#pearlcaddy.ask

[pearlcaddy]

what's your favourite locklyle moment?

Ooh, I feel like this changes minute-to-minute for me. On average, it's probably something in the 1x04 bandaging scene, but right now I'm especially feral about "Frankly, you're more of a liability than an asset." After spending her whole life only being valued when she's an asset, Lucy finally has someone tell her that they "can't give her up" when she's a liability, that she is valuable in and of herself even if she is a burden. Lockwood begs her to stay even if she makes his life harder sometimes.

Obviously it's partly a joke from Lockwood, but it's also not, and it's very near and dear to me because it's what she (and everyone) deserves, especially with her backstory.

(Also the fact that he then looks at her lips and she looks at his. The way that they both interpret the line and the moment as romantic. Feral, I tell you. Absolutely feral.)

ask me about my favorites!

[pearlcaddy]

Fandom & Fanworks Positivity Ask Game

What do you like most about participating in [fandom]?

What is your favorite thing about sharing your fanworks?

What inspires you to keep creating fanworks?

What are your favorite types of fanworks to make?

What are your favorite types of fanworks to see/read/listen to etc.?

What has been one of your favorite fandom experiences?

What is one of your favorite ways to participate in fandom?

Who are three fanwork creators (fic writers, gifmakers, artists, meta writers, etc.) that you love seeing on your dash?

What’s a fanwork that made you laugh?

What’s a fanwork that made you cry?

What’s a fanwork that made you squeal?

What’s a fanwork that changed how you view canon?

What is one of your favorite underrated parts of canon for [fandom]?

What is one of your favorite pieces of fanon for [fandom]?

What three fanworks are you the proudest of making?

Are there fanworks in [fandom] that you’ve revisited multiple times?

What’s a favorite comment or tag you’ve gotten on your work?

What fanwork of yours would you like more fans to check out?

What fanwork by someone else would you like more fans to check out?

What is something you’ve learned by participating in fandom?

What is a recent fic you read for [fandom] that you enjoyed?

Tag someone who brings great vibes to [fandom]!

What is your favorite online space for participating in fandom (tumblr, AO3, Discord, Twitter, etc.) and what do you like about it?

What’s a behind-the-scenes fact that people might not know about how you made [fanwork]?

What unique thing do you think you bring to [fandom]?

What do you love about your own fanworks?

What do you love about the fanworks in [fandom]?

What have you learned about your creative process by making fanworks?

Reblog something you’ve made that you love and share something you love about it!

For questions with [fandom], please specify a fandom!

[pearlcaddy]

29 for the wrapped fic vibes?

29. Don't Get In My Way by Zack Hemsey

Ooh this one was very difficult, cause it feels like an edgier, angrier Juke than I tend to write. But:

I'm too many years in the zone Too many years to have built what I own And many dumb fool try to take what I've grown But these roots go deep and you can't blood a stone

Aged-up Jukebox AU where Julie and Luke are separately famous. Bobby steals Luke's songs and looks set to record them as Trevor and win a bunch of awards for his stolen goods. To make matters worse, the label backs Bobby in the dispute and refuses to investigate further.

But with rumors circling about Bobby's theft, Julie figures out that all of the songs on Bobby's first album were written by and stolen from her mother. When Julie realizes that Bobby's first hit, Wake Up, was supposed to be a private gift for Julie from Rose on her deathbed, Julie hits the roof. She wants to spark a media storm about it, but without evidence, her team warns her that she could be on the hook for major legal trouble.

Instead, she reaches out to Luke to do a revenge collab. Writing an album of furious masterpieces that will 1) point the finger at Bobby with just enough plausible deniability, and 2) hopefully be good enough to beat Bobby's knockoffs come award season.

And what if they fell in love along the way? haha jk... unless???

Send me a number between 1 and 101 and I'll tell you what Jukebox fic I would write based on the corresponding song from my Spotify Wrapped playlist!

