#(that's the tag for discussion of sex)

[brother-emperors]

I got. thoughts. about valens and voices in imperial roman history. but I also got a lot of thoughts about uhhhhhh choosing your brother for co ruling the Fratricide Foundation Story Empire. many thoughts about themistius' oration too

Brotherly Love, Themistius (trans. Peter Heather & David Moncur)

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / insta

[johnslittlespoon]

i've spent my morning going insane over all the new pics hbu

[thalialunacy]

[for the @calaisreno May Promptnation, which is turning out to be like NaNo but with way less stress]

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) 10: choice (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31)

Their lives have never been predictable. Which, in some ways, has made them very predictable, John thinks as he stops Sherlock in the hallway with a hand on the sleeve of his dressing gown. 'Hey,' he says, voice quiet. 'Come here.'

Sherlock raises an eyebrow, but doesn't hesitate to lean down and let John kiss him, thoroughly. Maybe even twice.

'Great, thanks,' John says roughly afterwards, backing away. 'I've got work now.'

He really should have known, from the start, that they'd have to steal moments for this out of the chaos they live in.

'Not your babysitter,' Mrs Hudson sings the next day as she holds Rosie's hands down the stairs. 'But I've got applesauce jelly with her name on it. And I'll change her nappy while I'm at it, won't I?' The last is said to Rosie, obviously, who is very focused on the stairs.

John, in turn, is focused somewhere else as well. 'We've got ten minutes,' he says, already out of his chair. 

'Eight and a half,' Sherlock corrects, pulling John to him and capturing his mouth easily. John is tempted, so tempted, to let it go too far, but his prefrontal cortex is fully developed now, unlike the last time he felt this sort of heady gut-lust.

Maybe it's because Sherlock is a man, but he hasn't experienced a sense of newness this acute since being in school. And he'd thought, because he knows Sherlock in every other way it is possible to know a person, that this added dimension would feel--normal. Comfortingly similar. Would slot into their lives unnoticeably.

Decidedly not, John accepts some days and a solved case later, just before his backside hits the kitchen table. They've got a few more stolen moments while Rosie's napping on the sofa, and he's determined to make the most of them.

At Sherlock's urging, he lifts himself up onto the table's cluttered surface, then grabs at Sherlock's face to bring him back into the kiss. He spreads his knees without a thought and feels enveloped by heat as Sherlock moves further in between them. He fits around Sherlock perfectly, and it feels like--

It feels like lacing his fingers together with the other thumb in front, or crossing his arms with the other hand dominant. It feels like his own body still, yes, his skin heating up and his lungs pressing for air, but from a literal whole new perspective.

And he wants more of it. 'Do you think,' he murmurs in between kisses, 'that you'd want to be the one--' He pauses as Sherlock bites at his jaw. 'The one in charge?'

Sherlock pulls back enough to give him a look. 'Are you struggling through your English modesty to ask me if I'd like to top?'

John's neck flushes further, and he's pretty sure now it's both from arousal and embarrassment. Which is also new; he's said plenty more graphic things to women without hesitation, but apparently all bets are off when it comes to Sherlock. 'Yeah,' he says firmly. 'Yes.'

'I'd assumed you'd want to be the one doing that.'

'Wait, though-- you've done this before…?'

Sherlock's mouth quirks up. 'Subtle as always, John. Yes, I have. But not with you, do you understand? I want whatever you want. Quite literally.'

John swallows. 'And vice versa. I'm not new-- I mean, to the whole idea--'

'I'm very aware,' Sherlock retorts. And of course he is, aware of both John's various partners over the years and also of his, well, solo habits.

'Alright,' John says dryly. 'Rein it in, detective.' He sobers, hoping he doesn't have to go into detail. 'But this feels… different. And I want you to--to show me everything, to do everything you want.'

Sherlock, as he should have expected, takes this as a sort of delightful challenge. 'Well, then, we are at a bit of a stalemate, aren't we?'

John smirks, relief seeping through. 'Flip a coin?' he says, tightening his thighs, ready to dip back into Sherlock's mouth.

But Rosie, naturally, chooses that moment to wake up, and to do so loudly. She's almost got Sherlock's name down, and she definitely can yell for John like she's getting paid for it.

