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dragonfirerogue-writes · 1 year

Note

Pls could i make another Quinn request😭😭

sorry i’m just so in love w her✨

anygay…

here goes:

R and Quinn met as kids but then R had to move away. They reunited in college. They actually got paired as roommates! Then when R is unpacking Quinn comes in the door and says her hello, R turns around and is having a gay panic bc she’s so beautiful but can’t help but recognise her from somewhere.

Quinn knows instantly who it is and whispers ‘y/n?’ making sure she’s right. Then it clicks for R, ‘Lucy?’ then Quinn jumps into her arms and they fall onto the bed being all happy they finally found each other again. They date then when the glee club gets shut down she invites R to go back to Lima w her and she does. The day she gets introduced to everyone Puck has a problem w her (for no reason except he’s in love w Quinn still) and starts shit w her and she just remains calm while Puck is yelling at her.

“are you done?”

Then proceeded to calmly go on a rant about how she loves Quinn and tells story’s about their time together (Puck realises that she really does love Quinn, a lot better than he ever did or ever could) and she lets it slip that she wants to marry her and was hoping everyone would support it bc she knows how Quinn sees all these people as her family.

Unknown to them Quinn heard it all from down the hall with Santana and wanted to run and break up their argument until Santana stopped her to see how it would play out. Then teases Quinn about how much R loves her. But she never heard the proposal part bc R lowered her voice and had her back to the two girls.

R and Puck hug it out and he apologised, then leads R to the rest of the team to make a plan to propose to Quinn and flies out her old high school glee club (bc she’s a queen) plus they all love Quinn and met her since most of them went to college w R and are all their friends.

R proposes, Quinn says yes and they have a party in the choir room where Mr Shue finds R in the corner just admiring the smile on Quinn’s face and has a ‘dad talk’ w her since Quinn doesn’t really have one and Mr shue kinda was that for her. But he only says positive things making R v happy.

They live happily ever after🥰🥰

A/N: Oh, don't feel bad about sending requests. I also love Quinn.

Quinn x Reader

Quinn takes a deep breath as she stands at the door of her new Yale dorm room. This was a new step in her life. High school and all of its past drama is behind her. This was terrifying and exciting and as soon as she opens the door, it begins. She can hear the shuffle of her roommate inside. A new person in her new life. Her hand is on the doorknob. It's time to start anew.

When the door opens, it draws your attention from fighting with command strips. As soon as your eyes land upon the blonde at the door, your heart stops. This girl was stunning. You're seeing the embodiment of Aphrodite in front of you. You're staring and you almost don't care.

Almost.

Because now you're thinking about whether this girl is queer at all. Thoughts of having to deal with the girl dating around with mediocre guys make your skin crawl. You're already floored by the girl's beauty, so seeing this girl every day was either a curse or a blessing. But there's also something else. Something oddly familiar, but you can quite place it. At least, not until the angelic voice breaks you from your thoughts.

"It can't be... Y/N?"

The words were quiet, almost to herself. You weren't sure whether you were meant to hear it, but you did and it blasted you into the depths of your memories.

Your ten year old self is crying, not wanting to move away. To leave your best friend behind. You had gotten along so quickly when you met at kindergarten and were thick as thieves. You stood up to bullies and made sure your friend felt loved. Even at this point, she was your everything. Being forced to leave her was heartbreaking and it was an unintentional traumatic experience for you. You never forgot her. It was impossible for you to forget your...

"L-Lucy? No way..."

The blonde lets out a soft sob. Tears flowing from her eyes and a wide smile on her face. She launches herself at you, flying into your open arms as you embrace for the first time in years. The impact causes you to lose your balance and fall onto your bed, but you couldn't care less. Your best friend, your first love, was in your arms again. And this time, you had no plans to let her go.

-----+++++-----

You were so happy to have Lucy, or Quinn rather, in your life again. Just like when you were kids, you two were attached at the hip. You marveled at how different she looked. You always thought she was pretty before, even when she was more on the hefty side. It was her eyes. They always shone with emotion whenever you looked into them. Even now, with her by your side again, it's those hazel eyes that catch you the most.

Now that you're older, you also recognize that the feelings you had for Quinn were romantic. Before, there was just pure love. Child-like and innocent. Now, it wasn't so innocent. But you also didn't want to ruin the renewed relationship. You didn't want to lose Quinn again. So you bide your time and it was time well spent.

As you spent your time together, your physical affection evolved tenfold. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence for someone to see Quinn sitting on your lap or leaning on you in some way. People often thought you were already going out and neither of you really tried to deny it.

"Hey, Luce?" You called. While Quinn preferred her current name, the old nickname made her smile.

"Hm?" She was at her desk, while you were on her bed.

"I'm curious. Does it bother you that people think we're dating?"

Quinn just tilts her head. "No. It doesn't really." She eyes you warily. "Does it bother you?"

You were about to shake your head, but then you thought about it. If it was any time to confess, it was now, you guess.

"I mean... Kind of." You sat up and looked at the blonde. She waited for you to continue, slight fear in her eyes. "Just because we're not together... Even when I want us to be."

You hear a soft gasp from the stunned blonde. There's a bit of a staring contest before Quinn stands from her seat and barrels into you, forcing you back into the bed and buries herself into your neck. Her next words made you the happiest you've ever been.

"I want us to be too..."

-----+++++-----

Walking the halls of your girlfriend's high school is definitely a weird experience. You can feel the history in the halls, knowing the drama from Quinn's own words. You make your way to the choir room, knowing you'll find your love there.

You had followed Quinn to Lima when she found out that her Glee Club had disbanded and her friends were trying to build it up again. Having been a part of one yourself, you joined to help out as well.

Entering the choir room, you didn't find Quinn. Instead you ran into Noah Puckerman, along with some of the other Glee alumni. Ever since you arrived with Quinn in your arms, he had been antagonistic towards you. He reverted back into his bully tactics and it was frustrating you. Hopefully you can maybe clear the air.

"Hey guys. You've seen Lu- uh Quinn around?"

Tina's the one who answers you. "I think she's with Santana. Something about the Cheerios, I think."

Puck chooses then to walk up to you, trying to intimidate by looming over you.

"You think you're gonna get into our good graces just cuz you're with Quinn?" He growls.

"Noah, stop it!" Rachel tries to interject but he ignores her."

"Quinn's just experimenting. We've known her longer. We've been around when she needed us. We saw her at her lowest and we still love her. I still love her. You don't deserve the Quinn you have now. You weren't there when she had her baby. You weren't there when she had her car accident. You weren't there for her so what makes you think you deserve her?"

You just stood there, taking the verbal assault with your head held high. The man in front of you heaves from his rant and you give him a moment to cool down before replying.

"You done?" Puck jerks his head back in surprise. You continue on.

"I love Quinn. It's as simple as that. She's been a part of my life since I was five, even when we parted ways. I lost the light of my life the day I moved away. Finding her again, by complete chance, made me feel like we're fated to have each other in our lives.

"I may have not been a part of her recent life, but I knew Quinn before all of you. I knew Quinn as Lucy. Before the expectations of life changed her appearance and her view on life. I loved her then, and I love her infinitely more now. Her growth in life shaped her to be her very best and she's just going to get better. And I intend to be there every step of the way."

You stepped closer to the group, anxiety suddenly filling your heart. But it bolstered you to continue on knowing that this was your Luce's chosen family.

"I don't intend on losing my light again." You start in a low voice. "We may have not dated for long, but I know my love for her spans years. I intend to marry her." The girls around, and Kurt, let out a soft gasp. "And I would like the support of you all, her family. Because you mean the world to her and who am I to tear her away from that."

Puck steps up again, sizing you up. You stand tall with resolve in your eyes. There's a beat of silence before he opens his arms and pulls you into an embrace.

"Just take care of her. If you don't, I'll come after you."

You return the hug with a chuckle. "If I don't, I'd throw myself off a cliff first."

The rest of the group join in on the hug, surrounding you with a welcoming love.

Quinn watches from the doorway, Santana by her side. They had heard Puck's ranting from the hallway and came to investigate. While the blonde wanted to intervene, the Latina stopped her to see how things would play out and she's glad they didn't step in.

"She looooves you," Santana teases. "She wants to kiss you." Quinn just shoves the other girl away with a smile.

"Shut up, San. I know she loves me." She looks over at you and her family. "I love her too."

-----+++++-----

Quinn makes her way to the choir room after talking to Sue. It was a normal conversation to have with her, the younger blonde leaving just a little more confused than she was initially. Typical Sue Sylvester.

When she enters the choir room, she's greeted by the entirety of the New Directions and your old Glee friends who had joined you in Yale. They were all crowded on the steps where the chairs usually are. That left you standing in front of them, by yourself.

"What's going on?" She asks, a confused smile on her face. You just return the smile and nod to the group behind you. Suddenly, they start to sing and Quinn is enthralled.

I swear

By the moon and stars in the skies

And I swear

Like the shadow that's by your side

You started your verse, holding your hand out for Quinn to take. As soon as she takes a hold, you pull her into a simple dance, more swaying than anything. You twirl her gently, letting the mood of the song take hold. Her soft smile gives you the courage to continue as your friends join you in the chorus. With a deep breath, the second half is yours and with a final twirl, you drop to one knee, pulling out a small, velvet box. Quinn gasps as you sing the next lines.

For better or worse

Til death do us part

I'll love you with every beat of my heart

And I swear...

You see tears in Quinn's eyes when you open the box, revealing a simple, elegant diamond ring. You try to still your shaking hands as the room falls silent.

"Lucy Quinn Fabray. I lost you once because of reasons out of our control. Years later, Fate brought us together again. Now, I refuse to lose you again. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

Almost immediately, Quinn nods and lets out a weepy 'yes.' With a wide grin, you place the ring on her finger and pull her into a tight embrace. Your friends surround you with cheers before charging in for a massive group hug. The room fills with laughs and joy before a party starts with a pop of sparkling cider.

As the party continues, Mr. Schuster, the New Direction's teacher, comes up to you.

"Hey, Y/N. Congratulations."

You smile in response. "Thank you, Will. I'm glad everyone's supportive."

The man pats you on the shoulder. "Just treat her well. She's been through more than enough to last a lifetime." You both watch her chat with your friends. "She deserves the best life and I hope it's with you."

You tear up at his words. "Of course. She's the light in my life, my Luce. There's no one else I'd rather spend my life with."

Mr. Schue pulls you into a hug in thanks and lets you go so you can mingle with the others. When your eyes meet Quinn's, you swear you could see the rest of your lives together in a short span of time.

And it was perfection.

#a dragon tries to write #glee imagine #quinn fabray x reader #quinn fabray imagine #asks #requests

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eds6ngel · 10 months

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Hello dear! I have an idea about Robin, how she found out that the reader is bisexual! 💖💜💙

hi, my love! of course i can do this! as a bisexual woman myself, some of the description of this story hit home, so i hope you find comfort in it too <3

warnings: fem!reader. swearing. mentions of homophobia. mentions of religion. lesbophobic & homophobic language. coming out. hurt. comfort. fluff. kissing. childhood best friends to lovers [1.5k].

Falling in love wasn’t easy. It wasn’t the magical fairytale it was made out to be. But, not in the way that everyone else found. Most people had their normal fears: rejection, break-ups, cheating. But you? You had the added fear of being in a relationship with a woman in small town Indiana.

You heard the names, the stereotypes, the classic “You need Jesus,” Hawkins was one of the worst places to be gay.

At least in the big cities like New York, you could find small-knit communities, bars, hangout spots for fellow gay people, but Hawkins? You were left in the dark. Well, except for one person.

You had been best friends with Robin Buckley since childhood. The two of you met in English class in 2nd grade, forced to sit next to each other by the teacher’s annoyingly arranged seating plan. However, you soon became friends after realising how many interests you had in common.

And to this day, the last year of school, you were still as close as your seven year old selves.

Robin was an undeniably beautiful girl, one of the prettiest girls in Hawkins. You just thought that for many years, that was a test of close friendship. She had a stunning personality, gorgeous aura and was the kindest person you’d ever met, of course it was normal to also find her face beautiful, right?

But, apparently not. As you rambled about Robin to your other friends, they used to make jokes about how you were “acting like a lesbo,” or “becoming a queer.” And, although those terrible words that were not used nicely, perhaps they were right.

But, you knew you liked men too. Some of the guys at Hawkins High were gorgeous, you had dated a few of them for that matter, and although they all ended in break-ups, their gender never played a factor in that.

However, one day you were fortunate enough to stumble across the word “bisexuality” in one of the feminist books buried at the back of Hawkins Library.

“Romantic or sexual attraction to both males and females.”

It felt… right. Accurate. It felt like you.

From there on, your exploration went deeper. You didn’t want to just be friendly with Robin, you want to be romantic with her. Hold her, kiss her, love her. That’s what you wanted to do.

And fortunately, Robin had already told you her biggest secret, she exclusively liked women.

The reason Robin felt safe enough to tell you that she was a lesbian was because of a certain day spent at her house. Her mother had on one of the religious channels, the preacher rambling on about how being gay was a sin, and how all gay people are going to Hell. And you simply replied, “What a bunch of bullshit. It’s just two men or women in love, why is that such a big deal to them?”

And less than a week later, she had come out to you. Those two simple sentences stripped away any worries she ever had about her sexuality.

So, it was an automatic given that Robin would accept your sexuality, those worries were off the table. But, just because she’s into women, doesn’t mean she’s into you.

And that’s where you can connect with the general population. That fear of rejection. What if she didn’t see you that way? The soft touches, the closeness, the longing gazes, what if they were all platonic?

But, it was worth a shot, right?

Your picnic was long abandoned, paper plates of food sprawled across the checkered pink blanket as you and Robin lay flat on each end.

You were simply basking in the hot, breezy summer air, eyes closed as you breathed steadily. You talked when you wanted about whatever. There would be long moments of silence before ten minutes of talking about the latest delivery at Family Video.

But now, the conversation had taken a more serious turn.

“Did you see what was on the front page of the Hawkins Post the other day?” Robin asks.

“I don’t think so, I only read them if I pass by the local corner store,” you reply.

Robin sighs, a sense of sadness laced in her tone, “There was this candid shot of these two guys kissing. It was definitely taken from in the bushes or something, it was out in the woods. But—“ she takes a breath, “The headline said: ‘The Queers are plaguing Hawkins.’”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” you let out, your mouth becoming dry at the thought of the potentially life-threatening headline. “Please tell me they haven’t found out who it was.”

“Not that I know of,” Robin replies, “But, this is Hawkins. It’s only a matter of time, you know?”

You nod, knowing that she was right. This was a scary place to be different in any shape or form. Anything that went against God was deemed “Satanic.” But, even so, would God approve of their actions? At their hurtful words, their harmful behaviours?

“How do you cope with it?” you ask Robin, “Knowing that you’re a lesbian in a town that despises your pure existence?”

Robin sighs, “You just have to hide it. You know, Steve knows, and that’s it. Whoever you crush on, you just have to look for signs. Signs that they are into women. Which is almost never, but, you just try your best.” She takes a breath before continuing, “And then you have to basically build a friendship, build that trust so you know that if you do admit your crush to them and they are actually straight, they won’t spread your secret around.”

Her answer provided everything you needed to know, and all the pre-cautions she listed you didn’t have to worry about, because she was accepting, she was into women. You just had to pray that she reciprocates.

“Um… Robin?” you let out, her letting out a small hum as you ask, “Can I tell you something?”

“Of course. You’re my best friend, you can tell me anything.”

You sigh, sitting up from your laying down position, “Recently, I’ve been thinking about relationships, about who I like. As you know, most of my relationships haven’t ended well,” you chuckle softly, “But, maybe it’s because I haven’t… explored enough.”

Robin looks at you with confusion, following you in sitting up herself, knees tucked up to her chest. You exhale, “I found this book at Hawkins Library. It talked about sexuality, about different definitions and things, and… I found one, and I think it might define me.”

You can sense Robin’s face soften as you explain yourself, you know she knows what you are getting at. “Do you know what bisexuality is?”

Robin smiles, “Men and women, yeah, I know what it is.”

“Yeah, well… I think that’s what I am.”

Robin grins at you, her facial expression soft as she replies, “I’m so happy for you!” she beams, “I’m glad you’ve found yourself. That’s hard to realise living here, so I’m proud of you.”

You turn your gaze away from her, “There’s something else I want to say… I didn’t go searching for answers for no reason,” you start.

Robin’s face contorts back to that same confusion that she started with, “I was telling my friends about you, and they accused me of being… queer,” you frown at the word, “And I thought about it… and maybe they were right.”

“Are you saying you realised because of me?”

You nod, “Yeah, Robs,” you take a breath, “I like you. I like you a lot. And I know it’s probably wrong for me to assume that you like me back just because you like girls, like obviously you don’t like every woman and that’s actually really fucking offensive the more I think about it—“

But, you are cut off by a pair of lips on your own, the feeling of that soft, delicate skin of hers brushing your cheek that you love oh so much.

