#also im making them t4t in my brain because i can

[hoybero]

ok i lied im back on tumblr already. ANYWAY-

these two would be an unstoppable duo.(they would get murdered immidiately)

someone help me give them a shipname.

[crow-ur-beloved]

various jrwi headcanons because the worms in my brain (potential autism) wont shut up. no real plot spoilers except for one, but its marked :]

the suckening:

shilo is like vampire immunocompromised, which added to the pile of reasons his mom used to keep him inside the castle because she didnt want him to immediately get 37 different diseases and Die. (if vampires can have allergies then id like to think they can also get sick. i dont actually know if thats possible in the vtm system but i dont care they can in my heart)

genderfuck/genderpunk afab emizel. i feel like thats the only label he'd use, if he had to have one. i dont think hed label his sexuality because he wants to be an enigma. but he Definitely likes men.

bizley said in the qna something that can Only let me think of shilo as aromantic. maybe aro And ace... i dont remember what he said exactly aughhgh i wish i did...

shilo fidgets with his hands like all the time. his mother and uncle tried to get him to stop and sit still because it wasnt very princely and whatnot but my boy needs a fidget toy. i think hed go craaaazy with an infinity cube

i feel like me saying arthur bennett is a bisexual doesnt even count as a headcanon like i think thats just a given. i feel like itd be more surprising if i said i thought he was straight. all beautiful beautiful vampire men have to be lgbtq. its the law actually

arthur never officially broke up with mary. mans just Left one day without warning. probably left a note that said "sorry. -arthur" on it. i doubt he had it in him to say goodbye to her face or his reasoning for it (he thought hed inevitably hurt her because of what he is and what he did to the people he loved in the past, because bad luck seems to follow him everywhere... oughh he makes me ill). he definitely used finding a new lead on anya somewhere else in the country as a good reason to dip. at least, as good a reason as it couldve been for him.

maybe controversial but i 100% think arthur and magnus had a one-night stand at the beginning of their relationship, before magnus met jerome, and they never talked about it again and pretend it never happened. cannot explain how real this is to me.

riptide:

ftm chip who 100% innately knew he was a dude since the moment he could think. like when the black rose pirates picked him up, he got confused when they started referring to him as a girl at first. probably never got The Talk from them, so was Very confused when he hit puberty. Reuben reluctantly helped him steal to pay for top surgery.

since tritons live at the bottom of the ocean, they would have eyes that are far more sensitive to light to allow them to see better since little light gets all the way down there. gillion was Immediately blinded by the sun when he surfaced and still gets headaches from how bright it is in the oversea, but they've gotten better the longer he's been up there. tritons are built to adapt to all kinds of conditions, so his eyes have slowly been getting a darker bluish-purple the longer he spends above the ocean; they were originally more of a light blue-grey.

in tandem with the last one, chip thinks hes either going crazy or a bad friend because he Swears gill's eyecolor is different than last week but how could that be possible, thats not just something he can do, right? why would he be able to do that???

if gillion gets knocked onto his back without warning he does that thing that sharks do where they get paralyzed for a bit when they get flipped upside down. its scary because he can see everything but cant do anything. he also definitely forgot to tell chip and jay about this fact and scared the Shit out of them the first time it happened around them.

gillion can also change his sex like some fish can. its the reason he can lay eggs. i think this makes it safe to say genderfluid/nonbinary/generally trans gillion tidestrider is highly possible and even probable in this headcanon. what im saying is t4t fish n chips.

not to headcanon all my favs as trans but i cant help it. it is the highest honor i can bestow upon them. anyways. mtf jay ferin. ava always knew and was the first person jay came out to. jay was also 100% named jayson after her father and went by jay most of her life anyway as a nickname and just decided to stick with it instead of picking anything else. may was always very openly-supportive of her. jayson was as supportive as a generally strict, overbearing, unsupportive-in-everything father can be. jay totally came out to him and the first thing he said to her was something like, "as long as it doesnt interfere with your navy training," and may promptly kicked him under the table and made him say something nice.

kiras trans too btw. she came out before jay and helped jay discover she was trans. and that she liked women.