John groans and leans his forehead against Sherlock's momentarily, or at least intending for it to be momentary but shortly hearing the sound of his daughter shuffling into the kitchen, dragging her favourite garishly plaid blanket behind her. 

'Perhaps we'll cut a deck of cards?' Sherlock suggests to him as they untangle.

Then the detective reaches down for Rosie, who is looking back and forth between them. 'Cards?' she repeats once she's in his arms, her tiny person pronunciation still simultaneously hilarious and brilliant. 

'Yes,' Sherlock answers matter-of-factly. 'Your father and I are trying to decide…' He looks at John, a glint in his eye John shouldn't like at all. '...who gets to have the first ginger nut.'

John chokes on his tea, the sting going into his nostrils. 'Unfair,' he says.

His daughter seems interested, which is not surprising considering she shares Sherlock's predilection for the biscuit. 'Ginger nut!' she says. 'Me too?'

'Of course,' Sherlock says amenably. 'It's time for tea, anyhow.'

John tamps down a smile, then goes in for the assist, relieving Sherlock of Rosie so the detective can rummage around in the fridge. In their current arrangement, Sherlock is in charge of keeping edible and non-edible items separated. It's a dealbreaker, John had said when they'd moved back in. And Sherlock had complied without too much fuss, much to John's continued surprise.

Though, to be honest, he half expects Rosie would be delighted to find fingers in the crisper.

When everything's on the table and Rosie's in her booster seat, John digs in his pocket and pulls out a 50p coin, flipping it over to Sherlock without warning.

Sherlock catches it, regards it, then raises an eyebrow. 'I can rig this, you know.' 

'Yes, but you won't, because my daughter is impressionable and worships you. And while you have many fine attributes, casual cheating is not one I'm interested in her inheriting.' 

'Or, erm,' Sherlock starts, fingers casually playing with the coin. 'Any.' It's not a question, but suddenly he's looking intently at John, forehead wrinkled.

John's heart squeezes as he clocks what Sherlock's actually trying to get at. 'Sherlock. Bloody hell. Of course.' He inhales harshly. 'I know I'm not-- not exactly trustworthy any more, in that arena.'

But Sherlock cuts off his self-flagellation. 'Poppycock.'

'Beg pardon?'

Sherlock shakes his head. 'You were seduced by a person who could talk someone into murder with the snap of her fingers. She is literally the most brilliant manipulator in the world, and though I hold you in high regard you in no way had the capacity to overcome that.'

The anxiety slowly eases, though he suspects he'll never fully be free of it. 'You're admitting you're not the cleverest?'

He thinks Sherlock will counter in good humour, but instead he's a bit thoughtful. 'I think that, at that level, one is somewhere in the stratosphere, separated from everyone below. I find I rather like it down here.' He smiles crookedly, genuinely, at John. 'In certain company, at least.' 

John's heart twinges. 'Well. That's.' He clears his throat. 'That's good. We rather like you down here. Most of the time.'

He breaks eye contact, instead looking at Rosie, who is happily getting banana all over her hands. He hopes the words will be sufficient. 'But I mean it.'

Sherlock's voice is quiet, fond and no-nonsense at the same time. 'I know. I know you, John Watson.'

John feels a smile slowly cross his face. 'Yeah, that's right, you'd catch me out instantly anyway. How I ended up with the one person I literally will not ever be able to keep a secret from, I've no idea. Birthdays and anniversaries are going to be very, very boring.'

Sherlock's smirk gives no doubt as to where his mind has immediately gone. 'Oh, I doubt that.'

John can tell his skin is starting to flush again. 'Speaking of… Coin flip is right out, so…?'

'Paper scissors stone?' 

'No!'

'Why not?'

'Because you'd definitely cheat at that.'

'True. Magic 8 Ball?'

'You know what a Magic 8 Ball is?'

'Had a case where it was the murder weapon.'

'What? Really?'

'Yes.' Sherlock leans in, clearly ready to share the tale while assisting Rosie with her cheerios. 

And John wants to remember this, this exact feeling of this exact moment, forever.

[❤️]

[unmerrymagdalene]

I cannot for the life of me find the post, but it was a screenshot of the Sex Tape scene in Science class. And Sirris says something like “I want you (guys) to know what sex really looks like. Humans are animals, after all.”

