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mab1905 · 4 years

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Things I needed to get off my chest, referring to the last epsiode of Supernatural.

WARNING: EVERYTHING YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ IS A PERSONAL OPINION, IF THIS FACT GETS YOU HEATED THEN GET OFF MY PROPERTY.

WARNING: (PART TWO) I USE THE WORD QU**R — UNCENSORED — AS A GENERAL TERM FOR THE LGBTQ COMUNITY, I ALSO USE IT AS A PERSONAL SEXUAL IDENTITY. IF THIS WORD TRIGGERS YOU THEN KEEP SCROLLING PAST THIS POST.

We all knew how this was going to end. Whether you’ve watched forever or stopped years ago or have never seen it but know the jist because of all the shit that’s been going around tumblr; you knew how this was going to end. And it was never going to be explicitly queer, it just wasn’t. Somehow, despite knowing that, it still hurts like a motherfucker. I’m disturbed. I’m actually disturbed. I’m disturbed as a queer man, I’m disturbed as a fan of the show, as a fan of the writers, as a fan of Misha (who is all good in my books because we all knew he put his heart and soul into that fucking confession scene despite knowing the horseshit that was gonna follow). So let me break this down.

Part One: The episode, in of itself, kinda just sucked.

The begining I liked— I thought, okay, some reminiscent stuff, they said it would be like older episodes, they’re referencing shit, they got a dog, okay sure. This is sweet. J2 knocking it out of the park with all the brotherly banter. I laughed, it was nice. The introduction of the monster was scary, an elevated classic. Some good old dean and Sam torturing the monster, I’m digging it. Going to some rusty old building, suspense where you see the monster in the background, a good time, you know? But that death scene— w o w. Now, I actually like the idea of Dean dying suddenly with something seemingly so small and trivial, (great life ends with a whisper not a scream, right?), but it was TOO sudden. It came out of nowhere in a bad way. The whole fight, them finding the monster, the brief flashback to someone from a past epsiode we had all forgotten about, it just felt so rushed. Rushed to the point where, throughout the entire death, I was just waiting for Dean to smile and say “sike.” I literally couldn’t believe it, and not because I was sad; how it happened, how it was written, was so awkward that I couldn’t believe they actually had it happen. I actually didn’t believe it until Dean’s body was burning. That’s how in shock I was. And even though Jared and Jensen were acting their asses off and doing a great job of it, it didn’t effect me emotionally at all, cause it just felt so weird, like I couldn’t take it seriously. Then that feeling lasted throughout the rest of the epsiode. Every thing that happened after that felt forced and unnatural. Like I was watching the YouTube Original knockoff of my favorite HBO show. It didn’t even end with Dean and Sam in the Impala. Them looking at the lego pieces stuck in the air vent or putting in a cassette tape and letting a NOT COVER VERSION of Wayward Son play. Why the fuck were they on a bridge.

Part Two: Cas.

It would have been almost better, if they hadn’t said anything at all. If it was just Dean and Sam for the entire epsiode and that’s it. I could have gotten behind that. But the second they made some half assed comment about moving on and sacrifice, it was fucking over. Any respect I had for this show was thrown out the window because I knew he wouldn’t be mentioned again (and I was genuinly shocked when he was). I wasn’t expecting a kiss, or for them to hold hands, or even for Dean to reciprocate at all, but that? What they fucking did? Every single bit of character development, every scene, every amazing bit of acting, all of it to feel like it was essentially thrown away with “we gotta just move past it.” We all knew it was a queer bait, we knew it from the begining, and I had prepared myself to be disappointed from the moment I started watching this show, but that just made me angry. Really truly angry. And no it’s not just a fucking TV show. It’s the longest running sci-fi show to date, it was the spec of queer representation people latched onto during their childhoods a grew up with, it is what influenced the lives of hundreds of thousands of people— and for them to essentially take the queer character that so many people had associated with and looked up to and seen themselves in and trusted and used to keep them going, and just push them aside and say that’s okay? They actually looked at that, they looked at the two lines this character who carried the entire show on his back was mentioned in, and said that’s okay? Again, I prepared for it, but to see it done so damn shamelessly, so blantanly, was just a fucking punch to the gut. Like I never truly realized how little they cared until now. I’ve been abused and bullied on the basis of my sexuality before, and it really does feel similar, certainly not as bad, but similar, because it’s coming from the exact same place in their minds. Even if they don’t truly mean to be homophobic or hurtful, that part of their brains told them this was okay to do to the people who had followed them and sung their praises for years. Well guess what. You’re done. You can leave now, thanks, but no thanks.

Part Three: Paint a Rainbow On Your Impala

I told my friend this, who has been watching the show for longer than I have, and who owns two toy model impalas: “keep your impala and paint a rainbow on it and hang it on your wall because fuck those assholes we didn’t need them to make it gay we did it ourselves.” I will not be boycotting the show entirely, and neither should you. I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to watch another full episode after this. That was it. That was really just... too fucking much. So that’s it. But I’m not going to pretend I won’t look up my favorite scenes once and a while. I’m not going to stop loving Cas, I’m not going to stop loving Misha ‘cause it’s not his fault for what the writers did. I’m gonna write a better ending in my head and read a fanfic and read metas from a few years ago and maybe make a gay crack video— because that’s the part of this that made me really happy. The queer part. The unashamed, open, diverse, amazing and wild queerness of this fandom and the development of this character. The part that the community built despite knowing the bullshit the show was putting us through. We held up this dumbass show because we had made an entire queer subculture for it to stand on. And maybe the source material is bullshit, but that’s real. That’s so fucking real and that on its own brings in enough representation for anyone too feel accepted and seen and heard. Music is very important to me, almost unmatched by anything else actually. I use it as comfort, as communication, as esacpe, as focus. I have a playlist for everything, and I have never in my life deleted a single one of them. It may seem like a small thing, but trust me it’s just one of those habits that’s built into my code and is so important to me. I was on the verge of deleting my SPN playlist, even just looking at it reminded me of how disturbed and wronged I felt. It was just so shitty and it made me feel shitty and it made anything connected to it feel shitty. But I came to the decision, that this is my fucking playlist, and Cas is our queer character, and he’s going to have lunch with the Crystal Gems and She-Rah and Deet’s dads from The Dark Crystal, and we are going to celebrate our own queerness within this community, and we are going to play “Angel With a Shotgun” SO loud and paint rainbows on our impalas and write the most passive aggressive fix-it fics we can and revel in this fandom and I will never touch another epsiode because F U C K. T H E M.

#supernatural #last episode #spn 15x20 #castiel #dean #sam #misha collins #spn #gay #lgbtq #pride #fuck em all we made it gay #queer representation

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flyingcatstiel · 4 years

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1of2 Tired of metas blaming executives / defending writers. Writers can write horrible endings. Proof - GOT, HIMYM, Lost etc. Executives didn't force those bad endings. Reading all these conspiracy theories feels like I am listening to Trump. Executives are homophobic but ok with incestous ending? I asked my SO (who never watched SPN) to watch SPN final with me. I quote him "didn't you say they are brothers. It almost looks like they are going to kiss - Ewww - is this what you want me to watch?"

2of2 Even if we look at bottom line - Executives - apparently don't care the fact that Destiel was trending FIRST world wide - in middle of pandemic, middle of historic US elections - such free publicity to gain more viewers and money - but they care about incestous endings which grossed out lot of people. I wish these metas and conspiracy theorists stop baiting people and stop defending writers. Even before covid - Dabb had intended for this bad ending with proof that only 30% will like it.

Oh, nonnie. If you have sent this just 2 days ago, I’d be there with you, all salty about metas defending writers. Today tho, after going through some serious posts about the CW involvement with the show, about Russian market, about professional dubbing practices I have my thoughts in different order.

So, from what I’ve seen so far (barely past midnight November 26 in the US as of writing this). Jensen went to re record audio stuff for 15x18, most likely Cas confession scene. Now we have info from Latin America (2 separate dubs) that Dean actually reciprocated Cas’s love declaration and only after that The Empty took Cas. Nonnie, this changes everything. The first thing so many viewers noticed and commented on was the weird way the scene was cut and how little emotions Dean showed. The running gag on twitter was that Jensen is homophobic and Misha strong-armed him into that scene. Non shipper said that it was platonic love declaration from Cas, coming out of nowhere. But most importantly, we, shippers were robbed from proper celebration of our ship going canon. After 12 years of sticking with the ship, they still took it from us. This is totally on the CW shoulders.