(spoilers for 109 and beyond) chip can't entirely remember what he looks like. everytime he focuses on the illusion of hiding that hes practically just a skeleton now, it changes just a bit. freckles in the wrong places, the wrong shade of orange for his flame tattoos, too much light in his eyes, too much muscle on his arms. jay notices it but cant bring herself to say anything. she knows the illusion is meant to keep everyone from worrying, but, everytime she sees something off about it, she just remembers what he really looks like underneath, and that somehow feels worse.

blood in the bayou:

all these bitches gay as hell. kian is pan. rands got a lot of internalized homophobia. rolan probably too. its the 80s, man.

apotheosis (haven't finished it yet so idk how true these'll be lol):

agender rumi. godbless.

also rumis a theater kid. he got the lead in every musical he auditioned for because he could literally just shapeshift. theyd make up a new identity and appearance for every role and get to know everyone on the cast and then mysteriously drop off the face of the planet as that person when the production was over and nobody would know it was them.

peter has actually tried All Kinds of things. weed. yoga. multilevel marketing schemes. you name it, big chance hes done it at least once and didnt like it. he doesnt know how he ends up in the situations to try it, either.

[yellowistheraddest]

LADIES, GENTLEMEN AND FELLOW CONTORTIONS OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT, i present to you 9 drawing requests with accompanying commentary...

request one:

honestly its not a crime but they are criminally curious to learn the rich history of Dallas in 1963! i mean arent you curious, you should google what happened there on november 22nd!!!

request number 2:

OH BABY you know i love making people feel :( my most popular post is characters crying so i was supposed to have fun with it but 3 people hugging - dude, i was no the verge of insanity and in the end pearl just kinda got swallowed up and disappeared.

[[7 MORE UNDER CUT!!]]

request tres:

coming from the last drawing i was still on the 'lmao get sad' bandwagon, and simon and athena they have lived through somethings so once again i drew people crying :D so heres a drawing of little athena and her goth uncle having a nice little hug and nothing ever went wrong

request četiri:

by now everyone should know that my favourite AU is these two bastards meeting before phoenix became a lawyer; ya know so he doesnt need to break his back trying to learn law as an art student - not that he learns much as he doesnt know what a cross examination is in his first case,,

request pénte:

this request marked the second day of drawing.

now,, i might have not read the request before i drew sooo i kinda just drew them taking a selfies at a steel samurai con so i kindly edited the second drawing to contain a peace sign. [the plush is the hellish creature named the iron infant [from AAI i think] and i bet its like the worst character in the franchise and these two will definitely burn it when they get home]

request numero sześć:

now i swore to never post kissing on here so i spare myself of the cringw when i look back later, so just dont read the first half and enjoy the way i found out you cant really draw flicking without making a comic. like the motion is so small yet so powerful how do you draw that?!?!?!?!?!? this looked miles better in my brain...

request shtatë:

you know what else is like rocks? big frozen chunks of ice, like the one here :D

RIP LMAO

request huit:

ah the t4t to end all t4ts. ron is definitely a guy to fall at first sight and bro desiree is the definition of girlboss

also people forget that larry was rons coworker and i need more content of those two because they are just wildly opposite

[edit: ''sir are good'' HUH??? brother i need to go to sleep and just not draw for the next millenia]

now we have arrived at the end of our trip...

you may be thinking "yellow, you said that there were 9 drawings!"

YES, but no.. theres probably a reason behind this but when i opened my inbox and saw this was like a game character who was stun locked. i mean look at this, aka request number NINE:

love ya to death, babes, but please get some rest because i think you forgot to write in the characters you wanted to see. despite that i decided to draw what you requested:

now just imagine whichever characters you waant in those places! wait was your request an investment so you can have an infinite amount of ships inserted into this pose???

anywho, ummmmm.. yeah Now we have reached the end - but do not fear, im not dying or going away. im still going to be here on my ace attorney bullshit as long as my brain can stand.

sadly i have to say GOODNIGHT, LADIES, GENTLEMEN AND FELLOW CONTORTIONS OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT. may we meet once again when the planets align and it rains in the greatest depths of the ocean o7

