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sitp-recs · 23 days

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12 fics I’ve enjoyed recently…

Last year I did a short-lived “weekly rereads” series to spread love for old favourites that kept me afloat when reading new things became a struggle. I was looking for ways to stay active and contribute to the fandom with minimal effort, and I found solace in revisiting fics that I hold dear in my heart. This year, spring brought the @dronarryfest to pull me back into reading mood. Fandom is starting to speak to me again after a very long time, and the euphoria hit me with inspiration to write this short rec post for my recent reads. I am joining the party a bit late but on the off chance these escaped your radar, here are some fics I’ve really enjoyed during my catch up moment in February/March, and a few I’m planning to dive into next. It’s so nice to be able to write comments and rec blurbs again! What have y’all been reading lately?

HP fics:

Wet Leather by @lqtraintracks (E, 492 words) - Harry/Sirius

I live for LQT’s rare pair drabbles especially when it’s for my beloved Sirry because nobody writes this ship like them. The A+ characterization always takes my breath away: so much tension laced with yearning, it feeds my horniest deepest Sirry cravings tripping between guilt and absolution. This short is full of heat, want and sweet indulgence, with the usual tenderness underneath driving me up the wall and making me soft and hot for these two. Also, “my drenched little pup” excuse sir I’m??? 🥵

Nightswimming by @sweet-s0rr0w (M, 5k) - established Drarry, Dron, implied Dronarry

One of my instant faves this year, what a masterclass in tension building! As always, I’m so impressed by sweets’ short form. The brilliant banter and relentless sexual tension put me at the edge of my seat praying for MOAR. The atmosphere is so captivating I could feel the temptation on my fingertips, and have I even mentioned Ron’s spot on voice?? Superb bromance dynamics, late night drive aesthetics, an impressive amount of characterization within 5k and a teasing ending full of promise, come and feast!

Borrowed Time by @the-starryknight (E, 7k) - Dron + Harry

Another delicious Dronarry treat, now showcasing established Dron, body swap, the sexiest UST you’ll see today and an incredibly satisfying payoff. Once again Starry delivers peak romance with their “hot & sweet” trademark mixing compelling dialogue, witty flirting and uncomplicated smut full of want but also trust, understanding and intimacy. Forget the maddening anticipation, the domestic slice-of-life tone made me swoon - the characters are so clearly fond and familiar with each other it’s only natural for them to come together like this.

Heart to Hearth by @jtimu (E, 7k) - Drarry

This fic is a breath of fresh air and I still remember how excited I felt reading it for the first time. I’ll never get tired of seeing Harry get utterly horny confused at an attractive and carefully guarded Draco being competent at his odd yet surprisingly fitting job. Repairman Draco is indeed mouthwateringly efficient with his long hair and coveralls, and their tentative and awkward dynamics are just excellent. Love the subtle humour, the bits of repair magic theory and the earnest slow burn, with a smooth progression towards deliciously indulgent smutty times. Amazing concept, perfectly executed.

Long Haul by @wolfpants (E, 8k) - Drarry

Wolf is killing it lately, loved their Dronarry but this fic stole my heart with the long haul love premise. The image of their encounter - Harry holding his passport between his teeth, Draco with Muggle headphones around his neck - stayed with me the whole night. Harry loves flying and connects with NYC for the same reasons I do, so this fic spoke to me in a very personal way. I love everything from the title and bold flirting to the scorching hot and intimate smut with smooth daddy Draco! Not too long ago I prompted Florence’s “End of Love” for Wireless - unknowingly, Wolf wrote the NYC fic I’ve dreamed about when I thought of it 💜

Permanent by @citrusses (M, 14k) - Drarry, Dron

I’ve always been drawn to time travel and Citrus set up a thrilling, mysterious mood that’s impossible to resist. I was deeply intrigued not only by the plot but also by the complexity of these characters - a belligerent Harry with daddy issues and a saviour complex (yes pls!), edgy and focused Hermione, perceptive and kind Ron charming his way inside our hearts, and a lonely Draco trying to make sense of the plot, handle his feelings and find his foot in the post-war world. I loved being inside his mind - such brilliant characterization - and seeing the golden trio through his eyes. This fic has a wistful, melancholy tone mirroring Draco’s longing for Harry that hit me right in the solar plexus. It is also a great Ron study, and I’ll admit that made me fall even harder for Dron. Finally, it is tender and devastating as all good things are. A brilliant read and an instant favorite.

Dick Chicken by @oknowkiss (E, 15k) - Harry/Draco/Ron

Believe me when I say this is the Seinfeld AU you didn’t know you needed because you don’t wanna miss out on this. Hands down one of the most entertaining fics I’ve read in a while, this is hysterical funny, witty and steamy. The perfect mix of crack-y and casually horny vibes with a quirky Draco, a lovable and relatable Harry, and a hot Ron who’s 100% there for the ride, this chaotic trio will pull you into an unhinged journey and you’re gonna thank them for that 🤣 superb Harry pov, a warm and playful atmosphere that feels intoxicating, and a glorious shower scene followed by a fake orgasm competition. You’re heard it right. Run don’t walk!

Knot Your Average Coworkers by @thecouchsofa (E, 22k) - Drarry

Office romance is my kryptonite and I couldn’t stop giggling as I made my way through this wolf!Draco treat. I was instantly smitten with the charming characters, the delightful silly knotting jokes 🌝 and the good old oblivious friends/coworkers to lovers dynamics that always gets me. Pining Harry wooing Draco through cooking is SO my jam, the perfect mix of sweet comfort & unbearable UST that fills me with joy and anticipation while also wanting to smash their heads together “kiss kiss fall in love” style. Yum!

Cargo Case by @sleepstxtic (E, 23k) - Drarry

This was such an exciting ride, I love the inherent yearning & intimacy of break up/make up stories and this case fic kept me engaged and rooting for Drarry (and Pansy/Parvati!) the whole time. It was wonderful to see them not being antagonistic after a break up for a change - there’s delicious ust, fabulous Draco & Pansy brOTP, not to mention their super cool job. I was as invested in the plot as I was in the romance, and I’ve had a really fun time following them around. Undercover boyfriends for the win!!!!

Truth to Materials by @toomuchplor, lately (E, 54k) - Drarry

Another fabulous plor fic as per, this artist!Draco story immediately won my heart with the hilarious opening scene and the perfect combo of Draco’s “brazen gay” voice and Harry’s “bi panic” mind. What a delight! Love the clever dialogue, the mood so chaotic horny but the humorous tone making me giggle my way through the delicious loo sex scene. Unique premise, great pacing, fantastic cast and charming characterization - this fic is so easy to devour it doesn’t feel like a 50k journey at all. The story is great fun, very engaging but also delivering multiple tender and heartkick-y moments. It checks all my boxes including our king Ron Weasley putting a banana into Draco’s sculptural arsehole 🤣 what else could I ask for?

Skybound by @xanthippe74 (T, 61k) - Drarry

As a longtime fan of Ghibli’s movies, I was over the moon to see one my own faves adapted to fit the HP universe. This is the Howl’s Moving Castle AU we deserve, a light, enchanting and fun read with a lovely smooth Draco and a lovely earnest Harry making such a great pair. I love how Xan played with the original material making adjustments here and there, and giving life to Timpsy, the apprentice elf with a whole subplot involving mistreatment of magical beings. Very sweet and creative read!

Other fandoms:

a man—with human flesh by spqr (E, 14k) - Paul/Duncan, Dune

I love that this author writes for all of my favorite ships, I feel so spoiled! This is (yet another) banger following the 2nd Dune movie and a fascinating dive into Paul’s fractured mind struggling between his long-standing affection for Duncan and the intrusive thoughts under BG’s influence. So intense, vivid and thought-provoking. I was hooked from beginning to end and deeply immersed in this universe. Love me a fic about emotional implications and complications while delivering excellent character studies, this is the shit I live for right here 🤌🏼

Next up on my to-read list:

Home series by @hoko-onchi-writes (E, 22k)

In which Draco grows up hiding and finds out he doesn't want to do that anymore. And he doesn't want his son to hide, either. (…). In which Harry grows up in darkness, falls in love, fucks up, learns some things, and falls in love again.

Passing Stranger by @lettersbyelise (E, 53k)

Five years after the war, Harry, listless and depressed, stumbles upon Draco Malfoy playing the violin in an underground bar in Muggle London. The catch? Draco lost his memories five years ago. Ignoring his friends’ advice, Harry befriends an unwitting Draco, overlooking the fact that their mutual attraction might not survive if Draco’s memories return.

The Star Splitter by @oflights (E, 219k)

On a routine time travel assignment to the past, Draco stumbles upon 7-year-old Harry Potter and witnesses his neglect and mistreatment by the Dursleys. In the moment, there is only one solution, even if it goes against all his training as a Time Agent: he has to bring Harry back to the future with him. In which Draco burns his life down for the sake of his former school rival.

#monthly roundup #Sitp recs #it’s been so long since I wrote a rec post 🥺#feeling energized!

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dee-the-red-witch · 3 months

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Okay, let's do this. February Pinned post GO!

Hiya, I'm Dee.