Robin quickly pulls back, beginning to ramble herself, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to cut you off, and definitely not in that way. I should’ve asked you permission first, like why didn’t I even think of that—“

However, you proceed to copy what she did to you, leaning forward and delicately taking her top lip in between yours, pushing her hair out of her face softly with your hand. As you part, you giggle as you stare up at her, a few inches between your faces, “You’re cute when you ramble, you know that?”

You can see Robin’s cheeks heat up at the compliment, her gaze avoiding yours as you lift her chin up towards you, “And when you blush.”

She smiles gently as she whispers out, “I like you too.”

You chuckle, “I’m glad to hear that,” before capturing your lips between hers once more. The pair of you cupping each other’s cheeks as you fall back against the picnic blanket, giggling like a pair of school children.

Maybe this is what life was worth living for. Falling in love with your best friend whilst kissing to your hearts content in the middle of a field of wheat. It may not be perfect for everyone, but it sure was for you.

thank you for the request! i really hope it was what you wanted <3

#robin buckley #robin buckley x reader #robin buckley x fem!reader #robin buckley x you #robin buckley hurt #robin buckley comfort #robin buckley fluff #robin buckley childhood friends to lovers #robin buckley friends to lovers #eds6ngel

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wetfungi · 4 months

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I don't know if this is too niche but hear me out.

(No cw bc am lazy sorry but let's say it's def queer and a bit taboo) (also might be t4t coded and genderbreaking and orientation play so that's like a little CW) (reader most likely trans guy/fakeboy/dyke/boygirl/girlboy/something so yeh)

Imagine if I/you/we/the people had like a gf and she decided to fuck a girl in front of you to "show you how she wants to be fucked" and when she starts to notice your eyes glossing over and your mind going dumb, she starts making fun of you for getting off to her fucking a girl and that "for being the person that fucks her every night, you sure do seem to make the better bitch than me" she starts to fuck her harder without talking as much cause she wants you to get so fucking needy for her. She wants you to see that you could be the perfect bitch for her and take her dick (or strap ;p)

"You want mommy to fuck you like this hmm? You like when mommy uses cunts. You want mommy to use your cunt? Tell mommy about it"

You start begging her to fuck you but she keeps fucking the girl instead.

"I only fuck good cunts. You've been naughty baby. This bitch right here saves her cunt for me so when I'm done barely getting wet for you, I have somewhere good to actually go."

Which doesn't make sense bc you know you fucked that same girl earlier today as a hardcore straight man who's into dykebreaking. You end up saying some shit like.

"I want you to fuck me how I fucked her mommy" and then all hell breaks loose and asses and face are getting slapped and everyone's trying to dom each other except for 2 of you know that only one of you is gonna be the shared slut for the night so it's just like a big game and yeah. I'm high so I know grammar probably sucks oopsie.

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memes-saved-me · 3 years

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Billy Hargrove and implied Queerness

First off this is focusing on his scenes without Steve because we've all seen those and....they're pretty homoerotic to say the least so I will be bringing your attention to the other factors which lead people to believe Billy is gay or interested in men and not so much women. This isn't very indepth but more surface level observations I've made and seen others make.

(TW: Homophobia and slurs discussed)

Season 2

The first scene we get of Billy he is instantly sexualised by those around him. Tina and Vicki taking interest in him based on his looks while Carol watches on rather unamused. This sets a trend for his character and his relationship with his looks and body, but more importantly how he uses it to his own advantage. Of course this was done to play into the 80s bad boy who all the high school girls fall for but what I'll explain later makes it much more interesting.

The next we see of Billy is with Max on their way home. During this scene he insults the looks of the high school girls, referring to them as cows. We then get a very interesting line "Yeah, we're stuck here and who's fault is that?" Which Max replies to with "Yours."

A response that instantly angers Billy to the point he demands she take responsibility for moving to Hawkins. A topic that has clearly been discussed before because Max's reaction implies this has happened before if not multiple times.

In Runaway Max, which isn't confirmed canon and contradicts a lot of stuff but, we are told that the reason they moved was because Billy was completely off the rails to the point he broke her friends arm. Now. Does that make sense in blaming who's fault the move was? If this is the case it is obviously Billy's fault so why does he keep saying it was her who caused this? She clearly liked being in California so why would she do something to make them move. Unless it was unintentional...

This heavily implies that there is an unspoken incident which involves them both. An incident which triggers such anger and recklessness in Billy to the point he almost runs over Mike, Lucas and Dustin because Max wouldn't say it was her fault. Many have then filled in this gap with Max accidentally telling either Neil or Susan about Billy and another boy, which would make sense with the information or lack of information we are given in canon about the reason they moved.

While at Tina's Halloween party we do not see Billy interact with a single girl. He is seen with Tommy and another boy who then approach Steve with him. It would make sense for girls to be drooling over him in this moment, trying to dance with him or following him inside but no. He makes a beeline for Steve and we do not see him for the rest of the party.

Now, I don't know about you but have you ever seen a teenage boy look less interested in his date? Not only is he not interacting with verbally but also physically. He then gets angry when she calls Max his sister and they drive off without a word. It's implied he is taking her home as he they were waiting for Max, meaning he was probably going to hook up with her but if he was wouldn't he act just a little nicer towards her?

I mentioned before that he is the archetype for 80s bad boy and the girls sure are falling, he just isn't catching them. This is the only time we see him interact with a women his age in a romantic way. If you could call this romantic at all.

When in trouble for letting Max run off while watching her, his response is that he doesn't have the time to go looking for her because he has a date, a date we never see or get the name of, this prompts his father to say the line "So that's why you've been staring at yourself in the mirror like some faggot..."

A line that then prompts Billy to snap and argue back after clearly wanting to get out of this situation as fast and smoothly as possible. Where else have we seen anger brought on by a topic? That's right in the car with Max. There is a trend of Billy reacting with anger to conversations or comments he finds personal or as some sort of attack. This is also when Neil becomes fully angry with Billy as seen in his rather shocked reaction at his response to that line.

This also continues the trend of Billy caring about his looks and using them as a shield of sorts, a shield that doesn't work against his father but everyone else he encounters.

Something to keep in mind, Billy is the only character to be called a homophobic slur by a parental figure other than Will. The character he mirrors in multiple ways including having the same full name William, as well as Will being heavily implied as gay or queer. Both of their father's use homophobic language against them, unlike any of the other characters in the show.

The next we see of him after the incident with Neil is also when we see him interacting with another women in a romantic sense. Karen. This is where his use of his looks and body fully come into play. He uses these assets to get information and affection out of Karen to make his father happy and avoid further punishment.

Now this is my own interpretation but Billy is used to using his body for positive attention and doesn't get that any other way. At no point in the series is he treated like a person other than in S3 by Max and Max only. Everyone else views him in an objectified manner or as a bad guy to avoid.

There is a clear resemblance between Karen and Billy's mother which I'll further discuss in the season 3 section but this leads me to believe he is subconsciously or even consciously wanting positive attention from a motherly figure, he just doesn't know any other way to achieve that.

However, it is very clear that flirting with Karen was an act as seen by the quite jarring juxtaposition of these two frames. The mask fully gone once by himself again. Meaning the only time we see him flirt with a women it isn't genuine at all.

Season 3

Now, continuing off the last point, there is countless girls practically drooling over Billy at the pool but he only accepts this attention from Karen. This exemplifies my theory that he doesn't know how to gain positive affection other than through flirting and well sex, but he only wants this attention from an older women who resembles his mother. Except, again he doesn't know any other way of gaining it. He hasn't had a strong positive female influence in his life since he was 10 years old and by the looks of it every motherly figure has treated him as eye candy and not a teenager crying for help.

He has Heather who is very much his age and flirts with him. Yet, he acts as if she isn't even there and goes straight over to Karen to flirt. The way he acts with Karen should be the way he would act with girls his age, flirting and making advances but we do not see a single example of this.

This part I find extremely interesting because it perfectly mirrors his interaction with Karen in season 2, except instead of dropping the mask he puts it on. The way he looks to his right as if she is sitting there as he practices what he is going to say to her is a clear example of his act coming into play as he prepares to meet up with her. His expression very similar to when he leaves the Wheeler home but it shifts to practice the way he is planning on talking to Karen. A complete reversal from their scene in season 2.

A rather reaching piece of symbolism could be that this also mirrors the way Neil cuts off Billy's date in season 2 as the Mindflayer is a literal representation of him being controlled by his father.

I also find it very interesting that he chooses to flirt with Karen very publicly and this might be reading a little too into it but it comes off as trying to uphold some sort of image. Another example of this is Max saying she hears Billy with girls in his room, something that sure is something he would do but when you put this with everything in this post it also comes off as him trying to prove something.

Another thing I find interesting is the way he acts around Karen, all smiles and friendly is very similar to that of the way he acts at dinner with Heather's parents. An act put on by the Mindflayer, just as he does when flirting with Karen. A mask used for underlying means and not what it shows on the surface.

Conclusion

This is all just my observation and he is not canonically gay or queer but the way he acts around women compared to Steve is a very interesting aspect to his character. If they truly intended for him to be this bad boy ladies man then they failed at presenting that.

One final thing, which I have posted about before is the fact Billy does not use homophobic language towards anyone. Even Steve does in season 1 so it would make sense for a teenage boy trying to upstage another teenage boy to use slurs and such to belittle and bully him. Except he doesn't.

I could write a full dissertation on Billy's implied queerness but a unorganised Tumblr post will have to do. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

#billy hargrove #harringrove #theory #not tagging anything else because I cba with antis #this is not canon #so don't attack me #it is just a theory analysis #thank you

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bermansimon · 3 years

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Kate Schmidt/female reader

Request

dayy-dreamerrs

dude i have literally no ideas but queer!kate bc im attached to her and im fruity 😩

(sorry this took so long I hope u enjoy!!)

The second Kate passed you the cheerleading outfit, your mind fell into a blissful daze. Briefly, your hands grazed against each other.

Your pink, increasingly red cheeks didn’t go unnoticed to Kate. Her soft smile made yours only grow, until there is a cough from Simon across the room, smirking at the two of you.

“Eat shit,” Kate growls, promptly showing her middle finger to him as you stand there, amused. “Sorry, Y/N. Feel free to change in the bathroom, let me know if you need any help and I'll come find you.”

She smiles, before walking away to Simon.

You stand there for a moment, watching her, before rushing away to the female bathroom as directed. You laid your backpack on the closed toilet seat, before stripping down your clothes and easily sliding into the blue costume. It hugged your body in a way you hoped Kate’s eyes would stay on you.

After shoving your previously worn clothes into your backpack, you walked out of the stall and stared in the mirror. The zip at the back wasn’t closed, your pink bra underneath revealed to the other girls scattered around the bathroom. Girls who were too busy smoking, vaping or purely gossiping to notice you were asking for help.

You sigh, throw your coat on over the outfit, before walking towards the gym once again. This time, all eyes on you. All mouths motioning your name.

“Kate?” You call out quietly.

Suddenly, the dark-haired girl jumped out from behind the bleachers, Simon following behind her. She gives you a smile and rushes towards you.

“You look great!” She beams, “Have you zipped up?”

“No, I...” Your face went pink, “None of the girls in the bathroom would help me so I just came back here - is that okay? I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologise, Y/N.”

“Okay...”

You drop your bag and coat onto the ground, before facing the opposite way from Kate. Your eyes are shut. One of her hands rest on your hip, pulling the outfit down and she uses the other hand to push up the zip.

Once ready, she spins you around and places her hands on your shoulders, your faces just inches apart.

Kate senses your anxiety, and lowers her arms, “Everything will be okay. Are you nervous about starting cheerleading? It’s really not overly complex.”

“No, I’m nervous about you..do you think people will judge me?” You end up saying, before covering your embarrassed face. Standing close to you, was Kate. The girl you’ve adored admired for months on end, and you were expressing your concerns about getting bullied.

Unexpectedly, Kate didn’t laugh. Instead, she wrapped her arms around your waist and rested her chin on your shoulder. “Nobody will judge me when I'm with you. if they do, I’ll murder them.”

You laugh, “You would murder them for me?”

“Of course. I would do anything for one of my cheerleaders - we’re like a family now,” Kate pulls away enough for your faces to meet, her hands are still resting on your waist as she smiles at you, “And for the record, I doubt anyone would talk bad about you wearing that. Seriously, you’re making me question myself right now - you look beautiful, Y/N.”

The bell rang, and you internally thanked it. You and Kate parted ways after sharing one last hug, you couldn't find the words to say anything else. Looking down, you could see your hands were shaking nervously. You take a deep breath - maybe two - before walking in the direction of your next class.

Everyone was wrong. Kate was seen as heartless, but you knew that was far from the truth. At your audition, when you accidentally tripped over, Kate helped you remain focused and you finished without a second mistake. She helped you with your outfit, made you smile and complimented you so much your knees literally went weak.

Sitting in geometry, you could see Kate a few rows away. Apparently you shared more classes then you originally thought. Between you sat Deena, who was too preoccupied scribbling notes and sketches back and forth with Sam to notice anything else occurring during the class.

They came out as a couple the previous year. You almost cried when it happened - because someone was like you. And if Kate stayed friends with them before and after, she had to support that, right?

Possibly even be apart of that community, you thought to yourself.

“Y/N,” Kate whispered from her desk, she passed Deena a note, which Deena gave to you with a smirk.

Your face heats up as you open the note, reading ‘bleachers. 7 - Kate <3′

The butterflies in your stomach grow when you look up and see her blowing you a kiss. From the back of your mind you wondered if she was simply being a tease - that she somehow found out about your secret crush and enjoyed pushing you around. Except, her sincere smile made you remember this was Kate, she isn’t a bad person. She’s beautiful and smells like sweet lemons.

So, you gave her a nod, wordlessly agreeing you would be there.

You sat on the bench while the cheerleaders danced. Considering it was only your first day - you decided against participating in the big game. Primarily because you were scared of humiliation, but also because you wanted everything to go perfectly for Kate.

The game is still in progress, twenty minutes remain and you’re sitting under the bleaches as directed, a warm hot chocolate resting in your palms.

it’s 7:06 and zero sign of Kate.

Embarrassment infused you when you saw another couple making themselves comfortable metres away, practically dry-humping each other as you sat and drank your warm drink. You decided to wait a few more minutes before you left, when it reaches 7:15 you promised yourself to walk away.

And by the time 7:15 reached, you were walking out of the bleaches with tears filling up your eyes - she led you on because she had the advantage.

“Y/N?” A voice, one defiently belonging to Kate called out.

You looked around and saw her, “What?”

As a disguise, she wore an oversized jumper, a cap and baggy pants. You barely noticed it was her - but by looking at her pretty smile, it was obvious.

“I’m sorry I was late, coach was upset,” She walked closer towards you, and sat down on the ground, patting the spot beside her, “And I was getting changed into these clothes...I didn’t want anyone to see me.”

“Why?” You ask, “Are you...embarrassed of me? Are you embarrassed to be friends with me?”

Kate tilts her head and frowns, “You know that’s not it. I’m not embarrassed of you, Y/N. I’m...embarrassed of myself. Everybody knows people only come down here to be with the person they like.”

You stay quiet.

She continues, “And I like you...I barely know you, but I've seen you. In class, you're always so observant and smart. And when you got nervous talking to me I realised that maybe you're like me - so I made my move. And I showed up late, which I'm sorry for, but I just...I like you a lot.”

“Do you really?” You smile softly, “Because I like you - a lot - but I don’t want to say anything in case this is some sick prank.”

Instead of responding, Kate holds the back of your head with her hand and pushes your lips together. It’s soft, unlike the last few guys you've kissed, Kate’s lips weren't chapped or picked at. They're smooth and taste like cherry lip gloss, which she undoubtably uses.

Kate pulls away, “I'm not interested in girls.”

You frown, “Then why are you kissing me? Didn't you just confess?”

Kate smiles, and tucks a loose strand of her behind her ear, “I did, and I like you. I’m not...interested in labelling myself. I’m giving you a warning, I’m not ready for this - for us - to be public. So, if you’re not interested in being a secret for however long...tell me now.”

Despite how often you've dreamt about walking down the hallway with Kate’s hand holding your own - you remember what it’s like to be afraid of judgement. So, you press one last kiss to her cheek, “I would love to be your secret.”

“You would?”

“Yes.”

#kate schmidt #fear street #deena johnson #Sarah fier #sam fraser #sam x deena #Kate x reader #simon kalivoda #nick goode #Ziggy berman #Cindy berman #alice fear street

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bairnsidhe · 2 years

Text

"Harold, They're Lesbians: Visual Cryptography in Vintage Cover Art"

I got one of my hyperfocuses pinged, so now everyone gets to experience my TED talk:

In the 1940's a LOT of pulp books were Queer As Shit. Mostly my focus on the coding of Queer Pulps is on Lesbians, but they also did this for guys. Please bear with my femme-focused discussion here.

