There's something that happens when someone's butch — not trying to be butch, undeniably butch, even in long earrings and a dress you can tell they're raring to be in a shirt and slacks, in the corner of the room as opposed to the centre— but also so delicate. You ask them to get something from the top shelf and they fix their eyes on it and rise to the tips of locked toes. Their joints bend just a little too much and they notice when someone stands like a dancer. They talk with their hands and turn up the femininity in their voice a crazy amount at parties because they haven't yet learnt you don't need to talk like that any more, honey. They worry about making people uncomfortable in bathrooms and keep friendly smiles at their fingertips when traversing busy, rainy streets. They hide their chest beneath layers and layers of shirt, sweatshirt, denim jacket covered in patches— but still hunch, trying to accommodate a shame that's always been there, stuck to the skin like industrial glue. They keep silent around their family and scream out the rage later, wondering why can't you see me?

bite of winter.

a comic about a princess who died in the snow.

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creative notes:

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all my other comics

store

been going a little bit insane about this sentence from Ace by Angela Chen for the past week

It's honestly frustrating that I've seen non-Russian queer people almost bragging about how they would be illegal in Russia, labeled an extremist or terrorist. Russian queers are in danger, their government has made it clear where it stands, and it's made this effort for the better part of a decade (even longer, perhaps). This will kill people, don't mistake this for a quirky little proclamation from a government, akin to somebody saying the sky is pink. Russian queer people were already expressing their fear, and the least we can do now is express our love for them, and advocate with them.

Russian queer people, I love you. I love you all so much. I am so sorry, I cannot begin to express the grief that I feel, and I hope that you are safe. Words cannot encapsulate how I feel as a non-Russian, and I cannot hope to comprehend how it feels to actually be in this situation.

Anyway. Bi and Mspec Lesbians aren't a hotly "debated" topic or even new to queer culture, it's just the newest thing that bullies who REALLY want to be homophobic and even racist use to justify harassing gay people they don't like.

It's the thinnest possible veneer of progressive language wrapped around TERF and reactionary rhetoric so that they can feel righteous for forming an angry mob against vulnerable targets. If you're gullible enough to fall for the newest wave of bigotry within the queer community, and turn on your allies because they're "confusing" or "invading your spaces," the SAME way they turned on bi/pan labels, trans people, xenogenders, neopronouns, and aroace people before this, then get lost.

i dont like the genre of post thats like "LESS movies about X type of queer story and MORE movies about Y" cuz idk how to tell y'all but we just dont have enough of any of it. I gaurantee we still need more X and more importantly queer artists still want to create X. you can say you want more movies about Y without throwing X under the bus. we need more of ALL of it.

I can't remember if I've posted abt this before but regardless: I'm sorry but I really and truly cannot get behind the idea that there is any wide-scale societal "pressure for trans men to be feminine" or "to be twinks" or whatever. You are either conflating a very small online community's beauty standard (usually some kind of transmasc pseudo-appropriation of "femboy" aesthetics, which yes, are often Bad and regressive and fetishized and etc.) with Mainstream Society, or confusing society not wanting trans men to transition with "wanting trans men to be feminine", which are certainly not the same thing. Ultimately if a cis person believes there is any validity to the concept of being trans (i.e. not a Posie Parker-esque "there's no such thing as a trans person" type), they are more likely to think that trans men should be like as masc and buff and hairy as possible or whatever bc that's what cis people think men look like and it's easier for a lot of people to recognize someone who Looks Masc as a man. It is difficult sometimes to see derision of trans guys who are Too Feminine and Not Hairy Enough or whatever (which is not always something someone has control over btw) as anything but "this is Skye who I think is a confused little girl because Skye does not pass" slightly restyled for 2023 "filthcore fagdykes" or whatever lol

Devastated doesn't even cover it.

I'm never trusting a cishet writer of queer people again.

For someone who had given up on being happy, of being whole. For someone who only existed for someone else because there was no reason to be alive (I certainly wasn't worth anything beyond the service I could render to others), Izzy Hands gave me hope that it was never too late to be your true self.

He found love, acceptance, and he was beginning to take those tentative few steps towards being whole. He didn't need Ed. He was worth something all on his own.

And they killed him.

They killed the old, disabled queer who had lived a hard, lonely life where his only purpose was to be someone's loyal attack dog, and was finally finding happiness, a family.

"It's about belonging."

"This is a story about queer love, about queer joy."

But not if you're old, disabled, battling with the scars the world has left on you, had to do things to survive. The best you can hope for is to apologise to your abuser and then find peace in death.

Queer joy is only for the right kind of queer.

