#what in the lesbian is this dream sequence

[clarkgriffon]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 4x15 | “This Year's Girl” 

[warlenys]

when you realise how many insane hilson lines were written by one or both of the lesbians on the house md writing team you go oh. so this was actually always properly intended as gay. like liz friedman’s first ever scene is “because you’re a closet case?” “we’re not… together” “he is so self loathing”. her first scene. she got onto the show and went ok the first thing i need to do is make sure everyone knows how fucking gay these guys are. they wrote the down low together. meaning that the proposal scene was written by gay people. wilson knowing the words to a gay musical was written by gay people. the ending of the episode being house and wilson sitting together in their shared apartment with the gay musical song singing “you know you’ll never be lonely with you know who” over the top was a decision made by gay people. there is zero chance that two lesbians on a writing team of over a dozen on a very successful show were doing this to bait a queer audience for money. they’re the ones who gave us the hilson parent dream sequence. the only hilson hug. they were doing everything they could to give us what we wanted. like. we’re so so sorry we’re not in a high enough position to make them fully gay but here have this and this and this and this and this and

[internerdionality]

And just to be clear, it wasn't just Izzy's death or the way it happened that I found incredibly disappointing about that finale. For that matter, while there were some great moments, the entire season felt rushed and incomplete, with a lot of decisions that just baffled me.

The Olu/Zheng/Jim/Archie polycule got no resolution whatsoever and just felt crappily done. It felt like Jim and Olu transitioned from romantic to platonic between seasons and then got shoved at new love interests, instead of actually grappling with the interesting poly dynamics, jealousy, NRE, insecurity, etc., that they could have engaged with. And to be clear I LOVED every moment of Olu/Zheng and Jim/Archie! But it felt like the show didn't believe you can have meaningful romantic relationships with multiple people at the same time, so they had to make it as if Jim and Olu's romantic sexual encounter at the end of last season didn't mean anything and that the two of them are perfectly happy being chosen siblings. This after Oluwande is explicitly described as in love with Jim in the first season! WTF?

It also felt like they just abandoned Lucius and Pete being poly in favor of having a cutesy wedding? Like don’t get me wrong, yay for weddings, but honestly it felt very mononormative and forced instead of queer and affirming. Even if Lucius had like, kissed Fang on the lips right after, or if they'd had more affection shown between the whole crew during the wedding, that would have been something. It just felt off.

Zheng felt like a wasted character by the end. Her just letting Ricky know where all her ships were was unbelievable for how competent and badass they made her out to be, and literally her only impact on the plot was serving as a vehicle to drive Stede from place to place. Also just killing off her entire crew other than Auntie? Hundreds of mostly Asian women? Yeah, that's not a good look.

Why did they feel the need to destroy the Republic of Pirates, for that matter? What actual plot or emotional growth did it create? At the end of Episode 7, I expected Stede to have to grapple with how he's managed to not just bring down Blackbeard but the *entire Republic of Pirates* and *the Pirate Queen of China* to add to his whole "I ruin beautiful things" trauma and instead he just doesn't seem to care at all. Like how did he get from all of his trauma and grief about being inadequate in the first season—the actual trauma that led him to leave Ed in the first place—to "oh, it's not so bad being a failure once you get used to it"?!?! Throughout the season I kept thinking that he was repressing and it would come back up to bite him in the ass but no, apparently he just fixed that issue offscreen? What the hell?

And it was the same with Ed! After all that build up in the first season about how Ed doesn’t like to kill people directly—and maintaining that through the first two episodes, even, which was hard! We never see him directly kill anyone! The guy he shot had already been run through!—he’s literally joking while surrounded by corpses he killed and the show barely addressed the trauma that the character we knew would have experienced. Just a completely dropped note. What happened to Ed's self-hatred that they spent an entire dream sequence episode establishing?

Ed and Stede’s actual conflicts and problems just basically disappeared at the end, with a “oh I actually do love you, babe” glossing over Ed’s very legit reasons for leaving and then Stede (apparently?!?) being convinced to give up piracy without a second of screen time spent discussing it. If felt like they were actually setting them up to just be the toxic lesbians from episode four, how is that a satisfying finale? I honestly would have rather had them end the season apart again, but this time knowing they love each other and they have to do some work to get back to each other. Like, Stede sailing into the sunset after kissing Ed and promising to come back and Ed going "i trust that you will, thank you for giving me the space I need to heal"—that would have been a satisfying place to leave them.

And then Izzy's death... don't get me fucking started on what a complete waste of screen time and acting that was. Wow.

[lurkingshan]

Hi! I love reading your opinions and I have just started The Sign. What are your opinions on the show and what route are you hoping it would take for the second half of the show? Take care and happy new year!

Hello anon! You picked such an interesting moment to send this ask. We’re halfway through the show and I think its strengths and weaknesses have become fairly clear. Let's talk about it!

Strength: The Chemistry

I think this is the thing that had all the girlies losing it right out of the gate: Phaya and Tharn are hot and their interactions are hotter. The pull and chemistry between them is palpable and the set up for their romance is compelling. Kudos to whoever found Babe and decided to pair him with Billy: you, sir or madam, are incredible at your job and deserve a fruit basket. We are all dying for these two to finally fuck.

Weakness: The Pacing

Which is why it's kind of frustrating that the show is dragging its feet on letting their relationship advance. The first four eps were delicious tension-building, but as the show starts to stall and use dream sequence fakeouts to provide smut without actual relationship development, the audience is clearly getting antsy. The show's pacing is all over the place in general, with wildly varied episode lengths and inconsistent action and plot advancement from week to week. And the desire to drag out the romance without a compelling alternative plot to fill the show in its absence is causing some damage to the characters, most notably Tharn, who is just starting to seem unreasonably antagonistic to a person we know he likes, not to mention unperceptive in his continued inability to notice what is going on around him.

Strength: Production Values

This show is absolutely gorgeous; you can tell most of the money went into making every frame of it beautiful. The strength of the production values and hard work of the crew to create the look and feel of the world was evident from the first episode with all those beautiful training sequences on the beach. And this is used to particularly strong effect whenever we visit Phaya and Tharn's past lives and see the magical world that exists around them come to life.

Strength: The Supporting Cast

The show also has a great ensemble, with Yai especially a standout character who brings a lot of fun to the show, along with his girlfriend Sand and the police squad bros. This is not surprising, as big, messy, chaotic, endearing queer friend groups are an IdolFactory staple. As of last week, we officially have a lesbian side pairing! Tharn and Phaya also have interesting family histories with sweet grandmas and loved ones who lend depth to their characterization.

Weakness: The Copaganda

It was perhaps too much to expect that this bl about cops would have a more sophisticated perspective on law enforcement, institutional corruption, and the so-called "justice" system, but that does not stop me from groaning out loud every time they pause the story to let these characters wax poetic about the nobility of their jobs.

Strength: Thai Folklore

This show is teaching all of us some things about real Thai folklore about the garuda and nara, including local customs associated with celebrating these tales, and the depiction of these stories in the show is just beautiful. Despite it basically being a tourism advert (complete with couple shirts for no reason??), I really enjoyed the episode that took us to Nong Khai and the Mekong River to see how modern Thai folks interpret and celebrate the myths at the center of this show’s story and ground us in something real.

Weakness: An Underdeveloped Take on Toxic Masculinity

This show uses violence quite a lot in its story, including violence in interpersonal dynamics, and it sometimes seems to want us to be alarmed by uncontrolled male anger, and sometimes impressed by it. At this point, Tharn and Phaya have both struck each other in anger during personal disagreements, and there hasn't been any real reckoning with the fallout of that. On top of that, the show has given us some crime cases that highlight the harm of toxic masculinity while also seeming to glorify and revel in it, most notably in the framing of a man who kidnapped and retraumatized sexual assault victims as a hunky folk hero. It's a confused take, to say the least, and I'm not sure the show has the depth and precision necessary in the writing to take on some of what it's throwing at the wall.

Strength: Villains

All I can say is Heng was born to play an evil snake god. The show has done a good job at making him feel like a real threat and building the antagonism between him and Phaya to the point where Phaya has been isolated from support and made to look crazy in front of Tharn. Dr. Slow Motion is very good at this.

