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drchucktingle · 25 days

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Hello Dr Tingle! I wanted to ask you about that re: your post about how all your books are serious literature (hell yeah Love is real). How do you personally deal with the whole traditional publishing institution? It attracts a whole different level of coverage and it seems that they're very quick to try and box you and like turn you into a brand. Is it stiffling? Is it freeing? Does the attention help more people understand your trot? I don't know I've never been published but since you have experience in both traditional and self publishing I'm interested in knowing how that's feeling for you

well this is a pretty complex question with lots of different trots but i will try my best to answer. lets start with WHO I AM as buckaroo name of chuck

what i create has a very strong voice and my way is pretty recognizable. while buckaroos do not know what most authors look like, i REALLY stand out in a dang crowd with a big pink bag on my head. if you see 50 random author photos and mine is mixed in and then you ask 'which photo do you remember the most?' it is probably gonna be chuck. i also have a VERY UNIQUE STORY with what i create and my artistic sensibilities, not a lot of buds are out there making trans mothman erotica along with their big five traditional publishing bestsellers (SIDENOTE preorder BURY YOUR GAYS)

now if you were going to take 'CHUCK TINGLE' to a marketing department they would FALL OVER BACKWARDS IN THEIR DANG CHAIR with excitement. it is hard to think of an author with a stronger BRAND than i already have in the sense of 'instantly recognizable trot and specific unique style'. even in answering this you can tell that i dont even TALK like other dang authors.

what i am getting at is this: i am VERY VERY LUCKY because my existence just so happens to equate to what a company would see as GOOD BRANDING. it is not intentional on my part, it is just the hand of fate i guess. im out here expressing myself in a FULL ON WAY that is PRETTY DANG STRANGE TO SOME and it just so happens to work as mainstream branding too

on paper you might think 'what the heck no way chuck tingle will fly as a mainstream trot' but honestly the main thread of this timeline can be surprising sometimes. ive been saying the key ingredient for years and i will say it again: LOVE AND SINCERITY RESONATE. when you make art with this fuel, the timeline will feel it. when you stand up tall and shout with your whole chest THIS IS MY WAY AND I LOVE MYSELF. I AM THE WORLDS GREATEST AUTHOR TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, the timeline will listen

so all that said, i do not mind the idea of myself as 'brand' because i am not CHANGING myself to create this effect. what some might see as 'brand' i just see as another part of my art. i have always believed that art is THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE not just the painting but what is outside of the frame. WHO I AM is just as important as the books i write, and interacting with my way is a whole MULTIMEDIA experience that INCLUDES YOU TOO. it is the feeling when your friend shows you your first tingler cover, or the feeling when you realize that i am not playing a character. this is ALL a part of the tingleverse and it is all a part of my honest raw expression as a queer and neurodivergent buckaroo.

YOU ARE PART OF THIS ART TOO

it is my nature of have a PUNK ROCK trot. always has been. but to me that does not mean just angrily going against everything for the sake of going against everything. for me, this punk rock trot means fighting to EXPRESS MYSELF IN THE MOST HONEST AND PURE FORM POSSIBLE and to create the art that i want to make without any boundaries

somehow i have threaded the needle in this really interesting once-in-a-dang-lifetime kind of way. my pure punk rock self as an OUTERSIDER ARTIST just so happens to resonate with this larger system of brand and traditional publishing and popular culture. i COULD reject this, but rejecting it would be LESS HONEST.

this is just who i am. i LIKE pop culture. i LIKE joy. i LIKE dressing in all pink and wearing my custom suits. I LIKE PROVING LOVE IS REAL WHAT THE HECK ELSE EVEN IS THERE? i love being a queer outsider artist and using my small voice to shout at the big bad devils and i like that every time i shout a few more of you buckaroos join the chorus and together we are just getting louder and louder and louder and WHO KNOWS what comes next for us all trotting together.

when i post something like 'WHAT A GREAT DAY TO PROVE LOVE' it is not me sitting here in a bad mood thinkin 'well i gotta make todays post to keep up with my brand'. i am ACTUALLY FEELING THAT FEELING and i actually believe it with every fiber of my being. honestly, half the time i post about the beauty of this timeline i am probably over here literally crying tears of joy (chuck is an emotional bud i get riled over the joy of existence A LOT)

and heres the best part of this trot: because i really have this punk rock way it makes me very powerful. others can pretend not to care about success and brand and all that but I REALLY DO NO CARE. i would write tinglers whether buds were reading them or not, this is just my natural state, and that makes me incredibly strong. if some big corporation says 'YOU MUST DO THIS' and i dont want to do it i just say 'no thanks'. it is not some big debate about my career or anything like that because I REALLY DO NOT CARE IN THE SLIGHTEST. i care about the art

because of this, my relationship with my GIANT TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING MACHINE is great. we trot like equals and we get along really well. i tell them exactly what i want to do and they let me do it. i really do not have to answer to anyone and they deserve a huge amount of credit for respecting me in this way.

and heres the thing, THEY ALSO HAVE SOME GREAT IDEAS

SPECIFICALLY my imprint of NIGHTFIRE is very dang cool. yes, they are the head of a giant hydra of a BIG FIVE PUBLISHER, but nightfire is SO DANG ART-FOCUSED

there is no right or wrong way to be an artist, and my path is not the only one, but i can tell you what WORKS FOR ME. this is the advice i would give myself, and buckaroos can take it or leave it

here it is: never beg the big book publisher, or record label, or movie studio to pay attention to you

do not let it become a lotto ticket in your brain. do not think that you are some weak little creature and maybe if you trot just right they will scoop you up and take care of you. do not go to their door begging to be let in

LET THEM COME TO YOUR DOOR

create something so incredible and beautiful and honest and powerful and unique and important that they would be foolish to miss out. create a community or a system or a timeline or a world of imagination that thrives on its own and THEY SHOULD BE SO LUCKY TO BE A PART OF IT

then when you sit down at that board meeting it is not 'please brand me, ill do whatever you want'. instead, it is 'lets make a deal and see how much love we can prove together.'

now lets trot buckaroos

#buckaroo lifestyle #chuck tingle #tingleverse

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femmespoiled · 10 months

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I've been thinking quite a bit about this conversation I had with a butch I had a thing with, a few years back. To be honest, it crosses my mind a lot. In this conversation we were talking about butch/femme, aesthetics, stereotypes etc. The context to it is that I saw a video that showed, unfortunately stereotyped, femme as these 4 styles of clothing and whatever, you can think it was funny, it's not the end of the world certainly, but we got to talking about this notion that I think the community forgets, regardless of verbally recognising "we're not aesthetics".

He showed me a picture that he really liked of this butch/femme couple in a bar and they were both wearing the same outfit and yet we could recognise them as a butch/femme pairing. Reminds me also of this black and white picture of two butches with a femme in the middle, they were in similar clothes, only the shirts said "butch" or "fem" in the case of the one I now bring up. Both of these were taken before the 1980s, if I recall correctly. Of course these are pictures, so we don't get the full context of their identities, but the intention here is to illustrate the concept of, in a way, the silliness of separating us by clothes and aesthetics. What this expectation of femininity or masculinity means considering both of these can be presented in such a subjective way.

When I talk about this, and how I view femme through my own femme lenses, I want to once again, shed light to some parts I love of The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader by Joan Nestle:

"the femme is the lesbian who poses this problem of misinterpreted choice in the deepest way... Femmes are women who have made choices, but we need to be able to read between the cultural lines to appreciate their strength. Lesbians should be mistresses of discrepancies, knowing that resistance lies in the change of context." - the resistance and the strength of femme, along with its meaning, isn't quite obvious and a lot of people tend to miss it.

"Butches were known by their appearance, femmes by their choices."

And this part of Butch Is A Noun by S. Bear Bergman:

"(For the record, I believe that the same is true of femmes; the femmes who get the most admiration, the most approbation in the queer community in which I live seem to be the ones who cherry-pick exactly what of femininity they want, mix it with a hearty dash of traditionally masculine characteristics like sexual agency, stompy boots, assertiveness, fondness for power tools, and so on, and shake up a gendered cocktail that makes traditional unexamined cultural femininity look a little watery, a little pale. This is what I see, as a longtime admirer of femmes in all their variations, but I freely acknowledge that I only see what any femme cares to show me, and it's really not for me to say."

