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historia-vitae-magistras · 5 months

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I'm curious on your take on the Ratman and ratlings' relationship with animals. Do you think they'd keep any and risk becoming attached? I feel this would outwardly effect Jack the most considering his love for all the weird shit they got in Australia but I think Arthur is also the type to be really hurt by the loss of a pet. But in a dad way. Like he'll begrudgingly take in the fucking cat one of his kids brings to his home out of the rain and the animal ends up being his partner in crime. He's stone-faced when it passes away and it takes a while for the pain to subside but he doesn't let it show for even a second. I don't imagine Matthew could handle the mental load of losing a beloved pet. Alfred is too fucking busy to properly care for one. Zee probably has a few birds whose babies she cares for for generations maybe a kiwi lol

TW for pet death

Alfred has had horses his entire life. He's got a ranch in his name somewhere where the descendants of the pair of horses, Liberty and Justice, that Matt gave him during the Civil War live. Justice got shot out from under him in 1864 but he went full Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie, dropped dead of idk, the shits and when he was feeling better Liberty was getting her hump on with a local stallion so he just made a ranch there and their descendants still fuck amongst the grasses or however the prairies work. Liberty is immortal because fuck I already killed one horse this post and I'm already emotional.

Matt... He just kept trying. Nations have semi immortal pets. All he wanted was a goddamn friend. François gave him a lap dog when he was little. It died in its first Canadian winter as was often the fate of anything smaller than a terrier. He tried a newfie. It drowned. Finally, around the 1780s he had a little black and white working dog he named Sel et Poivre who lasted a decade. But eventually he got ripped up by a wolverine and Matt was damned to eternal loneliness until Arthur had mercy on him and got attached enough to the wee fat house lion he named Flufferton he didn't die. Matt's best friend for awhile and favourite heat source at his father's. Cue 1980 with Canada finally getting it's full independence and Jan dropping him like a hot rock and Alfred got him a Samoyed puppy in the aftermath. I've called this dog Kuma, Bud and Buckwheat before. The neighbor backs over him by accident! and Matt low-key has the worst mental breakdown of his life like he's 20 seconds from getting the axe and ending up in grippy sock jail. Then the pupper pops up licks him and Matt has the happiest sob fest for like a solid week. Finally! Immortal pupper. No more perishing.

Jack is a fun example because he's very in tune with the circle of lire and his favourite pet was a tortoise named Harriet he's had on and off since 1830 when she died in 2006. So when she finally died of natural causes he was absolutely fucking devastated. Didn't get out of bed for a week after the funeral, cried his eyes out every time he saw a turtle or tortoise for years. She was his baby since he was a baby. Closest thing to losing a childhood dog a nation can express. He had plenty of snakes and spiders and dogs that passed on and they made him sad but oh Harriet 😭.

Zee has a budgie named Pavlova that Jack got her when she finally dropped the family name. Just so she can say she owns Pavlova. It spent a week with Uncle Matt during hockey season and went back to Mum telling everyone, "Give your balls a tug, tit fucker" and making nondescript sobbing sounds. And the singular devotion with which New Zealand intervenes in its bird's well-being? Oh yeah, they're her children. Entire genomes of Kiwi-birds and Kakapo and Kea. She personally hunts rats that threaten their population like it's 1916, flashlight between her teeth, knife in one hand, Arthur sweating like mad somewhere. Bird watching is something she and the old man have in common so he probably does jokingly call them her grandchildren. Zee gets beat in the shin by a screaming kiwi-bird, and he just picks it up like, "Now that's no way to treat your mother, lad! Mind your manners." Before it toddles off and any on-looker is just pure, what the fuck.

#the ask box || probis pateo #arthur and the children || bilge rat and his bouncing baby bilge rats

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katy-l-wood · 3 months

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Are you willing to share your thoughts on the TV show Yellowjackets? I was into it for a bit, but haven't kept up and I love analysis, especially critical kinds because they're often the most interesting and I feel with your experiences you'll have some really cool angles on it. No pressure to answer if you'd rather not!

Sure! But with the caveat that I've only seen season 1, and it has been awhile. Also, I'm going to stick this under my "Disasters in Film" tag because, well, it's on theme even if we haven't specifically discussed Yellowjackets in class.

