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unsolvedjarin · 8 months

Note

Can we have more mentor!Seb x Ferrari driver!reader? Maybe she wins in Monza the same season as the last fic? 👀

note: sorry it took me so long to get to this request, life has been KILLING me lately. this one is pretty short but hopefully you enjoy!

FOCUS.

part one here but can be read without <3

pairing: (mentor! sebastian vettel x ferrari driver! reader) (mick schumacher x ferrari driver! reader AT THE END)

summary: monza was never an easy race, and that certainly wasnt changing anytime soon. but maybe some luck is on your side this year— and a supportive mentor.

content warning: none besides my verb tenses being all over the place

Max had gotten pole. So not good for you.

You lost P2 as well to Lewis by two-tenths of a second, but P3 was fine, P3 was good. Hopefully good enough for today. It was finally Sunday, and you couldn’t be more excited— it was finally Monza.

“Well the goal is to win,” you say, although it comes out muffled with food in your mouth. Sebastian had invited you to paddock brunch on race day, and you were not one to turn down free food.

Swallowing, you add, “I mean obviously the goal is to win. We’re in Monza, that’s every Ferrari driver's goal.”

The Aston Martin driver had been listening intently to your complaints about Ferrari’s performance recently, and from what he’s hearing, it’s not looking good. Not only was the car lacking in pace, the team itself had bad strategies left and right. While you had gotten a podium back in Spa, it was starting to look like it'd be the last podium for Ferrari for a while.

Charles had DNF’ed last race, and you ended up P9. Not a great result, but it still kept you third in the Construction Championship. This race, however, was too special to have a mediocre result.

It was the home of the Tifosi; the people, the cheers, the chants, it was all for Ferrari— all for you. You couldn’t lose in Monza.

“So you think you’ll win later then?” Sebastian asks, taking a bite of his own food.

“Well I don’t don’t think I’ll win, so there’s that.”

“What a strange type of confidence.”

“Thanks, I try.”

Sebastian laughs, a genuine one that makes you smile as well. You’d been spending more time with him since learning about his retirement at the end of the season, which says a lot when you were already always together. He didn’t mind though, he loved spending time with you above all the other people on the grid– well, except for Mick. He tagged along sometimes when he could. You liked having him around too.

“If it amounts to anything, I think you can win it.”

He always says that. ‘If it amounts to anything’ or ‘If it matters,’ as if everything he says wasn’t important to you when it was. “Thanks Seb, but save that optimism for yourself, you need it,” you tease.

You say it in a joking manner, but Seb knew there was a hint of seriousness to your words. Aston Martin hadn’t been performing well either, and if you considered Ferrari’s performance bad, then you could call theirs atrocious. You knew it wasn’t Seb’s fault, he had been trying to contribute to the efficiency of the car with his knowledge and he pushed it every race.

Nodding, he sighs, and you can sense the tiredness in his breath. 2 years of a slow car will do that to you. Before you could give him any comfort, however, a Ferrari employee calls out your name for you to get ready for the race.

“Good luck Schatzi, I believe in you,” Seb says, getting up from his seat. You get up and hug him tightly, smiling when he hugs you back just as tight.

“You too Sebby.”

“Do what I couldn’t,” you hear him whisper.

You don’t reply. You don’t tell him, ‘I’m sorry,’ because he already knows. He knows because you’ve told him it before many different times on many different races when he used to drive for Ferrari– but you’ll always remember Monza.

It was his dream, the most important thing he wanted out of joining Ferrari besides winning the championship with them. But he never got it. Every year he was there, something took the win out of his grasp. Engine failure, collision, slow pace, no grip, it didn’t matter what the reason was. He never got it.

You separate, both going to get ready. You’ll make him proud, you think to yourself.

The race was tight. Lewis was giving you a good fight, always just less than a second away, but conveniently farther whenever you were in a DRS zone which meant you couldn’t overtake him. Thankfully, he slipped up during a straight, and gave you enough slipstream and space to pass him.

Then it was just you and Max. He was 10 seconds away, and you were so sure it was over. But then he pitted a little too long, giving you enough time to take his position.

And then you were leading.

You were leading in a Ferrari in Monza.

Holy fucking shit.

Just one more lap, one more and you could see it– you could see the end.

“...Y/N L/N SEES THE CHECKERED FLAG, AND COMES TO WIN THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX! FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2019, FERRARI WINS IN THEIR HOME RACE!”

You couldn’t believe it.

You won. You won in Monza. In a Ferrari.

You did it.

If the screams of the fans were loud in Spa, the cheers of the emotional Tifosi were deafening here. Exiting your car, still shellshocked, you’re immediately approached by Max, who gave you a quick hug in congratulations.

Slightly snapping out of your buzzed state, you run towards your crew who was on the other side of the barrier, practically jumping into their arms. They couldn’t believe it either. When you finally removed your helmet, the muffled sounds of everything else suddenly became clear, and somehow the already thundering roars of the crowd had gotten louder.

Despite all that commotion, all that chaos and celebration, there was only one man you were looking for. You heard he had DNF’ed, which meant he would be in his garage, but you didn’t care. You were going to look for him before you got on that damn podium.

While Max and Lewis went to the cooldown room, you got ready to sneak out and go to the Aston Martin garage, when a hand grabs yours and spins you around to face them. It takes you a second to realize what was happening, but when you did– “SEBASTIAN!”

He enveloped you in a hug, lifting you off the ground and spinning you around. You could hear his proud laughs, and you started laughing as well. You had done it.

“I ca-”

“I-”

You both start at the same time, making you both laugh even harder. You gesture for him to start first, and he does. “I can’t believe it. You actually fucking did it,” he says, the joy evident in his cussing.

He walks with you back towards the Podium, an arm around your shoulder looking proud. When you get to the side stage you pause in protest, but he reads your mind before you can say anything. “Go, we’ll talk later.” He gives you a little nudge, and off to the platform you go.

You asked Charles once, and he told you that when you get up there on the platform, everything goes quiet. You would see the crowd, the fans clad in red, and you would feel the love, but you wouldn’t hear it– as if all their cheers mixed together into a large vast silence. One thing would come into focus, and when you see what you’ve focused on, it’ll all make sense. For him, it was a man wearing a shirt with the number 17 on it. In the large mobs, it was the one thing his eyes had focused on.

For you, however, it wasn’t in the crowd. It wasn’t in the endless support of the Tifosi, nor the trophy given to you. No, it was in the man you could see in your peripheral vision, standing on the side, clapping proudly and looking at you as if no one else was on the podium.

Sebastian. It was him. Your mentor, your father figure, your friend. You finally understood what Charles was always rambling about. That loving feeling— not one you feel with a romantic partner, but the one that buries itself deep into your soul and grows over time, unseen and unnoticed, but when you finally focus on it, everything makes sense.

The second the podium festivities ended, you ran into Sebastian’s arms and hugged him tightly, not minding the cameras all around you. He didn’t understand what was happening, but he hugged you back, not letting you go.

Tomorrow— not today while the chaos of the fans was still ongoing— the media will spew rumors about you and the older driver, but you don’t care. Not when you’re finally happy here; content.

With content tears flowing freely down your face— along with some champagne from earlier— you finally disconnected from the hug, looking at Sebastian with a grin.

He looked confused, “What’s happening? Are you alright? Is everything okay?”

Shaking your head with a laugh, you reply, “It’s fine, everythings okay. I just— I can’t believe I did it. And with you watching. I couldn’t be happier.”

Sebastian takes a moment to intake what you said. He had never felt this way before. Never felt so utterly proud of someone. You had done what he never could, had finally achieved the Ferrari dream he had always wanted for himself. He could see himself in you now, the sheer joy of a win with a team he always wanted to win with. He couldn’t be more happy for you too.

“Sebastian?” you ask, worried about his silence. Maybe what you said was too much, too forward. But then he smiles softly at you, and you can see the tears welling in his eyes.

“You have no idea how proud I am of you.”

You breathe a sigh of relief, “Oh thank god, I thought you were thinking of scowling in disgust or worse; not hearing what I said and making me repeat it.”

He laughs, a hearty one, and you laugh as well. The roar of the crowd was still loud, but amidst all the chaos, your eyes still only focused on one person.

“Dinner?” he asks softly.

“Yeah, let’s get dinner.”

a bit of bonus for my mick girls out there:

“Y/N!” you hear a voice shout from across the paddock. It catches your attention, and you turn your head to the Mercedes hospitality where the voice came from. Sebastian is beside you, an arm around your shoulder, accompanying you for a post-race dinner.

“Mick! What’s up?” you ask, disconnecting from Sebastian’s hold to walk towards him. He meets you in the middle, giving you a quick hug before smiling.

“I just wanted to congratulate you on your win. We should celebrate!” he says, pausing for a moment as if thinking how to word his next sentence. “I was thinking— just a random thought really— we could…go out to dinner to celebrate? I mean just throwing ideas out there, you don’t have to.”

He’s looking everywhere but at you at this point, his eyes pointed down at his shoes and you can see his hands fiddling in his pockets. You notice Toto Wolff watching from the hospitality, but you pay no attention to him, instead keeping your eyes on the man in front of you.

“I’m sorry Mick I would love to, but I’m actually going out to dinner with Seba—”

“He can come,” Sebastian butts in. “He can join us, I have no problem with it.”

“Oh, then great!” you exclaim, nudging Mick softly. He looks up at you with a slight red dusting on his cheeks you don’t notice. Oblivious, you intertwine your arm with his, walking with Seb tailing the both of you.

You ramble on about the race to him and don’t notice when he turns his head around to face Sebastian quickly, who was giving Mick two thumbs up with a cheeky grin. The younger driver blushes softly, before going back to facing you and listening to you talk.

Unbeknownst to the both of you, however, the older driver was already secretly thinking of an excuse to get the two of you alone at dinner.

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whatyadrawin · 2 months

Text

The Fruit After the Flesh 18+ -Chapter 9-

Minors DNI!

Masterlist

Approximately 4,872 words

Pairing: Thomas Hewitt (Headcanon) x AFAB reader

This chapters Warnings: Sexual language, foul language, scary moment. This is Slasher smut, be mindful of that and use your discretion.

A/n: This chapter took me so long to complete! I had to read over it and edit like four times. I took 48 hrs to make all the art pieces starting from 3pm march first until 6am march second, took a nap, started back up to finish the art at 2:30pm and finalized EVERYTHING for upload at 6am March 3rd. I'm tired bro, I got so carried away with the art I really should have cut it down to just 3 images but artists always suffer for their passion, it's our curse. Let me know if you want to be in the tag list. I update chapter progress on the masterlist whenever something changes.

Please enjoy this chapter! I worked very hard on it so reblogs, comments, and likes are appreciated very much.

Tag List: @fan-goddess , @artxasa

Chapter 9

The days at the Hewitt house went by slow as molasses, within these dragging days a construction crew had arrived and began repairing your home. They worked quickly and made a lot of headway which is unusual for contractors, the team seemed eager to leave for some unspoken reason. The foreman said that in one month, you would get your home back; you were excited to have your life get back on track despite enjoying your time at the Hewitt house. You made sure to water and trim the fruit trees so that they didn’t overgrow or die, since Dover was still missing, all the responsibility was left up to you. There was so much work to do but you were happy to be able to contribute your time to the property. In the passing days you didn’t see much of Tommy, he seemed preoccupied and was frequently away from the farm which only made the days last longer for you.

Half past 4pm, the day was really wearing on you and the sun was getting low in the sky so you decided to leave the orchard and head back to the Hewitt house to rest. On your walk back, you think about Tommy’s room and what it must look like, when you saw the door under that menacing red light it was simultaneously both frightening and intriguing.

The basement was such a dark and quiet place, so spacious and empty; You remembered that room with hooks that Tommy swiftly prevented you from exploring, your curiosity grew when he spun you around and slammed the door shut. This family has a mysterious history to you, the mention of them allegedly eating people weighed heavy on your mind -can I really get past the fact that they might have been cannibals? – it felt easier to gaslight yourself into thinking everything was fine, so you ran it out of your head.

When you arrived at the house, you make your way through the parlor and see Luda Mae sitting on the couch in the living room. She was reading a romance novel with a muscular, golden-haired man on the cover, it was reminiscent of the classics you had seen in your grandmothers closet as a kid. She sees you and places the book down to the side hurriedly as if she was ashamed of what she was reading,

“I-uh-ahem” She stuttered,

You smile politely “Reading anything good?”

She laughs, “Yeah, this one’s real saucy too. Thought I might get lost in it for a while.”

You felt bad for interrupting her, “Well don’t let me stop you, I’m just heading over to my room for some rest before dinner.”

she replies, “Oh, shoot that reminds me, best get dinner started now.” Luda Mae gets up with a groan and starts walking towards the kitchen.

“Time really does fly by when you find a good book.” She laughs as she passes.

You go to your room and get yourself changed and freshened up before dinner, you didn’t want to be around everyone while having the sweat of farmwork still lingering. You put on a comfortable pair of black tights and a white tank top which matched the white walking shoes you slipped on your feet.

When dinner was ready, you left your room to meet with the Hewitts at the dining table. The scent of roast chicken and baked corn wafted into the room, you were starving from having worked all day. Charlie was already sitting at the table when you arrived, he looked at you and said,

“Didja see the progress on the house?”

You take a seat, “Yeah, it’s coming along really fast, I’m surprised.”

He laughs “Don’t be, that crew probably knows this area ain’t so safe for ‘em. They’re smart, gonna get their paycheck and fuck off.”

You furl your eyebrows, “Why isn’t it safe for them?”

“Ah- Uh...” Charlie stopped himself when he caught a glare from Luda Mae from the kitchen,

“Well, what if they were to get hurt hm? Ain’t no hospital nearby or nothin’” he looked pleased with his answer.

You reply, “That’s a good point I guess.”

You know there is something more to what he said, but you didn’t want to push him. Luda Mae brought in the food, placing it all on the table followed by a big jug of ice-water, she groaned as she sat down; Tommy however, was missing tonight and you were worried,

You ask, “Where is Tommy? Is he not eating?”

