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starry-eyed-fag · 11 months

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Sorry fellow petekey shipper here but I am curious about how anti petekey shipping is rooted in ableism and transphobia? (Obviously you don't need to answer if you don't want to but I am curious, I'm also not super involved in the fandom so that might be why)

I've received two asks about this same thing with very similar wording so I'll just answer this one, hope other anon isn't too offended lol. I've spoken a bit about this before, but I'm too lazy to go find the post, and I have free time. The transphobic and ableist roots of the vocal group of anti-Petekeys that exist (and other anti-RPF people that go to a very far extreme in general) are very different so I'll address both of those separately.

(Also there will be very brief mentions of SA in my answer, addressing a common anti-RPF argument.) (Also also I'm not a Petekey shipper to clarify but I do welcome them on my blog.) (Also also also there is a TLDR at the end but please don't raise your pitchforks until you've read the whole post.) (Also also also also it's okay if you disagree with me, we can still be friends as long as you're civil.)

I also want to provide a disclaimer: it is okay to dislike any ship (or even RPF in general) for any reason. I'm not trying to claim that it's inherently transphobic and/or ableist to dislike or be personally uncomfortable with RPF. The problem comes in when people use their personal dislike of RPF and extend that to harassing RPF readers and writers (who I will henceforth call RPF enjoyers so I don't have to write that out) and trying to demonize us.

Part One: The Ableism

Many people who hate RPF to the extent that they shame RPF enjoyers do so because of ableism. In the process, they demonize us neurodivergent folk, whether we are RPF enjoyers or not. Often they will say "please just be normal about [person]" or "you're so obsessed and parasocial" when someone's just writing fic or making jokes about the ship being real.

Parasocial relationships, while real, are often used as leverage to further ostracize and discriminate against neurodivergent people, especially autistic people like myself. In RPF discourse, often visibly autistic people are accused of "breaking [person]'s boundaries" or, in some cases, even having our hyperfixations or special interests be compared to literal sexual assault.

As an actual survivor of SA, comparing a neurodivergent person's mostly harmless interests to SA is not only extremely disrespectful but also ableist. Often it is more visibly autistic or higher support needs autistic people that get this argument used against us, but any autistic or neurodivergent person can be targeted.

All of this is very weird and suspicious. Often, more moderate Petekey antis will say things like "you can ship Petekey, just be normal about it". This basically translates to "you can ship Petekey as long as you're a neurotypical". And this proves that a lot of what people are calling "just respect people's boundaries!!!!" is just ableism covered up with therapy speak and progressive language.

Part Two: The Transphobia

There is a lot to get into with the transphobia of the FOB fandom, and if I were to talk about this fandom's transphobia and all of my thoughts on it we would be here for several hours and a few hundred thousand words, but I do want to state a few facts to get us on the same page.

Trans people are targeted, harassed, and called out in this fandom far more often than cis people are.

Trans people in general society are often viewed as predators simply for existing, and when this intersects with a mental disorder or neurodivergence, we are even more likely to be ostracized or called out for things that really aren't that big a deal.

Our sexualities are seen as inherently predatory, no matter whether we're straight, gay, bi, or any other thing. In the eyes of society, there is no "good" sexuality that you can be when you are trans in the same way that you can be straight when you are cis.

When we are called out or targeted, we face the consequences of that worse than cis people do.

Many of these forms of discrimination are passive and not done on purpose, but good intentions aren't enough. Harm is still done to trans people while cis people look the other way.

So, how does all of this tie into Petekey?

WELL

Have you ever been on the Petekey side of Tumblr? Of course you have, you're a Petekey shipper. You may not have counted how many trans people you saw there, but you definitely noticed us. We were there. While we are about 1% of the general population, I would estimate that we are about 50%-70% of Petekey (and general bandom RPF) Tumblr.

All of this being said, the counter argument from the antis would be "we're not doing this because you're trans, it's because you're shitty and do [x thing they claim RPF is]". Unfortunately for them, this is no excuse to use transphobic stereotypes in order to "call us out" for the horrible crime of... writing fiction. And isn't it suspicious how these people very rarely come after m/f ships (exclusing x reader, because that's attacked a lot)?

HMMMMMMMMM

Trans people expressing our sexualities through this community, this ship, this form of media, are demonized and called predators. We are compared to people who commit SA, and legitimate abusers, for writing fiction. We are harassed and called out for being RPF enjoyers far more than cis people are.

Addressing the Bad Ones

Before an angry anon comes into my inbox talking about this, yes, I am aware that some Petekey shippers are racist, and I don't support that at all. Racists aren't welcome on my blog. Because I am white, I don't really have much to say about the vocal minority of Petekey shippers who are racist, but I do think that they are a problem and that it's important for the Petekey community to fight racism alongside the rest of the FOB fandom.

For those unaware, it has been brought to many in this fandom's attention that it is racist to reduce every FOB song written by a black man, Pete Wentz, to be about one white man, Mikey Way. This is indeed very racist. I don't know what the consensus among black fans is about how far you have to go about overanalyzing FOB songs in that perspective before it becomes racist, but I have never once seen a black fan, even one that doesn't personally like RPF, claim that it's racist to ship Petekey at all.

This vocal minority of racists is absolutely no excuse to harass anyone, especially those belonging to other minority groups that already have hate and harassment targeted at them for the most minor fuck-ups. Your (justified) anger with a few racists isn't an excuse to be ableist and transphobic because transphobia and ableism, even towards bad people, harms all trans and ND/disabled people who aren't racist.

I also want to state again that if this is your reason for disliking or being uncomfortable with Petekey in general, that is entirely valid! It's your job to curate your own online experiences and I have no interest in policing what you do with your own blog. Please just don't harass enjoyers of RPF or use transphobic and ableist language or stereotypes in your discourse.

This goes both ways. Even if you are an RPF enjoyer you should familiarize yourself with all types of bigotry to avoid accidentally repeating it, and if you do fuck up, own up to it, apologize, and don't do it again.

Conclusion/TLDR

Dislike of or personal discomfort with RPF is totally fine and normal, and so is thinking that RPF is bad, as long as you recognize that the negative aspects of RPF are a symptom, not the main problem here. The main problem is the commodification of human beings under capitalism.

However, RPF has been very important to queer and trans culture, especially bandom RPF in the 2000s. There is a vocal group of people who believe that writing RPF is literally the same as SA or that it is justified to harass RPF enjoyers. Neither of those beliefs are okay and they are rooted in ableism and transphobia for reasons I stated above.

Some Petekey shippers are racist, and unironically claiming that every FOB song is about Mikey is racist because you are reducing a black man to his feelings for a white person. This is still no excuse to go after the non-racist Petekey shippers.

I don't think that everyone who hates RPF to that extreme is trying to be ableist or transphobic, but the more you look at it, the more it becomes increasingly clear where their rhetoric comes from. This is still where they are getting their rhetoric from. They've likely internalized a lot of radfem and/or TEHM talking points as well, which is what I've seen for a lot of these types of people.

Also, mutuals: none of this is directed at you! If you were that anti-RPF to the point I would consider you transphobic or ableist, I wouldn have probably blocked you by now.

Also also, if I got something wrong, especially about the racism, feel free to correct me! I'm always open to good faith disagreement.

Also also also, I'm going to reblog this on my discourse sideblog because this post is more on the discoursey side.

#ask and ye shall receive #petekey #rpf discourse #shipping discourse #long post #discourse #shipcourse

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grimmywrites · 1 year

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what ya think of the new re4 remake? c:

I love it! (Everything below is the opinion of a nerd who is way too into the RE world, btw.)

OG RE4 is my favorite video game ever, and like many I was worrying over every bit of information we were fed. I didn't expect it would be, but the worry that it would be like the RE3 remake was there. Thankfully, I think Capcom knew they had to do this one right.

For me, the game is 10/10. They really upped the horror, the story, and made the difficulty feel welcome. Great enemies, great use of the cult this time around, and the game is absolutely beautiful. Not to mention the sound design is so goddamn perfect. I also love how the soundtrack is similar to the original with the old leitmotifs in some of the music. I love the addition of requests and the expansion of the maps and the exploration in certain chapters.

As a remake 9/10 - I'm aware this is just because of nostalgia filters. It's only because I have a few problems with some of the characters. While I think the tweaks to the story made it stronger and a lot of the characters are so good (I've always loved Ashley even in the OG but I'm glad everyone is taking to her in the remake), some got a raw deal.

It's a touchy subject right now, and I'm going to state: I don't condone harassment or bullying. I do think you can criticize something without being cruel. I'm not a fan of Ada's voice acting, but I can recognize what the actress was going for. I'll leave it to others to speculate. That being said, I feel like they gave her character a lot less to do. I'm hopeful the Separate Ways DLC fixes that. Krauser is... okay. Just okay. (Which disappoints me as someone who likes the metaltango ship; none of that tension was there this time.)

That being said, I think Nick (Leon's VA) did much better this time around for me. Really appreciated the fine line he played between Leon's depression and his cocky jokes. Luis is great with a correct accent and he's very playful (and all the new backstory for him and his involvement in Umbrella is S tier shit). VA for Ashley is very good. Merchant is CHEF'S KISS, god I loved him, I'd go to the shooting range just to hear him praise me in that accent.

I guess my biggest complaint is the big bads? They just feel so removed from the game. I know it's realism they're going for, but I really liked the hacking of Leon's comms in the OG so we could have conversations with them. It showed personality.

Mendez was... there. Tbf he was there in the OG, too. At least he chased us a bit this time. I hated that I didn't SEE his transformation in his boss fight. He didn't feel like a big threat. (And yes, I missed Leon charge kicking him and getting thrown on his ass, god that was so good.)

Salazar talked at me a few times, but he was so much more of a puppet and tool and thus FUNNY in the OG. I liked how frustrated he got. His remake version, again, is fine. I like that Leon just gets fed up and shoots him all the time. He's at least more present than the other two. The change in his boss fight is good, it has more mobility and I like all the tricks to it.

Saddler is probably my biggest disappointment. I love Saddler in the OG. He has so much personality. He's SO charismatic. He's confident and is a presence from when you first meet him in the Church (and before) until you defeat him in the end. He's in the castle and handles shit himself. He *jokes* with Leon and laughs at him. His fight with Ada in Separate Ways is the hardest thing in the game. I dunno, I'm bummed for him, haha. I think making him this devout cult guy as his defining feature kinda diminished him.

One last thing: I wanted the U3 fight. I'm in the minority, I know. I also know rumors and some of the game's files indicate it might be a DLC thing, but that was the only boss fight in the OG that scared me. It was so different than anything I'd ever done, so I wanted to see how they'd tackle it. All well.

Even with these critiques, I genuinely really enjoy the game. I had a huge smile on my face the entire time. I'm not mad about anything; the changes all worked for a remake and a new generation of people playing it. It's great, no matter these few nitpicks. That's all they are, nitpicks, because the game is spectacular. It's beautiful and it's fun and I really recommend people to play it because this is what a remake SHOULD be.

#lol sorry for the long rant #a little too nerdy when it comes to RE #resident evil 4 remake #resident evil 4 remake spoilers #re4 remake #re4 remake spoilers #spoilers #re4 #resident evil 4 #resident evil #my opinion

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lady-tortilla-chip · 3 years

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For the ship meme: zukaang

Oooooh my gosh this is a LOT and I have to thank you very much for giving me the excuse to write all this. Lol.

General

—Tbh none of these fully encapsulate how I feel for this ship but I do wonder constantly why the hell few others actually appreciate it.

How long will they last? - Life.

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - Alright I spent too long thinking about this because I have several headcanons for how/when they fall in love but eventually landed on my somewhat canon compliant one — Zuko falls for Aang first. Though he only realizes his feelings towards Aang after he and Mai break off their relationship for a final time. Aang falls for Zuko later, after he and Katara mutually break away from each other when they realize they’ve grown to love each other purely as friends.

How was their first kiss? - Initiated by Zuko their first kiss is sweet but charged full of all the things he didn’t know how to say but desperately wanted to convey. Aang laughs softly when they pull apart and says, “I wondered when you’d finally do it.”

Wedding

Who proposed? - Aang proposed marriage between them but Zuko had been thinking about it. However he had been hesitant to bring it up because of the potential political issues that might arise when the Avatar officially bound himself to the FireLord. This is an issue that the two ultimately decide is worth dealing with together.

Who stressed the most? - Zuko

How fancy was the ceremony? - I imagine their union happening one of two ways. One, they have two separate ceremonies. One for the Fire Nation following all their customs and one for themselves following all the Air Nomad customs (tho I do wonder how likely it was that the Air Nomads had formal weddings of any kind considering they were so huge on freedom). Anyway, the second version is that they have a ceremony which merges the two cultural traditions.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - Idk Ozai probably.

Sex

Who is on top? - Ima just open these questions with it DEPENDS. So like if you wanna skip all the answers here go ahead because ultimately in my mind, it really just depends upon what’s happening between them in the given moment for like, every single one of these questions.

Who is the one to instigate things? - Depends. Both are likely to instigate. Zuko usually when they firebend together and Aang when Zuko lets go of his dignified FireLord image and is just himself.

How healthy is their sex life? - Very.

How kinky are they? - they’d probs be like at a 7?? Idk honestly this isn’t something I’ve thought about much. Lol

How long do they normally last? - suppose it depends on when and where they got busy.

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - probably not, but this seems like something that’s dependent upon who initiated it.

How rough are they in bed? - I think how “rough” they get is purely dependent on the moment.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - They are definitely the types to hold each other close after.

Children

How many children will they have naturally? - Nada.

How many children will they adopt? - Four. For each nation! But like, by complete accident and Toph or Sokka are the ones to point this out. I like to imagine the first kid they adopt into their lives would maybe be an orphaned child from the people at the Northern Air Temple. (Who I think have potential to learn not only learn the Air Nomad culture but also Airbending!)

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - Would depend mostly on who’s available. I like to imagine Aang wouldn’t like the idea of using servants to help care for their kids so probably him when he’s around.

Who is the stricter parent? - Zuko, he’d have had a much more structured upbringing so he’d definitely be the more serious/strict parent between them.

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - Ok I don’t think any of the kids would go to a formal school because they are royalty by virtue of being adopted by the FireLord. So they’d have many tutors. But like, in regards to dangerous stunts period? Zuko. Because Aang would absolutely join them (for fun and to keep them safe).

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? Who is the more loved parent? - Aang often has to force veggies on his children thus losing out half the time on the “favorite parent” vote. However Zuko suffers the same when he refuses to allow them to do something dangerous.

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - They were raised by two people who know very well how to avoid getting caught, so the real question is, how often do either of them even need to?

Cooking

Who does the most cooking? - Ok so I like to think they’d have places to run away to all over the world and in those places they’d handle their own cooking. Zuko is pathetically bad at it so Aang does all the cooking which also means the whole family collectively eats vegetarian when they go off on breaks. This is because while Aang is fine with meat being cooked around him he really doesn’t care to cook it himself.

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - Aang, but eventually Zuko (once he learns that people eat Turtleducks) when he turns towards being vegetarian too. Sokka and all but one of their kids hate it. 😂

Who does the grocery shopping? - When they go off to one of their get away places Aang does the shopping but Zuko goes with him everytime.

How often do they bake desserts? - Aang does as often as possible but Zuko likes trying to bake Air Nomad desserts for Aang.

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - Zuko goes through a change from being a meat guy to a veggie guy (tho he still does eat meat occasionally). So they become a couple of salad eaters.

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - Aang.

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - Both. Aang because he likes trying new things. Zuko because every now and again he’d really like to have some meat.

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? - Zuko.

Chores

Who cleans the room? - Aang.

Who is really against chores? - Their children.

Who cleans up after the pets? - depends, Zuko likes having the kids do it but Aang will if they don’t.

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - Zuko is most likely to want to, but ultimately he wouldn’t do it because Aang absolutely would find it.

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - Zuko

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - did they have dollars?

Misc

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - Zuko, but they definitely take the longest baths together and shorter baths apart.

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - were dogs a thing in ATLA?

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - 😬 idk what holidays do they have that would involve decorating for?

What are their goals for the relationship? - maintaining a healthy balance between them in all ways. In how they distance their personal relationship from the formal one. In how they parent (which is hugely different because of their very very different upbringings). And in how they treat each other.

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - Aang? Tbh I think they’d both be early risers.

Who plays the most pranks? - Aang. For sure.

#I thought for too long about this ngl #lol #ask #answered #zukaang #ATLA #headcanon

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lais-a-ramos · 4 years

Text

On Lovecraft Country and the way the narrative presents queerness

"No masters or kings when the ritual begins

There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin

In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene

Only then I am human

Only then I am clean"

Hozier, Take Me to Church

oh, boy...

i knew some of these deaths could happen in the finale, but i definetely wasn't prepared for any of this, wow.

i guess that, with the events of the finale, including atticus' death, there really is no point in getting the show renewed for a season 2, as as i hoped and wished before, because all of the conflicts that were set up were resolved. i mean, there's always the possibility of using time-travel to do a retcon and bring all the dead characters back, or, at least, two of the protagonists and the villain, but, maybe it would take too many alterations in the narrative, because it seems like the whole thing was planned for a mini-series.

so, now, all we have left is to do a breakdown of what worked and what didn't in lovecraft country's limited series run.

i think that, overall, the message of black ppl taking back the power of ancestry that was stripped from them by white supremacy and structural racism was well-done, and the symbolism was very well-crafted in the final takedown of the season's main villain, which was a representation of how the racism based on indifference born out of white privilege is almost as bad as the racism based on pure hate and despise, which is a valid message, considering the former is a bystander to the abuses and rise to power of the latter.

although i still find the timing was poorly chosen because, well, as of now, all over the world, it's not white ppl who dub themselves "liberal" or "progressive" and claim themselves to not be racist but refuse to act anti-racist that present an actual threat to our human rights, but literal, actual fascists and neo nazis...there are bigger fish to fry now...

but i digress...

on the final score, i guess that when it comes to queer/LGBTQ+ representation, the show fell actually felt real short for a product that crafted so well the race issues, proving that there is still a lot to go before we get to see intersecting identities being portrayed in media the same compex way they exist in the real world.

no, lovecraft country is not guilty of queerbaiting, unlike some of the same ppl in fandom that are the firsts to either erase the half of a couple that is a BIPOC or to deny a canon cis het biracial ship to hype up a fanon white wlw ship and other problematic stuff plenty of times in LGBTQ+ fandom spaces might say.

but that doesn't mean that the treatment of LGBTQ+ issues was satisfying or can be considered good rep, and it actually repeats some of the same tired tropes about queerness and blackness.

while we can say that the show did a relatively good job with montrose as an individual, the same can't be said of the other characters and the final messages.

like, for example, introducing a trans/non-binary indigenous, the Arawak two-spirt Yahima, only to kill them on the next episode was insensitive, to say the least.

while it's true that misha green apologized for the mistake, and said she and the writers tried to make a point that even oppressed groups are capable of oppression, the final score was that a trans/non-binary character was introduced as a plot-device and brutally murdered before having even a chance to properly develop.

in other words, used as a prop.

in a world in which trans ppl are brutally murdered at alarming rates, and most of the victims are BIPOC trans ppl, that is something that we can't let it slide just because the general message of the show was good for cis het black ppl.

the same can be said on the treatment of sammy in the narrative.

while it's true that montrose being aggressive and acting the way he did, pushing ppl he cared about away and shunning every chance of vulnerability due to internalized homophobia, toxic masculinity and misogyny, as this very interesting critique by amani marie hamed of nerdist pointed out, his characterization nonetheless falls into the same old stereotype in american culture of accusing black ppl of falling behind when it comes to queer acceptance and associating black masculinity with homophobia.