Now then!

I love the core concept of Yellowjackets. Girls' sports team has their plane crash in the woods and no one comes to get them, and it all goes sideways and falls into the horror genre more than just pure survival? A+ concept right there.

But I don't think a single writer on that show has ever been outside a single day in their lives.

It's just a suspension of disbelief issue for me. You've only got so many SoD points you can spend when you create something, and Yellowjackets is deep into the red. Hollywood has made it pretty easy to SoD things like everyone turning on one another, random murder, people being vicious to one another, etc. etc. even though studies have proven over and over and over again that people really don't behave like that in disasters. But you've still gotta spend some points on those things anyways, because deep down people DO know they're lies even if Hollywood likes to use them all the time.

So your core premise has already cost you some SoD points, but that's fine! You still have some to spend. But that number isn't infinite, and the more outlandish your details, the more points you're going to have to spend to pull them off. Yellowjackets just spent way too many. (A wolf ripping someone's face off and she's fine with zero actual medical care? Really?)

Now part of this, too, is the structure of Yellowjackets. It is a story told by jumping between timelines/flashbacks. It plays keep away with its audience. That is a structure you have to be VERY careful with or your audience is going to get annoyed with you and tune out. It can work when done right, but if you try and do it when you've already overspent your SoD points? You're gonna run into trouble. Plus, if you don't have a strong, solid plan for the whole timeline of your show across multiple seasons--a plan you will not change--it can fall apart in a heartbeat. It is not a structure that works for open ended projects of an unknown length.

A girls' sports team having their plane crash in the wilderness and getting stuck there IS conceivable--it's literally happened in real life with that soccer team. The girls struggling to survive and some of them dying IS conceivable--again, it has happened in real life. The girls growing up into adults that struggle with the aftereffects of that crash IS conceivable. The girls starting a weird little cult is starting to tread into the realm of "eh, maybe, but it does make for a great story so it's fine." Same for them finding a very helpful little cabin full of stuff. Could happen, but less likely. Then you get into the "wait, I don't think that would EVER happen?" stuff. Would a bear really just walk up, roar at you, and then you kill it with basically no real weapon? (Do you know how hard bears are to kill? Their skin is WEIRD.) Wolves ripping people's faces off. A convenient plane that later explodes.

At the end of the day, I think the show tried to do too much in too short of an amount of time to build up the believablity for the more outlandish things, and I think it's structure--and the fact that it doesn't seem to have a solid plan all the way through for its story--just made those things worse.

Now, not all of that is the show's fault! The way TV works these days--with shorter seasons and precarious chances of renewal--played a big role. I think Yellowjackets could've been a great 3 season show with each season getting 20-22 episodes. There would've been a lot more breathing room for the character arcs, especially given how many characters there are (and some of them are doubled given they survive to grow up and be adults). I think it also could've been helped a lot if they had some outdoors/survival consultants involved. The more realistic they made the survival elements, the more they could've gotten away with the weird horror elements because they wouldn't have wasted so many SoD points on things they didn't need to waste them on. Having a more realistic wolf attack (or, even better, a cougar attack) would not have changed the overall story. Having a more realistic struggle to find food would not have changed the overall story. Having a more realistic changing of the seasons would not have changed the overall story. Etc. Etc. Etc.

So yeah. Those are my thoughts on Yellowjackets! Coulda been great, but it got kneecapped in about five different ways.

#Disasters in Film

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twig-tea · 10 months

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The La Pluie finale had everything:

The Perfect Confession

Ok listen I am not one for nonconsensual public confession but know your audience, Tien is a perpetually invisible middle child who is not afraid of public attention and he is a film major, Lomfon making him a film to illustrate his feelings got me emotional, and him then also saying them out loud!! Because my boy learns from his own and others' mistakes, yesssss.

The Perfect Apology

I was so ready for Tai to suffer from the bed of his own making this episode, and I was not sure four days of searching was going to be enough. But that apology was PERFECT. He apologized first, he explained exactly what he did wrong, and he fixed it by saying his feelings aloud, finally! I was braced for the show to let him get away with not saying it, but he did. AND the show did us one better by giving us the explanation that he was parroting his parents' bullshit, which is such a real thing and it is difficult to catch yourself doing it, so the fact that he recognized it displayed his growth before the apology too. Just, all around this was so perfectly constructed and I was so pleased. Hell yes.

