theresatractorinmyballs

[deafeninggardenerpanda]

i love ur art but what is the GSA? i havent watched the kirby anime in 4 years and i’ve just been calling them the gay straight alliance

LMAO its okay i think everyone who knows what the gsa is calls them that too anyways

gsa stands for galaxy soldier army! they were a group that formed to oppose nightmare trying to take over the universe, but they ended up losing the war against him and almost everyone in it died except for meta knight, who was said to have been the last surviving star warrior. the anime has never been lore-heavy and the whole war was just a vague overarching setting thing, but in some episodes you'll hear some cool more indepth tidbits about it

the 4 knight looking guys you see when people mention the gsa are... actually they have near 0 lore. they appeared for like 30 seconds and no one except for arthur had any lines. people like me are just insane about them and make up a ton of stuff about them, which is why you'll see everyone's gsa interpretations can be really different. that's the fun of being a gsa fan though imo! the only canon lore we have on those dudes is that arthur was the leader of the army, and falspar (the green one) was known as the strongest knight

[lol-jackles]

At the Crossroads 8 convention this past weekend Misha was in “spectacular” form. Is he irrelevant enough to get away with saying the things he did (see below), or could this negatively impact him at all? Also, how likely is it he’ll behave like this at his next con that Jensen is at?

“I’m the one who f***** you hard and raised you from perdition”

https://x.com/sarahjay55/status/1784617852156157955?s=46&t=wx4CnlP_QMqkNn_0DvA9HQ

“If the CW had been less homophobic then Dean and Cas would definitely have been balls deep."

https://x.com/raths_kitten/status/1784630676689490335

He said a slur

https://x.com/raths_kitten/status/1784630981334385116

And finally he was in a “foul mood” at some of his ops (not a new occurrence I know)

https://x.com/raths_kitten/status/1784519380711190889

Link. Link. Link. Link. Is he irrelevant? Yes, with the general audience since 2013 (season 9) and hence why he thought his fake bisexual coming out announcement wouldn't get picked up by People mag. And now he's becoming irrelevant in the SPN fandom as well and why he's going hard with the Destiel-baiting again. Recurring and side actors are known to queerbait their characters because they don’t get residuals from syndication deals so what do they care if they mislead a few fans. Misha is in the same boat because he's been demoted a few times on SPN and hence less residuals, especially over time.

While I actually don't ding Misha for queerbaiting his paying fans, but he shouldn't be slamming the network that helped him stay employed for a decade, no matter how irrelevant he is now. A simple google search will show that GLAAD had praised CW for their abundance of LGBT+++ characters.

The day Misha doesn’t queerbait Destiel is the day you know aliens are real and they replaced Misha with a pod-man who finds the idea of Destiel as ridiculous as the rest of us do.  

"He said a slur"

Come on dude, you know you should be saying "the f word and the h word" instead, it's not hard. I'm older than Misha and I've known for over 30 years you're not supposed to say the slur unless you're a member of the community with intent of ~reclaiming the slur (even though I think the idea of reclaiming is dumb).

"he was in a “foul mood”

As you said, this is a regular occurrence. It's his entitlement mentality problem that is partly due to his upbringing in a liberal elite education system that train their students to have contempt for the working class. Misha project this contempt toward his fans. When you're an entertainer, you work for the fans no matter the number, small or large. Musicians sing their hearts out whether they’re rocking in an arena or a club because they do it for the fans that showed up.   Most actors struggle too much for me to condemn them for grabbing financial success when the opportunity arises, but they should be professional towards the fans, especially in a controlled setting.

Sidenote, this is what happens when you send a father-less child to an elite liberal private school, they become entitled and then angry when their entitlements don't pan out. Think of the Occupy movement in the U.S that was opposing the 1%-ers by activists who are the 2-5-ers% who want to become 1%-ers but unable and their attitudes were result of expanding university system that created a large class of disgruntled elite-wannabes chasing too few elite places in society (X).

[fruityrituals]

soft kisses

eddie munson x steve harrington

cw: fluff, smoking, secret relationship

comments: keep hateful and homophobic comments to yourself because I will not tolerate it, thanks!

Narrative Writing Prompt: Write a scene between two of your favorite characters with no dialogue. Make it a quiet private moment where we see what they’re like together when no one else is around.

-

Stranger Things Masterlist

Main Masterlist

(art above by plasticlamb on instagram | divider below by @cafekitsune )

songs: Secret Lover by Atlantic Starr | Keep on Loving You by REO Speedwagon

Eddie Munson. A metal head who was very much into his music, his guitar, playing dungeons and dragons and smoking weed. He was the town freak and not liked by many, thats only because people just made assumptions about him. The only friends he had where the kids in his Hellfire Club, but he was fine with that and how they worshipped him and respected him as their leader.

Steve Harrington. A heartthrob of the town who is loved by most but not desired by all. He was pretty known for his good hair and the constant talk about girls and finding a girlfriend. You could always find him with his best friend Robin either arguing or talking about boobs. That was on brand for them.

See the thing is about these two is there is something that no one knew about them. They were in love. No one knew about this because in that day and age they lived in, being in a gay relationship was looked down upon. Eddie didn’t care what people thought of him, so this quiet relationship wasn’t his idea. It was Steves, and he respected that because he wasn’t ready.

When these two were alone, they were inseparable. Eddie came off to people as a freak who was loud and mean and scary and thought he probably worshipped satan and had a cult, while Steve came off as cocky but sweet and had an obsession with girls, but when they were alone, it was different.

Eddie loved playing guitar for him and Steve loved watching him. He would always play Steve his favorite songs even though Eddie liked to call them “stupid pop songs” just to tease him. He would of course make Steve listen to his music also which Steve liked to tease him by pretending his ears were going to bleed.

They often spent their time laying in bed together talking or sometimes just laying there in silence, Steve stroking Eddies hair and Eddie rubbing his thumb along Steves cheeks and lips. They would admire each other quietly for hours, sometimes foreheads pressed together, eyes closed and they just lay there while occasionally stealing small kisses from each other.

Other days, they would smoke together and Eddie would teach Steve how to play guitar even though he was completely horrible at it. Steve would make Eddie learn a dance from Dirty Dancing and he would pout about it the whole time but always ends up smiling and laughing because he was just happy whenever Steve was.

Both of them were normally very reserved with their emotions, but with each other, they shared everything. They often spoke about what their life would be like if they ran away together to be happy and it would always make the both of them cry because they felt like they couldn’t do that. They just loved each other so much but everything was all too hard and fresh. They would go back to their caressing and resting in each other’s embrace.

[threewaywithdelusion]

RoyJamieKeeley Fic

Still working on my RoyJamieKeeley post-S3 fic. I got stuck again for a while, but I got unstuck tonight, so he's a little snippet to celebrate.

A few days later, Keeley and Jamie left for Brazil for Jamie’s Nike shoot. Left alone for a week, Roy tried to keep busy so he wouldn’t think about them. He spent time with Phoebe, who was starting to get impatient for summer holiday but could be convinced to spend all her wayward energy on playing football with Roy. He saw the yoga mums twice, once for actual yoga and once for a night of drinking wine, watching rom coms, and gossiping. He told them he’d gotten back together with his ex-girlfriend and they all smiled and told him how happy they were for him and how much more of a grump he’d been without her. Roy didn’t mention that said girlfriend was dating another man at the same time and told himself it was just leaving out unimportant information and not actually lie, but he wasn’t sure he believed himself. 

Roy also had a meeting with Rebecca, who told him she wanted to promote him to manager of Richmond. He called her mad to her face and she still seemed to think giving him the job was a good idea. 

“I don’t want to do press conferences and shit,” Roy said. 

Rebecca was unfazed. “Here are my options, Roy. I can make you manager, which is a job I think you’ll be good at. You know football, you know these boys, and they trust you, which makes you the best fit. I can make Nate manager, which I don’t particularly want to do after he defected to West Ham last year. He has experience and the boys seem to have forgiven him, but I don’t trust him enough yet to give him that much power. The other option is to bring in someone from outside the club. Higgins gave me a list of candidates and a lot of them are very qualified and are interested in working for Richmond now that we placed second in the Premier League, because they think they can get us a trophy next year. However, anyone I bring in is going to have their own style and they’re going to undo all the hard work Ted’s done over the past three years. And what Ted did, however unconventional, has been working for us. So, if you don’t take the job, any thoughts on how I should proceed?”

Roy grunted. It was a good argument and Rebecca knew it. 

Roy liked coaching Richmond. He didn’t really want to work with some new shitbag coach who would come in acting like he knew anything. Who might tell the team to stop playing total football or take that shitty, ripped-up “believe” sign off the wall. Who might not flip Jamie off in the middle of a game or push him to go back out even with an injured ankle. Who might not support Sam’s protests when they cost the club their main sponsor or might not like the fact that Colin had a boyfriend. Who might not defend Isaac in a post-game interview after Isaac attacked a fan in the stands for his homophobic comments or who would hear that famous women got their private photos leaked and react with less horror than the rest of the Richmond boys. 

