#queer rights will always be more important to me than someone who takes the time out of their day to call me invalid | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

scientia-rex · 13 days

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I got home from work today sneezing my head off with a right eye that won’t stop watering, took a hot shower, climbed into bed, and I haven’t climbed out since. I’m grumpy and I have a headache and if I’m not testing positive for COVID or debilitated by symptoms tomorrow I’ll still need to go to work because that’s twenty patient visits that would need to be rescheduled, usually with someone else, and that’s twenty people I’m letting down. Today I did one of my patented 45-second Pap smears (if it takes longer than that, your doctor needs to get better!) for someone with vaginal atrophy from menopause (it is both very common and very treatable) and she was in disbelief. (This time it was more like 30 seconds.) I saw a suicidally depressed patient who’s clinging to life with both hands and I changed their meds last week and I am not making them wait to see me. I cleaned a wound no one else gave a shit about and I saw a bitter pissy Republican Party bigwig who has terrible anxiety and depression she doesn’t tell anyone about, who’s alienated everyone but who I can still convince to try treatment.

I do my job on hard mode on purpose. I like being important—who doesn’t? I like being legendary, I like that when people move to town and ask for doctor recommendations on Facebook so many people mention me that other patients feel compelled to tell me about it. I got nominated for best doctor in our local region last year. (I didn’t win, out of 5 nominees.) But when I’m sick, when I’m the kind of sick that can be hidden easily, the kind of sick I was always expected to go to school and rotations and residency with, it’s so hard. I hate exposing patients, even to a cold, but the benefits of receiving care are probably enough to outweigh the chance of transmission. I wrestle with myself: if I call in, it starts a ripple effect. Can they get a per diem from their “pool” (of three) to come in? Can they reschedule my patients with me? I don’t have any open spots for five weeks. Can they open same days? None available for three weeks. Can they open blocked spots? That’s going to make my life hell when I come back from being sick. That’s clinic staff calling twenty patients, trying to reach them. That’s twenty patients who feel abandoned. They can know intellectually that doctors get sick too, but they don’t believe it. They take it personally. I have seen this over and over again, until I had to believe it.

It is so EASY for people who don’t do this job to tell me how I’m doing it wrong. “Just stay home!” Oh, okay, you want to tell the person whose chronic opioids I’m supposed to write for that I can’t? You want to put the nurses through getting the on-call to write a bridge prescription? I write more ADHD meds than most of my peers—usually a lot more. You want to tell my colleagues to write meds they’re uncomfortable with? How about tell my suicidal patients (which is a lot of them!) that the provider they know and trust after months or years will be replaced today by a 70-year-old white man who still thinks they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps? Tell my queer patients that they have to wait until I’m better and back to get their hormones and their STI screenings, reschedule a Pap someone was dreading. Every day is a kaleidoscope of opportunities to make a real connection with “difficult” patients. I’m good at it. I may be the best at it at my clinic.

I don’t hate calling in sick just because the clinic manager is a judgy bitch, though that doesn’t help. I hate it because of what it does to my patients. And it’s not simple. Pretending it is does all of us a disservice. I am not a widget. I am not easily replaceable. You can’t plug any of our per diems (all men, 2/3 white, 2/3 old, 1/3 a Bitcoin bro) into my place and call it an equivalent, and my schedule is already so packed that if I call in sick, patients will be guilt-tripping me about it for months. I’m not kidding. That happens every single time.

Christ alive, I wish it was true that doctors never got sick.

#the attending dr. kristophine

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pinkyjulien · 5 months

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I really, really hate the "Female V is canon" vs "Male V is canon" debate that been popping here and here in the tags those past weeks

Cyberpunk 2077 is a Role Playing Game, there is no "canon" protagonist, that's the whole point. We all have a different playstyles, different stories and headcanons, our custom V is The Canon V of Our Own playthroughs!

After Phantom Liberty dropped, I've seen a lot of players, on Tumblr or Twitter, voicing their concerne and disappointment in how much more Female V focused the official promo, videos and even in-game credits became

I was one of them too, expressing my feelings multiple times, sometimes awkwardly, frustrated that Male V players were once again brushed to the side, because that's how it feels like, right?

Well, it might feels like it, but this isn't the case AT ALL, far from it. This is only what I would call a "Fandom Phenomenon" and I want to talk more about it a bit

I had a great conversation with a friend of mine who works in the game industry and it opened my eyes on the matter, and I've since been really interested in seeing RPGs statistics!

Because it's really, really important to make the difference between the Casual Player Base (majority of players) and the Fans / Fandom Base (minority of players)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I always been lurking in fandoms here on Tumblr, since Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and now with Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3

First I want to drop some stats- might be completly wrong, but I'm only sharing my point of view here, in an attempt to explain why some people are frustrated with Female V being the focus (and why we shouldn't be!)

I think it's not wrong to say that fandoms are mostly occupied by women and fem-identifying individuals; fandoms are a safe place for players and fans to share their passions. Women are STILL HEAVILY harassed and hated in the gaming industry as a whole, it doesn't take a lot of digging to catch a vile comment on Twitter or on Twitch for example, you cannot go far without seeing someone either attacking or sexualizing them

This is a huge problem in the industry still, every games that release with a female protagonist get trashed- just look at the bullshit surrounding GTA 6 just because players will be able to play as a woman as an option

Fandoms are also safe for non-gender conforming people, non-binaries, trans people and queer men, but I think fem individuals and women are a clear majority, at least on Tumblr (only talking about genders identity here and not about being queer or not, not talking about sexualities or attraction) (not an official stat at all and only my point of view and experience from being on Tumblr since ~2012)

Now let's talk about Cyberpunk 2077- because this is my main fandom since 2020, and what prompted me to write this post in the first place

CDPR didn't share any stats recently, but it's REALLY SAFE to assume the MAJORITY of players are playing a straight Male V romancing Panam, followed by a lesbian Female V romancing Judy, but the player pools for both options are still majoritarly cis hetero men (and they are still the focus for AAA studios to sell their games, this is sadly just how it is)

However on the fandom side, Fem V was always the focus; virtual photography, mods, ships, OCs... She was always more popular than Male V, getting more interactions and notes and why trends like "Male V monday" were created and why there is still a lack of male V focused mods (non-binaries and trans fem folks and characters are also sadly under-represented in all type of content and art)

So, being yourself as a non-fem player, playing as a Masc V, seeing CDPR officially make the switch from Male V to Female V, when the space you've been in for the past 3 years has been overwhelmingly Female V focused on all front, was a bit of a punch in the guts; like I said earlier, I was reaaally frustrated with this too!

And I'd say it's "normal"? or at least "ok" to feel this way, it makes sense considering how little attention Male V in general get in the fans community

BUT. BUT... It's REALLY important here to realize how we sound and how we look like when we voice our frustrations on the matter; we sound and look just like all the misogynistic people over on Twitter who screams about "woke games" everytime there is a female protagonist in their "non political games". We have to remember that fandoms are suuuch a small part of the game industry

Baldur's Gate 3 recently shared their stats and this interesting tweet got into my dash

▶ tweet

Astarion is nowhere to be seen in the official most romanced companions statistic, but I'm sure a lot of people will agree that he's probably the most popular one in the fandom side!

Another stat here from Mass Effect and really interesting info coming from David Gaider about how the hardcore fanbase aka fandom's choices were WILDLY different from the casual / main player pool

▶ tweet

Getting my head out of the fandom bubbles and seeing the bigger picture, how much under-represented women still are in official medias (not talking about fan content) and how insanly misoginistic the game industry still is, both on the player and devs sides, helped me handle my own frustration on the matter, accept and even celebrate Female V being the focus for the Phantom Liberty campaign

With all that said tho, we all should be able to vent about the lack of Male, Masc and Non-Binary content in the fandom side, while still being aware of the industry state, it CAN co-exist! It doesn't make anyone a bad or misogynist person!

We are all humans and can be awkward and make mistakes, especially when voicing frustration or talking while in a negative mood. Let's educate one another in good-faithed manners when we slip instead of jumping to conclusion and throw accusations

Not gonna lie I kind of lost my train of thoughts and not sure how to finish this post, but I hope this can enlight some people on why CDPR made this choice!

