Jealousy part 7

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

Please ignore the unhige tags. 😌

09Soap/Ghost

Two grown man sharing a standart military bed, well thinks are geting very close. Soap tried several times to leave because General Shepard will chew his ass out if the paper work is not finished, but Simon had a death grip on him when ever Soap tryes to move just a inch to far or any inch. He also needed time to freak out about him fucking Ghost, he's so confused he needs to wrap his head around this. Eventually the steady breathing of Ghost lulled him in to sleep.

When Soap wakes up because of Simons alarm at 5 am, it's warm. Simon is still pressed against him looking peaceful. It feels terrifying domestic. Simon is slowly opening his eyes because of the alarm. He just deactivates the alarm and the burrys his face in to Soaps neck. A blush forming on his cheeks. "Morning", Soap just says to him with a smile on his face. "Morning." Simon answers, sounding like he's ready to just go back to sleep. "Go back to sleep, your off recruit duty today." Soap says while ready to leave the bed. "Stay?", Ghost ask unusual insecure. "Would like to, but General Shepard is calling in 2 hours and I still need to get some thinks done before, like reading the damm file." And Soap himself his shoked by the how much he wants to stay. Ghost makes some displeased sound but let's Soap get up. Ghost is watching him with one eye open ready to fall back to sleep at any moment. "See you later", Soap says before kissing Ghost on the cheek, who is making a pleased sound. A small smile is appearing on Ghost face before he closes his eye again returning to sleep, buring his face in the pillow and Soaps heart is trying to jump out of his ribcage. He's a Captain his time of sneacking out of others rooms back to his own should be over. When he is in his room he looks up at the wall over his bed the calander has today marked as heat have start. He's horrified remembering that he littered Ghosts neck and shoulders with bits and hickeys in the assumption nobody will see. And for the love of God, not even Ghost covers up in a British heat wave, and his shorts are short. Like really short as in just covering his ass. How is he gonna survive this now after he they had sex and him having these feelings? This is his punishment for sleeping with his subordinate and god he remebers telling Ghost about a next time. He would ask himself what he was thinking but he was not thinking in this moment. "The weather report can be wrong, the heat wave can just not start today or this weak or at all." He says to himself in a attempt to not freak out. He gets dressed in clean cloths and leaves to get a coffee before he wastes anymore time he don't have to finish this important file or atleast appear as if he did work on it. On the way from the barracks to the mess hall it's already disgusting warm, his shirt starting to syick to his back, this heat wave is hitting them with full force. He don't meet anybody while he grabs his coffee at 5:20 am and it's also nobody in the building with his office.

When Ghost wakes up the next time the first think he notices, he's sweating, its fucking hot and not in there is another body next to him way but in a heat wave is hitting Britain way. He looks at his alarm clock it being just 11 am and with the feeling if getting backed in his room slready this is the most sleep he will get. It's also not helping that he's blushing over the memory of Soap kissing his cheek he got because Soap needed to work and couldn't stay. And hes definitely feeling how Soap fucked him, sore in satisfying way. And he told Soap about a next time, god Soap really fucked his brain out. Why did he say that, he wants a next time but he didn't had to tell Soap that. Well he told Soap a lot of thinks he shouldn't had. He's burying his face in to the pillow that smells like Soap and breaths out heavily. When he pushes himself up on of his shoulders stinks and he rembers that, Soap bit him very hard. In general Soap did not hold back with marking him. He goes in the bathroom to see just how much Soap marked him. His mouth falls open, Soap tried to turn his neck and shoulders in to on giant bruise. Normally this would not be a problem, he's coverd like a victoriana lady 24/7 but in a heat wave? Everbody will see, everybody will know, everybody in the 141 will ask. A smirk is forming on Ghost face, oh will he get in trouble with MacTavish for this idea yes, will he likey get punished for this also yes. The question is just what the punishment will be and he thinks if he plays his cards right he will enjoy it. When he looks down he notice a hand print on his hip and he should not find this so hot. "Try to claim me Captain?", he ask his reflection. He goes back to his room searching his closet for the right clothes. He finds his favourite pair of shorts really easy, but he just can't find tank top he's looking for. He he finally finds it in the very back he smirks again. After a quick shower he puts both thinks on and is checking in the mirror if Soaps mark a perfectly seeable for everyone. The smirk gets even bigger when he sees that you can see the hand print when he has to lifts his arms up. Ghost looks at his smug smirking reflection and wispers a perfect to himself. He then covers up his outfit with a standart clean pair of military pants and jacket. Putting a medical face mask hin his jacket pocket before putting on his standart mask and sunglasses. Their is no way he will wear a full mask all day if it's already that warm.