Roy liked the culture Ted had created at Richmond. Sure, his methods had been downright insane at times, but they’d worked. This was a team that respected Keeley and Rebecca, that accepted Colin, and that tried to be good people as much as they tried to be good footballers. 

Roy didn’t want to lose that. 

“Fuuuuck,” he said, a curse of resignation and realization. 

Rebecca knew him far too well at this point, because she just smiled victoriously. “I’ll have Higgins send you the paperwork this week. We’re also going to be looking at player transfers, so I’ll send you tapes for anyone we’re considering. Do you have any thoughts about which players we should take a look at?”

Roy grunted. He’d had this job for all of three seconds and Rebecca was already giving him work. He hadn’t even told Keeley yet. 

“We need a centre back with more speed,” he said. 

“Noted,” Rebecca said. 

On the way home, Roy felt a strange kind of loneliness take over him. 

He’d gotten a promotion and even though he’d resisted it, he kind of wanted to celebrate. Like when Keeley had been made a CEO of her own company and they’d popped champagne and Roy had spun her around and they’d fallen into bed together. 

But Keeley was halfway around the world with Jamie. On vacation, even though she’d refused to go on vacation with Roy to Marbella last year. And Roy knew it was different — this was a work trip with some fun thrown in — but Keeley was just restarting her business with Rebecca as the main investor and she couldn’t possibly be less busy than she’d been last year. 

A tiny, mean voice in Roy’s head said that the difference was Jamie. That Roy hadn’t been worth the time away from the office, but Jamie was. 

Roy shoved the thought away. 

He went home to his big empty house and stared at the bottle of champagne in the fridge. He couldn’t tell the yoga mums he’d been promoted because they still believed he was an accountant and he had no fucking clue what accountants did or what the fuck their position was when they got promoted. Plus, he didn’t want to spend all evening lying about the job he was celebrating. 

The team was scattered around the world, visiting their home countries and families while they were on summer holiday. What other friends did Roy have? Keeley, who was his girlfriend again? Jamie, who was Keeley’s other boyfriend and was also not in the country? Rebecca, who was more his friend through the transitive property than anything and was also his boss?

Fuck this. 

Roy took the bottle from the fridge. He was about to pop the cork and drink straight from the bottle when his phone dinged with an incoming message. 

It was a series of photos from Keeley, showing her and Jamie shopping. One photo showed Keeley in a dressing room, trying on a dress that made her look fucking amazing. Another showed Jamie with about fifty bags dangling from his arms, posing like he was lifting weights. Keeley was standing beside him, holding one tiny bag, and grinning widely at having a fit footballer to play her pack mile. Then there was a picture of Keeley standing next to a suitcase with a price tag on it, presumably something she was buying to bring all her new clothes back to England, a cute guilty smile on her face. The last picture showed the two of them in a store, both wearing black leather jackets. The one on Keeley was ridiculously oversized and the comical frowns on both of their faces told Roy that they were dressing up as him. 

Another text arrived from Keeley. 

Miss you! Do you want either of these jackets?

Roy was very picky about his leather jackets, something that Keeley had learned early in their first go at a relationship when she’d tried to buy him a present. It may seem like Roy put no effort into his all-black look, but he was very particular about what clothes he thought was worth buying. 

It was sweet of Keeley to ask. 

Send a video, Roy texted back. 

A minute later, his phone dinged. The video was of Keeley in a dressing room, wearing a shimmery grey dress with one of the Roy-sized leather jackets over it. Roy had clearly interrupted her in the middle of trying on half the store because there were clothes over every inch of the dressing room. Keeley did a little spin for the camera and Roy caught Jamie’s reflection in the dressing room mirror, smiling at Keeley like he was in love. 

Fuck. 

Would Roy have had that indulgent, lovestruck expression on his face if Keeley had dragged him shopping for stupid graffiti clothes for Jamie? This was Jamie’s holiday with Keeley and she was still taking the time to message Roy and Jamie didn’t seem to mind at all. 

Roy’s phone dinged again, this time a message from Jamie. It was another video, showing Jamie walking along a wall of all-black clothes, including at least four different leather jackets. 

“I think we found your store, mate,” Jamie said, panning the camera so Roy could see the words John John lit up in the back over the counter. 

Fuck. Roy was being a sorry sad sack and a bit of a prick. And he absolutely refused to be the biggest prick in a relationship that included Jamie Tartt. 

You look beautiful, he sent Keeley. I like the jacket Jamie was wearing. 

Keeley sent back a series of smiley face emojis. 

Roy called her and she picked up on the second ring. “Hi, babe? How’s London?”

“I miss you,” Roy said. It was probably the easiest thing he’d ever said. Usually, Roy had trouble expressing any emotion that wasn’t anger and he knew that. But missing Keeley was all-consuming. It was a physical ache inside him, just as real as the pain from his knee, and he didn’t know how not to say it. 

“I miss you too,” Keeley said. 

“How’s Brazil?” Roy asked. 

“It’s good! I think the photoshoot with Nike went really well. They might offer Jamie a larger deal as a brand ambassador when we get back, but don’t tell Jamie that. I’m negotiating right now and I’m not sure it’ll go through.”

“I’m sure it well,” Roy said. “You’re a brilliant negotiator.”

“You’ve never seen me negotiate,” Keeley said. 

“Sure I have,” Roy said. “What about that time you convinced me to try being a pundit.”

“That was in your best interest, and I’m pretty sure we were arguing.”

“Or that time you convinced me to go to that launch party for that watch company you were promoting.”

“You have to admit, that was great press,” Keeley said. “Everyone’d heard the story about your ex stealing your Rolex, so you replacing the Rolex with a John Hubert watch really connected the two brands in everyone’s minds.”

“Well what about the time you convinced me to both cook and do the dishes when I made you a fancy dinner?”

“I bribed you with blowjobs,” Keeley said. “I don’t think I can use the same strategy here.”

Roy laughed. He felt so much better after talking to Keeley for just five minutes. Suddenly, he didn’t care that she was a continent away. He still wanted to tell her the good news. 

“Is Jamie there?” he asked. 

“He’s in his own dressing room,” Keeley said. 

Roy was surprised. He figured Keeley and Jamie would take shopping as a chance to watch each other strip in the same dressing room. But he knew fuck all about shopping, so maybe it wasn’t that weird that they were in two different stalls. 

“Can you get him?” 

There was a long pause that Roy knew was Keeley working through her surprise before she said, “Yeah, just a sec.” Her voice sounded slightly farther away as she called “Jamie!”

A moment later Keeley’s voice came out sounding a little more robotic. “You’re on speaker, babe.”

Roy cleared his throat. “I talked to Rebecca today. She made me manager.”

“What?” Keeley said, sounding stunned. 

Yeah, maybe he should have worked up to that instead of announcing it right out the gate. 

“She gave me Ted’s job,” Roy repeated. 

A whoop went up from Jamie, so loud that Roy had to pull the phone away from his head so he wouldn’t blow out his eardrums. 

“Congrats, mate! That’s fucking mint.”

Roy grunted. He didn’t say that he was bricking it over trying to fill Ted’s shoes, but Keeley must have released because she said, “You’re going to be amazing, babe. I’m so proud of you!”

“I don’t know,” Jamie said. “I mean, mostly Roy’s been coaching me so far. I’ve got more talent than all the boys on the team and I’m a pleasure to coach, so you can’t measure Roy’s success by how brilliant a player I am.”

“You’re a fucking nightmare to coach,” Roy said, even though it wasn’t actually true. Jamie did anything Roy said, even when it was embarrassing or he was pushing his body beyond what most coaches would demand of him. Roy liked telling Jamie what to do and seeing how hard he would work to achieve the impossible, even when the only reward was a little grunt from Roy. 

“I guess we’ll see if you can bring the other lads up to my level,” Jamie said, cockiness and disbelief in Roy’s coaching skills rolling together in his voice. 

Weirdly, Jamie’s pestering filled Roy with confidence that he could do this. He would be the best damn manager Richmond had ever seen, if only to prove to Jamie that he was wrong. 

“Be careful what you wish for,” Keeley told Jamie sweetly and that buoyed Roy the rest of the way up. Keeley believed in him. She believed in him enough to tell Jamie to suck it, even if she did it in nicer terms. 

Roy wanted to tell her he loved her, but the first time he told her after they got back together couldn’t be over the phone, with Jamie listening in, while Keeley was on another continent. 

Instead, Roy just said, “At least I know what the fucking offside rule is.”

Jamie and Keeley both laughed, though Jamie laughed harder. Roy wasn’t sure Keeley knew the offside rule, which was a travesty given how many footballers she’d dated.

“Well celebrate when I get back,” Keeley said. “That’s wonderful news, babe. I’m so happy for you.”

They said their goodbyes and when Roy hung up the phone, he felt a lot more determined and a lot less alone. 

He checked his inbox to find an email from Higgins with his new contract and and some player files with stats and videos. Several promising young players were listed, as well as some old-timers on their way to retirement from some of the better clubs. 

He poured himself a glass of champagne and settled in to do his job. 

[iguessitsjustme]

Alright friends, I have seen many wonderful posts about Tinn’s mom, but I can’t sleep so I’m writing one of my own. I have many thoughts and feelings about her because I ADORE her.

