mossman

train of thought

[train-mossman]

confession time: im just a simple technologically challenged enby who wants to join this entirely technological world called tumblr. my posts will never be flashy. i will make many silly mistakes. please be patient and love me. i vow to return the favor.  

[diphowell]

"Play is the language of the soul when it feels safe enough to come outside." - John Emery, Sacred Silly

[train-mossman]

A gift for the @phandomgiftexchange written by me and gifted to @thephossibilityoflove

This was so fun to write! And in with just a few minutes to spare until midnight. Not entirely sure where the idea even came from but it started with your prompt "Dan and Phil having fun together" I really hope you like it! Also PS I love your tumblr handle.

Title: The Party

Word Count: 1900

Fandom: Dan and Phil

Genre: Fluff, Introspection

Sometimes the beach beckons you to its shore with the sound of it's powerful waves crashing in the distance. When all else is quiet, except maybe a passing car or the rustle of leaves, the rhythmic push and pull of water between moon and shore lures in all who long to experience the mysteries of the sea. For one Daniel Howell, however, it wasn't the beach that called him to the ocean, or even the waves. It was the party.

For too long he'd sat on the edges of social entertainment, claiming he was too awkward or didn't have any friends. The truth was parties bring about intimate questions, whispered loudly between strangers. Who do you fancy here? Think you'll snog anyone tonight? What's your deal, anyway? Maybe enough alcohol will reveal the answer.

Tonight, the last night of their first vacation as a public "item", or whatever the hell people were calling it these days, things would be different.

Phil had laughed after the attractive stranger at the bar walked away. He'd invited them both to a beach party where there would be "plenty of blokes to show you a good time." Did he really find it laughable that they might do something adventurous for once?

"We should swing round, just for a bit." Dan tried not to sound too eager but couldn't tell if it was for Phil's sake or his own.

"What, really? I thought we had a Switch date tonight. You wanted to try that room service cheesecake."

Dan would be lying if he said the thought of three flavor marble cheesecake didn't almost break the spell he was currently under. Even still, he pushed through the desire for rich and decadent hotel foods and stood his ground.

"How many parties have we ditched for cheesecake? Too many," he looked sternly at his partner.

Phil giggled but tried his best to pay attention to the love of his life, despite the silliness of the premise.

Dan couldn't help but laugh a little too, "Come on Phil, let's go have some fun."

He leaned into the blonde boy and smiled, I want to drink a ridiculously expensive cocktail and do ridiculously cheap shots and dance with you on the beach. Lean into that twink rebirth, you know you want to."

Phil laughed loudly and genuinely this time.

"Okay yeah, let's do it. Just don't get totally sloshed, yeah? I'm not spending my vacation dragging your blackout ass up the shore."

Dan gasped and put a hand to his chest in mock drama, "Me?? I would never, I'm a classy bitch and you know it."

Phil rolled his eyes and shoved him towards the door, "Come on party boy, let's go live out your teenage dreams."

—------------------------

Somewhere in his body Phil could sense the waves. There's something different about feeling the beat of the music in your bones when it's bouncing off the walls around you and that same beat as it sinks into the atmospheric background mother nature has so conveniently provided. One connects you with your soul, the other connects you with nature itself.

He was thinking of the many wondrous things the sea had to offer him as he danced, body pressed between the many others in this place. Sweat mixed together and made for a specific texture that he was trying not to think about and the music was not only unfamiliar, but unpleasant. Visions of giant kelp and sea turtles certainly weren't the worst coping mechanism for these discomforts. He knew for a fact that at least some of these men were only able to endure them with the help of hard drugs. Surely daydreaming was an acceptable compromise. Even still, it took him a moment too long to catch the eye of his boyfriend making his way through the crowd with a second round of drinks.

"Earth to Phil," Dan said cheekily, "What are you thinking about?"

It was hard to hear him over the bass and the other dancers so Phil just took his drink in one hand and his partner's hand in the other and led him to the outskirts of the crowd. They didn't go too far. Phil wasn't sure why this party was so appealing to Dan, but he wanted to support him anyway.

Dan smiled and asked again, "What's going on in that silly brain of yours?"

Phil tried his best to focus on the positive, "Sea Turtles! I was just thinking I bet they can hear a cool distorted version of the music under the surface. Now we can say we've partied with sea turtles."

Dan laughed, "A beach filled with hot gays and you're glad to have been with the sea turtles you can't see."

"How do you know the sea turtles aren't also hot gays? Don't judge just because they're turtles."

He snorted at that, "Sure Phil, I'll be sure to make an apology video to the sea turtles immediately."

Before Phil could respond, a stranger with locs and neon green swim shorts walked up to them and waved at Dan.

"Hey man, I like your shirt"

Of course he had an American accent too.

Dan smiled wide, "Thanks! I picked it up at one of those street market booths in town"

"Sick, wanna dance with me?"

Dan's smile didn't falter but Phil watched as he blinked too many times. He was panicking.

"You know, normally I would but I think I'll finish this cocktail and take a breather."

Phil raised an eyebrow, "Don't let me stop you, you should go out and have a good time."

Dan's eyes shot daggers at Phil and stammered over something about needing to hydrate first.

American Man wasn't fazed, "All good, I'll find you out there later."

He left with a wink and Phil laughed as heat spread across Dan's cheeks.

"Didn't you come here to be adventurous?" he teased.

Dan just shrugged, "I came here to be adventurous with you."

Phil smiled softly, "And here we are, on the outskirts of the party, chatting each other up, listening to terrible music and rejecting strangers for no good reason."

"The music really is awful, are we just OLD, or do they just have terrible taste?"

"Probably both, but you're missing the point. You wanted to come to this party and I've danced more than you have and talked to more people, and by the looks of your still very full glass I've drank more than you too. What's going on?"

Dan looked around at the party and asked himself the same thing. He thought about how he'd imagined this going. It was less warm in his head. And more fulfilling.

"I think I just wanted to make up for lost time. We've gone public now. It doesn't matter if anyone sees us. We can do what we want and not have to make excuses."

"Okay, but what is it you actually want? Because you're saying its the party but I don't think that's true."

Dan thought a moment more, chugged the rest of his drink and said, "Let's go back to the hotel, but before we do-"

He took a step closer to Phil, took his face between his hands and kissed him hard.

Phil was shocked. They'd never done something even close to this amount of PDA before, but he couldn't help but find himself sinking into the kiss. He placed a hand on Dans waist and tugged at his shirt there, pulling him closer and slowed the kiss down. This wasn't urgent, it didn't need to be desperate. They had the rest of their lives to kiss at parties they'd rather not be at.

After a while they pressed their foreheads together and caught their breath. In the background, the party carried on entirely uncaring in the face of this moment. To them it was a completely benign, drunken kiss, but Phil knew better and so did Dan. This wasn't just romance, it was freedom. Finally.

—--------------------

"Get out of the way, bitch!"

"Eat my banana peel ho!"

"Dan! That was uncalled for!"

"Oh, oh no! Is Phil sad he's going to lose? Oh it's real easy now, look at that, just cruising across the finish line and that's two out of three, isn't it? Better luck next time Philly."

Phil shook his switch angrily and longed for the days when you could just chuck the controller and not have to worry about replacing an entire console.

The knock at the door came to rub salt in the wound.

"What perfect timing," Dan gloated, "loser gets the door."

Phil groaned and got up. He opened the hotel door to a staff member delivering wine and cheesecake and made sure to tip them well.

Closing the door behind him, he padded across the floor in his sock feet and, despite Dan's protests, didn't stop until he got to the balcony, overlooking the ocean below them.

"If you want cheesecake, you have to get up and join me."

Dan acquiesced and joined Phil outside. This room came with two rocking chairs and a small wooden side table that Phil set the drinks and dessert on. The boys sat and ate together in the cool night air.

After a minute Dan asked, "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Phil did his best to listen and sure enough, beyond the wind and the waves and the general bustle of the hotel entrance below them, Phil heard the very specific sound of distant music, the kind so far out that you can only hear the bass pounding. They same bass that had just been pumping through his blood only an hour before. Dan blushed, remembering how they kissed before.

"Was the party really that loud?" Phil asked, "Where is it?"

They both looked down the beach until they found, way in the distance, a small cluster of color changing lights. That's where they stood only an hour prior, when they thought the night would be completely different.

Phil looked at Dan for a moment as he gazed down the shoreline, "Are you sad we left? Do you regret leaving the party early?"

Dan shook his head, "No, I was just thinking I'd rather be in a place where I can hear you, not just see you from across the bar, hoping to clock a vibe."

"It seems like you liked my vibes well enough when you kissed me earlier," Phil smirked.

Dan looked away, "Was that okay? I know we don't really do pda. I got carried away."

Phil reached out and grabbed Dan's hand, "I always like kissing you, but more than that, I liked seeing you begin to discover more about who you are."

Dan smiled and sat back down to eat another slice of cheesecake, but corrected Phil on one point, "Not who I am, who we are."

They spent their evening drinking too sweet wine and chatting about whatever came to mind. At one point Phil insisted on a Mario Cart rematch, so they began hurling insults at each other.

This time, life was quiet and chaotic and the waves in the background didn't call them out into unfamiliar territory. Instead they roared loudly, just off the balcony, and invited them into a life where they have the freedom to stay in, and still be changed.

[jensharesescapism]

Sending the BFF the freebatch pics with a "there were 10 years after acd's final problem before it kept going"

and getting back a "I don't know if I am strong enough to live through this again with you"

[meep-meep-richie]

The picture What i see

[consultwithmouse]

Imagine Benedict after the tournament. "Dinner?"

Martin: "Starving."

[train-mossman]

why did this one get me 😭

[capitulism]

The largest mass shooting in American history was a hate crime against gay people. Don’t ever forget that.

[exmellivorinae]

June 12, 2016. Putting a date on this for when it gets reblogged months from now by people who think the post is about something from 30, 40 years ago.

[butch-reidentified]

I am a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting, having grown up in Orlando and just turned 20 a month prior. If you didn’t know, there were several families who refused to claim the bodies of their relatives due to their sexuality. One family even had their relative’s name removed from the memorial. Murdered by the same hate with which their families reject them in both life and death.

Many, many people celebrated Pulse. We were told we deserved it. That it was God’s punishment for our sin of loving the same sex. We are sent messages like these I received in 2018:

We in the community often call the victim count 49+ to include the survivors who couldn’t live with the pain.

The event was never officially declared a hate crime or targeted homophobic attack and is rarely listed as one in databases.

At our vigils for those slaughtered, Extremist Christian groups showed up to protest, holding signs like this:

ID: Me kissing a woman I was casually seeing in front of an angry looking man with a “Sodomy is Sin” sign.

Please understand how much more than just a mass shooting this was. We are still to this day harassed and told we deserved it by some.

This year was the sixth anniversary. The first couple years I received dozens of messages checking in on me on 6/12. Year 5 got enough news coverage for people to think to reach out to me. This year it was my therapist, the woman I kissed in that photo, and a couple of other gun violence survivor friends. People are forgetting already.

[butch-reidentified]

With the 7 year anniversary <2 weeks away, I figured I’d reblog this

[adziedoodlesphan]

happy birthday🎁 @danielhowell

Through all the eras you have shared with us, you have brought so much joy and hope to so many people - including myself and all of those I've been lucky enough to befriend thanks to you & Phil💛

Thank you so much for being here 🫶✨ Wishing you the best always!

more phan doodles here / twitter post

[adziedoodlesphan]

happy birthday🎁 @danielhowell

Through all the eras you have shared with us, you have brought so much joy and hope to so many people - including myself and all of those I've been lucky enough to befriend thanks to you & Phil💛

Thank you so much for being here 🫶✨ Wishing you the best always!

more phan doodles here / twitter post

[liberalsarecool]

"That’s what makes Zohran Mamdani’s election in New York so unsettling to the old order. New York City is not just another municipality; it’s a sovereign-scale entity. Its population surpasses 38 states. Its metropolitan GDP trails only Texas and California.

It is, by any metric, a small country masquerading as a city.

It governs more lives and more wealth than most nations. If democratic socialism — housing reform, public banking, equitable taxation — functions here, it obliterates the myth that such governance can’t work at scale. The fear isn’t ideological. It’s empirical. Because if Mamdani can keep the lights on, reduce homelessness, and maintain economic growth without catering to Wall Street, then the capitalist gospel collapses under its own dead weight.

What terrifies the establishment isn’t failure. It’s feasibility.

If it works in New York, there’s no reason it can’t work in Nebraska. If it works in Queens, it can work in Kansas City. And once proof exists, belief becomes irrelevant. The ship of democracy, fully refitted, will keep sailing — and no one can claim it isn’t American."