[pearlcaddy]

8, 31, 34 for the ask game :)

8. do you prefer week-to-week content, or just binging all in one go?

Ooh, so with more episodic shows, I really enjoy having the story stretched out week-to-week (and also being forced to have self-control with my TV watching.) It's like inviting a bunch of beloved friends into my house once a week. But with serialized shows I can get really impatient, and I also love that feeling when you watch a show for hours on end and the real world dissolves for a wee bit and gets replaced with this amazing fictional universe.

So it depends on the show and the viewing experience I'm looking for.

31. do you use subtitles while watching TV if you can?

Subtitles my beloved! Though it's a point of contention when I watch with my partner because he finds them distracting, so with shared shows, whoever is suffering more makes the final call.

34. what are your top 5 shows right now?

Lockwood & Co., Abbott Elementary, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Miss Scarlet and the Duke, and Shadow and Bone!

Thanks for the ask!

TV ask game!

[pearlcaddy]

77 for your Spotify wrapped xx

77. Waves by Imagine Dragons

💚💚 I’d love to have a fic idea for something you’ve actually seen, but I’m deep in my JatP feels, so may I offer you my out-of-context OTP?

Time doesn't hear if you ask it to wait

So own all your tears and just roll with the waves

An AU fic where Julie and Luke used to be childhood best friends until they had a messy falling out in high school because Julie’s mom got sick at the same time that Luke started fighting a lot with his mom. Julie felt like Luke was taking time with his mom for granted, and Luke felt like Julie wasn’t being empathetic enough with the fact that not all families are functional and healthy, and it turned into a nasty fight that neither of them knew how to take back.

Ten years later, they’re established musicians on the rise who haven’t spoken since high school. Julie’s home for Christmas and normally Luke never visits his family, but that year Emily (Luke’s mom) is in a car crash. So the fic is Luke going back to the city, coming to terms with his complicated feelings about his parents, and making up with Julie with the benefit of time and perspective.

Because obviously the only way I’d write a Christmas romance fic is if it was also a bittersweet reflection on how messy parent-child relationships can be.

Send me a number between 1 and 101 and I'll tell you what Jukebox fic I would write based on the corresponding song from my Spotify Wrapped playlist!

[pearlcaddy]

#3 for a fic your would write??

3. Moon Call by Diamond Thug

This is more inspired by the vibes of the song than the lyrics, but:

Aged-up Jukebox AU where, post-Rose's death and post-Bobby's song theft fallout, Luke and Julie are strangers who decide to hike the Pacific Crest Trail alone for six months while they emotionally recover and try to figure out what they want to do next, re: music. They happen to start hiking on the same day (it's the soulmatism) and even though they're hiking at different paces, they run into one another a lot. After a couple close calls with nature that the other person helps them out of, they realize it's safer to hike the rest of the trail together. A fic that would be heavy on vibes and emotions, and light on plot. All about bonding and healing and reconnecting with music.

Send me a number between 1 and 101 and I'll tell you what Jukebox fic I would write based on the corresponding song from my Spotify Wrapped playlist!

[pearlcaddy]

For the Spotify wrapped Fic ask. #100 which should be Feeling Good by Nina Simone (wanted to pick a song I knew. 😁) Which may be cheating but... 🤷‍♀️

100. Feeling Good by Nina Simone

It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life For me And I'm feeling good

Okay, so timeloop AU where Jukebox used to be childhood best friends who were in the greatest band ever (according to eight-year-old Luke). Tragically, the Molinas moved away and Jukebox haven't spoken since. Flashforward fifteen years. After the fallout with Bobby and Emily, Luke runs away from home and (unbeknownst to him) moves to the city where Julie's going to university. Unable to play since Rose's death, Julie decides to drop her vocal major on the same day that Luke tells Alex and Reggie that he's dropping out of Sunset Curve because he's done with music. Which, of course, triggers a timeloop. In order to break out, Julie and Luke need to find each other and bring each other back to music. And if they fall in love along the way, who could blame me?

