The Mess

but I'm hearing there's a NSFW-friendly ko-fi alternative built on atproto that's actively in the works, and being vetted by lawyers right now. as torrent-princess (OP) says, you should be able to swap out payment processors while keeping your account intact. this matters since even if stripe removes support, you'll still have a shop and all of your links intact. (ATproto is an infrastructure that bsky is built on, but is far bigger than bsky with far more opportunities.)

additionally, the Free Speech Coalition is working on a credit union specifically for adult work (including kink art) - here's the link so you can add your interest & support. Since this will be built by sex workers, there'll be far less risk of being debanked for spurious and puritanical reasons.

on a domain TLD level, there's an initiative here for a .furry domain built from the ground up by seasoned furries; it's unclear whether they'll support NSFW, but it's yet another promising turn of events for a group that's been similarly affected by censorship.

Before Rumi can even let the cruelty of it sink in and feel it, a new fear overtakes her. Knows she needs to stop what's about to happen before it's to late. Turning on her heels she wraps her arms around Zoey, who surges forward with a enraged look in her eyes. Blocking the maknae from getting at the offending man.

"Rumi, no let me get em" Zoey squirms but can't get passed her.

It's not easy to hold Zoey back, Rumi uses all her strength but Zoey is resourceful climbing up Rumi's body. Even as Rumi pulls her back down she keeps surging up. Crawling over Rumi with feverish intensity. Putting Rumi Off balance, as Zoey gets up over her left shoulder and they fall to the ground. Controlling their decent and catching Zoey, Rumi has her pinned, but she continues to struggle.

"Zoey it's ok, it's not worth it" Rumi pleads meeting her eyes.

"Why does Mira get too?" Zoey pouts.

It's only then Rumi realises her mistake.

"Mira?"

Rumi lifts her head to look up, and Mira is no longer standing at there side, but towering over the man that yelled out. Hasn't touch them, hasn't even laid a finger or said a word, she just glares.

"Mir-"

"It's ok Rumi, these boys were just on there way"

"I-I..s-sorry" The man croaks out, his pants coated in what appears to be his own urine.

Mira remains still as the man runs off disappearing in the crowd and she turns back to them. Rumi can't help but blush, feeling a her heart race at the two of them protecting her. Mira's glare she is well aware could scare Gwi-Ma itself. A face that immediately softens at the sight of Rumi laying atop Zoey.

"You two, ok?" Mira teases, with a smirk at the corner of her lips.

"Oh uh sorry" Rumi said as she realises she is still holding Zoey down but she has stopped fighting.

Rumi feels her cheeks flush and stands up but Zoey doesn't let go instead wrapping herself around Rumi in a koala like hold. Resting her head on Rumi shoulder with tears in her eyes.

"Hey, its ok, I'm ok" Rumi stutters out her voice giving away her anxieties.

Mira steps closer wrapping her arms around them both swaying a little and the just stay like that for a minute or two.

"Better now though" Rumi croaks out.

This is a prequel to the previous ficlet

You wanted to unleash the feral Zoey ok then here she is @chuck-vic-norris This is years before Huntrix debuts, when they still teenagers training to be K-pop Idols with a few other potentials. IDk but I thought of this while driving home from work and wrote it because why work on any of my current WIPS. or sleep or just be normal.

Head hung low, Rumi barely lifted her feet as she strolled out of the doors to the street, snow on the ground crunching beneath her shoes. But the freezing air is welcoming, easing her hot, flushed skin after the embarrassment she just endured.  

Her blood pumping, Rumi couldn’t get out fast enough, could feel the patterns glowing beneath her jacket. Growing along her skin, inch by inch, until they consume her because she is wrong, a mistake. Couldn’t even get through a simple rundown with choreography while hitting her vocals in this afternoon's showcase. 

“Nice job today,” Suk-Ja stated in a surprisingly non-condescending tone as she emerged from the studio behind Rumi.

Turning her head, surprised to see that the girl she had been paired with, who had barely spoken a word or done more than glare at her all day, has something nice to say. 

