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wobblesthecowgirl · 3 days

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I'm No O’Driscoll!

Chapter Four: Lenny!

Tags: Arthur Morgan x Femreader, enemies to lovers, O'Driscoll reader, game plot, Arthur doesn't have tuberculosis, eventual smut, age difference, 18+, mild gore

Word Count: 3.3k

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this longer chapter! Sorry it took a little longer to get out! They say drunk words are sober thoughts! But don't get it twisted, they still hate each other...

Chapter One

Y/n had gotten closer with Mary-Beth, seeing that she was the only kind member of the gang. Plus, they both had a thing for reading, so the conversation possibilities were endless.

Today was no different, the two women were sitting on a blanket under the canopy, discussing Mary-Beth's novel ideas, the dark night bringing an odd sort of comfort. An owl was hooting in the back, and small mummers of those around, when Lenny came bounding in on his horse. This was the first time Y/n had seen the boy, but luckily her new friend had gone through everybody here. He went running to Arthur and Dutch who had been previously discussing something important.

“Dutch, Arthur. They got Micah.” He panted, hopping off his horse with a small, panicked stumble. The rest of the camp were watching curiously, as Dutch, Arthur, and Molly walked over to the younger boy.

“What’s going on?” Dutch asked, trying to calm him down. Lenny continued, still not calming down, “They got MIcah. He- He’s been arrested for murder. He was in Strawberry and…”

“It’s ok, son. Breathe.” The gang’s leader soothed him, Lenny took a deep breath, leaning forward with his hands on his knees before explaining what was going on.

Mary-Beth leaned over to Y/n and murmured. “I hope he does get hanged.”

“Woah, Mary!” Y/n exclaimed, surprised at the sudden hostile sentence hushed at her new friend's mouth; she definitely wasn’t the type to throw that around with no reason. If you can piss off her, you gotta be a bad person.

“…and there’s talk of hanging him.”

Y/n turned her attention back to the scene unfolding before them. She watched Arthur’s lips turn into a playful smile, “Here’s hoping.”

“Arthur!” Dutch warned him.

“What?” He asked innocently, as if he didn’t just wish a man to be hung. She found herself giggling. Ok, that was actually a bit funny. The two continued to go back and forth as Lenny sat on a nearby table, looking distressed.

“You take that kid into town, Valentine, not Strawberry. Get him drunk.” Dutch paused and looked around until he caught eyes with Y/n. He pointed at her, “And take her with you. This is a great opportunity for what we discussed earlier.”

She quickly stood up, the pain in her leg had gotten better but still not perfect, and turned to Mary-Beth, “I’m sorry, I’m going to have to leave you quickly.” She sped-walked towards the men.

“Mr Van Der Linde,” She began, “I appreciate you being kind enough to let me stay here despite my past. However, please don’t make me hang out with Mr Morgan.”

“Yeah, why have I gotta drag her along? I’m fine with just taking the boy.” Arthur protested; a pleading look in his eye. Yet Dutch wouldn’t hear them out, and instead waved them off.

With a sigh, Arthur turned to Lenny, “Come on, son.” Before calling out to Dutch and made his way to his horse. Y/n awkwardly tailed behind him, unsure how this was going to go down. She was going to get a drink with a man who hates her, and a boy she’s never met. The men got on their horses and he turned to look at her.

“You gonna refuse my help again, princess?” Arthur looked at her, as she huffed in annoyance, grabbing the saddle and pulling herself up with a small grunt.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He said as she finally got on, before they made their way out of camp.

“So, who are you?” Lenny shouted from behind as he followed Arthur. Y/n looked over her shoulder and smiled politely.

“I’m Y/n L/n!”

“She’s an O’Driscoll!” Arthur interrupted her which caused Lenny to grimace.

Still looking at Lenny she corrected, “Don’t listen to him. If I was, do you think Dutch would let me stay?” Lenny nodded but his face told a different story. Great, there goes my chance to fit in.

The two of them continued to talk about what went down in Strawberry as the woman kept to herself, she didn’t really feel welcomed, why Dutch made her go is beyond her. They finally made it to Valentine and Y/n realised this was the first time in weeks where she had seen a proper town. It was dark, but plenty of streetlights to keep it well lit. Some drunk men stumbled around, and shops were closing for the night. The men hitched their horses outside the saloon, Y/n taking extra care when jumping off. She could feel Lenny’s stare at the back of her head while Arthur went inside.

She followed him to the bar and found herself in between them both, most likely in case she tried to do anything funny. The men put some money down and that’s when she realised. She looked down to see her tatty clothes (which thankfully she washed recently, but still had a hole on her thigh), and no satchel.

“What’s wrong?” Lenny inquired as she sighed.

“My bag was taken when I was hostage, and I haven’t asked for it back yet.” She looked at Arthur who could only shake his head and put another coin down for her. She knew she should say thank you, but she was too suborn to say thank you to him.

“Just one or two…right, Arthur?” The younger boy sounded stressed, leaning over the counter a little.

“Course, just a drink, no big drama.” He turned to the bartender, “Can we get three beers please?”

The bartender looked petrified to see him, which only made her curious as to the kind of trouble he has gotten himself into around here.

“I don’t want no trouble.” The bartender put his hands up in defensive as Arthur groaned, “And you’ll get none from me. I was defending myself.”