But also, this means that destiel was at some point greenlit by the executives to be reciprocated in canon. Until someone at the CW backpaddled in late September. The writers are not responsible for this, they are victims of these changes as well. Dean’s answer changes the emotional beats of several scenes in 15x19 in addition to the scenes that were cut. 15x19 has that strange montage at the very end which most likely was added to cover cut scenes, say like Lucifer, Jack and Cas scene in the empty? Because if Misha was in 15x19, that would mean that the prank call was never meant to be his last contribution. I mean, the disrespect to the fans, the writers and Misha, all in one episode.

And then there’s 15x20 which looks so weird that a lot of fans immediately said that it is a butchered episode. Thing is, we have no idea what kind of script was written pre covid, how much it was changed and when, and how much was cut out from filmed episode. I’ve seen posts sayin that the script for 15x20 was still in rewrites when they finished filming for 15x18. Which is very, very late for a shooting script. I personally think that Dean’s death was the thing Jensen disliked so much, but even then - we don’t know how it was framed in earlier scripts and how they arrived at that horrific scene in 15x20.

I’m not saying that SPN writers are the most amazing TV writers out there, and I look forward times when we will be able to discuss all problematic stuff SPN is filled to the brim with, but. We just don’t know what exactly happened in the SPN writing room and how much executives meddled with it. COVID happened. Nothing of this is normal. This is why the most important thing right now is to pressure the CW for some answers. Look at them throwing Misha under the bus today. That tells you bunches how well they know fandom and how to manipulate us.

Now about that incestuous scene, aka Dean’s death, and why homophobic executives would be OK with it but not canon destiel. Under the cut we go, mostly for space reasons.

Ok, this is so funny but I actually just finished writing my second answer about wincest in 15x20 and had problems posting it and that’s how I learned that we broke tumblr and destiel went canon in spanish. Here’s my post, check it out bc I’m not repeating it here.

I think wincest, aka incest between two able bodied, adult male brothers is something casual viewer outside the fandom is not even thinking about. If it was sister/brother deal with intimate embrace, people would notice faster. But two masculine, 6 ft tall macho dudes during the death scene? Nope. Here comes plausible deniability which viewers also use to ignore anything “funny” between Dean and Cas. I’m glad that you and your partner noticed incest vibes, but, I’ve see plenty people even in destiel fandom being fine with such scenes between Sam and Dean. I’ve seen some destiel fans saying that they really loved 15x20, so, there are viewers out there for whom it worked.

Now let’s look at the bottom line. TBH, I’ve no idea where to look? Where is the projected revenues for a show that is ending? You say that Destiel trending during pandemic is a proof that our fandom is huge, but. No one knew that we had such power! And trending on twitter is not something that translates into money easily. And it happened 2 weeks before finale. There’s no time to change finale anymore. I personally think that destiel fandom has been shrinking for past couple of years, since so many folks left due to bad writing and queerbaiting. But they came back for tweeting. At this point destiel is bigger than it’s fandom. I personally think that the CW would have benefited from canon destiel, but they made different call.

I agree with you that in general, fandom should not defend the writers so much and ought to be more critical about the stuff they write, but today, November 26, 2020, the game is happening on completely different plane. I’m pretty sure that we got a butchered finale, and I’m very much inclined to believe that it is somehow connected to their efforts to promote The Walker show. Maybe Dabb’s original finale was really bad, but show me the script then. If destiel was supposed to be reciprocated, then they might have gone overboard with bro love in Dean’s death scene. Only now, when destiel was one-sided, that scene becomes very wincesty seemingly on purpose. A good creative writing, in it’s finished form, is a very tightly woven fabric. You pull out some threads, you unravel whole fabric. And that’s what 15x20 is.

2 days ago I’d be roasting metas who defend spn writers, today I want to storm the CW. (pitchforks anyone?) Destiel shippers were robbed, queer love story was censored, this should be the focus of or anger today, not the writers or actors. We can do both - demand truth about the Cas confession scene and roast original Dabb’s ending if we ever get it.

ETA - after writing this up, I checked out some posts by blogs who debunk all conspiracies, including Spanish dub. They sound very convincing! But in that case we have to talk about long term queerbaiting that was taking place on this old CW show till the very last minute. Cas was used in promos for 15x17 he was not in. They (ppl who make promos) deliberately used Cas barn scene from 4x01 in those promos, then actual barn in 15x20 promo but somehow it is shippers who are delusional? Don’t start me on Song of the day. Angel with a shotgun for 15x19? What was that about? After 15x18 there was no official goodbye to Cas which made ppl to watch finale. Like? Even if the Spanish dub gets officially debunked by the CW and not some random blogs, we are left with the fact that destiel fandom was gaslighted during the last stretch of s15. And not only by writers.

And if this was the finale they so lovingly crafted and deemed to be good, where are the celebration of the SPN ending? Why we had to watch documentary before the episode? Why 15x20 was so short? Why Canada watched the episode first (and leaked spoilers online) They filmed after quarantine, the script had to be the usual length. And so on, fandom has been through all the things that didn’t match several times already. PITCHFORKS -> the CW

#anons #flyingcatstiel has thoughts #spn finale is a gift that keeps on giving #15x18 #15x20 #andrew dabb #te amo #wincest for ts #///#i'm putting this in the queue #and I'll try to reblog more stuff re this issue #scroll down and read my tags #destielgate #PITCHFORKS

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boglog · 6 years

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HoC Onion !

[TW mention of sexual abuse/violence]

I’m foregoing the pros/cons format here but generally-speaking my negative points are still gathered at the top w the highlights near the end.

Obviously, between letting a sex offender have a platform in mass media and potholes, I’d choose the latter. My below crits absolutely are not a demand for Spacey to be brought back and he can die in a fire for all i care. I just wish his character’s absence was not the nº1 reason for this season not making any sense

as far as i can gather, this season’s primary arc is as much about Frank’s death (in lieu of Doug’s) as it is Claire’s emotional and political divorce from Frank while she undergoes your traditional postbreakup analysis of who she was pre Frank and post Frank and were Frank actually there this idea might have legs

...but instead we have Doug ://

the level of intensity that the plot demands cannot be carried by forcing Doug into being a deeper character than he was intended, all the way until the end, he truly just reads as either a pitiful sadist or a henchman. It’s disharmonious and dangerously close to bad.

Frances Underwood makes more sense if Frank dies in episode 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She’s literally going to be his reincarnation!!!!!!!

literally...who cares if Doug gets stabbed by Frank’s letter opener? whomst?

Doug can’t be Frank’s proxy, but sans a certain pedoph*le, the plot will just have to suffer.

Other side effects of Doug’s undeserved promotion include but are not limited to:

forcing Doug to share the role of antagonist with the Shepards, yet another New Villain © that feels totally unnecessary and confusing (the Conways at least got two seasons)

Frank’s diary feels forced and out of character for someone decidedly so unsentimental

How does Claire have a bun in the oven when she clearly didnt sleep with Frank for all of season 5 and locked herself in her room while he was being assassinated? How is a Dramatic paternity test not going to be insisted upon in the show’s universe?

fixation on Frank’s will as a McGuffin is really... I don't know boring considering no one cares for the guy? What property of his does claire stand to lose? I’m sure the rich people fandom can speculate but i honestly needed this manifested in the show via some examples instead of the grand abstraction that is The Will bc losing Frank’s assets would set Claire back but it would not directly threaten her presidency. Not to mention that i’m not entirely sure Frank’d have Doug of all people as his sole heir if it didn't serve as revenge against Claire, which just lowers Doug’s importantance even more

Frank never cared for Doug, a largely unlikeable character, which we already knew from the beginning, so Doug’s entire arc is pathetic at best as well as his tangential inclusion in the Cliare v Frank arc

My major problems with Doug’s character began as early as season 4.

Did not understand why they didn't actually have Doug switch sides by joining the Dunbar campaign in earnest in season 4. Like... it’s such an obvious opportunity to Thicken The Plot © that it’s reached this gif levels of dropping the ball:

P much everything about Doug’s character since then is just so.... lacking, while for the last few seasons they give him depth when he magically has empathy for one (1) woman before she dies (possibly as a direct result of his actions). This entire plot about him evaluating why he was so loyal to Frank could've been unpacked whilst he avoids Dunbar finding out about the murders he did commit. I’d rather him having agency than be a flat, troubled underling.