also, the author of the article says it better, but, overall, sammy's existence ends up being just another plot device, serving to say to the audience that the producers and writers know that queer ppl existed in the 50's, but, at the same time, repeating some of the same tropes as usual, like associating being queer with being clandestine and deviant instead of showing it as a natural thing that was perceived as deviant at the time, as we can see by that scene of sammy having a sexual encounter in the alley behind his bar.

the author even mentions that queer ppl overall had houses, and most of the encounters actually happened there, and that scene reinforces the idea that queerness is inherently animalistic.

the article also points out how sammy is mostly there just to be shutted out, first by montrose and latter even atticus, and, ends up being another prop to lift montrose to deuteragonist status, being rejected and abused by montrose solely to highlight tic's father journey with his personal issues that apparently he simply wrapped up in a span of 2 episodes.

the fact that sammy was a also a more feminine gay man, even participating in ball culture as a drag queen, and yet most of his appearences involved him being degraded or shut out or overall mistreated by montrose, even tic, and that scene in which atticus forgives montrose after he revealed he never acted on his homosexuality and cheated on tic's mom, even though it's implied she did cheat on him with his brother george, just reinforces the idea it's ok for black and brown men to be gay, as long as they are not THAT GAY™️.

the introduction of thomas in episode 1x09 only to be murdered in the riots is another example of how queerness seem to come with a price in this show if you act on it.

once again, a gay character was introduced in the narrative to further montrose's pain and trauma.

and his introduction was absolutely not necessary, because being a survivor of a massacre like the tulsa riots and a survivor of parental physical abuse is already was already enough for making tic and the audience begin to emphatize with montrose's pain, there was no need to kill another queer character just for that.

not to say we should agree with everything the nerdist article says, of course.

at times, it felt like the author was saying that addressing these issues in the black community is a problem on itself, and that is definetely not the solution.

but, when we consider the setting of a limited series with a plot-driven approach to the scripts, the way the topic is addressed ends up being superficial and rushed, and what could have been a delicate approach to a complicated man discovering his sexuality if the show was an on-going series, ends up being just a narrative built to put montrose in the spotlight in an attempt of getting a few emmy nominations for outstanding performances, and that's about it.

now, what really serves to cement the LGBTQ+/queer representation in lovecrat country as a disservice is the treatment of ruby, christina and their relationship.

i did a few metas explaining christina's and ruby's characterizations, including one i posted before the finale started explaining why ruby was so important to queer black and feminine-aligned nbs being a dark-skinned fat black queer woman discovering her sexuality and figuring out there was more to life than the social roles that were pushed into her, and how the parallels between her and christina, two different women separated by race and class but with the common feeling of being interrupted by social restraints that binded them, were a way for a character like ruby to be treated by the narrative the same way white women get to be treated in fantasy stories, as someone worthy of being courted and romanced as a light-skinned and thin black woman like her sister leti.

but with that finale, and the way the whole thing played out, with not only christina and ruby dead, but also with christina killing ruby, felt, ironically, like the very same trope that's been the norm for queer characters for a long time.

if we consider the tropes of the genre the show and the source material draw inspiration from, pulp fiction magazines, a medium that was very popular until the rise of the cinema and TV in the 50's and 60's that also served as an inspiration for them, then we know that in this medium some of the harmful tropes about queerness that exist until this day were particularly prevalent, including that of the queercoded villains.

to talk about this, i'm going to refer to this amazing article by tricia ennis on the history of queercoding for syfy wire.

first, a definition:

"queer coding, much as the name suggests, refers to a process by which characters in a piece of fictional media seem — or code — queer. this is usually determined by a series of characteristics that are traditionally associated with queerness, such as more effeminate presentations by male characters or more masculine ones from female characters. these characters seem somehow less than straight, and so we associate those characters with queerness — even if their sexual orientation is never a part of their story."

between the hays code in cinema going from 1934 to 1968, the comics code authority in the comics industry from 1954 to the early 21st century (with dc comics and archie comics being the last to break with it in 2011, mind you), the code of practices for television broadcasting from 1952 to 1983 and its predecessor for radio NAB code of ethics, the authors all over mass media couldn't approach the topic of queerness and portray openly and proud queer characters under the risk of being persecuted by the censors, and so, begin to hide queer chracters under the disguise of subtext.

and given the content creators couldn't show any form of positive queer/LGBTQ+ representation under the risk of being punished by the censors, the alternative they found was to portray the queer characters as the villains or antagonists or degenerates, and punish them with death.

the syfy wire article says it better than i ever could:

"even dangerous LGBTQ tropes rose out of this time period, as the depictions of pulp noir femme fatales and other deadly women rose in popularity. these women were usually written as promiscuous and sexually devious, both with men and sometimes with women. they were also evil and usually met their end as a result of their sins. While depictions of LGBTQ characters were frowned upon, depictions of them in this specifically negative light were not. you were not endorsing an “alternative lifestyle” if your gay characters always met an untimely demise. Instead, they were merely paying for their poor choices. this trope would eventually give way to what we now refer to as 'Bury Your Gays.' "

and the thing is, all those censorship laws are over by now, but the tropes/clichés that arised on that era are still prevalent in pop culture 'till this day, consumed by the audiences and reproduced by content creators, in the industry or in fan spaces, whether they are aware of said trope/clichés or not.

now, that is where ruby, christina and their affair on the show enter.

to explain how problematic and harmful the way these characters have been portrayed is, and what kind of message it sends about black queerness, i first have to explain christina's function on the story.

christina, as a character, was basically the texbook pulp noir femme-fatale, checking most of the boxes of the tv tropes description of the trope, from the "red equals evil and sin" imagery to being a wild card, that character who changes sides according to their own desires and individualistic goals.

in her specific case, helping the white supremacists and the black heroes alike in her pursue for unlimited power to protect herself from the oppression that comes with being a white woman, particularly a wealthy one, in which the very same presumption of innocence that gives them privilege over BIPOC is used to infantilize them and strip them from their agency, putting their bodies and choices under the tutelage of cis het white men.

so, her function on the show was basically to manipulate the characters on the two sides alike.

and that is where the problems in queer representation come in, because, to manipulate them, she acts as a sensual seductress.

and what does the script uses to highlight that this is a character willing to go to the most immoral places to achieve her goals? it makes christina a sexually fluid and gender fluid character.

that is basically playing a move straight from the hays code era.

not only does the show plays christina's sexual and gender fluidity as her being "freaky" and a proof of her deviant nature, but it makes her seduction of ruby as a central part of the scheme that positions her as the main villain of the show.

this portrayal of christina as a textbook femme-fatale with a touch of white feminism is already very problematic on its own, especially when we consider her death and how brutal it was, because, yes, while it's true she is privileged because she is white and wealthy, she is still a woman and a queer one at that, and giving her the same traditional treatment for femme-fatales in pulp fiction ends up reinforcing harmful stereotypes about gender and sexuality.

but, when we consider what it means for ruby as a character, it gets WAY worse.

ruby is a character that's been shown to feel very frustrated about the ways in which societal structures of power interfere in her life, not only on a professional level, but even on a personal level as well, making her feel "interrupted".

dealing with the same issues that all black women and feminine-aligned nbs who don't fit into the eurocentric standards of femininity and of beauty do, and not matching the criteria for being hypersexualized by society as the black women considered conventionally pretty -- with thin bodies like the white women or hourglass body frames, being light-skinned and so on --, ruby has her humanity stripped from her because everyone expects her to be stronger than it's humanly possible.

everyone seems to expect something of her at home, her younger sister took advantage of her money for years, and not only all of her goals in the professional realm seem to be frustrated by social structures of oppression, but even her relationship goals as well, given that most of the men that she gets involved with, whether they are black or white, seem to believe they have the right to abandon her and treat her like trash because she doesn't feel a thing and is "strong" enough.

ruby feels frustrated and tired, and she has every single right to do so, because, as what happens to most black women and feminine-aligned nbs, she is disrespected and disregarded by everyone, white and black alike.

so, when christina comes in with an offer of improving ruby's life with magic, of course she takes the opportunity.

and it seemed like the show was willing to deal with the moral complexities of christina's shapeshifting potion and validating ruby's feelings, or at least, sort of validating.

but, by killing her at the end, it just played out as if ruby's feelings meant she was merely a traitor to the race, and not a woman who was tired of feeling frustrated with all of these impossible obstacles society sets for black women and feminine-aligned nbs, especially dark-skinned and fat ones like her, and justified in her anger and frustration.

she did everything right and accomplished nothing, and, when she finally decided to rebel and focus on herself for a change, she met her demise.

but that is just the tip of iceberg, really.

what makes this situation with ruby so frustrating is the fact that, when the show presented christina's queerness as another sign she was "on the wrong side of the tracks" and a villian that should be defeated by the black heroes, which consist in a family, the narrative is implying that a person has to choose between their queerness, on one side, and their blackness and community on the other.

of course, one might argue that the fact montrose was turned into a gay man himself in the adaptation prevents this from happening. but, when we consider montrose was forgiven by tic only after reinforcing he never did cheated on dora and acted on his queerness and lived his gayness, when he really had every single right to do so, especially because it's implied dora slept with his brother george and the three of them knew she was just montrose's beard, then we have the message that it's ok to be queer as long as you don't act on your queerness at all.

there is a part in the review for nerdist that i mentioned above, in which the author says that one of the book's best qualities was that "the source material also illustrates the importance of family and community ties between Black protagonists", and that the TV show ruins it when it "introduces abuse, alcoholism, and family dysfunction, and strips Black characters of their own magic."

that is a part of the article, published in october 14 2020, that now no longer makes sense after the finale, because that message is there.

but, the actual problem is that the ideas of family and community shouldn't be taken for granted bc they are always under political dispute, and are oftenly used to reinforce backward messages when it comes to gender and sexuality, serving as a tool for the control of the bodies and authonomy of ppl of various marginalized groups and intersecctions, including women, BIPOC and queer ppl alike.

while these things are not inherently good or bad, and they are also part of the culture and identity for plenty of BIPOC ethnical identities, the concepts of family and community are usually weaponized by conservatives and used to justify things like queerphobia and the restrictions over reproductive rights.

queer ppl in all walks of life and skin colors all over the world have to deal with plenty of conflicts about coming out because, by deciding to live their own truth, they can never know for sure whether coming out will put them at odds with their families and community until they dare to do so.

so, ruby's dillemma for not knowing what to choose, her family or a life with christina, plays out as the type of experience queer ppl have to deal on a daily basis, and when we consider the intersection with race/ethnicity, it gets even more cruel because our gender identities and sexual/romantic/aesthetic orientations, that are natural parts of us, make us being invisibilized and silenced in our own cultures and feel like we have to give up on our own communities in order to be able to live our queerness.

there are few things more gut-wrenching than that feeling of fear that you might be disowned by your family and relatives and your community -- whether is it a neighbourhood, a village, a small town etc -- because a part of yourself is considered at odds with your heritage.

and when we consider all the christian imagery in the show, the final result is a really troubling one.

while it's true that being christian and believing in god doesn't authomatically makes anyone a bigot (i actually still retain some of the beliefs i was raised into as a catholic latin-american), it's also true that now, more than ever, we can't ignore science, including history.

the entire way in which they referred to magic as a devil's work was very troubling and evocates the same discriminative rethoric that white european colonizers used to justify the destruction of the ancient old religions and beliefs of BIPOC in their own homeland, the ancient culture of our ancestors, and also the oppression of peasant women in europe.

while we can't generalize, given each culture had its own particularities, there's an agreement in the scientific community that, overall, the cultures of the first nations and indigenous folks from the american continent, the african continent, the asian continent and oceania/pacific islands were far more accepting of different manifestations of queerness.

that means that queerphobia was part of the colonial project, once the traditional family values of christianity were used as a tool for the white colonizers to regulate the bodies and sexuality of the colonized and keep them under control.

and that is why the association of these ideals of family and community as inherent to blackness ends up being problematic, because we can't discuss racism without discussing colonization, and we can't discuss colonization without considering the ways in which queerphobia and religion were used as tools of colonial oppression.

the worst part is that, when it comes to ruby, the producers and writers really didn't need to do kill her at all.

and while the show did right in not showing how christina killed ruby, sparing the audience from watching another black body being brutalized, it's also true they didn't have to kill the character to get her out of the way from the final confrontation between christina and tic's family.

they literally went and changed her background from her book counterpart and made the woman a musician, and a blueswoman at that.

all they needed was to have her share a goodbye scene with christina the same way she had with leti, saying that she wanted to be with christina but couldn't fight her family and friends like that, grab a copy from the safe travel negro guide and set off in a bus to travel all over the U.S., singing very sad blues songs about falling in love with a white devil once.

that's all the producers and writers needed, to use the "sent in a bus" trope.

but the choice was to portray ruby as a character facing the consequences of following her desires , which ends up feeling like a punishment for a dark-skinned and fat queer black woman for daring to question the position society has placed her because of who she is.

this is in no way an attempt to "cancel" the producers or the writers, because a) their work is still important as a team of mostly black creators and b) canceling doesn't seem to have significant consequences, and seems to lead only to more social media wars than anything else.

but now that it finally seems diversity is getting more space in media, this type of discussion gets more important.

there is a slow increase on more representation of queer/LGBTQ+ characters in media and more productions involving queer/LGBTQ+ creatives, but, most of the time, the characters and are white, or, when there are biracial couples, the characters of color are just token minorities, and the same happens with the creatives involved in the production.

there is a slow increase in BIPOC characters representation in media and more productions involving BIPOC as creatives, but, most of the time, the characters are cis heterosexual, and the same happens with the creatives involved in the production.

but, for pop culture and media to be truly diverse, there has to be more space for the narratives of ppl that exist and belong to the two groups to raise our voices and be heard, whether is it in the entertainment industry, society at large or even in fandom spaces.

because she shouldn't be forced to pick between one identity over the other.

our existences shouldn't be interrupted just because society doesn't know how to deal with them.

and if that make us sinners, then so be it.

#lovecraft country #ruby baptiste #christina braithwhite #ruby x christina #rubtina #rutina #montrose freeman #lgbtqiap+#lgbtq representation #queer representation #poc representation #woc representation #moc representation #black women representation #representation in media #representation in fiction #tv representation #it's ok for non-BIPOC queer folks to reblog #and it's ok for non-queer BIPOC folks to reblog

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conrad-x-odair · 3 years

Text

( tom hiddleston, 38, cismale, he / him, (November 18th) Was that CONRAD ODAIR? I heard a rumor they work for the FAUST family, but who knows for sure ? They can be a bit SULLEN & TEMPERAMENTAL, but I also heard they can be CHARISMATIC & HONORABLE. You’ll usually find them at THE PINT in their spare time, when they’re not being an BLACK MARKET GUNSMITH & CARCANOS. You may want to keep an eye on that one !

“ʏᴏᴜ’ᴠᴇ ɢᴏᴛ ᴇɴᴇᴍɪᴇꜱ? ɢᴏᴏᴅ. ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴇᴀɴꜱ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ’ᴠᴇ ꜱᴛᴏᴏᴅ ᴜᴘ ꜰᴏʀ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ, ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛɪᴍᴇ ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʟɪꜰᴇ”

- B A S I C -

Full Name: Conrad Barthelemy Odair Age: 38 Occupation: Black Market Gunsmith / Arm’s Dealer Frequented Locations: Port of Chicago, Tony’s Guns and Sporting Good, Cook’s Gun Range, Wolves, The Den, The Pint, Faust Manor Gang Affiliation: Faust Gang Role: Carcanos Birthday: November 18th Zodiac: Scorpio Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

- F A M I L Y -

Father: Edmund Odair (deceased) Mother: Ursula Harker-Odair (deceased) Sibling(s): Three younger sisters and a younger brother (22 - 36) Uncle: Patrick Harker (deceased) Children: 2 - Son, Ellis (7) & Daughter, Cora (3) Significant Other: Estranged Wife

- P E R S O N A L I T Y -

(+) Charismatic, Friendly, Amorous, Honorable, Persuasive (-) Pedantic, Neurotic, Temperamental, Resentful, Manipulative

- L I K E S / D I S L I K E S -

Globetrotting / Traveling

Hiking

Thrill Seeker - Reckless Driving (Need For Speed style), Cliff Climbing, B.A.S.E. Jumping, Skydiving, Free Soloing

Going to the gym

Going down to the shooting range

Tinkering with machinery and mechanics

Woodworking

Sketching

Day Drinking

Cooking

- B I O G R A P H Y -

Conrad was born in London, England and spent most of his earlier years there, alongside his four younger siblings and his parents, before eventually being sent to live in Chicago, IL.

His father, Edmund, owned a construction company and his mother, Ursula, was a housewife who also ran a hair salon side business from their home, so they weren’t exactly wealthy but they certainly got by just fine. His father’s company made pretty good money, more than enough to support the family of seven.

That, of course, changed when Conrad was fourteen. His father was tragically killed while on a job, when he accidentally lost his footing and fell from the eighth floor of a hotel he and his crew were in the process of building.

Edmund’s death devastated the family and it’s what inevitably tore them apart. Left with many bills and a lot of debt from her husband’s death and unable to cope with the stress of trying to support herself and her five children on her own meager salary, Ursula sent the oldest three of her children - Conrad and two of his sisters - to America, specifically Chicago, to live with her older brother, Patrick.

Life in America and with his uncle was...interesting and enlightening, to say the least, but by no means was it something he initially welcomed. As a young teenager, fresh of of mourning for his father and having just been shipped away by his mother - leaving him with the feeling of being abandoned by her - Conrad lost it. He developed severe anger, attachment and abandonment issues towards the world around him. He grew extremely close to his sisters, and oddly enough to his insanely strict uncle, but he had a hard time trusting anyone else outside of his now small family unit. He had very few friends and the friends he did have were not great influences.

He became unruly and reckless, daredevilling it through his teen years (and beyond) by chasing thrills and the accompanied adrenalin rush, while steadfastly ignoring all risks to himself and to others. He was a total speed demon and an acrophile (a lover of heights) - so he loved getting into his car and driving as fast as he possibly could, which resulted in a lot of reckless driving charges, and he would climb to the highest points of the city on dares from his friends just to spray paint stupid and immature messages where literally nobody else could see them - just to prove that he could and because he wasn’t afraid.

That wasn’t the only trouble he would get up to, however. He was often getting into fights, rebelling against every sort of authority figure who dared to try and curb his behavior, whilst acting impulsive and breaking many laws behind their backs by committing minor crimes like petty larceny and vandalism.

Conrad became a smug and very smart-assed delinquent and he reveled in it. Even getting arrested a few times and being forced under house arrest for six months and probation for another six, and having to serve community service didn’t deter his behavior - despite his uncle trying to beat some type of sense into his thick skull on many occasions.

It wasn’t until he got his first real job as a dockhand down at the Port of Chicago at 17 (forced upon him by his uncle), where he got introduced to the Faust gang and their illegal smuggling, that he learned to moderately quell his ‘I do what I want, when I want’ attitude. He eventually joined the gang, going through the initiation at 18.

He has been with the Fausts for going on 20 years now. He started out working mainly down at the port helping with loading and unloading shipments, although nowadays, his days as a mere longshoreman were pretty much over.

Sure, he was still heavily involved in the Fausts’ smuggling business, but he is mainly focused on gunsmithing for the Fausts and also selling his work on the black market.

He designs and hand-crafts all of his guns, and he also does gun repairs and makes custom modifications to them. Most, if not all, of the work he does is extremely illegal.

Conrad learned how to make guns from his uncle, Patrick, who had been an engineer and gunsmith for 40-odd years, having owned his own smithy and artillery repair shop.