“Really know how to choke,” Suk-Ja teased, laughing as the rest of the group walked out and Rumi was suddenly surrounded. 

This is why it is not assimilationist for gay/queer people to want to enshrine marriage rights in their country/region

Similarly, this is why polyamorous people are fighting for the right to have their relationships recognised by their states through marriage and/or similar agreements

Oh, and because on top of those aforementioned financial and medical protections, these laws also help you maintain connection to any kids you have and/or raise together!

Every older queer you know who is in a longterm relationship will have similar stories of how we planned our whole lives to protect what would have been granted nigh automatically if we were heterosexual.

Amatonormativity 101: Amatonormativity, a term coined by Elizabeth Brake, is the very prevalent idea that there is one relationship type that is above all others. This relationship is an exclusive/monogamous, committed, romantic and sexual relationship.

According to amatonormativity, this specific kind of relationship:

Is something everyone wants (or should want)

Is the most fulfilling relationship it is possible to have

Takes precedence over all other relationships in your life

This goes hand in hand with heteronormativity, which says that this ideal relationship also has to be straight. But if you remove that part, all the normative forces of amatonormativity still exist. And they suck for just about everyone! Amatonormativity says aromantic and asexual people will never experience the “highest” form of love. It says single people are inherently less happy than people in a romantic relationship and should always be actively looking for one. It says sex without romance or romance without sex are both lacking a fundamental part of an ideal relationship. It says polyamorous people are failing to choose the one person they can be fully devoted to. It says that your monogamous, committed, romantic/sexual partner is the most important person in your life—more important than your family, your best friend you’ve known all your life, etc.

I hope we can all agree that is something queer people, and also people in general, would benefit from dismantling!

Now let me talk about an example of what I was referring to in the original post.

If you’re not familiar, Elementary is a TV series based on the Sherlock Holmes stories. It’s a modern day adaptation featuring Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective for the NYPD, and Joan (rather than John) Watson, his sober companion and eventually detective partner.

Sherlock has many casual sexual relationships with women throughout the series, while Joan has a string of romantic relationships with men. Neither of them is textually queer (although Sherlock feels very aromantic-coded, if unintentionally, and I personally think an aro reading of both characters has merit).

However, the two of them share a relationship that defies amatonormativity. Sherlock and Joan share almost every part of their lives together—first because Joan is monitoring Sherlock to help maintain his sobriety, but soon because they have actively chosen to remain in each other’s lives. They eventually become partners as detectives but are also functionally life partners, living together, sharing their resources, taking care of each other emotionally and physically. At multiple turning points in the story, they express their love for each other. Throughout this progression, their relationship never becomes romantic or sexual. While Sherlock continues to have casual sex and Joan continues to go on dates, it’s clear that Sherlock and Joan remain each other’s most important person.

This relationship defies amatonormativity, and in my opinion that makes it queer. Queer as in breaking boundaries, defying norms, challenging the idea that there is any right or wrong way to love someone.

Now it’s time for my real hot take. There is a reason I used Elementary as an example, instead of the many other pieces of fiction that have a very similar dynamic between two characters of the same gender.

Those stories—stories that center a platonic relationship between two characters of the same gender, a relationship that remains platonic but is deep, devoted, and prioritized over other relationships in the character’s lives—are textually queer. They are not textually gay (although yes, many of them are subtextually gay). But that does not stop them from being queer stories.

If you want to read into whatever subtext might be there and interpret that relationship as a gay romantic/sexual relationship, that's great. But I wish more people shared my opinion that this is not making a previously normative story into a queer one. Usually, it’s trading heteronormativity for amatonormativity, creating a relationship that defies different norms.

I’m not saying that one or the other interpretation is more valuable (in general—which one is most meaningful to you is a personal preference). I think they’re both queer interpretations of the story. However, given how often stories like the ones I’m describing get accused of “queerbaiting” or simply “not being canonically queer,” I’m pretty sure my opinion on this is not widely shared.