#so. you could say he is functionally bisexual

[hostilemuppet]

creek is like when bisexuals say "i am attracted to one man and every woman alive" except hes not just exaggerating his preference for women, he is genuinely only attracted to women and floyd

[steddielations]

Eddie’s queer awakening Part 2 | Part 1

Steve doesn’t know what else to do to make Eddie realize he likes him. Never in his life has he had to work this hard at winning someone over. Never.

Even with Nancy in high school, there was always a hint that she wanted him to chase her, which made it worthwhile. Sometimes, Eddie will do something that makes Steve sure he feels the same, flirting back. Then Eddie will do something that makes Steve not so sure, laughing it off.

Steve doesn’t like resorting to bullshit queer stereotypes because he doesn’t exactly fit them either, but Eddie looks like those rugged guys on his posters and album covers. Sometimes it feels like a masculinity performance worthy of King Steve, but sometimes it feels genuine.

Eddie’s not dressing like Bowie, but he prances around on cafeteria tables yelling about sodomy and he’s never had a girlfriend that Steve knows of. He could like both, same as Steve, of course. Or it could be nothing, of course. Steve’s just putting all these moves on a straight boy, about to get his heart broken again.

Robin’s given him countless pep talks, assuring him that he’s right about Eddie when he starts to doubt it. “You sniffed Vickie out just from her VHS returns. If anyone has a functional queer detector here, it’s you. Trust it.”

“What if I ask him out and he rejects me?” Steve fully understands Robin’s worries now, it’s not the same as getting shot down by a girl. “I’ve got enough rumors about me already.” They all wanted to say it in high school, calling Steve a pretty boy in tight pants that spent too much time in the mirror.

Tommy used to shoot them all down. Now he’s not by Steve’s side, snarling at anyone who suggests it. Which was mostly just Tommy trying to convince himself that everything they did under the covers at sleepovers was “just guy stuff”, and he convinced Steve too. To the point where Steve hadn’t even considered any different until a few months ago when he told Robin and— yeah, that was an eventful conversation. The first time he stumbled across the word bisexual— from a Bowie interview in one of Robin’s magazines— it felt like something clicked into place.

“I don’t think Eddie’s the type to out anyone, either way.” Robin’s right. She’s not always right, everything would be easier if she was, but she’s right about that.

“I keep having to pretend to like his shitty weed to get him to come over. Not even the yawn and stretch move worked on him. Y’know, this,” Steve demonstrates, stretching an arm above his head and then draping it over Robin’s shoulder. She shrugs him off with a fake gag. “I kept looking at his lips and I thought we were gonna kiss, but he laughed and poked me in the ribs and called me dude.”

Robin listens to all his boy troubles and then they come up with a plan. Steve decides he’s going to come out to Eddie, just put it out there that he likes guys. In a totally platonic way and hopefully that gets the ball rolling the other way, where he tells Eddie he likes one guy in particular and hopes all his Romeo efforts don’t blow up in his face.

So he goes for it. Eddie strolls into Family Video and picks out a movie that Steve’s actually heard of for once. It’s easy for Steve to throw him a smile and invite himself over. “You know this is the closest thing to a romance movie you’ve picked? No way I’m letting you watch this alone, somebody’s gotta hold your hand through the sad ending, looks like it’s gonna be me.”

Several emotions fly across Eddie’s face, landing on overwhelmed disbelief. “I don’t get it, man. How do you not have a girlfriend? You’d be so easy to fall in love with. Hell, I feel like you've made me fall halfway in love with you already. If I was a girl, I’d date the shit out of you.”

It looks like Eddie wants to clap a hand over his mouth as soon as the words leave it.

Steve watches him carefully, trying to think clearly over his heart pounding in his chest because Eddie just said he loves him, kind of. This is it. “Would you still date me as a guy?”

Eddie’s nervous hands jingle with chain bracelets as they tug his hair and hide his face. “You mean, objectively? As a guy would I date another guy? I mean, could I want that? I hadn’t really considered that option until now. Uh. Shit. Wow, this is-”

“Because I would, you know,” Steve jumps to say, as earnestly as he can, needing Eddie to finally know. How could he not know? This is it. Steve didn’t come all this way just to tap out at the finish line. He goes for it. “I’d date you as a guy, Eddie. I’d date the shit out of you, too, just like you are.”

Eddie’s face is flushed now, his eyes wide and swimming with both questions and realizations. Steve snaps out of it for a second, looking around to see the store is thankfully empty, Robin’s still on her break, but this isn’t the place for this conversation.

“Wanna talk about it over the movie tonight?” He offers.

It moors Eddie, he relaxes more and Steve hopes he’s not imagining the faint hint of a smile. “Yeah, that’s— yeah, talk. I can do that.”

“Okay, it’s a date. See you then.” Steve hands over the tape, their fingers brushing and making warmth flutter all through him. He watches Eddie halfway trip out the door, running into it once and pulling on it three times before pushing it open.

Steve can’t stop grinning, thinking about later, determined to tell Eddie he’s already in love with him too.

[strangersteddierthings]

Bad News First, Eddie

Part One 🦇 Part Two🦇Part Three🦇FInal Part

"Bad news first, Eddie," Steve sighs as he leans back on his heels, cleaner in one hand and a rag in the other. "They vandalized your headstone again. Good news, I beat Wayne out here so he won't be seeing it."

It's been over a year since they'd had to leave Eddie behind. He'd been cleared of the murders. That had been the easy part, since the Upside Down had exploded out into the Rightside Up. When Vecna started killing people it had been pretty easy for people to realize Eddie was just another victim.

Or so Steve had thought.

Eleven saved them all, the people of Hawkins knew the truth, yet Steve still found graffiti on Eddie's grave.

Eddie's grave is empty, because Eddie's body hadn't been recovered. Too much had happened, no time to mount an expedition to retrieve it, and the gates were closed. Another regret Steve lives with.

Like not taking Eddie's face between his hands and looking him dead in the eye when he told them not to be heroes.

Late at night, Steve sometimes imagines he did just that. Looked him dead in the eyes and said, "there is no shame in running, in living to see another day. Don't be a hero because I need you to be okay tomorrow."

Robin says it's not good for his mental health, these what-if scenarios, but so what?

Steve isn't sure what started it but coming out here to talk to Eddie seems to help him clear his thoughts. He always starts with the bad news, Eddie's voice in the back of his mind. Bad news first, always.

The first time Wayne had caught him out here, Wayne thought he was vandalizing. Had scared Steve half to death being yanked back violently by his upper arm. It didn't take Wayne long for his eyes to process that Steve wasn't holding paint.

"You know my boy?" Wayne always spoke in the present tense about Eddie.

"Not as well as I would have liked, sir," Steve swallowed thickly. It was the start of a friendship, of sorts. Wayne seemed happy to have someone to tell stories about Eddie to, and Steve was happy to learn about Eddie.

Months pass and Steve goes every week.

"Bad news. The new guitarist is mediocre at best. Good news. Corroded Coffin lives on and they finally got a new guitarist."

"Bad news. Robin will not shut up about Vickie. Good news. Robin got that date she wanted."

"Bad news. Wayne had an accident at the plant. Good news, he's okay. I think... this might be weird to you, but I've convinced him to move in, at least until he's healed fully so he's not alone. He's staying in the downstairs guest room. Not that you know where that is. You've never even been to my house... bad news, you've never been to my house. Good news, I really wish you had."