Even though Conrad more or less mentored under his uncle when it came to learning the art of craft of firearms, that wasn’t to say that the old man himself was by any means a kind and gentle soul. Patrick Harker was very much an old school 'tough love' kind of guy, who was beyond strict and had no qualms with throwing fists and verbal punches and generally using a heavy hand whenever it came to dealing with his unruly nephew. Patrick had high expectations for Conrad, he saw the potential the young man had and refused to let him get away unpunished with his shitty behavior. He might not have gone about it the best way, but his intentions had certainly been good.

Despite Uncle Patrick’s rough handling and borderline abusive tendencies, Conrad eventually learned to greatly respect and appreciate the old man. He came to realize just how much the man actually cared for him - which turned out to be a lot more than his mother did...and that meant something.

Throughout his early and mid-20′s, Conrad spent most of his time working, honing his craft and of course charming his way through women.

He was a serial romantic - he loved and laid with more women than he could ever care to admit; the idea of settling down and actually committing to a single person for the rest of his life was something he truly abhorred.

That is, until he met his now estranged wife. He met her while at Faust party and there was just something about her that had him utterly smitten and forgetting all his previous reservations on relationships and long term commitments. The two got married within a year and a half and started a family of their own immediately.

Of course, it didn’t taken them long after their wedding to realize their relationship was perhaps not as healthy and happy as it should have been. Their lust blinded them from seeing just how incompatible they were for each other. With his still lingering attachment issues and terrible temper and her own stubborn and hotheadedness, their fights were often quite explosive. They loved each other, that much was obvious - and their attraction for the other was still intense and unmatched - but their clashing personalities were too volatile.

It was after the birth of their second and last child, Cora, that they finally called it quits. That was three years ago.

- W A N T E D C O N N E C T I O N S -

Toxic Estranged Wife (and casual hookup) - They’ve been separated or two and a half years. They have a strong love/hate relationship - their fights are often very intense and loud and leave the two of them extremely hurt and angry, and yet it usually ends with them in bed together somehow. Angry sex, passional sex, lust-filled. They do love each other, but at the end of the day their relationship was fueled more by their lust than any other actual feelings. It was definitely not healthy, and so for their children’s sake and also for themselves, they decided to separate. Still married for the time being, but no longer living together.

Younger Sisters / brother - Conrad has three sisters and one younger brother. Two of his sisters (the oldest two - between the ages of 32-35) came with him to Chicago when he was 14, while the youngest sister and his brother (between the ages of 24-28) never left England. Conrad is very close with the first two, but has no real relationship with the youngest siblings.

Flings / One-Nighters

Love Interest(s)

Faust Affiliates

Rival Gang / Enemies

Drinking Buddies

Best Friends / Friends

ANY AND ALL CONNECTIONS! I’m open and down to do whatever!

#crimson.intro #this probably has like #a million typos #but i'm posting it anyways because it's taking me #way too long to finish

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desperatelyseekingroleplay · 4 years

Text

Seeking 3-4 1x1 or small group RPs

It's writing time. Or rather, for you, reading time.

About Me:

Oh dear, another about me..yikes I suck at these...Basically I am a 25-y.o. lady looking for some interesting roleplays to scratch that itch I have. I write in 3rd person, past tense, paragraph form-though my response length depends on your's and what is available to my character(s). So anywhere between a sentence to a whole story, haha. I hate, Hate, HATE it when people take control of my characters. That's my baby! 😡 I am comfortable with any genre, I just might not be fantastic with it, haha! The only genres I have issues with are:

1.) Sexual roleplay- I'm a sex-repulsed Asexual. This does not mean sexual encounters are not gunna happen, but I get overly awkward and uncomfortable with graphic scenes. Oddly enough, there is an exception to this; MxM pairings are apparently fine. Probably 'cause I'm not a dude so I can't relate with it well.

2.) Fandoms- I am not great at these. I believe that if you are going to play as a character, you need to do it true to the anime/story/show/comic/etc that created them. Too often I see cannon characters that are strong, distance, or whatever magically turn into mush or change their personality completely without reason. Also the fact that I don't really watch or read much that normal people do might be part of my dislike for this 'genre'. I have done some Pokemon roleplay, though, I will admit.

I generally play MxM, MxF, FxM pairings. I have never done a FxF but would be willing under certain conditions.

I'm a fan of romance where the 'dominant' is possessive/overly protective of their partner.

Style:

Where do you roleplay? Mainly I use email or discord.

How long have you been roleplaying? Since...uh well, since late middle school...I am now 7 years out of highschool (2013), so you do the math. 😛

How often do you generally post? I try to be active daily. If I am super interested and have the time 3-4 times a day, but it is entirely based on what my partner(s) can do.

How much do you generally post? From 1 sentence to 5-7 paragraphs; depends on what is available to me.

Do you like to write in first person or third person? Third person, past tense, paragraph form. YOU can write however you like, though!

Time:

Eastern Time Zone-I generally am awake between Noon and 3am. Thanks Quarantine.

Availability:

See above. I generally try to respond 2-4 times a day

Preferences:

1.) Zombie apocalypse- I am craving an apocalypse role play like no other. I just started listening to a podcast called "we're alive' so that's probably why. 😅

Anyway, what I am specifically craving is this: the characters are separate at first but eventually find their way toward each other. (So a few posts of them trying to survive, gathering stuff up, escaping etc.-mainly to help with character development.) They eventually all gather in a location with lots of other people and someone is put in charge and rules are established. It is basically a roleplay based around the lives of the people there as they try to figure out what is going on, where to get supplies, how to fortify their base, what jobs need to be done and how, how to treat people, what the zombies are and their characteristics. So on and so forth. ALTERNATIVELY!! Instead of zombies, it could be an alien invasion or some sort of monster attack, but with the same idea in mind.

In this scenario we would likely be playing multiple characters. 2.) This one is weird and would be a lot of work for the person/people involved so I've yet to ever find someone interested.

Ok here goes...I am looking for someone to be a sort of...Game Master, like in dungeons and dragons type thing where they set everything up for my character to react to. My wish is for a horror/psycological/dark type setting where my character (and perhaps some others, especially if we were to have more than just a 1x1 with this) is trapped/being held captive by the other character. I do want this to be a romance, whether it starts with an obsession or it grows into one(second one is preferred, but the first would give a reason for the character to be here in the first place). Whether it is just a crazy person, a monster, and alien, or a supernatural being is totally up to you, but my character would be human. And this can get as dark as you are willing-though we would have to do some hard core negotiation before hand as there are a few things I'm not cool with

3.) Any General fun roleplay!

I am looking for 3-4 roleplays for my wide range of interests. I am adamant that there is some romance, but it does not have to be the focus. I'm all about that plot!! Fantasy and super natural are my favorite genres followed closely by science fiction.

Characters:

I can play male or female. I prefer to play a 'submissive' role (care taker) but can play a more 'dominant' (provider/protector)role as well. MalexFemale, FemalexMale, or MalexMale is what I have experience in.

Ships:

Uh I don't really do fandoms...is that what this is asking?

Limits:

Vore

Anything sexual involving children

Bathroom play (Golden/Brown showers)

Bestiality

Others may be added, depends on the situation

Rules:

Don't ghost. If you are bored, just say so. Don't have time? Just say so. I'm not opposed to switching stuff up or straight up stopping.

You must be 18+ for the safety of both of us. This is nonnegotiable.

Again, nothing sexual involving children.

I ask that you use descent spelling and grammar. Mistakes are fine, but just do your best and I will too!

We can be friends, but I'm not looking for a relationship out of that. The relationships our characters have DOES NOT reflect our relationship.

This is fantasy. This is fiction. I will not hate you for something you do to my character and I expect the same from you.

My character is mine. Your character is your's. Keep your hands off >:O That's my baby.

If I reject you please be understanding. I can only handle so many rps and if you pick one of my top 2 I am looking for something very specific.

For the first two scenarios I am looking for characters that are realistic, monsters, or supernatural. I am NOT looking for anime characters, furries, or hermaphrodites

Ideally the 2nd scenario will get dark...Keep that in mind if you are interested in that.

Contact:

Start off by emailing me. [email protected]

I can rp through discord or email. Let me know your thoughts and ideas.

Here is a link to a better organized version of this ad: https://rpginitiative.com/search-for-roleplay/writing-partner-search/looking-for-3-or-4-1x1-or-small-group-roleplays-r248/

#Desperately Seeking Roleplay #Writing Partner Wanted #Roleplay Partner Wanted #Roleplay Partner Ad #Roleplay Partner Search #Roleplay Partner Needed #Rp Buddy Search #Rp Partner Needed #Rp Partner Wanted #Rp Partner Search #Original Roleplay Wanted #Long Term Roleplay Wanted #21+ Roleplay Wanted #Slice of Life Roleplay Wanted #Seeking Roleplay Partner #submission

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thedistantdusk · 5 years

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Please explain to a youngster what the Three Year summer is?? (I think that’s what that was that you mentioned). I am young and dumb and have only really been in fandom since 2012

Ooo boy, Nonny, pull up a seat — but for starters, I’m sure you’re not dumb! You just experience fandom a different way because of your age, and I will happily explain what I mean.

Let’s hop in a time machine to the early 2000s. OotP hasn’t been released. There are no smartphones. Dial-up isn’t unheard of, DSL is preferred, and WiFi is but a distant dream. Apart from a few small, local events, our only access to fandom is through desktop computer.

Tumblr and AO3 do not exist. FFN and a few smaller fanfic sites provide all content, and the latter is usually organized by shipping preference. If you liked the OBHWF dynamic, you typically went Checkmated, SugarQuill, Gryffindor Tower, or SIYE (and I’m sure I’m missing a few, but these were my favorites). If you preferred pairings that would later become non-canon, you’re looking at sites like Ashwinder, Portkey, Azkaban’s Lair, etc.

In short? Back then, everything was different. We consumed fic in a completely different way, and tbh I think a lot of our lingering debate (especially on things like concrit and shipping etiquette) boils down to how you experienced fandom the first time.

((And as an aside, during this time period, it was the norm to provide lengthy, detailed concrit to stories. The series wasn’t over, and almost every author’s goal was to provide approximations of canon elements (even if they preferred AU storylines). As authors, we valued that type of feedback because it meant people cared a lot about both the source content and the material you’d written — and also, keep in mind that when you were on dial-up, providing that kind of feedback took a lot of time. You had to spend a while in front of a slow computer, you had to gain access to certain sites, and you couldn’t just read something on the go. Concrit, regardless of source, implied an automatic appreciation for both the series and your story because the reviewer wanted to help you match canon parts as much as possible.))

That being said, I personally believe there are really two separate HP fandoms. We have the group that was around to watch each book/movie come out, and the group that’s only known a world in which all the questions of the series were answered. (And no, I’m not gatekeeping anything or passing judgement on the value of either. I’m stating facts on how we consumed fic and participated in fandom prior to the release of all the books/movies.)

I was roughly Harry’s canon age when the final two books were released, so I participated in the former group. The Three Year Summer was a period of time (three years, as I’m sure you gathered) in between the releases of GoF and OotP. It’s called the “summer” because the books were each released in the summer months during massive, ridiculous midnight release parties at bookstores.

If you were a teen/an active participant during this time period, you probably:

Had a crush on Emerson Spartz

Made your own Harry Potter t-shirts/paraphernalia (stuff wasn’t really mass-produced yet)

Spent a lot of time huddled over in class reading printed fanfic (remember, no smart phones)

Hoodwinked your way into an adults-only fanfic archive, and the site you picked varied depending on your ship preference. (Personally, I was a Checkmated girl, which is how I read all of @jenoramaca’s stories when I was super young)

This time period also resulted in lots of fan theories, fanfic, and epic, epic shipping wars on many popular forums. I don’t really feel like rehashing all of it, but I will say that some legitimately nasty things were tossed around on the daily, and one such place for this debate was a fansite called Chamber of Secrets that had a forum called the LoveThreads.

At the time, I was just a teen lying about my age, but I’ll fully admit that everyone involved in the LoveThreads contributed to some degree of toxicity — myself included. My participation was mostly limited to defending Ron and Ginny (who were almost universally loathed by people who didn’t like OBHWF), but I definitely didn’t help things or call people out as much as I should have. There was a lot of homophobia associated with hating on same-sex pairings, and a lot of sexism/slut-shaming surrounding Ginny, in general (yes, even when she was canonically like 13). I never participated in that sort of discussion, but in retrospect — even though I was a teen arguing with grown-ass adults — I could have done more to refute it.

Annnnyway, the early 2000s were a much different time, and I’m glad they’re behind us. (And yes, I have a different handle now, so you probably won’t find me, even with the WayBack Machine😉) The Three Year Summer ended when OotP came out... but unfortunately, things only got more toxic and confusing. Unless you read between the lines, there isn’t a clear indication of Harry “picking” (and yes, I hate that word) either Ginny or Hermione. It wasn’t until HBP that things became clearer but this was also a dumpster fire because of the Spartz/Anelli/JKR interview post HBP, and if you don’t know what I mean, I beg you to look that up on your own.

When HBP came out, we had clearer answers. Most of the folks who didn’t like OBHWF packed up and left. I personally backed out for a few years during movie releases because I had no interest in what I felt had become a movie (not book) fandom. Around this time, I also started to see a resurgence in a specific anti-canon pairing mentality, which I didn’t care for either. To be honest, the concept of toxicity has never been limited to one side or the other, but since returning to HP, I’ve done my best to avoid it.

Here is a rule of thumb that helps me (with everything from shipping to politics): If a comment would seem immature/ill-conceived from the opposite perspective, it’s probably not worth adopting.

For example, if a story summary includes a warning like “Contains Harmony bashing,” some of you might be interested — but pretend that’s Hinny instead. Doesn’t that just seem lazy and off-putting?

Likewise, if a billboard said, “Trump is a fucking moron,” I’d be inclined to agree — but substitute that with Obama’s name. It feels like a cheap insult that could contain more validity with more mature language/more specific information.

So. Perhaps this rambling mess paints a fuller picture of what shaped early HP fandom experiences, and also explains why I’m personally just not too interested in debating the validity of different ships.

I hope this answers your question, Nonny... and consider yourself lucky that you missed this particular weirdness!

#hinny fanfic #harry potter fanfiction #fandom #history

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do-your-socks-have-holes-in-them · 5 years

Note

40 (I wasn’t lying when I said that I loved you) 80 (I’ve always been honest with you.) and 92 (You make me happy) for Moceit? Or like, any ship you like with Deceit? Please?

you: any ship you like with deceitme:

it gets a readmore because it ended up over 2200 words, which hopefully makes up for how long it took to write

warnings for characters getting kidnapped/drugged and injuries because that was the mood i was in, oops

ETA: this is on ao3 too

prompt list

Patton wakes upalone, but that doesn’t upset him too much. He may not know exactly where his partners are, but Dolion won’t havegone far without telling him something, and Roman should be returning from hisroyal duties before very long. Just a couple more days! That’s what Patton keeps telling himself, atleast. Anyway, he and Dolion have eachother, so it’s not too lonely while he’s gone.

He shakes himselfout of his thoughts of missing Roman, despite all attempts to convince himselfhe isn’t sad, and realizes he should probably get out of bed. Judging by the sun visible through thewindow, it’s getting late in the morning. He stretches and sighs, not wanting to leave the nice warmblankets. … Wait… He can take theblankets with him, duh. He wraps himself up in a way that willhopefully minimize tripping and makes his way out into the hallway. Maybe the kitchens will be empty enough atthis point that he can get away with making his own breakfast? He’s still not used to the part of the whole“dating a prince” experience that involves people wanting to do everything forhim all the time. He knows it’s theirjob, but it makes him feel a bit weird.

Preoccupied as heis with thoughts of food, Patton doesn’t even notice when he passes someone inthe hallway. It’s unlike him not to waveand greet every single person he encounters with enthusiasm. Unfortunately for Patton, it’s also veryconvenient for this particular stranger. He lays a hand on Patton’s arm as he walks by, as if to get hisattention. Patton finally turns toacknowledge him—only for the man to grab him and slap a hand over hismouth. He registers too late the sharppain where the man touched him, injecting him with something. His mind already feels fuzzy. Patton tries to call for help, but- that’swhy his mouth is covered, right. Fighting would have been fairly useless even if he weren’t drugged. After a very brief struggle, he lets his headdrop, giving up.

And nearly fallsover when the man lets him go, collapsing to the floor himself with a dagger inhis side. Dolion appears out of nowhere,and Patton thinks he much prefers swooning into his arms when it’s on purpose.

“Where’d you comefrom?” he mumbles, fighting to stay awake. “Y’could’ve got hurt if he saw you…”

Dolion readjustshis hold and starts half-leading, half-carrying Patton back to their room,where he’ll be able to let him pass out safely and then call for guards. He can’t quite resist a sappy line,though—that must be Roman rubbing off on him. “I wasn’t lying when I said thatI loved you.” Patton smiles andrests his head on the other’s shoulder. He knows it’s true: Dolion wouldn’t have done something as possiblydangerous as that for just anyone, after all.

The moment isbroken when the first man turns out to have three associates, who come aroundthe corner looking to find out why a simple kidnapping of the prince’sboyfriend is taking so long. Doliontries his best, but he can’t fight three people and protect a half-consciousPatton at the same time, especially now that he’s unquestionably lost theelement of surprise. It’s not longbefore the world goes dark for both of them.

Patton wakes upalone, and as soon as he remembers why, he curls up in the unfamiliar bed andcries. He doesn’t know where he is, orwhy, or where Dolion is and what ifthey’ve killed him? The last thing heremembers is the fighting, but he passed out before he could see how itended. And now…

He sits updespite the aching of his head and looks around. Now he’s in a room—locked in, he assumes—andit’s… surprisingly nice. He’s aprisoner, yes, but at least they seem to care about making sure he’scomfortable. A cup of water has beenleft for him on a table by the bed, and he doesn’t hesitate to drink it- it’snot as if they really need to drug him more than they already have, after all,and he’s thirsty. Shortly after hefinishes it, the door is unlocked and some sort of guard enters, while anotherremains outside to guard the door. Patton begins to stand, but falls back onto the bed when he realizes howweak his legs still are. “Why am Ihere?” he asks cautiously. “What do youwant with me?”

“Don’t worry, wehave no intention of harming you,” the guard says. “We only need you here as… insurance. You can go home just as soon as yourboyfriend gives us what we want.”

Patton feelsslightly guilty about how relieved he is to hear that. Roman will surely get him out of here as soonas he can, one way or another, but he hates the idea of being the reason thesekidnappers get whatever they demand. Itwouldn’t be right.

“Here, you’reprobably hungry. You were out for awhile.” He places a tray on the bedsidetable and turns to leave. “If you needanything else, knock on the door or just shout. There will be someone outside at all times.”

“Wait!”

He turns backaround and gestures for Patton to speak.

“What, uh… whatdid you do with Dolion?”

“Who- oh, youmean the guy that stabbed Keith? What ishe, your secret personal guard or something? We put him in the dungeon. Because he stabbed Keith.”

Patton’s eyeswiden. “How- how long?”

“Well, he’s beenthere about as long as you’ve been in here… a good few hours, I’d guess?”

“Oh no, you have to bring him up here- youdon’t understand,” he pleads when the guard gives him an incredulous look,“he’s, he was cursed, years ago- he’ll dieif he gets too cold, you can’t leave him there! I’ll… I’ll fight you, if you don’t, and you’ll have to hurt me, andRoman will never give you what youwant if you hurt me.”

The guard blinks,taken aback by Patton’s sudden shift from rather passive to fierce. “Alright, fine, I’ll have him broughtup. But if either of you causes trouble he’s going right back. Got it?”

Patton nods aboutfifteen times in a row and falls back against the pillows in relief. “Thank you, thank you so much.”

