#queer people never get to be happy huh

[ouiagon]

ST4 VOL 2 SPOILERS (haven't watched the episodes, just reading the tags and I'm fuming)

what was the point of mike and will's awkward hug, what was the point of the rink o mania fight, what was the point of emotional tender music playing while will and mike have a heart to heart Twice, what was the point of mike not being able to say I love you to El, what was the point of blue meets yellow in the west, what was the point of all the byler marketing, what was the point of "mike is just trying to act as normal as possible, he might be into some new things", what was the point of "they've been building byler up for a while now so definitely start shipping it", what was the point of "will's love for mike is beautiful and they come to a mutual understanding", what- what- WHAT-

Ngl I still have the TEENSIEST CRUMB of hope left because it's possible mike might learn El didn't commission the painting in s5 and he'll realize all of the things will said were his feelings and not hers, but honestly I'm tired of giving credit to the duffers for anything. will is my favorite character and my heart is BROKEN for him but I'm actually more mad at how they've obliterated Mike's character. even outside of byler, milkvan has been going in circles and the last thing they need as characters is to get back together AGAIN. even if byler wasn't gonna have any semblance of confirmation all I wanted was milkvan mutual breakup and like at least a proper hug between will and mike, that's IT. nah instead will gets to suffer for the 1000th time and mike is just a terrible person. I was enjoying season 4 immensely because of max and the byler buildup (also Eddie but from what I hear that doesn't go so well either) but now it's just imploded on itself. thanks suffer brothers, I hate it.

[direquail]

the thing that people are missing about TLT—what makes it so good and so extremely affirmingly gay—is that it is layered through and through with queer desire of all kinds: Sick desire, wrong desire, desire that will never be voiced let alone fulfilled, desire that CANNOT be spoken of, desires that shouldn’t be fulfilled or run counter to social mores of the setting in ways that are alien to the reader’s own. It is So. Horny. People are horny for corpses. They’re fucking using other peoples’ bodies (without consent). They’re subtextually fucking their siblings. The core homoerotic relationship is a necro/cav relationship, which in the book’s setting, romantic or sexual necro/cav relationships are considered repulsive.

And it will never be fulfilled or consummated in the sense that most people imagine them. Nobody is getting what they want. Girls are kissing girls who are in love with someone else’s corpse. Girls are lobotomizing themselves to save other girls’ souls. Girls are spearing their hearts on iron fences and offering their souls to other girls to eat. They are both profoundly Not Getting Laid and also having intimacies and consumptions that make sucking and fucking seem about as profound as a puddle. The penetration metaphor of Naberius’ death and the bottoming metaphor of Gideon’s cannot be overstated. Someone’s arm is amputated and it’s the closest thing that book has to a sex scene.

And somehow, even though it portrays repression in some cases, it is not Repressed(TM). The girls are Jesus; the girls are reading porn rags; the girls are dying as virgins. Someone tries to fuck a hallucination that is also the ghost of the Devil and also of the Earth. The ghost of the Earth and the Devil says “Huh. One moment, I have to cross time, space, and the River beyond death” and roughly… a day later, fully possesses their body.

Sex doesn’t begin to describe it. It is sublime; it is spiritual; it is as crass and visceral and compulsive as whatever sick pornographies anybody gets off to; it is as grimy and solipsistic and subterranean as any human unconscious.

You simply could not get that in a light and happy “found family! ✨” rainbow sci-fi

[allthethoughtsandstuff]

the movie was ADORABLE and it was QUEER and it was CHEESY and HAPPY and SILLY and CUTE and I LOVED it and I have some THOUGHTS and im going to put them here bc idk what else to DO

bad reputation playing after cakegate into the intro credits was the most slay choice

alex is a bracelets man send tweet

the closet scene at the hospital was such a slay 10/10 alex looking like a pissed off little kid the whole time like yeah buddy throw ur little temper tantrum we love to see it

they didn’t say fuck enough times in this movie they said it so many times in the book wtf like you had the r rating already just use it why would you not use it???

the timeline is hurting my brain they’re shifting stuff around I am questioning reality

rip obtuse fucking asshole

TZP 🫶🏻

HISTORY HUH BET WE COULD MAKE SOME IM CRYING

why did we invent miguel he’s a snake literally for why was he there

while we’re on the topic of miguel I disagree with having alex have been w him bc I think it takes away from his complete obliviousness and his thus huge moment of realization w henry so I think we get less of an alex finding himself and more of an alex exploring this part of him that he already knew was there which isn’t inherently bad for a film or book but I just always found alexs discovery of his queerness and the resulting shifting/understanding of things from his past to be such an important part of the book for me personally like just with the rearranging of things he’s always felt but never noticed or payed attention to is very special and gets lost when you give him this queer experience that he’s fully aware and understanding of

zahra for the win

THEMS ON THE BALCONY WITH THE CROWD OUTSIDE THE PALACE IM SO GLAD THEY DIDNT CUT THE CROWD

ugh the yellow rose tie I’m crying

THE FORCED CONFORMITY OF THE CLOSET CANNOT BE ANSWERED WITH FORCED CONFORMITY IN COMING OUT OF IT SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK IM FUCKING SCREAMING

okay so ur going to talk about alexs eyelashes but NOT give the line to henry excuse me????

���take the american with you” im dying at that

girl they called the election so fast ik things move faster in movies but here’s me knowing how LONG it takes in the book and the SUSPENSE and the ADRENALINE and then it was just over like that before you even know it like damn

uma thurman woman that you are 💗

so I was thinking ab when they do the new years count down and these random girls kiss alex and I’m like damn no what it’s supposed to be nora but you know what then I realized they just made nora into a sister figure for alex since they got rid of june so their relationship is and always has been 100% platonic

it was so slay of them to literally open the movie with alex being nervous and thinking he’s going to mess up at the wedding and get rejected like yes thank you for addressing this boys perfectionism and imposter syndrome head on from the very beginning this is the alex we know and love

putting alex and henry in the same room when they’re talking on the phone to each other was such a good choice I love it

they made this movie for the readers you have to know the LORE you have to understand how DEEP henry and alexs relationship is and you simply cannot get that in a two hour film but goddamn did they do a good job trying

[genericpuff]

Was the Hera×Echo thing for real?! Was it like planned??? It doesn't feel like it was planned! It feels like Rachel just wanted to queerbait to gather more new readers wtf

yeah it's exactly that tbh

FASTPASS SPOILERS AHEAD !!!

like what more realistically happened is she saw people headcanon'ing Echo and Hera and went "yeah sure I'll do that!" without actually writing the fucking relationship.

