#not a comic with a trans character because i already have a draft for that!

[jayskai]

i want to write a comic about being trans but ughhh why is it so hard ,,,

[swearyshera]

As this blog's sweary adventures are coming to a close, it is a time to reflect. What I want to know is what you think is the most interesting or funny thing to have come out of Spop fandom, at least so far? I've just sort of been thinking about the power of the Internet to lead to some unexpected outcomes, things that occasionally affect someone's real life, real career. In one of my other major fandoms fairly recently - a person on the X-Birdsite with a fan account in parody of the name of a major character launched an unrelated, somewhat obscure science fiction novel to several bestseller lists by excitedly tweeting about it. If you're a Trigun-fan, you know of this. If you're into indie sci fi, you might also know of this viral story. If you're not, look up "Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood" and prepare for a ride! It got me to thinking about how you've talked about getting into screen-writing / theater writing because of this blog? IIRC? "Spop launched a screenwriting / stage writing career" is a similar funny thing, the amazing Power of Fandom! "How did you get your start?" "I wrote a screencap comic of a popular cartoon to make the characters curse more and then things just snowballed." Best of luck!

I would absolutely be a hell of a story to have "Person who made Catra say fuck now writing TV show", and certainly something I would love to do. Obviously, I know it's a difficult industry to get into, so I'm under no illusions that I will definitely make anything of it, but that won't stop me trying!

That said, I've already had a little bit of success on the stage with a short play at Salford's Lowry Theatre last year. This year I've mostly been working on building up a portfolio of scripts - I've previously shared a draft of Hellspawn (the 'Sweary Frosta sitcom') which is reasonably decent. But I've more recently been working on something even better...

I've completed a pilot script for a comedy drama called 'Snowflakes', about four young trans people who want to bring their creativity to the stage whilst living in a world that often seems to be against them. I'm absolutely in love with these characters, and I've got a short series worked out. I think it's the perfect time for a story about trans joy overcoming hatred, right? If you're a production company who likes that idea, hmu.

Finally, I've also been toying with the idea recently of more Sweary or She-Ra related content. I've been looking to the likes of Big Finish with their Doctor Who audio dramas and pondering... what would a She-Ra audio drama look like? We may not ever get a movie, but could we get a feature-length story created by fans in an audio format? I'm up for writing it. So if you have thoughts/ideas, let me know.

But whatever happens, I'm going to do my best to make "creator of new TV show started off with a stupid tumblr blog" a reality! Dream big, right?

[morimakesfanart]

out of all the chapters you wrote so far do you have a favourite?

You can pretty much tell which are my favorites based on how much art is in them, but my absolute favorite has got to be is either [33] or [34] because I've been wanting to write those scene since not long after I started posting the fic :3 The flirting, the doming Sinbad, the 'oh' moment finally happening. I have a bunch of favorites for different reasons. They are more groups of chapters since I tend to write 2-3 chapters at a time and have to figure out how to break them up for posting.

My favorite chapters in chronological order:

Chapter [4] & [5] are special because it was writing that version that made me want to start posting. I already posted the Dead End version of ch4, and I'll be doing the same with 5 soon. I'm trying to figure out how I want to handle the art since it's very talk heavy.

Chapter [9] has to be listed because it's the start of the first arc I couldn't shut up about to my family. Writing about my health issues was a big deal for me. It greatly helped me in respecting my own limits and letting myself rest. I over a bit more metical trauma every time I write about Mori being sick.

Chapter [11] is the first chapter I felt the need to turn almost completely into a comic. It was very much about the joy of unmasking around my favorite characters and nerding out X3

Chapter [15] is also a fave for having some of my favorite jokes and references in it, and it's also nerding out. It was really fun all the way through.

Chapter [24] is super special to me because it is the first chapter where the characters changed my plans so far I basically went on hiatus. Sinbad and Ja'far doing that much math was not in the plans and honestly, it's part of why I take so extra long between chapters now. I'm having to pull plot points that weren't supposed to happen until after Sinbad comes back from the Kou Empire.

Chapter [25] is another that I was just so happy with because of the jokes and references. I also used it as an excuse to study Jojo's more in recreating that Rohan scene using Mori UwU

The whole Gender, Jewelry, & Flirting arc [28] [29] [30] is extra special to for it being my coming out chapters. I thought I was going to have to introduce the concept of transness to the world before I found the side comic that showed the okama (Japanese gay and trans stereotype) was more than just antagonists in the canon. So much of chapters 28 & 29 were things I didn't think I'd be able to explore for several more years. I did get a ton of hate comments on AO3 for saying the trans women are women and therefore Sinbad would be attracted to them. It's why ch 29 has the added reminder that this is my fic. Don't like don't read. Ch30 is one I reread often because I love how smooth I got the flirting, and it's when I finally got to give Mori Sinbad's choker :D

Since I already explained 33&34, I want to give [36] for being the chapter with the fewest about of drafts and edits. I got it in 1 and then just tweaked the wording. The way everything fell into place was beautiful and convenient. Chapters [35] & [37] were the hardest to write, so 36 being so easy between them was really nice -u- 37 was the hardest so far and took over 30 drafts -the average is 8-12.

Bonus: My Least Favorite part of the whole fic is the transition between [16] [17]. I was way too stubborn about keeping to the character count per ch limit I gave myself, and too stubborn about getting rid of certain moments to accommodate that. I tried to use Ja'far as a plot device to transition the chapters but it was a total flop. If I ever went back and rewrote sections that would be the first, followed by removing all references to my synesthesia. I've been considering doing that for a while, but I'm not sure what to do with the older versions. I don't just want to delete them. Posterity is important to me. I'll probably move the old versions of scenes being changed to the end of the chapter for those that want to (re)read them.

[miks-fantrolls]

hi :3 soooooo which character(s) do you have the most muse/thoughts for and what do you like writing abt them the most?

THATS A GOOD QUESTION! i havent had a lot of time to think abt my characters in a while (´ー｀)

HOWEVER.

i think i end up having a muse for brusli, antemh, or dadevu most of the time. brusli and dadevu more for actual writing, whereas antemh has always just kind of been. a brainworm. hes just kind of always there.

i can see a lot of myself in brusli, antemh, and dadevu. there's a lot of coping mechanisms that have gone into them.

in hindsight, writing antemh was a huge coping mechanism for me growing up (made him ~2013? maybe even 2012), but as ive gotten older and left the environment i was in, hes kind of just turned into a silly lil guy for me. i guess maybe he's still somewhat a reflection of me even now--a guy who, despite having every reason to be bitter and miserable, still persists and stays silly.

to answer the second question, that's what my favorite part of writing him is. i think most people would assume he's pretty much a comic relief character, which wouldnt be wrong, but its easy to see happy-go-lucky characters and assume theyre more two-dimensional than characters who wear their troubles on their sleeve.

this also kind of (realizing as i write) reflects my own experience with being autistic. theres an unintentional assumption on others' parts where they assume, because i'm playful and choose to put on a happy face, that those are my only qualities. it's kind of hard to articulate to non-autistic people, so it's more IYKYK. a common complaint from adult autistic ppl though is we have a hard time getting people to take/treat us seriously like the adults we are, or at least treat us like our age.

brusli has a little bit of my middle school self in her. she's a bit more of a tomboy and she likes girls (which is more of a defining trait in an AU human brusli than troll brusli). a large amount of my brain power is dedicated to brusli/sarlla (sarlla belonging to @beantrolls) ship content because im obsessed w/ their relationship. i'm not sure why, but if i generally had to describe the nature of their relationship (again, this is moreso human au-specific, but there's elements of it in their troll relationship), it's sort of a trans&lesbian inversion of the manic pixie dream girl trope.

what i like about writing brusli is the emotions. when i'm emotionally struggling, she and antemh are usually the characters i turn to, depending on the mood. brusli is a little more visibly Sadgirl on this blog than she is in the comic, mostly because i kind of have her on that Tumblr Truth Serum here, where its assumed that an asker already has a somewhat established relationship with her. otherwise, she would kind of be boring to roleplay here, because canonly, she's alienated herself from most people and doesnt socialize much

*I ANSWERED THIS FOREVER AGO THEN TRIED TO SAVE IT AS A DRAFT AND TUMBLR ATE IT. BUT NOW ITS BACK. GOD DAMN. i think i was gonna say something about dadevu but its been forever so idk anyumore.