Y/n chuckled; she highly doubted that was the case. He gave another coin to the bartender for himself to get a drink- which was actually more likely to just shut him up- and Lenny and Arthur continued to talk about Strawberry. Y/n was beginning to feel a little left out, chugging her entire beer to pass the time.

A stranger stumbled over to them, a little too close for comfort and smelling of booze.

“I seen a lot of crazy, crazy stuffy” He mimicked Lenny. Arthur grunted, “Will you shut up?”

They went back and forth for a bit, Arthur increasingly getting angier.

The man faced Y/n, leaning in too close which made her lean away. She felt Lenny put a hand on her shoulder and snapped at the man, “Leave the lady alone.”

“Leave the lady alone.” The man mimicked again, “Ladies have been leaving me alone for the last ten years, I’m bored with being left alone. Come with me, pretty lady.”

“Get any closer to me and I’ll knock your front teeth out.” She hissed, which only made the gross man more determined.

“Don’t be like that missy. I promise I’ll show you a good time.”

Arthur piped up, irritation laced in his voice, and fully turning his body towards him.

“Listen, buddy. You’re a charming fellow. But she’s a taken woman, and me and the kid here, we’re tryin’ to talk business. So, could you possibly leave us alone? No offense intended.” He treaded carefully with his words, as the man took full offence and began to stumble away.

“Ain’t no pleasing some folk. I was just, trying to be friendly.”

The three watched him leave, before sighing.

“I think I need another drink after that.” Y/n mumbled, Arthur nodded before giving her a handful of coins, much to her surprise.

“That’s you allowance. Don’t spend it all in one go.”

She placed a coin down for another beer, “Don’t treat me like a child.” She snapped, before going quieter, “Thanks.” He grumbled in response, getting himself another drink. As the time went on, the two drinks went to three, then four. The men were outdrinking her, and unfortunately, she was doing her best to keep up despite being a lightweight. Lenny had even bought her some, warming up to her. Arthur was becoming louder, cheerier than his usual grumpy exterior.

“You gotta slow down, girlie.” Arthur chuckled as he watched her chug another glass down. Her cheeks had become rosier, and she was definitely becoming more relaxed.

“Ay, you have to stop bossing me around, old man.”

“And you hafta stop calling me old man.” He grumbled, sipping his beer.

She watched him stumble towards the piano man and laugh at his playing, complimenting him. She found the way he was acting funny, giggling as she made her way over to him. She watched as he looked towards her, a drunken smile on his face before it contorts to that of confusion.

“Lenny, where are you?” He suddenly shouts, causing the woman to cover her ears. She looked around for the younger boy, feeling guilty for not realising he had wondered off somewhere. The lights of the saloon seemed a lot brighter than before, and the music a little louder.

“Lets go find him, Mr Morgan.” She said, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him gently. They looked around, and she occasionally asked some women who shook their heads apologetically.

“Hey, you seen my friend anywhere?” Arthur asked as a man on the stairs hinted at Lenny being upstairs.

“Hey! I see him!” Y/n shook Arthur’s shoulder and pointed at Lenny who was leaning against the banister. Arthur leaned down to her eye level so that his head was near her shoulder and ear, and peered so he could see what she was seeing. She could smell him: a cheap cologne, tobacco, and a lot of beer. She gently nudged him, “Do you mind? Personal space.” He slurred out a sorry before walking over to Lenny.

“What are you doing, kid?”

Lenny was trying to balance a beer bottle on his head. Y/n stifled out a laugh before complimenting him, “That’s very impressive!”

“Hello Arthur, Y/n. You know what, I don’t know.” His concentration was broken when the bottle fell. All three of them tried to catch it but failed as it smashed on the bottom floor. The older man laughed and patted him on the back. He turned to the woman and snatched the beer bottle out her hand.

“Now you try, Princess!” He was already trying to put it on her head while she attempted to swat his muscular arm away.

“Get your manly arms away from my head, idiot!”

Arthur continued to fight her, Lenny was holding onto his stomach and laughed, “Come on, Y/n! Balance it!”

She held still as Arthur placed it on her head… and it instantly fell off and smashed. The men laughed as she kicked the shards away from her feet. The three of them were way more relaxed now, chatting away and howling with joy. Both men were even making sure she was involved.

“Well, why ain’t the two of you ever married?” Lenny asked them both; she looked to Arthur who pouted like a lost child and moped.

“No one would have me.”

She patted his back, “It’s ok tough guy.” The men looked at her, waiting for a response, which she simply shrugged, “I’m not sure. Too grumpy I guess.”

“That’s very likely!” Arthur cackled which earned a slap on the back from her as he continued, “That pretty face is wasted ‘cos you’re so sour, like a lemon!”

She grumbled some more insults as Lenny began to dance, and held a hand out to her. She took is and boogied with him while in the background, Arthur was jumping up and down. She blacked out for a second and woke up to Arthur shouting.

“Lenny? Lenny! Come on you unhelpful woman.” He rolled his eyes and dragged her back to her feet, causing her to use him as support for a minute. She then realised the position they were in and pushed him away, as he continued to call for their friend; where they found him was on top of the bar. He was swinging at a few men who were trying to grab him while the bartender cowered away.

