#genuinely interested in what people think of this post

[lxnarphase]

PRETTY BITCHES LOVE ME ᯓ★

━━ ❝ SHE A BADDIE, SHE SHOWIN' HER PANTY! ❞ wc. 3.7k

ᯓ ❤︎₊‧⁺...synopsis : suguru is just as big of a show off as gojo, he's just more subtle about it. and he wants everyone in this damn club to know that you're his.

ᯓ ❤︎₊‧⁺...cw : blk!fem!reader x g. suguru, suggestive content, alcohol mention, exhibitionism, voyeurism (?), fingerfucking, public fingering, little bit of breeding kink and talks of knocking you up, lots of kissing, suguru really loves his girl, suguru can’t keep his hands to himself

ᯓ ❤︎₊‧⁺...lunar's note : suguru is just a slut for you i don't know what else to tell you. he's just as much as a mischievous little shit as gojo ! if you want to be tagged for the future posts, comment on the main post here ! enjoy baddies ❤︎ (also yes nonblack readers can read and reblog too, idk why some anons try to gatekeep)

suguru's so touchy with you, it's sweet.

he can't keep his hands off of you whenever you go out. the poor man feels like he might just die if he's not having some sort of physical contact with you the majority of the day.

it could be the grocery store on a late night snack run in matching pajama bottoms or like now, a long night at the club for some celebration.

neither one of you remembers what or who the part is for, the alcohol in your systems causing you to focus on one another. the rest of your group is busy on the dance floor or bar, leaving you and suguru to cuddle up to each other in the VIP area like the lovesick idiots the two of you are.

your sitting across his lap, one hand in his hair and the other holding his shoulder, rubbing random shapes and patterns into the fabric of his shirt. it's so unfair, he just smells so fucking good and looks so damn handsome. you genuinely can't look at anything but him. 

and he loves it so damn much.

"s'guruuu," you coo at him, nose smooshed against his cheek. if you could, you'd get even closer to him, but this would have to suffice for now. "you're so handsome tonight..." 

the corners of his mouth tilt up into a smug smirk as he chuckles, his hand sliding from your knee to your upper thigh, stroking the exposed skin. you're so soft, could you really blame him for wanting to touch you all the time? compared to you, suguru is way more sober and is just eating up all the attention you're giving him.

not just because he loves you, but that was a plus.

no, it's because people are watching.

his sharp purple eyes flicker up, meeting with the group of girls outside of the VIP area that keep looking his direction.

their eyes are filled with interest and want when they look at him, and he can't help but chuckle to himself.

suguru knows he's attractive. hell, he's reminded of it every morning by the way you shower him in kisses and praises as part of your morning routine, making sure he knows just how much you love him and his 'stupidly pretty face,' as you so elegantly put it.

but what makes him laugh is how they look at you with disdain and confusion, as if they can't understand why you're in his lap instead of them.

it's disgusting, really, for them to even have the slightest thought that they could replace you. they must be lying to themselves, he thinks as your lips start to press kisses against his cheek, the soft curls and coils of your hair tickling his cheek.

you're just so cute, so adorable, so gorgeous, so beautiful. you're his pretty little angel, and seeing women jealous of you just fills him with so much pride, knowing you have other women jealous of you.

if only they knew how badly you have him wrapped around your little finger. if you so much as asked, suguru wouldn't hesitate to beat the shit out of someone for you, wouldn't hesitate to kill for you...but thankfully, it never got to that point.

yet.

"hmm, you think i'm handsome?" he leans in, his breath warm against your neck as he nips your ear. "nah, you look so damn gorgeous, angel. you're stealing the spotlight from me t'night."

his fingers trace circles into your thigh, enjoying your little giggles and complaints of it tickling. it only makes him do it more, your laughs and giggles making his heart squeeze a little bit.

fuck, suguru really loves how your skin feels under his fingertips, soft and smooth. it's all he thinks about. he wants to touch you forever, wants to feel you every second of the day. you are just so warm and soft, nothing would ever compare to the feel of your skin.

pulling away from your ear, he sees that those girls are still there, looking at you and him. the smirk on his face falters a bit, and his gaze hardens.

man, he really doesn't like how they're looking at you.

it's so easy for him to tell they have no cursed energy, just mere humans that could never even hope to be on the same level as you. it would be so fucking easy to just...snap his fingers and have them gone in an instant.

you steal his attention away from them and the dark thoughts swirling in his head by tilting his head your way, and instantly, his gaze softens.

jesus, the things you do to this man.

"sugu? what's wrong, honey," you mumble, worry etched into your features. you cup his face, thumbs stroking his cheeks to get him to calm down. "you don't look happy..."

the feel of your hands on his face, paired with the sweet concern in your voice, it washes away all irritation in him instantly. suguru hums, his eyes sliding shut. and the soft look in your eyes...he's so whipped for you, it's sickening.

you're so warm...

"no, baby, nothing's wrong," he reassures you, his smooth voice a low rumble. if he could, he'd be purring incredibly loudly right now, nuzzling into your palms. just your touch is enough to make him melt.

"'m just thinkin' how lucky I am, havin' you all to myself like this. the prettiest girl in the world, and she's sitting in my lap...who knew i'd make it this far in life, hm?"

the low, purple lights of the club cast a soft glow on your face as your fluffy hair frames your face, and suguru sighs, looking at you like you were his everything. you are his everything.

a quick glance to the side and suguru takes note that those girls are still fucking there, looking at you both. instead of getting irritated again, suguru gets an idea.

with a smirk, his hand slides up further your thigh, his fingertips slipping under the hem of that pretty purple dress he bought you that contrasts against the dark color of your skin...so pretty.

"mm, babygirl, just looking at you is making me dizzy," suguru purrs, his gaze dipping to your lips before meeting your eyes again. "you know i love you right? an' that all i wanna do is show you off s' everyone knows how pretty you are, right?"

you know better.

you know better than to trust him when he starts making comments like this, when he starts cooing and praising you out of nowhere.

because you know that it means suguru is up to no damn good.

you still haven't forgiven him for making you squirt on his fingers while he was on the phone with nanami...even though it was kind of cute how nanami couldn't look you in the eye without blushing for about two weeks.

"mhm...i know, sugu, you're a little show off that likes to get us in trouble," you playfully scold, tugging his hair a little as you giggle, looking at him with a soft gaze.

suguru's head tilts back, and his eyes flutter shut for a moment, a soft grunt leaving him. he's always been a sucker for you pulling on his hair like that, likes when you tug him around to make a point...shit, he's getting hard just from thinking of all the times you'd use his hair to get his attention or make him focus on something.

and it doesn't take long for you to discover his thoughts are going south.

with an exasperated gasp, you feel the hardness of his arousal pressing against your ass, letting out a little scold of his name. his grip on you tightens when you shift to confirm your suspicions. his head leans to rest in the crook of your neck, a silent plea for more of your affection.

"but you like it when I show off," suguru teases back, pressing a kiss against your neck as your curls tickle his face again. even your hair was soft, it's like he's got his own little pillow pet in his lap. the thought makes him chuckle, knowing you'd probably swat at him playfully for comparing you to a plushy

"you get all worked up, it's so cute, angel...plus, i think y'like it when i cause trouble." his hand swaps thighs and creeps up higher under your dress, his fingers brushing the edge of your panties. he's playing a risky game. at any moment, someone could catch him and get you both kicked and banned from the club.

but where's the fun in life without taking risks?

"c'mooon, admit it, baby, you like it."

one glance up back into the crowd and suguru hums, his eyes glinting dangerously. still there, it seems.

they aren't staring as hard now, but looks of disbelief cross their face when his hand shamelessly goes right to the apex of your thighs, fingers running over the lace of your panties. suguru doesn't care anymore, if they wanna look so bad, he'll give them something to stare at.