Surprise Sapphics

Listen, I am always here for more women loving women. Always. And LBR it's only a surprise that we actually got Dream and Nara confirmed because I know many of us were already shipping them.

Confirmation of Other Side Pairs

IDK if anyone else was rooting for the other vet techs than me, but they shared coffee so they're married in my head now I don't make the rules.

Best Brothers Being Best

Honestly Tien could have just said "unfuck it" to Tai again in that phone call and it would have rolled up to the same thing lol I really do love how their relationship was rock solid through this entire show, even when romance was potentially a threat. They have such a good sibling dynamic, one of the best I've seen in any show, and it makes me happy whenever Tien and Tai interact.

It also had a few things that I didn't love:

Awkward Logistics

This is maybe not a big deal because Tai is a writer but he works in a job that requires him to be in the office at least occasionally and Patts just started setting up a new vet clinic in Chiang Mai. Is Tai going to leave his friends and family to work remotely and live in Chiang Mai with Patts? Are they going to have to work out their relationship anew long distance? This is going to suck a little bit, and the adult in me could not help but notice and have it damper my joy. That being said, it was something Patts said he was thinking about for awhile so maybe it's something that would have come up anyway in future.

Patts Now Believes in Soulmates

Honestly, this was the biggest damper for me and I wish they hadn't included it (but maybe they had to for the sequel, IDK). Patts originally was willing to try with Nara because he didn't think the soulmate thing could dictate his emotions and he loved her, but she would not believe him. He also was willing to try with Tai before realizing that they were soulmates. And he told Tai that he would have wanted to try a relationship with him whether or not they were soulmates. So why now are we told that he suddenly thinks he can only love his soulmate for the rest of his life? This is not just anti-narrative, but anti-Patts' previous statements. I get that he was hurting and predisposed to be melodramatic in that moment, but it was a weird statement to include.

Bow's Throwaway Het Happy Ending

Not to be heterophobic but where is her cute Northern girlie who Tumblr convinced me she was dating? Bow deserves better imho

Tien's Turn for Drama

I KNEW this was going to happen! They spent too much time making it a big deal that Tai was the only sibling with hearing loss during rain. I just want my best boy to be happy for five minutes! Considering these characters, and what Tien's already said about what he would do if given this choice, I could see this plot being interesting. Especially because Tien had to suffer, now it's Lomfon's turn, maybe. But still, just let me have this cuteness for a little longer, show!

But all of that is relatively minor and honestly what we got was so good I can forgive and forget all of it.

TL; DR La Pluie stuck the landing and I could not be more pleased!

#la pluie #la pluie ep 12 #la pluie finale #the queers keep winning #i am pleased #la pluie spoilers #typed so i can stop thinking it

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elizabethplaid · 11 days

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Technically, I -AM- in bed!

Had a leisurely shower Friday afternoon, then spent the evening on the phone. Painted my nails a nice dusty blue; very flat and opaque, though still a glossy finish. (It doesn't shimmer like most make-up and nail polishes do. Just a solid color.)

My phone's already asleep for the night, so we've got a low-light, grainy webcam pic. This gray floppy bunny is not my usual snuggle partner, but it was exempt from the plaster dust awhile back. Just haven't gotten to cleaning up the stuffed animals since then. (Shake them out outside, brush their fur for the older ones.)

Mom and I got our floppy bunnies for easter sometime in the 1990s. Mine was white; hers was this gray one. It somewhat mirrored how my Gund Spanky bear is white (Since) and hers was brown (Gus). They're very floppy, with bean-pellets in the hindquarters but not in the limbs. I'm tempted to restuff at least one of 'em, sans pellets, to substitute for a body pillow.

Think I should look into how best to wash the loose polyester fluff. I've got Since's old stuffing still (planned to make a little stuffed heart with it later), and I suppose it could be reused if washed. There's human and pet dander on stuffed animals, along with whatever skin oils and drool might've seeped through the fabrics. (My old cat Gizmo used to nurse on Since when she was a kitten, back in the 1990s.) So I understand there's a health hazard; I certainly wouldn't stuff anything I intended to sell with this recycled stuffing. It's just... I don't wanna be wasteful if there's a somewhat simple solution.

