#aquilathefighter

[gabessquishytum]

Happy happy birthday Gabe!!!!!

YAY thank you friend!!!!!! Big love!!!!!!!

[jewish-microwave-laser]

Sorry people are being wack, please look at miss thing being fabulous

OH SO GORGEOUS!!!!!

[vriah]

My artwork for the @endlessbigbang 2023!

Sunrise in Chocolate Ink by @aquilathefighter

Dream Endlaez is newly living on his own and trying to make it as a poet. He starts going to work at a nearby coffee shop known for supporting local artists, where he meets a handsome and charming barista named Hob. Dream learns the business is not doing well, so he decides to host a poetry reading night to attract customers (and boost his career at the same time!), all the while falling for the barista.

[queerofthedagger]

Hi mona!!

11. Something you want to do again next year?

14. Favorite book you read this year?

Aquila! Thank you!! <3

11. Something you want to do again next year?

So in early Spring this year, I actually booked a small cottage by the sea, and disappeared from society for a week. Minimal tech, lots of sleep, reading, and spending time outside with me, myself, and I. While this did confirm to me that I love living in the city 50 weeks of the year, that one week was genuinely so fucking good for me. Absolute detox, which, as someone as permanently online as I am, is I think so needed. So I do want to make this a yearly thing!

14. Favorite book you read this year?

Answered this here and here, but third place would be Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights! First time reading it and absolutely loved it <3

End of the Year Asks <3

[virgo-dream]

heard u need some headcanons!! much love bc this time of year is ROUGH 🫂

Hob got really into the queer liberation movement and has gone on to be the resident bisexual professor that all the students know is a safe person to go to and helps out with the LGBT clubs on campus.

He gets really excited to share this with Dream, who is a little confused about why it's so important (having missed much of the fight) but immediately takes interest because omg Hob is into more than ladies??

Hob hosts the club at the New Inn and Dream shows up and all the students just Know by the way those two look at each other and spend the night trying to get them to admit it to each other.

Look. LOOK. I'M. I'm very NORMAL ABOUT THIS. Did you know the bi flag was unveiled in December 5th of 1988? Did you know HOB DIDN'T MEET DREAM IN JULY 7TH OF 1989 ANYWAY HAVE A FIC

Dream doesn't get it at first. He never really did get it, but only attributed it to the need humanity had for labels, for packing things into boxes and saying this goes here and that goes there. Sometimes, it led to this goes to heaven and you go to hell. It seemed to be a very common one, too. He was beyond that; his name said it all, Dream was endless. Not he nor she, not man nor creature, he was all there was to be and the nothingness beyond it. Gender and sexuality need not apply.

Still, it meant so much to Hob, that he'd have dreams about it. Nightmares too, for nights on end, and even if Dream begged Hob to allow him to take them away, Hob always declined, always braved through them. "If you take them, I'll forget how much it all means. I'll forget why I'm still fighting."

They sat at the New Inn one afternoon, while Hob graded papers and Dream had a cup of chamomile tea, but his eyes couldn't help but focus on a shiny pin on Hob's jumper shaped like a flag, the shades of pink, purple and blue a spot of proud colour in Hob's otherwise earthy colour palette.

"It's the bisexual pride flag."

"Hm?" Dream's eyes dart up to meet Hob's, tilting his head slightly. He wasn't sure if he should feel bad for being caught, because he wasn't sure what he was looking at in the first place.

"The pin. I wear it for my students, but also for myself. The kids feel safer I guess, knowing they have at least one of their own in the faculty. Can't say it doesn't make me feel good too."

Hob has a particular tone to his voice that makes Dream's heart sing in tune to its melody. It's a fuller sense of self, maybe more than Dream ever had in regards to his own identity. "...one of their own?"

"Oh, I– Sorry, those are pretty recent." Hob straightened himself up (ha) on the chair, his lecturing posture taking over. Dream liked when he did that. He liked to hear Hob speak of things he had deep knowledge of and passion for. "This one was created in 1988 by a queer activist called Michael Page. Had the pleasure of being there when it was first unveiled, but clearly it took a long time until I was able to wear something like this out in public and not be decked by some bloody homophobe."