Soap sees Ghost for the first time since the morning, while he's still in the meeting with Shepard, for 4 hours, and there is no way Ghost will survive wearing standart uniform in this heat wave. He already has his ventilator on because god today will be hot. He is just wearing a t-shirt but this already feels like to much and Ghost well don't really has a choice thanks to him. It also looks like he collected Riley, because the dog is following his owner dutifully. Riley walks up to Soap sniffing him acusetory, as if to ask why are you smelling like each other. Ghost comes in his office takes a bunch of his paper work and looking trough them. Making a pile of filles Soap assumes he will work on. Soap is thankful for this because he and Price try to do as less paperwork as they can get away with. Suplies forms and mission reports are probably the only think they file out on a regular bases. For some reason he has a suspicious feeling when he looks at Ghost outfit. He's beeing ridiculous Ghost would never parade hickys and marks, he's a very private person. Ghost gives him a not before leaving the office and for some reason Soap has the feeling he has a smug expression hidden under the mask.

Everything is working acordig to plan, Ghost thinks to himself while he puts the files on his empty desk. He not only is in a air conditioned building, but Soap now thinks he will try to be covered up. The first think he does in the office is replacing his face cover, revealing a good amount of Soaps marks. He also knows that the biggest administration gossip will walk in his office very soon. And she is spreading base gossip faster then light. Wich means that Gaz and Meat will be in his office before lunch, and they will hopefully make a comment about it to Soap. "Lieutenant Riley, I have some..", a female voice starts but then stops mid sentence. Ghost really needs to fight to keep a neutral face expression. "You have what?", he ask. "Some files for you to work on", Stacy Smiths, base gossip queen finishes her sentence. When she drops the files on his desk she can't keep a comment to herself. "Got lucky eh? Pretty wild think you got in the sheets." "Thanks." Ghost answers as uninterested as he can, while he really has to fight down a grin. Perfect, this is working absolutely perfect. "Well hope you enjoyed her", Stacy says before she leaves the office as fast as she can with out running. An evil grin is spreading a cross Ghost face. Phase 1 of his plan worked out perfectly.

Gaz nearly drops his phone after reading the text from Stacy. 'Lieutenant Riley god lucky with a lassy last night.' It states and this just can't be true. Ghost and Soap are dancing around each other for months now. He sends the recruits to an early lunch running in to Meat on the way to Ghost office. "You think it's true?", Gaz ask. "I gues he's not the kiss and tell person. Just said thanks for looking after Riley." Meat answers. "What are we using as cover?" "How Riley did on the mission." The two walk in to Ghost office and of course Stacy is right he got lucky last night. He's neck is littet with hickys. "Aren't you suppose to train the recruits?, Ghost ask them. "Sent them to an early lunch before the heat wave gets to much for out door training, Sir." Gaz answers. "And your going in to the admin building to get air conditioning or?" "We wanted to now how Riley did, Sir.", Meat spills out. "Perfectly, even when the smell of jungle was a bit much at first." They know that will likely the most information they get. So in an impulse desition Gaz ask: " will you help in hand to hand combat training, Sir?" And Ghost really has to think about it. He could, but he has enough paper work for most of the week on his desk. Also he's not sure how Soap will react if he pushes to far "Maybe later this week Sergeant Garrick." He just answers, letting the two pet ans spoil Riley with attention for a bit, before kicking them out of the office. "Let's see if the Captain will walk in here soon, Riley", he says to himself, getting rit of his jacket.

When Soaps sits down at the same table as Meat and Gaz, he has a very suspicious feeling. The two very suddenly stopped their conversation. "Spill.", Soaps nearly orders them. "Stacy told us that Ghost got lucky yesterday and he did.", Meat says carefully watching Soaps reaction. And only years of military training are keeping Soaps face from dropping. "Oh did he?" "Got fucking mauled by what Stacy assumes a woman", Gaz says. "Oh, good for him.", Soap trys to answer as neutral as possible. Meat and Gaz are looking at him like they are waiting for his jealousy to bubbel up. And it would if he didn't know 100% HE had sex with Ghost yesterday. While Soap take a bit out of his food Meat drops: "You think Ghost will shate her name if I ask?" Soap is choking on his food. Oh god, no, no Ghost will definitely not share a name. "You think Ghost is a kiss and tell type?", Soap conters, trying to act as normal as possible and hopeing they will think everything unusual is just his jealousy. "Well also never thought he would show of his sex life like this", Meat while shrugging his shoulders, Gaz is suspiciously silent watching every expression and move Soap makes. Gaz picks up some strange vibes from the Captain. A theory forming, but how to prove it? "Well not even Ghost wants to suffer in a heat wave other wise we would not know", Soap says off hand, like he don't care. "Mhm, so what if Stacy is wrong about the gender of the person slepped with?", Gaz ask out of the blue. "Who Ghost sleeps with in his of time free is non of our buisness, Gaz", Soap scolths him a bit more agressiv than needed. Gaz just raises his eye brow a knowing glint in his eyes. "Your right Captain", Gaz just says and starts eating again. When Meat is trying to say something again Gaz is kicking his leg. Soap has the feeling Gaz figured this mysterious sex partner of Ghost out. He can't say or do anything about it, just hoping nobody will believe him. The last think he needs now is Price lecturing about not having sex with subordinates. He's not sure who would be more embarrassed by it Price or him. After the three is leaving the mess, Gaz is dropping a bomb on Soap. "Can't wait for Ghost supervising the hand to hand combat training of the FNCs, they will learn a lot from him." He's fucked, thats it, he's done. He needs to talk with Ghost.

A littel bit later then expected Soap enters his office. He hastily closes the door. Ghost looks up from his papers. Forcing to not smirk at the Captain. Soaps jaw is dropped open a light blush creeping over his cheeks. The tanc top he's wearing is very skin tight showing of his muscular chest and showing his shoulders are in the same state as his neck. "So Gaz and Meat told the truth about you showing of", Soap simply states, when his brain is able to form words again. "Well somebody forgot that a heat wave is about to come, hardly a showing of if i don't want a heat stroke", Ghost just states. "Well didn't thought the first day would already be that hot, you would stop beeing a victoriana lady", Soap hisses stepping closer to Ghost desk. "You want me to show of? Then I can help with hand to hand combat training later", Ghost says with a smug expression on his face. "No", Soap growls jealousy running throw his veins, forcing Ghost to look him in his eyes by grabbing his chin. Nobody is allowed to see Ghost like this besides him. "I think they really would learn a lot from me", Ghost simply states a mischievous glint in his eyes. This should have told Soap that the bratty side of Ghost he saw yesterday is playing with him, trying to push his buttons to get what Ghost wants. "They will think your easy if you actually show of", Soap warns him. "They will learn its not that easy very fast", Ghost conters, knowing he won by the heated look in Soaps eyes he just needs to push a bit more. "Well I imagined you begging for my dick then." A blush is creeping over Ghost face but Soap will not silence him. "You say that like your sure I will do that again, Captain", he provoking Soap in to a impulsive desition. The grip on his chin is tightening. "Oh you will, Lieutenant. I fucked you so good you cried for me", Soap reminds him a proud and smug look on his face. "Well you will have to put more effort for the same results next time, just got lucky right after a mission", Ghost says to remove the look out of Soaps face. And this is when Soap catches on, what Ghost is doing. "Oh, I will, when Price is back we are taking a nice vacation together and I will make you cry in my sheets while fucking you." "Don't make claims you can't keep. Still not sure your even have the stamina to do this." "Oh I think you will strugel to keep up." "All talk no action again, Soap." But a very visible blush is covering all of Ghost face. "Don't think after yesterday you would be able to take my full stamina." Ghost eyes widen at this and his swallowing hard. "Try me", is the only think Ghost can come up with. Soap looks at him as if he's thinking about it before pulling Ghost out of his chair to wisper in his ear: "Yeah, want your desk fantasy finally come true, Simon?" Ghost is audible gasping at this having lose the control of the situation. "Answer me." "Yes, Sir." "My office 21:00. But don't whine when your can't sit tomorrow." With that Soap removes his hand from Ghost face and grabs his stupid balaclava from the desk before leaving the Office. Ghost just falls back in his chair face red as a tomato breathing heavily. A very confused Riley is resting his head on his legs looking with him his big brown eyes at him. Absently he is scratching Rileys ear, trying to figure out when he lost control over the situation.