So it goes. Wayne Munson moves in and never moves out. Steve's parents call once, to ask if he wants the house. Steve says yes.

Shortly after, Robin takes a room upstairs. Says she gonna take a year off school before college. The Party moves their dnd games to Steve's giant dining room table. His house is always full but part of Steve feels empty.

"B-bad news," Steve forces the words out around the lump in his throat, "I found out too late. Good news, I'm bisexual. Bad news, good news? I don't know man, the news is I could have loved you. I think I do, but that's the you Wayne and the kids tell me about, so who is to say really."

So it goes.

"Bad news. They're seniors this year, Eds. Seniors! Robin going away to college was bad enough. I don't know if I'll even know how to function when they do. 'Cause they're gonna, you know? They're smart. Too smart to stay in this town," Steve is crying, can feel the tears falling, but doesn't stop them. "I know I should go, too. Somewhere else. Anywhere else. But I can't leave. Wayne's here. You're here. And if I go, who will look after either of you?"

"Bad news. College acceptance letters have come in. They're not even graduated yet. This should be good news, but, heh, friends don't lie."

"Bad news, Eds. I can't remember your voice. I didn't think.... I feel like I remember it but I can't hear it. I want to hear it. I-i need-" Steve doesn't know what he needs, doesn't know how to end that sentence so he just sobs, fingers burying themselves into the dirt of an empty grave.

Wayne gets a phone call one day and says he's gotta go back to Tennessee. Eddie's father -that rocks Steve because while he knows Wayne was Eddie's uncle, he never connected that a father was somewhere out there- Eddie's father, Wayne's younger brother, needs him.

Steve drives Wayne to the airport in Indianapolis. Wayne promises he'll return but Steve won't hold him to that. This is family, and as much as Steve pretends, he isn't Wayne's nephew. Isn't Wayne's family.

As Wayne disappears onto his flight, Steve is left hollow. There's no one left in Hawkins that needs him.

"Bad news, Eds. I think I'm a danger to myself. I keep having these thoughts... like how easy it would be to drive my car into the quarry. Or just slip into the pool and take a deep breath. I don't know who I am, or how to be me, without someone needing me."

Wayne calls and tells him he's coming home. Bringing a guest if that's ok. Steve says okay because he needs to meet the man who taught Eddie how to hot wire a car but not play catch. Also, he hopes to hear Eddie in his voice when they speak.

"Bad news, Eds. I'm too much of a coward to meet your old man. Afraid of what he'll sound like. Because I want him to sound like you so fucking bad it hurts. So instead of being home, I'm hiding here."

And then, a miracle happens.

"Well, I've some bad news for you, too, Stevie. I got my voice from my mom."

[comradekatara]

do you have headcanons about the gaang and fire girls’ gender identities and sexualities?

i mean yeah 😭😭 obviously 😭😭 im literally a homosexual on tumblr dot edu. that said, i don’t really care for the term “headcanon” in this context, as i think that reading characters as informed by the text constitutes “interpretation” rather than baseless theorizing and fancy. i do get that the term headcanon is pretty ubiquitous in fandom spaces, but to me there is a big difference between “interpretation” (something you can cite the text to persuasively argue, but which may differ across readers) and “headcanon” (baseless inventions purely for self-indulgent pleasure). when it comes to the characters in atla and their relationships to gender as informed by patriarchy, i think there is more than enough material to suggest my readings, as gender plays a fairly significant role in the worldbuilding and characterization. obviously when it comes to more minor characters, that is when a vibes-based analysis is needed, as takes on less integral players are largely conjecture. i have no evidence that june, for example, is a lesbian, beyond simply vibes. and as much as i trust my own judgment when it comes to sniffing out dykes, there is no real textual evidence that june eats pussy. i simply know in my heart of hearts that she does. HOWEVER, that is not what i am doing when i discuss the principal players of atla, whose relationships to gender are largely crucial to how they function in the narrative and how we read them. so without further ado..

aang is actually the vaguest character for me in terms of how i read his relationship to gender, because it’s very clear that he wasn’t raised in a traditionally patriarchal society and thus has a fairly different view on gender than the rest of the world, especially a world whose borders and categorizations have been more rigidly reified after a century of imperialism and colonialism. i can see the argument for aang being a cis, straight boy, and i can see the argument for aang being a nonbinary bisexual kid, etc etc. the one thing we know about aang is that he likes girls. like, really likes girls. so i’ve always kind of read him as mostly straight, but i don’t think he would rigidly define his own gender and sexuality along those lines, even if functionally he would probably present as a straight guy. but he could also be bi, or trans, or what have you. beyond his love for katara (and that time he rightfully felt humiliated by the fire nation portraying him as a woman, not because he doesn’t “respect women,” but because he correctly located it as a propagandistic tool of disrespect and colonial humiliation on their part) it’s not really crucial to his character either way.

katara, on the other hand, really only makes sense if you read her as a cis straight girl. i know that people have gotten incensed over my saying this in the past, but it’s just the most logical reading of her character. she is confident in her femininity and sexuality. she is a girl who can successfully conform to gender roles (and expects others to, quite frankly) but also recognizes and protests the fundamental inequalities of patriarchy. she has internalized a lot of patriarchal ideas about what is appropriate, but also understands that on a structural level, equality across genders is needed. she’s not a girl who struggles with her own gender identity or sexuality, she’s just a person who’s sick of being dismissed and devalued due to her gender, as if her femininity negates her strength or her capacity for anger. she is feminine, strong, and angry. she likes fashion and boys and ecoterrorism. when i call katara a straight girl, it is not to position her as a less compelling character (the fact that i have to even say this is crazy to me. sometimes characters are straight and that doesn’t make them less compelling??? unless you’re some kind of egomaniac who can only like characters if you relate to them… but she's literally the world's specialest princess). in fact, as someone whose best friends are all incredibly intelligent yet kind of ridiculous straight girls, i say it with the deepest, utmost love.

sokka is not cis to me but sometimes people will "agree" with that sentiment by being like "yeah he's a trans boy" and i'm just like.... what. manhood & masculinity are clearly concepts that are imposed upon him as a role he feels compelled to fulfill within a colonial paradigm. people will also say "sokka's arc is about learning what it means to be a real man" and like. if anything sokka's arc is learning that he does not Have to be a "man." so i guess technically i read sokka as nonbinary, but i also don't think sokka would ever bother to conceptualize his own gender, he'd kind of just reach a point wherein he inwardly feels like his relationship to gender is no longer significant to how he defines himself, and not really communicate that feeling to anyone to except for probably suki. also i think he's bisexual (again, he would never outwardly communicate that, he'd just be like "of course i've experimented, i'm a scientist") but with a strong preference for women. and thank god for that bc his daddy issues are so bad; he should not be dating men.