There are so many things to talk about regarding her relationship with Tinn and her journey on how to accept and best support him BUT I’m not gonna talk about that. I’m barely going to mention Tinn. I need to talk about this because I haven’t seen it mentioned yet: she is damn good at her job. I love that we had a misdirect at the beginning of the show from Gun’s perspective that she would be an antagonist that’s out to get the music club. Then we shifted to Tinn’s POV and we got to see that she isn’t out to get anyone. She’s a high school principal just trying to make sure her school keeps on running. We don’t know the exact details of what scuffle the music club got into the previous year. But as the principal, it makes sense that she is making tough choices. Clubs that cause problems that result in damages that need to be paid during a time where she has to tighten the budget? It makes sense that she would consider disbanding the music club. Tinn and Gun’s worldview is smaller because they are students at the high school. They can’t see the whole picture that Tinn’s mother sees and has to see in order to keep the school running. Does she make things more difficult for the music club? Absolutely she does, but not because she wants to. It’s literally her job. She needs to make sure the rest of the school can still function.

She also never stops the music club from trying. In fact, I’d say she encourages it, even though they might not realize it. She signs off on letting them compete but only once they’ve improved their grades. It feels unfair and impossible to the band but it is completely reasonable. “Keep up your schoolwork and your academics and you’ll be allowed to participate in this extracurricular activity with the school’s blessing.” That was a rule at my high school. It isn’t her job to just give students what they want willy nilly. It’s her job to make sure the students are set up for success in the future. Once their grades improve, she signs off on it. She might be skeptical and it might not be her thing, but never once does she stop a student from exploring their own interests.

Then we get to the homophobic teacher. She listens to his story while he demands punishment. She asks Tinn if what he said is correct. And she’s asking him because he’s involved, because he’s her son, but also because he’s the school president. Tinn has proven he is responsible and she takes that into consideration. She looks at the situation as a whole. She wants to make sure she hears both sides of the story. So many principals of people in authority will take the teacher’s side and not once ask for the student’s side of the story. But she is fair and she sees her students as people who deserve to be heard. And that entire scene I wasn’t worried about Kajorn’s punishment because I knew she would be fair because she is good at her job. Kajorn needed to be disciplined for using violence, but not for standing up to the homophobic teacher. And she punished accordingly. Then she moved on to tell the teacher what she would do regarding his role in the situation. She was being pressured by the other teacher’s regarding Tinn’s sexuality but she remained professional the entire time and did her job to support her students. And at the prom, standing right next to two of the homophobic teachers, who I’m sure texted her, she loudly told the students to cheer for Tinn and Gun.

She is doing everything in her power to make that school a safe place for students even if that means she has to face backlash. She does that because it’s her job. It’s not her job to judge students. It’s not her job to make life more difficult for students. It is her job to make sure each and every student in that school has the best chance for success when they eventually leave.

[nompunhere]

Hello fellow nonsexual vore fans- I mean Regular People with Average Interests! Have you been looking for a discord server where you can make new friends, converse about your perfectly standard thoughts and ideas with like-minded individuals, share your art and writing, and participate in group games and drawing sessions that have ordinary themes?

From @cardnompfs and myself, allow us to introduce the Totally Normal People Club!

[insert fancy server banner and party blower noise here] ((I'd put the link up here but I wanna make sure people read the post before trying to join, so you're gonna have to get through my rambles first, sorry :P))

If you're interested, more information (and the link) under the cut

In all seriousness, this is a server Sul and I have had for a bit now, with just a couple friends, but we'd like to open it up to more of the vore community here on tumblr! Our aim is for this to be a safe space for those who like vore in a nonsexual way to gather and interact without fear of judgement.

Nothing too saucy on our server, though a little joking around is alright. Keep it tasteful (haha, taste-). And we want to avoid conflict here! Some teasing and joking with friends is fine (such as calling my co-owner a jellybean, wink wink), but we want to make sure everyone still feels welcome.

We have a preference for safe and soft vore on our server, but fatal is allowed, so long as you give appropriate warning and, ideally, mark it as a spoiler when posting it. Same goes for light-to-medium gore, but anything too graphic is off-limits.

Also note that for everyone's comfort and safety, this server is 16+. If you are younger than 16, we advise you to wait a few years or to try and find people who are closer to your age. We know it can be frustrating to hear that, but better safe than sorry.

I'll leave the rest for the rules channel on the server itself, this is just meant to be some guidelines on what kind of space we're trying to curate. But now, the moment you've been waiting for: the link!

Now, we don't want our server to grow too quickly and overwhelm us, so this link has a limited number of uses, and will only last for a week after its posting. If you'd like to join and the link doesn't work for you, DM me or @cardnompfs and we'll get you a fresh invite!

We look forward to seeing you there, should you choose to join! And regardless of if you do or not, we hope everyone has a great day/night/timezone <3

———————————-

DNI NSFW blogs, weight gain blogs, proshippers, TERFs, ace exclusionists, racists, homophobes, etc.

[lexa-ocean]

do u have any rolfe and earl headcanons?!?!?! NOT FORCING BTW!!!! U SAID U SHIP THEM I THINK….

I started drafting an answer and Tumblr didn't save it 😭😭 but yeah i do ship them!!!! They might be one of the ships i've into the longest lol. I even got my partner to ship em before we got together!!! (It's how I won her over lol/j)

Putting hcs under the cut!!

Ok so my biggest hc here not only re:this ship but also in general to the rockafire is that Earl is. Not actually a puppet lol??? But yeah my hc is that he's like. A monster type dude similar to Mr Munch basically ¯\_(ツ)_/�� like in general my hcs for the rockafire rely a bit on their world running on magical realism rules, where ppl see things that we'd think Odd as ordinary. Like random furry monsters just existing lol. But anyways. Continuing w that, Earl's Specific Brand Of Creature™ is just naturally tiny and light, ergo why Rolfe can just. Swing him around like that 😭 also as I mentioned in this fic, he's also very feline like and can purr, among other things!!! Going onto the shippy aspect, as i wrote on the afromentioned fic, Earl's purring is one sure fire way to calm Rolfe down if he's having a hard time 💖💖 the downsize tho is that Earl doesn't like doing it in public :/ so it's really a thing just for the two of them

(Eventually Earl becomes trusting enough to do it around the rest of the band, but everytime he realizes he's doing it he threatens them to not go around saying it. They all agree but tbf its like an open secret at this point 😭)

Anyways, all this to say Earl had a Whole life before meeting Rolfe. And i think they had a Very Funny meet 'cute' where Earl was like. A server at a comedy club Rolfe decided to do stand up at (i think its funny if Rolfe used to do stand up by himself and SUCKED at it) and Rolfe was so bad even Earl started heckling him while waiting tables and Rolfe was SO offended bc what does this lowlife server know about comedy??? So they started to trade barbs back and forth and everyone else in the club thought it was HILARIOUS and even some ppl started wondering if it was all part of some Really Funny Bit and they had agreed to do this beforehand but. No lmao they literally just Have Chemistry when it comes to comedy. Anyways eventually Rolfe's time ran out and he was thinking like 'oh great i wasted my whole time fighting with this rando i'm gonna get booed off again-' but nah fam he was cheered on bc the fight was HILARIOUS. Rolfe wondered wtf was up but when he noticed ppl praising a very confused Earl he wised up about it and asked him if he wanted to do an act together and. Earl said No. So Rolfe just began going to the club to BEG Earl to be on his act it was High Key Pathetic 😭 but Earl did eventually agree (mostly bc word spread out abt the funny 'comedian vs server' act and the club threatened to fire Earl if he didn't do it again :'D) so yeah they eventually began hanging out outside the club, at first just to keep working on their act but eventually they started liking each others company. Like they Don't Agree with each other in a BUNCH of stuff but they could Argue about it in a fun way and they both enjoyed it. And when they Did agree it was also fun like they could talk for HOURS.

Yeah the thing is, living together and being close as they were eventually their feelings wandered into a more Flirty spot and (without quite meaning to) they began putting into their act to the point everyone was like 🤨🏳️‍🌈❓️ at them. And the club owners turned out to be... pretty fucking homophobic!!! So one day they were just like 'we know what you are' and dead up fired them. Probably called them some slurs on their way out too 😭 and the funny thing is Rolfe and Earl hadn't even NOTICED they were being flirty with each other so they were SHOOKED and frankly very fucking pissed off. They just made it back into their apartment like

Another thing that def helped their bond it's that they were both deeply lonely people and had like No Friends??? So in my hc Rolfe had a pretty awful home life and grew up Very Isolated so yeah. His social skills consisted on acting like he was better than anyone else then being Shocked when that resulted in ppl finding him annoying. And Earl once again i have a Whole Headcanon but tl;dr is that he's from Argentina (like me hi i like projecting 👋) and back then thing's were... Not Great™ so he had to leave and rebuild his life somewhere else and it was HARD and he was also Grumpy about having to move in the first place so yeah 😬 suddenly tho they found each other and become Close Acquaintes, maybe even Friends??? Dare i say even Close Friends??? It got to the point that they decided to move in together to save up on rent and work more on their act and stuff. And they were Pretty Good at it too!!! Everything was going well... maybe too well...

Rolfe: Wow I can't believe we were fired and over fake accusations too???

Earl: Yeah i mean wtf are they on?? We're not dating???

Rolfe: Yeah I mean i am gay but not at you lol ur not my type??

Earl: Yeah same i think guys are hot but not you ur a geek

Rolfe: The club owners are CRAZY

Earl: Yeah lol imagine us dating??

Rolfe: Lol that would be weird

Earl: Heh... yeah...........

Earl:

Rolfe:

Earl: ...So u wanna make out-

Rolfe: YES

So yeah lol ironically they started having a Thing bc of that whole situation. Club owners created their worst enemy fr.

I do think they didn't sit down to discuss the Terms of their relationship until MUCH later, so they never really called each themselves boyfriends or anything. They just had an Unspoken Thing™ and they figured it out as they went.

Anyways, they stayed in that town for a while and began doing their act at different clubs (changing it as they went from 'server vs comedian' to 'audience member vs comedian' bc several clubs weren't willing to let Earl act as if he worked there) but the past club owners kept spreading rumors abt them so eventually no club in town would take them :/ so they decided 'actually fuck this town' and just. Got into a van to go around the country as a traveling act. And they did very well!!!! They def had their ups and downs but it was mostly positives. At one point they ended in a club that had a STRICT 'the comedians must stay only on stage' that they weren't told about until last second so they had to change their WHOLE act with a few minutes to spare.

Rolfe: Wait hold up i have an idea... ✨️puppet✨️

Earl: Fuck off i'm not pretending to be a puppet-

*smash cut to Earl on Rolfe's hand*

Earl: I hate you

Rolfe: Love you too ❤️

That act ended up being a MASSIVE success tho so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Earl had to learn to cope

But then one day they stopped at a Showbiz place and meet Wolfman (as mentioned in my fic, he's Rolfe's older brother who he lost contact with) and well. Rolfe and Wolfman had a pretty emotional encounter and Earl decided it was better if they stayed 'just for a while'. Before they knew it they were helping Wolfman's bestie (Fatz) on making a new band since the WP5 was breaking up and they had a whole STAGE for themselves and yknow what maybe they could stay for a while longer...

3 years and a shared house later: Wait shit. We're Attached now.

ANYWAYS this thing devolved into a whole origin story huh 😭 lemme drop some actual hcs here real quick

Rolfe is older than Earl by like 2 yrs (i usually write Rolfe as 37 and Earl as 35, for reference)

Rolfe is the most physically affectionate of the two, he has an habit of getting Affection Zommies™ (term coined by my girlfriend) and just. Picking up Earl to cuddle him or squeeze him or nuzzle him 🥹 and Earl just rolls with it like "oh i'm being pick up. Ok then." It's like the meme of 'came home drunk last night and got too happy to see my cat' yknow

They both smoke, but Rolfe smokes those v long and 'softer' ones while Earl smokes a heavier type (Earl probably smokes weed too on accasion). Anyways, point is, they 100% do that 'leaning really close to light up their cig with the one their partner is smoking' thing like. ALL THE TIME. And everyone thinks they're being romantic but in reality they started doing it to make their lighters last longer 😭

They lowkey have a ratatouille style system to cooking?? Like Rolfe is ok at cooking but NEEDS the recipe. On the flipside Earl has a hard time cooking bc of his side but he just Gets cooking like he can eyeball and improv things and ends up with fantastic stuff. So what they usually do is Rolfe cooks while Earl watches him and gives him indications. And yes, their system works

They're both v good with children!!! And actually like them!!! It wasn't a huge sacrifice for them to change their act to make it more kid friendly. They're also not bad babysitters.

Rolfe loves sewing and clothing design and the like. It can be hard to find stuff Earl's size, so he'll sometimes make him clothes

(Half the time is stuff not really Earl's style but is the thought that counts?)

Rolfe LOVES Earl's voice he thinks he's the best singer in the band and is constantly trying to get him more songs. Earl himself doesn't think he's that good, but he does like to sing and has fun w it so he's also not complaining.

Even tho they usually write their skits beforehand, they're also p good at improv if things go wrong. For ex. the Frank Sinatra skit was meant to have a different ending where the song went without an hitch, but then Technical Difficulties happened and they had to run with it

Earl wont admit it but he genuinaly likes how soft and fluffy Rolfe is.... world hard and cold, fur soft and warm ( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝)

On that note, Earl has an habit of kneading on Rolfe without meaning to (cat-like creature babeeeeyyy). Rolfe feels flattered every time it happens so he doesn't say anything, even if he might ocasionally get Poked at by claws (yes Earl has retractile claws)

I said this earlier, but Rolfe's parents are pretty garbage. They keep sending Rolfe letters trying to guilt him into taking care of them (send them money), and they can cause Rolfe to spiral. Earl's solution is to check for them constantly and shred them whenever he sees them. He just takes his claws to them and goes wild

If Earl ever meets Rolfe's parents, heads will roll

They're both also very aware of each other's issues/trauma, since they were all they had for a while they ended up accidentally trauma dumping on each other early on.

Yknow that one trope where the tall partner lets stuff in high shelves so the short one has to ask them for help? Yeah Rolfe's the complete opposite. He tries makes sure everything is accesible to Earl, esp if it's stuff he uses constantly

They're both pretty early risers, with the difference Rolfe also has an habit of staying up late. As a result, Rolfe is usually a zombie in the mornings before he gets his caffeine dose. Earl ends up trying to make sure he doesn't get himself hurt by running into walls or smthn

Yeah i think that's all i have rn!!! I've actually been at this for a few hours.... lol....

As an extra, here!!! I made a playlist for them a while ago!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmHPhhJWNKI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNaHpezFjng

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Djn8yRscS8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybhNZqEnkYQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX8JmX-PJ8k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EemlA7ICn6Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LViL6-nt3wQ

(Yeah i know most of these are in spanish, sorry they just Fit)

Thanks for the ask!!! 💖

[runawaymun]

I really just want to send you some love and support.

It is not a new thing to say that there seems to be so little correlation between what the Bible says and what US Christians say and do as to completely belie their professed faith.

I will not attempt to judge what they do or don't believe, but what they say and do and how they treat others, and I see a lot of pride, judgement, and false claims of love.

I see very little care for the poor, the fatherless, and the widow, very little humility and self-reflection, and a whole lot of self-righteousness, claiming "Lord" by those whom He does not seem to know (or who don't know Him)

The fact that they are celebrating alienating 'fellow' Christians (the quotes are not a slight against you, trust me) is proof enough that you should feel not the slightest bit bad for being excluded from their little club, all noise and clanging symbols.

The ornery part of me wants to fill the tag with all the things they would hate, but I realize that is not really the point.

I also want to encourage you to use the tag for your writing no matter if it fits their narrow views because it is accurate for you and you should not have to bow to their bigotry.

But I know that can be exhausting to put yourself out there and hold against a sea of enemies.

I think you can create your own tag which says "I write informed by my faith" without needing to take the heat from those who are not welcoming. I hope you create beauty no matter what tags you choose to use in the end. I hope you hold strong in your faith without bowing to the judgement of those who seem to have lost the definition of love somewhere along the way.

I hope you can find peace in your faith without feeling like you need to deny yourself or compromise how you were created.

<3

I really appreciate you taking the time to leave this for me so much, you have no idea. <3

I want to be very careful that I don't go so far as to call anyone's salvation into question because that's not my place to, even though people have been doing it to me left and right over the course of this entire bout of internet tomfoolery, but I still refuse to let arrogance and a blatant lack of empathy and compassion go unchallenged. I wanted to make it clear that no, I don't agree with the homophobia and I don't think Christ does, either-- because that's just not the Christ I know. That's not the book I know. And I voiced my support for the tag initially when the creators were being cagey about its true intent.

It's the celebration that gets me, truly. And the persecution complex that seems very unique to US Christians. I grew up in the US Evangelical church so, yeah, none of this behavior is suprising to me.

The encouragement means a lot. I caved and I'm being a little petty with adding a few jokes to the tag, but I may continue using it for the rest of my fics regardless. You know, the normal ones. The light-filled ones. Sure, I have trans Caranthir. I have Russingon. I have Glorestor. And Bi Elrond and whatever. But if they want a closed "safe space" then they should have been honest. I never would have gotten involved if I had known that this was just another group of homophobic individuals. But uh...yeah, the manufactured antithesis of queerness and Christ is something that I have kind of spent the past couple of years fighting in my personal life. It's not something that I have an easy time allowing to go unchallenged when I see it. I don't have any illusion that I will change their minds, but I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it for thirteen-year-old suicidal me who thought God didn't love her. There are other queer people of faith. We exist. It's just that...a lot of us are scared, or hurting, or feel unsafe to say anything because our faith communities tell us that we're welcome, but our sexualities aren't, and so often our queer spaces tell us we're welcome, but our God isn't.

And that's a really, really, really isolating place to be in. So when I see this rhetoric perpetuated I really am unable to leave it unchallenged just in case... you know, because there might be someone out there who needs to see that 'hey, God loves you. I love you. You are welcome here. All of you.'

It is exhausting so I really do appreciate the support. I keep saying this, but yeah. I really do.

I am really happy to say that I go to a church that, while not everybody in the church agrees-- they all are loving. So far I have encountered no arrogance. No one has said I can't be me. And our deaconess gave a sermon during Pride Month about her sexuality. She's like a sixty-year-old woman and she's bomb as hell and spoke up about the fact that she's queer, and she was encouraged by the rest of Church staff to do so. I am in a safe place and I am at peace.

And hey, if you're reading this and you're like me, or you're where I was a few years ago and you feel really alone: you're not. And you can be safe and have peace with yourself too <3 I'm here if you want to talk.

[lampmanliveblogs]

"He might feel like it is his personal responsibility as a Titan, as the son of the Boiling Isles to protect the people of the Boiling Isles."- And in the end it kinda is. Both by his nature and his empathy does he protect everybody's lives, at least in the short-term, and there was no way to pass that along to anybody else.

There is an old saying of how with great power comes great responsibility. And King, as a Titan, has (the potential for) great power, inherited from his father (and presumable his mother as well... unless titans reproduce asexually, but that's beside the point). Case and point, he was the only person who could free The Collector, who in turn was the only one who could stop the draining spell.

Maybe there is something that could be said about how Belos used the name of The Titan to get people to join his coven system which would eventually lead to their demise and King, the Titan's son, being the one to save them... even if he had to do it by getting another god to moved it for him.

More asks below

I mean... to be fair, I feel most mothers would object to their daughter dating a criminal, regardless of gender.

Ugh, did I just defend Odalia? Gross.

Luz: "You''re taking the news that your daughter is dating another girl a lot better than I thought you would?" Odalia: "Oh wow, so just because I'm a bad person I also have to be a homophobe?" Luz: "N-no, I just thought-" Odalia: "Goes to show who's really the close-minded one here!"

Amity may be Luz' sweet potato, but she's her spicy sweet potato.

A pretty obvious reference that I should have made in the liveblog. Why didn't I make it?

I forgor

The "Get Philip to delay his trip home for a few minutes" is a very exclusive club that few people can join.

I do wonder though if the rest of the squad showing up when they did in King's TIde, just as Ohilip had transformed was one of the reasons why Hunter was able to help out as much as he did (at least until the draining spell got the best of him). Having to face his "uncle" while he was still in his human form might have been too much for Hunter.

Precisely. And you know... the whole "being from the 1600s" thing. I'm not a historian, but I am reasonably sure they didn't have great sex-ed back then.

[cubanpetekotrb]

I don't know how my fellow Tumblr queers are feeling but this shooting of the gay club just feels like something, I don't know different in the way it is responded to by mainstream media.

It used to be like, "oh this is tragic but hey this kinda stuff happens here, thoughts and prayers" and that's it, let's move on to the next event. Now it looks like people are just SO sick and tired of this hateful rhetoric that's being blasted into any room by GOP/conservative people. They are calling them out, big time! The way the US midterms went is a big example of that.

Look I'm not from the US but my country has issues with this kinda thing as well. Hateful (powerful) people say hateful stuff and then try to thought and prayers themselves out of situations (or they try to gaslight the sh*t out of you). When a country as big as the US is moving towards not tolerating intolerance. And yes the US is not nr 1 in a lot of things anymore, but they do have a lot of influence on the rest of the world. So if this is not tolerated and dealt with differently in the US, then I'm hopeful it will have an influence in the way the rest of the world deals with racism, homophobia and misogyny.

Because I'm just so f*cking sick and tired of these right-winged racist homophobic transphobic misogynistic RICH white cis assholes running the show treating the rest like shit and getting away with it.

I think that's also part of the reason why a league of their own has resonated so much, people are tired of the hate and anger. They want to celebrate other people being happy and in love and relate to that. Feel the joy instead of the hate.

Anyways jeezzz just wanted to get that off my chest.

[empty-tunacan]

Hi. Rtc. Here are some ideas of how I think the group would act if my little au actually happened. There’s another post I could make about what would happen like directly after but this is mostly just my thoughts of in general how the group would feel if they somehow all survived the cyclone accident

Ocean is first because uhmmm I said so!!!

I actually think she would have a rlly hard time dealing with it. Like throughout the entire musical she was kinda not coping well with her death and literally was trying her hardest to be revived.

And so I think for her to live again after just barely accepting her death would be very jarring! And in a sense she would feel like, idk. Bad? Almost as if her achievements are useless in a way- but at the same time she also wants to have more achievements so that they don’t become useless? It’s giving burned out gifted child except the burnout is like an internal crisis.

Basically I think she needs therapy. I think anybody who experiences death should need therapy but like especially her. ^_^;

I also do think the others help her tho. It will take time but they are there for her!! And I think she eventually learns to let go of shit. She stops taking every single AP class available to her, she allows herself to actually go and do *fun* stuff on the weekends instead of just stuff that will improve her reputation in some way. She becomes an actual human being yknow..?

Next is uhhmmmmm… idk let’s go in order of songs.. so Noel ^_^

I think first thing Noel does is fuckin quit toco bell. So serious I think hearing about what they would’ve done to his funeral would be enough for him to leave that place. And who could rlly blame him? That shit was awful 💔

And I think he tries just a little bit harder to like.. idk not fucking just blend in with the rest of this town. Allow himself to stand out instead of conforming like his parents wanted him too? Maybe he joins the school writing club?

I just think his death and telling the others what he wanted in life rlly made him be like ‘man. My life could be so much better and so much closer to a l hooker in post-war France if I took some initiative’ and so he does! ^_^

Also the others are very much there for it. Except Ocean, she is still homophobic to him 💔 (it’s okay, sibling vibes that just how it is. ^_^)

Okay my lovely and amazing misha next (<- not biased at all)

Uhmmm the first thing misha does when he is revived is fucking text the fuck out of talia. Man’s just had a mini breakdown when he though he was never gonna see her again he is defo going to talk to her way more fucking frequently.

Aside from that uhm. I mean, I think misha is just more there for people now? Like he said, he truly knows what YOLO means now and he is gonna take it to heart. I also think he rlly actually tries rlly hard on his music more than he was. It’s still uhm.. not the best, but he is trying 😁😁

I also think in regards to how other people focus on him Ocean actively takes more of an interest in him so she can stop just internally listing him as a criminal. I think she would even like ask him about Ukraine culture and he would be rlly fuckin happy to share it!!! Maybe in general the others get him to share in Ukrainian culture more (him and Constance making like traditional pastry or smth since she probably knows some baking from her family?? Idk!!)

Ricky next!!!

I actually think Ricky as a person does not change much. Perhaps his religion lore expands since being revived but idk. I feel like it’s mostly how the others treat him that changes.

Like they actively try to communicate with him (at first via writing probably) and he is like not just alone in his own head all the time. Ocean would probably find a way for them to learn ASL or MSL despite being a little tiny ass town so they could communicate with Ricky better!! ^_^

Also just to be funny and because Ricky is coined the most creative boy in town I think Ricky and Noel’s friendship initially becomes closer because when Noel is fantasizing about tragedies Ricky comes up with ways to make said fantasies even more tragic. Maybe that is not funny to anyone else but it is to me :)

ANYWAY.. JANE / PENNY NOW <33333

Penny penny penny she is the center of everyone’s life. I think she might even become a little overwhelmed initially from the attention she gets.

She as a person was actually quite ignored by like.. most of the town. Rlly didn’t have much at all going for her so for her to very quickly have a friend group is like ?!!!!!

It takes time to get used to the fact that people actually like her. She isn’t like self conscious or anything but she also is not good at communication and so it’s actually just jarring that they will randomly talk to her throughout the day even when she has taken no initiative to converse.

But she definitely enjoys it!! And I think the rest of the group also helps penny to actually be known and fuckin cared about in the damn town.

And I think if she were to like have her one thing in the town I think it would be babysitting? Like specificslly little little kids? Idk. Jane gave me weird little girl vibes (/pos) and since I’d assume she would at least partially capture Penny’s vibes penny would vibe well with a 7 year old weird little girl. So she takes care of kids now (insert that one savanna theory for the future of her life. You know it)

Ok finally Constance hehehe

Constance I think would also like.. slightly be conflicted like ocean was?

I think she would genuinely feel a lot more appreciative of her own hometown but I also think her own internalized hatred of herself and also projected hatred towards her family wouldn’t go away in an instant. It’s rlly easy to just say ‘my mindset was wrong’ when ur alone and but a lot harder when the mindset you dislike is what everyone else has.

So it would be kinda slow. But I think she would get there. Perhaps starting to engage with her family more, maybe even help close out the bakery when she gets home. She goes to her school councilor and states that she actually does want to go to a close by college. She helps get all of the rest of the choir together to have fun & in general she just lives a little more. Hashtag live laugh love <333

[kiseiakhun]

"..." Wally's silence speaks volumes.

"Shut up," Kyle hisses, careful to keep his voice low. "You didn't see him! He was wearing a football jersey! He drank beer the whole night! He told me he's from Baltimore!"

"What the hell does Baltimore have to do with-"

"Are there even gay people in Baltimore? Are there even people in Baltimore?"

"Do you ever think before you open your mouth?" Wally sounds offended. Kyle can't figure out why. In his defense, he's a bit busy right now, busy having a crisis. And also a hangover. He leans his head against the cool bathroom tile to try and quell the headache building in his skull.

"I know it's a hard concept for you to get through your peanut sized brain," Wally steamrolls ahead, sounding annoyingly chipper and clear-headed, "but New York isn't the only place in the world that - you know what, I'm not getting into this with you. You went home with the guy, and you still think he's straight?"

"How did you know I went home with him?" Kyle squints at the cup on the counter, the crystal-clear glass gleaming next to the toothpaste covered mug holding a mangled toothbrush that looks like it hasn't been changed in years. He's pretty sure he brought the cup in for a reason, but he can't remember the reason.

"I was there, you idiot," Wally hisses, seemingly on his last thread of patience. "Connor went home, but we went to the bar together."

"Oh." Kyle licks his lips, wishing he had something to drink, and finally remembers why he brought the cup, lurching forward to turn on the tap.

"Well, together until you ditched me for tall, red, and Baltimore. Where are you right now, anyway? Did you sleep with him?"

"Wally!" Kyle almost drops the glass.

"I'm just saying, if you called me like oh no, what if he's straight, after he's put his dick in your ass-"

A knock cuts through Wally's rambling. Kyle jumps, spilling water across the front of his borrowed shirt. He'd grabbed the first one he could find from the laundry hamper in the bathroom, reasoning that if it's on top of the pile, then it can't be too dirty.

"You okay in there?" The low rumble of Tall, Red, and Baltimore's voice punches through the cloud of his hungover panic, hitting the exact horny synapses that makes his knees melt into a horny puddle. Kyle hadn't exactly taken the chance to look at the half-naked body beside him when he'd stumbled out of bed at way too early in the morning o'clock, desperate for anything to soothe his parched throat. And then he'd been too nervous to climb back into bed with a stranger who he - well. They'd kissed. He does remember that. But if they had done more -

God, he doesn't know if he hopes they did or didn't do more. On one hand, oh god please. He can imagine that low voice rumbling in his ear, paired with a vague memory of broad hands and a thick chest pressed against his back.

On the other hand, if they did fuck and he doesn't remember, Kyle is going to be pissed.

"I'm, uh. Just give me a second." Kyle gulps down the rest of the water.

Wally makes a noise into the phone, the exasperated scoff whenever Kyle drives him to his wit's end. Kyle's heard it a lot throughout their acquaintance. "Don't forget to call Connor and tell him you're alive," he says, and then he hangs up.

Kyle reminds himself to give Wally shit for abandoning him in his moment of need. Later, though. Right now, he doesn't really care too much, occupied with the sex hunk standing on the other side of the door. The straight guy. The one who's probably not straight because he did take Kyle home, but what if he thought Kyle was a girl? No, that's stupid, but - it was really dark in the club. And Kyle doesn't remember what happened last night, and he's wearing his shirt, the guy's shirt, and he just spilled water on it and he looks like a mess and his breath reeks of alcohol and he does not look hot enough to be a straight guy's gay exception.

Is he about to become a homophobic hate crime statistic? Fuck, Kyle really hopes he's not about to become a homophobic hate crime statistic.

"You sure you didn't drown in there?" Tall, Red, and Baltimore asks again, making Kyle's stomach flip in queasiness. He stares at the mirror, at his bloodshot eyes and messy hair that he rakes his fingers through in a last ditch effort to make himself look more presentable. Predictably, it doesn't work. In fact, he might actually look worse.

"Fuck," Kyle whispers under his breath, and then, "fuck it," and opens the door, coming face to face with Tall, Red and Baltimore for the first time in person. Except for last night. And maybe the other fun bits of last night that he can't remember, because his brain is a traitor.

Tall, Red and Baltimore rakes his eyes over Kyle's sorry state with clinical efficiency. He's holding a glass of water in one hand and an advil in the other. He's wearing faded pajama bottoms that look like they've been through the wash at least a hundred times, the printed stripes fading into the white background.

He's not wearing a shirt.

"Hey there, champ," he says, holding the water and advil out for Kyle. His voice is still sleep-rough, eyes heavy-lidded with morning crust. "You look like shit."

"Fuzzy," Kyle says, staring at his chest hair.

"What?"

The world tilts around him. He grips the wall for balance, stomach twisting with another queasy clench. "Shit," he says, and barely manages to stumble his way to the toilet before throwing up.

[spade-riddles]

Submission:Analysis of the scene in the Anti-Hero video

I am shocked at the loudness of the scene about the gaylor and hetlor sides of the fandom. I think it shows Taylor really understands the dynamics of the fandom to a minute degree, and is trying to communicate with hetlors, gaylors, and jerk through it. Here are my thoughts:

Chad is wearing headphones, suggesting he is the only one who is *really* listening to her music.

The queer-coded son Chad is more likable and sympathetic, but also pretty pissed off and annoying too (guilty lol), using her to make podcasts and books that are ultimately about himself

"Growing Up Swift" sounds like he's about to say "Growing Up Gay," a common trope.

Nice that she calls us the Chad though, like as opposed to the virgin in the Chad/virgin memes. Like she's calling gaylors cooler. The character has a kind of outlaw vibe, cynical, doesn't care what people think, hates everybody especially fake obnoxious swifties/Preston and Kimber making fake sad faces. So true for us

Preston and Kimber yelling at Chad for recording the funeral for his podcast, like how hetlors criticize us for prying into her life for evidence even though they're the ones who are actually harming her

The ritzy son Preston using her name to get into the country club is like the twitter-famous swifties who exclude gaylors and clout-chase in the fandom

Kimber calls Chad "you monster" like how Tay calls herself a monster on a hill, aligning herself and Chad in their queer-coded villain-ness

Chad is wearing sunglasses while the other two are taking selfies, reflecting how gaylors are often more anonymous online than hetlors

Kimber says "great well, good job chad, you finally pushed it too far" and he replies "what are you implying by that." This sounds like it could be dialogue in a movie where a character is glass-closet gay, but also sounds exactly like how the hetlors are always accusing gaylors of ruining Taylors career/life, sometimes in a subtly (or overtly) homophobic way, homophobia that they justify with "you're crazy, you're a bad fan." Also resonates with don't blame me "they say she's gone too far this time" about being too loud 

Chad says he flew all the way here from Ibiza, an island known for clubbing and tourism. Chad seems excluded from the rest of the family like gaylors must find remote corners of the fandom to congregate to avoid attack. Tourists come have a fun wild time in Ibiza/Gaylorland, and it can be pretty fun to stay for a while, but Chad seems to possibly live there full time. Full-time gaylors living on our clubbing/tourism island can attest it can get lonely sometimes

Chad being the one to excitedly exclaim "there's probably a secret encoded message that means something else" is very gaylor side of the fandom; the other two agree that mom does that but they're not as excited about it and they don't immediately think of it and turn to it the way we do. They're more used to ignoring the secret encoded messages haha. They are very gullible when she writes "there's no secret encoded message" and just stop looking, like the hetlors do every time she hetsplains some nonsensical narrative about tom Hiddleston or whoever lmao

I think she is also poking fun at Jerk with the portrayal of this family dynamic. He is, in fact, the gay son in a ritzy country club family. He is desperate not to be seen that way, to fit in instead of sticking out like Chad does. Naming Kimber something so close to Kimby is like a threat to Jerk -- it's like saying, I could out you easily in some piece of art, I could write about your family, I could say your name in a lyric, I am not afraid. Chad says Preston name-drops mom to get into his country club, like how Jerk's PR and clout is majorly helped by his association with KK. 

I think it harkens back to TLGAD too, as Kimber wants the beach house so badly, which we can assume is Rebekah Harkness's Rhode Island house from the song. I always thought TLGAD was partially a threat to Jerk, as his family is an American dynasty and Taylor plans to have a marvelous time ruining it. Kimber wants that house, and Taylor doesn't allow them to continue the dynasty in it. It could even be a metaphor for taking the baby, cutting off his lineage. Who knows if she never showed up indeed.

In the end, it is the homophobic country music fans and those who need to identify with a specific (straight) form of womanhood that will turn on Taylor if she comes out, as seen through Kimber killing her and then showing up in the Fearless dress. Mainstream clout-chasey hetlors (Preston) will side with homophobes and point fingers at gaylors (Chad) like they always do. When Chad calls out what's really going on a terrible fight erupts. I think this shows Taylor sees us duking it out over her on the internet and feels bad about how ugly it can get, watching us all get hurt and feeling powerless to stop it even though it's about her

The fact that she's leaving both the gaylors and the hetlors out of the will makes me think she might not give us the explanation we want, even in the end; we may be just as disappointed as the hetlors. Maybe she's preparing us for the idea that when she leaves Toe, she won't immediately get with KK or publicly come out/explain anything. She may just be a single cat lady for a while, and we may just end up with 13 cents :/ Even though we are the more sympathetic gay son, we still may get nothing in the end... at least she warned us.