bonclay time

(timeline)

lakan is written to be annoying he does not gives a single fuck how he's perceived unless you're luomen or maomao. he let jinshi think he forced himself on that courtesan. he told jinshi that he should think about how can a courtesan's price could be lowered and left. he never even finished the story. he was mad at jinshi for getting to maomao before he could so he went there to jinshi's office everyday to bother him and also to move the pawns (aka people) across the board to stop the assassination attempt at a certain high nobility. lakan dislikes jinshi yes but he's not a traitor ffs. when lakan and fengxian slept together it was consensual. fengxian did not tell him she was going to get pregnant and drive down her value. they hadn't slept together before that and fengxian was a courtesan who wasn't selling her body so the whole verdigris house took a hit when their number one courtesan got pregnant. it was fengxian's plan lakan didn't know. none of them confessed their feelings. he did not abandon fengxian after sleeping with her. luomen's case was why his father decided to send him away he actually thought he was gonna be back in three months. that dumbass just didn't realise why her contract deal fell off that she was pregnant that she loved him. same guy who would years later think that meimei was being nice to him only because of guilt and wouldn't realise she had feelings for him. just la clan being bad at these things it's almost like it's genetic

lakan is written like that. you're told he's a freak that maomao avoids because he wants to buy maomao. jinshi reached the conclusion regarding fengxian same as the most of us (unless somebody spoilt it for you) and maomao's hatred for him added to that conclusion. but it was all on purpose writing-wise and character-wise too. the actual story of his is told to us but not jinshi. he doesn't minds if jinshi keeps on thinking of him as a piece of shit yk. what i am saying is that lakan is meant to be read or watched that by going through a range of emotions. hating him is fine still. most characters in the story aren't his fans either. they just avoid him he's that kinda guy but the "he ruined maomao's mother's life" isn't a great take sorry. fengxian's life took a tragic turn but it's more because of circumstances than just one individual. and not like she didn't cut maomao's finger off in her frenzy. there are good enough reasons for why maomao feels how she does towards them both

okay so. like. wan ed 12. dazai is stopped by a log in the river and starts actually drowning. funny haha wan bit.

but repeating something ive said (hi haven) i think this is actually a really good example for how ada dazai doesn't really want to kill himself. he could've actually drowned here. thats his 'goal' right? but the moment it starts happening he's trying to get his head back above water.

"I thought I was dead"

hilariously wet and horrified or not he obviously didn't want to die here. theres nobody around to hear what he said anymore anyway. and that's why, despite being yk... a wan ending animation? i still think this is such like. a case in point.

i am wide awake thinking about that post canon jb au again when I should be sleeping …!!! such is the nature of the jbrainrot…

How do you think Velvet flirts with Coco?

This is one of the funniest asks I ever got and im glad cause this is just gold. Like how does the Bun™️ woo her stupid bozo??
————


I have my biased takes on what Coco and Velvet are like as characters, but to start off I wanna focus on what Vel brings to the table.

I think a lot of people have moe’d her down to a nervous/scaredy bunny girl and…that’s not her at all. She’s a real multilayered character who can and will kick your ass flat. She’s also…

- very very attentive to people

- excellent at memorizing things she sees and hears, and quickly at that

- very emotionally in tune with people, herself included

- insanely kind and helpful

- honest about her feelings and will voice her thoughts when ready

Also she’s a bunny like come on. Is baby. It’s impossible to not find her likable.

I can go on forever, but I think these are enough likable traits to work with.


Time to shift. Now we focus on what I think Coco likes in a person:

- Hot girls

- Complexity

- Someone true to their nature

- Some sense of honor

- Someone striving to learn and to better themselves

Hopefully it’s not lost here, but there’s some compatibility don’t you think? Velvet’s got some of those traits that Coco likes.

————

So where’s the flirting? It’s coming I swear, I just needed the background info to help support the answers.