"s-suguru...you're, mnh, gettin' close there..."

he doesn't give you a response, his hand sliding from your back up to your hair to keep your head in the crook of his neck. he may be fine with showing out a little bit to these bitches who tired to glare daggers into you, but no one except him gets to see your face.

the way your lashes flutter, the way your teeth dig into the plushness of your bottom lip...it's driving him crazy.

the faint scent of your perfume hits his nose, and he's gone. his cock is pressing against your ass in full hardness, and he has to stop himself from grinding up into you.

nah, right now, this is about you.

he's going to take care of you, going to make you feel good, going to make sure you know that you are his in every way that counts.

without wasting another moment, suguru's fingers slip under your panties, pausing when they touch the faint wetness gathering at your slit.

"fuck...baby, don't tell me you've been like this the whole night," he rasps, his breathing slowly starting to pick up. your soft cunt is hot to the touch, sticky and wet as he drags his fingers through your slick.

"i can't help it, you just...look, really good t'night, baby," you huff into his ear, gasping a moan when he doesn't hesitate to slip a finger into your slick hole.

he really does look good tonight, dressed in those black dress pants, sleek dress shoes, and that stupidly hot black button-up shirt. and he has the sleeves rolled up and the top few buttons undone so that you can get a nice view of that necklace with your name on it resting on his collarbone.

how can you not get soaking wet?

"shit." he's groaning, the sensation of you nuzzling your face into his neck to press little open-mouthed kisses into all the sensitive spots of his neck sending a shiver down his spine. it's so sweet and precious how you try your hardest not to make too much noise and not move too much as he stirs up your cunt with just one of his fingers.

he wishes you both were back at home, wishes that he had you spread open on the bed so that he can see how wet he's got you just from his attire, so that he can hear your pussy squelch around his fingers. not even the strongest in the world would be able to pull him from your pussy whenever you get this wet.

the thought of gojo trying to pull him away from you makes him cringe a bit...because he knows damn well that idiot would be shoving his face deeper into your cunt, grinning as he practically makes suguru drown in you.

on second thought, that's not a bad way to go....

another tug to his hair as him unintentionally groaning, eyes snapping shut at the sharp pang of pleasured pain that shoots up his spine. his attention is back on you, his face close to yours as he breathes against your ear.

if you want his attention, then he'll give you all of it with no hesitation.

"suguruu, more...please," you finally whine, the slow movement not enough for you. it's almost torture; the slow in and out motions of his finger making you feel good but not good enough. no, you need more, craved it.

"yeah? you gonna be a good girl f' your suguru and let him take care of this needy lil' pussy? hm?" one finger turns into two, and that familiar heat pools in your lower abdomen. now it's feeling so fucking good that you already know his fingers are gonna be coated in your juices.

this should be embarrassing, it really should. you both are in a club for fucksake! but you can't find it in you to care about it, his thick digits working your cunt so good that your brain is just melting.

one of your hands grips his button-up, fisting in the fabric to ground yourself from the pleasure. "m-mhm! I'll be good, I'll be s' good for you, sugu, promise!" suguru is becoming relentless, determined to make you crack and stop hiding those pretty sounds from him when he takes note of how you go right back to biting your lip after giving him that sweet, needy response.

however, he loves seeing your lips all swollen, knowing they were like that because he made you feel so good you had to force yourself to be quiet.

"sweetheart, don' hide it, lemme hear you, 's just you and me," he whispers to you, his other hand burying itself in your curls and giving a little tug. he knows it's not just the both of you, but right now, in this moment, it's all that exists for him.

the harsh pull of your hair has your lips brushing against his ear and choking on a moan, unable to keep it in. "thaaaat's it, let me hear how good it feels t' have these fingers buried deep inside this tight cunt."

you hate this, hate when he talks because it only makes you wetter. and that means he's gonna talk even more, and you're always right because he's cooing at how much slick is pouring out of you now, asking if it's because of his voice or his fingers.

suguru's so fucking annoying, such an asshole, but you can't help but let him get away with it when it means he makes your eyes flutter closed in pleasure.

you let him get away with way too much, don't you?

the song playing now is so loud, the bass making the ground vibrate. but suguru doesn't care, he's just thankful it's loud enough to cover that fucking beautiful moan you give him when he curls his fingers juuuust right.

"oooh, there? did i find it? fuck, baby, y'got so tight jus' from that."

your desperate nod of confirmation is all he needs before he speeds up his fingers, groaning when he can finally hear the wet schlicks of his hand coaxing more slick out of you.

one more glance up and suguru can't help but grin. the girls are gone, now mixed up in the crowd likely red and hot in the face.

seems like his impromptu little show finally got the message across: he is yours and yours only.

knowing he no longer had to show off, he's focusing on you, on you and that tight, needy little slit between your legs that's dripping down his wrist. it should be a crime for someone to be this wet, in public no less.

"c'mon, angel, don' hold back on me anymore, lemme know how it feels. wanna know 'm treating this gorgeous pussy good."

you let out the prettiest moan, breath hot against his ear. suguru coos, his hand not between your legs holding your neck to keep your head in the crook of his neck. “mhg, suguru, love it s' much, g-god, your fingers feel s'good, 's not fair.”

you can't stop yourself from trying to spread your legs more, giving him a bit better access. you know you can't open them too much ot someone might see.

but...would that be so bad? for people to see how suguru could make you fall apart so seamlessly?

if only you knew that's exactly what was running through his head right now. he's positive at least one person has caught on to what's happening, the repeating motions of his hand between your legs such a dead giveaway.

it thrills him, his cock throbbing in his pants at the thought. shit, he's learning things about himself he didn't know before...he might have to do this to you more often.

he leans in closer, his mouth grazing the sensitive skin of your neck, his hot breath sending shivers down your spine as he whispers, "y'gonna cum for me right here in this club, aren't you, babygirl? gonna show me how much you love my fingers playing with this slutty lil' pussy, right?"

he gets a sweet little 'yes, sugu' and he purrs your name, the mixture of your moans, the music, and the just barely audible sounds of your slickness being stirred by his thick fingers, making him feel drunk.

you're shaking in his lap, holding on for dear life as he makes it a point to curl his fingers with each thrust, not giving you a break anymore. you're spiraling, feeling the tremors of your impending orgasm building, your hot, gummy walls fluttering around his stupidly thick digits. you're praying silently between each pant and gasp, desperately hoping he doesn't make you squirt, not now, not when so many people are around—!

"c'mon, baby, c'mon," suguru encourages, his fingers picking up their pace. you're so close, he knows it, he knows because he can feel it coming. the way you fist his shirt, the way your hips are trying to hard to not rise up to meet his hand, knowing it would make it so obvious what's happening.

but suguru, oh, he stopped caring so fucking long ago. he just wants to feel you soak his fingers, wants to hear your muted little moan of his name when you finally cum. he just wants to make sure you know you're his.

"b-baby, suguru, shit, i'm gonna cum—!"

"yeah? that's it, baby, let got f'me, you can do it," he urges and coos, his voice bordering on needy and desperate, just like you. he's panting into your ear, whispering little praises as he listens to you pitifully try to keep your gasps and moans down. you're such a mess, it's so cute, you're so adorable, god, he loves you so bad.

your thick thighs are quivering and trembling as you teeter on the brink of release. you know it's going to be a mess, but you try, you try so hard to keep it in.

suguru notices—how could he not—and he's not having it, slipping a third finger inside your messy little cunt, curling deep inside right against that sweet spot, and that knot wound so tight inside you finally snaps.

"s-suguuuu, 'm cummin'—!"

he's reveling in how your hot, gummy walls squeeze and spasm all over his fingers, milking them for all they're worth as you cry and sob his name into his ear, tears caught on your eyelashes from how good it feels. he wishes he could look at you, wanting to drink up your expressions, but no, he'd be risking someone else seeing how pretty you are when you cum.

