#my spec

[bidisasterevankinard]

I think after Buck started and ended the season wanting to quit, there's possibility they start tge season with him actually not in 118

[kinardsevan]

Ngl, I was so optimistic after last episode but the newest OS interview dumped my mood af… do you think there’s still hope for BuckTommy ending up together?

I’m gonna say the same thing I’ve been saying for months: yall gotta stop reading so much into those interviews. Oliver quite literally cannot tell you that a reunion is coming. In terms of storytelling, that would be such a major spoiler that it would defeat the purpose of bothering to tell it at all.

They are so limited on what they can actually say versus what they can’t, and I have also done myself the favor of not reading most of the interviews anyway. The video ones where we can hear context? Sure. Because tone of voice does a LOT for understanding what someone is saying. The only one I watched this week was the one in which Oli stated that Buck has both personal and professional hurdles to overcome in the coming weeks.

Realistically, we’ve just opened the door for bucktommy again. The fight we all so desperately want still needs to happen. They still need to hash things out. They both presented themselves at that bar as having gotten on with their lives just fine, when we know the reality of it (for Buck at least and I’m sure also Tommy) is not the case. Literally one episode previous to this one, he was saying to Eddie that everything was right in his world until he and Tommy broke up.

I will also specify (because I’m assuming this is the interview you’re referring to based on the one quote I’ve seen), where some people are taking his “I don’t know, I don’t think so” as he’s not still in the same place, I read it as, he hasn’t moved on. You can still very much be in the same place emotionally about someone but believe they aren’t coming back to you/that things are over. That doesn’t actually mean that they are.

We know that 814/15 is coming. I know some people are assuming LFJr is only going to be in one of the episodes. I’ve assumed he’s going to be in both, in some form or another. And given the assumption that the story is going to be based on Birds of Prey, my own inclination is to believe that they’re using these episodes as a soft launch of “if we give this character more of a story, will people care?”. We, the bucktommy fandom, have wanted him to stick around for a while now, but from a storytelling standpoint, all TM&Co know is that when they broke up, it upset the fandom and GA alike. In a perfect world with endless money and time, the answer would be just to make more space on the show to tell Tommy’s story. But I think the latter half of this season really has to go to the point of showing their work and being able to go back to the network and say “this is the impact if we give him a bigger role”, regardless of whether RG stays or goes after this season.

Beyond that, I’ve personally questioned if we won’t see some form of (at the very least Maddie) Evan’s people kinda giving Tommy the cold shoulder for how he ended things. I don’t think it’s lost on anyone that Evan isn’t over him, and how much the break up hurt him. But I could very much see the narrative as “you left and hurt him needlessly” without the full context of the fact that while we know they love each other and want a future together, we don’t know that anyone else does because we haven’t seen Evan actually tell anyone about the context of the breakup. I’ve also wondered if we won’t see some version of Maddie seeing Tommy and coming to that conclusion herself, and that softening the edges a little.

Another thing I’ve wondered about, especially as we’re moving into the latter half of the season, is if we aren’t moving towards a version of events where Evan finally tells people he gets to make his own decisions, and maybe even tells the team off a little for checking out on Tommy. They’re all supposed to be his friends, right? And yet we know Eddie stopped calling him. I get the whole “Eddie was busy, had stuff going on” of it all… except we know that Evan wasn’t doing well following the break up and er can infer Tommy wasn’t with his “resisting the urge to call”… and you’re telling me Eddie could send a text? When we know for a fact that even Tommy was thinking about texting Evan, but was likely too scared? It says to me even more that the only time Eddie cares about a friendship is when he can gain something out of it.

Ultimately, I don’t actually know how we get to the reconciliation, but I have zero issue in believing it’s coming. I’ve watched way too many romcoms, procedurals, and second season breakup stories to know how this ends. And it doesn’t end with Tommy walking off our screens single. Yall have to let the story continue to be told. Everyone thought after 806 that these two were dead in the water, and yet Lou was back in 811.

Let it simmer and marinate. We’ll get there.

[setmeatopthepyre]

we've now had Buck & Tommy fail to make it to a movie twice. with the whole rule of threes thing, I think they should accidentally run into each other at a movie while broken up, maybe both on very awkward dates. just. constantly stealing glances at each other in the dark. and then, after, one of them goes "I guess we finally made it to the movie, huh"

[absandersons]

I’ve been kinda thinking about the finale (as if I ever do anything else) and I have a sort of theory on how it could all play out.

Most of this is spec, some of it is my writer brain, so with that what you will lmao.