Send me a number between 1 and 101 and I'll tell you what Jukebox fic I would write based on the corresponding song from my Spotify Wrapped playlist!

[pearlcaddy]

What’s your favourite Lockwood & Co. episode?? You got me hooked on it lol

Yesss that makes me very happy. Step into the L&Co web!

That's a hard question, cause there's honestly not an episode that I don't like, which is pretty rare. There are gems in every single one.

But, as the consummate Locklyle trash that I am, I have to give it to 1.06. "I thought this was the best thing to ever happen to us," Lockwood desperately trying to break through the trapdoor to save her, the HAND HOLD, "we're your team," "save your kisses for whatsherface," "i'm sorry. for not asking. and for your friend," "it belonged to someone i was very close to," "so it's just us? is that alright?" their excited faces over the not-a-date date, THE HUSBAND-WIFE AT A DINNER PARTY VIBES, "horseradish? why can't they just use gravy?" the laugh when she hates networking, the watching her leave, the necklace hold, "you feel safe with him. mr lockwood.", "like a date? is that so hard to believe?" "portland row is my home. you and george," battle couple in the library, "this party is dead wanna ditch it with me? absolutely."

help i've made myself unwell and need to collapse and scream

ask me about my favorites!

[pearlcaddy]

2, 4 (muahahaha the drama) (or 5 if you’d like to skip the drama 😂) and 9

2. if you could have saved one TV show from cancellation, which one would it be?

On the one hand, the answer is JatP for obvious reasons. But honestly, aside from the Caleb cliffhanger which I always forget about because I never rewatch that scene because why would i subject myself to 1) nick 2) nick dropping by julie's house uninvited 3) nick's ridiculous head twist I'm satisfied with JatP as is. I would have loved more, but we can read the final hug scene as the boys coming back to life, like they were going to eventually anyways, and given how deus ex machina the magic hug is already, Willie also comes back to life because why not? Power of friendship! HEA!

So my actual answer has to be Pitch, because it was cut off after only ten amazing episodes on a horrible cliffhanger and there was so much story and character development left untold.

4. are there any shows you wish could just be cancelled already?

Not really, because if I think a show should be cancelled already, I'm probably not watching it anymore and its continued existence doesn't impact me. That being said, I always do a double take when I see how many seasons Grey's Anatomy has been running for because how.

5. what’s your comfort show?

Answered here!

9. what’s one show you thought you’d hate but turned out to really enjoy?

Normal People. I didn't like the first episode, and if my partner hadn't been into it, I would have stopped watching. I'm really glad I pushed through because it's such a beautiful love and character story, has one of my favorite ships of all time, and has some of my favorite episodes of television of all time.

So shoutout to my partner for seeing what I didn't in that first episode!

TV ask game!

[pearlcaddy]

15, 16 & 30 😘

15. do you feel like there are any overrated TV show formats?

Not really, in that the word overrated always makes me feel like an obnoxious hipster judging people for liking something popular, and that's not really the vibe I'm aiming for in life.

That being said, I have a lot of ethical concerns with reality TV shows that make people without media training look like assholes on international TV and then send them back to their lives without properly supporting them. I wouldn't say that any particular reality format is overrated, but I really wish there was less production of reality TV shows until industries and audiences learned how to appropriately respond to and handle the real people whose lives are impacted by being on TV.

16. do you feel like there are any underrated TV show formats?

I don't know if underrated is the right word for this, but I feel like the multicamera sitcom is underappreciated as a televisual format. There's something about the way it translated a theatrical performance style to television to make use of live broadcasting that's kind of magical to me, and it's sad to me that the format has been delegitimized and associated mostly with cringey humor and laugh tracks.

... that being said, there are very few new multicam sitcoms that I enjoy because I find the humor cringey and I really dislike the ones that use laugh tracks, so I'm on the wrong side of my own argument, whoops.