Repeating this as a finale note; this doesn't mean that Female V is the "main" V or "canon" V . It's simply her time to shine, and it's well deserved! The industry needs it

#cyberpunk 2077 #phantom liberty #text #long post #like- LONG LONG post hgfhgf #hope my rambling makes sense #I legit been really interested in reading these statistics #hope CDPR will drop a similar sheet since the Ultimate edition is out :O #pinky hot take

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ingravinoveritas · 4 months

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martinsharmony replied to your post "UMMMM DOCTOR AGREEING WITH DONNA SAYING ISSAC…"

I've saved this post until I watched all 3 specials. HOLY SHIT FIRE I agree that it feels like a lighted path @ingravinoveritas. I feel like the whole thing was made for David. They chose HIM for a reason. Or maybe he chose IT? There couldn't be a more perfect person for this. It must have felt SO important, for a variety of reasons. The whole thing to me seemed to bring Dr Who into the present day. Very now. Very relevant. And just think how much it must mean to Wilf <3

@martinsharmony I have an Ask waiting in my inbox that will allow me to talk more about this, but in brief: There have been a lot of people in the fandom on Twitter attacking Michael--and by extension David--lately, and one thing that has incensed me beyond measure is seeing someone say David (and Georgia) never cared about queer rights until they had a LGBTQ+ child. While I can't confidently speak to Georgia's stance, I feel very strongly that that is definitely not at all the case with David. This is something I have felt for a long time now, but most especially since hearing him on that podcast last year: That having an LGBTQ+ child has made David significantly more vocal about queer rights, but it was far from what made him start caring about it in the first place.

Listening to that podcast now, in the context of the DW 60th anniversary specials--specials we knew nothing about at the time the podcast aired, but that David did know about--makes things even clearer. It's not about acknowledging that the Doctor is queer, or downplaying what happened in those specials because "the Doctor has always been queer." It's about this iteration of the Doctor being able to acknowledge it. It's about David, who played (arguably, as far as I'm aware) the most popular modern incarnation of the Doctor, openly being not straight on international television. Even if it was something as casual as saying Isaac Newton is hot, the entire point is that it was something he couldn't have said while playing Ten all those years ago.

It's also my understanding that other DW actors were approached for the specials but declined to take part (someone please correct me if I have that wrong, though), but as you said, it genuinely feels like the whole thing was made and meant for David. That in this particular time and cultural climate--which is, in some ways, more difficult and less safe to be queer in than 15 years ago--and after having played Crowley for two seasons of Good Omens, it was David who was tasked with bringing DW into a new era. It was David who Russell trusted to help the audience understand why it mattered, because he knew David already understood why.

Maybe David understood because he knew what it would mean to Wilf, or because he came to discover what it meant to himself--or both. The entire point is that something lead him to this lighted path, and now he knows it's there and that he has the choice to follow wherever it may lead. It's also that there are countless queer kids and teenagers who watched those 60th anniversary specials who are now going to feel safe being themselves because of David, just as watching Doctor Who as a child made him feel safe to be himself. And I can't think of anything more beautiful than that...

#martinsharmony #reply post #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #doctor who #doctor who 60th anniversary #tenth doctor #or Fourteen #also i think being Fourteen made David feel safe to be himself as an adult #in a different way than watching as a kid #but no less powerful #and we can see the change in him on the inside and outside #i just hope he is happy and safe and accepted for who he is #let people be who they are #bisexuality #thoughts #discourse

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jiminguuk · 1 year

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Thoughts on Buddy Daddies

1. I work at a daycare and every time I see someone say they dislike Miri because she’s obnoxious, annoying, etc…I just think they have never been around a child that is 3-4 years old who gets attention. Kids love attention. so yeah, Miri is wild at first because she’s getting attention from people she really likes and trusts for the first time in her life. She wants to do everything they do, know everything, see everything. She’s 4, she wants to learn. Kids are annoying, cause problems, don’t listen because they are not fully aware of their surroundings or the consequences. It’s really not a hard concept. I think the creators did a fantastic job of creating a realistic child.

2. I think we, as a society, need to learn the difference between queerbaiting and queer-coding. We also need to understand people will view content from their own pov. You see Kazuki and Rei. Some might see best friends, life partners, soul mates, lovers, boyfriends, etc. It simply doesn’t matter. No one is right nor wrong. If you see them as straight, great. See them as queer? That’s also great. However it is so very important to not discredit the concept of gay people existing. Even in a conservative society, gay people exist.

3. No one should compare Buddy Daddies and Spy x Family. It’s like comparing DC and Marvel. Similar, but different in content, plot and characters. And that’s all I’ll say on that discourse.

4. I don’t want to see Boss get a redemption arc. He doesn’t deserve it and we have yet to see any of his backstory. To me, it doesn’t matter. That kind of plot is unrealistic to me. Some are just bad people in the world and they will always be bad. I think we’re more likely to see Mr. Last words have a change of heart rather than boss, simply because we have seen more of him.

5. I don’t think Kyu is going to betray the family. If he does it would be part of an elaborate plan to save them. I think we’ll see Rei come to save them for plot and character purposes. Or perhaps Miri will by some kind of random accident.

6. I am terrified that Miri’s mom will somehow take her back in the end :( I would lose my GD mind if that happens lmao.

#buddy daddies #kazuki kurusu #miri unasaka #rei suwa #kyutaro kugi

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iraprince · 6 months

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I adore all your art with cookie and was interested in Sapphicworld- but I’m curious (so plz don’t take this as a negative-) what exactly in your opinion sets it apart from other Queer PBTA hacks like Thirsty Sword Lesbians?

I’d just really like to hear your thoughts about it as a system and world especially given you are a indie developer yourself?

hi!! thank you!!

so, a few caveats before i start off — one, i actually haven't played many other pbta games (like for example i know Of thirsty sword lesbians + own a copy that i've poked around in but im not very familiar w it), so i honestly can't provide much in the way of comparing/contrasting it w other pbta stuff in the same vein, and my impressions of sapphicworld are pretty much just contained to the game as its own thing, not so much sapphicworld as a Type Of Game

and two, while i am a dev myself, i'm a huge novice! like, i'm proud of the stuff i put out and i love doing it, but i personally feel like my lack of experience is such that like, i don't think my opinions in this case are particularly informed by my own work as a dev or anything. all this to say im happy to answer this question, i think i just gotta tackle it from a different frame than what ur specifically asking!

BUT ANYWAY. i can still talk abt why im so excited abt sapphicworld in a way that has kind of outstripped other stuff in general, and for me it's about the world 100%. like i honestly spend close to no time thinking abt the fact that sw is even pbta to be honest. not that the mechanics + gameplay aren't important, bc they are thoughtfully crafted and well done and fun, and i'm saying that from the perspective of someone who playtested earlier versions that have now been reworked! it's just like, not what comes to mind first for me — what's exciting and fresh and irreplaceable abt the game in my mind is like. it is fully committed to immersing you in an extremely lush, strange, richly fleshed out world, one with a long history and folklore/mythology and a TON of really fun npcs who all have different subcultures and its own calendar with seasonal holidays and regional terrain with specific fleshed out dungeons/towns/etc to discover and even like, specific FOODS typical to each different region and and and and —

and maybe at first that seems kind of overwhelming, and tbh it is. when i first got into it and i was going thru the playtest document (which if im remembering right was like. ~300 pages shorter at the time than the current playtest doc) i DO remember anxiously thinking to myself "god this is a LOT and idk if i'll be able to retain enough of this to rp convincingly" etc etc. but like... it's just really compelling, and it does an incredible job of mixing humor and gravity and horniness in a perfect ratio that always comes across as intensely earnest and makes it equally easy to have a fun goofy time or a really emotional time, which i think is REALLY hard to do.

and while normally it's hard for me to get thru something that dense and long all i can really say is that i just straight up like it enough and was charmed by it enough to pick away at it until i grasped it and felt like i understood a bunch about the world, which also has a curve to it bc in structure and tone its very different from any of your... idk more Standard fantasy or sci fi worldbuilding, so it's not like u can immediately slot in ur expectations from other settings and just learn some new vocab words, it's a world that from my perspective also Functions differently than a lot of other fictional settings in a way that's a little hard to describe succinctly. (none of this is succinct to begin with but ykwim). it makes me want to gm my own campaign, really really bad, when usually i have always been absolutely Terrified of the idea of gming! idk man. it has a Flavor. it's full of Vapors. u get transported somewhere else reading it and playing it in a way i haven't experienced in a while and a lot of times after a playtest session i felt like my brain stayed behind in sapphicworld for a pretty long time.

