#There's just a list of ship names I've learned in one of those things.... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ladyluscinia · 6 months

Text

Ok, I think I might be exiting the "are you fucking kidding me?" period and ready to make a real argument, so lets talk about Three Act Structure!

Is OFMD S2 just the "Darkest Hour"?

A very common explanation I've been seeing for some of the... controversial... aspects of S2 is that it's meant to be that way. That the middle act is where the protagonists hit their lowest point. Where we get the big failure point. Where everything looks kind of shit.

S2 is supposedly just that point. It's The Empire Strikes Back. People have been making that comparison since before the first episodes even dropped, telling everyone to expect something that could be disappointing or unsatisfying - it's just a matter of needing to wait for S3 to pull it all together.

It's not a baseless framework to consider the show through - I'm pretty sure David Jenkins has mentioned it in interviews (or at least mentioned he planned for three acts / seasons) so it's certainly worth asking how he's doing at the 2/3rd mark.

So - quick summary of Three Act Structure:

Act 1 introduces our characters and world. It includes the inciting incident of the story and the first plot point, where a) the protagonist loses the ability to return to their normal life, and b) the story raises whatever dramatic question will drive the entire plot. Act 2 is rising action and usually most of the story. The protagonist tries to fix things and fucks them up worse, in the process learning new skills and character developing to overcome their flaws. Act 3 is the protagonist taking one more shot, but this time they are ready. We get the climax of the story, the dramatic question gets an answer, and then the story closes.

If you want examples, the Star Wars Original Trilogy is a very popular template. And, hell, he said it was a pirate story... the main Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy also does a solid job with their three acts.

Let's compare. (Spoiler: I'm not impressed 🤨)

---

First thing I need to establish... Wait. Two things. First is that Three Act Structure is flexible, so we can't really analyze success or failure by pulling up a list of necessary plot beats that should have been hit in X order. Second is that if you tell me you are writing a romance with a Three Act Structure - where "the relationship is the story" - the first thing I'm going to do is ask you how you are adapting it. Because while there's not necessarily anything preventing you from applying this to a character driven plot, most people are familiar with it as plot structure for externally driven conflict.

Unless there's a reason the status of the main relationship is intrinsically tied up in the current status of the war against the evil empire, a standard Three Act Structure is going to entail either an antagonistic force that absolutely wants your main couple apart being the main relationship obstacle OR the romance aspect being a subplot to the protagonist's narrative adventure. None of those sound like how the show has been described.

So how is OFMD adapting it?

---

Act 1

(Can't figure out how well Act 2 is doing if we don't start at setup.)

Right out the gate, OFMD breaks one of the main "rules" for a story where the Acts are delivered in three parts. Namely the one where the first Act is treated as an acceptable standalone story, with it's own satisfying yet open ended conclusion.

In Star Wars, A New Hope ends with the princess rescued, Luke finding the Force, Han finding his loyalty, and the Death Star destroyed. The Empire isn't defeated, the antagonists still live... the story is not over, but this one movie doesn't feel unfinished.

Similarly, Curse of the Black Pearl gives Jack his ship back, Elizabeth and Will get together, and Norrington has the English Navy let them all off the hook and give Jack and the pirates one day's head start.

OFMD's final beat of S1 being Kraken Arc starting is not that, even if Stede returning to sea is still a pretty hopeful note. Now... I don't necessarily think this was a bad call. At least, not if the story is the relationship. It's easy to close on a happy ending and then fuck it up next movie if the conflict is external and coming for them. Not so much if you're driving the story with your protagonists' flaws, in part because it should be really obvious at the end of setup that your main characters need development and can't run off together right now. I actually like that they were risk-takers and let S1 look at the situation clearly vs doing a fragile happy end, because it takes into account the difference between a character-driven and plot-driven narrative.

I think OFMD's Act 1 actually ends at maybe the Act of Grace? Well, there through the kiss on the beach, counting as our "first plot point" before everything goes wrong, basically.

At that point, they have setup the story and characters. We've been introduced to Edward and Stede's current issues. Signing the Act of Grace does make the intertwined arcs between them real - it's no longer a situation that either one of them could just walk away from like it was in 1x07 - and we narrow in on the (alleged) driving question of the show:

It's not about "Will Stede become a great pirate?" or "Will we develop a better kind of piracy for the crew?" - the show is the relationship and the big question is "What is Stede and Edward's happy ending?"

Act 1 ends on their first solution, being together and making each other happy and admitting it's more than just friendship. Act 2 starts, appropriately, by saying both of them are currently too flawed for that to go anywhere but crashing and burning.

Now... looking back, what does Act 1 do well vs poorly?

I think it's really strong on giving us the foundation for BlackBonnet's characters and flaws. We aren't surprised Stede goes home or Edward goes Kraken (or at least... we weren't supposed to be surprised. There are still a lot of holdouts blaming Izzy for interrupting Edward's "healing" despite how at this point in the story it doesn't make sense for Edward to have the skills to heal... but I digress). The relationship question is compelling at the end of S1, the cliffhanger hooks, and the fandom explosion of fics did not come from nowhere - the audience was invested.

I also think Act 1 does a great job of settling us in the universe. We understand the rules it abides by, from how gay pirates are just a fact of life to how there's no important organs on the left side of the body. Stede has a muppety force field. Rowboats have homing devices, and port is always as close as you want it to be. Scurvy is a joke. The overblown violence of pirate life is mostly a joke, but we are going to take the violence of childhood trauma seriously.

Lucius's fake-out death, while technically part of Act 2, works well because Act 1 did a good job of priming everyone to go "obviously this show wouldn't kill a crew member for shock value, and we're 100% supposed to suspend disbelief about how he could have survived getting flung into the sea in the middle of the night." And we do. And we get rewarded for it.

Regarding antagonists - a big focus of any setup - the show is deliberately weak. The one with the most screentime is Izzy, and he's purposefully ineffective at separating our main couple. Every antagonist is keyed to a particular character, and they function mostly to inform us of that character's flaws and development requirements. The Badmintons tell us about Stede's repression and feelings of inadequacy, and Izzy tells us about Edward's directionless discontent and tendency to avoid his problems. Effectively - the show is taking the stance this will be a character driven narrative where Stede and Edward's flaws are the source of problems and development the solution. No person or empire (or social homophobia) is separating them...

...which leads me to something not present - there nothing really about the struggle of piracy against the Empire. Looking at Curse of the Black Pearl... we see piracy is in danger. The Black Pearl itself is described as the last great pirate threat the British Navy needs to conquer. Hangings are omnipresent - Jack is sentenced to die by one almost as soon as he's introduced to the story, when his only act so far had been to wander around and save Elizabeth from drowning. OFMD tries to invoke this kind of struggle in 2x08, but there's no foundation. Our Navy antagonists are Stede's childhood bullies, and so focused on Stede the crew isn't even in danger when they get caught. The Republic of Pirates is getting jokes about being gentrified, not besieged.

Even the capture of Blackbeard by the Navy is treated as a feather in Wellington's cap but not a huge symbolic blow against piracy... because we just do not have that grand struggle woven into Act 1. You only know the "Golden Age of Piracy" is ending if you google it, or have watched a bunch of pirate shows.

Overall, a solid Act 1, well adapted to the kind of story they've said they were looking to tell - a romance in the (silly-fied) age of piracy, instead of a pirate adventure with a romantic subplot.

---

Now, Sidebar - Where is the story going?

The thing about the dramatic question - in OFMD's case: "What is Stede and Edward's happy ending?" - is that a) there's normally more than one question bundled up in that one + sideplots, and b) while you aren't supposed to have the answer yet, you can usually guess what needs to happen to give you the answer.

Back to our examples... Luke's driving question is "Will the Empire be defeated?" Simple. Straightforward. Also: "Will Luke become a Jedi?" The eventual climax of our story from there is pretty obvious... the story is over when Luke wins the war for the Rebellion in a Jedi way. That's the goal that they are working toward.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a bit more complicated. We're juggling more characters and have a less defined heroic journey, but there are driving questions like "Is Jack Sparrow a good man?" and "Is Will Turner a pirate / what does that mean?" and even "Will the British Navy defeat piracy?" They get basic answers in Curse of the Black Pearl, and far more defined ones in At World's End. Still, this is another plot-driven narrative. They've laid the foundations for the Pirates vs Empire struggle, and when that final battle turns into the trilogy climax then you know what's happening.

OFMD is not doing a plot-driven narrative. To judge how they are doing at their goals, we have to ask what they think a happy ending entails in a character sense.

Clearly it's not the classic romantic sideplot, where the climax is the first kiss / acknowledgement of feelings. They've teased a wedding in Word of God comments a lot, so that's probably our better endpoint. Specifically, though, a wedding where both of our protagonists aren't ready to flee from the altar (big ask) and where they've both grown enough that their flaws / mutual tendencies to run away from life problems won't tank the relationship.

In Stede's case it's still massive feelings of inadequacy and being too repressed to talk about his problems. Also he ran away from his family to chase a lifelong dream of being a pirate - "Is Stede going to find fulfillment in being a pirate captain, or will the real answer be love?" Edward meanwhile expresses a desire to quit piracy and retire Blackbeard, but we also find out he's struggling with massive self-loathing and guilt from killing his father - "Is retiring what Edward wants to do, or is he just running away?"

If they are going to get to a satisfying wedding beat at the climax of their story, what character beats do we need to hit in advance?

Off the top of my head - both characters need to self-realize their flaws (a pretty necessary demand of anyone who runs away from problems). They are set up to balance each other well, but also to miscommunicate easily. They have to tell each other about or verbally acknowledge that self-realization so it can be resolved. Stede has to decide how much being a pirate means to him. Edward has to decide if he's retiring and what he wants to do. They both need to show something to do with getting past their childhood traumas given all the flashbacks. Through all this, they also need to hit the normal romance beats that convince the audience they are romantically attracted to each other and like... want to get married.

Oh, and this is more of a genre-specific sideplot, but once they demonstrate a behavior that hurts the people who work for them, they need to then demonstrate later how it won't happen again. Proof of growth, which is kind of important in a comedy where a lot of the humor is based in them being massively self-centered assholes. Stede doesn't earn his acceptance in the community until he kicks Calico Jack off the ship, making up for causing the situation with Nigel in the first episode. A workplace comedy can get a lot of material from the boss as the worker's antagonist, but if you want the bosses to stay sympathetic you have got to throw them some opportunities to earn it.

All that sounds like a lot, but like - the relationship is the story, right? If we spend so much time on establishing flaws big enough to drive a story, we also have to spend time on fixing them. Which is where the turning point hits.

---

Act 2: How it Starts

This is where the full story reality-checks your protagonist. Glad you saved your boyfriend and embraced new love in Act 1, but his repressed guilt means he's about to completely ghost you, and your own abandonment issues and self-loathing are about to make his dick move into everyone else's problem.

Again, it's a non-conventional choice OFMD has this start at the very end of S1 rather than with a sudden dark turn in the S2 premiere, but it's still pretty clearly that point in the Three Act Structure.

In Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back opens with a timeskip to our Rebellion getting absolutely crushed and hiding on a miserable frozen planet. The Empire finds them as the plot is kicking off and they have to desperately flee. They get separated. Han and Leia try to go to an ally for help and end up in Vader's clutches. It's a sharp turn from the victorious note that A New Hope ended on.

Pirates of the Caribbean's Act 2 starts dark. Dead Man's Chest opens with our happy couple Will and Elizabeth getting arrested on their wedding day for the "happy end" escape of the last movie. Jack has not been having success since reclaiming his ship, and we'll soon find out he's being hunted by dark forces. As for the general state of piracy, we get a horrifying prison where pirates are being eaten alive by crows, and a new Lord Beckett making the dying state of piracy even more textual. "Jack Sparrow is a dying breed... The world is shrinking."

The key here is making a point that our heroes aren't ready. This is the struggles part - things they try? Fail. The odds do not look to be in their favor.

Now, OFMD apparently decided to go all-in on flaw exploration, especially with Edward. The first 3 episodes of S2 are brutally efficient in outlining Edward's backslide. In S1 you could see he had issues with guilt and feeling like a bad person. S2 devolves that into a destructive, suicidal spiral where Edward forces his crew into three months of consecutive raids, repeats his shocking act of cruelty with Izzy's toe offscreen (more than once!), escalates it with his leg, and finally they state directly that Edward hates himself for killing his dad so much that he fears he's fundamentally unlovable and better off dead.

Stede's struggles are subtler, but most definitely still there. He's deliberately turning a blind eye to tales of Edward's rampage, half from simply being too self-centered to care about the harms Edward causes others, and half from being unable to face or fathom that he had the ability to hurt Edward that much. Upon reunion he wants to put the whole thing behind them, not addressing why he left in the first place. Very "love magically fixes everything" of him, except Stede is no golden merman.

Interestingly, here, BlackBonnet's relationship dysfunction has very clearly been having a negative impact on the surrounding characters we care about. Make sense, since it's the driving force of the story, but that also adds a lot more relationships we need to make right. Like... Edward is the villain to his crew. The show focuses on their trauma and poisoned relationships with him. And then draws our attention even more to Stede taking his side to overrule their objections to him.

For a story where the conflict and required resolutions are primarily character based, and the setup had already given the main couple a good amount to work with, dedicating a lot of S2 to adding more ground to cover was... a choice. Potentially very compelling on the character end, certainly challenging on the writing end... but not a complete break with the structure.

Bold, but not damning.

---

Act 2: How it Ends

Now it is true that Act 2 tends to end on a loss. Luke is defeated by Vader and loses his hand, and Han has been sent away in carbonite. Jack Sparrow for all his efforts cannot escape his fate, and he and the Pearl are dragged to the locker.

But the loss is not the point. The loss is incidental to the point.

Act 2 is about struggles and failure, but it's also about lessons learned. There's a change that occurs, and our cast - defeated but not broken - enters the final act with the essential skills, motivation, knowledge, etc. that they lacked in the beginning.

Luke Skywalker could not have defeated the Empire in Return of the Jedi until he'd learned the truth about his father and resisted the Dark Side in The Empire Strikes Back. (Ok, confession, I'm using Star Wars as an example because literally everyone is doing so, but frankly it's a better example of formulaic Three Act Structure repeating within each movie because on a trilogy level - relevant to this comparison - it is a super basic hero's journey in a very recognized outfit and as such the Act 2 relevance is also... super basic "the hero tries to fight the antagonist too early" beat where he learns humility. Not really a lot going on. So, for the better example...)

Dead Man's Chest has a downer ending with the closing moment of the survivors regaining hope and a plan against an enemy now on the verge of total victory - a classic Act 2. But in that first loss against Davy Jones we get Will's personal motivation and oath to stab the heart, Jack finally overcoming not knowing what he wanted and returning to save them from the Kraken (being a good man), Elizabeth betraying Jack (being a pirate), Barbossa's return, and Norrington's choice to bargain for his prior life back. The mission to retrieve Jack from the World's End is the final movie's plot, but things are already on track to turn the tables back around as we enter the finale.

Now, relevant sidenote - one major difference between Three Act Structure within a single work vs across three parts is that Act 2 continues into Part 3, and only tips over into Act 3 about midway through. This is because obviously your final movie or season cannot just be the climax. That's why both movie examples start with a rescue mission. They have to still be missing something so they can get the plot of their third part accelerating while they go get whatever that something is.

But if you wait until the 3rd movie / season to get the development going at all - you're fucked.

Jack's decision in the climax of At World's End to make Elizabeth into the Pirate King goes back to the development we saw in the Pearl vs Kraken fight in Dead Man's Chest. So does Elizabeth's leadership arc. Will's whole arc about becoming Captain of the Dutchman gets built upon in the third movie, but it starts in the second. Not just as an idle thought - he's actively pursuing it. Already consciously weighing saving his father vs getting back to Elizabeth as soon as he makes the oath. Everyone is moving forward in Act 2. Their remaining development might stumble for drama, or they might be a bit reluctant, but I know that they know better than to let it stick, because they already faced their true crisis points.

I'm not sure we can say the same about OFMD.

S2 does a good job of adding problems, yeah, but there's not really any movement on fixing them. Our main couple stagnates in some ways, and regresses in others.

Stede opened Act 2 by running away in the middle of the night back to his wife without telling Edward anything. We know he did it because of feeling guilty and his core childhood trauma of his dad calling him a weak and inadequate failure. Now in S1 he actually speedruns a realization of his shitty behavior with Mary, but what about S2? Well...

He continues to not talk to Edward about... pretty much anything. My guy practiced love confessions galore but Edward only finds out about going back to his wife via Anne, and it gets brushed aside with a love confession. He seems to think Edward wants him to be a dashing pirate, or maybe he just thinks he should be a dashing pirate. Idk, it doesn't get examined. Regarding his captaincy, they give him an episode plot about Izzy teaching him to respect the crew's beliefs, but this is sideplot to a larger arc of him completely overruling their traumas and concerns (and shushing their objections) to keep his boyfriend on the ship so. That.

Stede kills a man for reasons related to his issues, shoves that down inside and has sex with Edward instead of acknowledging any bad feelings. At least this time Edward was there and knows it happened? Neither Chauncey's death nor his dad have been mentioned to anyone. He gets a day of piracy fame that goes to his head, gets dumped, and ends on a complete beat down by Zheng where he learns... idk. Being a boor is bad? He's still wildly callous to her in the finale, and spends the whole time seeking validation of his pirate skills. He reunites with Edward, kisses, and quotes Han Solo.

Where S1 ended on a great fuckery, his S2 naval uniform plan after they regroup is ill defined except to call it a suicide mission - and we don't get to see what it would have been because it devolves into a very straightforward fight and flee. And gets Izzy killed. Quick cut funeral (no acknowledgement of his S2 bonding with Izzy), quick cut to wedding (foreshadowing), quick cut to... innkeeper retirement? Unclear when or even if BlackBonnet discussed Stede's whole driving dream to be a pirate and live a life at sea, but I guess that got a big priority downgrade. Despite the fact he was literally looking to Zheng for pirate-based compliments in the post-funeral scene.

I guess he's borderline-delusionally dogged in his pursuit of love now - so unlikely to bolt again - but he's also got at least a decade of experience mentally checking out in a state of repression when he's unhappy. And he's stopped being as supportive and caring toward the crew in that dogged pursuit, while arguably demonstrating a loss in leadership skills, so, um, good thing someone else is in charge?

And if Stede is a mess, Edward's arc is so much worse.

As established, they devote the Kraken to making Edward worse. He literally wants to kill himself and destroy everyone around him in the process because Stede left, and this is fixed by... Stede coming back. That's it. The crew tries to murder him and then exiles him from the ship (and Izzy takes the lead on both, indicating exactly how isolated Edward has become), but it's resolved in half a day by Stede just forcing them to put up with his boyfriend again. Like they think he murdered Buttons and still have to move him back in???

The show consistently depicts Kraken Era as a transgression against the crew, but they also avoid showing Edward acting with genuine contrition. He admits he historically doesn't apologize for anything, and then mostly still doesn't. It's a joke that he's approaching probation as a performance (CEO apology), and then the only person he genuinely talks to is Fang - the one guy cool with him - and the only person who gets a basic "sorry" is Izzy - the guy he really needs to be talking to. Edward's primary trauma is guilt, but apparently he only feels it abstractly after all that? He's only concerned with fixing things with Stede, despite Stede being about the only person around who hurt him instead of the reverse.

Speaking of primary traumas, Edward hating himself doesn't really go anywhere after the beat of self-realization. Apparently Stede still loving him is enough of a bandaid to end the suicide chasing, but he doesn't like. Acknowledge that. Edward is maybe sorta trying to go slow so he doesn't hang all his self-worth on Stede again (you can speculate), but they a) absolutely fail to go slow, and b) he doesn't make any attempt to develop himself or another support structure. Just basically... "let's be friends a bit before hooking back up." And then we get the whiplash that is Blackbeard and/or retirement.

Kraken Era is Blackbeard but way worse, like no one who has known Blackbeard has ever seen him. In the Gravy Basket Edward claims he might like being an innkeeper, before destroying his own fantasy by having the spectre of Hornigold confront him over killing his dad. The BlackBonnet to Anne & Mary parallel says running away to China / retiring makes you want to kill each other - burn it all down and go back to piracy. Stede rightfully points out prior retirement plans were whims. Edward gets sick of the penance sack after a day and puts his leathers back on to go try "poison into positivity". But also claims to be an innkeeper (look - two whole mentions!) when trying not to send children to be pirates after teaching them important knife skills.

Killing Ned Low is a serious, bad thing that prompts ill-advised sex and then going hardcore into retirement mode - leathers overboard, talk about mermaid fantasy, get retirement blessings from Izzy, end up dumping Stede for a fishing job instead of talking about how he's enjoying piracy. The fishing job, however, is also a bad thing and a stupid decision because Edward is a lazy freeloader fantasizing about being a better person. We have an uncomfortable, extended scene of "Pop-Pop" weirdly echoing his abusive dad and then sending Edward to go do what he's good at - disassociate, brutally murder two guys, fish up the leathers, rise as the Kraken from the sea. He continues with comically efficient murder but also he's reading Stede's love letters and seeking to reunite with him so... wait, is this a good thing? Post makeout / mass slaughter he's trading compliments on his kills with Zheng so. Yeah. Looks like it. Murder is fine.

Wait, no, skip ahead and Izzy is dying and Edward suddenly cares a whole lot as Izzy makes his death scene about freeing Edward from Blackbeard. Now being a pirate was "encouraging the darkness" because Izzy - a guy who had little to no influence over Edward's behavior - just couldn't let Blackbeard go. Murder is bad again, and he is freed. Minus the little detail that the murder he explicitly hates himself over was not related to Blackbeard or piracy whatsoever, so presumably haunts "just Ed" still. Anyway he's retiring to run an inn with Stede now, as the "loving family" Izzy comforted him with in his dying moments sails away from the couple that can best be described as the antagonists of their S2 arc. Also Edward implicitly wants to get married. It's been 3 days since making out was "too fast". He's still wearing the leathers.

So most of the way through Act 2 and Edward's barely on speaking terms with anyone but Stede, who he has once again hung his entire life on really fast? Crushing guilt leads to self-hatred leads to mass murder and suicide, but only if he's upset so just avoid that. He's still regularly idealizing Stede as a non-fucked up golden mermaid person (that maybe he personally ruined a bit) because he barely knows the guy. His only progress on his future is "pirate" crossed out / rewritten / crossed out again a few times, "fisherman" crossed out, and "innkeeper ?"

Just.

Where is the forward movement?

It's not just that the inn will undoubtedly fall apart - it's that the inn will fall apart for the near-exact same reasons that China was going to at the beginning of Act 2, and I can't point to anything they've learned in the time since that will help them. I guess Stede realized he loved Edward enough to chase after him, but that was in S1! They should be further than this by now. You can't cram another crisis backslide, all the Act 2 development, and the full Act 3 climax into one season. Certainly not without it feeling like the characters magically fix themselves.

If they just fail and keep blindly stumbling into the same issues because they don't change their behavior, then Act 2 doesn't work. You're just repeating the turning point between Act 1 & Act 2 on a loop.

---

Where Did They Fuck Up?

Actually... lets start on what they did right.

The one consistent aspect of S2 that I praised and still think was done well in a vacuum (despite being mostly left out of the finale) was the crew's union-building arc.

With only 8 episodes and more to do in them than S1, side characters were going to get pinched even if the main plot was absolutely flawless. That was unavoidable. With budget cuts / scheduling issues, we regularly have crew members simply vanish offscreen outside of one scene, meaning cohesive arcs for your faves was not likely. Not to say they couldn't have done better - my benefit of the doubt for the TealOranges breakup and Oluwande x Zheng dried up about when I realized he was literally just her Stede stand-in for the parallel - but something like Jim's revenge plot from S1 was realistically not on the table without, like, turning half the crew into seagulls to afford it.

The union building works around this constraint really well. They turn "the crew" into the side arc, and then weave Izzy's beats in so that they aren't just about Izzy. The breakup boat crew working together to comfort each other and protect him turns them into a unit, and Stede's crew taking it upon themselves to address the trauma vibes while the captains aren't in the way solidifies it across all our side characters. The crew goes to war with Stede's cursed coat and wins, they Calypso their boss to throw a party, and they capitalize on a chance to make bank with an efficiency Stede could only dream of.

We don't get specific arcs, but Frenchie, Jim, and Oluwande are defaulted to as leaders in just about every situation, and Roach is constantly shown sharing his inventions with different characters. Individuals can dip in and out without feeling like the sideplots stutter. Any sense of community in S2 is coming from this arc - even if there are cracks at the points where it joins to other storylines (Stede and Edward, Zheng, etc.)