“Hey” Y/n barked, storming (or stumbling) down the steps with a pointed finger, “You get the hell away from that boy!” They all turned towards her, some smirking and the rest confused.

“Who the hell do you think you’re talking to, bitch?”

She felt a large hand hold her shoulder and pull her back as she saw Arthur come into view, “Nobody. She’s talkin’ to nobody,” One of the other men piped up.

“What did you say?”

“Get lost, buddy!” It was clear that Arthur was incredibly drunk given how badly he was slurring his words. She couldn’t help but laugh at his sorry state, like she was any better.

“What you think you laughing at?” Another man sneered at her.

“Your ugly fucking face!” She laughed harder, before blacking out again.

When she came back to her senses, both men were gone. She called out for Arthur, even getting a few random strangers confused for him. She finally got a lead by one of the women, “Was that the big guy you was with? I think he’s outside, ‘round the back.” She thanked her and wobble walked to the back door and opened it.

“Goddammit woman!” He freaked out and quickly turned his body around. She was confused at first until she saw the stream of piss coming out of him. He had turned around in time so she could only see how his belt was undone and the way he leaned back slightly with his hands holding…it.

“What are you doing! Use a god damn toilet, you animal!”

“There aint none!” He snapped back before finishing, and she realised she was still looking at him, so she too faced away until she heard his jeans being zipped up.

“Come on, lets find that boy.” He muttered as he walked past her and opened the door, herself right behind him. He stumbled around, thinking everyone was Lenny and laughing until the patron’s got annoyed with him. He looked around and saw her before laughing and coming over, grabbing both her shoulders.

“Got cha Lennnnny!”

“Arthur you dumbass. It’s me!”

He stared at her intently before making an o shape with his mouth and letting go off her. She looked over his shoulder and pointed, “There he is!”

Lenny heard her and smiled, shuffling his way to them. He grabbed the older man and asked, “Arthur, Arthur! What are you doing?”

Instead of replying, they had a slap contests, the whole bar cheering. The woman decided to get another drink while they did so, just in case they got her involved, and chugged the whiskey down. Her body heat was causing her to sweat slightly, her hair sticking to her forehead, and her eyes to go droopy and hazy.

She heard Arthur order a drink next to her.

“You gotta be by my side all the time?” She joked as he grinned at her.

“I hafta make sure the lady is behaving now, don’t I?”

“No you don’t. You’re not my boss.

He took a sip of whiskey, “I aint? Pretty sure I am, Lemon.”

“Lemon?”

“Yeah, ‘cos you’re sour.”

“Shut up.” She huffed as the man who gave them trouble when they first walked in stumbled over.

“Not you again.” Arthur shook his head but the drunk ignored him and turned his attention to Y/n, standing close to her side. He grabbed her waist and smirked, and she put her hands on his chest and shoved him. He stumbled but regained his composure and went for her thigh.

“Get off me!” She shouted, backing up into Arthur.

“You hear the lady! She don’t want you!”

The drunk groaned, “Oh come on lady. I don’t see your man anywhere. Just come home with me.” He tried to grab her again but her older companion stood in front of her so she could hide behind him.

“Listen here. If you don’t get the hint and leave my woman alone, I’m gonna drown you.” He threatened. Y/n couldn’t deny she was thankful, but a little annoyed that she was depending on him.

“She’s yours? Rent her for the night?” The drunk chortled as Arthur suddenly grabbed his ear and aggressively dragged him outside. Y/n quickly drank the rest of Arthur’s drink for him and stumbled outside. In horror, she found him trying to drown the man like he promised. She grabbed his bicep and tried to pry him off the man, which he did with reluctance. The stranger gasped for air, looking petrified and scampering away.

“Why would you do that, you fool? You trying to get arrested?” She told him off, but he didn’t look remorseful.

“Hada teach him a lesson. Not to mess with my woman!” He joked as she laughed.

“Never in a million years.”

They heard Lenny come outside shouting their names. The alcohol was really getting to them now. The men were rolling around in the mud, and this time she joined in with the rough housing, getting covered in the dirt as well. As they danced in the middle of the street with the younger boy throwing up a lot, they heard shouting. Lenny got tackled by a deputy as another two went for them, “Come here! You drunk fools!”

“Come on, Lemon!” Arthur snatched her wrist and began running behind the saloon. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion and she watched the way his back moved and the tightness of his grip.

“You’ll never take me alive!” He boasted, a unusual cheeriness in his voice which caused her to giggle.

“Turn right, Mister!” She laughed as another man cut them off. Arthur was laughing just as much as she was as he screamed, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!” They came across a fence so he let go of her wrist and jumped over before turning around and putting his hands under her armpits and picking her up with ease. Like I'm a ragdoll!

He moved her into a bridal hold as he ran; she wrapped her arms around his neck and screamed, though she wasn’t sure what for. The adrenaline, the drunk butterflies, the running, or the fact this man was carrying her like she weighed a couple of feathers. It was sort of comforting, so much so that she blacked out again.

⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆

When she woke up in the morning, her throat was dry, and her eyes couldn’t fully open because of the light. She groaned before realising she was laying on something. She looked to her right and saw she had been sleeping on Arthur’s arm. The man was completely sprawled out on the grass and looked like he was dead.

