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lifeascaty · 2 months

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I've been away from tumblr for a few months. In October 2021, my Dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer. I felt like my whole world was falling apart. He already followed me on tumblr, so I filled my feed with things he would like so he had something new and interesting (or a cute cat) to see every day. (I was already posting a lot for him, but now my queue was entirely for him.) It was a small thing, but I wanted to do anything to help make him smile or distract him. As it was a neuroendocrine cancer, there were treatment options, and soon he was back to living life as if nothing was wrong. But I still kept my queue running for him. In November 2023, a scan was misread. They told my Dad his cancer was responding well to treatment, and he wouldn't need any more nuclear medicine for two years. Unfortunately, this mistake meant my Dad passed away on January 26th 2024. There's no question that this is the worst thing to ever happen to me. My Dad is the person I am/was closest to in the whole world. I've never felt pain like this. I don't know what to do with my tumblr now. I've had it for over a decade, but I've been posting for my Dad for so long that it feels wrong to post without him. I know that's silly. I just miss him so much.

I'm going to post the eulogy I wrote for him below the cut. I don't expect anyone to read it, but I want it to exist somewhere online. I'm really proud of it. It has mistakes - repetitions of words etc. - but I also think it's the best thing I've ever written, because it's about my Dad.

As a professional writer, I’ve felt a lot of pressure to write a eulogy that does my Dad justice. The problem is, I don’t think that’s possible. Especially without him here to give me notes. My Dad has always given me his opinion on my writing at whatever stage it was at, bouncing ideas back and forth with me and arguing over intricate punctuation but, on this occasion, he can’t. I hope he’d like this anyway.

I could talk forever about my Dad. There are so many things I want to tell people about him, about his love and excitement for the world and his joy in getting to live each day. To quote Marcus Aurelius, as my Dad often did, “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” This sentiment defined him, really.

My Dad and I have so much in common. We traded books back and forth. He introduced me to his favourite shows and I showed him mine. He showed me his favourite movies from when he was growing up, and we were always first in line to see new releases at the Odeon in Wrexham. I would spend hours hanging out on the couch in his study as he worked and played music, talking me through his love and admiration of various songs and bands, like Led Zeppelin, Genesis, The Jam, The Smiths. We talked a mile a minute over dinner, always excited to share whatever new thing we’d learned that day. We experimented with various recipes and he gave me my love of cooking. We debated politics constantly, always talked about what was in the news, forwarded interesting posts and memes to each other across multiple social media platforms. Even when I lived on another continent we were in contact with each other every day, keeping track of our respective timezones so we could always find time to talk.

My heart aches every time I read a news article about some interesting new archaeological finding or a new discovery in space, because I want to share it with him. There are so many movies we planned to see, upcoming TV shows we wanted to watch, books we were waiting to be released.

I want to talk to him about the new Taylor Swift album and the Grammys she just won. As some of you may know, my Dad was a Swiftie – he was in the top 0.5% of Taylor Swift Spotify listeners last year. He was a fan of her before I was, often falling asleep to her 1989 album on international flights. He bought us tickets to see her Eras Tour together this summer and we were so excited. I can’t describe the pain I felt when last month he told me that I’d have to go and enjoy it without him. Because he should be here to see it with me. He loved stained glass – even taking classes and making his own artwork. He promised to teach me this summer, and now I’ll have to do it without him. But I’ll still do it. Like I’ll still go to the Eras concert – because it’s what he would have wanted, and because it keeps his memory alive.

I recognise how lucky I am that he is my Dad. So many things had to happen to make it so. Various ancestors had to meet and have children. My parents needed to be born, needed to both decide to go to the same university, needed some anonymous admin person to assign them both to the same university halls where they would ultimately meet. All so that one day I would come in to being and he would be my Dad. The chances of that happening, for everything to have gone right, are so infinitesimally small. And yet they happened. How miraculous is that?

I am who I am because of him. As a young man, he reviewed books for The Oxford Times and Interzone, a Sci-Fi and Fantasy magazine. (He was particularly proud to interview Terry Pratchett, his favourite author, and have his quote used on Pratchett’s books for years to come). He fell in love with stories and storytelling, a love that he passed down to me. Without him, I don’t know if I would have become a screenwriter and author. Storytelling is such a huge part of me, and I don’t know who I’d be without it, and without him.

There are so many big, impressive things that my Dad did and achieved through his lifetime, but the things that make up a life are the smaller moments. My parents dancing around his study to God Only Knows by The Beach Boys. His love of all our cats across the years and his special relationship with each of them. The time we went out into the garden, on a freezing cold night in November, to watch the Leonids – shooting stars – falling brightly through the atmosphere. Picking me up from Gobowen station every time I came back from London or undergrad, no matter how late my train was. His specific way of stacking the dishwasher that only I could emulate. Summer holidays swimming in the pool, eating ice cream together, and marvelling over his tan.

The problem with loving my Dad so much is that it’s incredibly painful now he’s gone. One of his favourite Marvel TV shows, Wandavision, had the line “what is grief, if not love persevering?” There is so much grief because there has always been so much love between us. And I am thankful for that. Thankful for him, and everything he has done to build a beautiful life for our family.

My Dad’s last words were beautiful. Something we often said to each other, from childhood to adulthood, was “I love you more than the moon, and the stars, and the wide, wide world”. I started saying it to him, none of us knowing the end was hurtling so quickly towards us. He smiled as I began to say the familiar words, and as my Mum and brother joined in, so did he, still smiling as he said “and the wide, wide world”. And that was it.

'To reference Marcus Aurelius once more, he talks in Meditations about how just a day–just a minute–of happiness, of perfection, of peace, is enough. The same goes for the people we love. That we ever had my Dad in the first place is a wonderful thing, something to be so grateful for. Whatever comes after, whatever fortune has in store for us in the future? It can’t change that. What happens next matters less because of the wonderfulness of having had my Dad at all.'

He is my best friend. He will always be my best friend. Whatever happened, I knew he would look after me. That he loved me and cared for me and that with him I was safe. He would look after our family, always. And he did. Even now we’re discovering things he did and put in place to make sure we were okay.

I know I need to stop talking, although, as I said at the beginning, I could talk forever about my Dad. I will finish with a quote from Terry Pratchett: “No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” Hopefully my Dad will live forever.

#eulogy

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hoolay-boobs · 3 months

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How do you get into the perspective of your OC(s)? What were the first few things you did to get into their character and understand them better?

I absolutely love this question bc it led to me re reading my own work 😂

I somehow got to my my characters very well without ever putting my book in first person. It’s all third person, sub for one character who breaks the fourth wall and sometimes speaks without quotation marks.

I was inspired by Shannon Hale’s run of Ever After High (Ever After High has at least three different book series by three different authors, plus a Netflix tv series- it’s like a miniature MCU but with better characterization lmao) and I can arguably say that Shannon Hale has the best material on all of Ever After High.

Here is an example (the image is sourced from Etsy) of how a character breaks the containment of using proper formatting of quotation marks and speaks directly to the narrator

I do this as well. Different font, and then I write it like a text message going back and forth, disregarding quotation marks or proper formatting. However this only happens a couple of times per book for my character, and a handful (4-5) times in Ever After High.

I know my characters far too well. The main eight are like children to me, I know their deepest desire and darkest fear and coping mechanism and guilty pleasure. I have been with them for over 5 years without finishing my novel. The time has been spent with making playlists and drawing pictures and creating Pinterest boards and writing things that I don’t intend to publish or include in the final manuscript (hehehe fanfiction by the author) because I simply like to explore them in different situations. My books are going to be in third person, but I ocassionally write in first person, even if I’m planning on just deleting it, because I just like to practice getting in my characters’ heads when I have writers block.

I follow the “worst” writing advice ever. I base many traits for my OCs off of myself, which could be seen as making them Mary Sues. I write them like real people, adding in stupid dialogue of them stuttering or accidentally interrupting one another and then saying “oh sorry, you go first”. I write smut about my favourite OC ships knowing that I’ll never include it in the final draft of my book, just because I want to write about what’s happening “off screen” and what my characters are doing when the reader isn’t looking (although there are indeed some sex scenes in my book, I do like to write additional ones that aren’t nearly as eloquent or have any plans to include it in the published novel). I started my second draft before my first draft was finished, solely because I understood my writing style had improved so abruptly and the characters had evolved so much, I needed to start fresh. I look in the mirror and act out my character’s conversations with one another or their fight scenes or how they wave their hands around like Elsa conjuring magic. I take breaks for months and when I finally sit down and write, I’ll either write 5 words, or 2205 words in one sitting, and not often anything in between.

I have horrible writing advice, and I suggest you take any of it that you’d like or that resonated with you, because it has brought me so much joy in my life and has helped me gradually get to know my characters like new friends who become family.

I’ve been told that my writing “flows like butter” which is so odd because I juggle 4 protagonists, 2 antagonists, and 2 deuteragonists. They don’t “all fit”, but they all have a role to play. Like the delicious fries on the side of the burger, the whole meal. Your characters don’t need to be stars. They just need to be memorable. And I know they will be. Your mind is more capable than you think.

Like honestly, just word vomit on the page and write silly stuff. It will be the most human, glorious, flawed, messy, endearing, and passionate writing you’ll see. Just go create chaos. And play with your characters like Barbie dolls. In a little while, you’ll know them like you know yourself.

At the end of the day, anything you write will be an achievement because you took nothing and turned it into something, transformed a blank page into a series of words and letters. That’s god behaviour right there. Even if it’s shitty writing, you created it from scratch.

But also, don’t worry about setting deadlines and timelines. I’ve been at this since grade 10 and now I’m in university and I’m still not done. Let your characters marinate and soak and rest in your mind. Let them grow. There is no rush. All is well 💜 and one day your characters will grow like little plants from seeds 🫂🫂🫂💕💕💕 just be patient with yourself, and have fun with getting to know your characters!

#idk if this made any sense #hope it helped!#asks #answered asks #thanks you for the ask!#mina my beloved mutual <3 #writing #writing advice #writeblr #writblr #writing tumblr #ocs #oc stuff #writing inspiration #writeblur #writeblogging #writing tips #writing tag #original characters

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shark-myths · 6 months

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20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you so much for the tag ((and drag)) @carbonbased000! this was very fun and thoughtful to do.

who is writing things right now? i never remember. i will tag a wide and perhaps not terribly relevant range of: @toorational @just-about-nothing @27-royal-teas @leyley09 @alienfuckeronmain @stereostatic @setting-in-a-honeymoon and anyone else so inclined!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

968,103, but as i’ve said before, i have orphaned a lotta fic as well

3. What fandoms do you write for?

pretty much just Fall Out Boy, but i will occasionally dabble in something random! this includes tony stark femslash (not sorry, will not apologize), cobra kai, and anything about girls or characters who could compellingly be made into girls.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Difference Between Real Love and the Love on TV

Stranger Danger

Boys Next Door / Assholes

From Russia With Love (this is one of those random sidesteps, a MCU femslash epistolary)

Jet Black Crow

(As an aside, it is so wild to me that older fics have so many more kudos than newer ones—you can really tell that fob went 5 years between albums! imo this is NOT a list of my best fic.)

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

for years, I responded to every single one! then at some point i fell behind because of my high standards for trying to put the same thought and effort into my responses as all you lovely people put into the comments, then i became overwhelmed, then i stopped. I AM SO SORRY IF I OWE YOU RETURN COMMENTS, i read them and i treasured them and you are a huge part of the reason i keep writing. love u all!!!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I only write happy endings, man! I stopped writing tragedies a long time ago. My angstiest fics are red and unafraid of living and In Every Universe. the end of Made One Way (Cobra Kai) is ambiguous and potentially brutal, depending on how you take it.