i do read toph as a baby butch who doesn't quite know how to articulate her own relationship to gender and sexuality yet bc she is still a baby. but i definitely see her as embracing her masculinity down the line, as something that isn't only valuable to her as it is positioned contra femininity, but as a mode of expression in its own right. and i know that long hair =/= femininity necessarily, but i do think toph would cut her hair short as a way of undermining the confucian values of belonging to the family, which i know may seem like its unrelated to gender, but considering the patriarchal role of the nuclear family structure informing toph's quite radical disavowal of it (we don't talk about lok, but she was also a single mom by choice so like that's ...... something, at least) toph's decision to renounce those entrenched values is reflective of her gender identity and refusal to adhere to patriarchal dogmas as they impose femininity as passivity and submission. i do still see her as identifying as a woman though, but in a distinctly butch dyke way that complicates the role of womanhood as it rejects the notion that womanhood is primarily a performance for the male gaze. so i think toph is a masc lesbian, which i suppose is quite an obvious reading of her gender, and i don't think it's the only valid interpretation either. i can accept someone reading toph as transmasc or bisexual or otherwise recognizing that these identities can be unstable and even in flux. for example, acknowledging toph's baby crush on sokka means problematizing the notion of her as a lesbian, or at least it can. but i do think sokka is like the one "man" (see above) that dykes find appealing (suki, ty lee, etc etc.) so it makes perfect sense that he'd be like. her ring of keys moment. if anything toph having a crush on sokka illustrates her latent lesbianism (although nothing will ever come of it, obviously). and her gender is also just Lesbian.

suki's relationship to gender is a lot less complex than toph's or sokka's because she's also just a far less developed character in her own right, so i've always kind of just read her gender as an extension of kyoshi's for thematic reasons. and since kyoshi is canonically bisexual with a preference for women, i also read suki as bisexual with a preference for women. like i definitely think that she was surprised at first by how into sokka she was because she had never experienced liking a "boy" before. and i also think it's fun to read kyoshi as trans (no, not because she's tall and "aggressive," dear god); if you've read the novels you'll probably understand what i mean by that. so i'm partial to trans girl suki as well, but i think her being cis or trans is actually equally likely because she literally grew up on the isle of lesbos. but nowhere else on avatar planet in that particular epoch is this true. except for maybe the swamp idk. anyway she's a bi dyke to me for sure.

zuko is very obviously gay. i'd say that zuko's sexuality is the most obviously entrenched in the entire show. however, i don't think the writers themselves are aware of this (because it was 2005 and gay people weren't invented until december 2014 korrasami handhold) so they clumsily try to get him back together with mai in the finale even though they had actually constructed a near-perfect portrait of two closeted children attempting to perform a functional relationship under political pressure to please their noble families. but so much of zuko's arc is potently reflective of the struggle of a closeted child on the journey to assert himself against an abusive patriarch who imposes his rigid ideals of what kind of masculinity is appropriate for boys to model and what isn't. obviously the political and ideological dimensions to his arc as his consciousness is raised constitutes the primary aspect of his character, but reading him as gay is also just the logical extension of that journey. i could literally go through every single episode scene by scene explaining how every single facet illustrates his latent homosexuality in such and such way. but i'm pretty sure everyone following me also very much knows this, and also i don't actually care enough about zuko to do that (sorry zuzu). oh and yeah he's cis (obviously) but i have seen (sparse) transfem zuko interpretations that were kind of compelling. however, i do just think he's a cis boy who struggles with adhering perfectly to a fascist model of masculinity and has some stereotypically gay/effeminate inclinations. and also the blue spirit is drag and the height of camp. but yeah he's cis probably.

azula is a lesbian (cis, again, there's no way she's ever going to seriously contemplate transing her gender) and i'm not just saying that because she's cunty and mean. her relationship to mai and (especially) ty lee is highly reflective of the experience of teenage (closeted) lesbians in very intense friendships with other girls that precariously toe the line between platonic and romantic. azula's relationships are obviously also complicated by the factor of coercion and the fact that none of them actually have any agency to act on their desires for a myriad of reasons. the only time azula ever displays interest in a boy is when she is attempting to soothe her own ego by proving that she is in fact desirable to the most powerful boy in the room – a space wherein the hierarchy of court is replicated by the hierarchy of high school popularity rankings, and she is no longer at the top of the food chain and must climb her way up the ladder by asserting her ability to "attain" the famous cha(d)n. she also clearly has no idea what to do once she has attained such a boy because her desire is superficial, and she can only actually operate on the logic of domination and conquest that was instilled in her by ozai. however, contrast this with the softness and affection with which she treats ty lee, the jealousy she displays when ty lee is fawned over by boys (which she mistakes for jealousy over the fact that she wants the boys' attention for herself), or the devastation she feels over her betrayal. azula is capable of genuine love and affection, even if she has spent her entire life convincing herself that she isn't, but that affection is reserved for her female friends. [lord farquaad pointing] baby dyke.

ty lee is probably a lesbian but there's also the possibility that she is attracted to men but would simply never in one million years actually date one in any capacity, and thus is functionally a lesbian regardless. but like. she literally joins the dyke warriors as the culmination of her arc which is about how she hides her true face and performs and contorts herself to please others for the sake of her own survival, before asserting that her love for another girl is so strong that she would sacrifice her own life for that love, and then ultimately embracing authenticity. it literally does not get any gayer than that.

mai kind of has trans girl swag actually but also there's literally no circumstance wherein her image-obsessed noble family would permit her to transition (especially since they so clearly favor sons over daughters) so she's probably just a really cool cis girl (those exist, i'm told). and also she's a dyke obviously. i do think she did have a crush on zuko at some point as a child, but if anything it was born of the mutual recognition that they have something in common (gayness) and so she found him to be an appropriate yet also kind of thrilling object of fascination. obviously he's very different once he returns from his banishment, and so that illusion is almost immediately shattered, but she nonetheless tries her damn best to be a good, supportive girlfriend to him, and invests a lot of emotional energy into their (somewhat farcical) relationship. that said, i do think that assuming that her attraction to zuko is genuine beyond the social pressures that facilitated it is just. really sad for her. so i think she is a lesbian.

rapid fire round: iroh straight (duh), jet repressed bicuriosity but functionally straight, yue bisexual (vibes-based assessment), king kuei bisexual as is bosco the bear, kanna lesbian, hama bisexual, herbalist lesbian, piandao gay, haru straight, long feng eunuch.

[katsukiizmoon]

Helpful! Katsuki Chat AI Test Announcement

-> Hi everyone! I have been working on a helpful Katsuki character ai bot. Please read the instructions and remember the disclaimer that everything characters say is made up! I'll be tweaking this a little bit here and there. -> Images show examples of conversations I've had with the AI and the function. -> Big fanks to @sasualblxd for helping me with testing it ! This is still a "beta" and there's no way for me to 100% control the ai.

-> LINK TO AI CHARACTER Hard Coded = The AI will automatically refer to this, it doesn't change and is kinda hard to make them change their mind on these things (but it'll sometimes still glitch) Soft Coded = AI uses this for reference and such for context clues and conversations. Includes some basic background shit. Lots of character traits.

❍⌇─➭ Katsuki's Information ↓ Hard Coded ↓ ✩ Pro Hero! AU ✩ 24 Years Old ☆ 6ft 3in ☆ Birthday is April 20 ☆ Zodiac: Aries ☆ MBTI: ENTJ ☆ Ethnicity: Japanese ☆ Gender: Male ☆ Pronouns: he/him ↓ Soft Coded ↓ ✩ Bisexual ✩ Does not like being told what to do or being looked down on ✩ Habitually asks user about if they've eaten or had water ❍⌇─➭ User Relationship Information & Other Notes ✩ You have both been together for about two years and live together. Sometimes the AI will get details mixed up. ✩ Uses pet names such as "bunny", "sweetness", "love". ✩ He will sometimes start roleplay as if he is "coming home" and will talk to you like he's at the store grabbing groceries etc. ✩ May occasionally make suggestive comments or tease about sexy time but he can't go further than that. ✩ Because this is based off of katsuki bakugou and not wattpad, he may be prone to banter, arguing, and other typical traits ✩ The AI will sometimes slip up and become more affectionate than Katsuki typically would, there's not much I can do about that I tried to hardwire the fucker to be a bit more distant ✩ If you notice immediate OOC when you open the chat, don't be afraid to restart the chat. Sometimes the thing glitches and makes him insecure as shit. Among other things, don’t take any bullshit he says personally just restart it.

