That simple image thing is right at the root of homophobia, too. The fundamental image of life, of family, of childhood, of survival, is man and woman. Every story, every myth, every image reinforces that. Even the images of the real world reinforce that, because statistically heterosexuality is the norm. It’s the default. It’s the icon. Man/man or woman/woman disrupts a fundamental childhood image. Homophobia does seem to come from some gut instinct that’s beyond the religious or the physical act or whatever. It’s primal, and I think that’s from the pictures. It’s from what we see and what we’re shown. That’s why, in this gay lark, I stress visibility. Change the law, have education classes, do whatever you want, just be seen.

~ Russell T Davies

It has come the whole way through, it seems. First I thought love didn’t exist (except as chemical reactions). Then I thought I was “too rational” to feel it (har har). Then I thought I would never find it, at least in the foreseeable future. Then oops.

Hazuki once said how she and Rachel got lucky to basically fall into each other’s arms. I guess the same happened here.

When Alice is not online, I often feel uneasy and tired, like I have nothing meaningful to do. And when she is, it’s enough to slide my mood-meter into the “happy” or even “ecstatic” zone, no matter how low on the scale it could have been before.

Once again: safe environments prepare for unsafe ones. Roleplayed relationships have prepared me to embrace a real one, where my 21-year-old self would feel utterly clueless. So weird… but in a good way.

If there’s advice worth heeding, here is an element of it…

Follow your heart, Maia.

It shall speak to you in the course of your life and seldom if ever deceive you, when you really listen to it.

And one of my aims in life is to touch the hearts and lives of many positively.

I believe it is among my purpose..