I think femme identity can become this pale misconstrued concept because we're not as obviously recognizable and people aren't as prepared to recognize us. People get used to, when thinking of lesbians, noticing and expecting butch signs, in such a way that femmes flew under the radar as an identity and definition and we still deal with that heavily today. And lately I've been seeing somewhat of a guessing game of what it all means that doesn't encompass our full range, truly it's hard to encompass that in any case.

But the moral of the story, I guess, is that femme needs more than a glance, more than one size fits all, more than what meets the eye, if we can recognize the multitude and holistic nature in the other side of our coin, we're capable of recognizing it within us.

#bellas butch/femme tag #bellas books #because of the mentions of books i make available in the drive #btexts

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receivingtranny · 4 months

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just saw a post saying that men shouldn't be allowed to become therapists because they *will* rape women/girls or at best... mentally ill women and girls *will always* catch inappropriate romantic/sexual feelings for a male therapist (not even gonna touch the flaming pile of internalized misogynistic shit lying within the later statement) and just...

what the fuck you guys.

like yeah fuck the "not all men" attitude that's just a fucking scapegoat abusive men love to say for why they never hold themselves or other men accountable, but actually *genuinely* saying all men will rape and abuse if they became a therapist does nothing to offer solutions that will actually make therapy safe for people.

because i'm sorry but i've had nearly 40 therapists in my life and unfortunately i've had a mix of really harmful experiences from both male and female therapists. the best therapist i had was actually nonbinary. the second and third best were male.

i've had both male/female therapists try to convert me to christianity and say my illness was god punishing me for sinning. i've had female therapists enable my father to continue being sexually/psychologically/physically abusive under the guise of "you're probably just being a dramatic teenage genderfuck" they didn't say genderfuck but they definitely thought my queerness had given some reason for why my dad should be the one to help "get me on the right track".

so i ask you radfem bioessentialists, in your utopia without male therapists, what's your solution for people like myself? multigender/nonbinary people who are seeking therapy, or *gasp* perhaps even schooling to become a therapist? do i get a female therapist because i was AFAB? or no since i identify as a man and have a penis now I must be planning on raping her so i'll need a male therapist. but wait, i'm AFAB and i identify as a woman so he must be planning on raping me. so another multigender AFAB person i'm guessing? wait but if i identify as a woman and a man... and they identify as a woman and a man... who's the one planning on raping the other in this situation? I just wanna make sure I know what to do here, being part man and all, is it in my nature to rape her? or is it his nature to rape me? or do we just rape ourselves all the time since we're both men and women simultaneously.

sorry not to sound like an asshole there at the end with the sarcasm, but like, i was human trafficked for several months and am now severly agoraphobic and even i'm not this terrified that everyone i meet is going to rape me. so idk man. get a grip? have some compassion beyond yourself? some critical thinking skills maybe?

#psa #bigender #multigender #nonbinary #anti radfem #anti bioessentialism #anti truscum #anti terf #anti transmed #anti transandrophobia #tw assault #tw abuse #tw rape #tw sex assault #tw trafficking #transandrophobia #transphobes

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laundrybiscuits · 2 years

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(wait for the season to come back to me tag | Part 1 | Part 2)

“So this is Casa Harrington,” Eddie says, as Steve fiddles with the locks on his third-floor walk-up.

“Harrington-Buckley. Robin lives here too.”

“Huh. Gotta say, that is not what I was expecting to hear.”

“What?” Steve finally wrestles the door open. He glances back at Eddie. “Come on in, man.”

Eddie saunters in, taking his time about it. “Thought you’d end up with Lady Wheeler, is all. Score one for the nerdy band kids of the world, I guess.”

“Oh, jesus, no.” Steve feels oddly hurt. He knows Eddie didn’t mean anything much by it, knows that pretty much everyone they’ve ever met has thought the same thing about them.

It just seems like Eddie should be able to sense the queerness of Steve-and-Robin somehow.

Steve takes a deep breath. Robin probably wouldn’t mind him telling Eddie about her, but he thinks she’d get a kick out of doing it herself.

He’d asked her, around ‘89, if she thought Eddie’d been like…like them.

She’d hesitated. “I don’t know, Steve. I mean, there was a lot of talk, you know? People said stuff about him. But they also said he had, like, wild Satanic orgies every night and that he’d mixed up some kind of super-drug that would make you see god and that he was secretly related to the Manson Family. So I don’t know.”

He’d said, dredging words up one by one, “I kind of thought he was—flirting with me, back then. A little bit. I thought. I thought that maybe once we made it out I could. We could.”

Robin Buckley, the other half of his soul, had wrapped her skinny arms around him and understood completely. “Tell me about the date you were gonna take him on,” she’d said, rocking him a little. “Were you going to turn up the famous Harrington charm? Give him the ol' razzle dazzle?”

He’d laughed, and she’d laughed, and they’d both felt the grief like another body between them.

“I’d take him to Enzo’s,” he’d said, knowing it was a lie. “I’d show up with flowers, not roses, something weird because he’d like that better. Maybe those white flowers you get at—at funerals. I bet he’d think it was funny.”

“Sounds like a pretty good date.” Robin had tucked her head into his shoulder. Her hair had smelled like grease from the diner she’d been working at, those days. “He would’ve been a pretty lucky guy, Steve Harrington.”

So now, with Eddie standing in his living room, he just says: “It’s not like that with me and Robin. We’re just friends.”

Just friends is what he always says, and it never sounds right. It never sounds like it means enough, like there’s anything casual or impermanent about him and Robin. They’re more up in each others’ business than most married couples Steve knows, they just don’t have sex about it. Steve wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Eddie’s studying him carefully again, like he’s trying to figure something out. “Okay,” he says. “It’s—funny, I guess. In the lab, I’d make up all these little stories in my head about what you all were doing. Just to pass the time, you know. I had this whole narrative arc mapped out where you and Wheeler reconnected in the aftermath of tragedy, older and wiser, and had a spring wedding. There were lilacs. Henderson was your best man.” Eddie laughs suddenly, a quick bark. “It’s so stupid, man. Ignore me. I was just going a little stir-crazy in there, got caught up in my head.”

Steve thinks about Eddie all alone and trapped, telling himself stories about the outside world. Giving the people he’d known a happy ending, even someone like Steve, who he’d mostly known as an arrogant jackass. The image of Eddie sitting on a floor in a cell, deciding on lilacs for a spring wedding, makes Steve want to—to do something. He’s not sure what. Break something, maybe. Scream. Take Eddie to a beach in La Jolla and drag him into the surf, just to ruin his clothes and make him laugh with the wide horizon behind him.

“Sit down,” he says. “Do you want a drink? We have beer, coffee, soda…I think there’s some tea in the kitchen. Or food. We could get food.”

“Hm.” Eddie perches on the arm of the sofa. “I think I’d rather see those pictures you promised me.”

“Oh. Right.” Honestly, Steve had kind of forgotten about them. “Yeah, let me just…” He rummages through the hall closet for the shoebox they keep most of their photos in. There’s a few stuck up around the walls and on the fridge, but Steve’s long-haired phase is permanently banished to the shoebox, never to see the light of day again. Unless Eddie Munson turns up and asks, obviously.

He’s rifling through the packets, pulling out a couple of the less embarrassing ones, when Eddie’s suddenly just—there, leaning up against Steve’s shoulderblade. Eddie hooks his chin over Steve’s shoulder, and Steve lets himself lean back into Eddie’s warmth. Just a little bit. Hardly anything.

“That’s…my vest.” Eddie reaches out to rest a fingertip against the photo, where—yeah, Steve’s wearing the vest.

“Lost it in the move to Chicago,” Steve says. His voice is very normal. It doesn’t betray anything about the full-blown panic attack he’d had when he realized it was gone; the way he’d broken down and sobbed on their new kitchen floor like a baby, saying Robin, Rob, I lost it. I lost him.

