#who do y’all think the man is?

[florwal]

the disappearance of whitney byrd: part 2 (spoilers) part 1

warning: this story involves multiple heavy topics

earlier that day whitney was with her boyfriend tommy, they stole wine from a convenience store and he gave her a handful of xanax before dropping her off at her house. he knew the stress she felt over hiding her pregnancy from her grandma was overwhelming, so he was just trying to help. the baby would probably be fine, his mom did worse things when she was pregnant and he turned out okay.

may 05, 2022

whitney had a million questions circling around in her mind, but the only thing she could get out was a quiet

“why’d you leave me?”

her mom didn’t respond, she wouldn’t even look her in the eye. something wasn’t right - a feeling of warmth and uneasiness washed over whitney, nothing felt real. before walking to the park she popped one of the bars tommy gave her and washed it down with half the bottle. as she was waiting for her mom to say something, she started getting dizzy. she didn’t notice the man in a hoodie and gloves behind her until he pulled her off the swing and onto the ground.

whitney looked up at the man, he wasn’t a stranger - even though her vision was blurry she knew exactly who he was. she thought if she were to ever be in this situation she’d put up a fight, scream, do anything she could to get away… but she was paralyzed by fear. maybe the sober her could’ve done more, it was too late though. even if she tried to run, she’d be too slow. the man forcefully pushed her head into the sand, got close to her face and calmly whispered

“scream and i’ll bury the both of you together.”

the dizziness was getting worse and her breathing started to get shallow. she nodded her head and closed her eyes, trying to imagine that this wasn’t really happening as she slipped into unconsciousness.

the man picked whitney up and threw her over his shoulder, slowly walking out of the park.

woman: you didn’t have to go and be so rough with her

[transmascissues]

hey i know your post about your mom was mostly just a personal vent, but i have to say, do you realize that also happens with trans girls and their fathers? literally happened to one of my friends. i’m not trying to downplay your experience or something but i found it strange that you seem to think this is something that only affects transmascs

i have one question for you: so fucking what?

i don’t doubt that trans girls have experienced similar things and yeah, that’s bad too, but what the fuck does that have to do with me and the specific things i’m facing as a result of being a trans man? i never said “look at this thing that happens to ONLY trans men and NO ONE ELSE,” i just said “hey, isn’t this thing that happens to a lot of trans men, including myself, fucked up?”

i would also like to point out that what you’re talking about is in fact a different (albeit similar) thing. the way cis people treat trans people can differ dramatically based on the cis person’s gender because their commitment to gender roles is, like, a major part of problem. the specific way a cis mother reacts to her trans son’s transition is often going to be very distinct, while a cis father will likely respond to his trans daughter in a different but equally distinct way.

what i’m talking about is a very specific kind of ownership and control and self-victimization and total lack of boundaries masquerading as love and care and maternal concern that cis women (i would argue white cis women in particular) project onto their transmasc kids when we do literally anything to our bodies. i’m talking about a phenomenon which is closely related to the way moms often pass eating disorders onto their daughters (or children they view as daughters) because they see a body that looks something like theirs and project all of their insecurities and ideals onto it. i’m talking about a form of parental transphobia and projection that’s specific to the dynamic of a cis mother and her child who was “supposed to” be her daughter.

if you’ve never felt that, you’re not even remotely qualified to tell me shit about how i should be talking about that experience, and if you couldn’t recognize that experience when you read my post, i’m guessing you probably haven’t experienced it because the replies to that post made it very clear to me that anyone who has experienced it firsthand immediately knew exactly what i meant.

like, yeah, cis dads also project onto their trans daughters, but are they likely to have a reaction like running away with actual tears streaming down their face? do you expect them to passive aggressively make comments about how sad their kid’s transition makes them, how it’s such a difficult emotional time, how it’s so tragic because their kid’s body was so beautiful before? do you think their go-to transphobic reaction will be weaponizing their emotions? i’m sure there are some dads out there who are like that, but i think we can agree they’re in the minority because that’s not how cis men are taught to react and parents like this tend to be pretty damn committed to following the gender roles they were taught.