i feel like i am sounding a little melodramatic and incoherent but like. genuinely sapphicworld is just a fictional world that i am really bone-deep charmed by and interested in and when i WAS reading thru the rulebook for those first days it did not take me long at all to find myself constantly thinking "i want to play in this world, i want to play in this world, i can't wait to play in this world," and i just think that's really special. and like — just as your curiosity abt comparing sw to tsl was not intended as a diss or a negative, what im abt to say is similarly neutral — im a person who sometimes finds it a little difficult to click with or feel excited abt a lot of the Queer Indie Stuff that i see get popular with other people, bc it just doesn't connect w my specific lesbian + trans experience; not that it feels inauthentic but that im like, oh, idk, i think these guys are just. not My Zone, ykwim. on the flip side so much of the humor and heart and transness and sex in sapphicworld is something that really resonates w me and just Clicks in a way that i have also found really special.

rounding myself off before i ramble for like five more paragraphs but just as one more morsel of something i like abt sapphicworld that is a little more concrete than me spinning around the room yelling "I JUST LIKE IT OKAY": one of the most fun parts of character creation is getting to mix and match your kind (sort of like ancestry/species, the form ur physical body takes) with a subculture. so u get things like a werewolf babe (cookie! babe being a subculture that focuses on being Like, Totally Hot), or a centaur knight, or a minotaur debaucher, or a vampire cowboy, or an organist (cthulu-y tentacle guy) scenester, or a skeleton wizard, etc etc etc etc — there are SO MANY to pick from that when i was trying to bait my friends into playing w me i couldn't find a convenient way to list them all so ppl could start thinking abt their characters. and every possible combination basically is interesting and amusing and fun and practically THROWS a great oc into your lap and i literally think i could amuse myself endlessly just Making Characters in sapphicworld and never actually playing w them.

[panting, disheveled] so tldr. i like it. uh. what sets sapphicworld apart from other ttrpgs to me is that i have fallen balls to the wall in love with the very soul of it to the point where i don't even really think about it in comparison to other games at all and it has just become an Experience to me and i suppose i cannot guarantee anyone else will fall into insane homosexual hysteria in the same way but here we are. HOPE THAT HELPS

(ALSO PSSST. idk if this is just perfect timing or if ur curiosity was specifically prompted by this but the @sapphicworldttrpg patreon DID just launch and if any of this has been intriguing u should check it out. okay mwah bye)

#anyway thank u bc ive been so busy these past few weeks/months ive had no time to rotate it in my brain #and im not caught up on the most current versions etc #so this was a nice opportunity to slow down and take a breath and geek out abt something i like a lot. :D #sapphicworld #ttrpgs #also hi eclipse i am a little embarrassed to have tagged u onto a post of me just like. Gushing-#-but i want ppl to be able to find the game account lol. [waves sheepishly] i like ur art. as u know.

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thebroccolination · 1 year

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Is it bad to ship couples irl?! As I reallly ship boun and prem even though they’re most likely not together but the things they do for each other is perfect!!

Hi, Anon! You're gonna get a long answer to this, because I think the subject of shipping real people is one that deserves more nuance than just "it's bad" or "it's fine"! This is something I've wanted to write about for a long time, so I apologize for using your ask as a jumping-off point!

So, okay, I think there are two main conversations to have: 1) whether shipping real people itself is moral, and 2) how one should publicly conduct oneself when engaging in shipping culture in Thai fandom.

Is It Moral?

I think the most important thing to consider when shipping real people is what those people themselves feel about it. If they've expressed or showed discomfort with being shipped, then at that point, I'd scale back completely. Part of the fun of shipping for most people is the "oooh" mystery factor, and if someone straight-up goes, "Knowing that people are envisioning me engaging romantically with another person makes my skin crawl," then I simply wouldn't enjoy it anymore. Shipping people who don't want to be shipped just isn't my thing.

Now, if they seem cool with it, then the five main things I'd consider are: how old they are, how experienced they are in their industry, whether their place of work (agency/studio/etc.) has a history of exploiting its artists, whether one person looks less comfortable than the other, and whether or not they seem to fully understand and consent to the implications of shipping culture.

For BounPrem specifically, they're both in their mid-late twenties. They've been in the industry for over five years at this point, so they're adults who are well-versed in the industry and know full well what shipping culture is and its implications. They're also both regularly and demonstrably comfortable with fans shipping them. (For example: Prem in this entire video, Boun asking fans to write BounPrem fic for Valentine's Day, taking part in the joke about people "asking for" Prem, etc.)

On the structural side of things, Prem left his agency last autumn (on amicable terms) and has been independent since, so he's very much operating on his own terms right now. Boun is under Wabi Sabi, which is a small agency whose CEO, New Siwaj, is openly queer and fiercely protective of his artists' boundaries and reputations. New has gone on record multiple times saying he doesn't require or prod anyone working for him to do fanservice if they don't want to. New has also hired legal representation to combat the consistent homophobic hate speech against his artists (including Boun, who is far and away their artist with the largest following). New and his company have repeatedly proved they prioritize and respect their artists.

However! BounPrem do have boundaries, and they've been clear about them. When asked if they're dating, their most common answer is that if they do date, they'll neither confirm nor deny. ("We won't make it public, but we won't hide it either.") They're not the only ones to say this, and I think it's the smart route to take as far as marketing and protecting their privacy if they ever do date.

Certain interviewers seem to have crossed BounPrem's boundaries in the past, and fans have teased Boun for being possessive or jealous because he won't let anyone touch Prem. However, and this is purely speculation on my part, Boun recently commented that Prem hasn't always spoken up when he encounters problems, so he's been taken advantage of, so I think Boun has often taken it upon himself to stand up for Prem. Especially if he senses that someone is using Prem's quiet nature to their benefit and touching him in a way he knows Prem wouldn't consent to.

Essentially, Prem might not say something, but Boun absolutely will. He has a sharp tongue when he needs to use it, and he's not shy about reasserting boundaries where he himself or Prem is involved.

All that aside, we're human, and humans are curious. People like love, and they like people they care about to find love. So, y'know, shipping culture, when done respectfully, can be fun and doesn't have to be invasive.

Okay, So How to Not Be Invasive About It?

I'm not actually very useful here because I prefer to employ generous use of the fourth wall. It's just more fun for me to enjoy shipping among friends, so I don't really engage publicly.

However! For conduct in Thai BL fandom, I'd defer to the advice of Southeast Asian fans. It's their fandom, and shipping is part of their fandom culture. From what I've seen and heard, shipping is meant to be lighthearted fun, and using the worst examples of stalking and poor behavior isn't especially cool of anyone. Basically, Western fans swinging in on an Indiana Jones rope to lecture Asian fans for engaging in shipping culture are disrespecting a fandom in which they're guests and detracting from the overall experience for others.

Now, of course, if one's brand of shipping involves digging into the artists' personal lives, stalking their families or loved ones, feeling entitled in any way to literally anything other than what they're freely offering up, making the pair such a part of your personality that finding out one of them is dating someone else or just flat-out uninterested in their partner will ruin your mental health, then that's a hard no. In those cases, I'd sincerely examine what Missing Aspect of one's life shipping has become a toxic substitute for. There's absolutely no shame in self-reflection, mitigating the harm that can be mitigated, and moving forward with more respect.

So, like:

• "o no, @.bb0un hasn't seen @.prem_space in two hours, someone better send him photos to remind him what prem looks like" O

(Obvious teasing tones are common both among fans and the artists themselves. BounPrem are famous for being ridiculous, so it fits the mood they themselves have established.)

• "Giant*, do you miss your parents? #bb0un #prem_space #bounprem" O *Boun's dog

(Again, BounPrem themselves have played into the co-parenting-our-pets thing, so playing along is fine.)

• "@.bb0un @.prem_space are you gay" X

(Asking anyone their sexuality is not okay, not even when they're famous. It's none of your business, full stop. Don't. Do not. Stop. Desist.)

• "i spotted bounprem together outside work in their private time and took this very creepy video of them from underneath a parked car using a telescope lens that i bought specifically for my recreational stalking hobby dm me for higher resolution videos!" X

(I feel like I could have made this a little heavier-handed for fun but you get the gist.)

In conclusion, it's my firm belief that if shipping hurts any real people, not just the pair at the center, then it's an immediate cease and desist for me. But if it's mutual and respectful fun in which everyone knows it's nothing more than a wink-wink game to spice up promotional activities, go (reasonably) wild (within reason)!

Whether BounPrem are actually dating is their business, but they've regularly and enthusiastically embraced shipping culture done on their own terms, so as long as people keep it light and fun and respect their privacy and the privacy of their loved ones, I think you're good!