Aright I'm going to stop complaining about Doug. In season 3 and 4, his insecurity over being replaced and his sacrifices for Frank (and subsequent guilt) came close to giving us a real Moment with him as we delve more into how colourless his life outside of work really is. But beyond that, when his character started getting repetitive, there’s very little to compensate for his alternating acts of extreme narcissism/violence versus his childish confusion / self pity when he doesn’t get what he wants.

Anyways I'm basically at a point where I’d be okay if Frank’s long-lost cousin replaced Doug replacing Frank

I’m appreciating the writers’ distinct refrain from plot formats and that the seasons progressively move towards the Underwoods but what if just for circularity and added balance we return to having a full-on reporter B plot in s6? More emphasis on Janine and Tom’s sleuthing, culminating in Tom’s assassination and Janine publishing the tell-all expose against Frank---including a reference to Zoe---that becomes the magnum opus of her career (and Claire using that against Frank). I just think the season needed more balance that Doug, the Shepards and Tom were not offering

The Shepards and Tom, meanwhile, are decidedly banal. First of all, I had a hard time even telling Bill and Tom apart esp given that they were introduced one after the other. All white guys are the same.

Bill just kind of sits around until he has a platform to reference his favourite action movies doesn't he?

Moreover what does Tom do!? he doesn't want power, he doesnt seem to want anything. He’s just kind of there?

Unlike the Conways, the Shepards don’t have a clear goal and are not often in direct conflict with Claire the way Frank and Conway were. They want to control the presidency for money and Claire is always bouncing back from reliving her girlhood to political rivalry w Anette, yes, but what does that mean? What are the consequences? The logistics are so indirect and complicated, what precisely does Anette want? And why does anyone care? The Shepards are extremely boring.

Frank’s asides were purple and long af so I appreciate Claire’s succinct style not to mention her fantastic screen presence. I’m left to wonder, though, if maybe hers and every other aside in HoC is a little too on the nose. Like, they didn't hafta spell it out that the bird in the wall was a representation of Frank’s shadow trapping her, I think we got that

The artistic intercuts to Claire’s troubled childhood wherein a group of bullies coerce her into stripping naked through the forest, while visually stunning and clever for its self-explanatory nature, feel really passive. They don't visually show us any reason for her not to resist, the bullies even let her keep her clothes after cutting them off her so we’re left to wonder why she does nothing....

Claire was raised to be ~proper~ so her resistance (likely) comes in the form of biting, passive-aggressive poise which is hard to get across in a silent montage but it just feels.. weird

Frances Underwood is going to have a very sad childhood

nearly all the Claire flashbacks are cinematic masterpieces and as much i think Claire’s backstory deserves more attention, i also appreciate the minimalism and the choice humanising moments of her adolescence

listen I'm sure we all agree Robin Wright is peak acting but the actor for young Claire, who has the arguably harder task of copying Wright is fantastic

Of all the characters who crop up every season seemingly out of nowhere only to disappear once more once when the plot the Underwoods are done with them, Jane is one of my favourites and possibly one of the greyest characters alive. Smart, mysterious, worldly, a bit of a hippie despite her job, severe despite her sense of humour. Really loves her extremely pedestrian surname. We stan.

Secondary characters rarely get anything close to a backstory on this show, esp ones that were introduced so late. Still, her motivations seem more complicated then others (i.e. betraying Cathy, one of two people she cares about) and I wonder if they deserve a bit more of an explanation. Especially seeing as she has a relationship with every major character.

If anyone deserves a spin-off it might be Jane and her name-dropping career/social life

Cathy faking her own death with a terrible french accent? On stan !!!

Seth teasing Doug even while he’s completely undervalued by everyone around him is a power move

Impressed that they managed three characters named Tom, their distinctly different appearances and the fact that they're almost never in the same POV shots works to separate them.

Claire using the word “female” even facetiously is cringe

Whenever they use the cinema room, the movie they watch is always symbolic. Before the 2017 election, Frank and Claire imitate the characters in Double Indemnity, and this season a pregnant claire watches Rosemary’s Baby. Clever.

i liked the whitehouse tour guide’s inclusion and the cameo from _____ though this season was especially white without their usual token secondary character

So overall i liked season 6 as an exploration of Claire’s character even while it did v little justice to most of the other characters and unfortunately spacey’s absence did affect the storyline

and finally: that cinnamontography !

Not that the series should be pushed past its prime, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see Claire as a mother?

#hoc #house of cards #robin wright #claire underwood #hoc season 6 #house of cards season 6 #u #c #onion post

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littleteatimestories · 5 years

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SAVING MILANO

-Continuation of Overweighed Milano-

(Note: Hey, fellow fans and writers! First off, Merry Christmas! It has been a while ever since I did update some drabbles and stories around here. I got really busy with work and I’ve been reading too much fanfictions lately. I’ve been going in with a few new fandoms recently. After Marvel and Assassin’s Creed, I went to Kingdom Hearts then to Transformers. From time to time, I jump from any of these aforementioned fandoms; whichever I find inspiration to. So far, you all know that I wrote many stories for AC and some for KH and Marvel. While I want to write for Transformers oh-so desperately, I don’t think I have the skills to write one since we’re talking about machines in here and I’m not really good with describing mechanical engineering stuff especially for robots. I mean, how do Transformers fanfic writers do that??

Anyway, as a little Christmas gift, here is the second part of “Overweighed Milano” series. If you don’t remember this, you can check the link above so that you could refresh yourselves of the story.

You can check more of my drabbles and stories right here. Enjoy!)

The ship crashed in a marsh. It was no ordinary swamp as it was a deep one, like a quick sand. One of the doors of the Milano opened as a certain raccoon was shooting from his cannon gun an adorable emerald-colored butterfly, which happened to be the culprit as to why their ship crash landed. He actually blamed his tree best friend for bringing such creature with him. The walking tree reasoned out that it wasn't his fault at all.

"Alright, enough about that. We all have our faults here. Rocket, you know what to do. Fix the ship," Peter instructed.

Rocket checked the ship's main engine part and it appeared it was damaged badly.

"Good news, Quill, we're short on parts," Rocket announced in a sarcastic tone as he examined the engine carefully.

The Milano shook intensely, which surprised the Guardians, as it was slowly getting itself eaten up by the swamp. Gamora declared that the ship will completely be submerged after a few hours.

"How are we going to do this then?" Claire asked. The Milano continued to descend itself into the swamp.

Rocket began to give out instructions. "Me and Groot can start with the repairs. Claire, do what you always do. Make sure that nothing, if anything is out there, will stop us from getting this ship fixed. The rest of you will have to get the parts that we need. Gamora, get me a 300 micro-frequency laser. Quill, get me a stuffed animal. A freakin’ huge one."

Before the anthropomorphic raccoon can even give his directions to Drax, Peter interrupted quickly. "Hold on a sec. That's a fake assignment."

Claire scolded him at once upon hearing him say that. "Quill, we don't have time to be complaining about that. Our ship's not going to last long.”

"Tell that to Rocket. Every time we split up, he always asks me to get something that he doesn't really need and laughs about it later."

"Hey, this one's real!" Rocket assured though it sounded like he was jesting.

"Alright, then let Drax get my part and I'll get his."

Drax laughed quietly, seemingly more interested in exchanging their assignments. Rocket huffed.

"Fine. But remember, you asked for this."

Peter smirked.

*****

Claire, as always, became the watchman. She actually preferred this job rather than getting some parts for the Milano to get fixed. As she was standing at the ship's roof and observing the area intently, she wasn’t able to notice behind her that something brown and moving came towards the ship. She then felt the unknown presence when it came into contact. She immediately turned her head at the back and saw nothing at all. She didn't shake the feeling of danger as she took out her dual pistols hidden under each of her sleeves as she went inside the ship with caution.

While in the engine room of the Milano, Rocket told Groot to start the engine so that they can detect the real problem that caused the ship to malfunction badly. Groot did just that as he went to the flight deck to test on the engines. As Rocket was continuing and trying to fix the ship, his instincts activated suddenly and he felt an unusual presence. He ran out of the engine room and looked around the Common Area. He saw a large black shadow figure far across him and this rather irked the talking raccoon.