Charlie laughs “That boy not eat? Maybe when hell freezes over after pigs fly n’ the fat lady sings.”

A devilish grin forms on his face before he turns to Luda Mae and says,

“Hey Luda, get the ball rollin’ n’ start singin’, then when the pigs grow wings Satan’s ass’ll turn to ice and the boy won’t be eatin’ us outta house n’ home no more.”

Luda Mae just rolls her eyes, she turns to you and says,

“Don’t worry hun, Charlie brought somethin’ to him so he don’t starve out there.”

You push for more info, “He’s been so busy lately; I feel like I never get to see him anymore. Where is he anyway?”

Charlie grabs a chicken leg and bites into it, he starts speaking with his mouth full,

“He’d shred us in half if we toldja. He’s been workin’ real hard though, wants to show you what all he’s been doin’ tonight”

Charlie swallows his food and continues, “He’s got a big ole’ hard on for you girlie, you better not be trailin’ him along fer nothin’, or he might lose it.”

Luda Mae whips her dishcloth at Charlie, who just smiles and winks at you. Luda Mae looks at you and says,

“Hope you get used to this foul-mouthed pig here, I might die from having to apologize on his behalf all darn day.”

She shakes her head at him and follows, “Thomas wants to meet up with you after you’re done eatin’. He wants to show you what he’s been workin’ on.”

Charlie pipes in, “Yeah, I bet he wants to show you somethin’. Probably whip out the fuckin’ anaconda he’s hidin’ down there. For an ugly motherfucker he sure was blessed. God is a real shit heel for that one.”

You squint your eyes at him, and he continues,

“He used to bathe outside when he was a youngin’ but once he grew up a bit the bulls started feelin’ emasculated.” Charlie starts laughing hysterically.

Luda Mae hides her face in her hands, she yells out,

“Why’r you talkin’ bout my boy’s privates like that!? You tryin’ to make us all upset?”

Charlie is now red in the face from laughing, he gets a sick pleasure in making people uncomfortable, but if anything, it just made you unbearably curious. You caught a glimpse of his erection when you watched Tommy run from you at the pond, it was greatly obscured but from what you could see, it was huge; You were able to feel the size and firmness of it in the laundry room, which factualized Charlies words.

He looked over at you, his eyes were watery from laughing so hard, he says,

“I’m sorry honey buns, but you need to be warned before you let him stick that goddamn two by four in ya.” He continues to laugh while he shovels corn into his mouth. You were still not used to his outlandish way of conversation and it made you blush.

The rest of dinner was mostly just Luda Mae trying to keep the subject matter light and Charlie giggling to himself. Once you cleared the table and packed away the leftovers, Luda Mae guides you to the door and says,

“Go wait for him by the silo, he’ll take you to his surprise. I hope you like it dear.”

The sun was now deep on the horizon which was losing its rosy hue, twinkling planets were already visible and the moon was following the dark part of the sky. You see Thomas leaning against the silo, he had one hand in his pocket and the other was fiddling with some wheat from the field to check the progress of the crop. He was wearing a very loosely fit tank top that looked old and worn, his pants were a pale blue jean with dirt and other stains scattered all over, he was still wearing his working boots which means he must have completed this surprise only today.

He looks up from what he was doing, when he sees you, he stood up straight, dropping the wheat to the ground. You could tell he was smiling, his deep blue eyes squishing upward gave it away, this made you smile wide as you felt knots form in your stomach. You felt like you hadn’t seen him in forever, time away really does make the heart grow fonder, it was agony not being able to spend time with him. He extended his hand to you and when you placed your hand in his and realized how small you really were compared to him, you felt like you could only hold onto two of his fingers while he could easily cover more than just your hand with his.

He looked at you and carefully pulled you toward the forest,

“Where are we going? It’s dark in there, sort of scary, isn’t it?” You were hesitant to be going into a dark forest as the sun was rapidly losing its light, he looked at you and tilted his head to the side,

“I’m here” he said calmly.

His voice was so deep and reassuring. You rarely ever hear him speak, so it felt like you won the lottery whenever he did utter out anything. He was walking slowly, he made sure to accommodate the vast difference in gait you both had by staying behind you, he guided you by gently moving you in the right direction with his hand on your shoulder. Even though you were nervous about the darkness of the forest, you felt safe with Tommy close to you. He was so large and unbelievably strong that there was no way harm could come to you.

Suddenly, Tommy stopped and turned you around to face him, he took your hands and covered your eyes with them, you couldn’t help but smile. He put his hand on the middle of your back to guide you further in, you trusted that he would ensure you don’t trip and fall. The ground went from dirt and crunching leaves, to soft grass, then a hard flat surface. Each step you took made a hollow wooden noise as if you were at a harbor. Tommy stopped you and moved your hands from your eyes. You looked around and gasped, you were on a dock that sat on top of the pond.

The moon was already shining a bright light on the water making it look like glass, the stars that now shone in the night sky were reflecting off the surface and turned the pond into what looked like a portal into space. The gentle croaking of frogs created a peaceful ambience, and as you walked further onto the dock you saw some wooden chairs to relax on, one was much larger than the other.

“Did you make all this?” your voice was exasperated with awe.

Tommy nodded again and pointed at you,

You smiled “You made this for me?”

He nodded again and went to sit on the largest chair, he tapped his hand on the other chair to get you to sit with him. You sat down and the deep seat forced you to recline which was relaxing.

“I’ve never had anyone do something like this for me. Thank you, Tommy, you’re such a thoughtful man.”

Tommy looked at you and nodded slowly, he made an approving ‘hmph’ noise, he felt good about pleasing you. The heat tonight was thick, it made your skin sticky with sweat, and you could see a slick shine on Tommy’s arms and chest. You get up from the chair to put your hand in the water, testing its temperature, small fish reveal themselves as they flash in the moonlight. You stand up and remove your shoes, Tommy stands up nervously and you giggle,

“Don’t worry, I won’t take off my shirt or underwear. It’s too hot to just sit down when we have the most immaculate natural pool right under our feet.”

You slowly take off your tights and fold them neatly on top of your shoes, the black thong you had underneath did nothing to conceal your feminine shape; Tommy turns away from you, staring off into the sky in an attempt to avoid gawking at you. It was amusing to you since he already saw most of your body the first time you were in the pond. You slowly lower yourself into the cool water of the pond, its cooling temperature feels like heaven.

Tommy heard you get in and slowly turns around to see you on your back, floating gently with the moon’s reflection circling your body, you looked like a goddess. You saw that he was just standing there watching you, you swim up to the dock and put your arms on the edge, you say,

“You know, you don’t have to just watch me.”

Seeing him act so shy was strange, a polar opposite of the last time you were both in the laundry room where he made no qualms of pushing himself up against your clothed pussy with his dick begging for entry. You watched as he took off his clothes, throwing them sloppily next to your neatly folded pile. You were annoyed that he was wearing black boxers which concealed the shape and size of his package too well, but being able to see his body almost completely unclothed was still enough to have you biting your lip in excitement.

Tommy had very long legs which were complemented by his thick thighs, his butt was muscular from having to haul his hefty body weight all over the farm. His torso was exactly as you pictured it, he had heavy muscle underneath a layer of fat that softened any sharp edges and did nothing but add mass to his already impressive size. His pecs were large and heaved with every breath he took, a smattering of soft hair covered the base of his chest and ran down his abdomen leading towards his groin, getting less sparse the lower it went.

Seeing him so exposed was odd, most people would look vulnerable, but he only looked more intimidating and fearsome especially since his arm muscles were well defined despite his soft torso. His size was not a mirage from thick clothes or padded jackets like most men you encountered, he really was authentically a behemoth of a man.

He lowered himself into the pond and let out a sigh of relaxation when he submerged his torso under the surface. You smile, and swim over to him,

“You deserve to relax after working so hard. I hope we could make this a frequent thing, something we could do together.”

You waited for a response, he looked at you and then up to the sky, he let out a positive ‘hm’ and nodded. You felt like you were in a dream, nothing you experienced was ever this beautiful, and no man was ever as generous as Tommy, you wanted to live in this moment forever. Tommy stands up in the water, he turns to you and grabs your hand to pull you to another part of the pond,

“C’mere” he says.

He pushes past some thick reeds and you end up in a tiny alcove where the water comes up to your chin and tall grasses circle you both which made the area very intimate. Tommy sees you struggling to keep your head out of water, he bends over you and grabs the smallest area on your waist under your ribs with both hands and he lifts you out of the water effortlessly. You let out a short-excited scream as he pulls you up and holds you close to his body. You’re barely able to straddle him, your chest was now just under his chin, your tank top clung to your breasts exposing your now hardened nipples. You placed both arms over his shoulders to prevent yourself from smothering his face with your bosom. He was so strong that you were able to sit comfortably on just the one arm, he looks out towards the grass and says,

“Watch”

Tommy used his free hand to splash water across the grass around you and it erupted with whirring, a horde of fireflies sprung out from their hiding places and lit up the night. You were stunned,

“I’ve never seen fireflies before, this is… this is magical.”

Tommy laughs and slowly turns to let you take in the full effect of the display before you, the glow of the fireflies created a warm soft light that was bright enough to let you see his eyes clearly, you couldn’t help but stare. He looked up at you, his eyes half lidded and glossy, he drank in every inch of the enchanting sight before him. When he looked into your eyes it was like projecting his soul into your mind, you could feel his emotions and you felt a deep comfort from it, like a warm blanket on a cold winter night.

You reach up and move his hair away from his face, he took your hand and held it to his cheek as he pressed his face into your touch, his eyes closing and letting out a deep breath. You smile at him and decide to be brave; you begin to slowly remove his mask but he abruptly stops your action with his hand, you could see his expression was full of worry, you say,

“If I keep my eyes closed will you let me take off your mask? I promise not to open them.”

Tommy looks off to the side thinking, he wasn’t scared of anything except losing you and he was worried that if you saw his full face, it would disturb you. He wondered what you were going to do, but the fear was stopping him from finding out. You see him deep in thought and speak again,

“Look” you close your eyes tightly, “I can’t see a thing, I promise I won’t peek.”

Tommy trusted you, and despite the anxiety running through his system, he removed his mask and let it hang down on one ear. He took your hand and guided it up to the left side of his face, which had no significant damage compared to the other side. You feel his stubble and softly move your hand down to his lips, they were smooth and parted slightly. You smile when your fingers reached his mouth, despite not being able to see his face, from what you were able to feel, you knew he was handsome. You slowly lower your head down and pause, hovering your lips over his and testing to see what he would allow. He didn’t resist.

You pressed your lips onto his and immediately felt a jolt of hormonal chemicals race through you like an electric shock, he let out a muffled sound of surprise. He pressed back and slowly lowered your body so he could kiss you on a more equal level. You extended the kiss by opening your mouth slightly, parting his lips only to press in on them again passionately, Tommy reciprocated the motion and was now breathing heavily through his nose, you could hear his heart beating loudly in his chest as he groaned with arousal, it was so deep that it vibrated into your chest further exciting you.

You could feel some strange deformation on one side of his face, your lips didn’t quite connect with his fully on his right side. You stayed closer to his left side since it felt a little bit more intact, you wished you could see how unique his face was. Imagining the damage done to him at such a young age was upsetting, it only emboldened your feelings for him.

The kiss was long and passionate, you both couldn’t get enough of each other, it felt like a sin to stop. Every time you pulled back from his lips, he leaned into you to catch them again parting and closing your mouths to enhance the connection you both so desperately craved. You could smell the air from his nose washing over you, it was strangely intoxicating almost like it was fresh mountain air which aroused you further. His free arm was now trailing up your spine until his hand found a resting place on the back of your neck.

You wanted more of him; your emotions were getting so intense that you moaned each time the pressure of the kiss increased. You placed your left hand on his shoulder, and your right on his collarbone. You ran your fingers over the thick muscle tensing on his neck, his carotid artery was pulsating with his heart beat, you continued feeling upwards and reached his jawline where his thick stubble prickled your fingertips. His features were so far above a stereotypically masculine ideal, it made you feel a cautious excitement, as if you encountered the final product of evolutionary success aimed to create a monster of man.

You finally pull away, making sure to keep your eyes closed. You are breathing heavily, letting out a soft moan as you lean your head back to get more air. Tommy covers his face back with the mask and gazes at you still drunk off the kiss and feeling lighter than air. The fireflies have now dispersed to the point where it was very dim around you both. He carries you back to the shallow area of the pond so you could stand up.

You smile, “Thank you for trusting me.”

Tommy nods and smiles under his mask. You wade in the water around him as he sits in the water so his torso is once again submerged, his head leaned back and eyes closed. You look around at the leftover fireflies lazily floating over top the glassy pond surface, the water gently laps at your hips.

A feeling of unease creeps into your body and raises the hairs on the back of your neck, you stop moving and a sudden wave of anxiety rushed over you. In this moment you freeze and quiet your breathing, you felt an instinct to try to listen to the world around you very carefully but you couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. The feeling of something being…off was now overwhelming and setting you on edge. You quietly move closer to Tommy to create a sort of protective border from the surroundings and hold onto his arm, he opens his eyes and looks at you with concern.

“Somethings wrong” you say in a hushed tone.

Tommy immediately got up from his sitting position and stood alert, he closed his arms around you and searched with his eyes to see what spooked you;

He breathed out slowly and moved you back towards the dock. You were confused and frightened, a tense gut feeling was like an ancient ancestral alarm which you knew should never be ignored. He helped you up on the dock and followed behind after you walked toward your clothes. You quickly put on your tights and shoes and as Tommy got his clothes on you looked around, trying to find the source for this sudden dread. You slowly panned across the forest, until you see it.

In the distance, and shrouded in the shadows of night, a silhouette of a person stood still. It was too dark to make out any features and just as you saw them, they disappeared into the bush as if they were nothing but a hallucination. You get closer to Tommy who just finished pulling his shirt down over his body, you press your back into him to feel a sense of security. Tommy looks at you and bends his upper body over you as he looks around,

“Where” he says firmly,

You point to where the shadow was and whisper, “There was someone there, watching us.”

He didn’t need to see what you saw in order to know that the energy outside had shifted, all he wanted to do was get you to safety. He lifted you up into his arms and held you tightly, he took one look around to ensure the exit was safe and bolted; His movements were agile and fast, it almost felt supernatural. The trees whip past and you quickly lose sight of the pond, his footsteps reverberating thuds as he moves through the woods with expert agility. Your eyes are wide with fear as you watch the forest behind you darken the further away you get; How Tommy was able to see things in the dark was a mystery to you.

Finally, you are out of the wooded area and coming up to where the silo was, the feeling of dread dissipates and Tommy slows his pace down, he wasn’t even huffing and puffing like most people would be doing after running so fast with a grown adult in their arms.

You hug him tightly, “Thank you for carrying me.”

You give him a kiss on his neck and continue to tighten your grip. Tommy brings you into the house and shuts the door behind you both, he gently lowers you to the floor, you keep hugging him as you stand on your tip toes. He felt very protective of you and was mad that someone scared you so much. His rage was building the more he thought about someone being on his property watching the two of you. He wondered how they would have been able to evade the multiple traps he set up around the pond perimeter.

Tommy grabs your shoulders and pushes you back slowly, he lifts your chin to have you look up at him. He sees the worried look on your face and it fuels his rage of the intruder,

“Go sleep, I gotta do somethin’.”

His voice was rich in baritone, you could hear anger in his words. You didn’t want him to leave, but before you could tell him to stay, he was out the door. You made your way to the washroom to shower off the pond water and get ready for sleep, Luda Mae and Charlie were already asleep upstairs, unaware of the situation. You were disturbed by what you saw, but as long as Tommy was out there, you felt safe in the house. You went to bed that night worried, who was that shadow and what will happen if Tommy catches them? The morning couldn’t come soon enough.

#what ya writin #thomas hewitt #thomas hewitt x y/n #slasher community #thomas hewitt x afab reader #leatherface 2006 #texas chainsaw massacre #my art #the fruit after the flesh #slasher smut #slasher x reader #slasher thirst #slasher fandom

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fireflysummers · 9 months

Text

Final Thoughts on GO S2

I'm probably gonna pull back on discussing S2, at least publicly, after this. I did actually like a lot of the season, but it's triggering some of my religious trauma and also the fandom is already stressing me out. So here, let's have some final thoughts.

First and foremost: I am not a Gaiman simp. I've read a decent amount of his work: comics, short stories, essays, and novels. Aside from Good Omens, I've liked Coraline and The Graveyard Book the best by far, whereas American Gods just. Did Not Connect with me, even though it's should have, given the stuff I tend to enjoy.

However. Regardless of whether I like a given work (or even like how he adapted it, a la parts of The Sandman TV series), he is a veteran writer who has proven that he does, actually, know how to write a story with consistent characters.

Beyond that, I do actually believe that he's trying to do right by Pratchett, and loves and respects the story and characters they created together. He's generally shown up as an ally to a variety of social causes, and directly and respectfully responds to fans on Tumblr. While no saint, I feel that there is cause to give the benefit of the doubt that things will resolve satisfyingly in S3, and that there is Intention about some of the things in S2.

This, of course, does not absolve it of being "bad," but even here I think we need to articulate better the different types of "bad" that people are reacting to. There seems to roughly be three camps here: 1) People who thought it was "bad" because of how it ended, with the breakup and a lot of unresolved plot threads; 2) People who thought it was "bad" because it struggled on a technical level with its set, lighting, directorial choices, editing, etc; 3) People who thought it was "bad" because they felt the characterization was significantly off and that the internal logic of the series had been violated.

With regards to Point One, the only solution is to Wait and See. Judgement should be reserved until the story is properly finished--easier said than done, especially considering the current media landscape, and the number of series or franchises that fail to live up to their promises.

Point Two isn't something I understand well enough to contribute meaningfully, except that I suspect the pandemic affected this aspect the most and am willing to give it a bit more mercy. That aside, I for the most part I don't find it bad so much as not as good as S1. Except for the parts with epilepsy warnings, surely there could've been a better way to do that.

Point Three... that's the stumbling block for me, and I find it interesting that most of the folks who struggle with this point in particular are long time fans of the book.

I trust that instinct.

There are two different directions to go from here. The first is the assumption that these problems are a result of ego, carelessness, or lack of skill from the showrunners/writers/director. It's cynical but not unjustified. The second is the belief that the breaks in lore or characterization were intentional, building towards a much grander conspiracy. Of course, even in this case I don't think it forgives the lack of signposting that would indicate that this is a choice rather than an accident. It just makes it feel clumsy and poorly constructed, a major risk on a show that hasn't had its third season confirmed.*

However, regardless, it still feels salvageable. I've enjoyed reading a lot of meta on all this, and I've pulled some things from others (particularly That Theory by @ariaste), but I don't really want to put forth a single, defined theory myself. Instead, here's some questions I've got, why those questions are important (to me, at least). Actual theorizing comes after, and anybody who snidely mentions Sherlock in the comments or tags is going to get auto-blocked. Like seriously, I'm aware that some stuff is a stretch, but it's fun??? To theorize????? And I'm here for me and my peace of mind rather than trying to argue a point.

*I have some suspicions here, particularly with Gaiman stating that the decision from Amazon would come much faster than The Sandman's second season (which was four months). I don't know enough though to say if that's actually significant.

Questions

Who the fuck is telling this story?

This is the most important piece, in my opinion. There's this assumption when reading books (or research papers, newspapers, etc...) that the narrator who is writing the words is a non-presence, Neutral and objective. That's not the case, and an important part of literature critique is figuring out who the narrator is, and what their goals are. Oftentimes, the narrator and the author are the same person, but with Pratchett's work, particularly on Good Omens and Discworld, the Narrator was its own unique character.

This is why people struggle adapting Discworld to live action--that medium requires a Reason for having a Narrator, and especially in the age of method acting that's often considered immersion-breaking. Good Omens worked so well because they not only kept the Narrator, but they made Her God.

This added some really interesting new dimensions, such as the scene where Crowley speaks to God about his fall and the destruction of humanity. He doesn't receive an answer, but we're watching from God's perspective, so we as the audience know that She's listening.

Another advantage of making God the Narrator is that it justifies all the goofy little asides we get into the lives of minor characters (i.e. Leslie the Mailman), without losing focus. It helps the world feel like it’s full of people, rather than characters and plot contrivances, and the theme that individual people and their choices are important. The Narrator is such a central character of Good Omens that without it, the story struggles to stay focused.

It also highlights a key difference in the writing styles of the two authors. Pratchett’s work tends to introduce four or five totally unique plot threads that feel completely disjointed until the last act (if not even later), when it turns into a Chekhov’s Firing Squad. Plot twists around secret identities and backstabbing and schemes are relatively rare, as the omniscient Narrator doesn’t lie about the intentions of people or their actions.

Gaiman’s writing is typically not like that, to my knowledge. He buries characters in misdirection and hints, and you never know the true identity or motives until all the chips are down. It’s a perfectly valid way to approach storytelling, but it makes it jarring to see it in S2. The lack of a Narrator is a huge reason why S2 doesn’t feel like Good Omens to some folks.

My gut feeling is that the decision to shift from the original Narrator was highly intentional. It helps to obscure the thoughts and intentions of people, and it also muddles the insights that we’re supposed to take away. (I would have loved hearing God monologue about what’s going on in Jim’s head. I think it’d do a lot to make him seem less.... obnoxiously stupid.)

More than that, it brings up a reasonable potential plot point of: Where did God go? Why isn’t She present in the story? Even in her early appearance in the Job flashback, she doesn’t sound like the narrator for last season. After the first part of her speech (which Gabriel later quotes), her tone turns casual and condescending, which might line up with her being a bit of an asshole, it doesn’t line up with the whole “dealer of a mysterious card game who is always smiling”).

Also, I don’t think it’s safe to assume that nobody is telling the story either. Just because they’re not making their presence known doesn’t mean they aren’t there, and in a story like Good Omens, that’s concerning.

Wait, where's Satan?

Another person I saw while scrolling the tags pointed out that Satan is nowhere to be seen this season. He's really only mentioned in reference to a bet God made in Job, but then Crowley is the one on the ground causing mischief. There's no Hail Satan among demons (like Hastur and Ligur did at the start of S1).

That's might be because the writers didn't want us to think it was important (a la Hastur), but that feels off. Given that Satan speaks directly through the radio to Crowley in S1, complimenting him on his work, it's safe to say that he was at least aware of and involved in the goings-on in Hell. The fact that he wasn't even an worry for Beelzebub in abandoning their post? Feels weird.

(Also if you know where that post is, I'll happy credit + link)

What is Maggie?

Look, I love cute lesbians in love as much as the next queer, but I don't like Maggie. I don’t think she’s a person. Contextually, she’s a plot device, but I agree with That Essay that she might be an actual Plot Device.

Her characterization is simple and relatively shallow—a bit of an airhead, ray of sunshine that’s supposed to remind you of Aziraphale. When she describes her past to Nina, it’s almost robotic (also, her story implies it was Mr. Fell who first rented to her ancestor, not Mr. Fell’s great-grandfather like Nina implied). Her emotions are over-dramatic and seem to be turned on and off at random (scenes with her crying to Aziraphale about her woes had my “manipulator” senses going off for some reason).

When asked about a song, she not only IDs the song, its singer, and its year, but how and on what it was distributed. (Honestly thought this would’ve been something interesting, because she’s been pretty ditzy so far, it’d be interesting if she had like... an insane memory for music history.) And then she’s the one that sets Aziraphale on his little investigation by giving him the transformed records, while also planting the seed about her love troubles with Nina. Later, her advice to Crowley is... not awful, but feels insincere and a bit too forward, given her own self-proclaimed lack of relationship experience.

I don’t know what she is (a demon, hastur with amnesia in disguise, a literal plot device inserted by the current storyteller, etc...), but there’s something not right with her.

(Also the joke of “who listens to records anymore, it’s so old fashioned” just doesn’t land, lots of people buy records, and I’m saying this as somebody who has worked at a record store before.)

What's going on with Aziraphale?

There’s something Off about Aziraphale, and it’s not his choices at the end of the season. That makes total sense if you read him as somebody with severe religious trauma getting dragged back into the abusive system because other people need him and he’s been promised the ability to change things.

But I do think something is happening to his memory. Nearly all the flashbacks are from Aziraphale’s point of view and retelling, which means that they’re less reliable than God’s version of events in the previous season. Many of them don’t make logistical sense (post-church scene in 1941), depict Crowley as meaner or more sinister than we know he is, or frame events... weirdly. The scene with him trying food for the first time feels Really Bad, especially when the series has previously established that he’s a) prim and proper and b) his interest in food is one of the beautiful things that connect him to humanity, not some kind of gluttonous sin. Also he turns down alcohol.

Their meet-cute at the start of the universe also doesn’t line up with their reactions to each other in Eden, or the fact that knowing each other Before has never come up or been hinted at anywhere ever. I don’t know what’s causing this to happen, only that Aziraphale repeatedly looks pensive when coming out of flashbacks, and Crowley is never there afterwards to corroborate said memories.

His actions also seem pretty inconsistent with what we know of him—i.e. I refuse to believe he would ever mistreat his books, even if they’re just old encyclopedias. Also, he feels a bit too...forceful in trying to get Nina and Maggie to fall in love? I mean, he didn’t exert that much direct influence on even Warlock, when he was actively hoping that the boy would turn out angelic rather than neutral.

I don’t think this removes his agency in that last decision, so much as explains how he was in such a vulnerable place at all. He still needs to apologize and fix things, because he messed up, and even if he hadn’t he still seriously hurt Crowley.

What's going on with Crowley?

There’s something Off about Crowley. The most obvious thing, of course, is his memories. At multiple points in the present day, characters state that they remember him or have met him before, only to be met with confusion. This is especially concerning given that he has a nigh photographic memory for faces (something mentioned in the book when he immediately IDs Mary Loquacious, 11 years after a 30 second conversation).

Overall, he seems to be better known by other supernatural entities this season, in ways that often tie him back to his angelic identity (i.e. saying they fought together in the war, Aziraphale stating he knew the angel he used to be, etc...). This doesn’t feel right, because S1 we see that Hell is largely apathetic towards his schemes, and definitely does not defer to him at any point in any capacity.

Then there’s the issue of his power level. It’s always been speculated that Crowley was a powerful angel prior to falling, when he mentions in S1 his involvement with star making, his seemingly unique ability to freeze time, and creating a pocket universe for Adam before the confrontation with Satan. He also has a tendency of breathing life into inanimate objects, like his plants or car. He also has the regular demonic skillset: miracles that can adjust physical appearance; the ability to change inanimate objects (like paintball guns into real guns); the ability to manifest clothing and similar items; and summon hellfire to his fingertips. This, plus the way he monologues to God with a degree of familiarity rather than reverence seems to indicate that he was Somebody Powerful and Important Before.

But in S2, his skills are significantly expanded upon. The miracle he and Aziraphale summon sets off alarms in heaven and hell, and it’s powerful enough to mask Gabriel from the Archangels. He summons a miniature sun to rain fire on Job, which is way bigger and flashier than anything we’ve seen him summon in S1. (If he needs fire, he alters the course of a dropping bomb, without creating one himself.)

Yet he’s able to cloak his presence so well he goes wholly unnoticed in heaven, or in front of heavenly agents on earth (i.e. the Job flashback). Muriel can’t clock him as a demon, or even as another supernatural being, despite their auras usually being pretty significant, such Aziraphale immediately sensing the archangels when they arrive. He’s able to interfere with files that Muriel claimed required clearance (although I feel like that might just be a snark about Obeying Without Thinking? I would really need a Narrator to know.)

I might be misremembering, but I don’t think we’ve seen angels or demons transmogrify living beings before either. In the book, Crowley brings Aziraphale’s dove back to life after the failed magic show, and occasionally sinks ducks, but he doesn’t alter them? Not even Adam demonstrates that skill in S1. But he has no trouble turning Job’s children into lizards, however temporarily. Boy that would’ve been convenient during the flood. Or when the guard stopped then from getting to the air strip.

I don’t have any real issues with his characterization in the present day parts of S2, but there’s something weird happening with Crowley.

Where's all the people?

I really like a lot of the new characters, but how were there only like, 2.5 new humans named in the present day? Flashbacks don’t count bc the humans are all dead and can’t affect the story.

As much as I like Nina, she and Maggie don’t drive the story beyond being an occasional and awkwardly inserted plot contrivance? Both are actively robbed of their agency at several points, forced into situations that they could not have avoided or escaped. I’m not really sure what growth they’re expected to experience other than deciding not to date each other after everything. I literally can’t tell you anything about Nina other than that she remembers her regular’s orders, runs a coffee shop, and has a textbook abusive partner we never see. The only meaningful interactions they have are between those two, or in conversation with Aziraphale and Crowley.

Compare that to S1, where Anathema gets hit by Aziraphale and Crowley, but her primary relationships are with Newt, Adam, and Agnes Nutter (I think that counts as a relationship). We know that she’s got a wealthy family back in Puerto Rico, and that she was literally raised to save the world, and that she isn’t happy under all that pressure. Newt on the other hand is connected to not just Anathema, but Shadwell and Madame Tracy. He never even directly interacts with Aziraphale and Crowley. We know about his hobbies, his struggle to hold down a job, and his almost supernatural ability to destroy any electronics he touches. I don’t necessarily like how their relationship came together, but they were both very, very well fleshed out characters with unique backstories and goals. They weren’t just... waiting around to give Aziraphale and Crowley a new questline.

And while there’s no requirement to include a large cast of human characters that are exerting influence over the story, the lack of it is another aspect that makes this season feel not like Good Omens.

Also, it's just. Really weird to me that the events of S1 aren't really referenced at all? Like, Adam isn't mentioned, nor is Warlock. I don't expect them to keep track of the humans they met on the airfield for 20 minutes, but none of it is ever specifically referenced as far as I can tell, beyond Crowley threatening Gabriel. Like, I get that it's been a few years, but the pair caused a big enough disturbance that you'd expect some kind of ripples in their supernatural communities.

Promised by the Narrative (Obvious Chekhov's guns that I will be legitimately upset over if they do not go off)

A sincere apology from Aziraphale to Crowley that doesn't come with the expectation that Crowley will come back to him, but because he deserves an apology, even if the choices Aziraphale made were done with good intentions. Aziraphale does not expect forgiveness, and is shocked when Crowley grants it without hesitation.

A clear declaration of love from Aziraphale, which can't be rationalized away by either of them.

An "I'm Sorry" dance between Aziraphale and Crowley, but with greater sincerity and gravity. The most important piece is that they end up dancing together, which signifies a mutual apology and dedication to come together.

Since kissing is on the table, I expect an actual joyful, mutual kiss between these two assholes.

A shared cottage in South Downs.

Predictions/Theories (just some fun thoughts I've had)

When Adam declared that Satan was not his father, he didn't make himself not the antichrist, but accidentally crowned his human dad the King of Hell. Nobody knows this, because Adam doesn't have a good measure for "normal" supernatural situations, and Mr. Young because he's so "normal" that he explains away all the magical bullshit that's started going down.

When Adam declared that Satan was not his father, he erased Satan altogether. However, this left a vacuum in both power and reality. The defection of both Gabriel and Beelzebub only widens that crack. In an attempt to Fix things, reality is warping the story. Crowley has become leagues more powerful between S1 and S2, as the narrative is trying to force him into the role of his previous boss. Aziraphale is unknowingly being pulled into a similar version on the Other Side, perhaps to replace Gabriel or perhaps to replace God herself, who has been fairly absent in all this. The alterations to their memories or past have come about to keep the narrative running smoothly.

When the Metatron asks Nina whether anybody has ever asked for death, he was actually referring to Death, the sole remaining rider of the apocalypse.

If Maggie is indeed a Plot Device, it would be a fascinating exploration of Free Will to see her become aware of this (cue existential crisis), and then fall in love with Nina on her own terms, rather than because she was written that way.

Hastur will be back. Somehow.

The reason why S2 focuses so much on the supernatural characters is because S3 will be about how the events in S1 have changed the political landscape of heaven and hell. Angels are questioning their roles, demons are yearning for something more. It's scaring upper administration, and then the two most reliable folks in employment run away to alpha centauri. Recruiting Aziraphale and getting him back in line prevents him from becoming a martyr, control the range of his influence. The series reasserts its theme of choice and agency by highlighting that Aziraphale and Crowley aren't that special, they've just had the chance to live and grow, and that the others have free will too, if they want it.

The reason why they wanted to separate Aziraphale and Crowley, is not to get Aziraphale on his own, but to get Crowley on his own. He literally stopped time and made a pocket universe in front of Satan last season. He's powerful and dangerous and somebody wants to see that reigned in.

Wishlist (stuff I desperately want to see)

Crowley getting an audience with God and an opportunity to ask his questions, only to refuse to do so because he's found his own Answers and he no longer needs hers

Aziraphale and Crowley growing more into their book incarnations. Aziraphale becomes confident in his sense of morality, which he developed the hard way through millennia on earth besides humanity. He slowly learns what it means to be loved, unconditionally, but also is better at asserting and maintaining his boundaries. Crowley, still anxious and unwinding, works through his fear of abandonment, providing him opportunities to be kind and gentle and nurturing--all traits that he's aggressively hid since being a demon.

Hand holding. I know that Gaiman was referring to Ineffable Bureaucracy, but I still feel like we'd benefit from meaningful hand holding, especially since that got cut from the adaptation of the book.

Shifted focus away from the supernatural shenanigans, and back onto the humans that actually drive the story.

Cameos from S1 characters (if not a more substantial appearance).

The Four Other Riders of the Apocalypse.

Cursed Thoughts (why I shouldn't be allowed a social platform)

Ineffable Bureaucracy turns up in season 3 because Beelzebub got Gabriel pregnant somehow.

#good omens #good omens spoilers #good omens season 2 #good omens s2 #good omens meta #good omens 2 spoilers #good omens 2 theory #good omens 2 analysis #long post #text

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punishing-eden · 1 year

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congrats on 151 follows, i enjoy your writing a lot and hope to see more !! 🫶

may i request a oneshot of lee comforting commandant after a long day? hyperreal's idle animation where he carries skk to bed melts my heart..and i'm sure my fellow lee simps can agree

Author's note:

🥺🥺🥺Thank you, I am glad you enjoy my work! And, I do have some more fic ideas on that back burner, both for PGR and other fandoms!

I heard about Hyperreal's animation, although I've seen his victory animation, I haven't seen the one where he carries SSK.

Lee simps unite! ✊

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

Night Time Over Time...

Lee (Palefire) x Commandant/reader

Not beta read, but proof read

Summary:

Working overtime became a habit for you, and it became a natural occurrence for your constructs. Lee wants to give you a piece of his mind.

Tags: Wholesome, one-shot, short fic, request

The chattering outside of his room took Lee's attention from what he was doing.

He listened to the faint chatter of two Babylonia candidates walking along the corridor during this hour of the night. It was usually these two who were the last ones to head to bed, and the ones responsible to wrap things up around the living-quarters of the base.

Lee took a glance at the time reading at 11:55 pm. The two candidates were heading to bed earlier than usual. It was an occurring sign for Lee.

Placing the screwdriver down, with a heavy heart, Lee stood up from his seat. He went out of his room with a destination in mind.

He walked through the corridor and turned left. Continue walking until he reaches the large double door of the practise room.

Lee took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He paused and ruminate the scenario in his M. I. N. D once again. To make sure, he has the correct wordings and sentences to go against your stubbornness.

Something must be done about your habits, and Liv was too soft to tell you, no.

Without a moment to waste, Lee approached the door and it automatically opened.

As it was expected he sees you sitting on the floor with your legs crossed staring at the empty shooting range.

In several instances, Lee had seen fooling around by yourself. Doodling on a piece of paper, singing to your heart's content, or just talking to yourself; procrastinating from the ever-growing amount of work.

However tonight, you were quiet and it felt a little off. Your eyes looked tired, your lips held down with a small frown, and your brows were furrowed.

He knew something was bothering you.

You didn't greet your construct. Too lost into your own thoughts, the fact of someone came into the practising room flew over your head.

"Commandant..." Lee spoke

Upon hearing your title, you turned your head and saw your construct standing by the door way looking at you.

Startled, you quickly put up a smiled and plied, "Oh hey, what are you doing here?"

"I should be the one asking," Lee crossed his arms, "It's late. What are you doing?"

"Just taking a break," you answered simply.

"...are you working overtime again?" Lee asked. He sounded a little concerned.

You became a little embrassed from his statement. It wasn't the first time your constructs has expressed their concerns about working overtime, "... It's nothing, just had a long day that's all..."

Your voice faded a little as you spoke while your expression shifted. And, Lee had caught a glimpse of how the stress has began to take a toll on you.

"What happened?”, Lee asked, genuinely curious about your troubles. He added, “ I can see your stress levels are gradually increasing again. Going any higher than 40%, will contribute to hair loss." Lee stated. His had his usual scowl of disapproval, looking at you made you feel a little nervous.

Letting out a small laugh, you tried ease Lee's worry. Nodding your head in acknowledgment, you said, "I will be fine, Lee," Standing up from the ground, you brush the dust off of your uniform," just let me finish my work first then I will head off to bed, I promise."

Lee held a skeptical look. He reckon you would work your way around the promises.

"No." he said it out flatly.

"Please~" you tried to convince him, you looked at Lee, "I just need three more hours before bed."

"No."

Putting your hands together, you begged Lee to let you off the hook, "Just one, one report and I will be done for the day."

"No."

For five minutes, the negotiating went back and forth. You continued to stand on your ground, opting to finish the most urgent report first before resting. Which was a good enough reasoning to convince Lee to agree.

"Fine, one report only," he crossed his arms and said, "I suppose I can help out too."

Sitting by the desk in your quarters, you began to type away in your report. Meanwhile, Lee helped writing the supporting report and sorted all the other related paperwork.

As minutes went by, you continued to work, asking Lee for assistance from time to time.

As your construct, Lee diligently obliged to every demand. Assisting you, with every detail from gathering supporting data files to the final printing of the entire report. Adjusting the angle of the staples to the colour coded indexes. Placing the hardcopy in a yellow card folder, he headed out from the printing room to place the freshly printed report on Celica's desk. Then with a transferring port, Lee submitting the digital copy to the Minstry of War.

He did a little calculation in his head before heading back to your quarters. Once the door slide open, Lee said, "Commandant, I have submitted the report to the Ministry of War. It would take, on average, 14 da-", he stopped mid sentences.

Still seated in your chair, you didn't response to Lee. You were leaning on your desk head resting on both of your arms. While Lee was away, you couldn't help but to fall asleep.

"... I told you so..." Lee mumbled with a sigh.

He slowly approach you and watched as you slumber. He had thought about the possibility that you would fake sleeping just to have him get off your back. Looking a how deep you slumber, he knew you were too tired to continue.

Whatever happened during the day, he will deal with it in the following morning. Once, you were awake.

With care, he brought his arms around your back and legs. Gently, with ease, he pick you up and slowly place you on your bed. He tucked you in with the utter most care making sure you were comfortable to get as much rest as possible.

Satisfied, Lee went over to turn off the lights and headed out of your quarters.

"See you later, Commandant," he whispered.

The walk through the corridors was quick. He had memorise the route from the your room to his, to optimise the fastest and most efficient way to reach to you if there is an emergency. Within a few minutes, Lee arrived back to his room. Still, dimly lit from the lamp on his desk.

The first thing he did was to read the time on his desk clock, 1:45am.

"... Four hours and fifth-teen minutes before dawn... That's a new record for [Y/N]," Lee said. Without a word, he sat down on his chair and picked up his screwdriver.

#pgr #punishing gray raven #punishing eden #punishing: gray raven #pgr lee #pgr x reader #pgr lee x reader #pgr lee x commandant

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junosmindpalace · 2 years

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Hi there! It's my birthday 🎂 (July 31) so I was wondering if I could get a senku x fem reader on what he would do for his crush on her birthday

hi there anon! I hope you had a wonderful birthday!! it took me almost two whole months to put this out i am SO sorry. regardless i hope you enjoy!

p.s., honestly…the stone world gift was an excuse for me to write about a tiktok i saw on fireworks. i know technically they arent birthday gifts but they still represent celebrations!.....

synopsis: how he celebrates your special day.

wc: 930

warnings: corny

Birthday? Oh, yeah. He totally forgot.

Just kidding! Of course he didn’t- that’s just how he acts.

In reality, he’s known your birthday is fast approaching and has been contemplating what to do for you on your special day.

In both modern and stone age, Senku’s gifts aren’t the most direct, and if they are, it’s in the most casual and lighthearted way possible. No, his gifts are more so phenomenons, something spectacular or useful that he just so happens to present on your birthday.

MODERN WORLD:

Before the petrification, Senku had a lot more convenient birthday gift options. Clothing, accessories, merchandise, equipment for anything and everything- and all of it could come with a gift receipt! And yet you still have to be really attentive if you want to figure out what his gift is and when he presents it to you, because it isn’t always obvious.

Maybe one year, he’ll show you that a science project you two’ve been working on for weeks is finally finished (because he worked his ass off in his free time prepping it), and the two of you can witness the product of your hard work on your special day.

Maybe the year after that, he’ll tell you about this super cool opportunity to get involved in something that’s of interest to you; maybe some convention, competition or workshop. Hell, he might even tag along if he thinks he can learn a thing or two!

And maybe the year after that, he’ll invite you to that ramen joint he loves to visit with his dad and treat you to anything you’d like on the menu, but only because he’s been dying to go and definitely not because he wanted to give you a nice birthday meal.