Robin had cried too. It was good to live with someone who would cry about Eddie with him.

“Shame. You looked almost like a real metalhead, Stevie.”

It’s…less far-fetched than Eddie’s little grin suggests. Steve’s never going to be, like, a metal devotee, but he’s listened to every band that had a patch or pin on Eddie’s vest. He’s successfully had extended conversations about music with actual metalheads that didn’t end in him being called mainstream or a poser, which he’s weirdly proud of. He doesn’t know how to say any of that to Eddie without making it sound like a bigger deal than it was, though, so he just laughs.

“Come on, you can look through these on the couch,” he says, pressing back a little more into Eddie, just for a moment.. “Uncover all my secret shame.”

He wishes he’d taken the time to make a real photo album so Eddie could flip through it, move through the echoes of Steve’s life like his echo has moved through Steve. This is pretty good, though: Eddie tipping out each set of photos and laughing at how they’ve even kept the weird blurry ones.

They’ve moved on to vacation photos from Paris—Steve and Robin standing awkwardly in front of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe with the same fixed smile and stiff posture that every tourist photo seems to have—when a key scrapes in the lock.

“Oh, shit,” says Steve, without really meaning to.

“What’s the play here, Harrington? Want me to climb out the window?” Eddie’s smiling, but not like he’s making a joke. Steve thinks he probably would climb out the fucking window if Steve so much as breathed wrong, which is why his hand shoots out to clamp around Eddie’s wrist. Just in case.

“No,” he says. “Sorry, I didn’t mean…I just realized that, uh. This is gonna be a pretty big deal for Robin, too. And all of them. We all…we all really fucking missed you, man. So just, brace yourself, I guess.”

The door finally swings open. “Steve, are you home, because the top lock was unlocked again, and—”

She freezes. Her keys clatter to the floor.

“Steve,” she says slowly. “May I see you in the hallway for a moment.”

And—Steve suddenly realizes that she thinks he’s picked up some kind of Eddie lookalike again.

They’d had a really bad fight about it a few years ago. He’d yelled that he was allowed to have preferences, and she’d yelled that it was really fucked up to try and screw the memory of a dead man, and it hadn’t gotten better from there. Finally, he’d agreed that maybe there was potentially something more than just general preferences going on with him, and she’d agreed that he was an adult who was allowed to make his own bad decisions as long as he was being reasonably safe about it.

They’d sat down and made a flowchart to help him decide whether to sleep with someone. Steve thinks he’s the luckiest guy in the world to have Robin Buckley for a best friend.

“It’s him,” he says. “It’s Eddie. Like, it’s actually him. Eddie, say something.”

“Uh…” Eddie waves the hand that’s not currently being held captive. “Hey, Buckley. Did you…what do you mean, actually me?”

Robin sits right down on the floor like her joints have stopped working. “What the fuck,” she says. “Oh my god. What the fuck.”

“Yeah,” sighs Eddie. “It’s kind of a long story.”

#I had SO MANY of those little photo packets stuffed into shoeboxes even as a young adult #and now I straight up do not remember what company logo was on them or even what they're actually called #steddie #fic: wait for the season to come back to me

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kanmom51 · 10 months

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JK on GMA

AWKWARD...

The JM question... JK with his "yes, in New York", pointing back like it's far away.

Well, so far away apparently that he couldn't join one of the shortest lives ever JK had, and one he couldn't get over fast enough.

*Side note: probably not going to post about that live, given there was really nothing post worthy in it. Other than him loving the cake, him being a little sick, him telling us there will be more performances and he has a schedule following the live, him telling us he slept 2 hours last night, up at 4:30 am (meaning he went to sleep at 2:30 am, I guess fulfilling his promise to ________ seven days a week).

Like I said, he couldn't wait to get it over fast enough.

And back to GMA.

Yeah, not a great interview...

Poor boy.

He was not ready for that kind of interview. And he is one that needs to prepare. The interviewer was, excuse my French, I am not going to mince words, crap.

The sound in the studio was bad. He didn't have a proper mic. The interviewer was shocking. Yeah, not good.

Euphoria

Dynamite

Seven

Oh, and did I mention the camera work for the pre-taping was not great either?

But let's leave that aside for a second and talk about something interesting. Something obviously not only I noticed.

Now, we've all agreed that this song is about sex, true?

True.

And we have also agreed that the song is gender neutral, true?

True, but not for the rap.

The rap has male pronouns and is clearly sung to a male.

Tightly take control, tightly take his soul Take your phone and put it in the camera roll (Uh) Leave them clothes at the door What you waiting for? Better come and hit ya goals He jump in it both feet Going to the sun-up, we ain't gettin' no sleep Seven days a week, seven different sheets Seven different angles, I can be your fantasy Open up, say, "Ah" Come here, baby, let me swallow your pride What you on I can match your vibe Hit me up and I'ma Cha Cha Slide You make Mondays feel like weekends I make him never think about cheatin' Got you skippin' work and meetings Let's sleep in, yeah (Seven days a week, ooh)

(That swallow your pride line is...ok...).

In the recorded song and the MV Latto is the one rapping, mostly, JK does the singing.

But in the performance, JK did part of the rap.

Loud and clear.

So, someone clearly went and told him he just cannot sing the lyrics as is, and went and changed the line "I make him never think about cheatin'" to a female pronoun - her. Cause Scoot, he has A LOT of money banking on this song, and ain't no one, especially not JK, going to ruin it for him with no explicit queer shit.

Thing is, it comes out worse in a sense, lol.

Cause that mix of female pronoun with lines that are clearly male intended kind of makes your mind go to other places which I will not detail here right now (well, if you have one and it's not empty like the y/ns that will listen to her and swallow it like the imbeciles that they are).

And yeah, JK's English might not be the greatest, but he most definitely knows what the lyrics he's singing are.

He knows what it means when he sings "fucking you seven days a week" and he knows what the lyrics of the rap part are as well, it being his damn song. And he definitley knows what "come here, baby, let me swallow your pride" means too.

So, JK singing this rap, with the male pronouns, talking about explicit sex acts with a man, this my friends was a definite no no from the Scoot. NO SIR. NOT ON HIS WATCH.

Do we have to say closeted once again? And prices to pay as well?

So yeah, JK had an almost free hand with the photo shoot concept, and obviously had styling choices of his own in the MV and the performance today (cough JM mirroring going on again cough). I think it's also safe to say he was involved in the MV concept itself and the storyline and idea for the scenes. And we don't know just how much say he had with the lyrics of the song (although it's clear that he does feel a connection with the song, and I'm not surprised either with some of the mirroring going on there to JM's Like crazy), but clearly for JK's part, there are no female pronouns.

So, if he wanted to rap, having to say the word her in the rap was a price to pay, which he did. All with the 4 buff tattooed male dancers prancing around him.

For a song about a clearly hetro man singing about having sex 7 days a week with a woman that is kind of a weird, let's say, choice of backup dancers, I have to say.

Or not, seeing that this man does not have one straight bone in his body...

Thinking back though to that line he inserted the her...

"I make him never think about cheatin'"...

This one rings so JK...

"I make JM never think about cheatin'"...

Yeah, that sounds about right...

#Jungkook #JK #JK Seven #JK GMA #Jikook #Kookmin #Minkook #Jimin #JM

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nonbinaryhatboxghost · 1 year

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Thoughts on the State of Trek

I would be less upset about Discovery ending if they had known going into season 5 that it would be their last. But that was not the case. The additional filming to give it an actual finale is good and I have no doubt that it will be as good a finale as they can do under the circumstances.

But recently I’ve been more observant of Trek fans online and there is a thing happening where I’ve seen far more immediate praise of Strange New Worlds and the current/final season of Picard than any other new Trek show has gotten.

Strange New Worlds is a good show! It is also specifically emulating the original series and has a straight white male captain as the lead. (yes, Pike rocks, that is not the point here)

The current/final season of Picard (which I do think is good!) has radically altered the tone of the show into a revival/sendoff for The Next Generation, as well as emulating and referencing Star Trek media of the ‘80s and ‘90s. And again, straight white male lead.

Both shows, particularly this season of Picard, have been pretty immediately praised by certain types of Trek viewers. Specifically longtime straight white male fans.

I’ve also noticed less diversity behind the camera of Strange New Worlds and Picard compared to Discovery. At least if one watches all the behind-the-scenes stuff for those shows (which I’ve been doing a lot lately). There’s not zero diversity, but Picard especially has been putting more emphasis on bringing back legacy crew members who are majorly, you guessed it, straight white males.

Contrasting that with how Discovery was met with skepticism from the get-go and is openly dismissed by certain older fans (one I talked to at work said something like “I guess I don’t get it because I’m not a millennial.”) makes me a bit angry because a lot of these same longtime fans watched and stuck through the first two seasons of The Next Generation. Those two seasons are some of the roughest television I’ve ever seen, and the handful of good episodes hidden throughout do not make up for it. But fans at the time stuck through those seasons anyway.

Why didn’t Discovery get the same treatment from those vocal longtime folks?

Why did The Next Generation, which is a very different type of show compared to the original series, ultimately become a beloved show? I’d like to believe it’s because people accepted the show for what it was once it found its footing.

But when I see comments like “Picard season 3 is the best Trek in 25 years”, I get mad. You gave Picard, a show that has two seasons with a mixed reception at best, a continued benefit of the doubt because of nostalgia for an older show, and because this season is essentially a Next Generation reunion. But you dismissed Discovery because it wasn’t “your” Star Trek show.

Literally part of the purpose of Star Trek is infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Discovery not only gave us an incredible lead character played by a Black woman, it gave us representation across the entire cast of both people of color and queer folks. As a nonbinary person, Adira’s quiet coming out scene had a profound impact on me, and later served as a helpful reference point for coming out as NB to my dad, who watches and enjoys Discovery.

Discovery spends an entire season depicting a debate between multiple characters/factions about how to handle a situation that threatens all Federation members. It does so with empathy for all points of view, and ultimately resolves this threat not with an action sequence, but a conversation. That season of Discovery (season 4) is Star Trek as fuck, and some of the best Trek ever.

Hell, Star Trek Beyond is so good that it manages to take the flashy action J.J. Abrams approach to Star Trek (which I have mixed feelings about because Trek ’09 is fun and despite his storytelling problems, Abrams is by all accounts a genuinely nice person so I won’t be shit-talking him here) and make it more properly Trek by introducing a villain who believes conflict is necessary for human evolution, which is the antithesis to Roddenberry’s whole vision for Trek of being a future where we work to resolve and avoid conflict rather than seek it.

Strange New Worlds and Picard (seasons 1 and, so far, 3) are both good and also contain great Trek. But they are also fundamentally more appealing to the nostalgia of middle-aged straight white male fans. And they are the shows that are getting more visible attention and praise.

Lower Decks is awesome and has a fantastic Black female lead in Tawny Newsome. But it meant something to have Sonequa Martin-Green and Newsome be the leads of two Star Trek shows airing at the same time.

And it means something for the live-action show with a Black woman as the lead to be cancelled while the animated show with a Black woman as the lead but a straight white male as the head writer is allowed to continue.

I don’t want Star Trek to become like Star Wars and turn into an endless cycle of fan service. Star Trek has had a huge impact on our planet over the 55+ years of its existence. Don’t make the mistake of turning it into another franchise that exists as a way for whiny white dudes to center themselves over the global majority.

(PS, Paramount, how the hell have you dragged your heels over Michelle Yeoh’s spinoff for this long? She has an Oscar now, what the hell is your excuse?)

#star trek #rant #star trek: discovery #star trek discovery #star trek: picard #star trek picard #star trek: strange new worlds #star trek strange new worlds #star trek: lower decks #star trek lower decks #star trek: the next generation #star trek the next generation #yeah I'm mad about a lot of stuff going on in the world but this is the only thing I felt knowledgeable enough to comment on

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davyjoneslockr · 3 months

Note

3, 7, and 12, mista and fugo :3

TONY UNSHADOWBANNED PARTY I know this was from a month ago but I'm gonna answer it anyhow lmfao

(For this ask game)

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

For Mista, the Trish cleavage scene. You know the one. I don't think I have to explain this much. Boy Why Did You Do That. The only good thing to come out of that scene was jaunty jigglesacks + overeager horndog insane psychic damage combo of lines in the dub.

I could take this a lot of ways for Fugo tbh. Because there's a lot of things that drive me insane about him as a person, but looking at him as a character, I LOVE that he's rash and hurts his friends and his defining character moment is him making a selfish, cowardly decision. I guess I'd say his misogyny in Purple Haze Feedback? I'm admittedly a believer that, yes, he would fucking say that, but it sucks that he would. At least he gets better by the end lol. Fugo voice I'm sorry women Sheila E is me

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I love that Mista has been designated Beautiful Brown-Eyed Bisexual Man by literally the entire fandom. Bi Mista brings us all together. And I do like the idea that his queerness is something he discovered much more slowly, and as a direct result of the gang. Something about that really ties in with the idea of the Bucci Gang as less of a realistic gang, more akin to a drag house or similar queer pseudo-family. Credit to that concept to Fox figcookie01 btw this is one of my favorite Vento Aureo analyses ever and it really informs how I conceptualize the Bucci Gang. Anyhow.

I also really like when people actually take care to explore his character and make him a very distinct, smarter-than-he-looks, older brother-type figure. It's really interesting when people explore his spirituality, too, whatever religion that may be, because that's a pretty important part of him. AND also OCD Mista truthers who know when to treat his superstitions and compulsions with some weight I love you forever. I think he's a character that gets watered down in fanworks a lot, but when his characterization's good, it's really good. There's plenty of artists and writers that have really blown me away with their Mista (and I say this as someone who's picky about characterization lol)

With Fugo, first of all. The PHF scars. Another thing that Mandela Effected the PHF fandom, but it's so so important to me. I love you physical, tangible, blatantly visible proof that Fugo has grown as a person since the day he abandoned the gang. Awesome. I also like that people mix and match his manga/anime colors, and every artist kinda draws him in a different way.

My favorite thing is probably the Fugo-Abbacchio stepkid and stepparent/siblings/Big Goth and Baby Emo Who Secretly Looks Up To Them dynamic. It’s awesome when it’s cartoonishly antagonistic and it’s awesome when it’s actually very sweet and heartfelt. Out of all the Bucci Gang dynamic interpretations the fandom’s produced, theirs is one of my favorites <3

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

SO MANY FOR BOTH OF THEM LOL. But I’ll try to list some I don’t talk about as much.

Besides The Carpenters, Mista’s a big fan of folk, acoustic singer-songwriter pop, and soft classic R&B/gospel. Artists with really strong voices tend to catch his attention. The Mamas and the Papas, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Simon and Garfunkel, The Seekers, and Gordon Lightfoot are some of his favorites. He’s also just a big sucker for love songs in general, and the hopeless romantic in him loves old girl groups like The Ronettes and The Shirelles. He’s also very much Schrödinger’s Guy to me. Cis? Trans? Who knows. Depends on what the situation calls for (though more often trans to me as of late). He’s just Some Dude.

Fugo’s a surprisingly good singer, but he’ll rarely do it if he knows other people are listening. A lot of times, he’ll sing in the shower, or when he’s alone in the car. As he gets older, he gets less self-conscious about it, and he’ll sing around the house when he’s with Giorno, or do duets with Mista for fun. There are also very much timelines in the Vento Aureo Multiverse in my brain where Fugo’s transfem. This also tends to coincide with transfem Abbacchio timelines, so there’s another layer added to Fugo looking up to Abbacchio, and I think Giorno (always transmasc to me) is really instrumental in helping her work through things and take pride in her transness. Maybe a little bit of a self-indulgent fluffy comfort hc that helps me work though my own genderisms lol

#ohh i missed my guys <- thinks about them every day #i need to talk about mista fugos more. blog policy everyone can send me mista fugos asks anytime btw.#jjba #jjba headcanons #pannacotta fugo #guido mista

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total-drama-shark · 1 year

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First impressions on every contestant!

Warning this gets long.

