#also on the podcast when alex was like yeah there was one person who had arguments w greg like you've never seen before

[valyrfia]

I want to jump in on the charles tism conversation!!! As someone with autism, I generally find the ones with the allegations are typically the ones I relate to the most so I can see where they are coming from as I share a lot of behaviours and attitudes with them. However, this is more so restricted to those most commonly called autistic as I have seen every driver called various degrees of neurodivergent and yeah none of them are exactly typical but only a few of them would easily meet the criteria. I think more of them lean towards ADHD if anything. I don't personally find Charles to be particularly affected by the tism but I do very much see Lando being AuDHD with his chaos but also sensory concerns. Max and Oscar definitely more so leaning to autism but with Max there is cultural and upbringing elements which could have caused some of those signs. Lewis obviously has ADHD and that's 100% correct. George is interesting because there's such a difference between who he portrays himself as vs child him and that could be masking or it could just be growing up a bit awkward. If George is neurodivergent (autistic?), then Alex almost certainly is because it's easier to have strong friendships with other NDs but more ADHD leaning. I adore my ADHD bestie. And also have 1 single NT friend. I am going to stop there because this got completely off topic from the short message it was supposed to be so I won't analyse all the drivers for fun but I'm curious to hear more of your opinions on Charles (Max too but that's kind of a given on f1blr when autism comes up 😭).

Thanks for your input anon this is fascinating! Sticking my opinion below the cut so I don't feel guilty about rambling on

Charles: agree with him being only ADHD, he doesn't seem to struggle in social settings, and doesn't seem to have many sensory concerns. But he deals with negative spirals/racing thoughts probably one of the most out of anyone on the grid, he's messy and disorganised, and he's CONSTANTLY dopamine-seeking by being an adrenaline junkie or taking up a new hobby.

Max: as much as I'd like to blame the Dutch of it all, I think the autism is pretty apparent that even NTs catch onto it. He's very blunt/literal, has set phrases/preferences (his safe drink is G&T? discuss), is constantly filmed wincing and covering his ears in the garage, is a certified #loser in social situations/small talk, and is obviously (like all of them) hyperfocused on racing to the exclusion of all else.

Oscar: all the Nicole Piastri interviews are enough for me, his inability to express emotion normally yet obviously feeling deeply (the story she told on the red flags podcast about her falling off her bike and him being completely deadpan but then his heart monitor later revealed his heartrate had gone up to like 200 bpm or something ridiculous) , him telling his mum he wants to be a car when he grows up, the constant naps on a race weekend to avoid overwhelm. There's certainly a touch of the 'tism in my humble opinion.

Lando: so obviously audhd. The sensory issues/constant stimming, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, him falling asleep everywhere on race weekends (easy way to go non-verbal and recover from overwhelm....isn't it), his social and generalised anxiety that probably arises from constant masking, him constantly saying he "feels too much" and "cares too much". Very undiagnosed, very strongly AuDHD.

George: I'm leaning towards yes with him probably being the strongest at masking of them all. The powerpoints of it all.......he has a cadence some have said they find weird and off-putting, and him and Max are just ASD on ASD violence which makes perfect sense, actually.

Alex: maybe ADHD but honestly there's also a chance he's the token NT friend who has been around ND people for so long he prefers them.

[allthatmay]

so. totally unrelated fandom post.

i've only seen the first episode of the wizards of waverly place sequel (wizards beyond waverly place) but i have thoughts. the basic premise of the show is that justin russo has settled down with a non-wizarding wife (giada), has two kids, and has become an ordinary middle school teacher after being fired from wiztech. his life is upturned when his sister, alex, drops round with a delinquent young girl named billy who needs help learning magic—and, oh yeah, she's supposedly part of some big prophecy to save the world.

so far, all i've seen is criticism of the characters and the show in general, but i think a lot of it is unfair. i'll concede that replicating the character dynamics from the original show (with giada as theresa, justin as jerry, billy as alex, roman as justin, milo as max, etc) was a bad move, but justin's character in particular has received a lot of flack that i, personally, find unreasonable.

people say that justin wouldn't dare give up being a wizard; that the trajectory of his life makes no sense given his love of magic. but life doesn't always work out the way we imagine, even with meticulous planning and preparedness. we can't forget that justin's own father was very much the same; that jerry was a very skilled wizard who loved magic and could never imagine giving it up. given that, i think it makes sense for justin's character to settle down with a non-magical wife and become a school principal. he held on to magic the longest of the three siblings because he defined himself by his skill with it, but he learned, as he aged, that magic wasn't everything.

besides, seeing justin lose his magical lifestyle as his ages only to reclaim it again at the start of this series is a great, if obvious, analogy for what happens to most of us as we age. even those who hold on tightest to their younger years can find themselves losing the the magic felt in childhood; we have to reach out and take it back for ourselves. children are sometimes the best ones at showing us what we have lost, hence: justin teaches magical children and in doing so rediscovers his own magic.

(side note: being a middle school principal suits him for obvious reasons: his love of learning, love of rules, love of wonder. the whole "being fired from wiztech because of an incident with a unicorn" also makes sense to me because, as much as alex learned from him, he learned from alex, too.)

i have nothing to say about alex's character because selena gomez came back and fucking crushed it. the biggest problem is the delivery of the prophecy: she just drops it like "hey billy's the only one who can save the world" and then leaves. now, do i think this is bad writing? yes. but i also think it would make sense if this was utter bullshit; if alex only said this to justin to ensure he really, truly enveloped himself back into the magical world because she knows just how much he misses it. (it's just a prank, bro!)

what would i have changed? i'd probably have made it so that alex had a kid like justin, and justin had a kid like alex. i would not give justin two boys as i don't think that does anything for his character. i would include both jerry and harper, as their actors have a goddamn podcast about the show and deserve to be included. (not to mention how jerry's character, in mirroring justin's, could be very informative for the whole plot.) also, justin's wife? she's fine, but please at least address what happened to juliet. was it the whole "i'm a vampire and i don't grow old but you do" thing? because that only adds to the reasoning behind justin giving up his magical lifestyle.

(also, and this is a tiny thing, but people are wondering how justin the principal and his investigative reporter wife can afford their house? and, HELLO, we get told that max is now a billionaire—thanks to his sandwich enterprise, i think. he would've totally bought them a house after giada convinced justin to accept it.)

[raceweek]

Drop the podcast bestie! (Please)

it’s the high performance podcast (you have to download their app to get it for free right now but it will be available for free soon on regular platforms) - in case anyone doesn’t want to download the app but wants to know some of the things alex talked about:

- for context he recorded the first part of the podcast initially and talked a lot about his struggles at red bull and what he went through as a teenager and then went back to the podcast hosts and said actually can we do a part two bc i want to talk about how im coping better now

- he says he isolated himself from all of his friends when everything was happening with his mum and he became an introverted person and still carries that introvertedness with him now from going through that time

- alex was told he was promoted to red bull when he went to see helmut in austria to talk about the practicalities of his move to monaco and just as the meeting ended helmut said oh by the way ur in the red bull seat, here’s the number for ur engineer maybe speak to him but also actually u can’t bc the factory is closed for summer but yeah ur going to be announced in about two hours. bye

- he says he didn’t enjoy being a driver in 2020 at all. literally said he was destroyed. he spoke about the pressure and how he deleted his social media due to the incessant mocking but he also felt like even though he had done that he couldn’t avoid it because although he didn’t see it directly he’d just be asked about it on media day every week anyway

- he was asked about what help was offered to him in 2020 when he was struggling and whilst he said the team cared there wasn’t really anything or anyone to help him. alex and his trainer patrick got their own psychologist towards the end of 2020 and then in 2021 when alex was out of the sport he assembled a team of his own who weren’t the most experienced but who he knew cared for him and would fight to the death for him (said he took jacques from red bull to be his manager because he always fought his corner no matter how tough the situation was)

- he was told about being dropped by horner in a meeting at the end of the season but he already knew because it had been posted in the media before they’d even met

- he described 2021 as a really weird time as he needed to boost his stock with red bull and all the other teams but to do that he needed to give as much as he possibly could to improve the car he had just been kicked out of, so when max said at pre season testing that the car was so much more stable it was a strange feeling knowing that that’s what he needed and he wasn’t able to do anything with it

- he compiled a sexy spreadsheet for team principals in the paddock showing that as much as he struggled in 2020 he was on reflection closer to max pace wise than maxs’ current teammate and maxs’ teammate before alex

- when asked to describe where he is now he said he’s happier than he’s ever been. he’s driving better than ever and is mentally in the best headspace he’s ever been in

- he says he comes up with scenarios in his head from the last 4/5 years and as soon as he has a sort of deja vu struggle moment he uses it to show himself he’s overcome that hurdle

- he said the older he gets the more he doesn’t feel the need to write things down the way he used to because he feels more confident in himself

- the best piece of advice he’s ever received is from franz tost who said “alex if there’s one thing you need to learn about formula one it’s don’t give a fuck” and he said he didn’t really understand it until he started struggling and then he realised that he cared too much

- when asked about what advice he would give to teenage alex now he said it’s hard because he isn’t the most confident now and he knows teenage alex wouldn’t listen bc his parents would always try and fill him with confidence so he said he’d try and shake younger him and tell him that it’s true what they’re telling you

[ladyjayde]

Okay, I have some things to say about the first season of The Magnus Protocol... This might be a long one but I don't care ✨

SPOILERS OBVS IF YOU'RE NOT UP TO DATE

I'd like to mention beforehand that I absolutely ADORED TMA, and I'm a big fan of Jonny and Alex's work. Maybe this is just me having too high expectations for this series, but I have spoken to some of my friends who also listen to this podcast and have listened to Magnus Archives and pretty much everyone agrees. So here we go

I'm not feeling it. I didn't enjoy this season at all in all honesty. The only moments that excited me was the lore we had for the TMA characters to which, as far as we know, have nothing to do with this story. It was all filler to please the fans which is appreciated, but every statement in this season felt unimportant. Sure, we had Mr. Bonzo and a couple others that we saw again as part of Gwen's work, but they never truly felt like a threat to me. If anything, most interactions they got felt coincidental more than anything.

Which leads to my second point, there was no action in the season and it made it political and boring to me :/ I understand that's this is how TMA kinda started as well, with a lot of build up and set up for the world. BUT, at least we got SOMETHING by the end of the season. There was real danger and survival instinct activated for the characters. TMAGP has none of that... They jump in, no questions asked and no questions answered. There's no thrill, there's barely any suspense. It feels empty.

And now the characters themselves. Well, except from the very charged introduction to all of them at once that lead many fans to be confused and have difficulty identifying each of them in the first few episodes, they are pretty mundane. None of their stories truly engage with me. Don't get me wrong, I still love them, but they feel a bit boring and all too similar to each other. They get lost in the plot and don't feel like individuals. It's like they're forgetting who they are in order to feed into the plot.

Now, with all of that being said, here's what I think could've helped make this a better series.

1. Make it a longer series. As of now, there's only one episode left which, yes, is supposed to be double length, but nothing has happened yet for me to want a second season. Even if it has taken an extra year or two, I would've rather waited. So, unless something very intense happens next Thursday, I don't think S2 will be in my "Need to listen" list. Too much setup, not enough fear. Like, I'm not even worried that Sam or Celia will die in the next episode. They have so much plot armor I'm certain they'll survive.

2. Make the statements have an effect on the characters. Only Sam seems to take interest in them. But with the others just setting them aside and ignoring the stories, it makes us feel like they're unimportant as well. And it sucks, cause TMA's statements had an effect on the characters and changed their ways of thinking. Now, they're just there to be there and not much is coming out of them.

So yeah, this is MY PERSONAL OPINION and I still want to support Rusty Quill for all the beautiful podcasts they create for us, but TMAGP was not it for me. I love this fandom, I love the lore and the writing itself, but the story didn't hook me in as much as I would've liked it to.

I might regret all of this by next week when the last episode comes out, but for now, these are my thoughts.

I'll get back to you all next week to share my overall thoughts on the S1 of The Magnus Protocol.

Feel free to comment or repost with your own thoughts! I'd love to hear if I'm alone in this or if people agree

Love you all <3

[riveracheron]

eh. might as well post this now. a few of these are wish fulfillment rather than actual theorizing but explanations under the cut

i have an alchemy hyperfixation and all the alchemy stuff in tmagp makes me very excited so a lot of my theories are related to that

spoilers for the pilot btw

main character gets an eye injury - the image will not leave my head. in the magnus institute ruins statement there was this whole thing about redcanary having some kind of encounter with or experience with eye trauma and that feels like something thats just. gonna come up again

another mechanisms va - self explanatory, we need to complete the set. would love to hear kofi or rachel.

gwen has trauma related to something that happened with elias - this is going on the theory that she’s not elias’ counterpart, but a relative of some kind. something spooky happens to him and that pushes gwen to research the paranormal.

character referencing nicholas flamel - all the main characters have names that reference alchemists, and nicholas flamel is probably the most famous alchemist of all time. i doubt he’ll be given the smirke treatment because that kinda already happened with the transphobic wizard books, but someone could be sharing his name.

mag 114 statement is relevant - thats the. hill top road statement that deals with other realities, and anya (the statement giver) could be from the protocol verse. we could totally hear about the aftermath of her departure

alice/sam/gwen = three primes - the three main alchemical symbols on the OIAR crest, and a good sort of symbolic trio sorter. the three peimes are salt, sulphur and mercury, and are the basis for alchemy. the down to earth, reliable salt, the firey, unpredictable sulfur, and the adaptable, easygoing mercury. i think these could apply i just want to have it called out in universe

lena is a good person - i don’t think they’d pull the evil boss thing twice. i just think lena’s weird mannerisms are from her autistic swag

celia is related to or is agnes - (related to as in. her story involves agnes, not that shes like. a sister.) this comes from a theory by @/pinklotjeart, i think. basically: through the way her death was described (spark returned to the lightless flame) and some timeline discrepancies and general avatarness making it weird, agnes might not be Dead dead. and celia’s counterpart, lynne - well, she saw a fire ghost. also, both her and agnes are the only non one-off characters who have shakespeare names afaik. agnes MONTAGUE, celia from as you like it…

annabelle cane is related somehow - self explanatory, she was at hilltop road when everything went down. might have been pulled in.

a famous alchemist is robert smirke’d - self explaining, give me more canon historical figures jonny

another kitty cat - i want more kitty in podcast is that a crime

augustus is not jonah - we hear jonah’s voice as ben meredith in 193, so im skeptical that tim fearon’s character is jonah for that reason.

oiar group has a messy moment that devolves into actual physical violence - mmm angst i think they deserve to smack eachother around a bit

bonzo cult - yeah.

oiar found family - we got the group of coworkers that hate each other angst last time gimme the “hurting one to get to the others” and self sacrifice angst this time

colin dies early - mmmm i cant say much about this bc its based on one throwaway line at the MCM panel where jonny doesn’t mention colin in the main character group. so . death flags.

oiar is containing the entities scp style - this was a super early theory of mine, either this or theyre using them for power or energy in some way. even more heavy handed capitalism metaphors yay

someone gets ushanka’d - its computer horror: the podcast. that’s all

cookbook statement - a few clues in the ARG had to do with cookbooks, and alex and jonny have already said they’re getting weird with the statement formats (they mentioned an insurance report!) so. cookbook doesn’t seem too far-fetched

tiktoker/influencer character - archives was 2010s and they had a podcaster and youtuber, which were like. the big things. whats the hip trend now??? instagram and tiktok baybee

protocol editors va a small role a la mag 100 or the wtgfs cult - those characters were voiced by other rq team members (ie helen as laverne and martyn as robin) and the team has since expanded!! some editors dis stuff for cry havoc, so im guessing nico, annie, april and others will get a small role!

a villain’s goal is creating the philosopher’s stone or other alchemical thing - tmagp is heavily inspired by alchemy, and the philosopher’s stone was the main goal of alchemy!! it would grant you eternal knowledge snd the ability to turn lead into gold- which seems like a good. evil dude’s ambition

the desolation gets more focus - the institute burned down, the oiar crest has a lot of sulfur symbols (the fire element), alchemy as a whole having to do with fire, celia and her connection- it paints a very. lightless flame picture

trip to germany - a lot of the arg was set in and around berlin, and there was that exchange between sam and colin about german in the pilot! i could see a germany trip happening in the same way jon took a trip to china and america.

[imgonnagetkilledbynutstink]

Ok but I'm a bit newer to the fandom. What came of that Article? Was it all true? It's really hard to find any proper information on it.

OKAY SO it's been a while since this happened so I may have forgotten some details but basically this Newt person released that article and at first people believed it and took it pretty seriously but after about a day or so people started to realize a ton of really weird things about it.

First off all of their "proof" was anonymous tips which, sure, that doesn't mean they aren't true but it's not proof so you have to take things with a grain of salt. Not a huge deal. But people noticed that Newt would use the names of TMA characters as alias's for them despite a lot of the people saying they worked on TMA and had a bad experience which again, isn't proof of anything just kinda disrespectful and weird? But Newt also used accounts of people who very publicly are known and still working with the company, name dropped them and used their names without consent or having been told before hand. I want to say Harlan Guthrie might've been one and a few others, all of which basically had to go online and be like "hey idk this person and I never gave consent for them to use my name or my words against the company I am actively working for"

At that point it hardly mattered if what those people said was true, because Newt clearly didn't care, they just cared about writing a bad name for the company and not the safety or well being of the people they claimed to be representing. THEN Alex was in an unrelated interview where, according to him, he mentioned that Newt had interviewed him in the past about an article that was about something completely different and they ended up using stuff they got from that interview in their article slandering him.

THEN people found out that Newt worked for Fable & Folly which is a rival podcasting company which, even though it's mentioned in the article now, was not mentioned originally (oh so conveniently) and was only later added when they where called out for clearly hiding their job title knowing people would know they where actually just pummeling a rival company rather than trying to bring some kind of justice. Fable & Folly had to come out and basically be like "uh yeah we didn't ask them to do that please don't sue us"

So overall the important takeaway is that it hardly matters anymore if what Newt said was true, or if the anonymous tips where real people, because they fucked it up for themselves by being stupid and selfish and now people have absolutely no reason to trust them. So either they lied about all of it or they made sure nothing was gonna be done about it, both are plausible.

[batsplat]

Thank you for typing all that out!!!! I was like they had beef??? But it makes sense. I was listening to Casey on the gypsy tale podcast, he mentioned how he was envious of Marc/Vale who had no fear of the track. Makes sense that Marc - the limit of the bike is when I crash - and him would clash even if it wasn't malicious or personal.

(about this) haha no problem! and yeah for sure I don't think it's anything particularly malicious and it's not even BEEF as much as a low-level grudge, the kind of thing that naturally bubbles up when you have athletes' egos existing within a team structure. though I do think the stuff you mention (ie marc's approach to the sport) is something that never did become much of an issue between the two of them, but only because... well they weren't on-track rivals

ofc that's one of motogp's biggest 'what ifs' - what if we'd actually seen casey and marc compete - so none of this is particularly original, but, look, it's a fun one to discuss! casey's for the most part been pretty schtum about marc's actual races and various controversies, but has on occasion mentioned not necessarily being the biggest fan of marc's approach, eg (from 2013):

the "humiliate them" bit is most interesting to me - does feel a similar vibe to some of his complaints about valentino's propensity for mind games. the implications of marc wanting to humiliate opponents would be that for marc, it's not just about just wanting to win, it's about what effect he's having on rivals, about wanting to mess with them

so I - like everyone else - can only IMAGINE what it would've been like if casey had actually had to live the full marc marquez experience. it's a respectful relationship irl because it's a rivalry that never actually got to play out, so casey doesn't have any real motivation to criticise marc much beyond low stakes honda hijinks. and marc probably would have enjoyed getting the chance to race casey, but from casey's side? eh

obviously casey's issues with valentino's riding standards are pretty well-documented (as well as his issues with other rivals, including a younger jorge) (and various somewhat less significant figures, like him and his buddy in 125cc giving alex de angelis the truly terrible nickname of 'alex dangerous'. casey please). marc is relentlessly aggressive in a way casey would not have enjoyed at all, and would've also objected to on grounds of principle. the fearlessness thing you mention from that very very long podcast episode is interesting to me, because yes casey would have liked to emulate that in some ways... but he does also have his issues with riders who ride without fear to the extent that they don't care about their own safety. from his autobiography, explaining his increasing disillusionment with MotoGP:

The most fitting tribute to [Simoncelli's] memory shouldn't have been a plaque by the side of the track where he lost his life, but a real change in the way riders respect each other and respect the limits. Unfortunately, I don't feel that this happened. I have always been very aware of what can happen in this sport, which is why I have always shown respect to my fellow racers. You might not like the person next to you on the grid but you have to be aware that if an accident happens, anyone can be hurt or killed. Sometimes young riders are so desperate to win that they forget what's most important. They get built up so much that they start to believe the hype, they feel invincible. Nobody is, especially in bike racing. And if a rider doesn't care about his own safety then it stands to reason he doesn't care about anybody else's either. Don't get me wrong, MotoGP is as safe as it has ever been in terms of the gravel traps, circuit layouts and rider equipments, but the fact that certain riders were still putting others at risk even after Marco's death bothered me a lot.

which, yup, can't see casey being a fan of marc. he's got some very ironclad beliefs when it comes to riding standards and the importance of rivals respecting each other and what that looks like on track in terms of hard racing - it's just an outlook and approach that would always have clashed with marc's. (also, yeah, like casey admits, it does just scare him! laguna seca 2008 wasn't fun for him because he was worried about his safety! which is entirely understandable, but I can't imagine if that's the case he'd feel particularly comfortable or indeed safe racing marc marquez.) on marc's side, even in 2013 he was pretty good at shrugging off these kind of critiques from his rivals, including ofc from dani and especially jorge that year. so maybe it'd be mostly one-way antipathy, but probably not all that pleasant for anyone involved. livio suppo said back in 2020 that casey would've suffered a lot from marc's personality, and also in 2023 said this:

I don't really agree with suppo about 2008 and it does lean into the frustrating trope (which casey also chafed against in his autobiography) that seeks to explain all of casey's struggles and defeats by what was going on in his head. like, I do think he would've done a good job fighting marc! he would've won plenty of their duels, even when they were fighting wheel-to-wheel! he did say repeatedly after laguna seca 2008 that if something like that happened again, he wouldn't roll over for valentino (unfortunately we never really had the chance to properly test this but oh well)! he just wouldn't have enjoyed it, which is kinda why he retired in the first place

basically, they respect each other just fine because they never had the chance to fight on track. if they HAD fought on track, things would've inevitably been more fraught, not least because of their very different approaches to racing, as well as how by marc's own admission he's an asshole as a teammate. that difference in approaches is where the 'fearlessness' of marc comes in, and not in a good way for that relationship. who knows how it would have all turned out

just one more thing - marc is actually asked about the "he wants to humiliate them" quote in a presser, but unfortunately the question is formulated in a kinda messy way so marc doesn't really end up directly addressing the comments. though my guess is at least one person present understood exactly what casey was getting at:

[finthevampire]

Chapter 36

Incense burned slowly by the tub, candles following suit. The water in the bath was a dark, rich purple, turned that way by a cheap bath bomb Kendric had found at a Walmart with Remedy. Bubbles floated on the water, submerging Kendric entirely, save for his head, shoulders, and knees, as he sat with his legs drawn in. In his hands was a book. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. He had also picked that up from the Walmart. Ninety pages in, and he felt like he was Melinda. Suffering inside, closed off, abused. He sighed and closed his eyes. Self Care: Something advertised by every person who had a thought of giving advice to someone. Books, websites, podcasts, they all suggested it. Why not? he had thought. If anyone asked, he’d probably pretend he hated it, but in the comfort of warm water and calming scents, he was at peace. For a moment, he forgot the dirt on his skin, the remains of Alex’s touch, the cigarette burns that had either scarred or faded, and the blood of Ozzy that never dried. The lavender and oak wood had reminded him of a simpler time, and he was glad to indulge in the thought.

His hair floated in curtains atop the water as he sunk deeper into the water, his chin now barely grazing the surface. There was a knock on the door, and in floated a thick Italian accent. “Are you okay? You’ve been in there for a while.”

Kendric sighed once more. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Silence.

Remedy’s footsteps retreated slowly. After several more minutes of sitting alone in a tub of purple water, he pulled the drain plug and watched as the water went down, down, down. Soon, all that was left was himself and his still-too-skinny limbs. He stood and wrapped a towel around himself. Clothes were neatly folded and placed on a heater cover. He picked them up, slid them on, and dried his hair vigorously. When he looked in the mirror, his hair was damp and messy. He sighed and threw the towel in the hamper. Voices congregated in the living room, floating sweetly through the air. Kendric swore under his breath and put a brush to his hair like it was life or death. As soon as his hair looked somewhat presentable, he took a deep breath and opened the door, cold air wrapping around him in a bone-chilling hug. Even in June the air in the living room was freezing compared to the bathroom. Elias took a sip of tea as Remedy gestured toward Kendric. “Come join us.”

Elias glanced up from his tea, expressionless. His eyes were filled with hours of thoughts and questions and insults, Kendric could tell. But he stayed silent until Kendric was settled in. His hearing aids were perched carefully on his ears. When he spoke, he still sounded strange and had a voice that was difficult to decode. “Kendric. I came here to ask a few things. How are you holding up?”

Kendric shrugged. He stared down at the ground and mumbled, “I’m fine, I guess.”

Remedy cleared his throat, glared at him, and translated Kendric’s words into sign for Elias. “He needs to see your mouth in order to understand you.”

“I thought lipreading was really difficult, even for deaf people. Shouldn’t I just learn sign language?”

Elias smiled. “That would be preferred, but I am old and have had much time to practice. I can read lips pretty well by now.”

Remedy shook his head slowly and signed as he spoke. “Either way, until you know sign language, he needs to see your face when you talk.”

“Right.” He turned to Elias. “What do you need?” The words came out sharper than intended, but he didn’t correct himself.

Elias now wore a pinched expression. “Why are you here?”

Kendric glanced around. “What?”

“Why are you living with Remedy? What are you, a freeloader?”

Remedy stood abruptly. “I am going somewhere else.”

“Don’t just leave me alone!”

Brushing him off, Remedy walked away anyway. Kendric glanced over at the door as his stomach twisted into knots. What he found was a horseshoe above the door frame. He swallowed, remembering the pain of his last attempt to pass one. His organs squirmed inside of him. 

“Why is that there?”

Elias shrugged. “I don’t need you running away from your problems like a coward, Kendric.”

He swallowed and shifted in his seat. “Got it… Why do you want to know?”

Elias shrugged. “Listen, kid—”

“I’m hundreds of years old.”

He cleared his throat. “I might be old deaf but I’m not stupid. You’re here for a reason, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He scoffed. “Remedy doesn’t just invite people to live with him, genius. What’s so special about you?”

His muscles tensed and he threw on an arrogant mask. Underneath, he was more threatened than anything. “What? Jealous?”

“Grow up.”

“Aren’t I older than you?”

“Well, you don’t act it.” Now he was signing as he spoke, his words becoming less intelligible.

Kendric stood and headed for the door. Elias didn’t move, a glare plastered on his face. He reached up to grab the horseshoe, but his blood began to burn. He jerked his hand away and stepped back.

“Only those with permission can take the charm off. But nice try.”

He forced a smile. “Smart.”

Elias stood and started towards Kendric. “You killed my daughter, Kendric. She’s dead now.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not. You’re sorry you got caught, Kendric.”

“I’m truly—”

“If you were truly sorry, Olivia would be alive. Then again, she’d probably have killed herself if stuck being related to you any longer.”

Then, everything went black.

[sk8termikey]

Chapter 28 of 21 questions

better interface on wattpad

Seeing as Nick, Matt and Chris were supposed to post their newest podcast today, they had quickly recorded one almost as soon as they had arrived back in Los Angeles. They had used up all the ones they had pre-recorded before going on tour, and so it felt fitting that today’s podcast had been about them summarising the Versus Tour they had ended two weeks ago.

The triplets had been on tour for a month and had gone to fourteen different cities across the United States. They had gone on explaining how eye opening it had been for them, even on a personal level as they had felt like it had deeply impacted them. They’d focused on the idea that they had never been expecting to achieve so much and that nothing had prepared them for meeting so many people at once, which had been a massive accomplishment for Matt as they had gone on stage in front of seven hundred to two thousand people depending on the venue.

Going on tour had also been a way for Nick, Matt and Chris to assert their individuality as the whole concept had been based on the fans’ dynamic with them. Indeed, their fandom was divided into ‘Nick girls’, ‘Matt girls’ and ‘Chris girls’, which helped the triplets feel like individuals in a group. It had truly been an experience that was shaping them for the years to come as they had been able to meet their fans for the second time this year, in a playful and fun atmosphere.

They’d eventually finished the podcast by mentioning how glad they had been to have had their friend Tril touring with them for the last shows and they’d talked about the activities they all did together off camera. It had then led the triplets to talk about friendship, and especially making new friends either in person or online. This had unknowingly been a special conversation for Matt as he had thought about the friend he had finally met by chance. Nick and Chris had picked up on Matt’s discreet change of attitude regarding the topic as the oldest triplet then talked about randomly meeting a “mutual” in real life when it wasn’t planned, which was how Matt had met Lily after several months of talking to her. Although they had met under the circumstances of an ‘artist-fan’ relationship, it had eventually felt natural when they both switched to the ‘Matt and Lily’ dynamic they’d been having when texting.

After reminiscing about this, Matt saw that he had received a text from his shared groupchat with his brothers and friends from the East Coast.

east coast VS west coast

Alex

THE NEW POD I CAN’T

The cake story got me dying fr

Lily

Not even the story in itself tbh, mostly how it was told

Chris

Glad to know we’re entertaining

Alex

Please never doubt yourself

Also when nick got aggressive to the mother matt talked ab

‘Yeah and she can choke’ cracked me up

Lily

@Nick never change please

Nick

You know me

Do you always watch our videos together?

Lily

Oh hello matt

Yes we do, most of the time

Alex

I rarely watch the pod with her tho bc it’s her day off while i work

But this was ab the tour so how could she not wait for me

That’s cool, I’m glad you liked it

Chris

Yeah, sometimes idk if our fans enjoy the pod as much as the other videos so it’s nice to know y’all do

Lily

Ayo

How could they not??

I love the pod sm😭 it brings such comfort

Alex

I second that!!

Nick

Thanks guys, means a lot to us

Lily

Always<3

Also fun fact

When i first called matt, I thought that he would fit well in a podcast

Who was gonna tell me-

??

In what way?

Lily

Well, you have a nice and calm voice so it’s perfect for a pod

I don’t wanna be the victim of loud jumpscares while i’m trying to relax

Alex

LMAO CHRIS THIS IS FOR YOU

Chris

Damn the favouritism is real

Nick

Fair enough, you’re being way too loud sometimes

Matt is often too quiet though so it’s a balance ig

Lily

Matt only seems quiet bc of how loud y’all are used to be so

Thank you lily

Finally someone on my side

Lily

Always bro

Alex

And he got bro zoned

Rip soldier

Chris

Brb nick and i are preparing a funeral

You’ll be missed matty b

Nick

*insert sad and emotional violins*

Lily

STOP

That’s insane

Y’all act like I never call you bro every 5sec

Alex

Of summer?👀

Lily

Nice one babe

She didn’t get a bro

I feel betrayed

Lily

Matt no

Hear me out😔

Alex

I can pull up receipts of me being called bro

Will that make you feel better poor matthew

Chris

Please do

Nick

He’s sulking right now

Frowning as we speak

No I'm not???

We’re not even in the same room💀

Nate

Am I missing a bully matt conversation?

Lily

Naaate

Nate

Lilyyy

Alex

Aleeex

Sorry

Wanted to feel included

I don’t want this to be a bully matt conversation

Let’s stop it here or change the subject

Nick

We’re having fun though

Chris

Agreed

Lily

Back to da pod bc I needed to add smth then forgot then remembered

Yeah?

(thanks for the support)

Lily

If y’all ever end up doing this crafts live nick mentioned at the beginning, please consider us

(no problem babe)

Alex

War is over!!

He upgraded from bro to babe

But fr tho it would be so fun to see you do crafts and arts even without us

We’ll send an application if we hear more about it

Nick

It was a bit of a random thought tbf but yeah we’ll think of you two if we ever go through with it!

And sorry to cut the convo short but we have to film our next video so we’ll talk to you later :))

Lily

Oooh nice!

Alex

Do we get a spoiler?

Chris

It’ll be out in 2 days bro

I think you’re able to wait

Alex

Damn christopher

Disappointed but not surprised😔

You’ll have to wait a bit to get special treatment from us

Nate

Yeah you're not on my level yet

Lily

Never been so jealous of a guy

It's nate tho so I'm fine w that

Alex

Correct

He deserves special treatment from everyone

Nate

That's sweet, thanks

Chris

Once again, favouritism💀

“What are we actually filming?” Matt asked as he joined Nick in the living-room.

“The Fortnite vid, you remember the plan?” The blonde replied.

Matt nodded, before he and his brothers got ready to film the introduction to the video. They would all play together, and everytime one of them would make a kill in the game, they would swap places and try to achieve a Victory Royale. They then actually began playing and recorded Matt choosing the design of the character they would use.

Everything had been going great during their first rotations, the triplets mostly celebrating the way they would successfully transition between them. That was until Chris was the first one to be killed, ruining their chances to win.

“NOOOOOO!!” Nick and Matt exclaimed at the same time.

“We were doing so good!” The oldest triplet was devastated as he had been hoping that they would get it on their first try. Like earlier, Nick was once again the first to go as he was landing on the map. “AAARGH YOU FUCKING BITCH!” He yelled as someone was attacking him even before he had finished landing.

Nick was now on the run to try and find his attacker, with the support of Matt and Chris behind him. Following his success, Nick then left the chair and gave the controller to Chris who took his place. Each time one of the triplets was the one playing, the focus on their face was obvious as they were all taking their mission very seriously. Matt’s turn then came again, but he eventually got killed which made him hit the desk as he was mad at himself and at the player who had killed him.

“Sorry guys,” Matt said as he calmed down.

“No problem bro,” Chris reassured him. “It was only our second attempt so we’re good.”

Unfortunately, it seems that Chris had jinxed them as they were now on their fifth attempt, and still no Victory Royale on sight. None of them were ever mad at the others for being killed as they had all been laughing every chance they got when swapping places. For the next hour or so, they eventually did eight different tries – all unsuccessful, which Nick was deciding to later cut in small segments.

“No way in hell will I show how shit we are right now”, the blonde said as the camera was cut.

“Not really my fault though”, Chris replied. “I’m not the one dying the most.”

“Shut up Chris, we’ll see how you do now.” Matt was becoming annoyed as he knew he was getting killed a bit too often for his liking.

“Yeah, yeah.” Chris rolled his eyes. “We’ll see how you do, getting killed again.”

And that he did, as Matt got indeed killed during their ninth attempt. Another couple attempts followed, with Nick in between two asking his brothers to pose for their thumbnail.

“I feel like Alex gonna enjoy that shit”, Chris said with a laugh as it took them a good minute to all pose.

“For real”, Matt agreed. “She’s definitely bullying us for putting that in the video.”

“Wait”, Nick called. “Should I leave mentions of her in?”

“I don’t think we should,” Chris answered after thinking about it for a couple of seconds. “Maybe later if her or Lily ever end up in one of our videos, well actually in it you know.”

Nick nodded at Chris’s explanation, and therefore decided that he would cut the moments in which they would mention their friends – who had technically never been exposed to the public, apart from their names having been called out during the baking video they had filmed. The oldest triplet also knew that at one point, Matt would eventually mention Lily as Fortnite was one of their common points and Alex had now quickly been brought up.

For the next couple of attempts, it was noticeable that Nick was getting better, which led to Chris encouraging him more and more as they kept going. Matt was trying his best to stay focused and not get killed again, which proved to be somewhat difficult as his brothers were saying random stuff behind him:

“Drinkie drink”, Chris started. “Take a sip of drinkie, little drinkie.”

Matt was doing his best not to laugh at his brothers’ antics, but he couldn’t help the smile on his face when Nick began talking about getting drunk. Playing with Lily is way more peaceful… Matt thought as another smile took place on his face, although it still looked like it was due to Chris and Nick.

Nothing much had now been going on, apart from Nick twerking after a kill and Matt getting mad again as he was still the one getting killed the most out of them, which happened again during their twelfth attempt.

“WHAT!” Matt angrily exclaimed.

“Are you gonna die every time?” Nick asked, almost unbothered but still done with how Matt kept losing. “I wonder how Lily can stand playing with you if you always get killed.”

“I–” Matt was now at a loss for words. Although Nick had only wanted to tease him and get on Matt’s nerves, the middle triplet took it seriously. “You can ask her, I’m an excellent player!”

“With her, maybe, but not with us right now”. Chris raised an eyebrow at Matt who was almost starting to sulk. “And we need you right now, so think about Lily later.”

“I wasn’t even the one to talk about her first!” Matt retorted, currently feeling bullied by his brothers and definitely planning on complaining to Lily.

After their sixteenth attempt, Matt now had the perfect opportunity to somewhat get back at Nick.

“Oh my God, we’re awful.” Nick dramatically put his hands on his head. 

“You’re awful”, Matt immediately replied in the most monotone way.

“You just died,” Nick quickly retorted. “You’re just negative right now because you’d rather play with someone else.”

“Actually, yes.” Matt decided to appear in front of the camera as he was getting fed up. Facing it, he started talking to the future viewers. “Y’all should know that I have a friend ten times better than Nick here, so please excuse me for missing the times when I actually won.”

“That was insane”, Chris said as his voice sounded a bit muffled due to him being away from the camera but the microphone had still picked up his comment. “You’re down bad bro.”

“Ok Nick, cut that shit.” Matt was absolutely not ready to have people – also known as their lovely and peaceful fans, absolutely not invasive at all for thirteen year olds – prying into his private friendships.

When they eventually went back to playing, it led to a tense moment with Chris trying to kill two players at the same time, while also being out in the open. Matt and Nick were stressing behind, the latter prepared to switch places as soon as Chris would succeed – which he did.

“Who’s the fucking best?” He asked as Matt offered him a high five. “I’m the fucking best!” Chris then left the frame of the camera before coming back with a proud grin and repeating his last sentence several times.

It then seems that the triplets were on a roll as Nick and Matt successfully took out a player each, before it was Chris’s turn again. We can do it, Matt thought as he was carefully watching his younger brother focused on the game. When Chris killed a guy that had just landed, Nick quickly took the controller as Chris gave him the headphones. Still as careful as before, Nick was making his way on the map while his brothers tried to give him advice:

“Turn to the right a little”, Matt suggested.

“Shut up”, Nick bluntly replied as he needed to do it by himself.

Still way more peaceful to play with her, Matt repeated in his mind as he thought about how Lily was always sweet and kindly accepting Matt’s advice when they played together.

Nick had however been right to act like that as soon enough, he killed the player he was hunting before giving up the seat for Matt to take. At that moment, the three brothers realised that they were the closest ever to a Victory Royale. For the next few minutes, they were now harbouring nervous yet excited smiles as they were watching Matt’s every move on the computer screen.

“YES!” Nick and Chris both cheered when Matt killed the last player left, therefore granting them the long awaited win.

Congratulating their brother, the oldest and youngest pulled Matt into a group hug before Nick decided that he needed to document their success with a picture – eventually posted on their weekly Instagram dump.

“Guys”, Nick began. “I wanna thank my mum, I wanna thank ‘OG’ Fortnite coming back, I wanna thank my freshman year self… oh my gosh!” He then happily sighed.

All of them now had proud smiles on as they were glad to have achieved what they did.

“I’m so proud of us”, Nick softly said as he had his arms around his two brothers while they were reviewing their stats.

“I’m gonna go to bed”, Matt announced as they were finishing the outro for the video.

“Will you, though?” Chris asked with a smirk. “You should share your accomplishments with someone first, don’t you think?

“Shut up Chris”, Matt retorted. “I don’t wanna spoil her the video so I won’t mention it.”

“Crazy how Chris didn’t say any names but you directly thought of someone specific”, Nick teased before turning the camera off – he would cut out those last sentences later so he didn’t care about it still recording.

“Oh my God, leave me alone.” Matt was only half annoyed as he knew his brothers were right, deep down, so he just patted them on the back before leaving. I do hope she’ll be proud though…

~~~

A couple of days later, the video of the triplets playing Fortnite had been released; and on the same evening, Matt received unexpected texts that made him weirdly smile when he saw the author as he then thought of a reply.

Lily

Glad to know i’m a good player in your eyes, a compliment coming from the guy who made the last kill

I also miss our time on fortnite together

We should plan another gaming sesh soon :)

That’d be my pleasure

Thank you for reading. Votes and comments are always appreciated if you like this story :) The story is co-written w @/little_grapejuice on wattpad

[jaywritesrps]

Playing devils advocate here to you ask about Sophia. And this has nothing to do with ashlyn cause I actually think she doesn’t factor into who Sophia is currently. For all the talk that she emotionally vulnerable she also only ever had two messy rs and those where with both her husbands. So I don’t actually think she’s this small child that needs to be protected.

I actually think this is the REAL sophia. No more pr no more polished version and the curated version that she’s put out for multiple years especially the housewife version with her ex husband.

She no longer cares and by that I mean she did everything ‘Right’ and neat and tidy her whole career and what did it get her.

She was always willing to take risks in her work especially when standing up for things but she’s never done it in her personal life. And yeah this rs is not some neat little package like her ex. But she look happy, she acting in ways she hasn’t ever before for a rs. She’s no longer selfish in it being about her, she’s also around ashlyns kids a lot. She said to Dylan on her podcast that this is the MOST hate she’s ever gotten but she’s happy with herself. Let her herself not with ashlyn or the relationship.

Now regarding the pda that some are so so mad and weird about. Now the question is is it cause it’s with ashlyn or because Sophia has never shared that side with everyone… I really don’t get how this is a red flag for you. For every kissing photo there’s more of those two laughing their heads off or just enjoying each others company. I get krashlyn wasn’t like this but sb/ah both posting videos and photos of them kissing is not some pr or trying to prove there rs.

Now the trope that you run with re ‘baby gays’ is actually gross and just re affirms stereotypes that are in fact harmful to the lgbtq community + sophia has said before ashlyn is not her first rs or experience with girls. So I don’t get why you keep saying she just a horny little baby gay who will eventually get over it.

The polished version of Sophia is gone and she’s not coming back.

Hey there, I am going by topics here,cause it's easier for me to go by this and it's going to be a long answer. I am going to use this to explain some aspects that I have notice over the years and mostly kept to myself, but I think it's time to get this out of my mind (It's under read more cause it got big):

Sophia didn't have just two messy relationships. Most of her romantic relationships are messy or ended in a messy way. The only public one that I can remember that it wasn't messy was with Austin Nichols (Julian Baker from OTH), she was on and off with him, but once he went to Wilmington, they got together until the show ended. Some people even said that the plot Alex had in the second part of S7 in OTH (dating a guy for PR) was inspired by them.

Prior this thing, she had said that her fatal flaw in relationships is that she sees the red flags, everyone tells her the red flags, but if she sees one yellow flag, she jumps with both feet at it, cause it shows to her that she is right about that person and/or the person can improve.

Her dad used to say that she has this need of helping stray dogs, she said herself she does that with humans too, and if you pay attention to this info, you will see she is doing that right now with her new set of friends and girlfriend.

This shows someone that has a need of being loved and in love so desperately, that it doesn't matter how many times you try to warn this person, she will jump at any opportunity to do a mess in her own life to impress someone that doesn't deserves a chance.

This also shows someone who is so stubborn, that she becomes more interested in showing that she is right, rather than pay attention to see the whole picture. People like this are easy prey for problematic relationships, cause she has a need to prove to everyone that she is right and that everyone is wrong by saying that this person is a jerk.

In the other hand, I do agree partly with you that this who Sophia now, but I still believe this is just a phase and that probably not even herself know yet who is the "Real Sophia". Right now, she is being who she thinks it will impress her girlfriend and her new friend, by replicating her group actions and she did that quite a lot over the years and it's not something you can change that easily in a couple of months, especially after two huge traumas in your life. The "I have stopped being a people pleaser" is a big lie on that aspect, cause it only looks like she change from being a people pleaser for the public and her parents, and became a people pleaser for her gf and new set of friends.

You can't pretend to be something you are not for 40 years. I know some stories about her that never came out to the public over those years both from people who worked with her, from fans and from people who used to hate her that, especially from the time she worked in Chicago, it's from people that aren't known in the business and that won't bring her success or anything, but they still in touch with her, from her sending messages and being like someone in their family. It's why I said that I still believe that deep down she is a good person.

It's very common that teen actors that stayed too long in the same role get their development and maturity delayed cause of work. Most of the stars of the old CW (pre-Starlink era) talked about this before, especially OTH, Smallville and Gossip Girl, cause those shows were shot outside Los Angeles, in pretty much the same period of time and last longer than it should due the CW taking a while to decide the channel identity. Aside the girls from OTH, Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor from Smallville) has talked a couple of times openly about this too in his personal podcast about the problematic shit he did back in a day and Misha Barton (Marissa Cooper from The OC) talked about it Melinda Clarke's podcast too recently. The book "Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television" talks a bit about this too (good book to understand why any reboot or remake of a teen show will never work), it's pretty much since most of them were busy, working 18 hours per day, 9 months straight, the experiences a regular kid/person have in their early 20s, they are going to have only in their 30s or 40s, and when they have those experiences, they are not going to be criticized as if they were a 20 something getting arrested for flashing out in public cause they were drunk, they are going criticized as a 30 year old arrested for flashing out in public cause they are drunk.

With Sophia, this phenomenon has happened on exponential level, cause she pretty much was connecting a job, after job, after job, and putting her activism in between while trying to pretend she had her life figured out so she could be a role model. Only right now is that she is allowing herself to decompress and do mistakes. So it's like pretty much if you have a 20s something person's mind in a body of 40 year old person. This gets clearer if you compares her with Hilarie (Hilarie Burton Morgan) and Joy (Bethany Joy Lenz) both of them stopped their careers eventually after they left OTH and they both did that in their late 20s/early 30s, while Sophia is doing that right now in the 40s.

About the risk taking in her carreer, I can't really see that cause aside the support to the democratic party and for her defying NBC to leave Chicago PD, she pretty much didn't take many risks in her roles or movies/shows that she produced after OTH, it's all calculated and safe. The biggest risk she took was Erin Lindsay from Chicago PD, but outside that, they were pretty much very tame roles. And really, I can't see her taking a role such as Lisa Rowe from "Girl, Interrupted" or Tonya Harding from "I, Tonya" or either taking a role that demands her to change her appearence drastically or doing a movie that is controversial or anything like it. In business area it's pretty much the same thing, like Women Sport, for example, she is investing on it, because after 2019, all the big sports brands are looking at it. Same with women's health. Most of the marketing researches shows that targetting women as a consumer group is better than cis male, cause they care more about their health than cis male overall. So again, there's nothing of risk taking in any of that.

About the PDA, it's mostly a personal stuff I have with couples being too much into this, cause to me they are just smokes and mirrors, even for non-famous couple. It's something that people use to hide and pretend they are happy, I usually read that as insecurity overall, It's not much different than a dog peeing in something to mark their territory or those straight guys that keeps demanding their girls are cover head to toes so other guys don't look at their physical atributes. On public figures, in this post-Social Media era, to me it's as fake as a playboy photoshoot, cause you know someone will take picture of it, especially if you are doing it yourself in a public place. It's like she has to show everyone that this is her girlfriend, that now she is gay and that she is sooooo attracted to her girl that she can't keep her hands to herself (She did the same with Chad too btw and I didn't like it back then). But again, this is mostly a personal aspect that it doesn't mean anything.

Honestly, IDC if you think it's disgusting, but it is what it is. I am old tired gay. I was volunteer in a LGBT youth center as mentor from 2014 until 2020, and I already lost the count of how many parents, friends and baby gays I have talked about this before, because, no offense, while it's amazing to watch someone finding out they are LGBT, the sexuality euphoria can be really annoying sometimes, especially when you saw that A LOT. Like I am experiencing this right now in my family, with my older cousin, that came out of the closet a couple of months ago, it's on a point that the whole family is like "OKAY WE GET IT, YOU ARE GAY, WE KNOW YOU LIKE BEAR MEN, NOW CAN YOU PLEASE SHUT UP.". It's funny but also annoying.

[beachtoosandytranscripts]

1: Grocery Stores in Cincinnati, OH

Welcome to Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet, a podcast featuring real reviews written by people who just need the world to know what they think. Between you and me, I wanted to like this podcast, but I'd give it zero stars if I could.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet, the podcast where we read the worst reviews in the most dramatic fashion. I am Christine Schiefer.

And I'm Alex Schiefer, and we're siblings, and we're on a mission to address pressing societal issues. Like, why did Kevin in Fort Worth want to give his local taco stand a one-star review? And did they deserve it? Each week, we'll have a theme like taco stands in Fort Worth, and we'll both find our favorite reviews, normally one-star reviews, that fit the theme, and then we'll read them with a dramatization element added. And there'll also be a weekly challenge element. One person will give the other a challenge, like finding a review that mentions six cats, and they'll hopefully step up to the challenge and find a good one to read in the next episode.

Be sure to listen all the way to the end because that's when we'll first tell each other the theme and the challenge for next week's episode. And since this is our first episode, we told each other ahead of time. So I chose a challenge and you chose the theme, which is?

This week's theme is grocery stores in Cincinnati, Ohio. And what was the challenge?

The challenge is an Amazon review that mentions a big toe.

Let’s get started.

I went with the Cincinnati classic. Cincinnati is where we're both from. Where we grew up, we've been to many a Cincinnati grocery store.

So my pick this week is Kroger.

Of course.

And this is specifically the Kroger in Coryville. And Rose had something to say.

Upon purchasing my cream-filled Long John donut for 69..

What type of donut was that? A Long John donut?

Isn't that underwear?

Yeah, or Long John silvers. Well, we'll find out.

That's a good start.

Oh, you know when you want one of those Long John donuts? It only has 1 eighth of cream into it. Into it.

Specifically. Not only that, but for some God-forsaken reason, started that I thought.

I'm sorry.

…Not only that, but for some God-forsaken reason, the cream was inserted through the side of the donut, so every other bite was dry and barren of cream.

But the best part about that is, they spelled barren of cream like B-A-R-O-N, like the royal title. So it's the barren of cream.

We know what's on her mind.

This donut.

…This donut did not meet any of my expectations whatsoever. What so ever. End of review.

Oh my gosh.

One star. And that is a review of Kroger and Coryville.

So she is reviewing the entire Coryville Kroger based on a single Long John donut.

I mean, to be honest, it was really hard to find a review because I was reading it and everybody was complaining about parking or, you know, like racist staff. And I was like, this isn't funny. None of this is funny and probably it's true.

But this just really lightened my day.

Good. No, I'm glad you found that one. That was good.

And I just looked up what a Long John donut is.

Oh, really? Please enlighten me.

It's just a long donut.

Well that's obviously why they insert the cream on the side, right?

I don't know. Look at it. You can put it cream in the...

Oh, that looks disgusting. Looks like someone puked gravy on it.

The Wikipedia images always happen to have the worst one.

Well...

Oh, also known as a maple bar. I've heard of that.

Rose, I'm sorry that you had an incredibly disappointing experience, and I wish you and the Baron of Cream all the best in your future endeavors. Are you up next?

Yes, I am next. I don't have the person's name that wrote this review.

Let's call them the Baron of Cream.

Let's do that. I don't have one for the other one either.

That's all right.

I didn't write all this down. But I did mine. I decided to look at my favorite grocery store in the world, Jungle Gyms International Market.

I mean, if you guys have not been there, where is that again?

Technically not in Cincinnati. I don't know, well, close enough. But Fairfield, Ohio.

Fairfield. I went to the mini golf place near there.

Oh gosh, yeah. Is that the one with the mountain and you can walk inside of it like a Rugrats episode?

Sure.

Yeah.

We should do reviews on that.

Rugrats episodes or mini golf?

No, mini golf.

Okay, I think both would work for us. Can I give a couple of fun facts of Trader Joe's?

Please, for those of you...

Because it is amazing. It is special.

Not Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's is pretty amazing.

I mean, it is, but it's really not that special.

It's not the same. Jungle Gyms.

Right.

So, it has 180,000 items, and 60,000 of those are international items.

Yeah, you guys, it's really cool.

And then it's over six and a half acres of floor space.

What? What? No wonder I get all my steps in.

It's massive.

No, it's crazy. And the largest Walmart in the country, in Albany, New York, is only six acres.

So it's bigger than the largest Walmart.

The largest Walmart Supercenter.

Walmart.

They probably have the biggest Walmart at Jungle Gyms.

Right, in their international section.

Yeah.

I'm really struggling.

Where are Walnuts from?

Brazil. Just kidding. Those are Brazil Nuts.

I'm sorry. It's not funny. Delete that.

Time for a review.

Okay.

The Baron of Cream has this to say about Jungle Gyms, awful management, deceptive price. It's not even. Just started.

I'm sorry. It's not even funny.

Oh, it gets good. It's awful management, deceptive pricing. My wife fell on water, and because of that, I have been barred and threatened if I return to the store.

Liars and thieves, in my opinion.

Oh, no.

Wife cannot walk right ever again.

Oh, no.

And I cannot even buy cat clitter without being threatened. What?

What is cat clitter?

I think he just added a K to litter.

Did he add a K to cat?

No. It's just a regular cat. But then it says clitter and I looked it up.

It's not a thing.

It is on Urban Dictionary. Don't look it up.

Oh, oh my God.

And that's the only reason I read it the way he wrote it because it was, I Googled it so other people have to too.

And when she fell, all they wanted to know is, would this hinder from shopping there? Really? End of review.

So, I chose this review, not because a poor woman fell, like, I don't know what happened there.

They use her name, Baroness of Cream.

Baroness of Cream fell. But it was the way he kind of threw this stuff in there.

Do they? They don't sell cat litter or clitter. That's their...

They might. Jungle Gym sells everything.

Yeah, but they sell, like, those Pocky sticks and like beer.

You don't go there for cat litter. That's a good point. Like German beers and like a thousand different types of soda with gross, like, flavors.

Yeah, they don't. I mean, you don't know. There's Walmart for that.

Or Walnut.

Yeah. And he said he can't buy it without being threatened. As if he's just kind of sneaking around.

He's like, Oh, I hope they don't see me. And he grabs a cat litter and they'll be like, it's you.

There you go.

Baron.

Baron. Hiding behind all that.

Well, here's the thing. I do find something about that place threatening and it is those large animatronics. I remember going right after 9-11. I'm sorry, I knew you were drinking wine and I should have waited a minute, but why would you say that?

Listen, because it was important to the story. I went to jungle gyms right after 9-11 with mom. And I remember that all the animatronic dolls were very quiet and there were all these half mass flags around the stage and then all of a sudden they started moving and singing.

I'm not kidding, you guys they’re like six feet tall, gigantic animatronic creatures, like some stupid tune about-

Like Chicken Fried, Isaac Brown Band, about saluting the ones we love and everything.

Maybe it was something patriotic.

I hope so. Well, I don't know.

I don't think it was. I think it was an automatic timer and it was like really solemn and all the flags were at half mass and then they all kind of like woke up and started jamming out.

Like Andy Doodle, Dandy or something.

Yeah, started jamming and it was extremely disturbing to my 12 year old self's brain. That's my memory of 9-11.

I'm not going to go into mine.

Let's not go into any of that.

Okay, well, a little late now.

This is a comedy podcast.

That's hilarious.

Anyway.

The Baron.

Right.

That happened to him.

So we should never go again is what you're saying.

Jungle gyms. Just don't fall in one because you will be threatened.

I mean, it's hard not to fall in one because they are very large and they're very full of mysterious objects in moving animal robots. But I will say we're reading out one sort of use these places. I do want to add that we have no negative feelings toward anything.

This is mostly us reading reviews to joke about the reviews. This is not about the establishments themselves. In fact, we encourage you to check out these establishments and give them five star reviews to negate the one star reviews.

Especially the ones that are all because of one single long-john donut.

Yeah, right.

That wasn't up to snuff.

I mean, I personally don't mind the Kroger in Quarryville at all.

So yeah, it's a well, they just it's brand new. Did you go there recently? No, they tore the whole thing down and rebuilt it.

Wait, Quarryville.

Yeah, yeah. Well, there you go. So I just came up with a challenge, gave it to Alexander in advance, and then he hopefully—we'll see—lived up to the challenge.

And we're going to hear the challenge this week was an Amazon review that mentions a big toe. And it was very specific. So I'm very curious to see what happens here.

Yeah, it was a journey for me on Amazon. My first thought was stubbed toes. So I went in the furniture section.

Wow, this is quite a roundabout.

Yeah, it was. It didn't work. I went through a lot of reviews of various items of furniture.

And at first I went through pictures and I was like, oh, I'm going to pick the ones that have like are low to the ground, glass tables, really good for stubbing. Yeah, stuff like that. And then I realized I should just go by the ones that have thousands of reviews.

Oh, I just hope someone mentioned search for it. Yeah, no, it didn't work.

Oh, no.

No furniture mentioned big toe. So what else do you think of when you think of big toes?

Those shoes with the feet, the toe.

Oh, that's a good one, actually. Toe socks. Shoes was what I'm going for.

And I went to the shoe department. And of course, one of the best sellers popped right up. And I said, I knew this was going to be it.

Skechers.

Crocs Unisex Classic Clog.

It's better than what I thought.

Yes. And we.

Oh, oh, my God.

We have a review from another man who I forgot his name.

Carl.

Carl. This is what Carl has to say about his Crocs Unisex Classic Clog.

Does it say what color he got him?

It didn't say. There are so many, though. So what he said, great shoes, but man, they are really ugly.

Carl.

Yeah.

And how dare you?

Here we go. I have never liked the looks of these butt ugly things. But my podiatrist told me to get a pair because of a foot problem.

That podiatrist has a stake in Crocs. There is no way a podiatrist tells you to buy Crocs.

I hear they're comfy. I don't know. They had a lot of good.

So are sweatpants, but my doctor's not going to. OK.

They do offer great support and curiousness for my poor broken foot.

Curiousness?

I know. I didn't know what that meant.

It's not even a word.

I don't. Exactly. I don't know what he's going with that.

I find that when I walk, my heel tends to extend over the inner sides and wants to roll in. This is because I have such a high instep that my foot does not go all the way in. I have about an inch of room in front of my big toe.

There it is.

And my heel actually sticks out the back a little. Perhaps I should have gone with the larger size. The construction of these shoes is great and they are comfortable.

I expect that I will continue to wear these around the house once my foot has healed because of the support they offer.

Can you imagine this is someone's stepfather and they're just sitting in the den, like typing and typing and typing and the teenager just wants to use a computer. But Carl really has to write out this review.

Poor Carl. I like them as slippers, but not for walking any distance. End of review.

It wasn't that thrilling, but I just love how he opened it up.

I give you a challenge and you bring me Crocs. It is the best possible way that you could have gone with it.

Most of what excited me was just picturing Carl and his Crocs. And I thought that would be great for the listeners to be able to imagine.

Are you guys imagining? We're pausing for that moment of silence.

He's OK. He's OK. No.

OK, so we're going to tell you where to find us. But after stay tuned, because afterwards we're going to reveal our next week's challenge and next week's theme, which we have not told each other yet. So very excited and scared.

Tell the people what's going on.

You can find us on Instagram and Twitter at Beach Too Sandy, on Facebook at Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet. Our website is beachtoosandy.com.

And for now, you can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you listen to podcasts. And if you like what you hear, you can do your part. And much like the Baron of Cream, you can leave a survey.

But unlike the Baron of Cream, you can hopefully give us five stars, not one. The best way to do that is to leave a survey on Apple Podcasts on iTunes. That really, really helps us.

And if you have negative things to say, just send it to our email.

No, just be quiet.

Hey, no, no, no.

Yes.

Send them to our email, BeachTooSandy at gmail.com, and I will read them.

Okay, but also if you have nice things to say, you can send them there too.

Yeah, I will need those. I really can't handle just the negativity.

So feel free to email us, tweet at us, Instagram, find us on the gram.

Oh yeah, send a slide into our DMs.

Do it, do it. And thank you so much for listening.

And this is just episode one and special surprise episodes two and three are out now.

It's magic.

Oh my god, how did we do three at once? I don't think that's normally possible in the podcasting world.

But that's what we deliver on this show.

Yeah, we do. Except this is the only time we'll have three in one week.

Well, shh.

So don't.

Don't get used to it. And as always, as we say on this show, be a star. Or, we're trying to play these out, be a star.

Five star or bust? That's what I always say.

We need an outro. This isn't working.

I think we'll find one naturally.

Let's hope.

Alright, bye guys.

[fazcinatingblog]

hiiii bestie !!! i saw you had a tonne of fics on ao3 and wanted to know if you had any recs for new fans og afl??? any works of your or any other peeps to check out?? thxxxx

hi bestie!!! (I don't know this person)

This is a hard question because there's so much out there - probably not much on AO3 (unless you like Alex Fasolo and then you're in luck) and then Wattpad is just an insane mix of literally everything, mostly footballer x fake sister fics (which I, myself, am guilty of, and I'm sorry)

oh, also I only really read Saving Lotte Sullivan on Wattpad which I reckon is really good but I could be bias.

Maybe I'll just make a list of AO3 fics for each club (and yes, for the dogs, it'll be anything written by AFL whores about bailey smith) and a lot of this is just tooting my horn, I am sorry.

Adelaide

Tyler Brown adjusting to adelaide life

Brisbane

Take me home country roads part 1 and part 2 (obviously)

Carlton

Okay so the best year Carlton had was in 2019 so anything from 2019

Collingwood

literally anything with Trent Bianco and Jack Ginnivan (Collingwood power couple) or Darcy Moore x Charlie James Dean

Essendon

idk if there's much Essendon fics out there so this one? i mean who likes essendon anyway? ew.

Fremantle

I can't remember what year but maybe it was 2021 when 2 guys 1 cup read out Cunfe (Cunnington x Fyfe) fanfiction on the podcast so yeah find those episodes. (The fics were all family friendly and G-rated, don't worry, you can listen to them with kids in the car)

Geelong

Has to be this one

GWS

hard to pick my favourite jesse hogan one

Gold coast

what about Matt Rowell getting mentally scarred before a game. I'm so sorry.

Hawks

either Tom Phillips starting a podcast, or Tom discussing the four P's

Melbourne

probably anything with Ed Langdon or pie boy

Norf

see Freo

Port Adelaide

Bailey Smith ripping through the entire Port Adelaide team OR those lousy five chapters I tried to write about Jack Watts

Tigs

the resurrection of Matthew Richardson (hurts a little to remember writing this after what they did to me last week)

Saints

can I say my multi chapter newsreader fic even though Rob plays for Melbourne in it and not his beloved saints. Or when Ben sits down with his accountant Callum Wilkie

Swans

probably best to go to AFL whores for this one

Weagles

who even writes Weagle fics

Dogs

anything from AFL Whores regarding Bailey Smith

[hoghtastic]

Hi,

When I saw interviews of Alex in the past when he would mention his family or future work he would say things like his Mum wanted him back in Denmark and to work on projects at home, etc. I can't remember the interviews or when as it was years back but I remember hearing that a few times and thinking yeah it must be hard to have your child working in another country miles away but surely if their dream was to act you would be supportive and understand them being away a lot and for long periods? If he put himself out there a bit more he could have went to Hollyweird and got some more big offers or some mid offers that were still bigger than anything back home. Yes it would mean being away from home more but usually actors/actresses/singers etc can fly back and forth often and actually see friends and family more often than those of us in regular jobs. It just makes me wonder if his Mum was a but pushy and controlling or has a big personality and influence over him and hence why he went back home and took more Danish offers and hasn't had anything big or had any offers of a big production? Also, given the COVID pandemic and lockdowns and travel restrictions he has kind of lost some momentum and now interest in him isn't as big as it was when Vikings was on so he will now struggle to stand out esp now he is hitting the 30s soon, it limits his roles a bit more also, esp in Hollyweird when there are a pool of young up and coming talent plus nepotism and those who are actively out there pushing themselves to be noticed, unlike Alex.

Another point from above I have thought is, if his mum is a bit domineering and over-involved in his decision making etc then I can see why he has ended up with someone like Johanne as she seems bossy, domineering and pushy. It also ties in with him making a life in Denmark instead of going abroad to spread his wings and get more jobs. While I don't agree with personal attacks on her looks, the things I have seen of her she comes across way too over-confident and cocky. I am more of an introvert-extrovert in the right company personality and have come across many like her and her friend group and they just take over and dominate social situations. They usually are seen as the confident ones, life and souls of the party but I always found those types sucked the life out of everyone else around them who was not loud enough to stand out from them. They can be charming though and maybe thats what he likes about her, her over the top confidence. Those types always seem to get what they want so its no surprise she is getting lots of work now. I agree that her being on every song on her podcast is just cringey and is a way to give her fame and attention and is not to promote and enhance the actual guest on the podcast.

Regarding Marco, the same interviews i mention above i read some from Marco too and in them his plan always seemed to be to move back home and do smaller independent projects, and pick productions on the quality and story rather than take everything he is offered. I remember him saying he didn't like the idea of Hollywood and all that comes with it so he had no intention of going out there or being a major actor over there. Its the same for many other shows - GoT, Cobra Kai, Stranger Things, etc its like a couple from this shows become super famous, the rest are never really seen in anything big ever again, just small parts here and there. So maybe he and many others in the Vikings cast will struggle to ever be a part of another production like Vikings. I find it strange, considering their friendship throughout the years filming vikings that many of the younger cast dont seem to interact with each other at all or hang out, even once a year or something, esp Marco and Alex living in the same country. I loved Vikings but many plots/subplots got beyond annoying by the final seasons which I think hindered the likes of Alex, Marco etc so I don't feel its entirely their fault the show wasnt as good as it was, they done the best with what they were given, same with all the extras and behind the scenes crew. It was the director who ruined their seasons in my eyes with his incessant use of pushing his daughter Torvis character into every big storyline and putting her with 1 of the main male characters each time a husband died or left her. The not aging the female characters. The falling in love with a female slave plot trope being overused and the Ivar thinking he is a God and pitting the brothers against each other killing off Sigurd, then Bjorn, not to mention the civil war and Lagertha suddenly killing Aslaug to usurp and become Queen were all hated by many loyal fans and turned them off the show. The real stories of Ragnar's sons were so much different and they all conquered so much, that could have been explored and maybe the show would have had a few more seasons in it?

sorry this is so long, i didn't mean it to be.

Thanks X

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and considerations, anon. 😊 (And don't worry about writing long texts, I'm also guilty of that sometimes. 😉)

[zepskies]

Oh my God wow, thank you so much, friend!! 🥹 It's amazing to me that you set aside the time not just to listen to this, but to have so much thoughtful feedback to share about it! 💕

This was my very first time hearing your voice, and I feel the need to point out what a pleasant voice you have, Alex! And I do mean this in the most sincere way, coming from someone who can be very very picky about what voices to listen to. I know this wasn't the point of the podcast, but I had to let you know :)

ehehe omg thank you!!! 🥰 I used to hate my own voice in recordings, so that makes me feel better. 😂

That's such an amazing compliment!! 😭 You know I try my best to get the characters' voices and mannerisms right, especially Dean because he's living in my heart for such a long time. I tried really hard in Smoke Eater too because that was my first full AU story ever.

ahhhhhh I loved Yellowstone!! Haha I think the reason I didn't go that route is because I didn't want to outright copy the show, but maybe now that I've finished watching it I'll come back to the idea of a modern cowboy AU for Dean.

Awww I love that, of course you're included!!! 💗💗

First of all, I found it very interesting that despite your own heritage, you grew up with a white reader in mind. Just goes to show how predominantly a white person is and has been the main character in so much of media that that's what your brain defaulted to.

yuuuup, that's what it was. Plus in school I was always the minority, especially because the families that went to my school were much wealthier than mine.

I also thought your discussion about what makes an OC an OC and where a reader insert stops being a reader insert suuuper interesting. Because that's a genuine question! Where does a blank slate stop being a blank slate, and how much character do you have to give to the reader role in a reader insert fic for the story still to work, right? I loved to hear your take on it, especially where you said that writing reader inserts is basically like writing OCs without giving them a name. - I had never thought about it that way! But of course, you're right. Because a reader that is an active participant in a story can't be a completely blank slate. They have to be assigned certain traits, not necessarily body-wise but character wise - if you're doing more than a drabble, imo. For there to be dialogue and a story that feels full, that feels alive, the reader has to have some sort of character to be a character.

Oooh thank you! Exactly! I know people tend to think of "reader" as a blank slate. But that only works for a drabble imo. Even in a longer one-shot, let alone a series, that blank slate is just a flat character with no personality, like in an otome game or something lol. Ultimately I get frustrated reading those characters, so I prefer to write and read reader characters that make active decisions in the story and have a personality, even if it's not "what I would do." Because even when I'm writing a reader character, she might have aspects of "me," but overall she's usually not me. She's a character, whether I give her a name or a physical description or not.

Which brings me to my next point: projectability is always a thing of perspective and the ability to put yourself into someone's shoes. As far as fanfiction goes, the reader insert genre tries to make that as easy as possible by offering a mostly blank slate (that is very often white-coded, unfortunately, but that's not the point I'm trying to make in this paragraph). I have seen people complain more than once about the character!reader being unrelatable because of certain character traits and/or backstories that were assigned to them, and I wonder: people, where has your media literacy gone? Do they not teach to adapt to a person's perspective via literature in schools anymore? Must all media cater exactly to your every taste, down to each very nuance?

Yeah, it's often white-coded because white writers aren't typically thinking of other races/ethnicities, even when they write a "reader" character. 😅 Also why sometimes those reader characters are very not relatable to me on how they speak and act lol. (Though this could also be because there are a lot of younger writers out here now, so that could be more related to age and maturity.)

I've def seen those posts that have readers complaining lol. I also think that's the case of people who are either young or not used to reading normal books, just fanfiction. Because 2nd person in the literary world is actually really rare. I try to make my stories and reader characters compelling, but I wonder if my stuff actually appeals to the younger demo of readers now (early 20s and younger).

I love how you give personality to your reader characters, Alex. Especially when it comes to your own representation. You said in the podcast that you were worried about how the traits you assigned to your reader in the Midnight Espresso-verse would be received by your audience and that you received great feedback. I want to reiterate that by saying how despite myself not having the same background as you, I could absolutely relate to the plus-size aspect of the reader, as well as her love for cooking. You said it so beautifully in the podcast, that this version of the reader is one that came from the intent of Dean having a (Latino) girlfriend that nurtured him in the same way he nurtures the people around him, and I fully 100% could relate to that as well :) Which might be my very complicated and long way of saying: Please do not worry about how much the reader can adapt to the traits you're giving to the character!reader. If most character!readers have been predominantly white for the longest time and so so many people that where not white made it work, then so can we white folks when we are given a reader that does not fit all of "our" typical criteria.

I appreciate you so much for this! 🥹🥹 Yes overall I've gotten way more encouraging and fun feedback than I ever expected for the Midnight Espresso-verse, certainly for that first story. I came at it with the thought that some women would relate to the plus-sized aspects, while other Latinas might enjoy the ethnic representation. And non-Latinos could maybe enjoy exploring a different culture if they wanted to dive in. I'm really grateful that you did!! 💕 And yeah that mutual "nurturing" aspect with her and Dean was 100% my favorite part about creating their relationship. 🥰

Yeah, honestly even if she's more OC than reader at this point, I don't really mind. I've loved writing every story in the ME-verse. Of course I've gotten a lot of wonderful responses from other Latinos on that series, but overall it's been my non-Latino friends who have supported me the most on that series. 💓💓

It made me very happy to hear that you're seeing more and more diversity within the SPN fandom these days. I've spent most of my time in the PPCU fandom this past year and all across it, but specifically in the Joel Miller fandom, there have been too many racist instances. It's great to hear that it's going better in other fandoms!

omg really? How so racist? That's so icky, especially for Pedro and his characters since he's such a sweetheart and very open about the joys and struggles of being a Latino and an immigrant in Hollywood 😭

Which brings me to my next point - the anon request you got that led you to writing Unravel Me 👀 Wow. I haven't read it yet. It was on my TBR list anyway, but hearing you talk about how it came to be and how much thought you put into it (understandably so) it's now an absolute must-read for me. (Sort of unrelated but still related: I've seen your playlist covers for the story, and - wow??? A masterpiece??? Visually, I mean?! The EFFORT. I'll be speaking about this in a second, but I needed to mention it now in case I forget! Gorgeous!)

Aw thank you so much for putting it on your TBR! 🥰 Even though I'm not 100% sure it was ready to be posted, I've done my best, even knowing it was going to be so niche that not a lot of people would likely read it lol. Honestly that's part of why I created those playlist covers -- to try and hook people with the visuals to get them to read the series. 🤣🤣

Though I did do playlist covers for Break Me Down (Soldier Boy x Reader), Lost on You (Soldier Boy x Supe!Reader), and Between the City & the Stars (1940s!Dean x Reader). I just love playing with that template. 😆 But also the music playlist for Unravel Me was so fun to put together, I knew I wanted to create those posters for Side A and B. It's really just a bonus if they manage to hook people and get them excited for the next part of the series. 🥰💜💙❤️

Another point that had me thinking a lot was the question about how much of an immigrant's identity should be kept and how much should be adapted to the country they've moved to also captivated me. I know US politics in regards to immigrants are ""problematic"" atm to say the least, and it's been a widely discussed topic over here in Germany for years now as well, especially with the heavy influx of immigrants over the past years. I can't imagine how complicated it must be, figuring out a sense of self that both fits to where you live and still keeps the core parts of who you are and were before coming to said country.

Oh God, yeah. It's always been a hot-button issue in the U.S., but especially now of course. Interesting that Germany has seen a big influx in immigration too. But yeah, I really dove into studying that aspect of being bicultural when I started reading short stories by Sandra Cisneros in high school and college. She's Mexican American and her works explore, through her characters, the nature of “los intersticios (the cracks)”—those spaces between the different "worlds" she lives in for being bicultural—all in effort to figure out her own inner identity.  

It is complicated. It's affected my own sense of self, my relationships within my own family, let alone friends, etc. And everyone's layers are different, whether they're a first, second, or third generation immigrant family.

I want to wrap this up by saying how incredibly impressed I am every single time I hear/read about how you prep for your stories. I think you are by far the most in-depth fanfiction writer that I know. You put so much research into it, and not just for The Honorable Choice, but everything you put out. I'm struggling to find the correct words to properly express how admiring I find it, especially for a story like The Honorable Choice where you take on the perspective of someone of a different ethnic background than you.

Wow, thank you so much, friend. 🥹🥹 The Honorable Choice was such a fun passion project, and scary too! lol I'm a nerd who genuinely loves the research, especially bc I love history. But it was also because I respect the cultures of Native Americans too much to get it wrong. I did my best to represent the Lakota tribe in the late 1800s to the best of my ability while still giving an entertaining love story, so hopefully it was authentic. 💗

You are an inspiration, Alex. Truly. Thank you for welcoming me into the writing space when I came back. Thank you for answering every question I had, and thank you for the work you put into all of your stories. To you, to your talent, your inspiration and work ethic, and to many more stories to come! 🩵

You've literally made my entire week so much brighter and are making me blush, lovely!! If I could be any small support to you then I'm so glad to hear it. 💕 People did the same for me when I started my blog over here, and I'm actually really excited to share a (hopefully) fun writing event soon with you guys!!

Racial & Ethnic Representation in Fanfiction

[🎙️ Podcast Interview]

Hey, friends! Sandra and Kasey, the lovely hosts of @idlingintheimpalapodcast — the podcast for all things SPN and fanfiction — invited me back on the pod for an interview on a topic that's very close to my heart…

With @rubyvhs, we talked about the fun moments and challenges about reading and writing fanfiction that represents specific racial and ethnic cultures, being bicultural/multicultural, the immigrant experience, and much more.

I offered my own experience as a Latina POC writing in the fandom space, specifically Supernatural and The Boys (and adjacent Jackles fandoms).

Check it out here: ⤵️

Interview Timestamps –

(Plus fic recs, SPN writer/reader shoutouts, and more! Links to all the fics we mentioned are at each time stamp.)

2:54 – When did you start writing fanfiction, and when did you join SPN fandom?

⟡ You can check out my first author interview with Sandra and Kasey over here. We chatted about Dean Winchester and Jensen Ackles’ early roles, the best and worst seasons of SPN, the joys and pains of writing Soldier Boy, and much, much more. For all the timestamps of key moments, fic recs, and SPN writer shoutouts, see this post (you'll find the link to the video there too).

6:18 – What is your ethnic, racial, and cultural background? (And how me and Sandra bond over “food and family” ties between Hispanics/Latinos and Italians.)

13:05 – The immigrant experience in America, what you take with you from the “Motherland,” the struggles of bicultural identity, my personal experience being a second-generation child of an immigrant family, and Sandra’s experience as a first-generation child of Italian immigrants.

16:58 – What do you look for when you’re reading fanfiction? (Canon-compliant, AU, romance, etc.) Does the length of a story matter?

19:52 – Bonus: The merits of drabble writing vs. long-fic writing.

25:54 – Have you ever actively searched for fanfiction that represented your ethnicity? (Whenever I do, it’s like finding gold.) Plus, the challenge of writing reader characters, the “gray area” of writing reader characters like OCs.

32:38 – The inherent “bias” of reading and writing reader characters as White. The concept of diversity being “cool” in popular media, TV shows, and movies is still pretty new.

36:36 – Why I started writing reader characters that might have a specific body type, race, and/or ethnicity.

Examples:

⟡ Midnight Espresso – Dean Winchester x Plus-size Latina!Reader

⟡ If I Stay – Dean Winchester x Plus-size!Reader

⟡ 10 ‘Til Midnight – Professor!Dean Winchester x Plus-size Grad Student!Reader

⟡ Unravel Me – Soldier Boy x Afro-Latina!Reader

⟡ The Honorable Choice & Outlander – Cowboy!Dean Winchester x OFC

40:14 – The fun challenges: like giving Dean a partner who takes care of him as much as he takes care of others in Midnight Espresso.

45:28 – The BIG challenges: like writing Soldier Boy being himself with a “person of color” (POC) in this new series, Unravel Me. What even is a POC? Where do you start with Soldier Boy, the Sandra-proclaimed “bowl of fishhooks?"

51:38 – Is there ever an element of fear when you publicly post a story that represents your culture, which is something very personal to you? What happens when you get haters in the comments?

1:05:33 – When and how did you begin to break out of the “ingrained biases” in your writing? (AKA: Always assuming my own characters are White.)

1:08:04 – When did you decide to explore writing plus-size!readers?

1:13:20 – What has your experience been in writing a race/culture outside of your personal experience? The Honorable Choice and Outlander, a western AU where Dean Winchester falls in love with a Native American Lakota Indian. (Shoutout to @jacklesversebingo!)

Plus, the ethical responsibility to “do no harm” when you represent different cultures, and answering question of not only can I write this, but should I write this?

1:32:42 – What advice would you give a writer interested in writing about a culture outside of their own that they don’t have first-hand knowledge of? How can a writer avoid cultural appropriation if their goal is cultural appreciation? How important is a sensitivity reader/beta reader for this effort?

1:40:35 – Final thoughts on diversity and representation of culture in fanfiction, whether it’s your own or someone else’s:

“Write what you know. Write what you can research. Write what you’re interested in. Remember that words have power, so be careful how you use them.”

1:45:30 – Sandra and Kasey’s outro: The importance of representation and diversity in fandom.

I hope you enjoy the ride!~ 💜

💗💗💗 Shoutouts to some of my beautiful friends and lovely readers who've supported my attempts to explore ethnic and cultural diversity in my writing:

@luci-in-trenchcoats @lamentationsofalonelypotato @waynes-multiverse @rizlowwritessortof @roseblue373

@tofics @deanwinchesterswitch @deanbrainrotwritings @deansbbyx @waywardlatina

@supernotnatural2005 @wayward-dreamer @spnwoman @waywardxwords @mostlymarvelgirl

@chevroletdean (shoutout to your 500 follower fic challenge at around 19:52 😘) @siampie @bettystonewell @wvffles

@iprobablyshipit91 @my-stories-vault @littlesoulshine @thatonewriter15 @jessjad

@deans-spinster-witch @winchestergirl2 @kazsrm67 @chernayawidow @jackles010378

@jollyhunter @leigh70 @foxyjwls007 @beakaleak32 @alwaystiredandconfused

[radioprune]

next season’s taskmaster lineup..... yes <3

[lycanlovingvampyre]

TMA Liveshow Relisten

Activity on my first listen: cutting the jasmine and Buddleja in my garden.

ALEX: "The audio in today’s episode was recorded at our first Magnus liveshow as part of the London Podcast Festival Presents audio drama event in 2019." First (?) Magnus liveshow? Just curious, were there more than one shows? I only ever saw content from this on.

ALEX: "The events take place prior to the first episode of The Magnus Archives, and can be considered canon." Canon you say, eh? So does this mean, occasionally, The Magnus Archives actually IS a workplace comedy???

JON: "Right. Well, I’m sure I can figure it out, I was – (shaky inhale) – thinking of, uh – digitising some of the more commonly accessed statements and then – some – general… (trails off) …archiving." Everybody always asks "What is archiving?", but nobody asks "How is archiving...?" xD (plus it’s a show called “Archives” and nobody actually knows what that means in a workplace environment XD Comedy at its finest xD)

I love how with the laughs and how the actors actually... pause for laughter this actually feels like a 90s sitcom!

ROSIE: "Miss Robinson was getting… on, a little bit- and it must have been very hard for her. Did, um. Did you ever meet her at all?" JON: "Erm – not really; a few times – I don’t think she liked me much." [[SCATTERED LAUGHTER]] ROSIE: (audible grimace) "…No." So is it true, what the Stranger was leading on. Gertrude would have been so disappointed to see Jon become the new Archivist and how that's going.

JON: "I mean, there were a lot of rumors, floating around Research, obviously. According to them, she  (sensationalizing) ‘died at this very desk.’" Always the curious one, always asking one too many questions.

[IMMEDIATELY, HE REACHES FOR A GLASS OF WATER, DRINKS IT, THEN PUTS THE GLASS DOWN WITH A HEAVY, CONTENTED SIGH.] [[AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]] Apparently drinking water was funny? xDD

MARTIN: "Hey, sorry; you haven’t seen a dog, have you?" I love that we get to see that scene! It has been already established in the launch trailer (the one with the vigilo audio opperior whisper) where Jon says "I swear, if he’s brought another dog in here, I’m going to peel him." after calling out for Martin.

JON: "I’m s– Sorry, what?" MARTIN: "Um – Uh, a dog, a-a Spaniel, I think." JON: "In – In general, or?…" And that was the last time, Jon said anything not laced with contempt to Martin for about a year!

It's so funny how extremely anxious Martin is here. Because when we meet him for the first time in MAG 22 he doesn't sound THAT intimidated by Jon at all. Still, I guess it's pretty stressful already fucking up on the first day of your new position.

JON: "So I’m your boss." [PAUSE.] MARTIN: "I mean, I guess." [SMALL HEH.] [[SLIGHT LAUGHTER]] JON: "Which means that technically – (small, smug *heh*) – I have the power to – dismiss you, if this dog situation is not resolved immediately." [SLIGHT LAUGHTER]] MARTIN: "I mean, yeah, probably." [HE GIVES A SMALL LAUGH.] [[LAUGHTER]] Martin is just too deep in the gay headspace to realize that this has a subtext.

JON: "Well that’s – (exhale) not ideal." I mean, I kinda get it... He took a job he knows he's not qualified for. He asked the person to move down to the Archives with him who actually is qualified for this Job and is constantly overshadowed by her. He takes the job over from someone who mysteriously disappeared or died with the possibility that she had been the victim of a crime. The Archives are in an absolute state of chaos and he realizes he probably bit off more than he can chew. He gets that creepy feeling of being watched. And then, someone who at least seems less qualified than him (he later learns that Martin also might be more qualified and then again later learns that Martin is indeed super not-qualified at all...) has been assigned as his assistant without him knowing anything about it and that very person let a dog into the Archives! I'd probably be on the verge of a breakdown (without being an asshole though, most likely I’d beg the others to help me.)

So the statement of MAG 2 takes longer than the ambiance track xD

TIM: (coming into view) "Right, yeah. Oh! The Gillespie statement! That’s a proper weird one, right?" Ah, the old Tim energy!

TIM: "Oh, uh, yes, uh – mm. Hypothetically –" [[LAUGHTER]] TIM (CONT’D): "What would you say, if I said that there was a…" [HE TRAILS OFF. THE ARCHIVIST SIGHS.] TIM (CONT’D): "Dog." [[UPROAR OF LAUGHTER]] TIM (CONT’D): "Situation. In the Archives." Seriously, I'm pretty pleased with the amount of jokes there are in TMA, there are sooo many good ones. But I surely wouldn't mind something like these three scenes every once in a while as bonus! So I hope this stuff keeps coming occasionally in Protocol. These three scenes here are such a gem!

JON: "I would ask if it was getting worse?" TIM: (relaxing) "Okay, alright, cool, so, right –" Tim be like "Okay considering Jon's grumpy worksona, this is going pretty well so far!!"

JON: "Tim." TIM: "Hypothetically –" JON: "Tim!" TIM: "I – Yeah, yeah, there’s a dog situation in the Archives. There’s a – there’s a mess –" Tim gave up, he knows that Jon knows, no way to salvage this xD

JON: "Come on, let’s – (inhale) Let’s deal with this before it escalates." I love how they all went to hunt that dog down together xD Right after the pack dynamic domain episode!

TIM: "Oh, recording equipment, um – (blows air through teeth) Oh! Yeah, the – I think there are some old tape recorders in the storage." [BRIEF PAUSE.] JON: "That could work." You know, that is not sooooo out-of-this-world-ish... Just 2 weeks ago I came into the office fully bracing myself that I had to use the tape recorder that day because there was a big maintenance the week before (that was actually the reason I even showed up at all. Usually I’d stay in home office). System shutdown for several hours. Turns out, no one wants to use the bloody tape recorders anymore, so god knows what they did during maintenance.

Magnus outro song starts. Everybody sitting on nails like "Say the line, Alex!" Alex: "The Magnus Archives is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under..."

@a-mag-a-day