I'm a forty-something queer lesbian poly trans woman. I'm an artist, writer, leatherworker, and tattooist. I'm a shitposter, a mom, and a few other things I've spaced on for the moment. I'm also Not Your Responsible Adult, and will hand you kids pamphlets on sex and kink education, a couple double espressos, and a bag of fireworks or a puppy. I fully believe in sex, kink, and body positivity and reblog as such- if you need censor your own experience for whatever reason, don't follow me, because I will not censor myself for you.

I also post a lot of my work here, but you'll also find a lot of it available for purchase right here: http://tormentedartifacts.com Here's a few highlights:

As I said before, I'm also a tattooist- self-taught and primarily working on myself (yes, about 90% of all that ink in my selfies is my own handiwork, no I'm not taking professional clients yet, more just the occasional test subject)- here's some of the flashwork I've been doing for my own portfolio:

I'm a writer and occultist as I said before as well, and my first book and companion tarot deck are available through my site, or you can catch me doing weekly card readings and media reviews over here.

The absolute biggest thing right now, though, is my surgery fund- My Gender Confirmation and Facial Feminization operations both happen this November over a two week span, and I'm trying to get enough in to cover my stay and the downtime I'm going to have to take off from everything up there.

So here's the link for my GoFundMe for that.

if you can kick in on that, or just spread word around of it elsewhere, I'd REALLY appreciate it.

And to answer a few specifics:

If you're contacting me about an order the best way is using the email on my site, not messaging me- I will answer when I can, but I'm also backed up and almost constantly low on spoons. Tumblr's where I come to dopamine-mine among other things.

No, I don't sell content to use the current parlance. I do absolutely support those who do, and so should you.

Yes there's a discord. Yes you have to actually ask me for an invite.

No, I really am only 5'6". Half the rumors are true, but so are some of the outright lies. Yes, I'll still record voice requests, even scripted bits. No, you may not call me mommy. Terfs, swerfs, bigots, conservaties, and other fash can fuck directly off. Tipping should be mandatory. Plastics suck. Landlords and borders should be immediately expunged. Give the fucking Land Back. Do make it weird, don't make it creepy. Do make it terrifying, otherworldly, and possibly even wondrous. Buy more leather.

Otherwise, that's it. My inbox or messages are open if you've got questions

#monthly pinned #Still never sorry about the wall of text #selfie #self id #station identification

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tossawary · 6 months

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It was absolutely insane how you dropped a juicy chonky chapter everyday for servant to a different king. Nothing but admiration and respect. How did you do it? What was the planning behind being able to release a chapter everyday? How long have you been working on the piece?

Thank you! "Servant to a Different King" was part of the Moshang Big Bang 2023 event. Traditionally, a Big Bang is 50k words (or more), and pairs up an author who wants to write a fic and an artist who agrees to create art for that fic. (Moshang BB23 had a minimum expectation of 10-30k words.) The sign-ups for this event were back on January and February, so that was when I created a full base outline for the fic and started writing seriously, on and off, in between other stuff. The fics all had to be finished by a certain date back in September.

Big Bang events often also release the whole fic all at once, with each author posting on a scheduled release date. That's what I did for a separate Big Bang event fic, my Bingliushen Stardust AU "Catch a Falling Star", but I have noticed that authors seem to get fewer comments when the fic is released all at once and there's a higher chance of readers accidentally missing the entire fic. The Moshang BB23 mods allowed for a daily release schedule if so desired, and I decided that was a good compromise between a more spread-out release schedule and the rush of a Big Bang release schedule.

While the outline for "Servant to a Different King" was complete early in the year (I think it was 8,000 words long), containing the most basic beats and some vague ideas for more specific character moments, I was originally only planning for... okay, I knew from the beginning that the fic wasn't going to be only 5 chapters, but I had it sectioned into 5 "chapters" as the distinct division of situations (Moshang reuniting, Moshang being forced into the bodyguard situation, Moshang getting to know each other at the Underground Palace, Moshang in the Northern Desert, and Moshang back at the Underground Palace). Whenever I write a fic, I know that I'm going to discover a lot of the details as I go, especially exploring the flow of conversations, and in regards to what worldbuilding and background characters I end up adding for atmosphere and humor and thematic parallels.

The Big Bang event had check-ins to keep authors on track with a certain minimum word count expected by a certain date, which helped me monitor where I needed to be in my fic writing. I think I did most of my fic writing in the last couple of months, however, because I had finished posting the other fics I've done this year. This was why I was not really "active" for a couple months over the summer. If I'd been posting chapters on a weekly basis instead of daily, "Servant to a Different King" would have been like 4 months of fic.

I don't really think that I have good advice for "how to write a lot". I have a decent amount of free time and my responsibilities generally allow me to daydream about story plots while I'm working. I generally aim for 200 words a day, if I'm able, but I don't sweat about it. I have things set up so it's easy to share documents between my computer and my phone, so I think I ended up writing most of "Servant to a Different King" on my phone, which was a first for me, because the computer was just too distracting for my focus.

#ofdemigodsandwizards #ask tossawary #tossawary svsss #servant to a different king au

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hisunshiine · 1 year

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— burning love | jhs

♨ pairing: firefighter!hobi X firefighter!reader ♨ au/genre: fire department AU, workplace au, anti-valentine’s, coworkers2lovers, fwb2l, fluff, smut, angst ♨ rating: M ♨ wc: 5,266 🜂 warnings: longtime pining, reader gets a minor injury in the line of duty, catching fire, explicit smut, fingering, handjob, shower sex, vaginal penetration, oral (m receiving), multiple orgasms, cuddling ♨ an: thank you to @downbad4yoongi and @ressjeon for beta reading, and to @colormepurplex2 for storyboarding last night! this fic has a small bit of self-indulgence in celebration of @peachiilovesot7‘s birthday, which she shares with our birthday man, Hobi! i wanted to post this yesterday, but unfortunately, due to circumstances outside of my control, it’s only a day late. i hope you enjoy!

Rolling out of the bed, you glance at your phone to see it’s just past 5:30am. Silencing the alarm that had been blaring for the past few minutes, you stretch before tiptoeing your way through Hoseok’s room. Once in his bathroom, you eyeball the marks he left.

You know that Hoseok likes you, hell, you know that he wants more out of this ‘friends with benefits’ deal the two of you have worked out, but you just can’t bring yourself to be in a relationship. As coworkers in a dangerous field, you think it best to keep the distance you have, seeking out one another for sex.

The only issue is that you tend to seek him out daily. The two of you work the same shift, and spend time together off the clock as well. You practically live at each other’s apartments, and according to your friends, you act like an old married couple. Except you refuse to acknowledge the feelings you’ve grown for him, and he for you.

Climbing into his shower, you reach for your bathing items that he’s set aside in their own designated spot and while the action warms your heart, it also makes you nervous that you’re becoming too comfortable carving out a space in his life that’s meant for a girlfriend. After showering, you grab your toothbrush placed next to his at the sink, and notice after the fact when you go to hang up your wet towel back where you procured it from that Hoseok recently added a hook to the wall next to his towel for yours.

It’s all a little too much, especially today. February 13th. The day before the day you hate. All of these things are just a reminder that maybe you’re too involved with Hoseok, and that despite not having discussed it, he may start to expect something you aren’t ready to give to him tomorrow. You finish getting ready in a silent panic, noting that Hoseok is still sleeping peacefully as you leave early for work.

Arriving at the two story building, you smile as the rising sun glances off the upper glass windows of your workplace. The bright red number seven showcases that you work at the best station in the district. Station 7 is your pride and joy, and as you open the door to enter, it’s a day like any other. Of course, today is a Monday, which means the station will be filming their weekly segment for the news, and with it being National Heart Month, the focus for the day is on ‘How to Keep a Heart Beating (with CPR)’.

As an anti-Valentine’s Day person, you find it a little cheesy that your coworkers want to decorate the station for Valentine’s Day tomorrow, as you’d much rather have a nice taco spread for Taco Tuesday, but your idea was vetoed at the monthly station meeting last month. So imagine your surprise when you walk in and see a lack of red and pink hearts decorating the front reception area.

Park Jimin, one of your closest friends, yawns from where he sits at the desk, covering his mouth before offering you a lazy wave.

“Morning, Sunshine.”

You look around the room, trying to find who Jimin is calling ‘Sunshine’.

“I don’t see Hoseok anywhere,” you announce after concluding it’s just the two of you in the intake area.

“Ha-ha, you are so funny this early,” Jimin says with a glare of his eyes. “But why am I not surprised that Hoseok is the first thing on your mind?”

Dropping your backpack onto the counter, it’s now your turn to glare at him.

“Shut up. We’re just fuck buddies.” You hide your face by unzipping your bag and pretending to look for something.

“Does he know that?” Jimin questions, and you break your defense to look up at him puzzled.

“Um, pretty sure he does, seeing as he literally was just pounding into me a couple of hours ago.”

“Sweetheart, while I typically love the details of your sex life, you know that the emphasis was on the ‘just’ part of the sentence. ‘Does Hoseok know that you two are just fuck buddies?’”

“He hasn’t ever said he wants more from me, so…just leave it, Jimin.”

“Hmm…touchy. Are you maybe…upset that he hasn’t expressed wanting more?”

Once again you dig in your bag, wishing you had just said good morning back and not engaged in this conversation.

“What? No, pshh, I told him when it started that we wouldn’t be more.”

Jimin sighs, leaning back and running a hand through his hair.

“Idiot.”

You throw the first thing you grab in your backpack—your deodorant— at him. “I meant that in the most loving way!”

“I’m going upstairs to put away my belongings. You’re off at 9am, right?”

“Yup, and then the next two days I’m off. Just in time for Valentine’s Day.”

“Oooh, hot plans with Theresa?” you ask over your shoulder as you begin climbing the stairs.

“She planned a surprise for me, you know Valentine’s is about the woman doing something for the man.” Jimin says with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

“Yeah, yeah, and next month for White Day, it’ll be your turn.” The stairs turn once you reach the first platform, so now you can look down into the desk area and the top of Jimin’s head. He looks up at you with a smirk as he tosses your deodorant up to you.

“And if you don’t make a move tomorrow, you’ll be eating black jjajangmyeon in your black sweatpants the month after like the single loser you are!”

Stomping the rest of the way into the firefighter’s dormitory, you notice that two beds are occupied. Kim Taehyung and Jeon Jungkook are two regulars who work the same 6-day shift as you. Today just so happens to be your first day back from your rest period, so the three of you and Hoseok, will be doing the day shift from 9am to 6pm today and tomorrow.

“You guys slept here last night?” you ask, sitting on the bed across from Taehyung. You’re already dressed in your uniform, but still have a little under an hour until your shift starts so you put away the small deodorant canister and get comfortable.

“Yeah, we covered for Sammi and Vanessa. They were supposed to be on call for the One-Stop Support Center for residential fire fighting devices, but apparently they needed to prepare for tomorrow.”

“Why couldn’t they prepare today?”

“Oh, trust me, our doting, pregnant fiances have spent the past few days whispering and plotting away.”

You laugh at the image Taehyung paints of their significant others. Sammi, his fiance, is four months pregnant and works in the Control Center of the station with Jungkook’s fiance, Vanessa, who is also five months along. The two are often seen together giggling and chatting, and much like Hoseok, are rays of sunshine in the office.

“I bet it was boring being on call for the Support Center.” You make conversation as the two get up and begin shrugging on their field uniforms over their tank tops and athletic shorts.

“We had maybe three calls the entire time, and we were home until the last call came and it was this elderly man, he needed installation support at his shop. He runs a bakery and was about to start the ovens when he noticed that his gas detector wasn’t lit up. So at 4am, I’m in a deep sleep cuddling my babe, when the phone wakes us up and we have to stop here and get a new HKA-800 to install.” Jungkook sighs as if the elderly baker ruined his night.

“I hate installing gas leakage alarms,” Taehyung sighs. “They’re always in hard to reach spots, and I would’ve rather stayed in bed to be honest.”

“I feel like they knew a call was going to come in at that time…they’ve never swapped on call shifts with us before.” Jungkook muses.

“So, which of you pretty boys is filming today?”

“I am!”

You turn to the doorway of the dormitory and see Jung Hoseok enter with his duffel bag on his shoulder. He looks stunning as usual, black hair styled effortlessly to frame his face. He’s fully dressed in his field uniform, reflective vest situated over his lithe frame and you kind of hate how all of his clothing hides the marks you left last night, unable to show that he belongs to you, even if you tell yourself he’s only yours when the two of you are alone.

“I’m surprised Hobi, the whole place isn’t covered in candy hearts or red and pink decorations,” you tease. “I thought you would have wanted it to be all pretty for airing.”

Hoseok’s face makes a surprising change to irritation.

“When would I have had time last night to decorate?” He says with a raised eyebrow at you, alluding to your activities that kept him busy. “Besides, the Fire Chief didn’t give the approval until this morning! I saw the email when I woke up. I’ve got all of the supplies right here in my bag.”

“Oh no, you better watch out, Hobi, you know Sunshine over here hates Valentine’s Day.”

You roll your eyes, laying back onto the pillow and feigning disinterest.

“I just don’t understand why women have to declare their feelings first and then wait a whole month to have them reciprocated. What if you break up during the month between?”

Jimin trudges into the room, flopping onto a free mattress. Glancing at the clock, you see it’s ten till nine, and figure his replacement must’ve just arrived.

“Sammi is too pregnant to leave me, she wouldn’t make it five minutes down the road before calling me crying from the car to say she misses me. She would turn around and be back in my arms. Plus, Jaykay and I have already planned our White Day surprise for them. They have no need to worry.”

“If only we all could be so lucky to date best friends, get engaged, and pregnant all within a couple months of each other.”

“I mean, if you would—”

“Park Jimin, you shut your mouth right now!” You effectively cut him off as his eyes land on you, full of mirth. You wish looks can kill—Jimin would be frying under your burning gaze.

“Well, I’m going to start putting up the hearts now!”

Hobi begins to unzip his bag but jumps when the siren begins to sound.

Jumping out of the bed, you grab your vest from your bag, and the four of you hustle down to the trucks. 120 cases of fire are called into dispatch every 12 minutes across the country, and the life of a firefighter is always a race against time.

Valentine’s day is just another day to you, in fact, it’s your second day shift in a row, leaving you with ample time to celebrate, if you were the type. Yesterday was busy, which is unsurprising—the day before Valentine’s day many women are baking sweets and chocolates for the person who has caught their affection, and the stress of making the perfect treat often leads to a level of carelessness not usually seen. Eleven small kitchen fires took up the whole shift, and Hoseok was unable to film his CPR news clip or decorate the station.

The next morning, Hoseok is ready to turn your workplace into a Valentine’s Day extravaganza. As you approach the main door, you see window clings in the shape of hearts and cute phrases plastered against the glass.

Walking in, you see candy hearts attached to red yarn strung along the edge of the reception counter. Behind the desk, Hoseok stands on a ladder, hanging up red balloon letters that spell out L-O-V-E.

Unable to hold back a groan, you cause Hoseok to teeter dangerously as he realizes he’s not alone.

“Morning, babe!” Kim Seokjin greets cheerily from where he’s supposed to be holding said ladder, but you look around dejectedly.

“Damn it, Chief Kim really vetoed my Taco Tuesday idea?”

“Tacos?” Jungkook appears from the back room behind the reception desk, eating a bowl of cereal.

“Yeah, I thought maybe he would decide to order us tacos for Taco Tuesday.”

“It’s only 8:30, sunshine. Maybe it’ll be here at lunch time.”

“Good thinking, Kookie! So, let’s hope today is less busy than yesterday, so we can leave on time and you and Taehyung can enjoy your surprise.”

“I am begging. Tomorrow we work the night shift, so I’ll have plenty of time to sleep in. Do you have any plans?”

“Nothing planned, no. You know I don’t do Valentine’s Day.”

You miss the way Hoseok’s face falls as he turns back to the task at hand.

“Ah, yes, one day you will find someone, and maybe you won’t hate Valentine’s Day so much.”

“Maybe when pigs fly.”

You can’t lie though, Hoseok has the reception area looking festive in a non-cheesy way; you actually don’t want to vomit at the sight of it. Luckily, he isn’t able to make it far into the building with his bag of ornaments and tinsel, and the sound of the alarm going off halts his efforts once again.

“This is bullshit,” he huffs under his breath, but you hear him anyway as you walk side by side to the truck.

Valentine’s Day is really not your day. The first call of the morning sent you out to a residential area where a wild boar wandered into. Being chased by a wild boar before you even have a chance to stretch is not your idea of fun, but the guys were able to herd it back to where it came thanks to your sprint.

Back at the station, Fire Chief Kim Namjoon greets you in the hallway, and when you ask about tacos for lunch, he apologizes.

“I’m sorry, it slipped my mind. In order to feed everyone on staff, we would need to put in the order ahead of time, there’s too many departments. How about next Tuesday?” he offers, buff arm rubbing the back of his neck in guilt. You can’t stay mad at his dimples, so you let him off the hook, saying next week will be fine.

It’s not, not really, but you aren’t the type to say no to free food. You had just hoped to have something else to take your mind off of Valentine's Day. Especially with your crush/fuck buddy walking around the station in his perfectly fit uniform decorating the windows with hearts and talking about how much he loves today.

The only reprieve is that today is just as busy, and the window clings are as far as Hoseok gets before the alarm rings loudly, sending your group running once again. This time, it’s a fire, but not as small as the baking incidents yesterday. This one requires full gear and an extra truck from a neighboring station. And when Hoseok disappears back inside the building with Jungkook to locate a tearful child’s missing pet cat, you find yourself antsy to reach him.

Five minutes later, Jungkook comes stumbling out, saying that the smoke was too thick on the path he took to the left, but the right hallway Hoseok took should be easier to navigate since the fire started on his side.

Pacing as you wait for Hoseok to show, you can’t help the fear growing if he weren’t to return. You knew it was your own self-sabotage that kept this thing with Hoseok from turning into something more. You have had your heart broken in the past; you put in more effort to a man who did not deserve it and it backfired on you. Growing up you were raised to feel that it was safe for you to share your love with others, but now it just felt safer to keep Hoseok at arms length.