My best guess would be to stick it in a zippered pillow case (which I have!) and then try to let it air dry, spread out on a table? For pellets, I will either sew pouches or use pantyhose material (those cheap trouser socks you can get, for less than $1 a pair) to help keep them from shifting within the plush body. I bet I could wash those with dawn dish soap and warm water, just by hand.

It takes me a long time before I get around to doing different projects. I may sound ambitious, but it's just the planning process. I have plenty of other projects to do before I get around to this. I mean, remember how long ago I washed Since? Like 2020ish? Yeah, still haven't actually brushed her fur, even though I bought a slicker brush specifically to use with plush. I also misplaced it, then kept forgetting. I mean... *gestures around* This is just me.

#daily notes #picture of me #plush #doll nerd #i already have 2 big floppy plush bunnies but the jellycat one is still a siren's call

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awww-brain-no · 6 years

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Prompt, if you want it: I've always envisioned Clint/Sam having met Darcy at some point during her childhood, and then taking awhile to recognize her as an adult? (or maybe she recognizes him but he doesn't remember her at first but eventually, but by then they've both spent just long enough pretending they've just met for it to be awkward to tell the truth)

I don’t even remember how old this prompt is, SORRY.

So with this one, I figure Clint and Darcy met when she was about 10 and he was 17ish, and still a carnie. Now, without further ado….

It had been six months, ten days, and five hours since Darcy met Clint Barton for the second time in her life. In the moment, she’d been too surprised to find out that the carnie sharpshooter she’d followed around the summer she was 10 and far too unsupervised had gone government lackey and then superhero. She’d meant to say something, but then her mulish preteen self caught up and she once again felt like she didn’t owe the wiseass with the stupidly pretty face an explanation. Most especially when the dork just kept tilting his head and squinting at her instead of actually asking why she seemed familiar.

After a while it just became too much fun. Jane, however, figured out something was up within a few days of them moving into the tower. She was quick like that and no above asking questions.

“How do you know that hawk guy?”

“Agent Barton?” Darcy clarified all innocence.

Jane waved her hand dismissively. “I’m avoiding all mentions of his former line of work to limit my annoyance over New Mexico and my desire to stab all involved. So hawk guy he shall be. But, I know you know something about him. You’ve got your shit-stirring smile on whenever he’s around and we haven’t been here long enough for you to get your mischief network established.”

Not bothering to hide it, Darcy leaned forward, said shit-stirring smile in place. “I knew him one summer when I was a kid and am waiting to see how long it takes him to remember.”

“Why not just tell him?”

“Because this way is more fun. Especially when he awkwardly lingers trying to place me. He may be just as much of a dork as I remember but the view has only improved with age.”

And he did linger, more and more. At first it was just him hanging around her conversations with others, tilting his good ear towards her to try and catch any details she’d let slip. But bit by bit he’d actually started talking to her himself, chatting about seemingly innocuous topics that were clearly unsubtle attempts to get her backstory while he lounged against her workspace in the lab or draped himself over the back of the couch she was sitting on. Jane rolled her eyes and muttered while she worked, but Darcy enjoyed every bit of it. Clint was just as funny and smart as she remembered, but while kid Darcy had just wanted a friend to hang out with when she was bored and stuck at her aunt’s for the summer, adult Darcy recognized how time had made him a bit more tempered. He was still an idiot and reckless as hell, sporting a fair share of bruises and butterfly bandages every time he was hanging around, but there was something more solid about him, a stronger core that made it so very obvious he was the honest goods and she’d be in trouble if he stuck around too much longer. But she wasn’t exactly shooing him or his amazing biceps any time soon.

But here she was, six months later, far too invested in a guy who was supposedly a top government agent but had yet to admit that he knew who she was. She was pretty sure he’d figured if out six weeks earlier, but he still hadn’t said anything. So, she’d had her mom ship out her old trinket box and had started wearing the gold arrowhead he’d put on a leather lanyard and given her. Admittedly, it was always tucked in her shirt, but it was still there, waiting for him to notice and mention.

