#and i really like that! you could go the babadook route of having them be real manifestations

[nellasbookplanet]

Sometimes, being a fan of supernatural horror is a strange thing. I love me some demons and witches and what have you, but I cannot watch these films without being aware that, in real life, witches were innocent women burned at the stake. Possessed people were and are regular humans who're either different in a way those around them refuse to accept, or in need of actual medical care.

So many movies approach these ideas in an unquestioning manner. 'The ghost of a which from ye olden days is trying to murder us!', 'poor innocent girl is possessed and must be exorcised, and anyone who suggests medical care is naive!' There is little to no examination of how these beliefs have impacted real people, even when the films are supposedly set in the real world. Christianity is used as a weapon but never examined in neither a positive or negative light. It simply Is, a supposedly neutral weapon against forces of evil. Modern science is naive and helpless.

It's rare to find something different, but a little while ago, I watched the 2019 Carmilla adaptation, in which (spoiler warning, I guess) there are no actual vampires. There is, however, a belief in vampires as something monstrous and corrupting and inhuman, a belief projected onto those who are different (in this case, queer women). In this version, Carmilla is simply a slightly strange human girl who ends up being Laura's sexual awakening. She's perceived as an evil, corrupting influence, Laura as a naive innocent who must be protected at all cost. In this story, Carmilla is the victim.

In the Babadook (again, spoilers), the demon like monster is a manifestation and a metaphor of guilt and mourning and depression. It is a very real thing, but it cannot be fought with crucifixes and holy water, can never truly be defeated, only ever managed and lived with in the manner of true grief.

I don’t really know where I'm going with this. I love supernatural horror, love films about possession and demons. I just wish the use of such tropes was more self-aware, or leaned more into the fantastic over the religious. How does one even make a possession film without implying that exoricism trumps medical care? A film about evil witches without implying that the witch hunters were on some level justified? A sceptic-believer dynamic without either making the sceptic right, thereby losing the fun supernatural element, or the believer right, thereby leaning into superstition over science? (you could make neither right, and land yourself with an open-ended and often unsatisfactory story, I guess) So many of these tropes have their roots in a very different real life type of horror, and the films all pretend not to realize that.

[hungeringheart]

i love how you consider that games without a space/time player /can/ be won somehow instead of immediately shutting all options down! i understand the need to follow 'canon' too, but i just can't help but think of things like, "in what ways can we bend sburb? what things could we possibly exploit in order to win without following the normal route to winning?"

one of my favourite things to ponder is what classpects would be needed to win a game without a time/space player, because there's so many choices you can go with. you could utilize witches, thieves, rogues, maids, pages, et cetera... and then pair them up with aspects like doom, hope, life, void, et cetera to create combinations that could alter the game and make it possible to win without having to follow the usual structure of a game!!

sorry for going on a ramble here, i just love how you view classpects! oh! and to top it off, what classpects do /you/ think could optimally win a sburb game without utilizing space/time players?? id love to hear what you can come up with!

Aw, thank you, for taking the time to write and for the lovely ask!

Here's the thing: I think almost any combination of classpects could hypothetically win, if you wanted them to. Narrative intent is a powerful thing! The operative concept is, what do you want to say with it exactly?

Given that "unwinnable" sessions are a statement by the game or Skaia itself towards the characters ("your timeline is doomed", "your session is void as if it had never been played"), it's really about what you want to say to that.

Some things are narratively less interesting to me than others, or I just am not sure yet how they could achieve "I refuse! I am a living person!" yet, but I really do think you could win with almost any given pair of classpects if you gave it all some thought from the POV of the characters.

Even just in two player sessions, Blood and Breath are very obvious candidates for stories where a major theme is that you can do anything if you reframe the situation and work together.

Doom and Void are great for situations where you want to examine what it actually means to lose and be destined to fail, and what it looks like to figure out some sort of path to not doing that, despite the odds, despite the sense of hopelessness.

Even Heart and Mind could accomplish it -- identity, faculties, persona and decision -- if you wanted to tell that type of story!

It's a little harder if you want to put together esoteric and unusual combinations like Mind and Rage or Light and Heart in a two-player session, but even then it's not undoable -- Mind and Rage would be a story about choices and the crushing sense that nothing is worth it, about how sometimes picking a path and trusting it is the best thing you can do; Light and Heart would be about how knowing yourself and knowing the world are intricately interconnected, and both essential to growing up and finding the way you need to be going in life.

The thing to know is really just that SBURB is a metaphor for growing up -- that's why it's rigged, that's I think the point of Lord English, he's a terrifying outside force meant to shape how you play and respond and live your life. It's possible to read him as the spectre of violence and selfishness in particularly American society, which seems particularly accessible to me because I live in the hood in Huss' hometown and, like, I get it.

The good news is you're not really ever done, and an adventure is self contained enough that it can just be growing through any period of your life (you could've done The Babadook as a SBURB game if you wanted). There's not actually an age limit for players -- nor a number limit save for what you can comfortably write. Canonically it is said that it's easier to win in numbers, and I think that says something important about community -- the kids start as weird little nerdy shits in what feel to them like inescapable bad situations, and Earth C is the product of a very long time spent learning how to live and interdepend together. (Then the epilogues blow ass all over this, but then that's what happens when the author doesn't even want to write an epilogue.)

There are basically two approaches to picking what's in your game, though, all told. One is what I'd like to call the roleplayer approach, where you think of a character first and then throw them at other people's, and all of you picked a classpect off of vibes, so now you have to figure out where to go from here. You gotta really know each other well for this to go well, otherwise it turns into playground shit -- you can't have a This of That, it's too powerful, power creep, I feel outclassed and outgunned, don't write your guys so competent, it threatens me!

But if you can get past all that, then you're all on one team telling a story about everyone's ocs that congeals naturally and organically compensates for whatever classpects y'all picked (the story will go where the story goes). The problem being of course that people are haunted by the demon ghost of pushy groupmates even when writing alone. Repeat after me: your guys are pawns of the narrative, and if you are any good at crafting narrative, it doesn't matter for the dramatic tension at all if they're all fuchsia lords and muses! "They're too OP" is a neckbeardism, what matters is that there are still difficult things to overcome!

The authorial approach is difficult because then you're doing it all alone, you don't have that randomness or really the desire to persevere if it looks weird. You've got to think about symbolism instead of stumbling into it, and that's rough! That means that you have unrestrained space to be self-critical. But you also get to decide what you're saying, and you can say it with singularity of purpose, in as many characters and scenarios as it needs.

You basically just look at the whole aspect wheel and you think, ok, what do I want to say is true about the world? Where am I going with this? How are these characters going to react? What are their arcs, how do they interrelate, what does that say about, yknow, these concepts they're enacting? What does it actually mean that canon insists there are these prerequisites, mechanically, and how can we play with that? What does that say about whoever designed the game?

Big things to wonder about! Much easier to just yes-and with your friends, but you get more control over the narrative if you buckle down and make the spreadsheet.

Thanks again for the ask! It helped me refine and think through some things as well. <:

[onceimogenburchelluponatime]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Babadook

I decided to have a look at The Babadook because its a film that uses quite a similar concept to my own idea, although the execution is very different to my idea for my final outcome. 

Essentially it’s about a widowed mother and her son who is convinced that his imaginary monsters actually exist and builds weapons to fight them as a result. This obviously ends up leading to issues for the mother such as having to bring her son Sam home after he brings one of his homemade weapons to school.

Then one night Sam asks his mum to read him a book called Mister Babadook, which is a pop up book which has seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The book itself depicts the monster called The Babadook which is revealed to torment those who become aware of it’s existence. Sam becomes convinced that The Babadook is real and this turns out to be true as after reading the book ,which seems to be a way of summoning the monster, the mother starts experiencing hallucinations and finds glass in her food. Continually denying the monsters existence is also reveled to make the Babadook more aggressive as after destroying the book it simply just reappears and shows pop ups of the mother killing her dog and son which foreshadows the creature possessing her later on and attempting to do this. Which is a rather drastic escalation from putting glass in food. 