"yessss, good girl, good fuckin' girl, gimme everything, babygirl."

your cries of release are so damn sweet to his ears, and he continues to work you through it, ensuring your orgasm is as prolonged and intense as possible. if you were home, he wouldn't care about stopping or overstimulating, but he has to remind himself to stay calm and not go too hard.

if he did, he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop himself from fucking you on this couch in the middle of the VIP section in front of all these people.

once suguru feels you go slack in his arms and your hand weakly slap against his chest, he slows his hand, his own breaths heavy with the arousal and need you stirred in him...did you have any idea how sexy you were? if he wasn't as controlled as he was, he's positive he would've cum in his pants.

pulling his fingers out slowly, suguru's quick to pop them into his mouth, sucking off your juices like it would be the last time he'd ever get a last. fuck, you soaked his hand...he doesn't care how obvious he makes it when he licks at his palm and wrist to not miss a drop.

"hhmph, s-suguru, you—"

"i need you, right now. can i take you home?"

of course, he has to ask. he knows how long it took you to get ready, to look so fucking perfect. but right now, he doesn't want anyone to look at you. hell, he doesn't want anyone else but him to be near you, he'd fucking wipe out this entire club right now if you asked.

the soft touch of your hands on his face brings him back, making him melt as his eyes slide shut. you're so soft, he loves you so much, he needs to stick his cock into you while groaning those words into your ear, needs to feel his tip kiss that soft, spongy spot inside you that makes your back arch off the bed, to fold you in half as he stuffs you so full, praying that his cum gets stuck deep inside you, praying that it takes and that he gets you knocked up, and that—

"take me home, sugu, please, i-i need you s' bad."

your words have him acting in an instant he presses a quick kiss to your lips, licking whatever is left of your lipgloss before helping you stand up with him, guiding you out of the club. if he stays in here for any longer, he's not sure he'll be able to control himself.

"i got you, baby, don't worry, 'm gonna give you what you need. let's go, princess."

all rights reserved © lxnarphase | do not repost, copy, translate, or alter my work

ᯓ ❤︎₊‧⁺...lunar's tags : @satoruwiki @llllllllllllloser @screampied @abcdbleh @vicfuentesfangirl @sakurapeach @ohsuguru @crywolfix @naughtygobbo @aura88967 @jeanine-gt @tananaxx @tojancy @happymangosstuff @charming-chikara @actuallynarii @ninikrumbs @inette04 @paint-eater2 @haesify @shaguro

[eighthdoctor]

everyone is aware that fossils don't just give us the skeleton of an animal, right? like even from a fossilized bone you can conclude all kinds of interesting things like how much muscle the animal carried there and whether they were likely to be a sprinter or endurance runner. from teeth you can get sooooo much. from skin impressions you obviously get feathers vs scales vs fur, but you can also do some genuinely insane shit with feather color analysis???

footprints and nests tell us about social groups. pathologies on the bones tell us about injuries, disease, and predation. preserved stomach contents are amazing when we get them, and fossils of multiple animals joined together (as in the Fighting Dinosaurs) are literally invaluable.

and that's just sticking within paleontology!

paleoecology plays with ethology, ecology, and evobio to reconstruct ecosystems and behaviors. rules of behavior, of energy transfer (eg, via eating!), and of evolution (eg, sexual selection vs natural selection) remain in play 65 million years ago or 500 million years ago or yesterday.

we either know so many, many more things about prehistoric animals than just "this is what their skeleton looked like" or we can make very accurate inferences based on modern animals.

for example: both birds (basically the whole clade) and crocodilians put on noisy, energetically expensive displays for mate selection. there's a range of ways in which this appears, but it is the simplest possible answer to conclude that most if not all nonavian dinosaurs engaged in some degree of dramatic yelling & posturing at individuals in order to influence their sexual choices.

(this is not a requirement! off the top of my head tigers do not do this. humans do it, a lot of other mammals do it, and birds do it at 5 am outside my window every morning.)

for example: large herbivores living in ecosystems with predators who are big enough to kill BABIES but not ADULTS tend to run in social groups where the adults form a protective circle around the babies (bison, elephants). again it is reasonable to conclude that sauropods would have done similar. (if predators are big enough to kill adults, flight is a much better option for everyone.)

like. every time i see that fucking "there's no reason to think t rex didn't look like a giant fuzzy sparrow" post i lose my mind. people have invested decades of their lives to conclude with pretty substantial evidence that t rex absolutely did not look like that.

quit writing off knowledge because you hate the shrinkwrapped dinos from the 90s. don't worry, everyone else hates them too! we have moved on to bigger and better reconstructions. t rex still looks like a goddamn predator though. and acts like one too.

[velvetvexations]

I just want to rant about my least favourite Julia Serano post/passage/concept, because as a transmasc nonbinary person this genuinely raises my blood pressure. Sorry about how long this is lmao

Link: https ://juliaserano.blogspot.com/2014/02/what-is-subversivism.html

It's her concept of "subversivism": bigotry that posits trans people as non-subversive, and compliant with the social order of patriarchy. Essentially, it's the impossible expectation that trans people should always be subversive to gender norms in everything they do. TERFs do this a lot, by claiming that the existence of trans people who happen to fit a gender stereotype (e.g. a trans woman w/ feminine interests, a nonbinary person that dresses androgynously) mean they support gender roles.

This is a really good concept! It's very useful for explaining how anti-trans activists, particularly TERFs, talk about trans people.

The only problem is that instead of talking about her own experiences with subversivism, or using some kind of source as an example of how subversivism works, she spends most of the post/chapter making harmful assertions with no basis in reality. Specifically, she asserts that transmasculine people are seen as more subversive than transfeminine people, and that genderqueer or GNC people benefit from subversivism. And she doesn't even attempt to have a source for it, because if she talked to a single transmasculine or nonbinary person about subversivism, they would tell her that they've experienced it too. Hell, even if she just looked at how TERFs talk about transmasculine and nonbinary people, she'd see that subversivism is a common tactic. So the piece is filled with bigoted bullshit.

In one part she notes that masculinity is associated with power/boldness, but femininity is associated with weakness/timidness. And she suggests that may be why transfeminine people are seen as non-subversive, which is true! But that's also the exact reason why transmasculine people are also seen as non-subversive: in a TERF's eyes, transmascs want to go from weak femininity to powerful masculinity, which is seen as the "easy way out" of misogyny. Later, she mentions transmasculine people being supposedly welcomed into queer and feminist spaces, but fails to consider that often this "acceptance" is often contingent on being misgendered and treated as a woman. (I think some of your more recent reblogs have also talked about this). In her more recent book, she even refers to subversivism as "compulsory genderqueerness". This is clearly meant as a nod to the concept of compulsory heterosexuality. But genderqueer is not in any way a privileged identity like heterosexuality, and it's extremely offensive to suggest that it is! Some studies even indicate that nonbinary/genderqueer people have worse mental health than binary trans people. (Unlike her, I have a source for that: https ://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-017-0111-8).

And what's most frustrating to me is that she knows better! Like, it'd be one thing if this was just a tumblr post by a random trans person. But Julia Serano is a published academic, and very well respected in the trans community. She has done legitimately good work, too - her work on debunking AGP and ROGD is a genuinely good resource. So she knows full well that sweeping statements like the ones she makes in this piece need a source. In the blog post she magically remembers how to use sources when she talks about oppression of bi people, which makes it all the more frustrating. And the thing is, I'd also be fine with it if she didn't mention transmasculine or nonbinary people at all, and only talked about her own experiences. I'm not even asking to be included, just to be… not demonised, or gaslighted about my own experiences of transphobia!

Now, Whipping Girl was published over 15 years ago, and she might have changed her opinion since then. But she pretty clearly hasn't, since she was reposting her passage from Whipping Girl about it on Twitter a few months ago! That's how I found out about it in the first place. Honestly, it's a testament to how pervasive anti-transmasculinity and anti-nonbinary rhetoric are in the trans community that Whipping Girl is regarded as a core text for transfeminism, but I've barely seen anyone else talk about the blatant misinformation in it.