This was even a problem back in S2 with Echo's character as a whole, she's introduced as this mysterious 'double agent' character who's almost definitely working for Zeus-

-but then aside from two scenes involving Echo accompanying Hera to the motel to retrieve Persephone's things and Echo warning Daphne that Apollo clearly isn't 'over Persephone' (because he had, y'know, barged into Hera's office demanding Hera's blessing) the whole "Echo is a double agent for Zeus" thing was only confirmed after Daphne was turned into a tree and Echo said "FUCK YOU ZEUS, I'M NOT GONNA DO YOUR DIRTY WORK ANYMORE!" which ... huh? Where's the plot? It feels like there was an entire story there that just got dumped entirely so that Hades and Persephone could play golf with diamonds.

Like this was presumably where Echo ditched her obligation to Zeus, but it had nothing to do with Hera, it was because she heard (I'm assuming from Thanatos) what happened to Daphne.

After that we only ever see Echo again when it's implied that her and Hera had some kind of falling out. No idea what over, maybe it was Hera finding out that Echo was a double agent, maybe Hera called her a slur, we have no clue what. But it's sorta just tacked on during an ongoing monologue about how Kronos has affected her.

The only other 'hint' we got towards it was Ares calling Echo Hera's 'girlfriend' but that doesn't mean a whole lot when we've literally never seen these two have more than two scenes together.

So now Rachel making them kiss feels more like her taking credit for writing a plotline that doesn't exist and was fabricated entirely in the audience's headcanon. And this is something Rachel does a lot, she basically relies entirely on her audience filling in the blanks for her nothingburger plot and then of course gets to take all the credit for being a "smart and inclusive writer". Where? Literally where the fuck is the actual writing?

Imagine if we had gotten a proper B-plot showcasing the relationship between Echo and Hera. Echo is working for Hera as a double agent and doesn't want to blow her cover, while Hera is suspicious because she worries her husband is up to something. Over time they work together, grow closer, Hera realizes that Echo makes her feel a kind of happiness that Zeus hasn't made her feel in a long time, Echo realizes that she can't keep lying to Hera about why she was hired and decides she values Hera's loyalty and respect over Zeus' because she has feelings for Hera now. Maybe Hera finds out about Echo being a double agent, either by overhearing a conversation between Echo and Zeus or because Echo outright tells her, and eventually it resolves with them finally admitting their feelings towards one another and Hera realizing that she's felt trapped in a loveless marriage that's essentially serving the same purpose as her union with Kronos, sacrificing her well-being for the good of a King. They kiss and Hera confronts the original perpetrator of her trauma, Kronos, ready to end the cycle of her abuse once and for all.

Like, the plot is right fucking there but Rachel keeps dumping it in favor of focusing on the boring ass heterocis nightmares that are Hades and Persephone, who get SO MUCH FUCKING SCREENTIME of just telling each other how amazing they are and how much they're in love (meanwhile we didn't even actually get to see or hear what Hera wrote in the letter to Echo, we have to just assume) but still tries to take credit for writing queer stories by just vaguely hinting at a queer relationship that has had zero development or actual screentime. It's Hestia and Athena all fucking over again.

It also doesn't bode well for LO passing the whole "bury your gays" test because Hera is literally marching to what she's expecting to be her death. So she's established as a bisexual character, just for her to be sent to her death, while Echo will undoubtedly get shoved out of the plot again.

And, I shouldn't even have to remind y'all of this, but Hera has been racist to nymphs in the past and Echo was her direct subordinate, her personal assistant.

It just makes zero sense to me why Rachel would suddenly force in a queer relationship between two characters who weren't traditionally gay in the original myths (once again removing the queer aspects of CANONICALLY LGBTQ+ GODS AND GIVING THEM TO THE STRAIGHTS INSTEAD) when Hera's story had more than enough to work with through her trauma from both Kronos and Zeus and her loyalty as the goddess of marriage that's kept her trapped in a loveless and abusive relationship. So now instead of having a subplot that could have been about the goddess of marriage realizing that no one should have to stay in a marriage that's robbing them of joy and the "sanctity of marriage" isn't worth being miserable for life, we have a subplot where the goddess of marriage who is racist to nymphs routinely cheats on her husband and now confesses her love to a nymph who we never even saw her interact with outside of two instances where it was simply a working relationship.

[sssammich]

Let's try again...

💜 surprise kiss / impulsive kiss for Supercorp

💜 surprise kiss / impulsive kiss

thanks! alright let's seeeeee

ask meme

---

lena would never admit it, but one of her favorite past times is watching kara. call her a basic useless queer, but she can't help staring at her best friend across the couch from her. she's standing by the window of lena's office, pacing back and forth with a rolled up stack of papers as she essentially talks to herself.

the pacing has since graduated from kara standing on one side, giving out her lines before pivoting on her heel in a split second as if she's arguing with herself. lena can't help the smirk on her face when kara frowns at herself when she misses a line and has to open her stack of papers, haloed by the sun streaming through the windows.

now, lena knows that this is kara practicing for a speech she's about to give as a first time keynote speaker at an upcoming media conference tomorrow. but for now, she's more than happy to bask at this private performance that only she is privy to.

when kara huffs and practically tears the paper in her hands to shreds, lena is out of her seat on the couch and placing her own to stop her friend from making confetti.

"hey, hey," she starts, gentle. "what's going on?"

kara huffs, her glasses sliding just a smidgen down her nose. "i don't know why i agreed to this at all. i'm good with words, but not like this."

"now you know that's not true. you give hope speeches for a living. well, for a side gig."

that elicits an amused snort, albeit reluctant, from kara. "but this is different! i'm supposed to be talking about my work experience and my journey to becoming a senior reporter. that's less..." kara's words tapering off with a shrug.

"less what?"

"i don't know. less cool, i guess. i think about how i got this job and the other people in my office who are just as deserving of being able to share their work and their stories like me."

lena sighs, her heart warmed at her friend's admission, appreciative of her even more and think that through that alone, she thinks that kara deserves to try and share her story.

"then share their story. lift their voices up too. talk about your journey and theirs. let the people know that you're honored for the privilege of speaking to them but you're not the only one, and that the rest of your colleagues are a testament to that," she offers, suggesting a way to get kara out of any potential spiral that she might find herself in.

somehow, those are the right words to say to kara, who is now intently staring at her, nodding vigorously in understanding. then, before she knows what's happening, soft lips are on hers, their bodies pressed together. her mind, her panicking-and-going-cuckoo-bananas mind, finally catches up with what's going on and her body sinks into kara, her lips moving in synchronicity with kara's.

hands appear on her cheeks, cradling her, as her own hands wind up clutching at Kara's shoulders. if not for the need to breathe, lena thinks she would have stayed in that exact moment in time for the rest of her life, if she could.

with her chest slightly heaving, her eyelids slowly flutter open to find ocean blue eyes staring at her in what she can only assume is an identical dazed expression on her face.

"wow."

wow is right, she thinks. "wh-what was that for?"

kara shakes her head, but there's a smile on her face. her thumbs are caressing lena's cheeks. in response, she brings her hands to cradle kara's nape, her fingers just barely interlocking.