Millie

Was really interested on the possibility of a nerdy character from her introduction, but I feel like my biggest gripe with her is the whole “my generation” thing, it just feels slightly mean spirited and not realistic for a personality trait. Teens generally don’t like being told that their generation sucks or that they’re all dumb or have their use of technology criticized. The ones that do dislike their generation are those either trying to receive approval from older people or “I was born in the wrong generation” type kids. She’s just, unrelatable.

Axel

Her voice is higher than I expected, I like the survival theme and was surprised we got another zombie conspiracy nut in the cast (so happy we got a Shawn cameo/reference as well!) she really is like a mix of Jo and Eva with a sprinkle of Shawn and I wish we got to see more of her!

Priya

Super interesting to see a contestant raised by TD fans, and her intro was amazing! Baby and toddler Priya! Owen reference! She is 100% going to be an interesting character. I guess there’s also a subversion of a big Desi stereotype with her, she wants to go to med school but her parents want her to enter a more unconventional and unstable field, I don’t know exactly how to feel about this, specially since I’m not desi myself.

Zee

My man!!! I love me a skater/surfer dude and the Jude vibes are impeccable!! He is so chill and just here to vibe. I’ve audibly laughed at multiple of his lines and just love him so much. I also think he’s neat amputee rep, he’s casual about it and was just born that way, but can make fun stories up about it.

Ripper

Am I disappointed by the fart and potty jokes? Yes, but besides that I actually really like his character! An annoying bully who despite his best efforts is a loser. Also if his voice doesn’t fuel the nowen child headcanons out there I don’t know what will.

Damien

A total newbie! Very opposite to Priya in this case and also super interesting character trait for him, I hope both him and Priya can function a bit to show off the POV of both old and new fans alike. He’s also very entertaining :)

Scary girl

Exactly what I expected from her and more! She is very much one dimensional compared to most the rest but I love her! I love wildcards! So excited to see her shenanigans

Bowie

Introducing yourself as the first openly gay contestant is definitely a first impression! I’ve got to say I adore his competitive and scheming nature and you can tell he’s in it to win it, he also has amazing social skills and is overall an icon. I know not everyone will be into the idea of the first openly queer contestant being very stereotypical but I’ve always thought that just as while his sexuality isn’t the center of his personality and there’s at least another queer character that isn’t as stereotypical it’s all good, and by the looks of it that will be the case. Also I know multiple gay dudes that act just as him so I have a bias.

Chase

Did not expect a stunt Youtuber type guy but I definitely should’ve seen it coming, also DRAMA?? Pre established EXES??? I am so interested in seeing how this pans out

Emma

I love her voice first of all and I did not expect her to have been part of the stunt Youtuber group, hope the ex drama isn’t all there is to her character and I really enjoy her friendship with Bowie so far!

Oh I love her, we haven’t seen a character like her before and she has so much potential! A character that knows she’s underestimated and takes advantage of that? Yes please!

Caleb

Pretty much a Justin copy, I can’t really say much about him and we knew how things were going to pan out so I can only hope he’ll make if farther and get more development next season.

Wayne & Raj

Hockey dudes! They’re such jocks and can sense the “makes fun of me lightly for being unathletic but cheers for me when I finally start participating in sports” energy from them so hard, they’re fun guys and feel so much like real teen boys.

Nichelle

An actual TV star! I didn’t see that coming but I love it! Love seeing the little flashbacks to her shows and movies and seeing someone in the show be treated as an actual celebrity, she’s also as far as I’ve seen pretty smart, level headed, and humble for a TV celebrity! So interested in seeing her work!

Julia

The influencer chick! Her intro was amazing and I definitely didn’t expect her to be into healing crystals, feel like she’ll be a very interesting character and I await her interactions with Nichelle.

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electric-rabbits · 1 year

Note

re ur tags on that bruce springsteen tweet - if you ever wanna make a post abt ur thoughts on bruce and presenting masculinity, id love to hear em

Oh, you shouldn't support me on this, they are way too many thoughts and I don't even know if I can put them into words; but I guess this is that post now. Thank you for showing interest, and sorry in advance lmao. Listen, Springsteen is the fucking epitome of butchnes, and funnily enough, he is so in a queer way. None of this is me claiming Springsteen is queer at all, but his presentation of masculinity is something very intentional, and it comes from a need to subvert the kind of masculinity he grew up around. It's quite literally a performance, his stage persona, and it's simultaneously a homage and a challenge to the idea of salt-of-the-earth, alpha manliness that he could never really achieve in real life. As I've seen a post on tumblr say once, he's queer in much the same way that Dolly Parton is queer- as in, they aren't, but the gays still see themselves on them. Both are camp, in the sense that both are very intentionally playing the part of their gender to an almost artificial level; something queer people know all too well. Because being butch for a cis man is usually just conforming to masculinity, it's about being cool and big and strong and all muscles; but being butch to anyone else is a sort of challenge. It's about proving yourself, while at the same time subverting the notions of gender and, especially, of masculinity, and turning it into something uniquely yours. In this sense, Springsteen talks about his stage persona as this one-dimensional shell of coolness that hides the complexities of being a man; of being kind and sensitive and of loving those around you openly and loudly. In a way, his masculinity is a mix of everything his father was and everything he wished his father had been; of all the ways their identities clashed while he was looking for his own self. If he makes sure to look incredibly masculine on stage while he sings about the problems of America, the harshness of capitalism, about love and fear and beauty; if he's really butch while Clarence Clemons holds him in his arms and kisses him on the lips; it's at least a little bit about challenging his father. A man who forcibly shaved his long hair while he was immobilized because his son was looking too feminine. And Springsteen's presentation of masculinity has other layers, not the least of which being the fact that it's a very blue collar, working class type of masculinity. His leather jackets and blue jeans and white t-shirts became a staple of the cool guy look, sure; but they came from growing up at a factory town, from being raised by a working man with the ideals of the 1950's and a very strict idea of what Being a Man means. Because life is tough, and to be a man you need to be tougher. But there's also the context in which he started making his art. He was a kid, and he had a band, and he quickly found out that the places where that was seen as a good thing were the ones filled with other outcasts. So he made a career of singing at coastal bars and in gay clubs and of writing about those different lives, and eventually he found the E Street Band and met Clarence who "opened up the doors of soul for a poor white guy", and so both blackness and queerness influenced his very specific, and still very universally recognizable, version of masculinity. It's all intentional, and it's all much more complex than it might seem at first glance. Anyways, sorry for ranting, I just have a lot of feelings about Bruce Springsteen and about masculinity as a performance.

#bruce springsteen #i really have way too many thoughts about this #but springsteen's manliness is to dolly parton's femininity as wrestling is to drag. I cant explain it but. yeah. gender performances.

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forever-fixating · 2 months

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WIP Wednesday

I was tagged by @onthewaytosomewhere. This week I'm sharing a one-shot I've been working on. I was possessed by the demon that is Nicholas Galitzine who bombarded my poor fangirl heart with both Mary & George and The Idea of You trailer. I haven't been the same since, and I refuse to admit just how many times I've listened to that fucking song. (Spoiler alert: it's a lot.)

Anywho, I was inspired by that kiss in the trailer (Anne, Nick, I am just a simple bisexual person. You can't just DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT and expect me to have a normal response!!!) and the wonderful story Clean Slate by smc_27 on AO3 and of course, my fandom bestie @priincebutt The Story of Us to add my own popstar age-gap AU into the mix. I hope you enjoy this nonsense as much as I enjoy writing it. Should be ready soon. Toodles!

The band joined them twenty minutes later, and Alex announced, “I am starving. Are you ladies hungry?”

Henry stood as the girls giggled and nodded. They followed behind as the group headed outside to a large black SUV. The girls joined June and Nora in the middle section, and Alex grinned, “Guess you’re stuck in the back with me, Uncle Henry.”

Henry rolled his eyes as Cash opened the door for them. “Henry is fine, thanks.”

“Yes, he is.”