[buckwilson]

what i’ve done in 2020

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works (fics, art, edits, etc.) you’ve created this year and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world in 2020. If you don’t have five published works, that’s fine! Include ideas/drafts/whatever you like that you’ve worked on/thought about, and talk a little about them instead! Remember, this is all about self-love and positive enthusiasm, so fuck the rules if you need to. Have fun, and tag as many fellow creators as you like so they can share the love! <3

thanks for the tag @blacklavenderjade and @honestlyfrance !!! i didn’t do that much this year, but i do have some favorites out of the stuff that i have done!

1. how endgame should’ve ended is #1 as it was one of my first real attempts at editing/getting familiar with photoshop. there are literally like 20 psds on my laptop of me just trying to figure out how things worked lol. it was also one of my first edits with heavy altercations (erasing old steve from the original screencaps, moving the shield so it was next to sam, moving sam’s head positions, etc.)

2. sambucky social media au #1 is second not for any particular reason, i just really liked the first one a little more. this was in the works since... march maybe? and it started out as just instagram profiles for both sam and bucky (and steve, tony, and peter at one point too) before i decided to make it a little more in depth. it was a Lot of fun coming up with backstories for all of the posts as i added pictures in, and i can’t wait to continue this au in 2021!!

3. sambucky western au moodboard is next because i’m really excited to continue working on this au (which will most likely be a lil comic!!!) next year. i only created/posted this to give a sort of background for the character design sketches i’m eventually gonna post. 

4. boys sharing some fruit is an absolute favorite of mine oh my gosh!!! it was the first drawing of mine that i shared on here, and the very little feedback i got made me so excited!! it goes along with my trans sambucky headcanons (and will most likely get its own fic if i ever work up the courage to write again sksjdks)

5. last but not least, my trans bucky barnes headcanons!! they weren’t as popular as my trans samsteve headcanons, but they’re really a personal favorite of mine <3 it was purely just self indulgent, and was mainly inspired by another short fic i wrote but never worked up the courage to post

i’m probably not gonna tag anyone because it’s probably already 2021 for most of y’all, but feel free to do this if you see it/if you want to!!

[softgrungeprophet]

i liked agent venom when i read it, partially because it actually had a discernible plot and a story that wasn’t just half finished and abandoned from constant cancellations, but at the same time i hate it. i hate it so much.

i hate that flash became venom and suddenly, all of his relationships were completely erased except for like, betty and sometimes peter and that was it. mj and harry who? childhood friendship with liz? no she’s just going to... blackmail him for some reason even though they’ve known each other for literally like 15 years

i hate the agent venom origin slott wrote, i hate flash being pissy about peter confiding in MJ, who they are both friends with, because if you’re dan slott you can’t talk to girls unless you plan on fucking them, i hate how gung ho slott is about the military propaganda and the fucking american flag behind flash in superior spider-man, even though superior (a comic i don’t ever plan to read in full) actually had a good moment with flash and “peter” and flash’s tenseness in a domestic argument situation

(i also hate that that one pre-agent venom web of spidey comic could have been good, actually had good assistive devices, but then... the entire villain plot is about some Mysterious Terrorist or whatever who nonetheless congratulates flash for “constructively” letting out his anger on faceless middle-eastern soldiers, and this is played straight--disgusting)

i hate all of it even the things i like because they took a character who actually was fairly complex and flattened him into a football-loving, gun-toting, all-american patriot who loves god and his country, at odds with the previous 30 years of character development, at odds with the flash who when asked if he liked being in the army (after being DRAFTED into fucking vietnam) said that there is no liking the army, only dealing with it, and i hate every bro who thinks agent venom was the coming of the great whatever and acts like flash was completely nothing before then and that only in agent venom did he have any character when the opposite is true and agent venom trampled out every bit of nuance he had to focus on alcohol and football and nothing else (at least bunn finally put him back into a school again, had him working with youth again (andi in this case))

i hate, unrelated to agent venom, the fact that flash the complex character has been further and further stretched and distorted to have been a horribly violent schoolwide bully as a teenager rather than what he actually was--an obnoxious kid with a fucked up home life trying to fuck with one specific kid--to the point that even in the college stuff, even AFTER having “become good,” he’s the only one who gets repeatedly and purposefully excluded from official works and fan works alike because everyone thinks of him as nothing more than a bully, that every movie appearance of flash sucks except TASM (which is still barely a flutter but you can tell thought was actually put into his character by the actor himself), the fact that he’s the only living member of the friend group (because i assume gwen is dead) who doesn’t get more than a single-line mention in the ps4 game (but at least it’s positive, and i like to pretend that MJ was checking on him when she went to the veteran’s center since we know he works with veterans in the game, even if we never see him) (i still want to be able to go to coffee with mj, flash and harry all together)

i don’t like the bullying flashback in the bunn AV run (even though i liked the comic as a whole, especially with andi, and how bunn and shalvey moved away from the military stuff more toward neighborhood protector stuff), i don’t like bunn’s take on high school flash (he also wrote a different spider-man comic with high school flash a little bit before then)

i hate that flash’s growth wrt his disability, which he came to accept as a part of him that he didn’t need to find some miracle cure for, was completely thrown down the toilet so they could do their stupid supersoldier agent venom shit, which flies directly against the SPECIFIC endpoint of the stages of grief comic, which SPECIFICALLY used superserums and bionic military limb testing as the thing he did not need in his life--and then dan slott runs over like teehee here’s some bionic supersoldier military testing shit :3c

hate that he was killed for the stupidest reason by norman fucking osborn, hate that the disabled abuse survivor was killed by the man who killed one of his best friends, who abused another, who manipulated HIM, who drove him into a fucking building after force-feeding him hard alcohol, hate that norman got to “win” against flash one last time, hate that norman is now being treated as this fucking “couldn’t help it” case while harry is Actually Bad, and still, flash is what? a dream symbiote dragon? fucking stupid and i hate it, i don’t want any of it

every new thing i see about new spider-man and venom comics wrt flash makes me wish he would stay dead lmfao

but it’s not like there weren’t already a ton of bad comics about him but at the very least... i would like something that isn’t just about the Patriotic Soldier Boy who never actually fucking existed

the football thing is a really fun one--and i love that the TASM movie made flash play basketball in that movie because if you look at comics from the 60s through to the early-mid 2000s, preceding agent venom... flash stopped playing football after high school and started playing basketball instead. started doing other sports, probably stopped football because, gee i can guess who told him to play football in the first place, but somehow agent venom happened and decided that his entire life was just Football and Guns? when he hadn’t touched a football in literally like... 10 years in-universe

(TASM best live-action spidey adaptation)

there is not purpose to this rant i just needed to get all this shit out of my head

i am very On Edge the past few weeks and idk why, just ADHD brain shit I guess but everything makes me tense lately (probably why i played through 77% of the spidey game in literally four days by virtue of doing absolutely nothing else in my free time) (i’m taking a break for the sake of my hands but maybe i should go keep playing lol)

i know some people like the dragon and i’ve added it to my “flash trans” list but in the context of stories about flash over the past ten years i really am not interested, and this coming from someone who read eragon 9 times in middle school and grew up reading mostly high fantasy and dragon books. i just. don’t want it. not by the writers currently going at least. maybe if it was someone else or if i knew it would be anything more than a future of soldier boy alcohol football crap lmfao

[ravenwolfie97]

2019 Art Summary

Once again, it is time for the annual art summary! I can’t believe this is the fifth year in a row I’ve done this, so I’m very proud about continuing to make art throughout the years and getting better at it every day. Anyways, let’s get into the good stuff!

I kicked off the year with a big inspiration from The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys comic series and made up my own original Killjoy just before the new year began. Their name is Violet Crime, and I had created an entire backstory with them being involved with the Ultra V’s, and even proposed running a roleplay blog with them and introducing story events such as meeting a pornodroid, but that never came to pass. Maybe next year I can try getting their story off the ground.

This month, I had suddenly gotten the idea for a TOME (2011) AU where the Forbidden Power slowly corrupted and altered Alpha’s model and mind, and I did a bunch of art of the different stages of corruption and drafted certain scenes that would play out if it happened in the show. I continued exploring this  a little more throughout the year, and I hope to flesh it out even more later on.

This batch has an interesting background - I was taking a Religions class in the winter quarter, and for my final project we had the option of creating our own religion based on principles from those we learned about. So, since I had already made up a religion in Legends: Children of the Dragons, I jumped on that opportunity and started expanding upon it! Because of that, I started thinking about Legends a lot, and got inspired to write and draw a bunch! I worked a lot on figuring out the story’s structure and plot, since for the longest time it’s been very disorganized, so that inspiration boost was really helpful.