"i'd been wanting to do that for a while, but then you started talking and being so helpful and good and i just..."

"had to, huh?"

kara nods, smiles. "yeah."

she returns the smile with an earsplitting one of her own. "i know the feeling."

this time, it's she who leans forward.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Listen I’m very happy Disney is getting more diverse and all but I still stubbornly refuse to watch the new little mermaid because I don’t agree with the existence of these live action remakes. The Cinderella one sort of made sense but every one since then has just been a soulless cash grab and frankly I still think that race, gender, and sexuality swapping, though it definitely can be a great thing in many contexts, is mostly a byproduct of Hollywood completely abandoning originality and so instead of making some new stuff run by creators of color and queer and women creators they just repackage old stuff for a new generation and although it was fun at first it’s gotten to the point where I’m screaming and pulling my hair out just knowing that the cgi people contributing to these remakes of gorgeous 2D classics aren’t getting paid a fair rate and probably neither are the people editing the scripts just allow new ideas to come in and pay your people fair rates dammit I like black Ariel but I don’t enjoy this never ending stream of soulless cash grabbing and remaking and reimagining there are thousands of fairy tales from all over the world you could be ripping off just like you did with the European ones why aren’t you doing that huh why do we need to have a live action remake of Moana WHAT IS THE POINT I HATE ALL OF IT BUT NOT FOR THE REASONS THE INTERNET IS GETTING ITS PANTIES IN A TWIST ABOUT

[tboybuck]

It’s not that Robin is bitter. She’s not. Really. Bitterness implies anger. She’s not angry. Not at all. She’s… okay, she’s jealous. Just a little bit. And that’s fine. That’s… well, it’s not expected, exactly, because nothing about this situation could have been predicted in the first place so there’s been nothing to expect. It’s not expected, but it makes sense. Who wouldn’t be jealous?

And, like, there’s something else, too. Something a little darker simmering just beneath the surface of her jealousy that Robin’s been having a hard time putting a name to. Not bitterness, though.

Maybe it's because Steve is hers. Yeah, platonic with a capital P, all of that, but he is hers. Back before Vecna, when he was trying to date every pretty girl who walked into the video store, that was different. Not a single one of those girls was a threat to what Robin and Steve have because that's on a different level.

This, though? Maybe Robin feels a little threatened.

Steve's beside her at the counter, his elbows on the glass surface of it as he leans forward to see his own reflection in the tiny compact he'd pulled from Robin's bag. He's clumsily dabbing her concealer on his neck to cover the red and purple marks that make him look more like the victim of a vampire than the love-drunk dweeb he actually is.

So, yeah. Robin's definitely a little bit jealous because where the hell is her great gay love affair, huh? How the hell did her dingus get his first gay kiss before she did? And how has he been able to seamlessly, unconditionally accept this part of himself when it had taken her years to come to terms with who she is?

And yes, she absolutely feels threatened by this burgeoning thing between Steve and Eddie, of all people. Becuase the way Steve and Eddie get along, the way they're so in tune with each other, it's kind of similar to the way Robin and Steve get along. It makes Robin feel prickly, because those silent conversations those two have started having? Those belong to Robin.

What if she loses him to Eddie?

It's irrational, because Steve and Robin were separated at birth or something, and he would never, ever, ever abandon her and she knows it. Knowing doesn't silence her fears, though.

And that sucks, because Robin should be the most supportive cheerleader of a best friend, and she is happy for them, honestly.

But damn. Eddie's almost always around now, and that's fine, it's great, really. Because she likes Eddie, thinks he's great, thinks he's an awesome match for Steve. It's nice to have someone else like her around, someone who can commiserate with her anxiety about being queer in a little place like Hawkins.

Or, it would be nice, if Eddie and Steve could stop sucking face for, like, a minute and a half when it's just the three of them hanging out.

Robin has never third wheeled this hard in her life.

its just a little thing, but hi i'm going to start publishing stuff now i think

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

Once again I have so many thoughts, but very limited time to express them, so will attempt to make my swirling brain come up with something coherent.

I am finding it interesting to see all the different reactions to Dangerous Romance this week. To be clear, I am the kind of person who rarely has expectations going into a show, and am much more a "meh, let's see where the journey takes us" kind of watcher. I'm also very much still in my "yay, queer content" phase, and if it means looking at Perth for an hour a week, I'm probably going to be happy. (Not that I'm never disappointed, do I think Big Dragon needed about 200% more BDSM? Yes, yes I do.)

I do totally respect when a show isn't working for some people. That said, I am completely fine with the pacing, because what I am seeing, is a fuck-ton of setup.

Sure, the bullying has stopped, but now we know Kang is capable of being very dark and cruel, especially when there is something making him feel powerless in his life. He also has a weakness around Sailom, and is still trying to exert control, just in a new way.

Yeah, Sailom only had to escort once before getting back to tutoring, but Name literally followed him to his place of work, AND confirmed for himself that Sailom will accept a job like that with very little pushback - meaning if he gets even more desperate, it won't take much to push him further. Name is not going to do nothing with that information.

And I get if people feel like Saifah and Sailom should be freaking out more about their situation, but I kind of feel like that's purposeful? Saifah is an ass. He acts like everything is no big deal, because his little brother is going to be the one busting his butt to save them. He plays the part of the benevolent loving older brother, he buys treats for Sailom, but if it's a choice between Sailom getting beaten or himself, he's fine if it's Sailom.

And I may really be getting in the clown car here, but...who gets an injury that puts them in a desperate situation right at the worst time, when Sailom loses his tutoring job? Who would be in the best position to tell Name where Sailom works, and that Sailom will be easy to convince to accept an offer?

And right now Sailom is still in his "I adore my older brother" phase. It's been just the two of them for so long. He doesn't act stressed in front of Saifah, because when he told Saifah he lost his tutoring job, Saifah's response was, "yeah, rich people suck, huh". He's learned to hide his feelings, because his brother is an ass who will not take them seriously, and his friends will immediately want to try to help him - and he doesn't want help he doesn't feel he's earned. So yeah, we're not seeing his mask slip much yet - but I think we will. He will hit his breaking point.

Ok, and this is where I need to talk about the bubble. Because, yeah, Kang was snapped out of his when he saw Sailom getting beaten. But now - he's just in another one. One where he has accepted his money can't buy Sailom, but where he believes his money can protect Sailom. And right now? Sailom is joining him in this bubble. Why wouldn't he? It feels warm and safe and there's a cute boy inside. They can play games and work by candlelight. (I mean, c'mon, Kang literally put the boy in a VR helmet).

But this bubble, like the first one, is going to burst. And it's going to be rough for both of them.