I already mentioned that I don’t think (although I might be wrong) The Babadook is actually contained within the book itself, unlike my idea where hopefully I will have a little creature that is physically living inside a book. But they are connected. One thing I like about this alternate version of a similar idea is that the pop-up book itself provides it’s reader information about The Babadook and is essentially it’s way of communicating. As a result it just makes the creature a lot more interesting, it’s not just a monster wondering around playing tricks. It has a motive for what it’s doing, emotions and is clearly intelligent as it can communicate clearly through the book and it knows how to get under the mum’s skin and shows her imagery in the book which it knows will disturb her. Such as the previously mentioned  killing her dog and son. I think this makes The Babadook more scary as it’s actions are more personal and it’s not something you can just run away from, you have to outwit it. Plus I like how the book is a pop up book rather than just a normal illustrated book. Having the images physically jump out at you just makes the images more scary/disturbing as three dimensions makes things seem more real. Plus pop up books are something I would associate more with children's literature, I don’t think you get many pop up books aimed at adults. The contradiction of a child orientated medium used to display disturbing imagery just makes the book more unsettling.  

Personally I don’t think I’ll go down the scary route with my creature as the creature I have designed so far just don’t really give off that impression and although I like the idea of a pop up book paper/drawing just isn’t really my preferred medium. Plus I prefer my own idea anyway. I do quite like the idea though of the book the creature is contained in providing some information about the creature that inhabits it. Perhaps I could put the creatures name on the front cover and write some more detailed information on the other side. Although this would mean I would need to cover up the original cover of the book I use to put the creature in. Something like Papier mache might work but considering I would need to make the hole in the book in the first place as well as sculpt, bake and paint a model I’m not sure I have time to do this. If I end up having time though I might do this. 

[edelwoodsouls]

Over the Rainbow

I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming on Thursday and this fic idea hasn’t let me go since. It’ll probably become a series/multi-chapter later on. Please comment, I’d love to know what you think!

Tags: Trans Peter Parker, Bisexual Peter Parker, Panromantic Michelle Jones, Gay Ned Leeds, Bisexual May Parker, Pride, Everyone is LGBTQ+ okay, Pre-relationship,

Word Count: 2139

Also on Ao3

"I'm really sorry, dude."

Peter can feel his heart sinking already; he knows exactly what Ned is about to say.

"My mom forgot to tell me we're going to see my gran today," Ned continues, "and I can't get out of it."

Peter swallows before he can say what's on his mind. They both know that the last minute nature of this trip is entirely planned on Ned's mom's part, but neither of them can bring themselves to voice it.

"I'm so sorry, Peter. I really wanted to be there."

"It's fine, Ned," Peter manages, pressing the phone hard to his ear as he swings down from his bed. "I'll take loads of pictures for you."

"Be careful out there."

"I will."

The call ends, and Peter only just resists the urge to throw his phone at something.

He's been looking forward to New York Pride for months, ever since he came out to Aunt May last year. Until then he'd been too afraid of being caught there, of being outed before he was ready.

Last year seems like decades ago; so much has changed since then.

His outfit sits inocuously on his desk chair - a pink, white and blue striped t-shirt and black shorts; cans of pink, blue and purple hairspray - with Ned's rainbow shirt hanging behind it. Suddenly the clothes seem less appealing than before.

He could just not go. That might be easier than going alone. Besides, he wouldn't have to deal with the crowds and overwhelming loud noises, which make his ears ache and the world seem to close in on him, ever since the spider bite. Really, going to pride doesn't make much sense in his situation.

Except the parade passes right by his apartment. He remembers how painful it was to watch the rainbow flags and cheering people, so close yet so inaccessible to him, year after year. He wants to be out there, with people who understand him, not set back right where he was before. And he did say he was going to get pictures for Ned - his best friend will be able to tell if he took them from his own window rather than ground level.

"Peter?" Aunt May's voice startles him, and he realises he's been staring morosely out of the window for a good five minutes. "I thought you and Ned were planning to leave early. Won't you miss the beginning of the parade?"

He turns to look at his aunt, so open and smiling, brow furrowed with worry for him which only increases when she sees what he imagines is his crestfallen expression. She's been nothing but supportive since he came out - saving up for hormones, researching and buying the safest binders - and he can't believe he was ever scared to hide himself from her.

Before he realises it, he's crying.

Aunt May is across the room in seconds, wrapping him in a hug as he sinks onto his bed. "Hey," she soothes, "it's okay, Peter. What's wrong?"

"Ned- he, uh," Peter feels anger well up inside himself, whether at Ned's mom for all the homophobic shit she puts Neds through, or himself for crying, he can't tell. "He can't come to pride. We were- we were to do this together."