[chaotic-archaeologist]

hey i followed u for archaeology but since you seem to be open to sex ed questions i thought i'd shoot haha.

so i'm a trans guy, i don't have bottom dysphoria, i would like to use my vagina during sex for bottoming. but i have vaginismus. real bad. and possible vaginal atrophy. not looking to treat it with advice from this blog, not coming here for medical assistance, but to put it simply there is no way i can use that thang. hole is closed for business. even to pinky fingers. that shit hurted.

i can and have topped, and bottomed for anal sex. so that's not an issue. i'm open to doing those things. but damn it i would like to use my pussy once in a while and just can't. and i have virgin-adjacent prowess / confidence / experience in sex so i'm bad at communicating my needs and wants.

you got any.. i dont know.. tips? advice? for telling a potential partner that the front hole's off limits without making them think im unsexy? the anxiety's so bad i've fully rejected people i really liked for serious relationships, and turned down hookups, because some part of my brain thinks i'm not worth having sex with if my partner can't use my vagina. especially since testosterone has given me "abnormal" anatomy that i only trust other trans people with and being t4t means i get a lot of people who expect vagina from me, who i then have to disappoint.

this is a stupid specific question so i apologise it isn't really general sex ed but i guess i just need some communication tips because i dont even know where to start.

Okay, first off, I'm sorry that it's taken me a while to respond to this, but I wanted to really think about my answer. Also, for the record: this is always the kind of sex ed question that I am willing to answer. I think more people need to be willing to talk about this sort of stuff.

The primary thing I want to address is wherever you're getting your definition of normal, both in terms of anatomy and sexual function. Because the circumstances you describe are wholly within the realm of 'normal experiences' for people who have a vagina. Vaginismus, vulvodynia, and vaginal atrophy are not relegated to trans men. You are not abnormal. There is nothing wrong with you.

A lot of the porn out there featuring trans men does have them receiving vaginal penetration. Porn is not a representative sample of the population. Do not let porn define what sex is for you.

Personally, my advice would be to treat this as a litmus test for potential sexual partners. If someone wants something and doesn't care/is put off that it hurts you, that is not a person you want to be having sex with. If someone is "disappointed" because you won't receive vaginal penetration, that is their fucking problem, not yours. There are so many things you can do that do not involve vaginal penetration—be excited about those!

As for bringing this up with potential partners, I'm a big advocate for early and honest communication. If it looks like you might be getting down and dirty with someone, you can just say something along the lines of "hey, heads up, but I don't do vaginal penetration/front hole is closed for business/etc." If you really want to get ahead of the issue, you could even put this in your bio on various apps.* *You don't owe anyone an explanation, but you can choose to elaborate as to why.

I'll also point out that there's a halfway option here. It is totally valid to say "look, I am into this thing (vaginal penetration) in concept, but not in physicality." You can talk about it. You can text about it. You can do these things while you're doing other stuff! It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

To me, it sounds like you have 100% of the necessary components for having sex: the desire to have sex in the first place, activities that you can/do enjoy, and a willing partner. That's it. That's all you need.

You are worth so much more than what a single part of your body can/can't offer. Sex does not equal any sort of penetration, vaginal or otherwise. Find someone you trust, get creative, and don't be afraid to enjoy yourself.

-Reid

[butchhamlet]

cordelia has trans swag

as does lady macbeth (i can provide citations for this one)

hamlet, which we all know claudio has the opposite of trans swag, beatrice has SO MUCH of it. so does benedick for that matter honestly it's easier to list the characters that DON'T have trans vibes (the only ones i can currently think of are claudio and claudius, simply because i do not like them and they're not cool enough)