[starsignchaser]

@jegulus-microfic | June 1st | Pride | word count: 778 happy pride everyone!! no matter who you are, how you identify, who knows or who doesn't, I am so grateful I get to share this pride month with you. lots of love to you all <3

“Potter! Let’s go, Sirius is gonna kick your ass if we’re late!”

Unable to take his eyes away from his reflection, James grips the edge of the bathroom counter tightly.

“My ass? Why is he gonna leave you alone if we’re both late?” His voice comes out with the slightest tremor, no matter how hard he tries. Suddenly, a tuft of black curls appears to his right and he now stands shoulder to shoulder with his boyfriend. His lovely, beautiful, handsome, brave boyfriend. 

“No offense, babe, but you know he would never hurt a hair on my head,” Regulus smirks at him, making eye contact through the mirror. However, barely a second passes before the smirk drops, and a small crinkle forms between his eyebrows.

“What’s going on in there, huh?” The shorter boy turns towards James and pokes at his temple, “Are you feeling okay? We don’t have to go if you’re not up for it.”

But James knows that he doesn’t really mean that. This is their first pride parade as a couple and for all his dark mysterious silences, Regulus has been visibly excited about today for weeks now. From the parade itself to the community center booth they were meant to be volunteering at that afternoon, and especially the drag queen performances at their local dive bar that evening, James had never seen Regulus so openly enthusiastic about spending so much time in public. Yet, here he was feeling like his stomach was about to pop out of his eyeballs. 

“No, no. Of course, I’m up for it. We’re going to have a great time!” He’s trying his best to sound confident but he knows it’s not cutting it. Regulus grabs his hand and lays his other hand on his cheek, pulling his face down until their foreheads almost touch.

“Jamie, talk to me.” his boyfriend asks, rubbing his thumb along his cheekbone, just below the glitter James had rubbed on only a few minutes before. “You can tell me anything, whatever it is we can figure it out.”

“I don’t,” James squeezed his eyes shut, frustrated that he couldn’t find the words. “I’ve just… I’ve never gone to Pride before. I don’t feel like I belong, or - no, it’s not that, but what if I do something wrong? Or what if people can tell that I don’t fit in? You and Sirius and Remus have all gone to Pride before, you are so much more integrated into the community, you have so many connections, and I only just figured myself out this year! How am I- What am I-?”

“Breathe, baby. Take a deep breath with me, yeah?” Regulus brought James’ hand to his chest and took a deep breath, hoping it would force the taller boy to focus on his breathing. After a few seconds, James was able to breathe normally on his own.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve said something earlier, I just didn’t know how.” James winced and tried to step away but Regulus wouldn’t let him.

“Listen to me, love. You belong at Pride. You are meant to be there. You are just as much a part of this community as anyone else. You belong there for so many reasons but most importantly because you are a beautiful, wonderful, queer man. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, then they are the problem, they are the ones who don’t belong.” Regulus stepped closer, moving to wrap his arms around James’ waist.

“ And, baby,” he smiled, “my Pride would be incomplete without you. And if that means we spend Pride sitting on our couch watching shitty queer movies and making out, then that is what our Pride will be. And I will still be the happiest man on earth to celebrate it with you. But don’t hold yourself back from going to Pride because you think you “don’t belong” because I will tell Sirius and he’ll double kick your ass.” 

Even with tears prickling in his eyes, that finally got a bit of a giggle out of James. The weight that had been settling on his chest all morning was suddenly gone. He grabbed at his partner’s waist, squeezing at his hips, before dropping a kiss to the tip of Regulus’ nose. He could do this. He could do anything with this man by his side. 

“Thank you, my love. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“You’d be just fine, darling. But I’m so happy that I’m lucky enough to be with you.” Regulus smiled, his eyes crinkling with his joy. 

“I love you, Reg.”

“I love you too, James. Now come on, we really have to go!”

[remia-art]

Okay, but thank you so much.

Like, I genuinely like Tommy, and I think he and Buck are cute, but it kinda makes me sad to see how nice and happy and gentle the fandom is with his character versus like any of Buck/Eddie’s female love interests.

Especially when I saw people saying that Tommy is Buck’s most developed love interest?? Like, I don’t like Abby but she was literally a main character in season one?? And Tommy who has appeared in four episodes is more developed? Huh??

Anyway, it just kinda sucks to see people treat the female love interests in this show so badly. Like I can admit some of them weren’t written the best, but it feels like there’s a generosity that’s afforded Tommy that’s never been afforded to the women.

And again, don’t get me wrong, I lovelovelove getting to see more queer relationships on the show. I just wish that the fandom could realize that queer relationships don’t mean you have to like disparage every existing female love interest, yknow?

I get you on a spiritual level my dear. Thank you. Exactly what I meant. Some shippers automatically see me as their opposition.

I ship buddie, I really like bucktommy for now, they have chemistry and are sooo cute. Of course.

But I hate the total disregard of female characters in this fandom. As you said and I will continue : Abby started Buck's development. And both him and Eddie grew with each partner they had. And I love and respect all of these girls as characters, with their mistakes and wrong timing.

I just remember the times after Shannon died, I would come to AO3 and there would be tags like "Shannon lives", "we don't die like Shannon", "Shannon is a good mother" and so on

Like, I remember my dear fandom mourning Shannon, my buddie friend shippers being pissed about her death, noone wanted buddie to happen then on Shannon's bones.

Then we moved on, but it was their development nonetheless.

Bucktommy is supermegacute, as Tommy would say, they're "adorable". But if he wasn't a man... God... If it was Tamara (woman), we wouldn't be here.

And anyone who wants to fight me on that, don't bother. I was you when I was 11 years old, I remember.

[lovecolibri]

Thank you for answering question regarding buck and Chris. It’s truly amazing to see how the discourse shifted within like 2 months. It’s so interesting especially seeing that one TikTok account and just attempting and failing at “proving” how buck is a” fun uncle”. For reference below