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

um, every single other one! I’m a big fan of the gory fairy tale ending of The Boys Time Can’t Capture, and transmuting the hiatus into an act of mutual care and love in Sell Out Girl meant so much to me.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not since my first fandom and god, don’t

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

yes, a bit, could probably write a little less about feelings and a little more about feelings if u know what i mean. I’m super into sex as a person so i almost never write about intense romantic connections without bringing smut into it somehow; they feel really tightly linked for me, and i think i also crave media with HOT and INTIMATE connections between queer people. In terms of kind, i guess i’d have to say it’s largely rushed vanilla emotion-and-orgasm driven scenes. not a very flattering oeuvre i've created here.

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

mash-ups are my favorite thing to do! I especially like ripping off movie and fairy tale plots and making them stranger, or else taking a really specific constrained timeline from someone’s life or a piece of media and transforming it somehow. best sandbox ever. my craziest one is probably the coyote ugly / beauty in the beast peterick fic, Wolves Dressed As Wolves. and i love this type of transformation in everything, whether it's the weirdo gender shit i just learned duchamp was doing or katherine addison's destructively beautiful 'sherlock holmes except there're ANGELS' novel or the buenos aires re-imagining version of vivaldi's four seasons by piazzolla, my life and taste keeps taking me into the various ways we fold and refract and remake the same experiences over and over again through different lenses or angles or selves. to quote some author whose identity i forgot years ago, though the quote remains: "there are no new stories." all art is iterative, and the most interesting thing we can do as creators is deviate in new, unexpected ways.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

yeah, a million years ago on deviantart

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes! I have had a few translations and a podfic. I love it when people want to interact with my stories in their own way, all interpretations are welcome.

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

one day i hope to be domesticated enough that @carbonbased000 can write with me. I used to co-write by passing the laptop back and forth with my bestie in high school; we wrote self-insert x-men fanfiction based on the comic books in like 2004 and it was an absolute blast; but generally i am considered impossible to work with, by both myself and others.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

i feel completely unqualified to answer this question. i have been driven insane by any number of pairings in my life. when i was younger, i was more interested in internalized homophobia themes in ships, because that's where WE were culturally in the early 2000s and where i was in relationship to myself, and i think each change and growth and greater empowerment and self-possession in my own life is mirrored in what i am interested in. i feel the most drawn in by dynamics between people that are creative and give me a new way to access and explore interesting ideas and themes; i’m a real sucker for shared art products and touring bands as unique and agonizing ways to connect people. there are so many different ways to express that someone is your soulmate and you'll never convince me throwing away all trappings of a traditional life in order to rove the earth and make art with your friends isn't one of them.

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

do you not just block out your WIPs from your mind so that you can live in moment-to-moment freedom?? I am a finisher in general, i have a few peterick drafts lurking around in my gdocs but if they remain untouched, it’s generally because there are only a couple thousand words to them and i’m not very excited about the possibilities of the fic. there is a sequel to a meticulously historically accurate pirate fic i wrote long ago called Providence, i got to about 30k and then lost all of my extremely painstaking notes and research in a software update. I’m still very interested in and excited by the idea, but i lost the notes and felt too traumatized to continue with the project genuinely a decade ago, so the idea that i will return and finish the fic seems fairly unlikely. Providence is one of my greatest pieces of writing ever, though, so hope springs eternal, i guess!

16. What are your writing strengths?

lyrical prose and conveying humor via unusual sentence construction. i was recently told i write arguments well and feel tough as a result, like, watch out! you don’t want to fight me!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i am lazy and easily distractible, i don’t plot in advance, i barely edit because i get really rigid and have trouble seeing any other way to say something than how i’ve already said it, i have an unwillingness to delete and rewrite even when that’s the only way forward (see: my eternally 90% finished age swap peterick au), i use up all my emotional energy elsewhere and then neglect my craft for weeks at a time.

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

sometimes i’ll use pet names in another language if it makes sense for the character, but i avoid this in general as i’m not fluent in anything other than english. I would, have, and do sound like a duolingo lesson.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

afi bandom, when we used to call it slash, when i thought i had invented it with my friend at summer camp, when i was 13 and sent her kidfic stories i wrote out by hand in pink envelopes.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

genuinely i almost always write things i personally want to read, so i love them all! except the fucking fixed stars of heaven, everyone knows that fic tortured me to within an inch of my sanity. My most personal and personally meaningful fic is Girl Out Boy. i have a tattoo of it on my arm.

#writing #fic #tags #about me #a humble shark #thank you so much love #this was so fun

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 7 months

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I watched the TV show Hold the Front Page last week. It’s weird that it took me so long. A year or two ago, I’d have been all over that shit the moment it aired. Josh Widdicombe; one of my favourites from TV, no matter how boring his stand-up is; and Nish Kumar, one of my favourite wonders of the world; combined with local news, a thing of which I very much approve.

I saw the promos for it when it came out, and I thought it looked interesting, but not quite enough to watch it. TV shows like that have been somewhat spoiled for me, compared to a year or two ago. Not that I ever thought they were real. I knew that panel shows and shows where people off panel shows go and do shit like this were staged things where everyone prepares beforehand and then goes out and pretends they didn’t. But I didn’t mind. I enjoyed the interactions, I enjoyed the shoehorned bits of stand-up, it was still funny.

Now – I’ve said before that it reminds me of when you eat good quality chocolate for too long and then try to go back to Walmart chocolate. What once tasted fine has become too sweet and overprocessed. Is a quite tenuous and barely-working analogy for when I listen to enough live comedy, suddenly the editing and production in TV shows that I always knew was there feels more intrusive than before, even baseline-level panel shows feel over-produced. So I haven’t been picking up new ones the way I used to.

But this is one I should have done. I recently heard Nish Kumar talk about it in his stand-up, the bit where he almost gets to “meet” Boris Johnson and shouts a lot of things at him, and I wanted to see the TV recording to compare it to his story. Then I decided that if I’m going to watch that bit, I may as well watch the whole episode. And if I’m going to do that, I may as well watch all six. I can’t add a show to my spreadsheet unless I watch every episode.

It’s on my spreadsheet now. I have to admit that a couple of episodes in, I thought I probably wouldn’t get through it. The awkwardly manufactured feel was so off-putting that I just wanted to turn it off and listen to Nish Kumar talk shit on The Bugle with no script. I mean, scripts are fine. In scripted shows. But it does annoy me more than it used to to watch a show that pretends to be unscripted, while clearly being scripted.

There’s one time in an episode of Hold the Front page when they say that Game of Thrones is Nish Kumar’s favourite show, and therefore he was excited to meet someone who worked on the set. In the latest Bugle episode, Nish Kumar mentions that even though he seems like the sort of person who’d be into Game of Thrones, he’s never seen it. Someone’s lying, and obviously it’s the TV, he’s telling the truth on The Bugle. It’s fine. I don’t think it’s horribly unethical or anything to lie about whether Nish Kumar has seen Game of Thrones. It just makes the show less interesting to me, that it’s not real. Not that I think every word said in a stand-up show is true either, but at least it was made up by one person, not a faceless team of writers who based it on market trends.

Though there are times when I’m glad it’s not real. They set up this premise where Nish and Josh are trying to get on the front page of various local papers, and they’re competing with actual journalists to do it. And I always like a competition, I watch shows that aren’t supposed to be competitive and manage to find the competitive side. But still, with this, I kept wishing they hadn’t brought in the competitive angle. Just have them go into the headquarters of a local paper and find out how it works. The competitive thing makes them look like dicks, because they keep getting in the way of hardworking journalists who are trying to do their jobs, without some celebrities and their camera crews interrupting with harebrained schemes. I can get into the competition of things that don’t matter – Taskmaster is funny because it doesn’t really hurt anything. Two guys going into an important institution like a local paper and mucking around, wasting the time of people with proper jobs, is a shitty thing to do.

Having said that, luckily I know it’s not real. Obviously all six papers are happy to be included, and the thing we see on screen of them being annoyed about it is a lie, because overall they get featured on TV and that’s a good thing for them. Obviously it’s all edited to maximize the parts where we say “look at these scamps mucking around and getting in the way of proper journalists”, because I guess the people doing the editing thought that would make them seem endearing, not annoying.

Also, it’s weird that they at no point acknowledged Josh Widdicombe’s background in journalism. They kept making jokes about how these are clueless guys with no idea what goes into writing a news article, ignoring that Josh Widdicombe worked as a sports journalist for The Guardian before being a comedian.

That’s why he’s on The Last Leg. People make jokes about how it’s weird that Josh Widdicombe is there despite not having a disability, and the joke is usually that his disability is asthma or vegetarianism or some shit, but there is an actual answer. The answer is that he was a comedian who used to be a sports journalist. The Last Leg started as Channel 4’s coverage of the London 2012 Paralympics – those three guys covered it during the Games, and it was so popular that the next year, Channel 4 gave them their own weekly show.

When decided who would cover the Paralympics, Channel 4 wanted people who were funny, who understood journalism, who understood sports, and who understood disability. So they picked Josh, an able-bodied comedian who used to be a sports journalist. Adam, a comedian who was disabled and had a bit of a connection to Parasport, hadn’t covered it as part of his career but did attend the Paralympics in 2008 and did a lot of charity work for Parasport. And Alex, a sports journalist who wasn’t a comedian but was disabled.

Anyway. Hold the Front Page weirdly ignored all that, because it didn’t fit their contrived storyline, but I did find the episodes got better as the show went on. The last episode featured some of the 2022 Edinburgh Festival, and it was interesting to see that on display.

But none of that is the point of this post. The point of this post is the screenshot of what I'm fairly sure is, despite nothing on TV being real, Nish Kumar's actual laptop:

Awwwww!

I have a sticker on the back of my laptop (old picture of my old laptop, but the same sticker is on my new one too):

I have that sticker because of the laptop from which Nish read during the episodes of The Mash Report when he had to record from home due to lockdown:

But obviously, since nothing on TV is real, that's not his actual day-to-day laptop. But I think I believe that that one from Hold the Front Page is. Nish Kumar goes around in real life with a Bugle sticker on his computer. Fucking lovely.

I've been thinking for a while that once I have enough money saved so I feel slightly comfortable, I should go to the Bugle merch page and buy a sticker to put underneath the "This is less than ideal" on my laptop. The price of a sticker is the least I owe them after all the hours of free entertainment they've given me. Maybe this is my sign that it's time to do that.

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welcome-to-green-hills · 1 year

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What do you think that sonic 3 will be about?

Hello, my dear!❤️✨

I’m terribly sorry for taking so long to answer your ask. I wanted to make sure that my thoughts were clear and reflected what I felt. I feel that quite a few themes and ideas will be explored through the third Sonic film. I don’t necessarily believe that it’s once singular concept. I also feel that the film could, potentially, take on a darker and more serious tone than the first and second films. (This is only a gut feeling with what the writers for Sonic 3 have stated in the summer 2022).

Down below I’ve shared a couple of the main themes/ideas that I believe will be explored the most:

Teamwork:

Since the dawn of Sonic’s existence, we’ve become very educated in the power of teamwork. This ranges from Sonic learning the values of working in team to him being a major advocate of teamwork. (It varies between alternate universes, such as games and TV show, and soft “reboots” of the series).

Towards the end of Sonic 2, we see the Wachowski siblings team up in an epic showdown against Dr. Robotnik and his Eggman Robot. We can see that each of them are highly skilled in various forms of combat. That is of no question. What should be empathized is them being in sync with one another. This was empathized by Sonic before he created a distraction (Sonic’s Speech). Seeing the interactions between Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles during the Battle of Greenhills, I firmly believe that the theme of teamwork will be explored. However, it will be Sonic that voices the need of teamwork and not him learning how to work in a team.

When the three of them work together, they become a heroic dynamic. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are able to understand each other without the need of redirection. This is a form of trust and equal opportunity for them to fight. If a team is good, then it doesn’t necessarily need a leader either. A team and their members know how to communicate with one another and encourage each other to become the best versions of themselves.

