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June 14 - June 29, 2023
“The family that spays together, stays together!” Christine winces. She’s seen that mug.
Things change, including all the boys.
But he relaxes again before Stefan can respond, returns to his former equanimity. “Stefan,” he says, “I don’t want to be anything.”
Martin may not get much focus but this glimpse at his isolation and depression shows potential
Fuck it. If the women of Dorley can do this, so can he. He opens his eyes, looks himself up and down, and steps unconsciously back. It’s too much. It’s impossible. It’s unreal. But there she is: the girl the others all say they can see. A step forward again. Fingers reaching out, making contact with the glass. Making it real, making it tangible. “Hi, Stef,” she whispers, and the girl in the mirror whispers back.
Beautiful moment
like the Snake game on the emergency phone back home,
As someone with potential, not as someone whose life has been squandered.”
“Everything you do is transactional. By definition. Because you’re doing them. They’re trans actio—”
Good good awful puns
On her internal chalkboard, Stef bypasses the column labelled carefully choreographed operation and adds another check mark under shitshow.
She’s really nice, but she’s crushing hard on this boy down there? And she knows what’s going to happen to him but she can’t say anything? And he’s starting to see her for who she really is and he’s denying his feelings and he’s refusing to accept what’s happening but you can see the little glimmers of who he might become, right? And she’s helping keep him stable and he’s helping her in his own way and, God, Lorna, it’s so sweet and so sad and I’m so addicted and where was I?
Jodie is also a fan of this book!
Your question’s backwards: it shouldn’t be, ‘Is community worth the risk of being yourself?’; it should be, ‘Can you safely be yourself without community?’
900% wisdom
You need the community, because we create little bubbles of reality in the mad, structured chaos of the cis world; places where you can exist as yourself, people around whom you don’t have to keep up the act.
a huge group of people who are downright excited for you to be yourself, no matter how weird and delightful that is, and who will help you live that way.
“Don’t be silly,” Bella says. “Vampires don’t exist.”
Excellent joke when taken out of context
goodness knows if Stephanie had to convince her flipping breakfast of her value, be an honest advocate for her own hunger before it would let her eat it, she’d starve.
“We’re womankind; we’re the ones who inherit the Earth, remember? What? It’s true. I saw it in an old movie. With dinosaurs. And that guy from Thor: Ragnarok.”
*shakes cane at fictional whippersnapper*
They have to learn that the thing they were taught their whole lives to be afraid of is actually… fine. Just completely one hundred percent normal and fine.”
Instead she just wriggles against Melissa’s body and tries to diagnose why it’s so important to her that she disappoints the woman she’s been looking for all these years.
Steph recognizing her intrusive thoughts is such a big moment to me
Reflexive lying; reflexive self-hatred. Got to watch for those.
“You’re not a problem,” Shahida insists. “You’ve just had a hard time.” “Yeah. Yeah. Keep telling me that. Every half hour or so, please.”