Bun bun flirts two ways: intentionally and unintentionally. The latter is usually what’s happening most often.

Her intentional flirting is what you would expect. Some cheeky words, being a playful tease in her actions like when she flashed her camera in After the Fall. I think she would 1000% take advantage of her physique and incredibly vast skillsets. She is totally totally showing off during training and sparring. Coco might hide her gaze under her glasses but that dumb bitch is so easy. So so easy…

Now her unintentional flirting is basically that Velvet is just doing her thing. She’s comfortable and loved by her team. With them she’s able to be herself and have fun, and that’s what coco loves most. Seeing Velvet thrive and not feel like she has to hide herself away from the world, and with it comes moments and actions that make Coco, much to her surprise, fall for Velvet.

I guess simply put, Velvet flirts by being her cheeky self around Coco, and her leader falls for her every time.

my only critique of hi fi rush is that there shouldve been blood. and sure, maybe it wouldve been totally tonally incongruous, but consider this: i want BLOOD.

Ice and Mav spooning—as promised in my previous icemav comic

okay i know you probably have enough drawing ideas for giant k but i just had this idea invade me.

you know how in snow white (not just the disney version) she pushes together the beds and sleeps on like 3 or more of them sideways? anyway giant k sleeping on 3 beds pushed together. and now i'm just picturing giant k as snow white and everyone else as the various dwarves

Ohoho big brain!!! 👀👀👀 Big brain. I love this idea so much and not just because Snow White is my favourite fairy tale hdjsbdbdfh

Thank you!!! Of course I have to draw it and not just once, let's make it into a comic! Let's gooo

Giant K series #16: once upon a time, in a land far, far away...

To be continued 😉

Odypen definitely and equivalently adore each other BUT I weirdly can't see them as the type to actually say "I Love you".

They still definitely vocalize their love for each other but it's more so in "My Joy", and "Extraordinary Woman", "Strange Woman/Man", etc. And very cheesy lines (both say some cheesy shit in the Odyssey, and he definitely does in the Iliad as well. "Joy like a drowning sailor seeing land" bit???)

I could see "I adore you" but even then, that's probably during very specific moments but the actual "I love you"??? I just typed it just now for fic shit and... It weirdly just didn't feel right and I don't know why. 😅

Idk maybe it's kind of because I see them as over the top in ways, they love wordplay and riddles and I think they'd almost think "...That's not good enough >:( " about it??? I don't know???😂

been trying out a new writing technique recently and it's called chilling tf out and reminding myself that fic is written for fun.

even Atlas has only two hands

vent art

an upside-down truth / a fallen star

Queerwolf By Night: Queercoding, Media Literacy, and Werewolf By Night (part 2)

Welcome back to Media Studies And Writing Hacks With Kat! Part 1 is here if you missed it. We discussed queercoding: what it is, how it works, why it exists, and how it plays into the 1930s and 40s horror movies Werewolf By Night likes to reference.

Once again, the thesis I'm arguing here is that there is queercoding in WBN, and that it should be part of the discussion of the special (which I'm calling a movie or film because I think "special presentation" is dumb and this is my essay.) I am NOT arguing that WBN is explicitly queer, or that inferring heterosexuality where queercoding exists is morally wrong or even textually inaccurate.

TL;DR: you can totally still ship Jack and Elsa, I just wanna point at some metaphorical rainbows and say, "Look! Rainbows! Aren't they neat?" I personally think the queercoding adds a layer of richness to the story. I hope you get something out of it, too.

And now, allow me to introduce our starting point, the wolfman of the hour, everyone's beloved blorbo and queercoded icon: Jack Russell.

Look at this adorable protagonist, this absolute chewtoy of a human being.

He's queercoded as fuck. Not as much as Ted, but we will GET to Ted.

Let's begin with Jack's introduction, where he is literally revealed as the narrator speaks the phrase "the monster who finds himself among them". We join Jack as he enters an unknowingly hostile space, a building full of people who would literally mount his head on the wall if they knew who and what he really was. Jack's introduction to this world is a series of Bayeux-style tapestries showing, among other things, the gory slaughter of his kind. We see him react with a mixture of shock, queasiness, and tamped-down anxiety, which marks him as an outsider. It seems unlikely that the other hunters would be grossed out by the sight of a depiction of their literal jobs.