and even if i’m wrong and our experiences are exactly the same, let me reiterate that i never said this was an experience exclusive to trans men. all i said is that it happens to us. that’s just a statement of objective fact.

this started in my life when i got my hair cut short for the first time almost a decade ago and it has not stopped since. i’ve watched my mom cry over me changing my name and respond to being asked if my happiness matters more to her than my name by saying “i care about both”, i’ve watched her melt down in a mall over me getting a suit for prom and give me the silent treatment for days after, i’ve heard her plead with me to stop t because it “looks unnatural” and she’s just so “concerned for my health”, i’ve watched her stare at me post-op and say “my poor baby” over and over like she’s looking at my corpse in a casket. i’ve watched her turn herself into the victim of every single aspect of my transition. i’ve had to live with this for 9 years and spent the early years of the pandemic literally locked in a house with it. this has been my entire adolescent and adult life, and the question of if i’ll have to cut her off someday (and maybe never see my cat or my little cousins who i love more than anything in the world ever again as a result) haunts me every single day.

who the fuck are you to tell me how to talk about that?

[strawberri-draws]

Me when assassins r in a classroom (and are all in middle school)

[beetlevsboy]

I want to preface this post by saying that I love the cat king as a character, especially one that has such a major impact on Edwin and his relationship with his queerness and learning to be okay with it; HOWEVER, I also believe that everyone that genuinely believes he should be a love interest for Edwin should read this. (Also if you just like the cat king as a character and want to understand his character better and why his and Edwin’s relationship is not something that would be healthy or “real” for either)

[urahara-lovepage]

bleach media literacy is actually just a measure of how you read urahara as a character

[coconut530]

GET HIM GIRLY!!!!!

[unnerving-presence]

lowkey annoying how the same people who say “wesker would not say he loves you” and accuse people who say that of making wesker ooc are the same people who genuinely think he’d kill you for interacting with him, which is also ooc

[spicyicymeloncat]

Where’s that Ninjago sin post I’ve come to accept that my Ninjago sin is wrath and it’s wrath over the flanderisation of Kai Ninjago seriously I cannot shut up abt him it is an issue

[genshinlesbian]

Y’all don’t even understand I love Neuvillette sooo so much

[doublel27]

TK constantly acknowledges that he fucks up, apologizes, and he calls himself names while doing so. He apologized and called himself "crazy" for not responding well to Carlos's surprise date in season 1. He apologized and called himself a "bitch" for being upset that Carlos didn't introduce him to his parents in season 2. He tried to apologize for fighting with Carlos in season 2, and Carlos said something about agreeing not to, meaning that they had talked about it. He apologized and said that he "screwed up" for talking to Iris now in season 4.

Idk what show you are watching, honestly.

Yes. TK does. TK has also been in therapy since he was seven (even if he’s mostly applied those strategies after rehab), has two parents who were in law school and process everything verbally even if it’s not effective. TK has better skills around communication and always has. I’ve argued that since I started watching the show. There’s several metas.

But no one drags him through his fuck ups, he owns them naturally and in some cases, I think he over apologizes. TK drags himself through his fuck ups. But I think TK is used to being, occasionally, the most functional being in the room with his parents and does a lot of managing of situations. He’s always apologizing and sometimes over apologizing. It’s who TK is.

Carlos, meanwhile, does not process verbally. He never has. He sits and stews. He gets petty and doesn’t own his parts. He’s a perfectionist who is terrified that if he’s wrong or fucks up he won’t be enough or loved and is driven to be the best he can to the point he occasionally lies or gaslights people in order to not own his shit. He’s been like that since season one.

He has two parents who he came out to at 17 who never mentioned it again, even with him turning around and getting married at 18-20 and that marriage rapidly falling apart. Like? They don’t talk. About anything. We see it in how stoic Gabriel is in 2.08 and is shocked when Carlos lashes out. Carlos says that the most emotional he’s ever seen his father is 2.12 after the arson. Even in 4.04 TK takes a moment to lash out at Gabriel for keeping everything so close. This is the man Carlos has been trying to impress his whole life. Gabriel Reyes is a man who very clearly believes actions speak a lot louder than words and Carlos is very similar.