Anyway that's the end of my rant, sorry it's so long but I could write so much about this lmao

What is velvetvexations.tumblr.com if not a place to complain about Whipping Girl? You're valid, anon.

It's really not hard to tell why so many people who worship her do the same thing where they compulsively compare everything to how much better they very wrongly believe non-trans women have it. Even if she doesn't personally believe the exact same things her attitudes have bare minimum greatly influenced this bullshit and she needs to reign it in.

Like, is it bad to place responsibility on her like that? To say she needs to put in time and effort countering these things and educating herself where need be? I don't think so. She is, evidently, the Queen of Transfeminism, she, apparently, wrote the transfeminism Bible, as far as I'm concerned it's her job to climb back into the trenches when people start abusing her shit.

[dykeyangel]

the whole queer eddie being included in a queer characters posts reminds me of like when people were wishing the bucktommy date scene got cut instead of the eddie and buck in Bobby’s room and eddie praying …when there is that whole random ass scene with no real adherence to the plot or the characters with polly the neighbour right there as an option for them to cut..but no they wanna cut the scene with the mlm queer couple (that many mlm queer men in this fandom love) all because they hate tommy, can’t handle a daddy issues joke, and the fact that it’s not eddie with buck

yeah ultimately a lot of their cries for activism and queer rep are performative. they do not truly care about queer characters or queer representation and i think most people could smell that from a mile away. these people have always been way more concerned with their own ship than with anything else. they like to pretend that if you don't ship The Thing or if you don't hate bucktommy then you must not want eddie to be queer or even like his character and that's. a thought lol. but i think it's really interesting why they've come to that conclusion.

like for me, i love eddie enough that i don't have to change his character to make him something that i like. i love eddie enough to allow him to be his own character outside of my own interpretation of his queerness and outside of his relationship with buck. but at the same time i also love eddie enough to see myself in him and create theories about his identity. these two things co-exist: seeing the character for what the canon shows me he is AND seeing the character for what i'd like him to be. i think most people are able to find the balance and be pretty normal about it. i think these people are genuinely so far deep into whatever they want the story to be that they have to rewrite canon to fit that perception of the character and feel threatened when that gets pointed out.

which again, like i truly do not give a shit if you do cherry pick canon, just don't come for people who are like hey you know that's just your headcanon right? like don't act like your own interpretation is better than anyone else's. it's not, it's still just an interpretation. i do read eddie as queer while still acknowledging that within the canon universe, he is identified as a straight man by canon. which makes my reading of him just a headcanon (aka canon in your head but not anywhere else), no less valid and important but still not the story they may be trying to tell.

i've talked about this a little bit before but i think a lot of the issue here is the idea of playing nice and remembering that this is all pretend which i don't think they've really had to deal with before. a lot of these people have never been confronted with another big kid on the block. their ship has kind of held precedent for a really long time, along with their headcanons and their ideas of what these characters are. so now that buck actually is bisexual and is dating a man, who isn't eddie, suddenly their entire worldview of canon breaks down.

now there's canon gay representation. now you don't have a moral argument to justify your ship bc that thing you've been begging for, "canon bi buck/more canon queer characters" does exist. so now what are you arguing for? just a preferred ship? no that can't be, it must be more than, we must be fighting for something bigger.

but now you're forced to confront that it's all just headcanons and vibes and theories that have ran unchallenged for years and years. so now you have a group of people who do not know how to grapple with the reality they are being shown vs the reality they've created in their heads clashing against people who are fans of the same reality the show lives in and don't really care about the non-canon anymore. which, if that's your prerogative, if you prefer non-canon stuff, then go for it, that's what fandom is for, but the issue here is that they view this as genuinely a threat. they don't want any other interpretation. it doesn't just feel like a threat to their ship, it feels like a threat to the canon world they've created about these characters. they see other people coming in excited for something that isn't their thing, and now feel like we're taking something away from them. they don't want to see canon anymore, even if it's something they used to claim they want. they don't want queer rep, they want to be proven right.

[iddybyddybee]

I won't say I wasn't disappointed with how Creloise's story ended in Season 3 initially, but after finishing the season and thinking for a bit, I'm a little more neutral on the topic. Why? May I play devil's advocate for a moment and list two things that I got post-Season 3 for future queer representation.

Cressida's spiral in Part 2 reminded me of another Sapphic character's journey: Catra from She-ra. Catra was the main baddie for a long while, but in Season 4, there was a shift in her that made her push EVERYONE away, especially the people who were kind to her. She felt betrayed by the one person she felt the closest to, the one she loved. Catra sank so low and gave into her worst tendencies not only to make other people suffer, but also so that no one would see her suffer. That is what Cressida did, as well. In her final confrontation with Eloise, she wanted their friendship to continue and write as LW (a poor plan in hindsight since Eloise knew full well that she wasn't LW), and when Eloise refused, she immediately fell back on her bullying ways. That was enough for Eloise to end things, leaving Cressida's last good human connection gone and becoming entirely alone. She felt betrayed by someone she cared deeply about, and lashed out because of it. While it's over for now, I'm not quite giving up my hope on Creloise. Cressida really did show that Eloise influenced her in a positive way, despite the direction she took being not the greatest one, and Eloise even admitted that she genuinely liked being friends with Cressida during their start. Cressida may not appear next season, but maybe the one after that. Maybe she'll take the time in Wales to mature, come back and try to patch things up with Eloise.

As for not getting a canon WLW ship with a Bridgerton, we just got confirmation of not one, but TWO Bridgerton siblings being somewhere on the queer spectrum. All we wanted was at least one sibling to be queer, and now we have two. That's huge and also realistic! Like, in a family of 8, how can one of them NOT be queer? Even with me and my siblings, we have a collection of straight, ace, bi, and gay (we basically won the queer lottery). So there is still a chance for Eloise to be queer in some manner. Maybe she can be asexual, but find romantic feelings for someone? Maybe a woman? Perhaps... Cressida~? They already flipped the gender of Francesca's love interest, who's to say they can't completely change Eloise's love interest, too?

We're not going to get Season 4 for, like, two more years, so there's a lot of time to stew with what transpired. But I would like to remain optimistic. That's all we can do, for now.

[thearchercore]

genuinely trying not to cause *discourse* but i like having meta conversations abt who ships what and why ships take off so i was wondering if you had any thoughts about this meta abt how max fans tend to ship maxiel and charles fans tend to ship lestappen bc of how it frames their fave : https://www.tumblr.com/steviethenarwhal/751238958205353984/hi-there-you-mentioned-a-while-back-that-you

it's ok if you don't post this ask and just, idk, answer indirectly, given how fandom can flare up. i just find it rlly interesting given my previous fandom was danmei rpf and the way the meta frames it is very similar to the reasoning solo fans of my rpf ship in danmei rpf would use against each other and the ship fans, which is also, in my experience, echoed in the incessant "hybrid fans" vs "solo fans" wars on f1 twt

to be honest, i personally always joke that a ship "chooses me", not the other way around. i simply don't have any requirements, it either appeals to me or not and that's how i like to treat it in this fandom. if you like lestappen, you'll feel at home on my blog. if not, you'll find a different space online that appeals to you more. simple as that.

otherwise, i PERSONALLY do not agree that max fans = maxiel. charles fans = lestappen. it seems silly, as my closest friends on here are both combination of max/charles stans and have different preferences and all have individual reasons why lestappen is their ship of choice (and not maxiel).

also, as i was skipping through the post you tagged (which i don't agree with, but respect the person's take), i don't agree especially with the fact that charles fans enjoy lestappen because "it makes charles seem more like an equal to max and a better driver" because to me that's just, weird? especially when one of the people that rates charles high is max. but again, respect that opinion but i think individually people have different opinions and reasons to find the lestappen dynamic interesting.

but also, tagging @tsarinablogs and @valyrfia because i sent them this ask too to debrief individually so i know they have some thoughts!

