no longer a lurker

he/him. I've been told to write something so people don't think I'm a bot, hope this counts :)

[lifeandtimesoftrying]

intro post

You can call me Cypress or Bagels! My pronouns are he/him

This is almost entirely reblogs of a wide variety. I’m not super involved in any fandoms, but right now I’m watching DS9 and I like Shoot From the Hip. I also recently got into Dan and Phil and uh. gang I dunno how to tell y'all this but it was enough for me to make a sideblog (gasp!): @lifeandtimesofdnp, if you want to say hi over there :) Shows I’ve enjoyed include Doctor Who, Takin’ Over the Asylum, and Heartstopper. Also I really like puns.

If you want to send me asks/tag me in things/message me/etc please do so!! I really enjoy talking to people, and this includes non-mutuals too :) I do enjoy and appreciate being tagged in chain tag games, but fair warning I am really bad at remembering to do them

Anon asks are currently turned off because I keep getting spam asks. If you want your ask answered anonymously/privately, please say that and I’ll either cut out the username in my reply or shoot you a DM.

My tagging process is between me and God, and I was out sick the day it was covered and when I asked God for Its notes It said that It overslept and didn’t make it to class, so suffice to say nobody really knows what’s going on. If there’s a specific topic you want to be able to find and/or block, message or send an ask and I’ll see if I can get a clear tag for it

If you want to see my original posts, most of them are underneath “#behold! an original post!” (this post has it in the tags so you can click on that!). I think I’ve gone back and gotten most of them tagged, but I know I have at least one about Love III by George Herbert wandering about without a tag, so if you come across that please let me know.

I don’t think that DNIs are very useful and I have no consistent rules for if or when I block, but if you are run-of-the-mill mean, consistently spread misinformation, or bigoted, we won’t get along. (Note: bigotry here does include antisemitism. I’m specifying this because I’ve seen a lot of people who consider themselves to be progressive say truly heinous things about Jews, so to be clear: antisemitism is not tolerated on this blog, regardless of who is doing it or who it’s being done to.) If you see me doing any of the aforementioned behaviors please let me know so I can undo them

My header is a picture I took of the sky during the most recent eclipse, and my pfp is a box of pipsqueak markers :)

Thanks for stopping by this small corner of the internet!

Last edited: November 3, 2025

[willabee]

shape (triangle)

[i-drew-this-post]

I drew the shape (triangle)

[lifeandtimesoftrying]

@animals-with-fan-art

[redstonedust]

the usual fearmongering around detransition and testosterone feels pretty unserious when you already know and love trans and intersex women. like sure maybe you will regret it, but so what? worst case scenario you end up as a woman who has experienced the effects of having elevated testosterone in her system. there are a lot of those. you will survive.

[incendavery]

drive-by thank you

(image description in alt text)

[nevershootamockingbird]

[ id taken from alt text: An eight-panel diary comic featuring a purple crow.

Panel 1: The crow whistles to himself as he unlocks the front door of his house A trans flag hangs in the window.

Panel 2: “Excuse me!” calls a pink capybara from a nearby car. The crow jumps, startled.

Panel 3: “Hi!” waves the capybara, “I just wanted to say, I’m the mom of a trans kiddo...”

Panel 4: “And I know it makes them feel good when we drive past the flag in your window,” the capybara continues.

Panel 5: The crow looks at the flags as the capybara concludes, “It lets them know there’s other people like them out there.”

Panel 6: The crow pauses, eyes water and mouth open.

Panel 7: “You’re welcome!” says the crow

Panel 8: Later, the crow happily thinks to himself, “trans kiddo! trans kiddo! trans kiddo! trans kiddo! trans kiddo! trans kiddo!”  / end id ]

[queer-joy-detector]

Queer joy detected!

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Nick, how do you know you're with the right person?

I would say it's a combination of things. Do you:

Share the same values?

Safely share being vulnerable with each other?

Have compatible personal needs and life/family goals?

Work as a team to accomplish what needs to be done on both the small and large scale?

Address when there is a power imbalance and work to reduce/resolve it?

Find ways to compromise when you have different interests or preferences?

Lift each other up?

Protect each other?

Still retain your identity separate from the other person?

I think it's also important to point out that the right person may not remain the right person your entire life. And that's ok. Even a lifelong right relationship is going to change and evolve the more years into it.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Can I give a shout out to a Brazilian photographer I adore? Rafael Freire @orafafreire on Insta, he's a Black Brazilian photographer that mainly focus on portraits of Black models. His photos are amazing. Sadly he lost his original account about a year ago that had much more material, but you can still see many of his pictures on his newer account.

Here's some of his works:

Oh these are PEAK I see why you love him!! They're so colorful and rich and dynamic! The one where the lady holds the flower to the sky feels religious almost, like it's that powerful. Oh I'm happy you shared these, this made my day. Afro Brazilians stand up!!

[creatingblackcharacters]

Have you heard of the YouTuber Zay Dupree, he does linguistics and sociology mainly https://m.youtube.com/@zay_dupree/shorts?ra=m

zay dupree

linguistics and such @zaydupree everywhere else

Okay that is who I thought it was! Yes I've heard of him! Tbh, this is who everyone should look up every time they have an "is this AAVE" question for me, because he's actually got the background depth to discuss it!

[wallynorthbynorthwest]

They are shaped the same...like friends ready to hug

[marsziepan]

Ready to hug

[the-sun-princess]

hug achieved!!