Twenty minutespass before the door opens again. Pattonhas been working on getting his legs to work in the meantime, and he pusheshimself up to help Dolion as soon as he stumbles into the room. Just as Patton had feared, he’s freezing, notto mention the bruises and other injuries from the fight. He pulls him over to the bed and cocoons themboth in the blankets. “I’ve got you,hon, you’ll be okay.” Dolion justshivers, burrowing into his chest. Itdoesn’t look like he’s in any shape to respond yet, so Patton goes on rambling,telling him everything is going to be fine, Roman will get them out of heresoon and he’s definitely not about tolet anyone return him to the dungeon.

“As much as Iknow you’re only saying all this to make me feel better, I have to admit it’sworking.” Patton nearly cries when hefinally hears Dolion’s voice, confirming he’s at least closer to okay.

“I’m not justsaying it,” he counters, pulling the other closer and laying them bothdown. Even sitting up for very long istiring, and he imagines Dolion must be exhausted too, after everything he’srecently been through.

“Patton,honestly, you don’t need to-”

“I’ve alwaysbeen honest with you.” Patton presses his face into Dolion’s hair. He can’t help it, he needs as much contact ashe can get to reassure himself they’re not separated anymore. “And I’m telling you now, honestly, we’regoing to be okay. Ro wouldn’t leave ushere.”

“You’re right,”he sighs. He shoves his own face intoPatton’s shoulder and doesn’t bother resisting the urge to slip his hands upunder Patton’s shirt, getting that tiny bit closer to the warmth he so needs atthe moment… and the fact it’s coming from his boyfriend doesn’t hurt, either. “…Sleep now?”

Patton nods. Never mind the fact that he only woke up anhour ago, he could still go for a nap. “Are you warm enough? And comfy?”

“Getting there…‘s not dangerous anymore, don’ think.” Judging by the clarity (or lack thereof) of his speech, he’s half-asleepalready. Poor thing… Patton wishes hecould personally fight whoever decided to lock his clearly part snake boyfriend in a cold dungeon cell. Just because it’s a fairly obscure cursedoesn’t excuse them acting like it doesn’t matter.

“Thank goodness,”he breathes, continuing to comfort him in lieu of actually trying to fightanyone. “Go ahead and sleep, baby, I’llbe here.”

Patton quicklyloses track of how long the two of them have been here. Dolion tells him it’s been no more than a fewdays, but… well, it takes one to know one vis-à-vis saying things just to makeeach other feel better. One would thinkthe regular delivery of meals would make it easy to track how much time ispassing- and it would, if they didn’tspend so much time sleeping. Patton is fairly sure at this point they have been drugging the food, making surethey’re too sleepy to try escaping. … Hehas to admit, though, it’s not so bad spending the better part of every daydozing in his boyfriend’s arms, as long as he doesn’t think too hard abouttheir circumstances. At least they haveeach other, right?

Amusingly enough,it’s turned out these people genuinely had no idea Dolion was part of therelationship thanks to his discomfort with PDA, and now they seem to believePatton is having an affair or something. Well, good. If they were torealize they actually have two peoplevery important to Roman, they might increase their demands. They can go on thinking otherwise, and Pattonand Dolion will go on providing each other all the comfort and affection theycan.

Which is whatthey’re doing when the door slams open and several guards rush in, shouting toget up and follow them. “We have to moveyou for security reasons,” one of them explains shortly, pulling Patton out ofthe room as he tries to stop and grab a blanket (he’s sleepy, okay?). “I’m sure the situation will be resolvedsoon. Nothing you should worryabout.” Patton clings to Dolion’s arm—aswell as he can, when they’re both practically being dragged down the hall—andexchanges a hopeful look with him. Maybe… maybe.

The most secureplace for keeping someone out, it appears, is the same as the most secure placefor keeping someone in, and they endup in the same cell Patton earlier begged to get Dolion out of. “You won’t be here long, calm down,” a guardsays, walking away and ignoring Patton’s shouting.

A door closesdistantly and Patton slumps in defeat, going to sit on the wooden bench thatserves as the room’s only furniture. “I’m so sorry.” He wraps his armsaround Dolion, who he can tell is already feeling the chill. “I know I promised you wouldn’t have to behere again…”

“It’s fine, love. There’s nothing you could have done.” Dolion nuzzles into him. “Besides, you’re here to keep me warm.”

“I am,” Pattonagrees. He leans his forehead againstDolion’s and sighs. Please let them beout of here soon…

Half an hour goesby before the door is thrown open again. Patton looks up, holding his cold-blooded boyfriend close and ready togive the guards another piece of his mind, and sees-

“Roman!”

Roman throws downhis sword and rushes into the room. “Finally,” he breathes, hugging both of them at once. “I’m sorry it took so long to find you, mydarlings, please believe I haven’t stopped searching for a minute since youwent missing- are you hurt- let’s get you out of here, shall we?”

Dolion blinks athim- the temperature is doing bad things to his processing time. “Ro?”

“Yes, Doll, it’sme.” Roman scoops him up in hisarms. “Shall we go?”

“I can walk,” heprotests quietly, not that anyone listens. Patton attaches himself to Roman’s side, practically wrapped around him,and the three make their way outside.

It’s not untilthey’re all the way out, sitting on the grass in the warmth of a spring day,that Roman cries. The carriage is rightthere, waiting to take them home, and he sits down on the ground with the lovesof his life in his arms and cries.

“Roman!” Pattonexclaims, cupping his face. “Are youokay? Did you get hurt?”

“No, no,” Romanshakes his head. “I’m okay. I’m okay now, it’s happy tears, I promise,I-I just missed you both so much! Youmake me happy… it was hell being without you, even just for the few days Iwas gone, and then I came home and youwere gone and-” He takes a deep breathand finishes, “I love you two. I loveyou. I don’t ever want to lose you likethis again.”

“Rest assuredwe’ll do our best not to be lost,” says Dolion with a half-suppressedsmirk. Roman laughs wetly, and hugs hisboyfriends even closer because he lovesthem so much, and maybe his driver can just wait for a bit while they sithere and make up for their time apart.

#sanders sides #royaliceit #roman sanders #patton sanders #sympathetic deceit #moceit #since it's mostly them #my post #my writing #prompt fic #and that's the last of these prompts in my inbox!#...maybe i should reblog another list now #hmm

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frasier-crane-style · 5 years

Text

Let’s talk about Treks baby

The One Where Riker Stars In The Grey.

When Riker is reassigned to go over a terraforming colony bedeviled by pesky, genetically engineered wolves, a new first officer is assigned to the Enterprise. And he’s kwazy.

The irritatingly named Quintin Stone is sort of the Nick Locarno to Peter David’s later Mackenzie Calhoun. Brooding rogue, troubled past, gets the job done, you know how it goes. It’s a pretty unabashed power fantasy/Mary Sue in New Frontier, but there the whole thing is so over the top and tongue in cheek that you really can’t take it too seriously. Quintin, on the other hand, is more played for drama--for most of the story, there’s a question as to whether he’s outright homicidally insane. Luckily, Troi is on top of things, checking on his mental well-being and also kinda being his love interest, like a literal version of this gif.

Spoiler alert: It turns out he’s deeply traumatized by a not wholly believable incident in his past*, so good on ya for catching that one, Troi.

Looking back on it, this book would almost seem to count as a deconstruction of the ‘broody antihero’ trope, showing that the character type just doesn’t work in TNG. He infuriates most of the cast and doesn’t get the girl, while those who are taken in by him are presented as saps (yup, Wesley).

Speaking of New Frontier, with the self-aware jokeyness and tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of Trek’s campier elements, would it be fair to say PAD was ahead of the curve in predicting the modern incarnation of Trek? Its take on Star Trek would definitely fit in with the Kelvinverse movies and especially with The Orville, which is pretty much the people’s choice for Trek these days.

*Okay, I get the interpretation of the Prime Directive as not interfering or revealing yourself to alien cultures until they develop warp drive, at which point they’re going to figure out you’re there anyway. And if you can stop an asteroid from wiping them out without them knowing about it, fine. Cool. I get that. But I don’t get Star Trek stories where the PD means you can’t interfere with the Romulans’ development, even though they’re showing up on your doorstep every other week and shooting at you. It’s like saying if Hitler 2.0 showed up in Germany and started amassing power, the US shouldn’t try to discourage that shit or, I guess, engage in any diplomacy whatsoever. It’s mindbogglingly isolationist. And isn’t it arguable that part of a culture’s natural development is interacting with other cultures? Like the back and forth between America and Japan driving forward the medium of animation?

The One Where Picard Nearly Bangs Guinan’s Sister

This one has a bit of nontroversy attached to it, because it came out while Star Trek was still kind of hashing out the Borg, so there’s a disclaimer at the beginning basically going

The gist of it is that Borg aren’t supposed to have gender (a bunch of people with blue hair just had their ears perk up, didn’t they?), but PAD here has a drone that gets detached from the Collective and is a girl. It seems pretty self-evident to me--Picard gets assimilated, they get him back, he’s still a dude, so why wouldn’t it work that way with a chick? But this is back when assimilation wasn’t the Borg’s m.o. the way it would later become. They assimilate a Ferengi in this book (yup) and it’s kind of a big deal. Oh, and as you might’ve guessed, Girl Borg bears a few similarities to Seven of Nine, who would show up later in the franchise, although PAD’s take on it is more “we rescued a girl from a serial killer’s basement after ten years and she’s totally catatonic,” less “what is this human emotion you call ‘kissing’?”

Good thing we have Deanna Troi, a counselor, to ease Girl Borg through the healing process. Oh, wait, she basically takes one look at GB and goes

Thanks for the help, Troi. I guess this subplot is supposed to prove that it’s pointless to try to save any assimilated person other than Picard, because mentally they’re already dead, so might as well just have a bunch of fun guiltlessly blowing them away

(And that goes for you too, audience.) But still, bit of a downer. At least Spock would’ve tried a mind-meld.

There’s also this chick Delcara, who in a pretty XXtra Flamin' Hot narrative choice is like Picard’s soulmate and he’s sort of in love with her slash obsessed with her after having a psychic vision of her in Starfleet Academy and y’know? TNG might’ve opened the door to this by having Crusher bang a ghost, but we should close that door. We should close it right now.

(By the way, in case you’re wondering if this Guinan’s sister business means Picard is down with the swirl, it turns out she’s Guinan’s adopted sister, so is it just me or is that weirdly ambiguous? She’s a beautiful black woman and Picard wants to do her. You can come out and say it, book. No one minds.)

Anyway, Delcara is piloting one of dem planet-killers from back in TOS--in hindsight, it’s weird that the Abrams movies never did anything with the one big Death Star-y thing that actually is canon to TOS, isn’t it? They gave Khan and Nero ridiculously super-sized ships, but the one kaiju that’s actually in continuity, nothing--on a vendetta against the Borg, who basically killed her family twice over. Man, if only there were some kind of psychologist on board the Enterprise to help her through that trauma.

I sense she feels great bitterness, Captain.

Yeah, why does she get a seat next to the Captain again? Let Worf have that seat. How is it fair that he has to stand around all day, he actually does stuff!

Anyhoo, as you might’ve guessed from the opening set on a holographic rendition of Don Quixote, with a Data Discussion(tm) of quixotic endeavors... and the fact that Delcara intends to totally wipe out the Borg, gosh, I wonder if she’ll succeed--this one’s something of a downer. It does give the promised Planet Killer on Borg Cube action for those fanboys who’ve wondered who would win in a wrassling match, and Picard learns a valuable lesson about not pursuing suicidal vendettas against the Borg, which he definitely takes to heart...

(Wow, he did that one-handed? What kind of gains does Sir Patrick have?)

But still... bit depressing.

The One Where Bones Becomes A Space Pirate

Another giant novel, I’m surprised this one never got raided for parts in any adaptation. Even on the page, it’s pretty breathtakingly cinematic, and yet, the only part of it that’s really been used is, if you squint, Bob Burnham in Discovery being a disgraced Starfleeter.

The premise is that, some months ago, the TOS Enterprise crew was involved in a breaking of the Prime Directive that resulted in the destruction of a world and the ‘Enterprise 5′ of bridge officers blamed for the tragedy being shunned and hated wherever they go (ah, that utopian Star Trek future, predicting an entire population that’s politically engaged).

Now, with the command crew scattered, everyone’s trying to get back to the planet where it all happened to find out what tf went down for reals. In a bit of a stretch, this is really hard for them--no one seems to be able to call in a favor or hire Han Solo to take them there or anything, which I suppose is in keeping with Star Trek 3′s similar situation six years prior. They don’t have to go so far as to steal a Constitution-class this time. I suppose it’s fitting for the wild and woolly TOS era. In TNG time, they’d probably be able to dial a Space Uber. (As it turns out, it seems like if they’d just coordinated their plans, they all could’ve hitched a ride with Spock, but then there’d be no book, much less a Giant Book.)

Anyway, Kirk’s been court-martialed and is working as an asteroid miner, Chekov and Sulu fall in with Orion pirates, Spock is challenging the whole thing in court, and Uhura’s in jail........oh. It’s like that, huh, Starfleet?

Like I said, most of the plot involves the crew going off on all their separate adventures, eventually getting the band back together and figuring out what went down. Apparently, the book was criticized for its nonlinear structure, but I think it worked out really well. Starting months after the incident, with everyone disgraced, gets you pumped to find out what happened. Then when they flashback to the shit going down, there’s a great sense of foreboding because you know something is going to happen, just not what exactly.

If I can make a criticism, it’s that after some great build-up, the ending seems a bit anticlimactic. The nature of the threat requires some unbelievable Hollywood Evolution to buy (nothing new for Star Trek, admittedly, and this is a crew that’s fresh off meeting Apollo and Abraham Lincoln) and while it is fitting that they’re able to resolve the situation without blowing up anything or punching anyone (Star Trek loves to talk the talk about how anti-military it is, then end their movie with some Klingons getting blasted), it still seems a little... dry. You’re not going to have Kirk hang off of anything, story? Not even a little? Okay. I still had fun.

And you’ll note that once again, Deanna Troi was of no help whatsoever. Geez, woman, you’re oh for three here!

#star trek #peter david #judith and garfield reeves-stevens

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kimmysfandomblog · 5 years

Note

9 and 20 for Hinaegi, 5 and 14 for Komahina !

Thank you for the ask, Chloe!!! 😀

From here! https://hajimehinata-kun.tumblr.com/post/180161745002/asks-21-otppairing-questions

Hinaegi:

9. Favorite aspect of them/their relationship dynamics?

I think my favorite thing about HiNaegi is more to do with potential interaction. They do things in different ways, but their basic ideals are the same. Naegi and Hinata don’t think much of themselves, but while Naegi kind of accepts he is average, Hinata doesn’t. He has too much ambition to give up on the dream of doing something bigger. They are both the type to listen and care for their friends, and they end up leading even if they don’t think of themselves as leaders.

I think that if they were to interact, they’d be digging into the things they hide behind their “average” exterior. It’s a lot more noticeable with Hinata, being that he’s a Reserve Course Student. I think Naegi would be one to say he feels out of place among the Ultimates, since they are so weird for the most part. They could get into how, even if they are Ultimates, they are friends and don’t even care about Naegi having the talent of luck, which he doesn’t even consider a talent since it rarely every affects him. Also, I feel Naegi will really be able to sympathize with Hinata. He might want to know what the Reserve Course is like, and he’d be able to validate Hinata’s disdain of being stuck there.

As for Naegi, he really accepts way too much from his friends- in terms of being a bit too passive. And he’s also too forgiving, I think ^^; maybe Hinata would be able to help him out a bit with that, or sympathize with him a bit (I mean, Souda was able to drag him into crashing a beach party, but Hinata was able to draw a line with the matching speedos, lol) Maybe he could get Naaegi to show off his more assertive side instead of hiding it like he does (and Naegi certainly does have an assertive side! It’s just one that doesn’t usually come out unless in a threatening situation)

I do perceive friction, however. I think that Naegi can be too optimistic about things, and sometimes you just can’t accept optimism. With Hinata, even if Naegi were to say that it doesn’t matter that Hinata is in the Reserve Course because he still has people who know that Hinata is a great person, and that is worth more than a title, I think that if something were to happen, like what Juzo did to him in DR3, that could cause Hinata to snap. If we recall what happened in DR2′s 6th trial, Hinata respected Naegi, but he couldn’t just accept Naegi’s plan, which put Hinata’s whole self at risk. It would also be something like, they are very similar, but the differences just rub at them even harder because they have certain expectations out of each other.

And then of course there is a canon AU with post-DR3… I can’t imagine Hinata being happy about Naegi making a new Hope’s Peak Academy. Hope’s Peak Academy has been pretty much the source of Hinata’s problems. He played his own part, of course, but a lot of it is to do with the environment and mentality that HPA created. I think that maybe the only thing that settles it is if the way Naegi runs HPA is different, like that these students do have to pay a fee unless they aren’t able to financially support their education (it isn’t government run, or not completely), that there are no talent scouts, and instead they apply to become Ultimates (like in V3), and that just overall, there are no special benefits (they still have to take the normal exams, but there is time allotted to their talent. They kind of have to have a longer school year because of that, and it may be needed to waive things as long as it is made up some other way, but there is no special treatment which would make the Talented superior. The point of the school is for talents to be fostered, but for the benefit of society and not scientific exploitation and the separation between talented/”average” people. This would also mean that you are not prohibited from letting friends visit the campus, as long as it is not disruptive.

I do think even then, there’s gonna be tension, but maybe Naegi’s optimism, that he is going to do everything he can to make sure this is not going to turn out the same way it did with the previous HPA, and just general sincerity that he believes in thisnew school, Hinata gives it a chance.

20. What made you decide to ship them?

I have a few guesses, but the exact reason why… I honestly don’t know. It was surely not immediately. Naegi was always a character I liked a lot, but didn’t love, so HiNaegi snuck up on me. By the time DR3 was rollong around, I was already attracted to the idea that they meet and interact in a meaninflgful way again. A part of it was that, due to them being protagonists, they often are featured together, and it screamed cute potential to me. I know the reasons why I ship them: they have this feeling of balance to them somehow, like they have a lot of similarities, and fill in for their weaknesses. They both look like they would trust each other and sacrifice for each other’s well-being in their own different ways. Of course, this could be platonic as well as romantic (and I do love both!). The moment I realized this… that I wanted to see them romantically involved as well… I am not sure. I just know that when Hope Arc gave me them goving each other that look, I was already deep in XD I just supressed it, like all the other fans did, because who was I gonna share my passion with? I am very glad that I broke out of that. The Hinaegi community has been very supportive, and I love them! (Some of us are also partners for the Hinata Project, so that wouldn’t have been even a thought without them!)

KomaHina:

5. Favorite canon moment of them?

Most definitely, it would be the Prologue and CH1! I love the way that they met, with Komaeda being really concerned over Hinata, whose fainted on the beach. I love that they are together for the introductions, and how Hinata kind of leans on Komaeda with trust. I like that Hinata really and truly didn’t want to believe that the Komaeda he was thankful for waking him up (sorry dr2 stage moment but-) was the type to kill someone, and that utter betrayal he felt later. I like how despite that, Komaeda was still hoping/expecting Hinata wouldn’t treat him differently (but accepts it anyways). Prologue and CH1 were truly just the best moments for me. A close second would be CH3, when Hinata is super concerned about Komaeda’s well-being despite all the feelongs in him :’) (yeah, that may be why I get mad about people criticizing him for not staying with Ko)

14. Is there a pairing that you think rivals them?

In all honestly, it is hard to compare ships, since in general, despite the tropes (like rival ×rival), changes in personality and backstory really change how I view that pairing. The only thing I got is my feeling, and KomaHina is just WAY up there in my interests. Sometimes I wish it was less popular, or maybe more like, I wish it wasn’t popular enough to have a vehemently rabid side with equally rabid antis XD Admittedly, most of the reason I like KomaHina is because I love the characters (specifically Hinata, but Komaeda as well), but that relationship they have truly feels unique to me.