So, what's the TL; DR? This show is a lot of fun, but has some obvious weaknesses in the writing, so do your best not to take it too seriously if you can. I am ready to see Phaya and Tharn get together and finally start working as a team, for the full backstory and epic battle they are waging to come out, and for the motivations of the rest of the cast of characters to become clear (I just know there are some additional past life reincarnations waiting to be revealed). It's a great time if you don't think about it too hard, and I really hope the back half will pick up the pace so that we can all just enjoy the ride.

[arcadiabaytornado]

okay so your really good at explaining things so imma ask you this: Is Chloe supposed to be a lesbian or bisexual?? I always thought she was bisexual cause Joyce mentioned she had a “bad boy” phase and Max saw her kiss Warren in the crazy nightmare sequence. But then again Joyce said it was just A PHASE and Chloe kissing Warren was nothing but part of a NIGHTMARE. Idk maybe I’m just dumb. Sorry if this is a dumb question (Also happy Pride month)

Chloe never looked at the camera and said "I'm bisexual/a lesbian," so she can be seen as anything under the WLW umbrella. However, I personally see her a lesbian who had comphet.

In Episode 3, Max can ask Chloe if she had a boyfriend while she was away. Chloe says that she did, but they "weren't serious" and she was glad when Rachel came along to "rescue" her. However, Max doesn't have to ask Chloe if she had a boyfriend. She can instead say "Boy are trouble," and Chloe will reply with, "And way fucking gross."

Before The Storm also elaborates on this a little. We know that she hooked up with Elliot, but she says in her journal that they had "no chemistry" and there "wasn't much too it." She says the reason for the hookup was that she lonely and bored....and in the same journal she says that she was trying to masturbate to the mental image of a male character but a female character kept popping in her head and "stealing the show."

As for Joyce saying Chloe had a "bad boy phase:" Chloe did have this phase considering she admits it Max, but it's also very possible that she felt toward them what she felt toward Elliot. There wasn't attraction or chemistry, but they were there at a very lonely time in her life, and that was enough for her until she met Rachel. As for the dream: I think the dream is just a projection of Max's insecurities that she isn't enough for Chloe. Considering it all takes place in Max's head, I don't think the dream has any indication of Chloe's sexuality, and I would say that even if Chloe kissed only women in the dream.

I think a lot of Chloe's character points to the idea that she's gay, but didn't realize it until she met Rachel and suddenly had all the pieces fall together. So that's my interpretation! (Also thank you and happy pride month!!!)

[bestygogirl]

BEST YGO GIRL: Round 4, Group B

Match 2

please use this as an opportunity to say why you like a character, not why you don't.

Propaganda under the cut!

Aoi Zaizen

The show hates her but she is a very good character. Trickstars and Marincesses are both hella cool decks.

Aoi’s parents died when she was around 6 and she was mostly raised by her older brother. She’s the 2nd best Duelist in the VRAINS at the start of the series and over the course of the first season goes from being rather shy and only putting on a happy facade to a determined Duelist willing to risk her life to save the world. She even puts a stop to a virus that’s leaving people in comas.

Aoi gets two more avatars (Blue Girl and Blue Maiden) and also obtains a semi-magic AI named Aqua as her partner.

She never lets her trauma keep her down and was a huge inspiration for me in high school!

AOI ZAIZEN IS THE BEST GIRL! She's gonna sweep this whole tournament and here's why:

Is the peak YGO Girl who Deserved Better from the writers

Just a normal everyday girl IRL who secretly turns into an ultra bubbly sweetheart idol who everyone absolutely loves when in the virtual world.

Her VRAINS persona is extremely popular, and none of her fans know that she's just Some Girl.

Plays an idol deck with Trickstars (toxic meta combo not included)

Is sheltered by her overprotective older step-brother/guardian, but very quickly stands up for herself and what she believes is right.

Mutual protection with said step-brother is the sweetest thing ever, I love Aoi and Akira moments so much!

She does NOT fall head over heels for the main protagonist, but they do share a nice conversation and handshake as they become friends IRL (one of the best VRAINS scenes, honestly)

Absolutely wrecks Soulburner for like 99% of their duel, and only loses because the writers don't understand how to move a plot along if Soulburner doesn't win as many duels as possible

Duels two seasonal antagonists, and completely destroys them both before losing thanks to an OP anime card that will never see the light of day, and a one-off card made specifically to counter her strategy and have her lose.

Her first virtual avatar, Blue Angel, is inspired by the main character from her favorite childhood book. That's adorable!

Her main summoning chants are all about hopes, dreams, and believing in yourself.

In the English dub, she says "I could so swipe left on you right now" implying that Tinder exists in the Yu-Gi-Oh universe.

Never got the Magical Girl transformation sequence she deserved because the writers apparently were not aware that Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS is a Magical Girl show, despite the two main dudes getting that special treatment.

AOI ZAIZEN DESERVED BETTER! Give her what she deserves!

AND SHE'S A TRANS LESBIAN

Dark Magician Girl

she is iconic, basically the unofficial mascot of the anime. She has so much merch and so much fanart she is THE girl ever

[augustinajosefina]

A request

Please suggest books to me! Preferably in the glove kink/lesbian space atrocities, urban fantasy or dark academia genres but I'll happily try any SF/fantasy at least once.

So far I've read and loved:

Before 2023

The Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy) - Ann Leckie

Jean le Flambeur (The Quantum Thief/The Fractal Prince/The Causal Angel) - Hannu Rajaniemi

The Windup Girl/The Water Knife - Paolo Bagicalupi

Memory of Water/The City of Woven Streets - Emmi Itäranta

2023

The Locked Tomb (Gideon/Harrow/Nona the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir

The Masquerade (Traitor/Monster/Tyrant Baru Cormorant) - Seth Dickinson

Teixcalaan series (A Memory Called Empire/A Desolation Called Peace) - Arkady Martine

Machineries of Empire (Ninefox Gambit/Raven Stratagem/Revenant Gun/Hexarchate Stories) - Yoon Ha Lee

The Murderbot Diaries (All Systems Red to System Collapse) - Martha Wells

The Broken Earth (The Fifth Season/The Obelisk Gate/The Stone Sky) - N. K. Jemisin

Klara And The Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

Xuya universe (The Citadel of Weeping Pearls/The Tea Master and the Detective/Seven of Infinities plus short stories) - Aliette de Bodard

This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The Goblin Emperor/The Witness for the Dead/Grief of Stones - Katherine Addison

Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh

2024

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V. E. Schwab

The Craft Sequence (Three Parts Dead/Two Serpents Rise/Full Fathom Five/Last First Snow/Four Roads Cross/Ruin of Angels) - Max Gladstone

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution - R. F. Kuang

Dead Country - Max Gladstone

Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard

Read and liked:

The Moonday Letters - Emmi Itäranta

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

Great Cities (The City We Became/The World We Make) - N. K. Jemisin

Autonomous - Annalee Newitz

Dead Djinn universe (A Master of Djinn/The Haunting of Tram Car 015/A Dead Djinn in Cairo/The Angel of Khan el-Khalili) - P. Djèlí Clark

Even Though I Knew the End - C. L. Polk

Station Eternity - Mur Lafferty

The Mythic Dream - Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe

Shades of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic/A Gathering of Shadows/A Conjuring of Light/Fragile Threads of Power) - V. E. Schwab

The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling

Last Exit - Max Gladstone

The Stars Are Legion - Kameron Hurley

Ninth House/Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo

Machine - Elizabeth Bear

Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield

She Is A Haunting - Trang Thanh Tran

Sisters of the Revolution - Jeff & Ann Vandermeer

Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher

Monstrilio - Gerardo Samano Córdova

Was uncertain about:

Light From Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki

The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi

Paladin's Grace - T. Kingfisher

The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune

In the Vanishers Palace - Aliette de Bodard

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

What Moves The Dead - T. Kingfisher

All The Birds In The Sky - Charlie Jane Anders

And read and disliked:

To Be Taught, if Fortunate - Becky Chambers

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson

How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu

Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

The Passage - Justin Cronin

In Ascension - Martin MacInnes

(My pride insists I add that I have, in fact, read other books as well. Just to be clear.)