Henry’s heart skipped several beats as he climbed inside the SUV. Was this man hitting on him? He suddenly felt flushed and tugged off Pez’s jacket, trying to calm his racing heart and mind. He scooted against the other door for some distance, only for Alex to move to the center of the seat, their knees grazing each other. Henry, grasping for any semblance of control, called out, “Seat belts, girls!”

June and Nora turned to look at him, and June said, “They’re all buckled up. My mom drilled that into me and Alex’s brains growing up.”

“You two look cozy,” Nora said with a smirk.

Henry gave a nervous chuckle and said, “I’m just happy to be somewhere quieter. I don’t know how you all do it night after night.”

“I thrive on it,” Alex replied, leaning back into the plush leather seats. He looked at Henry through eyelashes that didn’t seem real outside of fiction. “Doesn’t matter if it’s ten people or ten thousand…being surrounded by a sea of people all there to see you. It’s out of this world.”

Henry relaxed into his seat as they pulled away from the stadium, Alex’s cologne filling his senses. It was spice, leather, and a hint of something floral—pure intoxication. The girls chattered in front, and Alex asked, turning his body toward Henry, “So what do you do when you’re not busy being the best uncle ever?”

Henry shrugged, looking down at his hands holding the leather jacket. “My life is quite dull. I volunteer at a youth shelter, help my best mate at his art gallery, and write.”

“Oh? Anything I’ve read?”

Henry hesitated. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed by his work. He had it on good authority that, past the smutty allure, his fans genuinely connected with the characters of his books. But the subject matter was decidedly graphic and not something he wanted to discuss around his twelve-year-old nieces. Finally looking at Alex again, he said dismissively, “Probably not. I write for myself and a small but passionate audience.”

Alex was undeterred. “Try me. I read constantly, especially when I’m on tour. If anything, it will give me something new.”

“Fine,” Henry replied, rolling his eyes. “My most popular series is probably Dark Olympus. As a queer teen, I was obsessed with Greek mythology and-”

“Wait,” Alex said suddenly, his eyes widening, “you’re George St. James?”

It was Henry’s turn to be surprised. “Wait, are you seriously saying you read that series?”

“Dude, I’ve read everything you’ve ever written, even the straight stuff! The Beast was part of my bisexual awakening!” Alex exclaimed. He leaned forward, smacking the back of the seat, and said, “Nora, June! This guy is George St. James.”

The two women spun around, June saying, “No way! Oh my God, I just finished rereading Blood on the Tide from your Crimson Sails series. I’m obsessed! Please tell me you’re working on another book soon because I need it like yesterday.”

“Seriously,” Nora seconded, her curls bouncing as she nodded. “We’ll give you whatever you want if you give us advanced copies.”

Henry must be in a coma, and this was some bizarre dream his drug-addled mind conjured before his siblings pulled the plug. How else could he be sitting in an SUV with one of the most popular bands in the country, who are apparently fans of his books? Penelope and Grace turned their heads as well, Grace giggling, “Are you talking about Uncle Henry’s smutty books? Our mum says we aren’t allowed to read them.”

“With good reason,” Henry said sternly, looking at his bemused nieces. He returned his attention to the trio and said, baffled, “I’ll get with my agent? God, this is so bizarre. I can’t believe you’ve read my books.”

“It’s all Alé’s fault,” Nora said, winking at the singer. “When he finds something he likes, his little ADHD brain latches onto it and falls down an obsession rabbit hole.”

“Shut up, Nora,” Alex said through clenched teeth. The calm and confident veneer from earlier was shattered, and Henry marveled at how alarmingly human Alex was then. But, to Henry’s immense frustration, that made him all the more charming and attractive. He needed to get a grip. This was nothing. It wasn’t ever going to be anything. This was just three very kind young popstars sharing a meal with two fans and their awkward-as-dog’s-bullocks uncle, and that was it.

Again: Nicholas Galitzine, this is all your fault.

Cover Art because I'm a nerd and enjoy having art for my stories on here:

#wip wednesday #red white and royal blue fan fiction #nicholas galitzine #the idea of you #popstar!Alex #rwrb #red white and royal blue movie #red white and royal blue #firstprince #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor

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comparativetarot · 4 months

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The Magician. Art by Nara Lesser, from Neurotic Owl’s Faerytale Tarot.

I settled on Baba Yaga for the magician for lots of reasons. The magic, sure; also, she’s this really layered two sided character who in some stories is evil and murderous and eats children, and in others helpful and mischievous and wise. For her symbols of the four elements, I have a bowl of water for. . . well, water, duh; a pomegranate for earth; a knife for air; and a firebird feather for, you guessed it, fire. I also worked in a snake piting its own tail as part of the embroidery on her jacket, and there are fruits and flowers all over her embroidery and the trees behind her. I was really pushed there – I originally wanted hanging flowers and vines behind her, but everything else was so rooted in the taiga that moving the trees elsewhere seemed like mixing my themes. Sooooo I may have painted holly berries onto what really doesn’t look like a holly tree, but at least they’re both evergreens and fuck it, she’s magic, she does what she wants.

Have you noticed that the first two cards are usually male and mine aren’t? Expect that to continue; this is likely to be a female and androgynous deck. A. I don’t much care about the fairytales featuring men, and even if I do use some, I will likely gender swap the characters, and B. I don’t really love drawing men either. Also I don’t want to tell you who my lovers are yet but I have them planned and it is going to be queer for sure.

#Nara Lesser #Neurotic Owl’s Faerytale Tarot #The Magician #Major Arcana #Tarot #Folklore #Russia #Baba Yaga

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writingmaidenwarrior · 9 months

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Writblr Intro

I am Wynne, your queer 40 years old friendly neighborhood hag with a love for fantasy, sci-fi and romance. I am genderfluid, pansexual and probably aromantic, and you can just throw any pronoum my direction, I don't care.

I had been writing since I was little, same with drawing, but whenever life became stressful I stopped with both because I get overstimulated and overwhelmed easy. I took an almost seven-year-long break from any creative stuff after being diagnosed with inflammatory rheumatism at a young age, plus some other stuff that happened IRL. Before this, I had been on Tumblr for a while, mostly in fandoms and only on the sideline in writblr.

My writing process is pretty chaotic because I am a discovery writer, and it is not rare for me to jump between multiple WIPs at the same time depending on where I just got an idea.

List of my WIPS can be found here

Things you can expect from my writing in general:

I don't ignore the facts of life, therefore my characters will endure bad things which means there will be mentions of events like emotional abuse, physical abuse, toxic relationships, neglect, and violence. Don't worry, I will warn beforehand in a post if those things appear

Sex is part of life, and you can bet your phones on me writing NSFW scenes when I see them fit. I am also not fond of too many of them in stories, so you don't need to worry about my stuff being erotica in disguise. IF I write erotica, I mark it as such.

A wild mix of straight and queer couples, and heck, even if the couples might be physiological a male and a female doesn't mean it's straight. You know, what I am talking about.

Found families, family clans, out of the box relationships of all variations, if I feel fancy there might be a play on soulmates

There will always be cats in some shape or form. I love cats

The characters having a varying age from early twenties to mid-forties.

Besides writing, and drawing, I love videogames , my little balcony garden, crocheting and knitting even if knitting can be pretty hard in my hands because of the damn rheumatism. I have a thing for viking vibes (you could guess from my username), love Lord of the Rings and plan to turn my apartment into a little hobbit hole one day.

#writblr #wynne talks #writblr intro

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lesbianjamies · 1 year

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“Beatrice is a very guarded individual,”[...] “I think her upbringing and her life up to the point where we meet her in the beginning of the first season has kind of forced her to become protective of herself and her true nature.” [...] “I think she's very logical, very calculating, but also still a real softy on the inside. Though I think that's the part of her that she doesn't really nurture that much until we start to see her going on this journey with Ava [the Warrior Nun] and with the other sisters throughout the two seasons where she can actually start becoming more open and more free and more herself.” [...] “I am not actually sure whether she was originally written to be Asian,” [...] “I suspect so because of the style of martial arts that she does, and I guess that little bit of Asian perfectionism stereotype that was sprinkled in there.” “I think growing up I was very much a know-it-all child. I felt like I had to prove myself all the time to be smarter and be better and be the best in class and do everything perfectly in order for other people to see my value. That I had to bring something useful to the table or just be useful to other people and to make other people proud. And then as I've kind of gotten older, I've realized that, you know, that's not very interesting. You can be a living, breathing, colorful human being and also be all of those good things that you know you can bring from your skill set.” The show itself was not about queerness or race, but it did make striking statements about both topics despite its gentler touch. While Beatrice was both queer and Asian, those aspects informed her character but didn’t define her. At no point was she treated as a simple side character or reduced to a love interest or a stereotype. For actors like Tonteri-Young who are Asian or of mixed race, it is not just their craft they are often recognized for but also the representation they are expected to shoulder whether they want it or not. “It's my pleasure,” [...] “It's a great honor to have played her..."