[tuiyla]

“He's [Finn] just as much of a pathetic meow meow when it comes to status and image as Quinn is.” Can you elaborate on this. I rlly want to hear more of your thoughts.

Sure thing, calling out Finn's hypocrisy is my fav hobby

So basically everyone agrees that Quinn is obsessed with status. Whether that's because of her upbringing or a combo of things, doesn't really matter because the fact of the matter is she desperately wants to be on top. Both in high school and as we see later in college and life too, at least until the writers changed their minds. She dates quarterbacks and even bigger than the trauma of an unwanted pregnancy is what it does to her reputation. She seeks prom queen to get that validation from her peers that yes, she's on top, she's the best. In reality we can recognize Quinn just wants love - well, Quinn needs love. But she wants status because she thinks that's what helps her achieve it and general happiness.

That's what most agree on. Quinn gets a lot of shit for it in fact and criticisms of her as person often say all this makes her vapid and such. But here's the thing, they're very similar with Finn in this way. See, Finn cares so, SO much about what people think. Maybe the way I put it before wasn't quite right because he doesn't care about status as much, at least not as consciously as Quinn does. But the girls do tend to be more self-aware than the guys. Regardless, Finn is as obsessed with how people perceive him as Quinn is. It takes a good chunk of season 1 for him to finally fully commit to Glee because he caves under peer pressure that says it's lame. Even though he "makes a stance" in the Pilot, it comes back time and again to how embarrassed Finn is. And a lot of that has to do with how his teammates use homophobic language to degrade him for being in Glee Club. Given that Finn isn't gay and that kind of bullying should hold no weight, it's entirely him giving into toxic masculinity and being terrified of getting anything less than the straight white guy treatment he's used to.

It's the same reason he also has to learn the lesson of choosing protecting Kurt over his own image twice. Wow he sure has to learn a lot of things twice huh. He'd rather stand by and do nothing about intense bullying than be associated with the bullied, for fear he'll be at the receiving end. And it's not like that fear isn't valid but he's also in a place of privilege where he could have done something but chose to protect his own image. Even when the rest of the Glee jocks were ready to throw hands. And putting the homophobia stuff aside for a second, we also see how intensely jealous he gets of guys who threaten to outperform him. Sam when he becomes QB, Blaine when he joins the New Directions. Finn is so incredibly insecure about his own sense of self that anyone threatening that gets the aggressive treatment. You could also argue the same about Jesse coming in and sweeping Rachel off her feet. Finn had just told her he doesn't want to date her but he's suddenly interested again because he wants Rachel's attention back.

Just as Quinn looks for external validation every chance she gets and builds her whole high school life, misguidedly, around getting that within the traditional social hierarchy, Finn does the same. He builds his identity first around being QB and then around being the Glee Club leader. We see him crumble when confronted with the reality of his own loserdom in season 3. He misses out on a football scholarship and he has no future in the arts, all the while his girlfriend is on track to become the star she is. That's what's been behind the season 1 and 2 decisions, too, that he's terrified of having that mirror held up and realizing that he is a loser. But even being a loser is something he himself comes up with because he puts so much of his self-worth into being a popular jock (and a lead vocalist to an extent) and not really looking into things that wouldn’t make him that popular but would be fulfilling. Like teaching.

He and Quinn, had they stayed together, would have been the definition of peaking in high school. Finn especially because he just has it so good that he refuses to think about a life outside high school, and when his greatest strengths within that life are threatened he panics. Basically, Finn believes all he has is his high school image and puts all his self-worth into this fragile concept, and thus goes to great lengths to protect it. I mean, how can people say only Quinn was image-obsessed when they have a shared plot about trying to stay popular? When he gets such an ego boost post-Sue Sylvester Shuffle that he's even willing to go back to the ex who lied about having his baby. It feeds his ego and image though, so, must be true love. Finn might not have consciously realized a lot of this and he might not have cared as much about prom court, for example. But I believe that's because he failed to see the intricacies of the high school status quo as much as Quinn did. Otherwise, they're very similar in this way.

I feel like this got rambly but I'll most likely return to this topic (and feel free to ask for clarification or elaboration). And I haven't even touched on how, as a result of trying so hard for this top dog image, both Finn and Quinn are crushed under high expectations they brought on themselves. Isn't high school fun?

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

"Janet asked if Freddie thought he was gay or bisexual after Mary said in a documentary the Freddie was gay. Freddie never thought of his sexuality in any form of words as such. As soon as you start using words like gay, bisexual, or straight, you are putting individuals into convenient boxes with those labels, as though there is no other permutation. Freddie had slept with both men and women during the course of his life, and must have enjoyed himself at the time, why would he then start thinking about what word to label himself with?" (Ask Phoebe blog 71, 10 Jun 2014)

There is SO much that bothers me about this comment from Phoebe.

He's deliberately avoiding the question, and giving a vague answer of "we can't label Freddie" as a way of not calling Freddie gay and pissing off homophobic fans. Don't get me wrong, if it were the case that Freddie never labelled himself, he'd be right on the mark. But Freddie did label himself. Freddie referred to himself as gay publicly on numerous occasions, though it was always ignored or passed off as a joke. He explicitly expressed to his friends that he was interested in men, and men only, particularly when they were on the club scene in search of potential hookups. Phoebe is deliberately being dishonest here, as well as hypocritical, given that he always referred to Freddie as gay up until he decided it was more profitable not to.

He uses the whole "Freddie slept with both men and women," which reinforces the age old stereotype that gay people can't possibly be gay if they've had relations with the opposite sex. This is, again, something homophobic fans constantly scream about when they insist Freddie was bi, because they have zero understanding about societal homophobia and the heteronormative pressures that are put on queer people. Phoebe is literally saying "we can't label Freddie" while implying that Freddie was bi.

This entire response is basically him just wanting to keep both sides happy, by pretending that Freddie's sexuality was some mystery when the man himself literally said "I am gay." This is something that the tabloids and biographies do to make Freddie more palatable to a heterosexual audience. The fact that Phoebe, a gay man himself, is supporting such a homophobic narrative, is both disheartening and repulsive.

I used to really like Phoebe and considered him a reliable source of information when it came to Freddie. Now, I feel like he's just trying to profit off Freddie's name, and is willing to disrespect Freddie's identity and dismiss Freddie's own words in order to appease Queen's homophobic fanbase. Because presenting Freddie as a shallow, god-like being who was incapable of falling in love and deliberately spread AIDS to his partners makes for a more interesting story than a gay man who had flaws just like the rest of us, and managed to find the love he was searching for all his life shortly before he died.

Phoebe outright lied in that response. Seriously, let's call it what it is. He was lying, and it's a stark contrast to him saying in his own fucking book that it's a myth that Freddie never admitted his "gayness." We have Freddie labeling himself in public interviews ("Yeah I'm gay, so what?" and the gay as a daffodil one), like you said, so it's a lie we can easily see. This is also a stark contrast to Brian saying, "yep, Freddie said he was gay as a daffodil and meant it."

You're totally right in all of your points and I don't know if I can add much more. The fact that Phoebe once spoke of the truth about Freddie's life being deliberately erased by PR after he died points to all of this being deliberate on his part, as well. He's not naive. He knows what he's doing, especially as a gay man from the same environment and era Freddie grew up in. He knows what he's saying isn't true, continues to obscure the truth and spread the myth that Freddie was bisexual, and appeases homophobic fans in the process. No one can reasonably say that he's just trying not to "reduce" Freddie to his sexuality with his "labels bad" response when he chose to answer that question on his blog in the first place, and you can still tell the truth without acting like Freddie's sexuality was the most important thing about him! Once again: look at Brian May.

I agree, man. Your last paragraph is 🔥 I don't consider Phoebe a very reliable source after like 2010, and the lying about Freddie's personal life does all seem to line up with him getting more job/financial opportunities. There's no other reason I can think of for him to do this. It really sucks.

One last thing: Phoebe being like "well we can't put a silly label on Freddie because he slept with women and must've enjoyed himself! :))"........1.) girl you didn't even know him then 2,) hello, Rosemary's "Freddie cried in bed with me during sex because he wanted to have sex with men" story. But like you said, the public would rather hear about an oUT oF COntrOL bisexual than a gay man who was human and struggled to accept himself (and hello again, Brian May, saying "I think Freddie struggled...I know he did").

[lorenfangor]

I heard that #40 was super homophobic :/ so I skipped it. But now your fic is making me want to give it a try. How problematic is it? Are the characters worth it?

Okay.

Okay.

Let’s talk about #40.

The plot of The Other (a Marco POV) is that Marco sees an Andalite on a video tape sent in to some Unsolved Mysteries-esque TV show, and he assumes it’s Ax and hauls ass to save him from being captured. Ax, being Ax, has videotaped the show, and they pull it up and Tobias uses his hawk eyes to figure out that it’s not Ax, it’s another Andalite - one without a tailblade. Ax is appalled at the presence of this vecol (an Andalite word for a disabled person) and we find out that he and others of his species have deep ingrained prejudices against at least some kinds of disabled people.

Despite this, Marco and Ax go looking for the Andalite in question because he’s been spotted by national TV, and they meet a second one, named Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad. The vecol is Mertil-Iscar-Elmand, a former fighter pilot with a reputation and Gafinilan’s coded-gay life partner. The two of them have been on Earth since book 1; they crashed their fighters on the planet and have been trapped there thanks to the GalaxyTree going down. Gafinilan has adopted a human cover, a physics professor, and they’ve been living in secret ever since.

Thanks to that tape, Mertil has been captured by Visser Three, and he’s not morph-capable so he can’t escape. Gafinilan wants to trade the leader of the “Andalite Bandits” to the Yeerks to get his boyfriend back; he can’t fight to free Mertil because he’s terminally ill with a genetic disorder that will eventually kill him, and (it’s implied that) the Yeerks aren’t interested in disabled hosts, even disabled Andalite ones. Despite Ax’s ableism, the Animorphs agree to work with Gafinilan and free Mertil, and they’re successful. Marco ends the book talking about how there are all kinds of prejudices you’ll have to face and boxes that people will put you in, and you can’t necessarily escape them even if they’re reductive and inaccurate, but you can still live your life with pride.

So now that I’ve explained the plot, I’m gonna come out the gate saying that I love this book. I love it wholeheartedly, I love Marco’s narration, I love Ax having to deal with Andalite society’s ableism, I love these characters, and as a disabled lesbian I don’t find these disabled gays to be inherently Bad Rep.

that’s of course just my opinion and it doesn’t overshadow other issues that people might have? but at the same time, I don’t like the seemingly-common narrative that this book is all bad all the time, and I want to offer up a different read.To that end, I’m going to go point by point through some of the criticisms and common complaints that I’ve seen across the fandom over the years.

“Mertil and Gafinilan were put on a bus after one appearance because they were gay!”

this is one I’m going to have to disagree with hardcore. I talked about this yesterday, but in Animorphs there are a lot of characters or ideas that only get introduced once or twice and then get written off or dropped - in order off the top of my head, #11 (the Amazon trip), #16 (Fenestre and his cannibalism), #17 (the oatmeal), #18 (the hint of Yeerks doing genetic experiments in the hospital basement), #24/#39/#42 (the Helmacrons’ ability to detect morphing tech), #25 (the Venber), #28 (experiments with limiting brain function through drugs), #34 (the Hork-Bajir homeworld being retaken, the Ixcila procedure), #36 (the Nartec), #41 (Jake’s Bad Future Dream), and #44 (the Aboriginal people Cassie meets in Australia) all feature things that either seem to exist just for the sake of having a particular trope explored Animorphs-style or to feature an idea for One Single Book.

This is a series that’s episodic and has a very limited overall story arc because of how children’s literature in the 90s was structured - these books are closer to The Saddle Club, Sweet Valley High, Animal Ark, or The Baby-Sitters’ Club than they are to Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events. Mertil and Gafinilan don’t get to be in more than one book because they’re not established in the main cast or the supporting cast, I don’t think that it’s solely got anything to do with their being gay.

“Gafinilan has AIDS, this is a book about AIDS, and that’s homophobic!”

Okay, this is… hard. First, yes, Gafinilan does have a terminal illness. Yes, Gafinilan is gay. No, Soola’s Disease is not AIDS.

I have two responses to this, and I’ll attack them in order of their occurrence in my thought. First, there’s coded AIDS diseases all over genre fiction, especially genre fiction from that era, because the AIDS epidemic made a massive impact on public life and fundamentally changed both how the public perceived illness and queerness and how queer people themselves experienced it. I was too young to live through it, but my dad’s college roommate was out, and my dad himself has a lot of friends who he just ceases to talk about if the conversation gets past 1986 or so - this was devastating and it got examined in art for more reasons than “gay people all have AIDS”, and I dislike the implication that the only reason it could ever appear was as a tired stereotype or a message that Being Queer Means Death. Gafinilan is kind, fond of flowers, and fond of children - he’s multifaceted, and he’s got a terminal illness. Those kinds of people really exist, and they aren’t Bad Rep.

Second off, Soola’s Disease? Really isn’t AIDS. It’s a congenital genetic illness that develops over time, cannot be transmitted, and does not carry a serious stigma the way AIDS did. Gafinilan also has access to a cure - he could become a nothlit and no longer be afflicted by it, even if it’s considered somewhat dishonorable to go nothlit to escape that way. That’s not AIDS, and in fact at no point in my read and rereads did I assume that his having a terminal illness was supposed to be a commentary on homosexuality until I found out that other people were assuming it.

“Mertil losing his tail means he’s lost his masculinity, and that’s bad because he’s gay! That’s homophobic!”

so this is another one I’ve gotta hardcore disagree with, because while Mertil is one of two Very Obviously Queer Characters, he’s not the only character who loses something fundamental about himself, or even loses access to sexual and/or romantic capability in ways he was familiar with.

Tobias and Arbron both get ripped out of their ordinary normal lives by going nothlit in bad situations, and while they both wind up finding fulfillment and freedom despite that, it’s still traumatic, even more for Arbron I’d say than for Tobias. And on a psychological level, none of the main cast is left unmarked or free of trauma or free of deep change thanks to the bad things that have happened to them - they’re no less fundamentally altered than Mertil, even if it’s mental rather than physical. And yes, tail loss is equated with castration or emasculation, but that doesn’t automatically mean Mertil suffering it is tied to his homosexuality and therefore the takeaway we’re intended to have is “Being gay is tragic and makes you less of a man”. This is a series where bad shit happens to everyone, and enduring losses that take away things central to one’s self-conception or identity or body is just part of the story.

Also, frankly? Plenty of IRL disabled people have to grapple with a loss of sexual function, and again, they’re not Bad Rep just because they’re messy.

“Andalite society is confusingly written in this book, and the disability aspects are clearly just a coverup for the gay stuff!”

Andalite society is canonically sexist, a bit exceptionalist and prejudiced in their own favor, and pretty contradictory and often challenged internally on its own norms. In essence, it’s a pretty ordinary society, and they’re really realistic as sci-fi races go. It makes sense from that perspective that Andalites would tolerate scarring or a lost stalk eye or a lost skull eye, but not tolerate serious injuries that significantly impact your perceived quality of life. Ableism is like that - it’s not one-size-fits-all. I look at Ax’s reactions and I see a lot of my own family and friends’ behaviors - this vibes with my understanding of prejudice, you know?

“Mertil and Gafinilan have a tragic ending, which means the story is saying that being gay dooms you to tragedy!”

Mertil and Gafinilan have the best possible ending that they could ask for? They are victims of the war, they are suffering because of the war, they get the same cocktail of trauma and damage that every other soldier gets. But unlike Jake and Tobias and Marco, unlike Elfangor, unlike Aximili? Their ending comes in peace, in their own home. Gafinilan isn’t dying alone, he’s got the love of his life with him. Mertil isn’t going to be as isolated anymore, he’s got Marco for a friend. Animorphs is a tragedy, it’s not a happy story, it’s not something that guarantees a beautiful sunshine-and-roses ending for everyone, and I love tragedy, and so I will fight for this story. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it deserved better. But it’s not less meaningful just because it’s sad. Nobody is entitled to anything in this book, and it’s just as true for these two as it is for anyone else.

“It’s not cool that the only canonically gay characters in this series don’t get to be happy and trauma-free and unblemished Good Rep!”

This is one I can kind of understand, and I’ll give some ground to it, because it is sucky. The only thing I’ll say is that I stand by my argument that nothing that happens to Mertil and Gafinilan is unusual compared to what happens to the rest of the cast, and that their ending is way happier than Rachel and Tobias’s, or Jake and Cassie’s. But it’s a legitimate point of frustration, and the one argument I’ll say I agree has validity.

(Though, I also want to point out that I think there are plenty of equally queercoded characters in the story who aren’t Mertil and Gafinilan - Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco all get at least one or two moments that signal to me that they’re potentially LGBT+, not to mention Mr. Tidwell and Illim in #29 and their long-term domestic partnership. There’s no reason to assume that the only queer people here are those two aliens when Marco’s descriptions of Jake exist.)

“Marco uses slurs and reduces Gafinilan’s whole identity to his illness!”

Technically, yes, this is true, except putting it that way strips the whole passage of its context. Marco is discussing the boxes society puts you into, the ones you don’t have a choice about facing or escaping. He’s talking about negative stereotypes and reductive generalizations, he’s referring to them as bad things that you get inflicted upon you by an outside world or by friends who don’t know the whole story or the real you. The slurs he uses are real slurs that get thrown at people still, and they’re not okay, and the point is that they’re not okay but assholes are going to call you by them anyway. He ends by saying “you just have to learn to live with it”, and since this is coming from a fifteen-year-old Latino kid who we know is picked on by bullies for all sorts of reasons and who faces racism and homophobia? He knows what he’s talking about. He’s bitter about what’s been said and done, he’s not stating it like it’s a good thing.

Yes, absolutely, this speech is a product of its time, but it’s a product of its time that speaks of defiance and says “We aren’t what we’re said to be,” and in the year this was published? That’s a good message.

tl;dr The Other is good, actually, and Mertil and Gafinilan are incredible characters who deserve all the love they could possibly get.