CORDELIA DOES HAVE TRANS SWAG!!!! I HAVE ACTUALLY TOUCHED ON THIS IN MY TRANS EDMUND POST tl;dr i think edmund and cordelia are fascinating foils and if edmund is trans then cordelia fucking better be. i think you could do something here with lear getting attached to his "son" over his daughters, enough so that by the time she comes out... well, she's already the favorite! + something very trans about speaking the truth to your family for once in your life and having them all get upset as if it's audacious to just... not want to play their arbitrary social games

lady macbeth... i assume your citations are about unsex me here?? 👁️ there are a thousand ways you can interpret that speech and it's fascinating. im going to have a bold take now which is that i think the macbeths could be t4t. i'll let them keep their genders but like. something something lady macbeth choosing womanhood deliberately but still being frustrated by the constraints it puts upon her, something something macbeth choosing manhood and deciding this means he has to prove his worth as a man through violence. i don't know i'm entirely spitballing but they compel me

HAMLET WHICH WE ALL KNOW! TURN UP! hamlet can be trans in literally any direction. trans man trans woman nonbinary genderfluid hamlet has it all

AND BEATRICE AND BENEDICK BELOVEDS <3 my shakespeare zoom group* did a lesbian sweep of much ado about nothing where we made beatrice/benedick and hero/claudio both wlw couples and it rewired my brain. i agree with you that beatrice and benedick are t4t and that claudio as he is in-text has no trans swag, but playing claudio as a butch lesbian changed something deep and innate in me so i'm going to try to convert you and all my followers to that opinion

(*yes, they made me play claudio, because they hate me)

AND ALSO!!! NOT TO ARGUE WITH YOU ANON BUT. i think you could do something fascinating with trans man king claudius, who has never been considered in line for the throne because his older brother is also his cisgender brother and--whoa, whoops, his dead brother! guess we'll have to put claudius on the throne after all 🤔 (this would make hamlet's derogatory comparisons of claudius to king hamlet, uh, hit a bit different. especially if your hamlet is also trans. fascinating post here on that)

anyway this is great keep em coming

[ragecndybars]

top 5 mbs characters, bc im predictable, and then top 5 persona ...ships? if you don't do a lot of shipping than characters works.

unfortunately i don't actually follow persona all of my knowledge of it is just me voting for whatever you say to in the various polls you reblog (i gotchu homie).

and then just for the sprinkles on top, top 5 favorite birds. they can be specific birds (ie steve the magpie, a local magpie in your area, or big bird) or bird breeds (parrots, a titmouse, lilac breasted roller, etc) up to you. 🎉

or only do one, or two, or all of these! no offense will be taken. im giving OPTIONS

aaaaa thank you!!! for the ask, for the options, and also for supporting my little blorbos in those silly polls 😭

Top 5 MBS Characters:

Kate Wetherall. I. Was. OBSESSED with Kate as a kid. I do prefer her in the books but I love her show incarnation as well!! The weird girl energy, the autism, the ADHD, it's all off the charts. Fav line from book Kate is still "Well of course it's not funny, but what do you want me to do? Cry?" List of sentences that changed my brain chemistry as a child.

Not to be a basic bitch, but Nicholas Benedict. Oh my god, I loved him in the books already -- we love to see a "wise, all-knowing mentor" character with actual personality and limitations -- but the direction the show took his character in was truly inspired. His discussion with Reynie about the white knight in the books is PEAK.

Reynie Muldoon. Understandably, since he's the POV character, he was the one I actually related to most as a kid. I love the "always trying to stay calm" thing he has going on, and how the narrative never punishes him for trying to be kind and genuine and earnest even though so many books and shows nowadays feel the need to equate niceness with naivete.

My funky little Milligan. Yet another character who I loved in the books already and adored seeing more of in the show. I especially love how much more autistic they made this man. "Geez, how 'bout a hello?" "........Hello." / "I'll be back." [vanishes] [reappears] ".......I'm back." King shit. And no matter what incarnation it is, his reunion with Kate will always reduce me to tears. The memory that was so deeply ingrained into his brain that even Curtain couldn't take it from him... was just that memory of his little girl asking him to go to the mill again... AUGH.... 😭

Constance Contraire. Like Kate, I prefer Book!Constance, but I adore the way the show portrayed her as well. First of all, she's hilarious. Second of all, while she's often being irrational, she also can be a voice of reason in some ways, and we love that. Funky little psychic child. And I just ADORE how kindly the book treats her. Even when she's getting on the other characters' nerves in a big way, the book never suggests that she's a detriment to them, that she needs to sit down and shut up, that they would be better off if they ditched her, or any number of other things that a less understanding narrative would be claiming.