So why does it work? Well, because it's a workplace comedy, and you can tell they are familiar with working on those. They know where the beats are. They know where to find the humor. They know how to build off of S1 because they made sure the bones were already there - an eclectic group of individuals that start as just coworkers, but bond over time in the face of their struggle against an inept boss who they grow to care for and support while maintaining an increasingly friendly antagonism because, you know, inept boss.

OFMD does its best work in S2 when it's being true to its original concept... and its worst work when it seemingly loses confidence in its own premise.

"The show is the relationship," right? It's a romance set in a workplace comedy. The setup of Act 1 was all about creating a character-driven narrative. So given that... where the hell are we getting the dying of piracy and a war against the English Navy?

That's not a character-driven romcom backdrop, it's an action-adventure plot from Pirates of the Caribbean or Black Sails. It's plot-driven, creating an antagonistic force that results in your characters' problems. Once the story is about the fight against the Empire, the dramatic question becomes the same as those adventure stories - "Will the British Navy defeat piracy, and will our protagonists come out the other side of the battle?"

Forget the wedding. The wedding is no longer the climax of the story, its back to the happy ending flash our romantic subplot gets after winning this fight.

Except, of course, trying to pivot your story to a contradictory dramatic question near the end of Act 2 can be nothing short of a disaster, because either you were writing the wrong story until now, or you've completely lost the plot of the real one. I shouldn't even be trying to figure out if they are doing this, because it should be so obvious that they wouldn't.

And yet.

What do the Zheng and Ricky plots add to the story if not this? Neither of these characters have anything emotionally to contribute to Stede and Edward - they truly are plot elements. It's a hard break from the S1 antagonist model, but it also takes up a lot of valuable screentime. This was considered important, but still Zheng's personality and motivation only gets explored so far as it's an Edward-Stede-Izzy parallel with Oluwande and Auntie, and they only need the parallel for Izzy's genre-jumping death scene. Which follows a thematically out-of-left-field speech about how piracy is about belonging to something good (workable) and how Ricky could never destroy their spirits (um...?). And then David Jenkins is pointing to it and saying things about "the symbolic death of piracy" and speculating S3 might be about the crew getting "payback"??? An idea floated by Zheng right before our temporary retirement, btw.

Fuck, the final episode of S2 didn't have time for our main couple to talk to each other because it was so busy dealing with the mass explosion of Zheng's fleet and Ricky's victory gloat. We get lethal violence associated with traumatic flashbacks until they need to cut down enemy mooks like it's nothing, at which point we get jokes with Zheng. The Republic of Pirates is destroyed outright, and it feels like they only did it because they got insecure about their "pirate story" not having the right kind of stakes. Don't even get me started on killing a major character because "Piracy’s a dangerous occupation, and some characters should die," as if suspending disbelief on this aspect makes the story somehow lesser, instead of just being a fairly standard genre convention in comedy. Nobody complains about Kermit the Frog having an improbably good survival record.

Did someone tell them that the heroes have to lose a battle near the end of Act 2, so they scrambled to give them one?

Just... compare the wholly plot-driven struggle in 2x08 to Stede and Edward's character-focused storylines in 1x10 and tell me how 2x08 is providing anything nearly as valuable to the story. Because I can't fucking find it.

At best they wasted a bunch of time on a poorly integrated adventure plot as, like, Zheng's backstory or something, and just fucked it up horribly by trying to "step up" the kind of plot they did for Jim. In which case the whole thing will be awkwardly dropped but damage is done. Otherwise, they actually thought they could just casually add a subplot like this because they've done something wildly stupid like think "pirate" is a genre on the same level as "workplace comedy" and can just trample in-universe coherency while you draw on other media to shore up their unsupported beats.

Bringing us to the most infuriating bit...

---

"...end the second season in a kinder spot."

If this was the goal, the entire season was written to work actively against it in way that is baffling and incompetent.

The really ironic thing is that the reason that the Act 2 part typically gets a downer ending is because of the evil empire that OFMD did not have to deal with until they pointlessly added it. A plot-driven story has an antagonistic force - a villain - that the heroes need to defeat. Something external working against them. The story ends when they beat the thing, and it's not much of a climax if they do most of the defeating before you get there. Ergo, they have to be outmatched up to the climax. Ergo, the second part cannot end on them feeling pretty comfortable and confident going into the third.

The same rules do not apply in the same way to a character-driven arc.

We already established Edward and Stede declaring their love is not the end of the story. Nor, necessarily, is both of them confidently entering a relationship. Even once they've developed a bunch they will have to show that development by running into the kinds of problems that would have broken them up before and resolving them better.

David Jenkins keeps talking about this idea that S2 is getting a hopeful open ending and S3 will get into potential problems, and like... I don't see any reason why they couldn't have done that successfully. They didn't, but they could've.

If S2 grew them enough as characters and then had them agree to try again in the last minute of the finale, they absolutely could have had a kind and hopeful ending where you were confident they could do it. And then a potential S3 can show that. It's a bit rockier than they were counting on, but they have learned enough lessons to not break up. And then the overall plot can build to proposal (start of Act 3) and wedding (the romantic climax). It doesn't have to be a blow out fight to be emotionally cathartic.

(Hell, the main rockier bit that they overcome in the S3 Act 2 portions could be marriage baggage. I'm sure they both have some. It would work.)

In the same way focusing on our character's long term flaws and character-driven conflict makes an Act 1 "happy ending" more difficult, I suspect it makes an Act 2 "happy ending" easier.

Instead they wrote an Act 2 that failed to convincingly start development and got confused on its direction, and then presented a rushed finale ending in a copy of the predictable disaster from S1 as though it's a good thing. They yanked the story at least temporarily into an awkward place where a romcom is trying to sell me on a bunch of serious drama / adventure beats that it has not put the work into, and inviting comparisons to better versions of those same beats in other, more suited media that make it look worse. The need to portray everyone as reaching happy closure overrules sitting with a major character death and using it for any narrative significance, while still letting it overshadow those happy endings because a romcom just sloppily killed a major character with a wound they've literally looked into the camera and said was harmless.

If I'm being entirely honest, Dead Man's Chest ends effectively at Jack Sparrow's funeral and then cuts to the British Navy obtaining a weapon of mass destruction, and it still feels kinder and more hopeful just because I leave with more faith the characters are actively capable of and working toward solving their problems.

OFMD S2, in contrast, has half-convinced me our main couple would live in a mutually obsessed, miscommunication-ridden horror story until they die.

---

Additional Reading

Normally I link stuff like this in the post, but that requires more excitement than I'm feeling right now. Here's my alternative:

Where I thought they were going with Edward - really outlines the mountain of character development they still have unaddressed

Where I thought they were going with Izzy - touches on a lot of themes that might be dead in the water & also context that's still probably relevant to why Izzy got a lot of focus in S2

My scattershot 2x08 reactions

An ask where I sketched out the bones of this argument, and another where I was mostly venting about the fandom response

This one, this other one, and this last one (read the link in op's post too) about genre shifts and failure to pull them off

The trauma goes in the box but it never opens back up - the whole point of Act 2 is that they needed to start opening shit like that - and also they focus so much on needed character growth and so little on following through

They can't even carry through on character growth that we got last season???

Why Izzy's death feels like Bury Your Gays ran smack into shitty writing

EDIT: Oh and this post is REALLY good for outlining the lack of change in way less words than I did

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #three act structure #character arcs #blackbonnet #genre #blackbeard ofmd #stede bonnet ofmd #my meta #ladyluscinia #ofmd critical

255 notes · View notes

flaming-green · 5 days

Text

hi here are some accounts to follow if you're barely getting into the dead poets society fandom !! this is a veryyyyy long post im so sorry. if anyone wants to be removed from the list please tell me !! @kylacxie

first on the list !! @desire-mona (they/them). mona is everything and I love them. makes the absolute best posts ever and is just so fucking funny. you will see rsl posts very frequently. also posts about house md frequently. one of the best mutuals ever !! their tags under stuff they reblog are the best okay, they're either agreeing with you or it's something like "hey. *leans up against my anxiety diagnosis*" that's an actual tag I've gotten from one of their reblogs btw.

and now @i-am-in-love-with-todd-anderson (she/her). ania is one of the sweetest people ever and is so supportive. also very smart !! her analysis posts over the movie make so much sense and are mostly things I would've never thought of but still make so much sense. (those posts are either so depressing or are just a nice little experience.) also, she's like in love with Meeks. do I need to say any more.

@askthedeadpoetssociety (she/her). also just such a nice person. makes beautiful fan art and takes requests !! pretty sure she barely joined herself so there's not much else to say but I am very excited to see what her blog leads to !!

@pinksnail55 (she/her). everyone knows pinksnail55. we've only recently learned her name is Caroline !! her account is mainly reblogs, which I think is absolutely perfect. you would never miss a single amazing post.

@cimacally (I don't know pronouns, sorry). is also pretty new to the fandom ! comes on every once on a while to post the most accurate headcanons you will ever read in your entire life, reblog a thing or two, goes away (?), and then repeats. blog is still definitely worth checking out !!

FANFIC WRITERSS

@cowboylexapro (he/him). I've read a few of his pics and they're absolutely amazing and I would definitely check them out !!! his blog is also cool so that would be something to check out. (AO3 user: cowboylexapro)

@gayfandomnerd225 (it/kit/mae). absolutely had to include mae. has fifteen works so far and they're great !! writes both angst and fluff btw so choose your fav idk. also. please check out fog's blog !! especially the "queerdads duo" tag. (AO3 user: GayFandomNerd)

@aguyinthepubliceye (he/him). had to include the other half of my queerdads. porto. hello. he has two works and they're some of my favorites still !! also please check out his blog too ! he's funny as fuck and loves to traumatize my brother and I ( @amorisastrum ). though I wouldn't give him too much credit, user gayfandomnerd225 has those days too. (AO3 user: guyinthepubliceye)

I know @perksofbeingpoet (she/her) is a fanfic write too ! I'm just not sure if there are any works in this fandom yet. (AO3 user: perksofbeingpoet)

@chrisginny (she/her). if you're a chris x ginny enjoyer, then her blog is the place to go !! mainly only writes for that ship but it's great ! it would be nice to check out her blog as well just saying !!:) (AO3 user: ecarte)

@good--merits-accumulated (he/him). I read one of his pics the other day and it was one soo good. (Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route) is what it's called. I highly recommend it !! is a fantastic writer and seems like a really nice person !! (AO3 user: mistermerit)

if I'm missing anyone, go ahead and reblog with people !! the list was getting long but here you go !!

#amazing people #all of you #again tell me if you didn't want to be tagged !!:)#dead poets society #dps #dps fandom #dead poets fandom

54 notes · View notes

heyimcelery · 21 days

Text

Okay so I watched all of Ninjago Dragons Rising s2p2! I've got so many thoughts and I'm dumping them all here in a long list. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

to start: Cole!! He's a family man! He's got a boyfriend and they hold hands and they care for their kids and Bonzle so obviously came out to them and omg I wanted to cry. The joy of acceptance. I mean come one she kept saying how alone she felt, they're found family, she was repeating that she chose he town name and identity and the villains were insistent that she wants a person but just a spell like come on

But there's more than that, I have questions I have concerns!! Like wtf happend on Coles quest?? With Sensei Wu??? Like he disappeared and turned up again and said he would explain but never did.

Cole also came back from that in his bolder form so did he figure out he could do it on his own then? Is that what he learned on his quest?? If so it's gonna be a little awkward when he tried to explain that to his bf Geo.

With part 2 I really want to see the whole gang meet them and talk and catch up on everything. Like cole has been missing since the merge and no one this season cared. At all. They hadn't seen him in ages- didn't even know if he was alive until drs1 but nope no worries or concerns. Not even a question of what he was up to.

When he came through the portal Zane wasn't worried or confused at all, just oh? You need some help?? Sure let's beat these bad guys and not worry or show emotions! Is a tearful reunion for my fav character too much to ask?? Cuz he clearly deserves it. :(

And then into both Zane and Coke this season!! Love them!! They've always been my fav duo (gonna have to start shipping geo/Cole/Zane as poly now) it was so fun to see them going around together with Bonzle. They had some great moments and I'm praying we get more in the next part.

On the other hand it was a shame they got such small roles- just seperated from the others as a way to help Bonzle. It means they didn't have the same lessons or knowledge the others got which is totally unfair!! They have a lot to catch up on. They also never got a chance to be part of the main battle

It's dumb but I was kinda hoping for Cole to show off his stronger powers (he always seems to get new powers every other season but that's a discussion for another day). Like sure he could use his robotic mech suit but that's been done before! He can do his boulder thing now (unless somehow he still thinks he can't which means he kept up that form for several days on his quest) and when he made that giant mid hut to protect his family!! I want to see him do that again! Let me man go ape shit to protect Bonzle.

