#these stories are just building off them or subverting whats already known

[chatonyant]

One day I'll find a good way to map out my stories to better plan them out, both in world-building ways and plot ways

Problem is is that when I physically begin to write them down I end up losing a lot of motivation behind it and sometimes just straight up forget I have it

Plus writing in notes is somehow different from slamming into a chat and monologuing about some ideas, which somehow gets the ideas flowing better?

But if I only brainstorm in my head, things get floaty since it's hard to keep track of everything at once without it in front of me and yet making it so that it's in front of me is so very hard lmao

Also just getting started on brainstorm is like a Russian roulette– will I have an idea that will snowball or will I go "im going to think about the importance of face paint today" and then immediately get distracted

[whomstwedointheshadows]

Hello, yes you Nandermo shippers, would you like to come along to delulu land?

I have some thoughts on the clickbaitiness of Paul Simms. Reading the transcript of the Nandermo moment (all hail @kyrilu for doing the damn thing on our behalf) and there’s two follow up segments to frame the Nandermo comment from a PR/fuck-around option.

1) the Kiss card was brought up by the interviewer, seemingly pulling the writer ms back to the topic of the panel, segueing to important, pre-planned questions.

I’m not sure where the information about the existence of Nandor+Guillermo+Kiss was first published. Regardless, this had to be a pre-cleared question. Behind the scenes, these media panels absolutely clear questions and topics in advance.

2) Vulture is posting reviews and materials very, very shippy of Nandermo. This was the ship friendliest possible room full of media explicitly gathered to drum up buzz for the new season. It wasn’t a random instagram stream about their writing process. The interviewer confirms the infidelity theme-then there’s going to be some backtracking to make it ‘sooo not sexual’ - the headline is not ‘Nandermo Infidelity Cofirmed’ now it’s ‘That Moment Wasn’t Sexual’

[sidebar: I have no idea how the strikes affected the usual publicity cycle and what impact that has on numbers, other than it definitely did. I would imagine those conversations and reactions to their ‘material’ has some sway/inspiration over the next season, from a producing standpoint or the general glee of a creator reading responses. It’s incredibly fortunate for the show there was already a season in process to come back and make due to the two season renewal. At the time of planning this panel it was not known when the actors strike would end, which I imagine changes the plan for promo cycles, especially one they were already adapting. My guess is the season 5 actors promo was completed based on our media, but any ‘soft power’ that comes from writers work/networking/teasing was altered. We missed anything they planned/reacted/tweeted while the show was airing. TLDR: this panel is coming after a long period of not rattling sabers from the writers.]

I put all of this here to say, as much as I don’t know about the business-side of show business, everyone was explicitly in that room to generate media and attention and demand for the show. That’s the actual point of the event, which absolutely has an impact on word choice. They’re comedy writers, with a flair for dramatic also doing the business part with a streak of evil teasing their audience.

Alrighty, foundation established, the big question and the Best Fan Interjection:

I salute you, sassy audience.

3) The WORDS

Word choice: hook-up

Does ‘the greatest romance on television’ have a one-off hook up, or does it get wrapped in plot and Have Significance and Pay-Off for all of the tension? What’s the most entertaining way in service of the show that’s worth losing the Will-they-Won’t-they dynamic? Can they subvert expectations in a way that makes the writers feel smart and like they’ve spent years building it is worth the investment from the audience? I have theories about A Secret Third Thing for absurdity being the direction they prefer on wwdits. It’s got be a big gambit to land to anyone’s satisfaction.

For an in character analysis of the infidelity not being sexual- I’m just going to put the concept of ‘honor’ and what being a familiar is in vampiric society, that this interpretation is absolutely fair as a breach of trust between Nandor and Guillermo. This response reads as truthful about that specific plot line ignoring everything fucking sexual about vampires, vows and penetration. Yes, he’s right- they didn’t fuck nasty on camera, it was just an intimate betrayal that maps really well giving someone you admire power over you, but realizing what they think is best for you, best for them, and what you want are all different things. That’s another story specific to this plotline. Also super common in anti-sitcom divorce tropes.

Would there be an entertaining story if Nandermo went all-in right now, for these characters? Or would it erase development and stagnate in a hierarchy?

I do think writers feel a responsibility to their stories and their audiences, even if the audience doesn’t like parts. I think WWDITS is a very smart show that loves/hates vampires and sitcoms, and it is always going to choose the highest setting on the dial for dark comedy on a subverted sitcom trope, which means while it can be an absolute riot with horrendous implications so it has to pull back enough for the next episode to be in the format with a new conceit.

There’s toxic co-dependent idiots Nandermo, and then there’s cruel, abusive, worst impulses working against each other being explicit, which kills the heart of the show.

4) What’s the Job?

WWDITS Audience: I don’t think the writers actually think it’s a little group of queer fans getting over invested on Nandermo. In fact, I think they are aware of the past Queerbaiting Sins of Network Television based on their serious storylines for queer characters. I think the archetypes and themes of the show specifically court that audience, and each season has only been more to those tastes by laying a solid foundation to explore what hasn’t been the focus of storytelling in the past. I think writers are a tricksy bunch and they’ve got a team who takes the dynamics seriously enough to tell the story of getting to a better place for the characters and entertainment. Hell, there’s a writer from Frasier on the panel who talks about slow burns.

Knowing that shipping has a long history, everyone is absolutely working from previous playbooks on how to tease and shape a story.

Even if a ship goes canon, absolutely no one is going to confirm it before it happens.

[Trickster storytellers, those liars, always wanting us to see their work unfold rather than spoil the ending. Even when they foreshadow or use dread, it’s just so they can feel smart about their lies when we look back, damn writers, emotional vampires. ]

While I shouldn’t underestimate the power of a straight white guy to mansplain some homophobic spice to ‘deeper than sex’ queerness, looking at the media of the actual show, the romantic ship framing is not in question. I’m of the persuasion it’s been great queer representation by having complex queer characters with varied ambitions and obstacles, often their choices driving the story for comedic/dramatic effect, of very selfish, horrible people.

That established, especially because the show has increasingly grown to be more visibly queer, the characters also have to be compelling to watch in their individual journeys even if a ship goes canon. However, no one would be satisfied if the fulfillment of a Nandermo ship was at the cost of the whole household or the characters themselves. The ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ and ‘No One Ever Really Dies in Shadows’ principles lead to an educated guess even if Nandermo becomes canon and carry their own plotlines, the episodes of the show are still going to be the dark, twisted ensemble shenanigans with sucker punches of heart. We love our djinn-curses in the narrative.

So, if ‘you don’t want what you think you want’ has relevance, I see it as these characters are not at their most compelling to get together-yet, as individuals or in the narrative of what the show wants to tell. That relationship wouldn’t be fulfilling or funny or fair- not that the characters deserve happy endings or an easy road, but to the journey of accepting and receiving love as part of the theme, seeing the love that matters/already exists ties into the conflicts around immortality/meaning. Haven’t we Good Omens fans learned that a kiss is not always the kiss we want?

For a Nandor in Space perspective, central to the vampire in western culture are themes of love/cruelty, class consciousness, the erotic other, transformation/stagnation/decay, inescapable time, the beast beneath the human face, inescapable temptation/indulgence, and cost/callousness of piety.

That’s some inherently kinky romantic shit right there, that necessitates crossing boundaries and abandoning norms. Even if the journey is actually murder-accessory to get what I want at all costs to this guy’s shampoo makes me realize this is a boundary I will not cross today because it reminds me of my own humanity.

[nettlestonenell]

The King: Eternal Monarch Catches Plenty of Hate Online

Why That Is, And Why You Should Ignore It

Part III: Subvert the Dominant Expectations for K-drama Stock Characters!

Missing here among the cast is the female who exists to give off the manufactured cuteness that is ‘aegyo’. Instead, we’re given Jo Eun-Sup, a male character who checks that box, to delightful effect. [see above]

The King Eternal Monarch lacks a tsundere Male Lead; locked-up and unable to access or show his emotions. In his (well-worn in kdramas) place we’re given instead a Female Lead that falls more in that direction (though never completely into it), Jeong Tae Eul is a motherless police woman who holds her emotions close to the vest, and whose years on the force have compelled her to compartmentalize and hold back emotionally as she works in the violent crimes department. [It’s textual, even. There are literal scenes structured around this plot beat.]

Their words, not mine

And furthermore, we’re shown that Female Lead occupying the [probably far more true-to-life] position of being simultaneously stoic about what life throws her way—but also being emotionally taken apart brick-by-brick by same throughout the series run.

There are entire take-down posts complaining about this women being able to be multi-faceted and equally strong AND emotionally affected by the crazy happening to her in the show.

I cannot with the absurdity of these viewers.

And as we were already talking about the expectations of LMH’s fan base, let’s mention Kim Go Eun, known for roles quite different from Jeong Tae-Eul. Rather, she was the heavily aegyo’d Goblin’s Bride for KES prior, and her most well-known roles appear to be as high school or college students (not mature adults), despite her actual age. The role of JTE could not have been what audiences familiar with her were expecting.

Just as LMH’s Lee Gon was not the acting turn his fans were expecting.

Behold, a kdrama male character played by LMH being deeply invested in what the female lead is going through,

Another blogger beautifully pointed out the adultness of the two leads (okay, most of the cast). These two are grown-up characters with grown-up responsibilities. Even the surface-immature Jo Eun Sup is single-parenting his pre-K twin siblings. 

Lee Gon and JTE have jobs that matter to both the plot and to them. They (like Kang Sin-Jae) worry about caring for their elders. Gon runs an entire country. PM Koo is ACTUALLY highly competent at her job [when she’s not breaking the law and violating basic ethics]. Na-Ri is both a business and a building owner, and all the mains we meet in the Kingdom are leading lives defined by their jobs. In TKEM universe the story happens because of characters’ jobs, not in spite of them.

If your expectation was a light romcom where the plot that took the most precedence was the love plot, and you were expecting a plot of cutesy misunderstandings and characters working at jobs that existed only to create complications to the mains getting together, you’re maybe going to hate this show.

If you expected predictable kdrama character tropes and don’t care for them being gender-flipped, you’re. Maybe. Going to hate. This show.

Start with Part 1

Part IV:  Cries of “no chemistry” between the lead romantic pairing

[winterhawk-olympic-bang]

Let’s Get It On

How To Write Sex

Guest Poster: CB

Here is our second Writer Workshop post, written by CB. Have a read and then head over to the Discord Server where we have a channel for you to take part in a discussion based on the post, with chances to share your own ideas too. 

So Your Characters Want to Bang

Welcome to my Ted Talk on How To Successfully Write Pornography! We’re going to cover a few bases here (first, second, third, and home base, to keep up with the metaphor), but feel free to reach out if you have any questions either on the Discord server or here on the Tumblr. If you take a look at my body of work you can see that a significant portion of it is explicit fic, which I’m told is a struggle for some folks.  Apparently my CPU is 80% porn.exe, so I’ve got a bit of a niche. Additionally, I’ve got a medical professional background that includes a very specific nurse certification in sex-related shenanigans, so if you’ve got questions, I’ve got answers. 

When I decide to write porn (or when my characters decide it for me), I have a few basic things that I keep in mind in order to make sure the story stays on track, the character arcs fit with the scenarios, and that everything doesn’t start to feel too formulaic.  I’m going to share my methods and maybe you will find something that helps you out or inspires you to give writing explicit fic a try!

The Mechanics

Let’s start with the basics. Fictional pornography can start to feel, well, a little bit formulaic, especially if you read or write a lot of it.  There’s a standard formula of kissing, rubbing, fingers, dicks (or other bits), everybody comes, the end! There’s nothing wrong with sticking to the basic formula, especially your first time (ha!), but here are some thoughts on how you can make sure you’re getting the specifics done and done well, and how to avoid feeling like you’ve written the sexual equivalent of an English essay. 

Lubrication.  It… really doesn’t matter exactly what kind of sex your characters are having, you can’t go wrong with lube. Getting things wet and slippery is half the fun and also twice the enjoyment. Sometimes characters decide to get it on in unfortunately risque locations, and lube may not be readily available - here is a nice list of MacGyvered lube solutions you may find helpful in that circumstance. That being said - if you are writing anal sex of some sort, lubrication is an absolute must have. 

Preparation. Otherwise known as foreplay.  Prep is and can be sexy! Everyone involved wants to have a good time, some preparation is required! I don’t just mean fingers in the butt (although that can be important too, we’re gonna get to that), but just generally building up the level of arousal over time adds to the dynamic you’re trying to create between two characters. Even if it’s fuck-or-die, sex pollen shenanigans, just talking about how hot the character feels for it is still a form of preparation/foreplay.  Specifically speaking to buttsex - the amount of prep your character needs is heavily dependent on the circumstances.  For your consideration - is this a first time sex situation, or does your character regularly bottom? Are they pressed for time, or is this a long, drawn-out affair? There is not (despite what fanfic writers would have you believe) a certain number of fingers that you have to insert into anyone’s anus that makes them ‘ready’ for sex.  A person who regularly bottoms may not need any fingering at all, in fact, but they are still going to need lube. (See point 1.) If your character has never bottomed before, they’re going to need more time and patience than a character that does it a lot, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they need more and more and more fingers. It just means they need a partner with consideration for their comfort. And lube.

Coming. People (and thus, characters) don’t often come at exactly the same time.  Frequently someone comes first. The other person may not come at all! They don’t have to! If it’s important to you, that’s fine. But it can be fun to play with the dynamics of one character coming and the other character not, because they’re caring for the first character, or because they want to wait and enjoy the burn for later, or because of whatever other reason - which brings us back to character and story dynamic. Also, playing with this particular dynamic can make your pornography feel a lot less formulaic.  Character B didn’t come because they wanted to wait and savor the feeling, and maybe in a few hours or days, Character A gets to really have a good time paying them back with a truly spectacular orgasm.  Maybe they just really wanted to see their partner fucked out and happy, and coming really wasn’t that important to them. Maybe they’re sex-postive ace, or maybe they take medication that makes sex and orgasms hard to achieve, but they still enjoy the intimacy. It’s up to you (and your characters!), but it’s not necessary for both people to come for the scene to be satisfying.

Penetration. Penetration is not the end-all-be-all of sex. Penetration isn’t even required for something to be considered sex.  Some people never want penetration, and that’s okay.  This is a good time to consider your characters’ boundaries, a good way to involve consent, and a good way to consider what kind of bedroom dynamic your characters are going to share - even or especially if it’s completely different to the dynamic they share outside the bedroom.  Is penetration necessary or important to the characters, the story, or the development of the relationship? Even if you just want to write it, that’s fine, but considering your characters’ perspective and feeling will give the act more depth and nuance.

Expectations (and subverting them so that whatever you’re writing feels fresh and different). Like I said before, there’s a certain amount of ‘this is what’s going to happen’ expectation in fictional pornography. A series of steps that you can pretty much guarantee is going to get you from point A to point F in the sexual alphabet. One of the biggest ways that you can make your sex scenes feel more intimate, more character-driven, and more unique is by subverting those expectations and doing something different that fits your dynamic better or isn’t “the norm”. For example, in a recent fic I had a character fantasize about what it would be like to have the object of their affection on their hands and knees - but when it came time for the sex, said character flipped the script and climbed on top instead! Fictional pornography isn’t real, and people don’t necessarily want realism in their fiction, but adding some realistic elements (oh no, I’ve lost the lube!/it turns out I don’t like this one thing can we try another thing/a hilarious thing has just happened) can be fun and unexpected, and make the reader more invested in your story.

So You Want To Add An Explicit Scene

You’re writing a lovely enemies to friends back to enemies to lovers arc and the time has come to do the do.  I’m excited for you! I’m excited for your characters! But now you want to know how do I add this to my story organically? How do you make this feel like a natural progression of the story, how do you segue from fighting Doombots to sweating it up in the sheets? 

The trick, in my experience, is to build up to that moment way before you get there.  You have to lay the groundwork for attraction before anyone takes off any clothes.  Does Character A get distracted during the fight by staring at Character B’s biceps? Was that an absolutely beautiful sniper shot at an impossible angle and it was so good that Character A’s breath literally catches in his chest and he nearly gets hit in the face by a robot fist? Did someone else in the battle have to remind Character B to pay attention to the fight?  Is it movie night and Character A doesn’t even know the plot of the film because they’ve been too busy staring at Character B’s face in the light of the television screen? 

A little pining goes a long way, but you have to establish attraction before your characters can act on attraction. It feels jarring to your readers if the characters hated each other two paragraphs ago and now they’re fucking in a public space.  Even if it’s hate sex, you gotta have the POV character hate how attractive they find the other character.  Then you just need an inciting event - one character takes off their shirt because it’s ripped from the fight, or they bump into each other in the communal kitchen and that hot line of their bodies pressed together sparks a kiss - and then you’re off and running! 

The exception to this might be an established relationship Plot What Plot fic, but even then, you’ve probably got an idea that sparks the actual sex - include that in your fic!

Help, This Is Moving Way Too Fast!

Oh no, the pacing is off! It happens to the best of us, don’t worry. You get in a hurry (just come already, oh my god!), and you push through to the end and then on re-read or in beta, you find that the whole thing just feels flat and rushed.  It started off so well, and then you lost something somewhere in the middle. 

The way I combat this is by focusing on how the characters feel and/or how they react to what’s happening. 

Someone’s mouth is on someone else’s body - how does the POV character feel about this? If they’re the recipient, is this the hottest thing that’s ever happened to them? Are they afraid to let go and enjoy it? Are they 404 Error: Brain Not Found? Play around with it. Does the non-POV character say something unbelievably hot/romantic/sappy/hilarious? What kind of mood are you trying to set? This is a character interaction as much as dialogue is, so you’re still working with the back-and-forth of two people who are communicating, but with their bodies. (And words too, to be honest).  If the scene is too rushed, slow it down with some internal dialogue, external dialogue, or something emotional (like a realization or an acknowledgement - oh no I love them/oh no I don’t hate them/they always take good care of me). If the scene is too long (to be honest this rarely happens, but it can), consider whether you’ve added too much dialogue or other extraneous interactions that have slowed your scene and taken attention away from what’s happening.

Help, It Sounds Like A Medical Exam

This is nearly always a terminology problem. 

I’m not here to tell you what words you can and cannot use in your sex scenes.  Everyone feels differently about acceptable terminology (though we have all laughed at dick euphemisms).  And that’s not even getting into writing fics with trans characters or different gender identities. Personally, I tend to use cock/dick for penis, and I avoid specifically naming parts for vagina-havers because I’ve never found a good one that I liked that I felt flowed smoothly in my own writing.  So this one is more nebulous because it’s a personal choice you’re making about what words do it for you and what words don’t.  It’s also, again, about your character’s perspective.  If you have a character who prefers certain terminology, that’s the terminology you use. 

Here’s what I can suggest.  Don’t focus as much on the parts of the body you’re writing, and focus much, much more on the sensations you’re creating.  There is a mouth on your POV character’s penis - how does that feel to them? Is it: hot, tight, wet, is there something happening with the tongue, are they sucking really hard, are they going really deep?  Alternatively - is the non-POV character enthusiastic? Are they into it? Is how into it they are super hot to the receiving character? Are they sloppy but determined? Beyond the physical sensation, how about emotional reactions? Has your POV character never had this before, or has no one ever treated them with such tender care? Is it the best blowjob they’ve ever received? The worst? (This can still be hot - can the POV character give them careful, precise instructions on how to do it better? Does the non-POV character find THAT extremely hot?). 

Keep in mind that you’re not writing technical directions for the characters in your scene.  (Unless you are, because you’ve discovered Gentle!Dom!Bucky, who is telling Praise!Kink!Clint exactly what to do.) You’re writing a scene that conveys something emotional to the reader.  Is it a sexy emotion? Yes, yes it is. It might also be a sad emotion, or a happy one, or any of the range of human emotions, really, but the point is that readers probably know how the sex works mechanically, what you’re trying to do is give them feelings about it.

Speaking of Feelings

Let’s talk a little bit about motivation.  Yes, even sex scenes need motivation. Not to be the prima donna actor over here, but ask yourself: Why am I writing a sex scene? 