Have (respectful) fun!

(I just like this photo of them. They got matching Pride nails last year! They're Very Good and regularly politically active in protecting and promoting the rights of queer people. Deep respect. <3)

#kiranokira answers #bounprem #premboun #real person shipping #rpf #fandom talk

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a-queer-seminarian · 21 days

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cw religious transphobia, Catholic trauma, plus a weird dream involving violence and bombs lol

had another of my dreams about my childhood church last night — probably prompted by the latest shitty Vatican publication condemning "gender theory" :/

...the document doesn't have much new in it, just more of the Roman Catholic Church's usual bullshit with slightly different language. but God i'd take fundamentalism's look-even-slightly-closer-and-it-falls-apart cognitive dissonance any day to the very carefully ordered logic of Catholic bigotry. i always feel physically ill reading through these Vatican documents because the language is so "loving" and "reasonable" — at least for me as someone who was raised into the Catholic logic system; some deep core of me resonates to this specific pitch and aches.

It's like they know exactly what language to use to shatter me — this time it's language about the Infinite Dignity of human beings, which is something i deeply believe in! It's heart-language for me. Tell me queer folk are "intrinsically disordered" or "demonic" and i can mostly scoff it off as outdated unscientific bullshit. But tell me queerness is on par with fucking WAR and POVERTY and XENOPHOBIA in attacking human dignity and that hurts.

...but they also, of course :/, bring in abortion — but also, in a surprising twist, surrogacy??? — as attacking human dignity, and that thankfully snaps me out of my spiral a little bit. Like seriously?? you think all forms of surrogacy violate the *checks notes* child's "right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin..." and the recognition of "every dimension of the dignity of the conjugal union and of human procreation."

It reminds me that the Catholic condemnation of queer sex is like, one level in a house of cards where you take out one piece and it all collapses: the logic they follow to condemn queer sex and extramarital sex requires that they also condemn contraceptives, and priests getting married, and yes, surrogacy and IVF too. To become lax about any one would send the whole logic tower tumbling --

Okay now i'm just ranting incoherently lol. the dream:

my dream was actually kind of interesting? it's the first one where instead of me being scared about my own safety when suddenly finding myself back in my childhood church, i was scared for everyone else —

i was running home trying to escape some kind of violent attack unfolding in a city center (idk the details don't worry about it lol), and realized i had to cut through saint raphael for the fastest route home. so i entered, only to realize the sanctuary was packed full with people in the middle of Mass. (it's the old sanctuary, the one i grew up with, rather than the new bigger one built back in like 2014)

so i'm trying to slink behind the pews so they won't notice me -- and then i suddenly realize someone is up in the choir loft with a bomb. everyone is clueless except for me. i don't want to alert the person with the bomb that i've seen them in case it prompts them to attack, so i start speaking urgently to people in the pews nearest me. some listen, some tell me to shut up, Mass is more important than whatever danger i think is there. very few get up to hurry out the nearest exit. but i keep trying, going pew to pew to warn people, getting closer to the front.

and there is father tim, about to begin eucharistic liturgy at the altar. i'm about to race up to him, to warn him, to beg him to tell everyone to flee, when the person in the choir loft finally speaks. i don't remember what he says, but he hurls the bomb. finally everyone is running for the exits, but it's too late to get everyone out. they'd ignored the violence in their midst far too long.

i don't remember what happens after that except that i get out, get across the street, and turn back to look upon the crumbled mess of my childhood church, one side entirely exploded outward, people soot-streaked and bleeding hobbling from a smoking doorway, shouting.

idk, it just feels symbolic somehow. Catholics who are either very happy with the queerphobic poison the Roman Catholic Church espouses, or who at least shrug and ignore it so as not to rock the boat and cause discomfort / risk their own standing in the church, seem to think they won't be harmed by that poison too. Very "i didn't think the tigers would eat my face" meme-esque. They are happy to let it seep into every crack and crevice in their churches, to swallow it with their Communion wine, to spread it among their children.

But it is poisoning them, all the same. We are just the canaries in the coal mine, dropping first. The queerphobia, the misogyny, the scandals buried under the rug — these warp their ability to experience the Divine, to recognize God's activity in their midst.

The bomb is already activated. Some of them applaud it, almost worship it. Others ignore its quiet, patient tick. And they push out all the queers, all the survivors of church abuse, all the people with pregnancies that will literally kill them, who are desperately trying to help them shut off the damn bomb before it's too late.

#log #pentecost incident

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cressthebest · 2 months

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out of all the marauders era/Slytherin skittles/valkeries characters, who do you relate to the most and why?? (idk why but this is always important to me, helps me figure someone out :D)

ahhhhh!! okay um this is going to be a longer explanation than you need, but i love to overshare:

wolfstar is my favorite ship for reasons i cannot describe, and out of it, i probably act more like remus, but i don’t outright relate to him. i, in fact, so desperately want to look like sirius black in the most gender way possible, and personally see him as gender-fluid, which may just be projection, but do not personally relate to him either. i have a mix of his fashion, marlene’s fashion, and mary’s fashion

i do relate to the family issues the black have, when dealing with their mother and everything revolving around that with queerness and expectations (don’t worry, i’m in a safe household unlike them)

but i don’t relate to regulus either except with the family issues and the fact that the fandom headcanons him to have autism. (fantastic hair and fashion sense tho)

the other skittles are too unhinged to be me, including dorcas and pandora.

so that leaves james, peter and the valkarkies.-

-marlene- doesn’t fit. just, straight up. all that matches is that we both like women

-mary- maybe? i like her fashion sense and i’m a huge jewelry type girly and love to dress up. but not enough to relate to her with all her struggles and personality, especially with her sexuality and the way she is viewed by others.

-james- oh sweet james. i’m definitely a gold jewelry person like him. and i’m very mom freind of the group, and i match him with the role i take in romantic relationships. (literally. it’s an issue. all the way down to sex life.. :/ )

but it’s still not quite matching.

that leaves… drumroll.. lily and peter. it’s a mix between the two.

lily- lily, oh my beloved lily. with the beautiful personality and everything so wonderful about her. i wish to be her and i try to be her. and of course, when trying to be like lily, i also come with her faults as well. i have her “will fuck you up if you hit the right nerve” personality. like, the way you know she’s badass. deadly, even, when you mess with her crew. she won’t even hex you, she’ll deck you the muggle way, like you fucking deserve. she’s also struggling with her family, which i relate too, the way her sister calls her a freak for being magic feels similar to the way my brother says gay people are gross. also, the fashion <3 i can’t tell if i am her or want to be her so badly that i’m hallucinating

then lastly, peter. my peter. i’m him in the way that isn’t fun. i’m him in the way that i’m the fourth member who will always be left out of things. the fourth member who tries to fit, and they love me, but the others will always connect better and connect more. and no matter how hard i try, i feel left out and don’t know what i did wrong other than exist. i feel for peter, i really do. god, i feel like him so much at times that it hurts. though i finally know that the reason i always felt like that was autism and it helped me out so much, cause then when i purposefully made freinds with other neurodivergents and realized i understood them better, i felt so much better. i have a great group of friends now- equal mix of neurodivergent and neurotypical. also, i want to encapsulate “just lovers” peter personality. that’s my favorite version of him.

thank you, goodnight, and i hope that wasn’t too much 😭😭 i promise i don’t normally ramble like this

#marauders #mwpp #mwpp era #ask #god that was so much fun to write #but like i bet it’s not that fun to read #i’ve had those thoughts in my mind for literal months now #and none of my irl freinds care about marauders #and after being prompted with a small question #i lose my shit and go on a ramble

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that-was-anticlimactic · 4 months

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20 questions for fic writers

tagged by my beloved @zukkaoru & @lesmiserablol <333

tagging (with no pressure): @beachytablecloth, @fabro-de-omres, & @milf-harrington (so sorry if you've already been tagged!)

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

69 which... is honestly more than i was expecting? i think it helps that my goal is to post a fic once a month mostly bc that's my motivation to keep writing even when i'm busy/stressed!