[howlingday]

Quagsire is a Ground-Type. Therefore they can hug Raichu without fear of being shocked.

[gaudebo]

do any of you want to hear abt my Black Ryland Grace headcanon

[gaudebo]

excellent. i am enabled once more.

this post is inspired in part by this one by @cheshirepirouette and sponsored in part by convos w @asteriis and @indouscurse here’s to y’all!! this post also goes out to my brothers, who are pale as hell for reasons unbeknownst to all of us (this is a joke).

like any good headcanon, this started as a joke because i thought to myself: Ryland sounds like the type of name that somebody’s Black child would have and only use on church sundays. nobody actually has ever called him that in his whole entire life, except maybe his mama SOMETIMES and that’s why he doesn’t remember it right away. i feel like every Black person knows somebody who is called literally anything except their god given name. people call him lil r, lil grace, gracie, ry, ryry, riri, RG, lando, mr. grace, dr. grace, but nobody calls him Ryland, which is part of why he Can’t Remember for so long.

so of course i went back to the source material to see if he ever actually mentioned being white anywhere and unfortunately it is very much at the beginning of the book. so THEN i started to think about how i could get around that while remaining at least largely canon compliant (as a little treat for myself). what i came up with is what i have affectionately dubbed my “litebrite baby” headcanon.

grace was not particularly dark skinned to begin with, and then spent years in a coma with literally no sunlight. he is downright vampiric by the time that he wakes up, and upon seeing his white ass skin, assumes that he is in his own words, a Caucasian male.

unfortunately for him, this fits in really well with his theme of lack of identity and lack of connection. i think for most Black people it would be extremely hard to forget that we’re Black regardless of how light or dark our skin tone is. but throughout the book, even when Grace is thinking about his old, slowly resurfacing memories, he never thinks about family, he never thinks about friends. except for his students and Project Hail Mary, he is completely unmoored.

i’ve seen a few different headcanons for why this might be: he was an only child whose single parent died young, he was cut off by his parents for some reason or another, he just isn’t ever triggered to remember. but no matter the reason, grace is disconnected from crucial aspects of himself. i think that by making him Black, and his Blackness something he can’t remember, it add an extra heartbreaking layer to his characterization. Blackness is such a communal experience, and when it’s not, it leaves behind an ache. growing up Black in White Suburbia i know well both the experience of clinging to one’s own in a hostile world AND the hurt that comes with being severed from one’s community. grace loses so much of himself with the amnesia, unable to recall who he is at the deepest of levels, and i think if he could remember to grieve it, it would devastate him.

i do think he would remember eventually, either when his hair starts growing out (because in the book Armando shaves him iirc), or when he can finally catch a glimpse of his reflection clearly, or when he has a memory of someone in his family. my personal belief is he has a memory beamed directly into his brain of asking “Mama, am I white?” and his poor, long-suffering mom saying, “Now who the hell told you that?”

and then it still never becomes relevant because he has negative desire to explain the nuances of human racial categories to an alien who quite literally cannot see color.

[gaudebo]

he occupies all my thoughts

[nebulations]

[ID copied from alt: Ryland Grace drawn as a light-skinned Black man with a short afro, glasses, an orangey sweater, and an aroace flag colored shirt. There is a cloudy white halo behind his head and a squiggly red line in the cloud. End ID]

[mechatronophilia]

i'm just saying man

"there's nothing wrong with being effeminate." of course. and do you feel happy with how you look?

"i worry people would feel unsafe around me." do you feel safe around you?

"it would be hard for other people to adjust." and you think it'd be easier to suffer quietly?

"he/they is fine. i really prefer he/him, but i have to make it easier on other people." so you want to let other people decide your gender? again?

"if i'm going to be a man, i owe it to other people to be as soft, friendly, and nonthreatening as possible."

No. You don't.

[fluoresensitivearchived]

Do you know what’s crazy annoying to me? Non-Black people treating Black music as a joke. Like, September by Earth, Wind & Fire is a joke. Hey Ya by Outkast is a joke. WAP is a joke, X Gonna Give it To Ya is a joke. It’s just so weird to me, because in Black culture, these songs are just songs. They’re kickback songs and songs we play with our friends. And what’s super frustrating is that no other culture has thing done with their music, it’s just our stuff that’s funny because it’s Black. It gives me such a headache like! Black musicians aren’t a joke, Black art isn’t a joke. Why is everything we do to express ourselves (or even just our existence) a fucking meme? Why aren’t we allowed to be human beings with depth and culture?

[reynard61]

Let's ambush mama! 😼

[dvandom]

"Why do Pallas cats always look grumpy?"

"Pallas kittens."

[waywardmartian]

The sheer roundness of this kitten must be admired.

[hydrattan]

I was feeling agitated and artblocked yesterday so I decided to give my brain a rest by watching TV and then the next thing I knew these were in front of me

[asphodel-asphodel]

What mean? What mean, made peace? It means... I know I'm not going home. I know why. And it's okay.

[billymayslesbian]

imagining a universe where porn is a marketable genre so you have to deal with raycon ads while trying to jerk your shit

[torchichate]

You’re an easy slut, aren’t you kitten? Almost as easy as dinner with Hellofresh

[essaimart]

☝️ one

[essaimart]

she needs a lot

[habken]

besties