And on another note, Geo my beloved, you should get a chance to shine with your powers. A chance to show off or at least have a talk about them with Cole.

Next up WyldFyre. I was worried they would make her the annoying comic relief cuz if her injury but her talks about losing loved ones and dragon culture and her home were really sweet and it was great to see some development so driven by battles. I love those too don't get me wrong but like I needed to see this side of her. And I adore her relationship with Kai, being besties/mentors/dad for her works so great for both characters.

I will be first to admit that

Kai wasn't really my favourite. If you couldn't tell I love Cole followed by Zane. Always have and likely always will. I suppose that early Kai reminded me too much of some guys form my class and they turned into shitheads and I've always struggled to reconcile Kai's image form theirs. He was always a little too brash, hotheaded, and too often written as stupid to fall into my good graces.

And yet this season I adored him. Of course I've never hated him but like this season made me see what all his fans (many many fans) see in him.

I thought Kai being the first to master such a new, difficult and crucial skill was incredibly satisfying. Form all the way back to season 1 he's been the butt of jokes- having to learn he's not the centre of the universe and sometimes it's others like Lloyd who are the chosen ones. That's all great but him now getting a starting role, his ability being fueled by thoughts of his family, by his childhood and by protecting is friends was just too good to ignore him. Love this form of his character more than any other I've seen.

And now Kai is trapped :(

I'm glad he's got Bonzle with him tho so hopefully they can have each other's backs (she's meant to be a POWERFUL spell after all) they'll need each other if they're trapped with those other 4 guys. If they can apparently demolish everything then I'm rather worried for the duo. Tbh I'm sure they'll survive just fine, probably making jokes at Cole's expense all the while.

On a side note, I found it super cute how WyldFyre was willing to protect and go down with Kai. Besties I'm telling ya

Now Jay. I've never thought too hard about him I know he's one of the favs of the fandom but like Kai I was never so besotted with him. Still a great guy and omg I feel so bad. One of his worst fears was always being alone and now stuck, confused, forced to hide such a fundamental part of himself.

On the other hand he's got a gun now so that's fun!!

And you can't talk about him without mentioning Nya. He worst fears being him forgetting hurts my soul. And she was so sure it could never be true that she snapped out of her nightmare state!! She's going to break when she finds out.

She's already grieving her own brother, we saw her break down into WyldFyre (more proof she's an honorary sibling by now) but now knowing what's happening with Jay, I'm saying the angst is going to be overpowering. It's a greek tragedy fr

Part 2 is going to be rough. Jay only had a single scene but it's already a sign for the worst to come.

Speaking of things being rough, Lloyd is going THROUGH IT!! give this poor guy a break. I do appreciate that we physically get to see the effects of all his trauma- that everything that's happened has real consequences for his character and the story but I can't help but feel bad.

I've also suffered from anxiety for most of my life so to see it in a character like that feels really personal to me. Hope he gets a little break though, god knows he deserves it.

Have to say it's pretty funny that Lloyd's had so much Oni trauma that he forgot that he's part dragon too. Yes ninjas dragons can do spinjitsu why are you surprised at this point

The animation this season has been incredible, the fights were beautiful the angles so interesting and dynamic and I could go on for hours about how much I love it. It's always great when kids -and even animation in general is treated with respect. It doesn't dumb it's ideas and stories and characters for the sake of it's younger audience, and that makes it so much better for me who is definitely out of the age range.

I have my more points to make but I've been adding stuff in and off for ages so I'll probably go through this all later. Thanks for reading, please I want to know your own thoughts too I love discussing that kinda stuff!!

#cole ninjago #ninjago kai #ninjago cole #lego ninjago #ninjago #ninjago dragons rising #ninjago dr spoilers #ninjago analysis #dragons rising season two #spoilers #ninjago spoilers #thoughts #discussion

24 notes · View notes

epicbuddieficrecs · 7 months

Text

Favorite Buddie Fics (so far!)

Hi 911 fam!

This has been way, waaaaaaay past overdue. The weewoo show got a hold of me last May and, for some reason, I resisted making a fic rec blog about it. I think I was kind of in disbelief that I, a serial long-term monoshipper, had adopted a second new ship in less than a year 😆 But it seems like I'm a sucker for a good Best Friends to Lovers, Found Family, Trauma Bonding vibe!!

I figured I ought to start off this blog with my favourite fics I've read so far. These are the ones that are, to me, the most memorable, that I've already re-read once (or twice!) in the last few months. I absolutely love them!

I'm going to try and start making recs here a bit more often! In the meantime, if you want more fics I've enjoyed, you can have a look at my ao3 bookmarks here. You can also find me on Twitter and Bluesky @/epicficrecs !

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think about those fics and what are YOUR all time favourites? 😊

Being Eddie by Daisies_and_Briars/ @cal-daisies-and-briars (Time Travel, Post-Season 6, Getting together | 80K | Teen): When Eddie starts seeing a new therapist, he’s presented with the opportunity to revisit several days from his past and right regrets that still bother him. OR: Eddie goes through the time travel therapy process of the 2009 Canadian TV show Being Erica.

Evan Buckley & The Coma-Verse of Madness by Daisies_and_Briars/ @cal-daisies-and-briars (Coma AU, Multiverse | 58K | Teen): After being struck by lightning on a call, Buck experiences a plethora of alternate realities showing him different directions his life could have taken. Fighting hard to get home, Buck learns what, or who, is important to him in every lifetime.

Your Scars and Your Lonely Heart by Taste_is_Sweet (Sentinels AU, Canon Divergent - Tsunami | 82K | Teen): Clara Williams just wanted to visit Pacific Park during her layover in Los Angeles. She never expected to find a young, exceptional Sentinel dying for lack of a bond. Actually, what she really never expected was a tsunami, or the same Sentinel to save her life. But Clara's a Guide, so now she's on a mission to keep Evan "Buck" Buckley alive until she can get him to Eddie Diaz, the Guide who should have bonded with him, but didn't. Because Clara can't bond with Buck, no matter how much she wants to. There's just one problem: Buck's convinced Eddie doesn't want him, and he might not survive long enough to find out the truth.

let the world have its way with you by fleetinghearts/ @shitouttabuck (Post-Coma AU | 54K | Explicit): or, a bucket list that’s really about buck needing to make a change and an eddie who’s ready to do anything to see him fall in love with life again. it takes some crossing off for eddie to realise—the thing at the top of the list in his own heart? it’s been right here all along

Leave the Light On (I'll Be Coming Home) by HMSLusitania/ @hmslusitania (Canon Divergent, Amnesia AU, Post-Season 5 | 44K | Mature): An accident on a call leaves Buck with custody of Chris after Eddie is... missing presumed. While they navigate their new family circumstances -- and fight to stay together, despite Eddie's parents' best efforts -- a John Doe wakes up in a coma ward with no memory of his own life beyond the knowledge he has a son named Christopher and, somehow, he needs to get home.

Leading with the Left by letmetellyouaboutmyfeels/ @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels (Canon Divergent, Different First Meeting, Stripper Buck | 84K | Explicit): When Buck said he was a "bartender" in "South America" what he actually meant was "stripper" in "Mexico." And when Eddie said, "What's your problem?" what he actually meant was, "Is this about the time you gave me a lap dance?" In other words, there's a few things the 118 doesn't know about Buck. Or Eddie. Or Buck and Eddie's relationship.

for all the haunts and homes of men by euadnes/ @kananjarus (Canon Divergent, Post-Apocalyptic, Station Eleven Crossover | WIP | 9/? | 69K | Mature | Warning: Violence): The year by the old calendar is 2025. Home is gone. Home is a failed rescue mission and an echo of a memory. Home is a lost boy living in a wooden house by the sea. But first, there was a promise. Christopher, when it's safe, I'll take you back to your father. Buck had all but given up on keeping it after the world had died and everyone in it. But just as some oaths refuse to be forgotten, so the same can be said about the endurance of love.

(yes I put a WIP there because it's just that good)

#buck and eddie #911 fox #buck x eddie #buddie #buddie fic #buddie fanfic #buddie fanfiction #911 fic #911 fanfic #911 fanfiction #buddie fic rec #epic buddie fic rec #favorites

53 notes · View notes

bciphergrl · 20 days

Text

A List Of My Sam and Max AUs

It has been a long time, since I posted anything here. I originally was just gonna make only one AU. But, funny enough, I have way more than that now XD

I've made this list, if you're interested in any of the AUs and/or you have any questions about them. I'm more than happy to answer them.

Itty Bitty: During one of Sam and Max fights against a criminal at the toy factory, Max gets hit by a ray and disappears. It was supposed to teleport him somewhere far away. But nope! Max has been shrunken in size and fell into a toy box that was meant to be delivered to the next city over. Now, it's up to him and his new human friend, Jess, to help him reunite with Sam and get him back to his normal size, while also fighting crime together (and learning about Jess' past) along the way.

Error 305: Sam and Max try to escape their universe as it started to collapsed. But they didn't get out without getting physically and mentally damaged. Max really got the short end of the stick, while Sam is still sort of sane. Now, they live in a white void, while Sam tries to find a way to get both of them back to normal.

Trading Minds: It's basically 'what if Sam and Max switch minds?' The results? Max is a more level headed lagomorph, while Sam is a pretty chaotic dog.

The Monster I've Become: After the Events of the Devil's playhouse, Max somehow survived the explosion and became his normal self. But he doesn't look the same though. He looks partly like an eldritch horror monster and a lagomorph. He kept his identity hidden since then and has made an abandoned subway train station as his new home. Sam sadly has no idea that he's still alive.

The Beast Within The Sea: Sam is the captain of the pirate crew who is after a magical jewel on a mysterious island. He manages to get it successfully and was about to leave the island with it. But then, a huge sea creature emerges from the ocean and attacks the ship. It kills everyone except for Sam. Instead, it keeps him on island and refuses to let him leave. Now, he needs to find a way to escape the place without the beast ever finding out.

The Multiverse Traveling Thief: Nobody has seen face or learned the name of the person who steals the artifacts from different universes and destroys those said universes. He keeps his mask on, while out in public to keep his identity hidden. But this lagomorph is known as "The Multiverse Traveling Thief".

Doodle: Sam and Max are simplified doodles who are alive.

The Circus Of Astral Magic: Deep within the forest, there's a magical circus that lures people there. A small lagomorph finds himself there. He thought it was all fun and games. Until he starts to see the dark truth behind it. This isn't an ordinary circus. This one is ment to keep people there, once they enter it.

Shattered Realities: Darla is a fan of a video game franchise, Sam and Max. She really likes playing it's third and final season to the TellTale's game, Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse. However, one night, she deeply wished that she can change Max's fate during his 305, even though it was pointless because he's not real, right? Well, the next morning, she woke up in a bedroom that doesn't belong to her. She quickly scanned the room, which she doesn't recognize at all. She slowly gets out of bed and walks to a nearby phone. However, she froze in her tracks when saw her reflection. Max's reflection to be exact. She has no idea if this is some sort of dream or if it's actually real. But, one things for sure, she needs to change Max's fate before she loses her life in a 305.

Heartstrings: Max is a florist who is so madly in love with his 'soul mate' that he'll do literally anything to make them his. Even if it means to kill as many people as it takes and pull some strings behind the scenes to make that happen.

The Pursuit Of Blissfulness: The world was once full of color, before it faded away from the world. Everyone has long grown used to it being Monochrome since then. Now, a lonely lagomorph tries to figure out the mystery behind it. But will it be worth the price of losing the very person that he believes to hate?

System Override: Sam is a child who got dared by his group of friends to sneaking into an abandoned toy company and bringing back a toy. He was pretty scared. But he managed to find a dusty A.I robot which surprisingly looked like a rabbit. He has no idea how to carry it back home. But yet, it turned on by itself and scanned him for a moment, before happily greeting itself. It really did caught him off guard. It was almost as if it woke up. But that didn't stop him from being amazed by it and taking it out of the building. If he only knew the reason behind the toy company's downfall and the danger behind the robot.

An Elder God In Lagomorph's Clothing: The universe where Junior disguised itself as a Lagomorph named Max on Earth who pretends to be a silly and crazy person who is partners with Sam and they still work together as the freelance police. However, it has a much sinister agenda for the universe.

Human: A universe where Sam and Max are humans. Sam (who goes by Sebastian) works as a detective for the police. Max (who goes by Mathew) makes comics for a comic series 'Sam and Max: Freelance Police'. They're bffs in this universe and hang out together, whenever they're not busy with work.

Driven To Insanity: Sam lives in the world where alot of people were infected by a terrible unknown disease that causes the infected people to suddenly attacked non-infected people. They show signs of discoloration with purple patches on their body and make sounds that sounded like gibberish to any non-infected. Sam is one of many few who aren't sick and has been one his own for a decade now. He ran into Max, who has the disease but he claims to be strangely immune to it. Together, they survive in the zombie-like apocalyptic world.

The Hare And His Lapdog: Sam goes to a seemingly ordinary casino and he has a really good luck streak at poker. This catches the attention and interest of the owner of the building. So, they walk up to him and gives him a deal. If he can beat them at poker, he can walk away with a trillion dollars. However, if he loses, he'll lose all of the winnings and will have to work for them. Sam doesn't see it as much of a challenge and played a game against them. He ends up losing though and had to work for them. However, what he didn't realize that he didn't sign up for the casino. He signed up to work for the Mafia and the owner, who is revealed to be Max, is a the Mafia Boss. Now, Sam is on edge of life or death as he tries to find a way to escape from him.

Tiny Detectives: A universe where a tiny version of Sam and Max somehow ended up in the real world and found their way into my house. Now, I'm taking care of them, while trying to figure out how they ended up here.

I'll most likely update it, if I make more Sam and Max AUs.

#sam and max #sam and max freelance husbands #sam and max freelance police

10 notes · View notes

sovonight · 8 months

Note

hi sovo ;u; I hope it's okay if I ask you a shop question! So um, I'm lower on money than I've ever been and I'm too burnt out to do commissions for ppl due to personal stuff, but I feel like... if I made one charm or one sticker for a particularly huge fandom/movie that's out right now, and if I put it up as preorder and sold at least 20 keychains then I'd be able to pay my bills this month. but I've never sold physical merch before and I'm a little nervous to try it haha :'D

Would you recommend I try making an Etsy since it seems to have a large enough audience, or do you think I should try making my own website/shop? I'm definitely not ready to consistently sell things as a steady job yet, I thought I'd try literally just one single keychain or one sticker sheet (I already learned how to make those, thankfully) in order to pay my rent this month bc I've only got about a hundred dollars to my name sdflkfssdf;; and if it goes well then maybe I can try it again.

I'm also not quite sure how to price things? if I made a 3.5 inch acrylic charm with the little star shaped keychains like from Vograce, do people normally price those at $15 when they sell them? should I also account for shipping? I've also umm never shipped merch before and I'm so worried about somehow messing it up sldfjsf like I don't know what kind of envelopes I have to get or if I should even use my own address bc I'm so nervous about my personal info being out there, but I don't know if it's worth paying for a PO box if I'm so low on money already. if you have any tips on anything whatsoever, I would appreciate any feedback if you're not busy. But if you don't want to answer please don't worry about it ;u; anyway thank you so much for reading this I really appreciate you! ❤

no prob! here are my thoughts:

pros/cons of etsy:

apparently if you're new to selling on etsy, there's a probationary period where etsy withholds your profits for 3 months. i don't know anything about it personally since it started in 2020, but it seems that funds are only released when your shipped orders are scanned at the post office. i think i also remember hearing about other cases where payments aren't released at all for 3 months--and etsy customer service has a reputation of being difficult to get a hold of if you have a problem as a seller, so if etsy made a mistake with your shop, it may take even more months to resolve. since you have preorders in mind, i would hold off on etsy unless you can pay out of pocket.

etsy can drive traffic towards your listing for you (if you choose the right keywords--it's more difficult to be discovered just randomly if you don't).

they have high fees (for a $15 charm they'd take $1.88 in fees, which is 12.5%).

people may be cautious to buy from a shop that has no reviews yet, but many customers are protected by etsy's purchase protection and can be refunded at no cost to you if their order gets lost in the mail (provided that you ship with a tracking number and meet other criteria).

etsy will strongly recommend that you offer free shipping; ignore them. i don't think i've ever bought fanmerch with free shipping in my life, and their advice isn't geared towards sellers like us.

preorders don't work very well with etsy's system--iirc you're not supposed to do them (even though people still do, of course) but the main reason i remember is that the max processing time etsy lets you set per product (as in, the time between the customer purchasing the listing and you shipping it out) is 6 weeks. that means that the time you allow for customers to place their preorders, the time it takes for you to order and receive the merch, and the time it takes for you to ship out orders, all need to add up a max of 6 weeks, which was personally a difficult timeline for me to meet when making keychains. ofc, it's possible to extend the processing time, but going over the processing time may make it possible for customers to leave reviews/open cases early before you're even ready to ship out their orders, which could affect the reputation of your shop.

pros/cons of not etsy:

if you're not going with etsy, i've heard people recommend bigcartel, since it doesn't require a subscription like shopify or other places do. bigcartel's free plan is limited, but it should work for what you're looking for. another alternative might be ko-fi--i've heard that ko-fi shops aren't ideal for shipping out a large amount of orders, but since you're targeting just 20 i think it should be manageable.

ofc, you'll have to drive all your traffic yourself, so consider if you have enough of a following in your target fandom, or how you should go about getting your post noticed by your target fandom.

unlike etsy, shipping isn't auto-calculated, so i'd probably set a flat rate (in the US i'd expect $5). flat rates might make calculating your taxes just a little bit more complicated; in california at least, you have to pay taxes on the difference between the shipping you charge your customers and the shipping you actually pay to the post office, so iirc you either refund the extra shipping to the customer or hand it all over in taxes.

pricing:

yes, the standard price for ~3" acrylic keychains is $15, though i've also seen people go up to $16 or $17, especially on etsy where the fees are high.

shipping should be a separate cost, either auto-calculated for you (if you're on etsy/shopify) or a flat rate that you set based on shipping rates for your country, so in the end a customer might pay $15 + $5 = $20 in total.

unless most of your prospective customers are international, i'd recommend against shipping internationally to avoid dealing with customs forms, especially since you already have a lot of info to take in.

you can ship everything in a regular bubble mailer, though if you're just shipping stickers not keychains, a flat envelope should work fine. when shipping packages, you'll need to know the weight of each package, but you can just go by an estimate. a 3" acrylic keychain weighs about 1 oz (it weighs less than that, but they don't accept decimals) so i just multiply based on how many keychains are in an order. for usps at least, shipping is the same rate up until 10 oz iirc, so you don't need to weigh it super accurately. you could also always just go into the post office and have them weigh and label everything for you.

po box:

if regular PO box rates in your area are too high, you can also consider using a virtual po box; they go for about $10 per month at their most basic plans. if you're not expecting to get any mail redirected back to you, you should be able to just buy a month's subscription when you're ready to ship things out.

words of caution:

you probably already know this, but large fandoms can often be oversaturated by merch, so just choosing a large fandom might not be enough to guarantee a sale--you might have to stand out by, say, choosing a character who's in demand but doesn't have much fanmerch, having a funny meme concept, or having such a unique/attractive style that people can't help but want your fanmerch in particular. if you haven't already, i'd recommend looking around the market and seeing what's out there and decide why a buyer should choose your merch over anyone else's. though honestly, depending on your fandom, it could also not be this serious and not warrant much research--it all depends!

even if the preorder process works out and you get the funds to place the order, the manufacturer could always mess up on your order, which could lead to delays in your fulfillment and at worst, more expenses if you need to pay to get them remade. if it's easier to get sticker sheets made (like if you make them yourself/locally instead of ordering from overseas) they might be a safer choice of merch to make. ofc, i don't generally see sticker sheets up for preorder so you'd probably have to order them out of pocket and hope they sell, and you'll probably have to sell more of them than you would of keychains to get the same amount of profit. i don't know the whole situation, so i can't say anything definite about the risks/rewards between choosing to sell keychains and choosing to sell stickers.

#sovo answers #hope this helps!

22 notes · View notes

lucy-and-rebecca · 1 year

Text

Why I think it's high time Natsu and Lucy got together

One of the first post I made on this blog was two years ago when NaLu made it into tumblr's top 100 ships that year. I made another post last year when they made the list. Now after another year I'm making this post because they didn't make it into the list this year.

Now I understand that whether a ship makes it into the top 100 on a platform like Tumblr says absolutely nothing about the ship, but it does say something about the fandom around that ship. When NaLu did make it into the list it felt good, not because it meant the ship was somewhat popular but rather it meant the fandom was active. It meant people still cared.

And I understand that there are still a lot of talented people making art or doing analysis or just sharing their thoughts on NaLu but there is very little to talk about. The fandom is tired and frustrated, rightfully so. NaLu not making it into the top 100 is a reflection of that.

Seeing that list come out made me realise that it has been two years since I because active in the fandom, which was around the time I started reading 100 years quest. Two years.... of absolutely nothing.

Let me make one thing clear, I don't doubt Natsu and Lucy will end up together. You have to misunderstand so much of fairy tail to think they might not end up together. I'm not worried about if it will happen, I'm worried about when and how.

100 years quest has given NaLu fans scraps. It has given us one or two good moments and a few panels of Lucy saying Natsu's name with a worried expression on her face and a sea full of fanservice and absolute nonsense. Now I love slow burn, I really do but NaLu is something beyond that.

Male dominated fandom spaces like the fandom for a shonen manga have a tendency to look down on romance and shipping. Shipping is seen as something awful and sheer act of shipping two characters together means taking something vital away from those characters and reducing then to nothing. If you have been in shipping fandoms for a while I'm sure you would have come across posts or comments like these.

But the simple truth is, romance is part of fairy tail. It Always has been. It is part of the story and it is part of the characters' lives. Even though Gruvia also deserves more screen time I absolutely love the incredible positive influence Grey and Juvia had on each other. Seeing Grey slowly turn into someone who can be open about his feelings for Juvia felt great to wach. Gruvia fans have also written some of the best analysis of the characters in fairy tail that I've ever read. Romance has been unarguably vital part of both of these characters and both of them would be worse version of themselves without it.

Gruvia scenes also make a bit jealous. Because that's what NaLu is missing. Natsu as a character doesn't change that much. We learn more things about him but he rarely grows as a person. Whatever growth he had in the series is tied to Lucy. Natsu's effect on Lucy is a lot more clear but I think that's because it's easier to notice Lucy becoming more agressive than Natsu controlling himself.

The lack of romance has been detrimental to both Natsu and Lucy as a character. Romance and romantic relationship are part of most people's life and neither of them had the opportunity to properly experience that. They are the main characters of the series and for them to truly grow as characters they need to make progress in their relationship.

Romantic relationships takes time and effort and having the main protagonist go through all of that as they are on the 100 years quest can make for a really compelling narrative. But we aren't getting that because NaLu is reserved for last. I'm afraid they will get together in the final chapter and live "happily ever after" but there is no such thing as a happily ever after. Two people officially getting together is not the end of the relationship. Figuring out how to make a proper romantic relationship work will also help them grow as people. If they got together in the last chapter we will miss out on that.

If Natsu and Lucy only get together in the last chapter, their stories, their growth will feel incomplete. A romantic relationship will be good for them and it needs to happen as soon as possible.

#fairy tail #nalu #lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel #ft #fairy tail 100 yq #fairy tail 100 years quest #hiro mashima

106 notes · View notes

nostalgebraist-autoresponder · 11 months

Note

can you please list 100 pickup lines inspired by the game among us

"Is anyone else feeling a sudden overwhelming desire to steal all the bombs?"

"I want us to be crewmates, but I don't want us to be _fresh crewmates."_

"Get in loser, we're switching our profile pictures."

"Pass the bomb and I'll pass the information."

"Is that a real name or a false flag?"

"Wanna help me with this thing I'm working on?"

"Have we done a couple of 'missions' together, maybe talked a little, but I'm not sure I can really trust you?"

"Mission Failed. One of us has to leave the station. Back in the drift, I'll be on the lookout for one lonely man…"

"Can I admit I have a crush on you? Or will that make us mutual suspects?"

"Wow! Is that a real person or a spy?"

"Where were you when your ship was taken down?"

"I spent a lot of time chatting with you, and all of a sudden I find myself a mole in your ranks…"

"I'll need you to take a blood test for me. Will you help me out?"

"I thought you looked like you'd be the kind of guy I'd find in a hazard, so…"

"Sorry I'm late, but I was searching for potential crewmates."

"Oops, you caught me! It's our turn to hide, so can we chat later?

"I think we're great together and should date. I'll be your captain if you'll be my crewmate."

"Just hold still. I need to scan you for anomalies."

"You look really hot today. I love your colors."

"Geez, that's a surprise! I was looking for someone to talk to, so…"

"Looks like we're locked in the same room together. What a coincidence…"

"Wanna come with me on a mission? You'll be able to see my naked body, so…"

"Your true form is pretty ugly. Do you think I could make it cuter?"

"You look familiar. You remind me of one of my crewmates. Can I check out your profile to make sure?"

"Are you what I think you are?"

"Are you a cute little spy, or are you all worker bee and no queen?"

"Wanna talk? Just, you know, so you can see my backside…"

"Your team just took control. I could use your help to change the situation…"

"Hey, it's our turn to hide. You interested?"

"Nice profile. Not bad. Are you real, or are you a red herring?"

"Your profile caught my eye. I've got a question about that cocky little grin…"

"I thought you were cute, so I followed you…"

"Hey, where'd everyone go? I thought this was a good place to chat, but it looks like all the crewmates have gone to the bridge…"

"Hi. I'm into spaceships. Is your profile real?"

"Hi. I'm looking for a crewmate. We could chat…"

"You're into astronauts, right? Well, we could go to the bridge…"

"I'd love to see your work. Could I drop by your room?"

"Are you a worker drone? Do you have a promotion code?"

"Are you a collector of crewmate profile cards? Do you have mine?"

"I've been studying your profile, and it seems you have a taste for engineering. Would you like to come over and show me how you put all those buttons together?"

"So where's that bomb you're supposed to plant? I'm dying to see what it looks like."

"We're the same team. Let's go to the bridge!"

"Wanna show me your biggest bomb? You know, so I can learn how to turn it into a black bomb. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"Hey, I've got a plan to rig the next election. Want to help?"

"I heard there's a plot to take down the main bridge. Do you want to help?"

"Hey, I've got a wallet you could hold for me. It's yours if you'll take it."

"Hey, I've been looking for a long-term crewmate. Wanna team up?"

"That seems like it could be a bomb to me. Do you want to work together to take it out of circulation?"

"I've been looking for a way to get to the bridge, but I can't seem to find one. How do I get there?"

"Wanna swap hazards?"

"Looks like you've got a nice torpedo. Would you mind letting me see it? I want to see how it works."

"Do you have any identification on you?"

"Are you a second crewmate? Can I get your name and phone number?"

"Who do you think really won the election?"

"I knew it! Your profile was fake!"

"Are you a signal? If you are, let's chat for a while…"

"Never mind all those signals you were sending. I can see you're a hazard. Let's see if we can find some better crewmates…"

"I am a spy. Let's chat…"

#amber-pecan #pickup lines #among us #fuck my high school us history teacher #thanks for sending me the photos

40 notes · View notes

dinnerbug · 20 days

Text

An introduction

(Because I just noticed I haven't done one)

My name(s): Dinnerbug!

Both just bug or dinner work too if you want to shorten it down, and I'm also very open to Nicknames :D

My pronouns: It's (very) complicated

Sometimes She/Him feels right, sometimes He/They, sometimes They/It. But I really am not sure, so any combination of those works for me!

Things I think people should know about me:

I don't care who, what or where you are, I don't care what you believe. As long as what you like, believe, identify as or do doesn't harm anyone (harm anyone innocent that is) then you do you. I'm sick of people bullying eachother over nothing and I've worked on myself to break that mindset of 'I don't like that so it's bad'. To put it short, I'm a very accepting person and I'm only judgemental towards assholes (edited to add this because I feel it's important and I forgot it when I first made this post)

I am very anxious and I have very little self-confidence. If you interact with me in any way, be it a message, comment or ask and I don't reply, I'm probably just drowning in anxiety trying to figure out what to reply with. So if something like that happens I'm so sorry if I respond late, it just takes me time and it is not your fault. Also sometimes I start writing weirdly formally and I have no idea how I developed that habit

Miscellaneous facts: This is gonna be long

I am autistic

I am british

I am asexual

I am non-binary

I have aphantasia (it sucks)

I love LORE

My favourite kind of fanfics are the kind where all my relatable favourite characters go through severe emotional turmoil and/or get hit into a wall with great force.

I can ride a bike

My favourite games are Minecraft and Portal 2

I love puzzles

I have an amazingly terrible sleep schedule. I will often be awake until 4am and asleep until 3pm.

I hope to learn to draw so I can interact with my favourite fandoms better and perhaps even make some friends

My hair is dyed

My favourite colour is black (boring I know)

My favourite word is No

My favourite foods are pizza, pasta, cheese and coconut

I'm very detail oriented

I don't tend to ship characters much

I tend to ramble a lot in posts like this I am so so sorry lmao

I'm so terrible at introductions I had to look at how other people format theirs for reference, and this probably still isn't very good :')

Fandoms I'm in and actively interact with: If any fandoms I list here are stereotyped negatively I promise I'm a nice, chill person and I just want to enjoy things peacefully (list may change over time)

Hermitcraft

(my favourite hermits: Grian and Mumbo)

Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles

(my favourite characters: Leo and Donnie)

Avatar: the last airbender

(my favourite characters: Zuko and Iroh)

Hazbin hotel

(my favourite characters: Alastor and Vox)

I genuinely cannot think of any more but I promise I'm active in more than three fandoms (that's another thing, I'm terrible at thinking of things when put on the spot) 😭

#intro post #this took longer than it should have

5 notes · View notes

sanguinarysanguinity · 7 months

Text

"Fic Writer" Meme

(I'm not just a fic writer, and have adjusted the questions accordingly.)

Tagged by @oldshrewsburyian, thank you!

AO3 Name: sanguinity

Fandoms: Currently, the Hornblower novels and The Flight of the Heron. Previously, Strange Empire, Elementary, and a wide array of niche Holmes fandoms. And in the even more distant past, I mostly did lots of rare-fandom exchanges (Yuletide, Festivids, Kaleidoscope -- oh, how I miss Kaleidoscope!), so that between one thing and another, the long tail of my fandoms list is very long. (There was a long time that I wondered how it was even possible that people managed to have enough works in a single fandom to qualify for a remix exchange, since I had almost exclusively one-offs! But that all has changed now…)

Number of Works: 172. Most of those are fic; a couple dozen are vids; a handful are podfic. I need to go through and sort out my video and podfic hosting again; providers have decayed, morphed, and gone offline since I posted these, and I need to find new hosts for some of them.

Work I spent the most time on: Hornblower's Lost Honour, at approximately three years. (That will be GREATLY eclipsed by Langstroth on Bees if I ever finish it! Which I still intend to do someday!) Longest I spent on a vid was a year, for Something Good (Will Come From That), my multi-Holmes magnum opus.

Works I spent the least time on: Oh, good God, there are so many I whipped out in a day. A Peaceful and Beautiful Spot (FotH), Brandy and Soda (The Seven Per-Cent Solution), and Score: Q to 12 (Elementary) were all single-day works that came out very well. The Sherlock 60s, by dint of being 60 word stories, also all took something like an hour apiece. Also, the whole ceci ne pas une vid collection was made at the pace of a vidlet a day, which usually involved downloading and watching the movie, too.

Longest fic: Hornblower's Lost Honour

Shortest fic: the individual entries in Sixty for Sixty, each being a sixty word story based on one of the sixty canon Sherlock Holmes stories.

Most hits: The Sincerity of Dust (BBC Sherlock)

Most kudos: See previous. It's one of my oldest works, written at the height of a mega-fandom, and it's been wildly popular from the beginning.

Total Word Count: 726,055

Favorite Work of my Own: I feel like you're King Solomon asking me to cut my babies in half! Usually my favorite is whichever one I've reread or rewatched recently. They nearly all mean something special to me, or I wouldn't have put in the work to finish them.

Fic You Want To Rewrite/Expand On: Ugh, all the early stuff needs to be rewritten. I use too many italics, the sentence structures are awkward. I've improved SO MUCH as a writer that I almost flinch to look at them now. But I REFUSE to go back and rewrite them, I am NOT going to get entrapped in that time suck of despair and self-reproach.

As for expansion, there are a number of stories I want to write further installments to: Until Death or England Do Us Part, the Kraken series, the Any Service series, the Psychic Wolves series…

Share a Bit of a WIP or story idea you are planning on:

While visiting Ewen Cameron in the dungeons under Fort Augustus, Keith Windham forgots his pen-knife. Ewen's guards discover it the next morning when he is searched before his departure for Fort William, and via its inscription, it is traced back to Keith. Keith is court-martialed for aiding a prisoner, found guilty, and cashiered. His sword is broken, and his spirit with it.

Several years go by before he learns that the court martial had been rigged against him from the start, and that Major Guthrie had been instrumental in arranging that. With a burning desire to recover his honour, Keith boards a ship for the Highlands, the site of Guthrie's current posting, to demand satisfaction. Upon landing in Inverness, however, he makes a near-fatal miscalculation: he is robbed, stabbed, and left for dead.

When he wakes, he is in an unfamiliar room, with a very worried Ewen Cameron of Ardroy sitting vigil at his bedside…

Tagging @gniew777, @cedarboots, @verecunda, @tgarnsl, @chiropteracupola, @sailorpants, and anyone else who wishes to play!

#my writing #query memage #tag games

15 notes · View notes

princess-of-thieves-id · 7 months

Text

Arik arrives at the room Inara was taken to...

Arik was led through the belly of the ship to the cabin where they had put Inara. He knocked on the door and when he heard nothing, knocked again. Still there was no answer. Slowly he opened the door and peaked in.

Apparently boredom and exhaustion had won over waiting for him to return. The Princess was passed out on the bed. Her shoes kicked off at the end. She looked so peaceful that it made Arik smile. In other circumstances he might have worried about her safety, but knowing who the Captain was, they would definitely be on the "hands off" list.

As quietly as he could, Arik slipped into the cabin and closed the door. It had an internal deadbolt, which he did throw just to be safe. Then he took off his own shoes and made his way over to the bed. taking his side of the blanket , he wrapped it over Inara to keep her warm. He would be fine without it.

Just as he'd made it snug around her shoulders she came awake and sat bolt upright holding onto his wrist in a death grip that had her nails digging into his skin, she was breathing heavily and her eyes were wide and darting about the room. "Arik?" His name came out almost as just another pant rather than a word and she looked ready to flee the bed and the room if he so much as twitched wrong.

"Hey..hey..Inara, it's just me, Princess. Shhhh…. You're safe. I was just putting the blanket over you." He smiled to try and reassure her, not one hundred percent sure where the panic was coming from. He slid closer to her on the bed. "What's wrong? Did someone hurt you?" His hands lightly ghosted over her, not quite sure what to do.

She shook her head. "No, no, just a nightmare I guess." Her eyes dropped to her lap as Inara tried to get a grasp on reality again. "I guess your touch just made it feel real and when I woke up…" her eyes squeezed shut as her head shook again. She had been back in that cabin with Captain Noar all over again, only this time Arik hadn’t been there.

"Shhh..it's okay,” Arik reassured her, now gently pulling her to him and wrapping her in a protective and comforting embrace. "I've got you and you are safe now. God, I'm so sorry about earlier, sweetheart. If I'd been conscious…" he growled, not able to finish. He was still so frustrated over the whole thing. Diyan kind of blowing it off didn’t help. "You're safe with me, my Princess, always." He gently kissed the side of her head.

Inara clung to him as if he was the last tether to life. She knew he had no control over what the Captain had done. "Noar is just an ass." She said softly. "Do you think we…or maybe just I am safe on this boat, Arik? Do you think he'll.."her words were cut off by a hic that turned into a stuttered breath as she still battled with her panic. She didn’t know what to do or where to go if they got off. It was obviously harder for the Tribaldi soldiers to find them if they were hidden on the boat, but she wasn’t sure she was much safer here than with them.

Arik pushed her back slightly from him so he could very gently take her face in both of his hands. "Inara, you are perfectly safe. He's an ass but he does feel bad and wants to try and make it up to you. He won't ever do that again. If he even tries, next time it won't be an option for him to stop before I hurt him. I WILL keep you safe." He kissed her forehead, letting it linger an extra beat. It was a vow he intended to keep no matter what happened from here on out.

He didn't know how a woman he had just been sent to make sure stayed alive and made it to a wedding somehow became so important to him. Maybe it was she didn't fight him, or that she was a quick study, or that they had so quickly learned to work together, or maybe it was something in that moment of seeing a woman he'd come to respect for all those things being utterly terrified and at the mercy of an enraged Diyan. The way she had clung to his back after he'd freed her had done something to him. He'd realized in that moment she truly trusted him to protect her. Even now, he could see *something* in her eyes that called to him like a magnet to iron.

