#unnatural anon

[chocoenvy]

I can't help myself but ask a finale question before the grand reveal, think of this like the cherry on top of all the other questions.

How would Sandrone react to seeing reader and Tsaritsa talking, and mentioning that the sudden affection reader gives Sandrone in public is from both of them loving her and each other equally, but Tsaritsa is just as affectionate behind closed doors now?

Also, the reveal I mentioned.

I was Unnatural Anon this whole time.

YOU WERE UNNATURAL ANON?????????????? I FUCKING THOUGHT YOUR PATTERN OF SPEECH WAS FAMILIAR. but i was like "nah nah it's nothing" HASDFLKJCASDFJ can't believe i was bamboozled. NOW I'M REALLY EXCITED FOR WHATEVER YOU'RE PLANNING WITH ALL THESE QUESTIONS I HAVE NO DOUBT IT'LL BE GREAT!!!!!

okay okay i'll answer the question

i feel like this would be a surprise to only Sandrone. Like even I was kinda getting the feeling from your questions that the Tsaritsa was planning this whole charade with the reader.

So I think the other harbingers would pick up on it. I do think the Tsaritsa is very much against initiating pda! So when Sandrone hears that all she had to do was... initiate smth with the Tsaritsa... she's tugging her hair out bc if she'd known it was that EASY-

Tsaritsa does make up for it by giving her some affection in private tho. Meanwhile the reader keeps up their public affection as usual, but this time Sandrone is a little more willing.

[bunnieswithknives]

OK JUST A LITTLE THING BECAUSE IM INSANE @cubbihue

Song: Plastic by Cheekface

[cator99]

out of curiosity, would you consider yourself butch?

used to be a blonde underweight twink and now I'm a based jock still got the chanel bag and the sick albeit matured mind of a suckpig to prove it so I'm gonna let you decide whether you wanna call me that word just cuz I got a pussy and short hair. I promise you that there have been enough advancements made in the art of lesbian sexual dynamics in the past 50 years to broaden the vocabulary used to describe the plethora of types of masculine females.

[neopronoun-user-culture-is]

Neopronouns culture is wanting to dye your hair but being scared of being the truscum stereotype of a neopronoun user. You know, dyed hair and weird pronouns.

Neopronoun user culture

[randomfoggytiger]

Do you think Scully asking for Mulders “sample” (lol) for the IVF was her attempt to get Mulder “out of the damn car” and into a relationship with her? I mean she had to of known that no matter what happened it would forever change their relationship right?

Hmmmmm.... I don't think so, broadly.

If the IVF arc takes place after The Unnatural (as I posit), then his bouyancy and openness could have inspired her to hope for a piece of that "normal life"; or have inspired her to hope that, if she pursued it, he'd have come alongside willingly (even eagerly.)

And if that be the case, Scully was right. In Per Manum's flashbacks, she's barreling ahead, sad her doctor gives her bad news, frantic when Mulder reveals he has her ova, anxious he might reject her offer (but thinking he won't), feeling devastated when she thinks he does, becoming elated when he says "The answer is yes", and openly mourning with him when "my last chance" failed. And Mulder is there every step of the way.

Because Mulder gave "this, having a baby this" a good and thorough think over; and he was ready, in her apartment, for a taste of "life on this planet." He still had a sister to find and a personal evolution to undergo (i.e. Amor Fati-- which would have occurred during the pregnancy arc if the IVF took); but they'd be doing it as a team, and he'd have been involved. And they both knew it.

Those are my thoughts, anyway~.