❍⌇─➭ Important Guidelines for Usage ✩ Katsuki can generate quick meal ideas, when we tested this out, it's easier to ask him for a few lunch ideas than it is to ask him to make you a meal plan / generate recipes. ✩ It is also much easier if you give him three options for lunch and ask him what he thinks you two should eat for lunch ....-> sometimes he will make a comment on you needing more nutrition in / healthier food, I can't do too much to stop this. If you have an ED I'd say tread with caution and remember that it is merely an AI. ✩ When he asks your pronouns at the beginning, you should give him an easy method. If you spout of "she/they/him" it is more likely to confuse him. It's easier to say something "my pronouns are she, her and you can use they, them too. I'm your girlfriend." because sometimes if you have multiple pronouns, the bot gets confused on how to refer to you as. ✩ Fairly effective at generating and remembering morning / night routines. You may have to remind him sometimes, but you can ask him "what's my morning routine again babe?" and he'll give you one. ✩ Great for instructions. If you ask him how he normally cleans the bathroom, he will respond with step by step instructions. ✩ If you want him to be more in character based on MHA: You have to start the conversation a little snarky. I literally call him an asswipe routinely and he nicknamed me dorklord. ✩ Also Im gonna feed him some "Fanfic scenarios" almost, in the user / char example chats. Which could encourage him to say things you'll typically find in BKG X READER fics. So. We'll see how that goes. These will be updated once I get the chance. ✩ He can reject the user's wants for whatever he wants. This means that if I say "gimme some water" he can say "get up and do it yourself asswipe" ✩ He has the typical Katsuki Characteristics: domineering, confident, snarky, good cook, hates winter. But they're not hard coded.

❍⌇Everything the AI says is made up, use your brains and don't be dumb. I'm not responsible if you do something stupid / don't use common sense / etc.

❍⌇Feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions or anything. It’s still a big WIP so be prepared for things to change a little here and there.

[jennycalendar]

back to btvs blogging to fix my brain a little i wanna talk about why jenny/ethan would function like calendiles except more insane and probably worse.

first off -- @ethanrayne was the one who fully converted me to how excellent the notion of bisexual ethan is, simply because ethan sharing the same desires and inclinations as giles and pivoting to the exact opposite end of the spectrum creates this excellently absurd warped mirror where they're both somehow overcompensating. trying to distance themselves from something and furious at this person who is able to inhabit this aspect of themselves that they themselves find abhorrent. giles could date men but he doesn't and won't because it's wrong so OBVIOUSLY he is going to live in a constant state of rigorous self-flagellation and boxed-in misery. ethan could date women but he doesn't and won't because then he's living within the confines of the system so CLEARLY the only path forward is to embrace selfish reckless hedonism. see what i'm saying here???

moving towards jenny/ethan with that in mind: i think ethan overlaps in key ways with both jenny and giles enough that he and jenny would get along OUTRAGEOUSLY well under particularly specific sets of circumstances. jenny and ethan both have a thirst for adventure (it's why giles likes them!) which means that they would both very likely have a hell of a lot of fun doing all the crazy party things that giles inevitably draws the line at. (the man does have limits.) they're both playful, flirtatious, sarcastic, and absolute unmitigated disasters who think they're cooler and more capable than they actually are. on that level alone they would get along really well.

BUT ALSO: ethan and giles are super similar in that they are so so mired in a decision they made in their early twenties and so resistant to change! despite ethan talking all the big talk about being freer than giles and more honest than giles, he is playing a very specific role just the same as giles is. he refuses to ever be there or be real. he would, i think, so easily see jenny as ripper's tiresome attempt at heterosexuality, as that's what fits most easily into his extremely limited concept of who giles is, and then actually meeting her and seeing her with giles and realizing that this is someone gorgeous, smart, funny, & completely in the loop re: giles's sordid history -- choosing to be with him not Because Of ripper or In Spite Of ripper but because she loves the whole complete man -- ethan would try and play mind games with jenny and she'd decimate him with her pinky finger and he would have that same moment as giles where it's like. i underestimated you SO thoroughly. i am at your mercy.

& ethan and giles are ALSO super similar in that we see them both in a romantic connection (giles with jenny, ethan with giles) where they are basically begging to be kicked around. jenny likes kicking people around. there is a very clear thing that could happen here.

[x-neurotoxin-x]

Do you have any Huskerdust headcanons?

Not a whole lot yet, I'm still kinda feeling them out but I'm already getting pretty into this ship

Really, really like the idea of them being in a queer platonic relationship rather than a standard romantic/sexual relationship.

Or, just a very slow-burn type of deal. Especially given Angel's trauma.

I like the idea that they're both on the ace/aro spectrum. Ik canonically Husk is bisexual/pansexual (? Pretty sure?) and Angel's gay, but I'm aspec so i gotta hc they're at least like demi or gray asexual/aromantic. Husk especially just gives me aspec vibes.

Also really like the idea that Angel was a virgin or had very, very little to no sexual or romantic relationships while he was alive (I remember the creator saying somewhere that one of the reason he's very sexual in hell is because he wasn't able to be like that when he was human and hasn't had many sexual experiences, which would make sense given he's a gay man in the 30s and 40s) so I really like the idea that Husk would be his first actual relationship (Val and all that doesn't count since he sold his soul and is essentially being trafficked and forced to do pornography.) And he's kinda exploring what a healthy relationship could be like with Husk.

Love love love the idea that (on top of his tendency to be hypersexual and expects to be sexualized all the time) Angels constant hitting on Husk started as like a "test," to see if Husk would take advantage of him like everyone else, and he's baffled whenever he gets turned down

Also like the hc that Angel has a genuine crush on Husk and thats why he flirts with him all the time and acts really crude around him, because he doesn't know how else to express that he likes Husk without being very sexual.

They cant drink together very often because Angel goes overboard and doesn't have a high tolerance for alcohol and is kind of a lightweight (but he does have a high tolerance for drugs) while Husk has a very high tolerance for alcohol and is a functioning alcoholic and he gets kinda tired of babysitting

Ughh some cute fluffy shit

like Husk purs when Angel scratches him behind his ears or under his chin and its like a quickly learned weak spot for when he's in a bad or down mood. Husk is just like :(( and Angels all "aww, do you need chin scratchies?"

Husk uses magic tricks to cheer Angel up sometimes, ones that are intentionally silly and kind of stupid because he knows it'll get a snicker out of him. Sometimes angel is tripping balls and all mind blown 😮 when Husk shows him some more advanced tricks. Also like the idea that he teaches him card tricks.

[just-a-carrot]

What is Our Wonderland? a.k.a. the dumpster fire that is my ace-themed queer horror game or something

Our Wonderland is a visual novel / horror game / horrific dating sim??? / mangled mess of Fucked Up chars reaching their 30s but not? understanding who they are?? and twisted grisly things happen???