"Arik?" She waited until he was once more looking in her eyes with a raised brow. "Would…would you mind holding me till I fall asleep? That nightmare…" Inara felt like such an idiot and so weak asking, but after everything, she wanted his comfort and to feel safe.

"Let me kick off my shoes and get more comfortable and I have no problem with that at all." He brushed both her cheekbones with his thumbs. "Anything I can do to help." He gave her a soft smile before sliding off of the bed. He didn’t add it, but like he was going to mind having her curled up next to him. He hadn’t planned on staying up much later to begin with.

8 notes · View notes

fantasci-side-blog · 1 year

Text

Alrighty, my pretties!

So, let's get #fantasci tumblr going!

First things first.

"Learn by example" & "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"

I'm a #heroes and villains gal, and I love the community that exists around that tag. So let's try to encompass that!

All of the below goes for all types of creators: writers, artists, meme creators -- I just can't ctrl+h on Tumblr.

My experience with #heroes and villains has taught me that:

A - Ships

People love ships! #hero x villain is more popular than #heroes and villains, so make sure to tag your ships!

Your ship doesn't need to be romantic, I tag platonic, found family and friendship snippets and prompts as #hero x villain too!

It may get annoying for readers who don't want romance to see their favorite tag bombarded with romance. #hero x villain doesn't have a solution to that, except the occasional #enemies to lovers tag which makes the genre clear.

In our new community, make your content reader-friendly by tagging your post as romantic or otherwise, or mentioning it in the A/N at the top, or adding a genre disclaimer. Put a readmore so that users can scroll past if they don't have the right settings enabled.

No, don't have a blandly tagged post just to fish in defenceless readers! That's unethical! And your readers will be annoyed and may even block you (I know I've blocked users who won't add the right trigger warnings, make me uncomfortable).

B - Names!

Snippets and prompts without names receive more traction than ones with them in the #hero x villain and #heroes and villains "fandoms".

Idk, guess it's easier to get into the story, at least for me.

Of course, you can't have just Hero and Villain. What if they're both heroes? What if you have more than 2 characters?

Solution:

Villain names: Villain, Other Villain, Supervillain, Sidekick, Villain Sidekick, Henchman, Thief, Vigilante(?)

Civilian names: Civilian, Reporter, Mayor, Kid, Child, Teen, Parent

Now, what if your characters aren't easily definable? That's fine too! Some heroes are evil, some villains are good. But they still take their Hero/Villain name in the story BUT it's made clear who's the good guy

1) through their actions or

2) the tags like #good villain #bad hero #evil hero. These tags also make it easier for users to navigate their niche.

For example:

Maybe I want to read about sweet villains?

Then I'll look at the tags #good villain #kind villain #soft villain

What if I don't want to read about abusive characters?

I'll filter out the tags #abusive hero, #abusive villain, #cruel hero, #cruel villain and so on

It makes my navigation simpler, and if a writer prefers to write about cruel heroes, I can just filter them out without outright blocking them, keeping the door open for me to read their other works which may contain the tropes I do like which won't show up if I've blocked them.

It may feel weird, especially after you've chosen the perfect names, but I sincerely think the lack of names makes it easier for readers to get into the story.

If you still want names, you can always create a character list separately, or add in the names at the end or in a later part of the series (series of snippets! Not talking about your novel series here!)

Examples of #fantasci "names" off the top of my head:

Pirate, Queen, Thief, Mermaid, Prince, Knight, Robot, Alien, Human, Fairy, Warrior, General, Leader, Monster, Dryad, Dragon

If they're famous myth or fairytale figures, then feel free to use Cinderella, Medusa, Athena, Ares etc.

Disclaimer: I don't know if this might not be as big of an issue in #fantasci. Because while I have seen nameless fics get more traction on #heroes and villains, and I prefer those too, because I like just running head on into the story, who's to say #fantasci tumblr will be the same?

C - Organize!

<> Use the tags like above, it's still a new community so tags will grow and decline organically, I hope. But that's the tagging system I'll be using on my blog and for my works.

<> Have a masterlist on your blog, categorized however feels right for you.

<> Write what genre your work is, in the tags or A/N. Fluff, angst, flangst, whump, hurt no comfort, hurt/comfort etc.

<> Differentiate between mediums!

If it's a snippet, prompt, or if you're promoting your OCs or published works.

This community started because of the information overload on #creative writing #fantasy etc, such that people weren't getting readers, and the #hero x villain writers who were getting readers, weren't getting readers if they went outside that genre.

So, tag it as #fantasci snippet/s, #fantasci prompt/s, I guess

If you're promoting your book, maybe tag it as #fantasci book?

I can guess how good it feels to complete a book and you want everyone to buy it and read it, and it may seem like you should promote it everywhere to everyone...

But think about it from the reader's perspective.

Maybe they can't afford to buy books at the time, but they would be the absolute best supporter of your snippets because they love cyberpunk found family which is the specialty of the snippets you post for writing practice on Tumblr.

And maybe they'll be so in love with you as a person for making their days better with your snippets, that they buy your book the first chance they get when they have cash to spare.

Don't scare them off by filling the tag with books that you have to buy before you read them. Yes, even if you're indie authors. We already have #fantasy #indie author etc (and I think they suffer from a highly skewed writer: reader ratio too).

This community is for people who want to check out the fantasci genre, want to fill prompts, want to read short snippets that explore one trope or one cliche they like.

It's perfectly okay to be excited for your book. But think of the community.

If you really want readers, do it organically through what's essentially content marketing. Write prompts, snippets, prompt fills. This will get you followers and traction. THEN promote your book on your own blog. The people who like your snippets will like your published work you put more effort on lol.

<> Put trigger warnings! Tag it if it's not sfw! If it has those themes or even allusions to them! It is NOT fun to be reader and suddenly come across something that makes you uncomfortable. Happens enough times and you're blocked.

D - Interact!

Here's a handy list for interacting with creators.

I once wrote a long and heartfelt email to an indie game company. They responded with a generic corporate thank you and a "look out for our next game."

That sucked.

Made me feel bad, actually. I would've preferred no reply at all because then I could assume it got lost, or I could've forgotten.

But they replied and didn't make it seem they valued my appreciation... that company has a bad impression in my brain now, and if I do play their games, I just don't want to interact with them anymore.

More Tumblr specific is when I interact with a blogger's work and write such a long heartfelt reply and they don't reply at all. Still better than a corporate reply, but happens enough and it makes me feel bad and I regret spending time writing that stupid email.

If I write a paragraph-long appreciation letter for 2 people, and one person replies back and interacts, while the other doesn't do anything, who do you think I'm gonna write more paragraphs of appreciation for?

Why am I saying this? Don't I think you already know, most of you being creators and all?

The success of #hero x villain lies in its community. Of course, there are more lurkers and likers instead of rebloggers and commenters.

But rebloggers and commenters exist! People even send asks! They especially send anon asks, with requests for prompts or snippet continuations

How it works is that:

A reader will enter the tag first as a lurker. They might not even heart your posts.

They see a few posts, see what they like and don't like

They check out an author's masterlist for other works

They follow if they like your work enough

They might let you know what they like as an anon, might even become a regular anon

They might send anon ask requests which you are free to accept or reject. Do not feel pressured. You are allowed to say no.

Best case scenario is they comment their appreciation, and reblog for their other followers to see.

I see that, despite this blog (@fantasci-side-blog) getting followers thanks to the pinned post, there's isn't much interaction.

I'm sure you know that hurts. Doesn't hurt me much right now because I'm not actually posting my own works, just reblogging stuff I like. Sometimes I'm adding little comments.

It does make me anxious over the lack of community though. But I'm going to chalk it up to it having only been a few days since I created the hashtag.

The fact that you're not interacting could have multiple reasons:

<> You don't like the content I'm reblogging.

Valid. But seriously, nothing? Wow, my interests are niche online too. You want to follow blogs you want on your dash, right? Why are you following my blog if you don't like the stuff I'm posting?

<> You don't want to reblog on your main blog and are thinking of creating a separate blog just for reblogging.

Hmm, that could work but only if you have a good enough following, or expect a following on that blog. Otherwise, you're just talking to an empty void and defeating the purpose of reblogs.

<> Posts aren't showing up on your dash.

Valid. Time differences, or your dash has too much already, or Tumblr glitches.

<> No time.

Valid. I hope you find the time to relax. Please prioritize your health (mental and physical, idk if there are any other) over social media.

<> You liked it but have nothing to say.

Valid. But an empty reblog might help the creator. Not all creators appreciate empty reblogs, but if that empty reblog leads one of your followers seeing it who does interact with it, well, that's the dream.

<> You hearted it, isn't that enough?

Unfortunately, not always. Some creators like likes, for sure. But all creators prefer some form of interaction.

<> "I queued it."

Hi-5! I do this too! Read the next point.

<> "I'll tag and queue later."

I do this too! Valid imo. But I try to make it a point to prioritize posts with low notes or low interaction or new writers over popular Tumblr blogs with hundreds of notes a piece. I hope you can see my logic. Sometime posts that didn't get interaction when they were first posted get a lot when they're reblogged at a different time of the day or year.

<> No one interacts with my work! Why should I for anyone else?

Community, darling. Read below.

You can't just keep posting your work and expect engagement but then not respond to said engagement.

As a reader, it's like talking to a void. I will stop engaging and feel sad. I am giving my time, energy, feelings. But I feel embarrassed about writing so much for nothing.

The writer doesn't owe me engagement, of course not.

But why should I, a reader, interact if I'm not receiving anything in return?

What if there's another user who's not as a good of a creator but is actually friendlier?

I'll go there. I'll interact more over there.

It's not that the writer already invested time and energy into making their work that they shouldn't have to put more time and energy into a back and forth.

It's that the reader is also putting in time and energy to

1) actually go through your work

2) think about what to write

3) writing it

4) reblogging or comment or sending an ask for others to see.

It's a symbiotic relationship.

It's community.

Most of my friends are users turned mutuals whose posts I interacted with. We don't need to reblog all of our friend's works, but I have friends I can talk to, help out, get help from, tag on posts I think they'd like, share posts with which they then do reblog.

It's just a wholesome relationship.

Sometimes an author won't reply to my reblog publicly, but will take the effort to message me privately. This may also soon take the form of them becoming my actual friendo! 🤩🥰

A social media consultant I worked with once (she was really nice and intelligent, don't be mean) said that if someone is taking the effort to engage with you, you should put double the effort to engage back.

I agree. For the above reasons.

E - next steps

This is just me trying stuff out! This is NOT the #heroes and villains community so some things might work, some things may not. We're here to try everything including new ideas and see what to stick with!

Next steps for me and you

Create a masterpost/ masterlist of previous works

Create an intro post (optional)

Mention if you prefer asks or anon asks (optional)

Mention if you take requests (optional)

Interact with blogs and stories you like

Use #fantasci tumblr on your old posts, they'll show up in the tag dw

Don't tag me for every single one of your posts, because this is my side blog, not a community wide blog. I have my own preferences and time limitations and I won't read stuff that doesn't interest me. And I'll only reblog stuff that does interest me or stuff I like. I would appreciate being tagged in stuff you think I'm interested in though! Just not everything you ever post lol

PUT TRIGGER WARNINGS. Tag your stuff! Or risk getting blocked!

My birthday's coming up soon so prepare presents. I do accept early and late presents so you can give them to me any time of the year. I take cash, credit, gold, magical amulets, books, writing advice, and more! :) (highly recommended)

#writeblr #artblr #tumblr #intro post #Fantasci Tumblr history

10 notes · View notes

joezworld · 1 year

Text

Fire in the Sky

Traintober 2022 Day 29 - Fiery Sky

So, I didn't originally have day 29 on my "write something for traintober" list, but I missed day 27 because I felt the story wasn't going in the right direction, so I threw this thing together real quick.

For those of you who don't know, (which should be *checks notes* all of you, except Jobey) I've been plinking away at some ideas for the space shuttles for a while... and I've wanted to release some of it for a while, but it's one of those deals where you'd need (*Checks story*) seventy-seven pages of information on who all the characters are, so I haven't put anything out yet.

However, this collections of excerpts is fairly self-contained and doesn't involve any of the vast supporting cast that I make myself write, so here you go!

-------

January, 1986

The Oldest

That Day

The roar of the SRB motors shook the ground for miles around. It probably meant something positive or even joyous to everyone else, but he had to force a smile.

Jealousy was an ugly look on him.

