Just A Small Thing I Noticed While Being Totally Normal About The Gay Pirates:

Just a small thing I noticed while being totally normal about the gay pirates:

I've watched The Kiss™ way too many times a normal number of times and my favorite moment is the series of microexpressions Rhys cycles through while Stede is reacting to "what makes Ed happy is...you" because it's just so lovely and masterfully done. While trying to find a good gif of just that moment (no luck so far!) I noticed something that happens while Ed is pulling Stede in.

Stede, darling honey light of my life, clueless useless "oblivious" gay that he is, tilts his head a bit and leans into the kiss too. Before it's even started. On some level he registers that This Is Happening in time to react in a positive way, even before their lips have touched.

Our boy is a creature of instinct, and when he acts on his emotional instincts without thinking too much he knocks so much shit out of the park. Instinct is part of why "you wear fine things well" hits as hard as it does. Instinct is how he can woo Ed as easily as he does. Instinct is how they were able connect so deeply so quickly, because his instinct is to be open and non-judgemental to this beautiful man waiting beside his sickbed and asking about fine fabrics.

Stede's thoughts are still too clouded by his trauma and self-loathing to be useful for him, and he can end up thinking too much about what he "should" do or what other people do. Thinking is part of the reason he's so quick to believe Chauncey in the woods. Thinking means succumbing to beliefs about his perceived worthlessness, which leads to his biggest mistakes. Thinking tells him to adjust what he says about Blackbeard in that tavern of townies, when his instinct was to say how "absolutely lovely" Ed is.

Obviously man cannot live by instinct alone, like he definitely should have thought for a minute about making a deal with Geraldo to fence the hostage. Stede needs to learn to balance the two and when to listen to either/both of them. But I was just so excited to see him leaning in the way he does because it underlines a feeling I've had for a minute, which is that Stede's instincts are those of someone crushing and then falling in love, and that never wavers.

He lacks the context and vocabulary to identify what's going on without outside intervention, but he also deeply gets it in a way that's extremely queer and that I hope starts showing up more in the fanon. I do a little happy dance every time I see this in people's fics and I just need so many more of them! Give me more eager Stede who is Ready To Go once he's given the right context for his feelings about Ed!

My dear lgbt+ kids, 

Some of those adjectives in positivity posts probably do not apply to you - and your existence is still a positive thing. 

Maybe you are not funny, or perhaps you are not smart. And I’m sure you are actually not always looking beautiful and you aren’t always kind, either (because, let’s be honest, who is?). 

And you know what? That’s fine, and not just in the “You have your own highly individual positive qualities because humans are so diverse that a sweet little text post with a bunch of generic keywords can’t possibly cover everyone’s unique strengths” sense - but also in the way that its fine to just be alive. 

You are not meant to be a walking list of all those positive qualities. You aren’t a bunch of descriptive words. You are alive. 

You don’t need to fit into the labels funny or smart or creative or hot or whatever. You just need to be alive. You are the only one who can think exactly like you do. You have the unique quality of being able to experience the world like you do, to see the world through your eyes. 

Your life is worthwhile because you are living it. 

With all my love, 

Your Tumblr Dad 

alright fuck it reblog this I'm curious to see how fast it gets flagged

My gender is trying really, really hard to be normal.

i identify as whatever the vibe is, my gender is screaming into the void and my pronouns are the void telling me to shut the fuck up