But for as long as you’ve known him, you know that Senku likes to use your birthday as an excuse to indulge in something science related, and this will probably be the only time he’s upfront with a gift. He might tinker with items of yours, invite you over to make something techy, or build you your very own science equipment, such as a telescope, because you’re always complimenting his. It’s sitting cross legged on the floor of Senku's bedroom, talking animatedly about a new science concept that brings a joyful end to your day, whether it was good or bad overall. You walk home with a little skip in your step as you reflect on the time you spent with your friend and the thoughtful day he had organized for you.

“Thank you for the birthday gift.”

“Oh, that was today? Completely slipped my mind. Yeah, let’s count that as your gift.”

STONE WORLD:

He’s the only one who knows the exact date off the top of his head before civilization was rebuilt. He’s been keeping a mental calendar for thousands of years, unlike most of the others who were petrified. With so much work to be done and learning to adjust to your new lives, your birthday just didn’t seem that important to you.

And Senku wholeheartedly agrees with your logic- but it was still your birthday.

Of course, he’s dropping no sign that he even knows what day it is. He spends the entire day treating you and everyone around him as he normally does- giving out instruction, some science lessons and contributing to construction. It’s during the late evening when the sun has fully set that Senku’s birthday gift shines brighter than any star in the night sky.

Senku had asked the villagers days ahead to help him contribute to your gift without letting on that it was for you. He had the brawn of the group collect materials and asked the rest of the team to help him with the chemistry and design. He thought hard about what would leave an impression, but not seem too personalized. Something that the entire Kingdom of Science could indulge in. He thought back to his previous “gifts”- ramen, a furnace, a brilliantly decorated tree…

Ding ding! He had a winner as soon as he remembered the look on yours and all the other villagers’ faces when the dozens of lights decorated on the tree were first lit.

The Kingdom of Science is in collective amazement as they marvel at the tons of fireworks lighting up the sky, the deafening crackles and pops pulsing through the air. Even those who had seen spectacular light shows were dumbfounded by the rockets that shot up and exploded into ropes of brilliant gold and silver light. Gasps, praises and mutters went around the group, but Senku’s gaze only swept across the others before settling on you.

Little fireworks exploded in your widened eyes and made them shimmer, reflecting your inner feelings of surprise. Senku observed carefully as your mouth, wide open in disbelief, slowly morphed into a smile; a big, glowing smile that conveyed all of the happiness and excitement you were feeling that was almost as bright as the colors fading in and out of the sky above. The scientist didn’t need any words of praise from you- he could tell he was successful in creating a memorable gift just by watching you marvel over it.

You were too enamored with the sight in front of you to notice Senku gently place his hands on your shoulders and move you to the side, just a little further back from your previous spot, so you could get a better view past the great forest surrounding you. He stared at you only for a brief couple of seconds before dropping his hands and admiring the view for himself with a small smile.

“Happy birthday, by the way.”

#dr stone scenarios #dr stone headcanons #dr stone x reader #dr stone senku #dr stone fanfiction #dr stone oneshot #dr stone hcs #senku ishigami x reader #senku headcanons #senku x reader #senku x you #senku ishigami oneshot #senku ishigami headcanons #senku ishigami fluff #senku fluff #senku hcs

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panelshowsource · 18 days

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i agree that the podcast really is so interesting — and imo it's a lot of plain gossip and tv criticism masked as "professional insight", which i live for lmao — but there are times she is really too much... she often mocks or eye-rolls things in a way that, again, doesn't feel constructive and comes off as very rude. mean girl energy. it also bothers me how she will talk at richard instead of engaging in a back and forth, and sometimes that turns into an episode in which she speaks 80% of the time. then again, as content cycles throughout the year, sometimes what's on/hot atm is just more in her wheelhouse than his, so we just have to wait for new taskmaster, new bbc comedies, new doctor who, whatever interests him, and then hopefully he'll have even more opportunities to shine... i do cherish when he gets a chance to speak lmao

but fr take a shot every time she says "a friend of mine who works at _______ told me blah blah"

i'll work on tracking that down!! it would be fun to watch more of them 😋

aren't they too much? i was just thinking how amazing would it be if they were a pair on pointless celebs ...........

you know how once you notice an actor then suddenly you start to see them everywhere? (especially on uk tv which is not as big a pool as you'd think it would be...) that was me and charlotte ritchie! it was like wow this girl is everywhere!

anyways, i'm not sure what her aims are atm... she's done quite a bit of comedy but am i the only one who thinks she would body a crime series? or something like broadchurch?

glad you got a chance to catch my response and watch some fun things! i was thinking a little more about what else to recommend, and i think if you enjoy the quirky nature of repertoire then you should check out huge davies, and if you enjoy the storytelling format like greg davies typically does then you should try out dara �� briain and russell howard (maybe the 2021 lubricant special to start) :) enjoy!!

hahaha this is funny... it's a good question 😅 there are a few reasons... he's good bantz! he doesn't take himself too seriously, laughs at himself, can be teased, isn't mean spirited. people really appreciate that. plus, he represents a lot of people who aren't otherwise on tv — not primetime bbc, at least. there starts to be an issue when he just...doesn't try, doesn't contribute. he's fallen asleep on like three different shows? didn't he just...not show up to the second-half of his bakeoff special? often he's got nothing to say? mo really carried the convos on his talk show, his teammates carried him on bfq, and so on. he just doesn't seem to have the interest or perhaps the stamina (orrr perhaps the respect) for long records 😅

anyways, he was being pushed for a little while, but that appears to have stopped. he's hasn't been around too much lately 🤔 (tho ngl idk what he's up to!)

yesss this is a great video and i'll link it here in case anyone wants to check it out! it reminded me that i really need to seek out his celeb hunted episodes hahaha

when the news came out he would be playing an 'egon spengler type' i was like yep lmao

he and ed mention quite often how many auditions they go to, especially james, for big movies like wonka and ghostbusters — no surprise to me imo! especially since it seems he's focused on films over tv 🤔

can't say i saw ghostbusters tho i'm sorry 😭

WELLLL now that it's out how have you been enjoying it? 😊🥰 where is your review, anon !!

susie dent gifs are high on my list, working on those for this week for sure!!! it's just...how to choose...she's just too pretty....

but i love ALL of your suggestions, duly noted 😍

—

PANEL SHOW WATCH LINKS / NON-PANEL SHOW WATCH LINKS FAQ / TAGS / ASK

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lokisgoodgirl · 1 year

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why are you not reading my stories? You read everyone else's and it makes me feel like shit

Let's take a breath. First I'm not mad about this, I get it. Please don't jump on Anon.

To Anon: obviously so I don't know who you are. Let's just address the fact this is tumblr and we don't see everything everyone posts, and sometimes tags fail. That's the first thing. My PMs are open so that anyone can message me, so that's probably a better and more constructive way to nicely ask.

However I'll address this, since we're here.

I'd say that I read a lot of fics. I'd say I reblog and comment on a lot of fics. I know that the authors I read most are FAR from the only ones. This fandom is BIG, and there are loads I've personally never come across. I'm always open to new writers, it's the absolute best.

However again...ya girl only has so much internal capacity however much I wish that wasn't the case. Currently I manage to fit in oneshots and series additions that I'm up to date on as and when, 85% of them I'd say are ones which I am tagged by the author because I've asked. The other 15% I find by myself, or they're recommended.

I don't skim writing. I like to dig in and absorb myself whether it's 1k or 10k. I like to feel like I'm contributing something to the authors experience of posting here. I know how much it means to us. I don't like doing empty reblogs when I haven't read something beforehand. If you just want someone to share it and not read it that's not me.

While I do understand I'm pretty prolific reading wise, sometimes I'm not as a quick or as verbose or as responsive. If you catch me in one of those periods (like the last day) then apols but that's just how it is.

Currently I'm catching up on @maple-seed Thrown (which by the way is fucking top tier ) and @nildespirandum Tale of the Golden Horn (also fucking amazing) as well as a number of ongoing series. Next on my historical catch up list is The Witchling and the God by @space-mermaid-writing which I'm very much looking forward to.

So while I'm sorry I make you feel like shit for not engaging with your work, I'd ask:

1) Do I know about it? It's not like me to ignore people. 2) Please don't take it to heart. I do try, but quite often I'm reading like 30k+ words a day. That's a lot. Lmao. 3) I'm just one person. One blogger. I'm not anything special here. I have a demanding job and a house to look after and a busy life (believe it or not, I know... Its hard😂) so a lil patience is appreciated. I do my best. 👉👈

Sorry this is a bit wanky, there's been an uptick in this sort of thing and it makes me feel terrible but also I'm not an endless well of capacity, I can only but try.

Tldr: Message me instead of this and save yourself the emotional rant. I'm actually a nice person, Id never intentionally make anyone feel like shit, ever.

#LGG stuff #I'm not mad at anon BTW I understand where they are coming from but I feel like I've said all I want to say

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bg-sparrow · 5 months

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20 Questions for Fic Writers!

I'm finally getting around to doing this after @professorsaber, @mythical-bookworm, and @daryfromthefuture tagged me! Sorry for the delay (it's been a week)!

Under the cut because it seems I felt the need to write my life story today as it relates to my body of fan work. :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I'm currently sitting at 51.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

650,606 (of which 58K are shared with co-authors)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Predominantly Back to the Future with a lot of Pirates of the Caribbean, Iron Man, and National Treasure in my rearview mirror. I've also contributed one-shots/ small works to 19 other fandoms over the years!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

What to Expect When She's Expecting - (137) - Iron Man

Where You Were (Time Circuits #3) - (95) - BttF

Where You're Going (Time Circuits #1) - (72) - Bttf

Principles of Compromise - (70) - Pirates of the Caribbean

A Fracture in the Space-time Continuum - (69) - BttF

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Most definitely! I love interacting with the people who have taken the time to read and comment on my work, even if it's a simple thank you!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ooo hoo hoo. I might have to poll some people for this one. My first reaction would be There Are No Roads (Time Circuits #2.5), but as the ending is technically an alternate series of events, I'm not sure it counts as an official 'end'. I'm big proud of it, though, because most initial reactions were somewhere along the lines of "oh my GOD." :)

That being the case, Once Upon a Time in the West wins hands down, mostly because I didn't even see the plot twist coming until the fourth chapter of this six-chapter fic! And it delivered an epic sequel!

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oof. Don't come at me like this; I'm just now realizing how much angst I really write because I've narrowed it down to maybe two of my Ao3 fics? Sheesh.

I'm going to go with the only 5+1 fic I've ever written, The Manner of Giving. It was five times Marty failed at giving Doc a gift, and the one time (the end) is when he succeeded.

Where You Were (Times Circuits #3) also gets a nod because it's the end of my trilogy rewrite, and I like to think I ended it on the happy note everyone deserved.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've never gotten a scathing flame of a review, thank goodness. I did have someone ask me on FFN once why I was writing an OC for Marty when he had Jennifer in canon, and while it was tempting to just say "don't like, don't read," we ended up exchanging a mature and constructive dialogue and respectfully parted ways.

I also once, long ago, before I ever planned to seriously pursue writing, had one of my fics added to a "Worst of the Worst" fandom collection on FFN. It was a terrible fic written by an inexperienced teenager, but I still find something like that distasteful and uncalled for, mostly because, as the author, I wasn't able to remove my work from the collection. And it's still there. And I'm still mad about it. Oddly, it's ensured I hold myself to a high standard and never put anything out there that could be considered for a "Worst of the Worst" collection again. So, screw that guy, and thank you.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No. I've never wanted a tell a story where that was essential to the story. Now, I've recently included/ alluded to more mature situations in the last year for the first time in my 20 years of writing to get me out of my comfort zone, but no graphic, extended scenes.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I have! And the craziest crossover I have is FFHQ. Imagine all the characters in all the fandoms in one giant office park drawing up contracts to appear in fics, meeting with fanfic authors, collaborating on crossovers, etc. It's a lot of paperwork, meaning each character has a secretary. That's a lot of secretaries, so there is a list of "subs" who fill in as floaters when a secretary is out, and this crazy crossover follows three OCs as they bounce around random fandoms each day. This baby is my crackfic, the idea I escaped to in those eight years of depression when I wasn't doing so hot. If you're up for it, I promise it's lots of fun!

Honorable mention goes to the BttF/Elf AU I wrote for our server's Secret Santa exchange last year: Pennies From Heaven.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

*inserts Ben Affleck smoking meme*

Yes. And it's… I'm just very over this form of "flattery".

When I was still in high school, I was writing a pretty successful National Treasure fic when a reader told me they found the story on another site. The person who stole it was writing author notes at the beginning, like "Find out what happens to them next time! I've got great stuff in the works!" I emailed that website, and they kindly took it down and banned that user.

Last year, I had someone on Wattpad steal the Time Circuits Series, rename it the "Flux Capacitor Series", and switched out Emma's name with "Dawn". Two things that had me cackling: When I have Marty call Emma "Em," Marty was calling Dawn "Da," and you could see several places where Emma's name wasn't backspaced all the way out of the text. I confronted the "author", and they wisely took it down, telling me it was just so hard to write it themselves. You bet your ass I have this person still on my alerts list to keep an eye on them, and once a month, I am searching Wattpad for my own fics.

Novel HD/ Novel WW also stole Time Circuts off Wattpad for their website, scrubbed my name from it so that it said it was written by "Anonymous", and put the stories behind paywalls. I caught wind of this about a quarter of the way into the last story and took everything I had off Wattpad. I saved the links but they no longer work, and I can't even access the website anymore. I'm not sure if it's gone or if, because it is a foreign site, they somehow blocked our region from accessing it.

I also had FictionHunt take all of my stuff off FFN! It took several months, but I finally got them to remove my stuff from their site. I might not have minded so much if they had asked me, but that's too hard, I suppose.

There was one website called MovieFanficChains way back in 2005 I gave permission to to host my PotC fics, but aside from FFN and Ao3, that the only place with my permission to have my stuff.

If you see my work elsewhere and it has not been linked back to me, let me know. I'll do the same for you. :)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've done a few roleplays with @daryfromthefuture, where I wrote for Doc and she wrote for Marty. Our most well-known roleplay-turned-fic would be the 1885 scarlet fever sickfic Lean on Me (When You're Not Strong).