“Oy. Wake up, you fool!” She slapped his face hard as he jolted awake and groaned in pain. His eyes met hers, and a confused look spread across his face.

“You? Where are we? What happened? Were we sleeping together?”

She tried to stand up but had to hold onto a near tree, scared she was about to vomit but swallowed hard.

“Don’t say it like that. We ran away from the law and passed out.” She looked around and saw they were on the outskirts of Valentine near the barn.

“Looks like we didn’t get that far. Come on, lets go bail Lenny.” She watched as the man threw up and rubbed his eyes.

“Whatever happened yesterday, that doesn’t make us friends.” He pointed a finger at her as she made a slow walk back to the town.

“We never were.” Y/n paused, “But I did have fun last night.”

She saw the corner of his mouth turn up slightly.

“Me too.”

#arthur morgan x reader #rdr2 arthur #rdr2 fanfic #rdr2 x reader #arthur morgan #arthur morgan fanfiction

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cordycepsbian · 2 months

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team snakemouth gijinka but more of a Fantasy™️ au than just regular humans. featuring our spin on the concepts of halflings and dwarves where they are creature animal. and leif is uh ??? the horrors

bonus doodle

#bug fables #bug fables spoilers #bf vi #bf kabbu #bf leif #gijinka #stuff i made tag #we have never showed the face of our kabbu gijinka before now #we just don't think he's meant to be de-helmeted but it was necessary to show off his funky mole nose and whiskers #most of leif's octopus features are still covered by their clothes though. nobody needs to see that #the bee (halfling) kingdom still lives in a tree like usual #vi here is based on tasmanian devils but they're mostly inspired by possums and the like #the parts about their ages were only included because we think it's funny #vi says she's 13 and means 'im almost an adult' but kabbu hears 'that is a TODDLER'#we have even more thoughts about the setting in general but we should. read more of the thing that inspired this first #about 40 chapters to go... hooray (this is fun to read we are not actually complaining)

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grassbreads · 11 months

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I’d love to know about Yulma and how important it is to representation in shounen manga

This has been sitting in my askbox for a couple months (because I am incapable of punctuality), but anon sent this to me back when I was talking about Yulma over on my vnc blog. For those unaware, Yulma refers to Yu Kanda and Alma Karma from the manga D.Gray-man.

So the thing is, to be honest, I don't know if you can say Yulma is/was important for representation. They don't tend to get brought up as an example of representation (except by diehard d.gray-man fans like me, lol) in shonen, and their whole thing is complicated enough that I feel like the queerness of it all flies over a lot of people's heads.

However! They're very important to me personally, and I do think it's kind of remarkable their story came out in like 2010. Because even though their queerness gets overlooked a lot, it's like. really there no matter how you interpret it.

The short version of their very complicated story is that Kanda and Alma are a couple who were resurrected into new bodies. Alma was a woman when they were originally together in their past lives, but is physically male in the present. Kanda is still very much in love with them by the end of their story, which, depending on the reading, makes Kanda very bi and/or Alma very trans.

This sound like something you want details on? If so, let's talk about how D.Gray-man's fan favorite edgy badass toughguy character briefly became the star of his very own heart-wrenching tragic queer romance.

Here's a brief crash course in Yu Kanda and Dgm for the uninitiated:

D.Gray-man is a manga about a group of exorcists (in the loosest and most anime sense of the term) in the 1890s fighting a holy war against mechanical demons powered by the souls of the dead. There are two things you need to understand about this plot for me to explain Yulma:

The Black Order, the secret branch of the church that exorcists work for, has a long history of committing horrific human experiments to further the war effort.

Due to complications of world building, only a tiny number of people can become exorcists, and tracking down new ones is extremely difficult.

Yu Kanda is one of the exorcists, and though not the actual main character (that's the lad in my icon), he's a very important secondary character. Arguably he's the most important secobdary character, since he's the main guy's biggest foil and the first character to play deuteragonist in a major story arc. He's also a huge fan favorite. The character popularity polls that Jump used to do always had him and the mc going back and forth over who won #1 most popular.

Kanda was also a classic edgy toughguy character. His first two scenes are him almost murdering the main guy because he thinks he's an intruder, then complaining about people grieving for their friend too loudly. He never smiles. He argues with the righteous mc about wasting time/energy protecting civilians. He threatens (and delivers) violence on anyone that annoys him. He looks like this:

TLDR; Kanda was an adored-by-fans mean badass archetype in a 2000s shonen manga. Not generally the guy you peg for starring in a piece of queer romantic storytelling.

And for the entirety of the original anime adaptation's 103 episode run, for the first 188ish chapters of the manga, you do not learn a single thing about his early life. You learn he joined the Black Order very young, and you meet the mentor that took him in at that point, but although there are little hints, a couple cryptic mentions of him searching for a certain person, his early origins remain a complete black box.

Then came the Alma Karma arc.

This is the point where I start getting into spoilers.

To make a very long story short, the Alma Karma arc reveals that Kanda is one of the Black Order's human experiments. The Order ran a secret project 9ish years before the start of the series in which they essentially tried to re-use dying exorcists (since finding new ones is so hard). They took the bodies of dying or recently deceased exorcists and harvested their brains, implanting those brains into new magically grown child bodies.