And I think it made something very obvious click for me?

Of course Sirris is like that when it comes to sex/sex education. They’re either taking it from a scientific perspective, where showing live examples of animals mating is understandable for educational purposes. Or even just from a “You’ll only really learn by experiencing/seeing it for yourself” way. It’s very blunt and “realistic.”

But it also made me realize that Sirris definitely does not talk about the emotional aspects of sex? I know that sounds fucking bonkers to mention considering the game, but they focus more on the act than like…the possible mindset/thoughts surrounding it? I feel like that’d be an equally important thing to explore, if they were discussing sex from a human being perspective.

But I guess humans are just animals after all

[onesidedradiostatic]

I couldn't stop thinking about the amount of aspec headcanons the fandom has come up with, and it just. got me thinking. if Alastor is a sex-repulsed ace, Angel Dust is a sex-favorable ace, Husk is a sex-neutral ace, and the Vees are all aphobic aspec, that's like. more than half the main cast. and considering that Charlie and Vaggie haven't done anything anything sexual at all, Vaggie changed her name's pronunciation (possibly because she didn't like it's sexual context) and Charlie seems to be very uncomfortable with sexual subjects, they might be ace too. we just need sir pentious.

yeah I realise I've basically aspec hced like good chunk of the main cast LMAO. I wouldn't necessarily put the vaggie one as that though I don't think anyone would like to be called that regardless of sexuality 😭😭 hard to really get a read on chaggie since we only know how they met and how they are currently, not how their relationship developed and how they got together, but they definitely don't really seem like the pda type, maybe they're ace, maybe somewhere on the spectrum idk, maybe they have sex sometimes but not that often, neither of them seem to be particularly horny people

sir pentious... I have no idea, he shows interest in having sex with cherri bomb but could easily just be him thinking of it as something that leads to a romantic relationship rather than actual sexual attraction so he could be ace too, cherri I low-key like thinking as demiromantic allosexual. maybe cherrisnake can be the Good Side's aroallo x alloace relationship. husk can also be demiromantic asexual as a treat idk. there's um niffty too but it's very hard for me to get a read on her, I know she's canonically straight and likes bad boys but I have no idea if I have any sort of aspec hc for her.

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

Okay now that Anissa is in the show, I have to talk about THAT storyline. There's not much particularly new I can say that hasn't already been discussed but I need to gather my thoughts on what the show has to do to be successful in this regard. With that being said,

Spoilers for things the show has not covered yet

And massive Trigger Warning for discussions of sexual assault and post-assault trauma.

So first things out of the way, I do not believe they should cut it. The changes the show has made are ultimately pretty minor. A character change, order of events swapped. With them sticking as close as they are to the comic, I think it would be a massive problem to skip over it from a story telling standpoint.

From a real world standpoint, it's even more important. Male sexual assault is something that rarely gets depicted properly. It's usually a joke or a moment of triumph and that very much has had an effect on the way we look at it in the real world. And since Invincible is now a show pretty much everybody has their eyes on, choosing not to talk about it would be missing an opportunity to have a very real, very important conversation that very well could educate men on how to navigate and survive what they are going through.

I'm also worried that they'll be too afraid to actually say the word "rape". Lots of modern adaptations delete important discussions like Sokka's sexism or the gender discussions from Cowboy Bebop in order to avoid properly handling them and usually replace them with something worse in a sort of "all bark and no bite" liberalism. Directly saying it as it is is incredibly important to showing that talking about it is not only NOT shameful, but also necessary in getting the help you need and the healing that is necessary to survive.

And from a storytelling standpoint, saying it is important too. The moment where Mark tells Eve what happened is not only great in showing that telling someone is important but is also the moment where Mark is forced to admit the truth to himself. "She raped me." Those three words are a massive turning point for the whole story. Character dynamics change, this becomes a focus for most of Mark's loved ones, and it fundamentally changes his life.

