#nex post

I’ve lurked in many fandoms over the last twenty years and made real and long lasting friendships in one or two, but I've never seen a fandom as welcoming as this one, always happy to embrace new members of the crew for life. The general amount of love, support and respect I have seen people show to each other in this fandom is continuously heartwarming, especially in a world that can be  so isolating and scary.  There are so many people with gigantic hearts, brains, talent, and creativity who get the core of this show; radical kindness, authenticity, finding joy, colonisers should be denied oxygen to their ideas and their lungs; and then reflect those attitudes in their real lives. Personally I believe it's always a good thing to have an open and trusting heart, to believe that the majority of people are good and kind, but also to protect your community when bad actors are discovered, and that's what this fandom has done this week.

Thinking about the glimpses we get of Ed as a child; living in a cold and drafty shack with insufficient clothing, eating whatever they could afford to, with a dad who punished him for being "soft" (no doubt standing in for a much stronger word).

Their first kiss:

It's a sweet kiss. Ed approaches Stede quickly (he's nervous) pulls Stede to him a little. Their lips are mis-aligned slightly, Ed has no idea where to put his hands and Stede hasn't even moved forward enough to not strain his neck. They're both very unsure in this moment; this is not a movie ✨first kiss✨, this is a palms sweaty, heart jumping, noses bumping, oh god does he even like me kiss.

Before the second kiss:

The lead into the kiss is similar to the first; they're both nervous, Ed does a little shimmy and Stede looks away for a moment. It's still palms sweaty, heart jumping, but the question isn't there this time, it's a giddy anxiety not a worried one.

The kiss: