#(it was very cathartic)

[adrift-in-thyme]

@chaosfantasmic at long last, the fic you asked for is here! (the one about aro/ace Warriors and the Chain supporting him.) And today of all days too XD. I hope you enjoy

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Warriors should have seen it coming.

It’s only a logical thread of events, after all, for the others to see him with Artemis, observe their closeness, their surprisingly easy way with each other, their trust in a world that seeks to crush anything resembling such an emotion…and to assume that they are together.

Romantically.

It is the way things work in this world. Most people believe romantic love is the strongest of all loves, the deepest, the most potent, the one that matters more than anything else. They think that to feel it is to heal wounds and make oneself whole. 

Yet…they forget that there are other forms of love. They ignore the fact that there are other ways to make oneself whole. 

But Warriors has no desire to get worked up about it. Perhaps, the vast majority of people do feel such an emotion toward another. Perhaps, some must feel it to truly connect. Who is he to deny them that?

That doesn’t mean, however, that he needs it. He doesn’t, to be truthful. What he feels toward Artemis is stronger than that, different than that. 

He has never yearned to love in the way others speak of. He has never wanted to be touched in the same ways, to walk the same path to the same destination, to be linked to one person in the way his parents were or Time and Malon are.

Years ago, when he was young and naive, that had bothered him. To be set apart is to be lost amongst the crowd…

Or to be noticed for all of the wrong reasons.

(That, at least, had prepared him for being a hero.)

And though this…difference had been relatively easy to hide, that hadn’t simplified things all that much. It had always managed to slip out anyway, to make itself known. 

But he had kept it buried to the best of his ability. Still, he keeps it buried. Still, he has those broken parts tucked neatly away, safely hidden behind a pristine facade and winning grin. 

And that is not so bad. It’s simply what one does, isn’t it? Only those you trust completely are allowed full entrance to your heart. 

He can count those people on the fingers of one hand. And only one of them stands amongst the group of heroes he sits with now. 

Time has not said a word about it since they reunited. And that is something Warriors takes comfort in. The Hero of Time possesses secrets in droves. He knows how to keep them. He knows how to earn someone’s trust and hold it close, lock it away so that none can shatter it.

Even the rambunctious boy he parted with only recently had held that quality. Warriors is thankful for it.

It cannot, however, save him from the prying questions of the others. It cannot shield him when, one rainy night, as the group huddles beneath a cave in Wild’s Hyrule, Wind leans in and teasingly asks if Warriors is in love with his Zelda.

It’s not as though the boy singled him out specifically. The conversation had been about the heroes and their relationships with the Zelda’s present in their times. But Warriors feels his throat grow tight anyway. 

“Come on,” Wild pipes up, a dry chuckle on his lips as his eyes form a quick upward arc. “Of course, they’re in love. Have you seen those two together?” 

“Can’t separate ‘em, the two loverbirds,” Twilight teases. His elbow bumps against Warriors’. 

Wild laughs. Sky smiles, warmly, and Wind beams. Warriors’ heart clenches. 

It would be so easy to play along. Just as he always does. So, so simple to pretend again. Put on the cloak of “normalcy”. But…

Across the fire, Time catches his eye. Though he keeps his face carefully expressionless, Warriors can see the reassurance shining there. He swallows, ducks his head. A chuckle breaks free – an attempt at bringing some levity to the situation. 

But…they are his brothers. They already know more about him – hell they’ve already broken down more of his walls – than a good portion of people he has known throughout his life. 

They have, he realizes with sudden shock, even come close to making it into the circle of his most trusted. 

“I’m – ” 

His voice must sound less easy than he thinks it does because Wind’s eyebrows dip. Time’s lips lift just slightly. He plows on.

“What I feel toward Zelda isn’t…it isn’t what you all are thinking it is.”

The words come out in a rush, like a waterfall busting through a collapsing dam. In the wake of it, all eyes are on him.

“What’d you mean?” Wind asks. “You don’t love her?”

Warriors swallows. “Of course, I love her,” he says, cheeks heating as he echoes Wild. “Just not…not like that.”

“Oh, so you’re friends, then,” Hyrule says, the sentence part question, part statement.

“No.” It’s Legend now. He has been uncharacteristically quiet for most of the conversation, but his voice is steady, calm. His violet eyes are sharp, boring into Warriors’ soul. “You’re more than that, aren’t you? More than friends, more than lovers. Somewhere in between. Soulmates without the romance.”