Still not seeing Hoseok return, you now know that you would have rather explored the feelings he brings out of you and let it turn into a burning flame than to lose him in one. There’s a reason why Sammi and Vanessa no longer fight fires with their significant others. Long before either was with child, the two switched to dispatch services, because of the warnings of the dangers of loving your firefighting partner.

Breaking all types of protocol, you run into the building and find Hoseok appearing through the heavy smoke with the cat in his arms, and a sigh of relief spreads through your body. This pause to take him in, inspect him for damages while still being inside a burning building is exactly why you shouldn’t have run inside.

A wooden beam, brittle from the flames eating away at its hold, crumbles to the ground around you. Hoseok, arms full with the fluffy pet and voice covered by the roar of the flames, is unable to do anything but watch as you fall to the ground, semi-pinned under the remnants of the beam.

Sprinting, he has a clear enough mind to leave you behind to get the cat to safety before returning with help from Taehyung less than a minute later. The two are able to lift the wood off of your leg, and Hoseok carries you from the building, now empty of residents and their pets. The other station takes over dousing the flames as a second station arrives to help, and with orders from the Fire Chief, your unit brings you back to the station.

You’re not that hurt, no broken bones, just a minor sprain and first degree burns where the beam lay on your leg. Luckily your protective gear prevented worse damage from occurring had you been in civilian clothing and in the infirmary at Station 7, you sit under the watchful eyes of your Fire Captain and Lead Aid Car Specialist, Min Yoongi.

“Please explain to me why I have to do a write up for Chief Kim explaining that you broke protocol and ended up injured.”

“I’m sorry Yoongi-Op—Captain Min.”

Your older brother glares at you.

“I promised Eomma that you would not get hurt under my watch. Luckily, I wasn’t there or I would’ve dragged you back myself.”

“I know. I wasn’t thinking, Yoongi. Hobi had just been in there for so long and Jungkook had already returned, and the flames were getting worse, so I just—”

“You just forgot your duty as a firefighter, and I think it’s time you tell him how you feel, Sunshine. In the meantime, you’re grounded.”

“What? But—”

“You had a beam fall on you in a burning building, leaving you with first degree burns—lowkey second degree—on your leg! You aren’t going out on any more calls until you’re cleared.”

Of course, before your brother can finish treating your wounds, the alarm is already calling away Hoseok, Jungkook, and Taehyung. This time, it’s a small incident with bees swarming a preschool’s playground area. You know Hoseok hates bugs, but with only three members of the team available, he has to go.

Seokjin strolls into the infirmary just as Yoongi bandages the last piece of gauze around your burn, and you prepare yourself for a stern talking to.

“It’s Valentine’s Day, sunshine. And you almost died trying to search for the man you deny having feelings for. I think it’s time to do something about this crush, don’t you think?”

Well, that was unexpected. When did everyone learn your true feelings?

“You’re not subtle in the slightest.” Seokjin shares, reading the look on your face. “Neither is he. You both like each other, so stop being stubborn.”

“Valentine’s Day is almost over, Seokjin. Even if I wanted to do something, I’m injured and there’s no time.”

Seokjin’s face morphs into determination.

“Hobi is the easiest man to please. You should know, he likes you, doesn’t he?”

“Rude!”

“I’m just pointing out the obvious. So let’s think, what has he wanted to do this whole time?”

“Decorate the office to celebrate Valentine’s Day.”

“So what do you think would be a good way of showing him you care, and making yourself ineligible to participate in Black Day in a couple of months?”

“I…” you pause as if thinking about what you could do, but you already know the answer, “I can use his decorations and finish what he started. Maybe cave, and celebrate Valentine’s Day for once.”

“I knew you were smart and Hobi had to like you for a reason.”

“I’m also really good with my—”

“Really don’t want to know what you’re good at doing to my best friend!” Yoongi cuts you off, placing a cold compress to the wound.

“Alrighty!” Seokjin claps, “Moving on, so what are you going to have prepared when he asks to stay with you tonight, which we know he’s going to do, because he wants to take care of you.”

“Surprise him with tacos for Taco Tuesday and some bomb ass sex,” you say with a smile, happy to fulfill your own wish as well

“Sounds like a great plan. Though you may want to just accept the sex will be mid until your injury heals.”

“Alright, so this is all a great plan, but, small problem. I’m stuck here under medical watch until I get off! Who can help decorate my apartment?”

“Don’t be dense, Sunshine. I already texted the pregnant ones. They’re off today and done setting up for Tae and Jaykay, and they’re on their way to your place now. Text them your keycode so they can get in.”

“Why would they help me? They’re pregnant! And have their own things to prepare for!”

“Because, sweetie, we love you and we love Hoseok and we’ve had a bet going for ages that we’d love to have settled.”

You frown at his words, but understand. You love all of your coworkers too, trust them with your life—literally—and the fact that everyone has been rooting for you and Hoseok to work out thaws your frozen Valentine’s Day heart.

When your crew arrives back from the playground relocating the bees, you watch as Hoseok’s face breaks out into a blinding smile.

“Wow! You guys really did all of this?”

Seokjin is sitting at the reception desk with you and he nods his head in your direction.

“It was Sunshine’s idea.”

Hoseok turns wide eyes to you, and you think you see a little hope in them. Part of you knew that Hoseok always wanted more, but the other part of you doubted he could actually see you as his girlfriend. In the past, the guy who broke your heart couldn’t see you as his girlfriend despite you doting on him as if you were his wife, which is what led to your walls being so high. But thanks to your friends and the incident today, you realize that Hoseok is someone you can trust with your heart. You already trust him with your life.

“I thought it was the least I could do, I know you really wanted to celebrate Valentine’s Day.”

Coming around the desk, he kneels in front of you being mindful of your propped up leg.

“Thank you, Sunshine. I really appreciate you doing this for me.”

You can’t hold back your smile, and he pulls you into a hug. He’s warm, and you melt in his embrace as Seokjin pretends to wipe back happy tears as he watches the two of you.

“Sunshine, I’m sure you want to go home, but I still have to record the heart health clip, and then we’ll head to your place, okay?”

“No worries, Hobi, Seokjin and I took care of that for you too. And we made sure to showcase all of your decorations.”

If he could physically do it, Hoseok would be staring heart eyes at you. Even without transforming the shape of his eyes, you see more than the hope from earlier in them; there’s gratitude for making his very long day easier, and something else you aren’t sure if you can put into words.

“I’ll be right back.” Hoseok sprints from the reception area and up the stairs, returning only a few moments later with his duffel bag hanging to his side. Grasping your backpack from the counter, he threads his arms through the straps before bending his knees and reaching for you. Lifting you up bridal style, you laugh as he walks you out the glass doors, enjoying the smile adorned on his face.

Hoseok refuses to let you walk once at your place, carrying you from the car to your second floor apartment with ease. You were already showered from being on medical leave for the day, but as Hoseok types in the code to your door, he promises to shower fast so as not to leave you alone for long.

The words fade from his lips as he crosses the threshold with you in his arms, the sight of your apartment decorated romantically for the holiday shocking him silent. You thank your coworkers silently for their efforts, before tucking your face into Hoseok’s neck.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Hobi.” Your voice is low, but he hears you, and his spine shivers when you press a kiss to his neck.

He’s still silent, but you can feel his heart racing as he looks down at you in his arms.

“Shower with me.”

You nod, and he rushes to your bathroom, setting you down on the closed toilet lid so he can strip down, and you do the same, standing up gently once naked with your hand balancing you on the sink. Opening the glass shower door, he turns the tap on to a medium level due to your injury. Your brother said you were okay to shower, you just had to make sure to redress the wound and he would bring your antibiotics by tomorrow after he picked them up from the pharmacy.

Hoseok tugs you towards him lightly as you follow him gingerly into the warm water. The two of you silently wash each other, being gentle around sensitive areas. Once clean, he pulls you to his chest and into a hug you didn’t realize you needed. Being in his arms like this after today’s events, it finally hits you. You love this man. You feel your eyes start to water, sniffling, and he looks at you closely.

“What’s wrong, does your leg hurt, baby?” the pet name slips out.

“No, it’s fine. I just—” you take a deep breath before looking into his pretty brown eyes. “I think I have some really big feelings for you, and I was so worried about you earlier, if something had happened to you…”

“Nothing happened, Sunshine. I’ll always make my way back to you, you know that.”

“You better.”

He leans down and kisses you, soft, heart-shaped lips calming the storm in your mind.

“I will, baby.”

You pull him by his neck back to you, this time deepening the kiss as his hands begin to explore you. You feel his fingers slip between your thighs, spreading you open and entering you without wasting any time. Gasping into the kiss, you reach for him, feeling his semi-firm cock harden as you begin to stroke him. The water helps with your speed, and the two of you twirl your tongues together as you match pace.