[winterrhayle]

an incomplete list of things that i am very very very very very very very intrigued and excited about being visually portrayed in the tlc adaption:

BIOELECTRICAL MANIPULATION. HOW will they portray this??? because its animated i could imagine them doing some like visual effects like squiggly lines or something (kinda into the spiderverse spidey-sense esque) OR they could show it in the way it would look irl, by just showing the impact of the manipulation on the person however i would imagine that this would be really really difficult to show as the audience needs to know when someone is acting by their own accord and who is acting due to manipulation,, this is so intriguing to me genuinely

LUNAR FASHION ! specially in the scenes during winter at levana and kai's wedding, i think the clothing and hair and makeup would be so fun to look at as the aristocrats' clothing is so ornate, and as its animation there really aren't any limits to what they do with that

cinder's vision, with her constant information trickling in with the orange lie detector, heart monitor, internal portscreen etc etc, i kinda imagine them doing a lot of scenes from her POV, where we can see what is happeining through her eyes, and this would be specially interesting in particular scenes like when her cybernetic and natural vision are fighting against eachother to try and figure out how levana really looks, and the scene where cinder is doing some insane multitasking fighting the guards + wolf soldiers while escaping artemisia palace and jumping into the lake

the character designs for the fully modified wolf soldiers, i've always found them kinda difficult to picture personally so i would be very interested in looking at how they're portrayed here

general scene setting like : new beijing market, the artemisia and new beijing palaces, cress' sattelite, the rampion, the abandoned paris opera house fight scene, farafrah, benoit farms, etc etc etc, you get the gist. i feel like tlc has so much potential with these visuals specially because theyre in the future, so the fashion could go in any difrection, and you'd see futuristic things around like the hover cars and maybe like, subtle things like people scanning their wrists (with their ID chips) to pay for things im yapping i know but i just love the world building so much

winter's hallucinations, it would be interesting for it to switch between what she sees, eg a scene where the walls are bleeding and they could do some like spirally camera work around her and then it could cut to another characters POV, like jacin where you can see how it really looks, it would be cool juxoposition and it would be really helpful to get into winters head (as she has the shortest time on paper out of all the characters :(((( SIGH)

they could do a cool thing with the selene / cinder connection, i said yelled my ideas in the tags of this post here, its in all caps sorry lmaooo i got a little excited

anyway these are just off the top of my head there are definitely more,, but if u guys have any more please please please please share i would loveeee to hear

[ceoandslutler]

a short analysis on the theme of kindness in kuro, in defence of the morally reprehensible protagonists. pt2

focused character analysis: ciel phantomhive (ours)

before getting into this, i highly recommend reading my last post which received a great response from @plague-of-insomnia (very much appreciated additions that i will be referring to), i wanted to do a part two to my analysis and i will likely do a post of sebastian too but for now it's ciel who i want to focus on and how he is 'different' to other humans.

firstly i would like to follow up the points i made about the blue memory arc

our ciel wants to open a toy shop because of his own condition of being stuck at home with limited activities, he wants to make indoor toys. his brother says "nobles don't sell toys" and in this chapter it is alluded multiple times that he, as the second son, should have either become a 'vicar' or 'doctor' as they are respectable jobs, unlike being a toy maker/seller. another point is that o!ciel establishes here that he knows he can't be like the other members of the phantomhive bloodline (see: pt1 talking about undertaker's quote "he is unlike his predecessors"). back to the second son point, we already know how frustrating it is to be a second son:

but o!ciel has not once shown himself to be jealous of his brother, nor was he frustrated that he couldn't be earl. in fact he constantly reassures his brother in the blue memory arc that he is like their father and he'll make a great earl. he also makes it clear he does not desire the popularity that comes with being a vicar. (we see the vicar in their land is a manager of affairs with a lot of power/responsibility/direct access to nobility and when seb takes on the vicar disguise, ciel makes it clear that he is a "popular" person, akin to a "celebrity"). roles of religious importance are shown as vain in kuro.

it's interesting because the chapter we see the real vicar rathbone is the same chapter o!ciel says he wants to make toys and r!ciel says nobles don't do that and the murder arc where sebs is disguised as an alternate vicar rathbone is the same arc we find that o!ciel reads working class magazines because the consumers of his toys/funtom products are "common folk", he even reads punch!

..that's it for vicars, those are the only two instances we see them mentioned. the doctors we see are different. we have madame red who became a killer and used her skills to kill prostitutes out of spite (edit: as well as viscount druitt who does have a medical licence and we saw him doing human trafficking although i forgot about him, thank god plague-of-insomnia reminded me lmao) but we have two other doctors characters that are very important.

this nasty piece of work ^^ in the circus arc, very selfish and inhuman, uses VERY unethical methods to create prosthetics, morally bankrupt doctor similar to madame red

this stoker guy who is also a doctor. selfish, doesn't understand what medicine he's even using on people, just generally a egotistical awful guy.

in both these arcs, we see o!ciel show humanity

he's going to the workhouse baron kelvin supported and is going to recommend it to a philanthropist. although there was no workhouse, those children were likely already the doctor's victims.

in the campania, he not only goes back for lizzy, he is very considerate of a servant who not only tried to kill him with his snakes but also doesn't even call him by a formal title (snake called him 'smile' until the end, ciel never took offence to it despite being a noble)

he not only shows this amount of consideration, he also gives up his seat in the boats which plague-of-insomnia mentioned when they rb-ed pt1 of this analysis. i genuinely think the way o!ciel treats snake is extremely perplexing, he is too considerate... perhaps guilt? perhaps the empathy he feels as he too lived a lonely and alienated life as compared to the rest of his family? he felt like his family did not tell him anything and just died/disappeared, leaving him to have to wait for the killers to come back for him just so he can get his self-righteous revenge.

finally i would like to point out a little tidbit, o!ciel generally does not seem to care at all about society's expectations. his relationship with his tenants and servants is abnormally humane. i would also like to point out his confusion at elizabeth's sobbing about being the scary kind of woman he doesn't like (something r!ciel had implied)

this boy has never shown that kind of expression towards femininity or women... even when it sounds like he's being sexist, it's usually a poorly done translation, i don't know japanese well but before anyone pulls this up, i found the japanese raw to check over it myself:

he did not say "ladies don't come in such monstrous heights", he said something more along the lines of "it's impossible/i can't stand to dance with a tall/big lady in this way"(?)

[please correct me if i'm wrong, i don't know japanese well and my forte is indo european languages]

the point of this analysis is not to say ciel is solely "good" or 'pure cinnamon roll uwu' (i would never), but just to say he is capable of humanity... in a story about horrible humans, he as a one of the morally grey main characters is capable of being a force for good. he's also pointed out to be different to others and shown to not contain the same bad aspects of the other pathways he could've gone in life e.g. vain vicar or diabolical doctor. he is at his core, a character who shows humanity and compassion and that is why he is likeable even when he does heinous things. he is more than an innocent baby and more than an evil aristocrat with zero morals. although the head honcho of this story is sebs but i will get into him in another post, he's also a VERY interesting protagonist.

[weirdmageddon]

i hope this isn’t weird but, i just wanted to say i really really love this post you made, it’s so perfect for my very weird interest in historical homestuck… i wish there was a post like this for basically every homestuck update T^T or at least the big ones

its so tragic that a lot of the True Experience of homestuck (the fandom conversation with the comic) is basically lost media now… i wish i could have experienced it so bad. i’m so very tuned in if you ever have more stories to tell

of course! that makes me so happy to hear! not a definite solution but i will tell you that many blogs used the #upd8 tag so if you find an old blog that posted about homestuck before it ended you could try searching that tag. or, since tumblr's search is broken, just adding /tagged/upd8 to the url. or /tagged/upd8/chrono to go from from oldest to newest.

it really is such a shame. i can only hope i'm doing my part getting the conversation juices flowing again in this space by just sharing whatever's occupying my mind homestuck meta related..which i think passively deepens people's knowledge about the comic and the characters in the comic and the interactions between the comic and the fandom. though but i'm never confident of how much of an impact it's making. even when people tell me my influence is felt everywhere i feel like i dont hang around long enough to really feel it. i just dump the ideas ive thought on for a while (things that people need time to think about and consider themselves but i already went through all the motions of that by the time i share it) and move onto the next topic to rotate in my brain for as long as it takes, repeat ad infinitum. but asks like these make it all worth it i think. if people get genuinely moved or excited or interested in what i talk about as i am that's literally all i need to know to make it feel worth it

[bengiyo]

Don't Care for an Old Man's Underwear! Ep 1 Stray Thoughts

Thanks to @isaksbestpillow this show is available to us. I'm really excited to see a Japanese drama focusing on an older man trying to do better about understanding people different from him.