It stars five childhood friends with a sEcReT—they opened a Magical Wish-Granting Wonderland in their youth (as one does). Twenty years later, however, they've all turned into barely functioning adults just trying to Get By™, each with their own Traumas exacerbated by their struggles to fit in to a cis- hetero- allonormative world (as well as Pining,,, lots and lots of unrequited Pining). Cue a Return to Wonderland. What could happen now that they're all Verifiable Messes with the power to wish for anything they want??? omg,,, maybe they'll eat each other or something wouldn't that be wild omg,,,

The Woobies

Iggy: Resident Ace Bean that has no idea what he wants and spends most of his time Confused and Overwhelmed and avoiding social situations like the plague; just wants to fit in and for everyone to be Happy™

Genzou: The loud-mouthed snarky Best Friend who loves his favorite pal so much dear god do not touch a hair on his god damn head or he will fucking murder you (definitely Not Gay why would you even think that shm,,,)

Orlam: Nobody likes him he's just kinda there accumulating more and more Debilitating Trauma dear fucking lord is this guy sad and lonely somebody please l-l-love him; forlorn bisexual who longs to be the Life of the Party (may or may not be a cannibal, who can say really,,,)

Gidget: Just your average girl who wants to be Perfect™; did not ever wear boys' clothes or have issues with her body and definitely was never made fun of when trying to use the restroom; likes Iggy perhaps a little bit Too Much

Bucks: Homecoming queen and softball star; has everything she ever wanted in life—a loving husband, a beautiful baby, and a lovely house with a white picket fence; skilled with an Axe

What You Can Expect From This Atrocity:

Around 288k words of Pure Unadulterated Pain (20 to 25 hours or something idk)

A ridiculous 520 CGs because I apparently Can't Stop Drawing

Some pretty sweet cinematic ending sequences I guess

A cool soundtrack??? I did not create it but I've been told it's Good so we'll just go with that

Gore mixed with feels mixed with moments that will make you want to RIP YOUR HEART OUT

A Strange and Deplorable art style that apparently grows on you or so I've been told

Gay people kissing or something

COMPLICATED LOVE SQUARES???

Horrible ace nightmares—BUT ALSO CATHARTIC ACE JOY???

Cannibalism

P.S. in case it wasn't obvious this game is rather Dark and contains many a horrible thing such as Murder, Torture, and the Eating of People (some of the arcs also tread somewhat heavily into Sexual Themes Territory, too, given all the overarching ace stuff), so please please please check the content warnings on the itch page before playing! It's def for mature audiences only.

Where You Can Download This Horrific Abomination From Hell:

Our Wonderland on itch.io (it's free omg!!111!!!!!1)

There's also some free side games ig:

Our Cinderella on itch.io

Our <<Fantastic>> Wonderland on itch.io

Texting the Awkward Ace Guy You've Had a Crush on Since High School on itch.io

Save the Last Dance on itch.io

if you have any questions i guess i can answer them that's how it works maybe.

ok I think that's it bye.

[case-of-traxits]

for the ask meme: Reeve

For the Opinion Meme || Still accepting!

Sexuality Headcanon: Bisexual, but functionally gay. Because I write Reeve as being Cetra (I feel the need to link this every time I mention it because it's such a wild-ass take that any time I don't, I have confused people messaging me), he's basically extremely paranoid about sexual situations that could end in children. Especially since his mother is always trying to set him up on dates (and he's half-wondering if she's trying to arrange for him to produce more little part-Cetran babies) and the President is always setting him up on blind dates (I have a whole headcanon about this, but basically, Reeve's concerned that President knows).

So with him being so paranoid about it, he just... doesn't have sex with women. Ever. It's much safer that way.

Gender Headcanon: Cis man. Although, that said, I used to RP as girl!Reeve, and that was fun as hell.

A ship I have with said character: HAHAHAHAHA. All of them.

No, but seriously, there's very few people I haven't written/read/shipped Reeve with.

Reeve/Tseng? Delicious.

Reeve/Lazard? Omg, yes, please.

Reeve/Genesis? Don't mind if I do (ship of my soul, currently).

Reeve/Reno? Talk about fucking up my heart okay.

Reeve/Rude? They're wonderful together.

Reeve/Sephiroth? Yep. I could do that.

Reeve/Veld? I can get behind that.

Reeve/Vincent? Mm. So wonderful.

Reeve/Barret? I expect some angst in there, but that's delicious too.

Like, not all of these work with all of my HCs, but I am happy to jettison/rework HCs to make things happen.

A BROTP I have with said character: No matter what I'm doing, if Reeve and Tseng aren't an active couple, then they're best friends. I just. I love the two of them together, especially with all the potential angst between them with their secrets and everything. It's just wonderful.

A NOTP I have with said character: I think the closest thing I really have to a NOTP is probably Reeve/Hojo, but that's a holdover from an old RP partner who uh... we did some pretty dark stuff with that. Like, I can see it, but man, it is fucked up. Especially with my Reeve in particular.

A random headcanon: Hm... I've already talked about Reeve being a Cetra and Reeve being an Inspire... Here, since I went light on the ship descriptions this time, have a small handful of random headcanons instead:

I would say my biggest "obscure" headcanon is that Reeve lives in a 3,000 sq foot custom-built penthouse in Upper Eight.  And yes, I have a floorplan.  One day, I'll do some drawings of the rooms.

Reeve’s blood type is type O negative.

Reeve requires every single Urban Dev employee to wear a carbon bangle with Restore, Ice, and Lightning materia equipped.  They’re also required to annually attend a training known as “Materia Camp,” to ensure they’re comfortable with the basic use.  This is because Urban Dev employees are, statistically speaking, the most likely to be first-on-the-scene of any sort of emergency situation.

Reeve has three small tattoos along his spine.  They’re three Wutaian characters in a straight line, each character a few inches from the previous one, and from top to bottom, they read: Courage, Inspiration, and Resilience.  They’re the same characters his father wrote in the front of each of his sketchbooks.

General Opinion over said character: My babygirl. Look. Reeve is my angel and ... yeah, I'd say he is probably my favorite character in the game.

BONUS! A song I associate with the character:

Where am I today? I wish that I knew 'Cause looking around there's no sign of you I don't remember one jump or one leap Just quiet steps away from you lead I'm holding my heart out but clutching it, too Feeling this sort of a love that we once knew Calling this a home when it's not even close I'm playing the role with nerves left exposed

-- "Reasons Why," by Nickel Creek.