Key to this project—the second exorcist project—is that these newly grown second exorcists were not supposed to remember anything from their previous lives. Kanda, however, recovered a few hazy memories from his past self. Most importantly, he can recall an unclear image of the woman that his past self was in love with. This memory gradually becomes Kanda's reason to live. He wants desperately to find and meet that person.

Now, aside from Kanda, there was one other successfully revived second exorcist. This was a boy named Alma Karma.

Over the course of their brief shared childhood, Kanda and Alma become extremely close. However, due to a series of horrible events that I'll spare you the details of, Alma is eventually driven to murder-suicide. He wants himself and Kanda to die together to spite the Order, and Kanda almost lets him do it.

The one thing that keeps Kanda from letting Alma kill him, the thing that drives him instead to kill Alma, his most beloved and only friend, is that he can't bear to die without finding that woman again.

Have you figured out the twist yet?

9 years later, in the present, Kanda discovers that he didn't actually quite kill Alma. The Order kept Alma secretly half-alive in order to do more dubious experiments. And, more importantly, when they meet again, Kanda discovers the truth. The woman that he's been searching for his whole life, the woman he's in love with, the woman he tried to kill Alma in order to find, was also killed and made into a second exorcist. And her brain was placed into the body of Alma Karma.

After quite a lot more violence and tragedy, Kanda and Alma end their story arc by running away together on their deathbeds. Alma dies, for real this time, in Kanda's arms, and his last words are to tell Kanda he loves him. These words are presented as something Kanda hears from both the boy and woman versions of Alma's soul.

So! At the end of a very long and complicated story, one thing holds true: Kanda and Alma are in love. As passed down from their past selves, they are specifically in romantic love. They were a couple. And to speak as a fan, the sheer absolute devotion to how Kanda's love for Alma is presented is seriously intense and moving.

Now, given the absolute hell that is Alma's life, gender identity is frankly the last thing they have time to worry about, so it's hard to say how the whole "literally a woman's brain in a male body" thing might have settled for them if given time to think about it. But that is inherently a pretty trans narrative. And given the whole Alma gender situation, there's simply no reading of their whole situation where neither of them is queer.

If you take present day Alma as a guy, which is more or less how he's presented in canon (though again, who knows how he would've felt about that male body in different circumstances), then congratulations! You've got mlm in your shonen manga. They were straight in a different life, but now one of them's a dude, and they are still deeply in love with each other. They've even got not one but two "let's forget it all and run away together" scenes, just as every mlm couple seems to have.

On the other hand, if you go with the angle that Alma's still a woman based on her mind/soul, even in her new body, then Kanda may not be canonically queer, but Alma is inarguably trans. Again, literally a woman's brain in a male body. It may not be how most people end up trans, but that doesn't change the facts of her situation.

You see what I mean about how they're undeniably queer, but also kind of easy to miss? There's so much other insane shit going on in their story that Alma's whole gender situation can get passed over. Plus, you can look online to this day and find people arguing that Kanda's not "technically" explicitly in love with the present day male version of Alma, since he doesn't 100% unambiguously say as much. I love reading comprehension.

Also! As a possible extra reason for why people don't talk about them much, the official English translation of the manga translated Alma's final "I love you" very differently. There's always a lot of nuance and argument when it comes to translating "大好き" into English, but given the full context of their relationship and the scene it's in, Viz's handling really sets off the censorship bells in my head.

Here's the different versions (Japanese then fan then official), if you want to compare:

Nothing more classically queer than censorship by way of questionable translation 🙃.

At the end of the day, Kanda and Alma are in kind of a strange middle ground. They're each in love with the other one, but the whole second exorcist brain transfer situation makes it complicated enough that people argue their feelings aren't explicitly romantic (and thus not gay) in the present. Alma is literally a woman's brain implanted in a male body, but we don't have time to dwell on the gender complications of all that because of the hell that is the rest of their life. They're canon but not canon—queer people whose stories don't have space for them to be queer.

However, given that all this messy, tragic ambiguity was published in a fairly popular shonen manga back in 2010, it still feels kind of remarkable to me. Alma is somewhat an antagonist (it's complicated), and he dies at the end of his arc, but once again, Kanda was/is the fan favorite! And when he re-enters the main story after Alma's death, he's more important than he's ever been, and his history with Alma continues to be a huge part of his character.

Katsura Hoshino took the much-beloved edgy toughguy character from her long-running shonen series and, after keeping his origins secret for such a long time, confirmed that his whole life has revolved around love this entire time. Almost every facet of his character can be traced back to his love for his lost best friend or his yearning for his past life's missing partner. And then she reveals that the best friend and the partner are one and the same.

You can go back and forth about the degree to which they work as representation, but in any case, I think their story is something people ought to know about. It's romantic and it's heart-wrenching and it's fucking wild, especially given the context in which it was published (a Shonen Jump spinoff in 2010). I never see anyone besides the few remaining hardcore dgm fans talk about them, and I think that's a shame.

So anyway, that's tale of one of the most insanity-inducing romances I've ever seen put to paper. I love queer people.