Top 5 Persona Ships

Hamugis. Ohhh my god. MFW the overwhelming guilt I feel for having potentially ruined someone's life by sealing Death inside of her as a child slowly transforms into admiration as I meet her again and begin to see her as a strong leader and then love as I begin to discover my own humanity through her. MFW "I don't want you to love someone else... I don't want that, even if that's what would make you happy!!" MFW I touch my robot GF's literal heart and leave an indelible mark on her very being. Also uhh that one post. "I do not understand hookup culture!!! Die in my arms!!!" yeah. Aigis and Kotone for number one love story of all time.

Akimina. Much less canon interaction to go off of with these two but stay with me here. T4T autism4autism. I love Akihiko's earnestness and Minato's bluntness and how they combine to make a relationship that lacks miscommunication while also leaving a lot unsaid because neither is much one for conversation. I like the idea of Akihiko's intense desire to be strong to protect someone playing off of Minato's much more reserved, almost lackadaisical attitude, despite Minato's strength, and I think it would be so interesting to watch them move in opposite directions -- Akihiko learning to cut himself some slack and trust others rather than thinking he has to protect everyone alone, while Minato learns to break out of his shell and actually care about those around him and want to protect them -- while they also, at the same time, are learning almost identical lessons about relying on other people.

Ulamaya. The two girlies of all time. I adore how Ulala's combined jealousy and affection for Maya play off each other and how Ulala is one of the only characters in the game who feels like she's fully seeing Maya as she is -- a human like any other, even if she presents herself as eternally optimistic and strong so that others can lean on her. Their relationship feels so... equal. If that makes sense. Which, as much as I appreciate KatsuMaya, can feel a little lacking in other Maya ships imo, bc it always feels like other characters (ESPECIALLY the masked circle) tend to idolize Maya. And Maya's forgiveness of Ulala's betrayal... what's that one Hozier line... "I'd be the immediate forgiveness in Eurydice." Yeah.

Pegoryu. God I just love how ride-or-die Ryuji is right off the bat. You meet him, have a near-death experience with him, and ten minutes later he's shoveling more food onto your plate insisting that you need to eat more. Even before then, it may be Akira who saves Ryuji from Kamoshida, but it's Ryuji who tackles him away, yells at him to run and save himself, who gives Akira the faith in humanity that the rest of the world had eroded away at that point.

Tie between Saoriham and Kannao. Saori's social link is one of the best parts of Persona 3 straight up, and Kanji and Naoto are just so goddamn cute together.

Honorable mentions: TatsuJun ("I... have nothing to give you in return..."), YukiChie ("Yes, Chie is my prince..."), ShinjiMina ("If the burden of command gets to be too much, just let me know."), KatsuBao ("Idiot... What were you going to do if I pulled the trigger?" "I knew you wouldn't.")

Top 5 Favorite Birds

Orioles!!! I have such fond memories of helping my grandma skewer orange halves and fill jars with grape jelly as a kid to attract the orioles (though I thought they were called oreos for the longest time, lmao)

Robins. We get a ton of them around here and I love seeing them hop around on the sidewalk.

Magpies. Haven't seen one meself but they're such cool birds. If I could have wings I'd want them to be magpie-style.

Crows. Another bird we get a lot of around here, their calls are so Autumncore.

Falcons. They're just cool and I like them. (insert Madge joke here)

[holofanged]

plagued by visions of a no powers au where harry visits a dude ranch to ✨get away from it all✨ where he meets peter who works there as a stable hand.