Markus. This is a piece of the puzzle I don't see many talk about. While the rest is a showcase of what to do, Markus as a character is a showcase of what not to. It is so, so rare that a child conceived of a rape is properly depicted, nevermind discussed. From Mark's POV, he holds no ill will towards his son. He simply wants him to live a life on Earth with his family like he did and just can't be with him because he is needed in space. But to Markus, his dad hates him. He thinks his father keeps him on Earth so that he doesn't have to think about him. And this idea of his father's disgust contorts his image of himself. He begins to feel self-hatred, hatred towards his mother for making him this way, and hatred towards his father for abandoning him and leaving him to despise what he sees in the mirror. "You made Terra with love. I was made with hate."

Whether Mark meant it or not, his neglect of Markus ruined his early life. No matter how many friends he made, what groups he joined, they could never fill that hole. He idolized his father. I mean, how could he not? His father was, IS a great hero. A man who was out at that very moment leading the movement for universal peace. But because Mark barely visited him, he only had an idea of what his father was like. A man who sacrificed so much to help the world, who fought in space and yet still managed to save the Earth dozens of times. A man who had the time to help everyone and yet couldn't make time for him.

(Important edit: in no way do I mean to say Mark is obligated to be a part of his son's life, I meant that Mark chooses to be there but ultimately fails to do so and that causes issues)

And don't get me wrong, this story has some pretty glaring flaws. For example I think they tried a little too hard to teach Mark that the person who hurt him is human too and has positively affected the lives of many. Like absolutely there is a conversation to be had there but because they had to move on with the plot they kinda just went "HEY MARK DON'T BE SAD SHE'S COOL NOW AND ALSO SHE'S DEAD SO THERE'S NO POINT IN LINGERING OKAY BYYEEEEE". But I think instead of these flaws scaring the show away they should invite the show forward. It's an opportunity to improve on the story and discussions rather than shy away from it.

Oh and also harking back to my previous point in paragraph 2, there's another aspect that makes it stand out in an important discussion. If I'm remembering correctly, the comic makes it pretty clear that Mark could have overpowered Anissa but didn't for a couple of reasons, namely not wanting to hurt her. And that is SO important and SO rare. A discussion surrounding an assault victim who could have fought back but didn't where the victim is NOT portrayed as in the wrong and in fact just as worthy to be traumatized as any other victim is SO DAMN IMPORTANT and could legit change a lot in the way we look at these topics.

So yeah, I think the series should adapt it. Also I think it would be great if they brought on actual victims and experts and whatnot so their depiction could be just that much more focused around what needs to be said. Sorry if all this read as klunky, I have a lot of thoughts bouncing around up here that I kinda just spewed onto the page with no particular order. I'm also obviously not the most educated on the topic. My personal experiences with this were relatively minor and not something I've ever felt comfortable addressing. And yeah I know it's important no matter how "small" or "minor" it seems and I'm not trying to downplay any of that but I just don't really have the words to phrase that differently. Which is exactly why I think we NEED education and discussions about this stuff so that we DO know the words to navigate the topic.

[muffinsandpages]

A word about Neil Gaiman. This is not my take on anything, just how I want to proceed as someone who blogs about books and has read/was planning to read his books because I enjoy them.

First of all, what he did (and I believe he did do it) is disgusting. There is no other way around it.

I see the term "parasocial relationship" being thrown around a lot lately. I've been around fandom spaces for quite while now, and I've learnt to keep my distance from that: I may know about an artist, but I'll never actually know them. At the same time, though, art has value because of the people who create it and the reasons why they create it. This is an oversemplification, but I hope it explains why I can't just say "we need to separate the art from the artist" even though I never considered myself the artist's best friend.

So, in short, I decided that I will still be consuming his art, privately. I won't directly promote it and I won't buy anything new, but I won't burn the books I already own either. I will be aware of the kind of person who's behind them while I read them, of course, and that will certainly influence the way I see them. I think it's the same approach I have when reading about authors such as Orwell.

I know this is a "middle ground" decision that sounds weird in this little corner of the polarized internet, but life isn't a soccer match, there aren't just two teams and you have to pick one. Life is complicated and disgusting and beautiful and messy and sometimes you have to work with what you have.