[lincolndjarin]

Best Kept Secret : What If...?

a series of alternate/unused bks story lines!!

contains spoilers for all of bks!!

alternate torture @ the end

i grappled with this a lot. i very strongly believe that the worst thing you can do with your characters in a high stakes situation is coddle them. if i've learned anything from dnd it's that you cannot be afraid to hurt you characters.

yet for the first time in my life i've become so attached that i just couldn't do it.

the tongue in a box scene was something that caused me a lot of turmoil. in the original cut it was elaine's tongue, but i talked to my friend catie about it and we agreed that cutting off a lesbians tongue is fucked up. then i considered actually cutting off din's tongue, i thought that that would make for something really interesting with the big reveal if he couldn't talk to her but it just seemed too brutal? i couldn't really wrap my head around it so i eventually just made it someone elses tongue.

my replacement for that was din's leg, that was something that sort of came on at the last second, i gave him the limp as foreshadowing and then said fuck it, lets take the whole thing.

dress maker

the scene in chapter 4 where din walks in on her in the bath was originally a much longer sequence where a modiste visited the castle and there was a lot of stuff around making new dresses for her and din was going to walk in while she was getting changed.

eventually i scrapped the entire concept and gave elaine the seamstress trait instead.

multiple parties & balls (masquerade)

i briefly mentioned this in the q&a but in the original bks outline there were a lot more parties and big scenes like that. i realized pretty quickly that balls and parties are a visual medium. the reason why i like those scenes so much in other things is because they're so visually appealing which is harder to do when writing. there was going to be a readers birthday ball, a few other parties or wedding for kodos siblings etc but it always felt like filler.

the masquerade was my dream sequence that just never really fir naturally fit with the story so i eventually had to let it go.

no breakup/rules storyline

there was no break up in the original bks story board. instead, everything after chapter 7 was gonna be based around breaking each and every rule.

each chapter following would have been dedicated to breaking a few of the rules up until the last one that would have been; no falling in love, stop when i say to stop, and no kissing would have all been one big climax chapter. it would have been very little women in the 'we have got to have it out jo' sort of sense where she begs him to stop talking but he just keeps confessing.

eventually i realized that a rule or two break every chapter wasn't very sustainable. it was a fun idea and it might work in a different setting but bks at its core is supposed to be an overly dramatic period piece and there just wasn't enough conflict with that so instead i went with the breakup.

alternative ending

i had a similar ending for quite some time and one day i was listening to music and thinking about bks and realized that she loved naboo. originally they fled after kodo was killed. they built a cabin somewhere far away etc. etc.

but the character seemed to make more sense as someone who would want to do right by the people she had grown to love within the kingdom so i decided to make it a sort of thing where she disassembled the monarchy.

(there was also an ending where she faked her own death, framed kodo, and he was ripped apart by the citizens of naboo)

and of course i briefly considered genuinely killing din and having her raise the baby on her own. but the idea made me so truly upset that i just couldnt do it.

hoth story line

not much to say here other that there was going to be a thing where she went back to hoth to visit her family accompanied by the mandalorian. another thing that was fun as a concept but ended up feeling like filler so i dropped it.

elaine plot twist

another case of me really loving elaine and being conflicted about her character.

originally elaine was going to tell kodo about their relationship. it was going to be a situation where kodo suspected something and threatened lysa forcing elaine to take action but eventually i decided to use my backup which was leo since there had been foreshadowing for that anyway

neutral kodo

for quite a while i planned for kodo to be just a bad husband and not a villain. but i needed more conflict and i needed a driving force and he was easy to mold into that.

there was an alternate storyline where he fell in love with the reader and “killed” din out of jealousy

[forzacharlie16]

The Less I Know The Better

pairing: Kiri Sully x fem!reader🌟🪷🫧

summary: Kiri can’t help but think of her best friend in ways she shouldn’t. She’s shouldered the burden long enough, but when she tries to confess, disaster strikes. Her plan fails horribly and now her life is ruined… all because of some stupid boy!

warnings: gay people😈 kiri being a simp but also so oblivious to reader, the sully family supporting their lesbian daughter!!! as they should, no homophobia this is a safe space, lo’ak being a meanie (not genuine), tuk being the no. 1 matchmaker in pandora, fluff, some angst that gets resolved almost immediately bc i’m impatient

word count: 4.9k (damn)

author’s note: don’t flame me if this is bad, this is my first tumblr fic😪 ALSO i named her alu but only bc i refuse to use y/n, so it’s still kiri x reader and not kiri x oc! [i know my first fic was supposed to be neteyam x fem oc but… kiri <3🤭🫀😍🫂👩🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏻]

🌟🌟

Kiri started the day by being kicked in the face by Tuk, they younger girl slamming her heel straight into her sister’s nose in an attempt to outrun the yerik (hexapede) chasing her in her dream. Of course, it bled- badly- meaning Tuk was left staring at Kiri’s hunched over spine in floods of tears as the older girl diligently mopped the red from her face, smothering the wound with a damp rag. Jake had sat by Tuk in an attempt to calm her tears, but even after Kiri had pronounced several times that she was genuinely fine, Tuk was still overcome by a tearful sequence of hiccups, ones that shook her small body entirely.

Lo’ak had teased Kiri for the blossoming bruise in the centre of her face, once beautiful blue skin now a discoloured and uneven purplish colour, calling her all sorts of names, mostly just variations of narvä’ (ugly). She had ignored him, instead making it her mission to trip him over so he would hit his face just as bad (which he did, but he blamed it on Kiri pushing him into a tree root rather than his painful lack of spatial awareness). Now with somewhat matching marks, both na’vi made their way towards Mo’at’s hut in order to get some salve for the bruising, something Kiri had unfortunately run out of a few days before, using the last of her stash to apply to a small mark on Tuk’s shin to stop the girl’s frown drooping right off her face.

The tsahik sensed the disturbance to her calm aura immediately, beads clicking together as she turned her head to observe the way they hovered by the entrance to the healer’s tent. She clicked her tongue, “Ack! Why is it always you two?”

Lo’ak just shrugged, moving to sit opposite the woman  with a sheepish smile, pointing to the thin cut on the bridge of his nose from the tree root. “Kiri’s fault. She almost killed me.”

“I did not!” Kiri refuted, smacking his shoulder as she folded her legs beneath her to sit beside him, tugging the woven shawl hanging over her shoulders closer. “He fell because he’s a skxawng (moron/idiot).”

“Liar,” Lo’ak hissed in English, sending her a fierce glare, to which she only responded by sticking out her tongue and humming childishly as Tuk would.  

Mo’at clucked her tongue again and they stopped, turning to face her. “And you,” she gestured to Kiri, “what happened?”

“Tuk was running from yerik in her dream, and I fell victim to her foot.”

Her grandmother smiled fondly, “She should be able to sleep by herself now.”

“She can,” Kiri grumbled, “she just likes to sleep near me. Which is fine but... I’m not a fan of her kicking habit.”

“She’s never kicked me,” Lo’ak shrugged boastfully.

“She has bit you though.”

His smug look dropped immediately, ears falling flat against his skull as he remembered the vicious bitemark on his bicep from his little sister. “Oh yeah.”

“Come closer, and don’t flinch,” Mo’at ordered, slathering a thick layer of a grey paste to her grandchildren’s noses, tail swishing in frustration as they flinched away from the smell and coldness.

“Bleugh, that’s worse than ikran shit,” Lo’ak cursed, shrieking lightly when Mo’at smacked the back of his head. “Ngaytxoa, ngaytxoa (sorry, sorry)! But it’s true!”

Kiri just shuddered, focusing intently on counting the beads in her hair instead of the godawful stench on the middle of her face. Sometimes knowing what was in the pastes was better, but this one was worse.

“Okay,” Mo’at stood quickly, shooing them towards the entrance, “leave now. I’m busy healing people who actually need help.” She gave them each a small pat on the cheek before shooing them out again more aggressively, the bangles and adornments on her arms rattling as she did.

“Irayo si (thank you),” Lo’ak shouted behind him, Kiri bowing her head, before they disappeared further into the village.  

“Eywa this shit is so gross,” Lo’ak mumbled quietly, leaning closer to Kiri’s ear as they navigated through the growing crowd of early morning hustle and bustle.