Anyways, prior to the Hays Code (1938) a lot of these books had obviously romantic cover art and happy endings for our lovely same-sex couples, but the Hays Code and it's industry-imposed restrictions on queer media meant that they couldn't be so blatant. (This also meant you weren't actually supposed to read the last chapter, which has the Gays end up unalived, insane, or "turning straight" to preserve the rule that queer characters can't be rewarded for their non cis-het actions.) The cover artists, however, decided that was some BS and built a set of visual cues to tell you there were, in fact, Lesbians In This Book.

The codes were designed so that a number of different elements could be combined in several ways (maximize that creativity) while being very clear. One big one was the presence of two women with different hair colors. The brunettes and occasional redheads were usually in jewel tones or black while the blonde was often in pastels or bright shades. Often one woman would be looking at her partner, while the other looked in another direction, but sometimes they were making eye contact. This was both for visual contrast and dynamics, and to establish that they were Lesbians. (Please enjoy this instance of the rare Brunette in Pastel! I think she got to wear sage due to the Redhead wearing black.)

Fun fact, if one of them was wearing pants it's probably the brunette because the brunette character was almost always the top, sexually, and that's a lot of what pants wearing indicated. This was also indicated by the brunette sitting on a chair or a bed while the blonde sat on the floor, by standing on stairs with the blonde standing below her on the actual floor, or anything else that put the brunette in a visually dominant position. You did get some exceptions, but it was a general guide.

Sometimes, one of the two women would have a cigarette or a glass of alcohol. These were "masculine" vices, and a woman engaging in them was seen as queer in and of itself, but also established who in the relationship was the "man" (yes, I know that's reductive and toxic, but the stories were pulps, roll with it) and, again, it was usually the brunette. If they both had a "masculine vice", the brunette was usually smoking and the blonde had alcohol because apparently cigarettes are the Most Masc.

During and right after WWII, our ladies being in military uniform - without a man in the frame - was a pretty good sign that it would be an Action Lesbian Story where our lovely ladies kick some Nazi ass together in between falling in love.

You could also get a solo lesbian on a cover! Yes, even absent a partner to look lovingly at, a cover character could still be coded as a lesbian! Sometimes they did this by directing her gaze away from the reader while wearing almost no clothes, but this was a later development (I'm not sure but I think mid to late 50s?)

I'm running out of room for this one, I'll continue in a bit!

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youranxiousnerd · 3 years

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The Transformation Thoughts

bc hsmtmts said gay rights

spoilers below

yesss seb doing the recap

wait did seb just say he was crying?!?! give him a hug

cow baby!!!

wow miss jenn and seb having a civil conversation

Natalie is back!!

ej and ricky with the mask

kourtney’s outfit!!!

ashlyn’s outfit...

ahh so the awards and the show are separate, good, that’s how it works

RICKY’S SHIRT!?!?!?!

i love it

ricky is lgbt do not try to convince me otherwise

ASHLYN IS SINGING IT IS BEAUTIFUL

like pop off

ricky and the mask

that mask is the true villain in season 2

“Belle, I-” flops

Ashlyn is carrying the scene, she is such a good Belle

how is ricky allowed on stage oh my god

the cap

that damn mask

“It’s okay, it was just my face”

Miss Jenn is hanging on by a thread

finally some ashlyn and ricky content

“Which they will” buddy have you faced the music? Have you seen Ricky?

“I think I might have been playing Troy at one point”

Miss Jenn needs help from someone who isn’t a teenager

“Mother is freaking out” High school theater at it’s finest

“There is math involved”

“OH”

sassy seb

i can’t with east high’s tech crew, what are you doing?!?!

and why are the actors figuring out the tech stuff?!? i’m sure kourt, big red, ashlyn (she knows all), and seb (he lives on a farm) know what to do.

the crew cannot be that bad

btw here are my thoughts on this scene

guys it is ashlyn’s house not yours

portwell shoulder bump

ASHLYN I LOVE YOU

OH SO NOW YOU HAVE DRILLS

WHERE WERE THEY WHEN THE TECHIES STARTED USING GLUE ON PLYWOOD!?!?!?!

I WANT ANSWERS

i. cannot. with. this. show.

lily wtf

“is this too weird” yes

like why?

lily like actually shut up

big red’s “wtf”

let her be evil damnit

“i’m just not well liked here” i wonder why

that was really weird, anyways

“he gets weird around tools”

me too

no give big red the drill he knows how to use it

someone write a fic about the girls and seb’s chaotic target run

why don’t you have a blackout and dramatic music and lights for the transformation, i know it isn’t award level but if done right it can be pretty dope

“I don’t know if my parents will be okay with me being at a co-ed sleepover”

“Chip, this is your mother speaking, go call your mother”

HE DID THE FINGER GUNS

GAY TABLE SIT AND FINGER GUNS THEY DID THEIR RESEARCH

ashlyn’s bucket

CARLOS GAY TABLE SIT

OH MY GOD

they’re so gay soulmates

let big red have his skateboards

“i need to talk to seb at some point but it can wait” honey no it can’t wait seb is on the verge of a breakdown

wait they havent talked in a week

Im a hypocrite ive been dancing around someone for three years

“You’re still at school”

“I’m worried about my children” “She means us”

such a high school theater thing (like i got married during high school theater, we had a family tree)

“ah, Sebby”

“Now I’m pretty sad” give him a hug

the girls ship seblos

“But, I guess he has to be, out of default, right... there’s not a lot of choices for a boy like Carlos, here, at East.”

alright here come the tears

why...why couldn’t he say “gay” or “queer” or “lgbt”?!?!

“Not so good at saying the feelings part out loud”

shiz that hit close to home.

Seb is just making me cry today, isn’t he?

wait so we’re just going to change the subject? coming from a queer person, opening up about your problems about your sexuality is hard. like, there are things that happened years ago im just telling people.

“You’re my sister, he’s my cousin”

it seems everyone except nina knows about the chocolates. imagine gossip time when gina told people write a fic

Nini just stop talking. It wasn’t a big deal, simple mistake. Not everything has to be big and dramatic

and wasn’t she just asking about Gina and Ej?

Nini for the love of god it is not something to read into.

“The farmer type”

Ash and Red exchanging gossip

wait... why are they texting about this?

“Why wouldn’t he say something to me?” It’s a hard conversation to have. “hey are we together just because i’m your only option?”

“Okay, pretty boy” HE CALLED HIM PRETTY BOY

RICKY!!!!!!!!!!

!!!

carlos and gina chaotic siblings

give ej a hug

“Sweet boy”

im so glad the guys are talking about their feelings.

Why a sleepover? It’s more of a hangout.

“Verging on failure”

jennzara therapy

slowwww burn

you go from hand holding to fist bump

disney please release an acoustic version of “let you go”

so it’s just carlos and ricky chillin’ at big red’s house?

do not play let you go for nini

do. not.

“You guys are a hallmark movie”

for once ricky is being smart

“the look on your face when you were talking about Seb tonight” smiles

he is so whipped

“I think you and Seb have something worth fighting for...bro”

that was so sweet and then there is bro

i love this show

“Sorry, I’m adjusting to being called bro”

him and seb being awkward about feelings... that is a high school relationship

i love ricky in this scene

“Yeah, let’s just write”

ASHLYN CALLED BIG RED BABE AWWWWW

nina shut the actual hell up

“It’s in the costume shop, somewhere” mood

“Thank you, 15″ THEY SAID THE THING

GAHHHH

I LOVE IT

howie and kourtney oh my god what is happening

“and begging”

“hi” he’s so nervous oh my lord.

he is so awkward around seb

it’s like a switch

“Do you want to get risotto with me sometime” OH MY GOD THATS ADORABLE

GINA BABY HE LIKES YOU

GINA HONEY!!!

AWWW THAT WAS ADORABLE

PORTWELL YESSSS

gina’s little run

“Am I in trouble?”

they’re so nervous

oh my god its time

“You keep it all bottled up” GUYS I CANT ARGGGG

can ricky just like, go behind a curtain?

“lookin’ for our kind of love” carlos basically just said “i love you”

seb is so whipped like look at him?

they’re so in love

seb’s little eye role at “in a heartbeat, i choose you”

the hands omfg

oh my god they’re going to dance

SHIZ THE HOMECOMING SUITS

I WAS RIGHT

OH MY GOD

SHIT GUYS IM DYING

gah the hands i cant

carlos is leading i love it

the tie

a tie just killed me

im combusting

You’re honor, they’re in love

i really thought carlos was going in for a kiss he is probably getting one later

i like how the dance isn’t big, it’s small and a little awkward bc right then it’s just them.

THEYRE SO IN LOVE HOLY SHIT

damnit big red

big red is legally required to interrupt almost kiss moments especially if it’s an lgbt kiss bc we cant have two in one season

in a heartbeat is so cute. Frankie showed UP this season with the vocals. there is no way that was all acting bc they looked so in love.

I...I love it

the lyrics are perfect

In a Heartbeat and Let You Go are probably the best OG songs of the season

“Siri, add In a Heartbeat to my gay sob playlist”

these boys are just serenading each other left and right

“Yeah”

so it’s just “yeah”!?!? That’s it!?!?! Seb could have least kissed him on the cheek or did they use all their kisses?

I love the song and love the scene, but there is so much more to discuss. Are we going to brush over the fact that Seb literally had an allergic reaction and didn’t get help because he didn’t want to disappoint Carlos!?!? Are we going to brush over “no, seb” and seb feeling like he has to get carlos big things!?! One “yeah” doesn’t erase all that. I’m hoping we get closure, proper closure, not a joke.

In conclusion, only one thing was settled (Carlos loves Seb for Seb, not because he is the only out guy in school).

“Seb and Carlos suffer their first fight” effing liars

BTW it looks like they filmed the dance scene with the homecoming suits and normal outfits so disney release the footage

Ricky is the biggest Seblos shipper

“Bro”

you morons. are you using rigging without an adult there?!?!

im pretty sure that isn’t allowed. only trained people were allowed to use the rigging. it should be Natalie since she did it in HSM

you should have gotten mats are something or stand in a circle

gahhh

RICKY

OH MY FRICKING GOD

NO ONE RAN THEY JUST WATCHED WTF

WTF WAS THAT ENDING

UMMMMM NO

i legit have no words oh my god

they just killed the lead

you guys saw the rope you should have ran

you should have gotten mats or blankets or something just in case

rigging is difficult, set rigging and people rigging

EAST HIGH WTF

Looks like the sleepover is going to be in the ER

My gay heart is full but my theater heart is screaming. The episode went by really fast. I liked it, like a lot.

To answer the question, no, I am not okay @organic-guacamole and we will have a theater kid sleepover

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shelobussy · 3 years

Note

I know you talk abou st*cky in the interracial ships stuff, but can we talk about st*ny? Iron husbands is literally right there, but I also always sees Rhodey as Tonys moral support only. And ik Tony is very shippable with most characters, but the fact his ship is Rhodey is one of the lowest ships in ao3 (ironstrange, winteriron and god forbid stark*r all had more fics in ao3).. It's pretty telling this side also has racism problems...

I'll go ahead and answer this here, but letting y'all know that I do have a marvel sideblog if you want to hit me up there (@themarvelarchives).

Hey, I'm going to ramble for a good minute.

So after I posted my very incoherent, controversial take on St*cky vs SamBucky, there were a ton of ppl who came onto anon saying that St*cky shippers were racist. I think I only answered a few, but y'all were pretty insistent on it. I personally have not observed that St*cky shippers are so I'm not calling anyone out on that side of the fandom for that.

I also did not call out anyone on this side of the fandom bc that's not what my meta was about. I think I mentioned maybe once or twice in the whole post that there was underlying racist in the fandom, but since you asked, we can talk about it here.

Covert Bigotry In Fandom Spaces.

To understand what's going on in the MCU, we have to first look at what I call "woke-queer" fandom.

So "Woke-Queer" Spaces is the phenomenon where certain fandom members like to call ppl out on their bigotry, while covertly harboring their own queerphobia/racism/etc. An example of this that we're all familiar with is TERFS and how they like to claim that they are progressive and woke, while also claiming that trans women are fake and trans men are sexist.

How this translates to fandom, however, is the hypocrisy that is cancellation and callout culture.

For example, Supernatural in particular is a fandom that likes to call out the writers on their homophobia and racism, and yet, somehow, the fandom is chalk full of homophobia and racism. If you want to read more about this, here is a truly excellent article from the perspective of a queer woman of color.

Moving on, I've also talked in a previous meta post, on the internalized acephobia that exploded in 2019 after Good Omens was released. Rather than reiterate everything I said in that post, I'll just leave it at this: the controversy in the Good Omens fandom can be summed up by the fact that queer audiences are claiming that Ineffable Husbands is the wrong kind of queer. The hypocrisy oozes off the screen, doesn't it?

A final way this viably translates to fandom, is in how the Doctor Who fandom evolved over time.

So Steven Moffat takes over as head writer and showrunner in 2010. It's a new series, a new Doctor, a new Tardis, and new branding. He steps up the action, changes the color grating, and raises the stakes. Women are sexier, the Doctor is smarter (and more of an asshole, but that's another meta post), and every companion comes with their own impossible mystery that makes them Special™.

Series 5-10 got tons of woke points for having lesbian characters, an episode where the Doctor is homoerotic with James Corden, and an underlying trans narrative with the Master's reincarnation. What a lot of people forget, however, is that his series was incredibly sexiest, incredibly lesbian/biphobic, and basically turned the Doctor into everyone's fantasy sex-object.

This, unfortunately, brought out the worst of the fandom. There was RTD Era vs Moffat Era wars exploding in certain corners, TenxRose shippers vs ElevenxRiver shippers.

What does this have to do with covert racism in fandom cultures though?

Hnnngng ok, so back in RTD era's we get Martha Jones, the Actual Best Companion On The Entire Show. Except for the fact, of course, that she is written to be in love with the doctor. She's a brilliant character--smart, sassy, flawed, funny, flirtatious--and her entire plotline is reduced down to a school-girl crush on a white man.

She doesn't do well with fans, they scrap her after one season.

We move on to Donna Noble (The Other Actual Best Companion On The Entire Show) and RTD's era ends with them scraping her too and regenerating David Tennant's Doctor.

It will be five more series (not seasons, SERIES) until Doctor Who will have another black companion--who gets extra points for being gay--only to fall victim to "bury your gays" at the end of the season (but not really bc no one stays dead on Doctor Who).

The fandom's reception of Martha Jones was historically bad. The comparisons to her predecessor, Rose Tyler, were rampant and everyone was finding a reason to hate her.

The fandom's reception to Bill Potts was also historically bad, as everyone was screaming that she was being written for more "woke points" and that they wanted Clara back.

Fandom has a historically bad reputation of being problematic and, I would argue, the majority of it has to do with these toxic undertones of bigotry that slip under the radar. "Woke-queer" spaces, as I call them, are these instances above where spaces that claim to be inclusive of gender/orientation/race are covertly bigoted.

Marvel and Cancelling

Now is an excellent time to talk about the MCU.

Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson) has recently come under a lot of criticism from fandom members for shutting down shipper speculation.

"The idea of two guys being friends and loving each other in 2021 is a problem because of the exploitation of homosexuality. [...] something as pure and beautiful as homosexuality has been exploited by people who are trying to rationalize themselves."

I can't find the rest of the quote, but Mackie goes on further to say that it was important to him to portray "a sensitive, masculine figure" without insinuating that there was romance involved.

Woke culture lost it's shit. Everyone was suddenly claiming that Mackie was calling them exploitative for shipping a gay ship as a queer audience, which could not have been further from the case.

Mackie actually makes some very excellent points in that sensitivity is not gay/queer. Woke culture loves to rag on Toxic Masculinity, but the minute someone plays a character who is loving and sensitive with no queer narrative in mind, they are immediately canceled.

What Am I On About

Okay, let's actually address what your ask was about, Nonnie. You pointed out--rather truthfully--that it is unfair to call-out racism on one side of the fandom, while ignoring it on the other side.

Well, I've gone back through my St*cky vs. SamBucky analysis (which is incoherent at best, I apologize for that) and I see maybe once instance where I called out fandom members for being racist. Here's what I had to say about racism:

"[...] Iron Husbands is a rarepair, probably because it’s an interracial ship."

"[there is] nothing wrong with shipping two white men, but it does become a problem when you ignore/bash POC/interracial ships to the determinant of your own white ship."

And then there was the post you brought up where I addressed interracial ships in the fandom. That one is probably more relevant to this topic, to be honest, as I actually addressed fandom racism there. I assume that your reason for bringing up Stony is because it's a ship that is more relevant to my side of the fandom, HOWEVER, the reason I highlighted Stucky instead was because I was comparing the fact that they've both been around the same amount of time and are relationships that feature the protagonist and their best friend.

You brought up St*ny in the ask, however, so I'm going to talk about St*ny for a minute.

As someone who never has nor will ship St*ny, it never even occurred to me that some of the problem behind the Iron Husbands tag being so small is because everyone ships the white, boring ship. You brought up a very valid point, but because I was never in that part of the fandom, I can't really speak to any possible underlying racism there, besides what I've already said above.