Aunt May's arms tighten around him. "Is it his mom?" She takes his silence has confirmation. "You know, I've always thought that woman needed a good slap back to reality. I've got half a mind to go over there right now and-"

"No," Peter interrupts immediately, then winces at the force in his voice. He extricates himself from the hug, wiping away his tears in frustration. "Sorry. It's just, uh, getting involved isn't the best idea. The only reason they haven't fought about it is because they've never acknowledge it, like, verbally. Confronting her about it would only make it worse for Ned."

"Well," she sounds unsure, placing a comforting hand on Peter's shoulder, "he's always welcome here. I don't think it's healthy for him to live in that sort of environment."

Peter nods shakily. Before he came out to his aunt, he and Ned would fantasise about running away together, somewhere where no one knew them. Somewhere where Ned could kiss a guy and people would walk on by because it was nothing out of the ordinary. Somewhere where no one remembered Peyton Parker. Peter always liked the idea of moving to the Gay Kingdom of the Coral Sea, but the idea of spiders the size of his face freaked him out too much.

Oh, the irony.

"So why aren't you ready?"

"Huh?" Peter blinks, looking at his aunt like she's grown a second head.

She stands up and grabs one of the cans of hairspray, shaking it vigorously. "How much of this stuff do you need?"

An hour later his hair is an impressive mix of colour, and there's glitter everywhere. Literally everywhere. In his hair, stuck in stripes to his cheeks, all over his hands and arms. Aunt May has sprayed her hair too, painted her nails, and dug out a tie-dye sun dress from years ago.

He's just about ready to go when she shoves a large rainbow flag into his hands. "I bought you this yesterday, and forgot to give it to you."

Peter's eyes widen, and he throws his arms around her. "Thank you so much aunt May. I love you."

She grins widely, taking him in as they stand by the doorway. "Your parents would be so proud of you, y'know." She says it quietly, smile flickering, and Peter can feel his cheeks heat in a mix of pride and overwhelming sadness.

Aunt May shakes her head as if to clear it, smile back full force. "Let's go, or we'll miss it."

It's three in the afternoon before Peter gets another chance to breathe. He and Aunt May end up catching the parade half-way through its route, cheering on floats of rainbows and glitter explosions, flowers and flags, and a few appearances of the Babadook, which takes him a good ten minutes to explain to his aunt. After that they're quickly caught up in an impromptu dance party in the park, then taking photos with and for groups of strangers who smile and wave and joke like they've known them their whole lives.

Peter has never felt more comfortable in his own skin. Every time he sees a trans flag his heart feels a hundred times lighter, and he goes out of his way to high five the people carrying them. It's probably a hundred degrees outside, too hot for anyone to reasonably be doing anything, yet he feels as if he could run a marathon or fight off an army. He sees a guy dressed in nothing but his binder and shorts and wishes he had the confidence to do that too; maybe one day soon, he thinks.

They stop to get sandwiches, and lay out the rainbow flag to sit on. His chest is aching and he knows he should probably take the binder off soon, but he doesn't ever want to leave the park. If only every day could be this open, this happy - he's pretty sure he hasn't stopped grinning since the morning started.

"Hey, Aunt May, I'm gonna go get a badge. There's a stall just over there."

She sits up, blinking the sun out of her eyes. "Okay - get me a bi one?"

Peter blinks at her as she laughs at his vaguely stunned expression. After a moment he echoes her wide grin with one of his own, jumping up from the grass. "Sure thing, aunt May!"

He can still hear her laughter as he runs.

There are a few people crowded around the stall, picking out badges of all sorts. There are ones for every flag he can think of, ones for preferred pronouns, and various pop culture ones. He slows down to a walk, trying to decide which badges he should go for, when he hears one of the people behind the table talking.

"Sign our petition for permanent gay and trans pride crosswalks in New York? It's a show of solidarity from the city which will not only support the LGBTQ+ community, but also really piss off the homophobes."

The crowd of people part slightly, and Peter does a double take, because there's Michelle, hair as wild as usual but dyed in rainbow colours, wearing an oversized t-shirt with a pink, yellow and blue heart on the front - it's weird to see her wearing actual colour for once - her face open and earnest as she shakes a petition clipboard at someone.

The person in front of her takes her proffered pen, and Michelle looks up smugly, her eyes catching his and widening in surprise. "Peter?"

He feels almost - vulnerable as he watches her eyes take in the colours of his t-shirt and hair, but walks closer despite his heart thundering at a hundred miles per hour. In the last few months he's come to consider her a friend, and since she only came to their school in sophomore year she never knew him when he was still in the closet.