Generally speaking, well-written sex scenes are better received if they accomplish a goal.  Writing a sex scene well is easier if you have this goal in mind before you ever sit down in front of your computer.

Does this scene advance the story? By this I mean: is this an emotional resolution, does it convey something about the characters’ relationship that cannot be conveyed in another venue or does it better express that aspect of their relationship, does it have meaning beyond the immediate gratification of an orgasm or add to the fic in some way?

Does this scene advance the relationship? Is it a big step for one or both characters? Are you showing vulnerability/trust/compassion/concern/etc? Is it an emotional milestone? Is it an expression of love that one of the characters can’t make with words but can demonstrate physically?

I’m going to pull some very specific examples from my own work, helpfully crowdsourced and reviewed by a trusted friend so that I can talk more clearly about what I mean.

Russian Red: if you haven’t read this one, it’s a story about Bucky wearing lipstick and then giving Clint a blow job. That’s it, that’s the fic. When I put it like that, it doesn’t sound all that exciting, really, and maybe it doesn’t even sound like something you’d like. A man wearing lipstick may not be your thing!! That’s okay! (And as an aside, people enjoy reading/writing things that they have absolutely zero interest in in real life, and that’s okay! Fantasies are weird like that, and a normal part of human sexuality, and we aren’t judging anyone for their kinks here.) But this fic employs very specifically some of the points I’ve made so far, so I want to talk a little about it, especially foreplay and emotional investment. 

Bucky wearing lipstick in this fic is not about Bucky at all.  It is explicitly about fulfilling a fantasy for Clint.  In fact, later in the fic, Bucky has a moment of insecurity about it because he had what he thought was a great idea, and in the moment of truth it becomes a bit of screaming panic because what if the whole thing is stupid!!!! We’ve all had that moment.  So readers can relate. But also - throughout the course of the fic it becomes something that Bucky also enjoys and finds sexy.  So there are multiple motivators: emotional satisfaction for Bucky because he’s doing something for Clint, physical satisfaction for Clint because he is getting his fantasy fulfilled, and then the added bonus of Bucky finding the whole thing unexpectedly hot means that he is also satisfied by the encounter.  I have created an emotional need that is satisfied through porn.

Emotional investment (also known as the character is putting in work).  Bucky goes through a lot to make this fantasy happen.  He has to tell Natasha what he’s doing for one thing, which is uncomfortable. A little bit of character discomfort makes the payoff at the end better, because your reader is invested in your character having a good outcome! It also shows that Bucky cares about Clint more than he cares about the mild discomfort/vulnerability of asking Natasha about lipstick for a mildly kinky thing he’s doing.

Foreplay - the more invested Bucky gets in doing this thing for Clint, the more he starts to find it hot and exciting, the more like foreplay it becomes, which means the payoff in the end is that much better. (Revisit the point on preparation from earlier!).  There is a lot of build up from the moment Bucky puts the lipstick on (tactile sensations, memories tied to lipstick, etc.) to the moment he leaves the very first red imprint of his mouth on Clint’s skin and realizes oh shit, this is hot.

This fic is very, very close, tight third-person POV.  Keeping the POV so close and tight means that your reader is very much in your POV character’s head - the reader is getting their experiences (emotional, physical, tactile senses) but they’re only able to interpret the other characters’ motivations and reactions through the lens of your POV character.  It’s trickier writing, but it means the reader is more connected to the character and therefore the porn. Also, it means that the reader is much more in tune with the non-POV characters’ reactions, which means incoherent mess is just that much hotter.

Personal Security/Security Failure: So these fics are… their own claim to fame in fandom. Gentle!Dom!Bucky and Praise!Kink!Clint have sexy, sexy adventures.  The first fic is their first meeting, the second one is fondly known as Circus Spanking. If you haven’t read them, that’s the basic summary, but please mind the tags if you choose to explore this series. Here we’re going to hit on consent, which is important and sexy, and vulnerability/trust. 

Again it’s very close, 3rd person POV, which means you’re very much in Clint’s head when he’s a wrecked, incoherent mess.  In the previous fic Bucky was watching the incoherency happen, which is very hot. In this fic the reader is experiencing the incoherency.  There’s also a lot of buildup in the first fic of Clint experiencing this inexplicable attraction to Bucky, and the confusion he has that Bucky is equally attracted to him - so like foreplay, you’re building it up before they ever take their clothes off.

Consent.  If you are dabbling anywhere in the kink neighborhood I cannot express to you how important it is to include explicit consent.  Please get a kink sensitivity reader. Don’t surprise your audience with dubious consent - make it clear and explicit from the start, even if it’s consensual nonconsent (which is a tag, but can also be addressed early with a line like ‘this is something they’d talked about previously’). But also! Consent can be sexy! It can be fun! It doesn’t have to be a drawn out contract of hard limits and detailed diagrams (though I have seen that done and done well!). Consent can be as simple as checking in with a partner if they’ve gone quiet or seem so wrecked they can’t express themselves. Consent can be one character telling another exactly what they’re going to do to them (hot hot hot!!), asking if they’re okay with it, and then doing exactly what they said.

Vulnerability/trust. Just like with the previous fic, vulnerability adds a sense of emotional intimacy that can be super hot.  If you’re writing kinky fic, vulnerability and trust go hand in hand, and show how deeply invested characters can be in each other - and that they respect and care for one another as well.  One character making themselves vulnerable to another with the understanding that the other character isn’t going to take advantage of that trust can be supernova hot if you employ it correctly. The key here is making sure that the character in the position of power respects the vulnerable character’s boundaries.  Security Failure in specific sets up an emotional need (increased trust) that is fulfilled physically by the porn that follows.  Clint needs to trust Bucky more, and Bucky needs to know that Clint trusts him.  Clint making himself super vulnerable in this fic lets both of these needs be fulfilled.

 Interactions outside the bedroom compared to interactions inside the bedroom.  In this fic, I chose to have these mirror each other - Bucky is in control of himself and in command of the situation in all of their interactions, so before they ever get naked you know what to expect from the dynamic. What can also be fun, however, is subverting expectations, so that how characters interact outside the bedroom is very different from how they interact inside the bedroom - so this is another time when knowing what your characters want/prefer is important motivation for your writing!

Character moments in your porn - there’s a scene in the first fic where Clint (this is all Clint POV) thinks about how much he likes performing a certain act, because it makes him feel good and useful.  It’s a very short interaction but it tells you a lot about the character - it tells you he likes to be useful, that he likes to be considered good (hello praise kink!), and it tells you he has low self-esteem which makes you want to wrap him up and a blanket and tuck him in and tell him how good and useful he is, but you also want Bucky to wreck him.  Your characters still have characterization, even during porn. In the second fic, we see character growth that mirrors growth within the relationship, but there’s still room to grow because Clint is still uncertain and insecure, and the fic helps advance their relationship to a new level of trust.  Through porn.

Communication, communication, communication.  Especially in kink fic but honestly in most porn - your characters have to communicate with each other! It can be nonverbal, but you’ve gotta make it clear to the reader.

The Big Finish

Everyone came (or maybe they didn’t), now what CB?

Oof, good question. 

To be honest, endings are the hardest (ha!) part.  And luckily, we’re going to have a Workshop specifically about how best to accomplish them! But as far as sexy scenes and how to wrap them up and move on, I like to use resolution of whatever need I was trying to meet, and then open the next scene with something that demonstrates a new level of intimacy/relationship dynamic/etc. if it���s part of a larger storyline, or just fade to black if it’s a one-shot. 

I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but this also depends on your motivation for writing your sex scene.  If you were trying to accomplish something with the story, then you need to somehow demonstrate that goal has been met - are they more comfortable around each other now, are they happier to show off their relationship to their friends, are they finally admitting they’re in a relationship? If you were trying to accomplish something with the relationship itself (which, as you can see, may go hand in hand with the story), then how can you show that? Does the one who usually leaves finally fall asleep in the other person’s arms? Is there a big flowery declaration? Does someone crymax? Does one partner tenderly clean the other partner up with a warm cloth and snuggle them into submission? The world is your oyster! Do what feels right for your characters and the journey you’re taking them on! 

And don’t forget the lube. 

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About Loki (Season One)

(Sorry this is later than it should have been. I may or may not be experiencing burnout from reviewing every episode of the gayest show Disney has ever produced)

Salutations, random people on the internet. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Do you want to know what's fun about the Marvel Cinematic Universe? It is now officially at the point where the writers can do whatever the hell they want.

A TV series about two Avengers getting stuck in a series of sitcoms as one of them explores their personal grief? Sure.

Another series as a guy with metal bird wings fights the inner racism of his nation to take the mantel of representing the idea of what that nation should be? Why not?

A forgettable movie about a superspy and her much more mildly entertaining pretend family working together to kill the Godfather? F**king go for it (Let that be a taste for my Black Widow review in October)!

There is no limit to what you can get with these movies and shows anymore, and I personally consider that a good thing. It allows this franchise to lean further into creative insanity, thus embracing its comic roots in the process. Take Loki, for example. It is a series about an alternate version of one of Marvel's best villains bouncing around the timeline with Owen Wilson to prevent the end of the universe. It sounds like just the right amount of wackiness that it should be too good to fail.

But that's today's question: Did it fail? To find out my own answer to that, we're gonna have to dive deep into spoilers. So be wary as you continue reading.

With that said, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Loki Himself: Let's get this out of the way: This isn't the same Loki we've seen grow within five movies. The Loki in this series, while similar in many ways, is still his very own character. He goes through his own redemption and developments that fleshes out Loki, all through ways that, if I'm being honest with you, is done much better in six-hour-long episodes than in past films. Loki's story was already entertaining, but he didn't really grow that much aside from being this chaotic neutral character instead of this wickedly evil supervillain. Through his series, we get to see a gradual change in his personality, witnessing him understand his true nature and "glorious purpose," to the point where he's already this completely different person after one season. Large in part because of the position he's forced into.

Some fans might say that the series is less about Loki and more about the TVA. And while I can unquestionably see their point, I still believe that the TVA is the perfect way for Loki to grow. He's a character all about causing chaos and controlling others, so forcing him to work for an organization that takes that away allows Loki time to really do some introspection. Because if his tricks don't work, and his deceptions can't fool others, then who is he? Well, through this series, we see who he truly is: A character who is alone and is intended to be nothing more than a villain whose only truly selfless act got him killed in the end. Even if he wants to better himself, he can't because that "goes against the sacred timeline." Loki is a person who is destined to fail, and he gets to see it all with his own eyes by looking at what his life was meant to be and by observing what it could have been. It's all tragic and yet another example of these shows proving how they allow underdeveloped characters in the MCU a better chance to shine. Because if Loki can give even more depth to a character who's already compelling as is, then that is a feat worth admiration.

The Score: Let's give our gratitude toward Natalie Holt, who f**king killed it with this series score. Every piece she made is nothing short of glorious. Sylvie's and the TVA's themes particularly stand out, as they perfectly capture who/what they're representing. Such as how Sylvie's is big and boisterous where the TVA's sound eerie and almost unnatural. Holt also finds genius ways to implement other scores into the series, from using familiar tracks from the Thor movies to even rescoring "Ride of the Valkyries" in a way that makes a scene even more epic than it already could have been. The MCU isn't best known for its musical scores, partly because they aim to be suitable rather than memorable. But every now and again, something as spectacular as the Loki soundtrack sprinkles through the cracks of mediocrity. Making fans all the more grateful because of it.

There’s a lot of Talking: To some, this will be considered a complaint. Most fans of the MCU come for the action, comedy, and insanely lovable characters. Not so much for the dialogue and exposition. That being said, I consider all of the talking to be one of Loki's best features. All the background information about the TVA added with the character's backstories fascinates me, making me enthusiastic about learning more. Not everyone else will be as interested in lore and world-building as others, but just because something doesn't grab you, in particular, doesn't mean it isn't appealing at all. Case in point: There's a reason why the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise has lasted as long as it has, and it's not entirely because of how "scary" it is.

There's also the fact that most of the dialogue in Loki is highly engaging. I'll admit, some scenes do drag a bit. However, every line is delivered so well that I'm more likely to hang on to every word when characters simply have honest conversations with each other. And if I can be entertained by Loki talking with Morbius about jetskis, then I know a show is doing at least something right.

It’s Funny: This shouldn't be a surprise. The MCU is well-known for its quippy humor in the direct acknowledgment that it doesn't take itself too seriously. With that said, it is clear which movies and shows are intended to be taken seriously, while others are meant to be comedies. Loki tries to be a bit of both. There are some heavy scenes that impact the characters, and probably even some fans, due to how well-acted and professionally written they can be. However, this is also a series about a Norse god traveling through time to deal with alternate versions of himself, with one of them being an alligator. I'd personally consider it a crime against storytelling to not make it funny. Thankfully, the writers aren't idiots and know to make the series fun with a few flawlessly timed and delivered jokes that never really take away from the few good grim moments that actually work.

It Kept Me Surprised: About everything I appreciate about Loki, the fact that I could never really tell what direction it was going is what I consider its absolute best feature. Every time I think I knew what was going to happen, there was always this one big twist that heavily subverted any and every one of my expectations. Such as how each time I thought I knew who the big bad was in this series, it turns out that there was an even worse threat built up in the background. The best part is that these twists aren't meant for shock value. It's always supposed to drive the story forward, and on a rewatch, you can always tell how the seeds have been planted for making each surprise work. It's good that it kept fans guessing, as being predictable and expected would probably be the worst path to take when making a series about Loki, a character who's all about trickery and deception. So bonus points for being in line with the character.

The TVA: You can complain all you want about how the show is more about the TVA than it is Loki, but you can't deny how the organization in question is a solid addition to the MCU. Initially, it was entertaining to see Loki of all characters be taken aback by how the whole process works. And it was worth a chuckle seeing Infinity Stones, the most powerful objects in the universe, get treated as paperweights. However, as the season continues and we learn about the TVA, the writers show that their intention is to try and write a message about freedom vs. control. We've seen this before in movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier or Captain America: Civil War, but with those films, it always felt like the writers were leaning more towards one answer instead of making it obscure over which decision is correct. This is why I enjoy the fact that Loki went on saying that there really is no right answer for this scenario. If the TVA doesn't prune variants, it could result in utter chaos and destruction that no one from any timeline can prepare themselves for. But when they do prune variants along with their timelines, it takes away all free will, forcing people to be someone they probably don't even want to be. It's a situation where there really is no middle ground. Even if you bring up how people could erase timelines more destructive than others, that still takes away free will on top of how there's no unbiased way of deciding which timelines are better or worse. And the series found a brilliant way to explain this moral: The season starts by showing how the TVA is necessary, to later point out how there are flaws and evil secrets within it, and ends things with the revelation that there are consequences without the TVA keeping the timeline in check. It's an epic showcase of fantastic ideas met with exquisite execution that I can't help but give my seal of approval to.

Miss Minutes: Not much to say. This was just a cute character, and I love that Tara Strong, one of the most popular voice actors, basically plays a role in the MCU now.

Justifying Avengers: Endgame: Smartest. Decision. This series. Made. Bar none.

Because when you establish that the main plot is about a character getting arrested for f**king over the timeline, you're immediately going to get people questioning, "Why do the Avengers get off scot-free?" So by quickly explaining how their time-traveling antics were supposed to happen, it negates every one of those complaints...or most of them. There are probably still a-holes who are poking holes in that logic, but they're not the ones writing this review, so f**k them.

Mobius: I didn't really expect Owen Wilson to do that good of a job in Loki. Primarily due to how the Cars franchise discredits him as a professional actor for...forever. With that said, Owen Wilson's Mobius might just be one of the most entertaining characters in the series. Yes, even more so than Loki himself. Mobius acts as the perfect straight man to Loki's antics, what with being so familiar with the supposed god of mischief through past variations of him. Because of that, it's always a blast seeing these two bounce off one another through Loki trying to trick a Loki expert, and said expert even deceiving Loki at times. Also, on his own, Mobius is still pretty fun. He has this sort of witty energy that's often present in Phil Coulson (Love that character too, BTW), but thanks to Owen Wilson's quirks in his acting, there's a lot more energy to Mobius than one would find in Coulson. As well as a tad bit of tragedy because of Mobius being a variant and having no clue what his life used to be. It's a lot to unpack and is impressively written, added to how it's Owen Wilson who helps make the character work as well as he did. Cars may not have done much for his career, but Loki sure as hell showed his strengths.

Ravonna Renslayer: Probably the least entertaining character, but definitely one of the most intriguing. At least to me.

Ravonna is a character who is so steadfast in her believes that she refuses to accept that she may be wrong. Without the proper writing, someone like Ravonna could tick off (ha) certain people. Personally, I believe that Ravonna is written well enough where even though I disagree with her belief, I can understand where she's coming from. She's done so much for the TVA, bringing an end to so many variants and timelines that she can't accept that it was all for nothing. In short, Ravonna represents the control side of the freedom vs. control theme that the writers are pushing. Her presence is necessary while still being an appealing character instead of a plot device. Again, at least to me.

Hunter B-15: I have no strong feelings one way or another towards B-15's personality, but I will admit that I love the expectation-subversion done with her. She has this air of someone who's like, "I'm this by-the-books badass cop, and I will only warm up to this cocky rookie after several instances of them proving themselves." That's...technically not B-15. She's the first to see Loki isn't that bad, but only because B-15 is the first in the main cast to learn the hidden vile present in the TVA. It makes her change in point of view more believable than how writers usually work a character like hers, on top of adding a new type of engaging motivation for why she fights. I may not particularly enjoy her personality, but I do love her contributions.

Loki Watching What His Life Could Have Been: This was a brilliant decision by the writers. It's basically having Loki speedrun his own character development through witnessing what he could have gone through and seeing the person he's meant to be, providing a decent explanation for why he decides to work for the TVA. And on the plus side, Tom Hiddleston did a fantastic job at portraying the right emotions the character would have through a moment like this. Such as grief, tearful mirth, and borderline shock and horror. It's a scene that no other character could go through, as no one but Loki needed a wake-up call for who he truly is. This series might heavily focus on the TVA, but scenes like this prove just who's the star of the show.

Loki Causing Mischief in Pompeii: I just really love this scene. It's so chaotic and hilarious, all heavily carried by the fact that you can tell that Tom Hiddleston is having the time of his damn life being this character. What more can I say about it.

Sylvie: The first of many surprises this season offered, and boy was she a great one.

Despite being an alternate version of Loki, I do appreciate that Sylvie's her own character and not just "Loki, but with boobs." She still has the charm and charisma, but she also comes across as more hardened and intelligent when compared to the mischievous prick we've grown to love. A large part of that is due to her backstory, which might just be the most tragic one these movies and shows have ever made. Sylvie got taken away when she was a little girl, losing everything she knew and loved, and it was all for something that the people who arrested her don't even remember. How sad is that? The fact that her life got permanently screwed over, leaving zero impact on the people responsible for it. As badass as it is to hear her say she grew up at the ends of a thousand worlds (that's an album title if I ever heard one), it really is depressing to know what she went through. It also makes her the perfect candidate to represent the freedom side of the freedom vs. control argument. Because she's absolutely going to want to fight to put an end to the people who decide how the lives of trillions should be. Those same people took everything from Sylvie, and if I were in her position, I'd probably do the same thing. Of course, we all know the consequences that come from this, and people might criticize Sylvie the same way they complain about Thor and Star Lord for screwing over the universe in Avengers: Infinity War. But here's the thing: Sylvie's goals are driven by vengeance, which can blind people from any other alternatives. Meaning her killing He Who Remains is less of a story flaw and more of a character flaw. It may be a bad decision, but that's for Season Two Sylvie to figure out. For now, I'll just appreciate the well-written and highly compelling character we got this season and eagerly wait as we see what happens next with her.

The Oneshot in Episode Three: Not as epic as the hallway scene in Daredevil, but I do find it impressive that it tries to combine real effects, fighting, and CGI in a way where it's all convincing enough.

Lady Sif Kicking Loki in the D**k: This is a scene that makes me realize why I love this series. At first, I laugh at Loki being stuck in a time loop where Lady Sif kicks him in the d**k over and over again. But a few scenes later, this setup actually works as a character moment that explains why Loki does the things he does.