This is more than just shipping the rivals together like some certain other pairs in these kinds of stories. There’s a complexity there, since Komaeda actively pushes everyone away, but feels comfortable around Hinata, but also doesn’t want to hurt Hinata with his presence so he pushes away even more. And then there is Hinata, who wishes he could hate Komaeda, but actually he is still concerned about the guy, even if Komaeda’s logic frustrates him, he still sees Komaeda as smart and tries to understand him, if not very openly saying he wishes to understand him. I have other OTPs that were rival×rival (was into SasuNaru for a long time, was into USUK if that works as rivals?), but somehow this pair feels different.

I guess the only pair I love equally, within this fandom at least, is KamuNami. The relationship has potential at complexity, though I guess because of the DR3 writing, no one that would have been okay with it initially, likes it. Rather, they quite hate it, and it’s… too bad. There would’ve been more complex interactions had they known each other, especially given how different their values are. Kamukura doesn’t care if he has killed or not, whether it was in self-defense or a casualty in his grand schemes. Nanami is adamantly against that- and she’d be annoyed at him too, I think, for his attitude. At the same time, there would be something that forces her to interact with him, whether it was the need to keep an eye on him (as class rep or as the Observer, for example), or general curiosity (him being an AI too, his connection to Hinata (whether as the same person or two seperate people), or if in some other AU some other similarity that makes them unique, like it could be how he beats her at games). As an AI, he would be the only one there besides Usami, and he has all the answers as to how her friends are doing. I can’t imagine her being too friendly when she realizes the lengths he had to go to and how unaffected he seems to be about it, but in the end, he did help it to help them, and it’s a rare case where such a thing was necessary. And he acts cold and unfeeling, but there was a glimmer of emotion in him at the same time. This is similar to human Kamukura as well, I think. If we set this in an AU, she would definitely struggle interacting with him, maybe even starting to believe he is cold and lifeless and nothing more. But then he’d say something and she realizes he’s human, but it’s harder for him to express emotions. They are the type of people who would rather isolate themselves and let others ignore them, but Chiaki has this self that cares about others, making her break away from her comfort zone. I headcanon she would go to extreme lengths, even going head-to-head and almost on par with Izuru if it came to it, to protect her friends, and that would shock him, I think. He’d observe her more carefully since she’s the one who did something interesting, but he’d get annoyed when she tries to make him see the world differently. He’s rather arrogant like that. I don’t think she’ll ever fully succeed, but he’s eventually going to be softer on her (in my headcanons, this is pretty much how it goes hahaha).

Another part of the reason why KamuNami is so important is because it has a lot to do with how accepting the community has been! I used to be ambivalent to the ship because of the shipping wars, to be quite honest, but the KamuNami community, however small we are, actually support each other with comments and reblogs. The mod of KamuNami Paradise is the sweetest and most understanding person, and she tries really hard for the community. I really look up to her! In a way, I guess that solidified it. My love for KamuNami was but a handful until KamuNami Week 2017, and the support of the community, as well as how well Mod Kibou fostered this ship, is the reason why I love it as much as I do. That blog… without it, I would have kept that KamuNami side of me hidden and let it die. I am thankful that didn’t happen!

For KomaHina, the community just feels too big sometimes. I have a lot more ambivalence about the fans who like KomaHina than I do for other ships, simply because KomaHina is the most popular ship (well hopefully remains that way lol. I do and don’t like the popularity, but I want the ship that beats it to be meaningful. And here in my salt corner, I don’t think this ship I’m talking about that has the potential to overtrow KomaHina is even a quarter as meaningful). I mean, it’s like there is this belief somewhere in there that anyone who doesn’t remotely ship it is like… homophobic, or ignorant, or ognorong canon- just overall a bad person. I never felt comfortable with that. Yet, at the same time, I made a lot of friends through KomaHina! Which is puzzling to me since I was so expecting, well, nothing to happen. That was my experience with every other fandom, you know? A lot of my mutuals also love KomaHina, so at least with this ship, I know I’ll feel validated. There is so much content for it as well that, for the most part, I don’t feel as starved for it XD (MOST of the time… it never truly leaves you lol) Also, participating in KomaHina Secret Exchange is just such a pleasure! You’re honestly another mod I admire XD That event is always fun! It’s incredible to see the amount of love for this ship that I care about, we care about.

I guess when it comes down to it, what I need in my OTPs is that potential for complexity, especially if it surprises you. I also like validation, apparently XD It is just lonely shipping something no one else cares about, you know?

On a side note, fave ship is still KomaHinaNami for very indulgent reasons XD but I’ve overexplained at this point lol

#serahne-is-here #mehere #ask meme

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gascon-en-exil · 6 years

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I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: Revelation Part 3

Prologue

Opening Chapters

Revelation Part 1

Revelation Part 2

Chapters 20-Endgame, in which the Fire Emblem is a chainsaw.

Chapter 20 + 21

I bet this scene looks wonderfully silly if Takumi is promoted to kinshi knight.

I’m going to be combining many of the chapters in this post, because even though they take a while to play through there’s not much to them in terms of story. Of course Anthony is evil and Corrin has to kill him, although not before Anankos turns him into a Faceless (or was he one all along?). I think I would have preferred the humor of fighting him as a village with ludicrous stats over the sympathy grab they go for with him. It’s also worth pointing out that it’s the three older Nohrians who call out Corrin for trusting Anthony first, putting some of that healthy distrust they show off in Conquest to work again. I don’t like that we’re apparently meant to find Corrin’s endlessly trusting nature endearing because it’s what brought this group together and not, you know, self-insert narrative privilege, but whatever. None of FE14′s routes could go forward at certain points if Corrin didn’t occasionally grab the idiot ball, and at least this time they had the foresight to come up with a backup plan.

And I am actually glad that they did so with Anthony, because while Chapter 20 is more standard Valla fare the trap they fall into in 21 comes with a clever premise that’s fun to play around. I dislike how the chapters continue to be loaded down with entirely too many drops and chests as I mentioned last time, but I find that as long as you plot out routes for your units before you start the size of these maps isn’t a problem.

One final question, since I didn’t bring it up in Birthright: why is the S rank naginata, which is obtained in Chapter 20 in Revelation, called a Waterwheel? Just...why? I have never found an explanation for this.

Chapter 22 + 23

Well of course she has, just look at those growths.

I find Arete intriguing as a character, though not so much either version that appears on screen - the brainwashed servant of Anankos or the sentimental dying mother - but rather the idea of her as she existed against the backdrop of the volatile Nohrian court. That element of her has to pieced together from inferences and bits of information in supports, but it’s clearly there. I fully understand why Revelation includes characters like Arete and Anthony. They have to convey over only a few chapters the nature of Anankos’s rule over Valla and its dominated subjects as well as make for credible threats to Corrin as they trek through the kingdom. This is the main reason why Arete’s real characterization is, much like Garon’s, extremely minimal, because the pain it inflicts on Azura is meant to demonstrate how Anankos operates. It’s a natural lead-in to the antagonists inside Gyges, certainly.

Kind of a shame though that the most lasting impression Arete leaves on the player is that of a boss who just will not give up, seeing as you have to fight her three times. I can’t think of another antagonist in the series who’s fought so often over such a short span of chapters. What’s worse, neither of these maps is very engaging; the first borrows the forest-burning Dragon Veins from Midori’s paralogue without the gimmick of chasing down the boss, while the second demonstrates something everyone already knew, that turn-based platforming is not fun. Scarlet’s return as an enemy leaves no impact unless Corrin or Ryoma fights her, so that’s not working too well either.

Chapter 24 + 25

Chapter 24’s gimmick may not be original, but an optional stealth mission works substantially better here than it does in Path of Radiance’s earlygame since Revelation is already well-established at this point as being one long experiment with gimmicks. I also like how the door mechanic plays into Corrin’s desire to trust Mikoto - and that the last door rewards players willing to go against the desperately trusting personality of their self-insert. Plus, it’s not a complete cheat; one of the first things Mikoto tells Corrin in the chapter is the blue doors are the correct ones, so her contradiction at the ends rings false even on the level of a simple puzzle. For what it’s worth mentioning I never bother with the stealth option here just as I don’t in FE9, because it’s tedious and requires a very specific setup and execution for a reward that’s not really worth it.

I find Mikoto difficult to engage with on an emotional level however, for much the same reason that her death didn’t resonate very strongly with me. It helps this time that all of the Hoshidan royals verbally react to seeing her again, but for Corrin this feels like a less substantial meeting than Azura’s reunion with Arete. Azura and the Hoshidans have memories of these women and the positive influence they played in their lives, whereas Corrin has, what, a few days’ worth of interactions with their mother and some very hazy memories from before their capture? I do like how Mikoto reveals at the end that Corrin is Vallite royalty, not because it adds even more to the super special Avatar status or because it establishes that Corrin and Azura are cousins (surprise sort-of incest, yay!) but because it re-contextualizes their place in the world both connected to and apart from the other royal families. It does absolutely do those two other things and is rather awkward on that basis, of course, but Vallite Corirn is able to comfortably exist in between their two families while still having a place to call their own. A ruined, empty place, but that’s for the epilogue.

At first I was planning on doing Chapter 25 as a separate entry, but then I played through it and realized that it’s just more moving platforms and hard enemies with another family reunion boss that’s nowhere near as emotionally affecting as the previous two. We see nothing of Sumeragi prior to this chapter aside from his brief death scene flashback, and unlike Arete his role as a parental figure overlaps significantly with someone else’s. I don’t get a strong sense of how important this reunion is to anyone except maybe Ryoma, and half of that comes from remembering their one-on-one back in Chapter 5. Come to think of it, the disguised Sumeragi has that quick cameo on the Birthright ship map, right? I suppose that’s technically the only appearance of anything from Valla on that route, although in retrospect it’s even more random for him to have shown up there. So, yeah, harder chapter, but can’t really compare to what came just before as a story moment.

Chapter 26

Betrayed by a Jagen! Who’d have thought we’d ever see the day...unless you consider Orson in FE8 a Jagen, that is.

As big twists in FE go Gunter’s doesn’t quite measure up to some others, like the Belhalla barbecue or Nasir in FE9, but it took me some thinking to properly parse out why this isn’t as effective a climactic reveal despite adequate use of foreshadowing and setting. It actually ties into one of the overall problems I have with Revelation and another time it compares unfavorably to Radiant Dawn (and I’m sorry to keep bringing it up if you hate FE10 or haven’t played it, but the parallels really are apt). One of the biggest genuine criticisms of that game’s plot, particularly near the end, is that the story gets too big for itself and spends all of its final chapters throwing at the player numerous major reveals about the plot and setting, many of them not directly related to each other and only immediately involving some dozen or so of a cast of playable and/or named characters about ten times that size. Like Revelation the pacing is utterly frantic, and moreover it gives the player the impression that in order to understand the Tellius setting as a whole and what themes the developers of that duology were aiming for you have to be intimately familiar with the content of Radiant Dawn’s endgame specifically, which...yeah, you kind of do. How that could have been better handled would be a subject for another post, but suffice it to say that the apparent conclusion that Sephiran did every bad thing (except racism) ever in Tellius as a means of tying everything together rings hollow even in-universe.

The narrative approach of the Valla chapters is similar, but most of its big moments are clearly aiming to be character-driven, fueled by the relationships between the royals and their loved ones forced into fighting them. As I brought up earlier in this post however not many of those moments land because of another major problem Revelation shares with Radiant Dawn, that there’s been almost no time to develop any of those relationships with the plot moving at such a speed. You’d have to have seen Gunter’s supports - which aren’t even accessible on this route - to be able to appreciate at all his history with Corrin, since from the story text of Revelation and Conquest too for that matter there’s little to suggest anything beyond a straightforward master-servant relationship until the very moment when Corrin is pleading with Gunter to resist Anankos’s possession. Without that context the most relatable emotional moment of this chapter comes from Ryoma’s anger at learning the identity of Scarlet’s murderer, which we’re clearly not meant to dwell on much because that might imply Ryoma is capable of holding a grudge. It doesn’t help either that Gunter’s genuine hatred of Garon gets muddied by the Anankos possession angle, something that didn’t come into play until years after he began grooming Corrin as an instrument of his revenge. At least Takumi didn’t go off the deep end until after being possessed.

As for the chapter...ugh, I’m just so tired of this route. Mikoto’s ward actively discourages you from splitting up your forces to go after the absurd number of chests that line this map, and this late in the game there’s almost no reason not to just rush Gunter. Funny that’s he’s pretty underwhelming for an endgame boss - that’s a Jagen for you.

Chapter 27 + Endgame

A question I’ve never seen anyone else ask before: why is Anankos wearing a Buddha mask anyway? It’s apparently just a wall fixture in the castle that he’s hiding behind, and while I get that they wanted to conceal his true size and cosmic horror features for Endgame in the fashion of JRPG bosses with multiple phases the mask is entirely unexplained. Is it meant to be ironic that a dragon styling himself as a god is wearing the face of the major figure of a religion/philosophy with no deities?

I will say that the mechanics of the final battle match the concept of Revelation perfectly. You’re strongly encouraged to split up your forces into three groups to attack all of Anankos’s weak points quickly, which matches up well with the route’s theme of Corrin (and Azura) + Hoshido + Nohr. It’s also not one of those final bosses that’s easier than what came immediately before, so additional kudos for that. Also, Garon’s death on this route is mercifully swift, ripe for even more trauma for the Nohrian royals that no one’s got any time to dwell on.

Aside from those remarks...bleh. The story may conclude faster thanks to lacking the near-death sequences of Birthright and Conquest, but that pace just pushes forward to the very end with Corrin being crowned ruler of a kingdom with no people...except Hoshido and Nohr both cede territory to Valla so that they can have some citizens, because that’s reasonable and won’t cause any confusion or hard feelings. I even took the trouble to S rank Azura, believing incorrectly that it would in some way be reflected in the ending as the only instance of supports in Fates affecting the main plot. Nope, Azura still rejects the rule of Valla and passes it off to her husband as if nothing were different. Then everyone hugs and it’s a little bit gay and the series main theme plays and oh God I’m just glad this route is over. But hey, a chainsaw Fire Emblem is bizarrely badass if you’re into that kind of thing.

PS: Chapter 10 is still The Worst.

Next time: ending and final thoughts on Revelation

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Fates #Fire Emblem Revelation #FE14

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arofili · 3 years

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Innumerable Stars 2021 Letter

Hello lovely creator, thanks for writing for me in Innumerable Stars 2020! I’m very excited and grateful for whatever you create for me <3

This letter will restate my DNWs, list my likes, give you a brief rundown of my canon preferences, and then dive into specific prompts for each of my requests. I’ll warn you upfront that I tend to ramble, so feel free to skip prompts that don’t interest you and/or use ctrl+F to search for whatever it is you want to write for. I’ve named each of my requests based on the basic idea within it, so hopefully that will be helpful for you!

Housekeeping

DNWs:

non-con/dub-con

ABO (heat fic is fine)

food involved in sex

abusive/neglectful parenting (especially not with Fëanor; Eöl is the only exception, but even then don’t dwell on it)

sibling incest and parent-child incest (cousin incest is fine)

unhappy/unhopeful endings (unless requested)

jealousy

possessiveness EXCEPT with Russingon, for some reason I love it with those two

cheating

character or ship bashing

hanahaki or any scenario where unrequited love is physically damaging

soulmates, especially soulmate AUs BUT soul bonds are excellent as long as there is an element of choice involved

unrequested modern AU

non-trans mpreg

if you are writing a slash ship where the characters are/were married to/involved with someone outside of the ship in canon, please don’t have the character(s) hate their spouse or not have been actually in love with them. The only exception to this is Finrod; I’m fine with him and Amárië not having been actually in love, but don’t do this for anyone else, especially not Fëanor.

Hobbit/LOTR-specific DNWs:

the concept of a dwarven “One”

any Fíli pairing, even in reference

Alfrid

Legolas or Gimli paired with anyone other than each other

mortals dying super quickly in Valinor

unrequested smut

Silm-specific DNWs:

evil/irredeemable/incel Maeglin

Elwing bashing

Fëanorian bashing

over-the-top Fëanorian apologism (they did bad stuff; it was at least partially their fault. you don’t have to address that, necessarily, but don’t rewrite the story to claim they were blameless)

Fingon with a wife

Fingon or Maedhros ships that don’t take Russingon into account (polyamory, an open relationship, Mae with someone after Finno dies or vice versa for an AU, them with other people while they’re separated on the Ice/in Angband - all of these scenarios are fine, but in the end I need them to be with each other first and foremost)

dark!Maedhros

elvish re-embodiment after death being an actual, literal rebirth that requires the characters to have a second childhood; I much prefer them being granted a new hröa in their prime (feel free to explore what “in their prime” means, though, especially wrt scarred and disabled elves)

Likes:

queer headcanons, especially aromantic-spectrum headcanons & trans/nonbinary headcanons

trans/nonbinary pregnancy and parenthood

found family

queerplatonic relationships

kidfic

angst with a happy ending

gray morality

explorations of magic

most tropes

fanon and fandom tropes

deconstruction/inversion of fanon and fandom tropes

secret relationships

secret kids (especially secret peredhil)

giving ships OC kids

confessions of love

first times

hurt/comfort

redemption, forgiveness, mercy

ironic foreshadowing

canon divergence AUs and X Lives AUs

fairy tale AUs

politics and scheming

resolving conflicting canonical details

names fitting the time period (Quenya names in Valinor, please; if this is difficult for you, that’s okay, no pressure, but I do strongly prefer it)

choice of character names having a lot of thought put behind them (does the character go back to their original Quenya name upon rebirth? or do they keep their Sindarin name? or come up with something else entirely? do they hate their new Sindarin name and resent having to use it, or do they embrace it? As long as you put some thought into it, I’m sure I’ll like whatever you decide!)

author’s notes where you explain your thought process, if you want; I love hearing how the story took shape!

Preferences re: canon:

LaCE compliance is always completely optional. If you do want to include it, that’s great, but if you just want the characters to fuck without having that be an issue, go for it. I love explorations of LaCE that take into account the exceptions, boundaries, definitions, etc; I also love takes that emphasize that they are Laws and Customs, not biological imperatives.

I’m not picky about my Amrod deaths. He can die at either Losgar or Sirion (or, hell, some other time/place if you make it interesting enough!), whatever works best for the story. I do like Lightly Toasted Amrod, aka he almost burns to death at Losgar but survives/gets rescued at the last minute.

Gil-galad theories are all very fun. Please don’t make him the son of Fingon and a wife; if he’s Fingon’s son, I want Maedhros to be involved at least a little bit (adoption or trans mpreg are both fine in this scenario). Otherwise, I don’t have a particular preference, though if it’s not really relevant I usually default to the son of Orodreth (who is in turn the son of Angrod).