It was starting to sink in.

"...I'm afraid I was not present for these developments." Dream saw the look on Hob's face, like he was ready to apologise. He raised a had to stop him, waving his concern away. "As far as I can remember, queer was not a form of self identification, but only a way to shun out those outside the established norm."

"Ah, yes. We reclaimed it, though. Or are reclaiming it. The 80s were crazy. All of them were, for me." Hob smiled at Dream, at their shared secret and at their years of now reestablished friendship.

"I think you're lonely."

Could it have been....? Could he have meant...?

"What does it mean for you, then?" Dream asks in a way he hopes sounds inconspicuous, pointing at the pin. He was hesitant to ask, afraid to be getting it all wrong.

"For me? It means I love whoever I love. Man, woman, either or neither."

The pride coming from Hob's words filled Dream with hope, something he had not felt in a long, long time. The look in his face then shifted onto something else, something he didn't quite understand. "...what about you? That is, if you're okay with talking about that. I don't want to overstep. Last thing I want is for you to walk out–"

"I won't, Hob." Dream knew Hob had reason for feeling that way. "I don't believe the terminology you have could define my experience. I have laid with mortals and gods alike, and have wore many faces and names. It is beyond human comprehension."

Hob seems takes a moment to think about what he'd just heard. Dream feels like he might have thrown too much at his human friend. "...I think I get it. But, and tell me to bugger off I'm wrong, do you prefer to be a particular way? To be with a particular sort of being?"

Dream. Didn't have an answer.

He never thought of what he preferred. He'd never felt in need of any sort of outside validation, but. That was a lie. He needed it. He just never cared to look for it.

Hob's smile was what broke him out of the spell of his own self doubt. "It's okay if you don't have an answer, you know. It takes people a loooong time to get it, it took me nearly 600 years, you know? Ah! You know what? I've got an idea–" He reached inside his brown messenger bag, pulling out a colourful piece of paper, handing it over to Dream. A pamphlet for a meeting. "We're having a meeting for the uni's LGBT clubs here at the Inn. I want this to be a safe space for the kids, and to get them to connect with other folks in the community, share their experiences. It's tomorrow, and I'd love it if you could make it. I'm sure they would too."

Dream took the pamphlet in hands, looking at the bright colours and bold fonts, taking in every bit of information Hob was giving him and trying to fill in the gaps of the questions he wouldn't dare ask. After a moment, he looked up at Hob, allowing himself a small smile. "I shall be in attendance, then."

[na-bird-of-the-day]

Do you have a favorite bird that winters in your area? I'm quite fond of the white-throated sparrows and their scratch-hop foraging technique!

Sometimes we'll get flocks of cedar waxwings! They're such handsome birds, and I love watching them eat their berries :)

[marlinspirkhall]

trick or treat!! :D

Here's an excerpt from And Her Heart Was Then Quicksilver, my WIP for the Uhura Bang:

“Well,” Amina says, “I've been learning French and American. But everyone says American gets harder after 9th grade.” “Why?” “Because they introduce all those new grammar rules. At least I know where I stand with French.” “Why not do both?” “Are you crazy? I'm not you. Federation Standard is already mandatory, and we have to take Swahili until 10th grade! I've been speaking it all my life, I'd sure hope I'd know how to speak it by now!” Nyota laughs. “Yeah, but… You enjoy both of them, right? And Starfleet has headquarters in San Francisco and Paris. You could come and visit me there.” “I don't need to speak French to speak to you,” she says. “You speak everything.” She narrows her eyes. “Is it true that it gets easier to learn new languages once you know old ones?” “Sometimes,” she admits. “But I'll let you in on a little secret: no language is easy to learn. Every language has weird grammar rules that are made up as they go along. Living organisms are messy and contradictory, and our languages reflect that.” “Even Vulcan?” She smiles. “Especially Vulcan.”

ask box trick or treat (fic writer edition)

[jewish-microwave-laser]

Can I offer you a Zeus What Are You Doing In The Flowerbed in this trying time? 💛💛💛💛

omg zeus.... buddy......