I've also been part of the silly blind writing game in our Discord server aptly named Back to the Future: Discord.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I don't know. This is hard. I'm a romantic, and I make the excited Andy Dwyer face every time a ship is hinted at. I have so many I love, but the mainstream ones that immediately come to mind are Tony/Pepper (Iron Man), Sherlock/Molly (BBC Sherlock), Jamie/Brienne (Game of Thrones), and Reylo (Star Wars).

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I wrote a National Treasure story in high school called Another Clue, and it was one of my first real attempts at an OC insert. It did fairly well, given my talents at the time; I incorporated an OC, but I focused on crafting a canon-like treasure hunt more, and a lot of people complimented that.

So I started a sequel, One More Clue. It built a bigger story around the first, highlighting a treasure hunt that required the help of a rival and two friends seemingly trying to out-betray one another. I got about 12 chapters and 69K into One More Clue before life took over. I last updated it on June 1, 2010, and I left it at quite the cliffhanger with Riley turning Ben into the FBI only to learn the FBI guy was working for the rival and UGH, I keep meaning to go back to it. I have all the notes!

The problem is, I would have to rewrite Another Clue at this point because it's a hot high schooler's mess. You could tell as I wrote One More Clue that I was applying what I was learning from my writing classes in college. While Another Clue didn't have that luxury, it showcases some strengths that compelled me to pursue a writing major (AKA I can make a decent history-driven treasure hunt).

So, while I could finish One More Clue if I really wanted to, it would be pointless unless I overhauled Another Clue first. Which I've thought about. Because National Treasure is my guilty pleasure. I'm just fairly certain no one would be around to appreciate it if I put all that work in now. :)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've consistently been told it's dialogue, and I find myself agreeing with that. The single lines of dialogue that turn a whole story on its head or tell a whole story of their own are what I live for.

This is the DUMBEST example, but there is an episode of Spongebob Squarepants where Mrs. Puff is freaking out because she gave Spongebob his boating license just to finally get him out of her class, and she's spiraling. She arrives at "I'll have to change my name, move to another city, and open another boating school!" or something like that.

And then her voice just goes dead flat and her eyes narrow and she says, "No. Not again."

And I lose it every time! But you know there's a WHOLE story there just by that little bit of dialogue! I love that! And I love implementing it where I can, whether it be in a comedic or dramatic setting.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm wordy. When I give myself a word count goal for a project, it inevitably goes over, but it gets shaved down some in editing.

Thankfully, I got a hard lesson in this in one of my college writing classes. I turned in a prose-y poem I was quite proud of, and in the next class, the professor handed out copies to everyone. We proceeded to workshop (i.e. destroy) my work, whittling the word count down by half when it was all said and done. And while I was mortified at the time, I've since thanked my professor a few times for that day. That one lesson lives in my brain every day, and I am right back in that classroom every time I edit a work, trying to figure out what the most succinct wording is, what is un/necessary, and how to play with my line breaks. Criticism is daunting but so, so worth it if you can find the courage to apply it!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I did this for the first time in Once Upon a Time in the South. I have a headcanon that Buford's baby momma is a Spanish actress at a small theater in Pine City, and he had to get something from her. This woman speaks very little English, and it was a challenge to stay true to that because (a) I don't speak Spanish and (b) my brain just struggles a lot with foreign language translations. Me being me, I wanted the most accurate and realistic translations I could get, ones that didn't sound too formal. Then you add in the fact that it's 1893, so there's a time-period language barrier, too. Ultimately, I'm happy with the end result, but I don't see myself going out of my way to do this again.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Pirates of the Caribbean! What a fantastic playground in which to practice storytelling! What really got me hooked on this "I might try writing for real one day" thing was listening to the writer's commentary on The Curse of the Black Pearl DVD when I was 15.

Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio gave excellent insight to this story I was enamored with and how they came up with it! "We had Sparrow and Swann, so we figured we shouldn't give Will a bird name" cracked me up. They covered everything — what challenged them, what rules ("guidelines") they stuck to ("leave the kiss for the end"), stuff like that. But what lit me up was hearing the entire backstory while the credits rolled, about how Barbossa was Jack's first mate until Barbossa committed mutiny and all that jazz. There was so much story to the story! That was a big, big day that influenced me. :)

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Oh, gosh. This is tough because the favoritism depends on the reason!

I'll forever love Principles of Compromise because after abandoning it several chapters from the end and not touching it for eight years, it was the first story I came back to and finished before returning to the Time Circuits Series. It was the first plot-heavy story with canon characters I attempted and completed (most of my works up until that point had been rewrites or headlined OCs). Finishing it was the stepping stone to all the writing I've since completed (30-some works)!

Favorite all time though? I'm a mom; you can't just ask me to pick a favorite kid, and this is just as mean. :)

(But for real, it's probably a tie between There Are No Roads (Time Circuits #2.5) and Once Upon a Time in the East )

Tagging @retro-hussy, @jowritesfanfiction, @writingwife-83, and anyone else who wants to play!

Thank you so much for tagging me, friends!! I don't know why, but I love doing these! Sorry again it took so long for me to get to. ❤️

#20 questions for fic writers #ask game #tag game #answered asks #fanfic #fanfic writing #fan fic writer #back to the future #pirates of the caribbean #national treasure #iron man #ao3 #bgsparrow

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96percentdone · 8 months

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I've been ruminating on fandom lately. Criticizing fandom at all will get you barraged by very defensive fans who will accuse you of hating fun, not understanding creative expression, and being an art snob, and I am about to go a LOT harder than most of the posts I've been exposed to, so in an attempt to preemptively curb that indignance: I like fandom. I have written fanfics, and theory posts, and meta, and I've reblogged countless fanart. A lot of what I engage with or have made meets the standards I'm about to critique, and I understand completely that for many, fandom is a hobby. People would like to escape from the struggles in their lives. They find comfort in the media they love, so they immerse themselves it. It can be hard to make anything in this capitalist hellscape, so if you've achieved something at all, it's a miracle. I get it. I really do. I'm not an art snob; I think it's fine if things aren't that deep, and they're primarily wish-fulfillment. I have some grievances with the critics too, and they'll come up. This post isn't about you specifically; it's bigger. Fandom content suffers a lack of substance because of superficial engagement with the source material.

Many fandom critical posts on this website bring up shipping culture as the reason everything is samey and uninteresting, often referencing ao3 in specific. I sympathize with these posts, I also find shipping prominence can be fairly tedious when you want to read ANYTHING else, but why is it when complain about fandom, we point the finger at fic? Why do we use shorthands like "he would not fucking say that," and drop ao3 tagging conventions, and mention fanfic websites? Have y'all LOOKED at the fan art you reblog? A lot of it is just posing and kissing. If you wanted to analyze it for any further meaning, I don't think you'd get very far. I am not positioning fanfiction as superior; as everyone points out, a lot of it is repetitive and derivative, but let's not pretend that this is a fanfic exclusive issue. We can take it further out! Look at the absolute state of meta. Most analysis is done in service of promoting a headcanon or a ship if it isn't just a theory wildly speculating an explanation for an unresolved or ambiguous plot point. We're gonna include those guys who make power scaling rankings, filling out the wiki, etc too. They're fans! Everyone agrees those people aren't engaging with the text in a deeper way, but that doesn't make them NOT fans. It is the way their appreciation manifests the clearest! We're all fans; we are doing the same thing in just a different form.

Most of what gets popularized I all these spaces is based on a strictly literal understanding of the work; it's about plot events and how characters relate to it and one another, and the meaning people get out of it—from shipping to theorizing to memes to tierlists—never goes beyond that level. If people don't know how to look for themes, to interpret symbolism and examine the construction of a work to see how it contributes to how the whole is operating to affect them, because their education on how to do it sucked shit, then obviously they won't. But I don't think that's enough to explain the heart of the problem.

Critics will bring up the fandom wash cycle, an analogy for how way fandom will spend more time engaged with itself than the source material, and perpetuate its own tropes and fixations ad nauseum. This is true in any fanspace you can spend your time in, including those "who would win" bros. I hear this, and I think of social media, the place most of fandom lives now. People making original work often talk about how their stuff never gets any attention compared to fandom stuff; the biggest fandoms are sprawling franchises with corporate entities behind them. Social media algorithms promote what is already popular, what will generate the most clicks, so you stay online and make their corporate overlords more money. It is the depth of human experience streamlined into easily digestible chunks.

You're spent because life is hard and the world sucks and the only relief you can find is in the media you love. You don't want to expend a lot of energy today, so you'll consume or create ship centered content, or fan theories, or memes and gifs. You'll wonder who would win in a fight. Even without social media, people feed their own algorithms, because the system is designed to encourage it. Fandom is part of a larger whole.

If fandom will ever be more than what it is, you have to be willing to put in the work to fix it. Criticism won't cut it. As the saying goes, be the change you want to see in the world. Create what you want to see, use what you make to teach what might be lacking, seek out more of the things that look like what you want fandom to be (I assure you it exists), not just what you already know. Fandom is perpetuated by fans. Being a fan doesn't make you predisposed to creating cyclical, watered-down content. Every fan has a rich internal life with a whole host of experiences that should inform both how they make their works and how they read it to begin with, because they're people.

People are far too diverse to be defined by an algorithm; maybe with enough effort, we can write a new one.

#hope.txt

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hetaberia-week · 10 months

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‧̍̊˙· 𓆝.° ｡˚𓆛˚｡ °.𓆞 ·˙‧⠀⠀frequently asked q's !

do i have to participate in the whole event?

absolutely not, you control how much you want to contribute! even if it's one work, it's still a contribution and we'll love you for it!

can i combine prompts?

by all means! if it works for you, go for it - don't limit your creativity! as long as you tag your submission with the prompts you've used, it's all good with us!

can i submit old works and wips?

you can of course submit wips, but we want to ideally only see new works. the idea of an event is to generate new content, after all!

how does the free day token work?

easy! have you seen a day on the prompts list you've got no inspiration for? then use your token and make anything you like! events usually have an allocated free day, but as we wanted to include more prompts we've made the token system to still give you free reign. please note, you can only use this token once during the event so pick your free day wisely!

do i have to make something for both spain and portugal?

nope! you could spend your whole week making art for your one favourite spain ship, like you could spend your whole week writing about port and his relationship with the sea (if it fits the prompts)... whatever floats your boat!

can i write the iberians romantically?

heck, you can write them diagonally for all we care! this event is purely about sharing our love for two nations. it doesn't matter if you view them as siblings, as neighbours, or as being all loved-up - as long as it's tagged appropriately, we're here for it! 🧡

can i produce nsfw work?

we will be allowing things like smut, gore, horror, and similar themes - on the condition you tag your work so others can avoid these themes if they wish. for this, please use the #wfsn tag so your work isn't lost to the tumblr void! if you are unsure, please drop us a message and we'll let you know if your idea would be accepted for the event. you can also view the rules for more information.

what if i miss the day my work is for?

time is but a social construct and we will be accepting submissions for the event up to two weeks after it has ended. so if you don't quite finish on time, there's no need to panic!

it's been a few hours and my work hasn't been reblogged!

we apologise ahead of time if we miss your submission! if twelve hours pass and you still haven't had any interaction from the blog (we will like a submission and then queue it, so if you have had a 🧡 notification you're all good) then drop us a message so we know. please note that the admins are currently in the UTC+1 timezone so will have inactive hours!

if you have any other questions just pop into our inbox or dms - we'll be happy to help! 🍊

#hetaberia week 2023 #event admin #event faqs #hetalia event

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riallasheng · 1 year

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@edutainer2022 , the original post was so long it was causing issues on my phone for some reason, so I'm copying your last post and starting a new 'thread' (so long as that is alright with you. If you so wish I'll copy my reply and put it on your thread ^^;; )

Of IR is obviously a cash sinkhole. They also tend to wreck quite a lot of property through the rescues. Zero-XL trial and error construction alone seems to have cost a budget of a sizable country. Also... the way IR policy is about not saving equipment and John merrily suggesting Global One worth billions of hard fought for tooth and nail funding be abandoned - they boys probably never had to file a grant proposal in their life. In their life equipment the caliber and expense of a space station is replaceable on demand. Unless it has sentimental value.

I LOVE the idea Mom's heirloom money was a major contribution. Although, the old residence of the Gran Roca doesn't appear opulent - we don't know the extent of the estate (and horses? Where did the horses go?). Maybe smart investments, patents, not just aeronatic business. Mom is canonically old southern money (but still no name).

Oh, the Bereznik thing WITHOUT Jeff in the picture would have been a glorious mess. Scott is a) respectfully, a fairy nobody at that point (well, Daddy's boy, but no political and little economic leverage); b) all but a liability for GDF if they want to go ahead with IR - Scott is one foot out and vocal about his brothers being no foot in, the IR branching AWAY into Thunderbirds is afoot, and while it's not a problem to train GDF officers into operatives, the hitch is probably in the rights and specs for the tech (and Brains) - the Tracies are out, IR is out of GDF clutch. So yeah... Scotty MIA is more convenient... than not. So quite likely the Old Guard pooled up for an extraction that "never happened" under conditions that Scott's imprisonment "never happened" to anyone who should ask. Yeah, Scott doesn't like or wants anything to do with GDF law inforcement angle. Maybe IR is later greenlit under STRICT conditions they will only identify as civilians. Scott is so worried Kayo was breaking that rule as if their license depended on it. Maybe it did. He's worried as late as Chain Reaction (all the while aiding and abating an escape of a terrorist out of pure unironic goodness of his heart).

I agree, much as the idea of Military bros is appealing - Gordon indicates no exposure to that structure. Scott does, but, like you said, not in the manner that would suggest he thrived or wanted to do it for life. Semi-canonical "interview" with "Scott" has him flounder on a question what he would do, if not IR. The military service doesn't even come up. Something something about charity and philanthropy.

I wonder how much of Zero-X was built with Jeff and Lee in mind. Calypso was a two pilot mission. There wasn't much OUT THERE at the time to warrant T-drive powered rescues. No Marcian colony, nothing. Maybe Jeff and Lee felt stir crazy, "moored" on Earth and kinda expected to space-the-final-frontier it in their autumn days.