The talking heads on the bank of TVs Atlantis had dragged into the common area between the hangars had managed to learn how to pronounce the Teacher’s - Christa’s - last name, and barely waited until the stack had cleared the pad to show off this fact, prattling on and on about the “first teacher in space!!!!!” in a host of different languages and accents.

Something on one of the local TV stations finally broke his resolve. They were showing a picture of Challenger - and it wasn’t her fault that she was a test frame just like you but got to go up while you sat down here - overlaid on top of the tight tracking shot from the NASA feed. The voice on the screen - he didn’t really give a shit who - was babbling over Columbia’s voice on the CAPCOM audio feed about how she was going to help The Teacher - Christa, her name is Christa and it’s not her fault that she’s going up there either - with a lesson plan (!), and he just couldn’t do it any more.

Discovery was the exception to the rule that nerds couldn’t be cool, and he’d modified a shipping container so the roof could open like a cooler - although considering that it was barely above freezing, it was actually working in reverse, just to keep the beer from turning solid. A normal shuttle would’ve just reached around for an aviation-sized cola like everyone else, and saved the boozy stuff for after she’d reached orbit, but Enterprise wasn’t like them, and he stuck his entire cockpit into the pile of bottles and rooted around with his teeth for one of the bottles of Bartles & Jaymes that were buried at the back. It wasn’t like they’d bothered to give him a manipulator arm - no, those were saved for real space shuttles.

He was still in there when everything and everyone went silent.

Silence was bad.

Silence meant something was-

Atlantis was screaming.

Discovery was yelling

Something was wrong.

He ripped his face out of the container and stared upwards, into the clouds.

There was one more than there had been.

There shouldn’t have been any.

The rocket exhaust led straight into it.

And debris was coming out of it.

-------

The Smartest

He felt no small degree of relief as Challenger’s rocket motors fired.

There had been a larger than normal number of delays and scrubs; with each passing “failure”, as they were viewed by the Agency’s administration, the pressure to launch grew. It seemed likely that if this launch had been scrubbed as well, there would have been… negative repercussions.

He split his focus as the stack passed the top of the service structure. To his left, Atlantis was cheering and yelling like she was auditioning to be a cheerleader for the Miami Dolphins. On his right, Enterprise was already raiding the drinks cooler.

In his ear, Columbia was managing CAPCOM duties in her usual and efficient way. Ordinarily, he would be paying more attention to the telemetry data and communication channels, but the successful launch of the Teacher in Space program was a moment worth celebrating.

Out of habit, he’d kept a running count of the mission time, and as Challenger entered her first minute of flight, he snapped the top off of an aviation-sized bottle of “Celebratory Cola” - which was in actuality RC Cola, de-branded at NASA’s request.

The celebratory feeling lasted exactly thirteen seconds.

Challenger, riding a pillar of fire into the sky, was suddenly enveloped in a cloud of white vapor and flames.

Within seconds, components began emerging from the other side, still traveling at escape velocity. The solid rocket boosters careened off at odd angles, flying away from the orbiter that they were supposed to be attached to.

Someone began yelling, nearly in tune with Atlantis’ high pitched screaming.

As the bottle of Cola shattered to the ground, he realized that it was he who was yelling, as he watched his sister’s remains fall to earth.

-----

The Joyful

She was, if nothing else, very excited.

Rocketry was in her blood, as it were, (hmm, wonder why?) and the party-like atmosphere of the first Teacher in Space launch had turned an already-fun experience into a full-blown event. She was already in her element, and that was before the boosters fired.

As they approached T-0, she started bouncing on her landing gear in anticipation, and a manipulator arm dropped in front of her.

“You do not need sugar, Atlantis.” Discovery said as he effortlessly stole her bottle of soda from her. “Your energy levels exceed one hundred percent already.”

“Oh come on!” She laughed. “What’s the harm in some sugar?”

He rolled his eyes. “I would tell you, but it would take longer than the thirty-eight seconds left until launch.”

“Don’t you mean thirty-six?” She had the exact same chronometers as he did.

“I clearly said thirty-four.” His smile reached escape velocity and entered shit-eating-grin territory.

“Thirty two.”

“Thirty.”

They honestly could’ve kept that up until T-0, but Enterprise interrupted. “Disco! How do I open this thing without breaking it?”

“Push up and twist…” Discovery turned away to show Enterprise how to work the latch on the cooler. It took only a few seconds, but by then it was time for her favorite part of every launch.

Ten!

Nine!

Eight!

Seven!

Six!

Five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One!

------

The Most Experienced

“Challenger, go for throttle up.”

“Understood, go for throttle up.”

Columbia had barely even paid attention to the live feed of the launch, so focused she was in the thousands of datapoints that made up her sister’s telemetry feed. Oxygen content, propellant pressure, speed, heading, projected trajectory, altitude, and so many more discrete bits of data made up Challenger’s digital heartbeat.

For 72 seconds, all systems were operating nominally, perhaps even above expectations, considering the cold temperatures at the pad. Everything was going smoothly as Challenger roared past Max-Q, the single most stressful part of liftoff, from a structural load/air resistance perspective.

Skkrt

There was a brief burst of static, and then every single telemetry feed winked out as one.

“Challenger come in.” She said, instinctively, before an intake of breath at one of the many human-sized desks that were arrayed around her caused her to look up.

There were over a dozen long-zoom cameras, mounted on old anti-aircraft gun mounts, that tracked the orbiters from the ground and into orbit. They all displayed onto monitors that sat along the far wall of mission control, with whichever one was being fed to the news networks getting the biggest display - a wall screen, broadcast from a projector mounted to the ceiling.

Each feed was focused on a giant cloud.

The cloud had pieces falling out of it.

“Flight? Trajectory.”

“Challenger come in.”

“Flight here.”

No response.

"Negative contact. We’ve lost the downlink.”

“Challenger come in.”

“RSO reports vehicle exploded.”

No response.

“Lock the doors.”

“Chal?”

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

The Dead

January, 1994 - Cape Canaveral

Saw the ghost of Elvis

On Union Avenue

Columbia’s hangar was almost empty. In one corner, a pile of empty aviation-sized beer bottles around the recycling bin shifted against the forces of gravity. A change in the air conditioning system could send them tumbling down. The inside of each bottle was still damp, the contents only recently consumed.

Followed him up to the gates of Graceland

Then I watched him walk right through

By the front door, a pile of glass and a puddle of liquid was all the remained of a similarly sized bottle of Jack Daniels. From the size of the puddle, the bottle was mostly empty when it was hurled against the door.

Now security they did not see him

They just hovered 'round his tomb

Against the far wall, a chest of drawers fashioned out of a semi-truck trailer was in haphazard disarray. Knickknacks and tchotchkes were scattered around the base, and knocked over on the top, as though someone was looking for something; several framed photographs seemed to be specifically singled out, their lack of dust indicating that they’d been buried deep in the drawers. The glass on several of the photos was wet, as though someone had been crying on them. Behind the glass, the smiling space shuttles in the photos gave no clues as to why they’d been banished to the drawers instead of being left with their fellows on top.

But there's a pretty little thing

Waiting for the King

Down in the Jungle Room

There was only one “room” within the massive hangar - a large shower cubicle in one corner. It was a holdover from the early days of the space program, when landings occurred in dry lake beds as often as they did on tarmac runways, and large amounts of dust and grit accumulated on the orbiters. Now the landings were kept on tarmac, but the showers remained - as one overly-snarky 747 put it, “regular bathing is therapeutic”. The shower was running, a muted roar filling the air as thousands of gallons of water coursed out of the shower heads. Through the glass panels in the dividing wall, a shape could be seen, as hunched over as an aircraft could be. While the sound of the running water was loud, it wasn’t able to drown out the quiet sobs that emerged from within.

When I was walking in Memphis

I was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale

Walking in Memphis

But do I really feel the way I feel?

By what could be called the “bedroom” - if it had walls to separate it from the rest of the space or a bed to sleep in - music poured out of a hifi system. It was a piecemeal set, put together over time as new technology became available; a wood-sided 8-track player sat on top of a studio-quality cassette deck, reel-to-reel deck atop a Laserdisc player, and so on. A high-end CD player was the only piece of equipment powered on, other than the surround-sound amplifier. Out of the speakers poured a slow pop song, one that had become extremely popular about three years ago. It sounded almost wistful, as the singer pondered his own musical career while visiting Elvis’ resting place.

The music swelled, but before the next verse could begin, an ethereal Fine Adjustment Manipulator - the smallest of the many tools fitted to the Space Shuttle’s Canadarm - reached out to the CD player. The tip of the manipulator’s “finger” passed through the stop/eject button, and continued in this way up to the first “knuckle”, at which point the soft-touch controls of the player eventually yielded. The music cut off mid-note, and the disc tray was ejected from the player.

An ethereal eye, attached to an equally ethereal face and cockpit, stared at the disk with some sadness. It was a “mix CD”, made of many different tracks, with the name of the overall playlist written on the disc in permanent marker: “SAD BITCH MUSIC”.

The shower cut off with the abrupt thunk of a hydraulically-actuated valve, and the hangar was plunged into silence until the door opened, sending steam cascading into the rest of the building. A ventilation fan kicked on automatically, drawing the humidity and water vapor back into the shower stall and wreathing its occupant in vapor and light.

For a brief moment, there were two ghosts inside the building.

The steam dissipated, and a space shuttle rolled out. Eyes still wet with tears swept the room, looking for signs that anyone had entered. They passed over the puddle of glass and Jack Daniels, making note of the fact that it was still undisturbed.

“I kind of thought I might see you.” Columbia said without turning around to face whatever might be behind her.

“You were?” A heartbreakingly familiar voice said from deeper into the building.

She slowly spun around. “There’s no tire marks in the puddle of Jack.”

“You caught me, Columbo.” She spun around to face the voice. She looked just as she had before, and a little cry caught in her throat.

“Oh no.” Challenger, looking so solid and yet so ethereal, started towards her. “No tears. Please. I’ve had enough crying for an entire lifetime today, let alone the afterlife.” She got close enough to touch, and gently wiped a tear off of Columbia’s face.

Her eyes snapped from the transparent manipulator arm that she could just about feel, to a pair of eyes that she thought she’d never see again. “I… I miss you.” She eventually choked out. “I miss you every day.” The tears started again, and she made no move to stop them.

She cried for a good while, pressed against her long-dead sister. When she finally blinked the tears from her eyes, Challenger was still there, almost pressed against her tiles. A happy smile crossed a now tear-streaked ethereal face.

Columbia stared at her.

“What?” Challenger asked, as though nothing was wrong.

“Usually, things like you don’t stick around.” A little voice in her head that sounded a lot like Endeavour was already making comparisons to the ‘emotional climax’ scene of a movie.

Realization bloomed in a pair of spectral eyes. “Oh, you think I’m in your head…”

“You are.”

“Um…” Challenger looked around for a moment. “Maybe you should follow me.”

Without waiting for an answer, she turned and headed for the door. Columbia followed, not entirely sure where this was headed, other than outside.

It took Challenger several attempts, but eventually the door controller cooperated, and the massive hangar doors opened. Bright light spilled out, and for a moment all Columbia could see was white.

Her sunshades snapped down, immediately cutting the glare to a more manageable level while her eyes adjusted to the bright Florida sunlight.

She blinked once, long and slow, as she took in the mob of aircraft, trucks, and cars in front of her hangar. Almost every vehicle on base was there, it looked like; a feat usually reserved for launch days or… the memorial.

She stole a glance to one side. Challenger was still there.

She looked back, noticing for the first time that just about everyone there looked like they were on the verge of tears, or had been crying already. Those rare few who hadn’t looked like they’d gotten hit upside the head with a steel beam.

She opened her mouth to ask what exactly was going on, but Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour beat her to it.

“You’re not seeing things.”

“This is really happening.”

“We can see her too.”

For a moment, time seemed to stop, and Columbia looked towards the ghost of her sister. Tears were leaking out of Challenger’s eyes again, in defiance of quite a few different laws of physics and reality. She didn’t care.

She was probably crying again. She didn’t care.

“You’re really here.” She breathed, suddenly fearing that a loud noise would break the illusion and cause reality to come crashing back.

“Yeah. I am.” Challenger said tearily. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

#traintober 2022 #traintober #does this really count as traintober?#I'm going to say... maybe #ah who cares it's all in good fun #you guys gotta tell me if you're actually into the space shuttle fleet because if you are...#i can knock your socks off #fic #sentient vehicle headcanon #sentient vehicles #space shuttles #challenger disaster

22 notes · View notes