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

396,183 - omg i am SO CLOSE to 400k ahhhhhhhhh

3. what fandoms do you write for?

uhhhhhhh many??? right now, it's a lot of bsd/bnha, but it's always a plethora of things, haha! my first was prolly ninjago tbh

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

hey, little songbird, give me a song

you never quite say (but i hear)

lost in love and lost in feelings

Deeper Than Words

for a new world to begin, the old one must fall

okay the #1 for that is honestly so real that is one of my absolute favorite things i've written EVER lol, same with #2! the rest are... idk #4 is AWFUL - like one of my first atla fics and also my first time writing a ts fic (i have gotten SO MUCH BETTER AT IT NOW)

*note: i started this in like nov or early dec, and #5 changed! it was the zukka goose fic but now it's actually one of my favorites iugytfyhujiko

5. do you respond to comments

i used to be good at it. then i got stressed bc of school. and then i was suddenly like "uhhhh idk How to respond???" i think the thing that got me was i didn't know how to reply to the distressed comments on my sokka falling fic so i just. accidentally stopped.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

oh here in the garden (let's play a game) 100% rip to sokka sorry babes ilysm hate to do it to ya, love the angst tho <333 rip to everyone who missed the major character death tag lol. well... that or a spring and summer song, too brief rip to geto in the +1 oops... oh shoot... it could also be take me where my soul can run... hm...

7. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

this was hard, but imma go with i was a child and she was a child bc it's based on one of my favorite childhood memories! rip to zuko and his ice cream tho :/ but azula is VIBING the whole time oiuygfcgyhuij

8. do you get hate on fics?

not really? i did once have someone try to correct me and say that i wrote sokka with ocd instead of tourette's but it was in the bookmarks and it made me laugh lol. i also got this comment on my kubokai kaidou with ts fic: ".. the self projection is heavy in this one ... -_-" so idk if that counts lol

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

nope :)

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

uhhhh not really? i wrote ninjago equestria girls crossover oneshot in middle school but i never finished it and it SUCKED lol

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of?

12. what's the longest you've spent working on a fic? and the shortest?

uhhh i wrote a 7,600 word fic in three hours while i had covid? that's prolly the shortest? i count that as shorter than anything i may have finished faster bc i had covid lol but longest? ummmm over a year? multiple years? idkkkkkk the jay with ts fic i posted was something i wrote in 2019 and i edited it (a lot) and posted it in 2022 so??? that maybe?

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

uhhh i did with friends in middle/high school, but those never left the docs! also grace and i have. very many much so aus lol

14. what's your all-time favorite ship? from all fandoms?

RARIJACK!!! it was one of my first hardcore ships, and also was my introduction to queer ships!!! renga is a close second, but rarijack just is really important and special to me for sentimental reasons that put it above renga and others! i am also on a seroroki kick right now. it's not my all-time favorite, but the brain rot seems never ending right now lol

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

GOD SO MANY i have a folder in gdocs just for ninjago fics and there are folders within the folder for different types of wips i'll never finish - i have That many: "no substance", "baby girls", "drafts"... etc...

16. what are your writing strengths?

uhhhhhhhhhh ngl i'm in a place right now where i feel like the answer is Nothing (writer's block has been Bad recently), but i think something i'm good at in a very specific way is making readers feel the discomfort of characters? like idk i've been told that the way i write ts and tics (specifically tic attacks) makes the readers feel uncomfortable in like a "wow i didn't know it felt this way" kind of way??? i like to think i'm good at characterization??? idkkkk

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

ummm setting and scenery & connecting parts of a story, especially if they're parts that i'm stuck on/transitions are prolly my biggest ones???

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i mean go for it as long as it's respectful and like... you tried making sure it's accurate?

19. first fandom you wrote for?

uhh rainbow fairy/a-z mysteries... but that was like very briefly on paper. first time like... for Realsies was ninjago

20. favorite fic you've written?

oh 100% hey, little songbird, give me a song. it's just really special to me and writing it helped me cope with a new tic i had. but one that i wrote more recently is fantasies i'm not sure that i'm worthy of which is a ritsu-centric fic and is prolly tied as my favorite fic i wrote in 2023. the other one would be sun comes streaming through the window (& i can't sleep anymore) which is my 21k word kenji-centric fic lol but that one is like... i'm more proud of it than anything, which is what puts it up there.

#corey writes:)#okay now that i did this pls inspire me pls pls pls #want write #ahhhhh #n e ways #i feel like i rambled so much goshhhhhhh #the ritsu fic tho... it's about the Guilt... y eah...

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possibilistfanfiction · 1 year

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"the neoliberal rhetoric of the pronoun (ESPECIALLY in english) as the ultimate form of advocacy" -- it's such a relief to hear your take on ava's thoughts on pronouns bc i've always been frustrated by how limiting they are? how much stress they cause? i know pronouns are important for some folks but also we're so much more than that...

whew like ok i work in dei, mostly for youth (sport, schools, etc) but also doing lgbtq 101 workshops for upper level execs who run big sports orgs, school districts, blah blah, & it's like... people really think that getting someone's pronouns right (or even trying to get someone's pronouns right) is like........ you have done it! u are not transphobic! u understand the nuances of everyone's gender if you use the right pronoun!

& like... i get paid a fair amount of money to lowkey sell out & explain what a pronoun is (lol) but at the same time it is the fucking bane of my existence. i personally hate pronouns. i think they are legitimately so stupid lol. like... to distill the vast nuanced experience of both having a gender identity AND being perceived at all times as a gendered being (which sometimes match & sometimes don't) into a PRONOUN is just baffling to me.

i think cis people (especially those who don't really want to do the work needed to understand what abolition means -- how queerness & especially gender expansive trans identities are a crucial part of the intersection of where that ethic is rooted) just see pronouns as a sort of easy way out. like you're cool with trans people if you can remember someone's they/them pronouns. it's so gross & so deeply tried up in representational politics (diverse oppressors are still oppressors, white supremacy can be present in ethic & politic even without a white person in the room, etc).

& of course like you said pronouns are definitely important to some people (it is always nice to feel seen & respected at the most basic level 🤪) & definitely not at all saying that anyone should like get people's pronouns wrong, obviously, but i just really hate the concept of how my entire experience as a dyke & a person in general has to be reflected to the world at all times in a silly word which is so vastly incomplete. & i genuinely (not anyone's fault!) hate how that can get tied up in my writing, especially my writing about queerness. when ppl rly care abt terms & IDs etc i can understand bc the common messaging is all rooted in neoliberalism & "representation" instead of anti-state resistance, etc, so it's like. okay lol. but i am intentional in the way i write queerness bc of my own ethic & politic, so you know

ANYWAY yes. queerness & transness is so deeply expansive, to make it only about (or mostly about) pronouns is, to me, ethically against what queerness & transness really is, especially if those pronouns are mostly talked about in the context of english. & i would be remiss in saying that using non-normative &/or neopronouns is a privilege rooted in safety. often i don't disclose they/them pronouns bc i just don't want to explain myself, & i deeply do not care, but i'm always protected in a lot of ways by my whiteness (& that i'm educated, able-bodied, cis-passing, employed, etc etc etc). for a lot of people, for a lot of reasons, pronouns aren't safe. being out as trans isn't safe. but that doesn't mean their gender identities are any different or less important or less vital.

so yah ur right sorry this is a rant lmfao & once & for all.... ava is the most anti-state anti-institution character lmao. she genuinely would not give a flying fuck about her own pronouns. god doesn't fit into a pronoun anyway :)

#this is so much sorry but there's been so many weird asks really wanting to like #define ava's gender so deeply ??#& i try to write queerness thoughtfully & precisely & with purpose so #it's like a part of what i believe as a person outside of / beyond fic blah blah #anon u are RIGHT i AGREE lol

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otaku-bell-livemotto · 1 year

Text

Sisters

(Read on ao3)

Robin is eating dinner with her parents and Nana when an incessant banging starts emanating from the front door. Her mother gives her a look and Robin knows that she’s allowed to leave dinner if the interruption is important enough. Knowing her friends, it very well might be.

She gets up from the table as gently as her clumsy body will allow, which of course means she bumps into something at least three times before she manages to escape, and scurries off to figure out what is so urgent that someone had to come talk to her during dinner. Opening the door reveals Dustin Henderson and Robin feels bad because she always leaves her walkie on, but she doesn’t like keeping it anywhere other than her room when she’s at home. Her parents already ask too many questions even though they know she can’t answer them.

“Hey Dusty-buns! What’s up?”

“I need you to grab as many clothes as you can from your closet and come with me.”

And, of course, Dustin has some sort of scheme going on that he can’t be bothered to explain so he just starts making demands. Why couldn’t he bother Steve about this?

“Why do you need my clothes, Dustin? You better not be using them to fuel a bonfire. I can think of at least ten other things you can get that would make for better kindling.”