“It’ll fade away in a minute,” Kiri muttered, scratching at her upper lip with a slight grimace. It was like she could taste it!

“Yip! Kiri! Lo’ak! Matu (hey)!”

The two na’vi stopped still, turning round to follow the direction of the voice to see Alu rushing over, eyes still hazy with sleep.

“Kxi (hello),” Kiri smiled softly, feeling her face warm as her friend came closer.

It was obvious she was preparing to draw them into a hug, but both Sully’s stepped back awkwardly, shaking their heads. “Um… we have Mo’at’s bruise salve on,” Lo’ak explained quickly upon seeing her face fall slightly.

Immediately she wrinkled her nose, dropping her hands to her side. “Oh ew. What happened?”

Lo’ak shrugged, “I tripped into a root and Tuk kicked Kiri in her sleep, both smashed our noses though.”

“Wiya (damn)… ’ak (ouch). You should be more careful,” they started to continue walking and Kiri couldn’t help feeling upset by the way that Alu was solely addressing Lo’ak. “I swear Lo, it’s always you getting hurt from doing something dumb,” she laughed, her hand brushing his arm quickly. Kiri’s heart lurched. Lo? Gross.

Lo’ak just held his hands up, turning the attention to his sister who had started to sulk a few steps behind them. “It was her fault,” he huffed, “she tripped me!”

Kiri just rolled her eyes, watching a dazzling smile appear on Alu’s face. “You deserved it, you were making fun of me for my nose saying I looked gross, so I thought it was only just.”

Alu gasped, laughing as Lo’ak spluttered out insults, falling into step with Kiri and linking arms. She leaned closer, close enough for Kiri to feel the tickle of her hair against her cheek as she whispered, “Don’t tell him, but you should’ve broken his nose for that.”

Kiri’s ears twitched and Alu let out a quiet chuckle that she muffled beneath her palm. “You’re right,” Kiri mused, “next time.”

Lo’ak checked over his shoulder to see if the girls were even following him only to see Kiri’s bioluminescent freckles glowing more and more as Alu continued whispering to her in a faux hushed voice, occasionally giggling and dropping her forehead to rest against the woven shawl she wore. He grinned evilly at her and winked, ignoring the look of sheer panic on his sister’s face, and continued walking ahead, whistling as he went.

Eventually, Alu tore herself away from Kiri’s side with a small frown, dismissing herself from their company to go aid her siblings in their chores- chores that she had initially abandoned to run over to talk to them before getting distracted and following them on their walk. As soon as she was out of earshot, Lo’ak started making loud and obnoxious kissy noises, to which Kiri lunged at him, raising her fist to slam it against his chest. “Fnu (be quiet)!” she hissed, nose twitching as Lo’ak continued to tease her, the laughter bubbling out of him in a way that she found incredibly frustrating. “Lo’ak,” she groaned, tugging at her hair in desperation, yellow eyes big and wide like Tuk’s when she'd try to convince people to be nice to her when she’d been a menace. Lo’ak stopped teasing, coughing loudly in hopes it’d smother his remaining laughter and sent Kiri a shy half smile.

“Ngaytxoa (sorry),” he said, nudging her shoulder with his as they circled back to their family’s hut. “I was just joking.”

“I know,” Kiri muttered, taking a deep breath in, “it’s just… I really try not to make it obvious.”

Lo’ak pulled a face of sheer disbelief (one that he’d seen his father pull frequently as if forgetting people could see him) but immediately shook it off, knowing it’d only piss Kiri off. “In the nicest way possible… you’re shit at subtlety.”

“Kalweyaveng (son of a bitch),” she laughed, pushing one of her braids behind her ear.

“I’m being honest! Serious, swear it, on Eywa!”

“On Eywa?”

Lo’ak nodded, face as solemn as he could muster.

“Shit,” she breathed, scratching at her chin awkwardly.

“Shit indeed,” he echoed, “but don’t worry, ‘m fairly sure the family’s subtlety ran out after Neteyam.”

“True, sa’nok is only subtle half the time.”

“Yeah, and dad? Cannot keep it together for one moment, he’s an… what’s the phrase? A readable-“

“An open book?”

“Yeah! Yeah, he’s an open book.”

“Who’s an open book?” A deep voice questioned, causing both Lo’ak and Kiri to glance at each other nervously. They seemed to forget about their father’s ability to sneak up on people. Shit.

“Umm…”

“Spider,” Lo’ak blurted. “He’s all like, blah blah blah, and all that shi… y’know?”

Jake tilted his head to the left, brows furrowing ever so slightly and Lo’ak winced. Shit, again.

“You’re up to something,” Jake concluded, folding his arms across his chest.

“Whaaat?” Kiri laughed, voice cracking slightly. She coughed. “No, I mean, no we’re not.”

“Lo’ak…”

“No sir, Kiri speaks nothing but the truth, Devil Dog sir. Umm Alpha Bravo Charl…” He lifted his hand to his brow in mock salute, elbow raised high.

Jake just rolled his eyes, tweaking Lo’ak’s twitching ear gently with a smug smile playing on his face- Kiri couldn’t help but marvel how similar Lo’ak looked to him when he pulled that face. “Get back inside, skxawngs,” he laughed, watching them practically run back to their hut, tails tucked between their legs.

Perhaps the Sully’s were notorious for their lack of subtlety, but everyone knew Kiri and Lo’ak were the worst at it.

By the time he got back to the hut, Kiri and Lo’ak were already squabbling again, this time over a piece of fruit, an argument Neytiri was refusing to acknowledge given her very obvious eye rolls and the fact that she was faced away from them with Tuk tugging at her hair.

Jake whistled sharply, watching Kiri and Lo’ak’s face fall blank, eyes wide and mouths agape. He grinned again, laughing at their dumbstruck faces, and Neteyam chuckled into his own fruit.

“Skxawngs,” he hummed fondly, stroking his wife’s cheek absentmindedly before attacking Tuk with tickles. “Rutxe (please) Tuk, ‘ak (ouch),” he cried dramatically once she had gotten a fierce hold on the roots of hishair and started tugging relentlessly, small legs kicking wildly.

“Ngaytxoa sempul (sorry dad),” she giggled, letting go only for him to sweep her up in his arms again, swinging her round. “Ahhh! Ftang, ftang (stop, stop)!”

Jake grinned, slowly yielding, and placing her back on the ground, where she immediately ran to curl up in Neytiri’s arms for safety. “Alright, ‘evi (kid), go hide like always. I’ll getcha again.”

“Ma’Jake,” Neytiri hummed, smoothing her palm over Tuk’s kuru gently, watching her mate hold his hands up in surrender before sitting down nearer to his teenagers.

“Kiri… Lo’ak, what happened to your face, ‘evan (boy)?”

Lo’ak looked up from the thread he was messing with, eyes wide and panicked, quickly swallowing his mouthful before prearing to launch into a great tale of dramatics. Kiri noticed this and beat him to it: “He fell into a tree root.”

Lo’ak kicked her. “Nuh uh! She,” he pointed at Kiri, the tip of his finger poking her cheek, “pushed me over and I fell. I was violently attacked!”

“That’s not true!” She squawked, staring up at Jake as innocently as she could.

“Does sound like you Kiri,” Neteyam added, wincing at the death glare she sent his way.

Lo’ak laughed slightly at the way Neteyam balked and Kiri’s glare flicked over to him, somehow more furious than when she looked at Neteyam. It was an uncomfortable heat swirling in her eyes, and it was making him itch, even when she cast her eyes to the floor. “She did push me,” he started again, more desperately than before, anxious to escape Kiri’s rage. “She told Alu she did!”

That did it.

Kiri slowly turned to face Lo’ak again, face frozen in pure shock. He recovered quickly and grinned cheekily whilst meeting his dad’s eye.

“Lo’ak…” she whispered painfully, almost choking on the word.

“You told Alu, hey? Hmm. She’s nice,” Jake smiled knowingly, looking just like Lo’ak once again. Kiri visibly deflated.

“I was kidding,” Kiri spat, crossing her arms, and sulking.