Honestly, when it comes to theories and headcanons, my rule of thumb is “convince me”! I’m down for whatever, for the most part, as long as you can justify it :)

~~~

LOTR Books Request

Gigolas tags: Gimli, Legolas, Group: Gimli & Legolas, Group: Gimli/Legolas, Group: Gimli/Legolas & Glóin, Group: Gimli/Legolas & Thranduil, Group: Legolas & Aragorn & Gimli, Group: Glóin & Thranduil, Original Dwarf of Aglarond, Original Elf of Ithilien Suggested worldbuilding tags: Battle of Dale, Differences in Elvish & Dwarvish Histories, Fall of Dol Guldur, Interspecies Relationships, Queerplatonic Relationships, Rebuilding of Ithilien

All Gigolas is good Gigolas, and you can quote me on that - but I do have a soft spot for queerplatonic Gigolas, and I might die of happiness if you wrote me some :) I love elf/dwarf relationships, and cultural differences leading to miscommunication is one of my favorite tropes for this ship.

For the “& Thranduil” and “& Glóin” I’d love to see some “telling the family” scenarios, with Thranduil and Glóin coming to terms with their sons’ relationship. For “& Aragorn” I was imagining a Three (or Four, if you want to keep Boromir alive!) Hunters situation with Aragorn third wheeling them (and/or commiserating with Boromir about how terrible their friends are at expressing their feelings).

I’m very interested in Legolas and Gimli’s new homes post-War, how much time they spent visiting each other and how much time they spent apart, etc. I would love to see an outside POV of Gigolas, what their friends and subordinates think of this odd couple; perhaps an elf of Ithilien and a dwarf of Aglarond strike up a friendship and gossip about their lords! I’d also be interested in Gimli and Legolas visiting their original homes, meeting one another’s parents, and helping rebuild after the Battle of Dale / Fall of Dol Guldur.

I would also love to see an exploration of dwarf/elf relationships and the difficulties that would arise from that. Legolas’ father is a Sinda of Doriath who remembers the Battle of the Thousand Caves, and I headcanon that Gimli’s mother is descended from the dwarves of Nogrod who were involved in that debacle, so them coming to terms with that difficult history (and how that history differs) between their peoples would be really interesting.

Gildor Inglorion

...okay, so this is technically a Silm request dressed up as a LOTR request, but I would really love to see an exploration of Gildor’s origins! I have a few concepts for how he can be “of the House of Finarfin,” mostly relating to this Inglor figure who is his father. I think Inglor was either the son of Finrod and trans!Bëor (and thus the first peredhel) or the son of Aegnor and Andreth; either way, he was raised mostly by Finrod. But who is Inglor’s spouse/Gildor’s other parent? (Edrahil, maybe?) How did Gildor survive the Fall of Nargothrond, or was he born afterwards? Where did he live in the Third Age? Who was awaiting him when he arrived in Aman?

Took Fairy Wife

I think this concept is fascinating, and I’d love to hear the story of a hobbit/elf romance! Perhaps Pippin or Frodo tell this story to the Fellowship? I also have the headcanon that since Durin I “woke alone,” his spouse was also an elf, so maybe Gimli could throw in that legend as well.

Group: Last Prince of Cardolan/Lady of the Blue Brooch Suggested worldbuilding tags: Barrow-downs and Barrow-wights, Necromancy and Hauntings, Sentient Weapons & Jewelry

I’ve recently become a little bit obsessed with the concept of the Last Prince and the Lady of the Blue Brooch being star-crossed lovers. We have conflicting accounts of the Last Prince’s demise, and I’d love to see those reconciled into one story; we also know that the Prince was buried in the barrow-downs, where the Lady’s blue brooch was found. How did that end up there - was it a token she gave to him before his death? Did she visit his grave after it was too late? How did Tom and Goldberry know her? Maybe they are the ones to tell this story to some hobbitish traveler through the Old Forest... I do have my own version of this story, if you’d like to borrow some ideas from there, but feel free to make up your own thing too!

Group: Eldarion/Elboron

I just think they’re cute :) I like the idea that Eldarion’s heir is not his own child, but the child of one of his sisters, and that Elboron had a sister who was the parent of Barahir of Ithilien, so these two can be gay together. Of course, you could also make one of them trans and have Eldarion’s heir and Barahir be siblings! Or you can explore the beginnings of their relationship - just a cute get-together story would be wonderful.

Worldbuilding: Arwen reforged Narsil

This is such a neat concept - I would love to see Fëanorian Arwen (bc Kidnap Dads) going full smith mode and personally reforging Narsil into Andúril for her boyfriend. Arwen embracing her dual kinship as both the descendant of Lúthien and the descendant of Maedhros and Maglor would be amazing (especially if Maglor is hanging around in Rivendell). Bonus points if Narsil used to be Maedhros’ sword, and that’s how it got passed down to Elros!

~~~

Hobbit Movies Request

Kiliel tags: Fíli, Kíli, Tauriel, Group: Fíli & Kíli, Group: Kíli/Tauriel, Group: Kíli/Tauriel & Fíli Suggested worldbuilding tags: Almost Everyone Lives AU, Kíli's Runestone, Worldbuilding: Tauriel goes to Erebor AU

I’m a basic bitch when it comes to Kiliel stuff: give me fluff, give me angst with a mostly-happy ending, give me Fíli being exasperated by his brother’s romantic drama! I would be interested in an AU where Thorin dies but Fíli and Kíli survive, and King Fíli has to deal with Kíli’s love life causing political problems; I’d also love to see an AU where Tauriel goes to Erebor with Kíli, Fíli, Bofur, and Óin after the lakeshore scene. And anything surrounding the magic of Kíli’s runestone would be very welcome - perhaps it really was cursed/enchanted, and by giving it to Tauriel, Kíli lost the protection Dís had placed upon him and passed it to her. What if Tauriel had returned it before the end - would Kíli have lived, and she died? Or, in a canon scenario (in this case, full angst is welcome) what if Tauriel and Dís met and talked about the stone and its properties?

Hilda Bianca

I just think she’s neat. I’d love to see her getting involved in the politics of a rebuilt Dale, either collaborating with or causing problems for Bard. Her being a mentor figure for Sigrid and Tilda would also be great.

~~~

Book of Lost Tales Request

Group: Ómar & Salmar

Ómar Amillo and Salmar Lirillo were brothers in early stages of the Legendarium - I would love to see that explored in a more Slim-compliant verse, where they are both Maiar. Ómar could be a Maia of Ulmo, like Salmar is, or a Maia of some other Vala. Music and water are intrinsically connected in Arda’s makeup, so Ómar as a being of song and Salmar as a being of water would be really cool to see explored somehow!

Meril-i-Turinqi

Another really neat character!! I headcanon that she is the child of a grandson of Olwë and a granddaughter of Ingwë. How did she rise to power on Tol Eressëa? What are her relationships with her great-grandfathers? Is she friends with other influential elf-women - perhaps Elenwë or Amárië or Galadriel?

~~~

Silm Requests Russingon Request

Russingon tags: Maedhros, Fingon, Group: Fingon/Maedhros, Original Character from Himring, Group: Fingon/Finrod/Maedhros Suggested worldbuilding tags: Elven Gender Constructs, Hair and customs/kinks around it, LaCE as a social construct, Melotorni & Meletheldi, Onnalúmë

Russingon is my OTP, I just love them a lot!! I adore both plot-heavy explorations of their characters and relationship and more slice-of-life fluff/angst/porn stuff without any particular story behind it. If I need comfort fic this pairing is my go-to, and I’d love to have more of that to come back to. PWP would be welcome; plot is also excellent and I’m sure to enjoy that too. I’m always a sucker for falling in love / confessions of love / first times, but ESPECIALLY for Russingon; the beginning of their love story is something I’ll never get tired of. Established relationship, reunions (after the Ice/Angband or after time spent apart in Hithlum/Himring or after leaving the Halls or another scenario) are also amazing. The secret relationship aspect of this ship is very fun, both keeping things secret and having their secret come to light. If you wanted to invert that trope, though, I would definitely enjoy that; something like a fake dating AU or an arranged marriage AU or a situation where they get pregnant and have to tell people. It would also be great to see them trying (and failing) to keep their relationship a secret while they are in Beleriand - outsider POV from a resident of Himring would be great here! I like scenarios where they’re married, and I like scenarios where they’re not married, whichever floats your boat will be excellent. Honestly, I’m likely to enjoy almost any Russingon content you write; I just… *clenches fist* love them… If you wanted to explore a queerplatonic interpretation of them that would be really cool, but I do love love love romantic/sexual Russingon and would be overjoyed to have any content about them! In my DNW I mentioned that I don’t like the concept of soulmates (for Aro Reasons) so please steer clear of that, but having Mae and Finno choose each other over and over again and that affecting their soul bond/mental connection might just bring me to tears ;-;

I adore Fingon on his own - he’s brave and valiant and good-hearted and deserved better ;-; If you wanted to write a Fingon-focused story that touches on his time as a prince or a king or adjusting to re-embodied life in Valinor or his relationships with people other than Maedhros, I am sure to love that.

Maedhros is probably my favorite character in the Silm. I love his character arc, the fire symbolism, his trauma and recovery, his relationship with his brothers and his cousins, his time helping Maglor care for Elrond and Elros - really all of his story. For this exchange I’d rather not receive a fic focused on his time in Angband or his death; I can enjoy fics about that, but I’m looking for something a bit happier here. Art of Maedhros in those situations would be okay.

When it comes to throwing Finrod into the mix with Russingon, what I’m really looking for is some smut, tbh. Maedhros and Fingon are ridiculously in love, and Finrod is a bit of a hoe, and I can’t believe there wasn’t at least one time they had a threesome. Finrod getting fucked by both of them at once would be excellent. Finrod is canonically friendly with the Fëanorians in Beleriand and goes hunting with Maglor and Maedhros, maybe this is a time where it’s Fingon instead of Maglor and they fuck in the woods, or Maedhros and Fingon visit Nargothrond, or Maedhros and Finrod visit Barad Eithel, or Fingon and Finrod visit Himring. Is this a planned encounter? Something spontaneous? Is Finrod seducing them both, or are they inviting him in? Did Maedhros and Finrod have a fling in Valinor, or did Finrod and Fingon find comfort together on the Ice, or both? I’d love to see where you take this!

When it comes to the worldbuilding tags, I’d love to see an exploration of gender and sexuality in relation to Russingon. I adore trans depictions of both Maedhros and Fingon, so that would be extremely welcome - you can also explore how elvish gender concepts differ from our understanding of gender and transness (I mused about that a bit in this post, along with thoughts on elvish naming traditions, if you’re looking for inspiration). LaCE is such a tricky topic, and I would definitely be interested in Mae and Finno experimenting sexually and discovering what is and isn’t biological about those concepts, and what is actually a cultural construct the elves have adhered to over time. Hair customs (what braids mean, hair coverings, etc) are really interesting - and a GREAT opportunity to include some hair kink! I mean, Finno has those gold braids and Mae’s name “Russandol” refers to his hair, I bet they are into each other’s hair.

Regarding the concept of melotorni, I can easily see that as either gay-coding or queerplatonic love; I’d love to see either or both those options explored with Russingon. (As for meletheldi, I mean, if you wanted to make them girls I would be super down for that too. I’m okay with genderbending, though I do prefer trans/nb headcanons, and I definitely don’t want them genderbent to be “straight.”) And as for Onnalúmë - well, that’s just heat fic, isn’t it? ;)

The bottom line for Russingon is that I Love Them and they love each other, and for this request I’d love PWP, fluff, hurt/comfort, falling in love, getting together, reunion, established relationship - really almost anything with them would absolutely make my day!

Russingon & kids tags: Gil-galad, Erien, Group: Erien & Gil-galad, Group: Fingon/Maedhros & Erien, Group: Fingon/Maedhros & Erien & Gil-galad, Group: Fingon/Maedhros & Gil-galad, Group: Erien & Faniel Suggested worldbuilding tags: Elven Naming Traditions, improbable parentages for Gil-Galad

The only thing I love more than Russingon is Russingon with KIDS!! I’m a sucker for Russingon as the fathers of Gil-galad, and recently I’ve decided to adopt Erien, a discarded daughter of Fingon, into my personal canon as a Russingon daughter. Exploring either Gil or Erien’s relationship with their dads would be wonderful - and, if they exist in the same universe, their relationship with each other!! (I recently wrote a novel-length fic about Erien being Tauriel, if you’d like to borrow some concepts from there, but that’s certainly not my “usual” interpretation of either of them so feel free to make up your own Erien origin story too!) I was very excited to see that someone else nominated an Erien relationship - Erien and Faniel is a great concept! I usually headcanon Faniel as the daughter of Findis and Elemmírë and the younger sister of Glorfindel, but if you have a different origin story for her that would be really neat as well. Discarded Finwëan daughters ftw! Russingon having kids would be a great place to explore elven naming traditions, how gay elves would name their kids (two father-names??), and maybe the Fëanorian tradition of -finwë names :p I definitely selected the “improbable parentages for Gil-galad” with trans!Russingon in mind, but if you’ve got another situation (that one fic where Finrod, Fingon, and Maedhros do Weird Science with a Maia comes to mind...), be my guest.

Kidnap Dads tags: Elrond, Group: Elrond & Elros, Group: Elrond & Gil-galad, Group: Maglor & Maedhros & Elrond & Elros Suggested worldbuilding tags: Choice of the Peredhil

I threw in Kidnap Dads into this request as well :) I firmly believe this relationship was, in the end, mostly a positive one despite the rocky beginning - I don’t want to see E&E hating M&M, and I also don’t want to see them resenting their birth parents either (however, their bio parents interacting with their foster parents in awkward/humorous situations would be great). Fluff would be wonderful, but some post-WoW angst would be welcome as well. Elrond and Gil-galad Russingonion considering each other brothers because of their shared father Maedhros is a favorite headcanon of mine! I really would love to see a focus on Maedhros and the E twins; Maglor can of course be involved, but I’m more interested in Maedhros as a character.

Some possible scenarios: an official adoption ceremony, cultural differences, M&M giving E&E some more names / teaching them Quenya, sharing traditions, Maedhros teaching the twins some skill (cooking? swordfighting? embroidery?), the twins being Weird (either because they’re part human or part Maia) and M&M learning to deal with that, Elrond reuniting with Maedhros in Valinor, Elrond getting adopted by M&M’s spouses (Maglor’s spouse and/or Fingon), AU where Maedhros lives and is around for E&E’s later lives

Exploring the Choice of the Peredhil would also be great. How did being raised with M&M affect E&E’s decisions when it came to their Choices of kindred? Were there any Men in the remnants of the Fëanorian host, and did that affect their Choices?

And since this is technically under the umbrella of the Russingon request, of course Maedhros telling E&E about his husband would be amazing. (And quite probably heartbreaking, too...)

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Maeglin Request

Reminder that I am not at all interested in irredeemable/evil Maeglin; I am a known Maeglin sympathizer and I will not apologize for that.

Maeglin & Fëanorians tags: Maeglin, Group: Dwarves & Maeglin, Group: Caranthir & Dwarves & Maeglin, Group: Maeglin & Fëanorians Suggested worldbuilding tags: Cross-Species Mentorships, Differences between Dwarf craft and Elf craft, Elven magic and art and technology, Maeglin Adopted by Fëanorians AU

I would adore an AU where Maeglin is adopted by the Fëanorians!! Maybe Maeglin escapes to Himring instead of Gondolin after his capture, and Maedhros helps him deal with Angband trauma? (I know that doesn’t really make sense timeline wise, you figure out the details, lmao. Maybe it’s actually taking place in Ossiriand, idk, or the timelines get moved around.) Otherwise, I’d love to see a younger Maeglin interacting with the Three Cs and dwarves!! A focus on craft and smithing would be wonderful, in that scenario.

Maeglin in Gondolin tags: Turgon, Group: Anairë & Maeglin, Group: Fingolfin & Maeglin, Group: Eärendil & Maeglin, Group: Idril & Maeglin, Group: Idril/Maeglin/Tuor, Group: Maeglin & Rôg Suggested worldbuilding tags: Metal Dragons

I think Maeglin’s relationship with emotionally repressed Turgon was difficult because of miscommunication, but they did love and care for one another. A version of events where Idril and Maeglin were friends before she found out about his feelings for her, or where they can work through that, would be really interesting to read. I love the idea of Maeglin begrudgingly coming to love Eärendil even though he’s Tuor’s child; I think that Eärendil’s mithril coat was made by Maeglin as a precaution against himself and the curse Morgoth placed upon him (I also think this is the origin of Bilbo’s mithril coat). Rôg is usually depicted as an Angband escapee; him noticing something wrong with Maeglin and figuring out about his capture would be a great story. Idril/Maeglin/Tuor is a great concept, especially Maeglin being upset about Idril and Tuor’s marriage because he’s in love with both of them - a threesome where finally gets what he wants (and some consensual rough treatment??) would be excellent. Also, some post-reembodiment fic where Maeglin gets to meet his grandparents would be amazing!! As for the metal dragons, some focus on Maeglin’s craft combined with the magics of Sauron and Morgoth would be really interesting. I would prefer if it Maeglin’s time in Angband was Pretty Bad (though I’d rather not have torture depicted on the page), and show him struggling with the excitement of being able to bring these incredible creations to life versus the knowledge that Sauron and Morogth can and will abuse him to get what they want. I’m not particularly interested in a sympathetic portrayal of Sauron and Morgoth.

Maeglin, Túrin, and Tyelpë tags: Túrin, Group: Celebrimbor/Maeglin, Group: Turin & Anglachel, Group: Maeglin & Anguirel, Group: Maeglin/Túrin Suggested worldbuilding tags: Bedazzling as a love language, Celebrimbor forging Gurthang, Sentient Weapons & Jewelry

OKAY so Maeglin/Turin is my rarepair OTP and I would absolutely die of happiness if you wrote this ship! For this request I’m envisioning a scenario where Maeglin goes to Nargothrond and that’s where he encounters Túrin. I’m also interested in Maeglin/Tyelpe, so throwing him into the mix would be fabulous. One of my favorite aspects of this ship is Maeglin and Túrin’s connections to Anguirel and Anglachel, so having them bond over that (maybe a literal bond...like a soul bond or something???? enforced by the semi-sentient swords??) would be excellent. I definitely believe Celebrimbor was the one to reforge Anglachel into Gurthang, so that could be a way of getting him involved. (Him ~bedazzling~ the sword as a way of flirting with Túrin would be hilarious; or just smiths bedazzling their creations to impress each other in general, lmao.) It’s also quite likely that in this scenario that Maeglin arrived in Nargothrond with Celegorm, Curufin, and Celebrimbor (and possibly Aredhel, though I was kind of envisioning her as dead in this scenario, RIP - or otherwise not present, much like how C&C have been banished by the time Túrin shows up), so he would have a preexisting relationship with Tyelpë. Maybe they broke up? Maybe they’re awkwardly pining and Túrin is what brings them together? Or some other situation. This ship is doomed no matter how you twist it, and so digging into the dramatic irony of it all would be delicious; happy endings are optional for this request.

Maeglin & Aredhel in Himlad & Nargothrond tags: Aredhel, Group: Aredhel & Oromë, Group: Celegorm/Aredhel & Maeglin & Curufin & Celebrimbor, Group: Curufin/Finrod & Celebrimbor Suggested worldbuilding tags: Aredhel and Maeglin Remain in Himlad, Aromantic Aredhel

This is kind of similar to the previous request, but with a focus on Aredhel, Celegorm, and Curufin as well as Maeglin and Celebrimbor. I would love an AU where Maeglin and Aredhel go to Himlad instead of Gondolin, and eventually end up in Nargothrond - I really can’t get enough of this concept! What happens with Eöl; does Curufin actually kinslay him this time? How do Maeglin and Tyelpë get along? My Aredhel is always aromantic, but I do ship her and Celegorm as FWB (though maybe Celegorm’s caught feelings somewhere along the line...) - how does Maeglin feel about her rekindling that relationship? I’d definitely be interested in a story about Celebrimbor being a Curufinrod baby (trans!Curvo ftw), so that would make returning to Nargothrond extra tense and emotional. As for Aredhel and Oromë, I have this headcanon that Anairë gave all her children Valar-related mother-names, and that Aredhel was named Írissë Aldarindë after Oromë Aldaron. How does she feel about that name and her connection to Oromë? I don’t think she ever actually joined his Hunt like Celegorm did; why is that? Did Celegorm discourage because he’d adopted his father’s anti-Valar sentiment and left the Hunt? Did she just get involved too late, and then the Darkening happened? How do her and Celegorm’s relationships with their patron Vala differ in Beleriand? I think they were both Kinslayers at Alqualondë, but Celegorm is bound by the Oath and Aredhel isn’t - how does that affect things? Can Aredhel and Maeglin’s presence change how Finrod’s demise goes down? All sorts of fascinating things you could explore!