I feel—and this is strictly my opinion—that the power of teamwork will be explored with Sonic being the advocate for it. I do hope that this makes sense. If not, I’m more than happy to clarify!😊

Grief/Acceptance:

One of the hardest concepts to grasp in life is that not everyone can be saved… even if they are deserving of a second chance. No matter how hard one may try, it doesn’t always happen. There is also the notion of feeling guilt and grievance towards what was lost as well. All of these emotions rolled into one are facts that one must learn how to live with and come to accept it. I can completely understand that this may feel like a darker and grim tone. (That, and I feel like I can hear some of y’all saying “damn Mystery that’s pretty dark.” Well, Shadow has a pretty tragic backstory). I propose that this concept will be explored: Shadow coping with the loss of his friend/sister and Sonic being made aware of the darker reality of heroic actions. Both of these actions will have our characters become aware of losing something that was loved and accepting that it’s gone.

Here’s the thing: we can infer that the third film will be heavily influenced by Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) (Casey & Miller, 2022). The problem here is that we don’t know how much will be used. We don’t even know if Maria Robotnik will be a character in the film. This is a bold claim to make, I completely understand. I express this concept because of how the adaptation of the films are compared to games and interpretations. Concept art from the second film depicts the corpse of Gerald Robotnik leaning against Shadow’s stasis pod, indicating that this was a potential character (Hesse, 2022) However, this is concept art… we don’t have enough evidence to support the claim that he’ll be referenced in the third film. What do know is that Shadow will be one of the main characters and center of attention.

If anything, we could understand grief and loss the most through Shadow. And in order to approach the situation, Sonic might have to dig deep within himself to express how he felt when he lost Longclaw (and the need for self-isolation for ten years). I will not lie to you: having these conversations are tough. It’s uncomfortable to share feelings deep down and to talk about events that changed us negatively. I feel that having a conversation about losing someone that one loved will be talked about tenderly. With Sonic, I feel that we may see him not only express his feelings of losing Longclaw, but also experience him losing Shadow. Again, there isn’t enough evidence to support that the third film may 100% be a reflection of Sonic Adventure 2. All that we know is that there will be heavy inspiration. Trusting another person to share personal grievances may help other come to terms with loss.

I am not saying that people heal 100% when having these conversations, I am trying to say that it’s a starting point that leads to progress.

Hope✨:

Throughout everything, there is hope. No matter how hard the situation gets, no matter the outcome, there is still a sliver of hope that everything will be alright in the end. And despite everything, that hope is what inspires others to keep going. I feel that hope will be a big theme for the film as well.

And if y’all have any thoughts, please share them! I love to hear concepts and ideas!

#sonic movie #sonic movie 3 #sonic cinematic universe #mystery anon #off topic #Movie!Shadow #sonic movie 2

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suckitsurveys · 2 months

Text

Who has made the biggest sacrifice for you? My dad, for sure.

Who is the most overbearing person you know? My brother in law.

Do you still remember your first kiss? I do.

Are you happy with where you are relationship-wise now? I am. Mark and I are stronger than ever.

How many kids do you want to have? Zero.

Have you ever purposely given someone the wrong number? No.

Who’s the last person you smoked weed with? Mark and I took an edible last night.

Are you currently wanting any piercings or tattoos? Yes.

Who is the person you have hurt the most? I don’t know.

Who is the person that has hurt you the most? Blah.

Who’s the last guy to give you roses? Mark.

Did your parents do drugs when they were younger? Yup. My dad’s been known to eat an edible here or there now a days..

The first thing I’d do after winning the lottery is… Buy a new car.

The videos that always make me laugh are… I mean, so many.

One of my favorite writers is… I don’t know.

One of my favorite singers is… Billie Eilish.

What’s a favorite hobby of yours? This garbage.

I think a good source of therapy is… Crying.

A friend who I can always be myself around is… All my friends, that’s why they are my friends.

Something helpful to lose weight is… Hahahahhahahahahahahaahhahahahahaahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

A fear of mine is… Having my fears used against me.

If you knew me well, you’d gift me… Anything Pikachu or Snoopy or Garfield or bat or panda related, gift cards for sushi restaurants or boba, candles.

Who is someone you’ve been enjoying watching on YouTube recently? I haven’t legit watched YouTube in a really long time, other than SNL clips here and there oops.

Who was the last of your friends to have a baby? None of my close friends have kids.

Which family member did you get your height from? My mom.

Which TV channel did you watch the most as a kid? Nickelodeon.

Who is your favorite cousin? Kelly and her daughter Brittney, honestly.

If you had to choose a country to live in besides your own, which country would you choose? I’m good.

Do you think you look better with long hair or short hair? Either.

What did the last mask you wore look like? It was a royal blue paper mask.

Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? Nope.

What color was your nursery when you were a baby? I don’t believe I had my own room as a baby.

When is the next time you will attend a family reunion? Where will it be? We don’t have those.

Do you like cereal? What would you consider your favorite kind of cereal? Cinnamon toast crunch.

What’s your favorite lollipop flavor? Watermelon.

Who did you last hold hands with? My 5yr niece.

What sounds help you sleep? White noise or fan noise.

Do you have a loud or more soft laugh? I’d say it’s in the middle.

Do you like to dip your fries in a frosty or ice cream? I’ve done it before but it’s not a common occurance.

Cookies or brownies? Brownies.

Are you a fan of musicals? I don’t hate them.

Have you ever stargazed with someone? Yes.

What color is the vehicle you ride in most often? Silver.

What’s your favorite kind of pasta? I love pasta with pesto, but I also love pasta with the red sauce my dad makes.

Would you say you’re a condescending person? I am very sarcastic which can read as condescending but I don’t mean it to be mean or anything.

Have you ever mowed a lawn? I have.

What’s the last song you listened to? Sweet by Lana Del Rey.

Are you content with your social life? For the most part. I’d love to hang out with people more and do more stuff but I’m also just so tired all the damn time from working.

Have you ever had edible flowers? I have, yes.

Do you read other people’s survey answers? When I take them from people lol.

Do you work better alone or in a group? Depends.

What are 3 essential items you won’t leave the house without? My phone, my keys, some sort of way to clean my glasses.

Do you enjoy spicy foods? I do.

What is something you want to be remembered for? I don’t know.

Do you like pickles? I do.

What is something you take a lot of pictures of? My cats and my nieces lol.

What is your favorite thing about the beach? Being in the water.

Are you afraid of snakes? Not actively, no.

Do you think frogs are ugly? No.

Name three things that you find refreshing. Ice water, a pool or lake on a hot day, a cool breeze.

What is your favorite vegetable? Mushrooms.

Do you own any succulents? Nope.

What is your least favorite shade of green? I don’t know, it would depend on how the green is used.

Do you like olives? Yes, except for kalamata.

What are three of your favorite insects (or insects that you think look cool)? Praying manti, butterflies, bumble bees.

Would you ever dye your hair green? I have done it before.

Are you a tea drinker? Yes.

Do you like mangoes? They aren’t my favorite but oddly enough there is a sushi roll I LOVE that has a mango sauce on it and it’s amazing.

What’s your hair texture? Thick and kinda coarse.

Do you play games on your phone? Yeah, some dumb card games and word games and NYT games mostly.

Is acting something you’d enjoy? Are you convincing? Eh.

In what ways are you immature? Lots of ways.

Are the Olympics something you get into? Not at all.

Chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla milkshake? Vanilla.

What’s something or someone you’ll always defend? Access to safe and legal abortion.

#surveys

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the-blind-assassin-12 · 2 years

Text

Worth The Risk

PART OF THE VIPER & THE WILD THING COLLECTION Writers’ Iron Chef #13

A/N: Thank you so much to @littleferal for putting together this prompt challenge! I actually went back and forth between two characters before landing where I did, so if the universal currents are kind to me I might just go ahead and write the other one, too. ;) I know it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything for TV&tWT, but this prompt fit perfectly with something that I had already planned to write for this collection so I said eff it, let’s go out of order. I’ll be (eventually) filling in the gaps - Joffrey’s wedding and the things that immediately follow - but for now, here’s a peek at what’s coming for The Viper & his Wild Thing.

Word Count: 1.3k

Warnings: descriptions of blood and injuries, pain, violence, angst - oops.

Summary: There was only one thing you could do and so you did it without thinking twice - even though it might end up costing you your life.

Prompt: Patching up a wound / “Why would you put yourself through something like that?”

The cut was small and shallow - the result of a stiff sheet of paper slicing across the pad of your pointer finger as you hurriedly stashed your few belongings in preparation to leave King’s Landing. It barely even registered when it happened, your mind already racing ahead to what was going to happen next. The trial. And then… You’d brought the bead of blood up to your mouth and sucked, clearing it away so it wouldn’t leave a crimson stain on the page that caused it, and in the next moment it had been forgotten, your hands moving quickly to secure the rest of your things. Then Dorne. You took a deep breath that made you dizzy as you let it back out. With them.

Everything between then and now had been a blur, and though the papercut had been easy enough to sweep aside because you couldn’t even feel it, it hadn’t healed. So when you reached for one of the daggers laid out on the table beside you to hurl it across the stone plaza to Oberyn, you’d done so without a second’s hesitation.

The poison that dripped from the weapon onto your finger had worked with the same speed, and you realized it was likely the same or a similar poison to the one that Oberyn had used on Gannon Yast. White hot and blinding, the pain threatened to consume you, obliviate you. By the time Oberyn had sunken the crooked blade deep into the exposed flesh of Gregor’s neck, you had fallen to the hard ground, writhing in insufferable pain. A sharp scream left your lungs and echoed in your ears, the sound one that you didn’t know you were capable of making . Fire. It’s… I’m… Breaths coming short and shallow, you clutched your own wrist and fought to stay conscious despite the fact that your bloodstream was ablaze, every pain receptor in your body at full capacity. Need to… to stay-

“Drink this. Now.”

Blinking your heavy eyelids, you strained to focus on the floating form of Ellaria Sand, her long curls falling around her face and extreme fear coloring her eyes. It’s okay, Ellaria, he’s alive. Don’t worry, he’s… You choked, blood pooling in the crease of your lip as the rest of your thoughts dissolved and your eyes slipped shut.

“No. No!” She shook you by the shoulders and you were vaguely aware of something touching your lips - a glass vial - and then a cool liquid trickling down your throat. “Stay with us,” she pleaded. You peeled your eyes open just enough to watch her turn towards the plaza, and then she shouted for someone before dropping her gaze back to you, muttering your name. “Please,” she whispered. “Do not leave him.”

The world around you was fading, the clash of metal on metal ringing out only coming through to you as muted clangs, but as you struggled to get a breath in without choking on another dribble of blood, a second blurry figure came into view. Oberyn. Your chest heaved as you felt your heart working against you, beating erratically to spread the toxin before the antidote that Ellaria gave you could go to work. But the second that he appeared, you knew that what you’ done was worth it no matter what the outcome might be for you. He’ll live. He’ll live and Gregor won’t. And that’s- You let yourself slip then, releasing the desperate grip you were trying to keep on consciousness as you felt his arms going around you. That’s what matters.

– – –

You woke to the feeling of something being wrapped around your hand and the gentle rock of waves beneath your body. Hmm? What… where- Eyes fluttering open, you blinked to focus them. You were laying in a narrow but comfortable bed, and you weren’t alone, a second body nestled close to yours, curving protectively around you. Oh. We… The boat. We made it to the-

You heard your name - in his voice - and then he let out a broken sound, something between a sigh and a groan as his bloodied and swollen lips raked over your eyebrow. “You’re alive. You’re…” His forehead rested against yours, slick with sweat as tears fell from his eyes and onto your cheek. “You are alive.”

And so are you. Your free hand came shakily up to caress the damp curls at the back of his head, fingers carding weakly through them. “Oberyn.” Your mouth was dry, a splitting, cracking sensation shooting down your throat as you coughed.

“Shh,” another voice - hers - came through then, and you turned to see Ellaria kneeling by the side of the bed. She finished with the bandage that she was wrapping around your infected hand, patting it lightly before laying it down on the mattress. “A salve made from the antidote to draw out any remaining poison,” she explained. “Here.” She reached for a cup from a bedside stool and tipped it to your lips. It felt like a blessing from the old gods, the new gods and any of the ones you hadn’t heard of yet, the cool water immediately soothing the ache you felt from speaking and breathing, and you had to be careful not to guzzle it down. “Slowly, wild one.” She tipped the glass back so that you couldn’t take too much at once. “Slowly.”

“Thank… you,” you managed, fingers of your other hand still threaded through Oberyn’s hair.

Ellaria only shook her head, your name leaving her lips like a prayer of gratitude. “No. I am the one who should be thanking you. If you had not done what you did… If you hadn’t….”

At that, Oberyn lifted his head, your hand falling back to the bed. “Why did you do it?”

His eyes were clear and focused, even though they were still watery, and though you knew he was likely riddled with bruises and possibly even a few damaged ribs from the way that the Mountain had struck him down in the fight, he seemed entirely unaware of his own injuries. You blinked twice, confused by his question. What?

“Why would you put yourself through something like that when you knew…” He licked his lips, his voice cracking as he continued. “I told you never to touch one of my blades unless I place it in your hand. You saw what it did to Gannon.” You gave a small nod. “Why would you-”

“I couldn’t watch you die, Oberyn. I…” Not at that monster’s hands and not… Your eyes shifted to Ellaria. Not in front of her. “I couldn’t do that.”

He stared down at you, a slight look of awe in his expression, and then you felt yourself slipping again. But this time it was into a more peaceful sleep, the pain much more subdued and the panic entirely quelled.

– – –

“I still do not understand, Ellaria.” He lay on the bed opposite the one that you were on, his eyes glued to the movement of your chest as it rose and fell with your steady breaths. “Why would she-”

Ellaria pressed her lips against his pulse point, her fingers trailing gingerly over his heavily bruised torso. Oh my Prince. “Isn’t it obvious, Oberyn?” It is to me. She kissed him again before she felt the closely trimmed hair of his beard moving against her forehead, and she pulled back to see that he had taken his eyes off of you to look down at her, his brow furrowed. “She did it because she is in love with you, my Prince.”

Both of them looked over at you then, the small satchel of things that you had frantically packed two nights ago nestled under the bunk that you slept in. And I will always be grateful that she is.

THANK YOU FOR READING! If you would like to be added to or removed from the tag list please feel free to let me know! You can also fill out the form on my masterlist :)

tags: @something-tofightfor @gollyderek @valkblue @pheedraws @alraedesigns @beefcakebarnes @g0ldenlush @thisgirl-knm @writeforfandoms @fific7 @paracosmenthusiast @cannedsoupsucks @revolution-starter @dihra-vesa @disgruntledspacedad @littlemisspascal @mishasminion360 @stevie75 @nyctophiliiiiaaa @practicalghost @harriedandharassed @swtaura @thescarletfang @trickstersp8 @princessxkenobi @imtryingmybeskar @wildmoonflower @mswarriorbabe80 @theredwritingwitch @silverstarsandsuns

#oberyn martell x female reader #oberyn martell x reader #oberyn martell x you #oberyn martell fic #pedrostories #pedro pascal character #oberyn martell game of thrones #the viper & the wild thing #TV&tWT #oberyn martell #ellaria sand #lissie's writers' iron chef #writers' iron chef 13 #tw: blood

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lotronprimesucks · 2 years

Note

Regarding the "negative reviews" that ROP is apparently receiving, because you all seem to claim, without seeing it, that it's a bad show or of low quality: most negative reviews on ROP I have seen are outright racist or, if they're not racist/bigoted they're childish arguments and incompetent critique. "The elves have short hair now". "Elrond isn't respectable enough". "Galadriel is too warlike". This is not a slam dunk. They're setting up character arcs and prepping them for development, as you do when writing a story. You idiots. The fanfictions you've devoted your life to have taught you nothing, apparently. They don't have primacy, and there's no intrinsic value to following the "fan-accepted" version of any character. Nobody who is negatively criticizing ROP can make a good argument against its writing or dialogue (which is no worse than the original LOTR, they're basically on the same level), its set design, its characters or acting. All they have is petulant stuff like "this is not my Galadriel" "they gave Elrond short hair" "they don't say Finrod's name". You embarrass yourselves, you lower the quality of the discourse. Boycotting ROP on the basis of Amazon being ghoulish is a valid approach, but making up incompetent arguments and passing them off as critique isn't. Y'all just can't accept that an evil company can also create a technically and artistically competent TV series, because you lack critical thinking skills and are consumed by tumblr brainrot, thinking things can only be wholly bad or wholly good. Children

Okay, anon, sure.

Let’s take this in order:

The negative reviews I’ve highlighted have been from respectable mainstream publications who are not caving to reactionary racist or sexist backlash. You’re assuming I’ve been going to great lengths to seek out user reviews or comments on Twitter or the shit the Daily Mail or Bounding Into Comics is saying. I’m not. The reviews I linked to all point out significant flaws with the writing and dialogue and approach to the showrunning. Whoever you’re accusing of being a child, it sure as hell can’t be me.

The things pointed out in those reviews - the gender-essentialist short hair, the complete mishandling of the family relations in House Finwë, the details they legally can’t mention, the political situation in the Second Age that are being completely rewritten - are all signs of a bad adaptation. They are indicators that the writers fundamentally do not understand the text they are using as a source material, and that therefore the story they are telling is not connected to the books. You present these as petulant or childish complaints but they aren’t, they’re significant and show that the people writing this work are not interested in accurately portraying what’s written on the page. At that point, regardless of how good the writing is, this project has failed at its most basic task.

The first episodes also prove that they didn’t have the rights to anything except the Appendices. This means they are compelled to write an entirely original story, which might be good but so far is neither accurate nor compelling on its own.

Whether or not the adaptation is accurate matters to people who aren’t racist. This is because a desire for accuracy is not approving of the author, the author’s personal politics, or the author’s preferences. I don’t want accuracy because I care about Tolkien the man. I want accuracy because I like the books as they are written, and clearly what Amazon is doing is not following the books as they were written. This matters to me and to many other people. (“Accuracy” is not a shorthand for “white people”. I have said before on this blog that I want substantially more people of color in the show, not less and not the current amount. It is in fact necessary to include more characters of color to accurately reflect the text.)

The writing on this show is bad. Abysmally bad. Horribly bad. So bad I’d rather watch The Room and Birdemic and Zardoz on loop. Assuming that everyone criticizing this show has nothing to say about the writing and dialogue is false. The production design is horrible, the music is either generic or actively racist, the plot is already disjointed and badly structured. All of these are things that have been said in many critiques, and all of them matter. I at this point doubt that anyone who likes this show has actually watched it because the incompetence in every possible place except for some of the effects and the cinematography is staggering.

So no, I can’t accept that Amazon made a technically competent series. They didn’t do that, and I am not interested in being told they did simply because of your assumptions about what we’re all objecting to.

Cheers!

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cloud-based-and-rainpilled · 9 months

Text

I just finished Staged 1!! My reactionz (apologies for wall-of-text; I cannae “read more” on mobile);

(tl;dr at the end)

Props for getting me to not despise a Zoom show on sight. Uses the medium really well despite it being, you know, a remnant of the world fuckin ending

Very Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead, like the patter/volley, lotta chemistry (goes without saying)

David Tennant using Frost/Nixon as an example to explain who Michael Sheen is to Samuel L. Jackson makes me feel so seen. Maybe it’s an American thing idk

Nina, my beloved… serving cunt as the day is long. Rip to her beleaguered assistant lmao

The celeb cameos weren’t annoying !

Bordered on naval gaze-y but self aware enough (meta!) to skirt the line well

Simon’s sister rules lmao

The exterior shots showing empty Englandland were beautiful and captured a (shitty) moment in time very effectively. And sheep! Pastoral VS city, good stuff

Who the fuck is Michael Sheen?!

I wish David writing the play came up earlier, structurally it felt kinda thrown in the last two episodes, but they’re short so it’s a lot to put in

Michael crying over the old lady possibly dying 🥺 Best unseen character uwu

Welsh is a horrifically ugly language but I appreciate their commitment to the bit

Best ep by far was the 3rd (I think?) one revolving around lying. Fantastically written and all around a tight episode

He is in the naughty corner!!

I’m ignorant af whooooooo is the black actory guy in the 5th (I think?) episode who goes on a run to deal with stress and reads Ulysses twice? Love him. I will follow him into the dark

The Ulysses bit is very haha Bri’ish

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Reference !!!!

The credits gag is *chef’s kiss*

I… don’t like the music. It feels very Kevin Macleod student film stock piano sorry

Also could be my hearing issues but I just couldn’t hear sometimes, at least with the wide shots. Maybe there are subtitles but I wouldn’t know since I watched it completely legally uwu

Editing with fade-to-black annoyed me at first since that’s not how Zoom works but it won me over, very effective theater-y choice. Elevates it a lot along with the way the Brady Bunch boxes move

David and Georgia’s dynamic is adorable and they play well off each other. Not sure if I’ve seen Georgia in anything before (statistically speaking she was prob in Doctor Who lmao) but I really like her as an actress! Very charming

Anna’s not in it as much so can’t say for her acting ability but she was fine idk. She has zero chemistry with David and Georgia but her and Michael seem to have a little bit, just not nearly on the same level as the Tennants. It’s “meta” so not quite sure what that implies irl but her awkwardly leaving Georgia on read was very funny

Idk who Simon is but he’s a good actor! More of a writer? Self effacing and fun

D̵̨̜̓̽͆͘Ḁ̴̪̻̘̗̮̀͛̈̊̅͆ͅM̷̭̒͛̓̔̐͛̉̂̈́̔͘Ë̷̲́̿̅̀̐̆̇̅͋̓̋͂̉ ̴̟̖͉̳͖̑̌́͂̀͑͐̽̈́̃̃��̫J̶̨̤̞̰̙̻̯͍͖̯̠̝̥̤̿͐̄̂̈̅̎̃̌͊͊̓͠Û̶̢͍͔̱̦̩̬̦͙͖̓̿͘D̶͇̭́̋̓̆͆̋̋͘I̶̞̳͕͖͗̓̓͑̐͆͊͋̂̚͠͝ ̴̧̨͎͖̲̳̼̎̈́̋̐͘Ḑ̸̲̖̟̲͓̝̠͍̤͛͆͐͘E̷̛̻̥͙̯͂͌̌̈͂̒Ņ̷̛̭̦̗͔̝͙̖̆̀̆̌̚ͅC̴̢̬͉͈̉͐̃̀̋̓̓̓̀̚H̵̡̠͕͚̹͑͂̃̉̐̈̾̍̕͠

In the same vein, the button of the cookie jar acting game— yes. All yes

Once again hammering the meta theme but it is interesting to see how David & Michael’s chemistry really does get stronger as the episodes go on. I’m assuming it was filmed in order so a lot of it is the awkwardness of acting on Zoom I think since they had better chemistry in Good Omens 1 imo. They said they became closer friends through it and it shows

Also feels less ‘actor-y’/more comfortable between them as it goes on, which I get is scripted but you can tell the difference, like when a sitcom cast for many years either starts hating each other at the end or becomes inseparable

tl;dr Overall it’s quite cute! Well written, easy watch, lotta subtle funny moments and back and forths. Interesting to see something that feels like a play as a Zoom TV show, it’s unique. Everyone is having a good time and likes each other and it shows. Not sure I’d come back for a rewatch if not for it (apparently) becoming a lot more meta as it goes on and then whiplashing from funnier in season 2 to major bummer in season 3.

It’s fascinating to see a friendship develop in real time, and even aside from that, it’s written and edited concisely. Based on .gifs I’ve seen it looks like season 2 has a lot more of the iconic/memorable moments. Don’t really see the “love story” aspect yet but I guess that comes in time. (And arguing! I’m excited for arguing. Actors love that shit.)

