alollinglaughingcat

[alollinglaughingcat]

NO EXACTLY LIKE WHAT.

except. okay ive gotten used to horny media, like that's completely normal to me yep

but when REAL people?????? mention they do things????? date people???? im like HELLO???? WHAT?????

i have a teenage coworker (she's like 3-4 years younger than me lmao) and she????? keeps talking about her love life and like she asked this volunteer at work out?!?!?! and im like?!?!?! HUHHHG?????????????????? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT??????

like its so INSANE. to me. that she is experiencing GENUINE ATTRACTION to these people???? like how?!??!?! can you look at a human being and be like "yeah i'd hit it" WHAT????????????????

she only saw this guy ONCE

and SHE ALREADY HAS HIS NUMBER

WTF

On a completely unrelated note hey btw is it an asexual thing to be legitimately terrified of how regularly people and media are horny or am I insane

[alollinglaughingcat]

In celebration of The Inky Mystery returning from hiatus, I made this: the biggest personal project I've made thus far!! :D

[alollinglaughingcat]

this feels like a threat/silly

[alollinglaughingcat]

Sans-centric UTMV stuff like Underverse is so funny to me cuz like. Imagine you’ve been exposed to the wonders of the multiverse, only to find out nearly every being of multiversal importance is a variant of the same guy. And it’s just some random dude. Like obviously sans has a lot more going on than he lets on but that’s the persona he presents to most people. So if you were from a normal timeline you’d most likely know sans as just “the guy who hangs around grillby’s” or “the guy who works the hot dog stand” or something along those lines. And then you see 2 copies of hot dog guy duking it out for the fate of reality. Could you imagine.

[alollinglaughingcat]

You know what? Forget the discourse. This is no longer my hill to die on.

You wanna ship canonically aspec characters because “aro/ace people can still date/have sex”? Okay, then. LET’S DO IT.  I wanna see an aromantic character with an alloromantic love interest. I wanna see that confession of undying love and the moment when the aro character says they will never feel the same way—not romantically.

I wanna see the asexual character with their allosexual partner. I wanna see that moment when the ace characters tries sex with their partner for the first time because they want to make them happy only to realize that they are 100% sex repulsed.

I wanna see the two demiromantics who don’t even know if what they feel is romantic attraction, but they adore each other and just want to make healthy snacks together and destroy each other at Mario Kart.

I wanna see the two aces who love sensual affection and are figuring out what they define as sexual or not.

I wanna see the romance + sex neutral aroace who happily and consensually does whatever makes their partner happy…but their partner still struggles with feeling undesired. 

Oh, babe. You thought shipping an aspec character would be just like shipping an allo character? 

[alollinglaughingcat]

The Argument

next

[alollinglaughingcat]

at this point sans undertale is an open species

[alollinglaughingcat]

You have just been magically transported into a random ao3 fic!

Spin the wheel of ao3 tags three times to find out what your fic is about. Put in the tags what your fic tags are!

[alollinglaughingcat]

animated a krusie moment... can't believe this is a real scene that happens

[alollinglaughingcat]

Check the PMV HERE!

OMG OMG OMG!!!! I HADNT SEEN THIS ONE BEFORE (I usually check out the fanart when it is published and then comment when I have moment to write more than "thank you" but I had totally skipped this one somehow??)

THIS IS SO GOOD OMG

LOVE how u used the palettes from the comic, made the scenes so recognizable

Style? amazing! Love the thick minimal lineart it looks so gooooood

the "but god always has a plan" scene is so gooooooood GUARD IS SO MAD THATS HIS BABY GIRL

The "quiet modest young lady" is so fitting AND I LOVE HOW YOU DREW GINGER MY GIRL IS SO CUTE SO ADORABLE

The blood puking scene is BEAUTIFUL and so tragic OMG MY BABY you made the emotions so RAW

The ending is so simple but still hits so hard

It is wonderful thank u so so much!!!!! I will watch it again and again <3

[alollinglaughingcat]

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about some of the people I interact with. I have a coworker who I am pretty sure is a MAGA type, and she is also a lovely woman who is dreadfully overworked and so good at connecting to patients when they call. I can see the conflict on her face when she talks to me, a gigantic tranny dork who speaks Spanish and affirms the LGBT community, but can also talk to her about her cows and knows about guns and stuff. I can see the fear in the eyes of my former Young Men’s leader when he misgenders me and realizes that I’m not an ideology but a person he has known for a long time. I can see the way my extended family stop and stutter over political discussions when they realize they are talking about me. And I don’t know why but lately it’s just made me think about my neighbor as a kid.