“I need more, baby,” you pant, and Hoseok removes his fingers from where your walls have gripped him, reaching for the backs of your thighs to lift you up. Putting your back to the wall opposite the faucet, you squeal from the cold tile along your spine. Hoseok just chuckles while angling his now fully erect member at your opening, pushing himself inside slowly so he can savor every ridge of your pulsing walls.

Thrusting into you, his mouth decorates your skin with blooming maroon marks until you cry out in satisfaction as he makes you cum. The angle he holds you in is perfect for kissing your g-spot with the tip of his cock, and your skin tingles as your nerves react to the climax. Sliding out of his hold, he grunts when you push him where you had just been pinned, using his body to help you glide to your knees, careful of your shin injury.

Taking Hoseok into your mouth, you rival the loud sounds of the shower as you lewdly suck and slurp your essence off of his cock as his hands firmly hold the sides of your head. You look up at him as you press your nose to his taut abs, eyes wet with unshed tears as you breathe through your nose to gather enough to pause and swallow around him as you grip his thighs. You can tell when he’s at his breaking point, the pads of his fingers dragging along your scalp as his muscles tense and you bob with sucked in cheeks and flicks to his frenulum until he’s spilling his warm cum down your throat.

Hoseok grasps you under your arms and pulls you to him, kissing you hard.

“Fuck, Sunshine,” his nose drags softly along yours in an eskimo kiss. “I think I—”

The sound of your doorbell chiming through the apartment reaches your ears, having installed a small speaker in the bathroom and bedroom so that you never miss a delivery.

The two of you giggle as you decide who will get the door, but Hoseok, ever the gentleman, grabs a towel and your robe. You spend a few extra moments cleaning between your thighs before turning off the water and following Hoseok out of the bathroom.

Catching sight of him in the hallway, he’s walking a delivery bag from your favorite taco restaurant in Seoul to your kitchen counter. Stepping over the rose petals littered along the hallway, you join him.

“You even got us tacos?” he asks in awe, adoration lacing his tone.

“Of course, I did, it’s taco Tuesday and Valentine’s Day, and I just wanted to show you how I feel about you.” It feels good to admit it.

Turning away from the unopened bag, Hoseok picks you up again, carrying you to your bedroom.

This time, he makes love to you slowly, his hips rolling in that magical way he does, fingers laced with yours by your head as your bodies fit together deliciously. Your eyes never leave his, both of you staring deeply at each other as you rock in tandem. Feeling him all over you, reaching the deepest parts of you, you cry out as tears roll down your cheeks in pleasure.

“F-fuck Hobi, I’m so close,” you whimper, hands squeezing his tightly as the pressure builds.

“Give your all to me, Sunshine,” he begs, and you know he isn’t just asking for your orgasm.

“It’s yours, Hobi,” you admit, “I’m yours.”

Your words encourage him as he picks up speed and depth until you release together.

Cuddling into his arms, you turn your lips to his chin, placing tender kisses to his smooth skin.

“I love you, Hoseok.”

In the quiet of your room, it’s as if a roaring fire fills your ears as you wait to see if he’ll extinguish the worry that begins to spread—

“I love you too, Sunshine, have for a while.”

He tilts his head so he can return kisses to your lips before your bodies align once again to create a friction of burning love that blooms bright enough to consume you.

thank you for reading! reblogs and comments are much appreciated!

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gumjrop · 2 months

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The Weather

30 US states remain at High to Very High levels of SARS-CoV-2 detected in wastewater since February 9, 2024, with multiple states not reporting. Preventing the spread of COVID by taking precautions like masking and improving your indoor air quality can strongly reduce your chance of infection.

We would also like to note that the CDC, which usually updates their wastewater data on a weekly basis, has not updated their dashboard since Friday, February 9th. It is significant that this data delay arrives during the same week of the announcement that they are considering making cuts to the 5-day isolation guideline. We would like to urge the CDC to make their data release schedule public and to continue to provide wastewater information in a timely and consistent manner.

Despite regional declines in wastewater levels in the Midwest, Northeast, and West, the South is still trending extremely high, almost double the national average. This is especially concerning since 7 of the 10 states to refuse Medicaid expansion are located in the South, a region home to some of, “the largest Black populations in the US.” Our collective fight against the state’s abandonment of pandemic protections is a fight against racial injustice.

As a reminder, the last two weeks are provisional data, indicated by a gray shaded area on the graph, therefore these values may change as additional wastewater sites report data. We want to remind you that multiple layers of precautions can protect against a COVID infection.

Variants

JN.1 remains the dominant variant in the United States, and is projected to make up 96.4% of cases in the next two weeks. HV.1 is projected to drop even further 1%, and all other variants are estimated to make up less than 0.6% or less each.

Remember to check estimates for your specific HHS Region for more accurate projections of JN.1 prevalence in your own community.

Take Action

This week is a fast moving train when it comes to demanding equitable pandemic responses and protections from the CDC and public policy. Follow the campaigns below for ways to tap in, sign on, and get involved! And don’t forget to share these with your loved ones as well.

This week the CDC announced they’re considering a change in isolation guidelines for people with COVID, removing the 5 day isolation in order to take the pressure off of American citizens who can’t afford to stay home due pressures from work, lack of paid time off and childcare expenses.

Dr. Lara Jiramanus of The People’s CDC who was interviewed expressed that “frankly, there has been no change in the science. Most people continue to be shedding virus for about nine days, with a range of six to 11 days. Younger patients will tend to be infectious for maybe one day less than that. Older patients or people with severe disease can shed the virus for a longer time.” She further elaborates in conjunction with People’s CDC press release from February 14th that “public health policy should put people first, not billionaires. Rather than ending isolation, the US should ensure paid sick leave for all.”

The CDC’s isolation guidelines impact what reasonable accommodations we can ask for at work, at school, and in hospitals as well as our legal rights should we become held in interactions with police, in jails and in prisons. It is important for all of us on a human rights level that these guidelines reflect proper research and science.

Join us in echoing this call for mandated paid sick leave for all instead of an end to isolation guidelines to Biden and Congress. The CDC’s proposal to eliminate isolation is counter to medical science and the White House must not accept it. Call the White House Comment Line Tuesday – Thursday 11-3 ET at 202-456-1414 and the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Making calls is especially important between now and the end of March. For more information and a proposed script, follow this link. Stay tuned to our substack and social media for announcements of more actions in the next two weeks.

Additionally, ACIP, the Advisory Committee on Immunization and Practices will hold their next meeting online on February 28th and 29th.

Scientific evidence indicates updated vaccines should ideally be allowed, available, and fully covered by public funds and/or insurance, for people of all ages at least every six months.

Current vaccine uptake is low due to barriers such as lack of education, the recent diversion of the vaccine program through insurance companies, and pharmacies’ uneven participation in the CDC’s Bridge Access Program, which is due to end December 31st, 2024. Even those who did receive the updated vaccine in the fall may not have adequate protection under the annual vaccine strategy, as vaccine efficacy wanes significantly four to six months following vaccination.

A more frequent vaccination approach and frequent updates to match current variants is needed to better protect all of us amid year-round COVID infections. Follow this link for guidance on submitting a written or oral public comment no later than this Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 11:59 ET to make demands for the above.

Last month the CDC kicked the horrible and unsafe new hospital infection control guidelines it was considering back to the advisory committee (HICPAC) that had proposed the draft guidelines.

Bad guidelines have been delayed, and the next fight over them will hopefully be on a more level field, and hopefully in a process that is at least in some ways more transparent.

Public health advocates have gained another round in this fight, and we’ll need your help! You can start by signing this new petition by National Nurses United that demands that HICPAC ensure the input of frontline healthcare workers, labor unions, patients and community members, and experts in occupational health, industrial hygiene, aerosol dynamics, respiratory protection and infection prevention is central in their next round of revisions.

Additionally, please use our action network letter and call-in toolkit to write to the president, your governor, and state and federal representatives to demand that they bring back masking in healthcare and utilize all measures of infection control that are currently available to us. Don’t forget to customize letters to your own experience! For more information on how COVID spreads in hospitals and the impact of nosocomial, or healthcare-associated, infections check out our article on substack.

MoveOn has started a petition to the Biden Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and to Congress to bring back free PCR tests for all and to increase the number of free at-home rapid antigen tests. After the end of the Federal Health Emergency for COVID in May 2023, everyday people were stripped of the resources and support they needed to manage community care and health. Even with insurance, insurers are no longer required to cover the costs of testing, pushing the most reliable form of testing for early detection, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests, out of reach for many. Sign this petition to return fast, prevalent, and free testing tools to everyone equitably.

On a more regional note, those living in New York State are urged to customize this letter to tell their representatives and NYS Governor Hochul to continue to fund the COVID-19 Sick Leave program instead of disposing of it in the FY 2025 budget as is currently proposed. If the governor’s current budget proposal goes through, New York citizens would be forced to rely on state minimum sick leave policies of 5-7 days, meaning one COVID infection would easily meet or exceed sick leave allotments for the entire year. Additionally those who do not work in settings that meet the conditions of qualification to enforce the state’s sick leave policy would be left without any leave at all.