https://x.com/buckprotector/status/1802246051673358561?s=46

https://x.com/bucksdaylight/status/1800876967061008885?s=46

Just a few days ago, Ryan discussed how ever since Shannon is gone, buck is there. To quote ““I believe there’s an offer of comfort to Eddie knowing that even though Shannon isn’t there, he has somebody else in his life that he can kind of pass the reins to and say, ‘Hey, I need another perspective. Please help my son out”. HOW is this, a FUN UNCLE.??? To add, ever since temu has been back on our screen, we aren’t even allowed to discuss eddies sexuality or buddie because “it’s not canon”. It just sucks. Like, the whole pride post? And all the occurred… for YEARS we as a fandom have identified with buck and Eddie and viewed them as queer coded/queer and WERE SO HAPPY when we got confirmation. But now, we can’t view Eddie as gay because it’s “disrespectful” and “not canon”. Like huh? If THOSE people were happy about bibuck, they are the biggest hypocrites. Because how can you be happy about bibuck if you never viewed him as bi? (Right? Because it’s not canon). Shouldn’t you have been shocked, angry, or confused? Make it MAKE SENSE!!!!!!! The way they dismiss temus actions and try and rewrite history and make him besties with chim and hen? Like yes, 2x14 chim called him for A FAVOR. then, 3x16 proved that he hadn’t reached back out or talked in over a year (even attempted to make contact) and both chim and hen said they wouldn’t consider their old teammates “friends”. Plus, he was never mentioned again. Also, temu calling him Howie vs chim. Again!!!!!!!! The way they talk about T and honestly i ask myself, “is my tv not showing these scenes”. The way they accuse the cast of being “forced” to like/hang out with Ryan or the “reason” as to why Oliver doesn’t post about BT is due to the buddie shippers???? Like he was POSTING CONTENT about bucktaylor at the PEAK of buddie. What’s stopping him now? Why did he post a screenshot of 7x09 regarding buddie+chris when he easily could have added a SS of chimney+buck+ T or Buck+ravi+T? But didn’t. Nothing for 7x10 besides liking a buddie post… hell, even after 7x04, he never once posted the kiss or their scenes, but simply the basketball scene and then in 7x05 the buddie karaoke. Nor did he post the hospital kiss.

lol. you KNOW some of the people being pissy about that pride post this year were former Buddies who re-tweeted something like it last year 🙄

Also, the cast so, SO clearly LOVES Ryan, and love hanging out with him! They have a great time on set together! They're always goofing off and joking around! It's just a fact that we have seen from videos cast and crew have taken BTS! Please, be so for real right now.

As for Oliver posting things, I would even argue that the ONLY reason he posted tay kay stuff was because the network forcibly shut down bi Buck/Buddie and he was told he HAD to promo that relationship in interviews. Same with L and the thousand and one interviews we got there when the network was trying to force something there, desperately trying to get the GA to like literally ANY woman with Buck so they could swerve from what we all saw building since 2x01. The fact that the show put zero effort into BT 2.0 and Oliver wasn't posting with a gun to his head about it speaks volumes to me about what is planned for s8 🤷🏻‍♀️

[questionableratatouille00]

ᴘʀɪᴅᴇ ᴘᴀʀᴀᴅᴇ

Pairing: Sambucky (Sam Wilson x Bucky Barnes) 

Summary: Bucky and Sam’s first pride parade together.

Bingo Fill: ‘Pride Parade’ on my ‘Vacation’ card for @sambuckylibrary’s sambucky summer bingo!

Warnings: none!

Bucky dropped a gray shopping bag at Sam’s feet. 

“What’s this?” Sam glanced up at him, looking at what’s in the bag. A white tank top, and a white t-shirt. Plus…fabric paint?

“Stuff. For the parade.” Bucky said, vague as always. 

Sam pulls the stuff out of the bag. “You are so cheesy.” 

“Shuddup.” Bucky huffed, pulling all the stuff onto the carpeted floor, before sitting down in front of it all. Sam shook his head, a small grin on his face as he sat down across from Bucky, both of their legs crossed.

“You’re really gonna do this over carpet?” Sam raised a brow.

“It’s my apartment. Besides, I’m careful. Maybe you should put some newspaper under yours.” Bucky taunted. 

Sam rubbed at his brows. “Man, landlords must hate you.” 

Bucky grumbled something before opening a bright pink paint. Sam watched as he took a large foam brush and started slathering it onto his shirt. Sam had previously realized that of course Bucky had wanted him to show off his muscled arms. 

“Y’know, I forgot that’s your favorite color.” Sam murmured as he painted some sky blue onto his tank top. 

Bucky shot him a look. “Leave me alone,” he grumbled, but Sam knew there was no bite to it.

“It’s a nice color on you.” He continued. “I..think I’m just gonna make a rainbow in a sky on mine. Maybe a yellow circle on the shoulder for a sun.” 

“You should do that.” Bucky said, still focusing on his..pink monstrosity.

Sam was impressed. Bucky had genuinely smeared several shades of pink on the shirt. 

“You wanna call Yelena and Kate and see if they wanna come with us?” Sam gives the option.

“We can.” Bucky agrees. “I don’t know if Yelena will go for it, though.” 

“I’m sure Kate’ll drag her into it.” Sam chuckled. 

Bucky smirked softly, his weird and awkward smile making Sam swoon. 

“…We really should’ve put newspaper down, huh?” Sam realizes after a moment. 

“Yeah.” Bucky sighs. 

Bucky smiled, walking hand in hand with his boyfriend. This was his first ever pride parade—and he was thoroughly enjoying it.

Not even his internalized homophobia—as Dr. Raynor and Sam had called it—could stop him from enjoying this. 

He enjoyed seeing other people’s outfits, seeing all of the bright colors and flashy statement pieces and skimpy clothing that he could never wear comfortably. 

Sam, God bless him, had opted out of doing more public stuff with the other Avengers in favor of just walking with everybody else—most likely because of Bucky’s introvert ass.

Sam was good at it all—talking to people, sharing experiences with people, and the like. Bucky loved it about him.

“This is..nice. I like this.” Bucky murmured. 

Sam just smiled, the gap in his teeth making Bucky want to kiss him right then and there. 

So he did.

Sam chuckled, handing Kate his phone and whispering at her to get a picture. He was driving, the younger woman in the passenger seat. Bucky and Yelena were in the backseat, dozing. Yelena leaned on him, and he rested his head against hers, the two of them decked out in pins and fun hats and little flags. They both had glitter on their faces, and in Bucky’s right hand was a handheld electric fan, which ran on batteries neither Sam nor Bucky likely had at home.

Sam focused back on the road. He had no idea what it was like being queer in the 1940s, but he sure as hoped it was all worth living through if it meant getting to live like this in the future. 

Glancing in the mirror at his boyfriend, at the flecks of rainbow glitter on his cheeks, and a part of him was sure that Bucky believed it was.

a/n: the picture was based off of this lovely piece of art by @betterthanworse

[bingo masterlist]

happy pride!

[calmasyoghurt]

Back for day 2 of joker out pride project. Before this chapter begins I want to do an extra disclaimer. I’m writing Kris as trans (ftm) in this fic. But Kris doesn’t know that yet. Kris won’t know until day 7 or something. I’m not ftm, so if I write something that would not happen, then please let me know how I can change it.

Anyways, chapter 2 below and on my ao3.

June 2nd, promt 4. Queer people exist?

Kris is not like the other girls in her class. Kris wears shorts instead of skirts in the summer. She plays football and tag instead of family and restaurant during recess. She plays guitar instead of clarinet, flute, or piano. Kris doesn't want to be like the other girls. One time she asked her mum if she could cut her hair short like a boy. When she arrived at school the next day, the other girls started calling her a boy, and secretly it made her happy. She's always liked being called a boy. Not that she is one, of course she isn't.