Started season 2 with episode 1 and already like it more with how meta (this no longer sounds like a word) it’s getting. Cool concept and I’m glad it exists

#my tl;dr is so long lmao sorry #using it as an excuse to go to the gym #i will watch ofmd soon tho! once i’ve finished this #bless those who sail the high seas #staged #bbc staged #staged 1 #michael sheen #david tennant #georgia tennant #simon evans #also yes they’re both very attractive i’m just embarrassed to not shove it in the tags because i’m a nerd #also georgia is very pretty and has eyes like a furby #samuel l jackson #lucy eaton <- damn no tag sorry girl

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pers-books · 2 years

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Kate Stewart - according to Big Finish

I’ve finally finished re-listening to all of the Kate Stewart audios to date so, without further ado, I present to you the background info on Kate Stewart provided in said audios. Please note, there are one or two which feature extensive references to the Brig, but unless the conversation pertains to Kate’s background, I’ve not quoted it.

They’re listed according to boxset order and I’ve included the writer of the audio as well as the title. What I’ve learned from this is that Matt Fitton wrote a lot of background material for Kate in the early boxsets and Guy Adams in the later boxsets.

What I also found interesting is that Big Finish has pretty much ignored the semi-canonical direct to video Downtime (1995) which first introduced Kate Stewart as the Brigadier’s daughter (then played by Beverly Cressman) insofar as BF’s writers have given Kate a much closer relationship with her father.

Vanguard - Matt Fitton

Kate's described by the internal computer security system as UNIT's Chief Scientific Researcher She "Doesn't do labels" She usually skips past Orbit News TV on the way to the movie channel

Power Cell - Matt Fitton

"My eldest is cooking. If I'm lucky there won't be any leftovers." Kate's reason for working late. "There've always been factions who'd have preferred UNIT to remain under military control. Colonel Shindi knows I haven't had an easy ride."

Ice Station Alpha - Matt Fitton

"You're setting me up as a patsy. It's been hard enough working my way up the ranks the last few years. I bet they didn't take much persuasion."

House of Silents - Matt Fitton

[sounds of gunfire] Kate Stewart: How did I do? Josh Carter: Very good grouping, ma'am. You're a natural at this. Kate Stewart: I have put in the practice before, you know. I just thought I might be getting a little rusty. Josh Carter: Keep up these sessions and I don't think you'll have anything to worry about on that front. Kate Stewart: Good! If we're caught out in a combat situation in the field I don't want to feel like the spare wheel. We were lucky to make it through that scrape with Cerberus. Josh Carter: I thought you didn't believe in luck. Kate Stewart: An ability to shoot straight should help keep the odds in our favour. Josh Carter: Shall I set up the targets for another round? Kate Stewart: No, that's enough for today. Paperwork beckons. Now, let's see if I still remember how to disassemble this. Josh Carter: This interest in military hardware is new. I thought 'Science Leads'? Kate Stewart: Oh, it does, Mr Carter. Science just needs to remember to carry a gun sometimes.

Square One - John Dorney

Kate apologises for wearing her pyjamas - she'd just settled down for an early night. Later: "I have an urgent appointment with a hot water bottle I'm very anxious to keep."

In Memory Alone - Matt Fitton

Kate Stewart: Do you know JM Barrie, Colonel? Vikram Shindi: Peter Pan chap, wasn't he? Kate Stewart: Among other things. He also wrote that "God gave us memories that we might have roses in December." [Source: Rectorial Address at St Andrew's, 3 May 1922, in The Times 4 May 1922]

Call to Arms - Matt Fitton

Kate knows first aid Kate Stewart: I don't know if it was the same in your [Benton's] day, but it's not in my nature to leave a man behind.

Tidal Wave - Guy Adams

Kate speaks Spanish well enough to translate an insult directed at her Kate doesn't do hugs - Jo Jones hugs her! Kate Stewart: I'm a pragmatist not a warmonger, Osgood, you should know that

Retrieval - Guy Adams

Kate Stewart: Fine. A small team can go and take a look Osgood: Who do you suggest? Kate Stewart: If it's a research station, Osgood, I think we need our finest scientific minds on it, don't you? Osgood: Oh. Kate Stewart: Well, don't worry, you're only one of them. Osgood: And the other? Kate Stewart: I'll pretend you didn't ask that.

Kate not wanting to kill the dinosaurs in the Silurian research base

Kate Stewart: There's a reason they let me sit in the biggest office. [Reminding Sam Bishop that she's not there because of nepotism but because she’s actually a scientist.]

United - Matt Fitton

Kate Stewart: I like to think I bring diplomacy to the table, not just a gun.

The Dalek Transaction - Matt Fitton

Kate Stewart: You don't know how hard I am to impress.

Invocation - Roy Gill

Kate stayed at Ealdon House for a week when she was a child. She can translate English-Latin and Latin-English on the fly. She was involved with the university newspaper

Game Theory - Matt Fitton

It's implied that Kate's done an advanced driving course

Code Silver - Guy Adams

Kate's had basic medical training on some of the aliens UNIT had in cold storage

Hosts of the Wirrn - Chris Chapman

Kate refuses to destroy the level of the Well while Osgood and Shana are still inside. She later regrets this when the Wirrn swarms the town of Windermere. [Side note: Shindi forgets himself enough to call Kate by her first name when she reveals she's en route to meet the Wirrn Queen. Normally he says ‘Ma’am’ or ‘Ms Stewart’.]

Breach of Trust - David K Barnes

Osgood: Things do seem to go quiet when Kate's not here. Maybe she should go on dates more often. Josh Carter: She's on a date? Osgood: Oh yes. I wasn't meant to say that. Josh Carter: [scoffing laugh] I don't believe it. Osgood: Well, as far as he's concerned it's a date. But for her it's just professional. I think. Josh Carter: Well, who's he? Osgood: Just somebody she's having a not-quite date with Josh Carter: You don't think she'll - you know? Osgood: What? Josh Carter: Tell him what she does? Osgood: Oh, you mean, 'Hi! I'm in charge of a secret international military organisation that deals exclusively in extra terrestrial activity'? Josh Carter: Yeah Osgood: More of a third date kind of announcement, I'd say Josh Carter: If it is a date Osgood: Which it isn't

Richard can't even remember the name of the Private whom he'd been harassing/having a relationship with. Kate's clearly seething quietly. He talks in demeaning terms about the Private, then immediately makes a pass at Kate.

Richard: Have we finished the bottle? Kate Stewart: We have, yes Richard: Should we order another? Kate Stewart: Well, that could be risky. Richard: How? Kate Stewart: I might smash you over the head with it Richard: Sorry? [beeping of Kate's pager] What's that noise? Kate Stewart: Oh, thank goodness. The Earth's in danger. Richard: Eh? Kate Stewart: Richard, Richard, I'd say I'm sorry I have to go, but I'm not, so I won't Richard: Hey, you can't just leave Kate Stewart: Yes, yes I can. The door's over there Richard: [whiny] Hang on, I thought that you and I might - Kate Stewart: Yes, I know you did. Goodbye Richard. Oh, dinner's on me Richard: [whining more] No, wait a second. [She's already walking away] Kate?

She gets accosted by a drunk soon after leaving the restaurant and is irritated at being told to smile because it's not the end of the world.

Kate refuses to make First Contact in a dress as she likes having pockets. She keeps a spare set of clothes in the cabinet in her office

Osgood: But there's always another way! We just have to find it! Kate Stewart: You know we haven't the time for that! Bleating on about it isn't helping anyone. It's - it's 2 in the morning and I'm about to send a mother and child off to their deaths. Now, you can try to make me feel worse about that than I already do, but I really don't know what on Earth you think you'll achieve by it! Osgood: It's not - Kate Stewart: Fair? Of course it's not fair! Osgood: [runs out] Kate Stewart: Osgood!

[Kate's crying quietly on the roof of the Tower when Osgood turns up, having been told by the Colonel where to find her] Osgood: I'm sorry for disobeying you. And for getting Josh involved. I just - I couldn't face the idea of giving in? Kate Stewart: And you thought I could? Osgood: You were doing what you thought was right Kate Stewart: [bitter laugh] Thank you Osgood: As in fact you always do Kate Stewart: Don't patronise me, Osgood. When I give an order I expect it to be followed because sometimes the needs of the many do actually outweigh those of the few even if that means someone ends up dying. And you know you'll remember their faces. Believe me, you will remember them. Osgood: I'm sorry Kate Stewart: We'll talk about it later

Open the Box - Roy Gill

Kate Stewart: I'm open to new ideas, always, but I refuse to go into anything blind

Kate went to holiday camps as a kid: "They did annoyingly upbeat announcements too."

Kate had a "Classical education" and "an abiding hatred of outdoor sports".

She enjoys custard creams.

She lives with the daily fear of losing her team.

Kate Stewart: Regret doesn't bring people back. Trust me, I know.

This Sleep of Death - Jonathan Morris

Warren Calder: The Geneva Convention outlaws torture and I know how much you care about that

Tempest - Lisa McMullin

Kate Stewart: I hate it when it's Us or Them.

The Power of River Song - Guy Adams

Josh Carter: You know Kate, she won't let emotion get in the way

Kate [to Captain Josh Carter]: I’ve kicked down my fair share of doors in this job. It’s my form of Pilates. Chant: Eugh. Miss Stewart. Kate: Don’t call me Miss Stewart. I’m not a governess in a Victorian novel. Chant: Ms? Kate: I’m here to see the Director. Chant: I’m afraid that’s quite- Kate: Let me explain something to you. One would have thought it obvious but I spend a good deal of my time spelling out the obvious to people who get paid more than me, so - Chant: MS STEWART! Kate: Shush, now. Shush. I’ve been awake for three days. I’m fighting a war of attrition with the coffee machine and I’m currently investigating my own death. It is an effort for me not to staple your tie to your desk. Chant: I understand that you’re under considerable pressure but I simply won’t be talked to like that. Kate: Right. [Sounds of a brief struggle] Chant: Ms Stewart! [Followed by sounds of stapling and somewhat heavy breathing as Kate staples Chant’s tie to his desk.] Kate [not at all breathlessly]: I did warn you. Sorry. Was - was that a very expensive tie? Chant: My mother bought it for me for Christmas. Kate: Merry Christmas. [She literally kicks open the door to the Director’s office.]

The Enemy Beyond - Andrew Smith My father was stationed in Edinburgh when I was a little girl

Fire and Ice - John Dorney

Always do what you're best at, I say.

Kate loves a pun: For now, we're going to have to put your plans on ice (after stopping an Ice Warrior from destroying a large chunk of Australia!)

Eleven's Eleven - Lisa McMullin

Kate Stewart [to the voice activated vault]: Hello. My name is Kate Stewart and I've come to rob your vault. Would you mind opening up, please?

The Curator's Gambit - Andrew Smith

Kate Stewart: Wait, is that new? The Curator: Oh no, not new. I rearrange the exhibits from time to time. Kate Stewart: It's a Turner, isn't it? The style is unmistakable. I thought I knew all of his work. Osgood: That's Hampton Court Palace. Josh Carter: What's that doing here? Is it dangerous? Curator: Ooh hardly. It was a Royal commission. Not for public display. It commemorates the Undergallery's original location beneath Hampton Court. Osgood: I didn't know that. Kate Stewart: Elizabeth founded the Undergallery in 1562. The National Gallery wasn't built until the 1830s.

Kate's aware of the optical illusion in Holbein's ‘The Ambassadors' which looks like a smudge from one angle but is clearly a skull from another.

The Curator calls Kate very astute for knowing he wouldn't leave the Arch unprotected.

Kate mentions she knows the Privy Gardens at Hampton Court Palace because she's visited.

The Man From Gallifrey - Andrew Smith

Kate goes with Josh and his rescue party to get Osgood and Jimmy Tan back. She's always prepared to risk herself for the sake of her people.