Here's some choice pages if you want to cry with me (the last two are a sequence):

#followers!! I know my demographic #I know that most of y'all are Tragic Queer Romance Enjoyers #and if that describes you. you should read this post #come learn about a truly wild piece of manga history #I bring you the gift of discovering Yulma without having to read almost 200 chapters of shonen manga for context #don't pass this up <3 #dgm #d.gray-man #yu kanda #yulma #alma karma #invasion of the frogs #also I really hope that at least one of the besties reads this and has a Realization about who/what my queue tag is a reference to #maybe I flatter myself to think that anyone remembers what my queue tag is. but I just think it would be funny <3 #also also. I really did not intend for this post to turn into an entire essay when I started writing it #so uh. whoops #ID in alt text #anon #ask

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lavenoon · 2 years

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@naffeclipse I don't know enough about cryptids to know if it's like. A Rule that they show up blurry in pictures, but it's definitely funny to assume that

#post let luce #my art #fnaf sb #fnaf sb au #cryptid sightings #cryptid!eclipse #cryptid!sun #cryptid!moon #naffeclipse #the geographically closest 'big' cryptid ik about is nessie/ loch ness monster and that's an ocean away #otherwise the most exposure I've had to cryptids was gravity falls journal 3 LMAO #so yea I'll just assume they don't photograph well as a rule #for the sake of the comic they also just chill outside of their vessel sometimes post-reveal #I imagine it might be like taking ur bra off after a long day #doesn't really bother you until it's gone and you breathe a sigh of relief #but yes have some pure funny feel good before my inevitable descent into madness (again) next chapter #still thinking about yesterday's snippet #posting this now but love how I had to leave the draft be for a bit after that last tag lest I start the madness now LMAO

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oh-meow-swirls · 1 month

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how does the raft not capsize.

#puppy rambles #yo-kai watch #yw3 #i mean komasan's not there in canon 3 so it's slightly better but not by a lot #i feel like someone should at least be falling off how is the raft also big enough to hold them all-#whisper floats so he doesn't add weight or any space really but like #it still needs to both hold the weight of three teenagers and two yo-kai #AND have the room for them all to fit #the rafting challenge in bada-bing tower is probably worse cuz it has to fit two additional yo-kai #i think komasan not being that important in the mainline games is very lame. he's pretty important in the anime so it's kinda weird #he is at least somewhat important in 3 since he's there for the yopple tour and everything in bada-bing tower #whereas in 1 he has the auto-befriend yo-kai curse (only being important in their debut chapter)#and in 2 he literally only shows up during the jibakoma quest in psychic specters #(excluding being an npc during the beginning of the jibanyan's secret quest alongside a bunch of other yo-kai)#idk what's weirder the fact they made him so important in the anime despite that or the fact they never made him important in the games #i personally go with the nyanderful days continuity that he also moves in with katie cuz that makes sense to me #i've literally never written anything where nate's the one who gets the watch in 1 so idk what i'd do there-#(funny how i've never written anything that's in the same timeline as canon-)#i want to at least write something at somepoint where nate and katie both get watches cuz i like that idea #i mean i have a dumb au idea where nate and katie independently get watches at the start of 1 at around the same time #and take an extended period of time to realize #mostly just haven't actualized that cuz 1) i already have the rewrite and 2) i don't have enough ideas #basically just have the basic concept-#these tags got derailed quick. and also make me really wanna work on the rewrite more-#i have so many ideas but i'm just not motivated to write any of them #and also most of them are for 3 and i haven't finished rewriting 2 yet 😔#‚‚‚ anyways-

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goldenteaset · 9 months

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Ligature Chapter 9 is up!

YAY! *Flops over*

Chapter 9/??: Lures

Fandom: Trigun

Rating: M

Pairings: Legato/Vash, (other pairings to be decided)

Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, AU - Vash Saves Legato, (see rest of fic for tags)

Preview:

"The past enslaves. Nostalgia clouds the heart. There are those who know both as old friends, and use them to their advantage. And yet, there's beauty in the present too: irreplaceable gifts, humbled smiles, the warmth of another's hand in yours. The families one makes unexpectedly, just for a moment. It's a fragile beauty, but I love it all the same."

#fanfic #trigun #legato x vash #legato bluesummers #vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #meryl stryfe #milly thompson #kite trigun #This is the chapter that made me want to make funny tags #But I don't want to make more work for the tag wranglers than I have to

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apollo-cackling · 2 years

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not trying to be mean but honestly any sentiment that's like "[non-Traditional form/genre of literature*] raised my bar for queer representation so much I can't ever return to Published Books because it's all bad straight stuff/straight people writing queerness/etc" is kind of distasteful to me now. they're there. there's literally plenty** out there now if you just look.