Warriors can only stare at him for a moment. “Yes,” he replies, dumbly. “Exactly.”

Legend smirks. “Takes one to know one, pretty boy. I’ve suspected from the start.”

Another chuckle escapes, this one slightly less choked. Warriors feels a smile start to form across his face.

Of all the ways he expected this to go, finding someone like him is not one of them. But it is wonderful, absolutely wonderful. A breath of fresh air after a lifetime of staleness. 

He hadn’t realized how deeply he had yearned for it.

“So…” Wild looks between the veteran and the captain, head cocked like a curious dog. “You’re both not in love with your Zeldas. Romantically. Right?”

“I’m not in love with anyone romantically,” Warriors says, slowly, tasting the words and the sweet relief they leave behind. “I don’t feel that kind of attraction.” 

“Um, what about the other kind of attraction?” Hyrule asks, somewhat nervously. Four snickers.

Warriors laughs as Legend rolls his eyes. “No, not that one either.”

“Weird,” Wind breathes, grinning. “But a good weird! A cool weird!”

“Yeah,” Wild agrees. “It’s interesting.” He smiles. “I met a couple in my Hyrule who had something like your more-than-friendship thing going on. But I never really gave it much thought. And I definitely didn’t expect for two of you guys to feel the same way as they did.”

A chorus of voices rumble echo throughout the group in wonder and support. Heads nod in encouragement and understanding. 

Twilight sets a hand on Warriors’ shoulder. His expression is kind. “I’m glad you told us, captain. And I apologize if our teasing offended ya.”

“Not at all.” 

Warriors smiles at them all and they smile back. No disappointment colors those faces, no condescension or contempt. Only love. Not quite like what he feels for Zelda, but just as strong. Yes, just as strong. 

Time catches his eye again and gives a slow nod of approval. Warriors’ smile grows. 

He sits back, breathing a sigh of relief, ruffling his fingers playfully through Wind’s hair as the boy snuggles into his scarf. And he listens as the conversation turns gracefully toward other things – weapons and battle stories and strategies – thankful for this moment and the comfort it has brought him. Thankful for those who understand, and those who are willing to listen and accept even when they don’t.

Thankful, most of all, to feel so very loved.

[higgsboshark]

My absolute favorite movie costuming this decade is the scene in Glass Onion where the characters are wearing masks. One look at each of them and we know EXACTLY what kind of person they are.

Benoit patterned, out of place. Lionel unobtrusively plain. Claire with her nose hanging out. Birdy and the fishnet!?! Come on.

Total genius. Never has so much character exposition been done by so few square inches of fabric.

[pinkautist]

i am strong.

i know i am strong because i am alive.

even though being alive hurts so much sometimes.

i am still here,

still able to witness the beauty in sunsets and music.

still able to learn what it means to love.

still able to learn what it means to be me.

i am hurt,

but i am strong,

and i am here

alive.

[bigmeandragonlady]

Werlyt

[authortist]

Let's see how many kdramas I can finish in one day.

[gaelic-symphony]

5 and 21!

5. What character do you hate?

Ashley Seaver, and I'll tell you why! Because while it is true that a lot of the hate she gets is unjustified and rooted in misogyny, my reasons for hating her are legitimate and correct. My issue with Seaver is that she quite simply and unequivocally has not earned her place on that team and should not be working with them. It is established multiple times over the course of the show that the BAU is an elite unit of highly trained agents; it is not a place for rookies or trainees. You need to bring something to the table, some sort of skill or training or qualification. Luke was a manhunter. Hotch was a prosecutor. Spencer, Alex, and Tara all have doctorates. My girl Emily Prentiss is a multilingual Yale graduate and highly trained spy, and she still had to fight and claw her way to being accepted and respected by the team. Now you want to tell me that her sort-of replacement is some fresh-faced KID who literally graduates from the Academy during her time with the team and has no special skills or qualifications other than the fact that her dad killed a bunch of people??? Fuck that noise. And sure, that probably wouldn't be a reason to hate Seaver if she were a real person who actually existed, especially when she seems like a nice girl who's trying her best and has had a really tough road in life, but she's not a real person who actually exists. She's a fictional character created by a misogynistic writers' room because CBS decided that what the show truly needed was a hot, young girl (I won't even get into the infuriating stupidity of deciding you need someone hot when you literally have PAGET FUCKING BREWSTER in the cast), so they wrote off two seasoned, experienced female agents who were actually incredibly good at their jobs, and decided to replace them with an unqualified rookie who doesn't know anything and pretend like she can just jump in and immediately do the same job as Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan. And yeah, I get the Clarice Starling parallels, and I can see how it's meant to be an homage, but it's still bad, and it doesn't work, and the entire existence of Ashley Seaver as a character is just inextricably linked to this terrible, stupid, sexist decision the showrunners made in Season 6, and that is why I despise her so deeply.