The War Factory - Lizzie Hopley

Bamberra: Can you ride a horse and shoot? Kate Stewart: Have you met my father? [In fact Bamberra was talking to him very recently.]

Ten Minutes in Hell - John Dorney

Kate refuses to let Varliss of the Vulpreen break her, despite regular whippings. She refuses to tell him anything about Earth's defences. She urges Worrall to try to escape Varliss, encouraging the Vulpreen whom Varliss has enslaved to rebel. She feels survivor's guilt after Varliss shoots Worrall because Kate refuses to tell him what he wants to know. Kate persists in her defiance because she refuses to give up hope, no matter how hopeless things look.

The Sacrifice of Jo Grant - Guy Adams

Kate gives the impression that she occasionally struggles with Jo's tendency to go off on tangents.

Kate Stewart: A few seconds to get clear. If the Official Secrets Act would ever allow my memoirs, that would be the title.

Osgood: If I can figure out the refractive index, I can probably compensate for it. Then we'd be able to see through to the other side. Kate Stewart: Already done. Someone's working from my calculations right now. You're not the only one with a PhD or two.

Kate Stewart: Why did you jump after me [after Kate's pulled through a pocket of temporal instability]? Jo Jones: I was trying to save you! Kate Stewart: One day, Miss Jones, you'll learn you can't save everybody. Jo Jones: Have you? [ouch!] Kate Stewart: I'm sorry, I - I shouldn't be snapping at you. It's just - well -

Kate carries a Mark 17 [pistol? revolver? Unclear]

Kate muses that she's not sure she can bear to speak to the Brig again (while she's in the past). Later she seriously considers it, but is interrupted before it happens. She finally does call him, after prodding from both Jo and the Third Doctor.

Kate's the one to grab Jo from the Time Vortex thanks to the Doctor's meddling. He brings Osgood 'a gadget' to track Jo through the Time Vortex, but Kate's the one to actually grab her and bring her back into their Time.

[ETA: Can’t believe I forgot there was a UNIT story in the first Eighth of March boxset!]

Narcissus - Sarah Grochala

Kate says she's weak and sees monsters in her bedroom, that she's lost in the woods and her dad can't find her. Which is how she overcomes the alien's psychic hold on her. She allows herself to feel weakness and is able to pull out her gun and shoot the mirrors, destroying the alien's power.

Osgood: I just wanted to say how sorry I am about what happened on the ship. It's not like me. Kate Stewart: It's okay. We all have crises of confidence. Osgood: Do you? Kate Stewart: Sometimes. Osgood: But you always seem so calm and collected. Kate Stewart: [weak laugh] Huh, not always. Not inside. But outside appearances must be maintained for the team. Osgood: That takes a lot of strength. Kate Stewart: You know, when I was inside those mirrors I realised something. Jordan's ship wasn't feeding off anything to do with external beauty, it was feeding off confidence, self-belief. It was never about appearance. How could it be? Physical beauty is subjective, but bravery, strength, intelligence - that's not.

#Kate Stewart #Background Info #Big Finish #UNIT #Audio Drama

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aeoki · 1 year

Text

High and Low: At World’s End - Chapter 5

Location: Australian Town Characters: Tetora, Tomoya, Hinata, Touri & Mitsuru

Season: Autumn Writer: Akira

Touri: Huh? Why’s it Anzu’s fault? She’s just guiding our group, right?

It’s not like she gave the pilot the wrong destination or something like that…? Would someone normally make that kind of mistake?

Hitsugi: No. It seems the pilot flew us to our destination correctly.

Tetora: What do you mean? We’re not where we’re supposed to be though, right?

Hitsugi: It might be quicker to just read it instead of hearing it from me. Everyone, please open the “Hallhands” app.

I’ll get Anzu-senpai to send everyone the documents related to this incident.

Tomoya: ………

Hitsugi: ? U-Uh? Did I say something weird? Why are you all staring at me?

Tomoya: Well, all our phones were confiscated before we took off.

They said it was to forget about work and to focus on the school trip.

Hitsugi: Now that you mention it, that’s right! It’s the same for us in the “producer course” as well!

I see~ If you don’t have your phones, then you can’t access “Hallhands”! That means for young people like us, it’s practically the same as plucking the wings of a bird!

Sora: Yes… It’s anxious not to have a digital device close by~ I’ve brought a gaming device but I can’t use it since it requires Wi-Fi.

Tomoya: Yeah. After arriving, they said they’ll hand out a device with limited capabilities so we can probably still do our work in Australia.

Hinata: But we haven’t met up with the staff here, though~

Hitsugi: It seems I’ve got no choice but to explain it to you guys, then.

Everyone here – the idols in “Late Departure Group 2” are cast in an entertaining travel TV show called “High and Low”.

Tetora: ? That’s the first time we’ve heard of this.

What’s High and Low? A movie with lots of delinquents?

Sora: Doesn’t it originate from a card game? The one where you compare cards and see which number’s higher or lower!

Hitsugi: Um, it’s our first time hearing it too, so we also don’t know why it’s called “High and Low”.

It seems Anzu-senpai is the “producer” for the “High and Low” project.

Touri: She’s the “producer”...? Wait, what do you mean? Are you telling me she’s the one who came up with this weird project and got us in this awful situation?

Hitsugi: No, that’s not true~ It’s not, right, Anzu-san?

It seems she was put in charge of the project without her knowing. Looks like the news hit her like a bolt out of the blue.

Hinata: Seriously, what’s going on? “High and Low” is actually Anzu-san’s project, right?

Why doesn’t she know what that project entails? Isn’t that weird?

Tomoya: Woah, there… Hinata, you’re usually pretty nice to everyone but why are you so oddly harsh to Anzu-san?

Hitsugi: I sense a conspiracy.

Sora: ? Meaning?

Hitsugi: While Anzu-senpai was busy preparing for the “Old-Fashioned Sports Festival”, someone submitted the proposal for “High and Low” under her name…

ES then accepted and officially used it, and Anzu-senpai was chosen to be the producer in charge as per the proposal.

Touri: Is something like that even possible? The people reviewing the proposals for ES sound like idiots with nothing in their brains.

I heard something similar happened with “Tanabata Fest” too.

Hitsugi: Our current situation is strangely a bit different from that… If anything, this might be even worse.

For “Tanabata Fest”, Anzu-senpai actually read through the proposal and then personally submitted it to the Student Council. I thought that was the “correct” way to do it.

But this time, it really looks like Anzu-senpai has no idea what’s going on. I can only assume that someone is trying to set her up.

They probably stole Anzu-senpai’s phone while she was taking a nap after managing the “Old-Fashioned Sports Festival”.

And sent the proposal to ES that way.

Since the sender was Anzu-senpai, ES would naturally think that it was her that submitted it.

And as long as they’ve written something like "afterwards, someone else will take over", then…

Everything will be going to plan without Anzu-senpai knowing.

Tetora: Which means whoever’s getting in touch with ES is the culprit, right?

Hitsugi: Yes. We don’t know who that is at this point, though. Even if we did, there’s a gigantic body of water separating us so it’s not like we can do anything.

Touri: What’s up with that guy? What do they want?

Hitsugi: Hm~ No idea. Feels like we’re done for~ It looks like we fell perfectly into their trap.

The academy— the Student Council reflected on the “Tanabata Fest” incidents and also carefully examined Anzu-senpai’s proposal.

But it seems the people at ES still casually scans through Anzu-senpai’s proposals. It’s as if they’re thinking, “This is Anzu’s proposal so there wouldn’t be any issues”.

Tetora: Hmm~ It looks like Anzu no Anego’s excellent producer skills are actually backfiring on her.

Touri: More like it’s "Tanabata Fest” all over again. Don’t you ever learn, Anzu?

Sora: Well, Anzu did reflect on it and supposedly made a bunch of improvements, though?

But this time, it seems she got her phone stolen and had the proposal sent off without her knowing. So it’s not her fault.

Hinata: That happens because she sleeps in random places defenselessly. You are a girl so you should be more careful, Anzu-san.

Mitsuru: Well… it looks like Anzu Nee-chan regrets it, so I want you to forgive her for my sake.

Tomoya: You were just up to no good too. You should also be feeling sorry, Mitsuru.

Hitsugi: Fufu. In any case, because of this weird “High and Low” project, we’re now in the most northern town in Australia.

It looks like all the idols that came with Anzu-senpai are members of “High and Low”.

Tomoya: Whaa, you don’t have to lower your head, Anzu-senpai! No one actually blames you for this!

Hinata: That’s right. It’s all because of that person who submitted the “High and Low” proposal in your name.

Touri: So who is that person? What are they? Anzu, did you pick a fight with someone?

Hitsugi: The “Peace Party” is pretty suspicious. I bet it’s their fault this time too.

Sora: Rather than finding the culprit, I wanna know about the details for “High and Low”, though~

Just what have we gotten ourselves into…?

← Previous Chapter ᠂ ⚘ ˚⊹˚ ⚘ ᠂ Next Chapter →

#high and low

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dailyfanfix · 2 years

Text

Fic Rec VI: Assorodus

source: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41239035

(This fic is still in progress.)

Note: This author requested for us to review their fic. So I’ll go into a little more detail on the review. The reason we don’t go into much detail for the reviews generally is because it’s not like the author asked us to do that, so we’re not gonna go on here and give unsolicited advice or anything. We’re simply here to show our support!

Pagiecake, though, specifically asked us to review Assorodus. While Mavis and I are definitely not professionals, we do have quite a bit of writing experience outside of fanfiction so we thought we’d give this story more effort as a way of showing the author our appreciation for supporting our blog!

I repeat, we are not professionals. So everything here is subjective and based on what we’ve been taught as writers.

Author: @pagiecake (PagieCake on ao3)

Fandom: The Sandman

Relationships: Morpheus/Reader

Point of View: First-Person

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 19,638

Chapters: 6/10

Language: English

Tags by the Author: Angst, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Slow Build, Tenderness, Platonic Relationships

Summary by the Author:

Assorodus meaning "silvery water".

Purpose may or may not exist, depending on our personal ideologies. The Endless know better though, they saw the entity prowling the lands before the beginning of history, and it was older than them. Not by much, a few eons maybe, arriving after the birth of the universe we know. For this being was strong and withered the coldness of the void until everything was created. First of Writers, the name it was given, for the inherent purpose of every breathing thing had to be formed in words. Whether we believe in it or not.

His body I recognise, I’ve seen him naked before, but now the stretch of his skin is strange, sickly, I can see his bones protruding from underneath as if trying to break through his pale flesh. I remember his complexion being fair, though not to this extent. Partly obscured by his jet-black hair, his eyes are two windows to fiery rage, so much so, that I sense he is not sure who I am yet, his swirling emotions rendering him blind. Pink lips barely moving, he slightly pulls them into a scowl, threatening me without the use of words. I know him, but at the same time not, not in this state. What have they done to him?

“Morpheus?”

What you can expect:

Very interesting plot. I’ve read a lot of Sandman fics since the TV show came out, and I can confidently say that this is one of the more unique and ambitious fics I’ve read. The tags say Tenderness, and there’s definitely quite a bit of that. It’s interesting, too, since it points to a much deeper story that I look forward to as the story gets updated.

Morpheus and Reader have known each other for a while, so you can expect there’s an air of mystery regarding their relationship—platonic or not. They’re kind of in that weird limbo phase and it annoys the heck out of me as slow-burn fics usually do HAHAHAH AUTHOR PLEASE CUT TO THE CHASE— *cough* anyway, back to Writer Mode™.

More subjective thoughts and minor spoilers under the cut.

—

(Masterlist)

Posted on September 9, 2022

Posted by Sophia

Ko-fi

Masterlist of the Chapters

Thoughts on Chapter 1

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terrainofheartfelt · 2 years

Note

You're really good at writing imo. Are their any fanfic authors or any books you recommend that helped you improve your writing?

Thank you so much! That’s very kind!