yapping under the cut because i need these thoughts to go somewhere

norman is fucking horrified by the idea. thats 80% of the reason harry decides to go

no but between the years spent in a hospital and Many More years spent in his dads shadow he's desperate for a change in scenery. and a dude ranch in the middle of bumfuck nowhere is about as far from nyc as you can get

he's aware it's a very Hallmark Movie idea. he's doing it anyway

it's here that he meets peter, one of the stable hands at the ranch. he does more of the behind the scenes stuff ie taking care of the animals and keeping things clean rather than entertaining visitors

peter and mj are together but in an open relationship. undecided what i want her job to be

miles is also here. hes usually the one doing the horse riding excursions with guests

harry's immediately drawn to peter because who wouldn't be. he spends more of his time just watching peter do his job than he does taking advantage of the Actual entertainment the dude ranch provides

peter works at the ranch to help fund the horse rescue his late aunt left him when she passed

they rescue percherons specifically which are big, mild tempered draft horses. because i love them

the rescue is on pretty shaky grounds money-wise but between peter working crazy hours and some generous donations they can keep their doors open (barely)

peter has his own percheron that the ranch lets him board at their stables so he can ride her on the off chance he has to be a guide on one of the outings or whatever

(the horse's name is to be determined im working on it. i love how insane horse names are and these need to be good)

anyways. harry spends all his time with peter and its not long before theyre getting nasty (t4t style. obviously)

its a casual fling until its not. its impossible to not develop feelings for someone like peter, but harry's not gonna be there forever and that timer is always ticking down in the back of his mind

in between the Incredibly Mild angst though we are getting so corny. theyre doing the thing where they both ride one horse at the same time. theyre having bonfires. harry learns that horse people are kinda wierd

erm ok and thats as far as ive gotten setup-wise lol. im slowly chipping away at making this a fic but i want to have some semblance of a plot fleshed out before i actually post anything. and by 'plot' i mean something vaguely coherent to string together all the sex scenes that got blasted into my brain the second i thought about peter on a horse

its gonna be mostly porn i wont lie. i dont have the energy for another plot heavy slowburn fic rn. this is so lighthearted and fun and (hopefully) sexy. the hallmark thing is serious its like if hallmark made movies in the middle of june that also had explicit gay sex

this ended up even less coherent than i thought it would. i never share ideas/wips like this so be nice ok i love you forever bye

[space-city-traffic]

yet again im back on my bullshit so... (gazes with mixed feelings at the TV show Firefly) i could fix him.

my extremely long thoughts about my Own Personal Good Version of Firefly (with plenty of spoilers for the show and the movie) under the cut:

things that are getting axed first thing no question:

out with the whole “let’s add in a thin veneer of Chinese cultural aesthetics out of context for ~flavor~” deal. just no.

instead, let’s hire some actors from a bunch of different cultures and work with them to figure out how their characters would bring those cultures into space with them!! and also hopefully bring some experiences with immigration/alienation/travel into it, since the Whole Core of Firefly is about how humanity always brings our doomed and silly and stubborn and unique warmth with us even into the cold void where nothing is familiar or homey in the slightest.

let’s respect our sex worker character shall we?

i do appreciate that Inara’s work as a companion is described as legitimate and well respected in the show. however please stop having your captain and hero call her a wh*re every five seconds against her clearly expressed wishes and portraying this as just a totally acceptable thing

let’s be more respectful of our characters of color and also have some more diversity, shall we?

others have put it better than me but yeah, the way Zoe and Book are treated is very uncomfy, and the rest of the show is depressingly monochromatic. come on let’s do better.

stop the weird confederacy hat tips

again others have pointed these out with much more thoroughness than I could, but the names of some characters and locations, as well as some of the language used to describe the browncoats, has uncomfortably confederate vibes. instead i propose we very Clearly tip our hats to the Alliance equaling space capitalism instead! you can’t go wrong with space capitalism as a villain.

don’t! make! the! psychotic! character! violent!

listen i love River Tam with my whole heart. but you should absolutely not portray your only character with psychosis as violent because of that psychosis!!!!!!! and yeah, a huge part of her character is that her brain got fucked up by the alliance and so she hallucinates and is also a super ninja. but like. she doesn’t need to be a super ninja for her character to work, okay? the crew does not need to be scared of her for her character to work, okay??? more on this later bc it would take a lot of care and nuance to make her character work but i really think it can be done

things we are absolutely keeping:

found family tropes my fucking beloved

this should be self evident. this is why the show is as appealing as it is despite its flaws, at least in my eyes.