I would be interested in hearing a St*ony shipper or ex-St*ony shippers thought on this, but sadly I don't know any. If you have any more thoughts regarding this, Nonnie, pls drop back into my inbox.

You do make some excellent points in this ask though, and I would like to talk about racism on my side of the fandom.

So back to Mackie and his Twitter cancellation. Notice that Disney made him address the rumors and not his co-star, Sebastian Stan. Anthony Mackie is put on blast and made to answer fan demands and receives backlash, while Sebastian Stan gets to fly under the rader. This is not, by the way, a criticism of Stan, but instead of the blatant racism Disney has been displaying over the past few years.

How this ties in with the rest of my post has to do with my "woke-queer" spaces bit. The outcry across the MCU fandom over Mackie was swift and unforgiving. He was cancelled on charges of homophobia and bigotry--all the while these same fans turn a blind eye to any queer interpretation of other interracial ships and discourse in their own fandom.

The racism that I'm speaking about, of course, is an almost passive racism. Of course if you don't ship a specific ship for reasons other than their race, it's perfectly fine. It's okay not to ship Iron Husbands or SamBucky or any other interracial fandom ships. However, the distinct lack of shippers in the fandom IS telling because there are people who would ship that exact ship if not for the fact that one of men is black.

I don't have much more to say about this except to thank you for bringing it up and for listening to my long rambling post.

(Feel free to bug me about Tony Stark, MCU ships, MCU Meta and anything you want to talk me about on this blog and @themarvelarchives.)

#this got long sorry #iron husbands #sambucky #james rhodes #tony stark #sam wilson #anthony mackie #doctor who #moffat critical #my meta #ash does meta #ash does fandom #marvel #mcu #fandom critical #fandom criticism #long post

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carbootsoul · 4 years

Text

anyway no one asked but: yue joins the gaang instead of becoming the moon at the end of season 1 hcs!!

- instead of giving up her life to replace tui as the moon spirit, she gives up tui’s blessing to give them the final burst of strength to escape from zhao. basically yue gives up her blue eyes, pale hair, and waterbending. she never (?) waterbends on the show, and the loss of her bending isn’t too devestating to her.

- also sokka gets a friend who can’t bend either... he deserves it.

- when the gaang leaves after the battle is over, yue decides to come with them and it’s a HUGE thing with her father and begins her main character arc, which is about whether her responsibility to her tribe and the preservation of their culture is more important than her paving her own way and also how those two things can coexist!

- she leaves her betrothal necklace on her bedside table and the last shot of the episode is just of it, lying there.

- this got rly long so there’s more under the cut

- her traveling clothes are a thing shawl and a tunic similar to sokka’s with pants. she keeps her usual haircut but it’s tied with leather instead of the fancy hair things she used as princess. also she uses a hunting knife as a weapon

- she and sokka continue their weird not-dating-but-kind-of-dating dance for a lot of episodes and it’s generally awkward and easy comic relief. also more shots of yue blushing because she’s just so cuteeee

- there’s a scene of them stargazing where yue tells sokka the story of a pair of lovers who died and then remained best friends in all their future lives (because avatar friendships enduring through lifetimes and also friendship being just as important as romantic relationships)

- yue becomes friends with EVERYONE they meet IMMEDIATELY and everyone falls in love with her because she’s sweet and pretty and has a nice laugh.

- there’s a filler episode that’s just sokka and yue going shopping together and trying on lots of jewlery but the running gag is that yue keeps getting distracted with talking to other people and definitely flirting with every girl she runs into and sokka is always distracted with a pair of earrings or a set of rings and doesn’t notice. finally some random guy is like ‘man your girlfriend has been flirting with my sister this whole time... are you aware.” and sokka is immeditaly like ShE’s NoT mY GiRLfRiEnD and then like wait what

- so maybe yue is a lesbian. sokka is very distressed that he’s been trying to court someone who’s not interested so he talks with katara while she’s sewing or something and he’s like is yue gay?? and katara is like oh i don’t know. lots of people we know are queer. sokka: WHO??? katara: well, zuko. suki. sokka: ZUKO??? SUKI??? and this is when katara realizes her brother’s gaydar is nonexistent.

- yue tries being a vegetarian (to be nice to aang) but thinks nuts are gross so she and sokka go on hunting trips together. she’s Very Good at archery.

- also the episode where they watch toph wrestle?? she and sokka are SO on her side. it made me angry in the show that sokka wasn’t on her side but yue would convince him very quickly and they are very loud together.

- she also stays to talk to toph on the estate because she doesn’t look as suspect as the rest of the gaang so the guards don’t kick her out immediately (read: she’s good at conforming to elitist ideas of how people r meant to act and passes the rich kid test). she and toph sit in the garden and watch the moon (because the moon symbolizes yue’s perceived failure to sacrifice herself to save her tribe) and talk about how sometimes to live as yourself you have to skirt your responsibilities to your family. yue leaves a few hours later firmly friends with toph.

- she continues to be the one firmly on toph’s side in the toph/katara disputes that are in the first few episodes with toph. katara can’t hold it against her though because literally who could hold a grudge against yue she’s so incredible

- (ok we’re skipping a lot of time here bc i frankly do not remember everything that happened in book 2) her ba sing se tale is her uhhh going to the market to buy herself an iced tea because she’s gay and just having a good time being a no one. a girl she runs into at the cafe asks her to go on a walk around the city with her and it’s very sweet but yue does Not know this is a date so when the girl gives her a kiss she gets blushy and says something dumb

- also at the end of another episode we have a short scene of yue on the roof of their house in the upper ring, staring at the moon and touching the place on her neck where her betrothal necklace isn’t. then the camera switches to zuko, on the other side of the city, looking at the same moon and absently running his fingers through his hair where his topknot used to be

- yue and jet hate each other but yue still advocates for him because she sees how he’s been hurt and thinks that he deserves a second chance. i don’t know the funeral traditions for any of the nations but she does a quick northern water tribe blessing over his body before they run away.

- yue and mai are like.. yes we r gay..... yes we do flirt with each other while fighting sometimes.... yes we r the two knife fighters.. yes we are ALSO narrative foils

- yue looks SO GOOD in fire nation clothes but she keeps her usual hairdo because she deserves it. the fire nation propaganda makes her very angry, as does the institutionalized homophobia. she starts arguing with some guy over it and katara is ready to back her up and start fucking screaming and get arrested and sokka is like.. now. now is when i should talk to her.

- he drags her away and she’s like fuck dude i can fight my own battles and he’s like no i just.. what you were talking about.... i have something i need to tell you..... and she’s like you’re bi!! good for you, sokka, thank you for telling me. and he’s like :bi shock: no?? you’re a lesbian. anyway yes she is a lesbian they are wlw mlm solidarity.

- there’s a filler episode where toph and yue rob a bunch of fire nation soldiers and when they get caught (after a While of these robberies) they get out of it by playing the ‘dumb rich kids’ card and run away with jewelry like.. dripping off their hands. katara makes them sell all of it except a choker necklace yue keeps that looks like a betrothal necklace but instead has an etching of a bird flying away.

- skipping again bc this is getting rly long. when zuko joins the gaang he and yue have a tentative conversation about their relationships to their nations and he’s like.. idk sounds like you needed to leave? that wasn’t an environment that you can thrive in. and she’s like but i can change it! i need to be there to change it, and i left. and he’s like well no. some things are just toxic. i went back to my nation and it was terrible. and she’s like i have a responsibility to my PEOPLE and gets mad at him and she and katara r like angry at zuko team.

- yue’s life changing field trip with zuko is just them leaving on appa to go to a market and be normal teenagers. they both viewed each other as Fire Prince and Water Tribe Princess, but this lets them open up and realize concretely that that’s not all that they are.

- zuko apologizes for implying that the nwt was irreparable and explains that the fire palace wasn’t something he could fix and that trying just hurt him more. yue says that part of the reason she was angry with him was because he was right and that she felt so much more herself when she was away from her home. they finally reach the conclusion together that they have to become themselves before they can hope to change their cultures for the better.

- yue comes along to boiling rock but is v much background to zukka bromance. she hangs out with suki some (lots more yue blushing oc bc suki is BUFF) and does some dumb gay fighting with mai but they’re both bad at it because yue is busy mooning over suki and mai is busy protecting ty lee.

- ember island players still say she turned into the moon >:(

#yue #yueki #sokka #atla #yue atla #leo.txt #god this is so long #i just have a lot of thoughts and love yue SO MUCH #she deserves SO MUCH #anyway i hope u enjoyed my thoughts #there's probably enough here for an actual fic so like.. maybe someday

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lovecolibri · 3 years

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I was hoping Michael's recent growth would improve the next Malex interaction but we got two so far and both of them had him initially look all hopeful only to almost immediately try to bait Alex with some stupid line like 'I just want you to be a guy who gives damn' to push him to open up which of course won't work but will make Alex snap back at him defensively and this dynamic might as well have been copy-pasted from their very first scenes from the pilot. No wonder so many of us are frustrated. Kudos to Vlamis and his puppy dog heart eyes but I really need the show to let Michael use his words that he can apparently do now with everyone else except Alex. 'What are we doing, Alex?' is something that would have made sense for him to say in S1 but after 57 rejections in S2 it's honestly just weird. Alex telling him he would care a lot if Michael got hurt doesn't mean he's looking for something from him or doing the push/pull thing again. Malex has long been on Michael's terms now so suddenly reverting back to early S1 is confusing to me. I really thought the beginning of S3 would have Michael be able to talk about wanting Alex in his life even if he's with Forrest and the friendship/awkward tension of being possibly something more after Forrest's gone would follow but it's 3x07 now and there's no sign of that anywhere. It's getting to the point where them starting a relationship this season if the pacing remains wouldn't feel satisfying to me. But also I really don't think Vlamburn's excitement (especially from Tyler who's the only one who really understands how important good queer rep is no shade to Vlamis) means we're putting things off until S4. And they can't honestly expect to placate fans through another hiatus.

Yes to all of this! Reverting back to that season 1 dynamic where Michael looks hopeful, Alex says something mean, and Michael looks crushed is absolutely NOT IT after all this time, and especially after what went down in season 2. Malex is never going to feel satisfying if that isn't addressed between them, and trying to make the audience forget about Michael's behavior last year by making Alex be the mean one crushing Michael's hopes this season is a cycle I'm not interested in repeating. Mostly because Alex has every right to not think Michael wants anything more from him! Last season was all on Michael's terms like you said, so only giving us Michael's POV and making it look like Michael is hopeful and just waiting on Alex to make a move and putting it all on Alex to start things is ridiculous. But we also aren't getting Alex's POV, so there's not way to know what he's thinking or wants or where he stands with Michael. Is he still pissed about last season (but only at Michael, never at m*ria because we just can't have that. She's his "dream girl", haven't you heard? It's such a shame he's gay, because if he could, he'd pick her too. 🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🙄🙄🙄🙄)

Overall the lack of Malex interacting or talking about each other has been MORE than disappointing. Last season was a lot of misery porn for them, but at least they were in the same frame and we were getting to see them having feelings! Michael's may have had to disappear every time he wasn't in the Malex "bubble" because c*rina was The Worst, but still we got something. And I'm a little confused about the direction they are taking in season 3 because one of the big issues mentioned in reviews about season 2 was the absolute waste of that Vlamburn chemistry! Does this show even know how lucky they are?! As far as he has stated publicly, Vlamis is a straight man so they very easily could have ended up with lackluster chemistry or awkward physical contact scenes. But instead we got this absolute magic with Malex and they can't even be bothered to let them be in scenes together? And we've gotten the Vlamis glassy eyes a few times about Alex, but none of Alex's sad face so we are left speculating about what's even going on in Alex's head.

It's just really frustrating after that looooong hiatus during which they had plenty of time to go over the reviews from season 2 and address what didn't work and while they are doing good in some areas, the fact that they decided to put Malex back at the starting line of season 1 so they didn't have to address the m*luca mess is ridiculous. And on that note, this is NOT the m*ria d*luca show. I am SO BEYOND uninterested in seeing her take on Jones. There's zero indication she could handle what Isobel, Max, and Michael couldn't, especially since her mind is supposed to be deteriorating when she uses her "powers". Oh right, I forgot. She's "not like other girls". 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

#my sweet nonnie friends #roswell nm #season 3 spoilers #malex #anti maria deluca #anti miluca #i did not come here to watch the m*ria d*luca show #and any good will chris had at taking over for c*ria is long gone at this point #that ship sailed the moment i heard the d*ream g*rl line #but at this point it's getting ridiculous #wasting their powerhouse couple and main draw to the show with malex #and wasting their lead with jeanine by centering things around m*ria instead of her are choices i can't understand #especially given how wooden and one-dimensional m*rai is compared to what jeanine can give us with liz

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adhdeancas · 3 years

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for trans man!dean, him mcfuckin dipping to totally transition how he wants then posting up at a family reunion as his badass self with Sam proud of him? also cas comes as his plus one/emotional support/husband idk

mcfuckin love how you worded this. here you go, more trans dean for everyone. minor trigger warnings for a little bit of dysphoria and a little bit of transphobia

Dean didn’t tell anyone when he went away. He just left. Wasn’t anybody’s business, and it’s not like anybody cared enough to keep up with him.

Sam was too busy with school and work, Dad was too busy being a drunk asshole, and, well, there weren’t many other people who gave a shit in Dean’s life.

The only person he told was Bobby, and that’s because Bobby would’ve hunted his ass down just to kick it if he just stopped showing up at the garage.

Sam texted every few months, sure, but Dean always got by with vague answers. He didn’t tell Sam that he was having top surgery, or going on hormones, or shacking up with a hot former-priest in Canada. Nah, not important. After all, he’d told Sam he was a dude years ago. So he shouldn’t be too surprised. Right?

Except then he has to go to this stupid Winchester Family Reunion.

“Dean, it’s going to be okay. They love you,” Cas placated him for the thousandth time. He came over and fixed Dean’s tie, which Dean resolutely batted away. He was the one used to fixing Cas’s tie. He glared at his boyfriend.

“You don’t know them.” He said quickly. He stomped over and flopped down face first on the gross motel comforter they’d rented out halfway to Bobby’s. (Dean wanted to just power through, but Cas insisted on making a road trip out of it. He hadn’t been on many.) He let out a muffled moan out of frustration.

Cas rolled his eyes. “Well, that’s why we’re starting with Bobby. Baby steps, right?”

Dean sat back up and cringed at his boyfriend. “Yeah, baby steps for me and giant leaps for Bobby.” Cas smiled and sat on the edge of the bed. He looked like a freaking doctor visiting a patient, and it was so cute Dean wanted to end the conversation and pin him to the mattress instead.

“Bobby knows you’re trans, right?” he asked patiently

“Yeah.”

“Then it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise to him that you look a little different. I mean, it’s been two years.” Dean grinned at him. Cas had a way of making everything seem so manageable.

“Sure, just a little bit different. Two boobs lighter and a beard heavier.” He gave Cas a shit eating grin and looped a leg over him, sitting back on his heels.

Cas pursed his lips, running a hand over Dean’s stubble. “I don’t know, would we call this a beard?”

Dean growled at him and leaned in for a kiss. “Hey, asshole, aren’t there better things you could do with your mouth than talk?” Cas laughed and kissed him back.

“You make a good point.”

They left the motel room a little dirtier than they found it.

---------------------------------------------

Dean spent a full minute pacing back and forth behind an old clunker before he ran up to the front door and knocked. Cas eased up from where he’d been leaning against the Impala and joined his boyfriend where he was now awkwardly drumming against his thigh. “Do I look okay? Do I look-uh-” he faltered, not sure how he wanted to look. Did he want to look like a guy? Or enough like a chick to look like his old self, so Bobby would let him in?

“You look great.” Cas reached for his hand but Dean stole it away so he could turn around when he heard the door opening.

“...hello?” Bobby asked gruffly. Dean grinned and put his hands on his hips, then down at his sides when he realized he didn’t want to emphasize how wide his hips were.

“Hi, uh, Bobby. It’s… it’s Dean?”

Bobby did a double-take, and then Dean shifted uncomfortably. He knew he was looking for what Dean used to look like in how he looked now. He cleared his throat. Bobby blinked at him. “Well, shit, Dean. You- uh- you been working out, kid?”

Bobby pulled Dean into a bone-crushing hug, laughing. Dean pulled away with just a grin just as big. “Lil’ bit.” He said, blushing. “Oh, uh,” he stepped back and grabbed Cas’s hand, pulling him forward. “This is Cas. He’s- he’s my boyfriend.” Dean was absurdly more nervous to admit he liked guys (again) than he was for Bobby to see him post-op. Would Bobby still believe he was a guy if he was queer too?

“Shit, a boyfriend? What, you got a mortgage too, you hiding a kid under that jacket?” Bobby huffed and stalked into his house. Cas seemed a little taken aback by his gruffness, but Dean just grinned and squeezed his hand. This was a good sign. They followed him into the kitchen, where Bobby was making coffee and muttering, “What, go away for a couple years and come back a man?”

Dean beamed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dean took a deep breath, and Cas squeezed his hand. He pressed a kiss to Dean’s cheek. “You’ve got this, babe.” Dean nodded shakily. He could do this.

Surprisingly, he could do this. From the second he walked in the door, Dean took no shit. Most people didn’t give him more than a glance; they didn’t recognize either of the new men. Dean looked for Sam’s messy mop of hair and made a beeline as soon as he recognized it. Easy, when Sam towered over practically everyone.

“Sammy!” Dean poked his brother in the back. “How the hell are you?”

Sam turned around, his furrowed brows loosening into a look of pure surprise when he recognized his brother. Which of course he did. “Dean!” He hugged Dean, pulling away so he could look at him. “Holy shit, you- you got top surgery?”

Dean grinned. “You know what top surgery is?”

Sam looked offended. “I research.” Dean laughed and lifted up his shirt quickly to show his scars.

“Pretty cool, right?” Cas laughed at that and Sam turned his attention to the dark haired man standing behind his brother. “Oh yeah, I brought moral support.” He dragged Cas forward with a hand on the small of his back, and Cas thrust out his hand. “He’s a grad student too. I’m sure you nerds have a ton to gab about.”

Sam rolled his eyes and shook Cas’s hand. “Hey, man, nice to meet you. What’re you studying?”

Dean zoned out almost immediately, keeping a hand on Cas out of comfort. All around the room, his family didn’t recognize him. Usually he’d have people coming up to him, Aunts screeching “Deanna!” and talking about his weight or his outfit or his hair, he’d have uncles throwing him over their shoulders and talking about last time they’d seen him when he was a little girl. Now? Nothing. Clean slate. It felt like freedom. He was him, in front of his family. For once. Then Dad walked up to him.

“Sammy, who you got there? Thought you weren’t bringing a plus one.” John asked gruffly, suspiciously. Sam rolled his eyes.

“It’s Sam. And I told you, Jess couldn’t come, she’s got too much on her plate right now.” He reminded his dad quickly that he was dating a woman right now, fuck you very much.

“Yeah, sorry Dad, that’s my date.” Dean grinned and looped an arm low on Cas’s waist. He felt Cas look at him and he swore he heard him sniff. Motherfucker was checking for alcohol on his breath. He laughed and turned to give him a quick kiss, which surprised him even more. Confidence was a helluva thing.

John was frozen in place. One of his eyes was twitching like he was overloaded with information. Which, Dean guessed, he was.

“Dad, Cas, Cas, John,” Dean said, still grinning. Sam let out a snort from his other side. Cas extended his hand coolly. John stared at him as he returned the favor, turning Cas’s knuckles white with the force of his grip. “Oh and I’m Dean, by the way, in case you didn’t get the email.”

Dean extended his hand for his own handshake, and John took it equally slowly. “So you’re just going to show up like this, no warning or-”

“Yup.” Dean said happily. “Now I was promised burgers. Where are the fucking burgers?”

“What have you done to yourself?”

“Upgraded.” Dean shrugged and fixed his jacket.

“And you’re…” He looked at Cas.

“Into men.” Dean nodded. “And women. No offense, Cas, but women are just prettier.” Cas nodded sagely, and Dean offered Sam a fist to fistbump. Sam did it with a smirk. “Guess you got two queer sons, daddio.”

John made no move. “Burgers?”

“Over there.” Sam answered this time, pointing. Dean looked.

“Oh over by Grandpa Henry? Sweet. Thanks, Sammy. Wanna join?” He looped an arm around Sam’s shoulders before he could answer and dragged his two best guys toward the food.

“Dean, hey, I’m- I’m really proud of you.” Sam stopped him and put a hand on his chest, and Dean felt a warm feeling both due to his words and the fact that Sam could pat him on the chest now without it being weird. “I know you’ve had a rough time- I mean, with everybody, with caring what they think- I’m just really proud of you.”

Dean swallowed a lump in his throat. “Thanks, Sammy. That’s all I need.”

“Jerk.”

“Bitch.”

#trans dean #dean is trans #ftm dean #destiel #deancas #sam winchester #dean winchester #fanfic #my writing #anon #ask

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fangirlovestuff · 4 years

Text

Queer Eye - Chris Evans x bi!female!reader

a/n- Hey lovely people! Sorry if this has any mistakes, I really wanted to post it today and I didn’t have time to properly proofread it. buckle up, it’s a pretty long one :) Enjoy! <3

Summary: Your life is pretty entangled with the Evans brothers’. You and Scott get bored in quarantine and decide Chris needs a makeover - Queer eye style. The result? see for yourself...

Word count: ~6k

Warnings: language, very brief mentions of homophobia if you squint

Freshman Year

The halls looked daunting as you wandered them in search of room 105 for your first class of the day, clutching your book in hand. You knew that a new school meant new opportunities, new people, and you tried to get excited about it, you really did. The people in your last school… let's just say they weren't extremely accepting, which is part of the reason you moved. So, you were looking forward to a new start in the seemingly friendly Boston suburb.

Simultaneously, it was absolutely terrifying. From the start you've made a pact with yourself – no one should know you're bi. Your sexuality is none of their business. You couldn't risk this move because you wanted a girlfriend. Boys gotta be enough for now. You contorted your face as you passed a group of boys in the hall, trying to act "cool". Well, you hoped there were some less pretentious boys around here.

You looked at the doors to your right and left in an attempt to find the room you were looking for. 108,107,106—

You collided with someone and dropped your book. Of course, why wouldn't this happen, you thought, an exasperated sigh threatening to fall from your lips. You bent down to pick up your book, and your hand brushed the other hand that reached out to grab the book. You looked up to see a pair of pretty green-blue eyes staring back at you. You couldn't believe this cliché was actually happening to you. Right now. In real life. But hey, he was pretty cute, so there was that.

"I'm so sorry," the guy said, smiling awkwardly as you picked up your book.

"It's alright," you sent a tight-lipped smile his way. You both stood there for a couple of seconds until he finally spoke.

"I'm Scott, by the way," he smiled, "Sorry, again, for bumping into you. I haven’t seen you around, are you new here?"

"Are you saying you know everyone who goes to this school?" you shot back incredulously. "But yeah, I'm new here," you introduced yourself quickly.

"Well, nice to meet you. And to answer your question, I'm pretty sure I know everyone by their faces at least," Scott replied and you chuckled in response.

"Ummm… I was just on my way to 105 actually, so I should probably go. It was nice meeting you Scott," you smiled and you parted ways.

In the second period, you had chemistry lab, and you were early. You sat down at a desk, zoning out for a while before everyone came in. Scott was actually pretty cute, you realized. Maybe you two can have something. Just as you were thinking that Scott came into the class. Speaking of the devil.

He waved at you and came your way, putting his bag down and sitting down next to you. "I assume this seat isn’t taken," he smiled.

"Yeah." You laughed. "So, we're gonna be lab partners now?"

"Well, I figured as a way to pay you back for running into you I could offer my chemistry expertise," he smiled. "Just kidding, I kinda suck at chemistry. But I'd still love to be your lab partner, if you're okay with it," he added bashfully.

"Yeah, cool," you smiled at him and then silenced because the lesson was starting.

By lunch, it was clear you were already Scott's friend. You sat down with him, laughing about the disaster that was chemistry class a few hours ago.

"Honestly Scott, if you suck at chem so bad, why did you even take it?"

"I don't really know. It's just pretty much the only class that worked with the theatre schedule. Except for physics," he scrunched up his nose. "If you think me in chemistry was bad, wait till you see me trying to grapple with physics."

"I can confirm that's not a pleasant sight," said Scott's friend, who just sat down at the table. One by one, Scott's friends filled the table and he introduced all of you.

"So wait, you do theatre?" you asked Scott, intrigued.

"Yeah," Scott replied. "My big brother does it too, so honestly that's what got me into it, but it’s actually fun," he smiled. "Would you wanna join?"

"No thanks, not really the theatre person," you smiled back. "But maybe I'd come to a show sometimes."

Over lunch, you got to know Scott's friends, who became yours, and all in all - you were very glad you moved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sophomore Year

You and Scott's chemistry together paid off at the end. You entered your boyfriend's room and turned around to face him.

"What do you wanna watch?" Scott asked, going past you and plopping down on his bed, patting the spot next to him. You sat down next to him and cuddled into his side.

"Pick whatever you want babe," you smiled at him affectionately.

You were halfway into the movie when a pretty boring part came on. You looked at Scott to find him already staring at you. You and Scott were taking it slow, and you hadn't even kissed yet. You licked your lips. Scott reached his head and captured your lips in his. It was tentative and slow, and you parted from each other smiling. You looked into Scott's eyes. He seemed uncertain. Maybe it was just his first kiss altogether. You sent him a reassuring smile and reached to cup the side of his face. He smiled back at you; the movie long forgotten.

And at that moment exactly, his annoying older brother decided to barge into the room. Well, annoying may be a bit of a harsh judgment because even after a year of knowing Scott you didn't really know Chris. But right now, you were definitely annoyed. You removed your hand from Scott's face, who was blushing.

"Scott, did you remember it's your turn to—" Chris started and then noticed the embarrassed state you were both in. "Nevermind," he said awkwardly and left the room, closing the door after him.

"He doesn't know how to knock, does he?" you asked sarcastically.

"Guess not," Scott chuckled. You cuddled back into his side. You weren't gonna let that abrupt interruption ruin your date.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The End of Sophomore Year

Scott and you were hanging out on his couch, playing a board game when Chris came down the stairs in a hurry, his girlfriend right on his heels. "Ma, have you seen my jacket?"

He was going to his senior prom tonight. Honestly, you were kind of jealous – finally finishing high school seemed so far away from you, and here he was not really having to step foot in a school ever again. But it's not like you were having a terrible time at school; with Scott as your boyfriend and the many friends you had made, you were happy.

They finally left and the house was quiet once more after the bustle of sending Chris off to enjoy his prom. You and Scott continued with your date night, wondering what's it like at senior prom. Even though you were both only two years younger than Chris, he still seemed miles ahead of you.

Later that night you went into the kitchen to get yourself some water. When you entered you saw Chris sitting there alone, glooming. When he heard you come in, he hurriedly stood up and leaned his back against the near countertop.

"Hey," you said as you filled yourself a glass of water. "What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to go with-- "

"She dumped me." He cut you off before you could finish your sentence. Your eyebrows furrowed and you came to lean on the counter next to him.

"That sucks," you said softly. You didn't know what else to say, so you just stood there silently for a moment until he spoke up.

"It does. One moment we were talking about what we're gonna do after school and how I'm gonna be going to NYC to intern and the next she's telling me it won't work between us," Chris took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," you replied hesitantly. "But hey, think about it this way," you started talking dramatically, "when you'll be a famous actor and she'll come up to you asking for an autograph you could just ignore her. Or if she says she knows you you'll just say you've never met this woman in your life. The ultimate payback," you smiled at him.

"Yeah, I guess," he smiled back sadly.

"Also," you nudged his shoulder with yours, "I would never dump Scott on our prom night. That's a promise," you smiled.

"That's great," He chuckled. You quietly moved away from him, setting your glass back on the counter. "Thanks," he added suddenly.

"Sure," you sent him one last smile and left the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Senior prom

Lisa was taking pictures of you and Scott as you both posed with bright smiles on your faces.

"Alright, we gotta leave ma," Scott said and kissed her cheek.

"Have fun kids!" she told you as you hurriedly left in order to not be late.

You were having a great time at prom. You danced with your friends, with Scott. After a couple of hours, you were getting a little tired, so you pulled Scott aside.

"Come on, let's go get some air," you said as you pulled him outside.

Once you were outside you and Scott walked to the back of the building, where no one else was in sight. You both leaned against the wall and looked at the night sky above. You looked to find Scott already looking at you, and automatically leaned in to kiss him. You wrapped your arms around his neck and he put his around your waist as you deepened the kiss. It was getting more and more heated until—

"I can't do this," Scott said breathily and suddenly pulled away from you. Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he started pacing back and forth in front of you.

"Scott, what's going on?" you asked concerned.

He continued pacing. "I know what prom night could mean for some couples and—"

"I don't care about that," you cut him off, grabbing his arm so he'd stop walking. "Scott, it's okay. You know I would never wanna do anything we're not both ready for. It really—"

"But that's the thing!" he said, surprisingly loud. "That's the thing," he said once more, quieter this time. "I don't think I'm ever going to be ready for this. I-" he took a deep breath, "I'm gay."

A heavy silence settled between you for a few moments, and then he said, "I'm so sorry, I-"

"Don't ever apologize for being who you are," you put your hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes. You took a deep breath. "I guess I should tell you this as well- I'm bisexual." You smiled and he smiled back.

"I'm glad you told me," he said.

"So the entire time…" you trailed off, your smile fading from your face.

"I'm sorry," Scott said again. "At first I really thought I was feeling the way I should about you. But I realized that's not the case. I love you, so much. But not in the way I led you to believe I do. I had an entire speech but honestly, I forgot it." he smiled hesitantly.

"I love you too Scott," you smiled once more. "But I just need some time to figure it out."

"Of course. Whatever you want."

"Actually, let's get outta here. I could go for ice cream," you smiled.

"Yeah, sure," Scott smiled.

On the way there you remembered something important. "Oh, Scott, does this count as you breaking up with me or me with you?"

"Me with you, I guess. Why?" he looked over at you with a puzzled look.

"I promised Chris I won't dump you on prom night," you smiled and he laughed.

You needed time to figure out how you felt about Scott, but it was going to be okay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spring Break - Sophomore Year of College

"Scott!" you yelled as you marched up the stairs, two at a time. "We're gonna be late because of you!"

It was a bright Saturday morning and you'd just arrived at the Evan's residence a couple on minutes ago, saying a quick hello to everyone and then jumping up the stairs to get Scott. They were having a huge family barbeque for the birth of… well, you were pretty sure it was Scott's cousin's daughter, but you couldn't fully remember. Since you were on your spring break from college, they invited you to come with them, an invitation you gladly accepted.

At this point, you and Scott were best friends. It took a while to get over the whole "I dated you for like 2 years even though I don't like girls" thing, but you were out of high school and those events seemed far behind you. You didn't want to lose Scott – you loved him, just obviously not in a romantic way. Also, he had wonderful taste in guys, and if they were straight, he knew where to direct them, which was a definite bonus every time you went out together. All jokes aside, Scott was an amazing person and your best friend in the whole entire world, so you were basically a family member in the already big Evans family.

And that leads us back to today, with you knocking on Scott's door furiously. "Scott, seriously man, we gotta go!"

"I'm coming! Jeez, calm down," he said as he opened the door and gave you a quick hug.

"Hi," you smiled and hugged him back.

"Hey," he smiled back. "Come on, let's go."

Who has a barbeque on such a hot day? That was the first thought that came to mind when you all sat down on the grass of the large yard. The sun was shining high and bright, seeing as it was noon, and you haven't even been outside for two minutes but you've already started sweating.

However, you didn't regret coming at all. The food was great and the company was even better. You were in the middle of talking to Scott and some of his cousins when you heard a yelp from across the yard.

"We got you uncle Chris!" screamed two toddlers with water guns in their hands. You recognized them as the older brother and sister of the newborn you were here to celebrate.

Chris blinked the water away from his eyes for a few seconds. "You did," he smiled and said once the surprise had worn off. His white shirt was nearly transparent as a result of the "attack", and it clung to his torso nicely while he got up and put the plate he was holding aside.

Wait, backtrack for a sec – clung to him nicely? since when did you think about Chris' torso as nice? As a matter of fact, since when did you pay attention to Chris' torso at all?

Your eyes wandered over to Chris once more, skimming over his surprisingly toned muscles, and holy crap when did he start working out?

This was… an interesting change indeed. But hey, it's not like it's going to affect anything – he was your ex-boyfriend-who-turned-out-to-be-gay-and-is-now-your-best-friend's brother, so nothing was going to happen. You were quite sure this won't be a problem. Like 97% sure. If he started working out that's good for him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Present day

Your eyes were filled with tears as you reached for the bowl of popcorn that was resting on Scott's lap. The blinds were closed "for cinematic effect" and the light of the TV reflected on Scott's face. When you looked at him you saw he was in the same emotional state you were in, which is typical for a Queer Eye binge like the one that was in full swing right now. You and Scott were avid Queer Eye fans, and you thought quarantine was a good chance to re-watch it, together with the new season.

"Still doing that?" Chris barged into the living room after he took Dodger out for his afternoon walk. Chris watched it once, but couldn't understand why you and Scott enjoyed watching it again so much.

"Got anything better for us to do?" you quipped back as Dodger jumped on the sofa and curled down beside you. You stroked his head as Chris walked out, yelling, "Help me make dinner!"

After a moment Scott spoke. "We should probably go help him," he said, pausing the episode.