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Misc. Silm Request

Cuiviénen tags: Original Awakened Elf of Cuiviénen (Silm) Suggested worldbuilding tags: In-universe Origins of LaCE, LaCE as a Horror Concept, LaCE as a social construct, LaCE-compliant soulbonding, Non-romantic/sexual Soul Bonds

I’d love to see an exploration of how LaCE came to be, which parts of the rules around marriage and children and re-embodiment are social constructs and which are innate to the fëa and hröa, and/or relationships that defy the norms. If your take on the laws is hetero/cisnormative, how does that affect queer elves? If your take is free of bigotry, what are the flexibilities around queerness, including asexuality and aromanticism? Laws and customs and rules always have loopholes and exceptions, so what do elves who don’t fit into the expected relationship mold do about these norms?

How do soul bonds work on a metaphysical level? Can they be broken? Do they have to be nurtured and maintained? What’s long-distance communication like? Heck, what’s short-distance communication like, is it like talking in your mind or sharing your feelings or more abstract than that? Can elves form soul bonds with mortals? And most importantly—how did elves figure out they could soul bond with one another?? I can imagine that would be quite a shock when they’re discovering sex and then suddenly they’re inside each other’s minds! This could easily be tied into the “LaCE as Horror” tag; especially if the characters were not expecting it or the bond was being abused. (If you do decide to explore abuse, I would prefer you use OCs rather than canon characters, unless you want to write Eöl abusing Aredhel or Sauron abusing Celebrimbor. In any case, please be careful with that kind of relationship, I am quite sensitive to abuse in fiction even if I am interested in this subject.)

For non-romantic and/or non-sexual soul bonds: Explore sibling bonds, twin bonds, parent-child bonds, queerplatonic bonds, found family bonds, adoption bonds, the bond between a Vala and their Maia…any kind of soul bond that is familial or platonic or chosen without regard to romance! (Feel free to take a canon romantic relationship and turn it queerplatonic, I live for that shit!) How are these bonds formed outside of sex? What are the rituals and ceremonies around forming them? Is it a public or private thing? Are non-romantic soul bonds taken seriously, or are they seen as less important than marriage bonds? Since elven parents literally give part of their soul in the creation of the child, is that parent-child bond innate? What are traditions around elven adoption? Are there soul bonds created between the adoptive parents and children? Was adoption even a thing in Aman, or is it only practiced in Middle-earth? Did elves adopt mortals and vice versa? Is adoption extended to found family other than a parent-child situation? How is adoption viewed by elvish society, especially if inheritance/succession is a concern?

Turgoldo tags: Group: Finrod/Turgon, Group: Mariners send by Turgon to Aman Suggested worldbuilding tags: Songs of Power

This is my rarepair to end all rarepairs tbh. I honestly don’t know why these two are not shipped more! I am desperate for any and all content with them, I am not picky at all, I just love them.

Fun times in Aman before things get dark and serious would be lovely, I think in that context their relationship would be more casual (or at least they’re trying to make it casual and that leads to hurt feelings). I’d rather not focus on their relationships with their canon love interests, mostly because I’m not a fan of stories about jealousy (also because I see both Finrod and Amarië as gay and together mostly for convenience’s sake AND/OR they’re in a queerplatonic relationship, not a romantic/sexual one), but I do ship Elenwë/Amarië so those two having some sort of polyamorous arrangement with Finrod and Turgon could be fun. But feel free to just ignore any of that and depict Finrod and Turgon together without their respective ladies!

If you go into Beleriand times, I like: Turgon grieving Elenwë and finding solace with Finrod; whatever went down that night by the river they never wanted to talk about again; helping each other build their hidden kingdoms; Finrod sneaking into Gondolin maybe??; repressed Turgon being angsty about discovering his bisexuality and Finrod either helping him or making things more complicated; Finrod missing Turgon and trying to distract himself in Nargothrond (maybe in combination with another Finrod ship? honestly I ship Finrod with any dude that moves, feel free to put your own spin on his relationships, though I would prefer a focus on Turgon/Finrod for this request). Post-reembodiment scenarios would also be great.

Or maybe you want to do an AU with them! Supernatural creatures? Some other fantasy setting? A space opera? Honestly the only AU I wouldn’t be interested in is a modern AU, I’m very picky with my Silm Modern AUs. Honestly like I said earlier, I would love ANY content with Finrod and Turgon, you’d make me very happy if you depicted them together!! Feel free to ignore any of the stuff I said if you’ve got a better idea!!

Regarding the mariners sent to Aman: maybe Turgon is trying to pass a message along to a re-embodied Finrod along with the general cry for help to the Valar? And for “Songs of Power” I was thinking about Finrod’s rap battle with Sauron, and if there was any precedent for him being musically/magically powerful before then that Turgon could have witnessed.

Misc. worldbuilding tags: HoME/UT backstories and events that contradict the Silm, Dragons hunted for their leather, Ossiriand and the Laiquendi

I love incorporating other drafts of stories into the “main” version of the Silm! Please feel free to tweak early concepts to fit the later Legendarium, and definitely explain yourself in the author’s notes, I love that shit.

I can totally see dragons or adventurous Avari hunting dragons for their hides. You could also maybe explore this with the corpse of Smaug in the Long Lake; dwarves harvesting scales as a precious resource, or something?

In writing my recent Tauriel longfic I came to love the Laiquendi of Ossiriand. I’d love to see a nuanced exploration of their cultures - who were their leaders after Denethor? Were they really all nonviolent, or did some fight in self-defense or choose to join the Union of Maedhros? What was their relationship with the Fëanorians, both before and after the Nírnaeth? Do they consider themselves Avari? Do other elves consider them Avari?

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Númenor Request

Early Númenor tags: Group: Elros/Elros's Wife (Silm)

Idk, I just think they’re cute. I have an OC for Elros’ wife that I love, and it would be awesome if you wrote something with her! Or you can use your own OC, whatever you’d like :)

Late Númenor tags: Group: Amandil & Ar-Pharazon & Tar-Míriel, Group: Inzilbêth & Tar-Míriel, Group: Míriel & Tar-Míriel, Group: Elwing & Tar-Míriel Suggested worldbuilding tags: Númenórean Settlements in Middle-earth, Peredhil Heritage in Numenor’s art & culture (Silm)

Amandil, Pharazôn, and Míriel’s childhood friendship is really interesting to me (especially if you throw in Elentír as well!). Would love to see how that dynamic changes over time, Pharazôn’s time conquering in Middle-earth, and their varying opinions about their heritage as the descendants of peredhil. I’m not really interested in portrayals of Pharazôn and Míriel’s relationship as healthy or even consensual; I’d rather you didn’t dwell too much on the abusive aspect, but even when I incorporate the story of Elentír I like to preserve the narrative present in the Silm where Pharazôn takes Míriel to wife against her will.

I never really thought much about Inzilbêth and Míriel, but now I definitely am! How does Míriel feel about her faithful grandmother? I see Míriel as not particularly faithful in the Valar, not like her father, but more politically against the King’s Men; does Inzilbêth try to instill faith into her granddaughter like she did her son?

I’m not sure how Míriel Þerindë or Elwing would interact with Tar-Míriel (perhaps Míriel Þerindë weaves her story? or they meet in Mandos before Tar-Míriel leaves to receive the Gift of Men? - maybe Elwing watches over her descendants from Eärendil’s ship, or flies to visit Númenor before its fall?) but I’m now interested in how that might happen, and what kinds of advice they would pass on to her. Also, if you go with Tar-Míriel and Míriel Þerindë, I’d love to see a silver-haired Tar-Míriel to mirror Þerindë! (also, “fairer than silver or ivory or pearls” makes a great image for a silver-haired Tar-Míriel)

Tar-Silmariën AU tags: Worldbuilding: Silmariën Becomes Queen of Númenor AU

GOSH everything would have been SO different if she had been able to rule! Would her descendants have been corrupted like her brother’s? Would Aldarion and Erendis’ marriage end so badly if he didn’t have the pressure of kingship? If the roles in the Amandil-Pharazôn-Míriel dynamic were reversed, how would that change things? Would Sauron get involved? There are SO many directions you could take this, I’d love to see any of them!

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Alright, that’s the end of my prompts/requests! Thanks for reading this far, and whatever you end up writing for me I am super excited to read it!! And if you have questions or ideas or something, my askbox is open and I have anon messages on, I’d love to talk! Thank you again for creating for me, you are the best! <3

#is21 #exchange letter

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zachwritesstuff · 6 years

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Digimon Adventure Tri: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

I’ve been a fan of Digimon ever since I was 11, back in 2001. Though I’ve had a rocky relationship with it, I’ve always admitted myself as a fan of those weird little monsters and their wacky adventures.

It’s why I was so excited by the announcement of Digimon Adventure Tri. One of my favorite seasons was, of course, the first, and I was excited to see what they could do with these characters in a more modern setting, with them a bit older and tastes and themes in anime having changed since the heyday of the monster partner genre. Heck, I was even excited by the rumors (that ended up being true) that the season 2 characters would have very little involvement in the plot. I had long stated that Season 2 was my least favorite season, so that felt like the icing on the cake for a great show.

Having recently finished the last movie, and hearing the news of more on the way, I have to say that my view on this revitalization experiment is not as shiny and bright. While I will say it was an interesting thing to watch, especially after such a long time, it was hard to say if it was good or not. So I’m going to go over some positive and negative aspects I found over the several years it took for this entire series to come out.

By the way, as this will be talking about this series as a whole, there will be spoilers

The Good

1. It was good to see them again

Let’s get that out of the way real quick. Despite overall problems I had with this series, I will admit that the fanboy in me did really like seeing new material with these characters I loved as a kid. Hell, I even kind of enjoyed their appearances in Digimon Xros Wars, even if that was the most pure pandering of all time.

I also liked their updated look, even though it was a bit controversial that they moved away from the classic big head/hands/feet look from the old shows. It helped deliver the message that they were maturing and would be presenting a different kind of story from the original. But with the original voice actors of the Digimon returning to join a brand new cast, it at also said that it wasn’t going to stray too far from the original. Different but not too different. It could work… Right?

But while we’re talking about the characters, let’s talk about…

2. Character Growth

With the maturing characters, they couldn’t really be the same precocious children anymore. It would seem weird to have this people in their teens acting like 10-12 year olds still. So they had to grow up in some way, and to the credit of the writer’s, much of it felt very sensible.

I think the strongest among them is probably Tai. It makes the most sense, as he is the main character. Whereas he was formerly headstrong and first to enter action before, by Tri, he had become more level headed and questioned his motivation a lot more. This made the series a bit more interesting, as it helped give depth to his decisions and not make it as cliche and repetitive that Digimon tended to be sometimes.

Along with Tai, characters like Izzy, Joe, Mimi and Sora also expanded emotionally, though theirs is a little less obvious. Izzy and Joe are shown to be studying and working in their fields a lot more heavily, while Sora is opening up more and Mimi is becoming more of a headstrong leading type. Unfortunately, since Digimon has always had problems with letting specific characters shines, their character advancement didn’t get much notice, and they weren’t given much room to stretch. Because of this, we only got bits and pieces of who they had become after a few years of development.

The ones that came off the worst of the original crew were probably Matt, TK and Kari. Not to say that they didn’t also advance a bit, but they probably had the least of all. Matt still was cool, and was just now older and cooler. TK seemed like he was supposed to be an auxiliary leader of the group, but with Tai and Matt taking most of the leadership positions, he was left with nothing much to do. And Kari, well… I think she said maybe 20 words in the first couple of movies, and mostly stood around and smiled. For a long time, it seemed like she would get no development, but she did finally get some storylines after what felt like forever. Which leads me to my next point…

3. Kari’s Importance

Kari has always been my favorite character of the Digimon series. She came during my favorite arc of the original season, and her character felt a bit different from the other known female characters, who were the archetype Girly Girl and Tomboy. She had weaknesses in her often recurring sickness (always unnamed), but it was soon revealed that she had a deeper connection to the plot, and possibly even revealing a much more perplexing story behind the Digital World and what it might hide.

Then… Nothing happened after season 1. They hinted at her connection to the Digital World during Season 2, including the introduction of the Dark Ocean involving her, but through the rest of the series, she just ends up being fodder for Davis’ crush and generally just being Another Character.

That’s why I was glad to see them actually touch on it. They didn’t go too deeply, but they showed that not only did she have a much stronger tie with the Digital World and Digimon, but she also might be able to go beyond, to communicate with Digmon in limbo and help those that might need help. I really do hope that they continue to dive into it and bring her whole deal to a head in future material. And speaking of future…

The Bad

1. Season 2’s Epilogue

This is honestly a little hard for me to think about, and it won’t be the only time in this article I talk about it. So let’s get it out of the way: I, like pretty much every fan in the Digimon fandom, hate the final Epilogue scene to season 2. It made no sense, it gave random jobs to people that didn’t fit their personality, and basically threw an active grenade into the whole shipping side of the show, making that a basically banned subject if you talk to any fan of the series. So when, at first, it seemed like it was going to retcon all of the epilogue, I was over the moon.

But just like epilogue itself, they give hints to it at the very, very end of the last movie. They talk about Matt’s desire for space, TK is now writing journals of his adventures and Tai’s change in career focus. Despite everything fans have said about it, they are going to stick to their guns, and justify the dumb as hell ending they made.

And you know what? I can respect that. They introduced that bit of canon, and for better or worse, they’re going to stick to it. They’re going to try as hard as they can to try and make sense of what was set forth for these kids future, even if it does seem like an impossible task. A really impossible task, to be perfectly honest…

Okay but seriously, they really wanted to try to justify this? It’s basically like badly written fanfiction. Everyone in the world has a Digimon, Matt is an astronaut, Davis has a ramen stand, Mimi has a cooking show, it feels like a madlib. Even the little hints they put in at the end of Digimon Tri felt like more like a mandate than an actual attempt to be inclusive to the original canon.

And if we are going to talk about the consistency, than you have to really wonder about the things they now have to retcon INTO the epilogue. Namely, Mei, and this whole Digimon shadow government organization. Where do they factor into this idealistic future? Sorry, I’m ranting a bit, but it felt like a big misstep that they could have easily written out with little argument, and yet they felt the need to include it. Hell, they didn’t even physically show the characters of Season 2, and yet they still feel the need to bring back the worst part of that season? It’s just dumb, though to be completely fair, that might just be my own disdain coloring my thoughts.

To be fair, it can work, and I would even be okay with them going in the middle almost, keeping some of the general ideas from the epilogue, but coloring them in a more realistic fashion. I think the big problem myself and many people had with it was how it was presented. It was basically bullet points that were presented without any context. If they do decide to delve deeper, I’m hoping that at the very least, they try to connect it to their characters and modernize it a little bit (I.E. making Mimi more of a media mogul than just a Cooking Show host, make Davis more of an entrepreneur than just a guy with a Ramen Cart). I don’t like it, but if it must be there, at least make it sensible, right?

2. Season 2 characters

So as you can probably infer from above, I don’t hold the second season of Digimon Adventure in the highest regard. The characters are no exception. But Jesus Christ, not even I would have treated them as piss poor as Digimon Tri did. Not only did they not even appear as actual characters, they didn’t even bother to update their appearances! I went and looked back at the scene, and as noted in the appearance section of their wiki entries, their silhouettes are basically just wearing clothes they wore in the past (It’s even noted that Davis is wearing his square goggles from the pilot of Digimon 02). They are then barely mentioned until the last two movies, where they are simply props to fuel how evil and twisted the villain is. Never once are they seen as more than shadowy figures, and the fact that they even lived at the end is a couple of lines in the last five minutes.

Now while I don’t love these guys, I do think that this series of movies was their chance to do SOMETHING with them. Either delve into their characters deeper and separate them from the carbon copies of S1 characters, like they were, or turn into the skid and really have fun with people’s perception of them,much like how Dragon Ball Kai and Super did with Yamcha. They could have really done some cool things with this group, but instead, they basically act like they don’t exist until they’re needed as objects to further the plot

Hell, from here, they could even introduce an interesting plot, on how they were literally gone for weeks, maybe months, yet none of the main 8 characters seemed to care that they were near death somewhere in the Digital World. That could make for an interesting dynamic between them, and even play into a meta competition between Season 1 and Season 2. But, deep down, I know that all of those ideas are just fever dreams, and most likely, any further material will continue to leave them in the background.

3. Some Adult Situations May Apply

When I was told that the Director of these films also directed School Days and one of the Persona 3 films, it was one of the least surprising thing I had ever heard. For a series who’s whole deal is being a “kids with monster friends” show, it does not feel like it was made for that demographic at all!

I can understand wanting to gear it towards an older audience. It makes perfect sense, actually. The people who grew up with the original Digimon Adventure were now adults, so wanting to make something for their sensibilities seems like the most obvious decision. No problem at all!

But it really is only good on paper. Looking at the history of kid focused shows being transitioned to older focused shows paints a rather different, and more ugly, picture. You get the likes of Ren & Stimpy’s Adult Party Cartoon, or more recently, the absolutely atrocious showing of DC’s Titans, based on the popular Teen Titans series (note: as of this writing, only the first preview has come out, so there is still time to save it, even if it looks unlikely). True, there have been some good shows made from kids properties, like Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast and Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law, but it comes with the caveat of those shows having nothing to do with what they were originally based on.

On the subject of Digimon, it seemed like they were less interested in making a Digimon movie and more interested in making a Persona movie, even down to the final monster being a giant nude angel beast who’s butt is prominently featured on most of it’s shots. Add in the scenes of Tai heavily injured and covered in blood, and multiple characters either dying or going mad with grief, and you basically have the David Lynch student film that is Digimon Tri.

I think the biggest question is… Why? There was absolutely no need to get this grimdark with it. The people who grew up with Digimon enjoyed it for it’s values in friendship and teamwork, in the world building of this fascinating patchwork world, and in these characters growing up and learning. And especially in an age where streaming services allow for modern audiences to go back and watch the original whenever they want, it seems weirdly outdated to think that they would need to make it more “cool and mature” for the original fans.

I could go on and on about this, but really, I’m just hoping they learn that changing the tone of the story is not necessary. We love the characters, and we want to see them grow and prosper, not suffer needlessly.

The Ugly

1. The Grown Ups

Boy oh boy, was I not a fan of these two. Two government agents at the Incorporate Administrative Industry (I had to look it up because it’s barely mentioned by name), Maki and Daigo are the two exposition machines of this series of films. They try very, very hard to make these two likeable, but it just comes out completely flat and uninspired. Worse, their misguided development takes away screen time from more deserving characters, like Joe, Izzy, TK and Kari.

Their motivations seemed to just be “We’re the government and we gotta stop Digimon”, and they hint at a deeper motive for them. But the hints are extremely vague, to the point where it seems like they didn’t actually know what they were going to do with them in the first few movies. It wasn’t even until the second to last where we learned that, surprise, they’re two of the original Digidestined! And they’re trying to find their old Digimon! Or Something! I’m actually not sure at all…

Then you get to the last movie, and they’re just… removed. Maki is seen wandering off into the Dark Ocean, and Daigo makes a Heroic Sacrifice to save Tai and everyone else. It feels like it should be very deep and moving, but I found myself not caring much because there was never anything to really draw me into either of them. There were fun moments here and there, but never anything an audience could connect or relate to beyond “These two knew each other growing up and dated a little bit.” Though you can’t blame that all on just the general story....