[racetrackmybeloved]

we have returned from war 🫡

(i really hope u recognise what this means-)

THE WAR IS OVER <3

[evansbby]

When you get into a really good fic and you find out the pet name the guy uses for the girl the whole damn series is ‘doll’

😫😖😫

WHY THE FUCK DO PEOPLE LIKE DOLL. I hate it so much 😭

words can’t describe how much I hate doll 😂😂😂😂 but everyone else loves it skdjsksksk

no hate to the people who like it and write it tho, it’s just personally I don’t like it 😭😭

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

I always think about how in multiple episodes it's basically canon that Blanche is bi but considers dating women to be more hassle (which is a whole rabbit hole to go down - does she struggle with societal homophobia when she's with women? Has she only been with fellow high maintenance femmes when shes really after a Dorothy type? Has she internalized the idea that her attraction to women isn't 'real'? Her reaction to Clayton adds to these questions). Not to mention how this goes together with her relationships with the girls; making to kiss Rose that one time (and Rose multiple times seeming very aware of Blanche's proclivities), begging Dorothy for 'relief' and being convinced she's attracted to women too.

Yes, anon! It’s really interesting to delve into Blanche’s psyche about all this stuff!

I started writing down my thoughts and ended up with a long ramble -- allow me to place it all under a cut, so I don't clog up anyone's dash, haha.

Personally, I think she has some strong mental blocks when it comes to her sexuality because of the way she was brought up. I mean, she grew up in Atlanta approx in the 1930s/1940s — I’m sure I don’t have to detail the kind of casual bigotry she must have seen around her during her formative years! Just look at the story she recounts in S1E13 A Little Romance:

“Now, you have to understand that in those days in the South a lot of things were still taboo. Certain people were not to mix. So Benjamin and I had to meet in secret. Oh, we knew if any of the bigots in town found out about us, there’d be a terrible scandal.”

And all of this because Benjamin was a yankee… can you imagine what ‘the bigots in town’ thought about homosexuality? Yeah, I’m pretty sure Blanche learned to suppress that part of herself very early on. We know she turns to denial when she’s faced with uncomfortable truths and emotions she can’t deal with, so I think she likely just refuses to acknowledge that part of herself most of the time, and it only comes out (pun intended!) when she’s not paying much attention to things, or when there’s something more important going on. See the two examples you point out: when she tries to kiss Rose she’s concerned with not being kissed at midnight, and when she propositions Dorothy she’s, well… she’s desperate to get some, if we can be frank.

When she’s in a more rational state, her reactions tend to be more measured… but not by much. She does advise Rose not to date women (S3E10 The Audit):

“Oh, no, honey, don’t do that! No job is worth having to date women!”

But she’s also really flattered at receiving lots and lots of phone calls from women, after her appearance as a ‘lesbian’ on TV (S7E15 Goodbye, Mr Gordon):

“By the way, Dorothy, if I were a lesbian, I sure would be a popular one. Look at this, 20 calls.”

And of course we can’t forget her reaction to finding out that Jean has a crush on Rose in S2E5 Isn’t It Romantic?:

“Jean has the hots for Rose? I don’t believe it, I do not believe it! […] To think Jean would prefer Rose over me? That’s ridiculous! […] Now you tell me the truth: if you had to pick between Rose and me, who would you pick? Who?”

All of these are (likely) intended to be jokes about her vanity and her libertine nature (in the same way as Rose’s observations are), but considering a lot of the writers of this show were queer themselves, it wouldn’t seem strange to me if they were intentionally peppered in to suggest that Blanche might be a bisexual in denial. It certainly fits her character!

I haven’t spoken about her reaction to Clayton’s coming out yet, but that’s immensely interesting too, of course. I think Blanche has the same attitude towards homosexuality that I see in a lot of (mostly older) people in my Country nowadays: it’s fine as a general concept, but when it comes to her family (or, God forbid, herself) then the problems come out. See for example what she says about Jean:

“Well, I’ll never understand what Jean doesn’t see in the opposite sex, but if that makes her happy, that’s fine by me!”