When we moved to Arizona, we moved next door to a lovely retired couple - John and Lucy. John was a veteran of WWII, he had an M.D. and a Ph.D. in radiology, and he LOVED us to pieces. His wife, Lucy, was a sharp and gifted woman - well spoken, very observant, and VERY clever. I just know that she used that cleverness as a mom to great effect, because with my and my siblings she always managed to find a way to send us home with candy and treats for a week despite my dad’s protests. We loved them, growing up, and even though they have long-since passed away I love them still, and I love what I learned from them.

John was, as stated, a WWII veteran. He was enlisted as a rifleman, and later as a front line medic, starting at Point Du Hoc and moving inwards to France and towards the Rhine. He let me do a report on him in 6th grade where he shared war stories with me he had kept to himself his whole life - he said it was out of respect for his friends who didn’t get to come home and tell their stories.

He said he told me because he knew I could respect the memories of his friends.

He showed me his collection of medals, and which he’d kept hidden away in a sock in his attic because he’d feel an immense grief any time he saw them. He had wanted to be a doctor his whole life, prior to being drafted he was studying medicine and had taken the Hippocratic oath to Do No Harm. He saw his medals as a reminder that he had Done Harm.

After telling me his stories he was able to convince himself that while he had Done Harm, it was only because his only other alternative was, to him, cowardice. He chose to be brave even if it meant acting against his Oath because he felt that if he didn’t do it someone else would have to go in his place and he would be responsible for the harm that befell them. I don’t think that’s true, but for him it was and that was something no being on earth could have ever dissuaded him from believing.

He shared wild stories - melee combat on the beach, clearing artillery bunkers, receiving a Purple Heart for being injured in hand-to-hand combat with a Wehrmacht rifleman he said he felt pity for because they were the same age and he had to imagine the man he was fighting had been drafted just like him.

He shared how he was awarded a Silver Star for charging a machine gun nest, but shared that he was most proud of not killing anyone in the process. He threw a grenade with the pin still in it and when the machine gunners jumped to avoid being blown up they were killed by someone else so he didn’t have to do it. He took the machine gun and shot the other machine gun in that French field to pieces so he didn’t have to kill the people operating it. He said they were giving out Silver Stars like candy but I knew he was being modest.

He told me about being redesignated as a medic, about how he crawled for about 500 yards on his belly to rescue an injured tank driver, then threw him over his back and crawled the same 500 yards back (1000 yards total) to treat his injuries. He said he met the man in an Army hospital in England after his spine was broken by a high explosive panzer shell was fired through a hollowed out French farmhouse and landed about 20 feet away from him.

He told me about all the people he helped and saved as a medic, he told me about his work in radiology and research after the war. He showed me a hallway that was quite literally wallpapered with academic honors he’d earned as a researcher. He told me about how his first Fourth of July back was a horror show for him because fireworks and German artillery make very similar sounds. He told me about how he woke up in a cold sweat well over half a century later hearing the screams of German artillery men being burned alive with flamethrowers, or hearing his own voice apologizing to the young German soldier he stabbed in the heart at Point Du Hoc.

He told me that when he was asked to present at a medical conference in Germany 25 years after the war ended that he was so scared he couldn’t step off the plane, and that his wife had to hold his hand and lead/pull him with her. He said he was not scared because he was worried about being triggered, but because he knew that someone somewhere outside of that plane had the course of their life irreparably altered by his military service. That to someone out there he was the cause of immense suffering and harm. That some unwitting waiter could be the son of the Nazi Officer he stabbed in the heart with a 12-inch hunting knife. That some woman asking questions in the audience would be the daughter or widow of a man he sent to judgement with a .30-06. He was scared that they would hate him.

He knew what the Nazi’s had done, he knew better than anyone I’d ever met. He’d watched the documentaries, he’s seen the PoWs returning from camps, he’d seen the civilians massacred and tortured by their regime, but he also knew that among the monsters were people like him - idealistic 20-somethings who only wanted to make the world better and were ripped away from that life by the Nazi war machine. And he spent his whole life mourning the loss of innocence and peace that was forced on so many people by such a corrupt power.