This series crafted phenomenal character development through Loki getting kicked in the d**k by the most underrated badass of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's a perfect balance of comedy and drama that not every story can nail, yet Loki seemed like it did with very little effort.

Classic Loki: This variant shows the true tragedy of being Loki. The only way to survive is to live in isolation, far away from everything and everyone he loves, only to end up having his one good deed result in his death anyways. Classic Loki is definitive proof that no matter what face they have, Lokis never gets happy endings. They're destined to lose, but at least this version knows that if you're going out, you're going out big. And at least he got to go out with a mischievous laugh.

(Plus, the fact that he's wearing Loki's first costume from the comics is a pretty cute callback).

Alligator Loki: Alligator Loki is surprisingly adorable, and if you know me, you know that I can't resist cute s**t. It's not in my nature.

Loki on Loki Violence: If you thought Loki going ham in Pompeii was chaotic, that was nothing to this scene. Because watching these Lokis backstab one another, to full-on murdering each other, is a moment that is best described as pure, unadulterated chaos. And I. Loved. Every. Second of it.

The Opening Logo for the Season Finale: I'm still not that big of a fan of the opening fanfare playing for each episode, but I will admit that it was a cool feature to play vocal clips of famous quotes when the corresponding character appears. It's a great way of showing the chaos of how the "sacred timeline" works without having it to be explained further.

The Citadel: I adore the set design of the Citadel. So much history and backstory shine through the state of every room the characters walk into. You get a perfect picture of what exactly happened, but seeing how ninety percent of the place is in shambles, it's pretty evident that not everything turned out peachy keen. And as a personal note, my favorite aspect of the Citadel is the yellow cracks in the walls. It looks as though reality itself is cracking apart, which is pretty fitting when considering where the Citadel actually is.

He Who Remains: This man. I. Love. This man.

I love this man for two reasons.

A. He's a ton of fun. Credit to that goes to the performance delivered by Jonathon Majors. Not only is it apparent that Majors is having a blast, but he does a great job at conveying how He Who Remains is a strategic individual but is still very much off his rocker. These villains are always my favorite due to how much of a blast it is seeing someone with high intelligence just embracing their own insanity. If you ask me, personalities are always essential for villains. Because even when they have the generic plot to rule everything around them, you're at least going to remember who they are for how entertaining they were. Thankfully He Who Remains has that entertainment value, as it makes me really excited for his eventual return, whether it'd be strictly through Loki Season Two or perhaps future movies.

And B. He Who Remains is a fantastic foil for Loki. He Who Remains is everything Loki wishes he could have been, causing so much death, destruction, and chaos to the multiverse. The important factor is that he does it all through order and control. The one thing Loki despises, and He Who Remains uses it to his advantage. I feel like that's what makes him the perfect antagonist to Loki, thanks to him winning the game by not playing it. I would love it if He Who Remains makes further appearances in future movies and shows, especially given how he's hinted to be Kane the Conqueror, but if he's only the main antagonist in Loki, I'm still all for it. He was a great character in his short time on screen, and I can't wait to see what happens next with him.

WHAT I DISLIKED

Revealing that Loki was D.B. Cooper: A cute scene, but it's really unnecessary. It adds nothing to the plot, and I feel like if it was cut out entirely, it wouldn't have been the end of the world...Yeah. That's it.

That's my one and only complaint about this season.

Maybe some scenes drag a bit, and I guess Episode Three is kind of the weakest, but there's not really anything that this series does poorly that warrants an in-depth complaint.

Nope.

Nothing at all...

…

...

...I'm not touching that "controversy" of Loki falling for Sylvie instead of Mobius. That's a situation where there are no winners.

Only losers.

Exclusively losers.

Other than that, this season was amazing!

IN CONCLUSION

I'd give the first season of Loki a well-earned A, with a 9.5 through my usual MCU ranking system. It turns out, it really is the best type of wackiness that was just too good to fail. The characters are fun and likable, the comedy and drama worked excellently, and the expansive world-building made me really intrigued with the more we learned. It's hard to say if Season Two will keep this momentum, but that's for the future to figure out. For now, let's just sit back and enjoy the chaos.

(Now, if you don't excuse me, I have to figure out how to review Marvel's What If...)

[mashounen2003]

Sonic opinions - 2

In large portions of every fandom, it looks like it prevails the idea that you can only take one of two positions: praising the story in every respect, including both the ideas themselves and their execution by the writers, or admitting not to like the story and not to praise any element of it at all. I think my ideas regarding the Archie-Sonic comics and the Sonic franchise in general cannot be pigeonholed into either of these two extremes.

More below the "keep reading" cut.

I loved all the world-building in Archie-Sonic, the elements the comic introduced, their many characters and the potential to tell stories about them; I also really liked much of the art and personal styles of several artists Archie-Sonic has had throughout its history, with very few exceptions (and such exceptions include Ron Lim, of course). That's why, of all the Sonic continuities, I often use the pre-reboot Archie-Sonic comic as the primary source for world-building elements and story ideas.

What really makes me feel bad about that comic, what motivates most of my criticism, is the ideas’ execution by the main writers, as well as aspects that I think are more linked to each writer as a person, the unique way in which each of them has written their stories.

Firstly, Michael Gallagher: the writer for the first few dozen issues of the comic had a terrible sense of humour, and this hurt the comic hugely since those first issues were fundamentally based on that low-quality comedy style. The characterization of the entire cast also suffered greatly from this; in Sally's case, something quite ironic happened too: Gallagher portrayed her as bossy, annoying, temperamental, usually bickering with Sonic, and now that's also how Sally is seen by many fans of the videogames’ continuity (at best). Other than this, not much more could be said about him.

Karl Bollers wrote quite decent stories with some nice comedy, with “Return to Angel Island” being his best work, one of the best stories in the entire comic and perhaps even one of the best in the franchise; but Bollers’s work was "torpedoed" by Ken Penders and then-editor Justin Gabrie, which ruined the stories’ final versions sometimes or led to elements introduced by Bollers being "retconned" and overwritten by whatever Penders smoked and decided to do when taking over. The characterization of Fiona Fox is one of the main examples, with Bollers's Fiona being a quite under-utilized character but with a great potential that would later be wasted by both Penders and Ian Flynn. Another similar case was Sally breaking up with Sonic: Bollers tried to give context to such a drastic decision by Sally and show how she was the one who was suffering the most at that time and also that both she and Sonic were partially right, but Penders and Gabrie didn't let Bollers develop this subplot properly and all we had was a quite infamous scene that unfairly made Sally one of the most hated characters. It’s also known of several plans Bollers had for future stories, and one of them was Antoine being corrupted by the Source of All and turning into a villain; this had the potential to be a good story by subverting the concept of the Source of All and making it an actual threat, but on the other hand, it’d have meant resorting once again to the resource of "this character isn’t doing anything, let's make them evil", something quite disappointing, which later would have disastrous results when Flynn did the same with Fiona a few years later. However, these plans of Bollers were just ideas, and the quality of a story created from them still depends a lot on execution. In the end, I can't say anything about how good or bad Bollers was as a writer, simply because I have no way of knowing what his stories would have been like if he had been given more freedom and had stayed as the writer longer.

There were two writers who influenced Archie-Sonic comics far more than any other writer in its history: Penders and Flynn. The first of them was a retarded pervert with an overly inflated and fragile ego. He became obsessed with the primitive, toxic ideal of "family" North-Americans have. He wrote nonsensical, contradictory stories, having already decided the end down to the last detail long before even thinking about how the story would come to that end (I also made this specific mistake a few times when I was just starting to write fanfiction, I must admit). He increased Fiona's age in order to be able to pair her with the Don Juan that Sonic had become, which also ruined Fiona's characterization forever. The issues 150s -right before being replaced by Flynn- were the worst part of Penders’s run, as Bollers was no longer there to put a stop to his madness in any way, and it was at this time when there was the most egregious case of Penders pouring into the comic his worst perversions and retarded ideas: he hinted at a sex scene in one of the most infamous cases in the history of the entire Sonic franchise, although it wasn’t infamous for the implied sex per se but rather because what happened was technically a rape by deception; to add insult to injury, the writer implicitly blamed the victim some years later when asked about it on Twitter.

I could go on talking about “Ken Perverts”, but I think that's not necessary and would be a waste of time since, as everyone here already knows, he's been the laughingstock of the entire Sonic franchise for years; @ponett even has a whole secondary blog, @thankskenpenders, mainly dedicated to this. On the other hand, there’s still another writer who has also contributed a lot and also made huge mistakes but is not criticized in the least by almost anyone, simply because he was better than Penders.

Ian Flynn usually reduced the characters to slightly oversimplified portrayals, similar to the personalities of the characters in the most recent videogames. Under his pen, Sonic was more sympathetic but his words sometimes sounded too empty and shallow, his apologies for past mistakes didn’t lead to genuine changes on his part, and sometimes he even seemed plain insensitive to all the tragedies happening around him, especially at the Mecha Sally Arc (I nickname Ian Flynn’s Sonic "Plastic Smile" for this). Admittedly, this had already happened several times with previous writers (Penders portraying Sonic as a Don Juan, as I already mentioned), and this is why I think the original Sonic from Sonic SatAM was always better for feeling more "genuine", less "empty", and more heroic and likeable as a result. Perhaps the only ones to escape the oversimplified portrayal have been Shadow and E-123 Omega, whose characterizations in Archie-Sonic were the best in the whole franchise.

Besides, Flynn had strong favouritism for Amy Rose, which only made things worse because this Amy was much more similar to the one in the videogames from Sonic Heroes onwards. Anyway, this also happened with previous writers, like when Amy wished to be younger at the cost of a chance to save Sally's mother and no one ever berated her for it.

Let’s look at the villains. Unlike the typical Eggman from the videogames, with his follies, eccentricities and other absurd aspects, the Robotnik “inherited” by the comic from Sonic SatAM was explicitly a genocidal bastard and crueller while at the same time being sane enough to realize everything he was doing (@robotnik-mun already spoke in detail about this once); however, Flynn tried to combine the two characters into the pre-reboot Archie-Sonic Eggman, and the result created some severe problems with the stories’ tone. Something derived from this was how Sonic let Eggman live and even felt sorry for his fall into madness, in addition to treating him as if they were the Sonic and Eggman from the videogames, Sonic X or Sonic Boom; it’s worth remembering this Eggman technically is a sort of reincarnation of the SatAM Robotnik (his exact nature is quite complicated and includes parallel universes, but yes, he’s supposed to be exactly the same as the SatAM Robotnik, with memories and everything) and this Sonic is supposed to have fought a bloody decade-long guerilla war against him just like his SatAM counterpart.

Scourge was turned into a massive Mary-Sue who achieved easy victories, as subtle as a huge neon sign saying "the bad guys win"; he was also an abusive manipulator towards Fiona Fox, and Flynn was unable to show that properly for fear of making his pet look no longer cool, which makes you wonder how alike Flynn and Penders might actually be in some ways. To clearly understand the horrible damage this has caused: it not only created a generation of young Sonic fans -mostly boys from the USA- who romanticize abuse either consciously or unconsciously, but also there are even women -including scholars, committed feminists and transgender people who are also activists for social justice- who either sympathize with Scourge or think Fiona made a right, wise, rational or informed decision by joining him in the story (I’ll not give names of those women, I’m not really eager to get into heated fallacious discussions about “the true meaning of Feminism”); to top it off, among the writers who started working with Ian Flynn either on IDW-Sonic or the last years of Archie-Sonic, there’s at least one person who got the job of writing official Sonic comics after gaining quite a bit of fame with a fan-comic where they used the pairing of Scourge & Fiona to inspire its readers to feel sorry... for Scourge. And speaking of Fiona specifically: the subplot of her career as a villain was ill-conceived, was built by using as a cornerstone the A-story of Issue #150 (that quite infamous and widely known story written by Penders where Scourge may or may not have raped Bunnie by deception), and was also seemingly "abandoned" as Fiona ended up merely being Scourge's new abuse victim girlfriend and her status as a traitor didn’t even have a significant emotional effect on the Freedom Fighters.

Flynn also followed something like a pattern of taking tropes from famous works and then using them when writing the comic but not actually understanding why those tropes had worked in the first place. Perhaps the prime example of this was Scourge giving Sonic the Joker's "One Bad Day" speech: it almost felt a bit like giving the same speech to the Batman of Batman vs. Superman, as Sonic had already had a whole "bad decade" and was still a hero despite it; also, Sonic's answer to that speech (telling Scourge it only takes a tiny bit of selflessness and decency for him to be a good person) wasn’t that great, not at all compared to the mildly masterful answer Batman had originally given to the Joker in The Killing Joke, and it even made Sonic look more like a bad judge of character.

Lastly, the entire Mecha Sally Arc was poorly planned, had some contradictions with itself and with previous stories, was stretched through dozens of comic issues no matter if that felt forced, and the main events and plot twists throughout the story arc were heavily based on shock-value without giving any substance to this or making it a bit more sense when putting it under scrutiny; meanwhile, Flynn always seemed to have quite a hard time when writing long story arcs, so these long stories looked like he was trying and outright failing to imitate Toriyama (someone quite known for putting together stories ad-lib according to what seemed most convenient at the time).

Despite this, it looks like those Sonic fans who are still interested in material outside of the videogames will keep buying and reading whatever Ian Flynn or one of his colleagues writes, simply because they’re better than Penders... even though it's been 15 years since Penders wrote something official about Sonic. Seriously, we should have gotten over it by now, instead of continuing to compare all material in the franchise with Penders's work, which sets the bar too low for any official content creator. Now that I think about it, Penders's work is to the North-American Sonic canon what Sonic 2006 is to the videogames: people can criticize the latest games all they want, and rightfully so, but if someone even casually mentions Sonic 2006, any Sonic game from 2010 onwards instantly becomes a masterpiece just for being marginally better than Sonic 2006; the same happens between Penders's work on pre-reboot Archie-Sonic and any other North-American Sonic comic written by Flynn after Penders left.

Right now it looks like it's also forbidden to criticize Flynn as a writer at all just because he's much nicer in his personal life and engages with fans more directly through his podcasts, or because Flynn is truly progressive while Penders claimed to be progressive and a feminist and was affiliated with the USA Democrats but his work showed how misogynistic, perverted, retarded, reactionary and downright sick he was. Also, now saying something about Flynn other than total blind admiration for him and his work, even asking for the Freedom Fighters to return in the IDW comics, has become synonymous with agreeing with those assholes who cry "Rally4Sally" or "Udon4Sonic" on Twitter: "nostalgic" fans of SatAM and Penders's work on Archie, in their 40s or 50s, deeply conservative and absurdly paranoid, who claim that those new inclusive cartoons such as Steven Universe or She-Ra "are ruining their childhood", are mad at Flynn just because he hinted Sally and Nicole may be a lesbian couple (and in a rather platonic way, not even romantic in the traditional sense), and try to justify their own warped ideas and fantasies about SatAM by ignoring any “liberal” political messages SatAM may have had at the subtext level.

[levyfiles]

Last week the @skepticbeliever-bookclub prompted us to post a selection of our favourite shyan fics so there’d be a nice little way to highlight all the hidden gems of favourites we might already recognise and love while sharing a few we might never have found otherwise. Last December I posted a little list of some of my favourites so I figured I’d dust off that list with a few new additions of particular favourites I treasure. 

Be All My Sins Remembered by spoopyy

Summary:  In every lifetime, they find each other.

Review: This fic manages to take you on a long journey through what feels like a series of AUs and they all weave in and out of the wealth of their relationship with some vivid descriptions of the historical settings their journey takes them through. As someone who grew up reading Anne Rice’s epics through historical events, this fic is right up my alley. A vampire Shane passing through the wave of human society’s climb searching for a reincarnated Ryan again and again, trying to hold on to him and keep him through great tragedies and timeframes that just don’t let them be together. This was one of the first fics I read when I was only a lurker and to be quite honest, I need to give this one a nice re-read, maybe for the book club which would be loads of fun. Either way, 10/10. Would be Hurt in the heart again.

Perfect Fit by @beaniegara

Summary:  There’s a legend that says anyone able to take all of statue Shane’s cock will summon the god to the mortal realm. Given the statue’s excessive size, no one has ever succeeded to prove or disprove the story. Until Ryan that is.

Review: Listen. You wanna talk actual fandom legends. This fic is one of them and it pulls out all the stops on being delicious and evocative. Also features one of my favourite incarnations of size queen bergara. Good stuff and you’re really rooting for Ryan in this lol.

a prize for rotten judgement  by sarcasticfishes

Summary: “You’d drive each other crazy. You sit together at your office all day, and then you’d be commuting home together, eating dinner together, watching TV together, going to bed — well, not together, but you get it, right?”

It doesn’t sound so awful to Shane. There are worse people he could be spending all his hours with than Ryan Bergara.

Review: The moment I happened to glance at the notes of this and saw that Fie’s secondary title for this would have been Ryan and Shane move to the Suburbs, I about lost it with excitement. Primarily because the show this references is one of my favourite comedies and that is one of my all-time favourite episodes. Let me tell you though, even if the reference is lost on you, this story is so much gold rolled into a heart-gripping tale of two best friends who spend every waking moment together taking the plunge to share a home and they were roommates oh my god they were roommates. Shane is pining and you’ll pine right along with him as you’ll yell and holler for him to stop being so damn real and full of doubt. It really is worth every gasp of pain and all the more for the execution but the delivery will leave you in delight. Certainly had me yelling at the author. This fic is gonna be one of my timeless favourites; I knew it the moment I began.

Everything’s Weird and We’re Always in Danger by beethechange

Summary: Ryan perches on the edge of the bed, an indistinct shape that Shane can only just make out in the dark, so he turns the lamp back on. He wants to see Ryan’s face, wants to know that he is alright. Ryan’s cheeks are damp, his hands fisted in the hideous flowered duvet.

“It won’t go away,” Ryan says miserably. “I’ve been like this since we got here, basically, and it won’t fucking—”

“Ah,” Shane says. “Well, you know, sometimes fear…adrenaline…they can affect people. Physically.” He waves his hands indistinctly crotchward. “It’s a, a scientifically known phenomenon.” Shane feels a little better staying in the realm of scientifically known phenomena.

Review: Word of advice. You see a fic is authored by beethechange, run don’t walk because you’re absolutely always going to be treated to the best of banter, the best of prose, chemistry, organic execution and feels right up the bottom end of your heart. This fic, this changed everything I thought I knew I wanted out of a bed-sharing fic. It’s got a little bit of two treats here. You got a sex-pollen-esque situation mixed with bed-sharing and holy fucking damn that is more than you think you deserve, but read this because you do deserve the best of the best. The build up, the dialogue, the surprisingly hilarity of it, the hotness woah, and The Aftermath. When you think you know what you’re in for, you’re wrong and you’re most pleasantly surprised. Get this fic in your life and honestly? while you’re at it, you could do a clean sweep of every fic in her list of works and while my less than adequate reading time management may still be short on some of her most well-recommended pieces, I have an adamant faith that Bee doesn’t disappoint. Go get y’all juice.

Maelstrom by thewindupbird

Summary:  Here’s the thing about driving halfway across the country to see someone. You can’t really deny, after that, that you’re pretty much head over heels for them.

Review: Listen. One morning on a day off, I just laid in bed and read this– all 40k+ words– while lying there clutching my pillows, hurting and loving every moment of it. The descriptions of Americana, the slow steady metronome rhythm of Ryan’s feelings as frightened and helpless as they feel when you’re relating deeply to them juxtaposed with the deep-seated struggle of understanding what it is to be with someone you love so much but your mental health is burning quiet holes in your ability to express it in a way that can be understand. Ryan’s fierce determination, breaking through the silence of their non communication is really Everything to me in this fic. i think I really left my heart in the scene in Shane’s parents kitchen. That finished me. Read this fic and understand the deep relief you get when you’ve finished a fight with someone you fiercely care about and they understand you and you understand them and it’s OK; it’s gonna be all right. Augh.

5 times Shane had to overrule Ryan’s “No Homo” + 1 time he didn’t have to by ghoulboyboos

Summary: There was only one thing that would truly drive him up the wall with Ryan, much more than any debate about ghosts ever could: Ryan’s consistent twitches of “no homo” when any sort of physical contract between them happened.

Review: I have such a soft special spot in my heart for this fic particularly because Lud manages to examine a trope I tend to avoid in such a sweet and honest way I couldn’t not love this fic. The story takes a painstaking and very real look at the “no homo” issue as it weaved through the journey that was early days Ryan and Shane. Shane’s reaction to in this and how he communicates with Ryan has such a very heartfelt and once again, real quality to it. I get in my feelings all over again about how far they’ve come and what it meant for Ryan to have Shane there. Lud really nails this piece and it’s a classic in my eyes.

A Burial on Box Hill by InkStainsOnMyHands

Summary: The Celtics believed that the yew flower symbolized both immortality and death. Meanwhile, for centuries, the buxus flower was seen as a symbol for safe passage into the afterlife.

Or,Shane and Ryan were never the same after investigating the Black Forest of Germany alone.

Review: Let me just quote my bookmark comment here. Usually I flee from tragedy like a cat spotting a cucumber but the brevity and the prose dragged me in and now I’m a functioning mess. Bless this fic. Oh my god it’s short and reads like one of those quick horror stories you’ll read to your friends just as the scary stories are transitioning from the urban legends to the ones that feel real. Big warning for main character death but still read it if you appreciate a good story told.

Body Farming by shiphitsthefan

Summary: Failed suppressants and a surprise heat: the worst of cliches, and here Ryan stands, living the trope on location with the alpha he’s hopelessly in love with. Even worse, they’re spending the night in the famous Bell Witch Cave, completely alone and with no way to contact the outside world.

Ryan knows he can survive and keep his preheat a secret, as long as Shane will stop being so protective and concerned. After all, it’s not like Shane wants to bond with him.

Right?

Review: Now judging from the reactions of many people I’ve spoken to, big heavy ABO kink is not popular here but guys, GUYS. This one. Let this one in I promise it is not what you think it is. The dynamic is organic and the worst side of the trope is subverted in all the best ways and lord help us, the smut is hot, like swelteringly smoking. It’ll stay with you.

Believer by cellard00rs

Summary:  Some demons and otherworldly creatures love climbing up the power ladder. Shane is not one of these. He likes where he is (thank you very much) and has no interest in moving up. All he wants is to give his friend Ryan a nice birthday gift. So, naturally, everything goes to hell.

Review: This fic is another fandom legend. When I think demon!Shane. It’s this and one other one that always pops right into my mind. This was my first exposure to the bureaucracy meets the supernatural!Shane trope and I was sold from the get-go. The Shane in this fic is everything I imagine a demon!Shane is and his ginger care for Ryan, the concept of their bond and how even though Shane is a demon and responsible for keeping the supernatural a firm secret from Ryan and the rest of the world, his skepticism is relayed through his status as a demon. I want to talk more about it but I think so much of the enjoyment comes from the surprises as the plot unfurls.

hey boy, take a look at me by weakspots

Summary: Ryan is 27, for Christ’s sake, and he’s not exactly hideous, so there’s really no reason to spend his money on a dude — a dude — whose face he’ll never see but whose livestreams he’s been jerking off to for roughly 4 months now. He should be going out and partying and fucking random chicks. Or a guy, whatever, just to get it out of his system and confirm to himself that he really is 100% straight.

Because he is. This is morbid curiosity, if anything.

Review: I’ve been a long-time fan of this universe and it was a universe I didn’t know I needed until this author gave it to us. We or rather me, a desperate audience, just devoured this with every update. Not only is it hot, but it has the delicious intrigue of secret identity, anonymous stuff and a LOT of blush-worthy prose therein. This version of Shane makes me thrive but the titillating nature of straight-identifying!Ryan being bowled over by the turn of events that leads him to his world tilting into the gravity of a camboy just--you Have to read this one!

Heartbeat by quackers

Summary:  So the guy Ryan sits next to at work is a vampire. That’s no big deal, right?

Review: I could talk your literal ear off about this fic. Vampires, man. I love the trope; you don’t know me as a person if you don’t know this at least. And this fic kept me fed all damn year. It was a readable garden. If there is one thing I can guarantee about quackers’ work, it’s that their world-building is a festival of detail. The realms and alternate universes they work with while still managing to keep Shane and Ryan’s voices so familiar and real is a talent not attributed to your everyday author. This fic propelled me into wanting to write more and more because quackers makes stories so much fun! Reading their work is, to me, not unlike the feeling I got when I was younger and finding series that speak to my need to escape this crummy existence, made me want to believe in fun spicy things like a vampire that lived through centuries, cynical but still searching, navigating a world where people are still people, adjusting to differences and prejudices, finding comfort in a guy that understands that and more. I’ve talked about this fic in more than a few different posts so I’d just be reiterating a lot of things I loved about the more historical aspects of Shane’s journey, the way Ryan is so firmly curious and inventive in ways to connect with Shane. Look, even if vampires aren’t your thing, I can promise that if you visit quackers list of work, you will find something for your supernatural-lovin’ palate that speaks to a gentler side of your own curiosity about monsters and the jocks that love them. lol.

I’ll Crawl Home by carrieonfighting

Summary:  “Shane was almost unnerved by how quickly he’d settled into this body, this name, this life - his friendship with Ryan was the most time he’d spent with any human before, and yet the man fascinated him.”

Review: This is the second fic I think of when someone says the words ‘demon!Shane’ to me because ohhhh my word, this fic is a masterpiece. I really am hard-pressed to find anything better than the feeling I get when I think of demon!Shane headcanons interwoven with the irl Buzzfeed reality and the idea of the Ryan as we know him being protected and watched and loved so deeply by a demon that found him so long ago and wanted nothing but to protect him. I feel an almost vicious glee reliving that moment when Ryan and Shane are on goatman’s bridge and man, I just really love canonical fic mixed with a slight twist. The writing in this makes it work so well with lines that still haunt my heart and soul like “Ryan liked popcorn. So did the demon. Genuinely, not just out of a desire to please the human – he liked the way it crunched between his vessel’s teeth. There were some aspects of taking a corporeal form that were… nice; laughing, coffee, feeling warm. Ryan made him laugh.” FUCK! The beautiful agony of it, watching the demon fall in love with Ryan through the eyes of his vessel. Just stark with pain and unspoken, well-written angst and pain with a perfect ending, I wouldn’t change for anything. I love this for us as a fandom and will always love that author crafted this piece and shared it with us. (Also every time I hear Work Song by Hozier, I think of this fic again and sigh).

[dwellordream]

“The plasticity of the notion of reading meant that it represented the medium through which middle-class Victorian girls passed many hours, but it did not bring a uniform message. Like their parents and advisers, adolescent girls who were writing about reading were of two minds. On the one hand, as William Thayer put it, reading could be a way of demonstrating rectitude and diligence; on the other, it could be a route to indolence and the shirking of responsibilities.

Mary Thomas, away at school in Georgia in 1873, suggested these dual meanings of reading as she imagined a newly virtuous domesticity for herself upon returning home: ‘‘I will sew and read all the time, I am not going out any where, but intend to stay at home and work all the time; no matter how interesting a book may be, I will put it down and do whatever I am asked to do, they shall no longer accuse me of being lazy and good for nothing, I will work all day.’’ In its contrast to engaging in a social whirl of visiting and flirtation, reading, like sewing, represented a becoming and modest domesticity. However, reading might also subvert good intentions, and tempt a girl to inattention to, or even disobedience of, the demands of others or of household work. In any case, reading had a meaning for the self, as well as for the family and the culture.

Reading good books was of course a way of demonstrating virtue. Measured reading of improving texts was part of the regimen of many Victorian girls. As advisers suggested, the reading of history was especially praiseworthy. When Nellie Browne returned home from school in 1859, her mother noted in her diary with pride, ‘‘Nellie begins to read daily Eliot’s History of the United States,’’ a parentally encouraged discipline which would both improve and occupy Nellie now that her school days were over.

Jessie Wendover, the daughter of a prosperous Newark grocer and another regular diarist, recorded a steady diet of history in her journal, justifying her summer vacation in 1888 with the reading of a two-volume History of the Queens of England, as well as doing a little Latin and some arithmetic. The popular British domestic novelist Charlotte Yonge wrote her History of Germany specifically for readers like Jessie Wendover, who began it the following year. What American girl readers took from the history they read is hard to ascertain, because unlike their rapt reports on novels, they recorded their history as achievement rather than illumination.

One can certainly appreciate the irony, though, in encouraging girls to read accounts of national travails, the stories of armies, wars, and dynastic succession, which were ennobled partly by their distance from girls’ real lives. One of the advantages of history seemed to be that girls could be expected to have no worrisome practical interest in it—in marked contrast to the reading of romances or novels.

Victorian girls could build character through a variety of other literary projects, prime among them the memorizing of poetry. Over the course of the late nineteenth century, the publishing industry issued a number of collections of snippets of poetry known as ‘‘memory gems,’’ designed for memorization by schoolchildren. The verse in these anthologies was to serve as ‘‘seed-thoughts’’ for earnest young Victorians aspiring to know the best, and these were the likely sources for many of the couplets which appear in girls’ diaries and scrapbooks.

Margaret Tileston’s daily diary, recorded religiously for her entire life, both fed and celebrated a variety of literary disciplines, including most prominently reading and memorizing poetry. She too read histories during the summer, along with keeping up with her other studies, noting one July day following her graduation from Salem High School that she had ‘‘read my usual portions of Macaulay [a 40-page allotment] and French, but only a few pages of Spencer.’’ Margaret Tileston also read advice literature, such as Mary Livermore’s What Shall We Do with Our Daughters? and two books by Samuel Smiles, Self-Help and Duty. (The latter she described as looking ‘‘quite interesting and full of anecdotes.’’) Margaret Tileston’s diaries suggest a life consumed with the rewards of self-culture.

At fifteen, however, she recorded a brush with another literary genre and mode of striving—a seeking not only for mastery of the will but for beauty itself. Poetry first appeared simply as a verse of romantic poetry copied on the page: ‘‘Why thus longing thus forever sighing, for the far-off, unattained, and dim, while the beautiful, all round thee lying, offers up its low, perpetual hymn.’’ Margaret Tileston was now away at girls’ school, where she had experienced something of an emotional awakening in the intense atmosphere of schoolgirl friendships.

Her turn to poetry seems to reflect the new culture in which she was briefly submerged. That summer, back with her family on vacation on the Massachusetts coast, Tileston again turned to poetry, and to beauty, in an uncharacteristic passage of effusion. ‘‘The moon was perfectly lovely in the sky and its light on the water. We quoted lines of poetry, and it was beautiful.’’ By January of the next year, however, poetry had been incorporated into her disciplines of order and accomplishment. After returning from boarding school, she had moved with her family from the farm where she had spent her formative years to the town of Salem, where she attended the local high school. There she embarked on another campaign of self-improvement, the memorization of poetry, perhaps as a strategy to gain control of alien surroundings.

Two months later she described a new discipline: the daily ritual repetition of all the poems she had learned, of which there were by then 111. On May 25 she reported that her extraordinary ability to memorize poetry was gaining her a reputation. ‘‘Miss Perry asked me if I knew about 250 poems. She said that one of the Goodhue girls had told her I did. I remarked something of the sort to Miss Perkins one day in recess, and somehow it was repeated.’’ By the end of July she noted that she was beginning to have trouble finding new poems to learn because she knew so many already.

Appreciation of the beauty of poetry had dropped out of her journal. Nor did she suggest that the poetry had any meaning to her at all. Yet she very likely gained some of the satisfactions from poetry expressed by Louisa May Alcott, some years before. After disobeying her mother, at the age of eleven, Alcott ‘‘cried, and then I felt better, and said that piece from Mrs. Sigourney, ‘I must not tease my mother.’’’ She went on, ‘‘I get to sleep saying poetry,—I know a great deal.’’ For those feeling guilty, sad, misunderstood, or wronged, repeat- ing lines of elevating poetry had an effect in a secular mode analagous to the saying of ritual Hail Marys. The verses established an alliance with a higher authority and suggested personal participation in a glorious and tragic human struggle.

And in fact, poetry, even more than history, was the prototypical idealist genre. In 1851 the British educational pioneers Maria Grey and Emily Shirreff proposed the reading of poetry rather than fiction, explaining the crucial distancing effect of poetic subjects. ‘‘In a poem, the wildest language of passion, though it may appeal to the feelings, is generally called forth in circumstances remote from the experience of the reader.’’ They suggested that in poetry there was a higher truth than that of superficial realism: ‘‘The grand conceptions of the poet are true in ideal beauty.’’

Writing fifty years later, Harriet Paine too suggested that poetry had generic qualities of elevation. ‘‘After all, in poetry itself what we read is not the important thing. We should read poetry to give us a certain attitude of mind, a habit of thinking of noble things, of keeping our spirit in harmony with beauty and goodness and strength and love.’’ Earlier Paine had commended the memorization of poetry as neces- sary to ‘‘take in the full meaning,’’ suggesting just such a regular regimen of repetition as Tileston had pursued. The spiritual rewards from internalizing poetry were revealed by Paine’s proposal that it take place on the Sabbath: ‘‘Surely we must give a part of every Sunday to such elevating study.’’

Elizabeth Barrett Browning had censured poets for their historical escapism in her 1857 poem Aurora Leigh, arguing Their sole work is to represent the age, Their age, not Charlemagne’s—this live, throbbing age, That brawls, cheats, maddens, calculates, aspires. Yet it was in just its remoteness from ‘‘this live, throbbing age,’’ just in the ‘‘togas and the picturesque’’ disparaged by Browning that poetry was considered so appropriate for girl readers.

…If reading presented an opportunity to discover national allies, to demonstrate private virtue, and to suggest the triumph of the will against ennui or boredom, it increasingly endorsed another way of defining life: the excitement and the exercise of the feelings. Girls who read their daily allowance of Macaulay or the Bible with pride and self-satisfaction upbraided themselves for their difficulties in controlling their insatiable appetites for Victorian novels of all kinds. Reading for leisure or for pleasure invariably meant reading for ‘‘sensation,’’ reading for adventure, excitement, identification, titillation. In the process of this kind of reading, Victorian girls ministered to a complex of emotions.

…Perhaps leisure reading can best be defined by what it was not: study, sleep, or sewing. Girls chastised themselves for imperfectly learning their lessons, and sometimes blamed the distractions of leisure reading. Martha Moore, who had just begun to attend school in occupied New Orleans during the Civil War, confessed that she found the schoolwork hard and had had two crying spells before she ‘‘picked up an interesting story and with my old habit of procrastination, thought I would read that first, and then study.’’

She observed the inevitable consequence ‘‘that my lessons are very imperfectly known.’’ And even Margaret Tileston, whose discipline seldom allowed her to swerve from duty, could be seduced by light reading. At the age of fourteen: ‘‘I scarcely studied in my history at all, because I was interested in ‘Sir Gibbie,’ and wanted to finish reading it.’’ At the age of seventeen: ‘‘I undertook to spend the afternoon and evening on my Ancient History, but my thoughts wandered and I spent some time on papers and magazines.’’ At the age of twenty: ‘‘I did not study a great deal in evening, on account of my interest in my novel, but I read over my History lesson.’’

Girls also resolved to prevent reading from interfering with their domestic chores, usually their needlework. Treating reading as recreation, Virginian Agnes Lee observed, ‘‘I really am so idle I must be more industrious but it is so hard when one is reading or playing to stop to practice or sew.’’ Another Virginian, Lucy Breckinridge, set up a similar opposition, noting that she and her sisters had gathered together in her room ‘‘being industrious. I am getting over my unsocial habit of sitting in my room reading all day.’’ For Lucy Breckinridge private reading not only was not industrious, it was also antisocial.”

- Jane H. Hunter, “Reading as the Development of Taste.” in How Young Ladies Became Girls: The Victorian Origins of American Girlhood

[collaborationandresearchproposal]

Thursday 29th April, Research Report: Lycanthropy and the hays code

Notable points * lycanthropy seems  to be synonymous with homosexuality- parallels between Teen Wolf and Buffy The Vampire Slayer's respective coming out scenes. * The Queer-ness of the character Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter books and film series. Many fans head cannon and write slash fics about Remus and Sirius' romance and relationship, reading the characters as queer. The ship, named 'Wolf Star' is quite popular and well known within the fandom. Many fans feel there is enough evidence to build this relationship on; Remus and Sirius' ghosts stood next to each other in the resurrection stone, mirroring Harry's parents,  a canonically married couple. They also bought Harry a joint present for his birthday and know the intricacies of each others personalities. Dumbledore also infamously told Sirius to 'lie low at Lupins.' But the problem here, as the article points out, is that Rowling doesn't acknowledge Lupin as queer, despite the homoerotic cues in the writings,  and instead gives him a female love interest and admits that Lupins Lycantrhopy is a metaphor for AIDS/HIV. She has further dismissed any alternative readings of the character, disappointing fans' hopes of there being a shred of representation in a queer monster who is actually queer. This sort of behaviour from authors and creators is what turns Queer-coding into the more harmful and frustrating Queer-baiting. A large majority of queer representation comes from connotations and interpretations. the clues are there and queer audiences do pick them up. However this grey area allows allows straight culture to use queerness for pleasure and profit in mass culture without admitting to it. Modern examples of this are CW's Supernatural and BBC's Sherlock. I can't personally speak for Supernatural but having watched Sherlock with the advantage of a queer eye, I can say with confidence that it is a prime example of queer-baiting. there is clear homoerotic subtext between Sherlock and John and even Sherlock and Moriarty. I Personally think it's entirely romantic as I head cannon Sherlock to be Asexual or at least on that spectrum but the point is, it is not just wishful thinking or pushing of a narrative. It's manipulation. Queer-baiting takes advantage of an already vulnerable group of people by preying on their desire for representation in the media.

In modern media werewolf's are often portrayed as having chiselled bodies and looming over each other. The 1985 Teen Wolf received a television reboot and it's fair to say it got reasonably more progressive.  It seemed interested in queering the werewolf narrative and in a sly moment of gender-bending the traditional Little Red Riding Hood narrative, protagonist Scott receives the Bite from a male werewolf while wearing a Little Red Hoodie (‘Wolf Moon’). Additionally, the show features LGBTQ characters while Scott’s human best friend Stiles visits a gay bar and makes friends with a group of drag queens in startling contrast to the gay panic of the 1985 film’s version of Stiles. By midway through the show’s second season, the slash pairing that had proved dominant in the fandom was Stiles and wannabe-Alpha Derek Hale. The two characters, who operate in the narrative as belligerent and begrudging allies, rapidly became a slash phenomenon, due, in part, to the chemistry and comic timing between actors Tyler Hoechlin and Dylan O’Brien. The narrative is further subverted when Derek is raped by an adult  human woman.

The pair 'Sterek' gained so much traction that it caught the attention of MTV and the cast and crew behind the show. So much so that they released a video of Hoechlin and O'Brien cuddling on a boat, asking fans to vote for Teen Wolf for this  years Choice Summer TV Show at the Teen Choice Awards. This  was big as it acknowledged fans and slash flics and the pairing itself as a possibility and many queer voices who watched the show felt heard and validated. However this didn't last long. MTV released a video on the official Teen Wolf Facebook, this time featuring O’Brien asking fans to vote for Teen Wolf in a TV Guide Poll. O’Brien joked that if fans did not vote, then the show would kill off its sole remaining gay character and one of the few remaining non-white characters on the show, Danny. The Teen Wolf Facebook released the video with the following caption: ‘Keep #TeenWolf in first place! Heed Dylan and Linden’s advice or we might have to. #KillDanny’ (Teen Wolf). The show’s social media team then attempted to make the #KillDanny tag go viral on Facebook and twitter, but fans, understandably, were not amused, primarily using the tag for outraged tweets to MTV (Baker-Whitelaw).Such blatant disregard for fans’ concerns about queer representation on the show alienated a large number of fans, especially when coupled with Jeff Davis’ more frequently dismissive and condescending comments about the Sterek pairing where he had been enthusiastic and even encouraging of the ship. As seasons wore on without any indication that Sterek would indeed become canon, it became clear that MTV and Jeff Davis had been queer-baiting Sterek fans as a marketing technique and that the unique interplay that fans had enjoyed with Davis, which offered a new kind of truly interactive fandom had, in fact, been something of an illusion. ' serial killer Hannibal Lecter and his love interest Will Graham in Hannibal, and reanimated gay corpses Kieren, Simon, and Rick in In the Flesh. Notably, both series have received an overwhelmingly positive response from fans and critics who have applauded the series for taking their queer monsters beyond mere coding and into explicit text. The warm reception of Hannibal and In the Flesh’s handling of queer representation by fans, and the continuing frustration with Teen Wolf’s queer-baiting and the appropriative nature of Remus Lupin’s narrative in Harry Potter, belie a desire not only for better queer representation, but also for more complex re-articulations of queer monstrosity' the symbolic and narrative trappings of monsters are often used as metaphors for queerness without actually acknowledging the positive behind that queer identity or even confirming the queer identity at all. Another positive example is the miniseries Good Omens. Based on the book of the same name, written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Pretty much the whole fandom believe That the two leads, Crowley and Aziraphale are in a romantic relationship. They've known each other for centuries and perhaps what was the main fuel to this ships fire was the episode 3 cold open. Even fans who have only read the book seem to support these two as a couple and what's perhaps even more amazing is Gaiman’s response on twitter. "I wrote it as a love story. They acted it as a love story. You saw it as a love story. How much more proof do you need?" and "I wouldn't exclude the ideas that they are ace, or aromantic, or trans. They are an angel and a demon, not as make humans, per the book. Occult/Ethereal beings don't have sexes, something we tried to reflect in the casting. Whatever Crowley and Aziraphale are, it's a love story." It's beautiful because not only does it confirm that they are in love but it also leaves room for interpretations of what kind of relationship they have together.

https://dialogues.rutgers.edu/images/Journals_PDF/2017-18-dialogues-web_e6db3.pdf#page=164

In the year 1922, when cinema was gaining traction and popularity, The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) hired a devout Presbyterian, Will H. Hays as its head. Eight years later, in 1930, the MPPDA ratified the Motion Picture Production Code. Also known as the Hays Code, these guidelines were set up as “a list of rules that studios could follow to avoid the censors’ wrath” one specific line read “sexual perversion or any inference to it is forbidden” This era in censorship set the stage for a culture in which the stereotypical behaviour of homosexuals, or any behaviour deviating from the traditional gender roles, is seen as dangerous, evil, and even fatal. By representing coded homosexual characters as depressed, perverse, and succumbing to punishing ends, it shifted social subconscious beliefs of LGBT individuals in real life to those represented on screen. Media often teaches us how to feel about others and ourselves – e.g., it promotes specific body types and clothing styles. In the same way, by promoting gendered behaviour and banning homosexuality, it spread a message that homosexuality was not fit to be viewed openly. Although themes of homosexuality were banned they were definitely alluded to and that continues today.

[lilacmoon83]

Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 231: Wicked Game, Pt 1

Fandral and Zorro arrived at the apartment that belonged to Hiram Flaversham and his daughter Olivia. And what they found definitely suggested foul play.

"What a mess," Zorro mentioned, as the place was in complete shambles.

"Hyde was right...it seems they have been abducted by someone," Fandral said, as he knelt down and noticed the peculiar spots of mud scattered haphazardly around the place.

"This certainly doesn't look like someone's shoes though. So who or what tracked this mud in?" Zorro wondered and a thought struck Fandral.

"Someone missing a leg…" he said.

"What? You think you know who did this?" Zorro asked.

"I think I may know who was hired to do this. He's a foul, stupid, degenerate, but he is also an efficient hand for hire," Fandral replied, as he made a call.

"Emma...it's Fandral. I believe we have a crime scene. Can you send Bashful with a forensics team to 1897 Baker Street. It's the Basil Estates apartment building, apartment 2F," Fandral said.

"Sure...I'll send him right away. Homicide?" she asked.

"Fortunately, no. It looks like an abduction. Hyde came to Rose and I and asked me to investigate the disappearance of one of his colleagues. An engineer by the name of Hiram Flaversham and his daughter Olivia. They're missing and their apartment shows definite signs of a struggle," Fandral reported.

"I'll let Bashful know and send him right away. I'll pull profiles on our victims too," she said.

"There is one other thing...a hunch, but there is a lot of mud that has been tracked in and it doesn't look like someone that has two legs, but rather one that's missing one. Maybe someone that even has a peg leg," Fandral said.

"I think I know exactly who you mean. I'll pull his file too and issue a BOLO," Emma replied.

"Thanks Emma...I'll see you soon," Fandral said, as hung up.

"So...who is this peg legged fiend?" Zorro asked, as Fandral's phone chimed and he showed him a photo of a greasy, shady looking character.

"Lester Batting...but better known as Fidget," Fandral replied.

"Cute nickname," Zorro joked.

"He earned it well during the Final Battle with the Black Fairy. He tangled with Snow and she fought him off with a dagger to his femoral artery. Since Whale, Paul, and Eva were with us, their side lacked proper medical training and his leg was amputated," Fandral said.

"Sounds like he deserved it," Zorro said.

"He did and served twenty years in prison for his seditious behavior. He was released just before Seth's curse and joined all his scummy friends on Pleasure Island," Fandral replied.

"You think that's where he took Mr. Flaversham and his daughter?" Zorro asked.

"Most likely, but we still don't know why or who hired him. Fidget is an efficient hired hand, like I said to Emma, but he's never the brains of anything," Fandral replied.

"So someone hired him to abduct an engineer and his daughter," Zorro deduced.

"Hyde said that Hiram is a very gifted engineer and there is only one man I can think of that would have use for his skills," Fandral said.

"Jekyll," they said together.

"And his little girl is insurance to make sure he does whatever Jekyll wants him to," Zorro realized.

"Exactly," Fandral said.

"Are you really thinking about going to Pleasure Island?" Zorro asked.

"Yes...but I assure you I am the perfect option to take this one on. It may be resistant to magic, but my Asgardian strength does not rely on magic," Fandral replied.

"That still doesn't mean that Jekyll won't have some monstrous way to subvert you," Zorro warned.

"I know...but if this man and his young one are in danger, then I must try to save them," he replied.

"Be that as it may, you need some backup," Zorro said.

"I cannot ask you to take such a risk," Fandral replied.

"You're not...I'm offering," Zorro said.

"And so am I…" Hyde added from the doorway.

"Well, I won't say no to the help of my right hand or someone that knows Jekyll as well as you, not to mention has strength that rivals my own," Fandral conceded.

"Then let's see if we can charter a ride on the Jolly Roger from our good Captain," Zorro said, as they headed out to the station.

~*~

The swirling portal opened and they stepped through. They weren't far from the National Mall, but had found a fairly secluded place to arrive. They arrived at the Smithsonian Museum and observed the grand event, complete with dozens of exhibits. Unfortunately, most, including the press recognized all of them and the camera flashes were already blinding them. Thankfully though, it seemed they were leery of their known power, so they kept their distance.

"I am never going to get used to that," Snow murmured to him.

"Me either...I'll be happy when all this is over and we don't have to leave home," David agreed.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Smithsonian and tonight's exciting and exhilarating exhibition!" a man announced.

"I am Bruce Carlson, your host for the evening and one of the curators of this amazing collection!" he said, as he motioned to the exhibits.

"Okay...what the hell is this? This stuff is fake," David said.

"Yeah...we know that Mjolnir from our realm is in the Underworld and the one from Fandral's realm was destroyed," James replied.

"And we know that's not the real Holy Grail or Excalibur, because they are actually the same thing and in Storybrooke," Snow agreed.

"Aphrodite's Magic Girdle?" James asked curiously.

"Do I even want to know what a girdle is?" Bobby asked his nana.

"An unfortunate and uncomfortable thing women used to have to wear in the past that has thankfully long become obsolete," Regina answered.

"Very true and I can assure you that I've never owned a magic girdle," Aphrodite replied.

"Okay...so if most of this stuff is crap, then why the fuss?" David asked.

"Unless we're the real exhibit," Rumple surmised.

"And there may also be a jewel among the junk," Regina suggested.

"That could be...and that item would now be magically activated in the presence of the Chalice," Aphrodite agreed.

"Then let's find the real item and keep it out of the wrong hands," David said, as they made their way into the exhibition.

~*~

Summer stood next to JJ at the burial site. It had been a small, intimate service, as JJ was her only family. But Summer was by his side the whole time, despite her dislike for Nora. Despite that, she would have never wished this on her .

"I'm so sorry again," she offered.

"Thanks," he replied, as he tossed the flowers on her grave.

"Do you think Goldie will ever pay for what she did?" he asked.

"I know she will. My dad and my sister will bring her to justice," Summer promised.

"My parents may not be able to stop all the bad stuff, but they do stop a lot of it and right a lot of wrongs. They won't let such an injustice go unpunished, nor will they allow someone as unhinged as Goldie go free," she added. He smiled and leaned down to kiss her cheek.

"Thank you," he said, as she blushed a bit.

"Do you have to get home soon?" he asked.

"No…I was actually thinking about going to the reserve to ride Sparkle. You up for it?" she asked. He smiled.

"I'd really like that," he agreed, as he gently took her hand. She smiled and felt warm all over, as she looked up at him and they ventured back to his car.

~*~

Fandral and Zorro arrived at the station and Rose ran to them. He had called her and told her what he planned, so he shouldn't have been surprised to see her there waiting for him. She ran to him and he caught her in his arms, as he pulled her flush against him and their lips met in a passionate kiss.

"I do not like this...it's so dangerous. That monster would love to take you from me…" Rose fretted.

"I know, my angel...but with the welfare of this man and his innocent child hanging in the balance, I cannot refuse the call to help," Fandral said. She nodded and knew she could not ask him to either.

"But Hyde...he is going with you for backup?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yes...he is meeting us here. He said he had to retrieve something from his lab," he replied, as Emma approached.

"I still think I should be going with you," Emma said.

"No...your parents would have a collective aneurysm and magic cannot be relied on there. My skills as a warrior and superior strength can though. Trust me, I've been to worse places than Pleasure Island," Fandral replied. She sighed.

"Okay...still hate the idea, but since two innocent lives hang in the balance, I'm not going to stop you," Emma said, as her phone chimed and she read the message.

"You were right...Bashful just ran the prints they found at the Flaversham apartment and they matched the ones we have in the system for Lester Batting, also known as Fidget," Emma replied.

"If we can grab the greasy little character while we're there, we will," Zorro assured her.

"Just be careful. We know what Jekyll can do, but more importantly, Rodmilla has magic now that isn't impeded there and then there is Runeard as well," Emma replied. They nodded, as Hyde came into the station, carrying a long case.

"What is this?" Fandral asked, as the other man set it on the desk and opened it, revealing a brilliant looking sword.

"Something I have been working on for a while," Hyde said.

"For me?" Fandral asked in surprise.

"You are the master swordsman and this is no ordinary sword. I was inspired by your story of the crafting of weapons from the stories you told on Nidavellir and the strong metal that was found on the other earth," Hyde said.

"Hiram and I have been developing what we believe is a metal that is just as strong as that metal. I was also inspired by the story of a weapon that can return to the wielder with a thought or feeling. Much like your friend Thor or even David's chalice sword," he continued, as Fandral picked up the magnificent weapon.

"Thank you…" Rose said.

"Yours and the children's safety is still of the utmost importance to me and with this weapon, you'll have even more of an edge against Jekyll. Like the Chalice sword, only you, Rose, or someone of your bloodline can wield it and it will recall to your hand at will," Hyde said.

"I have dubbed it Storm Surge," he added.

"Thank you...truly," Fandral said, as he exchanged his current sword and replaced it in his sheath with the new one. Rose turned to him and hugged him tightly.

"Please be careful," she implored.

"I will, my angel...and I will return to you soon," he promised, as they shared another passion filled kiss. Killian was waiting in the doorway. He would be taking the three of them to Pleasure Island aboard the Jolly Roger and waiting at the Harbor to make a quick getaway once they had retrieved the abductees.

~*~

"And now that we have had a word from our sponsors, we can begin tonight's video broadcast here on the Golden Pulse with more video evidence that there is a very real and present danger posed to the world by yet another mysterious villain," Goldie revealed, as she looked to Grimm in the background. He gave her a thumbs up, ensuring that he was broadcasting on all platforms, including their accounts on the muggle versions of social media.

"A new villain, calling himself Void, can now control the weather here in the United Realms. And the only one that can seemingly stop this menace is a fourteen-year-old boy," Goldie said, as Grimm cut to the video footage of the snowstorm in Arendelle and the thunderstorm in Misthaven.

"Now these storms are not natural. This new villain has caused the elements to go haywire and once again, the Charmings are at the center of it. They have been tasked to stop this horror, but not before it buried one Kingdom in snow and flooded another," she added.

"And the fact that our fate may yet again rest upon a boy who's still navigating puberty is not lost on any of us. What are the Charmings doing about this menace, you may be asking?" she questioned, as the video cut to an image of Snow and David in Washington DC.

"That's right, Snow White and her Prince Charming are attending yet another fancy party in Washington DC. Catastrophe follows these two wherever they go so I hope you have insurance, Washington," Goldie said, as the video cut to another sponsor ad.

"Well?" Goldie asked, as she looked at him. He smirked.

"Over three thousand views already and climbing. This thing is going to go viral if we play that footage of them fixing the problem," he said.

"Do it," she said, as he streamed the video as it came back from the ad spot.

~*~

"I think...everyone needs to channel their elements into me and then I can stop this. Then we'll have to clean it all up," Bobby said.

"You're the boss in this one," Eva replied, as she put her hand on his shoulder and his eyes glowed pink.

"I just hope I don't shock us both to the moon," Leo joked, as he put his hand on his brother's back. Bobby's eyes glowed cobalt and the electricity swirling around Leo ceased. Summer was next and her little brother's eyes glowed lavender and finally Emma put her hand on his back, making his eyes glow white.

"Now Mom and Dad...your element is love and kind of the reason we can do any of this," Bobby said. Snow and David smiled at them and each other, before placing their hands on Bobby's shoulders. His eyes glowed rainbow at that point and a large pulse of pure power exited and there was a rumble beneath them, as the power traveled beneath the ground. They all watched in awe, as the power lit up the ground in a display of multi-colored light, before steam began to rise from the ground and when the billowy steam finally cleared, all the snow was melted. Elsa looked at her hands in awe, realizing that her powers were under control again too.

"One more pulse should do it on that cloud, kid," Emma said. He nodded and they produced another pulse of rainbow colored magic, this time hitting the dark, ominous cloud over Arendelle that was dispelling the cloud that was showering the Kingdom with snow.

~*~

"Yes...that was the footage of a boy and his family fixing a snowstorm. Unfortunately, when you're dealing with a villain that can not only cause storms, but suck the life out of people...that's when things get serious," Goldie said, as they cut to the footage of the two guards that Void had killed.

"I apologize for the gruesomeness of those images, but people need to know what is happening. People need to be prepared, lest they become collateral damage in this war the Charmings seem to both be fighting...and waging," she claimed, as they cut to more footage of Snow and David in Washington.

"Especially when Mommy and Daddy are away and attract as much mayhem as these two. Buckle up, Land Without Magic...because I assure that this pair is going to bring you more than just stories of true love. The insanity that surrounds them will come to you too," Goldie said, as she continued to report on the events, while the Internet went crazy with this new information.

"This video is going to go viral for sure," Grimm said.

"But that's not enough. It's time to make my debut in the Land Without Magic," she replied.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" he asked, as she produced something from her desk drawer and handed one to him.

"Press passes...I like it," he replied.

"Time for me to get an up close and personal exclusive with Snow White and her prince," she said, as she held up a bean and they prepared to take their own trip.

~*~

Snow, David, and the others endured the tour, as the curator rambled on about his fake exhibits and fake artifacts. None of it made any sense, so they were all on guard, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"You know...the regular Smithsonian exhibits would be far more interesting than this fake stuff. Our Atlantis museum back home blows all this away," Snow mentioned to him quietly, as they were pretending to listen to Mr. Carlson tell a fake story about the Holy Grail and how it was found.

"I know what you mean," he agreed, as he stood beside her with his arm wrapped firmly around her waist.

"At least there is one treasure in this room though and she happens to be in my arms," he said, as he looked at her and kissed her cheek.

"Charming...you are too good to be true, my love," she gushed, as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

"If I am...it's because of you, my darling," he whispered to her, as they shared a passionate kiss. They were both unaware of the eyes on them from the shadows.

~*~

"It's happening...at last," the man of Asian descent said, as an object began to glow in the dark.

"Has that ever happened?" Mr. Ozman asked.

"Not in my lifetime," the man replied.

"Do you even know what's inside of this peculiar jar, Mr. Li? Not even your ancestor could open it. In fact, he was a traitor," Ms. Reeves said.

"Indeed he was. Tao Xang Li sided with the children of the sun and gave the prized power source of the Mu people over to them. And they never opened it. No one really knows what is does or what's inside," Mr. Li said.

"But that is about to change," Li assured them, as he emerged from the shadows and set his sights on the pair. The new children of the sun...or truest loves, as they preferred. He didn't care what they were called; he was just intent on using them to get what he wanted and rectify his ancestor's failure to fortify the Li legacy.

It was true...he was the descendant of the Dragon's King's trusted advisor, Tao Xang Li, the only full blooded of the Mu people to ever leave their island. But his descendant, Ichiro Suun Li, had been haunted by the prospect of possible unlimited power within his grasp, but yet no way of harnessing it. His family had become corrupted a few generations ago when the promise of such power was continually denied to them and promised to those with no blood attachment to his lineage.

Is the distraction ready?" Li asked.

"Yes…" Mr. Ozman replied.

"Excellent...it's time to proceed," he said.

~*~

"And here we come to the enchanting necklace of Harmonia," the curator said, as a bejeweled necklace sat on display behind glass.

"Fake?" James asked.

"So fake...I bet the jewels aren't even real. It's tacky costume jewelry at best," Aphrodite replied.

"Do you know where the real one is?" Snow asked.

"In my shop...it's quite a story, but that's for another time," Gold replied, as they snickered.

"I'm sorry...but my entire presentation has been met with your snickering and whispering. Do you have an issue with my magnificent collection?" Mr. Carlson questioned.

"Well, since you mentioned it, yes...yes we do," Aphrodite replied, as all eyes were suddenly on them.

"So much for keeping a low profile," David joked.

"That's not our style anyway," Snow said.

"Almost everything in this exhibit is fake," Aphrodite replied.

"And she would know, since most of it is her heritage," James added.

"There is no way the Smithsonian would ever endorse such a fraud, which means this whole thing can't be about this exhibit," David said.

"Well…I suppose you would know all about being a fraud, wouldn't you, Prince Charming?" Goldie asked, as she made her presence known, with Grimm trailing behind her.

"How the hell did you two get in here?" Regina asked, as they held up the press passes around their necks.

"We're the press and this is a public event," Goldie said.

"Did you just call my husband a fraud?" Snow asked dangerously, as she got in Goldie's face. The blonde smirked.

"Well...he is the one that posed as his brother and fooled an entire Kingdom," she replied.

"My husband proved he's a true leader and became the people's prince," Snow argued.

"True...and left his own twin brother to live in the shadow of the legendary Prince Charming," Goldie goaded.

"If you're trying to get us to turn against each other, David and I are long past any animosity," James countered.

"He's right...and I may have had humble beginnings. Probably a lot like you, but at least I decided to use my life to do good things. You're just a bitter, jealous, washed up reporter," David said. She smirked, as she stepped closer to him.

"I bet you're a real tiger in the sack, chisel chin," she leered.

"You'll never know," Snow commented.

"What I wouldn't give to wrap my hands around that pretty little neck," Goldie retorted.

"I'd love to see that fight," Grimm commented.

"No you wouldn't. My Mom would decimate her," Bobby quipped.

"Look, I'm tired of this little vendetta you have against my wife. She's not responsible for your terrible life!" David exclaimed, as the spectators were much more interested in the spectacle playing out before them then they were the exhibits.

"Enough!" a voice said, as they turned to find a man of Asian descent before them.

"Who the hell are you?" David asked.

"My name is Ichiro Suun Li and since all the artifacts before you are not to your liking, I believe I have one that will be," he replied.

"Li?" Aphrodite asked curiously.

"Yes Goddess...I am of that Li bloodline and I present to you the sacred jar of my people. The Mu…" he said, as the spectators marveled at the glowing jar.

"Don't let him fool you...he's not the good man his ancestor may have been," Patricia warned.

"I am simply a man that wants the secrets to his heritage unlocked and I believe it is within this jar. Now...the children of the sun will open it for me," he said.

"Truest loves," Snow corrected.

"And what if we don't?" David asked. He smirked.

"Then the blood of every person in this room will be on your hands…" he threatened...

~*~

The Jolly Roger docked at Pleasure Island and Killian deployed the gangplank.

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you...but be on your guard, mates. This place was rough back in the day and that was before it housed a myriad of super villains," Killian mentioned.

"Thank you, Captain. Hopefully, we'll return shortly with our abductees," Fandral said, as the warrior was flanked by his companions for this mission.

"Well...that is definitely a new attraction since we were here last," Fandral said, as they observed the extravagant castle in the distance.

"Rodmilla Tremaine is definitely at home in this place," Zorro agreed, as they approached the infamous watering hole that they knew was run by Grimm. Going in there would alert the entire island to their presence, so they quickly concealed themselves in the alleyway behind the bar.

"What if our gimpy friend decides not to frequent the bar tonight?" Zorro asked.

"Then we tear this island apart until we find them. But I don't think we're going to need to," Hyde said, as he pointed ahead of them and they noticed Fidget limping toward another man at one of the nearby kiosks.

"Poppy dust...with an injury like his, we should have guessed he was an addict," Fandral said, as they moved on once he pocketed the bag of narcotics and the greasy character nearly leapt out of his skin at the sight of Fandral.

"Scream and I crush your larynx," Hyde threatened, as he put his hand around the shifty man's throat. Zorro fished out the bag of drugs and confiscated them.

"I need those…" he pleaded.

"Yes…I imagine that your permanent injury is painful at times, but narcotics are never the solution," Fandral replied.

"Easy for you to say and what's the difference? The version prescribed in your fancy hospital are just as addictive as poppy dust," he seethed.

"Perhaps that's true…" Fandral relented.

"Or maybe you're just a scumbag," Zorro added bluntly.

"That is likely also true," Fandral agreed.

"Hey…I don't see the two of you walking around with a bum leg!" Fidget hissed.

"Yes...well, maybe you shouldn't have tried to assault Snow White and you might not be in this position," Fandral said.

"That little wench...she caused this!" he said.

"No...shoddy medical practices caused this. The Black Fairy or Yzma could have repaired your leg easily with magic, but they did not care. You were just a minion...a foot soldier. This is how they treat their help," Fandral corrected, as he produced a pair of cuffs and put them on the greasy man.

"Now...you're going back to prison, but the amount of time you do in the abduction of Hiram Flaversham and his daughter will all depend upon you telling us where Jekyll is. We know he has them," Fandral said.

"If I tell you...I'm dead meat," Fidget said.

"You're dead if you don't. Tell us and you'll have a fighting chance in prison," Hyde threatened, as he put his hand around the man's neck again.

"Okay...it's that warehouse there," he said, pointing to the large building at the end of the block.

"Walk…" Fandral urged, as they followed him and arrived at the warehouse and they rushed in when they heard screaming…

~*~

Hiram Flaversham had worked diligently through the night and the day for his impatient captor. So when Jekyll finished his daily watching of Snow White via in his intrusive spying devices, he turned his attention to Hiram.

"I do hope you have been successful. With Snow and Charming away, this would be the perfect opportunity to sneak up on young Summer and obtain her star gem...and perhaps even Eva's," he said.

"Emma and Leo would be more challenging, but with their parents and Nana gone...the youngest girl would be prime for the picking, so that glove had better work," he added, as the device was unveiled.

"Your craftsmanship is exquisite…" he complimented, as he observed a golden pair of gloves, similar to the magic wielding ones he had created for Rodmilla, though hers were black.

"They will allow you to rip hearts and seamlessly extract star gems from the hearts without damaging them," Hiram said. The look in Jekyll's eyes was one of pure derangement, as he moved to the other side of his lab and revealed another device. It looked like a staff of some sort.

"I've done what you have asked...now please release me and my daughter," Hiram requested.

"Oh, but don't you want to know what you have helped facilitate?" Jekyll asked, as he picked up the golden staff.

"Seven slots...seven star gems and control of everything will be mine," he revealed, as a cold chill went down Hiram's spine. Jekyll smirked.

"That's right...seven Charmings and all their power will be harnessed by me. Charming will be under my control and lead his children in complete destruction of subjugation of the world for me, while the lovely Snow will be by my side as my Queen," he added.

"Then you have what you want...now please let us go," Hiram pleaded.

"Oh, but we have not tested your device yet," Jekyll said, as young Olivia was led into the room by one of the guards.

"Goldilocks was very disappointed in her skills as an assistant, so she returned her, hoping that I may have better use of her," Jekyll said, with a smirk that made Hiram want to vomit.

"And I do," he said, as he raised his hand and prepared to rip the heart from the young girl.

"No...please! Test it on me!" Hiram offered.

"A nice offer...but she will be our guinea pig," Jekyll said, as his hand thrust forward and the girl winced, waiting for the pain to come. But an arm caught his before it could go through her chest and she looked up to find Hyde in between the two of them.

"Not today, doctor…" he hissed, as he shoved him away and then picked Olivia up to carry her to Hiram.

"Hyde...get them back to the Jolly Roger. We'll be right behind you," Fandral said, as he circled the doctor.

"Don't count on it, Asgardian. With these gloves...I can rip even your heart out and once I do...I will go to Rose Red and make her watch me crush it to dust!" Jekyll growled.

"Spoken like a true psychopath…" Fandral countered, as he drew his new weapon.

"A shiny new sword won't even help you against me," the doctor warned, as he slashed at him with his fire whips. Zorro and Fandral dodged the flaming extensions of his arms and he aspirated and reappeared directly in front of Zorro.

"I will have a test subject," he growled, as he prepared to take Zorro's heart. Thinking quickly, Fandral picked Fidget up by the shirt and tossed the now screaming minion in between the path of Jekyll's glove and Zorro. Fidget was speared by Jekyll's hand and the mad scientist extracted his heart, which barely glowed at all, considering it was heavily blackened, thanks to all the evil deeds he had done in his life. Jekyll growled maniacally and the heart in his hand exploded to dust in his fury, killing the crippled henchman.

"I may hate Charming the most...but you are very high on my list, Asgardian," Jekyll said.

"Sounds like something to take pride in," Fandral quipped, as the madman unleashed a fire blast in his rage, causing a chain reaction of small explosions all over the warehouse, due to all the chemicals he had around.

"This whole place is going to go up...he's insane," Zorro warned.

"Yes he is…" Fandral agreed and then cried out, as one of Jekyll's fiery whips wrapped around him.

"Time to burn…" he threatened, but the seasoned warrior maneuvered his sword and shocked the doctor, as it passed through his forearms, cutting his hands off. He cried out in raged agony, as Fandral was freed from his grip.

"You think you've won!? I am made of demon fire now! I will regrow my limbs with ease, just like last time!" he claimed, as he willed his power to the surface, but frowned when nothing happened.

"I don't think it will be so easy this time, demon. This is no ordinary blade anymore. It seems Hyde has taken a page from your book and developed a metal that can defeat you with science," Fandral boasted.

"And when he merges his technology with the magic of Snow and David's chalice into their weapons...you will not stand a ghost of chance," the warrior added, as he and Zorro slipped out of the warehouse, just as Jekyll screamed in maniacal rage and the entire building exploded. He was still alive, of course, but he had been dealt a serious defeat.

~*~

Killian saw the explosion and was about to venture to find them when he saw Hyde running toward the Harbor with a girl and the man he assumed was her father, Mr. Flaversham.

"Bloody hell...are Fandral and Zorro okay?" he asked, as he helped their rescued people aboard.

"Yes...they should be right behind us," Hyde said, as they saw the two warriors running toward them as fast as they could.

"Did you kill the bastard?" Killian asked, as they hopped on board.

"We wish...but we at least dealt him a serious defeat," Zorro replied.

"Yes...he has destroyed his own lab in his anger," Fandral said.

"At least we managed to destroy that contraption that Mr. Flaversham created," Zorro said, regarding the inventor.

"What contraption?" Killian asked.

"Gloves that will give Jekyll the ability to rip hearts and extract star gems from them," Fandral replied.

"Emma and her siblings...he's going after them," he realized.

"Yes...but thankfully those gloves and the staff he built to harness the power of them have gone up in smoke," Zorro said, as Killian set sail for the mainland.

"Unfortunately, that may not be the end of it," Hiram offered.

"What do you mean?" Fandral asked.

"I'm afraid my designs were stored in his database. He'll be able to recall the blueprints and rebuild them...without my assistance," Hiram replied.

"Then we must warn Snow and David the moment they return," Zorro said.

"We will tell Emma once we dock. If he got his hands on even one star gem, he could use them to destroy everything. All he would need to bring us all down would be if he got his hands on Emma's or Bobby's. Their magic is by far the strongest," Killian feared.

"He wants Snow and David's too. If he got his hands on the power of the chalice through Snow and David...not to mention Bobby, then the entire United Realms and beyond would be doomed," Fandral realized, giving them all a sense of pure dread.

"Do you think we can stop him, uncle?" Olivia asked, as she looked up at Hyde. He hugged her gently.

"Yes...we will stop him, young one. We must," he said, as he shared a wary look with the others.

~*~

Once the flames were put out, Jekyll emerged from the building, his body covered almost entirely in burns. Thanks to his demon powers, he would heal from those quickly, but the damage had been done to his hands. He could not regrow them and when Rodmilla arrived, even his gruesome appearance shocked her. Following closely behind were her lead guard, Rivers and her jester, Lucifer.

"Rebuild my lab…" he growled, as she watched the sickening process of him shedding the burned skin and emerging anew.

"I gave you those powers...and you will now use them to assist me. If you do not...I will roast you the same way I roasted this entire building!" he shouted, as his eyes bled with fire.

"No need for threats, Doctor…" she said, as she got a healthy dose of practice with her magical gloves and remade his lab. She noticed burnt mass on the floor though and her nose wrinkled at the absolute foul smell.

"What is that?" she asked.

"That...was Fidget. Get rid of it," he growled, as she waved her hand and disappeared the gruesome mass of ash and burnt flesh.

"What happened here?" Runeard asked.

"Fandral the Dashing happened and I fully intend to make sure he pays for everything he just did," Jekyll said.

"What is wrong with your hands?" Rodmilla asked.

"I underestimated Hyde's ingenuity, but that won't happen again," he said, as he pressed a button on his console with his elbow and a panel on the floor opened up. A box emerged from the floor and he kicked it over to Runeard.

"Open it…" he ordered.

"I am a King...I do not take orders, especially from an unhinged doctor, who is obviously an amateur," Runeard said derisively.

"You had better watch your tongue, Void...for if you think your little trick is a match for me...you'd be sadly mistaken," Jekyll said, as he grabbed the man's wrist and Runeard was shocked to see that his touch had no effect on the doctor.

"I am still a demon and there is no life to drain from me," he said, as the King hissed in pain and pulled his wrist away, finding a burn mark there.

"But I can burn you to ash. However, I find your ability intriguing and would prefer it to work for me. Make no mistake though, if you inhibit my path to the lovely Snow White, I will reduce you to smoldering embers," Jekyll warned.

Runeard reluctantly did so and took out a metal case. He placed it on the console and opened it, revealing a second pair of gloves, much like Rodmilla's.

"These will suffice until we can obtain Snow and Charming's mixed blood. With it, Grimm can give me my flesh hands back. For now, these will work and help channel my power," Jekyll said, as he was fitted with the gloves. The Doctor flexed his artificial hands.

"Now get out...I have much work to do and a revenge to craft," he hissed, as they left the psychotic doctor to do his work.

"I'd hate to be the Dashings or the Charmings when he gets done with them. I hope he lets me watch the carnage," Lucifer mentioned. Rivers smirked.

"Me too...it will be entertaining for sure," he agreed.

[gunnerpalace]

So how would you rewrite it? I think you said something about doing that?

That would be the subject of Hyperchlorate Part III. (Part II again being detailing everything that went wrong, and Part I being going over what made the story unique.)

In essence there are the four major changes I would make to Bleach:

Radically expand upon (and show, don’t tell) character relations in the story. We are repeatedly told that so and so are friends, or family, or colleagues, or whatever, and we essentially never see it (outside of Tatsuki and Orihime at the very beginning). It’s critical to caring about and interlinking the characters and seeing them grow and develop. For example, someone made a point that the Xcution arc demonstrates Ichigo’s bonds with Soul Society are stronger than with his own friends. That’s true, and you can see it in the Japanese cultural context of him using their first names (even for Toushirou!) whereas he keeps calling Uryuu and Orihime by Ishida and Inoue. There’s a definite social distance there. But it’s a subtle thing. And it really needs to not be subtle. There needs to be a lot more interactions between characters; plenty of characters literally never interact at all, and plenty of characters look fucking terrible for their apparent gross negligence that serves zero point other than to maintain the Mystery Boxes (here’s looking at you, Isshin, Ryuuken, and Kisuke).

Recontextualize everything after the Soul Society arc. I am not opposed to certain places, people, or concepts (e.g., Hueco Mundo, the Espada, Fullbring, the Soul King, etc.) but the way they were introduced and handled was, frankly, garbage. Arrancar, at least, were set up rather early on. The rest… was a bunch of ex nihilo shit. It came out of nowhere with no setup. I also don’t really enjoy the thematic inversion of Hueco Mundo seemingly purely for the sake of subverting expectations. So, I would restructure everything that happens after that point in gross detail.

Refit, standardize, and clearly and consistently implement and allude to the grand plot. If there was going to be some grand purpose to the Bleach universe, it needed to be made clear textually, not just thematically, throughout the story. It needs to be set up to the reader, if not to the characters, very early on so they “get” what everything is building toward. That absolutely was not done.

Having a real ending that actually involves our protagonists making a substantive change. I’ve definitely been over this before.

That’s all well and good, right? So what sort of things would I actually look to change?

As an example of the high-level stuff… In terms of narrative, internal consistency, and plot, the whole Substitute Shinigami thing makes no fucking sense. It makes literally zero sense that Ginjou was the first one in several thousand years, and Ichigo was only the second. It makes zero sense that a technique to transfer powers to humans exists and is taught at the academy, can be known to have a “low chance of success,” and then made a crime when it’s happened a grand total of two times, unless it was all a long con just to catch Ginjou, and in that case it’s dumb because he doesn’t matter. (We’re supposed to believe Soul Society allows Hollows to run roughshod everywhere but they’re really obsessed about catching this one dude but not enough to actually task anyone powerful to go do it? No, none of that makes sense.)

It also doesn’t make any sense that there are only a grand total of 6,000 to 7,000 Shinigami to patrol its nebulously defined area of responsibility. (Is it the whole world? Is it just Japan? If the latter, are there other Soul Societies? If the former, where are the foreigners? Sure seem to be a lot of people who look foreign, but they all have Japanese names and speak Japanese in a manga that clearly at least recognizes Mexico. Why would foreigners accept a feudal Japanese afterlife? This is another small example of what I mean by the grand plot being fucked.)

It also doesn’t make a lot of sense that the only Shinigami worth a damn are Captains, Lieutenants, and the occasional Seated Officer. (This is canonical, by the way.) Almost all of them are total trash who would lose to the most basic bitch Hollow, let alone an Arrancar. Meanwhile, your average Quincy can mop the floor with all three.

You know what would make a lot more sense, and work better with what’s on paper? Here are some ramblings from my notes on this subject:

i think it’s sorta like… you wanna mirror the structure of the Hollows; Shinigami as a whole are like Menos, although they are almost all Arrancar (there could be some very low-ranked/new Shinigami who do not have shikai, these would be the “rookies”), whereas substitute Shinigami are like masked Hollows, with some overlap into Gillians/Menos Grande

- Captains (General Officers) are at the level of the Espada (with obvious differences among them correlating to Espada generated from Vasto Lordes and Adjuchas)- Lieutenants (Staff Officers) are at the level of the Privaron Espada and some of the stronger fracciones- Seated Officers (Officers) are at  the level of most fracciones and wild Adjuchas [sometimes from the 4th Seat up are more on the level of the above, e.g., Ikkaku and Yumichika]- Unseated Officers (NCOs) are at the level of weak fracciones, or on the order of holding off a Gillian- Substitute Shinigami (Enlisted) are at the level of individual Hollows

Substitute Shinigami are basically what Soul Society sets up to deal with the Living World rather than directly intervening, because “they have better shit to do;” they’re probably set up like a secret society of beat cops, and yeah, if the Shinigami proper notice spiritually sensitive people while setting up new districts or maintaining their assigned ones, they shank'em and induct'em (usually these people attract Hollows anyway so it’s a “become one of our grunts or die” type deal; maybe if they refuse, the Shinigami kill them instead for shirking their duties?)Hollows aren’t the only spooky thing running around in the night either; they’re probably relatively rare, and other weird shit like revenants and ghosts are more common

i also have some notes here about how it’d be cool if Substitute Shinigami were like, an established thingand were expendable gruntswith actual Shinigami being rather more elite, even if they’re not seatedlike it’s XCOM with supernatural shithaving shikai should be a big fucking deal; even knowing kidou should be like, impressiveyour average Hollow should be equivalent to a Substitute Shinigamian unseated Shinigami should be like a Menos Grandea Shinigami good at kidou and a weak zanpakutou should be like a weak Arrancara seated Shinigami should be like a medium Arrancar and know shikai for surelieutenants should be like Privaron Espadaand captains should be like the Espada (or higher)

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. My first big change to Bleach would be dispensing with the concept of substitutes as being rare. They should be the main interface for the human world (and expendable, and have a high turnover rate). Rukia being there should be A Big Deal. (Have her sent there specifically to monitor things, like a Commissar? To look for Grand Fisher? Whatever.)

Ginjou, were he to exist, would then need a different backstory, but that would be real easy to build out.

As an example of additional character interaction, I’ve already detailed my idea that Kisuke and Yoruichi should be Rukia’s surrogate parents. (And solving the problem of when Rukia got the Hogyouku.)

As another example, it has never made sense to me that Rukia is the one that stays to fight Shrieker while she tells Ichigo to take Karin home. Rukia knows her powers are iffy at best, and should know better. She damn near almost dies (along with Chad) for no reason other than… ??? For dramatic tension and to reveal Chad can attack Hollows, I guess. Even Ichigo calls her out on it. It should’ve been flipped, with Karin revealing things to Rukia and learning about her, and that should be built into Karin repeatedly noticing the two of them (which was never, ever paid off in any fashion whatsoever). This is just one example of more moments of character interaction outside of fights.

As an example of reworking things, I like the ideas of turning the hunt for Aizen into something more like Apocalypse Now, that Aizen kidnaps Karin and Yuzu instead of Orihime, and that his hideout is deep in Rukongai instead of Hueco Mundo:

in one of these posts, @icchiruki was like, Aizen shouldn’t have run off to Hueco Mundohe should’ve run into Rukongaiand that’s geniusbecause it makes him more sympathetic because they have a legit reason to be aggrieved with Soul Societyand also lets us see the other side of the coinwhich, conveniently, leads toward my idea of the HM arc as being more like Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now, with Aizen as the equivalent of Kurtz out among the Montagnardsand also lets there be some spooky eldritch shit like whatever was going on with Ukitake and folk belief in TYBW, but less out-of-nowherebecause it’s pretty clear that whatever’s going on with the divine in Bleach is fuckin’ weird and Lovecraftianwhich can tie into that other bit of work i was doing with “where does all this come from anyway”so you stitch it all together and pull the seams snug and you get an actual expansive worldthen you keep the focus squarely on Ichigo, Rukia, and co., as they navigate through itthe further out into Rukongai you go, the weirder it should get; Shinigami should also routinely get sent to Hueco Mundo (both of these being the more important shit they gotta deal with) and recon and do stuff there; Hueco Mundo itself should be less empty wasteland, more kind of weird dark mirror of Soul Societylike a Kill Six Billion Demons type deal

These are just examples. I could go on.

tl;dr Make Bleach much longer and more personable and personally relatable, show your hand on some of the mysteries and backstories much earlier, and make it simultaneously more fuckin’ weird and more human.