But one of those people that thinks she's a boy stands out. Kris is 13, and is doing everything to hide the fact that her breasts started growing last year. When she enters her guitar teachers classroom, there's a boy sitting in one of the chairs with a guitar in his lap. Kris looks at the clock on the wall. She is five minutes early, but the class before hers should have ended ten minutes ago. So who is this boy, and what is he doing here? As if on queue, the boy starts speaking.

“Hey, I'm Jan. Apparently I'm here because we would sound good playing together or something”.

The teacher enters the room just as this Jan guy finishes his sentence. He, their teacher, says he would like to hear them play together just this once. When they do, it sounds amazing, and it's decided they'll have joint lessons from now on.

When the lesson is done Jan tries to start a conversation.

“Kris, huh? Is that short for anything? Let me guess, Kristoffer?”

Kris is sure he's joking because sure, she hasn't said that much during the lesson, but he must have heard she doesn't have a guy's voice.

“Uhm, no. It’s short for, well, Kristina” Kris answers.

“Huh. You sure?” Jan says and the confusion must be visible on Kris' face because then he says “Never mind. My bus doesn't leave for another hour, I'll buy you tea at the café”.

When, 15 minutes later, they're sitting at a café table with a mug each, Kris can't help to wonder if Jan has thought this as some kind of date. She hopes he hasn’t. But, once again, it's as if Jan can read Kris' mind, because not even a minute later, he starts speaking again.

“This isn't a date or anything, right? Like, we're just hanging out? As friends?” and Kris can see a bit of relief in Jan's face when she agrees with him. ”Good. To be honest, I did think you were a bit cute, but then you said you're a girl, and well… I'm gay, so that wouldn't have worked”. It takes Kris a moment to really hear what he's said. But then she starts blurting things out.

“Wait, you're gay? Wow, I would have never guessed. I mean, it's not really something you can tell, is it? But like… Okay, yeah, cool”. Kris can feel her cheeks heating up but luckily Jan only chuckles a bit.

“How… how did you know?” Kris then asks nervously.

“I don't know. Had a crush on my best friend. Did not have a crush on the prettiest girl in the school. Stuff like that”, Jan answers. Kris needs wants to know one more thing.

“But like, what if I had a crush on my friend, who's a guy, and then a while later, I maybe have a crush on the prettiest girl too? What does that mean?”. It's the first time Kris admits that her feelings towards Anja last year were anything but friendly.

“Maybe you're bi, dude. It means you like both”, Jan answers.

When Kris gets home a while later, there is so much to think about. That casual ‘dude’ that Jan had used, bisexuality, and the existence of young gay people. It's going to take a while to get used to things.

[laundrybiscuits]

(wait for the season to come back to me tag | Part 1 | Part 2)

“So this is Casa Harrington,” Eddie says, as Steve fiddles with the locks on his third-floor walk-up. 

“Harrington-Buckley. Robin lives here too.” 

“Huh. Gotta say, that is not what I was expecting to hear.”

“What?” Steve finally wrestles the door open. He glances back at Eddie. “Come on in, man.”

Eddie saunters in, taking his time about it. “Thought you’d end up with Lady Wheeler, is all. Score one for the nerdy band kids of the world, I guess.”

“Oh, jesus, no.” Steve feels oddly hurt. He knows Eddie didn’t mean anything much by it, knows that pretty much everyone they’ve ever met has thought the same thing about them.

It just seems like Eddie should be able to sense the queerness of Steve-and-Robin somehow.

Steve takes a deep breath. Robin probably wouldn’t mind him telling Eddie about her, but he thinks she’d get a kick out of doing it herself.

He’d asked her, around ‘89, if she thought Eddie’d been like…like them. 

She’d hesitated. “I don’t know, Steve. I mean, there was a lot of talk, you know? People said stuff about him. But they also said he had, like, wild Satanic orgies every night and that he’d mixed up some kind of super-drug that would make you see god and that he was secretly related to the Manson Family. So I don’t know.”

He’d said, dredging words up one by one, “I kind of thought he was—flirting with me, back then. A little bit. I thought. I thought that maybe once we made it out I could. We could.”

Robin Buckley, the other half of his soul, had wrapped her skinny arms around him and understood completely. “Tell me about the date you were gonna take him on,” she’d said, rocking him a little. “Were you going to turn up the famous Harrington charm? Give him the ol' razzle dazzle?”

He’d laughed, and she’d laughed, and they’d both felt the grief like another body between them. 

“I’d take him to Enzo’s,” he’d said, knowing it was a lie. “I’d show up with flowers, not roses, something weird because he’d like that better. Maybe those white flowers you get at—at funerals. I bet he’d think it was funny.”

“Sounds like a pretty good date.” Robin had tucked her head into his shoulder. Her hair had smelled like grease from the diner she’d been working at, those days. “He would’ve been a pretty lucky guy, Steve Harrington.”

So now, with Eddie standing in his living room, he just says: “It’s not like that with me and Robin. We’re just friends.”

Just friends is what he always says, and it never sounds right. It never sounds like it means enough, like there’s anything casual or impermanent about him and Robin. They’re more up in each others’ business than most married couples Steve knows, they just don’t have sex about it. Steve wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Eddie’s studying him carefully again, like he’s trying to figure something out. “Okay,” he says. “It’s—funny, I guess. In the lab, I’d make up all these little stories in my head about what you all were doing. Just to pass the time, you know. I had this whole narrative arc mapped out where you and Wheeler reconnected in the aftermath of tragedy, older and wiser, and had a spring wedding. There were lilacs. Henderson was your best man.” Eddie laughs suddenly, a quick bark. “It’s so stupid, man. Ignore me. I was just going a little stir-crazy in there, got caught up in my head.”

Steve thinks about Eddie all alone and trapped, telling himself stories about the outside world. Giving the people he’d known a happy ending, even someone like Steve, who he’d mostly known as an arrogant jackass. The image of Eddie sitting on a floor in a cell, deciding on lilacs for a spring wedding, makes Steve want to—to do something. He’s not sure what. Break something, maybe. Scream. Take Eddie to a beach in La Jolla and drag him into the surf, just to ruin his clothes and make him laugh with the wide horizon behind him. 

“Sit down,” he says. “Do you want a drink? We have beer, coffee, soda…I think there’s some tea in the kitchen. Or food. We could get food.”

“Hm.” Eddie perches on the arm of the sofa. “I think I’d rather see those pictures you promised me.”

“Oh. Right.” Honestly, Steve had kind of forgotten about them. “Yeah, let me just…” He rummages through the hall closet for the shoebox they keep most of their photos in. There’s a few stuck up around the walls and on the fridge, but Steve’s long-haired phase is permanently banished to the shoebox, never to see the light of day again. Unless Eddie Munson turns up and asks, obviously. 

