#Ben Blacker

[avengerscompound]

Deadpool V Gambit (2016)

[teamfreewill2pointo]

Ben Blacker wrote this about Jenny Klein and the Supernatural writing room

For those curious, he and his writing partner wrote The Mentalists, 7.07.

[queeruscant]

Name: Dec Hansen Pronouns: he/him Era: First Order Appears in: Join the Resistance trilogy

Dec Hansen was a scavenger and tinkerer who, with his droid "brother" AG-90, joined the Resistance as part of J-Squadron. He was a charming troublemaker and fiercely loyal to his friends. While not made explicit in canon, co-author Ben Blacker stated that he wrote Dec as a gay character, alluding to this through Dec's story about being "different from everyone else" and quotes other characters ("I've never known him to like a girl. It's just not how he is.")

Fun fact: Dec is the first gay character in a Star Wars children's book!

Check out Dec's video profile here.

Full profile under the cut:

Dec Hansen was a teenage member of the Resistance during the time of the First Order. He grew up on Ques, a damp, marshy planet in Huttspace. Dec used to be an only child, but his mother gifted him with a droid: AG-90. AG-90 and Dec were brothers from then on out, and they both joined the Resistance and trained to be pilots.

Dec appeared in the junior novel series Join the Resistance by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker. He was a scrapper, a tinkerer, a charmer, and a talented troublemaker. You’d usually find him with a smirk on his face, ready to undermine authority or talk his way out of trouble – which he was really good at. 

Dec was fiercely loyal, and valued his friends and family over anything else. Once Dec considered you a friend, he’d be on your side no matter what. He was a committed member of the Resistance and a strong advocate for his squad, arguing that what made them different is what made them good rebels.

And Dec knows what it means to feel different. In book two of the series, Dec tells a story about how when he was younger, he started to realize that he was different from all the kids around him, and that he kept this difference secret because he thought his friends and family would hate him if they knew. Eventually, with the help of AG-90, he told his parents, friends, and other people around, and they loved him just the same.

In August 2018, author Ben Blacker confirmed on Twitter that Dec is gay.

There are other hints throughout the books that suggest that Dec is gay. His best friend, Sari, says that “she’s never known Dec to like a girl. It’s just not how he is.” Others are more vague, and could certainly be said or done by a straight character too. For example, he kissed one of the boys in his squad’s cheek, and told his brother: “Ain’t no way you’re handsomer than me. I’m real pretty.”

[mlobsters]

supernatural s7e7 the mentalists (w. ben acker, ben blacker)

*sad trombone*

it's like. an actual view of an actual screen in daylight aka it's dark as shit. that's funny. you better fix your shit with sammy, my dude.

this looks like it's gonna be not great. brightly lit and colorful, never a good sign. oh... god. sam is here? i think i might need to read the plot summary in advance on this one.

his hair is lookin kinda limp and greasy. is it sad/mad sam hair? (doubtful)

WAITER Fantastic. You are a virile manifestation of the divine.

all right.

rex manning? (no)

MELANIE Well, I honestly read people. It's just less woo woo, more body language. Like you two – long-time partners, but, um… a lot of tension. [Gestures to SAM.] You're pissed. [Gestures to DEAN.] And you're stressed. It's not brain surgery.

--

JIMMY A loss weighs on you. You're angry. It's complicated. Come see me, Agent.

for all the buildup that felt so contrived of this stabbing jewel staite and lying about it conflict and now they're doing the, oh those bickering brothers sort of comic relief about them fighting... is weird.

watched an interesting documentary about miss cleo while painting here recently, called "call me miss cleo" (trailer)

hey hey someone from yellowjackets! i've watched s1 twice but haven't started s2. maybe when i'm done with s2 of the bear.

yellowjackets - rukiya bernard as simone abra

MUSEUM GUIDE Never ended well for the siblings. DEAN Why is that? MUSEUM GUIDE Mm, the strain of working together, or maybe just being around each other all their lives. Those two were the exception, actually – the Campbells. Got along famously. Of course, that was just a stage name. They weren't actually brothers. That was a cover for their, um... alternative lifestyle.