Also, listen to victims, believe victims

[hoodienanami]

fantastic article from original London punker Vivien Goldman about the not-so-secret but often forgotten Jewish role in the early UK punk scene

In a classically angst-ridden Jewish ambivalence about identity, the New York punk Richard Hell – of Television, the Heartbreakers and the Voidoids – has said he doesn't like to be defined by the fact that his father is Jewish. But he's one of many Jewish (or Jewish-ish?) artists on the New York scene, such as Joey Ramone, Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group and Blondie's Chris Stein, who overcame his Holocaust paranoia by collecting Nazi artefacts. (The concerns of punky American Jews are documented by by Steven Lee Beeber in his book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's). In a documentary I made for BBC 6 Music, A Tale of Two Punk Cities, Talking Heads bass player Tina Weymouth recalled that New York punks thought people who talked politics were a bore. But to us, the ideas expressed in Anarchy In The UK and White Riot were real. The G2 or Second Generation theory, whereby children of Holocaust survivors are often socially conscious activists, could have had something to do with it, however it was never discussed. But the Yanks were trying to forget Vietnam, while we were still living among bombsites in our own civil war zone, fighting teds, skinheads and rockers as well as the sus law and the National Front. Our punky Jew experience was also different because British punk mostly inhabited a shared political landscape, as well as views of the kind that McLaren and Rhodes helped to spread, which manifested in organizations such as Rock Against Racism.

[transingthoseformers]

Again returning to the idea of Whirl's empurata having removed his sexual array and during sex he's relying on either plug n play or grind n pray

[suzukiblu]

Oh hey did I just update the pink kryptonite fic?? Why yes, yes I did. 💖

[bijoumikhawal]

also it really is shit how several popular bloggers were like. Horribly bigoted towards ace people when it was cool, but once it stopped being trendy they 1) deleted those posts so receipts couldn't be pulled 2) maybe put up claimed "redactions" or said "omg its been years if you really wanna know wether i still hate those people dm me" but never apologized for their behavior lmao. I don't think any of the people who did that actually changed, I just think they know it's not such an acceptable/fun target to bully anymore. It's really sick how that type of bullying was encouraged for years and how few people repented for their behavior.

[boimgfrog]

boy I'm seeing thanked me for helping him reconnect to his religion and feel comfortable exploring spirituality n stuff which is really sweet but his religion is catholicism. he's dating a gay trans person and it's somehow made him more catholic.

[bhaalble]

I keep showing bg3 to other former homestucks and discussing githyanki in troll terms (keeps being an apt comparison). This is all fun and games until I remember Lae'zel doesn't actually know what quadrants are. She keeps acting like a person who knows what quadrants are and is actively recruiting for it

[lesbiangiratina]

Can not stop thinking about how during a conversation about testament’s gender someone sent a list of terms that fall under x-gender and i got to be like Heh. Literally All of these words have been used to describe testament. Oh the joys of messy but well intentioned early 2000s nonbinary coding

The contexts are a bit complicated but like genuinely. All 3. Theyre quite unambiguously the second definition of musei now though.

[ceasarslegion]

The kinkster experience on tumblr is just

Vanilla person: its really terrible that teenage girls and women are shamed and bullied for relatively normal sexual fantasies like the characters from their favourite show making out.

Me: yeah!

Vanilla person: the real creepy and shameful behavior is when teenage boys and men also have perfectly normal sexual fantasies that i consider evil because i think domination equates to abuse

Me: Uh oh!!

You cant create double standards around sex positivity and oftentimes these attempts to point out how womens sexuality is disproportionately policed just end up pulling everybody down. Fantasies are just that, and somebody enjoying being dominant in fake sexual LARPing that may be more intense than you would personally like does not make them an abuser. I say that as a pretty masochistic service sub who likes to explore what the combination of arousal and pain and humiliation feels like in the safe environment of my very very trusted dom who I know would never legitimately hurt me. What will it take for you people to learn that fantasy and reality are two separate things. I literally dont give a single fuck what somebody else enjoys cranking their hog to as long as no one gets hurt irl, and kink done safely between trusted adults is NOT hurting people, even if it involves painplay and playing pretend with fantasies in a safe d/s environment that would otherwise be abusive if done legitimately. And that includes the fantasies of more dominant leaning people no matter what their gender is

[hwanghyunjinenthusiast]

I hope we all know fanfiction is fanfiction, right? Like I (and all authors tbh) am not here to be your mother. Obviously don't raw dog with strangers. Don't cheat on people. Don't fuck in public parks. I strongly hope we all recognise that this is all fantasy and fiction lol.