To be honest I don’t know if I could do that, but he could. He told me he could still feel the dead and lost with him, both when he slept and when he woke. He told me he thought he’d go to his grave never having told a word of this to anyone. That the stories of him and his friends and allies would disappear silently with him and those like him. That he had wanted that until he realized that he didn’t have to sell out to share the stories - that he could give the stories away for free to someone who would love the people in them, and not just the content of them. He didn’t want his stories to be used as Patriotic Pornography by some TV network or magazine. He wanted the people he knew to be respected, he wanted their memories to be honored and loved, and he entrusted me, a 12-year-old “boy” to do that.

He told me for years afterwards that after telling me these stories that he slept better than he ever had. That by sharing the stories with someone who could hear Him over the din of victory and glory and honor and revisionistic history. Someone who could see the man in the story and not just see the plot of a battle being won. He wanted to be human, and he wanted the people he saw die to be human too - everyone, not just the people on his side. He wanted someone to see and to know the anguish of having to look someone in the eye as heartblood muddies the ground beneath them and hope that they understand that this was not an act of love or hatred but an act of desperation. To hope that you had just taken out One Of The Bad Ones instead of a medical student or a poet who had been drafted. He wanted me to see how hard he had worked since then to build a world without scarcity, to build a world of peace. He wanted me to know SO badly that the cost of violence, any violence, even necessary violence, is always ALWAYS paid by both parties involved.

I think about the rise of the new right wing - the new Nazi movement’s traction in politics, and I feel sad and scared - the world that Johnathan J Yobaggy, my neighbor, my friend, and my hero, worked SO hard to build is being done away with by people who do not understand the cost of the path they are entering. I can see brief moments of recognition in the eyes of some of the people I mentioned - The former young men’s president who immediately regrets misgendering me and hen he makes eye contact with me and sees Me staring back at him and not a faceless “ideology.” I can hear it in the voice of my uncle who quietly comes up to me to apologize for some homophobic comment he made absentmindedly. I can see it in the eyes of racists and sexists being interviewed on TV when they realize that they didn’t vote for a concept, they voted for a real thing. And honestly, I have mixed emotions about it. Because while I understand frustration with the status quo, the importance of basic human needs like affordable good and rent, and I know the fear that comes with feeling powerless, I also can’t help but grieve the endless wheel of history bringing us back to this God Damned Fucking Place again. I hope we can avoid this fate, not just for our sake but for the sake of everyone who has ever tried to make the world safer. For everyone who has ever tried to make up for human nature, for everyone who has ever placed themselves on the offering plate to protect others from the cruelty they know lies just under the surface of mankind’s tenuous grip on progress. I want SO badly for there to be a solution to this, for the people who idolize the Nazi party and the impact of fascism to see that the price of this path is paid in more than just blood but in soul. That they’re allowing themselves to be devoured too. I want for the centrists and the fence sitters and the idealists who want to “change it from the inside” to see how dangerous our politics have become. I want them to see that they’re losing the things that make them great in exchange for a security blanket that’s now become far far far too small to ever work for them again.

Safety found in the past is already gone, and safety found in the future is only as real as a daydream. That any ideology that promises that by “joining us now we’ll make things rough so we can make things safe in a decade” is a promise made by those who will not have to fight the battles they send you to.

I don’t know if America was ever really great, but as long as John was alive it felt great to me. There is no ideology that can replace a neighbor. No tax plan that can replace a friend. No grocery bill that can replace community and connection. No amount of budget cuts that can replace kindness. No amount of suffering from people I hate that will ever make more love. I don’t know how to make America great, but I know how to make my America great and it is not by selling out integrity and compassion and community and fucking humanity to make eggs and gas cheaper. It is by seeing and hearing the people around me. I’m not Mormon anymore, but I still know the value of mourning with those that mourn and comforting those that stand in need of comfort. I’m not Christian anymore but I still have Eyes That Can See and Ears That Can Hear. I want to make this all stop but I can’t stop the collective power of tens of millions of people so instead I listen to my MAGA coworker tell me about how sick her kid was last week. I make jokes with my Young Men’s leader. I hug my uncle. I let them see me fully, as a human and not an ideology. As a woman and not the concept of gender. As a whole person and not someone who can be easily summarized or boiled down into something short and quippy. And I let them know I can see them fully too, and I can see all their humanity as easily as they can see mine. I just have to hope that this works - that enough people can See and Hear the people in their lives who matter to them to bring them out of their personal world of forms and into the real world.