[edit: I want to clarify that I don't think published books are inherently better than any other forms of literature and that I'm not trying to say people should always aspire to have a media diet of only 100% Published Literature (the assumptions inherent in which create a false dichotomy anyway bc plenty of published queer books I've read are fun romps whose themes are incidental to the main goal of being fun)

I just dislike the sentiment I've seen around that mainstream queer stuff is either just subtext or written Inauthentically because it's just. untrue. and it cedes ground to queerphobic people saying the only ground queer stories can occupy is artless smut/popcorn trash with no meaning (which isn't a bad thing to be in and of itself, but it's hardly like queerness can't be artistic)]

The Darkness Outside Us came out last year. Ophelia After All came out this year. The Honeys came out this year. the second book of Burning Kingdoms came out this year. Zachary Ying came out this year. Delilah Green came out this year. This is Why They Hate Us came out this year. And that's just the few on my 'anticipated of 2022' GR shelf (+ The Darkness Outside Us because goddamn that book was good).

it's completely fine to be dissatisfied with how the publishing industry (/mainstream media but I'm mostly read so) is! I also have many gripes with it! but it just feels distasteful to demean Published Books on the whole as if it (/other mainstream media but again see above) is a monolith and diminish the the very queer queer books by queer - gender and sexuality - authors (Ocean Vuong, Akwaeke Emezi, Victoria Lee, CB Lee, Ashley Herring Blake, Shaun David Hutchinson, need I go on?)

it's mostly a massive pet peeve of mine but it just feels kinda. lazy? obviously if something like this's post date was like 2010 or if it was a situation where access not awareness is the problem etc that's a different situation but like. most of the posts/tweets/etc I've seen of this are recent and most of them have the tone of "it's perfectly safe for me to read/watch queer media I just couldn't find any" which

I really started reading queer books in 2020ish. I googled 'queer fantasy' (because I like fantasy) and found a bunch of different booklists, took a few recs and just started there. I found lgbtqreads. I followed a few queer folks on GR (once you look through a certain type of books' reviews a few common names start popping up) and noted down the books they were reading and now I have a bunch of queer books that I need to get around to.

I just. if you're into books there's plenty of queer books literally right there (and recently enough big publishers have started publishing them that they're appearing in libraries too). it's not a dichotomy. you don't have to read Published Books if you don't want to but it's not all straight there goddammit. and this isn't even bringing up self-published books

#*fanfic，d/nmei (chinese bl) etc #<- to avoid maintagging #**still not a lot on a percentage basis of total books published (aside from self pub) yeah publishing industry bad but still plenty #in general I dislike the idea that any category of media is inherently anything #also the phrase 'd/nmei raised the bar for queer stories for me' is a bit funny to me bc. these are webnovels. most of them 80+ chapters #and like from what I've seen most of them are either 100ish or 300ish chapters #I don't think they've really gotten popular until recently either too so I doubt most folks have fully read more than two lol #imagine if I watched bloom into you and said 'anime changed queer stories for me' lol #the specific post I saw that got me to put this into words was this one post on the d/nmei subreddit about how reading western quote 'BL'#feels off compared to d/nmei bc they felt like badly written wattpad fics and unrealistic wrt queerness which I was side-eyeing pretty hard #eh it bothered me for a few reasons. some of them I think are fair - the ones I made this post for #some of them I'm not sure is fair which is why they're in the tags #specifically that the specific post reminded me of the stereotype of the straight girl completely uninterested in the messiness and #complexities of queerness or exploring queerness at all (unless it's aestheticised suffering) and just wants to see pretty boys together #but I'm not sure how fair that is because I'm not transmasc and I'm not mlm lol #anyway yea lol #my rambles #queer stuff #media #10n

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retiredcultistredux · 10 months

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*sigh* we are doomed. It is obvious that neither of u two have a plan. *sighhh* we are never getting Kirby back... unless any of you guys have an idea where bud is.... *SIGH* - lollipop anon (being overly negative. Srs ask)

Prince Fluff: "...I know this seems like a lost cause, but I'm not just gonna sit around and let this happen, ok? Which means you shouldn't either. We need to at least try."

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kotaerukoto · 1 year

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Between Avalon le Fae on NA and the first Ordeal Call on JP, my Nasubrain is going to be going strong this month (and next month)... Once I've calmed down on my gaming binge (Xenoblade replay) I'll be here to write, though!

#ooc ramblings.#damn and my tags got wiped too #oh well #am i going to have a fun time? hell yes! is Makoto going to? hell no!#still insane how Nasu and I mindlinked for LB6 #also the obligatory discord leaks for OC1 are funny #I can see Rani since it's looking like its gonna be an Atlas Institute-themed chapter but Kirschtaria?#i love my man Wodime so much but I don't think he's gonna be summonable

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twpsyn-who · 2 years

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I did a little something and I lowkey hate myself for it

I present to you : Eddie is a Wheeler AU.

#also Eddie being friends with Jonathan (cuz Mike is friends with Will so of course they became friends too) and having a crush on the guy #(just like Will does on Mike which is lowkey funny)#I know some people complained about the last season fucking up Jonathan so I'm reversing shits. He stopped getting high after they found #Will alive and well. He's the best brother alive now (not like he wasn't before but yk he's no longer high 24/24)#the jeddie is one sided tho :( BUT we have the 'Wheeler were made to be in love with a Byers' (Mike dating Jane ; Nancy dating Jonathan ;#Eddie having a crush on Jonathan)#and 'maybe Harringtons are also made to love a Wheeler' (Steve's failed relationship with Nancy and him getting feelings for Eddie ^^)#idk if Eddie stays alive by the end of it tho 🤔#Karen is Wayne's sister. Idk their ages or if makes sense and I don't care. Imagine Karen is older if the math doesn't add up with Eddie #touch starved Eddie Munson 😊#cuz the Wheelers don't know how to show affection and Eddie would do anything for a little bit of love #wip #idk if I actually wanna tag it yet as something from stranger things #i love how it turned out #but is only one chapter and idk if it will go anywhere #OH we also have Nancy 'Is bullshit' Wheeler and Jonathan 'Is our fault' Byers. Don't let these two get drunk ever again #Nancy blaming herself and Steve for Barb's disappearance 🤝🏻 Jonathan blaming himself and Eddie for Will's disappearance #Eddie is a Wheeler AU

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deus-ex-mona · 2 years

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MAKE A HOLIDAY: Epilogue

well... this marks the end of the fruity thtottle adventure~?

previous part (chapter 7)

MEGU: Okay, here’s a skip! Skipping YUI, it’s now RIO’s turn!