[zmwrites]

Novel Prep Tag Game: Just Jane

Hello everyone! I was tagged in this game by the always delightful @nistrada! Thank you, friend!! (I’m sorry, I know you tagged me two months ago.)

I’ve been putting it off as I haven’t had a new WIP that’s made it past the basic idea stage. But now that I’m working on Just Jane more, I figure it’s a good time to fill this out finally!

First Look

1.) Describe your novel in 1-2 sentences:

Jane, a scrawny street rat who’s made it to adulthood by the skin of her teeth, is taken in by Percival Greystone, a freshly returned war hero, after she’s caught trying to rob his house. They soon find themselves wrapped up in complex political machinations, as Percy is called upon to advise their young ruler, Duchess Anwen, who is being threatened with war by a former ally, and Jane is enlisted for help by the eccentric wizard trying to track down ancient artifacts said to be imbued with magic to protect the Duchy’s sovereignty. 

2.) How long do you plan for the novel to be?

I’m aiming for somewhere between 80k-100k? It might go over that if I go hard on the world building. It’s definitely an adult novel so I’m okay with it being a bit over the 100k marker.

3.) What’s your novel’s aesthetic?

Glowing runes, stone grinding against stone, massive gears opening doors that make the ground rumble, thorns, a river of golden blood, cryptic riddles, impossible trees, swords and shields and suits of armour, pale blue dresses, letters sealed with wax, faces hidden behind fans, regret that clings like burrs.

4.) What other stories have inspired your novel?

Definitely taking from Robin LaFevers’ His Fair Assassins series again, as well as the video game Skyrim and every book where the orphaned nobody turns out to be the chosen one.

5.) 3 images that get the feel of my novel:

Have this Pinterest board I’m still working on. I’m not happy with it, but it should give a general idea.

Main Characters

6.) Who is your protagonist?

Jane, 23. A street rat who steals to survive. She can pick pockets and locks with ease, can find a safe spot to sleep in any district, knows which merchants pay if she makes their deliveries, and knows which taverns are likely to take pity on her and give her a free meal. She’s also adept at climbing just about anything. She’s blunt and often says whatever comes to her mind, a fact that doesn’t earn her many friends once she enters the world of politics and fashionable society.

7.) Who is their closest ally?

At the beginning of the story, either Isaac or Wilamin. Isaac is a fellow thief who brings her jobs and has taught her a thing or two over the years, and is also the only person Jane is willing to try flirting with as she knows he doesn’t see her like that. Wilamin is a childhood friend who is now the top courtesan at the Temple of Saint Syra, the patron saint of pleasure, and allows Jane to sleep in her bed when she’s working in the Temple.

8.) Who is their enemy?

At the start, her only real enemies are hunger and the cold. As she moves into Percy’s world, she quickly makes new and varied enemies with her blunt nature and lack of manners.

9.) What do they want more than anything?

Security and somewhere to call home.

10.) Why can’t they have it?

She’s been on her own for as long as she can remember. She has friends, but when things are tough it’s every person for themselves. As much as she craves a home and security, she also rejects anyone who tries to get close to her who might be able to give her these things. She doesn’t trust that anyone (other than Wilamin) can see her as anything other than what she can do for them. This continuously keeps both things she so desperately wants out of her grasp.

11.) What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

There are a few things! That she’ll never amount to anything more than a scrawny street rat, that she’s not worth noticing, that most people only like her for what she can do for them... the list goes on. She hits a lot of the beliefs one would expect to be held by a young woman who’s had to fight for every scrap she’s ever gotten.

12.) Draw your protagonist!

As anyone who follows me probably knows, I have zero drawing skills. Instead, I offer you this creation from the well-known but now-defunct picrew:

Plot Points

13.) What is the worst thing that could happen to your protag?

To be stripped of her independence.

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

It has something to do with Isaac that will make Jane have to choose where her loyalties truly lie.

15.) Do you know how it ends?

Nope! I have some vague ideas, but that’s all. I’m on the first chapter and making most of it up as I go along.

16.) What is the theme?

Friendship, family, and what constitutes a home. Because I’m so early in the drafting process, I’m still figuring it out!

17.) What is a recurring symbol?

Again, I’m still figuring a lot of it out. I definitely want some symbols and imagery around locks and keys, but I don’t know the specifics yet.

18.) Where is the story set?

In the Duchy of Chalan. It was founded by Galverel Valynore but is currently ruled by the Keriell family, though they still carry the Valynore blood. The current capital city is called Summerlight, where the Dukes and Duchesses live in Bellsover Citadel. It has a moderate climate, with only a few weeks of extreme temperatures each year. The current Duchess is twenty-four year old Anwen.

19.) Do you have images and scenes in mind already?

A few! Most of my ideas are fairly abstract still bc I’m working with only a very vague outline, but there are a few visuals I’m really excited for along the “quest” plot line.

20.) What excited you about this story?

I’ve wanted to write a story centred around a thief for a while now, so that was the main reason I wanted to write this now. I’ve also been very into subverting tropes and the idea of people stepping up to save the world bc it’s the right thing to do. The opportunity to play with a character who might not always have the best morals (see: thief) but who gets dragged into this conflict where she’s gotta do something or let her country crumble was too good to pass up.

21.) What is your usual writing method?

I’ve discovered I work best when I do a “zero draft” or a “discovery draft” to start off with, then make an outline based on that, then write the story as I’d want to read it. It lets me explore the world and characters before settling on a final plot.

Oh boy, I forgot how dang long these things are!! But it’s done, and if you’ve read all of this, I applaud you.

I’m going to tag @leah-yasmin-writes​, @theouterdark​, @letswritestories101​, @the-orangeauthor​, and @solarflare-ink​! As always, no pressure. :)

[monaedroid]

Janelle Monáe: Living Out Loud

For them.'s debut cover story, Lizzo and Janelle Monáe sit down to discuss coming out, freedom, and living and loving out loud.

April 12, 2019

When Janelle Monáe came out as queer in a Rolling Stone cover story last April, the revelation made headlines around the world. As one of the most prolific multi-hyphenate artists of a generation, her declaration carried immense weight, both for herself and for queer black women and LGBTQ+ people everywhere. The announcement was followed by the release of her most brilliant, vulnerable work to date: Dirty Computer, an album that was at its core about embracing the freedom one finds in self-exploration and discovery. Bold, unabashedly fluid anthems like “Pynk”, “Screwed,” and “Make Me Feel” further solidified Monáe as a leader for “free-ass motherfuckers” (as she delightfully referred to herself when coming out) everywhere, one who challenges social binaries and norms alike with grace and strength.

Always evolving sonically and aesthetically, today, Monáe is entering a new era of her genre-bending career. The constant, though, is her work, which remains centered in advocacy, agency, and empowerment, regardless of what form it takes. With reverence for the responsibility of an artist and activist, Monáe uses every platform she builds to amplify intersectional discourse about race, gender, and sexuality in new ways. She takes action in a way that makes everyone take notice.

Monáe’s ascent as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community has tracked alongside her own journey towards personal enlightenment and fulfillment of purpose. It has come with an understanding of the paradox of visibility, and a reckoning with the fears and challenges that queer people, specifically queer people of color, face when living authentically. In taking center stage to speak out and perform against aggressive oppression, Monáe’s voice and vision for humanity help to define what it means to advance emancipation for all.

That’s just a sliver of why we chose Monáe to star in them.’s debut cover story, “Janelle Monáe: Living Out Loud.” It would only be right to have one free-ass motherfucker interview another for the occasion, which is why we recruited Lizzo, an inimitable musical force in her own right and an unerring LGBTQ+ ally, to speak with Monáe below. Both women are known for hits that make you dance while reaching for something deeper, and both share a commitment to uplifting marginalized communities, championing self-love and self-care, subverting social expectations, and speaking their truths through their work. In the wide-ranging conversation below, they touch on that common ground and more, speaking to the terrifying, liberating process of challenging the world’s preconceptions about you, what it really means to live freely in our world today, and loving and living out loud.

Lizzo: First of all, shout out to freedom, okay? Because when you first started talking about sexual fluidity in Rolling Stone, you made me feel like I could do whatever I wanna do and feel how I wanna feel. That’s freedom.

I think that there's so much freedom with sexuality in the world right now. And you are a huge part of that wave. Can you tell me about that journey?

Janelle Monáe: It's been a journey. For me, sexuality and sexual identity and fluidity is a journey. It's not a destination. I've discovered so much about myself over the years as I've evolved and grown and spent time with myself and loved ones. That's the exciting thing — always finding out new things about who you are. And that's what I love about life. It takes us on journeys that not even we ourselves sometimes are prepared for. You just adapt to where you are and how you've evolved as a free thinking person.

Absolutely. I was just talking about this the other day, about how fluidity can mean so many things. It's not just what you like in that moment. I've seen fluidity change with age. I've seen people come out in their sexual identity in their forties and fifties. Yet there's so much pressure on young people to choose an identity, when you're a teenager and your hormones are jumping off — it's like, "Choose an identity, choose a sexual orientation." It's like, "How?” When I like everything sometimes, and I like nothing sometimes.

Do you have any words for those who are struggling with their sexuality or coming out? At any age, but especially for young people.

Don't allow yourself to feel any pressure other than the pressure you put on you. And I think there's so much power in not labeling yourself. That said, there's also power in saying "This is how I identify,” and having community with the folks you identify with. Everyone is on a journey of self-discovery, and those of us who may not understand others’ journeys should be more empathetic and tolerant and supportive.

A big thing for me is just being patient with myself, and not allowing myself to make decisions based in fear, or a fear of people not understanding me. And it's hard. You go through experiences where you feel fearful, and you end up being depressed, or having anxiety, and not taking care of you. But that fear should not get in the way of how you love or who you love.

To be young, queer, and black in America means that you can be misunderstood. You can be hated. It also means that you can be celebrated and loved. And I think there's a lot at stake when you’re living out loud in that way.

Right. And when you’re in the public eye, there's another layer to that with your sexual identity — added pressure, or another kind of fear. Coming out is such a personal, liberating experience. It's nobody's business. But especially when someone famous comes out — and even if their friends or family already know who they're stickin' and lickin' — it’s like, when everyone knows and it's in your heart, is that even really coming out?

Do you feel like Dirty Computer was a public coming out? Or how did you see that statement you made?

Well, one, whenever I'm making music, I start with where I honestly am and what I honestly have to say. I work inward, and then I focus outward, on how it can impact people and be helpful to others. But it starts with me.

I knew the title of this album since before The ArchAndroid, so I’ve been sitting with it for some time. There were just conversations that I had to have with myself and my family about my sexuality and the impact that speaking honestly and truthfully about it through my art would have. I grew up in the Midwest; you did, too. You spent time in Minneapolis. I spent time in Kansas. I grew up there, in a very small town, and I went to a Baptist church; to be anything other than heterosexual is a sin in that community, and growing up, I was always told I'd go to hell if I was. There was a part of me that had to deal with what that meant.

After I had those conversations with myself and I saw a therapist, I had to be able to talk about what it meant to identify as bisexual. What does that mean? How would discovering that impact the relationship I was in at the time? How do I talk about it with my family? How do I go back to my church? The bottom line is I had to have conversations with myself and the folks that love and care about me, and realize they may not understand what it means for me to be a person who identifies as queer in this world. I’ll also add that it wasn't like I wanted to even make it a declaration. I knew that by being truthful through my art, people were gonna have questions, and I had to figure out a way to talk about it. And in having those talks with myself, I realized it was bigger than just me. There are millions of other folks who are looking for a community. And I just learned into that. I leaned into the idea that if my own church won't accept me, I'm gonna create my own church.

Hallelujah. How do you feel about the state of queer acceptance in 2019?

How do I feel about it? I mean, to be young, queer, and black in America means that you can be misunderstood. You can be hated. It also means that you can be celebrated and loved. And I think there's a lot at stake when you’re living out loud in that way. One thing I’ve realized even more was that when you walk in your truth, you can inspire and encourage people to walk in theirs’. I don't know if you got the opportunity to see, but I watched this episode of Queer Eye the other day, and there was this woman, Jess. A young girl from Kansas who really touched me. And I think she touched a lot of people. It was a special episode because I could relate to her — I knew what it meant to be that young and living in the Bible Belt. And she wanted so badly to be this strong, black, queer woman, and she said that I had influenced everything from the way she was dressed to the way she was seen. I just said to myself, "Man, the fact that my album has reached another young black woman like her, and it's helped her in her life, it makes me feel like I'm walking in my purpose and it's really what I'm supposed to be doing." And I can't give up.

I think people are looking for that validation. When they're trying to talk to their parents and their parents don't see that representation out in the real world and people being accepted like that — it's foreign to them, and I think that by being the example, we make it a little easier for kids to be able to talk to their loved ones about it.

Well, listen, sis. People were lit to know that you were queer as fuck. It was exciting. [laughs]

[laughs] I was terrified.

You were scared? What did you think was gonna happen?

I thought people were gonna say, "Oh, she's doing this as a publicity stunt." I thought I wasn't gonna be able to go back home and be at all the barbecues. I had anxiety. And a lot of it was just untrue. It was my fear of what people were gonna say. And I'm thankful that I didn't allow that fear to get in the way of my freedom.

The entertainment industry has not caught up. We're making some waves, but we can do better. And again, it’s about normalizing and telling more stories, and inviting more LGBTQIA+ folks into the conversation on the front end, and giving us a seat at the table early on. Because we can’t afford to see things in a binary way. That’s not how the world works.

That’s the fear of being part of any marginalized group. That fear — of being black and queer and a woman and young — that fear of erasure is really real. And being a public figure, coming forward with your identity and allowing people to be emboldened by that and inspired by that — back in the day, women like you were erased.

I talk about Sister Rosetta Tharpe all the time. She was black and queer and big, and invented rock and roll. And where is she? Where are her monuments? And by setting the example, you can help us change that, and counter that kind of erasure.

Are there any black queer women and artists that you wanna shout out? I feel like we need to get the flowers to these women.

Yeah! I love Lena Waithe. Having her representing on the film side and as a producer, a writer, and the fact that she's thriving and so successful, it’s encouraging. Lorraine Hansberry. Bell Hooks. Meshell Ndegeocello. Who else? I just hope we can get to a point where black women who don’t identify as strictly heterosexual are normalized.

Yes. And making it more intersectional as well, and including trans women in that narrative. I love Janet Mock. I am obsessed with her.

Yeah, me too! She is an incredible woman. And I love MJ Rodriguez. I love Indya Moore. I love Laverne Cox. Those women are amazing, and they are, every single day, normalizing what it means to be a trans woman, and speaking their truth and walking in it.

Amen. It’s all about representing. I just wanna pass out flowers and receive flowers, that’s all I wanna do. I think representation is so important. I wanna see drag queens at the Oscars. I wanna see a drag queen host the Oscars. Can that happen?

Listen, if it was on my watch, I would make sure it happens. I think the entertainment industry has not caught up. We're making some waves, but we can do better. And again, it’s about normalizing and telling more stories, and inviting more LGBTQIA+ folks into the conversation on the front end, and giving us a seat at the table early on. Because we can’t afford to see things in a binary way. That’s not how the world works.

No! It’s a spectrum, and everyone needs to realize and respect it. Respect the spectrum!

You also work with Time’s Up, and I think that’s really important. We gotta protect women’s rights. What work are you doing moving forward to help LGBTQ people gain a foothold in the film industry and media? And how has Time’s Up helped open up some doors?

I'm honored to be a part of Time’s Up and support women. And that's inclusive of all women. As a black woman, however, that's what I know and that's the lens that I'm looking at things through. Whether it be behind the scenes, producing and engineering, to writing or being in front of the camera, there's a lot more work that needs to be done.

I've also started my own organization, Fem the Future, which is a grassroots organization that provides opportunities across the entertainment and the arts, through mentorship and education, for those who identify as women. Through our work, we try to highlight and empower women behind the mic, behind the camera, the stage, the screen, the boardroom. Everywhere. And I founded Fem the Future because I was looking to collaborate with more women on the engineering side and production side and songwriting side, and it was so difficult to find women in these roles. It was frustrating. And I understood why. I said, "Oh, okay. We gotta make more noise." And so I decided to do something about it.

With Dirty Computer, I made a bigger declaration to myself — that I'm not putting out an album if I can't be all of me. You're gonna take the blackness, you're gonna take the fact that I love science fiction. You're gonna take the fact that I am a free ass motherfucker. You're gonna take that all in and because that is what you're gonna get.

That's amazing. I think women are phased out of creative industries by the quote-unquote “boy’s club” way early on. It’s more than just getting them the job — it's giving them the training, making them feel comfortable enough to make mistakes and lean into something and have a girl’s club. So they can get all the experience they need to be at the top of the game.

Let me tell you. It's not that we're not there, we're just not given the opportunity. We can compete at a high level. It's what you said, it's about us pulling for each other. And it's about men, also, who are in the experience of power actively seeking out more women. As artists, we get the opportunity to have this platform and shine light. And that’s the blessing.

Yes. I want to segue into you as an artist, and the music you’ve created and brought into the world. People who know you know that you're in control of the Janelle Monáe story, and your saga, and how the saga unfolds. Can you walk me through your character arc from The ArchAndroid all the way to Dirty Computer, and all of the things you've learned about yourself through your music?

That's a great question. I like to think that I know everything that a project is gonna do and be when I go into it — “I'm gonna go in and write this song, and it's gonna mean this.” But you know like I know, once you put something out and you sit with it, you find out new things that you weren’t even paying attention to. People will come up to you and say, "This is what this means to me." And you're like, "Wow, I had no clue that that's what I was saying, and that you would feel that way after you heard it." The beauty of art is that it reveals itself over time, even to the artists who create it.

I think I do have strong visions; I always have strong visions. With ArchAndroid, I knew what I wanted the content to be, and I used the tools that I knew how to use at that time to create it. In my projects, I always challenge myself to grow and learn my voice and how to stretch beyond what I can comfortably do. So I started to engineer myself more, which meant I got to spend more time with me. I produced as well. And I'm a writer, and a storyteller. So as I grow and as I'm taking in information and growing at this exponential rate, I try my best to create music and albums that support that, that allow me to completely be all of me.

With Dirty Computer, I made a bigger declaration to myself — that I'm not putting out an album if I can't be all of me. You're gonna take the blackness, you're gonna take the fact that I love science fiction. You're gonna take the fact that I am a free ass motherfucker. You're gonna take that all in and because that is what you're gonna get.

Yes. Take it or leave it. Making music — is that therapeutic for you, working through all of that?

Well, yeah. It is hard. It takes discipline to finish an album, to really sit down and say, "Okay, I need to show up." You gotta show up mentally. You can't just show up when every day is beautiful and you have the perfect candle and flowers there and it's smelling good. You gotta work through it. Even when I didn't feel like writing, I wrote, because it was important to challenge myself, to stretch my muscles and finish.

I didn't feel like I had all the time in the world to write Dirty Computer. When you think about the state of this country, when you think about who's in office, when you think about having a Vice President who believes in conversion therapy, and you think about how 77 percent of LGBTQ teenagers surveyed in 2018 report feeling depressed or down over the past week — I didn’t think that this album could wait.

I read from the Trevor Project that suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24. And that LGB youth contemplate suicide at at least three times the rate of a heterosexual youth. When you think about our trans brothers and sisters, our trans sisters being murdered, and when you just look at the state of the world, and when I'm working on an album like Dirty Computer that is centered around uplifting marginalized groups and those who feel isolated and outcast from our society, this album couldn’t wait. I had to get really focused.

And I also didn't wanna filter myself. I wanted to say it how I felt it. If I was upset, if I was feeling sexually liberated, if I was feeling afraid and vulnerable, whatever feelings I had, I laid it all out on the table. Once I finished, that was how I measured success. That's how I measured if I was gonna be proud of this work — did I show up? Did I show up?