"Fine," you huffed.

"So, what are we making today?" you asked as Scott and you stepped into the kitchen. "Please be Lisa's pasta, please be Lisa's pasta…" you staged whispered.

"We literally had it two days ago," Scott pointed out. "Besides, none of us can make it as good as she does."

"I guess," you sighed. "So what are we doing?"

Chris, Scott, and you had agreed you would use the time on your hands in quarantine to learn to cook better. Honestly, between the three of you, you were probably the best cook, but you definitely needed some help as well.

"I found this pizza recipe online that I wanted to try," Chris explained as he started to pull the ingredients out of the cupboards.

"Well, pizza it is!" you announced as you put on an apron, and quickly the three of you started working.

You were all sitting around the dinner table, eating your pizzas, and making conversation with each other. That is until you got stuck with a silence that was… a bit uncomfortable. Being around each other all day every day certainly takes its toll on the range of your conversation topics.

"So," Scott spoke up after a few moments, "How was… your day?"

You all cringed at his question. You groaned. "Come on Scott, we're all adults. We can admit it – quarantine's boring as fuck."

"Yup," Chris agreed.

"Well what do you want me to do about it? It's not my fault we've been in lockdown for like, a year," Scott said defensively.

"It's literally been two months," you deadpanned, "but we should find something to do," you mused out loud. "Like, pick up a hobby or something."

"Oh, you mean other than sitting on the couch all day watching Queer Eye?" Chris quipped.

"I wish the fab 5 could come to our house right now," you sighed, "it would definitely make things more interesting around here."

"First of all, that's my house, I'm just letting you two crash cause I'm nice like that," Chris replied. "And second of all, the fab 5 help people who actually need it."

"You're letting us crash because it'd be boring without us," you stated matter-of-factly. "And I guess the straight guys of the world are indeed in a gloomier state than ours, aren’t they Scott?"

"They probably are," he agreed. "But aren't we forgetting the straight guy in the room?" he looks at Chris amusedly.

"Well, I guess he could use some help. You know Scott, we were just looking for a quarantine project, and we have a straight guy and two fabulous queers, which is better than none…" you trailed off and smirked.

"Huh," Scott smiled, "I like where you're going with this."

"I, for one, really don't like where this is going," Chris stated as he took his empty plate to the sink.

"So it's settled then," you smiled at Scott, "Chris is getting a makeover, Queer Eye style."

"No," Chris groans.

"Oh come on Chris," Scott said, "Don't pretend you're not also super bored. We get occupation and you get an awesome makeover, no one's bored anymore. Everyone wins!"

Chris's tongue darts out to wet his lips as he pretends to contemplate the suggestion. In actuality, he knows he's outnumbered.

"Fine," he rolls his eyes, "whatever makes you kids happy."

"We're two years younger than you, for Christ's sake!" you exclaimed. You turn to Scott. "So, I think we should start planning the Bobby section. I'd love to get some—"

"Nope, nope nopety nope," Chris pops the p's. "You are absolutely not touching my house."

"As much as I hate to admit it, we should probably leave his house alone," Scott said. "Besides, we're only two people anyway."

"Fine," you rolled your eyes and pouted a little for good measure. "We won't touch your house, Chris."

"Great," he smiles at your antics. "See ya in the morning."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day you barge into Chris' room unannounced. "Chris, you have to see this video of—"

Your words get stuck in your throat as you process the sight of a half-naked Chris in front of you, looking into his closet, presumably in search of a shirt. From where you're standing you can only see his back, and you can't help but appreciate the toned muscles.

Chris finally pulls out a blue t-shirt and puts it on. Unfortunately. "Video of what?" he asks.

You shake from your thoughts and turn to your phone in your hand. "These two dogs are…"

You explain and show Chris the video and he laughs while your thoughts are somewhere else completely. For the last nearly two decades, you've had a bit of a thing for Chris. It didn't really bother you most of the time. You've dated other people, and you didn't even see Chris that much. You were friends, even good ones, case in point – you felt very comfortable barging into his room whenever you felt like it. But your little celebrity crush was pretty much always in the back of your mind.

Now that you were living with Chris, ignoring your feelings proves a little more difficult.

"What are you two laughing about?" Scott entered the room.

"This video," you said and showed him.

"Alright," he smiled after he finished watching it. "We are officially starting…" he paused for dramatic effect, "Antoni day!"

You cheered while Chris looked puzzled. "He's the one who cooks, right?"

"Indeed he is, Chris," you said, "ten points to… whatever house you're on. Did you even read Harry Potter?"

"If I did, I surely don't remember it."

"That's just further proof you need our help," you said and he shrugged.

"So, I think we should pick three courses for Chris to make and he'll need to make them throughout the day," you suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Chris said and Scott agreed, "but what will you two be doing while I cook?" he asked.

"Planning the rest of the days of course," Scott said. "Also, taking Dodger on his walk, so you have nothing to worry about it," he smiled at Chris and raised his eyebrows.

"Dammit," Chris cursed under his breath, "You're really not letting me leave the kitchen until I finish cooking, are you?"

"Yep," you nodded and beamed.

You and Scott picked your 3 dishes: lasagna, fried chicken breast, and some cake.

"The point is that you learn things to actually embrace in real life, so we didn't over-complicate it," Scott explained to Chris.

You and Scott spent the day devising a plan for what else you wanted to do while Chris worked in the kitchen. So far nothing seemed to be on fire, so that was great.

For lunch you had the chicken, that was actually not that bad and for dinner, you had the lasagna and cake, which were actually pretty great.

"I think we can crown this day as a success," you said and Scott agreed.

"Now that we know you can cook, maybe you should do that more often," you smirked.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Chris retorted.

"Just wait, till the end of the week, you'll have some more confidence, a whole new look and like… what else do they help people find?" you mused. "A girlfriend! We should sign you up for Zoom speed-dating," you grinned and reached for your phone.

"Oh god, that sounds terrible," Chris chuckled. "Thankfully, I don't think that's a thing."

You lifted your eyes from your phone. "Pretty sure you're right, which is a shame. You got out of it for now," you smiled.

Little did you know, by the end of the week only one out of the three things you predicted was going to come true.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day you were sitting at the kitchen table with a hot cup of tea when Chris came down and into the kitchen.

"Good morning!" you cheerfully greeted and he hummed back in response, clearly still groggy. You ignored his attitude and continued talking. "Today is gonna be Jonathan day, so get ready soon because Scott and I are starting to go through your bathroom in about… ten minutes," you smirked.

"Wonderful," he sighed.

About half an hour later you and Scott were finally going through Chris's stuff in the bathroom that adjoins to his bedroom. Officially it was to see his grooming routine but unofficially you were both nosy.

"Oh my god Chris, do you ever tidy? I'm pretty sure there are expired plasters in here," you yelled to Chris who was sitting on his bed.

"Plasters don't have an expiration date," he replied.

"Yes, they do!" you yelled incredulously.

Evert few minutes you or Scott would show Chris something you thought he should throw away.

"Oh yeah I got that as a present and never threw it away"

"God, I have no idea when's the last time I used that"

"Someone recommended it"

"Oh, what's that?"

In short, Chris had plenty of excuses, but he had a ton of junk in his cabinets. It took the entire morning just to clear them up, and you were left with very few, mostly necessary things. You and Scott plopped down on Chris's bed next to Chris who was on his phone.

"This was supposed to be Queer Eye, not the Marie Kondo show," you nearly whined.

"Hey, you were the ones who wanted something to do," Chris shrugged.

Scott was the one to get up first. "Well, the day's not over yet. Let's go Chris, this is the part where I do whatever I want with your hair," he raised his brow.

"Whatever you want?" Chris asked, slightly alarmed yet amused.

"Whatever I want," Scott confirmed. "But don't worry, I won't do anything too extreme. Gotta keep you looking good for the Zoom speed dating," he chuckled and went into the bathroom.

"We already said that wasn't a thing!" Chris yelled after Scott and followed him into the bathroom with you in tow.

"What about me?" you said once you reached the bathroom. "Shouldn't I advise? As a member of the female species, a species that undoubtedly spends much more time looking at Chris than he does, I think I deserve to voice an opinion."

"Valid argument," Scott agreed. "I was planning to give him a buzzcut and maybe a shave. Opinions?"

"No! his hair looks way better long! And I don't think he really wants to shave but that's just me looking out for Chris," you patted Chris' head as you said the last part and he laughed.

After you and Scott argued for a bit you reached a compromise – the beard stays, the hair goes.

"Don't worry, it'll grow back," Chris comforted you sarcastically and patted your head. You rolled your eyes at him and left him and Scott to do the actual work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were enjoying the bright morning sun streaming through the window and humming along to the music from your earbuds as you checked your phone. You started dancing around, you singing getting stronger and stronger. "She's a killer, queeeeee—"

Chris came into your room and you stopped abruptly. "Morning Chris," you greeted, faking calm.

"Good morning to you too," he said with a shit-eating grin on his face that told you he saw you dancing around.

You swatted his arm. "And why are you barging into my room this lovely morning?"

"First of all, what goes around comes around," he chuckled. "Second of all, Scott wanted to tell you he wanted to do Karamo day on his own so you can do whatever you want."

"Okay," you frowned slightly. Initially, you and Scott had agreed to dedicate this day to search positive-but-not-too-positive comments about Chris to raise his morale, but plans change apparently. "Have fun then," you added.

"Thanks," Chris gave you a small smile and left the room.

Since you had the day to yourself you made the best of it. You spent the morning attending some work stuff, with some play intervals with Dodger of course. You decided you were gonna make lunch for all of you, so you went to Chris' room, where you assumed the boys were, to ask them what do they want.

"Come on Scott, stop being ridiculous," you heard Chris's voice from outside the closed door. "You know she doesn't feel that way about me, drop it."

You knocked on the door as if you weren't just standing there and eavesdropping. "Boys, I'm making lunch!" you called through the door, "anything you want?"

"Not really," they both replied.

"Well, I'm making grilled cheese, be down in ten!"

So, Chris had a crush. Good for him. But if Scott wanted this day to be about talking to Chris about his crush, you still didn't understand why that couldn't include you. Usually, you and Scott talked about boys together, and you often talked to him about girls. So as the one of you who actually likes girls, wouldn't it be more beneficial to have you there?

Well, whatever. Maybe it's an embarrassing crush or something, you thought and went on to prepare lunch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Good morning!" Scott barged into your room this time.

"God, do you people not get personal boundaries?" you groaned from your bed.

"This is the first time I've barged into your room probably in a month. And it's a special day," you could hear Scott's smirk in his words and you smiled as well.

"It's Tan day!" you both exclaimed and laughed.

"I've been waiting for this one," you laughed.

You got up and brushed your teeth quickly while Scott went to wake Chris up. You made your way to Chris' room to catch up to them.

You could hear them talking from the hallway. "Ready to face the music?" you heard Scott ask and came in.

"Don't scare him Scott," you said, amused, "it's just us watching the fashion show," you chuckled.

"Yeah, that," Chris said.

You all went to get some breakfast, where you explained to Chris what you were going to do today.

"So, since we can't exactly take you shopping, you're going to shop in Scott's closet," you said while you chewed on your cereal. "You guys are pretty much the same size, so that should work."

Alas, as it turned out, it did not work.

"Scott, if I move in this shirt my shoulders will definitely tear it," Chris complained as he stood uncomfortably in front of the mirror in Scott's room.

You and Scott were doubling over in laughter at how close the shirt looked to bursting and how uncomfortable Chris looked in it. But honestly, it was kinda hot. Broad shoulders and all. But also, very funny.

"Okay, new plan," you said once you finished laughing and Chris changed back into his own shirt. "You're gonna shop your own closet for new outfits."

You all went to Chris' room, where you and Scott immediately started to go through his clothes and putting together a few outfits. Chris tried each of them on. Some were ridiculous and the colors clashed, but some of them were offered seriously and were, as Chris said, "actually kinda nice."

After a few hours of this, you all got tired of it and plopped down on the bed.

"I have a challenge for you now," Chris said. "Each of you needs to put together an outfit from my closet."

"Easy peasy," Scott replied. You took a little more time to contemplate it, but then a red belt caught your eye and reminded you of a pair of red heels you owned. "Got it!" you exclaimed. You picked out the belt and a black dress shirt and went to your room to change.

You put on the shirt, which as you predicted was long enough to cover your butt, and buttoned it, leaving the few top buttons unbuttoned. You added the red belt to cinch in your waist, the red heels, and a gold bracelet, fixing your hair a bit to complete the outfit. Once you were satisfied with the result you went to show Chris and Scott the final product.

"So, did I do well?" you beamed and spun around to show off your success.

"Damn! You did great!" Scott said, always your hype man.

You winked at him in response and sent a questioning look to Chris, who stayed silent the entire time. He shook from his frozen state, "It's fine, I guess," he smiled wryly. You flashed a toothy grin back at him and went to get back into your normal clothes.

Sitting at the dinner table with Chris and Scott, you all talked about what you should do next when the thought hit you. "Wait, in Queer Eye they have, like, a big emotional moment at the end of the week where they showcase their development and everything they've learned and we didn't have one!" you said, cutting into something Chris was saying.

"Well, I think we should leave that up to Chris," Scott said and sent Chris a look. "I'm sure he can find an idea."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Chris shrugged and rolled his eyes at Scott.

Later that night you were all laying on the couch, your back against Scott's chest, watching Hamilton when Scott suddenly spoke up. "I'm really tired so I'm gonna go hit the sack," he pushed you away from his chest and got up from the couch. You looked at the clock and frowned; it was only 10 pm.

"Goodnight Scott," you said. He smiled and went upstairs.

You leaned back in your sit but since Scott wasn't there anymore your back was at a very awkward angle. Chris saw you and chuckled. You took your tongue out at him and straightened your back against the sofa. For the next couple of minutes, you twisted and turned trying to find a way for the couch to be as comfortable as Scott, but it just wasn't happening.

"You alright there?" Chris asked, clearly amused.

You huffed. "Scott was way more comfortable than this couch."

He laughed softly. "Well I'm not Scott but we could give it a try," he extended his open arms to you.

You didn't really think twice about it before you snuggled up against his back. He wrapped his arms around you and you were engulfed by his warmth, and suddenly you remembered that cuddling with someone you're trying to hide your crush from isn't the greatest idea.

"I know what Scott expected me to do for the end of the week, I'm just not sure how well it'll go," Chris said out of the blue.

"What is it?" you asked, intrigued.

"I could just do it right now and show you," Chris said and you nodded for him to continue, facing him in his arms.

He smiled hesitantly before closing the distance between you and capturing your lips with his own and cupping your cheek in his hand. You froze for a second until your instincts kicked back in and you kissed him back passionately, your hands wrapping around his neck while you, albeit awkwardly, turned to straddle his lap. When you two broke apart Chris spoke. "Scott thought I should ask the girl I like out," he said breathily. "So what do you say? Dinner when restaurants open again?" he smiled shyly.

"Yes, that sounds great. But I feel like this," you gestured at the TV, which was still playing, "has some date potential."

"I'll go get some ice cream," Chris said.

For the rest of the night, you had your living room date, having deep conversations about life and giggling and then shushing each other so Scott won't wake up.

And for the rest of your lives? That's a story for another time.

hope you enjoyed! i might repost this soon if i find enough mistakes in this lol

Chris Taglist: @swatson06 @horny-nd-bored @shannon124 @perfectlyharolds @phoebe-21-99 @wintersoldierslut @iceebabies @wanessalopesueiros @sleepingpapermouse @steverogerswasalwaysworthy @holtzkinnon @angelicl-y @stydia-4-ever @thatoneperson5000 @fangirlfree @kaitcordx25 @bequeening @steve-barry-damon-logan @itscrazycherryblossomcollection @hollandxmarvel @darkwitchfromthesouth

if you wanna join / be removed from the taglist, comment/message me! this is a taglist for Chris and his characters. much love <3

#chris evans x reader #chris evans #chris evans fluff #chris evans imagine #scott evans #scott evans x reader

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

Text

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Strings”

Happy Saturday, RWBY friends! I am, quite obviously, going to dive into the recap in just a moment, but first I wanted to take a short detour to discuss the elephant in the tumblr room. Namely, Supernatural.

For those of you out of the loop, the tl;dr is that a fifteen year, beloved show ended with a truly horrendous finale. Specifically, the finale rejected everything that the show had been building towards: the logical conclusion to character arcs, the theme that “family don’t end in blood,” the potential for a queer romantic relationship… I could go on. The point I want to make is that the fandom had every reason to believe we’d be getting these things. This isn’t a case of fans upset that the finale didn’t go the way they wanted as an individual viewer, but rather that the finale didn’t go the way the show clearly and explicitly said it would. It’s not an exaggeration to say that in many respects, viewers were straight up lied to.

(I recommend reading the reviews.)