“Ah, ah, ah, don’t close up babygirl,” Jake sang, tapping her cheek playfully, watching in delight as she yelped and then glared at him.

“Bah!” She exclaimed, smacking his hand away and snarling quietly. “Ftang (stop)! It’s not funny.”

“Ma’Kiri,” Neytiri started, her voice as smooth as the stones adorning her braids, “tell us what’s wrong.”

“I’m fine.”

Neytiri clucked her tongue, lifting Tuk from her lap to move closer to the others, her youngest now wrapping herself around her sister’s slouched figure.

“No Tuk,” Kiri whined, pushing her away.

Tuk pouted- all big eyed and sad- moving to cuddle up to Lo’ak instead, close enough to be able to rest her feet in Kiri’s lap.

Jake reached out tentatively to stroke her cheek, leaning closer to try and meet her watery gaze. “Ma’itetsyìp (little daughter)… I- we were…”

“Plltxe (speak),” Kiri snapped, hesitantly meeting his eye.

“Why are you embarrassed about us talking about Alu?”

Her face crumpled and she began to sob, burying her face in her hands as she wailed. Lo’ak patted Tuk’s hair comfortingly to keep her from crying, meeting Jake’s eye and nodding in confirmation of what the man already assumed. Neytiri had moved quicker than anyone could comprehend to pull her daughter into a hug, smoothing down her hair and shushing her tears. “Mawey ma’ite (be calm, my daughter). You’re okay, you’re okay.”

“How’d’ya feel now?” Jake asked once her sobs had ceased, tapping unintelligible rhythms against her ankle bone.

“Nawm (great),” Kiri sniffed, wiping at her eyes aggressively. “Ngaytxoa, I didn’t mean to…”

“Do not apologise,” Neytiri interrupted fiercely, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Now, rutxe (please), tell us what’s wrong.”

She froze, unblinking. She didn’t want to. Unconsciously, her eyes drifted over to Lo’ak, all teary and panicked, and he smiled at her gently, as if encouraging the words to roll off her tongue. She went to shake her head but was still, paralysed with fear.

“Kiri,” Lo’ak whispered softly, as gentle as the breeze, “it’s okay.” He nodded once more, this time more confidently than before. Tell them. Tell them. Tell them.  Kem astìtewnga’ si tute astew (a brave person does brave deeds).

She nodded back- barely visible, but Lo’ak knew, a bright smile tugging at his mouth as he watched his sister shuffle in place awkwardly before rolling her shoulders back and straightening up to face her parents properly.

“I like Alu.”

Jake nodded. “Yeahhh…”

Kiri’s dark brows furrowed, looking as perplexed as Jake had when he first started learning na’vi traditions. “That- that’s it. I like Alu.”

“So do I,” Neytiri smiled, “she’s lovely-”

“No.” Kiri shook her head, her hands trembling in her lap. “No, I like her, like like like her.”

“Yes, we- uh- we thought you might’ve felt like that,” Jake spluttered nervously, scratching his head. “Sorry. I know that’s probably not what you wanted us to say.”

Kiri teared up.

“You’re not the most subtle at the best of times, ma’ite,” Neytiri hummed, stroking Kiri’s hair, “especially not when you’re in love.”

Unsubtle. Was it really that obvious? She glanced over to Lo’ak and he shrugged as if reading her mind and she thought back to earlier that day where he had said the exact same thing. Oh Eywa…

“Kiri’s in love?” Tuk questioned Lo’ak, intending to be quieter but still unable to monitor her volume properly.

“Yes, tsmuketsyìp (little sister),” Neteyam laughed softly, sending Kiri a huge grin.

“Kezemplltxe (of course),” Lo’ak whispered in her ear, pinching her waist playfully, dodging her wriggling limbs.

Unable to fight it, Kiri’s face split in half with the biggest and brightest smile they’d seen on her, practically glowing as they all huddled together to smother her in hugs and kisses, Tuk weaselling her way closer to chew at her shawl affectionately.

“Bah, Tuk stop wriggling! ‘Ak (ouch)! She bit me!” Lo’ak screeched.

“Tuktiery,” Jake said in a low voice.

“Ngaytxoa, sempul,” she responded immediately, kicking Lo’ak purposefully one more time before settling down.

“Sooo…” Neteyam started, “when are you going to tell her?”

Kiri froze. Shit. “Umm, I’m- I’m not.”

Neytiri drew back, a frown marring her pretty face. “No, you have to say something.”

“Fiiinneee,” she groaned, squeezing her eyes shut to avoid her mother’s expecting stare.

“Yay!” Tuk cheered. “Ooooh! Do it now, do it now, do it now! If you don’t, I’ll bite you.”

“Wha-”

“Yeah, do it now or you’ll never say anything, and we’ll have to suffer through you complaining about it all day,” Lo’ak jibed, sending her a genuine smile to show he was just kidding.

“Okay, okay, okay!” She cried, standing up on shaky legs.

“Go!” Jake laughed, ushering her away. “Quickly!”

Kiri sent them a big smile, nodding reassuringly before turning on her heel and rushing off, the twine shawl flying out behind her. Jake grinned as he watched her go, heart aching at how grown up she was now, turning to sit next to Neytiri who was beaming equally as bright with her hand on her mouth.

Kiri’s head span as she raced through the village. She was never one for physical activity, much preferring to limit it to chasing after Tuk and Lo’ak when going on adventures, finding it more enjoyable to stay hunched over in Mo’at’s company in the healing tent, mashing leaves and making salves. Now she realised just how unfit she’d become from that habitual behaviour, and Eywa, she regretted it. But soon enough, she reached an extremely familiar tent: Alu’s.

Shit.

But before she could even think of something to say, a lilting voice caught her attention a few meters away.

Kiri knows eavesdropping is bad, it’s something that her parents had constantly chided them all on (given how nosy they were and also due to the sensitivity of the information discussed between the Olo’eyktan and Tsakarem), and she was very nearly about to turn her attention back to the hut until she heard a laugh. A very girly laugh. The same one echoing in her brain from earlier that morning- Alu’s. Her feet betrayed her, and she found herself sneaking closer and closer until she could understand all of the words that were being shared in hushed whispers.

“Not here!” Alu had said lightly, although Kiri knew she was probably smiling whilst saying it, the words whispering past her fangs.

“You said the forest was too far away,” the other voice- a male voice- responded teasingly. Kiri’s brow furrowed deeply. Alu never really talked to boys… did she?

“Ma’Rasi, I said that because you are too impatient to wait all that way. It has nothing to do with me, nor my restraint.”

Oh. Kiri’s heart sank. Her feet stumbled backwards, and she ran away quicker than she had ran there. But she was so desperate to escape the situation she failed to stay quiet, the sound of her rushing away disrupting the quiet atmosphere Alu and Rasi stood in. Alu poked her head out from behind the cloth her sa’nok had hung out to dry over a branch that she and Rasi hid behind.

“Rasi,” she whispered, voice strained, “I think someone heard us.”

The boy inhaled deeply and ran after the person who’d been eavesdropping, hearing Alu race after him a few seconds later, panic ebbing through his veins.

Minutes later, Kiri appeared near her home and collapsed in exhaustion several meters outside the hut on the nearest patch of grass and soil, curled up on the floor and sobbing deeply. Shit. Of course, this happened. Of fucking course! She should’ve just stayed home and let Tuk chew away at her flesh until all that was left was a pile of bones and her twine shawl (but knowing Tuk, she’d gnaw her way through that too, she had already developed a bad habit of eating hair beads). She didn’t know why she’d never considered the possibility that her extremely beautiful best friend was involved in a courtship, she never even considered if Alu even liked girls in the same way!

All the running had knocked the breath from her lungs, leaving her lying on the ground dizzy and struggling to breath. She prayed silently to Eywa, mostly unintelligible strands of sentences that made no sense but seemed to be the only words she could muster. Oel ngati kameie Great Mother, she thought somewhat bitterly as she felt her heart thump heard enough against her rib cage she was confident it would burst straight through the brittle bone. Her tears had ceased, mainly because of her exhaustion, and were now drying on her face over her still glowing freckles. She could feel the soil against her cheek but couldn’t find it within herself to go anywhere else, so stayed on the soft soil of the forest near her home.