malcolm reynolds, the knight in dusty armor

there’s something so appealing to me about what Mal stands for. because at his core is this ridiculous, silly, stubborn, doomed devotion to what he thinks is important and right, a romantic idealism thinly covered by cynical cowboy platitudes that he thinks make his bleeding heart totally invisible. and he is so obvious and entirely incorrect. bless. this is a man who will do anything for his family, who charges into swordfights to defend his friend from a man who wants to turn her into an object despite having no clue how to hold a sword. at his worst, he starts brawls in bars just for the martyr’s thrill of being persecuted for supporting the right; at his best, he inspires downright religious belief from his crew because he represents a romantic and chivalrous and doomed dedication to the right thing over any practical concerns. and then he throws a “selfish” quip over it with 100% confidence that everyone fell for his clever distraction and believes him to be a dirtbag. he’s oblivious and ridiculous and god he makes me want to be a better person because he’s just so goddamned sincere. stupid, but sincere. 10/10 himbo. <3

Mal and Inara ultraslowburn friends to enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers to friends to...

there’s nothing i love more than a ship that’s just two people who know each other way too well, and they’re each the only one who knows the other well enough to call them out on their bullshit. the way Mal and Inara interact in the show sometimes makes me uncomfy but like. the core of their relationship has to stay.

space western aesthetic

i need the cows on a spaceship scene to stay like i need air okay

that sweet sweet religious shit

mal, who lost his faith in gd and a whole lot else during the war. who lost his faith in himself, and now feels he has to hide the part of him that still wants to be good, because he knows he can’t be anymore, and he feels like it’s embarrassing for a guy like him to want something so unattainable. who takes a preacher on board, and the preacher has lost something, too. the preacher has his own past, and his own questions. but not questions like the observant neurodivergent girl, the one who wants to interact with and understand this thing that’s so important to him, but it just doesn’t click with how her brain works and she feels like something needs to be fixed, either the Bible or herself. and Mal takes care of them all, and slowly, he begins to find gd again, not in a prayer but in humanity. humanity doesn’t need to be fixed, like the alliance thinks. the shining imperfect strawberry sweetness of it in his family’s smiles is something to be worshiped and served and devoted to. and he finds he has something to believe in again. (and his crew find that he’s given them someone to believe in, too. and maybe suddenly he’s a saint.)

and finally, my brilliant ideas as to what i would like to add:

TRANS WOMAN KAYLEE RIGHTS

listen her femininity is so important to me okay? it’s so thrilled about everything that’s pretty, from dresses to the spaceship’s electric innards, and it’s so non-traditional and grease stained until it’s not and it’s pink and ruffly and twirly, and she never sees any of it as a contradiction, because none of it contradicts, it’s all just her! her gender is warmth and love and prettiness, feeling pretty and appreciating the pretty and making her friends’ days pretty too.

i want us to find out she’s trans in that episode with the ball, and i want us to find out alongside Mal who just never asked or never realized. Kaylee gasps and squeals at the dress in the shop window and Mal makes an off handed, ill considered comment, and then... someone yanks him aside and hisses a few very significant words in his ear. and suddenly he remembers what the blue white and pink she painted all over the engine room means, and he knows he has something to make right. so he buys her that dress himself and lets her know just how pretty she looks, and when he walks into that ball with her displayed on his arm like something precious, he looks the proudest out of any man there. and she notices. for a few seconds, of course, until there’s chocolate, and ‘nara, and a chandelier—and some horrible girls, but she’s used to that, until—suddenly, she finds her people. a group of old men who light up when she jokes about compression coils and whack presumptuous boys who ask her to dance. they adopt her as a treasured granddaughter, and Mal is beaming at her like a proud dad, and she finds that one of her new elderly friends gazes a little too long at her bracelet, and so she gives it to xem and teaches xem a few new words, and... it’s a good day, huh? it’s a really good day. (of course, then the captain has to go and punch somebody in the face, but it was a real nice party up until then.)