His fear is quickly assuaged as she smiles at him - a genuine, unironic smile which he doesn't think he's ever seen on her; it softens the hard, confrontational edge she usually exudes.

"What can I get you?" she shakes a jar of badges.

"Could I get a male pronoun one? And two bi?"

She rattles the jar around, fingers digging through them to find the badges he's requested, and he takes the time to look through the ones already displayed on the table.

His eyes are drawn to a set of rainbow flag badges, each with a different Avenger on them, and he can't help but smile.

Michelle clears her throat and presses four badges into his hand with a knowing smirk and a raised eyebrow. He looks down: she's given him an extra one, rainbow with Spider-Man's mask on it.

His eyes widen, and he stares at her, blood rushing to his cheeks. "Wha-"

"Hey, Andy, can you cover for me?" Michelle hands the jar of badges to the guy next to her as Peter drags her behind the stall.

"How long have you known?"

"Seriously, Peter?" she rolls her eyes, entire body exuding sarcasm once again. "You're hardly subtle. You're constantly disappearing. You 'know' Spider-Man. Spider-Man vanished when you lost the Stark internship - I mean, the entire world knows that Tony Stark is Iron Man, the head of the Avengers. You finally get the date you wanted, only to bail, and your girlfriend's dad gets arrested courtesy of Spider-Man that same night?"

"Okay, but-"

"Plus you and Ned talk really loudly. Like, seriously, anyone at that party could've heard you."

"You've known since the party?" he splutters.

"I was right behind you buttering toast, dude. Just be glad it was me, not Flash, or everyone would've known."

He feels like he should be more freaked out about this turn of events, but instead he finds himself only vaguely resigned about it, and more relieved that he doesn't have to lie to her, especially since they've been hanging out more recently. He should've guessed that she knew, really, considering how observant she is.

"So are you gonna take the badge?"

"Huh?" He looks down at the badge, feeling a strange warmth at the sight of it. "I didn't know Spider-Man is an LGBT icon."

"Anyone can be an LGBT icon unless explicitly stated otherwise. Who better to look up to than the superheroes who keep us safe?"

"That's... a really inspiring way of looking at things."

"Why thank you."

They stand for a moment in silence and, for once, Peter doesn't feel the need to fill it with noise. It's comfortable; safe.

"So where's your usual partner in crime?"

"Ned? He, uh- he's still kinda in the closet with his mom."

"Oh. That sucks."

"Yeah."

For a moment Michelle looks uneasy, like she's trying to decide whether or not to say something.

"My shift ends in half an hour," she says eventually.

"I'll be there. We can get ice-cream - or something?" Now Peter feels unsure; he's never been sure when it comes to girls in any respect.

"Awesome." She sounds as relieved as he feels. "I'll see you then."

As she's slipping back into the tent, Peter calls out to her. "Hey, MJ - uh, me and Ned are doing a Sense 8 marathon this evening, if you want to come?"

Her face splits into a smile. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Peter spends the next half an hour grinning, butterflies in his stomach that he can't quite understand, and though he can feel Aunt May's amused, suspicious gaze on him, he feels higher than the clouds.

[remysinnerchicken]

First Seattle Pride

"I can do this."

"You can do this!"

"It's pride."

"You have so much to be proud of!"

"Jay, I don't know if I can do this."

Jay scrambled off of his bed and grabbed his roommate before he could go into the bathroom and change. He tugged him back to the vanity, turning on the light and holding him in place in front of the mirror. "Look in the mirror. What do you see?"

"Defeat," Kris huffed out.

"That's not what I see," Jay hummed.

"And what do you see?" He asked, running a hand down his face before taking off his appropriately colored beanie. He messed with the threading with gentle fingers, avoiding looking at his own reflection.

"I see someone who's spent eighteen years in hiding and who's ready to be open with himself at the biggest party in Seattle," He said. He reached up, pushing on Kris's jaw so he'd look up at the mirror again, "Dude, nobody's going to say anything remotely rude."

"Are you sure?"

"Me, you, and Caleb create the holy trinity of fake sexualities, man, we're fine," He winked to emphasize that he was merely joking. After a small pause, he took the hat from Kris's hands and placed it back on his head, "We have to go now if we want food and decent spots."

Kris nodded then quickly pulled out his phone with shaking hands. "Can we take a selfie first?" He asked.

"Always and forever," Jay said dramatically. He struck a pose, holding double peace signs by his eyes lined in black and white eyeliner, sporting black shorts and an asexual pride snapback with a purple galaxy tank.

Kris shoved his phone his pocket before he could take too much time looking over the picture. He took a deep breath and headed out the door, going to the elevator and hitting the button rapidly. It was only when Jay joined him that he searched his pockets. "Did I-"

Jay whistled innocently as he stuffed Kris's keycard into his wallet before pocketing it, "I'm going to keep a hold on that because you can't be trusted. The others are at the Starbucks just down the street right now."

"Oh God, we're doing this in a Starbucks," He held his face in his hands, groaning at the thought of it, "In our Starbucks!"

"You're fine," He sang, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the elevator, "It'll be fun."

The whole way down, Kris fidgeted with his hands. Every few steps he'd stray just the slightest bit behind Jay, causing him to force them side-by-side once more. It only worsened the closer they got the Starbucks and by the time they were outside the doors, Jay practically shoved him inside and barricaded the door so he couldn't leave.

"Kris, Jay!" Shaun called, causing the others to look up.

"Jay!" Caleb yelled, alerting the unfortunate staff, and ran over to the two boys. He skidded to a stop as he caught sight of what Kris was wearing.

He uncomfortably shifted, rubbing his palms together and not meeting Caleb's eye. There he stood, in acid wash jean shorts, a bisexual flag colored tanktop and a matching beanie.

"Kris," Caleb said slowly in a quiet voice.

"Look," Kris interrupted, "I know it's been a year, but I didn't even know if it was true, and-"

Caleb reached out quickly and grabbed Kris's hands, holding them between his own, "I'm so proud of you!"

There was a pause before he looked up and smiled a bit, "Thank you..." He furrowed his brow then, "Are you in a pansexual colored sundress?"

"Hell yeah!" He beamed in response, "Shaun has a matching demi one!"

"That's really cool," Kris blinked owlishly.

Jay just smiled at Kris before bypassing the two and ordering breakfast for both himself and Kris. The four of them, soon joined by Dorian wearing uncharacteristically civilian looking clothes, ate and chatted before heading out to snag a spot in the shade along the parade route. As they waited, they sat on the sidewalk just behind the barriers, munching on fruit and drinking water. As more people started to gather, they stood to make more room.

By then, Will had found the group, pink and blue stripes on his cheek and a trans flag around his shoulders like a cape. He came up behind Jay, lacing their fingers together and kissing his shoulder, "Hey there," he murmured.

"I'm glad I can recognize your voice because there are so many people that just approach me and grab my hand and honestly, I was momentarily confused," Jay breathed out, squeezing his hand.

"Sounds about right," Will nodded.

"Did you two finally get together?" Dorian asked as she opened her bag and began to dig around.

She didn't miss the way Will rolled his eyes from behind Jay's shoulder. "No, Dorian," He answered, "This isn't a thing."

"Darn, I was hoping I could stop making fun of you behind your back and start doing it to your face," She shrugged as she tucked sunscreen and a lesbian flag between her thighs. She took off her tanktop then, revealing heart pasties over her nipples and tied the flag around her like a cape, matching Will. She then held up the sunscreen, "If any of you assholes need this, now would be a good time to request it."

"I think we're good-"

"I'm talking to you, Hanson," She pointed the bottle at him, "Your little Irish ass isn't going to survive long in the sun."

He paused then reached out without a word, taking the bottle and applying a layer or more.

Finally, the parade started and with each passing group the six college students got more and more excited, cheering wildly for just about anything that came by. Before they knew it, the parade was nearly halfway over and Dorian had migrated onto Kris's back, claiming it was because she was short but they all knew she was just tired. There came a lull in the traffic, as the parade got stopped every so often to let emergency vehicles through the intersections, and the squad was chattering amongst themselves, taking a much needed water break.

Suddenly, however, there was an uproar of cheers and Jay leaned over the barrier to peer down the street, trying to see what was so exciting. There appeared to be a group dedicated to LGBT parents and their LGBT children unified and marching together. He smiled at the thought, but then, upon inspection, he found what the crowd must have really been screaming over.

"Oh my God," he whispered, "You're fucking kidding me."