I didn’t draw too much this month, but I did want to showcase two more detailed drawings in particular. The first is a climactic scene from my friend Mana’s story Empire Tale: Starlight Speedway, where Argento (the character shown) finds out his friend was in alliance with the heir of his empire’s rival nation. The second was drawn for Adam Tilford, creator of the book and webseries Shattered Heaven, as part of an opportunity to feature fan art of a certain character in part of the show. I did my best to emulate Adam’s art style in both lineart and coloring, but it still definitely looks like mine, which is totally cool. Still super honored to have contributed it!

The TOME fandom is still a huge part of my life, and this month in particular was chock full of RPG content to draw. First was my own idea based on the official fanart contest, where members of my TOME Discord server paired TOMERPG OCs and drew a picture with them interacting, and my OC Circutree was randomly matched with @scribblehooves​ and her OC Valentina! There was also a trend (I forget who started it) where we designed our own versions of the White Hat Hacker, and since my choice was the Animalistic one, I gave it some details that more resembled my personal TOME OC / overall persona. Lastly, I just... really love Phaxal from TVTOME Adventures, and I felt an overwhelming need to make him into a TOMERPG character. He’s obviously a lot different from his aughts’ counterpart, but he’s still got that dark snark goin’ on.

June was actually rather slow in terms of art, with me being more preoccupied with binging TV shows and video games, as well as going on adventures in the outside world. However, I did make a cute piece for Mana with Lux and her girlfriend/wife Nexus from ETSS as part of an art trade. In the middle of the month, I had had a dream with a super cool character in it, and immediately I went to go and draw him, and that’s who the other character is; he doesn’t have a name, but he’s supposed to be a secret agent type of guy. Definitely inspired by Azure Striker Gunvolt, which I got super obsessed with again during that time.

I worked more on developing Legends stuff, so I wrote and drew out some more scene ideas along with various sketches. My big pieces for this month, though, were very summery and all about the TOME RPG and me and my friends’ OCs having a fun time. Not much to say other than it was really weird drawing everyone in swimsuits instead of their normal designs.

My favorite piece this month, by far, is my entry into Adam Tilford’s Shattered Heaven fanart contest. I got to draw a mecha, for goodness sake - I NEVER draw stuff like that because it’s so complicated. I’m really proud of the lighting on the piece, too. In addition to that, me and @mew-cake​ did an art trade of our personas! And it was super cool and fun! Friendship! :D

So, the Steven Universe movie came out this month. And that made fall super hard back into the fandom. And now I can actually draw the characters decently, which I think is super cool. Also TOME stuff continues to be a thing, and I continue to try new perspectives and poses and lighting and everything because I need to GROW and LEARN.

I participated in the actual #Inktober prompt challenge this year, and did so for a lot longer than I thought I’d be able to. I made a lot of pieces I’m actually quite proud of, and even though I didn’t complete it, I’m happy I did it as long as I did.

November was a pretty experimental month in terms of art. I tasked myself with drawing in the Pokemon and Hazbin Hotel styles, and I randomly got inspired by a color palette to do a very minimalist digital painting. In addition to all of these personal drawings, I got to work really hard as a member of my university’s fledgling Queer Art Collective (QuAC for short), and our first big project was to decorate a canvas for Trans Day of Remembrance and Resilience, and I contributed five pieces to that: the trans flag with a human silhouette, the NB flag with a heart, the pastel genderfluid butterfly, the construction paper PROUD 2 B TRANS, and the lyrics to “Masquerade” by Tokio Hotel.

As the year closed, it’s been slow, with finals and holiday break and stuff. I can tell that I’m improving in my art, but there are still a lot of things I don’t know and things that I need to continue to improve upon. Hoping I can keep up the work in my last months of college and my transition into full-on adulthood.

See you all in the new year.

[doriians]

MY WRITEBLR INTRODUCTION (2.0)!!

Hi, so it’s @masksandmadness here! This is my all new and improved account, @noxstories, where I’ll be posting more often about all my WIPs.

About Me;

* Noah (but you can call me Nox!)

* 17 years old!

* he/him, trans male

* bisexual and (recently) in a relationship with the girl of my dreams!

* Gryffindor

About Me — Writing;

* I’ve been writing since I was old enough to spell my own name, and writing stories since I was five. I’ve been writing longer stories since I’ve been ten or eleven, and finished my first book (80k words!!) this summer in 2019!

* Aside from my WIPs (which I’m excited to get to in a minute!), I also like writing certain genres, that include: fantasy, mystery, dark academia and found families!!

* I write fan fiction too, and am currently writing a Choose Your Own Adventure fanfic for the Sanders Sides fandom that can be found HERE (yes, I’ll get back to writing it ASAP, sorry for the no update (‘: ).

* My favourite books include If We Were Villains (M.L. Rio), All For The Game (Nora Sacowicz), Harry Potter (JK Rowling), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey), 1984 (George Orwell), The Picture of Dorian Grey (Oscar Wilde) and Vicious (VE Schwab)!! They’re all rather pretentious because I LOVE old books but I love fantasy books too so PLEASE recommend some fantasy books too if you have any you particularly like! I’m always open to a book talk!

* Past WIPs I’m not currently working on but might start again: Dragonborne (about a dragon-boy and a prince, very gay, very sad), Inhabitants Of Heaven (about the Fall from Heaven and religion and angels), Jayce Williams, Jayce Williams (about a boy with wings and a bird-structures human body, super fantasy), and an untitled WIP about a hero and villain that are best friends with a civilian that doesn’t know about their super identities (or do they? To be decided...) that I’ve lost my passion for :(.

Maybe I’ll come back to these WIPs in the future but for now I’m focusing on these main ones under the cut!! If you want to be added to any of these, let me know and I’ll happily do so!! If you want added to a general tag of all my writing, just specify when you tell me and it shall be done :))

———————————————————————

[[MORE]]

SERIES: MASKS AND MADNESS [tagged as: MADNESS]

* NAME (of book one): The Hero’s Protégé [tagged as: THP]

* GENRE: Fantasy (high), mystery

* Been working on it for a year give or take, and wrote the first draft in July, and have almost finished the second draft now, in September 2019!

* SARCASTIC SUMMARY: cliched superhero (Aryx) and villain (Sebastian) drag innocents into their messy relationship instead of going on Jeremy Kyle because it was cancelled rip. hero’s sidekick (Riko) meets girl (Erze) who hates him and he doesn’t know why. Riko realises comic book superpeople really suck in real life. now with added fantasy world!

More info can be found HERE.

2. NAME: The Class of G16 [tagged as: g16]

* GENRE: Found family, crime, dark academia.

* Been working on it for about a year and a half but haven’t really touched it for the last few months!

* SARCASTIC SUMMARY: group of dysfunctional classmates bond over their many issues, wit and mutual hatred for a whiny street gang.

More info can be found HERE (when I put the post up and link it).

3.

* NAME: Devil’s Town [tagged as: dt]

* GENRE: mystery, horror, coming of age, supernatural

* today. I,, I started it today :’) but it’s such a big passion project already!!

* SARCASTIC SUMMARY: it’s,, it’s literally a Richie/Eddie from IT AU where there’s a lot more mystery, just as much horror, and way less clowns.

Find more information HERE.

4.

* NAME: The Clockwork Princess [tagged as: TCP]

* GENRE: fantasy [high], adventure, young adult

* A few months, here and there!! I wanna work on it more but I’ve,, not been,,

* SARCASTIC SUMMARY: an ex lover royalty has many issues, one of which being possessiveness, and the main character is somehow still surprised when the princess will do anything to track her down and reclaim her as hers.

Find more information HERE.

5.

* NAME: godless

* GENRE: fantasy, adventure

* Idea in July, just came back to it recently!!

* SARCASTIC SUMMARY: big war between two gods that don’t really care about their human soldiers until one stupid human soldier decides enough is enough and that he’s gonna singlehandedly end the war,, lucky his sidekicks and friends have more brain cells than him :/

Find more information HERE (when the post goes up!)

[bakugou-protection-squad]

Okay so...

I feel like KiriBaku will just became The Ship™️ of My Hero Academia, mostly because I see most everyone accepting it based on their interactions.

But just in case there are any reservations, I personally want to point out some things.

First and foremost, I would like to mention I am certified to make these claims because I have a degree in "Everything is a dick, and everything is about sex, and everyone is gay." In other words, an English degree where I have spent hours and days on end analysing every single line of a book and come up with an interpretation of it (The door was not red because it signified red-hot passion. It was red because it was just god damn red, for fucks sake!)

Anyway. Now that my unnessesary but nessesary egotistical claim is out of the way, here is why KiriBaku is (at least) the most narratively canon gay ship. ***Obligatory warning that this will get long***

*Spoilers*

1) Concepts to Canon. Kirishima was originally said to apply to UA to impress Mina. But as we can see, that changed. We see very minimal interactions between them. Even in the manga (I am a manga reader fyi) So honestly, I don't think Horikoshi kept that interest interest as part of Kirishima's character. Hell there are more cute interactions between Mina and Aoyama than Kiri and Mina. And coming from the writer's perspective, someone who is in the process of writing and drafting her own material for publication and creating her own characters, I can see Horikoshi's own writing process when designing the characters. I can especially see a reason for ditching the interest in Mina. I can sum it up I four words: It simply didn't click. Something I had experienced 1st hand was scraping the idea of a female love interest for my main character because I something just didn't feel right about it. It would have been forced and I would have gotten nowhere with my story. So when I discovered that my main character was gay, everything fell into place and I was able to move on with a concept that worked. So that may be had happened with Kirishima towards Bakugou.

2) World Building. I know this is Shonen, so romance is not the main focus. But honestly, MHA could be considered a slice of life/school life anime at times. And what do normal school-age students do? Have crushes and date. To the MHA crew, this is their normal. Their life. It's not like, say, Assassination Classroom where the idea of training to kill their teacher is a normal concept. No. Those kids were thrown into it, so their mindset changes a bit to adapt to that special situation. MHA, being a hero is just another profession they can study to become. Just like a doctor or lawyer. Yeah they get roped into the something big, but under everything, this would be their life once they become heros. One thing I have particularly noticed is Horikoshi's attention to detail when it comes to his world building. The way it appears to me, it seems as though the story moves forward based on his complex characters interacting with their world rather than them jusy being placed into it. Probably doesn't make much sense. But it's there (Kiri ordering night vision goggles for a rescue mission, a kid being turned into a meme in response to Endeavor's fight, Todoroki and his brother savagly slurping noodles, Recovery Girl offering a Snickers to students after training. Those types of things.) These little things are unnecessary, but are still included. Long-winded way to get to my point. Whose to say that the MHA kids can't find a chance to go on dates on off days, develop crushes organically based on hanging out with each other and training? Their world allows something like that to exist simultaneously with the danger they face.

3) Horikoshi's subtle progressiveness. I always use this point every time I talk about KiriBaku. There are already two confirmed Lgbtq+ characters who are legit characters and not written off as joke characters. Tiger and Magne are both trans. One is a hero. One is a villian. Horikoshi seems to include that fact to show that a trans person can be either side, instead of either being simply good or simply bad (or a joke that so many series tend to do.) I'm not going into the problematic part of Hori killing off Magne, because that's a different rant. The point of this is saying that there is a possibility, based on that point, that someone from the main cast would be gay. Because, like I mentioned in the previous point, this is their normal world. I know homosexuality is usually played off as comic relief, but I feel as though Horikoshi wouldn't do that, based on the world he's built. Tiger and Magne were accepted by their peers with no one saying anything about it. So I doubt any homosexual moments will be treated like comic relief. Which brings me to my next point.

4) Kirishima and Bakugou's steady relationship build up. I am not going to go too into detail about their relationship, but I will give a general gist. These two have had the most character development between the two of them. Even more than Bakugou and Deku. It's slow, but natural. They go from negative first impressions to being pretty much joined at the hip. Bakugou, as we've seen, presents us with a certain way to determine his opinion of characters: names. If he doesn't care for them, he calls them nicknames or "extras" yet when he has respect for them, he calls them by name. Kirishima is arguably the first one to gain Bakugou's upmost respect. Started from the USJ, then the sports festival, all the way to Kamino and post that. This is a fact Deku, good old insightful, analytical Deku, has pointed out when they rescued Bakugou. Deku knows how Bakugou is, so the fact he picked up on how Bakugou has changed says something. Not to mention all the promotional art of them (Google some. They are always paired and next to each other.) They are so close that Kirishima seems to know Bakugou's SUIT-SIZE. Listen. I talked with the guys from my friend group. And even if they act gay around each other all the time, they all agree that Kirishima knowing Bakugou's measurements is a bit too much for them to just be best friends. It's one thing to get matching t-shirts. It's a whole different monster when it comes to to formal wear. And if that doesn't say anything, the fact Kirishima got himself a normal looking suit yet took one look at a vest covered in white roses and thought "gee that would look great on Bakugou" says something. And the kicker is he didn't even do it ironically. He didn't do it for a joke to humiliate Bakugou, he was serious about it and got it because he KNEW Bakugou wouldn't bring one. They've only known each other for half a term at this point, and Kirishima already knew what to expect. THAT says something. Without going too much into it, the moments when Bakugou shows concern for Kirishima. Bakugou is still an ass to his classmates, yet shows he does deeply care about his friends.

Thanks for reading my little word vomit post. Where was I going with this long-ass response? More or less, KiriBaku has the most narrative support for the ship and it is because of the world in which they live in. Hopefully it made sense 😅

[crypticbeliever123]

MFU (The Marvel Fanfic Universe)

I have an idea to create a multi-fic multiverse based off of Marvel characters that will honestly be quite the undertaking but I personally believe would be well worth it if I can actually finish it and below are some ideas I had for it with character names (and a couple major things) bolded so as to make it easier to find info on more preferred characters

This Marvel Fanfic Universe or MFU as I call it, starts not with Iron Man like the MCU, but instead with Spider-Man

in this Peter Parker is Tony Stark’s biological son but they aren’t all that close and Tony is not a mentor to Spider-Man at all and may or may not find out Peter is Spider-Man until his college years

Hawkeye is deaf in his first appearance and all subsequent ones except for a prequel giving his origin story that involves the loss of his hearing that I have already titled Hawkeye and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week (that title is based off Clint’s brother Barney going behind his back to work with Hydra and SHIELD chasing after him and the general craziness that ensues NOT because he goes deaf in this story) (also that title is just perfect for Clint’s character. Let’s be honest if there’s any character with worse luck than Peter Parker, it’s Clint Barton)

Loki and Thor have a better relationship in this wherein Loki was given the assignment of Agent of Asgard by Frigga when they were younger so that Loki could have an important role and help bring about more stability between the 9 realms especially on the Frost Giant front and Loki’s first appearance as a “villain” is really just him trying to accelerate the lesson his brother’s supposed to be learning on Midgard and every instance of villainy later on is just the two of them trolling the Avengers in a (totally not at all a real threat) prank where Loki plays up the part of malicious trickster god rather than the not malicious but just mischievous trickster god that he is in this (Odin rolls his eye every time Heimdall tells him of their shenanigans)

Wolverine and Professor X meet in the Korean War (Charles Xavier canonically was drafted to the war and Canada fought in the war and I thought it would be fun if they met there when Charles was young and for him to be kind of a spoiled rich kid until Logan figures out he’s a mutant and takes it upon himself to turn the kid from a kind of stuck up 19 year old to more the kind of person we know Professor X to be) and Charles later refers to Logan as the greatest man he’s ever known and credits him for inspiring the creation of the Xavier Institute as Logan was the first mutant he ever met and made some good points about how important it is for young mutants to be properly taught and nurtured so they don’t turn out evil

Because Charles Xavier is 19 in roughly 1951 and the X-Men stories will (unless I get sidetracked and can’t start the MFU this year) start in 2020 that means Charles will be 88 years old at the start and might die of old age at some point along the way assuming the X-Men story arcs don’t kill him first. Might kill him off in the Apocalypse arc and have it done by either Nightcrawler (the Horseman of Death) or Archangel (the Horseman of War)

Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales will probably get stories of their own after Spider-Verse

In Miles’ universe Doc Ock will be based off the Spider-Verse movie as that version is just freaking awesome and I might go with the punchclock villain trope that one other post talked about (if anyone has a link to that post I’d love to edit it in here with a link)

Might also do a Spider-Man 2099 story but would have to read his comics first to get a feel of what that character and his enemies are like

Agent Venom will get a storyline as well as some alterations to his family history involving his mother and his birth in general

Captain America will be cloned by Red Skull in order to create Captain Hydra who will convince Bucky, Falcon, and Black Widow that he’s actually Steve and that he’s always secretly been working for Hydra until he torments Bucky so much that he isn’t sure what’s true or not anymore and checks himself into a mental institute (yes, Cap’s clone really is an evil dick)

Fallout from a Superior Spider-Man story arc will actually show Peter dealing with grief from Ock ruining his relationship with MJ and upending his life as well as quite possibly coming to terms with the fact that none of his friends or family noticed that he wasn’t himself for over a year