And oh boy DO I

For years before I actually wrote anything I was a fanfic lurker and I read a lot. My last church choir job in the Before Times was during the final seasons of GoT and I read a lot of fic during the sermon. Which is just to say, that I think there are a lot of fic writers — both within and without the GG fandom that have influenced me and inspired me. I wouldn’t say anything has directly improved in an instructional sense, like “this is how you should write, yadidiyadda…” but reading a lot has let me learn by osmosis: what I like to see, what I don’t like to see, and a lot of it has inspired me, particular tropes and story premises and things like that, so! Let’s have some lists…

First, in the non-Gossip Girl category, there are writers in different fandoms whose works I think about a lot and really enjoy and kind of…look up to, if that makes sense. In the Shadowhunter Chronicles, the media that has had as much as an obsessive hold on my heart as GG, one might argue, I really admire @themimsyborogove and revisit her work often. And—we’re not mutuals so I’ll refrain from tagging bc I’m shy— ashesandhoney writes some awesome fic (and, if I may be so crass, they write very good smut—is it weird to cite a smut influence? Oh well, too late). TSC is a fandom that’s been racked with both a poor movie and poor TV adaptation, so finding fic that satisfies a books-truther just as myself is a tall order, but these two both are lovely (and Mimsy writes showfic too that I just know is wonderful bc she wrote it). And tsc & these writers opened me up to the magic of trying to write the ot3. I’ve used ashesandhoney’s herongraystairs fic as a frame of reference for writing d/b/n (not that the characters are the same, or the relationship dynamics between the three are the same, it’s more a…vibe thing? Like, how do you illustrate this love and how these three connect to each other?)

And in GoT I will never forget ashleyfanfic and justwanderingneverlost they made this amazing au where the Starks are prohibition bootleggers and it reads like an hbo miniseries hatfields and mccoys kind of epic and I think about it alllllll the time. And it is one fo the first aus that left an impact for being so out there when held up against the source material, but so inventive and grounded in the characters and I just think about it at least once a week. Also ashley’s pop star au fic is god tier and lived rent free in my mind for a loooooong time. Also a smutspiration.

In the same vein of aus I never could have imagined but took over my heart, welpthisishappening’s hockey au of OUAT. before these works I was pretty much a canon-compliant/canon-divergence only kind of fic reader, and these works and these writers got me to see outside of that view and gave me permission to imagine characters in worlds outside of their own, and how exciting that can be, and without that I definitely wouldn’t have written all that I have. And lastly, I have to give a shoutout to a writer of the other GG, MrsMess and their Gilmore Girls fic. Harvest Moon healed the wounds of the revival to me and is canon in my heart, and it’s so beautifully and thoughtfully written and how could I not be inspired by it?

And as for the dair fandom itself….god I mean pretty much everyone I’ve read has made me a better writer and made me want to write and keep writing. In the beginning of the dairaissance in mid 2020 the tag on ao3 was much smaller (I think we’ve grown it by like 50%??? Just looking at it roughly??? Good work team!!!) and of course I was inspired by the great revered fic standards written by audrina (she’s retired from gg but secondaudrina is the pseud where most of her fic lives on), and bookglue aka @windowsandfeelings (I only got into her gilmore girls works through gossip girl but damn she’s a hero), and nevertothethird aka @scabopolis — like seriously I wouldn’t have written anything at all probably if not for the existence of Wrapped in Ribbons, and @pseudowoodo as well, who wrote thee seminal role-swap au.

And then of course there’s my heavyhitters, my ride-or-dies. I’ve told them multiple times, but I’ll tell em again, Nads @mysteriesofloves and Ivy @mrs-nate-humphrey were writing and posting and creating pretty regularly when I started poking my head in to the fandom, and their stories were so brilliant and well thought out and compassionate to the characters that it turned on something in my brain and made me want to write too, so I did. Then not long after I found S @strideofpride, my most beloved enabler and peer pressurer and reading what they make and talking to them about it has unquestionably made me a better writer. I have grown a lot in the year and however many months it’s been since I started doing this and I owe it to all of the above <333

As for not-fic writing I read….just everything. Everything I read informs me as a writer, directly and indirectly. Though I don’t write it, I find poetry very inspirational. Devotions, No Matter the Wreckage, Open Me Carefully, Leaves of Grass, have all informed me. Some prose writers I—not necessarily aspire to, bc how could I ever be as brilliant? But maybe…revere and internalize are: Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Isabel Allende, Vladimir Nabokov, Kevin Kwan, Emily Henry...

#i firmly believe any reading makes you a better writer #like i'm just reading timothy zahn's silly star wars fanfic #but the act of doing the thing is it yk?#i hope everyone is okay with the tags #there are much more of you that have been so lovely and encouraging and I am grateful for you all <333 #asks #anon

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myshipsaresunkwrites · 2 years

Text

From The Ashes

Warning: language, substance abuse, references to suicide

A03. Playlist.

Chapter 8

“Are we there yet?”

“You asked me that five minutes ago,” Natasha replies.

“And you didn’t answer.”

“Because you’re annoying me. We’ll get there when we get there.”

Jake looks over at her. She’s typing away at her phone, barely paying him any attention. He feels like a petulant child, but they’ve been driving for over an hour now, leaving the city far behind.

“Legally you’re obligated to answer me,” he says.

Now she does look over at him. “Is that so?”

“I have a very good case to argue that if you don’t, you’re kidnapping me.”

“Interesting.” She turns back to her phone. “Have you ever checked your emails?”

“My emails?”

“I send you a detailed itinerary every morning.”

“My emails,” Jake repeats.

“Electronic mail. You can access it on your computer.”

“I don’t have a computer.”

Natasha gives him her full attention. “You don’t have a computer?”

“I don’t need one. I have people like you and George to deal with my schedule and finances and anything else important.”

“You don’t order anything online? Watch any TV?”

Jake shakes his head. She should know this already, though. Since he’s not producing any new albums, he’s almost constantly on tour to make up for the revenue disparity. What little free time he has, he uses to work-out, sleep off drunken escapades, and take part in said drunken escapades. And on the rare occasion he wants to watch TV, the hotel rooms always have one.

“What about your music writing? Don’t you use a computer for that?”

He’s not sure if she knows that’s a sore spot or not. “I don’t write music. Haven’t for a while, at least.”

“Why not?”

He shrugs. “Prolonged writer’s block.”

“Well.” She seems a bit at a loss. “What about your phone? You have an email app on there.”

He grins at her and unlocks his phone before tossing it her way. “You see for yourself.”

Natasha picks it up without hesitation. Her eyes widen as she sees the numbers in the notification bubbles. A horrified look crosses her face. Jake’s smile widens.

“How…how do you live like this?”

“You’re asking the wrong question. That’s precisely how I live. I don’t bother keeping up with it all. None of it is important. So why should I manage it?”

“You have thousands of missed calls. Texts. Emails. Voicemails. Everything.” Her voice shakes. He remembers how neat her room was and his amusement grows.

“Jake, we have to fix this. We have to - ”

He plucks his phone out of her grasp and shuts it off. “We don’t have to do anything,” he corrects. “But if you want me to be aware of an itinerary, it’s best if you print it out and stick it to my door. Or better yet, write it on my arm.”

“You’re hopeless.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know.”

Natasha taps a finger against her lips. “I could tell you lots of things you don’t already know. But you would know them if you bothered to read the itinerary I sent you. Such as where we’re going and how long it will take to get there.”

He scowls at her and she laughs. It’s such a nice, light sound and he finds himself trying not to smile. Fine. She’d won this round.

The trees thicken around them and the driver turns from the interstate onto a patchy road and then onto a dirt road. Jake reaches up and holds onto the handle near the roof as they bounce around.

“Didn’t know you were a fan of off-roading,” he jokes.

“I’ve never been,” she admits.

“Too dirty for you? It would be a shame if you got mud on your boots.”

Natasha shoots him a hard look. “Just because I’m from LA doesn’t mean I’m a prissy city girl.”

“I never said it meant that.”

“You insinuated it.”

“You’ve never done anything to make me think otherwise.”

“Not even that spontaneous run?”

Jake had forgotten about that. But even that was just sweat, not dirt. “If that’s the best you got, it’s not as good as you think.”

“Oh, I’ve got much better,” she promises. “You don’t know the first thing about me, Jake Seresin.”

He opens his mouth to refute the statement, then realizes it’s true. He doesn’t know anything about her that he hasn’t directly observed or asked. And he hasn’t exactly been curious.

He fully expected her to be gone in a few weeks so he hasn’t bothered. But after the way she’s been handling him, taking everything in stride and always bouncing back up after every disaster, he has a feeling she might last longer than the others.

The thought makes him oddly…excited.

He can’t remember the last time something other than the promise of alcohol at the end of a long, hard day made him excited. And even that’s not true excitement; it’s more relief than anything else.

The driver takes them deeper into a wooded area and then a cabin appears at the end of a long driveway. He slows down and pulls up. Jake glances at Natasha, but she just slips her phone into her pocket and reaches for the door handle.

“This is it?” he asks in disbelief.

“This is it,” she confirms.

“Yeah, there’s no way I’m getting out of this car.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“This is a classic horror movie set up. You’re going to murder me in the middle of the night.”

“That depends on how much you piss me off in the next one hundred and sixty eight hours.”

Jake frowns, trying to do the math in his head. “A week? We’re staying a week here?”

“George said you needed to lay low, stay out of the media. So I figured what better way to keep you out of trouble than to take you somewhere you can’t possibly get into any trouble.”

“Sweetheart, I can get into trouble anywhere.”

“Perhaps. But there’s no one to witness it except for me here.” She holds out her hand to him. “Now get out of the car.”

The last thing he wants to do is follow her, but he has the feeling he doesn’t have a choice in the matter. And really, who can he blame but himself? So he grabs her hand and lets her tug him out.

The driver is already taking their suitcases to the porch. Natasha grabs his guitar case and shoves it at him.

“What’s this for?”

“In case you want to practice.”

He doesn’t bother explaining to her that he doesn’t play unless he absolutely has to anymore. It just reminds him how empty his life has become. But her voice doesn’t leave any room for argument so he dutifully sets it with the other luggage.

“And groceries.” She hefts a cooler out of the trunk, followed by a second one. “This should get us through a week.”

“So we’re really stuck here.” Jake’s heart sinks. He thought they’d at least have some opportunity to leave, to go into town where he would be able to get a few drinks when he needs them. Nothing too crazy, just enough to take the edge off.

“Yep. It’s called roughin’ it.” She punches his right shoulder as she passes. “I thought you were a Texas boy. Are you really going to let the LA city girl upstage you?”

“Hell no.” The words don’t have the power behind them that he wishes they did. He turns and watches mournfully as the driver takes off, leaving them alone in the middle of nowhere. Then, with a sigh, he starts carrying stuff inside.

The cabin is relatively small, just a living room arranged around a fireplace, a small kitchen with a table, two bedrooms and a shared bath, and a screened-in porch set off the living room. There’s no TV, no laundry machines, only a handful of outlets for the lamps in the rooms. Jake would be surprised if the shower had hot water.

“You couldn’t have picked a better place,” he says sarcastically as he comes back from dumping their suitcases in the rooms. Natasha is busy unloading the groceries into the fridge.

“It’s perfect,” she agrees, sounding way too cheerful.

“Where did you even find out about it? Some old bog fisherman?”

“It was on AirBnB. Got a great rate for it, too.”

Jake leans his arms on the counter. “I am begging you. I am a millionaire. Do not choose my accommodations based solely off price.”

She leans her arms on the opposite side of the counter, facing him. “I am promising you, Jake Seresin. The price was just a bonus. I chose this place because of its amenities.”

“Amenities?” He sounds as pained as he feels. “Like snakes in the bedsheets and serial killers in the woods?”

“Like how it’s almost entirely off the grid.” She smiles, as though that’s a good thing. “No Wifi. No cell service. Limited electricity from that old generator outside. You’ll have plenty of time to think about what you’ve done and maybe you’ll think twice about doing it again.”