also she and Simon are both transhet t4t im correct and you know it

time for a better River Tam

the first thing we’ve established is that this version of her is not unpredictably violent and the crew is not scared of her!!!! it makes no sense to take a kid who’s primarily brilliant, experiment on her brain, give her telepathic powers....... and tack on the fact that she also has super strength and speed and dexterity and what not, AND say that they programmed her to be super violent. no! no. not only is that extremely harmful rep, that’s also just stupid.

instead!! my version of River is in fact not terrifying to the crew, but is actually the one they feel safest around. River has always been totally blunt, she was one of those kids you could tell realllllly early was autistic, and she doesn’t like being disengenous at all. so you can always trust her to tell the truth and not play weird passive aggressive games or have any hidden agenda, which makes her just a really chill person to be around. also, one of her longtime special interests is music and dance, so whether or not she’s nonverbal on a given day, there will always be some sort of beautiful sound when she’s around. she does have the singing voice of a dying crow unfortunately but that’s ok bc Simon’s is even worse and they’re both incredibly competitive so you’ll at least get free entertainment out of the affair.

my version of River does have psychosis and hallucinations because of the trauma of the experiments, and they are really troubling to her. she and Simon work together to find ways to cope and meds that help, and it’s a process, but there are some things that help.

the only thing she gained from the academy was the ability to hear people’s thoughts and sense the future a little bit. and yeah, that led to her picking up a few spooky secrets at the beginning, which, yikes. and for a while, it was hard to figure out which voices were real and which were hallucinations. but around her friends, she always feels safe to ask “did you just think about triple cheese burritos or was that just a me thing?”, and they’ll always tell her the truth no matter how embarrassing their thoughts are, bc it’s important to all of them to respect her and help her sort accurately through what’s reality and what’s not. and bit by bit, she gets better and better at figuring out what kinds of things tend to be telepathy and what kinds of things tend to be psychosis, and that each one feels a little different. and because of the trust and respect and support of her found family she’s able to do that in a safe environment!!!

trans man Simon rights

listen i wanted to keep him as just a side note on Kaylee’s list but he is my son and he’s important to my heart so here goes

out on the outer rim where Kaylee’s from, gender ain’t much of a big deal, there’s an individualistic quality to life out there, and so if the trail you blaze is the trail of a woman or a man or neither or both, that’s respected even in the rare cases where it’s not outright encouraged. but in the inner planets, where competition and connections and public faces and family names are everything, you have to be what’s expected of you to survive. you can’t change your brand, you can’t be anything other than what your family planned for you since before you were born, it’s incredibly hard to survive in such a hyper competitive environment, and so your very identity becomes just a tool in how to market yourself for better success.

needless to say Simon (just as autistic as his little sister and also very trans) fuckin hated it there. but he was very good at it. correction: he was very good at his very specific field of STEM, good enough to where people stopped talking about how cute he looked in bows and started talking about how impressive his work was from a very young age. and his work had no gender. he could be whatever he wanted to in equations. so that was where he could express himself, and gd, he got so much praise for it, he never wanted to stop.

not until he discovered that his sister needed him, and ran away, and needed a disguise, and realized... suddenly, every stifling rule and prying eye was a million miles away. he was freefloating, freefalling, with none of the charted paths he’d been following all his life... so you know what? fuck it. he’s always enjoyed the name Simon. and since it’s not on any legal records, it’ll make him just that much more untraceable.

and on Serenity, starting over with new people who never knew him before his transition feels like an unbelievable blessing that just dropped right into his lap. he has to keep up the secrecy, he has to make sure they never find out who he used to be, because gd, it’s so nice when they look at him and say his name right, and he doesn’t know if he can handle losing that, not when it’s so new and so important to the person he’s finally becoming. but then one day, the unthinkable happens, the wanted posters for his arrest have an old name on them, they’re looking for the Tam sisters, and... nothing changes. the crew of Serenity could not give even a tenth of a percent of a fuck, and it doesn’t seem like they even know they’re supposed to. huh. that’s new. Simon could get used to that, he thinks.

i’m sure there’s more i could add, but it’s 4:30 in the morning now, so if more occurs to me, ill simply add it in a reblog tomorrow. if you’ve read down this far, i am in love with you. please let me know your Better Firefly ideas, too, bc im always down to yell about this show!!!