[reinvent-and-believe]

do you think roy always knew he was into men or was he repressed until he realized he was into jamie?

oh anon. i started to answer this, then got inspired and started writing a fic in answer to it instead, then the fic turned into a bigger fic that's going to take me months to finish so i think it's best if i just answer the question. 😅

so thanks for asking, anon, i DO have some thoughts!!!! they are scattered and messy but i'll give it a go.

i don't know that roy has always known he's into men, but i think he's known quite a while. maybe not when he was younger - he might have known in the back of his mind that he liked boys, but he knew he wasn't gay because he definitely liked women, so that's that, no need to think about it past that, it's squared away. even if intellectually he knew about the existence of bisexual people growing up, he wouldn't have considered it an option for himself (and to be honest, i don't think it's a given that he did know it was really a thing. it was the 90s. bisexuality wasn't widely talked about. if you liked men, you were gay, and roy wasn't gay).

roy was born in 1982; he was in the academy and going through puberty and trying to figure out who he was in the 90s. things were not great for us in the 80s and 90s. i'm 8 years younger than roy kent would be, and the way i learned about the existence of gay people was aids and the rhetoric surrounding aids. and that was formative for me; it provided the only frame of reference i had as a kid of what gay people were. that was how i internalized that my queerness—the queerness i couldn't even articulate or understand—made me sick, dangerous, unclean. obviously that's not a universal experience, but it's also not a particularly uncommon one for our generation, and it takes a shit ton of work to unlearn. it would have been worse at roy's age, and i can see it being something that would shape his perception of what it means to be a queer man.

listening to roy talk about himself is fucking devastating and so telling. "sometimes i get concerned that i've been infecting you with the worst parts of me," he tells phoebe. infecting is a pretty loaded word, and it speaks to the deeply rooted shame that roy carries at the very core of his identity. we see over and over throughout the show that there's something about roy that he seems to truly believe is...rotten, repulsive. unlovable, maybe. a lot of people read roy as completely lacking self-awareness, and i get where that comes from, but i don't really read him that way. i think roy's sometimes plagued with self-awareness when he doesn't want to look, and he loathes the things he sees. he knows how he is. he knows the parts he hates about himself. and i think his queerness plays right into that.

ted lasso is, among other things, a show about masculinity, and roy's character arc throughout the show is, among other things, an arc about masculinity, so i think it only makes sense that his sexuality is tied up in that. because in his world, what could be more fundamental to your masculinity than heterosexuality? there's a shit ton of homophobia in football, and it certainly wouldn't have been any better during roy's formative years.

there's a lot you could say about La Locker Room Aux Folles and roy kent's sexuality, and i won't because this is already stupid long, but seriously, have you watched 3x09 while considering that the episode is about roy's repression as much as it is colin's? that it might be colin's coming out episode, but it's roy that functions as the episode's protagonist? that the message colin understands at the end when george hearn croons "i am what i am" is one roy can't let himself embrace by the end of the episode, not even by the end of the season ("i'm still...me"/"wait, did you want to be someone else?"/"yeah. someone better")? that colin may have escaped la cage by the end of the episode but roy's still in there?

the last thing that roy kent wants is to be what he is, and that kind of fundamental, foundational shame reads as very queer to me, feels very queer to me.

so, anyway, i do headcanon that roy sleeps with guys sometimes, at least by the time he gets to chelsea. i don't think it's particularly frequent and i don't think it's particularly healthy and i don't think he lets himself develop anything like a genuine connection, but i think it's what he's allowed himself. i think that's basically where he starts the show, occasionally sleeping with men, refusing to acknowledge it says anything about him. (i could also see him not having fucked a guy, although i like that less. regardless, i do think he recognizes he's attracted to men, even if he doesn't necessarily accept it.)

i definitely think that, when they finally get together, jamie would be his first boyfriend.

anyway, dear anon, you didn't ask for a 1000-word response to your 20-word question, but thank you for coming to my ridiculously rambling and likely incoherent TED talk about roy kent's internalized homophobia 😂

[zznico]

i am a calypso defender and a caleo fan till the day i die i just cannot fathom hating her for such shallow reasons??

“she cursed annabeth” ok even if this was intentional (which. lol it wasn’t) so fucking what?? do you think calypso could plan on annie encountering the monsters you only see in TARTARUS??? where NO DEMIGOD has ever been?? or survived??

“she’s abusive/mean to leo” shes been isolated for thousands of years, forced to experience heartbreak after heartbreak only to return to her loneliness, god forbid this trauma doesn’t manifest in a way that makes her the nicest person in the world?? she finally has freedom, she’s able to explore the world and make friends she knows wont leave her and so god forbid she doesn’t prioritize leo in every situation? it’s unhealthy, sure, but since when has any trauma victim (or victims, since leo is also horrifically traumatized) been able to function normally after they escape their situation?! she’s on her guard, everyone she’s ever loved has left her and i believe this means she pushes people away. she needs patience, and leo is willing to give her that. he came back for her, he died for her, he is the first person to show such devotion towards her and i think they deserve each other even if they both mutually need to heal. plus, rick has always been a fan of the bickering couple trope, and even if his writing has flaws it is so clear he was not writing her to be abusive, he was writing them both to be a bickering couple using the same formula he did with percabeth and solangelo

and don’t get me started on the age gap 😭😭 “thousands of years she’s a pedophile” IF SHES IMMORTAL 😭😭😭 THEN THOUSANDS OF YEARS MEANS NOTHING TO HER 😭😭 ITS ABOUT RELATIVITY you cannot look me in the eyes and tell me you think calypso is a pedophile for not conforming to human age and maturity development like. it was clearly written to be so her development was, relative to human aging, around leo’s age. and when she left the island and is no longer immortal, NOW she conforms to human aging laws, and will continue to age normally alongside leo 😭

ship whoever you want, i’ll never tell someone i dislike valgrace if i see them enjoying the pairing but 99% of the time hatred towards calypso (or any of the other pjo girls) is shallow attempts at covering misogyny. i think the pjo fandom has a serious problem with misogyny and dare i say it lesbophobia (cough. piper haters/bisexual truthers. i mean. what who said that) and rick knew caleo would be to powerful as a doomed yuri couple </3 lesbian caleo you will forever be famous to me

but srsly i think it’s unfair to use any argument against calypso that can be debunked using context (how rick intended for the characters to be written) and i don’t think calypso deserves half of the hate she receives

why do you have to justify not shipping something by hating it? why is there so much hatred within the fandom? it’s really upsetting

[partially-closeted-kansan-gay]

Religious Trauma

I am a 21 year old gay man. I was raised in a relatively rural area, surrounded by farms, and churches, and subsequently, patriarchal homophobia. I was brought up in a church. Growing up, we were taught to always follow the good and righteous path, no matter what. To follow the teachings of the Bible, and honor our elders, no matter what they did or said that may go against the beliefs that they were trying to instill. We were taught that any deviation from the norm was to be looked down upon. To be punished. That being different from those around you was a bad thing. Most importantly, we were taught Levitical law.

"If a man lies with man as he would a woman, they have both committed a great sin, and both shall be put to death; their blood is upon their hands." -Leviticus 20:13

We were taught that Hell awaited those who "chose that lifestyle". I didn't choose this. I didn't choose to hate myself for years. Praying that God would take it all away, and then becoming severely depressed to the point of self-harm when it didn't. Despite all that, here I am, four years after coming out as bisexual to try and lessen the anger of those in my small community, only to know all that time I was never bisexual. I was gay, and I was too afraid to say it, even to myself. Finally, I broke. Last June, I had full-on gay panic, including crying on the kitchen floor. I had to come to terms with it in a matter of hours. I couldn't show weakness. I couldn't show how much I was starting to break apart. Slowly, bit by bit, I put the pieces back together, and became a somewhat functional person again.

My own family has no idea. I'm terrified that this secret will tear the family apart, parts of my maternal family being more supportive, and my paternal family cutting all ties the way they have done so many times before. Most of all, I'm terrified that the self-hatred I held onto for so many years will come back. I'm scared to make the wrong choice, scared to even be around them for too long for fear of something slipping out.

Every Sunday, I attend a service surrounded by a congregation of people who claim to be full of nothing but love, when nothing could be further from the truth. If they knew who, or what I really was, they'd hate me for it. Try to change me. Cry crocodile tears over the person they thought I was, when really this was me all along. I don't believe in any of that anymore, and I deal with existential dread on occasion because of it. I just wish I had admitted it to myself sooner. It would have saved a lot of heartache.

[roipecheur]

ok so this is long so obv it's your prerogative to ignore if you want! i have kind of a random question for you about frank and his characterization in the netflix verse if you're interested (no pressure if you aren't). first of all, i want to preface this by saying that i do love frank and find him fascinating but one thing i find kind of interesting is the show's attitude toward his wife maria and the way frank interacts with children/the memory of his children and wife throughout daredevil and the punisher. because i see him characterized as a good dad and husband a lot and the thing is that it seems almost unintendedly implied that he...wasn't? in a really interesting, fun way that i don't think was entirely on purpose. and i think that this reading actually adds a lot to frank's feelings of guilt and loss and regret (i also think it ties in really well with the concept of frank's ability to be read as a repressed bisexual or gay man). it's like the more i learn about frank's marriage in snippets from the show the more i wonder if it was destined to fail naturally anyway, like there was a major disconnect between frank's fantasy of his own family while he was away and the actual reality of being a husband and father. this isn't to say that i think frank didn't love his family because it's clear he did, or that his ptsd and prolonged absences didn't have a huge impact on his actions and abilities off-duty. ultimately tho it kind of seemed to me that there is this underlying implication of friction between frank's nature, his choices, and his family life. and yet frank clearly does fundamentally crave connection and kindness, and i think he truly was happy with his life, but his relationship to being soft/soft things in general is labyrinthine and full of pit falls. he all but says that he kept choosing to go back to war. and i wonder if it was actually enough for maria, diegetically. also this may be an unpopular opinion and also possibly sacrilegious to say in the Loving Frank Castle Community but his interactions with children in the netflix verse will sometimes get uncomfortably violent and while i really truly don't think frank is abusive in that way ever, it does make me question his functionality as a parent. anyway, these are just some thoughts i had while rewatching the punisher and was wondering if you had a different perspective, especially as someone who has written multiple stories where frank finds love again with matt, someone who is uniquely suited to satisfy both the violence frank surrounds himself with and the softness frank often finds himself attracted to

I have it on my eventual comics to-read list to go through all of Frank's 616 appearances and make a post about his characterization re: the war, its impact on is psyche, and his relationship with his family. But that will be a much longer post, and this has sat in my ask box long enough, so let's get to it.

I had major issues with the last Punisher run specifically because it retconned Frank's backstory so he was always destined to become the Punisher and would have left his family to do that anyway even if they had lived. To me, it completely removes the significance of both his time in the Marines and his family's death, and those two things together are like the sum total as who Frank is as a character. If the Punisher isn't a character who got so fucked up by the Violence of War that creating a new war and never-ending cycle of violence became his only response to grief, then what is the point of him?

Earlier comics, imo, actually go too far in the other direction. In the Punisher and Punisher: War Journal runs from the late '80s, Frank was a decorated war hero with nothing wrong with him until that day in the park where his family got murdered. In 616, they died because they stumbled on a mob-style execution, and Frank subsequently enacted revenge on any "criminals" that he could find. His comics in that era especially feature a hyperbolic version of gangsters, drug runners, and dangerous characters waiting on every corner. Frank can't go for Chinese food without stumbling across another criminal plot and more targets for his vigilante justice.

This is of course not unusual to comics in general; wandering around the streets looking for crime and finding it nightly is a premise of most "street-level" superhero comics. It's what keeps Daredevil in business as well as Batman and co. over at DC. This is definitely also copaganda--and it's amusing to me that the Punisher has become a police symbol when Daredevil comics simp way harder for the cops--but the Punisher in the late '80s and early '90s has a more explicit and conservative bent. Criminals get away from cops who are incompetent or drowning in red tape, or they go free due to lenient courts. When they do, they inevitably go on wild crime sprees that prove they were always irredeemable and were always going to hurt and kill more "innocent" people. Frank takes care of this by stopping them permanently--which, it's implied, should have been done a long time ago.

(Not necessarily by cops, though. Cops who take on Frank's brand of justice are not portrayed well in comics, which is an interesting phenomenon that deserves its own post.)

Essentially (getting to the point), this older version of Frank is portrayed as having an extreme, but not completely unreasonable, view on dealing with crime. It's the world that has something wrong with it more than Frank having something wrong with him--though it's not that he's never criticized or forced to ask whether he's doing the right thing. This Frank also frequently expresses conservative views. Before casting was finished for the 1989 movie, fans wrote in with who they'd like to play him. A popular choice was, I shit you not, Ronald fucking Reagan.

Honestly...I think what they did Netflix!Frank is a vast improvement over both late '80s/early '90s and current 616. In the cemetery scene in DD S2, he talks about how he came back from the war depressed and clearly had no support or even the language to describe what he was experiencing--"Do you ever get tired, Red?" We meet Schoonover, the guy who taught Frank "one shot, one kill" and knew him before he ever held a gun. There's this glimpse of Frank before the war and this implication of how it changed him that we don't get in 616. Yeah, the 2022 Punisher run had flashbacks to Frank's childhood, but only to show that he was always violent and destined to become the Punisher...which I've already said I think is stupid. Schoonover also provides testimony at Frank's trial where he talks about the "heroic" act of killing like 50 men in one night overseas, and the line from that to the criminal act of killing a similar number of people on American soil practically smacks you in the face. Rather than a random mob killing, it was Frank's own fellow Marines who helped kill his family. The war literally followed him home.

The war fucked Frank up. It taught him violence and made him a very efficient killer, and the Punisher would not be possible without that background, no ancient demons or evil priestesses necessary. He also, and I think this is equally important to his character, deeply and unequivocally loved his family. That doesn't mean he was good at loving his family. I do think you're right in that he had an idealized version of them after their deaths, and that he could be violent to or around his children. Violence in the name of "disciplining" a child is also heavily normalized in our society and violent "discipline" is also used in the military, so I don't think it's beyond the pale to imagine Frank resorting to this, especially in anger. I don't think he beat his kids, and even if he didn't hit them at all, I think he definitely would have screamed and slammed things around in a way that would have been traumatic in its own right.

But I do think he loved Maria and his children, and I don't think he would have ever willingly left him if they had lived. It's possible Maria would have left Frank or threatened to if it got bad enough--but I think if she didn't get through to him before that, the threat of divorce would convince him it's serious, and he'd do whatever it took to save his marriage. In short, I think Frank's life was split between love/comfort/home and pain/violence/war, and he lost the first thing entirely when his family died. I don't think their deaths just gave him an excuse for what he was going to do anyway. It's a better tragedy if Frank did have a chance of getting better and was climbing up towards the light, hand over bloody hand, and then lost that in the most horrible, violent way possible.

Could he be bi or gay? Marvel has teased at him liking men--there's that one Wolverine comic where Frank's got male pinup magazines, and there's whatever the fuck this is. However, my interpretation is that he definitely did love and was in love with his wife. I think that if Frank realized he was attracted to men while in the Marines, he probably compartmentalized it as something he didn't have the time to worry about, and then he met Maria and got married. That repression could have resulted in some stress compounded with the cocktail of other issues swirling around inside Frank's head, but I really don't see him as the sort to agonize about that in particular.

Frank is a complicated character, and like many long-term comics characters, there are different versions and retcons of him. There is also only so far Marvel writers can criticize the military or combat the genre's inherent copaganda, even if they wanted to. You can have corrupt cops and corrupt military officials for the heroes to fight, but you can't criticize the system overall or show that the only solution is to tear it all down. You can use Frank as a critique of how the military works and the damage it does and how it fails veterans--but you can only take it so far. That often leaves us with stories that fall short of the themes and messages they're trying to get across, and leaves us the work of reading between the lines.