What does this all have to do with RWBY? Well, I can’t help but think that history is repeating itself. Certainly there are some notable similarities between the two series. Both have long, meandering plotlines with no clear end in sight (though I hope RWBY doesn’t reach the 15 Volume mark…). Both began with a small, core cast, but quickly expanded—generating the expectation that these now equally important characters will be given their due. Both have moved from the small conflict of fighting everyday monsters to a god-based mythology. Both have a popular queer relationship dangled in front of the viewers, featuring scenes where they’re “obviously” in love… but will it ever be confirmed? Both have a fanbase that says loudly and confidently that the writers know what they’re doing. Just wait! It’s all been planned! We’ll be rewarded for our patience and soon all the naysayers will be proven wrong.

Thing is, the Supernatural fandom wasn’t rewarded. Right up until a week ago those fans—myself included—had faith that the writers knew what they were doing because they can’t really be that out of touch with their own story...right? It’s not possible. Yet they were, it was, and now that I’ve gotten solid proof of precisely how far a show can go to reject its own logic, themes, and premise, that just makes me more wary of RWBY’s mistakes. Before I had a solid faith that things couldn’t possibly get that bad, that no matter how much RWBY might be messing up in the short term, it will undoubtedly pull it together overall, because what show wouldn’t? Especially a show with such promise and, at times, wonderful storytelling. Well, Supernatural didn’t manage it and frankly I’m not sure what to do with that information.

Seriously. I don’t have any grand conclusion here. It’s not my intention to suggest that anyone should stop watching RWBY, or to claim that it will absolutely fail because Supernatural did. Obviously, we don’t know what will happen until we get to see it in the show. I only want to acknowledge these parallels and the similar journey I see both fanbases on. I can’t help but wonder if, a couple years from now, RWBY fans will be making incredibly optimistic posts about how it’s all coming together, just have some faith, everyone who says that the group won’t get a satisfying ending, or Blake and Yang won’t be confirmed are just mean trolls… only to wake up that Saturday morning and get another metaphorical slap in the face.

It’s something to think about.

But here I’ve spent a page talking about the wrong show. Let’s get into the episode!

We open on a black screen with lots of ambiguous noises. At first I thought this was Oscar struggling in the Hound’s grip or something, but then I remembered that RWBY likes to insert an episode between cliffhangers. I watched Ironwood (presumably) shoot a guy and he only came back this week (though that question still isn’t answered. At this point I kind of wonder if it will be). Oscar was kidnapped last week, which means we won’t get to see him until next week. Or… two weeks from now? RT skips the week of Thanksgiving, don’t they? Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Something horrible happens to Oscar and we need to wait two weeks to find out how it’s resolved.

Watch him escape the Hound off screen and return to the group with a new outfit 😂

So it’s not Oscar we hear, but Ruby, the last one coming out of the tube. Weiss is in the process of pulling Nora’s ear for that stunt… with a frankly strange looking hand. What’s up with RWBY animating weird hands lately? I’m pretty sure that’s not how anatomy works.

Anyway, Nora counters that this was a “Once in a lifetime experience,” but they were all going to go through the tubes regardless. Weiss isn’t pissed that you sent her through, she’s pissed that you did it unexpectedly when she was alone, heading into enemy territory. But of course, there’s no one in the room to hinder them, so the mistake is meaningless.

We’re setting the tone again though. For the first half of this episode everything is sunshine and giddy adventure, which doesn’t fit the situation at all. It also creates emotional whiplash when I’m suddenly supposed to be super worried about things later on. This sort of about-face works once in a blue moon, as an emotional punch, like we see in Mulan:

But RWBY does it every other episode, which makes the overall tone of the series confusing instead. Half the time RWBY feels like two different stories—the cartoony tale of girls going on fun adventures, and the traumatic tale of a fantasy war—that have been badly spliced together.

“Alight, Robo-Girl, which way?” May asks and Penny demonstrates why she’s the best for sneaking into a facility. She’s able to map out the whole place, including seeing where everyone is so they can avoid detection. Kudos to RT for going this route. I was worried that they would have Ruby and the others straight up attacking Atlas grunts, knocking them out/potentially even killing them because who cares, right? They’re the bad guys! So I’m glad they’re working to get in and out undetected. Granted, we see in some places that they’re clearly willing to fight the soldiers if it comes to that—they’re reaching for their weapons when Penny opens the final door, expecting the room to be full of people. They were going to attack—but at least they’re trying to lessen that conflict as much as possible. That’s the sort of choice I expect to see from heroes and I’m glad we got it here.

After scouting the area Penny corrects May: “And my name is Penny,” to which Ruby gives a satisfied “Heh.” I’ve got no problem with Penny rejecting nicknames, even potentially well-meaning ones, because she’s always struggled with her status as a real girl and her name is her own. She gets to decide what others call her. I do, however, have a problem with making the presumed trans character the one who is corrected. Granted yes, we haven’t gotten confirmation in the show that May is trans, but RT doesn’t get to cash in on that rep without likewise suffering the consequences for how the character is treated. You’re telling me that a trans woman is going to roll her eyes when someone asks her to use a specific name? Please give May flaws, yes, she’s a person, but out of all the millions of flaws across the human spectrum, this is the one we’re shown?

Not to mention Ruby’s continued attitude. It’s like, ‘Yeah, May. Stop being a horrible person who draws attention to the fact that Penny is a robot. I never did that.’ Except when Ruby first met her she didn’t know Penny was a robot. Just like she didn’t know Blake was a faunus—something we’re reminded of this episode. We might assume Ruby wouldn’t have ever made any missteps at the beginning of these relationships, but the fact remains that she got to know both girls before their minority status was ever revealed. Ruby loved them before she ever had to grapple with their differences.

Put in her place, May then demonstrates that she can make lots of people invisible, not just herself. That’s handy. She creates an invisibility bubble that reminds me of Harry’s invisibility cloak. In the sense that others might not be able to see you, but they can still hear and touch you, which makes sneaking around still pretty challenging.

No sooner have I thought that then two guards get into the elevator with them. The group keeps quiet as the duo discusses how no one can get close to Salem’s storm without “getting shocked right out of the air.” Interesting. And frankly one hell of a roadblock if the Hound escapes into the clouds. Oscar may be gone for a while if he doesn’t escape on his own... The woman also comments about how creepy it is that all the grimm are just hanging out, waiting. It’s “worse than if they’d attacked.”

No it’s not! RT, stop trying to implement the idea that Salem withholding her forces is some epically cool choice. She should have decimated everyone by now and the fact that she hasn’t just shows how transparent the problem is: you’ve created a villain that’s too powerful and now you don’t know what to do with her.

As the group sneaks out of the elevator Nora grins and presses all the buttons, which is, as expected, a dumb move. They’re supposed to be sneaking into this base. If they’re caught they’re going to be thrown in jail at best, killed at worst, but Nora wants to risk that for a practical joke? Again and again we see this insistence on incorporating comedy where it’s not only unnecessary, but actively interferes with other aspects of the scene.

Reaching a terminal, Penny inserts her finger and gains access via Pietro’s credentials. She’s really demonstrating this episode why she’s… pretty terrifying? I mean, Penny is an incredibly powerful fighter with a computer’s view of the world, access to everything in the most powerful Kingdom alongside its information, and she now has Maiden powers to boot. Which, I should add, it took her one fight to master (because remember, the heroes are now always as strong as they need to be to win…). Now that Watts is planning to hack her, I expect her to be an incredibly formidable enemy, just given the amount she could potentially do. I think Penny herself is too kind to exploit all that potential and as we’ll see via Pietro briefly taking control, she doesn’t always have the knowledge to use the tools at her disposal. But in the hands of someone like Watts? He’ll turn Penny into the ultimate weapon.

Access granted, they learn that they have to go “Right through central command!” Of course, Penny makes it sound like a fun game and the spy-movie music/cartoon lecture doesn’t help. Again, tone. It’s adorable! It just doesn’t fit sneaking into a military base with your lives on the line while Salem waits outside. That was a RWBY Chibi moment.

Penny explains—twice—that Ruby can use her semblance to fly them all through central command and it’s treated like a revelation. At first, I was pretty confused because Ruby has been dong this for ages? She carried Weiss in “Argus Limited” and Nora during the Geist fight. But upon close inspection, what Penny seems to have “figured out” is that Ruby can carry multiple people at once because the “mass doesn’t matter.” Okay. Not a contradiction then, though I think RT could have made it a little more clear that Ruby was shocked at the idea of carrying multiple people, not carrying someone at all.

What I do take issue with though is Ruby mastering this skill instantaneously. I mean, why is Ruby being forced to try this on the fly (pun not intended)—Penny has known the layout of the building since they made this plan. She knew they had to get past central control and that it would be packed with people. She’s obviously thought about Ruby’s semblance a great deal—and why is she succeeding? Give me a Volume 7 where Ruby actually trains in this technique, set up via Harriet’s comment early on about her semblance, and then she’s victorious here when it finally matters. Or give me Ruby assuming she can pull off this incredibly difficult skill only to fall out of her semblance halfway through, a roomful of Atlas personnel staring at them. Then what?

Not this.

This is a character who does everything perfectly on the first try without ever having to fail. Ruby is boring like this.

Crisis averted, we transfer to Ironwood who is… working with Watts.

What else is there to say? I’ve already laid out all the reasons why this is stupid and makes no sense. Others keep coming onto my posts to explain to me how Ironwood’s awful deeds up until now fully show his decent into villainy, conveniently ignoring the numerous limitations he was under and his choice to do what he thought was best for the world using inaccurate information. Ironwood was always a divisive character and many are happy to ignore the years’ worth of deconstruction done—a man who looks like the Evil Military General but actually isn’t—because they never liked him to begin with. Not liking him is fine, no one has to like any character, but I’m honestly shocked by the number of viewers who refuse to acknowledge how bad the writing is, even if it means defending a character they hate a teensy tiny bit (#SupernaturalVibes). As a friend put it, Ironwood now feels like a caricature of his former self, a Pure Evil Ironwood who appeared out of nowhere and is now here to stay. He shoots kids. He shoots unarmed civilians. He teams up with Salem’s men and tries to hack Penny. These are undeniably horrible acts, they’ve just been given to a character who never would have done them until RT randomly flipped the Evil switch.

The “RWBY” tag, alongside all the fluff moments of this episode, is now filled with posts encouraging Marrow to turn, yelling at the Ace Ops for being “bootlickers,” and capslock screaming at anyone who dared to speak up for Ironwood. It still sucks to have bad writing twisted into an attack on the fans and it’s going to continue to suck until at least the rest of Volume 8. I’d like to again remind everyone that Qrow teamed up with Tyrian a few episodes, yet because he’s again in Ruby’s graces, that was twisted into a ‘not that bad’ situation. The issue isn’t really that Ironwood is teaming up with one of Salem’s subordinates, but that he’s doing it to go against RWBYJNOR… the second a character teams up with Salem to get what Ruby wants (to not have her team in jail) then that’s totally fine… but that’s a wrinkle a lot of people are happy to ignore.

So yeah, Ironwood is an idiot now too. Like Qrow also was last Volume. He really thinks Watts isn’t going to betray him somehow? Although, I do wonder if the chance to ruin Pietro’s creation outweighs his loyalty to Salem, but the point is that Ironwood can’t be sure of that either. At least he’s smart enough to keep Watts under continuous guard. He puts his hand on Watts’ shoulders and goes, “I’d hate for us to have to try motivating you. Again.”

So he tortures people too now? Like I said, caricature. This was Ironwood and we were given no clear idea of where he disappeared to.

RIP a great character.

Watts notices though that Pietro has apparently accessed a secure area and alerts Ironwood to it. I laugh that the information is just ¡EMERGENCY! In large, red letters. Ironwood immediately makes an announcement for everyone to be on guard. It’s a level 3 lockdown — that won’t impede the group leaving via airship! — and they’re to use “lethal force” if necessary. Weiss is disgusted.

As much as I disagree with making Ironwood into a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy — he’s definitely wrong to be doing this — I also find myself rolling my eyes at reactions like that. Yes, Weiss. You attacked four operatives until they were knocked unconscious. Prevented an entire city from escaping Salem’s wrath, endangering them all. Now you’re breaking into the most classified room in the Kingdom to steal an equally qualified project and use it for your own means. There’s no reason why Ironwood would level his might against you. Is death still an extreme response? Yes. Should Weiss be acting like Ironwood is crazy for responding to them in an extreme manner? No. Her remark makes it sound like Ironwood is attacking her poor, innocent, defenseless team… not the team that’s been lying to him, betraying him, attacking him, and stealing from him. Not the team carrying deadly weapons into a facility to take what they want at any cost.

With their presence known, May wants to go grab an airship. That’s the series now.

Meanwhile, Penny insists that they can still complete their mission and we see Nora come up with some sort of plan.

Except, what plan was this?? What did she say to the group? ‘Hey, let’s wait around until some guy conveniently walks by with a full cup of coffee. Then we can trip him and the mug will fly alllll the way across this gap to land on a terminal, startling at least two workers. Except this guy will be hated by the whole room because he’s always messing things up—his coffee mug has been changed from #1 Dad to #1 Dud—so that this little mishap will create a ruckus that gets everyone involved, giving us the opportunity to slip by them all.’

Seriously, what? This kind of “plan” only works with someone like Clover, where we know he has a good luck semblance and thus all these unlikely pieces fall into place. I could absolutely buy Clover smiling smugly, working under the knowledge that he just has to wait around a few minutes and something will come along that works entirely in his favor. But Nora? How did she know any of this would happen? Obviously she couldn’t have, so what exactly was their intention if this coffee carrying, hated guy didn’t show up? RWBY, your contrived plots are showing.

I do, however, love the grimm Jaws poster. Jaws is an absolute favorite of mine, so seeing a reference to it in RWBY? A funny one at that? It almost makes up for how bad this episode is lol.

Because frankly I’m bored. The group sneaks around, criticizes May and Ironwood, briefly confuses me about Ruby’s semblance knowledge, and gets through tons of Atlas personnel in the stupidest way possible. I have to watch this guy running out of the room with coffee on his pants screaming, “WHHHYYY???” and he doesn’t notice the five girls standing right next to him. It’s silly. It’s boring. Luckily for RWBY, things are about to pick up in the second half.

After Ruby gets them upstairs and the final room is also conveniently devoid of people, Pietro takes control of Penny—including yellow possession eyes like Oscar has with Ozpin—and he...gets Amity started. That’s it. After a whole volume of ‘It’s not finished yet’ and ‘We barely have the resources’ and ‘Robyn stole what we were using to do idek what with’ he presses buttons for a while and they’re in. How good for them!

I do love that Penny calls Pietro “Dad” though. I’m here for the android-father relationship.

While Pietro works we turn to Blake, Weiss, and Nora. Blake tries to convince the audience that Ruby and Yang had an actual fight with, “I’ve never seen Yang and Ruby fight like this.” Yeah, because no one in this group has ever said the sliiiiightest thing against Ruby, so you all read the tinniest disagreement as a “fight” to be worried about. I mean, doesn’t RT have friends to draw inspiration from? They’ve never disagreed about Huge and Complex Questions before? Never gotten pissed and then shrugged it off the next time you want to text? RWBY’s idea of a diverse friend group feels like many other writers’ idea of a sibling relationship: anyone with an actual sibling goes, “What is this?” Speaking of, Weiss explains that sisters often have “very different ideas about what’s right” as if, again, people don’t have different ideas? Just in general? Why is this suddenly a sister thing? She’s clearly thinking about Winter, but doesn’t actually bring it up, so all we’re left with is the same situation we had last Volume. Weiss thinks she’s right, Winter is wrong, and they’re just going down their separate roads because there’s definitely no reason to re-examine any choices here. It’s all static.

Until Winter betrays Ironwood, of course.

Nora tries to reassure Blake that the group will be fine (ha) even though they’ve split, the irony being that we, the audience, know they just got wrecked by the Hound. Jaune is a great leader though, Oscar has grown so much, Yang could defend them all in a fight, and Ren… well, she can’t think of anything to say about Ren. I hate the Nora is acting like Ren has drawn away from her for no reason, after she chose to kiss him—without consent—rather than listening to what was bothering him, then proceeded to pretend that this mystery problem never existed. What does she expect? I do, however, like the general acknowledgement that she doesn’t know who she is without Ren. Who is Nora? Someone who is “strong and hit[s] stuff?”

See, this feels like RT writing self-consciously because Nora doesn’t have much of a personality. Oh, on a surface level she’s bursting with it, but past the bubbly exterior? That single layer? We can add maybe one thing to this “Likes Ren, is strong, hits stuff” list: she’s funny. That’s it. Anything else we might add like “she’s loyal” or “she’s kind” is just a generic characteristic of this entire team. They’re all meant to be crazy talented good guys and even the “is strong” aspect is suspect when others frequently pull off attacks as showy as Nora’s hammer hits. So who is she? What are Nora’s dreams? What are her hobbies? Her fears? Her history? We’ve seen a single flashback of her on the streets and one scene back at Beacon where she listens to music and reads a magazine. Seven years worth of material and that’s it. There’s a reason why the go-to, non-combat action for Nora in fics is “makes pancakes.” We know so little about her still.