I just rediscovered this doodle (drawn last month) of my boys that I didn't post and had to share it with you. I'm personally convinced that Norman is the most conventionally and socially free man in New York. Accompanying it, a very old experiment with colors and shading techniques (featuring two of my favorite batim pairings)

Also, I watched the The Last of Us series earlier this year and couldn't help but project some of my Batim faves into this kind of apocalyptic scenario (and note how Sammy, having never held a gun in his life, would absolutely rock that end of the world shit and die of old age lmao)

you know it's bad when i read svsss and tgcf, stories about just two guys falling in love and getting together, and think, "god i wish i were in between them."

gay little domestic cottage core life with binghe and qingqiu? please and thank you. being sandwiched by hua cheng and xie lian, two pretty men who are hundreds of years old? i am blushing, kicking my feet and giggling

and again, it's not even that i would want only one of them. like in both of the relationships, the two love each other too much to the point it'd feel wrong if they were separated! it wouldn't feel complete, so you gotta be with both of them!

but that's the thing; i just?? i feel so incredibly guilty whenever i think about being loved by these mxtx couples??? like it's so stupid but i feel like i'm intruding in on something and it's like, everyone else seems to just want them together only, not wanna be with them. like it's fuckin taboo or whatever

i feel like with any other character from any other media it'd be fine to simp for and write/read x readers of them, but when it comes to these books, it's off limits! no way, what are you, crazy? yes, yes i'm unhinged and desperately want their love and affection simultaneously. i want to be in a happy little poly relationship with these overpowered beautiful men with long hair.

i can't be the only guy or whoever to feel this way?? to wanna be kissed by these characters? sandwiched?? i have two hands for christ sake and they all look so happy together and im just like "lord i wanna be with them so much". someone tell me i'm not alone cmon <\3

in seriousness, I don't really care about the poll, but I AM a bit appalled and cannot believe that people are seriously saying "ofmd having canonical queer leads IS historical" and "ofmd changed history" like do some of you actually watch other stuff at all or... because like there's a lot more stuff out there with like gay people and romances in it than some of you are pretending so you can claim historical significance. like even if you just looked at recent stuff.

if anyone wants to cast the stone of "problematic", like, ye without sin and all that

can you even imagine.

Hey, being trans can be hard. be nice to a trans person :)

I’m reading Witch King by Martha Wells, and now that I have read more than one (1) series by this author, I have been suddenly brained with a two-by-four sharpied over with “realizing that I really enjoy novels by Martha Wells because they live in the specific niche created by the intersection of casually and thoroughly queer casts and non-romance storylines”

I am as ever a sucker for non-human main characters struggling with their very human feelings, which is why I jumped on Witch King the moment I saw “the author of Murderbot wrote another book with a main character that’s non-human,” but I live in this dichotomy where I can really enjoy reading queer romances but I don’t really identify with non-ace characters (which is not actually something I figured out how to differentiate until I was Last Week Years Old). so there are lots of books out there that I enjoy reading but it’s comparatively rare for me to read something that feels like it was written For Me and Martha Wells does that very well

anyway, give me more ace it-pronouns human-spliced robot main characters and people-eating demons who consider rank over gender when finding new bodies to inhabit

Dysphoric culture is wanting a phalloplasty without a vaginectomy and not being able to find any doctors who've ever done it, and then crying because you know your ideal configuration apparently isn't a thing that happens.

I want to keep my vulva/vagina, but I still want a penis, and I can't tell you the amount of times I've cried because I don't think this type of surgery is even done or, if it is, done in the US at least. It sucks so much.

Dysphoric culture is!

Also anon, great news: this surgery is real! It’s called vagina-preserving phalloplasty or VPP.

There aren’t a ton of surgeons who perform it in the US but some (from the Crane Center in California) are listed here. There’s also someone in New York that talked about getting a vagina-preserving metoidioplasty in a news article but mod doesn’t know who their surgeon was. More info and some more surgeons are here.

More people are getting nonbinary bottom surgeries so there are slightly more resources around now. Good luck anon!

(For those wanting the opposite of this, phallus-preserving vaginoplasty exists too.)

I hope everyone knows that Jago is canonly a trans man 🙏 and that everyone respect that fact without being weird about it

Reminder that your OC doesn't have to be Bi to be with him! Implying that you have to be bisexual to be attracted to trans people can be seen as/is transphobic

I want to make IT REALLY DAMN CLEAR that there's NOTHING wrong with shipping him with a bisexual person BUT if the only reason they're bisexual is because Jago is trans, that's not good! This might be due to internalize transphobia and you need to unlearn this false "rule", if someone tries to force that fact into you or your ship, be wary of their intention

And Yes that's something that need to be said in this fandom, I'm sadly aware someone though it was cool to imply Mitch must be bi in my ship since Valentin is trans. I have a guess as to who it was, you're just being transphobic yet again, but it's nothing surprising

Be aware of the lurking terfs and happy shipping 🤠✌

EDIT to add that screenshot of the data MrHands gives you

"Born as Jagoda" Jagoda being a commonly feminine slavic name !

wait james somerton sounds a lot like some people on tumblr when they start spouting off about queer history or supposed controversies within it. is that where you guys are getting your stuff? is it james somerton brain poisoning?