Instead of sighing heavily like he normally would, Dustin glances around to make sure no one is listening in on them. Okay, so that means that either this is Upside-Down related, or the kid is just really embarrassed about what he needs the clothes for. He looks back at her and takes a deep breath, determination in his eyes.

“Robin, you like wearing typical guy clothes sometimes, right? Like, it feels more comfortable for you?”

It barely sounds like a question coming out of Dustin’s mouth. More like he wants to make sure he’s going about his explanation the right way. It makes Robin nervous. And not nervous in a “oh shit an alternate dimension is creeping in on us again” way, but nervous in a “I’m queer and the only other person who knows is Steve and I’m not sure I’m ready to come out to anyone else” way.

“Yes?”

Her response sounds even more like a question than Dustin’s question. He’s nodding though, like he didn’t even register Robin’s lack of confidence. It doesn’t seem like he’s all that concerned with Robin’s anxiety. Whatever he’s here for is more important to him. That puts her at ease at least a little bit.

“So, you have some girly clothes that you don’t like to wear from your mom, right?”

She nods this time. That is true. She has half a closet full of outfits she outright refuses to wear, much to her mother’s disappointment. It’s not that the clothes are ugly or uncomfortable, they’re just not her.

Dustin weighs his words carefully before speaking again. Whoever he wants to give her clothes to, and she knows that’s what this is about now, is not someone who can easily acquire said clothes for themselves. She kind of has a feeling it might be Tiny Byers or El. Will gives off gay vibes, but she doesn’t want to spook him over it. El only has access to hand-me-downs right now, with her being in hiding and all. Robin would bet a month’s worth of Family Video wages that this is about one of them.

“Would you be willing to give them to someone who wants to wear them but might be too afraid to get some themself?”

She knew it.

“Of course, Dustin. If someone really needs those clothes, then it’s all right by me. At least someone would get to wear them.”

She gives him a reassuring smile, but he seems even more nervous now. It’s kind of strange.

“Even if...”

He trails off, unsure of himself. Now Robin is curious. Is he going to tell her who these clothes are for? I mean, she’s almost completely confident now that they’re probably for Will. Dustin wouldn’t be this hesitant if the clothes were for El.

“Dust, I promise, no matter what, that it’s okay. You want me to help take the clothes over?”

He sucks his lips between his teeth, debating with himself, before he nods at Robin, giving her a weak smile. She pats him on the shoulder and leads him to her room. Grabbing her duffle bag from the closet that usually only sees use during band camp season, Robin carefully folds all the dresses, skirts, and blouses that her mother has given her in the last few years and tucks them away into the bag. Dustin kind of just stands there, watching her, nervously chewing on his lip the whole time. He keeps rubbing his hands on his pants. It makes Robin wonder if maybe the clothes aren’t for Will, but for Dustin. He’s a little on the stocky side for her clothes, but it wouldn’t be too difficult to get some of them adjusted to fit. By the time Robin is finished, Dustin looks like he wants to melt into the floor.

“Okay. We’re all set. You ready to go, Dustin.”

He looks at her, that determined glint still in his eyes, and nods firmly. God, sometimes he really does remind her of Steve. If she didn’t know better, she would argue that they were biologically related.

It’s not a long walk to Dustin’s house, the Henderson household only a few houses down from the Buckley’s home. It makes it convenient whenever the two of them and Steve are meeting with the rest of the Party. Or when one of them needs to sneak into the other’s bedroom when the nightmares get too bad.

Dustin goes right ahead and opens his front door. Robin notices that Claudia’s car isn’t in the driveway, and neither is Steve’s. She’s grateful that they’ll have the privacy for this. Not that Steve or Claudia would judge Dustin for wanting to wear girl clothes, but sometimes it’s better to not have an audience for these kinds of things. She gently shuts the door behind her and goes to follow Dustin. She’s taken aback a bit when he beelines it for Steve’s room instead of his own. If being surrounded by Steve will make him feel more at ease, then Robin doesn’t mind.

Except for the fact that Dustin is talking to Steve. Which means that Steve’s mom borrowed his car. And judging by the extremely panicked look Steve is giving Dustin and Robin, the clothes are not for Dustin.

“Hey Robbie—listen. Dustin was just trying to be helpful and misunderstood something I said and it would be great if we just kind of collectively agree that this never happened.”

He barely finishes stammering through his excuse before Robin responds. This is her Stevie, her dingus, her platonic other half. There is no way she’s letting him down.

“What exactly did you tell Dustin, Eve?”

The nickname makes him blush something fierce, but it also helps him calm down. He’s still very clearly nervous and keeps eyeing Robin’s bag like it’s going to attack him, but his shoulders have dropped and he’s significantly less tense than he was a moment ago. Robin is really glad that Dustin came to her about this.

“I told him—I said—”

His eyes are tearing up and Robin drops her bag with little fanfare so she can wrap her arms around him. She’s never been much of a hugger, always had a weird relationship with touch, but holding Steve and him holding her back has never once made her feel uncomfortable. The second she touches him, he collapses into her, shaking from head to toe.

“He told me he wanted to feel pretty.”

Dustin looks so sad. Robin can picture the whole thing with crystal clarity in her head: Steve making an offhand comment. Dustin being able to tell that it’s deeper than Steve is making it out to be. Steve obviously hurting and Dustin wanting to help. The whole thing makes her ache.

“How about a fashion show? I put on some of your stuff, you put on some of mine, and Dustin can help us accessorize.”

“Hey that’s a great idea!”

Dustin’s face is lit up with enthusiasm. This is the first time all night that she's seen him act like his usual self. It makes her feel relieved.

“How about it, Evie? You wanna do a fashion show with me?”

She can feel the moment Stevie starts smiling. There’s a small nod against her shoulder. A burst of warmth sweeps through her and suddenly she’s bursting with just as much excitement as Dustin.

“Alright! Let’s get this party started!”

As soon as Stevie lets her go, she raids the closet for things to try on. Robin can hear two sets of giggles behind her, and she knows that she’s lucked out with these two goofuses.

They spend two and half hours trying on clothes, having Dustin accessorize and critique their looks. Robin can’t remember being this happy. They’re all so distracted by how much fun they’re having that not one of them notices when Claudia and Gloria have come home until they open Stevie’s bedroom door.

Robin is in the suit Stevie wore to junior prom, complete with slicked back hair and her own broach she bought at a shop in Indy attached to the lapel. Stevie is wearing a calf-length pink skirt that flares out when he spins in it, a pastel short sleeve blouse, and knee length socks, with a simple friendship bracelet that El had made him dangling from his wrist. Dustin had gotten into the spirit of things and put on some clip-on earrings and tied a cream-colored scarf around his neck. All of them are wearing different shades of pink lip gloss.

Robin is not the least bit concerned about her own appearance. Both Claudia and Gloria have seen her in worse. No, Robin's focus is entirely on Stevie and Dustin, both of whom are frozen in fear. Robin hasn't seen Stevie's eyes that wide since Starcourt. She’s about to open her mouth to say something—a distraction or an excuse on her mind but she hasn't decided on which yet—when Gloria smiles tremulously.

“You look beautiful, baby.”

And that's all it takes. There are tears in Stevie's eyes as he hugs his mom. Claudia perches herself on the bed next to Dustin, her fingers gently combing through his hair as he leans into her. Robin finds herself struggling not to cry. Because this is how it should always be.

Stevie is smiling like the sun has come up just to see him and it’s the most world-changing experience of Robin’s life. God, she wishes with everything in her body that Stevie would smile like that all the time. Hawkins wouldn’t know what hit ‘em.

“So, are you just getting gussied up for the hell of it? Or is there more happening here?”

Claudia’s tone is gentle and encouraging and Robin can't help but burst with all the love and joy that has filled her to the brim.

“We’re having a fashion show!”

Stevie and Dustin share matching grins at Robin’s enthusiasm. Claudia is very obviously curious about the whole thing. Gloria is positively delighted.

“I love it! Would it be okay for us to be a part of it?”

Stevie is looking at his mom as though she hung the stars. There is absolute wonder on his face.

“Maybe you could do my makeup? Would that be okay, mama?”

Stevie’s voice is shy, but no longer afraid. Robin is gonna cry about it for the rest of her goddamn life.

Without missing a beat, Gloria pulls out a small makeup bag from her purse and starts applying blush to Stevie’s cheeks. Dustin and Claudia have started to do their own makeup session on the bed, but Robin only has eyes for the soft expression on Gloria’s face as she brushes her son’s face. If Robin listened closely, she thought she could hear Gloria murmuring.