Might do a Defenders story if I read more comics with those characters in them so I know how to write them

Wiccan and Speed from the Young Avengers will be clones of Wanda and Pietro respectively (with Billy being a trans boy since a gender-swap generated clone only really works with female clone of a man where you can say you just copy-pasted the X chromosome rather than built an entire Y chromosome from scratch or stole one from her brother thereby technically making the clone kinda sorta their genetic lovechild which... ya know... ew) rather than Wanda’s magically created twin sons whose souls were pieces of Mephisto that were taken back by Mephisto and yet SOMEHOW managed to reincarnate despite the fact a lack of existing souls should have made that impossible because clones of Wanda and Pietro makes a hell of a lot more sense to me as to why one of Wanda’s sons would have the appearance and powers of her brother even though they’re supposed to be Vision’s kids too than the comics canon version of events that just. Do. Not. Understand. How. Reincarnation. Works. If the souls were taken back and reabsorbed by a demon then there is nothing left to reincarnate! (as you can see I have some strong feelings regarding this topic)

Because I’m setting the first stories in roughly the present day (2020, hopefully) and the Infinity Saga closer to 2035 and the Guardians of the Galaxy play such a big role in making the rest of the characters aware of the threat of Thanos, Peter Quill may have been born in the early 2000s and thus his taste in music is a result of his mom playing a bunch of music she liked as a kid and that music reminding him of her, rather than music from his own generation

Adam Warlock, in a very convoluted plot line that I may change or keep as is to match the weirdness and insanity that is the comic book industry, will exist as some sort of mutant alien teen clone of Peter Quill with the Soul Gem embedded in his forehead (multiple jokes will ensue about how he’s physically as old as Peter is maturity-wise and yet is somehow less childish than him)

Deadpool is a recurring character in most if not all of these stories

The Fantastic Four don’t show up until near the end of the MFU arc during the Infinity Saga because they’d spent the entirety of all this travelling the multiverse and other dimensions as a family

Might have “With great power there must also come great responsibility” being a recurring theme in the MFU with Logan learning the line from Steve during WWII and then passing the line onto Charles Xavier and perhaps to Richard Parker (Peter’s stepfather in this) who makes it his signature line that Ben Parker keeps alive as he and May raise Peter (Tony is terrified to death of becoming his father and abusing Peter and refused custody because of this but still pays ample child support) and have Peter start the very first line of the first MFU story with the line and end the last story with a repeat of that line while saying something about how every hero lives by it either knowingly or unknowingly

[tessatechaitea]

Wonder Twins #7

I didn't realize the Wonder Twins were Gen X.

Oh yeah! Zan had just saved the world by stopping a plot that was going to save the world.

I just realized I hadn't scanned the cover yet and as I did, I noticed the Wonder Twins fist/star emblem marks a striking resemblance to a goat.se riff. Zan and Jayna get taken off of monitor duty at the Hall of Justice now that they've stopped the League of Annoyance. You'd think that doing a good job would get you a promotion but those of use who have always done spectacularly good jobs know better. While everybody else works down to the lowest common denominator (because who wants to do more work than the next guy?! A fool, that's who!), good workers just put on blinders and do the job they were hired for until the time they're being paid for is up. Sure, that sounds like I'm describing a sucker who's been completely manipulated by the man! But I'm also describing a person who fulfills their end of whatever bargain they've agreed to! So when I say Zan and Jayna wind up giving tours at the Hall of Justice because they were too good at catching criminals, you'll understand why I went into the previous digression. Maybe? I don't know. Have you seen what state the U.S. is in?! Why are you picking apart my writing style?! Mark Russell takes a few pages to shit all over hockey fans and now I hate Mark Russell with a burning passion. Even though I'd hardly call myself a hockey fan. I mean, I loved NHL '93 (unless it was '92 (or maybe '94?)) and I loved going to San Jose Sharks games when I was still living in the Bay Area (plus my friend worked equipment for the Sharks and would get us free tickets). But it's not like I follow it much anymore. I just like the feeling of being angry at somebody for writing a satirical critique of sports fans rioting because they're so happy that their team won. Although why would I be angry when I've never done that nor think Russell's wrong in his pointed and humorous critique?! Oh, who cares why! Being angry is just more fun! Oh shit! I finally understand people's attraction to Fox News! I just watched a YouTube clip of somebody's Jeremy Roenick highlights from NHL '94 set to the song "More Than a Feeling" and it was pretty awesome. Also, that was definitely the one we played nonstop back in 1993 and 94 and maybe even into 95. Roenick unstoppable down with the puck while Sharks players lay splayed out on their back all across the ice. To stop the riot, Superman calls in Repulso! He's a guy whose super power is super stink and he's kept in a locked room with a bare table and a microwave and nobody wants to be his friend because he smells like a garbage dumb that vomited on top of the diarrhea it shit out while standing on its head so the stanky muck ran down his body absorbing all of his body odor and then somebody cut up a durian and tossed it in the mix.

Superman is a dick. Get this guy some friends with no sense of smell. Or at the very least, an Xbox Gold account.

After the hockey riots, some "the end of the world" riots take place because Zan and Jayna screw up something or other. Basically what that means is that Repulso gets to be let out of his airtight containment unit again! He's a pretty optimistic guy for being sealed away by Superman (which is just Superman's way! Is somebody a problem? No problem! Put them in the Phantom Zone!). He's so happy and not bitter about his living arrangements that I feel like Zan and Jayna had better figure out a way to give him a better life before this issue ends. Because if Mark Russell fails this character he created before this issue is over and I have to face reality after snot crying about a fictional person, I'm going to be pretty upset when I continue to buy Mark Russell comic books because what other choice do I have? Am I going to stop reading DC's best written comic books because Mark Russell betrayed poor Repulso? Of course not! What am I? A person with integrity?! Repulso winds up getting his ass beat by rioters as Repulso's handlers flee the chaotic "end of the world" downtown riot scene. Luckily the Wonder Twins are headed downtown to save his life and maybe become his friend or something? Please? After Zan and Jayna save Repulso, Jayna goes to Superman to tell him everything sucks. He gives her a big speech about how being a hero is lonely work because you don't always get to fuck the hot chick at your secret identity's workplace and also fuck an Amazon warrior while also getting to fuck anybody at all whose initials are "L.L." and also have a best friend who is the coolest guy in the world with a butler who makes the best pancakes. Sometimes you're a fat jerk who smells who even Superman won't fucking give the time of day because Superman has this speech about how being a hero is lonely and that's a good thing so you should embrace your loneliness because who wants to put up with your super stink, fatty?

Jayna is a way better hero than Superman. At least in this comic book that's all about her and not Superman so of course she's going to outshine him!

Oh yeah, the ant in the above picture is Jayna. It can't smell. Wonder Twins #7 Rating: A+. I should probably be less cynical when reading Mark Russell comic books because he's as earnest and serious as he can be while also providing lots of jokes. He takes writing seriously because what else is there? If your message isn't going to matter, why bother? (is his philosophy. I think. It's not my philosophy! I don't think? Maybe it is! I just write things that matter in a much different way than Mark Russell writes things that matter.) I should probably read Superman's speech and be inspired by the idea that you don't do good because you want adulation; you do good because it's the right thing to do, even if the entire world thinks you're an asshole for doing it. Even if all of the other superheroes think you're a stinky fuck and only keep you around to use as a tool to oppress and manipulate the masses without having to use logic and reason on them (because, let's face it, the people doing terrible things don't understand logic and reason. Or they're do but they're just selfish and greedy so nothing is going to reach them anyway (which maybe is part of Superman's message?)), you're still a hero at the end of the day. You can still be proud of your stinky self. And even if the life is lonely, you should remain positive and upbeat because Superman really doesn't want to be reminded that you exist every time you complain about the lack of reasonable living conditions. Being a hero is a state of mind, says the guy who also looks great and is invulnerable and has the best wife and a cool son and doesn't have to fear death! So inspiring!

[wxldchxld]

OOC Rant: 

So rather than spend my day finishing drafts on all my blogs and working on completing Victarion’s setup, I binged the Umbrella Academy. Mostly because I was (surprise surprise) an enormous MCR fan as a teenager, and in fact I met my first girlfriend through their online MCR forum, which I frequented regularly. I was kind of a die hard. 