“Really, Groot? Didn’t I tell ya to start the engine? Geez.” He climbed up to the flight deck.

It shocked him more when he saw his tree best friend already sitting on the pilot seat when he just saw him moments ago. He then questioned him as to how he was able to get here so fast. Said tree explained to him that he had been in the cockpit all along.

"We have an intruder," Rocket concluded. "That Claire. I told her to stand watch. What did she even do?" He pulled out his cannon gun and climbed down the Common Area sneakily until he was face-to-face with Claire herself, who also pointed her pistols at him.

"Claire!" he yelled. "You were supposed to be guarding the ship from intruders! Now we have one inside!" He blamed her.

"Oh I'm sorry if I'm not the perfect watchman! Why don't you do my job then?" she argued back. "Either way, we don't even know what we're dealing here."

"I am Groot? (What are we even looking for?)" Groot queried.

"Why are you asking me? I don't know! Let's just find it!" Rocket sensed something in his quarters as he stepped inside and opened his cabinet to find that 'thing'.

Claire went to Peter's room and she could just cringe on how messy his room was. Typical of him. Groot, on the other hand, went in Drax's room. While checking for anything bizarre, the door just slid closed by itself as Groot was alarmed suddenly. He pounded on it. Claire and Rocket heard the sound as both of them ran outside of the rooms they were in. A weird-looking plant monster finally showed itself up.

"Groot!" he called out to his best friend. He then took out his cannon gun again. "What did you do to him?!" He fired some shots at the monster.

Claire mimicked his actions as she also fired a few rounds from her pistols. However, even though the plant monster had taken quite some holes on its body, it healed itself, just like Groot's regeneration ability.

Rocket roared and put down his weapon as he just attacked it with his bare paws.

"Rocket!" Claire cried.

Said raccoon, though, screeched as he was somehow torched by the touch of this monster. He quickly tapped out the flames that was about to burn him. Claire came to his side and inspected him for any injuries. The plant monster dispersed itself as Groot finally got out of the room that he got trapped in.

"Groot! That thing just burned my fur!" He showed it to him.

Groot observed the area and it looked like everything was normal. He shook his head and said, "I am Groot. (There’s nothing here.)"

Rocket reasoned out with him. "You don't believe me?! Then ask Claire here! Help me out in here, sweet cheeks!" He glanced over at the said Terran female.

She stood and when she was about to open her mouth, the plant monster showed itself again. Her eyes widened as she took her pistols swiftly. "There it is!" She fired again.

"I am Groot!" Groot was surprised.

"I told you it was real!" Rocket proved as he triggered his own weapon at the monster.

The plant monster charged as Groot did the same. The two contenders pushed themselves with force when Groot lost his own strength when his tree-barked hands flamed out. He was thrown to the side and, given this opportunity, swung his arms to get the fire out. Both Rocket and Claire continued firing their weapons at the 'Man-thing', as what Rocket called it. But, the Man-thing kept on regenerating as it swayed its hand horizontally to attack the two of them in one hit. They dodged it by climbing up the flight deck.

"Come and get me!" Rocket taunted as he positioned himself on the captain’s seat. The monster did attack him and he evaded it by jumping to the co-pilot seat and pressed the 'Eject' button. The monster was sent flying out of the ship, and a kaboom was heard and witnessed afterwards. He then cackled. "That's what you get for messin' with me!"

Claire sighed in relief. "At least that's done." She went down to the Common Area to check on Groot. Rocket followed behind.

“You okay, tree?” she asked in concern.

“I am Groot (I’m okay),” he answered.

“Now that’s peaceful around here, I can continue on with fixing the engine. That stupid Man-thing just came out of nowhere,” Rocket mumbled loudly as he walked in the engine room.

"I am Groot (I have a bad feeling about this)," Groot remarked.

Claire patted his shoulder. “It’s probably gone. Rocket blew that thing up in the sky.”

Groot just remained silent and really hoped that the Man-thing was gone for good.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

#Guardians of the Galaxy #guardians of the galaxy fanfictions #gotg x oc #gotg fanfictions #littleteatimestories: oc fanfics

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starsbythepocketful12 · 7 years

Text

Alright I fucking love Lucas Sinclair, Caleb McLaughlin, Mike Hanlon and Chosen Jacobs AND THE FACT Y'ALL ONLY CARE ABOUT MILEVEN AND REDDIE AND ELMAX PISSES ME OFF BECAUSE THEY DESERVE BETTER

So many people's reason for not liking Lucas is because he was mean to El for most of season 1. For a while I felt the same. But now things have changed. Think about it this way:

You're (seemingly) one of the only black boys in your school/town. You already get bullied for being black and you know because it's Indiana 1983 most likely get a lot of crap we don't even see just for being black. Just for fucking existing.

Then one of your best friends goes missing out of nowhere. Then you find a random creepy girl with a shaved head who barely talks the exact same place your friend went missing and she has fucking superpowers which you were pretty positive weren't real until you met her. And then when you finally get a chance to maybe find your friend, the girl and her superpowers screws it up. I'd be fucking pissed too! And she barely ever even gave him a reason! And then because of her you almost fucking died!

Under these circumstances Lucas's actions make COMPLETE AND TOTAL SENSE. I would behave the same way in his situation, and don't try to tell me you wouldn't also. We as audience members know that El isn't dangerous and she isn't responsible for Will's disappearance, but Lucas doesn't! All he knows is his best friend is missing, this weird girl with superpowers is messing up his chance at finding his friend, and his other best friend is too heart eyes and clueless to even consider it.

Another thing: HE COMES AROUND IN THE END!!!!!! Character fucking development! He changes because people change! I know a really strange phenonemnon right!!!

In the last two episodes he defends El alongside Mike and Dustin with no hesitation. And in S2 he shows no anger or resentment towards her in the slightest. And in general as a character, Lucas is funny, smart, loyal, kind, sweet and thoughtful. Lucas is awesome and the fact he is not getting the appreciation he deserves is as Nancy would say, "bullshit."

And Caleb! He is also so smart and sweet and nice and talented and stylish and cool! That boy is a fashion icon! And he's so cool in interviews and he's so sweet meeting fans! Why are we ignoring him he's amazing!!!!

And Mike Hanlon! He's brilliant and brave and selfless and modest and sweet and kind and an amazing friend and deserves better than this! In the movie their treatment of his character and the fact they gave his librarian historian thing to Ben and made him more of a physical violent character is honestly just racist tbh. Also the movie spent way too much time on a stupid love triangle for the audience to actually get to know Mike as a character and like 85% of what I know about Mike is from tumblr. So let's not make the movie writers/directors mistakes. Let's give Mike the love and appreciation he deserves.

And Chosen Jacobs oh my lord!!!!! He's literally got the voice of angels I'm not even exaggerating! And he's so sweet and grateful and he's also super funny and as well as Caleb a style icon and once again deserves better than this! Y'all are too invested in stupid ass drama with Jack's girlfriend (which by the way, Jack's personal life is none of your business, stay out of it. If he wants to date Ellie let him date Ellie! It's his decision! He can make choices for himself! And stop hating on Ellie. Bullying sucks and the way I've seen people treating her is disgusting. I do not want to share a fandom with bullies.) to notice the gift that is Chosen Jacobs!

In conclusion:

Stop hating on these amazing characters and actors because they're black. Because we all know that's the truth. That's the real reason why you haven't been giving them the same love and attention you've been giving Finn or Jack. It's because they're they're the only people of color in their groups. Once again, bullshit.

#it #stranger things #lucas sinclair #mike hanlon #caleb mclaughlin #chosen jacobs

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steampunk-magicalgirl · 7 years

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I ship it!

Alright guys! It seems like we unfortunately won’t be getting any big celebration for TAU’s birthday this year. That doesn’t stop me from celebrating it in my own way though, so here’s a fanfic thats been sitting in my head for about two years now, enjoy!

(Also, just a note, Timothy is a r!Henry)

on ao3

Timothy Jackson, 15 years old was, in their own opinion, one of the best writers that had ever been born on planet earth! They had written both comedies and tragedies, made people of all ages both laugh and cry, and now, finally, their latest work had been completed. In just a few minutes it would be posted online for the world to see, and Timothy would finally receive all the praise and glory that they knew they deserved. Anticipation filled the room as Timothy carefully typed out the words that would make up the summary of the story.

‘Human! Alcor, human! Woodsman, high school-coffee shop au!’ they wrote ‘When a young student named Alcor looks for a new job in the town’s coffee shop what will happen when he meets his new super handsome manager? Will their love blossom despite the rest of the cruel world’s disapproval? Read to find out.’

They did not add the classic ‘fic better than summary’ comment that most authors liked to use. They knew they didn’t need it, Timothy’s summary was perfect! Just like the rest of their carefully crafted masterpiece. Sure, Woodcore might not have been the most popular ship around at the moment, but surely that would change as soon as people read this fanfic. Alcor and The Woodsman were perfect together, they knew it! People just needed a little help to realize what Timothy had already seen long ago.

They smiled to themselves as they pressed the button for publishing stories and made their hard work public. As soon as the story appeared on the screen Timothy refreshed the page to see if they´d gotten any reviews. When they hadn’t they refreshed again, and again, and again until their cat Mason decided to jump up on Timothy’s desk and sit in front of the computer screen, effectively blocking Timothy’s view in the process.

“Mason get down!” Timothy ordered, however the cat didn’t even seem fazed at all, in fact it simply laid down in front of the computer and started to lick at its paws, Timothy sighed and moved out of their chair to pick Mason up and carry him out of the room. As soon as Timothy and Mason walked out into the hallway they were met by Timothy’s mom.

“Oh hello darling” she said “I was just about to ask you if you wanted to help me make dinner?”

“What are we eating?” Timothy asked her, “We’re making hamburgers.” Their mom answered “I thought you might want to help me fry them…”

“YES I DO!” Timothy happily exclaimed, and soon all thoughts of going back to the computer to refresh the page again were forgotten in favour of making dinner with mom, and when Timothy finally got back to their room after the meal they simply turned off the computer, and went to sleep.

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

The next day after school Timothy threw their bag onto the bed as soon as they got home and eagerly logged on to their computer. Surely somebody had to have read their fic by now. They probably had a million kudos, maybe even a few reviews! Oh how they wished somebody was there so they could share their excitement, but Mason was nowhere to be seen at the moment, although that was probably a good thing considering what had happened yesterday. Timothy´s heart raced as they opened up the site where they posted all their fanfics, and just as they thought, somebody had left a review! Oh this was perfect, everything Timothy had always wanted would soon be delivered to them, all the glory and praise that the Twin Souls fandom could offer was just a click with the mouse away! Timothy opened up the review…. And their heart sank

‘umm not to be rude but this was kind of awful, I almost feel sorry for you! Alcor was just so out of character and I found at least a thousand spelling errors. Again I don’t want to be an asshole but I think you should practice you´re writing more before you publish anything, just some friendly advice lol! Then again, what would you expect from someone who writes woodcore? Micor is just so much better, plus it´s cannon‘

Timothy was shocked, how could somebody say that to them? After all their hard work, this was it? Was this really how the fandom would remember them? Just another failed author like so many others before them? No that couldn’t be it, obviously this person didn’t know what they were talking about. After all they seemed to believe that Micor was somehow superior to Woodcore. Their bad taste had to be reason why they were being so rude, people just couldn’t accept that Timothy’s fic was better than cannon, and thus they got mad at them. That had to be it, that had to be the reason, Timothy decided! Well then, if they wouldn’t accept a ship unless it was cannon, then it was a good thing that Timothy was such a good matchmaker… at least in their own opinion.

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Dipper was bored, and considering that he was an ultra-powerful demon who could alter reality at his will and make anything he wanted (well almost anything) happen with a snap of his fingers, that was really saying a lot. So when he felt the familiar tug of a summons, one that felt vaguely like he should already know the summoner, he didn’t hesitate to follow it! It felt too weak to be Mizar summoning him. He thought that maybe Cassie had managed to find his circle again and needed some homework help, or maybe it was a cult that had summoned him before that he´d just forgotten about, however he wasn’t prepared for what actually met him the moment he appeared over the circle. He was in somebody´s bedroom. That much was obvious from the bed standing behind him and the posters on the walls and, oh God was that a Twin Souls movie poster? Dipper immediately felt on edge, as he looked down to face whoever had summoned him, and was once again taken aback at what he saw. The child was young, probably in their mid-to-late teens, they had dark skin and bright blue hair, and was wearing a white dress shirt and black slacks (Dipper had to admit, they had good taste in fashion), but what really caught the demons attention was the antlers crowning their head.

“w̞͚̕hy̤̟̖̬̝͜ ̡͔̞̤h̢͓ͅa̶͖̻͖v̵̗̻̞͉̘e͢ ̸̹̳̱̪ͅy͔̜͞o̠̘u̢͖̫ ̯̺͕͍̦͙ͅsư͖̯̯̠̭͔m̰̼̪̭̺̱̖m͢o̷n̻̘e̘͔̗̳̲͟d͏͕͖̩̖ ̼̮̥͚͚͙̦͘m̥̺̤̣̯̘e̸͈ͅ?” Dipper asked, because this child might have his brothers’ soul, but they also had Twin Souls posters on all their walls and Dipper didn’t want to take any chances.

“Oh great, hot and powerful Alcor!” the child spoke “I have summoned you here because I wish to help aid you in your great quest for love!”

…. Okaaaay that was weird and not at all what Dipper had expected. The shock must have been visible on his face, because the child looked worriedly at him and asked

“Is everything okay Al? You don’t look very good, are you sick?”

Dipper just sighed.

”l͚͓̟̱̻̠o̪͎ok̺̣̰̭ ͚̫ki̘̥̮̮͕d̩̱̘͚̫̘̬” Dipper began, “I ̹d̠͈o ̱͕̳̪̮͇̲n͕͕̩̖͙o͍̻̠̝̳t̠̻̫̻̳̳ ̬͇̭̬̪͎n̹ee͙̰̲d̬ ̖̺̯y͈͙͚͈o̭̪̯̘̰u̺̺r ̻̤ͅͅh̗͔͉̠̣̘e̺̪̲̞lp̣̭,̹̼̤̥ ̤͍̮̰̺I̲͖͕̫̲̮ ͙͈̝a̪͎͔̲m̼͚̼̝̯ ̗̭̬̘͕̣̰n̲͙o͓̺ͅt ͙͇͓̻̖͚͓i̬̻̤̗̳n̞͙v͍̖̭͎̖̘̱o͇l̙v̙̥̬̝͔͙̹e̞̥̹̞͚d̳͔̯ ͉͎̫̘̫͔͈i͍̲n̦̖̪͔̥̗ ̪͙̰̜a̮̜̲͎͇̯ny̗̣ͅ

ġ͉r̼͎̘̩̰e̟̹͇͛ͥą̒̔̊̌t͙̙ͨͪͮ͗ ̖̮̦̝̙̐̓͆́qͭ̓̋̔ͯͮu̺ͨͮ̏ͬ̉ͅě͓̘̱̰͈̼s̻̭̹͗̊t͆̆ͣ̐͛̾͛̕ ̳̗̩̓̓̌ͫf̭͔͔̼̟̗̞ͭ̃̃̽̒̕o̢̭̲̙̻̻̣ͯͦ̔̏͐r͙̉ͯ͛̒͠ ̖̌ͤl̻̻͖ͯ̂ͮ̊̔̚ȏ͍̟̅̓͗͟v̸̠̹̾̇e͇͕̠̝̦͌̈́͆͊͑̽ a̘͈̭͖̣̰n̥͓̳̱̳͓̝d̖̯͈ ̲̼n̺̯̦o̠. ̜̗Iț͙̙̫´̗̦s͍̘̹͇ ̗͓̪͕n͕o̬͓t͇̥̳̫ͅ ̪b̼̞e̟̳̞̺͎̥c͇͙̥̱̻̬͎aṵ̥͕͎se̦̺̘ ̤̬̮͚͙̞M͕̯͉͚̙̤̩i͈̜̞z̲͉̱̖̝͇͎a̤r͓͔̜̬̗̟̞ a̟͍͖͎̫͈n̺̤͉͔̪d͔͍̟̜̗̭͚ ̖̻I̟̪ a̮r̳̞ͅe͕̳͚ ̹̲̭̩͖͍͖a̪̖̞͔̥͖ͅl̙͍r̭e̝̼͈̥a̙̝͉͈ḍ̩y̭̭̺͎̯̖ ̱̦̮̣͚͎̟d̪̼̻̼a̞̥̫̞̙̳͎t̙̼̲i͕̩̲̼̗̻̳n̦̗͚̥̹g̮͉̬͎͙ ͈̩͔in͓̯ ̫͎̤f͔ͅac͍̝̗̺͇ṭ̩̠̟ ̼͎̭̰̞I´͔m͈̝̜̘̦̬̻ ̱̫n̮͙͔̘̺̖͚o͍͎͕͓̪t̰͚̣̯̠ ͚̮̜̩̖e͙v̩̣̝ͅe̘̺̰n̪̣̭ ̩͎̣͕i͚͈̖n̲̹̘t̜̖͙̜ͅͅͅer͓̭̪͙͈̱͎e̜s͚̠̻t̻̯͇͈̘e̦̖̫d͕̥ i̮̥̮ͅn̤̣̲̦̲̬̺-”

The child cut him off before he could finish his sentence

“pffft I know that! As if you and Mizar could ever be a real couple. It’s so obviously not happening, I don’t even get why people bother to ship you two in the first place.”

Well that was DEFINITELY not what Dipper had expected. Just a few moments before he’d been ready to just leave and get out of there as fast as possible, but he was now curious, perhaps this child did have something worthy of his time to offer after all (and even if not, just spending some time with his brother would be nice)

“Okay ̴th̀en,̡ t͜e͢ll̴ m̕e ̕Eͮ͊X̅͊ͯͪ͗̓A̔͂̐̿̋Ċ̛̓̓T̨ͣ̀̏̓L̀ͧ͌Y̅͋͑ͩͭ wh̨at y͞o̡u w̢ant.̵” ̂ͥ̆̿̚Dipper demanded, adjusting his position in the air so that he was floating cross-legged above the circle.

“Easy,“ the child said with a confident and knowing expression on their face “I know who you really love. And I´m guessing you haven’t confessed to him yet because you’re too shy. So, I´m offering to help coach you, trust me I’m great at encouraging people, and in return you could… uh, I dunno, make sure the fandom knows you love him I guess? And put an end to Micor ones and for all, what do you say?” the child took a step forward and reached out their hand to Dipper, seemingly ready to shake on it. Dipper had to admit that their offer was tempting, he´d love to see Micor shippers finally realize that it wasn’t cannon and leave him alone, however there was one detail in what the child had said that was bothering him

“And̕ ͠w͝h͢o, i̴f҉ ̴I ͝mąy̵ aşk, ͜is ̨i͝t t̷hat ͠you ̷thìnk̢ ҉I͏ ͞l̸o͠ve̴?”

The child grinned at him

“The Woodsman of course!” they exclaimed and nooooooo, nope not doing this, Dipper was so DONE with this!

“u̷͘m̨m͏͞ ̵̸y͢͏e͘͏a̵h͏̢,͟ ̴̨t̛h͘͠a̷͠͝t̡̀̕´̸s̛͟..͡.̡̛ ̛͜N͏̀͡o̡҉͏t̡̕͠ ̶̀h̨͠͞a͘҉̡p��̧p̀͝é́n̵̡i͞n͞g̵̕.͘ ̷͏S̷o̧r҉r̕͜y͏̷̨ ̢́k͟i̛͠d͏̴͘!̧” “But wait!” the child cried out in shock, but Dippers form was already getting blurry, and before they could say more, he vanished.

Well so much for spending time with his brother. Oh well, there´d be more chances, hopefully Henry’s next incarnation wouldn’t be as weird as this one.

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

Timothy stared in disbelief at the circle where Alcor had been floating just moments earlier. Why had he left? Did Timothy say something wrong? He probably got overwhelmed by happiness when Timothy understood his feelings, and got so confused he had to leave and gather his thoughts. Or maybe just being summoned like this finally gave him the courage to confess his love, and he left to do it immediately! That had to be it, totally!

Timothy smiled proudly to themselves, knowing that they had been able to help Alcor with his love problems. And now all that was left to do was wait for the demon to make his affair public, in the meantime though, Timothy had more fanfics to write, and this summoning had given them the perfect fic idea. It would require some really good writing skills to get it perfect though. Oh well, good thing Timothy was such a good writer…

… In their own opinion!

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

zalgo transcriptions for those who need it:

"why have you summoned me?" "I do not need your help, I am not involved in any great quest for love, and no it's not because Mizar and I are already dating in fact I'm not even interested in-" "okay, then tell me EXACTLY what you want" "and who, if I may ask, is it that you think I love?" "umm yeah that's... not happening. Sorry kid"

#gravity falls #transcendence au #gravity falls transcendence au #dipper pines #henry pines #My writing #fanfic

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amorremanet · 7 years

Note

what's your novel about??

Oh my gosh, nonny, thank you so much for asking!!

Okay, so the absolute shortest version — the, “summarize this thing and make it sound as shitty as possible” meme version — is, “Superpowered LGBTIQ neurodivergent and/or mentally ill mutant weirdos with emotional problems (and their self-appointed sidekick, who isn’t a mutant but is very enthusiastic about the work) investigate some seemingly unrelated incidents and accidentally uncover a neo-fascist supervillain club that’s trying to take over the U.S. on as many levels as possible — currently, by pulling strings to sabotage the lead-up to the still-upcoming 2016 election — and the neo-fascist supervillains are, unfortunately, very good at this.

“Also, our heroes start out as a ragtag group of misfits with superpowers [or, in Pete’s case, enthusiasm, wit, dedication af, adaptability, and a rather sizable collection of lime-green hot-pants], and progressively become both an actual team and a set of accidental rising stars in the superhero world. Is it a bit of a tired plot? Yeah, especially given how often superhero teams have to do some kind of song and dance like this — but: 1. it’s done so often because it resonates with people and, when done well, it can work; and 2. tired or not, it’s something that viewers/readers deserve to actually see happening, rather than just being told, ‘oh yeah, now they’re a team, okay? okay cool.’”

At least, that’s the plot of the first book, since…… I can’t make anything simple or less-difficult for myself, series are often more fun in general, and I just have a lot of characters here who I love, so the whole, “These incidents are starting to string themselves together in really suspicious ways, oh shit fuck goddammit, the election is being sabotaged” plot is just the start of things.* The bigger series plot would be more about trying to deal with further attempts by the neo-fascist supervillain club to wreak all kinds of neo-fascist supervillain Hell all over everything.

Then, the way I’m looking at this, structurally? Is that I have an ensemble cast, in the end. There are different tiers of importance among the different characters, because that’s unavoidable — I mean, I rail against JKR’s habit of treating her characters as plot devices first and people second, but even if you all treat your characters as people, you have to prioritize some of them over the others at different points, or else you end up worse off than George RR Martin, drowning in impossible goals and strangled by the giant pile of fictional people you made up to tell stories about — but I still view the cast as fundamentally an ensemble.

However, for the sake of reining in my horrible attention span and trying to avoid GRRM’s example, each installment has a focal character, whose own personal story of the moment gets to exist alongside the bigger plotty plot-stuff of each book (…I am a serious business writer, oh yes I am). As an approach, this has its drawbacks — balancing things without making it all too coincidentally intertwined is a big one — but I also love it because, to me, it reflects the way that life has several different levels to it that aren’t always intimately woven together, but still affect each other and need to find some kind of balance if you’re going to get anywhere

Anywho, the focal character for book one is Sebastian, because on one hand, he was here first. Like, he was originally for a game that my Sunday night RP group was playing this past summer, which was still the same-ish idea of mutant superheroes, except that it was more closely modeled on the way that Aya Brea’s powers work in the Parasite Eve games

Meaning, “the system is very openly based on Parasite Eve, it says so in the player’s handbook and everything,” rather than a motley hodgepodge assortment of superhero comics and movies/TV, speculative fiction in general, LGBTIQ theories and histories and cultures, “okay, I’d kind of like to be more active in superhero-related fandoms, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that the stories I want to tell right now are not easily mapped onto characters who already exist, I won’t feel fulfilled in trying to change them so I can shoehorn Sam and Steve and Nat and Bucky or Dick, Jason Stephanie, Tim, Cass, Duke, and Harper into them, so I’ve got to just say, ‘fuck it’ and do my own thing”

and, “what if I did [something that is a big and very, very deliberate middle finger to either Marvel or DC, possibly both, for some reason or another]” — e.g., “what if I made a pair of characters who are a pretty blatant satire of/commentary on/response to/whatever Marvel’s perpetual, annoying as fuck Cherik-baiting, except that they’re actually married — and they will be literally married as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court rules on Obergefell v. Hodges in-universe — and also they are old lady lesbians, nah nah nah nah nah nah *flips off Stan Lee et al. with both middle fingers while doing a, ‘come at me, bro’ dance and generally being a Stunning Bastion Of Authorial Maturity Lmao Not Really*”

So, yeah. I had to rescope some things after my RP group dropped that game, but in the name of, “developing my character and giving Jake, my DM and high school friend, material with which to torment my character, and also, Double-Cross’s system actually makes character development and characterization pretty important elements to playing the game,” I’d already written way too much stuff to just let it go, and Sebastian had endeared himself to me in a big way, and I just went, “Fuck it, I’ll write my own thing with him in it, it’ll be fun.”

I don’t remember when he decided to look like Hayden Christensen, only that I tried to stop that mental image from solidifying, and trying to stop it only made it worse, so I just gave up and went, “Fine, whatever, look like Hayden Christensen, see what I care.” But then, more importantly than, “Sebastian gets to go first because in fairness, he was here first”? Well.

On a thematic level, I feel like this little mutant disaster’s biggest personal story of the moment (trying desperately to get his shit together after making it to 30 without his clinical depression getting noticed as depression, much less treated; trying to stay sober and find something to do with his life that feels even vaguely fulfilling, which for him would mean, “helping people, doing some kind of good in the world, trying to make someone else happy because he is fairly certain that he never will be, period”; trying to actually deal with the past and move forward, not forgetting it or forsaking it entirely, but also not being frozen and chained to the past, learning from it and building something new)…

…has the most common ground and overlap with the current round of big plotty plot-type stuff, since it’s all about things like, “whoo, the formation of a new team! whoo, the new team getting it together and learning how to work as a team and trying to figure out their team identity and values! oh no, emergence of previously unseen threats that have not actually come from out of nowhere, even though it kind of looks like they have, and are more complicated than previously estimated! oh no, we can’t just delete them from existence because they’re insidious and entrenched in more places than we entirely realize at first, so how do we even fight this! ohhh no, progressive realization that we’re fighting a symptom rather than the actual facts problem, but we can’t just NOT-treat the symptom or shit is even more fucked than it will be if we treat the symptom by not the actual problem, and in some ways we don’t even entirely know what the bigger-picture problem is yet! oh man, what do we do!”

—so, like. These two threads work together better than they would with different parts of the larger, longer story.

(And then there’s Pete, who is an admitted authorial pet of mine, just like GRRM blatantly favors Tyrion and JKR visibly projects onto Harry and Hermione, and who I feel lends himself better to a format more like, “Dunk and Egg”-esque novellas, or a collection of, “chronicles of side-kicking” short stories about his little side-adventures and myriad hijinks that aren’t always immediately relevant to the main story but that are really fun. But I also feel like that might just be an excuse to write more weird adventures for him that aren’t necessarily tied together in the right order, like novels generally need to be unless you have some kind of reason not to do that.

idk, man, I just really love my stale cinnamon roll Dramatic bb theatre kid with a heart of gold who will tell you that you’re wrong and he so does not have a heart of gold while he is digging around Seb’s kitchen and making dinner for himself and his Princess because an unfortunate side-effect of one of Seb’s superpowers — the toxin filtering part of his mutant healing factor — is that his body doesn’t only filter out poisons, gases, narcotics, caffeine, and alcohol… it also filters the antidepressants that he gets given a prescription for about ten hours before abruptly being thrust headlong into his newly-awoken mutant superpowers.

Which is a huge mess all over — though, yes, there is a huge part of this that is a pretty deliberate, “fuck you” to literally every piece of media that goes, “and then the hero found out they had superpowers or magic or the fuck whatever and lol suddenly no more mental illness or disabilities or any kind of neurodivergence or anything neener neener” — and anyway, Pete’s hypothetically just found Seb half-spaced out and listening to, “Careless Whisper” on repeat, and Pete is going to tell you that he doesn’t have any kind of heart of gold because he’s a heartless wretch shut your mouth……

…while he’s making them dinner and going, “okay, come on, Princess. Sit up, let’s try and get you through this. No, don’t argue with me. You did the same — or similar, anyway — for me in that entire ten-day stretch when you knew I wasn’t eating disorder okay but couldn’t get me to talk about it and we’ve been over this: if that’s what friends do for each other, then it cuts both ways, so come on. Dinner. Do you want me to put on Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, Female Trouble, Ten Things I Hate About You, or some other thing until you feel like talking.”)

But anyway, as I was saying.

I look at the attempt to find thematic crossover between the plot parts of a book in the series and the story parts of a book as being kind of like how, in the first three seasons of Community, whatever class the Study Group had together was a of synergistic reflection of certain season-long themes and developments for them as characters and in their relationships.

Like, in season one, they were learning how to talk to each other and the basics of building relationships with and understanding each other, so they took Spanish, a language class.

In season two, they took Anthropology — in-universe described as, “the study of humanity” and which is presented as being so open-ended that shitty memetic youtube vids are as valid an object of study as humanity’s development and use of tools, and the different processes by which humans work together to do greater shit than we can do solo — and in that year’s shenanigans, the Study Group cemented their trust as friends, but also went through Hell together in several cases, and in the last two episodes (the cowboy/Star Warts paintball two-parter), they had to face the question of whether or not removing one of them for his shitty behavior (Pierce) would be better or worse for the overall health of the group.

And in season three, they took Biology, defined in-universe as, “the study of life” (which isn’t wrong irl, but the specific phrasing is important to me, here), and they spend a lot of time exploring and developing their lives, both together and individually, both at Greendale Community College and more importantly outside its walls. There’s also the season-long theme of evolution, because the Study Group have evolved as people and continue to evolve — which reaches its biggest culminations in the finale, not just in Jeff’s Winger Speech, but also with five of the big seven (Annie and Britta are sort of adrift but Troy, Abed, Shirley, and Pierce all have moments, and Jeff has the BIGGEST, most obvious moment).

So, with the books, I’m trying to do something kind of similar. Not quite the same, because…… well, TV vs. novels, school setting vs. a variety of settings but none quite as structured as a school (even one that’s as, well, Greendalian as you get on Community), a million other reasons besides — but having some kind of thematic synergy between the plot part of each of the books and the focal characters’ personal stories in each book…… idk, it gives me a comforting sense of structure to play with?

And aside from that, I feel like it’s probably a better choice for the sake of the whole stories because having those points of connection means they can more easily work to enhance each other, rather than distracting from each other. Like, one of the biggest issues that I have with shoehorned-in romance plots in stories that don’t need a romance plot? Even overlooking how they are almost invariably white and m/f and heteronormative and can be all kinds of, “uggggh” in several other ways besides, it comes down to whether or not they work, thematically and tonally, with everything else.

[this is where i had a tangent trying to illustrate my point by talking about pointlessly shoehorned-in white, m/f romance plots in otherwise no romo stories, then cut it after i started to feel moderately ashamed of how many examples and trends about this that i just have in my back pocket]

The point being: you can use dissonance and conflicting juxtaposed parts of the story to different effects, but it’s often harder to pull off and you do need to have some idea of what you’re doing, otherwise you’re going to end up with a huge mess and no idea where to start sorting through it (I say this based on having done this exact thing several times before)

So, in the interests of not doing that, I like the idea of trying to find the big points of synergy and connection between any given book’s focal char’s story, and the plot points of that installment and how it fits into the larger story. And, for the sake of book 1, Sebastian’s big story of the moment is the one that lines up best with the plot stuff, thematically.

Also, apropos of nothing but, he spends like all of two minutes coming up with his nom de spandex, and ends up with Pete being Unimpressed at him because…… Really, Princess? Princess, really. Like. Princess. Really. Your family is obnoxiously insistent on your Frenchness, even though you were all born and raised in fucking Baltimore and your Dad’s family hasn’t been in France itself since your ancestor sold the old ancestral marquisate and came to save the Revolution with the Marquis de Lafayette… and now you turn into a nine-foot-tall wolf-man…… and you picked out the official, “it is on your actual facts government-issued vigilante hero license” name of…… Gévaudan.

