha, unless..." type friendships that a lot of queer teens have, u know the ones

i think my favourite genre of ship is just 'gay love can pierce through the veil of death and save the day'

oh rayan and your part time caretaker part time whumpee swag. dw u have pupy now and she will make everything better

rayan belongs to @sowhumpshaped

even though she'd been half-asleep just moments prior, nana's ears perked up when she heard the front door opening. she blinked the remaining sleep out of her eye and sat up, wagging her tail and letting out a happy yip to greet her master.

except... something was wrong. he was sniffling and wiping his eyes, almost as if he'd been crying. her ears flattened and her tail lowered, worried.

"hi, nana." he said sullenly, sounding a bit congested. "sorry, i um... i didn't have a very good day at work today."

she frowned, scooting over on the couch so he could flop down beside her. he just stared up at the ceiling for a good few moments, until she climbed over and laid across his lap, staring up at him with a single worried eye.

"it wasn't," he sniffed, "it wasn't that big of a deal. people get mad sometimes." he ran his thumb over her right ear. "i... i wish they weren't so mean about it, though."

well, she could certainly understand that. she leaned into his touch, nuzzling against his hand and prompting him to go on.

"it wasn't even about me, really." he sighed. "people were just mad about the wait time, or- or that their food took longer than they wanted. neither of those are my fault, but... it still hurts."

master didn't say anything for a few minutes. he just sat there, petting her hair and seemingly contemplating something. she grunted softly as she sat up, joints a little stiff from not moving for a while, and gave him a proper hug, like she'd seen humans do for each other when they were sad.

it seemed to work, considering his reaction. he froze for a moment, before quickly returning the hug, starting to sniffle quietly again.

"i'm... i'm really glad you're here." he said. "you- you know, before i brought you home, i was always alone after a bad day. and it- it just made me feel worse. i'd call my parents, sometimes, but..." he squeezed her tight. "i'd still be alone."

he pulled back slightly and gave her a watery smile. "but now i'm not." he laughed a little. "now i've got the best doggy in the world, isn't that right?"

she couldn't help but wag her tail at the praise, giving him another happy yip in response. he ruffled her hair, grinning at how the strands stuck up all over the place once he pulled his hand away.

"alright, come on." he said. "time for walkies!"

and he couldn't help but laugh at how quickly she leapt out of his lap and darted over to her leash on the counter, his troubles forgotten, at least for a moment.

starting to wonder if we're going to make fun of disney adults so hard that we go right back to cringe culture

I saw a video of a girl getting excited at the eras tour and I looked at the comments and they were all varations of "so a singer sang a song at a concert and that's revolutionary?" or "it's giving disney adult". because how dare someone be happy and excited at a concert. that they paid money to go to. and is for a singer they are a fan of.

you either kill cringe culture for everything or nothing, it's not just for the things you personally enjoy.

imagine being the oldest out of the party and you're the only one being normal and an individual and everyone else is calling you immature and making fun of you for wanting to do the things that you all had been doing for literally all of your lives up until a couple months ago because it's suddenly ~cHiLdIsH~ now to want to have fun. and somehow you're the one that needs to grow up and be mature even though your friends aren't respecting their exes' wishes like you are and keep doing the most idiotic things to get them back instead of just apologizing or talking it out with them like any normal "mature" person would do. will is a better person than me because i would've beat them all with my wizard staff (a cool stick i found in the woods)

The Ultimate Sterek Supercut - on vimeo

It's not necessarily a knock on ppl but man there's something about being in a fandom and seeing people who's lineup of favorite ships are all the most. Like. Hetbait ships? You know what I mean?

And it's like one or two you can go "yeah I get it, there's at least some canon backing to it" but when that's all they're into and it leaves you going like. Where's your imagination dude these are all so... basic. Like it's not even necessarily that they're straight ships it's that they're the most surface level things you could come up with. And some of this is dependent on the way they treat their ships ofc but still

And its not even that they come across as anti-queer (at least outwardly) its just the general feeling that the idea of something that isn't a heterosexual romance even crosses their minds. They live in a little vanilla bubble, and you're watching them floating along, wondering how they can't be so so bored

and pls tell me abt any factors that lead to ur answer(s)! v curious

god i need straight ppl to be fuckin normal abt gay intimacy like right now

no cause every baby gay on the younger side needs to assimilate that post like do not get engaged in ur teens n do no get married in ur early 20s bro just WAIT like aint nobody saying dont get serious!! be as committed as u can be but dont rush into things yk live w them, grow w them, really be sure of that person thru time n joint experiences n then make that decision it will literally cost u nothing

I think ppl who call themselves queer and have an unexplainable beef with homosexuals bc we're too "normal" and "amatonormative" (lol) and "heteronormative" (lmao) bc we don't wanna be universally associated with a slur by straight ppl in media and scientific articles need to be shot dead to calm down. tbh

straight ppl decided homosexuality is queer and deviant. there's nothing intrinsically odd about being same-sex attracted lol. we don't need to build our entire personalities around being oh-so-strange and accept their slurs just bc we're gay. lol