For the most part I was really pleased with UA though I have to say that’s mostly because it’s so pretty. Like a lot of shows try to make shit dark and edgy by using dim lighting and shit, but the entire first season was filled with beautiful, surreal imagery that made it very engaging. And while I was disappointed that they didn’t even begin or end with one MCR song, the music was brilliant. Starting out with violin shit from Phantom of the Opera? Oh that shit is my JAM. I felt in general they had strong characters and actors that did pretty well. Especially Ellen Page,  Emmy Raver-Lampman, and Aidan Gallagher (and child actors usually annoy the SHIT out of me). Were there cliches? Yes. Was is really cheesy in some places? Yes. But... superhero shit is so overworked rn that there was no way it wouldn’t be, and I don’t think that was what GW was even going for. He didn’t want 100 percent original. He just wanted to see the genre through his own “lens” as he put it.

So there was a lot I liked. Which I need to point out because as a big MCR fan, I know what they’re like and I don’t want this to turn into a bloodbath if somehow it makes its way into the tags.

What I didn’t like was the LGBTQ representation. Well---that and the weird adopted brother/sister romance but that’s beside the point. The point is that I was really shocked by Klaus. Certain scenes, especially in the first episode, imply that he’s a gender fluid character, and it’s later explicitly shown that he prefers relationships with men (though we haven’t been told he’s explicitly gay as far as I know). He’s also a drug addict, family fuck up, comic relief, tragic-sassy-scene-kid cliche. And he’s the only LGBT representation we get on this show. That’s not ok.

First off, I didn’t read the comics, and I don’t plan to because I find comics really annoying to read anyway. I don’t know if he was in relationships with men in the comics, and I don’t care. So don’t give me bullshit over “they’re staying true to the source material.” It doesn’t matter if he was gay/bi/pan in the original series, it doesn’t matter if that was ok when it was written, all that matters is that right now in the current climate, LGBTQ people don’t want the fuck up character to be their only representation in a show/book/movie.

Second, this could have very easily been solved by just---adding more representation. Rather than Patrick, Allison could have been in a failed relationship with another woman, and they could have still done her weird romance arc with Luther. Rather than the dude whose name I literally don’t remember because his character was so forgettable, Vanya could have been seduced and manipulated by another woman. Rather than the sexy female cop, it could have just as easily been a sexy male/trans/nonbianary cop Diego dated and it wouldn’t have mattered. This problem was an easy fix. Hell Page is a lesbian woman!!! She would have been willing to play that part, I’m sure. 

Third, this feels really fetishy. I can already see the straight girls writing horrible hurt/comfort category yoai bullshit on Ao3 and if it hasn’t started I’m positive it will. Do you know why? Because Klaus is the type of character they fetishize. Look at Bucky Barnes, look at Loki, look at the people in super hero movies that are the focus of those fics and tell me that Klaus doesn’t sit at the apex of that category. It’s not ok. 

Look I’m sure that Klaus’ character has something to do with Gerard’s own struggle with gender identity, and I understand the circumstances that surrounded him as he was writing UA that likely influenced the character that came out of it. Because if he doesn’t scream Black Parade I don’t fuckin know what does. But that doesn’t make it ok that he’s the only LGBTQ representation in the show.

What scares me is that while I haven’t looked at any official numbers I can see this show having a large teenage audience, as well as the older audience that likely tuned in for similar reasons that I did. The visuals, the characterization, the plot, it’s all very appealing to a teenage audience. And we need to be careful how we portray people in minority communities on shows with large teenage demographics.  

This character is literally plagued by tortured spirits. That’s not ok when you have people who believe LGBTQ kids have demons inside of them or are literally mentally ill. I was told the latter growing up and it did serious damage to me as a person. This sort of material is the stuff facebook moms and pastors quote mine for their sermons that they use to indoctrinate the parents of young children. This stuff is perfect for their fear mongering. 

I’m not going to touch on it in depth because this post is about LGBTQ rep specifically, but the way they portrayed his drug habit was also really upsetting to see. Addiction is a disease that can devastate lives and the “if you just suck it up and get over it” message really disgusted me. Again, it sends a bad message to kids that might be in a situation where they’re using drugs. You don’t just tie someone up in an attic to go through that shit by themselves. It’s very dangerous.

And yes, Klaus got sober by the end of the season, which was great, but I don’t have any hopes that he’ll stay that way or that his dynamic in his own family will change, and that doesn’t change the fact that they already spent a whole season like this.

Overall I’m really disappointed that I don’t see more people angry about this. I’m also really disappointed in Gerard Way, who I would have thought would have been more sensitive to these sorts of issues. And I’m shocked that Ellen Page, as vocal as she is about LGBTQ issues hasn’t said anything about how potentially harmful how this character is portrayed is.

[gayasinstupidpodcast]

Gay As In Stupid’s second episode is out! (pun intended)

Hey y’all! It’s Isaac and Aaron and we’re back with another episode of our Fantastically gay podcast, Gay As In Stupid! This month’s episode is about gay trans experiences, where me and Isaac share some of our experiences as gay trans men, talk about the history of societal and medical prejudice, and share an interview with a spectacular trans lesbian on her point of view!

You can find us on the Itunes Podcast App/Webpage at Gay As In Stupid Podcast! You can also find our episodes uploaded to Youtube and Soundcloud! Sorry for any audio goofs this episode! Recoding in my college dorm has proven to be a thotty whom we will have to get used to working with.

Ordinarily, me and Isaac would put our main sources under Further Reading at the top, but I (Aaron) found the main sources I had to go through for this month’s topic to contain disgusting levels of transphobia that I would feel irresponsible telling our listeners to read. If you want to know what I looked through and used, however, feel free to DM me @albert-dj-cashier​

Aaron’s 2018 September Recs!

What The Trans?! (podcast)

A roughly hour-per-ep podcast by Michelle and Ashleigh, two trans women living in the U.K! The hosts are witty, informative, and compelling, and they talk about topics like the current events in UK trans politics, representation in media, institutionalized prejudice, and personal experiences! Their episodes are really fun as well as interesting, and they have a great dynamic!

Big Eden

This is an absolutely Classic gay feel-good film, and one of me & my friend Lauren’s personal favorites! It centers around a gay New York artist who returns to his childhood home in Montana to care for his grandfather, and finds himself having to deal with the loose threads he left behind (and Also finds an unexpected love interest). It’s cute, romantic, super funny, and doesn’t leave you with long spans of meaninglessly meaningful shots and call it Film.

Isaac’s 2018 September Recs!

Yank! A WWII Love Story: A New Musical

Follows Stu, a young man who gets drafted into World War II where he ends up becoming a photographer for ‘Yank Magazine, a journal for and by the servicemen’.  In present day, Stu’s old journal is discovered, and his story of the war, and his romance with Mitch; a handsome Private he met during training. It’s fun, colorful and absolutely heartbreaking. The songs are memorable, and so are the characters. If you like heart-string pulling gay romances and strong lesbians, this production will make you horny!

MIKA

If you aren’t already listening to MIKA, then I don’t think you’ve been living yet. His songs are sweet and fun to dance to, and truly never get old. He’s gay and a talented singer-songwriter. The music he makes can be best described as Pop/Glam Rock (also GAY!!!) Love yourself and go give “Talk About You” and “Grace Kelly” a listen.

MARCY’S FULL AND WONDERFUL INTERVIEW UNDER THE READ MORE

Q: How do you identify? A: I am a trans woman and a lesbian.

Q: How do you feel trans straight people react to your identity? A: honestly, I’m not sure. I don’t personally know any straight trans people. I’d imagine that we have common grounds on dysphoria and trying to understand gender, but with regards to sexuality, I’m sure it’s kinda up in the air. I doubt there’d be like, hostility regarding my identity. Probably just general acceptance, maybe some minor prodding.

Side note: not to generalize, but from what I understand, straight trans women tend to have different experiences with self-discovery than bi or lesbian trans women. The former tend to figure things out earlier, are sometimes seen as more traditionally feminine, etc. Some of this is from rather TERFy science, though, so take it with a grain of salt.

Q: How do you feel your identity is perceived in the LGBT Community? A: from an intracommunity standpoint, I think that trans WLW in general are steadily becoming more accepted as we speak up about or lives and experiences. Many cis WLW, whether actively or passively, exhibit an alarming amount of transphobic beliefs, but I like to think they’re in the minority.

Q: How do you present your gender and what do it mean to you? A: I’m butch, so my experience with womanhood and femininity is… interesting, to say the least. I certainly don’t take a traditional approach to femininity, and I find that very empowering, especially as a trans woman. I don’t wanna force myself into a role that I’m not comfortable filling, just to appeal to what society expects of me. I wear suits and vests and I keep my hair short and I’ve honestly never even touched makeup, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Q: What role do you feel like the intersection of your gender and your sexualilty play in your life? A: my gender and my sexuality are both very important to me, the intersection thereof even moreso. Understanding that intersection has helped me piece together a lot of the questions I had growing up. To put it simply, figuring out that I’m not just trans, but also a lesbian, has helped me figure out like, the past eight-to-ten years’ worth of failed romantic endeavors. The way I experience relationships, the way I interact with people, the way I love are all impacted by both my gender and my sexuality; neither’s importance can be understated.