30. what’s one show you could probably write a 2,000 word essay on, and what would be your topic?

Me, a media studies PhD student nervously eyeing my 80k+ thesis: welllll

Normally I'd say Buffy, but the thing I've been thinking about tonight is JatP and the way that people in fandom (particularly adults) were so quick to dismiss the label of children's show because they felt that that label 1) had a negative connotation, and 2) was at odds with the nuanced depiction of things like grief. I always get annoyed by the way people insist that a show is no longer a children's show if they think it's good, and then they complain that the remaining things they'll acknowledge as children's media are bad.

So a 2k rant about how JatP's use of tropes from children's media enabled it to tell a nuanced and powerful story about grief, because this scholar is fueled by spite.

TV ask game!

[pearlcaddy]

39 for the spotify wrapped fic thing <3

39. Soothsayer by Zack Hemsey

A favorite lyric to give the ~vibe~ of the song:

A mere 14, her look was of despair This gift seemed more of a curse that she bears And she spoke of how there is much that's unknown That she sees but part of a future unfold

So I'm picturing a Jukebox high school soulmate(-ish) AU. Julie and Luke are a year apart in school and are lowkey enemies by association, because back in elementary school, Luke accused Bobby of stealing his songs, and Bobby's cousin Carrie (who at the time was one of Julie's best friends) sided with Bobby and declared Luke Enemy No. 1. Because they're not in the same year, Julie and Luke have never had classes together, and most of their interactions were back when they were, like, eight, and Julie was defending Bobby. It happened so long ago that Julie's never questioned the events as they played out, even though she and Carrie aren't friends anymore. So Luke and Julie aren't hardcore enemies, but they're have vague, longstanding grudges that mean they've never really interacted or talked.

But when Julie's sophomore and Luke's junior year turns into a nightmare for both of them (for respective mother reasons), they start getting visions of the most painful moments that will happen in each other's short-term futures. But you can't just tell a stranger that you're having visions of intensely private and painful moments of their life, so they don't ever tell the other person or talk about it.

Until Julie has a vision of Luke dying in the ambulance at some point in the future. She doesn't know anything other than that he dies, and she has to find a way to stop it.

Obviously in the process of trying to figure out how Luke dies, Jukebox become friends and fall in love, etc etc

Soulmate AU only because they're having visions about each other because they're soulmates

Send me a number between 1 and 101 and I'll tell you what Jukebox fic I would write based on the corresponding song from my Spotify Wrapped playlist!

[pearlcaddy]

about the scenes in ur fics that sticked to me: everything related to julie's death in "some killer queen you are" completely changed my life forever like that shit had me sobbing uncontrollably for a hot 20 minutes. but there was this moment in "the other shoe" that flynn explains to julie how the gang discovered she died because of this sound of pure anguish and pain coming from luke and they knew that the only thing capable of making him sound like that was her dying ... god god woman this BROKE me im not joking. had to put my phone down and breath for a sec. the picture it painted in my head... i've never been the same

I keep forgetting how angsty that verse can get at times, but I'm really flattered that it left an impression because those scenes were so challenging to write.

what scene from one of my fics, if any, still sticks in your head and that you can visualize?

[pearlcaddy]

Luke finding it really hot when someone is an expo god lives rent free in my brain. What a great character trait to be someone who finds extreme competence hot. (It's me. I am Luke in this scenario.)

Watching someone completely in their element has a special kind of magic to it that Luke 🤩😍 Patterson is canonically susceptible to--I'm really glad you enjoyed that verse's take on it!

what scene from one of my fics, if any, still sticks in your head and that you can visualize?

[pearlcaddy]

#47 for the Spotify wrapped fic asks??