I am probably, honestly, just spiraling a little bit. I took my ADHD meds today and in addition to helping me focus they make me a little anxious so I doubt things are as bad right now as they seem. But just in case there’s any truth to the way things seem to be going, remember, and I mean this seriously: Be kinder to each other, be gayer, and read more Terry Pratchett.

And for the love of god day hello to your neighbor.

[alollinglaughingcat]

Twenty Questions: Writer Edition

tagged by @firealder2005 !

Q. How many works do you have on AO3?

just 35, im not a huge one-shot writer, i prefer longfics with extended universes... that i never finish lol

Q. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Several Superheroes are Typing... (2,745) (Miraculous Ladybug) Into The Abyss (1,981) (The Owl House) Living To Die (1,711) (The Owl House) Burning Thistles (1,397) (Warrior Cats) Taking the Mask Off (1,130) (The Owl House)

...I am shocked BT wasn't the highest. To be fair, I think what happened, is I was writing TOH fics at the PEAK of TOH fandom. So, lots of readers craving content. All about the Golden Guard too lol. Everyone wanted a piece of his angst

Q. What fandoms do you write for?

Warrior Cats mostly and yet not at all. If that makes sense. Otherwise, I'm a big fandom hopper. Digimon (not on Ao3), Miraculous Ladybug, Bendy and Boris in the Inky Mystery, The Owl House, Lego Monkie Kid, MCYT (Life series primarily), Batfamily, Eeveelutions... I think those are all the fandoms I've made some kind of media writing for? Slendytubbies I never wrote anything for but also that too ig lmao. Detroit Become Human as well. And Probably some FNAF as a kid.

Q. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to respond to every comment, especially long comments. I read every comment for sure. Sometimes I let them stack up when its like I need brain power to answer.

Q. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

...bold of you to assume I've ever finished a fic.

Uh. An actually finished fic with a bad end.... Probably.... As Sharp as a Broken Cup , an AU one-shot for Inky Mystery. And, piggy backing off that, Holly May in the Cog's Mystery would have had a mostly bad ending too. If I finished it. Lol.

Oh my gosh. No actually, it's Just Me, Myself and Ortensia from my Ortensia Lives Forever AU of IM. TRIGGER WARNING----She just commits suicide over and over again. That is. Probably pretty dark I'd say.

Q. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

lol probably one of the Owl House fics I'd guess. I can't remember the content of each one, so not sure which. but I'm a bittersweet ending kinda gal, so most of my fics and stories reflect that. can't think of a purely fluffy one. what is a story without conflict, anyway?

I guess Alina Shelley-Wayne Meets the Batfamily could classify as a happy ending? i mean, its literally every Batfamily member (of which there are over a hundred it seems) exists to some compacity and Alina is the time travelling, universe hopping link that unites them all. but it's technically unfinished.

Q. Do you get hate on fics?

Nothing crazy. The hate for BT---you have to go searching for it. Which I have for fun lol. There is some fair criticism! I think we've maybe only received one or two direct negative comments? Couldn't even tell ya what they were tho lol.

Q. Do you write smut?

none that I've ever finished/posted! I lose motivation rip. there's some really fun ideas for stories I've had involving smut to some degree, and it always pains me that I either never start them because smut isn't my forte for writing, or I just, lost motivation on one I did start. one day I'll finish a smutfic even if its the death of me.

do you know how much angst you can fit into smut? its crazy.