With what the 911 on ABC posted on Instagram today, I think it’s fair enough to assume that the councilwoman who was the mother to that guy is about to get involved. That whole thing was kind of just brushed off, and the idea of revenge is being repeatedly being brought up (Amir, even the idea of Doug sort of enacting revenge on Chim while he’s hallucinating), along with the theme of loss and grief (Eddie’s current mess, Amir…again).

I’ve seen several theories saying that she would try to stop Hen and Karen from adopting Mara, and while I can see what they’re saying, I actually think it’s more along the lines of her preventing Hen from being interim captain.

We know something is going to happen to Bobby, with all the stills and bts in the hospital, including the one with the whiteboard that says “R. Nash” on it. And if Bobby can’t act as captain, the usual replacement is Hen, but if Hen is in the midst of this, and the entire 118 is caught up I think it’s plausible (especially with Ryan talking about how Eddie is “isolated” next season) that the councilwoman will basically fight to split them up, citing past cases and insinuating they are dangerous or unfit as a unit. The LAFD brass won’t want to get in a fight with city council and will separate them but won’t fire them. (A compromise they’ll think is good, but we know is terrible).

I personally think that Buck will be left at the 118. With Captain Gerrard. I really get the feeling that the councilwoman may know him and put him back in place there even in spite of his past.

If we think about Buck’s worst nightmare (being abandoned by those he loves) it fits perfectly. Being by himself in his house but without his family, with a new captain that he knows Hen, Chim, and Tommy hated. That’s the worst possibility for him. Throw in a potential fight with Eddie and you have the perfect storm for Buck, something that would be untenable for him long term.

Relationship-wise, I have a couple different thoughts. Either Gerrard being at the 118 brings Tommy and Buck closer together, because Tommy understands what an awful captain Gerrard is and is a shoulder to lean on for him while he has to deal with it (this is preferable and what I want lol).

Or, as much as I hate to say it, it could lead to a distance between him and Tommy, because Tommy doesn’t want to be around Gerrard (don’t blame him) and he can’t be there for Buck because he’s afraid of turning back into the person he tried so hard to escape.

And I don’t think we’d start season 8 with everyone back together. With 18 episodes (bless) they have time to draw out plotlines that they haven’t been able to this season.

If, as I fervently hope, Bobby makes a recovery from whatever happens to him, he’ll have to go through the same retraining that Buck did when he was crushed by the ladder, which would be an interesting contrast for him to be put in those shoes, maybe desperate to get back out to the field but not being cleared, Athena being worried about him the same way he was worried about her after she was attacked, all that.

I think Hen’s big conflict would be that she feels like them being separated his her fault, since she didn’t force the guy to get care. She would be okay in another house, but potentially feel like she’s starting over, just like with medical school.

For Chim, I think his biggest thing would be taken out of the 118, maybe he would be assigned to the 133 as an extra gut punch since it was Kevin’s house? I think there’s something interesting there.

And Eddie. Eddie, who is taking doppelgänger Kim out in public, while bringing his girlfriend to the medal ceremony. Something is coming here, this situation is precarious at best. I highly doubt he will still be with Marisol by the end of the season. At the same time, I don’t think he’s going to be with Kim either. With this photo, it could be that Chris finds out about Kim or something like that. If I had to guess, I would say that Eddie and Marisol are done by the end of 7x09.

I could also potentially see Eddie being left at the 118 and Buck transferring to air support with Tommy, which could be interesting since Eddie was the one to leave last time. But for angst points, I think leaving Buck alone in his house which is suddenly no longer home, but hostile? I would eat that up.

Overall, with all those happy stills we got today, juxtaposed by the way press is talking about the screeners, I would say we’re in for a rough couple of episodes and a rough hiatus too.

[iris-of-the-lambs]

what if instead of horses we domesticated porcines... i think that could be cool

[sabertoothwalrus]

here's some of my headcanons for the Tallman AU. I am SO picky modern aus because I feel like they almost never take canon dynamics into account enough, so I tried to do that as much as I could!!!

The main reason it's a tallman au is because I needed Izutsumi and Chil's daughters to go to the same school and I wasn't invested in the worldbuilding enough to figure out the logistics of how school would work with races that age at very different rates. also the existing tallman designs are fun lol

[yupmabel]

i think creepers are herbivores who get their chloroplasts by eating plants and then photosynthesize by themselves. like sea slugs

[valdrift]

this joke has definitely been done before but it'll never not be funny to me ✌️

[bidisasterevankinard]

I actually kinda think that with the cake and "unexpected" baby girl in a car, either doctor was wrong about the boy or madney have twins

[living-dead-guyy]

baby

[bidisasterevankinard]

You saw that scene of army people's take everything? Yes, that's it, Bobby is a rat lab now. He made the deal with a colonel his team on him and Moira who will be brought back by his wife

He made a deal. HE MADE A DEAL

But... But the rat !! He has the cure!!!