Now, outsider status alone isn't necessarily queercoding, but it often is, especially in monster movies. Jack's reaction is not dissimilar to that of a closeted person entering a homophobic church for some kind of socially expected ritual--and, indeed, Jack has come for a funeral.

Look at that nervous glance as he walks into the room. He's not comfortable here. He knows he doesn't fit in.

This is a good time to mention Jack's outfit and the way it intersects with what we see of hunter culture. From the leather to the weapons to the heads on the wall, the aesthetic of hunter culture in WBN is hypermasculine, almost to the point of parody. The obsession with imagery of violence and death (the paintings on the walls, the corpse animatronic, the skull bowl) and the hostility to anything perceived as feminine is marked.

Wait. Hostility to anything feminine? Yes, I said that.

There are three characters who are played by female actors: Elsa, Verussa, and ... look, the hunters HAVE names, but I'm just gonna call them Scottish Guy, Asian Guy, Black Guy, and David Bowie. So David Bowie is an adrogynous character played by a female actor who acts as our third not-exactly-a-male character, and it's interesting to me that they're taken more seriously by the other hunters than Elsa is. Elsa, by contrast, is treated with contempt by the other hunters--and the contempt is very specifically gendered. Scottish Guy calls her "lassie" when he threatens her, and Asian Guy says, "Where's the lovely lady's medallion?" with a noticeable leer. They don't take her seriously, not even after Verussa announces she's welcome to participate--and they only brighten up when Verussa reminds them that they're allowed to kill Elsa if they can. That's the response to the only unambiguously female hunter.

Now, you may point out that Verussa doesn't get nearly as much shit from the hunters, but Verussa is explicitly presenting herself as the servant (and sexual partner) of a man. She's also not competing with them for the Bloodstone, nor trying to inherit, even though presumably she has at least as good a claim as Elsa does. She's not trying to enter the hypermasculine realm of hunting, but Elsa is in it, and so Elsa is despised and Verussa is tolerated.

And then there's Jack.

Okay, time for Baby's First Queercoding Element: gender nonconformity. In general, feminine male characters and masculine female characters (something explicitly forbidden by the Hays Code, by the way) are coded as queer. A lot of gay male stereotypes are men doing "womanly" things, like cooking and wearing dresses and having sex with men. The same goes for lesbian stereotypes like short haircuts, manual labor, and having sex with women. Now, obviously ACTUAL queer expression is infinitely more complex, but stereotypes don't do infinite complexity.

So. Is Jack feminine?

Well, he's wearing a gentleman's suit, but by the standards of hunter hypermasculinity, yeah, he's pretty girly. For one thing, he's wearing that suit in a room full of people in combat gear. For another, the suit itself is full of fussy details that mark him as a man who cares a great deal about his appearance, another stereotypically feminine trait. The suit is green, a barely acceptable color in menswear, and it has glittery details like the trim on his lapels. The spinal-column tie is metal as fuck, but it's also a silk tie. He's doing the death-and-gore theme, but making it high fashion. He's even wearing makeup. Granted, it's Día de los Muertos makeup, but it's still pigment on his face for aesthetic purposes. He's also the only hunter who acknowledges, in dialogue, that he has non-white, non-USAmerican heritage--"It's to honor my ancestors." He marks himself (literally) as visibly foreign, even though denigrating foreign masculinity is a big part of American hypermasculinity. He also tries to smile at and befriend every hunter who glares at him--another stereotypically feminine trait that leads to his conversation with Scottish Guy.

Speaking of, that conversation is gay as hell. It's practically flirting, especially the part where Scottish Guy compliments Jack's makeup and then tearfully admits that hunting and living all by himself "gets lonely". And Jack makes this amazing face:

Now, this is me inferring again, but I read this face as a combination of "Aww, that's sweet of you" and "Loneliness caused by hypermasculine self-isolation? I literally have no idea what that's like, but it sounds bad, bro." Perhaps with a soupçon of "Get me out of this conversation aaaaaaa."

So the scene rolls on, and Jack continues to be Bad At Toxic Hypermasculinity. When his top kill count is mentioned, he shrugs it off rather than taking a little bow like the others do. He actually chuckles at Ulysses' joke. He seems mildly interested in Elsa rather than hostile, and amused by her snark rather than threatened by it. He shows fear and worry when he learns Ted is in peril and in pain. The guy really wears his heart on his impeccably tailored sleeve. Notably, none of these traits are bad, per se--they're just more likely to be assigned to feminine characters, and they're given to Jack.