Q. Do you write crossovers?

Digimon Frontier and Warrior Cats crossover (don't ask me it also included a self-insert idk what i was doin)

Batfamily and Warrior Cats crossover (okay this one actually SLAPPED ngl, and i WISH i could finish it because the plot GOT GOOD)

Q. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge but also i dont really care. steal my intellectual property hehe :3

(except for BT out of respect for Alder)

Q. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i've gotten asked before a few times, no clue if they actually did it or not. so mayhaps, mayhaps not

Q. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes, Burning Thistles is co-written with FireAlder, my irl friend! you probably know me from that, so not gonna explain really lol

OR you know me from Inky Mystery---in which case, I've "co-written" for IM with Tap and Mercowe twice. Once was for a character interview side story, the other was for (gets shot immediately)

I'm not up to date on BABIM (i really really wanna be but i KNOW im gonna get so OBSESSED and i dont have TIME TO BE OBSESSED, i have to WORK and DO SCHOOL, AND DO WORK FOR SCHOOL----sobs), so not sure if saying anything would be a spoiler or not, or whether it's still something that will be in the fic or no lol. would probably have to be re-written anyway to be more accurate tbh

Q. What's your all-time favourite ship?

nothing and everything, all at once. it literally depends on what fandom im in at the time. also, i'll ship anything, but also, i definitely have preferences for what i'll actually be most interested/attached to.

current top ship cause of the fandom i'm in? uhhhh, Mumscarian (with additional characters slipping in and out of the polycule depending on the story beats), but i'm slowly sliding into Deltarune, which is Krusielle WITH Berdly, idk the ship name for all four. but also, "with Berdly," as in, Berdly is just there. he's simultaneously not dating any of them and yet all of them, but also probably just Kris when it comes down to it. i pray the festival gives us more of it please i beg toby fox

obligatory BT-verse favorite: SpottedFrost, with LongCreek(/Oliver), DarkCherry, Featherships, Lightningships, etc. being up there with it

and you know what? have my Digimon ship too: Daisuke/Davis X Ken is so closeted gay being very gay i love it, but also, i love Ken X Takeru/TK a little bit in a "gay awakening for both of them" ngl, AND ALSO!!! PLATONIC TK X HIKARI BEAM GO!!!!! FUCK YOU HIKARI IS AROACE FOREVER AND ALWAYS!!!!! and TK is also ace coded a little bit??? okay but here's my vision okay, Kari is always sought after by all these boys (AND GIRLS), but she never feels the romantic connection with any of them, and TK is her best friend from childhood, and everyone ships them, but she knows she's not in love (AROACE FOREVER!!!!!), and TK does fall in love with her, and she gets scared, but they work it out okay???? QPR for the win????? best friends forever and always???? ooooo imagine QPR TK x Kari with TK dating Daisuke and Ken vjksdfjkfjkfksfsksfksk

man i miss Digimon sm

Q. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

literally all of them man. i wish i finished Several Heroes are Typing. I wish i finished Holly May in the Cog's Mystery. I wish I finished Who Got the Kids in the Divorce? I hope we finish Burning Thistles.

...I'll probably never finish WGTKD, but, man, that one was good. good writing. good plot twists... some i didn't even get to yet. only like 1 or 2 chapters i didnt like. sigh

Q. What are your writing strengths?

everything haha. sorry im egotistical. writing has just like always been my one really good natural strength and ive always been proud of it, but i also know im falling behind, im not writing as much. i definitely know my strengths and flaws, but its hard to articulate. im good at understanding how a reader will read things, i think. i'm always picky about where my "she said" and "he said"s go, because you need to think about placement and order in your writing. your readers eyes move fast, make connections quick, and you need to make things clear for those that are skipping, if that makes sense. i hate reading fics where its not clear whose speaking when where or why because they put two names in a sentence but neither were actually the one speaking.

Q. What are your writing weaknesses?

nothing my writing is perfect

/j. im probably weakest when i dont have momentum going. when i know there's plot holes and im trying to make things work---I can just see all the flaws. I can see where the criticism lies. and I get frustrated when I can't find a way to change it, to make it better, make it natural, make it make sense. when i can tell things are half-assed, when I'm not putting enough description or emotion. im hyper-aware of when my writing is failing, and it causes the rest of the writing to follow to be tainted by bitterness.

that, and probably if i had to write like. real, genuine romance outside of like, scorned lovers and bitter enemies. you tell me people just date each other normally? for fun? with emotions and stuff?

Q. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

i don't think i've really done that tbh. maybe a few words in spanish or something. in german for Digimon, for sure. and some japanese probably a little, but like, english-ified. i'd be willing to do it, except it'd just be google translate my man, sorry

Q. First fandom you wrote fic for?

....you know what, i'm not actually sure if it'd be Warrior Cats or Digimon. I wanna say it HAS to be Warrior Cats, but my earliest memories of fics I can actually remember the plot or idea to are of Digimon fics. like, seasonal crossover fics i would write in notepad. but also. it was probably warrior cats lets be real

Q. Favorite fic you've ever written?

....uhm....gosh....none of them?