[sunsetsands]

Season's Greason's to all who celeason's

[calocera]

Finally posting this, a speculation on vorta biology!

this was drawn last year for the ‘zine o’biology’ star trek spec bio zine :)

[kinardsevan]

I literally watched 805 and said the minute that the “having a crew like this” line was said and then followed up by “our people are what make our life worth living”, “oh shit, something is going to happen here.”

I didn’t necessarily see the breakup coming, but I’ve long held the contention that it makes sense in the grand scheme. And I’ve also long held the belief that the entire point of “having a crew like this” was to make the point that Tommy is a part of the family, and we’ll see that come to fruition with this injury/disaster, when everyone shows up for him. The “especially when things go wrong” plays perfectly into that, because they did. They broke up, and they both clearly regret it, and now there are even more issues being sewn into the “going wrong” of it all.

I honestly can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Our fellow BT above chose the best pics for this. :)

It was something I noticed in that scene with Buck and the Pup. "Don't run away from your people". The third time Buck has made reference to such a notion of how important "our people" are, along with Tommy in the cemetery scene with "Our people make life worth living"

Also goes along with Buck and Tommy in the waiting room of the hospital with the 118 on Halloween. "Having people there for you when things go wrong".

Do I detect a pattern forming here? ;)

I may be way off base, but I feel Tim is indeed laying something of a theme here for these two. Definitely a point for Buck where he needs to re-evaluate what he wants in life. Perhaps to take control of his own life and not be prisoner to all events around him. To live HIS life for HIM. As well as for Tommy, to also open himself and not run from a potential long lasting love. Both are looking for "their people" and "where they belong".

Maybe i'm wrong but it just really stood out to me. :)

No, it's textbook foreshadowing

[queerum]

Free (mostly academic) aro theory resources

On Amatonormativity

Amatonormativity, Aromanticism, and What Defines a Relationship - Rilee Granger

Amatonormativity in the Law: An Introduction - Silver Flight

"Allonormativity and Compulsory Sexuality" (chapter 6 of Encyclopedia of Queer Studies in Education) - Stephanie Anne Shelton

'I Dont Want To be a Playa No More': An Exploration of the Denigrating effects of 'Player' as a Stereotype Against African American Polyamorous Men - Justin L. Clardy

On Relationship Anarchy

The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy - Andie Nordgren

The Relationship Anarchy website

Thinking Relationship Anarchy from a Queer Feminist Approach - Roma De las Heras Gómez

Beyond romantic love – an analysis of how the dilemma of closeness vs. autonomy is handled in relationship anarchy discourse - Ricardo Guillén

The Ethics of Relationship Anarchy - Ole Martin Moen

On community

Examining aromantic and asexual inclusion in queer-serving organizations - based on Lauren Lichty's work

Exploring Aromanticism Through an Online Qualitative Investigation With the Aromantic Community: “Freeing, Alienating, and Utterly Fantastic” - James Fowler et al.

Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendations Report

Aurea Aro Census

Sexuality, romantic orientation, and masculinity: Men as underrepresented in asexual and aromantic communities - Hannah Tessler

On QueerPlatonic Relationships

Queerplatonic Zucchinis: A Short Primer - Omnes and Nihil (unsure)

Queering the Nuclear Family - Katie Linder

Queer(ing) consensual nonmonogamies, queering therapy: queer intimacy, kinship, and experiences of CNM in LGBTQIA+ lives - Christian Klesse et al.

On intersectionality

Intimacy and Desire Through the Lens of an Aro-Ace Woman of Color

Being Aroflux & Black - Kimberley Butler

Transitioning into Aromanticism as a Trans Student - Amethyst

Existing and Defying Stereotypes as an A-spec Disabled Person - Sapphire Crimson Claw

A Reflection on the March Carnival of Aros (several testimonies by aros of color and non-cis/non-het aros are linked in this article)

Other aro-related interesting reads

New Dimensions, New Directions: Asexualities and Aromanticism in the 21st Century - Megan Carroll et al.

Enriching the Story: Asexuality and Aromanticism in Literature - Adrienne Whisman

The Importance of Representation for Lesser-Known Sexual Identities on the Example of Asexuality and Aromanticism - Jasmin Kiechle

Experiences of Italian Asexual and Aromantic Individuals in Healthcare Settings: from Explicitly Aggressive to Affirming Interactions

Other lists of aro-related ressources (not all sources listed in these are free though)

by Aurea

The Asexuality and Aromanticism Bibliography

If you know of any other free ressource about aromanticism please consider adding to this list