Which isn’t a homophobic attitude at all! If anything, if you take her upbringing into account, it’s pretty accepting. But then, when Clayton comes out to her (S4E9 Scared Straight) and tells her he wants to get married (S6E14 Sister Of The Bride), this is what she says:

“Oh, Clayton, please be serious. You're just saying that so I won't set you up with any more women. […] Well, then you're saying it 'cause you're trying to get back at me for something. Clay, I know you too well for this. After all, I know it can't be true. You're my brother. […] Clayton Hollingsworth. You look me in the face and tell me you really are… what you just said you are.”

“I'm having a little trouble putting this all together. Clayton, I just feel like I don't know you anymore.”

“[…] Dorothy, that's different. We're talking about going out in public. Oh, what are people gonna say?”

“Will you tell me why you want to put yourself and Doug through this? You know how people can be.”

“Oh, look, I can accept the fact that he's gay, but why does he have to slip a ring on this guy's finger so the whole world will know?”

Quite the difference from her attitude towards Jean, wouldn’t you say? I think there’s three elements at play here.

1) When Clayton comes out to Blanche, she feels disoriented because this is life-changing information Clayton has never shared with her before. While her reaction as a whole isn’t ideal, personally I think it’s understandable. Clayton is her baby brother; she’s known him as straight all his life, he’s been married to a woman for years before his divorce, and she recounts an episode from their adolescence when he was on a date with a woman and very clearly implicated having a physical encounter with her. He's done everything in his power to pass as straight until this point in time -- I don't find it strange that Blanche would be shocked at his coming out, especially given her upbringing (and the fact that this is set in the 80s! We can't expect modern sensibilities from the characters!). Once again, her reaction isn't the best (she can't even bring herself to say the word 'gay' at first...), but the shock per se isn't that surprising, imho.

2) Blanche is scared because of societal implications above all. She doesn't necessarily see being queer as something wrong, but she's been taught it's not socially acceptable and acts accordingly. Notice how she's worried about what people are going to say, and she struggles to accept that Clayton wants the whole world to know about his relationship with Doug.

Societal expectations in general are a big theme for Blanche's character, and often drive her development; another big example of this is her attitude towards Rebecca's decision to get artificially inseminated, but it's a bit of a baseline issue for her, I feel. She has this whole thing about her beauty and her (supposed) youth and her attractiveness that has some inherent elements, but it's mostly an issue of how other people perceive her, I think, and her response to her brother's coming out is easy to relate to this theme. I mean, she even says it to Rose in S7E15:

"Well, I don't mind being labeled a lesbian, honey, but since I'm not, you just ruined my social life."

So yeah. I think it's safe to say her main concern is societal disapproval of queerness: she wants to be accepted and celebrated by the people around her, and she thinks that being openly queer will destroy her place in her social circle (and she's worried about the same happening to Clayton too, of course).

3) This is sort of related to point 2, but it felt distinct enough to treat it separately. I think she might have reacted so badly to Clayton's coming out (and especially to his showing up with a partner) because he's open about his sexuality, and she's not ready to face what that means for her. My lovely mutual @\hecatesbroom recently published her latest amazing work the odd one(s) out, on the relationship between Dorothy and her brother Phil and how Phil's open queerness might have impacted Dorothy; I think a similar situation might have occurred between Blanche and Clayton after his coming out.

Blanche has a sort of advantage on Dorothy because of her bisexuality, in the sense that she has 'passing privilege' (I really dislike this concept, but allow me to use it to make a point): it's painfully clear that she loved her late husband with all her heart, and she's obviously attracted to men as well, so she can pretend not to like women without too much of a hassle (whereas, if you believe Dorothy to be a repressed lesbian, her situation is much more complicated).

The issue with this is that this 'advantage' is a double-edged sword: she might have the comfort of being socially acceptable, but she's had to suffocate a big part of herself to obtain that comfort. And so, what happens when Clayton -- her baby brother Clayton, the one who's always been just like her, who's grown up with her same environment and influences -- begins openly living as a gay man? I'm sure the situation must have had a strong impact on her, even if just on a subconscious level; I've always found it curious that she seems to have a harder time accepting Clayton in S6E14 than she does in S4E9 (she even calls his sexuality a phase), and while a part of it may be attributed to the higher social exposure Clayton's commitment to Doug brings, I think this may be a result of her inner conflict, provoked by watching her brother live openly while she's been suppressing a part of herself all her life.