Finally, we must remember to keep calling our elected officials to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and to continue to wear and require high quality respirators (N95, KN95 or better) at protests and in organizing spaces. Masking in organizing spaces keeps our fight safer, more accessible and more sustainable. The occupation of Palestine is a healthcare issue. There can be no disability justice under settler colonialism.

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spnfanficpond · 2 months

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Weekly Pond Newsletter

Monday is President's Day in the US, which means if you work in parts of the government or banking system you might have the day off work. If you're in retail, you're probably working a sale. Sorry about that. In honor of the day, though, let us know about fics set in the White House! Reblog or reply with a link to your favorite Presidential fics!!

Old Business:

Fishing For Treasures - This weekend is FFT weekend here at the Pond, and this month's theme is SMUT!! Since we got almost 250 links sent to us, and we can only queue 50/day, this weekend will end sometime on Wednesday. Enjoy!! 🤣

#TweetFicTues prompts - Since we missed the last two weeks, we've got three sets of prompts for you!

New Business:

Weekend Giveaways in the Discord server - The past few weeks, Admin Michelle has been cleaning out her collections of random things in her office by giving them away! We have now added a new channel just for giveaways! This weekend, you could win a near-pristine copy of the EW Ultimate Guide to Supernatural edition! All you have to do is drop a link in the giveaways channel for a fic that features the bond between Dean and Sam. Can be Wincest or gen fic, just as long as the bond between them is central to the story!

Manta Rays in the Discord server - This week, Manta Rays Arthur and Spencer will be spending time in the Discord server chatting with you! Keep an eye out for announcement posts with exact dates and times, or take a look at our calendar. (You can also add our calendar to your Google calendar by clicking this link.)

Jason Manns and Paul Carella in the UK online - Jason Manns is across the pond touring with Paul Carella for the next week or so, and they're going to stream their VIP show online next weekend! Click here to learn more and get tickets!

SPN Rewatch: Fanfic Edition - Next weekend we are having another chat in our series rewatch, and we'll be discussing 1.19 Provenance and 1.20 Dead Man's Blood. Sam kisses a girl! John returns! Vampires exist! So much to talk about!!

Writing Sprints - Our sprint room is open all the time to anyone who wants to sprint, but next weekend you can win prizes for sprinting! Since a few have asked, writing sprints are where we set a timer, for usually 15-20 minutes but that is up to those sprinting, and you just write. You compete to see who can write the most words. They don't have to be polished words, just words on the page/screen. Some of our members use it kind of like ADHD body-doubling, even if there's no one else around to sprint with them! Competitive sprints mean you get to win prizes, too! If you have any questions about sprints, feel free to ask.

Angel Fish Awards - February is almost over, which means the monthly raffle deadline is approaching! Every fic rec you submit is one entry into the drawing, and there is no limit to how many you can submit! Spread some love and win prizes, too!! Here's a link to January's Awards, and more info about how it all works can be found at this link here.

(Divider by @glygriffe!)

That's all for this week! To see all Pond events, and also other SPN-related things like conventions and online concerts, check out our Google calendar! Click here for a static view in Eastern US/Canada time (desktop only, no mobile app access, sadly), and click here to add our calendar to your own Google calendar! We try to keep it as up-to-date as possible. If there's something you want to see on the calendar that's not there (maybe a convention we missed, cast birthdays, or something similar), send us an ASK and let us know!

Hope you have a great week! - From your Admins and Manta Rays, @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @thoughtslikeaminefield, @spencereliotwinchester and @heavenssexiestangel!

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trashgothaoife · 2 months

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Transition timeline

Well since it seems we are big scary people... but also seen people who were spreading fear around transitioning especially later I figured why not show my progress.

I came out in 2020 to myself and my bestie, then family in 2021.

This was me in October '20 at thanksgiving. I had come to terms and was figuring out my next steps from here (shitty crop because it's a family photo) 2020, the pandemic and work from how gave me the space to really work on myself. I was about 310lbs in this photo, 6'2" and for the first time in my life kinda excited about the future. I started working out for the first time in ever and trying to get my life on track.

next up is me in September '21 I had just started HRT the month before, and managed to drop down to about 200lbs. No changes yet from HRT but I had only just started that, but I was happy, and this is me holding my brothers pyranees Diogee.

Now me in May '22 about 9 months on HRT and had started seeing physical changes. Not figured out styling yet so all of '22 was pretty much spent figuring that out. Mom wanted to document this, as she did a bunch of times and love her for that.

Here was june '22 first time wearing a bathing suit since a LONG time. Did the blue hair thing (blue hair and pronouns) and I liked it when it was vibrant, but that didn't last long. Spending time with my dad because he was dieing due to cancer, he died 4 months after this. I had started regaining weight here because of the stress watching my dad struggle and in pain.

Here is November '22 starting to figure out my style a lot more. Bleached out the blue as it was so faded, kinda like me being blonde/white

This was May '23 probably one of my favourite pictures of myself and you can see this is the style I use today. My trash goth elf demon aesthetic.

Here we go at my 2 year HRT anniversary, August '23

October '23 I had just lost my cat who had been my best friend for over a decade. I might make another post dedicated to her. So in a year I had lost both my dad and my pet.

And this is now February '24 I am working on getting my weight back on track, going for daily walks, and now weekly hikes, and back on progesterone with my HRT, and on the list to get bottom surgery which I hope doesn't take too long.

I started transitioning at 34, now 37 and I am a completely different person, both physically and emotionally. I actually can look in the mirror and recognize myself in the mirror, and loving how I look. I have a ways to go before I am where I want to be, but I have hope and a path to get to that place. It is not an impossibility and I am loving my life and looking forward to the future.

#transgender #trans rights #trans representation #trans timeline #trans woman

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mariacallous · 8 months

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In February, a dermatologist in New York City contacted the state’s health department about two female patients, ages 28 and 47, who were not related but suffered from the same troubling problem. They had ringworm, a scaly, crusty, disfiguring rash covering large portions of their bodies. Ringworm sounds like a parasite, but it is caused by a fungus—and in both cases, the fungus was a species that had never been recorded in the US. It was also severely drug-resistant, requiring treatment with several types of antifungals for weeks. There was no indication where the patients might have acquired the infections; the older woman had visited Bangladesh the previous summer, but the younger one, who was pregnant and hadn’t traveled, must have picked it up in the city.

That seemed alarming—but in one of the largest and most mobile cities on the planet, weird medical things happen. The state reported the cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the New York doctors and some CDC staff wrote up an account for the CDC’s weekly journal.

Then, in March, some of those same CDC investigators reported that a fungus they had been tracking—Candida auris, an extremely drug-resistant yeast that invades health care facilities and kills two-thirds of the people infected with it—had risen to more than 10,000 cases since it was identified in the US in 2016, tripling in just two years. In April, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services rushed to investigate cases of a fungal infection called blastomycosis centered on a paper mill, an outbreak that would grow to 118 people, the largest ever recorded. And in May, US and Mexican health authorities jointly rang an alarm over cases of meningitis, caused by the fungus Fusarium solani, which seemed to have spread to more than 150 clinic patients via contaminated anesthesia products. By mid-August, 12 people had died.

All of those outbreaks are different: in size, in pathogen, in location, and the people they affected. But what links them is that they were all caused by fungi—and to the small cadre of researchers who keep track of such things, that is worrisome. The experts share a sense, supported by incomplete data but also backed by hunch, that serious fungal infections are occurring more frequently, affecting more people, and also are becoming harder to treat.

“We don’t have good surveillance for fungal infections,” admits Tom Chiller, an infectious disease physician and chief of the CDC’s mycotic diseases branch. “So it’s hard to give a fully data-driven answer. But the feeling is definitely that there is an increase.”

The question is: Why? There may be multiple answers. More people are living longer with chronic illnesses, and their impaired immune systems make them vulnerable. But the problem isn’t only that fungal illnesses are more frequent; it is also that new pathogens are emerging and existing ones are claiming new territory. When experts try to imagine what could exert such widespread influence, they land on the possibility that the problem is climate change.

Fungi live in the environment; they affect us when they encounter us, but for many, their original homes are vegetation, decaying plant matter, and dirt. “Speculative as it is, it's entirely possible that if you have an environmental organism with a very specific ecological niche, out there in the world, you only need a very small change in the surface temperature or the air temperature to alter its niche and allow it to proliferate,” says Neil Stone, a physician and fungal infections lead at University College London Hospitals. “And it's that plausibility, and the lack of any alternative explanation, which makes it believable as a hypothesis.”

For this argument, C. auris is the leading piece of evidence. The rogue yeast was first identified in 2009 in a single patient in Japan, but within just a few years, it bloomed on several continents. Genetic analyses showed the organism had not spread from one continent to others, but emerged simultaneously on each. It also behaved strikingly differently from most yeasts, gaining the abilities to pass from person to person and to thrive on cool inorganic surfaces such as plastic and metal—while collecting an array of resistance factors that protect it from almost all antifungal drugs.

Arturo Casadevall, a physician and chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, proposed more than a decade ago that the rise of mammals over dinosaurs was propelled by an inherent protection: Internally, we’re too hot. Most fungi flourish at 30 degrees Celsius or less, while our body temperature hovers between 36 and 37 degrees Celsius. (That’s from 96.8 to the familiar 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.) So when an asteroid smashed into the Earth 65 million years ago, throwing up a cloud of pulverized vegetation and soil and the fungi those would have contained, the Earth’s dominant reptiles were vulnerable, but early mammals were not.