Really, Princess. Fucking. REALLY. Ugggggggh, you’re more creative than that, why did you pick the stupidly obvious werewolf name ffs, your family isn’t even FROM Gévaudan or anywhere in its general damn vicinity, why did you have to pick THAT name, it’s BORING.

And now I don’t know how to wrap this up so I’m gonna abruptly stop talking (apart from the footnote below, which I wrote a couple hours ago, whoops)

Thank you so much for asking this and giving me a free excuse to talk about my novel, nonny

*: Given my chosen subject matter, I feel like it has to be? Partly, yeah, it’s authorial self-gratification because I love my weirdos and their adventures.

But another part of it is the idea that it’s not enough to punch fascists in the face. Like, yes, by all means, we need to do that, too — but fascism is insidious and easily enabled by so many aspects of our contemporary societies. So, we need to resist the urge to simplify the discussion. We can go, “Fascism is wrong, period” while also trying to understand the different ways that fascism draws people into supporting it, how it can spread so far and so thoroughly in nominally non-fascist societies, and its different manifestations and ways of working, so that we can better fight it.

Additionally, we’re products of the same societies that create people who do become fascists and we can easily become complicit in both fascism and oppression more generally, so we need to hold ourselves and each other accountable while trying to fight fascism, instead of putting it off for later, because…… historically, and based on several different precedents? Putting off addressing the internal issues among ourselves doesn’t work; it just creates fertile ground for more problems to breed and makes it even harder for people down the line.

And there aren’t any easy answers here. There are some part of them that are easy or at least easier than others — e.g., agreeing on the statement, “Fascism is wrong and we should oppose it” — but unfortunately, not everything in life and resistance can be as easy as, “This thing is wrong, we should oppose it.”

Even getting into the questions of HOW to best and most effectively fight back against fascism gets complicated, to say nothing of situations where there isn’t an obvious Right Side or Wrong Side, no matter how many people try to turn those discussions into Right vs. Wrong and get into a lot of binary-thinking moral absolutism that ultimately upholds a lot of the shit we’re nominally trying to fight, and does more harm than good to everyone involved.

(ftr, those discussions are not things like, “Fascism is wrong, Y/N,” but more like disagreements between people, none of whom are outright in the wrong, but all of whom have different sets of values, different kinds of grievances with each other [some fair, some not so fair], different points of view on any given topic, and so on, usually about things like, “is it more important for people to be free but with more potential for people to abuse that freedom in hurtful ways, or for people to be safe but in ways that give us new ways to hurt each other in the name of safety,” however the Hell these issues are manifesting in a specific context at any given moment)

And, well. It’s a precarious line to walk on, as someone who wants to be as ethical and responsible a writer as I can be and as true to my handful of basic guiding principles as possible. Principles that I have because…… uh, I want to be as ethical and responsible a writer as I can be? And I want to always work on failing better, as @saathi1013 would put it?

so, if you’re going to do that, you kinda need to have something to stand for and try to be more aware of what’s going on in the world, more aware where the content you’re making fits into those discussions, and more aware of yourself and how you work so that you can try to find places of potential Unfortunate Implications or places where you’re not actually living up to the values that you want to put in your work — c.f., JKR’s handling of House Elves and Muggles in the HP series, or how she wants the books to be anti-abuse but gives Dumbledore a free pass on hardcore manipulating both Harry and Snape [to say nothing of how he doesn’t do shit to make Snape act like a teacher, not a bully, because of reasons], and gives Molly and Arthur a total free pass on all of their unadulterated abusive bullshit

—and part of all this is knowing what you stand for, knowing what you think and feel as much as you can, and being willing to actually interrogate your positions and adjust your views and stances as you come into new information, new experiences, etc. Call it a belief, call it a good idea, call it whatever you want, but for me? You have to have some kind of principles to stand for/by, if you really want to be ethical and/or responsible content creator, because if you don’t have your principles, then what’s guiding you in this, exactly? Principles are what separate people who at least try to be ethical and/or responsible content creators from fuckbishops like the Dadaists, the Marquis de Sade, and the creative team of Family Guy.

And one of my principles here is, essentially, “People are people, and this means, on one hand, that all people deserve basic human rights and civil liberties. But on the other hand, it means that many of our problems are, in the words of Pterry and Gneil in Good Omens, caused not by people being either Good or Evil, but by people being fundamentally people. We’re all a bunch of disasters to varying degrees, and most situations are not going to come down to Good vs. Evil, but to (as Richard Siken puts it) need against need, where everyone is at cross-purposes and everyone has the potential to be doing wrong by/unto someone else, even if some of us are going to come out more wrong than others based on our actions and/or the context of the situation.”

Which all basically adds up to…… yes, “Fascism is wrong” is a simple and straightforward statement, but there are situations and debates that arise surrounding most simple, straightforward statements that are tangled up and complicated. In this case, for example, how fascism takes root and spreads, how to best fight it in which situations, how it takes advantage of structures and practices even within non-fascist communities and uses them to fester and draw people into supporting it + what the fuck to do about that especially since at a certain point all of us become complicit in it to some degree or another, by virtue of being people who are alive and take part in our civilizations, and what’s at stake for everyone in all these discussions + how best to approach the question(s) of priorities

(…see, what I mean when I say that yes, I have interest in contemporary sociopolitical goings-on for their own sake but also bring them back to the novel pretty easily and regularly? It’s kinda unavoidable when you’re living in the times we are now, writing about superheroes who have to fight very explicitly neo-fascist supervillains)

So, anyway, the TL;DR of my basic point here is that I do try to approach my writing with principles in mind, but I don’t believe in oversimplifying shit — based on what I’ve encountered so far, I believe that oversimplifying things in a lot of these discussions usually starts in an understandable sort of place, but only ends up creating more problems for everyone in the long run, because it too easily fosters binaristic thinking and moral absolutism, dehumanizing each other, creating arbitrary hierarchies that we always end up using to justify hurting each other, and so on — and I don’t want to be a preacher in my work. I’d be a lot happier if I inspired actual discussions.

……Unfortunately, I’ve been in fandom and literature generally for too long to think that this is going to happen without the risk of people playing the apologist cards, the [douchebag character] in Leather Pants card, and all of that good stuff, but…… well.

I’m just trying to tell myself that this is a risk I’m going to have to live with, and if I do everything that I can reasonably do to prevent that and it still happens anyway, then hey, I’m in good company with George Orwell (all the people who have read 1984 as a defense or endorsement of right-wing anything when Orwell was a Socialist, he just opposed fucking Stalinism), Dr. Seuss (the anti-reproductive rights brigade who co-opted Horton Hears A Who to make it a screed against abortion), Emily Brontë (everyone who thinks Heathcliff is romantic and awesome when no. NO. fuck ALL the way OFF, he is an abusive jackass who literally kills a puppy and torments a generation of kids into reenacting his and Cathy’s relationship, just to get back at her for dumping him, and whose author was a fucking abuse survivor, now can everyone please get off her tits and stop using her book to justify their own abusive garbage behaviors), and so many countless others

But that’s a whole other kettle of monkeys, and I should only be so lucky to maybe someday have enough people reading anything I write that there are actually popular misinterpretations of anything. Like, would it be ideal if the misinterpretations didn’t happen? Yeah, but that’s not how writing works and it’s not how reading works and it’s not how most contemporary socialization trains us to read and see things, and everyone who reads anything I write is going to come up with their own interpretation because I can’t tell them how to read it, so

*shrugs* The Author Is Not God, y’know? I can do the work to try and best actualize my vision of things, but there will be things in it that other people see that I didn’t intend or didn’t notice, and my version of the story can’t be the absolute truth because the readers’ input is just as vital to the life of a written work as the work itself. It’s an unavoidable risk of writing shit on shit, so we make do, the end, I guess?

#that story with the mutants that i should find a working title for fml #sebastian moncrieff: mutant disaster #pete arden: dramatic disaster #pete x seb #mine: asks #mine: writing #nonny hi you're my favorite today if ur still around #reaction gifs//#depression cw//#writing meta #Anonymous

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