YUI: Oi, hold it! I was just about to throw four cards down!

DAI: Huuh~? Does a rule that allows you to put a few cards down at the same time even exist in this card game?

YUI: It does! Wait, huh? Maybe it’s a local rule? Either way, aren’t you being way too cruel by skipping my turn?!

DAI: Idiooot. Games are more fun when we’re merciless to each other.

RIO: Reverse.

DAI: Whaaat?! But it’s my turn!

RIO: But it’s more fun when we’re merciless to each other, right?

YUI: Nice one, RIO! It’s my turn again… Wait, I can’t put any cards down… I’ll pass.

MEGU: Yup, yuuup! I’m putting a card down~.

MEGU: …Y’know, doesn’t it feel like it’s been a really long time since we last did something like this~?

YUI: Right? I can’t remember when the last time we had time off in the evenings was.

DAI: The choreography of my dance solo needs to be checked later, so I’ll leave the checking to you, IV.

MEGU: Ah, that sounds nice. I wanna do it too! Can I, IV?

IV: Of course.

RIO: IV, you said that you wanted to spend some time with everyone, but… are you really fine with spending it like this?

IV: Yeah, this is perfect.

RIO: That’s good, then. Though, I have something to check with you regarding the live…

DAI: Same here. I’ve drawn rough sketches of the costumes for our next live.

IV: You work really fast, don’t you? Let me see them later, okay?

YUI: Come to think of it, I wanted to try writing lyrics, so I’ve written some down.

MEGU: Ehh. I reallyyy wanna see them!

YUI: Not now! I’m not done with them yet.

IV: How interesting. As for the song… what do you think about co-writing it with RIO?

RIO: That’s not a bad idea.

MEGU: Ehh, that sounds niceee. I wanna do something like that tooooo!

DAI: But you’re already in charge of the choreography.

MEGU: But I wanna try something new toooooo! Ah, how ‘bout this! I wannaaaa do an MC corner or something!

YUI: Lemme join in on that kinda thing too, yeah?

IV: Then, let’s talk about the live once this game ends, okay?

MEGU: Somehow, this kinda reminds me of when we were fooling around in IV’s hospital ward.

DAI: You’re talking about the times when all of us would visit him to check in, yeah?

YUI: But those were less of check ins, and more of visits to play around, right?

DAI: You’re the only one who thinks that way, though?

MEGU: Exaaactly, you’re the one who aaalways brought in a microphone to sing.

MEGU: What a turn-off.

YUI: Huuh?! But you’re the one who was always yelling in the ward?!

DAI: You guys were the ones who always got us scolded each and every time, weren’t you?

RIO: Well, you all were going against the visitor rules of the hospital…

MEGU: But there’s no doubt in my mind that I was visiting him because I was worried about him.

IV: Haha, you didn’t seem to be worried, though.

RIO: In the end, regardless of the scolding we received, we ended up fooling around again immediately after, right?

YUI: Nothing can stop us when we’re all together, yeah?

DAI: What’s with that? How lame.

YUI: Oi!

IV: (They haven’t changed a bit from how they were back then…)

MEGU: I don’t wanna get scolded anymore, so please don’t get hospitalised again, okay~?

IV: Got it.

Every time all of them laughed together, IV found himself thinking that, as long as he was together with those members, they would be able to create history in the future…

That thought still had not changed a bit. Therefore, he could not afford to stop yet.

#the ftiv ft. iv ivent #fedora translations4 #just honeypre things #man i spent like 10 min trying to piece together the last sentence h e l p ಥ‿ಥ #i'm gonna queue the masterpost for a few hours later to avoid spam lmaoooo #well that marks the end of the text-based fruity thlottle4 content for now? see y'alls again for the rio event!!!#i'm planning to speedrun the event story in the first 3-4 days (so that i can focus on kazuki's birthday instead lmaoo)#rio and iv pls have mercy on my soul ಥ‿ಥ pls don't speak in funny phrases like this event ok #though speaking of fruity thlottle4... go ahead and use my tls for ft4 for anything and whatever if you want~?#spread the fruity thlottle4 agenda!!!! (and make more dai content while y'all are at it-)#and hey if you're still reading the tags... thank you very much for following the tl (if you did)!!!!#feel free to lmk if you see any mistakes though okay~? the fruits like to speak in funny phrases sometimes so things may get lost in tling!#(special thanks to my vbs playlist for keeping me mildly sane throughout the tling of this chapter lmfaooooooo)#FML I FORGOT THAT I HAD 2 DIFFERENT POSSIBLE TL LINES FOR ONE OF DAI'S LINES YOU GUYS DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING OK (ʘ‿ʘ)

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