But Casadevall warned of a corollary possibility: If fungi increased their thermotolerance, learning to live at higher temperatures as the climate warms, mammals could lose that built-in protection—and he proposed that the weird success of C. auris might indicate it is the first fungal pathogen whose adaptation to warmth allowed it to find a new niche.

In the 14 years since it was first spotted, C. auris has invaded health care in dozens of countries. But in that time, other fungal infections have also surged. At the height of the Covid pandemic, India experienced tens of thousands of cases of mucormycosis, commonly called “black fungus,” which ate away at the faces and airways of people made vulnerable by having diabetes or taking steroids. In California, diagnosis of coccidioidomycosis (also called Valley fever) rose 800 percent between 2000 and 2018. And new species are affecting humans for the first time. In 2018, a team of researchers from the US and Canada identified four people, two from each country, who had been infected by a newly identified genus, Emergomyces. Two of the four died. (The fungus got its name because it is “emerging” into the human world.) Subsequently, a multinational team identified five species in that newly-named genus that are causing infections all over the world, most severely in Africa.

Fungi are on the move. Last April, a research group from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis examined the expected geographic range in the US of what are usually called the “endemic fungi,” ones that flourish only within specific areas. Those are Valley fever in the dry Southwestern US; histoplasmosis in the damp Ohio River valley; and blastomycosis, with a range that stretched from the Great Lakes down the Mississippi to New Orleans, and as far east as the Virginia coast. Using Medicare data from more than 45 million seniors who sought health care between 2007 and 2016, the group discovered that the historically documented range of these fungi is wildly out of step with where they are actually causing infections now. Histoplasmosis, they found, had been diagnosed in at least one county in 94 percent of US states; blastomycosis, in 78 percent; and Valley fever in 69 percent.

That represents an extension of range so vast that it challenges the meaning of endemic—to the point that Patrick Mazi, an assistant professor of medicine and first author on the paper, urges clinicians to cease thinking of fungal infections as geographically determined, and focus on symptoms instead. “Let’s acknowledge that everything is dynamic and changing,” he says. “We should recognize that for the sake of our patients.”

Without taking detailed histories from those millions of patients, it can’t be proven where their infections originated. They could have been exposed within the fungi’s historic home ranges and then traveled; one analysis has correlated the occurrence of Valley fever in the upper Midwest with “snowbird” winter migration to the Southwest. But there is plenty of evidence for fungal pathogens moving to new areas, via animals and bats, and on winds and wildfire smoke as well.

However fungi are relocating, they appear to be adapting to their new homes, and changes in temperature and precipitation patterns may be part of that. Ten years ago, CDC and state investigators found people in eastern Washington state infected with Valley fever, and proved they had acquired it not while traveling, but locally—in a place long considered too cold and dry for that fungus to survive. A group based primarily at UC Berkeley has demonstrated that transmission of Valley fever in California is intimately linked to weather there—and that the growing pattern of extreme drought interrupted by erratic precipitation is increasing the disease’s spread. And other researchers have identified cases of a novel blastomycosis in Saskatchewan and Alberta, pushing the map of where that infection occurs further north and west.

The impact of climate change on complex phenomena is notoriously hard to prove—but researchers can now add some evidence to back up their intuition that fungi are adapting. In January, researchers at Duke University reported that when they raised the lab temperatures in which they were growing the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus deneoformans—the cause of a quarter-million cases of meningitis each year—the fungus’s rate of mutation revved into overdrive. That activated mobile elements in the fungus’s genome, known as transposons, allowing them to move around within its DNA and affect how its genes are regulated. The rate of mutation was five times higher in fungi raised at human body temperature than at an incubator temperature of 30 degrees Celsius—and when the investigators infected mice with the transformed fungi, the rate of mutation sped up even more.

Researchers who are paying attention to rising fungal problems make a final point about them: We’re not seeing more cases because we’ve gotten better at finding them. Tests and devices to detect fungi, especially within patients, haven’t undergone a sudden improvement. In fact, achieving better diagnostics was top of a list published by the World Health Organization last fall when it drew up its first ranking of “priority fungal pathogens” in hopes of guiding research.

Multiple studies have shown that patients can wait two to seven weeks to get an accurate diagnosis, even when they are infected with fungi endemic to where they live, which ought to be familiar to local physicians. So understanding that fungi are changing their behavior is really an opportunity to identify how many more people might be in danger than previously thought—and to get out in front of that risk. “Patients are being diagnosed out of traditional areas, and we are missing them,” Mazi says. “All of these are opportunities to achieve better outcomes.”

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homomenhommes · 2 months

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … February 18

二月食吧

1907 – Billy De Wolfe, American actor, born William Jones (d.1974); A character actor, he was active in films from the mid-1940s until his death and was a good friend of Doris Day. He was never married, and is generally believed to have been a homosexual.

He signed with Paramount Pictures in 1943 and became a reliable comedian. His pencil-mustached and often pompous character contrasted humorously with the films' romantic leads. His best-known role of his Paramount tenure is probably the ham actor turned silent-movie villain in the 1947 fictionalized Pearl White biography The Perils of Pauline.

De Wolfe became known for his portrayal of fussy, petty men ("Never touch!," he would say imperiously whenever someone accosted him physically). A New York Times review of his 1948 film Isn't It Romantic? strongly criticized the way the other actors' material limited their performances, contrasting their performances with his: "But Mr. De Wolfe is nothing daunted. He rips up the place with great delight. The material is at his mercy. Likewise the scenery. And he chews it to bits."

He appeared regularly in guest roles on television, including the first two episodes of NBC's The Imogene Coca Show. He reappeared as Mr. Jarvis on CBS's The Doris Day Show, and co-starred with Larry Storch in a short-lived TV sitcom, The Queen and I. He often appeared on talk shows and in TV commercials, doing his "Mrs. Murgatroyd" drag routine. Wearing a hat and a shawl (but still sporting his mustache!), DeWolfe (as old maid "Phoebe Murgatroyd") would claim to be an expert on romance, and answered questions from the lovelorn.

Generations of TV viewers know Billy DeWolfe only by his voice: his is the voice of the frustrated magician in the Christmas perennial Frosty the Snowman. DeWolfe gave the role his usual fussy diction: "Mess-y, mess-y, mess-y! Bus-y, bus-y, bus-y!"

1931 – Charles Higham (d.2012) was an English author, editor and poet. Higham was a recipient of the Prix des Créateurs in 1978 and of the Académie Française and the Poetry Society of London Prize.He is best remembered as the writer of sensationalist biographies, especially Errol Flynn: The Untold Story.

Born in London, Higham was the son of MP and advertising mogul Sir Charles Higham. The younger Higham published two early books of verse in England, before moving to Sydney, Australia in 1954, where at 23 he became a prominent book and film critic. He became literary editor of The Bulletin, the country's leading weekly, in 1964, and published three more collections of verse.

Higham was named Regents Professor by the University of California, an honor accorded to leading literary figures in foreign countries, and while at UC Santa Cruz he discovered the lost footage of It's All True, Orson Welles's uncompleted Latin American triptych. In The Films of Orson Welles (1970) and in Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius (1985), he argued that Welles suffered from a "fear of completion" that led him to abandon projects when they were nearly finished because he could not bear to complete them. Friends of Welles, in particular Peter Bogdanovich, criticised this thesis. Newsweek devoted a full-page spread to Higham as a film detective and The New York Times engaged him as its Hollywood feature writer for the Sunday theatre Section.

Higham's first best seller was Kate (1975), the first authorised biography of Katharine Hepburn. This success was followed by Bette, the Life of Bette Davis, a biography of Lucille Ball, and The Duchess of Windsor (1988, 2005). His book Howard Hughes became the basis of Martin Scorsese's film The Aviator (2004). In this work "his assertions that Hughes had a romance with Cary Grant, was centrally involved in Watergate, offering material assistance to some of the conspirators, and quite possibly died of AIDS all raised eyebrows in the news media."

In 1980, Higham's "most sensational work", Errol Flynn: The Untold Story appeared. In this work he alleged that Errol Flynn was a bisexual fascist sympathiser who spied for the Nazis before and during World War II and had affairs with Tyrone Power, Howard Hughes, and Truman Capote. Tony Thomas, in Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was (1990) and Buster Wiles in My Days With Errol Flynn: The Autobiography of a Stuntman (1988) attacked Higham's claims as fabrications, a claim substantiated by viewing the F.B.I. documents, which were altered - rather than quoted verbatim - by Higham.

In his autobiography Higham wrote of his molestation by his stepmother and reveals his 1952 marriage despite his growing awareness of his homosexuality. He and his wife Norine Lillian Cecil stayed great friends although she later adopted a lesbian lifestyle. Higham lived with his partner Richard V. Palafox, a nurse, until Palafox's death in 2010, in Los Angeles. Higham died on 21 April 2012 in Los Angeles.