It's important to note the impact of perspective here. Jack is our POV character. If there were to be a hunters' version of this story, Jack would be a sneaky, cowardly, vaguely effeminate villain and Elsa a traitor (or possibly a dimwitted victim seduced by Jack's charms). All of Jack's queercoding would make him a GREAT queercoded villain; it's just that here, he's the protagonist, and a deeply sympathetic one at that, so we miss some of his "unmanly" traits.

All right, let's fast-forward to the maze. We see Jack being clueless and awkward about the drawing of lots, we see some sneaking around, and then we see his first hostile encounter with Elsa, and we get this great exchange:

Jack: I suggest we just pass each other by.

Elsa: ... What?!

Jack, visibly pained by the awkwardness: I suggest we just ... pass each other by.

Jack is uncomfortable with violence. He actively avoids it, talking his way out of trouble when he can and running when he can't. Even Elsa points out how strange he is compared to other hunters, specifically because he avoids violence. He doesn't kill or even hurt anyone in his human form. He doesn't even know how his explosive works--to the point where he asks a woman if SHE knows how to work it.

I'm not saying violence is an inherently masculine trait, but the association of masculinity with a capacity for (and comfort with) violence runs deep in Western culture in general and American culture in particular. It's a huge thing in Mexican culture as well, and yet Jack is actively choosing not to participate in it. He's denying a core part of what would otherwise be his traditional gender role. He later tells Elsa that any "hunting" he does is done by "a part of me that is not me"--a part of himself that he doesn't see as himself. In his eyes, violence is not merely scary or distasteful; it's not part of him at all.

(Compare this to all the ass-kicking Elsa does.)

And then we get to Ted. Buckle up, guys.

Technically, our first introduction to Ted is a distant roar and some screaming, but the moment where we meet him is this:

A jumpscare, followed by a cuddle.

Once again, Jack wears his heart on his sleeve, but more importantly, let me draw your attention to the juxtaposition of Ted's scary grab and Jack's excited snuggling. This relationship is introduced as something scary before being revealed as something sweet--and "scary" is a good description of the portrayal of queercoded couples (who are, remember, usually villains) in classic cinema. All the cinematic language around Ted right up until the grab is telling us to be afraid of him--and then our cinnamon roll of a protagonist starts petting him and greeting him and asking if he's okay. Ted is monstrous and inhuman ... right up until we see him receive affection from another man.

We don't get clear details of Jack's relationship with Ted, but we know that it's a big deal to them--after all, Jack is risking his own life to save the big guy. Jack also describes Ted as "family" and, with a fond eyeroll, a "pain in the ass". Jack implies that he no longer has contact with his family of origin, a common experience for many queer people who are shunned for leaving the closet, but Ted slots neatly into the category of found family. Ted is also, notably, the only close relationship Jack is seen to have, just as Jack is the only close connection Ted is seen to have. The two are physically affectionate (again, cuddling) and emotionally vulnerable in their conversations.

And Elsa, the outsider to their relationship, finds the whole thing bizarre, right down to Ted's name.

Speaking of Elsa, let's talk about Jack's behavior in the crypt and the cage.

In the crypt, Jack displays compassion for someone who has largely been hostile to him (he REALLY wants to fix Elsa's leg), absolute delight when he receives the tiniest signal that she might be sympathetic to him ("It's not in your DNA, then?") and remarkable emotional intelligence (see his speech about families). He also, notably, doesn't hit on Elsa or indicate any sexual interest in her.

He also makes this terrific face when he's handed a skull:

Oh, yeah, that's a big, scary hunter there.

Now, the cage. Jack's response to being put in the cage (and stripped of his jacket, interestingly--little bit of dehumanization there, perhaps) is recognition, followed by attempts at reassuring Elsa, followed by panic. He's arguably more upset than Elsa is, and Elsa thinks she's about to be torn to shreds.