Yeah, TaG tends to be as hard on their equipment (and locations) as TOS was, but you have to factor that by the number of rescues... and with TaG being known, that means that people can 'contact' them for reimbursement for damages and harm and the like. Hck, protection from THAT might be part of the reason Jeff could ahve gone with a branch of the GDF initially. (actually, question... where does the Kyrano was a bad-ass ninja warrior come from? It's never said or even implied in the show that I recall. Is it just because Kayo is a kick-ass warrior? I ask because imagine if Kyrano was originally more of the lawyer type, or engineer who was helping Brains or the like). The Tracys, Brains, and Kayo are REALLY lackadaisical about objects and finances. Sometimes I get it, like when the choice is save a person OR save a thing... but they seem to be richer than even the TOS Tracys, and there are times where their lack of care of items is grating. Teh high-rise fire episode in example, where they took delight and went out of their way to damage the building / cut the top off of it - it legit would have been easier and safer to break the glass and lower the seats down, and the smugness to the building owner after bordered on them being asses. And in another example... yeah, Global One. O'Bannon was RIGHT in her call to try and save the station, that is a MASSIVE investment (and would have been a LOT OF DEADLY DEBRIS RAINING DOWN) and I frankly side with her on it. Like TOS tends to place people above the items too, but they do try to limit damage they cause, in the comics actually do their best to salvage /save items when possible (The ocean liner The President in example) and John and Scott even directly discuss how the Ocean Pioneer was a significant investment for the people involved and they should have tried saving it. Scott AGREES with John on that, but points out that they likely couldn't have done so before it blew up / they might not have been able to. In the comics (and novels to a degree) they HAVE made the call to save the objects as well on occasion.

On the Ranch not looking opulent... sometimes people with a lot of money don't spend it on mansions or the like, but instead on other things... and it's possible that the Mom's family prefered simply, homely, comforts and disliked ostentatious shows of wealth. (In an example... Tracy Island in TOS and TaG is like this. The interior is comfortable and not very showy... yes they're on a private island, but the home itself looks like a upper middle class home of the era. There's Virgil's piano, but it's a baby grand rather than a grand, and white pianos actually cost markidly less than black pianos. The game room has a pool table, but (esp in the 60s) Pool tables weren't that expensive unless you went all in, and even people on the lower end of middle class could possibly have one. The same is true for what we see in the TaG house. Upper end of middle class overall. One or two showy things, but not opulent. Not Southern money, Western money / South-Western money. Southern refers to the states in the south east and tends to come from foresty or farms, where-as western and south western are from ranches or oil/natural gas. (The USA is not so much one country as it is 50 countries in a trenchcoat XD The Mom's home is in the western states, which are about as different culturally from the 'southern' states as... hmm... Ukraine is from France. There are many simularities, but there are also many differences). Bad area for horses though, very rocky with little to no grass or open areas. Not good for cattle ranching either. Most likely it was oil or natural gas (despite teh show lambasting it, oil is vital for a HECK of a lot more than just fuel, and would still be required in the 'modern day' of the show)

Yeah, Jeff being gone when Scott was a POW would make for an interesting situation. a) Scott likely was at minimum a Captain, and the Tracy name would have been well known from how big the company was to Jeff's heroic 'death', so Scott would be in the very bad position of being a 'nobody'... related to several 'somebodies' who could be levereged for ransom and Scott himself would likely be tortured for information on Tracy Industries, the (at that point) shut down iR 'branch', the GDF in general... It wouldn't be a good time for him in the slightest b) Scott being a POW would, terrifyingly, be a 'good' situation for the GDF. He wouldn't have any information they would need to worry about, it keeps him out of the way and out of trouble, he doesn't have teh threat of leaving the GDF which means as long as he's a POW they have access to Brains and the funding from Tracy Industries, they might be able to get Virgil or John to join up (Gordon would still be too young to enlist, as he'd only be 16 or 17)... Horrifyingly, they'd have every reason to both make sure that Scott stayed alive... and stayed a POW. And Scott would KNOW THAT. Which would go a VERY LONG way to explaining his apparent SEVERE lack of trust (and at times apparent near hatred) for the GDF. He likes and trusts Casey and Lee, but the GDF as a whole? Odds are Casey was very much bending or even breaking orders to get even slightly involved in the rescue. Heck, just her HIDING the fact that others were planning a rescue might have been all she was able to do, it might have been almost entirely Penny's dad via his connections and possibly sending Parker in, and quite likely Lee finding a way off the Moon (oddly, despite my earlier statement... I do't think Kyrano would be involved in this rescue. There's no indication that he ever left whatever bolthole he fled to, and if he didn't show up to help when the Hood returned or when they started finding evidence that Jeff was alive... he isn't going to show up to save Scott. Which means the rescue party was likely Parker, Lee, and possibly Penny's dad... who I totally imagine to basically be a 1:to:1 for Sir Jeremy Hodge from TOS. Odds are all the POWs were rescued, not just Scott.

Scott leaving the GDF likely the SECOND he was recovered enough to be coherent / lucid likely was a blow to the GDF, as that means Brains and the Tracy income would now be gone. I could totally see them putting a 'if you become a military organization, we will be 'forced' to have iR become part of the GDF again... it explains the total lack of weapons on the Thunderbirds or Tracys (I'm sorry, weapons for self defense or defense of others is a good thing overall) and why Scott is SO INTENSE about Kayo getting into combat situations... but also why he doesn't really get snarly until Kayo WORKS WITH THE GDF. He sacrificed a HELL of a lot to make sure that never happened, and he likely sees it as the GDF getting one MASSIVE foot in the door to them taking over iR 'again'.

TOS Scott and Gordon show a lot of evidence of not only havng been in the military, but having thrived in it. And some people DO do well in the military, quite often very good people. But Gordon is only 18-20 by the tme of the Pilot, so there honestly is no way for him to have served while still having his lines indicating that he's been a full-time member of iR for a few years prior to the pilot apply on top of the fact that he shows NO behaviors or actions that fit with a former member of the military. tagScott DOES show behaviors and actions that match up with a former member of the military... but they match up with the behaviors of those who just did NOT thrive / work / mesh with the military life. He very much seems to be a 'I served and by God do I regret it' type (which hey, fair, some people just aren't right for it)

you know, oddly, I don't think Jeff or Lee (or iR) were in mind at all with the Zero X. The GDF wouldn't really want either to go out exploring the far edges of the solar system, and with iR up and running (and plans to go independent with it) I actually doubt that Jeff or Lee would have wanted to go do so. Lee AFTER Jeff's 'death' might have been interested in that sort of thing as we see with him staying on the Mars Colony... but not before, I don't think. Look at how happy he was to stay on the Moon Base. He had nodesire or drive to go out exploring, he was happy to stay at Alphie and only left when he had no choice.

#edutainer2022

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ainulindaelynn · 10 months

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@staff

After reading the strategic plan posted today, I want to offer some constructive criticism about retaining users from someone who's relatively new around here.

I joined Tumblr less than a year ago and agree that there’s steeper learning curve than other social media sites... but am a bit baffled by the disconnect. I want to be clear about what made this site hard for me as a new user and propose some easy fixes, because I think it’s pretty straightforward.

Suggestions in blue.

1. Confusion about Reblogging

The etiquette for reblogging was the most anxiety-inducing part of getting started. The language was a bit confusing, coming from non-tumblr blog culture. It also took me a while to understand that there was a difference between reblogging and reposting. There's (rightly) so much animosity for reposting, but to an outside perspective, they seem like the same term, which discourages engagement. Once I realized reblogging is the norm and creators ENJOY reblogs - that it's not theft and their name stays attached, linking directly to them - everything became simpler. There are always three names floating at the top of a post, but who the extra two are is something you pick up along the way without explanation. Understanding earlier would have been a game changer. A few more tutorials at launch would have made a huge difference: This is your blog. You REBLOG things here - that's normal. And here's the basic structure of a post. That would have made the transition a little smoother. Also, if you want to go above and beyond, adding a quick blurb about the difference between reblogging 👍 and reposting 👎 would probably ease tensions on a few fronts.

In short, Tumblr is ahead of most other mainstream SM sites when it comes to prioritizing creators > content and long-term, that's a strategic advantage. Keeping that culture in place requires a little more explanation on the front end though.

2. Confusion about Interacting

Another thing that baffled me in the beginning is that on other sites, hashtags are largely ignored except for organizational purposes, so I didn’t even notice people were leaving their commentary there at first. Now that I know, I actually LOVE that quirk of this site. It’s an introvert’s dream. Every other social media site is pushing other people's opinions in your face all the time. It’s exhausting. Here, I only see people’s comments if I CHOOSE to. If I want, I can interact with the content directly without being distracted by the noise around it. This is a huge draw, not only as a scroller, but also as a poster. I never (NEVER) post on any other site, because I know it’s going to bring it to the top in everyone’s feed and I don’t want to bother with everyone else’s opinions ABOUT my opinions - the endless cycle that inevitably leads to conflict in common spaces like this. Every post will be scrutinized and picked apart on other sites. Here on tumblr, I can put my thoughts on a post and no one sees it except the original poster and people who are *actively* curious about what I think. It’s a system that allows less pressure around posting and fosters more diversity of thought. It creates an environment that makes contributing easy. It’s very, VERY freeing and very, VERY rare in social media.

I wouldn’t mind seeing some rethinking about the way tags are handled if it supports the search engines, but now that I understand the way Tumblr uses them, I actually find this to be one of its greatest strengths and can’t imagine a way to preserve that quality while rearranging the tag system. As is, adding an ‘Anatomy of a Post’ tutorial like I mentioned would clear confusion about this and point new users toward the easiest way to interact with a post.

3. Confusion in Connecting

I did struggle to connect to content and communities at first, but it stemmed from a basic lack of understanding about how the site works. Once I found the pathways, other users pulled me in. Connection actually happens more easily here than on any other site I’ve EVER been on. Tumblr has incredibly useful tools for this; they just aren’t explained to beginners. The tag system is a great entry point. When I realized that I could search a tag and chronologically see EVERY SINGLE POST that had ever existed for it, it was magical. Now that I follow tags (and know the Your Tags tab exists… 🙃), new creators pop up in my feed all the time and get pulled into my communities seamlessly.

A quick tools tour at launch would solve this. And the ‘Anatomy of a Post’ tutorial I mentioned earlier would highlight the spot you can see other people who reblogged the same content. These connection points are easy to use, they just need to be more visible at the start.

That’s all, honestly.

Those are the only barriers that slowed me down in the beginning. They can ALL be solved with a few beginner-friendly tips on launch:

Intro to Dashes (Following, For You, & Your Tags + a brief personalization suggestion)

Intro to Search Features (basics + following tags)

Intro to Your Blog (basics + encouragement to personalize if the bots issue isn’t going to be resolved, because let’s be real… being mistaken for bots is probably why most people quit early these days😉)

Anatomy of a Post (basics + ways to interact)

Restricting the algorithms to the For You tab is really refreshing coming from other sites. It’s there if I want it, but , I can breathe here in a way I can’t on any other site. And honestly, the other reason I’m still around is that people are fucking weird here, which means I have freedom to be too. Any changes that don’t take those two strengths of this site into account risks losing the center and disintegrating the core. Foster a personalized experience. Prioritize avenues that let people interact at whatever level they’re comfortable. Support creator culture. Those are the things that make this better than the competition.

Oh, yeah, and if you're still reading... the organizational tag system needs some upgrades and these pornbots are killing us. Thanks, bye xD

#shouting into the void #using ‘content’ and ‘creators’ solely to avoid excluding anyone #because I know there are so many skills at play here I could never cover them all #(beyond fanworks I mean)#and for the record... I was here BEFORE the twitter collapse #technically it was a re-join (following a 10 year hiatus)#tumblr things

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forabeatofadrum · 11 months

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Hello and happy Sunday. Thank you @aroace-genderfluid-sheep, @martsonmars and @artsyunderstudy for the tag. I went to Pride yesterday and I am still high on energy.

Please, enjoy my bespoke banner. I am about to do something bonkers. I like to challenge myself by aiming for exactly six sentences, but that is not going to happen today.

What am I about to do? I am going to put the entire translated version of my second chapter of my thesis under the weather. Yup, you’ve read that right. It’s the entire theoretical background and it is almost 3k words long. I am an insane person for this, but I am so normal about my thesis. The thing is that I have to trim it down A Lot. Like, A LOT. I want to preserve what I have written somewhere, because I am going to change things and that saddens me, but it is a must, especially since uhhhh my first draft of the results chapter is almost 6k words.

I don’t mind if y’all wanna skip reading this, because I get that not everyone signed up for all the thesis talk, but for the few who are also completely normal about it, feel free to read. If you’ve been keeping up with all my updates, then some of it might be familiar to you, cause I have posted snippets of my theoretical background before, but now I’m going all out.

And now, the weather: @quizasvivamos @blurglesmurfklaine @coffeegleek @esperantoauthor @otherworldsivelivedin @caramelcoffeeaddict @sillyunicorn @bazzybelle @dragoneggos @raenestee @tectonicduck @nightimedreamersworld @urban-sith @thnxforknowingme @captain-aralias @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @takitalks @justgleekout @cerriddwenluna @tea-brigade @ivelovedhimthroughworse @moodandmist @whogaveyoupermission @bookish-bogwitch @confused-bi-queer@ionlydrinkhotwater @1908jmd @special-bc-ur-part-of-it @larkral @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @cutestkilla @nausikaaa/@wellbelesbian @facewithoutheart @shrekgogurt @boyinjeans @rockitmans @bitbybitwrites @blackberrysummerblog @whatevertheweather

2. Problem statement

In this chapter the problem statement and research questions are discussed. The theoretical approach to representation is explained and the main theories are explained. Furthermore, it is discussed how recognition, respect and identification play a role in representation.