Q: Do you feel like your gender presentation makes people more prone to invalidate your identity? A: pardon my language but, of fucking course. Like, cis people and transphobes alike will find any reason they can to invalidate a trans person. But the second they find a trans woman who’s a lesbian, who isn’t presenting like a perfectly feminine stereotype, all bets are off my dude. Until I have like, B-cup tits and a soft face, I’m essentially a straight guy in most people’s faces. Which, eh, who cares at this point? Straight people have never understood butch womanhood. I don’t expect them to recognize a trans butch when they see one.

Q: Do you feel like your identity as a gay trans person makes it harder for you to receive proper medical care (hormones, sexual health, etc)? A: quite honestly, I don’t know yet. I’m still pre-HRT; I have yet to jump through the hoops and red tape necessary to get hormones and whatnot. I imagine it’ll be tough, though.

Q: How has your coming out process been different than if you were just trans or gay? A: the biggest difference, for me at least, is that it’s been a multi-step process. For a while I thought I was a bi cis man, then pansexual and agender, then a bi trans woman, and it wasn’t until ~June 2017 that I figured out I was a trans lesbian. Coming out to friends has always been easy; they pick up on new identities and pronouns fairly easy. Honestly, I don’t think my parents quite understand what being trans is right now, but we’re working on it.

Q: Have you ever found yourself feeling guilty over your attraction to women because of your gender identity? A: honestly? At least once a week, I have that dysphoric voice in my head telling me I’m just some creepy straight guy preying on lesbians. I know it isn’t true, it’s just self-doubt and internalized transphobia and TERF rhetoric echoing, but it’s hard to not think that, frankly. Especially when it’s repeated so often.

Q: Do you feel like your voice is heard/your identity is seen between media and the community? A: in media? Outside of a few niche places (and surprisingly, IDW’s Transformers comics), trans lesbians are largely pretty nonexistent. Of course, in the actual community we’re much more populous, but frankly we’re a little bit insular as we tend to mostly befriend and date one another. All in all, don’t think we’re entirely invisible, but I do think we could do with some more fictional representation, and to get more involved with the larger LGBT community.

Q: Is there anything else about your experience as a gay trans person you would like to add? A: admittedly, it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve felt truly comfortable around cis lesbians. Most of my relationships in the past few years have been with other trans girls. There’s a variety of reasons for this, and every woman’s experiences are her own, but for a long time I was afraid that cis lesbians just wouldn’t recognize me as a woman. Q: Would you like your instagram/tumblr to be linked in the episode description? A: sure! I’m @opossumghoul on tumblr and @opossumbutch on other social media

[urbanteeth]

Novel Prep

Thanks to @dimawriting and @maple-writes for tagging me!!

WIP: The Inbetween

Tagging: @drist-n-dither @theforgottencoolkid @minny-santa and uhh anyone else who sees this!

This gets pretty long so I’ll put it under a read more.

First Look

1. Describe your novel in 1-2 sentences (elevator pitch)

The crew members abroad the Perseus Space Station were tasked with investigating the first signs of early human-like civilization on an exoplanet. The truth behind the ruins scattered across the dying planet, however, is stranger, darker, older than anything they ever expected. 

2. How long do you plan for your novel to be? (Is it a novella, single book, book series, etc.)

As of right now, The Inbetween is a single book divided into 5ish parts. The POV will be third person. Still not sure if I want to switch between characters for each chapter or if I want each of the 5 parts told through the perspective of one of the main characters. I am playing with the idea of a sequel. I also want to write about the before and after the events of The Inbetween. There are also at least two AUs running around my mind so I might explore those too.

3. What is your novel’s aesthetic?

Dark skies full of stars, floating weightlessly, lonely planets, geometry, singularity, the smallness of existence, amorphous shadows on the wall, empty corridors, static, flickering lights, hearts racing from adrenaline, the taste of blood in your mouth as you run for your life

4. What other stories inspire your novel?

The Inbetween originated from me wanting to take some of my unused characters beyond them just being characters. The earliest drafts of The Inbetween were short stories inspired by Wolfgun’s music. The story eventually grew into what it is now thanks to a few episodes of Star Trek and Welcome to Nightvale. Lots of the scenes I currently have written were born from daydreaming to Carbon Based Lifeforms’s music. I would say CBL has had the biggest influence on the story.

5. Share 3+ images that give a feel for your novel

This one is for the last part of the book.

Main Character

6. Who is your protagonist?

There are five protagonists:

Emmett Reyes: Mexican-American, 19 (at the beginning of the story), aro/ace, trans, biologist

Johann Herschel: British-German, 20 (at the beginning of the story), bi, nonbinary, pilot and navigator

Neveen Jalal: Egyptian-American, 19 (at the beginning of the story), lesbian, chemist, starship medic, lowkey inspired by my high school chem teacher

Oliver West: Korean-Canadian, 20 (at the beginning of the story), gay, mechanic

Alternis: A.I., years active unknown, primarily used for security and scouting 

7. Who is their closest ally?

Their closest allies would be each other. Here’s some specific friendships:

Overall: they grow as close as family. Nothing like a near death experience out in the middle of the cold, indifferent void to make five kids bond for life. 

Neveen + Emmett: Nerd friends! With him being a biologist and her becoming a medic, they share a love for the subject. They bond over their love for their cultures. They teach each other words in their native tongues. 

 Johann + Emmett + Oliver: Partners in crime!! These three are as ride or die as you can get with a group of friends. While Johann isn’t always keen on the chaos, he still goes along with it because “who’s going to serve as your guys’s impulse control???” Secretly, he loves it. 

Oliver + Johann: Oliver becomes pretty supportive of all his friends and his relationship with Johann is no different. Oliver makes for a pretty good listener and he doesn’t mind hearing about his friend’s worries. He’ll offer some pretty good advice as well. 

Neveen + Oliver: Oliver is, without a doubt, the most social of all the crew members. Unlike him, however, Neveen is the exact opposite. He will respect her space if she needs it, but he is also there to make sure she doesn’t lose herself in it. In a lot of ways, he reminds Neveen of her own sister.

Emmett + Alternis: These two form a pretty close bond. Both share feelings of becoming static in life. Both struggle with insecurity and general feelings of anxiety that they are not good enough. However, they both also share a deep curiosity for the world around them. She likes to ask him questions knowing he won’t brush them off and he feels comfortable enough to ramble on about whatever subject is most interesting to him knowing that she is willing to listen with interest herself.

Bonus: 

Commander Mitch Connor + his crew: At first, Mitch was pretty hesitant to be this mission’s commander. They’re all kids, two of them fresh out of high school almost. However, he quickly learns that this crew is more than capable. They’re adaptable and fiercely resilient. They know how to use their strengths to their advantage and do so creatively. Most importantly, though, they genuinely care about each other.

8. Who is their enemy?

The story’s main antagonist is a weird hivemind entity that is partially made from various alien life forms and part alien tech. It’s main purpose is to find creatures its programming deems perfect specimens and then merge with (eat???) them to take on their abilities. The creature was once a technologically advanced alien race from a different dimension who sought to create the “perfect being”. No one’s really sure what “perfect being” meant for them, but eventually they, and most of their old universe, were all consumed by their creation. The entity then traveled across many other dimensions still seeking specimens to consume. While it has no definite shape or can even be considered a single animal, it’s still very much sapient. It’s hard to tell the age or if it was supposed to be machine or animal or even what species it originally was. However, the minds and voices of its creators live on with it. 

If you want an idea as to how it sounds, it’s a little like the Warpers from Subnautica but with multiple voices. Here’s a clip. 

9. What do they want more than anything?

They all have different dreams that they are pursuing, but they basically all want a life where they can be happy and have closure.

Emmett wants to be at peace with himself.

Johann wants to find a place that he can call home.

Oliver wants to protect the little he already has.

Neveen wants to achieve her dreams.

Alternis wants to belong.

10. Why can’t they have it?

Emmett is, first of all, much too doubting in himself. He worries so much that he can’t appreciate the things he has done right or the things he can do. He isn’t very kind to himself.

Johann misses the life he had on Earth. He and his family moved to a new planet because they don’t really like Earth and want to experience something new. But Johann never feels the same sense of “home” as he did on Earth. 