So I was excited for a brief, shining moment. Yes! Explore who Nora is outside of being strong and hitting stuff! … and then her big action this episode is, as she says, being strong and hitting something. Don’t get me wrong, outside of that setup it’s pretty epic. I like Nora going to those lengths to save Penny and I absolutely love the repercussions of the choice: a broken aura, passing out, and badass lightning scars all over her arms and neck (especially when women often aren’t allowed to accumulate scars in visual media). That’s pretty damn awesome. It’s just that it comes on the heels of the story insisting that Nora is more than this, that we’ll learn something new about her… and we haven’t. This is indeed cool, but we already knew that Nora was willing to crazy lengths by hitting things really hard. That’s already her established norm.

At least this moment has some really nice characterization alongside the stupidity. The conversation between Ruby and Penny is just plain stupid. Penny wants to stay to help with the evacuations, but Pietro says she should come with him in Amity. Why? As Ruby says, because then she’ll be up in the sky and Salem won’t be able to access the relic.

That’s what Ironwood wanted to do! We could have had this conflict episodes ago with you all working with him! I really can’t with this cast. Also, the rest of this is still confusing. I thought pretty much everyone was in the slums by now, so what evacuation are they talking about? Do they plan to evacuate everyone in Mantle out of the kingdom somehow… like Ironwood wanted to do with Atlas? And why are they acting like Amity is evacuating some people too? I thought they were just using it as a communication device? To add insult to injury, Ruby then contradicts herself a minute later when she tells Harriet that Ironwood can’t have the relic because “Salem will find her way to the relic no matter where you go.” Ruby, if Salem can access the relic high in the sky she can also access Penny in the sky. If you believe that literally nowhere is safe then why are you sending Penny away under the claim that she—and via her the Relic—will be safer? If you want Penny in Amity to lessen the chance of Salem getting the Relic, why can’t Penny be in Atlas while simultaneously (hopefully) getting a whole slew of people to safety?

I’m continually confused by this “plan” of theirs. Their claims just flip-flop according to what (supposedly) contrasts them with Ironwood. Even though that’s not actually the case.

Penny is me, sad while watching this train wreck of a scene.

So yeah, the Ace Ops are here. I’ve wondered since the trailer why Weiss looked smug while everyone else was startled. Turns out it’s because of her line, “So, your first time losing to us wasn’t enough?” I can’t express how much I dislike all the girls’ personalities now. I want to shake some compassion and humility into them. Plus, they never should have won that fight in the first place. Marrow yells, “We were holding back!” but coming from the team’s weakest member it reads as defensive. Like we’re supposed to go, ‘Lol yeah right, Marrow. Just admit you got your ass kicked,’ even tough the Ace Ops should have wiped the floor with them, holding back or not. That’s my biggest takeaway from this fight: it’s the reverse of what we should have gotten. The Ace Ops should have beaten Team RWBY with ease and struggled greatly against an android Maiden, not falling before a bunch of teens and succeeding against Penny if not for Nora’s timely breakthrough. Your half-trained cast of growing heroes should not come across as more powerful than an intelligently designed weapon now wielding magic.

Before the fight starts we get a whole lot of lines that are, frankly, frustrating. Vine tells Penny, “I thought you were supposed to protect the people, not hurt them” which is true enough. Penny is taking action that is putting a lot of people in danger, regardless of the fact that Ruby is at the helm. Problem is, the Ace Ops then blame her for Winter’s injuries and “stealing” the power? That’s not the issue here. The issue is Penny’s blind loyalty to Ruby, but by having the Ace Ops back a stance that is clearly inaccurate—Penny didn’t cause Winter’s injuries, Cinder did; Penny didn’t steal the powers, she was encouraged to take them—it makes them come across as Very Evil people who will twist things to make poor Penny look like the villain. Even if this is a case of Ace Ops having bad intel (which seems unlikely. Wouldn’t Winter have told them what happened?) RT has avoided letting the Ace Ops take a justified stance here because that would make them look too sympathetic… even though they do have multiple justified stances to take. Like, ‘Hey, stop keeping half a kingdom here where Salem can easily kill them all’ or, ‘Hey, why did you spend months betraying Ironwood and then turn on us instead of trying to find a compromise?’ Even, ‘Why did your uncle help kill our leader?’ There’s plenty that the Ace Ops should be rightfully pissed about, so choosing Penny and Winter out of everything feels like RT is firmly backing them into Ironwood’s corner: you’re just bad now and bad people blame innocent girls, rather than acknowledging the actual wrongs done against them.

So we have Ruby contradicting herself and the Ace Ops backing warped ideas that make them look worse than they actually are. Adding to the stupidity is the fact that Elm mentions that Winter is in “critical condition” and Weiss… doesn’t care. Harriet then tells Ruby that she’s “throwing [her] in jail right next to your uncle, runt” and... Ruby doesn’t care. Qrow is missing and Ruby just found out he’s been captured by Ironwood, yet there’s no reaction whatsoever. This show continues to go hard on the ‘screw adults’ mentality, huh? Ozpin needs to keep quiet and is horrible for coming back. Ironwood is now a cartoon villain. Winter made the wrong choice so no one cares about her anymore, not even her sister. The Ace Ops remain enemies despite trying to talk things out. Qrow? Barely know him. Who’s he? This is a Ruby loves Penny episode. There isn’t enough emotional nuance for her to care about him too.

The sad thing is I adore Nuts&Dolts. In a different context these moments would be a goldmine for me.

If anything, this episode feels worse than the majority of last week’s because there are good things here that have been thrown into a bad setup. I can’t get excited for the group’s battles when I see who they’re attacking. It’s hard to squee over Ruby hugging Penny when she doesn’t react to Qrow. Watching Nora go all Thor feels like it only has half its potential when it’s coming out of a very messing, ‘I’m more than just being strong and hitting things… which is why I’ll continue being strong and hitting things.’ RWBY has excellent moments set into a terrible story.

The fight, at least, is exciting. The Ace Ops goad Penny into stepping away so they can trap the rest of Ruby’s team—smart—and she’s forced to hold her own while Weiss tries to break through with her knight, then Nora overloads the system. To be frank, I’m not great at analyzing combat. Not unless I’m looking for something specific like whether a win is justified. I’ve already mentioned above the broad issue of the Ace Ops very nearly beating the most powerful fighter next to Salem herself, yet failing so spectacularly against Team RWBY. Outside of that context though? I really enjoyed this. Lots of tight action, creative attacks, teamwork, some emotional pauses throughout… it feels like a pretty solid battle. Put it on Youtube as a clip, outside of the rest of the story’s messiness, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic watch.

We can’t stay in the combat forever though. During all this Weiss calls the Ace Ops “cowards” for making it four vs. one. You know, RWBY should really just do away with dialogue and make the show purely action because the cast frequently sounds so stupid when they speak. Like her comment about Ironwood’s lockdown… really Weiss? ‘Yes, we might be wanted criminals who betrayed this group in the worst possible way, but how dare they not do the honorable thing and have three of their teammates sit out while trying to capture us? Even though the girl they’re trying to capture has magic. I mean, the nerve of them!’

Weiss, at this point I’m not sure how to explain to you that the people you’ve made into your enemies do not owe you a fair fight.

Another detail: we get to see Ruby fall off the edge of the walkway and this time she remembers she can fly! A definite improvement from Volume 6.

Finally: by the time Penny’s eyes go full Maiden in Elm’s grip, I think we’ve seen everything from our trailer. Episode 4 will truly be a mystery.

Ironwood has, of course, been watching the fight this whole time. When it looks like the Ace Ops will lose against the team he means to send in reinforcements, but Watts says he has “a message for your operatives.” Instead of capturing Penny they steal one of her swords instead, ending with a shot on Marrow looking conflicted.

Because remember, there’s no actual moral grayness in this story. The protagonists are right and everyone else is wrong. It’s (supposedly) black and white. Which means that if the Ace Ops have any hope of surviving this Volume and being seen as anything other than evil bootlickers, they have to join with Ruby. Marrow seems primed to do that.

Am I surprised? No. Disappointed? Always lol.

May has the airship ready to go and they fly off… despite the shields. And the lockdown. Consistency? Who’s she? Nora is said to be “in bad shape” and after another hug Penny leaves to hide in Amity, even though Ruby thinks that hiding is a useless, cowardly choice. Just not when she and her allies choose to do it.

We end the episode with Watts receiving Penny’s sword and making the statement, “If you can’t beat them… then make them join you.” I have to say, his cheesy villainy is something I continue to enjoy, even if it’s heavy handed at times. Watts is just fun. I do have to say though: if Penny is hacked, what does that say about her agency? We double-downed on the ‘real girl’ narrative by giving her the Maiden powers, but she’s simultaneously synthetic enough that a single piece of her can remove all autonomy? It once again feels like RT isn’t sure what point they’re trying to make, they’re just chucking a lot of themes at the wall and seeing what sticks. Still, we’ll have to let it all play out before making any judgements.

And that’s it for this week. It seems like this is a slightly shorter recap than normal, though that may be because I struggle with discussing pure action sequences, which made up a decent chunk of this episode. I’ll no doubt return to the Ace Ops vs. Penny fight when I’m not on a self-imposed, one day deadline for posting. The only thing left is to update the Bingo Card, but I don’t think we made any headway this week. So... good job, RWBY?

I’m still going to hold off on the civilian’s square until Salem’s army actually attacks, as well as the two day timeline square.

No Winter this episode

Watts is teaming up with Ironwood which is… so much worse than him teaming up with Jacques again. Does a square get an X if the canon is even worse than what you assumed it would be??

Maria was mentioned this episode. Jury’s out on whether she’ll actually do anything.

Atlas is still standing, we knew Penny was heading towards a hack so it’s not much of a cliffhanger, no Qrow, no Ozpin, no Neo or Cinder.

It certainly looks like we can check off “The team gets Amity up and running,” but let’s just see if there are any problems next episode. If the problem is only ‘We would have launched it if not for Salem’s attack’ or something, I’m checking it off. The point is it would have worked.

I’m also leaning towards “More obvious Blake/Yang implications without confirming a relationship” given Blake’s heart-to-heart with Nora… but let’s see if the Volume does anything more egregious.

All in all (and perhaps despite what I’ve written above), I don’t think it’s fair to totally drag this episode. As said, this feels like a strong episode in a bad story, something that I would have LOVED if a) Salem weren’t here and b) the ‘ethical dilemma’ wasn’t boiled down to a ‘Team Ruby is good’ and ‘Ironwood and everyone associated with him is evil’ situation. It’s an episode whose tone and character action belong in a different version of RWBY. If you gave us this fun episode in an earlier Volume against a Pure Evil antagonist? It would have been great.

Ah well. It is what it is. Expect more emotional whiplash when we come back and everyone learns that Oscar has been kidnapped by Salem’s talking pooch 🙃

See you then! 💜

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby strings #mymetas #rwby recaps #apologies if this Recap is messier than normal #I have a zoom meeting in five minutes lol #gotta go fast!

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sweet-croissants · 3 years

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Julie and the Phantoms Character Appreciation

Part 1 - Alex

I’ve never seen a character like Alex. No I don’t mean I’ve never seen a gay character/ character with anxiety. I’ve never seen a character where it’s not their entire personality or a show handle it the way they do. They didn’t have his “combing out scene” be this huge dramatic moment, they didn’t stop the spin of the earth so they could “reveal the truth about his sexuality!” No, it’s was said in a way that you could have almost missed it if you weren’t paying attention and it was said so casually that I almost forgot how important the representation he symbolized was. It was normal. They didn’t wait till the the 7th season, or even the end of the season to say it, so there was no queer baiting and no hesitation to embrace who he was in the show. Finally, the guys don’t ever, not once, talk about it to him as if he is going to burst out into tears if they say a word wrong. They don’t treat him as if he’s fragile about it, and I get it for some people it’s a sensitive topic and should be talked about carefully, but they know how Alex doesn’t want to be treated as if he’s weak. (E9 when they are in the hug circle thing “I feel stronger....not that I was ever weak”) And because of this, they don’t treat him like it. Obviously they aren’t insensitive but they don’t act as if they are walking on a minefield. His anxiety is relatable too. It’s not over done, exaggerated, or enhanced so they can get the point across that he has it only to drop in 10 minutes later to never mention it again. And both his anxiety and him being gay I’d done in a way that little kids can understand I think that we think topics like these to hard or difficult for kids to understand, but the truth is they can. You just have to be blunt in a way. Boys can like boys, girls can be boys, you can be whoever you wanna be, and it’s okay to worry over things even if they seem like you shouldn’t because “they are simple”, it’s all okay and natural.

Part 2 - Reggie

Reggie makes me happy to see because it shows certain things about kids who’s parents are divorced and are neglected. At the very least he was emotionally neglected, but neglected non the less. And obviously, not all kids handle this the same way, and that’s why Reggie is so important to me. Reggie obviously rebelled, even a little by joining a rock band and I don’t think he took on all the responsibility to take care of himself. Reggies not dumb, he’s oblivious and half the time I think he’s not as oblivious as we think he is. And he’s only oblivious when he thinks he can get away with it, like when he asks where Luke is going on his birthday as if he doesn’t know what happened. He also does something I found I used to do when I was lonely in a room full of people, and that’s ask dumb questions. Yes, he must know the answer but it’s puts a little attention on himself, and you can guess that he didn’t get a lot of that from his parents. Even if it’s at his expense, he’s willing to dell included in what they are talking about. He still has his serious moments though, which are usually right after he realizes that he can’t just play dumb to get out of the situation. You can also see that it hurts him a lot when he gets played off as being the dumb one, but it’s probably what he thinks of as his only way to get people to listen to him (everyone treating him like he’s an idiot also probably hurts his confidence leading to this too). Another thing I’ve noticed is his attachment to Ray. He knows how amazing of a father Ray is because of how much he loves Julie and Carlos. This is why he respects Ray so much, because even though he’s going through his own thing with his wife’s death, he never forgets to be their for his kids and that’s probably something Reggie never had.

Part 3 - Luke

Like is kinda special. I’ve seen characters similar to him but something about him sets him apart from everyone else I’ve seen. I’ve seen character that are cute and don’t take advantage of it but instead are super nice, I’ve seen that before but the difference is how he does it. In the first episode, right after Julie kicks the out, he’s not even mad or angry with her. Maybe he’s upset, but not at her. He’s upset because he just found out he died and then lost what he considers his second home. So, he explains that to her, but he doesn’t argue it he just wants to tell her his side of the story. And when she explains hers, he’s sorry and apologetic for her bad day and you can tell he’s being genuine. Before it’s obvious he likes her, he helps her get back into her music program because he knows how important it is. He gives her a song that he wrote and talks her up when she doubts herself. You can also tell that he never stopped loving his mom, no matter how many times they fought. He knows that she cared about him, which is why they fought in the first place. His only fear, the reason he never truly apologized, was he was scared he finally blew it. That he had officially messed up and she would want to hear from him, that he couldn’t fix what had happened. One more thing, I’ve never seen a character as passionate about something as him. I’m sure that character exists, no doubt, but personally I’ve never seen it. He doesn’t care about the money, yeah it’s a bonus but not the main focus. The main focus is putting a smile on people, making a difference to people, to not be alone. The entire reason he’s mad at Bobby for stealing is music without credit is that no one, including his mom, got to know his dream was worth it. He died and time erased him.

Part 4 - Julie

My love for Julie is astonishing. She’s a Hispanic girl, with gorgeous hair, and beautiful skin, and an amazing tooth gap. I almost fully expected it to be used as a thing she was bullied for, teased about, and made fun of for and when she fixes it, it shows that “she was always secretly beautiful/she could be beautiful all along” and all that junk. The fact that it’s not mentioned once is so wonderful because all people have flaws! People have tooth gaps, stretch marks, and different body types. No one is perfect and neither are their bodies. It also shows that Carrie, the “mean girl” of the show isn’t going to be like all the other mean girls in teen shows and it makes me appreciate her character more. It shows how they used to be friends and even thought Carrie can be mean, it’s never to the extent of making fun of what she looks like. One more thing with Carrie, Julie has never said a mean thing about her in the show. When Flynn makes the comment on the dance routine, she says “well it payed off” and she even complemented the song and choreography for All Eyes On Me. Not once has she said anything mean back and it shows how kind of a person she is. Even though Carrie humiliates her, she never has it in her to truly insult her back. Also, having a Hispanic girl as one of the main characters is wonderful! Representation is always heartwarming to see and this is no exception. They don’t try to shove it in your face in an unrealistic way, but it’s definitely in there consistently, it’s really nice. On top of all that, how she handles her mom‘s death is just as terrific. She’s right, playing music reminds her of her mom and that’s exactly why she should play music! It encourages others to know that it may hurt but it gets better. That there will come a point when smiles and joy filled where sadness and tears used to be when you think of those memories. She’s such a powerful person and it shows.

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