2.1. What is representation?

Media representation is important. People construct reality through media (Gerbner & Gross, 1976). From the point of view of cultivation theory (Gerbner, 1969) and social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2009), we know that the media are important agents of socialization and thus contribute to the creation and learning of stereotyped perceptions. In addition, media is known to shape our self-image and our perceptions of others (Orgad, 2012). As a result, media representation contributes to social, cultural, political and economic structures and the emergence of inequalities in these structures. Media represent culture and representation shows who has the power (Gross, 1994). According to Gerbner and Gross (1976), this is via symbolic annihilation. This means that the media omits, trivializes or condemns certain groups in society. Negative representation of a group can lead to the rejection of the “other”, perpetuating a non-inclusive power dynamic (Hall et al., 2013).

The queer community has become more prominent in the media in recent years (Kidd, 2014). Research shows that positive queer representation has positive consequences for people who identify as queer: they use it to understand their own identity (Dhaenens, 2013; Dhoest & Simons, 2011; Gomillion & Giuliano, 2011), people feel accepted ( Woods & Hardman, 2022), it creates a feeling of pride, people feel supported (Gomillion & Giuliano, 2011) and it challenges viewers to reflect on themselves (Yue, 2014). These positive consequences are stronger if viewers identify with the characters (Gomillion & Giuliano, 2011).

On the other hand, non-diverse representation is associated with negative consequences: a stereotyped and one-dimensional image leads to the feeling that one can only express oneself in a limited way (Gomillion & Giuliano, 2011) and if viewers feel that there are skewed intentions behind the representation, they feel uncomfortable (McInroy & Craig, 2017). Another form of negative representation is queerbaiting, or a marketing technique in which producers promise queer representation and then fail to deliver. This makes viewers feel not taken seriously and they feel used (Woods & Hardman, 2022). It also still happens that queer characters die faster, which sometimes causes viewers to feel that they have no place in the world (Waggoner, 2018). Interestingly, negative representation can also sometimes lead to positive feelings, as poor representation is seen as better than no representation (Gomillion & Giuliano, 2011; McInroy & Craig, 2017).

Furthermore, previous research has shown that queer women are portrayed relatively little and stereotypically in the media (DeCeuninck & Dhoest, 2016). This group includes women whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual and/or whose gender identity is not cisgender (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, n.d.). According to (Clark, 1972), important indicators for representation are recognition and respect.

2.2. Recognition

Recognition is the amount and/or frequency of images of minority groups in the media. No frequency is symbolic annihilation (Gerbner & Gross, 1976). Recognition in the media therefore means that the viewers must also recognize that the group is there on a societal level. Recognition occurs when a group is seen as unique and/or relevant. If a group is not seen as relevant, there is no recognition, or representation (Clark, 1972).

Studies looking at the amount of queer characters in the media show that queer characters have been featured in media since the early 1920s, but new regulations in the 1930s and 1940s made it illegal to use explicit queer characters in America. As a result, a lot of subtext and symbolism was used. From the 1970s, things gradually changed and around the 1990s, the era of modern queer representation arose. Since the 1990s, the number of queer characters has increased and representation is becoming more diverse (McNicholas Smith, 2020b; Rodriguez, 2019). One thing regularly emerges from research: queer men are depicted more often than queer women (Avila-Saavedra, 2009; Bond, 2015; Dhoest & Simons, 2011; Marwick et al., 2014; Nölke, 2018). Queer men are most commonly portrayed in both entertainment media (Avila-Saavedra, 2009) and commercial media (Nölke, 2018).

There are possible reasons for this disparity. First, gender is generally still portrayed in a skewed manner: there are more men in the media than women (Daalmans et al., 2017; Gallagher, 2014). Second, queer women die faster, because “Bury Your Gays” is most common among queer women (Birchmore & Kettrey, 2022; Bridges, 2018; Waggoner, 2018). Third, intimate relationships between two female characters are more often seen as something platonic (Russo, 2014). As an extension of this, women who sometimes form relationships with other women are portrayed not as queer, but as heteroflexible. This means relationships between two women are portrayed as a joke, a stage, a party trick, or as a way to attract male viewers (Annati & Ramsey, 2022; DeCeuninck & Dhoest, 2016; Diamond, 2005; Jackson & Gilbertson, 2009). This heteroflexible portrayal is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can also promote the beginning of a discovery of a queer identity (Symes, 2017), but often a heteroflexible storyline ends with a woman who affirms that she is straight and thus forms they are not a threat to the heterosexual order (Jackson & Gilbertson, 2009).

The representation of queer women is limited and the existing representation is not always positive. Something that could be improved is the way the appearances of queer women are shown. Ciasullo (2001) distinguishes three types of appearance: 1. the very feminine lipstick lesbian, 2. the ugly butch and 3. the everyday girl. These three types cause the appearance of queer women to be represented in a non-political way, so they lack depth. Instead, they fill a role in the mainstream. The lipstick lesbian was first received warmly, because it removed the previous stereotype of the angry, militant, butch lesbian who actually deep down wants to be a man (Dhaenens, 2013; Jackson & Gilbertson, 2009), but through lesbian chic, it changed them into an object for men to watch. Indeed, queer women are still marketed as fan service for men (Annati & Ramsey, 2022; Diamond, 2005; Jackson & Gilbertson, 2009; Nölke, 2018). The butch is still portrayed as a threat to heterosexuality: she is scary, dominant and not sexy (Ciasullo, 2001). If a butch is portrayed in a more positive way, then being a butch is a phase (Nölke, 2018). Finally, there is the everyday girl. The everyday girl conforms to the heterosexual order, which immediately portrays her as non-political, non-sexual and non-threatening (Dow, 2001; Hantzis & Lehr, 1994; McCarthy, 2001).

Ciasullo (2001) also emphasizes in her article that these three types of appearance create additional problems for women of colour. Women of colour are more likely to be seen as less attractive because they do not easily conform to white ideals of beauty. That is not the only problem when it comes to ethnic diversity: there is also a skewed picture. Research shows that most queer women on screen are white and that queer women of colour are more affected by racist stereotypes (Annati & Ramsey, 2022). This also creates negative consequences for fans of colour, because fans adopt the racist ideas (Pande & Moitra, 2017). On the other hand, queer women of colour are also presented in a conforming way, namely conforming to white culture (Pande & Moitra, 2017; Yue, 2014). This makes it difficult for fans of colour to express their own culture (Stanfill, 2019), because not all cultures benefit greatly from the Western “I’m Coming Out” narrative (Weber & Weeks, 2022).

According to Battles and Hilton-Morrow (2002) and Steiner et al. (1993), queer characters are more often represented in a private sphere. Topics such as love, sexuality, family and friendship are more common. The public sphere, such as the political side of being queer, are left out. But a content analysis of Dutch television by Daalmans and Ter Horst (2017) shows the opposite result. So it's interesting to hear where queer women see queer female characters.

As indicated earlier, the term 'queer women' is used instead of 'lesbians'. This is because there are more sexual identities than homosexuality. Yet homosexuality is most prevalent in media (Bond, 2015; Sender, 2011). Bisexuals and pansexuals are depicted less because they threaten binary ideas about identity. This is why bisexuality is often portrayed as “one or the other” (Allen, 2022). Bisexual women are still portrayed as prone to cheating (Diamond, 2005). Asexuals are almost completely invisible, or they are not taken seriously by the media (Chen, 2020). Most characters are cisgender (Nölke, 2018) and trans women who appear in the media are often victims of (sexual) violence (Abbott, 2022) or are portrayed as a threat to cis women (Gill-Peterson, 2023). There has been improvement in recent years, but several articles indicate that many improvements can still be made and argue for intersectionality (Annati & Ramsey, 2022; DeCeuninck & Dhoest, 2016; Rodriguez, 2019; Yue, 2014).

Based on the literature, the following research questions about respect were formulated: “What do queer women think of the proportion of female queer characters in entertainment media?”, “How do queer women know that a film or television series contains queer women?” and “How do queer women view female characters in different genres?”

2.3. Respect

Respect, on the other hand, relates precisely to the type and breadth of the roles in which the groups are portrayed in the media. Thus, it looks at the way in which a person of a group is portrayed in the media (Clark, 1972). Studies that look at how queer women appear in the media show that the queer community is still under-represented and limited in the roles in which they are portrayed (Waggoner, 2018; Woods & Hardman, 2022). Before the 1990s, queer characters were used in a negative way, linking homosexuality to immorality (Rodriguez, 2019). Often a storyline for a queer character ended in death, something that still occurs and is known as “Bury Your Gays” (Birchmore & Kettrey, 2022; Bridges, 2018; Waggoner, 2018).

Nowadays, the queer community is portrayed in a more heteronormative way to show that heterosexuality is the norm (Allen, 2022; Avila-Saavedra, 2009; Dhaenens, 2013; Marwick et al., 2014; Weber & Weeks, 2022). Thus, representation of queer characters must appear very standard, non-political and non-sexual: the characters must adhere to traditional values such as family, monogamy and stability (Avila-Saavedra, 2009), or they are portrayed as a victim to let see that it is easier to be cisgender and straight (Dhaenens, 2013; Rodriguez, 2019).

On the other hand, normalisation is seen as a positive thing. Dhoest and Simons (2011) criticize the idea that simple, standard queer representation is always bad representation. They say that it is wrong and oversimplified to claim that there is only one right way to represent the queer community. Viewers also acknowledge this by stating that even if they are not represented by some depictions of queer characters, that those queer characters can still be important to others (McInroy & Craig, 2017). Some studies show that viewers appreciate normalisation (Dhoest & Simons, 2011; Gomillion & Giuliano, 2011). While some viewers like a more abnormal queer representation (Sender, 2011), others even reject this “overkill” and “extreme” form of queer representation (Dhoest & Simons, 2011).

But what is normal? According to radical queer theorists, queer media that conform are immediately mainstream, but on the other hand, mainstream media can also show a unique subculture (Joyrich, 2022). The heteronormative normal and the queer abnormal can thus converge. Over the years, new ways of queer representation have emerged, such as queer normalcy, in which the abnormal aspect of queer identity is acknowledged rather than hidden (Vanlee et al., 2018), queer deconstruction, in which heteronormativity is parodied in the mainstream, queer reconstruction, which presents alternatives to heteronormativity, and queer resistance, which recognizes that heteronormativity is not easily overthrown, so instead of challenging it, the presence of queer characters is used to critique heteronormativity from within (Dhaenens, 2014).

It is still unknown how queer women themselves experience the representation in terms of respect. Therefore, the following research questions have been formulated: “How do queer women view stereotypical images of queer women in television and film?”, “What do queer women think of the intersectionality of representation?” and “To what extent do queer women feel that queer women are portrayed authentically in television and film?”

2.4. Identification

Depicting a group in the media is also important for members of the group. People can identify with the characters. Identification is defined as a process in which a viewer assumes the identity, goals and perspective of a fictional character (Cohen, 2001). Identification is believed to increase the influence of media because it can lead to more emotional involvement in how the story will be resolved and it can lead to more influence from the message (Eyal & Rubin, 2003). Identification is different from liking a character, imitating a character, or feeling sympathy from a character, as the viewer takes on the role of a character when identifying with the character. The viewer becomes absorbed in the content and then adopts the character's perspective (Cohen, 2001).

A study by Gomillion and Giuliano (2011) on the influence of role models on queer identity identifies two forms of identification: similarity and wishful. Similarity identification is defined as finding similarities with or idealising a media figure. This causes a viewer to live vicariously through their activities. Wishful identification occurs when a person wants to resemble a media figure because of the media figure's appealing qualities. Identification with a character can help develop an identity, because viewers can use the social reality and experiences of another to understand our identity (Erikson, 1968).

Representation of queer women is complex, which also leads to positive and negative consequences for viewers. These consequences affect the lives of the viewers. But people are not completely passive viewers. People actively use media to understand the world and to make sense of what they see (Baran & Davis, 2008; Carey, 2009). This active way of dealing with media is common in subcultures (Russo, 2017).

Research by Annati and Ramsey (2022) produced a remarkable result: their research into stereotyping and sexualised representation showed that lesbian viewers do not mind stereotypes. This contradicted literature on stereotyping, but Annati and Ramsey (2022) realised that respondents created their own media landscape. The respondents themselves searched for media created by the queer community itself. If stereotyping or jokes about queer are made in this kind of media, viewers are okay with it because they understand it is not portrayed in a negative way (Bond, 2015).

People are therefore very aware of what kind of media they watch and they find subcultural codes in the media (Bengry, 2009; Bridges, 2018). This is also reflected in the queer gaze (Pullen, 2016). Because queer representation had long been banned, instead of explicit representation, the queer community had symbolic representation. The queer gaze can thus see queer subtext in “straight” films and that also leads to identification with straight characters (Pullen, 2016). Lindner (2011) has written an analysis of how women are portrayed in films about women's football and how you can view this with a lesbian gaze, also because films about women's football mention many themes that are also relevant to queer women. As indicated earlier, identification helps with identity discovery (Erikson, 1968; Gomillion & Giuliano, 2011) and so the queer community uses straight characters to create and claim their identity. It is such a way of claiming mainstream culture (Lindner, 2011).

In the article by Russo (2014) about queer female fandom, a distinction is also made between subtext and maintext. Subtext consists of homoerotic elements and the discourse surrounding them. Maintext is the explicit queer representation. The boundary between subtext and maintext is not always clear (Russo, 2014). Queer female fandom consists largely of queer women and these queer interpretations stem from a combination of personal and political wishes (Russo, 2014, 2017). This makes the questions surrounding the representation of queer women more complex. Heteroflexibility means that not all women who form relationships with women are queer, but on the other hand, queer subtext means that “straight” women are seen as queer and sometimes fans are more enthusiastic about those characters than about explicit representation (Ng & Russo, 2017). Often these “straight” women are also seen as queer representation (McNicholas Smith, 2020a). This shows that queer representation is more complex than previously thought.

It is interesting to see how queer women experience identification with queer women in the media. Therefore, two research questions have been formulated: “How do queer women identify with queer women in film and television?” and “What do queer women think of non-explicit queer representation?”

#YES I AM INSANE FOR THIS #six sentence sunday #tagged in #thesis lol

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