1932 – Duane Michals is an American photographer. Largely self-taught, his work is noted for its innovation and artistry. Michals' style often features photo-sequences and the incorporation of text to examine emotion and philosophy, resulting in a unique body of work.

In 1958 while on a holiday in the USSR he discovered an interest in photography. The photographs he made during this trip became his first exhibition held in 1963 at the Underground Gallery in New York City. Duane Michals settled in New York in the late 1950s and became known as a commercial and fashion photographer.

For a number of years, Michals worked in commercial photography, working for Esquire and Mademoiselle, and he covered the filming of The Great Gatsby for Vogue (1974). He did not have a studio. Instead, he took portraits of people in their environment, which was a contrast to the method of other photographers at the time, such as Avedon and Irving Penn. In 1968 Michals was hired by the government of Mexico to photograph the 1968 Olympic Games. In 1970 his works were shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

His early work became well known for its insistent, and often humorous, use of the narrative series. Many such works actually incorporated handwritten text onto the images. Thematically, Michals has a recurrent fascination with making tangible the intangible realm of love, death, dreams, and wishes. His works deal with human sexuality, both straight and gay, but always in a charmingly moving and innocent manner.

Though he has not been involved in gay civil rights, his photography has addressed gay themes. As early as 1970, Michals plotted the psychic terrain of urban gay life with his series Chance Meeting, in which two men are seen to cruise each other within the sharply receding space of an alley that communicates both the encounter's intensity and also its potential for alienation.

"Chance Meeting"

The Unfortunate Man (1978) allegorizes the crippling personal effects of gay criminalization, combining photographic image and coarsely handwritten text in what would become Michals's distinctive style.

His frequent incorporation of textual elements is not only Michals's accounting for reality beyond the visible world, but also his unassuming participation in the gay literary tradition that occasioned two books of photographic homages: Homage to Cavafy (1978) and Salute, Walt Whitman (1996). (Among Michals's two dozen books and catalogues, there is also a tribute to René Magritte, with whom Michals shared a fondness for sophisticated visual humor.)

With the publication of his illustrations of ten homoerotic poems by Constantine Cavafy, Michals identified himself publicly as gay, and thereafter one finds in his works images of tremendous tenderness between men, for example, Just to Light His Cigarette Was a Pleasure (1978) and How Nice to Watch You Take a Bath (1986).

In 1976 Michals received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Michals also produced the art for The Police album Synchronicity in 1983, and Richard Barone's Clouds Over Eden album in 1993.

Michals has been in a relationship with his partner for 50 years. Though he has not been involved in gay civil rights, his photography has regularly addressed gay themes and quietly added to the storehouse of twentieth-century gay imagery.

1952 – Daniel David Moses is a First Nations poet and playwright from Canada.

Moses, of Delaware descent on his father's side and Tuscarora descent on his mother's, was born in Ohsweken, Ontario, and raised on a farm on the Six Nations of the Grand River near Brantford, Ontario, Canada. In 2003, Moses joined the department of drama at Queen's University as an assistant professor. In 2019, he was appointed Professor Emeritus by Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.

He has worked as an independent artist since 1979 as a poet, playwright, dramaturge, editor, essayist, teacher, and writer-in-residence with institutions as varied as Theatre Passe Muraille, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Theatre Kingston, the University of British Columbia, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Windsor, the University of Toronto, the Sage Hill Writing Experience, McMaster University and Concordia University.

He is openly gay, and also claims "brothers and sisters among Two-Spirit people." Some of his works, therefore, reflect upon and explore the complexities of Native Two-Spirit or Queer identities

1954 – John Travolta is an American actor, dancer, and singer. There have been continuous claims that he is gay, some of these claims even leading to lawsuits.

Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta's acting career declined through the 1980s.His career enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction, and he has since continued starring in more recent films such as Face/Off, Swordfish, and Wild Hogs. Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty. In 2014, he has received the IIFA Award for Outstanding Achievement in International Cinema at the 15th IIFA Awards held at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, in the United States.

Travolta married actress Kelly Preston in 1991. The couple had a son, Jett. In 2009, Jett died while on a Christmas vacation in The Bahamas. Their daughter, Ella Bleu, was born in 2000 and a third child, a son named Benjamin, was born in 2010 in Florida. Travolta and Preston have regularly attended marriage counseling; Travolta has stated that therapy has helped the marriage.

Travolta has been a practitioner of Scientology since 1975 when he was given the book Dianetics while filming the movie The Devil's Rain in Durango, Mexico. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he joining other celebrities in helping with the relief efforts, Travolta flew his 707 full of supplies, doctors, and Scientologist Volunteer Ministers into the disaster area.

In 2012, Fabian Zanzi, a former employee of Royal Caribbean Cruises, accused the "Grease" star of coming onto him aboard a ship in 2009. "Travolta forced his naked person and his erect penis against plaintiff's person causing plaintiff to experience pain, shock, embarrassment, distress and fear," the complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles said. Later, lawyers for Zanzi and Travolta signed documents dismissing the action, which prevented Zanzi from refiling.

In May 2012, an anonymous masseur filed a lawsuit against Travolta citing claims of sexual assault and battery. A lawyer for Travolta said that the allegations were "complete fiction and fabrication" and someone wanting their 15 minutes of fame. Travolta's counsel also stated that his client would be able to prove that he was not in California on the day in question and asserted that Travolta would "sue the attorney and Plaintiff for malicious prosecution" after getting the case thrown out. A second masseur later joined the lawsuit making similar claims. Both lawsuits were subsequently dropped by the complainants and dismissed without prejudice.

In September 2014, Travolta denied claims made in January 2014 by his former pilot, Douglas Gotterba, that they had shared a sexual relationship while working for Travolta's aircraft company, Alto, for six years before leaving voluntarily in 1987. Gotterba argued that he was not bound by any confidentiality agreement during his term in the position.

1956 – John R. Stowe, a spiritual teacher, cofounder of Gay Spirit Visions, and founder of EarthFriends, was born. He lived a closeted gay existence until 1979, when he began a quest to discover what it meant to live as a gay man. As with many gay men, much of that struggle meant dealing with negative self images acquired from growing up in a world that does not accept homosexuality.

John began his studies of the living world rather traditionally, majoring in biological sciences and earning an M.S. degree in Biology/Ecology that led to a teaching position in a small university near Atlanta.

After several years of teaching - and a couple more spent traveling through Mexico, Central America, and Europe - he embarked on a study of natural healing. In 1981, John received certification from the Atlanta School of Massage as a Licensed Massage Therapist - having taught there concurrently.

After coming out, he found employment as a bodyworker/ masseur and pursued his spiritual and self-understanding quest through a spectrum of alternative spiritual options from the gay-informed Christianity of Episcopal priest Malcolm Boyd to channeller Andrew Ramer. He found bodywork as one tool that assisted the exploration of the inner self. He soon emerged as a spiritual teacher serving the gay community primarily in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.

In 1990, Stowe joined with a small group of friends who had pursued similar spiritual journeys, including Ramer, to found Gay Spirit Visions. The primary program of Gay Spirit Visions is an annual conference where gay men gather to explore alternative spiritual options. The work of the group provided the atmosphere for him to develop his book, Gay Spirit Warrior (1999). Gay Spirit Warrior was written to assist men begin an inner journey and start to experience the reality of the self, both positive and negative.

In 1984, Stowe had discovered flower essences, substances distilled from flowers and other plants by a particular method first discovered by Edward Bach, a British physician. Stowe began to make his own flower essences from flowers found in the Southeastern United States and use them in his bodywork sessions. In the mid-1980s he founded EarthFriends to manufacture and sell the essences he had developed. One line of products, Exploring Gayspirit Oils, is marketed primarily to gay men.

1969 – Christopher Sieber is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Kevin Burke in Two of a Kind starring Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, and Lord Farquaad in Shrek the Musical. Christopher studied acting and musical comedy at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. Sieber has appeared in Broadway musicals, including Into the Woods, Monty Python's Spamalot and Shrek The Musical. He is a two-time Tony Award nominee for his work in Spamalot and Shrek The Musical.

Sieber has starred in two television series: Two of a Kind with the Olsen twins and It's All Relative with John Benjamin Hickey and Harriet Sansom Harris.

While It's All Relative was being produced, Sieber came out as gay and said that he was happily partnered to actor and chef Kevin Burrows. They married on November 24, 2011, in New York City.

Sieber is involved with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) and has appeared in several of its Broadway Cares revues, among other events the charity produces.

Today's Gay Wisdom:

Audre Lorde

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When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.~ Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals

Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever / Only, nothing is eternal. ~ Audre Lorde, Undersong

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect. ~ Audre Lorde, from the essay "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action", in Sister Outsider

Your silence will not protect you. ~ Audre Lorde from the essay "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action", in Sister Outsider

I am who I am, doing what I came to do, acting upon you like a drug or chisel or remind you of your me-ness as I discover you in myself. ~ Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider

Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives. ~ Audre Lorde

I have always wanted to be both man and woman, to incorporate the strongest and richest parts of my mother and father within/into me -- to share valleys and mountains upon my body the way the earth does in hills and peaks. ~ Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

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