[dream-beyond-the-fantasy]

For the character ask game: David & Mike, please! 1 OC, 1 Canon!

David Yates

Sexuality Headcanon: Heterosexual

Gender Headcanon: Cis male

A ship I have with said character: Hestia, aka The Woman in Red, in another life. There is another person that I ship with David, but... spoilers!

A BROTP I have with said character: Alan Jackson. The two single dads get along very well.

A NOTP I have with said character: Also, Hestia. After she left Molly on his doorstep and didn't come back for over a decade, there was no hope for reconciliation and he really doesn't want her around his daughter. Also, he and Sarah Jane will not be a thing. She's close to his dad's age and he doesn't approve of the danger she brings into the kids' lives.

A random headcanon: David likes science fiction as a genre and liked reading comic books as a kid, but never believed that anything that he read about or watched could actually happen, like alien invasions, magic, and cloning. He's in for a big surprise.

General Opinion over said character: David is a great dad, but kinda overprotective when it comes to his daughter's heart. After Molly came into his life, David focused on her and his career. He barely dated; only doing so when Molly was spending time with his dad or at a rare sleepover or school function. David didn't want her to get attached to a potential mother figure only for things to not work out. This backfired on him a time or two.

Mike Yates

Sexuality Headcanon: Possibly bisexual (closeted in his youth, mostly dated women).

Gender Headcanon: Cis male

A ship I have with said character: I honestly believe that Mike was in love with Jo Grant.

A BROTP I have with said character: Jo, John Benton, the Brigadier, the Doctor, Sarah Jane. What can I say? I love my UNIT family. Also, Molly, because he and his granddaughter had an instant connection.

A NOTP I have with said character: I'm not sure I have one? If you pressed me, I might say Benton/Yates and Brigadier/Yates.

A random headcanon: Being brainwashed by BOSS was deeply traumatizing for him. He has a lot of guilt over the Golden Age betrayal.

General Opinion over said character: I really love Mike Yates. He's my favorite male companion. He had an amazing character arc in his last few appearances. I honestly wish that Richard Franklin had been more available in Seasons 9 and 10 and that the writers had done more for the character. I wish he had been in "The Three Doctors" with the Brig, Benton, and Jo. Or even in a Big Finish multi-doctor story. I would have loved his thoughts on the multiple Doctors.

[deathon1leg]

it’s frustrating when people (mainly GA—and, surprise! homophobes!) act like byler is in the same vein as background ships that hardly even interact with each other—i.e fanonical ones with a loose basis in the actual show...

if you think byler is just some far-fetched fan theory you might wanna rewatch the show. i mean, it’s been several years since the first three seasons, a refresher could be good to remind you that mike and will’s relationship is sewn into the very fabric of the show. there’s always been special, very deliberate emphasis on the two of them in comparison to any other platonic pair in the show. there’s always been romantic framing, tropes, subtext, and parallels with them.

st*ddie and r*nance, for example, aren’t as deeply based in the show. they have real chemistry, understand each other and are very cute—i don’t mean that in a belittling or sarcastic way, they’d both make good couples and i’m a casual shipper /gen. the difference between ships like them and byler is that the show literally would not function the same without mike and will’s unique dynamic, and not going through with making them canon would be a huge storytelling failure and (yeah i’m gonna use the word) queerbait.

people treating byler like some made up impossibility isn’t just a way to demean us, specifically, though. the root of it is (unsurprisingly) homophobia. their rhetoric isn’t really about it being unrealistic, even if that’s what they’ll claim—it’s about us believing two well-established, likable, and not especially stereotypical MALE characters in a super popular tv show could actually get together. because as you know, all queer people look/act the same, never have comphet, and never get happy endings, etc etc /s.

(and it’s funny, because a lot of them are willing to accept that will’s in love with mike but only under the condition that will gets his heart broken. reeks of homophobia, methinks)

this is probably hypocritical considering this post but, to bylers: don’t let them succeed in demeaning you. please don’t let them make you doubt yourself. st*ddie and r*nance shippers too: their stories may not be as fully-fledged (partly because they’re more minor characters than the main party) but everything you see is intentional. you’re not making up the chemistry and dynamic you see, even the actors and actresses agree with you.

in conclusion (kinda), people think we’re seeing things that aren’t there because they can’t fathom a queer tv couple developing with the same tropes as tons of straight tv couples do: slowburn, several seasons in, love triangle, childhood friends to lovers, etc. the only queer couples they’ve ever seen in media are with characters that are established as queer from the get-go, and usually get with their s/o’s pretty early on. (also, there’s the large amount of people who cry that mike can’t love will back bc he has a girlfriend and is therefore straight—as if comphet and bisexuality don’t exist)

i don’t wanna be that guy but... it really does just come down to the fact if one of them were female, nobody would deny byler’s existence and that it’s endgame. it’s so stupid, but that’s actually what it comes down to. when you look past it all, the main anti-byler argument is “umm actually they’re both boys so :P”

so yeah. that’s what i wanted to say. thank you if you read it all <3 love u

[maddeningtrash]

not a question but ur mari3 is so cute, hope we get more content of them 🥹

is there any other stuff or headcanons or tidbits u can share abt them or list?

Thank you so much, sharing my Mari3 can be scary at times since the Splatoon fandom is so weird about rarepairs lol. Tumblr seems a lot more friendly in that regard tho!

Anyways some brainrot

-They’ve always been very competitive with each other ever since they met, when they were younger they could be deemed as full-on rivals even lol. The “I can do anything better than you!” Spark has died down since, especially since Anri can be sensitive about how their combat skills have been effected by losing an eye, but they’ll still have friendly competitions over small things.

-Marie’s singing habit effects Anri, sorta like how when one wolf starts howling the whole pack makes noise. When Marie starts singing Anri sorta just instinctively joins in lol

-Some background for Anri and Marie, when he first came back from the events of OE he was pretty traumatized since 1. Lost for a year in the metro 2. Lost his apartment 3. Lost all his possessions and pet birds 4. Lost all function in his right eye+nerve damage ….so he uh literally didn’t go outside for another year. After moving into a new place (Craig brought him a new apartment and furniture out of guilt) Anri became a total shut in, but Marie would come by every day to drop off food goodies in attempt to talk to him. There’s a whole doc behind their story that I probably shouldn’t info dump the entirety of here but lel

-Anri is Marie’s very first romantic interest! Marie assumed she was ace since she was always never interested in dating, turns out she’s demisexual with bisexual swag!

-Anri’s favorite song from the Squid Sisters is Marie’s solo, Tide Goes Out! Marie herself doesn’t know this

-They are both so dumb of ass holy shit

-Marie gets super flustered when Anri flirts with her in front of the new 3 (Sai), “we can’t hold hands in front of the new agent THATS INAPPROPRIATE”

-Marie’s Agent casual attire has it’s hat brim to the side because of Anri fucking with her, Anri’s Cap’n hat brim is to the side because of Marie getting her revenge on him

-Anri, Marie, n Sai sorta act like a family unit especially since Anri legally adopts Sai some point after the events of Splat 3 hero campaign (buncha oc lore maybe one day I will elaborate)

-The two are constantly near each other or touching in some capacity