“You’ll always be my baby. No matter how you look or what you want to wear or who you love. Forever and always, you’re my baby.”

Robin does her best to memorize every single part of this moment. She does not want to forget any of it.

“There! All finished and don’t you look like a doll! We simply must take pictures of you and Robin. You both look too perfect. It’s like you’re going to prom!”

Gloria and Claudia fuss over who gets to take photos, adjusting the camera to get Robin and Stevie at the best angles. Stevie is flushed, practically drunk on how happy he is. Dustin joins in on some of the photos, just as happy to be a part of the whole thing. Robin feels good. This is probably the first time she has ever felt validated by an adult while wearing the clothes she prefers. Not to mention that she’ll have a keepsake to prove to herself that this really happened, that she really got to experience this memory. Stevie nuzzles into her neck a bit. It takes a moment for Robin to register what Stevie is saying, but when she does, warmth blossoms in her tenfold.

“Glad I met you, Robbie. Glad you’re my best friend. Glad to be your sister.”

And Robin realizes that the three kids in that room who grew up without a sibling now have two each to make up for it. She cries with the wonder of it.

***

It's around midnight when Robin finally makes it home. She’s smiling the few blocks it takes to get to the Buckley front door. Her mother opens it before she even has a chance to test the knob to see if it is locked. Robin must still be radiating joy because her mother’s tense body is relaxing fairly quickly.

“Everything okay?”

“Everything is great, mom.”

Maybe someday soon Robin will have the courage to tell her mom about who she is, but for now she’s content knowing that happy endings are possible.

#and would you look at that #i wrote another thing for stobin month #yay me #stranger things #stobin month #platonic with a capital p #platonic stobin #actually super proud of this one #it's super sappy #genderfluid steve harrington #genderfluid stevie my beloved #my writing

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thatone-churro · 5 months

Text

i was gonna make this addition to someone else’s post but it got longer than expected and i really didn’t wanna do that to them after they said they were done talking about it in regards to their own work.

i don’t know if “bugs” or “irks” are quite the right words for how i feel, but this take certainly does something of the sort to me.

i hate that the concept of “bury your gays” and its related discourses are so quickly applied to ALL queer media. it’s completely stripped of its original context/meaning and i know THAT irks me to no end.

personally, i’m of a mind that queers deserve media about them, about queers, and also about tragedy, death, murder, action and suspense, or whatever the occasion is. it can be about the queer cast while not having a happy ending, or without the cast being perfect.

“casually queer” is how i used to describe my personal project. yes, it’s blatantly and unapologetically queer, and that queerness is important, but it’s not the focus of the story. it’s not the point of the story. there’s still action, still adventure, still death, still tragedy. the cast isn’t perfect, some die, some are awful, some are “problematic,” even the queer cast. most things happen to the queer cast, because most of the major cast is queer.

i don’t understand the idea of condemning a work for “problematic queer characters” if it’s just a primarily queer work. you can’t have a queer story with no conflict or have realistic characters that are perfect. you want a queer story, but no, no, the queer characters can’t be problematic. and the problematic trait they describe is simply just. a character flaw exploited for the sake of the narrative. i don’t get it.

a queer story written for queers shouldn’t be perfect and pure. there should be “problematic” things. there should be tragedy. they shouldn’t have to be pure. they shouldn’t have to be perfect. they shouldn’t be shunned by the community they were created for because they told an otherwise typical story, except now it’s queer. queer stories, or any story, should be allowed to be complex. there should be nuance. not everything in it should be likable. that’s how a story works.

using my story as an example, again, my all-time favorite character and one of my main protagonists for a good chunk of it is a nonbinary lesbian on ace-spectrum. okay. cool. lots of rep there. but they’re heavily flawed. they kill. they have regrets. they make stupid decisions. they’re self-righteous. they’re terrified of being the bad guy yet end up the bad guy in many people’s views. they have one very violent motive. they love their family to such an extent that they’ll destroy anyone who lays a hand on them. they’re complex. they’re nuanced. they’re not always the good guy. that’s how a story is. if they were a perfect, pure, “perfect” character, there would be no story. no enjoyable story, at least.

what baffles me the most is when queer creators make these queer stories and suddenly they’re a bad queer because they killed one of their many queer characters, for instance. i’ll use my project once more for an example. say, remember that nonbinary ace lesbian from less than a paragraph ago? yeah, i ended up killing them at one point. their story was over and while it hurt me, too, it was a necessary step for the story. their story was over and i needed them to start the next chapter of the next protagonists’ story. but as a nonbinary ace lesbian myself, does that make me a “bad queer?” am i suddenly evil if i killed off my sapphic couple that got marrie in the first part because their story was over and there was no other way to move on their daughter’s story with them there? am i the asshole for killing one of my ace characters for a narrative purpose? am i not allowed to do certain things to my queer characters anymore if i don’t want to be a “bad queer?”

i guess these feelings boil down more to how strictly puritan culture and/or cancel culture and/or “problematic” culture has invaded the literary scene and how that impacts me, a queer writer. how are we supposed to tell these stories that people beg for if they are torn down and torn apart for the exact nuances they want? how are we supposed to create anything without relentless scorn or fear of being “cancelled” for thematic complexities? i don’t understand it.

in conclusion:

i realize my opinion on the subject is probably HEAVILY swayed by my own tastes and preferences and i have no idea where i’m going with this anymore and there’s not really an argument here anymore so really this whole thing can be taken with a grain of salt.

anyway, that’s my angry rant for the day. please don’t witch hunt me for it, thanks 🤞

#do you people understand how exhausting this gets for queer creators. do you.#when you’re so quick to get up in arms with pitchforks and torches how are we supposed to create?#‘i want more complex queer stories! no wait not like that.’ what are we supposed to do.#how can we create when those creations are shunned and when we (as queer creators) get ‘cancelled’ for it #do you understand. do you get what this does to your own community.#you can’t want more from us when you openly reject what we put out.#i’m so fucking tired of this as a queer writer. i’m so tired.#someone can probably explain this in a nicer/more formal way but i’ve already written two essays this week i’m not writing another for this #grace being kinda serious for once #text post #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq community #literature #what do i tag this??#lgbtq creators #discourse #< i guess #long post

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moonchildreads · 8 months

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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love❤

aaaaaaa this one's hard!!! i've only written small town so far (which you can read here lol thank you for giving me the chance to shamelessly promote my work losty 🤎) so what i'm gonna do is share my fave five chapters instead!

chapter 3 - tonight she comes - this is when we meet our girlie dot, and it was my first time writing the hellfire club all together in the same room. here's where we start to explore their dynamic as a group and it's full of foreshadowing for things that haven't happened yet 👀

chapter 10 - that's what friends are for - this chapter has everything i love: the hellfire club spending time together, the gentle will they/won't they between eddie and dot, deep conversations with chrissy, dnd, and a lot of bickering. i consider this one to be one my best chapters and it was the longest i'd written at the time! 💕

chapter 13 - you give good love - another entry into one of the chapters i'm most proud of and, again, it includes a lot of the things i love about small town: wayne being a menace, chrissy being eddie's biggest supporter, dot and eddie realising that it isn't them individually vs the world. this was their first big fight, and i had been working on this fic for around a year by the time i posted this specific chapter so it'll always be special to me. got 3/3 laughs with the sponge bit amongst my friends so that's a win to me! 🧽

chapter 15 - don't you want me - the whole sleepover at gareth's will forever be one of the bits i've enjoyed writing the most about this fic. i adore that little gremlin and so much of him (and the rest of hellfire, really) is based on friends i've had throughout the years. there is something so very pure about a platonic friendship (stobin, am i right?) and if chrissy is eddie's steve, i wanted to give dot her very own robin in gareth. this was me officially confirming that both eddie and dot are bi/queer and bonding over rocky horror, which felt important to me as a queer girlie. it's my fic and i can do what i want, lol 💗💜💙

chapter 20 - self control - the moment everyone was waiting for!!! the love confession!!! it was messy, and so uniquely them, you can't take it and give it to anyone else because it's so dot and eddie that there's just no other way around it: if it had to happen, it was going to be like this. other things i loved about this chapter were allowing nancy to dip her toes into dealing with her grief over barb (more on that later lol), the hellfire class of '86 being there for one another, and finally getting to kick andy's bitch ass down!!!! 😈

honourable mention goes to chapter 14 - missing you, which is the mother's day chapter and deals with eddie and dot's mothers who passed away when they were children. i wrote this one while actively mourning someone i'm still thinking about every day and while i will probably be dealing with this for a long time, this chapter helped me purge a lot of my inner demons and helped heal more than i thought it would. it's my love letter to my person who isn't here anymore, and i know that she'd be proud of it because one of the last conversations i got to have with her was about me writing small town, and she was so happy and interested about it.

i'm in the process of writing chapter 23 right now and hopefully i'll get it out this week if i can stop crying at work for more than five minutes lmao. again thank you losty for giving me the opportunity to talk about small town, i love this fic, and i love writing it and talking about it. 🥰

#bunny answers #small town fic #losty's tag 🐟#eddie munson x female character #eddie munson x ofc #eddie munson x oc #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson angst #eddie munson fanfic #joseph quinn #hellfire club #stranger things 4

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ladybirdplace · 9 months

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Marriage part 1

The 26th of March was my first wedding anniversary. When I married myself last year, I chose to keep it to myself, I suppose out of shyness.