"Hm?" Will looked at them then to the marchers. Within seconds, he saw it, as the group came closer and closer.

There, towards the front, was Raven and Trevor, marching hand in hand. Trevor was in black jeans and a bisexual tanktop, his hair pulled back into a ponytail and his glasses had been swapped out in favor of contacts. But that wasn't what was causing all the excitement. It was Raven, clad in a black corset and spanx, black stilettos and thigh-high socks, wearing a tophat and glammed out Babadook makeup.

The group erupted into cheers, chanting Raven's name and catching the attention of the pair. As Raven winked and sent kisses flying every which way, Kris was the only one to notice the way Trevor took in his bisexual garb and smiled softly, giving a single nod.

It came as no surprise when Jay and Caleb jumped over the barricade to join the parade as their school marched by. It came as a slight surprise when the others decided to jump the barricade and march with them. It was certainly a shock to certain family members the next day when pictures came out showing perhaps a bit too much skin, too unconventional of clothing choices, and too much pride in themselves to begin with.

However, perhaps the least surprising thing of all was the sunburn they all suffered after choosing to stay out even after the parade ended. All except for Raven, who managed to walk away from the entire event unscathed, save for the thousands of photos that were quickly circulating Facebook and Tumblr.

[notanicequeen-blog]

An Explanation, and Romantic Frustration

Hi there, assorted people. I'm Elsa, and I am not an ice queen. And today, I'm going to talk about something that is probably more common in television than in text-based mediums, though I imagine it exists in basically every sort of medium. It's a pet peeve of mine, and as we're all aware, this is my blog, so I can write about whatever I damn well please.

So, what is it?

Queer baiting.

'But what is queer baiting?' you might ask.

You've most likely seen or heard or read something where there are two characters that are the same gender, and they're close. Like, really close. There are long, soulful stares, lingering touches, rather suspicious overprotectiveness, a certain preoccupation with each other… If they were different genders, if would just be assumed that at some point, they would screw each other's brains out, but in their native medium, they are rather explicitly best friends. Within the fandom, they are probably a very popular pairing, or even the most popular pairing.

Other characters probably make jokes about how they need to get a room or how they act like an old married couple, but despite that, you get the distinct impression that they will never actually be together in a romantic sense. In fact, the entire point of the jokes seems to be for the not-couple in question to scoff at the idea.

This is queer baiting. If you watched the BBC Sherlock series or anything beyond season four of Supernatural, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

(TL;DR: queer baiting is the writing equivalent of playing gay chicken and then shouting, "NO HOMO!" at the top of your lungs and pounding your chest.)

Is it problematic? Yes. How come? Let's get into that.

Queer baiting implies that homosexual relationships are dirty and need to be hidden, like filthy kinks or fetishes that must be kept away from the civilized world; they can only be whipped out in private or when they can be easily explained away. Because god forbid two men love each other without a woman being thrown at one of them whenever the bromance gets a bit too close to losing the B (unless you go the Supernatural route and just kill one of them every few episodes). God forbid two women be together if a man can't climb into bed with one of them whenever someone in the audience starts to side eye the relationship.

In slightly less scathing terms: homosexual relationships are already frowned upon in real life, and queer baiting encourages that attitude.

On top of that, it shows that the writers are cowards. They're willing to exploit the idea of a same sex relationship if they think it will attract a larger audience--to dangle it around like a carrot on a stick--but when it comes to committing to writing an actual same sex relationship, an endless line of love interests that are probably made of balsa wood and wood shavings are paraded through. Despite the fact that it's the characterization that the writers wrote themselves, they are too cowardly to just follow through and let a relationship happen.

(Let the record show that I am just using 'writers' as a stand-in term. I am aware that sometimes it's the producers or the network or whoever else forbidding it.)

Now, I know this kind of makes it sound like I expect all close platonic relationships to turn romantic. I promise, that isn't the case. If they were just going to stay as platonic soul mates or whatever you want to call it and they just told anyone making a big deal about it to piss off, I would be cool with that. I am bothered, specifically, by the idea of them being in a relationship being treated as something sinful or forbidden or as a joke.

Not all is lost, though. It's important to remember shortcomings, but it's just as important to still remember the successes.

When it comes to cartoons, the writers of Adventure Time consider Princess Bubblegum and Marceline to be a couple, and at the end of The Legend of Korra, the writers implied as heavily as they could get away with that Korra and Asami were a couple by the end. In both cases, though, the networks forbid them from just stating that outright.