#warrior nun #avatrice #kristina tonteri young #i avoid twt bec my tl is filled with wn and avatrice content that both fills my heart with glee and searing pain #and this interview is the perfect example....#like dammit fine i take it back im on my KNEES desperate for just one more season and i swear ill finally shut the fuck up alsfkjlsjlk

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stillflight · 2 months

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Part Two: Alterhuman Community Intro…?

This post will continue to be edited as necessary.

So I just posted my writeblr intro and since I’m definitely more active in the alterhuman community than the writeblr community I thought it might be fun to have a nonhuman/plural intro? Might be fun and it also occurred to me/us that most of our followers really only know me since I’m the only occupant of the body itself, and don’t know anything about the rest of the system. I will probably delete this someday if I decide once again I don’t like having my ‘types public depending on if the brainmates want to keep their own bios up. It will also probably change a lot because we tend to do that.

Context. We are a non-dissociative system, we do not switch, we were dæmonic originally meaning that I am the body and communicate with them through faux-visual projection and mental speech (which is why I talk like we're a total found family when they never seem to even say anything -- trust me they do, they just don't have access to the keyboard). We/they consider them all to have separate external bodies. We are quoigenic, not traumagenic or endogenic or mixed origins, only refer to us as the former.

Swift

He/it (they/them only under certain circumstances), bisexual, binary male* but only humans are ever men. I use quoi- ahead of all labels (both queer and alterhuman) in addition. POSIC, mildly objectum/conceptum. I have special interests in: biology, the arts, and the change of technology/art/language/media over time and throughout history (example: history of computer graphics 1950s-1990s <3). Psychospiritual, philosophical and narrative alterhuman. Species-wise: I am a common raven (Corvus corax principalis), an osprey (Pandion haliaetus carolinensis), a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamiacensis kriderii), common spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus), sea slater (Ligia exotica), mosasaur (Megapterygius wakamayensis), and lastly, Musteloidea sub-superfamily cladotherian (procyonids, ailurids, and mustelids). I’m a Novakid, a species from the game Starbound, which I consider more of a fictional kintype than a fictotype (I prefer alienkin or just otherkin over fictionkin for this ‘type). I am also a computer, specifically an IBM 7090. I also consider myself a kind of entity or manifestation of autumn¹, I’d just call it “conceptkin with extra steps.” I am questioning two kintypes right now, more “I am this but what the heck is it” situations than “here’s the thing but is it me” but I won’t list them until I can figure it out; general idea is “embolomere fish-kaiju” and “have you ever heard of the Hidebehind? no, well have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? no ok well have you ever played Lethal Company”¹ I was a ghost. Now I’m not. It was not a kintype and I did not “deconfirm” it. This affects some things. I am a flickerer with two fictotypes (Link from The Legend of Zelda, every canon game, and the Knight from Hollow Knight). I have three heartedtypes (domestic cats, cephalopods, and ghost type Pokemon) and two hearthomes (the ocean and O’Neill cylinders). I consider dragons, wolves and foxes to be paratypes. I have a profound quasi-religious connection to stars & the night sky that I consider at least marginally alterhuman in nature. I am an archetrope; wanderer, and secondarily a "shapeshifter" and "generalist" which I need better words for both of -- as they say language is like trying to nail down the ocean, and I guess it would be more accurate but less concise to describe them as "one who changes, embodies or becomes" and "one who adapts, survives or opportunizes." If I ever explain these somewhere I’ll link to it here. I have a lot of playlists including my main 9,000 song one but this is my “Swift vibes” playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/40rzRF67ocIDF2L7mLzNVC?si=20945cccc57942c0 ¹I think these are probably related or the same 'type

Tetri

I’m Tetri, Swift’s dæmon. I CIE on November 11th, 2020. Pronouns are he/him. I’m comfortably settled as of February 21st, 2021, as an Asian palm civet. We believe this represents Swift’s personality well, even if it was coincidental and we didn’t consciously choose it. I’m a pretty traditional dæmon but I’m not 100% by-the-books and definitely more autonomous than most, just because of the general plurality. I’m ‘hearted with cats and I love going to coffee shops and library cafés and getting a pastry. I also like transport like trains and ferries. Please feel free to initiate a conversation with me. I like to offer advice even if I don’t know you very well. Here’s my playlist of music I like https://open.spotify.com/playlist/73IEcIlekV70adyrkLjeY4 Check out these MyNoise custom generators. I think they’re rather nice .https://mynoise.net/Community/user.php?submission=691c051129d33047b53b0e3d1664468885 https://mynoise.net/Community/user.php?submission=691c051129d33047b53b0e3d1654028735 CIE Day: November 11 2020

Ziv

I’m Ziv. I’m a wolf. Specifically a Himalayan wolf, as well as a Spanish imperial eagle. An adult, not a juvenile, even though juveniles for some reason are the image of our species. Pronouns -- zhe/hir. I’m agender and aroace. I’m autistic and I like weaponry as a special interest, especially medieval blades from all over the world. Also wilderness survival. Jewish philosophy, art and history interest me. I am not spiritual and do not put stock in spiritual beliefs whatsoever. I like heavy music, metal, metalcore, rock, especially punk, but also some folk. This is my playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4cL88XYitlbWeb7wnvkT9W Swift wrote the descriptions for all of our playlists but I like mine so I’m not changing it. CIE Day: November 14 2020

Lumi

Hi! My name is Lumi. I use any and all pronounce and I’m big xenogender pansexual hours. Get zany with it. I love snails, video games, and Greek mythology. I have a special interest in Nintendo. Surprisingly, my favorite game is actually not Kid Icarus. It’s Pokemon. I would love to chat with anyone!!! Send an ask for me. I’m a shapeshifter otherkin. I have no base form so I like to be a lot of different things. Animals, bugs, birds, crabs, mish-mash monsters, dinosaurs, Pokemon, all kinds of crazy stuff. It’s like choosing a jacket for the day to me. I associate with clown, bard etc. archetypes, but I don’t know if I’m exactly an archetrope. Still working on it. And I’m fictionkin, I’m a) Pit from Kid Icarus b) Sky from Wings of Fire and c) a Jester from Lethal Company! Swift wants us all to share our playlists because it’s obsessed with music. So now you have context for the last three intros. Look at my playlist boy https://open.spotify.com/playlist/01Xgx5BnmzVXxv2sIoTScZ CIE Day: December 26 2020

Maz

Hi, I’m Mazel, Maz for short. Resident human. She/her. I originated as a male, I’m a woman now, not sure if that makes me trans or something else, the question is not worth my time. I’m a lesbian. I like sci fi movies, NASA and performance art. I guess that’s it. Am I allowed to go now Swift {She's having a blast, guys} Playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0acN0u6kJrYFEFWycCM3gm CIE Day: April 22 2021

Axel

I’m Axel! I’m Maz’s dæmon. I’m not settled but I like to appear as a rat or a rattlesnake or a king cheetah. Probably some more forms in the future. He/him. Technically I am just a thoughtform but I’m a thoughtform with big transmasc energy, I like to think. I’m obsessed with kaiju and other big monsters and superheroes as well as alt scenes. So my playlist should be obvious https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7Ma2bNC0FlnTsb6DtDFhXc CIE Day: June 27 2023