I love all of them, but.... none of them are singing to me. Who Got the Kids in the Divorce? is the strongest contender right now. I loved writing the family conflict, the drama. It's the one with the least amount of personal criticisms I can think of right now. I was a little lacklusted in scenes near the end, but I stopped before I could really burn out and ruin it, yknow? so it's just good feelings.

Cog's Mystery, ugh, it had too many flaws, too many embarrassments---I love the idea, good start, crumbled with the actual continuation. too many moving parts i had no idea how to keep track of, especially when we hardly knew the world of IM at the time. literally, i just wanted to write about cat!Felix and cog!Holly and their little pack of creatures, the rest of it was all just "well i guess these characters need to do something....?"

Several Superheroes are Typing---you know what, this one was pretty good. for a chatfic, i felt like i really kept a storyline going, and played with the medium. but alas, motivation was lost, and it fell apart. right when i was about to get cringe with it too. (the warrior cats was too strong)

Aline Wayne Meets the Batfamily---mediocre writing after the first few chapters. much like DC itself, the timeline and plot was getting super chaotic. i for sure had fun writing it, but it dragged on and on, and literally every time i discovered a new Batfam member, it ate at my soul, because, fuck, now i gotta add another chapter, and eventually it wasn't really fun or intriguing anymore and i just stopped and posted the notes cause yeah, no, im not finishing that lol.

Burning Thistles---okay, like, in terms of, "i'll think about this fic forever and ever," yeah, BT is my favorite, but also, in terms of actual writing? hrm. urgh. the issue is BT is SO LONG. i've seen my writing at its best there, and at its worst. I know exactly where the weak points are. but you know what? fuck it, it has flaws, it has plotholes, it has things that make absolutely no goddamn since, it has serious topics handled both good and god awful, it has its "copy-pasted from the official books" moments, it has retconned shit out of nowhere, but i love it, i love it. it makes me happy and its fun to write and its been such a joy to write it with Alder, to have a fic go on this long, that's just made me happy on its own. even if we never finish it, or if it just takes years and years to finish, i'm glad we wrote what we did, and im glad we had fun doing it.

...anyway, tagging whoever wants to, but @thisanimatedphantom , @mercowe , @spectorodyssey , if y'all would like to! and feel free to skip any questions you'd want if you did

[alollinglaughingcat]

reblog this and put in the tags something you watched that terrified you as a child. i was so scared of the hot sauce in spongebob that i refused to be in the room when it was on

[alollinglaughingcat]

"WE DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU / HATE TO SEE YOU CRY, BUT..."

@jumalanpelko got me feeling things again and i'm being so brave about it

Lyrics come from "RGB by Secret Pie" go listen to it NYEOWWW!!!

[alollinglaughingcat]

warrior cats (sub division: cat genetics)

digimon

mcyt lore (hermit/life)

cannibalism*

...omegaverse*

*(cannibalism + omegaverse = cakeverse)

I saw this meme going around on twitter and I think it'll be perfect for this account.

List 5 topics you can talk on for an hour without preparing any material.

[alollinglaughingcat]

its going great

COMICFURY: (for reading the whole thing easier): Covers! - Cover | Jumalanpelko - The fear of god

PATREON (for 1 euro you can get all the pages as I make them) : https://www.patreon.com/c/sysihiltunen

[alollinglaughingcat]

also i think this has been figured out at this point but the whole "i miss queerbaiting" convo is like... the part of queerbaiting that ruled was because the show was usually putting forward two dudes, those two dudes got to have character arcs and motivations and writing behind both of them. they could both be interesting individually. because neither of them were shunted into 'disposable romantic interest' for each other.

but if a gay couple on tv is now supposed to be there, writers can fall for the m/f trap of 'only one of these characters needs to be fleshed out, the other is just here to explicitly be the love interest and maybe die later' except now they can both be dudes. it's not that queerbaiting was inherently better it's that unfortunately people have always been bad at understanding what makes fictional romance compelling, which is 'who the fuck are these people in the first place and why should i care'