#even as fictional characters they’ve been the source of so much comfort in the past 3 years

[momojedi]

when I’m sad and don’t know who to turn to, I just go back to my second family and prank the boys with Omega.

[venusluvrr]

The Psychological Horror Manhwa “Killing Stalking” is not a Romance, but an Emotional Series Depicting the Codependent Relationship Between Two Ill Individuals

Content Warning!!: contains mentions of sexual abuse (rape) and mental illness.

Killing Stalking is an immensely twisted webcomic series, mainly popular within the Yaoi community for its boy on boy focused plotline. The story follows characters Yoon Bum (Bum), a shy, scrawny young man with a haunting past filled with abuse, and Oh Sangwoo (Sangwoo), a younger man who also has a quite damaging upbringing but masks it perfectly with his vibrant, extroverted personality. After being saved from a rape attempt during his time serving in the military, Bum develops a crush on his saviour, Sangwoo, from which an unhealthy obsession starts to arise and he eventually finds himself locating and breaking into the man’s home one day when he’s out. When he does, he discovers a terribly injured woman being held captive in his basement, and with further evidence, soon comes to the realization that his crush is actually a serial killer -- hence the name “Killing Stalking,” as Sangwoo kills and Bum stalks. For a very specific reason though, Sangwoo decides not to kill the man that had been stalking him, and instead holds him hostage in his custody. From here, the story goes into exceeding depth of the abnormal, toxic, and manipulative relationship the two form during their time spent together. By just the mere description of it, it’s a bit concerning to know that a large portion of readers still support Sangwoo and Bum’s relationship. In other words, they believe they truly loved each other and that the story was not only horror fiction but a romance as well. One could easily come to this conclusion by basing their relationship on the few parts within the novel where they showed affection towards each other -- for example when Bum allows Sangwoo to hug him to sleep when he suffered through the night, or my personal favourite, when Sangwoo buys Bum a stuffed frog keychain after finding out that he had an affinity for such creatures. But we cannot simply dismiss the underlying factors of their relationship because of some cute things they did that made our heart melt -- Sangwoo still abused Bum at his leisure which makes those moments quite meaningless in the sense of it all. What Sangwoo and Yoonbum shared can’t be classified as “love,” because even with their peculiar bond and endearing moments, the psychological damage they both endured played a bigger part in the way they perceived each other.

Many toxic relationships start out lovely and glamorous until the couple have become comfortable enough to start revealing some bad habits, but in Sangwoo and Bum’s case, they were already off to a bad start, as the reason they remained with each other was solely for reasons pertaining to their poor mental health.

At the time Sangwoo saved Bum in the military, Bum still suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) -- a disorder he inferrably developed due to the fact that he grew up being constantly physically and sexually abused by the people around him. People with this illness may easily develop an infatuation for a person who shows them even the least bit of care; It can reach the point where they begin to idolize them and see them almost as a perfect human being -- which is exactly how Bum viewed Sangwoo after he helped him to escape a rape attempt. The likely specific term for what Sangwoo was to Bum is a Favourite Person (FP). To an individual suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder, their FP is everything -- their self-worth, identity and emotional dependency all rely on this one person, making them the center of their lives. In contrast to this sincere fondness, the only reason Sangwoo kept Bum alive was because of the man’s resemblance to his late mother -- the one person in his life who he truly loved. While his father was abusive and negligent, his mother tried her best to care for her son even while her own mental stability wasn’t so great either. Even though it was implied that he was responsible for the murder of both his mother and father in high school -- getting away with it scotch-free because of how perfectly executed his plan was -- he still shared a special bond with the woman, allowing her existence follow and continue to torutue him mentally as he grew older. When he saw Yoonbum, he felt as if she had been somewhat resurrected, or at least he could pretend so by dressing him up in his mother’s clothes and making him cook and do the chores; He also played the husband role by abusing and assaulting Bum just as his father did to his mother -- mostly just out of his own nature. Sangwoo had his own issues, “mommy issues,” and he initially needed to keep Bum alive so he could fulfill his own longing desires. Knowing the man’s character though, things wouldn’t end there and instead headed down a very gruesome and frightful path.

The very reasons that the two were drawn to each other we’re even more evident the longer they lived under the same roof. While Yoonbum continued to recall the perfect image he had of Sangwoo in his head, Sangwoo continued to manipulate the man in order to satisfy his own needs. A healthy relationship cannot be based on deceit, because one person will end up victimized instead of loved.

Oh Sangwoo is a sadistic sociopath with a history of kidnapping, abusing, raping and torturing innocent people, and because of his illness, he shows feels and shows no remorse for his actions and even proceeds to kill off his victims as they pleaded in objection. What some people don’t understand is that when Sangwoo met Bum, the only reason he treated him differently was not because he thought of him as special, but because he had a personal agenda that included making Bum think that was the truth and that he was indeed the favoured victim among many. It’s no surprise with the man’s manipulative personality that he would enjoy planting a lie in Bum’s head to make him stay and continue to do as he says, and this is confirmed whenever he returned back to his old destructive habits even after showing the man acts of affection. Yes, Sangwoo spared Bum’s life, clothed him and fed him, but as their bond grew, his narcissistic attitude was still more apparent than ever.

Upon meeting Bum for the first time, Sangwoo didn’t hesitate to aggressively break his ankles to prevent his mobility, he left the man within the dark confinement of his basement for a certain period of time before letting him out only after he had gained his trust. He made him sit in a chair to wash dishes and make dinner because he could no longer stand. Sangwoo also constantly dragged Bum down with derogatory words and statements every chance he could get, this included calling him a “retard,” and referring to him as a “disgusting” and “filthy” human being. As confirmed by the author, Sangwoo is also heterosexual, which is further proved by the homophobic remarks he made towards a significantly older man who was sexually attracted to him while murdering him with Bum’s aid. This fact alone is another one that should justify a strong point that demonstrates the true hostility of their relationship -- Yoonbum never gave his consent to have sex with Sangwoo, nor did he allow it to happen because “he wanted it.” He specifically used phrases such as, “No,” “Stop,” and “It hurts,” implying that sometimes there was no mutual agreement when they had sex and Sangwoo had actually raped him several times.

People with Borderline Personality Disorder have been reported to have difficulties seeing the faults in their partner -- this explains why Bum still held on to him. He chose to stay when he had the chance to escape, and with tears rolling down his face from excruciating pain he still told Sangwoo he loved him. In a scene where Bum is left alone with the police as they investigate the suspicions they have surrounding him, he questions them saying, “Could you kiss somebody like me? Could you love somebody like me?” As he believes nobody but Sangwoo could answer yes to those two questions, convinced that Sangwoo really does have feelings for him. It’s saddening to know that the poor man had successfully been lured into a trap, and because of his mental health it would be much harder for him to realize it.

To the readers that think, “Sangwoo and Yoonbum needed each other,” -- You’re not completely wrong. They did need each other in the way that they found somewhat of a saneness from each other’s presence, each using one another to each other’s benefit. But being together at the same time built on their insanity, as the presence of Sangwoo’s mother seemed to grow even more prevalent with Bum, who resembled her, also in the picture, and Yoonbum growing so unhealthily attached to Sangwoo that he constantly feared of abandonment and turned the sociopath into the only source of his happiness. They needed each other, but not for the right reasons. They were attached to each other, but there was no love, otherwise it would reflect throughout the story. One of the most debate-worthy scenes that challenge this fact is when Sangwoo is reported by an old lady in the hospital, the one that had ended his life, that he was calling out Bum’s name throughout the night as he lay in his deathbed. Those were his final words, and Yoonbum’s final word was also Sangwoo’s name before he was very well implied to have been hit by a car while he chased an illusion of the man he “loved.” Even I almost felt that this was solid proof that even through the tough and terrible of their relationship, deep inside, the two really were in love but could not express it in the right way due to their mental health issues -- after all, what someone makes of their final moments before death is much more meaningful than most of what they've done in their life entirely. But I came to realize that the only way I could support this relationship would be if they had met in an alternate universe where they did not suffer from such dreadful childhood trauma that made them into the hurting individual they had become before meeting each other. As difficult as it is for me to picture the two with different partners, it would be best if the two had not met at all as they only fed into the severity of their conditions.

[crescairis]

I was wondering if you had another source that otherlinkers were explicitly excluded from the original definition of otherkind in 1990? The source on AnOtherWiki leads to a 2001 FAQ that doesn't mention anything like that. Also, otherlinkers aren't the same thing as KFF.

(just as a warning, this is going to be a LONG post, but i'd rather not put it under the cut for archival reasons, in the case that for some reason this blog disappears)

firstly, i'd like to apologize for phrasing things as if KFFs and otherlinkers were the same thing; a better phrased way to say things would be for me to say that i think many KFFs would be otherlinkers, were they to acknowledge that their experiences don't fit the definition of otherkin.

something else i'd also like to note that i've been thinking about (while it isn't exactly related to this question) is that perhaps people are misinterpreting the terms "voluntary" and "involuntary".

i feel that many people think "voluntary" simply means the initial decision to willingly take on an identity, which is, in part, true! however, voluntary identities are very likely to become involuntary, simply because it becomes too emotionally/mentally difficult to separate oneself from the identity that they've chosen.

being drawn to something, or someone, enough to take it on as an identity can often be a sign of something deeper! i would see this as a form of awakening in and of itself—like cracking open a geode, or perhaps like putting on training wheels before you experience the real thing.

but back to your first question: the way i initially phrased that post was also rushed, as we were trying very hard to write it during a single lunch break at work.

the term otherlinker is a very recent invention (coined in 2018 on the alt-h discord server, while copinglink was coined in 2015 by who-is-page), as being otherkin has always largely been considered a serious, personal experience. only recently have people NEEDED to specify that it's involuntary, so the only sources i can give you are ones that cite otherkinity as being intended as a serious identity, as well as those that state that otherkinity is not as shallow as a game or roleplay.

also important to note is that many of these pages were made and existed before fictionkin were a largely documented (let alone accepted) presence, thus they are scarcely mentioned, (and typically with skepticism or even scorn,) save for on their own, smaller pages. for our own personal comfort, we will not be listing sources that discredit fictionkinity completely.

firstly, here's a full timeline of otherkin history by orion scribner, to show the scope we're looking at

Otherkin Lexicon by Orion Scribner: "Otherkin are real, non-fictional people who identify as other than human. Otherkin identify as creatures from myth and legend, usually elves, faeries, and dragons. This is a sincere identity, not role-play. Many otherkin identify as other than human for spiritual reasons; that is, they classify their identity as otherkin as a personal spiritual belief. Being otherkin is a very individualistic thing: each otherkin reaches his own explanation for how and why he is an otherkin. Some of their common spiritual explanations include that they are other than human in spirit, or they were other than human in past incarnations.187 Although spiritual belief is often involved, “otherkin” isn’t a religion. As such, each person who identifies as otherkin practices whatever religion he individually wants. It has always been the case that most of the otherkin community practices Neo-Pagan religions, and so that religious perspective shapes the common views and ideas in the otherkin community. Some otherkin don’t use spiritual explanations. Some otherkin believe that they are physically other than human, or that their ancestors were."

A Field Guide to Otherkin by Lupa: "The definition for Otherkin I will be using for this book is: a person who believes that, through either a nonphysical or (much more rarely) physical means, s/he is not entirely human. This means that anyone who relates internally to a nonhuman species either through soul, mind, body, or energetic resonance, or who believes s/he hosts such a being in hir body/mind, is in my own definition of Otherkin. Some people do have more stringent standards. However, for the purposes of this book, I am including a wider range of people.

"This is not a roleplaying game. When a person says s/he is a dragon, or a wolf, or an elf, s/he is not referring to a character that s/he only becomes during a gaming session. That which is Other is a constant part of the person; s/he is the Other at all times. Grey, a wolf therian,says it marvelously: “Perhaps I should say that if a being is a color, or a sound, I am two items merged to form a different color/sound. The two are within each other. Sometimes plain to see, sometimes deeply mixed.”"

A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes by Orion Scribner: "Some real people think of themselves as kinds of creatures from mythology. These people call themselves “otherkin.” An otherkin has the belief that he is a creature from mythology, such as an elf. He says that elf is his true self. It is his identity. This is real to him. It isn’t a pretend person that he plays in a game."

The Otherkin Resource Center: "1 : one who identifies with various mythological archetype as vehicles of spiritual evolution and self-expression, similar to Native totemism only with a stronger level of self-identification.

"2 : someone who believes in reincarnation, and that not all of their reincarnations were as a human."

What are Otherkin? by Tirl Windtree: "By far the most common explanation from those who fit the definition (even if they don't claim this specific label) is that whilst their physical forms may be human, their essence, soul or equivalent term is not.

"Of those, the majority make their claim based on reincarnation - what they have been in a previous incarnation so strongly affects their current incarnation that they still identify with it. Obviously this requires a belief in reincarnation, and in the transmigration of souls. Both are reasonably common in a number of religions and spiritual beliefs across the world."

"The most frequent accusation is that all otherkin are lost in fantasy, they've played one too many D&D games and gone over the edge. Personal study seems to indicate this is actually one of the least frequent explanations. Most roleplayers know they are roleplaying, even if they are also otherkin, and roleplaying can be a very useful tool in self exploration."

The Lostkin Project by Gazer: "Otherkin are the supernatural among us. They are the elves, dragons, nymphs, and trolls that used to live more openly amoung humankind. Some are from other dimensions and other places. You may occasionally see them refered to as Otherkind. Otherkin is the more generally accepted term."

Otherkin Coalition by Kreyas: "What is Otherkin?

In a nutshell, Otherkin are a coalition of people who share in common the belief that some internal part of them is somehow incongruent with the rest of the human race. Beyond that, beliefs vary too widely to classify them into any one group.

Some of the most common beliefs are that the soul is somehow different from human. This may go in hand with a belief in reincarnation and “imprinting” (in which a past life as another species leaves an imprint on the soul which is then carried over into the next life), or the individual may believe that this is his/her first life and they are simply different.

Above all, Otherkin is a spiritual belief.

"Are Otherkin really a bunch of delusional, socially maladaptive kids like I read on that website?

NO. As with any group, not everyone fits the stereotype. Any community is going to have its bad apples which stand out in people’s minds better than the typical members. In my experience, Otherkin are usually levelheaded and able to question their beliefs and function in human society.

"Is it a Roleplaying thing?

NO. While some Otherkin may participate in roleplaying, strictly speaking the beliefs are separate from the roleplay - even if they are roleplaying as their identified “kintype”."

Otherkin FAQ v 4.0.1 by Arhuaine, Miaren Crowsdaughrer, Thistile Kachunk, Golden Syrpent, Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, Jarin Dreamsinger and The Crisses: "The Otherkin are those people who believe themselves to be spiritually and/or physically other than human. While mythological species (elves, satyrs, fairies, dragons, and so on) are widely accepted as being included under the term "Otherkin", many people in the community prefer to include aliens, vampires, furries, extraterrestrial humans, and other nonhuman races. A mythological or literary equivalent is not necessary to be included under "Otherkin"; there are types of otherkin that have not shown up in known legends or fiction (star-dragons, Elenari, etc.)."

What are Otherkin, Anyway? by Adnarel: "Otherkin is a term that is generally used to describe people who, In some way or another, physical bodies aside, do not feel that they are “human” in the conventional sense of the word. We (they) feel as though their spirits are not human, nor have they ever been, despite our physical bodies and outward appearance. Some otherkin have testified that they feel that this is their first time on this plane of existence, a.k.a. Earth. Others feel that they have been here numerous times to teach and to heal people. Maybe once they were here in their “true forms”. Otherkin use the term “true form” to describe what they feel to be the shape and nature of their true selves."

What Are Otherkin? by Arhuaine:

"Put simply, someone who is Otherkin feels that they have a soul (or souls) other than human. Usually this encompasses what are commonly regarded as mythical beings such as elves, dragons, fae, satyrs and so on. A broader view of otherkin might also include therianthropes (were-creatures) and those with animal souls (such people are sometimes known affectionately as "furries"), and also perhaps people who consider their souls are alien (often called star-born). The lines between Otherkin and Furries or Star-born are often blurred.

"Most Otherkin feel for most of their lives as though they don't belong. Human society seems alien and unfamiliar in many ways. They may feel isolated and unhappy, yet unable to explain these feelings at first. Then, perhaps they may begin to remember a life other than their own. Sometimes it is not easy to understand such memories, and sometimes the awakening to Otherkin-ness is a difficult and frightening process, especially if they are going through it alone. It is something not easy to share with others, for fear that they may consider you crazy.

"Being Otherkin is not something to crave, nor is it glamorous. It is a difficult and lonely path to tread, and sometimes it seems to bring only sorrow. Memories of loved ones long lost, a home that can no longer be reached, cause great pain. And yet, the life of the Otherkin is not all sadness. It is a life filled with wonder and magic, and a way of looking at the world that humans can never understand. Because magic is so much a part of an Otherkin's outlook, they may be drawn to Paganism or other New-age philosophies."

Are You 'Kin? by Gazer: "To really find out if you are otherkin takes searching. No, not on the internet, inside. You have to reach inside yourself and really look at yourself. This ,for the most part, is an inner journey. You have the answers, not me or anyone else. If you are otherkin then it is a PART of you, but you may be the only person able to find it.

The best others can do to help you is to provide pointers. Show you ways to search inside yourself, tell you how they found something inside themselves. We can hold a mirror up to you, but you won't see anything unless YOU do the looking, and what we see from our side of the mirror may not be the truth."

Otherkin Phenomena: "Otherkin are people who believe themselves to be something other than a human being on a spiritual, psychological, energetic and some even on a biological level, and choose to identify with that non-human fragment of themselves to the point where they count it as a permanent and ingrained part of their personal mythology and/or identity."

and there's plenty more! i'm just tired

i hope this helped answer your question, and perhaps gives others some insight as well!

[hemo--goblins]

hi. this is copy/pasted from a discord server but i wanted to talk more on my feelings on recent developments in rwby. i am well aware this is complaining, and i will say that right off the bat. but tyrian means a lot to me as a character, and i really, really enjoyed his dynamic with watts, so seeing things pan out the way they have been has been. disproportionately frustrating to me. and i think some people on here might feel the same. so.... rant under the cut.

i’ve been thinking about the possibility of watts dying in v8 and tyrian never seeing him again, and how the writers wouldn’t even address it, like he isn’t his fucking teammate who was p much the only person aside from salem that seemed to appreciate and respect him in any capacity.

i know the villains are not what the majority of the fndm cares about, but i wish at least the writers would give a shit about them

they’ve made it clear time and time again that they really do not give a shit about their villains, but sometimes theres just the accidental spark of something amazing, like what happened in v7, and i get my hopes up and i... shoulda known better, tbh. can’t even be assed to make merch that caters to fans of any character aside from team rwby, of course they wouldn’t even notice the fantastic possibility that was right in front of their faces. n+v jailbreak was literally....... everything to me. it woulda been so good, and i’m trying so hard to respect the writer’s decision and not be salty about it, but it makes so much more sense than what just happened. if your characters shine when they are together, why would you not only ignore the chance for them to have a really good scene with each other, but separate them from one another entirely?

i’m starting to feel like an idiot for liking these characters so much, bc jesus, fiction should not be making me feel bad like this. the whole point was for it to bring comfort, and now i’m just like, hurt that they’d do me dirty like this, as if they haven’t been doing me dirty for years. v7 was the exception, not the standard. i’d forgotten that bc it was fresh in my mind, i think. even at the peak of relevance, they still didn’t wanna give tyrian and watts jack shit outside the show, so idk why i’m surprised. it would be so much easier if i’d just stan a character that the writers actually want me to. one that’s marketable and widely liked by the fandom. sorry i’m just such a fucking mess that HE’S the one i resonated with!!! go ahead and kick me in the dick for it, like i don’t already feel like booboo the fool.

i mean, its a fuckign story, with more important characters to focus on, and half the fandom fuckin hates him anyways. the tag for him is full of people wishing he would die, and people literally. tag him as a tw. there’s no reason for the crwby to put any sort of focus or expend their effort into making him a dimensional person. he’s there to Be Evil. i’m sure his synergy with watts and the inherent queerness of it was completely accidental. they’d never want to humanize characters like them on purpose like that, i was just. seeing what i wanted to see. but so many other ppl were too, and it was a rly big source of comfort for them, and to have it all just. dropped all at once. dismissed entirely. feels bad man.

we never had it good, villain stannies rarely do. but we didn’t really realize how much worse we coulda had it until that kinda reality check that reminded everyone that the crwby does not care about these characters that we find so much comfort in. they exist as plot devices to lift the protagonists up, they can’t be their own people with complex feelings.

like... they kinda care about cinder. after 8 volumes. and hazel has relevance because he's on the fence about being a villain at all. but characters like tyrian and watts? roman? they exist to be people who do Bad Things for the heroes to oppose; their motivations are portrayed as shallow and mostly brushed over. which shouldn’t be as much of an issue for me as it is, because. sometimes u need a villain that is just a shitty dude. but idk. i thought there was something really compelling about how they were the only villains that actually got along with each other since roman and neo. i thought they might go somewhere with it. i thought it would be really compelling if they got attached. and you’re reminded that these awful people are still human, that every person is capable of terrible things when they are pushed, and that even the most despicable people can still have those they care about.

i thought light and dark existed within every person by design, rwby. where's that concept in practice.

i’ll stop complaining. it just... sucks to have such a deep emotional connection and attachment to something that the creators don’t think is worth their time.

[cannibalisticapple]

Okay, so I have some thoughts on Kurikuri’s decision to delete a large number of her fan fics, and on fan fiction as a whole.

For those who don’t know, Kurikuri (@letaizawarest) is a popular fan fiction author with numerous popular Erasermic fics, along with other fandoms. Around the end of May/start of June she deleted a large number of her stories, specifically those that featured either police, or those set in the My Hero Academia universe where they work as Pro Heroes.

To quote her post:

as you may have noticed, roughly half of the fics on my ao3 have been deleted.

i’ve deleted all my fics about police officers. also, after some thought, i also deleted my non-AU bnha fics, because although they might not be “cops” in name, they are law enforcement. i do not want to be a part of the system that glorifies the police. 


at the moment i haven’t deleted other profession AUs and high school era fics, but i will continue to reflect on their relation to the source material. even if you enjoyed the deleted fics, please do not circulate them in other formats (PDFs, EPUBs, etc). 


i also encourage other writers to think about cop fic they’ve written. while it may be fun and escapist for you, it still encourages the idea that antiblack and killer cops are just “bad apples” and that good cops exist. let’s dismantle that system of thought.

I have some very, very mixed feelings on this.

To start: I respect her reasoning, but I don’t agree with it. I fully agree that it’s not just a bunch of “bad apples”, there’s a serious issue with the system and how the police operate in the United States. I’ve always been bothered by how the police let other officers get away with horrible BS, even as a kid, and that rage has only grown as I’ve grown older and found out more about how screwed up it is on every single level.

But the way that last paragraph is written rubs me the wrong way because you can’t paint every single person in an entire career field as unequivocally corrupt, bigoted and all around callous murderers. Good cops DO exist. Plenty of people go into the career hoping to fix things, or just genuinely want to help their community in whatever way they can. But the thing is, they’re fighting a losing battle because the system is working against them. When they DO speak up against the corruption, bigotry, violence and other issues, they tend to get fired and blacklisted from the field. Or sometimes, they get outright murdered and it’s treated as a “suicide.”

A shitty fact of life: sometimes, the people who are more willing to resort to underhanded tactics and willing to turn a blind eye to corruption are the ones who climb up the career ladder furthest. And in the case of the police, it’s deep-rooted enough that it can’t be fixed internally anymore. But that doesn’t make literally every police officer corrupt.

I’m not posting this to make some political point or argument though. I obviously disagree with Kurikuri’s opinion, but I respect it. I can even respect her decision to remove the stories featuring the police, or even the ones heavily focusing on the characters’ jobs as pro heroes. I can see how heroes are just another version of law enforcement, because honestly, they are.

As a writer and a reader, I fully respect that it’s ultimately her choice to delete her stories. It’s not my place to make demands. She’s the one who created it, and as a writer I know the hard work and time that goes into crafting stories, so I believe she has a right in how it’s used and shared. The fact she shared it in the first place was something she didn’t have to do.

But the thing is, she DID share it, which is why I have this conflict.

As a writer, I’ve always believed that fiction can be more powerful than fact.

Fiction can give readers a window into mindsets you’d never imagine before, because you can connect more easily with fictional characters than real people on the news. That’s why Uncle Tom’s Cabin was so critical in the battle against slavery: it didn’t just gave a face to slavery, it let readers experience the characters’ lives directly. People got to see the struggles and suffering firsthand, feel the rising crescendo of hope each time freedom is in reach, and the soul-crushing despair every time that hope gets dashed by outside forces.

Fiction may not always be “true” or even “accurate,” but it can help us understand other people, see them as fellow humans, in ways that nonfiction just can’t. It can evoke emotions, empathy and familiarity in a reader that a news story or biography can’t capture because it draws you directly into their world.

And it’s that part—the part where readers enter this fictional world to connect to characters they’ll never meet—that leads to the other power of fiction that many people overlook:

Fiction has the ability to help readers persevere.

How many people reading this have used books to get away from trouble in their lives? To take a breather from all their anxieties and stress, and dive head-first into this other world for just a moment, where nothing else matters? How many people reading this had their whole lives changed by reading a story where a character’s words resonated with them? Where it helped them come to an epiphany about how to do better, how to be better.

Sometimes, the world is too overwhelming and we need to escape it. That’s the beauty of fiction. It lets us go to a world where our problems just don’t matter. Even if the world in question is worse than our own, it can still be a relief and give us hope because hey, at least we’re not living in 1984 or the Hunger Games, right? Stories are what keeps many people going through the hardest time, what gives them hope that life isn’t utterly hopeless.

And even after a story is finished, whether it’s fan fiction, a book, a show, or any other medium, that story will have a special place in people’s hearts. Many people will go back to those stories years later when they’re faced with immense stress and need a break from the real world, so that they can dive into the world that helped them persevere the last time they felt so bad. Just having a copy of it on hand can be a source of comfort even if you never read it again.

I want to highlight one phrase Kurikuri used in her post to describe how people feel writing stories about police and heroes: "fun and escapist”. That’s honestly so accurate, those stories are escapist, and that is why I’m so conflicted.

Stories about superheroes, while technically revolving around themes of law enforcement, are a form of escapism FROM police corruption.

There’s a reason that superhero comics are so popular in America. Superheroes appeal to a natural desire for justice because as so aptly pointed out, the real world doesn’t always HAVE that justice. It gives an ideal for people to aspire to, a glimpse of what could be, what should be. (Come to think of it, that’s probably why I hate the DC cinematic universe so much, it’s skewed way too much to favor the villains/antagonists and maximize suffering for the good guys.)

Right now, the world is full of more injustice than ever before. I can’t turn on the news without feeling my rage and stress boil over. Every day it gets worse and worse somehow, and I (and many others) genuinely fear that the United States may be heading towards a civil war this November. Donald Trump’s voice alone is enough to make my blood boil at this point.

I, and many others, turn to fan fiction so I can break away from reality because that amount of rage and fear just isn’t healthy.

I don’t have depression, or anxiety, or an abusive family, or a chronic illness. I’m not at risk of being made homeless anytime soon, nor do I need to worry about bills right now or going hungry. I’m a privileged white girl who has barely anything to worry about. What I’m saying is I’m fucking lucky and I know it, but I STILL can’t stand thinking about the state of the world and need to get the fuck away from it to take a breather for my own mental health.

And I also know that many people don’t have that option because their situation is so bad, they NEED to be aware of it at all times.

In the past when writing for other fandoms, I’ve had people tell me my fan fiction was the reason they did not commit suicide.

In my early college years I fell into the creepypasta community and was pretty active in it, especially on deviantArt. I don’t know if that particular fandom’s subject and focus makes it more appealing to teenagers going through rough times or what, but I swear, more than half the people I spoke to suffered from some form of mental illness, abusive or broken family and home situations, bullying, and every other way the world can screw someone over through means beyond their control.

During that time, a few readers left comments that waiting for my stories to update were what kept them going. They didn’t explicitly say that it was the only reason they didn’t kill themselves. It was more just remarks like, “Your writing is the only thing keeping me going.”

I’m not vain enough to believe my stories are so good, it made people decide to continue living JUST to see what happens next. Suicidal thoughts and urges are much more complex than that. But it’s still not something you expect to hear on something you write for fun.

I’ve thought about it a lot over the years, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it probably wasn’t because my stories were "just that good.” I think it was because they needed something to cling to in bleak times. That sometimes at the lowest point where all seems lost, people need just one little thought, just the smallest thing to push away those dark urges before they could fully overwhelm them. Something like, “If I die now, I won’t get to see how that story ends.” It’s such a small thing, but having something to look forward to can be so powerful in fighting off impulsive decisions.

It’s made me hyper-aware of just how powerful writing is.

To me, I see writing as a way of helping others. I give people that option for escape. It’s a large part of why I update on a regular, weekly schedule, and why I published extra chapters when the pandemic got announced and when the riots started. People need that comfort, that little break from reality to just sit and breathe so they can get through the rest of the day. I can’t do much to fix the world, but I can at least give people that.

Right now, people need that escape more than ever.

And deleting the stories is taking that escape away and causing MORE stress.

In times like this, people often turn to the stories they know will help most, and plenty of people in fandoms will first search up their favorite ships. They look for fluff, smut, angst... It helps people feel better to focus on these two people who are obviously in love as they work through their troubles.

Many times, readers will be more drawn to stories in the canon universe than radical AUs set in other universes. That’s how they were introduced to those characters. I myself can enjoy no-power and fantasy AUs sometimes, but what I really crave are how they interact in the canon world because that’s the world and versions of them I want to see the most. By deleting EVERY SINGLE STORY IN THE CANON UNIVERSE, that option was removed.

In many of the stories that were deleted, the characters’ careers were honestly a minor facet of the story. Some used it to establish the setting, such as treating injuries after a patrol. Some just simply used it to explain they work at UA, a school for teaching kids with superpowers. Some just had them work as heroes because it’s set in the canon universe, and never directly show ANTTHING about the work.

I’m not always looking for a story about how being a hero shapes and impacts their lives, and most of those stories that got deleted AREN’T about being a hero. That’s just one piece of their character, it’s far from the focal point. It could honestly be removed from several of them without changing the rest of the story.

I can get wanting to make a political point and I respect that, but by deleting those stories, you’ve taken away a key source of comfort from hundreds, thousands of people. By deleting the stories, you’re making the stress worse.

On Saturday night, I realized several of my favorite stories are suddenly gone. I knew Kurikuri had deleted a bunch of her stories, but I hadn’t realized just how many of them I liked. Some of them I’ve specifically sought out to reread multiple times in the past, never really paying attention to the author. Realizing they’re just gone caused me heavy stress because it made me paranoid about all these other stories I like to reread. I don’t expect those stories to be around forever, but I still didn’t expect them to vanish so suddenly. I never thought I’d need to download them to make sure I’d still be able to read them while the site is still up.

I spent hours searching out specific stories to see if they were written by her, and make sure they’re not gone forever. I have no way of knowing which ones she’d written and deleted because there’s not exactly a list out there anymore. My desperate search for those stories and one in particular (which I still haven’t found) contributed to the lack of sleep I got that night.

And I need to reiterate: I am mentally healthy and have no major stresses in my immediate life. And that’s why I’m hyper-aware of how this stress will affect people who AREN’T as lucky as I am.

If an author decides to delete their stories because they feel the stories themselves push harmful values or themes, fine. If they’re getting harassed, or it reminds them of a bad time in the lives, or they just don’t like that story anymore, okay. I can respect that and accept it.

But these stories were deleted for the EXACT reasons that people will be looking for them now more than ever, and that’s where I draw the line.

This applies to ALL fandoms.

If you as a fan fiction writer have more than, say, 100 kudos on a completed story or one-shot, there’s a good chance people will read and reread your story in stressful times. If you have a reasonably popular story that updates on a regular or even semi-regular basis, there is a chance that someone is using it as a lifeline to have something to look forward to while the rest of their lives go to hell. Maybe not because they specifically love it, but because it gives them something routine.

I want to make it clear that it’s not our job to care for other people’s mental health. Fan fiction writers don’t have an obligation to people, we’re doing it for fun first and foremost. We’re not some sort of saviors, and we shouldn’t think of ourselves that way or we can honestly screw people up worse. We’re not obligated to write these stories JUST for our fans.

At most, our stories are sources of support and comfort for readers. A little break from reality. If writing a story is causing you more stress than enjoyment, stop. Fan fiction, and all other fan media and stories in general, is ultimately created for the creator’s enjoyment more than anything.

Your own mental health comes first. Don’t set yourself on fire to keep other people warm.

But with how utterly fucked and unfair the world is right now, people need those stories now more than ever. So if you’ve got a story out there that’s fairly popular, please, please, PLEASE be mindful of your readers before deciding to delete it. Now is the absolute last time people need more stress trying to find a single story. And if you’re going to delete it, maybe give readers a heads up so that those who need it or have some powerful attachment to it for all the reasons I’ve discussed here can download a copy for their own personal use.

Don’t hurt your readers to make a point.

[aion-rsa]

Chinese-Inspired Fantasy Books That Reframe Familiar Fairy Tales

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Reframing fairy tales has long been a common subgenre of fantasy fiction and, at the end of 2020, three authors put their own spins on stories (or fairy tale structures) familiar to most Western audiences by incorporating Asian mythology and settings. S. L. Huang combined European fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood with the Chinese tale of Hou Yi the Archer to form a story of redemption, love, and family in Burning Roses. Chloe Gong cast tragic English characters Romeo and Juliette as gangsters in 1920s Shanghai—pitting them against a Lovecraftian monster rising from the depths of the Huangpu River in These Violent Delights. And Nghi Vo continued her Singing Hills cycle, set in a world inspired by Imperial China, with an original story reminiscent of Middle Eastern folktale The Thousand Nights and One Night in the novella When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain. While none of these books are intended to be read together, all three make an excellent combination of courses for your literary meal, especially if you’re looking to dive into more fantastical tales written by Asian American authors.

Burning Roses by S.L. Huang

Fairy tales frequently feature young protagonists, especially young women, in peril. Some are able to evade dire fates through their own wits, while others must be rescued. Readers seldom see what becomes of them in their middle age, but that’s exactly what Huang takes on in her novella, Burning Roses.

Red Riding Hood, here called Rosa, survived the wolf attack that killed her grandmother. The event convinces her of the evil of the grundwirgen, speaking animals whom her grandmother had tried to teach here were just as much people as humans, but whom her mother had raised her to hate. Her mother’s point proven right, she sets off on a quest to rid the world of grundwirgen, teaming up with Goldie (whom she rescued from bears, and whom she later realizes is a thief and a con artist). But by the time readers meet Rosa, she’s left that life long behind, and now accompanies Hou Yi, the famous archer of Chinese lore, on a quest to keep people safe from unthinking monsters. (Hou Yi is traditionally described as male; here she is female, and she complains that Westerners from Rosa’s lands “insist on calling me a man.”)

Hou Yi, like Rosa, has her own demons to slay, and not just the literal ones. As Hou Yi and Rosa fight off a group of sunbirds, nearly dying from the smoke and fire, Hou Yi is confronted by her own past—the apprentice who turned against her. That apprentice is now a sorcerer, and has raised the sunbirds against Hou Yi in a twisted act of revenge.

But of course, it’s not that simple, either. Hou Yi and Rosa both acknowledge their own troubled pasts, and the wrongs they’ve both done, especially to those they love, weigh them down so heavily they almost cannot bear to move. The relationship between these two women, who truly see each other because they recognize a kinship of regret and repentance, is powerful. Without revealing too much in the way of spoilers, the feeling of the novella is that even in the midst of despair, it is possible to hope—especially when someone else can help carry the burden of your past.

Along with nods to Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood, there are additional mentions of Western fairy tales like Puss in Boots and Sleeping Beauty. Hou Yi’s story also closely mirrors the traditional tales, but familiarity with them isn’t required; those who already know the story may catch hints in the story earlier about where the tale will end, but Huang’s use of folklore from both Europe and China is complete within the story, and no additional outside sources are needed to get full enjoyment from the tale.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

What happens when you mix 1920s Shanghai with The Sopranos, Lovecraftian horror, and Romeo and Juliet? With Gong at the helm, the result is a chillingly violent romance that readers may hope, despite the source material, will come to a happy ending.

In These Violent Delights, Juliette and Roma are the heirs to the two gangs of Shanghai, crime families who once controlled the city but are both losing ground as more foreign interests—and communists—rise to power. Juliette Cai is the future leader of the Scarlet Gang, the only remaining Chinese power in the city. Roma Montagov is a White Flower, son of generations of Russians who fled the Bolsheviks, and now in a dangerous predicament as his father has begun to favor another Montagov over his own son as the possible heir. Years ago, Juliette and Roma met in secret, determined to defy their parents, pledging that together they could bring peace and prosperity to Shanghai.

But those years are long past, and now nothing exists between them but hatred—or so each of them claim. They would continue to be solely enemies if not for a contagion sweeping through the city, hitting Scarlets and White Flowers with equal severity, that causes the victims to rip out their own throats. The contagion seems to follow sightings of a monster—a creature that witnesses claim drives people mad. Investigating on their own, they are chasing their own tails. Together, they could be unstoppable…

Before you say that the story isn’t really a fairy tale—it long predated Shakespeare’s play—and while it includes no fairies, the element of the poison that emulates death borders on the supernatural. Gong’s addition of a monster that rises from the river and compels people to suicide brings in enough additional supernatural elements (mixed with a healthy dose of 1920s science) to include it within the genre. At the same time, the novel is just as much a crime drama; the feuding criminal families are vibrantly, violently drawn, and their ruthlessness makes it difficult to consider heroes (even while readers root for Roma and Juliette’s romance).

One of the delights of the story, for those familiar with Shakespeare’s telling of the tale, is watching Gong’s naming conventions give clues to the role the characters play. Lourens, a scientist working with the White Flowers, is an analog to Father Laurence; Benedikt and Marshall are Romeo’s friends Benvolio and Mercutio, while Juliette’s hotheaded cousin Tyler is Tybalt. But though they don’t always play into type (and they have their own motives far beyond the traditional tale), readers will still be waiting for that moment when Tyler and Marshall face off, and Marshall lays a plague on both their houses. That the story, while self contained, leads directly into a subsequent volume will have readers waiting to find out if fair Shanghai will one day see a glooming peace, and whether Roma and Juliette must both be sacrificed to achieve it.

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

Vo’s novella is the second story featuring scholar-cleric Chih, who collects stories from far off places in order for them to be recorded for the archives at Singing Hills. In Chih’s first story (The Empress of Salt and Fortune), they and their recorder bird, Almost Brilliant, had an adventure; now Almost Brilliant is tending a clutch of eggs, leaving Chich to journey on their own. Luckily, Chich has guide Si-yu, a mammoth corps scout, to lead them through the mountains.

Unluckily, there are three tigers hunting in the mountains, and a lone mammoth and a few humans seem like a tasty meal. Si-yu and her mammoth, Piluk, reach safety, and Chih calls an uneasy truce with the tigers: Chih knows the tale of Ho Thi Thao’s marriage, and they ask the tigers to correct it for Singing Hills. The tigers refuse to tell their version—the true version—but they’re willing to let Chih tell the version they know, and correct the cleric when they get things wrong.

And so Chih tells the story of Ho Thi Thao and her human wife, Scholar Dieu—all the while, during the tale, keeping the hungry tigers from eating the humans. Chih weaves elements of ghosts—and the tigers add fox spirits, correcting the story; Chih gives a version in which human Dieu has most of the agency, and the tigers correct the tale to make Ho Thi Thao the hero. The story always feels very tightly organic to the Singing Hills cycle: the mammoths are a particularly delightful element of the setting, and the talking tigers, who can take the form of humans, feel a true part of the setting once readers (and Si-yu) become accustomed to the idea of conversing with them. In fact, Si-yu often takes the side of the tigers, preferring the details they give the story to Chih’s version.

But while the world is very much its own, the story is very reminiscent of the traditional tale of Scheherezade, who staved off death with her stories night after night. While When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain feels very much a new story, it also feels familiar, the way that being tucked in with a familiar bedtime story might, especially for readers accustomed to bedtime stories with the threat of being eaten by tigers.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

For the two stories with already familiar characters, the Chinese (or Chinese-inspired) settings offer a new perspective for readers less familiar with East Asian mythology, and help readers to see those tales in a new and different light, enhancing the old tales with a new point of view. For the original story, embracing the feel of older tales lends it the feeling of being at once both new and comforting. In all ways, these three tales offer the sense of meeting old friends for the first time—and coming out the other side enriched by the experience.

The post Chinese-Inspired Fantasy Books That Reframe Familiar Fairy Tales appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2OPnTxF

[chiseler]

Utopia and Apocalypse: Pynchon’s Populist/Fatalist Cinema

The rhythmic clapping resonates inside these walls, which are hard and glossy as coal: Come-on! Start-the-show! Come-on! Start-the-show! The screen is a dim page spread before us, white and silent. The film has broken, or a projector bulb has burned out. It was difficult even for us, old fans who’ve always been at the movies (haven’t we?) to tell which before the darkness swept in.

--from the last page of Gravity’s Rainbow

To begin with a personal anecdote: Writing my first book (to be published) in the late 1970s, an experimental autobiography titled Moving Places: A Life at the Movies (Harper & Row, 1980), published in French as Mouvements: Une vie au cinéma (P.O.L, 2003), I wanted to include four texts by other authors—two short stories (“In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” by Delmore Schwartz, “The Secret Integration” by Thomas Pynchon) and two essays (“The Carole Lombard in Macy’s Window” by Charles Eckert, “My Life With Kong” by Elliott Stein)—but was prevented from doing so by my editor, who argued that because the book was mine, texts by other authors didn’t belong there. My motives were both pluralistic and populist: a desire both to respect fiction and non-fiction as equal creative partners and to insist that the book was about more than just myself and my own life. Because my book was largely about the creative roles played by the fictions of cinema on the non-fictions of personal lives, the anti-elitist nature of cinema played a crucial part in these transactions.`

In the case of Pynchon’s 1964 story—which twenty years later, in his collection Slow Learner, he would admit was the only early story of his that he still liked—the cinematic relevance to Moving Places could be found in a single fleeting but resonant detail: the momentary bonding of a little white boy named Tim Santora with a black, homeless, alcoholic jazz musician named Carl McAfee in a hotel room when they discover that they’ve both seen Blood Alley (1955), an anticommunist action-adventure with John Wayne and Lauren Bacall, directed by William Wellman. Pynchon mentions only the film’s title, but the complex synergy of this passing moment of mutual recognition between two of its dissimilar viewers represented for me an epiphany, in part because of the irony of such casual camaraderie occurring in relation to a routine example of Manichean Cold War mythology. Moreover, as a right-wing cinematic touchstone, Blood Alley is dialectically complemented in the same story by Tim and his friends categorizing their rebellious schoolboy pranks as Operation Spartacus, inspired by the left-wing Spartacus (1960) of Kirk Douglas, Dalton Trumbo, and Stanley Kubrick.

For better and for worse, all of Pynchon’s fiction partakes of this populism by customarily defining cinema as the cultural air that everyone breathes, or at least the river in which everyone swims and bathes. This is equally apparent in the only Pynchon novel that qualifies as hackwork, Inherent Vice (2009), and the fact that Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of it is also his worst film to date—a hippie remake of Chinatown in the same way that the novel is a hippie remake of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald—seems logical insofar as it seems to have been written with an eye towards selling the screen rights. As Geoffrey O’Brien observed (while defending this indefensible book and film) in the New York Review of Books (January 3, 2015), “Perhaps the novel really was crying out for such a cinematic transformation, for in its pages people watch movies, remember them, compare events in the ‘real world’ to their plots, re-experience their soundtracks as auditory hallucinations, even work their technical components (the lighting style of cinematographer James Wong Howe, for instance) into aspects of complex conspiratorial schemes.” (Despite a few glancing virtues, such as  Josh Brolin’s Nixonesque performance as "Bigfoot" Bjornsen, Anderson’s film seems just as cynical as its source and infused with the same sort of misplaced would-be nostalgia for the counterculture of the late 60s and early 70s, pitched to a generation that didn’t experience it, as Bertolucci’s Innocents: The Dreamers.)

From The Crying of Lot 49’s evocation of an orgasm in cinematic terms (“She awoke at last to find herself getting laid; she’d come in on a sexual crescendo in progress, like a cut to a scene where the camera’s already moving”) to the magical-surreal guest star appearance of Mickey Rooney in wartime Europe in Gravity’s Rainbow, cinema is invariably a form of lingua franca in Pynchon’s fiction, an expedient form of shorthand, calling up common experiences that seem light years away from the sectarianism of the politique des auteurs. This explains why his novels set in mid-20th century, such as the two just cited, when cinema was still a common currency cutting across classes, age groups, and diverse levels of education, tend to have the greatest number of movie references. In Gravity’s Rainbow—set mostly in war-torn Europe, with a few flashbacks to the east coast U.S. and flash-forwards to the contemporary west coast—this even includes such anachronistic pop ephemera as the 1949 serial King of the Rocket Men and the 1955 Western The Return of Jack Slade (which a character named Waxwing Blodgett is said to have seen at U.S. Army bases during World War 2 no less than twenty-seven times), along with various comic books.

Significantly, “The Secret Integration”, a title evoking both conspiracy and countercultural utopia, is set in the same cozy suburban neighborhood in the Berkshires from which Tyrone Slothrop, the wartime hero or antihero of Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), aka “Rocketman,” springs, with his kid brother and father among the story’s characters. It’s also the same region where Pynchon himself grew up. And Gravity’s Rainbow, Pynchon’s magnum opus and richest work, is by all measures the most film-drenched of his novels in its design as well as its details—so much so that even its blocks of text are separated typographically by what resemble sprocket holes. Unlike, say, Vineland (1990), where cinema figures mostly in terms of imaginary TV reruns (e.g., Woody Allen in Young Kissinger) and diverse cultural appropriations (e.g., a Noir Center shopping mall), or the post-cinematic adventures in cyberspace found in the noirish (and far superior) east-coast companion volume to Inherent Vice, Bleeding Edge (2013), cinema in Gravity’s Rainbow is basically a theatrical event with a social impact, where Fritz Lang’s invention of the rocket countdown as a suspense device (in the 1929 Frau im mond) and the separate “frames” of a rocket’s trajectory are equally relevant and operative factors. There are also passing references to Lang’s Der müde Tod, Die Nibelungen, Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, and Metropolis—not to mention De Mille’s Cleopatra, Dumbo, Freaks, Son of Frankenstein, White Zombie, at least two Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals, Pabst, and Lubitsch—and the epigraphs introducing the novel’s second and third sections (“You will have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood — Merian C. Cooper to Fay Wray” and “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more…. –Dorothy, arriving in Oz”) are equally steeped in familiar movie mythology.

These are all populist allusions, yet the bane of populism as a rightwing curse is another near-constant in Pynchon’s work. The same ambivalence can be felt in the novel’s last two words, “Now everybody—“, at once frightening and comforting in its immediacy and universality. With the possible exception of Mason & Dixon (1997), every Pynchon novel over the past three decades—Vineland, Against the Day (2006), Inherent Vice, and Bleeding Edge—has an attractive, prominent, and sympathetic female character betraying or at least acting against her leftist roots and/or principles by being first drawn erotically towards and then being seduced by a fascistic male. In Bleeding Edge, this even happens to the novel’s earthy protagonist, the middle-aged detective Maxine Tarnow. Given the teasing amount of autobiographical concealment and revelation Pynchon carries on with his public while rigorously avoiding the press, it is tempting to see this recurring theme as a personal obsession grounded in some private psychic wound, and one that points to sadder-but-wiser challenges brought by Pynchon to his own populism, eventually reflecting a certain cynicism about human behavior. It also calls to mind some of the reflections of Luc Moullet (in “Sainte Janet,” Cahiers du cinéma no. 86, août 1958) aroused by Howard Hughes’ and Josef von Sternberg’s Jet Pilot and (more incidentally) by Ayn Rand’s and King Vidor’s The Fountainhead whereby “erotic verve” is tied to a contempt for collectivity—implicitly suggesting that rightwing art may be sexier than leftwing art, especially if the sexual delirium in question has some of the adolescent energy found in, for example, Hughes, Sternberg, Rand, Vidor, Kubrick, Tashlin, Jerry Lewis, and, yes, Pynchon.

One of the most impressive things about Pynchon’s fiction is the way in which it often represents the narrative shapes of individual novels in explicit visual terms. V, his first novel, has two heroes and narrative lines that converge at the bottom point of a V; Gravity’s Rainbow, his second—a V2 in more ways than one—unfolds across an epic skyscape like a rocket’s (linear) ascent and its (scattered) descent; Vineland offers a narrative tangle of lives to rhyme with its crisscrossing vines, and the curving ampersand in the middle of Mason & Dixon suggests another form of digressive tangle between its two male leads; Against the Day, which opens with a balloon flight, seems to follow the curving shape and rotation of the planet.

This compulsive patterning suggests that the sprocket-hole design in Gravity’s Rainbow’s section breaks is more than just a decorative detail. The recurrence of sprockets and film frames carries metaphorical resonance in the novel’s action, so that Franz Pökler, a German rocket engineer allowed by his superiors to see his long-lost daughter (whom he calls his “movie child” because she was conceived the night he and her mother saw a porn film) only once a year, at a children’s village called Zwölfkinder, and can’t even be sure if it’s the same girl each time:

So it has gone for the six years since. A daughter a year, each one about a year older, each time taking up nearly from scratch. The only continuity has been her name, and Zwölfkinder, and Pökler’s love—love something like the persistence of vision, for They have used it to create for him the moving image of a daughter, flashing him only these summertime frames of her, leaving it to him to build the illusion of a single child—what would the time scale matter, a 24th of a second or a year (no more, the engineer thought, than in a wind tunnel, or an oscillograph whose turning drum you can speed or slow at will…)?

***

Cinema, in short, is both delightful and sinister—a utopian dream and an apocalyptic nightmare, a stark juxtaposition reflected in the abrupt shift in the earlier Pynchon passage quoted at the beginning of this essay from present tense to past tense, and from third person to first person. Much the same could be said about the various displacements experienced while moving from the positive to the negative consequences of  populism.

Pynchon’s allegiance to the irreverent vulgarity of kazoos sounding like farts and concomitant Spike Jones parodies seems wholly in keeping with his disdain for David Raksin and Johnny Mercer’s popular song “Laura” and what he perceives as the snobbish elitism  of the Preminger film it derives from, as expressed in his passionate liner notes to the CD compilation “Spiked!: The Music of Spike Jones” a half-century later:

The song had been featured in the 1945 movie of the same name, supposed to evoke the hotsy-totsy social life where all these sophisticated New York City folks had time for faces in the misty light and so forth, not to mention expensive outfits, fancy interiors,witty repartee—a world of pseudos as inviting to…class hostility as fish in a barrel, including a presumed audience fatally unhip enough to still believe in the old prewar fantasies, though surely it was already too late for that, Tin Pan Alley wisdom about life had not stood a chance under the realities of global war, too many people by then knew better.

Consequently, neither art cinema nor auteur cinema figures much in Pynchon’s otherwise hefty lexicon of film culture, aside from a jokey mention of a Bengt Ekerot/Maria Casares Film Festival (actors playing Death in The Seventh Seal and Orphée) held in Los Angeles—and significantly, even the “underground”, 16-millimeter radical political filmmaking in northern California charted in Vineland becomes emblematic of the perceived failure of the 60s counterculture as a whole. This also helps to account for why the paranoia and solipsism found in Jacques Rivette’s Paris nous appartient and Out 1, perhaps the closest equivalents to Pynchon’s own notions of mass conspiracy juxtaposed with solitary despair, are never mentioned in his writing, and the films that are referenced belong almost exclusively to the commercial mainstream, unlike the examples of painting, music, and literature, such as the surrealist painting of Remedios Varo described in detail at the beginning of The Crying of Lot 49,  the importance of Ornette Coleman in V and Anton Webern in Gravity’s Rainbow, or the visible impact of both Jorge Luis Borges and William S. Burroughs on the latter novel. (1) And much of the novel’s supply of movie folklore—e.g., the fatal ambushing of John Dillinger while leaving Chicago’s Biograph theater--is mainstream as well.

Nevertheless, one can find a fairly precise philosophical and metaphysical description of these aforementioned Rivette films in Gravity’s Rainbow: “If there is something comforting -- religious, if you want — about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many of us can bear for long.” And the white, empty movie screen that appears apocalyptically on the novel’s final page—as white and as blank as the fusion of all the colors in a rainbow—also appears in Rivette’s first feature when a 16-millimeter print of Lang’s Metropolis breaks during the projection of the Tower of Babel sequence.

Is such a physically and metaphysically similar affective climax of a halted film projection foretelling an apocalypse a mere coincidence? It’s impossible to know whether Pynchon might have seen Paris nous appartient during its brief New York run in the early 60s. But even if he hadn’t (or still hasn’t), a bitter sense of betrayed utopian possibilities in that film, in Out 1, and in most of his fiction is hard to overlook. Old fans who’ve always been at the movies (haven’t we?) don’t like to be woken from their dreams.

by Jonathan Rosenbaum

Footnote

For this reason, among others, I’m skeptical about accepting the hypothesis of the otherwise reliable Pynchon critic Richard Poirier that Gravity’s Rainbow’s enigmatic references to “the Kenosha Kid” might allude to Orson Welles, who was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Steven C. Weisenburger, in A Gravity’s Rainbow Companion (Athens/London: The University of Georgia Press, 2006), reports more plausibly that “the Kenosha Kid” was a pulp magazine character created by Forbes Parkhill in Western stories published from the 1920s through the 1940s. Once again, Pynchon’s populism trumps—i.e. exceeds—his cinephilia.

[eddisfargo]

CoMC Chatper 106

CHAPTER 106 

Dividing the Proceeds

37 minutes

This is a longer chapter, and it really seems like it should be two chapters, but I guess he wanted to make the parallels between two very distinct situations, both of which could be labeled as “dividing the proceeds.” 

First, Mme. Danglars has been abandoned by her entire family, and the hits keep right on coming. Because she turns to her lover, Lucien Debetray, expecting… something. Anything. To be… “official” or something, maybe, now that she’s got no husband? Or even just “damn that sucks, I’m sorry sweetie. C’mere.” She gets nothing but brutal coldness and her half of the money they’ve been hoarding. She manages to hold it together, but she’s hurtin. 

And Debetray’s like “shame Valentine’s dead. She’d have made a convenient wife.” He was considering Eugenie before she peaced out, but she doesn’t exactly have the desired wifely temperament. 

Other highlights include Danglars addressing his farewell letter “to his most faithful wife,” and her and Lucien just looking at each other. 

But anyway, poor Hermine is left with no one, and barely a millionaire at all. She manages not to cry or plead, and keeps her pride, even when Debetray says he is willing to share anything he has--on loan. Brrrrr! 

And now the more interesting part! In the same house sit Mercedes and Albert. And I have fantastic news: She’s miserable. No, I’m not being sarcastic, I’m actually thrilled. But why, Eddis, when you’ve expressed so much sympathy for her in the past?? Well, I’ll tell you: If she’d gone off to the convent to make a life for herself, the picture of pride and determination, like a woman headed for a new frontier, that might have been the actual ending for her character. But instead, she’s totally depressed with her new lot in life. And like me, Dumas is quite sympathetic toward her character--as is MC. WHICH MEANS (if you’re following my logic) that something good’s going to happen to her still. I think we all know what I’m hoping that is, but I’ll settle for whatever I can get. In fact, the chapter closes with--but I’m getting ahead of myself. 

So, in the Ruination of Danglars chapter, it was revealed that the former Morcerfs gave their entire fortune to charity, for realz. In a previous chapter, just before Fernand’s death, we saw Albert leaving all his stuff except the portrait of his mom (aww). 

It’s a bit of a surprise to me how poorly she takes to poverty, tbh. Considering that that’s where she’s from, and that it’s usually seen as a mark of character in fiction to keep your head high despite your financial situation and not value riches that much. Not so much here, for a few reasons. One is that poverty sucks--she’s not “poor” like when she was young, when she always had a source of food. She’s hungry and cold, and she has her son to worry about. And she’s lived for years in extreme comfort, she’s allowed to be a little used to it. And there’s plenty of “noble” here from the fact that she could still easily be living in her mansion. She chose to give it all up. 

Now cute little Albert starts to budget. He’s pencil and papering out a whole little trip to Marseilles, financed with money from selling his watch and some ornament or something--but also, while we’re here, he sold himself into the army service for $2000. Mercedes is… not thrilled. She’s going to be all alone, and her son’s going to be in danger. And they love each other so adorably. He calls her the most beautiful and most noble woman he knows (ok btw romantic little Albert still needs an actual wife, and I still think Haydee’s a fantastic choice), and Mercedes says her love for her son has turned to admiration. And Albert is joining a ship called like, the Spighee or Spy-y or something that’s almost certainly not spelled like that (been a while since I was reduced to that) that I’m pretty sure we’ve heard of before, but can’t think where. He also says he chose his regiment based on how good he’ll look in the uniform, haha. Peak Albert.

So he’s going to Algeria, hoping to talk to the governor, where he thinks in 6 months he’ll be either an officer or dead. If he dies, he says Mercedes can die too and that’ll be that. He’s only living for her anyway. 

He sees Debray on the way, his former friend, as Albert calls him, because he can’t and shouldn’t have friends anymore. Debray offers to help with all the emotion he’s capable of feeling or something, cuz he a cold cold dude but respeccs Albert. And he’s the one who makes the contrast between Mme. Danglars, “justly dishonored” and poor with a 7 figures, and Mercedes, “unjustly stricken” and rich with like a three digit money amount. Also btw, calling Hermine’s dishonor “just” is PRETTY RICH coming from her accomplice in every sin she may have committed. I mean, except Benedetto, obviously, but he doesn’t know about that. But of course he gets to walk away from the affair scot free because man. He flees the interaction with the Morcerfs and buys hisself a new house. 

ANYWAY, the chapter closes with MC (skulking) asking god for help with restoring happiness to poor innocent Albert and Mercedes. Can I just say. That I have some ideas. 

[toby-stephens]

TOBY NEWS : MAY 2019

Toby reprieved his role as James Bond for Martin Jarvis’s eighth production of his versions of Ian Fleming’s novels for BBC Radio 4.  This time ‘Live and Let Die’ which was broadcast on Saturday 4th May

Toby was slated to appear at EM-Con Nottingham at Motorpoint Arena 4th/5th May 

In preparation for the broadcast of ‘Summer of Rockets' Toby appeared on Steve Wright in the Afternoon on Radio 2 on 13 May 2019.

‘SUMMER OF ROCKETS’

‘Summer of Rockets’ was launched on BBC on May 22nd

Set during the summer of 1958 this cold war espionage drama centres around Samuel Petrukhin, based on Stephen Poliakoff’s own grandfather, and played by Toby.  Samuel is a Russian Jewish emigre, an inventor who owns a factory that manufactures hearing aids and who has recently invented the ‘bleeper’.

The Telegraph said it was a promising start and of Toby commented, “A restrained, enigmatic Stephens reminded us why he was once so feted”

IN TOBY’S WORDS:

On ‘Summer of Rockets’:

“It is the advent of space exploration, but it’s also the height of the cold war, high paranoia within the UK about Russian infiltration, spies within MI5, MI6, and huge paranoia about nuclear annihilation.  So what happened was, and this is based on Stephen Poliakoff’s parents, especially his dad and his grandfather.  They were electronic engineers, they started up a business over here, they came over just as Stalin was taking control of Russia.  They made deaf aids initially but they also came up with the first paging device but they were terrible  business men and it never really caught on.  There’s a real blend of fact and fiction in this.  He gets sucked into this right wing reactionary plot to take over the government which actually did happen at the time, there was this coup attempt after the suez crisis when they were a right wing group that was convinced the government was riddled with spies and they needed to get rid of it and take control.”

“He’s attracted to this aristocratic family cos he loves everything English and he wants to be more English ad he gets sucked into this plot and then MI5 are countering this plot and are using him as well to spy on them and this poor guy is just stuck in the middle of this whole thing.”  

“It does have traction within the plot.  The right wing faction want to use the pager cos then they can communicate without using telephones or whatever so that’s their interest in him so he gets sucked into that and at the same time MI5 are using him to spy on them.  This is based on a shred of truth in that S’s father used to service Winston Churchill’s deaf aid.  This is true.  And this contract was withdrawn suddenly with no explanation.  But years later when MI5 released all this information SP was contacted and told they had withdrawn it because they believed SP’s father was a Russian spy and was bugging…also this paranoia was based on fact.  There was also a very interesting social reason why  never caught on.”

“They wanted it to be for the professional classes, so surgeons for example, and doctors.”

“But at the time they didn’t want to be run like servants.  It never really caught on.”  

Source: Steve Wright in the Afternoon, BBC Radio 2

“Stephen has created this character out of the kernels of his own family story”

“Samuel is an immigrant, but he wants to be more English than the English. Over the course of the show you see how he has this over-reaching idea of himself, but then he comes to realise who he really is, and what he should be proud of.  Stephen's father did in fact service Winston Churchill's hearing aids, and was stopped from doing that for a period of time. They never got to the bottom of it, but years later some secret papers were released and sent to Stephen. They said that there had been suspicion that his father was a Russian spy.”

“Even though his family had fled from the Communists, the paranoia at the time was so intense that they actually feared he could be bugging Winston Churchill's hearing aid. He also invented, with Stephen's grandfather, a paging device and Stephen has used this to bring in a story about a far-right-wing plan to 'take back' the running of the country from the government. The plotters are interested in Samuel because they want to use his pagers.”

Source: dailymail.co.uk

“For me, it’s identity — the characters are all searching for who they are. For my character Samuel, it’s about him coming to terms with who he is. He’s a Jewish émigré but he totally worships England — he’s in love with the whole idea of being English. It’s all about fitting in.”

“I thought that was part of what makes him such a wonderful character. He’s based on Stephen’s grandfather and it is in part biographical. He ran a factory that was full of deaf workers and I loved his pragmatic approach. He just saw them as good workers, he wasn’t bogged down in some kind of social project.”

“They’re a kind of society unto themselves, they are a very tight unit. I feel that comes across. And they are happy because they are a community, they don’t get caught up in that other stuff, all the social palaver that goes on. They are classless, they live a kind of parallel existence. It was evident that they had a very strong sense of themselves — and I don’t think the story in any way patronises them.”

Source: metro.news

“The idea of this Russian Jewish émigré wanting to be more British than the British but yet not being allowed to or not being accepted fully.”

“Certainly there is the strand of immigration and how immigrants are made to feel in this country.”

Source: inews.co.uk

On working with Stephen Poliakoff:

“It’s great to be working with Stephen Poliakoff again after such a long time.  I loved working with him on Perfect Strangers; he’s such a unique and original voice in British television. It’s also good to be filming something back home in the UK for the BBC. It’s been a while.”

Source: denofgeek

“He has a very clear idea of what he wants to achieve and he’s going to get what he wants — and, by hook or by crook, he’ll get you there. It’s what makes him a unique voice but at times it makes it hard as an actor. You may not agree on how to handle a scene but you can’t argue with him — after all, it’s his vision. Even though I was playing the lead, there was no licence, there was no negotiation. But I have enormous respect for him and the way he works.”

Source: metro.news

On the Cold War:

“There was a hysteria about nuclear Armageddon. Today’s nuclear threat is nowhere near as serious and has been superseded by the terror of climate change. We’re really up against it and we’re not doing anything.”

Source: inews.co..uk

On the right wing:

“These people are trying to take the country backwards. And you can’t. You can’t do that. You can’t rewind cultures.”

Source: inews.co.uk

On being a double agent:

“It’s the moral ambiguity of it. You have to be able to swallow your own sense of morality and do what is required. And I think it would be very difficult to do that.”

Source: inews.co.uk

On the analogy with Brexit:

“Yes, I know that’s there, but I know that Stephen [Poliakoff, writer and director] wanted to stay away from making too much of an analogy. But it’s there and it’s right that it should be there. The attitude to how we view immigrants and what makes us belong is central to the story.”

Source: news..co.uk

On the 1950s:

“There seems to be a hankering after a past that didn’t really exist. It was a time that was riddled with paranoia about the Cold War, the Suez Crisis — and spies were all working for Russia and lurking everywhere. Happy days!”

Source: metro.news

On ‘Lost in Space’ 2: 

“I believe it’s going to be Christmas time.  I actually have been non stop for the last 7 years and I just wanted to stop for a bit and see my family for a bit.  I've got 3 kids and they barely know me  it’s like who are you?  I could page them once in a while.”

Source: Steve Wright in the Afternoon, BBC Radio2

On going from ‘Lost in Space’ to ‘Summer of Rockets’:

“They are very different projects. I’m not in space in ‘Summer Of Rockets’.”

On the Mars mission:

“No way. ‘Lost In Space’ showed me how harsh that would be. It’s not the kind of place you could live easily — and it takes so long to get there. When they’ve got a spa up there, then I’ll go. When you can get a massage on Mars, sign me up!”

On starting out:

“Most people were getting up, doing a rendition of Jabberwocky, and just getting from the beginning to the end was enough.  I remember doing these poems and people were looking at me like I was a freak because I would invest them with emotion.”

“It’s something innate within you. It’s an instinct that you have. You can’t learn it.”

Source: inews.co.uk

On his mother’s help in the industry:

“She gave some advice. There’s no leg up in this industry. If you can’t do it, you can’t do it.”

On whether his children will follow in the family line:

“I know how difficult it is. And I think it’s getting harder.”

Source: inews.co.uk

On having children:

“I need to put bread on the table.  The idea of suddenly becoming a painter decorator or something… I would if I had to. But luckily, touch wood, I never have.”

Source: inews.co.uk;

On working in America and feeling British:

“Yes, definitely British. But you can’t help but be troubled by what’s going on and where it will all end. I thought I was part of some sort of open, forward-thinking society and then it turns out that I’m living among a lot of people who don’t think like that. You have to accept that, though. I’m not about to become American — it’s not much different there, in any case!”

On being an action man at 50:

“Christ, I can’t keep doing all that stuff, the body won’t take it. I’m still recovering from ‘Black Sails’ and we finished filming ages ago. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to that kind of thing. It’s funny, it’s not really what I’m most comfortable with — I somehow got sidetracked into playing pirates and astronauts and Bond villains.

I think I imagined that by 50 I’d get to do a load of different jobs. But, to be honest, the last ten or 11 years it’s been all about paying the bills — that’s what happens when you have kids, that’s a massive motivation. But then you start to think, ‘Hey, there’s only a certain amount of time left to do what I want to do.’ So it’s great when you get the chance to be doing something that’s more grown up.

Source: metro.news

[ocular-intercourse]

2, 4, 5, 15, and 39 for Raime and E and F for them and Gyo

Thank uuu

How easy is it for your character to laugh?

Oh veryeasy, they are generally a very cheerful open person that shows their emotionsrather freely, in their personal life at least. They have also learned in theirjob that people tend to let their guard down a little more around a person thatis happy and easy to please, but that has also been in their nature to beginwith so that is working out rather naturally.

How easy is it to earn their trust?

Ah that’s aquestion of what exactly the definition of trust is. Boundless trust isprobably something that is hard to achieve, that’s simply in the nature oftheir job, they would not be very good at scouting if they just mindlesslytrusted every source of information. But apart from their professional life I thinkthey tend to trust maybe a little too easily, not necessarily fully, and not causethey are naïve, they know very well that they could possibly get hurt, but theyare very willing to take that risk. They just want to trust people, they want to believe that the people aroundthem have good intentions and they want to let people in and share their lifewith them, and if they get hurt that’s okay too that’s part of it all.

How easy is it to earn their mistrust?

Again aquestion of which area of their life they are in. Professionally, very easy,they have to doubt everything to a certain degree to be effective at what theyare doing. In their personal life, when it’s just their own feelings &safety at stake, that’s a different story. Of course there are a lot ofdifferent degrees here, of how big the misstep was, but generally they aremostly willing to forgive and forget when being shown the right amount ofremorse. They know that life is messy and people mess up and they believepeople generally deserve more redemption than they are given.

How do they speak? Is what they say usuallythought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

They doboth, but even if they carefully plan what to say most times when they opentheir mouth their instinct kicks in and takes over, often with very differentresults than originally planned, and maybe they’ve just been lucky so far butthat tends to go fairly well for them. They are generally better at feeling andreacting than they are at thinking and planning, that goes for conversationstoo. They also tend to wear their heart on their sleeves and ignore stiffcustoms, affronting some people, but most of the time people welcome theirhonest nature.

How easy is it for them to ignore flaws inother people?

I thinkthat goes well with what I wrote for the mistrust question, Raime is a veryopen and forgiving person, maybe because they come from a somewhat poorbackground and have always been seen as flawed in some way or another by peopleof higher standing, of which the military is actually full of (it’s a wholehonor thing in the empire’s culture). They have always wanted society to ignorethese superficial flaws, so they are paying the whole thing in advance andtreat people the way Raime themselves would want to be treated.

Are they someone you would get along with?Would they get along with you?

Oh god, Iactually work very well with people that are very different from me in manyways, so I believe Raime and I would actually get along pretty well. Cause I’mquiet and reserved and with them around I would not have to worry about keepinga conversation going or anything because Raime would do that all by themselves,that is always very comfortable for me, to be around outgoing and confidentpeople. I’m not the person to reach out to others, so they would do thatinstead, which is basically how I keep all of my rl friendships going RIP. Theyare also very honest and open and tolerant which I like to believe I am too sothat would be a good match-up.

Gyo though,that’s not something I ever tried to picture it’s a little hard to wrap my headaround hashj. Honestly I think we would getalong just fine, if we ever managed to get past each other’s walls which wenever would cause neither of us would try. I suppose I gave him my general disinterestin new acquaintances, or maybe that’s not the right term, it’s just being verycontent without them and therefore not actively pursuing them myself. Gyo isalso generally very distrustful of other people and tends to push them awayrather than let them close, in that aspect he’s the polar opposite of Raime, sowe would just never get to know each other. We both have very analytical mindsthough, we like structure and rules and clear instructions, I enjoy his humor whichis an absurd concept considering he is a fictional character I created myselfso who’s humor is it really? He and I are similarly perfectionistic andpunishing towards ourselves when we can’t keep up with our own blown-upstandards. It would be a very quiet but understanding friendship.

What do you feel when you think of your OC(pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

Pride andexcitement definitely, for both of them. Raime also has the added bonus ofbeing a lovely little collab so that will always be a little special, kindafeels more like an actual child I/we created, whereas other characters of minefeel more like people that were just there to begin with, that I just had touncover. Gyo is a lot of fun for me, cause he’s so much of the things I like inone. Cause that was his whole origin, so I never put any restrictions on himlike I did with other characters, to make them more believable and well-roundedI guess? He’s just pure indulgence both in character design and story, andevery time I come across a clichéd bit I’d like to add I pause for a sec andthen go ah fuck it, that’s the whole point of this character, for himeverything goes. I’d call it guilty-pleasure, but it’s really just pleasure.

[hotchocolatefanfics]

PoTA: Test The Relationship

Hi guys! So this just came to me a couple of days ago and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head so I wrote it out. 

Basically, it’s a PoTA-based relationship test. The idea is you imagine your favorite PoTA characters/PoTA shippings (canon or not) in these scenarios and, based on their personalities, backgrounds and actions in the books and movies, imagine what they might think, say or do in them. These scenarios can also be used to explore your PoTA OC’s character and expand on their personality and relationships.

Some of the scenarios are based off of things that happened in the movies and books and by the actions of the characters (both the good guys and the bad guys) and some are real-life based and others don’t follow the PoTA mold at all (so some are serious, some are romantic/comfort, and some are just random and silly). 

Types of couple that can be used in these scenarios: 

Canon

Made-Up Shippings 

OC Shippings/relations 

Crack Couples 

Ape x Human

Ape x Ape 

Human x Human 

OC x Canon 

OC x OC 

Gay or Straight Shippings 

Literally anything you want! 

Subjects included in (some of these) these scenarios:

Character Death

Divorce/Breakup 

Government Corruption/Propaganda

PTSD/Past Trauma 

Self Harm/Suicidal Thoughts or Actions 

Abuse 

Drug Addictions 

Alcoholism 

Cancer/Serious and/or Fatal Illness

Miscarriage/Infant Death

Adoption 

Betrayal 

Seperation

Depression/Anger problems 

Birth Defects/Disability 

Murder/Attempted Murder

Homophobia/Harassment/Bullying

Oppression

Ape-Based Polygamy (where they have multiple mates)

If any of these subjects trigger you or make you uncomfortable, don’t read the scenario and don’t do them! I could personally direct you to the scenarios that DON’T have that particular subject but please be aware that a good 80% of these scenarios cover these things and the whole point of them is to test how the characters handle them and the relationship of the said couple. It’s all meant PURELY for fiction and character exploration, not in any way shape or form meant to encourage or glamorize these subjects. As a precaution, I may repost this on my DA incase this is taken down.

PoTA Movies/Books that (some of) these scenarios are inspired by: 

Rise

Dawn 

War 

Firestorm 

Revelations 

Original PoTA Movies 

Tim Burton’s Remake

While these scenarios were made up based off of the PoTA universe, some of them CAN be used for other franchises you’re interested in. The scenarios are primarily romance-based but there are a few that are based on friendships, parent to child relations, and spouse to in-laws.

The scenarios are all open ended. You choose the couple/the characters in them (the “you” refers to the character you chose to be that role), how far it goes and how it ends (This ______ means fill in the blank! LOL). You can use these scenarios as prompts for drawing, one-shots, discussions, or role-plays.

This is not a contest or a challenge! If anything it’s just something I made up for fun and maybe others may find fun in it to. There’s 100 scenarios on this list but you don’t have to do ALL of them if your don’t want to!

Sorry that my description has taken up more room than I thought it would but have fun! Happy character exploration and relationship testing! XD

1 - 10: Falling in love 

1) You have been captured by apes/cruel humans. You just met a/another ape/primitive human. Is it love at first sight?

2) You see your companion being abused/tortured/whipped by your captors. Do you intervene? 

3) Your companion makes a flower crown for you. How does this make you feel? Do you make one for them? 

4) You’re in love. However, the person you love will never love you back due to your species/different opinions on humans. What is it about them that you love so much?

5) You and your companion are not the same species (one is ape and the other is human) but you have feelings for them. Do you hide it? Do they feel the same? 

6) You want to impress your companion by________. It goes horribly wrong and you end up embarrassing yourself. Do you laugh it off? Do you hide your head in shame?

7) You want to give your companion a gift. After much consideration, you decide the best gift would be________. How do they react to the gift?

8) You’re about to be killed by______. Your companion saves your life and in doing so, gets hurt themselves. What do you do? 

9) Your companion suddenly disappears as you’re traveling. Do you search for them? Or go get help? 

10) You and your companion are alone together. You catch each others eyes and gaze at one another. Your heart is pounding. Do you kiss them? Do they kiss back? 

11 - 20: Something Cute

11) You feel like making cookies. You invite your love to join you. How do you know they aren’t going to eat all the cookie dough first?

12) It’s your love’s birthday. It’s as easy to celebrate these things anymore, but you think you can make it work. What do you get for them? Do you attempt to bake a cake?

13) Halloween is coming up. Your love has never celebrated the holiday. Do you dress up in costumes? Go Trick or Treating/eat candy? Watch horror movies and stay up all night?

14) You and the group you’re in are all bored. You decide to play Truth or Dare. You’re group includes apes and humans, some having done wrong in the past and others had gone from friends, to enemies, to ‘not really friends but we can tolerate each other now’ kind of relationship. What can go wrong? And what is the craziest dare you can think of?

15) It’s summer! You decide to take your love on an adventure. Where do you go?

16) You feel lonely but your companion can’t talk. Do you try to teach them how to communicate? 

17) Apes can’t swim. Yet, they see you playing in shallow water. The water isn’t deep and only goes up to your waist at most. Do you invite them in? Do you all end up having a splash-fight?

18) It’s Friday night. That means no council meetings, no hunting, no fighting, no war, no killing, no nothing. You and your human and ape friends know what that means…Party time!!! During the party, you notice your love interest is there. Do you ‘play it cool’ and approach them? Or do you keep rocking out with your friends?

19) Your love is feeling blue. It doesn’t appear to be anything serious, but you don’t like it. What do you do to cheer them up?

20) Your love is having trouble sleeping. You decide to do something sweet and silly for them! Do you sing them a lullaby? Read/tell a bedtime story? Or do you do something else entirely?

21 - 30: Opening Up 

21) Your love has always been secretive and extremely hateful towards (other) humans. One night, you confront them about it. Are you prepared to hear about the abuse and torture your love was subjected to?

22) You came from another planet/the past. Everyone you’ve ever known, your friends and your family, are gone. Leaving you homesick for them. You feel all alone in this new, strange world with seemingly no one to talk to or no one who cares. Still, not all apes in this world are ‘human haters’ and the humans here are good listeners. What’s the harm in seeking company from them?

23) Being locked in a cage for so many years does things to a person. It caused you to have depression and anxiety problems, and caused you to fear humans as well as hate them. It’s hard to talk about these things, even if you weren’t the only one to experience it. Sometimes you cry yourself to sleep, thinking about it. One day, another ape approaches you and asks if you’re ok. Do you let them in? Let them be the one to free you from your cage?

24) Your love suffers from PTSD, due to all the abuse and trauma they’ve endured. They have good days and bad days, but it’s never easy. All you can do is be there for them and help them in any way you can. What happens when a particularly bad flashback leaves your love in tears and you holding them as well as crying with them?

25) Your love tells you a secret. A secret so shocking that, if it ever came to light, it could ruin your love’s life. But keeping it a secret is also dangerous, as it threatens their life too. You don’t want to destroy your love’s trust, but there’s no way you can keep this a secret either. What can you do?

26) You lost your parents when you were young. You don’t like talking about it, not even to your own love. What happens when they find an old picture of you and your parents? Do you tell them how you lost them?

27) You have been made to do horrible things. Things that you never want to remember or speak of again. But one day, something from your past resurfaces and your love demands explanation. Do you lie to protect them from the truth? Or tell them everything?

28) There are certain subjects your love noticeably avoids. Mostly its small things: handling knives, refusing to look at blood, covering their ears at loud noises. You don’t think anything of it until one day…What happens that makes you rethink this behavior? Do you try to find out the source of these problems?

29) Ape Law has always been flaky at best. You never gave it much thought and preferred to live about your daily life as if nothing is happening around you at all. Trouble is, your spouse works very closely with Dr. Zaius and the orangutans. It’s normally uneventful, but lately weird things have been occurring in the village and your spouse is either denying that it’s happening or trying to hide it. You’ve never been interested in this subject before, but you cannot ignore that somethings not right. What is your spouse hiding? What do you do to find out what it is?

30) You decide it’s time to profess your feelings to your love and take the step from friends, to lovers. How do you do it?

31 - 40: Marriage 

31) You and your partner love each other. You live together, eat and sleep and even go out in the forest and Ape Village together. You want to ask the big question, but you’re so nervous of what the answer will be that you keep putting it off. Your partner finally notices and asks about it. What do you do?

32) You and your partner have been through a lot. You’ve survived a virus, dangerous humans, and your spouse has survived abuse and neglect by them. You have your differences and neither of you are perfect, but you love each other all the same. If they were to ask you to marry them, would you say yes?

33) Despite everything that you have done, your partner still loves you and lets you know that everyday. As much as you feel grateful for them, you can’t help but feel guilty for all you put your partner through during the war and the events leading up to it. You secretly wonder if they also resent you for what you did, like everyone else. So how do you feel when your partner, despite all your mistakes, asks your hand in marriage?

34) It was obvious for years that you two were a couple. The entire village knew of it. Not even Dr. Zaius bats an eye when you two announce your engagement. Problem is you have friends who are apes who you want to invite, but you also have human friends too…This wedding is going to be very interesting.

35) You are ape and your partner is human. Your love is forbidden, and seen as a betrayal to many with both sides outcasting you. Fed up with the constant harassment, your partner decides to leave the village and asks you to go with him-as his spouse. This is a hard choice to make. There’s not much left for you if you stay but leaving would mean you’d have to leave your home, your family and all you’ve ever known behind. Will you say yes and go with him? Or will you stay in the village with a ruined reputation?

36) Due to war, you and your spouse have to be separated. The timing is horrible as you have just gotten married and were just about to settle in as spouse and spouse. You talk to each other as often as you can, but it’s just not the same. Can your marriage survive this long-distance relationship?

37) Being an outcast by your own people is hard. Everyday, you put on a brave face and tell your spouse that you’re ok but they know when you’re lying. They know it’s unfair and awful how the village treats you just because of your species. You think it’s just you who they oppress, but it turns out your spouse is also a target. How does it effect your relationship?

38) Some apes have multiple spouses. There are no laws against it and it isn’t seen as cheating or anything wrong. Still, you weren’t raised with it. Your father only had one spouse, and that was what you wanted. One, and only one, spouse. But you have fallen in love with another ape too. You know you won’t be judged for having two spouses and your current spouse wouldn’t  mind either, but do you really want this? Or do you ignore it and stick with what you’ve originally wanted?

39) Your parents are cruel to your spouse. They don’t accept them and constantly tell you that you should leave them. Your in-laws (your spouse’s parents) are the most nicest, most caring people you’ve ever met and you are honored to be part of their family but it also makes you feel horrible about your own parents behavior. On your wedding day, they ruin it by throwing _________  at your spouse and yells at them. This is the last straw. What do you do?

40) It’s your wedding day. The day where fantasy and day dream become reality, and it’s almost mystical. Straight from a storybook. As you and your spouse hold each other, is it everything you’ve ever dreamed of?

41 - 50: Building A Family 

41) You want to have kids but your spouse doesn’t want to talk about it. The subject appears to make them angry and depressed. One night, you decide you have to ask. Would you be prepared for what you hear?

42) You and your spouse are unable to have children. One day, you find an abandoned child while at the Market Place. This child is malnourished and appears hungry. Would you Adopt this child? How would your spouse feel?

43) You and your spouse never thought having children together was possible but it turns out, your spouse is pregnant! Are you shocked? Scared? Happy? What about your spouse?

44) Your child is an outcast, due to you and your spouse being a human-ape couple/past choices made by you or your spouse. One day, your child asks what an ‘abomination’ is. What do you tell them?

45) You and your spouse are currently wanted fugitives and your child is being hunted. If you are captured, your child will be murdered. The only way to protect them is to give up your child and then you and your spouse will have to flee. Who do you leave your child with? Do you fully trust them?

46) You and your friends aren’t related by blood, but you are the closest thing to family that you have. You’re all different, some are apes and some are human, but you stick together as if you were all brothers and sisters and you never let anyone, human or apes, hurt you. How far does it go?

47) You and your spouse find out that your child has a birth defect/has health problems. In a post-apocalyptic world, not much can be done to help your child live a normal life. There is also a possibility your child may die. How do you and your spouse cope with this?

48) You now have two children. As you and your spouse watch them play, do you two worry about their futures? More specifically, if they’d be accepted as equals by the apes and by humans?

49) Your spouse is pregnant and it hasn’t been easy. As you talk about it together, you find that both of you are afraid. Not just for weather or not your spouse and the baby will survive the birth, but also the child’s future as a whole. You try to be strong for your spouse, but can you be strong for yourself too?

50) Your spouse is in labor, and it’s worse than you imagined. You’re scared but you’re more concerned for your spouse than anything else. The baby is finally born. How is your spouse? Are they going to be ok? But then, as you look at your child for the first time, what are you feeling?

51 - 60: Problems 

51) Your spouse has a history of treachery, deceit, murder, attempted murder and manipulation and is outcasted and disliked by many in the colony. It has also put a strain on your relationship, as it makes it hard to fully trust them. Do you ever talk it out with your spouse? Does your spouse regret their past actions?

52) You do not wish harm on humans, but your spouse does. Its to the point where your spouse wants to kill them all. You love your spouse, but you do not like where this is going. Do you try to reason with them? 

53) War has taken it’s toll on your spouse. They no longer seem as confident and powerful as they used to be. In fact, your spouse looks like they’re about to crumble and break before your eyes. One night, they do. They need you to be their strength for the night. How strong can you be for them?

54) You drink your pain away with alcohol. It’s not healthy, but it’s the only thing that gives you peace. You know your spouse hates it, but you’re honestly sick of their nagging. They’ll never understand how bad it hurts. How bad everything hurts…But would you give them the chance? 

55) Old mistakes from the past and continued bitterness over them has made their way into your marriage. Now you and your spouse fight constantly, to the point of yelling and shouting at each other, only to end with one of you leaving and slamming the door behind them and the other to go bed to scream into a pillow. Why is this happening? And how can you and your spouse fix it?

56) Your spouse finds out that someone at work has been mistreating you and they are not happy about it. One day, they show at your work place and beats up the guy that had been bullying you. Did you know it was coming? Were you shocked to see it happen?

57) You decide to do a harmless, non-aggravating, prank on your spouse. The prank you have in mind is suppose to be confusing rather than to make it’s victim angry and upset or cause damage. One of those ‘wholesome and innocent’ pranks. You pull the prank and-!…It’s not your spouse you’ve just pranked…It’s your spouse’s mother!!! How do you get out of this awkward situation?!

58) Your spouse has an awful fear of the dark. It’s so bad that they need a nightlight, something to hold and you to be in the bed with them before they fall asleep. One night, they wake you up and say they think someone/something is inside the house/cave. It could be nothing, but do you really want to take that chance?

59) Your child has a friend who is a bad influence on them. This friend is shady, secretive and always has an answer to everything. You have a bad feeling about them but no evidence to prove anything. You talk it out with your spouse and they too feel something isn’t right with this friend. Then one day your child comes home, badly beaten and bleeding. When it becomes known that the friend did it, you decide then and there that you are going to make them pay for this. What do you do?

60) Homosexuality is not uncommon in Ape Society. In fact, it’s almost as common as heterosexuality. You are perfectly fine with this, as some of your ape friends are married to other apes who are the same gender, however you also have human friends find it ‘unnatural’ or ‘disgusting’ or ‘sinful’. You have been very careful to avoid those friends and keeping them from meeting your ape friends but of course, they eventually find each other. The ignorant friends realize they are looking at two male apes kissing and start harassing them, calling them horrible names right in front of you. That’s it, any feeling of friendship you had with these people dies at that moment. How do you intervene? Do you use just words to stop them or do you have to use physical force? 

61 - 70: It’s A Matter of Life and Death 

61) Your spouse has a disease that could kill them. Thankfully, there is a cure that can save them, but this treatment comes with serious consequences. Would you save your spouse’s life? Do you value their life enough to make sacrifices?

62) Colonel McCullough has kidnapped your spouse! Problem is, he also has the entire colony in the base too! Do you save your spouse first? Or your people?

63) Your spouse and your child are both in serious danger, having been kidnapped by the enemy and are now about to be killed by them/inflicted with a fatal illness. Despite your best efforts, you could only save one of them but not the other. Who do you save? The love of your life? Or your child?

64) Your spouse is an experiment in a laboratory. Every second they are in that cage, their life is at risk. You need a plan but it’s hard to think of one when there’s so little time. What are you feeling? How do you try to rescue them?

65) Your spouse has been acting strange lately. You try to ask them what’s wrong but they wouldn’t say. One night, you catch them with a blade in their hand. You stop them just in time but it leaves you shaking as you now know your spouse has been harming themselves and may have suicidal thoughts. What goes through your mind as you realize this?

66) Your spouse is an addict. One day, you find them passed out and not breathing. You rush to get help, but is it enough to save them? Is it too late?

67) The village has deemed your spouse to be a murderer and a traitor. They were banished and is now locked away forever. But your spouse is innocent. You don’t have proof that they didn’t do it, but the Orangutans don’t have evidence against them either. Suspicious, you do some detective work of your own. No one believes you and Dr. Zaius is determined to silence  you, but you don’t care. You’d stop at nothing to save your spouse’s life. But if your spouse is innocent, who is the actual murderer? And what is Dr. Zaius trying to hide from you?

68) Your in-laws died recently. Your spouse tells you that their parents have told them something about the apes history. Something that should have been buried centuries ago. What did your in-laws tell your spouse? How do you console them?

69) Your spouse had a miscarriage. You take it hard. Everyone knew the pregnancy would be difficult, but you never thought this would happen. Your spouse blames themselves despite you telling them it’s not their fault and you both fall into a deep depression…What now?

70) The forest is on fire and your family is trapped inside! You race through the flames, desperately yelling out their names but their voices seem to come from all directions. The smoke is getting heavier, harder to breathe as the air seem less and less. You refuse to give up, you’re either going to save your family or die trying! Do you get burned? And if you do find your family, which one do you save first?

71 - 80: With or Without You 

71) Your spouse has started a war. You always knew they hated humans, but never dreamt they’d actually do this. When you find out that your fellow apes are also being threatened, and some have been killed, you confront your spouse. Do you try to stop them? Or is your life also at risk?

72) You are finally getting revenge for all the pain humans caused you. Sure a couple of apes died on the way and a couple of them refuse to follow you, but you see no problem with it. But then, your spouse shows up and demands you stop it. It’s getting on your nerves, and you decide you need to make another choice. Do you love your spouse enough to spare them? Or would you choose revenge over their life?

73) You don’t know what the heck your spouse is thinking. They’ve taken control over the remainder of the colony and now some are dead and others are held captive. Your spouse is talking about killing the queen and they’re convincing other apes to help carry it out. What do you? Get answers from others? Or reason with your spouse and try to stop them before this goes too far?

74) Your spouse has enslaved the entire ape colony. Even Caesar is locked up and chained, reduced to another slave. You know why this is all happening, but it just seems so wrong. So against everything that you stand for and believe in. The more that happens, the more you hate it. Do you go against your spouse’s back and help the apes? Or do you confront them yourself?

75) Your spouse has gone off to exterminate the human race. You can’t stop them, and you both know it. Their hate has made them mad, to the point of no return. Do you say goodbye then and there? And as they leave, for what feels like the last time, what are you thinking and feeling?

76) Your spouse has been banished by the colony for their crimes. As of right now, you’re the only one who still cares about them. Do you go looking for them to join them and start a new life somewhere else with them? Or are you so angry with what they did that you just want to forget about them?

77) Your spouse has joined the enemy and is now seen as a traitor to the colony. How do you feel when you find this out? Are you angry with them? Or do you plan to try to change their mind?

78) You have a chance to go back home. Back to your own world, where humans rule the world. But do you really want to go? And leave behind your new friends here in this ape planet?   What does your heart say?

79) You want revenge for the murders of your family but your friends are in the way. To you, they are just waisting your time and slowing you down. You know they mean well and they’re worried for you but it doesn’t make you feel any less angry at them. Do you continue to travel with them? Or do you push them away and go down the rhode of vengeance without them?

80) Your spouse is on the verge of curing a disease that has hurt millions of lives and threatens even more, but is it worth it? Finding this cure means using innocent apes as lab rats and playing with nature…One of the victims trapped in all of this is your spouse’s own adoptive child. Not even they are spared from this. You understand why your spouse is doing this and you know their heart is in the right place, but you cannot agree with any of this. Do you try to convince them to stop? Even if this is wrong, how can you tell then to give up something they have worked so hard on?

81 - 90: I’m Sorry 

81) You had no choice. Your spouse has become a monster. You didn’t want to do it, but you had to. It was the only way you, your family, your friends and your colony would be safe. You had to kill your own spouse…How did it come to this?

82) Your spouse has sacrificed themselves so you live. You never asked them to do such a thing, but they did and it seems they would have done it even if you begged them not to. Wrecked with survivor’s guilt, all you can do is cry for your brave spouse. If you had known that day would be the last day you’d be with them again, what would you have said?

83) Being an astronaut came with consequences. You have left your spouse and children behind on Earth, your home planet. All you want now is to see them again one more time and tell them how much you love them and how sorry you are for leaving them. If you had the chance to do just that, would you?

84) You took part in creating the virus that’s whipping out the planet. Everyone is blaming the apes for this, but you know that’s not true. It’s your fault, and the fault of Gen-Sys for doing this. You say your sorry as your spouse and children die before your eyes, but there aren’t enough sorries in the world that can save them. How can you live with yourself now?

85) You really did it this time. You are now a traitor to the colony and will never be able to return to them. You have no one to turn to and no where to go. Worse of all, you’ve left your beloved all alone. Abandoned them. That was never part of your plan and never what you wanted, but your spouse is now paying the price for your treachery. If you got to see them again, what would you say to them? Do you think they’d still love you and forgive you?

86) Your actions cost the lives of several in the colony and has hurt many others. What you regret the most is how much it has hurt your spouse. You never talk about it with them but you see the hurt in their eyes. You used to have a loving and trusting relationship with each other, now it just feels like your spouse has given up on you. How can you show them how sorry you are?

87) You are haunted by the faces of the people who have died because of you. There are too many to name, some are ape and some are human, but they all form this mob of angry ghosts wanting revenge for their murders. You may not have killed all of them, but you did cause their deaths. How can you put these demons to rest? In fact, are these ghosts real? Or are they just figments of your imagination created by your own guilt?

88) You had to do the unthinkable. You had to kill your own loved ones and friends to save your species. The virus that threatens to destroy your very existence is everywhere you look. In the faces of the people you kill, in the eyes of your enemies, and even in some of your own ‘pets’. You are meant to save and protect your species…But in doing so, you are also killing them…Who do say your sorry to? To those you kill? To all who oppose you?…Or to yourself?

89) You and your spouse had a fight. It was a over something stupid and small, but it got ugly really fast and now neither of you are talking. Who started this fight? And how do you make it up to each other?

90) You have an anger problem and it’s caused a lot of problems between you and your spouse and you with your children. It gets particularly bad one day when your oldest lies to you about where they had been. You get into a fight with them and, in a rage, you smack them. Your spouse intervenes and starts a yelling match with you too. It ends with your children avoiding you for the rest of the day and your spouse giving you dirty looks. Is this enough for you to admit you have a problem? Why was your oldest child lying about their whereabouts anyway? How do you try to make amends with them and your spouse?

91 - 100: The End

91) Your spouse is dead. Killed by Caesar for their crimes. Despite the chaos that had just happened, and the impending danger caused by your spouse, do you still mourn for them? Do you give yourself a chance to say goodbye?

92) Your spouse has suffered a fatal wound and is about to die. You have just enough time to speak them one last time. You don’t want them to go and leave you, but there’s nothing you can do. What do you say?

93) You’ve had enough. You’re tired of the bullshit your spouse has started. Your marriage may have been beautiful at first, but now it’s toxic and lethal. Threatening your own life as well as the humans/apes that are imprisoned here. How do you plan to escape?

94) Your spouse has sacrificed themselves/died during the war. Now you’re at the Oasis, the ape’s new home. As much as you miss your spouse and mourn for them every day, you know one day you’ll have to move on. When will that day come?

95) You and your spouse both have the virus. As you lay dying, the two of you stare at each other in silent sadness. All the things you could have done you never did. Your dreams never came to be. As all this goes through your mind, what do you regret the most? The things you never got to do? Or the things you could have done differently but didn’t?

96) You had cancer years earlier, now it’s come back and it’s worse than before. You have been given less than a year. Within that time, what do you want to do? Rekindle old friendships? Spend time with your family members one more time? Tell your spouse how much you love them?

97) It’s not working out. It’s not your fault or your spouse’s, but you just aren’t close anymore. The spark that brought you together has died out and your marriage is falling apart. You both know it’s over, but neither of you want to admit it. What do you say to each other? Are you ready for a divorce?

98) Your spouse is abusive towards you. You don’t know why they do this to you, but overtime they hurt you, your heart breaks a little bit more. Don’t they love you anymore? Finally, you decide it’s over and start thinking about escape. Do you reach out for help? Who do you turn to?

99) It was an accident. Neither of you saw that car/bear as it came after you. Regardless, it has taken your beloved spouse. Now you’re all alone, despite the constant wave of support and sympathy from your friends and family and nearly everyone in the village. Then, you are confronted with the being that caused the accident. How does looking at them make you feel?

100) You and your spouse have lived a long life together. You have survived war and oppression, been part of creating a new era of human and ape-kind and have had children, and now grandchildren. All your hopes and dreams have come true and all is well in the world. The only problem is, you’re both dying. Your old bodies are falling apart, no longer strong enough to  fight. The good news is, it will be a peaceful death and you’d died together with the one you love. As you and your spouse lay in your bed, waiting for death to take you, what do you reflect on? If you got live your life a second time, would you do it all again? Would you change anything at all?

[memoirsverse]

Verse: Doctor Who

Character name: Evelyn Alvar.

Birth date: November 3, 1984.

Physical characteristics:

5'4, curvy, with wavy brunette hair that she usually keeps cut to shoulder length or shorter, and brown eyes.  She lives in the small town of Wisteria, Louisiana, about an hour’s drive from New Orleans.

When she Travels, she is a similar height, build, and facial structure, but her hair is very long and thick, silver threaded with gold strands; her eyelashes and eyebrows are the same color. Her eyes are an intense violet. She doesn’t know why she looks this way when she Travels, but she’s learned to just go with it.

Face Claim: Emilia Clarke.  

Traveling

Since she was twelve years old, Evelyn has had the ability to separate her essence from her body, taking physical form, and move anywhere in the universe. She has no idea how she does it, just that she does. Her travels are sometimes just as physical and real to her as her everyday life, but more often, she is in a dream-like state when they happen even though she is physically present. They also leave her primary body drained quite often; she’s learned various ways to recharge so she can function, though if she overdoes it she can become very tired and susceptible to physical illness. Also, if she gets hurt while Traveling, it reflects in her primary body.  Her Traveling form has some limited ability to “teleport” from place to place, though if she does it too much it drains her.  She has some limited telepathic ability in both her Traveling and human forms, and often parses that connection in terms of a person’s “song.”

Her travels tend to drain her so much that they generally only last anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour.  The further out she goes, the more it drains her.  But, to some extent, they are spontaneous and uncontrolled by her.

Evelyn is aware on a private, personal level that she is probably not human, at least not fully, though she identifies as human. She just doesn’t know what she is or why she can do the things she can do. As far as she’s aware, her parents were both human. (She recently discovered the name of her real father, Soren, who is one of the last of a species known as the Aetheryn.)

Evelyn’s life

Evelyn  is a writer and an illustrator, and has a series of illustrated novellas that are basically about her own travels, with names and details changed somewhat and billed as fantasy fiction. The stories were written for a Young Adult audience, but have something of a cult following, though she’s not overly well known.

The Curiosity Shop

Evelyn currently co-manages a curiosity and antique shop called “Alice’s Wonderland” with her friend Alice Deva. She sells a variety of merchandise at the shop, much of it quirky, strange, or eccentric.  She also sells more conventional antiques.  

Alice, however, is not entirely what she seems, nor is she an especially healthy friend for Evelyn to have, a point which will be woven into any threads that she is a part of.

Dreams

Evelyn has recurring dreams about a place with burnt-orange skies, silver trees, and red grass.  She doesn’t think it’s a real place, really, because she’s never actually seen this world in her travels.  She figures it’s just a dream.  Still, though, she’s written it into her books, a vague reference, because it stands out to her for some reason.

She also has nightmares of blood and fire and battle, the taste of ashes in her mouth and the pain of dying, and of being pulled from the broken shell of her body and drawn into a dark space that is too small to contain her.  She doesn’t understand them.

Personality

Evelyn is very creative, and has a tendency to be very aware of things like color and form. She also has a mild form of synesthesia, manifested within her mostly by seeing colors within sound and music, which occasionally also layers additionally into tasting sound, though the latter isn’t as pronounced or frequent.  She is a highly emotional being, but has learned to hide her emotions for the most part. She has never really felt a part of anything, never really finding a social niche in the world, though she does have friends and family. She’s quite introverted, and has difficulty getting close to people, partly because her life is so unusual, and partly because she has had bad experiences. However, she does love meeting new people– just tends to be a little nervous and babbles a bit when first introducing herself, though.  She can very direct and straightforward when she talks, which sometimes translates to seeming socially awkward, blunt, or even rude. When it comes to her crossworlding experiences, though, she tends to be a bit reticent, mostly because she’s had bad experiences in the past when she talked about it openly. She is also fiercely independent and keeps herself a little bit distant, because she’s always had to look after herself for the most part, having had somewhat neglectful parents and many friendships strained by either too much honesty (when she told people about her Traveling), or too little (hiding that aspect of her life completely).

Evelyn has little patience with people who lie and manipulate, even if such lies and manipulations are done with good intentions. She is slow to trust and can be very unforgiving if that trust is violated, carrying a grudge for years.  She has a tendency to speak her mind whether it is appropriate or not, once she feels more comfortable around somebody. She dislikes crowds, but can tolerate them.She is not particularly outspoken around strangers, but if she feels strongly about something, or loses her temper, she will speak her mind, and her characteristic bluntness will come out.  She does have a bit of a fiery temper, which tends to be set off most easily when she feels somebody is trying to control her. She has certain intellectual strengths and weaknesses– for instance, she sometimes has difficulty in thinking on her feet, or debating, or anything that requires a quick response, but she’s very good at constructing logical explanations for things at her own pace, carefully examining every angle of a situation. She is very observant and is sensitive to the emotions of others, somewhat psychically empathic as well as mildly telepathic. Though Evelyn may appear rather genteel and sophisticated at first glance, she has an almost feral nature at her core, a wild creature who has taken on a civilized veneer.

It’s important to note that Evelyn and Siobhan are the same person. Siobhan is not an alter ego– she just has a slightly different appearance. She will act like the same person, with the same strengths and weaknesses. She just uses an alias when Traveling so she won’t be recognized.  However, her facial structure is the same, so a very observant person might be able to recognize Evie if they’ve seen Siobhan.

Sexuality

Evelyn is pansexual and demisexual.  For more details, read here and here.  She is also, theoretically speaking, polyamorous (again, this is explained in more detail in the above links).    

The Travelers, or the Chronoforms

There is (or was, maybe) a race of non-corporeal beings who were able to see and move through all of time and space, all possibility and potentiality. Little is or was known of them, but when the Time Lords began harnessing the power of time and space far back at the beginning, somewhere along the way they acquired knowledge of these beings and thought to exploit them as power sources. Their very first experiments sought to draw them into physical bodies, but the bodies were unable to withstand the beings inside, and practically fell apart. So they began to genetically engineer bodies, splicing together genetic code from a number of “higher” species, through trial and error, also programming blocks and channels that would be utilized for control, and eventually managed to create a being who could physically move through time and space at will.

The first successful experiment was named Galatea, after an Earth myth about a sculpture brought to life.

As remembered in writing by Evelyn Alvar:

The process of integrating the essence of the being in question is an unpredictable one. Mutations can occur, anything from physical abnormalities to certain forms of dementia or madness. The psychological infrastructure can be compromised by the trauma of the coalescence, resulting in undesirable displays of willfulness and independence that have been not only counterproductive to our intent, but in some cases have been manifested as outright adversarial. Furthermore, the knowledge we have gained has allowed us to develop another project which utilizes the bio-engineering of machinery to achieve our goals without the struggle of maintaining control over willful Crossworlders. Therefore, we feel it is in the best interest of Gallifrey and her people that this project, and all prototypes created within its parameters, be terminated with impunity.

All of the prototypes were destroyed, except for Galatea. It is not yet clear how she survived the purge, but it is thought she had help. Little else is known of her life.

Evelyn Alvar’s Traveling form, Siobhan, is identical to Galatea, except for the fact that she has very little memory and no knowledge of Galatea’s life.  The details of how she came to be (part) human and living a life as Evelyn Alvar– and why– are unknown.

Becoming Evelyn

Near the end of the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords extracted Galatea’s essence from her dying physical form and integrated her into a half-human, half-Aetheryn embryo carried by Evelyn Alvar’s mother, Isabelle.  This was accomplished with the help of Soren Masterson, the leader of the remnant of Aetheryn refugees that took shelter on Earth after their planet was laid waste during the War.  Soren is also Evelyn’s biological father, and facilitated the genetic manipulation and modification of Isabelle so that the cross-species pregnancy could be viable.  Isabelle was kept in the dark during the whole ordeal, as she was continuously administered a drug similar to Torchwood’s Retcon to purge her memory; she remembers an affair with Soren which resulted in her pregnancy with Evelyn but nothing more.  She was also made infertile from the process, an unintended side effect that caused Isabelle to deeply resent Evelyn even though she didn’t understand the full story.  A half-human, genetically manipulated form was chosen for Galatea because it was thought she would be easier to control that way, and easier to dispose of when she had served her purpose.

Galatea’s memories were suppressed, and a trans-dimensional bilateral mirror framework set in place to contain a portion of her essence in a half-phased state, since the form of Evelyn Alvar, though it had been genetically engineered specifically to hold Galatea, would break down if it held her full essence.  They never intended her to Travel like she does, except when fulfilling their purpose for her, which was intended to burn her out so she would no longer be an issue for them as she had so often been as Galatea.  However, their precautions were not perfect, and some subconscious part of her broke through when she was a child and started bilocating.  As a result, her body is slowly breaking down over time, a situation which is exacerbated every time she Travels.  Her primay form is quite frail for this reason, though her Traveling form is still very strong.  Her journeys tend to be rather brief, even though they are a natural reflex, because some instinctive and automatic part of herself is trying to preserve her strength.  

[fume-knight-of-shovelry]

Inaccuracies

For @northwindpersonal

“…Angela, are you honestly asking for my opinion on this? Of all things?”

Doctor Ziegler winced. It wasn’t like Genji to react to her requests with such incredulity, but she supposed that the entire situation was so ridiculous that she couldn’t blame him.

What had begun as a brief glance at a game’s name and cover from the corner of her eye while visiting Hana had become something that Angela had never expected would go as far as it had. Now, she was here in front of their television, her boyfriend was exasperated, and there was no going back.

“Yes, Genji, I’m perfectly serious. I would greatly appreciate it if you were able to help me evaluate the authenticity of what I am about to show you.”

Genji quirked his eyebrow beneath his helmet: he always tilted his head to the right when his left eyebrow rose. He could survive without the helmet covering his face, and could remove parts of his armor safely, but he’d grown so used to his cybernetic body parts that he was usually more comfortable staying in his suit than going through the effort to remove it.

“Honestly, Angela,” Genji wrung his hands, the exoskeleton clicking slightly as the joints of his elbow bent, “I understand where you are coming from, I really do, but I think you already know how I will react.”

“Please, Genji? I know it is not important, but I would still appreciate your input, given your experience with the subject matter,” she pleaded, brow furrowed and lip slightly pouted.

He sighed, metal pectorals rising and falling as he breathed with a small rattling sound from where the material pressed against his skin. He could never resist that begging expression, even if she didn’t realize she was doing it.

“I suppose it’s not too much to ask, Angela. And you’re correct: I have some familiarity with the source material.”

Angela let out a tiny squeal of delight, narrowing her eyes and clapping her hands together once. Genji was suddenly aware of his heartbeat echoing in his ears, pounding along with the pulses of heat across his face.

He was glad she couldn’t see him blushing.

“Danke, liebling! I promise it won’t take too much of your time.”

Angela turned, and Genji was grateful for the chance to let go of the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. She bopped the power button on the console below the television, snatching up the controller with her other hand as she did so. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t noticed it before, but he realized that this was one of the newer console models that boasted “Infinite backwards compatibility”, which was a fancy way of saying that they played games that ran out of distribution before Reinhardt was born.

The legal jargon and development credits faded in and out of existence, and Doctor Ziegler rapidly mashed the start button as the game’s title screen appeared from the blackness.

----------------------------

“I would like to know who decreed that ninja possess magical powers. I feel as though I received the short end of the stick, in a manner of speaking, since I’m unable to manipulate ice.”

Doctor Ziegler stifled a giggle. She’d only just begun her first demonstration, and Genji was already pointing out flaws in the video game’s character design.

“Well, you have your dragon spirit, right? Isn’t that a sort of magic?”

Genji shrugged, one hand coming off of the plastic held in his grip. His fingers were articulate enough that holding the controller wasn’t much different than when he had his original hands, but this was the first time he’d tried holding such a device since receiving his silver-and-green suit.

Angela reached over and interlaced her fingers with his, and Genji lost his train of thought. Her hand was soft, and the warmth lacing through her digits seemed a stark contrast to his cold, unfeeling metal.

“I don’t believe it’s magic. My mastery over the dragon is…something I do not fully understand myself. It simply happens when I need it, and does not appear when I do not. I suppose it is not unlike a reflex,” the ninja mused, tapping the controller against the plate covering his mouth, “The only ones who might be able to help me better understand this are dead, by my-”

Genji cut himself off. He didn’t like thinking about those years; his rage, his frustration, his potential for violence. Genji was still dangerous, but he was more stable where he was now, and he knew Angela was happy that he was in a better place. Being where he was now was the reason they were able to be together like this. Angela didn’t deserve to have to revisit the past like that, on such a lighthearted occasion.

He took a breath, and Angela squeezed his hand. I know. But that was then. This is now. We are now, her grip seemed to say.

He started again. “And his outfit. It covers the face and masks the identity, yes, but everything else about it…the blue and the black, and the exposed arms? It stands out in a crowd. That is the exact opposite of what a ninja is supposed to do.”

Angela smiled, and her golden hair framed her face such that the sun appeared to be shining down on her from behind, creating a halo around the outline of her head. Genji tightened his hold on her hand, as if he could hold on to the image. His angel, lovingly gazing down at him, reaching out for the connection. Both for his sake, and so that she could move on from what she had left behind, what she had lost and kept losing over and over for decades and had now found again, in a different form.

A family.

Then he realized that the wall light directly behind her was creating the effect, and the fantasy faded as Angela began to speak.

“And I suppose that there are a great many silver-and-green mechanical men for you to blend in with?”

“Angela, if they’ve seen me, it is because I wish them to.”

She rolled her eyes and released his hand, but the gesture communicated no malice. Angela knew that Genji could get a bit defensive about how he presented himself to others, but a little good-natured teasing had helped him acclimate in the past, and it could now as well. It helped that she knew he wasn’t exaggerating: more than a few times, Genji had let himself in through their open window rather than use the door that he had a key for, but the neighbors swore that they never saw anyone climbing the walls outside their apartment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And what about this one?”

“No. That is not even how one uses a kunai.” Genji’s voice was firm and brooked no argument. Angela would have wondered if she’d offended him if she wasn’t familiar with the tone his voice took when he was truly angry.

She hadn’t heard that in years, and she knew he hadn’t either. Genji had turned the page to enter a new chapter in his life, and she was forever grateful that he’d chosen to share that with her, for moments like this, when Angela knew he was at ease.

“And he is too loud. What is the point of being a ninja if you announce your every move? I understand the intimidation factor of shrieking ‘Get over here!’ when pulling an enemy to you, but in such a situation I imagine that they are already terrified. If they are not, then shouting alerts their allies to your position.”

“I recall that you yell, at the top of your lungs, the moment that you are preparing to strike with your dragon spirit. What is it you say again? ‘Ryūjin no ken wo kurae‘?”

Genji nodded, and Angela could tell that he was smiling under his helmet. A tiny spot of pride swelled in her chest. She’d been practicing her Japanese, just like how he’d been practicing his German.

His lessons hadn’t been going nearly as well, but she appreciated the effort.

“Well done. Yes, I do make noise when channeling the dragon into my odachi, but at that point, stealth is no longer an option.”

“I suppose you have me there. And would you prefer this one’s fire, or the other one’s ice?”

Her boyfriend paused. His brain was not cybernetic, but Angela supposed that the idea of “gears turning in Genji’s head” fit him more than most.

“Neither. Both leave obvious damage and have readily available countermeasures. I would choose poison, as it is less traceable and more difficult to mitigate.”

“Well, then, I suppose you won’t be happy with who employs poison in this game.”

Genji winced. “No, I would not. I admire reptiles, but not to that extent.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This discussion is over.”

“Genji, it is fiction. Some artistic liberties are to be expected.”

“I understand that, but the inaccuracies here are too great to ignore! As a cyber ninja dude myself, I believe I am an authority on what elements constitute an actual cyber ninja! And this…Triborg has none of them!“

Angela blinked. Genji was standing up, gesticulating wildly, and she was briefly concerned that he might lose his grip on the controller and watch it go flying into their television. From what Reinhardt said, this had been a very real problem in his parents’ time.

“Flamethrowers? Buzzsaws? Missiles, rockets, and bombs? Where was I when these became standard equipment for ninja?”

Genji fell back onto the couch, breathing heavily, the filter for his voice having crowded out his regular speech pattern from his raised volume.

He paused. A thought seemed to occur to him, and he tilted his head at Angela. She knew he was raising his eyebrows at her.

“Angela, I cannot believe that this did not occur to me earlier, but…this game series is notorious for being one of the most explicitly violent in the industry. Why exactly did you take an interest in this game?”

Angela chewed her lower lip, a nervous habit Genji had caught onto early in their relationship. Clearly, she hadn’t been looking forward to this moment. For his part, Genji was flabbergasted that he hadn’t been thinking of this earlier. Perhaps anticipating the game’s poor depiction of ninja had distracted him from the very real question of “Why is my pacifist girlfriend playing the gorniest video game ever developed?”

“I…briefly glanced at it when visiting Hana several weeks ago. I did some research and discovered that the game contains something referred to as ‘X-Ray moves’, which purport to demonstrate the internal damage done by certain attacks.”

Doctor Ziegler couldn’t make eye contact with her boyfriend. Her cheeks had started to redden: the shame of going into the details of her guilty pleasure was palpable to Genji as she rubbed her forearm, and he extended a hand and placed it on the light blue fabric covering her shoulder to reassure her.

“Well, I got curious. Human anatomy obviously has not changed in the last half-decade, but I was wondering if changes in medical protocol might have led to a different-looking representation of internal trauma.”

“And?” Genji squeezed her shoulder lightly, feeling her pulse echo through his fingers.

“Well, the damage is certainly representative of what would occur if these attacks were performed on actual humans. The primary difference is that these humans get back up from them. Shattered skulls and ruptured brains are ignored completely! And I am not even addressing the lethality of ‘basic’ moves, such as the effect of point-blank contact with rockets the size of those employed by Triborg or even the force of the punches to the sternum used by many, many characters.”

“Let me guess: instant death?”

Angela nodded, turning back towards Genji. Her features relaxed, and she placed a hand over his on her shoulder and sighed.

“To put it mildly, though in the latter case there might be exceptions. But now, I am ‘into’ this game. I suppose, now that you’ve been reminded that it exists…”

“...That I might I play it with you? Of course, Angela. This small time spent on it with you has already proven to be very enjoyable.”

Angela laughed and leaned in to rest her forehead against Genji’s, and he returned the favor. When he didn’t feel like removing his mask, this was their equivalent of a quick kiss. She enjoyed the uniqueness: it felt like a private gesture that held real meaning for the two of them, and the two of them alone. One that could be done in public, but still have some secret significance.

“Angela?”

“Yes, Genji?”

“I am not going to play as one of the ninja.”

“I did not expect anything different, Genji.”

[othermagic]

Othermagic Prompts Challenge

In an ongoing effort to encourage community participation and provoke thought in regards to nonhumanity and other related topics we cover here, we’ve decided to make a prompts challenge in a similar style to other 30-day challenges floating around the community.

What makes this one so special? For one, you don’t need to do all of them. Ever. No pressure on 30 consecutive days of answering or doing things if you start it, you can pick it up and use absolutely any of the prompts for inspiration in any way you like! Do them all at once, do them whenever inspiration is low, do them all multiple times over.

Secondly, this is broken up into question prompts and activity prompts. The question prompts follow the same general lines as a lot of other community challenges go, but rather than asking about your identity and how you figured it out, they’re specifically tailored to the idea behind this blog: learning more about yourself as “other” and applying it to magic and daily life. The activity prompts, on the other hand, are ideas to try out, things to do and make and research and generally allow you to become a more active participant in your own self-discovery. Of course, there may be some overlap between the two types of prompts, but otherwise they’ve been categorized as best as possible. It’s also worth noting that any mentions of kintypes can be replaced with hearttypes, soulbonds, etc. if you so choose.

If you take up any of these prompts or ideas and post them on Tumblr or another website, please notify us or use the tag #othermagicpromptschallenge so we can see what you’ve done! We’d love to know and see what you guys do with this.

Question Prompts:

What part of your identity has had the most influence on your craft or things you’d like to work with?

Do you work with any deities or entities from another life? If so, who (so long as you’re comfortable mentioning it)? If not, is there anyone or anything you’d like to reach out to again?

Have you remembered anything that can be used for magic in this world? If not, do you know of anything from related sources (books and folklore related to kintypes, your source/canon or things similar to it) that you’d like to try out in this world or on the astral?

Have any other books, movies, pop culture sources, or mythological sources influenced the way you practice?

Do you know if you spoke another language? If so, have you attempted to recreate or relearn it in this life? If not, have you attempted to make a conlang (constructed language) or conscript (constructed script) that fits the feeling of your species/culture?

Have you made any crafts or recipes related to your kintype or constructed from memories? If so, what are they? Share pictures or details if you’d like!

Have you picked up any hobbies, skills or talents because of your kintype (e.g. sports, musical instruments, etc.)? What are they? If not, what would you like to pick up?

Do you remember anything about other inhabitants of your world/plane/planet/dimension/timeline/etc.? What sorts of relationships did you have with them, personally/individually or as a group/species? Would you ever want to work with them in any capacity again if you don’t already?

Was there a specific form of artistic expression (visual art techniques such as specific methods of sculpting or painting, musical instruments, song, dance, types of poetry, architecture, etc.) that doesn’t seem to have an equivalent here to your knowledge? If so, have you been able to replicate it to any degree?

If you remember there being magic in your world/plane/planet/dimension/timeline/etc., could you use it? If so, do you remember how it worked or how it felt, and have you attempted to recreate it?

Have parts of your practice changed after you found out about your otherness? Have any parts stayed the same?

Is there some part of your practice or your understanding of self that you’re having difficulty with? If so, what is it, and how can you make changes to it so you can continue to grow and explore? Are there things you haven’t given much thought to that you should consider? (For example, if you find yourself thinking mostly about people you used to know or the way you interact with your deities/other spirits and beings but not much about how your kintype affects you on a day-to-day basis or what sort of society, if any, you used to live in. Or vice versa.)

Has anything you questioned that turned out not to be a thing stayed with you in some ways? Has it influenced your craft or lifestyle or hobbies? If so, what and how?

Activity Prompts:

Make a conlang or conscript for your species or culture. If you already have one, make a variation or make one based on another species, culture, or group you remember.

Make sigils using your conlang/conscript and test them out.

Make sigils to represent your kintypes as you experience them and use them as meditation aids for self-reflection and deeper understanding of yourself.

Create a spell, ritual, potion, bath bomb, etc. intended to help you connect to the energy and qualities a being, creature, character, etc. that is NOT a kintype in any way so you can incorporate their positive traits into your life. (Note that this will in no way make you that thing, just more like them.)

Make sigils of your home world/plane/planet/dimension/timeline/etc. and use them to carry the energy of “home” with you, or use them as focus tools while astral traveling or projecting.

Use any aesthetic posts or moodboards you might have saved up around your blog/desktop/phone storage and use them as active meditation tools.

Make a list of positive traits of your kintype that you’d like to embody more as well as negative traits you’d like to diminish and work on.

Put together a set of clothing or accessories that remind you of your kintype, and enchant them to serve as a glamour/shadow shift inducer when worn all together.

Find, modify, or make a recipe of a type of food or drink you used to have or a substitution if there’s no equivalent here (such as souls or animals that don’t exist here) or if you have specific dietary needs that don’t match that of your past self.

Make a list of magical correspondences for your kintype(s). Add things like crystals, herbs, colors, household objects, animals or mythical creatures (if you aren’t one or making correspondences for one), weather phenomena, etc. that you associate with yourself.

Find historical/folkloric accounts, stories, fictional works (including fanfiction for fictionkind if you’re comfortable with it) and compare and contrast your experiences and memories with the author/creator’s portrayal. PLEASE do not directly involve the author/creator in any way (such as direct tagging or saying these things in the comments if applicable) and don’t attack anyone over differences in experience or perception.

Find home decor ideas, items, and/or DIY that will help you feel more at home (this includes things like pillow dens, blanket caves or nests and similar). Make a Pinterest board, a post with links and/or images, a bookmarks folder, or even a physical collage/idea board of things you’re most likely to be able to do or buy in your current living situation.

Look into stories, movies, or other media about shapeshifting or not quite fitting into a human world that aren’t directly related to your kintype(s) and compare and contrast your thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Make a playlist of songs that you associate with your kintype(s) and use it for a shapeshifting ritual or experience.

[scriptmedic]

On Scars

(This post is an excerpt from Maim Your Characters: How Injuries Work in Fiction.)

First off, let me be clear about what I mean when I say the word scars. I’m not talking about the medical definition: rough tissue that overlies a wound as it heals over time.

I’m using a broader definition of any physical evidence of a previous injury.

That can be the amputated hand, the limp from a spinal cord injury.

It can also include tattoos. (Maui’s moving tattoos in Moana are a perfect example of this: his tattoos are a physical embodiment of where he’s been.)

 Scars, by this broad definition, are an interesting shorthand for a story, whether we actually see that tale or not. We use them as a way to say there’s a story here. Sometimes our global story gives us the chance to tell it, sometimes not; either way, scars can be an interesting way to add depth to a character.

In fact, sometimes a scar is integral to explaining and understanding who that character is.

For example, we know that Peter Pan’s Captain Hook has been involved in some fierce battles, because he lost his hand – and had it replaced with his legendary pirate hook. That hook is a symbol of the cold cruelty he now gives off.

The eponymous Harry Potter wouldn’t truly be Harry without his lightning-bolt forehead scar. For Harry, it’s not just about his past, it’s about his future: his fate and the fate of the scar-giver are intertwined, a battle that will determine the fate of the world. Worse, it’s all inscribed on his forehead, for everyone to see.

Darth Vader’s scars in Star Wars are extensive, so much so that they shroud his identity completely. While we see the faces of the heroes, and even of Emperor Palpatine himself, Vader’s wounds require a respirator mask that obscures his face and makes him the terrifying villain he is. He’s actually turned the support system he needs to stay alive – a depersonalizing suit and respirator – into something useful, a mask to terrify his enemies. Vader’s life is, in some ways, enhanced by his disability, and he’s certainly comfortable moving in his world with the scars he’s got.

In Moana, the demigod Maui’s scars are branded on him as tattoos. These are the stories of who he’s been and where he goes. When hero-protagonist Moana asks him where they come from, he tells her, “They show up when I earn them.”

This isn’t dissimilar to the battle scars on an old soldier, sailor, or mercenary: their wounds are manifested on their flesh.

  But if scars are shorthand for a story, if they’re someone’s past writ large, we need to honor that character in the way we represent them. If we elect to give a character scars, they should represent not a plot but a story, something that not only wounds the character but drives them to change internally.

As an example, I’m going to tell you the story of two of my personal scars. At the end we’ll discuss which one would go into a story about me, and why.

 Scar #1: The Knife Point. When I was six or seven, I was trying to get some corn off the cob — I wanted to eat it in kernel form for some reason, and I was using a kitchen knife. I got the corn off all right — and drove the point of the knife straight into the webbing between my thumb and forefinger on my left hand. Ouch!

(Actually, it didn’t hurt, it was the sheer volume of blood that was terrifying).

I changed in that I learned not to do that specific task (cutting corn off the cob) that specific way (driving the knife toward my hand).

But it’s not a marker of who I am.

 Scar #2: The Bite Mark. Let’s consider another scar, also on my left hand. There’s an old bite mark by the heel of my hand, at the base of my left thumb.

It happened like this: I was fifteen or so, and my neighbor’s dog, Clancy, wasn’t doing well. He was old and he was sick. That day he had become too sick to get up. It was time for my neighbor to take him to the vet and say goodbye.

She had him on a blanket. But he was a big dog, and the vet was far, and she didn’t have a car, and so our neighbor came to ask me and my mom to help get him to the vet. Of course we said yes. We liked her, but more importantly, we loved animals. (Both my mother and I had worked at the vet at one point or another.)

When we went to move him by picking up the blanket and moving him to the car, Clancy reached out and bit me. Not because he was a bad dog, not because he was out to hurt me. He bit me because he was scared and sick and hurt and he didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t feel anger at Clancy, and I didn’t turn afraid of him. I felt sympathy. His act hurt my skin. His pain broke my heart.

So when we got him to the vet, while they were easing his pain and saying goodbye, I calmly and quietly washed my wound in the sink with an antiseptic.

I learned something about myself in that moment.

I learned that healing really is a calling for me. That I was glad we had cared for him and that I was able to help him on his final journey. I was glad to know Clancy. I wasn’t mad, or hurt, even though my hand stung from the antiseptic.

That scar helped me find my internal true north.

 Now, which of those scars has meaning? Which of them would you want to include if you were writing me as a character? Which do you think would make it into a memoir, if I wrote one? It’s most certainly the second, the one that helped me figure out who I am, the one that drove me to learn about myself. The first is something that happened; the second is something that changed me.

It’s stories like these that you should use in order to figure out who your characters are – and how to honor them.

 Let’s Talk Tattoos.

Tattoos are interesting in that they can be another, more interesting set of shorthand. Unless your character has a Maui-like situation going on, her tattoos won’t simply appear. She’ll not only have to choose what story she wants to represent on her flesh, but she’ll have to choose how to express that story in an image. Then comes the pain of the ritual scarification: the injection of ink under the skin, a microbaptism in pain and blood and pigment.

Tattoos are absolutely fascinating. Because they don’t typically connect to physical wounds so much as to emotional ones, they’re a really great piece of shorthand for getting into the depths of who someone truly is.

My own tattoos are direct messages to myself about how I should live in the world. They’re an easily visible piece of guidance that explores what my role is and should be in the world.

 Of course, not all tattoos have this deeper meaning. People choose to tattoo things on themselves for a hundred different reasons, the aesthetics of the design being one of them. Some tattoos are simply trendy. I’m not here to judge anyone’s ink!

But if you’re going to cover a character in tattoos, consider having each of them explore a deeper facet of that character’s personality and the journey they’ve been on.

How to Use Scars Effectively

As we said above, scars are a shorthand for a story. Prominent scars, particular facial or obvious hand scars, are a constant source of tension and questions. When someone has a big scar on their face, we find our eyes drawn to it, a question forming on our tongue: What happened?

But the What happened? isn't as important as How did it change you? And so my general recommendation with scars is twofold and contradictory:

One: only introduce scars if it’s an incredibly important part of a character’s past.

Two: only introduce scars if it’s an incredibly important part of a character’s future.

So why the two recommendations? Why the contradiction?

Characters are constantly moving, if not in space, then through time. Their scars shape their past, which shapes where they are now and where they’re going.

If a scar is germane to a character’s past, it helps establish where they’re coming from and what their experiences have been.

But those experiences are only important if that scar-causing event is relevant to their future.

The scar a sea captain got fending off pirates once upon a time doesn’t have much to add if his current quest is finding new plumbing for his house. His scar isn’t relevant, unless it intimidates the shady plumber into giving him a better price. Even then, it’s a shallow connection.

Consider the old injury (and its scar) to be a cause.

Ask: what was the effect? If your character got a scar on their eyebrow from a bike accident when she was seven, that scar doesn’t mean anything… unless that was the bike accident where she failed to protect and save her kid brother, which makes her overprotective and hypercautious now.

If she crashed her bike as a kid and merely went on with her life… what was the point? Why tell that story with a scar so visible?

Remember that the point of a story is that people change. If a scar doesn’t fundamentally shape a character, consider simply leaving it out. Window dressing is just that: window dressing.

What we want is to give more insight into who your character is.

 Avoiding Wandering Scar Syndrome

Wandering Scar Syndrome is when a character’s scar is on their left eye on Page 3 and their right cheek on Page 12. It’s simply a symptom of not taking good notes.

There are two techniques I’m going to suggest here.

The first is, keep character sheets. Many writers choose to do this, many do not. But especially if you’re going to wallpaper your character with scars and tattoos, it’s worth writing down where they are and what they look like. In fact, copy/pasting the way they were originally described into a separate document is particularly helpful in being sure your descriptions stay consistent throughout the story. It’s a pain in the butt for a moment, but it helps so much with consistency down the line!

 Another option is to use [brackets] as an aside.

What do I mean?

Let’s say you talk about a minor character in two different places in the story, chapters — even acts apart.

Kitty Scarborough was the best fighter in town, and she bore the scars to prove it. [Kitty Scar Description — line on her face?] Or, [scar TK]

TK is the editor’s mark for To Come, a placeholder of sorts, and it’s useful for all kinds of things: Name TK, Dog Breed TK, Red sports car [make/model TK], etc. (Once upon a time, this book was littered with TKs .)

Later, we can pull it back up: A tall redhead walked through the door. Kitty Scarborough was easy to recognize, especially by her [Kitty Scar Description].

Why does this work? Why is this helpful?

Because it allows us to maintain flow as a writer. If we know Kitty’s got scars from fighting, we can come up with what exactly those look like later. (We’re using them as evidence of her toughness and battle prowess, not for a particular meaning behind each individual scar she’s got.) So when we describe Kitty, we don’t need to spend ten minutes racking our brain for a cool scar to give her — we can do that later. All we need to drop into our first draft is [Kitty scar] and we can move on!

This works for all sorts of details, from car models to hair colors to background characters’ names, so don’t think it’s just a scar locater!

Later on we can come back, look through our manuscript with the magical Find tool, and simply search for that left bracket, [ . Anything that comes up can be filled in with your text!

 Want a good scar generator, including ideas for how it shaped the character? Visit MaimYourCharacters.com/Scars !

This post is an excerpt from Maim Your Characters, from Even Keel Press. If you'd like to read a 100-page sample of the book, [click here]. If you’d like to order a print copy, it’s available [via Amazon.com], and digital copies are available from [a slew of retailers].

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

[ganymedesclock]

I know you stay 90% out of ships so you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to. If Keith and Lance were to, sometime in the future, pursue a romantic relationship, under what circumstances could you see Lance being optimistic and Keith being pessimistic about whether it will work and vice versa?

....This is kind of an interesting question.

I think it’d depend a lot on the nature of their situation and what they went through. Mentalities are pretty fluid things, and Keith and Lance are both growing and changing individually as people.

As far as Lance is concerned

I mean, we’ve seen it suggested many times that as far as Lance is concerned, his only real romantic prospects are women, so, my personal two cents is if Lance was attracted to a guy, it’d be... a bit of an exercise in self-discovery for him. Not something he’d considered or conceptualized before. So that might motivate him to be a little sheepish and a little awkward- especially since, with his vlog, it feels a lot like Lance sort of tries to borrow from action movie ladykiller stereotypes vs. how he actually behaves about a crush.

Lance, smitten, is inclined to gush about the other person full-tilt; while I personally am skeptical his crush on Allura is going to go anywhere, it still stands that Lance in love runs at the mouth about how fantastic and pretty and wonderful his crush is, but tries to bluff over it by painting himself more as the receptacle of adoration than one who adores but is not necessarily adored himself. 

And it’s a bad stereotype, and it’s not who Lance is, but it’s who Lance sort of pretends to be a little bit in an area that’s rather vulnerable to him. And Lance potentially acknowledging and exploring crushes on men might damage that script, or just, force him to rethink in general what a romantic relationship means to him and how he wants to explore it, because... frankly all of Lance’s ladykiller talk is just. talk. He packages it in things like the “particle barrier” joke but in practice, when people have shown interest in Lance, he’s actually a very sweet person. He just believes that the one way to be romantic is to be a stereotypical action hero when he’d honestly get a lot further just being himself.

So if Lance has a crush on Keith, and realizes that’s what it is, I can see him kind of panicking because he’s not sure how to proceed- the stereotypical old school action movies he’s pulling off of usually don’t feature same sex attraction anywhere. And Keith is not. exactly. a stereotypical romantic anything. 

Honestly, I feel like that’s, if anything, a really interesting thread to explore that I don’t think gets done very often- I feel like a lot of times people ship Lance with other male characters with the idea that Lance is clearly comfortably bi, pan, or ply without any sort of reservations, knows this perfectly well, and maybe even prefers to hit on men when we’ve seen that Lance in love in general is actually a little sheepish and a little awkward, hence his reliance on what appears to be drawing from fictional heroes to buff up his confidence.

I think it’s pretty likely that Lance is gonna have feelings he doesn’t totally know what to do with, and he might’ve had sort of distant hero crushes in the past that he might not have realized were crushes (Canonically Lance did look up to Shiro in the Garrison, who is a handsome older man and I doubt it ever went, or would go anywhere, but I could see a take on Lance who doesn’t quite realize he’s attracted to men to not quite separate hero worship from a hero crush.)

I talked about this art from Lauren Montgomery before and how each sign has one character who appears to be there as a sort of support, and the two characters holding the sign, in the case of Keith-Hunk and Pidge-Allura, have both had meaningful interactions about the subject in question. Hunk with Keith in s2e9, where Hunk is the main person who helped Keith come to terms with being half-galra; and Allura with Pidge in s1e4 where Allura was the one who tried to encourage Pidge to be honest with her about Pidge’s gender because she really wanted to connect with Pidge over that.

And we see both Hunk and Allura have their arm around their sign buddy and seem more confident and encouraging, and Shiro’s positioned the same way towards Lance, who, much like Keith, doesn’t really look like he totally wants to be there.

So because of this, it’s led me to wonder if we’re going to get interactions between Lance and Shiro on the topic of sexuality, with Shiro taking a sort of mentoring role and helping encourage Lance and help him figure things out. Especially when it’s been stated by interviews that part of Lance’s arc is finding someone that he does click with romantically, that would seem to suggest that Lance is going to do a certain amount of introspection with how he relates to other characters.

Because the writers have made a significant issue of carefully showing that everyone Lance flirts with appears to be women, when that’s pretty obviously not a writing hangup- they had no qualms showing Blaytz flirting with a male galra servant. It’d be easy to insert androgynous or masculine aliens into groups Lance is flirting with, but they’ve specifically chosen not to and with this picture, and again- the fact that Lance looks just as nervous as Keith, when we know canonically Keith’s relationship with the “race” issue is something he very recently found out about himself- makes me wonder if we’re going to see Lance discovering and exploring this about himself within the context of the show.

And that’d be valuable insight for him, whether or not he ends up in an “endgame” relationship with a woman! We have canon sources of Lance himself saying he’s not ready for a real relationship at this point and the implication there is there’s some growing and self-discovery to do. It could be Lance is a biromantic ace who assumes that having a romantic relationship with someone has to be a sexual one as well. 

(Of course, this would also imply Shiro is some flavor of Not Straight himself and much more confident/established in that)

Concerning Keith

Keith, I don’t think would really have much concern about sexuality. We haven’t really seen him express obvious attraction in anybody, though in s1e6 he does seem to regard Rolo with interest and some have interpreted that as Keith checking him out- if that is the case, then it stands that attraction for Keith is a very quiet affair. If he experiences it for anyone, he probably knows it and doesn’t worry too much where his concept of being attracted to other people falls re: what is considered “normal”. If he likes guys, he likes guys. If he likes girls, he likes girls. If he likes NB people, that’s how it is, and any configuration therein is just how it is.

It could be a certain amount of social obliviousness combined with his own no-frills practical thinking means that Keith has pretty much no idea what’s the standard romantic “script”, and no desire to cultivate or pursue it at this point.

Because we’ve yet to see Keith dealing with an obvious crush, we thus have to kind of hypothesize here: would Keith’s insecurity and fear of rejection make him nervously want to “do it right” and thus seek other people’s advice when courting with someone, or would it be more like him to just be actively, bluntly honest about his feelings and not worry too much? I could see either, and, as I said before, it would depend a lot on where Keith is in his head.

Keith’s greatest demon would, I think, be the persistent, nagging suspicion that he doesn’t mean as much to other people as they do to him. That maybe if he really cares about this person he should let them pursue someone else they’ll be happier with instead of trying to ‘selfishly’ keep them to himself.

I think this would hit big time with someone like Lance who’s a social butterfly because people really do like Lance, a lot. He is legitimately charming and a sweet person. I can see Keith not really being jealous as much as- kind of getting lost in overthinking does he actually have a place here?

I have less to say about Keith but that’s because Keith is more straightforwards to me in this situation.