Hope you’re well! ☺️

47. Give That Wolf a Banana by Subwoolfer

Okay, so this song is completely unhinged--anyone who hasn't heard it should really experience it--and I genuinely would have no idea how to write a Juke fic based on the song itself. (If someone wants to pitch one, please share it in my ask box because I'm so curious.)

So the best I can do:

Aged-up Jukebox AU where the band is together and Jukebox are mutual pining. Luke is insisting to Alex, Reggie, and Willie that he has chemistry with everyone he sings with no matter what the song is. It's not about Julie, it's not about the fact that they keep accidentally co-writing secret love songs for the band to perform, it's just that he oozes chemistry. Nothing to see here. The other guys are basically like, "hmm we're definitely going to test that theory."

Cue a karaoke night where they keep daring Luke to perform a bunch of increasingly ridiculous songs as chemistry-laden duets with everyone in their friend group/the bar, and Luke's sort of managing it, but nothing is really replicating that classic Juke duet tension. Mostly as a joke, Willie volunteers Luke to do Give That Wolf a Banana with Julie, and somehow they end up performing it with Finally Free levels of mic share tension. (Please picture Luke softly singing "Not sure you have a name, so I will call you Keith" à la the final line of EoG.)

When the song finally ends, a tipsy Reggie, not realizing how loud he's talking or that the track has finished, says, "Chemistry with everyone, my ass. They're in love." Which forces Juke to finally talk about their feelings, and--in a shocking twist--they are in love.

Give That Wolf a Banana ends up being the first dance at their wedding, the end.

Send me a number between 1 and 101 and I'll tell you what Jukebox fic I would write based on the corresponding song from my Spotify Wrapped playlist!

[pearlcaddy]

it’s gotta be the unique internal voice that lends incredible depth to characters’ emotional states. thinking about julie’s musing her first day abroad and her lone bus trip in will you still know me in a year and ‘i love you, join the band’ in disaster hufflepuff and julie singing ‘wake up’ alone in her room + the fuck it dawg life’s a risk/here we fucking go motifs in casual, casual easy thing

This is forcing me to confront that I go through life by aggressively muttering slogans in my head. 😆 But I love that it translates into a trademark of my writing!

[pearlcaddy]

💞 & 🍭 (& also 🕯️)!

💞 what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

A combination of character and plot--the character journeys. If there isn't something evolving through the story, even a little bit, I have a hard time feeling invested in it as a writer.

🍭 why did you start writing?

In terms of writing in general, I've basically always been doing it. Before I could write, I told stories to inanimate objects. Telling stories is the truest home I've ever had.

In terms of writing fic, my first fics looked inside characters' POVs in canon TV scenes (in retrospect, very funny given my love of AU.) It was basically a way for me to exorcise the meta and headcanons I had of scenes that gave me brainrot.

Apparently there are two 🕯️ on the list, so I'll answer both:

🕯️ was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

Not the way that I think this questions means--personally, the closer something cuts to the bone, the more joy I get out of making it. Something being heavy or personal is a relief to me rather than a difficulty.

The things that are hardest for me to write are the things where my plot bunnies pull me into writing something outside my comfort zone, in terms of topic/content/style/technique. The fic that most did that is something I didn't write as pearlcaddy, and it pushed me into learning a lot of new technical skills. It's my proud, anonymous lil "never thought I could write that!" fic.

🕯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

Fandom can create a lovely sense of community (ao3cotd puts it rather beautifully here.) When people support each other and engage with the fanworks they like, we create a beautiful environment of validation and encouragement.

As someone who sometimes gets very stressed and exhausted by social situations, the key is just observing your energy levels and boundaries. I participate when and as I can, and I try to ignore the guilt when I can't. And if a particular environment/group/person is making me uncomfortable or unsafe or just generally bringing bad vibes (particularly if those bad vibes start to impact my life outside fandom), I block and unfollow as needed.

That balance is key. We have a tremendous ability to lift each other up and support each other, but we all have to find our own ways to make that sustainable.

send me fic writer asks!