21. Who is your favorite criminal?

While I do think that his arc dragged on way too long, Mr. Scratch is at least somewhat indirectly responsible for giving us Temily, and for that alone he is superior to all others.

[gayfirebird]

hello, uh, are you ok?

you've been posting about emails a lot

heheh thanks bud, i have been having A fucking time.

I am in the position where I have to tell people to not contact me on work related stuff by whatsapp and am asking for emails...

imagine that.. asking for emails.

[xwinterdreams-blog]

Ooh fuck, no, what am I thinking. Tell me about Speak Into the Silence. What a good title.

Yay I’m glad you asked! (And yes titles are hard, but song lyrics are lifesavers) this is set during the blip, bit canon divergent. Tony is alone in his cabin, suffering under the weight of all the people they lost. Here’s a little snippet:

Tony sighed. If he knew Steve, and even after all these years he was certain he did, he would be staying as strong as he ever did. Helping others as much as possible, keeping firm to the belief that there was still good to be found in the world.

With an aching clarity, he knew what he needed. Usually when he felt this bad he smashed something into tiny little pieces. Or got hammered. But it always ended with him crying himself to sleep.

He couldn’t do that tonight. He couldn’t be alone and he couldn’t stay in this house for one more second. He grabbed his keys and was speeding away in minutes.

What he wanted, what he needed, was to be told that everything was going to be okay. Even if it was a lie. He just needed to believe it. Just for one night. There was only one person with the surety to do it. Despite everything.

If Steve Rogers told him that he was going to be okay, he knew he would believe him.

——

Basically hurt/comfort, mutual grief, bed sharing, first meeting since cw, resolving issues, and figuring out their feelings for each other.

[fucksindeep]

Everyone please wish mild discomfort on vasilevskiy to power the curse me and Rox put on him

[jedi-starbird]

'Desert hermit Ben Kenobi develops a reputation as a crazy wizard because he keeps talking to thin air.'

No. This is Tatooine, talking to yourself is hardly the weirdest thing they've seen. Ben Kenobi, however, keeps having full on fucking screaming rows with thin air and seemingly gets replies back, which is decidedly a step up.

(They've managed to piece together that a major point of contention is the acquisition and raising of a child? Clearly Ben is a wizard that had a bitter divorce with a desert spirit and is working through a custody dispute)

[wanderingmind867]

I just made a while long post where I screamed at the horror genre and said I wanted all those involved to burn. It was a very irrational post, but it was so cathartic. I really hate horror, and getting to hurl profanities at the genre was truly wonderful. It's nice to imagine a Seventh Circle of Hell for all those who have traumatized me. This is why my dad sometimes says I could probably write horror despite hating it. I have a dark mind when it comes to those who have traumatized me.

[imherestandinghollow]

You ever watch a movie so good, so sad it makes you have a spiritual conversation with somebody who isnt there? A disembodied persona in your head and hope that someone is actually listening to you?

[myawkwardvoid]

Did i make a presentacion on why i was mad that they killed my favourite character? Yes.

Did i also make it 34 slides long?? Yes i did.

[barawrah]

i think they should sit together and drink tea . maybe the grief of not saying goodbye to your most important person before they died will ebb away a little bit

[darkmacademia]

'abstract (psychopomp)' by hozier but you've pulled over on a highway while a thunderstorm is about to roll over and you're watching the cars rush past, remembering what it means to be alive

[marley-manson]

the topic is Trapper and the army as foils, you have three hours, go

In no small part the satire of Mash, particularly in the first half of the show, is tied up with gender performance.

The army represents traditional, stifling and violent masculinity. This is shown through everything from freudian jokes about guns (eg Frank and Margaret's flirtations in The Sniper or The Gun), to Margaret trying to cajole Hawkeye into performing a more traditional standard of masculinity while treating him like a soldier in Comrades in Arms Part 2, to many jokes and comments about (usually) Hawkeye not being a real man in contrast to army standards and various specific army personnel (eg Lyle in Springtime, Flagg in White Gold), to Frank and Margaret's worship of the masculinity of the army ("He's twice the man you'll ever be," re: Flagg and Hawkeye, Margaret's lust for MacArthur, Frank pursuing the sniper in The Sniper in an attempt to be a "real man" in Margaret's eyes, etc) to many jokes positioning the military as a sexually aggressive man pursuing Hawkeye ("Sure, the sun the moon the stars, your high school letterman jacket. Same deal I promised nurse Baker." "A receipt please, and promise you'll go out with other doctors," etc.)