I know my followers will be very accepting of it. Others, maybe not. Self marriage is still a foreign concept almost everywhere. And in the places where it is a thing, it’s not necessarily an autoromantic practice.

But I feel comfortable sharing it now.

It was a post on tumblr mentioning self marriage that pushed me to take the plunge. I had already been wearing a ring on my thumb symbolizing my love before March of last year, and so I didn’t need to purchase an engagement ring.

It wasn’t really a big decision for me. The life I have lived thus far is abundant proof enough of my own dedication, and a ring and the title of spouse would not define it.

I wanted to have my ceremony when no one was around, so in the morning, before the sun rose, I ate an apple, which is a symbol of love and marriage. I put on some white clothes. I snuck out the backdoor to my swingset.

I sat down on my swing. It was a little frosty and cold out. I took my ring off my thumb. Initially I wanted to put it back on right away and be married. I was very excited to be my spouse, but I waited. I contemplated for a few minutes what this marriage would mean to me.

I said what I wanted to say aloud. And I put the ring back on. And I went back inside as a newlywed, and warmed back up.

And it was beautiful. It was everything I had wanted. It was special, and mine, and blessedly alone.

I ate some strawberry shortcake for a wedding cake.

I didn’t tell anyone except for my therapist, and I was very proud to hear her congratulate me.

I think it is important that I explain my views about marriage.

I’m aware that the way I think about marriage is not very conventional. And if the readers of this post think law sanctioned marriage is the only valid kind, I’m not going to try to convince you, because you’re entitled to your opinion.

But I will talk about the way I see it.

Marriage has long been a primary form of slavery and ownership of women. It’s only recently that that sort of marriage is falling out of style in certain places. Marriage being a symbol of love is also fairly recent.

When my parents were divorced, I grew to see marriage very differently. As a child, I had thought my parents being opposites meant that they were meant for each other. And if my parents, who in all respects I had seen as representative of the perfect marriage even though they seemed more like roommates with kids than spouses, could be better off divorced, I rethought what marriage was about.

In looking again at marriage, I thought it to be quite a bit harder than I had before thought. Loving each other and getting along well and raising kids well apparently was not all marriage was. It was something more than that.

I feel that . . . In some respects, marriage as it is, being a life partner with someone is a kind of skill, one that needs to be tuned to your partner's needs and your own, and what you want out of the relationship.

That is, unless you’re married simply out of stubbornness and there’s no real collaboration, you just happen to be married.

And I don’t think I need to say that marriage is not always a fit for people, whether that means marriage does not befit an individual or the two people together. And I say two because I’m talking about conventional two-person marriage, polygamy and self marriage both follow different rules, I feel.

But I suppose there is some flexion of conventional rules in any marriage. I digress.

Uh, I guess what I’m saying now is not really important to the point. What I mean is, marriage isn’t strictly about love but also, perhaps even moreso, about compromise. Or about an obstinate (or in the case of queer people trying to hide their orientation, protective) vow to keep up appearances.

And I will mention that comparing married couples with longtime unmarried couples, often times it isn’t marriage that truly epitomizes their dedication to one another.

The concept of marriage, the way I think most Americans see it, is that marriage is a binding of two people because they love each other so much, they agree to now be bound together in union. That in and of itself is a lovely idea.

But it’s also true that marriage if for the sake of love is unnecessary. Putting aside any legal benefits it may offer, marriage for love is not needed.

And I feel that only when marriage really is not heavily encouraged by amatonormativity, when a legally married couple is the same to the government as an unmarried couple, when it is not for anything but for love, only then does that purposelessness take on a profound meaning.

To be married simply because you want to be symbolically bound to them in a new way, even though you really could go without and be just the same, is very heartwarming to me.

#ladybird speaks #autosexual #autoromantic #autosexuality #autoromanticism #self marriage #marriage

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lericekrispie · 1 year

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Hello Hi, today I'm going to sell to you plus size Peter Sqloint

I've always drawn and envisioned Peter Sqloint as plus sized. For some reason, that's just how he appeared in my head. If you want to see how exactly how I envision him you can check out my art, OR, I have the fun little body visualizer I can show you.

I have the measurements in for 5' 4", 200 lbs, and quite a bit (10hr) of exercise, because you know they do be walking around a bunch.

This looks average! This looks like an average person you could just go out and see, and that's how I've been drawing him! And Peter's entire bit is being average or slightly below.

But I ran the BMI for this (BMI is a scam but people know the metric so I did it anyways), and this is OBESE? This looks like a normal person to me, and I know for a fact that you can be healthy, working a 9-5 service job on your feet all day sweating and breaking your back getting 15,000 steps a day and still look like this. I know because I work in the food industry (in the US) and a lot of my co-workers have bodies that are very similar to this, at least in weight.

Yet I find it hard to find media with people who look like this.

As a curvy man/woman myself, more than 200lbs, it's hard for me to find cute clothes that fit me. I'm so self conscious of my breathing, I've always been self conscious of my jawline, my arms, my thighs. It took me a long time to become happy with my body, but I think with the boom of body positivity on social media and the appreciation of bigger bodies and my own mental work, I was able to overcome my insecurities and see myself for the bad bitch I am.

Yet there is a lot of work to be done as a community.

I especially think that right now is the right time to be talking about these things, and to bring it to light, because there are so many more people who are speaking out about things, and so many more people who actually care.

Before we continue, I would like to say that in case you were worried, this is not a dig at JRWI, this is just social commentary. I would like to point out that my experience with this community has been leaps and bounds ahead of any other community I have ever been apart of, with body diversity, poc characters (at least headcannons ._.), and appreciating beautiful non-white standards. (like the headcannon Jay hooked nose) (I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and say that anime fandoms and fandoms that have 'twinkification problems' have this weak spot, please don't take this personally)

Plus size Peter Sqloint is important to me because I feel media, especially media that is ran off of fanart, prefer white beauty standards, even if it is sub-conscious. It's getting better, and there are great artists who are poc and body positive and amazing, but they don't always get the same attention as others. It's important for people to see themselves, especially if their body is A NORMAL AND AVERAGE SIZE! THAT BODY TYPE IS NORMAL! YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND THAT! And not finding it sometimes feels like your the outlier, that you are unattractive, you are the weirdo.

And it fits so well with his story. with Peter growing comfortable in his skin, from being average to extraordinary, but it was in him all along, and he doesn't have to drastically change (like loose weight) for him to realize that.

Also I would like to point out how important it is for media to show big people getting loved!!!! For being considered attractive! How powerful it would be for someone like Rumi, the literal embodiment of perfection, tall, sleek, elegant, what the general beauty world would consider to be a drop dead gorgeous runway model, to fall head over heels for someone like Peter! Because big people are gorgeous, big people are attractive, big people are lovable! And especially a queer story as well?! Where they are not just both 'skinny twinks'? (nothing wrong with that, but there are more relationships than just that). I think that is a powerful under-the-surface story that Apotheosis could tell about Peter Sqloint, and they wouldn't even have to retcon anything except canonize Peter's weight. You can't tell me that the story couldn't be read that way, with this context! This is my sell to you, my sell for you to start seeing Peter Sqloint as a plus sized man, and see his story how I've seen his story.

TLDR: Peter Sqloint is a plus sized man because he is gorgeous and beautiful and it fits amazingly with his story and he deserves it :)

#jrwi show #jrwi apotheosis #jrwi peter #mine #jrwi headcanon #headcannons #long post #jrwi rumi #jrwi #jrwiblr #just roll with it #text post

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