2. The Movie Format, Animation, and the Big Bad(s?)

Pretty much every review of Digimon Adventure Tri has touched on this, so I won’t get too deep into it. Needless to say, releasing this story as 6 movies hurt it immensely. It caused the story, the character development, the tones, to all feel disjointed and hard to follow, especially with the long wait times between each of them. They were released over 4 damn years, and even as a diehard fan, I found myself struggling to even remember what happened in past installments.

Of course, part of their plan with having the big gaps was to continually renew interest, causing people to want to go back and rewatch the past movies, or purchase them when they came out on dvd/blu-ray. And this would have worked, if it weren’t for the fact that these movies aren’t, well… Really well made.

The animation wasn’t awful, let’s get that out of the way. But it was very inconsistent, and you can tell where corners were cut to save money. It’s no more obvious than in the opening, where half of it had fantastic animation, while the other half looked like a fan film made in Flash.

All the disjointedness and inconsistent flow didn’t help the antagonists of the films either. It became extremely hard to tell who was good and who was bad at times. Was it Meicoomon, who had this deadly virus in her that was going to destroy both worlds? Was it Homeostasis, who wants to reset the Digital World, effectively wiping everything out? Was it Dark Gennai and the who King Drasil group, who want to just cause chaos? I’m pretty sure ends up really being them, but it’s not really mentioned until after everything’s taken care of. And if King Drasil is really the Big Bad person he’s supposed to be, than why was he defeated off school, during a time skip? It’s hard to really figure out who the baddie is when most of the final movie is taken up by Ms. Big Butt Angel Demon.

Which brings me to my final, and biggest, problem with Digimon Adventure Tri.

3. Mei and Meicoomon

These two are a waste of space, and the perfect definition of a Whipping Boy type character. She is not introduced to be particularly strong or special. Her entire purpose seems to be to fulfill two things: To suffer in place of the main characters, and to be a love interest to Tai since Sora marries Matt in the future. She is shown to be meek and unassuming, not talking much and acting shy around other people. At first, things aren’t so bad. Her interactions with Mimi helping her come out of her shell starts to establish a good character arc for her, and it seems like she is organically going to become a part of the group. But then Meicoomon ruins the fun.

Meicoomon is her cat Digimon, based off the Maine Coon. 70% of Meicoomon’s dialogue is her yelling “Mei!” I would tell your more about Meicoomon’s character, but that is it. She exists, then she becomes evil and has to be defeated, while Mei cries for four movies over the fact that Meicoomon is evil. That’s basically the long and short of it. By the end of the second movie, Mei is catatonic, and Meicoomon is a glitch monster who is destroying everything. The end.

What makes it even worse is the fact that, even by Digimon’s standards, her story isn’t that original! It’s basically just a reworked version of Wallace/Willis and Kokomon from the Digimon Hurricane Touchdown movie (third section of Digimon: The Movie in America), of a kid who’s Digimon friend becomes corrupted, and they are forced to destroy them to stop them. The only difference being that Wallace had two Digimon, and his story was over in 1 movie, while Mei’s dragged on for six of them.

All in all, I think that there is still potential for some good Digimon productions, both for Adventure and other continuities. The films seemed to do alright in the limited box office run in Japan, and they were popular enough to warrant another movie being made (which was announced in the middle of writing this). I’m hoping that does better, but I also hope that it’s the final send off for these characters. Two seasons and a handful of movies is enough for them, let’s give another cast a shot!

Also I still hold out hope for a Digimon Tamers continuation. One can dream~

#digimon #digimon adventure tri #article #digimon tamers #tamers #tri

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sandalaris · 3 years

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Fanfic Tropes Asks: Amnesia, Past Fic, Sex Pollen, Historical AU and In Vino Veritas? 💖💖💖

Amnesia:

Probably not, no. I don’t really read amnesia fics either, they just don’t interest me enough *shrug*

That being said, very recently I was reading a book where two characters would sort of go into a mental trauma and face the memories and I remember thinking as I read it that it would be interesting if the character who’s trauma is was they were facing actually had no recollection of the time they spent together inside his memories afterwards, and how the story could’ve spun off from there. Especially considering the other person started off disliking the one who’s memories/trauma they were fighting and slowly came to understand them and develop a bond with them in part due to said memories. But that’s probably the closest I’ve ever come to thinking out an amnesia plot.

Past Fic:

Like a prequel? Or even just set before canon? They yeah, I’d probably write it. Not sure for which fandom or anything, but I’d be open to it. I probably wouldn’t do a “these two character secretly knew each other before the officially met on screen” sort of thing, unless I felt there was a strong hint to it in the show/book/movie. And I definitely wouldn’t write a “these two characters used to date before canon takes place and now they don’t” with my OTP. I like to get characters together and keep them that way :P

I wouldn’t mind doing a pre-canon AU though. I’ve thought about writing one for Community before, where things sort of veer off from canon before the show ever starts. I might still someday write it, although it’s a little dark. Mainly because a Jeff who stayed a lawyer would be an even bigger amoral asshole.

Unless you mean just sort of set a bit in the past, like toss modern day characters into the 1970′s. Then it depends on the fandom. I’d write it for FDtD for example, but not for Leverage.

Sex Pollen:

I love to read it, but I’ve never written it. I would though, if I got the inspiration for it. For just about any ship I have, I’d write something where something magic/tech/science/paranormal causes my OTP to sleep together, but I would probably have more fun diving into the aftermath. I may or may not write the actual exposure and reactions, which may or may not include the characters actually sleeping together (maybe someone else got involved and separated them until the effects wore off but not before some confessions/realizations happened, especially if only one person was really affected and the other is now needs to work out what to do with their new found knowledge/realization, or maybe I’d still with traditional and the just have sex), but I would for sure write the aftermath of “now what?”

I feel like it would play out better with some ships than others though. (These are subject to change with more thought about characterization and such)

Kastle would work really well, particularly for a longer fic: Frank would try to sweep it under the rug, see it as something that was done to them and try and destroy the people/company that made the drug/serum/whatever that caused it. Karen would want to actually take the time to talk about the emotional implications and what this means, she’s by far the more emotionally aware of the two. Frank would continue to deflect and avoid, all while referring to it as some attack inflicted upon them, which would hurt Karen to hear because even if it was by no means a good thing or something she wishes to be exposed to again, she wouldn’t say the two them sleeping together is this bad horrible no-good very bad thing either. This would go on until things got back to the status quo... almost, because Karen can’t and won’t let this go completely. She will let him retreat and hide behind his “mission” but they are going to come back to this.

SethKate would be kind of a middle ground: Depending on when it happened, Kate would probably have some kind of a freak out. She probably won’t actually want to talk about it, she doesn’t often want to talk about her own issues/trauma in the show, avoiding them or mentioning things only when comparing to other people’s. Like how she only tells Seth about her dad when pointing out that he’s not only one to have lost family in the Twister. I wouldn’t go so far as to say she’d want to avoid the subject, but she probably wouldn’t be initiating any conversations about it either. Seth wouldn’t necessarily want to have some big discussion, but depending on when it happened he would either want answers about what this means for them (particularly if they’ve been working towards something) and therefore try and bring it up, think its somehow his fault and that Kate must be mad/blame him/hate him, have is his various issues be stirred up and need to be talked down, or some combination of those. Reassurance would need to be given on both sides, but eventually they’d work through it.

Jeff/Annie would be a bad choice as sleeping together would not be enough to change the pattern they have going on. *sigh* I swear.

Bethyl would be a good one-shot choice. Daryl would silently freak out, but Beth would take charge after, which would be a good thing as she’d need to feel in control again, and Daryl would need to feel like someone he trusts is taking the reins. Beth would talk and Daryl would listen and they’d come out closer in the end.

Historical AU:

I would love to! I also don’t think I could do one justice because I feel like I’d fail to do enough/proper research. :/ I’m just not very good with history, its never been my strong suit. But i would seriously love to write one some day. There are so many ways to go with it too, too many different ways to take it, so many fandoms it would work with.

In Vino Veritas:

Maybe? Drunken confession are always fun, but I’m not sure what fandom I’d write it for. I suppose Seth, high off pain killers after a job gone wrong, saying something to Kate would be fun to explore. She knew he liked her, but Seth’s typically shows his affection over telling it. So having him muttering happily about her various aspects, mostly flattering (her hands are not that small!), and what he wants, well, it cleared up more than a few questions. Or maybe Richie, who didn’t realize that particular herb had a drunken affect on culebras, suddenly demanding to know when Kate’s gonna make an honest man out of his brother, because it’s been painful watching them, sparks a conversation between her and Seth. Or maybe I’d go a different way, and Freddie has to listen to a drunken Dakota go off about how much she hates that she can’t get justice for her dad and this culebra shit is just insane, he does realize that right? And working with them? That’s just- just, she didn’t sign up for it. And Richie! She definitely didn’t sign up for Richie and his broad chest and his stupidly hot face, and she hasn’t gotten laid in like six months-

Freddie, desperately pulling out his wallet and signaling to the bartender: OK, I think that’s enough for now.

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littlelegend · 6 years

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Imprisoned (Lord Wander AU)

I`ve wrote a fic in Russian and thought: “Heyy, if I am gonna be a translator shouldn`t I try to translate it in English?” So here it is.

In space it is hard to understand when the day comes and when the night comes. On different planets transitions occur at different times. Everything is possible in space. There is a place for everyone. Even for the absolute opposites.

Sylvia walked down the corridor of a huge black ship with ling glowing lines on it, which were alternately changing their color from blue to red and backwards. Some idiots dropped lavium in the icy power center and managed to escape. Zbornak angrily clenched her fists in a heavy iron gloves: these suiciders should beware. She is going to show what it means to step against the greatest villain in the world. But time is running out. Adjusting her black cloak with a skarlet star saped clasp, Sylvia rushed to the "throne room" where her Lord was waiting for her.

When she approached the sliding doors, Sylvia checked herself up one last time and went inside. She was met with a grave silence. Ice guards stood in lines on the both sides of the path leading from the door to the opposite end of the hall. Silent, subject only to the direct order of Sylvia or her master, they were the best helpers for destruction of the galaxy. Sylvia went forward to the ledder which was ending at the foot of the throne, there she stood, stretched out at attention: - Commander Sylvia arrived at your direction, sir!

Creature, which was imposingly lounging on the throne, lazily turned his head and, smiling viciously, sat straight. Tall, with orange fur, pinkish proteins on the background of blood-red eyes, with his horned helmet and murderous smile, Lord Wander earned fame as the most evil villain in the galaxy. But sometimes he behaved like the most spoiled teenager in the world. Like now: Wander rushed down the ledder jumping childishly and stopped right in front of Sylvia: - Good morning, my commander. How did you sleep?

- Great, sir! - cheerfully but inwardly tensed reported zbornak. No one knew what to expect from her Lord. He has been feared becouse of his unpredictability.

- You slept... And, therefore, never found out who dared to throw lavium in the power center of our ship?! - screamed Wander.

- No, sir! - Sylvia calmly looked forward, never taking his eyes from steps which were directly in front of her face. - But I know who might be involved.

- Oh, really? - Lord bloodthirstily rubbed his hands in yellow gloves. - Who is it? Zbornak sighed to herself: -It is Domi, sir. Domi the helper.

- WHOOOOO?!!!!! - roared the villian like a wounded beast. - This goody little girl again? Did she do it?!

Sylvia allowed herself to chuckle: - Of course not, sir. This child is too kind and naïve for such. But she's a witness.

- Really? - Wander calmed down in a moment. - All right then. I'll interrogate her. Where is this rant?

- We are actively searching for her, sir! - zbornak closed her eyes in anticipation of the next flash of anger, but...

- Well, go on, - villain turned his back to her and began to ascend to his throne, his long black cloak waving majestically behind, totally oblivious to the complete lack of wind.

- Erm... Sir? - Sylvia hesitated. - What do we do with the prisoners?

- Prisoners? - Wander turned around.

- Yes, sir. King Peepers and his assistant, Hater, sir. We captured them on the ship the day after the incident, sir.

- Um... We should talk to them...- Lord sat down on his throne. - You can take over that faint Peepers. And I'll have fun with his assistant, - he grinned, exposing his dagger - shaped teeth.

- Yes, sir! - Sylvia's lips instinctively spread into a smile: it`s time for fun.

In the meantime, Peepers was sitting in his cell - room, which had no windows or doors. He tried to calm down and somehow come up with a plan. Mostly, his head was busy thinking about how much he hates Lord Wonder (What kind of name is Wander anyway? Yeah, sure, he's going around the galaxy... With the aim to destroy it!), the commander of his army, zbornak Sylvia (Tearing him and Hater apart and taking away his high-tech super-weapons! How does this horse even dare!) and those stupid bots that they control.

Peepers sighed and leaned back against the wall: he is the king of watchdogs, space explorers. This was evidenced by his helmet, decorated with a gold crown. For many years they lived quietly, peacefully, due to its cohesion, loyalty to their ruler and consultant Hater, assistant of Peepers. Hater though looked creepy himself (high skeleton, who could shoot green lightnings), was a good and kind adviser. He treated watchdogs with care and always kept them safe.

But for some strange reason Lord Wander didn`t like the presence of the watchdog army, so he was bothering Peepers and Hater using every opportunity. That`s why they decided to stop him with Lavonium, invented by Dr. Jones, who owed something to Hater a long time ago. But the strategy, so carefully thought out and planned by them, failed because of two problems: big and small. Or rather, Vice versa. At first there was a Wanderer Domi with her incredibly annoying and useless desire to help, which only prevented the case. And then it turned out that the hated Lord Wonder now appears to have lava powers!

Peepers furiously banged his fist on the wall, but only repulsed his hand: - Flarping villain!...

The king had not managed to finish: the wall he just hit, spread, opening a small passage through which stepped wanderer Domi, dressed, as usual, in a black dress and a green hat with a golden heart. Behind her nervously stood the bot which previously belonged to Lord Wonder no one knew how did she managed to win him over to their side. Peepers did not believe in the ramblings of "the power of friendship and love", which the girl tirelessly insisted on. Most likely he was the one who opened the passage.

- Hey, Peeps! - happily exclaimed the Wanderer. - I wanted to visit you inhere!

- Yes, yes, fine, - Peepers slipped past Domi, escaping her embrace. - I need to find Hater...

- Oh! Oh! - the wanderer jumped happily. - You play hide and seek? I want in too.

- Yeah... Hide-and-seek... - thoughtfully held out Peepers. - You're right. I need to find him before the time runs out. Will you help me?

- Help?! - Domi was on the ninth cloud. - Of course I'll help! I just love to help!!!

- Perfect! - the king narrowed his your single eye.

"This bot can be very useful to me..." - he thought, and aloud he said: - Just be quiet. You don't want him to see us and run away, do you?

- Exactly, exactly! Oops! - Domi came to her senses and made a hand sign, as if she fastened his mouth on the zipper and threw away the key.

- Well, - nodded Peepers and after looking around in search of enemy bots they rushed down the corridor.

Hater was hanging in a torture cell. Not the most pleasant place. Although, not to say that it was particularly different from the other rooms on Wanderer`s ship. There were a couple of iron things, like weapons, and few skeletons of various creatures (Hater hung right between the humanoid and the skeleton of a shorty with a tail. Ha ha.) and a whole collection of handcuffs and ropes hanging on a separate board. His hands, shackled were tightly attached to the wall so that he could not shoot his lightnings. Smart move, nothing to say... Hater sighed: Peepers had the idea to climb on the ship Wander`s, to see how strong he is now. Strong, nothing to say! On the first turn stumbled on a patrol. The result is obvious. Divided into chambers and chained to the wall. Sylvia has always been reasonable, you can`t take that from the commander of the entire army.

The wall in front of the Hayter parted, but he did not raise his head, only saw the black polished boots with pointed toes that only one person wore...

- Well, Hello, Hateeeeeer! - merrily sang Lord Wander, approaching the skeleton and looking him in the face: -How do you like here? Chains aren`t too tight?

Hater watched a villain in silence, while he continued his monologue, walking around the cell: - You snuck onto my ship... The question is, why? I didn't send you invitations... Probably brought you here by your new mentee, didn't you, Hatie? - Lord's eyes sparkled

with madness. - Aren`t you tired of watching over all these little things? There's so much we can do if we unite!!! - from such bright prospects Wander spun around.

- And then I'll forgive you that Lavinium... Yes, - he noted a quizzical Hater`s look. - I know it was you. Recently learned. Lady Sylvia checked lavonium on the database and brought us to this sad Dr. Jones. He already confessed to us in all things!

Hater violently lunged forward, the chains rattled plaintively, but did not succumb to his pressure: - What have you done with him?!

-Absolutely nothing at all! - Wander danced a bit closer to him. - Just had a little fun in his lab.

- Bastard, - said the prisoner through his teeth.

- Yes, I am, - proudly replied villain. - Well, what about my offer?

-Denied.

- Very-very sorry - an unhealthy chuckled the Lord. - Then, perhaps, we should ask Syl what have she done with the one-eyed snot.

- Don't you dare touch Peepers!

- Or what? Will you stare me to death?- laughed the villain, but his laughter was interrupted by the alarm, which with Sylvia`s voice informed the ship about the escaped convict. Wander angrily clenched his fists and walked out of the chamber promising a long and painful death to all offenders.

Hater, sagging limply in chains, allowed himself to smile: Peepers escaped, so there is still hope.

Sylvia enraged rushed through the winding corridors of the ship. Her eyes blazed a searing crimson, comb spines sticking out in all directions, his mouth was foaming, and his skin turned into a sort of shell. She was followed by a group of bots. Peepers nervously started: if this mad zbornak notices him now nothing will be left of him, even the crown. But the dangerous procession had passed and the watchdog was relieved. Behind him cheerful smiled Domi, sitting on the bot, which she simply called Bi. Oddly enough, Bi had an opinion on his own and always tried to protect his little friend. They found the place where the blaster has been kept using the help of robot. Then they started to move towards the possible place of Haters detention. Wander's ship could struck by the monotony and gloominess of the surroundings. This fact made the company rush, and soon the bot stopped in front of the next wall, looking at Peepers in wait. He nodded, pleased that at least someone here is interested in his opinion. Bi touched the wall, and it have opened, revealing Hater, dangling limply on chains. The king rushed to his aide and, noticing the grateful smile on skeleton`s face raised to greet the rescuers, smashed the chains with his blaster. watchdogs were taught how to use weapons in their childhood, so Peepers didn`t even touch Hater while unchaining him.

Than it was just a matter of technique. Hater, who did not like to rely on always giggling Domi, smashed the wall of his cell and opened a passage into space. Peepers lent from Bi a bottle of orbble juice and was ready to wrap everyone into a bubble, when angry Sylvia have burst into the room. Fortunately, she was too far away to even reach them, so all four escaped from the ship safely.

A few hours later, Sylvia stood in front of her Lord's formidable gaze. Zbornak was expecting a punishment for losing wanderer with a traitor bot and the prisoners. But the Wander was not even moving. He just dreamily stared upwards, absently muttering something. And nobody, not even his commander, could hear his quiet words, full of a strange sadness and longing: - We'll meet again, my friend, Hatey. See you later...

#wander over yonder #wander over yonder AU #AU #wander #sylvia the zbornak #lord hater #commander peepers #dominator #FINALLY IT`S OVER #end me #my fanfiction #there`s gonna be more #I just have to torture myself

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