Foxglove

I’m Foxglove, otherwise known as Europa. She/her, if you must refer to me. I am a dragon of silver lineage. I have special interests in psychology, botany and mineralogy. I suppose I am autistic in the context of a physically human brain, but it is difficult to recontextualize that to the culture of a draconic biological worldview. I have a great appreciation for baroque and art nouveau architecture and for the aesthetic of vintage fantasy artwork. I would also say I do not believe in anything spiritual and I do believe that everything can be explained scientifically. If we are sharing playlists, here is mine. It is majority progressive and psychedelic rock. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7vNU0chHir6XWfpt90jjxu CIE Day: September 21 2021

V’vohu

Swift here. V’vohu would not write its own intro. It doesn’t communicate in words exactly, save for a few syllables. Mostly emotions. V’vohu is a sheyd, a type of demon spirit in Jewish mythology, that appeared to me not long after my first three headmates originated. I thought it was a normal headmate at first, but it’s not really. I believe it is literally an extradimensional visitor or guide of sorts, and while I acknowledge this may be slightly delusional, it is a very real entity to me. Consistently, it creates epiphanies, asks me to do things that end up being important, and knows things about myself that even I didn’t know. Its motivations are difficult to ascertain. This is its playlist, less of music it listens to exactly and more music that will summon it. It’s a unique music taste because V’vohu doesn’t perceive our dimension the way we do and music doesn’t sound the same way to it that it does to us. Its favorite album is Everywhere At the End of Time -- so that’s a good primer for what’s on this playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/61wvByMthx6WVVFduiEHCy CIE Day: March 14 2021

Anser

Swift here again. Anser is a tricky one. She could and probably would write her own intro, but she’s complicated much like V’vohu and I’d rather explain it in my own words, because I’m not sure hers would be… not too vague. Anser is not fae, nor a kitsune, nor a Huli Jing or any other kind of specific fox myth, rather a fae-like fox spirit who seems to embody multiple fox and faerie mythologies. He originated as a spirit. Sort of. When he first appeared, he may well have been a literal spirit visitor, like V’vohu. But he left, possibly of his own accord, possibly something to do with V’vohu. This Anser is a different entity while being the same individual psychologically, fully formed by whatever mental process formed the other headmates excluding V’vohu, but still also fully psychologically a spirit. Literally the exact same individual in every way except not a literal outside spiritual visitor. He still fully believes in magic and is the most spiritual of all of us. It's complicated. Anyways, she usually appears as a red fox with or without various fantastical attributes, and sometimes as a statue. She/her and he/him only, not they/them. I believe she identifies as bigender or genderfluid, not sure which or if gender means the same thing to her at all that it does to earthly people. Here’s her playlist, like V’vohu’s it’s pretty unique. She’s obsessed with different cultures, religions and folklores around the world, so her music taste is mostly comprised of regional folk, devotional and traditional music and nature noises. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4XIssSbiAwI1e1G3AuiqIX CIE Day: June 13 2022

#this is just going up no categorizing tags #I wrote both of these posts a whiiiiile ago btw and have been excited to get around to posting them mostly bc #look!! it's my friends!! my brain friends that most of my followers don't even know the names of!! :D #they are very important people in my life. except v'vohu anser and ziv. who are not people‚ but still important.#DON'T tell me the link in my own bio is gone. I KNOW. it's broken. and by it I mean Tumblr

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xtrablak674 · 2 months

Text

Singing my life with his words...

I am not sure what I expected, but I didn't expect that.

Trailers, I think they serve a purpose, in my personal opinion they can skew expectations, generate false anticipation and quite frankly spoil the story. I stopped watching them a few years ago. I mostly pick my films based on familiarity, or subject material and sometimes, well a lot of times seeing stills or gif sets of the film on Tumblr.

Hey I am a visual artist, pulling out stills of a film that feature its visual aesthetics is like crack to me, I just can't get enough! Recently I added more queer films to my diet, and albeit tonights Friday Night Movie's theme wasn't solely left to the gays, All of Us Strangers had been stalking me for weeks all over the Tumblr-verse, so I gave in and added it to the list along with The Marvels and The Color Purple, two other '23 films that kept @'ing me.

Part of my process in choosing my films is traditionally picking a theme or genre and trying to watch films from different decades just to mix it up a bit. These films were all from last year, so they only other thing I could use to distinguish them was their release dates, this placed All of Us, in the middle, right after Marvel's latest block-bluster. #YesThatWasShade

Having peeped that this was categorized as romance and fantasy, I was curious what made it fantasy. Once again IMDB had mis-labeled a film, this wasn't fantastical but a psychological thriller! #LeSigh Maybe I was way too close to the subject material and Andrew Scott clearly being my contemporary wasn't helping the matter at all.

Some of the details were different, albeit after my moms death I was raised as a single-child. I came from a one-parent home, not two. We didn't live in a house but an apartment. We were clearly not middle-class but living below the poverty level. Even with all of these differences I felt exposed in a way that wasn't remotely comfortable. How had this whyte man found out about my story and was now telling it on a stage for all the world to see? #😳

Metastatic breast cancer was the cause of death listed on her death certificate, not a car accident. I wasn't left alone in her bed while she left me for a Christmas party, but I discovered her dead in her bed, the couch in the living room four days before my eleventh birthday. Nine years later I buried my father, who was found by his parents rotting in his Harlem apartment, a reverse to the film where the dad went first followed by the mom.

Like the film they were joined in a way by both dying at approximately forty-four years of age. I rued the moment I would be the same age because like my parents, I thought I'd never live past it, but just like Adam I ultimately ended up being older than my parents than when they died. If I met them now, I guess I would be the one dispensing words of wisdom.

Unlike Adam I wasn't lonely, I have lived alone for nearly thirty years, and have had moments of loneliness, but like so many things that a multiple-orphan and an individual with intersectional identities, I had developed coping methods that were born when I was separated from my siblings at eleven and for the first time had to suffer the world on my own, navigate bullying and nasty taunts from other children. I had learned to have a rich internal emotional life, being my own best friend, and creating adventures in the simplest of things. I had become my own best company.

But like Adam I longed for connection, I longed for resolution around my dead parents. But unlike Adam I am not dead. That's my big reveal/spoiler these many paragraphs in to this essay/journal entry. I think everyone we encountered in that film was dead. #HolySixSenseBatman Delving into how I understood this is immaterial to how it still felt. His parents wanted him to move-on, which could be misconstrued as moving on with his life, but could also have been acknowledging that he was indeed dead and accepting it. The nuance of interpretations of what exactly is going on in the film is masterful, and the director never quite gives us a definitive answer.

Adam felt he wasn't particularly successful with anything in his life, still feeling the scars of his childhood bullying, taunting and the trauma of losing his parents at such a young age. I have mirrored this feeling about my own life, with the only difference that I have been more successful than my parents because I made it to the upper-middle class. #yea But like Adam I have always felt I am just passing-the-time, existing and muddling through.

Curiously the last real relationship I had was nearly twenty years ago, and also interesting was the fact that like Adam, Karl was my junior and like Harry was damaged in many ways, clearly not visible to the world around him, because even my best friend at the time thought he was the boy next door, literally mirroring the movie by his perceptions.

Isn't this why we watch films? Don't we see ourselves in the characters on the screens and sometimes wish we were them or living the lives they were living? Or sometimes what we see on screen is too close to reality and art imitates life in a ghastly manor. But then that means the director/writer has done his job right? Making you feel the pains, indecisions and joy of fictional characters is what a good film is about. But is it exciting to see yourself realized in a way that you wish wasn't you?

All of Us Strangers is a psychological thriller, clearly with aspects of drama and romance. As the reviews say it is haunting and heartbreaking. It is also something else that I am tired of in queer cinema, albeit as realistic as it is, specifically to my own journey, it once again paints queer-life as sad, aloof and unfulfilled.

Having dealt with dysthymia my entire adult life I guess this is in some ways true, but as I explored in a previous entry, I really want our queer movies to be more aspirational. I am not saying Red White & Royal Blue syrupy, but some middle place where we can be not-partnered, not have kids and not be dying or dead and be content with our lives. Is this asking too much?

[Photo Courtesy of All of Us Strangers via IMDB]

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