We Are All Family, & None of Us Belong Here

my archives are on indefinite lockdown for personal reasons. please respect that. anon is almost always on: ask away. take care of yourselves. fail better as best you can. (trust that i am doing the same)

[saathi1013]

Who I Am:

I'm Saathi (she/her), fanfic author who occasionally dabbles in fanart/graphics, polyam ship enthusiast, BOFQ*, and occasional ranter about fandom racism/misogyny (though I have no time for pro/anti bullshit, thank you kindly). I'm white, queer, married to the trans gamer girl of my dreams, and live in the midwestern US.

My first fanfic was written longhand in a notebook before the internet was properly accessible, and my first online fandom was the X-Files (og shippers say heyyyy). Current fandoms include Battlestar Galactica (reboot), Man from Uncle (Ritchie film), Dune (books & recent movie), and Project Hail Mary.

I try to tag pretty consistently (holler if I need to add something), and my askbox is always open (anons are currently on).

* BOFQ = "Bitter Old Fandom Queen," an old acronym I use mostly tongue in cheek

Where to Find Me:

My fic on Ao3 (plus some fanart and meta)

-- a curated sampler of my personal faves --

-- a post about why I like those particular fics --

Recs: All Time Favorites on AO3

Saathi1013 on Bluesky and DW, though I don't use the latter much.

My 'random reference posts' sideblog

--

How to add readmores to your fic on Tumblr

[astrophallus]

PHM + PRIDE aroace

[gremlin-posting]

James Ortiz approves of massive Adrian!

[tuherrus]

you don't even have a dog

[creepynostalgy]

Georgina Hale in The Devils (1971)

[rosieandthemoon]

[ao3commentoftheday]

Hi! It’s been really exciting to see all the takes on proper beta reader etiquette- I feel like beta readers have fallen out of fashion recently and it’s good to know that people are still interested.

I was wondering if it’s possible to be a beta reader without being a published fic author. I love reading fanfic and editing people’s writing (mostly grammar, sentence structure, etc.) but I haven’t published anything myself. I’m sure most people looking for a beta reader would prefer to read something that the reader has written to make sure styles and such align, but would any writers be open to a beta reader with no published works?

Of course you can beta read without being a writer yourself! You still have thoughts and opinions that can be shared. And as we've discussed, there are many types of betas:

grammar and spelling checkers

canon compliance checkers

characterization checkers

localization and translation help

consistency and logical flow help

reading for sensitivity to marginalized or underrepresented groups

assisting with AO3 tags and summary

cheer reading (being an enthusiastic reader to motivate the author to keep going)

Betas are often a rare resource in fandom - especially now when they aren't talked about as much. Putting yourself out there as a volunteer would be appreciated. I'm sure of it!

[the-irreverend]

And stay safe everyone!

[lewadny]

happy june to everyone, especially my fellow aroaces

[lewadny]

Listen

LISTEN

I'M SCREAMING THE MAIN SEQUENCE *IS* THE AROACE FLAG WHAT

[mornington-the-crescent]

June 1st

[breelandwalker]

Listen, marketing-as-exploitation discussions aside, Rainbow Capitalism is, has been, and continues to be the canary in the coal mine of social acceptance for the queer community.

If you’ll all pardon my Americentrism for a moment, the amount, visibility, and flamboyance of Pride merch available in clothing, home goods, and comestibles stores is a DIRECT reflection of how safe it is to be queer in public in the United States.

How? Simple. Out groups aren’t profitable. If you’re not “acceptable” in the current social climate, big franchise businesses will not market to you. (Prime example - Look how quickly Target dropped all their Pride merch after having been wall-to-wall rainbows every June for almost a decade prior.)

Sure, capitalism sucks and being viewed as an exploitable marketing demographic isn’t a fun concept.

HOWEVER.

The grim truth is that being normalized enough to be considered profitable by corporations IS A GOOD THING in terms of the barometer of social acceptance.

Same thing goes for smaller businesses that throw kitschy Pride events or even just put a token rainbow flag in the window or somewhere inside the shop. That’s a level of acceptance that DID NOT EXIST thirty years ago, and I can tell you because I was there.

The fact that we can scoff and bitch about being an exploitable marketing demographic nowadays means we have made GIGANTIC strides since the 1990s. It also speaks to the fact that the drive and the conversation surrounding LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance are continuing. And getting louder.

You can be cynical about it if you want. But I will take a store that puts out lip-service rainbow merch over a world that pretends we don’t exist any day of the week. Because that will always mean something.

Sincerely, An Elder Queer

[impostoradult]

Agreed, and also, it has always struck me as a little bit of a double-standard in queer politics when people used to point out the exclusion of queerness from mainstream capitalist products as evidence of their marginalization (e.g., there are no m/m or f/f wedding cards)

Yet, when they start being included, they are like “well, that’s just capitalism taking advantage of us, so it doesn’t count.” Like, you can’t use your EXCLUSION from something as evidence of general societal marginalization and then claim that once you’ve started to be included, it is politically meaningless. You don’t really get to have it both ways. That’s moving the political goal posts.

I get that we shouldn’t consider Target pride merchandise as like the pinnacle of queer politics or even the pinnacle of queer inclusion. I get that inclusion in capitalist intuitions is a very ambivalent form of social progress. But the truth is, capitalism is a big part of what creates our social reality right now (unfortunately).

Capitalism makes TV shows, and movies, and books, and ads, and greeting cards, and toys, and clothing, and, and…

When every single aspect of commercial social reality excludes queerness, that DOES create a real sense of social alienation. I don’t love that capitalism is responsible for creating so much of our collective social reality. But granting that it does, I think we’re forced to accept that our inclusion in it IS politically and socially important.

And yes we should still be trying to resist capitalism as the primary means of meeting human needs. But we can resist treating capitalism as an inevitability or an inherent good, AND ALSO acknowledge that our inclusion within it remains politically important while it still holds so much power and responsibility for creating our shared reality.

[quantummindclassicalheart]

See also a recent article from NPR (published May 30, 2026) discussing how pride celebrations have struggled financially with the loss of corporate sponsorships. Organizing big visible events (and fairly compensating the labor of those who make them possible) is expensive.

Pride celebrations struggle as corporate sponsorships dry up

Public support for the LGBTQ+ community by corporations has become politically risky, public relations expert says.

[depsidase]

[cloudabserk]

how’d i get so lucky

[robberofpearl]

Cult of the Star

Zuhair Murad haute couture ss 20 , Schiaparelli haute couture ss 22, Balmain rtw ss 23, Tex Saverio haute couture 12

Sourced from Pinterest

[steamclouds]

happy pride ✨

[fatalisticme]

let's chew on mama

[skelerangart]

"I'm Slowly Forgetting Your Face"

Flowers:

Roses - Love

Forget Me Nots - Memory

Purple Hyacinth - Asking for Forgiveness

[hydralunatic]

Rocky mate bad as hell!

My take on Adrian! Inspired by desert bloom variscite ( it’s very pretty go look it up)