I could not work in an office where we're on top of each other like this.

Ah, casual misogyny right away. A starting line. The wife loves kpop, the daughter draws yaoi, and the son is visibly queer. Incredible.

Who is this adorable teen who saved this man?

I like the mom holding the line on letting her kid figure things out before forcing them back to school.

I like the juniors holding the line on this harassment. She is correct that she shouldn't be given gendered tasks like this. I like the dude being so casual about his bra.

Interesting. Seems the mom and sister know about Kakeru already, but hadn't talked about it with the dad.

I like that the young people have reached this stage where the kind of homophobia I grew up with is so ridiculous to them that they don't even acknowledge it as something real to worry about.

Dad seemed genuinely upset about how that interaction went.

Kids these days don't even wipe their search history.

Incredible! Moe has his posing for her manga. It's been a while since we had Japanese sibling content that wasn't romance focused.

Hobbies! Hobbies are more important than work!

This poor man. I'm glad to be watching a show about how sacrificing everything for work is actually not good.

What is this thing they have outside of the house?

They're doing a great job grounding this man's behavior in a misguided but genuine place.

He apologized! I'm into this.

They're going to explain the statue!! It was actually a heartwarming story!

Thank you for this life lesson, forthright gay child.

Not this show making me cry at this man's apology to his son.

Well this was absolutely excellent. I will be making time to catch up with this post haste! This is really heartwarming in a way that makes you want to root for our protagonist even if he's a mess. I think it's really special to have a guy who's trying to fill the masculine role recognize that it's not yielding the results he wants, and make the conscious choice to learn and grow. It's also special for me to show a young person giving that man the benefit of the doubt and answering his awkward questions. This is great.

[corseque]

I love you all, you give me so much joy. I feel so endlessly lucky that other people are willing to indulge me like this and answer my questions and think of things with me, it's so fun for me to read what you have to say. It's so overwhelming and I feel like it's been a culmination of years of thought and passion. I wish this was twitter so I could give you all little hearts. I can't wait for this game

I've barely been able to read everything that has been written on my posts in the last few days. I think some of the really interesting ones that I wanted to respond to, there were like 3 more to read and I got distracted.

I am about 30 messages behind on all the lovely messages you've been sending me (it was either answer them or continue shitposting at the speed of light and I chose... poorly ahaha). Thank you for being patient. I did read them, I read everything, and you are so lovely beyond measure, thank you so much. I will try to answer them.

But unluckily, I've been trying to ignore it, but I think I actually genuinely contracted covid 🙃🙃🙃, so I think I need to try to rest in hopes that I don't get brainfog again.

[smahell]

so the obey me boys aren't going to AX this year..

to absolutely nobody's surprise. yes solmare, you take away one of the most anticipated events for AX for obey me fans (at least for me; I need more fan content!)

but what I'm genuinely excited about, though I'm unable to go is..

now THIS is what i'm interested in. a new youtube audio drama project by ntt solmare: Ex and Bee: Nightfall's Coven; a mystery-centered audio drama with a dash of the dark arts and occult! am I excited just by that premise? from the little sneak peaks posted on twitter, which is the bare minimum, it's just enough to hype me up for this, yes. finally something else that might be solmare's legacy other than weird luke art and bad representation.

y'know what makes me even more excited.

look who's having a video appearance. heh. heheheh.

are they recycling VAs? yes. do I care? not at all. get that bag, Kada-san.

i genuinely think this project will be well received by those who do recognize it. with its more mature, somber theming, perhaps darker tone than obey me, it seems to still be catering to that same 16-24 age group but more to those who may be interested in psychological horror, sci-fi and true crime (aka, autistic people like me).

there's not much information i could dig from the internet about whoever else is working on the project, but i fear that the series will be reduced to 'obey me's lesser step-brother', and won't reach (enough of) its target audience, and then be completely discontinued out of nowhere after a year due to 'funding issues" (aka, not enough popularity, and daddy solmare wanting to spend his big bucks in silly dating sim game and their shitty 3D model concerts around the world (Japan and the US)).

[which is one of the reasons why i made this post. i do NOT want this project to flop just because of its relations to obey me and under funding.]

i think Ex and Bee deserves a chance its own separate fanbase from obey me... even though one of the main selling points was "hey guys!! you remember these guys??? they're gonna be here!!! please recognize them!! give us money!!!" and all that other corporate greed blabber that you don't hear from the social media managers.

conclusion: (army general voice) i want YOU to attend this panel if you are going to AX, and if you aren't, i want YOU to hype this shit up when more information comes out!1!!

[utilitycaster]

Pls ignore if the spectre of ruminating on old god-diskhorse is far too obnoxious but it's rather a jump-off point for a more general question; an issue brought up pushing back against the most obnoxious "vanguard is right eradicate those tyrant gods rq stole vax hate that bitch" ppl, aside from other things like just being deeply myopic even just from an in-universe perspective, but on a wholler narrative level requires completely ignoring or discarding campaign 1 and 2's theses and genuine connections. Largely i think these ppl's takes are more interested in self-validation than concerned with what they're actually saying when they want these things to be true (which they aren't, Matt and cast and plot progression from the peak of those discourses have made that clear), but now here's my wondering: what would it say if c3 were to be these things? By what metrics do you judge a sequel installment should it, in the pursuit of its own story, undermine or contradict the earnest, complete, already told story that preceded it and was built upon?

Hi anon,

This is a good question, and necessarily one with a subjective answer, so I hope I at least explain my thought process below! Also: this does have some spoilers for a Midst episode in Season 3 (which aired a few weeks ago). I mention this because it's a really useful example for me but this wasn't a question about Midst so you might not be expecting me to talk about it.

Firstly, I agree with you that a lot of the people who want this want the story to validate their personal beliefs. Some want it to validate political/philosophical beliefs, which is a complicated thing: on the one hand, I very much don’t want to watch a show that’s like “hey slavery is neat-o!” and doubt such a show would have much merit. On the other hand, when we’re dealing with much more complicated issues like religion, which simultaneously exists as a tool of oppression; an aspect of identity that makes one a target of oppression; a source of meaning and comfort; and a source of justification of terrible practices all in one; I think it’s extremely valuable to be exposed to a multitude of perspectives and to not just endlessly look for those that validate one’s own experiences.

Others just want the story to validate their feelings about the happenings within the narrative, which is on the one hand usually less close-minded, but on the other hand, kind of stupid. You are permitted to dislike that Vax died. I disagree, but you can feel however you want (indeed, you don’t need my, or anyone’s permission to dislike that Vax died). The story saying “The Raven Queen isn’t perfect” or even “The Raven Queen is Bad” isn’t necessary for you to have those feelings; and the Raven Queen being slaughtered isn’t per se necessary for Vax to come back (which I think would be cheap and stupid, but like, if that’s what you want you could just have him come back.) You don’t need to story to tell you that your response to the story is good, so this is ultimately a case of “why are you even doing this."

I also suspect there’s just some degree of subversion for subversion’s sake (or change for change's sake) people who were into the idea of killing the gods just to flip C1 and C2 on their respective heads. The thing is, subversion for the sole purpose of subversion has always been the province of the dull. There’s a reason why culturally we treat M. Night Shyamalan as a joke and it’s because “THERE’S A TWIST” without a strong and compelling build-up to said twist nearly always is, as the post I recently reblogged said, something that only hits hard if you’re stupid.