Kiri was so tired that she couldn’t hear the thundering of footfalls against the ground, sending vibrations through the soil she lay in. Didn’t hear the distinct shout of Alu’s gentle voice. Didn't hear either of these things getting closer and closer and-

“Wiya (damn),” a masculine voice huffed sharply from above her. Rasi. He sucked in a deep breath, staring down at Kiri’s unmoving frame and laughed painfully. “You’re a great runner, Kiri te Suli Kìreysì’ite. Could outrun anything out there if I could run that fast.”

“Kä (go),” Kiri groaned lowly, still facing the soil. She didn’t want to hear him gloat about how he successfully wooed Alu’s heart or whatever else he wanted to say to kick her when she was down.

“Ma’paysyul (waterlily), what are you doing down there?”

Her hands clenched at Alu’s lovely voice. This was going to hurt.

“We heard you.”

“Heard me when? I'm afraid I don’t know what you mean.” She answered coldly.

“Pxiswawam (just a moment ago),” Rasi said dryly.

“Hmm, must’ve been someone else-” Kiri started, pushing herself up with the intention of rushing back to her hut and hiding away forever.

“You think me a skxawng, Kiri?” Alu teased, moving to sit next to her friend, playing with a half-braided red and green bracelet.

“No…” she whispered, drawing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin atop them, ignoring the soil that clung to her blue limbs.

“Then don’t treat me like one. You ran, why?”

Kiri shrugged. “I heard something that was not meant for me to hear.” She couldn’t help how bitter the words sounded. “So, I left.”

“You ran,” Rasi corrected, nose twitching as she met his eyes with a fearsome stare.

“Call it what you’d like, Rasi,” she said cruelly, “running, leaving, whatever.”

Alu blinked slowly, looking up at Rasi who nodded to her quickly.

“Kiri… what did you hear?”

“You and Rasi… Why didn’t you tell me?”

Alu’s face fell quickly. “Tell you what?” Her voice was squeaky now, shaking.

“That you and Rasi…” Kiri grit her teeth and gestured around with her hand, “y’know, that you’re courting or whatever it is that yo-”

She was interrupted by a bellowing laugh from Rasi, the na’vi doubling over at her obvious jealousy. “Courting? Me? With her? Oh, for Eywa’s sake, you’re both as kakrel (blind) as each other!”

At his outburst, Alu’s face flushed darker, her ears twitching as her tail anxiously began to swish behind her.

(Unbeknownst to the trio, the Sully’s were able to hear every word and were currently breaking the Olo’eytkan’s most sacred rule: no eavesdropping. They hunched together by the opening to their hut with their ears pressed against the canvas, whispering to each other in shock.

“Oh no,” Neteyam sighed, “Alu’s with Rasi? I could’ve sworn he was with-”

“Foai? Yeah, he is,” Jake finished, “I gave him the Olo’eyktan’s blessing a few weeks ago. He’s not courting Alu.”

Lo’ak gasped, “Which means Kiri’s just a jealous freak!”

Tuk giggled quietly, hand over her mouth like Neytiri had told her once Rasi and Alu had stopped just a few metres away.

“She calls me a skxawng but she manages to cock this up,” Lo’ak murmured to Neteyam, causing the older boy to snort loudly, immediately slapping his hand over his mouth to muffle the noise.)

 Kiri trailed her gaze over to her hut quickly, tail swishing as she fought the urge to run away again. Alu noticed this and stopped her by grabbing her wrist tightly, tugging her closer. Unfortunately, her strength was misjudged, and she sent Kiri sprawling into her lap.

“Eek!” She squeaked anxiously. “Ngaytxoa! Ngaytxoa, I only meant to…”

“It’s okay,” Kiri breathed, blinking quickly, "it's okay."

Of course it is, Rasi thought to himself, rolling his eyes and flexing his hands. His lip quirked upwards as he slowly started to slink away, dropping a second threaded bracelet by their feet before moving away quicker, occupying himself by drawing shapes into the grass.

Kiri smiled softly, unsure of how to act. Neither girl had gone to put more distance between them, but neither knew how to function with this little distance between them, instead they both sat staring at each other nervously.

Alu acted first, moving her right hand to cup Kiri’s cheek, careful to avoid the bruise on her nose. Kiri’s tail swished wildly. Alu always knew that Kiri had more ‘demon-like’ features but had never found any issue with them. In fact, right now she thought they were the most beautiful thing Eywa could’ve gifted to any na’vi: they were so enchanting and unique, not even Jake and Lo'ak had the same feautures as Kiri. “Nalor (beautiful),” she whispered, mouth barely moving.

Kiri found herself leaning closer, eyes focused on the specific umber yellow shade of Alu’s irises, noticing all the golden flecks that were dotted throughout. She stared at the smattering of glowing freckles across her face- far more than anyone in Kiri’s family had- and the small scar across her cheekbone from where her brother had accidentally sliced her with a knife when practicing his hunting techniques with her. Her mouth was slightly open, purple lips offset by her glistening white fangs and once Kiri looked down at them, she couldn’t move her gaze from them.

“I’m not courting Rasi, Kiri,” Alu said sweetly, nose twitching as Kiri’s tail brushed against her leg accidentally. “I wouldn’t do that to Foai, his actual mate.”

Kiri’s eyes widened and her ears pinned to her skull. “Oh-”

“Skxawng.” Alu lifted her hands to brush against Kiri’s forearms, fingers trailing over the twine adorning her shoulders. She tilted her head to the left ever so slightly, gazing at Kiri out of more narrowed eyes. “I wouldn’t you that to you either.”

“Um… what- what do you mean?” Kiri spluttered, eyes darting anywhere by Alu’s pretty face.

The other na’vi grinned, mouth widening into a smirk as she huffed out a gentle laugh at Kiri’s obliviousness. Her hand moved to her neck, thumbs brushing against her jaw to move her head to face her again. “Don’t act all shy now, you were so eager to eavesdrop earlier and now when I’m trying to tell you to your face, you’re searching for an escape route!”

“I- I’m not-” Kiri said quickly.

If possible, Alu’s smile brightened even more at Kiri’s words. “I know, I know. I’m just teasing, ma’yawnetu (beloved).”

(“Alu’s got moves!” Lo’ak beamed, “this is amazing.”

“Ma’yawnetu? Oh Eywa, Kiri’s all grown up. Ma’Jake, ma’ite’s all grown up.”

“Shhh mama, I can’t hear over your crying!”)

“Ma’yawnetu?” Kiri stuttered, blinking dumbly.

“Kiri… how many times did Toruk Makto drop you as a babe?”

Kiri’s face screwed up in confusion- “Uhm, he didn’t.”

“Are you sure? You seem a bit slower up there than usual,” she grinned, tapping her index finger against the girl’s temple lovingly, biting her lip to smother her laughter at Kiri’s offended stare.

“You’re being mean,” Kiri laughed quietly, finally looping her arms around Alu’s shoulders.

Alu grinned wickedly, left eye dropping into a wink. “I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, ma’tìyawne (my love). I can kiss you better if that’d help. After all, can’t have the Olo’eyktan after my head for upsetting his 'babygirl', can I?”

Kiri’s face flushed warmer than it’d ever been, and she just stared silently, mouth agape in pure shock. She couldn’t even function when Alu whispered to her earlier that day, how was she supposed to function when she said stuff like that to her?

“Kiri, can I-”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t know what I was going to say,” Alu rolled her eyes with a slight chuckle.

“Yes.”

Alu pinched her waist quickly. “Let me do this properly, ma’Kiri. So impatient,” she teased amusedly.

“Please just say what you need to, I might faint otherwise.”

“Oh well we can’t have that can we?” Alu moved her face even closer, her nose barely bumping into Kiri’s- which no longer smelt like Mo’at’s bruise salve (thankfully). “Nga yawne lu oer (you are beloved to me/I love you). Can I kiss you, ma’Kiri? Rutxe (please).”

Kiri nodded, letting Alu press her lips against hers.

Sometimes being related to such skxawngs like Lo’ak and evil critters like Tuk isn’t the worst fate Eywa has bestowed upon her. And now, now that she knows how much Alu loves her and knows how fucking obvious they’ve been for the past however long whilst trying to hide the signs of teenage love, Kiri is glad she was convinced to confess by her family, glad that she was possibly the most unsubtle person in the clan, and glad that she eavesdropped.

