#Literally all of the dinosaurs are canonically trans

[jackoquako]

Gay dinosaurs gay dinosaurs gay dinosaurs gay dinosaurs gay dinosaurs gay dinosaurs gay dinosaurs gay dinosaurs gay dinosaurs g-

[jenniferdiazisatransgirl]

Apparently they are going to make the new “Jurassic Park: Survival” game “woke” by making it so the dinosaurs are trans and change sex.

Huh?

I’m trying to recall a major plot point from the first movie where all the dinosaurs were ensured to be female as a means of population control but Dr Malcolm famously saying, “Life finds a way.”

InGen used amphibian DNA as means of filling in the genome and those specific amphibians were known to spontaneously change sex when in single-sex populations. So what did the dinosaurs do in order to breed?

Oh right! It was basically a fucking plot point in the original movie and book when they were first released. The dinosaurs change sex and have always been able to change sex in the Jurassic Park franchise 🤦‍♀️

It should be noted, this was just some right wing idiot claiming the game studio were gonna make it “woke”. But they literally went on to basically say the way they would make it woke would be allowing the dinosaurs to change sex. Something that has always been canon in the franchise 😂

[scolop98]

VOTE FOR KIYOSHI KARASUMA IN THE OC POLL

@original-character-championship

OC created by @giantchasm

from Adventures in Solitude

Quick break from my regularly scheduled dinosaur propaganda to present my propaganda for the best-written OC I’ve ever seen in a fanfic. I didn't create Kiyoshi, but he lives in my head rent-free now. He looks like a normal-ass preteen but he is such a fascinating and hilarious being. He is simultaneously a serious and dramatic character study on the ethics of reincarnation and a character whose mere existence feels like a hilarious cosmic joke. He is the personification of an Angsty Crack-Taken-Seriously Fic.

“Fun” Facts About The Boy:

Has a big fluffy Samoyed named Taros.

He’s a trans boy! Came out when he was ten, and his parents & family friends accepted and supported him. These first two are fun facts and not “fun” facts, unlike pretty much the rest of his preteen existence

His sleep paralysis demon is his best friend’s past life

The reason he turned out good this time is, canonically, because he burned some ants with a magnifying glass when he was three and felt really bad about it

As a baby he hated this one aunt on sight for no discernible reason. He came around pretty quickly and now she's his favorite aunt, but 12 years later they found out that this was because that aunt was his past life's younger sister-in-law who he once tried to murder. She also happens to be his current middle school teacher's wife for some reason

His best friend once clapped at him so threateningly that Kiyoshi dissociated and almost had a past-life flashback/panic attack in the middle of capture the flag

He would be personally offended if he saw someone online call Heinz Doofenshmirtz a mad scientist*

Was once a popular kid… when he was a preschooler. Then his anxiety and self-judgement got so bad that now he just sits in the back of the classroom judging everyone and had no friends outside of his parents’ now-adult former students prior to the start of the fic

Despite being a neurotic ball of anxiety and self-loathing, he and his mom (who love each other very much) regularly cuss at each other. He’s probably better at saying “fuck” than any other thirteen year old

Is the voice of reason in his friend group despite having been, y'know, a war criminal in his past life

His best friends got into a fistfight on school grounds over whether or not he should be forgiven for his war crimes

Part of the reason that his redemption arc is so satisfying is that his awful past life knew his parents and friends and fucking hated them all. That man would’ve been legitimately horrified to learn he’d be reborn as this couple’s neurotic little scrimblo of a child. Pretty much every aspect of Kiyoshi’s personality is tailor-made to piss off his past life, and that was mostly a coincidence b/c most of Kiyoshi's character was created before the author had even considered making him a reincarnation. Kiyoshi literally just being himself and accepting who he is is a fate worse than death to the horrible narcissistic man that he was in his past life.

he’s not a natural blond

When he tried shit-talking his past life with a friend, the best insult they could come up with was “Ghetsis from Pokemon”

"'WILL YOU PEOPLE STOP CALLING MY SLEEP PARALYSIS DEMON HOT!?,' Kiyoshi wails” is an actual quote from this fic. Both of his best friends, and half of his middle school class, agreed that his sleep paralysis demon was sexy

canonically ate a live rat in his past life*

*these are the only fun facts not explicitly mentioned in the original fic. everything else is real, I'm not making any of it up

And finally, some relevant memes and quotes:

VOTE HERE!

[thestalkerbunny]

Can you infodump at me about something that you love? That help me relax.

-inhales-

So within the homestuck intermission, the felt's entire culture is based in the notion of charms-similar to the trolls quadrent explanation of the 4 kinds of relationships-Leperchauns are far far more complex, with 9 different unique charms, three charms make a Trove and therefore a mated pair. The 3x3x3 tic tac toe pattern of their own romances mean there can be up to 181,440 different combinations.

Leperchauns reproduce homosexually (but it is never clearly explained), but my thought process is that since they are also referred to as 'Frog men' or 'Toad Goblins' they are amphibians, and one of the unique traits of certain kinds of frogs is being able to literally CHANGE THEIR SEX. These kinds of frogs are known as 'Sequential Hermaphrodites'-specifically the Reed Frog (it's the reason why the dinosaurs were able to go from girls to boys in Jurassic Park and make more dinosaur babies.) So back on topic; they could in theory essentially CHEMICALLY TRANS THEIR GENDERS at will for the sake of reproduction-I bet that's a kind of ability that would make life for a lot of people a lot easier if we were all just built like reed frogs. (but my belief is they're kept so on schedule and so seperate they never have time to actually DO so let alone form stable bonds with each other.) The phenonmaon also happens in CLOWN FISH!

Their cultural customs-which I think is weird since each other of their unique own planets seem to be inhabited by ONE PERSON at a time; is that they basically establish social rank and relationships with one another by playing tricks, pulling pranks, jokes, riddles and tests of luck. Which means probably being the luckiest would establish one as a high ranking leperchaun, but there is a large amount of intellect that can easily out weigh that claim to a sense of leader ship.

The fact that canonically, they are both green and described as 'felted' gives me the impression that based on the periods of their clothing and hats, that possibly they would suffer from arsenic burns because prior to the 1900s, most green dyes were not sealed very well and the type of green dye used at the time was called sheele's green or Emerald green-but was heavily ladened with deadly aresenic.

Hats of the 1800-1900 time periods were also not very well sealed resulting in something called Hatter's Syndrome, hence the phrase 'mad as a hatter' because of working with poorly sealed and badly handled fumes. So their crack head energy the Felt carry may actually be involentarily induced fumes from their goddamn CLOTHES and HATS.

[strawberrybabydog]

Can you tell us more about slush, his personality, and the beginning of your relationship with slush? :3

absolutely!! i love talking about him! you guys can also use this blog to ask him questions specifically if you'd like.

about Slush:

Slush's body is 20, his birthday is April 30th, 2001. He's a 2001 Ty Classic Slush. he's been restuffed twice and has a fabric heart i made for him.

Slush age slides between kindergarten age and around my age.

His favourite colour is red, he's autistic and his main special interest is dragons (he gets very excited when i talk about my dragon friends and sometimes asks about them lol!) he also likes kinetic sand and my weighted blanket, Harvey.

Puppy loves going outside. He likes to sit in the grass and quiet places. He likes that I'm a dog too, says "playful."

He has anxiety surrounding our laundry dryer, vehicles (all. every. cars, bikes, planes, everything) he also has separation anxiety. He's scared of the dark, and if our window is open at night. He also doesn't like our cat, says he smells like pee,... i just think thats so funny tbh

He's also not very literate (can read at a 5-year-old-level, short words, sounding things out. he doesn't really read my phone screen because it's too many big words he doesn't know and i scroll away too fast lol. he doesn't really like watching us play video games that much.

Slush loves bananas! His favourite plush is a banana, and he says his gender is related to bananas and banana milk. He has no preference for pronouns. Ty's Slush is canonically female; Puppy was originally female, then male, and now he's genderless.

Puppy likes having his own things. He likes having his own clothes, his own collar, his own toys. He's gotten jealous of a few of my toys and claimed them as his own (some of my stims, my banana plush, and all of my dragon plushes + my dinosaur plush)

this post is already pretty long so "how we met" is under the cut :0)

i got Slush when I was 4 (2005,) for yule. my parents usually gave us 1 "big" gift each year, something expensive or something we REALLY wanted. but Slush was actually an accident. i first saw him when we were visiting my grandparents earlier that year sometime, and they took us to a mall. i saw some pink and purple poodle plushes on top of a shelf, pointed to them, and told my mom i really wanted one. Slush was beside them. she actually got me the "wrong" gift (according to Slush, he actually "chose me" and this wasn't really an accident? i'm a little confused about this tbh.) his first name was Skye, and he was a girl (yes Slush is canonically trans! his gender is actually complicated but i'll get to that later.) and he was the only plush i ever wanted to get extra accessories for. my mom helped me pick out a collar for him, which was too big so she trimmed it and made a new hole for him - i still have the collar. but Slush hasn't always been my companion, he only became my companion in 2016. His previous names have been Skye and Hyun.

[ash-etherwood]

Top 5: writing memories, songs, characters that are not blank rune, runes, food

♡

Linda I love you but are you trying to kill me … that’s so many Top 5’s! But alright, I’ll do my best! (Answers will probably switch between German and English RIP to every non-German-speaker who follows me and wants to read this for some reason I swear I’m normal)

WRITING MEMORIES

5.) The entire time I spent finishing my first (second?) longer writing project It was the year 2012 and it was a cyberpunk story about my friends’ and my edgy self inserts riding dinosaurs, fighting aliens and being badass. The plot twist in the end was that my character was secretly evil and wanted to kill everyone. (Things to show your therapist) The final boss fight made zero sense and also everything was incredibly weird and stupid. But sometimes I still think about those times when I sat in my grandma’s living room at night, eating chips and listening to Vocaloid covers while thinking this story was the coolest shit ever. Truly simpler times.

4.) Researching something about universities in Texas for OvF on a rainy Saturday afternoon I have no idea why this memory is still sticking with me to this day (I think it was around 2016 or something?), but I remember that it was just a really nice day and I felt really at peace at that moment?

3.) The entire writing process of Bathroom Blues It was such a spontaneous project and I still have no idea how I managed to power though it in just a little under two months! Also it was just incredibly fun seeing you getting excited over new drafts and I loved coming up with new plot points and Halloween costumes for everyone with you. :-D Truly a summer worth remembering.

2.) FINALLY uploading the prologue and intro chapter of WWBL Not really a writing memory, but that moment was … so sexy and magical. Seriously, you have no idea how long I had been waiting to finally start that story, waiting for the Steckbriefe to roll in and see people react to the prologue and generally the idea … I even made one of those countdown graphic thingies for the designated upload date! 8D At that point I had planned that story for about six months and just … yeah, that felt powerful to me.

1.) Writing the prologue for WWBL When I first started the draft for that prologue I was sitting at the window in my favourite hotel in Winterberg, Sauerland, wore my dark green flannel, had the window wide open breathing in the cool mountain air and allowed myself to listen to my WWBL playlist for the very first time. God, that felt so amazing. I even have a photo of it (which somehow makes it look like I have the biggest football shoulders in the universe) my sister took that night. God I miss Sauerland. )’:

- - - - -

SONGS

My apologies to every favourite song of mine that I forgot about, I have a whole playlist of them, but I think these are some of my oldest faves … (Honorable mentions for Don’t Mess With Me and Not That Big by Temposhark, Goodbye by Apparat, Me And The Devil by Soap&Skin, Heart Heart Head by Meg Myers, Pain and Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace, Beautiful Crime by Tamer, Gravity Of Love by Enigma, In Flames by Digital Daggers [thanks Phi u_u] and Murder Cries by Snow Ghosts AHHH FUCK IT I could’ve just made a playlist,,,)

5.) Vater Unser by E Nomine Starting off with some weird shit, won’t we? I’ve been in love with this song since fifth or sixth grade, when I was just starting to develop an actual music taste and although I have many favourite songs by E Nomine, this one has to be my absolute fave. Every time I can relate it to a character it makes me love said character even more. (Also I think about it every time my mom forces me to go to church for Christmas so … yay? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even be able to remember the Vater Unser if it wasn’t for this song. 8D)

4.) Wires by The Neighbourhood I think this is the newest all-time fave on this list, I found it in … 2015? Thank you, Youtube AMVs. Yeah man, this one is just … on so many playlists it’s not even funny anymore.

3.) Heathens by Twenty One Pilots An edgelord classic but like … it’s on EVERY playlist of mine. Every single one. It’s just so good. The first time I heard it was on the radio tho, when I was having breakfast with Jessie and I forced her to shazam it because it immediately stuck with me,,,

2.) Imaginary by Evanescence My first Evanescence song ever and the first step towards becoming who I am today I think. This song has like … such a big history for me, man. It single-handedly turned me goth in 2008 and I have never really thanked it for that.

1.) Eternal by Evanescence Might be my favourite song of all time. The number of dramatic RP scenes I have written with this in the background … man. Oh, also this song is the reason for one of my oldest internet nicknames, ‘eternala’, which subsequently shortened into Etschuh and then Tschuh, my main nickname until 2017, when I came out as trans and finally found an actual name for myself I was comfortable with!

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NON BLANK RUNE CHARACTERS

I know this was probably supposed to be about fandom characters but I can literally not come up with a single character right now that I love with a special burning passion and that is not my or one of my friends’ OCs so you’re getting OCs now. u_u And boy do I have a lot of those.

5.) Jackson Tracey from atroCITY (mine) This little piece of shit kept me company for a pretty long time and is still very close to my heart for some reason, although I haven’t drawn him or really thought about him in detail for a while now. My favourite thing is how I only realized what a horrible person he was after I stopped regularly working with him but honestly good for me. 8D His storyline and personality is kinda convoluted and tbh I’m not really sure how much of it is canon anyway (atrc was always a little weird about canon rip) but yeah. He’s an obsessive stalker piece of shit who pities himself way too much and he is also a semi-immortal demigod who likes knives. I hate him but he also helped me a lot with some gender and sexuality stuff so thanks I guess.

4.) Mayoko Imai from Century Riders DXPrototype (Maus’ and mine) Mayoko is a magical girl protagonist with a cool cyborg arm prosthetic and her main character trait was that she was basically a reverse weeaboo, a Japanese girl who was obsessed with American media, culture and comic book heroes! I actually love her concept a lot and she also had a pretty cool character arc in her story (which Maus and I wrote together and actually finished btw!), although it could use a lot more … polishing from today’s point of view. But I love her anyway. She always wanted to do the right thing and be a hero and got broken pretty cruelly and her ending is kinda bittersweet I guess? Ahh there’s just so much nuance to it … anyways, CR3 also stuck with me for a very long time and I enjoyed the time with her a lot. :3 (Her name had a cameo in Another Incident btw heehee)

3.) Tessa *insert extremely long chain of unnecessary first names here* von Lean from Nobody Is Perfect and Infernal Temptation (belongs to one of my old school friends) Tessa is just … a hand full. I love to hate her. She is badly written and developed and just OOZES mentally ill teenage girl’s idealized self-insert power fantasy, but she just … man, she was a big part of one of my most drama-filled high school friendships which I love looking back at so much. Tessa has fucked so many of my characters … good for her tbh! There are actually two versions of her, one is just a ‘normal’ teenage girl and one can shapeshift into a cheetah, but both of them are very close to my heart. I should really adopt and redesign her some day.

2.) Judy Khayat from Original vs. Final (mine) Look, I love all my OvF-characters and every single one of them is special to me in their own way, but Judy is just … the most complex of them all I think? Man, she went through so much … she is actually one of my oldest (semi)-active characters (I created her in 2009) and her latest version is from 2016 but I should really, REALLY revise her again tbh. She has a very complicated backstory that I didn’t handle as carefully as I should have, and anger issues and religious conflict and depression and PTSD and then Vance of all people becomes obsessed with her for no reason and decides to traumatize her even more … yeah. God I really love her but I seriously need to work on her. A LOT. I should also finally rename her tbh … let’s just see where she takes me next.

1.) Okami (I don’t even remember if she has a proper last name rn lol) from Split Realm (mine) Yeah, that bitch is just my favourite OC. She’s also very old, probably from around 2009, and initially was a magical girl with fire powers who I played in an RP with my friend Flauch but boy did she grow up! Holy fuck. Okami is a horrible person but I love her so much. She is so violent and full of anger and pain and sadness and treats everyone around her like shit and she is in love and she is a demon but also apparently the personification of the concept of Chaos but she just wants to be a teenager again and run away with the love of her life and ahhh it’s all so hopeless for her … also she turned out gnc af with time passing and pretty much went through a gender/sexuality crisis in real time with me, her creator, which is always fun. :^D I haven’t drawn her in a while tbh. Should really do that.

- - - - -

RUNES IN BLANK RUNE

I’m just gonna go with the arcs here, okay? Also this entire answer might look completely different if you asked me again tomorrow, you know how indecisive I am with Blank Rune shit ahha,,,

5.) Jera Look. I know I’m boring and stupid. But I just love Tave and Liam having their disgusting little foreshadowing talk, okay? I can read it over and over. I just love my horrible little shit crime boys. Also Rhy and Phillip are there. (’:

4.) Isa This one is here because it was the first arc I witnessed in real time which gives it a very special place in my heart and it also … hit pretty hard at the time. But having read Fehu it’s become even better now! It’s just such a wonderful, tragic romance between two horrible, ruthless boys and I … I’m not immune to Rhy, sadly. :-/ Just like Phillip.

3.) Wunjo We still haven’t seen everything that leads up to Wunjo yet, but we DO know more than we did initially (wow shocker) and it’s just always a fucking blast. Also, it has the first mention of Ash’s real name … the first Rhy POV (which what the fuck!! I always feel like we had one before but we didn’t!! Wild) and it has crazy blood-soaked murder Tave, my beloved. :///3

2.) Eiwaz You guys have heard me fanboy about Eiwaz so many times already. Eiwaz-OT3 (and Kain) my beloved!!! It’s just SUCH an amazing starting point and there are so, so many things that tie back to it and every time we find out about a new one my heart makes a little jump … und es beginnt von Neuem indeed.

1.) Gebo One of the most painful but also the most beautiful arcs yet in my opinion. It’s been hyped up for so long and boy did it deliver. God, my heart still hurts when I think about that last scene. Also all the dialogue … the golden lines we got … and it’s an arc without Rhy! Crazy!! :-D I just love the relationship between Ash, Astrid and Jakob so much. God fuck I want what they have. Just maybe without the murder suicide,,,

- - - - -

FOOD

5.) Diese Sonntagsbrötchen wo die Verpackung so plopp macht, wenn man die Folie abzieht Better than normale Brötchen for some reason. Most of the time. See 2.) Look man, I just really love a good breakfast …

4.) Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese topping One of the first things from a certain baking book I tried when I was getting into baking back in 2019. God they are so tasty. I don’t make them often so I don’t get used to them too much and eating them still feels special but ahhhh I love them so much!

3.) Grünkohl mit Kartoffelbrei und Mettendchen One of my favourite things about autumn/winter and one of my biggest comfort foods. God I love this shit so much. I just put … mountains of Grünkohl and Kartoffelbrei on my plate every time and I will just warm it up for four days straight until there’s no more left. It turns me into a fucking caveman. I’m not even big on eating meat but … yeah. Everything is different when there’s Grünkohl.

2.) Normales Brötchen mit Butter und Scheibenkäse aber ich bin beim Frühstücksbuffet im Hotel Oddly specific but that’s just how it is. Sorry. Nichts geht über Brötchen mit Käse.

1.) Chilli-Knoblauch-Nudelauflauf My beloved. My comfort food. I eat it literally every second day. At least one hour in the kitchen every time. Fresh ingredients. My only vegetable intake. And I’ve been doing that for three years. I just love it so much, man. I cook it for everyone who visits me. Chilli-Knoblauch-Auflauf cured my depression.

[madeofsplinters]

Dear Creator (Star Wars Rare Pairs 2020)

Hello, Star Wars Rare Pairs partner! I'm excited to be in this gift exchange with you and I'm sure I'll like whatever you create! Please take all my prompts and likes as suggestions only and feel free to take the pairings in any direction that speaks to you. However, I've discovered how much I like it when the people I'm assigned to write very detailed letters, so I'm writing one for you in hopes that it sparks some ideas.

General likes / DNWs will be listed first, and then I'll go further into my feelings about each specific pairing.

==========

GENERAL SHIPPING LIKES - Power imbalances - Inappropriate use of the Force - D/s, but also dynamics that subvert standard D/s expectations: bratting, switching, topping from the bottom, submissives with strong personalities, pairs of tops with contrasting styles - Villainfucking, and/or a general "being evil is hot" vibe - Messed-up characters in messed-up situations caring deeply about each other in their messed-up way - Strong focus on the characters' desire & pleasure, on the psychology of sex at least as much as its mechanics - Consensual sadism - Possessiveness - Telepathy / psychic connections - Primal kink - Petplay or animalistic behavior - Characters who own up to their mistakes with each other - Cuddling/snuggling - Sex magic / sex rituals - Dirty talk

OTHER GENERAL LIKES - Disability, neurodivergence, trauma, and mental illness being explored in realistic ways - Angst - Hurt/comfort - Whump - Crack - Crack treated seriously - Moments of softness, hope, or levity even in dark stories - Dark characters improbably doing cute or vulnerable things - Character study - Characters being themselves in the most extra ways - Settings being themselves in the most extra ways - Settings or parts of settings being somehow alive - Spiritual topics, especially fleshing out the beliefs and practices of a fictional religion or exploring how that religion's adherents feel about it - Tense ballroom/banquet/formal scenes - Unreliable narrators, dramatic irony, and "Rashomon" structures - Playing around with structure and format in general (feel free to make me something totally off-the-wall formatwise) - Monsters - Dinosaurs - Blankies

DNW/DO NOT WANT - Scat/watersports - Explicit underage sex - Euthanasia - Onscreen major harm/death to children (offscreen or referenced is fine) - Asphyxiation with an environmental cause (e.g. air running out in a spacecraft)

==========

WILHUFF TARKIN / DARTH VADER

I will read almost anything to do with this ship, but here are some of the things I'd be particularly delighted to see explored.

- The ambiguous, subtle power dynamic between them and how each of them likely interprets how that works in a different way. Especially if it extends to a kink dynamic, but even when it's just their working relationship it's fun. - Working together on Imperial stuff. One of the things that separates Vader/Tarkin from many similar villain pairings, IMO, is that they're genuinely a good team despite their squabbles. - Creative explorations of how Vader's disability affects his approach to intimacy. - Tarkin and primal kink: there is *so* much low-hanging fruit here. He's literally hunted Vader for sport in canon! I love all the weird-ass hunting-related bullshit in Tarkin's canon backstory and I like explorations of how that affects his outlook on life. - Tarkin being one of the few "normal" people who get to see how some of the weird mystic Sith stuff at the heart of the Empire works, and how he feels about that, and how Vader feels about being seen that way.