twofer there. get to make a comment about sibling conflict and a gay "joke". this is my unimpressed face

MUSEUM GUIDE Oh, the Fox sisters – among the founders of Lily Dale. Kate Fox – quite troubled, apparently, but mesmerizing onstage. She's said to be able to levitate objects and foretell one's death. DEAN (to SAM) That's her. MUSEUM GUIDE Her older sister, Margaret – perhaps not a natural psychic. DEAN So, full of crap. MUSEUM GUIDE Yes, well... she didn't have her sister's charisma, but she looked after Kate. Sometimes, one's true gift is taking care of others.

Mulder : Scully, you know that face I just showed you? I'm making it again.

this show does like to beat us over the head with a point

MUSEUM GUIDE I’m sorry, I don't normally do this during business hours, but do you know an Eleanor… or an Ellen? She seems quite concerned about you. She wants to tell you – pardon me – if you don't tell someone how bad it really is, she'll kick your ass from beyond. You have to trust someone again eventually.

that's a choice. and you know i have very soft feelings about ellen. rude. get to invoke ellen (and my feelings!) without even using the actress's voice or likeness 😔 glad dean pushed to talk about their issues with sam

DEAN You almost got us both killed, so you can be pissed all you want, but quit being a bitch.

i feel like being pissed and being a bitch go hand in hand though

DEAN But, uh, hey. You never know. It's not like you can tell the future, right? MELANIE Hmm.

i admit i am not immune to the hopeful little boy face he just made (though it's unfortunate that things are still leaning orange)

no-drink not-so-scenic car date to talk about feelings

SAM What I'm saying is... I get why you did it. You were just trying to make sure no one else got hurt. But here's the thing. You can't just look me in the face and tell me you're fine. I mean, you're not sleeping, you drink for the record— DEAN Oh, here we go. SAM Look, whatever. Last one to preach, I know. But... Just be honest with me. How are those the actions of someone who knows they did the right thing? DEAN You want me to be honest? SAM Yeah. DEAN I went with my gut. And that felt right. I didn't trust her, Sam. Of course, ever since Cas, I'm having a hard time trusting anybody. And as far as how I've been acting... I don't know. Maybe it's 'cause I don't like lying to you. You know, it doesn't feel right. So, yeah, you got me there. I've been climbing the walls.

all right thank you. was it worth that fucking plotline dragging out for 5 episodes? mmm, hard no.

[matildazq]

Truly nothing like a Thrilling Adventure Hour show to give me the warm fuzzies. @fyeahthrillingadventurehour

[winchestergifs]

STACKEDNATURAL ⇉ 80/327

7.7 The Mentalists Written by Ben Acker & Ben Blacker Directed by Mike Rohl Original Air Date: November 4, 2011

[haveyoureadthiscomic-poll]

[manwalksintobar]

if we’ve gotta live underground and everybody’s got cancer/ will poetry be enuf?  // Eisa Davis to Ntozake Shange

         dear ntozake,

I got sacks of mercury under the skin beneath my eyes either cried too much or i’m abt to the cool war’s burnin up my retina again does poetry start where life ends? i know i’m supposed to be cool: i wear corrective lenses that feature high definition tragedy. baby in the dumpster       ethnic cleansing assassinations       multinational mergers i’m supposed to shake my head write a poem believe in ripples. but i ain’t cool. i emit inhuman noises i imagine terrorist acts as i flick my imaginary ash onto the imaginary tray i imagine going insane with a purpose and writing it down feels sorta unnecessary does poetry end where life begins? berkeley girl       black girl        red diaper baby born of the blood of the struggle but with reaganomics and prince pickin up steam in ‘81 nothing came between me and my calvins 10 yrs old       unpressed hair       playin beethoven readin madeleine l’engle       got scared in my pants when i heard this girl testifying ‘TOUSSAINT’ in the black repertory group youth ensemble i was just sittin in a rockin chair pretendin to be 82 and talkin like I knew all bout langston’s ‘rivers’

i wasn’t as good as her and i definitely wadn’t cool so i gave up drama and decided to bake soufflés zake you wda beat me up in the playground if we’da grown up together and you did eighth grade       ‘he dropped em’ at the regional oratorical competition i saw another fly honey rip it this time it’s ‘a nite with beau willie brown’ i was bleedin on the ground i became yours no more soufflés i jacked for colored girls right off my mama’s shelf my mama fania who was sweatin with you and raymond sawyer and ed mock and halifu osumare dancin on the grass       back in the day in you i found a groove never knew i had one like that did that monologue over and over alone in my room my bunk bed the proscenium arch 13 yrs old       screamin and cryin abt my kids gettin dropped out a window didn't know a damn thing about rivers but i knew abt my heart fallin        five stories you were never abbreviated or lower case to me you just pimped that irony that global badass mackadocious funkology you not only had hígado you had ben-wa balls in yr pussy

betsey brown on my godmother's couch nappy edges in mendocino at the mouth of big river spell #7 after the earthquake in silverlake the love space demands had to be in brooklyn yr poems are invitations to live in yr body love letters yr admirers dream they coulda written themselves no one cd find a category that was yr size blackety black but never blacker than thou you teased me into sassiness when i had none to speak of made profane into sacred but never formed a church sanctified women's lives whether we were reading nietzsche or a box of kotex we were magical and regular you many-tongued st louis woman of barnard and barcelona you left us the residue of yr lust left us to wander life as freely as sassafrass cypress and indigo and even the unedumacated could get yr virtuosity cuz you always fried it up in grease you built an aqueduct from lorraine hansberry's groundwater and it bubbled straight to george c wolfe you never read what the critics said and you scrunched up the flesh between yr eyebrows like everybody else in my family

but zake is poetry enuf?

i beg the question cuz you grew me up you    and adrienne kennedy     and anna deavere smith and all my mothers you blew out the candles on my 26th so when there's mercury under the skin beneath my eyes and the world ain't so cool do you write a poem or a will?

like leroi jones said     if bessie smith had killed some white people she wouldn't have needed that music so do we all write like amiri baraka does or do we all get our nat turner on?

i beg the question cuz i wanna get my life right do some real work and i really don't want to kill any white folk i mean     can we talk abt this maybe it's just my red diaper that's itchin but i still got that will to uplift the race sans bootstraps or talented tenths or paper bag tests this time we uplift the human race and i know the rainbow might be but is poetry enuf?

it's a naive question but i'm old enuf to ask them once in a while if we do finally unload the canon clean it out stock up on some more colorful balls ain't we only gettin the ones that are available at a store near you? doesn't the market end up setting the new standards anyway? is poetry enuf if it ain't sellin? if ain't nobody readin it? can poetry keep a man     who can't read from droppin his kids out a window?

and how can i call a ceasefire to this cool war in stanzas of eights when we've declared poetry a no fly zone? we have learned to protect it and its potential politics like a mother shoot down anyone who might overdetermine a poem's meaning (while we poets divebomb everyone else's politics with impunity like we're the United States or something)

if poetry is just poetry we save it from the conservatives but doesn't that mean it's of no use to the progressives?

is poetry enuf? cuz that's all i'm doin. makin up stories    on stage     on the page keepin the beat and that's all my friends are doin and that's what a lot of folks my age are doin

but if we've gone and burnt up everything in the sky if there's nothin else to eat but landfill stroganoff if we've gotta live underground and everybody's got cancer will poetry be enuf?

my aunt angela says i can do my thang and keep swinging left hooks to oppression if i stay up stay into it stay involved just one form of praxis will do. it's just my guilt that thinks i need twenty-two what's enuf?

shouldn't i (or somebody) be our secular bodhisattva become a real power player but skip the talk show can't we stabilize, rekindle collectives and cooperatives and collaborations therapeutic communities that double as creative juggernauts a publishing house     a theatre where the plays cost less than the movies get the neighborhood coven back together take dance breaks in the cubicles sing until the flourescent lights burst into snow i ask you because you changed me zake you changed thousands of women and i know poetry can't be enuf if you drunk

i ain't tryin ta walk off wid alla yr stuff and i got nuttin but love for ya so that's why i gotta know i'm sittin on my bed encircled by every book you've ever published they're open like fans marking pages with the flint of genius all i want is for this circle to grow so tell me:

is this where poetry and life are twins? i felt so crumpled up when i started writing you poetry seemed so useless and dingy next to all the bright red bad news but now that the poem is over i feel wide open like an infant of the spring just tell me how to feed this light to my responsibilities and poetry just might be enuf           love           eisa

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

When I’ve done the work of day, and I row my boat away

Down the waters of Loch Tay as the evening lights are fading-

And I look upon Ben Lawers, where the after glory glows

And I think on two bright eyes, and a melting mouth below

She’s my beautious nighean ruadh! She’s my joy and sorrow, too

And although she is untrue, well, I cannot live without her-

For my heart’s a boat in tow, and I’d give the world to know

Why she means to let me go, as I sing , “Horee, horo!”

Nighean Ruadh, your lovely hair has more glamour I declare

Then all the tresses rare ‘tween Killin and Aberfeldy

Be they lint white, brown or gold, be they blacker than the sloe

They are worth no more to me than a melting flake of snow-

And her eyes are like the gleam of the sunlight on the stream

& the songs the Faeries sing, oh, they're the songs she sings at milking

But my heart is full of woe for last night she bade me go

And the tears begin to flow, as I sing, “ Horee, horo!”

You.

[queer-starwars-bracket]

Queer Star Wars Characters (Round 1): General Bracket Match 20

Dec Hansen | Identity: gay | Media: Join the Resistance

Dec Hansen is a main character in the aborted middle grade novel series following a squad of 14 year olds who joined the Resistance. He was born on the isolated swamp planet of Ques. An only child, his mother built him a droid named AG-90 to act as his brother. When he was young, he ran away from home because of “something that made him different”, before eventually crawling back to his mother and telling her about it, where it turned out his community was actually accepting. Ben Blacker, one of the authors confirmed this was about him being gay. Which feels like meta-commentary about representation. Ques wasn’t homophobic, but because Dec had never heard of same gender attraction he felt isolated. 

With the Resistance, Dec was quite the trouble marker, in part because command didn’t accept AG as his brother and let him train as a pilot. He quickly became friends with the main protagonist of the series, Mattis. After his shenanigans caused a power outage on the base, J-Squadron was sent to the thought to be abandoned planet Vodran to scavenge. Dec was separated from most of the Squad and ended up on the planet's moon, where Hadra the Hutt, the planet’s old ruler, was living in exile. They bonded over their mental health problems and feeling different from their community, which convinced Hadra to help liberate his friends from the First Order prison on the planet. With J-Squadron reunited, they traveled to Starkiller Base to save Jo from his First Order parents. They managed to escape right as Starkiller Base was being destroyed and returned to D’Qar right before the evacuation. They were presumably sent on a special mission shortly after, like the many Resistance characters who didn’t appear in TLJ. Unfortunately the failure of TROS means it will be a long time before his series is finished.

Conder Kyl | Identity: mlm | Media: Aftermath trilogy

Conder Kyl was a New Republic slicer employed by New Republic intelligence. Between the first two books of the Aftermath trilogy, he began a relationship with Sinjir Rath Velus (the first queer character in the New EU), a member of an Imperial war criminal capture squad. However, due to Sinjir’s alcoholism and hatred of vulnerability from being part of the ISB, their relationship was strained. Believing himself to be an unworthy partner, Sinjir broke up with Conder. However, Sinjir latter approached Conder and begged for his help to help work through all the politicking in the Senate against sending New Republic forces to Jakku. In the process, Conder was captured, and after Sinjir rescued him the two reconciled and got back together. Conder later got the chance to save Sinjir’s life in the process of foiling an assassination attempt against Mon Mothma. After the Battle of Jakku, he married Sinjir. His most recent appearance was a cameo in the novel Last Shot, where he is the chief of cyberware in the New Republic’s Digital Warfare Department.

As he is a supporting character, he doesn’t get any PoV chapters. Despite being a very skilled slicer, he is very straightforward and simply good. Despite Sinjir’s own self-esteem problems, he didn’t mistrust Sinjir for being an ex-Imperial. All the conflict in the relationship came from Sinjir’s own mental health problems. 

Art by @cinno on tumblr

[bloodinthegutter]

New X-Men (Vol. 2) #46 by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost (2008)

Deadpool V Gambit #4 by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker (2016)

[avengerscompound]

Deadpool V Gambit (2016)

[wonderlandleighleigh]

Do you have a fav non Palladino Gilmore/Maisel director or writer?

Robbie Thompson wrote one of my favorite Supernatural episodes. Love that guy.

Jonathan Frakes does great work directing in the Star Trek franchise.

Actually, Jensen Ackles is also a really good director, I think.

Ben Edlund is another writer who slaps.

Bobo Berens. Another great writer.

Ben Browder wrote one of the most bonkers hours of television in existence.

Dave Filonni

Jerry Juhl back in the day, writing Muppet show episodes.

Ben Acker and Ben Blacker who did the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast.

Go look up your favorite episodes of TV and look up the writer and director. You'll find new people to stan. <3

[dreaminghour]

✨️✨️✨️

Thank you <3

Star Wars. Vaderwan! (Obi-Wan/Vader) This has been sitting on ice for a year, but in honor of my favorite horror-shroom, I thought I'd share the bit where Obi-Wan gets to see Darth Vader in action for the first time.

~~~

'Who was her mother, Obi-Wan?'

They followed him to the door, the woman and the girl, but the rippling darkness, blacker than the fringed edges of the galaxy, darkened his sight until all his senses were filled with the approach of… him. Where once might have been the brightest star, powerful enough to turn the entire galaxy around its core, there was now a black-hole sucking all light into its depth and yearning for more.

'Another one you couldn't save?'

And all at once, he stood there, his menace larger than life, soulless eyes surveying the town, seeking Ben out.

'Come out and tell me.'

~~~

Gonna tag this "vaderwan fix it" in case anyone wants to read more~

[talesfromsiteredacted]

SCP(L): Super Crappy Pickup Lines

Ignoring the very anomalous charges under our care, the Foundation is a lot like any other office. There's the office brown-noses, the snitches, the useless, the know-too-much types, the overachievers... and the flirts. Some of us have game, some of us couldn't find games in a toy shop. Here's some of the worst. Triggers: adult content, bad puns.

"That an anomalous sword in you hand 076-2 or are you just happy to see me?" Only Agent Dimitriov can try this and live. Anyone else is just going to become a red smudge on that sword.

"Good thing I'm certified in handling incendiary weapons, as you're smoking babe."

"Hey, sexy mama. Wanna see a naked Mole Rat?"

"Are you a memetic cognitohazard? Cause you keep running through my mind all night."

"Hey, are you a pneumohazard anomaly? I ask, because you take my breath away in that dress."

"You had me at 'cheesecake'."

"I don't know just what it is about you, 173... but I just can't take my eyes off you in that blue dress." That... was weird. Usually CLEF flirts with the Staring Statue, hearing a D-Class say that stuff was scary.

"Better get the MTF up here, that ass so fine shorty bends reality."

"I would bring you the skulls of every enemy of yours if it makes you smile, my (untranslatable)." Huh. Kinda romantic for Big Brother.

"The stars in the night are insignificant compared to those residing in your eyes, my dove." Okay... not going to lie... that was smooth as silk. No doubt about it Iris... Viktor is a keeper.

"The only thing blacker than your coffee preference is your soul. We should have dinner soon."

"I'd breach containment for you. I'd face the Hard to Destroy Reptile for you. I'd even remove a water bottle from your junk, again. I'd do anything for your love... except face the Ethics Committee again. I'm sorry, but you need to buy your own booze tonight, Ben. Bad enough they threatened me with the Red Right Hand after the last incident."

"Dyo, you may be a 'bad guy', but it doesn't make you a bad person. Thanks for telling Lenny the Letch to eat a bag of zombie dicks. Wanna grab coffee?"

"I've got the worst headache in history, 049... and I think a hug from you might be the best cure."

"Hey, can my eel slither in your pond?" That earned a slap from the Water Nymph. I'd have slapped him too.

"My anomalous ability? I made you come with just two fingers."

"I gave up a kidney for you. If that's not love, Charles, tell me what is."

An ANTI-pickup line: "Are you with the Church of the Broken God? Because you're really starting to grind my gears."

"Why yes, 999... that IS a mammoth ice cream sundae with your name on it, and everyone is ALWAYS happy to see you. Wanna play Among Us and chill?"

"Are you a Bixby? Because you're so fine it challenges my notion of reality."

"Of course she's Thaumiel, she's so fine even the Shy Guy stares as she passes by. So what? I'd still suit up to tap that heavenly fineness."

"You look cold, Dr. Iceberg. Maybe a hug would warm you up."

"Doctor, if I said you Light up my life would you be mad at me?"

"I'd gladly be your dinner if I get dessert first, Kuhmiho." Okay, D-2984 must not have been around pretty girls much.

"That a new dress, Dr. Myriad? It looks great on you, but it'd look better on my chair."

"I've got a couple bottles of your favorite wine, a few antimemetics... what say you and I get out of here and not make memories?"

"Oh, sweetie... 343 did his finest work when he made you."

"106... that a Marshall, Carter, & Dark thug? Aw, thank you, sweetheart! I got you one too. Happy Valentine's Day, Larry!"

"Hello, 049. Wanna play Doctor?"

"You're like an annoying TikTok music video, I close my eyes and I hear your voice. You, uh... doing anything tonight?"

[matildazq]

Chicago has reached the bipolar phase of its winter where it tries to kill us all by snowing, then getting outrageously cold, then snowing again before the temperature rises to just a teensy bit above freezing, then drops again. So the streets and sidewalks are deathtraps, but the Danger Beagle laughs in the face of peril. She still wants her 6+-mile walk everyday. So I have these yaktrax things that help at least a little with not dying of the sidewalk bashing in my occipital. They are a sort of rubber frame that, in theory, stretches around the outline of the sole of one's shoe. Except my winter boots are for dudes, because I have not found a pair for women that are not absurd in prioritizing look over functionality (see above re: mandatory 6+-mile Danger Beagling daily). I bought the yaktrax for my dainty lady feet shoes, though, and my boots are, of necessity, rather too big for my feet. The result is that he yaktrax seem to want to escape. Yesterday, I lost one and the Spousal Unit graciously hunted it down. Today, I suddenly realized outside the dog park that I had lost both. I was going to write them off, but I was pretty sure it had only been a short while since I lost them. An apparent digression: Lately, I have been re-listening to all of "Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars" in order. I am out of the Pod F. Tompkast, Spontaneanation, Stay F. Homekins, and The Neighborhood Listen. I am out of Craig's List and Settling the Score. Danger Beagling consumes a LOT of podcasts, friends. So, Sparks it has been, and I have this to say: —Goddamn if that theme song is not a jolt of endorphins every single time —Sara Watkins' POW! is still the POW! to beat —I can't believe I'd forgotten how straight @paulftompkins plays it when he sings the theme song when the Jupiter Spy is Sparks —I can't believe I'd forgotten how he then utterly destroys MEJ when the Jupiter Spy is Croach and MEJ is just trying to get through the song. ANYHOODLES. Despite my LIMITED HUMAN SENSES, and my life-long urban dwelling, I was inspired NOT to surrender to the loss of my yaktrax, because there's crunchy, crunchy snow all over, so I was leaving two sets of footprints (no, Jesus does not come into this), and I was reasonably sure that the tall weeds (Danger Beagle loves the tall weeds—she once flushed a Bun and a Barn Cat in rapid succession and she will NEVER FORGET) immediately next to the off-leash part of the dog park was the most likely place for them to have been yanked off.

Reader, I tracked those yaktrax. Praise Nanotech.