At two points in this story, Jack Russell finds himself trapped in a small space with a beautiful woman and more or less immediately freaks out. It's not the most heterosexual pattern. In fact, it's got strong thematic overtones of queer men being forced into straight relationships by their families, their work, or their society. In a culture that entwines sex and violence, the fact that he's delighted to be grabbed by a male swamp monster but begs for death rather than symbolically do a sex with a woman is noteworthy.

"Symbolically do a sex"? Yeah, the only times the film frames Elsa as anything like a sexual object are the transformation sequence, which is a visual callback to classic sexualized scream queens of yore with her literally in Jack's shadow, and the face-touching scene, where Jack straddles her, their faces almost touch, and then he flees and she sits up with her hair mussed in a dreamy, almost post-orgasmic way.

Michael Giacchino doesn't eroticize violence MUCH, but he's fairly classy about it when he does.

"But wait!" I hear you saying. "What about the sniffing scene? Isn't that eroticized? And it's between Jack and Elsa! Checkmate, liberals!"

First of all, how dare you call me a liberal when my preferred political descriptor is "chaotic good". And second of all ... well, you're HALF right. It IS eroticized...but not because of anything Laura Donnelly or Gael Garcia Bernal is directly doing.

Go watch Elsa's body language during the scene. It's awkward as fuck. She's curled in a ball, knees and elbows out, letting Jack pull on her arm and sniff her hair but not really participating. There's no indication that she wants to be doing this, or even knows what "this" is.

Gael is making a little more of an erotic show about it; in fact, the intensity of his sniffing would probably be an indicator of sexual desire--if he weren't CRYING WHILE HE DOES IT. That's why his voice breaks on "Once."

These are both excellent actors, making very intentional choices with their voices and bodies. They're playing the scene as something that COULD be sexy IF THEY WEREN'T BEING FORCED TO DO IT.

Seriously. There's enough fanfic now that we've all read Jack giving Elsa a leisurely, consensual sniff. You can't tell me Gael and Laura couldn't have made that happen. This is not sexy sniffing. This is angst sniffing. It's just angst sniffing between two beautiful, sympathetic characters who genuinely don't want to hurt each other. It could have been acted and shot in a much sexier way, but it wasn't.

It's also worth noting one last category of queercoding that WBN plays with a lot: dehumanization. A lot of those classic movies played their queercoded characters as specifically less than human, visually aligning them with disliked animals like rats or wolves and often making them literally less human as the story progressed. Even after the Hays Code, monstrous and inhuman queers became a staple of horror movies, especially in the 1980s and 90s as the AIDS crisis convinced a lot of conservative America that LGBTQ people were literal plague rats. There were proposals to tattoo HIV-positive people to identify them, to round them up into camps, to shut HIV-positive kids out of schools because those kids were implicitly queer and therefore not deserving of human rights like an education.

WBN, with its werewolf POV, pushes back on this trope in some specific ways. Jack's line about being "still a human" is an obvious one, as well as his explanation of "systems" to keep other people safe. (It was common during the AIDS crisis for queer people to be fired from their jobs if they were outed because they were considered an AIDS risk to their coworkers--even if they were, say, an office worker who didn't have any contact with other people's bodily fluids. There were conspiracy theories about AIDS spreading through shared soda cans. Those paper seat protectors in public bathrooms came about because of fears that AIDS could spread via toilet seats. So imagine a gay man trying to explain that he's not a threat to his officemates, and you'll see the parallels to Jack trying to reassure Elsa.)

Most notable, however, is how Elsa survives the wolf. She's safe because she maintains eye contact (implicitly acknowledging her and Jack's shared humanity--she literally refuses to stop seeing him) and because he remembers her scent (she becomes a part of his world as he becomes part of hers). Elsa is rewarded, both with her life and with her inheritance, for treating Jack and Ted like human beings when the world around her regards them as abominations.

Elsa is an ally. She's ally-coded. She can also be read as a love interest for Jack, but she consistently acts in support of his relationship with Ted as well.

In Part 3, we're going to talk about the crowning moment of queercoding in WBN. That's right--it's time to learn about coffee in the woods, the gay jukebox, and the Friends of Dorothy.

Is there a poly in bad ritual?

not as such; when I invented tahira she said she would exist only under the condition that I wouldn't make her kiss siruud.

When ya'll told me I was crazy for saying s5 is gonna take up to a year to film and so I stayed quiet, but now it's low-key being confirmed: