#gimme a minute to write up an actual post because I DID in fact create a base 10 system before remembering heximal was a thing

[strixcattus]

Why be shackled to base 10? Base 12 is neat. Base 6 is also neat, and uses fewer digits. There's an obvious winner here given that the syllabary is going to have, like, uhhhhhhhhh fiftyish

[cyclogenesis]

For the writing ask (you don’t have to answer all of them since I probably picked too many, sorry!): 1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 19, 20, 26, 30, 31, 32, 36, 38, 39, 40. (Thanks 💜)

I did it, I answered all of them!! (Yes, it took me a couple of days aha.) Thanks for asking anon! 😘

1. Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?

Generally speaking I would rather die than rewrite anything ever, and most of the stuff I’ve written I can look back on and be like “nice”. I did recently reread a few bandom fics I wrote and felt mildly horrified by the fact that some of the writing was so spare that the dialogue sections were like reading a screenplay, so I’d have to say those would come the closest. Like I wouldn’t actually ever rewrite them, but were I to write them today they would read very, very differently.

2. Anything that you’d like to write but feel like you’re unable to?

Honestly I read soooo much Hydra Trash Party stuff and would love to vibe with Bucky’s sexual trauma in fic more but I feel like I’d really struggle to write that kind of background given my usual writing style. That’s the kind of super iddy thing I usually do in chatfic, but unfortunately I don’t have anyone to do that with in this fandom, so I’ll just keep whining internally about the lack of HTP Sam/Bucky while doing absolutely nothing to address that glaring lack.

Rest of the answers behind the cut!

7. Your favourite ao3 tag.

I cruise the Bottom Bucky Barnes tag like a 50s kid dragging Main.

8. How slow is a slow burn?

HERE’S THE THING. So if I ship something super hard, like hard enough to write or read fic about it, then I have already interpreted the canon itself as a slow burn because presumably they haven’t kissed yet, and I’m writing or reading fic because I’m ready for the kissing to be happening. I also don’t tend to read a whole lot of long fic. So basically I’m gonna need kissing by at least the 15k mark unless it’s like, masterfully written.

10. Top three favourite fic tropes.

You know, I’m honestly not usually drawn to stuff that’s very traditionally tropey! I don’t write it too often either, usually with fic I’m just a simple gal who wants to look at canon and then figure out a way to get them to acknowledge they want to kiss each other. I do love fake relationships though!

19. Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

“There’s more than one Loki,” Sam is disturbed to tell him. “A bunch more. One of them is a good guy now.” Actually, Strange had described him as ‘moderately helpful and uncomfortably sincere’. “Another one, uh, broke time, and now there are multiple timelines that have created different universes.”

“Got it,” Bucky says, in the tone of someone who in no way has it.

20. Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you?

I usually have a couple of things going at once that I bounce between until I decide that I’m Going To Finish Something, Dammit and force myself to focus on just one. It’s generally fine because I’d rather have too many ideas than none at all, though I’ll sometimes inadvertently cannibalize myself and have to edit out things I’ve used in two different WIPs.

26. What would you describe as OOC?

I’m honestly pretty forgiving about that, having been trained to suspend my disbelief by liking really dark fic hahaha. One weird thing that tends to throw me in not-dark fic is a lack of humor in the dialogue. I tend to like fandoms with pretty funny characters or people, so I like to see their sense of humor reflected in fic. Sam and Bucky in particular are really funny characters in their own ways - gimme the banter, please!!

30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn’t.

In so many fandoms I’ve had visions of an OTP epic spanning years and years, and in zero of those fandoms have I ever completed one of those stories.

31. What was the most difficult fic for you to write (but in the end you made it)?

There is a point where every fic feels like the most difficult thing I’ve ever written. Something particularly cute that I do, which I love, is writing very intensely up to the sex scene, and then getting shy about it and wandering away and not working on it again for a little while, despite the fact that usually the whole point of the fic is that I want to get to the sex scene!!!

32. Do you have a word/expression that you always use in your writing?

I’m sure I have plenty of things like that!! I try to edit repetitive things like that out because when I’m reading a lot of a writer’s stuff little phrasing quirks always stand out to my copyeditor brain. That said, I know when I’m doing it and still tend to huffily be like “well that’s the best way to phrase that action!!” so, whatever.

36. How do you come up with fic titles? What’s the one you’re most proud of?

I either have a title from the jump or I’m combing my music library for a lyric snippet I can use like ten minutes before I post the fic. I’m pretty fond of This Is A Song About Fucking in that I committed SO deeply to jacking myself off there; it’s a phrase that Brendon Urie used to say to introduce Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off during the Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour (I had to look that tour name up. Thank GOD I had to look that tour name up) and I used it for a 5SOS group sex fic posted a cool eight years after that tour (which I went to multiple dates of, oh god) ended.

38. “This never happened” fix-it fics or “this happened but” fix-it fics?

Definitely the latter, when a canon makes a lousy choice I’m usually like well here we are, let’s talk about where we go from here. But I don’t really look for anything with the fix-it tag in general, once the canon breaks something I loved I’m usually so moody that I just abandon ship and stop reading fic haha.

39. Wildest AU scenario you have written?

I verrrry rarely write AUs for posting, but have chatficced some truly bonkers nonsense in my time. My old writing partner in bandom and I used to get weird with Brendon/Ryan - the satyr/fairy and fisherman/selkie days were really something.

40. Write a 9-word fic.

I’m too invested in the thing I’ve written 5k words of these week to think of anything new, so here’s a snippet from that instead.

“Come here,” he chokes out, and the helpless hope on Bucky’s face in response nearly undoes him completely. He sits up to meet Bucky halfway, grabs at his shirt the moment he’s within reach and drags him close, Bucky climbing onto the bed all long limbs and graceless need. The kiss is a surprise only in how rough it is, a hard press of lips like Bucky’s greedy to touch Sam any way he can, like this is just another way for them to collide.

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

People can talk about whether or not Peter and MJ should’ve been married all they want, but the fact is… they are. And they’ve been together for far too long to simply divorce and get rid of her. More than any other female character, aside from, say, Sue Storm… MJ has a significant role in the Marvel Universe as Spider-Man’s muse. She is the main reason he does what he does.

Get rid of MJ and you lose the heart and soul to Spider-Man. Period. You can bring up all the “What If” scenarios you want, it won’t change the fact that when you think of one, you instantly think of the other. They have been created to now fit together.

I think the main problem is, nobody wants to take MJ and create her own personality. In the years she’s been around, all she’s been used for has been nothing more than a hot chick in a nightie waking up to console Peter in the middle of the night… or a hot chick in a nightie waiting up for Peter to return from a fight. Or someone who has to be saved.

Sean McKeever is the only writer trying to get to the actual heart of MJ.

My take on MJ is a simple one… she digs Peter and Spider-Man. She’s lived with this for most of her life and they are both like a drug to her. She rarely gets overly worried about him and, truth be told, she sort of gets off on seeing him in battle. When he returns, she asks him about what he did to defeat the bad guy… she’d even know all his favorite moves.

What are her outside interests?

To me, she’d be a bit of a chocoholic. She never lets anyone have the last piece of chocolate and if someone gets there before she does, it bugs her to no end.

She loves those Macy’s Day Parade balloons. She also loves morning cartoons on Saturday.

She’d take up cooking with Jarvis and find out she’s very good at it. The kitchen in the Avengers Tower is where the heroes hang out. I think it’s like that in everyone’s home.

She loves to embarrass men in line at the grocery store by holding up a box of tampons and saying “Mind if I go before you? I need to pay for these.” It makes her laugh to no end the way men are freaked out by a tiny box of hygiene products. Which makes Peter roll his eyes when he sees her come home laughing.

She can’t lie to people. Nobody tells her about surprise parties.

In high school, she beat the crap out of Flash Thompson. They’ve never discussed it since… but each of them knows it happened.

Words about bodily function make her giggle like a child. “Crap” “Crappola” “Shit” “Pissed”…. all of them. And she can’t help it.

When she tells someone in the grocery store that you can use salt/pepper/garlic powder on some chicken legs (the cheapest, but best part of the chicken) pan fry skin side down in some olive oil and baked when turned for 40 minutes… and you’ll have the greatest first date meal of your lives… she feels like she’s Spider-Man.

She loves to carve her initials in wet cement. She’s done it all her life and, according to her log book, has 11,015 “MJW’s” and 7,342 “MJWP’s” across the streets of New York. It’s an obsession.

She’s afraid to get close to children… because they make her curious about parenthood. And those thoughts make her worry about what type of child you conceive with a man who has radioactive blood. So she stays back, keeping just enough distance to keep safe.

She thinks Bonds did it. He knew it. And she also knows that if steroids could win you a title… and they’re willing to do it… do it. Nobody is with her on that point of view.

She sponsors two children via mail. Nobody knows.

Soooooo, maybe some of those work for you, maybe they don’t. But I think the more you put into a character, the more endearing that character becomes to the reader. And let’s face it, though we don’t MIND seeing MJ in lingerie, it’s now like…. “okay, she’s in a nightie… get to the story.” You have to have more than the physical.

The more interesting MJ is, the more interesting Peter and MJ are. So, I’d love to focus on her side of the equation. She’d be the one of the few females in the Marvel Universe who can handle a crisis and not freak out. She’s lived with this shit for yeeeeeeears.

You may now bash me.

Tom Beland

I haven’t read ONE MORE DAY, as I noted earlier.

And I also never pitched for, nor tried to argue that there should be a story where the marriage was busted up. I think the marriage was a mistake, but I think that breaking it up may also be a mistake. It’s not always enough simply to reverse a decision.

That said, I outlined a way I thought it could work, long, long ago, and it wouldn’t have had Big Mystic Forces in it. When Big Mystic Forces show up, it’s not a Spider-Man story any more, to my mind. I’d probably have MJ injured — not in a permanently-crippling way, but she’d be close enough to death long enough for Peter to come to the conclusion that he was a danger to her, and out of love and concern, he’d withdraw emotionally, scared of getting her hurt again. This would lead to problems and sadness and a separation that neither of them truly want, as she tries to bust him out of his funk, leading to ultimatums and upsets and her finally leaving, hoping he’ll follow, but he doesn’t know she’s gone until after he’s put Dock Ock away and by that time, the train’s left the station. And then a few stories here and there where they almost get back together but Peter’s responsibilities as Spider-Man cause him to miss the moments where they could reconnect, and eventually there’d be legal papers served, and they’d each sign them separately, each thinking they were doing the right thing for the other one. I think that would have the opportunity for big, involving, Spider-Man-type stories, where Spidey has to fight to save MJ’s life, or where Spidey’s saving the world while MJ waits atop the Empire State Building, and gives up and leaves, sadly, about ten minutes before Peter makes it there, frantic and rumpled, with a beat-up bouquet of roses.

I’d make it about the dilemma between two sets of responsibilities, and I’d make it sad and heartbreaking, because this kind of thing can be a process that plays out over time, instead of a big event that gets done all at once, just to sweep it off the table. It’s better as a building series of character plots interwoven with adventures than as an adventure of its own. I’d have taken a similar approach when Spider-Man was cleared of police suspicion on Capt. Stacy’s death — make it a story, where he’s on trial and has to clear himself, rather than what it was, which was someone telling him, “Oh, hey, that dramatic set-up that’s been part of the book for years? We found out we were wrong, never mind.”

The upshot of it all would be that Spider-Man lost something, that his responsibilities as Spider-Man cost him something as Peter — and that’s the sort of thing that I think can fuel really good Spider-Man drama.

And they’d drift apart, and she’d find someone else, and he’d reluctantly start dating again, and it’d be difficult and clumsy and messy, but all that’s very Spidey-like, too. And when she came back into the strip, there’d be a sense of “what might have been,” that could be bittersweet. Milt Caniff did something like that with Pat Ryan and Normandie Drake, back in TERRY AND THE PIRATES, but in a very 1930s-melodrama sort of way. It worked, though.

The argument against something like that is that if Peter’s divorced, that makes him “old” and unrelatable-to, but I’m not sure it’s that strong an argument, since there are, after all, guys in their twenties who are divorced, and since, after you got past it, you wouldn’t have to bring it up every issue — but you could bring MJ in every now and then to torment the readers, which can be a lot of fun, dramatically (not for Peter and MJ, but then, writers aren’t supposed to make his life fun, they’re supposed to make it interesting).

Peter’s already got a lost love in Gwen, who is The One Who Died. MJ could occupy a similar role — but one with very different dramatic possibilities — as The One He Lost, And Man, This Gig Is Tough Sometimes. Finding new chances at happiness but knowing that they might be bittersweet and fleeting seems to me to fit the SPIDER-MAN mythos more than The Devil Did It.

But then, I say again that I never read ONE MORE DAY, so I can’t really judge.

And I don’t say that the process I outline here is something I’d ever propose — but if I was told I had to write a story breaking up the marriage, that’s the kind of road I’d go down. But my attitude toward it all is basically, “I thought it was a mistake, and I’m glad it’s not my headache,” not “Gimme the ball, coach, I can fix it.” kdb

In another post, Busiek explained why he didn’t care for the spider-marriage.

I have to admit, my interest isn’t in Peter finding the right girl, but in being entertaining. If being miserable makes him entertaining, then maybe he should meet the wrong girls.

I’m one of the Vicious Cabal that thinks the marriage should never have happened. I thought Gwen was kind of a drip — very sweet and lovable and passive, when she wasn’t irrationally jealous or angry about something. She’d probably have made Peter an excellent wife, but the result wouldn’t have been exciting, which is why John Romita thought it would be a good idea to kill her off — she makes a much better “ideal girl lost forever” than she does an active player in an ensemble cast. I liked MJ when she was an overcaffeinated hipster, and lost a lot of interest in her when she turned out to be a product of a broken, abusive home, and under the “laughing on the outside” exterior was a sad, wounded moper like so much of the rest of the cast — Peter, MJ, Flash, Betty, Liz, Harry…sometimes it seems like everyone in the cast is from a damaged background. Still, she had more drive to do her own thing than Gwen did, and that made for better drama.

But I don’t think Spider-Man needs a Lois Lane — there are enough comics characters with one great love already. I’d be fascinated if he had several major romantic foils, the way Milt Caniff did with Pat Ryan in the old TERRY AND THE PIRATE comic strip. Pat pined after Normandie Drake, lusted after Burma and was intellectually challenged by the Dragon Lady, striking dramatic and romantic sparks with each of them that illuminated his character in different ways, with others that cropped up when they were offstage. Readers argued over which of the three would be the best for Pat to end up with, and there were good cases to be made all around.

I like Peter’s life hectic, where he has to juggle lots of responsibilities, so I’m for there being multiple characters who he strikes sparks with, and different reasons each of them might be a good idea. For instance, I don’t think in a million years he should “end up” with Felicia Hardy, but I think things are often more fun when she’s around.

So I say mix it up, pull him in different directions, but do it with characters with vivid, compelling personalities who each have their own strengths and weaknesses to offer.

Kurt Busieck

 Beland’s suggestions have some merit but are flawed in their presumptions that Mj lacked personality or that she ONLY was used for lingerie laden scenes.

  Some of his other suggestions are also flawed, like suggestiong MJ is distant from children because of Peter’d DNA and her inability to lie. Her history dictate otherwise.

   As for Busieck…thank Christ he never got to do this story at all it is so ill headed.

  First of all Peter distances himself from Mj because she nearly dies. Okay…lets put aside all the times her life has been endangered or she HAS been injured (e.g. ASm #136)…Gwen.

  Peter already had ONE girlfriend ACTUALLY die. And he continued to date numerous times thereafter. In fact in ASM Annual #21 he was questioning the dangers he could be placing MJ in by making a comparison to Gwen.

  The idea that he’d legitimately distance himself from MJ over something like this (especially in the light of the loss of their child) is utterly stupid.

  The idea that MJ would try to make him to snap out of it by leaving and hoping he’d follow is also stupid. She’d know that isn’t how he rolls. It also isn’t how MJ rolls. MJ is a go getter she’d actively try to find him to smack sense into him. Not gamble he’d follow her if she left. And she’d succeed too if her track record is anything to go by. Like Mj didn’t give up on peter when he withdrew from her so sompletely he had rejected his entire life as Peter parker in the 1990s.

   Then you got the fact that Busieck’s suggestion amounts to

 a)      Peter misses appointments with MJ due to being Spider-Man leading to them breaking up and

b)     Peter and MJ miscommunicating with one another

 These are both bullshit for numerous reasons.

 The idea that a serie of dumb mistakes and misunderstandings which could’ve been resolved by just plainly explaining things is the reason peter and Mj’s marriage ends is cheap, unsatisfying and unearned storytelling as a way of undoing something so prominent.

  And they break up because his life and Spider-man interferes with his life as Peter Parker and costs him something?

 My…how original. Never seent hat before. Certainly not like…the first time they broke up in the 1970s.

 Then you got the whole thing about her filling a similar yet different role to Gwen. Again, then that’s not particularly original isn’t it. Especially when you consider he’s already lost lovers due to being Spider-Man, in Gwen’s case she was the one he lost again BECAUSE he was Spider-Man. What dramatic difference does it really make if losing her equalled her being dead rather than breaking up with him?

  Again this is not new.

  It is also a fuckton less dramatically satisfying than just keeping them married.

   Being spider-man costs him something is something we’ve seen since forever. But balancing one responsibility in life many people have like being married against being Spider-Man? That’s new. That’s real. That’s organic.

  And the idea that he’d date after things fall apart is profoundly unrealistic givent eh way Busick’s broken them up. If things fell apart between Peter and MJ this way there is no reason to presume such a thing wouldn’t happen again, especially in light of his older relationships. The fact that things worked out with Mj was fairly exceptional, not something which could be easily replicated at all.

   Not to mention you’ve removed one of the best characters in the series from the regular cast (and hooked her up with someone else which is at least debatable if she’d do that) and just use her as a prop for ‘torture’.

  Honestly between this and Busieck’s 90s novel I really don’t think he gets Spider-Man beyond the silver age.

   Not to mention…where is the pay off for this? Where the hell does this lead that’s so much more creatively enriching than what we had before?

   As for his comments on the marriage in general…where to begin.

    Spider-Man meeting the wrong girls and never finding the right person ISN’T entertaining it’s boring and repetitive and utterly boring. Misery does not = interesting. Having ups and downs is that. But even in the Ditko days he always had Aunt May the way most of us always have something in our lives which makes us happy. We all usually have SOMEBODY in our lives as our support structure.

   At the same time he says Gwen would’ve been a good wife despite calling out her negative qualities which would’ve NOT made her a good wife creatively or realistically.

   He says he lost interest in MJ when he heard her backstory. In other words he does not like character development or someone who is much like Peter himself.

    He says Spider-Man doesn’t need a Lois Lane. But this belies the nature of the character as well as Stan’s original intentions for him. Look…he’s the everyman. He goes through life experiences and milestones many if not most people go through. And MOST people do in fact eventually wind up with someone. Contrary to poular belief most people do not die alone and divorced or having never make a committed relationship work. MOST people do in fact find someone they make a life with long term. Maybe they find them after trying and failing a few times which can include divorce. But most people eventually do find someone. If Spider-Man is a reflection of real life, putting aside the specific life experiences he’s gone through with MJ, then he too should eventually find somebody he ultimately winds up with, just as Stan intended. It is part of his inherent concept of being the everyman hero.

  The everyman gets married and usually winds winds up with someone long term. He isn’t stuck in a constant state of second gear romances where he has resonant romantic sparks with different women which go nowhere thus rendering the whole point of us reading pointless and a waste of time. Like seriously why the Hell should Spider-Man BE like Terry an the pirates in the first place?

  This also ignores how the character is a serial monogomoist (meaning the idea of ‘juggling’ different love interests would be mega levels of OOC) and also has an ambition to ultimately wind up with someone long term in marriage.

  Because of this Peter marrying and juggling THAT responsibility along with other ones is what the series about and what would be most natural for it. The point is the juggling of those responsibilities are a reflection of real life as we all have to juggle our responsibilities.