firawren

[firawren]

It's time to vote!

To celebrate getting 500 followers, let's all build a story together! You vote on the characters, tropes, and even a sexy sentence that I'll stick somewhere in the story, and then I'll put together a one- or two-part Regency monster fucking fic with the elements you chose!

To keep it more flexible, I'm using an anonymous Google form for voting rather than Tumblr polls. (Google will ask you to sign in, but only so it can make sure you don't vote more than once. I don't collect your email or username.) I'll close the voting in about a week.

✅ VOTE HERE for your fav monsters & Regency stuff

A big thank you to all of my followers and the lovely comments, tags, and asks you share with me! It's been so fun sharing my niche Regency monster fucking kink with y'all.

I'm excited to write what you vote for!

[firawren]

Shirt grab

[firawren]

this is a poll for a movie that doesn't exist.

it is vintage times. the old hollywood studios, captivated by the electorate's previous casting of cinema classic dracula, have decided to celebrate jane austen's 250th by releasing an all-new vintage motion picture extravaganza based on her celebrated romance pride and prejudice. whoever is cast will impact the picture's tone and genre, so they are counting on you, the electorate, to deliver cinema magic.

you are the casting director for this star-studded epic. choose your players wisely.

This is one of many polls that will gradually drop over the next few weeks. You can find all the P&P polls under #pride and prejudice casting. If you need a reminder on who's who, here's the Wikipedia page listing the cast of characters.

[firawren]

lmaooo how did I forget that Elizabeth's go-to annoyance curse on people who displease her is to hope they marry someone miserable?

We all remember that she sees Anne de Bourgh and is like "yes perfect she'll make Mr Darcy miserable" but how did I forget that she wishes BINGLEY miserable at one point too?!

"This letter gave Elizabeth some pain; but her spirits returned, as she considered that Jane would no longer be duped, by the sister at least. All expectation from the brother was now absolutely over. She would not even wish for any renewal of his attentions. His character sunk on every review of it; and, as a punishment for him, as well as a possible advantage to Jane, she seriously hoped he might really soon marry Mr. Darcy’s sister, as, by Wickham’s account, she would make him abundantly regret what he had thrown away."

[firawren]

I know she's not actually weird for reading books, and that the reading itself isn't really the issue. My point was that modern Belle needs something other than only book reading to signal her "otherness." Modern AUs of BatB always make Belle bookish, which is fine, but they often fail to give her any additional interest, habit, or quality that sets her apart from her peers and makes her odd to them. I myself have done this, so I'm not criticizing, just brainstorming how I could modernize her character in a more convincing way.

I said nothing about modernizing her to still live in a small town specifically, but sure, if that was the setting someone chose to place her in for their modern AU, making her dress in haute couture-ish stuff and want to move to Europe (assuming she's living in small-town USA, per your specific examples) could work as "othering." I like your idea for that. I already mentioned the possibility of her clothes setting her apart, regardless of setting, and I did this in one of my retellings, too (she makes her own clothing, and it's brightly colored and doesn't fit with the style of what the other villagers wear). It's fun to connect back to the film's choice to put her in bright blue when all the villagers are in earth tones as a way to signal that she's different.

I love it when modern adaptations of old books opt to be loyal to the book's cultural context instead of the specific details of the characters/settings. Like if one character written in a specific era is depicted as being annoyingly obsessed with pocket watches, specifically as a way of illustrating that this man is a fashion-obsessed airheaded fop, it wouldn't make sense in the same way in the 21st century, pocket watches would be an extremely odd and interesting hobby for a modern young man, so it doesn't have the same context. Make that mf a sneakerhead.

Or a specific scene that's constantly used as an example for arguments of "I don't like [the book heroine] because she hates horses", when originally the point of the scene was that all this talk about horse breeds and some specific stud's ankle angles is also going over her head, and it's more of a "send help, car guys won't stop talking about cars" situation.

[firawren]

Mary Musgrove energy:

[firawren]

Asking because I overheard a physical therapist say that she uses this question to see if she wants a second date with a guy, and if he says more than like 4 eggs at once it's a red flag.

[firawren]

I love how Darcy 95 has one (1) moment of happiness during the entire Netherfield Ball and it's when he's watching the woman he loves embarrass herself by having to dance with an imbecile

Pride and Prejudice | 1995 | Adapted by Andrew Davies

[firawren]

The other night husband and I were watching a documentary about the yeti where they were doing DNA analysis of samples of supposed yeti fur, and every one of them came back as bears.

Anyway, the next night we watched a thing about some pig man who is supposed to live in Vermont. People said it had claws and a pig nose but walked upright like a man. Now, I happen to know that sideshows used to shave bears and present them as pig men. So every piece of evidence they gave of this monster sounds to me like a bear with mange.

So now the running joke in our house is that everything is bears. Aliens? Bears. Loch Ness monster? Bear. Every cryptozoological mystery is just a very crafty bear.

Bears. They’re everywhere. Be wary. Anyone or anything could be a bear.

[firawren]

👒🍒🌞

[firawren]

[firawren]

I love a man fighting with a baby in his arms

Once Upon A Time

The Mandalorian

Hard Boiled

[firawren]

Yes! Or he's an obnoxious NFT or cryptocurrency bro. That's another one I've seen proposed for John Thorpe often.

I've been thinking about this recently in the context of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. In modern AUs, including my own, Belle is always still made a bookish person. But in the movie, her bookishness is the key thing that makes her "odd," and that's not an odd thing for women to like in modern culture.

So what would a modern Belle be into that would make her seem odd and make people judge her harshly and ostracize her, even though there's nothing actually wrong with it? Maybe she's really into bugs, like entomology? Or she wants to be a mortician? Or she makes her own clothes in the style of some previous time period? Other ideas?

I love it when modern adaptations of old books opt to be loyal to the book's cultural context instead of the specific details of the characters/settings. Like if one character written in a specific era is depicted as being annoyingly obsessed with pocket watches, specifically as a way of illustrating that this man is a fashion-obsessed airheaded fop, it wouldn't make sense in the same way in the 21st century, pocket watches would be an extremely odd and interesting hobby for a modern young man, so it doesn't have the same context. Make that mf a sneakerhead.

Or a specific scene that's constantly used as an example for arguments of "I don't like [the book heroine] because she hates horses", when originally the point of the scene was that all this talk about horse breeds and some specific stud's ankle angles is also going over her head, and it's more of a "send help, car guys won't stop talking about cars" situation.

[firawren]

Gaston gives the camera a tour of his biceps.

♡

[firawren]

He's softer than he looks.

[firawren]

I have a specific goal this year. I want to keep taking commissions as usual (with a few more options- headshots and half-bodies) but take all of the funds earned from them to finance my wife's transition. Laser hair removal and HRT are expensive things, even with three jobs between us.

I know that a lot of you guys that follow me are LGBTQ+ (or allies), and I know that things have been tough for our community, especially recently. I believe that the best way to make things better is to continue to support one another, to take care of each other. To buy gay art, to make gay art, to crowdfund what we can and create things that are important to us.

My wife is the best person in the world. She deserves everything and more, and this is something tangible I can do for her.

If you've been on the fence about getting some art of your character or your partner or Shadow the Hedgehog in drag, maybe now is the time. And you can enjoy that Drag Shadow guilt-free, knowing that your money is directly helping someone else be who they are in a world that is making that increasingly difficult.

I appreciate all of you and your support for my art, and I hope that I can appreciate your support of my wife, too. If you're feeling extra saintly and charitable and want to kick in a few bucks, my Ko-Fi is on the third slide.

Thank you all so much. May our art remain unbearably gay.

[firawren]

I had a thought while reading Persuasion - this book is SAD, and it's sad because of the juxtaposition between the past and the present. Anne is constantly (at least in chapter 8) comparing her memories of her time with Wentworth to the events happening in front of her: their affection vs. unacquantaince, her former lack of knowledge about the navy (until Wentworth informed her) vs. the Musgroves' lack of knowledge now. with all that said - I think a different film adaptation of Persuasion could actually do the Greta Gerwig Little Women flashback/vignette trope REALLY well. i just want cute little scenes of younger Anne/Frederick being affectionate and then flashing back forward to the present! the warm lighting of the past contrasted with the cold lighting of the present. and then that cold blue light turning warmer and richer as the story progresses.