What I need from a story to be good is internal consistency and a strong execution. I am frequently surprised, in a very positive way, by stories that are so well-executed that they sell me on a premise with which I was less than enamored. If you’d told me that I’d feel sad about FCG’s sacrifice or extremely in favor of Phineas and Jonas’s romantic relationship during early C3 or, frankly, even the minute before I listened to Trustfall, respectively, I would have said “huh, really?” But both of these events were thoughtfully built to a point where they felt like meaningful and interesting choices for the story to take, even if that was not apparent to me earlier on.

So: the metric I’d use to judge a god-killing C3 is the same as that of any long-running story. I think there is a universe in which Campaign 3 could have made the demise of the gods a good and compelling story. But that work simply has not been done. The atrocities of the Vanguard, Weave Mind, and the Dwendalian Empire under Ludinus Da’leth; the callousness shown towards all Exandrians and Ruidians by the Vanguard and Kreviris Imperium; and most importantly the fact that there haven’t been new reveals of terrible things done by the gods and the story has instead striven to paint them as more fragile and complicated than what we’ve seen in past means that a sudden twist would, well, be cheap and only hit hard if you’re stupid. You can contradict a past story in an installment (or the earlier work in a long-running series) in a way that is not undermining if you are able to tie it together and show new information that was not available earlier! But that’s the key: it needs to be clear that the earlier works were showing a specific perspective (already a very tall order given the protagonist-only POV of D&D campaigns) or that the situation has drastically changed. If you fail to do this, then as you said, it’s undermining and it’s poorly done and a bad story.

I think that last point is also really important in thinking through the fandom response. I mentioned that I can be sold on a premise that didn’t win me over initially if the execution is strong. I think some people, and especially those gunning for a “The Gods are All Bad” story are so terrified of not being validated or of being wrong in their predictions or of criticism from other fans that they can no longer enjoy a story or comment meaningfully upon it. To which I say skill issue. I am thrilled and even grateful that, as previously mentioned, FCG had an arc that deepened their character and addressed my earlier criticism such that I could enjoy episode 91 as much as I did. I was mildly spoiled on the potential of Jonas and Phineas getting together and was, to be honest, slightly dreading it as I’d always preferred a platonic interpretation of their relationship, and then the scene in which it happened (and everything since) has been so deftly handled that I’m fully on board.

I am a far better analyst and critic of fiction than a creator of it, and I’m open about this. I am constantly surprised in ways both positive and negative by how other people tell stories, and that’s why I come back to them. I want the story to be so good that it expands my horizons and comfort zone and shows me something new. I find little joy in a story validating who I already am and what I already think. I want the story to make a better argument for what it has to say than I can make against it. If this is a competition between the story and me, I am rooting for the story to win over me and in doing so, win me over; and I am disappointed when it doesn’t.

I am also a physicist, and, famously within our understanding of physics, pretty much anything can happen; it’s all just a matter of probabilities. And so it’s hard for me to say “there’s no way this could ever be done well.” It’s very easy, however, for me to say “the eye of the needle one must thread to do this well is a micron in diameter and constantly moving.” I think it’s possible to turn the concept of a god-slaying Campaign 3 into a story that, rather than clumsily ignoring or discarding C1 and C2’s theses, transforms them and puts them in a new and unexpected light. But the narrative dexterity check required for that has always been high, and only gets higher as the actual Campaign 3 story continues along its current path.

[souryogurt64]

I’m not sure if/to what extent you’ve already posted about this so sorry if this is old news but what’s your ryden take?? I would’ve died on the hill that there was genuinely something going on between them when i was in middle and high school but looking back i am so conflicted. You have the most nuanced and researched opinions out of everyone i follow on here so i’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter

RYDEN WAS NOT REAL: COUNTER MANIFESTO

Yeah, so if you go through the primers, there is not a lot of evidence that Brendon and Ryan were gay dating. I think it is mostly pieces of extraneous drama that is strung together with irrelevant info into this kind of nonsense theory.

The first part of the Ryden Manifesto is so random and disjointed I am not even going to address it. It involves a journal entry about how emotional it is to perform in front of "you" that is very clearly directed at the audience, not Brendon. It also involves Ryan saying Pete is like sexy or whatever which like. I won't even start.

When it starts to become cohesive, it starts by talking about Brendon's ex girlfriend going around telling people Brendon wanted to have "butt sex" with her so this means he is bisexual. I completely believe Brendon wanted to have anal sex with this girl, but this is not gay and she is clearly just saying this because she is mad they broke up.

Then, it mainly focuses on Brendon losing his virginity after skinny dipping, and because Ryan was there it means they must have fucked each other. This constantly comes back throughout every single Ryden post/theory. Except this means nothing because everyone agrees multiple dancers and The Hush Sound were also there in a total of TWENTY people. Brendon probably had sex with one of the dancers.

The next part is all the stage gay and Brendon holding Ryan’s hand in an interview. This means literally nothing and is not inherently gay. The stage gay is just nonsense.

The third part is this gender neutral journal entry that was posted on an account belonging to Brendon’s dog that is supposedly about Ryan and Brendon. Brendon owned this dog with another guy. A guy he lived with, shared banking information with, and posted a photo of him holding hands with, a photo of them in boxers the shower together leaked, et cetera. Like IF the poem is gay, which I don't think it is, I don’t think Ryan would be my first guess.

The next part is about the lyrics of Pretty Odd. This is mostly nonsense about connecting words like “summer” and “sea,” to the skinny dipping story and the gender neutral romantic poem, as if these are not extremely common words.

However, this continues to be so pervasive because it is objective fact that much of Pretty Odd is built around an explicitly queer prose poem about a relationship between two gay French poets. However, this does not mean that Brendon and Ryan were gay TOGETHER. I actually believe Ryan related to this story so intensely because of him and Pete. And I don’t necessarily think Pete and Ryan were gay dating either. 

Then, it gets into a bunch of videos/images from interviews that supposedly prove they are gay dating. Most of these are gone or largely inconsequential jokes (such as Brendon calling Ryan a "golden god," which is a quote from a scene in Almost Famous where a band member jumps into a swimming pool while tripping on acid), but a few of the ones that are left are extremely interesting for different reasons. 

For example, there is the Rolling Stone interview where Brendon won’t stop touching Ryan’s neck and Ryan clearly does not want Brendon to touch him. 

Right before this happens, Ryan makes a comment about how he refuses to play Guitar Hero now, and Jon states that he and Ryan “boycott” the game. Brendon snaps back, “Oh, that's weird, because we covered one on Guitar Hero, liar” then says he's kidding and starts rubbing Ryan’s neck and Ryan ignores him. This isn’t proof they are gay. However, it DOES indicate what was going on in the band behind the scenes—Ryan was repulsed by their corporate success and did not want to be doing things like partnerships with Guitar Hero, and Brendon very much wanted to be commercially successful and to go in this direction. Spencer, who is by far the most honest person in Panic, even states as this is happening that the Guitar Hero thing is a “sensitive subject” in the band and Jon adds that "There have been problems," and then Spencer starts redirecting the conversation. It's difficult to hear all of this at first because everyone is talking over each other.

Another “gay proof” video in the primer is the one where Brendon and Ryan are both wasted on MTV and Ryan is very intensely staring at Brendon while he repeats a story about Pete being “a douchebag.” Ryan is not staring at Brendon so intensely because they are gay lovers, it’s because Ryan desperately wants validation from Brendon that Pete is a douchebag and that it is OK for him to be saying this on live TV, and Brendon is pointedly ignoring what he is saying and refusing to validate this. 

At this point in the timeline, Pete was kind of siding with Brendon and Spencer over the band, while Ryan and Jon seemed to be openly alluding to conflict with Pete in interviews. I go into this extensively in my essay.