==========

NATASI DAALA / WILHUFF TARKIN

I have developed a guilty fascination with this pairing. The power imbalance is HUGE, but that's sort of the point? My favorite approach for this pairing is stuff that acknowledges how fucked up it is, and how that affects the characters, while also showing what they desire & enjoy about it (especially what Daala desires/enjoys).

I am aware that this ship pushes up really hard against the Underage tag, and that explicit underage sex is one of my DNWs, and that can be a fine line to walk. There are various approaches you can take: you can handwave that Daala was 18-19 when they got together (since canon is vague - or at least the Wookieepedia is - and that age range honestly makes more sense given the rest of the timeline); you can set the story a little later when their relationship has been established for a few years; or you can just not write any onscreen sex. Any of these are fine. I just don't want the really graphic underage stuff.

Ship-specific prompts: - What did Daala actually learn from Tarkin while he mentored her? What were the lessons like? - Stolen moments in bizarre locations because ~*~secrecy~*~ - Both of them geeking out excitedly about objectively horrific Imperial superweapons - Entire military campaigns that are secretly also a weird D/s game (she has command of such-and-such ships; but who has command of her?) - Tarkin is a famous public figure and Daala canonically wrote an excellent analysis of the Tarkin Doctrine in school; what did she think of him before they got together? - What does Daala think about the Carrion Plateau? Did Tarkin ever secretly take her there?

==========

ENFYS NEST / QI'RA

The SOLO movie introduced so many awesome ladies and then didn't do enough with them! And, of the possible ships that can be imagined for them, I especially like the idea of Enfys/Qi'ra simply because of how both characters contrast. They're both very tough, accomplished leaders who play outside the bounds of the law, but in everything from their gender presentation to their methods of work to their willingness to cooperate with the Empire they are complete opposites! What kind of sparks would fly if those opposites attracted? What would one of those sets of wiles look like pitted against the other?

(Also, I like Enfys's mask... >.>)

Ship-specific prompts: - One of them captures the other! Sexual tension ensues. - Most people haven't seen Enfys's face, which means she can go incognito without her armor and not be recognized... Except by a few. Qi'ra is now one of the few. This gives her leverage. - There's a lot of room to play with Enfys and gender, given that she's a young woman who wears bulky armor and uses a voice modulator and is mistaken for a man. A trans or genderqueer reading of this character is very easy and I'm definitely up for that. But there's also a lot of room to play with a cis Enfys simply noticing the differences in how she's treated as an unarmored woman vs. an armored "man," and having feelings about that and/or skillfully taking advantage of it. - Qi'ra is very well-trained in combat herself - if they were both unarmored, how would a physical fight between the two of them go?

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Imagine that you were put in charge of a modern, high-budget, well-written Animorphs TV series. What changes to the plot/characters/world would you make while adapting it? (Books that you'd skip, arcs that you'd rearrange, things you would add or outright alter...)

[Important caveat: I have ZERO experience in set design, directing, editing, camerawork, or any other processes involved in TV production, unless we’re going to be super generous and count the bit of scriptwriting and stage-acting I did in high school.  Ergo, these ideas might make no sense in practice.]

Animate it.  I would much much prefer to see an anime-style show to a live-action one for a handful of different reasons:

Battle scenes, morph sequences, and alien appearances wouldn’t be constrained by budget realities.  Although we’ve come a long way from AniTV’s practical effects, in 2019 Runaways still minimizes Old Lace (the sentient dinosaur) and struggles with her somewhat less-than-convincing appearance while she’s onscreen.  I’d like to see real-looking battles between exotic animals and highly unusual aliens.  I’d like to see Ax portrayed as a deer-scorpion-centaur with no mouth who also has complex facial expressions.  I’d like taxxons and hork-bajir that match their descriptions in the books.  CGI for a moderate-budget TV show can’t do that yet.

The characters’ appearances could match their descriptions in the books.  I don’t really care about AniTV’s Jake having blue eyes or Marco having short hair.  I do care about the fact that Cassie is described as short, chubby, dark-skinned, natural-haired, and androgynous in self-presentation… whereas AniTV’s Nadia-Leigh Nascimento is (through no fault of her own and 100% the fault of Nickelodeon) none of those things.  I’d like to see all of the characters drawn in a way that matches their canon racial heritage, and voiced with actors of those ethnicities as well.  For bullshit marketing reasons of bullshit, that’s not as likely to happen in a live-action show.

I’d want the show to convey the frequent mismatches between characters’ physicality and their personalities.  It’s an important motif of the books.  It’s part of the reason that Tobias has been claimed by the trans* community.  It’s a major plot point, lest new viewers think that the vice principal of the school is actually trying to kill his own students.  It doesn’t come off in AniTV, for all that I commend them for even trying (casting Shawn Ashmore’s twin as controller-Jake, portraying Chapman as straight out of Stepford), just because the nature of controller-ness and nothlitization are difficult to convey literally.  Animation has a lot of tricks, from deliberately distorted drawings to screensaver-like “mental space,” that can actually convey concepts like mind control or body dysmorphia pretty well — Alphonse in Fullmetal Alchemist and Aang in Avatar the Last Airbender great examples of body-mind mismatch and multiple consciousnesses in one body, respectively.

Use a cold open for every episode.  I am a sucker for Batman cold opens or any other opening scenes that pick up in the middle of the characters’ everyday lives, because they work so well to convey that there is a crapton of life happening outside of the plot of any given episode.  Several Animorphs books (#9, #14, #35, #41, #51) open this way, to great effect, and I love the way that it gives us slices of life we might not otherwise see (morphing to cheat on science homework, completing entire offscreen missions, having dinner with the family) and help build these characters’ worlds outside of individual episode plots.

Introduce James sooner (and have better disability narratives).  There are several aspects of Animorphs’ social justice consciousness that age okay (Rachel shutting down Marco’s constant flirting) or not well at all (Mertil and Galfinian).  One important way the series could update Animorphs is through having canon disabled characters like James, Mertil, and Loren have bigger roles and not resorting to kill-or-cure narratives.  Maybe James could come in sooner and form a Teen Titans West-esque team with the other Auximorphs so that he and Collette and the others could be recurring supporting characters with unique plotlines.  Maybe Loren could still gain morphing power, but remain blind and brain-damaged so that the hork-bajir need to work with her to figure out accommodations while sleeping rough.

Modify Jake’s and Cassie’s parents to account for the contemporary setting.  The fact that the kids so often disappear all afternoon or even overnight without anyone worrying just wouldn’t translate to a contemporary reimagining of Animorphs.  Tobias and Ax are each other’s only family on the planet whereas Marco’s dad and Rachel’s mom are both overworked single parents.  Jake’s family, however, and Cassie’s…

Cassie’s parents are so freaking cool in canon that they would definitely start to worry if Cassie went for an entire “weekend at Rachel’s” without answering any texts or calls.  Maybe there could be some scenes with them talking about how they have this super-mature responsible daughter whom they can trust not to get into trouble even if she does hate cell phones, but oh well because they’re not big on technology either.

Jake’s parents are… less cool, but they still try their best.  The show might explain their lack of concern about either of their disappearing kids through upping the hippie factor from his mom, maybe until she practices Free-Range Parenting.  (Why yes, it is true that Jake’s family would have the necessary privileges to get away with free-range crap while Cassie’s family would not, because yes it is the case that black families have been arrested for leaving kids alone for 10 minutes while white families are allowed more passes under the law.  Yes, that is a steaming pile of racist bullshit.)  The other way it could go is by having Jake’s parents completely checked out, which could get in the way of plots like #31 that hinge on them genuinely caring about their kids, but could also introduce an interesting dynamic if it partially parentifies Tom.

Include at least one Rashomon plot.  The TV series would by necessity lose the first-person narration, with all its brilliantly subtle shades of bias and misinterpretation.  One way to try and bring that back in would be to convey the same events from multiple points of view with subtle differences in the way that each person perceives what happened.  This could happen somewhere in the Visser One plot, with Rachel interpreting the scene as a straight Animorphs-vs-yeerks battle, while Visser One interprets it as Visser Three incompetently sabotaging her as Animorphs ruin her life, while Marco interprets it as a struggle to protect his mom and also save his friends, while Visser Three interprets it as the andalite bandits flagrantly plotting with Visser One, while Jake interprets it as Marco going off the rails from stress… and the only witness who has a sense of what actually happened is Eva.  Other possibilities abound.

Start with a plan to make one episode per book… and modify as necessary.  There are areas of the series I’d like to see expanded (#50 - #54 covers a lot of ground in relatively little space) and areas that I think could afford to be compacted (#39 - #44 feature a whole lotta nothin’).  But instead of adding or discarding an entire book, I think you could spread out many of the plots by simple virtue of TV shows not being constrained by first-person narration.

Certain books just wouldn’t get straight-translated today anyway (#40, most notably). I don’t think any books are so bad or useless that they couldn’t be modified into decent television episodes.

The ramping-up that leads to open war happens mostly in the background of #44 - #51, but a bunch of scenes with just controllers talking to each other could go into that process in a lot more detail.  This content could help fill out plots like #44 and #48 that frankly don’t have a lot else going on.

The entire plot of Visser happens over a nonspecific period of time between #30 and #45, so instead of getting one book we could get an entire running Yeerk Empire subplot with major consequences for the main plotline.

Similarly, the andalites’ decisions happen mostly offscreen but have major consequences for the Animorphs.  The consequences for the Electorate after the events of #38 could also run for a whole subplot that sets up their decision to nuke Earth in #52.

The biggest absence from the last couple books is Rachel.  Her last book is a friggin’ dream sequence, she acts out of character in #52 especially, and the narration order cuts off directly before giving her one last book.  It wouldn’t be necessary to add an entire episode just to rectify this oversight, when #51 could still be Marco-centric but also show her and Jake on their sabotage mission, and #52 could have the same rough plot but with a few scenes between her and Tobias thrown in for good measure.

Anyway, maybe the various Chronicles could be a handful of Doctor-lite episodes where the Animorphs themselves are incidental and Elfangor or Aldrea has the helm.  Maybe the events of the Chronicles could come out organically over the course of the show, for instance by expanding the memory-dumps Tobias gets in #1 and #33 or having Jara tell Dak’s story in #13 or #23.  The Megamorphses, on the other hand, could pretty easily just occur as regular-series episodes, albeit possibly as two- or three-parters.

Lean into the comic-book aesthetic.  Animorphs is written very much in the style of a graphic novel, from its “teens with superpowers save the world from aliens” plot to its heavy use of onomatopoeia.  Even the use of hypertext symbols around thought-speak hearkens back to the comic book convention of using pointed brackets around alien languages to convey translation.  The show could homage this motif through having dramatic transformation sequences, “uniforms” of multicolored spandex the kids use to morph, an opening credits sequence that emphasizes the power of each animal, and other superhero-comic elements throughout.

Have the violence be consequential.  To keep the examples from earlier: in Fullmetal Alchemist, as well as in Avatar, characters that get hurt stay hurt.  A character getting shot or stabbed is portrayed as a potentially life-changing event.  Characters’ injuries do not disappear between episodes, and even alchemy and waterbending are not portrayed as total fixes.  Characters scar, they become disabled, they spend entire episodes in recovery, they accrue trauma, and they do not shrug off life-ending injuries.  Animorphs helps to justify the idea that six kids could (mostly) survive (most of) an entire war against a friggin empire through making the protagonists nigh-unkillable thanks to their healing abilities, but it nevertheless shows that shooting someone will result in that person bleeding and screaming and possibly dying.  Having a sci-fi or action show meant for children isn’t actually a valid excuse for portraying violence as cool or funny or inconsequential the way that (Avengers Assemble, Teen Titans, Kim Possible, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, etc.) too many children’s sci-fi/action shows opt to do.

[saltycharacters]

Oh dude, can you tell us more about the dude with the red hair and wraps around their arms? I forget their name, but I know they were in that one flipnote with that Ken Ashcorp song about dinosaurs

I know who you're talking about!! It's Uri, my good boy!! His hair is actually purple but obviously due to color restrictions on flipnote, i varied between red n blue because I wanted to keep the black outline and I couldn't do that if I wanted to make purple :^( but anyways!! Uri!!

I'm actually really working hard to figure things out with him, because I can't quite get a personality/story that I'm 100% satisfied with, so what I'm telling here isn't True Final Canon per say. However, I'll tell you all the things I've thought of so far!

Uri is probably one of the characters that I hold closest to my heart. He's been through a lot of changes over the years, both in design and personality especially- We Absolutely Do Not Talk About Early Middle School Uri, everything about it was Attrocious. But now I love and cherish him a lot!! He's from the past, and his main deal is that he was basically frozen or something until he woke up again in the future, aka the current time that Destiny Plot takes place. As cheesy as that sounds, I mainly keep that idea so Uri is someone who would be close enough to the audience's cluelessness (if for example, I ever end up making a comic or show or whatever out of Destiny Plot) about the lore and functions of my character verse. Since it's not really based on anything easily recognizable, the audience would have a hard time figuring things out without verbal explanation- and Uri, who had lived with such an early and different style of living would need a lot explained to him, so he's sort of the spokesperson for the audience. Also, admittedly, I have a very hard time moving away from nostalgia and things that have always "been" a certain way, so I kind of cling to his old idea.

He's a lost general of the past, and that's a big deal as his "kingdom" actually values Generals more than their royalty. Long story short, they loved expanding their territory and the General was basically a celebraty 'cuz they helped do just that. Uri's dad actually wasn't born in the kingdom, but moved in and became the new general in a few years time. But he did more celebrating and boasting than any actual conquering, so the "royal general commitee" (basically the people who "trained" past generals from a young age and pulled the strings so that they were basically the ones in control) were super unhappy. Since Uri's dad not been conditioned since he was young by the comitee, they couldn't get him to do anything and so for years they were seething with rage while this big guy just bathed in his glory and hosted parties and did whatever. Uri's dad then had a son and managed to bribe the people counting the votes or whatever to get his son elected as the next General (because he liked getting what he wanted and wanted his son to be as adored as he was). What he didn't realize, however, was that they rewrote the rules to the General "Training" to be a lot harsher during his reign and he was then kept from his son like, almost until he died (he died before Uri hit 19).

So again, long story short Uri grew up isolated and heavily disciplined to become the new General, and he basically managed to outlive the dad he barely knew (probably assassinated so the committee could get their pawn in power asap) and so at 19 he became the celebrity basically ruler of an entire kingdom. And, impulsive, young and VERY eager to please, the first thing he did? Say publicly that he was going into the future so that he could take over all of the neighboring kingdoms then and ensure their reign lasted forever. Yes, that's basically what he said, and his buffoons of citizens were like Yea!!! Whatever the fuck he just said!! So, high off the attention he managed to bug some people to freeze him or something (still working that part out) and now he's in his future, alone, everyone he knew dead, with nothing with him 'scept his yoga pants and such.

I'm gonna try and wrap this up because I realize I already wrote so much, but he basically lived two months alone in the future surviving on scraps and then saw the Destiny Plot crew, and super lonely and sad and wanting attention (he craves positive attention a lot due to not getting any most of his life and being taught to please ppl all the time, so he seaks it out a lot in story), he basically used his weird illusion smoke (oh yeah he can make illusions for who knows what reason, but again it's something I don't want to get rid of due to nostalgia) to disguise himself as one of the characters that was out sick that day, desperately tried to act like them until they came back and were like "Um :^/ why's there two of me" and hid away in shame. But then Vixy found him and was like "Can you teach me how to become someone else like you did, asking for a friend and not because I want to be literally anyone else other than me? No? Well ok but you can still hang out with us" and he joined the group as himself and they became friends :^).

Gonna bullet point the rest to make it easier on y'all

-Mostly a goof, loves his friends and having fun

-activley seaks out attention from others, like i said, leads him to do drastic things at times

-Loves dressing fancy, fashionable

-Loves telling stories (can remember any fantasy or legend told to him but can't remember where he put something, an adhd mood)

-bunnies n rabbits favorite animal of all time, carries around small rabbit plush Vixy got for him

-has fear of cats

-6'4", a giant

-trans, ace (all of destiny plot cast is ace), autistic, has adhd, ocd, and a few other things

-CAN DO SICK FLIPS. Incredible acrobat, can climb Anything

-Vixy's bf!! They're the oldest couple I have

-Yuyo's principal Bruno is also from the past and he use to be one of Uri's mentors and the only one who ever treated him well, so he basically adopts him and becomes his new dad. Which isn't that far from the truth because he did use to date Uri's dad.

-Oh, and important! The frog in the picture is Ms, Glass, and uuuh she's a frog that lives in his throat and basically allows him to imitate anyone's voice. It helps him not have voice dysphoria and it also helps him imitate anyone while in disguise, so that becomes real useful in a bunch of situations.

Sorry for the long read, thank you for the ask!!! :"^)

[trashy-greyjoy]

Books I’ve Devoured Recently

Ok so I think it’s time I talk about the fucking bomb books I’ve read lately, because I’ve been hitting the jackpot and obviously I need to share that with y’all. Here we go:

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

companion novella to Every Heart a Doorway (but can be read alone if you want)

follows twins Jack and Jill through their door to the moors

basically Jack interns with Dr. Frankenstein and Jill is a child of Dracula?

kinda gay

4.5/5

The Archived / The Unbound by Victoria Schwab (reread)

main character works for The Archive, which is like a library for the dead, to track down and return dead souls that have woken up

deals a lot with over coming grief and coping mechanisms

spoopy

it’s by schwab so it’s boooommmbbb

4/5

The Diviners by Libba Bray (um yall need to talk about her more she writes wlw into every single book)

I’ve talked about this one already because its so good but I’m doing it again

murder mystery set in 1920s New York and follows a bunch of teenagers that are diviners (aka fucking psychics) as they try to solve the case

Evie is the main and she can see things by touching an object (and deals with depression)

characters include: an immigrant thief that can make people not see him, a gay dreamwalking pianist, a black healer from harlem, a jewish activist, a cyborg, and a flapper girl that can basically manipulate fire (and in the sequels theres an asian dreamwalker, that’s ace, sapphic and walks with leg braces)

super duper dope af

5/5

Monstress by Marjorie Lui and Sana Takeda

graphic novel set in an alternate 1900′s matriarchal Asia that follows a war between humans, arcanes (descendants of ancient gods), and witches

main character is Maika Halfwolf and she’s on a jounrey to avenge her mother and unlock the secrets of her past, of yeah and she shares a link to a demonic monster

tons of racial and sexual diversity, 95% of the characters are women, characters with missing limbs, there’s a mute character that uses sign language, and the only confirmed canon couple is between two women

trigger warnings because it is very graphic and gorey

5/5

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

retelling of the Russian folktale of Marya Morevna/Koschei the Deathless, set during the Russian Revolution (it’s kinda along the lines of Beauty and the Beast or Hades and Persephone)

main girl Marya marries Koschei, the Tsar of Life, and goes off to live by his side

but when she returns years later her birthplace is dying 

literally the most beautiful writing wowowowow

dark and romantic 

4.5/5

Runaways Vol.1 and 2 by Brian K. Vaughn (reread)

I went in for the reread after watching like the first 4 episodes and maaaannnnn I really love this series

In case you’ve been deaf to my constant yelling, Runaways is about a bunch of kids that find out their parents are in a cult of super villains and then runaway and decide to defeat their parents and make up for their crimes

one of Marvel’s first superhero teams that wasn’t all straight white men (black genius, asian witch, glowing rainbow lesbian, chubby feminist with a dinosaur, abuse victim, and later on a latino cyborg, and a gender fluid skrull who’s human form is black)

now a show on Hulu (obviously) but I still think the source material is better

5/5

The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

oh my god my guys I am so ashamed I waited so long to read this????

every 90 years gods get “reborn” into new bodies and live for 2 years before they all die (they call themselves the Pantheon)

this time they’re all fucking rockstars and basic all every one of them is queer af and based off real musicians (Bowie, Rihanna, Prince, Kanye, Gaga) 

but someone is framing them and killing them off too soon and there’s lots of drama

main character is a mixed race black girl who is BISEXUAL and a superfan of the Pantheon

and she’s best buds with all the gods some of which are, Lucifer who is bi af and in the body of an 18 year old female version of David Bowie, gay Kanye and his (maybe bi?) ex-boyfriend Prince, bisexual Rihanna who maybe has eaten people, and A TRANS GODDESS THAT USED TO BE A MOUTHY JOURNALIST

the art is STUNNING and I am hooked but also broke so I’ve only read the first 2 volumes

8/5

[jurrasicparkislove-blog]

FA335 CREATIVE PROJECT

Hello Dino Lovers! Welcome to our blog!

What is Fan Fiction?

Fandoms provide interesting and inclusive opportunities for individuals to acknowledge and interact with movies, television shows, art, music, celebrities and so on. A particular outlet of fan interaction is fan fiction—fiction written about characters and settings from an original piece, created by followers and supporters rather than the creator themselves. Malin Isaksson describes fan fiction as:

“A creative and free text-type, open to possibilities of developing a story in directions not foreseen by the canon’s creators and for pairing characters who do not form couples in the canon, for example creating slash/femslash. However, the general rule in fan fiction is that writers respect the logic of that canon regarding plot, style and the characters personalities“ (Isaksson).

Within fan fiction, slash and femslash fiction—fiction written about same sex relations between characters—has grown into a popular sub-genre of fan literature. In this blog post, we will examine what slash and femslash fiction is, its history, and whom it is written by and for. We will explore this subject using the Jurassic Park franchise. Then, we will take a stab at writing slash and femslash fiction ourselves.

 Jurassic Park

 Jurassic Park and Jurassic World provide intensely interactive plots, fascinating character development and enchanting cinematography. It is apart of an enterprise that has inspired numerous sequels, adaptions, merchandise, amusement and even slash fiction. In fact, over the past 20 years its fan base has continuously grown into a thriving and inclusive fandom. As childhood fans of the original film, our love for Jurassic Park was reinvigorated with the 2015 release of Jurassic World. 

 So, lets explore fiction, fan-fiction and slash-fan fiction, shall we?

 Why Fiction in General:

 Before we begin, lets closely analyze human beings’ fascination with fiction more generally. Tooby and Cosmides (2001) argue that our involvement in fictional and imagined worlds appears to be “a human universal” (Salmon and Symon 94). In fact, they argue two possible explanations as to why humans create and consume fictional representations. First, “human engagement in fictional experience is a functionless byproduct of psychological adaptions that were designed by natural selection to serve other functions.” In other words, our engagement in fictional experience is not something we were designed to do, but rather something we are susceptible to doing (Salmon and Symon 95). The second explanation is “that human engagement in fictional experience is in itself an adaption; that is something we are designed to do” (Salmon and Symon 95).  Whatever argument you may find more convincing, there is no doubt that human beings love interacting with fiction!

 What is Slash Fiction?

 At the surface, it is fan fiction written about characters of the same sex. Slash fiction originated in the 1970s. To be considered true slash fiction, “lovers must be an expropriated media paring, such as Captain Kirk and Spock” (Salmon and Symon 94). The term “slash” arose “from the convention of using the slash punctuation mark to unite the lovers’ names or initials” (Salmon and Symon 94). Interestingly, it is almost exclusively written by and for women (Salmon and Symon 94). Throughout slash fiction’s growth in popularity, nearly every cop, spy, adventure and science fiction TV series featuring male cast members were “slashed” (Salmon and Symon 94). In part, slash fiction’s growth in popularity was because of the creation of the Internet (Salmon and Symon 94). Lastly, Slash fiction arose spontaneously at the same time in the US, the UK, Germany, Australia, and Canada (Salmon and Symon 94). There is no doubt that slash-fiction is popular, specifically amongst female audiences, but the question remains why?

 Why is Slash-Fiction so Popular amongst Women?

 There are a number of theories that argue why slash fiction is so popular amongst female audiences. Ika Willis has said,

 “Through my involvement in slash, I have developed terms and practices which enable me to live more comfortably in my body and with a sense of my own gendered identification(s), which works for me. In fact, slash has worked both to sustain my lifelong boy-identification and to solidify and strengthen my (in some ways more precarious) identification as a woman” (Willis 292).

 Therefore, slash fiction provides an opportunity for individuals to explore sex, sexuality and gender, and the complicated intersection of these identities. In addition, Willis argues that we have a corporal body and felt body. The corporal refers to our literal and physical body and the felt body is metaphorical—whether you feel more masculine or feminine, or perhaps neither. Therefore, “an individual—cis or trans—may, in practice, experience a gendered disjunction” between these two bodies. (Willis 303).  This disjunction can be explored within slash fiction and can help “strengthen” ones identification.

 What is Femslash?

  Femslash is a subgenre of slash fiction—fan creations written about lesbian relationships. It has gained increasing popularity amongst fan communities. Femslash as a phenomenon occurred later than slash fiction. While fans were slashing Kirk and Spock together since the 70s, female slashing became popular a few decades after. Malin Isaksson argues that femslash really grew in popularity in part because Buffy the Vampire Slayer portrayed such strong female characters. More generally, as women received stronger lead roles in Hollywood movies and TV shows, there was a greater opportunity to slash them together (Isaksson 3). Interestingly like slash fiction, the general authorship of femslash is also women. While we now know what slash and femslash fiction is, and that it is primarily written by women, the question still remains why? More importantly, why is there a stigma surrounding male authorship of slash and femslash fiction?

 Who can Write Slash/Femslash Fiction?

 Want the short answer? Anyone. But for some reason, there remains such an impermeable stigma around men who write slash/femslash fiction. But why? Sexuality and gender is non-binary; it is fluid, individual and intrinsically apart of our identities. For example, Alfred Kinsey understands sexuality on a spectrum and that the majority of humans are neither exclusively homosexual nor exclusively heterosexual. Instead, the majority of us are somewhere in between (Weinrich, 1). We work so hard to avoid boxes and labels—the options are no longer dichotomous. It is no longer just male or female, it is no longer just straight or gay. So, why does it matter who is creating a piece and whom is reading it? There shouldn’t really be stigma surrounding this. It is just fans taking part in fandoms in their own way. That’s why we are challenging this stigma, by writing a fan fiction that contains both slash and femslash fiction! Take a read:

 The following fan fiction was written and created by us. We then edited our piece to include femslash as well.

Claire

Zara

Note: This Femslash takes place one year following the events of Jurassic World            Lightening struck again waking Claire from a horrible nightmare. The constant routine of waking abruptly with flashes of dinosaurs ripping apart human flesh had become so familiar to her. She immediately rolled over in her bed expecting to beside the love of her life.

             She was alone.

  Thinking back, she could not remember a time where she slept through the night without waking up in a panic. She got out of bed and walked down the hallway, giving up any hope of more sleep.  For some reason tonight her house felt more empty than usual. Everything was silent and lonely. Her constant need to clean and keep a perfect looking home made it seem lonelier. She had trapped herself in isolation when she moved away from everyone she knew. She found a house in Fairbanks, Alaska. This winter was especially cold.

 She hadn’t seen Owen since the events took place. She feared that he would be upset with her for leaving without telling anyone. However, she could not go on lying to everyone after the horrible incident. More importantly, she regretted never having the chance to tell him about Zara.

 Although Owen Always thought they were meant for each other, Claire knew he could never fulfill her need for connection the way that Zara did. Zara was the most beautiful woman Claire had ever seen. When she first began working for her she knew there was chemistry… and not just the kind that made dinosaurs come back to life.

             Zara had the type of confidence that captured the room.  It was as if all work in the office halted once she walked in; all eyes slowly wandering down her long legs. When Claire first saw Zara, she knew she had to have her. She was immediately drawn in. Her brown hair was perfect. Everything about her seemed too perfect to be true. It was in these first looks that Claire felt something she never had before; something she never thought she would ever feel with a woman.

             Claire put the kettle on and prepared a cup of tea. She then grabbed her housecoat and decided to brave the cold winter night. Immediately she was surprised to see the beautiful Northern Lights illuminating the sky. She sipped her tea looking at splashes of glowing green across the sky. She thought it might be the most amazing thing she had ever seen. Then immediately she began to remember when Zara and her first spoke.

 Once their eyes locked, it felt as if the whole world had become weightless. As they discussed their work she noticed she could not stop smiling. Claire and Zara’s eyes kept meeting and she noticed that Zara kept looking at her lips. Once she realized this was happening Claire blushed. She had never felt butterflies this strong with anyone before. However, she was too nervous and embarrassed to make a move.

 Claire decided it was too cold and moved back inside to turn on the fireplace. Although she was lonely, her home in Fairbanks gave a sense of independence and sanctuary. She needed a simple life after living through the horrible deaths and fears at Jurassic World. Every article and news story across the world covered the story of the hundreds of injured and killed people in Jurassic World.

 She checked her phone and noticed a missed call: Owen. It had been three months since the last time Owen had tried to call her. She began to cry. She never realized how much she missed human contact till this moment. The fire finally began to heat the house and she curled up on the couch. Through the frosted window she noticed the snow begin to fall.

 The first time Zara kissed Claire her heart began to beat through her chest. Her arms wrapped around her body and held her close.  She had never been so nervous. “Don’t be nervous” Zara whispered to her.

FIN

  Grant 

Malcolm

Note: This Slash Fiction takes place one year following the events of Jurassic Park            Lightening struck again waking Grant from a horrible nightmare. The constant routine of waking abruptly with flashes of dinosaurs ripping apart human flesh had become so familiar to him. He immediately rolled over in his bed expecting to beside the love of his life.

             He was alone.

  Thinking back, he could not remember a time where he slept through the night without waking up in a panic. He got out of bed and walked down the hallway, giving up any hope of more sleep.   For some reason tonight his house felt more empty than usual. Everything was silent and lonely. His constant need to clean and keep a perfect looking home made it seem lonelier. He had trapped himself in isolation when he moved away from everyone he knew. He found a house in Fairbanks, Alaska. This winter was especially cold.

 He hadn’t seen Ellie since the events took place. He feared that she would be upset with him for leaving her without telling anyone. However, he could not go on lying to everyone after the horrible incident. More importantly, he regretted never having the chance to tell her about Malcolm.

 Although Ellie always thought they were meant for each other, Grant knew she could never fulfill his need for connection the way that Malcolm did. Malcolm was the most beautiful man Grant had ever seen. When he first began working with him he knew there was chemistry… and not just the kind that made dinosaurs come back to life.

             Malcolm had the type of confidence that captured the room.  It was as if all work in the office halted once he walked in; all eyes slowly wandering down to his chest. When Grant first saw Malcolm, he knew he had to have him. He was immediately drawn in. His brown hair was perfect. Everything about him seemed too perfect to be true. It was in these first looks that Grant felt something he never had before; something he never thought he would ever feel with a man.

             Grant put the kettle on and prepared a cup of tea. He then grabbed his housecoat and decided to brave the cold winter night. Immediately he was surprised to see the beautiful Northern Lights illuminating the sky. He sipped his tea looking at splashes of glowing green across the sky. He thought it might be the most amazing thing he had ever seen. Then immediately he began to remember when Malcolm and him first spoke.

 Once their eyes locked, it felt as if the whole world had become weightless. As they discussed their work he noticed she could not stop smiling. Grant and Malcolm’s eyes kept meeting and he noticed that Malcolm kept looking at his lips. Once he realized this was happening Grant blushed. He had never felt butterflies this strong with anyone before. However, he was too nervous and embarrassed to make a move.

 Grant decided it was too cold and moved back inside to turn on the fireplace. Although he was lonely, his home in Fairbanks gave a sense of independence and sanctuary. He needed a simple life after living through the horrible deaths and fears at Jurassic Park. Every article and news story across the world covered the story of the incident at Jurassic Park.

 He checked his phone and noticed a missed call: Ellie. It had been three months since the last time Ellie had tried to call him. He began to cry. He never realized how much he missed human contact till this moment. The fire finally began to heat the house and he curled up on the couch. Through the frosted window he noticed the snow begin to fall.

 The first time Malcolm kissed Grant his heart began to beat through his chest. His arms wrapped around his body and he held him close. He had never been so nervous. “Don’t be nervous” Malcolm whispered to him.  

  FIN

THANKS FOR READING 

  Works Cited

 Griffin H. SOAP SLASH: GAY MEN REWRITE THE WORLD OF DAYTIME TELEVISION DRAMA. The Spectator. 2005;25(1):23-34. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/docview/1496062665?accountid=14846.

 Isaksson, Malin. "Buffy/Faith Adult Femslash: Queer Porn With a Plot." Slayage: The Online, International Journal of Buffy Studies 7 (2009): Web. http://davidlavery.net/Slayage/PDF/Isaksson .pdf

 Salmon, Catherine, and Don Symons. "Slash fiction and human mating psychology." Journal of Sex Research 41.1 (2004): 94-100.

  Willis, Ika. "Writing the Fables of Sexual Difference: Slash Fiction as Technology of Gender." Parallax, vol. 22, no. 3, 2016, pp. 290-311, doi:10.1080/13534645.2016.1201920.

 Weinrich, James D. "Notes on the Kinsey Scale." Journal of Bisexuality, vol. 14, no. 3-4, 2014, pp. 333-340, doi:10.1080/15299716.2014.951139.

[trashy-greyjoy]

Sydnee Recommends: Comics/Graphic Novels

These are just my personal favorites that I deem recommendation worthy, enjoy!

Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples

this series is so vast it’s hard to summarize, but basically a couple from opposite sides of a huge space war, are on the run from authorities that want to kill them and their daughter

so. fucking diverse. the two mains are both poc, their babysitter is a lesbian ghost missing half her body, there’s a bisexual black woman that kicks major ass, a trans woman that they actually verbally say is trans, a robot species with tv’s for heads, a gay couple of investigative journalists, a girl rescued from sex slavery, and LYING CAT

it’s like a very high stakes romeo and juliet love story set in space where everyone but romeo and juliet die. 

the dialogue is AMAZING and HILARIOUS

**it’s an adult series so there’s lot’s of nudity and violence.

Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

set in a fantasy version of 1900′s China that’s a fucking matriarchy

main character is of asian descent (not specified but implied chinese) and is missing an arm

takes place during a war between humans, the arcanes (descendants of ancient gods), and witches, as the main character, Maika Halfwolf (what a name!) journeys to get revenge for her mother and uncover the secrets of her past and the demons within her

tons of racial and sexual diversity, 95% of the characters are women, there’s a mute character that uses sign language, and the only confirmed canon couple is between two women

**major trigger warnings: mutilation, abuse, racism/speciesism? (since they aren’t technically human), rape mentions, and violence. it’s really fucking dark, guys.

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang

a group of girls that share paper routes in the 80′s get caught up with a weird alien species that jumps dimensions, takes people, and there’s time travel involved (it’s got like MAJOR Stranger Things vibes)

i’ve only read the first volume because i’m on a book buying ban, but i’ve heard there’s wlw in the later issues!

the art is soooooo gooood

We(l)come Back by Christopher Sebela, Clair Roe, and Jeremy Lawson

this one is really hard to explain, you kind of have to just read it to understand, but i’ll try my best

soulmates are reincarnated and trained to kill each other in every new life, then the cycle starts over

in the current lifetime both soulmates identify as wlw (one has a boyfriend), but in the past they’ve been and identified as different genders and sexualities, so they can be viewed as genderfluid and pansexual

it’ll break you

the art is amazing and graphic and so cool

but come on like... ‘lady’ soulmates trained to kill each other????

Runaways by Brian K Vaugh and Adrian Alphona

Brian K. Vaugh basically owns my ass when it comes to graphic novels

a group of kids find out their parents are super villains and runaway and become heroes

it’s like one of the most diverse marvel teams out there with: a black boy-genius, a japanese gothic witch (that might be confirmed bisexual in the reboot idk yet), a chubby jewish feminist with a psychic link to a dinosaur, a lesbian alien that turns into a rainbow, a mutant child with super strength, and a boy with an abusive father and a knack for tech

and in later installments: a genderfluid skrull, a latino cyborg, and a swiss immigrant that was the child bride of an abusive man and can control plants

deals with so much stuff like finding your place in the world, the fear of turning out like your parents, the importance of found family, and dealing with loss

it’s a show on hulu premiering next month!

ODY-C by Matt Fraction and Christian Ward

its a gender bent, queer retelling of the Odyssey where everyone’s a lady

set in SPACE

the art is omg so colorful and vibrant and gorgeous

honestly what more do i need to tell you guys?

Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine DeLandro

set a dystopian world where any woman deemed non-compliant with the patriarchal government’s laws is sent to a prison planet 

follows a group of prisoners as they take part in the prison version basically fight club 

super dope and diverse and lots of ladies kicking ass but also bonding

Leigh Bardugo has a tattoo reference to this series. if that means anything to y’all *eyeballs emoji*

Y: The Last Man by (shocker) Brian K. Vaughn, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan Jr.

follows a man and his pet monkey in a post apocalyptic world where every other male (in every species) has died

so like there’s literally only one human man in the entire thing

so many kick ass ladies wtf 

commentary on feminism, politics, and survival

**controversial opinions on the ending but the rest of the series is worth it

Teen Titans by Geoff Johns

this isn’t everyone’s favorite version of the story, but i’m a hoe for raven and beastboy so it’s my favorite

you guys probably know the deal, group of teens form a superhero team and battle evil and all that fun stuff

but full disclosure: raven x beast boy is like 90% of the reason i read these