#dabs in stagnated creativity...

[boxfullaturtles]

took a bunch of outfit prompts from the rise writer's discord server to try and break my art block and just feel better about my art in general

the Donnie one is really fun, but Raph turned out my favorite

outfit refs below the cut

yes they are all osomatsu-san

[cornerstonefulfillmentservice]

Creative Collaboration

Visual artists will paint what they see in 1,832 words! Here’s the backstory! Any creative person dab at hand, as the English say, does not like stagnation. It’s exciting to step into something new and untried before. Last summer, I wrote a short story I was especially proud of. The storyline came to me quickly and then came the real epiphany – it’s time to do something different with one of my…

[tea-at-221]

It's a sad world when every single time queer fans see one of their same-sex ships do something that should seemingly make the ship canon, they have to take a STANCE and DECIDE what the intention was there, because it's never either: a.) Irrefutable or b.) Minus the bury-your-gays trope.

Everything is always done in such a way that the cis het viewers aren't made to feel too freaking squicked.

EVERYONE should be pissed off at anything less than an EXPLICITLY HAPPY, CANON GAY ENDING to these stories until it's the NORM.

Yeah gay characters should have hardships and emotional arcs like any other characters. But not EVERY TIME. Not the MAJORITY OF THE TIME.

So until our happiness is just as important as that of the straight audience, I would love to see us all unite and say HAPPY ENDINGS ONLY.

This is how we show the world we're normal. That we *deserve* happy endings. That THEIR stories are not *more important.* Because when their stories end happily and ours don't, that's the message. It's not even subliminal.

A queer character's death shouldn't be even *hinted* to be the "moral of the story."

It shouldn't be that a canon M/M relationship on screen was fine, cause at least one of the gay characters is dead and the story is done with.

It shouldn't be okay a character was queer *only in light of the fact* that you almost felt bad for them due to all the trauma and tragedy they ultimately suffered.

It's NOT okay that things were left "open to interpretation, so you can ship it if you want but that gay stuff isn't my thing and can't you shut up about it because you're ruining the fandom for everyone/can't two men ever just be friends without you people reading into it". 🤬

That isn't PROGRESS. It's *2020.* Where ARE we?

Taking a look around, it's easy to see we're stuck in stagnation. *No one's* rights are moving forward at a measurable pace. We're always all being held back to keep the hateful comfortable. Because *those* people, I guess, are the ones who deserve to see more of themselves reflected in the world at large.

It's not okay for a queer writer to sneak in canonization wherever they can, possibly unintentionally (but only with the best intentions in mind) contributing to queerbaiting just because that's the best they can do. Bless the writer, but no. It's not okay because THOSE ABOVE THEM STOPPING THEM FROM WRITING A FULLY-FLESHED-OUT, HAPPY QUEER STORY ONLY HAVE PROFIT IN MIND AND ARE AFRAID OF LOSING THEIR STRAIGHT AUDIENCES. The writer shouldn't have to settle for working under those conditions!

It's not true that queer writers *can't* queerbait or wouldn't wish to. Many of these writers are older and grew up oppressed and probably even have nostalgia for the stories they grew up with where everything was *aching* and *implied* and *subtext* because that was the best they got, and it was close enough to the surface to make them feel seen and hopeful. Those sorts of writers are capable of keeping that low standard ball rolling, not even actively *meaning* to do harm. It's not that they're vindictive or evil--though stubbornness and a refusal to reflect on the messages they're sending can make, and in some cases certainly HAS made, them out to look like they *mean* to hurt us and will continue to do so out of SPITE because now it's their right to do so since we said something and tried to "stifle their creativity" with political correctness.

Then we get a nice freefall of infighting and suppression, both real and imagined.

But if we treat it like this is okay, like we're happy with this, like we've gotten what we wanted when really all we've actually gotten are the barest table scraps, then it's Stockholm Syndrome!

Raise your hand if you're a queer person and you're okay with Sherlock and John implying there's more to be said between them, and then never explaining what they meant by it. If you're okay with them making gay "jokes" all the time, with serious expressions and tears in their eyes.

Raise your hand if you're LGBTQIA+ and you're over the moon about the fact that Castiel looked at Dean, said he loved him, got no confirmation of reciprocation, and was sent immediately to hell. Thumbs up if you're super hoping that doesn't get reversed somehow. If you don't care if it does get reversed only for Cas and Dean to then act like they're Totally Close Bros.

Raise your hand if Quentin Coldwater's "artistic" suicide (oh ahem, "noble sacrifice") and Eliot's subsequent, uncomfortably forced "relationship" with Charlton was your idea of the sort of happy ending you've always pined for. Let's hear it for how our mental health was boosted by watching a canonically bisexual, clinically depressed dreamer do the "right thing" by all of his friends by ending his life despite the literal existence of real magic, meaning that even in a world where the impossible is possible, a character like that *cannot be saved.*

Is this really, REALLY, what we want to settle for?

And do we really, REALLY want to keep fighting with *each other* about what it means and why it should all be okay?

Do we really want to say that huge strides are being made because one or two shows with LGBTQIA+ couples (though in actuality, LG and maybe A couples if you're informed enough to identify them) have had happy couples/endings? Are we actually gonna die on this hill?

Or don't we all collectively know that actually, this is not enough and we shouldn't be trying to shame each other into accepting it merely because it makes the crappiness of it all easier to bear if we've personally managed to justify the disappointment of story A or B to ourselves and it would really help if all the other exhausted people just got on board? Can't we agree we're tired of the need to bludgeon each other with "but"s and "consider this though"s in the name of being able to keep heart at the end of the day?

The way forward in this case can only be paved by standing still and making a concrete happy space HERE, 100 miles wide smack dab in the middle of the heterosexual desert.

Hey, I look forward to the day when someone can be progressive by breaking that annoying HAPPY GAY COUPLE TROPE. Don't you????