Carlos has also, to my knowledge, never been in therapy. TK is the better communicator (I’ve said that since I’ve started watching the show). He’s been slowly learning communication skills from TK. We’ve seen such a change from season 1/2 when Carlos would call TK crazy for holding boundaries or pretending TK’s assessment of meeting the parents wasn’t weird. Instead we’ve seen a progression to season 3 where Carlos doesn’t entirely pretend everything’s fine but opens up before TK disappears in 3.13. We get a man in season 4 who doesn’t try and fix it without telling TK but goes to him and tries to come up with a plan.

Carlos does not tend to apologize verbally like TK. He apologizes, most frequently, through action. We see it in 1.03 when Carlos asks TKK out on a real date instead of trying to manufacture a date out of a booty call. We see it in 2.12 when TK tries to apologize for the fight at the firehouse and he’s cooking dinner and tells TK to leave it. We see it in 3.04 where he immediately takes TK home and has already moved TK in. We see it in 3.13 when Carlos calls Cooper and puts a pizza in the oven and leaves.

The only real verbal apologies we get out of him is, aside from stupid things when TK almost died, is the one about his parents which required TK pushing him not once, but twice on the issue. TK did call himself a little bitch (but he wasn’t fucking sorry about it) and told Carlos how unsafe he felt because of Carlos’s actions and that’s when Carlos apologized. He often needs to be confronted with how his actions affect people to apologize and there wasn’t time for all that processing here.

They’re both petty bitches and I love that so much.

That’s the show I’m watching. I’m not surprised Carlos was icy in 4.03. He’s icy whenever he’s upset, even if it’s himself he’s mad at. He projects his anxieties like crazy. While I think TK felt blamed and blamed himself (because he always does even if it’s not his fault - with like everyone including his parents) I think knowing Carlos, he mostly blamed himself, and took it out a little on TK, which isn’t cool mind you, it’s not okay. But my boys are both fuck ups in their own right and I love them an insane amount.

Y’all Carlos Reyes is a man who cooked a full candle light meal after sending the equivalent of a “you up” text. This is a man who bought a whole ass condo without telling his partner after they’d agreed not to buy it. Like…I don’t know why any of you expect this man to have communication skills. He has to be pushed into literally every conversation/speech he’s ever had about his feelings. I don’t know why TK thought Carlos could even deliver a heartfelt speech to their friends about being engaged. It’s not his style.

But TK has them in spades. It’s one of the reasons they work together. Like puzzle pieces. So…yes. I will keep them and I don’t need to be hit over the head with Carlos’s fuck ups because I’ve witnessed them from 1.02…he’s always been a mess y’all. He just pretends really well and I love him for it.

He still needs therapy.

[accursedvoid]

“Oh but they’re struggling creatives who need the money more” okay then why didn’t they join another streaming service rather than making their own and forcing everyone (of those that even can) to buy into yet another fucking streaming service

[movedtodykedvonte]

Still irritated that most fics make Miles act dumb and Miguel like the unbeatable, implacable leader. It just makes me think people did not watch the same movie or understand the point of Spider-Man and the Spiderverse.

[bookishfeylin]

I—

How can you tell Black people to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and then get mad when we attempt to do just that? How can you tell Black people that our community needs to support itself and then sue when we try to???

[dreamlanddoll]

radical feminism hugely focuses on the fucked up beauty standards, so yes, saying women don’t need plastic surgery for something they were born with and does not need to be changed in order to fit in is in fact a radfem take. i’m so tired of yall not listening to what is actually believed and making shit up ✌️

radical feminists also try to “weed out” who’s “secretly a man” by pointing out features on women they think look too masculine. I’m not making it up, I have seen it happen, it’s happened to me, and it’s always either one of two people; terfs, and incels. Stop trying to invalidate many people’s experiences with people like you.

[starlooove]

Why are y’all so mad abt jayara it’s literally not that serious 😭💔

[mostlymaudlin]

….