In contrast, the main characters all fail to perform traditional gender in some way, from crossdressing to immaturity to indecisiveness to peacefulness to Margaret's masculinity and Frank's pathetic failure to live up to his own masculine ideals, to just about everything about Hawkeye. His cowardliness, his jokes about not being a real man, his jokes about taking the feminine role in sexual encounters with men and women, even multiple double entendres about his average at best penis size.

Trapper is the most traditionally masculine of the main cast. He still subverts masculinity in some subtle ways here and there, such as the occasional feminizing joke and mentions of not being in great shape, but overall he's the more butch counterpart to Hawkeye's fem. He plays the role of boxer while Hawkeye plays the role of diva in their respective manager/star roleplaying episodes. He's broader and buffer and plays football, often seen playing catch with someone while walking around the compound, while Hawkeye disdains sports and doesn't participate. He reads Field and Stream which Hawkeye derides in Alcoholics Unanimous while making a wry comment about shaving his armpits. A past lover nicknamed him Big John.

And there are many, many jokes about Hawkeye and Trapper being sexual partners. The recurring Uncle Trapper and Aunt Hawkeye gag, if my father sees this you'll have to marry me, for me? only if you put those on, your father and I will tell you what we did to have you, that's when I fell in love with him, etc etc etc. It's constant. In these jokes Hawkeye usually takes the feminine role, though not strictly every time ("Me and the missus," is one exception in As You Were, the dance in Yankee Doodle Doctor is another).

Trapper's masculinity is differentiated from traditional military masculinity in a few ways. Most obviously, Trapper abhors the military's violence. He never uses guns and mocks Frank's obsession with them, he's a healer rather than a soldier, and he's disgusted by the results of military violence on the men on his operating table.

He's also secure in himself. The military's brand of masculinity is strongly characterized by insecurity and overcompensation. Frank is the main representative of this military insecurity - a coward who insists he's brave (The Army Navy Game), a man who clings to a phallic gun to compensate for his sexual and gendered inadequacies (a main theme of The Sniper, perfectly mirrored when the army itself comes in with a vastly disproprotionately powerful automatic machine gun on a helicopter to shoot down one sixteen year old), a homophobe repressing his own attraction to men (As You Were, the original script of George), etc. We also see this in Flagg, who implicitly sublimates sexual urges into violence (seen when he suggestively caresses his gun while describing how he wants to torture a boy in Officer of the Day).

Trapper doesn't need to overcompensate. He's well-endowed physically, he's portrayed as a competent and considerate lover, he's a brave man who doesn't mind being seen as a coward, and he may or may not be attracted to men but either way he's not a homophobe (George) and he doesn't express his sexuality through violence. When Margaret proves herself stronger than him, his response is to be impressed rather than offended (Bombed). When he dances with Hawkeye for a gag, he doesn't mind letting Hawkeye lead.

He's also differentiated in terms of tradition, with the mliitary representing a more propagandic 50s traditionalism, and Trapper representing a 70s, countercultural freedom from tradition. We see this in the way Trapper has plenty of sex despite being married, while adultery is a court-martial offense in the military. It's notable that he's open and carefree about it, while Frank and Margaret are surreptitious and hypocritical in their affair. This lack of traditionalism is also shown in his disrespect for authority, often in direct contrast to Frank and Margaret's worship of it, and his allyship to George who the military would persecute for his sexuality.

So ultimately we can see that while Trapper and the military are both examples of masculine performance, Trapper's masculinity differs from the military's in being more flexible, less violent, less traditional, and more secure. The military's masculinity is far more toxic than Trapper's, particularly in the context of 70s counterculture media, which aligns womanizing with sexual liberation rather than a lack of respect for women, accurately or not.

This contributes to their respective dynamics with Hawkeye.

Hawkeye, we've established, is usually more feminine, and there are a myriad of jokes characterizing Trapper as his sexual partner, as well as the military as a sexual pursuer.