“You know,” Alu whispered, “Rasi was helping me prepare courting gifts for you.”

Kiri beamed, “Really?”

“Yes, that’s why I didn’t want you to know I’ve been hanging out with him. The less you knew the better.”  

“I’m glad I know now,” Kiri admitted, trailing her middle finger along the length of Alu’s nose.

“I’m glad you know now too, oer oare (my moon). I guess it’s for the best, hmm?”

🌟🫧🪷

DONE‼️

hope u enjoyed <3 lmk in the comments :)

[peridotporygon]

thinkign a LOT about meow wolf again,,,, i need my friends to come with me. i need you guys to see it

yhe cult leader has a boyfriend. there's a lesbian dream sequence music video for the grocery store girl. they're all connected. there's freaky little creatures. tomato snail. you can buy a can of GENDER FLUID FFS. there's notebooks and documents and papers and stuff to look at. ooh pretty colors. you guys will never know what's in store for you. the fish tank room.

[so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site]

Dream-Killing Bitches, Evil Exes, and Bad Moms: Portrayals of Women in "The Kindly Ones"

So, I've been attempting to write a more formal meta about this for months, but I've not gotten it to ever gel properly, so I thought I'd share my thoughts more informally here.

COMICS SPOILERS AHEAD

Basically, there is something really weird about how women are treated in The Kindly Ones arc of The Sandman.

The semi-official guidebook "Sandman: King of Dreams" basically called The Kindly Ones a #GirlPower arc, but I don't find much particularly empowering about it. Lyta literally goes insane from the stress of being a single mother, albeit exacerbated by supernatural forces. Thessaly is a TERF bitch who serves the role of "spiteful ex" to the protagonist. Nuala is passive and sad and ultimately just pushed around by the whims of the men around her, and when she finally makes a choice of her own it kills the person she cared about. Rose's quarter-life crisis is miraculously "solved" by an unplanned pregnancy. Chantal and Zelda die of AIDS. Even the unstoppable Furies are ultimately a tool in a man's orchestrated suicide-by-magical-cop.

Maybe this is a leftover from when the books were written? Maybe this was the epitome of feminism in the 90s? Or maybe the guide was meaning that the women were powerful as in LITERALLY powerful...women sure do wield a lot of deadly strength and magic in this, even if none of them are particularly EMpowered, if you catch my meaning.

There's also layers as to how we're supposed to interpret this in relation to Morpheus, our doomed protagonist. I've written previously about how we might be intended to see him as an unsympathetic misogynist. If that's the case, then perhaps his doom at the hands of multiple female forces is supposed to be karmic and positive, no matter how questionable those women are. Support for this interpretation is the myth the old ladies (a manifestation of the Kindly Ones?) tell Rose, wherein a deceptive man who abuses and kills his wife meets a karmic comeuppance at the hands of his magically transformed daughters and resurrected wife.

There's also the fact that Overture reveals that Morpheus has MASSIVE issues with his mother. If one decides not to interpret Morpheus's death as a suicide, there is the possible alternate explanation that he frankly underestimated Lyta's threat level to him. Having never experienced a mother's unconditional love, he couldn't fathom that a mother could love her kid enough to literally go insane and kill gods over them.

But even as motherhood is a negative path to stress, insanity, and threatening the fabric of the universe, it's also VERY uncomfortably presented as a cure-all. Rose only gets her heart back by getting knocked up, and we're supposed to see Lyta's suggestion of an abortion as further continuance of Lyta's madness. But of all people, Lyta knows what she's talking about! She knows how difficult single motherhood is! She was going mad even before supernatural intervention... In fact, multiple sequences in The Kindly Ones make it ambiguous what elements are supernatural and what are just her mind interpreting mundane signs as godly while cracking under realistic stress!

This goes outside of the arc I chose to focus on, but I also can't help but contrast the two lesbian couples: Foxglove and Hazel vs. Chantal and Zelda. Foxglove and Hazel end up on the path of traditional motherhood, down to having to choose a child over a career, despite being lesbians! Meanwhile, Chantal and Zelda, as mentioned, die horribly of AIDS. The paths for women are motherhood, tragedy, madness, or some combination thereof.

I'd almost say that the ultimate message of The Kindly Ones regarding women is "no matter what type of woman you are, things will go horribly for you, you cannot win, and no matter what you are at the whim of a violent patriarchal system. The closest you can come to 'winning' is unfortunately by playing into the male-POV fantasy of devoted motherhood." But. like. that was DEFINITELY NOT THE INTENDED WRITTEN MESSAGE. BUT THAT IS THE MESSAGE THAT RESULTS.

Forget asking if Morpheus is a misogynist, the NARRATIVE ITSELF of The Kindly Ones pushes misogyny more than any individual character does!

tagging those who I know like discussing/reading meta:

@serenityspiral @orionsangel86 @violetoftheendless @duckland @notallsandmen

[oldtvandcomics]

Happy Queer Media Monday!

Today: Crypt of the Vampire (1964)

Feels like I already covered this with the Carmilla and lesbian vampire posts, but I do what I want, so.

(Laura and Carmilla during the extremely atmospheric climax of the movie)

Crypt of the Vampire, also known as Terror In The Crypt (the meaning of the original title) is a 1964 Italian-Spanish gothic horror film in the lesbian vampire subgenre. It is a rather faithful adaptation of the classic novel Carmilla, with the major difference being the addition of witchcraft. It is very atmospheric, with lots of blowing curtains and dream sequences that blur the edges of reality. It was filmed in an actual castle, and stars among others Christopher Lee, because of course it does.

Of the ones that I saw, this is my favorite Carmilla adaptation.

You can find the rest here, in my lesbian vampire masterlist. I have made Queer Media Monday posts about both Carmilla and the lesbian vampire subgenre before. 

The movie is completely available on YouTube.

Queer Media Monday is an action I started to talk about some important and/or interesting parts of our queer heritage, that people, especially young people who are only just beginning to discover the wealth of stories out there, should be aware of. Please feel free to join in on the fun and make your own posts about things you personally find important!

[krisbianbitchface]

Ok so to warm my heart a little from the coldness of knowing I will have to wait 2 years to see dear Rhaenyra again I have started watching Game of Thrones,I was not very fond of it when it came out however now I am older and just desiring to binge watch anything to get myself to sleep and I have a few thoughts I need to get out of my head or maybe opinions,it might me a little over the top since of course I am a lesbian drama queen and I live to complain,im only in season 3 almost ending the season...

I fucking hate that kid bran,he takes soooo much screen time just to retell dreams and look like that snarky kid that throws random stuff on the ground in Walmart with a stupid look on his face (I really Wish Jamie would have killed his ass)

Melissandre is the most interesting character of the series,so witty and cruel in the best way,I was shocked when she killed that king with her baby demon and absolutely smitten,I love cruel women.

Jon Snow is the most boring character I have EVER witnessed in the story of television and trust me I've been there since Xena Warrior Princess graced the screens,just no goals,no path,no big dick or small dick energy,no energy AT ALL,just a big fat ugly Hero complex that I just can't stand because the actor has the same expression everytime no matter what happens,even having a boner with a cute girl cuddling his dick he is 😐 like gtfo of my face

Cersei is second to Melissandre in the scale of bad bitches,she is just so fucking resented and hot,everything she says sounds like wind chimes even if she is sending a child to his death,I cant help but want her to hate fuck me and call me a fagg0t and then tell me Im the worst fuck she's ever had and just use me again.

Dragons...Should I say more? I started the series of House of the Dragon because I just love dragons,and a particular scene is just edged in my mind like iron,Daenerys saving her little dragons from that sorcerers dungeon and their cute little faces watching her almost like trying to say "Momma! You're here! we missed you!" I think is the cutest scene ever.

Daenerys...She serving cunt,she ate and licked the plate,she served and left no crumbs,the director said cut and she heard CUNT and went with it, she caused a motherquake of 9.99 in the cunt scale,she's mother, and no other than the Mother of Dragons, I just love her,she is what Cleopatra VII was before hollywood found her and turned her into a makeup propaganda fashionista, a true strategist and conqueror.