“Are you trying to get him to check out your boobs?” Jane asked, once again, not about getting the answers to what was bothering her. “They’re amazing and all, but this seems like a rather roundabout way to either A) remind him who you are or B) get him to scope you out and do something more than keep finding excuses to talk to you.”

Darcy stopped fidgeting with her new jewelry to put it back under her shirt with ba shrug. “You already know I love things that are long and involved. Not to mention convoluted.”

“Just as long as you two finally figure out what long and involved things you like together and stop contaminating my lab with all this mooning and flirting.”

Darcy was half impressed Jane had actually said that with a straight face after what she’d caught the fair scientist up to with Thor on the lab bench the night before. She laughed and pointed at the piece of furniture in question while waggling her brows at Jane. “Pot calling kettle black much?”

Pleased with the blush she got, Darcy went back to her notes with a smile and began planning on how to speed things up a bit. She did love long and involved, but patience was becoming sorely overrated.

Two nights later, Clint walked into the communal kitchen right on schedule. The corn on the cob was piping hot, her playlist of hits from that summer 15 years earlier was on, the candy was in a bowl on the table, and she was ready to tease him into finally admitting he remembered her.

“Hey, Hawkeye. You have an amazing day today?”

He narrowed his eyes at the joke.

She’d thought it was hilarious when she was ten and had repeated it every time she saw him as a kid.

But he still didn’t bite.

“Hey, Darce. No more than usual.”

She hummed and grabbed the plate she’d piled the corn on and set it on the counter next to him.

“Corn?” When he narrowed his eyes even more, she just smiled.

Ever the cliche Iowa boy, he couldn’t turn down fresh, delicious corn, though. So he grabbed an ear, dressed it up as he wanted, and tucked in. She chose innocuous topics while he ate, easing him back into a comfortable back and forth before she offered his other favorite carnival snack from back in the day. “I also have some saltwater taffy if you want.”

This time he set down the now finished corn ear and folded his arms, leaning back against the counter with a small frown. “What’re you doing?”

She leaned against the opposite counter with a grin.”What do you mean?”

“The corn, the taffy, the music, the necklace. All of it.”

She couldn’t help her pleased smile. “So you did notice.”

“Of course I noticed,” He said with a grunt before he sighed and sagged more fully against the counter. “I knew it had to be you, but it just didn’t make sense. You were Darcy and grew up in Virginia. I knew a Dee in the middle of nowhere Ohio.”

“My family calls me Dee and I spent that summer at my aunt’s while my mom was taking care of my grandma.”

He nodded as her information slid into place and then didn’t say anything else, just stared at her, mulishly silent.

But she was already in it, knowing where she wanted things to go, so she continued on. “If you’d already figured it out, why not say anything? Were you that interested in my ranking of Star Trek captains as drinking buddies?”

He huffed out a laugh, finally letting his sulking expression crack. “While yes, I agree that Kirk would be the worst because you’d always be the one taking care of him, that wasn’t it. I just. Dammit, you’re funny and and smart and I always wanted to hear what you had to say, see you smile, just be around you.”

She felt a small blush starting in her cheeks but staunchly ignored it. She was on a mission. “Okay, those are very nice things for you to say, but you still didn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you just tell me you remembered me?”

He finally uncrossed his arms to gesture dramatically. “I didn’t want it to be creepy! You were just a kid and like a little sibling and what I’ve been thinking lately is not brotherly.”

“Yeah?” Her voice was soft as she pushed off the counter and walked towards him. “What have you been thinking?”

His hands dropped to his sides and his eyes tracked her movements. “That I want kiss that all along that stupid necklace I made you, following it under every single thing you’re wearing.”

He froze, obviously not having meant to say that out loud.

Darcy laughed low and soft, immediately setting out to ease his discomfort as she stepped into his space, placing both hands on his chest and biting her lip with a smile. “Is that just a thought or a promise?”

He visibly swallowed, eyes focusing on her mouth as his hands came up to her waist. “It’s whatever you want it to be.”

#darcy lewis #clint barton #darcy x clint #taserhawk #fanfiction #prompts #aspiring-trashfire

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