The jokes Hawkeye and Trapper make about their relationship tend towards cozy domesticity. They're Radar's "aunt and uncle," they directly roleplay marriage ("Martha, we're going to have to move, the people upstairs are impossible,") and less directly behave as though married (the bickering in Alcoholics Unanimous, the discussion about naming their pony in Life With Father). Occasionally they're treated as a healthy couple in contrast to Frank and Margaret's toxicity ("While I'm gone, promise you'll go out with other doctors," vs "Touch anyone else and I'll cut off your hands" in Aid Station).

In some instances the jokes lean towards predatory - "If you're trying to get me drunk, it'll work," or "Who is this man in bed with me?" "I followed you home from the movies," but they're always playful, always fond. If Hawkeye takes on a submissive or victimized role in these jokes, it's one he has fun with and discards just as easily in the context of the rest of his relationship with Trapper.

So, it's important to note that Hawkeye and Trapper support each other and look after each other in an equal, enthusiastic friendship. From Trapper ensuring Hawkeye gets to sleep in Doctor Pierce and Mr. Hyde, to Hawkeye supporting Trapper when he wants to adopt a child, to Trapper right at Hawkeye's side as they attempt to procure an incubator, they are there for each other every step of the way. If their relationship is a marriage in some ways, it's a healthy, strong, and non-traditional marriage, an equal and open partnership free of jealousy and insecurities.

Compare that to the military's relationship with Hawkeye. In jokes it's characterized as powerful and predatory, far from an equal partnership. Sometimes it approaches positive - in Carry on Hawkeye, much of the humour is derived from Hawkeye and Margaret's gendered role reversal as she assumes military command of the unit. Hawkeye playfully calls her sir, seductively lies on her desk like a secretary in a porn film, and most notably treats an immunization shot as sexual penetration in a prolonged gag about sexual role reversal. Hawkeye has fun playing a sexually submissive role to a representative of military authority in this episode, but it is a submissive role.

Several of the one-off jokes have a similar sensibility, such as the double entendre of "My bellybutton's been puckering and unpuckering all day," in response to a representative of MacArthur assuming their excitement over the general's arrival to the unit, or Hawkeye's "Okay, take me, I'm yours," to Colonel Flagg. They demonstrate a willingness to play the receptive role on Hawkeye's part, but they also, pointedly, disturb the object of the jokes.

When Hawkeye makes these jokes that sexualize military authority, he's attempting to be provocative as well as defiantly drawing disruptive attention to his own powerlessness as a drafted surgeon. The power dynamic between Hawkeye and the authority of the military only goes one way, and Hawkeye gets a kick out of pointing it out in ways that perturb the representatives of that authority, but it's a power dynamic that takes its toll on him.

Many of Mash's plotlines revolve around Hawkeye rebelling and attempting to seize some scrap of agency back from the military. Adam's Ribs, for example, in which he starts a mild riot over the food he's being fed and spends the episode attempting to procure barbecue ribs from Chicago (which Trapper procures for him), or Back Pay where he tries to charge the military for his forced labour. A particularly notable example is Some 38th Parallels, in which Hawkeye complains about being paid the equivalent of a nickel per operation, and his frustration manifests in impotency until he can perform a gesture of rebellion against the military.

One unfortunate consistency of these episodes is that the army ultimately retains its power. When Hawkeye achieves his goals, it's only in small ways that do little more than satisfy his own need to assert his sense of self. Often, Hawkeye doesn't achieve his goal at all, but is thwarted by the army, such as in For Want of a Boot. In every instance he remains powerless in comparison to the authority of the military.

So the context in which Hawkeye makes these sexualized jokes about the military literally fucking him is one of abject helplessness. In a sense, all he's capable of is pointing out what the military is doing and putting it in his own, audacious terms. He's not capable of preventing it. His jokes usually have an edge of bitterness to them in delivery, and when they don't, that tone is imparted anyway by the greater context.

With Trapper, Hawkeye can play-act a marriage or an assault, but in either case he's an enthusiastically consenting, equal partner. Trapper's performance of masculinity allows for Hawkeye to take any role from victim to wife to husband, and enables Trapper to respond in kind from a position of equality and respect. The military, in its insecure, domineering performance of masculinity, is a dictatorial authority, never allowing Hawkeye perform any role but a feminized, victimized one, and only ever giving him the choice of whether to perform with a wry smile or a sneer.

In short, Trapper is the cool, considerate service top to the military's insecure domineering boyfriend.

I'm tagging everyone who enabled this lol, share the blame. @beansterpie @majorbaby @professormcguire @rescue-ram