He’s rifling through the packets, pulling out a couple of the less embarrassing ones, when Eddie’s suddenly just—there, leaning up against Steve’s shoulderblade. Eddie hooks his chin over Steve’s shoulder, and Steve lets himself lean back into Eddie’s warmth. Just a little bit. Hardly anything. 

“That’s…my vest.” Eddie reaches out to rest a fingertip against the photo, where—yeah, Steve’s wearing the vest. 

“Lost it in the move to Chicago,” Steve says. His voice is very normal. It doesn’t betray anything about the full-blown panic attack he’d had when he realized it was gone; the way he’d broken down and sobbed on their new kitchen floor like a baby, saying Robin, Rob, I lost it. I lost him. 

Robin had cried too. It was good to live with someone who would cry about Eddie with him. 

“Shame. You looked almost like a real metalhead, Stevie.” 

It’s…less far-fetched than Eddie’s little grin suggests. Steve’s never going to be, like, a metal devotee, but he’s listened to every band that had a patch or pin on Eddie’s vest. He’s successfully had extended conversations about music with actual metalheads that didn’t end in him being called mainstream or a poser, which he’s weirdly proud of. He doesn’t know how to say any of that to Eddie without making it sound like a bigger deal than it was, though, so he just laughs. 

“Come on, you can look through these on the couch,” he says, pressing back a little more into Eddie, just for a moment.. “Uncover all my secret shame.” 

He wishes he’d taken the time to make a real photo album so Eddie could flip through it, move through the echoes of Steve’s life like his echo has moved through Steve. This is pretty good, though: Eddie tipping out each set of photos and laughing at how they’ve even kept the weird blurry ones. 

They’ve moved on to vacation photos from Paris—Steve and Robin standing awkwardly in front of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe with the same fixed smile and stiff posture that every tourist photo seems to have—when a key scrapes in the lock. 

“Oh, shit,” says Steve, without really meaning to. 

“What’s the play here, Harrington? Want me to climb out the window?” Eddie’s smiling, but not like he’s making a joke. Steve thinks he probably would climb out the fucking window if Steve so much as breathed wrong, which is why his hand shoots out to clamp around Eddie’s wrist. Just in case.

“No,” he says. “Sorry, I didn’t mean…I just realized that, uh. This is gonna be a pretty big deal for Robin, too. And all of them. We all…we all really fucking missed you, man. So just, brace yourself, I guess.”

The door finally swings open. “Steve, are you home, because the top lock was unlocked again, and—”

She freezes. Her keys clatter to the floor. 

“Steve,” she says slowly. “May I see you in the hallway for a moment.”

And—Steve suddenly realizes that she thinks he’s picked up some kind of Eddie lookalike again. 

They’d had a really bad fight about it a few years ago. He’d yelled that he was allowed to have preferences, and she’d yelled that it was really fucked up to try and screw the memory of a dead man, and it hadn’t gotten better from there. Finally, he’d agreed that maybe there was potentially something more than just general preferences going on with him, and she’d agreed that he was an adult who was allowed to make his own bad decisions as long as he was being reasonably safe about it. 

They’d sat down and made a flowchart to help him decide whether to sleep with someone. Steve thinks he’s the luckiest guy in the world to have Robin Buckley for a best friend.

“It’s him,” he says. “It’s Eddie. Like, it’s actually him. Eddie, say something.”

“Uh…” Eddie waves the hand that’s not currently being held captive. “Hey, Buckley. Did you…what do you mean, actually me?”

Robin sits right down on the floor like her joints have stopped working. “What the fuck,” she says. “Oh my god. What the fuck.”

“Yeah,” sighs Eddie. “It’s kind of a long story.”

[xoxoladyaz]

AU-gust, Day 3: Writer

TW: References to monster smut and genitalia, Shrek

Robin’s mad at him.

(Well, mad isn’t the right word. Frustrated? Annoyed? Shocked by his enduring stupidity? All of those are probably better options.)

“Seriously, dingus? You haven’t told him yet?!”

Steve anxiously ran his fingers through his no-longer perfectly-styled coif. “I’ve tried, Robin! It’s just kind of hard to tell the guy that you’re falling in love with that you write monster porn for a living!”

It had started when he was a senior in college, reeling from his break-up with Nancy and trying desperately to find anything to distract himself from his heartbreak. It was a total joke at first, trying to find the cringiest romances he could find and reading them with Robin as they got progressively more and more drunk on whatever cheap booze he’d squirreled away from Tommy that week. But then one night he found himself in bed crying when Matthias the Minotaur sacrificed his life for his one-true love and he couldn’t stand it because Matthias deserved a happy ending after everything he’d been through and Steve had read enough of these books, for fuck’s sake, he could write a better ending!

It was just a hobby for a while, a secret shame that got him through the doldrums of working for his father while trying to figure out what he wanted to do next. Steve could never keep anything from Robin, though, and while she initially teased him for writing “monster porn,” after she read one of his stories she demanded he submit it to some indie romance publishing houses and she didn’t give up until he had done so and now – well, now Steve was making a truly obscene amount of money off of his many, many monstrous and paranormal romance books (with Robin as his editor, of course) and had kissed his shitty parents goodbye.

(And if his pen name was his father’s name, which meant that anytime someone googled “Richard Harrington” the first thing that popped up were book titles like “Prisoner of the Gargoyle’s Heart” and not his father’s incredibly influential law office, well, that was just payback for twenty-five years of bullshit.)

The thing is, Steve isn’t even ashamed of it, not really. He’s always been a kinky guy, first of all, and besides, it’s not all about the sex (although his sex scenes are some of the best in the business and he hadn’t shied away from writing queer books when the rest of the world had.) What he liked most about the stories he wrote was that regardless of what his monsters had looked like, or lived through, or done in their past, or where they’d come from, they all found someone who loved them because of their differences - because of their monstrousness – and not in spite of it.

(And yeah, okay, he liked the sex stuff too. Who wouldn’t want to fuck a dragon with two dicks? Or Prince Titian, the golden-haired merman who had both sets of humanoid genitalia? Or Neptus, the half-man, half-octopus who had all those huge tentacles - )

“Dingus. Stop thinking about Neptus.”

“Huh?” Steve asked, shaking his head. “How did you - ”

“Because I know you, Steve Harrington, and there’s only one person slash fictional entity that you get that weird horny look for and honestly, I could have lived my entire life without knowing about your tentacle thing - ”

“ROBIN, it’s not – I don’t have a tentacle thing ­- ”

“ – but we can deal with your weird fetishes another day, right now we need to discuss why your boyfriend still thinks that you’re an accountant and the fact that you need to tell your boyfriend about your job so I can tell my girlfriend about my job so she understands why I need so much therapy and why I know so much about your sexual preferences - ”

“Jesus, Robin, I got it, I got it!” Steve stood and headed for his minibar. “Look, it’s not – it’s not that I don’t want to tell him, it’s just – people can get kind of weird about it.”