- Jackie Summers

[kimdokjas]

@animangacreators challenge pride month 2025 ↳ YURI ON ICE

[train-mossman]

ISO FAVORITE JOHNLOCK FIC!

The key identifier and connection point between these stories is the title. I don't remember exactly what it is, but its a quote from Sherlock that he says it every chapter. The title/phrase is "____, John" For example, it could be like "Damn it, John" or "You got it, John" but its not those and I can't remember the word/phrase 😭

The only 2 concrete details I remember from the stories themselves is one if the chapters features an octopus that Sherlock takes a liking to and makes a cameo in a future volume with its octopus babies and in the one romance chapter John describes kissing sherlock like tasting gunpowder.

Somehow this feels like a lot to go off of and also absolutely nothing. Its not enough to search it up but if you happen to have read it you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Thanks for your help!

[fuckyeahfightlock]

Something tells me it's a good time to let newer watchers of BBC Sherlock that there is a mini-episode, "Many Happy Returns," between S2 and S3, which is canon, and which many (or, OK, me) think just might be the best episode of the series. This episode is YouTube exclusive so if you recently streamed the show, you may have missed it.

You're welcome.

[wileycap]

Selected Excerpts From The Fire Nation Royal Palace Servants' (Unofficial) Handbook

Or: Revisions To Normal Protocol After The Ascension Of Agni's Exalted Flame, The Dragon Of The Sun, et cetera, Fire Lord Zuko

1. Agni's Exalted Flame, The Dragon Of The Sun, et cetera, Fire Lord Zuko should not be referred to by his full titles and styles, no matter the context. This appears to annoy him. "Fire Lord Zuko" and "Lord Zuko" are acceptable, as well as "your majesty" and "my Lord".

1.1 "Lord Hotman", however, is unacceptable.

1.2. Even if the Avatar specifically requests you to address Fire Lord Zuko as that.

1.3. In fact, any attempts by the Avatar, the Lady Beifong, the honorable Tribesman Sokka or even Master Katara to get you to address Fire Lord Zuko by anything other than his proper title should be disregarded.

1.4. Referring to Ozai of the Fire Nation (titles rmvd, dishon.) as "The Loser Lord", however, is acceptable.

2. Fire Lord Zuko is aware of the concept of mortality, but does not seem to understand how it relates to His Majesty. Following activities should be discouraged: Free climbing, glider usage, contact with exotic animals larger than a turtleduck (or smaller, if the animal is known to be venomous), amateur theatre productions, cooking, sailing, spelunking, botany, please see full list in the Matron's office.

2.1. It should be noted that His Majesty's belief that mortality does not apply to him does not appear to be completely unfounded. After several "close calls", it has been decided that upon his demise, Fire Lord Zuko should lie in state for at least two weeks.

2.1.1. We do not want another incident.

3. The turtleducks in the Western Pond do not need to be fed by the servants any more.

3.1. However, the turtleducks should be rotated out at regular intervals in order to prevent overfeeding.

4. At any official social functions, at least three servants should be vigilant in case His Majesty tries to tell a joke.

4.1. It should be noted that there is no concern for His Majesty's jokes being offensive, crass or otherwise contrary to good taste. They are simply very bad. His Majesty always ends up embarrassed.

5. Any children left unattended in the Royal Palace for more than 15 degrees can be retrieved from the Fire Lord's office.

6. Should His Majesty go missing, the following places should be searched: roofs and any high places, cellars and secret passages, the fur of the Avatar's sky bison (which is surprisingly deep), and every place that an ordinary five-year-old would think to hide in during a game of "Hide and Explode."

6.1. All of the Imperial Firebenders as well as any soldier who wears a mask during the course of their duties should be questioned.

6.1.1. Important note: Some of the soldiers who are especially close to His Majesty can perform a passable imitation of him. Efforts should be made to prevent an uneducated soldier from, say, conducting a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture.

6.2. After the recent incident, that list is expanded to include the Kyoshi Warriors and any other groups that might wear concealing full face paint.

6.3. If all of these measures prove ineffective, a letter should be sent to The Dragon of the West, Prince Iroh, asking His Highness to return His Majesty.

6.4. If a ransom note is delivered, it should be immediately checked against the handwriting samples from the honorable Tribesman Sokka as well as Avatar Aang, before any other actions are taken.

6.4.1. Replying "Good luck, he's your problem now" to a ransom note is absolutely unacceptable.

6.4.1.1. To further drive home the point, the Royal Archives are required by law to preserve every single piece of royal correspondence. That thing will end up in a museum.

This handbook will be updated should it prove necessary.

[we-are-knight]

You know, I don't think I'll ever get over how that one post I made about women as knights in history, made it all the way to Reddit only for a bunch of redditors to argue that women couldn't actually be knights because:

- "the term is gendered" (it's not, and feminine equivalents were sometimes created specifically for the purpose)

- "they didn't actually do things as knights" (who didn't? The Hatchet women fought the Moors. A few other Orders had women as masters of arms. Both martial and formal examples)

...and a few other reasons that come down to "I don't like imagining my manly men in steel had women in their ranks, girls have cooties".

And the reason I say this is because recently, Wikipedia updated their page on "Knight", specifically adding a section about women with the title of knighthood, and what function they performed. And I know: "Wikipedia is not an academic source"--but every academic institution will accept the sources and articles used to back up wikipages, which confirm what has been said.

Knights were sometimes women. 🤷

[we-are-knight]

I saw this and needed to answer.

The gendered versions of 'knight' come from Romance languages, and literally just change the word to fit the gender of the subject (within a binary). So it isn't like English, where a female knight has always been a 'Dame', but, using Spain as an example, the word for Knight in Spanish is 'Cabellero'. This is the default masculine.

The feminine word for Knight? 'Cabellera'.

Similarly in French: "Chevalier" becomes "Chevaliére".

In Italian, "Cavaliere" becomes "Cavaliera".

Outside of Romance languages, "knight" is just a title for a social rank, so even the English Dame is by default a knight by rank, but may not have the title (although not impossible).

So it's not a silly infantilisation, than using a word for the knightly class and gendering it in a binary, which means we can actually tell that, yes, women as knights existed, enough that the feminine form of the word pops up now and then, so we know it existed.

[jv]

ooh, where one could read that original post??

Just a note about translations and ... well, patriarchal bullshit.

When you say "Hatchet women fought the Moors" I was like "hey, that seems to be part of my local history, how have I never heard about it?", and when I googled it ... I actually have heard about it, it's the Orden del Hacha from Catalonia (Orde de l'Atxa in the original Catalan). But ... there's something odd going on. Why the fuck in English they have translated like "Order or the hatchet"? You know, in Spanish and Catalan there's no really a difference between "Axe" and "Hatchet": There's a single word for them, "Hacha/Atxa". But in English, there's a difference. A Hatchet is a hand axe, pretty much the smallest one you can think of:

So It's pretty remarkable that whoever translated the name of the order to english first decided to use "Hatchet" and not "Axe". I'm pretty sure if this was a order of men warriors the name would have been pretty different. Specially when THIS was their coat of arms:

So dear academic-who-translated-this-first: Does that look like a hatchet to you, motherfucker?!?!?

[we-are-knight]

Important inclusion I was not aware of, thank you very much friend. :)

[heroineimages]

I’m going to be chuckling over ‘Does this look like a hatchet to you, motherfucker?!?!?” for the rest of the day.

[notjusthespongenextdoor]

For a city to be walkable. It must also be sittable.

[notjusthespongenextdoor]

#every time I read this phrase the same thing happens#I read it as shittable and go wait that can't be right#oh right they were talking about public benches that makes more sense#but public bathrooms available without fees should also be a thing tho#cities should definitely be shittable#it happens EVERY SINGLE TIME

it must also be shittable

[jvlianbashir]

my friend's discord server has a "proof of touch grass" channel where they post pics of them doing regular activities outdoors/in public. i think many online spaces could benefit from such a thing

[weaselle]

when i was super depressed - like struggling to eat anything barely able to get out of bed to pee depressed - my good friend asked me every day to send her a picture of me holding a leaf and a picture of a meal i was eating and it helped me significantly

(also, she was never judgey - if my meal was a single potato chip she would simply say good job eating a potato chip today <3 )

which is to say, i agree proof of touch grass is a good idea for online spaces

[coyotebabe-deactivated20230727]