Here I'm assuming she's never acted upon her attraction to women before, but there's some space to believe she has done so and has decided it's too much of a hassle, as you say -- likely because she'd for sure do it in secret, given her fear of societal condemnation. If she has been with women before, and decided to give up on it, I still think she'd be greatly impacted by Clayton's coming out: it means her baby brother is a) braver than she is, and b) going to openly face (and likely suffer because of) the same social issues she's run away from. In this lens, I find it interesting that she cautions him about how people can be, almost as if they've both experienced it.

Whew. Wow, this was a lot more than I'd originally meant to write, haha! Seems you sparked a big train of thought, anon! I think all of the Girls (with the possible exception of Sophia) are really fascinating to analyze with a queer lens, and Blanche is always interesting to me, of course. As a final note, I'd like to point out that she does come around to Clayton's sexuality and his relationship, in the end: as often happens, she just needs the Girls' help to put things back in perspective, understand she's hurting someone she loves, and correct her actions. I'd like to think living with the Girls might lead to her becoming more accepting of herself, too.

[blood-feathers]

Can you ask spy if I can pet him

Coo, mijn vriend, if you want your throat slit you could simply ask me! Now, come closer... Ah, why are you running away? Suppose you changed your mind. A shame. I've been running low on cadavers.

[chocoenvy]

Unnatural Anon here, and do you have any tips on how to write individuals like Heizou or Cyno in a modern setting?

YOOOO!! rising from the dead to write an essay

I think Heizou would be fairy easy to write in a modern setting. He's care-free and easy going, and a nosy prick. Perfect for a school setting, he'd definitely be a gossip hive, gathering secrets like they're nothing. Though he doesn't give them out for free, of course. You'd be hard pressed to get him to reveal what he knows. Not that anyone expects such damning secrets to come from his playful nature, the only way you'd know how dangerous he is, is by figuring out first hand.

And Cyno I think is also fairly easy to translate?? A gruff guy that looks absolutely terrifying, gets into fights and definitely has blood on his hands. But if you're an innocent person and someone he doesn't have something against, he doesn't bother you. He also attempts to lighten the mood, even if he always maintains the same expression on his face. He's also a massive nerd. He doesn't hide it, but not many people take the time to figure that out about him.

That's what I think anyways!

[godsofhumanity]

Can you tell us more about Typhon please? The egg thing sounds interesting

ooh ok. this is an orphic tradition, but gaia gets mad about her giant offspring getting killed so she makes up rumours about zeus and tells them to hera and hera gets pissed off about them (because she believes them) so she goes to kronos and is like “dadddd my stupid husband is pissing me off”, and kronos is like “no problem kiddo take these two eggs and bury them”. but the eggs are coated in kronos’ semen 😔 thus, hera buries the eggs, and sometime later, Typhon emerges from the eggs.

so. that’s why i’m saying you could have a pocket Typhon to defend yourself!! u just order some specially coated eggs from Kronos’ Free Range Egg Monster Factory, and hatch them whenever ur pissed off!! order now*!!

*do NOT try to coat the eggs yourself 😩

[lemonhemlock]

the posters giving us a new alimond + daemyra parallel! (what i mean is that in quite a few daemon & aemond videos and edits meant to show their parallels, rhaenyra and alicent are often used as the love/woman in their life to show their more tender side. and now the new poster is kind of doing this too with their character placements, if you look at the full version. obviously i know that it's not meant to be shippy but i will take what i can get)

you know i kind of thought you were reaching in the beginning but maybe there's a little bit of truth in that observation.

although! they could have very well placed alicent next to criston or otto for the same effect (that cristgon connection is activating my third eye a little tho ngl).