“Yeah, and those people suck,” Robin replied as she followed after him. “But Eddie isn’t Nancy or Tommy or Cheryl or Brad or Kel, he’s Eddie.”

“Yeah, world-famous-high-fantasy-author-Eddie-Munson! He’s, like, actually legit Robin! He’s won the Hugo Award twice!”

“He also likes to go to the Renaissance fair dressed up as a faun and annoy people by playing the pipes, Steve. And you’ve seen his weird monster dildo collection which I know you have too - ”

“I know, I know!” Steve exclaimed as he poured both himself and Robin a glass of Merlot. “I just,” Steve turned to face Robin and sighed. “I’m just scared, Robin. Like, it hasn’t even been that long but he makes me feel – I don’t even know, like, I haven’t felt this way about someone since Nancy, you know? And Eddie - this feels like it could be more than that. Like a forever sort of thing.”

Robin sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I know, dingus. And I know that people have you given you all kinds of shit in the past, but that’s not going to be Eddie. And if it is Eddie, I will kick his ass into the ocean and feed him to your squid-man.”

“Neptus isn’t a squid man, Robin - ”

/////

Robin was right, of course. Robin was always right.

(Except for when it came to best Marvel movie, she said Civil War when everyone knew that Thor: Ragnarok was the superior film.)

Anyways.

Robin was right, it was time for Steve to tell Eddie the truth. And Steve had known that too, knew that stretching it much longer than two months would probably end really, really badly, especially if Eddie didn’t take it well, but enough of his relationships (romantic and otherwise) had been ruined by people just not understanding or not caring enough to try to understand his stories or why he loved what he did, but Eddie was different. Successful and handsome and creative and intelligent? Sure, Steve had dated people who had all those qualities before. But only Eddie Munson spent hours on the phone with Steve’s friends, talking them through their D&D related problems. Only Eddie Munson showed up on their first date with flowers for Steve, when Steve was the one who normally had to go all out for his partner. 

And only Eddie Munson would learn Steve’s favorite Taylor Swift songs in his free time (instead of the latest Metallica or Ghost) because he wanted to make Steve smile, which is what Eddie was in the middle of doing when Steve finally worked up the nerve to tell him. 

“The stakes are high, the water’s rough, but this love is - ”

“Hey, uh, Eddie? I kind of need to tell you something,” Steve interrupted him as he walked into the living room, beers in hand.

Eddie stopped what he was doing at Steve’s entrance and beamed, setting his acoustic guitar off to the side. “Everything alright, angel?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I just – here,” Steve handed him a beer. He waited until Eddie had taken a sip (and swallowed) before continuing. “I, uh, well – look, we’ve been dating for two months now - ”

“Two months, three days and fourteen hours,” Eddie winked as he took another sip.

“ – and – right,” Steve flushed bright red at the look in Eddie’s eyes. “Right. Uh, anyways, we’ve been dating for two months and I just thought it was time to tell you and – okay, it’s not a big deal but it is kind of a big deal? But not what you’re probably thinking, I’m not, like, married or anything, I – I’m not an accountant, okay, I’m a writer!”

“I know.”

“ – not, like, a normal writer, I write – wait, what?” Steve gaped at Eddie. “You – what?!”

“Baby,” Eddie started slowly, his finger running in tempting circles around the rim of his beer, “you know I know people in the romance world, right?”

“I – what? You knew this whole time?”

“Yep,” Eddie shot Steve a sultry smirk along with another wink. “I knew exactly who you were when I asked you out, big boy. Or, I knew who Robin was and I put two and two together.”

“I – how?!”

“Baby, you didn’t even change your last name.”

Steve just sat there in stunned silence while Eddie continued to sip on his beer, a teasing gleam in his eyes. “But – I – and you’re okay with it?”

At that, Eddie’s smile grew a bit more serious, and he set his beer down on the coffee table so he could hold Steve’s hands in his. “Of course I am, sweetheart. You’re insanely talented, Stevie.”

“I – I write porn, Eddie. With monsters in it.”

“I know, it’s stupidly hot.”

“But you – it could hurt your career if people found out,” Steve said softly, sadly, squeezing Eddie’s hands. “People – people would give you so much shit, Eddie.”

Eddie squeezed back. “Steve, my nickname was ‘The Freak’ in high school. I was a poor kid with shitty parents who was raised in a trailer park. People have given me shit my entire life and frankly, I couldn’t give a flying fuck about what anyone said about you and your writing. If anything, people are going to ask me what the fuck someone as handsome and gifted as you is doing with someone like me.”

Steve snorted and Eddie let out a laugh. “I mean it! You’re like Prince Charming or some shit and I’m the ogre living in the swamp.”

Eddie froze for a few seconds before a maniacal grin overtook his face.

“Eddie?”

“Stevie, baby, have you ever considered a sexy Shrek retelling?”

“No. No.”

(“There’s an Ogre in His Swamp” was released on April Fool’s Day the following year. The author, Richard Harrington, posted a dedication in this book, the first of many that he would dedicate to his husband, E. W. Munson:

To my Ogre – thank you for being my happily ever after.)

[ungaroyals]

This is a bit random, but I can’t stop thinking about this thing that happened so I need to tell someone.

The other day I somehow ended up at a party with a bunch of heavy duty mechanics. Don’t get me wrong, I had a nice time, but it wasn’t without its trials and tribulations.

When me and my fiancee are in groups like this, we always anticipate there will be a comment on our relationship at least once. This being because we’re both women.

At this particular party I found I was speaking a lot on politics and and how queer people fit in the world. Which I was happy to do for a while, but eventually as people got more drunk, I started shutting the conversation down by saying ‘I’d be happy to discuss this with you another time, but for now, I’d like to enjoy the party’. For the most part, these guys respected it, but would eventually round the conversation back to politics.

At the end of the night a comment was made about how I never stopped talking about my political views, and that people here (at the party) don’t mind, they just don’t want it pushed on them.

At first I was like, ‘oh okay no worries I can dial it back’. But the more I think about it, the more I’m just kinda pissed off. Because throughout the entire night the ONLY time I made some sort of comment was when one of the guys said ‘that’s so gay’, and all I did was respond with an unimpressed ‘I’m sorry it’s what?’ And then he apologized. Every other occasion was one of these men coming up to me and asking my opinion on something. At one point a guy even came up to me with no introduction and said ‘so I guess you’re a liberal then, huh?’ So, to summarize, men kept coming up to me asking for my opinion, but since they didn’t like my opinion, they proceeded to claim I was pushing my politics on them and wouldn’t stop talking about it. Even though I shut more conversation down than I actually engaged with!

To drive the nail in the coffin, one of the guys asked my brother and law if me and my fiancee were exclusive and if we are into threesomes. If I needed proof that none of the men respected my relationship, I don’t now.