(This is one of the few ways that Korra getting dicked around by the network actually helped, as the last season was relegated to online streaming, which undergoes less rigorous censoring.)

The Dragon Age and Mass Effect series of video games both have bisexual and homosexual romance options, though in the case of Mass Effect, the homosexual options for male characters were rather… uncreative. (Humans. The options were all humans, in a series where all the fans want to screw aliens and/or robots.) The Fable series of games has always let the player marry whoever they please, regardless of the player character's gender. In the Sims games, characters are all bisexual by default, save for an incident where homosexual relationships were removed on Nintendo consoles. As a personal recommendation, Gone Home involves walking the main character through a string of clues and journal entries to put together her younger sister's coming-out story.

Queer As Folk and Dante's Cove are both shows that reveled in their gayness in their times, and both were rather ahead of the curve for it (admittedly, I can't really speak for the quality of Dante's Cove). The Originals, Smash, Shameless, Spartacus, and a host of other shows all have openly bisexual or homosexual characters and relationships.

The Kids Are All Right, Saving Face, Shelter, and Pit Stop are all films about, or at least dealing heavily with people in homosexual relationships. And with sites like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc., shows and movies like this can be found pretty easily. (The Babadook will be your guide.)

The Heralds of Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey have several homosexual couples that show up, and The Last Herald-Mage trilogy (one of the foundational trilogies of the series, as it explains several key aspects of lore) follows Vanyel, a gay man. (As a caveat, the final book in the trilogy involves a fade-to-black style gang rape that seems to exist largely just to put Vanyel through more shit, and I found it to be in rather poor taste.) Homosexual relationships are becoming more and more accepted in YA literature, as you'll see in Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, Keeping You A Secret by Julie Anne Peters, Adaptation by Malinda Lo, and Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, and a host of others.

The most recent run of Transformers comics has finally begun to include gay relationships. Questionable Content is a webcomic that has been around since basically the dawn of time and includes gay and bisexual characters, and even includes a bisexual woman who is actually involved with another woman, rather than her bisexuality just being a detail tacked onto her backstory. Tripping Over You is a quaint little webcomic detailing the attraction and building relationship between two boys through high school and out into the real world during college.

Queer baiting is problematic and it's still running far more rampant than I would like it to be (if you hadn't guessed, I would like for it to not exist), but the LGBTQ community is not invisible in fiction, and it's getting more visible by the day. I don't know about you, but I'll take my victories where I can find them for now, and I'll be happy in the knowledge that not every writer is too chicken shit to follow through on the relationships they started.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

lol yeah i can chart my increased horror tolerance but im still like hmmmm would i watch either version of the ring?? i was like zero at the time so ive never seen it but i honestly basically know the whole movie so i really bet i could, but theres still a boundary between "genuinely scary but in a fun way" vs "genuinely scary and you genuinely regret it." the old "the more youre afraid of it the more likely it is to Get You" lore is such cheating but so pervasive, unfortunately a timeless maneuver. and/or the similar "it becomes real if you start wondering if its real" cheat. plus just like ideas that are just so Always Scary that if you see it a million times it'll still be scary, like what if somethings in the dark, or what if something comes at you from an unexpected angle.....like what do you think the horror genre of deers would be, with like night vision and almost 360 degree hearing or whatever. probably being shot or eaten by natural predators but whatever what's really wild though is sometimes theres zombie movies i dont want to see not because its too scary but because its too sad. i p much never care about the route horror movies sometimes go to try to make you care about the random relationship they gave maybe 50 seconds of development, but if its a zombie movie and its like here, with literally no other backstory, are people who are very close to each other and one of them is inevitably going to turn in like 30 seconds, then i will probably cry and be sad enough to be pissed off at this fictional verse. its the worst and illegal imo fuckin uhhhh.....there was no comforting approach here save for that i watched that movie like almost two years ago and never had a babadook to get rid of. truly the message in that and a dozen other horror tropes is "never answer the door. at least not ominous knocks of three definitely." and i'd think i might have to worry if that were the case, because what if you accidentally invite a demon inside out of reflexive hospitality, but honestly? if i hear anyone at any door, i pretend im not there most likely. and definitely look outside first if i do answer. not today, ghost knocks—not ever