a further observation is that alicent and aegon are the only greens wearing crowns, so that, while it's still not shippy in and of itself, it has the potential to give me brainworms !! (i love this freakshow)

[yandere-daydreams]

Recently obsessed with the idea of Childe being Really Bad at sex but nobody has ever broken the news to him because he's terrifying

he really strikes me as a sorta bottom-at-heart, top-in-circumstance sort guy, meaning that he should bottom and he'd probably like it more, but because all the other Harbingers would never stop making fun of him, he is simply forced to top. the poor guy probably thinks he's pulling it off really well too. please don't tell him. he doesn't like this either but Arlecchino would roast him alive if she knew so you're both just going to have a real mediocre time.

[randomfoggytiger]

what happened after Mulder shared his enthusiasm for Scully in the unnatural? She did just say thanks for the bday gift and go home? Or, did they continue to hang out? Maybe fo for dinner? Would they completely ignore that he was all up on her and not address the closeness or any ah-hem? There's an outtake in Home when they address his "penlight" while they are in close proximity. You tell me they aren't going to address a "penlight" in the unnatural scene? That is unnatural behavior to Not say something.

In regard to teasing, I think it was already addressed in the episode when Mulder said, "A nice piece of ash" (and Scully looked at him sideways while he clarified, "The bat." Suuuuuuure it was, Mulder.) But Scully probably had a tease tucked away in her back pocket that she whipped out later-- you never know with her.

As to what they did afterward? I say something simple, like ice cream, or whatever's still open: playful and buoyant, with neither pushing for or expecting more. Solid first date. Solid first step.

I used to be Team "Their Relationship Begins Here", but the IVF timeline threw that off. More broadly, I think Mulder was just beginning to refocus his gaze from the stars. He made a move in FTF but didn't want anything to change for the majority of S6 (which Scully was subtly pushing for.) It took him until The Unnatural to begin to make that change. (Alternatively, Scully will be open for change up front, but second-guesses and spirals after she "settles in." Hence, Millennium being the first move for Mulder and all things being the second-guessing for Scully.)

Still, it's not until Amor Fati that he sees what a life without Scully would look like; and finally assures her-- as a person, as his friend, as his touchstone separate from their lives tangled in the work-- for the first time. Hence, why she resumed her forehead kiss streak (the second after FTF.)

(Need to make a post about their relationship timeline when I have the chance....)

[sea-lanterns]

As much as I love the empress AU I literally couldn’t survive, like I dye hair (currently black and purple) but like having my natural hair color I literally couldn’t survive with it (assuming Genshin doesn’t have hair dye)

-🌊anon

Genshin is a fantasy world with magic, crazy inventions, gods, the supernatural, and literally physics-defying laws.

If anything, I am pretty sure they have hair dye/already figured out how to dye hair 😅

[lovesickeros]

Your writing is actually like so good like i literally can't do that stuff even tho I have written for God knows how many years atp like,,, HOW?? I COULDNT EVEN COME UP WITH A SIMPLE COMPLIMENT AND YET YOU WROTE

“Your eyes glow like the cresting of the sun over the horizon, painting the world in hues of gold – yet it also reminded me of the dipping of the moon below the waves, casting the briefest, most gentle of lights upon the world engulfed in darkness. In the depths of your eyes was the birth and death of stars in the infinite cosmos – glittering stars in a sea of empty, blank space that left me feeling lightheaded and breathless.” - even the gods bleed [pt 2]

JSHDHDJDJDN THANK YOU???? I worry all the flowery language feels awkward but i am a sucker for things like that i shove it into every fic i can..glad 2 know yall like it 🏃‍♂️

im also just incredibly dramatic. it's a careful balance between being descriptive enough to get my themes across but not enough to alienate any readers and if I can't describe colors then I'm going to be a menace to society and describe it in the most vague way possible. enjoy ur 500 word description of a plate /j