Oliver’s job is helping out his mother with their repair shop. So, when the shop is threatened with closure, he is desperate to find another job, but since he dropped out and never finished school, he’s having a really hard time coming up with something that will provide enough. This is why he ends up joining the space program. 

Neveen is in a somewhat similar boat. She has dreams of working as a doctor and all of her time and effort goes into studying for that. She, however, ends up getting rejected from three different schools in her area. She starts to feel like time is somehow running out for her.

Alternis has had a hard time. When she didn’t fit the expectations her creators set, she quickly discovered that her differences were seen as something flawed. She spent a lot of her early days either alone and she grew to be resentful towards people. But she wants to be accepted, so when they told her she was to be assigned to the Perseus Station, she had a lot of mixed feelings about the situation. 

11. What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

Emmett: not smart/good enough, not allowed to make mistakes

Neveen: her success determines her worth, has to do things just right or Else

Oliver: dumb for dropping out of college, is not much other than the comic relief in his friend group

Johann: thinks he can run from facing what’s really bothering him

Alternis: needs to have a purpose to be worth something to others, needs to change to be accepted

12. Draw your protagonist! (Or share a description)

Emmett: 5′2, curly brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin, a scar running from jaw to cheek, there’s a picture @auroradrawing made here!

Neveen: 5′5, long black hair, brown eyes, dark skin, red hijab

Johann: 6′2. dark blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin

Oliver West: 5′10, black hair, brown eyes, pale skin

Alternis:  i made a post on her appearance here

Plot Points

13. What is the internal conflict?

I would say that the overall internal conflict for all the characters is them struggling to understand that they are human which means that they are allowed to be wrong, make bad decisions, have emotions, and fail and none of this undermines their value in any way.

14. What is the external conflict?

The main external conflict is survival. They come into contact with a powerful interdimensional creature who is possibly hundred of thousands of years old or more and they have no idea how to stop it. After their station and only way home gets destroyed and they find themselves stranded with no way to let anyone know what’s happening, they realize that they have to find a way to at least repel the creature as it’s not just their survival at stake, but also that of their friends and family back on Earth.

15. What is the worst thing that could happen to your protagonist?

Death, probably. There’s a lot of things that would be left undone and unsaid and also literally no one else knows what is going on, so it could be a while before anyone back home realizes they’re never coming back. And that thought is one of the scariest things they can imagine.

16. What secret will be revealed that changes the course of the story?

Basically the purpose of the entity and them figuring out what it is and what it wants changes everything they were led to believe at first about the planet and the origin of the ruins.

17. Do you know how it ends?

Yes. They all get a happy ending because I’m done with the sad shit. Also happy endings are good?? Like give me more happy endings dammit! They go through so much shit and get tested so much, like, they deserve their happy ending. 

Bits and Bobs

18. What is the theme? 

You are stronger than you think. Let yourself be flawed. Things might not be okay, but they will work out. You have a place in the universe, no matter how small. Tomorrow is a new day.

19. What is a reoccurring symbol?

Darkness, geometry/symmetry, fire (?),static, lots of the names of things have meaning behind them

20. Where is the story set? (Share a description!)

There are two made up planets on which this story takes place. The first planet is Thesan-4. This planet is a desert-like planet. It’s in the Milky Way for sure, but I haven’t exactly figured out where yet. This planet is primarily used for military/astronaut training. At least 40% of the story will take place here. The other planet is an icy, Earth-like planet. I call this planet the Mirror World in my head but the actual name is pending. Here is where the remains of early civilization are found and this is where the Perseus crew is assign for their mission. At least 60% of the story will take place here.

21. Do you have any images or scenes in your mind already?

Hell yeah! Scenes and a general outline are all I have right now. A lot of the little details are still pretty vague though.

22. What excited you about this story?

Oh man, is “everything” an answer? I always wanted to write a story set in space, but my biggest issue was finding a good plot. Like, I had the characters and I had some vague idea of a setting, but no actual plot or conflict. This story spent a lot of time on the back burner and I honestly thought about abandoning it a few times. However, it has come to grow so much and I’m really happy I didn’t abandon it. I love the lore behind the antagonist and the character interactions and uhhh well damn. Everything!

23. Tell us about your usual writing method!

I think the very first thing I come up with is either the setting or the characters. Then, I make the characters that I feel would go best with the setting or vice versa. Other details like names and stuff come way later. 99% of my writing process is music. If I need a certain mood for a scene, I’ll put on some music that fits and I’ll listen to it a few times before actually writing. I find that this helps me come up with scenes so I don’t really struggle at that. Putting them down on paper is harder lol, especially when I can see at least three different ways to write the opening. But once I start writing, everything flows much easier.

[tcookies]

@waluigitheanti

@waluigitheanti How can Snoke form a bond between Rey and Kylo when he hadn’t even met Rey yet? I take it you don’t know enough about SW lore to understand how a Force bond is created and used. Also, even after Snoke dies, Rey and Kylo still have another Force Skype session at the end. Snoke just manipulated the bond.

“It was I who bridged your minds.” ~ Snoke

^ That’s a line in the movie.

Yes, and have you ever considered he's just telling a half truth or whatever and that he actually just amplified what was already there? From all the Star Wars games and comics I've played and read, dark side force users are well known to be extremely manipulative and disingenuous. They'll twist the truth around or just straight up lie. Snoke as the antagonist is no exception. He even admitted earlier in the film that he manipulates Hux. He goads Kylo and Hux together to have them play off each other.

@waluigitheanti Reshoots were done to add in the broom boy, take out an exchange b/t Rose and Finn, change Holdo’s condescending attitude, and fix Carrie’s scenes after her death

See? They changed parts of the movie after you claimed the entire script was finalized.

I never used the word "finalized" I said the papers had to be ready in order to start filming. Of course revisions can be made even after the original draft is locked in, but I doubt Rian has the time to sit at his laptop and wait for the next fanfic update and then when the update comes he reads the thousands and thousands of words and immediately calls the department heads to tell them he needs to revise the script for the 100th time and then print & redistribute the 100th revised script.

@waluigitheanti What specifically from the BTS trailer was not included in the movie? Rian said he had 3+ hours of footage that he loved but had to cut down

Finn’s outfit in the BTS trailer is from his cut scene with Paige, which was cut because apparently Rian couldn’t fit a scene of him talking to Rose about Paige in the script, and the fact that they completely filmed the Finn & Paige scene before he decided to cut it makes it very clear that he didn’t finish the script 100% until the very end.

I just rewatched the BTS. By Finn's outfit you mean the one where he's wearing Poe's jacket? Every BTS scene of John Boyega is just him giggling with Kelly Marie Tran and/or Daisey. Or a solo shot of him looking somewhere. How do you know there was supposed to be a cutscene with Finn and Paige? Besides, it wouldn't make sense to have a scene of Finn and Paige together since Finn is supposed to be in a coma at the beginning and Paige was always meant to be killed off. Also, from the article the fanfic author created, I don't remember her mentioning anything about Finn and Paige when she listed the comparisons between her fanfic and TLJ. So if it was meant to be in the script but Johnson had to cut it out, it's not even related to the author's fanfic anyhow.

@waluigitheanti and do explain how he is racist, sexist, and homophobic?

He removed the female lead of the new trilogy’s entire character and just turned her into a vessel to try to redeem a fascist (and has talked in interviews and shit about how she should be destroyed even more so said fascist can fuck somebody). And a whole lot of racist shit was in the movie too (see fandomshatepeopleofcolour for a start). And he supports Call Me By Your Name, a movie that romanticizes gay minors dating adults (in other words, supports pedophiles preying on gay children).

Bastila and Revan are an iconic SW couple and Bastila was basically a, as you would put it, "vessel to try to redeem a fascist" just like Rey, but not a single person blinks at that. In fact, fans love how Bastila was the reason Revan turned good out of his love for her. Luke Skywalker's wife from the comics also turned good out of their love for each other. But she was Palpatine's right hand woman, an assassin who slaughtered countless as a Sith. She straight up told Luke she was going to kill him per Palpatine's order and yet they end up married and having babies. Again, no one blinks an eye at that. Idk what interviews you've seen but all the dozens of interviews I've watched Rian in, never has he mentioned a thing about destroying Rey's character for any reason. In fact, in one interview, he told people to check out Kelly Marie Tran's Instagram because he thinks her stuff is pure gold. I went to her Instagram and he is constantly liking her posts like a fanboy. I can't say anything about "Call Me By Your Name" yet since I haven't seen it but I'll check it out later.

Btw the format here is weird bc I'm on my phone lol