which is how I just discovered that TV Tropes treats "ho yay" as a term from "the old days" whose origin is lost to the mists of time

INSERT STANDARD TVTROPES REACTION HERE BUT, LIKE, EVEN WORSE BECAUSE OMGWHAT

IME all of the "tells" between men and women romance writers disappear once the overall quality of the writing rises above a certain bar, which Reid's does.

I will say that the one bit I've read so far, the "My dinner with Hayden" short story, seemed to employ slash fiction clichés I read on livejournal back in the late 2000s and 2010s. The best friend raising outraged objections to the main character's choice of partner as if he could argue him out of his relationship, one member of the couple using "pervert" as an ironic endearment during foreplay, etc. I don't know that those are specific to being written by a woman so much as arising from slash fiction culture. Which is where the stories started if I understand correctly, Heated Rivalry having originated as Sidney Crosby/Alex Ovechkin RPF and Game Changers as a Steve/Bucky AU on AO3.

That was a concern of mine when starting the show, but if the novels use a lot of those tells Tierney and the production have done a good job of removing them in the adaptation.

I just noped out of that conversation because I just couldn't.

Wow. I didn’t think I could get madder about that

A gay male friend of mine noted on Facebook that he’s obsessed with HR, and I agreed, and he told me his local friends are not (!!) so I agreed to be his crack dealer. I sent him a ton of TikTok edits and he’s reading the books currently so I sent him some fanfics but told him most of them I can’t send until he’s finished the books currently and he was like “wait, what’s AO3?” And I was all “oh you sweet summer child…the crack awaits you”

Mwahahaha

Question for people who watched season 1 of The Pitt: I'm extremely phobic of rats, and I couldn't watch the first season because of that. Was that thing resolved within the first season, or do I still need to be cautious?

I would assume that plotline was resolved, but have not seen the premiere

I think it was resolved but I can’t remember exactly how, so not 100% confident. There’s none in this episode.

Man, I remembered there was emotional trauma but forgot about all the injuries and such onscreen. Much flinching

Thanks, -t.

I believe that the "journalist" was telling night shift about them (sure, dude), which felt like a bow on the story