Then it goes into how Ryan was staying on an air mattress at Brendon's place, and immediately after this Ryan and Keltie broke up and the band got really strained.

Ryan cheated on Keltie with a waitress and multiple other women, and she found out on Valentine's Day. Brendon and Sarah had recently begun dating. I personally feel like now that Brendon was in a serious relationship with his future wife, he started to view Ryan having affairs behind the back of a woman he was moving in with as being not so cool anymore, and this increased tensions in the band that were primarily driven by fighting over who was the frontman/leader and their sonic direction. Ryan also moved in with Jon, which increased the divide in the band as I believe Jon was encouraging a lot of Ryan's conflict with Pete and Ryan's disdain for "emo" from the minute he joined Panic. I go into all of this in my essay.

I'm also not clear on why Ryan was staying with Spencer and Brendon but in the first place. But as a note, Ryan was extremely irresponsible and unable to manage his life due to his drug/mental issues and Keltie was managing all of it. He also was doing things like showering at Spencer's house because his utilities would get shut off since Ryan was not paying them. I kind of get the vibe he may have overstayed his welcome.

THE NEXT PART OF THIS is all about how the band said over and over the split was supposedly amicable except in these two random interviews, one of which was a video that had gone mysteriously missing. Both of these were with James, who was a reporter and one of Pete's "BFFs". He and Pete were filming a TV show and supposedly staying together on the weekends for months leading up to the Panic breakup, and were probably also writing Pete's 250 page book about his ex girlfriend during the split and Vices era.

This is probably why these interviews, and all of the split coverage done by him, is so in depth and so different than what they were telling everyone else. He probably knew what was going on from Pete already.

Then it gets into how New Perspective is about like the skinny dipping Ryden virginity loss thing. Which is just kind of ridiculous. This lyric is about someone getting cum on their face anyway, which could be way gayer than the skinny dipping story.

Aagh. Anyway that's the end of it.

THE CAPE TOWN ONE

The Cape Town thing is like. 1) Everyone has said repeatedly that Ryan hooked up with some girl there .

2) The band did decide before leaving that Cape Town was going to be the last shows they played together which is why this was all so sad and dramatic.

Ryan said this directly in 2019, but there are also a few phone conversations between James, Ryan, and Spencer from 2009 that are on MTV's website that you can deduce this from.

Then the Cape Town theory goes into this quote about how "The Calendar" is about an "intimate relationship."

This article was also written by James. When I was writing my essay, I noticed that he sometimes would just say things himself and then pretend Ryan or whoever said it if they agreed, even sarcastically. I personally feel there is a good chance that Brendon never said this of his own accord and instead it was an invention. Especially because The Calendar is a song Pete has writing credits on. Honestly, the fact that so much bandom drama was puppeteered by the guy simultaneously writing a 250 page book about Pete Wentz's ex girlfriend is like a more salacious bandom lore payoff than Ryden proof could ever be, but whatever.

Anyway, then it goes into how Ryan kept saying Panic ending was like breaking up with his girlfriend and therefore Brendon must've been his girlfriend because they were secret gay dating.

Ryan did say this, however, it is missing the context of how Ryan is likely alluding to the fact that Lie To The Truth is, imo, pretty transparently about Panic. This is not just my interpretation, but is also backed up by the line in the song about playing the fool and Ryan introducing himself as "the fool" of the band.

Anyway that's basically the end of the Cape Town theory

There's also the Seattle thing but like .

I don't really think the Seattle thing matters. Regardless of whether or not it is true that Brendon flew out for Ryan's 21st birthday, which seems to be under doubt, this does not mean that they were gay dating. It just means a celebrity took a plane to attend their bandmate's party, which means nothing lmao.

The idea that Northern Downpour is about this because Seattle is east of wherever Brendon was and therefore the song is about them being gay lovers is like so ridiculous I'm not even going to entertain it, I do think the song is probably like sentimental since Brendon cried performing it or whatever but like WHAT does that have to do with this photo

[animatedjen]

I'm curious, how long does it usually take you to take a picture in Survior? You post quite a bit, so I'd honestly be very interested in hearing about your overall process if ur willing to share. What decides what picture u take? Do u ever use the lights? (I have the vaguest knowledge about how to light subjects and I just can't get it propely in my head, so I personally find that a bit difficult, tbh. Both irl and otherwise.) Do u do something w them outside of the in game photomode, aside from cropping? Do u ever consciously think about composition like the golden ratio or the 3x3 grid? Do you spend a lot of time setting them up or is it more spontaneous? I'd love to know just bc I find myself very fascinated by them and I'd like to know what goes into them (:

- @frunbuns

Love these questions @frunbuns! Though I do genuinely wonder if I'm posting too much sometimes 🫠 Both because A) I don't want to swamp the Jedi tags, and B) it probably means I'm playing Survivor instead of sleeping and that's... not helpful haha.

Answers under the cut!

What decides what picture u take? Do you spend a lot of time setting them up or is it more spontaneous? - Sometimes I'll have a very specific idea (like the Cal silhouette photo or these portraits of Bode) so everyone gets posed and lit very intentionally. But most photos are "discovered" while exploring the environments, watching different character animations, etc. I'm constantly pausing and zooming in with photomode to see what a moment looks like.

I want to make a video tutorial that walks through the entire process (because describing this stuff with words is a struggle) so let me know if you have any specific questions!

Deciding on a photo theme or goal is helpful though. If I want to take photos of Cal and Merrin fighting together, I'll obnoxiously follow Merrin around and make sure Cal is near her while attacking the Jedha patrols. There'll be a bunch of duds and a few cool moments (and a bit of electrocution, sorry Cal)

Do u ever use the lights? - Always! The lights make a huge difference in photomode, but I know they're tricky to use. I posted a mini tutorial on lighting recently, but it goes through general concepts rather than any technical how-to. Definitely want to break down the process more in a video tutorial.

Do u do something w them outside of the in game photomode, aside from cropping? - I'll edit my favorite photos by adding more contrast, either from the built-in phone app or a photo editing software. This ask has a good before/after example.

Do u ever consciously think about composition like the golden ratio or the 3x3 grid? - Sometimes! I've been in the photo/video industry for almost nine years (oof that makes me feel old) so a lot of that experience probably shows up in my photomode compositions. I like shooting IRL portraits with a telephoto lens, so these virtual portraits are almost always at 3x-4x zoom to mimic that look.

Hope some of this is helpful! Survivor's photomode is really fun and I love seeing how other people use it 🙌

[tinyundercover]

A10, A11, B6

A10: How would your character react to switching sizes?

yknow what I’m gonna make a separate post about this, just because I have a lot of asks about this and I want to go into detail :> stay tuned

A11: What’s the worst experience your character has ever had with someone of a different size. (Or the best?) 

❗️contains spoilers for pepper&felix through part 13❗️

hehe well pepper has a lot of options. obviously his and felix’s first meeting had been terrifying, especially since he had never met a human before. then there was the time alice kidnapped him which had been completely awful, although at least he knew he had felix around to rescue him. felix interacting with him while drunk had sucked too. 😭 maybe i should give him a break whoops sorry pepper

felix hasn’t had a ton of bad experiences with the borrowers, simply because he is so much bigger and therefore feels more in control. his worst experiences had been when the borrowers were in danger, and while his first interaction with pepper brings back a ton of bad memories for felix, their kidnapping for sure was his worst experience 😔

B6: A trope you’d like to see more of

this is a little redundant but size swaps 😍😍

ok genuinely though, I want to see more of a human shrinking to borrower-size, whether they know about borrowers or not. it has so much potential for fluff or angst, and it’s always so interesting to see a human hang out with a borrower at the same size! I think the reason why a lot of people don’t write it is because it doesn’t contain a lot of g/t interaction, but I LOVEEEEE worldbuilding more than anything and am content to just read two borrowers interacting. like yesss give me the extensive dialogue i love love it sm