Wow. When you talk about the world like that, and you lay all of those devastating facts ... It's not even facts. It’s what's happening to real people.

It can make self-care feel like a luxury, when people are being so aggressively oppressed — not just in their own neighborhoods, but throughout the country, by our administration. And because my messaging is self-care, because my messaging is self-love, it makes me want to reappropriate the term “self-care” into something that could save your life. It’s an idea that’s becoming trendy right now, but it’s much more than that. It’s like, “How do I take care of myself in this world that's not designed to take care of me?”

Artists like us, who do have a message in our music and connect with people on that level, have a responsibility to make self-care less about a fluffy day at the spa and help people in our community understand how important it is. How did you find self-care while you were dealing with talking about your sexuality to your friends and family in your community, and also while making Dirty Computer? And how can we repurpose that and help younger people learn that that term is more than just a trend?

I think one of the greatest gifts that I've been given as my therapy is music, is art. It's a gift that I honestly wish everybody could have and receive. And I think mental health is an issue in all communities, but particularly suicide rates, like I mentioned before, in the LGBTQIA+ and black communities. My community was not pushed to go spend their check on a therapist. It was, spend your check on some new Polo shirts and some Jordans. We weren’t taking our money growing up as teens and going to therapy. And I think a lot of us could benefit from that. But I do know that not a lot of people can afford it. And what I hope is that we can put more money into the mental health system around the world for young folks.

I love the Trevor Project. I love a place in New York called The Center. There are lots of places that offer help and therapy for those who have been pushed out of their homes. But I think what I've been able to do through albums like The ArchAndroid or The Electric Lady or Dirty Computer is to be able to talk about where I am at that time, and to release it and speak it out loud. And that has helped me immensely.

And also, I think it's important for us to be particular about the people we're hanging out with, too. I love the fact that I can be who I am at Wondaland with people who are inviting and patient with me as I walk through my process. And I think that it's our friends and our loved ones that we speak to and communicate with every day who can add to releasing pressure — the pressure and weight that we feel as we're trying to navigate life and walk through life, and embrace the things that make us unique.

You know what I noticed? The more I started loving myself, and the more I started self-caring, the people around me changed and became more conducive to that. The people who were toxic and weren't conducive to a self-loving nature just were segued out by God, by the universe, by my energy just repelling them. And I wish it didn't have to be that way, I wish it was the other way around. I wish that the people around us could help us find self-care and self-love. But that's unfortunately not the world that we were given.

We have to create our own worlds. And I think that mentorship is so important. Like you were saying, therapy's expensive. But mentorship can be free. And that's something that we can start with. Especially in lower income communities, the black community. But for now, we just have you.[laughs] We have music. People are looking to Dirty Computer and artists like you as mentors, long distance mentors. And I think it's really special that you hold that place in people's hearts and that it's reaching a culture. You can watch Queer Eye and see your influence. I'm just so happy to breathe the same air as you.

Oh, please. I’m happy to breathe the same air as you. You also are a free ass motherfucker to me in the way that you approach how you perform, how you love yourself publicly, how you embrace your body. And you're just gorgeous. On stage, offstage, the fact that you play an instrument, the fact that you're writing, the fact that you have ideas as a black woman — you are redefining what it means to be young, black, wild, and free in this country. And you are someone I actively look to whenever I feel like second guessing if I should take risks or not. Because I see the risks that you're taking and the love and appreciation that you show for yourself makes me lean further into loving and respecting myself, and being patient with myself, and not allowing myself to live by anybody's standards.

We are the standard. Thank you, sis. And you know what? Just keep rockin' in the free world, keep showin' 'em what it is. In every industry.

I will. You too. Let’s do it together. Collaboration. Come back over so we can keep on going. I cannot wait for your album. It's time. You've got to put a dent in the culture and in the planet. Rightfully so.

Let’s go. Let’s go!

Photographer: Justin French

https://www.them.us/story/janelle-monae-living-out-loud

[skruttet]

Gay Analysis of the Opening Scene of Moominvalley

Buckle up, lads.

Let’s start off with what Marika Makaroff and Steve Box had to say about this scene in the Creators’ Comments video:

Steve: The first thing you see feels a little bit sugary and...

Marika: Pinky clouds, just pinky clouds and everything

Steve: Yeah, saturated and Disney-like or something, for younger children, and straight to the cliché of- ‘cause I think the cloud flight is quite well-known and, you know, very cutesy.

[...]

Marika: And I think that, the whole theme, that first you think that “well, this is a... this might be a kind of nice animation drama”, but then you understand that there are deeper meanings in there.

I personally think that they intentionally made the opening scene fairytale-like and cutesy as an almost parody of what some viewers may expect the series to be like; they’re showing us what we expect from the series (especially if we expect it to be like the 90s series), then they’re subverting that expectation by revealing it to be a dream that Moomintroll is rudely and abruptly awoken from.

At this point early point (the earliest point, even) in the series, Moomintroll has not gone through any character development yet, and we know the series is about him growing up; therefore, in this scene, he is in many ways still a child. The pink clouds are reminiscent of the 90s anime in which he is quite literally a child; in his dream, he is living in the innocent, happy-go-lucky world of his childhood; a fantasy that does not truly reflect the reality in which he lives and must face throughout the series after he wakes up.

Here’s where the queer part of this analysis comes in: in this fairytale-like dream world, one of the aforementioned expectations would be that Moomintroll is in a romantic relationship with his female friend Snorkmaiden - and, ah yes, right on queue, she appears, casting a shadow on him in the process (I’ll let you decide if there’s something in that). 

The episode then sets up how their relationship will play out in a lot of the future episodes, with Snorkmaiden being the one to usually initiate any romantic advances, as she seductively encourages him to join her on the cloud (to tip this to the “moomintroll is bi” side of things, you could say that the fact that this is happening in his dream shows that he is to some extent attracted to girls and to Snorkmaiden, but if you’re on the “moomintroll is gay” camp, you could argue that this is just how she presents herself to him in real life and so his mind is just replicating that).

Our hero is hesitant and reluctant to her advances, pointing at himself in question as if to stall, then when he prepares himself to jump, he looks scared to death.

Despite this, he takes the leap of faith and lands rather clumsily onto the cloud, Snorkmaiden once again being the initiator in clinging onto his arm. As a more positive look at their relationship, this could be a reflection of how she pushes Moomintroll throughout the series to tackle dangerous situations head-on, therefore helping him in his process of growing up.

...However, a lot of the times when she does that, it isn’t quite what he needs. Whenever she pushes him, or he attempts to lead the way/protect her, they are just desperately trying to fit into the heteronormative roles of Hero and His Damsel, and it usually leads to Snorkmaiden ironically having to save Moomintroll. In the Hattifattener episode, she tells him that he must go rescue Little My alone; because he is afraid of doing so, he stalls, so much so that Little My returns to them on her own and saves him the trip. They would’ve had a much better chance at finding her sooner if they had both gone out together, but because they stubbornly stuck to fulfilling their traditional gender roles, they only succeeded in annoying each other. In the Park Keeper episode, Moomintroll grabs Snorkmaiden’s hand and leads her into the woods to look for Little My, saying he knows the forest like the back of his paw. He does not, and causes them to get lost. He tries to ask some forest people if they saw My, but this proves futile and it is Snrokmaiden who suggests that they build a bonfire; this plan goes more smoothly yet she gives him the credit, calling him “my clever Moomintroll”. In Ghost Story, Moomintroll plays the role of the brave hero yet again, but ends up just scaring and then angering Snorkmaiden, who puts the ghost on the windowsill, inadvertently sending her love to his doom, and she ends up saving him. (In contrast, Snufkin helps Moomintroll get through a scary unfamiliar situation in the Groke episode by guiding him through it and being there with him to save and support him when needed, yet still letting him get the hang of it on his own, and the two have fun together in the process).

You could argue the same negative consequence happens in this dream, where Snorkmaiden encourages him to ride the cloud which eventually disappears from beneath him, though I don’t think it’s quite the same. Regardless, Moomintroll initially does not look happy, but rather worried as Snorkmaiden whisks him away:

Luckily, he’s cheered up in the next shot, enjoying the view seemingly more than he is enjoying Snorkmaiden; the two glance at each other, though whilst Snorkmaiden holds the gaze, Moomintroll quickly looks away and at his parents on the ground, pointing them out so that she stops looking at him. I personally see this as another little shred of evidence that Snrokmaiden is much more invested in their relationship than he is, and he may not in fact return her romantic feelings for him (or at least those that she thinks she has for him).

Snorkmaiden waves at mamma and pappa and Moomintroll follows suit, which I’m honestly not quite sure what to make of. I don’t know why he doesn’t just immediately wave back to his parents and instead only does so when he sees Snorkmaiden doing it. Maybe he’s just enjoying the moment.

Moomintroll then looks quite joyful to be on the cloud, until a hole appears in it and then Snorkmaiden turns into clouds herself, waving goodbye to him before poofing out of existence. The cloud he’s riding quickly does the same and he falls before waking up. This is quite literally a wake-up call: Moomintroll needs to wake up from the sugar-coated fantasy of his past & what’s expected of him and face the real world. The fact that Snorkmaiden is a part of this world shows to me that she is no longer what’s best for him, at least not as a romantic partner, and he needs to move on; much like how he needs to become less dependent upon his parents, who are also a part of this dream.

This ties into the larger theme of his struggle between family & freedom, or childhood & adulthood, or dependency & independency, with Snorkmaiden being a representation (or a part) of the former, and Snufkin of the latter.

My bi ass of course believes he should leave the safety and comfort of a heteronormative life to pursue the true desires of his heart - and, yes, it’ll be scary, but one must sometimes face their fears head-on in their pursuit of lasting happiness; interestingly, Moomintroll has already faced the Groke once, and we know that she’ll be returning in the future. Who knows what he’ll learn about himself.

[straykidsupdate]

Stray Kids Is Your Next K-Pop Obsession — Here’s Why

Just a little over a year after exploding onto the K-pop scene, the young nine-member boy band Stay Kids stands onstage thousands of miles away from their home in Seoul. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center is packed with thousands of fans, called STAY. The majority female audience — strikingly diverse in ethnicity and age — is shouting the opening “na-na”s of “My Pace,” the band’s gritty breakout hit about trusting in your own path and not comparing yourself to others. It’s one thing to hear it on the track, but another entirely to hear it thundering from nearly 3,500 young people in a cavernous space. It’s an empowering, rollicking battle cry.

K-pop has often been likened to a “factory” by the media — a “machine” that pumps out bands on a conveyor belt and hands them hollow, algorithmic pop songs to lip-sync as they move in perfect synchronization. The new generation of South Korean pop groups proves that stereotype resoundingly false. And few subvert it more than Stray Kids — with members Bang Chan, Woojin, Seungmin, Hyunjin, Changbin, HAN, Lee Know, Felix, and I.N — whose inventive mix of EDM, rap, and rock rebel against the norm, and whose sincere, self-penned lyrics are inspiring the rising generation to speak up, because they have something to say.

“We want to be remembered as a team that not only makes good music, but makes the kind of music that really influences and helps people,” fox-faced vocalist and youngest member I.N tells Refinery29 ahead of the second the band’s two sold out shows in Newark, the first stop on the on the U.S. leg of their “UNVEIL Tour 'I am…' world tour. “That's one of our biggest dreams.”

“I don't think it's fair for anyone to say K-pop is a machine. It’s a stereotype." BANG CHAN

Ingrained in Stray Kids’ DNA is their creative agency. Bang Chan, Changbin, and HAN — known as 3racha — have written and produced the majority of the group's discography, but all nine members have had writing credits on their work, which isn't often seen from young bands in the industry. This ownership has allowed them to experiment and play with their sound, and even their videos — many of their visuals are of them singing and goofing off, filmed on GoPros (as one does when not questioning your entire existence). It’s also allowed them to showcase each member’s versatility. While many K-pop group members usually have defined roles within a group, there’s a joke within the fandom that Stray Kids sometimes feels like it has nine rappers and nine vocalists — whether it’s vocalist Lee Know dishing a scorching opening rap in “District 9,” or rapper Hyunjin letting his gentle tenor shine in “불면증 (Insomnia).”

It’s also this personal, hands-on approach that not only allows them to tell their stories as authentically as possible, but has allowed them to speak even more directly to their fans. This line of communication to the generation they speak for is the most vital to their success thus far, so the perception that their work could be anything but personal is ill-conceived.

“I don't think it's fair for anyone to say K-pop is a machine. It’s a stereotype,” says Bang Chan, turning contemplative. “But I think the reason why people might think that is because the way K-pop is built is very well-organized, and performance-wise everything is precise and well-crafted. What some people probably don’t understand is that we think of it as a gateway that allows artists to reach out to their fans.”

Stray Kids discography weaves a narrative that begins with the fictional dystopia of District 9, in which they are prisoners of a suffocating system that tries to define them. They then explored their own identities throughout the group’s I Am… trilogy as they grappled with questions that plague both them and their fans, who are growing up along with them.

“The question that we always come back to, that everyone asks themselves, that I ask myself is, 'Who am I?'” says 21-year-old Australia-raised leader Bang Chan. “I think I've been thinking about that from a really young age. Honestly right now I haven't found out who I am, and I'm still trying to figure that out. Through our music we wanted to express that and reach out to those who feel the same way, so we can have a connection with one another.”

In March, they released a new, more confident chapter of their story, Clé 1: Miroh, led by the massive, boisterous single “Miroh.” Pulsing with brassy beats and lion’s roars, the song, according to rapid-fire rapper Changbin is about “gaining the confidence to face new challenges.” The visual, set in a Hunger Games-esque world, finds the members organizing a rebellion and literally grabbing the mic from the elite class in charge.

If anything, this is the machine that Stray Kids actively fight against — societal expectations and unmanageable pressure put on young people today. And while songs on Clé 1: Miroh such as “Victory Song” and “Boxer” share the same dauntless spirit, the group still leave room for vulnerability. “19” is a haunting, echoing song written by HAN about his fears as he teeters on the cusp of adulthood.

“When I was 19 [Koreans calculate age differently], going into my twenties, I was excited to become an adult,” says HAN. “But as the time actually came closer, I had so many emotions and thoughts running through my head. I was scared, but I wanted to express my feelings to my fans who are going through the same thing through this song.”

Before Stray Kids debuted as a group, they were on a self-titled musical competition TV series. Felix and Lee Know were cut from the group, to the devastation of the other members, but were later added again after proving themselves once more. This emotional rollercoaster that the members endured is partially to thank for their close bond, and why the group treat each other and their STAYs like family. That and the examples set by their own families growing up.

“When we were young, whenever we went through hard times, my mom would always try to cheer me and my sisters up,” says Australian-Korean Felix, whose deep bass tone is in striking contrast to his lithe stature. “This example of loving and supporting one another is something I carry with me constantly. She inspired me to want to help other people, make others feel better by surprising or comforting them.”

“I'm so thankful to my mom for giving me unconditional love,” adds honey-voiced eldest member Woojin. “I learned a lot from her — she takes so much care in how she interacts with other people and keeps good, healthy relationships with the people around her as well.”

This all helped build the foundation of what Stray Kids is today — a group of young people who, by acknowledging their fears and faults, want nothing more than to unite with those who understand them across language and geographic borders, using the tools at their disposal. And even with only a year under their belts, it looks as if their message is already resonating.

“Each and every one of you have your own special story, right?,” Bang Chan said as the Newark show neared its close, and after fans finished a vibrant “We love you!” chant to the nine young men on stage. “[...] So I feel like today is not just STAY and people being in this beautiful venue: it’s a thousand stories all inside this really big space. I’m just glad that through music — and through the music that we make — we can gather all these stories and relate to each other. I think that’s really fantastic.”

Article Source: here

[deathghost8]

Adventure school - Purpose

Education education - what education is. The radical mystic literally falls out of the matrix - he is not affected by the gravity of ideology. He has walked up the entire flight of Mind Craft steps- contemplation at the bottom, expression at the top. I was recently asked what inspired my thinking/feelings. I will include below the post that received the reply. The answer is that I was impacted by the authoritarian government and the cult religion as a young person. I was born within their rigid, non-expressive social institutions - The ideology pressed down on me, and all I could do was press back. Every coercion against what I found to be joyful and real just reinforced my pursuit of the XP of reality. Clearly education was what they opposed systematically and with false morals and authority structures. It sort of began with the rare and special imparting of wisdom by some of the only cultural elders available to the 15-18 year old me- Douglas Adams and George Carlin. The way was pointed out to me, ultimate pre-cognition. Plus the mystic rage, pure rebellion spoken by creatives slightly ahead of me, Marshall Mathers and Trent Reznor and Corey Taylor, Jonathan Davis, Marilyn Manson- then the interpolated voices of the crafters of the earliest game worlds, I was given the pure sensation knowledge in spaces like Super Mario 3 / 64, doom and diablo, myst and fallout, although I did not yet begin the process of EXPRESSING what these sensations contained. The information became part of me, but eventually I would observe the fact that it was already there, and I was actually gaining the interface to fully observe the nature of myself, a language and a translation protocal of physical truth. Original Post - Greetings from the adventure FooL - welcome to adventure schooL () adventurer philosophy / Adventure model of cognitive flow () [] This is a curriculum item of sorts i have been developing for the past year. [] The basic premise starts in the contemplation of what vexes us - the devil - that habit we can't defy, ... which ultimately destroys Self. Mind growth clearly occurs as sound is heard - repeated off and on states. Only one isn't heard. It must repeat. Addiction is a faulty pattern, a repetition flow that is undoing wellbeing, taking apart the organism - -yet this is how cognition works. The repetition is how cognition paths form. interesting similarity - working order necessarily also involves some of the contrary flow. There is no on without off. It is how we are wired, or when looking at the organism-environment perspective of self, it is how existence is. Vibration. So the faulty pattern is simply unbalanced, not inherently wrong. It's got the map upside down. The term Trip has come to represent Mindset alteration. But when considered in its literal meaning, we are talking about location. A single syllable to convey change, leaving a location and arriving at a different location which is differentiated by being somewhere that isn't already within the origin point. "If you don't know what it is, how do you know you want it?" If the outcome is already known, you've had it already. It's the past, you already know it. Knowledge is XP. Faster travel actually has made many locations more like the same location, by nature of being closer, and less of a change. The travel or the trip is what's been diminished. Difference IS identity. A trip is only possible to occur relatively. The motion of two objects in space can only be quantified as a relation between them. When i first grasped this cognitive flow equation, (the adventure basics), I called this first item Deciding. You are only where you are, until you experience a Decision to leave it. Then, there is Going. The experience of exiting and crossing the distance. And it leads to Doing. The experience of what is found at the different location. Basically the treasure. You. This is the adventure model. Now the greater interest of this model of cognitive flow comes in using it to talk about a social organism. It is clear to see that any organism denied its sovereignty cannot access growth. It's impossible to govern by ruling. Growth happens of itself when left free to happen. The desire or need to rule, to control and dominate a destiny by force, is a self frustrating game rule. The Tyrant authority suppresses growth and decays the social organism. The Fool innovator subverts the authority, revealing sovereignty, building it, and revealing the social organism in its growth flow. The interesting thing is how there is a trick, or a deception, in the core. The trick is the pivot point. The temporary bypass of Will / intent. Punchline is the flip where the deception becomes visible. This is because you cannot force. Subversion is the only option. Because this is how the mind is. A trick that suppresses you is tyranny / addiction. However, if it reveals you, it is innovation. That's what the Koan does. It reveals you, somehow against your will. Adventure is the Tool, it is the Koan. This is why Story is the tech structure, the original media. At the present moment of human history, we have leapt from story on the page or plays upon the arched stage to an elevated tier of adventure. We have all manner of play within all manner of imagined locations and settings. These experiences send you through terrain, across locations, canvassing either at sprinting pace or with relative slow movement and complete stillness alternating. There's an old saying, great books aren't read, but re-read. We are in a golden age of the spirit of this statement. A basically limitless number of mind open spaces now exist, and there is a value to either zooming around or thoughtfully wandering, the point is the repetition. Not to get something, just to celebrate being there - The XP of inhabiting these different places. What we are searching for is YOU. Deep in the catacombs, guarded by all the dreadful foes and bosses beneath.