He groans and slams his forehead down on the counter. “I thought you forgave me. I apologized.”

“Yes, you did. But that doesn’t mean there’s no punishment.” She reaches over and pats his head. “This will be good for you.”

“That’s what they always say,” he mumbles.

“Maybe you should listen every once in a while.”

He hears the cupboards open and shut as she continues putting things away. He slowly lifts his head and glances around. “So what are we supposed to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re stuck here for a week. What are we supposed to do for a whole week?”

“You could start by helping me unpack.”

He doesn’t feel like helping her do anything right now, but he’s already bored and when he’s bored he starts thinking about drinking so he stands up straight and opens the second cooler, putting away eggs, milk, a few vegetables, and some canned foods. At least she’d gotten some chocolate as well. She’s not a total hard-ass.

Just most of one.

When they finish putting everything away, he skulks off to his room. Part of him knows he’s acting childish, but he can’t help it. She is treating him like a child. When he misbehaved, even though he apologized and recognized what he did as wrong, she dragged him out into the middle of nowhere without warning. She couldn’t even pick a place with things to do.

His eyes fall on the guitar case leaning against the wall. There are things to do. Just things he doesn’t want to do.

And maybe that’s on him, not on her.

He didn’t tell her why he doesn’t write music anymore. And she doesn’t know that he doesn’t play for fun, either. It’s hard to blame her for not knowing what he’s not willing to tell her about.

He thinks of her offer from lunch yesterday. Even after all the stress he’s put her through in just a week, she still opened herself up to listen. To be his friend.

Would that really be so bad?

He can still remember clearly the care she’d taken as she cleaned and bandaged his arm, even though she was furious with him. He doesn’t remember the last time anyone touched him with such gentleness. Usually he’s just pushed from one place to another, positioned to pose for a camera or escorting from place A to place B.

Natasha does her fair share of pushing him. But she also reaches out for him.

He just can’t accept her hand.

Natasha doesn’t feel like cooking the first night, so she slaps together some sandwiches, puts them on a plate with some chopped carrots and apples, and calls Jake out. She realizes it’s a very child-ish dinner, but then decides that if Jake is going to act like a child, it’s what he deserves.

Thankfully he doesn’t complain as they sit at the small kitchen table and eat in silence.

The cabin is quiet - too quiet. Maybe Jake was right when he said it’s the perfect place for a horror movie. If someone came out of the woods and stabbed them, there’d be no way to call for help. No one is coming for a full week to check in on them.

A full week. With Jake Seresin. In a cabin in the woods. Far from society.

Yeah, maybe this wasn’t her most brilliant idea.

Natasha heads to her room and lounges on her bed, staring at her blank phone screen. She yearns to call Bradley, to have someone to talk to. She ends up turning over on her back and flinging an arm over her eyes. This is going to be a long week.

She lays there for a while. Then she suddenly remembers something and sits straight up.

She slides off her bed and crosses the hall to knock on Jake’s door.

“Yeah?”

The door inches open. She peers around to see Jake sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed, and staring at the peeling wallpaper.

She’d make a joke about how boring he is, but she wasn’t doing too much better a minute ago.

“I forgot to tell you the best part of this place,” she says.

He doesn’t even look over. “The spiders?”

“There’s a hot tub.”

His head whips over to look at her. “If you’re joking, I might kill you.”

She grins. “I’m totally serious. It’s on the screened in porch.”

Then she ducks back into her room to throw on the one swimsuit she’d thought to bring with her to Texas. When George offered her the job, she knew she’d have to pack light - everything in one large suitcase. A lot of hotels have pools, so she figured she’d bring at least one suit. It turns out she never has had time so far, but it’s not like there’s anything else for her to do this week.

Jake is already by the hot tub, pulling the cover off. “Half the electricity from the generator has to go to this alone,” he says. “And I am not complaining.”

“I told you I picked this place for the amenities,” she says. He gives her a long-suffering look.

“Thin ice, Trace. Thin ice.”

It’s not the fanciest hot tub, but it does the trick. She closes her eyes and sighs as she slides in. After all the long hours she’d pulled last week - the late nights and early mornings, the middle of the night bail-outs and lunchtime arguments - she needs some recovery time already.

She opens her eyes and looks out at the absolutely gorgeous view of the forest outside. Unbroken by civilization. The sun is just beginning to set, casting a warm light over the trees and setting the sky on fire.

“I’ll give you some credit for the hot tub,” Jake says, and she looks over at him. He’s keeping his bandaged arm out of the water, resting it along the side of the tub, and his bruised side is on full display. It probably won’t be half healed by the time they leave.

“I know what I’m doing,” she replies, averting her eyes. She doesn’t want him getting the wrong idea. Or even thinking that she feels bad about how injured he is. Of course she doesn’t like that he’s in pain, but she can hardly feel sympathetic when he brought it upon himself.

“Still haven’t broken even, though. Maybe if we survive this week without the roof falling on top of us while we sleep.”

“I was assured it was structurally sound.”

“By the guy renting it out? Of course.”

“Can you ever just enjoy something, Jake? Do you always have to find things to complain about?”

That shuts him up. He stares at the window silently.

A few minutes pass and she’s starting to regret how harsh her words came across. At least he was talking to her before.

He drags his right hand across the top of the water, watching the ripples intently. “My parents,” he starts, and her head whips in his direction. “They never enjoyed anything. Always bitched about one thing or another.” He pauses. “I swore I’d never be like them.”

Ah, shit. She’d gone and stepped all over a sensitive topic. Of course. She knows she has a big mouth sometimes, isn’t always the best about thinking things through before they come out. Especially if she thinks it’s a “gotcha”. Her desire to have the last word has caused harm on more than a few occasions.

“Your parents are pretty rich, aren’t they?” she asks, treading carefully. If he doesn’t want to get into it she won’t push it, but he did bring it up first.

“Yeah. My dad built his fortune from nothing, so he’s extremely picky about everything. Doesn’t want to waste a cent of his hard-earned money and expects everyone in the world to have the exact same work-ethic as he does. And my mom comes from old money - think Gilded Age railroad barons - so she thinks she’s royalty.”

That explains a lot. Natasha also starts to get an idea about things he doesn’t explicitly say. “And how do they feel about your music career?”

“Which part? The music? Or everything else?”

She doesn’t need to ask about the everything else. No parent would approve of that. “The music.”

“They don’t understand.” Jake’s hand continues to lightly trace over the surface of the water. “But I never expected them to. I’m not sure they have souls.”

So it is his parents. She suspected it since Bob had told her about them, but now she’s almost positive.

Jake’s hand dips below the water. He looks over at her. “What about you, Trace?”

She blinks. “What about me?”

“Tell me about your family.”

He…wants to know about me? Why would he want to know about her if he isn’t expecting her to stick around more than a few weeks? Then again, he had called George and asked him not to fire her, so maybe he’s finally given up trying to scare her off. Maybe he’s even starting to warm up to her.

I don’t have friends, Trace. I’m sure you understand why.

Or maybe she’s overthinking it and he’s just bored.

“It’s me, my parents, and my four older brothers,” she says.

“Four brothers?” Jake shakes his head. “No wonder you’re the way you are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He gives her a look she’s starting to think of as his signature look. “You know exactly what it means. You’re tough, you don’t take any crap from anyone. And you’re not easily impressed. You have the weariness of a middle-aged mother.”

She opens her mouth to protest, then closes it. A smile instead comes over her. He’s right. It’s not an insult, either. She’s not like women in their twenties who didn’t grow up dealing with crazy shit all the time and are constantly starstruck by any semi-attractive man, even if he acts like a child half the time. And she has no tolerance for such behavior.

But it also indicates compassion. No matter how exhausted mothers are, they still take time to care for those around them. No matter how angry they get, they still find some measure of softness inside of them.

“Alright, I’ll take it,” she says. “But if I’m a tired mother, you’re a deadbeat dad.”

Jake winces, but he doesn’t argue. “And that’s precisely why I don’t have any kids.”

“Really? None? No secret child with a groupie you won’t find out about until they’re too bitter to want you in their life?”

“Damn, Trace, you’re cold.”

She shrugs. “I just happen to know the business.”

“No, no chance of kids. I don’t do the whole groupie thing. Too busy illegally drag racing motorcycles with gang bangers.”

She snorts. “In terms of permanently changing lives, I guess that’s slightly better.”

“I prefer to limit damage to myself.”

“And the side of a building.”

Jake raises his bandaged arm and motions at his bruised side. “I’m pretty sure the building won this fight.”

She grimaces. “Does it hurt much?”

He gives her that look again. “What do you think?” His voice drips sarcasm.

“Fine, stupid question. We’ll make sure to get you some ice before you go to bed.”

“Are you going to tuck me in, too, and read me a story?”

“Depends on if you’re a good boy.”

Jake smirks, and she feels herself fighting back a smile in return. It’s so easy with him like this. She thinks he’s enjoying himself, too. At least he’s acting like it. Why isn’t this enough for him?

A wave of sadness washes over her then. That’s his problem. That’s why he constantly turns to the bottle. Reality isn’t enough. He has to find ways to escape it at every turn.

She’s been approaching this all wrong. Now that she knows Jake didn’t have a great upbringing, that he doesn’t have anyone to turn to when he’s struggling with something, she knows what she has to do. With Bradley it was different. Bradley had a couple traumatic events that changed the course of his life. Once he was able to address those, he could pull himself out of the abyss of grief and self-loathing he’d fallen into.

But Jake doesn’t have a “tragic backstory”, as they might say. He just had a progressive build up of crappy moments and memories that slowly built-up a massive weight on his shoulders. He doesn’t need to address them - it would be nearly impossible to do that. He just needs to be shown that there is something else. That life doesn’t have to be what it always has been.

Maybe that’s why he apologized after she’d brought him back from the police station. He expected her to leave him, or at most to bring him back and dump him in his room. He didn’t think she’d take the time to make sure he was okay, to help clean him up and tend to his wounds.

Because no one had ever done something like that for him before.

That’s her way in. Showing him that he’s not alone. Showing him kindness and patience when she wants to wring his neck.

Giving him the unconditional love every child should have but he never experienced.

It’s a tall order. She won’t deny it. It might seem easy now, when he’s sober and friendly, but she’s seen how bad it can get. She knows she’s in for a rough ride ahead.

But she wants to help him. As more than just her job. He may not think he has any friends, but she’s going to be here for him whether he wants it or not.

She hoists herself out of the hot tub. Jake watches.

“Bedtime?” he asks.

“If you want a story.”

She’s joking, but inwardly she wonders if he ever got that - if his parents or at least his nanny or whoever was around ever took the time to read his favorite book to him or create some fantastical series just for him. She aches at the thought of a child who was shuffled off, dismissed, viewed as a chore instead of a joy.

Natasha tosses him a towel as she dries herself off, then helps him put the cover back on. She ties her towel around her chest and pulls out the big bag of ice she’d brought from the freezer. Some of it had melted and gotten stuck together during the drive, so she takes a metal spoon and uses the end to smash it back into smaller pieces.

She’d also come prepared with cling wrap and ziplock bags. She fills a gallon-sized bag and presses it against his ribs, ignoring his sudden hiss of pain.

“It’ll feel better in ten minutes. You’ll thank me then.”

She reaches out for the bandages along his arm, but he pulls back.

“Don’t be a baby. We should change those as well. Clean them out again.”

“Not tonight.”

“Jake - ”

“Not tonight,” he repeats. She sighs and drops her hands.

“Alright.”

She follows him as he heads back to his room, leaning against the doorframe. “You forgive me for dragging you out here yet?”

“Ask me again on day five.”

She rolls her eyes, but takes it as a victory. A whole day without any drinking, meltdowns, fights or other incidents. She may just keep her job after all.

“Goodnight, Jake.”

#from the ashes #hannix #hangman x phoenix #top gun maverick #writing

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