Kal Drogo,I just mourned his death,he was so cute and murderous, i wept real tears for sweet Daenerys, I think the actor was really good and he needed more screen time, his scenes were charged with masculity and power,something we really lack these days in television.

Sansa, she is a beauty,the kind of beauty fantasy writers try to describe and there is just no way that human exists and then there is her...But she is so fucking traumatized and set aside just like every other woman in that universe,hell,even in life,I feel for her...And also wanna date her,i won't lie

Aria is a tough little woman,I think they really need to step up her action scenes because I think she serves well as a hope in the darkness kind of character however I do wish the actress was more prone to make a proper action sequence ala Eleven from Stranger Things,you can say what you want about miss Millie Bobby Brown but she is one of the few actresses willing to make many changes ln television for years to come with her characters.

Jamie Lannister is an interesting fighter and I wish it was possible to swap his fight scenes with Aria since i think it was proper giving the context,anyway he has good fighting sequences that I think were ment for someone else.

The sex scenes... This was a series HBO really set the bar high for nudity,there is so much nudity,sometimes unnecessary and cruel for the actresses involved and at the same time, is not surprising considering this series was made by two straight men,this always happens in the industry although these days is harder due to the constant intimacy coordination, but yeah in those times I can't imagine how unerving it was for actresses to bare it all for a couple of coins in a popular series.

Enough with my ramblings,I declare myself a fan of game of thrones only for Daenerys and her cute little dragons 💖

[lazarusphenomenon]

i desperately need to know who was writing the burning maze because there’s so many references to the lost hero in tbm and tdp.

like it has to be rick and a ghost writer or a ghost writer working by themself.

someone refreshed to read tbm (referencing several thematic scenes) while tdp is just the lost hero of it sucked really bad. but also apollo and two cool lesbian ocs who aren’t relevant any more show up too.

an amnesiac son of zeus / jupiter travels with a young sorceress who wants to live a normal life and go to normal school. their pilot is leo valdez. come on…

calypso obtains identical injuries to what piper receives in tlh (leg injury / broken ankle, punches something that shouldn’t be punched).

i don’t want to get into it with tbm…

but i think the retcon that “hera implanted false memories in our heads” about piper and jason is horrible. it’s just following fanon in piper’s case and directly contradicting canon (especially tlh canon).

the fanon that hera implanted specific mist memories strips piper of agency and is in conflict with aphrodite point blank telling piper to her face in her dream sequence that piper was the one who shaped the memories of her and jason dating.

[watching-pictures-move]

Put On Your Raincoats | Easy (Spinelli, 1978)

Like Vista Valley PTA, the movie has an ugly streak with respect to its sex scenes. You start off with two scenes where Jesie St. James is assaulted by her male students, which are both rapey in that Golden Age way where the nonconsensual turns into the consensual. One is in a classroom, but the more memorable one is in her home, where she's raped by Richard Pacheco playing the world's oldest teenager in sunglasses and a leather jacket, who threatens her with a switchblade before forcing himself on her while we get hard rock guitar and tribal drums on the soundtrack.

And later on we get a lesbian rape scene, an angry Georgina Spelvin as the other woman in a relationship who attacks her in her lover's home. Spelvin is holding back on the slaps, but she gets in some nipple twisting and drags St. James by her hair across the floor, and the burst of handheld camerawork makes this feel extra bruising. And like that movie, the strength of the performances and the direction makes this effective on a prurient level. You can question whether this stuff should be hot, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't. And in terms of other unpleasantness, she gets propositioned by a sleaze played by Anthony Spinelli himself, looking like Burt Young without his beard in a bar scene defined by high contrast lighting.

But not all the sex is viewed so caustically. Early on St. James makes love to a blind piano tuner played by Ken Scudder, who doesn't have his usual mustache or cowboy affect. It's a pretty tender scene, with Scudder expressing his insecurity that she's might be fucking him because she feels sorry for him, and her putting those fears to rest.

Later, St. James temporarily finds love with a guy who resembles a porno Paul Le Mat, but not before she and her friends Laurien Dominique and Desiree Cousteau pair up with some guys during a dinner party. There's one last guy left eating alone at the table, who introverts in the audience can probably relate to. This sequence ends up cutting between the three pairs of lovers, a tactic I'm normally not fond of, but the cutting and alternating music selection holds it together pretty nicely. Listen, if you're gonna do match cuts between blowjobs, you've got the direction down pretty nicely. Plus Dominique's hair and eyebrows make her look like a '30s cinema heroine, which is very important to note. For those of you TCM fans who've dreamed of seeing, I dunno, Myrna Loy getting railed, this is as close as you'll get.

This is in essence a performer showcase, and while some of the material might be unpleasant, I think it works really well. You have a great central presence in St. James. Listen, I don't have to tell you that her cheekbones and athletic physique present obvious charms, but I do think the movie does well to capture her beauty, bathing her in idyllic lighting as she jogs during the opening. Plus she's great in the sex scenes and the movie wisely features her in all of them (even if it's technically cheating during the dinner party scene, she is never far from our hearts or the screen). The boingoingoing factor is strong, is what I'm saying.

But this is also about a woman struggling with her sense of sexual agency, a theme which makes the varying levels of consent in the sex scenes cohere into something that actually resonates on an emotional level. St. James projects dignity even when her circumstances threaten to take it away from her, and the movie gives her room to think and feel good or bad about what she's going through. There is ugliness in this movie, and the ending, captured in freeze frame with echoing dialogue, is not happy, but there is real empathy at the heart of this movie.

[bestygogirl]

BEST YGO GIRL: Round 3, Group B

Match 3

please use this as an opportunity to say why you like a character, not why you don't.

Propaganda under the cut!

Aoi Zaizen

The show hates her but she is a very good character. Trickstars and Marincesses are both hella cool decks.

Aoi’s parents died when she was around 6 and she was mostly raised by her older brother. She’s the 2nd best Duelist in the VRAINS at the start of the series and over the course of the first season goes from being rather shy and only putting on a happy facade to a determined Duelist willing to risk her life to save the world. She even puts a stop to a virus that’s leaving people in comas.

Aoi gets two more avatars (Blue Girl and Blue Maiden) and also obtains a semi-magic AI named Aqua as her partner.

She never lets her trauma keep her down and was a huge inspiration for me in high school!

AOI ZAIZEN IS THE BEST GIRL! She's gonna sweep this whole tournament and here's why:

Is the peak YGO Girl who Deserved Better from the writers

Just a normal everyday girl IRL who secretly turns into an ultra bubbly sweetheart idol who everyone absolutely loves when in the virtual world.

Her VRAINS persona is extremely popular, and none of her fans know that she's just Some Girl.

Plays an idol deck with Trickstars (toxic meta combo not included)

Is sheltered by her overprotective older step-brother/guardian, but very quickly stands up for herself and what she believes is right.

Mutual protection with said step-brother is the sweetest thing ever, I love Aoi and Akira moments so much!

She does NOT fall head over heels for the main protagonist, but they do share a nice conversation and handshake as they become friends IRL (one of the best VRAINS scenes, honestly)

Absolutely wrecks Soulburner for like 99% of their duel, and only loses because the writers don't understand how to move a plot along if Soulburner doesn't win as many duels as possible

Duels two seasonal antagonists, and completely destroys them both before losing thanks to an OP anime card that will never see the light of day, and a one-off card made specifically to counter her strategy and have her lose.

Her first virtual avatar, Blue Angel, is inspired by the main character from her favorite childhood book. That's adorable!

Her main summoning chants are all about hopes, dreams, and believing in yourself.

In the English dub, she says "I could so swipe left on you right now" implying that Tinder exists in the Yu-Gi-Oh universe.

Never got the Magical Girl transformation sequence she deserved because the writers apparently were not aware that Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS is a Magical Girl show, despite the two main dudes getting that special treatment.

AOI ZAIZEN DESERVED BETTER! Give her what she deserves!

AND SHE'S A TRANS LESBIAN

Condemned Darklord

She literally could not catch a break during the forbidden items line of cards, but at least she has two gfs to match with her link form stole from God Himself FOUR times. iconic behavior honestly